Well we’ve been Residents of the Caribbean for 6 months now as of February 15, 2011. Its unreal to think that that much time has gone by. It’s feeling more like home more often than it use to. – If that makes sense. We are still loving the warm weather with the occasional longing for snow – at least for one day ;). A relief from the mosquitoes would be nice though they are still alive and kicking. They’ve been worse this year because of extra rain we’ve been getting, and our indoor water mosquito feature doesn’t help much. We live with bug spray and citronella candles. Kind of annoying but I guess you get use to it. They are a lot more potent down here though, super itchy and fast! You’ve got to be really quick to get them.

Our neighbors/land lords are so nice. They’ve helped us out in so many ways. My favorite is the fact that I am able to again love my Jari Love!! If any of you know her she does workout videos, and our neighbor’s let me use their workout room with weights and all! She doesn’t have a step though but that doesn’t matter, it’s just so nice to be active again. It was almost 5 months before I was able to work out again – it feels so good, and my butt doesn’t feel as jiggly any more, hehe! I tried running before but that just wasn’t working out for me.

Todd is doing really good in school. He’s quite burdened with his 7 classes this semester but he’s handling it like a trooper. No one ever does 7 classes! He’s been gone every night and all day studying or going to classes and preparing for mid terms. He got a 95% on his histology midterm and is currently studying hard for his Chemistry midterm coming up. He is doing so well, he’s definitely known as one of the smart ones! So right now we don’t see him very often, almost single parenting but thank goodness I don’t have to work. Its amazing to think that he will be done 3 years of premed courses in 1 crazy accelerated year! He’s handling it really well!

Check out this picture



It looks like Honey has been resurrected! Sadly she hasn’t but we have had not one but two rascally puppies to add to the family. There is a little bit of a story behind all of this. Not long after Honey died we got a call from STANAPA telling us that they found two abandoned puppies on Zeelandia beach, which is quite deserted. They figure someone had dumped them there, so they asked if we would like to have them. Todd talked with them initially and told them he would have to talk with me. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to have any other dogs again and so we just never followed through with any plans.- and we never told the kids about it even though they had been asking to get another dog. Then one Sunday afternoon a lady comes to the house looking for our Land Lady and she has these two little puppies following behind her. The kids fell in love with the puppies (Todd and I looked at each other – reading into each others eyes!) and It turned out that she was fostering them until the animal shelter – who she volunteers for - could find them a home. Again we looked into each other’s crazy eyes and then we said we’d take them. The lady said that they wanted to find a home that would take them both. And also that they were going to be put down on the Thursday if they didn’t find them a home. So a long story short Kay (the animal volunteer lady) left the house without the puppies. They are pretty good little things. The kids named them – the one that looks like Honey is named Coco, and the one with the brown and white is Patches. Patches was really skittish at first like she wasn’t sure of us and was really skittish when we went to pet her – she acted as if we were going to whack her. We are still working on the potty training but they seam really happy. They love the kids and you can tell they like us humans as lot more. Before we were just kind of ignored now they can’t get enough of us – It’s kind of fun – except for the 6:00 morning call. I have to be up anyway to get the kids to school, but on the weekends it’s not so great!





Courtney loves to pick up the palm leaves and brag them on the grass because the puppies love to tug on them! I don’t know if you can see the expression on Courtneys face, but I love it – it is pure joy!



I love being able to go on field trips with Jase and his school! This trip we went on a hike to Cora Cora Bay. It was fun walking with Jase and just in joying the fantastic view the whole way along. It got pretty hot though even though we started at about 8:00 in the morning, and we missed the actual ‘turn off’ to get down to the bay, but it was still fun to be with Jase. I think he had a fun time. We walked back to the Botanical garden – where we started from – and hid teachers put on a BBQ for everyone. Jase really enjoyed going in the hammock with his friends and playing checkers. We played a game together too. And he really wants to learn how to play chess. So we had a fun morning together on his field trip!

Some cute donkeys we saw on the walk. Look at the furry one – cute!




You can see a cannon there in the hill.



It was Courtney’s day for assembly. He class went up on Valentines day and expressed the importance of Christ Like love. The school has not been allowed to acknowledge valentines day as part of there system for years because of the issues they have been having with kids not knowing or confusing the difference between loving a friend and an inappropriate love for the age they are at. So with prodding the school board by the Principle and Uncle Ismael the day was celebrated in hopes to educate the kids and open their eyes that they can love their neighbor without having to be romantic about it. They shared a really good message and I think its so important to talk with the kids about the different ways to love because apparently, for some, it is being misunderstood.
Here are some pics of Courtney doing her assembly.



Check out our tree with Pink and Orange blossoms. I just thought it was really pretty with the bees cross pollenating.



This little gecko I found in my kitchen. He was so cute I was trying to take a good picture of him forever and then he perched on my finger just perfect to snap this shot. He’s not the tiniest one I’ve seen but for sure the smallest one I’ve held and got a photo – then I couldn’t get him to get off!



One fun thing about living in the summer sun all year round it that the kids have swimming lessons all year round! The University has lessons for anyone living on the island of Statia every Saturday at noon, when the University is not on semester break. It really a great opportunity and it is totally FREE! What an awesome service. Its mainly set for the local population where a lot of them don’t know how to swim or have never set foot in the ocean before. They have kids class and then adult class right after. There has been a fairly good turn out sometimes, but it seam to be getting bigger and bigger which is fantastic. The kids are becoming really good swimmers and Courtney can now swim the width of the pool. It pretty fun. And Jase and Katie are working on all sorts of strokes including the breast stroke, back stroke and treading water for a long time. Close to 5 minutes! Oh I almost forgot to say that Todd was teaching our friend Pallov to swim at one point, and he also helps every once and a while to teach the older group of kids – including Jase and Katie- to swim!

I have this group picture but unfortunately the day they took one most everyone was late and then I missed the retake shortly after this was taken, but what can you do! The kids with Jeremy – the main swim coach and a little girl from the Netherlands named Abbie.





Well we have had a lot happen church wise within the last month. The Mission Presidents Counselor and his wife – the McIntoshes. (They have counselors in these missions with a lot of little Islands because there are so many little group everywhere that need organizing and support from a mission president that they have counselors) were here on the 23rd of January to set us up as a little group here on Statia. We now have about 19 members here and needed some organization. They came and called a group leader – Randal Cooper – and set us on our way. Three of us are continuing our little primary for the kids - now teaching every 3rd week instead of every other week - which seem to be going pretty good. We take turns playing the ‘piano’ in primary too – Rebecca and I. People are asked to do a Sacrament talk or teach the Sunday school class – I’ve taught once so far, Todd taught a few times – and then I play the ‘piano/organ for sacrament. It really is a nice little Sunday we’ve got going. Some Sunday mornings are a little crazier than I would like because we do have church at our house every week and it always seems like a panic scramble to get everything ready. I probably just need to get myself a little more organized. Sometimes its just hard however I’m a firm believer that it will always turn out just fine in the end when I thank my Heavenly Father for all he has blessed us with (which is more than I feel I deserve sometimes) and try to help others along the way.

Here are a couple of pictures for the get together with the McIntoshes. I had Katie’s take some pictures and tried to pick the best – lots unfortunately were blurry.

Pico Degio – I know that’s not how its spelt but that’s how I will spell it. We make this quite often because the ingredience (?) are usually easy to get here – except the cilantro.



Our sweet Station Bar-B-Q we had made when we first got here!




Jase’s Birthday! I can’t believe my oldest baby is now 10! Double digits! This happened back on February 20th. He finally got a 'summer' time birthday to play outside! He had a really wonderful party, I think he and all of his friends had a lot of fun. It started out on the Friday before the big day at school. His school had a party for him, and Teacher Victoria made a cake for him and Teacher Hilda brought some snacks for everyone to share. I came with the girls to share in some of the fun. I had the girls and Jase’s Teacher take some pictures for us. I know it made him feel really special.





This is Jase and Teacher Hilda – Jase’s classroom teacher.



The party then went on to the house on Saturday. Todd busted a coconut open for them, then they played a game called 4 square, the played hide and go seek, soccor, eggs on spoon, and what Jase wanted most was to have a wiener roast. We weren’t sure at first because people don’t have them very often around here. No roasting sticks on the island so we made some out of coat hangers but it came together way better than I thought and the kids had fun!










The boys all then settled down, if you can call it that, and watched a movie and ate popcorn to finish off the party. I think Jase had a lot of fun!

Jase’s actual birthDAY day was pretty busy but we had his favorite breakfast, waffles with whipped cream and fruit. He opted for the picture of him with whipped cream on his face. He had some nice cuddles with dad and that night his b-day buddy came over! It was Pallovs B-day the same day so we had a little cake together with him and Jase an visited for a little










Just some fun picts.

The girls with the dogs welcoming them home.




Jase is Flying the kite he got for his birthday.


This is Katie and we are showing off the start of some of our mangos – mmmmmm can’t wait!!



One more experience I had back in January that was pretty neat for me. I met a lady named Cecelia through my friend, Laura Packard who has since left the island, and Cecelia teaches voice lessons to kids on the island and was having her big final recital/ adjudication day for the kids. Laura had told her long ago that I play the piano and Cecelia was looking for someone to ‘judge’ her students along with another lady named Jacintha (whom I know and has her bachelor in music) on their Preformance. This included if they were on key, presentation, conviction, breathing, posture, and I thought there was one other thing but I’ve forgotten. Anyway I said yes I would help her out – feeling completely unqualified – but it turned out really wonderful. I think doing all of that music with the Young Women before I came here really helped prepare me for this. It was so fun watching these kids sing their hearts out – some nervous and some not so nervous. They sang quite difficult songs actually, kind of like Whitney Houston but gospel songs. Too hard for young vocalist I think but it was a neat experience both in learning a little bit about adjudication, but also seeing another part of the amazing cultural I have been so privileged to be a part of.

There is always fun in the sun!

Before you read this entry did you read the last one?? It’s a long one about Katies baptism, our Christmas holidays, a ton of other fun stuff and hundreds (literally) of pictures!

It has again been weeks of exciting events in our lives here on Statia.

But first I need to tell of the worst most heart breaking thing that has happened to us since we arrived here. Our sweet little Honey has died, and we have been so sad about it. The kids have been missing her and Courtney even has dreams about her coming back to life. We were all in tears for a few days but are now starting to feel better about it, with a few sad feelings every now and then, and memories of her. Like the one time Court and I were playing with her and Honey was doing something and Courtney said, “Don’t do that Honey you don’t want to be bald like Mom!” Nice hey! Funny girl! I had a hard time packing all of Honey’s playthings and putting her stuff away. Its pretty amazing that having her for only 4 weeks and she made a huge impact on us. We loved her so much, even the pee spots on the floor don’t seem so bad any more. We got her when she was 4 weeks old and so she was just barely 8 weeks. So sad.

We haven’t had very much luck with pets in our family. Our first dog Kaymen we had to give away because we were moving into an apartment. Our Cat ran away. Fuzzy the chinchilla died, Ginger our beloved dog we had in Magrath we had to give away to move here, We saved 2 cats here, one died the other we had to give away because of Jase’s allergies, and now Honey. Our poor kids!! Poor me too because I loved the animals around but I’m’ not sure about getting a new one yet – it is a WE’LL SEE. Honey is still pretty fresh.

Here are some of the last pictures of Honey that we have.

The girls had Niz over and were dancing to some music with Honey.


Todd was out trying to shoot some really loud roosters on the property. We were wondering whether they are good enough to eat. Honey thought it was great fun! Poor Honey 




With Jase and Katie’s Ranger Program they do here on the island they learn all about different plants, animals and insects that I have no idea about! This day they brought home some wild cucumbers. The outside was soft but prickly soft, and the inside looked like a mini cucumber. It tasted horrible though, I’m not sure it was ripe but Katie insisted on eating a lot of it, and that night she was sick! Puked twice, had horrible stomach cramps and I don’t think it was the flu. She was fine the next day. Hmmmmm makes you wonder weather it is edible or not!



If you noticed Katies beautiful dress at her baptism, we took some pictures of her in her dress so we will always remember. I’ll have to take some pictures of her at the beach in her dress too I think.





Then she wanted me to take some of her dancing around. I liked this one the best.



So Speaking of chicken getting earlier well Todd with he superior aim shot us a rooter for dinner one night. Todd was in the sniper belly position and got him right in the neck. The rooster around here are really loud and they cock-a-doodle-doo at any time of the night or day - really loud all throughout the island.



Skinning Mr. Rooster for dinner.


So that night we had wild rooster with roasted potatoes, carrots and onions. It sounds grand but it really wasn’t that good at all. He was a really tuff old roster, could hardly chew’em, and really didn’t have that much flavor. Oh well it was fun to try and see what it would taste like. Jase and Katie said that they really liked it though!? Not sure why?

Besides having wild animals out in our yard all the time we actually get them in the house all the time too! We have this one bird who is dead set on building a nest in the bamboo trees in our house. Ellie (the owner of the house) said its not a good idea to let the birds nest in the house so we have repeatedly taken down this poor birds nest. We end up taking twigs and things down at lest twice a day but he keeps coming back. Either this is a really stubborn bird because this has been going on for well over a week, or he’s a little dense and just thinks that this nest is taking a really long time to build!

You can’t really see him in this picture because it’s a little blurry  but he is there trying to build the nest.



We also get a variety of other birds flying in and eating off of the plates, and fly around in the house, and we get a lot of them taking baths in the water feature if the peeing boy in our living room. We get humming birds taking baths in there too.



The other day we had the most interesting animal so far in our house – a Juvenile Iguana.

Here is a picture of him in the peeing boy water feature.



And here he is again trying to get out of the house the wrong way.



He scared the pants right off of Todd as he was sweeping the floor around the statue and the plants moved and this Iguana leap up and on the wall of the water feature and then hopped into the bath part – unintentional for sure – and then was desperately scampering around trying to get out through the window. They aren’t dangerous they are more scared of you than you of it. You just have to watch out for their swinging tails as they are moving because they are sharp. Todd finally coaxed it out the right way with a broom. We have it on video I hope to get it on here!

There are some pretty amazing experiences to have on the island here. One of the neatest experiences we’ve had is watching a nest of turtles hatch out and make their way to the ocean from Zeelandia Beach. They have different kinds of turtles that nest here and the ones that we saw are called green turtles. They were so cute and small, they are just a little smaller then the palm of my hand. They moved almost like little robots with their arms(?) and legs rotating like you had wound their backs! It was too neat!






Some more interesting animals and insects we have encountered.

A little tiny gecko that freaked me out when I felt something crawling on my hand. I almost squished the poor little fella! I’ve seen one almost half this size out hanging the laundry but couldn’t get the camera in time!



Some massive poisonous caterpillars. I think they are poisonous because they like to feed off of these plants and they are poisonous plants. We have quite a few of these plants around our yard. They are pretty with their yellow flowers but the white juice inside of them can make you really sick so if you get the juice on you, you need to wash your hand soon after.

A picture of some baby caterpillars about 1 ½ inch long.

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A picture of an enormous mean caterpillar. I got close to it with the camera and it was going mad swatting it head back and forth, side to side, quite quickly actually, looking like it would bite me if I got too close.


Todd decided to have a little activity with the kids of shooting a fancy Beebe gun. Not sure If that is really what it is called but you put these little metal things in them to shoot, not the plastic balls. Anyway the kids loved it especially Courtney. She kept going and going while the other two were done with not as many shots. She was the first one to hit the pop cans we were shooting at. Then Todd drew a target on an old coconut that she started shooting at. It was hilarious to watch her get so excited when she hit the target. The gun was too heavy for her to aim so she would tell Todd whether to move it up down, to this side or that side and when she liked where it was she would shoot. She’d never say – oh wait stop hold it there it was just ‘bang’ as soon as it looked right. Then she’s jump up and see where she hit the can or coconut. So here are some pictures of everyone doing their shots.








Pictures of the girls climbing a coconut tree in our yard. Katie has actually climbed a little higher than that but I won’t let her go any higher! She’ll get hurt but she loves to do it.




Invasion of the cockroaches! Todd and I were sitting in the living room watching TV one night when all of a sudden a huge cockroach was flying aiming at my face to land I screeched and ducked my head to the side. We flicked on the light and noticed a few of them were on the rock feature behind us. Then there were a few more flying in (did you know there were huge flying cockroaches?) and we dodged as couple more. There were some on floor, and the kitchen. I had one land on my right side/back and it scurried up my neck and I yelled to Todd to get it off. He thought it was pretty gross trying to swat it off – their legs are like Velcro. SO GROSS. We thought that maybe there was a storm coming - a change in pressure - and they were finding shelter, and then there were big gusts of wind and a little rain but it was really weird. We’ve never had anything happen like that before. We’ve had a few roaches here and there, but that was crazy. So we did a bunch of spraying that night. Hopefully that will never happen again but living in cockroach heaven I’m sure it will!


The local schools here set up appointments with the local dentist to have the kids get their teeth checked out and make sure they are getting their teeth looked after. I’m not exactly sure why they set it up this way but I think I may be to ensure the kids have good oral health. The school bused Katie and her classmates to and from, but I had to pick up Courtney and take her to and from because of her age. The dentist just gives a quick look and then brushes their teeth – very quickly – with the spinny toothbrush thing and paste at the dentist office. Katie got the fluoride rinse and Court didn’t. It was very nice of the dentist to do my girls for free because we don’t have insurance here and it was through the school. I think the Dutch government use to pay for all the kids, now it is all through insurance. Jase I would have to pay for because he doesn’t go to a local school and he’s older. The dentist told me that it would cost me $50.00 to get my teeth checked and cleaned. Compare that to just over $400.00 back home! I don’t think this dentist includes x-rays or anything though, and I don’t know how thorough the cleaning is but it’s better than a kick in the pants! And Jase is having trouble with a tooth and I have to get it looked at toward the end of February.






Last couple pictures are Jase with some friends of his playing the Wii. Xavier (Zayvee - Standing) and Zay - sitting.



Katie in Gym class – snapped this really quick after taking Court to the dentist.




So I had mentioned before in the last entry that Todd and I were going on a night dive together to put towards our advanced diving certificate. Well it was quite an experience! I usually get a little motion sickness in the boat before the dive – which I did – and a little sick while diving, don’t know why but I just do, and then a little gross feeling on the way back to shore. But this time it was amplified by a ton! I thought I was going to puke after the dive and on the way back. Oh it felt terrible! They think it is just the darkness or something. And then about a ½ hour to and hour later I feel fine. But boy it makes me wonder if I really want to do that again just because I felt so gross which is too bad because it was amazing. Todd really loved it. He said it was the coolest thing he’d ever done. We saw huge sea turtles the size of kitchen tables sleeping under the sunken barge. One swam out toward me and then swam under my belly. I could have reached below me and touched it no problem – but you don’t do that! We saw beautiful coral because of the light we were bringing down you can actually see the real color of the coral. Lot of fish just hanging around, stingrays but the craziest thing we had with us was Berry the Barracuda. This guy is huge, and it interesting because he has learned that when he swims with the divers at night and they shine their light on the different fish, the light blinds the fish and Berry gobbles them up! So this huge massive barracuda swam with us the whole dive. I’m not saying a few feet away I’m saying brush up against you swimming. A couple times he brushed up against one divers head, and a bunch of times I’d look around and he be there ½ a foot beside me. You could count his teeth. And then another time he was swimming right below my belly. If I just pushed my belly out a little I would have touched the top of him. It was really awesome but kind of a funny creepy at times because you’d look over and there would be this ginormous barracuda right there in your face. Good old Berry! I’m sure we will see him again!


I thought for sure by now I would have run out of things to write on this blog, but I think like the saying goes there is always “fun in the sun!”