Memories

Cruise 2012 {Day 6}

Posted on November 28, 2012 by admin

~ Day 1 ~ Day 2 ~ Day 3 ~ Day 4 ~ Day 5:Part 1 ~ Day 5:Part 2 ~ Day 7 ~ Day 8 ~

Day 6 we got up early as we had a 7am excursion in Costa Maya, Mexico. In fact when we arrived it was still dark. Our adventure for the day was boarding a Catamaran for an exciting snorkel in the 4th largest barrier reef in the world called the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef at 585 miles long.

Here Monkey stands as we wait for everyone to gather so we can get on the bus.

Walking to the bus

On the catamaran, heading out. Look for our ship way in the distance in this pic.

Putting the sails up

Our ride out was super windy. We were starting to question our decision to do the excursion at 7am instead of 10am. But once we got in the water, you couldn’t tell too much that it was so windy. I haven’t talked about my new point and shoot that I got before the trip, but I will in a later post. Anyway, when purchasing the camera, I got it in a bundle with a waterproof case. Well, the day before while swimming at Mahogany Bay, I noticed a couple water droplets inside the case and I just didn’t want to take the chance again. Here are some pics that are from the same area where we snorkeled.

My best advice for beginner snorklers is to make sure that your equipment fits well and that your life jacket works properly. Teenagers mask didn’t seem to fit right and his life jacket wouldn’t inflate like it was supposed to which made for a very tiring time out in the water. Also, if you have kids Monkey’s age, I would recommend holding hands with them. I didn’t do that at first and ended up spending a great deal of time making sure he was with us. Finally I got smart and just held his hand so I could ensure he was with us. Beyond those issues snorkling was amazing! Rob and I discussed it afterwards and decided that each of our cruises need to have snorkling as one of the activities, because obviously the more you do something the better you get. There are just too many amazing things to be seen underwater and snorkling is one way to go about doing that!

Source: google.com via MagnoliaMom on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via MagnoliaMom on Pinterest

The boys relaxing as we head back to shore.

We got back on the bus and headed back to port.

Here’s a few pics I took while riding back.

Once we got to port, we were able to explore a bit. There’s a nice pool area and lots of shopping.

There’s also the dolphin pool.

We decided we wanted to go get out of our swimsuits and get our money so we could come back and shop a bit.

Here’s some pics from our shopping excursion at port.

As we walked around we continued to see beautifully painted tiles with dreamy beach scenes. After walking around the entire shopping area we landed back at this one particular shop. This guy had a beautiful scene pained with a cruise ship in the background, but when we came back around it was sold. We showed him another scene and said we liked this one. He offered to paint a cruise ship for us for the same price. Here he is starting to paint it.

We got back on the ship in time for lunch and some pool time. There’s no pics of that because I took a nap in the cabin while the boys did that! 🙂

That evening was the other formal night. Rob and I had invitations to the VIP party.

Yay for free drinks!

The boys ready for dinner

Our towel animal

TONS more pics from Day 6 here.

Here’s the Fun Times Newsletter for Day 6!

Posted in Alex, Cruisin', Drew, Featured, Me, Myself, & I, Mr. Mag, My Travels, Pics Pics Pics, The Fab 4 | Tagged ACAC | Leave a comment

An Original Monkey Creation

Posted on November 27, 2012 by admin

How can you not love Lincoln Logs?

Posted in Alex, Pics Pics Pics | Tagged ACAC | Leave a comment

Salsa {like Chili’s}

Posted on November 25, 2012 by admin

Servings: 12
Prep Time: 10 minutes + chill time
Cooking Time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:
2 (14 1/2 oz) can tomatoes and green chilies
1 (14 1/2 oz) can whole canned tomatoes (plus the juice)
1 (14 1/2 oz) crushed tomatoes
4 tsp diced jalapenos
1/4 cup diced onion
1/2 tsp finely fresh chopped cilantro
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp sugar

Directions:
Make sure jalapenos, onions, and cilantro are finely chopped.
Place ingredients into a food processor or blender.
Pulse gently until desired consistancy is reached.
Add tomatoes, salt, sugar, and cumin into a bowl.
Place in covered container and chill.
I would recommend making this the night before so that flavors can marry.
Serve with your favorite thin corn tortilla chips.

~Adapted from Food.com

Posted in Appetizers, Easy!, Featured, Low fat, Mexican, No cooking required, Pics Pics Pics, Picture provided, Tried & True | Tagged ACAC | Leave a comment

Win with Grace? Lose with dignity.

Posted on November 24, 2012 by admin

Teenager’s high school, AHS made it to the 3rd round of the playoffs. Teenager has been super excited that they continue to win, as he really wanted to perform (marching band) at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Unfortunately, that dream came to a grinding halt tonight. They had to play their rivals, OHS. AHS played horribly. Being out-coached, coming out cocky, and expecting the same play to work ever time is not a formula for a win in the playoffs, especially against your arch rival. High school rivalries can get pretty nasty. At the buzzer, I watched as the much of the OHS team ran over to our side to taunt the AHS fans by making rude gestures. Then, trashing our field by tearing up the rally signs that the AHS cheerleaders had made before the game. I looked around to see what the coaches were doing. I’m just stood there watching the players “show themselves.” Then, I see one of the coaches walk over to the signs that had blown further to the center of the field. My first thought was “he’s actually picking those up? Why doesn’t he make the players do it?” Then, I thought, “Well, at least he’s picking it up.” But then, I couldn’t believe my eyes. He actually tore off a section of one of the signs, and proceeded to put it in his pocket! I’m just beyond words.

As if it weren’t bad enough having your season end at the hand of your rival, but then, have them pour salt in the wounds by having such poor sportsmanship and coaches that don’t expect more from their team. As far as I could tell, our team lost with dignity. But win with grace? No, OHS, you didn’t…and that’s sad.

Posted in Mama Drama, Sports Fan 101 | Tagged ACAC | 1 Comment

Cruise 2012 {Day 5 – Part 2}

Posted on November 8, 2012 by admin

~ Day 1 ~ Day 2 ~ Day 3 ~ Day 4 ~ Day 5:Part 1 ~ Day 6 ~ Day 7 ~ Day 8 ~

So if you missed Part 1 of Day 5, you need to go read it about it here.

Here’s a few pics from our trip back from the zipline.

Seventh Day Adventist Bilingual School

After leaving the zipline, we asked Richard to drive us to “downtown” so we could shop. He took us to this weird strip mall. We noticed while we were there that an excursion group was there, so that’s probably why he thought to bring us there.
They had a store that all they sold was items made out of Mahogany.

We were baffled as to what to tell him to get him to understand the gist of what we wanted to do. So the next thing we requested was to go “into the city to a place to eat lunch.” We drove for a ways and finally ended up in the city. He brought us to Bay Side Restaurante.

Lunch was really good and quite plentiful.

After lunch we told Richard we were going to walk around a little. We always like to go to grocery stores at port. It’s always a learning experience. We noticed Eldon’s Supermarket, so we went in to check it out.

Pit bull energy drink

Canela, or as we call it Cinnamon

We bought some different flavored 20 oz. drinks and mosied on our way.

We walked down a ways and found a good place to walk down to get a different view of the water. As we walked we noticed some buildings made out of aluminum.

I was snapping pics of them, when Rob was like, “That is where people live! I can’t believe you’re taking pictures.” My response, “Ooops. Didn’t realize those were homes.”

We stopped in at a couple souvenir shacks, purchased a couple “Roatan” toys and then hunted down Richard.

He wasn’t far from the taxi. So as we were walking back to the car, I tried to ask him if he could bring us to the “prettiest place to take photos” while pointing at my camera. It took him a few seconds to process and then he was like “oooooohhhh, yes, I take you up to top.”

I thought he did good!

We were pretty tired after all the walking and ziplining, so we asked Richard to bring us back to port. I took a few more pics on the way back.

When we got back to port we paid Richard and sent him on his way. We decided to check out the rest of Mohagany Bay, which consents of a really nice, large shopping area and a beach with food, bars, etc.

In the port area, there’s a Fat Tuesday with lots of cool things to take pictures with. This was one of my favs!

After walking over to the beach, we decided to go back to the ship to get our swimsuits on and come back to enjoy the beach.

Of course, when we got back on board it was off to the next port and for us off to dinner.

Beautiful views as we waved good bye.

That evening at dinner we ate:
Monkey enjoyed:
old fashioned chicken noodle soup
fresh fruit
grilled flat iron steak
ice cream or sherbet

Teenager enjoyed:
old fashioned chicken noodle soup
fresh fruit
grilled flat iron steak
old fashioned apple pie

Rob enjoyed:
chicken tenders marinated in thai spices
lasagna bolegnese (starter)
petite filet mignon and brased boneless short-rib
shrimp and fries
old fashioned apple pie

I enjoyed:
chicken tenders marinated in thai spices
lasagna bolegnese (starter)
petite filet mignon and brased boneless short-rib
chocolate, raspberry and vanilla cream cake wtih vanilla ice cream

After dinner the waiters danced and sang for us and the boys even got pulled into the fun.

Towel animal #5

After dinner, Monkey, Teenager, and I went to the dance class to learn part of the dance steps to Michael Jackson’s Thriller! (I wasn’t miserable in these pics, just super tired.) Rob went up into the balcony of the Encore Theater and took these pics.

See more pics from the second half of our day here.

TONS more pics from Day 5 here.

Here’s the Fun Times Newsletter for Day 5!

Posted in Alex, Cruisin', Drew, Me, Myself, & I, Mr. Mag, My Travels, Pics Pics Pics, The Fab 4 | Tagged ACAC | Leave a comment

Bread Sticks :: Bread Machine

Posted on November 6, 2012 by admin

I have been thinking of more and more ideas for my bread machine. Today I made some dough for bread sticks. I thought of several variations to this recipe for what you roll them in before cooking. Which one do you want to try?

Servings: 12 sticks depending on length
Prep Time: 2 hours depending on bread machine settings
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
Dough
1 1/2 cups warm water
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted, divided
1 egg
4 1/2 cup better for bread flour
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs active dry yeast

Egg Wash
1 egg
1 tbs water

Topping
1/2 cup garlic salt
1/2 cup powdered Parmesan cheese
or
Sea Salt
or
Cinnamon Sugar
or
Sesame Seeds

Directions:
1. Put dough ingredients into bread machine. Remember to put yeast in last and be careful to make sure it stays dry.
2. After bread machine finishes, roll out dough to about 1 to 1 1/2 thickness.
3. Cut into 1 inch strips. Roll and stretch. Place on cookie sheet.
4. Cover with clean towel for 15-20 minutes to allow to rise. (In the pic you see above, I forgot to do this!)
5. Make Egg wash and brush on. Immediately after sprinkle on topping, and in the case I used garlic and parm.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

In this pic, Monkey helped me coat them and he got a little happy with it. 🙂

Bread Sticks :: Bread Machine

Author: Lysha @ Magnolia Mom

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 40 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

Dough
1 1/2 cups warm water
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted, divided
1 egg
4 1/2 cup better for bread flour
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs active dry yeast
Egg Wash
1 egg
1 tbs water
Topping
1/2 cup garlic salt
1/2 cup powdered Parmesan cheese
or
Sea Salt
or
Cinnamon Sugar
or
Sesame Seeds

Instructions

Put dough ingredients into bread machine. Remember to put yeast in last and be careful to make sure it stays dry.
After bread machine finishes, roll out dough to about 1 to 1 1/2 thickness.
Cut into 1 inch strips. Roll and stretch. Place on cookie sheet.
Cover with clean towel for 15-20 minutes to allow to rise. (In the pic you see above, I forgot to do this!)
Make Egg wash and brush on. Immediately after sprinkle on topping, and in the case I used garlic and parm.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
In this pic, Monkey helped me coat them and he got a little happy with it. 🙂

Posted in Bread Machine, Breads, Cooking, Easy!, Kids in the Kitchen, Pics Pics Pics, Picture provided, Tried & True | Tagged ACAC | 3 Comments

Cruise 2012 {Day 5 – Part 1}

Posted on November 5, 2012 by admin

~ Day 1 ~ Day 2 ~ Day 3 ~ Day 4 ~ Day 5:Part 2 ~ Day 6 ~ Day 7 ~ Day 8 ~

Just FYI, I had so many pics I wanted to share from our day in Roatan that I decided to break this post down into 2 parts. I hope to have part 2 up tomorrow!

We arrived in Mahogany Bay, Roatan early and since we weren’t doing a cruise excursion we were able to hop off the ship as soon as we were docked. We had a plan in mind, so we power walked our way to the taxis.

There we see the line of taxis, agreed on a price for the day, and jumped in. We told the guy we wanted to go to the zipline that was known as the highest, and longest in the Caribbean. Our taxi driver, Richard, who spoke just enough English to get by said, “oh, ok, I take you to zipline.” Rob followed up by, “Now we want to go to the one that as the longest and highest. Do you know which on that is?” Richard replied, “yes, I take you there now.”

We enjoyed the scenic drive, the LOoooong scenic drive. We got to see a good deal of the west part of the island. Here’s some shots I got as we rode to the zipline.

We turned in a heavily wooded place with a dinky little sign that said zipline. There’s a goat hanging out. I looked at Rob when Richard said, “You go zipline now. We here!” I’m just thinking, “What the heck! This is not the right place. I cannot believe we just wasted this time, but Rob wanted to give richard the benefit of the doubt. All the while I”m thinking what a kiniving kick-back wanting little taxi driver!!! We went over to the shack and Rob asked if this zipline was the longest and highest in the caribbean. The lady looked at us, totally avoided the question and said, “We have 16 ziplines!!” Rob looked at Richard and said this is not the Pirates zipline, which is the one we wanted to go to.” In Spanish, Richard asked the guys where that one was and they answered. We asked richard how long it would be. He said it is a long way! We said, “well, it’s a good thing we’re paying you for the day!!

We finally arrived at Pirates of the Caribbean’s Zipline.

We paid, got our gear on, and hopped in the back of a truck.

We drove a little ways to a scary looking, locked iron gate. One of our guides jumped out and unlocked it. We had a steep ride up, but when we got to the top, we were surrounded by breath-taking views.

Here we are before we climbed off the back of the truck.

As we walked down to the first line, our guide told us we’d have to ride tandem for the first 3 or 4 lines. I decided to go with Monkey.

Here’s Teenager and Rob about to go.

Actually, I was excited, a little nervous, but I knew deep down I could do this. I didn’t go in thinking, “I’m not sure I can do this.” It was nothing like that. I think Monkey was a bit nervous as well, because as we were getting hooked to the line after Rob and Teenager went he kept asking me if I was bringing my camera.

Zipline Details

Ziplines	Distance Feet	Height Feet
1 to 2	1,980	328
2 to 3	1,900	256
3 to 4	1,890	210
4 to 5	1,023	138
5 to 6	1,126	128
6 to 7	780	69
7 to 8	276	20
8 to 9	348	30

Coming in for the “landing”!

Going solo now

Ziplining in the jungles of Roatan was SO fun and so worth it. I would do it again in heartbeat! Yah, it’s that fun. When we finished, we walked down the hill to see the spider monkeys and take off our gear.

See more pics from the first part of our day here.

Posted in Alex, Cruisin', Drew, Featured, Mama Drama, Me, Myself, & I, Mr. Mag, My Travels, Pics Pics Pics, The Fab 4 | Tagged ACAC | Leave a comment

Hanging at the Pike House

Posted on November 1, 2012 by admin

Tailgate at Pike house before the aTm Game

Saturday we decided to go hang out with our friends at the PIKE fraternity house on campus. We enjoyed smoked sausage, chicken, beans, potato salad, cole slaw, and cookie. SO yummy! We hung out and introduced Rob’s dad, who was in town, to everyone. He fit right in with all the football conversations.

Monkey pulled berries off the bushes and played math games and climbed the flag pole.

Teenager hung out with a couple of his friends throwing footballs and just hanging out, doing what teenage boys do, until it was time for the big boys to go tailgate closer to the stadium. Monkey and I headed home to rest. Here’s a few pics.

Posted in Alex, Drew, Me, Myself, & I, Mr. Mag, Other Family, Pics Pics Pics, War Eagle! | Tagged ACAC | Leave a comment

October’s End of the Month Summary

Posted on October 31, 2012 by admin

This month I was happy about: Monkey’s good report card and good report from our parent teacher conference.

This month I was sad about: the never ending cycle of crap with insurance and contractors (post to come).

Somethings I accomplished this month were: prevailing with insurance company in getting a fair amount of money (post to come).

Something new I did was: play at church in the bell choir (post to come).

Books I read were:
Beyond Tuesday Morning (9/11 Series, #2)
by Karen Kingsbury
I Want My Hat Back
by Jon Klassen
The Delta Queen Cookbook: The History and Recipes of the Legendary Steamboat
by Cynthia Lejeune Nobles
The Color Scheme Bible: Inspirational Palettes for Designing Home Interiors
by Anna Starmer
My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife: A One-Year Experiment…and Its Surprising Results
by Sara Horn

Movies I watched were: E.T.

TV Shows I watched were:
Survivor
Mentalist
Amazing Race
Criminal Minds
CSI
CSI New York
Scandal (watch during the day by myself)

My favorite song this month was:
Take Me Into The Beautiful by Cloverton

What I remember about work was: dealing with ornery coworkers.

A lesson I learned this month was: seek strength from God in all you do, even when you feel like you have nothing else left to give.

A friend and I: finally got to eat lunch together!

My favorite pic that I took was:

I cooked: Pizza Chili, homemade bread sticks (recipe to come), and chili.

The boys were: in trouble when they didn’t latch the front door when heading out for school and Daisy got out and I spend half a day looking for her and dealing with it.

My husband was: knee deep in working on stuff for the Boy Scout troop.

The thing I’ll remember most from this month was: the big changes that are coming.

Posted in Me, Myself, & I, Monthly Summary | Tagged ACAC | Leave a comment

Saturday Soccer

Posted on October 23, 2012 by admin

Here’s a couple collages with just a few pics from Teenager’s game and Monkey’s Game. They played great and pulled out big wins!

See all the pics from their games HERE.

Posted in Alex, Drew, Mama Drama, Pics Pics Pics, Soccer Mom, Sports Fan 101 | Tagged ACAC | 1 Comment

Cruise 2012 {Day 6}

An Original Monkey Creation

Salsa {like Chili’s}

Win with Grace? Lose with dignity.

Cruise 2012 {Day 5 – Part 2}

Bread Sticks :: Bread Machine

Cruise 2012 {Day 5 – Part 1}

Hanging at the Pike House

October’s End of the Month Summary

Saturday Soccer

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