What a weekend

This weekend was so full I am finding it very hard to believe that today is only Sunday...

Friday-
I wake up at 6am to drive to Lubbock. My mom, since she is so wonderful, volunteered to come with me so I wouldn't have to go by myself. We had to leave early because I had a hair appointment that afternoon. We make 4 stops along the way because that is how much we had to go to the bathroom... haha. So we got there in plenty of time to go to the hotel before I had to get to my hair appointment. I went and got my hair done, shorter than I planned but I still like it. We then met my Sunday school teachers and their family for dinner. After that we went back to the hotel, hung out at the pool for a while, then went to bed. I knew I had to get up early the next day so I didn't stay up very late.

Saturday-
I woke up at 6am, showered, did my hair, ate breakfast, then drove to TTU for my test. I had to take the EC-6 generalist first, supposedly the harder one, so I was trying to make sure I was wide awake by the time I got there. They told us to be there 30 minutes before our test, which I did, but then by the time they got everyone seated and everything the test started 30 minutes late... frustrating. So I got done with the test in like 2 hours, some of the questions I had no idea how to answer and I am not positive I passed the test... also frustrating. I am hoping that my test-taking skills pushed me over the "passed" line, but I am trying not to get my hopes up. Then I went and had lunch with some of my friends from school, which was really nice. I hadn't seen anyone since the beginning of May, so it had been a while. After that I went back to school to take the EC-6 PPR exam (pedagogy and professional responsibilities). Again, started 30 minutes late and I had no idea on a lot of the questions. Hopefully I did OK, though, because I don't want to have to take them again. After my test I called my mom and we headed out of town! After stopping at Sonic, of course.
My mom is so amazing- she drove all the way to Lubbock on Friday, had to just hang out by herself all day Saturday (with the internet not working so she couldn't finish a report she needed to write) then she drove most of the way back on Saturday! She is such a great person, and I am so blessed to have her as my mom.

Sunday-
We went to church this morning, then Jason and I went out to eat, like we always do on Sundays. After that we came back home to work on drawing a plan for our house and looking at kitchen cabinet designs. Then we took the boys to see Transformers 2 (pretty good: not as bad as the reviews say but not as good as the first one). Then we came back and ate dinner and are just hanging out, while I am blogging and doing laundry.
Earlier my sister called me to ask when a good weekend would be for her baby shower... and I had to explain to her in as nice of a way as I could that people won't come to a baby shower if she has one. It broke my heart to have to tell her that, but I didn't want to lie to her. I called her back this evening to make sure I didn't hurt her feelings, and she said I didn't, but it kills me to be "mean" to her, even if it is just honesty. I told her that the baby will still get things, that I am still going to make her a blanket, and that this by no means an indication of how we feel towards the baby. It is just impossible for people to be excited about this baby when it is the second one out of wedlock... if you know what I mean. It is killing me, though, that I said that to her, because I know it hurt her feelings even if she didn't say so. Oh well, I guess what is done is done and I can't change it now. Jason said she needed to hear that, but I am not sure I did it in the right way. I know I shouldn't dwell on it, but I can't help it...

And on top of everything else my stupid computer is acting up and it is making me want to throw it across the room!! I am going to try to take it in this week to see what they can do with it so I don't have to get a new one, but I am not sure anything they do will save it. I got a virus a while back and while my computer says it isn't there any more it still runs extremely slowly (15 minutes to start up) and is super frustrating.

And finally, on a positive note, I finished that tshirt blanket!! It is on my other blog if you are interested in seeing the finished project. This lady hired me to make this for her son and she said she might have me do another one for another child of hers. It was difficult but I think it turned out pretty nice.

OK, enough from me for now. God bless and have a great week!

We got it!!

Ok, so a lot of things have come up since the last time I blogged...

1. We bought a house! OK, technically we haven't bought it yet, but we have accepted the counter offer and are now just waiting for the bank to come through with the funds. We are having a few issues with that, but if nothing else our parents will loan us the money and we will use that route. It is a cute house with little character and zero upgrades. It was built in 1987 but has not been updated since then. The bedrooms are small but liveable, and the same goes for the bathrooms. We could move in tomorrow and be fine but we want to do some stuff right away, like remodel the kitchen and build a fence. We are super excited about it! Now we play the waiting game until we get the money...

2. I am going to Lubbock this weekend with my mom to take my tests for certification. I was originally going to go by myself, then the Schneiders offered to come with me so they could pick up a couple of things we left at the house. Then, I mentioned it to my parents and they decided one of them would come with me. Anyway, long story short, my mom is coming with me so she can get a 2 day break from the chaos that is the Swinney house. Should be interesting!

3. I found out that I will be able to take my BTLPT certification test (in Lubbock) on the same Monday I was supposed to start my student teaching back here. I talked to my supervisor and she said it would be OK if I started here on the following Wednesday, which is a huge blessing because I was kind of freaking out about having to be in two cities at once.

4. I have to be in Lubbock 3 days sooner than I had planned in August because they moved orientation forward. Instead of it being on Monday and Tuesday, it is now on Friday and Tuesday. Stupid, I know, and now Jason is going to have to take off Thursday and Friday instead of just Friday like he had planned. It is stupid because we had all planned on just Mon and Tue, but not now! I guess as long as I get credit for going and it isn't too big of a deal for Jason than it will be OK, but it is not going to be fun. I am so ready to be done with all that and just be here for good...

5. My sister has asked for a baby blanket for her "baby shower." I don't have the heart to tell her that I am not throwing her a baby shower like I did last time, and if she has one by some miracle she is going to have like 4 people show up. I will make her a baby blanket, I had already planned on that, but she doesn't get to know what it looks like or anything, or even when I am going to give it to her. And she has picked out a name, we think. Shelby Lee or Shelby Ray, she hasn't decided which one. She is pretty set on Shelby, though. I didn't like it at first, but now I don't think it is so bad. I think because I already know a guy Shelby, that is why I had such a hang up about it, but now I am coming around. Apparently my niece is going to have really long legs. She already weighs a pound and moves around quite a bit. Lauren is trying to exercise and keep as much of the weight off as she can, but obviously it is a difficult task. Just interesting.

Ok, I think that is all the news I have to catch y'all up on. This week is going to be chaos and I am surprised I found 15 minutes to write this. I have to finish a quilt, study for two tests, plan a trip to Lubbock, and get my life organized after going to the lake this weekend (which was really fun, by the way. It is really nice having our own boat). I should probably get up early tomorrow...

House update

Ok, so you know how yesterday I said I wasn't going to get my hopes up about the houses we were going to see? Well we only saw one house, and then we decided to make an offer on it!! It is $100k cheaper than all the other houses we have been looking at and needs a LOT of work, but it has so much potential that we couldn't pass it up. A lot of the work will have to be done by a professional (I think, Jason doesn't) but a lot of the work can be done by us, too. Like completely remodeling the kitchen, for example. I would probably hire a professional to do that, but both Jason and his dad seem to think we can do that ourselves. Who knows. But, the point is I am pretty sure we are getting the house! Even if we have to pay full price it is that much cheaper than all the other houses, which means we will have a lot more to play around with later on. And it won't dwindle all our savings after we put the 20% down. I am so excited about it! I just want it to hurry up and happen so we can start working on it, though I know these things take many days/weeks. Hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later.

And I was contacted by yet another friend yesterday who I haven't seen in like 3 years. She just wrote to me out of the blue! It was nice to hear from her, but I don't know anything about her life right now, so I don't even know what to ask about to get to know her better. We have been writing back and forth, so we might hang out or something before the summer is over.

Oh, and on top of us buying a house, Jason's parents got an offer on the house in Lubbock yesterday! It was a much more reasonable offer than they have gotten before, and they countered so hopefully the people will accept and they will be done with that house! It is turning into a little bit of a hassle and they wanted it to be gone long before now, but as everyone knows the housing market is not so hot. But, to sum up, good things happened yesterday and hopefully they will continue to happen!

Nothing too important

This is just a blog for the random things running through my head this morning, there isn't going to be much to it, I'm sure. But here goes-

We still haven't found a house. We are going to look at a few today that are cheaper than what we have been looking at so far. One is in a really nice neighborhood but needs a lot of work. The other one is on the other side of the river, so we would be much further away from our parents. I am pre-screening them while Jason is at work and if they are worth looking at then we will go back later this week. I'm not getting my hopes up, though.

This morning my mom texted me and told me that when Jordan work up he said, "Where's my Bible?" and "Jesus loves me" completely randomly with no prompting. She said it actually made her cry. She said, "He knows more than most unbelievers!" which is sad but true. It is really cute and I am hoping that maybe he will be the one who brings my sister to a relationship with Christ. Something to pray about!

All of a sudden I have gotten in contact with some friends who I have not seen in many years. One of the friends got married a year and a half after us, her husband then joined the military, and now they are expecting a baby. She was my Bible study leader freshman year in college and I didn't see her much after that.
The other friend is someone I played soccer with my sophomore and junior years in high school. She was one of my best friends on the team and I don't think I have seen her in about 5 years. We are having dinner tonight, actually, which should be tons of fun! She knows ASL so she might be able to help me with my class that I am taking right now.
Just interesting that these people are back in my life, even if just for a little bit.

My sister invited me to go to lunch today. She only does that if she is bored, and while I am glad she is turning to me instead of some random guy, it is just interesting that all of a sudden she wants to be friends with me (something that hasn't happened since middle school). I really want to continue to grow our relationship with each other, because most sisters are very close with one another, and I think that family is very important. We simply don't have very much in common. Every time I am around her she makes me feel guilty for being so happy, while at the same time I feel bad for her because she is so unhappy and trying to find that happiness in everything except where she should- God. Thankfully she has gone to church three weeks in a row, and while I don't think she is getting a lot out of it right now, she is still going and that is the first step (something she would not have considered about 2 months ago and before that). So anyway, I thought that was just as interesting as everything else that I have written about.

On another note- David has had some tests done and they came back saying he has low testosterone levels. Well my mom took him to the endocryne doctor yesterday and he said that David hasn't hit puberty yet (remember, he is 17 1/2 years old) and that he may just be a very late bloomer. They took some xrays to see if he is still growing and they took some more blood and did a couple more tests to try to rule out other things. I don't know when all the results will come back, but hopefully it is nothing more than he is a late bloomer and everything will straighten itself out with time. Sam, on the other hand, has a slight iron deficiency, which is easily fixed by taking supplements, so that is no big deal.

Ok, gotta get going for the day. Just excuse the randomness of this blog. :-)

test and family

I took the first of four tests for my certification today... it seems like it was a sinch. It was just like the tests I took in one of my classes this past semester and the semester before it. I hated the classes while I was taking them, but I guess they prepared me for this test, if nothing else! (At least that is what I am hoping, we will see if I pass or not...) I had to get to the testing center (30 minutes away) at 7:30am, the test was supposed to start at 8am but I started at like 7:45. They gave me 5 HOURS to take the test, 70 questions, and I was done in 45 minutes... it was kinda weird. I made myself stay in there for another 15 minutes reading over all the questions again, but I only changed two answers, I think, then I just left. I had to go to the bank, so I did that while I was in town, then it was back home! I thought it was going to be a much bigger deal than that.

When I got to my parents' house I was able to visit with my aunt and my mom's cousin. It was really nice to see them and I am glad I was done with my test so early so I could visit some before my aunt had to drive back to AZ. It is going to be an interesting summer. My cousin from AZ is coming in July to check out UNM with a friend of his, my parents and maybe Jason and I will be going to AZ in August to watch the cousins while my aunt and uncle are at a conference in SC, I have to make at least one trip to Lubbock (in less than two weeks), and we are talking about either going to Navajo Lake or to Dallas for a wedding in July (on the same weekend, of course, so we can't do both). There are just a lot of things going on this summer that we don't normally do, and now that Jason is working we can't just pick up and leave during the week like we used to be able to do.

Oh well, at least my first test is done and I get to babysit Jordan this afternoon. Hopefully this week will be as good as last week!

Houses and tests

Another day and another round of looking at houses. We only looked at two, and one of them was just for fun (we wouldn't consider buying it, we were just curious what it looked like on the inside). The other house that we looked at, though, was very nice and was move-in ready, which is different from a lot of the houses we have looked at. The only thing that needs changing is the carpet, and even that doesn't need to happen right away. We are thinking about making an offer but we are not sure the price is appropriate. Jason and I have talked about what we are willing to pay for it and I am afraid that we are not going to get them to come down enough in the price. We will see, though, if we actually end up making an offer and what it will be. I think we are going to look at another house before we make a decision. This is a hard decision! Especially since we have already been turned down once. I'll keep updating as the new stuff unfolds.

Tomorrow I have to take my bilingual supplemental exam. I am not looking forward to it, and I haven't studied one little bit, but hopefully I will do well and not have to take it again. I should have waited a little while and taken it later in the summer, but unfortunately that did not happen and it is too late to change it now. Hopefully my schooling will be plenty to aget me through the test successfully, mostly because all of my study material is in some box in the garage. And yes, I have looked for the box once and not found it, so that is not a great option. Hopefully it will be fine, though, and it won't take a long time. I'll also keep you informed of that situation as it unfolds.

Birthday party!

Tonight we are going to Jason's grandma's 80th birthday party. Originally it was supposed to be a surprise, but since his aunt is so sick they decided to tell her about it and let her decide if she wanted to have it or not. We are supposed to bring bread... lol. Anyway, it should be interesting to see all of Jason's family, something that only happens at Christmas and usually it isn't even his whole family. I am looking forward to it- hopefully it isn't awkward and hopefully his aunt feels well enough to enjoy herself when she comes.

Last night Jason drove dad's race truck for the very first time. I was so nervous the first time he was up there because everyone says the first time is the worst. He did fine, though, and didn't look like a fool at all! Something that is very common for the first ever run in a race car. It was fun to watch him, though, especially because he had such a good time doing it. He just drove at the "test and tune" last night, though, so hopefully he will be able to race here in the near future. Not tonight, though, because it is the "midnight madness" race and the racing doesn't start until midnight, meaning the race will go until 5am. No thank you, we have church in the morning.

Actually, after church we are going to look at a few houses. We drove by a couple today but didn't go in any of them. We saw one that had a beautiful yard, with a garden, so hopefully it doesn't disappoint when we go see it tomorrow.

On a different note, my sister just got her 10th car today... a Saturn Vue. Jason and I have had 6 cars between the two of us, the last one I paid half for when I was a senior in high school. She is on number 10 and hasn't paid for ANY of them. I like this car for her, it is a good one for kids and car seats and gas milage and things like that, but it is still frustrating that my parents are putting out the money for even more things for her that she hasn't earned. Not that I have earned much of what they have done for me or given me, but it is just hard to watch her take advantage of them sometimes. Anyway, that is all from me for now. I have to go make garlic butter for our dinner tonight!

Fast Pace (super random)

Ok, so I have been taking sign language for two days now and have learned 74 new words already, not including the ones the teacher just throws at us during class. It is so crazy! I can already say simple sentences and it is just day two! I am really enjoying the class, even though it is fast paced and I am exhausted after it is done. UNM VC is a very interesting place to take classes, not at all like TTU. I am not quite used to the mix of people there, and I am not used to the effort people put in (or don't put in) to learning new material. I am very curious about how this semester is going to turn out.

My parents made it safely home from visiting my grandparents and it was really nice to see them again after not seeing them for about a week and a half. Jordan was pretty cranky today, so that part wasn't as fun, but he has been good for me all the other times I have seen him this week, so it is ok. I am going to work out with my sister for sure on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning tomorrow I will just be running with Abby... hopefully she listens to me...

Ok, since I slept so poorly last night I am going to go to bed early tonight. I have been reading Harry Potter in Spanish (I am on the third book), so I may do that for a while to kill some time before I actually go to bed. Thankfully I don't have to get up for anything tomorrow, other than working out before it gets too hot at like noon, and I will definitely be up before then. Off to read. Until next time... (told you it was a random post)

I felt like...

... a stay-at-home mom today, and it was so great! I went to work out then at 2:30 today I picked up Jordan from daycare and spent the rest of the afternoon with him. We just played and ate and laughed. I cleaned the kitchen at my parents' house while he was eating a snack, and we just hung out. It was a cool feeling that I have never had before. He is really good about not interrupting if you are on the phone or something, which I feel like most kids are not good at, and he is only two. I don't know, today was just a good day, even though when I got back to our house I couldn't make any of the things I wanted to for dinner because I would have had to have gone to the store to get some of the ingredients. Man, it is hard not being in our own house. Hopefully soon, though. OK, nothing else new for me today, just thought I would share that little tid-bit. More good days to come this summer, I am sure of it!

Update on the update

I actually remembered to write when I said I would! Today was really nice. Jason's second day of work was good, though his computer still doesn't work. He should be done with his training tomorrow, instead of two weeks from now like he originally thought. He is getting to know some of his co-workers, including his cubicle mate. After work we met in town for dinner, our first "date night" since we have moved home! It was nice and gave me a little taste for what our lives are going to be like now that he is working.

I also had my first sign language class today. I was exhausted after it was over! Half of the class was going over they syllabus and reviewing the ABCs, which I already knew. However, I feel like I am going to learn a lot, especially if I practice and work hard at it. Some of the assignments are weird, but I know there is a reason for them. I am very thankful I don't have to worry about my grade, that is a nice change.

Anyway, today was good and hopefully the class will be as good as I expect. My parents head home tomorrow and it will be nice to see them (it has been a couple of weeks). I might start working out with my sister, but I haven't decided for sure if I am going to or not (money is the only issue). OK, nothing else new. More to come later!

Quick update

Jason had his first day of work yesterday. He says he enjoyed it but it stuck doing some pretty boring things that have to be done before he can actually start working on his project. He did an orientation yesterday, ate lunch with his boss, saw a friend's dad for a few minutes, then was sent to his office to start doing his training on the new computer they have for him. He wasn't able to get his computer to work yesterday, though, so hopefully today will go better for him. He ate in the cafeteria yesterday but said it was pretty expensive so he will take his lunch from now on. He has to get up pretty early (5:45) to be out the door at 6:30, which means I wake up, too, but thankfully I am a morning person so even if I don't fall back asleep I am still OK for the day. It is crazy to think that from now on, for years and years to come, he will be working, and this isn't like just another year of school. *sigh* But I guess my time will come, too, and while I am still in school it is like I will have a full time job that I won't get paid for when I start my student teaching. It is just a weird feeling, that he will never be in school again (if he can help it) and that we are technically back in NM for good. Weird weird weird.

I am starting my sign language class today. I have spent a lot of time hanging out with Jordan because I haven't really had anything else to do and my sister is in the middle of school and doctors appointments and things like that, but now I have to be in school for almost three hours! I am not really looking forward to it today, but I think once I get into the swing of things I will enjoy it. At least it will give me something to do while Jason is at work!

Now we just have to figure out what night is going to be our "date night" so we can keep that going. My once piece of advice (that I will share right now, lol) for married couples is to keep going on dates! It really helps keep the lines of communication open and it gets you to remember what made you fall in love in the first place and reminds you of when you were dating. Plus, who likes cooking dinner every single night of the week? Not me, that's for sure.

Ok, gotta go get ready for school. I haven't been in school in over a month and it feels weird to be going back to a school I only have been to when I was in 2nd-4th grade for the gifted and talented program they had out there. Should be interesting! I will update later if my class goes well.

Praise- My cousin who has been fighting cancer turns 15 today, praise God!! Thanks to all who have been praying for her, she is going to make it! Now she just has to get through all her radiation appointments and she will be good to go.

Coming up next

This week will be full of changes. For starters- Jason's parents and my parents are out of town. Jason's parents are on their way to Oregon to pick up his sister from college and my parents are visiting my grandparents this week. So, we are going to be completely on our own in someone else's house... should be interesting.

Tomorrow- Jason starts work!! We are so excited about it but he is super nervous. Not that he is afraid or anything like that, he just isn't a huge fan of "newness" or being in an unfamiliar place doing unfamiliar things. Also, I am going to babysit Jordan tomorrow afternoon while my sister goes to her late class. She is going to be taking 3 classes over the summer and one of them goes later than daycare is open, so I volunteered to watch Jordan, at least while my parents are out of town.

And Tuesday- I start my sign language class. I am really looking forward to it! I have always wanted to learn sign language for as long as I can remember, and I really hope I can learn as much as I am expecting to learn. Hopefully teaching Jason what I learn and then practicing with him will help me do better in the class and help us both effectively learn it. I'm not completely sure how the class is going to work, though, because I don't know how I would turn in homework or how tests work. Should be interesting, no matter what.

I am going to try to finish a quilt this week. I was supposed to get it done before we left for the summer, but it just didn't happen because I don't have the correct needle that I needed for this particular fabric (who knew there were different needles?). I should be able to finish it, though, and have it done by the time I go back to Lubbock to take some of my certification tests.

Speaking of tests- I can't take my last test until mid-October! I am so frustrated about it because I thought I would be able to take it June 13th down in El Paso. Apparently I missed the sign up deadline, though, and now I have to wait until October! And to make it worse, they are not offering the test on any weekend in October, it is all during the week, which is pretty stupid to me. What about those of us in school? Or working? Or living in NM?!?! It is really irritating, but there is nothing I can do about it and I may just have to make special arrangements to take it during the week, either in Lubbock or El Paso, depending on the day. irritating, but as long as I get to take it before I graduate I guess it will be OK. I am just working really hard to not lose my Spanish because it is an oral language proficiency test, so hopefully my reading will help keep it fresh in my mind. I have one test this coming Monday (a week from tomorrow)- the bilingual supplemental exam. Then in late June I have 2 tests- the PPR and the EC-6 Generalist. Hopefully I will pass them all the first time and only have to take each of them once, because I don't know what I am going to do if I fail any of them... it will just be a huge drag.

On a more positive note- My sister went to church with us this morning! She wanted to go last night with her best friend but Jordan wasn't feeling well so she decided to go with us this morning. She wasn't very engaged, didn't sing any of the songs or get interested in the message, but at least she went. I am just praying that I can continue to be there to support, encourage, and love her and that God will use that to bring her to Him. I know there is nothing I can do if the Holy Spirit doesn't choose to use me, but I can make myself available for Him to use, and I hope I am doing that adequately. Her and I have had a really good couple of days with my parents being gone. I have been able to watch Jordan some for her and to hang out with her and have some "girl talks." I want to grow closer to her again, but I know that it will take a long time for our relationship to get to that level where we completely trust and can confide in each other. Some day soon, hopefully!

Ok, that is enough for one post. I am sure I will write more when this week is in full swing and we find out what our lives are going to be like for the next week/month/etc. God bless!

St. Lucia

It was so nice to be on vacation! And it was even nicer because we didn't do ANYTHING. We flew to Dallas first, spent the night there and saw a friend of ours who lives there. The next morning we got up at 3am to make the shuttle at 4am for our 6am flight out of DFW. Soooo earllllyyy... Nothing was even open when we got to the airport, including security, so we just hung out for a while. Then, about 45 minutes after going through security the food places started to open and we were able to eat at Einstein Bros Bagels. Then we hopped on the plane to Miami. Once in Miami we had just about an hour layover then on to St. Lucia. We tried to sleep but to no avail. It was a 3 hour and 40 minute flight to St. Lucia, then once we got there we had to drive another hour and 20 minutes. We were all exhausted and tired of being in a bumpy vehicle, but it was cool to see some of the island. We made it to the resort at about 3pm, were escorted to the concierge office, and signed in. They offered us champagne but were very confused when we declined. We just wanted a big glass of sweet tea, lol. Then we were taken to our room, which was beautiful! It had a downstairs livingroom with a TV and a nice porch, then upstairs was the bedroom and bathroom.

After we got settled in to our room we went to the beach for a little while before dinner. The sunsets are amazing and we were so excited to be on the beach! Then we ate dinner at the Italian restaurant and then went to bed early.

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, and were greeted by some friendly critters at our breakfast table.

After a delicious breakfast buffet that we ate every morning, we went back to the room to get ready for a day of relaxing on the beach. We literally layed out, both in the sun and in the shade, reading, and swam every once in a while. We did this the whole time we were there, except for twice. It was so relaxing. I tried a couple of drinks while we were there but didn't find anything I would order at a restaurant because I didn't like them that much. There were servers walking around the beach with flavored water (pineapple one day, lime the next day) that was delicious. It was just relaxing and there was no stress at all.




We ate at some wonderful restaurants while we were there, some of which our concierge had to make reservations for us for. (We were spoiled, and we didn't even really know what to do with a concierge...) We ate at a French restaurant called La Toc. Then a Japanese restaurant- Kimonos. An international restaurant- The Pavillion. And finally the local cuisine- Pitons. The food was very nicely portioned and we never felt like we overate. For lunch we either ate at the lunch buffet or had pizza or chips and salsa at Arizonas and had a meal at Cricketers- the Pub. It was definitely interesting.






The only two things we did while we were there were ride the aqua bike and go snorkling. We did those things on two separate days and they were both pretty fun, though one was definitely more physically demanding than the other.



Overall it was a wonderful trip, and if it wasn't so far away we would go back in a heartbeat. We had to get up at 3:45am to leave on Tuesday morning. Our flight left at 7:25am, but they had us get to the airport at 5am, which was too early because the ticket counters weren't even open yet. It is a good thing we were there a little early, though, because somehow our flight from DFW to ABQ was missing from our itinerary. They got it straightened out with a couple of phone calls, but it was a little tense there for a while. We went to 4 countries that day- St. Lucia, Martinique (to refuel the plane. It was a 14 minute flight from St. Lucia to Martinique, but it added about 45 minutes to our flight.), Puerto Rico, the USA. It was a long, tiring day but we made it home in time to eat dinner then I went to bed early. I will try to post more pictures later, but this is a pretty good smattering of what we did.