cruise

Top Ten Tuesday: Habits I Now Have to Break Because of the Cruise

by oh amanda on March 31, 2009

I think the absolute worst part about coming back from vacation is the ride home. Your bags aren’t packed neatly. Your car is dirty. You’re tired. Your kids are grumpy. There is no excitement carrying you through the long car ride. If I got depressed, it would be depressing.

Well, now I’ve discovered something new to hate about post-vacationing: it’s called re-entry. I know, I was only gone for five days, but I think I’ve established some new habits that I’m going to have to break. So, in no particular order here are my Top Ten Habits I Now Have to Break Because of the Cruise:

1. Eating Too Much. When was the last time you had a four course meal? Every lunch and dinner I had an appetizer, soup or salad, entree and a dessert. There was one meal that I ate…ahem…two entrees.

2. Expecting Desert. Like the aforementioned entrees, I may have had ~~two~~ three desserts. (Twice.)

3. Looking For Pixie Dust. When you are given priority seating just because, when you walk behind Goofy down the hall, when Aladdin winks at you, when Mickey Mouse lets your son squeeze his nose, when Snow White compliments your daughter, the crew members stop everything they are doing to find a baby pirate pin you want and then give it to you for free, you start seeing Pixie Dust everywhere you go!

4. Being Lazy. OK, so I might struggle with this one all the time. But seriously, every time I would return to my stateroom, the bed would be made, the bathroom clean and even the dirty clothes picked up. *sigh*

5. Getting Dressed Up for Dinner. OK, maybe this one won’t be too hard—considering I wore my pj’s all day Monday. But it is kinda fun to get dolled up once a day!

6. Taking Pictures of My Food. Just wait till I find the cord to my camera. Yum.

7. Getting Up at 7am to do Pilates on the Deck with a Hot Muscle-y Guy with a British Accent. No. This one I do not need to break.

8. Handing Off My Kids. Lydia went to the Oceaneer’s Club about 2 hours a day. Asa went to Flounder’s Reef Nursery every night while I went to dinner and the show. Not to mention the waiting arms of Grandmama and Papa. All that kid-free livin’ made Monday seem like 14 days AT LEAST.

9. Walking Like a Pirate. I seriously think I got my sea legs quickly. Last night when I picked up Asa for his 2am feeding (*sigh*), I felt like I was still on the boat. Then, when I laid back down I could have sworn I was rocking again.

10. ~~Sleeping Late.~~ Nope. This isn’t going to be on the list until the kids are at least in 7th grade. *sigh*

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If you have a Top Ten list to share? I’d love to hear it. I’m totally enjoying everyone who links up each week. Hopefully you’re experiencing a little traffic from it—and meeting some new friends!

Anyway, you know what to do: Write a Top Ten post, link up on the Mr. Linky below. Then start visiting the rest of the participants and commenting your little heart out!

{ 21 comments }

Our First Family Vacation

by oh amanda on March 5, 2008

in cruise,disney,family,me,vacation

There’s no way I could put an entire vacation into one post. So, I’m spreading it out. I’ll be blogging each day on my vacation blog. We were gone for nine days, so get ready. Day 1 & 2 (I combined them…) are up now, if you’re interested.

I thought here I’d show you my vacation souvenir. I saw this in a magazine in Minnesota last week and thought it was a great idea!

We bought a post card every day to show where we’d been or what we did. Then, we bought a keychain and strung them all together. On the back of the postcards, we wrote a brief description of the day.

Isn’t it cute?

It was fun to collect a post card everyday. And when I finally get around to finish writing on the backs, it will be fun to read them! I’m going to go ahead and show you all the postcards, ok? I’m just excited about them and maybe it will whet your appetite to come read my vacation blog as I update it!

You already saw Day 1 above in Pooler, GA. That’s a suburb of Savannah, where we spent our first night.

Day 2 is our Bon Voyage on the “Mickey Boat” as Lydia called it!

Key West was our Day 3. The cutest little town ever–and home to frozen chocolate dipped key lime pies!

Day 4 was our magical Day at Sea. My very favorite days are at sea!

Day 5 was Grand Cayman, where yes, we saw some turtles!

Day 6 was the windy city–well, at least that day Cozumel, MX was extremely windy!

Day 7 another day at sea alongside our favorite pals!

Day 8 was Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island that I literally think is heaven on earth.

I bought 2 other postcards for the next days we spent in Orlando but they are too big. I think I’m going to buy a better one online. Does that defeat the purpose? Oh, well, I’m going to do it anyway!

Anyway, hope I didn’t bore you, I think they’re cute! And I’ll be sure to let you know when I update my vacation blog!

And as my favorite mouse says, “See Ya Real Soon!”

Oh.

There’s a problem?

You wanted a picture? A picture NOT of a piece of cardstock?

OK. Fine. I only took 498 pictures, I guess I can share one with you…
How’s this?

To quote Mickey again, “Oh boy!”

{ 22 comments }

There’s No Place Like Home

by oh amanda on March 4, 2008

in cruise,family,me,vacation

Yes, I’m actually here. I haven’t been home in 16 days. (Well, there was that 12 hour layover as I packed the 2 summer outfits I own…) And my house is showing it. I just noticed my bathing suit that I wore in the Therapy Pool in Minnesota is still in a plastic bag in a suitcase in my dining room. Our car isn’t even fully unpacked from yesterday. It took me most of the morning to even find my computer and power cord.

Right now we’re having quiet time and that’s the only reason I’m even blogging. I’m about to be overcome with laundry and grocery shopping.

I did check my inbox (89 messages in one, 79 in the other). I also checked my bloglines (1455 unread posts). Alas, I had to “mark all read”. If something really important happened in your life (you got married, you won the lotto), please let me know because there is no way I can catch up.

(However, I did check out Amber’s blog, to see if she’d had Nathan yet. She did and there are NO traces of Down Syndrome! Praise the Lord!)

I know the real stuff you want to hear–the Mouse, the Princesses, the food and oh! the sun! But really, I’m just not ready to collect my thoughts yet. And so I don’t bore you to the floor (is that a phrase? Or did I make that up?) I’ll probably do my big updates on my vacation blog. That way you can read about every meal I ate and every outfit I wore. You know, the really important stuff.

In a nutshell, it was a heavenly vacation. The only kink was Lydia’s sleeping. She has always been a champion sleeper. But this week, we co-slept most nights and still it took her 3 hours to fall asleep each time. *sigh* One night I counted only FIVE hours that she slept. Meaning, I probably had FOUR.

However, I can’t let you go without at least one picture. This is Lydia’s first official Disney picture of the week. We had just gotten out of the car after driving a billion hours. We were still in our jeans and sweatshirts. The “Mickey boat” is right behind her. She doesn’t look happy, but that’s only because she has no idea what’s in store for her! Even with the pouty face, I love this one!

*****

The winners of the Death of a Six Foot Teddy Bear books are:

Misty from Rainy Day in May (you always win stuff!!)

Carey from Sunny Days at the Beach

I’ll contact you today (I hope) via email, but if you read this first, just email me your snail mail address and I’ll get it out asap! Congrats! Thanks again, Multnomah!

{ 21 comments }

In Case You’re Bored on a sunday afternoon…

July 1, 2007 blogging

…read a book: Here’s what I’m reading–contemporary lit, fantasy, children’s lit and a wannabe book. …try the movies: I’m hoping to take Lydia to see this movie on Independence Day. …get crafty: like I need these; yeah right like I could do this; and last but not least–only in my dreams! …go on a vacation: [...]

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There’s No Place Like Home

June 22, 2007 blogging

I’m home! I feel like I’ve been the anti-blog the past few weeks. Thanks for still coming to check on me! I can’t wait to read my comments better and mosey around your place for a bit! My cruise was so fun! When was the last time you went on an all girl trip? It [...]

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