Today is the 8 year anniversary of our first date! Nate asked me go look at Christmas lights with him. He picked me up from my dorm at OC and we went to Barnes and Noble to get hot chocolate and took it with us to drive around in Nichols Hills looking at lights. After that we stopped in at Penn Square Mall and ended up watching the fountains and talking. Every year we go look at lights on December 10th. Tonight we went to Casanova and got dessert and cappuccinos then to Camana Bay to look at their Christmas lights and across the foot bridge to the little palm tree island where we could watch their lighted water fountains. It's amazing how that first date seems like yesterday and at the same time it feels like we've always been together. Glad to be married to my best friend!

Oh my goodness, you gotta try these!!!

I could totally sell this recipe but since I love y'all I'll share it with you ;) Roast 2 cups uncooked almonds @ 350 for 15 minutes. Mix together and set aside: 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Bring to boil in nonstick pan: 2 1/2 tablespoons honey, 2 tablespoons water, 2 teaspoons cooking oil. Add roasted nuts and cook on medium/low until all liquid is stuck to the almonds. Remove from heat. Toss sugar mix and nuts till well coated. Stand back or you may get caught in the stampede.

It's my Birthday!

I plan to be in the water and eat at an awesome restaurant which would make any day good for me! Biggest news of the moment - We have tickets to OKC!! YAAAAAAAAY!!!!! O I am so very ready to see all our beautiful family and friends (and Ted's,McClaren's Pantry,Mimi's,Texas Roadhouse,Cheesecake factory,Ron's hamburgers,Stonehorse's bread pudding, man I could even eat a Taco Bell taco)! It has taken forever it seems for us to both be able to get off work at the same time but we are leaving on a jet plane July 1st and staying 3 weeks! It took no less than 3 hours on the phone to book those tickets since they registered us twice and had to figure out how to remedy that since they "had never seen that happen before". Thanks Dinah for talking to them and saving us from a billion dollar phone bill! We are doing very good. We love life here. Nate enjoys his job. I am finally legal to have a job in Cayman ;) and am working at a Vet hospital. We're both blessed to have good people to work with. We are recently certified divers. They tried to drown me by making me swim "200 meters", but I think it was much more than that and without my fins but I survived with sore arms. It was very easy to learn everything. very very cool, and a tiny bit intimidating (you can ask me sometime why guys need women to make sure they don't accidentally kill themselves). Aaanyway, I will post a pic soon of our first without-instructor-dive from yesterday, yay! It seems like we have a couple Cayman holidays every month and since Nate actually gets off work at 5 instead of 9 or 10 or 12am we have lots of time to hang out which has been so good for us. BUT we've had too few visitors y'all, what's up? not afraid of a little R and R are ya?

EASTER

NATE TAKING CANDY

FROM THE BABIES

NATE'S B'DAY

-NICKI

In a nutshell...

Bits of life the last few weeks... Got stung by Fire Coral. Watched Taken, Horton hears a who, City of Ember, Marley and Me, Seven pounds(yuck), Bride wars, Despereaux, Bedtime stories, The curious case of Benjamin Button (we watch too many movies I know) oh, and almost all 10 seasons of Friends. Worried about getting a job. Got a job. Changed jobs before I even started. Got trapped on top of rocky coral, pounded into the coral by waves and saw my life flash before my eyes.Got a grill from my Dad. Grilled a LOT of food. Drove all over town to pay bills(y'all don't ever take online bill pay for granted! I miss it!). Snorkeled a lot with my family, saw squid (which inked at me), nurse shark, turtle, spotted eagle ray, great barracuda, man sized fish, a bazillion regular size fish, moray eel, about 30 stingrays in one place, fed squid to stingrays, watched the eel chase Nate with its mouth open. Got the car inspected. Bought a tire, wipers and tail light. Passed inspection. Played Hand and Foot. Had a really good time with my hunny during his time off. Hung out on the deck, in the pool, at the beach. Ate some awesome fresh fish tacos. Took Kerry and Daddy to the airport....I miss 'em a lot. Got surprised with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. Took a "road trip" the long way around the island. Watched kite surfers. And cooled off with the thought of all the ice in Oklahoma :) It was a slow day so we had the boat to ourselves...very nice

The dark spots in the water are rays

The eel that chased Nate (and anyone else who looked at it)

Kerry took the controls while the captain played the guitar