Eek! Less than two weeks until vacation time!

I think the title says it all. We are now less than two weeks to go until we will be getting dressed up for the first formal night. I'm so excited! Work has definitely helped as it keeps me busy from the time I clock in until the time I clock out. From helping out other team members to doing my work and hitting my numbers I stay busy. We only have one more full work week left and then next week we have 2 1/2 days and will be heading to Kingwood once we get our of work on Friday at 7pm. We will probably stop off in Giddings at the whataburger that is right off the freeway. It's a great potty stop and pick up some food to nosh on as I'm sure we will be starving. I will work on getting all the non-essientals packed next weekend. Things like make-up, curlers, suntan lotion, bathing suits, shorts, etc. Then on Friday before we go to work I will finish packing us up. I might work on it when we get home on Thursday after work as well instead of waiting on friday. Knowing my luck I would forget something and would be frantic.

Tomorrow we are going to run some errands and finish up on the last pre cruise stuff before I start the packing. We went to Barnes and Noble this last week and stocked up on some books and magazines for the trip. Ian even got him a book to read. It's by the guy that did the Jason Bourne stuff. I think we might even try to go see a movie as well since there are a few out that we wouldn't mind seeing. We will see though. It all depends on how the day goes and what time we wake up in the morning. I'm not going to stress over it too much.

I ordered chocolate covered strawberries and champagne to be delivered to the room as a surprise for Ian on embarkation day so they should be in the room when they open up the rooms for us to go drop off stuff and check out.

We are in our first Aft balcony. We have one that is literally on the back of the ship and not just on the side past the midship location that they determine is aft. Nope....we are on the butt of the ship. LOL.

We should get some great pictures back there. The only thing that is bad about the voyager class ships and freedom ones is they have this superstructer that does block the view straight down like you get on the side balconies. But when we booked these and they were available we couldn't pass it up. I have always wanted to try one out and we are on deck 9 where the structure doesn't impose as much on you and you can look straight out and not be blocked by a steel structure. We will see though. If we don't like it then we can at least say we tried it and spend time on the ship instead of the balcony. However I have a feeling I will still spend time out there because it's supposed to be a huge balcony.

Awww...tick...tock...tick...tock...can't this countdown go any faster.

That's all for now...

~hugs

The Christmas Surprise!

We worked so long and hard to surprise my mom with a Christmas that she wouldn't forget for a long time. Here is the long story in a few short words. My dad and I had been talking about our upcoming cruise on the Voyager of the Seas. He mentioned he would still like to possibly go but just wasn't sure about it. At this point, I mentioned oh hey, why don't you surprise mom with the trip for Christmas since we knew if they just talked about it she probably would not agree to it. muhahaha... So after watching prices fall on the balcony rates for this itenrary we saw rates get low enough and probably wouldn't go any lower. So after working some magic, cruise was booked.

This began the long thought process on how to surprise her with it for Christmas. We finally worked it out to a scavenger hunt that led her to her favorite breakfast place, Cracker Barrel where all the kids would be waiting for her. We decorated a poster with the ship name, itenrary, thier room information among other things. We found some caribbean themed things for the table as well. Dad contacted the manager to talk to them about us surprisng mom at a table in the very back as well.

She woke up Monday morning to her first clue by the coffee stuff because we all know how she loves her morning java. Needless to say it sounded like she had fun on the scavenger hunt at the house.

Then we were all waiting on her to show up. It went off well. I think she even had tears in her eyes! Awww...now she gets a month to plan things and think about her wardrobe and get in the cruising state of mind. We already know we are getting pedicures on Saturday afternoon after Ian and I drive in that morning. Can't wait.

Here are a few more pictures of the event.

One more day till Party time!

Tomorrow is our yearly holiday party at work. This year they moved it to a nice hotel in downtown Austin. I have the battery for our new digital camera all charged up so I'm ready to go. I am really excited. We have a room at the hotel as well so we can head over when we are ready and packed up and then we can have a place to go when we are tired out. It's the 20th anniversary of the company too so I am looking forward to the big presentation for that. It should be a night of fun which is what our memories are made for.

I booked our cruise parking this morning as well so we are set for a parking place for the cruise. We are going to stay at my parents the night before so that will save us money on the hotel. We will probably stay the night we get back as well as it's super bowl sunday and my parently usually have a shin dig. Since we normally work on super bowl sunday we never get to go to it anymore so it will be nice.

We are geared up and ready for vacation. It feels like it has been forever since we had a day off and it's only been over a month. I think it's the overtime getting to us. Oh well. I think we have about 6 more weeks from this coming Sunday so not too much longer. We have our wedding anniversary coming up in Jan as well so another thing to celebrate. I can't believe it's been 9 years already. It feels just like yesterday I was in full bridal/wedding mode. Time certainly does fly by the older you get.

We will be putting money down with the future cruise department when we go on this cruise for the Alaska trip in 2012. I am hoping that they will have the itenraries when we go on this trip but they likely won't be out until March/April from what I have been told.

Not much else to say for now.

~Hugs

It's just a jump to the left.....

So as many of you know Ian and I are big "Glee" fans and tomorro looks to be a very good episode. They are paying tribute to a cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". I can't wait!

Not too much going on in our life right now. I had my birthday last week, so with some birthday money I received from the parental units, thanks again mom and dad, Ian and I are going to see a movie tomorrow. We meant to go last week but I wanted to have a lazy day at home so we didn't.

We have our final payment coming up too for the cruise. Got the reminder email last week. It definitely makes it feel like it's finally getting closer. We made it to double digits finally last week. I believe there is like 94 more days until we will be packing up the car and heading towards the coast.

Just have to get through the next three months essentially. We can definitely manage to do that. We will probably make our way to a sporting goods store at some point in the next two months. I need to get some fins for my feet for the stingray and reef snorkle trip we are doing in Grand Cayman. This way I don't have to use the ones they provide as I can find some that fit me better.

Not much else is going on with us right now. Just working working working.

That's all for now.

~hugs

"I don't want to work, I just want to bang on my drum all day"

So, anytime this song plays on the tv for the carnival commericals I can't help but smile. It makes me excited for the upcoming trip. We did find out recently they are putting on blackouts from around the time before turkey day to December 17th at this time. We will see if then extend it or call it off sooner. We managed to get our queue's zeroed out this last week so hopefully they can stay that way.

Either way we have our time off approved for the cruise which is what matters.

The only thing that bites is we likely won't be able to go to my brothers wedding. =( due to the black outs. We will see.

The other exciting news is our friends Heather and Justin may be going on the cruise with us. We all went to IHOP one night after work for some coffee, breakfast and chit chat. They were asking us about it and the costs, etc and then when they realized it wasn't that bad, they said depending on how big their christmas bonus is they may get to go with us. It would be fun to have someone our own age with us on the cruise. I just hope if they go they like it as much as we do. We will see. Either way Ian and I will be on that ship in 111 days from today. That's what my countdown on royal caribbean's site shows for the timer to embarkation.

I have my birthday a week from wed. We might go to a movie on the Tuesday before at our nice theatre. Then on my actual bday Ian's taking me to dinner at our favorite chinese place at the mall. Yum.

Not much else going on with us. Going to get the oil changed in the car tomorrow. Possibly go to lunch at 620 cafe. and then just relax and maybe watch a movie or two on netflix.

Guess that is all for now.

~Hugs

Countdown timer for the vacation

Removed as this trip is over

What a monday for us

Why is that weekends go by way too fast sometimes. At least we have our monday over with now. We just have to get through 4 more days until it's weekend time again.

We aren't sure how we like the teams so far. Everyone is super nice and it's nice to have some team members from our previous team on it with us. Plus we have our friends Heather and Justin on the team. We just aren't sure we like the management style just yet. They do things different but we expected that to a degree. We just hope that things get better or it's going to be a long few months before vacation is here.

They are definitely trying to have us gel as a team which is nice. Not all team managers/seniors really cared about that before so I definitely like that aspect. Plus they are helping us build some skills for those of us that want to pursue the senior position eventually.

I definitely don't like that they mixed our chat surveys with our email surveys because as my tier takes action dispute emails we tend to get poor surveys because we tend to deny deny deny. so that brings down our survey scores in a bad way.

Not much else going on with us. Looking forward to the next Harry Potter movie coming out next month. So excited to see what they do with it.

I am hoping the time continues to fly by as I am looking forward to vacation time in Jan. It just sucks that we have to wait until the end of Jan. Oh wells. Then hopefully we will do another shift change up in the beg of the new year. I am betting we won't see that until after the year end reviews in Marchish. Who knows.

I guess that is all for now.

~Hugs