A much needed update!

So....blogging....yeah....I really stink at this! I can't believe that it has been over a month since I updated! I have no idea where to even start!

First off my parents made it here safe and sound...they also made it home safe and sound! I am going to use that as my excuse for neglecting the blog! We had such an amazing time while my parents were here, we were able to see everything we set out to see and we even hiked the volcano! Yay I can cross that off of my island bucket list! it was an amazing experience to sit on the edge of an active volcano and watch the smoke come out of the cone in the middle of the crater! I would have to say it was my favorite thing we did while my parents were here! It is so hard to believe that this kind of natural beauty exists I mean don't get me wrong Utah is the most beautiful place on the planet but St. Vincent is a close second, with a volcano on one side of the island and Dark View waterfalls on the other side of the island it makes me wish I had a car all the time! we spent loads of time at the beach as well while my parents were here they brought us all down snorkeling gear when they came and we put it to good use! I have never realized everything that is going on right under your feet when your in the ocean, the water here is so clear that you can see the fish swimming around you ankles but you can't really see what color they are or anything, we snorkeled for hours and hours and saw amazing fish and all kinds of crabs, sea snakes, eels, star fish and my dad and Jacob even found an octopus! What an adventure!

It was an amazing time had by us all, we really enjoyed my parents coming to visit, it was hard to see them leave but Christmas is right around the corner and we are looking forward to being home for a month!

Speaking of home...I need to give another shout out my sister in law Sarah and congratulate her and Tyson on there Engagement! We are so excited for them and are looking forward to sharing there special day with them while we are home on Christmas break! Love you both!

As for our new place we have adjusted well and are liking it okay here but alas we continue to look for cheaper housing....have I mentioned how much I HATE moving.....nuff said....it is a constant battle here to find housing but we are hoping to get into some other apartments when a few of the upper term kids leave the island so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Kohl is doing really well here on the island he loves going to the beach and playing outside, we started his home schooling 2 weeks ago and lets just say he is REALLY missing Mrs. Fletcher right now! He tells me every time we have school, "mom I am going back to Nephi Utah and going to my teacher's house Mrs. Fletcher so I  can be ready for Kindergarten!" Mercy me someone please help me! for anyone asking why in the heck are we home schooling Kohl let me give you a little background Kohl had 1 year of pre-school before we came to St. Vincent and Mrs. Fletcher did amazing things with him, he is already extremely smart and catches on the things very quickly! When we moved to St. Vincent we were told to put him in private school that's what all of the other students that had kids did and the public school system is ....well....way less than perfect here BUT private school is outrageous here I mean were talking $1,300 USD a MONTH not a year a MONTH...in case some of you have forgotten.....WE ARE MEDICAL STUDENTS! How on earth the other student afford to pay that is beyond me but it is not in our budget so that is why we resolved to homeschool the little tyke! Please let him take after his father and love school!!

Kate is adjusting okay as well she has had a rough few weeks, 6 of her top teeth all decided to come in at the same time....lets just say there were two days there that I am positive no one got any sleep at our house! She finally got all of them in and is feeling much better she has developed a love for Sam the dog lately she loves to stand by the screen door and pant in his face while he looks her over through the screen. Kate is our little drama queen 13 months old and already throwing herself to ground when she doesn't get what she wants, kohl asked me the other day if we could go to the hardware store? and I was like what do you need at the hardware store? "Duck tape for Katelyn's mouth!", So yes we are defiantly in for the log haul with her! Why did I have to have a child JUST like me?? Love that sweet girl!

I guess that is another event I should tell you all about! Our sweet little diva turned 1 while my parents were here visiting us! She had a great birthday and loved all of her new toys and clothes, she wasn't too sure about the whole cake eating thing we had to help  get started but once she tasted the frosting she was sold! I can not believe it has been a year! Where did the time go??

All in all things are going great here! We have adjusted to Island life and are living it one day at a time, we are so grateful for our of the  love and support we get from everyone back home we would truly be lost with out all of you!

Until next time....

New Adventures!

It has been so long since I have blogged I had to go back and read my last post to see what I had told you all!

We have been super busy the last few weeks!

First off WE MOVED! We left campus housing and took the plunge to get our own place! We are enjoying it, it is really nice to be closer to the school and closer to the church! Jacob now has a 2 min walk to school and it is about a 10 min walk to church! We were able to find a place close to the main road as well so it is still easy for the kids and I to catch the bus to town! We also love our neighbors! Who wouldn't love having the Elder Missionaries for neighbors! We love Elder Creech and Elder May! Our new place is a lot smaller than the campus housing we were in but we manage just fine! We still have 2 bedrooms but were downsized to only 1 bathroom but it has been fine so far.... I am loving not having to worry about Katelyn crawling on to the kitchen counter or falling through the banister! We also have 2 dogs here at our new place and the puppy has pretty much adopted us, he sleeps on our porch and goes crazy when the kids go outside to play with him, his name is Sam and he is a really good dog but he likes to bite my legs when I am wearing my running shoes, I think its the shoe laces he isn't used to seeing people with strings on there feet!

Our second adventure of moving was of course DRIVING! I was so terrified of driving down here since they drive on the opposite side of the road but it was actually fun, the blinkers and the windshield wipers kind of threw me off for a while but luckily it was raining a little bit so I didn't stand out as bad when I was trying to turn and all of a sudden my wipers were going full blast! Jacob did the downtown driving for me I was too nervous to attempt that myself but he did great, they have a lot of one way streets downtown here and I have been known in the past to go the wrong way on a one way street!

We also have officially hit the end of Jacobs first term of medical school! He took his final exam on Tuesday and is now on a much needed 2 week break! I can't believe how fast time is going by we have almost been here 4 months! Jacob has done exceptionally well in school he really buckles down and does what he needs to do to stay at the top of the class! He is going to enjoy his break because next term is said to be one of the toughest terms of school! He will take his first shelf exam next term! We are also excited to not be the new kids on campus anymore as well, they have a pretty large class coming in for September and we are excited too meet all of the new students!

We love getting news from home as well! Jacobs sister Allynne got engaged 2 weeks ago and we are ecstatic for her and here fiancé Ruben! Allynne has been amazing to us we would really be lost without her! We are excited to meet Ruben when we come home for Christmas and Kohl can't wait to have another uncle to play with! Congrats again Allynne and Ruben! We love you both!

I am currently on the count down as most of you know my parents are coming to visit us!! By this time next week the should be waiting in Huston to board their plane for Trinidad and then its on to us in St. Vincent! I have never wanted a week to go by so fast in all my life! I can't wait for them to get here! Kohl is so excited he can't wait to go to the beach with grandma and grandpa, and Katelyn will just be excited to see them in person the whole Skype and Facetime thing just doesn't make sense to her she still tries to pull the Ipad down and look behind it for them!

Well I posted a few pictures on Facebook a week or so ago but I will repost a few on here for you too! Until next time......

 Katelyn and her ledge! So glad this is gone, see her plotting how to get over to the counter!

                                       Such and innocent little face, for this little turkey

                                                           This is his Just got fed face!

                                                              Our sweet rented ride!

Attitude Adjustment......

In the words of my always amazing older brother (love him!) my last blog post was a huge "downer"
so that is why I decided to call this post "attitude adjustment" because in reality it is exactly what I need!

July has always been one of my favorite months of the year, and I have never missed a Ute Stampede Rodeo in dare I say the last 20 years....so yeah it would only be natural for me to be homesick for something that has been in my life that long, BUT letting my homesickness get the best of me is NOT the memories I want to have when we leave St. Vincent! (insert attitude adjustment here)

So I am back and feeling better than ever! I am also super duper excited to announce that I am going to be an auntie again!! So a huge congratulations to my big brother Ben and sister Liz! Can't wait to see this little nugget! There is nothing better than a baby too look forward too!!

Things have been about the same here in paradise, we had our first Tropical Storm warning but it ended up shifting to the north of us and we just got more rain..big shocker there! Everyone always asks us where we have to go when a hurricane or tropical storm hits so I figured I would touch on that for a minute.

St. Vincent is a volcanic island so EVERYTHING is built on a hill, so all of the water runs down hill here so there isn't a huge threat for flooding however t they have some of the deepest ditches I have ever seen in order to handle the amounts of rain that can fall during hurricane season. Hurricane season runs from July 1st until the end of November so that is a pretty big window. I the event of a hurricane the best thing you can do is to stay indoors and make sure you have a 2 day supply of water and food basically  have a 72 hour kit ready, and advice number 2 when it comes to hurricanes/tropical storms.....just be smart!

So having survived our first storm warning we have been doing a whole lot of nothing....LOL!
We truly are the epitome of beach bums, i have been doing my usual Saturday runs into town and doing my grocery shopping and meeting new people. Its always nice to get out for a little bit and just wander.

This week has been a little more exciting, we had a combined branch family home evening on Monday night at the Kingstown Branch building, and it is beautiful! The church built the Kingstown building so it is a modern building with all the good stuff! Elder Cornish  and his wife were the guest speakers that night and the mission president and his wife spoke to us as well, it was a great meeting and nice to meet some of the other members on the Island that we don't see on Sundays.

Today we had to run into the grocery store for 1 thing and of course my backpack was full when we left, shopping with Kohl is always fun! We will be making a cake this week thanks to him (that's 100 miles of running to burn the calories0 but I love his little face when he says "mommy I just want to make a cake with you" really how do you say no to that!

I am pretty sure we set a new record of occupants on the reggae bus today that we rode home, 25 people in the 15 passenger van! When your looking for a bus to jump on its best not to choose the one with bums hanging out the windows....that is the Vincentian way of knowing that the bus is FULL!
 
Never a dull moment on the island!

After we got home from the store we decided it was a swimming kind of day pretty sure it was 147 degrees today.. so we changed into our  suits and walked to the pool at Kanash. Kohl jumped right into the pool and I can't believe how good he is getting at swimming he can hold his breathe longer than I can now! Katelyn has become a little fish too she loves to be in the water but hasn't figured out why she can't just put her face in the water and breath at the same time! Hopefully both of my children will be able to swim before we leave here, that is something I should put on my Island Bucket list as well...yep its true I don't know how to swim!

We don't have a whole lot coming up in the next week or two but we are on the countdown of when my parents will be here! 1 month ! 1 month! yay! I can't hardly wait! It might be a long month! lol!

I know I haven't been posting a lot of pictures lately but I have been taking some and when I get the chance to upload them to my good laptop, I will  I don't think the dinosaur could handle uploading pictures! So until next time!

Avoiding.......

As most of you following my blog have noticed my updates have been few and far between lately and no it is not because we are so busy living island life, the whole truth... I am HOMESICK! There I said it, its out the last 2 weeks have been really rough for this beach bum.

Most people are aware that Katelyn had a pretty bad run with RSV and Pneumonia back in February she was admitted to the hospital on Valentines day and that was  her and my home for the next 6 days. It was a very emotional week for me, we were trying to move out of our house and in with my parents so we could save some rent money before we moved for school, I had a very sick baby and a 4 year old who just didn't understand why all of his toys were being boxed up, why mommy was gone all day and all night, why did he have to go to the scary hospital and see his baby sister hooked up to so much "stuff". Needless to say there were a lot of tears that week! If it wasn't for our family we would have never survived that week!

Katelyn finally got released from the hospital and we were able to go home but we had to be on oxygen, and we were still giving her 3-4 breathing treatments a day as well as 3-4 oral medications, all I kept on saying was "I can't wait too move to a warm place and get away from all this sickness."  Funniest thing though......they have germs here too!!

So this is were my last 2 weeks start......I knew that July was going to be a hard month for me to be away but I was convinced we would stay busy and get through it!  WRONG! 

Kohl started with a runny nose the end of June and I didn't think  much of it because he has some serious allergy issues. It is so hard to tell the difference between allergies and a cold, maybe I am just ignorant when it comes to the symptoms but I seriously thought it was allergies (this is why Jacob is going to be the Dr.) 2 days later Kohl still had a sniffly nose but seemed to be getting better. the next morning Katelyn started with a runny nose which I thought "great Kohl had a cold and now she has it, or maybe just maybe she is cutting some more teeth", I prayed that it was teeth....nope 2 days passed and she was getting progressively worse poor thing could barely breath but I just keep telling myself "it will stay in her head.... it will stay in her head.... there is no way its going to go into her chest "she woke up the next day and the sounds coming out of her made my stomach churn it was an all too familiar weez....I started crying and not just a little I mean really crying, all I could think of was having to take my poor baby to the hospital and watch her lay in a bed miserable all over again!
This is where Jacob saves the day....we started her on her nebulizer that night and prayed that she would be alright, it took several days of breathing treatments and lots of silent prayers but she started to turn around slowly but she was making progress. At this point we have been confined to the house for a week and a half now but Katelyn still isn't well enough to take out, there is just something about this poor baby girl that her immune system is so slow it takes a long time for her to get better after being sick, I chalk it up too being in and out of the hospital for her first 7 months of her life!

The 4th of July creeps up on us really fast, it was a miserable day we found out late the night of the third that our housing for next semester fell through, so now we had no where to go after the 16th of August, I cried more that night I was so frustrated! I told Jacob  I was going to fly home with my parents in September and leave him here alone.

The 4th..... I was not looking forward to this day at all, I wanted to do something fun with the kids but Katelyn still wasn't doing great so that idea was out, I was able to get my life saver Meggie to come over for a bit the day before while I ran into town for more medicine for Kate, and I grabbed a cake mix and food coloring so Kohl and I  could make a 4th of July cake, Have I said how much I love Meggie? LOVE HER!

We woke up on the 4th and chilled for a while, there was a Bar-b-que party that night here at our housing unit but we just didn't know if we dared to take Katelyn or not. Kohl and I made our cake and while it was cooking I got a call from Jacob saying that he had found us an apartment and wanted us to come look at it, so we finished cooking our cake and hopped on the next school bus and headed to campus to meet Jacob. We looked at the apt and we really liked it but it was more expensive and smaller that what we were originally going to move into. I wasn't very happy about it but we forked over the deposit and did what we had to do, we may be eating a lot more ramen next term....sigh....we got home and decided to go to the party because the pitty party I was having of my own about not being home was just not going to cut it!

Party time! We had a really great time! I am so glad that we decided to go! We had hot dogs and hamburgers and salads and of course deviled eggs it was as close as you could get to American when on a Caribbean Island, some of the older students even mustered up some fire works for the 4 kids that were at the party! I was able to meet some of the other students outside of Jacobs class and they are awesome, I was able to talk to some of the other girls and laugh a lot!  It was by no means Granny and Grandpa Memmott's house and it was not the Nephi city park but it was a celebration of our great nation!

I was starting to get over my poor me party for all of about 3 days .....LOL.....Katelyn was still sick and taking her to the 4th of July party was probably not the greatest idea so she stayed home from church with Jacob last Sunday, and has had a pretty good week but is still a little congested.

I knew this week was going to be the hardest for me, I am aware that I sound very pathetic when I tell you all that I cried today about not being home for the Ute Stampede Rodeo! What can I say I love love my little home town! I am missing everything about this week that goes on in Nephi, we are truly an amazing town! I actually really missed selling tickets this year the most (yes Aunt Traci I am being sincere when I say that) LOL!

We are however not going to miss out on everything! Thanks to Jacobs amazing sister Allynne we will be with you all via Face Time Friday and Saturday night! Yes we are going to watch the bull riding via Face Time! So if you all see Allynne holding up her I Pad over in good ol section C just give us all a wave!

I don't want this whole blog post to be depressing but I just needed to vent I guess! To all of you that made it all the way to the end of this pathetic excuse of a blog post... Thank you for listerning!

I want to add that as homesick as I am for my close nit community and all of our family time that goes on during this month I would not trade my time in St. Vincent for anything (except maybe a carnival corn dog j/k) we are truly blessed to be here right now, I am learning that I can do anything I put my mind too and it is okay to be homesick. Elder Bird told me something on Sunday when we were discussing how homesick I was, he said  "Sister Bailey, it doesn't get any easier when your 63"
and as simple as that may sound its true, we will always miss our hometown and all of our memories, but home for me is wherever Jacob is and right now this is where we are and we are growing so much! I truly Love Jacob more than he will ever know, he has no idea how amazing he is and although he is not around much he is truly our glue in this family.

Until next time.....

Jacobs "crazy" island life.....

I feel like  my blog revolves around me and my cute kiddos and while we are the ones having all of the fun I feel like I need to write about Jacob and his crazy schedule!

Jacob has a super busy schedule but what more could you expect he is in medical school for heaven sakes! His day starts about 6:30am he gets up and gets ready for school and studies for about  a half hour before he takes off for the day the bus picks him up at  7:30 and he is in school from 8 until noon and then they have a break for lunch and he goes back to class from 1- 3, typically he will stay at the library and study for a few hours and gets home around 5 or so but occasionally he will come home right after his afternoon classes and study from home. Quiz and Exam weeks are a different story he still leaves at 7:30am but we usually won't see him until 9:00 pm or sometimes a little later. these weeks he comes home very tired but of course the kids attack him when he comes through the door!

Weekends are no different he spends most of the weekend studying except for Sundays he always makes time for family on Sundays, we usually use that time to talk to our families back home and get the 411 of what's going on there, we actually really look forward to Sundays and with technology we get to feel like we are there with them in a way!

I have gotten used to being on my own after all our whole married life has consisted of going to school, having him around the last year and a half has been very nice and we have been very spoiled, Kohl is struggling the most with his absence but he has gotten to the point now where in the mornings he will say to me "dad is at school huh?" and I reply "yep" and he says "he has to go there everyday to get smarter huh mom?" and I just giggle and say "yep your right pal!"

Katelyn is just too little to really get it, all she cares about is that he picks her up when he walks in the door and gives her a squeeze and then she goes off on her merry way, she is such a snuggler! I love it!

We are settling in to the being back in school routine a lot better than I thought we would and a lot faster than I thought we would! I would not trade any of it for the world. I can't believe how much we have already grown from this experience!

Every day is an adventure, and by not being together all of the time makes our night time story telling time an even better time! We always have a story for Jacob at night!

After reading through this post I can see why I only write about the kiddos and my adventures.....Jacob is boring...LOL I am just kidding! He works so hard and gives everything he has to us and his studies, I love him more than anything and I am so grateful that I get to go through this the whole crazy experience with him! I love our crazy unpredictable life!

 

Rain Rain Rain....

My blog posts have been few and far between for the last couple weeks because we haven't been going out and doing much becasue of all the rain we have been getting, but I wouldn't expect much less since we are in hurricane season right now.

Hurricane season isn't something that Vincentian people really worry alot about, the last hurricane that made land fall here was back in the 70's they are used to seeing a lot of rain during hurrican season and some gusty winds, but St. Vincent is on the very bottom of the hurrican belt so rarly does a major storm get down to us, that doesn't mean that it can't happen at all but it is rare.

Emergency prepardness is something I have been trying to get better at, we try to always keep basic survival  food and water on hand at all times, just in case we ever do need it, they told us to bring flashlights with us and we have used ours a couple of times already,the power has gone out 3 times I think and we have a very uptight 4 year old since we only have 1 flashlight for all of us to use, we have another one coming but of course it is in our barrel that we shipped that has now been sitting in customs for 6 weeks.....sigh....I really want my barrell!

I would say that we have adjusted really well, shopping has become alot easier for me, it is kind of nice becasue it forces me to plan a menu and think ahead to the next week, I am now spending less and getting more, the hadest part of shopping is that there is no such thing as 1 stop shopping here in St.Vincent, I currently go to 5 places every Saturday to get what we need for the  next week, I could possibly eliminate 1 of those stops but it is the only store I have been able to consistantly get Kate's formula at every week the one week I bypassed it and figured I would pick it up at my other stop they of course didn't have it so I had to back track and by it there any way, so believe it or not it actually saves time to go to those 5 places most weeks!

I am loving the fruit market I try to ask about a new fruit every week, and occasionally I will buy it and try it out so far we havn't been too into the never before seen fruit, so I have kind of stopped experiementing with Jacob and the kids. I however am still eating a mango a day and loving them!
Avacados have by far been ur favorite thing to but here, they are huge and cheap I pay the same for 1 extra large avacado that I paid in the states for 1 small avacado. We eat a lot of guacamole!

I am happy to report that my parents have offically booked there flight here! We are so excited to have someone come and visit us they won't be here until August but with as fast as time is going there will be here in no time! We can't wait to show them everything we do here and for them to meet people!

Well as I sit here writing this blog update the sun is actually shining sow we are going to head outside before the evening rain starts in on us!

Jacob got an exam for his birthday!

So glad to have the first medical school exam under our belts! Jacob especially! Last week was a long and rough week! Between Jacobs schedule and naughty kids I was fit to be tied by Wednesday!

We knew that it was going to be a rough week after all it was the first big exam of Jacobs med school career and it was also going to be given on the same day as his birthday! He studied so much I thought my head was going to explode he spent long night days at the school and then came home around 7 and went right back to studying for another 2-3 hours each night!

Jacob was spending a lot of time at the school as well as all of the other students so we did a lot of chilling at home on Monday I was exhausted sleep hasn't been coming easy to me for a couple of weeks now and I had no energy to do anything, Meggie was able to get me out of my funk on Tuesday her and Brie invited us to go to the beach with them on Tuesday so we graciously accepted because I knew kohl was going to go crazy if we didn't get out of the house soon!

We had a blast at the beach and when we got ready to head home Kohl was being so naughty, I was getting very frustrated with him, he kept running away from us and getting way far ahead of us on our walk home, and me not wanting to scare these poor two girls off buried the raging beast inside me from just paddling his bum right in front of them! We were almost home and Kohl takes off running and I am nicely yelling to him "please wait...please wait" of course he doesn't and he darted around the fence so I couldn't see him anymore, knowing that he would never cross the street by himself (because I fear for my life when I have too) I just keep walking assuming that he will be waiting on the corner for us to come, next thing I know my land lord is standing at the fence yelling "Kohl stay there!" "Do not cross!" I panic instantly and Meggie ran up the side walk and grabbed his hand! I was so mad I thought I was going to loose it right there on the corner however I kept my cool and got the kids into the house and we said our goodbyes to Meggie and Brie and I shut the door and instant rage shot through my body fighting back the screaming demon about to erupt from my mouth I took Kohl into the bathroom and got him in the shower and was able to control my self and have a talk with him about what he had done (this is totally out of character for me...I yell ALOT).

We spent the rest of the day on the couch snuggling because I was grateful that he was home with me and not at the hospital after almost darting into traffic but I was still very bugged by the whole thing and the fact that he didn't listen to me!

Wednesday was another bad day Katelyn is trying to cut teeth and is miserable most of the time, napping has become and few and far in between thing for her, it always seems that Kohl capitalizes on these moments with her and makes her more miserable, resulting in myself being more miserable, this was a lot of pestering kind of day for Kohl he would just not stop! Pretty sure he spent most of the day in time out that day LOL! That night when Jacob got home we had dinner and got ready for bed and off we all went to get some sleep except for me....sigh......I had a breakdown....I cried like a 2 year old who just dropped her ice cream cone on the ground! Jacob asked me what  was going on and I told him it had just been a bad couple of days I just needed a good cry and I would be fine which is exactly what I  did!

Thursday....I decided to make my first trip to Kingstown with just me and the kids! Jacob had a study day Thursday to prepare for the exam on Friday which was also his birthday! We headed into town to see if we could find him a little something for his birthday, so we hopped on a van and off we went into town! Kohl loves ride in the vans down here we actually call them "reggae buses" but that is something the Medical student came up with the Vincy people would not a have a clue what you were talking about if you called them a reggae bus, anyway we get into town and we are off! We went to a lot of stores and couldn't seem to find anything we wanted to get so we headed to one last store and found him a pair of shorts! Success! Exactly what we were looking for and they were even reasonably priced! kohl was being to good he did all of the walking and didn't complain once! I think he is finally starting to get used to all the walking we do!

Kohl finally broke after we left the last store and asked if we could go home I still had one more store to go too but decided it could wait we had been beating the sidewalk for 2 and 1/2 hours, we caught a van and Kohl and Katelyn were asleep instantly LOL, I laugh because it is so loud on the buses you can't even hear yourself think but my kids go right to sleep!

Friday morning Jacob was off to take his test and Kohl, Katelyn and I decorated the house and made him a card and got ready for the day, Kohl was so excited for Jacobs birthday he made me and Katelyn hid so we could jump out and yell surprise it was hilarious! We decide to had back into town that day and look  around for some other stuff we needed so we spent the afternoon down there and the came home and skyped with our families and then we celebrated Jacobs birthday by ordering Pizza Hut and have cake and ice cream, it was a good day we had some much needed family time after such a long exam week!

P.S. Jacob did really well on his exams!

This weeks piece of paradise..........

                                             Happy Birthday !!

                                           

                                                   Katelyns favorite seat in the house

                                                    Kohl the Mer-Man!

                                          there was no way were getting out of this store ....

                                           Happy Birthday Daddy

 

A busy 2 weeks!

Hello Hello everyone I have missing from the blogging world for a couple of weeks now and in all honesty I didn't realize it had been that long!

Everything I going great here in paradise we have doing a lot of walking and a fair amount of beach time the last couple of weeks, we have meet some new people and are continuing to expand our horizons here in St.Vincent!

So here we go I will do my best to catch you up, Kohl and I decided to go for a little walk a couple of weeks ago, we had been stuck in the house for a couple of days because of all the rain we are getting and he and I were going crazy so I put Katelyn down for a nap and told Jacob we were going on an "adventure"!

We headed up the street not really going anywhere and Kohl is still pretty whinny about walking more than 30 yards so as we got about 1/2 a mile from the house he starts in on wanting to go home but I just needed to walk a little longer so I told him we were going to go and explore a new beach and he pepped right up!

We dashed across the street (seriously you have to run for your life here) and headed down to the beach known as Indian Bay we had never  been there before so we just followed the two ladies in front of us and they lead us right to it! It is beautiful there are a lot of  "mini" islands just about 10 or 20 yards off of the shore, one of them there is actually a rock path all the way over to it if you get down there on a low tide day you can walk right over to it without getting too wet but this was a high tide day so you couldn't see the path very well and after Kohl's incident at church the previous Sunday we had to keep his foot out of the water so we walked around on the sand for a while and picked up some really huge pieces of coral that wash up all over the beach Kohl thinks they are sea shells no matter how any times we tell him that it is coral and we just had to bring them home!

After about an hour or so we decided to head for home carrying our new home décor, can I just tell you 1/2 a mile is a long way to walk with 30 lbs of coral in your hands that your adorable blue eyed 4 year just can't leave the beach without!  We finally make it home and Kohl can't wait to show dad his "sea shells" so Jacob comes out with him and says "dude that not sea shells that is coral" Kohls response "no dad! these are my sea shells.....get it right!" Never a dull moment at our house!

So the next day we decided to head back down to Indian bay again but take Katelyn with us so Jacob could do some much needed studying and to get the kidlets out of the house so I take my phone and $5 and the two kids and we head out! We walkout on to the sand at the beach and start picking up more coral to take home and it begins to RAIN....not just rain torrential down pour! There was no where for us to go no trees close by no nothing, so what do we do....stand there and just let in pour down on us LOL we were giggling and laughing about it, well Kohl and I were Katelyn wasn't amused by any of it!  It let up a little bit so we started playing again and walking down the shore line to some other beach and we run into a family playing on the beach with there two kids so of course Kohl invites himself to the party and they had a good a time 10 minutes later DOWN POUR again so I run for the trees with Katelyn figuring Kohl would be right behind me WRONG.....he heads for the water and jumps in! I yell to him "what are you doing its raining" he yells back "but mom I am already wet from this rain"  how do you argue with that? We were completely soaked to the bone so I did what any good mommy would do I went over to the water and told him to be careful and have fun! He played for over an hour with his new friends and had a blast, Jacob wasn't to ha[[y when we got home and his foot was soaking wet but a little alcohol and some "sporine" and he was good to go!

On our walk home that day it rained the whole time, Katelyn was asleep in my arms and we were walking up a street and a lady says to me "please take my umbrella, your baby is so wet" I politely declined her offer and told her we would be fine, after 3 more offers she finally gave up. We turned the corner to get on to the main road and another lady says to me " where is your umbrella? you should always carry an umbrella in St. Vincent" she laughed at me when I told her I left it home because I didn't think we would need it.

We finally made it home and head for the shower to get cleaned up and dry and Jacob comes in and says to me "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to make it home" and the laughs hysterically at us because we look like drowned rats!

After our rainy day we decided to stay in the nest day and just chill for the day which worked out because it rained a lot that day too, we are in hurricane season here right now but the Island is usually never hit directly by any of the passing hurricanes because we are on the very bottom of the hurricane belt so we get a lot of rain and some pretty scary wind storms but they haven't had  a hurricane make it to land for a long time, I believe the last hurricane to hit the island was back on the early 70's
that doesn't mean you aren't prepared for one but they don't anticipate them either.

We convinced Jacob to take a short study break on Friday of that week and go for a walk with us back down to Indian Bay, it was a much calmer day and the tide was out so we could see the rock path they lead over to one of the "mini" islands but we still didn't want Kohl walking over there without better shoes on so we made plans to go back another time and walk over to the other island.

We strolled down the beach for a while and let Kohl play in the water because weather we wanted him to or not he was getting in....we finally got flipper out of the water and were heading home so that Jacob could get back to the grind of things and we ran into Brother Drake from our branch and we had a good talk with him and he showed us his talents for carving on what they call a Kallabash it is a type of gourd he gets and he carves designs into them and sells them for a living. It is really neat to sit and watch him do it he has some physical limitations so to watch him work is really amazing. I am pretty sure we sat and watched him for an hour or so and just had a good talk with him about church and meeting new people and serving and we talked to Jacob a lot about school.

We parted ways with Brother Drake and headed for home, it was nice to get out with Jacob for a while and just relax we don't see him a whole lot because of the demands of school which this may sound weird but its great! He is doing well and enjoying it too, we miss him but wouldn't trade this time for anything!

Saturday I had my usual trip into town for groceries and my "alone" time Jacob calls it. Which I  really do enjoy I like walking around and seeing all of the things in the different stores and talking to different people I have been able to find something new every time I go down.

Sundays have become a little difficult for us we live about a mile and a half from the church and it is nearly impossible to catch a bus on Sundays here so we have had to walk to church for the last 3 weeks and it is a challenge trust me when you have the two small kids and you have to walk that far it is very tempting to just stay home and not worry about going but we don't we make the trek and we may be sweaty and smelly when we arrive but by golly we get there! I have teaching primary for 3 weeks now and I am enjoying it a lot but I really struggle with the ciaos and  limited structure that we have, I have said before the church is still very young here on the island everyone is learning and the primary kids are not exempt from this! I was very frustrated after the first 2 weeks of teaching so when I got there this last week I was able to talk with Sister Bird a little about how I was feeling and she just listened to me and talked to me about it she is amazing I absolutely adore her and her patience she has with me, after talking with her I was feeling much better this past week when I began to teach the lesson and it went really pretty smoothly I was actually able to feel the spirit there and felt like the kids were taking in what I was saying! That is always a good feeling!

Well everyone life continues to go on here I will be writing another post about my adventures last week and Jacobs first exam! Your piece of paradise................

                                      These are typical lawn ornaments down here

                                        view walking down to Indian Bay Beach

                                           "mini island"

                                     
                                    The water is so clear here I love that you can see where you are walking

                                    I was taking pictures of the different algae and water life

                          I was about to reach down and touch this one when I spotted the red ball
                         attached to it....it is a sea urchin! You have to watch really close for these

                                       This is another view of Young Island you can see the small
                                      island behind it they do a lot of cliff diving off of the smaller
                                      island.  

                                          They call this baptism bay but Kohl likes to call it
                                           "little T" Island!

One Month!!

 I can't believe that we are coming up on a month! Time is just flying by. We are having so much fun and the kidlets and I are being VERY lazy...we spend a lot of time just laying around and soaking up the humidity in the salty air!

There has been so much going on this past week we went somewhere every day last week except for Tuesday and when you are busy the time goes really fast. I do have a confession to make though....I LOVE GOING DOWNTOWN!! I know my last post was about utter fear of Kingstown but after visiting there twice this week I realized I actually know where to go to get what we need and its nice to be able to take Jacob down there and me do the navigating (for once I actually know where to go, direction is not my strong point) not that down town is really hard there are only 3 streets down there but hey when all of your surroundings look similar its easy to get turned around!

I got some amazing deals at the fruit market this weekend it is probably my favorite place to go but you have to ask A LOT of questions or you may end up feeding your family plant fertilizer, insert my story for the week here it goes like this.....

I took Jacob downtown with me this weekend to do some shopping and pick up our boxes that finally got through customs this week (the kids stayed with Meggie, who is Kohl's new favorites person, he loves her) anyway we picked up or parcels and were heading to pick up our other groceries we needed and I told Jacob I needed to go the  open market for fruit and veggies, he had never been there before so he was game. we picked up mangos and avocadoes and green beans and a melon and decided to keep walking around just too see what else we could find, there was this lovely couple selling all kinds of things and she was trying to talk us into buying guava jelly but I was more interested in the red and brown and tan quinoa looking stuff bagged up and super cheap, sorry I need to do some explaining right here #1 I have NO idea what quinoa looks like, and I make that very apparent here in just a second. #2 in my defense NOTHING is in a labeled bag they prepackage everything in clear bags and just write the price on the outside of the bag. Back to my story so I am trying to get away from the guava jelly and so I ask here "what is this? How do you prepare it ?" and she looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears and said " that's food for your plants so they can grow..." Jacob started laughing and so did the lady needless to say at that point I just walked away! It is people like me that give American tourists a bad image and I apologize to all of you in advance!

I have not said much about the church here on the Island yet....for those of you who may be reading my blog and do not know my background I am a active and devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Yes everyone I live on an Island.....I do hair for a living ... and I am a MORMON!

I did not serve a mission for my church but in a sense feel like I am doing that now I may not be an official missionary but "EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY" is my moto here on the Island. I absolutely love and adore every member of our branch and for the strides that they are taking to become stronger members of the church, they truly know the meaning of sacrifice, Jacob and I are exactly where we are supposed to be right now at this point in our lives.

The church is still very young here on the Island, they have strong leadership but everyone is still learning a great deal. We are blessed with some of the greatest missionaries any branch could ask for and I am grateful to them for living there lives the way they did and being worthy to come and help the amazing people here.

There are so many things I would love to tell you about but there isn't enough space on this whole blog to express my excitement for the things that have happened and for all of the things we still have to look forward too experiencing,

I had the opportunity to teach primary today at church and it was an exhausting experience to say the least I knew Kohl had a lot of energy but when you get 4 or 5 kids the same age all together its a crazy bit of work! They were so much fun though our lesson was "I am thankful for my sense of smell and taste" and they were into my lesson for about 2 minutes but they are adorable so it was okay! They love to sing primary songs and they knew every one we practiced, I love listening to primary kids sing!

I want to finish my blog post tonight by bearing my testimony to all of you I know with out a single doubt in my mind that this is the only true church on the earth, I am so thankful for the prophet Joseph smith who at 14 years of age went into a grove of trees and offered a humble prayer unto our lord and savior Jesus Christ for a answer and after receiving his answer was strong enough and faithful enough to fulfill the lords direction. I am also thankful for the scriptures The Book of Mormon is a powerful tool if we choose to take advantage of everything it has to offer us. I know that the Lord hears and answers prayers he knows our short comings and our weaknesses but he is there every step of the way to hold us up when we are so torn down, I have felt his presence a lot since we have moved to this beautiful country, he has reassured me in all that I do and everyday he guides me and keeps me on the path that I need to be on, I do falter and I do make mistakes but he has provided us with the Atonement so that when we make those mistakes we can still find our way back to him he is always there waiting with open arms.

I am also very thankful for our Families...where would we be without them is a scary thought. they have supported us every step of the way and will continue to do so we have had enormous amounts of help with everything we have been through this past year and I have no doubts that they have helped carry us through some very hard times, we have the most supportive extended family, that has stood beside us as well we are truly blessed!

I have a strong testimony of the power of the priesthood I have witnessed many miracles at the hand of the worthy priesthood holders in my life, I was very blessed to grow up in a home with an amazing father and the 2 most amazing young men that I have to privilege of calling my brothers I miss them terribly and I love all of them with all of my heart. I am thankful that Jacob is a worthy priesthood holder and magnifies that to the best of his abilities he has blessed our home many times and me personally, I would be lost without him in my life. I am thankful for my mom and the amazing women she is I miss her like crazy but I am glad that she raised me to have the confidence to go out into the world and experience all that it has to offer. I love you all!

I am also thankful for the opportunity that the lord has given me to be a mother. There is no greater feeling in the world than becoming a mother and my two babies are my angels on earth, everyday I look at them and can't believe they choose me, they are the light in my dark times and sun after the rain. they are my reason to get up every morning and my beautiful faces to go to sleep to at night! They are truly my most greatest blessing!

The church is true! It will always hold a special place in my heart and that is the beautiful thing about the church it is the same everywhere you go no matter where you are the gospel is true and so powerful, if there is one thing I could really impress on you if would be eternal families the temple is a beautiful, wonderful, peaceful and amazing place to reside, take advantage of it especially all of my Utah peeps reading this, you never know how precious something is until it is not there anymore I never lived more that 40 miles away from a Temple and I didn't attend it as much as I wish I would have now, you have every opportunity to attend the  temple and I see people here that may only get to see the temple once in there lives please please attend the temple there are so many people waiting on the other side to have there work done.

I love this church and I love my new home, and I owe it all to my Father in Heaven. I say these things in the name of thy son our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Amen

Downtown....ALL ALONE!!

I had the greatest time on Saturday shopping! However it didn't start out that way I was very panicked as I watched the bus bypass my usual shopping market, it goes like this....

Jacob and I woke up on Saturday morning and I was so excited to get out of the house that day even if it was to go shopping, we spent a lot of time in the house last week due to the large amount of rain we got last week and since the storms come up really fast it is hard to take the babes out.

Jacob says too me why don't just one of us go shopping and the other stay with the kids and let them keep sleeping. I may have kind of snapped back "I am going!" and his response was a small giggle and an "okay sounds good".  So I jump out of bed and start getting ready to go!

The van came to pick us up a little after 10, Jacob comes in and says "Have fun see you in a little bit." I just smiled and said "okay, love you" it never dawned on me to get cash from him because I don't usually have any EC money with me, he says to me "just jump in the van  they will take good care of you, don't forget a phone."

I get on the van and we wait for a couple more people and we were off! We drive down into Arnos Vale (this is where our "normal" markets are located) we pass by the Super J which is normal because we always stop there last.....we keep driving and then my heart stops...we drive right past Sunrise Market! Panic sets in because I have just realized that we are going in to downtown Kingstown to shop today!

I am doing everything possible not to burst into tears at this point, of all days for me to go shopping alone why.... WHY did this have to happen today! We get into downtown and I have convinced myself that I am going sit on the bus the whole time we are down there I knew I would get lost if I got off of the bus!

We pull into the parking area and as everyone is filing off of the van I say to the driver "can I just wait here I really don't think I need anything from down here" he just laughed at me and said "you will be fine we won't leave you."  So I get off of the bus and there are 2 other girls that I known Nina who is in Jacobs class and Courtney who did our tour of the island! I can see that they are aware of how nervous I was and they are kind of hanging back waiting me to get off of the van, so I get off and they both say "just come with us" YAY!! Instant relief!

We begin walking down the street and I have absolutely no idea where we are going and then all of a sudden we are in front of Save a lot Market (its like the Costco or Sams club of the Caribbean except you don't have to have a membership) I walk in and was taken back a little they have EVERYTHING! Stuff I have told people we couldn't get here THEY HAVE IT! Not everything but they do have a lot! I was so excited so I picked up a few things that were on my list and then a few more things that we were missing from home and I couldn't help it I had splurge so you will never guess what I bought .......wait for it.....wait for it........BEEF!! GROUND BEEF!!! I could only bring myself to buy 1 one pound package but I didn't care it was BEEF! Best $5.00 I have spent here on St. Vincent!

I kept strolling through the store keeping a close eye on Courtney and Nina so they wouldn't be waiting on me and I found another pot of gold....are you ready for this......STRING CHEESE I knew I was getting extra kisses from Kohl if I brought home this gem of a find!

Enough of my grocery list.....after we finished up at Save a lot we were the first ones back to the bus so we ditched our grocery bags and Courtney took us on another tour! We visited the fish market which is not for the faint of stomach but if you can choke down the smell it actually is a really cool thing to see! We also went to the Open Market which looks like a parking garage but it is full of vendors selling fresh fruit and veggies and then there is clothing and all kinds of stuff! It was really cool! We went into a couple of places just too look around and see everything and spent some time taking a few pictures. Courtney was even offered a husband, it was awesome! I bought my first mangos on this trip (this is where the EC would have come in handy) but it worked out and I have decided to buy more fruit from the local people selling it on the street it is cheaper and tastes better!

We got back on the bus to head too our last couple of stops and there were only 5 of us that ended up going back in the van so we had some good conversations going and I got to know everyone a little better. Our driver even game me a new recipe to try with plantains and eggs. At this point I figured I had better text Jacob and tell him that we had went downtown and that is why I had been gone for so long, he immediately apologized because he had no idea we were going downtown and I told him it was okay cause Nina and Courtney stayed with me the whole time and I was able to see a lot of things!

Lesson learned for the week...Jamie needs to go with the flow and not stress when something new is thrown at her....its all going to be okay! This weeks picture of paradise......

                                            This is the Kingstown Police Station

                                                This is the open market

                                                This is a sign......

                                            Want some Red Snapper???

                                          The biggest Tuna fish I have ever seen

This picture does not do these fish justice they are

florescent purple!

 

MOTHERS DAY

I LOVE MOTHERS DAY!! I t was a little different for us this year though! It goes a little something like this.....

Sunday May 12th 2013 Mothers day and our first day going to our new branch! I was so excited to finally meet some members and go to church! We wake up at 7 to make sure we have plenty of time to get to church and not be late. We had already arranged for Jimmy to pick us up and take us that morning so we knew we didn't have to worry about finding a way to get there I am not entirely sure it would be  appropriate to pull up to church in a "reggae bus" ( I will tell you more about these buses later.)

We arrive at church and we have to climb a somewhat steep hill to get up to it. but as we are walking up we can see the members and the missionaries and they are all looking at us as strangely as we were probably looking at them. but you would have never known that they didn't know us! I have never been hugged by so many people in all my life! I am pretty sure that every member told me happy mothers day too! LOVE LOVE LOVE  these people!

We were able to meet a few people before church started but honestly I can only remember a few names, we did meet one of the most amazing couples I have ever knows! Elder and Sister Bird are there names and they are here in St. Vincent serving a 23 month mission! Amazing people! Elder Birds mother and brother Kim were here visiting them so we were able to meet them too!

Sacrament meeting started and I just love how no matter where you go the church is always the same! It was s nice to have some familiarity in our world of new things. We are still having a hard time understanding the vincy English but apparently at one point in the beginning of sacrament meeting we were asked to stand up and introduce ourselves but we missed the queue  I guess and just sat there so the conducting counselor just kept right on going like nothing happened! We had no idea this had even happened until we were at dinner later that day.

Sacrament was great we had a youth speaker and the young woman's president spoke to us about the importance of seminary. When ever someone stands up and says good morning over the pulpit the congregation says good morning back to them so if I do this when we come back to visit just giggle at me its okay! After sacrament meeting was over they served refreshments in the kitchen...our meeting house is just that a house so we use the family room as a chapel and then there are three other rooms in the house so the primary meets in one room for opening exercises/sharing time/singing time and then the youth meet in another room for Sunday school and we have gospel doctrine in the chapel when we rotate to our third block of meetings the relief  society meets in the extra room and the priesthood meet in the chapel then the primary kids go outside for class and the  young men meet in the primary room and the young women stay in the extra room for young women.

after sacrament meeting was over we were able to meet the other member couple that he is going to the medical school as well there names are Meggie and Brett and they are Awesome people too! Meggie is the young women president and Brett is the executive secretary.

 Meggie took me Kohl and I  to the primary room and Kohl went right in found a seat and said "see ya later mom, I am good" and off I went. Jacob and I really enjoyed Sunday school our lesson was on the law of tithing and the law of the fast, I don't exactly know how to describe Sunday school it is like being in youth Sunday school I guess is the best way to describe it...the Vincentian members of the church are amazing people but they are not afraid to tell you about there struggles as members of the church which is something other members may try to hide, but the members here are very open to discussing there struggles with the church as far as fasting and paying tithing go. It truly is an eye opening thing to experience, they may struggle with these things but they DO them because they know that is what they need to be doing to gain eternal life and exaltation. I am going to learn so much from these people and I am so excited about it!

Katelyn got a little fussy because it is so hot and we don't have ac in the building so Jacob stepped out with her and while he was outside Elder Bird came to him and asked if we would come over to there house for dinner after church and of course he said yes! We finished out with our relief society and priesthood meetings which were great too.

We were waiting outside for everyone to come out and chat a little and we were able to meet the missionaries serving here right now there is a sister couple as well as the elders and then the Birds cover both of the branches here on the island both of the elders are from Utah and the sister is from Idaho I think....and the second sister is from here on the island she is sort of serving a pre-mission her call should have been here this week and she desperately wants to go to Utah on her mission so I cant wait to get to church on Sunday and find out where she is going!

Kohl had a great time in primary he made new friends and had a lot of fun, after church he came running over to me and said "mommy get your camera you have to come take a picture of this" so I hurried over to the fence and was looking at the view and I was like its so pretty up here and I started taking pictures of the view and Kohl says to me "MOM!! take a picture of that!" and I m like "of what" he points down the hill and says "of the BOBCAT!"  he had spotted a construction site at the bottom of the hill and there was a small bobcat machine on the site! I nearly died laughing! I love having a 4 year old that can name every piece of heavy equipment you could show him!

We got loaded up in the car with Birds and they took us to there apartment to have dinner, Kim and Elder Birds mother had gotten home before us and already had dinner made and it smelled wonderful! Meggie and Brett were going to join us for dinner too but they had a few church things to take care of before they made it over so we were able to just sit and visit with the Bird family for  a while on there back porch. They literally live on the beach there back yard is the ocean. We had a good visit and when Meggie and Brett arrived we started dinner and sister Bird was "like its just tacos so go for it" there was no "just tacos" about it they were so good they fried the tortilla shells and had chicken and beef and everything you could possible imagine to top it with....mmmm so good I am getting hungry just thinking about them! It was so nice to have something other than ramen noodles!

After we had all reached our taco limit we had a really nice conversation  about families and the gospel and life on the Island. It was great to have some veterans on Island life to talk too! Kim brought out his top secret dessert to share with us so delish caramelized sweet and condensed milk I am pretty sure Kohl ate most of what was left LOL! he was a very happy islander!

As we were enjoying our visit on the porch the topic came up of all the food we are missing from the states and I said I couldn't believe we couldn't get fruit snacks here and Meggie said the same thing, Brett loves them almost just as much as Kohl...and Elder Bird got up and walked into the kitchen and when he came back out he said "you mean these" I thought Kohl was going to have to Indian leg wrestle Brett for the bag LOL. So we all sat and enjoyed a bag of fruit snacks FROZEN! I have never had them frozen before but it is a must try if you haven't Jacob and I both agree they are better that a popsicle!

We decided we had better head home to Skype our mommas and talk with our families, so the birds loaded us up in there car and off we went!

It was an awesome mothers day I was kind of sad that I wasn't able to see my mommy in person and give her a hug and that we didn't get to see Granny or Carla in person either but thank goodness for Skype and Facetime! It was kind of neat to be like a "missionary" for the day! I love our moms more than anything in this world and miss them both terribly! However I  am super grateful that they raised us to be the people we are today we would not be in this amazing place and having this amazing experience if it wasn't for our dear sweet mommies!! We love you !!

I am also thankful for our new found friend here on the Island Elder and Sister Bird and Meggie and Brett! Thank you Thank you Thank you for making our adjustment a little easier and making us feel so welcome! I can not leave out our new Branch family they are so welcoming and so loving!

I promise I will take lots of pictures this week at church but for now the view pictures will have to do!

                                                 this is a peninsula of St. Vincent

                                                        Kohl's bobcat he found

                                                       View behind the church

                                                               Another view