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! :)
Friday, May 23, 2008
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!Thursday, March 13, 2008
Update!
March 13, 2008 
Well, I haven’t written in a while because not much has actually been going on. Tom took his second block of exams this last Monday and did pretty well on them. He is passing all his classes and even got 100% on his Histology lab exam! Yay! J He is pretty burnt out from studying and going to class all day. Poor guy…all he does is study and read and study some more. Only one more block of exams, and then finals! Woo woo! I can’t believe how fast this semester has gone by…it’s pretty amazing.
I’m trying to think of things that have been going on, but am drawing a blank. We go to the beach a lot. Oh! I went to this one beach called Le Galion on the French side. It is known as “baby beach” and it was faaaabulous! You can walk several hundred feet into the water and it is still barely waist deep, and there aren’t ANY waves. As soon as Ella gets a little older, we’ll be frequenting that beach. The only downside is that it is so far away.
Grocery shopping is the main event of the week, usually, and that has been pretty normal. A bunch of the “bag boys” got deported though. Apparently a bunch of them didn’t have the right kind of paperwork, so the government cracked down. Now we have to bag our own groceries: BOO! Two thumbs down to bagging your own groceries!! L I’m not excited to go grocery shopping tomorrow because it is going to be a giant pain trying to do everything at the same time.
Well, today was an exciting day! Tom had class till around 2:30 then we took Ella over to Hillary’s and she babysat her for the rest of the day! Tom and I went to the beach for a couple hours, then came home and got ready to go to dinner. We weren’t real sure what we were gonna do: movie, dinner, or mini-golf, but decided we could just go and decide on the way. Well, right by the airport…we got pulled over. Yeah…pulled over by “Traffic Control”. So, they ask for license and registration. Good thing Tom had his! Phew! So they check the windshield wipers, the blinkers, the back tail lights, and the headlights and OH NO! One of the headlights is out! Mind you…it is still daytime, so its not like we NEEDED the lights at the time being. Well, she gives us a ticket for 50 gilders (which ends up being about $28). She then says we need to go to the NAPA store to get it fixed. Of course…by now…NAPA is closed, so we head over to Ace…get the part and fix the stupid headlight. Then we had to go buy diapers and try to get air in the tires. The gas station guy says that NO gas station on the island does air because people keep stealing the air hoses *rolling eyes*. What is with this place?! Needless to say, our “romantic dinner” kind of started out bumpy.
We finally decided to eat at Ric’s Place because we were craving something American, and it is pretty close: free refills on water, ketchup on tables, French fries as a side dish that is INCLUDED, etc. It was a lovely dinner and we watched the basketball game that was on t.v. Then we went and picked Ella up and came home. It was nice to have an evening/day of just us two…but it was weird. I kept checking to see if I had the diaper bag, or if I had her pacifier on me, or stuff like that. It was the longest I’ve been apart from Ella since we got to the island! Weird… J
Another funny thing we saw today: a foreigner (I think French?) was helping a little jelly bean car back out of its parking spot and into the road. The guy was actually OUT in the middle of the road directing traffic!! If anyone is reading this that is on the island, it was the main road through the golf course at 2:00 in the afternoon!! It was super funny!! He was being soooo cautious. Tom and I had a good laugh.
We also went to Cupecoy beach today. I’ve decided that I really like that beach, but not the “scenery”. There were quite a few naked people strutting around the beach, or laying out to bake. Yeah…kiiiiiiinda nasty.
We had the missionaries over for dinner last night. I made a bunch of pizza’s for them. They were all very nice. We had a really fun evening discussing marriage, dating, and post-mission life. It was super entertaining. I’ve decided that we’ll have them over every other week or so. They say the food they get is pretty interesting from the locals: monkey, iguana, etc. Yuck. J Yeah, that was Wednesday night, and that whooooole day our water was turned off. Yep, completely turned off at 9:00a.m. and didn’t turn on again until 4:45p.m. I didn’t get to take a shower and I couldn’t do the dishes, or wash my hands, or anything! I had to use a wet wipe to wash my hands for dinner! I called the GEBE people three times to see when the water would be turned back on, but the closest answer I got was, “I don’t know, the guy hasn’t told me yet. I’ll call you back.” Did she call back? YEAH RIGHT! Grrr….
Anyway, tomorrow is grocery day. I am going with Ashley Gillum – the Spouses Organization. I’m excited to go with her and get to know her a little better. It should be a fun filled day of grocery shopping! J If you can’t tell…I’m being sarcastic J
Well, I haven’t written in a while because not much has actually been going on. Tom took his second block of exams this last Monday and did pretty well on them. He is passing all his classes and even got 100% on his Histology lab exam! Yay! J He is pretty burnt out from studying and going to class all day. Poor guy…all he does is study and read and study some more. Only one more block of exams, and then finals! Woo woo! I can’t believe how fast this semester has gone by…it’s pretty amazing.
I’m trying to think of things that have been going on, but am drawing a blank. We go to the beach a lot. Oh! I went to this one beach called Le Galion on the French side. It is known as “baby beach” and it was faaaabulous! You can walk several hundred feet into the water and it is still barely waist deep, and there aren’t ANY waves. As soon as Ella gets a little older, we’ll be frequenting that beach. The only downside is that it is so far away.
Grocery shopping is the main event of the week, usually, and that has been pretty normal. A bunch of the “bag boys” got deported though. Apparently a bunch of them didn’t have the right kind of paperwork, so the government cracked down. Now we have to bag our own groceries: BOO! Two thumbs down to bagging your own groceries!! L I’m not excited to go grocery shopping tomorrow because it is going to be a giant pain trying to do everything at the same time.
Well, today was an exciting day! Tom had class till around 2:30 then we took Ella over to Hillary’s and she babysat her for the rest of the day! Tom and I went to the beach for a couple hours, then came home and got ready to go to dinner. We weren’t real sure what we were gonna do: movie, dinner, or mini-golf, but decided we could just go and decide on the way. Well, right by the airport…we got pulled over. Yeah…pulled over by “Traffic Control”. So, they ask for license and registration. Good thing Tom had his! Phew! So they check the windshield wipers, the blinkers, the back tail lights, and the headlights and OH NO! One of the headlights is out! Mind you…it is still daytime, so its not like we NEEDED the lights at the time being. Well, she gives us a ticket for 50 gilders (which ends up being about $28). She then says we need to go to the NAPA store to get it fixed. Of course…by now…NAPA is closed, so we head over to Ace…get the part and fix the stupid headlight. Then we had to go buy diapers and try to get air in the tires. The gas station guy says that NO gas station on the island does air because people keep stealing the air hoses *rolling eyes*. What is with this place?! Needless to say, our “romantic dinner” kind of started out bumpy.
We finally decided to eat at Ric’s Place because we were craving something American, and it is pretty close: free refills on water, ketchup on tables, French fries as a side dish that is INCLUDED, etc. It was a lovely dinner and we watched the basketball game that was on t.v. Then we went and picked Ella up and came home. It was nice to have an evening/day of just us two…but it was weird. I kept checking to see if I had the diaper bag, or if I had her pacifier on me, or stuff like that. It was the longest I’ve been apart from Ella since we got to the island! Weird… J
Another funny thing we saw today: a foreigner (I think French?) was helping a little jelly bean car back out of its parking spot and into the road. The guy was actually OUT in the middle of the road directing traffic!! If anyone is reading this that is on the island, it was the main road through the golf course at 2:00 in the afternoon!! It was super funny!! He was being soooo cautious. Tom and I had a good laugh.
We also went to Cupecoy beach today. I’ve decided that I really like that beach, but not the “scenery”. There were quite a few naked people strutting around the beach, or laying out to bake. Yeah…kiiiiiiinda nasty.We had the missionaries over for dinner last night. I made a bunch of pizza’s for them. They were all very nice. We had a really fun evening discussing marriage, dating, and post-mission life. It was super entertaining. I’ve decided that we’ll have them over every other week or so. They say the food they get is pretty interesting from the locals: monkey, iguana, etc. Yuck. J Yeah, that was Wednesday night, and that whooooole day our water was turned off. Yep, completely turned off at 9:00a.m. and didn’t turn on again until 4:45p.m. I didn’t get to take a shower and I couldn’t do the dishes, or wash my hands, or anything! I had to use a wet wipe to wash my hands for dinner! I called the GEBE people three times to see when the water would be turned back on, but the closest answer I got was, “I don’t know, the guy hasn’t told me yet. I’ll call you back.” Did she call back? YEAH RIGHT! Grrr….
Anyway, tomorrow is grocery day. I am going with Ashley Gillum – the Spouses Organization. I’m excited to go with her and get to know her a little better. It should be a fun filled day of grocery shopping! J If you can’t tell…I’m being sarcastic J
p.s. We started Ella on solids and she likes her cereal with bananas or peaches. She also loooooooove Otter Pops!! Go figure!! :)
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Tagged!
Well, Amber tagged me, so here we go!
1. Where was I ten years ago? Ten years ago...hmm....I was 12? I was finishing 8th grade and trying to pass Mrs. Stewarts insanely difficult History class...I was super into the drama department and had recently starred as the bad guy in the school play. I had a mad crush on Kenneth, but didn't want him to know. I was best friends with Trine and Rebecca and was excited to start High School! :)
2. 5 things on my "to do" list... Sweep the floor. Do the dishes and wash the bottles. Feed Ella. Go grocery Shopping. Get stuff ready for dinner. Man, I miss the days that my list of five things was: complete project for class, be to work on time, go to basketball game, clean kitchen, etc.
3. Things I would do if I became a billionaire... Pay off school loans. Buy a really cool car. Buy some REALLY expensive shoes. :) Buy my baby a bunch of expensive toys and stuff, ya know...diamond crusted teddy bears and stuff :) Then put a bunch in savings. Then travel all over the world staying in 5 star hotels and eating at 5 star restaurants and tipping people a lot to carry my bags and valet park the cars and stuff :) I'd buy a big ol' house and have a butler named Jeeves. :)
4. 3 of my bad habits...I'm addicted to the internet. I gossip sometimes. I can be lazy.
5. 5 places I have lived...Provo, Salt Lake, Oxnard, Camarillo, Vienna.
6. 5 jobs I have had...Hmm...I worked at my mom's store as a bridal consultant...I worked at Calvin Klein as a sales chick...I worked at my dad's work as an assistant "to the" secretary....I was a secretary at Special Collections (Amber, you forgot that one!!) and then I worked at Summerhays Music as a Sales Associate. Super fun :) I've actually liked all the jobs I've had...except at my dad's work because the secretary I was under was CRAZY!
7. something most people don't know about me...Um..I dunno, I'm pretty open about things? Um...I had a miscarriage before I had Ella, most people don't know that. Um...I had skin cancer on my arm removed before I got married. I can type over 90 words a minute. I'm trying to brainwash my daughter so she loves music :) hehehe....um...I can't throw a football worth beans and I can't hit a baseball past the infield :) Um...what else? I dunno...I guess if someone was curious enough to ask, I would probably answer them :)
Okay, my turn to tag. Since not many of my friends have blogs, I guess this isn't super applicable, but I tag: Tom and Tammi :)
1. Where was I ten years ago? Ten years ago...hmm....I was 12? I was finishing 8th grade and trying to pass Mrs. Stewarts insanely difficult History class...I was super into the drama department and had recently starred as the bad guy in the school play. I had a mad crush on Kenneth, but didn't want him to know. I was best friends with Trine and Rebecca and was excited to start High School! :)
2. 5 things on my "to do" list... Sweep the floor. Do the dishes and wash the bottles. Feed Ella. Go grocery Shopping. Get stuff ready for dinner. Man, I miss the days that my list of five things was: complete project for class, be to work on time, go to basketball game, clean kitchen, etc.
3. Things I would do if I became a billionaire... Pay off school loans. Buy a really cool car. Buy some REALLY expensive shoes. :) Buy my baby a bunch of expensive toys and stuff, ya know...diamond crusted teddy bears and stuff :) Then put a bunch in savings. Then travel all over the world staying in 5 star hotels and eating at 5 star restaurants and tipping people a lot to carry my bags and valet park the cars and stuff :) I'd buy a big ol' house and have a butler named Jeeves. :)
4. 3 of my bad habits...I'm addicted to the internet. I gossip sometimes. I can be lazy.
5. 5 places I have lived...Provo, Salt Lake, Oxnard, Camarillo, Vienna.
6. 5 jobs I have had...Hmm...I worked at my mom's store as a bridal consultant...I worked at Calvin Klein as a sales chick...I worked at my dad's work as an assistant "to the" secretary....I was a secretary at Special Collections (Amber, you forgot that one!!) and then I worked at Summerhays Music as a Sales Associate. Super fun :) I've actually liked all the jobs I've had...except at my dad's work because the secretary I was under was CRAZY!
7. something most people don't know about me...Um..I dunno, I'm pretty open about things? Um...I had a miscarriage before I had Ella, most people don't know that. Um...I had skin cancer on my arm removed before I got married. I can type over 90 words a minute. I'm trying to brainwash my daughter so she loves music :) hehehe....um...I can't throw a football worth beans and I can't hit a baseball past the infield :) Um...what else? I dunno...I guess if someone was curious enough to ask, I would probably answer them :)
Okay, my turn to tag. Since not many of my friends have blogs, I guess this isn't super applicable, but I tag: Tom and Tammi :)
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