Friday, December 31, 2010

Aruba

8:53 AM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

We have been back from vacation for a week now and I am finally getting around to writing about it. I have been working a little more recently and trying to get back into home mode from being in vacation mode for 2 weeks is a little hard.

Aruba is beautiful. The beaches are gorgeous, the people are so friendly and it has a nice variety of things to do. It may have been the fact there was air conditioning, but it felt nice a hot. Saba has been so cold recently it was nice to be able to swim and tan. We spent some days at the beach, some by the pool, went shopping, a day at sea on a pirate ship, did our own tour of the island, went scuba diving and even did some snorkeling. It was a full vacation but we came back feeling very rested. 

We celebrated Christmas down there and were overwhelmed by all the gifts we received. Since there is not much to buy for Christmas presents on Saba we took everyone out to eat as our gift to them. We found the best place. Amazonia. Meat, meat and more meat. It had a huge and delicious salad bar that had way more then typical salad toppings. That is just the starter, after that the show begins. You flip the switch showing you are ready for the main event and then they swarm your table. And I mean swarm. The first time there were 6 people with meat on huge swords surrounding our table. That was the first round. By the end of it we had something like 15 different cuts of meat. Chicken, pork, beef, lamb, sausage.... Yum! Then they brought out the grilled pineapple. I could have ate the whole thing. We will definitely be making that when we get home and have our BBQ back.

Here are a few of the pictures from the trip. I guess I did not get the pictures of Amazonia from Joel's dad so those are missing. I will do another post in a little while with an update on what is going on around here...

The pirate ship! 

The next two pictures is what we saw when we laid by the pool.

There is that relaxed smile that is missing for about 3.5 months at a time. 

Christmas presents!! Fabric! YAY! 

Family portraits

Scuba diving, and we all made it in the picture. 

Do you like our matching snorkel gear? 

And look even Santa came to visit! 

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Friday, December 10, 2010

One year down, 8 months to go!

11:41 AM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

I am sooo darn proud of my hard working husband. He just wrote his last exams for semester 3 yesterday and I don't think I have seen him smile that much in a LONG time. These last couple weeks he has had been studying sooo very hard and is now in desperate need of a vacation. And it just so happens we leave on one tomorrow. All he wants to do is nothing. I think we can arrange that for a few days but there are other things on the list to do as well. Like scuba, snorkelling, shopping, swimming and suntanning; all the important S's.

I have been keeping busy this week with cleaning, organizing. helping friends pack, and sewing. Nothing too interesting but busy. Last night we went out for dinner to celebrate the boys completion of exams and it was really nice. It is this place on the hiking trail with really delicious food. I think Joel ate a steak the size of half a cow. Today we ran around doing some errands and tonight we are going out to celebrate a few friend's birthdays. Dessert at a beautiful local hotel perched on top of a hill.

Then tomorrow we are packing because we don't leave till 3. I am so excited to have a change of scenery. Also I can't wait to do some window shopping. It is not the same online. I don't know that I will find the time to do any blog writing while I am away so this may be the last one for a couple weeks. So I have a few birthday wishes I want to send out...

Happy Birthday Dad!
Happy Birthday Claire Bear!
Happy Birthday Evan!

Wish I could be there to celebrate with you three! And to everyone else...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

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Saturday, December 4, 2010

Done and Done!

12:25 PM | Posted by Anne | | Edit Post

We finished two things this week. I finished my very first quilt and Joel finished with Movember. He was sooooo glad to be done with it. I got used to it. Mind you it wasn't big and bushy like some so it was easier to deal with. And of course I documented the before and after for you all. 

Before: Orlando Bloom (well that's who my brother-in-law thought he looked like)

After: Babyfaced

Now for the highlight of my week. My very first quilt. I took a few pictures like a proud parent of this baby I have been working on for a while. I show it to everyone I know because I must say I think I did a pretty darn good job since when I started I didn't even know how to thread the machine. Okay here is a barrage of pictures.... 

Are you as in love with it as I am? I hope so! I got an e-mail from Lesley this week and we are starting a sewing group when I get home. Can't wait! Also I moved on to my next quilt for my unborn nephew. He is due next month and this will not be done by then nor will her get it soon because he lives in Italy. I will show you a sneak peak but from this point on I will have to keep it under wraps because my sister reads this. Hi Elle! 

 

Not a lot going on here. Joel is hard at working studying and giving me evil glares every time I try to talk to him. So I have been trying to stay out of his way. But it's hard in this little place. I am getting super excited for Aruba. Next Week! I will have to get started on packing soon I guess. 

I am just going to show you a few more funny things and one yummy.

I was making a few breakfast casseroles last weekend and when I was cracking the eggs it made this cute smiley face. Joel thought I was nuts when I made him come see it. 

 Then I cracked more for the next one and it turned into a side smirk smiley face. 

Not as good but still fun. 

 I drove to sewing last week and saw these goats which are cute enough.

 But the picture is way funnier when you realize they are on Sally's roof. 

Seriously goats are everywhere. 

 And finally the yummy. For the breakfast casserole I had to cut the crusts off 6 loaves of bread so in Christmas tradition in our house we made croutons with those. I have eaten so many of these and given away even more but there is still a lot left. If only you could smell through the computer then you would know how yummy this picture really is. 

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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. 

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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.

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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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