“Tell me how you met your Valentine.”

 

In the sprit of the holiday I will “try” and participate in a fellow bloggers Valentine’s Theme Week.  This is a pretty busy week for me so I wasn’t going to do it.  I am still not going to promise to participate everyday, but at least I will get one day in.

 

How did I meet Eric………

I meet my Eric in a Bar on penny pitcher beer night.  The bar, Club South, is a whole in the wall, that my brother, myself and our friends had been frequenting for the weekly karaoke on Wednesdays.  I would later find out that Eric frequented Club South more than us.  This was honestly Eric’s second home at this point in his life.  Who knew that they serve food there, well probably only Eric and Robby because this really was their place of comfort.  Not really a good sign in my opinion, but I don’t think that I really knew this until much later on in our relationship.

Eric was actually on a date with my brother’s friend Sam.  It apparently wasn’t going very well because he came chasing after me.  In Eric’s defense he would tell the story as……he went on one date with Sam and it did not go well and then they planned to meet at Club South as they would have both been there that night anyway.  They made these plans the week prior be before their one date that didn’t go well.  Anyway, he was apparently checking me out and decided to chase me down and find out “my story” when I was away from my possie of protection.  That consisted mainly of Kyle and Brother John and possibly many other nosey boys that seems to think that they were entitled to protect me because they knew Brother John. 

I went upstairs to the ladies room (which by the way is one of the grossest places in Birmingham, Club South’s major fault was always that bathroom, but they have sense redone the one downstairs.)  Eric saw the free moment and intersected my journey back from the bathroom.  He starts chatting me up and moments into our conversation JOHN and KYLE are standing next to me.  They are standing so close to me that you couldn’t get a piece of paper between me and them.  They, my protectors, were glued to me because heaven forbid someone talks to “little Cassie” we can’t have that.  At this point Eric says, “it’s getting crowded, I am going go”, then he walks away.  I glare at JOHN and KYLE, and Kyle says, “what we are just standing here.” 

I go downstairs with my protectors and sit at our table all pouty like.  At some point John and Kyle weren’t paying attention and somebody else comes and sits by me, but they actually knew him so I guess that’s why they didn’t mind as much, but he was hitting on me.  I ended up asking him just how OLD he was and why was he in a bar hitting on college girls and didn’t he think that maybe he needed to find a new group of people to hang out with because I certainly don’t think that you should be at my table.  Turns out that he was a little sensitive and left.  FYI, he was 12 years older than me and had less hair than my Dad.  He later comes back to my table.  JOHN and KYLE were up singing and Cousin Daniel was over hitting on Eric’s date. When this guy came back to my table he was not alone, he had Eric with him.  Turns out he knew Eric too.  He introduces him to me and says, “here this is Eric he is closer to your age.”  Eric promptly takes a seat and begins chatting me up again.  JOHN and KYLE are starting to pay attention again and shooting looks of disapproval to me from the stage. 

As Eric is hitting on me I am asking him about Sam and why he is not with her and why he is talking me.  He begins to ask me why I am not with any one and says, “a pretty girl like you should have a boyfriend”, and I say, “well I do have a boyfriend.”  Then when he sees me texting on my phone he says, “is that your boyfriend?”, I respond “no this is the guy I am cheating on my boyfriend with.”  I think that may have been the moment that Eric I knew that we were two unfaithful peas in a pod. 

And before my protectors whisked me off two the part 2 bar of the evening, Eric gave me his number and then I waited two weeks to call him.  Eric would say. “after I had broken up with all of my boyfriends.”  Eric speaks the truth.

Any surprises?  Did you know the story, anything I missed?  Have you know us all this time and actually not known our scandalous tale of how we met?

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Through out the year we have a found money competition.  The competition is the collect all the money that you “find” throughout the year and put it in a bank and then at the end of the year we count it all up and see who has found the most money.  You can find it outside, inside, on the floor, in soda machines, anywhere.  You can’t find it in the bottom of you purse and say that it is found money, you mat have lost it and then found it but it was still your money so it is not found money.  Also you shouldn’t rob a bank or anything that wouldn’t be found money that would be stolen money, but there are other reasons not rob a bank besides it not counting as found money!

The competition part of it is because many other households in my family participate too and we all add it up at the end of the year and who ever finds the most wins the title of the winner.  Yeah not much of a prize, but it is kinda neat to see how much money you can collect through the year by just picking it up off the floor.  I honestly don’t find nearly as much outside as I do inside.  I tend to find more money in restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores and such than I do in parking lots! 

No matter much or how little we collect we will always beat my grandparents and we will always lose to my parents.  It is just the way the money falls!

Our grand total for this year was $19.91.  We collected a little over $2.00 more than last year.  Eric and I really slacked of this year once we started living in different states found money wasn’t at the top of our to do lists.  We started 2010 off strong, we are looking forward to beating last years total.

Did you participate?  Will you join in next year to see just how much you could collect if you just picked up what you see on the ground?  Have you ever heard of found money before or is this a first?

My friend Donora, who blogs all the time, has been participating in “Five Question Friday” for a while now.  I figure that I may as well give it a try and that it will also give me at least one post a week!  And of course who doesn’t want to know more about me, ha!

Five Question Friday is hosted by Mama M.

Questions for Friday, 1/29/10:

1. Would you ever vacation alone?

No I would NOT vacation alone.  I had dinner alone last night and that SO DID NOT go well at all so I will not be vacationing alone!

2. Do you go the speed limit?

No, I go 5 miles under the speed limit and Eric goes 5 miles above.  I figure that we are evening out the roads.

3. Why did you start blogging/following blogs?

Because my Eric said that I needed to and because he used to blog for our family and wasn’t keeping up with it so I finally gave in.  I follow way to many blogs that is why I am not good at posting myself.  I read an average of 250 blog posts a day, yes I know, I really should scale down my Google reader, but then what would I do with my time.

4. Where do you shop for yourself?

Everywhere, but really anywhere that has an online store.  I don’t like to shop, but I love clothes, come to figure it out, I do like to shop I just don’t like to go to the store.

5. What was the song that you danced your first dance with your spouse to at your wedding...or...what song would you like your first dance to be to?

Hmmm, didn’t dance at my wedding, because I didn’t have a wedding, we got married at our engagement party, as a surprise to everyone except to us and the minister.  Not much of a music person, so I may have put that list on my list of things to work on, “come up with a song.” Consider it added to my list.

Happy Friday!

Any surprises on my answers?  Anything you want to know more about, just ask!  Also if you participate let me know in the comments so I can read yours!

Truth be told, Eric and I haven’t spent too much time in the Magic Kingdom in years past, but we made up for it this trip.  We always thought that this was a place for kids and just wasn’t a place that we wanted to spend the most time in.  Well we were wrong.  The Magic Kingdom was freaking awesome.  The Magic Kingdom is what Walt Disney World is about.  Also being a slow month such as January and now that all the marathoners were starting to leave we were able to spread out a bit more and really enjoy the park.  We had a blast!!!!!   We had the big kid Walt Disney World experience. 

At the entrance of the park they still had the Christmas tree up, which we both thought was such a treat to be able to be at Walt Disney World still with the holiday sprit in the air.

The must have known that we were coming because right when we arrived through the magically gates of the Magic Kingdom a parade started come right down the center isle.  Eric and I were quickly moved behind the safety rope lines so that we could enjoy the parade with the others.

Our buddy Mr. Incredible came by to show us his mighty holiday float!  Side note –Eric and I have our first date at the movie “The Incredibles.”

After the parade we set out to make sure to hit a few rides.   

Our favorite must sees:

Pirates of the Caribbean

Jungle Cruise

Haunted Mansion

It's a Small World

Cinderella's Golden Carouse is not a favorite of Eric, but I really think that you should always ride a carousel when giving the opportunity, yes I am the person that will ride it in the mall, I can’t wait to have kids to get too do this more!

After a few rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad these sweet girls offer to take our picture together!  Yes rollercoaster's, I can handle, weird hunh, but I am still limited, maybe I should say level 1 rollercoaster's.

Eric was rather disappointed that Splash Mountain was under construction.  It had even warmed up to about 45 degrees at this point in our trip and we were going to give it a whirl, but we couldn’t, so sad!  Eric really does love this ride, he is so cute when he is at Disney World, super excited!!!!

We are very excited about travel to Disney World a few years down the road with our family in tow and see how the park will have changed.  Interestingly we were able to see a preview of the new construction on the castle.  You know the castle is actually fairly small and they are actually making it more of an attraction!!! Super fun, we can’t wait to see how this has progressed in a few years!

 

This concluded our Walt Disney World Adventures!

For the second day of our Disney Trip Eric and I headed off to Epcot.  It was still very cold in Orlando and we were all bundled up and racing from ride to ride to try to get in somewhere.  This racing through the cold didn’t yield any pictures.  Along with not taking pictures we were apparently not reading the signs to the rides and ended up on a not Cassie appropriate ride.  I am not good with any type of transportation i.e., boats, long car rides, planes, really transportation is just not my thing.  I have horrible motion sickness and due to my Crohn’s my stomach doesn’t absorb medication therefore dramamine may or may not work, just depends on how I am “feeling’ that day.  So we typically would avoid me riding a ride that “may cause nausea, claustrophobia, anxiety attacks”, yes this is certainly a ride that we would avoid.  Although having not read these signs we ended up on this ride.  What ride you might ask, I have no clue!! “Eric, do you know what ride this was?” All I really remember is that it was some sort of space simulation ride.  The problem with the ride was that there were all these “urgent” “stop” “abort”, buttons, when I started freaking out!!!!!! Eric tried to get us out, I am screaming “HELP, HELP”, trying to get out of this ride and everyone else in the canister, thought that I was just really into the experience.  So not the case!  Really this is kind funny now, but ughhh, not so much at the time.  I just looked straight head and went up and down with the ride and did my breathing exercises and eventually it stopped!  This was pretty much the last ride that I went on in Epcot!

We then toured the countries and reminisced about being there 3.5 years ago for our wedding anniversary.  Along with this we realized that we really don’t need to come back to Disney World until we have kids because we really have done all that there is too do and we are a little burnt out on this place.  (Please not that it is awesome, I think I was just bitter from this ride, and that made for a crappy day!)

 

Update – The name of the ride is Mission: Space.  It was supposed to be something about cooking in space and like preparing meals and such, but like I said above that was so not what it was about.  It was like a space fighting ride because of course we ran into danger on our way to complete our space mission!

 

A summary of the Mission: Space ride.

Eric and I arrived in Disney World on Friday and had just enough time to settle in a go to race Expo too sign in for the weekend then it was back to the hotel to find a good place to have a carb-filled meal.  We ended up walking around “Downtown Disney” which was very close to our resort.  We found a nice organic pasta place to have our pre-race carbo loading meal.  After our meal Eric and I bared the frigid temps to find KIKI (our rent-a-car, she was/is a KIA).  KIKI took us back to the hotel and there we stayed until 3:00AM, when it was time to go check-in for our race. 

Saturday Morning was made up of our race adventure. We arrived back at our hotel about 10:00AM and then we rested for a bit before getting back out into the cold to experience a fun filled Disney weekend. 

We choose to take our first Disney Adventure in Hollywood Studios, which until two years ago was MGM studios, to us old school Disney goers.

It is now about 2:30 and we were a little hungry.  We hobbled through the gates and realized that the cold is certainly making our muscles a little more tired.  Still bundled up in boots, scarves, hats and gloves we shouldn’t have been feeling the cold, but we were.  We ended up picking the TV Dinner. (Yes, I spelled that right it is Dinner, not Diner.)  This was a strange little quaint restaurant.  The waitress’ were supposed to be your Mom and had a rude Mom attitude.  It wasn’t anything like my Mom, because my Dad is the cook in the house, but it was still fun.  I think it is neat that the longer that the restaurant is around the decor becomes more appropriate verses dated.

This is a picture of the TV in the living room, where we were waiting to be seating until our table was ready.  At first we were kinda like, this is weird, but it was actually really neat and the food was great too!

 

Our first rid choice: The Tower of Terror.  The TTOT adventure started in the while we listened to this crazy lady in her mid 30’s talking berating her friend and also involving her friends daughter about how it was rude of her not wait until she work to head out to the parks.  This lady was ridiculous and the line for me was when she said, “Ashley (her daughter), agrees with me, don’t you Ashley?”  Seriously lady you are in the Happiest Place on Earth, be happy lady!  We finally get on the ride and after putting pennies on our knees to see if they would stay, which they didn’t, we realized that there must be a ton of found money down there.  Another thing that I realized is that this ride either got scary since the last time Eric and I were there 3 1/2 years ago, for our first anniversary, or I have become much more of a scaridy cat.  Eric agreed that the ride was actually a little more intense than it was the last time.  When we were there a few years back we rode it 3 times, I think that we had just discovered fast passes. 

We rode a few more rides and quickly realized that the water rides were still-water rides despite the cold because there is not a whole lot that they can do about the pre-programmed rides.  We knew that it really was cold outside once we realized that they were using the pre-recorded tour guide tapes instead of making tour guides stand out in the cold with us silly tourists that were out in this 19 year record cold weather.

We didn’t really notice anything new at this park, from the last time that we were there, except for the name change of the park, but that was really it.  We choose to go to this park on the day of our race because it is the smallest park and thought that the park with the least walking would be the best idea for us.

Tune in next for our Adventures in Epcot.

Eric and signed up to participate in the Disney Half marathon in January of 2009, for the race that wouldn’t be taking place until January of 2010.  This race fills up within week upon opening up.  When signing up we had no idea that we would moving during this time, not be living in the same state, and I had no clue that I would training for this race ALONE.  All that aside we did it and we did it under my goal time with 37 seconds to spare!  Yes, I realize that I cut it close, but under a goal is under a goal!

Of course the actually day of the race happened to be the coldest day on record in Orlando in 19 years.  Not only was it cold, but it was wet.  We knew about three days prior to the race that ice pellets would be joining us on this 13.1 mile adventure.  I think that I could have even handled the wet, I often enjoy a nice refreshing rain during a long run.  But wet and cold at the same time do  not make for a happy Cassie.  It wasn’t until about mile 8 that I looked down a both mine and Eric’s feet and realized that we both had water shooting out of our sneakers every time we put our feet to the pavement.  Not only were we spewing water but all the other runners were too.  We were not the only wet footed runners around. Even with this challenge we kept running! 

It wasn’t til about mile 11 that I was done, I had hit my wall.  Eric by the way is doing well as he is politely staying with me and running my pace.  While hitting my wall, I remember quietly beginning to yell at my Eric and telling him that this was his idea, it is wet and cold (because by the way he made the weather bad!), you weren’t home to train with me, you should be talking to me and entertaining me, you are not a good running buddy and then my favorite one and probably the favorite phrase of everyone around us……in my pitiful crying, winey, Cassie voice, I loudly said, “see you lied to me again, you said this was the last hill, you lied to me! You lied to me! What is wrong with you, you keep lying to me!”  At this point this guy in front of us, who totally got out of my way when I ran through him and charged my last hill, was cracking up laughing at me yelling at Eric about lying to me about the last hill.  Then we hit mile 12 and I was good, I was past my wall and just kept on going.  I had my little pity party and about 300 other runners heard it, as I was still passing people and charging through the crowds as I was telling Eric what I thought about him LYING to me about these dam hills.

All in all it really was a good run.  It was extremely crowded, there were 40,000 people that ran this race.  The half is very popular and it was actually very popular among walkers.  People that plan from the get go that they are going to walk to whole thing.  I have no problem with that I just think that in such a crowded race that the walkers should be on one side and the runners should be on the other.  I spent and extra .5 miles weaving in and out of people during this race.  Along with the first mile taking 16 minutes and taking two bath rooms breaks at an average of 7 minutes a piece.  I think that we more than made our time goal.

We were a little disappointed that we starting in a parking lot and then ran about 4 miles to go through the magic kingdom for 2.5 miles and then ran that 4 miles back again on the Disney interstate up and down on ramps, then we finished with about .75 in Epcot and that was about it for the parks.  It was a little more boring than we had anticipated, I think 9 water stops and character stops make it a pretty unique race.  Eric and I certainly don’t plan on making this a yearly thing, but once we have kids we totally plan on going back and possibly running the full.  I don’t think that the goofy challenge is in my future, but maybe in Eric’s.  If you run the half on Saturday and the full on Sunday you get the Donald Duck medal for the Half, the Mickey medal for the Full and then you get the Goofy Medal for completing both races back to back.

(Photo Credit Action Sports International)

Wishing I was in such a warm outfit!

 

The START, we didn’t start until 46 minutes in, but they did set off fireworks for each coral, too FUN!

 

Our coral starting, if you look halfway back on the right you can see my bright yellow poncho and the dark blob next to me is Eric wrapped up in a blanket, it was really cold!

 

Me wearing 3 shirts, a sweatshirt and a poncho! There are many more pictures of Eric than I because his number was showing most of the time.

 

Eric running, with a Mini Mouse impersonator behind him.

 

The FINISH!

 

Close up of the MEDAL

Caroline had her baby, Mackenzie Layne Goodrich.  I woke up to a text message written by Jake from yesterday saying that Caroline had her baby Monday @ 8:39 PM.  I immediately texted her with a Congratulations and told her that I would wait for her to call me when she is able.  Within minutes she called me to tell me all about her birth experience. 

Caroline had a normal day on Monday January 11th, 2010.  She went to work and during her work day she started having contractions, but didn’t work too much about it because she had been experiencing them here and there.  Once work was over she went home and began her evening with her husband, Jake.  She took a bath to see if that would make her feel better, it didn’t.  Jake said I am giving you 15 more minutes and if you don’t start feeling better we are calling the doctor.  With that she stood up and her water broke!  Off to the hospital they went.  Once at the hospital it took a little while to get her into a room.  Once in her room with the nurse she questioned her about still having enough time to get an epidural.  The nurse said, “Oh honey, you have plenty of time.”  The doctor comes in a little later and says, “Lets see how you are doing.”  Before starting to examine her.  At this point Caroline responds, “I feel like I need to push.”  The doctor confirms that Caroline is indeed ready to push.  She tells her to decided who all is staying during the birth and instructs everybody else to leave the room.  Caroline chose to let her mom stay mainly because she was already helping by holding her hand.  And of course that her husband Jake will be staying too.  At this point it is too late for Caroline to have her beloved epidural.  Now I don’t claim to know anything really about her birth plan as I don’t live near her nor see her daily.  However I feel confident in saying that she totally planned on having that epidural.  Plans are made to be broken.  Caroline made it through her naturally childbirth just great.  Before 9:00 she had her 7lb 7 oz 18 1/2 in little girl in her hands.

When I first talked to her the first thing that she said was, “She perfect, I love her!”, with such joy in her new parent voice.  I am so happy for Jake and Caroline and their new bundle of joy.

 

I loved how excited Jake is, I am not surprised at his excitement, but still love his expression here.

Like Jake says on his Facebook, where I stole these pictures from, “cribs show just how little babies are.”

Jake’s mother, Nancy, made all the bedding and curtains for this nursery, it is just amazing!

No we really don’t have a problem, but what else can you say about Houston!  The whole time Mom and I were putting up my Christmas Lights she keep saying, “Houston we have a problem.”  For nothing more than the reason that now because I will be living in Houston she seems to think that she should start working this phrase into common conversation, even when it doesn’t really fit. 

Over New Years I took my first trip to Houston to visit with my Eric.  To recap-Eric moved in October right after our cruise.  He is renting a room from a girl that he doesn’t know and really still doesn’t know or see much.  He came home for Thanksgiving which was him coming home 6 weeks after he first left for Houston.  Then he came home again for Christmas, which was four weeks sense his last visit at Thanksgiving.  Then I went out there the next week for New Years.  We actually agreed to move to Houston without me ever having been there. 

The point of this trip was to first and foremost show me around the city and get me a little more comfortable with the whole idea of living there.  Considering after all it was already a done deal so I might want to get used to it.  The second reason would be for us to look for an apartment.  Most of you know of house history.  (We currently own our third house in our four years of marriage.)  Considering we have been in this house for two years now that means it is of course time for us to move.  We really tried to look for an apartment but we are not apartment people.  I think it is probably because we have pets, but it is just plan hard to go to living in an apartment after you have typically always lived in a house.  Long story short we are now house hunting. 

While we were driving around neighborhoods in Houston we ended up on a dead end street with about 8 peacocks!  Yes, peacocks in peoples front yards and they were just running around wild.  I felt like I was in my car at the zoo. 

Just walking around like he owned the place.

There are four in this picture, they blend in rather well.

This is not a great picture, but check out those tail feathers!

Tonight I was at CVS minding my own business, when leaving the store I was chased down by a shopper.  Now I often get chased down in CVS, but this was a new one.  People typically want to see my coupon binder and then they want to talk to me about the stuff I bought and how I saved all this money and so on.  This actually happens so often I actually carry around several typed pieces of paper that have the links of savings blogs that I follow on it.  Although this was not the reason.

This lady wanted to see my outfit!  She actually insisted that I come to her car to show her daughter how cute I was, HA!  I said how about I wait right here and you come to me, I promise, I won’t move. (Just in case she wanted to kidnap me, you have to be careful.)  Her and her daughter marveled at my outfit and wanted to know where I got each item. 

Now I take pride in my outfits, at work I am actually referred to as the “fashion police.”  I have been know to tell people that they really should not wear that combination of pieces and then I tell them what in their closet would work better. (This is attributed to my fantastic memory to remembering peoples clothing, phone numbers, DOB, etc.) Although I would have never thought that someone would stop me on this particular outfit.  I didn’t work today, meaning no make-up, I am wearing a t-shirt, jeans, a wrap sweater, then upon running out to CVS I threw on boots, a jacket and a scarf.  And with that these people wanted to replicate my outfit and take my picture!  Yes they actually took my picture!! 

I felt the need to take my own picture when I got home.  I mean really if the gals at CVS think I look cute, I may as well post a pic along with the story.

(Along with trying to get better about posting pictures of myself!  We all know how much I HATE to be photographed, but that’s another story!)

I don’t think that this is anything to get excited about, I certainly have better outfits in closet, but I got to say they made my day.  They were a little too excited, but still they made my day!

Just in case you didn’t get the memo, our house is for SALE.

If you happen to know anyone that may be looking for a cute 3 bedroom/2 bath home in Birmingham, please pass along our info.

http://www.forsale-byowner.com/listings/4700-4799/4707.htm

Considering that my I have know Caroline FOREVER, naturally my Mom decided to take this road trip with me.  From Birmingham, AL to Beaufort SC we went.  With my parents and I living on the same street road trips are a no brainer.  Also with Mom not really liking to drive and me being a horrible car rider, really any type of transportation is not good, we were stoked to take a Cassie – Mom adventure.  Mom and I started out early on a Friday Morning and arrived around 3:30 eastern time as we lost an hour on our way to Beaufort due to the time change. 

We made plans to stay with Mom’s friend Ginger.  You might say that Ginger is Mom’s Caroline.  Mom has known Ginger sense I was in Kindergarten.  Ginger and Mom were actually in Kindergarten too, Ginger was and always has been a kindergarten teacher.  And when I started school my Mom went back to work and she became Ginger’s aid.  Ginger was the one that inspired and encouraged my Mom to become a teacher.  Also one of the people that Mom attributes her teaching success’ to today.

We had a wonderful visit with Ginger and her sister Pat.  Pat brought Ginger back down to Beaufort to recover from a surgery that Ginger had just the day before our visit.  Ginger was not super comfortable during our visit, but we are so glad that she was still willing to have us even though she was under the weather.

Ginger and Mom

 

Pat, Ginger and Mom

Mom and Sable.

I won’t post any pictures of Ginger lying around in bed, mainly because there are many post surgery pics of myself that could end up on the internet easily!   Mom always loves to bring the camera to the hospital.

Even though as kids I never associated the song “Sweet Caroline” with my best friend Caroline I can’t help but think of her when I hear this song.  At her wedding the DJ came over the mic and said, “We will now play the brides signature song.”  I remember her looking at me with her big blue eyes, with a puzzled look on her face, (and knowing Caroline she probably used more colorful language, but we will leave that out) and saying, “I have no idea what he is talking about, what song…”, then he starting playing “Sweet Caroline” and then we both were sporting what Jake loving calls Caroline’s “light blub face”, meaning we just got it!  It takes us a while sometimes!  Now due to that moment at her wedding I tend to think of her as SWWEEETTT CAAAAROLIIIIINE.

Sweet Caroline, my best friend in the whole world is pregnant and even though there is a whole state in-between us there was no question that I would be attending her shower.

Caroline and I first met in Kindergarten and we really have been best friends ever sense.  I love this girl with all of my heart and she loves me!!! We are so much alike, but oh SO different as well.  There are so many ways in which we are different, but it never comes up because we just mesh!

When I moved from Beaufort, SC to Birmingham, AL when I was 15 years old, the summer between 9th and 10th grade Caroline and I we super sad, but through it all nothing really changed.  Our parents would drive and fly us back and fourth several times a year.  Then when Caroline and I would see each other we would just pick up right where we left off.  Currently not much has changed now that we are adults are husbands rather than our parents realize that we will fly and drive back and fourth as needed.  Anytime she is near AL that means a detour to Birmingham and when Eric and I are planning a beach trip I naturally suggest South Carolina.  We last saw each other six months ago when she was 9 weeks pregnant.  It was great to get to see her then with a tinnie tiny baby belly and then to see her now full blown pregnant!  Caroline is pregnant, that is it though, all she has is a basketball belly.  Everything else on this girl looks exactly the same.  She is too adorable!!!

Jeri is the girl that Caroline calls her work best friend or something like that, I really am not sure. I know that they have been friends ever sense Caroline started working at the Credit Union 7 years ago.  Also that they just click they are what they are and what they are is Great Friends.  I don’t really know Jeri very well because when Caroline and I visit it is short and we don’t really venture out with too many others because we are selfish like that.  Jeri being such a great friend to Caroline she hosted a baby shower for her.  It was a great event, their were games, snacks, sweet treats and gifts.  Mainly it was just a great time to see all the people that love and sound my Caroline and her growing baby.  I am often jealous of Jeri because she gets to be around my Caroline all the time, but if I had to pick anyone out of that room be a buddy to my Caroline it would be Jeri. 

Here is the hostess Jeri and the guest of honor Sweet Caroline.

Sharon (Caroline’s Mom), Caroline, Me, Mom

Yes, I dressed my mother that day and that is of course why she looks so darn cute!

Caroline and I are not just best friends but we have another friend named Angela!!!!  In the ABC book of Caroline and Cassie, our scrapbook my mom made us, A is for Angela!  Caroline and Angela met in the 2nd grade when Caroline and I were in different classes.  I didn’t offically meet Angela until the 4th grade when all three of us ended up in the same class.  From that point forward atleast until I moved Angela, Caroline and I were super close.  Again we just meshed!!!  We have this picture of the three of us as hear no, speak no, see no evil.  This orginal picture was taken when we were 15.  When we were about to take a current pic of the three of us, Angela said oh we have to do it!!!!  We are the exact “monkey’s” that we were years ago, but Caroline and Angela are in different places, but still doing the same “no – evil” part.  I actually have the picture from 11 years ago, but it is cropped and is in our scrapbook. 
(If either of you have the original, please send me a copy!!!!)

Cassie-see no evil, Caroline-speak no evil and Angela-hear no evil.  I love these girls, too fun!!!

Now sometime in middle school we met Rocel.  Then we began hanging out with her and through the years Caroline and Rocel became very close.  We haven’t know Rocel as long as Angela, but we had kept up with her much better through out the years than we had with Angela.  I hadn’t seen Angela sense 12th grade and Rocel it had only been sense Caroline’s bachelorette party and her wedding sense I had seen her. 

Angela, Caroline, Cassie and Rocel

At this point with all these pictures I totally feel like I should have brought a costume change!

It was great to see Caroline and spend this weekend with her and some of the people that we haven’t really seen sense high school.  (9 years ago!)  It was really fun to learn about everyone's husbands, kids and just their lives in general.  I can’t believe how much fun we all had just catching up and how some of our conversations just fell right back into old patterns.  We had a blast!  Thanks girls for a great weekend!

One more belly pic of Sweet Caroline for good measure. (Plus I figure Caroline will appreciate that I posted a picture of someone's behind in the background on my blog! She who shall remain nameless! Thanks Jake for pointing that out, too funny!)

The Grandmother to be in tummy rubbing heaven!

I have been catching up on blogging and then I went to post and my Live Writer has failed me and will not let me post.  I am currently writing this post in Quick Blogcast, which I can totally write in but am not able to transfer the posts with pictures that I have already written.  UGHHHHHHH  I digress.
I decided that I should take this time to give a bit of an Irvin Living Life update. 
The last week in October Eric and I came home from our cruise and then off my Eric went to Texas.  Truth of the matter is that Eric has accepted a job in Houston, TX with a start-up Internet security company called Alert Logic.  It is a really good opportunity for my Eric, but it is also in Texas!!!  What does that mean, well we are moving to Texas! 
We decided that I would stay in Birmingham, AL and put the house up for sale while Eric got his feet on the ground in Texas and then I would follow soon.  We said that even if the house didn't sell by six months I would move out to Texas anyway.  That's kinda the boat that we are in now.  It is time to move to Texas no matter what.  Nothing has really happened with the house.  I am currently checking out rental companies and I feel like I am hitting one shady dead end after another and I just don't know what else to do.  If anyone has any clue who to go with, please advise. 
Tomorrow is the day that I will be turning in my notice at work.  I am giving a month's notice, my last day will be February 12th.   It is bitter sweet for me, it is no secret that I don't really like my job, but I do have two amazing friends that I have made through this process.  Even though they are moving on as well, it is certainly the closing of a door. but I will be friends with these two gals for the rest of our lives and I look forward to the adventures we will have together.
With this door closing on my job the door also closing on our lives in Birmingham.  Eric and I are pretty sure that this move will be one that will never bring us back to Birmingham.  I will never live on the same street as my parents again, which is quite the realization in itself.
Eric has been in Birmingham since college and I have been here sense High School.  We moved to Montgomery for Eric's job for 2 short years before being transfered back to Birmingham.  That was certainly a growing up process for the both of us.  We were no longer in the same city as our parents, we didn't have built-in friends, we didn't have a church home and so many more things had us out of our comfort zone.  I expect this move to Houston to be much like the move to Montgomery but 10 x's as difficult and 10 x's more of a learning experience!  And we are ready to take the ride called life. Beep Beep......here we come.
This past weekend Eric and I met up in Disney World to run the Disney 1/2 marathon.  We love the mini vacations that we are experiencing (although we signed up for this race in Jan '09.), but hate getting on separate planes to return home.  We are tired of it and putting an end to it, I am moving if not before but certainly by March 1st. We have a date, we are looking for a place to live in Houston and I am starting to look for jobs there too!  If anyone has any info on Houston please comment!!!!!  I would love to hear anything you have to say!

I went over to my friend Candice’s house for a visit.  This is her cat Guapo and this is the bowl that he drinks out of.  Yes he drinks out of a cup on the sink!  PRICELESS!

In action!

 

Ignoring the camera, but oh so handsome!

I have been in this family for 5 Thanksgiving’s now.  The same thing happens every year, I come home with plenty of pictures, but only of animals.

This year was no different.  We gave Thanks, we ate Turkey and we played with dogs.

Eric and Luke

MIL, Maggie, Luke and Granddaddy

 

Brother Brent and Ella

Ella playing with Annette.  Luke sitting with Brent and Mandy.

A nice pic without pets!

Granddaddy, MIL and Grandmother.

 

Rules for the award:

Thanks Cas, I know it's tough to blog and get caught up with everything, but I do appreciate it and I think all our friends and family enjoy a little insight to our world. Love you, sweetheart!

10 Honest Things about ME

1. I  was kicked in the head by a horse as a child. I was with my Aunt while she was feeding the horses when one of the dogs came running up barking at the horse. The horse kicked, and I went down. I was knocked out for a few seconds and when I came to my Aunt was freaking out and carrying me back to the house. I remember her asking me if I was okay, and responding, "No". I recall not being in that much pain, but just shocked that she would ask me such a question. I think, honestly, she felt worse than I did.  
2. My dad and I both enjoy people watching and lip-reading. I've never seen him buy a thing from the mall. 
3. I love eating at the food court at the mall. I think it has something to do with the thing I mentioned above.
4. I do some pretty technical stuff for my job, things that I know are difficult to learn, and more difficult to teach. Even with all of that, I can spend 10 hours working on a silly spreadsheet or a powerpoint that most people could finish in half an hour.
5. I love chicken wings
6. I probably communicate with wife more than most people communicate with their spouses, even with us not getting to spend a lot together these past few weeks. Thanks to GoogleTalk, e-mail, phone calls, and GoogleVideochat, we are always in touch.
7. I once gave an appliance to my wife as a Christmas gift. I know, now. I think everyman should make this mistake at least once in their lives, and most men or guys I know would agree.
8. I have had 5 ipods in my life and only had to pay for one of them.
9. I have contributed to two books.
10. I didn't learn to blow a bubble with bubblegum until about 2 years ago and just this past month learned how to play with a yo-yo.

I think I'll defer sending this to 7 people and let anyone reading feel free to respond

My friend Donora sent me this  'Honest Scrap' award/chain-blog/thing. I am very bad about blogging, as Donora mentioned.....she totally gave me credit for getting around to it eventually!  (I am only two months behind!) 

Rules for the award:

3. Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.
4. Tell those 7 people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.

Thanks Donora!  You really should go visit Donora's blog and get to know her!  She is a wonderful, faithful, inspiring woman that I am very blessed to call a friend!  Love her!


10 Honest Things about ME

1. I am petrified of Disney Movies!  Yes, I realize that I am 26 years old.  A few years back, I was 23, I went to the "Beauty and the Best" the live version in Montgomery, thinking that I would be able to handle it this time around.  The last time I saw it I was 10 years old.  I ended up in my mother's lap the whole time!  Nothing much changed, I held it together pretty well, because I was with a brand new group of girlfriends, but I knew that I could never attend another Disney play!  I actually cried twice during, because I was so afraid she (Beauty) wasn't going to get free!  No, knowing the ending doesn't help!  It is also not just "Beauty and the Beast"  I have one of these stories for most Disney movies.  But not for the ones that have come out after I turned 18 because I have not seen them, nor do I plan on it!
2. I am dyslexic.  The other day my mom and I were riding in the car and we were talking about me being dyslexic all these years, I told her I have been doing well, but of course it hasn't gone away.  I actually said, "I don't really notice it."  A little later I saw a sign and said, "Wow 132 miles to go."  Mom said, "It said 123 miles to go."  Like I said I don't notice it......unless someone points it out.
3. I am not really a morning or a night person.  I am only good for about 12 hours, considering I work a 10 hour day Eric is very used to a "Crabby Cassie"!
4. I have brown eyes, I try to pretend that they are hazel, but they are not.  I wear purple eyeliner and purple eye shadow everyday to bring out the green, but it is a trick they are really brown.  I can't wear colored contacts because they don't make them in my prescription.
5. I have a fantastic memory!  phone numbers, birthdays, the outfit that you wore the first time that I met you, the date that I met you, seriously, try me......
6. I make lists, I love lists and I love to cross things out on my lists.  I love the satisfaction of completing a task.  I have not found an electronically satisfying way to keep a list. 
7. I am honest and even more so if I don't know you.  I am the girl in the dressing room, that you don't know, that is going to tell you that you do look fat in those jeans and that you should NOT buy them. 
8. I often wish I had a more common name.  I get tired of being called Cathy, Casey and Pasty, yes that is a common one among older people.  I guess I slur my ss's.
9. I love exclamation points! and parenthesis, can you tell?  (I actually refrained from using them a few times.)  I think it is because I write the way I talk.  With excitement and detail!
10. I name everything.  My car, toaster, piano etc....and there is always a well thought out story there.  One ex: My tummy's name is Travis.  There was this boy in my 1st grade class and he was really bad and his name was Travis and several years later when I started having issues I started saying to my stomach, "Bad Travis!", and it just stuck.

Seven people to award:

1. Emily I, she is a very quirky, funny, and exciting person to listen to, I think everyone would enjoy the outcome!
2.  Mom, trying to give her something to blog about
3.  Ashley, I do not know nearly enough about Ashley!
4. Lindsay R, because she is on break and has nothing to do, hahahah!
5.  Katie S, one of the best writers I know, I know that she will succeeded at this task and I think she might enjoy it, love learning about her!
6. Robyn (I would love to hear your answers, but because you are the most pregnant of the 4 pregnant people in this list, I will excuse you!)
7. Eric, because I think it would be neat to see the differences between, I know them, but not everyone does!  I could always use another post here on the blog!

PS I did leave all my new mommy friends off the list, but couldn't give mercy to the pregnant ones, because then that would leave me with one friend my mom and Eric!  Although if you are interested please join in and I will the happy to add you to the list, I just didn't want you to feel obligated!  There is not one person that I wouldn't love to know 10 honest things about, because as I mentioned earlier I will remember them always!

 

Halloween in Letson Farms is always a big event.  On our street it is even bigger.  Sometimes I think other neighborhood shut down and that all trick-or-treaters come to our street to ask for treats! I am not really one to dress up and pass out candy, but I always dress my kids up.  They love it!

Luke – Purple Monkey 

Daisy – Banana

Greeting the trick-or-treaters, Luke and Daisy were of course a big hit!

I am not much of a Halloween person, certainly not when it comes to me having to dress up.  I love dressing up my kids but myself, not so much.  This year I decided that I would go to Mel and Caralyn’s annual Halloween party.  They live right here in the neighborhood and considering the party wasn’t actually on Halloween I really had no reason not to attend this fabulous event! 

Next up a custom idea!!!!  What could I be, that I actually had some interest in, something that wasn’t too far from me, and of course something that had wings or a crown or a tutu.  Why the Tooth-fairy has all three, by gully that is the custom for me!

The best part of the night was answering the door at my house in my custom thinking it was my mom, only it wasn’t my mom it was my neighbor.  Remember it was not actually Halloween yet, yes it was quit funny, good times!

The back of my fancy wings!

 

Mel wanted to see how he looked in my wings, I am not sure that they went with his custum, but I am sure that he has something in his closet that they go with.  I did make sure that I got a picture, you never know when that might come in handy!

 

Happy Halloween to all, late but Happy!

After an extremely ruff last night at sea we finally awoke to solid ground.  This time it was not fake solid ground, no sir, we were not in the middle of the ocean just anchored out there, we were actually docked right back in Jacksonville where we had started from so many days ago. 
The last night aboard the ship before we so blissfully arrived back to our loading/unloading dock was a very ruff night.  At this point of the trip I had not missed a Dramine pill, every four hours on the dot I was certainly digesting it like candy.  I was out of the non-drowsy kind, but I think that I had taken so many of the drowsy variety that they were certainly starting to keep me awake.  We walked around on the top deck trying to get some fresh air and when I just couldn't stand it anymore we went to see the medic.  We knew that the water was particularly rough and that more than half of our dinner table left because of motion sickness, but we didn't anticipate the medic to be sick!  The sea was so rough that on board medic was actually sick due to the motion or should I say commotion of the ship.  Eric was like, Seriously Lady, shouldn't you be a pro by now!  She confirmed for us that this was an unusually bumpy ride and that she typically fairs much better than this.  She advised me to eat green apples, there is something in the pectin of the green apples that helps with the motion sickness.   She also advised us to go up as far as we could to the Lido deck to get fresh air.  She reiterated that the worse thing that you can do for yourself is lay down. 
We tried it all, it helped, but it wasn't going to cure anything for me.  I was just ready to be done with it!  I was ready to be on solid ground and I was glad when I awoke and solid ground was just outside my window!
This mode of transportation was not the mode for me.  That doesn't mean that we didn't enjoy it though!  The customer service upon this ship was amazing.  Our room cleaner guy saw Eric and I in the hallway that last night while we were walking around and asked how I was feeling.  He too told us to eat green apples.  He later asked if I was felling better.  Just the attention to detail that they use while preforming there jobs is unbelievable.  They are all so proud to be employed and to be doing the job that they have.  If I could take that customer service to a non-moving resort I would certain pick this vacation liner because the service was so amazing. 
The reality is that it is not their fault that I have motion sickness and am not a good cruiser!

Cruisin Tip - We learned to get a room on the bottom of the ship, and toward the middle. 
Two reasons:
1- There is less movement on the bottom of the ship so you are less likely to experience the motion sickness!
2- The first floor debarks first!  You are the first one of the ship, the line started moving at 8:00 and we were out at 8:05!

Happy Cruisin to you and yours!  If you ever want to avoid me on vacation go on a cruise cause chances are this is my last!

Our Second Port of Call - Half Moon Cay

Here we are on Day 4 of our cruise.  We are glad to not be moving again.  Last night was a very rough night of travel.  There were apparently some storms in the water and things were really rough the whole night.  I had a lot of Ginger Ale and wore my seasick bands non stop.  (You can get them at any local drug store and can also buy them on board the ship.  They were a must!)  Dinner the night before was pretty miserable for me as I was totally uncomfortable the entire time.  All I could think about was I can't wait until this boat stops.  I could have cared less about being able to get to go to another island and explore all I cared about was being able to be on solid ground. 

After our breakfast Eric and decided that we would dress for a run and go explore the island because we weren't really on a time crunch that day and really needed to get in some training for our up coming marathon.  We had planned on working out more but running on a treadmill on a crazy wobbly boat wasn't exactly as easy as we had pictured it being.  Needless to say excising was the last thing I need to do, I was having trouble standing up and not vomiting while standing still let alone bobbing up and down.  This is the part of the trip when the seasickness went to the point of no return.  At this point I hadn't felt good any of the days but then we kept moving and the water was getting worse therefore I never got a break. 

When we got downstairs and were about to go through the doorway we realized that the platform in which we were stepping onto was moving.  We were getting off of the cruise ship only to get onto a tugboat that was going to take us to the island.  SERIOUSLY, I have to ride on a stinking boat to get to land.  I was very disappointed but I was way too busy feeling crappy to complain.  I just sat there on the boat for about 20 minutes, until they filled the boat to its utmost capacity and then we were carted over to the island in which we were indeed going to step foot on dry land. 

Once we got over to the island of Half Moon Cay we were able to relax and enjoy the beauty which was this private island owned by Carnival Cruise Lines.  It really was very beautiful and extremely private except for the other 1,998 cruisers that were on the island with us.  It really was a very peaceful and serene place.  You didn't have to worry about any of the locals bothering you to take a private excursion on their yacht aka raft.  You didn't worry about someone pick pocketing your passport and you having to buy one off of them later to get back through customs.  It was safe, peaceful and calming.  We enjoying a relaxing run around the island, we went by the sea turtle feeding pool, past the swim with the dolphins tank, around the private beach day cottage rentals, past the water park and last as well as least enjoyable quickly past the horse farm, phew!  We really did have a nice time jogging around the island.  After we cooled off we hopped back on board the tug boat to go back to the ship and change into our beachwear in order to enjoy a relaxing day on the ice blue, white sandy beaches of Half Moon Cay. 

After taking many Dramamine pills I was very drugged up!  Seriously between the car ride down the 5 day cruise and the car ride back I went through a box and a half of Dramamine, count them 27 pills in 6 days.  As the trip went on I ended up taking them every 4 hours and from this 4th day on I slept through most of the trip! 

Here are a few pictures of the journey to and from the island and then more pictures that Eric took while I was passed out from the Dramamine, on the beach!

This is how far away the island was from our ship. You can actually see two tug boats in this picture, one taking people back to the ship and another next to the ship where people are loading.

 

A beautiful view of the surroundings.

 

 

Me sleeping on the beach.

 

Eric’s feet made it to the beach.

 

 

A view of our travels aboard the tug boat on our way back to ship.

  

After another ride back to the ship we prepared for dinner which began well enough but ended with us taking off again for a night full of travel with a whole day of travel ahead.  I was not feeling well, so Eric took me back to the room and I slept while he hang out around the boat and the casino.  At one point, not sure how much I really remember at this point of the trip, but I do know that he came into the room and woke me-up waving a fan of money.  He had been in the casino playing the slots.  This was not another slot tournament this was just him playing the machines.  Eric WON $1,400.00 on the slot machine!  He was the guy in the casino whose machine had all the bells and whistles going off because he won!!!!  He told me all about it and I think we went up stairs for a while to get some fresh air and then about an hour later I was ready to go to sleep again.  I was very excited for him, but was certainly not having my best day! 

Cruisin Tip of the Day - I think that if I were to do it again I would pick to do an excursion on the day that you are at the Island that is less known.  Typically on a cruise one island island is known like the Bahamas and the other is owned by the cruise line i.e. Half Moon Cay.  I think that it is better to do the excursion on the day that you are on the less known island:

1- because there is nothing else to do on that island besides go to the beach.

2 - because they are cheaper because the cruise line is getting all the profit because there is not another company running the excursion. 

Happy Cruisin and don't forget to tune in tomorrow for the last full day!

Our fist port of call Nassau, Bahamas!

We woke up and were super excited to not be moving anymore!  I was so stoked to look out at the cement dock that was in front of our stable window.  It was love at first peek through the port hole.  The non-moving ground was a vision of loveliness to my head and my stomach. 

When you go to port there is lots to do, including many excursions to choose from.  Eric and I decided that we would go on the open bottom kayak excursion which included a snorkeling excursion for the second half.  I think that it was fun for us to have the options of the two separate excursions.  We have been snorkeling before and we knew that we didn't want to do it for a 2 hours so we thought the half and half would be perfect for us.  We are really glad that we chose the open bottom kayaks because of the crazy cool weather that we were experiencing.  There was no way that we would have enjoyed ourselves as much as we did if we were in the cool water the whole two hours. 

Our tour guides we these fabulous local guys who actually got in the water and pointed us in the right direction while we were kayaking and snorkeling.  (One guy was still on the boat, for safety reasons!)  They would also nicely yell at us when we were drifting in the wrong direction.  Let me tell you, we certainly got our workout in that day.  We and many other groups kept drifting outside of the suggested area.  This was very unavoidable, the wind just kept carrying us away.  Like I said we, ughhh Eric, certainly got an upper body workout from the paddling of the Kayak. 

After we roamed around a bit it was time for us to snorkel if we wanted to.  Again I think this was a great choice of an excursion because we then had the choice of experiencing something else, but then again we could remain in the kayak’s if we wanted too.  We chose to do the snorkeling, but did stay in the kayak's a bit longer, partly we cause we had drifted away again and needed time to get back to the boat!  The snorkeling was just mainly of the reef which had a few different colored fish.  There were these really awesome electric blue fish that were super huge.  The difference here verses with the view through the kayak was that it was more actual.  I think that the kayak magnified it all a little bit, which was certainly a nice perk, but I also enjoyed the snorkeling view because it felt much more realistic.  This is certainly not the best snorkeling that I have ever experienced.  Eric and I both agreed that the snorkeling that we did in the Turks and Cacios was just top notch!  Although we are both very glad that we did this and thought that it was well worth it!  (Our snorkeling in the Turks and Cacios was of a much more active reef, with many different types of coral and a large variety of sea life and not just fish.)

Once we got back into the boat we took the journey back to the dock where we deiced that we would go back to the boat and dry off/warm up before we went out and explored the town of Nassau Bahamas itself. 

Again it was still very windy and rather cool.  We walked the streets and shops of Nassau.  We met many street vendors who wanted to sell us the same exact thing as the person next to them.  We traveled through the straw market just looking around a bit and realized that the prices there really weren't that great.  I am sure that they are awesome if you can actually haggle the people down, but for us, people who really don't take the time to haggle people down to a third of the price that they are asking it wasn't really a good deal.  We still had a blast in the straw market looking at all the crazy knock-off items that they are selling.  They truly did have some fascinating things that they made.  We did end up buying these bracelets that they had made.  We brought them at one of the Carnival Cruise line approved stores, which basically means from someone who has a name tag and someone that doesn't haggle.  The people in the straw market were saying that these particular bracelets were 3 X what the price tag said at the shop with the girl with the name tag.  Meaning we actually got three for the price of one.  One for me, one for my mother (for taking care of BOGO) and my mother in law (for taking care our sweet Lucas!).  Eric and I aren't actually big souvenir people, so  this may have been really great for some people, but as far as the market was concerned there really wasn't anything there that I didn't think that I could go out to the store and buy in the states if I really ended up having to have it!

We didn't actually take many pictures but we did get a few of when we were just wandering around the island taking in the beauty of the island itself!  (While trying not to get run over, they drive like maniacs there and it is obvious by how beat up even the brand new cars are!)

Me holding on…..

 

View of Atlantis

 

Columbus

 

There were “Obama for president” stickers EVERYWHERE!!!!

 

Me waving goodbye before boarding the ship.  Bye Nassau!!!

 

Cruisin Tip of the Day - When they say do not go with the locals on trips and stick to the Carnival Sponsored Excursions, they saw it for a reason!  There were these ladies that we ended up talking to at Breakfast the next day and they went with some guy on this horrible excursion.  He took them all over the island on this horrible, standing on its last leg piece of metal of a boat.  The story that they told was extremely entertaining, but I am SOOOO glad that I was not on that boat.  They definitely came away with a story to tell. 

See you tomorrow for Day 4!

Our first full day at sea!

Eric and I arose rather early and stumbled are way up the moving stairs to a un-assigned seat breakfast in the formal dinning room.  We get escorted over to a lovely window seat where we are able to see that we are in the middle of the ocean with no land to be seen.  (I quickly remind myself everything is fine and that this is not the titanic and that everything is fine, everything is fine, everything is fine, after I completed my Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz verse I came back to reality.)  We were sitting with a lovely man and wife my grandparents age and also with a mother and daughter about 35, and 55 years of age.  Eric and I quickly learned that we were sitting amongst professional cruisers.  The guy and his wife were on their 10th cruise that year.  Wow, craziness!  From this couple we learned many cruising tips.  We were both really glad that we ended up sitting next to such experienced cruisers whom we actually ended up taking advise from.

From this experience with the veteran cruisers we decided that we would tell the matron Dee at dinner that we were not happy with our dinner companions and see what he could do.  Turns out when you slip him a bit of cash and flash a girlish grin he can move you to a window seat head table with awesome dinner companions.  

We also learned that the mandatory $100.00 tip that is tagged onto your room can be and should be cashed out so that you can distribute it as you wish.  Why would you want to do this you may ask.  Turns out that cash is the key to excellent above and beyond service, but visible cash is really the key.  The point of cashing in the $100.00 gratuity and passing it out yourself is so that you give the amount to each service person that you think they should get.  Even if you actually give them exactly the same amount that the cruise line would give them you will be giving it to the person face to face while you are still receiving services and therefore your service will continue to improve because your service people will be able to put a face with name ie a face with a tip.  The perk of this for us, which we learned from our breakfast buddy, was to leave you bags in your room on the last day and then hand the tip to your room cleaners and then ask to leave your bags in your room until debarkation.  That way you won’t have to carry all your bags to breakfast with you on the last day.  This alone was worth the trouble of going to the front desk to get our tips in cash to deliver them ourselves.

After breakfast and our impromptu cruise 101 class, we walked around the boat a bit to explore what all the ship had to offer.  As we walked up to the upper deck we learned that the cold front that had moved in before our land departure was indeed following us into the Caribbean.  We walked around the top decks of the ship in our jeans and sweatshirts!  We watched a few crazy northerners swimming in the pools, but mostly everyone was bundled up like my Eric and I.

After perusing the daily schedule we decided that we would enter the slot tournament considering we have a whole day to fill.  It was a $20.00 per person entry fee and Eric and I both participated.  There were 10 groups of 7 people.  At the end of our round we discovered that Eric got the highest score in our group and that I got the lowest score!  Out of those 70 people give or take a few Eric was in the top five at the end of the first go round.  That means that his scored scored him a spot in the final spin-off round.  There was not too much rhyme or reason to it expect for luck, but I certainly didn’t have ANY luck at all on my side. Eric and I were waiting for him to start his final round but before doing so the hostess’ of the event presented me with a prize.  Yes, I won a prize,  I actually ended up getting the lowest score ever in the competition, not just the lowest score in our round.  Hey a prize is a prize and I got one!

The tournament was not a skilled event by any means, you just keep letting the slot machine add up as many points as possible and then once the round is over you move the shield that covers the points and discover who has won the round. At the end of the final spin off round they numbers were uncovered one-by-one.  Eric was at the end of the row, his was the last one to be revealed.  In this case they saved the best for last.  Eric had the highest score.  Eric one the slot tournament!  Him and I took home the highest and the lowest score of the competition!  Eric also took home a super tacky 14 carat plastic ship on a stick and the grand cash prize of $500.00.  Way to go Eric, but lets not forget that I too got a prize a super fancy Carnival Cruise Ship pen of my very own!

The prized ship on a stick on our fire place, where else would it be?!?

Stay tuned for more 2009 Cruise Adventures to come.

Many years ago Eric and I realized that we prefer to vacation in October on/around our original wedding date of October 15th.  Therefore we always plan our “big” vacation for October. 

I have been on one cruise before and this was Eric’s first cruise.  The one cruise that I went on was about 8 years ago, it was our senior trip in high school.  Eric has been talking about us possibly going on a cruise for a while now so we finally decided that we would give it a try.  And a try we gave!  It didn’t really work out the way that we would have planned, but all in all it was still a great getaway. 

(We learned that my car sickness / sea sickness, really is just not going to allow me to travel via boat.)

Day 1

We left out of Jacksonville, FL and our first port of call was Nassau, Bahamas.  We left the boarding dock at 4:00PM and began our travels into the open sea.  We got to our room and explored while we waited for our adventure to begin. 

Here I am playing around in the window seat in our room.  Eric thought that it was the perfect photo opportunity.

Here is a full view of our room, and a picture of my Eric looking for something?…..not sure what

After we got settled into our room it was time to head off to dinner.  Dinner on a cruise is really the only meal that you have assigned seating.  If you miss your dinner time or choose not to go at that time you can certainly go to the buffet style dinning room and get a fairly similar meal there. One of the points of us going on this vacation was so that we could relax and be waited on, therefore we went to the main dinning room for dinner.  Somehow Eric and I ended up being seated with two very old and very boring people.  I mean put you to sleep boring, who repeated the SAME story of their lives over and over and over again.  If I had to hear one more time how our generation today has no clue, no idea, no values, blah blah blah, somebody was going to get a fork thrown at them.  I don’t think that it is fair that people judge someone just because of a preconceived opinion that they have of a persons demographic.  They continued to tell my Eric and I are how horrible our generation is.  I just sat there and thought, I wonder what in the hell made the cruise directors think that my Eric and I have something in common with the whack-a-doodles sitting in front of us. 

The result of this lovely dinner was that on day one Eric and I already met someone that we felt the need to avoid while wondering about the boat on our vacation, fun times……..

We had had a rather busy day traveling, due to the eight hour drive in the car from Birmingham to Jacksonville, so we retired to our room for a bumpy nights sleep to prepare for a full day at sea the following day.

Day 2 coming to website near you……