February is here...that means spring is coming soon!

This winter has been long and wet.  I am over it completely!  Yesterday turned out to be a gorgeous day.  I ended up taking my road bike down, greasing the chain and taking her for a nice @ 50 mile ride.  Of course I had to do a drop-in to my dad's farm to say hello to Dad and Joyce and all the furry creatures.  The farm is so nice.  

I thought the ride would be a lot harder for me than it was due to the fact that I haven't been on my bike since November I think.  Very sad, but I have been logging a ton of miles in the pool along with riding the spin bike quite a bit.  So, after the first 20 miles, I started feeling back to normal in the saddle.  I didn't have enough food, so other than bonking towards the end, my ride was great.

Smap finally finished painting our pantry in the kitchen.  Silly me had to have two different colors of purple in there.... We have 21 shelves in the pantry....poor Smap...it took him forever to paint those shelves.  He is a perfectionist when it comes to painting.  I actually tried to help.  I did help paint the shelves, but that was the only thing I "couldn't" screw up...after that, I was told no more help was needed.

Next on our to-do list is to paint our kitchen.  Not sure if Smap will tackle it now after the lengthly pantry paint job?  We still don't know what we are going to do in the kitchen as far as floors and counters go.  We really want to use as much recycled stuff as possible...maybe use the wood from a tree that is about to come down in our backyard?  Yeah, we have 4 trees that have to go...remember what happened in May of 08?  Two trees down on our roof.  Yuck...we are still dealing with that mess too.  

I got out of school early today.  It was due to a lot of snow.  Parents were freaking out and picking up their kids early.  Finally, the super dismissed schools at 12:30.  Man, the parents were PISSED picking their kids up.  They were very hateful picking up their kids too....like we had anything to do with calling school out.  Jeezzz.

So, that is about it.  Hopefully this cold snow crap will move on out after this week.  We are soooo ready for some nice warm weather.  

That is about it.  Still going to put some more photos up from Jamaica when I get around to it.  Maybe we will be out again this week?  We will see! 

CHEERS

More photos coming soon...

I still have some more shots I want to post of our trip.  I hope we can back there in the next year or two.  I think about it everyday.  The lifestyle there is just so chill....like we like.  Anyway, not much riding has been done by me or Smap lately due to home projects (I insisted on having two colors of purple in our pantry, which is taking FOREVER) and weather.  I have clocked a lot of time in my health club pool along with the spin bike....super boring.  I can't wait to get back outside and riding my single speed again.  

Smap informed me the other day that Trek is behind on getting their single speed carbon fibers out...bummer.  I just can't wait to float up some trails on that thing.  I just can't wait to get back on the trails for that matter.  Smap probably feels the same as me.  He has been running some and riding our spin bike here at the house.   BORING!

The one good thing about being in the house is more time with my boys...Ippon and Fisher.  They are the best dog and cat.  My brother has also been in Knoxville farm-sitting for my dad while he is out of the country (Josh also stayed at our house while we were gone).  Josh came over the other night and taught us how to make some really good fresh homemade pizza.  I can't wait to make it again.  

That is about it....still teaching....got the word that I will be tenured after this school year, which is good considering the NASTY economy and teaching is HOPEFULLY still a stable job in this country.  Who knows though....there is no telling.  We can only hope things turn around and we all survive this downward spiral...FINGERS CROSSED. 

I didn't mean to get all negative...my blog is suppose to be a happy positive blog... So, in that case....we are going to have a nice meal with Smap's bro and his wife (Alex and Kate)....

Namaste

One last Christmas Eve post

Here I am again...happy to be on the beach on Christmas Eve!

Tim taking a bath...I mean getting refreshed by the cool water. It was a perfect temperature...not really warm, but not cold.

Smap watching over Vessel making sure he is okay out on his boat. Vessel took us to the cove, then took us back to our place...the next day on Christmas day we were hanging out in our front yard watching the fishing boats checking their lobster traps...we noticed Vessel's boat drifting out there....Yogi and Vessel walked up and said that it was Vessel's uncle out there and the prop had fallen off......man, good thing the water wasn't like it was when we were out there on Christmas Eve....Vessel's uncle got rescued, but they did not recover the prop...of course not... Smap did try to go find it while snorkeling...yeah right...

Chuck and Jeff watching us swim, while Lindsay hangs with Vessel in the shade.

Below is Peggy and me swimming... I swam until lunch was ready, then went back out and swam afterwards.

So, that was our Christmas Eve.....fun fun fun. Yah mon.

Again....Half Moon..

Vessel on the small vessel...he ended up having to anchor his boat out in the cove due to the waves bothering it on the shore....

These dogs loved to fetch...just like Chuck and Peg's dogs...Chuck's Macey looks a lot like this dog, but skinnier...

I guess the dogs were the protectors of the bar....


The one rule for the bar...

The bar....

We had to order our lunch right when we got there because we were told it takes a very long time to get your food. Poor Tim really needed food...he survived though. Besides Yogi's food, this was one of the better meals we had when we had to eat out.

Christmas Eve again...

Here we go again...Tim in the back of the boat...on the rough water....We finally got down the coast to the Half Moon Bey....the water is so nice here...

Oh look, Nicole has found some friends.


Here is the resting place for our boat while we play...what a pretty view...

Jamaica again....#4 Christmas Eve

Okay, so on Christmas eve, we hired our adventure guide and now friend, Vessel, to take us to Half Moon Bey...I called it cove in a previous post, but it is Bey I think.. Anyway, something is wrong with my computer, so I may have to do multiple posts on this one. I am having trouble uploading photos again.

So, here we are getting into the fishing boat. Vessel is steadying the boat for us all to get in. Chuck is trying to help.


Smap

Vessel, Tim and Lindsay. In the previous post I talked about Tim having a little trouble with something he ate...well, he saw it all again on this little boat trip. As you can see in the photo, he doesn't look well and there were some huge swells. He felt fine after it "all" came out on the way to the bey...coming back was probably the hardest I have laughed in years because we got so wet hit the waves back to Cousin's Cove....

Jeff and Chuck are holding down the bow and enjoying the ride. Chuck had Jeff's spot on the way back....Nicole and I were sitting behind Chuck...so funny and sooooo wet! Nicole and I were laughing so hard because we were just getting soaked...everyone was. I would have to say that was the best part of the trip for me...laughing so hard on that boat with everyone.

Peg and me doing my self-portrait thing.

Okay, so I will post more pics on the next post....dang computer....

Jamaica Part 3...Nicole's BIG 30!

So, Smap and I were so fortunate to be invited to Nicole's 30th Birthday Bash on Dec.23rd....only 6 people were invited...those of us who were in Jamaica!!!! For her big day, we hired Yogi to cook Nic's special feast. It was incredible once again....Yogi cooked the jerk chicken again along with some really good tuna. Below. Yogi is making the callalu...my favorite...actually every dish he made was my favorite.

Below is Yogi getting the Tuna ready. He used the outside kitchen and the inside one to cook our feasts.

Nicole, don't kill me for posting this shot, but I thought it was too funny not to....of both you and Jeff! Ha ha ha... Nicole is sporting her birthday capilene for us at her birthday dinner....who knows what Jeff was saying here. All I know is that we laughed a LOT that week.
Here is Smapola along with Peg...the birthday girl's proud mama! Peggy as usual has that beautiful smile.

Tim and Lindsay having some good chats at the dinner table. Unfortunately something Tim ate that night didn't cooperate with him...I will explain in the next post. ;)


So, we had Yogi cook 3 times for us while we were there. We all wish we had done it EVERY night...next time we go (and we have already booked another week to go down the road), we are going to have Yogi cook every night for us. It was just fun hanging out with him during and after the meal along with Vessel. Such FUN times. I hate being back in rainy ole' Tennessee.