Back from our cruise...

We had a great time on our cruise! I am always so relaxed when I come back from cruising. It is really peaceful for me to be on the sea...on a big ship. Put me on a small boat and I wouldn't be peaceful :). I read a WHOLE book in the first 5 days on the ship. I'm usually doing good to get two or three pages read a day. I'm reading the Redemption Series by Karen Kingsbury and Gary Smalley and if you like christian fiction this is great.I did not take many pictures at all. You know we took hundreds of pictures the last time we cruised and I really just wanted to enjoy the cruise without having to view it behind a camera. I'll show you the best of what we have.

Our first stop was Cozumel and Chad and one of our other friends went to the Mayan Ruins. Chad is a history buff so this stuff is right up his alley.This is me and my best friend, Jinnie, of (gasp!) twenty years. We became best friends in the womb :)...ha!

The next day we stopped at Grand Cayman. We didn't have any excursions planned through the cruise line so we just got off the ship and took a taxi to Seven Mile Beach. The picture below doesn't show the beauty of the beach. We had a huge rain cloud over us when we took this picture but it went away quickly and the weather was nice. This is Chad and Jon (Jinnie's husband) on the tender to Grand Cayman.Speaking of weather, the weather was sooooo nice every day except when we docked at our next port in Jamaica...it was cloudy and raining most of the day. We ended up not doing anything in Jamaica and just stayed on the ship. Every other day was really nice...cool air (maybe highs in the seventies) and then the Caribbean sun would come out and warm everything up. It was PERFECT!

Me and my guy...

Sunset...Just in case you were wondering...this is what an inside stateroom (fancy way for saying closet) looks like on a Royal Caribbean ship. No, really...it is not bad at all and there is plenty of room for the time spent in there. Believe it or not that is a king sized bed and there is a two seater couch, a coffee table and a vanity. There are all kinds of hidden places for storage. We love having an inside cabin because we can take an afternoon nap and it is just as dark as if it were midnight. My most favorite feature of the cabin is there is a light switch right by the bed that controls all of the lights. I've got to get me one of those. Oh, and notice our monkey towel animals that cruise ships are famous for (and excuse my swimsuits).Chad and I on formal night...This was our last night with Venkat and Roman, our Assistant Waiter and Waiter. We had a great time and learned alot from Venkat about life as a cruise ship worker. Did you know they only get paid $50 a month from the cruiseline and after that rely on tips. They work 6 month contracts and get NO DAYS OFF. Can you imagine doing that? I can't.

Venkat had a great sense of humor as you can tell from the Charlie's Angel pose. They took very good care of us.

I'm off to visit blogs. Thanks for checking in!

On vacation...

We have had quite a week!

Our former pastors sweet 21 year old daughter, Jessica, died in a car accident this week. We went to the visitation today and it was extremely emotional. I know that God has a plan for all of us and this was part of his plan for Jessica but my heart still sinks when I think of the loss. The funeral will be tomorrow at 2pm. Please pray for her parents, Bro. Scott and Lisa, and her siblings, Luke and Hannah...they have a tough road ahead of them.

We have needed something to laugh about since we have been so sad over the last few days and this YouTube video has done it! We have really had fun watching this over and over.



Please pray for our traveling safety as we head to Galveston in the morning. We will be traveling back next Sunday. Also, pray for our children while they are with their grandparents and for their safety as well.
I'll take LOTS of pictures!

Christmas Update...

We have had a great and very relaxing couple of weeks. We had Christmas Eve at our house and then went to our church for a candlelight service. I didn't take ONE picture. Can you believe? You know, sometimes you just need to enjoy and not view it behind a camera. After waking up to see what Santa brought and open gifts we went to my Sugie's house. The whole family was there and it was a great day. New Years Eve was low key with us all in bed before 10:30. We have kept strange hours since we got out of school and we were all tired.

The picture on our Christmas card...Have I told you how much I love doing field trips with Hayden's class? We get to do some fun things! The week before school got out we went to the Dollar Tree to shop for someone in the class (they drew names). Then went to the Gingerbread House in Haughton (local girls I had to drive by my old house). That is the neatest place. They make BEAUTIFUL gingerbread houses that sell for $50 to $100 and then send them all over the world. Afterwards, we went to the mall to see Santa and eat at the food court. We had a fun time! I checked Hayden out of "school" after we were done with all of this and we shopped around the mall for a few Christmas gifts for Chad and then got some cookies at the Cookie Company. It was a GREAT time!The finished product...On Parker's last day of Mom's Day Out before Christmas we went to his school and got to make gingerbread houses with Parker. Then the kids had a Christmas program and then lunch. It was nice. Here are a few pictures...Parker's Gingerbread Houses with a little help from Mom and Dad...

Parker and MePicture of our Christmas tree and with the gifts underneath and Santa stuff set out. They typically get only one or two things from Santa (unwrapped) plus their stocking and then the rest are from us. Oh, by the way, my big window will have curtains on it in the near future. As in near future, I mean, the next six months :). I've got my curtain rod and I just need to find the right curtains.I love the pictures when the kids first come in the room to see what Santa brought. They look all sleepy and poor Parker, his eyes are VERY sensitive to light so he probably couldn't see a thing.Hayden showing his robe. He LOVES that thing and wears it every day. He thinks it is just like daddy's robe. So sweet!

Parker stripped off his pj's that he woke up in and put on his new pj's, new slippers and decided to open his new umbrella.Santa also brought Hayden a basketball goal, which he is LOVING! Santa just set out the basketball and he was so excited just to have that but when we went outside to "bounce the basketball" he was really excited to see the goal, too. He also got an MP3 player, too. He loves that thing and we were able to put great Christian music on there for him (okay, a little Elvis, too). You know the good stuff!This picture was taken a few days after Christmas. Hayden wanted a "basketball shirt" so he took just a plain white undershirt and cut the sleeves off then drew the number 1 on it and wrote his name like a jersey. He also made one for Parker, too. I thought it was cute! I just noticed that Hayden has his patch on in this picture. He really is NOT LIKING doing the whole patch thing. He will not go anywhere with it and I'm really surprised he let me take his picture while wearing it. We go back to the doctor next month and I pray there has been some improvement in him "bad" eye. It would be great if he only had to wear the patch for an hour or so a day.Let me tell you about our cruise! We are leaving not this Sunday but the next Sunday (the 18th). We are going with 10 other friends. We are really looking forward to a getaway right here in the middle of winter. We are sailing out of Galveston and stopping in Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Jamaica. The boys are staying at our house with Chad's mom with help from all of our parents throughout the week. We have promised the boys that next year, 2010, we'll be taking the boys on a cruise. They are so excited! I'm guessing they don't realize how far away that is but, you know, time will fly.

Our home January 18-25...Voyager of the Seas.Hayden is back in school as of this morning and, while he wasn't really excited about going, he'll get back into the groove. Parker and I are hanging out at home lots this week. Happy New Year!