Sunday Randomness

It seems like all I can come up with to write here is complete and total randomness.  I saw another blogger refer to it as a "brain dump".  I think that pretty much sums up these posts.

I have been sick.  Stomach issues. I don't think you really want to hear more than that. It was not fun.  I'm glad I am over it.

My New Obsessions
I am now hooked on Farmville.  I know.  If you are my Facebook friend, I'm sorry for the excessive wall posts.  You can block that application so you don't see them and I swear I won't send you any more neighbor or gift requests if you don't play.  It took me a couple of days to figure out who not to send that stuff to.

 I swore I wasn't going to get hooked on this game.  I am not a video game type of person.  Occasionally I will play solitaire on my computer but I don't have the attention span to play a game that you have to keep up with on a daily basis.

Yeah.  Famous last words.  I don't know what it is about this game.  It's like Crack!  Not that I would know what crack was like.  But you get the idea. It's addicting.  All of a sudden I am obsessing over my crops and animals and how can I get to the next level and oh my gosh my crops are withering!  Plus I am in a competition with my sister to see who can get to the next level quicker.  So far I am winning.  Heh.  Then I got my husband involved so he could be my neighbor and send me gifts.  Last night I stayed up an extra 30 minutes because one of my crops was going to be ready to harvest.

I think it might be time to stage a Farmville intervention.  But like my friend said, it's mindless and fun and there are worse things I could be doing with my time.  Like smoking crack.  So it's not really a bad thing to be playing it.  You should join me and be my neighbor.  You know you want to.

I have become addicted to green tea lattes.  It started at Starbuck's.  My co-worker DeAnn had one and she kept raving about how good they were.  So of course I had to try it and became addicted myself.  Since I don't have the extra income to be a Starbuck's addict, we looked up on the internet how to make them ourselves.  Turns out they sell the powder to make them at the Asian grocery store.  DeAnn picked me up some and I have been making them every day since. Sometimes twice a day. Have you ever had green tea ice cream like they have at Sushi restaurants?  It tastes just like that in a mug.  The packets come pre-measured and all you do is dump it in your mug and add water.  I like to add a little milk and Splenda to mine.   Mmmmmmmmmm................so good!

I already mentioned our obsession with the Olympics.  I have been staying up far past my bedtime to watch them.  I am so sad they are ending tonight.  We have so been enjoying them.

We went for a walk yesterday in the rain.  I love walking in the rain.  It is so peaceful.  There is nobody else out and about, I love the dark clouds and the sound of the rain is calming. I took a few pictures with my cell phone.  I so need to get a new camera.  My Dad lent me his old one but I can't seem to get the batteries to charge and I don't have any laying around and every time I go to the store I forget to pick some up.  So cell phone pics it is.

This is how it looked when we started out.  I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture but it is raining cats and dogs.  Joe thought I was crazy to want to go out in that kind of downpour.  But I knew that it was just a storm cell passing through and that by the time we got to the park it would have passed. I was right.  It was only raining lightly when we got there and the sun even peeked through at the end of our walk.

 These little guys were quite friendly but were none to happy when they got up close to us and realized we had not brought anything for them to eat.  They quacked indignantly at us as if to say "Hey lady, if you are going to come visit us, you best be bringing us some bread"  before waddling off back into the pond.  Next time I won't forget to bring a little something for them.

 I know you can't see in this picture(maybe slightly, way in the back, above the houses) but there were literally hundreds of seagulls there.  They were circling over the water over an over in a sprial formation.  It was like something out of the movie "The Birds" and it was kind of creepy.

 At the very end of our walk we saw a rainbow.  I love rainbows.  I mean, who doesn't right?  They make me happy and with all of the rain we have been having lately we have had more our usual sightings of them.

I have nothing fun or exciting coming up and it's bumming me out. We aren't taking any time off at my job  this year for Spring Break so I won't get to visit my sister this year.  I think this will be the first Spring break in probably 8 years that I haven't gone to see her.  Plus I am missing my bloggy friends up there.  It's been forever since I saw M3 and I am jonesing to go meet Kacey's little one Jenny.  We might have to plan a weekend turnaround trip just so I can get my fix.

I guess that's it.  I hope everyone is having  a nice weekend.

Meme

Stole this from Journeywoman

FOODOLOGY:

What is your salad dressing of choice? Ranch

What is your favorite sit-down restuarant? Macaroni Grill and Wood Ranch BBQ

What is your favorite fast food restaurant? Carl's Jr.

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Tacos

What are your pizza toppings of choice? Veggie with white sauce

How many televisions are in your house? 1

What color cell phone do you have? Black.  But it has a purple and pink case

BIOLOGY:

Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Teeth, ovaries and uterus

What is the last heavy item you lifted? I'm not supposed to lift heavy items.

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? No

Have you ever fainted? Yes.  When a cyst on my ovary burst.  I was trying to get out of the shower and I fell on the bathroom floor and woke up about ten minutes later.

BULLCRAPOLOGY:

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? Nope.

If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I have no idea

How many pairs of flip flops do you own? 4

Last person you talked to? My dog.  Oops.  Not a person.  Joe.

FAVORITOLOGY:

Season? Autumn

Holiday? Mother's Day.  Just seeing if you were paying attention.  

Valentine's Day, but only because it's our anniversary.

Day of the week? Friday

Month? September

Colour? Don't really have one

Drink? Iced Tea

Alcoholic? Margarita

CURRENTOLOGY:

Missing someone? Yes

What are you listening to? Rain

What are you watching? Olympics

Worrying about? Money

What’s the last movie you saw?  In theaters--Avatar.  On DVD--The Time Traveler's Wife

Do you smile often? Yes

If you could change your eye color what would it be? My eye color is fine

What’s on your wish list for your birthday?  A job for my husband.

Can you do a chin-up? Nope.

Does the future make you more nervous or excited? I'm not that excited about my future right now, so I guess nervous

Have you been in a car wreck? Yes

Have you caused a car wreck? Yes

Do you have an accent? Nope.

Last time you cried? An hour ago

Plans tonight? Sleep

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Yes.

Name three things you bought yesterday? I spent not one dime yesterday

Have you met someone who changed your life? Yes

For the better or worse? Both

How did you bring in the New Year? Babysitting someone else's kid.  It's how I spend all of my New Year's

Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? No

What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't sing in the shower.  I sing in the car. To pretty much anything that is on the radio.

Have you held hands with someone today? Yes

Who was the last person you took a picture of? Joe

Are most of the friends in your life new or old? Old

Do you like pulpy orange juice? No

Last time you ate peanut butter and jelly? A long time

What were you doing at 12 a.m. last night?    Feeling nauseous and hoping I didn't throw up again.

What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I hope I feel better today

Tag, you're it.

Olympics Junkie

We are truly loving the Olympics at our house.  We watch it every second that it is on, and our DVR is filled with the programs that we can't catch while I am at work.  I have even stayed up until midnight on a work night to see the end of  figure skating. If you know me, you would gasp at this because I go to bed early!

I think part of our fascination with them this time around is because they are being held in Vancouver.  2 years ago we were able to visit this great city. We fell in love with it and would love to plan a return visit one day.

I was feeling nostalgic for that trip so I pulled up a couple of pictures from it.

Such a great city.

Randomness

--We had a lovely anniversary.  Very low key, which was perfectly fine with me.  Spent the whole day in our P.J.'s watching the Olympics.  Oh how I love the Olympics!  I wish I could watch them all day long.   Skiing, Luge and figure skating rank in my top three but I will watch whatever sport they are showing.  On Sunday I was having a cow when the athletes in the Biathlon kept missing their targets. Joe thought it was funny.

On Friday we went out to a lovely dinner with the gift certificates I won on the radio a while ago.  The certificates were for a local Hawaiian restaurant.  We had never been there before(because it was kind of pricey) and we were really looking forward to it.  We were looking forward to it so much that I printed out the menu from their website and we pored over it in the car on the way there deciding what we were going to eat.  We had a plan.  The gift certificates were for $100.  We knew we would never go back there so our goal was to spend the whole $100.  So in addition to planning what we wanted to eat we were adding up the prices of each item, making a budget so we would get as close to $100 without going over.

Can you say dorks?

Subsequently we ate ourselves into a food coma.  But the bill was $101.98.
Wanna know what we had?  No?  Too bad.  I'm going to tell you anyway.

We started with the braised pork rib appetizer.  Thanks Stacey for giving us a heads up on this one!  So.  Good.

We followed that with the "Sunrise at Heleakala"(say that three times fast) sushi roll.
It was a sushi roll with Tuna, Hamachi, Salmon, Avocado and  Asparagus Tempura,
with Dynamite Butter.  Of course we got ours without Avocado, since I am allergic.
Oh man, talk about yummy!

This was followed by the Lobster Bisque.  Again, seriously good.

Finally on to our entree's.

I got the Dynamite Crusted Salmon.  It came with:
Tempura Vegetables, Happy Rice, Drunken Nori Sake Sauce
The Salmon itself was good.  The rice was pretty good too. The drunken sauce(whatever that means) was O.K.  The tempura veggies were gross. I couldn't even eat them.  We couldn't even determine what vegetables they actually were!  Something white. Blech.

Joe got a "sampling of their three Classics in their traditional preparations"
Hibachi Grilled Salmon, Roy’s Original Blackened Island Ahi and  Hawaiian Style Misoyaki Butterfish.

His entree was out of this world.  If we should ever find ourselves back there I will order that.  The Misoyaki Butterfish was the best fish I have ever tasted.  So good.  I ate half of his entree in lieu of mine.

We ended our dinner with the chocolate souffle and vanilla ice cream.

 Like I said before.  Food.  Coma.

That was more than you ever wanted to know about what we ate on Friday night.  Sorry :)

--Chinese New Year also happened to fall on Valentine's Day this year.  Usually we do something to celebrate it and I even put up decorations but I just wasn't feeling it this year. I'm glad it's over.

--Speaking of winning things on the radio, two weeks ago I won a hundred Disney Dollars and qualified myself for a Disney cruise to the Bahamas.  Then I promised my co-worker I would try and win for her, and a week after that I did!!  Then because I will do anything to get out of working, I continued to call and try to win some for my other co-worker and I did that too! That's 3 wins in 2 weeks.  (I don't qualify to win anything at this particular station for 60 days, which is why I am winning stuff for co-workers). I'm thinking I should start playing the lottery.  Unless I have used up all of my luck winning stuff on the radio.  Heh.  My luck hasn't managed to extend to the big wins though, because none of us won the cruise.

--I have been having some dental work done at our (semi)local dental school.  Up until I was 34 years old I had no dental problems whatsoever.  Only one tiny cavity that my Dad filled for me.  I'm not sure what happened but in the last 5 years my entire mouth has deteriorated into one big mess.  I have five cavities and I need a root canal and then a crown.  I usually have my appointments on Wednesdays, since I don't have to work(during the day), and it takes me about an hour to get there.

Here's the thing about going to a dental school.  It is much cheaper, but it takes much longer to have the work done.  Much.  Longer.  I have been going since summer and I have only had 2 cavities filled. (I only go once a month).  They didn't even start on the cavities until a couple months ago and it has taken them  4 hours to do each one. Then they had to take one of them out and redo it because I was still having some sensitivity. Now we are finally getting around to the root canal and the crown.

I have just one word to describe the prep so far for these two procedures.  OUCH.

Now I know why people hate the dentist.  I suppose I am extremely lucky to have gone 39 years before understanding this.   At my last visit they did something to my tongue.  It was causing me a lot of pain and had some sores on the underside.  Have you ever had a sore tongue?  It sucks.  For three whole days I also spoke with a severe lisp.  Good times.  I know what  you are thinking.  I should go somewhere else.  But it is much less expensive and they are letting me make payments so I don't really have a choice.

Yesterday I had a "pulp-ectomy"(I can't even type that without getting chills.)  It has helped with the pain somewhat but I'm anxious to be done with the whole procedure.  Next Wednesday I will have the root canal.  I'm a little scared.  Tooth pain is no fun!

Lastly, today I met with my nephrologist.   I have been putting it off for a couple of months.  Sometimes I like to pretend I don't have kidney problems and if I don't go to the doctor and get the results of my labs, then I don't have to worry about it.  Can you say avoidance?  :)

Anyway, today Joe finally dragged me to my appointment.  The news is surprisingly good.  All of my test results were good.  The protein level in my urine remains stable.  It's not at zero(like a person with normal kidney function), but it isn't alarming either.  Kidney function is good. Cholesterol level is great!  The only thing he would like to see change is my weight.  Apparently I am underweight and he would like to see me put on 20 or so more pounds.

I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.  :)  Of course that's not what he said but I didn't hear most of it because I had my fingers in my ears and was chanting "I can't heeeeaar yooouuu", until Joe told me I was being rude and I stopped.  That's about all I have to say about that.

He told me that if we can keep things under control like they are then he doesn't anticipate that I will need a kidney transplant for at least another 15-20 years.  Of course both Joe and I are thrilled with this news.  Although we try not to dwell on the negative aspects of the type of kidney disease I have, that fear always in the back of our minds. Every 6 months or so we will hash it out, G00gling "kidney trasnplant" and getting all freaked out about it before deciding it might be better if we didn't think too much about that and shelve it until next time.  It is such a relief not to have to worry about it for the time being.  Such a relief.

I have to go to work so I suppose that's enough Randomness for now.

Love Sunday

Happy Valentine's Day!

And Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband.  17 years.  Wow.  Who would have thought? ;)

Here's my last, and favorite heart picture that I found:

Found it HERE

 Awwwwww...............so sweet!

Here's another one of my very favorite pictures ever:

Thanks to DeAnn for taking this shot of us!

And here's one more of my favorite pictures.  

This is the church we got married in.  It's in Genoa, NV.  

It has a very historic background.

This is from the Genoa website:

The Genoa Community Church is a non-denominational church, built on its present site after the disastrous 1910 Genoa fire burned most of the business section. Building materials were donated and community volunteer labor built the church. The Genoa Town Advisory Board (town of Genoa) holds the church property deed and governs the use of the church as well as the 1886 Town Hall, and the town office.

In 1979-1980 the bell tower, porch, new roof, new doors and a natural gas heating system was installed. The large wooden cross overlooking the antique alter and pews gives a spiritual feeling. In 1991-1992 the church was expanded with dressing rooms, restrooms and a wheelchair ramp. Sunday church services, weddings, baptismals, funeral services, and meetings are still held in the church today.

The Genoa Community Church is a testament to faith and volunteerism, thanks to the community spirit of local residents and that meaningful word, "tradition."

And one more:

This is a  few months after we were married, at our wedding reception.  Here's something a lot of people don't know.  We eloped.  It was just us and our parents at our wedding in the little church in NV.  A few months later we had a big party back home and all of our friends and family to celebrated with us.  If I had to go back and do it again I would do it the same way.  We got to have an intimate, private wedding ceremony AND a big party.  The best of both worlds.

(I tried to find a picture of us on our actual wedding day and I couldn't find one.  My wedding scrapbook is packed away in storage)

Hope you have a wonderful Heart Day!

Happy Anniversary Joe!  

Here's one last picture, just for you.  

In our hearts we'll always be the two young people in this photo.  

MTAFLW

Always, 

Mic

Love Saturday

The clouds are always my favorite. 

Especially this one.

Although this one is lovely too.

Found these HERE,  HERE, AND  HERE

Love Friday

This might be one of my favorites

Found it HERE

Love Thursday

Found this one here

Love Wednesday

                                                   Sometimes love can be prickly.

Found this one here

Love Tuesday

                           http://www.flickr.com/photos/41188800@N00/456248769/

Love Monday

It's that time again!

One week until Valentine's Day and our 17th wedding anniversary(how is this even possible???)

I scoured Flickr to find the best pictures of hearts in nature that I could find.

I love the ones I was able to find.

This has inspired me to look for my own.  I'll keep you posted as to whether or not I am observant enough to actually find any.

I did not take any of these and I am not taking credit for them.

The links where I found them are below each picture.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian-chen/4076795419/

Thank you

I wanted to say thank you to every person who left a kind comment on my post from a few days ago.  I wanted to get back to each of you personally via e-mail but my blogger account is messed up and won't let me receive comments to my correct e-mail.

Then I had planned on dropping by to visit each of your blogs and say thanks but I'm finding that with the extra job my computer time has been extremely limited.

But  I did want you to know that I appreciated every single one.  Sometimes it makes it easier just knowing that others have travelled a similar path.

Thank you.  It means the world to me.

Project 365-week 4

This might be my last week for this project.  I made it a whole month!  It's just too hard to take pictures with my cell phone.  Hopefully I can get a replacement purse camera soon.  I will still try to take a picture once a week and participate in the Project 52.

Congratulations Mike, Kayce and Jacob!

My good friend Kayce finally met her daughter.

Go on over and check it out!  Jake is blogging from China and he has the video up on his blog.

Go all the way down to "videos" and click on the top one.  You might want to have some tissue ready.  :)

Click Here

You can read all about their journey here


So, so happy for you guys.  I can't wait to meet her.

Frazzled

I've been feeling frazzled. This week has been trying for me.

I have done a pretty good job of filtering what I say on this blog.  Keeping a positive spin on things. Only showing the happy stuff.  And there has been happy stuff.  Lots of it.

But as with anyone's life, there is unhappy stuff woven in there too.  I try not to dwell on it.  Many times I am not successful.  Like this week.  When a bunch of stressful situations happen all at once I become overwhelmed.  Angry.  Sad.

My husband is still unemployed.  It is coming up on 14 months since he lost his job.  I'm not even sure of the right words to describe my feelings about this.  Frustrated, sad, worried, and scared don't even begin to cover it. 

I guess the best word to describe my feelings right now would be weary.  I am so very weary.

I have been fighting all week long with my doctor and my insurance company over a medication that I need.  It's too expensive.  I can't afford it.  I have made countless phone calls and still there is no resolution.  It is maddening and frustrating.  I'm not trying to start a political discussion and I'm not even giving my opinion on the fight over health care reform, but there has got to be a better way.  There just has to be.

This next portion of the post is for my friends who have traveled on this journey of infertility with me.  I often find that those who haven't been down that path just don't get it. They feel like I'm whining.  I do my fair share of whining. I will admit that.  But what I'm about to write are my feelings and I have a right to them.  No judgements please.

I have a counselor.  I'm not ashamed to admit that. I have been seeing her for awhile.  She is pregnant(again).  I am happy for her.  It is possible to be happy for someone yet still be sad for yourself.  Sometimes it is hard to sit across from her every week and look at her pregnant belly.  I wonder is she realizes how lucky she is?  ( I think that she does.  And we are very open and honest with each other and we talk about my feelings as they come up).  It doesn't stop those feelings of envy from popping up now and again.

I mentioned last week that I had taken on a second job.  It is as a Mother's helper a couple of nights a week. It's for a friend actually(hi J!).  We met through an infertility group a few years ago.  She has 9 month old twins(boys) and a three and a half year old boy.  She needs some help on the nights her husband goes to school.  The job consists of feeding the babies, and filling bottles, and getting them to bed.  And I am really enjoying it.  The babies are so sweet.  (Her 3 year old is pretty awesome too.  What a great kid)

When I left my last job I distanced myself from all things kid related, aside from my niece and nephew. No babysitting.  Very few kid's birthday parties.  I think it was my way of protecting myself as the wait for China lengthened.

Being with babies again has brought up a lot of old feelings for me. 

Last week as I sat in someone else's darkened nursery, with the soft sound of waves from the noise machine in the background, sitting in the glider, rocking someone else's baby to sleep, I felt the tears start to come.  I swallowed them down as best I could, because I didn't want my friend to see them.

Sitting in that dark room with a baby in my arms, I came to a realization. 

It's possible  that I will always be rocking someone else's baby to sleep.  It might not ever be my baby in my arms.   

I think subconsciously I have know for some time that this was a possibility.  I'm not certain we will ever see a referral from China.  If we do it will be many years from now. A lot can change in 3 years. I never intended for us to be 42 and 44 and first time parents.  We've been trying for this for 8 years already.   I'm not a quitter but so far all signs have pointed to the fact that I will not be a mother anytime soon. If ever.  So I care for other people's children.  And I am good at it. 
These are the thoughts that came to me while I rocked my friend's baby.
Maybe that's why I'm here.  Maybe that's my purpose.  Maybe I'm supposed to be important in the lives of other people's children.

Maybe it wasn't in God's plan for me to be a mother.

I don't know it that's the case.  Only time will tell.

I know that I am blessed in so many ways.  I have a wonderful family.  I have a loving and supportive husband. I have an awesome sister, who takes me on cruises, and a great circle of supportive friends.

Sometimes all of the other stuff, the worry and the stress and the longing for something I'm not sure we'll ever have, gets to me.  I have a tendency to hold it all in.  I don't talk about it and I hope that the feelings will  go away.  I (try) to hide it from everyone.

And then I end up like I did last night, sitting in the bathtub sobbing uncontrollably and  causing my husband to come running into the bathroom scared and bewildered, asking if I am ok and what in the world is wrong?

Perhaps for my husband's sake I need to let these feelings out before I get to that point :)

I was texting with a friend today(thanks M!) and she said something that struck a chord with me.  I was explaining this longing I have to be a mother and she was describing what she longs for.  Here is what she said:

"I think everyone has something they long for.  I am learning to just take in what I have and celebrate that.  I get stuck in what I wish I had.  That is not healthy."

She's right.  It's not healthy.

I suppose what I'm learning is that this is(still) a process. Even after 8 years. Just because I think I have moved past a certain stage it doesn't mean that I won't ever go back there.  It's fluid. It ebbs and flows. As long as I can ride the waves and not get mired down in the negative parts for too long I think I'll be o.k.with whatever happens.

That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.

Thanks for listening.

Project 365-week 3

Whirlwind Weekend

I can't believe the weekend is over already.  It was a whirlwind of activity and we only just arrived home a half hour ago.

A few weeks ago I received an invitation in the mail to a good friend's baby shower.  I really wanted to go but knew that it wouldn't be possible.  The shower was 6 hours away, which was too far to go for just the weekend.  I had just taken 2 days off to go on the cruise so I couldn't take any more time off.

Then my sister had her surgery.  And I was worried about her.  I really wanted to visit her, and help a little.

So I got this idea in my head that maybe, just maybe we could drive up North for the weekend.  I knew it was a crazy idea.  And I knew there was no way Joe would go for it. Because it was  a little bit crazy.


On Thursday I mentioned the shower to him and how  I really wanted to go but couldn't because it was too far.  He nodded and said he was sorry I would have to miss it.  A little later I brought up how I was worried about my sister and how I wish I could go there and help with the kids.  Again he nodded and said it was hard for me to live so far away from my sister.

 I kind of let it go at that point.  For a little while.  Then I turned to him and blurted out "I really want to go to Kayce's shower and then go to my sister's house and help her."

I expected him to tell me No, and that it was crazy, and too far to go for the weekend.

But he didn't!  He turned to me and said "If that's really what you want to do, then that's what we'll do."  And he didn't even call me crazy.

I love that man.  :)

So we got up early on Saturday and got on the road.  We arrived at the shower only a few minutes after it started and Joe dropped me off.

I walked in the door and Kayce was so shocked to see me.  I hadn't told her I was coming.  It was a beautiful shower.  I was in tears much of the time, thinking about how long she has waited for her little Jenny and it was finally happening.  They leave for China in 2 days and I can't wait to see Jenny in her arms.

Thank you Kayce, for inviting me to your special day.  It was such a wonderful day and I am honored that I could be a part of it.

From the shower we drove the hour and a half to Lisa's house.  We picked up the kids and took them to dinner and Chuck E. Cheese's so Scott could have a break. I do NOT recommend going to Chuck E. Cheese's on a Saturday night.  That place was packed to the gills.  I think Joe might be scarred for life.

We got home from our fun night out and I fell into bed I was so tired.

Today we got up and took the kid's to breakfast.  Came home, picked up all three dogs and took them to the dog park.  Brought the kids and dogs home and I started on some of the things Lisa hasn't been able to do the last few days.

I folded a bunch of laundry.  Did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the entire house, picked up the kid's rooms and mopped the floors.

By this time it was getting late so we had to get in the car and start home.

7 hours later we walked in the door and threw our bags on the ground.  My weekend bag is sitting on top of my suitcase that I never unpacked from the cruise.

I just came out of a warm bath and am now heading to bed.  I am exhausted!  I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.  I don't have a lot of pictures because I didn't have a camera.  I did snap a few with my cell phone.
There was SO MUCH snow on the grapevine.  I don't think I have ever seen that much snow there before. Of course we had to stop and play in it for a minute.

This is what Gizmo(and Joe) did for most of the trip while I drove

 

Joe snapped a pic of me driving

 

Isn't this a cool picture? This is what happens when you try to take a picture of the clouds while you are driving because everyone else in the car is sleeping.  Obviously I moved the camera while it was taking the picture.  But I thought it turned out kind of cool.

 

This is the only picture I got at Kayce's baby shower.  I was too busy having a great time.  Kayce has some wonderful pictures from her day over on her blog.  But aren't these cupcakes beautiful?  And they were so yummy too!

 

What a great weekend it turned out to be!

I picked up a part time job 2 evenings a week and I start tomorrow.  I anticipate this cutting into my computer time so if I'm not around much, you'll know why.  I'm sorry I haven't had the time to get around and comment as much as I'd like to.  I am still reading, I just find that I'm tired in the evenings and don't have the energy to comment.  Sorry!

Then and Now

My sister had surgery on Thursday so she's been on my mind a lot lately.  She had a rough recovery the first couple of days and I was worried.

It's times like these that  I hate living so far away from her.

She's my best friend.

I hope you are feeling better soon Lisa!

Project 365

So far so good o the whoel taking-a-picture-every-day thing.  There is another picture of the sunset at my work in this set.  Sometimes at the end of the day I freak out because I haven't taken my picture for the day so I just take a picture of whatever I see.  I'm going to have to get another camera soon though because the cell phone pics are getting old.  At least the next set will have pictures from my cruise in them, taken with my sister's camera.

Girl's Weekend

Last weekend I got to get way with a few girlfriends for a girl's weekend.  I'm so lucky.

There were supposed to be 7 of us attending.  Due to a  huge miscommunication with half our group, half of us ended up on one ship out of L.A. and the other half ended up on a different ship out of San Diego.  Oops!  Besides missing the other half of the group the whole time, the weekend was awesome.  We had the best time.

Here's a couple of things I learned on our trip:

Even if you have never suffered motion sickness before, there is a first time for everything.

No matter how many times you tell me our floor or room number, I won't remember them.

Being the only sober people in the room makes watching Karaoke super fun.

If you want to get good deals while shopping in Ensenada, shop with Heidi or Stacey.
If you prefer to pay full price, shop with Lisa.

When shopping in Ensenada, sometimes you have to pay the guy on the street  to just go away and leave you alone, even if you don't necessarily want the item he is trying to sell you.

You know you're getting older when you throw your back out jumping out of bed to greet the room service guy.  It may also be an indicator that you need to get out more.

No matter how many times you are reminded that all of the food is included throughout your entire trip, you will still wait 10 minutes after dinner for the check  to come every single night.

It might be time to lose some weight when after coming off the water slide a kid says to you
"Wow.  You made a really big splash".

You can never have enough ice cream.  Ever.



A few of my favorite quotes of the weekend.

Heidi, to me, in a crowded elevator.
Heidi:  "You're Boob is touching my arm.  I kind of like it."
Me: "Well that's good.  Because when your boobs are as big as mine, it's likely to happen again sometime throughout our trip."

Stacey, to Lisa, while shopping in Ensenada
Lisa(to the shop owner, after putting on a bracelet she was interested in)
"How much is this bracelet?"
Shop Owner:  "Eighty Five Dollars."
Stacey:(In her best Mom voice) "Eighty five dollars???  Lisa, take that off!!"
The funniest part is that Lisa practically ripped it off her arm as quickly as she could when Stacey told her to.

Stacey, to a shop owner in Ensenada
We were looking at glass pipes in the window, trying to figure out what they were for.
Me: "What do you smoke with that?"
Stacey: "That's a crack pipe"
Shop owner: "Would you like to see that?"
Stacey:  "No thanks.  We don't smoke crack".

And now here are more pictures than you ever wanted to see of our trip.

Heidi, Me and Stacey waiting for the ship to leave port

Lisa and me checking the temperature of the pool water.  We were told it would be the temperature of the ocean(brrrr!), but it was actually as warm as a hot tub!


Pool and Water slide                                 Atrium Court inside the ship 








Leaving port

Towel Animals.  I loved these.  Can you tell?

 Atrium court at night

 

Stacey getting cozy with Lisa on deck

 

Sisters

Heidi demonstrating the ice cream rule

They had a towel animal class!!  I didn't go.  I wish I had.

I couldn't wait to try out the water slide.  You can see how excited I am here.  See earlier note about needing to get out more.

 

Getting ready to go down.  I can't believe I am posting pictures of me in a bathing suit on the internet.  These may have to come down soon.

It was fast!  I'm holding onto my sunglasses here so I wouldn't lose them.

We played Bingo.  I came very close to winning.  I didn't win. 

Lisa and I with our non-winning Bingo cards

 Fruity drinks.  The only ones of the whole trip

 

We saw dolphins.  It was the most awesome thing ever.

And a beautiful sunset

Thriller dance class.  We chose not to participate.  It was much more fun to sit on the sidelines and make fun of the people who did choose to participate.

We went into Ensenada on Sunday for a few hours of shopping.

We didn't buy these glasses.  Now I kind of wish we had.

 

 

They had a lot of Viagra for sale.  Nope, didn't buy any of that either

 A stick figure with a penis is always funny.  Always.

 

The sign said "Do Not Step on Grass".  I don't  listen or follow directions well.

Port in Ensenada.  Back on the ship before dinner.

 

A Mexican seagull 

Piano Bar.  Get it? Heh.

 

 I finally(on the last night) found the Sushi bar.  I was a happy girl after that.

 

Stacey and Heidi being silly on deck.  

 

Cool night shots as we left the port in Ensenada

 

Actually, slightly blurry but cool night shots.

 

 Our waiter.  He was nice and he had to put up with our shenanigans every night.

 

More towel animals.  I love towel animals. I wish someone would put one of

these on my bed every night.

 

Lisa decided she needed a nap so of course we had to mess with her and take pcitures.

 Waiting for the cheesy after dinner show to start.  It was cheesy with a capital C.

 

Monday was a complete nightmare.  Besides having to get off the ship and go back to reality(sniff), Lisa's flight was delayed so we waited all day before deciding to try and get another flight the next day.  It was pouring rain, we were soaking wet from trying to retrieve her luggage from the terminal, and we had horrible traffic on the way home(took us 3 and a half hours).

But on the way home we saw the most beautiful and breathtaking rainbow I have ever seen in my life.

 It was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend.

Can't wait to do it again, next time with the whole posse!