*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[HeidiHo]

Good evening!

 

I went to 2 very nice Holiday parties today. Now I have a bunch of cookies that we really don't need. LOL. I should probably freeze some of them and save them for Christmas.

 

Tomorrow I drive to Normal to get Staci. the weather should be good. there's no snow or rain in the forecast. I've made that drive in rain and snow a few times and it's not fun.

 

We were supposed to spend Christmas day at my sister's house but i just found out that my sister's grandson in dubuque will probably be having surgery (tonsils and adenoid's) around the 20th or 21st so they might be going out there to help since the doctor says he will not be ready to travel on Christmas. We might just end up having a quiet Christmas at home.

 

Have a good night.

[walkswife]

I have now worked my diet up to fish and pasta.... woohooo.... at least its not potatoes and oatmeal....lol... It is getting easier every day but the problem is still chewing... a little tender yet and they say it will take months not weeks ..... lol... apparently patience is not a virtue I have.....

[Flick]

I know those of you who live up North or even out West may have trouble relating to this but later today we take a bus to Punta Gorda, have a nice dinner then tour by boat various canals to view Christmas lights and decorations. Decorating down here tends to be lavish as we have such nice weather in which to decorate the outside of our homes. Our "white Christmas" comes from all the sterafoam packing when we open our gifts. Do we miss the snow and cold.........No way Jose!!!

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

I know those of you who live up North or even out West may have trouble relating to this but later today we take a bus to Punta Gorda, have a nice dinner then tour by boat various canals to view Christmas lights and decorations. Decorating down here tends to be lavish as we have such nice weather in which to decorate the outside of our homes. Our "white Christmas" comes from all the sterafoam packing when we open our gifts. Do we miss the snow and cold.........No way Jose!!!

 

Well, just take a look at my count down clock. In 3 weeks I'll be out of the cold and in the sun and warmth. Actually, it hasn't been bad here so far.

We've only had snow once and apparently that wasn't measurable (although it was enough to make the highway's slippery and wreaked havoc) because they are claiming that we have set some sort of record in the Chicago area for the most days with no snow or something like that. It hasn't been real cold either. Not yet anyway. most days in the 40's. Last winter they predicted a brutal winter but it never materialized.

 

My trip to Normal to pick up Staci was uneventful. It's good to have her home. I think she already got all of her grades from her finals and she was pleased with them. Only one more semester to go.

 

I have a long, busy day today. I hope everyone has a good weekend. :)

[momofzeke]

Thank you all for the thoughts for me and Zeke. He was such a good boy, and I miss him.

 

Well, I sure didn't expect to get another dog so soon, but I have a new dog!! Dave went to our local vet clinic to look on their bulletin board for dogs anyone had to sell or give away...and one of the girls that works there told him she had a dog she needed to give away. So now we have Callie Zeke Elder, a 2 year old Border Collie. She is a really nice, sweet, loving, well behaved black doggie with white socks and a white chest and a tiny white stripe on her nose.

 

I've already fallen in love with her, and we only got her Tuesday afternoon! I was really glad to have her yesterday, because it was a week ago yesterday that I lost Zeke. I was so sad when I woke up in the morning, but then I went and got Callie and it helped a lot. I kind of feel like Zeke sent her to us. I took her to the corral to introduce her to him where he is buried, and she immediately laid down right beside his grave. I felt like that was him telling me it was ok.

 

I am much more in the holiday spirit now, and today I will put up our tree and wrap presents and put up some Christmas decorations. Greg & Mallory are coming tonight, because we are all going to a baby shower for a high school friend of Gregs and his wife, who have become great friends with Mallory as well. The shower is tomorrow. We also have a birthday party to go to tonight for a friend.

 

Heidi ~ didn't realize your cruise with Staci was so close!

 

Renee ~ glad to hear you're making progress with the chewing. Does not sound fun, I have to admit.

 

Kathy ~ hope the Christmas shopping is going ok for you!

 

Rick ~ enjoy your Christmas light tour and dinner, it sounds wonderful!

 

Dave ~ hope you and Bettie are enjoying your warm winter!

 

Michelle ~ hope you and Chris are enjoying your cruise! Sounds like you've had a busy year.

 

I was sad to hear that Char will not be joining us on this cruise. I was looking forward to meeting her.

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

[Flick]

And the angels are crying.....

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

My computer crashed yesterday. Dave spent hours working on it and even took it to Best Buy (where we bought it). They didn't do anything to it but gave him some advice on what to do. He was afraid the hard drive was fried but he worked on it till late last night and finally got it up and running again. :D The only problem now is, apparently he set a password for it (I didn't have one before) and negleted to tell me. :rolleyes: Then this morning he got up early and went to the Bears game and now he's not answering his phone or his texts so I can't get into it. :mad: I am now using his computer but it is super old and slow so I won't spend much time on it. He also said that I probably lost some stuff. I know he had to reload some software. Hopefully I didn't lose much but I won't know until I can get on it and see.

 

My back is pretty sore again. Not as bad as it was last weekend but worse than it was during the week. We are supposed to do a horseback riding excursion on our cruise but we might have to cancel that one. The nice thing about Princess is when yu reserve shore excursions they don't charge you for them right then like Carnival does. It goes on your ship account. That way you can change your mind as often as you want to without having to wait for refunds to your credit card. I wish Carnival did things that way.

 

I will admit though that my problems seem very inconsequential compared to the families of the shooting victims in Connecticut. My heart just breaks for them. My nephews college is pretty close to there, maybe about 30 miles away.

 

Sue - How are things working out with Callie. I saw the pic on FB. She's so cute.

 

Renee - glad you are improving. That is one thing I hope I never have to go through.

 

I work tonight. It's going to be a long night because my back hurts but hopfully I'll be out of there early.

 

Have a good day. :)

[Flick]

Heidi, I share your pain. The good news is I finally get an MRI tomorrow morning. I am very confident they will find the problem since I am in such pain.....There are many kinds of pain you can get but I think back pain is the worse because it "stops you in your tracks"!

[momofzeke]

Like everyone, I am heartsick over the horrendous school shooting and the loss of the children and adults there. How does a person feel so much rage in their heart that they would shoot innocent people, let alone small children? I can't even imagine the horror those poor families are going through.

 

Heidi ~ hope your back is feeling better. I know you suffer a lot of pain sometimes, I remember on the cruise you threw your back out and could hardly walk for a while.

 

Rick ~ good luck with the MRI, hope they can find the problem and that it is an easy fix.

 

We had a fun weekend with Greg & Mal, and the baby shower was nice.

 

My Callie dog is such a joy! She is really a nice, well mannered, quiet dog, and very affectionate and loving. Just what I needed!

 

My neice's little boy, who just turned 2, had a seizure Saturday and is in the hospital. Dave's sister (his grandma) just happened to be there, they live in Boise, celebrating his birthday. She is staying there until they figure out what is going on. They are doing a lot of tests. Please remember him in your prayers if you would. So scary.

 

My mom is also in the hospital. I have never really talked much about my mom, but she has had health, mental and substance abuse problems since I was 13 years old. She's been in and out of hospitals most of my life, so her being hospitalized is nothing new, but this time may be more serious. She is having kidney failure problems, but that has happened before and she has come out of it. It's a very difficult and stressful situation with her all the time.

 

I got my *fake* tree up yesterday. This week I will bake cookies. I won't bake like I used to, but Greg said he won't come home for Christmas if I don't make Candy Cane Cookies. :rolleyes: Hard to believe Christmas is so close!

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

My computer is working again but there are still some problems with it. Dave is having trouble loading the virus protection so it is not really protected right now. I'll have to be very careful clicking on links, etc. and only go to trusted sites. I probably shouldn't even be in CC or FB but I couldn't stay away. LOL. I'll just be real careful and won't click on links to ANYTHING till Dave gets it worked out. I really don't know much about computers so I can't fix it myself.

 

One of my kitties is a real mess this morning. I've mentioned before that she has some cysts on her face that are really nasty but I don't want to put her through surgery to have them removed because she's 16 yers old. She has apprently scratched at the one on her cheek and it's a bloody mess but she won't let me near it to get her cleaned up. Apparently it's pretty painful to the touch. She has another, even uglier cyst right above her right eye. It's almost marble sized but that one doesn't seem to bother her. The poor thing just looks really awful. She seems to feel OK though, except for a little arthritis so it's not time to have her put down. We also have her sisiter so she is exactly the same age but she has no health problems at all. If fact, if you saw her you'd probably think she is a young cat.

 

Sue - I hope your mother rallies.

 

Have a good day.

Edited December 17, 2012 by HeidiHo

[Flick]

o.k. today we get to try again to feed 300 kids a sundae. Only this time the weather is beautiful with no rain in the forecast so we should be able to do this right after school is out. Also double checked with the store and they ordered the ice cream THIS TIME!!

Tonight is our Christmas reconciliation service. For those of you unfamiliar with this it is also called a communal confession service. Usually, this draws about 50 maybe 60 people but at our Parish we have over 1000 people attend with 27 priests "hearing" our individual confessions. It is done very differenty. We write down what we would like to change about ourselves (attitude etc.) hand it to the priest who gives us a blessing then all these pieces of paper are taken outside and dumped into a large bon fire, thus sending our messages to God in Heaven.There is a lot of music and it is really a joyful ceremony. We also do this at Easter. The Bishop absolutely hates this ceremony but can't stop it. (Our Parish supplies more than 10% of the monies for Catholic Charities in the diocese and "money talks"!)

Edited December 19, 2012 by Flick

[momofzeke]

I don't know if the end of the world is coming Friday like the Mayans said, but I have to admit, I'm kind of ready for the end of December to come and get this darn month over with. It has not been a good December for me. :(

 

You guys know that I lost my Zeke dog, my mom was in the hospital (she went home yesterday and is doing ok), my niece's son was in the hospital (he went home day before yesterday but needs more testing to figure out what is going on with his blood sugar). Now, Brian's little kitty that they just got has some kind of neurological infection and is very weak in his back legs and has difficulty walking. The vet said it is rare, but not really treatable. He gave them antibiotic and steroids, but it sounds like the little guy isn't going to be around that long. He is such a sweet little guy, it makes me so sad.

 

It has turned very cold here. We don't have snow, but they have quite a bit in town.

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

Sue - sorry about all your troubles Hopefully things will get better soon. At least your mom is OK. How are things with Callie? I saw that cute picture of Bailey hiding from her in the whirlpool tub. Is Baily getting used to having her around? We got Snickers when our cats were about 7 - 8 years old. They adjusted eventually. The cats just ignore her most of the time.

 

The weather has turned kind of nasty here. Yesterday it snowed just a tiny bit but then warmed up enough that it drizzled the rest of the day. Today it's dry but cloudy. Our first winter storm is due in her tomorrow though. We might get a few inches but we're not supposed to get as much as my nephew in Dubuque is. Thy might get up to a foot and their little guy who is 5 is supposed to have surgery tomorrow to have is tonsils and adenoids removed. I honestly wouldn't mind getting some snow now. It would make it feel more like Christmas. Other than a few flakes in the air we haven't had any yet this year. Nothing measurable anyway.

 

Have a good day. :)

[Flick]

Here in Paradise S.N.O.W. is a four letter word!!!

Got all the sundaes given out yesterday to the kids. This morning we have to do backpacks since school will close tomorrow and we are (hoping) that the kids bring their backpacks back tomorrow instead of after the holidays. We are building a new church and we were $93,000 short of having absolutely no mortgage when it is dedicated on Feb. 9th. We passed the hat last night at the reconcilation service and you guessed it....there will be no mortgage! We successfully raised 6.5 million in three years to get this done.

[momofzeke]

Time for some good news for a change! Some of you already know:

 

I AM GOING TO BE A GRANDMA!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

 

Greg & Mallory are expecting a child in June. I have actually known about it since the end of October, but was sworn to silence until now. The way they told us was so cool. It was the weekend after my birthday, we were in Eugene for a Duck game. They showed up at our room (their room is next door to ours) early with a birthday present...a box with 2 cupcakes in it. One cupcake had a little blue baby foot and the other a pink baby foot. Mal had made a sign on the inside of the lid that said "Grand Baby Elder due June 2013". It was the best birthday present EVER!! We didn't know they were trying, so it was truly a surprise. I knew they had been talking about a baby, but thought they were waiting until Mal finished her CPA exams. We are all so exctied!

 

Callie & Bailey are actually doing fine together. The picture of the cat hiding in the bathtub kind of looked like he was scared, but he is the one that goes after the dog and then the dog reciprocates. They like that game of chase, and the cat used to do it with Zeke all the time too.

 

It's SO windy here today and last night!! We get a lot of wind, but it is super windy today. Sounds like it is that way all over Oregon. We are supposed to get more snow tomorrow. Right now, we don't have any. We had a little but it is gone.

 

I really need to bake some cookies today. Been putting that off, but I need to get it done.

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

Congrats Sue! I know I already told you that though. Glad to hear Callie and Baily are doing well together.

 

I have an unexpected day off today. My boss called yesterday and told me not to come due to the impending snow storm. I was supposed to work lunch. Well, the storm isn't supposed to hit till early this evening so Staci and I are going Christmas shopping. One of the other managers called me this morning though and asked if I could run to a restaurant supply store for them to pick up something but I told them I had plans. I'm actually off until Sunday now.

 

The storm we are supposed to get is not supposed to be that bad in terms of snow amounts but it's supposed to get extremely windy so even 3 or 4 inches of snow will be bad if it's blowing. They said we could have winds up to 60 mph. Right now it's just raining.

 

Well, I better go get in the shower so we can get out of here and hopefully get our shopping done before the storm hits.

 

Have a good day. :)

[Flick]

Conga Rats Grandma Sue!!!!!

 

Yippee, we get two weeks off from backpacks after packing them this morning.I have my other leg in surgery tomorrow so can use the time off to rest which I didn't do this time. I hate watching other people work especially if it is my job they are doing but I'm not allowed to lift anything over 10 pounds for two weeks. (Guess what....EVERYTHING weighs more than 10 lousy pounds!!!!!)

 

Heidi, hope the storm misses y'all. We actually are going to get cold tomorrow (60 for the high) but fortunately it is only supposed to last for one day.......whew.

[momofzeke]

Well, I guess the world didn't end today like the Mayans said it would! :rolleyes:

 

Cold, snowy and windy here. Not a lot of snow, just enough to make the ground white. Sure is cold, though!

 

Heidi ~ glad you have a few days off! What is your Christmas schedule? Is The Garden open on Christmas?

 

The kids had their first ultrasound yesterday, and we got to see the baby in the ultrasound picture. It is so amazing! You can see the baby sucking his/her thumb.

 

I didn't feel the best yesterday. Got 2 of my Christmas cookies made into dough, but didn't actually bake them yet. They are in the fridge, I'll probably bake them today or tomorrow.

 

Not sure when Brian & Staci will be here. They have the weekend off, and Christmas Eve. Greg & Mallory have to work 1/2 day Christmas Eve so they won't arrive until that evening.

 

Stay safe, everyone, with all the storms around the country!

[HeidiHo]

Good Afternoon!

 

We didn't get much snow at all. It rained all day though and then in the evening the cold front moved through and froze everything. We probably got less than a inch of snow. Our driveway was real icy this morning though. The roads were OK by the time I went out this morning.

 

I won't find out my Christmas Eve schedule until later today. The OG will be open till 8:00 and I'm assuming I will work because I always work Monday nights. It's OK with me. The rest of the family will go over to Dave's brother's house which only 10 minutes from us then I will join them after work. We only do pizza so I will just heat mine up when I get there. We will go to my sister's on Christmas Day.

 

Our kitty that has the cyst's I've told you about isn't doing so well. Another one opened up last night. It's right above her eye and now her face is all bloody and it's really disgusting looking. I called the vet and he's going to come over tomorrow and take a look at it and give her an antibiotic shot. He thinks it's probably infected. I still don't want to do surgery and I think the vet agrees. She's too old. I bought a cone collar but haven't tried to put it on her yet. We're really going to have to catch her at the right moment to get it on her and she may not tolerate it anyway but we'll try.

 

Tonight we are going to an End of the World/Ugly Christmas Sweater party. It's people that Dave works with.

 

Have a good weekend! :)

[Flick]

o.k. the right leg has now had the surgery. This was the bad leg and the surgery did hurt a couple of times whereas the last one didn't bother me so much. At any rate, other than the all the bandages and compression hose I feel great and am even planning on attending a Christmas Party tonight at the Lodge. That is if nothing else goes wrong today...when I got up Kay announced we had no internet so I had to call Brighthouse BEFORE coffee (not a good idea when dealing with techies) then she announced the washing machine is not working and I can't find to $@ service contract. If anything else happens I'm going back to bed!

[Flick]

The countdown continues....I get the bandages off this afternoon.Right now I have a burning feeling in my right leg. Hopefully it will go away. I did dance two dances with Kay last night, however.

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

Rick, hope you continue to do well after your surgery.

 

The vet came out and took a look at our kitty yesterday. We thought the thing she has above her eye was another cyst since she's had several of them but he thinks it's a tumor. He doesn't know anything for sure though and the only way to find out is with a biopsy but that's not going to happen. It's pointless. Even if it's some sort of cancer we wouldn't have it treated. He doesn't recommend removing it either and not just because of her age. It's in an area where there wouldn't be much tissue left to stitch up after removal. Of course, none of this came as any surprise. She's just OLD! Simple as that! He gave her an antibiotic shot because he thinks she might have an infection in another cyst and he also gave her a cortisone shot to help calm things down. She looks better today. The tumor looks less red and the swelling seems to be down a bit. He also said the cortisone shot might help with her arthritis (She walks with a slight limp now). He didn't reccomend having her put down yet because her quality of life is actually still pretty good. She still eats even though she's lost quite a bit of weight and she loves attention from us and still occasionally chases her sister. It's funny because the sister has no health problems but she gets so mad when her sister wants to play. You would never know that the other cat is exactly the same age. She look s like a 5 year old cat instead of a 16 year old cat.

 

My back has improved a lot. For the 1st time yesterday I didn't feel the need to take any ibuprofen or Aleve. I didn't even realize it until late afternoon that I hadn't taken anything but that was because I had no pain so that's a good thing. :)

 

I'm almost ready for Christmas. I have most of the wrapping done. I'm a little sad though because I found out a couple of days ago that Eric probably won't be coming home. he was going to let me know for sure once he got his work schedule but he assumed he'd have to work Christmas Eve and then he would have no way to get home since he doesn't have a car. All the trains and buses are earlier in the day. He's coming home for several days right after New Years though.

 

Staci and I took Dave to Costco a couple of days ago for his Christmas present. We were buying him a recliner but couldn't do it ourselves. We just told him we were taking him there to get his present but we didn't tell him what it was till we got there. He likes it and has wanted one for a while.

 

Have a great day! :)

[AKB10]

Hello Cupid's!

 

It is almost Christmas. I went to the store after mass today and it was packed. The grocery carts were almost gone, you could hardly make it down some of the aisles - especially the baking and spice aisle and the lines to check out were long. Everyone is getting ready for Christmas and the snow storm we are expecting on Christmas day. We are forecasted to get 2 to 4 inches of snow.

 

I have to work tomorrow, but will hopefully be off by noon. We will go to my Mom's house at 4 and celebrate with my whole family. There will be about 25 there. We will stay home on Christmas day and have a quiet day. We already got together with Frank's family last night and had a good time.

 

Rick - glad your last surgery went well. While I was in the deli line at the store the man behind me started talking. He was from Florida and visiting his family here for Christmas. He was bragging about his tan, the sunny warm weather in FL and the 29 gulf courses in his community. I sure felt jealous.

 

Heidi - I hope your Kittie gets better with the antibiotic and steroid. To bad Eric won't be home on Christmas day. I am glad your back is better.

 

Sue - Congratulations Grandma!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS CUPID'S!!!

[Flick]

Merry Christmas Cupids!!!!!!

[momofzeke]

Merry Christmas! Brian and Staci have been here since Saturday night. Greg and Mallory will be here this evening. I am making Gaelic Steak tonight, which is sirloin steak with a whiskey cream gravy...yum!!

 

Heidi, so sorry about your kitty. Sorry Eric can't come home.

 

Merry Christmas to all!