Christmas 2007

I haven't been as good about updating the blog lately but hopefully I will be a lot better since we're not as busy anymore. We celebrated Christmas 3 times: once with Scott's side, once with mine and then together. Here's a summary of that week:

Shannon and Jeremy's
On the way to Illinois we stopped at our friends Shannon and Jeremy's house to hang out with them. They were wonderful hosts! We had so much fun playing Rock Band, games and having great food together....plus it was great (as always) to catch up and laugh with them. We stayed the night and watched the Packers vs Bears game. Jeremy is a huge Packers fan and we're big Bears fans so this may have to be an annual thing. Bears won yay!! Then we were on the road to Illinois.




Christmas in Illinois
We spent the week in Illinois as we always do every year. A very much appreciated and restful break from our everyday lives. This year Marcus and Patrick were there for some of the time too. Marcus stayed with them as a foregin exchange student, he's from Brazil. I had actually met him back when Scott and I were dating. Patrick is his friend and they're back in the states because they're going to go to school in Wyoming and decided to spend a few days with his "second family" before heading out there. There are several traditions that we follow every year and I love them. Every Christmas Eve we have a steak dinner before going to the evening service at Uncle Mike's church, there are always 2 big family dinners (that usually take place on the same day) and one of the dinners is always soup and sandwiches which I very much appreciate since you get so stuffed with all that other food! Every time we go to Illinois we always play lots of games, order Monicals pizza and so far for the last 3 Christmas' we've gotten together with our friends Brian and Brittany for games (Brittany is the daughter of Scott's moms best friend). Usually we teach each other games and now they pretty much get the same game for Christmas that we do. We love them and wish we could see them more often...but we love this tradition too! Finally one of my favorite traditions (and one I will do with my children also) is Scott's mom hides our biggest present and then puts clues all over the house. It's like a scavenger hunt. Everyone helps each other out and reads all the clues until after about 4 or 5 you've reached your present. It's always so much fun...Gus likes it too :) We once made clues for his mom and attached a clue to Gus. For a while we nicknamed him "clue 4" We also had fun with Jay and Jennifer...(Scott's brother and girlfriend)...we went to see I Am Legend which I really liked. It was nice to hang out with them we don't get an opportunity to do that often. We spent some time with Spence (nephew...their son). He stayed over one night and we did another tradition...had pancakes in the morning :) Oh and another fun time...my cousin-in-law Angie and I played a little Guitar Hero while her parents and Scott shopped for a new tv. She was a virgin GH player but has now crossed over :) Here are some pics:

Family Pic


Christmas in Illinois...no snow :(


Scott getting the steaks ready


Christmas!




Much to Jay's dismay, Spence got a doll for Christmas :)


A clue!


Scott reading a clue

Spence searches for a clue too

Yeah, clue in the dog food


Marcus finds a clue in the kid's clubhouse




Me and Spence in the clubhouse...he likes to lock me in there

G money

Typical Illinois trip for Gus...they beg because Tuck gives

Christmas in Minnesota
We celebrated Christmas the Sunday before New Years with my side of family. Everyone was there and it was wonderful! Saturday night everyone got there and we just hung out. Kristin and Daniel stayed over at our house which they do every year. Sunday morning was Christmas all over again. Ryan couldn't wait to open presents. I'd say the biggest hit for a present was the kid's digital camera. Abby and Ryan both loved it!! Also, Ryan really liked the hockey stick he got from Matt which paired well (and unintentionally) with the air puck we gave him. The whole day was great, we just hung out with each other, watched Elf, played games, worked on puzzles and talked. Scott and I (mostly Scott) converted all my family's home movies to DVD's and gave that to my parents for Christmas. Needless to say it was a big hit watching past Christmas' and remembering the good ole days. We also sat down to enjoy a slideshow of the vacations we went on this year which was fun too. Oh and Abby can finally say my "name" They call me Auntie and she says "Dauntie" I couldn't get enough of it it was adorable. She is the cutest little thing! On a side note, about 85% of all these pictures were taken with "my" little Kodak camera. Lately it's just not doing anything or anyone justice when I take their picture. So keep in mind these pics are to convey a story, not to enter in a photo contest...I'm very particular so it annoys me that the quality is so bad. Here are some pics:

She wears this hat all the time


Ryan waiting patiently

This looks like something familiar


The beloved camera


Typical scene that day :)


She got it!


Abby taking pictures the wrong way






Hockey time!






Abby found a bug friend and was sad to see him go!




The year ended at Eric and Leah's where we enjoyed good food, games and conversation as always. Here's a video of my first time opening a champagne bottle. Yes I know, we don't get out much therefore it doesn't take much :)

Happy New Year!

Jamaica Pictures

Finally, here's the link to our Jamaica pics...turn your volume up!

Click Here for Slideshow.

Happy New Year!

JAMAICA!

This year for our vacation we went to Jamaica. We stayed at Couples Negril, an all-inclusive resort in Negril, Jamaica. Way back in February we decided to book someplace warm and where we could leave our worries behind because work was getting a little stressful. We had never been to a tropical island before or an all-inclusive. One of the reasons we chose an all-inclusive is because Scott tends to worry about finances...well not so much worry more like he's very focused on our financial situation and getting out of debt. So when we go on a normal vacation he would take out all the receipts at the end of the day and balance his checkbook online. This gives him piece of mind. This is a good thing for our marriage because I am completely opposite...not organized and certainly don't plan well for the future so having a partner that does that religiously is a definite plus! Anyway, so we wanted a vacation that we didn't have to even think about money and what we could/couldn't afford. So we chose an all-inclusive. We were originally thinking Sandals but after doing some research Couples seemed more attractive to us. Couples is, as you may have guessed, just for couples so there aren't any kids. We love kids but not for this vacation. Also Couples seemed more relaxing and laid back and less spring-breakish like Sandals seemed. A little more expensive but personally I think it was much better. You get to know more people (workers and guests) since it's a smaller resort.

The weather in Jamaica is perfect. Averaging around 80 degrees in December. It rained once, for about 10 minutes and it was perfect rain...just a shower with the sun still shining. We never got hot, never got cold....just comfortable all the time.

When we arrived in Jamaica you drive 1 1/2 hours to Negril from Montego Bay. We drove through some poverty-stricken areas which made me feel a little weird. I felt like I was this greedy white American just taking advantage of their nice weather and white beaches. So many houses looked like they were abandoned but people were still living there. They just don't have much stuff at all! Scott said something interesting: it's kind of ironic...they have it right and we have it wrong. It looks like they're lives are so empty and they may even think they want to come to America eventually but what they have is something we're very much lacking. They have family and friends that they spend time with all day...they're developing relationships that are so meaningful and rich. Most of all, they're not materialistic. They're lawns aren't groomed perfectly and most don't have cars. They use their own goats for milk, cheese and meat. They have little shops and bars so they can make money. Their simple life was sad at first but slowly became attractive to me. Even a McDonalds didn't last there! Can you imagine? They're lives look like poverty-stricken to us but this is what they know...this is their life. They still had schools and stores and were generally doing well. I'll explain my thoughts on resorts and the effect on their country later.

Upon arrival to our resort we were very impressed. The service was amazing and we got a nice cool towel and glass of champagne while we waited for our reservations to go through. We came at night so we were a little confused when we first got there. From then on we quickly realized we were in paradise. Our room was fantastic, we got breakfast in bed almost every day, no tipping allowed on the resort so no worries there. A typical day would be heading down to the beach and lay out...swim a little, go in the pool, read, sleep, relax...wonderful! Then we'd go up to the beach for some jerk chicken or fresh fruit. When it became dark we'd go back to the room, get cleaned up and dressed up and head out for dinner. Two restaurants are very fancy with a dress code and a 5 course meal. EXCELLENT! They also had an Italian restaurant and buffet every night. They had little events going on all the time like a wine and cheese party, dancing, manager's appetizer party...all that sort of stuff.

We went scuba diving one day. This was our first time scuba diving and we were a little nervous. We went through a discover scuba diving course with an instructor named Sugar :) Speaking of Sugar, all the workers there are Jamaican and just wonderful. They're so laid back and nice...plus it's not a stereotype...they always say Ya Mon and No Worries Mon...always. Anyway, so we went through the course and then practiced what we just learned in the pool. IT was kinda scary and not as easy as I thought it would be. It's hard to get yourself to breath just through your mouth and not rely on coming up for air for a long time. We practiced all sorts of skills like getting water out of our face mask under water, what we'd do if we were out of air, equalizing the pressure in our ears and just swimming around in general getting a feel for our buoyancy. When we got out in the ocean we went 30 feet down and it was amazing. Still a little freaky but it was so calm down there and we saw lots of cool things. It's interesting communicating with each other without even talking and being in a COMPLETELY different environment like that. Scott had a little problem and he handled it so well. His buoyancy was off (he didn't have a heavy enough weight belt on) so when Sugar told us to let our air out and stand on the sand at the bottom Scott couldn't do it. So automatically he thought something was wrong so he started to go into panic mode. He gulped in a ton of water and it came out his nose into his mask (covers nose and eyes). Sugar helped him and made signals to breath and calm down. Scott amazingly did without going back up for air! He got the water out of the mask like we practiced and got his air supply to work again. Sugar took him by the arm for a while and put another weight on his tank. He was much better then. I know when we were practicing Sugar had me practice that I was out of air and that I needed to get air from Scott...well it didn't work right away and I panicked and went up for air...this was in the pool! Scott did well staying under. Overall a great experience!

We also went on a Catamaran Sunset Cruise where we were served rum punch and I even jumped off a 30ft cliff! That was a lot of fun.

Couples is a place we really enjoyed and we really want to go back. It's such a cozy place that really almost feels like a second home. Everyone is so personable! The whole time we were wondering about resorts and what the Jamaicans really thought of them. We couldn't ask resort employees because if they didn't like them...they wouldn't tell us because they could get fired. So what we really needed was someone who lives there or lived there but didn't have any reason to fudge a response. We actually met a guy at the airport in Charlotte!!! Strage coincidence really. His name is Damien. We asked him and he said that people don't have a problem with them...they bring a lot of money to the country. He did, however, encourage us to see the real Jamaica and what the beautiful country has to offer not just retreat to the resorts. I agree with him but that's a completely different vacation. Like we said we wanted a vacation where we didn't want to worry about anything or go anywhere. This was ideal. But I would love to go back to Jamaica someday and tour the country...that would be awesome!!

I'm just going to attach a few pictures because later I'm going to attach our slideshow that we made.

The beach


Us with one of the workers


The pool


Cruise


Relaxing






Our room


Sugar

Shannon and Jeremy

We went to Shannon and Jeremy's wedding two weeks ago. It's taken me this long to finally get to some pics and have a moment to blog.

Shannon and I were best friends in high school. We got along great and have so many memories together. She moved away when we were in high school but we kept in contact. She came to my wedding back in 2003 even. Just recently we went to a Photoshop conference in Milwaukee and since that's where she and Jeremy live we decided to give them a call and see if they wanted to hang out. This was the second time we met Jeremy but the first time we didn't really get a chance to get to know him. We really enjoyed our time there with them. It was like Shannon and I were becoming friends all over again but in a different way (a good way). And Scott got along great with Jeremy too.

So we made another trip to Milwaukee for their wedding. It was such a great time. My only regret is that I didn't get a picture with her!!! What was I thinking? Another friend from high school, Mark, was there and it was so nice being able to hang out with him and catch up. Shannon and Jeremy's wedding was beautiful. We especially enjoyed the reception. It was perfect, right on Lake Michigan inside a pavilion that had a warm ambiance with glowing candles and fall decorations everywhere. The food was picnic style and very good. The desserts were maybe some of the best I've ever had!! She also had a scrapbook table with tons of stamps and little stickers along with a Polaroid camera to take your picture and make a page for her. Wish I would've thought of some of this stuff!

Shannon and Jeremy make an awesome couple. They both love to dance and act and they just seem so right for each other. That's what makes the wedding.

I'm excited cuz we're getting together again around Christmas time to watch the Bears/Packers game. I have a feeling what the outcome of the game will be :( but you never know :)
Here are some pics. We really didn't take many and a lot of these are with the small camera so nothing to write home about but you get the idea of the evening and location.












Me working on our scrapbook page


Lake Michigan




View from pavilion