Don't leave me hanging... (cruise recap)

I know I know, you are all so patiently waiting for an update on my cruise to the Caribbean, right?  Okay, well maybe not really, but I am going to give it to you anyway :)  With lots of pictures of course!

We left from Richmond to Miami a day before the cruise in hopes to do all the fun Miami stuff (like south beach, boat tour, etc.), but the weather did not cooperate so we instead grabbed a nice lunch inside, did some shopping and then had dinner in the hotel before watching some TV.  We got to the port relatively early on Saturday to get on the ship (carnival breeze)!  Here we are waiting to board, Bonnie got gold status, so she was excited!

 Our first port of call was Grand Turk, where we did a snorkel and swim with the sting rays excursion.  I had done one similar in Grand Cayman and loved swimming with all the sting rays.  Unfortunately, this was not the same.  They struggled to find one sting ray and when they did, it was just a little baby.  But the Bons enjoyed some beach time while I got my snorkel on.

Getting ready to snorkel

Beautiful water selfie!

Bonnie kissing a sting ray

Me kissing the sting ray!

 Back on the boat, we found time to hang out with the Carnival Towl Elephant and got in some relaxation time and reading.  All in all, it was a great day!

Our frog towel animal!

Our second port of call was Dominican Republic.  Here we had booked an excursion to swim with the dolphins, we both really enjoyed it!  The only downfall was that the excursion was in a roped off area of the ocean and it happened to be really choppy that day.  Despite our trying it was hard to stay in one place very long.

Dolphin Kisses

Dolphin dancing

Dolphin swimming

Our third port of call was Curacao!  It was quite rainy that day, so we were happy we did not have anything planned other than shopping and walking around port.  

Here we are on the ship, waiting out the pouring rain!

Bonnie posing with some local art!

I loved the beautifully colored buildings there!

Christmas was all around!

Beautiful palms!

Our home on the water for the week!

Our last port of call was Aruba!  I feel in love with the beautiful sandy beaches and the beautiful blue ocean waters!  We just took the local bus to the beach and hung out for a couple of hours before we went back near the port to do some more shopping on their version of "black Friday," it was actually Thanksgiving but since we were not going to be in port they had sales on this day instead.  I have to say I loved being in the beautiful Caribbean to celebrate Turkey Day!  We were both feeling very thankful!

Here we are on the last formal night on ship, all dressed up and sad for our trip coming to a close!

Best dessert EVER!

We got back in port on Sunday morning and checked into the hotel.  Then we did a bus tour of Miami (despite the rain and clouds), we made it through the whole tour and got to see all the areas of Miami.  It was really a cool experience!

unique colors and buildings on Ocean Drive

More of the eclectic hotels!

So we are now more than a month from this trip, but I hope you enjoyed the overview and pictures!  Now, it is time to start packing for my next adventure....

2013 Year End Reading Update

Reading Update - 2013 Year end summary!

Books I have read:
1. Because I said So by Ken Jennings
2. Mary Mary by James Patterson
3. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
4. When I Don't Desire God by John Piper
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. 40 Love by Madeline Wickham
7. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
8. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
9. She's got Issues by Nicole Unice
10. Private London by James Patterson
11. Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
12. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
13. The Guernsey Literacy & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
14. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
15. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
16. Private Berlin by James Patterson
17. 3rd Degree by James Patterson
18. Now you See her by James Patterson
19. Judge and Jury by James Patterson
20. The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian


As you can see, not quite as many as last year's 32 books, but still pretty good :)  I am taking two more James Patterson books with me to Nashville in a few days! 

Google+'s version of my year

Google+ created a slideshow of my year, please enjoy :)

My phone is smarter than me!

So sometimes I take pictures on my phone, then go back later and look and they are .gif images.  I have no idea how my phone does it or why it does this.  And often they will be in the stream of other pictures that turn out as regular images so I do not think I am doing anything differently when taking the picture.  But honestly, it makes me happy when I look at the pictures later and find these.....

Here we have it snowing on the subway (which is underground....)

Rockefeller Tree

Merry Christmas!

So until I get as smart as my phone, I will just enjoy the sweet smartness of my smart phone.  In other news, if anyone can give me an explanation, I would love to hear it!

My favorite "niece"

So last night I had the girls over for a home-cooked dinner.  Kathryn, CJ, Kristi and Bethany came over to enjoy some stuffed shells and dessert!  Well yesterday Miss Bethany had some vaccinations and so she was not too interested in wanting to be passed around to everyone, so today I got to have lunch with just Kristi and Miss Bethany!  And boy was she happy to see her "Auntie Lala."  And I just have to say this little baby is so cute, so happy and such an observant little one.    

Isn't she such a cutie?

December Reading Update

Since the Cruise update may be a few days coming and I have been MIA for a bit, I thought a nice book update may be in order.  As you can see I read 3 books and started a 4th book while on vacation!

Reading Update - December

Books I have read:
1. Because I said So by Ken Jennings
2. Mary Mary by James Patterson
3. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
4. When I Don't Desire God by John Piper
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. 40 Love by Madeline Wickham
7. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
8. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
9. She's got Issues by Nicole Unice
10. Private London by James Patterson
11. Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
12. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
13. The Guernsey Literacy & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
14. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
15. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
16. Private Berlin by James Patterson
17. 3rd Degree by James Patterson
18. Now you See her by James Patterson
19. Judge and Jury by James Patterson


Books that I plan to read:
20. The Light in the Ruins (started 2 days ago)
21. The Aftermath

Happy Birthday Nannie!

Tomorrow my Nannie will turn 96!  Since I was planning to be in Norfolk this weekend, we hosted the party the week before at home with a bunch of family and friends coming to join the celebration!

To say I am blessed by my grandmother is a total understatement.  This is the woman who gave me my love for all things crafty and taught me to cook.  It was not unusual when I was growing up for me to spend a night with Nannie.  She would always be up early cooking my favorite, hard boiled eggs, and would then get my Pop to drive us to whatever craft store so we could pick out supplies to work on our days craft project.  She influenced the person I am today dramatically and I am forever grateful for that awesome relationship.  Being close to Nannie was a huge reason for me moving back to Richmond after college and it has been great getting to spend so many Saturday lunches with her over the past 8 years!!!  Not only that, but she is the matriarch of my incredible family, so it was a great pleasure to get to cook for her for her 96th birthday!

My Uncle Jerry & Aunt Gloria

My Aunt Jean, mom, and cousin, Dallas

The birthday girl--she looks quite good for 96!

My cousins Trudy and Sharon

Family friend, Mr. Barefoot

Mrs. Barefoot, and my cousin, Scott!

Everyone needs balloons on their birthdays, even when you are 96!

Make a wish, Nannie!

So here is hoping for a big party to celebrate her 100th birthday in just 4 short years :)

Finding love in the small things....

Although Fall is only my 3rd favorite season, I still like to find things that make me happy despite the quickly dropping temperatures.  And for the past week that little thing has been the sound the leaves on the sidewalk make as I walk into work each day.  It literally makes me giddy like a little 5 year old, some days I might even be caught kick up some with my heels :)  

Let's keep that last part to myself, I have a reputation to uphold.....

A strictly numbers post....

* 3 days until I see my nephews again
* 10 days until I leave for Vacation 
* 16 days until Thanksgiving
* 16.5 books I have read this year so far
* 43 days until Christmas
* 50 days until 2014
* 156 posts so far this year

That is my life summed up in 7 lines :)

Life Update in pictures

Since it has now been about 2 weeks since my last post, I thought a life update would be in order!  So now you get the photos that my phone has been hoarding (plus a few that i got from CJ) :)

Dinner & Game Night with Emily, Kevin, Jeff, CJ, and me

Dinner with two of my favs!!!  Then some halloween shopping

Dinner with Nannie

Then we had some Halloween Party Fun:

Lila & Patrick as Bob Ross and his painting

Charlotte, CJ, me, Anna, & Lila

3 blind Mice (Jeff, Emily, Kevin)

Meagan & Gloria 

Mom & Me

Allison as a pirate

My G's :)

Clark Kent & Louis Lane

Me, Allison & Anna

Then there was that time, I took off two days to go down to Norfolk and spend time with my sister and her kids :)

Lunch date with this cutie!

Oh Hey Holden!!!  The day after this kid decided he was too old for naps--FUN TIMES!

Selfie with little Garrett

Happy Halloween from Garrett

Happy Halloween from Bot, oh i mean Corbin!

Then there was the Saturday that we got invited to Emily's family's fall festival!  

Getting ready to do some shooting

CJ's first time shooting a gun!  

Hayride fun!

All in all, life has been good here lately and the last two months of the year promises to be even better :)