Well, after complaining for a little bit to one of my friends, I decided to write a couple of the good things about living here. Hopefully this will help me feel better? :)
1. The beach. You definately can't beat the color of the water or the clarity of it. The sands are gorgeous white. The water a striking turqouise. The sky a vibrant blue. Definately one of a kind.
2. Bubble Tea. Probably the best slushees you will ever eat in your entire life. They come in a variety of flavors: honeydew melon, mango, passion fruit, coconut, etc. Mmm...and for only $2.50 for a large - you can't beat that! It is cheaper than Jamba Juice by almost half!!
3. Cheap ribs. You can get "all you can eat" ribs at several different restaurants for only $12.95! They really do mean "all you can eat", too! They'll even give you some to take home! They are super yummy. Our favorite place, so far, has been Mark's place. Mmmm...rack after rack of glorious ribs.
4. Sunsets. The sunsets are just beautiful here. Because of the tradewinds, we have clouds in the sky pretty much every day - big, white, fluffy ones. When the sun sets over the water, the whole sky lights on fire with pinks, oranges, yellows. It is pretty amazing.
5. Kid-friendly. As much as we can't stand the locals here, they do have an amazing fascination with white babies. They looooooooove them. I could leave Ella in the middle of the store, and someone would grab her and search for me...then lecture me about watching my child! They always help me at the store when she is fussing or anything. It is nice that with everything else you have to worry about here - you don't have to worry about anything happening to your baby.
6. No tax. No taxes on food or anything else...but there is an "exit" tax, which is super lame.
7. Low season. Now that the tourists are gone, for the most part, and the lagoon is practically empty - the bridge only goes up three times a day for a few minutes each! So much better than high season where it goes up 5-8 times a day, sometimes for an hour each!!
8. Gas assistants. Yep. One dollar tip and they fill your gas for you. It's a beautiful thing, let me tell you!
9. The weather. Sometimes it gets old being hot all the time, but when you are at the beach or the pool...it is just lovely. Really warm with a nice, cool breeze (except in the dead of summer...which is coming up)
10. The Spouses Organization. I dont know what I would do without all my girls to play with! I love spending time with each of them and finding out all about them! Everyone is so nice and friendly and helpful. Two thumbs WAAAAAAAAAY up for the S.O.!!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Picture Updates!
Here are some pictures of our latest adventures :)
Gee, Dad...those flames look pretty big :) Hehehe...the burgers turned out just fine.
Sometimes eating cheerio's is a tiring activity
Looking hot and sassy for my birthday dinner! :)
Ella is learning how to share
Gee, Dad...those flames look pretty big :) Hehehe...the burgers turned out just fine.
Sleeping after a long day at the pool....
Sometimes eating cheerio's is a tiring activity
Looking hot and sassy for my birthday dinner! :)
Ella is learning how to shareFriday, May 23, 2008
Happy Birthday to Me!
Well, today is my birthday...the big 2-3! Wow...that feels so old!! :) How am I celebrating my birthday on this tropical island? Well...I'm having one of my girlfriends, Natalie, babysit Ella and Tom and I are going out to dinner. Tomorrow afternoon we are having a pool party at Camille's complex (Tradewinds). It should be great! I'm excited! :)
I also bought my birthday present from Tom the other day. He wasn't going to have time, so I just bought it myself - no worries, though! I bought some faaaaaaabulous new sunglasses! They are Gucci...but they were 50% off! You can't beat that!! So now I have some sophisticated new specs! :) I'm excited. I have to be careful with them, though...I've never owned a pair of sunglasses that were more expensive than $15. Tom gave me the big "you have to always take care of them" speech after I got them :) It was cute.
Anyway, I'll update this more after the weekend and let everyone know how it went! I'll even try to take pictures! :)
I also bought my birthday present from Tom the other day. He wasn't going to have time, so I just bought it myself - no worries, though! I bought some faaaaaaabulous new sunglasses! They are Gucci...but they were 50% off! You can't beat that!! So now I have some sophisticated new specs! :) I'm excited. I have to be careful with them, though...I've never owned a pair of sunglasses that were more expensive than $15. Tom gave me the big "you have to always take care of them" speech after I got them :) It was cute.
Anyway, I'll update this more after the weekend and let everyone know how it went! I'll even try to take pictures! :)
Monday, May 12, 2008
Pictures!
Well, I thought that I didn't have very many pictures up, so here are a bunch in no particular order! Most are of Ella because she is super fun to take pictures of :)
Cute new outfit! We love the hat! :)
Silly baby sleeps so funny :)
Isn't Dad just so handsome? And such a sweet little baby!
Ella is starting to like the beach more and more!
Man, you don't get sunsets like this every day! Wow!!
Ella at church in the nursery room. Right now it is just her and Holdyn! Yes, I'm in charge of the nursery.
Dad and Ella taking a break in the West Indies Mall. It is air conditioned and woowee was it a hot day!
Look at these three peas in a pod! Everett and Spence are Ellas new friends!
Ella loooooooooooves the pool and looooooooooves her floatie!
Sleepy Time for Sweet Pies! Ella likes to take naps with her dad :)
Bath time for babies! Woo woo! Get some clothes on that kid before she pees on the bed!
Lunch time! What a mess!
She sure loves her biter biscuits, I'm not sure how much is actually getting in her mouth, though!
Time to clean up!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Church: The Musical?
May 4, 2008
Fast and Testimony Meeting: The Broadway Musical? Yep, that’s right. Today was fast and testimony meeting. The meeting started out normal enough, but about the second or third testimony, things started to take an interesting turn…a musical turn, if you will…and I’m not talking about a trill! One of the sisters decided to sing “Count Your Many Blessings” and not just one verse – all four of them!! The first verse was okay, seeing as it was quite unique, but by the fourth verse we were ready for at least a new tune! And a new tune is what we got! She sat down and was followed by a man, who decided to sing a different religious song in Creole. We’re not real sure what the song was, or where the tune came from, and we’re not real sure he knew either? It was a few minutes long and totally indistinguishable as a language! Well, a few more testimonies went by, but that was simply the intermission! The grand finale was a big, black woman who decided to sing a Christian song. She got a few lines into it and realized she didn’t know the words or the melody. She stopped and said, “Well, I don’t know that one…” then she opened the hymn book and tried one of ours! A few more lines into it and, “Well, I don’t know that one, but it is always stuck in my head!” What?! How can you have a song that you don’t know stuck in your head? Yeah…weird. It was pretty fabulous though J Needless to say we went twenty minutes over the time, but that’s okay, it was less time I had to spend in nursery –by myself with Ella and Holdyn. It was pretty fabulous. Anyway, just a brief note about how interesting church can be :)
Fast and Testimony Meeting: The Broadway Musical? Yep, that’s right. Today was fast and testimony meeting. The meeting started out normal enough, but about the second or third testimony, things started to take an interesting turn…a musical turn, if you will…and I’m not talking about a trill! One of the sisters decided to sing “Count Your Many Blessings” and not just one verse – all four of them!! The first verse was okay, seeing as it was quite unique, but by the fourth verse we were ready for at least a new tune! And a new tune is what we got! She sat down and was followed by a man, who decided to sing a different religious song in Creole. We’re not real sure what the song was, or where the tune came from, and we’re not real sure he knew either? It was a few minutes long and totally indistinguishable as a language! Well, a few more testimonies went by, but that was simply the intermission! The grand finale was a big, black woman who decided to sing a Christian song. She got a few lines into it and realized she didn’t know the words or the melody. She stopped and said, “Well, I don’t know that one…” then she opened the hymn book and tried one of ours! A few more lines into it and, “Well, I don’t know that one, but it is always stuck in my head!” What?! How can you have a song that you don’t know stuck in your head? Yeah…weird. It was pretty fabulous though J Needless to say we went twenty minutes over the time, but that’s okay, it was less time I had to spend in nursery –by myself with Ella and Holdyn. It was pretty fabulous. Anyway, just a brief note about how interesting church can be :)
Saturday, May 3, 2008
April has come and gone...
May 2, 2008
Yeah, I know – I’m bad and am only writing once a month. I think it makes things go by faster. Anyway, all of April was pretty much the same on a day to day basis. The first two weeks, Tom studied his brains out for the fourth block and finals. He did really well on his tests, too! Yay for Tom! He was pretty worried about some of them: not knowing what to study for and stuff like that, but when all was said and done he did really well! There were quite a few students that will not be returning for the next semester, though – oops, too much partying??
I got a new haircut, bytheway. It didn't turn out quite like I planned...I didn't want it this short, but there was a little bit of a language barrier. I said I wanted it to my shoulders with a few layers...not this short. Oh well. I tried to cut Tom's hair a couple weeks ago and it turned out too short, so now we have matching too short haircuts! haha!
Yeah, I know – I’m bad and am only writing once a month. I think it makes things go by faster. Anyway, all of April was pretty much the same on a day to day basis. The first two weeks, Tom studied his brains out for the fourth block and finals. He did really well on his tests, too! Yay for Tom! He was pretty worried about some of them: not knowing what to study for and stuff like that, but when all was said and done he did really well! There were quite a few students that will not be returning for the next semester, though – oops, too much partying??
I got a new haircut, bytheway. It didn't turn out quite like I planned...I didn't want it this short, but there was a little bit of a language barrier. I said I wanted it to my shoulders with a few layers...not this short. Oh well. I tried to cut Tom's hair a couple weeks ago and it turned out too short, so now we have matching too short haircuts! haha!Tom’s family came down last week. It was quite the feat getting them here, though. They had stand by passes from Jet Blue and there were 6 of them, so it was tricky getting them all down here. Tom’s mom, Joseph, and Sam all came on Thursday, and his Dad and Dana came on Saturday. Seth came down on Tuesday. They all stayed at our place. It was a little crowded, but not too bad. We had two people on the couch, two on a queen air mattress, one on a single air mattress, and one on the couch cushions just laid on the floor! Haha! It was fun having a full house – it reminded me of being at home. Of course, the bathroom was a little bit of an issue. One toilet for eight people can be a little tricky, but all in all it worked out just fine. We went to the beach a lot, mostly to the beach right on the airport. Tom’s family loves watching the planes land, especially the big ones! It is funny to watch everyone when the planes take off, too, because you can get right up against this chain link fence that is only about 60 feet from the engine of the airplane and the gusts of wind can knock people over and blows sand, people, clothing, umbrellas, etc. everywhere! It is kind of funny. So we mostly hung out at that beach. We also took a couple trips up to Marigot. We went up to the Fort Luis which was pretty neat, and to Sarafina’s (this FABULOUS French bakery with the most amazing lime ice cream…mmm). We also shopped around a little bit. I have to say, Tom’s family definitely does NOT have the shopping stamina that my family does! Haha!
Anyway, we also went to Philipsburg and cruised around Front Street and the little shops down there. The best place to get all your tourist stuff is definitely Rima’s, though, so we got a lot of stuff there. We ate at Mark’s Place and had ribs (mmmm) and Ric’s place for burgers and Mexican food. We also went to Bubble Tea, which is pretty much the best slushee place ever! All in all, it was a pretty fun week! I was pretty sad to see them all go. I offered for Cheri to just stay and live with us, but she said she couldn’t – too bad!! L I also told them that they could take Ella…but they didn’t think it was a good idea, unfortunately. I told them they could have her until she sleeps through the night and/or is potty trained J They just laughed…*sigh*
Oh, I forgot to mention that on our way to Philipsburg, we got a flat tire right by the Grand Marche at the Dutch Cul De Sac. It pretty much sucked. The back right tire was pretty much destroyed. Tom tried to fix it, but we were on a slope, so we couldn’t jack the car up. Nissan also makes really retarded car jacks that don’t really work for their cars, so Tom had to run to Cost-U-Less and buy a new one! Good thing we had a spare tire, though. We need to go up to Cole Bay to get the spare repaired, though. Who knows when we’ll get another one!? It was kind of a big joke, though, because we’ve lived here for 4 months driving on the same roads every day and have never gotten a flat tire, then as soon as Tom’s family gets here…we get one! I swear, they have a history of flat tires that is beyond anyone I have ever met! It’s a good thing Tom knows how to change a tire! Haha! J
We also went up to the island of Pinel, right off the northern coast of St. Maarten. We snorkeled around and ate lunch on the beach. It was kind of fun. It felt more like a vacation than just a normal beach we go to all the time. One of the days, we went up to Orient Beach so everyone could see and laugh at the nudies! It was pretty funny J All of them went Parasailing. I didn’t want to, though – I did it a couple Christmas’s ago and once was enough. I’m scared of heights! It was a nice day at the beach, though – not too bright and sunny so we didn’t have to worry too much about getting sunburned. Speaking of which, Ella still has yet to be burned! Ha! I’m such a good mom J We have to use three different sunscreens on here: tear free 50+ for her face, 50+ for her body, and 50+ spray for the top of her head so her poor, bald head doesn’t get burned! She is so cute in her little swimsuits and floatie toy J
Yes, Ella is getting more mobile every day. She crawls all over the floor and into the trash cans
and stuff. Why is it that babies always play with the things you don’t want them to play with? They aren’t interested in their toys, they’re just interested in the trash cans, or electrical outlets, or DVD cabinets, etc. Weirdos. She is so funny, she has such a personality! She is picky with her food, too. She does NOT like green beans or “garden vegetable” or any meats so far. She likes the sweet stuff: sweet potatoes, carrots, peaches, bananas, etc. She also just loves those teething biscuits and they get everywhere! I have to strip her down to her diaper before giving her one; otherwise it is all over her cute outfit! Haha!
Anyway, all of our friends are slowly making their way back to the island after being in the States for the break. Tom and I are pretty jealous that most students got to go home to all the wonders of the United States: In n Out, Arbys, Applebees, etc. Yay for friends being home though! Our friends Amy and Eli are back, too, which is nice! Amy is 10 weeks pregnant, too! Yay for babies!! I’m excited for her! I just hope her morning sickness subsides – that is the worst! Also, we met a new couple a few weeks ago. They have a cute set of twin boys that are just over a year old. We have a lot in common with them and like hanging out with them a lot! They have inspired us to try and move from our current apartment into a nicer one. We are tired of being scared all the time to go outside past 6:30p.m.
It was bad, too, when Tom’s family was here because our neighbors decided to start beating each other up at 2:30 in the morning. They were VERY noisy, too, i.e.: woman screams, man yells, things bang, more screaming, more yelling, more banging…for several hours. It scared Tom’s family pretty good, but we are kind of used to it. We are also sick of the water/power/cable/internet going out all the time! The places that we are looking to move into have generators so at least the water/power doesn’t go out for several HOURS at a time without anyone knowing when it will turn back on. So we’re looking around at a couple different complexes. I think we’ve found one that we like at the Aqua Marina.
Well, that’s about it for now! We have church tomorrow so we have to get up early!
Anyway, we also went to Philipsburg and cruised around Front Street and the little shops down there. The best place to get all your tourist stuff is definitely Rima’s, though, so we got a lot of stuff there. We ate at Mark’s Place and had ribs (mmmm) and Ric’s place for burgers and Mexican food. We also went to Bubble Tea, which is pretty much the best slushee place ever! All in all, it was a pretty fun week! I was pretty sad to see them all go. I offered for Cheri to just stay and live with us, but she said she couldn’t – too bad!! L I also told them that they could take Ella…but they didn’t think it was a good idea, unfortunately. I told them they could have her until she sleeps through the night and/or is potty trained J They just laughed…*sigh*Oh, I forgot to mention that on our way to Philipsburg, we got a flat tire right by the Grand Marche at the Dutch Cul De Sac. It pretty much sucked. The back right tire was pretty much destroyed. Tom tried to fix it, but we were on a slope, so we couldn’t jack the car up. Nissan also makes really retarded car jacks that don’t really work for their cars, so Tom had to run to Cost-U-Less and buy a new one! Good thing we had a spare tire, though. We need to go up to Cole Bay to get the spare repaired, though. Who knows when we’ll get another one!? It was kind of a big joke, though, because we’ve lived here for 4 months driving on the same roads every day and have never gotten a flat tire, then as soon as Tom’s family gets here…we get one! I swear, they have a history of flat tires that is beyond anyone I have ever met! It’s a good thing Tom knows how to change a tire! Haha! J
We also went up to the island of Pinel, right off the northern coast of St. Maarten. We snorkeled around and ate lunch on the beach. It was kind of fun. It felt more like a vacation than just a normal beach we go to all the time. One of the days, we went up to Orient Beach so everyone could see and laugh at the nudies! It was pretty funny J All of them went Parasailing. I didn’t want to, though – I did it a couple Christmas’s ago and once was enough. I’m scared of heights! It was a nice day at the beach, though – not too bright and sunny so we didn’t have to worry too much about getting sunburned. Speaking of which, Ella still has yet to be burned! Ha! I’m such a good mom J We have to use three different sunscreens on here: tear free 50+ for her face, 50+ for her body, and 50+ spray for the top of her head so her poor, bald head doesn’t get burned! She is so cute in her little swimsuits and floatie toy J
Yes, Ella is getting more mobile every day. She crawls all over the floor and into the trash cans
and stuff. Why is it that babies always play with the things you don’t want them to play with? They aren’t interested in their toys, they’re just interested in the trash cans, or electrical outlets, or DVD cabinets, etc. Weirdos. She is so funny, she has such a personality! She is picky with her food, too. She does NOT like green beans or “garden vegetable” or any meats so far. She likes the sweet stuff: sweet potatoes, carrots, peaches, bananas, etc. She also just loves those teething biscuits and they get everywhere! I have to strip her down to her diaper before giving her one; otherwise it is all over her cute outfit! Haha!Anyway, all of our friends are slowly making their way back to the island after being in the States for the break. Tom and I are pretty jealous that most students got to go home to all the wonders of the United States: In n Out, Arbys, Applebees, etc. Yay for friends being home though! Our friends Amy and Eli are back, too, which is nice! Amy is 10 weeks pregnant, too! Yay for babies!! I’m excited for her! I just hope her morning sickness subsides – that is the worst! Also, we met a new couple a few weeks ago. They have a cute set of twin boys that are just over a year old. We have a lot in common with them and like hanging out with them a lot! They have inspired us to try and move from our current apartment into a nicer one. We are tired of being scared all the time to go outside past 6:30p.m.
It was bad, too, when Tom’s family was here because our neighbors decided to start beating each other up at 2:30 in the morning. They were VERY noisy, too, i.e.: woman screams, man yells, things bang, more screaming, more yelling, more banging…for several hours. It scared Tom’s family pretty good, but we are kind of used to it. We are also sick of the water/power/cable/internet going out all the time! The places that we are looking to move into have generators so at least the water/power doesn’t go out for several HOURS at a time without anyone knowing when it will turn back on. So we’re looking around at a couple different complexes. I think we’ve found one that we like at the Aqua Marina.
Well, that’s about it for now! We have church tomorrow so we have to get up early!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
April 1st!
April 01, 2008
Happy April Fools Day! Yeah, I’m not so much into this holiday,
but whatever. Anyway, This is going to be a loooooooong post, so I might break it up into a couple different ones. We’ll separate it into stories: Cruise, Wildlife, Crazy, Ella. That should be good :)
Cruise: I just got back from a weeklong cruise through the Caribbean with my family. It was super fun, but weird because Tom couldn’t come. He had to stay in school so it was just me and Ella with my family. Angela couldn’t go either because she was in New York. Anyway, we went to five different islands with the first island being St. Maarten! Yay! It was nice because that was on Easter Sunday, so I got to spend Easter with my whole family AND Tom! Yay!! We ate Easter lunch at this fancy restaurant in Philipsburg called Fusions, then hung out at the beach. It was pretty uneventful, but nice just the same. The second island was Dominica. I really liked that island. It was very rainforest-ish and reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park. We went on this rugged 4 x 4 bus thingie all over the island and went up to this little stream coming out of this canyon. We jumped in the stream, swam through the canyons (it kind of looked like the Narrows, just with lava rock) and at the very end was this big waterfall! It was super cool!! We could just off the rocks into the water and everything. The water was crystal clear and SUPER cold! It was way neat.
The next island we went to was Grenada (I might be getting this out of order, sorry.) where we took a FOREVER long bus tour. Wow…it was long. Grenada is the Spice Island of the Caribbean so they took us to this little spice place and showed us where spices come from: cinnamon, cocoa, nutmeg, mace, etc. It was very interesting. Then we went up to this Fort which was pretty cool, then up to the top of this mountain to look over the island. The island was neat, but the tour was way long.
The next day was Bon Aire. We all went snorkeling on this big catamaran. It was pretty neat. We saw sea turtles and everything. My dad watched Ella while we all went in, and I guess she had a FIT! She didn’t like the boat very much.
Last of all was Aruba. I’ve decided that after all the islands we went to, I’m definitely GRATEFUL to live on St. Maarten, but Aruba wouldn’t be bad. Aruba was pretty Americanized. St. Maarten is just modernized. The other islands are neither. My family all went scuba diving on Aruba, but Daniel, Barbara, me and Ella went on a semi-submersible boat ride that was pretty awesome. We went over a shipwreck and some coral reefs. It was neat :)
The cruise itself was pretty fun, too. Ella did REMARKABLY well for being as young as she is. We even dressed her up for the formal nights J It was sooooo cute! I also participated in the cruise Talent Show and got a free t-shirt. Woowoo, huh? It was funny, though, because the last performer was this girl singing a broadway song, but it was REALLY bad. Ella was SOUND asleep until this girl hit this high note WAAAAAY off and Ella woke up and started screaming! Haha! Then she settled down and fell asleep again, until the girl hit the same wrong note! Then she woke up and started fussing again! Haha! My daughter has perfect pitch! Woo hoo!! There was also an acapella group on board called On Point and whenever they sang, she was absolutely silent and just watched them. It was pretty funny.
Wildlife: This story is probably better told by Tom, since it happened to him, but we’ll see if I can do it justice. So Tom kind of had a hard week while I was gone. Our apartment is safe and everything, but outside is really dark and pretty scary at night and that’s NOT being a lone. Well, for a couple weeks we have heard some rustling in our apartment, but we couldn’t ever figure out if it was the upstairs apartment, or one of our neighbors, so we just ignored it. Well, last Wednesday, Tom was studying at the table and heard the sound in our kitchen! So he looks over the counter and sees something jump from the top of the fridge to the top of the dryer! (Yes, the dryer/washer are next to the fridge in the kitchen). So Tom kind of freaks out, which I would do too, and it trying to look around to see what it was and all of a sudden this little head pokes out from behind the dryer! He thought it was a little mouse…nope, A BIG RAT! EEEWWW!!!! Well, it was too late to go to any stores to get traps or anything, so when he went to bed he shut the bedroom door and put a towel around the bottom so nothing could get in.
The next day he went to Ace and got a bunch of rat traps and everything. When he came home from Lab, he was all in his scrubs, so he put on his jeans over his scrubs, some long socks with the pants tucked into them, his big leather shoes, a sweatshirt and big leather gloves. He looked all around the washer/dryer and fridge and found rat poop everywhere! He also discovered where the rat was coming in and out…the dryer vent! Ew!! So he cleaned everything up, went back to Ace, bought some duct tape, and taped the whole up real good. He also set a bunch of traps and everything to catch this rat. Well, that was a couple days ago, and we haven’t heard anything since. It was quite the eventful week. Poor Tom. This place is scary enough as it is without anything in your house! Even just a rat!!
Crazy: Well, at church on Sunday we had an exciting Sacrament Meeting. Jill Cluff was up giving the closing talk and this black guy stands up from the back of the room, walks across the front of the room, and down the back aisle saying “Oh, children…children….oh children…” with his hand on his chest. Everyone was like, “well, that was kind of weird, but okay.” Well, then the guy does it again…and again…and when he was on his third or fourth run around the room, Elder Platt stands up and kind of escorts him out into the hallway because it is totally disrupting our meeting. So he kind of ushers him into the hallway and shuts the door. Poor Jill is still trying to give her talk, mind you. Well, I guess Elder Platt tried to reach around him and pat his back, and the guy freaked out and started yelling at him like, “DON’T HIT ME!!” Okay, Elder Platt is about 70 years old and kind of feeble. I can’t imagine he would hit anyone! Ha! Well, at this point the missionaries get up and are trying to help. So there’s all sorts of yelling coming from the hallway and everything. Then these two black members get up and go out there, too, and call the cops. The scary black guy is out there yelling “Satan is here! I want my mommy!” (yeah…totally crazy). Well, I guess he got violent and hit Elder Johnston and pushed Elder Platt. Finally I think he saw that he was outnumbered by a lot and left. Talk about scary, though!! Elder Johnston said he was probably high and that they actually come across that a lot while they are walking around town. Wow…St. Maarten is turning into quite the place J Poor Jill finished her talk and held her composure pretty good considering what was going on just outside the chapel! There are windows on the doors, too, so you can see what is going on!!
Ella: I cannot believe how big this girl is getting! She is still pretty small for her age, but getting big in my eyes! :) She is just a tiny bit over five months old, but still fits in some of her three month clothes. Silly baby :) She is now the Scooting Queen and will soon be the Crawling Queen. She can get on her knees and hands and rock back and forth, but if she really wants something that is just out of reach, she lays on her tummy and flails her arms and legs. It’s pretty funny J She is very noisy aaaaaallllll the time and likes to fuss if you aren’t holding her. She is turning into quite the spoiled princess :) I think she is starting to teethe because she is getting pretty cranky and can’t sleep for long periods of time. Last night, however, we discovered the little pill thingies that Karey gave me for teething babies. Talk about a miracle drug! Wow! Just put two of those things under Ella’s tongue and she is one happy camper! Poor thing must be hurting, though. She also has a little bit of a cold right now, just the sniffles, but I think that is irritating her, too. She is still the cutest little button in the world though!! :) Overall she is a pretty happy baby and loves to give big smiles to people we meet around town. I also painted her toenails (people kept thinking she was a boy!) and they are oh-so-feminine :) haha!
Happy April Fools Day! Yeah, I’m not so much into this holiday,
but whatever. Anyway, This is going to be a loooooooong post, so I might break it up into a couple different ones. We’ll separate it into stories: Cruise, Wildlife, Crazy, Ella. That should be good :)Cruise: I just got back from a weeklong cruise through the Caribbean with my family. It was super fun, but weird because Tom couldn’t come. He had to stay in school so it was just me and Ella with my family. Angela couldn’t go either because she was in New York. Anyway, we went to five different islands with the first island being St. Maarten! Yay! It was nice because that was on Easter Sunday, so I got to spend Easter with my whole family AND Tom! Yay!! We ate Easter lunch at this fancy restaurant in Philipsburg called Fusions, then hung out at the beach. It was pretty uneventful, but nice just the same. The second island was Dominica. I really liked that island. It was very rainforest-ish and reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park. We went on this rugged 4 x 4 bus thingie all over the island and went up to this little stream coming out of this canyon. We jumped in the stream, swam through the canyons (it kind of looked like the Narrows, just with lava rock) and at the very end was this big waterfall! It was super cool!! We could just off the rocks into the water and everything. The water was crystal clear and SUPER cold! It was way neat.
The next island we went to was Grenada (I might be getting this out of order, sorry.) where we took a FOREVER long bus tour. Wow…it was long. Grenada is the Spice Island of the Caribbean so they took us to this little spice place and showed us where spices come from: cinnamon, cocoa, nutmeg, mace, etc. It was very interesting. Then we went up to this Fort which was pretty cool, then up to the top of this mountain to look over the island. The island was neat, but the tour was way long.
The next day was Bon Aire. We all went snorkeling on this big catamaran. It was pretty neat. We saw sea turtles and everything. My dad watched Ella while we all went in, and I guess she had a FIT! She didn’t like the boat very much.
Last of all was Aruba. I’ve decided that after all the islands we went to, I’m definitely GRATEFUL to live on St. Maarten, but Aruba wouldn’t be bad. Aruba was pretty Americanized. St. Maarten is just modernized. The other islands are neither. My family all went scuba diving on Aruba, but Daniel, Barbara, me and Ella went on a semi-submersible boat ride that was pretty awesome. We went over a shipwreck and some coral reefs. It was neat :)
The cruise itself was pretty fun, too. Ella did REMARKABLY well for being as young as she is. We even dressed her up for the formal nights J It was sooooo cute! I also participated in the cruise Talent Show and got a free t-shirt. Woowoo, huh? It was funny, though, because the last performer was this girl singing a broadway song, but it was REALLY bad. Ella was SOUND asleep until this girl hit this high note WAAAAAY off and Ella woke up and started screaming! Haha! Then she settled down and fell asleep again, until the girl hit the same wrong note! Then she woke up and started fussing again! Haha! My daughter has perfect pitch! Woo hoo!! There was also an acapella group on board called On Point and whenever they sang, she was absolutely silent and just watched them. It was pretty funny.
Wildlife: This story is probably better told by Tom, since it happened to him, but we’ll see if I can do it justice. So Tom kind of had a hard week while I was gone. Our apartment is safe and everything, but outside is really dark and pretty scary at night and that’s NOT being a lone. Well, for a couple weeks we have heard some rustling in our apartment, but we couldn’t ever figure out if it was the upstairs apartment, or one of our neighbors, so we just ignored it. Well, last Wednesday, Tom was studying at the table and heard the sound in our kitchen! So he looks over the counter and sees something jump from the top of the fridge to the top of the dryer! (Yes, the dryer/washer are next to the fridge in the kitchen). So Tom kind of freaks out, which I would do too, and it trying to look around to see what it was and all of a sudden this little head pokes out from behind the dryer! He thought it was a little mouse…nope, A BIG RAT! EEEWWW!!!! Well, it was too late to go to any stores to get traps or anything, so when he went to bed he shut the bedroom door and put a towel around the bottom so nothing could get in.
The next day he went to Ace and got a bunch of rat traps and everything. When he came home from Lab, he was all in his scrubs, so he put on his jeans over his scrubs, some long socks with the pants tucked into them, his big leather shoes, a sweatshirt and big leather gloves. He looked all around the washer/dryer and fridge and found rat poop everywhere! He also discovered where the rat was coming in and out…the dryer vent! Ew!! So he cleaned everything up, went back to Ace, bought some duct tape, and taped the whole up real good. He also set a bunch of traps and everything to catch this rat. Well, that was a couple days ago, and we haven’t heard anything since. It was quite the eventful week. Poor Tom. This place is scary enough as it is without anything in your house! Even just a rat!!
Crazy: Well, at church on Sunday we had an exciting Sacrament Meeting. Jill Cluff was up giving the closing talk and this black guy stands up from the back of the room, walks across the front of the room, and down the back aisle saying “Oh, children…children….oh children…” with his hand on his chest. Everyone was like, “well, that was kind of weird, but okay.” Well, then the guy does it again…and again…and when he was on his third or fourth run around the room, Elder Platt stands up and kind of escorts him out into the hallway because it is totally disrupting our meeting. So he kind of ushers him into the hallway and shuts the door. Poor Jill is still trying to give her talk, mind you. Well, I guess Elder Platt tried to reach around him and pat his back, and the guy freaked out and started yelling at him like, “DON’T HIT ME!!” Okay, Elder Platt is about 70 years old and kind of feeble. I can’t imagine he would hit anyone! Ha! Well, at this point the missionaries get up and are trying to help. So there’s all sorts of yelling coming from the hallway and everything. Then these two black members get up and go out there, too, and call the cops. The scary black guy is out there yelling “Satan is here! I want my mommy!” (yeah…totally crazy). Well, I guess he got violent and hit Elder Johnston and pushed Elder Platt. Finally I think he saw that he was outnumbered by a lot and left. Talk about scary, though!! Elder Johnston said he was probably high and that they actually come across that a lot while they are walking around town. Wow…St. Maarten is turning into quite the place J Poor Jill finished her talk and held her composure pretty good considering what was going on just outside the chapel! There are windows on the doors, too, so you can see what is going on!!
Ella: I cannot believe how big this girl is getting! She is still pretty small for her age, but getting big in my eyes! :) She is just a tiny bit over five months old, but still fits in some of her three month clothes. Silly baby :) She is now the Scooting Queen and will soon be the Crawling Queen. She can get on her knees and hands and rock back and forth, but if she really wants something that is just out of reach, she lays on her tummy and flails her arms and legs. It’s pretty funny J She is very noisy aaaaaallllll the time and likes to fuss if you aren’t holding her. She is turning into quite the spoiled princess :) I think she is starting to teethe because she is getting pretty cranky and can’t sleep for long periods of time. Last night, however, we discovered the little pill thingies that Karey gave me for teething babies. Talk about a miracle drug! Wow! Just put two of those things under Ella’s tongue and she is one happy camper! Poor thing must be hurting, though. She also has a little bit of a cold right now, just the sniffles, but I think that is irritating her, too. She is still the cutest little button in the world though!! :) Overall she is a pretty happy baby and loves to give big smiles to people we meet around town. I also painted her toenails (people kept thinking she was a boy!) and they are oh-so-feminine :) haha!
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