April Update

Well, my Spring 2010 semester ended, and I am happy to say that I kept my 4.0!! I am so excited!! I also found out yesterday, that I am receiving some grant money for grad school for the Fall and Spring semesters, so I'm doubly excited!! My Summer semester starts this coming Saturday, and I will not allow myself to get behind this time; that was WAY too stressful of a week before a major vacation!! But I persevered and was successful, thank God!! :)

Our cruise vacation to the Eastern Caribbean was great and I got about 4-5 nights of much-needed quiet sleep. (No pets to wake me up to feed them!) By the time we got to Ft Lauderdale, and onto the cruise ship, we were EXHAUSTED!! Some islands, however, sound better than they are up-close. Nassau, Bahamas is decent, but there's not much to do there unless you have a LOT of $$ to spend going to Atlantis (all the beach areas are blocked to the general public, along with exhibits and walk-thru aquariums). St Maarten was not good....we rented a car and drove to a popular beach (part of which was a nude beach), and the people there were not friendly or helpful, they just want our $$. Seriously, $10/pp for a beach chair?? No thanks!! We did get to go to the place where the planes fly right over the beach, next to the airport, so that was cool. Our favorite place was St Thomas (awesome beach and snorkeling), but we almost missed our ship. Seriously, it was like a movie......the taxi drove us up to the dock, I paid the driver (Miller) $40, and we literally RAN to the gangway with people on their balconies cheering for us. It was crazy!! Our hearts were racing for fear of missing the boat, and we needed a stiff drink to calm ourselves down once we got to our cabin (after showers, of course). Grand Turk has a nice tourist/shopping area, with Margaritaville supplying the music/food/drinks/entertainment, along with a pool and nice beach right near the cruise ship pier. Jimmy Buffett's place sure does have high prices though. However, we went on a snorkeling boat trip, and stopped at 2 great snorkeling spots, played with stingrays, etc, and tried not to get any more sunburned. The only place I could find Diet Dr Pepper was in Nassau.

While our dog (Katie) was at my sister's, she decided to chew on my nephew's new baseball glove, so she got herself in a little bit of trouble this time around. The night we came back was my niece's senior prom, but we didn't get to see her til the next morning. She said it wasn't fun, and neither was the after party. She graduates on June 4th, with honors!! :) Then she's off to UNT in the Fall, so hopefully we'll get to see her more. My mom is working weekends as one of many security guards on a movie set in Granger, TX......the remake of "True Grit". She may get to actually see some actors this week, as they begin filming the last section of the movie. It stars Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin. We stopped by there on our way back to Dallas to see the set and visit with my mom. (It was too late to visit Grandpa in the nursing home; if you don't get there before lunch, he's asleep.) The huge makeup/costume tent is next to the hall where my cousin had her wedding reception 2 years ago.