Our Cruise to the Bahahmas and Key West Florida

I am slacking big time in my posts and for that I apologize! As per our usual we have been insanely busy... It' also occurred to me that I didn't post anything about our cruise adventure!...

We did end up going on our cruise to the fabulous Bahamas despite the weather and the impending doom of Hurricane Sandy. Yes, we were out there in the Florida straits when she was growing into the massive "super storm" that wiped out parts of New Jersey. How was it you ask? Rocky to say the least. The first day was very nice, we left the port of Miami right on time and were steadily sailing along that night to be in Nassau's port the next morning.

We arrived in Nassau and it was EXTREMELY windy! We had a little rain but we did have a GREAT time. We went on our shore excursions while there; the underwater submarine and the city tour around Nassau and Paradise Island. The next day we were supposed to go to Coco Cay which is Royal Caribbean's private island for a day of beach fun but sadly we had to skip it since the winds were too high to tether the ship off and because we were trying to out run the Hurricane behind us, this is where the vacation took a detour to crap-tastic-ville.

That day we sailed to Key West and up the Florida straights (which is usually pretty rocky anyway) around 8pm that night we decided to head into the theater after visiting the lounge for our "drink of the day". And this was when I received my first bout of motion sickness or "sea sickness". I've been cruising before, I've been on airplanes galore, I've even been under water but never have I been sick in all my life. We had to leave the show early and I ended up sleeping from about 8pm till the next morning with a brief intermission to the bathroom around 3am. Around 5am it got extremely rocky and we actually woke up out of our sleep to the sound of the ship crashing down on a 15 foot wave. It nearly knocked us out of bed (in a room on the 8th deck) and later that morning we discovered it trashed the dining room and theater on deck 3 with over turned palm trees, plants, tables and lighting.

We docked in Key West around 7am and took our raining but interesting tour aboard the "Trolly of the Doom".  We stopped off at Key West's fort and took our EMF detectors (Ghost Reader Meters) along for the tour. We stopped inside the fort at the "Robert Doll" and low and behold our meter went off as soon as I had a light tingling sensation in the palm of my hand. I told hubbers to pass me the meter since I had a tingly sensation in my hand. It felt sort of like when your foot falls asleep and sorta being brushed gently by a breeze but just in my hand. And like a well behaved tourist I asked Robert's permission before I photographed him and then thanked him as well. Some of the people on our tour thought it was a bit ludicrous to ask permission and thank a doll, however our tour guide warned us if we didn't we'd be asking for the address to write Robert an apology letter to undo his curse. We also found out later after we boarded the ship again that two of the ships passengers didn't make it back on. I wonder now if those were the two skeptics on our tour...? LOL! Anyway here's a few pics from our adventure on the high seas!

Ready to board and sail away to paradise!.. or so we thought... LOL!

Our room, tiny right? It was ok, we didn't spend a lot of time in it.

The lunch buffet in the wind jammer.

The pool deck where we spend most of our time!

The view of downtown Miami from the pool deck.

Inside the centrum where the shops and dining rooms are.

The Casino!

Our first drink of the day... a Bahama Mama!

Hubbers winning big at the casino!

Docked in port at Nassau

Hubby standing next to the ship LOL! So little!

On our underwater sub tour!

Someone's a little worried LOL!

Don't we look cute in green?

Pretty fish and crystal clear waters!

Atlantis from Paradise Bay

Want to buy a conch for $5.00?

Fort Fin Castle

A view of Paradise Bay from Fort Fin Castle

In front of the fountains at Atlantis

Junkanoo the Mardi Gras of the Caribbean!

Our treasures and trinkets from Nassau

Woohoo! Midnight Pool deck party and buffet!

We found these statues in Key West and decided to have a little fun...

Um.. honey? You've got a little something back there ;)

The Jess-a-saurus strikes!

I swear she looks like shes about to say "Get your own burger!"

Pretty statue... I believe it's of Ernest Hemingway.

Docked in Key West.

He got a "Cookie Monster" cone!

Aboard the Trolly of the doomed!

At Key West's Haunted Fort

Hubby prepared to find the ghosts with his EMF reader!

Robert the doll. Creepy right? In the left corner just behind him is where I was standing when my hand started to tingle and the EMF reader was going crazy! The papers on the wall are notes and letters of apology written to Robert and begging for him to remove the curse because tourists have come and either mocked him or not asked his permission to be photographed. I think it might be a good idea to even just thank him for viewing this pic! ;)

Book Review: Bruja Brouhaha By: Rochelle Staab

Liz and nick are enjoying the sixtieth wedding anniversary celebration for their charming hosts, Paco and Lucia Rojas, devout Santeria practitioners who own the historical Botanica Rojas near MacArthur Park. But the small group of friends is left horrified and confused when the evening ends in tragedy. 

Devastated by loss, Lucia, a Santeria priestess, blames the locals for the escalating crime in her beloved community. She casts a vengeful hex on the neighborhood, leading strangers and friends alike to dub her bruja-Spanish for witch-and turn on the elderly woman. Lucia may be in harm's way, and it's up to Liz and Nick to unravel a mysterious disappearance and solve a murder before more lives are lost... 

A great follow up to Rochelle's "Who Do, Voodoo?"! I had a feeling though, when I finished her first book that I would get happily stuck on her series of "Mind for Murder Mysteries"! As usual, she kept me turning pages and racing to the end to see if I my guess "who did it" would be right... and just like before she through me for a pleasant loop! I liked everything about the book, the setting, the usual suspects... I mean characters and of course some new friends that were added in this book. I was also happy to read about a new aspect of occult and loved the strong influence of Santeria had the plot, it made the book very rich and detailed. Thanks for another GREAT read Rochelle! I am now dieing to read whatever you come out with next!

New Glasses, Our First Girl Scout Patches and Saving the World One Napkin at a Time!

I know what your thinking... what in the world kind of title is that Jess?! Well, its a jumble of stuff that has been going on lately and since I don't have much time before I head off into the sunset with my hubby on our first cruise together, I figured I write it all in one shot. Don't worry I will have plenty to write about when I get back, all about my cruise that is! We leave on Saturday and fly into Miami International to set sail on Sunday morning! Oh man... 5 nights, 4 days and not a care in the world! I can hardly wait! So anyway... on to what's been going on.


A few weeks ago the munchkin had her eyes tested at school and she came home with a note from the nurse saying she failed the eye exam and they suggested that we make an appointment with the ophthalmologist to get her eyes check out. So I did just that and it turns out she does in fact need glasses, the poor child has been struggling since August to see in class and hasn't said a word to us about not being able to see the board in class, it also didn't help that she sits at the back of the classroom and is pretty much blind as a cute little bat. No really... she is! Her prescription is even worse than mine and I'm 30 years old! Right now she's sitting at a -4.00 in her left eye and a -3.75 in her right eye. The doctor says it should correct her vision a little and hopefully in a year or two she wont need such a high strength. So she now has glasses and looks quite cute in them if I do say so myself! She really loves them as well, and I figured as much since they totally help her to see and she got to pick out the frames herself. :)

Sorry this one is sideways... Blogger is being difficult... But isn't she cute!

 

 

 

So if you can remember a few posts back, I had said we took the girl scouts to the corn maze and the pumpkin patch up in Kiln Mississippi. Well... I ordered their cool patches over the weekend from Snappy Logos (which I LOVE! Because they are cute and oh so much cheaper than ordering from Girl Scouts, and right now seeing how we have no troop money... this momma is taking the cheap way out! LOL!) So I put them together for the girls in little zip lock bags and had the kiddo help me draw some happy jack-o-lantern style faces on the pumpkins we cut out. Just a little something to make them seem cool. :)

Last Sunday we also went grocery shopping, which means I end up going to SAM's Club and dreading every moment of it... usually... This time however I was glad I went because I stumbled upon this!

The mother of all S'mores maker! Look at this thing! Doesn't it ROCK! I can't wait to use it at girl scouts... even if we don't get the chance to take the girls camping this year (again, not us... money is the issue) at least with this baby we can still rock an awesome "S'mores Night"!

Ok now... onto the napkin part... so I was scouring the web (like usual) to find some cool crafts and what not for the daisy girls that tie into our petals we've been doing, when I stumbled upon a cool idea for myself! I found a blog (that now, I can't find again... sorry, should have bookmarked it) that had a tutorial on how to make your own napkins and paper towels by sewing material to make them reusable! Think about it!... how much do you think we spend on paper towels and napkins a year? I know I spend at least a couple hundred dollars if not more... I dunno if were just messy or what!? But what if I could save that and help the environment?! I know.. I know... "Jess, when did you turn into such a hippy!" LOL! Call me crazy but I actually believe in recycling, reusing and re-purposing... I guess it's something that stuck with me from growing up and living in Europe (where recycling is not an option) and being a girl scout, I also have a grandmother who grew up during the great depression and who is very frugal, savvy and proud that I am making something from left overs, in fact she's the one I owe credit to for showing me how to sew. I was really glad to find the tut on it as well since I have a ton of left over scrap fabric to sew into little napkins, now I have pretty napkins of all sizes and color. Some are lap napkins, some are hand napkins and some are cocktail napkins. I haven't yet started the paper towel roll but it doesn't look hard, they are just bigger versions of the napkins and they are snapped together with those non metallic baby snaps that you see on the bottoms of onsies.  As soon as I get some more fabric I will attempt them and show you what I mean. :)

In the mean time... enjoy my pics from my napkin making adventure... :)

Oh man I love this Thanks Giving fabric! I am not super excited to have people over for Thanks Giving!

Pretty right?!

I also bought some Halloween fabric, because Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I just couldn't resist! I will probably end up making napkins for just about every holiday! LOL! You wait and see!

A little more of a close up on the Halloween fabric, yes, because I love it that much!

From my left over scrap collection of fabrics, I painted the Efiel tower part and the "Merci" part just to have a bit of a french theme to it..

These remind me of something Gram would have at her house... I love these fabrics! Vintage!

Awe, my starter basket already! This might just have to make more to give for Christmas gifts, I know my mom, mom-in-law and Gram would love it! 

 

 

So what do you think?

Book Review: Corpse in the Crystal Ball by: Kari Townsend

After clearing her name as the prime suspect in a murder, Sunny Meadows hopes she can finally enjoy some serenity in the idyllic town of Divinity in upstate New York. She'd also like a second chance with Detective Mitch Stone. But when Mitch's gorgeous ex-girlfriend Isabel Gonzales shows up, Sunny's not sure she can compete. Then Isabel mysteriously disappears. 

When the police turn to Sunny for help, her visions lead to the discovery of Isabel's corpse in the woods. Before she died, Isabel scrawled a message in the dirt implicating Mitch in her murder. Now Sunny must help the man she's falling in love with as she sets out to find the real killer. But this time Sunny's clairvoyant abilities might not save her- as what she doesn't see can hurt her...

YES! We are back in business in Divinity and Sunny's fortune telling industry is booming! I really loved this follow up to Kari Townsend's first edition (Tempest in the Tea Leaves) in her series of fortune telling mysteries! I think this is going to turn out to be a great series and I hope she writes tons more! I love Sunny's character and have grown and loved the people and town of divinity... even Detective grumpy pants aka. Mitch Stone... aka Sunny's some day boyfriend. I get it... it's complicated but "It's a start!"

There are some new characters that were introduced into this book as well and there is one granny in particular that I am glad to see that will be sticking around for a while! Sunny's granny comes to stay for a bit with her and oddly enough finds divinity and Sunny's house "Vickie" to be a perfect fit! She is spunky just like Sunny and has developed quite a bond with Morty who can usually hardly tolerate anyone besides Sunny. This story had a great plot and had a lot of leads which led me to think quite a bit, but in the end I must say I was totally blown away with the twisted ending!

Lowe's Build and Grow Workshop with the Girl Scouts!

Last Saturday our local Lowe's had their build and grow workshop and we decided to take our daisy girl scouts there to make "Ghoul Buses"! It was a GREAT experience and I highly suggest it for a fun activity! The girls really loved being able to hammer and nail away and actually get to keep what they made with their own hands! Not to mention, how adorable they looked in their goggles and aprons! Home depot also does a workshop but I happen to like Lowe's better just for the fact that they let the kids keep the goggles and aprons and they also give them a certificate and a patch to go on the apron, but of course we put ours on the back of our daisy girl vests! We all had a really great time and most important the girls got to do something different that none of them have ever done before, have fun with it and take home what they made! :)

Troop 7025 Day at the Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we took our first girl scout trip of the season! We headed down to the farm to go to the corn maze, pumpkin patch and hanging out on the hay ride. We had beautiful weather and the girls had a great time! We've been before in the previous years as a family but this was our first time as girl scout leaders. It's been fun so far being a co-leader of the small group of daisies, I can't wait to see what other trips the girls pick to do this year!

Here's a few pics from the day :)

Our little girl scouts are so cute!

Getting ready to get lost in the maze!

Checking out some of the farm animals.

The munchkin :)

Getting ready for go on the hayride.

Getting ready to enjoy the hayride.

The munchkin and her daddy :)

Kicking White Belt Goodbye and Saying Hello to Yellow Belt!

The munchkin had her first ever Tae Kwon Do test this weekend on Saturday and it was amazing! She has been practicing for weeks and she has been doing Tae Kwon Do for a little more than a month now. Over these past few weeks she has worked hard on memorizing her moves in class twice a week, at home, heck, I think the kid is even practicing in her sleep! She has been thoroughly enjoying going to Tae Kwon Do and she loves her master and her new friends shes made in class.

This weekend happens to be our famous "cruisin the coast" weekend here in Biloxi and since traffic is notoriously horrible during this event we decided to leave quite a bit early to make it to her test on time. Well, we ended up being almost 45 minutes early (mostly because I drove the back roads) but it ended up being a good thing since she got to see what it would be like to test when it was her turn, she also got to cheer along a few of her friends from class as well.

They started testing the white and yellow belts around 11:30 and she was more than eager to get started. They lined everyone up and started out with some exercises. Then they all sat down and called them up by names in groups of 3 to test forms first, then contact skills, floor drills, finally escape drills. She rocked all 3 categories and I couldn't have been more proud! She will be receiving her yellow belt at her first belt ceremony on this Thursday and I dunno who's more excited me or her!?! LOL!

Here's some of the pics I took during her test; because yes... I am that PROUD mom :)

Lining up and getting ready to test!

Just look at those faces filled with anticipation!

Serious moves!

Perfect outer form block!

Setting up for her jumping front kick!

Amazingly perfect crescent kick!

Escape drill testing.

Oh yeah, nobody attacks me and gets away with it! ;)

Book Review: A Spoonful of Murder by: Connie Archer

 Winter is big business in small town Snowflake, Vermont. Tourists arrive to hit the ski slopes and what could be more satisfying after a chilly day of carving powder than a steaming bowl of soup?

When Lucky Jamieson inherits her parents soup shop. By the Spoonful, she realizes it's time to take stock of her life. Should she sell her parents house or move in herself? Does she really want to run a restaurant business? And what about her grandfather Jack, who seems to be showing signs of Alzheimer's? 

But her life decisions are moved to the back burner after an icy blonde tourist is found frozen to death behind the soup shop. And Lucky is bowled over when her soup chef, Sage DuBois, is led out of the kitchen by the police. As suspicion and speculations snowball, Lucky decides that the only way to save her employee and her business is to find out herself who iced the tourist and landed her chef in the soup...

 A charming little mystery and not bad for a first edition. I loved reading about the charming town of Snowflake, it really had me wanting to visit Vermont (although maybe in the summer time instead lol!). I also quickly fell in love with the the "By the Spoonful Soup Shop" and the cast of great characters surrounding the story. The book was a little slow in the beginning but I think that might be because it's a new series and the author took time to introduce you to the characters, but once the story got going... it had my full attention and it was hard to put it down!  Unlike a lot of other first in a series mysteries I've ready, this one really had me guessing who did it all the way to the end and what a terrific twist! I would have never had guessed! All in all it was a nice cozy and I am looking forward to reading Connie Archers second book in this series; "Broth of Betrayal".