Under the Sea

Jeanette took these pictures when she was snorkling on our trip. Awesome underwater camera. I have no idea what any of it is so I'll leave you to enjoy it. Well, okay, I can pick out the star fish!

Cool Ship Photos

These are photos of the interior of the Navigator of the Seas. It's a great ship. I never think to take photos of this sort of stuff. Most of these photos were taken by Grandma.

This is the floor in the casino. It's the Mardi Gras casino and this section is trinkets covered in glass. It's weird to walk on the first few times...you think you'll fall through...but eventually you get used to it and don't even notice it anymore.

Grand staircase and sculpture in Promenade area.
Blown Glass lighting display.
This reminded us of the blown glass at the Bellagio in Vegas.

Chandelier in the main dining room.

It's much bigger than it looks in this photo.

More blown glass.

This is the floor of the elevator. All elevators have this floor. The day of the week changes at midnight because truthfully, you lose track of what day of the week it is when cruising. This comes in handy!

I need new sunglasses!

I need new sunglasses. I love these sunglasses because A) they are cute and B) the princess thinks they are way too hip for me. Alas, as you can see, they broke when we were cruising. I guess in this picture I'm praying for a new pair. (In truth I think I was unsure how much cleavage was showing so tried to cover it.)

Jared thought that, even broken, they were pretty sweet.

In Cayman we went sunglasses shopping.

I tried on this pair that were close to my old pair.

An an added bonus, they flipped up.

Even better, they magnified my eyes in some strange way.

Pass.

I ended up getting these.

The princess approved, which means I hope they break soon so I can justify getting a cooler pair!

"This"

I just noticed I started 5 of 9 sentences in the previous post with the word "this". That would never fly when writing in middle school!

"V is for Vengeance" by Sue Grafton

I gave "V is for Vengeance" by Sue Grafton three stars. This is a series that I started years ago. Grafton doesn't get the new books out quickly enough for me. This series is about a female private detective. This book is set in the 1980's--pre cell phones--and so it was kind of fun to go back to that era. This isn't my favorite Grafton book, but she kept the pages turning nicely for me. This is one series you wouldn't need to read from the beginning. I think you could pick this book up and not feel like you had missed something. Good reading!

Who Wants Ice Cream?

Andy
Whoa, dude. Not so fast!

The princess said, "Mine look like intestines."

Perhaps the perfect cone!

Nice! She made a good one!

Sometimes we take our ice cream in other formats!

The cruise ship boasted 3 ice cream machines...help yourself. No messy toppings, just cones and a soft-serve machine. We enjoyed a lot of ice cream. In the beginning, some of our cones were a little funny looking, but with time, and help from those of us who worked at the Tastee Freeze and McDonalds, we were all soon ice cream cone experts. For those of you without our experience, the trick is to hold the cone still and relatively close to the ice cream. It will circle by itself. It really will.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Me--through the ages!

1st grade

4th grade

9th grade

Central Park

1988

College graduation

1991

Can you spot me?

Kindergarten

Hint: my glasses sort of match my teacher's.

By the way, that's Mrs. Anderson.

She even taught my dad!

How old am I?

Yesterday I sent Jeanette an email, telling her that in 6 months I plan to send out an email to all my friends, suggesting they start making their travel plans as I expect a lot of visits from everyone when I turn 50. She was quick to email back, reminding me that I won't be turning 50 next year. I did the math. She's right. I'm not turning 49 this today. Phew! I was kind of starting to stress out about turning 50. I guess I can put that on hold for another year.

Is is a bad sign that I don't know how old I am????

There's Trouble in River City!

Yesterday the birthday celebrations began. The king promised to make me a cake--he's really good at that, and he knows German Chocolate is my favorite!

While I was running the princess all over creation yesterday, he made me a cake. When I got home, it was apparent that something had gone terrible wrong. One layer of the cake was on the counter, but it didn't look much like a cake. It looked like a jumble of cake and frosting. The king said that, thinking it would be easier to get the cake out of the pan while it was warm, he had turned it over only to have it fall apart. He "glued" it back together with frosting. I wasn't complaining, but it did look funny. He said the other layer was in the frig, cooling, in hopes there wouldn't be a repeat.

Sadly, there was a repeat. So that layer was placed on top and also glued together with frosting. Again, I'm not complaining. When we cut into it--after the proper round of "Happy Birthday" sung beautifully by the prince, princess, king, and Grandma--it was the most moist cake I have ever eaten. Delicious!!!

Yum!

Today's Game

The princess played her second game today. I got a few good action shots, mostly of her serving. Game on!

Last Game of the Season

Last night we had our last 2 games of the season. Both were divisional play-off games. Winning meant going on to the state tournament; losing, well, then they were done. Our girls lost by 3 points and the boys by 2. It was a tough loss for the kids, and it means no road trip for the prince, but it was a great season. GREAT JOB, FALCONS! Can't wait for next year!

This is perhaps the best cheer photo I got all year. I know it's the best one I've gotten with my new camera! WOW!

What makes a good volleyball coach?

Yesterday, during one of the princess' games, the coach called a time out. She said, "Look, we're obviously going to lose this game, so here's what I want you to do. Go out and have FUN. Spike the ball, have a crazy volley, LAUGH at your mistakes. HAVE FUN!"

That's a good coach!

The girls followed her advice and it turned them around. They didn't win that one, but they went on to win the next couple! GREAT coaching, Mrs. S!

Who?

Who had a run of 9 unanswered points while serving in her first volleyball match of the season?

THIS GIRL!

Great game for our school winning 4 of 6 games. :)

Out Of School Suspension

Our school tries to curb bullying. We have bully slips all over the school. A kid fills one out and gives it to an adult. The adult passes it on to the principal who deals with it. Unfortunately, the kids being bullied rarely fill out the slips. Instead, he gets a lot of, "He pushed me once," or "She was giving me strange looks." I am not saying bullying doesn't happen. I think it happens a lot! But the bully slips aren't working out as planned, in my opinion.

Yesterday, though, we had a good laugh with a bully slip. In a totally unplanned event, all of the adults who work in my part of the school all wore purple yesterday, with the exception of one teacher, who was wearing brown. We were commenting on it before school started, and she said, in her best middle school whiny voice, "So you guys all planned this? And you left me out? That's really not fair. Now I feel stupid and need to go home and change! You guys are so mean! I'm going to fill out a bully slip!"

And she did! :) And she gave it to the principal. After he got done laughing, he told her we'd all have a week of Out Of School Suspension WITH PAY! Basically, she was left alone for a week with all the kids, and we would be home enjoying a week off w/pay. :) When she complained about this to him and how unfair it was, he pointed to his own shirt/tie...they were purple!

Good times at Middle School. I work with really fun people. That makes the job just that much better!

Fascinating! Especially the photo.

I'm not Barbie-bashing, but I found this fascinating!

• If Barbie were an actual women, she would be 5’9” tall, have a 39” bust, an 18” waist, 33” hips and a size 3 shoe.

• Barbie calls this a “full figure” and likes her weight at 110 lbs.

• At 5’9” tall and weighing 110 lbs, Barbie would have a BMI of 16.24 and fit the weight criteria for anorexia. She likely would not menstruate.

• If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her proportions.

• Slumber Party Barbie was introduced in 1965 and came with a bathroom scale permanently set at 110 lbs with a book entitled “How to Lose Weight” with directions inside stating simply “Don’t eat.”

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/