Back to School

It's my first day of school work! I've been out of the office for three weeks, which has been heaven. I'll say I was almost excited to go back today, although I think it's mostly because it lines up with the start of school, and I always really looked forward to going to school... it's an exciting time - kind of like New Years Day. It is the start of a new year, just at a different time. And actually Job #1's fiscal year runs September 1-August 31, so we have the same calendar as schools too. What can I say, I'm a sucker for "new beginnings."

In true fashion, whenever I have a new beginning to prepare for, I must..... PLAN, CLEAN, AND ORGANIZE!!!

And so I have...

...cleaned out the fridge! And have subsequently gone grocery shopping for healthy foods, because obviously new beginnings require perfect diets. ;)

...organized the top of my dresser! And I also dusted it... a lot.

...re-organized my dresser drawers! This is a new folding system for me, and allows me to see everything I have all at once.

...hung up all of my scarves in one place and cleaned out my closet! Now everything in there not only fits, but I like it!

...worked on my clothes in the attic! I have soooo many clothes and our house has very little storage, so our attic works as a second closet for me. I also fluctuate sizes fairly frequently - now all of my dresses, skirts, pants, and shirts are categorized by size and then further organized by color!

And in the process of going through everything, I got rid of a LOT of things.

All of the bags (except the bright blue IKEA bag) are ready to head out to be donated. Good job me!! Also, if you look closely you will see a black blob in the IKEA bag. That's Birdie!!!! She helped by laying in our bag of clothes that need to go to the dry cleaners. :-)

Needless to say, I got a lot done around the house in my final week off. Andy and I also sat down to do some goal planning - both short and long term. I know that's not exactly his cup of tea, so I appreciated him humoring me.

Last night I could barely stay asleep. I don't know if I was excited (can't be) to go to work, or just nervous I would miss my alarm since I was waking up earlier than normal (most likely). But I'll admit, it was fun to wake up and get ready with a purpose... and it was especially fun to make my lunch.

Don't worry. I imagine I will go back to my usual grumpy work self VERY soon, but for now I'll enjoy the "newness" of it. :-)

Summer Vacation 2015

Hi long lost friends!!! I am writing to you during my third consecutive week off from Job #1. Woohoo!!!!!!

Here's what I've been up to:

Part 1 - The Road Trip

My vacation started with a road trip down to Texas with my mom. We couldn't bring Birdie :( :( :(  so our very first stop was in Buffalo so that she could spend several days with Grandma and Grandpa Brown. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR WATCHING HER!!!!!

I will admit, I was very sad to say goodbye to her. It was almost like she knew something was up, because she was extra snuggly the night before we left.

Wednesday (8/12):

We set out on Wednesday morning and after an hour's drive it was time to say goodbye to my sweet angel face puppy princess. I'm amazed I didn't cry!

My mom and I went to Terre Haute, Indiana the first day. It was a pretty uneventful trip - we got in early enough to have dinner at Panera and then had time to look around TJ Maxx. Not too bad! 

Thursday: 

The next day we set off for Oklahoma City, where we were going to meet up with my dad. On the way, we stopped to use the bathroom at a gas station right outside of St. Louis. Their bathroom wasn't working, so they directed us across the street to "Foodland."

No offense, but Foodland is one of the grossest places I think my mom and I have ever been to. We did not belong there. I would never eat food from Foodland. Should you ever come upon Foodland - STAY AWAY.

And just for fun, here's a picture of the St. Louis Arch that I managed to get. 

Friday:

The third and final day of the trip went from Oklahoma City to Houston. My dad was with us by then, so we had another driver. It also meant he was subjected to listen to the end of the audiobook my mom and I had started at the beginning of the drive - "Down the Rabbit Hole" - Holly Maddison's memoir (she was on The Girl's Next Door which was my favorite show for a long time). 

Our biggest glitch of the road trip was our hotel in Houston. We booked a room near the airport, as Andy was flying in that night. Well... I chose a hotel next to George Bush International, and it turns out he was flying into Hobby... about an hour away. The Hampton Inn was very nice and let us move our reservation to be near the correct airport. Well... it didn't really matter, because Andy missed his connecting flight due to his first flight being delayed, and ended up spending the night in Dallas instead. What a mess!

Anyway, by Saturday morning around 10am we were all together and on our way to Galveston to go on our cruise!!!!

Part Two - The Cruise!

Saturday:

We boarded the ship around 1pm and immediately hit the buffet for lunch. The amount of food on a cruise ship is incredible - and all free. Here's what we had to choose from...

Breakfast - sit down dining, the buffet, or a breakfast burrito bar

Lunch - two different buffets, taco/burrito bar, mongolian grill, a deli, fish and chips, or the Guy Fieri burger joint

Dinner - sit down dining, the buffet, a deli, or Guy's burgers

24Hour - Pizza, ice cream, room service

Now with all of that said, there are so many options that it is very possible to be healthy on a cruise. You can also be a huge fat ass. I will say I started off healthy and gradually progressed to fat ass, which is to be expected. Here's a picture of my lunch on the first day.

With some time to kill before the safety drill, we explored the ship and spent some time in the arcade.

Before you set sail, you have to assemble at your Muster Station, which is where you go if you hit an iceberg and need to get on your life boat. I was hoping I would not have to get on one!

Here we are at our Muster Station!

When it was time to set sail, we headed to the Lido Deck for a Bon Voyage drink. The weather wasn't that great, but we made the best of it.

That night we had dinner in the dining room. I ordered Indian food and it was really good. I went on to order Indian about three more times I liked it so much!

Sunday:

Happy Anniversary to us! Andy and I were married one year ago, and woke up to a surprise sign my mom had made on our door!

Sunday was a day at sea. The weather was still not that great, but we tried to make the most out of laying out when we could until lunch. Again, here was my lunch...

 Eventually the weather cleared up more towards the afternoon and we were able to play mini golf around the "tail" of the ship.

Sunday wound up being a formal night - kind of fitting for us to have to get dressed up for our anniversary. 

First we had dinner. Again, I had the Indian food. Andy ordered both a lobster tail and a steak. That's right, you can order multiple entrees if you want. 

After dinner was a trip to the casino. My mom won $300!

After that we went to a comedy show. I really like the comedy shows on cruises. We ended up going to several over the course of the week.

Monday:

Another day at sea, although the weather was MUCH better. We laid out, ate, went to another comedy show... pretty much a repeat of Sunday, only with better weather.

Tuesday:

Our first port! Montego Bay, Jamaica. I was really excited to go because I've never been to Jamaica, and it sounds so tropical. It started off good with a trip to a beach.

The sand was nice, the water was great. But as you can see in the picture above, some threatening clouds were rolling in so we took cover for lunch. Lunch was fine, but so incredibly over-priced it made me want to throw up. At least they had a Jamaican bobsled inside... but was it worth $110 for a flat bread pizza, a salad, a sandwich, and some chicken to see a bobsled? I don't think so...

We spent the rest of the time walking around a pretty sketchy area looking in crappy souvenir shops. It didn't take long for us to be ready to go back to the ship - and that process was terrifying, not only because some guy tried to take us to a back parking lot to his "taxi" (yeah I don't think so) but because once we did get in a cab, the guy's driving was TERRIFYING.

I couldn't have been more happy to get back to our ship.

Jamaica looked a lot better from the ship's perspective...

Here's what I learned about Jamaica. It is more mountainous than I would have thought. Their beaches are nice. Otherwise it might as well be a third-world country. I would never wish to go back unless it were to a resort that I wasn't planning to leave. And if anyone says they are going to Jamaica, I will not longer feel envy... I will just flat out feel sorry for them. Sorry Jamaica. You're not for me.

That night we stuck to the buffet for dinner...

And then watched "Unbroken" out by the pool. I know it doesn't seem that amazing to watch a movie on vacation, but laying on a lounge chair having free pizza/popcorn/ice cream/coffee in the middle of the ocean watching a movie is preeeeetty sweet.

Wednesday:

GRAND CAYMAN!!!!!! My mom and I went here about 10 years ago (also on a cruise) and have been obsessed ever since. It. Did. Not. Disappoint. I LOVE GRAND CAYMAN!!!!

The ship can't pull all the way in, so you have to take a smaller boat to get to land.

Why are we so obsessed? Two words: THE WATER.

This is not photoshopped. This is taken with a phone. It is really that blue. It's incredible.

Anywho, we immediately headed off to 7 Mile Beach, and spent pretty much the whole day there. Because why would you want to be anywhere else when 7 Mile Beach is heaven on Earth?!?

But of course, we had to get back on our ship. Hello ship!

Bye-bye Grand Cayman! I hope to see you again... soon!

The rest of the night included dinner back in the dining room, watching Mockingjay Part 1, playing dominoes, and then late night chips and salsa during a midnight poolside dance party (we did not dance, just ate the chips lol).

Are you still with me? Sorry - I know this is a long post!


Thursday:

Another port - this time Cozumel, Mexico. But before we got off the ship, we were greeted by a zoo of towel animals on our way to breakfast. Towel animals, you ask? Every night when you go into your room, you are greeted by a towel animal, like such...

So this is what I mean when I say towel animal zoo...

Ok, so we get off the ship in Cozumel.

My dad is pretty sunburned so he stayed behind to stay out of the sun. My mom remembered a certain pottery shop she and my dad had been to once before and she wanted to go back. Thus begins... the Mexican Death March, haha. She remembered the shop being about a half mile walk from the ship. Well.... an hour later, Andy and I were drenched in sweat, the bottom's of my mom's feet were covered in blisters, and there were no shops in sight. Now what? Cue Pedro and Tequila! We flagged down Pedro who had a horse and buggy and in very broken English/Spanish sort of communicated what we were looking for, and he agreed to take us for $20. This ride took longer than it should have because his tire kept falling off! Thankfully Andy was able to help him put it back on each time. Sheesh!!!

The shop he took us to... was not the shop. But it worked! She found things she liked, and I did too. In fact Andy and I now have two new favorite coffee cups thanks to the death march. :-)

Since the death march took so long, we needed to get back fast to meet back up with my dad for lunch. On the way out we walked for an hour in the blistering sun and then paid $20 for a 20 minute horse and buggy ride that kept breaking down. On the way back? $8 for all three of us to take a 5 minute air-conditioned shuttle. Let's just say, I was happy to order a drink at lunch! Aye-aye-aye!!!

Pulling out of Cozumel we were treated to a pretty great sunset.

Friday:

Last day at sea! We laid out, ate, shopped, played in the casino, watched Into the Woods... ate some more... packed, played more dominoes, kept eating... it was a good day. :-)

Saturday:

We disembarked, got to the car - the battery was dead, so had to get it jumped - went to the Houston airport, and Andy and I flew back to Rochester. So sad to leave my parents. So sad to go back to Rochester. But so happy to get to see Birdie again.

Sunday:

We got our Birdie Girl back!!!! And boy is she happy to see us...

There you have it! Congratulations if you made it this far! I have the rest of the week off, then it's really back to normal life. I'm already counting down to my next summer vacation, whenever and wherever that might be!!