Diving Right In

Well, I’ve got a little bit of history to share with you… First,  personal, and second, geological. (“Huh?” you say. “Keep reading,” I say.)

In reference to this post’s title, I guess I’ll just dive right in.

So, most of our close friends and family know we took up scuba diving a couple of summers ago.

Many of our close friends and family know we’ve been trying to start a family.

Few of our close friends and family know we took up diving to distract us from the fact that we were unsuccessful starting a family.

After trying to get pregnant for about six months with no success, we decided to stop for awhile and refocus our energy and attention on doing something fun together that we couldn’t do if I was pregnant. Scuba diving has always been on our bucket list. So there you go, we did it! Now, it’s one of our favorite activities, and we’ve gotten to dive in Aquarena Springs in San Marcos, Lake Travis in Austin, Cozumel (Mexico), Hawaii (Oahu and Kauai), and now Cancun. We just love being underwater together!

So there’s some personal history for you. Now for a little geology …

We recently returned from Mexico where we took a “cavern dive” in the cenotes at Chac Mool. The word “Cenote” is pronounced, ‘say-no-tay’ and is derived from  the Mayan word, “dzonot” which means ‘sacred well’. On the Yucatan peninsula, they are sometimes referred to as the “Sacred Waters of the Riviera Maya.”  We shall refer to them as “one of our most spectacular dives ever.”

More history:

“Cenotes are fresh water pools connecting to submerged caverns and other cenotes.  A combination of  various geological events and climate changes created an incredible and unique ecosystem. These caves and underground rivers were created  naturally over 6,500 years ago. Over the past 20 years, experienced scuba divers have explored these caves  discovering more than 300 miles of interconnected passageways and caves that make up this amazing one-of-a-kind ecosystem.”

Chac-Mool is one of the caverns which has a halocline, where salt and fresh water come together and creating dazzling visual effects. This was a really crazy experience. You can actually see where the water meets, and it sort of looks like a shelf (fresh water on top of saltwater). The fresh water is so clear you can see forever. When you are in the halocline, everything suddenly looks extremely blurry and confuses your senses until you get out of the mix. Kind of hard to explain, but really cool to experience!

We did two dives into the caverns. On the second dive, after going deep into the cave, past the point of any natural light,  we were astonished to surface underground (our divemaster had kept this part a surprise). It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life! It’s something very few people will ever experience, and we (including the other divers), were all stunned into breathless silence as we just tried to take it all in. Stalactites covered every visible surface, there was a hole letting in natural light from far above, and tree roots dangled down until they just touched the water.

It was magical.

Michael captured a bit on video. Of course, it doesn’t do it justice!

Here’s a professional shot of the area where the light was coming through. Pretty spectacular, eh?

So, needless to say, this was an unforgettable experience we’re so thankful to have shared. As it will be, I assume, when we successfully start our family. We’ve recently made the decision to try to adopt an infant, and we couldn’t be more excited!  Just like cave diving, we’re expecting an incredible, unique, one-of-a-kind adventure. Like freshwater and saltwater beneath the earth’s surface, we hope two families will mix together and create a sacred bond. We’re a little nervous, and have no idea what to expect.  But, as they say, we’re just diving right in.

¡Hola amigos!

Long time no blog.  Time to get back on track!

This past Saturday, we arrived home from a week in Cancun. We were celebrating Anna (younger sister)’s 30th birthday so we brought her along for the first half of the trip.  We had a great time! Lots of relaxing, in fact so much relaxing, we neglected to take many pictures. How ridiculous, right! Here’s what we have. We snapped this shot as Anna was headed to the airport. Behind us is one of several humongous infinity pools at the resort.

We took these at the outdoor restaurant on the beach.

Hard to tell how cool it was, but it was pretty great!

We stayed at the Omni Cancun Hotel and Villas. Since I’m giving them a free plug, I thought I’d include some of their promotional photos, to make up for our lack of documentation. Here is an aerial shot of the grounds:

A heated swim-up bar:

Sunset view of the hotel from one of the infinity pools:

We had great weather while Anna was with us. We spent a lot of time on the beach, ate as much as we could, and caught up on our rest. Pretty much our idea of the perfect vacation!

Homeward Bound

Well we’re getting ready to leave for California tomorrow.  We’re headed to downtown L.A. first, for the Sushimasters competition on Sunday!  The California Rice Commission (who hosts the event) is one of our clients and they hooked us up with free tickets.

Last month, our friend/client Steve came out to visit us again (he also came in June).  Steve works for the International Agri-Center and we do all of their websites. We had a sushi-making party at our house and it was tons of fun! Steve really knows his way around the kitchen. Check out the photos if you haven’t already.  (Did I mention how much we love sushi?) We’ll be sure to take lots of photos this weekend.  We just got a new DSLR camera that we’ve been having a lot of fun with.

Monday morning we’ll head up to Sac to stay with family for the week. Hope we can find a way to see everyone!

This was sort of an impromptu – but much needed – trip, and we don’t have a whole lot planned other than relaxing and hanging out with our nephew’s belly.

‘Life Goes On’

Well, we officially closed out the summer with a big Labor Day bash on Monday. (Just kidding, I think summer lasts a couple more months here.)  Anyway, it was a great party — good food, good friends, and good entertainment!

I’ve just been thinking about how much has changed in our lives since our summer opening party on Memorial Day.  David was born (two days later, in fact!), we adopted Tiki, Bella was successfully treated for heartworms, Brandon and Lori moved in,  Caden was born, and all the while we’ve grown closer to all our wonderful new friends we absolutely adore.

Also, I’ve gained 10 pounds. Thought that was important to mention.

We’ve also gotten more and more involved in our church, which we really enjoy. We’ve even gotten to play with the band a couple of times. We’ve just now been asked to join a new band who plays for a youth group at a large church in town. Our two first official “gigs” were last week, and we’re really excited to get to play every week from now on (it forces us to actually practice!)

The summer has been really fun, and fortunately, we’ve stayed very busy at work. We’re extremely thankful for that, and for all of our blessings. Life goes on (oh blah dee, oh blah dah) and we just hang on for the ride.

Kid-Tested, Mother-Approved

This is baby Ty (Tyler), my friend Kecia’s 6-month-old son. Obviously, he loves chillin’ in the water as much as we do!

Come one, come all

There’s now a deer sleeping in our backyard. He’s out there every morning when we let the dogs out, which – of course – makes them crazy. I guess he heard we’re running a bed-&-breakfast over here. Wonder who will show up next?

A bit misinformed

Overheard at Costco:

(Middle-aged couple in the meat section)

Wife: “Want to try this organic beef?”

Husband: “No thank you, I want my beef to come from cows!”

Care for a swim?

Michael: “Where’s the camera?”

Sharon: “In the office, why?”

Michael: “There is something cool outside I want to photograph.”

Sharon sees Michael crouch down by the corner of the pool and start shooting.

Sharon: “Ew, it’s not a dead animal, is it?”

Michael: “Nope.”

Turns out, our floating thermometer (aka Howard the Duck) was under siege.

Howard vs. the Snake

Don’t worry, Howard, we’ll save you! After we take a few more pictures.

Hang in there, Howard!

This baby copperhead was quite enamoured with Howard, and has yet to let go. They’re getting further aquainted in a bucket outside now as we speak.

Bellapalooza

Well it’s been awesome having Bella here. She and Ruby have become fast friends and it’s just working out great! Ruby’s kind of grown up a little bit since having her around.

Bella and Ruby

Mostly, they just love to play. And play. And play.  All the time!  Ruby’s constantly got her mouth around Bella’s neck, and Bella’s a pretty good sport about it. The play-fighting just cracks us up. Sammie and Bear never played together like this, so it’s really fun for us to watch.

Here’s a typical morning. They play for about a half hour straight, until they’re worn out. Then we settle in for a day at work. They’ve gotten used to our routine, which we’re really grateful for.

They take turns “winning” and when Bella’s top dog, it gets pretty noisy. She has this crazy growl that’s pretty funny.  You can see her make the transition here.

So we’ve decided two dogs are better than one, by far. It’s great to watch them interact, and we’re pretty lucky to have adopted two great dogs.

This morning Bella is going in to get spayed, so they’re going to have to have a quiet week or so. Then they get to play like normal for a couple of months here until Bella starts her heartworm treatment. Until then, we’ll be seeing a lot of this around here:

Girl fights

Notes on a Hound Dog

Thought it was high time to give you an update on Ruby. She’s already got her holiday shopping done, and presents wrapped. Christmas cards are in the mail, and she’s now planning a big trip to the doggie day-care center while mom and dad go to California for a couple of weeks. She had a wonderful time last time we left her there. She almost brought home a new friend! I tell you, Ruby is far more enthused about other dogs than she is people. Except for us, of course.

Which has proven to be somewhat of a problem.

Shortly after we adopted Ruby, she developed some severe separation anxiety, which would manifest itself when we left her alone in the form of explosive diarrhea and uncontrollable urination. And lots of howling. The one time we left her in our master bathroom, she tried everything she could to escape, and made quite a mess in the process.

Suffice it to say we’ve learned a lot about separation anxiety, which is pretty common in rescued dogs. It’s very different than destruction out of boredom (chewing furniture, etc). Dogs with this condition become so fearful when left alone that they literally freak out, lose control of their bowel functions, and basically regress to puppy-like behavior (whining for their moms, etc).

Ruby didn’t start out this way, but seemed to develop it after bonding to us. Since we work at home, we are often with her 24/7. I think she got used to this as a way of life, and then one day when we left, boom – her brain exploded. And then her butt exploded.

So we’ve been working on this with her ever since. We practice leaving her alone for longer and longer bits of time. Right now, since the weather is a good temp, we take her with us in the car when we leave. She doesn’t mind being left in there.

So other than this little issue (which we’re in family therapy for), life with Ruby has been wonderful. She is a very loving little doggie, sweet and funny. She often spends the work day like this, which is so cute! (It’s warm under there!)

She is still extremely shy with other people, but LOVES other doggies. So she may be getting a new companion here pretty soon. We think she would do well with a confident brother or sister by her side. Anybody know a good doggie who needs a home, let us know!

In the meantime, we’ll keep dressing her up, and we’ll work on her ability to smile for the camera. Could use a little improvement.