At the beginning of every week I come into work and cringe at the idea of getting on the scale. I like to weigh myself on Monday’s to see where I’m at. Every week I’m convinced that my horrible eating habits over the weekend are going to catch up with me and somehow I will have miraculously gained back 10lbs!! Today was no exception. I trudged down to the cafeteria, where the scale is so handily kept, on my way to get my morning fix of sausage and egg (protein) and to my amazement I have dropped another pound or two!!! I can’t believe it!!!
Thus far I have lost about 9lbs in about as many weeks. It’s a very SLOW process and the fact that I'm not counting my calories or pushing myself physically at the gym isn’t speeding things up any. But it’s still happening and I couldn’t be happier!! What’s even better is I’m losing the RIGHT way!! I’m not starving myself or doing some crazy fad diet, I don’t eat cabbage soup 3 times a day or 3 cookies with every meal. I simply try to eat better and more often. Instead of eating 3 big meals a day, I eat 5-6 times a day every 2-3 hours. I eat things like eggs and turkey sausage, and fruit for breakfast. For lunch I’ve been eating Progresso soup. Wal-Mart carries Progresso pretty cheap so I’m not only saving money by not buying expensive cafeteria food but eating healthy too, and if I’m still hungry ill pair it with a salad. Then for dinner it’s pretty much whatever I want although usually its chicken or fish with vegetables. And at least 3 times a week I try to go for a mile run around my neighborhood.
I still have a LONG way to go but today's weigh-in gave me hope that ill get there....slowly but surely. It's VERY encouraging seeing the scale tip in the RIGHT direction!! ;-)
Monday, July 26, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
MUSC GETS RANKED
The Medical University of South Carolina ranks among the nation's best hospitals in its treatment of six specialities, according to the August edition of U.S. News & World Report.
The Medical University of South Carolina again has made U.S. News & World Report's list of Best Hospitals in six categories. The hospital has been ranked for the 14th year in a row for its treatment of gastrointestinal disorders.
The Best Hospitals list ranks MUSC for its treatment of gastrointestinal disorders (24), ear/nose/throat disorders (40), kidney disorders (41), gynecologic disorders (47), orthopedics (42) and rheumatology (17).
Out of 4,852 facilities, only 152, including MUSC, made the 2010-11 Best Hospitals rankings.
Founded in Charleston in 1824, the Medical University of South Carolina is the oldest medical school in the South
Friday, July 16, 2010
I can’t express how PROUD I am to work for MUSC. I have been with the hospital for 5 years now and I couldn’t be happier!! Not only do I work at MUSC but I myself also utilize their excellent care for my own healthcare needs!
I can also attest first hand to their AWESOME gynecologic services!! I have had surgery there and although surgery is never a fun thing (the anesthesia makes me sick), they did their best to make me as comfortable as possible and I was EXTREMELY impressed with my care! If I have the choice I would never go anywhere else for my surgical needs!!!
I work next to the BEST orthopedic doctors that South Carolina has to offer!! One of them even came by yesterday to invite the OR/ER Radiology staff to a celebration party because of all the hard work we do for them.
I am currently working on my Bachelor’s degree from MUSC's University! I feel blessed to affiliated with such a good hospital!!
There are so many students that are trianed and graduate from MUSC before they continue their careers all over the world!!
-Kim Murdaugh RT(R)
Oh........
• MUSC was also named # 20 Pediatrics: Heart & Heart Surgery
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Do Something
11 Facts about Recycling
2. Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
3. A typical family consumes 182 gallons of soda, 29 gallons of juice, 104 gallons of milk, and 26 gallons of bottled water a year. That's a lot of containers that can all be recycled!
4. About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is only 28%.
5. Every month Americans throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper (think: Empire State Building), but all of these jars are recyclable!
6. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures a year! Ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It's twice the size of Texas and is floating somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii. It's also 80 percent plastic, and weighs in at 3.5 million tons.
7. Recycling one ton (about 2,000 pounds) of paper saves 17 trees, two barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for six months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of pollution.
8. The 17 trees saved by recycling one ton of paper can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air each year.
9. If all of our newspapers were recycled, we could save about 250 million trees each year! If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25 million trees each year.
10. More than 20 million Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of aluminum foil. Believe it not, ALL that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it so most it goes in the trash!
11. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours. In spite of this, Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every three months!
Easy Ideas
- Find out how large (or small!) your carbon footprint is here! (I was surprised at mine)
- Play an online game that supports DoSomething.org
- Having an event? A dance, a party, a get together? Provide a container for recyclables and others for trash.
- Organize a clothes exchange - get friends and people in your community to bring anything they don't want so they can swap!
- Take your own cloth or canvas bag when you go shopping for groceries, clothes, whatever!
- Use eco-friendly dishes - like bowls made of recycled magazines or glassware instead of paper plates.
- Send an e-blast to family and friends with information and tips on recycling.
- Start reusing a reusable water bottle and just say no to plastic.
- Make sure your printer paper is 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
- Pick up the trash around your town- just because other people don't doesn't mean you shouldn't!
- Try a reusable water bottle- they're easy to wash, and can be used for both hot and cold liquids.
- Get your school to use washable trays if they use paper plates or wrappers
- Use biodegradable sunscreen- and protect yourself from harmful rays every day.
- Reuse boxes for gifts and wrap them with newspaper - use the Sunday comics for pizzazz.\
- Donate! Anything in good condition that you longer need!
- Use Evite or facebook for party and event invitations - it saves paper AND you can know who's coming in an instant!
- Revamp your old clothes! Spice up a shirt you never wear with sequins, or make an old pair of jeans into shorts.
- Use old stuff to make art- make a mobile from CDs, or collage from magazines.
- Use eco-friendly dishes- like bowls made of recycled magazines or glassware instead of paper plates.
- Recycle- DUH!
- When you donate to an organization, find out where the money goes and make sure the organization supports your values.
- Use cloth napkins and dish towels instead of paper ones.
- Reuse bags and containers.
From DoSomeThing.org
I am not big on recyling although I should be. In my house our vice is pizza and since the pizza boxes are too big to fit in the trash I put them off to the side. We try not to splurg too often but thanks to a husband with a good appitate and a 10yr old daughter it doesnt take long for them to stack up!!!
I thought I was doing good by setting the boxes to the side to put in the recycle bin at the dump but after I read this article (click here) I realized I was wrong!!
Guess I'll have to find other ways to make a difference and I hope you do too!!!!
P.S
oh! So I also decided to only use two or three little squares of toilet paper instead of my normal 5 or 6. I know that doesnt seem like a lot but im sure it adds up to me flushing a ton of paper down the drain!! (lol) This is a sacrafice i will just have to live with so that i may save the world one toilet tissue square at a time!!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Memorial weekend
Finally had the wonderful weekend I was in need of!!!
I was on call all last week and even though I had to stay late most days I really didn’t mind. I knew I had to work Memorial Day, again I didn’t mind, but I was a little sad that my whole weekend would be spent waiting to see if I would get called into work!
My friend called me Friday asking if me and Jason wanted to go out on the boat with her Saturday. I really wanted to go but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find anyone to take my call. Finally I hit the jackpot and was able to find someone to take if for most of the day! This freed me up enough that we could go spend our day out on the water!
I’m so glad we went!! We had sooo much fun! I haven’t been out on the boat in awhile and I had forgotten how much fun it is!! We put in and went through the locks to get to the Short stay area. I haven’t seen Short stay in YEARS!! It brought back a ton of childhood memories!! Jason and I both got a ton of sun and spent some much needed time together!
Recently Jason has joined a new gym that trains mma. At first I wasn’t really happy of the idea, but after seeing how dedicated he is to learning I am really happy for him (the new muscles poking out is also a great perk…gotta love those well toned men !!)
I have orientation for school this weekend…boo!!! So my time from here on out should be spent on school. I say should because I am the QUEEN of procrastination! And I can always find something unproductive and distracting to look at. (this is why I was able to ready 4 Sookie Stackhouse books in just a month!! But don’t get me started on those…season premier June 13Th whoop whoop !!!!!)
However, this semester is my second to last and I am taking my usual 2 classes but I am also trying to clep 2 classes. I may have bitten off more than I can chew on this one because I have never taken a CLEP before. This is when you take the test for the class instead of actually taking the class, if I pass the test it will end of saving me a ton of money that otherwise I will have to spend to take the class.
I am going to have to work really hard at this because Biology is one of the tests I am Clepping and I haven’t had any Biology classes in years!!!
I am going to have to work my butt off to pull this off, but I will focus and I will get it done!
Oh and on a completely different note, Taylor starts camp for the first time ever in a few weeks!!! I am soo excited for her! Usually she either stays with a friend or with my grandparents during the summer but this year we were able to get her into a camp!! This isn’t the kind where she goes and stays the night for a few weeks but she is still super excited! I even bought her some tween books to read that are about camp! My little girl is growing up so fast I can’t believe it!! She will be in 5th grade at the end of the summer!!! She has recently started going through my closet at my mom’s house (I left a ton of stuff there when I moved out) and now when she comes home I find her wearing my old clothes all the time!!
I was on call all last week and even though I had to stay late most days I really didn’t mind. I knew I had to work Memorial Day, again I didn’t mind, but I was a little sad that my whole weekend would be spent waiting to see if I would get called into work!
My friend called me Friday asking if me and Jason wanted to go out on the boat with her Saturday. I really wanted to go but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find anyone to take my call. Finally I hit the jackpot and was able to find someone to take if for most of the day! This freed me up enough that we could go spend our day out on the water!
I’m so glad we went!! We had sooo much fun! I haven’t been out on the boat in awhile and I had forgotten how much fun it is!! We put in and went through the locks to get to the Short stay area. I haven’t seen Short stay in YEARS!! It brought back a ton of childhood memories!! Jason and I both got a ton of sun and spent some much needed time together!
Recently Jason has joined a new gym that trains mma. At first I wasn’t really happy of the idea, but after seeing how dedicated he is to learning I am really happy for him (the new muscles poking out is also a great perk…gotta love those well toned men !!)
I have orientation for school this weekend…boo!!! So my time from here on out should be spent on school. I say should because I am the QUEEN of procrastination! And I can always find something unproductive and distracting to look at. (this is why I was able to ready 4 Sookie Stackhouse books in just a month!! But don’t get me started on those…season premier June 13Th whoop whoop !!!!!)
However, this semester is my second to last and I am taking my usual 2 classes but I am also trying to clep 2 classes. I may have bitten off more than I can chew on this one because I have never taken a CLEP before. This is when you take the test for the class instead of actually taking the class, if I pass the test it will end of saving me a ton of money that otherwise I will have to spend to take the class.
I am going to have to work really hard at this because Biology is one of the tests I am Clepping and I haven’t had any Biology classes in years!!!
I am going to have to work my butt off to pull this off, but I will focus and I will get it done!
Oh and on a completely different note, Taylor starts camp for the first time ever in a few weeks!!! I am soo excited for her! Usually she either stays with a friend or with my grandparents during the summer but this year we were able to get her into a camp!! This isn’t the kind where she goes and stays the night for a few weeks but she is still super excited! I even bought her some tween books to read that are about camp! My little girl is growing up so fast I can’t believe it!! She will be in 5th grade at the end of the summer!!! She has recently started going through my closet at my mom’s house (I left a ton of stuff there when I moved out) and now when she comes home I find her wearing my old clothes all the time!!
Friday, May 28, 2010
YUM-O
This is a Racheal Ray recipe I found in one of my magazines the other day...it was YUM-O so I had to share!! It's also one of the easiest things i have ever made!!!
Chicken Taco Nachos:
This is the picture from the RR web site. Mine didnt look exactly like this but close enough so that you get the idea!Ingredients:
Preparation
Im not so good on following directions so I added tomatoes and a little bit of black beans and corn as well. You could also add sour cream but I was trying to keep it as healthy as possible, although i dont think a small teaspoon of the reduce fat kind would hurt!!
I put the tortilla in the oven to crisp while I seperated all the rotisserie chicken.
I only used one tortilla and even that was too much. If your not a big eater I would suggest maybe halfing the tortilla before you put it in the oven to crisp. I found a half of one was more than enough.
The result was amazingly good and so simple to make I think from start to finish it only took me 15 mins.
P.S
Make sure you have a napkin handy!!! This can be a messy dish!!!
Chicken Taco Nachos:
This is the picture from the RR web site. Mine didnt look exactly like this but close enough so that you get the idea!- flour tortillas (I used whole wheat)
- Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), some to brush tortillas, plus 1 tablespoon
- 2 cups chopped rotisserie chicken meat
- 1 cup mild taco sauce or salsa (I added hot sauce to mine to give it a little extra kick!)
- 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese (You can use reduced fat)
- 1 small heart of romaine lettuce, shredded
- 2 scallions, snipped with kitchen scissors or chopped (I didnt use these at all)
- 4 rounded spoonfuls sliced green olives with pimento (i didnt use any olives at all)
Preparation
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.
- Lightly brush a little EVOO onto the tortillas and place them on a baking sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the oven and crisp up the tortillas, 5 minutes. (I just used some foil)
- In a skillet over medium heat, cook the chicken and taco sauce for 5 minutes . (I skipped this step completely and just topped my tortilla with the meat then sauce)
- Top each tortilla with 1/2 cup of the saucy chicken and lots of cheese. (lol, i left out the "lots of" part)
- place the hot baking sheet back in the oven and bake 3-4 minutes more to melt the cheese.
- Place each Giant Chicken Taco Nacho on a dinner plate and top with lettuce, scallions and olives.
Im not so good on following directions so I added tomatoes and a little bit of black beans and corn as well. You could also add sour cream but I was trying to keep it as healthy as possible, although i dont think a small teaspoon of the reduce fat kind would hurt!!
I put the tortilla in the oven to crisp while I seperated all the rotisserie chicken.
I only used one tortilla and even that was too much. If your not a big eater I would suggest maybe halfing the tortilla before you put it in the oven to crisp. I found a half of one was more than enough.
The result was amazingly good and so simple to make I think from start to finish it only took me 15 mins.
P.S
Make sure you have a napkin handy!!! This can be a messy dish!!!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Loving May!!!
So far May has been good to me!! I am off of school all month and have a couple of weeks with no call...this =lots of fun!!! Last weekend we had a cookout at Wannamaker park and about 25 of our favorite people came out!! There were more children this year than ever which is awesome!! We grilled burgers and dogs and played volleyball! It was HOT but there was plenty of shade to rest in.
Sunday, Jason and I went to the 4th Annual FIRST FLUSH FESTIVAL -at the Charleston Tea Plantation.
This was my first time going and I LOVED it! They were serving free tea (yummy) both sweet and unsweet. and there were a ton of bands including Crowfield which I am learning is a Charleston favorite!
We ended up in a spot in the grass in front of a wonderful couple who just adopted the most precious little girl!! We had so much fun and made new friends!! (I also worked on getting a great tan)!!
Somehow I have also managed to work in reading 4 books within less than a month! I love to read but am not able to when I'm in school. I feel too guitly reading for pleasure when I know I could be studying instead!
This weekend we may be going back to Indianapolis for Neiko's birthday! Thankfully I will be a little more prepared than last time and will at least bring a carry on bag with me! I LOVE traveling and I am LOVING my summer in the sun!!!
Sunday, Jason and I went to the 4th Annual FIRST FLUSH FESTIVAL -at the Charleston Tea Plantation.
This was my first time going and I LOVED it! They were serving free tea (yummy) both sweet and unsweet. and there were a ton of bands including Crowfield which I am learning is a Charleston favorite!
We ended up in a spot in the grass in front of a wonderful couple who just adopted the most precious little girl!! We had so much fun and made new friends!! (I also worked on getting a great tan)!!
Somehow I have also managed to work in reading 4 books within less than a month! I love to read but am not able to when I'm in school. I feel too guitly reading for pleasure when I know I could be studying instead!
This weekend we may be going back to Indianapolis for Neiko's birthday! Thankfully I will be a little more prepared than last time and will at least bring a carry on bag with me! I LOVE traveling and I am LOVING my summer in the sun!!!
Friday, May 7, 2010
Our first Anniversary spent in Aruba
At the end of my last blog I said I wasn’t going to tell you what we had planned for our anniversary. Planned is a strong word for it. The Monday before our anniversary we decided to go to Aruba that Friday to celebrate.
We both got our passports almost two years ago because we were going to go to Spain with Jason’s mom (I thought that’s where Jason was going to propose) we ended up never using them but nonetheless……passports=check
Also a few years back we got a timeshare. I LOVE our timeshare and we used it to go on our honeymoon. It’s like paying for your vacation a little every month verses all at once.
Jason and I had been talking about going to St.Augustine for anniversary because it was open with the timeshare and only about a 3 hour drive. Neither one of us had ever been there so we figured why not.
Either Sunday or Monday Jason was looking at the timeshare website and just playing around. He noticed that our timeshare has a spot in Aruba. I had totally forgotten that they did. Aruba is originally where he wanted to go on our honeymoon but they were all booked up so we ended up in Hawaii instead (hey, im not complaining)
Anyway, he realized that they had rooms open and it would be nothing to book it for the weekend.
Monday I went to work and even though our pto schedule is booked solid (I knew my boss couldn’t give me the time off) I was able to find someone to work that day for me on Friday!!! That’s all I need to be able to go!!!
We booked the room and then got on the phone with his mom to get the plane tickets!
Jason looked it up and for us to buy plane tickets would have been around $900. We thought of just buying the plane tickets to MAKE SURE we would make it but I bought a protection plan so didn’t we wouldn’t lose the points with the timeshare if we needed to cancel. We ended up getting standby tickets for less than half the price!!
Friday FINALLY rolled around and we got to the airport around 4:30am. We had no problems getting on the flight to Atlanta and from there to Aruba! After a 3 ½ hour flight we landed in Aruba!!
After checking in we decided to grab a bite to eat and hang out at the bar by the pool. We weren’t sure what we were going to get into and most of the water activities were in the process of closing down but we had seen a flyer for a party bus that takes you to a bunch of different bars. The flyer said that there were two options. You could go for dinner and then the bars or skip dinner and just hit up the bars. We decided since we had just eaten we would skip dinner. We headed up to the room to relax until it was time to go but then decided to go check with the concierge to make sure we could get a spot on the bus.
Turned out the bus had already left and there was no later bus for that evening (the flyer was WRONG!) We were kind of upset because we didn’t know what else to do for the night. Since we were only there for the weekend we wanted to make sure we made the most of our time while in Aruba.
The lady at the desk, Ann, saw how desperate we were and grabbed her keys and with her thick accent said “come on babies, we can still catch them”
She ushered us to her own personal car and in a whiff we were off!!! It took us about 10mins to catch up with the bus at the lighthouse, where they were doing a sunset champagne toast!
This was the pic i got as we were pulling up.
They agreed to let us on the bus and poured us a glass!!! We hopped on the bus and headed out! They even let me bring on my unfinished champagne!!! We ended up sitting next to two very nice ladies, both from Jersey!
Lol picture from inside our crazy bus!
Our first stop was dinner. As I said earlier, Jason and I had already eaten and weren’t really hungry so we just picked at our food and talked with our new friends. At every spot they gave us a drink card so we got our first drink free!
By the time we made it to the second bar we were all hammered (Jason and I had started drinking hours before while at the poolside bar)!!! The music at each place was excellent and everyone was dancing and having a good time! At one point they had a bunch of guys up on the bar and they all took their shirts off (you better believe I got a picture of that!!!)
Yes that is a picture of the driver of the other bus taking her clothes off at the bar and NO Jason would NOT get up there with them...i tried ;-)
Our bus driver, Smooth< I have a feeling that’s not his real name, lol> was awesome. They were playing music on the bus so we were dancing non stop. At one point while going through a traffic circle he just kept going round and round and round and everyone was laughing and hooting and hollering!!! Everyone we passed KNEW we were having a good time!
After when had been partying for a few hours they began dropping everyone back off at their hotels. We were still a ways from our hotel but Jason saw a casino and couldn’t resist. He had them drop of us right there!!! I’m not even sure where we were!! . Ill be honest, I don’t remember too much after that. I know Jason was doing well on the craps table and I was walking around trying to use my cell phone, even though I had realized earlier it wasn’t working. We were goof balls!! We didn’t remember until the next day that on the way home Jason pushed the stop button on the elevator and forced it open about 6inches before it was flush with the floor and I tripped coming out! Crazy I know but we had an amazing time!! Hahaha.
The next morning we felt like something you would scrap off the bottom of your shoe, but we had agreed the day before to sit through a timeshare presentation. So at 9am in the morning we got up and headed downstairs. Thankfully they served us breakfast which was very much so needed and we ended up with a nice sales guy named Joey. He was great and wasn’t pressuring us to buy, we are already owners anyway so they were trying to get us to upgrade. We are very interested but my husband decided at the time we are not ready yet. Of course I stand by everything he says so we headed out. Just for sitting through the presentation they game us $100 gift that we could use for any of the activities they had on the list.
They had everything from jet skis to parasailing to guided tours.
We ended up choosing an ATV tour. Crazy enough the guy giving our gift warned us to be careful because the week before a tourist got off of a cruise boat and 30mins later got himself killed on a four wheeler doing the same thing we were about to!!!
This was a little unsettling but we decided to do the tour anyway. Jason and I both grew up as kids riding four wheelers so we felt responsible enough not to do anything stupid.
When we got there, there was another couple going with us. They were going on the dune buggy instead of the four wheelers and this made Jason jealous. He decided to upgrade us to a dune buggy as well. I was a little sad I wouldn’t get to drive the four wheeler bc we were getting two of those and only one dune buggy, but he promised to let me drive some too!
In the end it turned out WAYYYY better in the dune buggy! Bc we were sitting next to each other we were able to talk, whereas had we been on the four wheelers we wouldn’t have been able to as easy without having to scream.
The couple that went with us was really nice and we pretty much hung with them the whole time. The first place they took us was to the natural rock formations.
Next was to a natural bridge that had just collapsed back in 2005. This is one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen. The water was amazing!! After this we were on to the next site and on the way they trail got more interesting! Jason let me drive and we were zooming through rough trails of sand and rock. I got us airborne a few time (hehehe) and then it was Jason’s turn to drive. His favorite part was doing doughnuts!
They took us to gold mine ruins, to Aruba’s first church, and (back to) the lighthouse, called the California lighthouse which was named for the steamship California, which wrecked nearby on Sept 23, 1891. The sites were great but nothing compared to the natural bridge and ridding wide open in the dune buggy!! At the very end of the tour our tour guide left the rest of the group who were ridding in jeeps and took us by ourselves to let loose though the red sand!! All you could see of the other two dune buggies was their dust trails!!! By the end we were all covered with dirt but is was so well worth it!
The last stop was to the beach so we could clean up. It was soooo refreshing. In Aruba the temperature is always hot and humid. That day it was like 90 with a heat index of over a hundred! I’m from South Carolina and all, but I was dying from the heat!!
I think I STILL have dirt in places it shouldn’t be!!! Lol~~
They let us swim for awhile and then it was time to head back : ( We were out there for over 3 hours and I really had the time of my life!!
That night we went to the high rise hotels for dinner and just walked around. We didn’t find much to do, so casino it was again. We didn’t do as well as the night before, but we still had a good time. We decided not to stay late, or drink too much since we had to fly out the next day.
Thankfully we made our flight and made it home in time to eat the traditional bite of wedding cake we had saved from our wedding day!
It was the best impromptu trip I have EVER taken!!
Can’t wait to do it again!!
We both got our passports almost two years ago because we were going to go to Spain with Jason’s mom (I thought that’s where Jason was going to propose) we ended up never using them but nonetheless……passports=check
Also a few years back we got a timeshare. I LOVE our timeshare and we used it to go on our honeymoon. It’s like paying for your vacation a little every month verses all at once.
Jason and I had been talking about going to St.Augustine for anniversary because it was open with the timeshare and only about a 3 hour drive. Neither one of us had ever been there so we figured why not.
Either Sunday or Monday Jason was looking at the timeshare website and just playing around. He noticed that our timeshare has a spot in Aruba. I had totally forgotten that they did. Aruba is originally where he wanted to go on our honeymoon but they were all booked up so we ended up in Hawaii instead (hey, im not complaining)
Anyway, he realized that they had rooms open and it would be nothing to book it for the weekend.
Monday I went to work and even though our pto schedule is booked solid (I knew my boss couldn’t give me the time off) I was able to find someone to work that day for me on Friday!!! That’s all I need to be able to go!!!
We booked the room and then got on the phone with his mom to get the plane tickets!
Jason looked it up and for us to buy plane tickets would have been around $900. We thought of just buying the plane tickets to MAKE SURE we would make it but I bought a protection plan so didn’t we wouldn’t lose the points with the timeshare if we needed to cancel. We ended up getting standby tickets for less than half the price!!
Friday FINALLY rolled around and we got to the airport around 4:30am. We had no problems getting on the flight to Atlanta and from there to Aruba! After a 3 ½ hour flight we landed in Aruba!!
After checking in we decided to grab a bite to eat and hang out at the bar by the pool. We weren’t sure what we were going to get into and most of the water activities were in the process of closing down but we had seen a flyer for a party bus that takes you to a bunch of different bars. The flyer said that there were two options. You could go for dinner and then the bars or skip dinner and just hit up the bars. We decided since we had just eaten we would skip dinner. We headed up to the room to relax until it was time to go but then decided to go check with the concierge to make sure we could get a spot on the bus.
Turned out the bus had already left and there was no later bus for that evening (the flyer was WRONG!) We were kind of upset because we didn’t know what else to do for the night. Since we were only there for the weekend we wanted to make sure we made the most of our time while in Aruba.
The lady at the desk, Ann, saw how desperate we were and grabbed her keys and with her thick accent said “come on babies, we can still catch them”
She ushered us to her own personal car and in a whiff we were off!!! It took us about 10mins to catch up with the bus at the lighthouse, where they were doing a sunset champagne toast!
This was the pic i got as we were pulling up. They agreed to let us on the bus and poured us a glass!!! We hopped on the bus and headed out! They even let me bring on my unfinished champagne!!! We ended up sitting next to two very nice ladies, both from Jersey!
Lol picture from inside our crazy bus!Our first stop was dinner. As I said earlier, Jason and I had already eaten and weren’t really hungry so we just picked at our food and talked with our new friends. At every spot they gave us a drink card so we got our first drink free!
By the time we made it to the second bar we were all hammered (Jason and I had started drinking hours before while at the poolside bar)!!! The music at each place was excellent and everyone was dancing and having a good time! At one point they had a bunch of guys up on the bar and they all took their shirts off (you better believe I got a picture of that!!!)
Yes that is a picture of the driver of the other bus taking her clothes off at the bar and NO Jason would NOT get up there with them...i tried ;-)Our bus driver, Smooth< I have a feeling that’s not his real name, lol> was awesome. They were playing music on the bus so we were dancing non stop. At one point while going through a traffic circle he just kept going round and round and round and everyone was laughing and hooting and hollering!!! Everyone we passed KNEW we were having a good time!
After when had been partying for a few hours they began dropping everyone back off at their hotels. We were still a ways from our hotel but Jason saw a casino and couldn’t resist. He had them drop of us right there!!! I’m not even sure where we were!! . Ill be honest, I don’t remember too much after that. I know Jason was doing well on the craps table and I was walking around trying to use my cell phone, even though I had realized earlier it wasn’t working. We were goof balls!! We didn’t remember until the next day that on the way home Jason pushed the stop button on the elevator and forced it open about 6inches before it was flush with the floor and I tripped coming out! Crazy I know but we had an amazing time!! Hahaha.
The next morning we felt like something you would scrap off the bottom of your shoe, but we had agreed the day before to sit through a timeshare presentation. So at 9am in the morning we got up and headed downstairs. Thankfully they served us breakfast which was very much so needed and we ended up with a nice sales guy named Joey. He was great and wasn’t pressuring us to buy, we are already owners anyway so they were trying to get us to upgrade. We are very interested but my husband decided at the time we are not ready yet. Of course I stand by everything he says so we headed out. Just for sitting through the presentation they game us $100 gift that we could use for any of the activities they had on the list.
They had everything from jet skis to parasailing to guided tours.
We ended up choosing an ATV tour. Crazy enough the guy giving our gift warned us to be careful because the week before a tourist got off of a cruise boat and 30mins later got himself killed on a four wheeler doing the same thing we were about to!!!
This was a little unsettling but we decided to do the tour anyway. Jason and I both grew up as kids riding four wheelers so we felt responsible enough not to do anything stupid.
When we got there, there was another couple going with us. They were going on the dune buggy instead of the four wheelers and this made Jason jealous. He decided to upgrade us to a dune buggy as well. I was a little sad I wouldn’t get to drive the four wheeler bc we were getting two of those and only one dune buggy, but he promised to let me drive some too!
In the end it turned out WAYYYY better in the dune buggy! Bc we were sitting next to each other we were able to talk, whereas had we been on the four wheelers we wouldn’t have been able to as easy without having to scream.
The couple that went with us was really nice and we pretty much hung with them the whole time. The first place they took us was to the natural rock formations.
They took us to gold mine ruins, to Aruba’s first church, and (back to) the lighthouse, called the California lighthouse which was named for the steamship California, which wrecked nearby on Sept 23, 1891. The sites were great but nothing compared to the natural bridge and ridding wide open in the dune buggy!! At the very end of the tour our tour guide left the rest of the group who were ridding in jeeps and took us by ourselves to let loose though the red sand!! All you could see of the other two dune buggies was their dust trails!!! By the end we were all covered with dirt but is was so well worth it!
The last stop was to the beach so we could clean up. It was soooo refreshing. In Aruba the temperature is always hot and humid. That day it was like 90 with a heat index of over a hundred! I’m from South Carolina and all, but I was dying from the heat!!
I think I STILL have dirt in places it shouldn’t be!!! Lol~~
They let us swim for awhile and then it was time to head back : ( We were out there for over 3 hours and I really had the time of my life!!
That night we went to the high rise hotels for dinner and just walked around. We didn’t find much to do, so casino it was again. We didn’t do as well as the night before, but we still had a good time. We decided not to stay late, or drink too much since we had to fly out the next day.
Thankfully we made our flight and made it home in time to eat the traditional bite of wedding cake we had saved from our wedding day!
It was the best impromptu trip I have EVER taken!!
Can’t wait to do it again!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)