Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Mexican Riviera Cruise

Here are some highlights from our 2010 Mexican Riviera Cruise...posted just in time for us to leave on our next vacation. Hawaii is just a few short days away!


Getting on the boat


Eating Ice Cream while watching the waves go by...


Eating ice cream while playing games...


Eating ice cream in a coconut...

Yes, we ate a lot of ice cream! It was good.

Hanging out in the pool with friends


Soaking up the sun...




And hiding from it, or maybe he is just dressed up as Jedi Master Sunstroke.





Dinner in the dining room was great even if the decor was a little "Suessical". The Creme Brulee was the favorite for the week!

(I think they were supposed to be oysters with pearls in them, but all I could think was breakfast!)



Dolphin Swim in Puerto Vallarta. It was totally AWESOME!








A sad thing happened the night before we got into PV. One of the crew members jumped overboard at about 12:30am. The boat turned around to look for him. He was never found.

So that was the first half of our trip...more to come later.

Monday, October 4, 2010

New Family Picts





Thanks to my cute neighbor and good friend Melissa for giving up her Sunday afternoon for us. They all turned out great!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

17 some odd years ago







Since I took all the time to scan these pictures into my computer I thought I'd post them so you could all have a good laugh at how young and goofy we look.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Books and School and Stuff

Books:
Im up to 34. Been reading a lot lately and I've read some good ones. We are really enjoying the Peter and the Starcatchers series. Its a prequel to Peter Pan. We especially like to listen to the audio books. It's read by the same reader that did the Harry Potter audio books...Jim Dale. He has to be my all-time favorite reader. I also read Wings and Spells by Aprilynn Pike. Cute books and easy reads. The love triangle thing gets a little tiresome, but overall I've enjoyed them. But the one that I've read lately that I highly reccommend, especially if you are a fan of the "Uglies" series by Scott Westerfield is Unwind by Neil Schusterman. Check it out!

School:
Starts on Monday. I'm not ready! Next year I have to remember to take the Friday before school starts off so I can play with the kids. Of course next year Braden will not be attending public school. Okay, that's just too weird. I don't even want to think about it! Anyway, I'm just not ready for it to start again. Summer went too fast.

Stuff:
The dryer is broken. You'd think I'd be happy about this since it gives me an excuse to not do laundry and I guess I am. What I'm not happy about is how long it will take me to catch up on the laundry once it's fixed. Blech!

Other stuff:
I'm not ready for school to start...did I mention that already? Well, I'm not!

K...that's all. Yeah, we're boring I know. Thanks for reading anyway.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Book Count

18

Sadly I'm not on track to finish my goal of 100. I've just barely averaged 1 book a week, instead of the 2 a week I should be reading.

Just keep reading...just keep reading...

Here's what Ive read so far in case anyone needs some ideas:

Keys to the Demon Prison (Fablehaven #5)
The City of Ember
The People of Sparks (City of Ember#2)
The Vipers Nest (39 Clues #7)
The Emperors Code (39 Clues #8)
Mississippi Jack (Bloody Jack #5)
Evermore
The Maze Runner
Graceling (The Seven Kingdoms Trilogy #1)
Fire (The Seven Kingdoms Trilogy #2)
Syren (Septimus Heap #5)
The Count of Monte Cirsto
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Hush, Hush
The Lost Symbol
Three Cups of Tea
The Killer Angels
Intertwined
The Shadow of Your Smile

You can check out my Goodreads.com profile for my reviews on some of these books. For the most part I have really enjoyed what I've read so far this year.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Cute Girl



Here's cute Brooklynn all dressed up for a costume party she went to this weekend. It was a "How to Host a Mystery" party. Her character was the intelligent Miss Emily Stratford. The setting was 1807. We rented this dress for the party complete with hoop skirt. The skirt was so wide that she could hardly fit through doorways, but she sure did look gorgeous! I love to dress her up, but she hates it. She had lots of fun at the party though.

Monday, March 22, 2010

I'm ready to go here!


Its official, we have airfare booked to go back to Hawaii in December. I'm torn between wanting our vacation to come, but knowing that it will be WINTER again if I wish it here too fast.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

My Goal: 100 Books in 2010

They say you should write down your goals to be successful at completing them, so there it is. My goal is to read 100 books this year. 4 3/4 books down 95 1/4 books to go. Except I think The Count of Monte Cristo should count for at least 3 books.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Finally Finished

The Count of Monte Cristo (Oxford World's Classics) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this one for book club. They read it in November...it took me a little longer to finish. I had started reading the abridged version, but decided I wanted the challenge of reading the LONG version (all 1130 pages of it). I really liked the movie they made a few years back based on this story so I was excited to read it. The book was different from the movie...of course it had much more detail, but the most noticeable difference was the ending. The book didn't have the same "happy" ending as the movie. I really enjoyed reading this book.
View all my reviews >>

Monday, January 11, 2010

Update

I know I'm a terrible blogger, but I thought Id give you a quick update on whats going on in the Mounteer household:

Jason is still working hard. He got an iPod touch for Chirstmas and is enjoying all the new apps he has put on it. He is also liking the Wi-Fi connection so he has internet access at work. He still works a lot, but took some much needed time off during the holidays. One of his main goals this year is to stop working his second job. His plan for this is to try to convince his wife (me) to go back to school so that I can work in a job that pays better. I'm protesting. The problem is I don't know what I want to be when I grow up...actually the bigger problem is that I don't want to grow up at all.

Steph is still liking her "new" job in the Mammography Department as a scheduler. My favorite part is the drive. It takes me 10 minutes to get to work and I can go two whole weeks on one tank of gas. I also love being able to play on facebook and blogging while at work. I hate how winter throws a wrench into my running...either it's too cold, the air quality is too bad or there is snow all over the parkway, but I try to get out as often as possible. As long as it's above 20 degrees I'll go out, and honestly the air doesn't really bother me. Of course when I'm diagnosed with lung cancer from breathing in all that yucky air I may wish that I had let it bother me. Funny that I'd rather run outside in 20 degree weather than on a stupid treadmill!

Braden turned 16 this last year and got his licence, a car and two jobs. It took a while to find a job, but for the month of December he worked two jobs at the same time. It got a little crazy, but he survived and now just works at the movie theater. The perks include free movies for him and a guest which really comes in handy for dates. I'm still waiting for him to take me to see Avatar though. He is working hard in school and taking some difficult classes. For the first time he is realizing that sometimes you have to study for tests. He's a great kid though and gives me very few problems. I am grateful that when I hear others talking about how much they want to kill their teenagers I can say: 'That's too bad for you...I really enjoy my teens.'

Brooklynn is still ice skating. She's playing with the idea of competing two programs instead of just one as she has for the last couple of years. She is really enjoying Jr High school and earned a 4.0 GPA for first term, and is on track to earn one for second term as well. She also serves as the Beehive class president in Young Womens and I am constantly hearing her praises at church. She is a great kid and everyone seems to know it.

So there you have a little update on what we've been up to. I'll try to be better, especially at taking pictures, but I don't make any promises.