Wild & Wonderful World of Whitesides: November 2015

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Life

Life continues on here in Grenada. After my emotional breakdown in October Josh finally convinced me to hire a cleaning lady to help me around the house. I am naturally too cheap to pay someone to do something I am fully capable of doing. However, life here is different and having to wash dishes by hand every day, after every meal, for five people (plus pots and pans) adds up fast! It's not hard by any means but very time consuming. Then add hanging all your laundry and man... American's are SPOILED! ***Side note: I am normally kind of a news junky but after being here I can't keep up on all the American news. It mostly sounds like a lot of whining to me. I feel like it should be mandatory for every American to live in another country, that is NOT a first world country, for at least six months. People would sure stop complaining about little stupid things and focus more on the bigger aspects that need improvement. Ok, venting done.*** So this is the maid that Josh found. She is from Cuba and her name is Dagma. She comes once or twice a week and it's the BEST DECISION EVER! I told Josh that now the level of expectation has been met. There's NO going back now. I think I might need to sneak her in my luggage when we leave. It's SO wonderful to come home to a clean home! (Especially when you didn't have to clean it!) The girls love it when she comes and she loves to play with them. Although she is very loud by nature and I think they like her but are intimidated by her as well. My favorite is how Ruby says her name. She calls her "Ma-guh"... close sweetheart, close. Another story about Dagma... One day Hazyl told her she was really a boy because she has hair on her face! Needless to say Dagma's patch of facial hair, that is normally on her chin, was gone the next week when she came! (Ahh... kids...oops!)

The other day Ruby fell asleep on her bed while "reading" her favorite book: Dr. Seuss' ABC's. It was the cutest thing and she is SO my daughter. She will just sit and look at books for a half an hour at a time and I love it!

This is the captivated attention that they give Daddy when he is home. When Josh is nearing his mid-terms or finals his study hours increase from about 10-12 hours per day, up to 12-15 hours per day. So even though I usually see him when he gets home and climbs into bed, sometimes it can be a few days since the last time the kids have seen him. Needless to say they cherish Daddy time...we all do!

What do we do when it's raining outside and all the ground is wet?! We "bowl" inside with plastic cups and rolls of duct tape as "balls." (I need to invest in some tennis balls or something! Hmm... I wonder if they are sold on the island and if I have to pay an arm and a leg for them...) :) The kids loved it and it entertained them for a good 45 mins while I did what you say? Oh yeah... dishes.

When Grandpa Jay and Grandma Peggy came to visit they brought much needed family pictures, quotes and pictures of the Savior. I finally was able to "hang" them on the wall. The walls here are all made of concrete so actually hanging anything in a frame is out of the question. I have been on the lookout for some sticky tack to hang them, but gave up and just used packing tape. NOW it's starting to feel like home! We can now say our family is here with us in Grenada, and even though it's only through pictures, it still feels great!

This little diva cracks me up! She obviously was enjoying some of the candy brought to us by Grandma and Grandpa!

It was just too hot to wear this skirt as a skirt...so it's now a very immodest dress to be worn around the house.

Oh these two girls of mine. They are only 18 months apart and I feared that they would NEVER get along. But with Cannon in school most days they have learned to actually PLAY together!! Hallelujah!! Now they still have their fr-enemy moments, or cat-fight moments, but they are getting fewer and farther between! I also love how in almost every picture I try and get of these two 9 times out of 10, Ruby is looking at Hazyl. She ADORES her older sister and wants to be just like her already! Their relationship is still a work in progress and some days I just feel like a referee, but improvement is key!

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Beach Friday's!

Beach Friday's are one of our FAVORITE parts of each week! Miss Deb, a teach at Grace Lutheran, hosts it and it's so fun to go to the Grand Anse beach and play. There are usually quite a few kids from Cannon's school there and he LOVES to be able to play with his friends. Hazyl and Ruby mostly love to play in the sand. Ruby used to love the water until a wave flipped her over one time...it was a LITTLE wave, but it scared her enough that she is now super clingy to me. I just had to document some of the photos I've taken at them the past few weeks.

Oct. 23, 2015

This is one of my favorite pictures! It's a live sea urchin. Cannon loved how it was still moving and would "stick" to his fingers when he held it under water. We looked at it and then put it back into the ocean. **Side note, the locals call these "sea eggs" and eat them. They crack them open and along the inside of the shell is what looks caviar. They eat it raw or they saute it with garlic and eat it as a dip.

Despite Hazyl's expression here, she really does love the beach. She always gets SO much sand on her. I have just accepted there will ALWAYS be sand. Once you accept that fact.. it doesn't matter that it gets literally everywhere. We really do love it, and it's the SOFTEST sand ever! I don't think I'll ever get sick of the beach!

One time Miss Deb changed the location of Beach Friday to BBC Beach. Cannon spent the WHOLE time on the inflatable toys. P.S. There is NO FILTER on this picture. Just another amazing sunset we get to see daily.

Nov 27, 2015

The girls eating their snacks on the beach. I took a picture of Cannon too, but when I got home I realized he looks drugged in it, so I left that one out. (Oops! Should have checked it before we left the beach!)

Friday, November 27, 2015

Grace Playground

One of the kids favorite things to do is play on the playground at Cannon's school, Grace Lutheran. It's basically, by far, the best playground on the island. Every once in a while when we are picking up Cannon we will stay a little later and I'll let the kids play after we get a "snow n ice." (It's basically a homemade otter pop in a baggie. The kids bite off a corner of the bag and eat it through the hole. It's a highlight to any hot day...which means ANY day! haha)

In the pictures you can see Cannon trying to climb the pole of the swing set just like his friend Jayhem. When I asked Jayhem how he learned to climb so well is reply was, "I watch the monkey's climb the trees!" Only in Grenada... haha!

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving from here in Grenada!! I think it was a good thing that I hit my low point right before November started. I needed reminding of what to be grateful for, and there are so many things. Life might not always be paradise, even if you live in paradise, but there are usually positive things to focus on. I am so grateful for these three children that I have the opportunity to raise. We sure missed being with family today and sharing in those traditions. It was great being able to FaceTime and spend time with Framily. (Friends that are like family.) We had a potluck style dinner with friends and Josh was even able to come!! Since it's not a local holiday he still had school today and wasn't planning on joining us for Thanksgiving dinner. About an hour before the dinner he surprised us by asking us to come and pick him up from campus! BEST. SURPRISE. EVER. The food was great and it was even in an air conditioned room, which was amazing!!!

I may not have gotten pictures of the dinner, but this is one of the kids before we got into the car. Definitely the warmest Thanksgiving I've ever experienced.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Optimism

op·ti·mism:
noun: hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.

Let's talk about optimism. After my Three Month Anniversary post I probably didn't come off very optimistic, but I really am naturally more optimistic than not. After discussing the subject of optimism with some mommy friends of mine, I really have been contemplating if I'm as optimistic as I think I am. I feel like there are people that just exude positivity, do I follow under that category?

For me, motherhood has been one of the biggest blessing of my life! I adore my three kids, and even wouldn't turn down the idea of adding to our family. In the same sense motherhood has synonymously been the hardest thing I have ever done! From the moment of growing that baby inside, to the tantrums and messes that come with toddlers and young children. Each of my children has pushed me to my limits in different ways, forcing me to grow in many areas of my life and teaching me beyond what any professor or academic leader ever could. One of my friends once put it perfectly. She said, "Motherhood has taught me that I CAN DO HARD THINGS." I feel like this is so true with the situation I find myself in on a daily basis. Yes, motherhood, as well as, living in a foreign county is legitimately hard. It's okay to acknowledge that fact (and maybe even dwell on it and feel sorry for yourself a bit), but that doesn't take away my optimism. At the end of the day I "put on my big girl panties" and make it through the next day. I do this because I have learned that, usually, my biggest blessings have come through my biggest struggles. So to answer my own question and thoughts, I'd say YES! I am an optimistic person! I was having a hard time around that three month mark, and that's okay. Like I said, I knew it would pass and life has continued on our little island. I can once again look at Grenada and marvel at the astounding beauty that is around me each and everyday and focus on it's positive attributes. It doesn't change that--quite lenghtly-- list of things that I struggle with, but it puts things back into the right perspective.

So I continue on in our adventurous life here and can remember that Crisis + Time = Humor. So that UN-desired bucket list event of the CENTIPEDE crawling over my toes yesterday, will SOMEDAY be funny. Or that I hit a truck coming out of the church parking lot and shattered a headlight that now has to be imported because the piece isn't on the island. But for now it's still a little too soon. ;)

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Monsoon Rain!

So it's definitely the rainy season! There are only two season's in Grenada. The dry season (from about January- June), and the wet season (from about June-December). We arrived in the hottest time of the year, according to everyone else. So as it's been raining more this past week I have been in HEAVEN!! It has rained so much that TWICE Cannon has missed school! These are pictures of the road to his school. It's kind of hard to tell, but normally there is a road where that river is. The driveway to his school is immediately after the green house on the right hand side.

These are views from the other direction. Coming OUT of the school.

That grey cement building with the red windows is a Rum Distillery. When driving down the road from it you can smell it in the air. Hazyl, for the longest time, would say "Ew! What's that smell?" I told her it was Rum and that it's a bad drink that makes good people make wrong choices... :D So a few weeks later she told me that "the boy at the playground who called her stupid drank rum, because that was a BAD choice that he made." I was laughing SO hard! I corrected her and clarified that the little boy did NOT drink rum.

So what do you do when you're stuck home and you've done your school work already?! You watch Christmas movies, of course! Even though the weather is still super warm here, we are trying to get in the mood of the season as best as possible!