Cruise in Review

We're Baaaack!

In case you didn't know, on February 6 we left for Orlando to hit up Islands of Adventure and cruise the Caribbean! We got home late Sunday and I'm proud to say that we were unpacked before noon Monday! We thought we would share a few of our highlights:

1. Orlando's Beautiful Weather

Nawt. It rained and was cold the whole 3 1/2 days we were there. So lame. However, we were cold in t-shirts and sandals, rather than in snowsuits, which makes it all the more bearable. 

2. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

This area of Islands of Adventure was very nerdily beautiful to me. When we walked in it was  moment of aw, all of the buildings look so amazing and are covered in fake snow. It felt so real! I'd love to go back when Diagon Alley is up and running and you can really ride the Hogwarts Express!

We rode the main ride, "Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey" 2 times. I would have gone more except it took quite a while to get through since the line up was a tour of the Hogwarts school. So wonderful. The ride was a combination of video and real with a lot of special effects, and I was smiling the whole time - except for the part when they took my picture and I had taken a moment to itch my face, and the part with the Dementors where my eyes were closed. Other than that - all smiles. 

3. Butterbeer

Rootbeer mixed with butterscotch = heaven. Legit, I'm pretty sure that after the pearly gates there is a pool of butterbeer into which you can plunge and drink for eternity.

4. Exploring our Ship

Philip & I are kind of freaks about exploring things lol. I feel like if we go to a hotel or anywhere new, we get to our room, put our stuff down, and then get so excited to wander about exploring. This ship was gynormous. It had all of the usual stuff we expected as past cruisers, but there were also features like a rock climbing wall, surf simulator, ice rink, and of course horrible things like dressed up characters. The Kung Fu Panda may have caused me to jump and accidentally elbow Philip in the face with fear. 

5. Albert & Ygnacio

We had the amazing experience of sitting at the same table every night with the same waiters. They were so funny and nice. They were one of the best experiences of our trip.

6. 2 Hour Downhill Mountain Trek

In St Maarten we were transported to the top of their highest mountain "Pic Paradise" (the tour guide had an accent so I thought it was Pig Paradise for the longest time). The drive started in a comfy air conditioned bus for about half an hour, then we had to climb into a truck bed filled with wooden plank benches and ropes holding us in instead of sides. So bumpy and had to duck so tree branches didn't get us in the head - Adventure begins! We got walking sticks and started the long walk down. It was so beautiful! The mountain used to be a sugar plantation and so there are even old copper pots that slaves used, and you can see the stone wall terraces that they built down the sides of the mountain where the different work areas were. There were lots of monkeys around, except for a dog decided to walk with us and he chased them away before we could see any. We did hear them though...which is about 1/10 as cool. 

Anyway...it was an amazing trip! We had a great experience, came back decently tanned, and can't wait to crack open our tiny $10 box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Hopefully they aren't all vomit flavored. I will post some pictures later this week! Waiting to get some from my sister-in-law and the cruise ship because we didn't take many photos on our iPhones since they were off without reception anyway. 

The Inner Workings of a House

It's interesting how when you use the same appliances, television, car, front door, they become part of your life.

We're going to be going on an exciting trip soon, and while we're gone we have a friend who's graciously accepted the job of house sitting. Last night after she said yes, I got excited about buying her favourite snacks, making our house easy and a happy place for her to be. I started up writing a note for her: Wi Fi password, Netflix access, car arrangements, how to work the stove. I hadn't realized how intense this note was going to be until I was at 2 pages and had hardly covered anything.

Now I'm definitely being more than thorough, but we won't have phones on and I don't want her to be here the first day and realize she doesn't know how to work our old school microwave. No popcorn for 10 days!

Anyway, just appreciating the special things my house is filled with, their tricks, weird quirks, and interesting features. I love anticipating a trip and this is a fun part of it...next up, packing!

The Kitchen Colour Conflict

Philip & I have been constructively arguing about the cabinetry we'd like to go with for probably a year now. For those who aren't in the loop, I work in the kitchen business so it can be tough every day selling beautiful kitchens while ours remains dishwasher-less with a fridge in the living room. We're really hoping to renovate the kitchen this year, depending on cash flow, so we started to choose some of the decor aspects to make a more accurate budget. This week we made some great strides towards envisioning the kitchen we'll be putting in:

1. We're looking into redoing the entire main floor flooring...it's a bit of a crazy addition to the budget, but the floor needs refinishing anyway and this way we could have the same floor throughout the kitchen and living room. We'll likely do carpet in the bedrooms, and then we're going to do engineered natural maple throughout the remaining main floor. We're looking into installing it ourselves to save a couple thousand dollars, but we have to think that through a little more.

2. Two tone cabinetry is going to be the look we're going for, and we chose my favourite grey-ish stain from my work, Slate, for the bottoms while the uppers will be a painted soft white. 

3. As far as countertops, we're hoping to put in a new quartz product in a white tone, it's a laminated quartz - a thin layer of quartz with a manufactured core making it really light weight - and affordable. It's a brand new product so we'll see what the limitations are and if it will work for us over the next month or two. 

4. This is a big one...we plan to take down a number of walls. All of the walls we can. When we're done you'll be able to see from the living room all the way to the back door, and the kitchen layout will  be drastically changed.

Take a peek at some 3D renderings I did at work the other day! Let us know if you have any ideas we should try to incorporate? We've been brainstorming but it's a big project to undertake!

2014

I'm a week late on this, but Happy New Year!

I'm a big resolution person, but to tell you the truth I didn't feel very Christmas-y or New Years-y this season. I'm just starting to get the hang of writing 2014 at the end of dates, so I'm just not there yet!

I'll definitely still be thinking over some goals, which started with Philip & I exercising every day. We spent the last half of our Christmas break setting up an exercise room in our guest room. We bought a TV on kijiji a few months back, got our day bed set up (for collapsing onto after a good workout), and on Boxing Day we headed to Ikea for an expedit to be used as a TV stand. We started up January 1st, full of gusto. We both worked out! January 2nd rolled around, Philip worked out, and when it came time to do mine the TV turned on, and just as quickly turned off - so we got 2 good uses out of our kijiji television and we were off to Best Buy. Last Saturday seemed like a spontaneous spending kind of day, we decided to get a new TV because the one we bought was going to cost a couple hundred dollars to fix, much more than we paid originally, and we just weren't in for the hassle. We got in and out of Best Buy in a matter of minutes, we had chosen the TV before we went so it was nice and quick. We ended up with a Smart TV just for options later, and so we can watch Netflix in a second room if we want to, or if we ever have a guest who wants to. After that we stopped in at Superstore because a headband had broken earlier in the day and I wanted some new ones, they didn't have any but somehow I walked out with 2 new pairs of glasses. Ay caramba. Budget is off to a great start in 2014. Anyways, since then we've each exercised everyday, and no desserts for us either - till our cruise that is. 

Some other things we're looking forward to this year: our family vacation, hopefully doing our kitchen and finishing up our main floor (I'm not going to say for sure because renovations have their ways of throwing wrenches into plans!), and who knows what else. 

Let's hope it's a good one! Speaking of hope, I think that's my word for 2014. 2013 seemed like a waiting period - working our bathroom constantly, things not going our way - that sounds very Eeyore-like, but there were definitely good parts too. This year, I'm going to try and be positive and hopeful, God has a plan and this year is part of it!

Food...yummm

I've been waiting to post about a new experience we've embarked on, but haven't had a chance! Today's post is extra special because it includes a discount that you can use to make your life easier!

We started using eMeals a few weeks ago and have really liked it so far! It's an online meal planning service. Basically you pay a small fee and have meal plans with recipes and a grocery list sent to you each week. You can choose from 13 different meal plans, ranging from your everyday Classic to more specialized like Paleo and Clean Eating. You can change your meal plan once a month, so if you want to try a few that's a great option. We started out signed up for "Low Fat", but I didn't find it a lot healthier than the way we already eat, so we changed to "Clean Eating". So far we've really enjoyed it! My favourite things:

• The grocery list makes shopping so easy! It's divided by department so going through the store is pretty quick. If you're in a rush it's as quick as printing it our or accessing from your phone and you can get all your groceries done in one trip. (We only opted into dinner plans as we usually just eat leftovers for lunch and cereal or toast for breakfast - but you can have your meals complete which would make the grocery list even more handy!)
• We've tried a lot of new meats and foods. I'm mostly a chicken and fish kind of gal, and before this had only bought red meat I think once not counting hamburgers...so it's been an interesting change eating sausage, pork, steak, etc. Definitely adding some interest to our meals. 
• I find that it makes it a lot easier to remember to take out meat to defrost, and to get started cooking right when I get home. Sometimes thinking of a plan is so hard, and then even when I make one by the time I get home I don't feel like making that particular dish. Ay ay ay. Anyway, now I get home, open my binder where I have the recipe print outs and just start following the instructions. I know that I have all of the ingredients so it's just as easy as following the step-by-step guide. 

If you think this sounds as heavenly as I do, give it a try! eMeals is offering 30% off for Cyber Monday, so hop over to their website at emeals.com and start eating delicious meals with less effort :).

Disclaimer: I wasn't paid to write this post, I'm part of their blogging network and believe in their product so I was happy to write about it and share a great service with people I know and like! I am in the process of being approved as an eMeals affiliate in which case I could make money if you visit their site through a link on my page, but as of right now this post is written with no money in mind!

Do you have trouble thinking of meal ideas too? I hope I'm not the only one who comes home starving at 5:30 to a freezer full of rock hard meat that will take way too long to defrost so I dig into some scrambled eggs...