We're Still Here...

I know, I know, it's been a long time...AGAIN. To tell you the truth this year we are broke and a little bit boring. I think our fun times will begin to pick up in the next couple of weeks so be looking for some fun updates. We honestly haven't done much in the last several weeks. Two weeks ago was Clate and Fuentes' birthdays and we celebrated with a party at Papi's house in the mountains. I love to go up there where it's peaceful and quiet! Quiet that is until we get there and then all hell breaks loose!! Katie and I went and got a cake for the birthday people before the party and decided to be a little funny and get the candles that relight themselves after being blown out. We were so excited about the cake so we called for everyone to come in and we lit the candles. Keep in mind these little boogers burn fast and there's no stopping them. Just our luck - Clate disappears! Isn't that just like him? Of course we did get told how rude that was of us to light the candles when he was gone...to which I let them know we did not do on purpose. Anyway, with Clate away the mice will (still) play and we sang "Happy Birthday" to Fuentes by herself and let her blow to her little heart's content. Wouldn't you know it, Clate shows back up just as the last candles are being removed from the cake...figures! So we decided he needed a candle too - one very large candle. Then the High School secretary, Melissa, told us that he deserved to have his face planted in the cake for disappearing on us like that. Who should hear this but Courtney and you know he's not going to let an opportunity like that pass him by! He of course had to make it realistic so he removed the candle and started going on and on about how it smelled really bad. He got Clate to smell the cake - bad move - and planted his face right in the cake. It really was funny! But then noone wanted to eat the cake after his beardface had been in it. Oh well, they did anyway. We really had a good time.











After that party we really haven't done much. Last weekend we cleaned, did laundry, went to a baseball game on Sunday and did nothing else. This week Katie's friend Jodi and her sister Niki came on Thursday. We were supposed to go to Culebra with them today but then we got invited to a party where they are giving out the official jerseys for the baseball team. We are supposed to go to that at 6:00 tonight but Courtney's been home sick for the last 2 days so those plans are gone now too. I've basically been stuck in our bedroom since Thursday because I'm trying to avoid getting what he has. I was sick last week and I don't want it again. Courtney never gets sick so when he does it's not good. He's had a fever and chills since Wednesday night and it's driving me CRAZY!!! I swear I'm going stir crazy in my house - in my bedroom. I leave every once in a while to say, "How are you?" but I've found it's best to leave him alone. The Dills are on a (hopefully) beautiful and sunny beach on Culebra (oh and Clate's with them) and I'm in my bright orange bedroom...fun! This coming week we have a conference in San Juan on Friday so no school and we also have off Monday the 18th for President's Day. Hopefully we can find something fun to do if it's not raining and everyone's healthy. Well, there you have it. An update from PR...exciting, huh?

It's been a while...

Hello everyone. It's been a while since my last post. In case you hadn't guessed we really haven't been up to too much. We're on our 2nd 3 day weekend because of the MLK Holiday. Last weekend we had a 3 dayer because of a Puerto Rican holiday. Let's see, what did we do...On Saturday of last week we went to the caves in Utuado again. The Dills, Tom, Tori, and Sara hadn't been there so Courtney and I went as tour guides. It, of course, was beautiful again. When we got there we went right for the caves and nothing too exciting happened. We walked through and I did not take pictures because I only have about 100 from that place! We saw the window again and it was as usual breath taking. Our guide dog didn't tag along this time but when we got back to the cars after hiking he was there waiting. He's so cute and such a good dog! Courtney had to buy him another sandwich and feed him. Then we went to the lake near there called Lago Dos Bocas. You can go to the dock and take a boat to 3 different restaurants on the lake. We chose 1 and hopped on a boat. It was a nice place and the food was very good. It was a little more expensive than we thought it would be...they even charged for a tiny plastic cup of water! After that we drove home and stayed in Sunday for football. Damn Tony Romo -folding under pressure...that's all I'll say about that. Last Monday we also did nothing because there was nothing to do because of the Holiday. This week went rather smoothly in school. Just working on getting the kids back into the swing of things. That can be a chore itself! This weekend we've not been up to a whole lot. Friday night we did nothing. Saturday we did laundry and watched "The Kingdom" - fabulous movie. Yesterday we did our shopping and then went to Tori's house to watch the football games. Both teams we cheered for lost so that was very unfortunate. Katie and I made Tori a cheesehead to wear during the game because she's from Wisconsin. I guess the cheesehead wasn't very good luck for the Pack yesterday. Today we were going to go to Fajardo to the beach but it rained all night, cloudy here this morning, and according to the weather Fajardo has an 80% chance of rain today. I guess we're not meant to go to the beach as much this year. Oh well, I suppose I'll find something to do today...or not... Here are some picks from the last couple of weekends. Did any of you know that bananas grow off of a strange tail looking thing??

SNUBA

I know I already posted about Snuba but I'm addicted to Smilebox and this one turned out so cute!!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Are you for Snuba?

Why yes, yesterday we were for Snuba! We (finally) got to go on my Christmas present trip yesterday! We were supposed to go Snuba diving last week but our trip was rescheduled because of bad weather. So yesterday Courtney, Sara, Mendez, Tori, and I traveled to Fajardo to have the Snuba experience. We arrived at the marina and found our boat. It was a 60 some odd foot sail boat. I wasn't expecting a sail boat and I was a little nervous because Courtney sometimes get seasick when a boat isn't moving so I was afraid he might feel that way on a slow moving sail boat. We got all checked in, met our Snuba instructor Barry, and climbed aboard the East Wind. Wow! There were so many people on the boat! I wasn't quite sure how everything was going to work but our guide Barry was so helpful. We traveled to the small island Icacos (Joy, Scott, Jason, Courtney, & I went there in September) and hung out for about an hour. We ate lunch on the boat - so nice. They had a huge spread of deli trays, cheese trays, pasta salads, veggie salads, fruits, etc. We didn't eat much because we still had to Snuba and didn't want to take a chance of getting ill or cramping. They also had soda, juice, and oh yes an open rum bar!! Of course we were not allowed to partake of the free bar until after Snuba. After lunch it was off to our Snuba adventure. In case you are not familiar let me explain: Snuba diving is much like Scuba diving but without the heavy gear. You do not carry the oxygen tank on your back but instead you are connected to a raft that holds your tank. You are connected by a long tube from the raft that can go 20 feet down. I think we went farther than 20 feet but noone else does. Anyway - we put on our flippers and snorkel masks then climbed into the water. Barry put a weight belt on each of us so we wouldn't float up and then we got our oxygen hook up. It really was a fantastic experience! We didn't get to see too much but I think maybe that was best because we were able to focus on breathing and what we needed to be doing. We did see fish, and plants, and coral, etc. The worst part of it for me was the pressure in my ears. In case you don't know, I have terrible ears! I've had many sets of tubes in my ears and they are now filled with nasty scar tissue. I got through the pressure though and really enjoyed myself. We are tired today though! On the trip back to the main land Courtney helped raise the sails and so he got free beer (I said the rum was free...not the case for the beer). Tonight we have a Three King's Party to attend and if we weren't going there we would have found a way back to Paliminito Island because the very boat we were on yesterday was being rented by Mariah Carey to go to Paliminito today. Here are some pictures of our trip. I don't have any of the underwater pictures yet but will get those developed soon. Overall it was a GREAT Christmas gift and I would love to do it again!!

Happy 2008!

I am going to try this one last time for this post. Believe it or not I've tried 4 different times and it hasn't been saving my changes. Instead it just wanted to post my heading and leave everything else blank...isn't that special?! Where to begin...

After Christmas Courtney and I decided to take it easy and relax. We then began to go stir crazy in our house so we had to get out. We went towards Santa Isabel in search of a new beach or just something fun to do. We didn't find any beaches but we did find a nice restaurant for lunch. It had a beautiful view of the water and it was out of the way. After eating lunch we went to see the 2nd National Treasure at their new big cinema. I thought it was a wonderful movie...if you haven't seen the first one you should see it and then go see this one! Here are a few pics from the restaurant.




Next came New Years. We were going to have a very low key, stay at home night when we saw Sara. She wanted to have a bonfire and we thought it was a great idea. When we got to the beach to get wood it was so windy. We thought we might not be able to start a fire let alone keep it going. We had also taken our little BBQ grill out for dinner. We ended up being able to start the fire and keep it going, we just had to continually add firewood which meant we had to find wood. Sara gets the firewood finder award for the night. She had a little lamp on her head and she went hunting. Overall we had a great time - very relaxing - and I can't wait to have another bonfire!!






We took it easy on New Year's Day and then the following day we went to Fajardo in search of a beach we had heard of. We had to go to one beach and hike past it to another beach but it was worth it. Beautiful soft sand, calm water, and plenty of things to see if you snorkel. We had a great time there until it started to rain which is when we decided to hike back and go home. We ran into a woman on our hike from Connecticut who has been living in PR for 2 1/2 years now with her husband. She told us about a few things that she likes to do that we need to go check out now. Overall it's been a great start to 2008 and we know it will be a full and exciting year. We start school again soon...but not before some more fun!

Happy 2008

Christmas came...and went....

Well, we spent our first (ever!) Christmas away from our families this week. I only broke down one time and it was first thing in the morning. It was really an uneventful Christmas for us. On Christmas Eve Papi (Mr. Mendez) showed up around 8:00 and said, "You look bored, let's go to a party!" so we went to a party. It was at the house of a friend of his sister. It was fun. We ate good food, listened to music, played instruments to the music, and got invited to their New Year's Eve party. We met some of Papi's family, too. We met his sister, Nilsa, her husband, Papi's nephew and his girlfriend, and some other neices and nephews. We had lechon, pasteles, snacks, drinks, etc... The people were so friendly - whenever our hands were empty they brought us a beer. It was nice to get out and spend some time with other people that night. Then Christmas Day we got up, did our cooking and went to Tom's house for lunch. We had a great lunch with Tom, Tori, Tori's friend Mandy, and Tori's new puppy, Coco. Here's a few pics from Christmas Eve and Day...told you it was uneventful!

Puerto Rican Papaya anyone?



Pasteles filled with pork



Our new Puerto Rican band!




Christmas Day...is for the dogs! Here's Coco and Miller in his Christmas gift from Curtis.





Manischewitz anyone? Oh yes people, we drank it! Ew!



Let's see - after Christmas Day we went back to Utuado to the caves with some friends. Mama Pomales has family here from Indiana for a few weeks so we took them to the caves. We had 3 cars full of people. When we got to the gas station and parked our cars there was a stray dog just hanging out. He followed us to the cave opening and we thought he'd run away...nope. He went through every place we went through, probably even more graceful than us! Here's Courtney and his friend.



After the caves we went to Arecibo to the Pirate's Cove which happens to be with the lighthouse. We walked around and looked at the "pirate ships", went through the aquariam and then took in the beautiful view. It was a full but fun day!

I had to take pictures with the pirates by myself since Katie wasn't there. Here's one...





Here's a picture of our group and a few of the scenery - not to shabby, huh?!





Since then we haven't done anything. We were supposed to go Snuba diving on Saturday but it's been cancelled because of the weather. We are re-scheduled to Snuba next Friday, the 4th of January. We'll have a busy few days because we will Snuba on the 4th, Three Kings party on the 5th, and the Dills come home on the 6th. We won't be bored then! Hope you all had a great Christmas!!

Christmas is coming!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Christmas is coming...

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I blogged last so I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of what we've been up to. Nothing too exciting. A few weeks ago I went with the Dills to take their Christmas picture. We found a way to get to an old Sugar Mill in Guayama that they were able to walk up and sit in. Benny and Lola just LOVE sitting still for pictures! They like it about as much as Miller & Winston do. Here are a few shots from that day.



Last weekend we didn't do too much. On Sunday we went to another teacher's beach house and spent the day. We didn't get into the water because it was raining off and on but we had some good food and hung out. If they would have put us up in a beach house we might consider staying a little longer...




This week was spent getting grades and tests finished up because report cards go out right after Christmas break. This coming week will be the easiest week ever at school. No grades will be taken, no pressure. On Wednesday we have our Christmas program and then students are released at 11:00. Granted we have to stay until 3:00 but oh well! Free after that until January 8th!! Katie, Brent, and I put together a little play for our classes for the program. We're doing a short (very short) version of The Polar Express and damn is it cute! Our elves do a little dance routine with presents, we made a train, we have the cutest conductor, and it's just fun! Here's a pic of Kate and me working on painting The Polar Express No. 123...

Last night the 4 of us went out to celebrate our Christmas together. We went to a nice restaurant in Old San Juan and had some great food. When we got home we exchanged some gifts. Courtney told me this week what he's getting me because he needed to set it all up. We are going Snuba diving on Dec. 28. Don't know what snuba is? Snuba diving is a cross between scuba diving and snorkeling. You wear an oxygen mask like in scuba but you don't carry the oxygen tank. You don't wear a wet suit either. Your oxygen tank is floating in a raft on the water and your line only goes down 20 ft. so there's no chance of floating up too fast and passing out or anything. I'm really surprised my hubby wants to do this seems as how he hates the ocean. There are about 6 or so of us going out to do it. Don't worry, I'll take plenty of pictures that day to post! So last night I told him his big Christmas gift - I bought Brent's XBox for him. He's only had it since last Christmas and plays it all the time so I just decided to buy it! Yesterday I found Madden 2008 for the XBox and it was a price that I couldn't pass up so I bought it too. There you have it folks, if ya need a gift idea for Courtney - XBOX GAMES! Anyway, Brent and Kate bought Courtney an XBox game and a movie for his PSP. We bought Brent a movie for his PSP and a shirt that hasn't arrived yet. We bought Kate a makeup bag and a book all about women running to help motivate us in our running...it's getting difficult! The name of the book is "Sole Sisters" - isn't that cute?! And they got me a BEAUTIFUL Coach purse!! I love this purse! Kate and I saw it a few weeks ago and I knew she bought it because I was there, I just had to wait for it. Here's a picture of my purse...

Brent and Kate are set to go to the States this week for Christmas break. They are not taking little Benny and Lola so Aunt Kelly and Uncle Courtney get to babysit. I'm sure it will be crazy with them the first couple of days but then they will be bored with us. Miller and Winston, I'm sure, will be tired out by the time the Dills come home. We don't have a ton planned for Christmas break - snuba diving, Vieques, and not much else. We'll probably just spend a lot of time relaxing and at the beach. Christmas will be tough but I'm sure it will go fast! In case you haven't heard we are moving home in May or June!!! We officially got jobs for next year, I know, already?! Courtney will be teaching Spanish at Pleasant Ridge High School in Easton, KS (6 miles from Leavenworth) and I will be at Ft. Leavenworth again. I'm not sure where yet but I think it will probably be Kindergarten at Mac. We're already looking at houses online because that's the next move. If any of you know of someone selling a house in Leavenworth, keep us in mind! Have a great week and if you're in a place with lots of cold weather and snow - stay warm!