(Sort of ) Wordless Wednesday

After being at the hospital with my dad for a week, I returned home Friday afternoon, only to have Daniel greet me as I entered the living room.

The first words out of his mouth were, "Hi, Mom! I'm out of clean pants to wear. I had to wear my swim trunks today, because they were the only thing clean in my closet."



Sigh.

Proverbs 31:21
She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

Our First Full Day Out At Sea

Before I start today's post, I wanted to let you all know that I am going to the doctor this morning at 10:15. God willing, the doctor will be able to let me know what is wrong with me. I will let you all know what I find out.

Today I am going to show you a few pictures from our first full day out at sea.
For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while now, you may remember when I talked about "bathing suit" shopping.....Well, now you unfortunately will all get to see the bathing suit that caused such a commotion at Wal-Mart.

(Before I show you the picture of me in the bathing suit, I need to remind you that the camera and the computer each adds ten pounds; so please remember that I don't do look anything exactly like Kathy Ireland in this bathing suit, and we will all be fine. Thanks ahead of time for your cooperation in this matter.)

The wind was blowing like crazy this day.....but the view was awesome!



Here's my sweet Melissa looking so cute!



Here I am again in my black sunglasses....right before they broke.:(
Both pair of my sunglasses broke on this trip....so when you see me wearing sunglasses after this day, they don't belong to me. I had to mooch some of Melissa's.



Also, can you tell how much pain I am experiencing in this picture?.....Not long after this was taken, I had to go to the infirmary......I was diagnosed with a nasty kidney infection.:(


All I could say when I saw this view was, "Well done, God!"



The water was the most beautiful shade of blue that I have ever seen.



This is a picture of one of the pools on the ship. We never got in it because it was too chilly with the wind blowing so hard, but I still wanted to show you all a picture of it. The hot tubs were a favorite spot for many with the chilly temperatures.



After laying out in the sun all afternoon and going to the ship's infirmary, it was time to get all dressed up for the Captain's Dinner. Melissa and I ate dinner each night in the dining room. It was a lot of fun getting dressed up each evening. We ate with the same people each night too, so it was really nice getting to know all of them. (I will show you their pictures in future posts.)

I've told you all before that most of the time when I get all dressed up and fix my hair, I never quite achieve the look that I am going for.



But with a little help from my friend (and hair stylist), Melissa.....I was able to achieve a look that did not cause as many people to look upon me with pity in their eyes.



Here's Melissa looking beautiful as always.



If you have read this blog before, then you know that I love any meal that I do not have to cook or clean up after. So, needless to say, I loved every meal that I had on this cruise.

I have never seen so much food in all of my life.
And each dish that they served us was better than the dish before. And do not be confused, Melissa and I both took pictures of every dish that we were served in the dining room. At first, everyone at our table looked at us like we were "special" when we whipped out our cameras, but by the end of the cruise, they all wanted us to take pictures of what they were eating as well.:)

Each night's dinner began with an appetizer (or a "starter" as it was referred to on the ship).

For this night's starter I chose, "Grilled Chicken with a Greek Salad."



For the main course I chose, "Spaghetti Carbonara."



Then for dessert, so that I could keep my Kathy Ireland like figure, I chose something from their light menu, "Diet Banana Gateau." (Gateau is the French word for cake, but it sounds so much more elegant, doesn't it?)




All three of these dishes were delicious! Every night the food was as much fun to look at as it was to eat. Their presentations were amazing. Just look at that dessert plate again. At home, I would have just opened up a Little Debbie cake and thrown away the wrapper. I would not have gotten out a plate and put fancy designs all around it, but they did.....And I loved it!:)

Each night when we returned to our cabin to get ready for some sleep, our covers would be turned down, there would be chocolates on our bed, and some form of "towel animal." The animal for this particular night was a rabbit.



Isn't it cute? You could buy a book on the ship that showed you how to create these towel animals.....But I've got to be honest with you.....I do good to just fold my towels and put them away at home....I'm not going to take the time to turn them into animals......However, it was a lot of fun to enter the cabin each night and see what type of "towel animal" that we would have.

I could get very used to life on a cruise ship.

I'm just saying is all.:)

Bathing Suits And Other Mischief

I have a big trip coming up in May (I will tell you about that soon), so I desperately really needed to purchase a bathing suit.

So a few nights ago while Shannon and I were killing time waiting for the boys to get out of the movies, we decided to go into Wal-Mart and see if I could find a bathing suit there.

I know the thought of a Wal-Mart story is probably already putting you to sleep, but stay with me.:)

It is very interesting to me that there are all kinds of bathing suit options out in stores today, but every time I am out looking somewhere there are usually only two choices.

For instance, this would be fine if I was guest starring on Baywatch.



And obviously this one would be fine if I was guest starring on The Golden Girls.



The problem is finding something in between the Baywatch and the Golden Girl years.
It is very hard to find a youthful but modest bathing suit for a thirty-something mother of two, that happens to have a little extra "junk in her trunk".:)

So back to Wal-Mart. Shannon and I searched and searched. We finally were able to come up with a couple of choices somewhere between Baywatch and The Golden Girls.

I took both suits and went into the dressing room. Now, I did not want to buy anything without Shannon seeing it on me first. (This is because I think all store mirrors are rigged!) However, I did not want to parade myself all over Wal-Mart to show him how it looked on me, so I asked him to step in the dressing room with me after I had put the second suit on.(The first suit nobody but me needed to see; you know what I'm saying?)

Now we've been married for almost 17 years, so I didn't think this would be so offensive to anybody......but I was wrong.

When Shannon stepped out of my dressing room (after giving me the thumbs up on my bathing suit) he got yelled at. After I put my clothes back on and came out of the dressing room, I also got yelled at. I haven't been in trouble like that since I was in the sixth grade.

The "dressing room attendant" expressed her STRONG displeasure at our actions.

She said to Shannon and me, "We don't allow that in this store!.......There are some customers who could have been very offended if they saw THAT!"

I'm not exactly sure what "THAT" meant, but obviously she had the wrong idea.

Shannon just looked at her. I remained calm and politely said to her, "Your customers would have been a lot more offended at the sight of my big butt bottom hanging out of that small bathing suit."

She just looked at us and said, "Well, I'm sure they would have!"

At least we agreed on that issue.......:)

Shannon and I both just smiled at her and thanked her for her rudeness help as we walked away. We both felt like we were sixteen again and had just got caught kissing in the school library(or worse).

It was embarrassing and funny at the same time.

The bad news is that Shannon and I think we may now be banned from our local Wal-Mart, but the good news is that I did find a new bathing suit.

I don't necessarily look like a swimsuit model in it, but I don't look like a geriatric patient either.

So what do you think?



I'm just delusional kidding~:)