MURICA.

I've been back in Minnesota for almost two weeks now and it's STINKIN' WEIRD.

The last week or so on the island was bananas. This is the part of my blog where I make a shout out to our phenomenal friends on the island. Honestly, the friends we made on the island were some of the nicest people I've ever known. The cool thing about living on a tiny foreign island with other Americans is that you all quickly bond with them over the mutual feeling of being an alien. People get close really quickly and sacrifice their time and help to mere strangers.

Carina and I left most of our apartment packing up to the weekend before we needed to move out. Carina had a bunch of big exams to take up until that weekend and I just straight up didn't feel like doing it solo. Packing is one of those activities I feel I can only do when it's last minute and it HAS to get done...because I despise it. The few weeks leading up to our move I'd been slowly selling off everything we didn't have use for anymore/had purchased from students when we came and now were passing along. Being in medical school with all those loans you try to make money back whenever possible, so I would scan around the apartment quite often saying, 'WHAT ELSE CAN I SELL?!"

Selling items to students was the most painful thing I've ever done. If I post a 30 dollar bowl for five dollars and you message me to ask if you can have it for 4.75, I want to scream at you. It's a quarter. I understand haggling, but 25 cents? I'll buy you a stinkin' gumball and let's be done with it.

The entirety of our packing weekend Piper was running around screaming and taking things out of piles everywhere, not enjoying the fact she has no idea where all of her toys and old clothes are going to. Poor girl has had to put up with so much adjustment the last few weeks. Cue Alecia and Jessica, my wonderful friends who watched Piper so much for us that weekend. Alecia even attempted to have Piper sleep over, we ended up coming to get her at 2am, but it was a noble effort nonetheless, you're the best.

My last 24 hours on the island was a disaster. I literally don't think I ever stopped crying up until midway through our first flight. Carina and I were probably looking real stupid sobbing at the airport as I have Piper blow her kisses through the glass, hahaha so cliché. Our landlord for the last two years happened to be on our flight home, and right behind me in the customs line...

Landlord: Isn't Carina going home in a few weeks? You're still so sad? Must be very close.

I just had to laugh at her comment. It did seem silly to be so emotional but it was so hard to say goodbye to all my friends and my boyfriend...and saying goodbye to Cari at the airport to me represented saying goodbye to the amazing, sad, lonely, adventurous, stressful, scary and wonderful last two years. Being her roommate has been perfect. We can yell at each other because we both have PMS at the same time, and laugh together and its been fun to get to know my big sister since we were never that close before St. Martin, because of the whole, I was four when she got married and moved out thing.

Unless I make a complete mockery of my life and end up living in her basement for the rest of my life, I don't know that we'll ever live together again and it was sad to say goodbye to that. I'm so happy she's my sister and that we'll always be family. Maybe her med school career will tank and she and her family have to move into my basement one day. Who can say? HAHA JK CARINA.

Piper was a perfect kid on the airplanes coming home, maybe up until the last hour or so she wasn't cranky at all, and she was really enjoying some in flight reading...

 

We got into Minneapolis around midnight and were greeted by my younger sister and brother in baggage claim. My older brother Dillon, his wife and their son Vince had been in Minnesota for about a month but told me they had to go move into their new apartment before I got home so they wouldn't be able to overlap their trip with mine at all. I was SO bummed. But I went to open the back door of my moms car and Dillon and his wife Amy popped out and I started to cry...AGAIN WITH THE TEARS. It was a wonderful surprise.

 

As soon as we got home from the airport I went up to my Dad's room to give him a hug, he stayed home while everyone else came to the airport because he wasn't feeling well. My mom said he had been complaining of flu like symptoms...fever, nausea, but nothing too serious. Upon getting into his room and talking for a couple of minutes he told me that his left side had gone numb and he wasn't able to move his arm at all...my sister in law Amy had studied neuroscience and did some body testing type things and noticed his smile and eyelid were dropping, we were terrified he was having a stroke. We called 911 and they were there within a few minutes, they took my dad down the stairs into the ambulance and it was a very scary and humbling experience to watch it happen.

 

Before the ambulance had come my brother Dillon and I had tried to help my dad up to walk but he got so nauseous and his legs were too weak, immediately after laying back down he said he needed to throw up, we ran for a bucket and Dillon and I rubbed his back while he was getting sick. I've never felt that fear of losing a parent until that moment...I was trying so hard to have a strong face on for my dad and my younger brother Tommy who was already past terrified. But I couldn't hold it in for very long, I had to just grab Dillon's hand and hold it on my dad's back as I started to sob quietly enough that my dad wouldn't hear. I didn't want to add more alarm to his situation, he was already scared enough.

 

We drove behind the ambulance and waited a really long time in the hallway for any news. By this point it was about 6am my time and I was so exhausted I laid on the hospital floor and closed my eyes for a few minutes before my mom came out and told us we could come in to see him. It was very emotional for my dad to be in the hospital bed with all of the wires and tubes, and to have half of his kids there surrounding him. We learned that he had a TIA stroke which is a minor type of stroke that the body is able to dissolve itself, and it didn't require any surgery or anything to remove the clot...which is such a relief. They told him he'd meet with a stroke specialist and a neuroscientist to get some counsel on how to avoid any future problems and then they moved him into a room for observation overnight. We finally took him up on his suggestion to go home and get some rest, he could noticeably see we were all wrecked, and I hadn't been that tired in what seems like my whole life. It was hard to leave him, though. My mom stayed in the hospital with him overnight, the hospital was too full they didn't have a bed for her, so she and my dad just laid in his hospital bed together...how sweet. It makes me happy my parents have such a strong relationship and close bond after eleven kids and 36 years of chaos.

 

Hannah and I had to wake up just a couple hours after the hospital trip to go to a hair appointment I made for both of us to get cuts and colors, an appointment which I refused to cancel because my hair had not been done in a year and it looked like a hobo's hair.

 

I made Hannah agree to get like six inches of her hair cut off because I want to have hair that's longer than someone and her hair looks good short. She unhappily obliged, but in the end she's glad she listened to me (people are always happy they listen to me--I'm exceptionally wise ;) because she looked HOT. Wish I'd have taken a before/after pic. We were taken care of at Steller Hair Co, its a salon that just opened by two of my favorite instructors from Aveda, and my good friend Erin from school works there and did our hair. It was so fun to see the three of them, even though we were dead tired.

 

The next few days were all about the two D's...Dad and deck. My parents just tore down their deck and hired a contractor to come help build a new one, and all of us kids were recruited to help...

 

 The deck is coming along nicely and my Dad is doing great, for a couple of days he was still regaining the feeling in his left arm and was having trouble with his buttons and zippers and small object pick ups, but now he's got it down...he even wears a button down dress shirt everywhere lately to show off his skills. Thanks to all of our friends and family for your prayers and well wishes. We really appreciate all of you.

 

Dillon and Amy took off two days after I got home...apparently they have a life and jobs to get back to, whatever. Their last night here we took a family trip to Annie's Parlour which is a favorite of ours in downtown Minneapolis. It's always a fun time when we go there, after the play we took off to the Guthrie theatre to see "Pride and Prejudice" my parents knew me well that I love the city and planned my first full night back perfectly. :) We miss Dillon, Amy and Vince! Piper especially misses Vince, those two were fast friends.

 

The next two days were dedicated to Hannah time since she was leaving to go back to school in Utah and we only had four days together. Our biggest adventure was had while we went car shopping. I felt the strong urge to get a car. I was sick of coordinating car arrangements with my parents and being homebound due to a lack of transportation. I had a good nest egg in savings and was about to be working full time again and felt ready for the financial responsibility of a car. Hannah and I went to the dealership right next to our house and asked to see what they had for used cars still in great condition...the first and only car I test drove was a 2011 Nissan Sentra and I fell in love. Hannah and I drove it around the parking lot and it was love at first sight. It smelled so nice and looked so pretty and I was hooked. When we got back to the dealership the salesman working with me brought me to his desk and was discussing a finance plan and getting all of my information and then asked me to sign this paper that stated if their bank could agree on the down payment and monthly payments I wanted that I would be buying the car...and that's when I got a little nervous. Hannah immediately called a couple of our older brothers who are car OBSESSED and asked them their opinion. The car was set at 15,000 at the time, my brother Ben got on bluebook and said it was valued around 13 and we should never pay OVER bluebook, get outta there.

 

I didn't know what to say to the salesman who was so eager and I'm SO bad at saying no to people/am terrified to offend or upset someone, so we literally ran away. We told the man my dad wanted to see the car and we were going to get him and then we just didn't go back...I felt bad. Over the next couple of days I thought it over, made sure I was still comfortable with it, was seeing how I felt about it, etc. My wonderful brother Marcus was calling me every day to ask what was new with the car situation, he helped me get insurance quotes online, helped give me the courage I needed to sign the darn title!

 

I called a couple other dealerships to see what their used car inventory was like, and let me just tell those who don't know...if you call a car salesman and inquire about a car, they will STALK YOU. I got so many calls from the dealerships over the next week asking when I'd be in to see these cars, I swear I was getting ready to get tracked down by these people. Even when you tell them you're not interested or you already bought a car they want to recommend cars to you for when you're in the market for a next purchase. Whoa. I'm only 22. I can't afford car(s) just one car will suffice...crazy eager salesmen. But honestly I feel awful for car salesmen, what a rough market.

 

Hannah left early Saturday morning and I missed her right away, driving home from the airport all I could think about was getting a car so I could drive to Utah to see her/move into her room and sleep on her floor for the rest of my life.

 

Over the weekend I continued to mull over the car...was still feeling good about it, heard of no other car with such little mileage and in as good of condition as this one. So on Monday I had my dad accompany me to the dealership to test drive it once more and get it assessed at our mechanics. My dad was the right person to bring along for sure, he even worked at Ford for like two seconds about a hundred years ago, so he recognized one guy who came out and talked to us for a while, I tried to talk him into giving me 50 free oil changes but he didn't seem too thrilled :0

 

My dad test drove the car so much smarter than me

 

Me: Why are you turning down the radio?

Dad: I want to hear the engine

Me: Oh yeah, that's a good idea.

 

I definitely just got too wrapped up and excited about this car that I didn't think through the basics...thanks, Dad...you saved me on that one. The mechanic said the car was good to go, and four grueling hours of waiting and paperwork at the dealership, he was MINE. His name is Jerome and he has treated me well thus far, I hope we have a long and wonderful life together.

 

 

For the next couple weeks until Carina gets back from the island I'm staying in St. Cloud Monday through Friday to continue watching Andi, Tanner and Piper while Casey works full time. It's fun watching Piper in a bigger city with much more to do, except its so funny to see her reactions at things that seem so engrained into my memory. Things like sprinklers and trampolines just dazzle her because they're so unfamiliar and new...don't even get me started on how thrilled she was to be in a book store with kids books everywhere, she pulled out about 10 books for me to read her, we'd get to about the second page and then she wanted to read the next one.

 

I'm super excited for Carina to be home safe and sound...I'm anxious to get back into my old job and see where life takes me next! I need to re format this blog since I'm no longer a beach bum...so sad. If anyone has good blog titles to replace "Life's a Beach" you let me know...time to redecorate this web space of mine.

In the midst of the crazy

The whole month of June is what I imagine its like when someone wakes up the morning after a night of binge drinking and says "what the heck happened last night?" Does that mean I was wasted the entire month of June? No. Don't be a dummy. It just means the entire last month was a blur, and it went by so fast that I don't even remember what happened.I start every blog post saying this it seems, but my memory is a turd.


Andi graduated from the 8th Grade. We never thought she would make it through middle school, what an accomplishment. Not. Congrats you can draw triangles and divide a fraction...whoopdie doo. This is how Andi and I felt about the whole ordeal, but the graduation ceremony was very cute nonethless, and a good way for Andi to say goodbye to her island school friends, all of which she will most likely never see again. So weird.

Getting Andi ready for the graduation was hilarious. Andi takes after me as far as daily prep time. If I have to be somewhere at 9am I'll probably wake up around 8:37, doddle around for fifteen minutes and jump in the shower by 8:52. 9/10 times I show up somewhere with sopping wet hair, and no make up. Sorry about it.

 Andi is similar. We hate mornings, mornings come straight from Satan himself. So neither of us approximated the correct amount of time it would take to get ready since its been so long. Blow drying your hair? Who does that while they're living on an island with this high percentage of humidity? Do we even own a blow dryer anymore?

Andi mentioned a lot of her classmates had been talking about waking up early so they could spend the whole day getting ready and we both replied with, "WHAT THE TRASH COULD THEY BE SPENDING THE WHOLE DAY DOING?" Even Mrs. Doubtfire could transform from an average looking old dude into a sweet old British woman in a bathroom stall in under two minutes. So what could be taking all day? Even on my prom day I think I left to get my hair and make up done about two hours before I needed to be at pictures, although, I was late for pictures...see, I'm not good at managing time to get ready. My wedding day is going to be a disaster. I should probably start getting ready the year before.

By the time we had finished curling her giant wolf mane of hair and done all her make up I was about ready to take a 78 hour nap. She had the reaction every girl has had when I worked in a salon that wasn't used to having their full make up done..."I look weird" After assuring her for about 35 minutes that she didn't look like a goblin, she hesitantly walked out the door and I waited with her for her ride.

Her ride was a little bit late so I decided to take some photos because she looked so darn cute, the wind was blowing her hair in pretty ways and based on the honks and hollers from gross men driving past, I wasn't the only one who thought so.

The graduation ceremony itself was so precious. They had a professional photographer set up in a back room behind the stage, with a backdrop and GIANT flash. Each time someone got their picture taken I felt like I was going to have a seizure. I had to leave the room and opt out of the family pic...which was to Andi's benefit, since she's sick of explaining she doesn't have "moms" just one mom and one Aunt.

The 8th grade teacher had instructed the kids on how to walk into the graduation room and up to the stage, i'm not kidding you when I say it was like watching a bunch of senior citizens with invisible walkers. They were walking so slowly. I had to try so hard not to keep myself from laughing while I was filming it. I'd put the video up but it's 8 minutes long (just their walking is 8 minutes long. Just their walking) and it would take twelve years to upload a video that large onto this blog with this caribbean internet sevice.

After Graduation we hit up Haagen Dazs for a delicious belgian chocolate milkshake. The lady initially told us they didn't have belgian chocolate ice cream, after seeing our pouty faces she decided she would take it out of the deep freezer and let it thaw for a few minutes so she'd be able to scoop it out. So word to the wise...anyone visiting the Haagen Dazs in Maho, "We don't have that" is code for "I don't want to get that out of the freezer" just keep persistent. They'll budge.



A week after Andi's graduation Casey came to spend his last week on the island, and to take Andi home. It was so fun. We went to beaches, out to eat at a lot of fun new places, and did some shopping for art, jewelry and clothes on the French side. The whole visit is very well documented and written about on Casey's blog. He's the photographer in the apartment. The highlight of his trip was the catamaran boat trip we took to Prickly Pear, Anguilla. The boat was so fun. Half of it was netting so you could lay on it and feel the water directly underneath you, then when you get to Anguilla they feed you lunch and you get to lay on their white sand beach and stare at the crystal clear water. I absolutely loved it. The boat trips I've taken here have all been so fun and very well worth the money.

 

Having Andi gone is so weird. She's like a little pesky sister, who at the time you want to shake and just say "Leave me alone. I'm sleeping, and I don't care about that pinterest discovery"but then when she leaves you realize you wanted to say, "I love you, annoying girl." Andi is awesome and I love her guts.We miss her!!! Lucky for her I get to be her nanny for a while longer once I get back to Minnesota with Piper before Carina gets home in mid August.

Piper and I took a trip with the school to the St. Maarten Zoo. It was our second time there, and so fun again. Piper loves animals! Upon getting into the zoo they give you a paper bag of animal crackers which you can use to feed the animals. The zoo has tons of birds, monkeys, guinea pigs, iguanas, some pigs, hedgehogs, tortoises, snakes, fish, and flamingos. The whole time we were in the zoo Piper was running around in a frenzy chucking animal crackers at different animals faces. She was reminding me of Napolean Dynamite when he feeds his pet llama, Tina. EAT THE FOOD! Which reminds me of how much I love Napolean Dynamite. I don't understand people, like my mother, who don't think it's funny. When I showed the movie to my mom her face was like this the whole time, minus the Asian part. My mom's not Asian.

 

Zoo pics...

Nothin' like a little post zoo footsie action

The 4th of July is always super weird on the island, given we're not in America to celebrate America's Independence Day and all. We had a BBQ with some friends and my friend Alecia took some very cute pictures of Piper and her three fellow toe-heads wearing patriotic clothes at the beach.

Since we can't have fireworks we bought some sparklers, the wind was so intense it took forever to light them, but in the end when they were lit, all the effort was worth it.

 

  

 

 Piper and I leave the island in TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY! AH! Not having a return ticket seems so weird, and I can't believe its been two years already. I feel like I'm leaving home. It's so bittersweet. We have a lot to do before going, we are trying to sell everything and pack up and are keeping busy with babysitting and hair appointments. Life is nuts. If any professional movers are vacationing in St. Martin in the next two weeks that have a day or two where they just feel like packing up, come my way. I can hook you up with some jobs. We're trying to squeeze in another boat trip and some beach time in the midst of all this crazy before we go. It seems surreal. To be honest, I'm just trying to keep my mind off of it. It's coming too fast! :( Until next time!