Dear Bing,

Nope.

Not Chandler.

Bing CHERRIES.

I love summer for many reasons. One of which is that with summer, come the bing cherries.

I hate normal cherries. They are gross and weird.

HOWEVER, these suckers are divine.

Muchos gracias verano.

You rock.

Dear Sweet Sunday,

This was suppose to have been posted a few weeks ago.

BUT, today was a GREAT Sunday for the following reasons:

1. Went to church

2. Went to Elder Allsen's mission farewell.

He was one of my EFY boys last summer.

I always promised that I would go to his mission farewell, so that I did!

3. Elder Busche came and gave our ward an EXCELLENT fireside.

These were some bits of advice he gave:

Give away all fear.

Ask God to fill your soul with love.

The most IMPORTANT thing you can do in life is find love for everyone around you.

I love Sunday's.

Dear Schuyler,

Provo is really going to miss your comedic comments and hilarious antics.

Schuyler is growing up, going to law school, and leaving all his immature college buddies behind. It's heart breaking.

This is us literally moments after he dropped the bomb:

Such a ladies man. He will have no problems in Tennessee.

Sad... we will miss him.

Schuyler, you are the best.

Cheetah - Panther gatherings will never be the same :(

Dear Cake Club,

Back in Provo we use to do this thing called "Cake Club." It lasted about two weeks... but this was one of our creations. Thanks to the creativity of Sara and Daniface, we created this monster.

Truthfully, I'm kind of glad Cake Club died out. That way I'm not missing anything.

Fall '09...Cake Club will live on.

Dear Guilty Pleasure,

...since when do I even like pop?

Ugh. Diet Coke with Lime...you've gotten the best of me.

Dear Lovely Somethings,

I'm home.

I'm relaxing.

Here are the little somethings in my life that I am loving these days:

running.  mixed with a little pilates.

nutrisystem.  already down nearly 5 lbs in 4 days.

these summer dresses from gap.  2 colors down and deciding on a new one.

preparing for the best summer job: efy -- 9 days and counting.

THIS shampoo and conditioner... my hair smells delicious.

shopping... I'm a bit partial to my 2nd home.

propel.  divine. 

reading, reading, reading.  summer is the best.

carpe diem, people.  carpe diem.  

Dear May,

You were good to me. 

I have some pretty great friends.  

Thanks Provo.  

Dear Swine'ing in style,

8 days until I leave to go home to Ohio.

This gives me approximately 192 hours to find the perfect mask.

Yes.  Cory Eckel is "suggesting" (a.k.a. enforcing) that I wear a "respirator mask" on the airplane on the way home.  He thinks I need to take proper precautions while "I'm sitting 18'' away from 2 people on either side of me, 3 people in front of me, and 3 people behind me who could be from who knows where."  

At first, I laughed in complete shock that he would even suggest something so absurd and ridiculous.  

Moments later after realizing how serious he was about this, my mood went from humorous to embarrassed.  In my head I'm thinking..."Okay... people are going to think I'm a freaking paranoia case."  

After contemplating this idea over the past couple hours, I have decided that I will in fact wear a mask... but not just any mask.  I am going to fight this swine flu with style.   I decided to google swine flu masks to take a look at some of my options.  I had no idea so many people were thinking along the same lines as myself.  

Incredible.  I have so many options!  

Now I just need to make a decision.  

Hmm... which mask would automatically convince 

people of how LEGIT I actually am?  

I think I'm leaning toward either the skeleton or the mustache.

Suggestions?

I have only one requirement.  It can't clash with my plastic footies, rubber gloves, and paper shower cap.   

Dear Ms. E,

Some of you may be aware that I took a class this spring term on teaching physical education to elementary students.  I was assigned a first grade class and had to teach them for 3 weeks.  One of the lessons had to be on rhythm and dance.  SO, last night at about 2am I choreographed this little diddy in Danielle's bedroom. 

As you can obviously see from these clips, we took this VERY seriously.  

Dani made sure to bring the camera to class today to catch the kids on tape too.  HAH!

I love the Elementary Education program.  Aren't you jealous you don't get to do this for homework?  

Dear Sexy Lexi,

I use to call Lex, Sexy Lexi when she was a youngster simply because I knew it drove her crazy.

HOWEVER,

this special little nickname seems to apply now, more than ever.

To be bold, my sister is a BABE.  

The braces being taken off have done her well.  

Congrats Lex.  You are one sexy mama!  

Dear "Honey, I'm home!"

Yep.  I'm back to school, back to school.

The cruise was GREAT! 

Seeing the family was GREAT!

Getting some sun was GREAT!

Overall, last week was not too shabby.

Here are some fun pictures from the trip:

Dinner the first night on the boat:

Getting ready to snorkel with the fam in Grand Cayman:

Holding a sting ray at the sandbar in the middle of the ocean:

Me and mom karaoke night:

Lex and I in Cozumel at the beach:

Kiddos in Cozumel: 

We rented scooters to drive to the beach:

Beautiful sunset: 

Mom and I in the Bahamas: 

Mariano!  Our precious little cleaner:

Fun in Cabin C253:

I love my family.  I am so lucky! 

Dear GOODBYE PROVO,

Your weather has been ruthless.

April 1st you played an awful joke and snowed... ALL day.

So I've made an executive decision

(Okay, not really. I was leaving no matter what).

Tomorrow morning I leave for here:

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Following that, I will make a stop here:

Cayman Islands

Then we'll swing on over to:

Cozumel Mexico

And not to be forgotten:
The private cays in the Bahamas
Peace out, Provo.


The Eckel fam is cruising for 7 days & we are not looking back.

See you next Saturday.