Jamaica Me Crazy

It has been two days since we got back from Jamaica!  What a lovely trip!  It was a week full of napping, reading, relaxing, swimming, going to the beach, eating, sleeping, and spending time with the hubby.  It was our vacation / one-year anniversary trip and it was so good to get to spend time together!  We have been out of town all summer, but usually not together.  It's been exhausting!  It is good to finally be back home and back to normal life.  School starts soon!  I can't believe it!!  In the meantime, I am trying to soak up the last bit of relaxation that I can before jumping back into the swing of things.

Here are a few pics from our trip:

Here we are on our first day in Jamaica!

 

Our first room was sad and depressing and made us lonely.

THEN they upgraded us!!  Praise the Lord!

This is the view we had from our room.  INCREDIBLE! 

 

A self-timer pic of ourselves on the beach before we left

We got back home and thought our garden was basically dead.  We decided to water it anyway, though, and wound up harvesting two banana peppers!!  I ate them on a salad later that night.  Although they didn't taste anything like the banana peppers I'm used to eating, I was proud that we had been able to pick them from our very own garden!  Other than that, we have only eaten carrots so far.  However, we have three ears of corn growing!!  Can't wait to eat those guys!  We are pretty sure that from now on we are only Autumnal farmers.  Summer farming is too hot!!  Our garden is filling up with weeds that we have yet to pick because of the suffocating heat outside our air-conditioned doors.  Looking forward to trying this again when it gets cooler...

In other news, my family is coming in town to visit!!  First, on Thursday, the Cannons are coming.  I cannot wait!!  Eldon is getting so big and I have not seen him in person since John Wesley's graduation.  My grandparents and my aunt and uncle are coming too, but are only staying for about a day and a half.  The plan is to have a family cookout (including the Belmonts) on Friday night while everyone is in town!  Maybe then I'll finally see my brothers (who live in the same city as we do...).  My parents are also coming in the first week of August, but I'll have to wait a while until I see Annie Blue again.  :(

Today I had lunch with my friend Lauren who is now happily married and loving life.  We talked about marriage and lots of domestic things (such as natural cleaners and my deodorant fiascoes, which I'm sure you all remember).  I let her in on my idea to start a publication for young wives and moms and she was very excited!  She studied professional writing in undergrad, so she has agreed to join my writing staff.  So... now, there are two of us.  I am hoping Stephanie will join as well and we'll take the world by storm.  :)

Well, I am getting ready to go visit my new friend, Erin, with whom I have everything in common under the sun.  We are planning to watch Bride & Prejudice, which she has never seen.  I hope she likes it!!  Belmont is out playing tennis with a guy friend of his.  He plans to come home, cook up a big steak, and watch Cheers.  Sometimes he wants some alone time-- and it always includes eating a big steak.  :)

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the rest of your summer!

Postscript: Our chickens, Henny and Penny, were eaten by a coyote.  We found out today and are very sad.  We hope to get more chickens some day, but in the meantime will be eating store-bought eggs.  It is a sad day at the Belmont house.  :(