Thursday, July 31, 2008

Job

This crazy lady now has a job! I will be teaching Pre-K at the Gifft Hill School on St. John starting in September. Both kids will be going to school there so no more afternoons at the beach for us!

Flamingos

The flamingos annual migration is currently taking place in the dried out salt pond behind our house. They come every year when the salt pond dries up. They started on the outskirts and have moved close the the coral in the middle. I believe once it starts raining again they will migrate back home again.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Volcano

Our whole house is cover in a fine layer of volcanic ash.

The Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, West Indies, began erupting on July 18, 1995. There has been a partial dome collapse on the west side of the Soufriere Hills Volcano.

The collapse started at 11:27 pm local time on Monday 28th July 2008 without any precursory activity. Part of the western side of the lava dome collapsed generating pyroclastic flows that reached Plymouth and the sea.

There were also a few explosions from the dome during the collapse, with the largest at approximately 11:32 pm.

The height of the ash column was estimated at 12 kilometres (40,000 feet) above sea level.

Rumor has it they closed the airport in St.Thomas due to visibility. Here is a link to Montserrat's web site. http://www.mvo.ms/

Monday, July 28, 2008

Another one bites the dust


Tooth #2 is officially gone!

I know the picture is blurry, its the best I could do.
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The Best of Both Worlds



We had some friends over on Saturday to watch "Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus The Best of Both Worlds Concert live in 3D" on Disney at 8pm. It was not as wild as the last time a Disney movie was on, Camp Rock, maybe because Luke was not here! Anyway, we had good company, good food and a poor 3D movie but the kids loved it as did Mr.Larry.


What Kids do

My kids like to disappear in thier room. When it becomes quiet you know something is up. One day they took a pen and wrote peoples names on thier arms and drew pictures all over thier body, including their face!

Quinn loves showing off his lost tooth hole. The tooth to the right should fall out any day now.






Walker found a salamander floating on Quinn's shoe in the pool on Friday. She carried it around with her for the evening. Somehow part of his tail fell off!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Quinn's Lost Tooth


Quinn lost his first tooth today while eating an apple!
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Lack of rain

This is the salt pond behind our house. It has not rained much in the past few months so the pond has pretty much dried up. The rock that you can see in the picture was covered with water when we moved in in February. The locals who live in the area of the pond say that it is rare for the whole pond to be dried up. It ususally dries up a bit in the spring/summer but never this bad. We could use a rainy day here.
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Few updates

Here is an update to some of the "issues" that have been plaguing us.
  • Still no ac and it looks like no ac in sight
  • Still no rain. We had to get water delivered last week at a whopping $300 a truck. It filled one of our cisterns about 1/2 way. I would have taken pictures but I was in St. Thomas
  • We leave Friday for Cape Cod for a week
  • Roosie's surgery is scheduled for Aug 20
  • It's hot here!

New patio furniture


The kids and I were on St. Thomas on Thursday doing our grocery shopping. We went by Home Depot to check on their patio furniture. We have been wanting to get some for awhile but we were waiting for it to go on sale. Well it is now on clearance so the kids and I borrowed a pick up truck and caught the 130 ferry on Friday. We purchased 6 chairs and a table and then 4 chairs and a firepit/coffee table. It all fit in the back of the truck and we made the 330 ferry home! It was so nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy what we have here.
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Price of Gas


Yep, It's $5.05 a gallon here!
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Rolling Blackouts

We had a rolling blackout today from 11-2. Of course Jay knew about it and told us about it after the power had already gone out. At least there was a nice breeze.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Roosie


Roosie our dog has torn her acl. She will be having surgery when we return from Cape Cod.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Atl and Kentucky

Anna enjoying Walker's flip flops

The 3 cousins



Last week we went to Atlanta and Kentucky. Here is what we did...

Our flight out of Miami into Atlanta was delayed by 2 hours. By the time we got our rental car or at least one that worked, and got on the road to Dunwoody it was 1215am. Thanks to Mary and John for letting us stay in their Amster Green house.
Wednesday
- Target, DCC pool, lunch with the teachers from Kingswood, dropped Quinn at Javier's house, went to Kohls, Learning Express, and the School box. Picked Quinn up then went to Kingsley pool to say goodbye to Sundaye (moving to Texas) and see some friends.
Thursday- 8am dentist appointment for all of us. 6+ hour drive to Wilmore Kentucky for the Ike family reunion (my moms side). Picked Matt, Jen and Anna up at the airport. Arrived in Wilmore, let the fun begin!
Friday-Hanging out with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins. Played soccer with all of them in the mid day sun, could it have been any hotter. Both kids played. Went to church and watched my 4 cousins be baptized by my grandfather. Lots of sharing and visiting going on!
Saturday- More hanging out with everyone! 60 year anniversary party for my grandparents! Isnt it amazing! I hope Jay and I are that lucky. More sharing and visiting.
Sunday-Goodbyes to everyone as we drive back to Atlanta. Walker throws up in the car on the way home. Squeeze in some time with Kelly (love you), shopping at Walmart.
Monday-Publix, dry cleaners, walmart again, ulta. Lunch with my DCC friends at Elissa's, it was great to see everyone! Quinn and Walker head to Liam's house to play while I go to Home Depot, Costco, The Container Store, Target and Michaels. Then its off to Windhaven Ct to hang with the neighbors. Thanks Kelly for the pizza party. The kids got to see their friends and so did I.
Tuesday-Up at 5am to make our 845 flight. All 6 bags were under 50 lbs, YEA, and I did not have to pay extra for any of them, YEA! Landed in St. Thomas, Jay picked up the kids and the luggage. Heather picked me up and we went to Cost U less for some food. We all made the 530 ferry to St. John, home sweet home.

The favorite cousin of the weekend, Daniel. The 2 littlest, Quinn and Anna just loved him!


Craig and Nansie

It's all about Matt!

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Paving the road

They are paving part of our road today. They paved half of it while we were gone and now they are paving the rest. The paved section is only going about 1/2 up to our house. It is amusing to watch. There is no one supervising and I give the road about 3 days before it starts to crack.
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

UGH!

Well it turns out we did have water after all, just not where it was suppose to be. We always thought we had one cistern under our bedroom. It turns out we have two. All we had to do was flip the valve. We did that but then still no water. Turns out the check valve was not working. Where is our landlord during all of this you ask...he left for the mainland today for 3 months.

So we now have non filtered water that kinda smells but thats ok, I got to take a shower!

UGH!

We are out of water and our ac is still not hooked up! Welcome to paradise!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

60 years together

We are in Kentucky celebrating my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Bucket Brigade

Our landlord has been "getting ready" to put in our air conditioning since we moved in in February. Well today he finally poured the pads that the units go on. One of the pads is located beneath the house and below the driveway. Thus the bucket brigade of buckets of concrete in order to pour the pad. Never a dull moment here!
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Back in the ATL

Tomorrow the kids and I head off to Atlanta for a week. We will be visiting friends and heading to Kentucky for an Ike family reunion. The kids and I are excited to see everyone! So for the next week I will have GREAT cell phone reception!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Festival Parade



This was not your typical 4th of July parade. This was a Carnival parade that happend to be on the 4th of July. The parade was suppose to start at 11. It finally began around 12ish. You know it has not started yet when you see the Queen go by at 1120 towards the beginning of the parade route. We left for home at 430pm and it was still going on! There were lots of costumes and dancing. I dont know if I have ever seen that many people on St. John. The kids enjoyed it as did we. I will say there is nothing like Carnival on St.John, a sight everyone should see! We end the day watching fireworks over Cruz Bay Harbor.
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Happy 4th of July, island style

Happy 4th of July