Home Sweet Home

We are finally starting to settle down into our new environment and get into somewhat of a routine. Sometimes it's hard when you have 3 kids with 3 different schedules to get a routine going in a normal place, "normal" being a relative term of course. Never mind all the curve balls that Grenada has thrown us, but we are adjusting to the Grenadian way of life.

Josh started school on Monday and has been really busy. I am starting to think we might not see him much. Ethan doesn't start school until the 3rd, so we have another week at home with him. I think he'll be happy to be back to school.

So why don't I take you on a tour of our home!

I had to keep in mind when I got here, that we came from a new house, our house, that no one had ever lived in but us. It's been a long time since we've rented, so the adjustment for me was tough at first. I am thinking about germs and who's touched what, but I am mostly over that trauma...mostly.

Alright, so here's our house:

oooooohhhh aaahhhhhh, I know, it looks like something out of House Hunters International. The top floor is all the landlord's and our apartment is on the bottom right. There is another apartment on the bottom left that another family is renting.

The landlord's have kids that are a little older than Ethan and it is awesome that there is a swing set out front. It's nice to go out after dinner and let the kids play a little.

This is our front porch on the side of the house. You can see the swing set in the background.

When you walk in the front door, you are in the living area

Another view of the living area

The front door

When you walk into the apartment you are greeted by the living area. The color scheme in the apartment is a rust color and I think it's well done. Yes, I know it's messy. When I took these pictures we were still in the process of unpacking the 11 suitcases that came with us.

Right behind the living area is the dining area and the kitchen.

Nice table set in the dining area, notice the AC above the window

The view from our dining window

 The first night we got here we saw that there were 3 AC units, but had no idea how to turn them on. They all have remotes but no way of knowing how to work them. You can adjust the temperature but it's only in Celsius.  Luckily I downloaded a conversion app before we left so I could tell that 23 degrees Celsius is a comfortable temperature. We only run the AC to cool down the room and then turn it off. It's really hard not to run it all day, REALLY hard. When you are used to central air, sitting in a hot room just isn't right. We are adjusting though....slowly.

Across from the dining area is the kitchen.

The view from the kitchen to the living area

Josh did a great job of finding this place. It's really pretty big for the 5 of us and the appliances are pretty new. The frig is a normal size and the stove/oven is propane. That was a hard one to get used to. I still get singed every now and then trying to light the stove, but it is nice to cook with fire. I did accidentally light a paper towel on fire trying to clean a spill while the stove was still on. Ooops. There is no dish washer or garbage disposal, so I spend a lot of my day washing dishes and bottles and fishing stuff out of the sink basket. I now have a new appreciation for those appliances and will be respectful of such when we get back.  Oh, and I have added "cleaning person" to my list. "The List" is the list of all the things I look forward to after Josh is a doctor. Since he left me at home, alone, for 4 months with 3 children, one of which was only 3 months old, still nursing and NOT sleeping through the night; therefore, The List is already well established, I promise you.

Moving on...

Laundry alcove

When I was a kid, my sister and I would pretend to do laundry and hang the clothes on a clothesline with clothespins. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would have to do that for real. It's not bad, but now is the rainy season and it has a tendency to rain out of the clear sky... literally. It will be sunny as far as you can see and there is one lonely rain cloud above my laundry line, and I am pretty sure it is laughing at me.

My "dryer"

The only bathroom

The bathroom is a pretty good size and of course everyone wants to be in there at the same time, so I am happy that it is roomy. Do you see that shower?!? It is huge and great for the kids to play in when it gets hot. It is also very easy to wash little squirmy ones. On the wall is a small blow-up tub that I got from Huggies, free, for buying an insane amount of diapers. I saved my points and now Noelle has a place to take her baths, even though she tries to escape.

Kids' room

Our room

Other side of our room

Again, we lucked out because we got 2 bedrooms and one had 2 twins and the other had a queen. So lucky! I hear that many people have all twins or doubles, so go Josh once again.

Outside we found that we have some fruit trees. A starfruit tree and a mango tree, as well as some coconut trees. How tropical!

Mango

Starfruit

Up close starfruit

So there you have it. I'll get into some more details later but that's the basic run down of the place.

At the time I am posting this, tropical storm Isaac is headed north of us. We might get some wind and a little rain, but I am thankful that it will mostly miss us. However, there is another one right behind it.... tropical living!

Tarryn