a little quirky...I guess!

I have been tagged by Jodie!

Let's see just how Quirky I am.....

tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours:

Quirk #1:  I pop my gum.  I do it all the time, but when I am nervous, in a hurry or really concentrating on something it gets a lot louder and a lot more popping!

Quirk #2:  I make a list for everything.  It doesn't matter what the list is for, I make one.  I have them all over the house, in my purse and in the car.  I guess I do it because it makes me feel more organized.  I do it so much that now if I don't have a list for it, I forget!

Quirk #3:  I will only trim mine and the kids fingernails out side on the porch.  I hate to have the clippings flying all over the house and if I try to aim for the garbage, I will usually only hit it once in ten fingers and ten toes.  It's much easier to go to the porch.

Quirk #4:  I have a hard time being away from my kids.  I know so many people who love to drop off their kids and leave them all day.  I do love "my" time, but I prefer to have the kids with me.  When Erick and I would go to the Temple, and leave the kids with someone, I couldn't get home fast enough.  Erick would always want to stop and get a drink or something to eat after and I just wanted to go pick up the kids and then go get a drink or something to eat!

Quirk #5:  I pop my knuckles.  I know- I have heard it since I was a kid, my knuckles are going to get huge, but I can't stop and believe me I have tried.

Quirk #6:  I hate to loose ANYTHING!  If I loose it, I can't rest until I have found it.  This is the case with things like my keys, my cell phone, the camera, and it carries on to a list I made 2 months ago to game pieces, and even the kids toys.  When they get a new toy, I make sure I know what all the parts are and how many there are so that I can do a random check and make sure we still have all the pieces.  I makes me crazy, but I can't stop.  The worse things I have found so far is, Bryn loves the My Little Pony Ponyville, and there and shoes that you can get and  some that come with some of the ponies.  Well for a pony that makes 4 shoes.  I go crazy when I play with her if I can't find all four shoes to all the sets we have.  It is so bad, and I will spend most of the time we are playing, secretly looking for the lost shoes.  I will play like I am going shopping and then dig through the toys looking for the shoes!  Needless to say, my ponies LOVE to shop!!!

Quirk #7:  One extra, I brush my teeth every time I leave the house.  If we are going to leave just to go eat, I brush my teeth!  Erick doesn't understand it, but I feel like I am forgetting something if I don't brush right before I leave.  I have the kids do the same thing, so I guess they too are doomed to be quirky too!

Okay- I guess the conclusion is I AM QUIRKY!

now I tag: Laura, Jandi, McKel, Rindi and Tiffany!

A loose screw

One of my biggest fears became a reality tonight.  I say one of, because when it comes to my children, I have a lot of fears.  I guess you could call me paranoid, among other things!

Tonight, well actually last night, our fan broke.  It just fell over and broke out of the stand.  So tonight I went and bought a new fan.  And no, no one stuck their finger in it, which is another fear!!  But anyway, Erick was changing the plug on it.  It comes with a 220 plug, but the wrong type for our outlets, so Erick was going to re-wire it with the right plug.  And of course Kyler wanted to help.  We were all in the kitchen, I was talking with a really good friend, and her kids were all over playing with Bryn.  As they were leaving, Kyler was sticking his finger up his nose and making a blowing sound.  Immediately I knew what had happened!  We go through all the questions, what did you stick in your nose?  Show us what it looked like? etc. We finally figure out it is a screw.  The problem is, he was sticking his finger up there to get it out and pushed it up even further.  Erick tried to see it with his light, and he could see it, but it was way too far for him to do anything.  Of course the clinic is closed by this time, so I call the EMT's who cover any medical issues after the clinic is closed.  I explained what happened, and they told me where to meet them.  This whole time Kyler is screaming.  We get to the school, and luckily I was able to get Kyler calmed down on the way.  The first couple of EMT's don't even want to try to get it out, so they call in a doctor to come help.  When he gets there, they are trying to decide what they are going to use and what all they need.  The whole time Kyler is silent, they get what they need, still not a peep from Kyler, they go in there and after a little digging, they pull out this huge screw.  I say huge, because even the doctor said, "Wow, that's bigger than I was expecting."  Then they all go on and on about how good and quiet and still Kyler was!  It was amazing, first of all I can't believe that it fit in his nose, and then I couldn't believe that he was so still and let them do what they needed to do.  When I was putting Kyler in bed, he said, "I promise not to put anything in my nose again mom, I promise, Okay?"  

Emerald pool Trip

I can't believe I forgot to post pictures from this trip.  

During the break, we went with some friends to a place called Emerald Pool.  To get there you take the road that would take you to the airport.  This road is anything but appealing for the weak stomach, but well worth the ride to see the sights.

We left early that morning with Renn who we hired as our driver for the day.  All the kids were piled in the back and having a blast.  Along the way there were some great views of the ocean.  Which is the Atlantic Ocean on that side of the island.

This is a cocoa pod.  They grow on the trees, then you cut open the pod to find the cocoa.  The tower in the middle is the actual cocoa.  People like to suck on the individual beans and get the white off.  It is sweet and pretty good.  However, if you bite into the bean it is so bitter and you can't get rid of the taste all day.  (word of warning)
This is a picture of nut meg.  The also grow on trees.  They smell amazing when you open it.  The red stuff on the outside can be used, but the nut underneath is the nut meg we are used to.
Kyler got tried on the long trip, I thought it was so cute that he could actual be asleep like that. 

Sophia and Bryn

Along the road there was this guy making bread which I can't remember the name of the bread, but it is made from a plants root that has been ground.  In the picture above Renn is "pretending" to grind the root.  He steps on the board on the bottom and pumps is like a piano pedal.  The pumping makes the wheel turn and then you hold the root to the wheel and it grinds it.  The flour is then collected and dried and made into bread.  It was pretty tasty!
Bryn Jumping into Emerald Pool.  I couldn't get a shot of her in the air, she was too fast.  By the way the water is freezing!!!!

Erick and Kyler Jumping in

The pool from the hike in.  It is so beautiful and peaceful.

The hike in

This is a flower they call a wax flower.  It looks and feels fake, like wax.

#1 Beach

I don't know how this beach got it's name, but they call it #1 beach.  We took one last trip here on the 7th of September, right before school got started again.  It was so much fun.  The waves were so high because of the hurricanes.  All the guys loved it (including Kyler, who counts himself in as one of the guys!)  Everyone had a really good time.  The beach is on the other side of the island, so the water is the atlantic rather than the caribbean sea.  The view is beautiful, and the high waves looked awesome as they were crashing up on the rocks.  Once again pictures do not do it justice, but we try!

 Bryn and William

Kyler, he found a coconut!

Erick, body surfing the high waves!

First Day of 1st Grade

Monday was Bryn's first day of 1st grade.  She was so excited to start.  She had her outfit picked out the night before and had gotten her backpack put together without any help.  For school everyday she had to take a water bottle and a snack, and she had gotten both and put in her backpack and had the pack sitting by the door just waiting.

Her teacher is Miss Fredrick.  In her class in 1st and 2nd grade.

HAPPY GRANDPARENTS DAY!!

I was looking through my planner today- starting to plan the month since tomorrow it officially begins!  And I noticed it was Grandparents day.  I told Bryn and Kyler, and Bryn said, "Oh shoot, I don't have anything to give them."  So I told her we would write them all the "letter" on the blog to wish them a happy one.  Some of you might not see this for a while, but really any day could be grandparent day right?

We just want ALL of you to know how much we love you and how much we miss you.  The kids miss you all and talk about you constantly.  Especially Bryn, she is our little reminiscer, she likes to say, "Mom remember when...."  Most of those stories has something to do with one of her grandparents!  

Just know we all love you and miss you and appreciate your support!

Since the day is almost over we hope you have a great year until the next "Official" grandparents day!

Love,

Bryn, Kyler

Leslie and Erick

A Lazy day at the beach

We have been doing so many things around the island since Erick got out of school for the semester break.  One day we decided to just have a very lazy and relaxing day at the beach.  It was so fun to have Erick go with us.  I usually take the kids every Saturday morning and sometimes more often that that.  But it is just me and the kids, so to have Erick go with us was very fun, and very relaxing for me!!

This is called PBH beach, it is right next to the school.

Bryn playing hop scotch on the beach!

A nice trip up the Indian River

We went on another one of the school funded trips on Monday up the Indian River.  It was so fun.  The kids have been wanting to do this since we first got here, and we have just never done it.  The river runs right though the main road going from Picard to Poutsmouth, down to the ocean.  They don't allow motor boats up the river, so they have a whole bunch of "guides" that row you up and back.  Our guide had been doing it for 15 years!  There were thousands of HUGE crabs all along the banks- he said that they are protected there, so they just hang out and can't get caught.  There were also lots of Iguanas, birds, and flowers.  There is also a spot where they filmed Pirates.  Once you get to the top there is a Rum Bar where you can order drinks.  Erick let Kyler order some water, he thought that was pretty funny to let Kyler order from his first bar at 2 years old!  

On our way home it started to rain, actually more of a down pour!  Everyone in all the boats were getting umbrellas, pretty funny to see all these boats coming down the river with about 6 umbrellas per boat!  Our guide told us that is was just Dominican snow!

Syndicate Falls

On Saturday August 30th, we went with a group from the school to Syndicate Falls.  Every semester they have a bunch of tours that are directed for the new students, but anyone is welcome to go on them.  We had not seen these falls yet and was very excited to sign up and go.

The whole trip was beautiful.  And the Waterfall was amazing.  

To get there we took a bus, and then hiked into the waterfall.  There were about 5 places where we had to cross the river that was made by the waterfall.  The water never got above our knees, but that meant it was pretty deep on the kids.  Of course they didn't mind.  We kept trying to get Kyler to hold one of our hands and he wasn't having any of that, so Erick started asking him to hold is hand so he (Erick) didn't fall.  Kyler was so proud of himself for helping his dad not fall!!!  This worked like a charm until we got to the last river crossing on the way back.  Erick stepped on a big rock while Kyler went around and Erick slipped!  Erick caught himself, but since he was holding Kyler's hand, Kyler face planted it into the river.  When he got up he said, "Dad, you just fell, but I caught you!  Don't worry dad, I caught your hand."  Still so proud.  Actually I think he liked that he got all wet and got to take his shirt off for the rest of the hike.

Bryn was the best little hiker.  She went through the river every time without help.  She also like to get wet.  Even if there was another way around the river, she chose to go through the river.

We had a great time.  

Enjoy the beautiful pics.

The first river Crossing...

The hike in...

A cool Tree, with crazy roots...

The Waterfall....

The hike out....

Kyler in the pool!

First of all I should preface this post with some information.  We have been moving this last weekend.  We moved out of one house into a smaller apartment further down the hill.  We still live on Banana Trail, however we live a lot closer to the school, and we now have some really great neighbors!:)

After we got everything moved out of our old house and into the new one, Erick took the kids to the pool to give me some time to unpack and settle in.  It was wonderful.  It gave me time to do what I wanted, the way I wanted it done.

When I finished doing what I was doing, I went down to the pool and found that Erick had been teaching Kyler a few new "tricks" in the pool.

Watch this little boy in action....