"TinkerKel" turns 29

That's right folks, yesterday was my 29th birthday! It didn't start out so great and there was much drama...is that a sign of what's to come in my thirties?! On Friday night Courtney and I went to get some things for my party on Saturday. While we were out Brent called and said the power was out. This was at about 6:00 Friday evening. It had been raining all day due to what is now called Tropical Depression 16 and should become Tropical Storm Noel today. (Tropical Storm Noel is official and will should drop an additional 3-5 inches on us today...Lord let it stop!) It rained nonstop Friday, Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night, and today...you get the picture...it's WET here! Anyway ~ We grabbed dinner and came home expecting to have power. Called the power company many times and each time were today, "Oh sure you'll have power tonight." That's electrical company code for, "Screw you, you're not that important!" After attempting to sleep Friday night in the heat and with all the loud noises that come with living on this island we awoke yesterday morning to, you guessed it, no power! Okay, no problem, it will be on soon. Called the power company again and got the same answer to which I said, "Oh, that means we won't get power today, right?!" We decided to call Tom, another American teacher, to see if he had power which he did. We took all of our things to be charged up over there: cell phones, computers, PSPs, etc. Came home to see about the power, surely it would be on...nope! Back to Tom's to take showers because our Karaoke DJ would be in town around 6:30 to set up and Courtney needed to go be his assistant. Went back to the house to get ready after showering to yet again, no power. Enough of this, we load up all of our costume things and some drinks and head back to Tom's with the Dills to get ready...might as well make the best out of this! Katie and I had fun playing with mustaches that she bought in hopes that Brent would shave his and wear one to be her "gangsta" man to her flapper. Joel (DJ) arrived and he and Courtney head to the bar only to find it locked up and noone there. In the meantime we get a call saying people around town have heard the party is cancelled due to the weather. WHAT?!?! Why would they cancel a party and not tell the people throwing it?!?! I was taking my wig off to go hurt Jorge when Courtney called back and said Jorge was just running late and everything was good. Okay so I had to get ready again. We decided we all needed to eat before partying so Brent went to grab food while Katie and I grabbed a few things from home where we discovered we finally had power!! It was only off for 26 hours this time. So we got food and headed to the bar where there were already party goers, most dressed in costumes. We had an absolute blast! Today will just be recovering and watching football. I should probably clean house too because Hoshi will be here on Thursday for a visit. Enjoy the pics and have a spooktacular Halloween!

Mustaches and wigs are FUN!







Courtney before and after! I can't believe he let Katie put on makeup and he let me paint his nails!!





Friends at the party











The Casa Benny 5 Crew







Sidenote: Honestly people, I did not realize how much skin I was showing until I saw the pictures. I apologize for any feelings of nausea while looking at the pictures!!

Guamaní Private School

Well my husband, parents, and sister must really love me. This year for my birthday I wanted a new digital camera because ours is pretty old. (It's old in technology age!) Last weekend before our 5K my hubby presented me with a new BEAUTIFUL high tech digital camera. I have been taking pictures of everything with it! Plus - this weekend Katie and I went shopping and got some new outfits and looked so cute this morning so we decided it was time to get a staff picture at GPS. We finally got all the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade teachers together and then Kate got Courtney's crew of 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teachers together for a pic. The first picture of the primary elementary group we're all mixed together but for the 2nd picture you can see we're all showing what grade level we're at. Yes, Courtney and Brent are the only men in the Elementary level. Our P.E. and Computer teachers are men too but they weren't around for pictures. Nothing else too exciting to report. We had a pretty lazy weekend but this weekend won't be. My 29th Birthday is Saturday so we're having a Birthday/Halloween party at JR Pub (Jorge's Bar). It should be tons of fun if you want to come celebrate with us!! I will definitely have pictures of that...we went all out this Halloween! Oh - I almost forgot - how 'bout them COWBOYS?!?!

5K Results Update

We checked out our results today and we are so excited!! There were 3,397 people who finished the 5K and out of those I got 816th place and Katie got 818th place!! Not too shabby for beginning runners. I also checked out men vs. women and there were 2,088 women who participated. Of that number I got 198th place and Katie got 199th place! I can't believe it!! Top 200 out of 2,000! If you want to check it out for yourself go to www.allsportcentral.com, on the right hand side you'll see "recent results", click on "Race for the Cure 5K San Juan, PR". Click on 1000 where it says "Top". We are on page 17. You can click on our individual names to see all of the places. Yahoo!

Our 5K! (Click on the bottom right corner to advance the pictures!)

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Hey...Are those people naked?

What an interesting Columbus Day Weekend! We took it easy on Saturday because I've been sick for the last week (real nice when I'm supposed to run on Sunday!) and Courtney had to help Papi (Mendez) with his car. Saturday was pretty uneventful - we went groccery shopping and watched a movie. On Sunday we got up ready to go to Albuergue Olimpico which is the Olympic training center with a wave pool and everything. That would have been great...if it were open to the public! Then we were going to go to El Tuque which is another water park - fun...if it were open still. After 2 strike outs we decided to just watch football and stay home. But Monday was a different story. We were bound and determined to go to another little island. We drove to a town where they usually have boats to take you around. There were no boats since it was Monday but we found a phone number to call for one. The man wanted way too much money and we wouldn't have gotten off of the boat. I was pretty excited about it because we could have snorkeled around a sunken ship and we would have gone to Monkey Island...yes people, an island completely inhabited with monkeys! We decided not to do that and instead drove to Fajardo to catch a boat to Palominito. If you'll recall from a post last March it's the island we went to with Sharon and Wilbur. It's the same on from the cover of the travel book. We found a cheap boat ride out there and hopped on! As we were making our way out there I said to my husband, "I dare you to run around naked on the island!" I knew we would be the only people out there...besides the Dills and Papi. As we pull up to the island Courtney says, "Hey...are those people naked?" Just then I look and see a woman handing her bikini top to her boyfriend as she gets in the water. Then it happened! I looked at the boat next to us and saw a man's "stuff" a little too close the the flaming hot BBQ grill!! We saw 5, count 'em, 5 naked people - 3 women and 2 men! What were we to do? We set up our chairs and the sun shelter away from them as to not be caught looking...how could we not look?!?! Papi took pictures of the nakedness!! Katie and I tried to not look and just talked and swam and what not...the men on the other hand were looking and looking and looking!! Who knew we would go to our first nude beach! When we got back on our boat they told us that happens alot when noone else is out there. Wow! And of course as the saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em which is exactly what we did! Who wants to come visit now?

Just kidding! Picture time: 1) Miller and Winston on Saturday...how bored was I? 2) A teensy tinsy lizard we found. 3) The Marshes and the Dills before heading to Palominito. 4) Papi and Courtney on the boat. 5) The Marshes on the boat. 6) The two 5K bound K's! 7) Papi being cool on the boat. 8) Courtney with Palomino in the background....you can go there if you're rich enough to stay at El Conquistador. 9) Where we set up camp with the lovely (not naked) island in the background. 10) Just keep swimming...and drinking... 11) Fixing Katie's sand boobs...yep folks, we buried her! 12) Buried alive!!

New Address!

Yahoo...we finally have the Internet! Our Internet has not been working all week so I am excited to finally be able to post today. After a year of waiting we finally have our own PO BOX down here in PR.

From now you may send mail 2 different ways - either to our home at: Villa Rosa 1, B1 Ave. Los Veteranos, Guayama, PR 00784. Or to our PO BOX at: PO BOX 1134, Guayama, PR 00785. How exciting!

Hope you are all having a great week. Happy Hump Day! Maybe we'll do something exciting this weekend so I can update soon. We'll have to see what the weather does.

Theme for this weekend: Relax and then FREAK OUT!

Confused?! Here's how this weekend has played out. We got up yesterday morning and did our 2 weeks worth of laundry (you can't do laundry when you have company!) then picked up our house. Nothing unusual about that. We then decided to go relax at the beach. Again, nothing unusual. It was a wonderful way to relax. We took all of the dogs so Winston and Benny played in the ocean, Miller and Lola of course did not. They were content to sit with Courtney and Brent and relax. Katie and I swam for a while until she got bit or stung by something which is when we decided to stay out of the water. After that we just laid out in the sun and chatted. When we got home the Dills cooked us dinner (BBQ outside!) because Courtney had worked on their car. After dinner we watched "Disturbia" which was a pretty good flick. This morning we got up and took it easy while waiting for football to begin. I'm still waiting as my Cowboys play in about 1/2 an hour...GO BOYS!! I was bored so I looked at a calendar and that's when I realized...the 5K Katie and I are running in is 3 WEEKS FROM TODAY!!!! OMG!!!!! I feel like I need more time! Still confused? Here's the story: 9 weeks ago Katie and I started working to get in shape. We found a program called "From Couch to 5K in 9 Weeks". It sounded pretty easy and like it would do the trick. We had been doing it for about 2 or so weeks when we told our friend Tori about it. She then brought up this 5K that is held in San Juan every year. Then she told us it when it was - it worked out perfectly because we would be done with our 9 week program and still have 2 weeks to get ready. Basically, on October 14th Katie and I will be running 3.1 miles with thousands of other people. Can you believe it? I know what you're thinking, if you know me very well, Kelly? Running? Kelly's not a runner! No, Kelly really isn't but she is working her butt off...I hope literally! About the race...it's called the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure and it's for breast cancer awareness and research. This race is held all over, in fact there's one in Wichita, KS next Sunday! I know this race is for breast cancer but for me it will be for all kinds of cancer. While I'm running I will be thinking of my loved ones who have passed from cancer and I will know that they are all watching me. I know this race will be rough because of the heat, the thousands of others participating (7,000 last year!), and because I'm not really a runner, but I look forward to how I will feel after it's over. I think I will really have something to be proud of. So, be thinking of me in 3 weeks and I'll let you know how it goes!!

The Little Tugboat That Could and Other Stories by Kelly Marsh

Well Joy, Scott, and Jason left this morning after five glorious days here in good 'ole Puerto Rico. I have some fabulous stories to tell from their trip here so grab your place around the story teller...shall we begin?

DAY 1: You're in Puerto Rico! Life is good, not baaaad!

I left work at lunchtime to pick up Joy and the boys. The timing was perfect as they had just walked outside when I was pulling up. We loaded their things and hit the road. Traffic was smooth and we were just truckin' right along. We stopped to eat their first meal in PR at the very authentic Burger King (or El Rey de Hamburguesas if you prefer!). We finished lunch and continued "truckin" when we came up to a truck loaded down with....you guessed it! Goats! There were 4 or 5 goats tied down (literally) in the back of a little truck. I pulled up beside the truck so Scott and Joy could take pictures. We then drove home, unloaded, drank a little, and headed to a beach to explore. After exploring we went home to turn in early so I could get up early to run...ha! If by early you mean Joy and Courtney talking until well past 1:00 am. Five in the morning comes awfully quick when you don't get to sleep until after 2:00. Here are some pictures I took from Scott. Wasn't Joy lovely on the plane? Check out the green drinks from Tranquilidad. And ah, the lovely goats...Can you see the smile?

DAY 2: Sniff, Sniff...My Lime.

On Friday Courtney and I went to work while Joy and the boys went to the beach. Friday was our first ever GPS pep rally...sort of. It was more like a "let the high school kids dance around" hour but it was alright. There was even 1 point where they called out teachers to the center of the gym to jump and "shake our booties" which Katie and I of course did. Courtney and Brent - not so much. When we got home from school we had a few teachers over for drinks and then we drove to this out of the way restaurant to eat called El Puerto. The food was so good and so was the sangria. We did of course partake of a few...pitchers that is. We also found out that our waitress is the cousin of one of our teachers and we have sung karaoke with her at his bar before...interesting! The title of this story was inspired by something funny that I said at dinner. I could have also titled this one "amethyst" but that's a whole other story! Here are some pics from day 2: fun at the pep rally, ride that wave, beautiful beach, Scott's very own Corona commercial, and drink 'er down.

DAY 3: That June sure is Flaming.



We got up Saturday morning to head to Ponce to go to the museum. Yes we've been there several times but needed to go again. Why you ask? Well, Jason and Scott love the painting called "Flaming June", in fact they have a print of it hanging in their house. We happen to have the original June in the museum. Jason told Courtney about their print and they decided we would go and surprise Scott with her. We went there first so we wouldn't have to hide it any longer. Courtney and Joy think I tend to have issues keeping a surprise...whatever! She was of course as lovely as ever and Scott was pleasantly surprised. From there we went to the mall to look for "Puerto Rican kitchen stuff" or so we thought. Scott and Jason wanted to buy us a shaker set to make cocktails with. We were pleasantly surprised when they gave them to us...thanks boys! We met up with the Dills at the mall and then headed to the Castillo Serralles which is the original home of the makers of the Puerto Rican rum called Don Q. It is a fabulous run that really can put Bacardi to shame. Want to try it? You have to come to PR! They only sell it here...who's on their way?! The "castle" was beautiful! It was built for around $90,000.00 and is now worth somewhere around $30,000,000.00!!! It was amazing! Courtney and I had never been there before so we were really excited to go. We love to do new things with visitors! After the castle it was off to the baths in Coamo to get radioactive. Scott wanted to get "blessed" so we jumped in. That is where we saw the man with the "black hole belly button"! I was a little frightened that if he took a deep breath in we might get sucked in but it didn't happen. We drove home from the baths we came home and did the boring order of pizza. We knew we'd have a busy day Sunday so we wanted to get some shut eye. Picture time! 1) Flaming June...beautiful! 2) Cruceta del Vigia at the Castillo Serralles 3) Castillo Serralles 4) We're on top of the world! 5) I may look like a turista but I assure you I am not! 6) Aren't we a beautiful group?! 7) The "pool" area 8) The back of Castillo Serralles 9) Ponce from the top of the world

DAY 4: The Little Tugboat That Could

Sunday morning it was off to El Yunque to see the rainforest and then try to find something to do on that side of the island. We got to "the Yunq" and got to the observation tower. We walked to the top, 98 steps I believe...Joy counted. We looked around and decided that we didn't feel like hiking so it was back down the mountain. We drove to Fajardo and found a boat taxi to take us to a small island called Icacos. We had never been there before so we decided the price was good and we went. The boat was funny - the seat that Scott, Jason, and I sat on was falling apart. The "captain" on the boat wasn't the nicest fella but oh well! We were on an island with beer and food and ready to swim. We got all set up and thought we were going to get rained out. We sat there watching the storm clouds over El Yunque and the main island and then they broke up and went away. Not even a drop on us! Joy, Scott, Jason, and I swam for quite a while and tried to snorkel but there wasn't anything interesting to look at. Courtney did what Courtney does and explored. There were several boats around that provided screaming and music for us. Then there was a blue boat. The people loaded up their boat and tried for a long time to get it to start. It wouldn't. They kept trying and we kept watching. Finally our "lovely" captain arrived and tried to jump their boat with ours but that wouldn't work either. That's when it happened. He tied their boat to ours and we became a tugboat! I sang a lovely song about "We are the tugboat, you are the barge..." but I won't go in to that right now. It was touch and go on the boat ride home. It took at least double the time to get back and we were swirving all around. We made it back and were trying to get their boat to slingshot around ours to shore...but they were Puerto Rican and didn't listen to instructions. Instead they came up beside us, caught a buoy's rope in our engine and it snapped. Of course our boat died, the "captain" yelled, the people didn't even say thank you...it was great! 1) The sign when you enter "the Yunq" 2) Cocoa Falls 3) The sign at the lookout tower 4) View from the tower 5) Anyone for pizza? 6) Jason and I on the ride home 7) We are the tugboat, you are the barge!



























DAY 5: Drinkin' Rum and Coca-Cola



I'm going to let you in on a little secret...I skipped work on Monday to spend the day with my company! Ssshhhh! Don't tell! We went to Old San Juan and took the tour at the Bacardi place...never gets boring! We even stopped and made videomails for mom, dad, Courtney, and Joy's work buddies. That was fun! After that we went to eat at a little hole in the wall place, went to Casa Don Q and had more free drinks and then went to San Cristobal before heading home. It was fun to get away on a Monday! 1) Scott's pretty drink 2) The set up for free drinks 3) A pretty building in OSJ 4) A beautiful picture taken by Scott at San Cristobal 5) OSJ from the fort
















We came home Monday night and Scott made a FABULOUS meal for us! It was so good! He made beer battered pork chops...Yum-O! We really had a great time with our company and were sad to see them leave. I'm happy that I (should) will get to see my sister again in 2 months. So - those are my stories. Thanks for listening!

PS: I know this isn't being posted until Thursday even though it says Tuesday. Our Internet(s) have been really terrible this week! Please forgive me!