Telling Our Story One Scrapbook Page At A Time – Installment 19, Galveston 2012 No. 6, Evening in Galveston.

It seems only appropriate after the walking, driving, in and out of the car, that we did it would be appropriate for us to go in search of a place to eat. The dining options in Galveston are endless. The variety ranges from fast food to fine dining. It all depends on what you want at any given time. Today we decided to have a late lunch, early dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. It’s nothing special but definitely hit the spot. Of course, our travel mascot Fernando deFrog Cruise had to have a cocktail!

A walk along Seawall Boulevard was required after eating. Obviously I was on my way to my favorite shopping spot on Seawall! Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures inside Murdochs but maybe on another trip to Galveston, I will.

Our evening ended with a beautiful sunset outside the condo.

We didn’t know how the evening/night would end, but it ended suddenly. While we were relaxing, we received a frantic call from our granddaughter, Jennifer. My mom fell in the bathroom and she did not know what to do. Jennifer was scared as I’m sure anyone would be at that age (13). We immediately packed up and headed back home. I think we made it to the hospital in record time! Luckily, there were no serious injuries and the cause of the fall was determined to be from a seizure and a small stroke.

Happy New Year! 2019 in review.

Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a wonderful time over the holidays.

I thought I would have my first blog of the year 2020 be a review of the highs and lows of 2019 that I encountered.

It seems that my life was rather boring during the first half of the year, but things really picked up when the countdown to our August Carnival Dream cruise got near. Of course, things were really busy leading up to the cruise and we truly enjoyed our time away. I plan on doing a more in depth review of our cruise including the scrapbook pages I will be making to coincide with this cruise.

Immediately following this cruise, sometime in late August, early September, my mother fell in her apartment while trying to reach something in the cabinet above the refrigerator. It is important to know that my mother has vascular dementia and she definitely does not think things through. By this I mean, she was using a dining room chair with rollers to try to reach whatever it was that she was looking for and fell. She finally told me about her fall several days later when her back was hurting her so bad, she could not stand the pain. I took her to the emergency room to be evaluated and she ended up there for several days then transferred to a rehab facility. Needless-to-say, she has now been moved to an assisted living facility less than a mile from the house. Definitely the first low point of the year.

At least the month of September ended with a celebration for my youngest granddaughter’s 3rd birthday! She is just so precious to us.

Then October rolled around and my husband had another birthday. So what did we do? We spent time cleaning out my mothers old apartment!!! It was a family affair and it took a lot of work. I can honestly say my house is busting at the seems. Well, at least my craffice is, LOL

Up next for October, my one and only grandson broke his arm. His right arm. The one he uses for everything. He was definitely a trooper during the entire experience and we are so grateful that he did not have to have surgery. Being the Mimi that I am, I immediately went to the store and got him one of the large pie size cookies for him to enjoy.

Unfortunately, October didn’t end so well as my first granddaughter had to have an emergency appendectomy. And to make matters worse for her and her mother (my daughter) was very sick and not able to take her to the hospital. I was more than happy to take her and make sure she got the proper care she needed. The procedure was done as an outpatient so she was able to go home after she started to come out of the anesthesia.

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On November 15th, I booked another cruise. This time we will be going on an 8-night cruise on the Carnival Freedom. I was so excited to book this cruise and I was able to keep it a secret until we had family birthdays with his family on November 17th. I asked his sister Sharon to give him a folder that had the cruise information in it. He had no idea. This will be the second cruise we have gone on that does not go to Cozumel. But it is also an itinerary we have never done.

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Thanksgiving was spent decorating my mothers apartment for Christmas while she was at her sister’s apartment. I am so happy she loved how everything turned out. I made the garlands that were on her front door and over her windows.

What is December without taking your fur babies to have a picture made with Santa???? Somehow I didn’t get very many pictures of Christmas, but I do know that we had a wonderful day spent with family.

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Which brings us to today. And the only thing I can say about today is that I have re-started Noom. And I had to work. But that’s ok. I love my job. My plans for the new year are to work on scrapbook pages, take more pictures, and enjoy every day.

Carnival Dream 2019 – Precruise #3: Our travel binder is ready to go!!!

I have always been afraid of losing my cruise documents. After reading some posts on a popular cruise site that has reviews and other information for every possible cruise line, I realized that there is a better way to keep our documents together. And what I have found works for me, is to use a binder.

I typically use a 1 1/2 to 2 inch binder, page protectors, dividers to separate the items I will be putting in the binder, and a pencil pouch that has 3 holes. I For this cruise, I am using a binder with a zipper closure. It also has a zippered pocket on the front. The inside front cover has two pockets with a Velcro closure on the top and open underneath, and the back cover has one pocket. So it definitely has plenty of storage.

I picked up this pencil pouch at Walmart one day. There are two zippered pockets on the front and one on the back. I use this to put cash in that we will be using for tips and to keep receipts. I might even use it this year to keep some pens in!!!

I purchased the dividers at Office Depot. They are wider than the sheet protectors as they extend beyond them which makes it easy to get from one section to another. The dividers are labeled according to when I will be using/needing them. Typically the sections are for hotel reservations, parking reservations, and stuff like that. But this year, I have adding one for driving directions. Although we have been to Galveston many times, with all the construction on I-45, we might try an alternate route this time. With this in mind, this years cruise dividers are: driving directions, hotel reservation confirmation, cruise parking reservation confirmation, luggage tags, boarding pass, reservation and excursion confirmations, booking summary, and information about our travel insurance and the cruise line legal information.

Since I love to scrapbook our cruises, I will have empty sheet protectors at the back of the binder to keep any daily newsletters and also for any photos we purchase.

So now that are countdown is at 10 weeks, I’m sure the time will fly by.

Please come back for the next installment which will be what I have purchased from Amazon for this cruise.

Carnival Dream 2019 – PreCruise #1

We are 15 weeks or 105 days away from our cruise on the Carnival Dream. And to think is started out as a secret from my husband and told him about on Christmas. Times is really flying by!!! This cruise has special meaning to us as we will be celebrating the 17th anniversary of our honeymoon cruise. The dates are the exact same. We are leaving from the same port. The only differences are the ship and one port of call. But that doesn’t matter to us at all.

So with the cruise quickly approaching, it is time for me to start making my lists. I will have a checklist for everything. Our goal is to limit ourselves to carry-on only. I’m not saying we can do it but I’m not saying we can’t. But we are definitely going to give it a try.

The important list is the clothes we will need. I make a list by day and what we would need for that day. I do this in an attempt to control the number of items I take. Typically I still end up over-packing. But it has helped me cut things down tremendously.

Then I have the very important travel first aid kit. This is important and can come in handy. But the goal is to not need it if at all possible. Of course, the antacids will definitely been used because… well, Warm Chocolate Melting Cake…. HELLO!!!!

And then there is the master list. Everything I think I will need goes on this list. Once the list is completed, I will break it down by category and how it will be packed. By doing this, I will know where everything is. Hopefully, that is.

I should mention, on our last cruise, we used packing cubes for a big majority of our clothes with minimal in a garment bag. I’m not sure how things will play out once we starting packing in August. But I am excited to use the cubes again!

So now we wait. My plan is to be packed early so the days leading up to our travel day is less stressful. I know on the drive to Galveston, I will constantly be checking to make sure I have our boarding passes, passports, reservation confirmations, and other necessities because that is just how I am.

My plan with this series is to update weekly on things that we are planning on doing in the ports of call and what I have already put aside to pack… in August!!!!

Thanks for reading and please come back!

Getting Carnival Vista Ready #10… Let the packing begin.

I have had plenty of time to choose my clothes, shoes, and accessories. Now it is time to start packing.

For this cruise, I decided to use packing cubes. This is something very new to me so I’m not sure exactly how it will work out, but I’m going to give try it. I started out by ordering some GONEX packing cubes from WalMart. It comes in 3 sizes and in a variety of colors. Since I would need to order some for my mother to try, I order 3 in different colors, Blue, Yellow, and a turquoise color. I received them very quickly and decided to give them a trial run. I tried rolling my clothes and I tried just folding my clothes. I have decided that these will not work for me for a 7-day cruise but can still be used for the smaller items. I next turned to Target and found some things I thought would work great for my husband and I so I ordered said items. I was able to use the extra large and large cubes to fit my clothes in.

I decided to use the large cube for what I consider daytime clothes… shorts and shirts to wear around the ship and at the various ports of call. I tried the rolling technique and the regular folding and found that regular folding works out best for me. Everything fit in the cube nicely and doesn’t feel like they clothes are shoved into the cube.

I used the extra-large cube for the evening clothes which are the outfits I will be wearing to dinner and around the ship afterwards. My cruise-elegant dresses will be packed in a regular garment bag. The evening clothes fit nicely into the extra large cube and I can probably add some more to it if I wanted to. But I don’t want to. I’m trying NOT to over-pack on this cruise. I guess time will tell if I have succeeded or not!!!

I purchased a bead container at Hobby Lobby along with some plastic bags to use for my jewelry as I have seen people on YouTube use them with great success. I was amazed with how easily everything fit into the container and now I do not have to worry about anything becoming tangled!!!

My travel first kit has been packed and is busting at the seams!!! But keep in mind, I’m packing for 9 and I feel the need to be prepared for any emergency that may come along. I am keeping everything in a cosmetic case I purchased at Tuesday Morning. Everything fits in nicely unless I think of some other items I might need.

I am using a ditty bag I found at Tuesday Morning for our suntan lotions and after sun lotion. Everything fits in nicely and will come in handy while hanging out on deck or on the beach. There is also enough room for the mosquito repellent wipes I purchased, but not for the Bugables. So it looks like I need to do some more shopping!!!

And last of this packing series, I have packed my hair care products into a cosmetic bag I purchased at Tuesday Morning. Everything fits well and will be easy to access for our pre-cruise stay.

In the next segment of Getting Carnival Vista Ready, I hope to be able to pack my cosmetic bag and also our overnight bag. Plus some other essentials I will be taking and how I hope to pack them.