Monday, June 28, 2010

Not me Monday

Mckmama- Not Me Monday


I do not use my flat iron to get wrinkles out of my shirts/dresses after I am already dressed & fixing my hair ;)

Sunday, June 27, 2010

My Best Friends Wedding

Congratulations to one of my very good friends that I have known since 5th grade!

Excursions

The cruise overall we liked, but there were pros & cons. Would we do it again? Yes, but I think I would go with a different cruise line & bigger boat. We didn't get sea sick while on the boat, but we definitely felt the boat a rockin :)

Now by far both of our favorite things about the trip was the two off shore excursions. One day was Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico. Here we took a cooking class where we learned how to make two kinds of salsa, guacamole, and a true Mexican margarita. Then we learned how to Salsa dance. This by far was my favorite memory from the trip!

Our restaurant



Getting ready to make some salsa...yummy



One of the keys -grill your tomatoes, onion & garlic.



We may not have made it as good as the chef, but it sure was close.



Never had better guacamole, it's all in the ingredients.



We're now Master Chef's.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from the Salsa dancing. Everyone was too busy trying to get the steps down to take any pictures ;) We may have mastered the cooking, but I can't say we mastered the salsa dance!



Day two, Cozumel, Mexico. Here we took a tour of the Mayan ruins and then went to a private beach.

The tour guide was great, he was actually Mayan. The mosquitos that ate us alive, not so great.



The view from our beach chairs. Notice at the top of the picture, it's not just an umbrella, it's an actual hut.



We had our lunch brought to our beach chairs where we had the best Mexican meal ever. Ben was actually speechless after his first bite.

Anniversary Cruise

Since the day that Ben and I got married I have told him that other than a nice dinner with just the two of us there is no need for an anniversary gift, until we hit 10 years...then he better go big! I'm not sure why I feel the decade years need a more special touch, but I do and I'm sticking with it :) This year will be 10 years of marriage. Our anniversary isn't until Sept. 2nd, but our first child was actually born on that exact date 3 years into our marriage. Which by the way was the BEST anniversary gift ever! It never fails that our anniversary celebration gets put on hold and in it's place is a birthday party. To fix that Ben and I decided that we would always celebrate our anniversary in June, since our first date was June 13th.

We decided to go with a cruise. Not really knowing what to expect we decided it couldn't be too bad.
Carnival Elation - out of Mobile, AL.



Ocean view room was the way to go, helped not too feel so claustrophobic. I'm not that bad, but to me elevators are the worst. You will find me always taking the stairs if possible. Which helped with not gaining any weight on the cruise - there were 12 floors.





One of my favorites - a different towel animal on the bed each night.



This was the serenity deck, no kids allowed.



Where we enjoyed most of our stay.



Honestly just looking you wouldn't know you were on a boat.



I really thought the pool & slide would be bigger. Not that impressed, but we were on the smallest of the boats. Plus, we didn't go to swim anyway. Like I said we stayed most of our time on the adult only deck.



We had a great time overall. Nice to get away & spend time just us.

Homeless

In a sense Ben & I along with the kids have been homeless since June 12th. Though we have no mortgage payment right now, we do have a place to call home. We are living with Ben's dad & step-mom in Gardendale. They have very graciously opened their home to the 5 of us and we are very thankful.

We are still in the process of trying to get everything together for the house we want to purchase in East Lake. We aren't going to be able to close on July 2nd like we originally thought and as of right now do not have a new closing date set. There are a few things that have come into play that will have to be worked out first. So for now Gardendale is our home. Hopefully by the end of July we will be able to close on a home of our own in the East Lake area.

It's been very nice at the grandparents, kinda like a little vacation....

My daily view





I'm also proud to say that both boys can now swim with no floats! Caden still wears his goggles & snorkel, but that's only because he doesn't like the water in his eyes, nose or mouth. Can't say I really blame him.



It's also nice having a live in babysitter, I think I've already gotten a little spoiled!!

Friday, June 25, 2010

How much stuff do we have?

Since I have a love of organizing it was nice having two weeks to be able to go through all our stuff before I packed it into nice and neat boxes. It truly is amazing how much stuff you accumulate and we had only been in that house 4 years, but now we did add a third child while living there. That's my excuse anyway. I threw away lots, gave away lots, and packed lots more!

We had a great little helper, for about 5 min. anyway.



We ordered two Pods in the hopes to only fill one - didn't happen, good thing we went with the better to be safe than sorry option. One was packed full while the other was semi-full, but we couldn't have managed without it.



It's all empty and clean and ready for the new owners.



Teary eyes? No, just tired, very tired eyes. Why the big smiles? Yup, you guessed it, it's all packed up, it's all moved out and we know vacation is right around the corner.



So where are we now? Keep checkin the blog and I'll keep you updated as best as I can. I actually just found my camera cord to post pic's to my laptop today. We have a long road ahead with the reoccurring question from everyone - where is the....???? have you seen the...??? What box is the.....in???

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Boxing It Up

While we are putting these



Into these



The kids are playing in their ONE box they can have out



Cowboys and....



Mermaid Cowgirl :)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

It's official. Everything went very smoothly this morning as we closed on our home in Chelsea. We now have until Sunday at noon to be completely out. Which honestly as I have taken these past two weeks to clean out, sort through, and box up, well let's just say I'm ready for our cruise!!

I was asked the question this week, are you sad? Sad about what was my response? Leaving my house? No, not at all. When we bought this house it was a great thing for us, a great "step up" from a worldly view. Do I have any sentimental ties with it? No. Yes I brought my daughter home to this house, but each of my kids came home from the hospital in a different vehicle to a different house. It's not like all three came home to this one. There are many things I would change about this house and many things I would keep the same. I have lots of memories here, but those I'm taking with me. Now my neighbors (some anyway) I'll miss, but I'll just have to make more of an effort to keep in touch. One is actually a cop in East Lake that works night shift, isn't God great :)

Now, don't get me wrong there are things that will be missed.



I may not be the one that gets out there and mows the grass every time, BUT I am a big stickler about weeds. I will call whoever I need to & do whatever and get those weeds taken out! It has taken 4 years, but they are gone.



My thumb is not green, even though I would really like it to be. I have killed more plants than I care to share about, but I love them. I really do try and my hydrangea has done wonderfully.



I also got this little guy from my dad. Last year I lost it thanks to our dog, Boss. He decided to use it as a chew toy. It has come back with a vengeance!



So, the house will not be missed, but my yard yes. We are moving to lots and lots of weeds and trees. Maybe in 4 years I will have conquered them as well.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Mckmama- Not Me Monday


I do not sneak out after it's dark and put some of our garbage bags into our neighbors garbage cans because it never fails that ours is ALWAYS overflowing come pickup day!



I also did not get made fun of by my neighbor for taking a picture of my garbage can


Sunday, June 6, 2010

Cheap Entertainment

This past week has been filled with packing boxes and boxes and boxes. It has also required me to find something for the kids to do where they do not have to have total supervision, they will not get hurt, and it holds their attention long enough for me to pack at least one complete box. I also don't want them sitting in front of the TV or Wii playing games for hours on end. So that time is very limited at our house.

At first they wanted to help - the only thing they seem to want to make sure goes with us is their animals. So we had lots of boxes full of animals.



Of course outside has been a big hit as well. All I have to do is turn on the hose/sprinkler/water slide and they are set for a few hours.





I absolutely LOVE 80's music. When I get the chance I turn on Charter's music channel that plays nothing but the 80's. I have a great time singing along until my children (or husband) can't take anymore.



This week however, the kids joined in and we had several dance sessions :)



They also decided to make their own gymnastics class on daddy's rings in the garage.



Since the rings were too high for Izzy to reach, she decided to drive the van to the Publix and the beach.



The house is still not completely boxed up, but we're getting there. Only 4 days till closing and 6 till we have to be out!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Count Down

Today is June 4th.
We have 6 days till we close on this house, 9 days till we have to be completely out. 15 days till Ben & I leave for our 10 year anniversary cruise. 22 days till my best friend growing up gets married. 27 days till our closing of our East Lake house. 29 days till we leave for the beach with some friends. 34 days till we move into our new home.

Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it. Ferris Bueller.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Wii Movies

I am an avid lover of movies. I love action/adventure, cheezy romance, action/romance, comedy, drama, even westerns. You get the picture. When the Rebbox came out I went ecstatic! b/c if you don't already know I'm always looking for a bargain, so renting a movie for $1. I'm sold!



We'll let me introduce you to my new found love - Netflix movies you can watch on your Wii. That's right I said your Wii.



You pay $8.99 a month and you get a DVD that you put in your Wii and you can watch movies or tv shows that stream instantly thru the Wii to your TV. You also get 1 movie at a time via mail. It is the best thing ever...we'll actually it's prob. not considering they are always adding new movies to the ones streaming and I'm always finding something new I want to watch instead of dishes...laundry...packing boxes...

Weekend Visit

Remember I told you about our dog, Boss. Well we got to dog sit this weekend while his owners went out of town. It's amazing how much a dog changes from puppy stage to dog stage. Even though Boss is just a little over a year now that year mark must have made a huge difference.
He has gotten a lot bigger. He is now 57 lbs.!



The kids had a blast with him, esp. since this time he wasn't getting their toys as much as he did when he was a puppy.



I've had several people tell me I need to look into getting a dog when we move into our EL home. You know keeping Boss this weekend was a nice reminder that I do love dogs, but I'm not ready to bring one home as part of the family...not yet anyway.