Trip Home...

I know I'm slacking. You people will just have to wait until we are back in the Caribbean. I'm not spending my vacation doing my blog! Haha! :) I do have lots of pictures though of our trip to New York, Salt Lake, Christmas in California, Disneyland, New Years (soon to come), etc. So you will just have to wait :)

Getting ready to go!

Well, finals are finally finished for Tom and we are ready to head on our way!!! Well, he has one more tomorrow morning, but it is a really easy one so it just counts a little bit ;) This is a picture of Tom holding all the material he needed to know for finals. This is not including all of the material covered in text books. This is just the material from the teachers themselves. Yeah...crazy. So while Tom was taking his finals and I was packing/cleaning/getting ready to go, I wanted to make sure that some of Ella's winter clothes fit her. So we started playing dress up, and this is what we got!

She loves her boots and hat!

She was running around the house in a hat, a coat that is a little too big, tights, and boots. No shirt or anything, it was so funny!

We leave for New York tomorrow afternoon. We originally had a nine hour layover at JFK, so we were like, "What the heck...lets just stay in a hotel, spend a day there, and leave the next morning??" So that's what we're doing! We are going on a boat tour of New York and going to Central Park, Times Square, Serendipity, etc. We are pretty excited :) Then we are flying to Utah and spending a few days there. Afterwards, we are flying to California with Dana and Cheri, the boys are driving. We will spend Christmas and New Years there, then we fly back to the island. I'm really glad we are breaking up the flight there by spending a night in New York. Ella is an absolute NIGHTMARE when we fly, so its good that it isn't aaaaallllll 20 hours of traveling in one day. I'm not looking forward to ANY of the traveling part, though...so wish me luck!

Yesterday was a sad day....we said goodbye to our really good friends, the Fentons. She was my only Mormon friend on the whole island. *sigh* It's really sad that they are gone. I'm sure we'll run into them sometime. I mean, what Mormon doesn't have a reason to ever go to Salt Lake?? Hahaha! There is a new Mormon couple coming...I hope the wife is nice and we get along! Haha! I hope the Fentons flights went okay! They have crappy traveling, too! They were flying to Miami, a five hour layover, flying to Billings, an hour layover, etc. etc. Man oh man...and they have three kids! Wishing the best of luck to them.

Anyway, I'll put some more pictures/videos up probably after the trip. Don't expect anything while I'm on vacation, though...its vacation!!! :)

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day....

That was my day yesterday. I didn't want to post about it, then, though 'cause I thought I might cry. That is why I did the Christmas post instead...ya know...try and brighten things up a bit :)

So let me tell you why my day was terrible, horrible, no good, and a very bad day.

I drove into Philipsburg to meet with this lady, Bernadine, because she is giving me a job as a piano teacher. I met with her and went to her house to look at her music studio. I will start working in January on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-6 teaching piano lessons. Suh-weet! It pays REALLY well, too, so I have a feeling that I will be saying good bye to ICM!

Her place was waaaay into the mountains into a kind of local, scary area, so we drove her car. I parked my car in one of the free parking spots across the street from the Police Station. We were gone about an hour and a half or so, and when she dropped me off, I noticed there was a car parked directly behind my car, so I couldn't back out AT ALL! I was like, "what?!" I had some othe errands to run, so I thought I would do those, and maybe the car would be gone when I got back. I have Ella during all of this, too, mind you. Oh, and at Bernadine's house, her place is NOT baby proof at all, so the whole time I was chasing her around and trying ot keep her happy. That is SO tiring and gets REALLY frustrating. So keep in mind my mindset already.

Because we are leaving so soon, I cleaned out the car that morning and took out Ella's stroller 'cause I didn't think I would need it at all. Of course. So now I'm stuck walking all over Philipsburg CARRYING Ella! She is over 20 pounds and that is HEAVY to carry after a while! Ugh. So I walk all the way down to Rima's for some last minute Christmas shopping. On the way back, Ella wants to walk. So she walked the whole way by herself! She is so sweet :)

Anyway, I get back to my car, and there is still that stupid white car parked behind me. So I figure, "Oh! I'm right next to the police station, they're supposed to help people...maybe they can help me???" I go inside, tell the guy the situation and he is like, "UGH, well you probably parked somewhere you weren't supposed to!!!" And I said, "I didn't see any signs or anything??" And he says, "Well, did you get the number off the plates?" I said, "no?" And he goes, "*SIGH* WELL??!!!" I was like, "Uh....I'll go get them...." So I walk BACK out to the stupid parking lot and get the numbers: M 7058 (so if any of you see the owner....DONT PARK BY THEM!) adn go back inside and give them to the guy. He says, "Yeah, that's a police officers car, you're just going to have to wait till he gets back." I give him this look of "Uh...okay...when's that gonna be." And he's like, "He shoudl be back in half an hour." Great. So then, because obviously TELLING me how stupid I am isn't enough. He makes me follow him back to the parking lot where he points to the signs (which are handicapped signs) and says, "SEE??? YOU CANT PARK THERE!" I said, "Those are handicapped signs! I didn't park there! I'm parked NEXT to them!" And he says, "Those are POLICE parkings! Didn't you see the NP on the ground??"

Okay. I probably should've noticed the NP, but come on! It's high season, I was trying ot meet this lady, Ella is screaming in the back seat, there are NO parking spots ANYWHERE and I finally see one I can squeeze into! UGH!

So I go BACK into the police station and waited for half an hour for the stupid car to get moved. The guy finally comes, and as we're walking out to the car, it starts POURING rain. UGH!!!!! After all of this, I STILL had to run a bunch of errands. I coulda killed someone.....

I ran all my errands and get home and find out that our a/c isn't going to be able to be fixed when it was scheduled. We have been without air now for a whole week and there isn't even a schedule date of being fixed. It's kind of a long story with lots of drama between the home owners association guy, Robert, and the company manager, Anthony. It's kind of interesting, except we're stuck in the middle. Grrr....I'll keep you updated on this. Cross your fingers our air gets fixed soon. It hasn't been too hot, but we don't want to sleep with the doors open at night: no screens, rats, cockroaches have been a problem. And poor Ella is completely drenched in sweat when we pick her up out of her crib in the mornings :(

Only four more days...*sigh*

Tis the Season!!

Two thumbs WAY up for Christmas time! Woooooweeee do I LOVE the holidays!

Well, living down here, it is kindof hard to get motivated to decorate and stuff, especially since we aren't going to be here for Christmas, or New Years. So we did what we could :)

We strung lights around our living room....and see that little white glow? That is our tree! :) Yay!! There was a little miscommunication I believe, about this tree. We bought it off some fellow students and the box was pretty small. I thought that it was one of those trees you put together, 'cause our tree back home was like that, and the box is much smaller than the actual tree. Well, for our FHE we were going to assemble and decorate the tree....when I pulled it out of the box. That was it! Haha! It was the whole tree! And its pre lit....and pre decorated! Hahaha! It was pretty funny :) I was like, "Ah....well.....that was fast!" Hahaha! :)

Our stockings were hung by the front door with care...knowing that in less than a week, we wouldn't be there! WOO WOO!!!!! :)

This is our cute little tree :) Hehe

Okay, here are just some cute pictures of Ella because, honestly, who doesn't think she is the cutest thing ever? Haha! :) She has a tendency of going through my underwear drawer, or the hamper, and pulling out all the silky stuff? So this is my slip that she was wearing around the house. Silly girl!

She woke up with major bedhair the other day, so I had to take a picture :) She is holding a Snickers bar, too. No, I didn't let her eat it.

Anyway, that's all for now! Less than a week! WOO WOO!!!!!!

My sweet, sweet daughter!

Well, I haven't put any pictures of Ella up in a post or two...so here some are :)

My daughter is SUCH a shoe girl!! She goes through my shoes all day. I'll find one shoe of each pair all over the house. The other day I heard a "clop clop" and found her in my high heels! Haha! I'll put a video at the end of this, so you can see....

We went to Burger King the other day while we were grocery shopping. She doesn't like the chicken nuggets...just the hamburgers! What kid doesn't like chicken nuggets?? Crazy baby! :)

Where's the baby??

Peek-a-boo!!! She likes to hide and play with us :)

All pretty and ready for church. Grandma-by-the-beach got her this dress. She got it from a store that only sells clothes that were used on t.v.'s or movies! I guess this was on a Nickelodean show!

So I keep forgetting that the videos are sideways when I turn the camera....so just tilt your head :) Sorry about that...

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Yeah, I know. I'm such a slacker! I have failed to post a bunch of recent events! Sorry! :) I'll give sum-ups instead.

Thanksgiving was super fabulous! Of course, I don't have any pictures, so you will just have to use your vivid imaginations.

On Thanksgiving day, we went to the school for their Thanksgiving lunch. Free food, right? That evening, I baked a ham for our Thanksgiving party at Megan F.'s place. Oh man....can I just say that my ham was seriously the best thing I have ever eaten?! OH MY GOSH!! I did this yummy pineapple glaze and served it with two different sauces: a pineapple suace and a honey mustard sauce that Tom likes. Oh man...it was so yummy. We are still eating leftovers. Mmmmm....

The party at Megans was really fun, too! Pretty much everyone was from our church, except Damen. They invited the Del Sol couple and Christina and Matthew Curzon. We had such yummy food! Pies, sweet potatoes, ham, turkey, etc. Mmmmm......Tom made his famous pecan pie, too. So good!

That was Thursday night, then on Friday night we had our SO Thanksgiving party. If I had've known the school was doing a thanksgiving party, we probably wouldn't have scheduled a SO one, but oh well. We had about 30 people show up, which was a pretty good turn out. The food was super yummy! Jill K. and I tried to make turkeys....wow....I think it was a pretty traumatic experience for both of us! Haha! I'm never going to make a turkey again. It was sooooo disgusting. Oh man. It turned out okay in the end, but the whole process was just horrible! It was huge, and slimey, and heavy, and smelled like raw chicken, and just.....*gag* ugh! It was terrible! Yeah...Tom and I don't like turkey that much anyway, and it was WAY too much effort for something we don't really like! So we will be sticking to ham, thankyouverymuch!

Saturday was super fun, too! That morning was Megan F.'s birthday, so we went over to her place for waffles and ice cream. Yes, waffles and ice cream. I know it sounds kinda nasty, but wow! It was SO good! It was like having an ice cream cone for breakfast! Who wouldnt' like that?! It was a fun morning activity.

That evening, I went out with the girls to this restaurant Le Chalet on the French side. It was a a fondue restaurant. The food was okay, but really expensive. I figured that I could make the fondue at my home and cut the cost by over half. So yeah...I don't think we'll be going again. It was good, though, adn the company was fun too :) After dinner, we went to the Sopranos Piano Bar. I know what you're thinking, "Laura....in a bar???" Yes. I was in a bar! Yes. I ordered some drinks. Two cokes, to be exact. :) The bar tender laughed at me when I asked for my tab! Haha! I hope he wasn't expecting a tip! We ladies danced and drank the night away. I actually left around 1:00a.m. because Tom had called my cell, even though I didn't notice it! So I rushed home and new I was in big trouble! Haha! I was way past curfew and Tom didnt' exactly know where I was...soooo yeah....he wasn't too thrilled about being so worried about me. Such a loving husband. He said I was grounded for the rest of the weekend! Haha! I swear, I spent my whole teenage years grounded...and now married life too! Haha! :)

It was fun hanging out with all those girls, though! I feel like I don't do many things because I have a baby and am supposed to be a "responsible mother and wife" so I just stay at home all the time, or do "kid" activities, so it was fun to get all dressed up and hang out with the girls. Even though everyone was drinking, I still had a good time. They were dancing like crazy on the dance floor and everything! haha! Good times. I had a good talk with the piano guy, too. He thought it was so crazy that I was a musician, too. So we made fun of American Idol and modern pop stars. Then he found out I was Mormon and got the biggest kick out of that, too. Funny guy. He and his wife travel all over the world while he plays in bars/restaurants. His next stop is Latvia, then Berlin, then Aruba! Crazy!

Anyway, that is a little update of my last week or so. Today is the "5th Semester Going Away Party" at Pineapple Petes. I have to leave soon to make sure the tables are all set up and everything. I hope lots of people show up!!! :)