IsLaND fiNDiNgs

February has been a busy month to say the least. We've had people come from Grenada, St. Kitts and St. Vincent for training. Every 2 weeks, 2 more people come that I and Darin train so when they go back to their countries they'll know everything to do and when the shop opens they'll be ready to go. Other than work, Valentine's Day was nice....Darin made me stay in our room for probably 2 hrs while he prepped veggies and steak then brought it up to the rooftop of our building to the grill and set up a table with candles a flower some music and some chocolates, oh and wine of course :) those are my favorite Valentine's Days....i'm not big on the whole going out to eat thing, we go out all the time to eat so there's nothing special about that. He's not always romantic but when he is he does pretty well.

The longer we live here the more little things I continue to find on this little island. The first few were finding normal milk (sounds weird, but true, the milk is all weird here), finding Mt. Dew (which made Darin very excited) and finding a good coffee place. Last week at a new grocery store I found Velda milk! Even more normal than the one we've found previously...I went back this week for more and it's gone...downfall in grocery stores is they'll have it one week then not for a few weeks so buy bulk!! I also found baby back ribs!! Darin's been dying to grill some good ribs, it's one of his favorite things to do on Sundays and well, the last few Sunday's been a happy husband. Finding a whole mound of RED tomatos was another favorite find of mine and just today I finally found avocados! They could be a little fresher but they were still tasty in my salad. So anyways who cares about all that.....I always call Darin explaining how excited I am about finding good stuff at the grocery and he laughs because I sound like a kid who found a cupcake shop and is stinking happy!!

On the left is our Valentines Day, Darin's rib fan club, tomatos. On the right is Darin perfecting his grilling skills.

EuROpE viDEo!!

Here's the video of me and my sister in Europe last year Sept/Oct! Best trip so far!!

http://vimeo.com/58882367

GoOd bYe JaNUaRy!

WELCOME FEBRUARY!!!! February is a great month for a few reasons 1. it's my mom's birthday 2. it's international friendship month 3. superbowl and 4. it's valentines day! February should be a pretty easy month just like January was. Not much happened since I last posted, which was the Christmas post, mid-January haha....work is going good for Darin, we celebrated out 7, YES 7 year dativersary, meet the most amazing surfer ever KELLY SLATER!! I've kept up with my gym routine every morning (way longer than I thought i'd last), and also going up to the RSPCA twice a week to help out.  

I've actually had 2 accomplishments, not big ones but ones i'm proud of happen in the last 2 weeks. I decided to ask for permission from the board at the RSPCA to create a facebook page and help run it. The lady who runs the RSPCA isn't a fan of social media and didn't do it in the past because there's a lot of negative people out there who think the RSPCA give an animal a deadline and when it's up they kill them. That's simply NOT a fact and I wanted to show people in Barbados what they do there is just as amazing as all the other shelters/humane societies here, if not better than those. I was allowed to create it and I did my best to make it look good, sound positive and show people the RSPCA really does do all they can to help all the animals who end up in their hands. So far we've had a fantastic response from people in the community with so many positive stories from rescues and people offering to volunteer, it's great!! I got some good compliments on my creative art designs for the page also. It makes me proud that I got to start something that can only get better for them. My other accomplishment is that Darin and I FINALLY got our passports stamped with our permits, so now we're officially official here!!

Other than that, life continues to be amazing here and we absolutely love it!! Oh and my sister Laura and friend Jenny are visiting for a week in April!!! Can't wait to finally show someone our awesome new home, Barbados :)

Oma'S TriBUte VidEO

Below is a link of a video my Uncle Dan made for my Oma....we miss her so much but glad to have these great photos of her to look back on.

Oma's Video

NeW YEaR!! 2013!!

So so late with the first of the year post but HAPPY 2013!!!!! Hope everyone had a great holiday season, even though we weren't home in Florida we had a great holiday here together with some good friends. Christmas morning was just Darin and I. I let him open his few gifts that were under the tree and I opened mine. I had a secret gift for Darin that he had absolutely no clue about, a surfboard!! He's been dying to have this surfboard, so with some friends in Orlando helping me get the board from a surf shop, down to Miami and on a plane to Barbados! I had it a week before Christmas at a friends house and I was so proud of myself for keeping it a secret and for going through customs and that big mess all alone! I'm such an awesome wife, haha!! So Christmas morning was over and I had breakfast on the table, Darin went in to grab a shirt from the room and real quickly I went to the guest room closet and grabbed the board and put it leaned up against the wall next to our 4ft tree. When Darin came out he didn't see it at first, and I was just sitting at the kitchen table. He saw the board and was in complete shock, shook his head and just said "no way", "babe, you didn't do that".....I just said "ya, I did". He was so stinking happy, I think the picture says it all :)

For New Years Eve, or Ole Years...as they call it here. We had a big get together at our place, it's a great feeling to know we already have enough friends here that we can host a party! We ordered sushi, hung out in our condo with the doors open and the breeze blowing, music on and people were everywhere. After the sushi came and everyone ate, we headed up to the rooftop of our building where we had a stereo set up, tables with more food, drinks, candles and the perfect weather to be outside as we waited for the stroke of midnight for the fireworks. So glad to start the new year here with Darin, we are really enjoying our life here and are so grateful and thankful for everything God has given us in life, that lead us here on this awesome adventure. 

As for New Years resolutions....we didn't really make any, we would like to start a family, so that can be one :) other than that, we like the way things are and nothing really needs changing.