So Andrew suprised me this morning with an early morning outing. We left the house at 5:35am and headed northeast, 45 minutes later we ended up at Legendary Doughnuts. They had the all these amazing doughnuts named after famous people/cartoon characters. We got following doughnuts the "Pig Pen", the "Captain Jack Sparrow", the "Albert Einstein", the "Cookie Monster", and a Mocha Cream pillow doughnut.
The doughnuts were amazing and tasty.
Stay tuned for future more regular blog posts
Once we got to the Orlando Amtrak station I had arranged for a shuttle service to pick us up and deliver us to the ship. They picked us up along with 2 other couples who were at hotels and then we proceeded out to the ship. We could see the ship from far away and could tell it was huge, it is one of Carnivals largest ships.
We got dropped off and got our luggage handled and walked to start the process of boarding the ship which included going through security and making sure our debit card was linked to our "Sail and Sign Card". The "Sail and Sign Card" was our room key along with anytime we made purchases or bought drinks or anything we would show this and it would automatically come out or our bank account.
Once on board we ate lunch on a deck that had all the pools and also a buffet style restaurant along with several quick places that served pizza, sandwiches, and Indian food. Then we wandered around the ship looking at all the fun places we would eventually go and explore. We ended up calling it an early night since there were no evening shows and we were completely exhausted from traveling.
Day 2 on the Dream had us docked at Nassau, Bahamas. We watched the ship come into port and Nassau was beautiful. There was a light house and we could see Hotel Atlantis from the ship. We grabbed a quick breakfast and headed out to meet our excursion. For the excursion we boarded vans to take us to a zoo, along the way the driver pointed out sights and was telling us about the Bahamaian history. The zoo had flamingos that "listened" to commands and a wide variety of reptiles, birds, leopards, and beautiful flowers. I posed with the flamingos and Andrew and I both got pictures with the Macaws that were there. One large white bird even kissed my cheek, heehee. After the zoo we did the remaining part of the city tour and stopped at a fort and the Queens Staircase. After the tour we went to "the straw market" which is the only place you can bargain for prices and they mainly sell faux designer items such as purses, wallets and such. Andrew got a nice straw hat there. We were only docked in Nassua for 6 hours.
Every night at dinner we went to the dinning room and we shared a table with a young couple from Wyoming. They were fun and interesting and had a good time, by the end of the cruise we were good friends.
Most nights we attended the evening show a few of the nights was the Carnival Dream Show Dancers which consisted of a lead male and female singer and 15-20 chorus dancers. It was really fun and they sang alot of popular numbers. One night was a country western theme, one night was motown, one night was current popular music, and one night was the Show Dancers and passengers who won a chance to sing through the kareoke lounge. There was also a juggler/comedian, a magician/comedian, and one night it was similar to cirque du soleil with gymnastics and dancing and crazy stunts. The lead male singer was from SC... anybody know Kevin Jayroe?
Stay tuned for more details about the cruise
Well for those of you that don't know, we just got back from vacation and had an amazing time at all the places we went. It was great getting to see all the people that we got to catchup with and sorry to those that we didn't get to see while back in SC, our visits are always filled with fun and we sometimes don't get to everyone.
So about a year ago we booked a cruise for May 22-29, a few weeks later a dear friend of mine called and told me she was engaged and a while after that they confirmed the date of May 15. So Andrew and I were able to fly in to SC for the rehearsal, wedding, and then spend the rest of the week with family, it worked out beatifully.
The wedding weekend was great. It was a mini reunion with some college friends, mostly people we haven't seen since 2006. But most importantly it was a great weekend to see our dear friends, Katie and Nick, tie the knot and join the "married couples" club. I was in the wedding so we were apart of all the festivities and had tons of fun.
We always have really great food while we are in SC. We had grape leaves one night and went to Al-Amir one day, well Andrew went 2 times because I was doing wedding stuff. Mom also cooked alot of our favorites and they were yummy as always. We went to Gibson's Pond one morning and did some hiking, swinging, and put our feet in the water...it was really nice. One afternoon Andrew and I went and did some shopping in downtown Columbia and stocked up on some USC stuff, we were running low, haha.
We had to get from Columbia, SC to Orlando, FL.... so we took Amtrak. We had a "roomette" (<--click to see the room) and it was cozy. The dimensions of our room were 3'6" x 6'8". We got on at 1:44am so it was set up for sleeping. There were bunk beds, a little toilet next to the lower bunk bed with a tiny sink right above the toilet and the toilet/sink doubled as stairs to get to the top bunk. When we woke up in the morning we went to breakfast in the dining car, it was included in our "roomette" price and sat with a nice English lady, while enjoying a good breakfast. When we went back to our roomette it had been converted back to 2 seats and the upper bunk folded away. Yeah, it was interesting, but all part of the adventure. We made it to Orlando at 10:20am on Saturday.
Stay tuned for more details of our trip.... some pictures(we took 400) are posted on Facebook and I might get all of them on Snapfish, eventually.
Well Andrew and I made our first trip ever to IKEA in Renton, WA on Saturday. It was so cool. In the beginning they have all these different rooms setup with all products from IKEA. A kitchen with cabinet, utensils, towels and such all from IKEA. A bedroom with bed, linens, desk, and other furnture all from IKEA. Then as we continued "on the path" which was marked for us by blue arrows on the ground, guiding us through the maze of merchandise and making sure we didn't miss a category. We continued into what is more familiar to us as a "store" grouped into categories, "bedding", "bath", "kitchen", and so on. We were looking for a nightstand for our bedroom. Also we were looking for a down alternative comforter. So we found the nightstand that we liked and I wrote down the corresponding numbers for it and were able to grab the comforter as we walked through the store. At the end of the maze we were guided into a warehouse where we were to use the corresponding numbers that I wrote down from the nightstand to find it in the warehouse, which went very easily. We made our purchase in a self-check out lane and we were on our way.I am looking forward to the next back to IKEA.... but it will probably be a while before we need anything else from there.
While at IKEA I looked for a duvet cover, but I did not like any of theres... so I found one on Overstock.com. For some reason I'm really into the chocolate/pecan(tan) colors, that is the color combination in our living room too.
Well my schooling has definitely been moving along. I have finished Anatomy and Physiology and have moved on listening to dication and writing/formatting what I hear. This has become quite the challenge. Some people talk fast, some talk slow, some slur, some pause mid sentence, some are loud, some are soft and so on. Thankfully I am able to control the speed of the talking and the volume, but I can't do much to control the way the people speak. Also they try to format as they talk and it is very hard to follow at times. So I am learning from my mistakes and taking it all in stride and it is a MASSIVE learning experience. Luckily I get to do a lot of practice dictation before they release me to the job market, haha. Oh yeah, the school sent me this cool pedal that I use to rewind, fastforward, or play the dication and it helps me be handsfree. I will be investing in a good pair of over the hear headphones in the near future so I can better hear the dication.
Our winter here has been the warmest on record for quite a while. I'm not complaining though, because it has been nice not freezing or having alot of snow. We did have 1 or 2 dustings of snow back before Christmas, but nothing that stuck for more than 24 hours.
Mack and I are walking daily and enjoying the sights and sounds of our cute little town. I really enjoy meeting the people here. I met a lady from TN that is so nice, we have power walked around town some. I know the ladies at the credit union and they know Mack, he even gets a doggie treat there. Then there is the lady at the post office, she is such a sweetie and a Mack lover too, she gives him Milk Bones and gives me one for the road. Also she is nice enough to weigh my items that I sell on eBay before I list them, so I charge the right amount. The lady at the coffeeshop is also nice and greets us, she even has dog bones for the neighborhood doggies. So basically when we walk Mack gets treats at all the places I do business with and they even know him by name. There is something to be said for living in a small, dog friendly town... I LOVE IT.
Hello 2010! I think this is going to be the best year yet. There are so many exciting things coming our way and I'm sure there are exciting things that we haven't even thought of yet. I have been steadily working on my online courses for Medical Transcription and love it. I can't wait to be done and start working. I will be done with Anatomy by the end of the month and then I will have my final course, which I'm not sure how long that one will take. Andrew has been also steadily working and doing what he does. We have a cruise planned for this year and are SOOO excited about it, we cannot wait! We didn't have a honeymoon and we really haven't been on a "real" vacation ever, traveling cross country was beautiful, but that ain't vacation. Before the cruise we will be flying into SC for a friends wedding and then spending the week with friends and family.
Let me get everyone caught up from the last time I posted...... The first half of November was normal and just chugging along with online schooling and household stuff. Then Andrew's grandfather passed away and we made an "emergency" trip down there and spent Thanksgiving with the family there and helped out his grandmother. Then December came and I was finishing up Christmas shopping and made a trip to SC for the holidays and got to catch up with a lot of family and friends and that was really nice. Now in January my primary focus has been the online courses and just trying to get them done!
Pictures are coming.... I'll try to get some of me playing twister.JPG)
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Here is a picture of me with our pumpkin.... I think I want to get another one!
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Here is me with one of those "put your face through the hole boards"
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This patch had alot of pimpley pumpkins.... they were interesting.
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In our small town they have a yearly Apple Squeeze, which happended to be this past weekend. There was a street fair with all kinds of crafts and food/snacks. Also you could buy a gallon of apple cider that you "squeezed" yourself on one of he 30 presses that were there. It was a nice fall welcoming event. 
Well I have been "crafting", 
sort of, maybe its more "creating". Anyways... We are having a joint baby shower for 2 families in our unit tomorrow and I made these cute Baby Wreaths as gifts for the families and also as some decoration.
Once family is having a little girl and they requested either pink or gender neutral items. One family is having a litttle boy.
So I'm going to a BINGO Potluck tonight... should be fun! I haven't played "real" Bingo since going to a Bingo hall with my grandparents, probably 20 years ago. So let the fun times begin.
I will update after the game night. :)
UPDATE: Potluck was good. There wasn't as many people as I thought would be there, but it was still fun! Had lots of prizes for the winners, but I didn't win. Had fun with my friend Katie.
So I had a much needed nudge to blog.... for some reason I just haven't been very into it recently, which is strange, because I stalk other people's blog pages and hate when there isn't an update... so I'm finally UPDATING.
For the most part things around here have been normal and slow, but the past 2 weekends I have been seeing the "shows" and loving it. Last weekend I went with a group of ladies to see the Broadway Musical "Wicked" which is the story of the Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch, it was absolutely amazing. If you have never seen a musical, then you definitely need to find one that interest you and buy tickets(good tickets, not the cheap seats) and GO.
Last night a group of us went to see James Taylor at a local fair. It was so cool! I haven't been to a concert in quite a while. He has so many great songs that of course he wasn't able to sing them all, but the ones he got to were great. Also, I got to eat a gyro at the fair, but I was too full for an elephant ear or that other doughy-bird-nest-sweet-treat(can't think of the name).
Also for those of you that I might not have talked to recently... I have finally started my online course for Medical Transcriptionist. It is hard getting into a routine of studying and taking the test, but I am working on making a routine and "gettin' it done"!
Ok so its been a crazy month....
So Mack and I completed our 8 week Dog Training Course and we graduated on June 29th. He did really well and I can tell a big change in him from before we started and now. We will continue to work on the cues we learned and of course work on learning more in the future, as needed.
My parents came out to visit for 10 days and while they were here we saw the sights of Seattle, Tacoma, Gig Harbor, and also the town we live in. Also they were here for the 4th of July which is big in our town and we had a great time walking the street fair, eating BBQ pork, watching the parade and of course saw some amazing fireworks. Mom and Dad both stayed busy while they were here, Mom was cooking and Dad was being Mr. Fix-It. So my freezer is stocked and my house is all fixed up, for now.
I started working at an online public school up here processing the enrollment paperwork for the students. I have only been there for 1 and half weeks and so far it has been chaotic, but I believe things are looking up for our future.
For some reason blogger isn't letting me post pictures... I'll try again later. I will try to post more consistantly.
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In our small town, we have a historic home and on the same property is a Wagon Shop. The Wagon shop is in the process of replacing the roof, and they are using the same procedures that were used when the building was originally constructed. Based on knowledge of the area at the time of the original construction of the Wagon Shop, the historical society knows that the owner did not purchase the shakes (wooden shingles) in the area because there was no where that made and sold them. So the owner would have had to make them himself or hire someone in the area to get them made.
The historical society is letting people on Saturday and Sunday afternoons to help "split a shake" just like they would have done in the 1800s, So, I joined in on the fun and "split a shake" on Saturday and Sunday. I went 2 days because on Saturday the man that took my picture cut my head off... so on Sunday I had a different man take several picture so I would have some good ones. After the shake is made they let you sign it and the signed part will be underneath other shakes..JPG)
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