My Funny Sister

My sister has started a blog called "Diary of a Fat Mom Skinny Mom." I think she is pretty hilarious. Please check it out.

She also has two give-a-ways going on right now: one to Bath and Body Works and the other for a bracelet from Twisted Silver.

http://www.fatskinnymom.com/

Honeymoon in the DR!

John and I FINALLY went on our honeymoon (8 months after our wedding) to the Dominican Republic. It worked out perfectly because the kids were in Arizona with their mom, we had time off for Thanksgiving and the elections were over.

Everyone wanted to know why we chose the Dominican Republic. We don't really know but we are so glad we did. We just wanted to go somewhere that we'd probably never get to go again (though we'd like to go back) and that was different. It was also reasonably priced and all inclusive so we could just relax.

For an extra $65 we flew first class all the way down there which was wonderful (and probably won't happen again.)

Here are a few highlights of the trip.

Beach time! We loved laying on the beach and drinking fruity (non-alcoholic) drinks. The waves were great for John's favorite--boogie boarding.



























On Sunday we hired a driver and we went to explore the town of Higuey and went to church. We also saw a Catholic Cathedral (the Basilica) made entirely out of cement (you know, to prevent hurricane damage). The driver had a hard time finding the LDS chapel and first took us to the Kindgom Hall. Oops. We loved our driver (Sixto, pictured below) and we gave him a Book of Mormon.








































On Monday we spent some time in the water and then went on a zip line through the jungle. There were about 10 zip lines, some of them spanning a half a mile. We loved it! Part of the adventure was getting up the mountain roads in a truck. We spent about an hour on a very bumpy road to get to the top of the mountain.

Here are a few shots of the zip line. First, we had to get the gear on.


















































Our favorite part of the trip was learning to surf. Who knew that the DR had such great waves? Apparently professional surfers know. The waters of the Atlantic and the Caribbean collide in one spot and it makes for great surfing waves. The guys who do this camp are the surfing legends of the DR. They learned as kids when the US Marines and CIA brought surfing to the island in the 1960s.

First, Rafael showed us how to get up on the surf board. It looked a little like doing yoga but you had to move much faster. No wonder surfers are ripped. It was hard to pull yourself up from your stomach to standing and balancing in less than 2 seconds, all while riding a wave.































John was awesome. He was the best of the bunch!














I got up a few times but it wasn't pretty!















During our break we had these cute photos taken and ate fresh coconuts on the beach.














The only downside to surfing? I was sore for a week. And my crazy husband went back the next day for more. (I went and had a facial at the spa.) He literally couldn't move for the rest of the trip or carry any bags. Luckily it was time to leave (but guess who carried the bags?)

Anyone who has the chance to go to the Dominican Republic should go. The hotel was great, the food was fantastic, the people were friendly and all the excursions exceeded our wildest dreams!

End of Summer in Winter Park

To celebrate the end of summer we took the kids up to Winter Park, Co and stayed over night. Winter Park is about an hour and a half from our home and we wanted to go do something fun. We bought a day pass and rode the alpine slide about 6 or 7 times. (The photo is of us at the top of the slide waiting to go down.)

On about our fifth time up the mountain, T dropped his shoe off the ski lift. He learned a good lesson about tying his shoes TIGHT. Luckily one of the workers hiked down the mountain and found it but not before he had to take a couple of runs down the slide with only one shoe.

We also did mini golf, trampolines, zip line, bouncy castle, human maze, ate lunch, and of course the alpine slide.

John decided to get on the trampoline and show us some back flips. I think he realized that he's not as young as he once was. After doing a few of these back flips he was sick to his stomach and had to get off.

Here are a few more random shots.


Riding the lift up to the slide.














E and T on a ride that made me and John want to puke just watching them.














John and T navigate the human maze.

Yours, Mine and Ours

One of the challenges I’ve had in being married is learning how to label things that were once mine and once his as “ours.” John seems to have a better handle on this than I do. Last night I said, “Thank you for watering my basil plant” and he said, “OUR basil plant.” I guess I did buy the plant with OUR money that is in OUR checking account, which has taken some getting used to.

At first I felt like a two year old trying to identify everything as “mine.” (“Be careful with MY blender”, “Let me get on MY computer”, “Hey, that’s MY dental floss.” You get the point.)

Combining bank accounts was not terribly hard. I just had to get used to another person spending money out of it because I was used to knowing what MY expenses were and tracking MY money. I now use OUR banking account with OUR money to buy OUR groceries and put gas in OUR cars. This is a big step because there was a time when I had a hard time disclosing what was in MY 401K to John.

Slowly but surely I am learning to share. Our living room has two couches crammed into it (because there was nowhere else to put MY couch since HIS was already there) that are now OUR couches. So we’ve combined bank accounts, furniture, assets, etc.

Last night, however, I discovered one thing that I think we are better off keeping separate—gym memberships. I went with John on a guest pass to HIS gym. He put me through a series of workouts that left me walking hunched over, on the verge of swearing, and incoherently mumbling about wanting of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Thank you very much but I think I will continue to go to MY gym and do MY workouts and let him go to HIS gym and torture HIMself.

This blog is back!

Wow how my life has changed since I gave up on the blog.

I don't know that I would call my life boring anymore. Maybe routine, but not boring. I am now a wife, a step-mom and I am constantly surprised at what hard work that is. I've heard it said that no one asks men how they manage to balance work and family, but they are always asking women. After 5 months of trying to balance work and family, I can honestly say that I have no idea. How's that for a deep thought?

I really need an outlet (more than Facebook) for the funny things that happen daily and my observations about the challenges of step-parenting, getting married when you are OLD, and life in general. Then I realized, "Hey wait a minute...I used to have a blog! Why not start it up again?"

So here goes!