Yah mon...Jamaica part 2...

So, here is another part to our Jamaican trip. Uploading the photos is taking FOREVER, so there will be SEVERAL more parts to my blogging here. We took a ton of shots and I enjoy talking about everything (almost) that we did etc... Above is a photo of the boat we got to ride in over to the Half Moon Cove where we sat out in the sun for the day and had a great lunch. I also swam quite a bit. I haven't ridden a lick since Thanksgiving...only swimming, so I was a fish the whole week...swimming and sitting in water when ever I got the chance.

Here is Vessel and Smap. Vessel was in charge of taking us on adventures. It was his uncle's fishing boat that he took us on to get to the Half Moon Cove. He came around every night to hang with us as well. We LOVED Vessel. We look forward to going back to see him and the others in a year or two.

Here are Tim and Lindsay lounging catching the sunset.

Here you go...self portrait of me very happy to be in Jamaica!

We walked just down the street to hang out at the "neighborhood bar". Vessel's uncle actually owns this place. Ice cold Red Stripe!

My little friend Danika who was hanging out at the bar with her auntie (her auntie was from Maryland). I asked Danika if she knew she was beautiful and she told me that she already knew it....Such a sweetie.

Lindsay and Sheron...Sheron owned a little quick stop/bar at the end of the road in Cousin's Cove. We walked down our road (which was about 2 miles long) a few times to hang at Sheron's. She was the sweetest gal who started her place from scratch. Lindsay and I hit it off with her instantly.

Octo...the old dude with the Sugar Cane...riding down the street with Timmy. I like this shot a lot because of our/Tim's background with bikes... Tim is a owner/manager at CBC...we were amazed at this bike Octo was riding...no grips, gears, breaks...the chain rusted to all get-out. He had a special spot for his machete (for cutting the sugar cane)....I'll post a picture of the bike later.

Here is ole' Octo peeling the cane for us to eat. We gave him $5 for his kindness....$5 to him is about $600 J...Jamolars (our made up name for Jamaican money). It was @ $78.50 J to $1.00 US...talk about confusing conversions...good thing they took US money and credit cards!

One last shot for the night....our next Wimbledon champion is......NOT SMAP. We attempted to play several times (we had our own tennis court along with our own pool). Everytime we played, it either started to rain, or we lost all of the balls over the fence. I started bragging the first day about my tennis abilities back when I was 14....yeah, I do not have those abilities anymore....nope....I sucked and Smap sucked even worse. Sorry Smap, but you know it is true.

SO, next time I will post more photos....using the lap top is just as slow as the computer in the computer room...oh well. See ya.

Jamaica Part 1

Cousin's Cove, JAMAICA !

Welcome to Jamaica Mon! Smap and I and 6 close friends (Chuck and Peggy, Nicole and Jeff, and Tim and Lindsay) decided to spend a week in Jamaica for Christmas this year. It was amazing! Being the adventurous souls that we all are, we decided to rent a guest house @ 17 miles outside of Negril. We stayed at the Cliff House in Cousin's Cove....in Hanover. This turned out to be the BEST trip and the BEST way to experience Jamaica (we are not resort people...they suck). It was so nice and the people were WONDERFULLY NICE! I am going to have to share our experiences over several posts. Nicole and Jeff have a lot of really awesome photos I will want to share along with Chuck and Peggy. So, here are the first of many. In all, with the four cameras going we ended up with over 2,000 shots. Not all are blog worthy for multiple reasons, but I will post as many as possible! No problem mon!

So, here is Peggy getting some snorkel time in at our house. We could just walk out our front yard and jump in! It was perfect.

Here is a shot of our cliff....our front yard is at the top of this cliff.

Of course I took a lot of my self-portrait style shots (I started taking them when I was in college and I just can't stop)....gotta post some of them just for Peggy and Nicole too! :-) This was taken right down from our front yard on our "patio so to speak" where we climb down into the water.

Smap is chilling out on one of the hammocks in the front yard.

Yogi, our cook and pool rastafarian.... It is hard for me to describe this fellow in one word, but I will just say, "Respect"....that was the last word he said to me before leaving yesterday. He was an AWESOME cook...cooking meals for us that you can't get in a restaurant. Watching him cook was a trip.....he would dance to the reggae all the while concocting incredible jerk chicken, rice, greens (can't think of the word all of the sudden), fresh fish, bread fruit, mash potatoes, etc... I want to go back just to eat his vegan meals (minus the meats...Rasta men are vegans)... Anyway, we had him cook for us three different nights...every night was amazing.

This is our front porch....the living space/kitchen had two sets of huge doors that opened up to the front lawn over-looking the cliffs down to the water. Then, the two front lower bedrooms also had seperate doors leading out on to this veranda....crazy nice! Five bedrooms in all...two on the backside of the front two and then one upstairs..

Another shot of our veranda looking at it from the cliffs. These are the tow double doors that lead into the yard. We could sit on the couches in the morning drinking our java and watching the fishermen checking their lobster traps.

So, that is it for today...just a teaser... a lot more to come!!!!!!!! yah mon.

Thanksgiving and then some random...

This year Smap and I celebrated Thanksgiving with ALL 6 of our parents and all of his siblings and my little brother Nic along the entire day ... We usually don't get to hang with Dad and Joyce because they usually go to Destin for the Holiday (they were actually here last year, but Joyce had just gotten out of the hospital for shoulder surgery and we did actually go by to see them now that I am remembering). This year, due to various circumstances, Dad and Joyce (Joyce hurt her shoulder again) were not able to go. So, Smap and I made our way to the farm for a few hours to hang with the dogs, llamas, and family.

Smap and his beard he has been growing out. I like it!

Here is a good photo of Nic and his girl Sarah. They have a few foster pits with them (Maggie and Buddy). Sarah and Nic have been together for 4-5 years. Smap and I love hanging with them!

Poor little Ippon in the back ground of the previous shot. He doesn't like other dogs sitting in my lap. Sam is the "original" pit bull in the family. He has a pretty funny personality always making us all laugh quite a bit.

One last shot...Mom and Sam flying me down to Nashville last year to hang out with my sister. Cessnas are pretty small planes so it was really hard for me to get a great shot. Mom and Sam's plane they are building should HOPEFULLY be done in about a year. Smap needs to get his license so he can fly it too! We'll work on that!

Smap and I are trying to paint our kitchen....FINALLY!!! Our house is a wreck, but it will be nice to have it painted. I wanted to incorporate more color into the house, so we are doing a two-tone purple pantry!!! We still have several other rooms in the house that desperately need painting, but it is so hard for us to put the time aside. One of these days it will all get done.

Lots of older photos....finally room on the new hard drive to download!

A few weeks ago, my mom and I ventured down to Nashville to hang with my sister for the day. Since it was so nice, we decided to take a nice 2 hour walk from my sister's current house to see her new condo she will be moving into on Christmas. Down the block from my sis's new place is this cool park with a giant Dragon made of mosaics...it was so cool just looking at the whole dragon!

As you can see, it is very detailed. I definitely can see myself going back there next time because you can't look at the whole dragon in one day...there are just so many cool pictures in it!

Here is my cute mom and my evil twin (kidding of course) hanging at one of the many pieces of dragon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUPPIES....well, the foster puppies are no longer with us. We miss them terribly. Below was a shot taken of them the day before they left....they tripled in size from when we got them 4-5 weeks earlier. We miss them sooooo much!

Cole and Penny loved sleeping in the couches.

Cole, Penny and Fisher LOVED playing together....Fisher doesn't know what to do now that they are gone. He is back to pestering us and Ippon again....

A random shot of me with both the babies....

When we first got the pups, I could hold them both easily in one arm....here are a few shots showing how big they really got.

Penny hiding in her favorite spot on the couch.

Awwww...they were so cute in Smap's make-shift pen out back....

Here they are on their first day at our house checking out Ippon....they were sooooo tiny!

My little brother Nic at the doggy rescue the day I picked up the foster puppies....he is holding Buddy (a foster at my dad's), and in the cage is Sam...Nic's/Dad's/Joyce's pit...he is the one that got us all started on the whole pit bull rescue thing. He is a super cool dog!

Here I am meeting little Penny for the first time.

The little ones....they had two sisters that my little brother Nic and his girlfriend fostered for a little while.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------GO VOLS....notice the score on the scoreboard....this was the Florida game....the one and only game I went to this year.

Hanging with my little brother Nic before the Florida game...he has a cool condo in the Fort, so Smap and I go down there from time to time to make ourselves feel really young by hanging with 22 year olds.

My sis Kate....she is from Czech Republic and gets a lot more excited to see the Vols play than I do.
____________________________________________________________________

Shots from Audie's dinner party for Lizzy and her then boyfriend a few months back....now they are engaged!

Lizzy and her fiance'........Matt? Jeff? Uggg...I am so bad with names....

Derek, the Wedding Crasher (he totally just showed up at my reception on my dad's farm because Jeremy called him to tell himi what a fun party it was). I still give him a hard time. :)

Lizzy and me when she was in town shortly a few months back.

Smap and Lizzy's fiance'.

Our host for the evening of Lizzy's dinner, Audie Smith (center) along with friends Dave and Elizabeth. Audie and his wife Sandra are awesome dinner hosts.

The Chandlers at Audie's dinner party for Lizzy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Roller Derby Fun

Here we have Goblynn....or Amy Lynn I should say....she is a crazy roller derby gal. Smap and I love throwing her our support.

Goblynn again!

Teri was the coolest boss I ever had....at Dagger Canoe and Kayak. We had too much fun at times traveling around the country to shows and demos. She is getting into the Derby with my friend Amy Lynn...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Smap's birthday this summer....

Jay (Smap's middle brother), Barbara (the Best mother-in-law ever), Leslie (my beautiful sister-in-law), and baby Anna (about a month old), all at Smap's birthday dinner this past July.

My lovely Smap on his birthday in July.

Smap hanging with my lovely mom and stepdad Sam checking out their airplane they are building in their garage.

One last shot of Smap and me downtown at our friend's birthday party at our friend's bar, The Grotto....we love that place!

Until next time....this computer is just so old and slow.....see ya!