We'll be home for Christmas

Early November
We are going home for Christmas! It is a surprise...but Stephen and I will be spending Christmas in Utah!!! We hadn't planned to go home because it is just to expensive. We decided our only visit home would be in April at our half way mark of living on the Island. Neither one of us were admitting it but we were both pretty bummed we weren't going to be with our families for Christmas.
We were so very happy and grateful when we found out that one of my wonderful brothers thought it would be nice for the whole family to be together for Christmas. So he offered to fly us home for a couple weeks! Stephen and I were both in shock for a few days after finding out we would be home for Christmas. We had been mentally preparing ourselves for not going home until April but immediately got so excited. So excited that it was hard to focus on anything but the fact of going home.
Christmas really is my favorite time of year. What I love most of all about it is being with family. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing family and husband.
The reason I waited so long to post this is because once we found out we were coming home we decided we would surprise Stephen's family in Utah!

December 16th- travel day one
Finally heading home! We have literally been counting down the days on a paper chain for over 5 weeks now just waiting to come home. This morning we woke up at 4:00 am to head to the airport. Our first flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30 from Dominica to Antigua. Well it left over an hour late. We only had an hour and a half layover in Antigua. So once off the plane we hurried to our next flight that should have left in 5 minutes. We made it to the gate to find out that it to was delayed. About an hour later we left for San Juan, and landed about 15 minutes after our connecting flight to Philadelphia had taken off. Our entire plane was pretty upset because half of us missed connecting flights because of Liat. Liat is a Caribbean airline that are notoriously known for having delayed and canceled flights. So we knew ahead of time that we had about a 15% chance of making our flight to Philly. Unfortunately there were no other flights that day to Salt Lake City other than the one we missed. We tried to get on a new flight to Philadelphia but as the lady was checking us in on it the flight closed and we couldn't get any seats. So she quickly checked us in on a flight to Charlotte NC and we barely made that one with about 15 minutes to spare. I refused to spend a night in San Juan. I just wanted America! Once to Charlotte we went to talk to a US Airways worker to see if she had better options for us than the worker in San Juan of getting home before late the next day. She didn't give us a lot of hope. So we went to delta to see how much it would cost just to fly home upfront. That would have been 800$ a person. I then looked up flights to Salt Lake for the next morning. Like the worker said they were all full but we asked her about standby options. Our flight was for 1:00 the next day but there were three flights before that one to Phoenix. She put us on the standby list for the next morning. Then we went to the front desk and found us a hotel for the night. It was a nice little 50$ a night hotel close to the airport. We headed there and went straight to bed after midnight.

December 17th - travel day two
We woke up at 5:00 am and headed back to the airport to get on standby. The first flight to Phoenix was at 7:30. Once to the gate we got some breakfast and waited for the plane to board. They called our names once almost everyone was boarded and told us they had room for us on the plane! We were so excited. Off to Phoenix six and a half hours earlier than schedule. We just had one last flight to get on before making it home. There were 3 scheduled flights to Salt Lake before the evening one that we had. Once to Phoenix we hurried to the departure gate for the first flight out to Salt Lake. We asked her if there was any way we could get on the flight. She said it would cost 75$ a person because it wasn't a full flight. We took it! We boarded shortly after that and made it to Salt Lake City by 1:00 pm. We were finally home and freezing after traveling for 36 hours.

Our plan for surprising Stephens family was to show up while they were all together having dinner in Salt Lake. We had my mom call and set up a dinner with them and my parents in Salt Lake for the 17th, but Stephen and I were going to be the ones to show up instead. We were stressing like crazy thinking we weren't going to make it in time because of all our missed flights but we were persistent enough we made it happen. It was great! The restaurant we were meeting them at was at the gateway mall. We got there 40 minutes early and hid in the restaurant right across the street to see when they all showed up. We had talked to the host earlier letting him know what we had planned and where to seat them. They all showed up 20 minutes early. We watched them head in and get seated. Then we walked across the street, turned the recorder on, and headed inside. It was the best surprise ever!

Finally made it to Utah!

SURPRISE!!!

Christmas break is here

We are loving life! Friday was my last day of work and then our Christmas break officially began! The couple nights this week that we haven't eaten out Stephen and I have cooked dinner together. Yesterday at the pool I told him we were going to have spaghetti for dinner and he decided it would be fun to make meatballs. They tasted delicious! It has been so great being able to spend time with each other again. We have been going to the beach or the pool almost every day and having lots of pizza and movie nights. Now that I am done with work we are going to be able to do so much more. Today we went snorkeling with the branch to Toucari Bay. It was so much fun getting out of town for a few hours. Stephen found 4 sand dollars. We are so lucky to have such amazing people here on the island with us. I already know I am going to make some life long friends here.

We had nachos for dinner and opened a nice bottle of sparkling cider to

 celebrate Stephen making the Deans list and surviving Semester one.

Definitely missing home. Definitely not missing home's winter.

First semester is coming to an end

Stephen has survived his first semester of Medical School! I am so proud of him. He worked really hard and did so well that he made it on the Deans list. Now I just have one more week of work and then Stephen and I get one whole month off together. We already have so much planned. It is going to be a great little vacation for us. We have already done a little celebrating. We have been going to the pool every day after I get off work. After Stephen finished his final exam I had some brownies waiting for him at home. Then we headed to the beach and watched the sunset. It felt so relaxing knowing that he didn't have to start studying again when we got back home. Once the sun set we headed home and ordered pizza and had a movie night. It was so wonderful. I am so happy to have the next month all to us. People tell us all the time how the 16 months here will just fly by. I wasn't sure if I believed them but this first semester really did go by really fast which was just fine with me. I feel like this was a good starter semester. Now I know more about the island and feel a little settled. I'm excited to have many more adventures next semester!

On a side note we had some major flooding this last Sunday. I wanted to post some pictures of it to remember. The river got so high it came over the road we live on and turned it into its own river. Luckily we live high enough that our place was fine but a lot of homes closer to campus weren't as lucky.

Just wearing my rain boots to church!

The above picture is what our road looks like when it rains. 

The lower picture is what our road looked like when it flooded on Sunday!

This is where the river came up over the road.

It rose about 8 feet from what it normally is. 

We decided to go exploring in the rain.

Stephen pointed out this rainbow while I was writing this post.

There is always a rainbow somewhere.

This boat has been coming around Portsmouth lately. We just love it.

Christmas toes!

Highlight of my week: Contact Dermatitis

I have never in my life had an allergic reaction to anything, until now. Ever since moving to this lovely island I have encountered what I thought were thousands of bug bites. I have probably 50 little scars on my legs that I have gotten just in the last 3 months from living here. This week I found out they probably weren't all from bug bites. About 3 weeks ago I got a rash on my feet and ankles. I assumed it was nothing and put some cream on them for about 4 days and it went away. Then on Monday evening I noticed a rash on my leg. It wasn't huge but it itched like crazy just like the one on my feet had. I assumed it would go away in a few days like the other one. Well the next morning it had spread all the way up my leg and onto the other leg. By the time I was off work that day it had spread all over both my legs. I had painful little red bumps all over them. So I think it was Tuesday after work I went in to the clinic to get it taken care of. The doctor didn't know what it was but thinks that I probably have been allergic to something here all along and my body was finally just not getting rid of it on its own. Probably some kind of grass or plant I have been walking and sitting on.

I am just so glad Stephen was at the clinic with me. One of the first things the doctor asked me was how I handle needles. Well I told the doctor not well but that I couldn't stand the pain anymore. The fastest way to stop the spreading was to get a Hydrocortisone injection. It was not my lucky day. I have never been one that handles needles well especially this time. I turned ghost white and the nurse probably thought I was going to pass out. What made it the absolute worse was that the nurse didn't get it in my vein on the first try. But she was determined! She finally gave up and the doctor tried on the other hand and got it right in. The only somewhat humorous part about all of it was that I said I didn't want to look at the needle before the doctor put it in and in that instant the nurse opened the cupboard and about 15 huge needles fell onto the floor right where I was looking away. It was not a fun experience and I really hope I won't be visiting the clinic again anytime soon. After that I headed home with a big old bruise on my hand, a bunch of benadryl and a weeks worth of prednisolone.

Besides my allergic reaction it was a pretty decent week. This is the last week of the semester! Stephen had 3 exams this week. His final is in two days and we both cannot wait for it to be over. Stephen has done so well this semester and we are very excited to spend some time together. At work this week the prep school put on a school Christmas play so I spent the week watching them practice for it. Jack was really cute during the songs. Jack also celebrated his 8th birthday. His birthday isn't really until next week but his mom wanted all of the prep school to be there before the break came and students started going home. Jack's mom is amazing. She went all out for Jack's party. There was sand art, face painting, pizza, cookies, little toys for the kids, bubbles, and balloon animals. I'm pretty sure Jack loved it. He really is a lucky boy.

My battle wound from the nurse. I'm pretty sure she was digging for gold.

Stephen thought I was very brave at the doctors.

Jack loved singing the songs at the Christmas play.

Jack helping blow out his birthday candles.

Merry Christmas from the Peirces

Our very first Christmas card!

An hour in Dominica

I was sitting at home this afternoon wondering if I should do anything before dark. I decided it would be a perfect evening to ride my bike to the ocean. I grabbed my camera and an hour later I have all of these wonderful photos. This is such a beautiful island. I need to appreciate it more before my 16 months are up and I'm gone.