Snapshot Tuesday . . .

I haven't been posting all that regularly, but I wanted to at least give you a glimpse of the cruise until I get around to posting more details.  I really ought to do it tomorrow before I get into the swing of school again.  Meetings and such start wednesday this week.

Our first formal evening dinner.  You can see my relatively freshly cut bangs, which I haven't been brave enough to do since I dunno, 10?  But, not bad no?

This was our second formal night dinner.

Let me tell you now, the food was superb.  We were on the Celebrity Infinity, which is evidentally known for some of the best food you can ever get on a cruise.  They had lots of different types of cuisine and quite a few vegetarian options that Micah enjoyed (he's not really vegetarian anymore, but still eats veggie most of the time).  I ate vegetarian now and then . . . :P  In the meantime, I tried anything on the menu I hadn't tried yet, including lobster, scallops, oysters, and even frog legs.  All were tasty enough though the frog legs truly do taste like chicken and the oysters tasted like the spinachy, buttery bread crumb topping put on it.  The scallops were lovely and the lobster was ok.  I don't think I'll really try most of this again though, because normally they're not cheap to get a hold of and some of it wasn't good enough to try again.  But, at least I can say I tried it!  Aren't I brave? ;)

More later on glaciers, animal impressions done live by our own Alaskan expert, and whales!

I'm baaaack!

We returned from our cruise and found out that the twins were born!  (I mentioned this in my previous post) Mommy, Daddy, and babes are happy and healthy and have already met a good majority of the extended family.  Sadly, I don't know when I'll get to see them yet.  I live across the state from them and I don't know when we're going to be going across for a visit. Perhaps next month sometime.

In the meantime, here's some pics:

Dru on left and then Luci

Daddy Tres with his newest family members.

Momma Julia and her two sweet little pumpkins.

I am so absolutely thrilled for this family.  And what a cute, CUTE family they are.  There's nothing like TWO little red-faced darlings to make one's heart melt.

Congratulations again Julia and Tres.  You've done good. ;)

General updates . . .

The entire family (my side) including my sister, her husband, my parents, us, and my Aunt are leaving for an Alaskan Cruise tomorrow morning!   I have no idea what the internet will be like or what we'll be able to afford (because I'm sure its extra on the ship).  This is Micah's first cruise, which will be fun to see him experience.

We have a new car.  My old one's transmission started going out and then ended up with enough other problems to make it undrivable within 3 weeks.  Sadly, we didn't get much out of selling it.  We now have a Toyota Yaris, which I really like.  It's just a lil (very lil) economy car to hopefully last us more than 5 years or so.

Our cousin is very pregnant with twins and is expected to go into labor any day.  I can't wait to post all of the pictures that I'm going to do my best to get once it happens.  She's made it about 36 weeks already, so the babies are no longer high risk, blessedly.

I've gone to my first couple meetings for the new school year and I'm quite impressed with the efficiency and technology that will be available in my new classroom.  It seems like a very nice district, not to mention a brand new high school.  I'm so looking forward to my 2nd year, the 1st is always the most challenging . . .

So, hopefully I'll have some pictures or something interesting to talk about for the cruise.  Until later than all.

Women's Health

Let me just give you all a little blip about what I think about the Affordable Health Care Act.

I think it's absolutely marvelously FANTASTIC!

It's taken all too long for our country to realize that free preventive care for over 50% of the population that requires more regular visits to a doctor to maintain their health is not only going to help our standard of living overall, but will safe TONS in healthcare expenses because more serious conditions are being prevented.  That's not all though:

"The Affordable Care Act requires new health insurance plans to cover women’s preventive services including well-woman visits, screening for gestational diabetes, breastfeeding support, domestic violence screening, counseling and screening for sexually transmitted infections and access to FDA contraception without charging a co-payment, co-insurance or a deductible."

Not only are they concerned with women's physical health, but their mental health, their financial health, and their family's health.  A healthy mother goes a long way towards keeping up a healthy family, and women as we know are at higher risk more often than men anyway, making it even more important to provide free preventive care.

I can't even list all of the benefits of this act.  Low income women with the most basic insurance will be able to catch breast cancer earlier on, women will be more likely to report incidents of domestic violence if there is no charge for medical help (which will reduce cases of violence, since more perpetrators will be reported on and have their behavior stopped), infant mortality should lower due to women having better access to breastfeeding support and due to their mothers being healthier in mind and body, more unwanted pregnancies will be prevented (saving countless amounts of healthcare costs), the list goes on. 

Though its really no surprise.  When medical professionals are given the opportunity to weigh in on what sorts of care should be free, they are allowed to put their expertise and knowledge to use when it comes to insurance law.  This should be done more often, in other areas of insurance law.  Maybe insurance law to better support children, especially infants (their mortality is much higher in the US than it should be considered the dollars put into healthcare), perhaps targeting the more concerning health concerns of men, such as prostate cancer screenings.  We can no longer afford to cause people to forgo basic preventive care because they cannot afford it and then have to foot the enormous bill later once they have a preventable condition years later.  Maybe if we continue in this vein, we could actually cut the astronomical costs of healthcare and help reduce the deficit.

Anyway, enough praise, here's a link to check it out and sign your affirmation of this act and for things like this to continue.  http://www.barackobama.com/womens-health-signon?source=20110810_FB_BO_ACA  And more general info with more details about what's covered:  http://www.hrsa.gov/womensguidelines/

1st Anniversary

There are my dock pictures, in honor of the dock pictures that I had hoped to have for my wedding, but the weather refused to cooperate.  Such is life. 

For our anniversary, we went out to Brinnon, WA (the wedding location) with some friends.  We had a lovely time playing games, eating good food, watching MASH, just hanging loose.  Then our good friend Laura snapped the pics above for posterity's sake. :)  And now a small letter to my handsome hubby:

Well, my dearest Micah,

We have made it one year already and it seemed to fly by.

I am still so thrilled to be spending my life with such a wonderful person.

You are hardworking, honest, caring, generous, patient, just to list a few.

We have made a happy home for ourselves and the cat.

I so look forward to our years together, whatever they may bring.

Though I'm sure they will bring much love and happiness.

I love you more than life itself.  Happy Anniversary

Love,

Your lover and wife

G's Wedding!

So, I wanted to do a post about Jeanna's wedding (affectionately called "G" by Annea and I), but I've waited until now until I got some pictures.  I did not take pictures myself as I didn't want to worry about anything other than being the matron of honor and being of service to G.

But, it was so lovely.  It poured rain early in the morning, so I think we were all a twinge worried, but it cleared off and was nice and sunny for the ceremony with a cool breeze.  Later, the wind picked up and got really chilly, but we were mostly inside for the reception.

Jeanna and Kyle Hardesty

The wedding coordinator also did all the flowers and decor.  Everything turned out just lovely, especially the bride's bouquet.

The pretty ceremony location.

Her fantastic dress with her gorgeous train.  The dress is a story in and of itself.  Annea, G, and I went wedding dress shopping and when G tried on this dress, Naynay (her affectionate nickname) sprouted and tear and that was that.  That had to be the dress.  But, G still had plenty of time and went out on her own again and found another dress that she bought after being somewhat manhandled into it.  It wasn't nearly as pretty, needed cleaning and repairs.  G decided to go for the original dress after all and ordered online.  She recieved a completely different dress!  Finally, with Kyle's helped they returned and re-ordered the RIGHT dress through a more reliable company.  It was a perfect fit, with only hemming needed.  Alls well that ends well. :)

The entire wedding party plus parents.  I don't have one yet of just the wedding party, but we sure look nice don't we?

A very lovely, passionate kiss, which is saying something for this rather shy couple that avoids even mild forms of PDA like the plague. :P

Anna, Monica (both the groom's sisters), me (matron of honor), Annea (maid of honor)

Jeanna with her new in-laws.  I just love this picture because its so joyful. (Evidentally something hilarious was going on)

Jeanna, her groom, and bridesmaids.

I walked out with Andrew, a young man I knew from 3rd grade.  It's a small world.

My handsome hubby, although a little tired.  He played cello for the quartet and had the early morning shift as well.

My lovely sister and her hubby, Derek.

Me bawling my eyes out after we gave our toasts.  We love you sooo so much G.

Photos in the getaway car.

Isn't she just the cutest thing?

And sealed with a kiss.

My own lovely wedding was one year ago and one day.  Another post of that coming up as we did snap a few pics of the occasion.