Back from Jamaica!!!

We have been back from Jamaica for about a week now, and I am finally getting the chance to write about our trip.  It was absolutely wonderful!  I was a little worried about the weather before we got there because there was a tropical storm brewing off of South America, but it didn't turn into anything bad...just some rain on Monday.

We got there on Saturday and took the 2 hour drive from the airport to the resort. We stayed on the Southwest side of the island in a town called Whitehouse. It was very remote, but we were actually really happy about that, it was wonderful!  The drive there from the airport was something else!  There were stray dogs running along the road, along with people and even goats!  The roads were very curvy, and the sights along the way were like nothing we had ever seen before!


A shopping "plaza"



Love the palm trees!



Yikes!



This is a very high-end neighborhood on the coast

 Jamaica is an extremely poor country, but we were so surprised at how genuine and happy many of the people there seemed to be.  They all have a definite "glass half-full" mentality, which is extremely refreshing, especially considering they don't have near what we do in the states.

When we got to the resort, we were blown away.  What a departure from the poverty we had just drove through.  This place was absolutely beautiful! 

The fountain in the center of the resort

Our Room

The view off our balcony

What we saw when stepping out of our room!

 

The Cabaret - nightclub

The Riviera (main) pool.  We spent most of our time here - at the bar :)

To the left is Bayside's - where we ate breakfast each morning

The Dutch pool.  Very quiet and serene

Gotta have another picture of the fountain!

Can't forget the beach!  I love the clear water of the Caribbean!

This is the first time we have ever done an all-inclusive, and after doing one, I would highly recommend it.  It was so nice to go somewhere, eat dinner, and just get up when we were done and not have to worry about the bill.  We really enjoyed it!  Also, getting whatever kind of drinks we wanted at any time was great.  Needless to say, we always went back to the room in the afternoon to take a nap! :)

We did do two excursions while we were there.  The first one was a trip to the Appleton Rum Distillery, which was about an hour and fifteen minutes from the resort.  What a great time!  We got to start off the trip with some really good (and really strong) rum punch!  Then we toured the distillery.  After the tour, we ended the trip with a rum tasting.  It was great!  We ended up coming home with three bottles of rum from Appleton, and one bottle of rum from the resort. :)

Appleton!

Here's the old fashioned way of doing things - the donkey is crushing the sugar cane!

It was actually very pretty there!

Lots of molasses!

Lots of rum (aging in barrells!)

We got to taste the molasses / brown sugar combo.  It was....interesting :)

Here's Kevin acting like a donkey!

Us :)

Here's Norman our guide setting up the tasting - he looks like he's having a great time!

 

Yum!

Crazy amounts of rum :)

After we left the distillery, our group asked the driver if we could stop by a true Jamaican Jerk place.  He took us to this little shack about halfway back to the resort.  It was actually really good stuff!  The owner was so excited when we walked in and served us up right away.  It was probably among the best chicken I've ever had!  There were 7 of us there, and we all got huge plates of jerk chicken, red beans and rice, and 5 of us had beers, all for $30!  It was amazing!



Here's the shack!



The owner

 

Yes, and even a kitty haging out on the roof!




Here's Kevin and I with the owner!



The next excursion we took was to the Y.S. Falls to go ziplining and go into the falls.  It was a beautiful place and a lot of fun.   It was the first time we had ever been ziplining, and we thought it was so cool!  Our guides got us all suited up shoved us down the lines!  It really made you feel like Tarzan (or Jane in my case :)).

Kevin and I waiting to zip down the next line!

Kevin in action!

Me in action!

Yeah!



Woo!

After ziplining, we had a guide take us through the falls and take a bunch of pictures of us.  It was a lot of fun...but very cold!  Kevin even did a rope swing where he swung off a platform and dropped into the water from about 30 feet!

The falls

About to drop!

There he goes!

I was swinging!



Some pics of us!!



Cannonball!!


The vacation was such a blast and we got so many pictures!  Take a look below for some more of my favs :)

Running through the waves!

Yes, that's a Coke Light!

Peacocks are everywhere!

Coconut water and coconut rum!  Yum :)

Tasty!

Kevin and I at the Beach Party

Beach Party

White Night Party

Smile!

The flowers are gorgeous there!

Neptunes, our favorite dinner spot

Getting some sun!

Yes...spent a LOT of time here :)

Bluefield's on the beach - nice little lunch spot :)

Making illegal chess moves :)

:)

Beach

Spirit of Jamaica show

Asauney and I, our favorite bartender

Kevin and Asauney

More beach!

Hobie cats :)

Kevin reading about Walt Disney World!

YAY!

KK in the water



Avril, another of our favorite bartenders, making us shots





Bob Marley shots



Our group about to partake in the Bob Marley's!



Shoot it!

Our last night in Jamaica was actually our 5th anniversary.  We decided to end our vacation with a sunset photo shoot and a private candlelit dinner for two on the beach.  We couldn't have picked a more perfect ending for a wonderful week!  I put the pictures from the sunset photo shoot below.  They turned out great.


We also had some pictures taken at our dinner (which was a wonderful 5 course meal).  We truly couldn't have picked a better ending for our wonderful week.  It was a great anniversary!!

Spicing it up!

I thought I would mess around with my blog today and spice it up a little (the brown background was growing a little bland in my opinion).  I think the orange definitely makes a statement! :)  I also added a short bio of both Kevin and I.

I am also so excited for this upcoming weekend...we have a date night scheduled for Friday!  Yay!  Kevin and I haven't gone out for a really nice dinner in months and we (actually I) finally decided it was time to go to a nicer place than the Old Bag of Nails in Delaware. :)  We are going to Barcelona in the German Village (near downtown).  I love this place, and haven't been there forever! :)

Saturday, I am dragging Kevin to the Health and Fitness Expo to see Bethenny Frankel speak (Real Housewives of New York City, and New York Times Bestselling Author).  I just purchased her book 'Naturally Thin' a few weeks ago, and read through it at lightning speed.  It gets two thumbs up from me!  I definitely recommend it.  It is a great way to think about food, cooking, and exercise without having to deprive yourself of the things you really enjoy.  Hopefully I can get a picture with her...if so I will post one next week! :)

Hope you enjoy the new look of my blog!!

Ohio State Fair :)

We have been so busy this summer!! We have had every weekend booked with something since mid-July, and only have one free weekend until we leave for Jamaica in about a month. We have managed to squeeze in some time at the Ohio State Fair this year though, which is always a must for us! It’s kind of trashy and dirty, and just looking at the food booths can clog your arteries, but Kevin and I always have a blast!

Two weekends ago we went to do our usual Fair night. We always have to go on the Sky Ride, ride the Ferris Wheel, see the cows and sheep, and of course…ruin our diets with some Fair food!  Actually¸ this year we didn’t get too out of control…since we are headed to a tropical paradise in a month…but we managed to squeeze in few fun things.

Here are some fun pictures of our first night at the Ohio State Fair.

Here's our obligatory self pic :)

The Ferris Wheel...a must do!

There's me on the Ferris Wheel...with downtown C-Bus behind me!

Kevin having fun on the Ferris Wheel!

Sheep!

Baby calf.  Week old and ADORABLE! :)

Shhhh...they're sleeping....

Butter sculpture in the dairy barn!

Kevin with a really big Pumpkin :)

Everything terrible for you...but do they really need to deep fry PB&J???

Yes, they even had chocolate covered bacon...

And yes, someone was dying to try it :)

Riding the Sky Ride!

Gotta love the fair!

We actually did go back again this past Thursday, but not to tour the cow barn, or sample bad for you Fair food…but actually went to see one of my favorite bands of all time, Heart! This is the second year in a row that we’ve seen them, and they are amazing! A lot of my favorite songs are older than I am, but Ann Wilson sounds the same as she did back in the 70’s…if not better! Here is Kevin’s review on his blog of the concert…I 100% agree with everything he had to say!
http://www.softrock933.com/pages/pp_kevinkirschner.html

Until next time! Hopefully I will be able to post an update before our vacation :)

When I grow up...

What do I want to be when I grow up??? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself since I was about 4 years old! When I was a kid I always wanted to be a veterinarian (since I’ve always LOVED animals). Well…when I was about 10 I realized that you actually would have to deal with blood, vomit, and worst of all putting animals down. I decided that was definitely not the career path for me! I decided to just have pets when I grew up...now, with two dogs and two cats, I think I’ve definitely achieved that!

Going through high school I briefly wanted to be a flight attendant, but then read that most airlines don’t like to employ flight attendants taller than 5’9”. Being almost 6” I realized that was out! After flying on the small Embraer planes with Delta and American, I am glad about that! I can’t even stand up straight on those planes!

When I got to Ohio University, I majored in Communications with a Business (Human Resources) minor. When I got close to graduating I decided to try and find a job as a recruiter. For me, it seemed that every HR related job required ‘X’ years of experience. Hmm….I just graduated college; I have exactly 0 years experience! So, I took a job with Enterprise Rent-A-Car in their “Management Trainee” program (whom I had interned with the summer between my junior and senior year of college). I started full time in Baltimore, MD and lived with my best friend Danielle. After working there for a few months, I realized that this was definitely NOT the career path I wanted to take! To put it in perspective, this was a typical day: wake up and get into work between 7 and 7:30 (offices opened at 8), spend the day picking up grouchy people from body shops and dealerships, get your butt chewed out by at least 5 customers a day, and then get chewed out by your manager about not selling enough damage waiver (aka: car rental insurance coverage), leave work at about 7PM and do it all over again the next day. It was an exhausting job, but I managed to stick it out in Baltimore and Columbus for almost four years overall. (Kevin and I met there, so it wasn’t all bad!)

When I left there, I had gotten a job with BMW Financial Services as a Learning and Development Coordinator. I had finally gotten a contract job in an HR field (albeit training…but it was close enough for me!) At first it took a whole lot of getting used to. I was working shorter hours, and was in a typical office setting. I think I would have loved that job from the beginning, but there was one girl I worked with who was a total know-it-all “biz-natch” that made me dread going to work. Once she left (was canned) I LOVED it. I got to coordinate all the internal training sessions, helped set up and implement the training database, and scheduled employees for internal and external training. To this day, it was the best job I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, since it was a contract job, they really didn’t like you to stay in the same position for more than a year. After 7 months, my managers started pushing me to apply to get hired on full time with BMW. The bad part about this was the fact that all entry level full-time jobs were in the call center. I KNEW taking a call center job was going to be horrible, but if I could stick it out for a year, they told me to start applying for jobs in different departments. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stick it out for a year. I hated it so much I interviewed for another job about two weeks after I started. I got hired at L-3 (my current employer) about 8 months later as an Engineering Aide / Project Coordinator.

I have been at L-3 for almost 4½ years now. I like aspects of my job, and I dislike a lot too. It’s ok, just not what I envisioned myself doing (ever). When I was in school, my dad wanted me to major in MIS or IT, and I told him that I didn’t want to be sitting behind a computer in a cubicle 5 days a week. Welcome to my reality!

I know I would love to get into full-time event planning (wedding / corporate events) because I love doing that kind of stuff, and it’s something I know I have a knack for. This is the fourth year I have been on the Employee Appreciation team at L-3, and I love doing that. I get to plan all the outside events for our office…and it’s a lot of fun! I know in order to be truly happy, I would have to bite the bullet and actually start a business of my own. It’s been something I’ve been talking about forever, so here’s hoping I actually get the courage to do it someday! So, yes, I actually do know what I want to do when I grow up…maybe putting it out here will give me the push I need to start!

Happy 4th of July!

What a fun Fourth we've had!  We've definitely kept ourselves busy.

Friday Kevin and I went shopping and had a drink over at Easton Towne Center!  Instead of going downtown and fighting the crazy traffic home, we decided to have dinner at home and enjoy some flag cake. :)  (I make it every year!)

Saturday we went to the Columbus Crew game with our friends Brandon and Lexi for Red, White, and Crew!  We had a great time and saw some great fireworks.  It helped that they won too! :)  GO CREW!

On the 4th, we woke up to a swollen doggy.  Mullen had either eaten a spider or got stung by a bee and her whole jaw swelled up.  So, we made our way over to the emergency vet for some shots and Benedryl.  I'm happy to report she is back to normal today! 

My Poor Girl :(

After hanging with the puppies, Mullen was feeling better so we finally went to go see Toy Story 3 in 3D.  It was fantastic!  We ended the night with dinner at a Japanese Steak House and viewing the Delaware fireworks from our front yard! 

What a great weekend.  Happy Birthday America!

Veggie-girl no more!

“Wait a sec…WHAT?!?!” was the response from my family and friends. I have been what I term a “pseudo-vegetarian” or “pescatarian” for over 7 years now. To be honest, it wasn’t that difficult to start. I haven’t eaten red meat (steak, burgers, hotdogs, etc) for almost 20 years. Pork just gradually fell out of the equation somewhere along the way as well. Actually, I think the last time I had a pork chop was over at my friend Helen’s house in high school. But, I did remain loyal to chicken and turkey since I wasn’t a big fan of seafood.

When I moved to Baltimore after college, I realized that seafood wasn’t all that bad (I think it was the crab cakes…mmmm!). I started incorporating more seafood into my diet, and therefore started eating less chicken. I have also always been a huge fan of vegetarian entrees (with the exception of the ones that include tofu…yuck), and would look for them wherever I went out to eat.

When I moved to Columbus a year later, I was going to be living by myself. I honestly decided somewhere along the drive from Baltimore to Columbus that I wasn’t going to eat meat any longer. I wasn’t really enjoying it, and I had no interest in preparing it for myself. Done! I’m not eating meat anymore. And I stuck with it…

Lately though, I had been rethinking that decision. I know I don’t get enough protein. Even though I do eat fish, I probably only eat 2 or 3 servings a week. I was tired of getting sick all the time, and also knew I had to change something if I was going to get pregnant anytime soon. I was also tired of my stomach always feeling bloated and bothering me. Cooking two different meals for Kevin and I has gotten old too. Although he is more than happy to eat my veggie fare now and then, he is a meat-lover at heart. Another (albeit vain) reason is the fact that I want to feel confident when spending pretty much a whole week in a bikini when we go to Jamaica. I’m not there yet. I work out consistently, and have not seen any results from my workouts. I can run 4-5 miles, work out on an elliptical, lift, and still see nothing. It is true “You are what you eat!” I know I needed to lessen my carb intake, and increase my protein. My motto always was I don’t eat meat, so I can eat as many carbs as I want! :)

So, last Sunday I took the plunge. I got myself a piece of salmon for dinner, got Kevin some chicken, and he was going to barbeque both of them. I told him I wanted to try a bite of his chicken. When the time came, I was actually nervous! I ate the whole bite he gave me, while he looked at me wide-eyed the entire time and thought I was going to spit it out. I didn’t, and was also surprised it was actually good!

Now, I’m back eating white meat (sans pork) again. It’s going well, and although I’ve been a little tired the past couple days…overall, I feel a lot better! Kevin and my parents are very excited. My diet has always been somewhat limiting for family gatherings. I am also excited because this opens up a whole new realm of dishes I can order at restaurants. There are quite a few places where I only get one thing every time we go. It should be interesting!!

Now, I’m going out to get some KFC!! (Just kidding!)