Jamaica Mon!

So here it is finally a trip update. Sorry that it has taken this long, but right when I got home I was in a whrilwind of school work to do as it was time to wrap up everything for the year. Anyways, it's summer break now so no more excusses (unless I don't finish this before the move then I have that one!) So on Wednesday we finally made our first island stop. We made port in Montego Bay early that morning. By the time that Tim and I got up to meet with everyone for breakfast we had already docked. It was nice seeing land and birds again. Most of the group all met up at Windjammers (the informal dinning area) for breakfast and chatted excitedly over are days plans. We were all going to be heading to Breezes for the day. For those that haven't seen the comercials they are a private type resort that is "all enclusive". After swiping our cards and leaving the boat we were swarmed by taxi drivers. We got lucky with a really nice guy named "Ward". Hows that for a Jamacian name for you? Anyways he took us right to where we needed to go for less then nothing per person, and refused to take any money until he came back to pick us up!
So now that I've gotten us to the front door of Breezes, let me back track a few weeks to tell you the story of how we ended up going there....Tara, who pulled this entire cruise together has parents that also like to travel alot and called Breezes for us letting them know we had a good sized group coming into town and what could they do for us. Well a deal was worked out that we could show up that day and for $45 each get in and enjoy the resort, and the bigger the group, the better the discount could be. Tim and I talked about it and figured this was a no brainer...private beach, drinks, and food all for $45, an unbeatable deal in our minds. It must have seemed that way to most of the group too as there was about 16 or so of us there.
Now lets go back to the story of us walking in the front door. As we walk in we see a mimosa station right by the door. Were still all hyped up and talking about our day to come. Tara went to the desk to tell them about the deal the main office gave us, and we got a look like we had just landed there in a space ship! She explained again about the deal we were offered and we were told 'not a chance in hell' would they let us in for that price...if we wanted in we needed to pay the ship price of $98 each. Yeah right...double the price we were told. Now everyones excited chatter is slowly turning into angry mummbling. Well as were sitting there getting steamed another group came in. Come to find out they had been there earlier in the day and had been told by THEIR front desk to come back after 10:00 am and they would let them in for that $45 price we were talking about. So now there are about 25 irked people standing around. Tara is on the phone with the main office and still getting no where. Next thing we knew a 3rd group walked in and ran into the same problem, only difference was that this group had a travel agent in it. So a pow wow was held in an office and a bit later Tara came out saying that they wern't going to budge at all on the price. We said the heck with it, and since Doug had drained them of their mimosa station we left. So out their door walked between our group and another one, more then $2000 that they could have made that day. We would find out later on by a spy that stayed behind waiting for others in the group to meet up with us, that the group with the travel agent was let in not long after we left at the $45 rate.
Right down the road from there was a semi private beach, as in there was a cover charge to get in and use their stuff, but still resonable prices. We got some chairs, and an umbrella and set up camp. After changing we headed to the water for a little football play. Some had rented snorkle gear and exchanged it amongst the group to play around at a reef that wasn't too far away. They also had these awsome gaint trampolines out in the water to hang out or play on. At one point one of them only had 2 people on it, so we saw it as our chance for a "Seamonkey Invasion". After awhile though the sky started to cloud over so we headed back to our chairs and started ordering buckets of beer. On the ship a six pack bucket of beer was costing about $27 w/their tip built in...on the beach they were $10 each. As it got closer to lunch time a few from the group went into a restraunt/bar that was right on the beach. Tim, Marci, Brian, and I however deceided that we were going to head a few doors down to Margarittaville. This is a Jimmy Buffet owned theme restraunt. As we walked in, I realized that there wasn't going to be much of a chance to eat there as it was packed wall to wall. Within a minute of walking in the DJ there was anouncing a chance to win a free t-shirt. That's all I needed to hear...the word free and I'm there. Well next thing I knew I was up on the bar getting ready for a dance off! As I looked out at the crowd there was my husband telling me to "take it off!" Brian even came up to "tip" me a dollar! While we were dancing the bar tender was spraying us down with water from the soda hose they have. The bar was so slippery! Well I didn't take first place, but I did get a free "Longatude" beer which is Jimmy's own brand for these restraunts. We all agreed that food was out, so headed up to the top floor to ride the water slide that they have there. Tim was the first brave one to go. He asked the attendant there about the drop to the water. (read in your best Jamaican acent) "oh mon, you come right out on the water, it's smooth" . So off Tim went, followed by Brian. I should mention that by this point it was pooring rain outside. So Marci and I sat in the rain to wait for the guys to come up and watch the gear for our turn. After what seemed like forever we started looking around only to see that they were hanging out on the trampolines! I guess that they were looking for a Kodak moment there. Anyways they soon came to join us with the warning that there was a huge drop to the water and make sure we keep arms and legs crossed for it. Well with the liquid courage that we had been working on all day I took off. Let me tell you that this slide, short though it was, was FAST! I hit the water a bit stunned, swam off to the side and turned to look for Marci. I saw her heading out the tube, and honestly she looked like a bullet from a 45. We must have traveled at least 5 feet in the air before hitting the water 3 feet below!
We made our way back to the group laughing and glad that we had stopped over there. All to soon though it was time to call Ward and let him know that our pick up location had changed and we were ready to head back. Ward picked us up early enough to do some quick shopping in one of the centers there. Tim and I had bought a coupon book on the boat, so we checked out what we could get for free there, and found ourselves right in the middle of where we needed to be, so we did some quick shop hopping for free earrings, free stones and that type of thing. Then back to the boat we went.
After a shower and a quick nap it was soon dinner time again. Today after we had gotten back to the ship, Rod had aquired a few coffee mugs and had Brian taking the horse around while he and Marci used the cups to make hoof sounds (think Monty Python and the Holy Grail). Needless to say they made quite an entrance to dinner that night. Afterwards we took the horse on a tour of the boat while Rod acted as the papparazi for our horse taking hundreds of "pictures" of it

every step of the way!

Memorial Day

I wanted to take a moment before I continue on with our trip adventures to say thank you to all that have served, and are currently serving our great country. Many soldiers and civilians have died to give us the freedoms that we have over the last 231 years, please take a moment to say a prayer for them. Also when you see a soldier or a vet make sure to say a kind word to them.

Lost at Sea....Days 3+4+5 (or should it be 1, 2 +3?)

I awoke very early this morning not sure if it was from stress of no passport, or just excitement. I knew there was no way I was going back to sleep, so I grabbed a few things and headed out to the balacony to enjoy the sun rise (when I say early...I mean it!). So there I sat enjoying the perfect weather, sun rise and quiet. I spent the time catching up on my journal. Now that I sit writing out my posts, I'm really glad that I did keep a journal. We crambed so much into each day that it sometimes seemed as if it were 2 days instead. Tim was up not long after I finished in my journal and we quickly changed and headed over to the beach to enjoy the rest of the sun rise from the water front. It was nice there. The beach was freshly cleaned, and there was only a few people out there (some looked like left overs from the night before). We strolled along the beach for a mile or so before heading back to the hotel for breakfast (still no Texas shapped waffles though). After breakfast we walked down the road a bit to a Jack In the Box. If you look close at some of the pics, you'll see Jack making his appearance, however by the time we reached Montigo Bay, he had had way too much to drink and didn't leave the stateroom again! So we grabbed out Jack antenna topper and some Subway for back at our room later. Then went back to pack. We called for our taxi around 12:00 to head on out of here. I was getting sicker and sicker the closer we got...I was still having that fear of them laughing at me for using my b/c telling me not a chance. Once we got at the processing terminal a porter grabbed our bags right up and we went to stand in line. We walked in the door and couldn't believe the size of the line. It went all the way over to the doors that we had just walked in! Tim had one beer left from the room and he didn't want to pack it, as taking booze on the ship is a big no no (tell this to everyone in our group!) anyway, he figured now was as good time as any to get rid of it, so there he stood in line to process onto the ship, with beer in hand. If I didn't have my hands full, I would have gotten a pic of that classy scean. Almost as good as him walking into the restraunt last night for dinner with one in his hand from the room, we thought we were going to have to wait and he wanted to be ready...the waitress had a hard time with that one. Anyways I have to say this, processing so so fast and so easy! I think that we maybe waited 30 minutes to get through everything. Next thing I knew we were walking down the gang way to our ship! We headed straight for our room, grabbed the camera and went exploring. After checking everything out we went back to our room and changed to join everyone at the pool. We had a manditory life boat drill at 4:30 so arrangements were made to meet at the upper most part of the ship as soon as it was over for the set sail party. The boat drill seemed to take forever to finish, but finally we were heading to the meet up location. Finally a bit after 5 we cast off. Everyone was yelling and smiling and having a great time. After we past the last of the breakwalls we headed down to the pool deck again to dance to the music of "gentelmen" somehting or other...these guys were great though. Before long the drinks were a flowing and the naturally good mood everyone was in, was quickly elevated. Before dinner the deck was about empty as the first seating was already gone, and others were getting ready for second seating. Not us though! We took that casual dinning seriously. Soon a few of us had hopped into the hot tub, and quickly the rest of the group joined in (keep in mind that there ended up being 28 in our group), so there we were with almost 30 people in the hot tub some way or another when we saw these boys wearing speedos in another tub...after a bit of yelling we managed to coax them into our tub as well!
Finally it was time to leave to rise off quickly for dinner. We had also made up "team" shirts so we had everyone stopping by for their shirts before dinner with orders from the "captian" to wear them at dinner that night. So there we are a group of high spirited people in pirate shirts walking into the dinning lounge. Well there are 2 floors to the dinning hall. Apparently the upper floor is for the snobs as when we walked in we honestly were looked at by the staff there at the door, down their noses. I had heard of this many times, but was funny to see it happen to us. As they looked down their noses they looked at our sea cards and we were stiffly told that we wanted the 4th floor entrance. "well smell you" is all that I could think off as we laughed our way to the floor below.
We were simply blown away by dinner. We're talking gourmet food with elegant settings and very professional waiting staff. It was so cool, I did feel a bit under dressed then with my jean shorts and Sea Monkey shirt on! After dinner we all headed for the night club on board. The Viking lounge would become the sceen of many moments for our group. As time will tell. Finally well after midnight we tumbled into our room exghusted.
The next day (Monday) was our 1st full day at sea. Tim and I were up early so we went to check out the gym on board. I stayed there to do a bit of bike riding, and Tim went ahead and jogged the outside track. Then we went to the Windjammer cafe for breakfast. This was the secondary dinning room on the ship, and a lot more laid back with the dress code. Our dinner restraunt did offer breakfast and lunch, but the idea of getting all dressed up to eat didn't thrill us much, so we were quite happy with the buffet that Windjammers had to offer. After breakfast we headed back to our rooms to change and go poolside. Tim went off with Alyan, Phil, and Peter to a ping pong competion while I stayed at the pool to watch the mens sexy leg competion, and womens bicepts. Rod and Alex joined in (or were conned into) the mens competion. All the girls in the group were right there with cameras posed and laughing so hard we could barely get clear pics. Alex danced his way across the deck and had the girls all going wild for his dance moves and then up came Rod using his "famous" Borax voice he started to dance his way past the judges and somehow managed to slip a dollar bill to one of the judges to put into his speedo, so as he danced he half dropped his shorts to reviel the speedo for her to "tip" him! After was the womans biceps contest. We all convinced Michele to join in on this one as she is quite the buff one. The women did a good job, but I have to say that the men were just hystarical! Michele did win "biceps you least want to mess with" or some title like that! Not long after the end of that Tim came back and told me that the Sloss twins took first and second place, and that he would have done a bit better had he had his glasses with him. I guess that glasses would help for something like that! Around 3 or so Tim and I left to go and play alittle bingo. We had gotten a free jackpot card earlier when we attended a shopping show that they had, so figured we'd give it a try. They hadn't called by 5 numbers when we found ourselves with a bingo. I figured that we had won maybe 25 or so...but the first game was actually worth $126. Not bad. Helped to pay for some of our pictures we bought onboard. After we finished up the rest of the games and cashed out it was time to get ready for our first formal night. Everyone was so dressed up and looking sharp, and the compliments were flowing like crazy. Tonights dinner offered escargo that Tim got, so I gave it a try. Not great, but not bad. Kind of like a chewy garlic butter really. Somehow a conversation was started about how much Rod hates when restraunt staff sing birthday songs. Well that set Tim into action, and while Rod was talking with us, Tim asked our waiter to do a birthday deal for Rod. So here come our desserts, and a few minutes later the staff came out singing Happy Birthday to Rod....he was so ticked off, but the effect was great! After dinner was over a bunch of us headed to the theater for the prefomance of "Panio Man". Once we sat down, all dressed up, the guys all deceided that they wanted a drink so ordered a "bucket of beer" to have. Talk about a classy group! All of us had great expectations on it, only to have Simon Cawl echoing in our heads..."that was so cruise lineish" it really was kind of bad, like watching a kind of talented high school production. After that show was done there was a quick break where most of our group went ot the casino, but we stayed to watch the comic that was coming on. He was so good that I feel sound asleep not 5 minutes into it!
Tuesday was our 2nd full day at sea. We were all getting a bit anxious to see land again. For the most part it was more pool side fun (to include a belly flop contest) and Swing dance lessons. After the lessons Tim and I wandered the shops a bit to get ideas, then a few of us sat around one of the lounges waiting for dinner time. Right before dinner we went to another dance class to learn a few 70's style line dances for the disco night at the club that night. At dinner we had a new guest, horse number 1. They did this auction at pool side while a bunch of us were in the swing dance class to take owner ship of these horses till the end of the trip when they would have a big race, the horse that one would take the money raised from the auction. This horse would soon been seen EVERYWHERE! After dinner it went to the disco with us where it lined danced to the hussel and was the center of our dance group. They also had camera crews all around to document the trip for us and they loved our horse! We kept changing the lyrics to the songs to sing them to the horse. Like "Shes a brick horse" Love shack had a line that went "bang bang on the horse baby" and then "Tin horse rusted". I don't remember what other songs we changed, but if we could, we did! Finally it was time to turn in as in the morning we were going to be on land for our first stop in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Gavelston, TX.....Days 1 and 2

So after much delay we made it into Huston where we had a driver picking us up. It was about an hour drive or so to our hotel in Gavelston. I was so tired after all the stress I had put on myself that all I wanted to do was sleep our ride down. However our driver was an excelent conversationalist, so I ended up joining the conversation that was going on. He made the ride fun and seem short. After we were dropped off and checked in we dropped our bags in our room and just walked to the restraunt that was at the front of the hotel parking lot. Tortuga's is a mexican style restraunt with lots of fun, colorfull decore in it. Tim and I were really impressed with the service there. We ordered food, and honestly like 2 minutes later there it was. As we didn't get the chance to eat dinner until about 10:30 local time we were pretty much the only ones in there.
The next day I woke up way to early (as was a bad habbit of mine for about a week prior to the trip...I figured that once I was in TX that would be the end of that...I was wrong). After Tim finally got up we went downstairs for our breakfast. We would later find that some of our group had waffles in the shape of Texas, ours however was rather dull. When breakfast was over we walked a few blocks down to the WalMart to pick up those last minute things that we needed (and didn't need). What was really nice about the day is that we had no where to be and no where to go, we were compleatly on our own time. Afterwards we stopped by Sonic for a slushie and walked the Sea Wall back towards our hotel. It was nice as our hotel was centerally located so it was a nice walk their and back. We even broke from the wall and walked along the beach front for a bit. Finally we headed back to the hotel stopping by McDonalds for a salad to take to the room with us. Once back there we just waiting to hear from the rest of our group. Our room had a killer view from the walk out balacony that it had. So it was nice to sit in the shade and enjoy the day. While we sat there though I was looking down into the parking lot to see some car just bash ass end into an SUV that was parked there! Tim and I couldn't believe it. The car then drove all around the parking lot doing odd manuvers before finally leaving. Tim with his bionic eyes though was able to get the liscense number and would later turn it in at the front desk. Later that evening we all got together back at Tortuga's for dinner. There were many familiar faces that we hadn't seen in like 3 years, and a few new ones that we would soon get to know and be friends with. Everyone that knew me was a bit shocked by my blue hair, but hey you have to do something crazy once and awhile! Dinner was so much fun with everyone catching up and getting to know one another. Before dinner even started we managed to push all the boys (men) down to one end of the table so that the girls could all chat. I don't think that we really ate much that night, but the conversation was flowing just like the beers and margarittas were! Everyone was so hyped for the big trip. After dinner Rod and Matt took off and walked over to the WalMart looking for containers to transfer their CBB (cheep bastard bar) into and from their they were going to just walk back to their hotel ( a good few miles to get there). Finally everyone said good night and made plans for meeting up the next afternoon.


Stayed tuned for days 3 and 4...out to sea!

At last...a trip posting!

So before I go into all the details (well, most of the details) of our trip I want to give you a bit of a back ground of what I've had to go through to get out of here. Tim and I have an awsome group of friends that we met while living at Ft. Huachuca a few years ago. They truly have been my highlight of living in AZ. Anyways, last year they went on a cruise. Since I was mobed at the time in TX and didn't know if I was going to be extended or not...and if not, what my job situation was going to be, Tim and I opted out of the trip. Let me tell you that after reading Rod's postings I was kicking myself for not just diving in head first on the idea and taking that risk! Anyways, not long after they returned and had us all fired up the email came out about this years trip. Tim and I both said that there wasn't a chance we were going to miss out this time! So for almost a year we have been looking forward to this trip. About the time that Tim moved up to CO I started to have nightmears about getting to the boat and not having our passports and Tim talking our way on board. So after a bit of digging and the help of Tim's mom we got all the documentation together to summit for them. I turned mine in back in the very begining of Feburary, and then Tim turned his in a few weeks later, paying the extra money to make sure he got it in time as processing times had jumped way up. Well Tim got his with in about 2 weeks after applying. Me on the other hand had to keep checking the web site to see where the hell mine was. Unfortunatly though you can't actually call them until within two weeks of your trip. So you can believe that I was on the phone 3 weeks before my trip lying about the date I was leaving to figure this out. After about 10 calls over 2 weeks I found out that the place I'm calling isn't even associated with the passport agency! It's just some customer service that has been hired to screan their calls. On top of that they aren't aloud to even call the passport agency, only emails, and only 1 email every 72 hours on a given claim. So all my calls really were for nothing. Thank goodness that somewhere along the line I aquired about a half dozen copies of my birth certificate. As I found out later into this real nightmear, I would be able to travel by birth certificate if I did not have a passport, however I feel bad for those that don't have extras around, as you have to send in an original to get the damn passport. Well to wrap up the story, mine was sent out on Wednesday by Fed Ex so that I would have it on Thursday, however Fed Ex didn't feel the same urgency that I did to get it because they opted not to deliver it on Thursday...It arrived Friday afternoon, after I had landed in Denver! Oh well....at least I have it for next year right?
So now that you know my passport issues, let me tell you what else happened before departure. My mother in law (bless her heart) was flying out on Wednesday to take care of Scott for us while I was gone. I kept checking the online status of her flight and saw that she was right on time. At the end of the day I turned my phone on to find a message from Tim saying that she had missed her flight. I'm thinking.....yeah right...funny joke Tim..ha ha ha. So I called him back to let him have his laugh, only to find out that he wasn't joking. She really had missed her flight and instead of being in around 7pm, she was going to get in around 11pm instead. I didn't mind the time so much, just something else to add to my list. I did feel bad for her though as that made for a very long day of travel.
Next I went to school on Thursday (for those that don't know, I'm teaching kindergarten this year). I had a fun day planned for all my kids to get them ready for the sub that had been approved back in October, and filled since January. Around 2:30 as I'm getting them ready to pack up, I get a call letting me know that my sub had just been in the office and let them know that she had changed her mind and wouldn't be coming in the next day after all! AAAAGGGG, I couldn't deal with that kind of unprofessionalisim, so I just left after making sure that everything was all set for who ever came in, and sent an email to my team saying how sorry I was if any specials were cancelled because of this. I went home to enjoy an evening with Dot and Leighanna (who bless her was taking me to the airport the next morning!)
So after making sure I had all that I needed and all that was on my giant list (I had a free sample off board room sized post its...what better way to use them then a packing list???) , saying my good byes to Dot, and smoothering Scott with a few last hugs and kisses, Leighanna and I were off. We stopped for a quick coffee and I really enjoyed the ride out there. I was checked into the airport in no time at all and found the USO lounge right outside the security area for my gate. With time to spare I stopped in there to rest a bit and make a few calls. I headed over to my gate about 40 minutes prior to take off only to find that....you guessed it...my flight was delayed. I guess I shouldn't have been suprised by this as so many other things had glitched, this just seem to fit in there. So after letting Tim know, I called Rod up and asked if him and Tara could please do that pinky vudoo thing that they do to help my day, trip, improve. Well it must have worked because Tim was able to rescheadule his flight out of Denver so that we could still be together, and after having a quick lunch in the Denver USO lounge we took off right on time. After the plane got up in the air I was flipping through their channels of XM stations only to find Sponge Bob singing "Best Day Ever"....I knew then that things were looking up for me!!!

The legend of the Speedo

So here we are getting ready for our big trip in less then 2 weeks now. Well one of the "must have" packed items by order of the Sea Monkey captian is a pair (why is it called a pair if it is only 1?) of Speedos. So while Tim was here we went out shopping to pick up a few last minute clothing items we needed to include this. Well Scott wanted to try one on too, and wanting to be like daddy he asked to get one as well. When we got home that afternoon the boys got all dressed up for me to go swimming in the pool. Now while I do have some great "father son" pictures, I'll save those till after the trip as I don't want any of the guys to get jealous of how HOT my man looks in his, but I did want to share a few of Scott showing off his guns!

Best day ever!

Well, it might not be the best day ever, but it was pretty good. I titled it this way because that stupid Sponge
Bob song keeps going through my mind! Anyways Tim came into town last Monday to finish up the backyard landscaping. I think he took some pictures of it, if so I'll add them here. We timed his trip down here so that he would be able to share my birthday with me. In the years that we have been together we seem to always, or at least a lot of the time be apart on birthdays, so this was a nice treat. I went to school that morning with 30 5 and 6 years olds pleased as punch that it was my day. I even got a few cards, flowers and trinkets from my kids. I'm not a big one for being the center of attention, but this was nice. We spent the day doing frog activities ( I have a thing for frogs right now, and my classroom is decorated with all kinds of them). Then in the middle of the day, I got a box delivered to me from Hallmark (when you care enough to send the best!). I think that the kids were more excited then I was to see what it was and who it was from. After unwrapping, and some manipulating I was able to produce a pretty vase with flowers and a mylar balloon. They were so egar to find out who sent me the flowers. When they heard that it was from my mommy and daddy they were so impressed! After school I came home to Tim and Scott and their mischief. I have to say that I was a bit spoiled this year. I had to open gifts one for one. Scott got me a game for my DS that I was hopeing for, as well as a nice makeup bag for traveling. Of course he also got me ear plugs for when Tim talks too much, a fire starter log (to suggest camping), and a jar of pickles, please don't ask me why...I'm really not sure on this one! Tim got me the newest book by John Jakes, the game Fact or Crap, a really neat Civil War DVD set, and tiara. Both of them also got me some really pretty/fancy hair clips as well. After I opened my presents we went to dinner at a local wing joint and met up with our friends Mike and Tammie, and their son Michael. Also joining us were Leighanna and Eryk. It was a nice evening out and I had a really nice time. After we got back home Tim had one more suprise for me. He had found an ice cream cake in his wondering arounds! So it was truley a super great day!

Scott's amazing accomplishment!!

A few weeks ago a fly was sent home from the YMCA talking about a tri-athalon that they were going to do. I was amazed when Scott told me that he really wanted to partisipate in it! So I took a day off of drill and to the event we went. For Scott's age group they had to do a 50 meter swim, a 1 mile bike ride and a 1/2 mile run. I was so proud of him. We knew going into this that he probably wouldn't place, but he actually wasn't that far off the placing times. He compleated the course in 17:32. When he finished the run I had to force him to stand back up and walk around. We got just far enough in our walk to be off to the side of the parking lot when he started to puke! I was already proud of him, but this just made my heart swell even larger with pride!

Spring Break

We had spring break last month so we headed back up north for our last trip there before the end of the school year. My main mission on this trip was to get Scott's room all fixed up and livable. We are almost there. He just needs a dresser now to finish it off, and a few shelves hung and then done! He went with a solar system themed room and I have to say that it looks awsome! We found a bulleten board display of the solar system, bedding, and also had a few posters. At Christmas he had gotten a "moon in your room" so at night he can have a night light that takes him through the phases of the moon. We also found a glow in the dark mobile set that hangs from the ceiling. Then to finish it all off I made him curtains that I sewed glow in the dark constilations onto. At night his room looks so neat! The only piece that was really missing at the time was a comforter to match the bedding, but I finally found it and when we go back it will be all set.

While we were there I got a chance to see some of the flowers start to bloom that I had planted in the fall. Tim tells me that they look great, I only hope that they last till I can get up there in June. We were there over St. Patricks day as well so made a point to head over to the local Irish restraunt/pub for lunch that day. I have to say that while the food was good, we were a bit let down. We could only get our beer in plastic cups, and they had a special about glasses you could get w/your beer, only to be told that they had already given them all away the day before. We also couldn't eat upstairs on the balacony w/the kids. So lesson learned. Go to the Irish bar the day before St. Patricks day for the real fun!

Valentines sweetie

This year Scott really pulled one over on my for Valentines Day. He was upset because he wouldn't be able to buy me anything for this day as I am always with him when he goes out. So we went to WalMart and I gave him a few simple ideas and then went to the craft department letting him do what he needed to do on his own. Before I had left though, he asked me how much I was going to give him for my present. I kind of laughed and told him that I wasn't going to give him money to buy me gift, that he was on his own for this one (understand he makes a killing at Christmas and birthday right behind it). So I wondered the craft department with my heart beating like mad...I hate having him alone in a store w/me not there. After we met up again we finished our shopping and went to different check outs. Well let me tell you what my wonderfull son did. On Valentines day I woke up to a card on the table with a frog key chain. Then at school he hid something in my desk and left a note for me to look at lunch time. I almost started crying because he had bought me a pair of beautifull pink heart earrings from the jewlery counter! Not a simple card of earrings that I had shown, but in a real box and everything!!! I was so suprised. I am truly lucky to have a son like him! Then later that evening he gave me another box with earrings in them. These were "rasberry" colored circles. I can't wait to show them off to everyone on the boat!

Science Olympiad and Pinewood Derby

This year Scott had a chance to join the science club in school. He was really excited about it becaue right now science is his thing. The group met once a week for several months of the school year, practicing different events leading up to the big competition. In Feburary we went to a local community college for the competition. There Scott was signed up to do the pasta mobile, can racing, and question/challenge. After he had finished his can race event though he was given a chance to also to the quint-athelon (sp?). This was a really neat event where each person on the team had a station to compleate. They would have to answer a question and then preform some silly task. Scott's task was to hit a golf ball with a putter while holding a large glass of water to the next station. After all 5 were compleated they had to race to the finish line still with their golf ball and glass of water. Check out my ubber cool action shot of Scott running! After all the big events of the day the kids were presented with awards for their placings, and the rest were given awards of partisipation. Our day kind of ended on a bad note though after some kids got into a fight and when a dad try to split them up, he "accidently" hit one of our boys. It took them a bit to calm down after we got back on the bus, but eventually everything was back to normal, and Scott fell fast asleep on the bus ride home.

Around this same time he compeated in the Pinewood Derby for Boy Scouting. We got lucky because one of his friends that was going to compeate also was able to help his by cutting out the cars shape. Since we have no tools here it was going to be a bit of a challenge to do. This is usually an event that I step aside and let Scott and Tim work on by themselves. However Tim wasn't able to be here so that left my to figure out what I hadn't been paying attention to the last few years! Scott went for a truck shape this year (if you recall last year was a cheese block). It raced pretty good, but I think that we have a good idea of what we need to do for next years event.