Who do you call?

That's a good question...good thing my mom was around when needed! She's got magical powers. :)

My sister's email:

So I cooked some pork chops and could smell there was some grease from chicken I had cooked a few days ago. The fire alarms went off it stinks in here etc. So I tell myself to lock the oven and turn it on to clean. Low and behold I look at my oven and it's full of flames! I was a wreck and the three youngest decided they were going to leave me in the house. I kept saying to myself,"what do I do?" Then try to open the oven and can't cause it's locked. So what do I do??? Nope didn't call 911 I called our mom freaking out just a little. The fire went out and all was well. Zaya asked how I put it out and I said grama did it over the phone.All is well now and I will wipe the grease out before I try to clean it again. Scary stuff I tell ya.

You be the judge.

Justin Bieber
The prince

Yesterday my friend's 3rd grade daughter and I had this conversation:

Macee: Does the prince like having a Justin Bieber hair cut?

Me: The prince will tell you that he had this haircut BEFORE Bieber did so technically, Justin Bieber is copying him.

You be the judge!

Crock Pot Lasagna

A friend of mine posted a recipe for Crock Pot Lasagna on Facebook. I decided to try it. The king makes excellent lasagna so I wasn't sure how this would turn out. He thinks it was every bit as good as his. I'm not convinced it was as good as his, but it was certainly tasty. Maybe I like his better because he does all the work! I am posting the recipe...after putting it together I thought of all the other stuff you could layer in there...mushrooms, spinach, peppers, diced tomatoes, onion, olives...

The king was worried that the noodles would soak up all the sauce leaving it dry, but it didn't.

Because you use store bought sauce, I would suggest splurging for the best...it'll add more flavor. Also, this recipe calls for ricotta or cottage cheese. I used cottage cheese but would probably use ricotta next time. This was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy to put together, especially since I had already browned the hamburger earlier in the week.

Ingredients:

1 pound of hamburger, cooked
48 oz of spaghetti sauce
4 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 container (15 oz) of Ricotta or Cottage cheese
Parmesan Cheese
15 uncooked lasagna noodles (that's right; UNCOOKED)


Mix hamburger with the sauce.
Cover bottom of the crockpot with some of the hamburger mixture, layer with noodles, layer with Cottage Cheese, then Mozzarella Cheese, sprinkle Parmesan Cheese on top of this. Repeat layers until out of ingredients. (I got 3 layers in my large, oval crockpot and had noodles left over.)
Cover and Cook on Low heat for 4-6 hours or until noodles are tender. (Because I had somewhere to go I cooked on high for 2 hours and then low for 2.5 hours, and it was fine.)
Cut into pieces.

Little Falcon Cheer Camp

Yesterday was the Little Falcon Cheer Camp. Campers came in at 9:30, learned builds, lifts, a cheer and a dance, had lunch. Went home at 1:00 and came back at 4:45 to preform at 1/2 time of the boys' basketball game. I got to help this year, and it was fun to watch. The prince was there and did lifts with some of the older girls. He thought some of them were more stable than the JV girls he sometimes lifts. I told him I thought that was because they were young enough to believe that those 2 boys would never drop them. He reminded me that he has yet to drop a cheerleader. I countered with the fact that those JV girls know there's always the possibility! I did very little of the hard work (helped check kids in, made up give-away bags, dished out pizza), but I was exhausted by the time we got home last night. Little kids are tiring.

My pictures aren't great, but they are what they are!

The whole group.

The prince is in the back on the right.

I tried to crop it for a closer look, but it didn't work.


The king took photos of the performance.
He thought he got lots, but this is the only one on the SD card.
Guess I'm going to have to give him lessons on the camera.

I did score a sweet tshirt in the process and even managed to snag them for the princess and Ariana!

Now that's TAN!

A couple of days before the cruise, Grandma treated the princess to a spray tan. They were both shockingly tan when they came out. Luckily most of it rinses down the drain with your first shower, but wow! They were looking like an advertisement for what not to do to avoid skin cancer! The princess swears she'll never do it again because it didn't really cover a patch of dry skin she has on her leg and when it fades it does so unevenly. I don't know though...I might try it someday! Thanks Grandma!

Grandma had a second application done the next day to get a few spots they missed. I called her to ask how she was doing and she replied, "It's not so bad being a person of color."

Oh, Grandma! :)

Coral Castle, Miami, FL

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and we were promptly kicked off the cruise ship when it docked in in Fort Lauderdale. Not wanting to end our trip, we stayed in FL an extra day. We rented a car and took a side-trip to Miami to visit the Coral Castle. A man named Edward Leedskalnino came to the USA from Latvia shortly after his 16-year-old bride called off their wedding. He had his choice of two boats when he came over. The one he didn't choose...the Titanic. He eventually landed in Florida where he spent most of his life building this castle, made of coral he mined on his property (much of FL has a coral base with top soil brought in and grass planted on top of that), paying homage to the woman he never married. It is an engineering feat, what he was able to do with ropes, pulleys, and sometimes car parts. I'm glad we made this side-trip.

All rock is one of two forms of coral.

These lizards aren't native to the area but were turned loose from a private residence during the hurricane and now inhabit the area. Can you spot him? He's trying to blend in.

He had a building he slept in, but he actually used this chair and others to sit and read in at night before going to bed. He also had an outdoor bathtub that he used.

This was the "punishment" room. If you were naughty, you went here to be lectured by Ed. Since he never married or had kids, there was no one to punish. :)

Interested in learning more? Here's a link to their website.

http://coralcastle.com/

Cruise--Day 6 At Sea

We love our "at sea" days, and this was no exception. We had a great, relaxing day. Slept in, lunch at Johnny Rockets, and time on deck in a family shuffle board tournament! GREAT TIMES! When I have unlimited funds I've decided I will take back-to-back cruises on the same ship. That way I'll spend the 1st one doing shore excursions and playing and the second one relaxing, w/o all the trauma of getting on and off the boat! SWEET!!

Grandma waiting for our burgers, fries, rings, and shakes.
Yep. We're dining "al fresco". Think patio, but with a far more stunning view.

YUM!

After lunch we headed to one of the many lounges for our world-famous Pop-Rock eating contest. As an earlier post proved, this was probably best done indoors. In the end, only 4 people were brave enough to enter this--who can eat a package of pop rocks the fastest--contest!

Rule #1: I must get a photo of you w/said rocks in your mouth.

Rule #2: I must get a photo of your mouth when they are gone.

Contender #1

Contender #2

Contender #3

Contender #4

They aren't all gone!

Nope. I see green rocks.

Looking good.


Winner!

Upon further inspection of the photo it was determined that there will still rocks in his mouth!

No one seemed to care.

Gangsta Pop Rock eaters!

Opting out of the Pop Rock contest, she decided to try a delicious "Toxic Waste" sour candy.

How's that working out for you?

After that it was time to head back outside to enjoy some beautiful weather (the pool was far too crowded to even consider) and for what unexpectedly became a fierce all-family shuffle board contest!

We simply headed out to the shuffle board court to get a few photos for the princess' classmates back home, as the first photos show. Suddenly that looked like a lot of fun. Out came the paper and pencil and a "shuffle off" for spots on the bracket as a tournament was born!

It took over an hour, but eventually, we got to the final round and these too competitors!

Let's just say 2 males in our party were not happy with how the tournament played out!

And we have a winner!

Jeanette is holding our very official bracket sheet.

I think you can figure out who didn't win!

What's that on the horizon?

Love this camera!

Later that afternoon we did head out to the pool as the crowd died down.

While we were there, the princess and king went to the

Promenade Deck for a very cool, indoor Circus Parade.

This is the view looking up while on the Promenade deck. That is a beaded sculpture in the center. I posted this to explain those windows. This ship is very large and can handle over 3000 passengers plus the numerous staff. These windows are for "inside cabins". Generally, inside cabins don't have windows. These cabins have the windows that look over the Promenade. We really debated getting these rooms this time, as we thought it would be a cool vantage point for things like this parade. In the end a couple of reviews I read said that if you're close to the speakers, your room can be quite noisy when events are going on so we opted out, but I still might have to try them sometime.

That evening we had one last delicious dinner. Afterward Becky decided to sing Karaoke again. While waiting for that to start, the prince and princess ended up in a dance game. When karaoke started the prince decided to give it a go too! He sang Pinball Wizard, did a great job, and was even recognized by other cruise-goers the next day at a rental-car agency! I have no photos because the camera was back in the room, but Shelley took photos that I'll post when I get copies of her pictures!

We had the BEST time!!! This was a great trip. We wore Grandma out, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit we were all exhausted by the time we got home. Let's do it again...SOON!

Cruise--Day 5 Labadi, Haiti

Beach day! I was soooooo looking forward to this day. Royal Caribbean (RCCL) owns this Haitian Island--or leases this portion of it, probably, but they claim it as their own. This is their 2nd island. We stopped at their other one on a previous cruise. They really have this one set up well with plenty to entertain the masses. We were lucky that we were the only RCCL ship on the island so we had not trouble finding plenty of chairs in the sand/shade to use when not in the water, on the roller coaster, eating at the BBQ, or riding the HUGE zip line. Jeanette snorkeled here and said it was the best experience of the trip with the healthiest live coral reef she has seen. That was great to hear, because it would certainly be sad if RCCL had destroyed a coral reef while trying to make money.

As I said, RCCL really got it right with this island. They even had plenty of beach wheelchairs if you needed one. They came complete with your own attendant who you tipped later, if you opted for that service. It was well paved/pathed so Andy didn't need a personal attendant...he had Marty, Matt, and Mitch! No tipping required.

We had a great day. My only complaint is that our sandy beach was quite rocky once you got into the water for about 40 feet until you got a little farther out so water shoes were required if you were at all tender-footed until you got out a little deeper. As you'll see...it didn't stop us.

They also have a HUGE zipline that runs the length of the beach--at least 1/4-1/2 mile. For $75 you can ride it, choosing to speed through it in a ball or throwing out your arms/legs to slow yourself down so you can enjoy the view. Six in our party took the ride, and they all chose the slow ride. No pictures as they were too far up, but they had a blast. A special thanks to Grandma, who paid for the prince/princess' rides.

The tower at the top of the island is where the zip line starts. The track to the right of it is the part of the rollercoaster. The building with the red roof is where we walked to get lunch. We were camped out to the right of the red roof on the beach you are seeing.

Remember that story about the king now being able to swim...good thing he's not very far out there! Or is he? Becky, Matt, Marty, the king.

Matt and the king

A little closer to shore


Andy and Becky
Perhaps later I'll post a photo of what that girl did to her brother!
She made him a sand mermaid--anatomically correct.
REBECCA!


The princess, Jared, the prince, Liz
These 4 headed to the zip line together and had a great time
Thanks Liz, for being their "parent". :)


The princess

The prince.

We heard a "thunk".

This nut-thing fell out of the tree.

Good thing no one was sitting in the chair where it landed!

Love us some beach time!

Do you see the wave in the ocean behind us?

That's about where the king was standing in the earlier photo!

He's so brave for a non-swimmer.

Back on the ship it was time for our last formal night dinner.

As you can see, "formal night" means ties for the men and dresses for the gals.

That's as formal as we get.

Grandma is missing from this family photo.

She opted to pass on dinner.

Too much fun in the sun for her.

The gentlemen had their island attire a few nights ago.

The ladies had their "thrings"!

We look GOOD!

YUM!

After dinner we all went to cheer Becky on while she sang karaoke.

She did GREAT!