New: House, Car, Scooter, Schools, Hurricans, Powdered Milk and Lobster

Well its been a week or so of a lot of new things in our tropical home. We were able to move into our place last week and it is a very nice place to be. 3 Bedrooms 2 bathrooms lots of space in between. Locations is not bad, we are above a store owned by a Family of Chinese People and everyone calls these stores (half dozen or so around town) the Chinese stores. So it gets a little busier than desired at times with some loud music and what not, but we feel generally safe. We have a view from our balcony were we can see both the Atlantic ocean and the Caribbean ocean sides. That's how tiny this island is, and of course a fantastic view of the Quill - the mountain (volcano) that created this island. I would love to live up in the lush greenness of the island, but we will just have to wait and see what comes up.
I might have mentioned before that Todd got a sweet scooter that we have been riding around. Between generous rides from the Packard (now gone) and the Coopers, we would shuttle our family to the beach. At one time we had Todd, me, Jase, a big scrabble game and a big laundry hamper on this little scooter. It was quite a sight to see. The kids love going on it though and so do we.
We found a nice little car to drive around for the next 3 years. It looks like a red little bubble, but I love it! It so easy to drive around on the tight roads they have here.
The kids all started school on Thursday. The girls are going to the Seventh-day Adventist School, but are a few weeks late starting, they started mid august. Its the best government run school on the Island. It has a school Donkey, chickens, and I think a pig. They are learning a little dutch in their classes, having fun singing songs, and they love wearing their uniforms to school. (Wish they had those at home!) The kids at the school love to touch the girls skin and feel their hair.
Jase is going to the Statia Terminal School. Its is a school run by an oil terminal company NuStar for their employees children. There are just under 15 kids in the whole school, and Jase got in. He is only guaranteed to be there one year but they teach him using the Calvert system. I’m really excited about it because they will test his skills and teach him accordingly. If he is in grade 6 reading they will teach him grade 6 reading, if he is in grade 5 math they teach him grade five math ect.. He loves the small classes – there is 3 kids in his class – he’s not one for the ‘fluff’ in our school system.
And heck wouldn’t you know we’ve been on the island for less than 3 weeks and we had our 1st hurricane. Did you hear of hurricane Earl? We were the first ones to be hit. Lucky it was only at a level one when it hit. Lots of lightning, rain, and wind but we were just fine. We had to do a lot of mopping due to leaking, and had to make sure we had food, and water for drinking and water for other stuff. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the hole thing but they were quite efficient when it can to turning on the power again. We are still waiting on word for the next one(s) that are threatening to hit.
We’ve found that some of the food can be quite expensive, so we are trying to find ways to save a little money in that department. One example would be the powdered milk. The kids don’t seem to mind it on their cereal, and Courtney likes to just drink it right strait which is just awesome!
Todd caught a lobster all by himself. He found out the best way from some of the guys living here how to do it and he went out and did it. He said the lobster was really fast doing its backward crazy swim but he snagged it and we ate it for dinner tonight. We are all quite proud of him, and he wants to try and catch us food now and then as he can between his studies.
Well if you have read this far I am quite pleased – I’m kind of using this as a journal of sorts as well, hopefully I can keep it up!