Easter Break Novel 2011

This one is seriously another novel in the making. I haven’t had a lot of time to just sit down and write this thing up. We have had a whole bunch of stuff happen the last little while. With Todd on break and his Mom coming for a visit we’ve had many exciting things going on and a few things that happened before it all.

First of all I have to tell the most awesome story ever. It actually happened while Todds mom was visiting. Todd decided that he was going to go on a dive with some buddies. So off he went for a nice dive – without me. A few hours later I see him riding home on the back of a friends scooter. I was wondering why he showed up on someone else’s scooter and not his own. Well while he was in the midst of his dive or soon there after taking a dive into the water from the boat his scooter keys fell down to the depts of Davies Locker – as Todd likes to put it. By the way the dive was to blue bead hole (where you can find blue beads on the dive, its just a plain sandy bottom with pretty much only Flying Ganards (fish) ) and he found a little blue bead and ended up giving it away to someone. So the thought was, he took something from the sea so the sea took something from him. It was a pretty crappy deal seeing that his wallet and things were locked in the seat and there is not one lock smith on the island. You can’t even make extra keys. So we went down to the dive shop to see what we could do about his bike. Someone at the shop said to check this guy out who works across the street because he would probably be able to hot wire it for you. So Todd went over there and told the guy the situation and the guy said, “well lets see what we can do.” So he went to go get a few things to help us Todd out and he comes back from around the corner and says will this help? And in his hand he was holding Todd scooter keys!! The guys said he was actually doing some ocean surveying right in the very area that Todd was diving not 2 hours after Todd had finished his dive and happened upon a set of scooter keys and decided to pick them up incase someone was looking for them!! It amazing to think about it – a miracle really! What are the odds that in the vast area of the marine park of the island a fellow would be surveying right were Todd was diving and went right to where Todds keys landed in the ocean! There’s no way that was just a coincidence or pure luck! Its called we have an amazing Father in Heaven who looks out for us even in the simplest of times – well maybe that wasn’t very simple but none the less he is always there if we allow Him….. That’s my awesome story!

A while back he girls got to be models! Rebecca, who is an amazing photographer, has someone back home who makes adorable hair flowers. Rebecca has previously taken pictures of girls wearing the flowers for this Lady to advertise the flowers on her website. Poppyrow.com is the site. The Lady mailed down a bunch of different head flowers so Rebecca asked if the girls wanted to have pictures taken with some of the head flowers on. The girls were so excited and the time was set and Rebecca came over and worked her magic! It was a lot of fun to watch and so I took a couple quick snap shots of Rebecca taking the photos. The next 4 really nice pictures are some of the ones that Rebecca took – obviously! You could tell the girls were trying really hard to make the right face. Some of the faces were funny/cute if you know what I mean, but Rebecca’s quick and got some cute ones. So check out the girls and the flowers at poppyrow.com! Look under the:

Orange Crush and Pacific Blue Retro Beaded Flower – Courtney
Mini Pure White Silky Satin Flowers – Courtney and Katie
Three Small Layered Raspberry Red Satin Beaded Flowers – Courtney & Katie










Todds most recent passion is fishing, not just with a fishing rod standing on the dock, but snorkeling underwater to catch us some dinner. He did a lot of it on his break and now its not as frequent but he loves it. He will go for hours while we play on the beach and then bring us some awesome dinner to eat. We’ve had parrot fish, squirrel fish, Spanish hog fish, yellow tail snapper, glass eye snapper, red hine, stoplight parrot fish, permit, bar jack, blue runner, trunk fish (cow fish – they look like little underwater triangular cow with little wings, so cute!). We have also had the delicacy of lobsters – Caribbean and slipper lobsters, and Conch – to name a few. He went out with some local spearfishing fellows a little while back and just loved it and has gotten to know them fairly well. Todd’s helped them de-scale and gut their fish here and there whenever he sees them and has learned a little about different fish that live in our area. What’s good to eat and what to stay clear of. You know the fish in Finding Nemo that eats Nemo’s mom – the barracuda. Those have poisonous skin but they still shoot them and peel the skin off to keep the meat from being contaminated – its kind of interesting.









So there is a big oil company on the island call NUSTAR – the Terminal – and they sponsor and help out with a lot of the local schools on the Island. Todd went walking into their main office a while back and saw this big poster.



It has pictures of all the schools they have donated to, and he looked closer because he saw the girls school on the poster, and then saw a little white girl in the picture and it is Courtney. She’d been picked to get her picture taken for the company’s big banner.



So Court kept telling us that she was going to be on TV. I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. The island has a local station where they play a news real over and over for the duration of about a week. And one day we were flipping through the TV channels and we see the girls school on the TV and there showing was the minister of Education from the Netherlands visiting the girls school and the girls in their respected classrooms being visited. There was a personal close – up of both the girls. They thought it was fantastic being Statia Stars!

This is a picture of Statia Road Kill – Land Crab


And this is the picture of the HUGE centipede that we caught on out rat trap. The thing was so ugly and huge it was unreal. It was stuck and Todd thought it would be a good idea to kill it fast so he started spraying some killer on it. Well he sprayed it so much that the pad lot its stickiness and the things was just squirming toward Todd and literally leaping into the air legs flailing – I’d never seen anything like it. It was going toward Todd but then reared the other way and leaped over most of the rattrap but then got stuck in the other side of the trap. It was freaky. Needless to say Todd stabbed it and then rolled it up in the rest of the sticky pad and we threw it out in the garbage truck. That thing could have almost killed someone with a bite and it was in our house! Just imagine it jumping around and its body stretching well beyond the measurement of the ruler in the picture!



Jase and Katie in their Jr Rangers are learning a lot amazing things around the island. All bout different fish, snorkeling, plant growing, animal and plant species on the island, volcanoes, hiking, just to name a few things they do on Wednesday afternoons. Among the things they are learning it to respect the environment and the animals around then. So one of their projects was to paint a sign to be placed around the island to send a reminder out to everyone about the importance of protecting the island and its occupants. So here are the pictures of the kids with their signs.


Katie chose to have her sign placed here at the bus stop – the only on one the island-
because a lot of garbage tends to be left here on the ground.



Jase chose the leather back green turtle because it is an endangered species.



Jase put his sign at Young and Rachael’s store where we use to live and the little neighbor kids came out and wanted their picture taken too. So we took a bunch of pictures with them. I think they had a really good time having fun in front of the camera. Here is one of those pictures.



A few ransoms:

A pictures from inside Duggins – the main shopping store on the island.


The girls in the grass on our lawn. It got really long for a little while and things were really drying up on the island so we had some golden grass for a while.


Jr Iguana we saw hanging out in our of our palm trees.


Limes from out lime tree. We really wish we had more fruit growing around us. We have some fruit trees but they don’t grow very well. Probably because they haven’t been pruned for a long time.



Typical ant trail.



Courtney said to me one day. Mommy you have to come and see my picture. I knew they had been outside drawing with calk on the cement and I came to find a picture drawn with permanent marker. I has since faded thank goodness but it did take a while for it to go away. I tried to not be upset at first because it was permanent – you know when the house isn’t yours - and explain that we don’t draw with permanent marker on the driveway. So far its never happened again.



Sunset in our back yard. We get many beautiful sunsets to look at almost everyday. I’m still in awe that we live in such an amazing place!



These look like weird colored rocks but they are actually remainders of ballast bricks used by the trading ships that came to the island in the 1700’s. You can find them all over the west side of the island in all sorts of sizes. They also used a lot of these bricks in their buildings that they built on the island. Its always pretty cool to me when I see a 300 plus year old brick in the water swimming with my kids or on the beach. It makes me wonder what ship was it on, was it a sunken ship – because there were quite a few seeing as this was the main island stop to the Americas, and sought after by many countries. I don’t know if I ever mentioned this before in the blog but this little island of Sint Eustatius was the very first country to even recognize the United States as a country! And I know they don’t teach that in American history – Jase just finished studying all about it and not one word.



So along with Todds break Grandma Erickson came for a visit. The kids were excited to see her and to show her the island that we live on.



Grandma brought us all sorts of goodies that we asked her to bring. Some sandals and flip-flops, vitamins, crafts toys, candies, beef jerky, wasabi peas, fish sauce, ballet stuff, cloths… all sorts of different things. It was like Christmas all over again!





Lucky for Grandma just days after she came we went the girls had their Memorization Program at the SDA church. Each class memorized different parts in the New Testament about the life, death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.
There really wasn’t a focus on the atonement, but it was a very nice start to the Easter season. Each girl’s class preformed and quoted their parts really well. They were quoting almost whole chapters with only their teachers prompting them if they ever needed it – which was pretty much never. It was quite impressive! The music was both fun and there were some really pretty songs sung as well. The school provided them with a scarf to ware for the program. Katie has a solo part and sung in a little quartet and was dressed as one of the disciples for her memorization part. I of course was a proud mom watching my girls and loving every min of their performances!








The Beach! It is always fun to go to the beach. No matter when you go there is almost always a friend to play with and no matter what we have a wonderful time. We are drinking pinacoladas , snorkeling, swimming with Rachael and Team – everyone had to get in the picture!, playing with friends, collecting conch for the side of the pool we are trying to decorate. So here are a few pics from the beach while Grandma was with us.













Easter has come and gone another year! It hard to believe it! My goal this year was for our family to focus more on the true meaning of why we celebrate Easter. I have found in the past our focus has not truly been where it should be and I wanted to change. So I found some scriptures in the New Testament and Book of Mormon all about the Savior and his life, atonement, death and resurrection to read every night for our scripture reading with the kids and we tried to think of what had gone on in the Saviors life that particular day so long ago leading up to Easter Sunday. I think we all gained a greater appreciation for our Savior and his love for us – it was wonderful. We also did our usually eater egg hunt with the added bonus of finding baskets around the house for each kids – grandmas idea!














The kids also did some Easter crafts with Grandma. We saved the dye from the eggs and did tie dye undershirts, and Grandma brought some Easter crafts to do with the kids and we decided to let the kids each invite a friend over to do the craft with them. Well Katie’s friend is the only one that showed up Jase and Courtney were a little disappointed but I think the kids had fun anyway. We made a future play date with the ones that couldn’t make it. Katie’s friend Maya came and her Dad came too to hang out for a while and we ate coconuts!










Uncle Ismael came by for a brief visit! He is always so sweet to us he brought us some really yummy chocolate cupcakes, papaya, and a prune pie. You make think prune pie?? But it was quite delicious actually!


That Easter Sunday we invited over the students from Todd school over for a huge dinner. It was mostly a potluck dinner, and it turned out quite nice and we had a ton of left over food! It was pretty crazy. But here is the only picture that I took of the dinner that I thought even turned out – oh well!


We took Grandma to the Fort Orangistad where wee looked at the amazing view of the beach, picked mangos, jumped onto almost a springy soft foam like grass, and walked down the street for a bit.









We went to the botanical garden to look at the view of St. Kitts and some of the different plants and flowers. It’s a fun little garden, the kids really like it. It really isn’t a fancy sort of place by any means but its fun to get out and go every once and a while.








This is a passion fruit that we picked at the botanical garden. I’d never see one in real life before nor tasted one. It was kind of nice a little tart not like you would think it would taste from drinking sweet drinks with passion fruit in them.




On the way home from the Botanical Garden Katie wanted to stop and pick some Tamarinds from the trees. So that’s what we did, we got a bag from the car and picked a bunch of them. I’ve never eaten one off of the tree before it was really interesting. Some were quite sour, others a little more sweet, but they were addicting to eat until your tongue was raw. I wish I had a close-up picture of what they look like.





So one of the things that need to be done when you come to the island is hike the Quill. Just to say you’ve done it I suppose and also because the kids absolutely love it. They especially love going down inside the crater, which they wanted to do really bad but we didn’t want to kill Grandma off. We were a little concerned, taking our time and stopping here and there, during the hike up but she was a trooper and kept pushing forward. Way to go Grandma!






So we did a bunch of yard work those weeks Todd was off school. It needs to be done or it will just over grow like a jungle. We took out 5 truck loads during those week, this is not any ordinary truck, this is a huge truck. You can see a little of the truck in some of the pictures. You can fill it and fill it and fill it more! We have to start earlier in the morning because then it starts to get too hot and then you are soaked in sweat and hotter than haytes! (can’t figure out how to spell it!) Well you get soaked with sweat anyway but at least you aren’t dying of the heat!





As we were fixing the driveway so we weren’t scraping the bottom of the car every time we drove up, Todd put a load of dirt on there and a centipede started crawling toward and up on my flip flop I tried to shake it off but it wouldn’t go and then Grandma got it with something – I can’t remember what it was – but those bugs will bite you and that wouldn’t be very good. They also have poisonous spiders here. I think that’s all they have for poisonous. But we’ve had grey tarantulas in the house almost the size of your palm and I’ve killed a few around the house too. We must have had a nest here or something. The biggest I’ve seen is one the size of my palm – I have a big palm!




We took Grandma to visit Uncle Ishmael at the school and his museums. He told us stories about how he started the school in his own garage with 8 students – where now there is approx. 110 students. We saw the girls class rooms again and he even took the kids on Moto the donkey ride! They even fed Jessica the cow mango leaves! Those are her favorites!

These pictures are of Courtney in her classroom, you can see in the one picture that all the rooms are actually connected, it really echo’s and can get really quite loud in there with all the kids but Courtney LOVES going to school. Well maybe not actually getting up and going but every time she comes home school is “AWESOME!”





This is Katie’s classroom








In these pictures you might catch a glimpse of some friends of ours that we made on the island. We took them with us to visit Uncle Ishmael. They have been so sweet to us bringing the girls beads to make necklaces and treats, and they brought Jase the book Diary of a Wimpy kid, which he read in one night! He got Todd a sweet NY hat and I got some slippers – flip flops, I automatically thought slippers cuz that is what they call them here, and a shirt. Here is a picture of Hansel opening the bead making kits for the girls.



We took the kids to the park and a little boy showed up to drive his ‘car’ around the park! He wanted Courtney to get in so he could cruse the park with her! It was pretty cute. He kept eyeing her up and driving around her til his parents told us that he does that when he wants them to hop in and ride with him!



So Grandma got a boyfriend whilst visiting Statia!



Just kidding, this is her and a picture of ‘Sweet Johnny’ so he says, but his real name is Jan. It’s a Dutch name and is basically pronounced in English Yun. Pretty much every one on the island has a nickname. Here are some I know. Bonzo, Cancer, Bandit, Sticky, Dirk, Dutch, Solder, Heavy, Lyrics, to name a few. But this is Johnny. Todd has been very kind to a lot of the local men who hang out on the streets doing different things for them to help them out and because of these things Johnny considers Todd better then any of the sons he’s had. (He doesn’t consider them sons anymore) So in giving thanks to Todd Johnny has wanted to meet Todd’s mom and tell her what a wonderful son he is to him and give her a blue bead. That’s right I said a blue bead to add to the one we already gave her when she arrived! She is one lucky lady.


This was the day Grandma had to leave the island it was pretty amazing that we so happened to run into him just hours before she left. Here are just a couple of the good-bye photos.




So we have a huge old Iguana the lives in our yard. It is really quite amazing to see. The other day the dogs were barking and barking and I couldn’t figure out why the heck they would be carrying on so much. I went outside and there pretty much right out the front door was our huge iguana. The dogs were still barking but the iguana wouldn’t have it. He was almost just looking at them like “sure give it a try and I will whack you so hard with my tail I will cut you!” So I had plenty of time to get my camera and take a couple pictures.




Just 2 days ago I was going out to hang my laundry and her was right there. I scared him a bit coming around the corner but then he wouldn’t move. I was a little nervous because he was right there! And again I got my camera and took a movie of him and he still didn’t move I got about 2 feet from him and he just sat there. So I just carried on hanging my laundry with a huge iguana just sitting there watching me not a few feet away.

The other day Todd got some fish from a local fisherman some awesome wha-hoo fish. I have no idea how to spell it but that is how it sounds! We decided then and there that we were going to make some sushi. I had Todds mom bring some sushi wraps cuz you can’t get them here and I did it. It took a while but we had sushi and Sum Tum – a Thai dish that is so yummy. We had Todds mom bring us the fish sauce that we needed for that to. Its not too hard to get the green papaya here that you need to make it but the fish sauce is no where to be seen. Here is it!



So we had Marlin and Hansel over for sushi and that nigh Marlin called saying Hansel couldn’t breath. The poor guy is allergic to fish and had to go to the hospital for a shot! We felt terrible!

This is an interesting picture of one of the newest roads on the island. I’m guessing they didn’t have the proper ability to move the power poles to keep them from being almost in the middle of the road.



Katie received a letter at school from the Youth and Family Centre and was invited to a special 1 year anniversary of their opening. They said they had a special prize for her. Well a month or so ago they had given a coloring contest out to students Katies age around the island and she was the winner from her school. So she got a prize bag full of goodies and her picture is being placed in the baby building on the property where the newborns are measured weighed and cared for. She was so happy and I was so proud of her!

Here she is with Daddy getting ready to accept her prize and the head secretary of the island. He is a very important person on the island who reports to no one except the Netherlands! He has been a good friend with Katie and played in the water lots with her when he first came to the island and wasn’t so busy with work. We had no idea who he was then, but he and his wife are very sweet humble people. Oh and the TV network was there too! Fun Stuff.





So being here on the island we are bound to have the need for the dental office and the first opportunity fell upon Jase. I have to admit I was a little nervous at first but it all turned out really well. Jase’s filling had collapsed and need to be replaced, so the Doctor had to dig out the filling and put in a temporary because he didn’t’ have enough time to do a full one at first. And he did that all with out anesthetic! That was hard to watch – Jase was so brave! So we had to come back and we had to wait about 1 month. I was worried that the temporary would fall out before then but it held strong and we were able to get a permanent replacement in with the use of some anesthetic this time. Jase was great and the most beauteous part about the whole thing was that it was $30.00! Yes $30.00! So awesome. They just about dropped dead when I told them that at home a full meal deal cleaning and check-up at home cost about $400.00! They thought it was highway robbery!
So perhaps coming to the Caribbean for your dental work might be worth the travel for some time in paradise! Minus the $1.65 per liter gas!

Todds third semester of schooling has now started and this time he is taking Anatomy, Biochemistry, English, Bio-statistics, and Epidemiology. It really is very amazing here because he is still in his premed and getting credit towards premed but they are allowing him to take actual MD classes to get double the exposure when it comes to taking the class for his actual MD. His exams they count are a little easier but he can take the mainstream MD tests to see how he is comparing to the rest of the class. Its a little tricky because he doesn’t have any anatomy background of any sort and he is taking 2 elimination courses at once where as when taking MD they only give you 1 elimination course a term. A limitation course is one that they put in a term to weed people out. He definitely has his hands and brain very full this semester, but I know he can do it!

Jase officially finished his fifth grade classes on May 16th! Wow were we ever excited, the Calvert System of schooling is very demanding with hours of homework almost every night. Jase and I both are so excited to be done for the year! Next week is filled with lots of fun activities and field trips at Jase’s school to end the year off. He is such a smart boy. He finished reading the whole Harry Potter series in just 3 ½ months going to school all day, homework every night sometimes until 9 or 10 at night and still finished the books in that time! For a 10 year old kid I think that’s pretty amazing and now he is on to the Eragon series and has read book 1 & 2 in about 2 ½ weeks. He’s an amazing reader for sure about twice as fast as me and when he grows up he tells people that he wants to be a scientist.

The girls have until the end of June before they are done school so I will have Jase home for a whole month before the girls are done. We will have to find some fun stuff to do together!

One last little tid bit of information – the moon here is really neat to look at especially when it’s a quarter moon – something like that – because it doesn’t look like the classic crescent moon like the letter ‘c’ it looks like the Cheshire cat smile!