picts are up

here is a sampling. more can be found here.


our room overlooking the pool and the mountains


el yunque rain forest


one of several towers we climbed in el yunque


arecibo observatory (the world's largest radio telescope)


old fortress walls around old san juan


awesome band along the street/waterfront in old san juan

it's almost showtime

good luck in cali, guys!

we are back

i've not posted anything about our trip yet but i wanted to let you know that we're back. i know you were worried we'd never return from our vacation!

as you can see, our "mountain retreat" was so relaxing we really didn't want to leave. i'd highly recommend it if anyone is looking to get away, la casa grande mountain retreat in utuado, puerto rico.

so we're back and in the swing of things again. i'm in the mists of uploading the pictures now but probably won't have them organized or anything tonight. so i'll post a link when they're all set.

vacation daze

for the past 2 days i've been technically "on vacation," meaning i've not been going into work. so far it's not really felt like a vacation, honestly. but it's still been good.

i spent the day yesterday cleaning the house* and doing some cooking. one of the families that we stayed with 2 years ago during our trip to tanzania have been in town and we had them over for dinner. it was really nice to see them again and i was happy to reciprocate their favor and open our home to them, even if only for one evening.



i spent vacation day 2 by starting to paint our back room. that's actually not quite accurate. we started painting the back room when we spackled it 8 months ago before we moved into this house. but until this point, that's as far as we've gotten. so i took today to try to tackle another big chunk. i'd say i got about 2/3 of the way finished. hopefully it won't sit another 8 months before we finish!

our real "vacation" vacation starts tomorrow! i'm looking forward to being away from home renovations, cats waking us up at all hours of the night, and all the rest of the hum-drum everyday stuff. hopefully this'll be the ticket to getting us relaxed and well-rested!

(*talk about a fruitless effort. many of you may know that we live very close to a factory which churns out a lot of dust. i spent 1/2 the day yesterday sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, and mopping the house, plus washing sheets, blankets and our bedspread. when it came time for bed i padded in my bare feet into the bedroom, walked by the window and felt a whole lot of grit under my feet! urgh! frustration!)

happy birthday x

today is the birthday of malcom x. he would've been 83 had he lived. if you have not done so, might i suggest you read the autobiography of malcom x as told to alex haley? i actually recommended it as a good read just barely over 2 years ago.

spring is in the air

(even if it feels like summer)

saturday i was trying to make another dent in the vine situation along our fence. i was pleased to find blackberries growing in a few small patches. it's my hope that once i clear out all the other crappy vines, maybe the blackberries will come in full-force. ymmm!

however, i have been temporarily way-laid due to this little discovery.



this was situated right inside a big mess of kudzu and grape vines. luckily i realized it before it was too late and walked away without harming the nest. i was worried i got a little too close and scared away momma for good. but she spent the better part of the afternoon and sunday sitting on her precious eggs, despite our comings and goings while doing remaining yard work.

the bad news is that i can't take those vines out right now. the good news is i don't have to worry about taking those vines out right now! so i've pretty much wrapped up that project (for now). woohoo!

drunken slugs

whoever invented putting beer out for slugs really had it spot-on. i knew something was eating some of our plants but had previously suspected beetles. but when we were digging around yesterday i found a few slugs in the tomatoes. so i thought, "oh, beer! that's what i've always heard works for slugs." chris suspected it was a ploy to purchase myself some beer. but no, i convinced him. "i hear this really works." of course there was the added bonus of me being able to finish off the remaining 5 in the 6-pack, but that doesn't take away the fact that it works! check it out!


that's alotta slugs!

team reid

i spent another weekend outside working on our yard and garden. this time i was joined by my husband, who is now finished with school (for the summer) and has a bit more time to lend a hand on household projects. we did some really fun stuff and i took some pictures. but i'm too tired right now to post anything detailed about that. i just want to sit and veg out to my show.

oh, and one day until vacation. and 4 days until vacation trip. woohoo!

happy mother's day moms

mom


stepmom

(and all other moms too!:)

excitement

i just went out to water the plants and saw a few little bursts of zucchini life sticking out of the ground where i planted seeds last week. there's something about growing a plant from seed that feels so fulfilling. transplanting is okay; but from seed is real growing.

the great outdoors

i spent most of the weekend outdoors, which was great.

saturday i finally followed through on my promise to take a small group of my somali kids to pick strawberries. we had a great time, despite the fact that a lot of the strawberries were a little too far gone for my tastes. and a few of the kiddos fell in the mud. oh well, at least they didn't fall onto the plants, which i kept nagging them about.


(this was taken before the fall into the mud!)

after the picking, as is now tradition, we went to congaree swamp for a hike. this was short-lived due to some immediate bathroom needs of one child.


but we were able to pick up some junior ranger books, which most of them actually enjoyed filling out.



the remainder of the weekend, i spent in our yard. there was much to be done on this front, and are still not done. but we made a nice dent. not only have we not mowed the lawn since we moved in (in october!) but there are a bouquet of ivy trying hard to take over. i found honeysuckle, poison ivy, wisteria, kudzu, and grape vines, just to name a few. my husband cut the grass while i wrangled some of the ivy. (stay tuned for later posts to see if i break out from the poison ivy.) plus i planted zuccinni, cucumber, and barlotti pole beans. here's a picture of our garden now that the grass is low enough to actually see that we have a garden.

congrats to the barns

erin ruth was born at 1:51 this afternoon. check out their blog to read the play-by-play. i am awed at what a blessed gift her birth is.

5 years plus one day

happy anniversary yesterday to my hubs. you're my favorite and i love you.

jubilee celebration

this weekend i was blessed to have been able to attend the jubilee mass and celebration for several nuns in the order of the missionary servants of the most blessed trinity. it was a beautiful celebration and a renewal of my own mission to be a servant. i only wish that i can be half as faithful to my call to service as those 10 women who were celebrating their 25th, 50th, 60th, 70th, and 80th years of service.

philly zoo trip

despite the short length of time (and the heat!), i had a great time saturday visiting with family and trampsing around the philly zoo. it'd been ages since i'd been there and i was pleasantly surprised by the renovations to exibit spaces and the updated collections. the sheer number of animals, etc. that they have on collection is pretty vast compared to the cola zoo. however, they have so much that you almost get the feeling they don't have the space to keep everything, which, if i recall accurately, was the general sense i got last time i was there. so i have to say if i had to choose, i still think i like columbia's zoo better. but philly's zoo (the first in america) will always hold a fondness in my zoo preference.

you can see more pictures at flickr.

cell phone advice?

so i think the time has come for us to get a "real" cell phone. i know, i know. we've tried to fight the system for so long and have managed relatively successfully. a few years ago chris's parents gave us a pay-as-you-go cell phone to use in case of emergencies or for when we're traveling. other than work phones that i've been contractually obligated to use, we've managed to keep the personal use of cell phones to a minimum.

but now, all of a sudden, i've found myself married to "that cell phone guy." he's always on it! all right, all right, it's mostly because of his job*, but still, that thing rings constantly. and over the past few months we've been spending astronomical fees because we've been going over our meager 200 alloted minutes a month.

which brings me to this post. i'm now in the market for a no-frills cell phone plan that will give us like 400 or 500 minutes a month with as minimal cost as possible. we don't need texting, we don't need internet, no bells or whistles. just talk. for cheap. preferably. and if they threw in a free phone for signing up, that'd be great too!

i'd take any suggestions if anyone has any. for those local to the area, anyone have good experience with suncom? it seems like they have the most cost-friendly plans, but i want to make sure i'm not limiting ourselves with crappy service.

*ironic that chris uses the cell phone the most for his job which is really not a job exactly. it's an internship. and he doesn't make any money to work there. yet they call his cell phone like nobody's business. i'm not blaming them, but it just ruffles my feathers a little bit.

two more april birthdays

happy birthday yesterday to erica and mamaw bane! 29 and 80 respectively. i wish them the happiest year yet!

prayer request

chris and i have taken a quick trip to mississippi to help out with his mom and we'll be here for the next few days. continued prayers for her and the family would be so appreciated. thanks!

a real vacation?

at the end of this month chris and i celebrate 5 years of marriage! woohoo! i feel like it's a big milestone. so to celebrate and, heck, just to relax a bit, we've decided we're going to take a real-life, honest-to-goodness, vacation at the end of may.

puerto rico, here we come. we've found some out-of-the-way place to spend a few days just relaxing, hiking, looking at nature and resting. i can just smell the pina coladas now!

feeding addictions

it's been a few weeks since i finished watching season two and season four of project runway. i've not had a chance to check any other seasons out since then (we've been busy!). but in case i was going through withdraw, i was fortunate enough to have seen nick verreos from season two give a talk at usc last week. (i took some pictures but they came out too dark to post here).

let me tell you, that guy seems like a sweetheart. he was very energetic and lively. and he seemed very likable. i was a little disappointed that he didn't dish the dirt too much about the show. but maybe he got to that after i left. i stayed for over 2 1/2 hours and he was just up to the q&a! there was supposed to be a meet-and-greet after that which i, of course, missed. it was 20 till 10 pm so i decided to split.

speaking of tv addictions. i'm mad at desperate housewives because they have not updated their website with the rerun episodes they had been running on tv each week. i was tuning in every week to the website to help me catch up on the gazillion seasons i've missed. but for the past month or so, they've not really put anything up. i guess they're trying to build anticipation for their new show this weekend? but anyways, since they didn't have any new episodes when i checked on saturday night, i decided to try another show out via website. dancing with the stars. i started watching that and within the first few minutes i was hooked. i LOVE it! i guess i really am a junky for "reality tv" as long as they show some sort of talent. ha! (i've only watched a few episodes, so please don't give any spoilers about any of the seasons in the comments.)