Hmm, seems I haven't added anything here since last April.
Well, a lot has been happening actually..
Sometime around Mayish I aquired a new property to work on. I cleaned it up, repaired a LOT of walls, ripped out carpets, redid floors. replaced a bunch of stuff and repainted the entire inside. Now it's rented out and I have some nice young tenants who are happy that I took the time to make the house so pretty.
In July, my Dad's lawsuit finally settled, but since he passed away in 2007, the settlement money was sent to me being his next of kin. It wasn't much, but it was enough for me to be able to do something for myself I have been waiting for 20 years to do. I had a tummy tuck and a breast lift! I feel like a completely new woman! I feel confident and sexy and beautiful! Somehow between last January and my surgery in August I also managed to lose 30 pounds. I hope I never find it again LOL!
Anyway, it feels fantastic to actually have a real size and be able to buy and wear clothing right off the rack! I also got my eyes done with tattoo eyeliner and bought myself a few rounds of laser hair removal to deal with some troublesome areas no girl ever wants to have to deal with (I'm Italian though so it was inevitable)
There was enough after my surgery to pay off a few bills, including both car notes AND we went on a cruise on December 1st. We did the 7 night Western Caribbean cruise on RC Cruise lines. We took the largest ship in the world, the Allure of the Seas. While that might sound extravagant, let me assure you, it wasn't. There were way too many people, way too many little kids, and way too much confusion. The boat has a capacity of 9000, of that number 3500 are crew members...almost none of which speak English. It was sometimes very frustrating to me dealing with a language barrier. Since they have crew members from all over the world (mostly though from 3rd world countries) there would have been no way for me to have been prepared to have the ability to speak to everyone.
We had planned 5 shore excursions for our 3 port days, 3 of those got canceled. One was due to bad weather, the other two, the times had been changed at the last minute so they conflicted with other excursions we had planned so we had to pick one or the other. The "complimentary" food wasn't all that special...think Golden Corral buffet style but the food wasn't that good. The specialty restaraunts were good, but very expensive.
I can say, it was very nice to get away for a week, but I will NEVER cruise again. Next vacation is going to be on a nice warm Greek island, in a rented house with a pool by the beach. Mr says I have the next 5 years to learn to speak at least a little Greek because that's what we're doing for our 25th anniversary ;) I'm totally down with that!
Right after the cruise was my birthday. We were supposed to go to the Woodhsed, but I decided against it because someone else was also having a birthday that weekend and I was kind of feeling selfish...I wanted to be the ONLY Princess getting some nice spankings LOL. So, Mr took me to a really nice sushi/habachi place about 15 minutes away from the house, and it turned out to be a pretty nice night afterall. I got to wear my beautiful new jewelry that Mr got me while we were on the cruise, and my pretty new sundress, I had a fabulous dinner...and got my spankings AND a good romp when we got home <grin>
Then came Christmas...we got Short Pants (my youngest one) almost everything he wanted on his list to Santa. Since it was mostly electronics, the pile looked a little pathetic before I wrapped it. So I rummaged around the garage for some of the extra boxes and packing peanuts I can't seem to bring myself to throw away <ever> and wrapped everything up so it was all BIG. Shorty had fun trying to figure out what was in each box before he opened it and of course I took lots of pictures ;)
Mr got me a set of the ugliest china I swear I have ever seen, but all is well though because my girlfriend had brought me a pretty set of service for 12 a few days before we left for our cruise...which Mr forgot about. So I ended up taking the china he bought back to the store. We (read He) decided we are going to put the money away for when we go to Beyond Leather this upcoming April.
He also got me a charm from a store called Thiings Remembered. The girl that sold it to Him told Him it was sterling silver. It wasn't. He had it engraved "Forever Mine". An hour after I put it on, the bale broke, and it crashed to the floor. I managed to fix it, but it fell off again within a few minutes and Mr was pissed. He and I returned it today. He wants to take me to a jeweler (which He shoulda done to begin with dammit) and have one made for me.
So now New Years is ahead of us, just a few days away. I'm looking forward to it because I volunteered to help out with the party at our local dungeon, The Woodshed. I will be bringing a bunch of food, Cheesecake bites with strawberry & chocolate topping, seafood salad cucumber bites, BLT w cucumber stuffed cherry tomatoes and salmon salad with crackers. I will be preparing food all day tomorrow, but it's gonna be good stuff! ;)
On that note, it looks like it's time to head to the grocery store ;)