Happy Birthday St Kitts Style!

Can you believe that this is our final semester on St. Kitts?  I sure can't!  Our first week back has been a blur of Portland, Maine apartment searching, over-thinking and over-planning much too far in advance the details of our move, and prematurely freaking out about the major changes ahead, MAINE-ly (haha), missing St. Kitts friends and trading tropical weather and palm trees for snowstorms and winter.  However, this week has drastically improved!  Why?  I decided to trust God to help us through it, and stopped acting crazy and decided to enjoy St. Kitts while we are here!  Oh yeah, and celebrating my Birthday Island style sure brightened my outlook!

My good friend Jessie and I happen to share the same birthday, and so joint-Birthday celebrations were definitely in order!  We started with a classy and delicious dinner celebration at La Belle Vie, the French restaurant down the street!  Delish!  Did I mention Jessie turned 30 this year!?  All the more reason to celebrate!

Upon returning home from the restaurant, I was greeted with the dishes done and the laundry put away!  An excellent birthday present!  The following day, Andee and I attempted to enjoy the Italian buffet at the Marriott, but Tropical Storm Maria interrupted our plans.  Instead, Andee took Friday off to spend the day with me, sleeping in, making a delicious breakfast, spending the afternoon at the beach, and preparing and enjoying butter garlic pasta for dinner and brownies for dessert!  An excellent birthday with the hubby!

But the celebrations weren't finished yet!  On Saturday, Jessie and I planned a combined Birthday "Dinner and Dancing" Girls Night for the desperate housewives!  Nothing like a St. Kitts Girls Night to improve your spirits!  Not only did I get to wear my leopard dress while eating parmesan fries, but was able to enjoy the company of my favorite St. Kitts girls!  Perf!

The next day UMHS hosted a Beach Day fundraiser for the Med 4 Banquet, which consisted of volleyball, sand, sun, and lots of students!  Andee and I dropped by for a couple hours, and I insisted on getting photo evidence that Andee and I were indeed in attendance to a school-related event together!  What a gorgeous view!!

Countdown?  A little early, yes, but I was shocked to realize that we now have less than three months left on our little Island!  Also, only 17 days until my parents visit us for two whole weeks!  Bring on the Sunshine!!

Canadian Summer

Ready?  It's a typical Canadian Summer in pictures!!  (Because it is a known fact that I am rarely seen without my camera, mini tripod, and 10-second timer...)

Our two week vacation started as usual with an obnoxious/awesome airport greeting...

Followed by a day at one of my favorite summer places to be up North, Jungle Cat World Zoo...

A day at the Exhibition filled with shows, games, and of course, our expertise claw machine skills...

Our First Anniversary Family Party at the trailer...

Watching the boys play softball with the Family...

The much anticipated and highly successful Album Release Party and concert of our best friend Dave and his band Icy Redd...

An 'amazing seats' Jays game with our best couple friends Dave and Arielle...

Couples bowling...

And to top it off, an engagement!!  Congratulations to the most amazing, choopiest friends ever!!

After missing the cottage for an entire summer, I finally got my cottage time in!  A Birthday party, bonfires, hanging out at the beach, and some family fun!

Well, there you have it, Canada in pictures!  We had an event filled and wonderful vacation spending time with our families and enjoying all that Canada has to offer - fast food, nice people, customer service, an abundance of Canadian flags and the word "eh", big city, suburbia, cottage country, the Toronto Blue Jays, free healthcare, and of course, our friends and family!!

As our last semester in St. Kitts has arrived, there is both a lot to do, and a lot to just sit around and enjoy before we enter extreme winter in Maine.  Let the tropical activities begin!!

One Year Anniversary!

Today is my and Andee's One Year Anniversary!  Yay!  My gift to the Hubby?  Four Final Exams next week!  What a great wife I have become!  Just kidding!  However, with limited resources, lack of free time due to Andee's exam schedule, lack of a car, lack of money, and a severe lack of food in the apartment (getting rid of anything fresh before leaving for 2 weeks), the best I could do was bake a batch of chocolate chip muffins, provide a brand new package of goldfish crackers for studying snacks, make a cute pop-up card, and promise a delicious dinner at The Keg when finals are over with and we arrive back in Canada!  For our "Paper Anniversary" (the first year of marriage), Andee took the time to made me a collage of pictures of the two of us with lyrics to a beautiful song.  I appreciated the time taken out of studying to make me such a cute present!  So with a day full of intense studying ahead, and in true St. Kitts fashion, we decided (for now) that this was "good enough!"

They say (who is they?) that the first year of marriage is the hardest, and that's without the added craziness of St. Kitts and Medical School!  There are a lot of words I could use to describe this first year of our adventure together - amazing, crazy, exciting, scary, fun, fulfilling, perfect!  Why perfect?  Because God has a perfect plan for us, so that even when life seems crazy and impossible (aka Medical School and life in the Caribbean), thank goodness Jesus promises that “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” - Matthew 19:26.  PTL!

Tomorrow, August 15th, marks another interesting phenomenon - only 4 more months left in St. Kitts!  And with our nearly 3 week vacation coming up very soon, it is really more like 3 months left on our little Island!  Where did the time go??  In honor of our very limited tropical time left, some recent Island pictures!

Canada Countdown:  4 days!  If this blog is neglected for the next few weeks, it is because Andee and I will be living it up Canada style with some much needed Family Fun!  Canadians - see you very soon!  Honorary Kitittians - We'll be back!

Birthdays and Goodbyes

In the past couple of months, I'm pretty sure that I have attended more toddler birthday parties than I have in my entire adult life!  Strange?  Even more so that I have enjoyed every one!  It turns out that, contrary to my past beliefs, kids really aren't little monsters waiting to annoy me.  It turns out that I might actially like *gasp* hanging out with them!  CRAZY!  Andee couldn't be happier with my new outlook on children, and I'm pretty sure God is softening my heart towards kids to pave the way for the (distant) future in which Andee and I may want to have our own.  Don't believe me?  I don't blame you!  You will just have to see it for yourself!

On the weekend, Andee and I attended a birthday party for our neighbor Cortney, who turned four!  A pool party of course, filled with lots of hot dogs, kiddos, cupcakes, and friends!  A great morning indeed!

It is getting to that time again, the time when we must say goodbye to those whose St. Kitts adventure has come to a close.  Although it is difficult to say goodbye, it is encouraging to know that these people are onto the next step of their journey, and that they will be able to enjoy McDonalds anytime they choose!  Haha!  Next semester will be my and Andee's last on the Island, and I will most likely go through a season of mourning for the friends that I have made that I will miss terribly.  And also for the gorgeous year round tropical weather!  But until then, I am both saddened and excited for those that are moving on, and hope for them a smooth transition into the future!

On Saturday, we celebrated a good friend Karen and her son Issiah, as they leave the Island in just over a week.  It was sad to say goodbye, but exciting to see God work in her life as she takes the next step on her journey.  Karen, you will be missed!

Canada Countdown:  10 days! 

We are so excited for all the fun activities we have planned for our two week vacation, and to engage in these activities with our family and friends!  It has been a long time since we have seen our Canadian loves, (ok, so it has only been three and a half months, but that still feels like a long time) and we are so looking forward to seeing them!  I hope I will not be disappointed in expecting an embarrassing/amazing airport greeting! 

Vagabond Wife

In honor of my friend Janae, a short-but-sweet blog about venturing into the unknown!

Vagabond defined:  "A person without a permanent home who moves from place to place"

Sound familiar?

Recently, my good friend Janae (who has since moved off the Island of St. Kitts and relocated to California...for now) has created a new blog entitled "Vagabond Mother".  From Arizona, to St. Kitts, to New York, to California, this girl has been everywhere!  Intriged?  Get to know her better by checking out her highly entertaining and unpredictably hilarious blog!

http://vagabondmother.blogspot.com

Medical school can certainly take us on a journey into the unknown, whether it be The Caribbean, Canada, America, or who knows where!  I am so excited for God to continue to take Andee and I on the adventure of a lifetime, acting with faith of an abundant life filled with love, grace, and hope.  I suppose there is a little vagabond in all of us!

Much love to my Amazing Vagabond St. Kitts Desperate Housewife Girlies!

Neighbors

Neighbors are great!  Especially when they become your instant friends because no one has a job.  Especially when they are Kittitian American and Kittitian Canadian and can easily adapt to the Island living lifestyle of lazy summer days and lazy customer service.  Especially when they live 5 seconds away and are available at any time to socialize when the husbands are hard at work studying.  And yes, even when they move away and watch me leave crying on the way to the airport.  But mostly, neighbors are great because they let me take 10-second timer pictures so that I can write a blog about them!  Enjoy!

This week the neighbors and I enjoyed some wonderful pool and beach time soaking up the sun and playing with the Kiddos!  Our backyard pool and the Marriott beach are a few popular hangouts for the residents of the Crackhouses!

What else are neighbors great for?  Fixing cars of course!  Our Med Student/Mechanic neighbor as well as Andee were able to help us this week working on our car Jamal in between their busy studying schedule!  What can I say, neighbors are great!

Today was a special day for one of our neighbors!  One of the tiniest neighbors we have, little Aliosha turned two this week, and today we celebrated her birthday!   Cupcakes, snacks, and lots of great company led to a great St. Kitts birthday!  When family isn't on Island to participate in the celebrations, neighbors make for great guests for a great party!

And lets not forget our neighbors down the street and a short car ride away.  Heck, St. Kitts is so small that is seems like everyone is our neighbor!  Oh St. Kitts, how I love you!

In other news, Hope and I organized a "Mexican Fiesta" Bible Study for the girls of Caribbean Christian Fellowship.  After almost an entire day of cooking, the food was quite a hit!  Who doesn't love hot, flavorful food smothered with cheese!?

In UMHS news, on Monday Andee wrote his Microbiology Final, and ended up receiving a 100% in the course!  PTL!  He started another short course the following day, and will be finishing up with the semester in under a month!

To be a little more specific, our arrival in Canada is a mere 26 days away!  PTL again!