10 Things I'm Grateful For...

1. My loving husband who always takes care of me no matter what.
2. My home which is my favorite place to be.
3. My friends. No matter where they are or where I am I know they are thinking of me and miss me like mad!
4. Archer. He is finally obeying me and he truly is my best friend.
5. My mom. For showing me support and being there for me to talk to when I need her, unless she is at Quilting camp. (LOL)
6. My dad. Cause he will always be the teddy bear dad even though he looks like the grizzly bear (meaning tall and intimidating).
7. My studio. I truly love teaching piano. I never knew how amazing it is to be able to watch a child learn and understand what you are teaching them.
8. My health. Other than my condition, I am in almost perfect health.
9. People who are braver than me. The people out there that have blogs who are saying exactly how I feel but actually have the courage to write it and put it all out there. Thank you, you have given me more inspiration than any other pamphlet I have ever read and remind me that it is ok to cry but to be happy for things in my life.
10. My branch/my family. They take such good care of me. They are already arranging people to check on me while Matt is away to make sure that I am safe and sound. Thank you.

Back Into The Real World

Well it is Sunday afternoon/evening. I am just relaxing watching a few NCIS episodes. I just wanted to let everyone know how we are doing. Well we are finally back to normal for the most part after our most wonderful trip to Mexico. It took us a few days to get back into the swing of things, for the most part, I have decided to become accustom to sleeping in everyday till 10am. But other than that we are back to normal. We are enjoying watching the Olympics every night. Which is aired very late here. I was watching the gymnastics all-around competition and it wasn't even over till 1:30am.

Matt is leaving tonight for a training course in Richmond and he gets to do the cool Italian Job driving course. I begged for him to talk his work into letting me take the course but they denied my request. So he will just have to teach me when he gets back. Yeah, he has to stay there all week so another week without him here. But an awesome friend of my usually stays the night during the week to keep me company. My studio will be celebrating its 1st anniversary in a few weeks, and I have 22 students with only 4 openings left and then I start a waiting list, yea!!! Well hope all is well with you and your fam! Missing you tons! Other than that, that's all folks.

Midnight Gala & Character Breakfast

I love it when ships have a dessert buffet because it is always so YUMMY! Lots and Lots of Chocolate and my favorite, fruit tarts. Here are some pix plus some pix from the character breakfast. Also pix of our server and some of the workers on the ship. Also, our server Igor, looked like Orlando Bloom on pirate night when he was in his pirate garb. We really had a ton of fun and our server Igor went out of his way to help us have even more fun! One more thing. I wanted to play my recital piece for my Grandma while in AZ. We ran out of time so I wasn't able to do it. Matt suggested that I ask Disney if I could use one of their really really nice and expensive pianos to play for Grandma. The worker Nelsey said she had never received a request like that before and would see what she could do. A few days later she called me and said that she had booked one of the bars on the last sea day for me for 30 minutes. So on the last day I got to use one of their really nice pianos for 30 minutes and play for most of my family. That is something that I will never forget.

~My Dad and Snow~

~Beauty and the Beast, from what my dad said after the pix was taken~

Everyone!

There are 5 different posts for Mexico with a ton of pix. So check them all out!

Formal Pix

Matt and I took a ton of formal professional pix while on the trip. We had to pick out our favorite 6 pix because we got a package deal. Also the fam pix are at the bottom. 48 members of the Birchett Family came on the cruise. We are only missing 1 family this trip, with 5 people. Enjoy.

Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta, beautiful city with lots and lots of rain! It all started out sunny but later it was raining cats and dogs. I got some great pix of rain flooding our veranda. But first, we went swimming with the dolphins with my parents and niece and nephew. My bro and his wife did the Signature Swim, and went to a different location. It was a ton of fun and I got fried, cause I was not allowed to wear any sun block for the safety of the dolphins. We had 30 minutes where we each got to pet, kiss, and ride them. In the pix that my dad got for us the water looks awesome so here are the pix from that:

~One Minute it was clear and no problem, then the next it was raining cats and dogs. The second pix is our veranda that is flooded.~

Mazatlan

Our second stop was in Mazatlan. It was a very long ride to the main shopping area called the Golden Zone. We went back to Diamonds International because I wanted to get my new diamond appraised, and they gave me the correct amount, which was way more than what we paid for it. Then we went around to all the stores where we got a ton of free stuff. I also won a raffle for a watch in one of the jewelery stores worth $200. I have made out good on this trip. I came back with so many different jewelry boxes. Anyhew here are a couple of pix. The guy with the hard hat is actually sleeping in a wheelbarrow. And the drunk sign, we couldn't believe that they even made signs like it. Crazy town!

Also this is the coolest store I have ever seen. It is called Del Sol. The clothing or rings, or nail polish changes colors when in the sun. Here is the shirt I got.

~Inside~

~Outside~

Cabo San Lucas

Our first port was in Cabo San Lucas. This is a place that is a dessert next to the water. It was pretty much built just for cruise ships. There area ton of vendors on the side of the street trying to get you to buy everything they have. My nephew, Jordan was walking on the street and some guy put an iguana on him and he freaked out. Anyhew Matt and I were on our scavenger hunt for our free stuff. We stopped in our first shop, Diamonds International and we were told the previous day by Pippa to speak directly with the manager, well this other worker said that she wasn't available so we decided to come back when Pippa was there. We decided to go to the rest of the shops where we got free stuff, and there wasn't that many to go to in Cabo. We went back to Diamonds Int. and Matt said I could look. So I asked for a full 1 caret good quality diamond, and well if you couldn't guess here it is. Isn't it pretty! It is a full 1 caret H VSI2 diamond I loooooooooove it so much. The first couple of days it looked like one of the fake Walmart CZ rings cause it was so huge. Well I kept my original setting and just added the huge diamond which fits perfectly. My other diamond was made into a pendant for a necklace. Matt is too good to me, and I am not allowed to ask for another diamond for 25 years, but why would I, I love it so much!

~We had to take a Tender/small boat ride to the port cause the ships aren't allowed to dock in the bay so here are a couple of pix from that.~

1st Post of Many-The Ship

Ok so I am going to do more than one post just to make it easier to read. We had so much fun on the ship. We went to a ton of the on board activities offered. First day at sea Matt had our whole day planned for us. He wanted to do so much, and I kind of got overwhelmed cause I wanted to just relax. We went to seminar after seminar. One of the seminars that we went to was about shopping at the port. We got this awesome card where we can get a ton of free stuff at a lot of the shops. The person in charge of the speech was named Pippa. She talked about the amazing deals that you can get at the jewelery stores. Funny thing, Matt and I had been talking about upgrading my diamond in a year or two anyhew, so while Pippa was talking I looked at Matt and he said, "I'm thinking about it" YAYAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! Anyhew I'll get to that topic later. Well here are some pix of our room and some at sea from our Veranda.

We Are Back, But.....

Sorry everyone! I know you are on the edge of your seat for pix of Mexico. I have been so busy for the past couple of days doing about 10 lessons a day. Tomorrow I have no lessons and plenty of time to post pix and everything about our trip.

Also Elizabeth, I have a surprise for you to see tomorrow. We got something very exciting while in Mexico and you are going to scream when you see pix.