One of These Things is Not Like The Other

Marcus and I did a lot of work in our yard this summer. The previous owners did a lot of landscaping, but they also left some areas bare that we finally took care of. One of those areas was alongside our super duper looooooooong driveway. I don't have a before picture, but basically is was full of nothing but knee high weeds and two trees. Here are some pictures right after we redid that spot in May:

Those three center plants are crepe myrtles, which are all labeled the same. Well, a couple of weeks ago they started blooming:

Here, let me give you a closer look:

Here are the first two. Aren't they a lovely shade of deep pink?

And here's the third one. Doesn't it match perfectly? Oh, wait. Stupid Lowe's.

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to pull my hair out. Instead, I'm just gonna make Marcus pull this one up and plant it elsewhere. He's really looking forward to that.

The Rest of our Vacation

After our Caribbean cruise with the Delcambres, Marcus and I hopped on a shuttle bus and headed to the Miami Seaquarium. It’s kind of like a mini Sea World. Since Marcus and I are big animal lovers we had a lot of fun. Plus we both got to see manatees for the first time.

The shuttle dropped us off at the Miami Air Port after the Seaquarium, and from that point we had to take a taxi to our hotel. I booked the hotel weeks before the trip using priceline.com’s name your price. I was certain that we were booked at the downtown Miami Hyatt Regency. In fact, earlier in the week I looked for restaurants near there that we could walk to, and earlier that day I pointed it out to Marcus twice as we passed by in the shuttle. Anyway, we took a $30 cab ride from the airport to the hotel only to find out that our reservation was really at the Coral Gables Hyatt Regency. Another $30 cab ride and we were there. Our room was great and we even had a balcony.

The next day we took yet another cab to the port for our Bahamas cruise. The first stop was Nassau Bahamas. There was a minor thunderstorm most of the morning. We got thoroughly soaked, and I was so tired that I actually fell asleep on the tender ride from the port to our excursion destination. Once our sea lion encounter started we had a blast. Marcus and I and 8 other tourists got to get in the water with Murray the sea lion and his trainer. We got to pet him, kiss him, and hug him. It is right up there with kayaking in Puerto Rico as the highlight of the cruises.

We actually ended up docked in Nassau until 1 am because of passing storm, so Marcus and I decided to brave the Nassau shops for a gift for my little brother. On the way to Senor Frogs near the port we were asked “if we liked to party?” And when I replied with an “excuse me?” The man then asked “Do you want some blow?” I responded with a probably too polite “No thank you.” I then realized that I made it to 30 without being asked directly if I wanted to buy drugs. Not too bad for someone born in Houston in the late 70s.

The next stop was CoCo Cay, which is a private island owned by the cruise line. It was actually disappointing. I was all ready to snorkel, but you had to get to the snorkel spot from the beach which was covered with rocks and slime of some sort. I HATE slime! Marcus and I did enjoy some time just hanging in a hammock.

CoCo Cay, Bahamas

The final stop was Key West, Florida. We signed up for a snorkel adventure. I was so excited because snorkeling is my favorite thing to do. On the hour long boat ride to the reef I started to feel funny, but I got in the water anyway. It was my last chance to snorkel! I’m glad I went. I saw all kinds of fish and plants. It was great. I could have stayed there all day. I’ve already started researching hotels in Key West.

An example of what I saw. I actually forgot the waterproof camera.

It was a really long time to be away from home, but we had a blast!

We're Back!

Marcus and I recently went on 2 cruises. One with our good friends the Delcambres, and then one just the two of us. We had a lot of fun, but 2 weeks is a long time to be away from home. Here’s a run down of our first cruise:

Our first port was San Juan, Puerto Rico. The four of us went kayaking at night in a bioluminescent bay. I’d never kayaked before and was sure I would fall out, but miraculously we never did. We did have a rough start because the water was choppy and there were many other inexperienced kayakers as well as loose unmanned boats. It was like a crazy obstacle course starting out.

Once we got going we had a lot of fun, the mangroves were beautiful as were the stars. The bioluminescent part was super cool. We also learned that Marcus and I work very well as a team, especially compared to a lot of other couples who were pretty much yelling and/or snapping at each other the entire kayak trip. The first person in the kayak is the only one who can see anything, and tells the back person what to do. It is a great test of a relationship. We pretty much spent our time laughing.

Las Cabezas de San Juan

The next port was St Thomas. It was a cloudy day, but we still had fun. We did some shopping down town in the morning, and then in the afternoon we went to Megan's Bay. The water was super cold, but Marcus, Shannon, and I still braved it.

Megan's Bay

Our final port on the first cruise was in St Martin. That was an adventure. Our plan was to snuba, which none of us had ever done. We ate at a restaurant on the marina. On our way out to the snuba spot I started feeling sick, which is weird because I don’t get sea sick. We tried snubaing, but Marcus and I quickly gave up. He is afraid of the water and the choppy conditions and weird sound his equipment made did not help. I was feeling a lot worse, and couldn’t stay upright in the water so I couldn’t get the hang of the snuba gear.

Shortly after Marcus and I got back on the boat I started feeling very very bad. I decided to sit on the back of the boat with my feet in the water. A couple minutes later I started throwing up. I’ve never done that on a boat before. I felt a lot better afterwards, so it’s pretty clear that my lunch was the culprit and not sea sickness. Jonathan does get sea sick and for awhile we were both puking off the back of the boat. Marcus ate the other half of my lunch, so he started feeling bad too. I’m still amazed he didin’t vomit! All in all Shannon is the only one who had a great day in St Martin.

Dutch Side of St Martin

It was a lot of fun cruising with good friends, and we hope to do it again!

I'll update y'all on the rest of the trip later this week.

What the...

Ok, I've held my tounge long enough. I have to ask, what's up with all the pumpkin patches?! It's like October 1 was some sort of launch date to have parents come from miles around just to drop their babies into the middle of a giant pumpkin patch like Linus on Halloween night. They boldly place the child on, around, under, and amongst all the pumpkins, and then proceed to to take pictures! Every few seconds, another one of my friends and family post these pics to facebook or the blogging world (I think I even saw a sonogram of my unborn nephew/niece sitting atop a pumpkin the other day!). And they come in such variety: pictures of one kid, two kids, kids with parents, kids with other kids, kids with other parents, parents with other parents, you get the idea. It's all very suspicious and I think might be linked to something sinister, but I just can't put my finger on it...

In all seriousness, I think these pictures are actually cute, adorable, and sometimes funny. It's just that I've have never heard of this phenomenon until this year. Is it some sort of overnight sensation, or has it always been going on under my nose and I just never had any friends with kids? (Now that I think about it, I think I saw my nephew caleb sitting in a patch last year, but I just thought it was because my sister in law REALLY likes the Fall). I guess it has been going on more then I've noticed. I mean, I have seen the pumpkin patches around town, I guess I was just in denial.

Anyway, that's all I have to say on the subject. So, when you go to cast your vote on Tuesday, be sure to pick the candidate the supports you and your pumpkin interests. Oh, and here are some cute pics from people I know who have posted them recently...

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Bethany and Landry (Amanda and Raymond Duggan). I like how Bethany is bored out of her mind in one picture and is so ready to leave in the other one! Also notice the different outfits...they had TWO pumpkin picture days:)
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Here's my cute nephew, Caleb (Chris and Stephanie Carroll). He (or maybe it's his mother) absolutely loves that pumpkin shirt :)
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Baby Christopher (Jonathan and Shannon Delcambre). You can't see it in these pics, but he's got a pretty cute widow's peak on his forehead. Shannon's a great photographer, and will come out and take pictures like this for you if you'd like.

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Here's another cute nephew, Colten (Rebecca and Glenn Hardesty). The first picture is so funny...and he reminds me of something, but I can't place it.
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Here's another couple of Bethany and Landry (the Duggan's do have twice as many kids as the others:). Apparenlty the first picture is Landry's happy face. Although the funny thing is that no sound comes out when she does that. And the second one is just too cute to exist :) Oh, and Amanda's sister, Sara, is also a great photographer (although I don't think she took these) who will come out and take pictures for you.
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Anyway, thanks to all of you who share you're lives with Amanda and I through these pictures. We love looking at them, and watching your families grow, even from miles away.

Thanks for listening

-marcus, sgb

Out of the Mouths of Babes....

After nearly two months of indecision, the kitten formerly known as Name Pending, now has a name.

This is how is happened.

I got to spend yesterday with the Duggans while poor Marcus was in his no good statistics class. Raymond was at work, Amanda was putting Landry down for a nap, and Bethany, who will be 3 in November, and I were sitting at the kitchen table just talking. She was telling me about her dog Abby, so I started to tell her about our pets. Finally, I got to the kitten, and I told her how Marcus and I couldn’t think of a name for him. Then I asked her “If you had a little kitten, what would you name him?” And she said, without ever hearing any of the names we were thinking about, and without even a hint of hesitation, “Charlie.”

When I told Amanda about it, she said that they didn’t even know anyone named Charlie, and she had no idea where Bethany got that name. So, we took that as a sign from God, and named the kitten Charlie.

Raindrops keep falling...

It's been raining almost non stop here for the past three or four days now.  I actually love the rain, I could stand out in it for hours, if it weren't for one thing: I hate raindrops falling on my head.

But that's ok, because I have a cheap little bucket hat that I wear when it rains (or if I'm out in the yard) that protects my head from sun and water. Even though I look downright silly in the hat, I really like it.

Here's a picture of me in the hat while I was riding my horse down S. 7th to work yesterday...

Help us name our new kitten

Well, we got a new kitten last Saturday. A friend of Marcus’ mom found five kittens on her property that needed homes. Marcus was already going to Dallas last Saturday to look at a car with a friend, so we decided to take one of the kittens.

He is about 6 weeks old and very very sweet. He is a people cat. He spends the day sitting on my chest sleeping while I work on the laptop. He also enjoys eating. He has a huge round tummy, the kind you typically find on a puppy. So far, the dogs really like him, and he enjoys playing run from under the coffee table to under the bed with them. The cats aren’t crazy about him yet, but that usually takes a few weeks. Hopefully he and Gus will become best buddies.

We haven’t named him yet. The good thing about having a kitten is you can take your time with a name, it’s not like he is going to respond to it or anything. We’ve narrowed it down to a few names, and would like you all to vote on them (check below the picture of us on the right side of the screen). Keep in mind that our other pets are named Bailey, Emma, Gus, and Shiloh.

Why Do We Like To Make Ourselves Look Funny?

Hi there. Special Guest Blogger Marcus here.

I've come to realize, we have an epidemic. Kids of all ages, at carnivals all over the country, get a kick out of looking at themselves in the Fun House mirrors. I don't know why, but we seem to like to laugh at the absurdity of ourselves being all distorted.

My Macbook has an application on it, called Photobooth, that allows you to sit in front of the little camera and take goofy pictures of yourself. I admit it is a fun little treat and it is somewhat addicting.

Here are a few of the pictures taken by different people when they were playing with my laptop.

I seem to be a little congested.

Donnie the Demon

Julie (my sister-in law), doing her Jay Leno impersonation

Chris, there's something in your eye...

I only had two pizzas.

Ah, Polyphemos

silly pet pictures volume II

Gus, the best cat ever, is just hanging out.

Emma after an unfortunate date with the groomers.

Scout is just taking a nap.

Shiloh in a box.

Bailey is about to get pounced on by Toby.

they’re cuddlin’

In May, I blogged about my poor cat Gus and how no one will cuddle with him.

http://amhcarroll.blogspot.com/2008/05/marcus-and-i-have-two-cats-gus-and.html


But, today he managed to cuddle with Emma. He waited until she was asleep and then jumped on the couch and lay down right next to her and put his head on her back. Emma didn’t run away. Marcus and I were so excited. I know it sounds silly but have you ever seen a cat try and cuddle with a dog? It is both pathetic and hilarious at the same time. All the poor cat wants is some lovin’, and today he got a little.

Silly pet pictures volume I

Here are some funny pics of our pets, past and present.

Scout, who now lives with my parents, is just taking a nap.

Bailey was not happy about the cone.

Can you find the pet in this picture?

Marcus' stupid cat Madison, who we lost in Little Elm, asleep in a trash can.

Gus hanging out in a computer.