CFC = Constant Food Coma!

If there's one thing we learned on our trip, it is that we can eat a lot more than I ever thought is humanly possible. If anyone were to ever go hungry while on a cruise, then they must be doing something wrong because there was ALWAYS some sort of food being served! There was 24/7 pizza, ice cream and frozen yogurt for starters. I would have been happy with that! There were four different breakfast buffets all served between the time of 6:30am-noon and then at noon, two lunch buffets opened up! It was like one meal after another... They had a grill that was open from 12-6 each day and the sit-down dining rooms open at 5:30-9:00pm. They even had a late night buffet at 9pm and 11pm... no wonder there was a gym on board and a running track on the top deck! Jordan and I throughout our trip only took the elevator once. That's how we justified eating so much delicious goodness because we were constantly going up and down the stairs and walked everywhere so we walked it all off... and besides, calories don't count on vacation anyway, right?! We indulged in plenty of amazing foods and got to try a lot of new foods as well or things we wouldn't have a chance to try somewhere else. We felt very spoiled and pampered eating the way we did that's for sure! Here are our favorites and some of the unique things we ate while on our trip:

mid afternoon appetizer of some fresh sushi! yummy!

beef brisket with roasted veggies and mashed potatoes with gravy

the BEST dessert ever and I am not ashamed to admit that I had this every night!
chocolate melting cake with ice cream (and it looks like Mickey Mouse!)

Jordan's choice for dessert...
New York cheesecake with fresh strawberry puree glaze

alligator fritters with onion strings...not the greatest but at least we tried it!

I'm not usually a big seafood fan but this lobster and shrimp was very tasty!
lobster tail with garlic herb shrimp, mashed potatoes and panko covered broccoli

a wonderful dessert and an even better husband to share it with

roasted turkey with cranberry cream glaze, mashed sweet potatoes with onions
and some veggie mix...all good!

orange jello and strawberry cream topped off with whip cream and a blackberry

more fresh sushi

honey garlic glazed chicken with grilled onions and zucchini and mashed potatoes 

I ordered the "tropical fruit tray" and didn't realize how much melon would be on it...
so I made a smiley face for our waiter :)

Yummm my mouth is watering now and my stomach is growling after seeing all of that food again! I wish we could get catered to like that everyday...now that would be the life! Well, enough with the food...time to recap Jamaica, mon!

it's not a vacation unless it is thoroughly recapped!

first night out to dinner in Miami!
so happy to not be all bundled up in multiple layers of clothes

And just like that....our trip is over. We just had the most incredible and amazing nine days of relaxation, pampering, spoiling, lounging, sight seeing and adventuring and loving on each other. We thankfully didn't have any problems on the flight there or any issues traveling but the flight home was a different story. I already wasn't looking forward to coming home because the day before, Iowa and the midwest was nailed with a blizzard so we were flying into the aftermath from that. We had a rough and bumpy flight but thankfully, we made it all in one piece. 

Anyway, back to the fun part of it all. We got to Miami on Thursday night and our boat didn't leave until Saturday so that gave us some time to relax and hang before the real fun got started. We spent Friday lounging and walking around the Miami area just scoping out the sights and on a search for some liquor. We had brought some empty shampoo and conditioner bottles to fill up for the cruise so we didn't have to buy so many drinks on board (and they completely worked so we sipped on free drinks while cruising! haha!) We hung out poolside then decided to grab some dinner and watch a movie for the night. Seriously, such an uneventful but perfect lazy day for us to kick off vacation.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to board the ship! We had the option of paying an extra $50 to board early and have our room ready early but we passed on that...a little waiting has never killed us before. And turns out, we are thankful we didn't waste that money because we got to the port an hour early (to get in line ya know!) and we got right through security, got our sail & sign cards and our picture taken...then next thing we knew, we were on board the boat!! It was perfect and a very smooth process. Maybe it helped that I had all of our travel documents neatly organized in a folder in chronological order of when we would need them. I'm seriously turning into my mom....

Since our trip entailed so much goodness, it is entirely too much to talk about all in one post so I have decided that I will break it down into separate ones so that they are easier to read and follow:
1. food!
2. Jamaica
3. Grand Cayman
4. The cruise itself!

With Christmas coming up soon that might delay the recaps but I will do what I can when we aren't busy celebrating Christmas and when I need a break from my internship applications...they are all due January 5th so it is definitely crunch time to get them done! Man, that vacation was the perfect mental break that we both needed and a good boost to get me rejuvenated to hammer them out!

And we are off!

Time to hit the road to Moline to catch our flight to Atlanta then we have one flight to Miami! After that, it is nothing but relaxation with the hubs and sunny skies and beautiful ocean views for the next week! Ahh I can't wait!! Thanks to all of our amazing family and friends who helped make our trip happen, you're all the best! Here's to our honeymoon adventure and lots of laughs and memories together! Catch you all on the flip side of late next week!

faux (and cheap!) "Canvas" Prints!

After doing a lot of Pinteresting and blog surfing, I have came across several tutorials on how to make your own canvas print. I love the look of the canvas prints but I really hate the price! I am too cheap and too crafty to pay a price like that for one print! So I have been determined lately to make my own "faux canvas prints" and combined a few tips and tricks from various tutorials I read and came up with a system that worked out great for me and the results are awesome!!! Even Jordan stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he walked in the door today from school and was awe struck. His response was, "wow! Those are really awesome!!! When did you get those?!" To which I was happy to respond with, "I MADE THEM!" It's days like today when I am extremely grateful to have my mom's crafty and creative genes!

Here's what you will need:
-foam board (I got mine from Lowe's and they will cut it down to the size that you need so they cut a whole board into 16x20 pieces so one board gave me 15 totals pieces!)
-spray adhesive (I used Loctite spray for general performance/ lightweight bonding)
-engineering prints from Staples and the sizes I ordered were 24x36 so I had enough overlap to fold and cover the sides of the foam
-packing tape

1. spray the foam with the adhesive and then wait 5-10 seconds for it to get a bit tacky **otherwise it makes the ink smear when you wipe across it to smooth it/get the air bubbles out** Also! Make sure to not over-do-it with the adhesive because otherwise it can soak through the prints since they are so thin and that's when it will smear...so definitely wait the 5-10 seconds!
2. flip it over and fold up the sides making sure you have sharp corners like wrapping a present and tape the folded edges across the back with packing tape!
3. And that's it! I used some Command strips to hang them since they are so lightweight and definitely do not need to be hung by nails!

the final products!!!
I got the quote canvas from Janelle for Christmas
And two of our favorite wedding pictures perfectly compliment it!

Definitely loving our new wall decor and happy to finally have some awesome wedding pictures up! We have a digital picture frame that we got as a wedding gift and have it loaded with wedding pictures as well which I love seeing them change but these big 16x20 prints look awesome and for the price, that makes them even better! 

It's go time!

Alright, it is officially finals week! Which means it is officially honeymoon week as well, whoop whoop!!! I have one take-home exam that is due today at 5pm and then one final at 7:30am tomorrow morning. AND THAT IS IT!!! Then I am home free for the week and will be running errands, finalizing a few things and packing before we take off for our trip! Yipee, I absolutely can't wait....this has got to be the best finals week ever! 

Friday Funnies - 12.7

Christmas is two and a half weeks away from today! So that means it is time to start pulling out the ugly sweaters, singing some Christmas carols and indulging in plenty of the best Christmas movies around! Jordan is always down for a good chick flick and it turns out, many of the Christmas movies end up being the typical romantic-comedy type but then there are those that are just down right hysterical. Like Christmas Vacation for example. It never gets old. And it is one of Jordan's all-time favorite Christmas movies so we will be watching it this weekend! I think it gets funnier each time I watch it and I always seem to notice something new! So this Friday Funny is going to be dedicated entirely to Christmas Vacation to help spread some holiday cheer and really get everyone in the holiday spirit! Enjoy the weekend!

image via Tumblrand that is exactly who he will find when he comes down our chimney!

 and here's hoping that this will be the hap hap happiest Christmas for everyone!

one week until paradise!

One week from this morning and we will be flying high and heading down south!! Ahh we are so excited it is already making me lose sleep! I still have quite a few things I need to get done between now and next Thursday but it is hard for me to not wander to my closet and start looking at what all I will pack! Hopefully the next few days will be productive so then after Tuesday when my finals are done, I am able to sit back, relax and start getting geared up for vacation! Jordan presents his portfolio tomorrow and then only has three days left of student teaching so we have a lot to celebrate coming up in the next week and are beyond ready to celebrate it in style with 9 days of vacation together!!