Happy Halloween

Tonight we had a Halloween Festival at the AUC basketball courts. There were games for kids of all ages and then "Trunk or Treat." Tyson loved dressing up like a pirate. He was absolutely the best pirate ever. Get ready for a tons of photos. Isn't he the best looking pirate around? Check out the homemade boots.

Tyson the Pirate and Peyton the Shark. Cute boys.

This is Laura being Martha Stewart. She came up with the Tootsie roll spiders.

Tyson was all ready to go trick-or-treating. He even said, "Yo ho ho." Just like a pirate.

Holden was dressed up like a Parrot. She was Tyson's pirate parrot. So cute!Me and the two little boys. It was such a great time!Tyson with the "babes" as he calls them, Kelly and Megan. Cute pictures gals!Laura and Tyson. Cute picture.Vaughn was secretly entered in the chocolate pudding pie eating contest. He didn't want to get all covered in pie, but Hillary made sure to put his face in the pie. In turn she got Vaughn's pie thrown all over her. Sorry Hillary. It really made for a good time.

The Weater Is HOT Once Again.

I am making this post for my friend Wendy who is coming down in one week. YAHOO! She looked at the previous post and thought the weather is still crappy here. No! It is once again beautiful and HOT. Come on down Kabonics!!!

Batton Down the Hatches Mates, She's Gonna Be A Big Storm

This is what it looks like on the island right now, but it is night time.

And I thought when my apartment flooded two weeks ago that was bad, this is NUTS! It has been raining in St. Maarten for 3 days straight. It will let up in the mornings for a few hours and then the little drizzle comes. But by mid-day, it is a full on Monsoon. Right now, it is 8:30 at night and I sounds like the heavens have opened up the flood gates. The water is coming down in sheets with a strong wind. I wonder if this is what it is like to be a hurricane. I don't know, having never been in one and NOT wanting to either. Both my front door and my bedroom balcony doors are leaking through and all my towels are soaked. It isn't going to be pretty tonight. "Hang on Captain Sparrow we are going for a little ride."

We Were Soaking WET!

Tyson and I got soaking wet at a birthday party yesterday. It has been raining off and on for the last 2 days, and yesterday was no exception. While we were beginning to eat cake, the heavens opened up and down came a little sprinkle, so we started to clean up. All of the sudden, buckets and buckets came tumbling down. We all huddled underneath the play ground equipment but didn't stay dry for long. Then it was a sprint to the cars and by then we were soaked. Just look at Tyson's shirt. He and I laughed and laughed. What else could we do. We weren't going to be dry, might as well enjoy it. He loved jumping in the puddles outside our door. It was a very wet day.

Slinky, Slinky A Wonderful Toy, for a BOY

Papa Westwood sent Tyson a jumbo multicolored slinky in the mail a few weeks ago. He loves to play with it. Well.....today he learned that he can contort it around his little body. He was so proud of himself that he came running in to show me. I laughed and grabbed the camera before he had a chance to unravel himself. Life is never dull around here.

A Night Out

I tried Sushi for the first time last Friday night. I have been out with Vaughn many times where he would order it, but I have always been a little squeamish to give it a try.That night at Halsey's the gals told me I didn't have a choice, I had to try at least one. So I ordered the best sushi for starters, or so that is what I was told to order, I had no clue. I was hesitant at first and it took a minute to get that thing inside my mouth, but once I did and chewed, YUMMY! It was pretty good. Mind you, it took me a minute to decide that, just because I had to finish chewing it and swallow and make sure it stayed down. I would definitely try it again. It was a good experience. It was nice to have time to sit with the gals and talk without chasing Tyson around. Granted I love him so much, but having a night off was much needed. We tried taking pictures of us and the poor waitress had to take like 5 to get one good one. But after seeing them, I thought we all looked like America's Next Top Models of St. Maarten. LOL. No really, we looked good. It was nice to spend time with Jessi, since she is leaving soon, and nice to spend time with everyone else, since Laura and I are leaving in 46 days.

As you can see the wind was a blowing that night.

Quick ONE

Just a quick cap on what is going on in the lives of the Jackson's. We have 51 days left and we have our flights booked, our check out date and time for our apartment and a hotel room to stay in the night before we leave. Now all we have to do is finish up this semester, clean, pack and get on the airplane. I am hating the fact that the trees are changing into the beautiful fall colors back home and I am missing it for another year in a row. Hopefully by this time next year we are in clinicals somewhere with beautiful color changing trees. I am also jealous that those of you back home are experiencing COLD weather. What I wouldn't give to not sweat anymore. However, I will miss my comfort of wearing flip flops 24/7 all year round. That has been fun. Tyson is getting excited to go home and ride 4 wheelers and tractors, so grandpas you had better be prepared. I think he will be in heaven when we get home to the snow and the yard space. Vaughn is studying hard, trying to get ready to take the step one test when we return home. We get to see him for a few hours at night, but we can't complain. At least we get to see him. Other than that, all is well here on St. Maarten.

French, Dutch or just bad English

Just across the street from Palm Court are a series of abandon condos that were destroyed in the hurricane years ago. Since then, the islanders have been using their grounds as a dumping spot for garbage. It can stink to high heaven some days, when the weather is hot and humid. But lately there have been a few guys cleaning up around the lots. I don't know if they are just looking for work or the owners just want the grounds nice, or if they are going to redo the places, but in any case they have posted signs that look like the above on. Now, I don't know if the islanders just cannot spell in English or if it is a form of French and Dutch mixed, or what? But I thought it made for an interesting picture.

In other news, we were able to spend a day at Mullet Beach with Vaughn last week. He and I buried Tyson in the sand all the way up to his neck. We didn't think he would like it, but the second he broke out of the sand he said, "Again, again." I think we must have buried him several more times after that, until he decided he was finished with that game.

There was also a pirate looking ship docked in the bay. Tyson wanted to board it and go look for treasure. He has been watching "Dora and the Pirate Adventure", a little too much. He wasn't too happy that Vaughn and I wouldn't swim with him out to the boat.

We are down to 53 days left. I never thought we would see the end of this little adventure, but it is coming fast and you know what, it has gone by faster than I thought it would. Sure am ready to go home!

CRASH, BANG, BOOM, Flood?

That is about how it happened. I was minding my own business, just put Tyson down for a nap, and was beginning to wash my dishes, when I heard metal pipes fall from above my head. Oh, let me back up a second. In Palm Court, we have three levels, well the people who own the apartment building have NOW decided to add a forth level. Why? I have no idea! Anyway, the workers begin about 7am and stop around 5pm, and the banging and clanking is non stop.
Ok with that said, on to my story.
So there I was, minding my own business, and CRASH, BANG, (you get the idea), I jumped and then heard what sounded like the opening of a fire hydrant. Pretty close, it was my main water line, and it was broken and there was water gushing into the apartment from the bathroom and kitchen sinks. OH CRAP!!!
I bolt out of the apartment running and realized I have no shoes on, so I run back to the apartment and slip on the water. I know I was hurt but my adrenaline had kicked in and I felt nothing. I found my shoes and again bolted out the door and up the make shift stairs to get someone to stop the water. I began to scream and tell the workers just what I thought about them, and finally one of them SLOWLY came down to look at my apartment. When he could see that I had an inch of water on the floor he quickly told me it wasn't them. I really didn't care at that point in time for apologies, I wanted the water OFF! So I yelled again and jump started him into action and he shut off my water. When he came back to the apartment, I was physically shaking because of my frustration and because I was standing in and inch or more of water. HOW DO I CLEAN THIS UP? I must have looked like a crazy woman.

To make this novel short, I called up the apartment management and demanded to have help NOW! The plumber came and assessed the problem and sure enough, the workers from up above had dropped a metal beam down a shaft and broke my water line. GREAT! He said he could fix it, but that he had to run into Phillipsburg for parts, and that I should start sweeping up the water. I was glad for the instruction, because I had no idea how to get the water out. This is what my balcony looked like:
And the outside walk way held all of my living room furniture. The management also sent me over a pair of maids to help me with the cleaning. They must have had to do this before, because they had it cleaned up in a hour. I was so grateful for their help. We had to get everything off of the floor and move everything around, but after that we all swept the water out the front door, no small task and then mopped up the rest. During all of this time my friends Laura and Kelly helped in finding Vaughn to let him know what had happened and I was blessed that Tyson slept through most of it. (Thanks gals!!)
The plumber finally fixed the water problem late last night and we could finally eat and then sleep. However, the toilet, now, takes about an hour to fill up so that it can be flushed, but hey, at least it will flush and I have water to it. It could be worse. I got up this morning to finish cleaning up from the plumber's work and from the water damage. The apartment is clean, and looks ok, I just have a lingering moldy smell coming from my rug, I think it is going to get tossed SOON.
Ah, the stories of St. Maarten, they are soon about to end. 58 more days, and counting...........

A Gray Day

This is how the island has looked since this afternoon. It has been an on and off cycle of rain. So we have been in the house today, which was ok, I really needed to give Tyson a hair cut. And boy did he get a hair cut; a slightly short one. I got a little scissor happy. Thank goodness they say the difference between a bad hair cut and a good one, is a week. I will post a picture of his hair cut next week. (When it isn't so short) What can I say, I am no professional. I just don't want to pay 20 dollars to cut my small son's hair. We have 65 days left here on the island, not that I am keeping track or anything, and it is going by fast. Enjoy the photo!

Bunko!!!!!

You know how there is the "Biggest Looser" on TV for those who want to loose weight, I think they need to have a Biggest Bunko Looser, because I would win that one hands down, seeing as how I cannot win Bunko!!! Laura and I lost 5 straight games in a row and to make it funnier, she had to have me as a partner the whole time. Sorry Laura!! We are laughing so hard in the above picture that we both had tears coming down our cheeks. This was during our loosing streak. And then just when we were on a roll, BANG, we started to win. What a deal!

Kelly was ready for her close up! Looking good Kelly! She had a lot of fun playing Bunko and gets into the game "intensely" I won't mention her funny story, for she might get me later, but let's just say it involved a mini Bunko and a chair flying backwards. HA HA HA!!!

Ashley, Steph, Wendy and Megan all had their game faces on and were ready to play!The only one who actually knew I took this picture was Hillary, if you notice she is making a face at me. I am not sure Jill nor Laura had a clue. Nice faces gals. Thanks for making this night a great one!

The Loud Scary Bird

So I am computer challenged at the moment, and I cannot get this to upload. Click on the link Below to see how Tyson reacted to the scary bird.
http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x154/vnjackson/?action=view&current=20070920234500.flv