Happy Hump Day!

I hope everyone is having a lovely week. I first want to wish my brother (whose chances of actually reading this post is slim) a very happy birthday on Friday. Contrary to what he may have told some people, he is older than me and will be turning 33. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Also, I want to wish little Ms. Kate Larkin a very, very happy 1st birthday. Woo-hoo!

We had a mostly enjoyable weekend here that started on Friday with us trying dinner at a new found Mexican place called Margarita Phils. It has been recently re-opened and I think Chris was in a bit of heaven finding a Mexican restaurant up to his standards on the island. So that was a fruitful evening!

Saturday, we spent a very relaxing day close to home at the pool. I, as usual, put on my regular sunscreen and set out to lay in the sun for a few hours. Chris joined me for a quick hour, also lathering up his regular sunscreen. Later on that day, as we got ready for our next excursion to the Blues Fest over in St. John, Chris noticed that I was a bit red and chided me for not applying sunscreen and refused to believe me when I insisted I was quite responsible. But don't fear for my integrity, I was proven to be telling the truth when, later on that evening, Chris' skin had that unmistakeable red glow of a sunburn. Moral of this story- that Caribbean sun can get you anytime! It's tricky and even when you think you have got it figured out, it throws you a curveball. Visitors beware!

Since our sunburns were more bark than bite, we did not feel any pain as we enjoyed the rest of the day over in St. John. Chris took me to the world famous happy hour over at Woody's and then we headed to one of our favorites, the Beach Bar, for a quick dinner. Onto the the Blues Festival over at Coral Bay in St. John. It was a very well put together show and we enjoyed a few different blues bands, our favorite being "Trampled Underfoot". As it got a bit later, we opted for the 2nd to last ferry home so as not to deal with the crowds, and we were on our way.

Sunday was originally deemed a day to find Stumpy's beach (yes, we were going to try again) and another widely endorsed beach called Lindquist, but our plans were foiled due to a residual sunburn on Chris' part. I dared the pool again, since my burn had turned to tan, but found I, too, was a bit gun shy by the scorching sun and retired to the house to do some chores.

We'll be facing the sun again with stronger sunscreen and smiles this next weekend when Jimmy and Monique come to visit the island- yay!!!!! And, as we send them off, my parents will be coming next day and followed by Chris' parents just a few days later. You may not hear from me for a while, but I am sure I will have blog enough for everyone after that stint!

On the work note, I have to say I am so happy to have something consistant to fill my days and give me a bit extra cash. I truly, truly enjoyed last weekend since my free time felt earned, and not a given.

Bye for now and hugs for everyone!

Chris' face when he realized he had a sunburn...

Bathroom photos, as promised!

Okay, y'all, here are the pictures from when Chris first went to look at the condo.






And here are the afters! Yay!!! :)

Happy St. Paddy’s day!

Hey there everyone! I am very sorry about my delinquency in blogging. We’ve had a busy couple of weeks in completely finishing the bathroom, work picking up (I’ve got another job!) and just trying to catch our breath and smell the roses.

Where we last left off, it was the day before my birthday. I don’t think I mentioned that, but probably because Chris always makes fun of me for milking it. Just kidding- it really just snuck up on me. I had a lovely birthday. I worked, but it consisted of sitting on the beach for a few hours in St. John, so no complaints here. When I got home, Chris finished up work a little early and we enjoyed watching the sunset while sipping wine and eating cheese and crackers. Something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but poor Chris usually finishes after the sun goes down. For dinner, we ended up going over to a restaurant I’d been itching to try, called Oceana. It overlooks the harbor and has a gorgeous view. I’ve been there for work, but never got to eat. Since I heard the food was great (and it was!), I just had to go. We enjoyed the night and the food was delicious. And I got my birthday candles, as well. Thank you Chris!

As I mentioned previously, we have got the bathroom 99.99% done. Chris just has to hang the towel rack and I will publish photos. He’s been juggling a lot of work and deadlines, though, so I figured I’d give him some time on that. But, we love how it turned out and it’s amazing to think that we had a completely different bathroom just a few weeks ago.

On the work front, as I mentioned, I have taken on a job taking reservations for Havana Blue restaurant on the Marriott property. If you remember, this is a restaurant we love here on the island. I managed to snag this job by running into a friendly Havana Blue worker at the gas station who had lived in Medford. We got to talking and he let me know they were looking for someone. The description is exactly what I do, take reservations. Not exactly brain surgery, but it’s fairly consistent hours a couple of days a week and I hope to get to know more people at the Marriott and the restaurant for something next year. Plus, I get to socialize with people regularly- yay! My bosses there are great and I think it might prove entertaining- especially getting to know more people on the island…

As for work at the destination management company, they were involved with a unique community day last week where a pharmaceutical company encourages their employees to give back to communities. You can read about it at http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article?id=17633988. I was assigned to work at Lockhart Elementary school to provide snacks and water and some general logistical coordination to the volunteers. There were some great volunteers, some that couldn’t get out fast enough, and some that didn’t show up, but the overall act was greatly appreciated by the school and the principal was very grateful and arranged a lovely “thank you” during lunch for the volunteers, this consisted of the kids doing a couple of dance routines, as well as goodie bags with thank you cards. I also was given a small gift for my role there- an adorable “Karibbean Kids” doll that is made at the school to represent the beautiful and diverse children of the Caribbean. Since one particular doll existed in my image and likeness, it was determined that she had to go home with me. I was very touched by the gift and told them I would put the info on my blog in case anyone is as enamored by them as I am. If you are, check out www.karibbeankidsvi.com.

Well, I think I’ve run on long enough. As promised, I will post ASAP the pics for the bathrooms. Have a great week and I will touch base again soon.

XOXO and Happy St. Paddy’s day!!!!



The lovely sunset that we enjoyed on my birthday



Chris and I at Oceana on the birthday evening



Can you see the resemblance?
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Fun with Family!

Jay in the Sugar mill ruins

Shark at Coral World

Sister-in-laws. Yay!

Iggie's Carnival night. We ROCKED those hats!

Crazy Lorikeets!!!! One licked Jay's ear. Eek! Who knew birds have tongues?

As Michael and Greg were flying out, Jenny and Jay Beauchesne (Chris’ sister and brother-in-law) were flying on in for a few days of fun in the sun. Susan and Bruce were extremely instrumental in them being able to visit, as they took care of Jack and Emma while Jenny and Jay were here.

It had been a while since we had seen J&J, so we spent the night catching up on our balcony and making some burgers. Chris got the thumbs up in his grilling technique and the Beauchesne’s may have adopted onion-infused Bubba burgers as a new family favorite.

The next day, we went on one of our favorite day trips to St. John and got to show the J’s the island. We went to see some sugar mill ruins first and then on to gorgeous Cinnamon Bay.

That night, we went on over to Iggy’s to check out the Carnival night they do every Wednesday. On the agenda was live music, fire-throwing, glass-walking, and stylish straw hats. We had a fun time!

On the second day, I was excited to direct them towards Coral World, the island aquarium. We enjoyed getting up-close and personal with sharks, turtles, iquanas, sea-lions, crazy nectar eating lorikeets, and many more creatures. After that, we went down-town to the market in order to peruse hand-made jewelry for souvenirs and personal purchase. ;)

That evening was more BBQing, as well as playing the new charade-like game that Michael and Greg taught us. J&J knocked our previously undefeated (1 game out of 1) egos down a notch and kicked our butts 2 out of 2 games. I challenge you to a rematch!

With only a morning to go, we tried to get a bit more touring done. After a visit to the French Heritage museum (not recommended for future guest tours), lunch at Yacht Haven Grande and then a couple of more scenic vistas, it came time to say goodbye.

We had such a great time with our visitors and cannot wait to see our parents next month!

Photo addendum...

Hi all! Just wanted to post some photos from when Paula and Joe were here. They took some great ones! They were quite the photogenic crew. :)

Also, since I can't put too many photos on this blog, I started a page on Shutterfly and have uploaded all our photos since we got here. Thank you Jenny Larkin for the idea! There are quite a bit of photos and they are not too exciting, but if you want to see more, feel free to visit us at:
http://islands0809.shutterfly.com/

XOXO!

Fun with Friends!

The flower cake that I inherited from Paula and Joe



Michael and Greg- making the beach even more easy on the eyes



I heard that our mugs weren't on here enough, so be on the look out for more of Chris and I. This is Michael's magical photography talents (note- Chris is actually smiling!)



There's my guys!



Taking advantage of the wonderful sunset...












Sharing a moment :)












Since we couldn't be prom dates, we decided to re-enact the photos pretending we were at prom (a decidedly un-formal affair, considering our attire, or lack thereof)


Well hello again!

We have had one fun, action packed week with all of our visitors so far and I figured I’d take a minute to catch you all up.

Michael and Greg arrived safe and sound last Thursday and were looking forward to some long, relaxing days in the sun. What easy visitors! As I mentioned before, they ended up staying just about 7 minutes walking distance to my front door, so location was great. It was a fun-filled long weekend with dinner one night at an Italian restaurant we’ve been wanting to try (it was great), beach time at the resort, a day trip to St. John’s gorgeous Cinnamon Bay, some BBQing at our place one night, pool time at our condo complex and a fun new game that Greg and Mike taught us.

It was great to see Paula and Joe on Saturday and we showed them where we live (not quite 100% together with the bathroom still being fixed) and then headed down to Bolongo Bay with Greg, Michael and Chris to sit at the beach for a bit and have some lunch at Iggy’s. Michael made sure that we had a cake hidden to bring out at the end, since it was Paula’s birthday. That turned out to be a pleasant (and yummy) surprise. It was great catching up, but the time went by too fast! We punctually got Joe and Paula back to the boat and I ended up a grateful recipient of a cake made of flowers, which was a birthday surprise placed in the cruise room for Paula, from Nancy and Michael. I do love flowers! I, unfortunately, did not have a camera with us for the day, but I will upload photos once I get them.

With so much action going on, Chris and I ducked out of a couple of dinner nights and let Greg and Michael explore a bit on their own. I’m sure we missed some good eats! All in all, we had some great laughs and a lot of fun.

Presently, we have Jenny and Jay here and I will update you all later on our excursions together. I don’t want to give you all too much excitement in one blog ;). We’re having fun, though, and are taking some time now to decompress a bit after an action packed day. More on that,soon enough.

I hope everyone all is well and will talk to you soon. Miss you!

Mid-Week update

Hi all,

I am writing just because I said I'd check in, but nothing too new has happened since my last time touching base. We do see the bathroom progressing everyday, so that is a definitely encouraging. The rest of the place is a bit of a disaster and I'm just counting the minutes to getting the place back to a reasonable state. We had a very low-key weekend and stayed at home base, since the contractor works through weekends and there were many Home Depot runs to make. Chris had the best of intentions to cook me dinner for Valentine's day, but with the contractors working kind of late and, literally, no counter space unclaimed, it seemed the best solution was to go out to eat. So, we had a yummy, romantic dinner at Mim's, located just a few minutes walk from our house.

Sunday was a much needed decompress day for Chris, where we made a point to do almost nothing and enjoy it. Everyone needs those once in a while!

Tomorrow, I get to greet Mike and Greg at the airport and look forward to showing them the islands and must-go places and we eagerly anticipate Paula and Joe Metivier's brief showing during their cruise stop on Saturday. After that, we look forward to the same touristy fun with Chris' sister and brother-in-law, Jenny and Jay. Yay! Funtimes ahead.

I will talk to y'all in about a week and 1/2 and really try to take more pictures this time. Much love and hugs to all!!!