Rum Haven

We are back from our 3rd anniversary honeymoon "staycation" and we had was a fantastic time.

Today, I am back to work but it's not for long as we are leaving again to Saturday, but this time we are heading north...

First we will visit my Mother in Law for a couple of days in Maryland and then we are off to Virginia.

I am specially excited about Virginia because I've never been there but I've heard is a very beautiful state, can't wait!

We are also planning to see some friends and have dinner with them.

I took a lot of pictures this past 2 days away, but most of them are on my camera and not on my phone, so will try to download those tonight and share tomorrow, meanwhile here are a few I took with my phone...

Our Condo name, Rum Haven

Our view from our room

View from "our dock"

Hope everybody is having a nice week, happy Thursday! :)

It's you who wonders my mind

and lives in my heart

2005 (year we meet)

It's you who holds me by the hand

and hugs my heart

2006 (Botanic Garden)

It's you whom I see

when I close my eyes

2007

It's you I dream off

when I think of the future

2008

It's you, my love
my friend, my confident... my husband!

May 2nd, 2009, Our wedding day!

It's you who is my sunshine, 
my solar panel, who keeps me warm
when life is cold

2010 Mexico trip

It's you and me, putting the piece of our
"life puzzle" together....

It's you and me on our 3rd anniversary today, 

tomorrow and for the rest of our lives together.

Happy Anniversary Baby!

 "I love you" is just a little description of what's really is in my heart...

Today, May 1st

I'll be gone for a couple of days getting some well deserved R&R, plus celebrating a special date...

Be back soon and share all about it, meanwhile "talk among yourselves"!

Happy Tuesday...

Weekend Journal

Weather was very extremist this past couple of days... It started to rain on Friday evening (around 11pm) and did not stop until after 3pm on Saturday.

Saying I didn't leave the house during the entire day is perhaps not 100% accurate.

I walked the dogs and feed the cats outside, but other than that, I was inside the house the entire day; watching tv and crocheting my way into a new beanie hat! (sorry no pictures).

But then on Sunday, the day was so beautiful, we decided to go to Spotts Beach after doing a short job errand.

Once we got to Spotts I went snorkeling and it was simply fabulous, here's the evidence...

Spotts Beach

dock above the water

dock below the water

beautiful coral head

juvenile grunts at coral head

Juvenile French Angelfish

Juvenile Hawksbill Turtle

Fan Corals close to the surface

Found this awesome flaming tongue

So, what do you think now that the evidence is in? Was it a fabulous snorkeling or not?

Have a wonderful week : )

Snack Right!

Lately I've been on a health kick [read: diet + exercising properly], been trying to be really good about what I eat, specially when it comes to "snacking" healthy during the day.

The choices, I have to say that at times, are not very much and although some products do advertise themselves as "healthy", down the road if you analyze their contents you would be surprise about the reality of what they offer, like in the case of the famous "Kashi" brand.

A friend of mine forward me this photo the other day so then I decided to do some research on the case and found out that;

Kashi Brand Cereals (which is a Kellogg's owned company) contains "high levels" of GMOs. Not just a trace of GMOs, in other words, but a high level meaning the key ingredients are genetically engineered from the get-go. In fact, some results reveal that 100% of the soy used in tested boxes of Kashi cereal was genetically engineered soy.

Crazy, right?

Ugh, it makes me sick that companies try to cover up the reality of their products but specially when they target their products in the market of "natural" and specially "healthy".

Anyway, here are my top 5 snacking options right now (in no particular order).

1. Sunwarrior Classic Protein uses an old world process, combining the endosperm and bran from raw sprouted whole grain brown rice, to create the first completely hypoallergenic protein, containing all essential and non-essential amino acids in a perfectly balanced profile. Sunwarrior Classic Protein has the highest amount of (non soy) raw, whole-grain sprouted, vegan protein of any product available. (70 Calories per serving)

2. Ryvita Fruit & Seed Cruch, wholegrain rye crispbread packed with currants, topped with seeds and drizzled with honey. Yum! (110 Calories for 2 slices)

3. McVities Crispy Slices Orange & Sultana flavored filling in a light crispy biscuit. (147 per serving- 3 biscuits).

4. CHOBANI Pomegranate Greek Yogurt, fat free and with juicy whole pomegranate seeds, DE-LI-CI-O-US!!! (140 Calories for a 6oz container).

5. Sabra's Roasted Pine Nuts Hummus, its delicious and the pine nuts add up an extra delight to it. Hummus is one of my favorite food and when you eat as a snack with some veggies (carrots, broccoli or celery) you can't go wrong. (80 Calories for 2 tbsps).

Yumm... this post is making me hungry and today is one my co-workers birthday so my snack choice for the day will be caramel cheesecake (don't even wanna thing on the calorie content on that). But, oh well, it is the weekend and that calls for a celebration, right?

What are your snack choices? Have you ever tried any of my choices, if so, please share your thoughts.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Charity Drive

A local insurance company, Island Heritage decided that this year for their charity event, instead of booking a ballroom and doing the same [boring] and expensive dinner event to raise funds for certain charities, to do a charity drive instead.

The company is the "owner" in charge of beautify one of the local "roundabouts" of the island so this year on April 24th, 25th and 26th for every car that drives by the roundabout they will be donating $1 CI dollar to a different charity.

The "Island Heritage Charity Drive" started yesterday with the first Charity.

"The Blue Iguana Recovery Program", which is a project from the National Trust to preserve the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana by protecting their habitat, breeding programs, research, monitoring and education about this endemic species and only found on this island.

Photo source Islands Heritage

I drove by the circle twice yesterday and did my part...

Photo source Islands Heritage

I believe the target for each day is $10 K which they reached on yesterday's Blue Iguana one, woo-hoo!!!

It's so nice to see the volunteer each morning encouraging people to drive that way and donate...

Today's Charity is "Meals on Wheels", is a local charity that provides meals to senior citizens so they can maintain their Independence at home, I believe they deliver over 150 meals everyday.

Photo source Facebook

And then tomorrow's charity has a special place in my heart, because it's the "Cayman Islands Humane Society", I will be make an even better effort to drive by a few times...

Hopefully they will make their target each day, this is a such a easy and fast way to help that I can't imagine anybody not wanting to help out...

Have a great day!

SPACE CHICKEN to the rescue

Looks like lately the weather is not cooperating with my immune system.

Saturday was a very hot and humid day and that morning when I woke up to go the Rugby Festival I felt my sinus acting up, well I was right, by the end of that day the NW winds had picked up and Sunday I woke up with a nasty cold.

Yesterday I went to work but stayed only for the morning as I felt pretty bad.

By noon I went back home but stopped at the grocery store to buy some ingredients to make soup. When I walked by the deli I notice they already had Chicken Soup ready to go, so I bough some.

Got home, drank the soup and went straight to bed...

While sleeping I had the weirdest dream;  Some guys when out to do some kite boarding on the sea and on the way out of the ocean they found a piece of Satellite or a.k.a. Space Junk...

My dream looked a bit like this...

Photo by Ellary Wray

But then I wake up and realized... Wait a minute, this really DID happen!!!

Saturday afternoon, while my brother and his friend Sean were kite boarding off the coast of Bodden Town here in Grand Cayman, they found this "little" piece of Space Junk.

Isn't cool and such a crazy find?!?!?!?

Anyway, I don't think anybody knows for sure what it is but I sure somebody will find out cause I find this might go viral, well at least here on the island.

On another note, I am feeling much better today, perhaps the Chicken Soup helped.

Have a great Tuesday!

Wonderful Earth

Today is as good a day as any, to celebrated Earth Day and to acknowledge what a Wonderful World we have.

There is so much beauty out there that with just a few images of the what we have in our planet Earth [like the ones showing on the following video], I can't help but wondering why  people want to abuse our world and destroy it?

Isn't this a beautiful way to remember what we still have there and needs our care and protection?

So, what have you done for your Earth lately? It's never too late to start if you haven't...

Have a wonderful week!

Rugby time

Working at the Cayman Islands Vs Mexico rugby world cup qualifiers.... Place is not very busy but still gotta be here until game starts at 4pm.

Got this new blogger app on my phone and this is officially my first post with it... Hope it will work well.

Happy Saturday!

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Happy Weekend!

Coming to the realization that the weekend in here, makes me very, very happy!

I do have to work tomorrow at a Rugby Match event for the Rugby World Cup Qualifiers, so tomorrow's game will by Cayman Vs. Mexico.

It's going to be a big festival during the day and once again we will be working to promote my boss's Ocean Foundation and try to get more people to become members.

Also this year we are giving priority to a new GHOF project to encourage the government of the Cayman Islands to pass a protection law for Sharks!

Hope everybody has a great weekend :)

Insta-day!

Life is definitely more beautiful when you can capture moments via photos...

Here are some of my latest random instagrams, all taken with my Samsung Galaxy S2 phone.

Indoor Plant

BTK, the Momma of our clan

Goldie ready to flee...

Our Dogs & Cats

Goldie

My hubby's  ride

Sheba & Ditto posing for the camera

Hungry Felines

If you have Instagram on your Iphone or Android and feel like "following" me, please do so... I am in there as "caymansunshine"!

And last but not least, today I wanna thank EVERYBODY that left me a comment yesterday about the "BB&BS" video and my relationship with Yanique, I really appreciate the support and your kind words!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Mentor & Mentee

As most of you my readers know, I am a volunteer mentor for the Big Brothers & Big Sisters of the Cayman Islands.

A couple of months ago they asked me and my mentee Yanique to take part in a video/commercial and talk about our match and what we get out of the program, this way perhaps encouraging people to join this very important program and help out.

Well the video is now ready and here it is... It's about a bit less than 5 minutes long, but worth watching with lots of information about the organization and what a great cause this is.

I believe "BB&BS" is a worldwide program, so if you are thinking of making a difference in somebody's life, how about a child's life?

Perhaps this could be an option for you or anybody else that would like to volunteer for something... think about!

If you don't wanna watch the whole video but want to see me and Yanique, we start coming up at around min 2:21... check it out!

Have a great Tuesday!

In the land of submarines

About 3 weeks ago I mentioned that I was taking Yanique to the Atlantis Submarine tour but things didn't work out. The following 2 weekends after that I didn't get to see her, one she was spending time with her Dad and after that, it was Easter.

Finally we got to go last Saturday, we had a fabulous time and I was quite pleased with the whole experience.

This was not my first time on a Submarine, but my first on the one here in Grand Cayman.

About 15 years ago in Eilat, Israel while on vacation with my parents, we took a Submarine tour of the Red Sea, I don't remember much about that trip but I do remember having a great time because I wasn't a diver back then.

Now, after more than 10 years of being a diver, I wasn't quite sure what to expect of this tour and now I can say with confidence that perhaps it's next best thing [to see the reef] after scuba diving.

Here are some photos of that day.

Boarding pass in hand.... not sure if she wants to smile for the camera!

Here comes the Sub, ready to get it...

Yanique going down... I'm next!

Inside the Submarine

The reef

The infamous Lion fish (2 in the photo)

Tiger Grouper "at the dentist"- getting his teeth cleaned!

Lovely Hawksbill Turtle waved us good bye at the end of the tour

As you can see from some of the pictures, we saw lots of different species and although it was hard taking pictures over 2 layers of plexi glass, I think those came out alright!

It's a tour I would definitely take again and I in fact I'm already thinking about taking my Mom and my Aunt when they come visit this year.

Hope everybody had a great weekend and that this coming week is even better one!

Happy Monday <*))))><