Meringues & Gluten Free from Sara

Our friend Sara, of "Sara and Thomas" fame, had the good fortune to spend a month at home with her Parents in Italy last month. She came back armed with gluten free pasta and lasagna noodles (something Lisa has been craving since her last package from Sundie's visit ran out) and some gluten free chocolate cookies. It was wonderful of her to remember Lisa and here is a big, public THANK YOU!!! Mark has made Lisa a delicious lasagna already, plus we have discovered the first gluten free pasta ever that you can cook, put in the fridge and then eat the next day without choking on the dryness. It's on our Italy shopping list from now on.

Sara came over one evening last week to give us a meringue (also gluten free) cooking lesson. They turned out wonderfully and Emily was the hit of her school when she brought some of them to her class the next day.

Dolce enjoys Emily sneaking her a sample.

Emily and Dolce decide cooking is too boring - playing is better!

The Extent of Mark's Medical Care

This is about as close as Lisa can get Mark to a stethoscope since he refuses to pay for insurance. Dr Kelly isn't as good-looking as lovely Mary and doesn't make Mark's heart beat quite so fast.

Not sure what things are like where you are but The Bahamas is very, very quiet. Yesterday Atlantis laid off 800 workers (down from 1600 reported lay offs after the government got involved). We heard that Atlantis is at 14%, yes 14%, occupancy - so if you are in the mood for a bargain Atlantis will practically pay you to stay there :-) The Scottish Bahamian Society Curry Night which managed to draw 80 people last year only managed 40 last weekend ($75 is a bit steep for a curry). The St. Andrews School 60th Jubilee Ball at the Atlantis was supposed to be a record breaking fund-raiser this year (for the building of the new auditorium). But it looks as though the only thing it will be breaking is "even" - if the school is lucky. Even our business is not where it should be for this time of year.

As Mark says we have decided to "fiddle while Rome burns" and head off to Scotland for Christmas and New Year. Emily is spending the Holidays with her Dad this year. We had made a pledge to save our air-miles for emergencies but, hey, if this economy isn't an emergency what is. So everyone take care of yourselves - if anything happens to anyone we can't afford to leave the island and we have no miles left to fly. :-) Let's hope there are no big hurricanes on the way.

Catch Up

Lisa here. As we prepare for our busiest season blogging has unfortunately dropped to the bottom of our priority list. I would post lots of pictures of my trip back to PA and my brand-new lovely twin nieces - but on my flight back my camera was stolen out of my checked baggage. Silly me to put it in my checked baggage but I was trying to fit all of the bootie and wasn't thinking straight. Mark is not very happy as this is our 2nd camera stolen. I left one in the private hotel car on our trip to Vietnam and apparently the private hotel drivers are not as honest as the hotel claims. So - no pictures for a while I'm afraid. Not until I can convince Mark that I am trustworthy enough to own a camera!

Here are some quick catch ups of our recent activity in bullet form.

Lisa's trip back to the US was successful. The distribution center for the Holiday season is getting there. We are about half way through packing the 4,500 boxes.

Emily had a wonderful Halloween but wouldn't let her embarassing Parents go with her this year. She went to her friends "gated community" where there was a 40 minute car line at security of Parents with kids trying to get in to trick or treat. Needless to say she had a great time. She was Hermione again and was thankful for her cloak because believe it or not...

It's been cold here! We have been suffering temperatures in the mid-70s and the ocean and wind have been out of control! No sitting out on the back patio - too winding plus the risk of getting a wave soaking. We can't see through our back windows because of all the salt.

Mark and I had a late Halloween night at Crazy Johnny's. There were lots of costumes and even though we weren't dressed up we enjoyed ourselves. We haven't been out taht late in years!

Emily is starting to do some work for the Proud Paws organization. They are a great group of people and are really enjoying Emily's ideas and particpation.

Ain't No Sunshine When You're Gone

The worst thing a person can do is to take things for granted. We've sacrificed and worked hard to get where we are today. We live in a lovely house in a lovely place and we're thankful that we can peacefully sit out in the dark night and look over the ocean. We can see the moon glistening over the calm sea with a quietness broken only by the lapping of the waves. A scene that can't be captured by camera nor film but can only be experienced. Another experience that can't be captured was during Mark's 50th birthday football odyssey when we passed through Rome. After a 4 hour train journey we arrived exhausted into Rome station then went out to a small trattoria for some wine, cheese, salami and bread - fabulous.

But the thing is, unless you have someone to share all this with then it is meaningless. Whoever it is - friend, partner, family - the experience needs to be shared to be special. The best is if you can share with all 3 - someone who is your best friend, confidante and advisor, partner and love, and the closest family that you have.

Lisa comes back to me on Saturday.

Visitors

It has been a busy week trying to catch up after having our visitors last weekend. We had a great visit with Mum and Dad and their friends Wayne and Cheryl. When we have visitors Lisa feels personally responsible for the weather and she was very upset when it looked as though it was going to rain for the 5 days while they were going to be here - but once again The Bahamas proved itself unstoppable in the sunshine department! We knew we lived here for a reason.

When they arrived on Thursday we all went straight for a swim in the sea which was like a pond. Mum brought enough water shoes for an army so we are stocked. All of you who have a scheduled visit can leave your water shoes at home! When Emily arrived home we went on a search for dinner - we had planned the Green Parrot but it was ruled out due to the rain. We ended up having a great meal in the Cricket Club.

On Friday Dad and Wayne spent the day fishing and Mum and Cheryl lay by the pool. We went over to Atlantis in the evening, strolled past the yachts and enjoyed the aquarium - Dad got in some gambling.

Emily and I took Cheryl and Mum on a walk to the end of the island on Saturday morning so that Cheryl could go shell hunting on Emily's shell beach - she got some nice ones. Then we took Mum and Cheryl over to Cabbage Beach which they loved. Wayne wanted to walk in the steps of James Bond so we headed over to The Ocean Club for a drink at the Dune Bar on Saturday night. Mark and Lisa had actually never been and it proved to be a gorgeous place as was expected. Dad said we could go to dinner at the Dune Restaurant next time they come which would be a real treat. We had fabulous Brazilian Barbecue and strong Caiparinhas for dinner (The Humidor at Grey Cliff Manor) and Emily thought she had died and gone to heaven with all that meat :-)

We ended the trip on Monday night with the required dinner at Lucianos and it was wonderful as always. We had a lovely time and hope that they all come back soon!

We would love to post some pictures but Lisa couldn't get them on Mum's fancy new camera. You can see some of those photos on Dad's New Blog as well as photos of our gorgeous new nieces Olivia and Katie.

Thank You For The Music

We had a really lovely visit with Lisa's Mum and Dad and their friends Wayne and Cheryl over the past week (and will blog about it soon), which is why we have been awfully quiet on the blogging front. Since they left yesterday we have been trying to catch up with work and get ourselves back in our routine. Tonight Emily and Mark blasted the iPod, and danced around the living room for ages. Mamma Mia reminded Lisa of when Emily first discovered, and fell in love with, Broadway music and she started performing in theatre. It is a shame that there isn't an outlet here in The Bahamas for Emily's theatre passion.

Lisa went and dug up Emily's practicing for her Reston Players audition. She was just 8 in this video. It's a year after she blew away the First Grade Talent Show with, "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend".

Turn up the volume Nan....