Girlie Cruise Day 3: At Sea

I was very much looking forward to a relaxing day at sea. I knew this trip would be exhausting and boy was I right. I only wish we had another day at sea after all our adventures to relax!

Momma B and I met up with Aunt Lynn and Leslie and headed to the breakfast buffet. It was PACKED! I guess that's to be expected on a ship that holds 2,000 people and every single person is still on the ship. When we walked into the buffet we were greeted by a very enthusiastic cruise ship employee of Asian ethnicity who was welcoming everyone..."Good MORNING...HAPPY HAPPY!!!.....Good MORNING...HAPPY HAPPY!!!" It kind of caught us by surprise, but by the end of the cruise it was a running joke among everyone. Even during the farewell show the cruise director brought in a "very special guest" and it was this guy. The audience went wild, ha! He kind of reminded me of that weird Asian guy in the 16 Candles movie...

After breakfast we decided to lounge around the pool for a bit. It wasn't until we were on the pool deck that we discovered it was windy...and not just a little breezy. I'm talking like gale-force winds that blow your hair so hard on your face it stings. It was fun trying to sit down on the deck chairs before they folded back up on us. Reading a book was nearly impossible, so I just tried to take a little nap. I was almost asleep when some girls wanted to sit next to us. They were probably 17-19 and fairly annoying. One girl was putting on sunscreen and said to her friend, "You really should put some on too. Do you want to be all wrinkly and saggy when you're like 50?!" Umm...ok. I guess skin cancer isn't a concern of hers, just being wrinkly. Then she went on to discuss all of the things she was going to do to prevent getting old. I wanted to throw my book at her.


After we were done lounging by the pool, we went back to our rooms to get ready for dinner. We were cruising on Norwegian Cruise Lines, which is "freestyle" cruising -- meaning we didn't have a formal night or anything like that. However, we decided to dress up a little more on this night to try out the fancier dining room on the ship. It was gorgeous -- fancy linens, china and an entire row of windows along the back of the ship. What an awesome view! After dinner we had time time to kill before the show (singing/dancing) so we stopped by the casino for a little bit (lost some money on the slots), browsed through the gallery shops and enjoyed some frozen fruity drinks at a martini bar!

I still think she should've bought that mask!

After the show it was 11pm so we hit the hay -- we had to be up and off the ship by 8am the next day. I thought vacations meant I got to sleep until 10am?!

Up next: Day 4 -- Valletta, Malta

Girlie Cruise Day 2: Barcelona on Segway's & Boarding the Ship

Day 2: Barcelona on Segway's and Boarding the Ship

I have never, ever slept as good as I did that night. The beds in our hotel were super comfortable and it's amazing how much a good night's sleep can do for you after flying across the Atlantic, going through a 6 hour time change and being awake for 30-some hours! We enjoyed breakfast at our hotel, which had a hot and cold buffet. I had a traditional American breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, fresh fruit and even some Kellogg's Special K cereal (woohoo for the hotel having 5 different Kellogg cereals!) However, there were some odd European breakfast items...steamed tomatoes, beans, thin slices of cold ham, croissants and cheese. Interesting!

Today was the day we'd be touring Barcelona on Segways! I was kind of nervous about this since I'm not the most coordinated person, but it was much easier than I thought! The Segway would go faster or slower depending on where your center of gravity was...you'd lean forward to go faster and lean back to go slower and/or stop. There was a thing on the left handlebar that you'd turn to make the Segway turn -- that took some getting used to, but it wasn't too bad.

We had a private tour guide named Javier. He did a great job of explaining everything we were seeing. We started in the Gothic Quarter and then went down to the harbor and the beach area. We even got to see some of the buildings that were used in the Barcelona Olympics.

After the Segway tour it was time to board our cruise ship! Momma B and I stayed in a traditional balcony room while Aunt Lynn and Leslie enjoyed a luxurious 2-bedroom suite. Their room had a living room area, dining area, as well as a bathroom that had 2 sinks, a whirlpool tub that overlooked the ocean and a shower that overlooked the ocean. Not too shabby if I do say so myself! Throughout the cruise we enjoyed complimentary room service breakfast in their suite instead of fighting the crowds at the buffet. It was great!

Me and Momma B's room -- isn't it huge?

This was the dining area in their suite

And this is what vacation is all about -- relaxing with your feet up!

Our first night on the ship we had dinner at one of the two traditional restaurants where you choose 3 courses off a smaller menu. The food was alright…not spectacular, but it wasn’t awful either. I had a grilled chicken dish (that was dry) and a disgusting coconut cheesecake. After dinner we walked around the ship some more and made stops in the Spinnaker Lounge, the Crystal Atrium and some of the duty-free shops.

Once again, I had an amazing night's sleep -- the beds on the ship have memory foam mattresses...ahhh! Even though I'm used to sleeping in a king sized bed (shared by a husband and two dogs), I didn't mind sleeping on a twin bed 2 feet from my mother...these mattresses were amazing!

Stay tuned for Day 2: Relaxation at Sea

Girlie Cruise Day 1: Barcelona, Spain

Ok, so I've officially been home from the Girlie Cruise 2009 for 45 days or so...I guess it's time I should post a trip re-cap for your viewing pleasure. Rather then have one big long blog post, I thought I'd break it down into each day/location.

Day 1-2: Barcelona Spain

When our flight was delayed leaving Detroit, I should've taken that as a sign of the long journey that was to come. We ended up leaving Detroit 2 hours late, but that was ok considering we had a 6 hour layover in Newark, NJ. We met up with my Aunt Lynn and cousin Leslie at the Newark Airport, where we enjoyed their Continental Rewards perks and hung out in the Platinum Lounge (or something like that). It was much better then sitting by the crowded gate. I got a free apple and some crackers...what else beats that?!

Momma B & me waiting at the Newark Airport

Our flight to Barcelona was about 8 hours. We left Newark around 7pm and arrived in Barcelona at 8:00am local time (which was really 3am...what our bodies were used to). Seeing how I was 10 weeks pregnant and my worst symptom was fatigue, I figured I'd sleep through the entire flight, waking up nice and refreshed to begin my European adventures. Ha, yeah right. We were 3 rows from the very back of the plane so there was a constant line for the bathroom and I just felt weird sleeping with some random person standing right next to me., not to mention the consistent elbow knocking or hip-to- the head bumping. I ended up getting about 2 hours of restless sleep.

We got our bags (they all made it safely!) and hailed a taxi for the hotel. We were staying one night in Barcelona, and our cruise ship was set to leave the following day. We dropped our bags off and decided to hit the streets of Barcelona. Our hotel was located in a nice area, with lots of designer shops...Armani, Prada, D&G, Gucci...you know, the things I could never afford!

We headed for the Sagrada Familia church. I'll be completely honest -- I know very little about foreign history, so a lot of the stuff we saw on this trip were things I had never heard of. Apparently this church has been under construction for over 100 years, and isn't scheduled to be finished for another 50 years. It was pretty gorgeous...definitely unlike anything you'd see in the US.

From there we walked to a hop-on-hop-off bus tour stop where we took the bus to a park that was designed by Gaudi. His stuff was really cool -- it almost reminded me of Dr. Suess things. The only bad part about the park (other than the fact it was 90+ degrees and we had been away for over 24 hours) was that it was a complete uphill walk to get there. Go ahead and take an exhausted, out-of-shape, pregnant woman who can hear her pulse in her ears from the extra blood volume in her body and have her walk 1/2 mile completely uphill. Luckily there were cute shops along the way where we stopped so I could catch my breath.

After the park we decided we were thoroughly exhausted, not to mention hot and sweaty, so we took the hop-on-hop-off bus tour around Barcelona and saw all of the sights. Leslie even fell asleep on the bus!

We got cleaned up for dinner and hit the streets to find a nice restaurant. We ended up eating at a tapas restaurant and dined on octopus on potatoes and "fried little fish" which were deep fried minnows...eyeballs and all! Don't worry, there were also some "normal" things as well!

Leslie and our "tapas" of slimy things in shells!

Stay tuned for Day 2: Barcelona on Segways & boarding the Cruise Ship!

I won I won!

That's right, the girl who never wins anything actually won something! On The Bump website I registered to win a layette set from Macy's.com. It's a good thing there were 600 winners, because I actually won!

It came with the adorable teddy bear, a bodysuit, two onesies, a pair of pants, a big and cap. I love it!

Everyone has an opinion...

I got a lot of opinions when I was planning our wedding...shame on me for thinking the same thing wouldn't happen when we had a baby!

It all started with the vacation I took with my mom, aunt and cousin. Every meal was spent with my mom and aunt obsessing over baby names. At some point during the week they even started a list on a piece of paper that my aunt carried around in her purse and whipped out at every meal. Needless to say, none of those names made it onto our list.

Then, it continued when I announced to my boss and co-workers that I was expecting. I have one co-worker in particular who thinks that because she's a mother, she's the resident expert on pregnancy and childrearing. "Oh the heartbeat was 153? You're going to have a girl, that's what my daughters heartbeat was"...."Do you really think you should be drinking that Diet Coke? It might be caffeine-free, but what about the aspartame?"....and my personal favorite: "Were you guys trying to get pregnant?" (Seriously????)

My mom and I got into a heated "discussion" about breast-feeding the other day. I told her I was planning to breast-feed, but I was also planning to pump. A) Breastfeeding skeeves me out, I'm only doing it because I don't want to pay for formula. B) Keith has already told me he wants to be able to feed the baby too, and he can't exactly feed the baby with my boob. C) I'm returning to work and I want our baby to have breast-milk for as long as he/she can. So yes mother, I'm going to breastfeed AND pump. D) I don't want to breastfeed in public. I want the option to bring a bottle or three with me. You'd think I had told her I was planning on feeding my baby Bud Light and Red Bull. "Women do NOT pump!! It's either breastfeeding or formula! You don't need to pump, just breastfeed, it's so much easier." Apparently she wasn't listening when I told her that my loving, caring husband wanted to be a part of our child's feedings and the fact I'll be returning to work and want my child to continue to drink breast-milk.

I'm only 14 weeks along...I can only imagine it gets worse from here!

I wonder if the Baptism question will come up with my grandparents this weekend.....

We're having a baby!

Most of my blog "followers" already know this, but Bagel and Cream Cheese are having a baby!

As of today, I'm 12w2d along and feeling great! I've had fatigue pretty bad, but no morning sickness (thank goodness!) I've heard some awful horror stories, so I've been keeping my fingers and toes crossed ever since I got my BFP! While I was on vacation a few weeks ago, my feet and ankles swelled up pretty good from the 9 hour plane ride, so I had a nice preview of what that will be like! I've had some smell and food aversions as well -- I've noticed that I can no longer tolerate the smell of my husband's dirty laundry, or the sight of fish. Pizza and fried foods are on my "can no longer eat" list. I begged Keith to order pizza the other night and could barely eat an entire slice.

We had our first ultrasound today and it was amazing to finally see our baby. It's measuring right on track at 12w3d and had a nice, strong heartbeat of 153. Hearing the "woosh woosh woosh woosh" of the heartbeat gave me chills....seeing and hearing the baby made it all seem a little more real. Keith was able to come to the appointment and the look on his face was priceless -- his eyes were glued to the monitor in awe. He's going to make such a great daddy :)

Our home-painting masterpiece...sorta

I finally got around to uploading some work-in-progress pictures of our house. We've painted the living room, dining room and kitchen. I LOVE the way the colors turned out. Painting was a giant PITA, but I'm glad we did it. It makes out house feel more like our own. We're about 80% unpacked, but I'm missing a light fixture in the dining room and have yet to hang any pictures on the wall. I wonder how long it'll take me to get around to that..

Dining Room before...

Dining room after....Chalky Blue (Pittsburg Paints)

Living Room before...

Living Room after...the green is Cavern Moss (Pittsburg Paints) and I have no clue what the neutral color is, but it's also by Pittsburg Paints

Kitchen before (view#1)

Kitchen after (view #1) The fridge didn't change colors, I swear, it's just the lighting!

Kitchen before (view #2)

The walls are a little darker than this picture shows...I'm in love with the color!

Kitchen before (view #3)

Kitchen after (view#3)

We're eventually completely re-doing the guest room (ripping out carpet and replacing windows) but that won't be for a while...our next "big" project will be refinishing the walls in the stairwell going upstairs and replacing the flooring on the landing upstairs. I'm going for new hardwoods (it's only about 5x8 area) and Keith is pushing to just re-do the planking flooring that's already there...we'll see how that goes! :)