What's Been Going On?

So I've been slacking on the blogging due to the fact that we have had a lot going on. So I decided to sit down for a second between errands and give you a quick run down.

Making dinner is hard to do now that I am working, but for some reason the other day I really wanted to try and make sushi! This is my attempt. It actually tasted pretty good. I learned how to make yum yum sauce too!

It's been raining a lot here in Cruces. My hair has been acting up with all the humidity. The other day we had an amazing rainbow out front of our house.

I'm back to school! The hardest thing to get used to is the Mrs. Barrow business! Haha. Today I sent an email to a parent and signed it Ms. Bray...then I had to rewrite it and put Mrs. Barrow. Even when my kids call me that, I don't really pay attention and then realize they are talking to me! Also, the pronunciations are cracking me up...I get Mrs. Borrow, Bar-o, etc...so many variations.

The mosquitos are out and my arms and legs are raw! My arm started to swell the other day after I got a bite. I am scared I might get the swine flu!

I was tired of looking at the front of my car and not seeing the license plate so I bought a Fox plate to represent the biking world. Mike and I have been practicing a lot for the Horny Toad Hustle (the Las Cruces mountain bike race) which is in less than a month!

I have been decorating a lot around the house. Mainly I have been hanging curtains and getting the downstairs down. My next project is our bedroom.

The end. :)

St. Thomas and St. John

So I am going to blog about each island we visited on the honeymoon. One reason is for future reference when I look back on our vacation and forgot things and two, Mike wasn't able to put captions on his pictures.

The first stop on our cruise was St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. I had been there before, but I was really excited to show Mike St. John (a sister island). St. John has a beach that has been rated as one of the world's top ten beaches and I was dying to go back. Trunk Bay is my favorite place I have ever been!

We took a taxi to a ferry and then another taxi to the beach. The fun part is that you drive on the other side of the road (due to the fact that the island used to be run by Britain). We went snorkeling at Trunk Bay and had a blast! We saw turtles, stingrays, lots of fish, and coral (which I accidentally ran into and cut my leg!).




We came back to St. Thomas and Mike was so excited to see iguanas in the wild!

At Trunk Bay with Mike

The view from the taxi

Inside the taxi

Welcome to St. John!



Our sign picture right off the ship.

The view of St. Thomas

Mike on the ferry!

Our first iguana sighting.

Mountain Bike Racing

So I attempted to mountain bike race this weekend. I hadn't planned on it but I thought it would be fun to give it a try! Mike and I left Saturday for Albuquerque and went to the temple. We then switched into our bike gear and did a practice run of the beginner loop of Cedro Peak. I was loving it. It was really fun to ride through the woods and it didn't seem bad at all. There was one part though called The Hills of Death...and I had to walk it up, but I kept thinking that even that wasn't bad. I felt pretty good too because the beginner loop was only seven miles and I usually end up doing about eight when we do the Dona Ana's back in Las Cruces.

Boy was I wrong! It is so different when you race! Don't get me wrong, it was fun, but it is so much harder! At the starting line you have to push your way through bikes and when we turned off the road the first person got stuck so we all had to hop off our bikes and run around them. I was flying downhill trying to keep pace and not have people pass me. It flustered me a little to the point where my front wheel hit a big rock and then I went flying over the handle bars with my bike landing right on me!

After I regained composure...I was good. Even though a god number of people got in front of me, I still kept pushing. What seemed like an easy ride before was really hard! I was breathing a lot harder due to how nervous I was! The only people that passed me were pro riders and a couple men, which was fine with me, because they were not in my category! Haha..

When I got to the Hills of Death I was beat...I made it up a little and then jumped off my bike and started running up the hill. One mile later I was able to hop back on and get my bike up the mountain. It was so hot! While I was running up, I made it up to this guy in front of me who was resting under a tree, but as soon as he saw me he started running again! (I seem to have that effect on people!). After that, it was all down hill!

I made it to the end in fifty three minutes and I was good to go. I got first out of two people in the 19-29 category and got the prize for second place over all for the women's beginner division. I got beat out by a 12 year old girl...who made it in 38 minutes. She seriously rocked it.

Lots of fun and very hard work! I think I'm going to race the Farmington Race and Gallup too.

Wearing our cool championship shirts!

My battle wounds!

Mike at the starting line...

At the starting line...

Back in Civilization.

We are back in the U.S. right now, just not back on the mainland yet. I am sitting in the hotel in San Juan while Mike takes a little nap and I try to, but don't succeed. I must say that going to all these countries in the last week has taught me to appreciate a lot of things about America.

The cruise was awesome. So many cool beaches!! I will not be touching a scale for a week either due to the amount of food that has been eaten the last week. I highly suggest taking the Carnival Victory if you want to see a lot of different sites in a short amount of time.

Things I loved: the different ports of call, beaches, snorkeling, the amazing fruits, the sites, laughing at the funny things my husband had to say, the cabin bed, the cruise food, laying on deck and hearing the water, the iguanas, St. John's

Things I didn't love so much: hagglers and beggars, taxi drivers, expensive shore excursions, driving on the wrong side of the road, gaining ten pounds, and lack of sleep. :)

I can't wait to post pictures...I'll post more soon!