Cruisin' Home

The last stop on our cruise was...

Grand Turk Island was not on our original itinerary at all, actually. We were supposed to go to Puerto Rico and St. Martin, but after the massive hurricanes last fall, our cruise was re-routed to Nassau and Grand Turk Island.

It was crazy how close to shore the ship could dock!

We didn't have anything planned for this stop, but I again wanted to do something instead of sit around, or sleep, all day. We found an island map and discovered that Grand Turk is very small; 6.9 square miles, to be exact- 7 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. I would've been game to try and walk around the whole thing, but Jason didn't want to risk getting left behind if we were late getting back to the ship. Instead, we tried to hire a car to drive around. I mean, there's only a certain amount of lost that you can get in 6.9 square miles of basically flat island! The hire car booth was very poorly manned, and we didn't want to wait around all day to try and get a car. So we asked a local that was advertising bus tours what they had to offer, and we ended up doing that.

We had to wait a couple of hours for our tour, so we checked out the sights that were right there at the port.

I don't think we ever learned the significance of Mr. Whale.

There was an large informational display on the Mercury Space Program, and how John Glenn and Scott Carpenter were debriefed at the local U.S.A.F. facilities after their splashdown. 

When we finally got to go on our island bus tour, it was informative, but not very leisurely. The driver did stop twice. Once in the Historic Cockburn Town area where there were some local tourist shops and food huts. He also pointed out "The Wall," a massive drop off in the ocean that is a huge attraction for scuba divers. Not too far off the shore, "The Wall" plunges over 6,000 feet straight down. Jason was excited to see the dark blue spot in the ocean where "The Wall" is at, and would've scuba dived if given the chance.

The island was hit by the hurricanes, though not as badly as other places. You could still see the aftermath of missing roofs, blown over trees, shingles in the ocean, and even large pieces of debris lying oddly about the shore and inland. The flowers, and landscape, were still pretty, though!

And the ocean water was so gorgeous! The beautiful blues and turquoise colors were amazing, and so clear and clean!

One claim to fame for Grand Turk is their wild donkeys. Although, they would almost walk right into the bus for food! They were everywhere, and just freely roam the island.

Our second bus stop was at the Historic Lighthouse. It is no longer in operation, but they have a little museum there, I believe. It cost extra money, and we were out of spending money at that point, so we did not see the museum.

There were also a lot of roaming horses on the island. I'm not sure if they were just free-range, or if they belonged to someone.

Beside the lighthouse was the old U.S.A.F. base which has suffered from the weather over the years.

More of the pretty flowers.

These Turks Head cacti are an iconic plant on the island. The red tops are said to look like the Turkish fez hat that used to be worn by the Turkish Army. I believe Jason knew this fact previous to us visiting Grand Turk, and he specifically wanted to get a photo of this cacti.

Most of the places we stopped on our cruise had old cannons (or replicas) positioned artfully around the port.

Another ship waaaaay out there on the ocean.

Our new towel animal from Gede: a dinosaur.

 After we returned to the ship, Jason wanted to nap. Since it was the nicest evening out of the entire trip, I decided to go try and watch the sunset from the top of the ship.

 The sun started setting as we were leaving Grand Turk Island, and while it was beautiful, I feel like there are probably even more amazing sunsets that happen at sea.

There were actually three food carving/art displays, but this is the only one that the photo turned out well.

 We had a full day and two nights of sailing on our return to Miami, Florida. The "How to Make Towel Animals" was one activity that we participated in. I successfully made an elephant.

 And a dog. Not sure if I can recreate them now, though!

Our very last towel animal from Gede: an elephant wearing my sunglasses.

And that concludes the tour of our cruise trip. I hope you enjoyed the photos- I feel like I did not do as good of a job with taking photos, or getting good photos, on this trip as I have in the past. That may be in part to having a new camera and figuring out the settings. (Or the camera isn't as good as our old one; I haven't decided.) Anyways, thanks for joining me on my Cruise post series!

Recipe Reviews! Week 6

Wow. This week's recipes were a definite trial and error batch. And, I'll just say right now, I did not get very many photos of the actual food. Let's get started. This week's recipes included...

Greek Frittata

Several years ago, I cut this recipe out of the Natural Grocers sales paper, but never tried it until this week. I have only had frittatas in

Tuesday Tip: Socks

Today's helpful tip is the sock-pairing method that I have found to work best for us. Meaning, the sock pairs actually stay together in the drawer, or wherever their home is as clean socks. And, when anyone grabs a pair, they actually get a matched pair in one swipe without rummaging through trying to find a sock's mate.

Over the course of years, I have seen several methods of folding and storing matched pairs of socks. They are pictured below:

A. The safety-pin method 

B. The fold-in-half method (This is what I grew up with- they don't stay folded, or together, especially in my husbands sock drawer!)

Our Favorite Day on the Cruise

After our day, and night, at sea (which you can read about in Continuing the Cruise), we stopped in the Dominican Republic. This stop was probably our favorite day on the whole cruise.

Those guys played music while people were disembarking and coming ashore at Amber Cove.

We had scheduled a "Shore Excursion" that included a shuttle to a private beach area with a freshly cooked/grilled traditional D. R. lunch provided

Continuing the Cruise

In case you missed the first post (which you can find here), Jason and I took a cruise for our 5th anniversary. The second stop on our cruise was in...

Nassau, Bahamas

We had nothing planned for this stop, but I had determined that we were going to actually do something. There were about 5 other cruise ships stopped at Nassau that same day, so getting off the boat and into the little town area was a bit frustrating. Especially since I really had no desire to be around people. But, we eventually made it through the crowds, through the little shopping huts where people wanted to braid your hair, and I

Product Review: Burt's Bees Shampoo & Conditioner

I have wanted to try doing product reviews for you, but just haven't gotten started on it until today. As such, please feel free to provide constructive criticism regarding my review, what makes a review helpful to you, and suggestions on how to be a more effective product reviewer at the end of this post.

Burt's Bees Very Volumizing Shampoo & Conditioner with Pomegranate

About the Product: The Burt's Bees brand promotes natural skin care, lip balm, and hair products, just to name a few. (You can read more about

Recipe Reviews! Week 5

Welcome to Week 5 of my recipe reviews! This week's recipes included...

Blueberry Oatmeal Bread

I don't remember when I found this recipe, but I have been really wanting to try it. I thought it looked really good! I used the old-fashioned rolled

We Took a Cruise

Yep, that kind of cruise- going out on the ocean on a giant ship for several days. Jason really wanted to do it for our 5th anniversary this past December, and he planned the whole thing. I will be honest and say that I did not want to go on the cruise. First reason was because I thought it was pointless: Jason works nights and sleeps all day, even on his days off. So why go on a cruise with someone that is going to sleep all day? I was a little bit grouchy about it, if you want to know the truth. Second reason I didn't want to go was because I thought we could do more productive

A Slap in God's Face

I don't know about anyone else, but liking myself is an area that I have struggled with for most of my life. I remember being a little kid, probably somewhere between 6-8 years old, and wishing my body shape was more like my sister's. And that wish has continued to this day, although which sister I am envying changes over the years. And what part of me that I wish was different changes, too.

It's not like I was a fat kid; I don't even think that I could claim to have been overweight. I just was not as skinny as my sister, and somehow I had gotten the idea that skinny was better. I don't even know what that specific insecurity stemmed from; I just knew that I was thicker, my belly was always rounder, my butt stuck out further, and I ate more food than she did. As a teenager, it became even more obvious that we had different body types- she inherited one side of the family's body genes, and I got a different gene. If you were to see pictures (I don't have any available), you could see that I did go through a chubbier stage which kind of evened out towards the late teens. But, in my opinion, I was still always rounder than she, and at that point I felt I was chubbier, rounder, fatter, than any of my sisters.

Over the years, there have been conversations between my sisters about exchanging the "extra blessed" areas with someone that wishes for more padding in that area. It's never really happened, though, in case you're wondering. But, it's common for us to complain about a specific part of our body, especially when it comes to trying on new clothes, buying clothes, having to find a specific piece of clothing, etc. And everyone has something to complain about in regards to how they are shaped, and how they look.

Most recently, and I actually instigated this so I'm to blame, there was a discussion over what we were all wearing to our brother Luke's wedding. I

Kids Book Review: God Bless My Family

I thought I might try to do a short review of a kids book once a month. Even though our collection of kids books is pretty small, we read lots of books with Little Pumpkin. And she likes to look at books on her own, too.

God Bless My Family

Author: Hannah C. Hall

Illustrator: Steve Whitlow

This book seems to be one of Pumpkins favorite books right now and was given to her by her "adopted grandma," Sheryl. It is a larger sized, cardboard book which makes it easier for her to turn the pages. The illustrator uses dogs to portray the various family settings, and activities, which may also appeal to Pumpkin. I personally appreciate that the dogs, and the each of the scenes, are well-drawn, in my opinion, and also nicely depicted with varying colors that are fairly true to life.

Another illustration aspect I appreciate, and maybe just because I kind of like dogs, is that each page/family activity in the book is depicted with

Recipe Reviews! Week 4

My cooking this week had some struggles, and it wasn't always the fault of the recipes. I'll expound on that throughout the recipe reviews.

This week's recipes included...

Linda W's Stir-Fry

I remember having this as a kid, but haven't had it in ages! I was excited to make it, hoping for a really good stir-fry. I did deviate from the

To Pierce, or Not to Pierce

In case you didn't know....

...we take our bling very seriously around here!

Something I have wondered since having a child is: At what point, and age, and stage of life, is it ridiculous for a woman to have a nose piercing. I

My Favorite Things

This guy: Jason. One of my favorite people whom, I have finally come to realize, loves me unconditionally. Even though I'm not always very lovable. I don't express that he is one of my favorites very well, especially over the past year when I've struggled to have any feelings at all, for anything.

Recipe Reviews! Week 3

Something I have noticed with the recipes from my childhood is that they are meant for people that are outside throwing haybales, or some other such physical labour. We definitely need to eat our salads, fruits, and veggies with this recipe project!!!

Now, on to our recipes from this week....

Bread

We had 2 slices of bread left in the freezer, so I decided it was time to replenish. I have used other recipes for bread in the past,

Tuesday Tip: Bed Sheets

I'm trying a new thing of sharing various tips, or tricks, I have discovered that simplify my life. I'm not sure if I have enough tips to make it happen every Tuesday, but we'll see where it goes.

Bed Sheets: Folding, Storing, and Making the Bed

I'm sure everyone has heard, or seen, that there is some viral video out there on how to fold a fitted sheet. This is not that video. Instead, this bed sheet tip is geared more towards making it easier to put the sheets on the bed.

Folding Bed Sheets

First, fold the sheets inside out. I don't know about anybody else, but my instinct is to fold everything right side out; seams in. But, I recently realized that it makes the bed-making process harder than it needs to be. So, start by folding your sheets inside out. My folding method is as follows:

First, fold in half horizontally; end to end.

The Fall of Frugal Frannie

I used to be frugal. I grew up in a very frugal family. Before "upcycling" was a thing, we were doing it. Nothing got thrown away until it was used to the point of having no life left in it for re-purposing into something else. We could've been the poster family for "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," except our methods, and sometimes the results, were not exactly popular at that time. (Storing empty boxes, old magazines, plastic containers, material, donated hand-me-down clothes, etc. in 53 foot box trailers still might not be very popular today.) But, the things I read about, see people doing, and "green-living" trends I see today, I remember doing some of those exact things, or something similar, growing up. I grew up with hand-me-down clothes, getting all our clothes given to us by other families that cleaned out their closets, or Grandma died and they are cleaning out her house. Getting clothes from a thrift store, such as Salvation Army or Goodwill, was "new clothes!" for us. Or making your own clothes from material cleaned out of dead Grandma's house. My older siblings experienced the frugal life to an even greater degree than I; I don't want to paint

Don't Pee on My Mustard Seed!

I was slightly miffed when that thought crossed my mind a few months ago. I wanted to defend myself, and say "Don't pee on my mustard seed!" Or, maybe you're more familiar with the expression, "Don't rain on my parade!" Both sayings are pretty close to being the same. I think the "Don't rain on my parade," relates to someone putting a damper on your proud moment. The "Don't pee on my mustard seed," well, I think that was first coined by an old family friend, Darrel, and if I understand correctly, the saying has a Biblical foundation. Amusing, right?

Anyone familiar with the time Jesus told His disciples about having faith the size of a mustard seed? (Read Matthew 17:14-22.) If I am remembering correctly, Darrel, the old family friend, was explaining how something should work out (I have no idea what), and someone pointed out flaws, or reasons why it might not work out, or some other negative response. And, Darrel came back with, "Don't pee on my mustard seed!"

After that one instance a few months ago when I wanted to tell someone, "Don't pee on my mustard seed," I have thought about how often, and the many different ways, people unintentionally (I think) bring others down. That whether we're sharing good, or bad, things with each other, we tend to feel the need to "one-up," or "one-down," each other. How many times have you shared an accomplishment with someone, and instead of being happy for you and joining you in reveling in the glory for a minute, the person responded with,

My Reading Reviews: "Love Comes Softly"

At the beginning of this year, I decided to try and get back into reading books. I used to read a lot as a kid (fiction, some mystery, nothing to heavy or serious), but I have not really read books for pleasure since I started college years ago. In the past, Jason has tried to encourage me to read books, but I never really got started. This year, I did. With the revival of my blog, I'm hoping to do a bit of a book review for you, maybe once a month. But, that may depend on how much time I devote to reading! Before I start my first book review, let me put out a few disclaimers....

• I'm not 100% sure what a book review looks like, and it's been a while since I wrote a book report for school.
• I think book reviews are subjective to the reviewers personal, and natural, propensities, opinions, and beliefs.
• I am going to try and be objective.
• I am open to your thoughts and constructive criticism regarding my book reviews, and suggestions on how to be a better reviewer.

The first book I am sharing with you is actually