Exploring the island a little bit.

Every week  on Wednesdays at 9:00 the AUC spouses organization gets together. Every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month we go to the beach, and every 1st and 3rd Wednesday they do a play group for the kids. This past Wednesday we enjoyed a trip to the beach. We went to Buccaneer Beach Bar, which is located on the Kim Sha Beach.

Kim Sha beach is where they have a lot of events and concerts and such. Apparently Akon ( He's a famous rapper for those that don't know who he is) will be here in March for the Regatta. Aaron and I want to go see him just to say we went to a concert on the island since I think it will be free. At least that is what I am assuming. 

Most beaches (if not all beaches) have a restaurant on the beach. Kim Sha's restaurant is the Buccaneer Beach Bar. At this particular restaurant, in order to sit on the chairs they have set out you have to buy a drink. So the spouses org purchases non alcoholic drinks for everyone and we get to use the chairs. The water is usually fairly calm, so its perfect for the kids to go run in and play. Addison got especially brave at this one, and would run into the water farther than I wanted sometimes. We even saw a stingray in the water. Its a beautiful beach.

                                              (Addison playing in the sand)

(Playing with trucks)

(This little face kills me)

(Some of the ladies in water.)

(Enjoying our drinks)

Thanks to Breanna Johnson for taking some of the pics above :) 

I guess maybe I need to explain what the AUC spouses organization is as well. The spouses organization is a group that holds events for the spouses. Being on this island can be pretty lonely at times especially with our spouses in school so this gives the spouses who aren't in a school a chance to get together with others. They become like family.

Thursday Addison and I went to Simpson Bay with Stephanie. We went to a toy store with the kids, and then to a beauty supply store, and then another little party supply store. After that we stopped at a restaurant called Top Carrot in Simpson Bay.

(again not my picture, thank you google images).

Top Carrot is a interesting little store, I say interesting because you kind of get the hippy/bohemian vibe in there, with maybe some Buddhism or something.Its basically all vegan. They do offer one or two sandwiches with some Turkey or Tuna but for the most part, its really vegan. They make all kinda of juices and smoothies fresh, and then this really good sand which that both Stephanie and I got. It had avocados, tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, and bell peppers. It was the most delicious sand which ever. Its actually more toast than a sand which because the bread is all open and everything is stacked on top. I am excited to have another one of their sand which's.

It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad Stephanie was willing to take me along to see a few different stores in Simpson Bay.

Friday we test drove a car. We haven't had a car here since we got here, and its been slightly stressful. Like I've mentioned in past posts we have people willing to take us to stores and stuff so we can get food, but I have a doctors appt tomorrow and I hate that someone has to take me, and then wait for me. Its also a little hard when having a little one. If we needed to run to the hospital with Addison for any reason at one point in time or another than it would extremely stressful trying to get there, or even with my pregnancy if anything was to go wrong. With all the great people on the island though, I'm sure if we had an emergency someone would be willing to rush us were ever we needed to go.
Anyway, so we may or may not be getting it. We are supposed to get it around the end of February, so if everything goes as planned. We will finally have a car, just in time for me to go back to the states and have this baby,

It was a great 3 days seeing a little more of the island. :)

1 down 19 to go.

1 block exam down, 19 block exams left to go until we are done with just the beginning of Med school. Aaron finally got his scores, turns out he did well! Even got 100% on his anatomy practical, I believe that was the test anyway. I'd ask him but he's in class again.

When we first learned we were coming to med school I was given the expectation that I would NEVER see my husband. It actually made me really dread coming here. When we got here and Aaron started studying, I saw him a lot more than I had expected too. It stressed me out a little and always had me wondering, is he studying enough. Because I saw him way more than I expected too. So to know we are done with the first block exams and that with the time he has been using to study, and to know he is doing as well as he is, I think we are both feeling more at ease. I think he feels good knowing he did that well, with the time he was using to study. He may study a little more but I will still see him about as much as I have been. Which helps keep me at ease because I like seeing Aaron more than I thought I'd get too. 

Every semester the faculty, upper semester students, family and friends meet outside the first semester students door and surprise, cheer and congratulate the first semester students for finishing their first block exams of Med School. Its known as "The Clap" which is kind of a funny name for it. I have heard many joke about it.

I knew about the "The Clap" since last week. Since it was a big surprise, I never did tell Aaron. It was one of those really easy to keep secrets ;). He was surprised and said he loved it! He didn't know I was there though since so many people were crowded into this room. I had to chase him down before they fed everyone lunch!

He took a video so I'll have to get a video from him and add it later! :)  

St. Maarten: The Friendly Island.

I guess we've been here for almost a month so its time I talk a little bit about this Island we call home.

A few facts about the island:

The island is controlled by two European Countries. The Dutch and the French.

If you are on the French side, which is the North side, the island name is spelled Saint Martin. Their currency is Euros, but they accept dollars too, luckily. 

If you are on the dutch side, which is the South side, the island name is spelled Sint Maarten. They use the Antilles Guilder as their currency, and they too accept dollars. 

Our first day on the island, Marcie Edwards, another spouse to a student on the island,  picked us up from the airport and took us to the grocery store. She told us before hand that they would ring us up in Guilders, but I had forgotten so when I saw 260 come up I about had a hard attack. We had only bought a few things that normally would have cost around 60 bucks in the US. Luckily it came out a lot less than 260. It was more than we would have paid in the states, but a lot less then 260. 

If you chose to go between borders there is no border checks. 

The island is located approximately 190 miles from Porto Rico. Its even closer than Los Angeles and Phoenix, or Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

The Island is roughly 37 sq miles.

There are 37 beaches. (We've been to 3 so far. Mullet Bay, Orient Bay, and Indigo)

Its really hot and humid here. Its usually about 80 degrees. I hear it gets even worse come August to October/November.

Tourist season is at a High between November- April/May.

Low season for tourists is usually May to November.

We have hurricane preparedness pamphlets. So yes there are hurricanes here. They haven't had a bad one since 1995. So lets hope that we aren't on the island when the next bad one comes. In 1995 though when the hurricane hit, it hit so bad that the island was not ready for it, and it destroyed most of the island.

It is known as the "friendly island." Side story about this, when we first got here I managed to make EVERY person in the air port mad. I was feeling very overwhelmed after we walked out and wasn't sure if I was going to like living in such a angry place. I heard it was the "Friendly Island" and thought, that must be a joke. Turns out I was wrong, people here can and are very friendly. It must have just been a bad day for those air port workers.

There are a few "American"  fast food restaurants here, McDonalds (of course), Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Dominoes.

It costs quite a bit of money for utilities. So we really don't run our AC here, but I guess we will find out here soon when we get our utilities bill and I can update this a little bit.

We live really close to the school, its about a 5 mins walk. The school has a gym, and its fairly nice. Its not LA fitness, but its better than the gym we went to in Buckeye ;). We also have an AUC spouses organization that has been wonderful. The spouses get together for lunches, play groups with the kids, going to the beach. I think I'm super social around here because of it. The wives are awesome around here, they take you places, give you things you need because, we all need things when we get here. Its an awesome organization and I've already met some awesome wonderful people through it. We have a couple, James and Jillian, that have taken us to church each week. We love and appreciate the people that are here.

The view from Aarons school. That is Mullet Bay with Saba Island in the background.

The front of Aarons school, with the statue of the founder.



There is an Asian market right around the corner from us. When we first heard that we thought it would be a little outside market that sold lots of fish, and seafood and Asian things. Turns out, its just a regular little Grocery store, run by Asians, with an Asian name. They do sale Asian merchandise though. Everything there is a little pricier, but if you need something quick its not a bad place to go.

(Asian supermarket)

We've really come to love this little Island so far. Aaron wishes he could spend more time at the beach, but unfortunately because he is in school we don't get as many chances to go as a family. Addison and I are getting a lot more tan. I'm getting a lot bigger due to pregnancy. Aaron's getting smarter haha.

He finished his first block exams today! That was exciting. So we went out to dinner with some friends Stephanie and Austin Wride. We went to the restaurant Boca Marina. Its out in the lagoon. If you look down you can see the Carp swimming in the ocean. Dinner was delicious and we really enjoyed the company! :)



Dinner view.


The Caribbean Lobster. This one is upside down. They run about 18.95 (at least these ones did) per pound.

A New Beach

Its Aarons block week, which means he has this week to prepare for his first block exams come Monday. Everyone says that first block exams really just help prepare you for the rest of the semesters. They help you know if you need to change your study habits, spend more time studying or what. So come Monday we are 1 block down. YEAH! Only 3 more blocks to go for just this semester. And then 4 more semesters after that.

Since Aaron is in school all day Addison and I went a new beach today. Along with some other spouses on the island.

We visited Indigo Bay, which is from what I've heard, the best beach on the Island to collect sea shells. Its the only other beach I've visited besides Mullet Bay in our short 3 weeks here, so I can't say for certain just yet. We found so many shells there today though that I think I can probably already agree with them.

Our day started when Stephanie Wride (another spouse on the island) was kind enough to pick Addi and I up. We met up with a bunch of other spouses at a cute little French Bakery called La Sucriere.


(this is not my picture, I didn't get one. Thanks google images)

Its a cute little French Bakery located in Simpson Bay. They have all of the pastries, croissants and other things in a little window that you pick from a window. Addison and I decided to try the blueberry muffins, a chocolate croissant and we got these small brownies that were 3 for $1. We brought those home for Aaron to try as well.


This was our breakfast. The chocolate croissant is in the back, with the blueburry muffin on the left and the pecan brownies we took home on the left. (sorry for the blurry picture).


(gotta love the Evian bottle in the middle of the picture). This was our view as we ate. This is the lagoon. (I forgot what lagoon it is though).

After we ate breakfast we all headed over to Indigo Bay Beach. Its a "newer" beach they are trying to develop. They have a restaurant called Kokomo down there, and they are building tons of apartments There is an arch where people usually got to take wedding pictures and a lot of landscaping. But the beach is nice, and quiet. We were the only ones on the beach besides a few down at the other end that were there relaxing at the restaurant.


Addison on the beach.

As we were getting ready to leave we saw a "pirate" ship. Stephanie got a picture of Addison and I with it, but I got just a picture of the ship. It definitely looks like a pirate ship. Just missing the black mass with a skull on it.

Our "pirate" ship.

Stephanie was kind enough to take me to Cost U Less, a store that is a lot like Costco here, after the beach. We went and made the drive over there (which isn't far this island is small). Us and our girls were covered in sand. When we got there I got out of the car, locked my door and then got Addison out. I forgot to lock Addison's door so Stephanie reminded. After I locked Addison's door, Stephanie had me help put Kate (her daughter) into her baby carrier (or baby-wear). As we did that Kate's door flew shut. With Stephanie's door already locked, my doors locked and the keys inside. Luckily we had our baby's out already, but.... we didn't have the keys, or Stephanie's phone, or her money or anything.

We saw some local fireman so I ran over there and told them the situation. They told us they didn't have the tool they needed on that truck. So they called a tow truck for us and then left. We waited a while but weren't sure who we were waiting for, how long we would be waiting and were getting antsy. Stephanie decided after about 30 mins of waiting to walk over to this auto store and see if they had anyway of getting into the car. Unfortunately they didn't but they did however have the number to her insurance (its the same insurance all over the island). So we called a road side service vehicle and they helped us out and helped Stephanie get into her car. By the time we finished our shopping, were were pooped and ready to go home. It was a fun day and quiet the little adventure.

I am excited for our next one! :)

How we got here.

I did not feel like very many exciting things happened to us last year so I did not blog too much, when things finally got exciting I was too busy to keep up with it. Now that I have plenty of time, I think I will keep up with it a little better - at least I hope I do.

In a past post, I blogged,  I said that we were living with Aaron's mom so he could get ready to go to Pharmacy school, but as it turns out... we ended up in Med School. When Addison was born there was complications, (you can read about it in a past post I wrote) as Aaron watched our little girl go through so much and saw doctors save her life he knew immediately he wanted to go back to school. But let me rewind a little from there....

Aaron graduated with his bachelors of science right before we met, while we were dating he told me he wanted to go into Marriage and Family counseling. He had tried earlier that year to do nursing but decided nursing was just not what he wanted to do. So he was now considering counseling. Right before we got married Aaron had gotten a job selling insurance with Esurance and got me a job there too. He was doing well with Esurance. He figured at this point it wasn't a huge deal if he went back to school for his master because he could and was making good money at Esurance. Fast forward back to when Addison was born.

So after the complications Addison went through Aaron knew he wanted to go back to school, he considered Pharmacy school, knowing that what he really wanted to do was Med School. So that's why we started looking into Pharmacy school. Well after Aaron had already registered for the PCAT he started reading his patriarchal blessing and had a feeling that he should take the MCAT. So he prepared for both the PCAT and the MCAT. We decided we would do an early acceptance to pharmacy school at a school called Manchester University in Indiana. Aaron then took the MCAT and we waited. We got scores back for the MCAT and decided they were good enough to apply to a few places for medical school, while still keeping the Pharmacy application open. In the middle of September Aaron applied to the American University of the Caribbean. His buddy, Taylor, from the mission was currently in his last semester here, and told Aaron he should apply here. So Aaron did. He soon received an interview date, he drove the 6 hour drive up to LA were someone would interview him. He said he felt it went really well. It was a quick trip. We found out a week later he was rejected from AUC, he did have the option to retake the MCAT though and they would keep his application on file. So we decided to wait on Pharmacy school, and apply to a few DO schools around the US. While we waited, we decided that since it would be a while before we found out what we were doing as far as school goes we would move into our own place. We signed a 9 month lease thinking it would be at least 9 months before we moved any where for school.

Soon after signing our lease Aaron received an email for an interview with Manchester, he flew to Indiana in the middle of October and interviewed. A week later we got the call that he was accepted into Manchester. That very same day, just a few hours later... Aaron got a call from Jamie, the lady that interviewed him for Med School, letting him know that they had reopened his application. Aaron asked them why they reopened his application, considering it was the same application. She told him she'd let him know a week a later.

So we waited another week. Finally Jamie called us and let us know that Aaron was accepted to into AUC. Aaron asked them what changed their minds, and was informed that he was the 2nd group too take the new MCAT, and because of this they didn't have a good enough percentage of numbers to tell what was a great MCAT or not. It turned out that Aaron did better on the MCAT than they had thought. So we got in! With only two months to prepare. We quickly got our passports, let our landlord know we would be leaving early, luckily he was super good about working with us. We got rid of a lot, moved stuff into storage and family members houses and moved out of our apartment into my grandparents for the last month before we left.

When we first talked about moving to the Caribbean and going to school here I had probably the worst anxiety about it ever, I hated the idea of living on this island in the middle of the ocean, away from family, hardly ever seeing my husband. I was so relieved when he didn't get in, which may make me sound like the worst wife ever, I wanted to support him in medical school, but I was just so uneasy about it the Caribbean. And then we got accepted. I don't know what changed in the space of 6 weeks but....I suddenly was excited, nervous but excited. Aaron must have been praying or something because I was suddenly okay with it all. Its kind of funny how that happens/happened.

I'm super excited to be here, overwhelmed at times, especially because we are planning on having this baby here, but excited. Not everyone gets the chance to say they lived on a Caribbean island while they're spouse attended Med School.

Its The Same, Wherever You Go.

This was our second Sunday attending our new branch. Its a small building that is gated during the week when its not in use. The windows and doors have bars on them. There is only one hall. With about 10 rooms total for nursery, primary and classes. It has two rooms that have AC the chapel, and the kitchen, which is used as a the Relief Society room as well. The chapel has no benches just chairs set up. Its quiet different from the chapels we are used to seeing and attending in Arizona.

Some of the members speak French because its the only branch on the whole island, so the members that live on the French side attend church with us a well. Our branch president gets up when a member that doesn't speak English is talking and translates for them. The missionaries ( thank goodness there is a lot of them) usually pass the sacrament while 2 local boys are able to bless the sacrament. They just started visiting teaching, in December. Again, its different from what we are used to attending and seeing after living in Arizona.

Despite the differences in the way the building looks, or the way the members speak, I love that the church is the same where ever you go. We can attend in Arizona, we can attend in the Caribbean, we could attend in Madagascar and it would still be the same.


The last two Sundays I've looked forward to attending church, more than usual. Probably because it is the closest thing I have felt to home since we moved here (well that and going to the ACE Megastore ;) ). The ward members are always so friendly, and welcoming. We've had ward members take us to church the last two Sundays since we don't have a car yet.

The district president spoke to us today. He had a French accent and spoke in French majority of the time. It was a little hard to follow with Addison and then the broken English and French but the spirit was there, and I felt so much love for this man that struggled to speak English and French and still get his message to come across. After sacrament when I told him I enjoyed his talk he told me that he doesn't like to speak and feels he doesn't do a good job. I think he did great though.

Fun fact for the who are curious: We are in the Barbados Mission. We used to be in the West Indies Mission.

I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that no matter what, where ever I am, the church is the same.