Friday, November 26, 2010

Scuba and Movember Update

8:11 AM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

There was a group of 8 of us that went scuba diving last weekend. It was fun to go with friends and have someone to talk about your experiences with. It was also nice to have Joel there to take some pictures underwater. A couple people took group shots when we were on the boat but I have not seen those yet. We went specifically to see sharks. Steve has been dying to see a shark and since I had such good luck the week before he wanted me to come along. And we did see a shark. It was actually pretty close. Joel went up with the camera before me and then right after that it swan right underneath me. Darn. The pictures have been edited the best they could be but some are still not that great.

This is shark crazy Steve showing off underwater

This is the pretty coral I thought my mom would like. 

That's me! 

Me again.

It is not easy to take self portraits underwater.

It is hard to tell who is who here. 

SHARK! 

The other problem Joel was having besides the self portraits was keeping water out of this mask because of this new moustache. Here is an a little picture update....

Do you love it or hate it?

He can't wait to shave it. 

1 comments

Monday, November 22, 2010

I Have The Best Sister-In-Law!

5:46 AM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

How do you all LOVE the new design of my blog? My wonderful sister-in-law designed it for me. Let me tell you I am not the easiest person to work with on things like this. This is design number 3, all completely different, that she designed in the last week. Actually this is a slightly modified version of design number 3 so technically she did 4 of them. I hope she doesn't mind me showing you small versions of them.

She was super great through it all letting me change the colors, and the pictures and position of things, and fonts and well the list went on over about a dozen e-mails. I'm surprised she is still speaking to me.

Now here is a little plug for her and her design company. She can do anything your little heart desires. I've had her design my wedding invitations, wedding website and now my background and header for my blog. She does it all and you can find her work

here

on her website

here

on her online store

here

on her blog

and here

on flickr

(*I am super in love with her cute Christmas cards on her online store. Check them out!*)

Thanks again Crystal, I LOVE it! 

*Side note: don't mind me as I play around with the blog to make it look cohesive with the new colors and fonts. Things will be a changing for a little bit but hopefully I will get it all worked out soon* 

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Friday, November 19, 2010

The New Generation of Perogy Pinchers

7:11 AM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

Monday was perogy day. I told two of my friends about perogies and how delicious they are and then convinced them to help me make some. It still boggles my mind that people don't know about perogies. I can't imagine life without them. That is why even though they take a lot of effort to make I do it because I LOVE them. 

Lauren and Amanda helped me out and did a fantastic job. It took me so long to make them last time I did them by myself but with these two we just motored. Here they are hard at work.

We froze a few, boiled the rest and then even ate a couple (dozen). 

This was out set up. My dough mat hard at work. I love that thing! 

This is Lauren trying to fish out the perogy she dropped in the flame. 

Don't worry nothing goes to waste here, we ate it. 

This is Amanda and her "practically perfect perogy", as she called it. 

I think I got it in the ones I took home and it was delicious! 

Two thumbs up for my perogy pinchers! 

(Side note: when I went to my Catholic elementary school, ladies from the church affiliated with our school called themselves "The Perogy Pinchers" and sold us perogies about once a month. We are the next generation)

I am looking a little hunched over and sweaty from all the dough rolling I did. 

But it was worth it! 

In the end I think we made about 8 dozen perogies and only ate about 2 dozen of them that night. Joel and I ate all of ours within about 24 hours. Sooo good. Thanks ladies for your help, we have to do it again when we come back from holidays. 

 Now on to MOVEMBER!
For those of you that don't know what Movember is, click here.
Basically Joel is growing a moustache and raising money for prostate cancer research. Here is what it looks like this week. Classy right?

Some of our generous family and friends have already donated and if you want to too just follow this link. http://ca.movember.com/mospace/1266300/. He is part of a team so feel free to donate to them as well or just check out all their nice staches. 

I'll leave you with one more picture of Joel's ever growing moustache.

1 comments

Monday, November 15, 2010

Employed and Certified

7:53 AM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

Yep I got a job! 

Well it is only one day a week and when ever else they need me but it is something. I have only worked one day of training and it was only for about 4 hours. It is at a hotel doing reception and basic customer service needs. Seems simple and the place is really cute. The managers that run the place are really nice and fun. I think I am going to like getting out of the house and meeting some new people and hopefully getting to know the island a bit more. I am replacing someone that is moving off the island but he does not leave till the beginning of December, so I don't expect I will be working much till then. And then we leave for Aruba on the 11th so I will really get started when I get back. 

My week continued to be eventful when I got certified in Open Water Scuba Diving. If you think you want to learn to Scuba Dive you need to come to Saba. It is sooo beautiful here. We have a protected marine park around the island so there are a lot of things to see. On my first day I saw Hawksbill turtles, a barracuda, groupers, sargeant major fish and a nurse shark that was about 4 feet long. We swam through canyons and under a tipped over boulder which was covered in coral it was so pretty. My mom would have loved the green tube coral because it matches the green in our cabin she loves. 

The second day was even more fun because I was getting better at controlling my buoyancy and I saw some really neat things. The first dive we saw another turtle, white spotted file fish, queen trigger fish, trumpet fish and lobster. But the highlight, and the scariest part, was the Caribbean reef shark. The day before we looked in a cave and saw a nurse shark that just sat there. But this shark was way more active and bigger then me. It was swimming by us and at one point the visibility was not that good so it seemed like it came out of nowhere. That got my heart racing. Crazy fun experience. 

Our second dive had a few of the same fish but we also saw a stingray. We saw it swim and then try to bury itself in the sand. We also swam over feather dusters that hide when you swim over it was fun to watch. The instructor tried to show me yellow headed jaw fish but they hide in holes and are small so I had trouble seeing them. I did see the hole they dig and surround with rocks and shells. Funny fish. Something else neat about diving around Saba is that in areas if you stick your hand in the sand at the bottom of the ocean it is really warm because Saba is a volcano. 

So as you can tell I had a blast but thought I would not bring a camera too because it would be a bit to much. But Joel and some of the guys next door are a little jealous of my shark sighting so we might go for a dive this weekend. I'll bring the camera if we do. Hope everyone else had a great weekend too! 

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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Midway

8:34 AM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

Saturday was Midway. That means Joel is HALF WAY DONE! The theme was Casino Royale and they even had themed James Bond martini's. Like the Aston Martini and the Vespa. As far as I could tell they were a big hit. The Vespa tasted like a Bellini (my favourite drink) so I loved it! 

The event was held at Queen's Garden, a beautiful hotel on the island. We were greeted with rum punch and a slideshow of over 300 pictures from the last 2 and a half semesters. They had a funny awards ceremony and then we had dinner. Then the party started!!

This is Joel's class, not the best picture but there was a photographer there so hopefully we can get a copy of his.

We were going for the James Bond theme but someone said we looked more like Mr. And Mrs. Smith

This is our friend Zishan helping us with our reverse Oreo picture

Zishan helped us for a few more...

And we finished it off with a double stuffed Oreo

Our neighbour Vlad

For those of your that are Twilight and Glee fans. 

I think Brendan looked like Jacob from Twilight and Michelle looks like Rachel from Glee

Anyone else see it?

Now for the party shots! 

Some of my girls. From left to right.

Amanda my Zumba instructor, Kelly my sewing buddy and Lauren my blog consultant and hairstylist

Little black dresses were a must at the party!

Doesn't this picture make you want to party with Leslie (the one in the middle)?

She is a blast! 

CUTE! 

This is why Amanda teaches Zumba, because she can work it! 

This is why I want Joel to come to Zumba.

Here are a few more...

My love! 

It took Nicole and I 4 takes to get this one

I'm on a step with huge heels and big hair and I am still not as tall as Joel. 

The whole night was a blast and I can't wait to do it again! Thanks for taking me sweetie!

1 comments

Hair Gel Anyone?

7:51 AM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

This is what I found when I went to look for hair gel for Joel.

Seriously who needs this much gel besides Ross from Friends?

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Saturday, November 6, 2010

Diwali

9:45 AM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

This weekend is party week! The festivities kicked off last night with Diwali - the festival of lights. Tonight is Midway where we get to dress up James Bond style have dinner with friends and party till the wee hours of the morning.
Let's get back to the fun and festivities of last night. At the celebration last night they put it into perspective. "Diwali is to us what Christmas and New Years is to the rest of the world".  They explained where the traditions came from and why they celebrate it, but I am sure I will get it all wrong so I am not even going to try to explain it.
I took a ton of pictures but they are not the greatest because it was dark out and my camera was not made for this. But I will show you my blurry pictures and hopefully you will understand how much fun it was.

This picture is blurry but I was trying to get pictures of the outfits. 

They were all so beautiful. The colors and embellishments were fantastic!

The whole production was put on by the students and they did a fabulous job. They put on a fashion show that was also part dance show and sometimes comedic routine. Here are some of groups....

 

I have no words for this one. 

These are all of the performers from the fashion show. 

There were a lot more then I took pictures of. 

Following the fashion show there were various performances. 

Skits, singing, dancing, you name it, it was done.

These two are Joel's Psychology professors.

These are local kids that did a special dance one of the med students taught them.

This is Jason (who lives next door) and Maya performing. And yes she did bring a cello to Saba. 

This performance was so cool with the lights in the their hands. 

The picture really doesn't do it justice. 

And this picture is for my sister. THEY DID THE JAI HO DANCE!!! It was awesome! 

Dancing and acrobatics in this one. 

More pretty dancing

The professors also had a special treat for everyone because they did their own fashion/talent show. I don't think I have seen Joel laugh that hard in a long time. There was so much cheering and laughter it was the highlight for the students I think. I only took videos of those and it will take too long to post them here. Then if that wasn't enough there was also free food. Mmmmm. Curried everything it was delicious!  As you can tell I had a blast and so did everyone else I talked to. Now I am going to rest up for tonight...

2 comments