Photo Challenge

I couldn't sleep so I was catching up on my CBox chat, and noticed that Cazzie left me a challenge. It sounded interesting, and it just so happened that the photo I ended up with was actually interesting and not something like a tipsy Kitty singing karaoke LOL.

This is the challenge instruction: Go to your photo folder in your computer. Go to the 6th folder of the photos. Go to the sixth picture. Put the picture on your blog and description of it. Invite six friends to join the challenge. Link them in your blog and let them know they have been challenged.

Now for the description, this is my 5 year old, Ally. She's my little ham and LOVES to look in the mirror. She tends to fall asleep early each evening, then wakes up before daylight and gets into things she isn't supposed to. She has a habit of climbing into the pedastal sink in her bathroom so she can look in the mirror, and sometimes spends an hour or longer making faces and wiggling her loose teeth. In this particular instance, I went into her room to wake her for school, and could see her through the crack in the bathroom door, so I tiptoed back out to grab my camera. Notice the "How much trouble am I in this time?" look on her face. This is one of my favorite pics. I used a quickpage by Carola Mondini on the pic. I needed something quick and easy, and I just love her designs!

Now I have to invite 6 more to participate in the challenge. I think I'll pass this one off to my Creative Team. There's more than 6, but I'd love to see some pics from them and hear more about their families! OK ladies, let's see what you've got! I'd love to have a glimpse into your everyday life :)

Hugs!
Kitty

Back from the Caribbean!

I just had to add a little video of the girls dancing aboard the Fantasy. We had a wonderful time, and the girls really enjoyed the trip!

However, after further discussion, hubby and I have decided that we'll wait until they're older before taking them on another cruise. We thanked God every single day for Camp Carnival! But we enjoyed taking them to see and do things they'd never experienced before, especially Brooke because she was old enough to understand the experience and was ready to go again as soon as we got home (not to mention the fact that we didn't have to constantly keep her entertained on the entire trip lol).

I'll post some pics as soon as I have a chance. I've been spending some time cleaning out some older files today and have found several freebies for you, so I'll get some of those posted as well within the next couple of days.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Thanksgiving! It's really great to be home!

Hugs!

Kitty

Snow Clouds, Element Script, and a Few Ramblings

Hi gang! I just wanted to give you a heads up that I've added new products to the store. The first one is my newest kit, Snow Clouds, which has some great colors that would work prefectly for those winter pictures. Come on, you know you have some! Be sure to also grab the glitter tiles...these match the Snow Clouds kit perfectly and work great to fill your text or a variety of items. And, for those of you who want to create your own scraps, my newest script is commercial use OK and will help you create 4 different elements! You choose your own colors to match your kits! You can get all 3 items in the stores at Memory Junkies or at Scrap Happiness.

Now that the commercials are over...I haven't complained about hubby in a while. I haven't been feeling well today, and no matter how many layers of clothes I piled on, I just couldn't get warm. I stay bundled up on the couch most of the day, and right after supper I grabbed my newest JD Robb book and piled up in the bed. I don't think I even finished the first paragraph before I fell asleep.

So at about 11 PM hubby woke me up tugging on my socks. Apparently I had fallen asleep bundled up like a bag lady. He got me undressed, put my jammies on me (his choice of jammies, so you can use your imagination), and asked how I was feeling. My head was killing me, and my whole body was hurting. He got me some medicine and a glass of water, and I told him I thought he was very sweet to take care of me, especially since when I'm sick he usually makes immediate plans to leave town.

I had slept all evening, so he cleaned up the kitchen, bathed the kids and put them to bed, and when I went to check on them I saw that he had even made them clean their rooms and lay out their clothes for school tomorrow. All this, and then he undressed me, put on my pajamas, gave me medicine, and even marked my place in my book before placing it on the nightstand. Now was it my fault that I had my poor, sick brain in overdrive trying to figure out what he'd done wrong that he was trying to make up for? I didn't have to wait long, because as soon as I layed back down, he snuggled up to me and started giving me The Rub.

Of course I couldn't keep my mouth shut. It was an "Aha!" moment. I can be a real idiot sometimes. Being sick, it would have been one of those times when I got a full body massage, which I REALLY could have used. But oh no, I have to open my mouth and say something stupid like "So that's why you were so nice!"

So here I sit, in my black lace nightie covered up by my nice warm housecoat, blogging instead of snuggling up to my hubby. He's gonna be even more pissed in the morning when he sees that I've blogged about it. But come on honey, you've been married to me for many years....did you really think I'd be able to keep my mouth shut?

We're Back!

Actually, we've been back for a couple of days now, but I've been so busy playing catch-up that I haven't had much time for blogging.

I've added in a few pics from our trip, but if you want to view the entire album you can find it Here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=xjdtieh.kvqnyqx&x=0&y=-3oqrhg&localeid=en_US

We began the cruise last Monday, and spent the first day wandering around the ship gawking at everything. And drinking...of course...LOL. It was a little cold so we were bundled up on deck. We spent about 8 hours cruising down the Mississippi River toward the bay, so by the time we went to bed Monday night we still had not seen the ocean.

We woke up Tuesday to see the sea on all sides...no land in sight! This is a little scary at first, but then it becomes kinda cool, to be the only vessel visible in nothing but water as far as the eye can see. We ate breakfast and then changed into our swim suits and spent most of the day on deck soaking up the sun. The first part of the day was mostly cloudy so we got burned pretty quickly since you can't really tell how much sun you're getting. Tuesday night was formal night for the Captain's Dinner. They had many photo shoots set up all over the ship so hubby and I dressed up and went to each one for pictures. We hardly ever get dressed up so this was a treat for us. After tiring of making photos we went to dinner and i've gotta tell you it was some of the best food I've ever eaten! I had lobster and shrimp followed by come kind of chocolate melted cake served with ice cream. Hubby almost had to roll me away from the table...LOL!

Wednesday we arrived in Progreso at around 8 am so we were up early. We signed up for a shore excursion riding dune buggies on the beach. It was a lot of fun, but I've gotta say that the beach in Progreso is one of the dirtiest beaches I've ever seen. Not really trashy, just a lot of weeds and debri that isn't cleaned up. This is a relatively new tourist town, so I'm sure that in a few more years when more money comes in, it will be built up quite a bit. The people there are very friendly and helpful. The pier is also one of the longest piers in the world, at almost 8 miles long. The water is too shallow for incoming ships, so to increase imports, exports, and tourism, the pier was built into deeper water. There were several shops set up on the dock, but we had to take a bus inland for most of the shops and excursions. This is where we got our taste of the culture of the area, and our tour guide, Wendy, kept us all captivated. When 4 pm arrived and it was time to return to the ship, we were sorry to say goodbye. If you ever get a chance to visit Progreso Yucatan, be sure to stop by the Buggy Beach Break and visit Wendy. She's a nut and will keep you entertained while showing you around town!

When we returned to the ship hubby was a bit ill from too little sleep and too much sun, so after threatening to toss him overboard a few times I finally talked him into going to the stateroom for a nap before supper. While he slept, I grabbed a book and went up on deck. While we were near land I grabbed the cell and called the girls. At this point I was really missing them! I couldn't talk long because it was costing me almost $4 per minute, but it was great to hear their voices.

On Thursday we woke up in Cozumel, and I've gotta tell you this is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been! There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the water was so clear and blue you could see the bottom, even where the ships were docked! We had to dock about 5 miles outside of town and take a taxi downtown. We didn't book any excursions here, just spent the day shopping. We had to get souvenirs for everyone, and hubby ended up buying a 3 LITER bottle of Bacardi...LOL. Here's a pic I snapped of him after we got home, I just couldn't resist!

On Friday we were at sea all day, so we soaked up as much sun as possible before the end of the cruise. They had deck parties all day and evening, and since everyone who had purchased Cuban cigars in Mexico couldn't take them back into the states, every man you saw was puffing away. Hubby ended up leaving a few for our room steward because we knew we'd never get them through customs, but he says it was worth it since they provided woderful service during our stay.

I was so glad to see the kids when we returned home! I'm rarely away from them this long, so it was indeed a tearful reunion. We had talked about taking the kids to Disney World on vacation this summer, but after seeing our pictures and hearing about the fun we had, all 3 of them want to go on a cruise instead. So we may be booking another one for early summer. Brooke is taking Spanish in school and plans to go into linguistics working as an interpreter in criminal justice, so this would be a great experience for her. I'll keep you posted on this one, as we still haven't decided for sure yet if we really want to be stuck on a ship with 3 kids yet...LOL.

So that's our trip in a nutshell. I could spend hours filling you in on all the details but I don't want to bore you! I can tell you though, if you ever plan to take a cruise, you can't go wrong sailing with Carnival! They have the most friendly staff, always willing to help you even if they have to stay past their shift to do so. Hubby's birthday was Saturday so I had them secretly decorate our stateroom Friday night while we were dining, and this was after the Formals shop had closed for the trip. They were very helpful and made sure our needs were met, even after hours. THis says a lot about the staff, in my opinion.

So all in all we had a great time, and we didn't even try to toss each other overboard. I thought about it, b ut was able to refrain. So if you do decide to take a cruise, you really must consider taking the hubby. This is a great place for romance!

Hugs!

Kitty

Bon Voyage!

Hubby and I will be leaving early tomorrow morning for New Orleans, to await our departure on Monday for the western Caribbean. We're so excited...we had planned to leave very early Monday morning to make the 6 hour drive, but you never know when something will come up on the trip to delay the arrival. The ship sails at 4 PM sharp on Monday, and we have to be aboard no later than 3 PM. Anything could happen...car trouble, traffic jams, too much coffee resulting in too many bathroom breaks, or an emergency shopping trip because we see an outlet that I just couldn't pass up. So if we leave a day early we can take our time on the trip. Hubby isn't crazy about shopping, but maybe if I buy him something he won't complain too much. I'll be sure to take the alarm clock.

I'll have limited access while aboard, but won't be able to post pics and things until I get back home. So be ready for lots of new pics next week, hopefully the weather will hold up during the week and we'll have lots of sun on Wednesday and Thursday during the port calls in Cozumel and Progreso. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Hope everyone has a great week! See you soon!

Hugs!
Kitty

Back online...tentatively

I tucked my tail and called Wildblue yesterday. After being on the phone with them for over THREE FRIGGIN'HOURS (on my cell phone, no less) and being transfered back and forth between billing, customer service, and tech support, they finally decided that my account had to be rebuilt. AGAIN. First they told me that it had never been disconnected when I called last week. So I booted everything up, and yep, I was able to get online. But everytime I tried to access the internet, I was redirected to the wildblue new customer activation page. And it wouldn't accept my login name and password. So the person in customer service transfered me to tech support. Tech support was confused so they transfered me to billing. Billing was confused so they transfered me to customer service. Again and again and again. Only to find out that apparently my account WAS canceled. Repeatedly. And they friggin 'broke' it again. What the hell is it with those people??

Apparently it takes 2 weeks to rebuild an account. Only takes two seconds to shut it off, but of course that's different. So I told them, sure, go ahead and rebuild it. Put 2 weeks worth of work into the damn thing. Then I'll call back and cancel it. Why? Because they piss me off. And because today I exchanged my faulty Verizon wireless card for a good one that, so far, seems to be working great. I haven't been disconnected once the whole time I've been typing. And I took time out for a 30 minute phone call. So I'll try this one out for the couple of weeks it takes them to rebuild my account, well, one of the two weeks cause I'll be gone the other week. Then if I'm happy with the wireless card, I'll shut off the Wildblue account again. Maybe I'll do this every few weeks just to keep them on their toes. The card listed on the account expires in a few weeks, so unless they ask me for the new one, and let's face it, they aren't the most adept at reading the facts, I won't offer to give them the new one. Geez it took them 4 months to figure out they had the wrong account numbers when I first had the system installed. And THAT was with me calling them repeatedly, and TELLING them the payment hadn't been coming out of the account. OK, OK, I'll shut up about WB and move on. I realize that the rest of you don't have the facination with idiots that I can't seem to shake. Else I'd just stop calling them.

Well, hubby and I leave for our long awaited cruise in about 6 more days (in case you haven't noticed the banners at the bottom of my blog LOL). I'm in the process of making sure all the laundry is caught up (yeah, right) so not only can I pack my things, but I have to pack a week's worth of crap for each child as well. The things I consider necessities are NOT necessarily the things they THINK they need. I'm pretty sure they will need clean underwear, a toothbrush, and possibly a few changes of clothes, provided I don't let my 4 year old take her favorite outfit in which case my mother in law will argue with, and lose to, Ally when she tries to make her take it off. But the girls think that when Mom is away they won't have to bathe, brush their teeth, or any of that 'nonsense' that Mom thinks they have to do. And their suitcase, apparently, should NOT contain clothes because that only takes up the space they need for the 278 stuffed animals they have to sleep with each night. I keep telling them...NO ONE will be stealing your stuff while you're away. It will all be here when you get back. Which only starts the 'What if' discussion....What if the house catches on fire?...What if a tornado blows everything away? And from my 4 year old....What if a volcano comes??

Anywho...just thought I'd catch up a bit. I will try to get some freebies posted before I leave, but most won't be until we return. And also I've gotta say to Aunt Anne...you really bring my day up with your comments! If you put some of that wit in a blog somewhere, please link me! I'd hate to miss out on it...LOL

Hugs!
Kitty

No Freebies Today :(

Sorry gang, no freebies today. I do have a new kit in the works, but since I'm still having trouble with my internet I'll wait until this is resolved before I post anything new.

Yes, I canceled my Wildblue service. Yes, I've tried the wireless internet cards. Two of them. One from Verizon, one from Sprint. The one from Verizon worked GREAT...all of about 3 hours. Since then I can barely stay online with the thing. And the one from Sprint stays online until I'm ready to sign off. However, the speed is worse than dial-up, and no way am I paying $60 a month for dial-up internet. So waht do I do from here? I guess I tuck my tail between my legs and call Wildblue and beg them to re-connect me.

I really can't figure out what the problem is. Hubby's Verizon card works great in his laptop. Good speed, great connection. And his desk is right beside mine. Virtually all cell carriers get a strong signal here are my house, so it isn't like I'm in a bad area. Sprint is the only carrier I can find who has unlimited data transfer on the wireless cards. So I really, really wish their speed was better.

It's a conspiracy isn't it? Someone from Wildblue has probably been reading my blog, along with all those 'Wildblue SUcks' boards that I've left my two cents worth on, and now they've somehow managed to figure out a way to keep me from enjoying my online life. Sheesh...this was just my place to avoid my hubby, kids, mom, and everyone else for a while. And come on, who REALLY thinks I'm someone who can keep my mouth shut? After all those phone conversations I've had with WB employees, what did they think they would accomplish? Or maybe I've just been offline too long and I'm going through the paranoia of withdrawals. Yeah, I bet that's it.

Anyway, since I have nothing better to do I think I'll go see if I can find where hubby hid all the alarm clocks. I have to get up early tomorrow.

Leave me some love...I really need it at this point! LOL!

Hugs,
Kitty

I got Fapped!

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