Curly me: August 2008

Rest day bliss ...

These photos were taken a week ago, on our day off. We went to a beach called "Cala Banana", so beautiful!

I thought the cloud on top of the mountain was cool -- like icing on a cake! ... Or something.

Celeste admiring the view -- and another blue speedo man for Heather!

Life is beautiful!

There you go John, some Italian girls for you! :)

And this is what we do for most of the week, and this is why we have been slackers in updating this blog! =)

A few more photos from the boat trip

Just to add a few more ...

The above little stinker stung my hand
-- but this is to give you an idea of how blue and clear the water is.

This was the second beach -- we took a photo of all of the boats, so you can see how many tourists were there, ha!

This was the third part of our trip -- where they park the boat in the middle of the beautiful blue water, and you jump off and swim around for a bit. (That's Silas jumping off there in the background, heh)

The final stop -- Spiaggia Rosa, the pink beach. The sand is pink from all of the coral - unfortunately, they no longer allow anyone on this beach as people were stealing the coral, therefore taking away the "pink-ness." But isn't it beautiful?!

One important factor from the boat trip ...

A wonderfully HOT Italian man! =)
To explain -- before arriving here, a lot of people told me to take photos of Italian men, to see what they looked like, if what they have heard is true or not, etc. So I managed to sneak this photo in when we were at the first beach, tee hee! Beautiful, eh? TYJ for His glorious creation!

Backtracking (part 2) - Tour of the islands

Before I post about this I just wanted to make a minor mention that the posts we’re putting up might seem as if we’re having a grand time, and we definitely are, but we’re obviously posting about the fun stuff, as its also a form of praise for us – to dwell on the positive and all the Lord is doing for us. It’s actually been a rather busy and even emotionally stressful time for us, but the Lord showed us He’s working out these extra treats as tokens of His love to balance out the fight. We appreciate everyone’s prayers and know that they’re making a difference….and again, we are having a great time, but we’re also super busy so I hope it doesn’t reflect negatively and cause an imbalance. – The Lord does spoil us though, its awesome! :)

Ok, on to the post…Silas and Claire had a contact for boat tours to the islands of the archipelago of La Maddalena – that’s always something I wanted to do, but never had a chance to, so last year when they were coming for vacation I suggested they try to provision a boat trip, and sure enough it worked out, so this year Silas and Claire did all they could to convince Jamie and I to join them (yes, quite a tough decision for us – NOT). It was awesome though, in every way!!!! We made it to the boat, had a lovely, hot and sunny day, swam in the most clear water EVER, and had great company to boot. The owner of the boat treated us to some good beer, lunch was good too, and it was just the perfect day in every way!

Si and Claire had an underwater camera they borrowed so we tried to take some underwater pics – I think the pics will speak for themselves, so I’ll just leave you with these to show for our awesome time. The Lord is definitely taking care of us.:)

More cave photos ...

I just got these photos from Niel (Cel's brother), from the day that we went to the caves -- here they are for your enjoyment!

Random photos

Here are some random photos from past happenings. We've been here for over two weeks now - at our halfway mark! Please continue to pray for our fundraising and keep us in your prayers. Thanks!

This was on a free day -- we went up to this little mountain to check out what beach to go to for the day.

Silas and little baby boy. So cute!

And this was the beach we chose -- that's Silas and Claire on their little red raft.

Drinks at a friend's place and watching locals dancing.

Backtracking ...

I know, I know -- we've been slackers on the posting side of life. We had wonderful intentions, but the fact that we are extremely busy and that our place doesn't have internet, isn't helping our intentions become reality, heh! But we will do our best to backtrack and update you on all that has been happening.

Sardegna is BEAUTIFUL! I heard a lot about it from people who have been here before, but it definitely surpassed all that I heard -- the beaches, the food, the people, the atmosphere, it is all wonderful. I love it!

The other week, we went to these caves called "Grotte di Nettuno" (I hope that's right, ha!), where basically it is natural limestone sculptures. It was rather far from where we are, but since we had to go to that general area to see some friends and do a bit of FU, we figured we might as well make a day of it. Silas and Claire (plus their kids) came as well, so that was fun.

Celeste told me about these caves, but I wasn't sure what to expect - but wow, it's beautiful. I'll let the photos speak for themselves and add some captions and personal viewpoints - tee hee.

This is the overlooking view that you see when you get there - BEAUTIFUL!

And here are the steps leading to the caves -- 654 steps (or more), one way! Needless to say, we got our exercise in for the day, ha! Check out how blue the water is.

Starting our walk down -- and it was sooooo hot!

This is right outside of the caves -- Cel and I look like we were photoshopped into the photo, heh. We were trying to capture the blue in the water.

Part of our group -- minus Claire, baby boy and Cel's dad. I have no idea what Silas is doing...

Check out how blue the water is - it's so beautiful, my favorite color. (There's a photo of Cel with the water too, that she already posted.)

And here are the caves! SO amazing -- natural limestone caves, very interesting. It was hard to take a photo inside, as they have to use special lighting so that it won't ruin the sculptures. But here are a few that we managed to take ...

And that's it! In total, it was a grand day and we walked over 2 KM, there and back. The heat didn't help much, but it was most definitely worth the trek. =)

We're not dead...

...just super busy! - As soon as we can we'll try to update! (Promise!)

In the meanwhile, here are a few pics of what we've been up to!

And a weekend came and went...

...so we're now able to post again!

We did some fundraising at one of the local malls here for the weekend - it was so hard for us to wake up at what felt like mid-night (our time) to get ready for the day. - Not to mention the major struggle to stay awake. Jamie and I had to drink quite a few coffees (oh well - at least its good coffee - I think I made my point of why the coffee in Mexico is not my favorite - ha!) but even then, it was a struggle to stay awake. - But we made it, and the first weekend came and went.

For those who know of our fundraising goals, please pray that the Lord does it one way or the other. Things are quite slow at this point, which, well, I'm being positive about it as I have the faith the Lord's going to do it. - It's just so hard to not push...or try to work it out, as we're somewhat limited due to various circumstances surrounding us, but PTL! - It's gotta be the Lord, that's for sure! ;)

As a "carrot" at the end of our weekend we went out to Porto Cervo, just us girls - to stroll around and all that - take a look at some of the snazzy yachts that dock. Oh, I forgot to mention, Silas and Claire with their two kiddoes have been able to join us this past week - Yay! :)

I'll leave you with these pics for now...enjoy!