This post is for Mariah and Gram, this is what has happened to that bottle I searched all over town for, in two months! I wal looking at it the other day and thought about how much you two would laugh if you saw it now, so here it is!

7 days and counting.....

I just thought that all of you could use a reminder that exactly one week from today Aaron and I will be IN IOWA! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!! I'm so excited to see all of you that I can barely contain myself! Aaron takes his final exam tomorrow morning at 8:30. Then after that we will have a couple days of some much needed relaxation, then we will be homeward bound! (great movie by the way) I'm excited for seeing all of you, christmas decorations, SNOW, cold stone ice cream, going to a real store, and not getting eaten alive by bugs! I'm also pretty excited about straight roads that are wide enough for two cars! YAY!

Anyway in the meantime here are some videos I thought you'd enjoy!

This was a natural water slide at one of the Debique waterfalls I went to about 3 weeks ago.

Lily having dreams about chasing kitties!

This is at Victoria Falls, so beautiful!

This is in front of our apartment. There is very very little traffic so we run her around here.

SEE YOU SOON!

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end"

One of my favorite things about coming to Dominica has been all the wonderful new friends I have gained. We have shared so much and supported one another through it all, wether it be encouraging words to help you jump off a 50 foot cliff in to the atlantic ocean, or someone to listen to you in a time of need, we form a close and unusual bond here. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that we are all going through the same thing and so we become each others make-shift families. It was hard to leave my family back home, and I'm sure it was hard to watch me go. Now as the semester comes to an end I'm having to say goodbye to some of my Dominica "family".

Brittany and I at Pagua Bay -photo courtesy of Andrea ;)

Tomorrow Brittany, one of the girls I've come to know pretty well and think of as part of my "family" here, is leaving. I'm really happy for her that she gets to go home and see her family and continue on with her life, but I'm really sad that means I may never see her again. :( I wish her nothing but the best on her journey ahead. I will miss her a lot.

Braving Aba Wavine with the ladies. Heather leading the way!

Heather another member of my family is leaving on Friday. Her and her family are Miami bound. Again I'm so happy they are moving on and going back to the states, but she and her family will greatly be missed here. I will miss losing , miserably, Ticket to Ride to you! And I hope Alex's curiosity for dinosaures and paleontology continues to grow! (I want you to know its amazing a 3 year old can say that word and know what it is, cause I had to look up how to spell it!)

The Roy family at Crescent Moon

Then there is the Roy family. They leave Friday as well. They have always been a pleasure. I will always think of Jacquelle as Supermom! I hope one day I can be half the mom to one child as she is to 5, well actually 6 children. I love walking to the school and seeing them coming back from the beach and hearing about all the treasures they found there! Rocks and shells and sea glass galore! I will miss seeing all of your smiles!

But sure enough as all my new friends move on to their new adventures, a new crowd is moving in. That means more friends and family. And although None of these new mystery friends will replace any of the ones leaving, its comforting to know that there will be more smiles, and more laughter, and most likely more losing games. This is just the cycle of Dominica.

So to all my friends that are leaving here for good, I will miss you! In some way you have all left an imprint on me that will last forever and when I think back about Dominica in years to come, I will no doubt think of you as well. Lastly, good luck to you in all that comes your way.

And to all the friends I have yet to meet... Bring on the adventures!

Buns of fun!

Here's a look at our Sunday!

I made hamburger buns from scratch!

Preoven buns

Lily made a mess of the couch....again!

Then the power went out...Good thing we have head lamps!

you can't tell because of the camera flash, but it really is dark in here other than our headlamps and flashlight. Yup I'm bringing candles back with me!

Lily wondering what is going on!

good thing our stove is gas and it doesn't use electricity! Oops the buns look a little on the large side....we had a good laugh about the giant buns!

See it was really dark! Aren't we cute in our headlamps?!

We had to get Lily in on the action, she was looking at us like we were crazy with lights coming out of our heads, it was funny.

Aaron poked his finger in this one to see if it was done

Aaron and Lily getting some snuggle time in before dinner!

Just thought you would enjoy the pictures! Happy Sunday!

One mans trash is another mans...silverware tray?

One of the most important things I've learned while living in a third world country is how important it is to be resourceful. Its amazing to me how some things we take for granted back home as regular everyday items, are actually items of luxury here. For instance, a silverware tray. What a simple, yet phenomenal invention! Its something almost every person I know back home has, and doesn't really think about how helpful it is. This amazing thing organizes our drawer so that you don't get stabbed with a knife when you reach for something, so you can reach in and know exactly where your forks are, and keeps the drawer looking tidy. Finding those here is rare, and if you do you should expect to pay and arm and a leg and perhaps your first born. Another thing we often take for granted back home are canisters. Here when you buy flour or sugar or rice or anything of that sort it comes in a plastic baggie! A BAGGIE! Not even a baggie with a zip top, nope, the kind you have to put a knot in to hold it closed. Now here in the land of ants and beetles, that makes no sense at all! If leave it on your counter for longer than a minute and a half you can bet that you'll have your very own ant farm! (lucky you! And its not even your birthday!).

So I have taken it upon myself to come out with a new line of house hold products. My line is eco-friendly and very cost effective. You, yourself can start my line of household products at any time! I present to you Trashure!

Behold the silverware tray! (100% recycled cardboard of the cereal box variety)

Classy Pencil holder (milk jug cut in half.)

Stylish Q-tip and cotton ball bathroom set (cheese-wiz jar)

Beautiful hand crafted jewelry drawer (another cereal box)

Complete set of kitchen canisters (peanut butter jar, cheese-wiz jar, mayo jar, apple sauce jar, and protein powder container)

Chic counter top spoon canister (cut protein jug)

Practical doggie treat container (prego jar)

Laundry day set (cut off coke bottle and milk jug)

Modern spin on a cookie jar (top portion of a protein jug)

Is was funny when I was gong around taking pictures of all this stuff, I kept missing things because to us these things have become normal! Dominica definitely forces us to appreciate the small things in life. I hope that when I leave here I will remember all this kind of stuff, and be more grateful for the everyday "luxuries" we are so blessed with in the states.

We miss and love all of you and we're counting down the days till we come home!

One of the other spouses here named Heather, has a video of me cliff jumping on her blog. On November 12 a group of us crazies went with Victor, a wonderful tour guide here, to a place where he used to cliff jump as a boy. There was a 50 foot cliff and a 20 foot cliff. I did the 50 foot one! So here's how crazy I've become here in Dominica!

I still can't believe I did that! Thanks Heather for having that video! There is also another video I'm waiting on that shows how much talking it took to get me off the cliff! As soon as I get it I'll post it. OK, seriously I have to go get some stuff done! :)

Purple Turtle Beach

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that Aaron and Lenny had a day off and so we all went to the beach. I came across these videos that I forgot we had taken and I thought you might enjoy seeing them!

LOOKS FUN HUH! It would have been more fun if the water was a bit deeper!

Lily is doing great! We've had two days accident free so that is wonderful! This weekend in Roseau I got her a harness because she isn't used to walking outside with a leash and so she will just sit or pull back, its made it a little easier to kinda tug her and coax her in to walking. I'm also not so scared her collar is going to slip off and she'll get loose. She barked for the first time yesterday, but got told no and her nose flicked, so hopefully she learned from that. Anyway I better stop procrastinating I have a lot of cleaning to do so we can come home!!! I think we're down to like 29 or 30 days till we get home! I'm excited to see everyone, and to show off my tan of course! I know you're jealous Tonya :) I love you all and I'll write again soon!

My New Baby Girl!

Aaron and I made the decision to adopt a 5month old puppy!

Meet Lily Robertson!!

She was found by an organization at Ross called PAWS. They help give animals in need food and find them good homes. About a week ago Andrea sent me an email with two puppies that needed homes. When I saw Lily's picture I was in love. I showed Aaron and he liked her too, so we talked about it and decided that we would meet her and see if she was a good fit for us and make sure Aaron wouldn't be allergic to her. The family who was feeding her was severely allergic so unfortunately they couldn't keep her in the house. So she just came around every few days for food. Which absolutely broke my heart not knowing when she would show up again. On Wednesday I went searching for her.

<3

I looked in the area she was said to be for an hour then took a break, then went back and looked again for an hour and a half. Heartbroken and empty handed I returned home. That night Andrea was throwing a surprise birthday party for a friend of ours. Andrea, Lenny, Aaron, and I all got in our taxi and when we were about half way to Heavens Best, the restaurant I got a phone call from the president of PAWS saying that Lily had just shown up and they would hold her for us till we could come get her! I was so happy and so relieved knowing that she was safe. Aaron and I enjoyed a 2lb lobster for dinner! I have to say it was probably the best meal I've ever had in my life!

YUMMMMMMMMMMM!

Aaron and I with our yummy Lobster!

The birthday girl was very surprised and the night was a real success thanks to Andrea. The food was wonderful and everyone had a great time. After the party Aaron and I went to pick up Lily so she could stay the night and see what she was like.

Sleeping on her blanket!

We were hooked as soon as we met her. She has settled in very quickly, and is very comfortable around us and has learned so much this week. She can sit, stay, come, and knows what "lets go home" means. She also doesn't bark, has learned not to jump up on people, and has become comfortable wearing a leash.

She's such a sweetheart!

I am so proud of her and so happy that she is such a good puppy. We have only had 5 accidents in the house in the last 4 days which I think is really great for a new puppy just learning to go outside. She is amazing! I can't wait for you all to get to meet her!

She loves her sock toy!

I promise to post more about what I've been up to soon! I've jumped off a 50 foot cliff, hiked through the jungle to a waterfall following a man with a machete cutting us a path, slid down a natural water slide, and almost completed my open dive certification. Just to name a few! So more details and Pictures of course to follow! Hope all is well at home! I miss you all!

Beautiful Dominican Sunset...

Yesterday I went to the beach while Aaron went to his Pharmacology review. I got some really great sunset pictures

This part of the beach was primarily rock, but it was beautiful none the less

I'm not sure what my obsession with sand footprints are, but I have acquired a lot of pictures of them!

I also seem to like feet pictures

My creative work ;)

Cool pelican picture

I was so busy looking around at what to shoot next that I almost missed this little guy right next to me!

This is what I look like-incase any of you are forgetting! ;)

A bigger crab

So Beautiful

Sailing out to sea

I love that you can tell the water is rushing over the rocks in this one.

My poor broken sunglasses :( Somehow they cracked on the bottom part that holds the lens in, luckily I have another pair here!

Gram this picture is for you, I know you would want the big round rock for your garden

This little guy was on my backpack but ran off before I could get a picture of him on it. That was my Saturday, Enjoy the pictures! More to come:) Love and miss you all!