Walmart

Walmart.com has been my best friend since I've been out here. If there is anything I need that we can't get here, Walmart can ship it! Shipping here has no rhyme or reason, though. It could take 3 days to over a month. I ordered Clarke's birthday present, a BBQ grill, from Walmart and we just received it last week. It took about 4 weeks and 2 days to get here! I had it all assembled by the time Clarke got home from work. We've already had some yummy meals cooked up on it and I'm sure it will see lots of use!

Nothing too fancy, but gets the job done.

Had to position it so you get a pretty awesome view while you're grilling! Nothing better.

 I was also on the lookout for a vacuum that I could use to pick up all the nasty cat hair and dust that flies around on our tile floors. We have a regular vacuum here, but it just makes the hair fly and is mostly meant for carpets. I saw on Walmart (where else, right?) that they had this little Bissell vacuum that everyone said was awesome for tile floors and picking up pet hair and the best part was it was only $19! I ordered it and I got it in 4 days (see no rhyme or reason about the shipping here)! This little vacuum is awesome! I use it everyday and it's pretty gross to see the amount of dust/cat hair/my hair it picks up off the floors (at least that shows that it's working, right?)! It doesn't work on carpets and is not super powerful, but it does what I need it to.

It comes in cute colors too!

We also use Walmart to ship us our lovely Crystal Light that Clarke and I can't seem to live without(it's better than drinking soda isn't it?). You can get a few select flavors here, but not the ones we like and they charge $5 a box here for those bad boys! Crazy!

Anyways, I am glad I can still get the things we need/enjoy by shipping it in even though it may take a while for it to get here. Going to the post office is a fun trip for us and we love being surprised with our packages of loot! Feel free to send us care packages whenever you'd like. Bug spray and Crystal Light are always needed! :-)

Mosquitoes, St John, and Shaving Cats Oh My!

Why am I so bad at keeping up with this blog thing?? I think about posting something and then a week goes by. I really am going to try and post as often as I can, as long as there are still things to post about. I am mostly doing this so that 5 or 10 years down the road I can look back and remember this experience. Anywho, on with my post.

I have been complaining pretty regularly about the mosquitoes we have here. It's not like it's only when I go outside and I get swarmed (which is true), but we have them all over inside of our house and there is no escaping them! Clarke and I have started to make a game out of how many skeeters we can smash. It's pretty fun, you should try it! We've gotten pretty good at it and there's been a few days where we've killed over 20 in just a few short hours.

Such a good feeling when we smash em!

Good thing is I am starting to not be as bothered by their "bites" anymore. Apparently they are only bad this time of year and hopefully they will die down some during the "winter" months.

Clarke's schedule at work has been pretty busy. He's been working every single day for the last 3 1/2 weeks. The schedule sucks because we aren't able to get out and enjoy the beautiful beaches as often as we would like, but I can't complain much because the money is worth it. Saturday was Clarke's first day off in almost a month and so we took full advantage and escaped over to St John. This was a much needed getaway for me since I had been having a rough couple of weeks. The time we spent there was so needed and it gave me a boost of happiness! The sun was shining and the water was perfect.

Little jelly fish I stumbled upon right when I got in the water. I'm not sure if they sting, so I stayed away just to be safe!

I love the turtles!

These things are just so cool!

So many conch shells. Most of them had crabs in them. It was fun to watch them move all around the ocean floor.

Saw a sting ray. They are so awesome to watch.

There were rain clouds all around us, but they managed to stay away and we had sun the whole time. So pretty isn't it?

I swear this guy is Richard Branson! 

From the ferry leaving St John.

The following picture is the result of too much sun and heat. I thought I left my allergies back in Texas, but I guess I am allergic to the sun too. I even had lots and lots of sunscreen on. Anyways, I ended up getting hives all over my body. Good thing I brought my allergy meds with me.

Since I am also allergic to cats and we have two of them, we started shaving our cat, Belle, to cut down on the hair flying around. We had this awesome vet right by our house in Texas that would shave her and they did an amazing job! We haven't found a vet here on the island yet that would shave cats, so I took it upon myself and I bought some animals clippers at Kmart the other day. It took me about 3 hrs and lots of patience, but I think the end result is pretty dang good! Doesn't she look so cute?

Maybe I should offer cat shaving services and make some extra dough?? Not a bad idea!

A Week of Firsts

I am proud and not so proud of some firsts for me this week. I'll start with the good. I was able to bare my testimony in church today, which is a first for me in over 12 years. I have a huge fear of public speaking and there was no way I would be able to get up and do this back home in front of 300 people. Since our branch here is so tiny, I thought this is my chance. I was surprised at how emotional I was (mostly from nerves) but I am so glad I did it! I know it will only get easier from here on out.

I have been in a hate/hate relationship with my hair ever since I moved. Now, in a perfect environment I can do pretty much anything and my hair would cooperate and look as I had hoped. However, I no longer live in a perfect environment. My hair hates humidity! Of course, we are in the worst place for this. I tried for the first time this week to blow dry my hair straight and I failed miserably, like I knew I would, and I ended up with a frizzy mess. The heat from the blow dryer just made me start sweating to where I couldn't ever get the underneath or the parts around my face straight. So after the failed attempt, I was on the look out for an easy do that did not involve a blow dryer. I found this cool tutorial on "soft beach waves" on Pinterest and I tried it out last night and I really like the way it turned out.

I had my first melt down this week. It was inevitable that it was going to happen. I have been missing home like crazy and the smallest things were making me tear up. I would read a friends status update on Facebook about going to Target in Kyle and I would tear up. I would think about what people would be doing in Austin or Utah for the 4th of July and I would tear up. So on Thursday I just couldn't hold it all in anymore and I bawled like a baby to Clarke. Of course, he was so supportive and listened to everything I was crying about. I knew that this was going to be hard, but you just never know until you actually experience it. I am trying to stay positive and remind myself that any new place takes time to adjust to.

I am excited for this upcoming week because we will have our first visitor, my sister Nicole, come out and stay the weekend. We are also going to have a fun BBQ on the beach with our Branch for the 4th of July. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!