Aruba, Jamaica, Ooo I wanna take you to...

Yes, the title is taken from the Beach Boys song Kokomo. I picked this title because this silly song was in my head all the way to Jamaica. We had a wonderful weekend getaway with perfect timing in regards to Hurricane Ike. In the Mynhier household we take evacuating seriously. We won the trip through work and had the opportunity to spend time with the other top producers in our Region. There was a golf tournament on Friday, which Matt's team won, so we got some good prizes. The spa was spectacular and the lazy river at the resort was even better. I've had this saved as a draft for so long that I don't even remember what else I was going to say. Anyway...enjoy the slideshow!

Another chapter, another blog

I have started a new blog dedicated to my practice of Bikram Yoga. Here is the link:

http://loveyourcamel.blogspot.com/

I will still be posting all my personal stuff on this blog, so that means you'll have double the Terra to read about it.

Have a great weekend!

Volume Problem

Sorry about the song so you can't hear the video. I can't figure out how to edit the slide show, so here's what you have to do...

The music is coming from the bentwater idol blog. There is a mute button on the bottom left hand corner so just push it then you can watch the video.

I'm really sorry for the trouble!!!

I love my family!!!

Hello wonderful family!!!

First of all, thanks to all of you for your prayers and support and visits (those of you in Texas ;) and help that you've given me. There is no way that Matt and I could've have managed this without you.

Peeks... I haven't talked to any of you but I have heard your voice several times in my hospital room calling to check in on me and I appreciate it.

Sharps... I hope you had a wonderful vacation and that your birdhouse got you your hotel stay.Shan...I know you were at the hospital a whole lot more than I saw you so thanks again for taking time out of your life to be there.

Youngest Youngs....(Robyn's clan) Thanks for coming to visit with Landry, I know it was rough on you. Thanks too for the flowers and keeping up with the Morgans for me through this.

Eldest Youngs... I know that you have done even more than I know about (which is tons) through all of this so thank you again. I know it is difficult for the two of you to be apart and that you both gave up a whole lot for me through this so thank you from the bottom of my heart. You both know exactly what to do when someone's sick...when to help, when to back away, when I need privacy, when I don't...an Ipod to drown out all those sick people in surgical ICU...the list goes on and on and on.

To all the siblings... I know as a family that we all feel blessed with the closeness between us and blessed by having wonderful parents. I'd like to take this time because I think that it is not often enough we acknowledge that and realize how fortunate and blessed the five of us actually are to have such loving, caring, selfless people that put their children ahead of themselves, so I think we should all take time out of our day more often to say thanks. You don't realize how good you have it until its almost all taken away.

To lighten things up I'd also recommend for anyone not on a group health plan to get health insurance immediately because being uninsurable is a doctors visit away!!! That brings me to the other subeject of this which is Hope from our company to help my medical bills. Some of you have heard this but others not. The mission statement of our company is hope, or helping other people everyday. As my last statement prefaced...your dear sis is uninsurable..who would've guessed :) Which means the medical bills will be a strain to say the least. Please take time to watch this video clip to see how our company is stepping up to help us. It is amazing to say the least.

I love everyone and Happy Mothers Day to the mommies of all kinds ours, Robyn, Shan to woogs and the rag doll, and Sara and Becky to be pseudomommies for our favorite boys.

Bentwater Idol

As many of you know, I have been rehearsing non-stop for our neighborhood American Cancer Society fundraiser, "Bentwater Idol...Is that my Neighbor?". I was very happy that the parents came for the show and to meet Laika on Friday. The show went well with only minor difficulties and got better every night. I did three numbers: Perhaps, Chicago (I was Roxie Hart), and Feeling Good. I had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people and build new friendships. I will let you know once we have the tally on how much money we raised. I hope you enjoy the slideshow with pictures of the cast and me in my costumes. If I can figure out how to do some video editing on my camcorder I'll try to put a clip of my performances.

I can cook a mean steak!

This picture is actually from a couple of weeks ago, but I was so proud of the meal I prepared I had to document it. Just call me Martha Stewart (ha, ha, yeah right!).

Name that Bug!!!

This bug was hanging out on our patio all day long until Matt got home to make it go on its way. It just sat there, never moved, but wasn't dead. We have no idea what it is but I was curious if any of you do.

Alamobowl

We may not have won the game but we had a great time. It was also exciting to officially end the era of Coach Fran. Kevin and Lucy treated us with tickets and accomodations for Christmas. They got the game Rock Star Band for Christmas which is like guitar hero but with a singer, bass guitar, and drums. When we got back to the RV we played the game until we could no longer stay awake. We had a great time!

Hair Cut

Okay, here is my new hair:




My photographer was not very good...I should've checked the picture before we left the house. You can get the point though :)

Laika

In case any of you are wondering what Laika means...

I'm not so sure, but Laika was the first dog to go in to space. Our puppy is quite the space cadet. If you have not heard of Laika the Russian cosmonaut dog, she is quite popular. There was a stamp, comic book, and memorial made for her.

Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve we went to a black tie event at the yacht club here. We normally don't do the whole dress up thing, but it was a lot of fun. Matt looked really snazzy in his three piece suit. The theme was "A View to Kill" from James Bond. They had different food stations set up that went along with different Bond flicks. I'm not real familiar with Bond, but I did enjoy the different types of food. After dinner, we moved into the lounge and danced the night away to a band called "The Fantastics". I'd never heard of them but they pretty fantastic. We went with our friends The Simpsons who most of you have met. Shane actually danced all night long which was quite unusual. We met our friends from the neighborhood, Rueben and Jennifer, and they are great fun. Lots of these are very blurry as a result from a wrong setting on the camera, but you can get the idea. By the way, I've got the setting figured out so in the future we should not have this problem. I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did!

The New Baby!

So, I haven't been through anything like my dear sister Robyn, but man has this puppy given us a run for our money! She keeps me busy 24/7. At first meeting, Pip definitely did not have her party hat on.



The second and third day weren't much better...



In the meantime, Laika has learned to play independently for brief moments...



And now after two weeks they are finally beginning to play!



Here are the still pics...

Reunion

So, with our company rather than doing a "Holiday" Party, they throw a huge awards shindig at the end of the year. They rent out the Anatole Hotel in Dallas (yes, all of the buildings) and make you feel like a VIP. The day we got there we were directed to a tradeshow with lots of our vendors. There were also people there likt Don Schula and the Mavericks Dancers and mascot. There was also some guy who starred in Little House on the Prarie, but I didn't really recognize him. There are different workshops during the day and I won an Ipod Nano at the spouse's one. Comedian Wayne Brady was the entertainment one night, doing improv comedy like on "Who's line is it anyway?" with Derw Carey. The next night they had the band Big and Rich and we stood about two feet away from them. I wasn't really familiar with any of the songs, but the company had a copy of their brand new unreleased CD in our rooms waiting we got back. We listened to it on the way home and I would highly recommend them.

As far as the awards, Matt won his Quickstart class out of the entire company and was Rookie of the Year in our Division. We hope to "walk the stage" several times next year and qualify for some of the awesome bonuses and prizes. For the next few blogs you will see some fuzzy pictures. We have pushed some button on the camera and now everything is blurry, but enjoy...

Oh Christmas Tree/Bye Christmas Tree!

Okay, so...

Matt got the lights taken down outside before I managed to take a pic. But, I didn't manage to get a picture of our gigantor Christmas tree, so I thought I could at least post that. I also threw in the stockings and the disaster of taking everything down. Last year the tree was in three sections. This year when I was holding the stand for Matt to grab the bottom section, it decided to be two. This resulted in the stake at the bottom pinning my hand to the stand. If it would've dorpped from a little higher, I'm pretty sure my hand would be broken. Thankfully I got a way with just a bit of bloodshed, swelling and a sweet bruise. So...here it is:

One Last Cruise Entry

I was done with this, but people have started e-mailing me their photos from the cruise. Timeka took one that about sums it up:



That's it for the cruise. Here is a preview of my upcoming blogs:

Christmas Decorating at our house
Reunion in Dallas (Matt's company event)
Christmas (Especially cookie making with Kevin)
My new baby
James Bond Black Tie New Year's Gala

If all goes well that is at least 5 blogs I'll owe you in the next month. Someone hold me to it!!!

Cruise Pictures

Thanksgiving Abroad...Concluded

To finish up about Jamaica...



After leaving the waterfalls we were taken to "the most exclusive" beach club in Jamiaca. If the definition of exclusive means a desolate area that most people don't venture in to just down the beach from a really shady boat dock where rastafari's offer you "special shells", then yes, it was definitely the most exclusive. We did get to eat some pretty good jerk chicken and watch traditional Jamaican dancing. The downside...it was raining. We then got on to a freexing cold tour bus for a two hour ride back to the ship. Fantastic! (Yes, I'm still coughing and sickly from this experience)



Day Five:



Grand Cayman. I am a fan of Grand Cayman from my past journeys there. What I learned is that if you have already seen something and had the most fun you could imagine, the second time will probably not be as good. We went to the turtle farm, Hell (lots of rock formations where no vegetation grows), and to swim with the Stingrays. It was hot for the first half of the day, which was a good change. Of course when we boarded the boat to Stingray Island it began raining...again...and didn't stop. There was turtle soup for sale everywhere, apparently what they eat on Thanksgiving rather than turkey. I passed and had dry turkey with giblets all over it for dinner on the ship. Yuck! That's all I have to say about that.



Day Six:



Cozumel, Mexico. I woke up sneezing, coughing, and blowing my nose so as you can imagine I was excited about spending another day of thunderstorms on a boat and beach. How could I not be excited though, this was our last day at a port of call. I packed my snorkel equipment, beach towel, sweater and rain coat that I bought in Grand Cayman and was ready to go. This was booze cruise day. Myself, Heather, Timeka, and Becky boarded the triple decker Fiesta Party Boat at 10 AM. They immediately helped themselves to the all-inclusive bar. I went to the third deck of the boat where it was not yet raining, and went to sleep for a bit. When I woke up, I still felt horrible, but went to the first deck where the party had begun. My friends along with many others were in a Congo line singing Hot, Hot, Hot (about the 48th time I had heard this song at this point) and taking shots out of the bottle. I decided I would just observe. We got to the beach which was beautiful and I was able to snorkel for about 10 minutes before the rain started. Since my friends had been boozing it up the rain did not bother them and they stayed on the beach. I snuck off and found the heated, covered, adult pool. After the rain wouldn't stop we all boarded the boat once again. By this time most people were having problems standing when the boat was docked, so you can imagine the fun once the boat started moving through the rough sea cause by the storm. This was my first experience not drinking on a booze cruise and I must say it was pretty delightful. I got to enjoy watching everyone else. They all went back to our ship after the boat docked and I hit the stores at the pier. After I got back on the boat I took Nyquil (at 4pm) and slept till' the next morning.



Day Seven:



Our last fun day at sea. Even after all of my rest, I still felt like crap. Since I was in an interior stateroom I could not tell what the weather was doing. I foolishly put on my swimsuit thinking I would lay out on the deck all day. Silly Terra! It was only sixty degrees and raining. So, I put on my Aggie T-shirt and Sweatshirt and parked myself in the Sports Bar and wathed college football all day. I really enjoyed this.



Day Eight:



Finally home to my hubby! I carried all three of my suitcases down eight flights of stairs and was one of the first people off the blasted ship. I was so excited to be home. Matt was not excited that I brought the Jamaican "funk" home with me that he would catch a few short days after. We are both begining to feel better now.


The End!!!

Thanksgiving Abroad...Continued

Day Three:

I spent most of my fun day at sea in my non-spacious stateroom waiting for the pain in my head to subside. I did manage to get up for dinner, but had to leave as they were bringing the entree because we were traveling through yet another storm and the ship, she was a' rocking. That's pretty much it for day three.

Day Four:

Montego Bay, Jamaica. This was by far, the best day of my trip. We woke up for breakfast at about 7am and then traveled to the pier for our tour departing at 8am. Heather and I were supposed to meet Becky and her Mother, but they were no where to be found. As I have learned from my Father, tours do not wait on you, we went on without them. We took a two hour "scenic" busride across the poverty stricken countryside of Jamaica until we arrived at Dunn's River Falls in Ochos Rios. If you are not familiar with this, it is a huge waterfall that you can walk up. We had a very fun falls guide named "B.B. Gibbs" short for Big Belly Gibbs and a fascinating videographer named Peeping Tom. His actual name was Mark. The water was FREEZING, but they kept us singing reggae tunes such as Hot, Hot, Hot and I Shot the Sheriff to take our mind off of it. To climb these falls, you make a huge human chain of about twenty people. Strangers I might add. Heather had the luxury of holding a woman's hand for the first leg that almost took her down about three times because she was so scared and panicked. This made for a good time for me. Most of the tour groups stayed on the left side of the falls where it was safer and you could take shorter strides. Not B.B. Gibbs. He took us straight up the middle of that thing. It was terrifying but exhilirating. We made it through with no major catastrophe.

I will have to finish this up later...yet again. Brother Kevin called me and so I have to get back to work now. Thanks for calling Kevi...I love you!

A creative Christmas carol by Terra Mynhier:

Just in case you didn't see this e-mail...


On the first hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
A trip to labor and delivery
On the second hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
A baby monitor that made me want to scream
On the third hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
News that in a few hours baby Landry I'll see
On the fourth hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
A catheter in case I need to pee
On the fifth hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
A wonderful epidurallllllllllll...wheeeee!
On the six hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
Tips on breathing, he didn't even charge a fee
On the seventh hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
The go ahead to start pushing but he looked and said Oh Gee!
On the eighth hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
My new baby with the sweet name of Landry
On the ninth hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
A breast pump that really, really squeezed
On the tenth hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
10 brothers and sisters from the Young/Peeks visiting me
On the eleventh hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
A loud, loud crying baby
On the twelth hour of Christmas my true love gave to me...
A diaper change beacause it was smelled..oooeeee

Thanksgiving Abroad

Well, my much anticipated Carribbean cruise did not meet up to my expectations. My dear friend Yolene had a beautiful wedding and was very happy with her trip, so I guess that's whats important. I'll give you a short breakdown of the "funship":

Day One:

Wedding bliss! They had a very nice wedding that they have been waiting a LONG time for. The only strange thing is the minister we would later find out is also the host of the late night comedy show and other "adult" events. Made it a little strange.

Day Two:

Our first funday at sea. The day started out beautifully. We were about out of the gulf and the water started getting very pretty. The sun was shining and we were prepared for an entire day of relaxation by the pool. We had to get fuel for all this relaxation, so we went for lunch at about 11. The food was marginal, but nothing would stop us from our relaxation. Nothing except an ice cream cone and a flight of stairs that is. There was an abandoned ice cream cone sitting, melting on the second stair of the sun deck just waiting for someone to find. Of course that someone was me. I stepped on it then took a tumble down about 10 stairs resulting in a total knock out. The qualified staff in the infirmary would not give me so much as an ice pack and just strapped me down to a table for about two hours so I could "sleep it off". This reseulted in my head swelling to about twice its normal size and some pretty sweet bruises down my back and legs.

I have to get back to work, so I will keep you in suspense about the last five days of my journey. I will try to master the slide shows that you all have been doing before I come to complete my post.