Janet's Blog

The beach at the Hard Rock Cafe in Montego Bay is much smaller than it used to be, taken over by various new resorts and condos. Even the Hard Rock Cafe is relatively new, but gracious enough to allow residents of the Bay Pointe condos to use the beach there or, perhaps, the beach access is "grandfathered" in. Either way, we appreciate the use of that beach whenever we are in Jamaica. However, I can't help being a bit disappointed to find that the natural wildlife is more controlled than it used to be. Erin and Meagan can't forget those times, as young children, when they followed tiny, yellow fiddler crabs and hermit crabs, just like the pets they had at home, all over the sandy beach. We all remember the time Meagan picked up a sizable conch shell at the edge of the water, only to have a miniature squid dive out of the shell, into the water, swimming away under cover of the black ink it squirted as camouflage.  Back then, we could find big shells along the ...

We have been blessed, over the years, to be able to visit the beautiful island of Jamaica several times, due to the generosity of friends who give us the use of their condo there, in Montego Bay. Erin and Meagan were quite young, the first time they went with us. In fact, Meagan celebrated her fifth (or maybe it was her sixth) birthday there. This time, Erin brought her new husband, Reed, who was excited to experience his first time ever in the Caribbean. And this time, on Levi's second trip to Jamaica, he got to celebrate his 15th birthday with a chocolate cake that had almost too much frosting even for Levi, who absolutely loves all things sweet. I have been enjoying photography more and more, and I have found that my iPhone takes remarkably good pictures, so I was able to document our trip quite well. I regretted leaving my phone behind, for fear it would get wet, when we boarded a glass bottom boat to motor out to the reef. Bill, Levi, Erin, and Reed all snorkeled the len...

Over the past few months, I've been compiling a list of random, human-generated, church rules that are common in the US. It's interesting, and actually rather amazing, to recognize the number of rules and traditions that have become customary within certain denominations and individual congregations. So, for better or worse, here is my list: A few churches allow only  a capella  singing, and a few, no singing at all, while most congregations use some form of instrumental accompaniment. Some people insist that old hymns are best because people already know them well, while others prefer newer, contemporary, hymns because they draw younger people to worship. Along with this, some churches prefer to use hymnals, while other churches make use of technology to project the song lyrics up on a screen that can be seen easily by everyone, even those who might have trouble reading the small print in a standard hymnal. People who sing or play special music may do so from the balcon...