50 Things That Changed Our Lives Since 2000

I read this newspaper article by Jocelyn Noveck and she listed these 50 things that changed our lives since the year 2000... (I have italicized ones that have affected me/Omar or we have participated in)

1) Airports: terrorism changed them (no more bottled water; taking shoes off before getting on the plane
2) Alternative Medicine more mainstream
3) Apps
4) AARP cards: the boomers are hitting 50
5) Aging: people dressing younger and younger
6) Blog
7) Blackberries
8) Book Clubs
9) Cable (we actually have the bunny ears right now - go figure)
10) Cameras: no more developing film
11) Celebrity Culture: the growing obsession with their lives and TMZ
12) Cell Phones: used more than land lines (I would add blue tooth to that)
13) Chefs: on TV
14) Connectivity: wirelessly
15) Cougars: women dating younger men
16) Crocs
17) Dancing: ex. Dancing with the stars; so you think you can dance on TV
18) Dating: finding love online
19) DVRs (we don't have one right now though)
20) Embarrassment Entertainment
21) Facebook
22) Fat - banning transfat
23) Foodie - gourmet food palates (ex. gourmet burger)
24) Going Green
25) Google (Omar's G1 phone too)
26) GPS
27) Helicopter Parenting (hovering/obsessive parents)
28) Information Overload (tons of info at our fingertips but is it all accurate)
29) Instant Gratification
30) iPODS
31) Life Coaches
32) Musicals on the big screen
33) Netflix
34) Organic
35) Pregnancy Chic (flaunting the baby belly and coverage of celebrity pregnancies)
36) Reality TV
37) Recession Chic (fashion skewed to more severe style)
38) Retro Chic
39) Sexting
40) Starbucks
41) Tattoos
42) Texting
43) TV Screens: bigger and flatter (didn't change my life until I was married!)
44) Tween Culture
45) Twitter
46) Uggs: the fur lined snowboot frenzy
47) Wii (we finally got one for Christmas)
48) Wikipedia
49) Yoga
50) Youtube (I only use it so I can put videos on my blog - this came out during my mission)

I think I would also add-on: Wifi. Playstation 3 Blue Ray

Now lets review some Big events that happened to Omar and I since the year 2000:

2001-2003 Omar served his mission in NY, NY South Spanish Speaking
2001 Kate graduated high school and started BYU
2002 Kate went to France and Italy with a college professor
2003 Kate worked at Aspen Grove
2003 Omar went to Palmyra Hill Cumorah Pageant
2004 Kate worked in Alaska
2005 Omar started into his field of employment (Ranger America)
2005 Kate worked in Southern Utah
2005 Kate graduated BYU with her Bachelors in Science
2005-2007 Kate served her mission in Texas, San Antonio Spanish Speaking
2006 Omar started working for Integrated Excellence
2007 Omar became a Field Manager for his job
2007 Kate and Omar met
2008 Kate and Omar married & moved to Jacksonville
2008 Kate and Omar went to Honduras for honeymoon/vacation
2008 Kate and Omar celebrated Kate's birthday in Panama City
2009 Kate and Omar celebrated their 1st anniversary in Savannah, Georgia
2009 Kate and Omar bought their first house at Sandy Creek (Seda homes)
2009 Kate and Omar went on their first cruise together

Things we are looking forward to in the next decade: a family of our own, being debt free, my dad coming home, traveling to other foreign countries, trabajo nuevo para mi

Day 7: Day at Sea & Day 8: Embarkation

We weren't allowed to take pictures normally at shows, but this one was with the kids from Camp Carnival. There were over 500 kids on the ship. I wouldn't have wanted to bring my young kids on this ship for a cruise. It is too much of a party boat. Also below see the video of one of the activities we participated on board learning the Cha Cha.

Day 6: Grand Cayman

We had to tender out to Grand Cayman. Only about 100 people or so could go on a tender boat at a time. We had to collect a number. We were in group 8. It took us an hour and a half of waiting to get to land from our ship. At least we were not group 22 (they were handing out 22 when we finally left). We decided to go ahead and get a cheaper excursion on land rather than going through the cruise ship. We saved ourselves over $60 by getting our excursion on the land ourselves. We went snorkeling afterward, but I didn't get a good picture. It started raining when we were heading back on the boat. They took some really great pictures of Omar and I with the stingrays, but they wanted to charge us $50!!!
Pirate Ships in the harbor

Us heading out to Stingray City and then to Snorkel







Check out the video above!!!

Later we went and got a few souvenirs - our usual Christmas ornament and I also found some neat trays that were made with real shell. Later we ate native food - jerk chicken. It was so yummy!

Gotta love a KFC that has 2 chickens walking back in forth in front of it. Maybe it is real chicken they serve!

Day 5: Roatan Isle, Honduras

So Omar was the one planning our day in Honduras since it is where he is from, he got to choos our adventure. This was the shortest day of our whole trip - we were not given too long in Roatan. We got off the ship about 9 AM and had to be back by 2 PM.

The little pier where we landed and left the boat had just been completed the week prior. There was this cute little tourist trap with all sorts of stores there. Since I had no idea what we were going to be doing for the day - I wore my bathing suit and clothes that could easily dry.
The first thing we did is ask where a local place to eat was. There was a little tiny hut where the locals that worked at the tourist trap would eat. Omar got his favorite - Baliadas. It was for sure the cheapest food we could eat. We got 6 baliadas and a soda for $3. Of course Omar returned later that day to eat more baliadas before boarding the ship.
There was a place for ziplining and Omar decided that we should do that. I have always wanted to do that through the rainforest/jungle anyhow so we did. There were over 11 different sections and it was a lot of fun.










The video is sideways, but you get the point.
The shops had some beautiful mahogony peices, but they were very expensive. When we go back to Honduras to Santa Barbara I want to see if I can find some good peices for cheaper.




Ziplining took a lot of our time. We only had about 2 hours left. We were going to go downtown but the taxis wanted us to pay $50 ONE way! They were out of their minds. We started walking toward town and a taxi pulled up to use and told us he would take us for $5 one way. He stayed with us the whole time and we gave him $20 - he was a very nice guy. Omar wanted to give him $50 becuase he felt bad for him, but I had to squash that idea. The downtown was not too exciting though.

A local carniceria (butcher). We did buy some dried beans for Omar's mom - we got a pound and a half for $1. That is all the cash we had left.

I wish we would have had time to go to the beach. The water looked heavenly.




This beach was free to go to. If you wanted to take the little ski lift to get there it was $5. We never made it over to the beach.

Day 4: Belize City, Belize

We started out the day great by locking ourselves out of the room.
The ship really talked up how dangerous Belize can be and how we will see machine guns and all this stuff and to be very careful. It was suggested that if we decide to do any excursion from carnival that this would be the best place to do it. Since we did not really know how a tender worked from the ship anyhow we decided to do an excursion through our cruise line. We went snorkeling at Goff's Cay.



It was way worth it - we took the boat out to this reef which is the 2nd largest Barrier Reef in the world. It was some pretty good snorkeling. We actually had good weather. The water was not too cold and although the waves were sometimes big, it was pretty easy snorkeling. After about 45 minutes in the deep about 10-16 feet we went over to the shore for more snorkeling.
Goff's Cay is a super small island - more like a sand bar with some trees on it. They caught these lobsters fresh and grilled them up.


We bought 2 lobster tail for $10 - you can't beat that. They were good!
There were conch all over the place. This is one that one of the locals was helping me to clean up. I still have some more work. The key now is to use bleach and a brush. We used sand and a peice of rock to get all of the gunk off it.
A lady there was dying to braid my hair. I didn't want my whole head braided - this was the perfect amount for me.
See how tiny the island is?
Everyone else enjoyed terrible weather on shore. We did head over to shore but it was raining a lot and the place was so crowded. We ended up eating at a restaraunt with the most terrible service ever!

This is a couple Michael and Miranda that we met from our ship and our excursion. Miranda actually is a member of the church too - go figure - a returned missionary even. We both had Miami Vice (virgin of course).