Well we are winding down the school year, actually Jase was done school at the end of May. I think he has enjoyed himself so far with such a long summer break. The last week of school for him was partys!! They went on hike, played at the playground, watch movies, had treats, games, all sorts of fun. And of course the last day was the best, they rented a bouncy castle and a huge blow up waterslide. Jase thought is was the coolest things ever, and had fun watching his teachers slide down too. I think over all he had a really good school year. He learned to work hard, and that there was basically no play until homework was completed – some days were an exception. It was great to see him use a little more of his potential at the Terminal school, he couldn’t hide in the back of the class when there was only 2 -3 kids in the classroom! What a great experience, and next year for him is the SDA (Seventh Day Adventist) school. Again I think this will be an excellent experience, just in different ways. Maybe not so much academically but culturally it will be wonderful! We will just have to keep up with his studies at home.



Last day of school fun!





Mud fight!! Tr. Victoria, Tr. Hilda, Sarah, Niz, Matt & Jase.





Jase with all the teachers Tr. Joanna, Tr, Victoria, and then with his teacher, Tr. Hilda.




The yard has been looking really green these days and I thought it looked pretty so I took a few pictures of that. And then I ran into our iguana just hanging out on the side of the pool. Initially when I came out there was 2 of them, one really green and then the big old one again. I ran to get the camera and the green one was gone but not this guy, he’s not scared of anything – barking dogs included. I’ve watched him whip his tail at them and you’ve got to watch out for that. My friend had a kitten killed by an iguana’s tail!






Todd went fishing again. Before wen I mentioned that he went fishing it was always spear fishing. We just weren’t sure If we should mention that at all but he talked with a police man about it and he said it was just fine, they just don’t want people waving their spear guns around on the beach or in town, so keep it concealed as best you can out in the open. It was thought that it was illegal to spear fish here but that’s not the case. In Todds permit he signed it stated that he had to be taught by the local men how to use his spear gun properly, and that he has done – that’s kind of a neat rule I thought. He learned a lot of tricks and where the good fishing is, and where he shouldn’t go. They are some really nice guys who have taken him out.
I’ve gone out with him a couple times and this one time we were chased by a barracuda! Honestly that’s nothing compared to the other times he’s been accosted by barracudas and even a few sharks at once! Now these were nurse sharks, and reef sharks I believe he said, and they were pushing them away with the lobster pole they had, about 2 meters long. But still - Yikes And them the little sharks went and got their momma shark – they got out of the water pretty fast!

Okay but out barracuda encounter. I was holding the fish bag which floats on the water with a floater about 10 feet behind me, and the bag stinks of fish (we didn’t even have any in there) and the barracuda could smell it and he was all over it. Todd said to me – Look back and there was this giant barracuda! It kind of freeked me out – he looked freeky. I slowly started to go to shore but the Barracuda was starting to circleand blocked me off. Todd was holding his gun right at it and we were all circling for a bit, and when I could start going closer to shore I would but them I’d have to start circling again. This hole time the buarracuda is slowly getting closer and Todd shoots at it just to scare it away. Well he actually grazed it across the snout – whall we say – and it flipped out a little like to say what the heck! Now if you are going to shoot a barracuda you had better be darn sure that you have a huge gun and get it right in the head fr an instant kill. So obviously ours wasn’t but he wasn’t even trying to bit it, just scare it. Well luck for us it didn’t just go after us it kind of started to circle again, and I could see Todd just racing to load the gun again, just incase it attacked. It wasn’t sure what was going on and the stubborn thing seemed like it was hmmmmming and haaaaaaaing over whether he wanted to stick around or not so Todd did the stare down with his gun in had and started to slowly swim at it – I thought for sure he was going to get eaten I was still a little freeked out and Todd yelled swim to shore as he was doing the stare down. I’m swimming to shore wondering if Todd will come back with one arm or leg or something looking back all the time to see him – we were quite a ways out – but we made it in okay. So that was my scariest encounter so far, and Todd tells me that that’s not the scaryest he’s come across before and tells me of the sharks and an even more nosey barracuda! I think for barracudas I’ll stick with Barry the Barracuda on the night dive to STANAPA dive spot. He’s at lest kind of trained. That’s the barracuda that was swimming right beside my face and right under my belling that one time I wrote about earlier.

Fishing spoils of one day – we had lobster!




It mango season and we have been picking like mad. We eat a lot of them and freeze a lot of them for smoothies, we even dehydrated a bunch (those tasted not too bad) and just yumminess! One time we picked just shy of 100 mangos! It didn’t take very long either and we gave some away. This was one of the biggest mangos we picked. The nice thing is that there are none of those stringy bits in them just smooth and nice!
This is my hand holding it and my hand is stretched out around the mango! This picture doesn’t do it much justice.



It was Todd birthday and the kids made him a menu for breakfast in bed and gave him his presents. He’s getting to be an old man – 34 this year – hmmmm I guess that makes me an old woman this year too scary! We went to the beach later that day and had a group (that’s the title for our Ward) B-B-Q which just so happened to fall on his birthday.



We’ve met and made some really nice friends here on Statia. We met a sweet family from Florida who have just been so nice to us!! They’ve given Courtney Sarah’s clothes she has outgrown and had the kids over for fun play dates! We had Matt and Sarah over to play/hangout the other day and they show up with a bike for Jase!! I couldn’t’ believe it. Jase was so excited and he loves riding it. He’s just got to get use to riding up and down hills, because at home he was so used to riding on the flat prairie land and now he actually has to work at it!






So with Jase out of school we went to the beach earlier in the morning and had some fun together making racetracks for our sand balls and just hanging out! It has been really nice just having some special time together, going to the beach, doing jobs around the house and yard, and playing Mario Brothers 3, you know the old one from the early 90’s. I love it! And we are on World 7 now going strong! I love this time we have to spend together because time is going so fast. He is over half way now to going on a mission! Then he’s going to find a cute little girl to marry so I’d better enjoy him while I still can!






This is a pic of some containers that they use to use for fishermen I think – correct me if I’m wrong, but they aren’t of any use now.



So the girls school had what they called a day of prayer. It was a church wide activity for the SDA Church which they chose to do the other day. They made special shirts for the staff and students to ware that said “prayer changes thing”. They gathered at the church to take the bus to the Lions Club area at 6:15 in the morning. It was an early morning but we managed to make it and then from the Lions Club area we walked around the main city centre of St. Eustaius. Past the airport, down past Todd’s administration building for school, in front on the big church, down the main street past the bakery we usually go to, past Mazingas up town, past the library near the worlds smallest traffic circle, right at the Catholic Church then up past the Allrun anatomy lab (another one of Todd’s buildings), then into the SDA Church parking lot for a program. (All of those directions were for those who have been or know the island). It was really quite fun walking with the kids going from Katie’s group to Courtney’s group. They took turns holding up their class flag, Courtney’s said “The Family that Prays together Stays together” and Katies said “When Prayers go up Blessing come down”. The kids were a lot of fun, and we were singing songs and just enjoying everyone’s company. I’ve even learnt a few of the song they sing and sung them with them. Some swinging gospel songs; Jesus love is a bubbling over, Jesus it the Winner Man, I am Under the Rock, Marching over to Jerusalem, I have the Joy down in my Heart and Three Jolly Fishermen are among some of the selections. The program was nice, a little long but that’s just the way it goes when you have so many kids you want to participate and do their part.












There was one little boy who I sat by because he was having a hard time paying attention and disrupting the other kids, his name is Earl. Courtney said to me, “Why do you have a picture of Earl, he’s a bad boy?” I guess he’s a hitter and a pincher and he was definitely a busy lad but he takes cute pictures, so this is Earl!






On top of the basement part of the church they have been doing an addition for 25 or so years now and this is a picture from the inside.



Springtime has been here and with it our other fruit trees are starting to finally bare fruit. We’ve had what they call Sour Saps for the last while but before we even get a chance to harvest any – even when they are not ripe - we have to pick them not ripe because the rats and birds get them, but even then we haven’t gotten any because of the animals. But we now have some cherries on a cherry tree. The girls seem to like them, I’m not a huge fan, our lime tree has been giving off fruit, and now we have some star fruit staring to make itself know. And of courses the mangos have been growing. So here are some pictures of the girls picking cherries and some of the other fruits we have growing right now.








On Sundays we try to find activities to do while we try to keep the Sabbath as best we can. We’ve taken walks on the beach picked mangos, visited people, hung out at home and watched movies as a family, and just some nice relaxation. The particular day the girls decided to do their toes nail, and they had Daddy get in on it, so here is the proof that Todd had pink toes nails at least for a day. Good thing Jase wasn’t anywhere near!


As the school year ends so do some of the activities that they have been participating in. They absolutely LOVED going to Junior Rangers and had their final graduation for level one. I had them take the little camera with them so they could get some pictures, and I think they did a really good job. The lady in the picture, her name is Hannah (she is fantastic with the kids), Katie just loves her and I was talking with Hannah the other day and she says that she just adores Katie and has really enjoyed the kids in rangers their zest for learning, and their good behavior… I’m a proud Mom! Here’s too Rangers level Two next year!






So some of you may have heard already about Todd scooter accident. No he did not crash his scooter all by himself he had quite a bit of help. He was driving down on of the roads here, a little one that has lots of holes and pitfalls. Well he was driving on the smooth strip on the left side of the road that he always drives on and just has a feeling that he needed to move over to the other side of the road, which he started to do. As he was moving over a big SUV was barreling around the turn right at him. They did the ‘dance’ going from side to side – which was all in all just a couple of seconds – and the Todd just bailed off of the scooter and the guy drove right over Todds scooter puncturing his tire and Todd rolled off to the side in the rocks and debris. If he hadn’t leapt off of his scooter he would have been seriously hurt. Like Todd had said before, it a good thing he listened to the ’little voice’ - we call the Holy Ghost, and move over the other side of the road, the outcome would have been quite different. The scooter is still in disarray he can finally drive it around but there are no working lights and there are still a few things not working quite right, we are just glad he is okay.

Here we are picking mangos at the fort again. We love to go there as a family its quite a lot of fun. The kids all climb in the tree while daddy climbs and picks the fruit, Jase has been very brave these last few time and has climbed almost as high as Todd. It’s a great Sunday activity. Then we end up giving some mangos away.






Here is a picture of an average size tarantula. Tis the season so we have been getting quite a few in the house lately due to the fact our house really doesn’t close up, and around the yard. They are quite harmless just really ugly, and I wouldn’t want one of those climbing on me.



Let the games begin! The girls had sports day at school where they participated in all sorts of fun running games. 60M, 80M. 100M, 200M, bunny hop, balloon race, relay. I think they had a really nice time, it was a really hot day thought I was helping a little with some of the activities, and boy it was hot standing in that sun. Good thing we had the SPF 60 on so we didn’t burn. Jase enjoyed himself as well playing with some of the kids that he will be going to school with next year. As you can see the Girls we on the red team “Red means Fire!” like the volcano lava from the Quill. You know the thing I loved best about the whole day was the simplicity of the whole event. They don’t have a big fancy track, they make due with using what looks more like a baseball field and measuring out, per say, the distance that they are to run. Some of that involved stretching the 100M dash race track across the cow and goat pooped grass. I absolutely loved it. I love how my kids have the opportunity to make use of whatever you have around, and to be grateful for a place to even run, and not care whether your running lane has a big’ol poop to kick out of the way, which I did for a few kids. I don’t want my kids to grown up in a fashion where if its not the best its not good enough – if you know what I mean. We had a long, hot, but wonderful day!









Katie and her teacher, Tr. Regina. She is a fantastic teacher!


Girls and their relay teams, and the next picture is Katie getting the baton and the man is showing her how to hold it safely and telling her what to do with it.





This is the youngest humming bird I have ever seen. It must be just a few days or so old its still not strong enough to peep its head up over the nest – which they build out of spider webs (the kids taught me that from Jr. Rangers)


I took some pictures on the last day of Ballet. They are actually doing a little improve routine at the high school musical some older kids are putting on. It just to get the knowledge out to the public on what is available.







We spent a few house one afternoon, opening and eating coconuts. Jase decided to give the dogs some of the milk, which they loved, and so we gave them some pieces and they loved them too! So the dogs had some coconut with us! They ate quite a bit actually and ate some right out of the nut too – as best as they could. It was kind of funny to see how much they loved it!



I love this orang tree so I wanted to take a nice picture of it! If you turn right at this Big Stone rock – you can’t see the road in the picture though – that is a main road to our house.



Another little Lizard.



Courtney said a funny thing a while back. Katie was helping her with something – doing her a favor. And Court comes up to me and says, “ Katies doing me a solid.”

Kets = runners/tennis shoes/sneekers

Did you know that here you can drive with an open can of beer in your car drinking it – Personally we don’t drink. You can even drive drunk as long as you are ‘responsible’ and don’t harm others. But if you are caught at with any signal lights out, or your horn not working out come the fines hmmmmmmm. Just an interesting thought.

A while back I was driving down in front of the big SDA church where there is a 2 feet rock wall on either side of the road and there was a little baby goat just baaaaaing for its mom who had jumped over the wall and onto the hill above and it couldn’t get up there. So I get out of my car and start trying to chase this little goat so I could grab it and put it on the wall but I couldn’t quite get him and there were cars coming so I drove on to the side a little ways to see a local lady jump out of her car and chase that baby down and toss it over the wall. It was awesome to watch – I should have been a little more aggressive like her and get into more of a football stance for next time!

I’ve been going to a Zumba class here on the island; a young lady from the Netherlands took Zumba courses before she moved here and has now started up classes every night Mon – Thursday for 1 hour $25.00 for as many classes as you want per month! Not a bad deal hey! It pretty fun because we are all trying to shake it and do the moves like her, and some of us look a little silly but no one cares!

Did you know that cockroaches bite!? I had no idea until one night I woke up to a sharp pinch on my chest flinging my arms having this thing land on Todd waking him up wondering what the heck was going on finding the cockroach and smashing it in our bed mmmmmm. Well there was a little red dot on my chest where it hurt and I told Todd that that thing had bit me. He said no way you’re crazy, but to my defense of being ‘not crazy’ I asked my friend and she said of course they bite and cockroaches have bitten her too! So not only are they just really ugly, gross, crawl around like creepy robotic moving speedy things, and full of disgustingness they bite too! Not a pleasant thing to wake up too! Makes you wonder where else in my bed was that thing crawling. The kids have had their fair share of encounters of them in their room and bathroom where they had to go into attack mode to kill the roach!

Well I’ve got a few more pictures! The kids had a final performance for ballet at the High school Play last night and they had a wonderful time! Jase wasn’t sure whether he wanted to do it or not but decided to and he loved it, and he looked very sharp! Of course the girls had an absolutely wonderful time being on stage. It was really fun to watch!







One more interesting bit of Island information. Did you know that at one point they didn’t have any schools past elementary education on the island? Once the child was done grade 6 they would be shipped over seas so Curacao or even Bonaire, to finish their education! Can you imagine the hardship of the child at age 11 leaving home and the parents! So sad. Hopefully they can keep the education going on the island for these children. Right now it is a real struggle.