Sunday July 10, 2016

THREE weeks from today will be our last day on the island!! The time is starting to fly! We are trying to fit in a few more trips to waterfalls and beaches. I'm trying to soak in all the good that I will miss. The flowers, the trees, how green everything is. The slow pace of life! There are things I will NOT miss and I really am ready to be back with family in Idaho. But this island has been good to us. I have learned and grown. I now see that so many things I thought I needed are really just wants and conveniences. I have learned to be more grateful. I have learned and will continue to see that the Lord is so mindful of each of us individually. I know He wanted us to come to Dominica.

Mark was released as the branch president today. He served well. I am glad to have had the opportunity to watch him and support him in that calling. It would not be an easy calling anywhere at anytime but to do it here in Dominica (where there are MANY reasons it is so difficult here...) and to do it as a medical student is next to crazy. Not to mention he was the SGA president for much of that time! The Lord helped Mark to juggle his calling, school and family so well. I am incredibly proud of him. 

I have faith that the Lord will guide us on our journey and help us get to where he wants us to be when he wants us to be there. I hope that once we leave Dominica I will remember the things I have learned and be grateful. 

I can't wait to go to a grocery store in the states. I'm afraid I may actually cry!!! Full shelves where I can find anything I want! And if by some chance what I want isn't there I can get in a VEHICLE and DRIVE (I haven't done that in 19 months!!!) and go to ANOTHER grocery store NEARBY and find just what I want!! I bet there would even be a VARIETY of brands, flavors and prices which would be MARKED on the shelves for me to choose from. 

I can't wait to eat a GOOD hamburger and fries with a MILKSHAKE!!! At that note I can't wait to buy milk for way less the $9USD! I really am very excited but I still have a little more time here to enjoy the good and breath through the bad and frustrating parts. I'm almost off the rock! I'm excited to see where this adventure will take us next. We will be in Idaho for a good few months while Mark studies, takes huge exams and then he will be in Florida for 6 weeks before rotations begin... somewhere...   Someday I will come back to visit as a tourist. That will be a lovely happy humid day!       

June 17, 2016

There are 45 days until we leave Dominica! Lately I have been focusing on all the things I dislike here and dreaming of all the things I miss from America. It's a really easy thing to do here! I realized that's what I was doing and decided to post something positive or happy about my day or the island as a countdown on Facebook and Instagram. I began at 50 days. It's kind of hard but much better to be looking for the good each day. I have such mixed emotions about leaving. I am crazy excited and really can't wait yet I know after our initial month of fun and family we will fall into a routine and I will at times miss parts of life in Dominica. Time is moving swiftly. When we purchased our plane tickets home we had about 80 days. I can't believe we're nearly down half of that time now. I need to try to sell/give away most of our things here. We don't want to take much back.

The kids have been sort of participating with a groups of girl and boy scouts on Friday evenings for a few weeks now. Tomorrow we are going on a field trip to a farm to learn about how insects help things grow. We've actually been to the farm before so I hope my kids still enjoy going.

Emma is THE CUTEST! She is quite the talker and I would guess more advanced in her speech then any of our other kids were at her age. When she looks at letters she has started saying, "E- M -O".  It's pretty cute. We've been trying to get her to change it to E -M -M -A. We love her sweet personality. Earlier this week the poor girl was sick and threw up on me and immediately said, "Sorry Mamma". Oh my goodness it melts my heart. I felt bad that SHE felt bad.

Alexis is becoming a good little artist. Last semester the kids had a great art teacher. She put together an amazing art exhibit of the children's work.

Isaac has started to find enjoyment in a good book.

Kari is turning into a monkey and mastering the monkey bars on the playground.

Life is good. Even when at times it's not...

May 31, 2016

Today marks SEVENTEEN months we've lived in Dominica! I have many missed emotions about that fact. I will have good memories to take home with me. I'm ready to leave! We've had two fans completely bite the dust I. The last week. Meaning no amount of oil and tinkering from Mark is bring them back. The water was brown yesterday! I killed a little cockroach in the hallway. Wah wah wah! I'm just ready! I intend to have fun and go on some trips and visit a beach a fee more times before we leave but I am anxiously counting down the days. 62 days by the way! There is an ice cream truck that drives around occasionally playing annoying music like in the states. I was shocked the first time I heard it. I was surprised there was an ice cream truck on the island. Today I decided we would go out and see what he had to offer. A small cup of either vanilla, strawberry or a combo of the two flavors for $2.50ec. (that's a little less the $1USD) We bought four little cups. The kids were thrilled!!

May 18, 2016

I've been failing at blogging completely!
We enjoyed our 2 week break between the semesters. The kids went back to school on the 9th. I found I really missed my morning workouts with Tim but found it hard to try getting up on my own. He started up again this past Monday the 16th. Mark has joined the craziness of Tim Trains Me and goes to the 6pm group. Mark also ran a 5k on Monday before his first class with Tim! Poor Mark is so sore right now! We had some good fitness goals going right now. My sister and I are going to do a half marathon together at the end of August! The best thing I have to report is we booked our plane tickets and our feet will touch American soil in 75 days!! We leave Dominica in August 1st! I'm so excited!! I have lots to do before then and plan to enjoy the rest of our time here but I am so glad that the end is in sight!

*Mon. May 2 - Sun. May 8

This week of break was nice. Monday evening we went to the pool for a birthday party for a little girl who just got to the island. Emma gets more brave every time we go swimming. She's about ready to be a fish. I jumped into the pool and without waiting for me to catch her she jumped in to the water with her little floatie. It did surprise her a little but she wanted to jump more. We tried teaching her how to hold your breath and close your eyes. It was entertaining to watch her try! What a silly!

Tuesday was supposed to be family picture day but Mark was sick with whatever Lexi had from Sunday. I went to the gym while Emma was napping. 

Wednesday was finally the day I've been wanting to have our entire time here! Family picture day!!!! I hate the work and stress of taking family pictures but I love having pictures so it's worth the crazy. Lexi saw the clothes I had laid out and she helped me realize we had some better options. We don't have stores around to try to go buy coordinating stuff. I had to work with what we had. Somebody our clothes are looking dingy from island living so many clothes were not even considered. I happy with what we ended up wearing! We borrowed a tripod (Actually, we borrowed it in January when we were planning on taking pictures but that didn't work out. My friend just let us hang onto it forever!) and Mark took the pictures with a remote. I am SO happy! I absolutely love the pictures!!! 

Thursday was Emma's 2nd birthday!! This. Sweet girl brings so much joy to our family! I love her so much! She loved that it was her birthday. She walked around singing "happy birthday" to herself. Too cute!! For breakfast we took the kids to the local French bakery for the first time. We got a tasty spread to share!! Yum!! I love their green pepper and chicken quiche. We hung out on campus for a bit. Isaac and Mark played a video game for the first time here up at the CAC there is an Xbox. The kids played some ping pong and pool. Emma and Kari played the piano and sang "I am a Child of God". Emma is a good little singer. We went to Swirls frozen yogurt place that has been closed since November and just opened up this week. They didn't have the same machines and offered different stuff. We ended up only getting Emma an ice cream cone because of how expensive it was! We realized it was Emma's first ocean cream cone! She didn't know what to do when she got to the cone. 

Friday I took the family adventuring to the local hot pool my trainer Tim took me to. At first Kari was complaint how she hated the shoes she was wearing and it was a awful hike. By the end she loved it and can't wait to go there again! 

Saturday's was an amazing day of cleaning and organizing!!! Lots of teamwork!  We went to a birthday party. 

*Mon. May 2 - Sun. May 8

This week of break was nice. Monday evening we went to the pool for a birthday party for a little girl who just got to the island. Emma gets more brave every time we go swimming. She's about ready to be a fish. I jumped into the pool and without waiting for me to catch her she jumped in to the water with her little floatie. It did surprise her a little but she wanted to jump more. We tried teaching her how to hold your breath and close your eyes. It was entertaining to watch her try! What a silly!

Tuesday was supposed to be family picture day but Mark was sick with whatever Lexi had from Sunday. I went to the gym while Emma was napping. 

Wednesday was finally the day I've been wanting to have our entire time here! Family picture day!!!! I hate the work and stress of taking family pictures but I love having pictures so it's worth the crazy. Lexi saw the clothes I had laid out and she helped me realize we had some better options. We don't have stores around to try to go buy coordinating stuff. I had to work with what we had. So many of our clothes are looking dingy from island living so many items were not even considered. I am happy with what we ended up wearing! We borrowed a tripod (Actually, we borrowed it in January when we were planning on taking pictures but that didn't work out. My friend just let us hang onto it forever!) and Mark took the pictures with a remote. I am so SO happy! I absolutely love the pictures!!! 

Thursday was Emma's 2nd birthday!! This sweet girl brings so much joy to our family! I love her so much! She loved that it was her birthday. She walked around singing "happy birthday" to herself. Too cute!! For breakfast we took the kids to the local French bakery for the first time. We got a tasty spread to share!! Yum!! I love their green pepper and chicken quiche. We hung out on campus for a bit. Isaac and Mark played a videogame for the first time here up at the CAC there is an Xbox. The kids played some ping pong and pool. Emma and Kari played the piano and sang "I am a Child of God". Emma is a good little singer. We went to Swirls frozen yogurt place that has been closed since November and just opened up this week. They didn't have the same machines and offered different stuff. We ended up only getting Emma an ice cream cone because of how expensive it was! We realized it was Emma's first ocean cream cone! She didn't know what to do when she got to the cone. 

Friday I took the family adventuring to the local hot pool my trainer Tim took me to. At first Kari was complaint how she hated the shoes she was wearing and it was a awful hike. By the end she loved it and can't wait to go there again! 

Saturday's was an amazing day of cleaning and organizing!!! Lots of teamwork!  We went to a birthday party. 

Saturday 4/16/16

I had a full on in tears breakdown today. It was when you focus on all the worst things about yourself and feel pretty worthless and upset. On top of that I've been feeling really "trunky" and so anxious to leave "the rock". We still don't know when that will be but it's still a few months down the road. I also have the added stress of needing to write a talk for church that I procrastinated. (As usual!) My poor loving husband didn't know what to do with me. He held me while I cried then left me to work on my talk. He helped Alexis work on her IXL which has been such a struggle lately. She needs to be completely finished with her 3rd grade math section by April 28th. If she is she gets paid $50ec and we will be having delicious homemade ice cream cake!!!! If she's not done she owes Mark money, doesn't get yummy awesomeness and STILL has to finish her IXL. Now tell me which is a better option?? She keeps getting distracted and frustrated. She has quite a few left to do now but that is only because she wouldn't work on them last fall when we told her she needed to or THIS would happen. Anyway, Mark is trying to help her with that and wrangle all the other kids AND fix dinner so I can write my talk. YET I feel major GUILT allowing him to help me because he should be studying...   This amazing man has learned to juggle life like a champ! He never lets the balls drop. He is an amazing father and husband, a medical student, president of the student government association on campus and branch president of our church here. How does he do it all?? I struggle each day trying to figure out what to do for dinner. No worries tonight though. He's got that covered too!! I'm so grateful for this amazing man that I call mine. I am so very blessed that he loves me and puts me first.

Friday April 8, 2016

Mark is taking his last final right now!!! Oh I hope it's going well! It makes me anxious. My fingers are crossed and I've said so many prayers! It will be days into next week until he gets the score and knows for sure the outcome of the semester. 

Emma loves this baby from the family lounge. 

We gathered with members of the church for the Collegium Aesculapium club. Or LDS group that hasn't really done anything for a few semesters...   Tonight we had a pizza party!

Thursday April 7, 2016

I seem to want to remember everything that happens which is completely overwhelming. I can't possibly record everything that happens in my everyday but I do want to remember what a typical day was like here. I know that I will treasure our time in the Caribbean. I know my memories once we're gone will become sugar coated a bit and I may even wish for these days back again. They are slipping away rather quickly. It is such an interesting conversation I have with myself everyday trying to "enjoy the journey" while also yearning to be back in Idaho! I am grateful for the unique opportunity we have to be here and am trying to make the most of it.
This morning I heard Isaac and Alexis discussing something about school. I was trying to eavesdrop and it wasn't working well so I went and sat by them and tried to be part of the conversation. Isaac was talking about how he felt frustrated that he always raises his hand in class at calendar time and never gets called on. This semester his teacher mostly speaks French to them and he said they can't understand her. He said he hates it and wants to go back to the states now. Lexi was feeling frustration from things also and is ready to be done here. I TOTALLY get where they are coming from but tried to be encouraging and help them see the good here. There really is a lot and going back to the states doesn't make life perfect. (Just a lot better!!) I was glad we could talk about it. When I saw them at lunch they were all perfectly happy and seemed to be having a good day. It also helped that I brought pizza, a cinnamon roll to share and fresh baguettes from the French bakery. I got Mark a chicken sandwich and a piece of his favorite chocolate dream cake from there as well.
Mark's last final of medical school is tomorrow!!!!! He passed his final Monday and has a little wiggle room on this exam. As long as he doesn't fall flat on his face he should come out alive and pass the semester. Fingers crossed!! He feels a lot of pressure and stress. I can't wait until it's over!!! Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a few days to hear the score. In the meantime Mark and I will attend a banquet for last semester students and then he will get right back to work studying for Comp.

I went to my last RSO meeting and handed over my VP baton to someone else. Afterwards I wandered around with a few ladies over to the yoga deck and took some silly pictures. 

Tonight at bedtime Emma stole something of Isaac's and ran into my room to hide. She saw me coming after her and closed my door. I went to open it and the door was LOCKED! She was locked inside in the dark! She started freaking out when I didn't open the door and so did I. We don't have a key for the door and I am not good at opening locked doors with a credit card. First off I couldn't find the card Mark has used to open the door in the past! (This has happened before! Well not with Emma inside...) I was able to find the card and surprisingly got it open on my first try. Poor girl!

March 23, 2016

I tagged along with Mark to go pick up the missionaries from the airport. The elders new car is too nice to leave sitting at the airport overnight. It's likely one of the nicest cars on the island! Why?? I don't know! They used to have a little pickup truck. 

I began reading to him from one of his books and started feeling funny after a while. We discovered that learning makes me nauseous!! Haha! I've NEVER felt car sick before! I've been so grateful for that living here because the roads and drivers are so crazy that many people do get sick. 

On our way back to Portsmouth the road was blocked momentarily by tree limbs. Thankfully they were moved out of the way to let us pass after a surprisingly short wait. There were so many mental pictures I took on the drive. If I was willing to drive in this country and had all the time in the world it would be fun to take a million pictures. This is such a beautiful island. It's interesting to observe the locals too. I've watched local boys riding bikes on one tire and people carry things on their heads. I have seen one donkey on the island hanging out in the same general area on the side of the road on the way to the airport. I'd love to take his picture! 

Potty training excitement: Emma stayed dry ALL day long! NO accidents!!! I know that doesn't mean tomorrow will be the same but I'm excited! I told the kids that the first day Emma gets to wear panties to school I will take them to the French bakery (that just opened near campus!!) for chocolate crescents. 

March 22, 2016

Last night before bed Emma had diarrhea and then threw up. I was worried she was going to get up in the middle of the night. I waited up for Mark to get home and we went to sleep super late. Around 2 am there was screaming. Mark doesn't ever wake up to the kids at night unless the screaming is tramatic from throwing up or bad dreams. In fact, he wakes up faster to that type of crying then I do! I assumed it was Emma and that she had thrown up. Turns out it was Lexi who was crying and had turned on lights in different rooms. She was having some kind of bad dream and was not fully awake walking around. All her crying woke up Emma!! I dealt with Lex and Mark went to Emma. It surprisingly didn't take too long to get them back to bed. 

I still got up at 5:30 to go to my workout. I was so tired!! When I got home just before 7:30 everyone was still asleep. I felt bad waking anyone up after such a late night and the screaming. I wasn't planning to send Emma to school either way. My thought was to let Mark sleep and I would take the kids to school but it is such an ordeal to get to school!!! So we ended up skipping school. Maybe not the best choice but...  I don't mind adding an extra Saturday type day to my week :)

Mark went with the elders to the airport. Because of their visas they have to leave the island after a certain amount of time and then they can just turn around and come back. So they left for the night to Antigua to stay with an older married missionary couple. I just checked and my visa is gong to expire mid June. From what I understand it shouldn't be a big deal and worst case scenario they would deport me which might mean paying to send me to America!!! I better check into that just to be sure though. Right now in planning to stay into August.

March 21, 2016

I think I'm going to attempt a daily blog post from my phone. I'm so far behind on my blogging I hate getting further behind each week! We'll see how this goes...

I brought two pairs of running shoes with me to the island. I am wearing them out going to Tim Trains Me every morning. We plan to stay on the island for a few months after the semester so Mark can study for the crazy huge Step 1 exam. I'm not sure my shoes will make it. I was shocked to see someone posted these size 11 beauties on "craigslist"!!! Yay!!!! 

The kids had dance class after school today. Afterwards we went to the store in hopes of finding mozzarella cheese. We were in luck!

Just outside the IGA scarfing down a special treat of ice cream sandwhiches before they melt.

On our walk home we often pause at this building. It used to be a KFC forever ago and is now a church. The girls were clapping and singing.

Emma mooing at the cows across the street.

Mark's leg injury from his frisbee game Saturday.

This evening we had the elders and another family over for homemade pizza dinner and family home evening.

Monday 2/15 - Sunday 2/21

So I have an app on my phone that I thought might be helpful for blogging. I put some pictures on a post for this week and wrote down a few things to remember and now it's gone....  Yep. I guess it's not going to be as great as it might have been. I KNOW I hit save. Grrr. I almost want to throw in the towel with blogging. I'm so in over my head with pictures and technology. It's pretty sad and ridiculous how little I know! BUT I really want to remember our time here so I will keep on keeping on with it. Instead of a post back from September here's a current post. :)

This week was a week of first time extra curricular activities.

Monday the girls started a dance class. Isaac didn't want to participate.

Emma trying to trace her hand. She was really concentrating.

Tuesday Emma and I went to Roseau. Will I was going up and down our stair lugging groceries 2 birds flew into our apartment undetected. Once the groceries were inside Emma and I sat down at the table to enjoy a chocolate crescent from our trip. We heard a bird close by and Emma saw it up by the door just out of my view. We chased it around for a bit. Luckily, I had done this before and learned to put a towel up in the window above the door so the bird would fly out the door and not get stopped by a window. After Emma took a nap we headed to campus to get the other kids from school and wait while Isaac and Lexi went with a group to learn about basketball from a fellow spouse. Later when we got home we discovered another bird that had been in our apartment. Apparently it was a quiet bird. And apparently they like to pick at bananas! (see picture below)

Wednesday small meeting for RSO sponsorship. The kids went to a soccer group that another spouse just started. It's great that so many people are suddenly willing to share what they know with the kids. What's even better is they are sharing their talents for free. Here we can all understand the lack of money and living on loans.

At lunchtime we were locked out of our usual eating place the family lounge. It locks easily and accidentally often but usually someone is inside. It took forever for security to come over and unlock it for us. After lunch I was able to get in there and put Emma down for her nap. 

Thursday I tried to clean up the house a bit. I think that was my excitement for the day...

This girl!! She makes me laugh.  

The kids love to gather these pretty flowers that have fallen off a tree on campus. 

This little lady is growing too fast too! She is super close to her 9th birthday! I have told her I am cancelling all birthdays for the rest of forever. She didn't believe me though. :(  If only I could I would! I want to pause time!! Don't grow up too fast! 

Alexis saw these and told me "Mom there are real vacuums over there."  It's been so long since I've used a vacuum! I actually miss it! Funny enough, all of these vacuums are broken. 

Friday morning the lady spouses from the branch got together for breakfast at the Corner Cafe.They have WAFFLES!! And they are so yummy!! I miss waffles. Back in Caldwell we would eat waffles every Saturday morning.

Saturday while I was out working on laundry Emma went chasing lizards. Yes naked. She is interested in potty training so diapers are often optional at home. That is one nice thing about not having any carpet.

Our local neighbor gave Emma a cherry from his tree. She was excited about it. It wasn't quite ripe and tasted a lot like a tomato. 

Mark thought it would be fun for Emma to use the GoPro. It didn't last long but she looked cute! 

Sunday Mark went to Roseau to be the group down there. He goes once a month. I spoke in sacrament meeting. It's one of my least favorite things to do but I know that it gives me the opportunity for personal growth. We were short one speaker so I talked with Lexi then volunteered her to do a musical number. She sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" like she did when my in-laws were here in December. I love that song and the Spirit I feel when it is sung. "He lives, my kind, wish heavenly Friend. He lives and loves me to the end... Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives: I know that my Redeemer lives!"