Keeping Up with the Joneses...: Well Done!

You might think I'm about to talk about finding some awesome red meat on the island...oh, no...think again. Which, by the way, I found out you can order meat from "Malcolm's Meat"...awesome name don't ya think...and it's suppose to be the freshest on the island. So I ordered a case of boneless, skinless chicken and the case of 24 was delivered the next day. I will preface by saying the chicken is wonderful. As I was repacking the meat in Ziploc bag's I happened to look at the labeling. To my surprise it was chicken from North Carolina, great, and it was packaged on June 16th, even better bc it was JUST packaged!!! Oh no, wait...it's only June 10th, crap...June 16th of 2012...this meat was packaged 1 year ago...WTH?!?! I am now realizing why everyone always says "Only in Dominica". The chicken taste absolutely fine but honestly we will probably stick with lentils and fish...something about chicken sitting in a freezer before it gets to my freezer...I wish i had never looked at the stupid label... I'm sure if I googled Tyson chicken it would probably say the same thing...

So, this week David had his second mini and his first Anatomy practical. The semesters are broken up into a few mini tests, a few practicals and a final. A "mini" covers all subjects, biochem, anatomy, etc... they are very important test bc I think they only have 3 mini's. A practical is when the students have to look at there cadaver and actual name 50 different parts of the body!! There is literally a pin stuck into what looks like spaghetti and the question is "if this nerve was severed which muscles would it affect and how?" (effect vs affect)...I duh kno...I hate grammar! Monday was David's 2nd mini and Wednesday was his first practical. David did pretty well on his first mini so he was somewhat confident that he was studying appropriately, and so forth.

On Monday, David came home very unsure of how he did and definitely on a understandable emotional roller coaster. It was one of those tests you absolutely hate bc you honestly don't know if you completely failed or did o.k.. It was super hard!! He had been studying like crazy, meaning maybe 1 hour/day with the girls and I and about 4-5 hours of sleep/night, and to leave the test feeling so unsure was pretty gut wrenching. The good news was that he didn't have time to dwell because he had to keep pushing to prepare for the Anatomy practical. Obviously, I would not be writing about this and titled the entry "well done" if we got bad news. Since this blog is read by a lot of family, friends, and even our friends here in Dominica I will keep David's privacy and just say he did well!!! We don't have his score from the practical but he felt very confident after the test so we are expecting a positive mark!

This is really good news for us. We are half way through the first semester and have better than average scores (as much detail as I feel privy to give...David is super private about these matters and cannot stand bragging). I simply consider this a means of positive reinforcement!!!!

"YOU CAN ONLY ACHIEVE WHAT YOU PUT OUT INTO THE UNIVERSE"

We really do believe this! Yes, we are a little hippy...but hopefully we'll be a Hippy "Doctor" family :)

Please keep the good thoughts, prayers, and love coming our way!!

You didn't think you were going to get off that easily...oh no, no, no...this is my ultimate outlet since I haven't found my Julie, Emily, Kelly, Lisa and Jessica yet!!! Miss you wino's :)

Yesterday, was such an awesome day but HOT as always. We spent a lot of the day at the pool, the kids napped, I cooked a great dinner, drank a 6 pack of Kubuli (local beer) myself!!! Oh and I forgot the best part...we were able to get Banks to walk home so that we could fill 3 huge 2 gallon size water bottles on campus using the FILTERED WATER SYSTEM...It's the little things folks!! You can definitely drink the local water like I did the first week but I had a serious uneasy feeling in my stomach everyday so I decided to starting filtering ALL of our water and not just the kiddos!

Today was o.k. but totally sick of the rain!! We were soaked this morning and then I poured my seriously coveted iced coffee, that I have to walk literally 1 mile to get, all over my stroller as it decided to collapse on me. Also, we have these crazy flying termite things. Yea, it's so weird...they somehow MacGyver there way past the bug screens and fortress we have built to keep bugs OUT and fly into our house, literally drop there wings and torment the heck out of us. Fortunately they only come out when it rains for 24 hours continually!! The absolute best part of today was that it was our first day on the "new schedule"...David's new schedule that is...

He has committed to come home for dinner every single night with the exception of the 2 nights before a test and the week before finals. This is so exciting for the girls and I. Unfortunately the catalyst to this change was our calm, mild mannered, shy, introverted 3 year old... HA HA HA! We have been having a serious case of the "whatever there called 3's"... I don't know if it's the move, Daddy being gone so much, Mommy being around so much ;), her age or a culmination of the everything...probably the latter but it has seriously been doing a number on us. When I get through a day without a T-Total meltdown with her I count my lucky stars. I just can't put my finger on her trigger. She is so full of everything...great and not so great, at times!! We think that if she gets to spend a little more time with her prince charming on a consistent basis it will help. Today, she did pretty good. I think she just needs a little more time to settle in :) She really misses everyone and asks to go visit her friends and grandparents :( All in all, she's having a blast here and is making a lot of new friends! She'll be fine...if I survive it ;).

Our other little darling is doing just great...she is so easy going...I never get many pics of her so here ya go! She's really growing and starting to rock on her knees!!! She is an amazingly sweet and happy child and LOVES her SISTER!!!! Oh and boy she's teething...who would have thought an orange dive stick would be her best friend!!! lol