relaxin'

Relaxin' is just what we did this weekend.....

......and I can't wait for many more weekends just like this one this summer!!

meal planning monday

Monday: BBQ @ My Parents

Tuesday: Swiss Stuffing Chicken, Green Beans, & Rolls

Wednesday: Goulash & Cornbread

Thursday: Grammy's Asian Chicken, Corn on the Cob, Salad & Rolls
(I'll be blogging this recipe this week!!)

Friday: Pasta Bag, Salad, & Garlic Bread

Saturday Breakfast: Cereal

Saturday Lunch: Whatever

Saturday Dinner: In Fort Worth

Sunday Lunch: Last Sunday Lunch

Sunday Dinner: Beef & Cheese Nachos

go michael!!!!

I am so glad that Michael won Biggest Loser last night!! 

He dropped over 50% of his body fat. 

He totally deserved it!!

I'm looking forward to watching "Losing It with Jillian Michaels".

Will you be watching it?

meal planning tuesday??

Wow! I really enjoyed being served 5 course meals last week.  I'm having a hard time getting back in the kitchen.  I'm trying to take it easy for this week and next as I am super busy with the end of school year stuff.  Here's what we are having this week!!

Tuesday:  Nonnie & Oma's Birthday Dinner

Wednesday: Baked Spaghetti & Crescents

Thursday: Tacos & Spanish Rice

Friday: Sandwiches & Chips

Saturday Breakfast:  Cinnamon Rolls

Saturday Lunch: Leftovers

Saturday Dinner: Grilled Chicken, Corn, & Wild Rice

Sunday Lunch/Dinner:  Ellie's Birthday BBQ

caribbean cruisin'

My blog has been pretty quiet for the last few days because we have been on a cruise with some friends to Cozumel!!

We had a blast!!

  We just got back around 5pm and I'm not ready to do all the things I'm need to do, so I'm going to try to get blog up to speed on our trip.

I'm going to "back blog" so my posts will be on our actual trip dates.  You'll have to scroll underneath this post to see all my posts about our trip or you can click on the links below.

 Room With a View

Day 1- On the Boat

Day 2- At Sea

Day 3- Cozumel

Day 3-Leaving Cozumel

Day 4- At Sea

10 things I learned while on a cruise

1.  There is always someone that looks way worse than you in a bathing suit.

2.  You CAN fry an iPhone

3.  Spray sunscreen does not work.

4.  You can bring your own cokes on board.

5.  You can get as many appetizers and entrees as you like.

6.  Always eat in the main dining room....never on the Lido deck.

7.  If you talk to you server, they will talk back.

8.  Gambling is not worth it.

9.  Try new things because if you don't like it you can get something else.

10.  You don't have to freak out when you spend $550 pesos on lunch and drinks in Mexico, because it's really not as much as you think!

day 4-at sea

On our last day on the cruise we spent most of the day by the pool.  Can you tell that I LOVE soaking up the sun??  Our afternoon also included, lunch with the whole gang, BINGO, a little blackjack (we didn't win a dime), The Newlywed Game (just watched, did not participate), & some sushi.  

Dinner was definitely my favorite part of the cruise each night.  

We were so lucky to have a a great server and assistant. 

**Ugh.....I hate that this picture didn't turn out.  

But I wanted to put it up to remember our sweet An & Jose!! 

Note to self: never use my point and shoot camera.   

They really hooked us up each nigh.  Whenever we couldn't make up our mind on our food, An would just bring us both!!  Each night after dinner Ann would come and talk to us and tell us a little bit about her life on the ship and her family back home in Bali (Indonesia). 

After dinner the whole group decided to play a late night game of Nerts.  If you can't tell by all of our faces, it was a very intense game!!

Our last little towel creature was a sting ray. 

Thank you babe for taking me on a cruise!!!

 I love you and I can't wait until our next vacation together!!

day 3-leaving cozumel

Our day in Cozumel didn't end when we got back on the ship and set sail.  We definitely had a full afternoon of fun.  

We soaked up some more sun in the back of the boat on the "Serenity Deck".  It was an adult only deck area with cushioned chase lounges.  It was only in the 80's but it got so hot that we had to take a break and go down the water slides. 

I have to admit though, I didn't go down the slides........not because I was afraid though.  I just don't like water going up my nose, and I hate that I can't open my eyes since I wear contacts. 

We also played some putt-putt.  

The ship had a 9 hole course. 

After our afternoon of fun we headed back to the room to clean up for yet another delicious dinner.

After dinner, we opted not to go to the "Broadway Show".  It was pretty cheesy the first night and we didn't really feel like sitting through it again.  We ended up playing Nerts (a card game) with one of the other couples.  When we went down to their room to get the cards, this is what we saw!!!

None of us noticed the feet until we were all about to walk out the door.  The steward had rolled up 2 of the navy blue beach towels and attached a pair of tennis shoes to them.  The shoes were tied and everything. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it. 

Our room didn't have a freaky guy under the bed, but instead had another mystery towel creature.  He didn't even have any eyes!!!

After a long day out in the sun, we slept SOOOOO good!!

day 3-cozumel

First thing Saturday morning our boat docked in sunny Cozumel Mexico.  We got to spend the majority of our day off the boat!! It was a wonderful day!!

We walked around the "touristy" part of Cozumel and went into all the shops.  The only thing I bought was some vanilla.  After walking around for a while we all decided it was time to get away from all the shops.  One of the guys in the group had a friend recommend a place a few miles away from the boat.  We took a 5 minute cab ride down the street to a place called The Money Bar.

It was a very relaxing place.  We definitely made the right choice to get away from the boat

It was not crowded at all, it looked over the ocean, it had great Mexican food, and it even had cheap snorkeling!!

Seven of the ten of us snorkeled.

It was Matt's first time to snorkel.  

We had a lot of fun snorkeling!! We got to see some really cool fish.

We might have had a little too much fun.....

day 2-at sea

Our day included.....

 a delicious breakfast with friends, 

BINGO,

 laying out, 

lunch with friends, 

more laying out, 

a nice long afternoon/evening nap, 

a lobster and steak dinner with the whole gang, 

a late night comedian show 

and of course we were greeted by another towel creature.  

We weren't quite sure what he was, but isn't my husband good lookin'?  Man I'm a lucky girl!!

Side Note: I did NOT do a very good job at taking pictures on this cruise.  First of all I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do and of the pictures I took, most of them were with my point and shoot rather than my DSLR.  I ended up using my point and shoot more than my DSLR because it fit in my little purse and I always had it with me.

day 1-on the boat

After we finally got our room situation dealt with, we walked around the entire ship to see what all it had to offer for the next 4 days!!  Our first stop was to the spa.  Their services were WAY overpriced, but we made sure to get our free arm massage.  

My favorite part of the ship was the top deck where you could lay in the sun with the ocean in view!!

After our trip around the ship we headed to our room to get ready for the "Welcome Aboard" show.

The show was not too impressive, but dinner was a different story.  We enjoyed every bite of it!! We really did stuff ourselves silly!!  For our after dinner entertainment we listened to some karaoke, and even got to hear one of the guys of our group sing a little song for us.  

After a fun night we were welcomed in our room by a friendly little seal!!

room with a view

Our cruise didn't exactly start how would have liked it.  We walked into our original room and it literally smelled like an ashtray.  There was no way that we were going to be able to sleep in it.  One of the other couples that we went with also had a smoky room, so we went to guest services and complained.  They kindly said they would "refresh" the room and we had high hopes that it would be better.  

They re-cleaned everything in the room and even had some sort of air filter machine in the room for a while, but it still smelled.  Once again we went and complained.  The lady told us she could "refresh" the room again and send a supervisor to check it out, but there was nothing else she could do as there were no other rooms available.  At this point we were so frustrated because we hadn't even had time to relax and we missed the cruise setting sail.

After we checked in at our Muster Station, we headed back to our rooms for the third time.  Of course it still smelled like smoke.  This time we decided to get mean and call guest services and complain once more.  They miraculously had two rooms available for us.  They were no longer next to each other, but they didn't smell like smoke, so we didn't care!!

We even got an upgrade because our original rooms didn't have a window.  

It sure was nice to have a room with a view!! 

But it was really nice to have a room that didn't smell like an ashtray!!

10 more days.....

10 more days until summer!!!

Not that I'm counting or anything!!!

my photography wishlist

I want to add some new things to my camera bag!! 

Here's some of the things I'm wishing for right now.....

New Camera Strap

Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8

Okay, I would really love this one, but it's a little too expensive. 

Canon EF Telephoto Lens 85mm F/1.8

Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3

an Epiphanie Lola Bag

And while I'm dreaming.....

                                                                                         

I'll take one of these too!!

meal planning monday (not really though)

Monday: Parmesan Crusted Talapia, Macaroni & Cheese, Veggies & Crecents

Tuesday: Baked Spaghetti, Veggies, & Garlic Toast

Wednesday: Quick Out to Eat

Thursday: Kitchen Closed

Friday: Kitchen Closed

Saturday: Kitchen Closed

Sunday: Kitchen Closed

hip2save

There are a ton of coupon blogs on the web these days.  There is really no need to follow all of them though, because they all post the same deals.  

I have found that my favorite coupon blog is hip2save.  You should check it out.....especially if you are new to couponing or if you are interested in starting.  At the bottom of her blog, she has a section called "Couponing 101."  She literally walks you through everything you need to know to begin couponing.  

My favorite thing that she does on her blog is her "Follow Me Monday" videos.  She is the cutest thing ever and she always makes me laugh with her little videos on Monday.  

I'm super excited that I have finally found a coupon blog that I love!!  I am so much better at couponing in the summer when I'm not working and have more time to look for good deals.  Maybe I'll be even better now that I have a great blog to help me out this summer!!

on demand workouts

If you have Verizon Fios, then you are in luck!!

I just learned about a bunch of FREE workouts on On Demand.

Okay, they aren't totally free because technically you are paying your cable bill to get Verizon Fios in the first place.  But whatever.  You don't have to pay anything extra, so they are FREE to me!!

Here's how you can find them....

Go to On Demand

Click on Browse All

Click on Free

Click on MyLife and then click on Exercise TV

Ta-da!! Tons of FREE workouts!!

Some of the workouts include.....

Bikini Revolution

Back to Bollywood

Disco Abs with Cheryl Burke

Kim Kardashian's Fit in Your Jean by Friday

Bootylicious Buns

Saddlebag Buster

Tummy Tamer

Booty Camp

Last Chance Work-Out by Jillian Michaels

.....and that's just to name a few.  There are literally hundreds of different workouts!!

I am absolutely loving these workouts.  They are quick and right at your fingertips.  I can get a great workout in less than 30 minutes and not even have to leave the house!! I love it!!

If you try them out, let me know what workouts you do, and if you like them!!