"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear", right?

Every day, as I go about my daily routine, I feel like I am impacted by our current economic condition. The other day I went to meet Jeremy for lunch, we picked one of our favorite mexican restaurants. OUT OF BUSINESS. We picked another small sandwich shop that we like to go to, OUT OF BUSINESS. I have run into old acquaintenances that have been unemployed for upwards of a year. We have family members that are wondering, day to day, if they will have a job a month from now. If you turn on the TV, or read the newspaper, you become inundated with the ever increasing drama of the world we live in. It is scary. I think things will be sketchy for many months to come. We can't take anything for granted. These are the times that we have been counseled to prepare for! For some it will impact us in our own homes, for others it will be extended family, friends, neighbors.

BUT, rather than live in fear, I have chosen to prepare our family the best I can. Thanks to a dear friend, I have been reminded that I need to 'refresh' our 72 hour kits. I honestly can remember when I even assembled our family kits. THUS, I pulled everything out of the closet and determined what needed to be replaced. Much to my dismay, some friendly little rodents had found their way into some of the food. I also had to reevaluate, because my kids are much older now, and will consume more food. I have decided that every spring, around general conference, I will rotate some of the food, update clothing (as needed), and just refresh when necessary.

I am grateful that I belong to a church that prepares us for all aspects of life. (spiritually, emotionally, physically, etc). I know if we heed the counsel of our living prophet, that we will be prepared for anything that will come our way.

Peace of mind can be comforting, when everything around us isn't!

Our Caribbean Cruise

This is Jeremy doing my first post. It won't be as pretty as what Nancy does so I apologize in advance. This is a summary of our trip to the Caribbean on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship "Voyager of the Seas". This was a trip that my employer Axiom Financial sponsored for Nancy and me. We decided to have our children and Nancy's parents join us on the boat also. We arrived at the ship on Sunday the 8th and the ship departed that evening.









Our first two days were at sea, during which time we participated in the many activities that the ship had to offer. It was amazing! 15 different floors full of swimming pools, mini golf, roller-blading, basketball, rock-climbing, ping-pong, and of course LOTS and LOTS of FOOD!











Abby spent more time than anyone in the pool. We were convinced at one point that she had sprouted gills and fins and had become a fish. She loved the pool. We all certainly enjoyed the warmer tempuratures and as we moved down the Gulf of Mexico towards the Caribbean, the climate grew even more pleasant.


We were scheduled to visit three ports on this cruise. The first stop was on the island of Roatan, which is part of the country of Honduras. We were in Roatan on Wednesday. On Thursday we were in Costa Maya, Mexico. We spent Friday in Cozumel, Mexico. We certainly enjoyed ourselves in Costa Maya and in Cozumel, with time on the beach and some shopping and some great local cuisine. But we all agreed that our favorite port was in Roatan.

This picture is of the cruise ship
docked in the port in Roatan. We hired a private tour guide to take us to various spots on island. He took us to a hilltop on the island that overlooked the bay and the port and provided a wonderful setting for pictures. Shortly thereafter he took us to see the L.D.S. church building on the island, which was pretty neat to see.












The beach was wonderful in Roatan, but the highlight of our visit to the island was some time we spent at an inland location where they did zipline tours and also had spider monkeys and parrots for us to play with. Everyone did the zip line tour (even Leslie!) which involved some hiking and scooting across the zip lines. Everyone had a blast.

We really enjoyed playing with the monkeys; they were a riot. At one point they took my hat and I had to wait about 15 minutes before they gave it back. They were very energetic and very intelligent; it was the highlight of the trip to interact with them. I really enjoyed the short stay on Roatan and most of the people in our Axiom group had the same thing to say.

Costa Maya is just a small port town that basically exists to service the cruise industry. Frankly, the area isn't very pretty because of prior hurricane damage. But a nice beach was only a short busride away and we were able to spend some time there relaxing and drinking a ridiculous amount of pina colads with some great Mexican food for lunch.


Some of you have been to Cozumel so you know how it works
there. We had to be back on the ship by 3:30 so we had to get a lot done in a short amount of time. We found a great local beach to enjoy the sun and surf. Abby and I snorkeled. Zach, Seth, Nancy and Mike rented waverunners for a half hour and took them out on the ocean. And then Mike and Seth went parasailing! They had to have been a few hundred feet up in the air. Wow! After all was said and done, we had a great day in Cozumel with many adventures (including shopping, of course).

After all was said and done, it was a wonderful vacation. To see different parts of the world and appreciate different peoples, cultures, foods and languages is truly a blessing. The crew on our ship was absolutely incredible and we enjoyed the daily interactions we had with them. I really benefitted from the break and I really enjoyed some of the one-on-one time I had with my kids. My in-laws are great and my wife is the best. It was a great time and I'm thankful we could have the experience.