Ticks on a Wall

Snakes on a plane?!  No!  Ticks on a wall! For reals.  I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but these days I am finding bloated and gray ticks just chillin' out on our walls.  I've plucked three of them off three different walls in our house over the last month or so. 

Despite lots of preventative treatment, we just can't keep the ticks off of Jesse the Texas Black Dog.  There are teeny tiny ticks that live in the sand or on the flowy grasses around the island and I think they hang out in clumps, so when he brushes by them, several jump on at once.  I pick at least 2 or 3 off of him a day and if I forget for a few days, or if he got into an especially lush patch of ticks, I can end up with a jar full of about 20 of them.  Usually, they hang out in twos and threes on his body; I assume it is easier to get a good chomp where a fellow tick has already settled in.  This makes removal easier and more satisfying!

Egan loves the tick removal process, so we've made it into a bit of family fun....Egan holds the flashlight when needed, guards the jar and alerts us to any attempted escape and lastly gets to be the one to dump them into the toilet and flush.  He says:  "Bye bye tickies" as they swirl on down. 

Despite all of the ticks traipsing into the house, there have only been two incidents of Ticks on a Human.  Once on the back of Egan's head and once on my belly.  I felt it lock down and removed it immediately.  And I'm pretty sure the one on Egan had also only just sunk in because it was still super tiny and flat.  Thankfully Tommy has escaped being a host, as I think he might pass out at the discovery of a little passenger.

For those of you who are considering a move to Belize and are now freaked out about the ticks:  Only the dog people need be concerned.  And more so the dog people who take their dogs out and about and let them frolic in the sand and sea and tropical foliage.  AND then let them in the house. 

So, back to the wall.  I am hoping someone can tell me what is up with that.  I figure that once they hit their limit, they drop off and enjoy lazing about with full tummies.  Then once they deflate they get back into action.  Or they die.  Not sure, but I think it is great they end up on the wall where we can easily see them and send them off to the septic tank.  No more getting back into action!

Ray!

The other day we were waiting for a friend to pick us up at the end of a nearby pier and there were some fisherman cleaning fish, conch and lobster in their boat just off the dock.  As usual, there were a few pelicans getting in on the action but we were surprised to see two stingrays cruising around for niblets in the extremely shallow water close to shore.  I had been taking pictures of Egan (surprise!) and the pelicans and lucked into getting a video of these funky creatures....

Egan checking out the conch remnants that the rays were after.

Pelican!

Pelican.

Overfull Social Calendar

Whew!  It's been a busy week y'all!  Mom left on Monday.  Pop and Brenda arrived on Tuesday. Wednesday an old high school friend and his family visited us for the day from their cruise ship (and brought us some fantastic treats!  Thanks Danforths!).  Thursday we had our monthly First Thursday party.  Friday something happened but I don't remember what.  Saturday our close friends had a huge party and Brenda had her birthday.  Today was Superbowl Sunday.  Not that I was much affected by that, but Tommy is still at the Sports Bar with half of Caye Caulker.  Oh, and I was stood up by a client this morning.  That's always fun!  And we have a 2 year old, so we were already crazy when the week started.  So, yeah, I'm beat.  But no time for dwelling on that---gotta get back to exercise class on Monday.  Did I ever mention that we have a wonderful step aerobics and exercise class at the community center?  Our fabulous and dedicated instructor Louise also runs the lovely Maxhapan Cabanas guest house.  Classes are BZ $2 each and worth every shilling!  One of the best things about the class is that she notices when you're not there.  Know what I mean?

Glen with a basket full of Gaby!

Christy, Glen and Gaby down at The Split.

Egan and Nolan.

Tommy raked the leaves to smoke out the buggies during our party.  Egan matched the leaves!

Troy saved the day with 19 lobster tails!  Here he is splitting them in preparation for the grill.  Pop pitched in by sharpening the knife every couple of tails.

The girls.

Egan and I with my Papa!  He has announced that he is letting his beard get all grizzly while he is here for a month.  Oh my!

Mom came to visit!

We had my mom for a week!  Egan received "bran new gifts" daily and we had a grand time.  Here are some highlights...

She's on a bike!  First time since 1992!

Enjoying the sunset at The Split.

Here she is with Lennie, Chris, Shirley and Luciana on Chris and Paul's wonderful pontoon boat.  The snorkeling was great but the water was a bit chilly. 

We took a sunset cruise for the boat-warming of Belize Diving Services' new boat.  Fun night!

Lookee there!  By the end of the week she's riding a bike and eating an ice cream cone at the same time. 

Egan and his Grandma!

Egan was upset that we couldn't get on the plane and go with Grandma.  Thanks Mom for visiting!