quick pic from Christmas

Because we were not going to be at home for Christmas, but were having mom and dad Miller over to celebrate the holidays ahead of time, we needed to decorate some, but not lots. So we decided my little 3 foot tree (from college dorm days!) would suffice. We obviously had to put it up, not on the floor, so this was Greg's idea:


Yep, that's the kitty condo our tree was sitting on. {giggle}
Too funny!

woohoo!!

We're leaving in about 55 hours for our "real" winter vacation. omg, I'm so excited! We have had so much snow this year, and temps the past week have been so cold, with sub-zero wind chills... it'll be so wonderful to be back in the hot sunny tropics.

Let me digress for a moment to say thanks to my friend, housesitter, catsitter, Jean. Jean is the lady who makes it easy for Greg and I to get away, knowing that our cats and home are in her very capable hands. She is such a great lady, I feel lucky and blessed to know her. And not just because she helps out so much when we vacation - oh, no, that's just a bonus. She has a great outlook on life, looks at things in different and interesting perspectives. It is just plain fun talking to her. We both are pretty open people, we don't beat around the bush, and since we're both that way, it's great. Even when we don't agree, it isn't a big deal, we both can voice our opinion and listen to the other person, no one gets upset... gotta love that.

So anyway, back to the blazing hot sun. :-) We're spending two nights on Vieques, a little island near the big island of Puerto Rico. We are staying at what is hopefully a cute little B&B, and we're taking a biobay tour. The explanation on that will come with pics later! Then a seven night cruise on Carnival Destiny out of San Juan. We're going to St Thomas, Barbados, Dominica, St Kitts and Dominican Republic. wow. We don't have any day really at sea, because we have two partial days (and stay overnight) at DR. This will be more of a typical vacation for us... go go go go. lol Funny tho, I'm almost wishing we had fewer port days, so we could just R&R&R&R.

We've been to every one of these ports already (except Vieques), but there's always something different to see/do. Since we've been to St Thomas several times, we'll probably ferry over to St John, or maybe just hit a nice beach for a while. We only stopped at a couple major sites in Barbados when we've been there, and we didn't really get much of a good educational tour, so we have a local guide booked there. We've done the waterfall tours twice now in Dominica, so we're doing a dif type of tour there, some historical stuff and a riverboat ride, again with a local guide. We haven't been to St Kitts since 1990, and I don't think we did anything outside the port city, so our local guide there should have an easy time pleasing us. And when we were in DR, it was at an all-inclusive in Punta Cana, so we really didn't see any of the island.

Well, the major things to get ready are done. At this point, if necessary, I could just throw some clothes in a suitcase and be ready. There are things I'd like to do yet before we leave, but the earth will not stop spinning if they don't get done. So why do I start getting that little panicky feeling every time I think about leaving home Thur night? - I guess it's the "omg, what did I forget" panic. lol I get this way before every trip, I guess it's the detail-oriented perfectionist in me... making sure my ducks are all in a row. (oye, I am sure full of cliches today!)

woohoo!!! I can feel the heat already...

more cj fun

I finally finished two more layouts for my twopeas childfree circle journal group. And I'm LOVIN' them!!

One theme was "Tribute." Pay homage to anything, anyone, whatever you want. The owner of the cj did her layout on coffee. Others did: HBO, car, husband, hometown, grandfather. I decided to do mine on color. Can you imagine seeing flowers without seeing the color? Or a rainbow? Or a sunrise/sunset? How about the deep green of an evergreen tree, next to a sugar maple in full autumn reds and oranges, against a bright blue sky? I can't. And I know some people don't see color, and some don't see at all. I feel extremely fortunate to have reasonably good eyesight. So I paid tribute to color, beautiful color. :-)

Some of the quotes on this layout: "Every color enhances the beauty of life." "Color is like food for the spirit." "Life is a celebration of passionate colors." "Colors are the smiles of nature."

Oh, and of course, I used products from a scrapbook line called "Colorful." The layout is definitely more vivid and bright and colorful irl (in real life) - photos do NOT do this justice!

The other theme was "Music to Motor To." That was the most time consuming cj I've ever done. But that's ok, cuz it was cool. She asked us to make a CD with the music we're currently listening to. So I thought about the songs I listened to most in 2007, for whatever reason, and that's what I burned onto the CD. And of course I made a copy for me, to put in my own car to motor to!

two page layout

cd hidden behind the large circle, which lists all the songs on the cd

cd case made by moi, folding transparency in half, stitching sides together half way up, then continuing on the front on one side, and the back on the other, then tying together at the top

Rocking cool!!

freaky weather

The past few days have seen some weird weather in Wisconsin. I mean REALLY freaky weird!

It's been really warm, definitely not typical January weather. We broke high temp records Sunday and Monday, and are still way above average temps again today. Yesterday was extreme - Racine had a high temp of 63 degrees!!! The previous high temp for that day was around 48. And the AVERAGE high on 1/7 is 28 degrees. So Monday's temp was 35 degrees above normal. WOW!!

It's been rainy, also odd for January. Because we had around 3 feet of snow in December, and now with the rain and the snowmelt, there is a lot of flooding, with flood warnings in Racine and Kenosha Counties. That usually happens in spring, not mid-winter. All of the snow is gone, and some rivers and creeks are already above their flood height, and that will continue to get worse for the next few days.

But the most freaky weird thing - we had tornadoes yesterday! :-o Amidst the thunderstorms and occasional small hail, at least THREE tornadoes were confirmed in SE Wisconsin. Previously, there had been only ONE tornado EVER in January in Wisconsin in recorded history. In Racine, where I work, a tornado warning started at 4pm... everyone in our building came down to the "basement" (the lowest level of the building where accounting resides). That warning didn't go away until 4:45. Lucky for us the three tornadoes were south and southwest from us. The storm kind of jumped over us and then opened up again over Lake Michigan. Well... most folks left the office right after that. I didn't, since I usually work until at least 6pm - and radar didn't show much coming back our way. OOPS! At 5:45 we were put under another tornado warning. Good thing I'm already in the basement; I just watched the radar online. That storm went north of the office. That warning was done at 6pm, and I left shortly thereafter, so I could "get outta Dodge" before the next smaller storm cell hit. YIKES! Absolutely freaky deaky, as a friend of mine says. lol

So now today temps are still significantly above average, altho not likely to break records. More storms are headed this way, but so far it looks like rain only, no hail or tornadoes. I guess all I can say is that this is Wisconsin. There is no such thing as "typical" weather!

R&R - gotta love it!

Just some quick photos from our recent trip...

Our home for 4 nights, the Carnival Fascination

Formal night, Christmas night, onboard

from Cozumel, Fascination in background

sunset from Cozumel port

big bad 'gator, seen closeup on airboat tour

Bill (a co-worker of Greg's) and his racing sailboat

Sailing on Bill's boat - yes I was the skipper - steering!
Greg helped with the sails, as well as being photographer

Miami from the water - a beautiful city

Miami Beach, looking towards South Beach

Looking relaxed and happy

3 nights on Miami Beach - ahhhhh....

The weather couldn't have been better, 80 or more and mostly sunny every day.

The 4 night cruise was as expected, good food, great shows, relaxing... and we actually hit some of the bars at night after the shows! We stopped at Key West and Cozumel, both of which we had been to before, so we just wandered around the towns.

Back on land, we went to the Everglades for an airboat tour - we saw several alligators and other wildlife. We went sailing with Greg's coworker Bill - he was chairing a huge regatta fundraiser (over 650 participants under the age of 18!) that same day, so he showed us around, explained about the different sailboats, and then we saw the kids racing on the water too. Very cool! And what we had planned on doing - we relaxed in the sun. 3 nights on Miami Beach - awesome.