Drumroll, Please...

It's been almost three months to the day since my last blog post. If you have seen me or Chase at all in those months, you know I haven't had time to blog because we took on a painting project. I had two weeks off at the beginning of July that I had planned to dedicate solely to painting our paneling in our living room, dining room, entry, and breakfast nook...and while we're at it, let's do the kitchen cabinets, too! I know I sound crazy, but I really thought I could get a lot knocked out in those two weeks. A few glitches came up: 1) My mom rented a house in Florida, and we HAD to go during my vacation time. 2) We used a primer that didn't cover so well...Kilz II...don't do it. Just don't. If I had anything to do over again, I would use ANY other primer. We ended up painting 5 coats...2 primer and 3 paint. 3) I had no idea how much more difficult painting the cabinet doors would be than painting the rest of the walls. Of course people warned me. Of course I didn't listen. Have you met me? I'm stubborn. 4) 80's electrical wiring was uncooperative for outlet and switch replacement...not up to code is a complete understatement.

Ok, you've endured my pathetic excuses. Here are the before and after pics I know everyone will just love. Some of the walls had actually been painted after my before pictures, but before this project. These before pictures are from the week we bought our house, so I think they're funny and ridiculous. They have all the crazy paint and original, 1984 light fixtures so you can see ALL the work we've done.

During the process:

Sanding/Priming

Painting

Finishing

Before and Afters:

Living Room

Dining/Foyer

Kitchen

Would we do it all again? Yes, most definitely! We spent less than $500 for this entire project, including hardware (www.doorcorner.com). I'd say it's made a huge difference, and we're very pleased with the outcome. There's plenty more to say, but the peer pressure to post these pictures is keeping me short-winded tonight...you're welcome.

Great Kids

Let me just say, we get to be aunt and uncle to some of the most amazing kids I've ever known. We only got to see four of the seven last weekend, but I hope to see the others at some point this summer.

Thursday night, while Chase was at rehearsal, my mom brought two sweeties over to our house. Levi and Lexi can burst into any room with smiles and energy and light it up. They had Alice going crazy and chasing them in no time.

They came bearing handcrafted artwork for me and Chase. So sweet that they went up on the fridge immediately.

Friday, the sweet kiddos went with me to work, and played with Holland. They were instant best friends. Holland called them Lee-five and Lekthee, and she is STILL talking about them! We played in her playroom and went to the park. The kids were even perfect angels while she was napping. Unfortunately, this is the only pic I took. They were only like this for a few minutes, so don't judge me ;)

After lunch at Chick-fil-a, Levi looked up at me and said, "This has been a good day for me." 

"Really?" I asked. "Well, I was trying to make it fun for you!"

"You succeeded."

Great. Kids.

Levi and Lexi had no idea that we had tickets to the Ranger game that night...so fun! After work, we went to get some supplies. I bought peanuts, Cracker Jacks, and their favorite sodas in bottles. They were clueless. I had them convinced that we were going to make coke floats and have a picnic in the park. It was hilarious. Levi said, "Man, Lexi can always guess surprises!" Yeah, she nailed it!

I got these great shirts at Academy. The jerseys were only $3! A steal (aaaand we have a baseball pun...yesssss)! Sometimes it pays to live next door to a photographer. Matt Nicolosi is our neighbor and very close friend. He was so great to snap some pics for us. Check out his work...he's FANTASTIC! Really...he's an artist.

Once we got to the game, we had some lovely folks behind us snap a quick shot of all of us (between innings, of course).

These sweeties really didn't want to smile much. Especially the little girl who has the curls!

But a silly face...THAT is easy!

I then had Lexi take a picture of us. Not bad...I think this was the third attempt.

Now, where do they get that silliness?

Oh, that's right...

Lexi Grace, do. not. smile.

She cracked!

Baseball games are pretty cool. Especially when those Rangers score, and there are fireworks!

Friday nights at the Rangers' games means a whole fireworks show at the end...it was spectacular as always!

Too many days of too much fun...they crashed almost immediately!

When Levi crawled into bed that night, he said, "Aunt Denise, if I were still in school, I would write about this. Because in school we kept a journal, and especially on Mondays, we would write about our weekends. I would DEFINITELY write about this!" Melt. My. Heart!

Saturday, the fun continued as we all joined my sister-in-law, Ronda, and our other niece and nephew, Taylor and Ty, at the Denton water park.

Lexi loved going down the slide! She climbed to the top of the tower all by herself. Because she's so tiny, they had her put up her hands at the end to be caught by the lifeguard.

Thankful for every chance to spend time with them, we're looking forward to our next family gathering!

Cruise: Food

The average cruiser gains seven pounds on a cruise. Awesome.

Chase and I have been trying to work out and sort of watch what we eat for months. I, especially, hit the workouts hard the week or two before the cruise. If you know me, I say this ALL THE TIME, but I'm going to say it again: I have the best job in the whole world. One of the amazing perks that leaves me no excuse for not being fit is that the house has a fully-equipped gym room. Elliptical, treadmill, pull-up bar/TRX system, weights, TV, audio system...the works. Chase and I even tried to work out on sea days (I think we ended up getting in three workouts...Chase might've done one more than I did). Per my mom's tip, we took the stairs everywhere (my mom, btw, is the only person you'll ever meet who loses weight when she goes on a cruise...she's amazing!). 

All of that matters only to say that we ate, and we ate big. I mean big...

When Chase and I are at home, we love to eat. There are a few places that we frequent (Babe's Chicken, Kelly's Eastside, Sauced Wings 'n More, Nico's Tex-Mex Cantina), but we love to try new places. It's a perfect date if we can try a new restaurant for dinner and end with a local coffee shop. Perfect. Needless to say, we were excited about trying all the food on the ship. There is so much variety that we didn't get bored, and we had fun finding the hidden gems.

Lobster night in the main dining room was fantastic. I thought it was cooked better than some of the fine dining restaurants I've visited.

We normally split our meals. It's economical and better for our waistlines. On the cruise, if we couldn't decide, our waiter would always say, "Try both." So we did. 

Soup as our first appetizer.

Spaghetti Carbonara as our second appetizer.

Prime Rib.

Of course, with each dish, we would share. Sometimes I would trade with Chase because I liked his better. Overall, I had two complaints about our food. It was under-seasoned. To be fair, I understand that most cruisers are probably 55+. It's easy to salt your food after you taste it, but people who like their food less salty can't take the salt out. I'll give them a pass on that one. My other complaint was the gravy. You can see it in the Prime Rib picture. They put that gravy on everything. I ordered a filet one night, and they put it on my steak! If I wanted a sauce on my steak, I would ask for it. They even served this sauce with "Southern Fried Chicken" and mashed potatoes with "gravy." If you say gravy with southern fried chicken, it better be cream gravy and not the same stuff you use as sauce for your steaks!

Our steakhouse night was incredible. We ate and ate and ate some more. I wish I had taken more pictures of the food because it was breathtakingly pretty. They even made my coffee pretty...although, I think I had already taken a sip at this point.

Bar-none, the best dish I ate on the whole cruise was the lobster bisque in the steakhouse. Oh. Em. Gee. It was seriously amazing. It was creamy with huge chunks of lobster, and I ate every last bite. My entree was surf and turf: filet (of course) and lobster tail. 

The desserts really stole the show. Chase had a quattro (I think that's what they called it) of chocolate desserts. He adores chocolate, and couldn't have been happier.

I got the biggest slice of cheesecake I've ever seen. We tried to save what was left over, but it wouldn't fit in our fridge.

A few other foods were worth mentioning. In the main dining room, I didn't get a picture, but they had a barbecued brisket that was tender and perfect. Also, the chocolate melting cake with ice cream was the perfect go-to dessert. Finally, the seaside barbecue, only served at lunch on sea days, was ridiculously good. Of our sea days, we only ate it once. We would've gone back on our last sea day, but we were doing the ship tour and missed it. They had sliders, quesadillas, pulled pork tacos, four different salsas...it was all so good! I wish I had taken a picture of that as well.

Overall, I'd give the food a 7.5 out of 10. If it hadn't been for a few really stellar entrees, the score would be lower. I felt like everything we got was tasty, but many things weren't worthy of a second try. Our servers really made the vacation for us, and we were so thankful for how kind and friendly the Carnival staff was for the whole trip.

Cruise Excursions: Cozumel

When looking back through pictures for this post, I noticed that I forgot to include a picture from our second formal night! It kind of fits here because it was in between Cayman and Cozumel.

Cozumel was my favorite port day. We had our own, personal tour guide because we had to leave for our excursion at a later time than their first tour, but earlier than their second. We got to snorkel, tour a mock tequila factory (they can't actually make tequila there or it's not tequila), spend time on pristine beaches, and tour a nature preserve and light house.

Did I mention that Chase got to drive a Jeep the whole time??

We celebrated our last sail away from port with a glass of wine. That's the Allure of the Seas in the background...our next cruise???