An Under the Sea Engagment

Wow! So I have really fallen behind on our blog! The short and sweet of the past couple of weeks is that Justin and Kara came to visit us! Justin is Andrew's best friend from college and Kara is Justin's girlfriend, oh excuse me...Fiance`!

To play catch up a little bit...Andrew had his second round of exams and was a rockstar! He did so well on all of his exams. I had my first graduate school exam and did very well too.  Go us! I had to take it in the music room at the prep school.  Let's just say the first graders were not the only ones who got a music lesson that day. 

Back to Justin and Kara.  Andrew still had to go to classes but we all managed to enjoy each others time.  We ate great food while they were here and had a blast.  I played tour guide barbie and took them around to all of our local haunts during the day.  We hung out at Shipwreck on Thursday and the Marrriott on Friday.  The highlight of our weekend was going scuba diving on Saturday.  So Justin and I had been scheming for weeks for his big surprise under the sea proposal to Kara.  Justin and I had been coordinating with the dive shop ( Dive St. Kitts) and they told us that they could make it happen.  Everytime Kara left the room or took a shower Andrew, Justin, and I would have a quick meeting about the details of the proposal! We were very sneaky!  Andrew and Justin even were able to sneak out two afternoons and go to the dive shops to make arrangements.  Justin had Captin Crabby, our boat captin, make an sign that read "Will you marry me?" to give to Kara under water. Justin, Kara, and Andrew aren't dive certified but we were still able to do a discover dive experience.  That consisted of a very informative pool session where we learned basic dive skills and then the true dive in the great big ocean! So at the end of our dive we all huddled around our dive instructor, Tony, to watch him feed the fish.  This in when Tucker, our other dive instructor, passed Justin the sign.  Without asking of course, Justin held the sign for Kara.  We even heard her squeel under water! She was so excited you could tell! Her mask started to fill with tears and she almost spit her regulater out of her mouth; Tony had to quickly put his hand over it so she didn't. Justin gave her the ring and boy did it shine even at the bottom of the Carribean Sea! I know Kara couldn't wait to get back up to the surface to kiss her fiance`! What's really funny was when Kara was trying to hug Justin under water and their masks kept bumping..it was sweet but really funny too.  Kinda hard to hug with all of your gear on... Aside from the amazing proposal we saw lots of pretty fish and went about 40 feet down. Our dive was near a wreck so no reef but still awesome. 
Once back up and on the boat we celebrated the new engagement.  How excited they were! The crew at Dive St. Kitts really made it happen and were great to work with!
We enjoyed the rest of the weekend with Justin and Kara by touring the island and celebrating their engagment.  Congradulations you two! We couldn't be happier for you!

Things that make me Happy

These are a few of my most favorite things here in St. Kitts:

*Receiving Packages - and making small talk with the Customs Clerks
*Andrew - of course
*Twizzlers..but y'all knew that. Oh and Peanut M&M's
*Beach Days
*Being apart of the Ladies of Leisure Club
*Date nights with Andrew (love)
*Scooting around on a Scooter with Kate
*Girls nights, especially dancing at Club One
*Doughnuts from Rituals - they are twice the size of doughnuts at home(not as good at KK though)
*Getting pictures of my dog, horse, and donkey from back home, esp. if Duke is wearing his Cpt. Hat
*Monkeys
*Free Rum Punch
*My Mom writing notes to the Customs Clerks in our packages..."Hello from the US Mr. Customs"
*Volleyball on Tuesdays at the Strip
*Grilling out on Saturday nights with friends
*Hiking on Mondays
*Make new friends and meeting other VIP's
*Farmers Market on Wednesdays on Campus
*Taking the bus...it's not really that bad
*Seeing the Caribbean Ocean everyday, the best!
*Facebook - if I wasn't addicted before, I am now
*Cooking - I don't love it but it makes Andrew happy so that makes me happy : )
*Skyping with my parents - my Dad still thinks it's the neatest thing!
*Trying to Skype with Duke
*Emails from family and friends

When I said a few I guess I meant a lot....

Scoot Scoot!

My week started off with the usual Monday Morning Hike.  We hiked the Sugar Hill Ruins and it was a great easy hike.  So the hike took us to one of the old Sugar Mills.  The mill is no longer in running order and hasn't been for some time.  The are supposedly turning one part of the mill into a hotel, pretty neat! Oh and I decorated Nikki's room for her birthday! She was sooo surprised! I told her I need to barrow her clothes line (she has a clothes line hanging in her room, pretty crafty) to hang a few pieces of clothing that I didn't want to put in the dryer.  So I borrowed her key and while she was taking her exam I hung streamers and balloons all in her room.  Andrew and I even bought her a broom for her birthday! I know, lame birthday gift, but hey the girl said she needed a broom. She was very shocked when you got back from her test! It's bad enough you have to take an exam on your birthday but your first vet school exam is even worse! I hope I brought some sunshine to her day!
Andrew's week didn't start out as relaxed as mine though.  Andrew had his first round of vet school exams on Monday.  He had 4 exams and did awesome on all of them! So very proud! He feels good about them as well.  It was a great way to start off the semester - full of confidence I hope. 
Last night Andrew told me that we had practice scheduled for today(Thursday) for our flag football team.  I asked him what time practice was. After a very long pause he started laughing and asked me why does it matter what time practice was, like I'd actually be doing something.  I guess he just assumes that being a lady of leisure now that my schedule is always open.  This is in fact not true.  Today I was somewhat busy...I woke up and went promptly to the post office and was there a just after 8 am.  Then I came home and ate breakfast and did some school work.  I had a meeting at 11 am to discuss a potential job (yay! will fill you in later).  After my meeting I had to go to the beach, I just had go! So see my days are often full and rarely empty...
Oh and yes the job. I have a job interview tomorrow for a position that I am very excited about.  Fingers crossed it goes well! I just hope and pray it is the right fit both me and the university.  What's funny about the job interview is when I told Andrew about it he said something like: "Oh that's great! And it only took you 1 month to get an interview.  Didn't it take you like 8 months to get a job when you graduated college?" Thanks Andrew! I graduated during a recession! was my response.  So whatever regardless of the outcome I'm still very happy to have the chance to interview for the position.  Again fingers crossed!
Today Kate and I had our usually beach day Thursday. The best part of the it was that we scooted there! Yes we scooted all the way to Shipwreck on the back of a cute little blue scooter! We did great! Slightly windy at times but we did awesome.  We talked about getting matching scooters and having T-Shirts and having our own scooter possy.  Kate was an awesome driver! I did a pretty good job riding back seat too.  Be proud of us! The roads get a little iffy and the scooter can get a squirrelly at times.  We scooted alllll the way from campus around the by-pass, through Frigate Bay, and up then down the mountain to Shipwreck.  And sometimes just for fun Kate would honk the horn.  Scoot Scoot!!
Oh and Kate and I decided that we are both really very good at people watching and should be paid, we are that good!
There will be more adventures next week as we scoot around St. Kitts.
Scoot Scoot!