Struggle Street

I wanted to write another entry and update everyone whose been so nice with showing their concern for my health the last couple of weeks, and have offered many prayers, and kind words. I really appreciate all of you. As of today my boil is about a quarter of the depth and width that it was last week this time, which is amazing. It's slowly and surely filling (that sounds so gross I know) and soon it will close up and be but a memory. I'll kind of miss the boil, not gonna lie. It's become a close part of me ;) Honestly I've had some good laughs having this boil, not to mention the celebrity status its given me. This island is small, and news about people apparently travels very fast. People I've never even met have come up and asked me how I'm feeling and wished me well. Even weirder than that though are the two people that literally stopped me on the street and asked if I was the "chick with the boil" and then one of the people actually asked if they could see it. Caught slightly off guard, I showed him, and he gagged. It was way too funny. I came home and knew I HAD to tell someone what had just happened. I logged onto my skype to see who was online to IM (skype is like my main way of communication with everyone within the island--if you don't have skype, you're out of the loop) and my friend Matt was on. I told him I was interrupting his studying for a funny story, after telling him what happened we decided if this were to ever happen again that I should start making up bogus stories about the boil just to gross people out even more. Like how the boil tastes awesome and ask them if they want to try, or tell them its weird a parasite didn't crawl out of the boil when I showed them, because that usually happens when I open the bandage, gross mean things like that. After a long hypothetical conversation we decided I should probably get a memorial statue put up at the med school here of me holding up my shirt slightly to expose the famous boil. It was funny. You HAVE to have fun with things like this. Other than my boil my only problem is my skin. I'm basically a reptile.

Apparently with a staph infection the skin needs to exfoliate, and it does this just by shedding off. So the top layer of skin on my hands is completely gone, and since so much moisture leaves the body through your hands, the rest of my skin is INCREDIBLY dry. If I scratch myself, skin peels off. I also learned that my tongue shed a layer as well which explained A LOT because my tongue feels WEIRD. It had all these weird spots on it and then the next day the texture of it felt completely different, and now stuff tastes all funky to me. It's an adjustment, and I'm hoping it goes away soon, same thing with my skin issues. The doctor just said to avoid soap which dries skin so badly (aka I have an excuse to not shower often-score) and to use LOTS of lotion. I'm officially putting lotion on every twenty minutes, its intense. Another beneficial treatment for my skin AND my boil is to swim in the ocean. I had a conversation with my doctor that went something like this: Doctor: Go swimming in the ocean, the salt water is excellent for your hands and for your boil Me: Won't that sting? Doctor: Oh yes, it will sting VERY badly. Now gladly into the sea you go. So that day I did just that, swam in the ocean. My friend Katie watched me from the stairs and oh my gosh it stung far worse than I could have imagined. It was like pouring hydrogen peroxide on an infected wound but adding that to getting hit by an army tank or something. I felt like I could feel all of my skin sizzling and I was just waiting for it to fall off. Honestly the hardest thing about this all has been my mental state. I feel like I'm always on the verge of tears. My peeling hands are so ugly and embarrassing that I don't like to even leave the apartment. I have had a lot of breakdowns where I literally just stare at my hands and start crying. This morning was a bad meltdown because my new layer of skin on my hands that just started coming in is now peeling off as well, and I was feeling so discouraged. My sister Cari just cried with me because neither of us know what to do. My perspective gets so skewed, and too frequently. Today my nephew said "some people don't have hands, just be grateful you do." and it was like a slap in the face. Definitely not what you want to hear minutes after bawling because your hands are freaking you out, but I had to just be quiet and not say anything because I knew it was true. Every time that I'm feeling bad about myself because my hands are peeling, and food tastes weird I go online and read a medical study where someone who had a staph infection didn't survive, and I have to consciously remind myself of how lucky I am that not only am I alive after being septic and having that infection in my blood for so long, but that its healing, and my antibiotics worked, and that this whole situation could have been so much worse. I set out this weekend to try and have a better general attitude towards it all. After this mornings freak out crying hysteria I knew I needed to change my attitude and be grateful for what I have, and where I am, and for my family here that's taking care of me. Every six months my church has a conference where all of our leaders meet in Utah and they give talks, and its broadcasted via satellite and the internet all over the world. I went to my sisters school this afternoon to watch both sessions. Normally conference weekend has been an excuse to sleep at home while it streamed on the tv and it was a break from a normal sunday at church, but this week I was depressed, and I needed something uplifting. This weekend is also the birthday of my late sister Amy and that was also getting to me, and I realized how incredibly much I missed my mom, and my family during this weekend, and during my being so sad lately. Conference was AMAZING. There were so many talks about trials and how the biggest part of them are how we endure them, and that they're tests from our Heavenly Father, and he uses trials to shape and refine us. They spoke of people whose misfortunes make mine look tiny and pathetic. This weekend I couldn't help but think of my sister, Amy, and how much she was struggling her last couple weeks before she died from brain cancer. How she couldn't turn over because it was too painful, and she was too weak, how she had to have ziploc bags put over her eyes to seal in moisture because she couldn't blink, how she lost motor function in her face and it was paralyzed and she was no longer able to talk, and the most amazing thing was how she bore it all. Without complaint. Thinking of this today made me feel awful for ever complaining, and I couldn't control my emotions and I just started to cry. I'm so grateful to be alive and well, and I'm grateful to be living in the Caribbean islands with my family, and to have met so many awesome people and had so many amazing experiences, and even though I've been afflicted with this sickness, I know that its for my experience and for my good. Thank you to everyone who's praying for me, and thinking of me. I appreciate every single thought and prayer. I've been so blessed to have the friends and the family that I do.

Michelle cheats death

So last week was one of the worst weeks of my entire life, because I felt like, for lack of a better word, death. I'll recount the entire experience because if you're interested in how my last week went, and what we did, then my being sick is all I have to talk about, because its all I did ALL week.

If at any time you're feeling frustrated with me for my stupidity and negligence which basically lead to my getting sick, I've included this picture below for your punching pleasures, its the closest I could think of what my face would look like as I was getting punched. Just be careful not to break your screens.

We'll break this down day to day, starting from about a month ago. I'm also going to put some pictures at the very bottom of the blog entry, I'd scatter them throughout, but I know some people just don't want to see that, so if you're easily grossed out, or don't like to look at nasty body ailments, don't look at the pics on the bottom. Thank you.

Day -30: What is that bump on my stomach? That's weird, it kind of looks like a zit, but it won't pop. Oh well.

Day -20: Is that bump getting bigger? Its definitely getting uglier, why won't it still not pop? Is that a bug bite? Oh well.

Day -10: Ow! That bump hurts really bad when I bend over. Its DEFINITELY bigger than it was before, and it stings now. Oh well.

Day -9: This bump stings like a mother. Oh well.

Day -8: I had a really bad headache, I took an excedrin and rubbed Aveda Blue Oil all over my forehead and neck and went to take a nap around 4pm. When I woke up around 7, I was SO hot, and I had awful chills all at the same time, I was starting to feel worse, so I went back to bed for the night.

Day -7: I woke up and my fever was gone and my headache was pretty much gone, but now my fingers were really really swollen. I took some more medicine and went back to bed for a nap. When I woke up I was feeling better and got out of bed, made dinner, went to a friends house, was feeling fine. Halfway into a movie at my friends house I started to get chills really badly again. Asking her to toss me a blanket at the end of the couch, I cocooned myself and tried to stop shivering but knew I wasn't over whatever little bug this was. I went to drive home and realized I was really dizzy so after I picked up my sister from campus where she'd been studying until late, I asked her to switch spots with me and drive me home. As soon as I got home I drank a bunch of water and went to bed.

Day -6: YIKES. I woke up feeling absolutely awful, my fever was out of control, I couldn't stop shaking, my hands were so swollen and in pain, I was too lightheaded and dizzy to get out of bed to even walk to the bathroom. I don't think I got out of bed once that day.

Day -5: I decide to call my mom about this weird bump I'd seen on my stomach, it was starting to get really inflamed and it hurt every time I moved, plus now I was starting to get really sick and wondered if they were connected at all. After talking to my mom I immediately skype IM my sister at school and ask her to come home and look at this mysterious bump because I'm starting to get freaked out and then I fell asleep. As soon as I woke up Cari was in the room and home from school to check on me/this bump. She opened the door and said it felt like 100 degrees in my room but I still felt SO cold even though to her I felt SO hot. I couldn't even sleep comfortably without a blanket burritoing me because that was the only way I could stop shivering enough to sleep. Cari tells me we're going to the doctor right away because she thinks I have a cyst and that it's infected. She tells me to get dressed to go and I feel like I'm going to die just from the thought of having to get dressed, and she sees that's what I'm thinking and says I can just go in the same sweatshirt and sweaty t shirt I'd been wearing for days, but I had nowhere near enough energy to change, let alone put my t shirt on the right way since it had somehow gotten backwards and inside out.

When I stood up to go to the doctors office is when I realized I was way sicker than I even thought, because I couldn't even walk straight. I was so sick drunk. I kept walking into walls, and I couldn't see anything. Cari had to go to the bathroom before we left and I couldn't even stay standing to wait the 30 seconds for her, so I callopsed again onto her bed. We got out of the apartment and I was wobbling back and forth in the hallway until Casey told me to grab the wall and help steady myself while they urgently got Piper ready to go and then he went down to pull up the car right outside of the elevator. The next thing I remember I don't even remember. Cari said my eyes went into two different directions and I slid down the wall and passed out, which I know must be true because of the giant scrape on my back that stings all the time. Cari gave me a piece of gum and was helping me drink sips of cold water until I came to enough to try and get up and get into the elevator, I remember her saying a prayer and I KNOW that that's why I was able to get up. I remember listening to her pray and all of a sudden being able to see the elevator clearly and feeling like I maybe was strong enough to get up and get into the elevator, I just need a boost of strength.

Once we got into the elevator I got super dizzy again and I remember starting to cry and asking my sister if I was going to die. This sounds very dramatic, but I'd never felt this awful, and this out of control of my own body in my life. I've never been drunk, I've never been on drugs, this whole not being able to know where you're walking, or see where you're going was really scaring me. Not to mention I had this foreign thing on my stomach that was festering, and I couldn't stop shivering and sweating. The look of the people on the first floor when our elevator doors opened was priceless, they looked horrified, like they were looking at a dead person. I don't know what I looked like because surprisingly enough in the midst of all this I hadn't primped much in front of the mirror but I can only imagine that I looked awful because not only could I smell myself, but I hadn't been out of bed in days, and I had just minutes before passed out on the floor.

The look on the receptionists face when we walked into the Doctor's office was similar to those of the elevator waiters. Maybe I had something embarrassing written on my face and I just didn't know? ;) I'm thinking everyone thought I was extremely drunk or something. We were in the actual Doctors office within three minutes, he's a Dutch doctor, and he was SO nice. I sat at his desk, told him all my symptoms, and he had my lay on the bed so he could look at my "bump" which he swiftly told us was a boil which had resulted in a bacterial infection which was now spreading into my blood and thats what was making me so sick. He gave me three different meds, one of which was a suppository med incase I started vomitting and wasn't keeping the drugs down. If you don't know what a suppository med is, its put in through the rectum...aka anally...aka butt...aka ICK. I didn't know what it meant until later, and my sister asked why I seemed so calm when he said that and I said I had no idea what it meant! I just laid on his bed half passed out, glad my med school sis was there to hear everything he was saying. But I knew one thing, I'd cut the skin from my face loose and turn it around so there was no hole for my mouth before I'd let myself throw up and have to take my medicine THAT way.

When we got back home I got a priesthood blessing from my friend Matt and Casey, they said a special prayer for healing and told me that the Lord understood everything I was going through, and how this would have no long lasting effects. The blessing made me feel better, after the blessing it was back to bed.

Day -4: I woke up feeling a little better than the day before, but my main issue now were my swollen fingers, they really ached, and I couldn't make a fist, so I couldn't even brush my own teeth, and it was driving me insane. I'd been wearing a ring since last summer when I bought it, and we tried really hard to get it off by lathering up my finger with soap and different things, but nothing worked, and the ring was cutting my circulation off really bad since my fingers were twice as big right now, so we cut the ring off. Casey thought to use a fingernail clipper which was such an inspiration, and it actually worked! I'm glad we got it off, too, because the indent from the ring took two days to go away, and I knew I could have had permanent problems with keeping the circulation cut off like that for so long.

Day -3: I woke up and we switched up the ointment and bandage on my boil and it was now totally open, and at least an inch deep, it was SICK. The flesh eating virus had done me dirty, and I can't believe all that was underneath the "hat" on top so the doctor called it. But it looked absolutely awful, but Cari kept reassuring me that this is how it heals, and that it needs to fill up and close. I also now had all these white blisters on the finger we'd cut the ring off of, we looked it up and thought it to be swollen blood vessils because this made sense. The blisters popped with almost no pressure, but then after that, entire sheets of my skin kept coming off the finger. I figured it was normal, since obviously the skin was dead and needed to come off.

Day -2: I kept getting acid reflux really bad and realized it was because I'd taken my pill with no food in my stomach, after taking literally one bite of an apple, I threw up four times and FREAKED out that I'd have to take my medicine that other way... Luckily food stayed down the rest of the day and my fever broke and stayed away without taking medicine for it, so that was exciting.

Day -1: I ate a lot today, while, relative to what I'd been eating all week, which was basically nothing...Cari made me a bowl of oatmeal right after she'd sought sick entertainment from draining the gross junk from my boil, her face was pure thrill and "this is awesome" while the hold time I was holding my puke bucket and heaving pretty bad. After I ate her oatmeal I threw up right away, and right in front of her, I think subconsciously it was payback for her boil loving. In reality I think I just ate way too much, way too fast. The skin from another finger peeled off completely which was really weird. My friend Danny who's also a student at the med school suggested I have a staph infection, which usually accompanies a fever, and chills, and swollen fingers, and it all starts from a boil. He also thought I had severe scalded skin syndrome. We looked them both up, and I'm pretty sure he nailed it. So as of right now that's my official diagnosis.

Today: My fever is completely gone, and there's been no throwing up, or nausea, I can stand up without feeling dizzy whatsoever. I've had some muscle atrophy from not using my muscles at all, and constantly laying down, so I've had my niece stretch out my arms and legs, but other than that everything is doing way better, and I think I'm on the rebound of this infection. The only ailments really left are my boil thats still a couple days from closing, and my fingers. The skin on four of my fingers have fallen off now, and they're just bandaged with gauze and neosporin, but they burn. I feel like a leper.

I just want to thank everyone for all of their prayers, I know they've helped. I also want to urge everyone who ever has something new appear on their skin to get it checked out IMMEDIATELY and not prolong it so long like I did. After hearing that staph infections kill people, and how I had that spreading throughout my body for so long, it really made me grateful that I'm going to be okay. The hardest part of this whole thing was being away from home, its weird to be so sick and so far away from everything that's familiar. A big thank you to my sister and my brother in law and my nieces and nephew for all their help getting me stuff when I yelled to them from my room because I sure as heck couldn't get up to go anywhere, and a thank you to everyone who sent their well wishes and their prayers to help me get better. Keeping a good perspective in this has been really important for me, because whenever I look at my boil, or my half peeled off skin hands, I just want to cry, and I have to remember this could be MUCH MUCH MUCH worse.

Here's to me kickin' this disease 100% soon and getting back out in the Caribbean heat!













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Monster cookies, fighting babes, Sean Connery, and met the man who created Yoda I did.

The last two weeks have gone by so fast, its such a blur, we've been busy! Time needs to just go ahead and slow down, i'm dreading getting back to Minnesota to face real life. I can't believe its already the end of March. Ya'll ready for this two week recap? I have lots of pictures this post. Let's get started...
My sister Hannah turned 19 a couple weeks ago, and one of her presents from my mom was monster cookies (indirectly...my mom lives in MN, Hannah lives in UT, so my mom paid my bro who's also in UT money to make the dough and deliver it to Hannah...that entire explanation was unneccesary...moving on) so monster cookie dough is AMAZING. If you've never had a monster cookie, then that sucks for you. They're one of my favorites, but they're SO expensive to make. My friend Katie and I went out and bought everything and it was 50 bucks, luckily we had decided to donate the majority of the cookies to Cari's school where they sell baked goods on the weekends for the students, so we were reimbursed. Phew. I'm such a cheap American. The monster cookies were a success, those things are beasts, though. There were 6 cups of peanut butter, 18 cups of oatmeal, it makes so much dough, I had to mix it with my hands and we had to use the biggest bowl we own, which happened to be our crock pot. Ha! This guy at Cari's school literally tracked her down and asked if she was the one whose family made the monster cookies and asked if we would please make them again soon. He said he had nominated us for a "Golden Spoon" award which basically means we own at baking. Woo!

Another thing I've been wanting to make is orange chicken which is my favorite food. Ever. Asian food is the best, oh my gosh. I'd so marry an Asian just so that he had my mother in law could cook me legitimate Asian food. Orange Chicken was ALSO a succcess.Our friends Katie and Danny joined us for a post-block celebration for Cari who did very well on her last round of exams. Danny and I got the short end of the stick and had to bread the chicken, that flour and egg combo sticks to fingers like no other. I literally thought I had a wart on my finger halfway through dinner and it ended up being the breading which was stuck to my fingers after two washes. DANG. After dinner Cari thought it would be hilarious to play the "corn starch game" which never in my life have I heard of. You put a pile of corn starch on a plate with a dime on top of it, and everyone takes turns cutting pieces of the corn starch off of the sides and whoever knocks the dime off has to then slide the dime off of the plate, using only their nose. It was funny because I wasn't the one who lost. Poor Danny.
We took these pictures after dinner. I think its really funny that Katie had no idea I was staring at her the entire time we were taking pictures.

Piper and I have been going on a lot of shopping trips this week. We tagged along with my friend Kenzie and baby Eliaa whom she nannies for. We went to the capitol and did some grocery shopping and then checked out "Rima" which is the giant souvenir shop here. Piper was pretty overwhelmed by the store, her eyes got huge when we walked in. She was running from thing to thing picking it up and telling me what it was, I feel like she would be an excellent tour guide for the blind. If she wasn't picking things up, she was dancing to the rasta music playing in the store. She's so fun. Rima is apparently where everything comes from thats being sold on the beach by people. I bought a dress for 20 bucks last weekend, the lady told me she had homemade it, went to Rima the next week, saw the same exact dress for 12 bucks. I got hustled. The souvie shop was gigantic, I ended up just getting a bunch of postcards for some close friends and fam. Texting my friends asking for their addresses to mail the postcards to was pretty funny, I got some weird responses, such confusion as to why I wanted to know where they lived. It was like my friends thought I wanted to burn their houses down or send them anthrax in the mail or something. Such skeptics.









Every Monday Piper and I do the grocery shopping, which takes five times longer here than it did at home. You go to some stores to get your produce, some stores to get your bulk, some stores to get your dairy, and they're all far away, and generally there's traffic. Piper likes to hang out on the cart now, its funny, that or she has to push the cart, but she can't see a dang thing over the cart, so she basically yells "EXCUSE ME!" and then proceeds to ram the cart into stuff.
This week we went with Eliaa and Kenzie, while Kenzie was in the bathroom and I was holding both babies Eliaa and Piper began to brawl. This is Piper getting it handed it to her by the baby ;)
For play group last week we went to the Seaside Nature Park. Its a horse stable, with a petting zoo, and a giant pavillion, and then the beach you can swim in if you want to. If you pay to get a horseback riding lesson there they take you riding in the actual ocean for part of it, its beautiful. Piper got to pet a horse, and I got attacked by a swan, it was actually really scary. Birds hate me. I don't know why, but ever since I was 12 and got kicked in the face by a goose while I was riding my bike, I haven't really liked them all that much, either. Quit looking at me, Swan. (If you know what movie that's from, then we can continue being friends) The horses started eating out of the garbage can right next to where we were petting them, and one of the horses found and ate a banana peel and Piper got so excited because she LOVES bananas more than any other food, and I think she was excited that horses like them, too. "Horse eat nanas!"






One of the boys from play group, Mikey, just had his very first birthday, so he had a little birthday party. His mom is from Nigeria, and they had this Nigerian rice and chicken which was super good but also very spicy, half of the adults couldn't eat it, but Piper loves spicy food. The whole time Cari was pregnant with her Cari craved jalepeno peppers, so Pipes loves it. She kept shoveling the rice in, then washed it down with some cake. Nothing like rice and cake...




My friend Melissa and I took her daughter, Emma, and Piper to this baby pool at a hotel right next to our apartment. It was so nice and secluded and the pool was shallow enough that Piper could walk in the entire thing, but the water was really cold, so instead of swimming Piper and Emma just did laps walking around the border of the pool. I got to sunbathe in the water and talk to Melissa, so works for me.



I kept busy even when I was "off duty" going out to dinner and movies with friends. I'm pretty sure my security guard thinks I have no life outside of going to the movies. Every time he's working and I see him and he asks where I'm going I always happen to be going to the movies, oh well. HUNGER GAMES COMES OUT THIS WEEK. I'M GETTING EXCITED FOR THAT. I also had a couple of hair clients this week. My friend Kenzie wanted to go about six inches shorter and have some blonde foils put in...

It looked great when we were done, and getting your hair cut while staring at the beach, not too shabby. I cut Danny's hair this week, too, but that one wasn't quite as exciting. But we did get his bangs cut like he likes them, apparently everyone here likes to leave the sides really short and the top really long. Cute?

This weekend was really fun and also really hard. I was an emotional wreck all of Friday. Poor Cari came home from school to a sobbing Michelle. I've been pretty stressed with my student loans starting to need repayment, and I had this total bank fiaso. I've been getting a monthly "convenience fee" (not at all convenient) from Wells Fargo. Finally after they'd taken 45 dollars I decided to call and see what the heck was going on. Apparently I need to be transferring at least 75 dollars from my checking account to my savings account. The customer service rep was telling me there was a new plan I should switch to that eliminated those monthly fees, I was all for it. After being on the phone with him for 45 minutes, 20 of which were just him rambling about his life and telling me it was cool that we were both in the "21 age range" and how his dad got him too drunk on his 21st birthday, needless to say, I was starting to get annoyed. Before we hung up the phone I clarified with him a handful of times that my debit card would still be linked to my new account so that I could still use it. The next day at the grocery store my card was declined, I come home and call the bank and they tell me that my card has been cancelled because I have a new account and there's no way they can turn the card back on once its been cancelled. I was so mad. So I had no working debit card, no valid checks, my account was no longer joint with my moms for easier bill pay from here, it was a disaster. I called my mom to tell her the whole fiaso and ask for her assistance in getting it resolved and after a few minutes of working out a plan, she says she has to go because she's at her Aunts house and our uncle had just died. I just started crying hysterically. I felt so insensitive for rambling on about stupid money while my mom was with our family right after LeRoy passed away. A good cry always makes me feel better, though.

Later that night I went to my friend Trisha's house and we celebrated St. Patricks Day. I'm not irish, but I still love Shamrock Shakes. We watched this movie from 1959 starring Sean Connery, and HOLY COW, what a babe he was! I couldn't believe it. The movie was so funny, but I'm of course totally blanking on its name... The next morning we had to be up extremely early for a baptism and a full day going to the boardwalk and then hitting up Guana Bay, our favorite boogie boarding beach.

The baptism was in the ocean, and it was so pretty. It was for a 14 year old named Patrick, he's a super nice kid. We weren't sure what to wear to a church event, at the beach. We just threw some dresses and skirts over our bathing suits and called it good. After the baptism we went to Taste Factory. Casey took this picture while we were eating, I don't remember what we were talking about, but it was apparently really funny.After the Taste Factory we drove to the boardwalk where all of the cruise ships dock and all the tourists flock to. Its easily the most touristy part of the island. Its a bunch of cool landmarks, their courthouse, a lot of restaurants, and beach, lots and lots of beach. We looked like total tourists with our backpacks and my constant picture taking. You don't want to look like a tourist here, if the locals know you live here, too, they tend to give you better deals and are nicer, which is understandable. Tourists get so rude and impatient to the locals. Here's a bunch of pics from our sightseeing at Frontstreet, Backstreet, and Oldstreet.
























The highlight of the day was definitely "Yoda Guy" which was this Star Wars exhibit with cut outs of all the major characters from the movie. They also sold a lot of really cool stuff, they had pages from the actual script framed and for sale. The "yoda guy" is the man who helped create the character of Yoda, and he was kinda nuts. This little boy went up to him and told him he was his hero and all of this, and then "yoda guy" went on this long speech about empowering the youths minds, and as our friend Matt said, "you can tell that kids mind is being blown right now" haha. Kenzie and I asked if we could take our picture with him and he turned around and told us he had to "pay the rent" and was glad to take pictures with anyone who helped support them, aka buy things. Then he said there were many cruise ships here and that he'd already taken thousands of pictures this week, and didnt have time for all of the pictures and how he was too busy trying to enlighten and inspire young minds. I'm not sure what all he said because the whole time all I could think was, "we could have taken an entire photoshoot of pics in the time its taken you to answer us whether or not we can take a picture together." Kenzie and I were bummed about the lack of photo, but it didnt stop us from snapping pics of his butt while he wasn't looking. Ha.











After all the boardwalk festivities, we went to Guana. Unfortunately Piper had had enough of the day, so Cari and Casey took her home early. I saw a shirt on the bottom of the ocean that I'm pretty sure was attached to a dead body, but other than that, the beach was awesome. Andi, Tanner and I got home from the beach all sandy and wicked tired. The rest of the night we just laid around and then I made us all watch "Top Gun" because Tanner had never seen it. Goodness gracious great balls of fire.

Church today was very entertaining. When I was first asked to teach the 4-7 year olds I was very overwhelmed because they had so much energy, and you couldn't get them to listen to you for very long because lessons got boring, church is long, they're hungry, etc. So the two necessities for teaching are: bribes & games. I put out a handful of candy and tell them this is the candy they can share at the end of class but every time they're not paying attention, or getting out of their chair, I take a piece away, and when they answer a question, or volunteer to say the prayer, they get a piece. Its actually working like a charm. Today we had an object lesson about the steps you take before you can get baptized and we made it literal. Every time they said an answer, they got a footprint that they could tape on the floor from their chairs, to the picture of someone being baptzied on the door. I told them they had to walk on the feet to get to the picture and to pretend the floor was hot lava, and they got SO into it. It was so cute. These kids are hilarious. Yensen, who's one of my favorites, loves to answer questions, and every time she does, she stands up and puts a finger up as if to say, "listen carefully, i'm about to say something wise." Plus I asked her what her favorite treat was and she said lasagna, so that alone makes me love her.

I don't know if it's a Mormon thing since our church is three hours long, and we hate being in uncomfortable dress clothes for that long, but ever since I can remember its been a contest to come home and see who can change from their dress clothes into pajamas the fastest. Today I came out to the kitchen to see that Andi and Piper were both wearing the exact same shirt as me and I thought it was hilarious that not only did we all pack that shirt, but we all changed into it after church. Its a Walk and Roll shirt from a fundraiser for my dads work. Here's our tribute to you, Dad!
Piper had her first real bath in months tonight. We don't have a bath tub here so she's had to take showers and she HATES it, so Cari decided to bathe her in the kitchen sink, ghetto style. Piper loved it, she screamed hysterically when we eventually had to take her out, five minutes after she was done she said, "I think I need another bath."

Funny Piper story of the week:
Piper really likes to do other peoples hair, she'll always ask me to put ponytails in her dolls hair, and then Piper will mimic that, and she'll put the rubber bands in her mouth, and brush our hair for us all the time. Plus every day when I get her dressed she says "ponytail" right afterwards, chick loves getting her hair done. So this week, she decided to do her dads hair, I'll let the pic do the talking. Way to be a trooper, Casey.
I hope you all have a good week! These last pics are ones that Casey took from the cliff overlook on the way to Phillipsburg, and then the nightly illuminated city of Maho. Very pretty.