We arrived back in town last night around 6:30pm and were home by 7:00pm.  It’s nice to be back to the kids as we missed them so much, but could have used a couple more days.

Eric decided it was just as expensive to rent a limo from LAX to the Long Beach Marriott as it would have been for a taxi, so we rode in style.  Our driver wasn’t very service oriented, but we still enjoyed the ride.  Once we drove up we were totally treated with first class service.

We stayed on the Concierge floor which was really nice.  But of course since we stayed up practically all night the night before we spent most of our day in Long Beach sleeping and ordering room service.

We woke up bright and early the next morning to head to the cruise ship.  Our driver from the hotel was great.  He stopped by “In and Out Burger” for us.  It’s a tradition that we stop there for a burger and fries.  They have the best burgers.  We then dropped off our luggage, sat and ate our food and the couple that we were meeting on the cruise recognized Eric so I was introduced with food on the front of my shirt.  Oh well.  Typical me.  I can’t eat anything without getting it on me first.

We were able to get in our room shortly after boarding the ship.  Oh my goodness boarding the ship was an adventure in itself.  There was a long gang plank that lead to the seventh deck of the ship!  I am not a big fan of heights whatsoever and thought I was going to hyperventilate by the time we made it all the way across!

Our room was pretty good.  Everything was bigger than I thought it was going to be.  While we were waiting for our luggage to be delivered we went top side to enjoy the view and call home.  It was so nice up there.  I think really it was one of my favorite places to be.

When Eric went to go get the camera so we could take pictures they had delivered our luggage so we went back to our room and unpacked so then we would be all settled by the time the ship departed.  About the time we finished getting everything in it’s place it was time for the drill where we had to get our life jackets and meet at our muster stations and then go up to our lifeboats.  Everyone had to participate before the ship could get on it’s way.  I kept sitting there wishing we had brought the camera with us because I’m sure we were quite the site!

After the drill we had just enough time to put away our life jackets in our cabin and run up topside to watch Long Beach slowly disappear.  Shortly after motion sickness set in.  Which then led to taking two different types of motion sickness medications and being constantly sleepy the entire cruise.  I could see why everyone was constantly drinking.  If you’re going to feel drunk you might as well be drunk! 

In spite of that, I did still have the time of my life!  We enjoyed a comedy show our first night and met up with the other couple we were dining with shortly after.  I then had my first taste of cruise food.  Um, let’s just say I did not eat nearly as much as I thought I would.  It was okay, but that was it.  It was still fun trying all kinds of different things and our wait staff was very friendly.

After talking awhile after dinner we finally ended up back in our room and decided we had to order room service.  I fell asleep waiting for room service but woke up just long enough to eat a little bit before falling fast asleep for the rest of the night.

Our next morning we arrived in Ensenada, Mexico.  We joined our group for our shore excursion which was called “A Taste Of Mexico”.  We went to a local restaurant (Mango, Mango) and were taught how to make four different dishes.  Afterwards we were set loose on the city to shop, where we bought several gifts for the girls and a suitcase to fit them all in.  Yes, Nora I remembered to get Vanilla!  Then we were on our way to learn a little bit about the city of Ensenada.

We would have loved to have gone and seen the Blowhole, but the ship was scheduled to depart by 5:30pm.  So we just made our way back to the ship to get ready for formal night.  Of course I decided that we had to go buy me new jewelry from the gift shop for the evening.  We posed for a few pictures (that turned out great) and were off to dinner.  This night we talked with the other business people from our table for a couple hours longer than the night before, before I finally could hardly keep myself asleep and excused myself and went back to our cabin by myself.    But Eric had won his cruise and I did understand he needed to stay, so I went to bed by myself that night.

Our next day was our day at sea.  We managed to fit in a few more meals, finished our shopping and bought almost every picture that had been taken of us.  We went to our Disembarkation seminar so we would know what to expect the next day.  Putzed around the ship and then caught a show.  It was so entertaining and fun.  Then I picked up some jewelry I had ordered earlier in the day and we made our way to another meal.  Then before we knew it, it was time to hurry back to our cabin and quickly pack everything possible to have in front of our door by midnight.

The next morning we woke up bright and early gathered our last few things.  Hung out in the library to call home and then it was time to start getting off the ship.  We wanted to get off as quickly as possible so we would make sure we wouldn’t miss our flight. 

Then it was on the bus to the airport where we putzed around in a daze and then onto our plane.  We had a pretty quick flight back home (only 3 hours) where we had lunch (which I’m pretty sure I ended up with food poisoning) and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

We grabbed all of our luggage and made our way out to the curb where Eric’s Mom picked us up with Erica.  As soon as I saw Erica I quickly dropped everything and hugged and kissed on her all the way home!  It was so great getting back to the girls.  And they all enjoyed their gifts so much.  I don’t we could have picked out better gifts for them.  They were all three so grateful.  Erica loved our pictures from the cruise.  She could hardly believe it was me in the pictures.  The cruise must have made me look pretty good then.

We are already planning on going on another one in late September or early October for 7 days with the kids and to the Caribbean.  I can hardly wait.  I do hope that the sensation of everything in my world is rolling goes away by then.

Here’s a few pictures that we took:

Eric in front of our Limo:

Our Ship:

In front Of A Banana Tree: 

A Taste Of Mexico:

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it is almost here.  Finally.  And surprisingly enough I fell asleep pretty fast last night.

I’m debating if whether or not I even bother going to sleep tonight.  It almost doesn’t make any sense.  Our flight leaves at 5:00 tomorrow morning.  Which means we have to be at the airport by 4:00am, which means we should leave here by 3:30am, so I should probably be up and getting ready at least by 2:30am!  Yikes!  Maybe I’ll just try and take a nap…

I surprisingly have very little I have to get done today.  I definitely want to clean my scrapbook room (which should take all of 30 minutes), maybe do a couple very small loads of laundry, drop off a card and get a pedicure with Eric’s Mom.  I got my nails, waxing and bangs done yesterday.  So I’m looking pretty good, with the exception of the gigantic red spot under one eyebrow from too much waxing.  That stubborn hair that’s been passed on to me…

Just a couple of items left to pack.  But really I can’t pack those until tomorrow morning after I’m done getting ready.

I’ll try to post one more time before we leave.  I will so totally be taking tons of pictures and will post those when we get back.  I was thinking of borrowing Eric’s computer for a bit while we are there, but Internet is pretty pricey.  I kind of have to choose between calling the kids every night or posting to my blog.  Sorry, I’m going to be missing those kids so much so I’ll end up calling them.

is when we leave KC for LA for our cruise!  Each day that goes by it becomes more and more of a reality to me.  As I was picking up some last minute items at Walmart I just about cried.  It hit me how much I’m going to miss my girls while we are gone.  On one hand it will be so nice to just be me and Eric for a couple days, but on the other hand we go just about everywhere as a family.  I’m sure Eric’s cell phone bill will be enormous next month.

I decided that last night I wasn’t going to go to sleep.  I really needed to, but I was making such progress on the laundry that I just wanted to stay up and finish as much as possible.  Boy is my bottom dragging today.  It didn’t hit me until after lunch though.

Lunch was fun though.  I met Julie, Vickie and Tempie at Abuelo’s.  I love the food up there.  Erica warmed right up to Tempie.  She scooted her chair right up as close as she could get it to her.  Tempie was so sweet about it all.  Although as we were getting ready to go into the restaurant Erica wanted to know if Christy was there yet.  I’m having a hard time trying to explain to her that lunch time outings in the middle of the week with Christy isn’t quite in the cards for her.

We were supposed to go down to the Plaza tonight and pick up Eric’s pants he bought at Tommy Bahama.  He had to get them altered.  But by the time we were ready to leave the house the place that was altering them was closed.  So we decided to scratch the dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse and go to the new Brazilian Grill that’s just opened not too far from our house.

The food was great.  The atmosphere was amazing, and the service was top notch.  We were a little lost when we first got in there.  The hostess showed us to a table and then left.  The water boy filled our water glasses without a word.  And finally the waiter (and must have been owner) came to fill us in on what we were about to experience.  And from that point on it was awesome!

Well, it’s off to bed.  I don’t think I’ll have to drug myself to sleep tonight.  I should be good and tired and sleep clear through until the morning.  Just need to get one more load folded first.  Now I’m just down to maintenance laundry again.  Do you think if the girls owned only like three outfits each my job might be any easier? 

What a great today turned out to be.  I discovered that Jackie and I do have interests in the same things.  We both love gems.  I love to use them in bead making and she loves them because she is fascinated by them.  Actually to be honest, there are some very cool looking ones out there.  Anyway the Gem and Mineral show was this weekend, so just the two of us went to KCI Expo and looked and looked at gems and such until they all started looking the same.

We had such a great time together.  It’s been a long time since just Jackie and I have done something together.  I enjoy things she could care less about and she tends to enjoy things that could bore me to tears!  But it was nice to find something in common and spend time together.

After we got home we all decided to go to Oak Park Mall.  Eric really wanted a carry on garment bag and we are running out of time to buy one for the trip.  And Jackie needed new bras.  And I figured once we got there we could talk Eric into taking us to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.

It was so wonderful.  Eric found his bag, Jackie got fitted an got four new bras and we got to eat at Rainforest Cafe.  The last time we had been there I don’t think Erica was even born yet.  She LOVED it.  The girls were so happy when I ordered the big souvenir cups with the Icee and then the Volcano for dessert.  Yeah, they were not necessary purchases to make for a great evening, but it was the icing on the cake for the perfect day.

That is what time I finally decided to get up.  I tried going back to sleep I really did.  I counted backwards from 100 three times!  All I could do is lay there and stare at the inside of my eyelids.  So I decided I might as well get up and be productive.  So I did all my forum lurking, checked my emails and here I am.

I finally got my new cell phone yesterday!  It’s so pretty and pink.  And the best part for me is it has a camera.  It’s amazing how far technology has come.  I’ve actually had this phone scoped out online for almost 1 1/2 months now.  So I walked into the Sprint store and the guy asked if he could help me out and I told him I was looking for the cute pink phone.  He actually took me straight to it.  Turns out the actual pink one wasn’t on display but they had one in stock.  Yay for me!

I figure today will be a laundry day.  Especially since I’ve run out of clean clothes that I actually like to wear.  Which means I really should go up to my closet and box up the rest and take them to Goodwill. 

I’m kind of excited about this early morning quiet time.  I have to pretty much stick to the basement because I really don’t want to wake up the girls.  They all three fell asleep pretty late last night.  So they need to sleep in.

I figure in between loads of laundry I can pack a little bit more for our trip.  I can’t believe it’s only FIVE days away now!  Woo Hoo!

It’s surprising to me at how well I am still able to sleep.  Maybe the whole trip is still not real to me yet?  I don’t know.  It’s starting to feel real to me when I think about it.  I did look up our cruise info the other night online and we’ve finally been assigned a cabin number.  It’s higher up on the ship than was originally thought.  Yay!  When I looked though it had two dots next to the cabin number which when you look at the key symbol it says that means there’s two uppers.  I thought oh great how am I supposed to get myself up on a top bunk and I thought we were supposed to have a King bed.  So, I called Carnival for like the fifth time and asked the very patient (and I’m sure very amused) csa about it, and she told me the room sleeps up to four.  That there is a king bed and then two upper beds that fold out from the wall.  I was so relieved.  Whew!  Now I wonder what my next question will be when I call them?  And when?

I’ve almost got all my shopping done.  Just need to grab a handful of hair products and a couple more magazines and I’m set.  And of course anyone who knows me wouldn’t be surprised, but I’m pretty much packing as I go along. 

I’m actually starting to worry about if I’m going to be able to shove everything in one suitcase now.  I look through there now and I’m bringing FOUR pairs of shoes.  Yes, four pairs of shoes.  That doesn’t include the pair I’m wearing on the plane.  Good grief.  Do I really need that many pairs of shoes for a 3 night/4 day cruise?  Please someone justify it for me.  Which ones would I take out?  I need the sandals to go with outfits for two days.  The flip flops are a must for going to the pool.  The white Keds I have to have for walking about Ensenada.  And none of the above would work with my dress for formal night, so I really have to have the Navy Blue heels.  And all of the above are either too dressy or too casual to work with what I have planned to wear on the plane.

I got my first Brighton Tuesday!  I love it.  I got a watch and a pair of sunglasses.  And it was just about what I told Eric I would be spending.  Now really though considering he has a $350 pair of sunglasses I don’t feel too horribly bad about what I spent on mine.  And let me tell you, there is a definite difference between a more expensive pair of sunglasses as compared to the really cheaper versions.  They actually block the sun!  I found myself still squinting with my cheaper ones in the past and figured what’s the use and just chose to run around without anything.

Well, I better get going.  The house is starting to wake up and I need to grab Erica before she wakes up Eric.  He’s sleeping in late so he can pull an all nighter tonight while the house is quiet so he can record his video evaluations for his clients and then tomorrow he can hopefully finish his pre-trip shopping.  If he doesn’t go tomorrow, I don’t know when he will find the chance to go before we leave. 

Ta-ta for now!