Halloween, Birthdays, and Beaches!!

Thought I'd start off with a yummy cookie that we get sometimes to eat. Its a lot like a NICE cookie you can buy at home.




We are still having fun adventures here and just before I sat down at the computer I had one such adventure I shall call it. But first of all a related story that happened first.

I got up to get the kids off to school and we were walking down the stairs and we saw all our garbage on the road and it went clear up to the end of the block, and it stunk! You know with the heat and sun burning on it all day. So I took the kids to school and then came home and picked up the stinky garbage with some of Todd's surgical gloves which he will use in the future, all the while cursing the dumb animal that had made such a mess of the garbage. There are a lot of stray dogs and cats around here and they are bound to get into someone garbage. We tonight I was looking off the balcony and I saw again the garbage thrown all over the road and I was just mad at the stupid dogs that people just let run around, but then I saw something big and black still down there with its head in the trash. I couldn't make it out because it was dark and I had put the kids to bed about 2 hours earlier. I walk down the stairs and get a little closer and it is this huge cow or bull I don't know but it had huge horns. I tried to scare it away but it just looked at me and then shook it head at he like it was saying, "Get lost I'm eating a gourmet meal of your rotten chicken and week old left over brownie batter that you left in the fridge and were too lazy to cook the rest of it. HAHA!" It was actually looking kind of mad like it was wondering how it could get at me over the cement wall that was just high enough to protect me but not high enough to keep the dang cow from getting at our garbage! A truck ended up coming down the read a scarring it away so I was able to clean it before it was strewn to kingdom come! I moved the garbage can away from the edge of the fence. I then felt bad for cursing the poor innocent stray dogs for getting into my garbage when all along it was huge crazy wondering cows! You know its kind of funny I never though about it earlier but there really is no way for a stray dog to get at the garbage because it couldn't get over the fence! Just big cows leaning their monstrous heads over!


Not Cows but an example of the other animals that roam around Statia



Interesting tidbit number 2.
I was with the kids taking them on a walk the other night. We live in the roughest part of the whole island by the way. Seams pretty okay though, like i said we go for walks at night together. The kids love to feel the cool air at night especially when the house is so dang hot! Anyway we were walking and I was taking with the kids and a man walked up and asked if I was from America. And I said no I'm from Canada not the US. And he said well that is America - he was talking the north American continent. Some people will refer you to being American just because of the north American thing - anyway. We talked for a bit trying to explain where I was from, but a lot of people know of Canada but not really know anything about it. We do get the - Oh I have a brother in Ontario thing a lot. But that's not what i'm talking about. He said to me in some different word of course, "Americans just don't know where to find the right stuff. You know valume and perkaset." (can't remember which ones he said but I know they were some pretty heavy duty prescriptions drugs). "But I can get it all. You need anything I can get it for you." I looked at him and said you know you shouldn't be using that sort of stuff. then he told he he wasn't crazy and wouldn't use that stuff. And I said good. Then we pounded it (you know hit fists together - the new high 5) they call it the boops, and said good night. It was interesting that he would choose to ask a lady with 3 if she would like some drugs, but he was pleasant enough and I'd feel just fine running into him again and having a little visit about the weather.

Remember how I said that sometimes Courtney would come home singing songs with a little Statia accent, well its still going on. Jase is doing the same thing but its not singing with a Statia accent, it playing with 2 little dutch boys using a dutch accent. It is so funny, pretty much every word he is saying has an emphasis on a different syllable or as rolled 'r' or as pitch change where we normally wouldn't have one. It hilarious. These little kids are pretty cute learning their English.

Well Todd and I are officially Open water divers! We finished the course really fast and the instructor said we were really above average good. Its so exciting and fun. We are looking at getting our advanced Open Water soon. The place we got certified through is a PADI Certified dive centre called Scubaqua. Its a really nice place and the awesome lady who taught us is named Marieke Van de Wetering. She is super awesome and her husband - well not really but might as well be - created the scuba diving language that people are using underwater. It actually fairly new and the book just came out but it has been named the official scuba diving language. Pretty neat hey. To dive with and be taught by the people who invented it here on Statia! I'm gonna tell Todd that what I want for Christmas is one of their book with their autographs in it! They are fun to be around, which reminds me I need to book another dive her soon! We've seen some pretty awesome things on our dives. Barracuda which was really quite close - or so it seemed - lots of sting rays, an old anchor from the 1700's, puffer fish, cow fish, tonnes of fish I have no idea what they are called, rock fish which can kill you if you touch it!, sea horse - so beautiful!, flounders, cleaning shrimp, moray eel, lobsters, its amazing. I really loved the last dive we were on! I think its because I'm getting more comfortable underwater so I'm enjoying it more and not as worried.

COURTNEY TURNED 5! My baby just turned 5 on the 4th of November. I can't believe it, they are growing up so fast. Courtney didn't want to have a friend party but wanted to do some fun stuff with the family so thats what we did.
We started out with some pink waffles in the morning! thats what she wanted, and so she got a few gift to go with that.



Some Yummy Dutch things to try on our waffles, a chocolate sort of spread and sweet sprinkles - apparently they have a bunch of different kind of sprinkles.



She got her own lunch kit for school! The other kids had one from home and she was soooo excited to get her own!



Homemade gifts from Katie



When its your birthday at school you get to ware what ever you want to school so this is the outfit she chose to ware - She is so cute! (unfortunately we didn't know this for Katie's b-day so she missed out :( )





Courtney's teacher - Teacher Vita asked if Me and Rebecca (because it was actually Carsons b-day the same day!) To come and give the kids treats - well that was our idea - but to do some sort of games or activities with them. I was actually really excited about it because I loved doing the stay and play with the kids in Magrath. So I didn't some songs from Magrath Stay and Play and a couple church song cuz they are very religious. It was really cute and fun!

This is a picture of Courtney and Carson - Courts kind of blurry :( - in the middle of the circle when they prayed for the birthday children.



Courtney Sitting at her desk they are about to sing their end of the day songs.



We brought the kids each a cupcake and a freeze to freeze at home - although some of them didn't make it home - oops!



This is Courntey in front of her class behavior chart and she always has the most stars. Courts said the rip in the paper was because one boy was really upset that he didn't have very many stars on his chart so he ripped it.



This is a picture of Courtney and Young. Young is our downstairs neighbor and works at the store below us, and lives in the store. Rachel (who I don't have a picture of yet) also works in the store with Young. Courtney wanted to give them one of the cupcakes that she made for her class at school. Rachel was working the till so couldn't come for the picture. But we have really grown attached to seeing them everyday and having a very friendly hello every time we come home. They are so sweet to the kids and give them little treats every once and a while. Rachel gave Courtney for her birthday some hair beads and a treat. Rachel isn't in the picture because she was working the till. We were talking with them the other day about us looking for a new place to live which is going very slow, and I really felt like I would truly miss them if we did move, and they said like wise. I don't think they have very many friends, and most people aren't very kind to them which is really sad because you can fell how genuine they are. The family they are here with and work for are all from around Hong Kong and they speak Cantonese not your typical Mandarin. Rachel says that most people in China speak Mandarin and not the old Cantonese. They make double here than they did at home. They work 84 hours a week that's approximately 336 hours a month and they make $1000 a month. I honestly started crying. They do have all their housing and food payed for but its still sad when you see how hard they work and we have bums back at home whining about there $15 dollars and hour when Young and Rachel are making just under $2.97 an hour! But they are always smiling and have Never ever complained. I've asked Rachel about the long hours of work and she just basically says. "Well you have to work and what else would we do, it's good to keep busy."
Boy are we ever spoiled!!!




She really wanted to go swimming after school in the swimming pool which is right down the road from where we live and so we walk. As soon as we got there it started raining, but the girls loved it anyway and just swam for about an hour.








Then she wanted to go to the restaurant with the pirate. Its called Smoke Alley but it has a statue of a pirate in the front so thats were Court got the pirate thing from. For her birthday she wanted a lobster so thats what she got. It is a 2 plate dinner because it is so big - and of course I didn't take a picture of it!!!! I'm so mad at my self! - it was huge for this little girl but so fun! She was pretty spoiled this birthday. Lots of gifts from different people.






This is Todd's study partner and friend Pallov. He gave Courtney 6 bag of M&M's. I did have to help her eat them.



When we were trying to come home it just poured rain. That's why we all look like we just got out of the shower. It was a huge down pour!





It was really a fun day for all of us. I love the family birthday parties, We feel we can spoil them a little more! Especially on a tropical island!

HALLOWEEN. Well it definitely wasn't like at home. No one at the schools did anything for it, and a lot of people on the island they think it the devils birthday so it is not well represented. But we wanted to do something at least for the kids so Rebecca Cooper said she'd have a little party at her house. So the church group we have - total of 16 people, got together at Coopers and had a little party. Everyone brought some treats, and snacks, played some games, colored and had a little mock trick or treating thing. Had the kids knock on the doors inside the house ie: bedrooms, front door, bathroom door, ect... and they said trick or treat. It was a great effort by all but of course Jase and Katie knowing a little more what Halloween is like at home were a little sad but what can you do. I think maybe next year I might try to get a trunk or treat going - but that's a big maybe. Might be kind of tricky - no pun intended!

Courtney wanted to be a bat, so she put on dark clothes and I took a garbage bag and attempted to make bat wings and then gave her a nose.



Katie wanted to be a vampire, so she got the clothes she wanted to ware with it and then she used my house coat as her cloak and we pinned it to her shirt.



Jase wanted to be a muscle man so we stuffed his shirt and gave him a mustache!




These are all the kids in our little church group for our Halloween party! It was pretty cute!





Courtney go attacked by some fire ants the other day. Thanks goodness they only got one foot and roughly 20 bite's I think. She was just playing out the back by our clothes line and stepped in the wrong place. She was really crying and had little welts on her foot. Rachel and Young were trying to help sooth her while I checked for more aunts, and she was giving me pointers on how to help the bites. So I took her upstairs and gave her a shower and rubbed alcohol on her foot which I think helped he a bit. The flying bugs around here are really fast! There have been so may flies its seriously crazy, and the mosquitoes are insane! They fly so fast its hard to smack them, and the itch they give is way stronger than at home. At first I thought the bites would drive me mad but now I think we are getting a little more use to it. Courtney was waking up screaming a few times the other night because she kept getting bit. We have no screens on our windows so we get all sorts of flies and mosquitoes in the house so we have resorted to closing the windows and doors all day. It gets kind of hot in here at the hottest 31 - 32 degrees Celsius which is about 89 Fahrenheit, but i think we are kind of getting use to it. Its too expensive to run the A/C.

I had to just reaf on this one little rug to get it off the floor because it had melted to the tile over time.




Our bill last month for electric was $130.00. And that using hardly any electricity. We even turned off the water heater. We have a little lamp we use around the house when it gets dark and sometimes candles. Keeps the bugs out too when we are trying to cool the house at night. But thank goodness for the fans. If you're working in the house just put a fan on and you feel OK. I think I want to get a couple more lamp so I don't have to keep moving around the same one everywhere... just thinking.



This is Teem, Young and Todd carrying supplies to the store. Its not very clear cuz I felt kind of dorky taking pictures but I wanted some!



Teem and Young.



Todd and I went to the school early one morning after we dropped the kids off because Katie said her class was doing the assembly and she was singing her solo - which she is doing soon - but it was the wrong week but I took a couple pictures of the girls any way.








We take a lot of walks down the rocky beach to Crooks Castle here are some pictures of one of the walks. It was a nice cool day that day!

This is a really neat tree right close to the beach.






Todd and Randal












Last but not least the 2 1/2 foot sub Todd made. He was so proud he took this picture!



the actual posting date for this is November 15th. It took me a while to finish.