100th Post!

Woo! My 100th post! :) Woo!!

Okay, onto the real post :)
My grandparents were here last week. My grandparents are SUPER awesome! They travel all over the world! They went to Egypt last year...they visited us....they are touring the Mediterranean (specifically Israel/Jerusalem)....and all over the States! They are from California, so all these destinations are very far away! They love it though :) They are quite the troopers! I think they have more energy than me! Ha!

Anyway, they got here on Monday and we hung out for the day - it rained ALL day, which never happens! We tried to find places for my grandpa to take pictures, but everything was cold, cloudy, and wet! Go figure!

The next day we went to Philipsburg and went shopping at Rima's and had dinner at the Green House! It was really fun 'cause Tom got to come with us! :) Yaay! The food was delicious, as always, and Ella was actually pretty well behaved! We have discovered that she doesn't really like fruit punch....only applejuice. Go figure. She also doesn't like chicken nuggets or chicken fingers! She eats hamburgers instead! What a funny kid!

The next day we went to Marigot up to the Fort Louis. It was BEAUTIFUL! The sky was absolutely gorgeous! Bright blue - big white puffy clouds! You could see every neighboring island! It was just wonderful. We walked around Marigot for a little bit, but my grandparents kept saying, "Oh, we could get this at Rima's...." they learn quick! :) (This was also the day of the entry "Poooooor Tom....")

The day after that we went to Baie Rouge. The beach is just gorgeous, but the waves were REALLY big and rough! It knocked down my grandpa and he cut up his legs on the rocks :( He was quite the trooper though and said, "Hm...well...I think the salt water will clean it...." and went back into the water! Ha! :) My grandma and I almost got swept away!! Ella, of course, is NOT afraid of the water and I'm sure would just get swept out to sea with a smile on her face if we didn't watch her carefully! Ha! She just loves the waves and screams and laughs when she gets wet! She loves her little floatie ring and could just float in the water for HOURS. Needless to say, the beach is very tiring with a toddler! Ha!

On Saturday we went back down to Rima's so my grandparents could finish all their tourist shopping. The shop owner guy gave Ella a free stuffed fish, too! It's 'cause she's so cute ;) She said "thank you" in sign language and he got a big kick out of that! Ha! Later that day we went to Layla's for the Birthday Party. It was very fun! My grandparents said, "Well, it seems like you have a very nice group of people here!" So that's great! Thanks to everyone who was so sweet to them - and thanks to Jill and Tangra for saying they could come! :)

Sunday was church, then we went to Cupecoy to watch the waves crash and then to airport beach to watch the airplanes. It was very fun and relaxing.

Every single night we would play Shanghai until 10 or 11! Shanghai is a really fun card game that I am learning to love. Before this trip I HATED it...it took so long and I always lost! But, I've learned the key to a good game: maximum four people. Any more than that and it is TOOOOO many! So that was really fun :) It was nice just talking with my grandparents and spending some nice quality time with them. Very fun.

We went to Orient Beach, but I don't remember which day? It was fun - we got beach chairs and umbrellas and even had virgin pina coladas! MmmHMM! :) I told my grandparents they should go to the far right of the beach...but my grandma said No! Haha! :) It was really funny. We didn't see ANY nudie people on the non-nude side, which is REALLY rare! There were lots of boobs...but I guess that is a given! Ha!

We also went to Mullet Beach for the day, but I can't remember which day? It was really fun :) We met another little girl, who was three, who kept harassing Ella. Apparently, Ella didn't really want to play or share her sand toys! Ha! The girl, Christina, and her mom and dad were all from France. Her mom had ginormous ta-ta's and was totally topless! She came up and started talking with us adn playing with the girls in the sand. She was holding a sunscreen bottle and Ella kept trying to grab it. I was like, "oh please, Ella...don't grab her boob....don't grab her boob...." and thank goodness she didn't!!!! Tom said he thought I was going to get knocked out a couple times when she turned around real fast! Ha!! Good times...It was a little uncomfortable talking with a woman, whos boobies are 18 inches from my face!! Haha!!! :) Classic....

I don't have any pictures because I kept forgetting to take my camera wth me! My grandpa took a lot of pictures, so I might steal some from him :) Pictures, hopefully, to come later!

Well, that's all for now!

Pooooor Tom.....

This is a few days late, but I thought I would still post it...it is quite the story.

So, my grandparents were with us for a whole week, and we did lots of touristy things (you can read that in the next post), but this one day we went up to Fort Louis and Marigot. Tom volunteered to watch Ella so I jumped at that chance!!

We left around 11:30ish to drive up to Marigot...the rest of the story if from Tom's point of view...

"Well, about five minutes after you guys left, I hear the door open and Ella running down the hall! So I run outside to get her, go around the corner and *SLAM* the door shut!! (info: our door automatically locks from the inside if it shuts) and I didn't have the keys, since I just BARELY ran out!

So I go down to the guard and say, "hey - I locked myself out". He tells me to go up to the office and see if they have a key. So I go up to the office...no key. They called Anthony, (info: complex manager, has an office in Maho.) and Anthony says he is with a client, but he'll be here in a few minutes to let me in. So I wait...

and wait...

and wait...

I get a little impatient and walk up to the office....it is locked and no one is inside! So I wait....

and wait...

FINALLY, I give up waiting and decide to WALK to Maho (info: its about a mile walk into town and a mile back). I think that maybe Anthony will be driving down the street at the same time, seeing as it has been FOREVER since he said he would come down.

So I walk...

and walk...

and walk...

He wasn't driving down the street. I made it all the way to Maho. I'm hot and sweaty AND have been carrying Ella the whole walk! So I go into his little office...he isn't there, but there is a lady working there (info: new lady??) She says, "Oh, Anthony isn't here...let me call him." She proceeds to call him and says to me, "oh! anthony is SOO sorry! He forgot!!"

*insert swear words here*

So the lady gives me the key and I walk

and walk....

and walk...

and sweat...

and walk...

BACK to our apartment. Ugh...what a day. So not only did I get locked out of the apartment...have to walk into Maho...carry Ella the whole way...deal with her being FUSSY at the same time...I ALSO MISSED THE BYU BASKETBALL GAME!!!!!"

:( This whole post gets one big frowny face!

What a day...

So excited :)

Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! I am excited :)

First off: today is the burrito sale, which is always a lot of work, but fun :) It is a pain setting and taking everything down, but that's okay. So that is fun.

Then tomorrow is Sunday - Woo for day of rest! :)

THEN THEN THEN!!!!!!!!! MY GRANDPARENTS ARE COMING! WOOOOO!!!!!!!! :)

Tom has his block on Monday, too, which isn't very exciting :( but we'll be glad when that's over! Then my grandparents fly in at noon! WOO!!!!! :) My grandparents are so cool! They travel all over the world! They went to Egypt last year, are going to the Mediterranean this fall, and are coming to see US! :) WOO!!!!

Will post pictures after their trip :)

Funny stories....

I have two quick funny stories about Ella...sometimes I just don't even know what to do with her! :)


For those of you who have read the "Holy Crap..." entry, this is Part II of that....
So, this morning when I put her down for her morning nap, she fussed for an awful long time, but I just left her in there. She finally fell asleep and woke up two hours later. When I went in to get her, she had UNSNAPPED her onesie, taken off her diaper, and peed all over her crib! I don't know what to do! I didn't know she could unsnap her onesie?! Maybe I'll just have to invest in a lot of overalls?! Hahaha!! :) It definately wasn't as bad as poop....so I wasn't too upset :)

Then this afternoon, I set her on her favorite chair to watch her favorite movie "Enchanted". I rearranged the pillows to prop her up, adn I found a HUGE pile of scrambled eggs! Apparently, she had been keeping all the scrambled eggs I was feeding her for breakfast IN HER MOUTH and then she spit them all out when she got out of her high chair! Ha! What a little brat!! :)

So those are my two funny stories. We have also had a little breakthrough with disciplining her. For those of you who know Ella, you know that she doesn't care if you spank her. I'm not talking about beating your child, but just a little smack to get their attention. Well, it just makes Ella mad and she keeps on doing whatever she was doing, only this time with attitude! So....we have discovered her new punishment. Time Out. I know you are probably thinking that she is a little young....but she is not....as we've discovered. She has a time-out mat. It is a red/white floor mat by the door that she has to sit/stand on until we say she can get off. It works like magic! She stands on it and cries and cries and we gently explain why she can't do what she was doing, and then we give her a big kiss, have her give us a big kiss, and then she can play. We only leave her on time out for 30 seconds to a minute, but booooooy does she hate it! Ha! :) I'm pretty excited that we finally found something that works! Ha! Parents=1 Child=0! Woo! :)

Airport Beach...

One of our favorite beaches to go just hang out at is Airport Beach. I actually think the correct name of it is Maho Beach, but everyone calls it Airport Beach. The runway LITERALLY starts about fifty feet away from the sand. There is the beach....a thin road....and the runway! The airplanes take off facing away from the beach, so tourists usually go up to the fence and hold on while the wind from the jets blows them away! It is pretty funny to watch :)

So this last Sunday we decided to go watch the airplanes - Ella loves to point and watch them take off and land.
We got there in time to see the BIGGEST airplane that lands here take off. We thought it would be fun to videotape it and watch all the tourists get blown away....
So we went WAY over to the left, closest to the Food Express and took some pictures and waited for it to take off....

Well, we ended up TOTALLY getting blasted by sand, rocks, and miscellaneous junk flying through the air! People were running and yelling and everything! I'm not sure how it happened since we were WAY away from where it should have been blowing!

Tom was holding Ella to his chest and covering her face with his back towards the airplane. Here is his back after getting pelted with rocks and and!


All those dots are from rocks hitting him! :( I got hit on the cheek with a particularly large rock and it ended up leaving a red mark for the rest of the day. Needless to say, we went home after that covered head to toe in sand! We had sand all in our clothes, in our hair, and everywhere! It was aweful! I don't think we'll be doing that again....

Here is a video of an airplane landing so you can see how close we are to the runway....


This is a video of my super smart child :) Just thought I would show off a bit....



Here is a video of an airplane taking off and NOT almost killing us! Haha! :)



So yes, all in all, airport beach is pretty awesome....but sometimes it can be dangerous! Haha! Consider yourself warned! :)

Activities Update!

So for those faithful readers of my blog, I have some real updates in this one :) Not just pictures of Ella! Haha!

First off, as President of the Spouses Organization, I wanted to make sure there were lots and lots of activities for the girls to choose from to be active in. When we first got here, there really weren't that many opportunities for the girls to get together - especially if you don't drink. So I thought, well crap! Let's make some! :) Of course, the trick to all of this is delegating things so I wasn't in charge of all of them. Some of the girls, Ang and Jen D., had a good idea to start a book club - which is AWESOME. We meet every three weeks and we meet at whoevers houses turn it is. They provide snacks, and everyone provides entertaining discussion. The books vary from sci-fi, to spiritual, to plays, to drama, to horror! It has been REALLY fun and you really get to know the girls!

Our second club is the Cooking Club, which Laura O. is wonderfully in charge of! We meet every two weeks and someones house and they are in charge of cooking/teaching one or two recipes. So far we have had Mexican enchiladas and homemade refried beans, and I did coconut shrimp and homemade onion rings. Next is tortilla soup and a vegetarian tortilla soup. It is REALLY fun! I'm so bad at taking pictures, so Thank You Ang! for taking some at my cooking club! :) The first is of Sharill going outside because the onions were making her cry so bad! After a while, everyone's eyes were watering and we were all laughing 'cause we looked like a bunch of weepy girls! It was very funny :)

We also have Beach-A-Week, which Lacey is in charge of. We meet every Wednesday in front of the coffee house at either 10:00 or 11:00 and go to a different beach each week. So far the girls have gone to Baie Rouge, the beach by Ronda's house (I don't know the name?), Philipsburg, Baie Longue? and a few more that I can't remember the names of! :) It is very casual. Show up if you want to. Don't if you don't. It is pretty relaxing and most of the time the girls bring their kids, too, which gives Ella someone to play with. It is fun to just sit and relax at the beach like we're on vacation and not on "C-H-O-R-K" Island. (Inside joke between me and Tom :) haha!)

Aside from all of our clubs, which are open to everyone, we do a variety of Spouses Org activities. Last night we had a movie and pizza night completely paid for by the Spouses. We watched a movie in Lecture Hall 2 and ate food. It was very relaxed and fun. It's nice to have things to do while our hubbies are all studying. We also do "Ladies Night" at different restaurant/bars where the SO pays for appetizers and stuff like that. Its just fun to hang out.

So, this week we had Cooking Club and Beach-A-Week. Also, this weekend is the Heineken Regatta on the island. It is a big, three day boat race around the island. It's very fun to watch, but everywhere gets RIDICULUOSLY crowded!! They add four new bridge times and everywhere is so packed, you can't even go into town! Ha! Here are some pictures:


Hanna had a Regatta Brunch at her place yesterday morning so we could watch the boats. This is her view out her window! It was BEAUTIFUL!! Her apartment is really nice and everyone brought a dish to share. I brought another pavlova :) Mmmm....and everyone really liked it. The food was really yummy: cinnamon rolls, egg casserolls, bagels, fruit salads, etc. Mmm...Yummmy :) After the brunch, we went home so Ella could take a nap. We were going to head over to this beach BBQ that Heath was having, but we all fell asleep and slept for three hours! Haha!

After waking up, I had to get everything ready for Movie Night. So I called to have the pizza delivered and the guy said, "okay! I'll be there at 6:30" So I said, "okay." Then a few minutes later, he calls and says, "I'll be there at 6:00!" Oh crap! I'm gonna be late! Ha! :) So I run to Food Express to get drinks and some idiot has parked int he middle of the entrance into the parking lot. What a retard! So I had to go around and BACK into the parking lot! there were open spots! I swear...So I get the drinks and meet Sharill at the school to pay for the pizza.
Then she says, "Don't you think the pizza will get cold in an hour?"
I said, "What do you mean?"
She says, "Well, movie night doesn't start until 7:00 right?"
*silence from me*....."What?"
"Yeah....doesn't it start at 7:00???"
"Oh crap....IM AN HOUR OFF!!!" Ha! I totally thought it started at 6:00 and had it perfectly timed with the pizza! Ha! So after I got over the fact that I felt like a total retard, I went and hung out at Sharill's place until 7:00 :) haha!

Then we went to Movie Night, which was pretty fun. I wish I could've stayed longer, but Ella was being a little pill, so we had to leave early.

Anyway, that was my Friday. Today, Saturday, I don't have any plans "yay!" So I can just hang out with my hunny and baby :)

Tomorrow I had to give a talk in church - blah! I better start working on it...

Book Reviews!

Well, since my last book review got such nice comments, I thought I would do another one! Yes, I read A LOT down here. I'm almost out of books, time to scour the library again! The library here is so hit or miss. I should take a picture of it. It is literally ONE book case of ALL non-medical books. The books are listed alphabetically by authors last name, but only by the first letter. Like, all the "K"'s are together...but not all the "King's". Crazy.

Anyway, here we go!

I don't know if I have done a review for these books or not, but the Sword of Truth series is FABULOUS! There are 11 of them, although the first four or five are the best. The story is about a young boy named Richard who gets wrangled up in all this craziness! I really like the different characters that are in the book. It is a fantasy book, but there aren't really fantasy creatures like you would think. Okay, there is a dragon, and wizards, but there are also these chicks called Confessors. They can make anyone tell the truth. And Richard is The Seeker who uses truth and judgement to do goo. It is pretty fabulous :) It is kind of Dark Side vs. Light Side. VERY fast read. I've read them MANY times.

Wow...where do I start with this one!? This is our latest Book Club book. Holy crap. The first forty pages or so are SOOOO unbelievably upsetting and depressing that I almost put it down. I think it is worse when you have a baby. Every page was like, "oh gosh....." terrible. THEN you hit about page 45-50ish. and BOOM! It is SOOOO UPLIFTING!!! The story is of a dad who is on a camping trip with his three kids and while he is rescuing his daughter from drowning, his other daughter is kidnapped. They can't find her body, but they find her bloody clothes in this shack (hence the name The Shack). A few years later, the main guy, Mack, goes up to the shack for answers. He meets God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. (Okay, I know it sounds weird). It's all about the purpose of life and dealing with trials and sorrow. I REALLY liked it. Even though I didn't necessarily agree with all of the spiritual and philosophical ideas, it was very nice. There were a lot of passages that I was like, "WOAH! THAT IS COOL!!" I highly highly highly recommend this book. For all you mothers out there, just get through the first couple chapters! I read this whole book in six hours. I couldn't put it down :)

The Historian. Very cool book. It kind of took me a while to get through it, but it was really cool none-the-less. You MUST read Dracula by Bram Stoker first. It makes this book even cooler :) It is written in a lot of the same ways: letters, journal entries, etc. It is about a young girl whose father goes missing and she thinks he is hunting Dracula! It takes place during the Cold War and goes through the history of Bulgaria, Instanbul, Romania, etc. It was really interesting, both historically and entertainment-ly(?) I recommend this book :)
Ah, Victor Hugo. He and I have a deep love affair going on. I absolutely adore Victor Hugos writing. I have read Les Miserables about four times (NO, NOT THE ABRIDGED VERSION!!!) and just adore it every time. The Hunchback of Notre Dame isn't quite as heavy or complicated, so I recommend this book first...before you take on The Miserables! :) This book is kind of a downer, but I still like it. If you have seen the Disney's version of Hunchback of Notre Dame, then you need to read this book....to fix the story for you. It is NOT happy-go-lucky, and the good guy doesn't always win. Actually, there really isn't a good guy in this book...hmm...oh well. I really like this book and the way Victor Hugo writes. Make sure you get a GOOD translation with vocabulary words at the bottom of the page, or back of the book. Also, DO NOT read the abridged version of any of his books. WHAT A WASTE! That is like reading the cliff notes. If you read an abridged version....you can't say you read the book. :) His writing is what is so beautiful!

Anyway, that's all for now. I need book suggestions! If you have any books you think are really good, let me know!

Funny Videos :)

This first video is ella communicating with us. Since she doesn't use real words yet, she has to use whatever methods she can :) Hehehe



This second one was TOTALLY random! Tom had said to Ella, "Hey! What do you want for dinner? Pizza or Burgers?" And this is what happened! Haha!!