Although we live on a small island, we are often plagued with bad traffic jams. Part of the problem is that the road commission did not plan well. All of our “bypasses” (Cayman expressways) are one lane roads. That doesn’t provide for all of the traffic during high rush hour times, like 5-6 pm and 8-9 am. Luckily, due to my erratic class schedule, I usually miss the bad traffic. Today, however, was a different story. I was zipping along in my little Barbie car on my way home. Suddenly the car in front of me stomped on their breaks. This car was not a car at all. Rather, it was a fritter-mobile…. a bus full of tourists. A millisecond later, another fritter-mobile stopped in the on coming traffic lane. Cars began to line up behind me and in the other lane. Curious, I edged my car to the side of the road to see what was causing the hold up. I figured it must be an accident or a police officer. Instead, it was a big, lazy lizard. That’s right. We had a major traffic jam because the fritters (read: tourists) wanted to stop and take pictures of an Iguana. Typical. Bet you don’t have those problems back home!

On the desktop of my computer background is a “widget” with the current weather back home and here on the island. Below is what it reads:

Grand Blanc, Michigan
Low of 0 degrees

Georgetown, Grand Cayman
Low of 89 degrees

Need I say more?!

**HAIR POST COMING VERY SOON…. **

Before we left to go home for Christmas break, we took some pictures of the crazy light house here on the island. These people hired security to walk around their home and sit at their gate greeting people. They had a Santa Claus each night taking pictures with children. We watched lights being hung in tall trees with giant cranes back in November. We had no idea it would turn into a mini Bronners, Christmas wonderland. Here are some pictures we took:

They set up a bunch of little houses filled with different things - like angels, elves, caroling dogs, reindeer, etc.

Coming up, scenes from home, Michigan wildlife, Pistons game, Christmas pictures and my new hair!

They couldn’t just let us get off this rock without some sort of added dramatics! No worries, though. It’s not like this is a hurricane…

We’re headed back to good ole Michigan this weekend and I can hardly wait! 3 weeks with family and friends and snow and hot cocoa and presents and our cat and I could go on and on!!!

This month has been busy with two sets of exams, but we have managed to have some fun along the way. Because I’ve been less than stellar in my punctual blog posting, here are some pictures of recent highlights:

Frank has been playing lots of basketball on KPMG’s team. (Future post to come…)

Flowers - part of my Birthday gift from Frank

We had a visit from a small lizard that went translucent and could change colors to match it’s surroundings. I think it was a baby chameleon or something. It was pretty cool looking, but not in my house. He affectionately became known as “stubby” when Frank tried to pick him up by the tail and it fell off. Here is Frank on the hunt for “Stubby,” the second time he got in our house. We knew it was him by the tail. haha.

Re: Thanksgiving Photos

The loads of supplies used to make our dinner.

This year’s new addition - Curried Pumpkin Soup as the first course.

Before and After

Cooking was a lot of fun, but boy is it work when you’re doing it by yourself. I refused to miss any of my family’s tradition dishes, so we had WAY too much food! It was all so yummy. I was really proud of the way it turned out, but bummed that I forgot to get a picture of the turkey before it was cut. Pathetic as it may be, I had some fun dissecting the turkey’s heart. I know it’s weird, but I was able to identify the atriums and ventricles, as well as, the aortic arch, brachialcephalic, left subclavian artery and left common carotid. Well, they might be called something different in a turkey, but in human terms that’s what they would have been.

Well here we are again. Year two. Thanksgiving on the island, again.

Since it’s a British island, they don’t celebrate this holiday. In fact, some of the people here think it’s really strange we would have a holiday in honor of a bird. They don’t quite understand that Turkey Day is just slang and apparently have missed the true title of the holiday THANKSgiving.

We miss all of our family very much today. The first year was not quite as bad because it was all new. As strange as it felt to be away from the traditions of home, it was somewhat exciting to cook dinner on my own. There was some thrill in trying something different. This year, however, the newness has worn off. We just want to be home with everyone and to top it off, I am in the middle of studying for exams. As a result, we’re pretending Thanksgiving is next Thursday.

Last year’s cooking extravaganza

I will say, it isn’t all bad the second time around. At least after last year’s fiasco with the legendary turkey search, I knew that I should by my turkey early this year. About a month ago I found a 15 pounder and he’s been frozen waiting for next week this whole time. (Last year I waited until the week of to buy our turkey. The island doesn’t ship in extras because they don’t celebrate the holiday. Finding a turkey was near impossible and we ended up with something like a 30 pounder for four people. That one was the last one and the butcher had to dig him out of the back of the freezer for us.)

This year may not be the way we would choose for it to be happening, but we’re still thankful for everything in our lives. Even though we won’t be eating Turkey and cranberry dressing today, we’ll be thinking of all of you and all the blessing in our lives. Not many people get the chance to chase their dreams like we have, have the love in their lives that we do, and after all, that’s what this holiday is all about. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Birds of Paradise. Not here. No sir. The birds here like to play mind games with me.

They chirp. They chirp, chirp, chirp right outside my window. Then when they know I’m coming they hide in the grass. They do this so they don’t get their little chirping beaks kicked in. They camoflage themselves from meanies like me.

As soon as I shut the curtains and try to go back to studying, which by the way, often requires silence - they chirp some more. I get up and go back to the window to scare them away. Now they stand on the sidewalk across the grass chirping right in front of me. Laughing at me and my annoyed, frustrations.

I knock on the glass slider to scare them a bit. I mean business little bird. Silence. I go back to my books and re-read the same paragraph for the third time. Now it will sink in because it’s quiet. Then it happens…. CHIRP!!!!!!!!! I run to the sliding glass door and fling it open. This bird has seen it’s last day! It doesn’t move. Instead, it stands on the sidewalk staring directly at me, like a old cowboy in a western movie waiting for the quick draw. Cue the tumbleweeds and the whistling western music from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly - tweedle tweedle dee, bum bum bum…. Being that I am a kind person, I hold back from charging the bird. (Okay, also because I don’t want my neighbors to think I’ve finally lost my mind.) But I give the camoflaged, cowboy, chirping bird a look to let it know I’ve had enough. It holds it’s ground, let’s out another high pitched chirp and calmly flies away.

Zoom in on this picture if you don’t believe me….

Who ever thought of any name along the lines of “birds of paradise” clearly had lost their minds from the chirping. Frank recently said he wanted to get a bird feeder. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen….

We had a great time with our Moms here. Here are some pictures and the story to go along with them.

The long weekend started on Halloween with a celebration of Frank’s Birthday. Debbie made her traditional carrot cake with yummy cream cheese frosting. Here it is decorated for the holiday and Debbie with Frank before he blew out his candles.

On Thursday while Frank was working, I took the Mom’s to lunch at Eats Cafe and then to the beach at the Westin. Here are some pictures of the Moms relaxing by the pool. We had a few frozen, tropical drinks and then headed down to the ocean.

The Mom’s enjoyed the tropical setting and warm sun. The breezes were perfect off of the water to keep us cool in the sunshine. The palm trees were a nice break from the dying leaves back in Michigan.

Here is a little friend that followed by Mom around the pool.

Friday night we took the Moms to one of our favorite restaurants - Copper Falls.

We took a drive out to the East End on Saturday. On the way out, we stopped at the blow holes. Here are some pictures of us as the water spewed through the rocks.

My Mom found yet another little friend along the way.

Later on, we headed out to the far, far east end. Here are some pictures of the island out that way. Our Moms really liked the flowers and greenery out there.

It’s like the tropical countryside when you get out that far.

We stopped to enjoy one of the beaches on the way back. The Moms found conch shells in the sand, while Frank and I took a walk.

The last night the Moms were here, we took them to dinner at one of our favorite little hole-in-the-wall type places. The restaurant sits on a deck that is literally on the beach. While we were waiting for the yummy seafood pasta dishes to arrive, we watched the most beautiful sunset Frank and I have ever seen in Cayman.

Dropping the Moms off at the airport was hard to do, but it helps knowing that we’re coming home in just over a month for Christmas! Can’t wait!

Things have been so busy on this little island of ours. I’ve been trying to get used to being thrown back into the day to day pace of classes and studying. Frank has been working 16 hour days to get his clients’ taxes finished by the extension deadline. Plus, my Nana was visiting us for a week. Unfortunately, I have to report she did not have the ideal trip.** It rained everyday at one time or another. The pool is drained and being cleaned from all the ocean muck that washed in with Hurricane Dean. Everytime we went down to the docks, the fisherman were out of or had not caught any Yellow Fin Tuna (her fav). She couldn’t find the right gift for a gal pal of hers (turning 75 this week)…. apparently there was not one single touristy tshirt on this island that fits this woman’s style. I guess after 75 years, you have so many tshirts that you become extremely picky about new ones. I dunno. Anyways, now that she is gone, I’m back to the blogs. I think it’s going to take a day or two to catch up on all of your lovely lives, but I’m determined to do so. I actually miss you guys. Pathetic, I know.

**Edit: I wasn’t going to say this because I thought it’d be too depressing (and I know those of you who come here, don’t come here to feel blue - maybe green, olive green - okay bad joke) Anyways, I decided it was important to include for my “journal-ing” sake. My Nana’s trip was actually disappointing for a much more significant reason. My Uncle Chuck (great uncle) has been battling cancer for several years. This week hospice was brought in and he was put on a morphine drip. He is not expected to make it through the day. As a result, my Nana had to leave early, so that she could be with her sister. For obvious reasons, this put a damper on the trip for both of us and is probably more to blame then rain or empty pools.

You may know by now that Dean is coming. Luckily, we won’t be here when it hits. (if it hits) However, if it stays on the projected path it could be a Category 4 or 5 when it hits the Cayman Islands. Say a prayer or cross your fingers that this doesn’t happen. We would be safe, but our cars, home and all of our stuff wouldn’t be. Just in case, we’re moving all of our stuff to the back bedroom, upstairs. Nice, huh?! Pack, clean and get ready for our trip…. in addition to preparing for a hurricane.