TGIF

Arriving in Labadee, Haiti - beautiful morning.

Haiti on The Beach

Haiti On The Beach

Haiti at Dragon's Breath Mountain

Haiti - beautiful sunny day

We walked up the side of a mountain in Haiti and had cold beers at a bar. It was so wonderful.

On the tender on the way back to the ship.

One of our dinners in the formal dining room.

Dinner - we had lamb this night.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Our two tour guides in Ocho Rios - they fell in love with Doug!

Swimming with the sting rays in Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman - catamaran ride, feeding the sting rays and then snorkel trip.

Snorkeling in Grand Cayman - it was 125 feet of water and you could see straight to the bottom of the ocean.

This was the coolest bulldog in the mall area of the ship at the top of the stairs leading down into the casino. HAD to get a photo of him.

The Grand Promenade (the mall area) they had GREAT shopping here and super restaurants.

We were on the ship at Halloween - this is from the Buffet - beautiful carved pumpkins EVERYWHERE.

Belly Flop contest at the pool.

Main dining room.

I think this was Halloween night.

This was formal night (the 2nd night on the boat). It's a mobile photo but a good one.

This is our spectacular Honeymoon Suite on Deck 7. We had our own private balcony.

I am so glad it's Friday today. My job has been very difficult lately. I am working harder than I ever have (at least in the last four years at the firm I work for anyway). I can't go into details because it is considered "privileged" but if I won the lottery, I would so totally be outta here!

I'm going to post some photos of our wonderful Honeymoon in remembrance of how fantastic I felt two weeks ago when I didn't have to come to work for 2 weeks straight.

Trying Again

My handsome son walking me down the isle. I think I was hyper-ventilating here.

I picked this wonderful cake out of a wedding blog post from someone else's wedding and Doug went and cut me the 75 lb. stump. We placed the moss around it and the caterer made the rest of it look EXACTLY like the photo. This was my favorite element of the wedding.

Like I said in my last post (from JUNE . . . yikes), I haven't done this in so long, I nearly forgot how. I did forget how to change my background but I just figured it out (whew). A lot has happened in the past year and 4 months. I used to blog a lot about how I had gotten engaged etc. but two weeks ago, I was married again. This is my THIRD marriage which is rather embarrassing to me but I haven't had any luck with men/boys my entire life. What I can't figure out is, why it took me this long to find someone I will actually spend the rest of my life with? Doug is caring, honest, respectful and he loves me and the kids as if he's been in our lives all along. We enjoy and laugh (and cry) at the exact same things at nearly the exact same times. It's crazy to think I didn't come across him sooner! Anyway, here are some photos from the wedding he and I planned and I'll put some of the honeymoon on later. I love you Douglas Keith Houck!

I did all the table decorations myself. I made wreaths for the Church doors and framed black and white photos of all my family and friends from weddings gone by.

This is my precious Abigail. She looked beautiful in her little gown and fresh flower crown. She danced the night away!

Forgetting How To Blog

I'm having so much fun on Facebook lately that I don't ever remember to get on here to Blog. Today, I was so busy at work, I didn't have much time to even "post" about eating sushi for the 800th time for lunch or dinner this week. What I was able to do was change my March background to a summer fun one with palm trees and beach scene. Love that! I wish I were at the beach right now so in celebration of beach trips past, here are some pictures of beach days gone by . . . .

I hadn't blogged in so long, I had almost forgotten what it was like. I've been stuck on Facebook lately but this is fun too. I like to post photos but it's easier to post photos on Facebook because they download faster and you can choose a wider variety to post. Anyway, you can't "blog" or talk about what fun you have, extensively anyway, on Facebook. It's just mindless chatter amongst old friends trying to catch up when they get a second to check their page from home or work while grabbing a sandwich at their desk (which is what I do). When I eat breakfast or lunch at work, I do Facebook - that's the only time I have time, oh and on the weekends and at night while I watch TV and sometimes in the morning (ut oh, it appears I'm obsessed?). On here, I am able to babble effortlessly much like I do in person - if you know me, you know this about me right? You needant answer that! Just enjoy these posts and the photos that go along side. These are from a few weeks ago in our Atlanta snow storm (if you wanna call 6 inches of snow a storm?)

Love Is In The Air

Here is a great photo of us taken by our wedding photographer Javon Longieliere. You would never know it was about 30 degrees out that day - buuurrrrrrr. We can't wait for the wedding - it will be so much fun and the photos will be a huge treat!! Thanks Javon!!http://www.longieliere.com/

My Valentine

My Valentines Day this year was more like a weekend festival of activities. Most of my weekends lately are centered around wedding planning, wedding errands and wedding-spending-money (is that a word/phrase?).

This year, we had Valentines Dinner on Friday night first with the kids so they would feel the Valentines "love" too - we went to Nagoya Japanese Steak House (the kids love to see the guy cook on the open cook-top and set stuff on fire), Doug and I ate sushi and made our list for our trek out Saturday.

Saturday morning, Doug made Abbey Grace chocolate chip, heart-shaped pancakes with "rip-cream" (that's how Abbey Grace says it), tiny chocolate chips, sugary strawberries and sausage links. Obviously, Zachary and I got to eat some too.

Doug and I went to dinner ALONE Saturday night to a place in midtown called Kyma. It's a Greek fusion restaurant. We had a 5 course meal with a wine paring. It was romantic and delicious and both of us have never been sicker. We were both up all night totally miserable from eating food we're not used to eating (oily, salty bad-for-ya kind of stuff). I guess I've been on Weight Watchers so long now that I've "cleansed" myself or something odd like that. I was ILL!

As the weekend ended yesterday evening, we were so glad our weekend was so full of love, kindness and family. We are excited about getting married and making our family more officially complete.

Bright Shiny Smile AND Floors!

I wonder if anyone can tell my teeth are whiter today? Not because I had them whitened again this weekend but because I accidentally brushed them with Mr. Clean this weekend. Oh yes I did. And trust me . . . this could have happened to you - it's NOT because I'm blond (although I'm sure that is what Doug thought as he rushed to the sink cabinet to check the label on the bottle to see how badly I was poisoned).

So, I clean my engagement ring with Mr. Clean because that's what the jeweler told us he cleans it with. I bought a bottle of the stuff (the lemony fresh kind) and I keep a butter tub under my bathroom sink and an OLD tooth brush to scrub the ring with under there too. When it's time to clean my ring, I soak it, scrub it and rinse. I leave the tooth brush and butter tub out on my counter top to dry. When I brushed my teeth on Sunday, I grabbed the toothbrush that was laying out on the counter and scrubbed away! When I opened my drawer to toss it back in and saw my REAL tooth brush in there, I was like "wholly S*&T!!" - yeah. So, my teeth are fabulous, and my floors are clean and lemony fresh too (oh, and my ring is beautiful)!

44 Week Breakfast Sandwich

I don't like to talk about weight loss too much because I am on a life long struggle with my weight. I am constantly on Weight Watchers, on again, off again. I lose weight, gain weight, exercise, don't exercise. Sometimes I look good, sometimes I'm hugely obese. There are 44 weeks until I get married and to some, that sounds like a really long time. To me, it's a time bomb ticking, ticking, ticking. I watch my calendar, mark the days, I get on the scale, I see pounds come off, then they come back on. It's discouraging the older I get, the harder it is to lose.

I go to Weight Watchers every single week at my office (the "At Work" program) with my friends and we celebrate our accomplishments and usually, I'm pleased (I've lost 25 pounds so far) but these last few weeks, I've lost and gained the same stupid ONE POUND about 6 times. I'm discouraged.



This morning, I decided to add some spinach to my 4 point Weight Watcher breakfast. I always have a 1 point Weight Watcher English Muffin (toasted), a 1 point pc. of Kraft Fat Free Cheese, and a 2 point egg (nuked) - today, I added a bunch of fresh spinach to my sandwich to see if it would "do anything" (that's 0 points). Wish me luck. I have 44 weeks to lose another 35 minimum pounds (Weight Watchers says I need to lose more but what do they know?) I would blow away!!

The Snuggie

This picture is sort of blurry but it's still cute (it was taken with my Blackberry - sorry)

It is always good to stay warm. Especially when the temps in Atlanta drop to a mere 11 degrees and the wind chill is 1 degree. That simply isn't the "norm" for us suthunahs. Inside a nice toasty office building, you would think there, you would find warmth. Not really . . heat apparently rises in high-rise buildings and the necessity for air conditioning to be run (it seems) year round thus the ice chips on my nose and finger tips as I type and the same of my co-workers. We resolved the issue by purchasing a "Lot" of Snuggies - the latest "As Seen On TV" craze that is a blanket you wear and stick your arms through and still work, operate the remote, drink a beverage (even type)!! Once again . . . we're all warm here at Thompson Hine - nice and "Snuggly."

I've Been Tagged . . . .

My cousin Katie tagged me...so I thought I'd participate. Here's what you do:
1. Go to your 4th folder where you store your photos.
2. Select the 4th photo (no exceptions).
3. Post the picture with an explanation and link it back to your tagger.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

This photo couldn't be more boring - it's from my "Christmas Folder" - it's of my den on Christmas Eve before Santa arrived. Yada Yada . . . BORING . . . Not that I have any photos of good stuff like naked people or bikini clad women or anything - oh well . . . ya get what cha get!! Sorry for the disappointment . . . . ok, I tag . . . . Javon . . . . Summer . . . . Matthew . . . . and . . . . Cassie (if she has time) . . . . .

Youth Connection Lock-In

Friday night after work Doug and I headed over to the Church and made home-made pizza for the kids of our Youth Connection (well, I won't lie, Doug did everything - I just cleaned up and ate mostly). Anyway, then, as good parents would (or, dumb parents), we spent the night as Chaperones with 24 teens for this "Lock-In" - yes, we started yawning around 10:30 and it got worse for us from there. The kids were entertained by our Youth Pastor with games, movies, ping-pong, pool, air hockey, Guitar Hero (or Rock Band I think is what we have at Church) - it was so much fun for the kids. They played tons of games - Zachary got a huge splinter in his foot playing a game called Sardines (basically it's hide & seek). The Church obviously was pitch black at 2 a.m. and he caught a piece of "church" in his foot (so he says). We wound up in the Hospital Sunday - he's got a "God Awful Infection" (not my words). I could go on with puns all day but won't . . . anyway, here are some pictures of the evening (and morning wrath).

The evening was young here - watching movies after pizza.

Watching Horton Hears a Hoo after pizza. Only half the kids were here at this point.

Putting away left-overs.

Goofing off in the kitchen.

The girls baked cookies and had to show them off!

Doug - he looks like one of the kids!

Everyone had to mark thier cup with thier name . . . Here's what mine said.

Playing "I never . . . ever have". . .

Hanging out for instructions on Sardines.

More people arrived at about 11 p.m. after a local indoor soccer game.

Breakfast the next morning - pancakes!

The boys all chowing down.