The Look

He yelled at me in front of everyone. He yelled in front of my husband, my husband's co-workers, the CEO and President of my husband's company and a bunch of strangers. Why? Because I gave him "the look." As a mother, I am working on perfecting this skill. I guess I have it down pat because he walked over to my table and chewed me out. I'd write down his words if I could have understood them. He was from another country with a very thick accent. I sat there and didn't listen to a word. I just kept thinking "I really can't believe this waiter is yelling at me."

After he left and I wiped my tears, I sat there in disbelief. We were on a cruise for my husband's work. At dinner, we all sat together at many tables. During the meal, the man sitting next to me ordered but then decided he wanted to sit with a co-worker at a different table. When his food arrived, he grabbed his plate and took it to his new table. Apparently, this is a big no-no for Princess cruise staff. The waiter that yelled at me, let's call him Meanie, screamed and bitched out our super nice waiter. In defense of my super nice waiter, I gave the look at Meanie. I did not say one word. That's when I got tore into by Meanie.

It has been a year since our cruise and I have forgiven Meanie. (The situation was handled on board and Meanie's supervisor handled the situation) Since we are really cutting back and I am pregnant, there is no way I can take a cruise. And what do you know? IT IS ALL I THINK ABOUT. I have been tempted by the fantastic offers that are available due to the downtown in the economy. But like the rest of the country, we aren't comfortable spending so much money when everything is so shaky.

But let's pretend we can book a cruise. Carnival is the cheapest, their food is pretty good and their staff was excellent. Princess, the food was better, the price is a little higher but the staff was OK to fair. So hard to choose! Maybe we go with NCL or Royal Caribbean and try them out. I'd love to take a cruise to Chile. Someday!

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Have you ever been on a cruise? What company do you prefer? If you've never been, where would you like to cruise? And since this is a recession, we are DREAMING people. Dream away!

Should Have Taken OHmommy With Me

We charged the camera. We brought the charger with us. We even remembered the memory card that was in the printer. We brought the camera. We took no photos. Not a one. Well, I take that back. I took three photos for strangers. You know how you see the person alone in a gorgeous location and their partner is taking the photo and you feel bad for them? I offered and made three couples very happy. If you don't offer, they will have photos and photos of each person alone. At least they will go home with one nice shot of the couple. They at least have one more photo than we have.


We weren't much better on our original honeymoon. We only have about 20 or so that we took ourselves. Sad. I love photos. We just don't think to take the camera with us. It was only on our way home from MGM on our last night that my hubby looked at me and said "We forgot the camera again." I honestly thought of running up to our room and bringing it down to snap 20 photos so I had a way to document our fantastic trip. But if you've been to Vegas, you know how much walking you do. My feet were so sore that I just couldn't make my way up to the 26th floor and down the long corridor. We walked miles and miles on our last day. Miles.


We had a fantastic trip. We ate at Tao which was amazing. We saw Love, a Cirque du Soleil celebration of the Beatles. Fantastic. I also got to see Prison Break being filmed at Planet Hollywood. Very cool. We ended up making a little money gambling and took a bump on the way home. We scored two $250 vouchers. Sweet. All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend time with my husband and reconnect. Thanks honey. But next time, we need a photographer. OHmommy, will can you come and take some photos for us?

From His Point of View

I love it when my kids steal my camera. I do. We don't have a fancy one so we let them play away. We're hoping they break the camera and we'll have an excuse to buy a new one. Here are some fun photos that my 4 year old took on our recent trip to Myrtle Beach. I am so glad that we didn't miss them.
It kept him out of trouble and we have some interesting photos that we'll always cherish. And unfortunately, the camera is still in one piece.

Only an Evacuation

We had the evening from hell. Well, sort of. We ate dinner at Senor Frogs because everyone else decided to go to Barefoot Landing at the exact same time as us. We ended the evening with a visit to Ripley's Aquarium. It is one of my children's favorite places in Myrtle Beach.

As we left the aquarium, I attempted to surprise my overtired boys with toys they were eying at the gift store. I always say no and for once, I wanted to say yes. What is better than a surprise? Instead of being so happy with my surprise, they broke into tears because the toys weren't right and they wanted to pick out their own. Needless to say, we said forget it. They didn't get their toys. After tearing into them for being spoiled and swearing we were cutting back, we drove back to our hotel.


They cried almost the whole way to our hotel. When we got there, all of the roads were blocked. There was no way in. So, we drove up to the cop and asked what was going on. It was a chemical spill. The hotel was evacuated and he said come back in an hour.


I wanted to yell "Come back in an hour? Are you kidding me? I have two screaming children in here who haven't slept all week and there are two carafes of sangria waiting for me up there. We can't come back in an hour." We drove away nicely and tried to think of what to do.


To kill time, we went one of the million souvenir shops. We drove around and came back. Still blocked. No luck. They said to come back in another hour. So we did what any parent would do. We went back on our "spoiled speech" and bought the spoiled boys some ice cream.


I told my husband as we watched the boys lick their ice cream that we made poor refugees. The only thing I knew was that only an evacuation would get them an ice cream.

Piles Aren't So Bad

Piles. Most of us have at least one pile in our kitchen. In mine, there are usually two. One pile is for my husband with the latest mail. I then have my own pile that includes things I have to tend to at some point. We live with the pile and make promises to clean them up and they somehow seem to regrow while getting on with the more important parts of our day.

In our house, we have a very important pile. It is a tradition in our house to start "The Pile" for our vacations. Today, we were piling our sand pales, fishnets, buckets, balls and many, many sand toys high on the dining room table. Whenever we are going somewhere, one of the most exciting things to happen is when we start our pile. Yesterday, we started our Myrtle Beach pile.



My boys were so excited to get the pile started. They ran around and found alligators, boats and Star Wars guys to add to the pile. My husband and I agreed that the anticipation of the trip is almost as much fun as the trip. We got excited ourselves!

The pile keeps getting larger and larger. But, a few of the toys have wandered off and the fishnets are no where to be found. We just have to wait a couple more days until we pile our pile into the minivan and join the other minivans in Myrtle Beach. There, we will create new piles of seashells and other goodies to bring home to remember our trip. We have a lot of piles in our house.

***For a few of my N. Irish, British and Australian friends, piles in America are stacks of paper or objects. Not hemorrhoids! What a post this would have been if it was really about hemorrhoids not being so bad. ***

Sweet Caroline. Over and Over Again.

When I was a kid, we drove to Cincinnati in a tiny little car and and we only had one tape. Maybe we had more that one but my dad played the same Neil Diamond tape over and over again. There were five of us in a tiny compact car including our luggage. We were packed in there like sardines. We were on our way to King's Island for our family vacation and we couldn't have been happier."Sweet Caroline" played every hour or so the whole way down and back.

I loved family vacations. In fact, my sisters and I got so excited that my dad usually didn't tell us when or where we were going on vacation. We must have driven him nearly crazy for him to keep such a secret.

Now that I have two little boys that can only talk about their upcoming vacation, I completely understand. We have a countdown on the calendar. We talk about swimming, the beach, what to bring and most importantly which putt putts we'll go to.

We will be heading to my husband's childhood vacation place, Myrtle Beach. We've done it before and we'll do it again with my in-laws. Mike's brother and his family are also going with us. At first I wasn't sure about going to the same place every couple of years. What if I wasn't exposing my children to enough places? Different cuisine? Different customs?

But, reality set in. Time is precious. There is nothing more important than my children spending time with their grandparents and family. There are stories to tell and retell about their daddy when he was little. There are memories to create. Pictures to take. Traditions to carry on. They will have years and years to travel. Hopefully someday I can travel to exotic places with them. But for now, we will pack our minivan and head on down to Myrtle Beach with the whole family. And for fun, I might just torture my children with a few "Sweet Carolines" just to help pass on that tradition.