Jamaica blog!

Wow!  It's been 26 days since I blogged.  I've been intending to do a vacation blog ever since I got home.  Well, actually, I planned to blog everyday from Jamaica, but that required motivation that I seemed to have left in the US!  Our trip was awesome.  Willard took a BUNCH of pictures so there's no way to put them all on here, but I chose a few just to give you an idea of what it was like.
Each day in Jamaica was basically a repeat of the day before.  Wake up late, eat breakfast, lay on the beach, eat lunch, lay on the beach, eat supper, eat dessert, go to bed.  Repeat.  Ab-so-lute-ly the perfect way to spend a week, if you ask me.  I read 5 books, which is equivalent to therapy for me.  (I LOVE to read, and I think I've read about 13 pages since we got the new baby in October! I just can't seem to find time to do things like read...exercise...shave my legs...) 

Here go the pictures - I will put a caption under each one that tells a little bit about it.  And, these are in no specific order.

This is me laying on my very own private beach it seems!

Our room is the one in the middle, 2nd floor.  We could have dropped off the balcony and almost landed on the beach!

There was an outdoor restaurant right by our section of the resort where we could eat lunch.  They served really good jerk chicken and cheeseburgers. 

Our room

I took this from our room.  The water is RIGHT there.

Willard took tons of pictures around the resort.  There was about a million dollars worth of tile and the nicest landscaping I've ever seen. 

Me pretending to be a movie star

When I said this resort was in a remote area, I wasn't lying!

This is the view of the resort from the boat we took out when we snorkeled.  Our building is the one with the red roof. 

Jason snorkeled for the first time and LOVED it!

This is the main pool. 

Prettiness!

Lots of statues of naked people

There were GORGEOUS flowers everywhere you looked

Another naked statue

There were 3 pools.  This was ours.  It was the most "happening" pool, with a swim up bar and pool volleyball games going on about 12 hours out of the day!

There were beach weddings almost every day.  This poor couple said "I do" and then the bottom fell out.  It only rained a few minutes the whole week, so the timing really sucked for them.  But they're still smiling!!

And even statues of naked kids

Peacocks!  Just randomly strutting around proud as can be. 

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!

Now... for your viewing pleasure, a video of Willard and Jason riding a paddle board  attempting to ride a paddle board.  I was too far away for you to really see them well, but you get the picture.  Well, shoot.  I can't tell if the video uploaded or not.  It's giving me problems.  In case it works, Willard is the one on the right.  Yeah, the one that makes the big splash and then starts chasing Jason trying to knock HIM off too.  He's a sore loser.  ha!

Twitter #idontgetit

Today I would like to talk about my love/hate relationship with Twitter.  I WANT to love it, but I really hate it.  My relationship with Facebook is important to me, and I was hoping to share that same kind of love with Twitter, but I’m starting to think it’s not going to happen.  I think my hatred stems from insecurity, which stems from not understanding it.

What exactly am I supposed to tweet?  I usually have more than 140 characters to say.  Do I cut down my tweet to only say PART of what I want to say?  Or do several tweets in a row that say whatever is on my mind? 

And what exactly are the hash tags for?  I’ll admit, I like them.  I find myself wanting to use hash tags in person, in real life.  It’s like putting a hash tag in front of whatever you are thinking makes it okay and it’s not as offensive.  #badhaircut  #halitosis  #yougetonmynerves

Apparently getting a “retweet” from someone famous is what we are supposed to strive for?  Is this equivalent to getting an autograph?  Or touching a rock star’s hand at a concert?  Or, in my case, like the time in 1984 when Daryl Hall (of Hall and Oats) winked at me.  Seriously.  Kevin Long is my witness.  The most famous retweet I’ve ever gotten was from Talladega Super Speedway.  Hunter even retweeted that his mom got a retweet from TSS.  #winning 

You can probably tell a lot about a person by looking at who they follow on Twitter.  I can’t list them all, but here are a few people I follow. They are either NASCAR-related (Kenny Wallace, Kevin Harvick, Delana Harvick, Trevor Bayne), reality TV-related (Tori Spelling, Dean McDermott, Tribble Reese, Tristan Smith, Devin Grissom, ALL the Kardashians), or inspirational-related (Karen Kingsbury, Priscilla Shirer), plus a few friends and relatives.  Oh, and Lee Greenwood, of course. 

I actually retweeted Khloe Kardashian this morning and wondered “what does this say about me?”

I originally signed up so I could spy on my kids.  They stopped posting much on FB and made the move to Twitter, so I felt like I should sign up to keep an eye on things.  My girls, Haley Rae especially, blow it up.  She would be one of those people I would delete if she wasn’t my kid. 

You've heard people say that they're only staying together for the sake of the kids?  Well, that's where I am right now with Twitter.  I’m going to work at this relationship and see if it can be saved.  For the kids sake. 

By the time the milk expires...

This is the blog that Haley Rae told me would be the “lamest” thing she ever heard of if I really confessed it.  I decided to do it anyway, just because surely I’m not the only person out there at does this.  Surely.

Ever since I was a teenager, I have paid close attention to the date that the milk expires.  Not because I am afraid I’ll drink old milk (well, that too) but because I use that date as a marker to judge how close I am to whatever it is I’m looking forward to. 

I used to get so excited when Mom would buy milk that had an expiration date of Dec. 26 or 27.  That meant that Christmas was CLOSE.  So close that it would be here before the milk expires.

I remember looking at the expiration date and thinking “Yes!  I’ll have my driver’s license by the time the milk expires!” 

OR

“I will be married by the time the milk expires.”

“This baby will be born by the time the milk expires.”

“Our adoption will be final by the time the milk expires.”

Sometimes, it will be something silly like “American Idol starts back by the time the milk expires.”  And there are even times with there’s nothing exciting to link to the expiration date.  HOWEVER, I bought milk yesterday and the expiration date of January 15.   That probably means nothing to you, but it does to me!!  I will be in Jamaica by the time the milk expires. 

J-A-M-A-I-C-A, mon! 

I hope something good is happening to you by the time milk expires!!

Amy's 2012 resolutions

Okay, here goes.  My resolutions for 2012.  I probably shouldn’t call these “resolutions”.  It’s more like my “to-do” list for 2012.  Resolution is such a serious word.  Oh wow, I looked it up and it means “oath, promise or vow”. Scratch that.  These are my PERSONAL GOALS for 2012. 

(1)            I’m no Rachael Ray or anything, but I think my cooking skills have improved in the last few years.  (You’re probably thinking about the Yuri and Gigi cookie/smoke story but that’s not really indicative of my true skills).  I don’t particularly LOVE it, but I don’t hate it either, and I think what I cook usually taste somewhere between good and pretty good.  What bothers me is cooking the same old stuff over and over and over.  So, my goal for 2012 is to try a new recipe once a month. 

(2)             I want to spend more time with my friends.  I want to do lunch with the girlfriends.  I never do this, and I really want to.  Some of y’all need to invite me though.  I don’t want to plan it, I just want to show up. 

(3)             I want to keep my laundry caught up.  Seriously.  You have no idea how much I want this. 

(4)             This is a big one.  And it’s almost as unrealistic as keeping my laundry caught up. I want to run in a 5K.  Even back in the 80s when I was athletic and somewhat in shape, I couldn’t run.  I see people who run in 5Ks and it blows my mind.  If they can do it, surely I can.  Right?  We’ll see.  I don’t have aspirations to be a lifetime runner, and believe me, I will not get “addicted”.  I want to slap people who say they get addicted to exercise.  Puh-leeze.  I just want to do it so I can brag about it and see my name in tiny print in the newspaper.  I’ve already got a stitch in my side from just thinking about it.

(5)             I want to sit through an entire high school basketball game and not think to myself (or worse – yell out loud) that the ref is an idiot.  There seriously ought to be some kind of IQ test for these people.  Gosh, my bad.  The goal is to change MYSELF.  There’s nothing I can do about the officials.  Can’t fix stupid. 

(6)             I want to beat Willard at “Words With Friends”.  We just discovered this game a few days ago and it’s so much fun.  The only problem is that I hate to lose.  HATE. TO. LOSE.  And he has beaten me every single time.  He’s not a graceful winner either.  I had already gone to bed the other night when my cell phone rang.  It was a Willard from DOWNSTAIRS.  As in, calling me from the den.  At midnight!!!  He said, “Boo ya! You might as well go ahead and resign.  I just got 102 points off one word!!”  I would like to say that I rolled back over and went back to sleep, thinking how immature he was.  But no.  I stared at my phone until my eyes crossed trying to come up with a good word.  Ugh.

(7)             And I want to blog more.  I don’t even realize I have anything to say until I start typing, and then the words just start coming. It’s quite therapeutic actually.  And cheaper than a counselor. 

Well, there you go.  My goals for 2012.  Notice that I didn’t mention the old cliché of losing weight.  I figure if I train for a 5K, I’ll lose weight.  And if I seriously do keep my laundry caught up, I will have to wash/fold/put away clothes pretty much 24/7 so there won’t be time to eat.  Either way, I should shed a few pounds.

Gearing up for 2012

Happy New Year!  I’ve been MIA for several days with regards to the blog, and I am starting to catch slack from a couple of my dedicated followers.  Thanks, by the way, for mentioning that you enjoy my blog when you see me out and about.  It’s funny to me that people are actually reading it, a little embarrassing too, but I’m glad.  I mean, that’s what it’s for!  I poke fun at myself for our chaotic lifestyle, but I’ve come to realize over the past 3 weeks that even chaos needs to be somewhat on a schedule.  With the big kids being out of school, daycare being closed, Willard taking a week off, and all the holiday craziness, Mama needs her routine back.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s been fun (at times) but I’m so unproductive.  Add the fact that I’ve discovered “Words With Friends” and you’ve got roughly 175 pounds (yeah, yeah, I’m gonna try work on that in 2012) of laziness. 

Ugh. 

I told myself I wouldn’t do resolutions for 2012, but I’ve changed my mind.  There are actually a few “bucket list” kind of things that I’d like to accomplish in this year, so I’ll blog about that later today or tomorrow (or when real life starts back).

Funny of the Day:  Last night Yuri and Gigi were playing in the other room and I heard all this coughing and gasping… then I heard, “Open the window and let the smoke out”.  Smoke???  What in the world?

Me:  What’s wrong?

Yuri: Nothing.  We’re playing.

Me: Are you playing Fire Department?

Yuri: No, we’re pretending like we’re mommies and we’re baking cookies. 

Me: Oh.  Why are you coughing and opening the window?

Yuri: To let the smoke out.

Yeah, I know.  Funny stuff.  Sometimes you have to laugh, even when the joke’s on you.