My Learning Safari

The year 2016 meant the big 3-0 for me! Even when I was really young, I can remember always wanting to go to Jamaica. I have no idea where that came from, but something about it attracted me. So when it came time to pick where I wanted to go for my 30th, it didn't take me long to decide on Jamaica. It was a dream come true!

We stayed at Peartree Hill Estates, a VRBO. It was a cute little villa on some land outside of Negril. I really like getting to stay in a house away from the touristy hubbub.

On a hill, surrounded by palm trees

Hammock on the porch

Typical island style interior

We had a couple of dogs that guarded the place - wouldn't
say that they were one of the highlights of my trip

Also had some goats that sometimes freely roamed

We were taken care of by two locals, Bam and Dave. Yep, he goes by Bam and I'd say it fits him pretty well. Apparently everyone has a nickname in Jamaica. I quickly became known as Rain because I guess I brought the rain with me. There were some pretty good, heavy rains while we were there. But Bam was our driver and also made sure we were all taken care of. Dave was the property manager and the cook. Both were full of personality and quickly taught us that we were going to have to live by island time. Ya mon, no worries!
One of the perks of staying at a place like this and having someone there to cook is that you get to enjoy the local food.

Dave made sure we got to eat lots of local fish

And we even had a place to eat outside under a thatch umbrella,
overlooking the incredible view

A beautiful sight for my eyes

and an even better sight! All the mangoes I could
hope for! Plus little bananas, guava, and papaya.
I love tropical fruits!

I was on a hunt for soursop and breadfruit the whole time I was there. I did get to have some breadfruit. And then I finally found some good soursop on the second to the last day there. My tropical desires were satisfied!

This was the most relaxing trip I've had in a long time, which little did I know that it was exactly what I needed. Pretty much every day consisted of:

Wake up for the sunrise
Drink a fresh coconut that Dave had just cut down from a tree
Eat some breakfast
Put on swimsuits and drive to the beach (we went to the same beach every day because it was the best and we got to know all of the staff there and they had free wi-fi that sometimes worked, which is important when you're still trying to keep up with grad school while out of the country)
Swim for a while
Lay on a lounge chair for a while
Swim some more
Hide under the cabana when the rain came through
Walk the beach
Drive back to our villa before dark
Enjoy a delicious meal that Dave had prepared
Play games
Try to sleep over all the noises - dogs, music, bugs, etc

And repeat it again the next day. It was quite the life.

We did have a couple of days where we did some different excursions. One day we went to Rick's to see the cliff diving. I was only brave enough to jump off of the 10 ft. platform. Seeing people jump off and land really badly on the 40 ft. platform was enough to turn me away. And that place is soooo touristy. A couple of hours there was more than enough. We were ready to go back to our local beach the rest of the time.

We also went on a catamaran ride, which was great. We went on a sunset cruise with snorkeling, a swim into a cave, a stop at Rick's, and then dinner was served. It was beautiful and fun to be out on the water riding the waves and watching the sunset over the ocean.

One of the funniest adventures came unexpectedly. We walked out one morning to find a crab sitting on the bench under our cabana. We decided we needed to make Dave proud and catch the crab. It would make a good meal!

Just chillin' in the cabana

He doesn't even see that the crab catcher
is coming!

Like I mentioned in the typical day list, I woke up for the sunrise every morning because there's not many better ways to start the morning in my opinion. Here are a few of my favorites...

And then follow it up with this...

So, so very happy!

This is the way to start a morning

The final quarter of the year almost always feels like such a whirlwind. It seems like we quickly progress from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas, and then before we know it we're watching the ball drop and celebrating the New Year. Time flies when you're having fun, right?

With October came the end of my garden. We have to have everything out by October 31st, so I harvested all of my remaining fall/winter squashes and kale, which made for a very full kitchen and dining area. I'm actually still working on cooking the final pumpkins and butternut squash. The garden just keeps on giving!

This was my mystery pumpkin. I didn't
plant anything that was supposed to look like
this, so it must have been a cross-breed. Still
fun to cook with!

I think I've said this before, but I actually do work. My life is not all fun and play despite how this blog might make it seem. I still work in the Research, Data & Accountability department for the school district here. At the end of last year, the boss that I had worked for since I started the job decided to retire. We were all happy for her, of course, but very shocked and sad to see her leave because she was a great boss. A new boss was hired, stayed for about 3 months, and then decided to leave (all for good reason, but still not easy for us). Hiring school district positions in March is not exactly ideal, so the decision was made to not hire anyone until the summer. That meant that I was asked to become the interim-officer for the next 4 months. Never would I have thought that I would have such an opportunity, but I can look back and clearly see what a blessing it was from God.

You see, I was at about the middle of my Master's program. Up until that point, all of the tuition had been covered by my Americorps money, left over from when I did Teach for America, but I had come to the end of those funds. I still wasn't sure if I wanted to continue the program if it meant that I had to pay for it out of my pocket. When I was asked to take the interim-officer position, they also offered to pay me a stipend for the additional duties. When I did the math on how much additional pay I would receive over the 4 months, it was exactly the amount needed to cover the remaining tuition to complete the Master's program. Coincidence? I think not! God provides for us in some very unexpected ways, but He is always faithful. I felt completely provided for, and it gave me the confirmation I needed to keep going.

Getting to serve in that position also gave me some great experience that I wouldn't have otherwise had. I got to work directly with the superintendent, learn more about what it means to manage a team, and have a voice in meetings that I usually wouldn't be able to attend. Would I want that position for the long-term? No! :) But I'm very thankful for what I got to learn in the interim.

I go off on that whole tangent to say that we did get a new boss in the summer (and also share how great God is in the ways He works). I wasn't sure about the new hire at first, just because we had no say in the process and he was coming from out of state with no prior experience in our department. But I soon found out that he is an Aggie, and I felt much more assured that everything would be okay. He and his wife also did Teach for America, so I was happy to know that we had some things in common. Six months in, he has turned out to be a great boss. He is very supportive of our team, positive, encouraging, and enjoyable to work with. One of the things he has instituted in monthly team socials. I was in charge of the October team social. I immediately knew what I wanted to do because we have something very unique that occurs her in October - the Coffin Races!

Another beautiful day for the races!
Can you tell that it was also game day for our college teams? ;)

October is also the month of Homemade Cookie Day! My co-workers would never let me live it down if I did not organize our annual competition. They actually start asking about it at the beginning of September so that they can start researching their recipes. I am so glad they like to celebrate! So I sent out the official rules and announced that the 4th Annual Homemade Cookie Competition would take place on October 5th. It was another great year!

Welcome to the cookie competition room!

The full spread with official ballots and
ballot box (yes that's a Kleenex box)

Chocolate-chocolate chip with
macadamia nuts & walnuts

Chocolate Caramel Surprise Cookies

Coconut Lime Shortbread

Silk Road Cookies
(She literally researched the ingredients and spices that
you would find along the Silk Road and created a cookie
from those. So creative!)

Pecan Autumn Bliss Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

Honey Lavender Shortbread
She even provided Earl Grey tea to enjoy with the cookies

White Chocolate Pumpkin Snickerdoodle

Salted Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies

My assorted plate of all the cookies. You must try them all
in order to fairly vote, but you learn very quickly that it is
important to pace yourself throughout the day.

And the winners of the 4th Annual Homemade Cookie Competition were...

Talya - Best Presentation - Autumn Bliss Cookies

Amanda - Most Creative - Silk Road Cooies

Laura - Best Tasting - Lavender Honey Shortbread

If your coworkers are as fun as mine, I would highly encourage you to start a homemade cookie competition in your office. It's great for team building and positive staff culture. I can send you our official rules if you need them. Haha!

Other October fun included a trip to a corn maze. I had never been to one before, and there are some pretty big ones in Colorado. Some friends and I decided to check one out.

It really was quite a maze to navigate through

Beautiful at sunset

We made it to the final check point! Way to go team!

I think November is a great month. I start looking forward to Thanksgiving and love the holiday spirit without all the hubbub. There's a group of us that all love cooking and sharing meals. Some might consider us foodies. We periodically do potlucks with themes. For November, we decided to do a Friendsgiving meal with simply "International" as the theme.

Part of the inspiration for the meal - perfect!

My international fusion creation - Southwestern Squash Pizza
(really created by my mom and I re-created)

We had all kinds of tasty food - Thai curry, Indian Curry,
African Peanut Stew, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Buffalo Cauliflower
It's hard to try it all!

Perla's amazing dessert to top it all off

My favorite local band, Mango Fan Django, decided to go their own ways last year. But I got an e-mail that they were reuniting for one night in November! I couldn't miss an opportunity to see them again, so I recruited Darcy, my fellow Mango Fan Django groupie, to go see them and the band they were opening for.

So good to see them again!

Rhythm Future Quartet was the main act. Turns out that
they are a VERY good gypsy jazz band. Downside is that
they're not local, so who knows when we'll see them again.

Thanksgiving came very quickly, which I was super happy about. Not only did it mean the typical holiday fun, but this year it also meant that I completed school!!! The day before Thanksgiving was officially the last day of my last course. I couldn't be happier or more relieved. No more papers. It is done!

Then I could just fully enjoy the fun of Thanksgiving! It was joy-filled with Turkey Trotting, time with family and friends, and hot dogs and s'mores around the campfire.

1st Turkey Trot!
Cutest turkey I've ever seen :)

1st Eastup Bonfire Night

Ready for hot dogs!

Dad showing him hot it's done with is nifty fishing
hot dog roaster

Love cousin time!

The s'more assortment for the year
Peanut butter, vanilla, and Oreo marshmallows

Peanut butter marshmallows are decidedly one of the best, if not the best, homemade marshmallows. How can you go wrong with peanut butter?

And as soon as Thanksgiving is over, it's time to get ready for Christmas.

Tree decorating with a great little helper!

This time of year is also bittersweet. It is a time of great joy as we celebrate and remember the birth of our Savior Redeemer Jesus Christ. But it is also during these times of celebration that we miss our loved ones the most and long to be together again. I want Zach to be there building the fire, coming up with new s'more creations, giving me a hard time about my half of the pizza, laughing and smiling, and pushing me down the stairs because we've gotten too big to stand side-by-side in the stairwell. On the day that marked 2 years since he went to be with Jesus, I decided that I must start the day with a breakfast that he would approve of, which of course involves ketchup!

I have to admit that Heinz 57 on scrambled eggs is quite delicious!

Later on in the day, a dear friend who has also lost a brother brought balloons so that we could write memories on them and watch them float away into the sky.

It was fun recalling so many great memories. I filled 6 balloons and could have kept going. So thankful for all the fun times! And so thankful for the hope we have in Jesus that I will see him again one day. I will get to give him that big bear hug that I miss so much!

Like I said, there is still joy and there is still celebration. I got to go something called The Madrigal out at Glen Eyrie. It's a 16th century banquet in the castle with singing and food and telling of the spirit of Christmas. It was quite a treat and quite a magical night! Plus there was a fresh snow that made the whole place gorgeous!

Big Horn Sheep running across the field

The Castle

Inside the banquet hall of the castle

The lord and his guests' tables

We were of the shire of Bedford

So fun to share the night with a friend!

Course 1 - The steaming pot (mushroom soup)

I forgot to take a picture of course 2, but it was the garden greens.

Bringing in the boar's head to present it to the lord

Course 3 - The Boar's Head (pork tenderloin, pork belly,
roasted vegetables)

Course 4 - The Sweet (Bread pudding)
By far my favorite course of the feast!

We also made time for some hiking around the property.

More big horn sheep on the hill

The panoramic from the top

Gorgeous!

Got to have some Christmas dinners with friends in Colorado before leaving for Texas.

Raclette Dinner

Thai Curry Night

I greatly enjoy that I get to spend a full two weeks in Texas during the Christmas and New Year's break. The perks of working for a school district. The two weeks allowed me lots of time with family and friends, time to cook, time to relax, and the opportunity to soak in some warm sunshine.