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.

Keep Me Away From Your Children....

I have been known to tell little kids that they don’t have to do something (although in my defense in each case it was something the child was afraid to do and the child seemed to only associate not having to do something with being afraid, not a general I don’t have to do what adults/parents tell me). I have also used the word stupid around little children. In one case I referred to one of our cats as the stupid cat, at which point a 3 year old, who incidentally was not very close by, started yelling at the top of his lungs “stupid cat, stupid cat” over and over again.

Well last weekend, Marcus and I got together with some of my closest friends from college and their kids for our annual campout. We’ve been doing this since our freshman year at ACU. I spent a lot of time with Bethany, the 3 year old daughter of my bff and roommate from college Amanda. Bethany and I were talking and all of the sudden she pointed to my chest and said “Ha ha look at your chest.” I looked down at my chest, and my shirt had fallen down a little bit revealing my cleavage. Without even thinking I said “Bethany, that’s called cleavage.” At which point Amanda, who was sitting next to me, shook her head and then put her head in her hand.

In my defense Bethany is super smart, really a little sponge, and so I often forget she is just 3, plus there have been countless other good things I’ve taught her, I’m really used to just explaining stuff to her because she is so smart, and I was surprised she didn’t know that word already. (I sometimes forget that not everyone comes from a family with women who are so, umm, endowed).

Anyway, the next day when I was saying goodbye to her before she left she said something about my “boobies” at which point I used the word cleavage AGAIN! Seriously, keep me away from your children!

Bethany and me hanging out.

All the kids. From left to right: Dawson, Bethany, Ashlynn, Carson, Landry, and Christopher

Some Random Stuff....

1. Please pray for my friend Jan and her daughter Stacey. Stacey lost her baby yesterday. She was due in about 2 weeks. Jan, Stacey and her family are devastated.

2. I am teaching my first class in a little over a year tomorrow! I’m teaching a 3 hour Social Theory class for my department chair that is out of town. I’m excited and nervous, but mostly I’m annoyed that I need to prepare when all I want to do is watch election results!

3. I am super excited about the election, but it does really stink that no matter who wins, roughly half the nation will be happy and half will be unhappy. I hope that this year I am part of the happy half! That would be a nice change!