Ash Wednesday--Lent Begins

My friend and co-worker was just diagnosed with breast cancer. She's in for the fight of her life. Monday she will go to the multidisciplinary clinic for review and they should tell her her treatment options. She'll have a lot of decisions to make. Please keep her in your prayers.



Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. I have given up all sweets. Normally I don't give anything up for Lent but this year I really need to get a grip on my diet and blood sugar control so this is my way of jump starting it! I know I will succeed, I've got that determined feeling. Lent is how I quit smoking 17 years ago so I know that I will be able to go for the next 40 days (gulp!) without eating a single cookie or piece of candy or ice cream (double gulp!).

Rich is sick with a cold right now. He's laying on the couch sleeping and has been all night. It's quiet around here!

Last Saturday I went to the "Bag a Book" sale at our local public library. You get as many books as you can cram into a regular grocery-sized plastic bag for $5. I got a ton of books that will keep me reading for quite a while!

A week from Sunday Daylight Saving Time begins! I am so looking forward to spring this year. This winter has seemed to go on and on and that extra hour of daylight will be very welcome this year!

The Brenda Photo Challenge - Signs of Spring

Thanks to Joy of Shuttershy for this challenge.

I know that this is pretty lame but there really are NO signs of spring around here right now. Here is my backyard this morning. The snow is gone but that's supposed to change in a few hours; we're supposed to get 3-7 inches today!



So I look forward to next month when Spring will actually begin here!

More Random Stuff

Hey, for the first time I actually remembered to copy my signature here before I even started typing this post! I am getting good!!

Last Sunday we watched Gran Torino. Yes, we actually went to the show..a rarity for us but we wanted to see this movie. Plus, it was a matinee so we didn't have to take out a second mortgage to go! Anyway, it was an EXCELLENT movie. I have always been a Clint Eastwood fan. I especially loved his cheesy old westerns! He was too cool and sexy! He directed Gran Torino and it was filmed here in good old Michigan. It was well acted, funny, sad and had a great ending! I highly recommend this one.

My job is sucking lately. With the economy the way it is, there is no way I will even attempt to look for another job unless I can find one within the hospital system here. I have very good benefits (for now) so to leave this company would be foolish, but I sure would like to do something different. I have worked in this same area for 6 years, and that's not a super long time..but I am so bored and tired of the same old thing every day. OK. I'll stop whining now!

The past couple of mornings I have been getting out of bed at 5:00 instead of the usual 5:45-6:00 and I must say that I rather like have that extra few minutes in the morning. Yesterday I watched a old episode of Oprah and this morning I watched the season finale of Real Housewives of Orange County! Real constructive ways to start my day but hey..why not? I just drink my coffee and get mentally ready for the day!

Well, that's all for now. I really need to come up with some more exciting topics for this blog.

Random Stuff

Monday night we went to the funeral home to see the son of a friend of ours. He was only 27 years old. They think he died of a accidental overdose of pain medication. Our friend is going through a rough time right now. His dad died over the summer, he is going through his 2ND divorce and now this.

He could use some prayers.

It rained here all day yesterday and now most of our snow is gone. One thing I don't like about these next few months is that everything is gloomy looking.

I'm here but my heart is still on that cruise ship!



This is been a tough vacation to recover from. I don't know if it's the time of year, or my dissatisfaction with my job, or the fact that I am getting older but I have had great melancholy for this particular vacation. I just want to still be there, you know?

Yesterday Shauna and her boyfriend sent us this:




All this wonderful chocolate-covered fruit! It tastes so good, too!

Last weekend we watched what I consider the worst movie I ever saw. Its called The Happening. Don't waste 117 minutes of your life on this movie! The concept of the movie was good. Something in the air was causing people to go into a trance and commit suicide, but the acting was horrible and the plot didn't make sense most of the time. I don't even know why we finished watching it. I guess we were expecting it to get better but it never did! Anyway, just a warning!

Well, that's all the stuff kicking around in my head right now.

Tomorrow is Friday at last!

The Brenda Photo Challenge-Textures and Patterns

This challenge is courtesy of Donna of Cottage Days and Journeys.
Thanks Donna. This one was truly a challenge for me!




Ths texture and pattern of my cat, Zoe!



The pattern in this little planter was made by pressing a actual plant into the moist clay.



The pattern of the rocks in Red Rock Canyon in Nevada.

Thats all for me. It you are not a frequent visitor, check out my cruise vacation pictures the last few entries!

Grand Cayman and Cozumel

The third stop on our cruise was Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Man, if I was a millionaire and could live anywhere in the world, Grand Cayman would be the place. It was just beautiful. Once again we took a tour of the city with stops along the way.



This is Seven Mile Beach. We didn't spend a lot of time there but I did manage to stick my feet in the water and it was nice and warm, not to mention beautiful to look at!



Stopped by a million dollar condo complex that was devastated by hurricane Ivan in 2004 and has just now been purchased for restoration by a private investor. It looked pretty bad.



We also visited a turtle breeding farm. This cutie was just a baby. They eat turtles there. The guide told us they "taste like chicken"! The large breeder turtles swim around underwater and poke there heads up for a quick gulp of air before going under again!







Stopped in Hell. I'm not sure if it was an actual city or if it was just a area with creepy-looking rock formations. They did sort of look like hell, minus the fire!



There are a lot of iguanas running around too. The eat them also. The guide said they "taste like chicken"! Really! I wondered why they bothered with the chickens that everyone has in their yards!



These are the condos I would live in if I was a millionaire and could live anywhere in the world!



Our final stop was Stingray City, where we swam with stingrays! See those black blobs? Those are stingrays. It was a little scary at first..they rub against you like a cat! They are ridged on the top and slimy underneath and they will eat out of your hand if you let them! I did not let them. Rich and Marissa opted to stay on the boat but the rest of us went in. I'd show you but no picture of me in a bathing suit will ever grace this blog! LOL



On Thursday, our final stop on the cruise was Cozumel, Mexico. All we did was do a little shopping. They sell a lot of silver there and I bought a bracelet.



OK, one last picture of the ship!

After one final day at sea we arrived in Miami on Saturday and were home by 6:30 in the evening. It was a awesome vacation and I can't wait to take another cruise!

Thanks for letting me share it with you!

Evening on the Ship and Sunrises

The ship...the ship.. I know I go on and on about that ship but it was so big and beautiful I could not get enough of it!.

One evening I decided to take a stroll on the pool deck to take pictures of the night lighting:





It was so pretty. It was a little windy being outside but the advantage was that not that many people were out there!





This was a little temporary bar area..they were selling drinks in glasses that had little lights on the bottom. I don't drink much so I didn't buy one but I suspect they cost around $10 for one drink!





I also caught a couple of sunrises. It was suprising how many people were out there that early in the morning but everyone wanted to take pictures. There is a walking track on the upper deck too for those of us who consistently ate too much every day!
LOL






Next: Georgetown, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Or next stop was Montego Bay, Jamaica.



We were able to pull up to a port this time so we stood on the deck and watched the ship dock.



There was a small marketplace set up right on the port so the vendors could attack the minute you walked off of the ship!



Once again, we were awed by the sheer size of the Liberty of the Seas!



We took a guided tour of the city. One of the stops was a place Rose Hall, which is the former home of the "White Witch" who was a woman from the late 1800's who killed several husbands and lovers, and when she was killed herself she was not properly buried so now she haunts the place. They wouldn't go any farther up the hill than what you see in this picture. That's my daughter-in-law Marissa coming back from taking pictures.



We stopped at a small modern shopping center that had a pretty little outdoor area to sit and have some refreshments.



Our guide took us up to a hotel at the top of a very large hill so we could take pictures. Notice the ship. It was beautiful up there. Click on this picture, or any of them for that matter, to get the full effect!



Our final stop was a flea market. Now, I usually love flea markets and kind of enjoy haggling on the price and stuff, but these people drove me crazy. You could not walk two feet without them coming up to you and trying to get you to buy something from them. After a few minutes I just wanted to sit on the bus. I did manage to buy a pretty basket, though.

Jamaica was pretty but not my favorite stop. The tour was only so-so and the people seemed strange to me for some reason. Anyway, we still enjoyed ourselves immensly.

Next: Night scenes from the ship and beautiful sunrises!

Labadee, Haiti

The first full day of our cruise we were "at sea". It was a good chance to really explore the ship, do some shopping, sit in the sun a little and eat a lot! I don't get to the ocean too often so being right in the middle of it, surrounded by water on all sides was wonderful!

On Monday our first stop was Labadee, Haiti!



Labadee is not really a city in Haiti. It's a area that the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and the Carnival Cruise Line have leased from the government for their use.
Its a large area that is surrounded by a huge 10 foot high fence.



There's no port so the ship has to anchor out and we have to take boats, or tenders, to the shore. I could have sat there all day and looked at that ship!



There is several beautiful beaches, a small water park and a Haitian flea market where the locals could sell their stuff! We bought some little souvenirs and Rich bought a voodoo doll! Wonder what he thinks he's going to do with that?! LOL



My daughter's boyfriend Brad was the only one brave enough to do the zip line but after watching him, I wish I would have done it too! It looked like a lot of fun and he said it was a blast!



And of course, they had a very nice buffet lunch, too!

We had a great day on Haiti!!

Next: Montego Bay, Jamaica

I'm Back..darn it!!

We got back Saturday from our Caribbean cruise. It was the trip of a lifetime because we went with our son Chris, his wife Marissa, our daughter Shauna and her boyfriend, Brad.

Started on Friday morning at 4:00 am when we left for the airport to catch a 6:25 am flight to Miami. We parked in a outlying parking lot and shuttled to the airport. It took us about a hour to check in and go through security but we were at the gate with a hour or so to kill before the flight borded.



It was a good flight with a layover in Cincinnati and we got to Miami about 11:30 in the morning. The 70 degree weather felt wonderful to us! We ate lunch and then took a taxi to South Beach where we walked on the beach and took pictures of some of the art deco buildings there.



It was a good place to people-watch, too!

We didn't stay up very late because we were tired from our early start and wanted to be rested for the next day when we boarded the ship for our cruise.

Saturday morning we were picked up at the hotel and shuttled to the port at about 10:30 to see this beautiful ship, the Liberty of the Seas waiting for us!



This is the largest cruise ship in the world! It has 12 decks and holds over 4,000 people! These little ships are at each end of every deck so you can tell where you are and how to get to where you need to go!



This ship is absolutely gorgeous inside and out. It's all chrome and wood and gleams from being constantly cleaned and polished by the crew.







It has a theatre, a rock climbing wall, a flowrider (for surfing), a ice rink, three pools, six hot tubs, a casino, an art gallery, a spa and exercise room. There is a Royal Promanad with shops and restaurants all along it and there are huge dining rooms!







It is a floating city in itself!

Our stateroom was very nice, very small but cute. We had a window that overlooked the Promanad. Of all the pictures I took, I never took one of the inside of the room!

We stood on the deck and watched the ship leave the port!



We were very excited!

Next: Haiti