Nannie

My grandparents passed away when I was younger...in fact my sister, AA has never met any of her biological grandmother's. She was less than a year when one grandfather died and the other when she was 9. AA and I are 9 years apart. But for all intents and purposes, my grandparents died very young and I WISH that they were still alive to see my children.

I landed an unbelievable job in October with a family who needs help occasionally watching his mother. The husband and wife are in their 80's and his mother...she's 106 years old! That's right folks 106! In exchange for a decrease in rent I give them 40 hours a month to watch Nannie. Nannie is a little spit-fire. She's 100% with it. She wears thongs because they feel good and is frustrated that she isn't dead yet. She always tells me the same stories about her days as a teacher in West Virginia. She used to ride to school on a horse. She lived on a farm and her dad was the first ones in town to buy a Model T car. When they would drive it and it would start picking up speed her dad would yell, "Whoa Whoa!" before realizing that he needed to put pressure on the brake pad, like he was driving a stage of horses. She asks me everytime I'm there if I've ever met anyone as old as her and she tells me about the guys who call her. I help her organize the letters she recieves. We have a good time.

It's a good job and the whole family is great. They have kind of been like my adoptive grandparents. They really look out for us and I'm glad that they have made such great neighbors.

August 16, 2010

Our ship docked in Cozumel, Mexico on the 16th. The one thing that I remembered is that it was very humid and hot when we walked out on the deck. Mr H had scheduled our excursion on a dune buggy. But before we could go out on them we needed to wait for everyone who signed up for that excursion to show up. While we were waiting for them, there was this girl about 12 years old who was also waiting in another excursion line and she threw up all over the ground. I mean you could hear her gagging and coughing while the vomit splattered on the ground. I felt horrible for her...that must have been very embarrassing. Her whole family left, I'm assuming, to take care of her. But with the humidity and the heat from the street mixed with the little breeze which was blowing, did not make for a good smell. Luckily all of our people for the excursion were accounted for and so we headed to our dune buggies. Our tour guides, which I have forgotten their names, were awesome. They were so funny. Each buggy held 4 seats, since Mr H and I were a couple, we were paired up with another couple. We made small talk and they were on the cruise ship for a family reunion. Guess where they were from? OHIO! Yes, can you believe it!? Out of all these people from all over the world we were paired up with another Ohio couple. The mother and son couple live just a couple hours away from us. Anyway, the tour started with us just driving alongside the ocean down a highway kind of road. We were heading to go scuba diving.
Once we arrived at our destination we bought a locker to keep our valuables in...the locker was 9 bucks! Before we were ready to go scuba diving there was a local who came up to us and showed us these braclets that he makes with your name on it...they will be ready for you once you get back from swimming. He said they were $5 each. I told him we would think about it. Once we were ready to go scuba diving we had to walk down the beach for about 15 minutes...this sand was the roughest sand I have ever felt in my life. We did not have shoes on, if we did, the walk would have only taken 5 minutes. After the scuba instructions we hopped right into the water and started swimming and looking at all of the wonders of the ocean. I am so grateful that we invested in the underwater camera we bought the day before. We took a lot of pictures



We even saw a Lionfish. Which was totally awesome. There were tons to things to look at and capture swimming in the ocean in Mexico.

Once we had swam to where we began I was really thirsty. Swimming in the salt water and the heat from the sun just wore me out. A bottle of water cost 3 bucks! But I needed it. The local came back up to Mr H. and I and asked if we were interested in his braclets. We decided to get each of the boys one. So I handed him $10 and he said that would only pay for 1...so I grabbed the money back and said nevermind...he followed me and said he'll give me a discount. $8 for each bracelet...I told him it wasn't negotiable...he told me $5 earlier. He gave me a sob story about how his boss would take it out of his pay. I told him I was sorry but he shouldn't have quoted me the $5 price. Well, long story short, the boys each got a bracelet for $5 each.

After scuba diving our next stop was a really awesomely (is that a word?) beautiful beach where we ate lunch. Lunch was fantastic...I over-stuffed myself. Authentic Mexican food is great.

Once we were finished with lunch Mr H. and I just enjoyed the scenery and marveled at how beautiful it was. Soon after that it was time to go back to the buggies. I had to sit on my shirt because the seats were so hot it burnt me. In our buggies the last stop was the "Pee Pee Station" I'm not kidding...that's what it was called! It was a little souvenir shop. The items were a little too pricey for me. But it was fun to look around.

Finally we drove around the neighborhoods and then back to where we started at the dune buggy place. We then as a goup walked back to the cruise boat. On the way, though, there was this little shop where we bought me a necklace and the boys a necklace with a shark's tooth on it.

On the way to the ship we had to pass through a bunch of shops and people ushering you into their store, putting necklaces around your neck trying to make you buy things. It was overwhelming for me. I don't like being pressured. We didn't buy anything...although there was a purse that I liked that I wish I bought. But that just means we'll have to go back to Cozumel some other time.

As we walked to the boat there was a mariachi band, we stopped and listened for a while. It really was a pretty cool thing to watch. There were people dancing and singing along. Once they were finished, both Mr H. and I were able to get pictures with them.

It was an awesome day, we both got really sun burned...and since I had no idea where we were going for the honeymoon I didn't pack any aloe. That would have been nice to have. But I think that all of the activity wore Mr H. out...so he took a nap.

August 15, 2010

I know I am so totally behind on blogging. But I wanted to continue my honeymoon posts from the other blog before I forget. I've probably forgotten some of the details already now. On the 15th of August we were at port in the Florida Keys. I was so excited because we were going to take some mopeds out and cruise around. I had never drove anything like that in my life and I was a little nervous. Once we got the the place to rent them Mr H had forgotten his credit card, he had cash to rent them, but they needed a credit card in case of damages. So we had to drive all the way back to the boat and get the card out of the safe. Once they were rented I sat on mine and one of the guys who worked there asked if I had ridden one before and I looked like a deer in headlights...he gave me a 30 second "How-to" and said I should be fine. Mr H started passing me and I was freaking out in my head. I didn't know what the heck I was doing I felt nervous and scared...but Mr H is one who believes in throwing a kid in the water to teach him to swim...or so-to-say, baptism by fire! When Mr H first had me handle a gun he really didn't help me at all and told me just to shoot it and I was just as nervous about it as I was on the moPed. I didn't know what he heck I was doing. But I kind of kept my cool and just kept going. Eventually I got the hang of it and started to enjoy it. We rode all over the little island and took a lot of pictures. We bought souvenir's and an underwater camera from a CVS they had there. We stood 90 miles away from Cuba, visited Ernest Hemingway's home, and went to the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum.
***Just as a side note 4 days after visiting the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum a $550,000 gold bar was stolen. When we found out about someone stealing it I turned to Mr H and said, "I've been meaning to tell you about becoming a little richer..." We just started laughing***
After all that fun in the sun in Key West we were a little tired and it was too late for lunch but too early for dinner so we ordered room service. I can't remember exactly what we ordered but I do remember the cheesecake we ordered for dessert After that I think we took a nap. If we weren't napping then we were walking around the ship. That night, for dinner, was the night we got to dress up in suits and cocktail dresses. We had a great, fun, and entertaining table of Brazialians (on left) and one American (on right). I can't remember their names...but we had a grand time with them through our whole trip. Dinner was great...we had broken the Guinness Book for World Records for the most Lobster ordered and eaten in one night. Everything was incredible. Our server was from the Phillipines and was very attentive and very great. His helper was equally attentive and knew that Mr H and I liked Diet soda with our meals...our Brazilian friends liked the expensive wines and then coffee with dessert. Our server was pretty amazing with tricks too...he made this with toothpicks: Then one of the Brazilians (the one closest to Mr H) picks up a toothpick and sticks it to his nose somehow so that his nose looked like the front of an airplane with the toothpick moving around in a circle. We have no idea how he did it but it was cool. After dinner we walked around the ship for a while, we held hands as we talked and listened to the ocean below us. It was very romantic. On the deck during the day there are usually tons of people but tonight it was pretty empty and so we took a couple of pictures, came back to our room to get out of our formal clothes and then went to the casino where we did not win anything...oh well, we only blew $40 and it was fun too.