just beachy

Oh I love the beach.  I am  trying to make it my goal to go at least twice a week. should be easy right?? When Mom was here I just realized how much I take the fact that its down the street for granted.  I need to go MORE!
we spent at lot of time at the beach. not so much in the water, but a lot looking at it :)

 day 1, Grand Anse Beach!

sunset on Grand Anse

 University Club - LAE

 Lance Aux Epines Beach

 La Sagesse Beach

Magazine Beach

Sunday BBQ on Grand Anse Beach

 and our last day on Grand Anse Beach

bingo on the bay

Every Wednesday night Prickly Bay Marina has bingo and it is so much fun!! A group of SOs were going while Mom was here so we went down to join them.
For $20EC (about $8US) you get to play 3 rounds with 5 chances to win each! that's 15 chances to win!
horizontal line, vertical line, diagonal line, X, and coverall.
I was close a lot.... and Mom ended up winning once!! yay!

It was such a fun night with good company that we ended up going back to Prickly on Friday night for the steel drum band and the retro rock band.
oh and pizza. don't forget the pizza!

Bingo night!

 oh and Cremee Brule!

dancing crazies 

come back Mom!!

people say we monkey around....

Monday my friends Amber and Josh took Mom and I up to Grand Etang.  The rain forest/jungle of Grenada!
It is so beautiful there.  & 1900 ft above sea level there is a relief from the blazing heat.
we went in search of the Mona Monkeys that were brought to Grenada from Africa years ago and have now made their home amongst the banana trees and tourists.
We waved our bananas, shook our candy (they like mints?), and made our version of monkey calls... which sounded kinda like "here monk monk monkeeeeeeeeeeeee" and various monkey sounds to no avail. the monkeys didn't want to play.
When we were about to give up a taxi driver with two American tourists arrived.  He pulled up blasting his horn and yelling, it really annoyed me.  I was like he's scaring off the monkeys!!!
I was wrong.  seconds later 3 little furry friends came clamoring out of the jungle for their breakfast.

It was such a great morning and Mom and I both pet the wild monkeys for the first time!

 we are here.

that is the taxi driver / monkey caller :)

Thanks for such a great day Amber & Josh!

downtown!

Mom and I spent an afternoon roaming a round St. George's.
I found a new favorite store.  Not to actually buy anything from, but to browse and steal ideas from.
We started in the Carenage, went up hill to church street to see the roof-less apostolic church, down the stairs to the market, down the block to the mall, and then to KFC for lunch (we couldn't find/decide on anything else!)

It was a fun, hot, and tiring day.  But aren't they all in Grenada??
& mom LOVED the reggae buses :)

 taken out the bus window.

La Sagesse take 2

While Mom was visiting we went to La Sagesse with the SOs.  It was my 2nd time there and even more gorgeous than it was the first time.  read about the 1st time here
I can't wait to take Lee there this summer when he has a break.

 last three pictures by my friend Amber :)

Grenada does the body good

I will post all about all the fun things about my Mom's visit soon, but I wanted to dedicate an entry to my beautiful mother.
My sister said it best, "Mom is a natural in the islands!"
The sun made her skin glow, the water reflected her crystal blue eyes, the humidity pumped her hair full of volume, the food was tasty, and the company made her smile :)

I won't broadcast my mother's age on the internet, but she and my father have been married for over 40 years, and I have a 39 year old brother!!
My friends could hardly believe she was old enough to be my mom, let alone have an almost 40 year old!! and 5 children!!

someone may or may not have called her a hot momma this week too. but don't tell Dad.

for my Dad who didn't make the trip

Thanks for a great visit Mom!!!!
Who's next?? come visit me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

out of the office

Mom and I are having WAY too much fun to blog.
we do something fun all day, everyday.
beach & pool & out for dinner & watching movies & sunsets & playing with kids & shopping (ish)

I'll tell you all about it next Wednesday when she leaves me :(
Don't go Mom!!
but my Dad really needs her at home. haha. he's helpless without her!

here's a tease of our awesome week so far :)

My momma is here!

My mom got in safely last night at around 9:30pm.

and because she is so awesome, she brought me Wendy's chicken sandwiches from the Miami airport in her purse!! yessssss
oh how I have missed Wendy's.
it's crazy how there is a world full of stuff out there... far far away.

today we're heading to the beach!
and to Limes
and to play bingo at Prickly Bay!

hope she slept well last night b/c she's gonna be busy!

Mom is coming!!

I am so excited to have my mom visit.
I've never had my mom come to a place that is all mine and actually like "host" her.  In college I was sharing all those places with other people and in West Virginia I was living in my sister's basement... not the same. lol.

My sweet, wonderful landlord is letting us use the apartment beneath us for FREE.
I'll probably end up sending Lee downstairs to sleep and hanging out here with my mom, unless I tire her how too much and she's asleep by 8pm. which is likely.

I have the whole week planned out. even more so than I'll describe here. haha

Tuesday pm - Mom arrives (and the awesome lady I babysit for is picking her up from the airport for me:)
Wednesday - breakfast. catch up. explore Grand Anse. beach. lunch at the Owl. Limes.  dinner. Bingo at Prickly Bay.
Thursday - breakfast. walk around LAE.  University Club pool.  Limes.  dinner and relax at home.
Friday -  La Sagesse Beach with SOs.  dinner at Aquarium
Saturday -  downtown St. George's -  Carenage, fort. market. churches. smoothies. dinner at home
Sunday -  tour SGU campus. church . lunch at Umbrellas. beach. dinner at home.
Monday - pool or beach if she wants.  Queen Elizabeth Home.
Tuesday - around the island we will go!  and a stop at Belmont Plantation and maybe Sauteurs. Limes (if we make it back in time... but it's field day. I can skip, right?) dinner at home.
Wednesday - she leaves :( wwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

thank you Mom!

I feel like a real dummy.

I've been struggling with baking chocolate chip cookies for a while.
They kind of melt in the oven & stick to the sheet & don't stay in nice clumps.

I can make peanut butter & sugar cookies ok.
but the chocolate chip are always a disaster.

I had been blaming myself, the oven, the butter, the sugar, the everything...
and I found out it's the brown sugar.
I'm not actually using brown sugar.  Doh!

I was complaining about my recent failure of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
and I said it's weird... the brown sugar here is just like white sugar, it's grainy. it doesn't pack.
and my Mom says.... oohhh honey. you're probably not using brown sugar. it's probably regular sugar that isn't bleached.

No wonder it's different! no wonder there is different brown sugar on the bottom shelf that costs more... it's the REAL brown sugar...
apparently brown sugar is white sugar and molasses mixed.

am I the only one that this is a new realization to???

tomorrow I am off to IGA to either buy molassas or the bottom shelf brown sugar.

I'll let you know how my next attempt at cookies goes, wish me luck!

oh Mother.

My sister's status on facebook says this.

Molly Massie - after an afternoon with my Mother talking loudly, beeping the horn at everything and everyone and a few laughs that were a little too loud; I asked her what happened to being meek and quiet? Her reply "I don't want to inherit the Earth! It's in bad shape!" bahahahaha.....so much for the verse Matthew 5:5, she is too much ♥

Dear Jesus, please forgive her... :)

lucky in love

I love my husband so much.
I have been blessed with one of the best.

It makes my heart so happy when he takes time out of his busy studying to come to Limes with me.  He comes about once a week, and the kids love it (so do I)

not only does he make an excellent jungle gym and love interest for some of the little girls, but he helps so so much with discipline.  He isn't mean to the kids, but he helps with the general 'wrangling in' of all the kids and he makes them behave. 
I wish he could come every time!

thanks Ashley Willis for this picture :)

On a side note, congratulations to my amazing parents on their 40th Wedding Anniversary!! I am so lucky to have two parents who are still so very much in love with each other that it is sometimes gross :)

 My parents when they were 14 & 16!! They had already been dating for 2 years at this point!! What an incredible love story :)

                                           18 and 20 when they got married in 1970.

and last year with me at my college graduation :)


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