Our first day back on land!

I feel like I have been teasing all of you with only what happened on our first day on the boat, but with Christmas and all it has been a little busy. When we got home, first thing that I did was take Ruby to the ER. What did she have?? Yep, the FLU! So all of last week was with the kids being sick and not wanting to do much but have Mom and Dad help them feel better. It was a lot of snuggling and running to get drinks and medicine. They are all on the mend and thank goodness that Steve and I didn't get sick.

Well back to the boat story. We left off on Monday night. We saw a great show that had way too much "butt" for me and Steve, but we did meet some super nice people that night. Mark and Samantha. Little did we know that they were some of the people that I had been chatting with on-line about the cruise.

We were so excited to get on our way to the Grand Cayman that we were up super early and even watched the sun rise.

We got our breakfast and then we headed down to the first floor to wait to get our tender into the little island. Sure enough we were on the 1st tender out and I practically ran off the little tender boat to find our first tour with Moby Dick Tours. We were going to swim with the sting rays and then go snorkeling. It just wasn't meant to be, but we did find out that our new friends were with the same tour! I really was bummed that we weren't going to be able to do what I was really looking forward to, but after getting told that the waves were well over 8 feet all I understood. There were only 3 ships allowed into the emergency port and we were one of them, so we felt lucky that we were able to get off of the ship instead of having another long at sea day.
The Valor....

**We thought that we should send this in for funny signs**

We ended up on a cool island tour for the day. It actually saved us a little bit of money too which was nice. We had 12 people in our group and off we went. It was so funny that driving down the road I noticed a little building on the right that looked really familiar to me. How can it look like I know something when I have never stepped foot on the island before??? Well it turned out to be what I thought that it was! It was a small branch house!

Our first stop was at the governor's house.It was pretty and we saw it best that you could from in front of the gate. The next place that we went was to Hell!! Yep we went to HELL and back! We took our pictures and you can even get your passport stamped in Hell. It was just really little and we took the chance to send out a few postcards to the family. **the girls just got their postcard today, so the mail is a little slow**

It was still a little cold and very windy at this point. Our driver then took us to the Rum Cake Factory where we got to try as much rum cake as we wanted. Let me tell you it was AWESOME!! We did get to see the water and the bay that we would have been seeing the stingrays and let me tell you that the waves were super high. They were so high that in some places they were crashing onto the road. We collected our first magnet of the trip, took a few pictures and were on our way to the turtles.

The turtles were probably the best part of the day! It was a huge turtle place where we could take pictures with baby sea turtles. Let me tell you that they were HUGE! The babies can slap pretty hard until you tickle them under their chin and they go limp. All of them were so cute! I still can't believe that we were able to have that opportunity. We didn't get to spend very long with the turtles but it was long enough for what we wanted to do.

Then it was back in the van and back to the ship. We really didn't have a desire to go shopping or have any other places that we wanted to see so off to waiting for the tender boats to take us back to our floating home, the Valor.

We took a little time to freshen up and took a little nap too. We got dressed for the evening and went to sit with Sam and Marc for dinner. It was better than sitting at our table by ourselves. Dinner was great like always and then we headed upstairs for a PG rated comedy show. Our comedian for the night was Percy Cruz II and he was amazing. I have never laughed so hard in my life and it was good clean comedy!! You really can make people laugh without having to be vulgar. :-)

I think that we went to the main show that night too, but I can't remember. We knew that we had an early day for the port of Cozumel, so we tried to get to sleep before 1 am!


Our Day in Cozumel
Well our day for Cozumel started off early and we had to get up and meet in the theater to wait to get off the boat. This day we were actually docked in a port, so no tender boat today. This was the ONLY excursion that we did with Carnival and it wasn't that great. We had a long 50 minute ride back to the mainland of Mexico to get to the ruins of Tulum. The ride wasn't all that great and I wasn't feeling that great either. It was really bumpy and I was so glad for it to be over. 

Once we got onto land, we had to get in groups and get on huge buses that would take us an hour away to finally get to the ruins. The bus ride was fine, but we stopped at a place with really expensive things that I was sure were made in China! It seemed like a waste of time to me, but we had to wait for everyone to get done and we were on our way.

We finally get to the ruins and have a little bit of a walk to them . It was great other than our tour guide wanted us to stay with him for over half of the time that we were able to look around. We only had an hour and a half to get it all in. The ruins were beautiful and were right there on the beautiful blue water. I could not try to explain the beauty of the color of the water. It would be an insult to the beauty of the place. I was really glad that we were able to go, but glad we didn't take the kids with us. After we got plenty of pictures, we headed back to the little shops to eat lunch.

We got a cool picture of us and a huge iguana for only $5!! They took the pictures with your camera and I thought it was a little pricey, but what are you gonna do?!?! There were also some people dressed up like Aztecs and they cussed Steve out for taking a picture of them without paying..........you guessed it there $5!

We went around trying to find some cute dresses for the girls, but to no avail and they were way too pricey anyway. $20 for a dress?!?!? I don't think so. Lunch was okay, but I have had better. I thought it was a little expensive at $8 a plate. The guys were mad that we didn't get a drink and even asked for a tip when I pulled out my exact amount of $16.

I was glad to get back on the bus with my strawberry ice cream that was amazing! Steve had a treat too, but loved the little treats that we got before we were on the bus for the way back.  The ride back to the high speed boat was good. It seemed like an elementary school field trip, since the majority of the people took a nap. The boat ride back to the Valor was faster and better. We ended up on the top floor of the boat with the fresh air and listened to a guy sing all the way back. The excursion ended up taking longer than expected and that is why I was glad that we went with Carnival for this one. The boat HAD TO WAIT for us to get back. 

We had a great day but we were tried again!! I swear we ran ourselves ragged on this trip with everything we were doing. After dinner we headed down to the Scavenger Hunt game with Sam and Mark. This would be the turning point for us on our cruise. We were having a good time, but not exactly what we had expected. Now for all of you this scavenger hunt was amazingly fun. It has been a long time since we had as much fun as we did that night. The best part was that everything was done with NO alcohol at all! In this game the host asks for you to bring things onto the stage. They can be simple things to very crazy things as we learned while we were playing. Our group was awesome and they came a little bit prepared too. Those other people wanted to win just as much as we did. See you get to win a ship on a stick and let me tell you they are hard to win. They are very coveted on the whole Carnival cruise line in general. **Later in the week, a lady even offered to buy Steve's 2nd ship on a stick!!**

We were group #1 and planned to keep it that way! The cruise director was the host of the show so Goose started with easy things like two sign and sail cards (those are what you use to get on and off the boat and also to buy anything while you are on the boat) and if we had an empty purse. Now the fun begins with Goose asking for a naughty picture, a guy in heels, and a bald man. Easy things, but totally fun things too. I know that they asked for a piece of fruit and we stole a drink from another table because it had a piece of pineapple in it! I got to run up and do the splits! The best part was the very last thing that Goose asked for!!! I was already out of my bra because he asked for 2 bras a few times before. Goosed wanted a man in a bra with lipstick, ear rings, holding a purse all while in high heels. Let me tell you that I have NEVER seen Steve get undressed faster than that night. He was in my bra super fast and while I was getting it on him the two other girls in the group were getting his lipstick on and handing him a purse. Amazingly one girl in the group had really big feet and her hot pink platform shoes fit steve!! Onto the stage he goes in his wonderful attire and guess what?!?!? We WON a ship on a stick!!! I was so excited and so was Steve!! 

I will try to get up a few more pictures tonight, but that ends the first half of our cruise. It was sure looking better for the last half than the first. I will try and get another installment done for tomorrow. I am sure that you need a break from seeing Steve anyway!!!

Our 2nd day on the boat

Day 2: the rockin’ day at sea

Well my day until 3 pm was spent in the room trying to sleep and not throw up any more. The boat was rocking way bad and even half the crew was sick from the choppy water. Of course my husband was feeling great, so he is going to do the day two review when he is done with work.

My end of the day was great! I found that after opening the door to our balcony that I started to feel better. The fresh air really did help and looking back now I wish that my hubby would have carried me out to the pool area just to be with the breeze! Green apples really did help me feel better. Around 3 I was feeling good enough to get up and go around the ship. I took it really slow and after finding out how many people were sick, I didn’t feel bad anymore. I think half the crew was sick and we did talk to a few of the crew that said that this was the worst water that they had had in months!!

I was going to get my hair done for the night but after finding out that it was $75 I decided that I could do my own hair for formal night! We took our time getting showered up and getting dressed for the first formal night. We were glad that our reservations were at 7 for the Steakhouse. We decided to go on Monday night because it was Steve’s birthday. We were ready around 6 and still had an hour to kill, so we hung out in the lobby and got a fruity drink for me. No alcohol here with us and it was nice that they were a little cheaper too. Guess we went at the right time because the drinks were an extra dollar off.

We headed up to Scarlett’s at 6:45 since I could not wait any longer. They were fine that we were a little early and I was way hungry too!! I guess not eating all day will do that to you right?!?! Dinner was amazing!! We both had found the menu on the Carnival website so we already had an idea of what we wanted for dinner that night. I think that it was well worth the extra $30 per person for dinner. We both got the crab cakes for our appetizer and were given 2 extra little ones from the chef. I had a soup that was okay. Not my favorite, but something different. I tried to make a point of trying new stuff on the cruise. Dinner was amazing! We both ordered the surf and turf and it was more than enough to fill us up! I was very impressed with dinner. Dessert was great too!! Steve ordered the cheese cake and no lie it was half the size of his head!! It was huge and the BEST cheese cake I have ever had in my life! I got the little sherbert for my dessert and that was plenty for me. Dessert for Steve was also brought out with a candle for his birthday.

After dinner we headed down for one of the main shows. I was still so full from dinner it was nice to just sit and be entertained. We knew that it was a PG-13 show for the costumes and let me tell you it really is a vegas type of show. I wasn’t expecting butts to be seen, but they were. I don’t think we would take our kids for our next cruise, but we were glad that we got to see it. It was kinda funny too that some of the dancers were not really comfortable with their costumes because they really didn’t want to turn around and hang their booty out there for all to see. I thought that some of the butt hanging out costumes didn’t really need to be in there, since it looked like they were really trying to put them in there.

After the show, we headed back up to our room to get some more sleep and get ready for the Grand Cayman that would be the next day. I was ready to get off the boat for a few hours at least. We did leave our door open all night long for the breeze and to hear the ocean. We didn’t bring any bungee cords, but just propped the door open with the chair. It worked great and did what we needed it to do.

There is day 2 on the sea. Yep still waiting for the hubby to type out all that he did while I was sick!

Our picture with the Captain of the Valor

This was Goose our Cruise Director for the week.

Our assistant cruise director

Steve with his surf and turf at Scarlett's Steakhouse

Look at that Birthday Cheesecake! Yes it was almost as big as his head!!!

Steve and I with our desserts. They were super yummy!!!

By one of the Christmas trees outside of the Ivanhoe theater.

Waiting for the show to start! We had a wonderful day on the boat!!

A few pictures from our first day!

Our first picture while we were waiting in the cruise terminal! We were in group two and super excited!!

Up on deck during the sail away from Miami! It was so much fun and something that we both looked forward to for only 192 days!!

Here is Steve looking out from our balcony room! We had a great room and were super excited to see where it was and the great views that we had too!!

This is our first picture on the boat! After we had eaten of course!!!

Back from our cruise!!

We had a blast on our first cruise!! We are going to do a few posts that may take us a few days since the girls are sick with the flu. Pay back I guess from being gone for the week. I will have LOTS of pictures, but I have to wait to use the other computer with the pictures on it. I guess that will keep you coming back looking for more right?!?!?
And without further nonsense here we go.........

Our First Cruise 12-12-10 on the Valor

Day 1: GETTING ON THE BOAT

Steve and I left super early in the morning from our home in Alabama and traveled to the Atlanta airport to catch our flight into Miami. The kids were all asleep and with hugs & kisses we left our three little girls and headed out for the week. Bless my Dad who was the one that stayed with them for the week. The drive to Atlanta was great and no problems getting the rental car turned in (even though we weren’t even listed on the car rental). Our flight was on time and we even got in early to Miami.
The Miami airport was great and easy to get through. We had our bags within minutes. I changed into warmer weather clothes and then got our luggage tags on our two bags. There wasn’t a line for taxis either and we were on our way to the port well before 10 am. Our taxi driver was amazing! He didn’t have a problem stopping at a little gas station for us to pick up our sodas and waters for the week. What a super fast ride with a great driver! We were soon at the port!

Getting into the port for the Valor was super easy! We got through the first line and walked into the waiting area. We grabbed a boarding pass and were in group 2 to get on the boat!! I was super excited by this time!! Getting our sign and sail cards (basically a debit type card for your trip) was super easy and we put some cash on our cards to be ready once on board. Then it was time to wait to get on the boat! We finally got on the boat right before 11 am. The only hold up was that there were 13 people still on the boat from the cruise that had just came in. **When they tell you to get off, don’t go run and hide! They will find you!!**

We had a little line to get on the boat once our number was called, but we took our picture and walked to the line that led us to the Valor! I was super excited and could not wait to hear the 'bing' for the first time (the noise that sounds when they log you in). We smiled for our picture and were on the boat! We were carrying our drinks, my purse, Steve’s carry on bag, and the bag with the tux and my formal. It was a lot to carry around the boat, but it didn’t stop us from walking around and getting lunch. We headed strait for the Mongolian grill since we heard that the lines for that would be longer in the week. It was a great lunch and then it was time for the first of many trips for ice cream cones!

At 1 pm after walking around for a bit we headed up to the Spa for the tour. We loved it, but thought the prices were way too high for us. One of the ladies doing the facial stuff was a little rude too, but I was not going to let it ruin my first day since what she said was directed to me (it was about my pores being big or something like that). The 'teaser' neck massages were awesome and finally it was time to get to our room, drop off our stuff, and explore!

We were on Lido deck in room #9222 with a balcony! Let me tell you it was super worth it, especially for our first day at sea. It was decorated with the Happy Anniversary decorations. It was so much fun to see my husband when we got into the room for the first time. He thought that Carnival had done it since we were sailing for our 10th anniversary and his birthday. I had done this many weeks in advance and it only took me about 4 times to get it done as a surprise for him! I was so happy to pull one small surprise for him. The room was great and a good size for the two of us. We dropped off our stuff and went to look around the boat some more.

We had a meet and greet at 4pm for some of the folks that I knew from the cruise boards and there were a few people there, but we wanted to see the sail away so we went up another deck and watched as we sailed out from Miami! It really was a lot of fun. I am not sure how we missed the big party, but we were just wandering around the ship most of that day.

Our luggage got to our room rather quickly. We got one bag and took the time to put everything away while we had the chance. By the time we had done that our other bag was outside of our room waiting for us. Both bags were there and very quickly put away and we were all settled in for the week.

We had a late dinner at 8:15pm and that worked out alright. We were seated at a table for 4. I would have liked a larger table, but it is what it is and I wasn’t going to complain. I thought that it was a little rude, but a couple did come close to sitting with us, but before she got there she said rather loudly “I requested a table for TWO!!” She promptly walked away with her husband and we never saw them again. Steve and I had a great dinner with our wonderful waiter, Made. He was very attentive and always was looking out for us during the meals that we were there for.

We did have the melting cake the first night because everyone has said it was soooo good, but let me tell you that first night it was nasty! I didn’t know how anyone really loved it at all, but thank goodness later in the week it tasted much better and I really did fall in love with it. My meal that first night was the spare ribs and since no one else was at our table, I had no problems picking them up with my fingers and enjoying my food! YES! I licked my fingers when I was done too! They were that good.

The rest of the night was spent just trying to get to know our way around the ship and taking it all in! We did write to our kids on the boards that night and that is my only complaint of the Valor. Having to walk through the cigar bar to get to the internet. Not so much fun, but we did it and got good with holding our breath.

Day 2: THE ROCKIN' DAY AT SEA

Well my day until 3 pm was spent in the room trying to sleep and not throw up any more. The boat was rocking way bad and even half the crew was sick from the choppy water. Of course my husband was feeling great, so he is going to do the day two review when he is done with work.

DAY 2 Review by STEVE

Day 2 was actually a blast for me. Alicia failed to mention that it WAS my birthday, so I was not about to let the rockin boat ruin my day! I have to admit I was a little sick when I first woke up, but I quickly thought that if I could just eat something I would feel better. That was where it got difficult. I was hoping to get Alicia to go with me, but she was already having troubles and before I knew it I was rushing to the bathroom, emptying the ice from the bucket, and letting Alicia refill it with the previous day's entrees. I wanted to stick around, but I was hungry and did not want to get myself sick watching her, so I headed out. Alicia was getting close to being asleep again anyway, so I went to breakfast around 9am.

Breakfast was great. I had an omelet with all the fixings, chocolate milk, and a sticky bun with pecans. YUM! As I wandered the deck I began to feel like we were in a battle . Only this battle was not against another ship. The waves were really bad. Later on I found out that the waves ranged from 7-10 feet, and there were many moments where we were up in the air crashing against the water as we were zooming past Cuba. There were very few crew members out wandering around, but instead of selling things, they were handing out little blue bags as more and more people began to not feel well either. I tried to avoid speaking to people since none of them looked like they were wanting to meet someone new anyway. I also grabbed some toast and a green apple for Alicia, but funny enough, as I was approaching the door to go inside, the wind grabbed the toast and tossed it overboard. DANG! She did get the apple though!

I knew it was bad as I started seeing crew members getting sick too. The gentleman who helped with our bags and cleaned our rooms was sick among others near the rooms. After breakfast I went back to the cabin to see how Alicia was doing, hoping she was getting better, but I was wrong! So I grabbed the list of events for the day and started planning out my day and deciding on things to do. One of the first events was a presentation by "Goose" where he was explaining what to expect on a cruise as well as going over some of the main events for the week. I thought it would be good to attend since I had not been on the cruise boards for the past 9 months like Alicia had been.

It was a great overview and gave me some really good ideas in regards to what I was wanting to do for the rest of the day. There was another meet and greet that morning, so I thought I would go on behalf of Alicia to meet anyone who might show up. There were only about 5 people, and all of them had significant others that were not present due to the prevailing sickness that had overrun most of us on board. Plus, I was way younger than anyone that was there, and did not want to just sit there and stare at the ocean and make comments about the waves and cruises that I was on before and "I remember when" stories (mainly because this was my first cruise, and I would have nothing to say!)

From there I went to have lunch. I decided to try the pizza since I was told it was amazing, but I was not all that impressed. So I skipped that and went to explore the other foods and just had some meat/veggies on rice. I went back to the cabin to let Alicia know what I had done up to that point, but she was asleep, so I went to my next adventure: DISCO!

The Disco dancing was actually pretty fun. Since it was extremely wavy, it was kind of funny as those of us that were there were not only trying to learn the moves, but were also just trying to keep from falling down. We did pretty good and I had a lady that was there take my phone and record me doing some of the learned moves. I am not sure how to post it yet, so I guess I will have to share that at a later time. I also took some time to explore all the levels and to really learn where things were so as we prepared for ship activities, I would know exactly where to go (which helped tremendously throughout the week!)

By this time Alicia was feeling a bit better. The breeze on the deck was really refreshing, and so I finally talked her into coming out on the deck. I think that helped her feel a little better. I was really wanting her to feel better for sure so that we could enjoy our scheduled dinner at the steak house for my birthday. Plus, we were getting all dressed up. That was actually fun since I had a nice tux with a matching hot pink vest/tie combo to match Alicia's dress. I couldn't wait! She looked stunning and needed a stud to join her!

The steakhouse was amazing, and I got a giant cheesecake the size of my head (literally!) It was ginormous! The surf and turf was great too, but I think I definitely like crab better than lobster. Just my preference I guess. We also had some of that peregrino water which was pretty good. From there we went to a "show" that evening and retired so that we could be ready for our first stop: the Cayman Islands!

Talladega Cans

There it is! A picture is borrowed of course but Steve is at the track again today with permission to collect as many cans as he can! We did try to go on Friday but found out that we needed tickets to get into the places that people park at. That wasn't going to work because tickets for Sunday started at $89 each! The Security people would not let us in to collect cans and let me tell you they were all over in the camping areas. Steve got the name of the security guy to talk and who was doing trash pick up today (Rusty). They saved 2 areas for Steve to go through for cans!!! So there he went and started around 3:30! The van was empty since we took all the seats out and with me not going there is even more room. Now I just wonder how many cans he can stuff in the car before it gets dark in less than 2 hours?? Wish him luck and I can't wait to see if we can double our can count in one collection night!

The 5:30 pm update.....Steve just texted me and said that he has 4 HUGE bags of cans already! That is an awesome start! I sure hope that he can get 4 more bags before he has to leave!

Homecoming Can Update

Thank you so much to all the alumni, frats, and friends of JSU! It was a great weekend to collect cans and it all happens because of you the fans who choose to drink out of cans! Do we mind digging through your trash cans or cleaning up around your chairs at the partys?? NO we do not! Thanks to those who do put all the cans in bags just for us! Thank you to "Our Frat Boys" as Ruby calls them! What would we do without you??

I don't know if you can see the picture all that well, but this is our can pile of cans that we collected yesterday and today! There is a HUGE full bag in the corner to go along with all of those cans. We sure do have our work cut our for us this week to get them all crushed and counted.

Leave a comment and tell us your guess on how many cans we collected from the week. The closest entry will be getting a prize! so leave those guesses and we will see who is the winner!!!

the mound of cans!

Hannah's 2nd Gym Meet

It was a mom and daughter day in Birmingham on Friday! We both had a great time and Hannah did surprising well with having mono! She really did have a good day, but I just hope that one meet of the season we will be feeling good to really rock it out! Friday was super fun with just us and I felt different without the other girls running around.

Hannah did her best on the 3 events that she did compete in! Her touch on bars was super cute (that was all she could do anyway). Beam went well and she stayed on without a fall! Vault looked awesome! Floor was awesome too but I thought her score could have been higher. Oh well what can you do with the judges right??

We got to stop by the great thrift store on the way home in Pell City! We scored 2 leos that were half off! So that made a GK leo for a dolla'!!! let me hear a holla' for a deal!!! ****Holla!!***

We did make it home safe and sound!!!

looking out at the gym all ready to go!!

4th place on beam!

Family Home Evening

During family home evening tonight, we had the chance to talk about the Tree of Life. We all had different parts to color and put our pictures up on the wall. We tried our best to get things to where they should be in our family scripture readings every morning.

I was so excited to know that we are FINALLY to the cool story of the Tree Of Life. It literally has taken us from the first of September until now to get there. We don't get much read in the mornings and maybe next year we will finally be done with 1st Nephi in the Book of Mormon. I think that the girls are having fun with it too!

We have also been learning new songs for our readings too. The girls have learned the first verse to Nephi's Courage and we are now working on learning the Iron Rod. I am learning that there are lots of songs that have a great chorus or catchy tune that the girls can learn and remember. It's a great feeling to listen to my girls sing as they walk to school "I will go. I will do. The things the Lord commands."

We are making progress. We don't have family home evening every week, but are doing a whole bunch better by reading every morning with the girls. Progress is made by little steps. I can totally see a difference in myself and the way my girls act since we have started reading every morning before school. Yes, we still have some rough days but I think we are doing better as parents and the girls are doing better at being our children. There are not as many fights or arguments and I know that it is because of what we are trying to do in our home. I am so thankful for the Gospel and for the scriptures!

Our very long Saturday

WOW!! It was a really super filled interesting day. It all started out not so good. Nutmeg sometime this morning was in a fight or hit by a car. We are not really sure what happened, but I knew that my baby was hurt and hurt bad. I called the Animal Hospital well before 7 am (when they officially opened) to see if I could bring her in. The soonest appointment was at 9 am, but I only lasted until just after 8 before I took her in. We had x-rays done and I talked to the vet. Conclusion: Nutmeg has a broken tail and no feeling in it. The blood flow is fine, but if feeling doesn't come back in the next 6 weeks or so we are going to have to have her tail removed. Now this makes me really sad, but at least I still have a cat and not one that needed to be put to sleep. Blessings....Blessings are important!

We then took a little family trip up to Noccalula Falls. Well....we thought we were gong to make a trip, but when we got there Steve and I discovered that we had left all of our cards at home. Needless to say we really had to coax the kids back into the car for the 30 minute drive home. We promised that we would come back! Honest!

Well we did get back and it was a perfect day! The weather was so nice and there were tons of things to see. Things have really changed since I went a long time a go. The kids started to notice that there were a lot of empty cans around, so I went back to the car and got a bag for them. Collecting cans the whole time we were there we found 176 cans! Cleaning up the park and earning a few dollars along the way. Not bad for a day!

We went a a family hike down around the falls and it was so much fun. Granted it wasn't the easiest hike for the kids with all the rocks, but looking for cans was awesome. The kids kept going on a search for that next empty can! The falls were rather not falls, but a dribble. It was still a ton of fun!

Our family time was cut a little short since they were closing and we had to get back for the JSU game. All of the frat boys know we are coming to collect their empty beer cans. Today was just plain different. The pledges were way too drunk and I saw way too many people throwing up! YUCK!!! We still got a ton of cans and made our way home so we could go back to the game.

We did get to see the last 5 minutes of another JSU win! It was great and what did we do when the game was over. Yep! We collected more cans! We came home with another 2 bags full of crushed cans from the stands. Like I said there was way too much drinking going on today for the game. :-( Our neighbors saved us a ton too, so we ended up with another 5 wal-mart bags full! So we are well over 3000 counted cans! Plus we have a ton that we haven't counted yet or crushed!

Crushing cans is way easier now! No more hurt knees because we got a super cool can crusher last week. Life is so much better with this little invention. YES our yard smells like a beer party, but we are well on our way to getting some cans for the cruise! Who says that cans can't pay for something????

In all it was a really different day for our family. Way too many extremes of emotion for me! I am glad it's over and it's only 8 pm! We still have a Phillies Baseball game to watch! Go Phillies!

I will keep everyone updated on Nutmeg and the can count :-)