Easiest $20 made

You could say that this has just been my special weekend. To top everything off, I won a nice $20 bet from Kevin this afternoon. We had gone out to lunch with my family and were in the minivan for the drive back. I was messing around and decided to use the arms of the chair to levitate myself up (I raised my whole body up and criss-crossed my legs). Kevin saw and immediately bet me that I couldn't hold that pose all the way home. I thought about it and argued that it would be impossible since there was still quite a drive left and there were so many stop lights. He ended up changing the terms and said that if I could hold my pose without ever dropping my legs until we reached past the light at McDonald's, he'd give me $20! I told him, "Game on!" In my mind, I thought that my arms would be the part in pain first. Nope, after a few seconds, my legs were on fire and then my abs. We hit a light and I was struggling, I'm sure it wasn't a pretty sight. But regardless, I was able to hold it all the way through and made myself a easy twenty.

Ka Chow! Ka Chow!


I am engaged, as of yesterday!!!!! There are no words to express how happy and excited I am right now. I definitely did not see it coming since we had spent the entire day together at Great Adventure and Hurricane Harbor the previous day. You would think I would've picked up a vibe or something. The proposal was sweet and he showed me the other ways he had wanted to go with it but couldn't because he knew how I'd react. That's love right there, he knew how my "denseness" at times can ruin things, haha! I was blushing the entire time and even when I started to tell people, I felt so embarrassed. I guess it's because I'm not used to that sort of spotlight where it's all about me, me, and me! Kevin kept touching my cheeks because of how warm they were. I absolutely LOVE my ring!! It is so gorgeous and so special, very me! What makes it so special is that he had a part of the original design changed for me! Everyone laughed at me when I said this but it came in such an awesome wooden box. I couldn't believe how quickly news travels in the family. I had people leaving me messages asking why I didn't tell them. Dude, it literally just happened, you need to give me some time! Kevin was so sweet in driving me to both of the restaurants to show my parents. The funny thing is once the ring was slipped on, I looked at my nails and was like, "Oh no, my nails are so icky! I need a real manicure!" Right after I said that, Kevin immediately told me that he would take me and wait for me to get my French manicure. How incredible is he? It was a long crazy day and my head is still spinning a bit right now. I've been getting millions of questions that I do not have the answers to yet and probably won't for a while, as school will be starting soon and this year is going to be a rough one as well. Either way, I am so extremely excited for what's to come! Now I can finally do my "Cars" move with the ka chowing!

Sing your heart out

If I could use one word to describe karaoke this past weekend, it would have to be...EXTREME!

Apparently with the addition of 2 more people than our usual, we ended up getting a much larger room! If that's the case, I'm just always going to up my number by 2 then.

As always, I had a blast and laughed so much that my cheeks and stomach were on fire. It was hysterical listening to Wey and Zach duet for "Respect" and "Burn" - Aretha and Usher got nothing on them! Surprisingly, Zach is pretty convincing with the rap and with the help of us with the hand movements - T.I. would be proud. The girls and I definitely rocked our anthem which we have agreed we must sing at every outing. I was actually quite embarrassed when I belted out "Too Close"! I hadn't heard that song in ages and when I really took notice to what the lyrics were, it was pretty odd having a girl singing those lines. But I'm sure everyone enjoyed the little dance move I busted out in the middle (I didn't intend for anyone but Kevin to see but of course with me, that means everyone is watching).

Afterwards, we went to dinner and of course we had to get Pinkberry. I had planned to keep it quiet that I had already gone once before but I let them know it was my second cup of the day. I got completely different flavors and toppings though, if that counts for anything. I noticed that there was a Red Mango opening up a few stores down. I was told that Red Mango's yogurt is more on the sweet side as opposed to Pinkberry's tart flavor. I will definitely be interested in trying it out once it's open for business.

Row, row, swim, swim

I just got back some awesome photos from our kayaking and snorkeling tour!


Right from the start, Kevin and a few other guys decided to take the back seat literally and let all the women do the work. You're caught on camera now and can't deny it! The other is a nice shot of us paddling on the same side and at the same time, wooo! The infamous mangroves are in the background, you know, the one we ran into and has left a scratch on my face.




It's pretty cool how the mangroves grow in water. They turn out differently when they grow on land. I don't know what kind of fish that is but it reminds me of a peacock feather.




Once again, I'm not sure what those sort of creepy things are but they're like shrimp/crawfish? Dude, if you look closely it's an octopus!! There are suction cups on the top and you can see it's belly.




Some more cool fish!

Weekend in CT

On Friday morning, I got up nice and early so that we could begin our road trip to Connecticut. The drive was good, we didn't hit any traffic or the supposed downpour. Let me just say it was a huge mistake to have drank such a huge cup of coffee during the drive (a mistake I learned from during the first few weeks of school but somehow have forgotten over the summer). It was nice driving through Beth's town and finally being able to put a picture to everything. Once we arrived, we left to grab a light lunch and it was onto outlet shopping! I got some sweat deals, including a nice backpack that straps a snowboard on. I was in shoe heaven when there were more of my size than the girls (yes, they thought hell had frozen over)! Though us girls got a bunch of stuff for ourselves, we all got stuff for our boys too. We tried to get matching boxers but our tastes are way different! At least they were all bought from the same store.

As we were finishing up with the shopping, that's when it started to downpour. We went back home and Darren cooked us a delicious filet mignon dinner. After dinner, we went to watch "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2". We've all been so excited to watch it together so it was great that we were able to. We rocked out with our ring pops, as if we were still in high school. I must say, we were the only true sisterhood with 4 girls as every other group had less or way more. I enjoyed it but I liked the first one better. But I think it was just because the sequel had a lot more serious issues. I could have done without the 2 guys sitting behind me. They kept making really stupid comments throughout the movie, being cheesy and then making pervy remarks whenever Blake Lively was on screen. After the movie, it was pretty late so we all just stayed up talking before crashing.

On Saturday, we got up early again to visit Beth's parents' new home. It was so amazing and beautiful! I can't even explain how huge it was and how kickass it was. I still remember being blown away by the basement and then turning the corner to see there were 2 rooms to add to it. We definitely miss them in Jersey but they deserve such a beautiful home now. After the house tour, we began our trip to Mystic. The traffic was horrendous! At one point, there was a hold up because every single car felt the need to stop and watch the guy throwing up on the side of the road.

There just happened to be an art fair going on that day so it made entering the town even harder. Luckily when we finally made it in, we found parking fairly easily. It's a really cute town and with the fair, there was cool art to look at and food stations galore. I saw a lot of pieces I would've loved to lug home but I couldn't afford. I also saw things that I could have done myself and as result of that comment, I am now being held to it. I got really excited when I saw a stand where a girl would draw manga portraits. So here's how it came out:


(Yeah, the colors are off because there was a whole spiral of colors being stolen. I was the only one who didn't take someone else's color and just picked another one to make it different.) We quizzed all the bfs and they got everyone correct on the first try, though I must say some had it easier than others.

After the art fair, we went to a winery. The place didn't serve any food so we had already prepared some light snacks to bring with us. The wine was alright but the atmosphere was great. It's definitely a cute place to bring a date. Then we went to dinner and went back home to unwind after a long day. We celebrated Jess' birthday early and surprised her with some peach cobbler and ice cream. I was also hustled by Lydia in pool but she didn't do as well once Darren wasn't there to help her. The sleeping arrangements changed that night. The first night I had gotten the air mattress alone but Jess was complaining that Lydia was trying to cuddle with her. So I switched and took my chances with the spooner.

We got up early on Sunday so that we could make it back into Jersey at a decent time since we all had other plans. The girls refused to refuel while in CT, which I thought was bad because we had never done that before. The gas gauge had definitely gotten very low and I was in a panic. They both knew that if the car ran out of gas, they'd be the ones pushing since it was their idea. But luckily we made it to the gas station on the turnpike.

It was an awesome weekend and there are some many things I can't really write about but I can just sit back now and laugh and smile about them.

Missing the cruising

I was planning on writing up another one of my full blown posts about my cruise but I've been so busy with everything else that I completely forgot! I definitely miss the carefree state that I could relax in and not to mention the delicious food. It actually took me over a week to not constantly feel like I was starving back at home (this probably gives you a clear indication about how much I ate while on the ship)!

I definitely had an amazing time! The weather and the islands were gorgeous and the excursions were so fun! It really is difficult for me to ever want to go into any waters that are not as clear and aqua colored.

To sum it up, here are some of the highlights and what I am missing:

- Getting dressed up and having full course meals where I can order numerous entrees

- As my kids would put it, "getting my tan on"

- Jacuzzis

- Shuffle boarding as if we're 80 years old

- Ice skating on a ship

- Having an entire day planned and filled with activities and not feeling bad about it when you don't want to do any of it!

- Exploring in the caverns and making jokes about how it was the perfect set up for one of those horror flicks where half the group disappears into the darkness

- Ziplining!! It was the most amazing experience and so empowering! Granted with my height, some courses were rougher but it was so much fun! I definitely don't miss the amount of sweat that I had though...

- Kayaking and snorkeling! It was so relaxing and you really could play bumper kayaking and not worry about flipping over. The best part of snorkeling was that there was a ship wreck so the fish were so close to your face. (I still have a battle wound from the bush encounter)

- Shopping and being able to try on and look at things that under normal circumstances are out of my price range! Not to mention that the staff would treat you like you're a million bucks!

- Purchasing for myself a beautiful ring and also receiving a gorgeous ring and pendant from Kevin (No, it wasn't "that" ring! I don't know why everyone lights up when they hear about it and are disappointed when they find out it's not that one)

- Impressing people with my Spanish when asking for directions. It's always so funny to me how scared I am at first to speak but then I get on a roll. However, there was one guy that had way too high expectations of me and I swear I couldn't understand 80% of what he was saying afterwards.

- Finding towel animals on my bed

- Playing MJ and sneaking the case back into our room

- Winning $10 from a slot machine! It's party time!!

- Taking pictures in my own "studio" and rocking my signature pose

- Playing Bingo but unfortunately not winning anything!


I'm sure there was a whole lot more! If only I could rewind and be back on the ship...



On one of the formal nights and relaxing in Bermuda.



Snorkeling - check out how close the fish were! The kayaking was so relaxing and everyone looked like giant windmills as they paddled.



Part of the ziplining course. They didn't allow cameras and even if they did, you really wouldn't have the chance to take any pictures. We did buy their one shot they got of us for a ridiculous price but they were awesome shots! I made a swan out of the face towel and left it for our state attendant!