This morning’s sunrise

jenmarie33 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:15:00 +0000

This morning I woke up to the most amazing sunrise I think I have ever seen. That’s not to say it was the most amazing ever, just that I have seen.
I am more of a sunset person than a sunrise person. This may be due in part to the fact that sunsets happen at a much more reasonable hour of the day than do sunrises.
Or it may be due to the fact that I have seen enough disappointing sunrises in my time to know that it’s generally not worth my waking up early for.

Probably a combination of both.
When we were in India this past August, I awoke every morning in plenty of time to see the sunrise. Not by choice but due to the fact that every church in the area starts playing loud “music” (aka noise) at about 4 AM. That combined with roosters, etc, made for an early start to each day. So up to the roof I would go to watch the sunrise while everyone else was still sleeping (I don’t know how they could still sleep, but then again I was the only one sleeping with a door open to the outside..) Those sunrises were pretty enough, but certainly nothing worth getting up early for.
There was also the time when we awoke at 3 AM while in Hawaii to go ride up to the top of Mt. Haleakala to watch the sunrise and then bike back down the volcano. On the way up I sat in the front seat next to our dreadlocked, hippie driver who played his Moroccan reggae music the whole time and told me about Morocco and why he came to Hawaii and where to find drugs on the island. He also kept talking about how if we got to the top in time we might see a good sunrise. If I have to get up at 3 AM, it’d better be a good sunrise. Maybe it would have been had it not been completely cloudy and rainy the whole time at the top. It was August…in Hawaii….why was it raining up there? It was also freezing cold. So…after a completely unimpressive sunrise, we started the ride back down. A ride in which I was pretty sure I was going to kill myself.
So…my memories of trying to go see sunrises aren’t the greatest.

When we were in Egypt one of the things our group was supposed to go do was hike up Mt. Sinai to watch the sunrise. Supposedly it’s amaaaazing. At least according to the reviews. And what time did this wonderful sunrise-seeing expedition take off? At the crack of stinkin’ midnight. Midnight sounds more like a time to go to bed, than to get out of bed. I decided that amazing or no, that was one experience I could live without. Midnight – while wielding a flashlight – is not my idea of a good time to start an 8 hour hike (start to finish). I don’t care how much money the trip cost. As it ended up, our entire group decided that was an experience they could live without. Much to the amazement of our tour director! He said that in all his years of leading groups he had never had an entire group decide to skip climbing Mt. Sinai. So instead he drove us all to the base of the mountain the next morning so we could at least see Mt. Sinai. I say the views from the bottom are good enough for me. It’s just a huge rock. And it looks ridiculous to try and climb.

Anyways…so…I say all of that to say, I was actually impressed this morning when I looked at the window at 6:36 and saw what looked like a sunset – in the East. If I could be guaranteed that all sunrises would be that vibrant then perhaps I’d get up more often to see them. Maybe.

And no, none of these photos are edited at all. It was really this amazing.

Photos for sale

jenmarie33 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:09:09 +0000

Sooo…apparently snipping these didn’t work so well, please forgive the random cut off photos in the middle. =/

People have been asking me for a while now if I sell pictures and if they can buy them. Up till now I have only printed them for myself, my family and for friends just for fun. I can’t wait till I have my own place again, every wall will feature these prints! =) But for now I only have 3 11x14s hung in my room. Along with a few 4x6s.

I have been meaning to get a website up and running for a while now, but since that hasn’t happened yet, here’s a link to a few pics that are listed on yardsellr. Not my favorite way to list them but hey it’s free. =) I will probably post a few more later on today or tomorrow – there are sooo many pictures to wade through from over the years – if you are looking for something specific, let me know, I might have it somewhere =)

So if anyone is interested, or knows of anyone who is interested, feel free to share.

Photos for sale – the online viewing quality isn’t the greatest =/

Where I’d go Wednesday

jenmarie33 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:18:39 +0000

Croatia

Croatia lies across the Adriatic Sea from Italy in Central Europe. Wikipedia says that Croatia is ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination! (By whose rankings I am not sure but…)

Croatia has many beautiful parks and preserves. Combine that with old world European architecture and…you’ve got a fabulous destination!

Plitvice National Park

*All pictures from Wikipedia

After the rain

jenmarie33 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:30:52 +0000

Leaf from our glittery pink and yellow pointsettia

Reminded me of a heart

On rainy days and the deeper thoughts in life

jenmarie33 — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:31:51 +0000

Almost my entire family is outside trying to fix a broken water pipe right now, while I sit here by the window watching the rain come down, eating blueberry Eggo waffles, and…blogging. Yes, I do feel bad but…I really wouldn’t be any help out there anyways. All I would manage to accomplish would be to get completely soaked, and then come inside and not be able to take a shower to get cleaned up…The water line was the one that went to the water heater and so it’s shut off.

Sooo….we’ll see what happens to today’s plans. I was supposed to go in to the church this morning and then go to Tommy’s basketball game this afternoon before running errands, but I’m not going anywhere until I can wash this hair! I’ve done cold showers before, but usually when it’s 70+ degrees outside and not quite as painful.

So I am just sitting here inside where it’s warm, contemplating things like:

1. The fact that I used to go to all my brother’s sports games to watch them compete. Now I am going to watch them coach. That makes me feel old.

2. I wonder if I am getting sick or if all these symptoms are just from allergies. Namely a really annoying sore throat =/

3.Why Mormons – as a general rule – tend to be really attractive people. How do you get a corner on the market of good looks for an entire religious group? Why couldn’t Baptists have gotten that luck? It still doesn’t make any sense to me. If you have any insight into that one please do share!

4. I wonder if it will stop raining anytime soon so I can go get raindrop pictures?

5. I didn’t get a single hit from “Tim Tebow” so apparently that was a waste of time. But I did get smarter. Mi amiga and I did some research and apparently if I had written “I’m Tim Tebow’s girlfriend” I would have gotten hits. And probably lots of hate mail from around the country from all his crazy stalkers, wow. There are some weird, weird people in this world. And some of them are seeing signs as to why they are going to marry him. Pretty sure I don’t want all those crazies converging on my doorstep so…

Completely deep topics, I know, what can I say…

Why I’m going to marry Tim Tebow ;) Or not…

jenmarie33 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:49:12 +0000

The other day Rebekah was asking for name ideas for a new product she is offering on her crochet website. She said that her coworker suggested adding the word “winter” into the name to get more internet hits to her blog. So I suggested just naming the product “Tim Tebow” – if all she was after was more blog traffic. She liked the idea, but apparently not that much…
So since she didn’t use it, I am. =) If you came looking for a sports article, sorry. I don’t write much about football here. Sometimes baseball. But that’s about it. Actually I don’t write about much at all these days. Sometimes I put up a few pictures. That’s about it. It’s gotten kind of pathetic, truth be told. But..that’s life…
Anyways…but seriously though I’m kidding, obviously. I mean he’s a great guy. The kind of guy every good Christian girl wants to marry. The kind of guy that you are like “see, I knew good guys had to exist somewhere! Even if you doubted your sanity when you said it. Probably the first actually good idea my friends have come up with for me, ha. Good meaning they actually found someone dateable, not good as in “workable.” (Boo being famous!) Too bad dateable and workable is almost impossible to find together. “But…He’s got a heart for missions! He’s such a nice guy! He’s Baptist!….Are you sure your dad doesn’t know his dad? (yes, I’m sure)”….I know, what’s not to love…as if they need to convince me! lol.
But hey, they are improving in their selections so this could be headed in the right direction!….if there’s anyone else like that left to find…which is questionable. But I do appreciate them “trying.” Mostly.

Tonight’s flowers

jenmarie33 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:33:02 +0000

I love how the tendrils of this plant weave themselves through the chain link fence

Solo shot

jenmarie33 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:45:05 +0000

This past Sunday afternoon I felt like taking pictures, but there was nothing around that I hadn’t already shot…Except this one bird. =) He looked so cute and chubby just sitting there on the branch. =) And I liked the black stripes on his head too.

A day at the beach

jenmarie33 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:33:55 +0000

Yesterday Brandi and I went up to see Antonia since I had the day off of work. Here’s a few shots from the day:

It was a little windy =)

Lily and her dirty hands that she wanted photographed =)

Melody and Jeremiah =)

Lily posing with her name in the sand =)

And again =)

Writing in the sand...

Melody running through the water after writing her name in the sand

Where I’m Going Wednesday

jenmarie33 — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:29:48 +0000

So it’s been a long time since I last posted a Wednesday travel post. I will try to get back into that, but no guarantees how consistent it will be. =) Life is busy and I’ve been really preoccupied lately – as you can probably tell from the very neglected blog. But….since I have been getting this question since the day I got back from Europe, and I finally have a concrete answer, I decided to share it. The answer to “so where are you going next?” is…

The Caribbean!

I am so, so excited about this trip. I know, I say that about every trip. And it’s true every time. =) But really, I have wanted to do this for a long time, and really didn’t expect it to happen this soon. The only thing that would make it 10xs better would be if I had unlimited time off of work so I could stay longer, and just explore each island on my own (without being on a cruise) and take the ferry to each country when I had decided it was time to move on. But, nothing in life is completely perfect right? So I am taking what I can get, and am ecstatic that I get to go! Due to varying circumstances – one huge one being that I recently decided to try to buy a condo/townhouse this year – I had assumed that all my 2012 travel plans were out the window. So I really didn’t think this was going to happen this year. But it is and I can’t wait. I have never been to the Caribbean before so… I’m excited. The crazy thing is that we almost booked a cruise to the Bahamas and then decided to just wait and book it the next day since it was late in the evening. The next day I started reading reviews and decided to continue to look for another trip since the reviews of both the cruise line and the ports of call weren’t that great. I hadn’t realized that my mom had enough frequent flier miles to fly to Puerto Rico, so I had been looking for cruises that left from Florida. Once I realized that, then we were able to start looking at southern Caribbean cruises!!! I can’t even begin to tell you how elated I was. I had always wanted to fly to Puerto Rico and cruise over to some of the nearby islands.

Yes, I always ramble when I am excited. =)

So….I say all that to say, we are flying down to Puerto Rico a day early to do some sightseeing and then catching the cruise the next day.

We sail to from PR to St. Thomas

St. Thomas UVI

and St. Croix (but not in this order) in the US Virgin Islands,

St. Croix UVI

Grenada,

Grenada

Dominica,

Dominica

and St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Kitts with Nevis in the distance

(the country of St. Kitts and Nevis is made up of two islands, St. Kitts and the island of Nevis, but we’re just going to St. Kitts).

If you know me at all you know that I love frequent flier miles! Well, I love them until I have to try and use them. Then it’s a nightmare. It’s often pretty hard to get reward flights on the days you need them. Or on the days you need them at the PRICE you want is more accurate. I only had 50,000 miles with Delta and so could only book certain flights to PR. All the rest were 60,000 and up. So trying to work that into dates when cruises left from PR and went to where we wanted to go was also hard. PLUS we could only book this in April (and within a limited budget!). The combination of those 4 factors alone were enough to make me want to pull my hair out while trying to book this vacation. It took many, many hours to get this trip nailed down. Plus my mom is super, super busy so we were trying to book it for certain days in April when she wouldn’t be needed quite so much while we were gone. I really, really didn’t think this trip was happening. So the fact that it is is a small miracle! So…even though they can be a pain, frequent flier miles/reward travel can be a huge money saver!

*All images taken from wikipedia (so…that’s why they aren’t that great)

**I’m not a huge fan of cruises but they can be an affordable and easy way to get to islands you would otherwise have a bit more difficulty and expense in getting to. Visiting 3 countries and 3 US territories on this trip is costing us less than our trip to New England cost, and that was using free flights then too!