Thursday, June 28, 2007

Shoes in the Budget?

Jason kicked me out after dinner tonight to get out of the house (the rain has kept me in with the boys and cabin fever has set in) and go shopping. He took the boys for the evening. Ahhhh, so nice.....

I grabbed my $10 DSW coupon, just in case and went 4 miles up the road to Firewheel mall. Victoria's Secret had a nice sale on some skivvies. Jason wasn't impressed with my purchase there - black, white and covers everything. Then Ann Taylor had a lovely bathing suit cover up on sale that I couldn't resist. From there, DSW.

Those of you who know me, know I'm not a "typical" girl. I'm not emotional or overly sensitive and tend to be pretty "man like" when it comes to emotions.

But, when I walk into DSW shoes, the smell of leather and the big colorful sale signs intoxicate me into submitting to the girl in me who does appreciate a new pair of shoes.

Today was day one of DSW's 80% off sale and armed with my coupon I headed to the clearance rack. It didn't take me long to find love in a pair of black patent leather Nine West low wedges with a super cute ankle strap. (Maybe I'll share a picture later). Full price......$69. Mark down price $49......today 80% off that.

My cost at checkout with my coupon......$0.01. Yep, that's right.....one shiny copper penny. Woo-hoo! Jason is so proud of me, although I did hide the receipts from Victoria's Secret and Ann Taylor.

But shoes FOR A PENNY! Be prepared, if you see me wearing them, you will hear about my deal......shoes FOR A PENNY!!!!

Did I mention, shoes FOR A PENNY?!!!!!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Men, Listen Up

No, this is not Jason (although I will no longer give him hell for his hairiness). This picture was part of a group titled "Why Women Stay Single" forwarded to me in an email by a former friend. (I cannot remain friends with people who burn my eyes with images like this. Sorry, my motorboating companion. It's been fun. With a tear in my eye, I say goodbye.)

I feel compelled to share a bit of unsolicited advice here: if you are a man and are this hairy, this is not acceptable. If you are a woman and are this hairy, NO ONE should know about it except you and your waxing professional. Back to the men, yes, a women should love you for your personality, who you are inside, blah blah blah, but she's never going to get to the loving you part if you're rounding second base and you can't tell where the hair on her head ends and your hair begins.

I am not ruthless. I am a bit more accepting of excessive follicle production in certain areas than other women I know. I certainly don't want my man visiting the salon more often than I do for fur control, but let this picture be your guide. If you get clubbed by your neighbors during an evening stroll, don't say I didn't warn you. Bears aren't welcome in residential areas.

Quote of the Day

"Boogers are not snacks."

-Cori to Harrison as he placed a booger on his tongue

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Note: Jake, at Harrison's age, preferred to strategically place his nasal treasures on his bedroom wall, which Jason and I named "The Booger Gallery." The Booger Gallery still exists and is available for viewing for all of our overnight guests just above the bed in the guest room.

Note #2: Stop complaining about only having "quotes" to read. I've not been inspired by much lately to post something that doesn't suck, so suck it up and deal. So for now you get boogers. Bon Appetit!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Abs, Where Are You?

If you're here to read about the Disney cruise, see the "Ahoy Mateys" post. I just got inspired to blog something new, so either keep reading or click on the cruise link. The power is yours!

So, my neighbor Laura and I signed up for a 3 year commitment to a local women's fitness club literally the first Monday after I quit my job. So that was April 16th.....nearly two months ago and honestly I'm starting to get frustrated.

Perhaps I shouldn't be blogging about such a "personal" issue such as my body ("she just likes me for ma body" - Mater from Cars), but this is my latest frustration (and my effort to procrastinate from doing school work).

Day one I weighed in at (holding my breath while I type this) 130 pounds. I'm 5'8" and have been at that weight since I was 22 (obviously except for when I was cooking two strapping boys in my oven), regardless of what I eat, drink or smoke (so I don't smoke, but I felt a third item was necessary there). My thinking was that by working out I'd set a personal goal of a measly 5 pounds. I'd really like to be at 125 - that would be lovely. Healthy, but not too skinny. Damn, I could never be too skinny, my ass is too big.....in a pretty good way, I think (at least in the right pair of jeans).

Now that we're at nearly two months of this routine five days a week, I'm losing motivation. I'm thinking either my scale needs new batteries or I'm going to have to change some shit up. The damn thing said 135.

I know, I know, muscle weighs more than fat, blah blah blah, (and that's probably it, cause my clothes don't fit any tighter), but I've been working hard on these abs someone told me I have, but I can't see them in all of their ripply glory. Damn flab has Harrison's name written all over it like a tattoo you can't get rid of without surgery.

I think I have accepted the fact that I'm heading into my 30s (still 29 though) and I just can't eat, drink or smoke (no, haven't started smoking since I said that earlier) whatever I want to and expect the exercise alone will pull its own weight. I'm going to have to make drastic changes.

I'm buying V-8 (the original, not the splash version that's all sugar and coloring) and water in bulk and I've cut out coffee and sodas. That's phase one - the easy part. I just like my sweets way too much and pasta and bread and chips and fries and ice cream and alcohol. Sniff sniff......

I didn't think when I signed up for this that two months into it I would be setting a new goal to get back to my preworkout weight.

"Hello Cori. Thank you for joining me for this personal training session. What is your weight goal?"

"Uh, yes, thanks for squeezing me in. I'm desperate to lose five pounds to get back to the weight I was before I started working out."

The battle of the bulge is kicking my ass.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Ahoy Mateys!

Its been a week since we returned, tissues in hand, from our four night Disney cruise to the Bahamas and it was fantastic! If you have children and the means, you have to do this cruiseline! Although I have no basis for comparison, I did verbally survey several people during our trip and the results are unanimous - Disney knows what they're doing!

I won't bore you with every detail of our journey, but I will say the food was "wow", the entertainment was incredible, Disney's private island Castaway Cay was awesome and the whole journey from beginning to end was choreographed with perfection by Disney. Amazing!

We only took Jake this time (we wanted a vacation out of it too), so big H stayed home with Oma and Opa, but we will definitely take both boys again in three years!

Here are some pictures to document our excursion:

On the bus from the Orlando airport to the port in Florida, Jake sees the ship for the first time through the bus window while sitting on Daddy's lap.







In our cabin waiting for the evacuation drill on the first day. The evacuation drill is mandatory by maritime law and it was interesting to wave at the Royal Caribbean guests across the port doing the same drill at the same time. This drill of nearly 4,000 guests and crew took about 15 minutes. Disney has got it down! (Luckily we didn't need these orange duds again during our trip.)


Jake at breakfast the first morning eating a banana and a Mickey Mouse waffle, of course! The harbor at Nassau, Bahamas is through the window behind him. (Note the Longhorns jersey. How did that get in his suitcase?)

A little trivia: 5,000 eggs are consumed daily on the Disney Wonder.


My first picture of the full ship while we walked to the Nassau port. Incidentally, while this is not nearly the largest cruiseliner out there, it does weigh a paltry 90 million tons.




Jake digging in the sand on the public beach at Nassau. Jason is in the background "catching some waves."
One of those waves caught Jason and with humanlike precision, yanked off his hat and sunglasses and depants him. He claims he barely recovered his shorts, managed to find his hat floating nearby, but lost the sunglasses. The beach visits were Jake's favorite part of the cruise (next to foosball on deck 9 of the boat).


Yes, I did exist on this trip. Jason snapped this one (among others that will not be shown) after I played with Jake in Nassau.






I couldn't resist taking this postcardish picture from our stateroom balcony as we left Nassau. A real live lighthouse!






The playground in the water for the kids at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay! Jake ventured up the ladder and across the bridges, but wouldn't follow the big kids to the monkey barlike ropes. "Falling in the water is too scary," he said.
Cori especially liked the lifeguard variety that stood apost at the top.


Jason and Jake watch the fireworks on deck 9 during the Pirate Party that were shot from the ship at sea on our third night. Disney claims they are the only cruiseline in the world that still does fireworks at sea.




This is Das. He is from India and was our server every night (during our rotations through 3 different restaurants) and at the final breakfast before we departed. He was incredible as our server delivering Jason as many entrees as he wanted and when we finally got to visit with him personally, Cori found him to be extremely smart and interesting. Das' wife was from Brazil and she also worked as a server on the ship. Das has been with Disney for five years.

Jake and Cori on an inside ship balcony overlooking the main atrium. We were waiting for all of the characters to arrive for the "till we meet again" party. (Note the Texas A&M shirt. Jason wouldn't pose with Jake while he wore this. Ok, not really.....)









THE CHARACTERS JAKE MET
(This was a Disney cruise, after all. Oh, and Jake did meet princesses too and Minnie Mouse, but those are GIRLS!)













Jake would pose with everyone alone except Captain Hook, who he said was scary.

By the way, Jake did NOT wear his A&M shirt the whole time. We caught the characters mostly on the last night. Hope you enjoyed this little electronic scrapbook of our trip. The great thing about the boat is that even though its Disney, the focus is not on Disney crap, so shockingly I am not completely sick of Disney. I fear I will not return from Disney World with the same feeling.