Truly Thankful

Although I may tend to be a bit sarcastic (or overly sarcastic) and sometimes negative on my blog, I really am very grateful for the things that I have in my life. This past year has been tough, interesting, challenging, (WARM!), full of growth, and somehow, simply amazing. I really do love our lives here and I just want to publicly say that my heart if completely full of gratitude for the things that Keith and I have, be it knowledge, loving families, or just a shelter over our heads. Not having a big Thanksgiving feast in which we are able to visit for hours with our families has been hard, but it has given me time to really ponder this time of year and to count my many blessings. We are missing our friends and families at such a time, but send them our love from the Caribbean with the knowledge that they are on the top of our "We are Thankful for..." list.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

SUCH A FUN TIME!

If anyone is in need of a good time, boy do I have an idea for you!!!

Start by collecting a group of 12 children--I've found that if the ages range from about 3 to at least 12, it works best. Once the group has been established, send them to school on a blistering hot day to play on a WAY-too-small playground and do all of the other fun school things kids are doing now-a-days. Bring the kids outside after their long, exhausting day at school and let them play in the blazing hot sun for at least 30 minutes (on nothing other than the way-too-small playground). Within that 30 minutes, make sure that 2 of the children try to ninja-fight while you are helping another child, and that as you call the ninja-wanna-be's off of the playground, a different child falls off of the monkey bars. If you can have the most dramatic child announce repeatedly (in nothing less than a scream) that the falling child has "FALLEN FROM THE TOP OF THE MONKEY BARS AND NOW HER FOOT IS TWISTED!" it really adds to the whole thing. Of course, as soon as the twisted-but-not-actually-twisted-foot situation (which wasn't nearly as bad as it sounded) gets resolved, if you sent one child to jump over a small and very wobbly picket fence right before his name could be yelled, it's perfect. Make sure that on the other side of that fence, there's a sidewalk to cushion your fence climbers fall, right on his hands and stomach. When all of this outdoor funness reaches it's peak, have them move locations. I've learned that asking for one single file line is a lot of fun too! Next, I DARE you to ask who has homework. I DARE YOU! Make all of the 9 children of differing grades with homework sit at a table and without prompting I'm sure they can figure out the next step to your "super fun packed time." (if not, just make sure that your name is called, said, or possibly even cursed at least 25x in 60 seconds) Oh, but back up. Before entering the school, you have to make sure that every child understands that the one child who should be with the group but is not, has been throwing up all afternoon and is asleep on the floor right inside. Ok, understand that it is possible to get 9 children with differing grades to get their homework done, so when you finish that, allow the sleeping puke-child (whose Mother's phone is broken making her unreachable) to awake. Pull everyone together on the rug and as soon as you FINALLY have them all sitting "crisscross applesauce" on the rug-start to give directions for the activity for the day. At this exact moment (I'm talking exact) let the sick child raise his hand and announce that he is going to throw up again. (This part is really a lot of fun) So as you rush the sick child to the garbage can, allow the 3 and 4 year old girls to follow and squeal and whimper as puke launches forth into the garbage can. As though on cue, the rest of the children should understand that this is possibly the most appropriate time to start doing cart-wheel kicks and calling for their pokemon ("pickachu-I choose you!") to come and play around the rug. Now, when you choose the child to go and pull the principle out of the 4th "staff meeting" of the week, don't forget to choose the slowest moving child in the group, because seriously---what could be better?. When "reinforcement" arrives, let them see the fun that you are having and for fear of interrupting your jolly time, surely they will be understanding and tell you something like "Well, his Mom has been called. There's nothing else to do," and disappear again as children run amuck in the room. (don't forget about puking child though, because at this point, the water he drank 5 minutes previously is gurggling in and up through his throat---literally!) Finally, when you've had enough fun doing that (and believe me, it's WAY fun-so you might be there a while) announce that people can go and get board games out. Now, here's another crucial part. If you don't have a Hungry, Hungry, Hippo's game, purchase one. Either way, make sure that there are only 3 marbles in the game at the time and that 4 children are always playing it. Nothing is more fun then when at least 1 person looses completely. As "Hippos" and other such super quiet games are being played, have a few of the children get out Monopoly and throw the pieces at one another while tossing the money in the air like they are rich. This is loads of fun. When so much fun is being had that it actually becomes too much for everyone, confiscate "Hippos" and Monopoly, because no one should be allowed that much fun! At this point it might be best to have a seat (but don't abandoned puking child, who now has a seat by the trash) because all of the joy and fun that should be spreading like wildfire might be causing a slight twitch in your whole body. Sit down, twitching and all and take a moment to soak in the joy you are feeling because seriously, fun times like these don't happen everyday.............. *sigh* which is something that I am just learning to deal with.

(Disclaimer: This is not what a typical day in after care is like, but when such a fun time is had, how can one not feel guilty about keeping such a great time to themselves?)

Uninvited Guest

Saturday night we had just fallen asleep when all of the sudden Keith sat straight up in bed, turned, lifted his pillow and started smacking the bed with it. As I was coming to, I asked "Keith? What's going on?" "It's a centipede," he calmly replied. I'm not sure what all happened after that, but somehow I ended up hitting at it (my eye sight is much better than Keith's and this was all happening in the dark) as it ran towards my pillow and Keith grabbed for a book. Big woop-dee-doo, you are probably thinking. A centipede, that's not any worse than a spider. Fellow blog readers, let me inform you that you are wrong. Centipedes in Dominica can be much worse than the small spiders you may find in your bed (or even the slightly bigger spiders you may find in your bed.) I did a little research and found what I believe are the type of centipedes we have here, called Vietnamese Centipedes. They can get really big here, but our friend was just a baby. Click here to see an accurate and gross picture of a a full grown one as well as learn fun facts---like their length can reach up to 8 in. long and they are "a large, aggressive species with a nasty attitude and a serious bite!" (Or so says animal-world.com) Anyway, back to the story. So, a little panicked, I pushed as hard as I could on the bed with the big, hard cover book, but knew it was not killing it. I asked for a shoe, but was not successful in pinching the centipede between the book and the shoe. Finally, Keith had both of my flip flops on his hands (somewhere in there the light got turned on) and as I lifted the book and jumped back, he grabbed the finger-length centipede between the shoes and took it into the bathroom sink. Well, if you are wondering how Keith woke up at midnight with the knowledge that a centipede was uninvitingly partying in our bed, it was because Keith was crowding Centi (the centipede) out and he gave Keith a nice bite on the shoulder to let him know it. It broke the skin on Keiths shoulder and gave him a welt the size of a coin (if you like a good story, pretend it was the size of a quarter. If you are more interested in the truth, go with a penny.) After the fight, the death, and the picture taking, Keith and I stood against the wall farthest from the bed, staring at it. We glanced at each other and stared back at the bed, not speaking a word. Sometime between that moment and 7:50 the next morning, we both made it in to bed and I guess we literally killed the party because I didn't wake up again until I could smell Keith cooking breakfast.

(Mind you, this is after it was beaten on the bed and then smashed between 2 shoes)

Husband Tag

I'v been tagged!   (thanks Megs)   :)

The rules are posted at the beginning. Each person answers questions about their sweethearts. At the end of the post the person then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged!!


WHAT IS YOUR HUSBAND'S NAME?  Keith Alan Taylor
HOW LONG HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN MARRIED?  a little over 2 Years & 2 months
HOW LONG DID YOU DATE?  6 months, (or 8 months if you count our engagement)
HOW OLD IS HE?  He will be 27 on Wednesday!  
WHO IS TALLER?  Keith is taller by about 6 inches, which I love!
WHO CAN SING BEST?  When Keith sings low, he takes the cake.
WHO IS SMARTER?  Well, it depends on which kind of smart you are talking about.  Scholastically, Keith is brilliant and SO much smarter than me (and he remembers all sorts of stuff)  but I think (as probably every wife does) that I am more logical and "street smart"
WHO DOES LAUNDRY?  Hermina, our laundry lady!  (we both did pre-Dominica)
WHO PAYS BILLS?  Both of us, he pays most of the on-line bills and  I take care of everything else
WHO SLEEPS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED?  When we are laying in bed, I do
WHO MOWS THE LAWN?   HA!  What I wouldn't give to have a lawn!
WHO COOKS DINNER?  Usually me, but Keith is really good to help out or step in when needed.  (He is a much better cook than I am and he enjoys cooking a lot more than I do)

WHO'S THE FIRST TO ADMIT THEY ARE WRONG?  Probably Keith (He's a pretty easy guy to live with)
WHO KISSED WHO FIRST?  He kissed me first
WHO WEARS THE PANTS?  oh gosh, I don't want to say me, but it's possible that I do

I tag  Kellie, Natalynn, Teresa, Becky, Kimi, and Ashlie
 

LE COURS D'ANGLAIS

Every Tuesday and Thursday night a small group of people from our church meet in Portsmouth (at our church building) and teach English as a Second Language classes. They are open and free of charge to everyone, but most in attendance are from Haiti. There is one female who attends the class I teach every so often, but it's mostly just me and the guys. I teach the intermediate class and now have help from one of our church's senior missionaries, who is here serving a religious mission with her husband. When I first started teaching, I was extremely intimidated but I now look forward to teaching and interacting with such a funny, hard working group of people. Props to them for leaving their families in Haiti behind to come and work as hard as they do, study English and improve their lives. I really am grateful for the friends that I have found in these guys and the laughs that they provide every week. (Including the times they try to teach me French--I'm just not cut out to be bilingual!)

Here's most of our class, but we are missing a few people.

(Double click on the pictures for a better image)

They were supposed to pull a funny face in this picture, obviously they didn't all go for that.

If your face can be seen in this picture and you are reading this, "Faites vos devoirs!" :)

"Rain Day"

Thursday morning I woke up and it was pouring rain. Not too much of a surprise, as it's rainy/hurricane season. The rain got pretty crazy and sometime around 10:00 am, Keith called to tell me that campus was closing because of a storm surge. The Prime Minister ordered that every thing on the island be closed and people return home. So, naturally I put all of our buckets outside to catch rainwater so that we could flush the toilet if the water went out, turned on the AC to cool the apartment, because I knew the power was going to go out, and jumped in the shower. I'm not sure that was the best choice, seeing how it honestly was liquid mud, but---what do you do?
Ironically, the rain stopped and the worst of the storm had hit before 10:00. It was Hurricane Omar, which was somewhere up by Puerto Rico but we caught a little of the tail end of it. Later, our landlord stopped by to see how we rode out the storm and told us that in Portsmouth (just down the road) some ships and barges had washed up! BIG ships and barges! He said that everything was a mess and some of the roads were blocked off. So, later that afternoon, my friend Natalynn and I walked down to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out, Nick was right. Everything was a mess!

Here's a look at some of the waves. The Caribbean Sea is normally VERY calm, but here it looks more like the Atlantic during a storm.
As you can see, hours after the worst of the storm, the sea was still crashing up onto the road.

This was on the street that runs along the bay front. The streets were covered in sand and small fishing boats were washed up everywhere. They got washed up and over the street, the waves were crazy!
(Check out that pile of sand and debris that was washed up--they had what looked like a small snow plow scraping sand off of the streets)


All of these boats had washed up, from small fishing boats to great big boats!


All of these boats are beached on the shore---not a good thing! We heard that you have to hire a tug boat from Miami to get boats like these pulled off shore! (not cheap!)

Luckily the bus stop is here, or else this boat probably would have been sitting in the street!

So, instead of a snow day, like we are used to back home, today we had a "Rain Day." Awesome.

Operation Rescue

Thursday morning I woke up and started getting ready for a hike I was going on. I walked out to the kitchen and found this little gecko guy hanging out in the corner of our kitchen counter. I was in a hurry to get going on the hike so I didn't bother catching him and figured he could be in charge of bug control. That night, he was no where in sight. Um, that was a little nerve racking and I was hoping that he wouldn't come and find me in the middle of the night. Fortunately he stayed in our kitchen and I finally found him again today, up on the top of the window. I made Keith rescue him and take him outside because gecko-man was not looking good. (And he did nothing by way of bug control)

Keith to the rescue!
Gecko-Man jumped onto Keith's hand but then onto the ground and ran into an ant trap. Bad News! Do you know what are in ant traps?
We quickly took it outside and pulled it apart to free Gecko-Man.

He ran away and hopefully he's doing better now. Good luck little Gecko-Man!