Happy Birthday Ty!

We have a nephew!  He made a bit of an early arrival today.  He was supposed to stay warm and snug in his mama until January 4.  Little man had other plans though and wanted to say hi today.  Dad, Mom and Ty are all doing well and we are crazy excited to be an aunt and uncle for the first time.  We can't wait to get over to meet him. 

 Proud Papa, Tired Mama, Little Peanut

Hello World!  Ty Everett Hamilton.  November 30: 11:43 AM: 4 pounds 11 ounces.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope everyone had a great holiday.

 Mmmm cranberries, my favorite!

Carve 'er up Clint.

This is what crazy looks like: Kyla and I braving the frigid cold for the Turkey on the Run.  I am happy to report we all survived even though I couldn't feel my toes.

I don't think the cold even registers with Chloe.

Clint & Kathleen have four cats.  Clint built them a condo and they each had to have their own room, they don't like to share. LOL.  You can't really tell in this picture, but they are all curled up in there.

All in all, a very successful Thanksgiving 2010.

12.5 Pounds of Cuteness

Lindsey sent me this picture this morning.  They are on their way to Wyoming for Thanksgiving.  At least one traveler is a happy little camper.  I went over and saw them yesterday and David fell asleep on my chest for a couple hours. I was in heaven. I told Lindsey I had to use the bathroom, but it was not worth disturbing the little angel.

Thanks for sharing your babies with me Lindsey.

Franken Kitty

One sedation, one head shaving, a few stitches, and quite a bit of tissue removal later Ralfie, who is currently resembling Frankenstein, is home.  We tried to tell him that is what happens when he fights with other kitties, but he is in no mood to listen.  

The picture below is from last night and today he is already looking better.  We are trying to keep him inside to be monitored.  He already escaped once.  Our checkbooks can't afford more trips to the vet like this so he is under house arrest.

Oh Ralfie, that is gross!

He even let Lucy snuggle up to him.  That is how bad he felt.

When Jay wasn't tending to Ralfie he got the back splash up.  It looks great.  Oh, and those tiles?  He had to cut them all in half before he put them up since that is the style we wanted.  He is waiting for me to seal it so we can grout it.  I have been telling him all week I would get on it...this weekend I promise!

Slate back splash.  Subway style tile.

Wreath Mania

I might be in denial that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, with Christmas nipping at its heels, but that hasn't seemed to slow time down any. We all know store displays have had Christmas up for weeks now and there was even Christmas music playing the other day. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas music to a fault. I do try to hold off until after Thanksgiving though. And I may or may not have an obsession with Jim Carrey's The Grinch, but I most certainly won't watch it until after Thanksgiving because after turkey day that baby doesn't come out of the DVD player. Since time hasn't slowed down I figured I might as well embrace the season. Last Saturday proved the perfect jumping off point.

Jaime hosted a wreath decorating party for wreaths that will be auctioned off as one of the fundraisers during The Festival of Trees, which benefits The Performing Arts Center. Girls only, although I am sure if there was any guy out there wanting to craft he would have been more than welcome! There were six of us girls, mimosas, food, and glitter everywhere. I might still be sporting some today.


Because I am a procrastinator I went to Crafties Saturday morning to get inspiration and pick up supplies. I think my heart stopped for a brief second when I walked in the door. As Delcie said, "Did you need a brown paper bag to breathe in?" Yes! I love to craft, decorate, put together arrangements etc. and going into Crafties is like I have died and gone to heaven. If I had the budget to go with my ideas... This time I managed to get out and only spend $30. That could be an all time low for me. Don't tell Jay.


It was fun to see all the girls' ideas come out in their wreaths, and Delcie did a tree.  They are all unique.  I told Jay he needs to go bid on mine.  Or I guess I could just make another one.  Thanks for hosting us Jaime!


Delcie's tree had a slight Dr. Seuss flair.  Awesome.



Kozue made oragami for her wreath.  She has more patience than me!

Jill, you are too cute and so is your wreath!



Stacie's wreath was a cookie making kit.  Very clever!



Ta Da!

I wish I had a picture of Jaime and her wreath.  She did an advent wreath and was painstakingly attaching 25 bags to be filled with goodies.  She wasn't quite done when I left, but I hear it turned out great.


The Tank

Do you all remember this? Lucy shortly after Jay found her and I brought her home. She weighed about 2 pounds.

On her second trip to the vet she had grown to almost five pounds. Jay started making fun of her big belly and the vet said we might eventually have to restrict her food if she continued eating this way. Skip ahead to yesterday. Jay picked her up from the vet after being spayed and she weighs in at 7.6 pounds. At six months old. If this keeps up she is going to outweigh Ralfie in no time. And he is 5 or 6 years old, I can't remember. If I have to put this cat on a diet, so help me!

She is quite the lover though and I am glad we kept her. She is not scared of anything. The only way to get her to stop doing something is hit her on the head. Softly. Except when she decides to bite me in the middle of the night and wake me up. Then maybe I am not so nice. Oh Luce Luce we love you, you little stinker. Or as Jay calls you "Fatty Fatty Fat Fat".

Friday Night Fun

Just a cute pic that Anne snapped at the Hospital Employee Awards last Friday.



Jay, me, Desiree, Aaron, John, Claudia

And yes, you are seeing correctly, Jay came with me!  He had fun and asked me why I have never taken him before. Hmmmm, pretty sure it is that he never wants to come, not the other way around.  Either way I was happy to have him there.  I didn't wear my glasses so Desiree and I look a bit different, but can you still see the "family" resemblence? :-)

The Sisters

I was recently chastised by my sister, the wild middle child, Gina for not featuring her on the blog as of late.  I guess she got used to seeing semi-regular Antarctica updates and then forgot that this is my blog and I am in charge of deciding what goes up.  I told her to start her own.  But then....well, I didn't have anything exciting to write about.  Unless you count that it is snowing today, November 9.  That's early right?  Maybe not. I can never remember from year to year.  And everyone at work was giving me a bad time because I took off my sweater and wore my tank top all day.  I was hot okay? And I was pretending I was in Barbados.  Sheesh.

Back to Gina.  After leaving the ice (Antarctica) in late August she headed to New Zealand.  It was still too cold there for her liking so she jetted over to Tonga.  What? You don't know where that is?  I didn't either.  It is a small island in the South Pacific.  It is also a sailing mecca.  So after bumming around Tonga for awhile she got herself a crew position on a sail boat headed to Fiji, New Caledonia and finally Australia.  Aside from being seasick it sounds like she had a fantastic adventure.  She is in Australia now living it up with her friends from back in her University days before she flies home November 29.  That's right, she is actually coming back to the States and to Leavenworth for at least a month.  Or that is what I last heard anyway.  We haven't seen her for over a year so we are all looking forward to it.  Party at Pangborn on November 29 at 5:00!



Hooray for sun and heat! Still looking a little pale...(Tonga)



Somewhere in Tonga.  Look at the color of that water!



He let her drive the boat?!



I don't think she is working hard enough.

Pretty skies.

And I don't want Carla to feel left out.  So let's all celebrate that her new dog, Elwood, found his way back home to her after Carla's tire blew out on the way to my parent's house and Elwood freaked out and ran away.  That was about one mile up the Chumstick and Carla lives out East Leavenworth Road.  It took him two days, but he made it back to Carla.  Hooray! He is so smart.


The handsome Elwood.



 Love you Sisters! Only 20 more days until the Carani Trio is reunited.

Oistins Fish Fry

On Friday nights in Barbados everyone heads to Oistins for the Fish Fry.  We didn't want to stray from tradition so we hopped the number 11 and headed over.  There were stalls upon stalls selling fish dinners of all kinds.  We finally stopped at one where the girl was very friendly.  I ordered the Red Snapper and Jay got the Marlin.  Both types of fish were delicious and they came with the standard sides: fried plantains (yum); macaroni pie (mac n' cheese baked like a casserole); rice and peas (although I could have sworn those peas were beans); and bread fruit.  We went back on Monday for dinner and although not all the booths were open there were still a few choices available.  I had the King Fish this time and Jay had Marlin again.  They gave us so much food for $15 American, we had to get a to-go box.  I swear it was the plate of never ending fish.  Each time I thought I was finished I would move something on my plate and find another one.  Yum, yum, yum.  And we washed it all down with the local Banks beer and Fanta.  Jay said we could drink a lot of Banks because the bottles were thicker than in the U.S. and the bottles were only 9.7 oz.  Fanta in foreign countries is also much better than Fanta in the U.S.  I don't know why, but I won't drink it here at home.

Don't worry, not dolphin like Flipper.  It was another type of fish.

The fish market by day.  Lots of stalls processing the day's catch.

Domino games everywhere.

Forgot to take a picture of the number 11 we caught at these bus stops.  It wasn't so much a bus as a converted van with three rows of seats that you could ride for 75 cents American.  They were awesome.

If we weren't eating in Oistins we would walk to Surfer's Bay for dinner at a little restaurant or on our last night there we found a great little family run place right next to the hotel. We were the only ones there and we had thought it was closed all the nights we were there before, but I think they would have loved to see us. Oh well, next time. I ordered the chicken dinner forgetting it would be fried. I can't remember the last time I had fried chicken. And let me tell you, it was GOOD!

 

There wasn't as much fresh fruit as I had hoped so we ate a lot of oatmeal, tuna fish sandwiches and cup of noodles soup. It was actually pretty funny. Next time we will probably bring some food with us.

Locals

You're Here For a Good Time, Not a Long Time

The locals always had something funny and appropriate to say to fit the situation. When we took our catamaran sailing tour and they offered Jay a beer I was giving him a bad time because it was only about 10:00 a.m. Gregory, one of the deck hands said, "Hey, you're here for a good time, not a long time! Don't forget!" So true Gregory, so true. And what a good time that day was. I had never snorkeled before and I am pretty sure I am horrible at it. I know, you are thinking how can you be bad at snorkeling? I don't know, but I kept getting water in my mouth and feeling like I was floundering. It didn't really matter though since I got to see turtles and amazing tropical fish. We sailed with Calabaza and if anyone is in Barbados I highly recommend them. The boat is owned by a German named Gina who has been in Barbados for the past 20 plus years. She is awesome and her food is to die for. She even emailed all of us her collection of recipes so we could recreate some of our experience while on the boat. Gregory and Andrew were our crew for the day and kept us laughing. Jay wasn't too sure about doing such a "touristy" thing, but even he had a great time. When we go back we will take our own snorkel gear, but for our first time there this was the way to go.

Go Dead Left or Get Left Dead!


After a long day driving around the island Jay and I couldn't wait to get in the water for a relaxing swim. We were chatting with our favorite local Matthew on the beach, and he asked how we were doing. I said, "Good! We survived driving on the left." His response, "In Barbados we have a saying: go dead left or get left dead!" Ha! He is right though, they drive like maniacs with lots of honking always going on. I don't think we will rent a car next time since the island is so small you can basically see everything of interest in a day, but we are glad we rented it this time. The East Coast, which is the Atlantic side is ruggedly beautiful. There aren't as many places to swim since the cliffs often just drop right into the water. The West Coast, which is the Caribbean is where most people stay and where all the long, sandy white beaches are.

Don't worry: Jay only let me drive on a dirt road where the only thing I could hit was a cow.  Of course, considering the small size of the car I guess that could have been a problem.

View from St. John's Church, an old Catholic church, which I think might be the highest point on the island.  The cemetery there had tombstones dating back to the 1600s.

Long Beach

One of numerous windmills/sugarmills we saw on sugar cane plantations.  Sugar cane was the dominant crop under British Rule.  Barbados has been independent for 44 years now and there are far fewer plantations.

Little Bay

Friendly, Friendly, Friendly...Ridiculously Friendly


From speaking with my friend who has been to Barbados twice before and from reading we had done on the internet before we left we were expecting the locals to be friendly.  I am not sure anything could have prepared us though.  Everyone we met welcomed us to their island and often told us "Welcome Home!" We would be walking to the store and they would lean out their house windows "Hey Buddy! You alright? Need Anything? Have a good one!"  Kids on bikes would ask us if we were lost and if we needed anything.  They were always smiling and love a good chat.  Besides getting hit up to buy fresh coconuts or fresh aloe vera or on one occasion, a shot of rum, we really only had one bad experience. And it wasn't even that bad.  As we were driving up the East Coast a man stepped out in the road and stopped us.  All rental cars in Barbados have an "H" on them so we were an easy target, not to mention we are white.  He told us the road up ahead was closed and proceeded to give us directions that would take us around the closure and to Cove Bay and Little Bay.  He was very friendly, but then wanted 100 U.S. dollars for his five minutes of directions.  Uhhhh, no way Jose!  I think I gave him 5 U.S. so he would get his head out of our car and we could keep going.  Even though he tried to royally rip us off, he did give us directions to two of the neatest bays we would see the whole trip.  All is well that ends well right?  

Little Bay

Cove Bay

I caught Jay online last night looking up how much it would be to go back in February.  Suffice it to say we loved it.  See you soon Barbados.