Bermuda, Bahama, Come on Pretty Mama

Go ahead, I'll wait for you to finish the song. And don't pretend you don't know the words, that song was a HUGE hit when I was seven! So, we had a nice time in the Carribbean, even though we didn't get to go to the Bahamas because the captain was whining about some choppy waves or something. Here's a few shots of the trip: snorkeling was the highlight for me, but we didn't have an underwater camera, so we don't have any photos of what we saw. Our first stop was the Dominican Republic, and I will be okay if I never go there again. Not too exciting.

Josh on the beach in the DR. It looks pretty anyway.

There was this tiny puppy on the beach that kept playing with Josh and trying to eat our friends' lunch out of their bag. Josh thought the little guy was pretty cute; I couldn't get over the thought of all the diseases he was probably carrying.

Here's a shot of the water in the DR. Josh is "swimming" in about 10 inches of it. He didn't want to get out until absolutely necessary because it was a little chilly.

Here we are in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, on our way to Coki Beach, where we went snorkeling.

This water was just as clear as it looks in the picture. We had a lot of fun snorkeling together. Josh kept giving me "eskimo kisses" underwater. It was really funny, but maybe you had to be there, or be me, to find that amusing. The water was also very nice temperature wise.

We tried to get a good picture of the beach AND a good picture of us AND have no one else in the picture, but it didn't work. Still, you can see how beautiful it was. Sidenote: the people of the US Virgin Islands were REALLY excited about Obama becoming president, and they kept yelling "Our president is black!" to each other. Not really sure why they did it, but I thought it was interesting.

This was taken on our way back to the port on St. Thomas. Our ship is not in the background, those are all Carnival ships. We had to anchor out in the bay, and then be shuttled back and forth on the lifeboats.

We also went to the Tortola, one of the British Virgin Islands, but I don't have any pictures from there. And as I mentioned before, we missed our chance to go to the Bahamas, but it was still a nice vacation. This last shot was taken from the boat as we were leaving Miami.

Christmas Miracles

Well, we had some Christmas miracles this year. I got the air rifle that I told Nicola to buy me. I'm pretty sure it's the same one that's been sitting in our guest room for the past couple of months so I was pretty happy about that. I also received a total of like 7 new PSP games, so it's time to go back to work in the radar truck. That is pretty much the only time I play my video games. Except I played a bunch over the break since they were all new.

The real miracle this year is that Nicola shot my air rifle a few times and she got two Bull's eyes! Woohoo! It has been a real challenge getting her to shoot guns, but she says she likes this one. That's good, because I just sold the Springfield XD-40 subcompact I bought her a couple years ago. She only fired it once, and then she started to cry, so I figured it might as well go to a family who would use it.

Just FYI- the purpose of this post is not to list all the Christmas miracles I recieved, so if you gave me a gift and it wasn't a PSP game or an air rifle, don't automatically think I didn't appreciate it.

Thanks for Thanksgiving

In our rush to go off and have a vacation in the Carribbean, I failed to post about our Thanksgiving and our wonderful hosts, the Bryces. THANK YOU FOR LETTING US COME! I am way lucky I like Josh's family as much as mine; they are all great. Anyway, it was very nice and the food was delish. (I am stealing that word from Lisa.) Here's a couple of photos we took right before we left to come home.

Here we all are, minus Uncle Michael, who had to go to work. It took us a couple of tries to get this one, because we had to use the timer.

Now acting more like ourselves..ha ha!

This is my mad face when Josh told me it was time to go back to Ajo.

Klaire taught Josh a dance that goes to a Hannah Montana song. It was really funny to see him do the dance with the girls.

I know this picture is random. I took it at Thanksgiving last year. I just thought it was cute that Grandma and Grandpa Brady have the same shoes, and then they were both sitting the same way. Cutest!

Variations and my tree

Some of you have asked about my new haircut and whether or not it can be done curly, since I do have the natural curl thing going on. When I did it curly, Josh said: "What's going on with your hair today?" and it wasn't in a "Wow, I really like it!" tone. I didn't think it looked too bad from the front, but the back is sort of crazy. I also included a shot of my hair done flipped out. I had put on a baseball cap while my hair was wet, and it dried flipped up, so I just went with it. At least it's a change, right?

Curly

Flipped (Yes, I took this myself and chopped my head off)

Oh yeah, here is my tree! I will have to take another shot when it is dark outside.

Tag!

I have been tagged...blah, blah, blah. I am not tagging anyone else so you don't need the rules. I am just supposed to tell you about my quirks. Sister Char tagged me and I like her, so I guess I will play along.

Nicola's Quirks

1. Before I do the dishes, they have to be organized. Sometimes this takes longer to do than the actual dishes. I stack all the like things together and arrange them by what goes on the top rack of the dishwasher and what goes on the bottom. And when I load the dishwasher, I put all the forks in the same section and then all the small spoons in another and so on. I also have little kid plastic cups, bowls and plates that I like to put in order by color (like a rainbow). I'm not sure what compels me to do this, but I'm sure it's not normal.

2. I have had 24 different kinds of jobs and I have never been fired from any of them. I've done everything from waitressing to office managing to selling wedding dresses to taking care of old people. Maybe this is why I was never able to stick with a major.

3. I am getting much better at this, but for the longest time, I couldn't let my food touch on my plate or I wouldn't eat it. I love those plates with dividers in them, or the school lunch trays; those were perfect. Ward potlucks and family dinners are a plate nightmare for me, and I still think Jell-O should always be served in a completely different container. Who wants pink, cherry-flavored mashed potatoes? Yuck, I am gagging just thinking about it.

Josh's Quirks

1. Josh is a pacer. If you know Josh, then you know what I am talking about. It intensifies when he's talking on the phone or if he's explaining something he's really excited about. Either way, it's a good thing I don't have carpet in my house, or there would be a worn out path around my living room/kitchen.

2. The King of one track mindedness. Once he has decided he wants something, there is no distracting him. I can be talking to him for any amount of time on any subject, and at any given moment, he will rattle off a list of facts and/or features about the new motorcycle he wants, or the gun that he just bought, or ANY type of new car that he thinks is cool, or anything else that has caught his attention lately. I used to think this was his way of changing the subject, but not so. He will do it while I am reading or otherwise busy as well.

3. Josh thinks that is is fun to scare the crap out of little kids. And not just once in a while, but all of the time. He plays this game with my nieces and nephews where he is a ferocious dog, and they are not supposed to wake him from his nap. When they inevitably do, he barks and snarls and almost bites them, and they laugh and laugh until they are really scared and then they cry!

So now you know that we are wierdies. Try not to hold it against us.