Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Estrogen tank

Our apartment is officially an estrogen tank. Lots of people are curious how it's going living with just us girls, and to any who are curious it's actually a lot of fun. More often than not we're all sitting on someones bed just talking and laughing or reading and watching movies together. We know when its someones "time of the month" and when the freezer needs to be stocked with the appropriate junk food supplies that will be needed for the week, we laugh at each other, get cranky at each other, I make Cari and Andi clean their rooms once in a while, but all in all, we're surviving living together ;)

BABIES!!
First things first, we have a new addition to our island family!! My good friends Ashley and Gary had their baby boy last Sunday! Parker is a cutie and is home with his parents and doing so well. We love to go down and hold him, its amazing how much lighter he is than Piper, and how much longer I'm able to hold him than her. Ashley is literally the cheeriest person I've ever met...she's like a cheerleader on steroids (totally kidding) but she is a very positive and uplifting person, which is so nice to have in a friend, especially on the island where so many people are just whining all the time.

Sunday I called Ashley to get an update and see if she had the baby yet, she answered the phone herself and sounded like she'd just woken up from a 4 day coma and trip to a day spa because she sounded that relaxed and I thought for sure she was on so many drugs and hadn't had the baby yet, but she totally had. Her pep just doesn't die down even after child birth. She and Gary had the baby in a hospital on the French side so their son will have duel citizenship, pretty cool.

Monday my friend Alie and I went to visit Ashley and were soon joined by our other friends Cecily, Matt and Trisha.










One of my best friends, Trisha, also had her baby son just yesterday and I was asked to be his godmother, so I'm very excited to meet him when I go home for Christmas!! <3 Daniel


White Coat Dinner

Each new semester the incoming class has a white coat ceremony where they receive their white coats that dawns their achievements as a "doctor in training" I can't believe its already been 9 months since Cari had her ceremony

I babysat a set of twins while their mother and father were in the white coat ceremony. The twins names were Lily and Sadie and holy cow did Piper LOVE them. She was absolutely hysterical when they left. They're eighteen months old, and I think Pipes likes younger kids because she's really into feeling in charge.






Babies always want what they can't have. Piper was drinking from her pink water bottle and Lily HAD to have it, and kept trying to take it away from Piper...I took a couple pics of the series of events that went down, it was hilarious to watch. Here's the twins eyeing Piper's water like it was the last drop of water on the desert. Just FYI, I'm not cruel, each girl had their own water, they just of course wanted someone else's.



Piper decided to get a height advantage and climbed onto the big chair thinking, "Phew, I'm safe up here. They can't get my water."


"Oh crap, I've underestimated her...she's coming for the goods!"

"I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!!"


Then, a brief war broke out between the two...

Haha! That last picture isn't really what happened ;) Piper loves the twins, and is begging for them to come back, I'm glad she has new friends since we lost some pretty great ones with the semester changes and people coming and going.

After the twins got picked up, we quickly got ready for the after white coat ceremony dinner at the C-Lounge. It was so crowded and we got there so late that most of the food was gone, plus Piper had skipped her nap and was struggling, so I took Piper and Andi home and made Cari stay to socialize with classmates without a kid on her hip for once. After an hour I told her I'd come pick her up, once I got out to the car she came out and asked if she could go dancing with some friends for a couple hours. Go, Cari! I regret to inform that I wasn't able to take pics of white girl busting a move at a night club, just let your imagination do the work.



Fight Night!
After girlfriend came home from "bustin' a move" I handed her the hypothetical baton of children and picked up Pierre to see some friends who were hosting a "Fight Night" it was a rap battle that my friends Adi and Entry were in. We didn't get there until midnight or so and only got to see a couple of rounds, and the final round, but the energy was awesome and there was a lot of talent. Freestyling is so impressive to me. It was held in Philipsburg at the "Heritage House" which was a perfect venue with lots of couches to sit on and a sweet light show set up.






Crystal & Fluffy

A friend of ours in the building asked me to dog sit for him while he travels about a week every month, he's a super nice guy with two small dogs that Piper was first afraid of, but now greets with open arms and a fresh face for licking. His apartment is a rooftop villa with hot tub, satellite tv in every room (even the deck) and he generously offered it to me for use while he's gone since the dogs get lonely and he'd prefer them to have company anyways. The view from his deck is spectacular, I absolutely love it up there. The clouds are my favorite, they're so beautiful that they don't even look real to me. Because it's so high up, there are no bugs, and the cross breeze is incredible. We're definitely taking advantage of it.










Learning Unlimited

Andi is loving her new school, her classmates are such sweethearts, and her teachers are very impressive. The only thing she's not a huge fan of are the uniforms, but at least she doesn't have to go through the hassle of picking an outfit every day!
She's rockin' her classes and getting some awesome grades, she pulled up her report card and I had to take a pic...I live vicariously through her straight A's...
Last week Cari went to parent teacher conferences and loved the teachers and was overall just very glad we chose that school. I had to laugh as she was about to leave because of all the color coordination with her purse and sweater. Can you guess her favorite color? ;) If you buy anything for Cari, make sure its orange. Or she'll spit on it. No, she won't. Probably?
The only disadvantage to Andi's school is the commute, we're really lucky because there's another girl living in our complex who's a year younger than Andi and goes to the same school. Her mom is so nice, and takes Andi with them to school every morning and then I usually pick them up. Carpool makes it SO much easier. Its quite adorable to see Cari and Andi off to school together in the mornings.

While the girls are at school, Piper are I rule the world aka we tackle our apartment cleaning...the apartment never seems to stay clean, what's the deal? Hit up the pool, have play dates, go to the store, go play with our security guards, blow bubbles, head butt each other accidentally, dance to "call me maybe" etc. Piper's favorite place to go right now is the grocery store. I just bought her a toy grocery basket with a bunch of fake food. So if anyone has a hankering for some plastic corn and cake, Piper is your woman. Embarrassing moment of the week (I can assure you, there's always at least twenty) was last week at the store. The man who was going to bag my groceries says, "Hey, Angel!" I said, "excuse me?" and he says, "Oh no, sorry, not you." So apparently my cashiers name was Angel, and he was just trying to get her attention and not trying to make a lame pick up attempt. WHOOPS Oh well, life goes on, at least the island is tiny so i'll probably only see him 398349839834 more times before I move. SILVER LINING

Saturday morning we took a trip to town, we all felt kind of hungover from exhaustion from the previous night of Cari dancing and me up until 4 at the rap battle, I had a hair client and an airport run with a friend early in the morning, so I was sleepy, but we decided to run into town and do a little shopping and take care of some errands. Of course every time I go into town I end up buying some thing(s) I don't need but I want. Ended up dropping some pretty pennies at the Fossil store on a new watch and wallet, plus 8 dollars on this awesome "We be jammin'" tank top that i'm definitely going to sport EVERYWHERE to match my Jamaican attitude... Pierre makes me listen to reggae music all the time now, don't be alarmed if I come home with dreadlocks. ONLY KIDDING, MOM AND DAD.

It's SO incredibly hot outside right now, I can't even describe it to you. So walking up and down the boardwalk probably wasn't the most fun idea, but i'm glad we went. It was a blast. Piper fell asleep in the car on the way there and was out cold the entire day in her stroller. Lucky girl gets to be pushed around and doesn't have to walk in the heat. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and put her stroller up against the booth so she could lay down all the way, a bunch of waiters kept walking by and staring at her, which wasn't awkward at all...leave us alone, she's tired, okay?

Too bad I didn't really get any pictures of the day besides ones of Piper sleeping and this awesome croc shoe person thing (technical name for it). Do you like her diaper pillow? Or that she sleeps with her eyes partially opened now? Or how her middle finger is sticking up slightly? Like she subconsciously was annoyed we kept photographing her while she was asleep?





Sunday Fun Day

It was so good to be reunited with my Primary Class on Sunday after being gone for five Sundays while I was in the states. They found some smiley face stickers and decided we should all wear them on our faces so we "have two smiles" ha they're so cute. I asked Keisha to draw a picture of a strong person, and the muscles she drew were so funny that I had to take a picture. By the way, I put the picture in black and white because I am so pale right now from not laying out for months, that I look unacceptable next to their beautiful dark skin. Workin' on it!!



Have a good week, friends! Love and miss you all!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Quick pit stop in the states

I've resurrected the 'ole blog after a couple months of being hiatus, I know it's been too long since I couldn't even remember my password and username for my blog website. Whoopsie Daisy.

Life lately has been nothing short of crazy and spontaneous. I had originally planned to only come to the island for the first eight months of my sisters schooling to experience what it was like down here as well as help my sisters family with the adjustment of a new home, but ended up falling in love with the island and wanting so badly to return. My brother in law unfortunately has not found a job allowing him to work solely from the island, and my sister being in school all day it was either her come back to the island without her kids, or me come back with her to watch the kids while she plugged away in classes-the decision seemed easy, I love these kiddos, and this island.

Flying back to Minnesota for the semester break just Piper and I had me super anxious, I've never flown internationally by myself and wasn't sure how customs went down, let alone having a toddler with me for the 15 hours of traveling...yeesh. The night before I went to the store and bought a disgusting amount of fruit snacks, crackers, juice, narcotics (just kidding) just hoping I could stuff her mouth with food in case she started to get antsy and hysterical on the plane (just kidding again) none of my worst nightmares came to pass and Piper did SO well the entire day of traveling. She got slightly emotional when she saw them taking her carseat down the conveyor belt to place underneath the plane, thinking she'd never see it again, but I reassured her as best I could and we moved on.

She slept on both plane rides, and was completely out before we even took off of the runway, it was such an answered prayer.

We were greeted in Minneapolis around midnight by Andi, Tanner and Casey who were all way more excited to see Piper than they were to see me, what the heck? Being on a smooth road and going faster than 20 miles per hour without braking every 45 seconds for a speed bump threw me off for a while, but I missed home so much and was so excited to be back. Minneapolis is my favorite place ever. Home sweet home.

My parents were unfortunately out of town when I got home (shafted) but I had a blast catching up with my little brothers and sister who was home from college for the summer. Since I was returning to the island I was in panic mode to see all of my friends before I came back, had some awesome reunion dinners with old co workers, saw Jared Allen at the state fair, (DREAMS DO COME TRUE) discovered how incredibly delicious lemon and basil water is when I went to St. Paul to eat at some different food trucks with my friend Jess, rubbed the baby belly of my friend Trisha who's expecting my Godson next week, visited my Grandparents in Holdingford, Minnesota--population 760, cutest little town ever, cut off half a foot of DISGUSTING hair, and cuddled up in my fleece Vikings blanket and watched tv again--oh how I've missed tv.div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">







After a week in Minnesota my little brothers and sister and I set off on our 25 hour road trip to Utah where we were taking my sister Hannah back to college and meeting our new nephew Vince that my brother Dillon and his wife Amy were just blessed with a couple of months ago. My parents were already in Utah so we were meeting them there, we surprised them at the grocery store where they were stocking up on groceries to flourish the condo they had rented for the week and my mom pee'd herself when I tapped her shoulder and she turned around and saw me. We were just there having a sweet reunion while others scoped out their produce selections all around us, not the most ideal situation ever, but was still awesome to see my mom again. Love you, mama!

After my mom and I had "hugged it out" I went off to search for my dad in the parking lot where we told him to wait for us (but we told them we'd be longer than we were since we wanted to surprise them) and that reunion was equally as sweet, I swear no matter how old I get I'll never stop needing my mom and dad.

The road trip was definitely the highlight of my time back in the states for sure. We got to stop in Colorado on the way to and from Utah to see my brother, Tyler, his wife, Lindsay, and their kids, Kylie, Katelyn, and Landon.

Not only are they such an adorable family, but growing up with such a big age gap between my older siblings and I, I get to know them more and more each time I see them, and I absolutely love my sister in law, Lindsay, she's so fun to talk to, and is doing such great things with my brother and their three kids. I was not only spoiled with my biological siblings, but my in laws as well.

While in Utah I got to meet up with some old friends that have since moved out there, as well as Dillon and his family of course (our whole reason for going) playing with "Baby Vince" was so fun, babies are awesome. Vince seemed to not mind me too much, I think its the big resemblance I have with Dillon, his dad.

We had a ton of fun in Park City, UT, where my parents rented a condo for the week, we went to the Olympic museum, I went on a scenic chairlift with Colton who's one of my oldest and closest friends, went tubing down the Provo river, spent way too much money at target, went to starbucks too many times (located conveniently across the street), moved Hannah into her new apartment right off of campus of BYU, got to catch up with my Aunt Jan and cousin Rosie after years and years of not seeing them and it was SO fun to talk to them again-Jan is so awesome and so so funny, I wish she lived closer :(








After an awesome couple weeks out west, we drove back to Minnesota for one more week before returning to the island, just once again trying to see as many people as possible, shop until I dropped, and spent some more quality time with my family. The break went so quickly but was so much fun.

Upon returning to the island we've been trying to acclimate to the weather again, it is 10x hotter now than it was when I left a month ago, holy. crap. We took a red eye flight back, so the day we got home we were just so extremely exhausted, we got picked up by some friends at the airport, and saw a bunch of other friends on the plane and in baggage claim, twas pretty awesome. Poor Piper was SO tired all day, and looked sedated half of the day.

It's actually quite surprising how close Piper and I are, Cari tells me that when I'm not in the apartment Piper always asks about me because she "misses me and loves me so much" She's so my protege. If she and I shaved our heads we'd be Dr. Evil and Mini Me. She uses some of my lines like, "Let's blow this popsicle stand," "whoa, that's ghetto," "ya dig?" and does a ton of my same facial expressions now, it's just so adorable. She and I really need our own tv show, this is starting to get ridiculous that nobody else can share in the cuteness that is our daily interactions.

Andi started school at Learning Unlimited last week and is truly liking it so far, we sold our truck today and are going to swap it out for a more gas efficient smaller car to support the daily trek to school and back which is about half an hour each way, and with gas at 6 dollars a liter, driving a tank is not conducive to our budget.

I'll definitely be taking lots of pics and writing more blog updates soon, my brother in law, Casey gave me an awesome new camera that makes my old point and shoot camera look like a total joke of a camera and I'm excited to start taking pictures with it, I really need to get in the habit of taking my camera with me everywhere. We booked our tickets tonight to come home for Christmas, and I will see you on December 19, Minnesota. So excited.

Last but not least, I'm so excited about the NFL season starting again, and the Vikings won their first game! Here's to a great season, Jared!