Insta-Tuesday

Last night as I lay down in my bed, I could see a clear starry sky out the window, then I though to myself
"I wish I could see a shooting star from here" and immediately I did!

So now, do I get to wish again on a wishing star since that was my actual wish [and it came true immediately]?

Well I did!... just because it's vital to never run out of wishing, specially when you get a free one, right?

Now, today is a different story, I wish I had something excited to share with you, but I don't, so instead I am going to share some random recent Instagram photos.

Some are from a local nursery we visited on Saturday and the rest are from around and my lovely kitties!

Beautiful Bromeliad Flower

Zen Corner

Heart Shaped Leaves

morning hang out

Goldie Boy!

Yellow Eyes

Wishing everybody a very nice day!!!

so much blue

My weekend was very blue, but not the "down, depression" kind of...

Well, although we did not see any sea horses (mainly because we never made it to the water), we had a wonderful weekend full of nice activities and good times with special people.

The play "Rumors" on Friday was a riot, loved it, and my friend Adam stole the show, although the rest of cast was pretty much close behind, they were all brilliant!

"Rumors" cast- Photo by Adam Cockerill

Even my husband who was a bit hesitant about going to the show, really enjoyed it. If you ever see this play around your area, make sure to check it out, it's so much fun!

On Saturday we went to the beach for a little Family Fun Day for a local charity we are supporting, we didn't stay long but the day was completely and absolutely stunning, I did manage to take a few photos and specially love these panoramic views...

click to ENLARGE

click to ENLARGE

There were also offering "tours" on a Cayman Catboat which is a traditional type of boat made on the islands.

And of course there's always kayaks...

And good shady gazebos...

So much blue, eh?

Yesterday my brother came to visit us and we had a brunch at home, had a great time and it was so good to see him and spend a good amount of time with him. Oh, how I miss having more of my family around!

Hope everybody had a nice weekend, Happy Monday!!!

rumors

It is definitely not a rumor that I love weekends.

I love the quiet and restful time, staying in to just spend time crocheting, enjoying our back deck and the wonderful "ool", going shopping or taking the dogs for a ride while Sheba drools all over the car window and door- well, maybe not that part!

Or perhaps going diving, which hasn't been the case for a long time, mostly because of my bad quality lower back and it's not so fabulous bulged disk.... Meet with friends and just hang out!

But I specially love weekends, when there's something to look forward to, today I am already forward to go see the very first play since I moved to the Cayman Islands.

Tonight it's the opening night of the play Rumors, I have a friend that is acting as well a producing it, so we are going to have a good time and specially show our support to Adam.

At first my husband was a bit hesitant about going tonight, but I managed to convinced him, specially as this is an activity that we don't get to do very often on the island.

On a side note, I once auditioned for a play and even got a part, unfortunately because of immigration/work permits issues at the time I had to suddenly leave the island for a few weeks and had to quit to play as I was going to miss a lot of rehearsal time :(

Besides the play tonight, I am specially looking forward to today as it's PAY DAY!!!! Yeap, with the buying of my new car, it felt as if I had too much month left after my last cheque, LOL!

Lately a lot of my diver friends have been spotting lots of Sea Horses around the island, we might try to go to a very shallow dive site tomorrow to see if we can find one, specially because my husband with all the years of diving (more than 20), never once seen a Sea Horse, imagine that!

I on the other hand have, but never here in Grand Cayman, 3 times in Cayman Brac. Heres' a photo (unfortunately a bit blurry) of one that I saw a few years back.

Sea Horses are definitely one my favorite sea creatures, can't wait to see another one, hopefully tomorrow we will see one and make sure the stories people are telling are not only rumors, LOL!

Hope everybody has a wonderful weekend, any special plans on your side of the rainbow? Well enjoy!

Throwback Thursday

Starting today and every Thursday from now I am going to dedication Thursday's to "Throwback Thursdays".

What is that all about you might ask? Well, I will post a photo from my past and will give you 5 facts about it, like; time it was taken, when, with whom... etc.

Sounds like fun, right?

Well, here's the first photo of my first official Throwback Thursdays.

Facts about this photo:

1. Yes, this is me "modeling" my cute little dress and wearing a pair of my Mom's high heels (which is something I definitely grew out of, since I rarely wear high heels now).

2. The photo was taken probably by my Dad and around 1982.

3. We lived in this house until I was 25 years old then I left to live in Mexico and my parents sold this house and moved up to the mountains.

4. The lady sitting behind me it's my Mom, she has very dark hair in this photo and short, which wasn't a style I remember her using very often.

5. The chair that you see my Mom sitting on as well as the one on the corner were both hand made by my great grandfather around 1910 (although the upholstery was updated by that time), my parents still have 2 of those chairs an a little love seat!

So, isn't this fun?

Well, I was thinking that since I will be doing this every Thursday, perhaps as of next week I will create a little "Link Party" so if you would like to join the Throwback on your own blog you can link to mine (with a button I will post on Wednesdays) and share your own past in photos.

Is anybody interested? Hope so... Have a great (Throwback) Thursday!!!

here kitty, kitty...

Back in July of 2011 was the first time I ever posted a picture of lil' Goldie and his siblings.

On this past post I talked about feeding "Little One" and "BTK", our first resident kitties for about 3 months...

updated (but blurry) photo of Little One and BTK

... And then, finding out on the corner of our yard that "BTK" had a litter of 3 lovely kittens... A black one (Shadow), a Tabby (Lee) and a Yellow one we named Goldie.

the two brothers, Shadow & Goldie (Lee missing)

Well, time passed and we finally were officially introduced to the kitties and we started feeding them daily.

Then Albina (aka Al) arrived and was made part of the family, she is a very cute girl.

We feed all 6 for a while and then finally the last member of the pack arrived, Long Tail (aka LT)...

Now he has become a huge part of the gang and in fact I think he is sorta of the male leader (although we hope the Mamma BTK is still the leader of the pack!).

So, with patience and dedication our relationship with them grew and now our kitty family has 7 members!

All kitties are pretty awesome but at heart they are still very feral as well as very unpredictable.

But out of all seven, there's a special boy that has made a very unique relationship with me, Goldie, he is my little boy and he knows it.

In fact, when he goes away to "explore" around the bushes, if I go outside and I start calling and yelling his name, no matter where he is, he will come back and announce to me he is back with a very loud "Meeeow"!

On Sunday my husband said he fed them in the morning and the only cat missing was Goldie, by the afternoon he was still not around, so I went outside and start calling him, he was back in less than 5 minutes.

It's kinda of crazy to think that a feral cat like he is, actually would knows his name and knows when I am calling him, but he does come when called!!!

Funny, eh?

Here's the last photo I've taken on Goldie, yesterday when I came home from work, as you can see he is super chilled and although he let me take the shots and even rub his little paw, he was so chilled he didn't really care to move very much!

Have a great Day!

Dream of lasting peace

Eleven in English, Once in Spanish, Undici in Italian, Elf in German, Onze in French, Elva in Swedish, Ahada ‘ashar in Arabic... No matter in which language you say it, 11 is the amount of years that marks today the horrible terrorist attacks of 9/11, in 2001.

A dark day in the history of our entire world and each an every one of the cultures that share this planet eart.

Because no matter what your nationality is, the sad events that took place that day (and take place every day where there are terrorist attacks) affect us all as humans and goes beyond frontiers.

And today in the words of the wise Bob Marley, I would like to share a feeling that I have towards all things War, Terrorism and Violence...

Until the philosophy which hold one race

Superior and another inferior

Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned

Everywhere is war, me say war

That until there are no longer first class

And second class citizens of any nation

Until the colour of a man's skin

Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes

Me say war

That until the day

The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship

Rule of international morality

Will remain in but a fleeting illusion

To be pursued, but never attained

There will be War...

Perhaps even after Eleven year, the sorrow and sadness that comes with the loss of innocent lives is still pretty much alive, but so it's their memory in the hearts of all those that loved them.

Still after Eleven years, I don't think it's about pointing fingers and find people to named guilty, but to find a way to insure that this won't happen again. 

And to me, the only way to do that, is by changing and always keeping an respectful attitude towards others, accepting others customs, cultures and believes but specially by never trying to impose our personal believes into others.

It all comes down to respect and love for us and one another, perhaps it's impossible and it might sound unreasonable to some, but it's the only way.

So, let's not forget but forgive our mistake as humans and move forward to ensure that our world has a promising and peaceful future.

In sort of a random fact about the day of the attacks; the Costa Rican Consulate was in one of the towers that came down that day, there were 3 employees on worked on that office and every single one survived because they were all running late into work that day... Well, I guess sometimes running late could be a blessing in disguise!

God Bless!

Monday already?

The weeks sure is short and then the week starts and work is so slow during Sept. & Oct. that each weekday feels as it it has a 14 hour work shift, time is all wrong!

It's Monday already an I don't have much to post about, but I did get a new car last week (well, new for me) and here is a photos of it.

Besides that, this weekend my husband made yet another toy for our dog Sheba and she of course loved it...

So I came up with the brilliant idea to buy some nice colorful rope and have him make a few more so we can donate to all those doggies at the Humane Society that are in much need of toys as well as love and adoption (unfortunately we can't help with the adoption part!).

Well, hope everybody had a nice weekend and that the coming week is fabulous too!!!

bucket list material

It's not like a have a bucket list that contains "a visit to an official marine vessel". But if I did, as of yesterday  I could cross it off...

Perhaps I should start a bucket list, or not! -

Do you have a bucket list? If so, please do share...

Anyway, back to the visit to an official marine vessel.

The US Coast Guard ships visits our island quite frequently and those "coasties" sure are nice guys besides great clients of our store, always coming by to buy t-shirt for themselves and in some cases even artwork.

Well, this visit was no different other than for the first time they invited our entire staff (4 of us at the time) to come visit the ship, so we took up on their invitation and here are some pictures of our adventure.

(Unfortunately because of security issues we are not allowed to take pictures inside the vessel, but we managed to take from the outside.)

here's the CGC Venturous WMEC- 625

Notice the big helicopter in the back, we were not allowed to go up there though :(

On this last photo you can see some "stickers" that symbolize their drug busts, the top 9 that look like "snowflakes" are for boat carrying cocaine and the 3 "leaves" are for boat containing marijuana.

part of the crew with Mr. Harvey

Also earlier that day, the crew brought a gift for my boss, how nice of them, right?

In other VERY GOOD news, my husband got the job that he interviewed for about a week ago, so thank you everybody for the positive vibes and prayers you sent our way on the day of the interview.

Now, it's off to a great weekend, Happy Friday!!!

BIG Blessing!

I hate getting bad news, but specially when the news are from back home...

Yesterday while on facebook I suddenly started reading posts about a major earthquake hitting the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, immediately my heart dropped thinking about people affected by it and specially my family and friends.

But then yesterday and once again, God shows his mercy and protection to my little piece of heaven.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.6, which makes it the second strongest one ever recorded in the history of the country. But this major disaster just passed by without too much tragedy. 

Looking at a list of earthquake fatalities from quakes of equal size (or smaller) than yesterday's, it simply blows my mind to think of all the devastation and fatalities that could have result from it, but Thank God it didn't.

Here are some very sad statistics; 

Haiti, January 2010, magnitude 7.0, fatalities 316,000
China, April 2010, magnitude 6.0, fatalities 2200 
China, May 2008, magnitude 7.9, fatalities 87587

Pakistan, October 2005, magnitude 7.6, fatalities 86000
Iran, December 2003, magnitude 6.6, fatalities 31000
India, January 2001, magnitude 7.6, fatalities 20000
Turkey, August 1999, magnitude 7.6, fatalities 19000 (thought to be as high as 45000)

Costa Rica, September 5, 2012, magnitude estimates as high as 7.9 (thought to be 7.6), fatalities maybe 4, only two confirmed, both from heart attacks. 

Of course there are a few edification damages but not many... here are some photos from random facebook posts... The epicenter was out on the ocean so a Tsunami was also expected, but didn't happen.

 beach with very high surge

a lot of roads were badly damaged

big local hospital affected

Appliance store lost its roof

this is a beach close to the epicenter... that is cracked sand!

So, remember 2 days ago I posted about blessings BIG and small? Well this certainly falls into the category of  BIG one and for that I am extremely happy and thankful.

Have a blessed day!

Snooze, you loose!

Why is it that when the alarm goes off (in my case at 6:45am) in the morning, if you decide to close your eyes for 5 more minutes, by the time you open them again -yikes- it's already 7:15!!!!

But, if you are waiting in line or for somebody to pick you up and you try closing your eyes for 5 minutes, when you open them again, perhaps a whole 2 minutes have passed (at most!)... LOL!

Well, I am almost the proud owner of a "brand new, second hand" Mitsubishi Outlander 2004, yey!

My mechanical checked it yesterday and gave me the OK to buy it, he said it's in very good shape and the little stuff I would have to fix the previous owner deducted from the sale price!!!

I should be closing the deal today and then I got new wheels!

Not much going on right now, hope everybody is having a nice week and Happy Hump Day!

blessings big and small

This morning while driving home from the gym I stopped and took some photos.

While taking those shots I couldn't help but see around myself and think of the phrase

"I am not lucky, but blessed" 

Blessings on the form of a life lived well, to live where I live, to have an amazing husband and some unique and special animals (2 dogs and 7 cats!)...

Sheba

Ditto

Long Tail

Little One

But besides the big blessing, there are also many small ones like;

Finding this hermit crab by our driveway the other day...

and discovering a "Custard Apple" tree in our back yard with fruit in it, yey!

So, what are some specially little blessings in your world today?

Have a wonderful Tuesday!!!

Dude, where is my car?

A few weeks ago I started playing with the idea of selling my car, reason why? It's got some minor rust issues and the engine is not in the best of shapes.

The last time I had it serviced (along with our other little car), the mechanic told me that I should consider selling it.

Since he said that, the idea is been running around my head. Well, on Wednesday I decided to put it up for sale, and guess what? It sold in 2 days!!!

my car is the Honda CRV 2001

Here on the island, there are two main free classified website where everybody goes to sell or buy items, this is where I also sold my wedding dress!

The gentleman buying the car gave me a deposit to hold it and the deal should be finished today or tomorrow, I have already signed the release of the car I need to stop my insurance.

So, perhaps after today I am going to be driving the little Mitsubishi until I find another car, but I am considering this two options:

A Mitsubishi Outlander 2004.

 
And a Hyundai Santa Fe 2005.

I have talked with the sellers of both cars but I haven't seen any, perhaps this afternoon or tomorrow... wish me luck!

In unrelated news, I have started my very first "apparel" crochet project, I am doing the wrap up swimsuit cover-up, so far I only have 1 of the 4 squares...

I think the colors I chose are very appropriate for the beach/summer, right?

Well, hope everybody had a nice weekend and those that are in the USA are enjoy the long Memorial Day weekend.

Happy Monday!