Carnival Sunshine, Part I

    Happy New Year and welcome to my Cruise High. I am going on my third cruise in nine days with my parents and brother!! I am big on saving money, and what better to save it on, than super fun experiences with loved ones?! (And this is all "my money", from birthdays or Christmas, and any left over that I don't use from my grocery fund. Michael and I obviously have another savings account for house things and vacations together.) Because of the Cruise High, I already have enough of my own personal savings to go on a Friendship Cruise around February 2022 with my friends Mia, Tonia, and Sharanya. And then my mom and I are going to take Emma on another girl's cruise -- a Disney Cruise! -- around November 2024. I wouldn't want to go before then since Emma will be almost 6 1/2 years old then and will hopefully be old enough to enjoy it and have fun and know some Disney characters by then so she will want her picture with them on the cruise.
    I'm going to hop right to it. Here are pictures from the cruise that I went on with just my parents from January 29-February 3, 2016. I do not feel like taking time to edit them all today since blogging takes me forever and I already spent the last hour going through and deciding which ones I liked the best and putting them in specific folders for these posts. 3 posts, 99 pictures total!! Let the reminiscing begin!!

Saying goodbye to Michael before leaving for six days. I don't remember why he didn't come on the cruise too. Maybe he couldn't get the days off or he didn't want to spend his own money. He prefers spending his money on tangible items instead of vacations. Recently he told me that he doesn't have any interest in going on a cruise unless it's an Alaskan cruise!! ($8,000 per person, plus 

the price of a plane ticket to fly there from Florida.) Maybe one day we can take Emma on one. 

But I'll stick to $500 Bahama cruises for now! 

  Side note: I remember training a guy named Jeff on 911 on night shift and at 11:59pm on July 28, 2015 (exactly six months before the cruise), I told him to not answer any phone calls for a few minutes while I ran to the supervisor's desk at midnight to request the time off for the cruise. Usually they only let one or two people off in a shift, so I wanted to make sure I got the days reserved first!! I have to do the same thing this year at the end of March to request a weekend at the end of September off so I can go to my cousin's wedding in Indiana (except now we have an online system for vacation time requests). We're not allowed to request off prior to six months in advance. 

^^ Parked at Port Canaveral and waiting in line to show our passports and board the ship!
And purposely wearing our matching shirts. :)

^^ Our cabin/room. In the bottom corner you can see the "couch". That's where I slept (I remember being comfortable enough and have no recollection of my dad snoring loudly) and we pushed the little coffee table under the counter to the right for more room. The staff members bring our luggage to our room for us so we get to explore the ship and start eating the endless food!
  On the cruise next weekend my dad reserved two rooms- one for my parents and one for me and my brother. I was glad we wouldn't have to play Rock, Paper, Scissors for turns on the couch or use the little beds that pull out from the ceiling. I already worried too much about rolling off the side!
   PS- the last time the four of us went on a cruise was in the January I was in 9th grade.. so 2002?

^^ The Luxury deck, up higher with softer chairs. People have to pay extra to use that area.

And I think there was maybe even a "Nobody Under 18 Allowed" sign?

 ^^ Daddy already got his first drink! & we got the traditional soft serve cones!

   Everyone has to participate in a safety lesson before the ship departs around 4pm. We get in a huge line with several rows on the side of the ship with safety vests while they tell us what to do in the case of a crash or the ship starts sinking. It takes about 30 minutes?

   This is the bar and "Mall area" with lots of expensive jewelry and sunglass shops, as well as touristy shops where you can buy all the Carnival merchandise and magnets, etc. We had to pose on the red carpet!! On my first cruise I bought a silver bracelet with starfish charms (estimated cost $12-20? I can't imagine splurging more than that at age 14), you can see me wearing it in some of these pictures too and I have it set out for next weekend. :)

    ^^ Trollie and Suzie got to enjoy themselves on the cruise too!

   ^^ I'm trying to spare my viewers and not post every single food photo that I took. But purposely asked for this photo of my napkin tucked in my shirt to show Michael later (we to leave our phones on Airplane Mode to not be charged for International data!) since he hates when adults give themselves bibs. Haha! Most meals included an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. One night the waiters sang to us!

 ^^ The omelet line is always a must. They are so yummy & fun to watch the guys flip the eggs up in the pans and catch them so perfectly! Even though I ate super healthy for a couple months to make sure I was 105 pounds for the cruise, I really let myself enjoy lots of yummy foods and desserts on the cruise! I'm currently in another health kick again now, but will probably be around 125 this time (my weight has stayed higher since I had baby Emma in June 2017), and then also eat whatever I want on this cruise weekend too!

  ^^ A cruise ship usually has about 12 floors. They definitely have elevators that can be used, but we mostly take the stairs and then laugh about how our knees and legs are sore! Daddy needing a break. ^^

 ^^ Enjoying the deck and the fast slides!
 The last photo is of the guy who took care of our room. Right now I don't remember what his full job was (not cleaning), but in this photo we had to do another safety drill and everyone had to be out of their room by a certain time. I laughed when he said (with an accent), "I saved you." I think his name was Aron.

 On to the next post about the three beautiful island stops our cruise had! :D

Giving Thanks Again

   Here are a couple Thanksgiving-ish photos, but not from the holiday. I didn't want to put these on Emma's blog since they were from before I even got pregnant with her.
   First, at a museum in Ohio in August 2015, with my cousin Jessica and her three kids (Jordyn, James, and Jeremy). Since then she has had two more boys: Jackson and Joshua. Second photo, with my brother Zach and his daughter Peyton, looking at a turkey at Dudley Farms, July 2016.

One main thing I am thankful for right now is how well my marriage to Michael has been going the past few weeks. I truly think it has to do with how I have stopped caring about losing weight again and enjoying all of the filling foods and pies of the holiday season! Maybe I will expand on this more later, but don't want to spend more time blogging than I need to.

Note to self: gather pictures from previous Thanksgivings growing up (from my mom's scrapbooks). And then post them here later! :)

Minimal Bests

   I've been wanting to update this blog for a while because, even though I talk way more about being healthy than I actually do to follow my words and advice to others, I didn't like that the first photo I saw when I opened my blog each time was a big box of donuts! But this post is about minimalism and giving a lot of stuff away. I loved watching "How to Live Mortgage Free", a British show on Netflix, about people who live in boats or tiny houses, or built a tiny house themselves, or one family owned a duplex and paid off their mortgage in 7 years by living very frugally the last three years. However they did make at least 3x more than we do and maybe their mortgage was lower than ours. A lot of the people who were living in the boats were single or retired or the ones building the tiny houses on trailers and out of shipping containers were younger and did not have any kids.
    Michael and I really dream a lot about moving to Georgia. There are a handful of reasons for this, and I told him that I would love to move in the next 10 or 15 years, but after talking to co-workers and my dad about retirement and pension plans, I feel like we're going to be "stuck" in Florida for the next 30 years! Maybe we can really scrimp our money, while also paying our bills on time, putting a little extra towards our mortgage each month, adding to our savings accounts, and increasing our retirement funds. Then each year, we'll be able to take a week long cabin trip -always to somewhere different in the US, until we can finally move out of state when we retire. The picture of the super cute tiny cabin below is from Washington (via Pinterest), and I'd really like to visit Ashville, NC. I think I made that an idea for the year 2022, for my 35th birthday, but it's always nicer to go in the Fall when the weather is cooler and we can hike longer without getting sweaty from the summer heat!

   A month or two ago I started weeding out Emma's little clothes that don't fit anymore, my own clothes that I rarely ever wear, and also got rid of a lot of scrapbook paper. I tend to get those big 36 page packs, with 12 different designs and 3 of each page, but sometimes only like half of the pages. So I ripped up what I knew I wouldn't care to use. It seemed wasteful, but I've never seen Goodwill selling scrapbook paper, so I don't think they would be able to sell it either - especially since everything I had would be small cut out pieces or random 12x12 sheets. I mailed some of my stickers to my friend's son. I still have a TON of scrapbook supplies, but maybe got rid of 30%.

   I told Michael that I feel really good about getting rid of a lot of stuff. Today I pulled down a bunch of old mugs and water bottles that haven't been used in a long time- or ones we forgot I had. I was happy that Michael said I could get rid of about 20 pieces. Some I just tossed because they had been used often in the past and were stained brown from coffee, but I'll wrap up the ceramic mugs in paper towels and put them in a donation bag. On Monday, I also gave away three more grocery bags full of clothes. Those bags are not pictured.
   I also started reading "Everything That Remains" by Joshua Fields Millburn, one of the founders of The Minimalists, but am slowing down on that since I'm sort of binge-watching a Canadian comedy called Workin' Moms on Netflix this week. (I'm off this week so I can spend a couple extra days with Emma! I need to be editing the book I'm writing about her NICU year too.) So I've only gotten to page 74 of 203 in "Everything That Remains" and that library book is due next week. I'll try to renew it so I have longer to finish reading it, but if someone else has the book on hold after me, then I'll have to return it sooner.
   This photo below does not look minimal at all and is almost embarrassing, but luckily I did toss a few more items after taking this photo. I got rid of two small Bath and Body Works travel size lotions, because, although they smell good, my nose and allergies are a lot more sensitive than they used to be, so the Tahiti Island Dream gives me a headache now and the Velvet Sugar makes me sneeze. I also tossed two bottles of curling mouse- which I probably got from Mia when she moved to Colorado- but her hair is naturally curly. Mine is not, and I am perfectly fine with it being straight and air-drying 99% of the time. So why would I need those products?

    Next, shown below, I took pictures of all of the make up I am keeping, although I rarely wear it. The items by the bag are what I keep in there and the other items are less used, or haven't been used at all, but I don't want to get rid of them because of the variety of pretty colors that I might want to use one day.. They don't take up much space.. I never wear make up to work because I'm not trying to impress anyone with my looks there. Sometimes I will wear eyeliner, but I haven't done that for work in a while. Some of the stuff I decided to keep -like a Mary Kay mascara I got in 2011! is probably super expired and will give me an eye infection- needs to be tossed anyway. And I also don't think I've worn mascara since I started wearing glasses full time.. five years ago!! Yeah, I'm throwing it in the trash right now... done! :)

 ^^ The inside of the Classic 10 tin. I can't remember if I got this from Mia too or if it was from Michael's beauty make up stash. He prefers to stick just with special FX make up, so he gives me his left over beauty make up once in a while, but recently donated a bunch of supplies to the make up school where he works, which I thought was a great idea! Way better than tossing it. This eyeshadow pallet might be from Mia since Michael always buys the expensive Urban Decay pallets from Sephora or Ulta. But who knows, maybe I got it myself from Ross years ago.
   Lastly I went through my jewelry tonight. I had a big bag of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings stashed in the back of the closet for the past three years. I don't think I had worn any of that jewelry since before we moved into our house in May 2016! I should have just thrown the while bag into the Goodwill pile, but of course wanted to go through everything and did save a few pieces. The first photo is what I am keeping and the second photo is what I am giving away:

   Now for some super cute "baby" photos of Emma, who will be 2 years and 2 months old as of Monday, August 12th. She is a great minimalist and requires very little- from her personality. She does have a lot of needs due to medical issues, but she can't help that. She is sooo great at occupying her time and laughing at nothing. Her favorite "toys" are all the medical pieces attached to her and she loves to put them in her mouth, which is fine and safe for her.

A week and a half ago Emma kicked her legs enough that the momentum scooted her body off the soft changing mat and onto the hardwood floor, where she prefers to lay. She kicked her away over to the wall and proceeded to play and be entertained with the curtains for at least 45 minutes! She pulled the curtains up and down, then back and forth with her hands, then moved her legs so she could hold the curtain between her feet and kicked her legs back and forth. Happy as can be. Sometimes when I send the pictures like this to our parents they ask why I don't put her back on the soft changing mat. "What for? She's so happy right now! And if I move her back, she'll eventually kick her way to the wall again." I've done that experiment enough times to prove that Emma does what makes her happy. And that makes us happy too. :)

    A random picture on my Instagram page I found. ^^ I like this minimal water color I did of me, Sharanya, and Mia back in 2015. I forgot about it.  I did delete my apps a few weeks ago (just the apps from my phone- I did not delete the actual accounts) and I have been proud of my very minimal usage. I got on Facebook for about 3 minutes last week to upload a super exciting video of Emma (picking up small toys while sitting up, which she had never done before) and yesterday I used my mom's phone to see the pictures Mia had posted on Instagram recently since her older brother had visited over the weekend. However, even though I'm not scrolling through those apps all the time now, I have been using Pinterest every day, creating various new secret boards. Pinterest has 0% drama attached though, which is calming.

   Here's another picture of Sasha- to remember that she's still kickin'! She'll be 12 years old in a couple weeks, but still has the energy of a 2-year old dog, although she does look tired in this photo. She also is very low maintence and can be happy doing very little. We do open the sliding door for her probably 30 times a day so she can run outside and then relax inside when she gets hot. And it is bothersome when a friend comes over and she barks and barks so loudly, or when she growls at Emma.. But for the other 80% of the time she's a really good dog.
    Lastly, so I can get this posted and go to bed.. Here are some minimal photos from Monday and Tuesday when I spent the night at a condo in St. Augustine with my parents. I was roginally planning to share a bed with my niece, Peyton, but was told she's a night kicker, and when my dad said the couch pulled out into a bed, I decided to sleep there instead. I didn't bring much with me- although I still seemed like a lot when I had to take everything out of my canvas bag to find my phone at the bottom- and even forgot to bring an outfit for the second day, so I just wore the shirt from Monday and then my pajama pants on the drive home since my shorts were wet after we went to the beach. I loved how when I took my shower, all I needed was a bar of soap and an almost empty mini shampoo bottle. The drawer photo was from the night before we left the Ronald McDonald House in Michigan and flew back to Orlando. I was surprised how much bathroom stuff we "needed" and accrued during our 2 1/2 month stay while Emma was in the PICU there from December 2017-February 2018. I told Michael that I wish the drawer always looked like that. The small red pills were also for allergies.

Good night ~ Have a great day and don't spend any money this week! ;)