Little Tings...

Some quick things we've learned:
1. We have no iron so I've been using my hair straightener for cuffs of shorts, and sleeves to get out wrinkles.
2. We don't have the Disney channel (one of my favs), Darin likes it because he doesn't have to watch Wizards of Waverly Place anymore.
3. Darin claims "blankie" has moved on to his side of the bed from now on (i think he's realized how much he loves blankie, because he also likes to tuck it under his neck when we watch movies in bed)
4. Finally a new(er) car with A/C and a radio!!! This time it's a Lincon LS, but we still have the "dinosaur" (our older car)
5. Only 1 food store sells cheese out of 4 that are around here.
6. I found milk for $4.99 yesterday!!! A whole gallon!
7. I can only fine Starbucks items in 1 store, and it's only the little glass jar of moca frap, and vanilla frap, and there's only 2 or 3 of each kind, so I buy in bulk.....the 2 or 3 moca ones.
8. If you own a business, you can't fire people for being late, because the whole island is late, there's nobody on time except us (for now, i'm sure we'll follow along soon).
9. Quiznos never has the toppings I want...but lettuce and tomato are always ready, basically that's all you get.
10. My new fav ice cream is the "Bahamian Flag", it has pretty colors in it, and it's yummy!
11. I hate doing dishes
12. We go to the same bar so much, that we walked up the other day and the bartender Leny said, Anjeo and diet? looked at Darin, and then said, a Kalik Lite? and looked at me....sheesh he's good!

That should do it for now. I've been filming some random stuff lately so i'm gonna try and put it all together and post that next. Hopefully it turns out ok! :)

Nassau again, & our 78' Lincon Grand Marquis

Just got home from another trip to Nassau. Darin and Chad went to Orlando from Thursday to Monday and I went to stay with Emily and the kids in Nassau so I wouldn't be in Freeport alone. I finished a book, did some P90X, went to Senior Frogs and ate my favorite fish tacos mmm!!! The kids love Senior Frogs because they get balloon hats made by the local clown. I got to talk a lot to Emily, learned how she handles her 3 kids; Annelie is 5, Chandler is 3 and baby Kailyn is 3mos. She's a great mom, super patient, makes dinner, does laundry, feeds the baby, plays at the beach with the other kids, gets them down for naps, gives the baby a good "tummy time", works out, all in a day's work, I mean this girl gets stuff done! I watch with amazement how great she can juggle her whole day. When I do have kids, i'll be skyping her. She also lives on an island life which is totally different than the Florida life, so when I say (in the future) there's no butt paste at the one store on the island that has it, she'll probably whip out a home recipe she's used because she's already been through that one. Emily knows everything I think, she says she doesn't but I know she does.

So we're home...there were a few break ins about a mile away from the house, so I didn't sleep well last night. Darin did, he's snoring away and 1/2 laying on me. I probably got about 3hours of sleep.....like my mom, I worry. When the light shines though the window because the sun starts to come up, that's when I finally fell asleep for a good 2 more hours, felt like a vampire...awake at night, sleep by day. Well, I accomplished a task today, grocery shopping alone! Only to get a few things but it was my first time driving there, going in and out without Darin. This store we go to is called "City Market" (the place that gives out the coupons, mentioned in a previous post), it's known to the locals here as (excuse me) "Shity Market", and found out why today....went to the dairy section to get milk, there was NONE!! not even 1 thing, nothing! A friend told me they're always out of stuff when you go because we are the last City Market to get serviced on the island, figures it's by us.

If you haven't heard of our awesome car yet, you have to know it's by far, the most looked at, talked about car in this whole area! People stare, yell things at us, run off roads to turn around and look as they drive through intersections, we go to bars and people know who we are, and they leave their job to go look at it in the parking lot at it, just nuts! I've been telling Darin I need to video tape all of the commotion when we drive around and put it all in a video together! SO...today we pull up to this gas station, one we haven't been to yet but drive by a lot. We pull next to the pump and the service guy comes up (yes, you don't have to get out of your car to pump gas, you just hand them money and sit and wait, kinda nice lol) he says; "i've been waiting for you to pull in here so I can fill this thing up", Darin and I laugh, so he says "this is what you're gonna do (as he rubs his hands together), i'm gonna fill this thing up, you're gonna sit in the back and i'll drive you to where you need to go and i'm gonna take it out for the night!" he raises his arms to the sky and yells "WHOOO".....by far the best car moment we've had! After we left Darin says "thats when we needed to have the camera out to video". Darn it! Next time!

The Freeport House

BACK PATIO, KITCHEN, LIVING ROOM


MASTER BEDROOM, SIDE OF HOUSE, FRONT OF HOUSE


BEACH is about 4 houses down the street, so kinda the back yard!! YAY

a local wanted our coconuts, my "sneak" picture though the blinds

Road trip, snorkeling & p90x

This past weekend on Saturday we took a road trip to West End, it is as it says, the west end of the island (necessities for road trip pictured). Not much out there but some HUGE houses, and a nice resort with a marina. The marina was loaded with tons of really really nice boats. For a 45min drive, it kinda wasn't worth it, but we had a good time on the drive and seeing the boats. Ventured back to Port Lucaya and partied there for the 37th year of Independence of the Bahamas, kinda like the US 4th of July. I wore the appropriate colors of yellow, teal and black, so I would fit in a little here. Sunday we went on Tony's boat (Darin's shop partner), the boys went spear fishing as I tested out my captain skills and drove the boat beside them careful not to run them over. I did great!!! We went to the port, boys ate some fresh conch salad...me? I ate french fries and conch fritters, someday i'll be able to eat the foods of where I live, now isn't my timing. My favorite part of the day was after lunch we went back out and went snorkeling. I LOVE to snorkel, I wish I had an underwater camera on me because things were so so peaceful and pretty down there. I learned to be careful of the "fire coral" it's really pretty but don't touch it, and be careful when you swim by that your leg doesn't hit it. I know what a grouper fish looks like and a yellow tail. I'm not best at fish names and what they look like, but i'm learning. I guess I should know what i'm eating when I order it. To the left is a Conch shell. In the Bahamas, it's very popular; conch salad, grilled conch, fried conch, conch fritters, schorched conch and tons more ways....it's everywhere you go here. The picture on the left has a live conch in it, but don't worry we put him back and didn't take him home for dinner! :) Monday was a holiday, we seriously stayed inside all day, watched movies and tv....such bums!!

We've also started P90X as of last week. Going good so far, I don't like the cardio because you "punch the air", Darin got mad at me because I didn't try, but I didn't want to so I went out and ran a mile and came back to do the last part of it which isn't "punching air". That's cardio to me, running! I also FINALLY found swiffer pads to clean my floors, after 3 weeks and 5 stores later, they were $13 for 25 of them, don't know if that s good or not. I like grocery shopping here but you can only buy the necessities or else you'll easily spend $300 for nothing!! Milk is $3 for 1/2 gallon and $7 for a gallon, BUT, you can buy 2 of the 1/2 gallons for cheaper...go figure?? You realize nothing is the same price at any of the 4 grocery stores here, I found cream of chicken to make dumplings for .90cents at one store and then $1.80 at another, for the same thing!! I don't get it....anyways, we're off to Nassau in the morning and I'm staying with Emily and the kids while Darin goes on with Chad to Orlando. Getting stuff for the shop, wish I could go too. I'll be back in September so it's soon enough, and i'm counting down!

Weekend in Nassau, groceries in Freeport

Right after my last post on the 29th of June, Darin came into the room and said "pack your bags, we're going to Nassau for a few days"....WHAT!? Darin had to help Chad out with some shop stuff so we packed a book bag each and waited for our ride to the airport. 3 outfits and 7 days later we're home and glad to wear some other clothes and sleep in our own sheets. 3 outfits was not enough, and I'll definitely be packing more the next time we go for "a few days". On the flight sitting in the seat right in front of us was a Nassau Pawn ad!! Darin was happy to see the advertisement made it on the plane! lol....Being in Nassau it was nice seeing Emily (it was her birthday) and the baby and the kids. We got sushi for Emily's birthday, which was A LOT of food. We went to the mall, beach, straw market, Starbucks, senior frogs (awesome fish tacos), and Emily and I saw Eclipse together for her birthday. One of the good things about this trip was that Darin and Chad didn't have to go see Eclipse, Emily and I had each other and the guys were thankful for that. Later in the week, I think Saturday Emily and I dropped the boys off at work and headed to the bookstore. I HAD to get Breaking Dawn, and Emily wanted the side book to Eclipse that tells another story of little girl vampire. She read it in a day! lol, i'm still working on mine, and should be done today. Chad Darin and I went out with a local friend, Adam, to some cool places. Compass Point which the manager told darin to try this 25yr old rum, and I had to try this other vodka. You could of drank them on the rocks it was so good. We went to Krazy Johnny's, where a live cover band of the 70's plays and they were awesome! When they stopped playing around 1am, Adam brought us to another place downtown. It was upstairs somewhere, not even sure what it was called, but it was really cool. We met these 2 guys that went to Dr. Phillips High School (a rival school to mine) and graduated my year, they had mullets and sunglasses on with crazy mustaches. Super long night, we got home after 4am. One of the crappy things about island life is that everything closes around 5-6pm....so no late night McDonalds or Taco Bell. There is a place that we stopped at and they served cracked conch, chicken and fries. A little sketchy that late at night but we made it home.

We got back home (Freeport) yesterday. We needed groceries and Darin told me to go bymyself and see how I did. I went to one last week with him, but not this one. I told him he had to go places with me atleast once and then I could go alone. Plus i've never driven the car before and it's quite large. So we both went. The cool thing about this store is the coupons! Depends how much you spend and they give you 5cents back. You have to put the stamps on paper to equal a dollar, and you can use them next time you shop, we have $3 so far and I keep them organized in a little book. Today, we plan on going to sign up for the gym right down the street. We'll see how well this goes. I don't really have much to do so I think i'll be going when I get up in the mornings to go. You can jog down the beach to it and have a nice jog back home too.