CARIBBEAN CRUISE: 1st Port St.Thomas

Sorry I have been missing for a while.

Steve and I went on our cruise with 6 other couples from our neighborhood:

Brian & Suzanne,

Ken & Wendy,

Derek & Stacey,

John & Sandra,

Chris & Beth,

Mike & Nanette. (this is not Mike...he was off golfing)

We flew out of SLC on Saturday morning early and arrived in Puerto Rico where we boarded the Crown Princess to begin our cruise. Steve and I spent the evening wandering around the ship with Sandra and John, hit the buffet for some dinner and then settle in on the deck lounger to watch a movie. We pulled out of port at 11:00 pm and woke up Sunday morning in St. Thomas.
We dressed for our "Kayaking, Hiking, Snorkeling". We all gathered off the ship and took a van ride to EcoTours to learn a lottle more about the mangroves. We sat under tents and they began to explain what we would be doing and what gear we should bring with us. Then suddenly it began to rain...not just sprnkling, but raining HARD. it finally let up a little and we made our way to the docks to board our 2 person kayaks. I was so excited to get into the kayak. We began to paddle our way through the mangroves. We had a cool guid that explained way the mangroves are so important to the ecology of the area. It was actually very cool to learn about it all.
We beached our kayaks and were then instructed to find a hermit crab that we could enter in a race. at first glance you did not see the hermit crabs, but as we got closer to the trees and studies the shells on the ground a little closer you ound that there were actually little critters living inside.
I found a little one that was quite spunky...I called him Floyd and brought him over to the starting line. The race was on. Floyd was a little slow coming out of the starting gate, and towards the end really made a stronger effort, but only took 4th place.
Wendy's hermit crab won and this entitled her to an ice cream sandwich.
After the "Hermit Crab Races" we took a hike to ocean. It was beautiful...rocky...waves crashing. We took some cool pictures of the different couples in our group, but unfortunately we we unable to stay for very long. We were on our way back to where we had grounded to being the snorkeling portion of our excursion. It took me a few minutes to remember how to breathe, but once I mastered it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so peaceful in the water. There was another guide that would point out some the cool critters that were in the water with us. We saw a VERY LARGE BARACUDA. That was pretty freaky. Before I knew it, our time was up. We had to snorkel back to the kayaks, dry off, have a snack and head back to the docks.
It was definitely a great first excursion. A little bit of a bummer to not have some sun, but we had high hopes that we would find that sunshine in St. Kitts, the next day.
That evening we had dinner in the DaVinci Diningroom and then we made our way to watch some Karaoke. Not only were we watching the Karaoke performances, but we decided to perform. First Nanette's husband Mike got up and performed the song "Getcha Some" by Toby Keith. He was very good. Nanette stood in the audience and cheered him on.

Then after 12 people had gotten up and performed it was announced that Nanette and the Pips (that was us) were about to perform. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We had picked the song, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper. We all felt so good about our song choice, but what we had forgotten was there were only 4 lines to the whole 3 minutes of song.

It was a fun thing to do...

I can say I have karaoked...

but I don't know if I will ever do it again.

Valentines Day

It is that time of the year. Last night before going to bed, I set out cute stuffed animals for the girls and a box of candy for Zack. Then I popped out of bed about 6:00 am and began to make my heart shaped pancakes to help in the celebration. Little did I know that with all the snow we got last night, that school had been delayed 2 hours...UGH!!! I could have slept in.

Slowly, the kidlets wandered down stairs. Zack was the first to discover his goodies. He was followed by Belle and the twins stumbled down the stairs soon after. Everyone seemed to enjoy their Valentine breakfast and were tickled to get a stuffed animal.

This was the `14th year Steve and I have done the 14 Days of Valentines. I saw a neat idea on Ali Edwards Blog. So I printed of the inner pages of her book, but made a page for each of the 14 days. Then I wrote a reason each day of why I love Steve. Some were sentimental and some were silly. Today I will assemble all the pages into a book and give that to him when he gets home form work.

Steve's idea was to recap the last 14 years. Each day represented a theme from each year we have been doing this. I loved strolling down memory lane as I read each Valentine. I still love that we do this and one of the coolest things has been the children seem to enjoy it too. They love to see what Steve and I do for eachother. It is neat to share that with our children and they get to see and hear just how much their parents love and respect eachother

Chinese New Year

Today Katie and Becky came home from school so excited because they had celebrated Chinese New Year. They had volunteers come to their classroom to help in the celebration. They made these cute little hats, were given chopsticks and then made these cool dragons. They were excited to tell me that this year 2008 is the Year of the Pig (**update-I have been informed by a reliable source that 2008 is the year of the RAT...thanks Mabel). What a neat opportunity for the girls. I love when the children are exposed to the arts and history.

One of the reasons were are so excited about Chninese New Year this year is because our Grandma and Grandpa are on vacation in Taiwan with our Aunt Mabel and Uncle Chip. They are actually getting to participate in all the celebrations that are happening there. We are so excited to hear the stories of what a REAL Chinese New Year celebration is like. Mom has been taking pictures of everything and gathering momentos from all their journeys. How blessed we are to have Mabel in our family. She has lived in Taiwan and her father still lives there and have taken Mom and Pop to all the cool places and sites.

So happy Chinese New Year or "Gung hay fat choy" to you all.

The Passing of a Prophet

It has taken me a few days to make this post. Sunday evening at 7:00 pm, the Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints passed away. He was 97 years old and had been busy and doing his job right up until a few days prior to his passing. He had been the President of the church for 13 years.

"Let us all try to stand a little taller, rise a little higher, be a little better. Make the extra effort. You will be happier."

I was sad to hear of his passing. I enjoyed General Conference and seeing or listening to him speak. Just seeing this man would make me smile. This past fall we had Stake Conference ( a church meeting for our immediate area) rather than our local leaders addressing us, it was the leaders in Salt Lake. One of the messages that was brought from the Prophet dealt with how a man should treat his spouse. I remember being so touched by the strength in his words. He had such a love for his own wife (Marjorie Pay Hinckley passed away 2 years ago) or his sweetheart as I remember hearing him refer to her. I so admired that love enduring LOVE and ADMIRATION and the two had for eachother. That is when my sadness switched to a little happiness thinking of them together again.

"Be grateful. Be smart. Be clean. Be true. Be humble. Be prayerful."

On Monday, many of the youth in the area went to school wearing their Sunday best to honor the Prophet. I was so touched by the simple expression made by teenagers that spoke volumes as to the love they had for him.

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

Do you have any memories of the Prophets, thoughts on his passing?

Young Women

Last night was New Beginnings for the Young Women organization of my church. These are girls who are age 12-18. This is an opportunity to welcome in the newest (beehive) girls and to remind girls of the importance of the Personal Progress program. The Presidency worked on the planning for the program. The theme was "MISSION: POSSIBLE". All the leaders dressed in black and looked very spy-like. The Young Women came with their parents and sat down as the music from Mission Impossible played in the background. We sang an opening song and had an prayer and then the program began. One of the leaders introduced the "new agents" (12 year old young women) by giving them cute nicknames and telling us some fun facts. Once that was done the lights went dark and we could hear people leaving the room. Then the doors opened and some of the older Young Women and their leaders came back in wearing trenching coats and holding newspapers, umbrellas, etc. to help keep up their appearance of looking inconspicuous. Then as a "contact" reached each spy, she would slip them a note and we would hear an example of an objective from the Personal Progress book. Then we watched a movie that was made with "actors" from our own ward playing the parts of: Mr. Busy, Mr. Procrastinations, Mr. Lazy and Mr. Forgetful. It was a great way to show the girls what many of the excuses are that keep them from accomplishing their goals. At the end of all the theatrics all the Young Women stood up and recited the Theme. WOW!! I love hearing those young voice recite those words:

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him.
We will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things,
and in all places" as we strive to live
the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works, and
Integrity.
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation

At the end of the program each Young Women was given the tile pictured above with this year's theme. I am just so impressed by the women who have been called these positions in our church. Their willingness to work with youth, occasionally subject themselves to silliness, and hopefully strengthen them as they go through some of the most difficult years of their young lives.

Just as a side note, last Sunday, the youth (boys and girls) sang in sacrament meeting. I could hardly keep it together as I stood up there and sang with them. Those young voices singing the Sisters in Zion/We'll Bring the World His Truth was like listening to 40 testimonies simultaneously. It was just beautiful. I truly love my calling in Young Women.

Snow Bunny

During Christmas break, I told Steve that I would like to try to ski again. He had taken me, for 1st time, about 13 years ago when we lived California. On that occassion, I did not do well. I got very frustrated with trying to get myself back up after falling. After we left Big Bear that day I had pretty much sworn off skiing as something I would NEVER do again. Well, now with my word of the year "STRENGTHEN", I am determined to try to do things I would not ordinarily do because of my fear of failure.

This morning we dropped the kids off at school and began the drive up to Brighton. We stopped at a rental place and picked up the skis for me to use. I was so nervous that we would just be recreating my experience of 1995. The winding road to the ski resort seemed to take forever. We finally go there, parked and proceeded to put on all the garb (snow pants, gloves, hats) but the worst was getting my foot into the boot. Thank heavens Steve was there to help me get my feet into those boots. Then we hobbled off to the hill. We initially did not buy a lift ticket, but just walked up the bunny hill and after some instruction from Steve, skied our way down. We did this a few times ad then decided to was ready to take on the lift.

Steve went and purchased the tickets and I waited for his return. I thought my heart was going to come out of my chest as I sat on the lift and we approached the top. All these thoughts went through my head...How will I get off? Will the lift hit me in the head if I don't move forward enough? Which way do I turn? Then before I knew it, we were there. Steve had told me to scooched my bum down to the edge of the lift and when your skis touch-STAND...I did just as he said and didn't fall!!! It was great. We turned to the right and began to S-L-O-W-L-Y head down the mountain. It didn't take long before I found myself in the position I had been dreading all day, on the ground. And try as I may, I could not get myself back up. Finally I popped those skis off and stood up, reattached the skis and continued on my adventure. We made it the rest of the way down. I was pretty excited.

We got back onto the lift and headed to the top of the hill. Each time I gained more and more confidence. I began to figure out how to control the skis, how to hold my body, more importantly how to turn. I found myself giggling as I made my way down. I was having fun. This activity, that I had promised myself I would NEVER do again, I was doing and actually enjoying myself. It did begin to snow kind of hard as we were skiing, which made it a little hard to see and froze my face, but added to the whole experience. Thank heavens for my wonderful husband and his patience. Having him with me, smiling as I puttered along down the mountain just made it that much better for me.

San Diego Super Chargers/Dress Shopping

WoooHoooo...We are very happy today. They Chargers beat the Colts yesterday. We came home from church at noon once all of our meetings were over and began watching the game that was already in progress. All I can say is the Chargers ROCKED!!! They had LT on the bench for most of the game. They even lost their QB to injury in the 4th quarter, but still managed to hold the COLTS back and get their win to move on. Next week they play the Patriots. We would REALLY like to see the Chargers beat the Patriots. Our family has been fans of both teams, but would really like to see the Chargers get all the way to the SuperBowl!!

On to a GIRLIE subject... I have gone dress shopping a couple of times in the past few weeks. I want to find a couple of "nicer" dresses to wear on our cruise next month. Steve is going to be dressed in tux (hubba-hubba) and it sure would be nice to play "dress up" while we are gone. I so rarely get the chance or excuse to dress up so nice, so I would really like to take advantage of the opportunity.

Since I have lost a little weight and dropped a dress size it has been fun to try on the clothes. I love the long evening dresses, but was unable to find one that would cover up everything that needed to be covered. I did try on one halter dress to see what it would look like. HOLY COW!!! It showed everything. I actually think I didn't look to bad, but there is NO WAY I could wear it. I did find a couple of short dresses that I think might fit the bill. I love the grey and black dress, it has a little sparkle to it. My next fav is the red one. There is just something about a red dress that I just love. Pop said I look like I walked out of the 50's, not sure if that is a good thing. Then the brown reminds me of Jackie O, minus the pill box hat, but I love the way it fit. I am still keeping my eyes peeled for a longer evening dress, but if I don't I feel pretty good that I will make a pretty companion standing next to Steve.

Passport...check

December our friend Brian invited us to go on a cruise with some other friends to the Caribbean. We took a few days to think about it and then told Brian we were in. The most important thing we needed to do at that point was to apply for our passports. We gathered our birth certificates, filled out the applications and printed them out and made our appointments at the post office. I had heard from other friends who had gotten their passports last year that get can be a long, drawn out process. The woman at the post office that assisted us informed us that we would not need to pay the fee to expedite our applications, that it would be processed within 4-6 weeks. I was so nervous...what if she was wrong...what if we got to February and still had no passports. Then this week I went to the mailbox and found the envelope which contained that precious little document. I got so excited holding that little book in my hand. Seeing all the blank pages. Oh, the places we could go...Steve and I have never talked much about international travel. We have both always said that there is so many places we want to see here in the United States before we start traveling around the world...but I am finding me thinking changing as I look at that small blue book.

So there are 6 other couples going on this cruise. They are all neighbors/friends of ours, so it should be a blast. We leave the middle of February and fly into San Juan, Puerto Rico. From there our 1st port is St. Thomas, then the next day we wake up in St Kitts, then that night we cruise on to Grenada where we will spend the next day until the early afternoon when we leave and head for our next island of Bonaire. The final island we will visit is Aruba and then we will spend one full day at sea as we head back to San Juan. Steve is taking scuba lessons, so he can do some diving with some of the others in our group. I will hang out on the beach with the more timid non-divers. I am looking forward to doing some kayaking, hiking, snorkeling, viewing waterfalls, biking, sunning, enjoying that clear beautiful water...best of all, we will get to bask in some warm weather. We have had quite a cold snap here and I am looking forward to wearing capris, short sleeve shirts and sandals. Only one more month to wait

STRENGTHEN

Last year, a fellow blogger, talked about having a word that she was living her life by. Last year that word was "stretch". I thought that was pretty cool and I admired many of the things that she had accomplished through the year. Then today I was reading another blog and the author had chosen a word for her year, which was focus. When New Years was approaching I knew I wanted to do the same. So for the past few days I have been thinking of what my word be and why.

So, the word I came up with is STRENGTHEN.

I don't just mean a physical strengthening...although it one of my goals. I want to strengthen many aspects of my life.

I have a desire to study my scriptures more, pray and fast with my family, develop a relationship with my Savior so I can develop a stronger testimony of the gospel.

I want to make myself more accessible to my children and spend time listening, not just hearing, them to help strengthen me as a Mom.

I have been attending Weight Watchers meetings for the past 5 months and have lost 21 pounds. I want to continue to attend my meetings and attain my goal this year. I want to be stronger when it comes to controlling my addiction to food.

After being so inspired by Steve and his accomplishment of running 2 marathons in 2007, I decided to sign on to do a 1/2 marathon in May of this year. So I want to strengthen myself physically to be able to run much of the race and cross the finish line with Steve and the children cheering me on.

I have drawn, sewn, created crafts since I was a child. I would like to strengthen those talents and use them more than I have before.

I want to strengthen my confidence in myself by trying new things and not being scared of failure or of the unknown. So often I have stood on the sidelines and watched as others tried things, but I want to start to participate in my life.

I look forward to updating you on how I am doing at STRENGTHENING myself.

Get You Caught...

Christmas Eve Steve had the day off...it had been quite some years since Steve has had it off. I worked on our dinner and he took the kids out to the mall to do some last minute Christmas shopping. I had the children build "graham cracker houses" They were quite creative with what they did the crackers and candy. We had our dinner about 6:00 pm and then once everything was cleaned up I handed out the new jammies to the kids. They love their Christmas jammies and slippers. I even got a pair for Steve this year. They were Grinch themed. We then gathered in near the piano and the kids performed their Christmas songs. I read the story of the Christmas Orange to the kids and we shared one of those Chocolate Oranges. Then Steve asked the kids what their gift to Jesus wold be next year...we all said what we would be working on through the year to give as our gift to the Savior next year.

That night Steve and I slept in front of the Christmas tree. Belle was the first one to awaken in the morning...4:00am to be exact. She rushed to where ll the other children were sleeping and and told the kids of the Santas arrival at our home. And up the races to retrieve their stockings. Once the stockings had been emptied and thoroughly investigated, Steve and I made the Christmas breakfast. I had purchased cinnamon bread from Kneaders the day before and made french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages.

Once all the dishes were done and the kitchen cleaned up we went into livingroom and gathered around the Christmas tree and began taking turns at opening our gifts.

One of the best gifts to watch the children open was one from my parents. Becky was unwrapping as the other children watched...they all saw at the same time the words Wii on the box...The look of surprise on their faces was priceless. They screamed and hooted ad hollered. It was awesome to watch.

So later that afternoon, Steve set up the Wii on the tv in the basement and we gathered down their together and enjoyed playing tennis and bowling and even tried boxing a couple of times, until I got pooped out.