Oh...maha!

This week seemed long because all week I was just waiting for the weekend. Not a ususal pastime of mine, but I knew once Johnny got home on Friday he would be all mine for almost a week. So I couldn't wait!

I have started doing preschool with Daphne. She isn't to happy about it and I have to say its not my favorite part of the day, but she is so smart and I want her to succeed. Monday we had a repairman at our house. Our heater was not working which is not a good thing here in Iowa. He could not figure out what was wrong with it, which was making me nervous because my thought was that we were going to have to replace the whole heater. Thankfully it ended up just being some rocks in the exhaust pipe. We also took a walk and ended up going to our typical hang out, McDonalds. I miss being able to go to a park, but its really to to cold to be outside for any amount of time. 

Friday finally came and I was so excited. After putting the kids to bed we watched a movie. Saturday was the big day. We had decided to visit our good friends the Jevene's. They were on the Island with us and its been three years since we've seen than ans it was great to see them. They also watched the kids for us so we could go to the Temple. The Temple was tiny, but beautiful. It was so nice to get to go with Johnny which also hasn't happened in a long time. We got headed home a lot later than we were planning so the ride home was hard. Church was even harder. The kids were quite tired, so they were cranky, but we got through it. 

Tomorrow we are heading north for a couple of days. We wanted to go to Nauvoo, but the temple is going to be closed so we searched for another location for our mini vacation. We settled on Minneapolis. Santa is making an appearance at the Mall of America which we thought would be fun. 

Our last day

I knew we had a couple extra days after Johnny got done with school that we could use to see some sights around the island. I asked Johnny what he wanted to see and he replied with, "Lets go to Roseau". Now to me this sounded like a pretty lame idea. In my mind Roseau is synonymous with shopping, one of my favorite things to do..........NOT.

But to Roseau we went. I think Johnny wanted to go because wanted to see this Catholic Church. I must say it was fun to go take pictures there. The stained glass was beautiful as was the big mural of Jesus entering Jerusalem. The church is over 100 years old and is a big part of Dominica history. 

We also wandered around and shopped cause the vendors were out. Doing this makes me nervous because I don't like the locals bugging me to look at their stuff, but Johnny loves to shop. I enjoyed the day, but was so tired when we got home. Good thing we had packed the night before or I probably would not have got everything done. 

Sunset Bay

Oh our date night was so nice. It was fun to go out and just spend time together and relax. The meal wasn't to shabby either. A few weeks ago Ross had an art fair where they did a raffle. We won a $100 certificate for the Sunset Bay Restaurant. The lobster was great and they gave a big plate of them. The picture below is about half of what they give you per person. I forgot to take a picture until I was half way done. It was the perfect way to celebrate the end of the semester!

Well the semester is officially over. Johnny finished his test this morning, now we just have to pack up and head home. 

I spent the the last two and a half days with my awesome friends. The CAC was our hang out spot and we had a great time decorating Daphne's toes. I had gone to get my nails done by Kristen and we thought it would be fun to try it on Daphne. All the stickers fell off her little toes, but they stayed on her big toes, so when we got home we painted her nails for the first time. 

Last night Tanya and Kristen had a BBQ at their house and it was kind of like my last ha-rah with my friends. 

This morning Clare, Katie and I met up for our last Rituals break. I was good and I only teared up once(though I did get some crying out before I headed down there). I really am going to miss these girls. They are some of the sweetest girls in the world and have always made me feel loved. I love them and life is going to be very different without them. 

Now that Johnny is done with the semester I am going to try and get my fill of him before he starts studying for the Comp. We are kicking off our free time with a fancy dinner at Sunset Bay tonight, can't wait!

Life has gotten away from me. We have been so busy. This next week is going to fly by I know it!

While Johnny has been studying his life away Daphne and I have been selling our life away. We have sold all our stuff we are not taking back to the states with us. Our time not spent prepping for our departure has been spent with friends.

Thursday we went out with daddy to celebrate his last Mini. We met his friend Brian up at DeChamps and had a wonderful time. Its always a treat to get to do something with Johnny. After dinner I headed to a little Christmas party the RSO was having. We sat and talked and had a white elephant gift exchange. Some people were very creative with their gifts. 

The next night was spent at a friends house where we had a open house sale to sell all those little things that aren't worth posting on FB. It was a great time and I got to make a little money as well. 

Saturday I went to the pool with the girls. It was the first day in a while that it wasn't rainy, so it was a great change of scene. That night we had a dinner party at Kristens house. We ended up staying til very late, but we were having such a great time no one wanted to leave.

The end of the semester is so close and I am getting so excited to be home and for the next step of medical school. The only thing I'm not excited for is leaving my friends behind.

Food, Friends and Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great time. We spent the day over at Katie's cooking with Katie, Mary and Clare. It was great fun and I feel like I learned a lot about making Thanksgiving dinner. It actually made me really excited to do it all by myself one day. The turkey was the most beautiful turkey I'd ever seen. We made plenty of food cause we wanted there to be left overs for everyone to take home.

 We all made turkey hands and wrote what we were thankful for on them. I loved it and think it will be a family tradition, as long as I can get Johnny to join in with me.

See how beautiful everything turned out!?! Everything was totally from scratch except the cranberry sauce (and I think if there would have been cranberries on the island they would have been from scratch too). Mary brought decorations and made the table look amazing. 

So it goes without saying that it was a pretty successful holiday. It was a little bittersweet, because it is our last holiday on the island. We only have three weeks left here and I can't believe it. I think the thing I am most thankful for this year, besides my wonderful family, is the opportunity I had to come here and learn so much. It has been a wonderful adventure, and I'm going to miss it.

Farewell

Tonight was the Farewell Banquet. My Farewell Banquet! It was so much fun even if the food took 2 1/2 hours to be served. My friends were there and we got to share in going back in time through pictures, laughing, singing, and looking to the future. I thought a lot about my time here tonight and I just can't believe its all coming to an end. I got the "Most likely to miss Dominica" award, and I think they got that right. I haven't always loved living here. Life gets hard here, but with all the negatives there are so many positives too. I miss America, and I'm so excited to get back, but Dominica is part of my life...a big part. I feel like I found myself here. As cheesy as that is, its true. We started our family here. I met people that changed my life here. In some ways I'm scared to go back. I'm scared I'll lose all the friends I've made, I'm scared I'll lose all I've learned here and lose myself in the hustle and bustle of American life. But life goes on right? Dominica will always be a part of my life I will look back on with joy and I will miss it, not some parts, but I WILL miss it.