Hurricane Irene

It may have been a while back, but I still figured a post about my hurricane would be something worth reading about. And showing pictures about. The hurricane itself wasn't that bad, owing mostly to the fact that we had a place to stay that was safe. My landlord (who is also my boss) was saying that the ceiling on the main floor is made of concrete as well as the walls. It basically creates a bomb shelter (or a hurricane shelter).

As Zoe and the kids were in Canada I offered to let some of the members of the branch stay at the house. Not many of them have suitable accommodations and so it was nice that they could stay with me. I didn't think about it until after the grocery store had closed, however, so we made the food stretch a bit. I was glad that the stores weren't closed longer and that life was able to get back to normal after a couple days.

Anyway, the wind was pretty good on Tuesday but not crazy. The office closed at noon and we all went home. The missionaries came over with Ruben and they stayed until Wednesday night. the office opened again on Thursday. The winds got stronger over Tuesday, but the hurricane didn't really pass until Tuesday overnight. We were all asleep, but the winds were very strong and there was a ton of rain. When I woke up Wednesday morning there wasn't much wind anymore but there was a ton of water everywhere. There are pictures below of the golf course out behind our house.

We just hung out Wednesday and explored the golf course and played Domino's and cards.

In all, I never really felt threatened or unsafe. I'm sure there were alot of people on the island who didn't feel safe, and there was alot of damage on older houses. I had power the whole time aside from a couple hours on Wednesday night. There were some areas that lost power on Tuesday night and didn't get it back until Thursday, but we were fortunate.

Zoe was in Canada with the camera's, so the pictures below are all from the missionaries, which I took off their camera. A video as well of us going around the golf course.

Elder Luke taking video

The parking lot in front of our houses.

Elder Jarmin and Ruben










There you have it. Not much that shows the wind and rain, but the after-effects for sure. There were roads that were entirely wiped out, but were I was didn't really have any of that.

Hazel turns 6!!

Since we just moved to TCI - Hazel didn't have a chance to meet very many kids before her birthday so we got to have our first toned down birthday. The day before her birthday (Sat) we picked up her little friend Mikaella from the branch and went to the smurf movie at the new movie theatres here. The kids loved the movie - expecially the ridiculous villan. Then we went out for Pizza and home to play for a bit. I made cupcakes and the kids decorated and devoured them. On Sunday we had cake twice. One of the benifits of having a tiny primary is that we can get away with bringing cake to church and singing happy birthday! On Sunday afternoon Hazel helped me decorate her cake and we sang again and had more cake. So it was a pretty laid back birthday - I felt a little sad that we didn't get to have a big party with kids - but we promised her we would make it up to her next year!

Hazel is such a great little girl - in a nutshell she is creative, has a great imagination, loves to play with her brother, loves to teach her little brother, is a good helper if she is motivated properly, has the sweetest smile, loves to swim, and play barbies, is very into fashion, is already on her second crush,  is getting better at letting me do her hair, is finally growing out of her night terrors, hates to be too hot or too cold (just like me), loves playing with her friends, misses home and especially her cousins, loves her new school,  dreams of going to NYC to see central park and the statue of Balto the dog, is a great little artist, wants to be a teacher when she grows up and is SO funny. 

I LOVE having Hazel around and I'm so excited for the future - it will be amazing to watch her grow and learn.

 even without a big party - she still did OK for presents!

 strawberry shortcake on the beach - complete with REAL sea shells and hand crushed sand that Kyle painstakingly (is that a word?) made out of cookies

 she was sad when she finally lost (pulled out herself) her second front tooth and found that she didn't sound as

funny as she tought she would - especially while singing "all i want for christmas is my two front teeth.

eatin cake with milk just like her daddy

home agian, home again

I think my dad use to say that all the time? or was it mom? - "home again, home again"

So I knew when i booked an overnight flight home to TCI that i was in for a treat, I just didn't know how BIG  of a treat it would be!\

It started Saturday night with Dekker waking up with spots that quickly turned into hives a swollen upper lip. The last time he had hives we thought it was an immunization reaction because we were told it couldn't be from his antibiotics for his ear ache. By 3:30 am in the hospital it was pretty clear that dekker is in fact allergic to amoxicillin. He was in the middle of a dose of amox for his strep throat.  Thank goodness for steroids and benedryl! He also now has an epi-pen (for the slim chance that he has only gotten hives each time he is on amox, but coincidentally is allergic to some other random thing)

So then when we left Sunday night at 10:30 for the airport I already had a VERY tired boy on my hands! Long story short - we arrived in TCI 3:30 local time. The flights were pretty uneventful - thanks to a last minute addition of a sheet and a pillow for dekker (he slept on the floor) and a purchase of a blanket on the plane for hazel(she slept on the seats). Dekker was knocked out the whole time(i was sitting up with no room for my feet or body, so no sleep for me)!Hazel slept on both planes, but was wide awake during our 3 hr Toronto layover.  On our flight from toronto to TCI the plane was basically empty - the flight attendant joked that we had a private jet! so i did move to another row of seats and got my first bit of sleep on the trip.

So we got to TCI and had the joy of dealing with a mean immigration lady on a power trip. Kyle and I came in on a 30 day temporary visa which of course had expired. His permanent visa was being processed and we were told it wouldn't be a big deal for me to get back into TCI. Not true. This lady says "Your husband is illegally in the country and is committing fraud by working here. He should be getting a huge fine for this blah blah blah"  So I could tell she was trying to scare and intimidate me. Whatever. I wasn't too worried because I knew that Kyle's company would have to pay for any fine etc. So they brought Kyle back and interrogated him in the other room and tried to scare him as well. Then they had him go buy me and the kids one way tickets to canada. So he went and bought refundable tickets and we were on our way.  Kyle did have to go into immigration the next morning at 9. So his boss (a partner) (who is on the committee running TCI since the government was found corrupt and disbanded) sent his wife (who is a very powerful and rich woman on the island) with kyle. She walked in there, demanded answers and found out Kyle's visa is approved and just needs it's final signature. So all that for nothing. So the Partners wanted to know what this lady's name was so they could make a complaint and get her in trouble haha.

Sorry long story, but it's my blog and I want to remember...

We finally got home around 5 - so it was a long day. Dekker and I slept in till 12 the next day. And I thought that was it for the drama. But the last 2 nights the kids have gone to bed at 9. Then woken up from 11-3am. Yup we are still suffering from our all nighter flight. Today I woke them up at 8:30, so we are hoping tonight will go better!

 In Toronto - Dek passed out and Hazel being an angel coloring!