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!