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

We Made It!!

There are many dates that I remember: holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, but I can guarantee you that August 7th with be one of them. Two months have been centered around that day with nonstop, and I mean NONSTOP, packing and preparations. It was all about August 7th because that was the day that we were to go to Grenada. I actually didn't give much thought to what I would encounter when we got there, but I knew I had to survive The Day to get there. A lot has happened since my last blog post, and I will get to that later, but for now, I know if you are reading this, you are a friend or family member that is interested in the first days. So here it goes!

Josh and I woke up at 4 am to get the kids up and ready to leave by 5:30. We were a little late, but that is to be expected. There was some last minute packing and such, but we were out the door and on the road in time to be at DFW by 6:30. We did have to take 2 vehicles. Josh's brother Matthew brought most of our luggage in his truck, and we drove the kids in Josh's mom's car. When we offloaded at the skycap, we were a bit of a mess. The skycap weighed each bag and the findings were frustrating. There were 7 bags to check and 3 (or maybe it was 4) bags were over 50lbs. We rearranged as much as possible and ended up having to pay only 1 overweight bag fee. Not too bad, and they must have taken pity on us because they did not charge us for the extra checked bags. There was one shocker: we HAD to check the double-stroller because it weighed more than 20 lbs. I almost cried. Poor little Analeigh was going to have to walk. We brought a dolly for the car seat and we wheeled Noelle around in that. So one obstacle down, next on to security. That feat alone would have made a great reality TV show. There were bags flying, shoes coming off, laptops to get out, and we used about 10 bins just for us. We had a total of 9 carry-ons. Most people avoided us all together, but there was one very sleepy looking young guy behind us that Josh told he should pick another line, but he stayed. I think he was still sleeping.

Ethan waiting at DFW

Analeigh's pigtails still look perky

Ready for a fun trip!!

After security we made it to our gate, got some breakfast, checked the car seat, and then were able to board the plane.

The first leg of the trip was to Miami and it was a 2 and a half hour trip. I sat with the kids and Josh had Noelle. Everyone did great!

Traveling has worn us out

That DVD player is worth it's weight in gold

how cute is this?

We had a 3 hour layover in Miami and we found an empty gate across from the one we were boarding at, so we claimed it and let the kids run free for awhile.

Happy to be off the plane in MIA

Enjoying the freedom

The next leg was 4 hours and I was a little worried about it. Analeigh and Noelle fell asleep as soon as we got on the plane. Noelle slept for 3 hours!! Thank goodness! Holding a baby on a plane is not easy and I am sure some of you know that very well. It was a very long flight and we were all exhausted when we landed. And when we landed it was dark. Couldn't see a thing. Just as well, we were so tired. So when you get off the plane, you are on the tarmac. You walk into the airport and you have to stand in line to go through immigration first. It was a really long line, and it was hot. (That will be a recurring theme, I'll warn you now.) There was a family with a smaller baby behind us and that baby was not thrilled with the heat. He started screaming and wailing making an official of the airport come over and get them and move them to the front of the line. Since we also had a baby and 2 other kids and my pack mule filled up with bags, they waved us through too. Happy miracle!! If she hadn't done that, I might have accidentally pinched Noelle.

Next was getting our bags. They had carts for us to use and the cart was filled up as tall as I am. We then had to go through customs and "declare" that we had 2 laptops. That line was long. By this point we had landed at 7:30 and it was about 8:30. I am sure we didn't leave the airport until almost 10:00. We got up to the front of the line and one of the employees tried to send a man in front of us because he had only 1 thing to declare and we looked like we might take awhile. I pleaded and begged and the woman behind the counter must have been a mom because she waved us forward. She told the porter to "check a few bags". They do have the right to hand check your bags. After only one bag, stuffed with clothes and diapers galore, he pretty much gave up and asked me what I had in the other 10. "Diapers, clothes, baby food, shoes." "Okay", he said and just like that we were allowed to leave. There were more people waiting outside and I was about to cry if we had to wait for a taxi, but we were quickly escorted to a big van. The guy packed all of our things without a problem and Josh got in on the passenger side, which is where you would get in to drive in America, weird, and off we went.

In the van on the way to our new home, Analeigh says to me, "Mommy, I'm happy" and then followed by, "Mommy, I'm excited". Considering how long the day had been, I was pretty excited to hear that from my sweet princess. Noelle was having a blast, probably glad to be out of the car seat, and was giggling and flapping her arms as I held her in the back seat. Ethan, was tired, but I could tell he was pretty excited too.

All in all, not a bad day....I mean, hey, we survived!

Things that I miss:
All things Texas
Starbucks
Central Air
Our Car and/or Truck

Things I do not miss:
Living out of a suitcase
Packing

I know everyone wants to see pics of the new place. I am working on that and will get that soon. Right now our undies and all assorted sundries are all over the place, so let me unpack a bit and I'll get those to you STAT (med school talk..ha ha)

Tarryn