I wish I was in Paris

Inside Notre Dame Cathedral

Back view of Notre Dame Cathedral

The good news is that there are no hives on my face. The bad news is that I have a wicked fever blister now. The hives are getting a little better, still very itchy, but covering less of me now so that is a relief. My brother-in-law came over this weekend for a visit and its always good to see ol' Sansabutt. (So-named by me because of his lack of derriere.) He and Jay revert back to boyhood when they get around each other, but that's a good thing, they always have fun. Lots of fart jokes and video games and such. But the combo of hives, fever blister, and fart jokes makes me wish I was wandering the banks of Seine, deciding at which of my favorite cafes to stop and nibble a croissant and drink my cafe au lait. It will get better soon, I am sure of it, but until then here are some pics of my favorite city in the World.

The river Seine

The thinker and the thinker @ the Renoir Museum

Call me Quasi-Moto.

My face has been an unwitting pawn in the game of hives that my skin is playing. Tuesday morning I woke up and my eyes were so swollen that they resembled the "cat lady" in Hollywood's plasticized face...

Oh well - hopefully my medicine will soon kick in and eradicate my hive infestation. They went away yesterday some, but are back today. I gotta go now. Have to find a paper sack to wear over my face.

Look at the size of these fingers!

I am having some sort of allergic reaction to something and it is driving me CRAZY! I've taken everything that I can think of, and I've rubbed everything from Vagasil to Calamine lotion on the whelps and nothing helps! My hands, elbows, ears and butt are the only places that have the the hives/whelps but where on my hands varies daily. It started on my hand, then my thumb, then palm, then wrist and now is currently attacking 4 of my fingers and causing them to look like yummy red kielbasa sausage links. I'm sure you don't really care all that much about this but I'm putting this out there in case someone reads this and can suggest remedies. Help!

Pics

Butterfly Garden at the Botanical Gardens, Norfolk, VA
Um, she hates me. Soooo cute.

Side View

She's on the lookout for trick-or-treaters.

Our very scary pumpkins (Jay's on left, Davis's in middle, mine on right.)

What is that? Velvet?!

More roses.

Love cranes.

Love lilypads.

I like ducks.

no posts

There have been no posts for a long, long time. I've been busy!

-We went to College Station to see the game and reconnect with Jay's college Corps buddies.
-My mom got diagnosed with cancer, but then found out that it was so early that she didnt even have to have Chemo. She came to visit for the weekend and we saw SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE with Catherine. It. was. so. fantastic. I cant even tell you. We all turned into kids for the night.
-I went to visit Rash-ree the preggers crazy bff. She is 4 months preggers and she and I and her dh Tyler had a great time shopping, eating and going to the amazing botanical gardens in Norfolk.
-We are finally finishing our bathrooms! Jay took this week off to work on our bathrooms that we are remodelling. So far he has tiled our blue bath and is finishing it up today.

I will post pictures soon!!

Back to life

After being on vacation it is always tough to get back into your routine. You know, doing laundry, cooking a meal, and most of all... back to WW. So I finally went yesterday and weighed in and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I gained a total of 1.2 lbs and that ain't bad! So I started back counting today and did great all day until Lindsay had a pregnancy craving for Fuzzy's and decided to go get some tacos and brought me my very own queso. Dang it! Have you ever had Fuzzy's queso? Its made fresh, not from liquid canned cheese, but from Monterrey jack cheese with a sprinkle of cheddar and pico de gallo on top. It is like ambrosia from heaven. It is probably my favorite food in the entire earth. So I ate it. All of it.

So my start to new week with Weight Watchers is rocky. On the upside I did try a new banana creme pie recipe from my Weight Watchers cookbook and it was really good. Not great, but good and healthy too. I also made Nani's King Ranch Chicken and it was also scrumptious but not diet at all... I think I could make it a little more diet friendly so that will be my next try. I'll keep you posted.

Our Family Cruise

We were obviously excited about our Cruise. Despite the fact that it had been down graded from a 5 day cruise stopping at 2 ports to a 3 day cruise to nowhere, we were pumped! So pumped in fact that Jay had to take a nap. When the news came in that the cruise was being shortened we decided to go anyway. We were already packed so why not? Plus they were giving us a 50% refund on this cruise and 50% off the next one - who could resist.
We drove to Galveston Wednesday morning and I couldn't wait to get on the boat! We had heard that embarkation was a breeze. You were simply to drop your bags, park your car, and walk your happy rear onto the boat. Hmmmm... not so much. Because of Gustav (grrrr) the hurricane, our boat, the Ecstasy, was late getting in. That was very evident because people were still getting off the boat when we were supposed to be getting on. The other thing that gave it away was the 2 billion people in line. If you have ever been to the port of Galveston, the line extended the whole length of the building, and wrapped back around. It was pretty miserable. The real drama came when Granddad and I-ene showed up. I had arranged for a wheel chair to be available and of course, in all the craziness, no one had any idea where a wheel chair was. Arg.
So enough complaining, we finally got on the boat after about 3 1/2 hours and the fun began. We stayed on the Empress deck, which is the deck you arrive on. That was really nice and convenient. I am not sure it was worth the extra 100$ to ensure we got it but it was nice. Since I-ene has a bad knee it was really nice for her to not have to walk quite so much. Our room was very nice and clean. The fake window was my favorite. Every night we had a new towel animal for our enjoyment. This was Elephant night.
We ate dinner each night in the main dining room. The food was very good. We tried lots of appetizers, srimps (that's how my gramma says Shrimp), fried mozzarella, gazpacho, chilled strawberry cream soup (which tasted exactly like melted strawberry ice cream), portobello mushrooms, sweet and sour shrimp, and pumpkin soup to name a few we enjoyed. The entrees were excellent as well. The first night I had a strip steak and was very pleasantly surprised that it was really a nice cut of meat and cooked perfectly. Other nights we had lobster, fish, pasta, and more srimps. To follow that glutenous list of food, we had to have dessert every night! The Chocolate melting cake was a huge hit but I chose to try other treats. We tried Black Forest Cake(Excellent!), Tiramisu, and cheese and fruit plates. All very very good. Our waiter was named Margo and was from Indonesia. He didn't say much but was very goofy and had the most tired jokes but they were somehow still funny and entertaining night after night. Probably because I have a silly sense of humor too. The waiters and Maitre d' did some performing each night during dinner. These performances included a rendition of O Sole' Mio sung by a bevy of international waiters - most of whom spoke many languages - but not Italian. The second night they did a dance to some song that I can't recall. Margo wasn't much of a dancer, but I enjoyed a lot of the other Indonesian waiters who mostly looked like they were gettin jiggy wit it in da club, as opposed to dancing in a dining room. Ain't nuttin wrong with a little bump and grind!
I kept forgetting to take pics. Unfortunately my "time with mother nature" occurred simultaneously with the cruise so my head was not quite on straight. We had fun on formal night. We all dressed spiffy and took a picture as a family at one of those prom style spots and it was awful so we didn't buy any. We enjoyed the captains reception. There is a pic below of me and Granddad waltzing on stage. If you know me - I'm never one to shy away from a stage and Granddad isn't either. Afterwards several people came up to us to tell us how cute we are and we even made one lady cry. We must be great dancers!

My favorite activity on the ship was probably the Love and Marriage Game. It was like the Newlywed game, but with a couple that had been married for 50 years, one for 4 years, and one for 1 day. We laughed our heads off! My favorite form of relaxation was definitely the pool and laying out. I was shocked when I dunked my head under and my eyes immediately caught on fire from the salt water that I was not expecting. I had heard that it was salt water but I guess was just not thinking. The hairy chest contest was funnier than I expected it to be. It was sooo nice to just lay out staring at miles and miles of water.

The family enjoyed playing a little bit of slots in the Casino and singing along with Angela at the Piano Bar. As I mentioned earlier, I was born for the stage, so singing along with the piano as she played my requests was right up my alley and come to think of it, everyone in my family had no troubles with it either. We ate in the buffet for lunch, and I ordered a BLT from room service one day for lunch when I was in bed with the cramps and it was SCRUMPTIOUS! I highly recommend it.

I rarely if ever felt the boat rock. Jay was a little bothered by it the first night but had no troubles after that. I did sleep very well at night with the ever so slight rocking! As for the entertainment, I give a mixed review. The comedian was very funny, witty and clean. We also loved the Mexican Juggler in the tight pants. He was a hoot. We went to the midnight "Rated R"comedy show and found it to be not funny but simply vulgar and we were disappointed. We missed the Grand Gala Buffet because we were still full and tired. I heard it was pretty! The next night the singers and dancers put on a show called "X-treme Country" and it was extreme. Extremely cheesy. They did different country songs, and the dancers and singers were good - but seeing them dance around in cowboy hats covered in sequins while line dancing was almost more than I could handle. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it so maybe I'm just a snob!

The buffet was good - I had salad and Ice Cream, in that order. I only ate there once but was pleased. The burgers were good too.

So overall it was really fun, and I think that we will definitely cruise again. I think it will be better when we get to get off the boat instead of cruising to nowhere. We'll see!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

50 is Nifty!!!!