Our First Cruise

I've been wanting to go on a cruise for years. Tom and I actually had been planning on going on one after he graduated from college. He said it would be my graduation present for supporting him through school. About 1 1/2 years ago, my parents decided to take all of us (my siblings & spouses) on a cruise as a celebration for my brother's return from his mission (when I got home from mine, we went to Hawaii....but we had no spouses at that time). Needless to say, we were all very excited. None of us had been on a cruise before, so this was a new experience for everyone. My parents decided to take us on a cruise to Mexico & we all counted the days until it happened. Unfortunately, we had no way of predicting Swine Flu.

Royal Caribbean had to change our ports from Mexico to Oregon, Washington, & Victoria B.C. because of Swine Flu. Unlike some other cruise lines however they gave us several different options even though we didn't have insurance on the cruise tickets. Regardless of the fact that the trip would be a lot colder than we planned & I am from one of the ports we still decided to go on the scheduled cruise. Because of the change of ports the price of the tickets went down, so my dad got a big refund from the tickets and we got and additional $350 per room for on board purchases & $350 per room as credit to use on a cruise within the next year. We couldn't change to another cruise or cancel our flights due to uncooperative airlines. Alaska Air (my airline) was pretty cooperative, but Delta (everyone elses airline) was not helpful at all. The problem was they were only willing to refund them or transfer if they were flying directly to Mexico. Even though we were going to Mexico, we were landing in L.A. This will make me double think using Delta in the future.

Regardless of the colder weather, we had an absolute blast. This was due mostly to the customer service that Royal Caribbean offers. My husband enjoyed the cruise because he's an engineering geek and loves anything ship or plane related. He spent a lot of his free time on board walking around the ship taking pictures! I enjoyed the cruise because I found out I love being pampered & I also loved the entertainment on board. I'm also very passionate about customer service and they went above and beyond in every area to make sure everyone had a great time!

We loved our stateroom attendant, and dining room waiters. The dining room assigns everyone a seat at the beginning of the week and you sit at that table for every dinner all week long. Because we were traveling with such a big group (9 people), our table only included people in our group. In most situations though this enable you to meet other people on the cruise as well as develop relationships to your dining staff. Our table was on the third floor (the "Sound of Music" floor) of the dining room and on the outside so we had a beautiful view every night through a window. Our first night we were even able to witness a group of dolphins leaping through the waves. Very cool! The food in the dining room was very good too! Some of the guys in our group even tried multiple dishes every night. It was all included in the price of your ticket. Our stateroom attendant would leave us animals every night made out of towels. Think balloon animals but made with towels instead of balloons. It was something I looked forward to every night. She was always there with a greeting and a smile every time I saw her. Plus she pointed me in the right direction a couple of times when I got turned around on that huge ship.

I will definitely go on a cruise with them again and I would recommend them to anybody interested in going on a cruise that wants to do more than gamble and drink. There were a lot of activities and other things to do every day. My husband and I even liked our days on the ship cruising better than our ports of call. Of course that could change if we went places we had never been before. The next time I go, I will do a few things differently though. I will book at least one on-shore excursion through the cruise line, I will schedule my dinner for the late schedule so that it wouldn't conflict with shoreline activities (however if you have kids this might not be the best choice), and I will only eat 2 meals a day (being full all the time not so much fun).

In short, I loved the experience and can't wait to go again!!!!

The importance of developing your talent!

This is a topic I've had drilled into me since I was a wee tot! At church, school, & home......yet did I learn this painful and embarrassing lesson? Anybody that knows me will automatically know the answer to this question is "heck no...that would be way to easy"! Then I wouldn't have to do things the hard way and have a learning and a growing experience instead...right? At least that is what I've been telling myself for the last 24 hours.

I had the blessing of being born to two extremely musically talented individuals. They both have amazing voices that they have developed through their entire life. Being their oldest child I spent a lot of my growing up years striving to be as good and as talented as they are. The mistake I've made recently is not keeping up on the practice to keep that talent fully developed. This mistake caused me a bit of embarrassment.

As some of you know, I was recently called as the Young Women's President in our ward. This has been both fun and challenging. It's fun because I already love the girls in the program and I really enjoy spending time with them & the other leaders involved with the program. It's challenging because I feel like a juggler sometimes. I feel like I have to sometimes keep 10 balls in the air at one time. For the Easter lesson this year I decided to have our Laurel Advisor give a joint lesson to our entire young women. Brittany is a very talented teacher and all the girls love her.

She had a no talking lesson with a lot of props, videos, & music. She had already asked a couple of amazing singers in our ward to sing 2 songs, but was still in the need of 1 more. I made the mistake of volunteering. I only had to sing "I believe in Christ". I thought this would be a piece of cake because I've sang in a million times in church. However, I neglected to remember I hadn't sang a solo anywhere for years. I didn't really get nervous until the last second....then my knees started shaking & my voice was quivering. Nice and embarassing for no reason, since I knew everyone in the room. But I was disappointed with myself and my performance. Oh well!!! I finished the song better than I started it and I learned a personal lesson.

It's February........Right??

Ok, so I'm a little confused. Now you have to take into account I'm an Idaho girl pretty much born and raised. Plus before we moved to Washington, I had lived for about 9 years in Utah. But this is like no February I've ever experienced before. Logically I know that it's February, but my body seems to think it's April or something like that! It's absolutely beautiful outside here in Washington. However I do have to admit days like this don't come along a lot here in Washington. It really doesn't rain as much as people think it does.....or at least as much as they made me believe it did. But it is overcast here a lot.

People were outside without their coats, walking their dogs, or just taking leisurly walks around. The sun was shining the grass is green & I even could hear bird singing in the breaze! I love Washington!

And with all this gorgeous weather here in this beautiful area....what did my husband and the scouts do tonight??? They went camping. I know what you're thinking. That sounds logical right. But I'm not quite through yet. They went winter camping at a place called Hurrican Ridge. Now, I have yet to visit this place, but that will change tomorrow morning. The Young Women and families will join the Young Men there for our combined activity to go sledding. This does not mean I'm going sledding however. I am going to catch a ride with my friend Nicole (because I have no car...my husband has our sole transportation) and I will add for moral support to everyone having fun in the snow. Brrrrrrr.

Our First Birthdays in Washington

Today is Tom's 29th birthday! Happy Birthday sweetie!!! Yes, he's still in his twenties and I so am not! Oh, well.....
As most of you know, I recently celebrated my 33rd birthday a couple of weeks ago. It was a very nice enjoyable couple of days. I got to string out my birthday celebration a little bit because Tom's parents were here the weekend before! We had a lot of fun with them here and were sad to see them go the morning of my birthday. Tom's mom though is allergic to dogs, so by the time she left I'm sure she was excited to get home to her clean no dog household!
For my birthday, I decided I wanted to take Tom to a Thai place here in Silverdale that I had been previously with my friend Nicole. Nicole & I go to dinner every month when our husbands are on the insane winter campouts with the scouts. I think we get the better end of the deal! I thought it was a really cute place. It has the feeling as if you are sitting on the floor, but because they have the tables elevated and the floor dug out beneath them, there is actually a place for your feet and so no body parts fall asleep on you! I also liked the food, but Nicole wasn't very impressed with her Duck she had there. I stuck to chicken and it was delicious. Tom also really enjoyed his food there.
The next day, I got to go to lunch with a bunch of friends from our ward. Because I don't have a job yet....in this economy who knows when that will happen; the only people I really know are in my ward. Tom and I have been really lucky with our ward! We love the ward we are in and the great friends we have made here. Anyway, because I love oriental food I chose a place called Oriental Sushi. Of course, I didn't have sushi because I am chicken. But the food was great and I even got dessert that was like an oriental version of a bannana sundae. It was really good & I definitely want to take tom back to try that dessert! I loved it! It's so much fun to be surrounded by so many really nice people!
For those of you that are reading this and are one of the new people in our lives....thank you for making us feel so welcome and loved!

Surprise.....Jake loves the snow!!!!

So this week in Washington, everyone's been knocked on their butts. For those of you not in the know, Washington road crews are not equipped to handle snow. They usually don't get a lot of it, so they haven't really invested on the necessary equipment to handle the situation when it does happen. What this does is shut the area down completely until either the rain washes it away, it melts, or as has happened this time.....enough people have just driven on it to mash it into flat ice-like formations! Now don't get me wrong...I love it here. I am very happy we got the opportunity to move here. I love our ward and all the people I have had the chance to meet and get to know here. This snow situation just cracks me up.

When we first got Jake about 5 months ago, he was the biggest wimp. I don't know if those of you who live outside Washington know this but.....IT RAINS HERE. Sorry, inside joke. I was told that about 20 times before we moved here. Jake didn't want anything to do with the rain when we first got him. Luckily he's gotten a little used to it. He would go out of his way to avoid walking in the rain. When we would go on a walk, he would walk under the parking stall covers so no rain would fall on him. When we got to the end of one stall, he would dart to the next one. If we were walking somewhere where there wasn't anything to cover his poor little head from the mean rain, he would pull on the leash and wimper the whole time. Big wimp huh!!!!

When we got this huge snow storm, I was afraid Jake wouldn't want to leave the apartment. Boy was I wrong....he loves it!!! He'll just sit in front of our sliding glass door and beg to be taken out so he can play in it. The snow comes up to his stomach, so he basically has to jump around like a rabbit to get around. He always comes back soaking wet, but totally happy!
Here are some pictures!

Bras

As a warning to the males reading this post, just close the window now and look at something else. My husband is quite used to my "inappropriate for male ears" topics, but most others probably would like to pretend that words like bras and tampons are not even in the English language.

So, I've needed a new bra for forever. Always in the past I've bought my bras at swanky stores such as Walmart, Target or Kohls. Love these places, but they aren't really known for the feminine lingerie lines. Tom and I were in the mall the other day and passed "Victoria Secret". This is a store I visit a couple of times a year because I use their nummy smelling lotions. I decided to go in a take a look at their bras. I had no idea what I was really looking for and I hadn't really been officially sized for one before.

The lady there asked me if I'd like to be sized. And I thought why not. As I've mentioned before, I've lost some weight in the past couple of years. Ironically, my cup size has gone up while my measurement has gone down. The lady thought I was probably wearing the wrong cup size because I was wearing one too big around. I bought an expensive bra at that store in my right size, just to try it out. I really like it so far. I think it supports me better than previous bras have before.

Here's my question to all you females!!!!! In your opinion, is it worth it to buy the more expensive bra for a specialty store? Does it matter?

Halloween

It's been a while since I last made a post, so I thought I would tell you of our exciting Halloween. It's probably one of the more busy Halloweens we've ever had. For the last 3 years we had maybe 2 or 3 trick or treaters total at our apartment. This is mostly because we were living in an area of town where there weren't a lot of trick or treating age kids and we lived in a basement apartment on a little dead end road. Not a lot of traffic on a good day anyways!

This year was a little different. Tom & I both recently got new callings in our new ward. Tom got his first, as assistant to the teacher's quorum. This was very exciting for him because he loves working with the youth and he enjoys the scouting program. He gets to do both with this calling. I was really happy for him and so far he has really enjoyed it. I tease him that now he gets to work with people on his own wavelength!!! I'm really just teasing!!!! A week later I got my calling as 1st counselor in the young women. I've always wanted to serve in the young women! So, I was really excited about my calling too. One of the benefits of our callings is we end up at the same place at the same time a lot. Which is a good thing, because we still only have one car. Plus we've made some friends in our complex (Derek & Nicole Bird) that also work in the young mens and young women, so we have some alternate ride options if something ever happens.

For Halloween the young men and young women had a joint haunted forest activity that they put on for the rest of the ward. First let me say, I'm not a big Halloween person. Dressing up seems more trouble then it is worth most time and it usually costs money that I either don't want to spend or we don't have. Plus when Halloween in over you can't wear it again for another year.....well I guess you could, but people would probably look at you kind of funny! So, we had to get costumes. For those of you that don't know.....I really like vampires. Not in real life obviously, but I love to read and watch fictional stories about them. So, I dressed up as a vampire, Tom dress up as a convict, & Jake dressed up as a crab(my mother-in-law sent us the costume). The only pictures we got of course was Jake. Surprisingly, we're not very good at taking pictures. You'd think we'd be better with mister camera guy living here. Plus I hate haunted forests, houses etc. I don't like people jumping out at me and scaring me. Luckily for the night I had the job of sorting everyone that showed up into smaller groups to go through. Tom was in charge of a table he made where they stick their hands in 2 bowls of yucky stuff and then a third hole where he grabs their hand and scares them. He really enjoyed it! This happened on Halloween eve.

On Halloween we went over to our church parking lot and took part in the trunk or treat for the kids for the 2 wards that meet in our building. It was the first time since we got married that we ran out of candy! Yeah!!! I don't like to keep it in the house...it's not good for either of us. I've almost reached the 40 lb lost point in a little over 2 years. Go me!!!!