Busy Busy but Fun Fun!

Wow. I am not quite sure where to start. I feel like Ryan and I have been pretty busy since my last post! Ryan did great on his huge block of exams and his shelves, and now he only has one more class to finish up before we leave for Christmas! Wahoo! We had a nice Halloween holiday. We went to this place here called The Three Palms where you can make your own hamburger with as many toppings as you would like. It was pretty delicious! As you can see from my pictures, we all wore fun mustaches. I was trying to look like one of Ryan's Dutch professors with my mustache, and Ryan is trying to look like Kip from Napoleon Dynamite. I think that he wins!

Aaron, Docie, and Alexa

We look scary

Docie's matches her hair!

Kip

Docie and Aaron

Also, I have the best friends in the world who have sent me wonderful Fall Fun/Halloween/Thanksgiving packages! Mary Love Sledge, Mary Cile Glover-Rogers, Bailey Bartholomew, and Erin Atkinson have blessed me so much with all of their goodies that they have sent me! Mary Love sent me Halloween candy and some fall decorations with some baby pumpkins. Mary Cile sent me lots of baking goodies with very cute Thanksgiving cookie cutters, Thanksgiving decorations, and a much needed new razor! I have already made some cookies for one of the Spouses' Organization's bake sales, and here are some pictures:

Do you like my nice homemade icing that I made? I got the recipe from my mom, and it is called Royal Icing. I remember making this with my mom when I was little, and we would decorate Easter/Christmas/Thanksgiving cookies with it! I had so much fun doing it again as an adult! I tried to make "fallish" looking colors, but they still turned out a little bright- but oh well, they are still cute!

Bailey sent me a wonderful Harry Potter cookbook with tons of awesome recipes from things from the movie, including Butter Beer- which I can not wait to make!!! Also, she sent me some awesome pumpkin bread mix, a great smelling Yankee pumpkin spice candle, some wine in a bottle that is in the shape of a black cat (like my cat Cleo- notice the name tag that Bailey gave it!), some awesome pumpkin spice coffee that I have been drinking every morning, Halloween jelly bellies, and some awesome fall bean soup mix! Here is a picture that I sent Bailey thanking her for the awesome package!

I thought you might like my cheesy faces Bailey! 

Erin sent me an awesome package with my favorite candy- Sour Patch Kids, Nerds, and Gobstoppers! She also sent me my FAVORITE Bath and Body works lotion- Candy Apple (it only comes out at Christmas so it's a big deal!), and 2 very cute and brand new OPI nail polishes that I have been wanting! She also sent me the cutest 3D stand-up Thanksgiving napkins and Thanksgiving cups that say "Gobble till you Wobble!" I can't wait to use all of them- of course, I have already been eating the candy even though I am trying to save it for this Thursday night when the new Twilight movie comes out! Yay!

Thank you Erin! I didn't think that you wanted me to take a picture of my toenails! ha ha

So a big thank you goes out to my best friends in the whole world! I don't know what I would do without you! I miss you so much, and I can't wait to see you over the Christmas holidays!

On a different note, I have finally started working! YYAAAAAYYYY! So I can actually make some money for when I come home for the holidays and not be so bored. 

The only thing is- I am doing therapy out of a closet.  YES. You read it correctly- a closet. A supply closet to be exact. So I don't exactly get to work from home, but that's because our internet where we live isn't fast enough. It still wouldn't be fast enough, even if we upgraded it to as high as we could. Sooo.. thankfully, the spouses organization has allowed me to work out of our roomy supply closet where we keep some of our stuff! Here is a picture that I took of it to show you: 

Nice, huh?

I love all of my kids that I am working with, and I have even started seeing a child here on the island at our house every week.. so I am doing good! 

This past weekend, we went on several different adventures. Our first adventure started this past Friday, which happened to be St. Maarten's day-so Ryan was off of school. What did we do? We went scuba-diving all day to 3 different sites! It was so awesome! Here is some history about our first dive site:

The wreck of the HMS Proselyte is one of the most popular dives for divers who come to scuba St. Maarten in the Netherland Antilles. Here divers can explore the remains of this once mighty British warship that is now home to an abundance of marine life. 

The HMS Proselyte was a 133 foot British war frigate with 32 cannons. She was built in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1770 as a Dutch war frigate, the Jason, with 36 cannons. On the 8th of June 1796 the crew mutinied and turned the ship over to the British.

On September 4th, 1801, while serving in the British West Indies Fleet she had a turn of bad luck. This small, fast warship hit Man of War Shoals, just 1 mile from Fort Amsterdam while sailing to St. Maarten. All of the 215 crew members where saved. It was determined the ship sank due to the negligence of the ships master, L. Williams. The ships commander, Captain George Fowke, was later tried at a court martial. He was not on board the ship when she sank. 

Here is some information that I found about the actual dive site:

Today the Proselyte rest on her starboard side in approximately 50 feet of water, just outside of Great Bay Harbor. There are about 15 to 20 cannons and three 14 foot anchors still recognizable. Barrel bands and ballast plates can be found around the reef. If divers take the time to sift through the sand, with a little luck they can find musket balls, nails and broken pottery. 

On the shallow part of the reef divers can see some of the ships ribbing. Be careful, the ribs are encrusted with fire coral. Hidden among the ribs are several cannon balls. 

One would think this would be an eerie place. This is far from the truth. The reef is alive with marine life. Divers can watch parrot fish, damsel fish, and angel fish dart in and out of the rocks. Schools of French grunts sway in the current on the shallow part of the reef. Occasionally southern sting rays, spotted eagle rays and reef sharks pay a visit to the reef. 

There are several ridges that make up Proselyte Reef. They form an amazing underwater terrain of canyons and ridges. Soft corals and sponges have painted the canyons and ridges with the colors of the rainbow. Red, purple, orange and green sponges compete for the divers attention. 

Proselyte reef St. Maarten is a great dive for divers of all levels. It has an abundance of marine life and moderate to shallow depths. It's easy to see why this is one of the most popular dive sites for divers who come to the island for St Maarten scuba diving. And let's not forget the wreck of the Proselyte, a real piece of Caribbean history.

Thanks to Alexa and Ryan Hauser for sharing their pictures with me. Here they are:

Me and a sea turtle!

A ship wreck: The Proselyte

Ryan found a dangerous Lion fish

Posing for the camera

I think that this is Ryan and me

Ryan and me posing

Hauser and Tim

Ryan is taking a professional picture without his regulator

Aaron with some bubbles

Hauser doesn't look too happy

Me

Hey Ryan

A huge barracuda! We had just seen 2 sharks before this too, so it was pretty exciting! One shark was probably about 6 feet, and the other one was way smaller with probably around 2 feet. 

An old anchor from the shipwreck

The other end of the anchor

I think this is some part of the engine

Pretty pretty

Me with a canon, I think

Canon

Sea turtle

Up close and personal

He wasn't scared of us at all!

Can you see the flounder fish?

Now can you see him? He was pretty camouflaged! 

Part of the boat

There were all kinds of critters hiding in these parts of the boat

This boat was pretty destroyed

Me with the propeller 

We were trying to pose for a picture with the propeller

Close up of the boat propeller

Hauser with the prop

More sea turtles!

Boat part.. maybe anchor?

I am checking it out

Can't really tell what this is.. but it looks important

Engine??

Hiding moray eel

Lion fish!

This little guy was trying to hide

Really good picture of the infamous lion fish.. They are really dangerous and kill all of the pretty Caribbean tropical fish. (I learned about them at the aquarium in Atlanta) We were kinda disappointed that our scuba guides didn't go and capture/kill them. We saw a total of 3 that day, and we left them where they were. 

It was such a fun day, and Ryan and I were pooped!…. But our friends wanted more! Soo we went to this new paintball place to shoot each other. Ryan and I just relaxed and watched while all of our friends got multiple injuries and bruises. Here are some pictures of them. They look pretty hard-core. 

The 2 groups about to play each other

The course

Zack, Tim, Stosh, and Aaron

Zack and Alexa

Don't mess with them!

The lovely ladies that played! Carissa, Alexa, and Docie

Carissa didn't want to do a Charlie's Angels pic.. booo!

Some more of the paint ballers!

So.. I think that about does it for my post for today. I hope I didn't leave anything out! I hope that everyone has a great rest of the week, and I will have to let you all know how the new Twilight movie goes! Yay!! Ta ta to you!