Cat's Cruisin College

Presenting our graduates of Cat's Cruisin College.

We had a blast on the cruise and met many new friends. Carol, pictured here with Maggie, me and Rosemary is from Lubbock and was a natural fit in our group. She won a three day cruise while on board. The classes we took were excellent and I promise I will carry my camera manual in my purse for the rest of my life. Here are a few more pictures of the trip.

This was our formal night and the Captains Cocktail Party. Don't we look nice. Ron and I even got up on the stage and danced a bit.

Maggie and Kathy are having fun on the Jeep Tour in Progresso.

Halloween Fun

What fun we had on Halloween. I sit at the front desk at work and my official title is "Front Desk Goddess, Office Mascot". Everyone really liked my hat and shirt but mostly they liked the bucket of candy sitting on my desk. I was beginning to think no one else dressed up when Elvis walked in the door. His costume was soooo him. This is his hair and he wears it almost exactly like this all the time.

It was our first Halloween in the new house and we were not sure how many trick-or-treaters we would have but were pleasantly surprised. We had lots of neighborhood children including some very small ones and they were all very cute. Not all of them could say Trick or Treat but all of them said Thank You and one little girl wanted us to know she really liked our house. I think she liked the big blow ups we had on the front yard but she was very sweet. Hope you had as much fun on Halloween as we did.

Saturday is the Fabulous Fifties Party and I will be posting pictures of that next week.

Trip to Arkansas

Off on another adventure; we left early Friday morning and picked up our traveling companions, Maggie and John and Kathy and Jerry. It was about 6:30 a.m. so most of the travelers slept while I worked on my Halloween project and Ron drove. We arrived in Little Rock and our first stop was the Clinton Memorial Museum. It was interesting to see the replica's of the "oval office" and the "cabinet room"; both are reported to be the exact same in size and furnishings as their counterparts at the White House. It was like looking right into the oval office. The view from the museum was very nice and the architecture is very modern, symbolizing President Clinton's famous quote "a bridge to the future". Aside from that, the rest of the museum was unremarkable.

We took a stroll through the Marketplace, grabbed lunch and then the guys went to an antique car show and Maggie, Kathy and I jumped on the trolley and took a tour of Little Rock and North Little Rock. Did you know they are two separate cities??? The trolley system in Little Rock is very new and the driver gave us quite a bit of history about the area as we rode along. After the trolley ride we met back up with the guys and we toured some of the older homes in the area that were built in the early 1900's. Some were very beautiful and some needed a little bit of work.

We headed to Hot Springs via a brief stop at "Cracker Barrell" where I found an outfit for the upcoming cruise. You just never know where you will find a good deal. Our lodging for the trip was at Long Island Lake Resort. We were very pleased with the resort, our rooms looked out over the lake and we could open the sliding glass doors and have coffee on the balcony or walk right down to the water's edge. It had been a long day and we all settled in for the night. ZZZZZZZZZ
On Saturday we went into Hot Springs and toured around the city. We toured the Bath Houses, shopped, went up and down the tower, went on a duck tour and visited the Arkansas Winery. We tasted Arkansas wines both red and white and we all left with a souvenier from Arkansas. We rushed to the Belle River Dinner Cruise and ended our day with a delicious dinner and tour of the surrounding area on board the Dixie Belle. Note to anyone who wants to take a dinner cruise; when the sun goes down it is hard to see much but before it does, the view is great. After the cruise we headed back to the resort and pretty much fell into the bed. (We didn't even make it through the news.)

Sunday morning and we are drinking coffee and planning the drive back to Texas. We loaded up the van (with quite a bit more than we initially took) and headed off. First stop was a rock vendor on the side of the road that just happened to be next door to a Cracker Barrell. I scurried into Cracker Barrell while the rest went "rock shopping". I found a very cute outfit for Alexander at 60% off and a halloween shirt for me. With purchase in hand, I joined the others who had not found anything interesting at the rock shop (imagine that) and we headed down the road. We stopped at the Arkansas State Park Crater of Diamonds where visitors can take a shovel and sifter and search for diamonds. We watched the "amateur miners" try their luck and decided mining, for us, would need to wait until another day. We did talk to several of the miners but none we talked to had found anything that day. Resuming our return to Texas, we stopped at a Denny's for a late lunch. I think all the witches in Arkansas worked at this particular Denny's. (I guess they have to do something when it is not Halloween.) Our food was good and the service was adequate but none of them knew how to smile and a couple of them had the classic look of a witch, i.e. long nose, hollow cheeks, beedie eyes and snaggle toothed. At one point all the servers got into a squabble in full view of all the patrons and I kept thinking one of them was going to turn someone into a toad. I must say it was an interesting meal.

Back on the road we found I 30 which was a straight shot home. We put the van on auto pilot and once again everyone except Ron and I took a snooze. I finished my Halloween project and Ron managed to get us all home safely at about 7:30. A tired bunch unloaded at Maggie and John's and then Ron and I went to our house. We did manage to unload everthing and put most of it away before we settled into our recliners and reflected on the weekend trip. Actually, we watched Cold Case and went to bed.

I hope you enjoyed this little adventure. Check back in a couple of days as I plan to have pictures of the Halloween project I was working on.

Only 14 more days until the cruise.

Talk to you later.

Linda

Oops, the website for Cats Creations is http://www.catscreationsscrapbooks.com/ . I listed in incorrectly yesterday.

Above is a picture of the paint can that I covered for Halloween. The little tins on the side are made from small tins that initially had candy in them. I made several for Halloween and am now working on some for Christmas. The pumpkin I bought at Recollections and painted inside and out and then covered front and back with paper. It was time consuming but not hard.

I received my Halloween book kit from Croppin Queens and can't wait to put it together. I am not sure if I have enough pictures for all the Halloween projects I am working on but with 8 grandchildren, I will eventually get them all filled. I love the kits from this store, they come with all kinds of goodies and both written instructions and pictures. If you are ever in Granbury, be sure to check out their store. http://www.croppinqueens.com/

Tomorrow we leave for Arkansas to visit Little Rock and Hot Springs. I hope to get some Christmas shopping done while there and also take one of the warm mineral baths they are famous for.

Talk to you later.

Getting Ready

Only 19 more days until cruise time. A couple of us scrapbookers are going on a scrapbook cruise and the guys decided to go with us. All total there are about 200 from the store sponsoring the crusie www.catscreations.com inlcuding husbands and non-scapbookers who just want to have some fun. The cruise will last a week and we will return with our Scrapbooking Degree.