Traditions

I am getting so excited for the Holidays! This is my favorite time of year starting with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then my absolute favorite, Christmas! This is also our first year celebrating all of the Holiday's being married. Last year was such a special time because we were engaged but this year is going to be even better. For Thanksgiving last year we were in Vegas with all of Stephen's family. We had all of the family crammed in a little dining room and it was so perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving with my second family. On Christmas morning last year Stephen came over and we opened presents from each other by our Christmas tree we had set up in my room. We each had a stocking and we had to fill each others but couldn't spend more than 20$. Well we both went completely over the spending limit but had a great time opening our stockings together. Then we spent the rest of the day with our families. It was once again a perfect Christmas.
This is our first year married and I want the Holidays to be just as special as last year. I have been thinking of fun traditions that we can start now and continue when we have kids. For thanksgiving we are going to start a family book of thanks. It is a special journal where we write what we are thankful for. Every year we will add to it and when we have kids they can add to it by drawing pictures of what they are thankful for. I am really excited to start this tradition.
One thing I have always wanted to do when I got married is send out Christmas cards. So earlier this week we had one of the spouses take some pictures of us. It took 3 weeks and 3 different days of scheduling to finally have good weather. But we got them taken and I sent out the cards yesterday.
Since I was already in the Christmas spirit I played Christmas music all Sunday afternoon and lit a yummy Christmas candle that Aloha gave me. I even made a cinnamon roll cake which was super good. It put me in such a good mood. Now I know I just need to listen to Christmas music to get me through this next month before the break comes. Last night to finish off a great day Stephen and I watched World War Z. It's definitely not a Christmas movie but we really liked it.
Now I'll get off my Holiday kick and tell a little bit about our week. I already mentioned we took Christmas pictures and it was a lot of fun. Even though we don't get snow here winter is coming to our little island. The temperature has been less hot, we are getting a little bit of a breeze, and the waves are getting huge. Normally we don't have waves but they are so big and rough that they are tearing up the pier and their isn't really a beach anymore. I personally love the waves like this. My favorite thing is listening to the waves crashing. So I will probably be spending more time by the ocean.
One night this week I was not in the mood for cooking so Stephen and I made nachos together. They turned out amazing. Stephen and I have a funny connection with nachos. We had only known each other for two months when we went to Vegas together for him to take the MCAT and to visit his sister. Plus it was my birthday. While on the strip we went to this Hawaiian style restaurant for lunch and shared a huge plate of nachos. They were amazing and for some reason we always remember that. Then on our first night in Hawaii on our honeymoon we went to this little place overlooking the ocean and shared a huge plate of nachos. Again they were amazing. So it is always a lot of fun when we make nachos together because we think back on all the wonderful memories we have with them and each other.
It is the little things like making nachos together that I want to remember when looking back on our marriage and living here on the island. That is why I am keeping this blog. I want to remember things like Stephan and I sleeping in on Saturday's and making muffins together. Well usually I make the muffins then wake him up when they are ready. I also love that no matter how busy Stephen may be with studying we always have dinner together. I may think it is miserable living here sometimes but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I love that Stephen and I meeting each other has brought us to where we are today. I am so excited to spend the Holiday's with him this year and every year after.

Our Christmas Chain

The crazy waves

 Just a couple hours after I took this picture more 

than half of the pier was gone.

Some of the pictures we had taken for our Christmas card. None of these 

ones are on the card. That is a surprise for closer to Christmas. 

Jam kind of day

Today was one of the good days on the island. I went running to the market this morning with some friends Charlotte and Macsen. I haven't been going to the market as much lately but Charlotte and I have been planning to make some jam together so I went today to buy some passion fruit. After the market Stephen was still home so we made some pancakes together before he went off to study. We usually make breakfast together on Saturdays which is part of the reason I haven't been going to the market as much. I take any chance I can to spend time with him. After breakfast Stephen went to study and I decided to go to the pool. It was a beautiful day for a swim. Later I headed over to Charlotte's (one of the amazing spouses here that is also in the branch) to make some delicious jam. I have been buying jam from her ever since we moved here so she finally told me a couple weeks ago that she would just show me how to make it. We used our passion fruit we got at the market and she had some leftover mango's that she had frozen. It was a lot of fun. It was so nice getting out of the house and having a little bit of girl time too. The jam turned out amazing! Afterwards Charlotte walked with me home so she could get her kids out of the house for a bit and to pick some oranges and starfruit from the trees around my house. We found some trees that I thought were limes but we opened one up and they were tangerines! I guess they are green in Dominica. It was a fun day.

Besides that not a ton of excitement has happened during the week. Stephen studied every day and I worked every day. Then did my usual routine. It was Jimmy's birthday on Wednesday so I face timed with him and my parents while they were at Burger King. He turned 32 this year. It was fun being able to talk to him for a bit.

Mango and Passion Fruit Jam

Bought some Sugarcane at the market. It is my favorite.

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

Uptown, our new favorite place to eat.

Just a pretty picture I took at the beach.

The water was so clear and blue.

One of the local dogs just chilling on the beach.

Happy 26th Birthday Stephen

Stephen's birthday was yesterday November 3rd. It was also the national independence day for Dominica which means it is a holiday on the Island and no school! Because the holiday was on Sunday this year there was no school for Stephen and no work for me on Monday. When we found this out I decided we should definitely take advantage of having a day off especially with it being Stephen's birthday. I decided to take Stephen to the Fort Young Hotel in Roseau. We spent one night and had a wonderful time. We were able to celebrate his birthday at home in the early afternoon after church. He opened his present from me and we had some cake. We were also able to rent a car from one of the branch members so we didn't have to take a transport to Roseau. It almost felt like another honeymoon, only a lot shorter. We loved having the freedom of being able to go where we wanted without relying strictly on transports. Stephen did an awesome job driving on these scary roads too. When we got to the hotel we went to the pool for a little while and watched the sunset. Then we had dinner at the Hotel Restaurant overlooking the ocean. The next morning we hung out on our balcony for about an hour reading and Stephen getting a little studying done. Then we headed back to the pool for a bit before we had to check out. It was a short and sweet mini birthday vacation. Exactly the getaway that we both needed.

So happy to be driving again and not relying on only transports!

Wrong side of the road. Weird

I love this birthday man so very much!

Black and Orange Ball - Spouses Banquet

Once a semester the Ross Spouses Organization puts on a banquet. It is for all of the spouses to get together to say some of their goodbye's to the fourth semester spouses who are leaving the island at the end of the semester. There is always dinner and activities. I was really looking forward to this and it was so much fun. Because it was in October they had the theme be orange and black. We had an entire restaurant to ourselves and we had a yummy Chinese food dinner and some farewell cake. There was also face painting that was really exciting. Most of all the party was a great excuse to dress up a little, do my hair, and feel like a lady again for a couple hours. It is a rare occurrence to actually get dressed up here. It is just to hot and humid! It was a great night. There are so many amazing ladies on this island and they are so kind. I have such a great support system here.

Taran & Megan. These wonderful ladies are in the branch

 and they are so amazing!

Amberly! She is my next door neighbor and has been such

an amazing friend for me here.

Farewell to the leaving spouses RIP cake. Super cute!

Some of the ladies from the Branch!

The most amazing ladies on this island!

Just another week in paradise

Well my mom just left the island and it feels like she was here months ago. Time is very interesting here. I sometimes feel like the days drag on but then the weeks seem to fly by. I can't believe that first semester is almost over. Just another 5 weeks! The island was just as sad to see my mom leave as I was because it rained all week after she left. Sunday was really good this week because our mission President visited the branch and announced the new branch president. Stephen and I couldn't have been happier with who the new branch president is. He is really an amazing guy. Stephen and I have both been given callings in our branch. Stephen is a teacher for the youth and I am the 1st counselor in the Relief Society. A lot of members are leaving the island after this semester though so callings might be changed up a bit after that happens. We really love our little branch here on the island a lot. Everyone is so welcoming and kind. We are very lucky.

Monday was Stephen's third mini exam and he again did really well on it. I am so proud of the hard work he is doing here. It was a down poor that entire day so we weren't able to leave the house much which was actually really nice. The rain did let up for about an hour so we went out to lunch at Uptown. It is a little place right across from campus. It is now our favorite restaurant here on the island. The food is the most similar to American food we have found so far. We both had breakfast which was amazing. We will be eating there a lot more. After that we came home and the rain started up again. We just spent the day reading and relaxing. We ordered pizza and watched the new star trek movie before bed. It was a perfect lazy day. The rest of the week went by as a normal week here does.