The School Year Slowly Winding Down

The School Year Slowly Winding Down

As the school year ends you just can't help but think of all the 'lasts' that start to creep up on you. The feeling is unsettling as you think what will go on without you.

That the world you live in doesn't freeze in place where your mind is when you leave. 

Courtney's last assembly that she did with her class on Statia.  They always start out with songs and some of them have some great actions. This particular one talks about the Saviour and that he has - peace like the river, love like the ocean, and joy like a fountain. Courtney is doing the actions of the fountain!

"..I've got joy like a fountain, I've got Joy like a fountain I've got joy like a fountain in my Soul.."

And then they read stories and ask the kids questions about the stories to see if they were paying attention or not.  Then they pay tribute to the school and Statia by saying the school slogans, singing the song, and singing the anthem of Statia.

I have always loved being there for the kids assemblies and being apart of some of the things they do at the school.

We had to get a picture of this big goat reaching up in the tree for the best leaves.  It was pretty funny to watch him because he was up there for a really long time just leaning against the tree having a snack. I knew what kind of tree it was when i took the picture but i can't really tell anymore but i think its a soursop tree.

We have been doing a lot of things around the house to try and have it nice for the time that we leave the island.  Doing lots in the yard - you have no idea how fast things grow here!! Its CRAZY, and rising things, cleaning things, it really has never stopped - its kept us really busy.  One of the projects we were doing was smashing tiles for an area around the pool. And in this smashing we would find different critters.  Cockroaches, centipedes (Katie almost grabbed on by the way - a huge one - and it slithered through her hand!!!), gecko's, salamander sort of things, scorpions, gross things, and we took a picture of a couple of the critters that didn't get away so fast.

Here is a very itty, bity, scorpion and some little eggs - that we had seen lots of but never know what was inside - these little geckos of sorts.  Cute!

Todd has always been a busy guy getting school work done, stuff on the house done, and doing something for someone else.  One of the things he has done off and on for our friends at Squbaqua dive shop it fix their computers and save them from utter computer destruction ;) As a return for his services our friends Marieke and Mike, along with Meno (co-owners of Squbaqua - Meno's wife Ingrid also a owner) took us on our very own family dive.  (Courtney couldn't dive of course because she was too young to get her diving certificate - you have to be at least ten and capable of tackling the course) They took us out on our very own boat, just us and the kids, to the dive site called Aquarium.  It is a smaller dive site but like its name has an abundance of fish and underwater life.  Its beautiful.  

Getting our diving gear for the dive and our ride in the truck to the boat.

Getting our gear ready in the boat and going to the location.

 Thanks to Meno we have a picture of all of us surfacing after our wonderful dive - we have always loved diving with Marieke! 

Heading back to shore - Poor Katie gets so cold underwater - so do I - and she is just freezing for the next while after.  And poor Courtney got quite sea sick waiting for us during our dive.  She waited about 45 minutes for us on the boat.  Katie and Jase's longest dive - Katie gets too cold.  I think mine and Todds longest dive was just over an hour.  Pretty cool to think of being underwater that long.

Loading our stuff and the tanks to call it a day :)

The Vos' were going to be leaving the island very soon - in approximately 2 week and we really wanted to have them over for a dinner.  They have been so sweet and wonderful to us and the kids just love each other - so dinner was an absolute must!!  It was short but sweet - lots to do and lots on the go!

This is a beautiful crown Courtney made at school when they were talking about the the Queen abdicating he thrown to he son to be the new King. 

Courtney also had a fun get to gather party at her grade two teachers house - Tr. Cheryl!  Tr. Cheryl has said for the last year that she was going to get together her class from last year and have that party she's been wanting to throw for the kids.  This was the lucky day!  I let her take our little camera so she could capture some of the moments!  I think she had a lot of fun and mentioned after the party that Tr. Cheryl is the best cook ever!

View from Tr. Cheryl's House

Macuire, Nicole in the stripes, Sineillie in the green.

Mae-Rubya

Xaviera (Savy), & Wenston

Courdy

Tr. Cheryl!

For weeks now I had been having this nagging feeling that I needed to go into Jase's class and share with them something that had been going around the internet.  It was some thoughts, feelings, and idea's shared by a young lady from the same church that my family belongs to - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - called 'Drops of Awesome'. It touches on not 'beating yourself up' for your "short comings" or "mistakes" and the idea that you can always move forward in life to being a better and stronger person with each positive step that you take - each drop of awesome you put into your bucket.  Also you can never take away any of your drops awesome with poor choices or short comings but you can only fill your 'bucket of Awesomeness' with the awesome things you do.  And throughout our life here on earth and in the ultimate end of our mortal lives - after all we can do -  it is our Saviour who will completely fill our bucket of awesomeness to overflowing.  This young lady explains it much more beautifully - I really suggest reading it.

http://www.daringyoungmom.com/2012/12/19/drops-of-awesome/

The wonderful thing about my kids going to the Seventh Day Adventist school - a religious school - is we can share our feelings about our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.  We have some beliefs in common through Them and know that we are brothers and sisters.  Even though many beliefs are not the same it was so nice to share with these special classmates of Jase my feelings, our feelings about our Saviour.  And that they are good enough, not to beat themselves down anymore, lift each other up and to know that they can do amazing things in their lives if they work hard and trust in the Lord.  I truly believe it was a wonderful experience for all of us and I just pray that they remember what they felt that day.

To help them remember what we talked about I made them each a drop of awesome by decorating clear flat marbles (thank you Hannah Farrell for the marbles) and Pictures of our Saviour brought to the island by my Mother.