Things that are Awesome!

I have started to volunteer at the prepschool in the after school program. I am teaching some of the 5th and 6th graders art history and archaeology! The kids are really smart and really excited about the class. At the museum I used to work at, we had stuffed animal-esque organs that we would use to teach kids about mummification. I thought that would be a great project to do with the kids in my program here. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find pretend stuffed lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines here in St. Kitts. Weird, right?

Luckily, I have a secret weapon (awesome thing #1)- my friend Catherine! She is super crafty, and most important, she can sew, which I cannot do. After a relaxing pool day at our friend Tiffany's house on Thursday, we went to our adorable tiny fabric store and got some pinky-beige fabric. We then headed to Catherine's house for some organ making. After some brainstorming and google image searching, we were able to produce some decent looking organs (awesome things #2). I literally would not have been able to do it without Catherine; I am super thankful we are friends!

Anatomically correct organs... filled with beans. Yay for Catherine!

Friday was FULL of awesome things! Trevor and I had to run some errands, and one of the items on our list was an electric bug killer. There has been quite a bit of rain lately, and the mosquitoes have been out of control at night (also, they have infiltrated both of our cars, so there is a total mosquito onslaught when we need to go anywhere!). Now, I know that when I said electric bug killer, you immediately pictured this:

If you thinking, yep, that is what I thought of, you would be wrong. Terribly wrong. While those are brightly lit and effective, we had something more fun and sinister in mind. The tennis racket-electric bug killer hybrid. Or as the Chinese packaging called it a "Electronic Mosquito Bat." Either way, it is maybe my favorite purchase on the island, and it is awesome thing #3. It doesn't even need batteries, cause it's rechargeable. AND, it has a light on it so you can sniper the stupid little skeeters! I love it.

My favorite thing EVER!!!

Our friend Dave has one, and he often brings it to Trivia. He told us that he bought it at TDC, so that is where Trevor and I began our search. We looked all over the store with no luck. We asked about it, and were told they are kept up by the front desk and we would have to ask for one. Cool. No, not cool. They were sold out! Luckily, our cashier lady was very nice and recommended we check out Courts or Rams in Basseterre. We journeyed into town and visited Courts first, since we were not interested in buying computers or appliances, they could not help us out. We tried Rams next, and after explaining what we wanted to an employee, she took us to the regular old fly swatters. I was distraught! I could not go another night dealing with a million mosquitoes keeping me awake! Crestfallen, Trevor and I left Rams unsure of what to do about the plague of mosquitoes waging war on the Dolphin House. Before leaving town, we decided to visit the new Chinese grocery store across from Rams.

This store immediately lifted our spirits. First, we found awesome thing #4- Chinese Dumplings (or pot stickers, if you prefer). We hadn't eaten lunch, and quickly decided we needed a bag of 40 pork and veg dumplings. Probably the best decision of the day, but we will get back to that later. So, we walked around the store bought some supplies for a new cocktail we wanted to try to make, but still couldn't find our Electronic Mosquito Bat (EMB). As he paid, Trevor asked our cashier if they had any EMBs. She said YES!!!! She pointed out the aisle, and I took off. After hastily searching the shelves, I didn't find them. I was about to leave when a shelf stocker happened by. I asked if he knew where they were, and he did. Right behind me. On the shelf I had just been looking at. Yeah, I'm not so smart sometimes. So, after deciding the boys would be mad if I bought the pink one, I picked up the red EMB and ran to the front, proudly waving my new prize whilst killing any bugs in my electronic path! The best part was that it was pretty cheap, only $20 EC- less than $10 US.

I tore open the bag back in the car. If you remember, I had mentioned the damn blood suckers had been getting in the cars. I fired up the EMB and it freaking exploded there were so many bugs! I think I zapped 30 in less than 4 seconds. It felt great. I love my EMB.

Our final stop before home was the liquor store/duty free beachy shop for amaretto and pool floats. Trev got the booze and I was able to find a floaty ring (awesome thing #5) to use in my pool (yes mom, I still want you to bring some bigger ones down when you come! love you!)

Delicious dumplings

Once back home Trevor went to town on dumpling and cocktail making while I began to make some brownies I promised Kate. All creations were complete successes. I stuffed four Chinese pouches of goodness into my mouth, as I said earlier- best decision of our day buying those things. I am gonna be eating them like crazy. The cocktails were a reverse engineering attempt at a drink the bartender at Carembola's made for us. Amaretto, dark rum, and cranberry, cherry, and lime juices. It was tasty at the restaurant and just as tasty at the Dolphin House! Kate had sent me a brownie recipe she found, so I threw it together yesterday afternoon. Even though it was a scratch recipe, it was really easy to make with just a few ingredients. I only had one piece, but when I woke up this morning, two thirds of the brownies were gone. I think she liked them. I also made one of my favorite sweet treats- chocolate covered gummi bears. If you have never had them you are probably thinking, chocolate covered gummi bears, eh I don't know. Again, you would be wrong. They are delicious. I guess you could say that the cocktails, brownies, and chocolate gummi bears are awesome things #6-8).

Yummy chocolate bears. mmmm....

After all our food and drink making, we headed out to celebrate Kate's birthday which had been earlier in the week. We dined at Copper Chimney and then headed to Bamboo, one of my local haunts. A good time was had by all. The drinks were flowing, the dancing was so fun that not only the girls danced (like I wouldn't dance!) even the boys danced! Zach, Brayton, Trevor, and Rob were all shaking what their momma's gave them! That would be awesome thing #9- hilariously awesome man dancing. We even had a new to Ross couple meet us out at Bamboo. Emily and Andrew just moved here so Andrew could attend school, and they needed to get out and have some fun. It was great to meet them and hang out with a new couple. I hope they had as much fun out as we did! New friends = awesome thing #10.

We invited everyone back to our house for some shisha smoking and drinks. Trevor and Venessa decided to box. It was mildly hilarious and Venessa got mad cause Trevor hit her in the face. It only got better when she shoved an unsuspecting Trevor in the pool (awesome thing #11). Of course, Venessa was the next thrown into the pool. Oy vey, there is always someone being thrown into the pool at the Dolphin House! As long as it's not me and no one is getting hurt, who cares!

Of course, I have to include the most adorably awesome thing, #12: AUTUMN!!! She is getting big fast and she is super cute! Today she got her new green necklace and name tag. She isn't quite sure what to make of them, going so far as to try and back out of her collar. Hilarious and cute!

In summary all these awesome things add up to my life being pretty awesome here in St. Kitts. Now you will have to excuse me, I think it's pool time :)

Island life is the life for me

I initially thought being a housewife was going to be boring and tedious.  I was wrong. Although, to be fair, I try to stay out of the house! I have had some big adventures and small adventures since my last blog post. I figured it was time to share.

Last Tuesday our trivia team, Ting Country, won first place! We got a (terrible) bottle of rum, and some weird plastic frog. I freaking love winning.  Wednesday was packed with events. As always, Trevor and I started the day going to the local market here on campus, then spent most of the day at the beach.  Wednesday evening was the best though! Trevor and I went to a baby sea turtle release party! 30-40 baby sea turtles were found in a damaged nest, and we got to help release them back into the ocean. I named mine Stormy (cause there was a storm blowing in while we were on the beach, and the lightening was putting on quite a show). Trevor named his Ghost Ship (cause there is an abandoned ship off the coast, and we decided it's haunted). After a lot of encouragement, Ghost Ship made it to the water. Stormy... Stormy would not go to the water! I was devastated! However, the lady in charge (can't remember her name), took Stormy and three other babies back to her lab. Hopefully they will get stronger and be ready to go next release day. I got to help another baby though, Trevor named him Percy. Percy got into the water pretty quick, I was very proud. The babies were Hawksbills, which I have mentioned in earlier posts.  They were adorable and really tiny- about two inches long. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures. Bright lights can seriously disorient sea turtles (that's why at the beach, some resorts or condo communities have orange or red lights facing the sea), so I didn't bother to bring my camera.  Next time I'll try to take some photos without my flash with one of the red flash lights.

After the turtle release, Trevor and I headed to Bobsy's (a restaurant that has karaoke) for Sarah's going away party. Sarah is a fellow VIP who is heading back to the States. We had a late dinner and then "enjoyed" the music!

Thursday was fun too! The VIPs had been talking about swapping recipes, so we turned it into a pot luck dinner/recipe exchange.  I made my cucumber and vinegar salad, and the pineapple cheese ball I stole from Elaine DiMaggio years ago. I stuffed myself full of the yummy foods my friends made, and met some new people. The best part is that Kim, yet another VIP, is going to collect all the recipes and email out a cookbook of everything!  It can be difficult to find ingredients sometimes, so I am looking forward to having island friendly meals to make!

On Friday, Rob and his classmates had their second anatomy test- 3 hours of hell (according to them). To celebrate the test being over, and a belated birthday celebration for me, Sarah, Vanessa, Candice, Kate, Trevor, Rob, and I headed to Bamboo for drinking and dancing! I enjoyed a few libations, and danced the whole time we were there! I LOVE dancing!

Saturday and Sunday were beach days. The students only get to hang at the beach on weekends, so they try to go as much as they can, as long as they don't have a test to study for.

Trevor enjoying our homemade peanut butter cups!

Today, I decided to make homemade reese's peanut butter cups! I enlisted Trevor's help and we were very successful. We made 18 cups, and used the rest of the peanut butter mixture and chocolate to make chocolate peanut butter balls! I also went to yoga for the first time today! One of the students teaches the class every Monday. The floor is REALLY hard, so my wrists are killing me, but otherwise I feel great. I freakin' love yoga!

So, life goes on here in St. Kitts. Only 39 days til we head home from Christmas and New Years!