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Sunday, December 12, 2010

:-)

Please, oh please, enjoy this.  I enjoy it very much.


Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

If you give a mouse a cookie...


Okay, so hopefully you all know that children’s book, “If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk.  When you give him the milk, he’s going to ask for a straw"…and it goes on and on and on.  Well, that was me this weekend with the wreath.  I finished the wreath that I was sick of working on, so I wanted to hang it on the door to admire it.  I hung it on the door and all I saw was a pretty wreath hanging on an ugly orangey-peachy-brownish door.  So I decided to paint the door, you know, to go with the wreath.  Well, since I had to get all the painting supplies out anyway, and since I was already at Lowes looking at paint colors, I decided to go ahead and paint our nightstands that I’d been meaning to do for a while now.  And that will bring us to today’s blog post.  Yep.  Basically this weekend consisted of me handing the baby over to Matt, while I was scurrying around trying to get as much done as I possibly could. 


I’m pretty proud of these nightstands because they originally came from craigslist.  I love craigslist.  I think these were $30, for both.  And actually, they weren’t even technically nightstands, they were office storage.  The inside shelves are still labeled things like “outgoing mail” and “copies”.  (I leave the labels there because I think they’re funny)  Anyway, when I bought them they had been spray painted brown.  I actually didn’t mind the brown, but I knew I would eventually paint them a different color.  They aren’t anything fancy, or finely crafted, but that’s what makes the painting fun.  No pressure, if you totally mess up, you’re out $30 and go back to putting the alarm clocks on upside-down laundry baskets, which is what we used until I found these babies. 

So I went with a color called La Fonda Ortiz Gold.  I’ll be honest.  I picked it purely because of the name.  My door, by the way, was painted Purple Basil, and I only needed one quart of each color.  So after the color was chosen, I headed over to the hardware section.  I was tremendously disappointed with the selection at Lowes, I couldn’t find a single pull handle that I liked.  I did, however, find some knobs that were okay.  Since the original hardware was a pull handle, I just bought two knobs for each door, and I’m really happy with the way they turned out.  The four knobs together remind me of buttons on a pea coat.  So I’m very pleased with my mini-renovations this week, and now I’m going to start thinking about next weekend.


Before


The painting begins!


Almost done!


After


Another after photo












Monday, December 6, 2010

A Cheap Wreath Idea…


So I was actually wanting to make this wreath for fall/Thanksgiving, but I didn’t get it finished until last week, so now it’s a Christmas wreath.  I saw the idea on Made, where Dana made a wreath sort of like this but out of acorns.  I love the acorns, and they would have been even cheaper than the beans, if I lived near some trees that dropped acorns.  But at $1.29 for a bag of great northern beans, a Styrofoam wreath and some stuff I already had, you can’t beat a new wreath for under $5.  Now there is a catch.  It takes A LOT of time and patience, but if you do a little bit each night, who am I kidding, it still takes forever.  But eventually, it’s done, even if it’s not for the holiday you intended.  Which brings me to my next point about my bean wreath……I’m going to try to use it for every holiday this year.  On Made, Dana  just painted it different colors when she wanted a new look.  So in the interest of making the most of this thing, I’m going to paint it a new color each month.  I’ll keep you posted.


If you’re interested in making one yourself, it’s really easy.  Here’s what you’ll need:

-styrofoam wreath base (use a 40% off coupon from the Sunday paper at Michaels)
-one 16oz. bag of beans, I bought two, but didn’t even use a whole bag.  I chose Great Northern for the color, but pick whatever color you’d like.
-glue, lots of it.  I like Aileen’s tacky glue.  You need something thicker than regular white glue.
-spray paint is optional

1.        You can really use any type of Styrofoam wreath base, I chose the more squared off edges just because I liked the look of it.  I chose to paint my wreath with black spray paint, just so I couldn’t see the white Styrofoam.  I already had black spray paint, but if I didn’t I probably would have just left it white, it’s up to you.
2.       Start gluing beans!  I started with a diagonal line of beans going from edge to edge.  I found it was faster to put a lot of glue in a 2 or 3 inch section and then just do as many rows as I could before the glue dried.  Also, because my wreath base is flat, I didn’t glue any beans on the back, just 3 sides.  I found it was helpful to kind of push each bean into the styrofoam  to help it hold better.
3.       Keep gluing beans!  You’ll find that you need to adjust your pattern as you go around the wreath.  I tried to pick out the smaller beans for the rows closer to the center and saved the larger ones for the outside rows. 
4.       Get a glass of wine and then keep…….gluing……..beans……one day it will be over. 
5.       Horray!  I used a ribbon to hang mine because I liked the look but also because once it’s done, it can be kind of heavy.  You could also use some wire or a traditional wreath hanger.  Let me know if you have any questions!  Enjoy!





Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Oh, you better watch out...

My sister and I can remember when we were little, in the middle of the summer, one of us would start to act up and Grandma Graham would just start to quietly sing, “Oh, you better watch out…you better not cry….”.  That reminder that the omnipotent Santa was watching us was all that we needed to make us good for goodness sake.  It didn’t matter what time of the year it was.  I like the idea of this sort of psychological weaponry for children.  That’s why I’m fully planning on using this little trick on Elin.  In order to use it though, she also has to know who Santa is, not only that, but she probably needs to meet with him each year.  She can report on her behavior for the past year (or ¾ year in this case) and they can discuss toys and just in general get caught up with each other.  Lucky for us, Santa is taking some time out of his busiest toy production season to hang out at the Park Place Mall.  I hear he really likes the kiosk that sells the crocs. 

So last Sunday we psyched ourselves up enough to brave the mall traffic, mall parking lot, mall people and the mall germs (yes, there were grown adults coughing and sneezing without the slightest concern for covering their mouths.  Where do these people come from?)  We figured that if Santa could make the trip all the way from the North Pole to Tucson, the least we could do would be drive the mall closest to our house.  So we did, and we stood in line, which surprisingly only took about 30 minutes or so.  We got to watch kids meet with Santa, which is always fun because most of them freak out.  A lot of you already know this, but I LOVE pictures of kids crying on Santa’s lap.  It’s just so funny to me because I don’t blame these children one bit.  From a child’s perspective the whole process is just absurd.  The best part about these pictures is that the parents (myself included) go to so much effort for the kids to look nice.  And we’re all standing in line trying to keep the kids clean and picture worthy.  By the time it’s actually your turn there’s so much built up to these few seconds with Santa, and then the kid gets freaked out and just starts wailing, but Santa smiles anyway, making the picture that much funnier.  I love it.  So what does my kid do?  She says, “See ya Mom!  Why hello sir.  My name is Elin and I’d be happy to sit on your lap for a picture if you have a spare moment.”  No crying, not even a wimper.  We got some good pictures and also a long conversation about talking to strangers.  Enjoy!














Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Yes, I'm still here.

Hi, my name is Stacy and it’s been 3 weeks since my last post.  Incidentally, about three weeks ago Elin became mobile.  I mean, REALLY mobile – and not just horizontally, but vertically too.  She’s climbing up anything she can get her hands on.  We definitely weren’t thinking about babies when we decided to go with polished concrete floors in our living room.  Sorry Elin.  So yeah, that oh-so-cute video we have of her pulling herself up for the first time is actually footage of my daytime blogging days ending.  Goodbye daily blogs.  I’m going to do the best I can after she goes to bed. 

So I guess a lot has happened in three weeks.  A lot for us, anyways, which might not be saying much.   Last week I made my very first Thanksgiving meal.  After a million calls home to ask about recipes and turkey roasting, I actually did a pretty good job.  It was just a lot of work for dinner for only 3 people.  And Matt and I are SICK of turkey.  Last night I made “chicken” enchiladas with more leftover turkey, but we just could bare to even call them turkey enchiladas.  I made apple salad (which was a staple at every holiday meal growing up), sweet potatoes (Elin’s favorite), mashed potatoes, TWO kinds of stuffing, corn, green beans, gravy, and turkey.  All from scratch.  My turkey didn’t look pretty (or even close to pretty), but it tasted good (for the first 20 meals or so….).   About two hours into the roasting process I checked on it and noticed that the red and white pop-up thermometer was gone.  I couldn’t figure it out until I realized that I was cooking the turkey upside down.  Matt and I each had a pair of tongs and forks and we got him flipped the right way.  So the back side of my turkey was nice and pretty and brown and the front side looked like boiled poultry (because that’s exactly what it was).  Regardless of me not knowing which turkey side goes up, it still tasted good.  I have a few pictures, notice that the corn isn’t  in the pictures.  It wasn’t until we were eating that we remembered the corn in the microwave.  The Graham family will like that.  I swear, we really did forget.

Well, I hope all of you had a lovely Thanksgiving like we did.   I’ll be sure to keep posting.  

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Happy Veteran's Day!

I haven't posted much this week because honestly, I haven't really had anything worth posting about.  I've been catching up on house stuff and Elin is crawling EVERYWHERE.  I've been baby wrangling like crazy, in addition to the crawling, my kid doesn't sleep.  She sleeps at night, which I LOVE, but she doesn't nap during the day.  A good nap-day will consist of two half hour naps.  I'm jealous of those of you with babies that take two or three hour naps at a time.  That means you, Ali.  :-)

Anyway, I do have something to blog about today because it's Veteran's Day!  This is a very important day that I think should get more attention.  It's especially meaningful to me because my grandpa, George Graham is a WWII veteran.  Recently, my home town newspaper wrote an article about my grandpa that I would like to share on my blog today.  It's hard for me to picture the kind, gentle man that I know as my grandpa in a situation as gruesome and ugly as war.  But he did it, and our country is better for it.  Here is his story:


George Graham--Forward Observer Scout

"Combat war is bad," said World War II veteran George Graham.  


Graham quit college at the Missouri University at Columbia in December 1942, and enlisted in the regular Army and chose to be in field artillery. He felt this would be his most valuable service using what he had learned as a member of the ROTC at college.


He was sent to Ft. Sill, Okla. for three months of boot camp from December to February. He said the boot camp wasn't much of a challenge for a farm boy, but the wind sure blew cold in Oklahoma. He thought he was living pretty high on that $25 a month.

He was transferred to the 691st Field Artillery at Ft. Sill for a year of training. His next stop was across the border at Camp Howze, Texas. Camp was a few tar paper huts in open desert. "This was a staging area to separate the ones who would make it and after they had us weeded out, the ones left got training poured on," Graham said. It was hot in Texas and he had to work long hours.

After the specialized training, Graham and his battalion were loaded on trucks and taken to the railroad station. He found himself speeding along on a train and wound up at Camp Myles Standish near Boston, Mass. Here he was rushed through a mass of inspections, classes and training. Medics were busy sharpening their needles and he was given shots. It was a busy three weeks.

They prepared for port knowing "THIS IS IT." They left Camp Myles Standish on a Railroad Troop Train and after a few hours boarded ship. In August, after D-Day in June 1941, they crossed the English Channel and landed at Omaha Beach at Cherbourg, France. They were put aboard Landing Ship Tanks and dropped in convoys onto the beach. The roar of the battle and artillery was overwhelming.

Graham had been promoted to a scout in forward observation. His duty was to help direct the fire. He spent a lot of time looking through a BC Scope -- a powerful binocular. He carried binoculars which had to be under his field jacket when not in use. A glint of sunlight off the glass made him an instant target for a German gun. He was in the A Battery of the 691st Field Artillery Battalion. There were three gun batteries in a battalion with 4 guns in each battery making 12 howitzers in all. The battalion also included headquarters battery who sent orders to the guns and service battery which provided supplies.

They camped in the hedge rows of France for a few days and regrouped before being moved up to the front lines to fight. The forward observing crew consisted of the scout, radio operator and a lieutenant. Graham said he lost three lieutenants during his time of service. It was a dangerous and stressful time. They supported a lot of divisions, but most of the time was spent with the 84th Infantry Division.

"War is fought day and night. There is no stopping," Grahm said. Tears glinted in Graham's eyes as he remembered. "It was a foxhole war. We crawled on our bellies in combat. Since I was out front of the battery, many days I was hungry because all the food I got was what I could carry and if I couldn't get back to camp, I didn't eat."

When they crossed the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge, they relieved a unit of British commandos. They were assisting the 9th Army at this time. One night, a 50-man combat patrol took all night liberating a city having crawled across a blown-out bridge to get there. They had been up all night getting there, and after the liberation, a man came running to greet them. They were so happy to see Americans and be liberated from the German occupation.

There was a church nearby where Catholic nuns had patients. They made a place for the troops to sleep in the basement and fed them before they left. Next morning it was back to war.

Once they camped in an apple orchard and were terrified when German V-2 rockets came over low. "They buzzed and made a pulsing sound and at night had flames. A horrible sight," Graham said.
The Battle the Bulge began just before Christmas. "I can still hear the roar of guns, tanks, and artillery in my mind -- some noises and images are burned into it. I could feel the concussion of the ground," he said. Their Christmas packages never did catch up with them.

Somehow, Graham's battalion was cut off. The Germans went through the line on their right and cut off supplies. They were firing behind them. They still had some communication and were given orders to destroy the guns if the Germans came. The Germans didn't come, but they were isolated for two weeks without any supplies, food, or ammunition. There was a foot of snow on the ground. They slept in old fox holes, or bombed-out buildings, anything to get a bit of protection. "I went for three or four days without a bite of food. Finally, a British unit showed up and shared food, drinks, crackers."

"I had great admiration for the medics," Graham said. "They showed brave action in the care of the wounded. There was a tent field hospital in the area with a medic. I spent a week in one with frozen feet."

The last big battle Graham remembers was called the Dortmund Pocket. "We had several thousand German troops in a pocket of land and had them surrounded on all sides. Some eventually surrendered, but many chose to fight to the end. It was a tough place to be, but I was just doing my job."

After the war was over, Graham was discharged in 1946. He returned home and married Sibyl Tolman at Rogersville, Mo., June 6, 1948. He graduated from MU in 1949 with a master's degree in dairy production in 1950. He taught veterans at Braymer in 1950-'51 and moved to Nevada in 1964, to become director of the University Extension Center in Vernon County. He retired from the Extension in 1985.

Graham was born and grew up on a farm near Fair Grove, Mo., and learned to milk cows by hand at an early age. Even though that wasn't his favorite job, he preferred it to combat fighting in war. The Grahams have three sons and one daughter and are enjoying retirement in Nevada.




Thank you to Naomi Foreman and the Nevada Daily Mail for celebrating Grandpa's story.  And most importantly, thank you to my Grandpa Graham for being a hero, I'm so proud to be your granddaughter and I don't think any of us can thank you enough.  I love you!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Speaking of cheap crap, I mean crafts…



I made these this weekend.  It’s been a few days, I know.  I was sick last week, which really sucked, and then we had an unproductive, lazy, nothing-to-do weekend.  We haven’t had one of those weekends in a long time, so it was nice. 

I did however try a new craft project this weekend that I saw on Martha Stewart.  In the spirit of my previous post, I decided to make these Christmas Trees out of recycled magazines.  I chose these because they’re cheap to make.  Really cheap.  Like, all you need is an old magazine cheap.  It’s a lot of folding, but that comes in handy when your husband is watching his fourth show about sharks in a row.  In fact, I think it was the shark marathon that inspired me to go looking for a craft in the first place.  Anyway, these were really easy and pretty quick.  And we’ve already established that they’re cheap.  The only drawback is that I’m just not sure how I feel about them. 


As Amy said last week, Crafting is about recycling old materials and reforming them into simple somethings that nobody needs”.  Well put, Amy.  I’m not really sure what I was expecting, they definitely look like old magazines that have been folded, and they are conical in shape, sort of like Christmas trees I guess.  They just don’t look like Martha’s.  I know I haven’t painted them or anything, I’m not sure if I want to spend the money on the paint.  I made three of them, I think with each new one I was hoping it would look cooler than the first one.  I used 3 different sizes of magazines, and you really can’t tell much of a difference.  I don’t know.  I’ll let you know if I decide to take the next step and paint them.  Otherwise, they might be the prettiest magazines in the recycling bin.  


Hope you all had a nice weekend!






Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Amy Sedaris has a new book!



Okay, I LOVE Amy Sedaris.  Her humor is definitely unique, and maybe not for everybody, but I love it.  Remember the show ‘Strangers With Candy’?  That’s Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank.  Anyway, I found a fun interview on Esty with Amy about her new upcoming book.  It’s called ‘Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People’.  Since I haven’t read the book yet, I’ll just direct you to this link.
 
I will, however, share a couple of my favorite quotes from the interview-

“Crafting is about recycling old materials and reforming them into simple somethings that nobody needs” 

And (this is an excerpt from the book)…

When asked where ideas come from, Amy answers There are hundreds of dozens of ways to stimulate your brain so the creative juices flow. Rummage through a dumpster. Look at old album covers. Spend time at a Renaissance faire. Find new friends who have better ideas than your old friends.”



In case you're not familiar with Amy, here are some clips of her on The Martha Stewart Show and Letterman.   I have her first book, ‘I like you:  Hospitality Under the Influence’, and I’m sure I’ll probably get this one too, because I just can’t get enough of Amy Sedaris.   Enjoy!



















































































Tuesday, November 2, 2010

“Trick-or-treat!...Thank you!...This is mine!”

Everybody playing together.

Well, Elin’s first Halloween was a success -as successful as it can be for a six month old anyway.  She kept her hat on and made it to about 3 houses before she fell asleep.  So I’d say she did a pretty good job.  I don’t blame her, I think we were all ready to fall asleep around 7:30 that night.  As I mentioned in my previous post, Jon, Ali and the girls came down on Saturday.  We pretty much took it easy on Saturday which was nice.  Sunday is another story though. 

We started Sunday off bright and early by getting up at 5:15am, and if any of you know us, you know that’s not exactly how we like to roll.  It was for a good reason though, Humana sponsored a water and first aid tent for a cancer walk.  We ended up helping out in the tent passing out water and sunscreen.  It was very early, but it was a beautiful day and it was crazy how many people were there.  It was all over by 9:30, but it felt like noon.  We went home and I think everybody tried to catch a little nap, some more successfully than others. 

Elin exploring the awesome pumpkin messiness.
By early afternoon, we were ready to carve pumpkins!  We kicked it old school.  No templates or “pumpkin carving tool kits” or battery operated “candle” lights.  Nope.  Just some steak knives and a bowl for the pumpkin guts.  I will admit that I started out a little too ambitious by sketching a frilly design on mine first.  Once I realized the dexterity that the steak knife allowed, I “erased” my sketch with some rubbing alcohol and went at it freehand.  The girls loved it.  Livi and Elin wondered what in the world we were doing, but they liked feeling the slimy seeds.  Elin immediately tried to eat them. I knew she would.   Amelia is an old pro and helped her dad scrape the inside of her pumpkin.  Once the pumpkins were transformed into jack-o-lanterns we lit the candles and took some pictures.  Then it was bath time.  Then it was costume time.  Then it was picture time.  And then……..then it was time to trick-or-treat! 


Finished products.
As I previously mentioned, Elin tapped out pretty quickly.  Livi, in typical ‘Livi style’, quietly observed everything and sweetly watched her sister take charge.  Amelia was a trick-or-treating star (as long as there were no dogs that ran her over as soon as the door would open).  She’d say “tickoteet!!”  and then politely follow up with a “tankoo”  and then as we were walking to the next house, she’d tell her dad very clearly, “this is mine”.  It was great.  The whole day was pretty great, actually.  A very successful Halloween.

















Amelia and Olivia together are a flower garden!  And Elin is a little pterodactyl, because she screeches like a pterodactyl.


Lil' T-Dac.


Action shot!  Trick-or-treating.


I just thought this was a cool picture.


Tapped out.

I like her little tail.

Pretty girls.


Flying.










Friday, October 29, 2010

(*cue music*) It’s beginning to look a lot like…..Halloween!!




Well, there’s nothing like waiting until the last minute, especially for Halloween decorations that I’ll need to take down in three days.  I haven’t really done a lot of Halloween décor in the past, but now that Elin is here, I feel like I should.  Or maybe she’s just my excuse for it, I don’t know.  Also, it’s not just Elin.  Our friends, Jon, Ali and their girls are coming down from Phoenix for Halloween.  It has sort of become a family tradition to celebrate Halloween with them.  It’s a tradition that has grown in population each year, because the first year it was 4 adults and one little baby – Amelia.  Last year it was 2 adult men, 2 pregnant women and 1 bigger baby - still Amelia.  This year we’re ready to trick-or-treat with 4 adults and 3 little girls - Amelia, Olivia and Elin.  I’m just hoping that these statistics aren’t linear.  They should start rounding off any time.  I’ll be sure to update my blog with lots of pictures.  Until then, here is what I’ve done so far to prepare for Halloween.



Bats!
When I saw these on MADE, I knew I had to make them.  They really are the perfect Halloween decoration because they’re cheap, easy and not ridiculously tacky.  Win-win-win.  I know it’s late in the game, but here is the template if you’re interested.  I just used the original size and then also scaled it down to 70% so I had a little variation.  I used a manila folder for my template; the paper was too flimsy.  I picked up some black cardstock at target (fyi – apparently Office Max doesn’t carry black cardstock), fold each piece in half, trace, cut and voila!  A colony of bats!  Just get some double stick tape and you’re ready to go!  Duct tape if you’re putting them outside.  Obviously, the cardstock won’t last forever, but I’m guessing I can get a few good years out of these babies.  Elin loves them.


Pumpkins!
Yes, I know, these aren’t REAL pumpkins.  These are the foam ones from Michaels that I love.  The first year we were in Arizona, I discovered the hard way that if you spend hours carving an incredibly detailed jack-o-lantern a week before Halloween, by the next night it will start to curl in on itself until it eventually just collapses and starts to smell.  Yep.  You’d better take lots of pictures of your pumpkin the night you carve it because they just don’t have much of a life span in 94 degree heat.  Yes, it was 94 degrees today.  Sooo……I turned to my good friends, the foam pumpkins that never die.  I do a new one each year, and this year I honored the bats.  I really enjoy bringing out my pumpkins from Halloweens past.  I just wonder down the road, say 10 years or so, if Matt is willing to build me a pumpkin shed to house them all.  If he loves me he will.  J 


Not to be outdone, I do have 3 real pumpkins that we bought in Wilcox at the pumpkin patch.  They’re holding up surprisingly well.  I think they’re actually gourds, and I don’t really know if they can be carved, but I think I just want to keep them out and see how long they last.  They’re really cool, and I think they’d be pretty for Thanksgiving, although I doubt they’ll last that long.  So I have my foam jack-o-lanterns and real gourds, but the purist in me still wants to carve an actual pumpkin.  Don’t worry, we have plans to do that with Jon, Ali and the girls.  So everybody wins.  I’ll be sure to give updates on that as well.  Until then, have a very Happy Halloween weekend!








Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I'm Baa-aaack!!


Our boat.



About to walk onto the boat!  Getting excited!




The main lobby.  This piano player kind of creeped me out.
Yes, it’s been a while.  I should have given an update on my blog before I left but I just didn’t get a chance.  I, along with my 4 best friends from high school (Alana, Allison, Jessi and Megan) went on a little cruise.  I’m not going to lie, it was pretty sweet.  After years of saying, “We all should get together!”  and “We should totally go on a trip or something”, we finally did it.  We’ve been planning this trip for almost a year.  It started as just something fun to talk about and then it slowly became something that might actually happen.  After some discussion about what we should do we decided on a 3 day cruise from Miami to the Bahamas.  This meant that we all met up the day before the cruise in Miami, for a bonus day of fun. 



The first things each of us enjoyed on the ship.

Even though we bought our tickets in Feburary, I was still in disbelief that this trip would actually happen until all five of us were on that boat.  But all five of us did make it onto the boat, thankfully.  And then the fun began.  As soon as we got there, we each enjoyed the following:  Me- a pina colada, Megan-a strawberry daqueri, Allsion-a gin and tonic, Alana-ice cream and coffee, and Jessi- potato salad.  Yep.  See the picture to the left if you don't believe me.  We had some amazing food (like warm chocolate melting cake) and several really expensive drinks.  We went to a comedy show one night and a dancing/singing show another night (kind of like when Jessi was in Show Choir).  Some of us went power snorkeling (like James Bond) and we did a lot of laying out in the sun and reading. 




Allison rockin' the mic'.
One of my favorite nights though was karaoke night.  There were a lot of interesting performances, one performer, for example, went by the name, GiGi and wore a brown leather vest with fringe on it that went to the floor.  She was very fun.  My favorite singer though, by far, was by our very own, Allison.  I swear I’m not being biased, she was definitely the best.  The guy in front of us thought so too, he got really into it. 

This trip gave me some much needed girl time and while I missed Matt and Elin very much, it was a nice break from all of the poopy diapers.  Mostly though, this trip was special because all five of us girls live in completely different cities, and we all came together in Miami for this cruise.  I don’t get to see these girls very often, but when I do we definitely live it up.  




The wonkavators.

We're about to go power snorkeling.

Dinner time.