Donald Bernard May

This week I am...sad.

On Monday afternoon I was snap chatting with my brother, Dillon. If you're not sure what that means, snap chat is an app you can use to send pictures back and forth with someone, I like it because the texting app I have on the island doesn't allow for picture messaging, so now I can still get daily doses of my little baby nephew and such.

So Dillon sends me a snap picture of him with a serious face asking if I had gotten any of their messages/voicemails today about Grandpa, which I hadn't gotten...we had been out of the house all day. Let me explain to you how poorly I can communicate from the island...

My iPhone does not work here. Islanders don't even know what AT&T is since its obviously not their phone providers, which is fine. So my phone stays on airplane mode all of the time. I have an app I can use when I get WIFI connection that allows to me to text message. I use sykpe and Facebook to talk to people primarily. We have an island cell phone but its long distance for my family, they don't even have the number for it, and I only use it to make calls mostly within the island. We have a home phone that's a voice over IP, but the internet connection is so slow that if anybody is using the phone (which you can only use during prime internet hours or the connection is too bad and nobody can understand you) nobody else is able to use their internet because the phone hogs all the bandwidth, its just a huge inconvenience. So long story short, if I'm not in the apartment, which I'm not a lot of the time, my family can't get a hold of me, and that has always made me nervous. Now even more so.

So I tell my brother I  have not gotten any messages and ask what's up. My Grandpa May has been in and out of the hospitals for prostate cancer, his last series of tests came back negative and they sent him home to rest from all the tests and prodding and such, I believed him to be getting better. I asked my mom about it all the time and always got positive feedback from her. I felt reassured.

My brother sends me a snap and says "Grandpa had a heart attack this morning and died." I thought Dillon was  kidding. I didn't believe him. I believe I literally responded saying, "That's not funny, go burn in Santa's lair" I remember this because autocorrect changed "Satan" to "Santa" and I was really annoyed, and really mad at Dillon for even joking about it. His next message said "Not joking, call me right now."

.....

I started to have a panic attack...I was immediately brought back to that moment months ago when I thought Piper was being kidnapped. My hands and legs went numb, I felt like I couldn't breathe, I felt like I wasn't moving my own legs...but thought I was like floating into the living room where Cari was on the phone with Casey and I yelled at her to hang up and give me the phone. She was confused but did as I asked and handed me the phone. I called Dillon right away and he told me what had happened. That it was all true. I couldn't contain any sort of emotion and just started to wail. I told him I had to call mom right away and I hung up. Cari stared at me with an extremely concerned and confused face as I dropped the phone onto the ground and collapsed into a ball.

"Cari, Grandpa had a heart attack this morning. He's dead."

We were both hysterical. It didn't feel real. A heart attack? But he just had cancer, and he was getting better...why would he have a heart attack?

I called my mom who was so sad and exhausted after a full day of informing people. But my mom is invincible, we've watched her suffer through the death of her daughter, and now her dad with such grace. She knows we'll see them again. Talking to her gave me enough strength to call my Grandma, that was by far the hardest phone call of the day.

The part that freaked me out the most about this was the entire previous week I'd been having dreams about him dying, and kept waking up in tears, and now I feel like it was foreshadowing and wish I'd have taken them more seriously and called my Grandpa to tell him I think about him a lot and I love him...I'll miss my Grandpa so much. He was such a quiet spoken and simple man. Every time I came to his house and left his house I got the tightest hug in the world, you could feel bones breaking inside your body, but you knew his hugs were genuine and I could feel how much he loved us grandkids.

He used to come down to the cities to stay with us for a week every other month or so and after dinner we would go into the family room and watch sports games while people cleaned up the kitchen. We figured out that if we looked engaged in the game, they wouldn't bug us to help clean. I remember once there were no games on we were familiar with, or any teams we liked, but we found an intense looking tennis match on  ESPN.

Grandpa: "Do you like tennis? Do you even know who these damn girls are?"
Me: "I have absolutely no idea what's going on, or who they are."
Grandpa: "Oh well, act interested, they're almost done with the dishes anyhow."

I'm so grateful to my Grandpa for bringing my mom into the world, and raising her as he did, with such an extreme work ethic and "you'll survive this" attitude.

I'll miss his winks, his hard candy, his love of liquor and funny jokes he'd tell me when he had one too many, his cheek pinches, how much he loved my Grandma after 50+ years of marriage.

I'm happy for him that he gets to be with his brother, son, and two granddaughters in Heaven.

We'll all miss Donnie May, and laugh reminiscing of his fun spirit and wisecracks.

Here's his obituary to any interested, depicting his simplistic and beautiful life in Holdingford, Minnesota.

This picture was taken this summer while were home visiting, this is the last time I saw Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa gave me a hug and said he'd see me at Christmas time and that I should bring him home some Jamaican Rum, he'd heard it was good :) 

My mom with her mom and dad, I love this picture of them. 

I'm on a boat

Every single time I attempt to go to bed early I end up laying there for at least three hours with my eyes wide open, by the time I'm tired enough to actually fall asleep its no longer "early" and I feel like I just wasted my entire evening laying in bed when I could have been awake sending people snapchat pics on my phone. DANGET.

Its been another crazy few weeks on the island. Casey and Tanner are here for a couple weeks to spend Thanksgiving and escape the cold Minnesota winter for a little while. 

Welcome Home sign Andi made for her dad. We sure get our moneys worth out of that white board.

I made the "Casey Crookston" sign for Cari to hold up at the airport to be funny, but then an airport attendant notified us that you have to pay the airport fine in order to hold up a name sign. HUH?

Awwww. Casey reunited with all his girls.

Piper's happy to be back in Dad's arms

:)

Making our way to the car. Poor Casey was sweating bullets in his long sleeve turtleneck. What the heck do you wear when traveling from MN to the Caribbean in the winter? 

Tanner came a few days after Casey did. His embrace with mom and Piper.

Andi and Tanner.

Upon returning to the island Tanner and Casey were quickly reminded of the humidity and the slow internet. Its pretty amusing to see someone reacquaint themselves with the island life. The estrogen tank is happy to have some testosterone around...after all, we do have some burned out lightbulbs that need replacing and things around the apartment that need fixing. Surely us girls can't do that. 

Piper and I took another trip to Kid's World last week. This time I dressed much more appropriately for the hot hot indoor play area, I learned from last time and remembered their lack of A/C. Piper and I played up in the jungle gyms and went down this giant long slide half a dozen times. The other disadvantage of a humid play area is that your butt sticks to the slide like crazy. At the end of the slide Piper was screaming, "SHELL! I HAVE A BAD BAD WEDGIE!" We ended up just starting to run down the slide on our feet, it seemed less painful. Piper LOVES trampolines and they have a big trampoline outside which is brand new and bounicer than Grandma's trampoline in Minnesota. Piper and her friends Yevva and Adi were loving it. 

Andi had school off last Monday for St. Maarten Day so Piper, Andi, Pierre, and Britney (Pierre's niece) decided to go check out the zoo on the island. Of course the second I turned on my camera it flashed the notice "change batteries now" so I didn't get any pics. The zoo was really small but super interactive and fun. They offer you a bag of animal crackers when you get in and tell you to feed the animals along the way. We saw a lot of birds, including a peacock that followed us around the entire zoo because it was so pretty and I kept feeding it. Andi singlehanedly hand fed every single cotton headed Tamarin monkey that the zoo had. Their tiny tiny hands and faces were so pitiful and sad looking that she wanted to give them each a cracker. They were so cute. My favorite animal were the "Love Birds" I had no idea that there were literal Love Birds. They were so cute. I could put a google image of the bird up here, but I'm feeling lazy. Andi sought much entertainment from taking advantage of Pierre's jumpiness around animals. I had no idea he was so squirmy around animals, but she took a leaf and brushed it against his neck from behind him to make him think it was some animal and he jumped so high, she and I were laughing for a good five minutes. Take Pierre to the zoo if you're having a bad day and need a good laugh.

That night Piper was still pretty interested in animals and was asking me to look up videos of animals on youtube for her to watch. She ended up finding videos of a chick hatching out of an egg, which led to a link for a live birth of a giraffe, and a kangaroo...it was getting pretty disturbing so I took the iPad away. She freaked out so I tried to find a less appalling animal video and we stumbled upon a video about orphan orangutans (orangutans are my favorite animal ever) and it showed them being bottle fed and bathed and even having their diapers changed. Piper was so in shock that these babies were so much like her. She watched that video SEVEN times in a row and kept asking me to get her a monkey baby. I WISH!

This weekend Cari, Piper and I got a 48 hour cold virus which just basically involved headaches and body aches and a total energy zap. I really really wanted to go to a karaoke bar. I do not sing karaoke, BUT I think almost nothing is funnier than watching drunk people sing horribly in front of a large crowd. I almost get annoyed when someone is actually really good at karaoke. Its like, go to American Idol, and let some drunk hot mess sing instead. So before we head out to Karaoke I decided to take some Nyquil (there was no Dayquil) to help soothe my symptoms and make for a more fun night. Okay, so earlier this summer when I had to fly home with Piper by myself I was nervous about how she'd do with such a long traveling day, and had considered the option of giving her some cold medicine to help her sleep (don't judge me) I wanted to test the medicine and make sure it actually did make her sleepy and that she wasn't one of those kids who take nyquil and experience "extreme excitability" Sure enough, she was excited. She was so hyper she couldn't even be contained in this apartment so I took her outside. She was running up and down the parking lot, asking EVERY SINGLE PERSON that walked by us on the way to the elevator if they "wanted to race her" two people took her up on this and stood next to her as she said "Ready, Set..." and then she'd jet off and run down the parking garage screaming and laughing hysterically the entire time. This proceeded for another 45 minutes.

When I took nyquil I was the exact same way. If you know me you already know i'm a hyper person, so if you can even imagine. I've never been drunk, but I can only think this experience was similar to how I'd be if I was drunk, which just reaffirms its a good thing I don't drink.

Pierre and I went down to the boardwalk and I could not stop laughing for the life of me, I had no control over myself. We passed a guy going pee on the side of a building and I yelled "COPS ARE COMING" and the guy got super freaked out and I started laughing because they totally weren't coming, he was super mad and told me he pee'd all over his hand, which made me laugh even harder.

Then after we were finished listening to some music we cut through an alley way to get from the boardwalk to back street where our car was parked. These two guys were yelling at each other and within a few seconds ended up getting physical, which, once again, I thought was hilarious. I just stood there and laughed. Pierre grabbed my hand and asked me if I was trying to get beat up. So long story short, cold medicine makes me laugh at inappropriate times. I felt bad for my boyfriend. I should have slipped him a 20 dollar bill when he dropped me off and thanked him for babysitting me. He didn't totally hate drunk Michelle, I caught him laughing a few times. Busted.  

Probably one of the fifty times that Pierre leaned over to tell me to stop acting like a psycho person

The next morning was our Random Winds boat trip. My friend Matt set it all up for 15 of our friends to go a few months ago and I'd been anxiously awaiting the day to come. This was my first time being on a boat, excluding a canoe and a paddleboat so I woke up with butterflies and was pretty nervous! My friend Ashley gave me a motion sickness pill to take so I didn't get sea sick. 

We left around 9:45am and drove to Simpson Bay where we got on the scuttle boat which took us to the sailboat. We sailed to the Baie Long (There's no way I spelled that French title correctly) and anchored and looked down to see a bunch of Jacks fish and a Barracuda. They had snorkeling gear we all put on and then we jumped in and checked out the fish. They swarmed us completely, it was crazy. Their fins had spikes on them and some of us got a few scratches. Ashley was absolutely hysterical about the fish being close to her and kept trying to swim on top of us. Tanner and Andi kept throwing food for the fish right towards Ashley so they'd encircle her, but when she got to the point of tears they decided they should stop ;) 

I saw a sea turtle! It was so cool and so big! I immediately thought of Crush from Finding Nemo. The ocean is SO fun. After we snorkeled for an hour or so they fed us lunch and we sailed to Mullet beach which is where they pulled out their Tarzan swing. After that it was almost 4 and time to head back home. The six hours on the boat went by SO fast, and I didn't even get sunburned. I think that day was like one of the handful of times I actually used sunscreen, I normally hate sunscreen but there's no way I was going to make it six hours in the Caribbean sun without frying crispy. The boat was big and beautiful, the captain and first mate were so insanely nice, the view of the island from on the boat was really cool to see and I would totally go again. Thanks, Random Wind! Here's a bunch of pics from the boating day (most of them taken by Casey)...

Baby boat!

Piper mesmerized by all the fish

Gary's facial expression while he applies sunscreen kills me

Hahahaha Piper pretty much nailed Gary's facial expression

Matt and Cecily

Matt's modeling the back side for us

Hahahaha

Me & Ceciky

SO SERIOUS

Tanner on the Tarzan Swing

Andi and I just pondering the meaning of life


So I have a theory. I'm pretty sure I have the worst luck in the world? More like I think I'm God's very entertainment sometimes. I'm pretty sure that daily he calls over Chris Farley and Heath Ledger (those are two dead people I really really loved, so I can only pretend they love me too) and they sit down to watch TV and the show is called "Mess with Michelle" and they're basically watching my life. I say this because the past week seemed more unlucky than most.

For starters, last week I got pulled over. I've been pulled over many many times, I'm a speeder...and sometimes oblivious to the world around me. But this time being pulled over was ten times more scary because it was a French Gendarme. A Gendarme is a French policeman and they're huge and hot and buff and strict and intimidating. So he pulls me over and I'm FREAKING OUT. First of all, I'm not even sure my MN license is valid on this island, and I know our car is insured but the insurance papers were not in the car at the time so I'm just envisioning myself being hauled away to some Caribbean jail, which remains to this day one of my biggest fears.

He pulls me over and this is our conversation:
Gendarme: I see you drive this way every single day at this time, where are you always going?
Me: I pick up my niece from school
Gendarme: But all the French schools are released at 1pm (this is around 3pm)
Me: Well she goes to school on the Dutch side but the traffic on that side is awful, so I come around the island
Gendarme: Is that your baby? (motioning to Piper in the back seat)
Me: No...she's my niece, too
Gendarme: Oh, okay. Well I was just curious where you're always going. Have a nice day.
Me: Do you need my license or anything?
Gendarme: No, you're good.

What the deuce? Thanks for the minor heart attack...and for nothing. Pretty sure that was maybe the biggest waste of our time ever.

So then today I run downstairs to lend a DVD to my friend who's waiting by our outside gate and while I'm coming back upstairs in the elevator the power goes out and the elevator stops and I start bawling hysterically. This is another huge fear. Not only do I have major claustrophobia, but I'm really scared of elevators. I don't like riding them by myself. If the building/elevator seems the smallest bit sketchy, I will take the stairs. Just ask my best friend, whom I made walk up 16 flights of stairs with me last winter after a parade so we could get to our car in the parking garage since their elevator was way too shady looking. The power was out for maybe ten seconds before the generator kicked on. To be honest I'm just impressed that I could generate such hysteria in such a short amount of time.

Then today at the grocery store, I go to open the dairy case to grab out some frozen juice and out of NOWHERE this six foot long metal pole comes crashing down and smacks me on the forehead. HUH? Then as I'm loading my groceries into the trunk I smack my head into the trunk and the top of my head starts bleeding. We get home to unload groceries and I drop a frozen turkey on my foot...I wanted to just lay on the ground and surrender to this day.

I'm laying in bed and I hear a loud knocking on the front door from Casey and Tanner who are returning home from the movies without a house key, so I get up to unlock the door and stub my bruised frozen turkey toe on Pipers stroller, while I'm walking back to my bed after opening the door I stub my toe again. I'm pretty sure I broke her stroller when I picked it up to gently throw to the other side of the room.

Weird weird Monday. Not sure what's with the clumsiness/bad luck...but it can at least provide entertainment for others.

Considering its ninety degrees without a single trace of snow it absolutely does not feel like mid November. I can't believe Thanksgiving is in three days and that I go home for Christmas in exactly one month. I'm so excited to see all 10 of my siblings in one place for the first time in a DECADE.

Until next blog... love and miss you, my friends. Xoxo!

"We like to parrty. With two r's"

Christmas came early this year for the estrogen tank in St. Martin. As I mentioned in my last post, my niece Andi who JUST turned 14 (WOOT WOOT) went home for medical tests and was diagnosed with Lupus. With a brave face and confidence from her doctor, she decided to return to us on the island to continue her school year as normal and get her regular teenage life back. We missed the little nugget, and were so excited to have her back, and just in time for her birthday which I'll write about in a little bit. She came bearing gifts like the three wisemen, all gifts coming from a store only found in the U.S. Yay for Yankee Candles, Target jewelry, new soft couch covers and apple products. 

Cari and Piper's sign for Andi's homecoming

Anxiously awaiting Andi to come out of customs

Piper is so glad to have her big sister home


A couple of times each semester at Cari's school they have a group called "ICAN" if you asked me what that stood for I'd just stare at you with my eyes glazed over. I have no idea. But basically this group volunteers around the island. We went to the breakfast at the school and then there are sign ups for different things you can do. We chose to go to the community center to organize a couple hours of games for some kids, and it was SO fun. We drove into town and literally drove around for half an hour trying to find a parking spot. The one public parking lot was completely overtaken by fire trucks and police cars, they had some sort of fire awareness demo going on that day. So after half an hour of circling blocks, we decided maybe we should just try and park in the community center parking lot. GENIUS!

When we walked in we heard this man yelling orders at kids (not like in a child abuse kind of way, just in a stern "follow my orders" kind of way) we learned that he was their drum line instructor and that the kids have an awesome talent for drums due to their discipline and many many hours of practice. They were all assembled in rows practicing rhythm with their wooden sticks. Totally made me nostalgic for elementary school when we'd march around banging those wooden sticks and singing songs. I wonder what my elementary school music teacher is up to these days.

After their finished rehearsal, the AUC students explained what we'd be playing today. It was a game called Crab Soccer. Which is, as you may have guessed, soccer played like a crab. This means you have to do it in the crab walk position with still no hands like regular soccer. The kids were way excited, they got into groups, thought of names, and started playing different heats against each other. 

WHO'S EXCITED TO VOLUNTEER?!!?!

This is how they were assembled when we came in. WHY SO SERIOUS?

Their instructors hair was so awesome. 

Putting away all of their equipment getting ready for the game

What I can only imagine is a terrifying conversation

Cari and her team thinking up a name

Team Strategizing

Pile of people trying to get the ball

Goal scored-victory high five

I was baffled that nobody was kicked in the face during the game.

 After a very successful and fun hour of crab soccer, the kids took a much needed snack break. We were introduced to a juice called "maba" which is made from the bark of a tree. YUM? It tasted like carbonated sugar cane kind of, and I was apprehensive about drinking it because I didn't totally believe it wasn't alcohol, it looked just like beer. Maba is supposedly good for intestinal health and a great cure for constipation, so if anybody needs some of it-hit me up, we'll mail you some. Or just go find a tree and eat the bark, that'll probably do. If anybody actually does that, don't tell me, there our friendship will end. 

The kids told us they wanted to show us their drum skills, so we all went outside and listened to them play. They were amazing. Their hard work completely paid off and I was blown away, and so were some cars due to all of the car alarms that were going off due to how loud their drums were. Our car was one of them. Cari was running around trying to figure out who kept breaking into our car, "uhh...I think its just from all the drumming."

Drum Team Line Up

These kids practice for a few hours every single day

This boy was my favorite, the sound of his cowbell added such an awesome effect.

Piper's playgroup last week was at this place called Kid's World, which I didn't even know existed. We picked Andi up from school, brought her a change of clothes so she wouldn't have to wear her wretched uniform to Kid's Place, and head on our way. AUC paid for all of the kids to go in so it was entirely free for us which was awesome. I was so impressed by the place. It had tons of slides, trampolines, little cars to drive on, ball pens, arcade games, giant legos. But the outside was the coolest part, they had pedal go karts. I had a catastrophe this morning. When I uploaded all the pics from my memory card onto the computer, I thought I had saved all of the pics and then removed all the pictures from my memory card since it was full anyways. Then I realized I had deleted all of the go kart pictures. I'm so mad! We'll have to go back and take more. But the go karts were awesome and I was pushing Piper around on them and then Piper would chase Andi and I while we drove around on them. 

Our only beef with Kid's World is that it was SO hot. The indoor section wasn't air conditioned at all and had nothing but a few ceiling fans which I thought was crazy considering kids were running around playing in it, so we were working up quite a sweat running around with Piper. 

This was Piper's boyfriend for the day, a little French boy who was loving Piper. He kept filling her car up with gas and speaking to her in French. Each time he'd fill her car with gas he would say, "She needs to say Merci!" Merci in French means "Thank You"

Making sure Piper is safe with a helmet

"Shell, I'm all sweaty."

She was so excited to see a trampoline. She's been itching to bounce on one ever since this summer when we were at my moms house and she never got off the trampoline in our backyard.

Haha Raleigh's face = priceless

Adi and Raleigh

All done playing, time to be held.

 The morning of Andi's birthday (26th) we all woke up early so we'd have enough time to make Andi's birthday breakfast and make sure we had enough time for her to open her presents.

Piper is NOT a fan of early mornings. 

Andi's loot pile

Birthday girl, fresh out of bed.

Piper's present to Andi, a framed picture of them together

Her new watch

Her new Fossil bag. Cari and I spent at least half an hour mulling over the bags and deciding which one we think she'd like. Cari thinks this purse is ugly, but I loved it and thought Andi would, too. I was right. WINNING.

Andi with the cupcakes her mom made for her class at school. Apparently it is still cool to bring treats on your birthday. 

Shortly after Cari and Andi left for school Piper passed out on the couch, she just wasn't ready to face the day.

After school we had a lot of plans. Andi wanted Chinese food for dinner so we got ready to go to a restaurant recommended to us by Pierre. After dinner there was a Halloween party at Learning Unlimited which is Andi's school and then we wanted to see a late showing of "Pitch Perfect" which is in theaters. Cecily, Andi and I had gone to see it the night before and were dying laughing with stomachaches by the time it was over. It was one of those movies that made me really sad when it was over. So we decided we had to take Cari to go see it. 

I did Andi's hair cute for her birthday evening, except afterwards I realized that with her up do and chandelier earrings she looked like she was getting married and it freaked me out. 

Check out that awesome "Happy Halloween" sign I found at ACE Hardware, also best store on the island.

Outside of the Chinese restaurant we went to. It looks sketchy, but the food was amazing and the service was awesome and fast. I love shanty looking places, they sometimes happen to be the best food on the island, and sometimes they give you food poisoning and it feels like your stomach mixed pop rocks and soda and you want to die. Luckily, this restaurant did not make us sick, but was just delicious.

This was posted on the first page of the menu to indicate each price on the menu is now 50 cents more. Haha!

Piper's first egg roll

My lemon chicken. Yummy.

I have super long fingers. They're creepy, but awesome for playing the piano.

This is all the food that was left AFTER we were done eating.

Quite content with full bellies.

 Halloween Party time :)

  

Piper as Little Red Riding Hood, this is the best picture I could get of her costume. She's been going through phases of being very camera shy. 

Pipes decorating her cupcake, notice her tongue sticking out  while she concentrates. Love it. Mini me,

The finished product. Pretty? Haha

....aaaand, that would be the principal of Andi's school. AWESOME

Trick or Treaters. There were so many kids there that barely came to my knees that were just swarming around us, it was starting to freak me out a little bit, they were coming from everywhere and we had no defense against them. 

Spiderman was break dancing.

Piper and mom dancing

Piper's candy basket. I looked like a total dummy carrying it around. Was definitely getting that face from people that says "aren't you a little old for trick or treating? A little basket? Really?"


 By the time we got home from the movie it was almost midnight and we were pooped and Piper and Andi were all sugared out from the Halloween party so we didn't even eat her cake yet. The next morning I got up early and Pierre took me to the doctor for my strep. My tonsils keep getting swollen and I have strep and its a serious bummer. After the doctor we came home and Cari was making Andi's favorite breakfast of orange rolls while Piper and Pierre built block beds for her dolls. It was quite adorable.

To avoid looking at the camera face on, Piper looks up.

Orange Rolls

Our church put on a Talent Show last night that we went to. It was so funny. Andi had to go a little early to help set up since the Young Women were in charge but then we all came afterwards. We thought it started at 5, but it apparently started at 530 so we were actually on time for something which was a miracle. 

Andi's contribution to the youths decorations, a drawn space shuttle for their night sky backdrop

Stage area decorated by the youth

Cecily singing Taylor Swift's "Say No" I hate Taylor Swift, but the song didn't make me shudder when Cecily sang it ;)

Brother and Sister Wright. Brother Wright displayed some pictures of things he has made himself, including their house, a grandfather clock, tables, and an airplane!

Robert modeling the finger cookies that Sister Wright makes. Creepy.

Leah and Patrick singing

Piper and Andi are exhausted by absorbing so many talents

Drive-thru rap

Hula Hoop action

Piper, Cari and Yevva danced to "Call me Maybe" Piper was pretty shy so she just buried her face in moms chest the whole time 

Andi drawing the beginning shape for doodle buddy

Matt & Ceciky dancing to PSY Gangnam Style

Robert and Trisha's opera song was so cute, even if it was in German and we didn't know the words.

Piper's loving her hedgehog cupcake

After the talent show we got to come home and FINALLY eat the cheesecake that Piper and I made for Andi's birthday. Happy 14th Birthday, Pan! I hope its a great year! 

 It seems like its been one big party since Andi came back and with her birthday and Halloween going on. I can't believe October is almost over. It was an awesome week, though. Jared Allen had yet another amazing game last Thursday. He got into a quarrel with a team from the Buccaneers and ended up getting a bloody nose from the opposing player knocking off his helmet, the very next play Jared got a sack. His victory dance has never looked so sweet. Jared's officially in my blog. This obsession just reached a whole new level.

I discovered this week that Piper is my pet. I literally teach her tricks. I caught myself twice this week saying, "Cari! Look what I taught Piper today" I taught her how to get down off of the counter by herself using the stools so that we don't always have to come get her down, considering she crawls up onto the counter like 3948348384 times per day. I also taught her how to open the cupboard door from the bottom since the handle is too tall for her. So I'm probably going to open a training school for children. New life goal. Just joking. 

We're excited for November. We have an awesome boat trip coming up in a couple weeks and Casey and Tanner are coming to the island for Thanksgiving. Plus i'm conspiring with some friends to get a jet ski trip planned, the nicer weather that's coming now with hurricane season almost gone makes me want to be outside all the time again. 

I'm hoping my strep/swollen tonsils don't come back again after i'm off antibiotics next week. Everyone pray the world can be spared from having to hear that tonsils man voice ever again. Not to mention it doesn't make me want to do anything but lay on the couch making whiny noises like a dying animal. Thanks to Cari for her help with meals and cleaning this week while i've been out of commission. 

52 days until I'm home for Christmas. Get ready ya'll. 

Until next blog, love and miss you, friends!!