Island/Ella Stories

Well, Autumn is in the air. Not that it really changing the weather at all, but ya know...holidays are around the corner! It is raining more often, which is kind of nice 'cause at least it cools down for a little bit. But then the sun comes out and now its so humid you can practically cut the air with a butter knife. It feels hard to breath sometimes because the air is so thick. It kind of feels like drowning slowly...sort of.

Anyway, to update some island stories, here are a few:

1. Butterflies are EVERYWHERE right now. The little white/yellow ones. There are thousands of them everywhere. I want to try and get a picture, but I don't think you'll be able to see them. Sooo, yeah, sorry, no picture.

2. The other day I had to swerve out of the way of two huge iguanas in the middle of the road that were, er....well...they had just gotten "married", we'll just say that. It was TOTALLY random. Tom and I had a good laugh about it. Only in the Caribbean, I think...

3. Ella can climb out of her crib...proficiently. And she has decided she no longer needs/wants a nap. So, when we put her down, she immediately climbs out of her crib and comes running in the living room giggling. Yesterday, I put her down and a few minutes later I heard some papers rustling. Well, knowing that she didn't have any papers in her crib, I knew that couldn't be a good sound. Sure enough, she had climbed out of her crib and was standing up on TOP of the piano!! (I have an upright piano in her bedroom). I was like, "AH! Ella!" sooo, now when it is nap time, she gets a mattress from one of the twin beds pulled on top of her crib so she can't get out. She doesn't like it...but she is napping. So that's good :)

4. There are a lot of cars here that have those decal stickers across their rear or front windshields. They RARELY make sense. Things like, "Good do it" or "Black Princess Lover" or religious ones like, "Jesus You Love" or "Who Jesus Loves No Man Hate". Yeah...very random. Most often they are spelled wrong, too. They are HUGE stickers, you would think they would check the spelling? But apparently not.

5. The Dutch government doubled their ambulance fleet....by adding two. Now there are four. That sure makes me feel safe. NOT. A couple months ago, there was this crazy drunk lady wandering outside our complex. We told the security guards that maybe they should call the police. The security guard shook his head and said, "No, they won't come." That makes me feel safe, too! Oh wait...no it doesn't!

6. The golf course road (the main road to get to the school) is completely destroyed. There are SO many pot holes (they fixed some of them by pouring asphalt into them, but it doesn't last long) and cracks and just overall rundown. Well, instead of fixing the golf course road, the government is fixing the road leading up over the hill to Philipsburg. The hill doesn't need it. But they are doing it anyway. Ridiculous.

7. Ella can now say a myriad of words and a few sentences. Her sentences now include "That's mine." "I want some more" or "I wanna watch" <-a movie. She also loves saying, "No, no, no, no" and is getting more and more independent. She gets mad if I try and put on her shoes if SHE wants to do it. She also likes picking out her clothes now. I have to give her options, otherwise she gets really mad! It is kind of funny. :) Silly baby. She turns two in two weeks, I can't believe it!!! We are celebrating her birthday in November, though, when my family comes out. So I'm excited :)

8. We went to McDonalds a couple months ago and tried to order a Bic Mac. They didn't have any Big Mac buns. You could order a different hamburger...but not a big mac....aren't they just the same buns plus a bottom bun? Apparently not...

9. We went to Burger King a couple months ago and they were out of buns completely. There must be a bun shortage on the island...well....on the Dutch side at least. There are LOTS of bare buns on the french side! Ooo! Haha! :)

Well, that's about it for now. I'm sure other things will come up. :)