St. Maarten: Mullet Beach

This is MY beach! Mullet beach was literately a hop-skip-jump away from where I lived on the island. Laura and I would come to this beach with the little boys at least a few times a week. I think it has the best sand, waves, water and scenery. Aren't these waves just cool? I could sit and watch the waves at Mullet all day long.Blue, gorgeous water. AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More beach pictures.

There was a huge sand drop off from the beach to the water. It was fun to slide down and then land in the ocean. Loved it. We played there like a bunch of little kids.

Here is Vaughn playing in the waves like a big kid. Gosh it was a good time!

The crew! The weather wasn't sunny, but it was just right, not too hot. We played in the waves and road them into the beach all afternoon.

I love this side of the beach. That is the Rainbow beach club in the back ground. Makes for a beautiful picture.

Our last night in St. Maarten and we ended up at Jimbo's for dinner. I was sad that it was our last night, but also so excited that we had the opportunity to come down and enjoy a vacation here in this beautiful place where we used to live. I enjoyed coming and being the tourist rather than the islander.

St. Maarten: Vaughn's Graduation From Medical School.

There he is.....the second guy walking in. HE DID IT!!! I didn't think this day would ever come, but it has and I am so proud of Vaughn.Mark and Jennifer went with me to the graduation. It was pretty good. Usually graduations are boring and the speakers talk FOREVER and usually are not very good, but this one was an exception. The speakers were wonderful and inspiring, you don't hear that very often. And the main speaker was funny. Loved it! Here is Vaughn waiting for his turn to step up on the podium and receive his hood and diploma.

The ceremony took place in the Maho room at the Sonesta resort hotel in MAHO. As unorganized as AUC can be I was a bit sceptical about how this was going to be pulled off, but I was impressed at how well run it was, and how nice it looked. Good job AUC!

I hate my new camera. Because of the lighting it wouldn't focus fast enough. This blurry picture is Vaughn receiving his hood.

I was a picture maniac. I was running all over the place just to get the right picture. I think this one is the best! I am so happy, proud and bursting with excitement that he graduated and is now a Doctor!!! How cool is that?

Left to Right: Jennifer, Mark, Vaughn and myself. (Mark is Vaughn's brother)

Two of Vaughn's good friends during medical school. Janelle Bennett, and Trey Cusimano. Janelle has always been so good to us and even came to visit us in Michigan last 4th of July. Trey always had us over to his place on St. Maarten for Thanksgiving and since leaving the island did a rotation in Michigan and hung out with us a few times. They were on the island when we were for the week and we got the chance to hang out with them at the beach and then during an evening. It was great times.

My only regret is that the kiddos weren't here to see their daddy graduate, but at the same time they would have been running around and making messes, so.....I am glad that we had this opportunity to do this together.

Love this girl. Janelle is just a little ways from us in her residency down in Jackson, Mississippi. It was such a great vacation and one that was really needed for Vaughn and I. Now it is time to get started on our life as a Resident. WOW!! I cannot believe it is really here!!!!

Making Jam, By Myself

Well................I actually did it all by myself, (I'm a BIG KID now). I made jam without my mom standing right next to me telling me what to do, or better yet, me watching her make it and never paying attention to what she was doing. Since we moved from Michigan, back west to see family, and then here to Tennessee, I haven't had a chance to do my yearly jam making. Now usually my mom comes in the early spring to help me make this, well....she isn't coming until late summer, so............I had to do this myself. Mind you, I did make use of the phone and call her several times just to make sure I was doing it right......but no one was here to show me how to do it. Tyson became my second in command during this adventure. He helped me blend up the strawberries and would get all of my ingredients as I needed them.I love homemade strawberry jam. I live on this stuff in the summer and fall, and yes that much sugar goes into making it, unless you like it tart, which I do not!Here we are boiling down the sugar and about ready to pour it into the freezer containers. I only burned me once and it was just minor. A tiny spec of the jam jumped out of the pot during the boiling stage and landed on my arm, no worries. It hurt only for a second.

Ah, the fruits of my labor. I love the fact that I made this and now have jam for my family for a whole year. Thanks for the words of encouragement over the phone, mom. And thanks to Tyson and Taryn for their help in making and cleaning up.

Happpy Independence Day!! Let Freedom Ring!

Happy 4th Of July!! I love our Independence day. I love the fact that I live in a free country and that I have the human rights I so cherish, and I love the service men and women who fight for those rights everyday. I love honoring the service men and women, any time of year but especially today. I love listening to "war stories" from the old timers and I guess that is why I feel so strongly about today. We took the opportunity to check out Pigeon Forge and their Freedom Festival and I cannot wait to come back and do it again next year. It ROCKED!!

First off, any place that doesn't charge the kids to play is TOP in my book. They had all kinds of things to keep the kids entertained, if you didn't mind waiting in line, which we didn't.Taryn and Tyson especially loved the bouncy house. Taryn loved being bounced around. I honestly didn't think she would last 10 seconds in there, but she didn't want to get out!Besides the tons of activities for the kids, they also had music playing from a huge stage, (seen in above picture). Vaughn was so thoughtful to set us up a little "camp" with our camping chairs, blanket, and cooler. We had good seats to see the stage for the day's entertainment.

Freedom Babies! They were so good to wait in line and not complain, much. They spent the "waiting" time dancing around and playing. It was a blessing, because I heard so many other mothers explain to their children why they had to wait at least 100 times.At one point in the day it became really, extremely HOT, with no clouds in sight. Taryn just wanted to be held. She loves her daddy.

Of course my son wanted to try every ride they had. We waited in line for about 45 minutes to try these bouncy jumper things. (Love how I make up names to them)
He jumped and jumped, trying to do a flip and would get so close, but he isn't heavy enough to get the momentum to swing that body around. Oh well, he still had a ball trying.Great action shot! It was such a nice area that we would go and do a few rides and then walk 150 yards to our little camp spot, get a drink and a treat and then go back to the rides. We did this all day. Poor Taryn didn't stop to take a nap and I just waited for the melt down, luckily it never came!! WHEW!Next year, I will be smarter and pack more to drink. Even though I did pack lots of water for us, we pounded it down in no time flat. The heat out here in East Tennessee will do that to you. Thank goodness for the vendors with the cold drinks.About mid afternoon the musical acts started to get good. Not that they weren't before, it was just a lot of gospel choirs and such, but then they started bringing out the BIG ACTS, names like Teluride, East of Eden and others came out and played for an hour or so. The kids loved dancing around and with all the room they could be silly and not bother others around us.As the sun went down, Tyson broke out the glow sticks and made him a necklace to swing around on his arm, not to wear. Vaughn and I enjoyed just "people watching." I thought I had seen it all when it came to Red Necks, because I lived in such a small town, but Tennessee never ceases to amaze me. We saw more people missing half their teeth, and they were young people, not old, more babies with bottles of Mountain Dew or Pepsi, more overalls...etc.....the list goes on and on. I loved it. I never felt one bit out of place. And even though they are very Red Neck, they are some of the nicest people down here. When the night was over and we were walking out of the place I had a little bit of trouble getting the stroller over the curb. Three people stopped to help me. WOW!!! I was impressed.

The nights entertainment ended with Diamond Rio. This is a country band I have loved for years and I have seen them in concert several times before this. As you can see, we had great seats. They played all of the old stuff and some new stuff they were recording. People were up dancing singing and we were among them.

Once Diamond Rio finished their last song it was time for the fireworks. This was funny!

Ok, so the announcer guy comes out on to the stage and tells us, "turn your chairs around and look back towards the Smokies and count down with me for the fireworks." Ok sounds easy enough. So we start to count. 10...9...8...and so on. We get to 1 and the music starts playing in the back ground but no fireworks. So we wait and we wait, for about 5 minutes. By this time people all around us are making all kinds of wise cracks about it that had Vaughn and I giggling.

The announcer guys comes back and tells us to re count again. Ok. 10....9....8.... the whole time we are counting Vaughn and I are laughing. We get to one...music starts, not a single firework!!! HA HA HA Then 20 seconds later, BOOM! They flew into the sky and the show was awesome.

We watched the fireworks for about 25 minutes. It was so cool. Tyson loved it and Taryn, well............lets just say she cried after the first BOOM and then fell asleep and didn't wake up till morning. Funny stuff! We returned home to Knoxville about 1 am, and I would do it all over again. Totally worth it! Happy Independence Day America!

The Beach

I am back to being a single mom since Vaughn started his first day today as a Resident at UT. I don't mind...I actually love it. The kids and I decided to check out this beach at the Clark Center Park. It is nothing compared to the St. Maarten beaches, but hey, I live in Tennessee, 6+ hours from a beach so this works for us. It had sand for the kids to play in, and an area roped off so the boats can run over anyone, nice huh!

This is our unfinished Sand Shark. Tyson wanted to build a sand castle, well.....mom sucks at making sand castles. They are my nemesis. So I suggested to build a sand creature. We did pretty good until Tyson decided he was finished and left me the task to complete it by myself. I would have abandoned it, but my son really wanted it finished, he just didn't want to be the one to do it. And since he wanted to play in the water, so did Taryn, and she cannot swim. So..... this is all of the shark that we finished. Tyson felt bad when we left that we didn't get it done, and was distraught that it would be gone when we go back again someday. I had to reassure him that we would make another one.

Quick shot of the kiddos just before Taryn had a meltdown. 5 seconds after this picture was taken Taryn decided she was tired and was done with the whole beach thing. She screamed so hard you would think she was in some horror flix. Jeez, the girl has a set of lungs. I hope that means she will be a good singer someday. Even though we had to leave, we had been there over 2 hours, and it was time to go. Another fun place for us to play here in Knoxville. On to new places tomorrow.