What have you been doing?

For the 2 months that Bart has been in Yuma, a lot of people have asked me, well "what are you doing, while Bart works?" I must admit that my "normal " schedule is quite fabulous.


0829-My alarm goes off
0835-Run down to breakfast...didn't have to buy it, make it or clean up the dishes
0900-Go to the gym
1100ish-Go sit by the pool
1230-Play with Ratty (yes, we have a pet rat and yes, we brought her to Yuma and NO, she is not disgusting, we love her. I will have to blog about her sometime.)
1:00-Shower but I don't put on make up anymore-too lazy
2:00-SCRAPBOOK
3:30-Get hungry
5:30-Wait eagerly for Bart to come home
6:00-Dinner...again don't have to buy, prepare or clean up
7:00-Whatever Bart wants...hot tub, reading, watching the office


Bart and I made a deal that if I didn't work I HAD to get my scrapbooking done. I want you to know that I held up my end of the deal. I scrapbooked and scrapbooked and ordered pictures and scrapbooked and walked to Sam's club to get the pictures and then I scrapbooked some more and I even started dreaming about scrapbooking.

I started out in February scrapbooking my Days of 47 fun.
































Then I scrapbooked my 2 trips to Europe.













Lastly, I did our wedding scrapbooking, which I am very glad, relieved and excited to have finished...even if no one will look at them and it will just collect dust on the coffee table. I am still very happy to have it finished.




I now have nothing to scrapbook and I am very glad!

A VACATION on a VACATION!

I begged and pleaded and pretended to cry and tried very hard to get Bart to come with me to Cancun but ALAS I ended up leaving him to work and I went without him. I met my parents at the Royal Hacienda's in Playa Del Carmen where we proceeded to...



Do water aerobics with Hector after our morning session of yoga. Then we would eat and swim and bake in the sun (well my poor redheaded mother did get burned) and if we weren't sick of the water by night time we could full up the tub on the balcony and take a bath in front of the whole resort, (needless to say I didn't fill up the tub).

We took a snorkeling tour to Puerto Morelos and went out to the reef and swam with the fishies and watched the coral dance in the current. I had a water tight seal with my snorkel mask...it took a good hour for the lines to go away.

I love the Caribbean! The water is a great temperature and very pretty.

We took a bus down to see the ruins of Tulum. Tulum is different from other ruins I've been to because it was built on coast instead of the jungle.

And then because we worked so hard snorkeling and walking around we had to get a massage on the beach. I know it's a hard life but someone has to do it. HAHA HAHA HA HA

WATCH YOUR PENS!

We have been lucky enough to stay at the very luxurious Homewood Suites, here un Yuma, Arizona. They allow visitors to use their pens. This one has been tragically Miss - shapen. Unfortunately, it has met the fate of many of my personal boligrafos as well.

If you don't want your pens to look like this, don't loan them to my wiff!

SAUDI ARABIA

Today, while on a leasure friday midmorning drive through sunny emperial valley, Canessa and I had an enlightening experience.

While most people are unaware of the fact that palm trees can be grown in hot arid climates, our own brillantness was clear, as we were not in the least surprised to come upon Palm Tree farms. The trees were planted in neat rows (obviously layed out by an engineer), and appeared to be well-mani/pedi/whatever/cured. Given our innate inquisitiveness, and the frequentness of caNESSa's visits to resorts of assorted palm trees, we quickly came to the conclusion that such palm tree farms must be the source of the full grown, carefully placed palms at the classy posh resorts (word on the street is that full grown palms can go for upwards of 20k!).

As we continued our drive, signs advertising DATES became increasingly frequent. With curiosity piqued, we followed the signs to the "Medjool Date" store. I was nervous to try a new kind of date, since my dating has been seriously reduced since being married. Alas, were entered the store, surpised to find many of our fellow snow-birds (AKA Old Canadian peeps running from the snow). With a slight sense of bashfulness Canessa asked me what a date was. I told her they are dried plums. I was quickly corrected when looking at a book explaining the history of dates in the new world.

It turns out palm trees don't only grow pineapples and money, but also DATES. Dates really arn't dried plums after all - they aren't even related to a prune. They were once a fruit for the royalty of Saudi Arabia. Furthmore, the trees were almost extinct over in the yonder land, and have done remarkably well here. As for Canessa and I, we were most pleased to find that dates are excellent additions to a shake. I felt very comfortable eating the dates, given my royal lineage - but Canessa looked a little uncomfortable. I told she would always be my little princess, so she felt a little better about it.

YES, WE ARE FROM UTAH. WE DON'T HAVE PALM TREES.

Anybody Want a Peanut?

Did you know that not all peanuts have salmanilla? It is hard to believe, but the Peanut Patch lady taught us that it is OK to eat peanut butter just as long as it doesn't have Peanuts in it..... By the way, peanuts are very mexican - I didn't know this till we saw the peanut patch sign. You can even grow spicy peanuts!

BYU here I come

I got accepted into BYU's Nurse Practitioner program. I will start this April 2009 and hopefully finish by 2011! HOORAY

San Diego Animal Holding Facility

Weekend getaway

3:10 to Yuma

After Bart graduated he took a job with the Bureau of Reclamation. They offered him an option to go to Yuma for a couple months. We decided it would be good experience, so I went PRN from the hospital and now we are in Yuma Arizona.

This is the infamous Yuma Territrial Prison.

3:10 to Yuma is a 1957 western film starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. The film was based on the short story by Elmore Leonard. The film was well received on release and is still highly regarded today. In 2007 there was a remake of the film starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.

This is the view from out our first hotel's window. Yuma's main winter crop is lettuce. All sorts of lettuce-bib, iceberg, romaine, red leaf lettuce and even cabbage.

We went to the historic district during the "Yuma River Days" celebration. Lots of tents selling things we didn't want and older people...Bart calls them "snow birds".

Christmas Cruisin'

The Craigo's treated the family to cruise for Christmas! We enjoyed a break from the cold wintry months in Salt Lake City and some family togetherness - not to mention a couple of extra calories along the way.

This photo was taken in Cabo San Lucas! Just a little Tipsy...

The picture is our life preserver drill.