Scrapbooking Again!

I can't believe how little I've scrapbooked this year. I just haven't been feeling the creative juices flowing that much. But last night, I sat down at the craft table and gave it a whirl. I got two Christmas 2008 layouts done! And I had a good time doing it! I think I may have forgotten how much I enjoy scrapbooking. I'll definitely have to make time for it more often!

(click the image to see the whole layout)

Tonight we are going to see "Clue The Musical" at Lenoir Community College.  It is supposed to be an interactive mystery theater along held at the Culinary Arts Center.  I think we may get to taste some of their scrumptious desserts too.  I've always wanted to go to a mystery theater production.  I hope this one is mysterious and exciting!

Nealz Nuze on boortz.com

Nealz Nuze on boortz.com

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Conversations at 1:30 in the morning

Jenna sneaks into my room and starts this conversation. Keep in mind that I am deep in sleep, and wanting to stay that way.

"Mom, can I show you something?"
"Um, yeah, what is it?"
Jenna walks away and I dose back into sleep. After a few minutes, she is back at my bedside.
"Mom, I want to show you something. What are you doing? You are supposed to come with me."
"Jenna, I am doing what most normal people do at 1:30 in the morning. I am sleeping."
"But Mom, it has LEGS!"

Needless to say, that had my attention! So up I go to Jenna's room where a nasty camel cricket had found its way onto Jenna's wall. She had woken up in the night to get a drink of water and saw it on the wall. A quick smack (to the cricket of course!) and we all returned to our peaceful sleep stages once again.

Somewhere over the Rainbow...

With all the stormy weather that we've been having, it was nice to see a rainbow this evening. It went all the way across the sky.


I couldn't resist snapping this photo of Jenna. Just like her father!



I made the best cheeseburgers for supper tonight. I found applewood bacon cheese at Walmart today. That really does add just the right flavor to a cheeseburger...so yummy!

They weren't supposed to GROW!

In the spring of this year, Jenna and Zach were out in the yard playing, when they noticed our old, smushy pumpkin from the previous year. It was full of seeds that I assumed the birds would come eat at some point. My Dad and I were sitting on the swing and he "encouraged" them to plant the seeds as something to do. So Jenna and Zach planted several of the seeds in my flower bed, and afterward, they gave the seeds some water. My Dad said not to worry, because they would not grow. Apparently someone sprinkled a little pixie dust on those seeds because tonight, I picked my first pumpkin off the vine!
Here's a pic of the first pumpkin:


We noticed another pumpkin growing on the vine...such an odd place to grow. I guess we will have to get something to support it so it doesn't break off before it is ready.


It's kind of neat to watch these grow. I hope we will have some when fall comes around!

Here's a story...my brush with fame, meeting Greg Brady!

I went to the Center Street Jam last night for the first time. They had advertised that Barry Williams (aka Greg Brady) would be singing the National Anthem. I never had a crush or anything like that on Greg Brady, but I do remember coming home from school and watching The Brady Bunch while doing my homework. And in case you don't remember The Brady Bunch...

While we were waiting for the featured band to start playing, I happened to notice Barry standing under a tent in the back. I couldn't resist going up to meet him. Really nice guy, yet more reserved than I had expected. He was very gracious and agreed to let me get a picture with him.

It was a real pleasure to meet him, but the best part was listening to him sing during the band's intermission. Wow! It just gives me goose bumps hearing him belt it out like that!

A beautiful (but hot!) weekend at the Air Show

Here are some pics from the air show at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. K gets more out of these than I do so he spent quite a bit of time there. I enjoyed bits and pieces...my favorite being the Blue Angels show. I had wanted to see the Golden Knights jump out of the airplanes, but I missed it. I'll have to catch that next year.

Here's one of the planes from SJAFB.


The Blue Angels doing a fly by...K is in the bottom left corner, videotaping the show.


All six in formation


Coming down the flight line after the show


If you ever get an opportunity to go, it is definitely something to see!

Day 3 - Castaway Cay

When we woke up on Day 3, the ship was docking at Castaway Cay, Disney's Private Island. It was quite breezy that day, and I heard that they had trouble docking. I am so thankful that the Captain was finally able to dock. We would have been so disappointed if we didn't get to go on the island. We had breakfast at Beach Blanket Buffet, sitting out on deck to take in the view. One of the newer additions to the island is the Flying Dutchman from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. This is the actual ship from the movie.


After breakfast, we headed out to the island. Disney custom built this dock so that guests are able to disembark directly to the island and not have to take tender boats. Here's another quick view of the Wonder as we were headed to the island.



The first thing I wanted to do (yes, it is all about me! LOL!)was to rent bikes and tour the island. We got our bikes and headed towards the adult only beach. The path goes down the old run way when the island was called Gorda Cay.


It was probably a couple miles to the end of the path. The view was spectacular. In the background, is the adult beach.


Then we headed to the observation tower. The paths on the island were great, all paved and flat! A few flights of stairs up and we could see for miles. Here's a pic of us with the Disney Wonder in the background.



When we were done with the bike ride, I headed back to the ship to change into beach clothes while hubby took the tram to the adults only beach (read: peaceful, quiet, and absolutley paradise). On my way back to the ship, who did I run into? Yep, Captain Jack Sparrow!


When I got to the adult beach, hubby had found a spot for us and had already purchase his bucket o' beer.


They had a cookout at the adult beach with steak, ribs, hamburger, hot dogs with all the fixin's. After lunch, we ventured out into the water. It was low tide so we could see a lot of ocean life. We found this starfish close to the shore in the water.



After some peaceful relaxation on the beach, we headed back towards the ship to visit the beach shops. The day on the island went by way too fast. That night we had dinner reservations at Palo, the adults only restaurant on the ship. We dressed up and headed down to the atrium for pictures (will post those later), then headed to dinner. Our server asked if we were celebrating anything and we told him it was our 11th anniversary. At the end of the meal, he brought up us this special message.


After dinner, we "waddled" back up to our room to change and then head down to the Farewell show in the atrium. I really hadn't planned on getting any pictures with the characters because I knew if Jenna saw it, she would be heart-broken. When Daisy & Donald appeared together (a rarity as far as I know), I couldn't resist. Donald tried to pick a fight with hubby, because he thought hubby was making moves on Daisy. Luckily, it all worked out in the end and no one got hurt!


After sitting and relaxing outside on Deck 4, we headed back to our room to find the last towel animal of our cruise. We still aren't absolutely sure what it is...anyone have a guess?


Unfortunately, it was time for us to disembark the next morning. The weekend went by way too fast, but it sure was fun. A lot of people may think it is strange that we took a Disney Cruise without the kids, but it was absolutely wonderful! I forgot to mention that our dining companions were 3 other couples who came on the cruise without their kids. I guess we are not the only adult Disney fanatics out there!

Thanks for reading!

Day 2 - Bahamas!

The next morning when we woke up, our ship was docking in Nassau, Bahamas. I looked out of our port hole and the first thing I saw was a Starbucks sign...they really are everywhere. The weather was sunny and beautiful. We ate at Parrot Cay aboard the ship, and then headed into Nassau. As we were walking toward town, we saw another Carnival ship heading into Port.


I had loaded some points of interest into my GPS for a short walking tour of Nassau. First stop...the historic water tower. I didn't realize how crazy the traffic would be in Nassau. I almost got run over by a bus! No one used turn signals, lots of honking, and pretty much organized chaos. We finally made it to our destination.


A little history about the tower...


The view was amazing from the water tower...our ship is docked between two Carnival ships.


Then we walked over to Parliament Square. We passed several "courtrooms" which seemed to be just small rooms on the side of a run-down building. The memorial was very interesting and set in a very pretty spot.


As we walked away from Parliament Square, heading towards the Governor's Mansion, we saw this sign. Of course, the running joke became "Protect Ya Tings!"


We made our way (somewhat safely) to the Governor's Mansion. It was like a real-life game of Frogger at some points. It was a little surprise to see that it was pink! There is a nice statue of Christopher Columbus in front.



After a rest break at Senor Frogs (a fun open air bar on the waterfront), we walked down the beach line about 3/4 of a mile to Fort Charlotte. I didn't realize that we had to pay to get in. It was $5 each for us to go into the fort. I'm not sure why we did it, but we spent the majority of our cash at Senor Frogs. Hindsight, we should have used our credit card at Senor Frogs and saved our cash. As we combined our money, we only had $5 between us. We were in line behind a very sassy lady who was complaining to the ticket seller because it was $5 for tourist and only $3 for locals to enter the fort. This lady was being quite rude to the ticket seller. The ticket seller didn't have any control over the price and in the end, the lady paid $5 each for the people in her group to go in to the Fort. When it was my turn to get tickets, I asked if they took credit cards. The lady told me no. At that point, I asked if she would let us both in for $5, pleading my case that we had walked all the way from the ship to see the fort and we didn't have the cash to get in. I promised her that I would not tell the other lady if she allowed us to get in. She graciously agreed if we would agree to buy something at the gift shop, which accepted credit cards. We were very grateful for her kindness and did keep our end of the bargain by purchasing a Bahamian coin set and some drinks at the gift shop. It goes to prove that you do catch more bees with honey than with vinegar. It was very interesting inside the fort, and once again, the view was spectacular.


We're guessing we walked around 3 miles around Nassau and our feet were starting to tell it. We headed back to the ship and took advantage of the whirlpool in Quiet Cove, the adults only area of the ship. It was absolutely wonderful! For dinner, we headed to Animator's Palate. At the beginning of the meal, everything including the decorations in the room is black and white.


As the meal progresses, everything slowly starts to get color.


That night was the Pirate Party and Dessert Buffet on Deck 9. It was a fun night of music and dancing, ending with Mickey flying through the air to announce a "party in the sky". Disney Cruise Line is the only cruise line that can do fireworks off of its ships. It was spectacular! When we got back to the room, we found this guy hanging around waiting for us.



Tomorrow's stop: Disney's private island, Castaway Cay!

Our Anniversary Cruise Vacation begins...

a.k.a We figure out we would not make good contestants for "The Amazing Race" show.

Everything started out well that morning, with the exception that no one really wanted to get up out of bed at 6am. We all got going, including the girls. Alyssa and Jenna were both getting ready for school without any gripes. Alyssa was taking charge with grace and Jenna was listening. This was definitely a positive sign. K and I were out the door around 7:15am. Our flight didn't leave until 9:55am, so we had about 2 hours and 40 minutes to get to our gate. It takes about 1 hour 20 minutes to get to the airport, so we have plenty of time. No problem. We decide to wait on breakfast until we get closer to the airport. We're in Raleigh and I made the mistake of saying, "We're making really good time. I'm glad the traffic isn't too bad." or something crazy like that. About 2 seconds later, I look out and there is a sea of brake lights. We find out on the radio that there had been a wreck and traffic was backed up for 9 miles. My heart sunk and I started to panic. We were barely crawling along the interstate. Luckily, hubby had the sense to get Garmin to reroute us off of the interstate. Thank goodness he knew how to do that, otherwise I think we would have missed our plan. We end up getting to the airport at 9:15...we still have to find a parking spot, check our bags, and get through security. It takes a few minutes to find a parking spot (nerve wracking), but once we do, we are off and running. The jogging on the treadmill is starting to pay off! When we get into the airport, our flight is boarding. I beg people to let us go to the head of the baggage check in line and thankfully, they agree. The lady kindly tells us that since we are checking in late, she can not guarantee our baggage will make the plane. **sigh** So the worst case scenario is that I enjoy the cruise in the clothes I am wearing now LOL Off we go, running to security. That went pretty fast. Next we are running down the airport to the gate. We finally get on the plane and except for worrying about my bag, I breathe a huge sigh of relief. After sitting for a few minutes, the stewardess says they are loading the some late check in bags on the plane and then we'll be on our way. I am crossing my fingers that it is my bag...it has the Disney travel tag on it after all; it has to get on the plane.




We chose the Disney's Ground Transportation option so we got to ride the Disney bus from Orlando International Airport to the port plus Disney picks up our checked luggage at the airport and transports it to our room on the ship. This is a heavenly option and worth the extra money. At this point, I just have to relax and hope that my bag made the plane. After asking at least 2 Disney people if they were going to get my bag (in which they said yes), I let it go and got on the Disney bus. It's about an hour ride from the airport to Port Canaveral. It's a nice coach and they play Disney Cruise info on the tv's. It was much better than driving ourselves.



We made it into the Cruise Terminal safe and sound. This gorgeous model of the ship was on display in the lobby.



Since we are Castaway Club members, we got a shorter check in line at the cruise terminal (love that!) It wasn't long until we were going aboard. We headed to Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch. The view was amazing from the 9th deck of the Disney Wonder. Just a hint of what was to come...

NASA in the distance



Carnival Sensation at Port Canaveral...not as classy as the Disney Wonder, IMO



After lunch, we walked around the ship and then went for the safety drill at 4pm. Those are oh, so much fun. There's nothing like standing around for 15 minutes with a huge, cumbersome life jacket around your neck. That was short-lived and we were soon leaving port. We went to the theater and watched Bolt before dinner. We had the late seating (8:15) which worked out nice. Less kids and more time to do things during the day. Our first meal was at Tritons. It is a very classy restaurant...named from the character on The Little Mermaid. The food was delicious and the service excellent. When we got back to our stateroom, we had our first towel animal waiting for us.



More coming soon....

Big Sale at Food Lion!

This should definitely go on the fail blog...just not sure how to get it there. Someone didn't have their hat on straight when they posted this sign!



Wow! I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted on my blog! Where has the time gone? We had a great Christmas...enjoyed having the kids and hubby home (at least most of the time). I wish I had been off of work to enjoy them more, but that is the way it is some of the time. Everyone goes back to work/school on January 5th and the house will be quiet once again.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Here's to a very Happy New Year!