Why I travel!

I travel so I can make scrapbooks! Then I travel to go make scrapbooks! It is a never ending vicious cycle!
I love every minute of it!
So here are 4 of my cruise/travel books, oh, I just remembered that I have 5 scrapbooks just for scrapbook trips! I will highlight those another day! Today it is all about my cruise/travel books.

Here are the 4 COMPLETED, yes, I just finished my Spain/Italy book, just in time for my Scandinavian trip to begin!
The first cruise book is the small blue one, it was my first 3 day cruise to Mexico. We went with our dear friends, Joe and Mary, we celebrated my 40th birthday, it was a fun fun trip!
The second book on the bottom row is the cruise my sister and I took up the pacific coast to Canada. It was a scrapbook cruise with www.scrapbookcruises.com we had a wonderful time, and it really got us going on the whole cruise for the rest of our lives deal!
The top album is my Alaska cruise album, this cruise was also a scrapbook cruise with Teresa Collins, we had scrapbook classes with her and everything while on board the ship! To the right is my Spain/Italy album. Cruising is not that expensive, we usually cruise with Royal Caribbean, and the more you cruise with them the better your little perks get. My last two cruises cost aprox. 5000.00 for everything. That is why I skip a year. To help save up or pay off a cruise! We are thinking Australia or Ireland for 2016. We will have to wait and see, who knows where we may end up!

I wanted to show you some pages from my books, these are all the last pages of each album. I love the last page, it sums up the sheer enjoyment from each cruise.

40th Birthday!

Pacific Coastal Cruise

Alaska Cruise

Spain/Italy

I want to make sure I have a place for keep track of the expenses for each cruise,
this was a cute idea for this book!

Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing what keeps me on the go and the reason I get out and see the world!
My scrapbooks are full of so many memories! I just wish my hubby could go along with me, just 5 more years and he will retire and we can cruise together!

More food???

Well, I just love cooking and trying new recipes, I really am surprised I am not as big as a house...give me time...

Here is a good one for you!
Last week we went to TGI Fridays and I ordered the French dip. it was good but I hate dipping my sandwich and just ended up eating it, it was an okay sandwich...roast beef, cheese and caramelized onions. Yum!

So with hubby at the track again, I chose to try my hand at my own French dip. I bought deli beef and cheese, so much better from the deli!! I again opted out of making the dip sauce but all you do is heat up beef broth and add some butter and nutmeg, boom, FD sauce!

Picture from food network magazine for their French dip sandwich.

Roast Beef Carmalized Onion Sandwich

This makes 2 sandwiches.

1/2 pound thinly sliced rare roast beef

1/2 pound thinly sliced swiss cheese

1 medium onion

3 tablespoons butter plus 1 more for frying sandwiches

kosher salt

Horseradish spread

2 french rolls

Add the 3 tblsp butter to cast iron skillet over medium heat, add the onion thinly sliced and cook until lightly brown. Remove from skillet and set aside. In the skillet add the meat and saute around until warm, you can spread some Horseradish to the rolls, then add the warm meat, onions, cheese to the sandwich, close. Melt the 1 tblsp butter in the skillet on med high, put the sandwiches in skillet and press with a heavy skillet, flip until browned on both sides. Serve! Delicious!! You can serve with beef broth for a dip sandwich but I prefer not dipping! I love the horseradish spread on these the best!

My Last Supper...

What would you eat if you knew it was your last meal??
I know mine and tonight I indulged and made it, my hubby needed to stay and work on bandoleros at the race shop, oh, if you want to see what the race shop is up to, my hubby's blog is www.infernomotorsports.com you can see all the race cars and race results, hubby is the crew chief/owner and his son and grandson drive the cars!! I have my travel/scrapbook hobby and he has his race car hobby! Works great for us!
Back to dinner...

That is a bone in rib eye steak medium rare, baked potato with butter and sour cream, baked/roasted asparagus with Bearnaise sauce, oh, and a little Chateau St. Michelle Riesling never hurt!
This would certainly be my last supper, too die for food!
Bon appetite!

The story of my life....

My tattoos tell the story of my life.....

1. A cat for my love of cats, not really a dog person, although I would love to have German shepherd to protect me from the evils of the world. But it is nice to have a cat around the house, Sammy is wonderful, he is a nice companion when he is home!

2. My monkey for my son, he is a hairy little beast and so funny, a monkey was the thing to have!

3. Lucky Clover, my hubby won't let me get his name on me, he thinks it would jinx us, so I got this clover that says lucky, I am lucky to have a husband who spoils me rotten!

4. Get busy living, or get busy dying. Got that on my wrists for my mom and mother in law, they worked all their lives for nothing, once retired they just holed up in their little homes and eventually passed away. I don't want that to happen to me, so I have my daily reminder to live life to the fullest!

I am a little too happy getting inked, I just love it!

They are bold but will fade down nicely, with my feet in the sun all the time.
Each one invokes so many memories!!

5. Got my anchor tattoos last night, we went down to The Orleans to catch the last of the Rockabilly Viva Las Vegas show. Rockabilly retros come to town dressed to the hilt with all the clothing and hairdos and classic cars, it is such a cool thing to see, I love it all. They have some tattooers that work the rounds and I decided to get my anchors for all the cruises I have been on. Andrew James King is the tattooer, andrewjking13@gmail.com  he is based out of Utah. Now when I see my anchors I can remember each trip!

My 5 Anchors:
1- my 40th birthday cruise to Mexico with Joe and Mary!
2-cruise up the pacific coast to Canada, a scrapbooking cruise with my sister, saw my first whale out in the ocean swimming along the ship side, I was rocked to sleep with the ocean waves as the seas got choppy!
3-Alaska, I went dog sledding and saw how massive a glacier really is!!
4- Spain and Italy, I went to my very first wine tasting in Tuscany, I saw the Vatican where everyone stands to see the Pope.
5-This anchor will be for my Scandinavian cruise next month...I can't wait to have another adventure!!

Boston Strong....

I just had to share this amazing song from Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and Southern California Children's Chorus, singing for the Boston Survivors! Amazing!

Whirlwind Weekend!

My sister came to town for a Vegas weekend. We had signed up for a scrapbook weekend at the Suncoast with Scrappin-Escapes, a birthday gift for each other, our birthdays are Feb & Mar..so we thought this would be a cool way to celebrate and gift each other!

She flew in Thursday and Charlie and I took her to Bingo and Dinner at Sunset Station, she won 167.00!! Whoo-hoo!

 

The rooms are wonderful, huge full view windows!

Friday morning found us off to the other side of town to the Suncoast hotel, we signed in and started scrapbooking! Wonderful room, with 8 foot tables and lots of room! We walked across the street to the cheesecake factory and had a nice dinner, then back for more scrapbooking!
Saturday morning we started back scrapping at 7:30am and at 9:00am the hotel had set up a wonderful buffet breakfast for us!

Scrapbooker in paradise!

Not only did she win at bingo, she won a mini Ipad at the crop too!! LUCKY!!

At 5:30 pm Tanya showed up to whisk us off to the Palms hotel for dinner, the café there has the best wraps ever!! And the Bryan Ferry Concert, another birthday gift for us to share, Christy loves Bryan Ferry and I have to say this was one of the best concerts we have seen, his music is so swanky rock-ish cool!  We had a blast! Back to the Suncoast where we awoke Sunday for more scrapbooking until 3:00pm. We headed back to my home, Charlie whisked us off to dinner at the Red Lobster.
Whew! What a fun fabulous weekend we had!! Can't wait to do it again!!

Passing the bar and cleaning up my act!

I just wanted to post that I passed my Penn Foster Travel and Tourism course, that was such fun, I love to learn new things, you should never stop taking classes and learning new stuff!  I passed my Travel Agency proficiency test with an 87%, which shocked me as I thought only 2 questions had me think twice?? Hmm, I wish I could get a copy to see why I missed what I missed?? Oh well, I passed and that is what is important. When I get back from my cruise I will be job hunting!



Went for this....

Got this! I have to learn to style it!

I also decided to cut my hair. It is very short, the shortest I have ever gone!! I really like it and think it will be great to have during our hot, hot summer, yes, it is going to be a real scorcher here in Las Vegas!

Bryan

I will busy this weekend as my sister comes to town, we have a little scrap booking planned and a Bryan Ferry concert to go to, BF is Christy's favorite guy to see, mine is Chris Isaak. So stay tuned for more fun in the hot Las Vegas sun!