The family visits St Kitts!

One year ago, we stood in the driveway at my parents house, saying our good-byes, crying, hoping the days flew by and that St. Kitts treated us well, we spent a few days in NYC and then said good-bye to our siblings....Today, we stood in the St. Kitts airport crying as we once again said those dreadful good-byes...The past 10 days with my family here have been THE BEST 10 days I have had on the island of St Kitts, and I was EXTREMELY sad that they had to end....

Although flying down here Lyndi, Bit and Travis were faced with the usual flight drama, it was great to get the first night to spend with just me and my parents!  Brayton was studying for his last final, so I was able to take Mom and Dad to the French Restaurant (my fav!) and enjoy a MUCH needed night with them!  Luckily, the other 3 arrived the next day with no problems, and vacation truly began!

Thursday was my last day of work, so once I got home I took Mom and Lyndi on their first St Kitts grocery shopping adventure... By the time we visited 3 grocery stores, waited for the store clerks to tell us they wouldn't sell us something for the price they had posted, and FINALLY made it home, they quickly realized one of the reason we dread grocery shopping...and also one of the MANY hardships of St Kitts living!  Later that night, we all ventured down to SpratNet for dinner and had a great time being together again!  We ate tons of food and it felt sooooo good to have my family around me and let them experience some of the GOOD things about the island!

Friday was our Port Day..We wandered around, and quickly decided it was far too hot!  We also made a trip up to Carabelle Botique and got a little island site-seeing (oh and should I mention we did it with 7 people in my island rav-4...yup, 2 in the trunk!!).  We found great relaxation vegging around my parents pool at the villa they rented and although it was only down the hill from my house, it felt like a vacation for us too!  Nevi thought she was in heaven with the attention and spoiling she was getting!

Saturday we headed to ShipWreck and went snorkeling.  Lyndi tried, but didn't make it past 5 feet and Dad didn't even try, but the rest of us were able to get out and see a few sea turtles and some great ocean life!  So fun!  Since they had rented the villa, we cooked at home, had drinks and lounged in the pool most nights...It was true island living!

Sunday was a relaxing day at home, with a trip to the Marriott for lunch and some beach time and another awesome evening of relaxing and just being together!

Monday though, we took them out on a Catamaran trip and we had a GREAT time!  I was so glad my family was able to see the island, experience the great things about it - like Catamaraning, and get to spend a fun-filled relaxing day together!

Unfortunately, a tropical storm decided to head our way and made our next few days be home, pool, inside, relaxing days!  Although it was sad to not get and do more fun things, it was also really nice to just relax, especially for my parents who rarely get to JUST RELAX!  And as we all know, Dad cannot just relax and had to try to repaire the many problems in the islandmobile..and because he is my Dad and is amazing - he was able to  fix most of them!  Thank goodness for a handy-man Dad!!  

Despite the nasty weather on Thursday, we decided to venture out and make a trip around the island.  We went down to the Peninsula, and saw the sites down there and also made it all around the outside of the rest of the island!  The family was able to see it all!  

Well, that leads us to Friday, the worst of the days...I reallllly hate saying goodbye, especially to my family, and even more to my parents.  Having them here made me realize how much I NEED my family in my life, def my sisters, but even more my Mom and Dad.  I often go without telling them enough, but they are my everything and I cannot imagine my life without them!  They do SOO much for us, especially me and being away has helped me to appreciate them so much more! 

This has been the best 10 days in St. Kitts I have yet had and I am SO glad my family was able to see our lives here - good and bad - and have a much better understanding of the hardships and fun that we have!  I hope they can come back again before we leave - but we do only have 16 more months here!  WOOOO!!  

6 more days till I am back to school and 10 until Brayton starts 4th semester!  Time is flying and though I have enjoyed my time here, learned many things and appreciate so much in life - I am ready for America, and HOME!

Love these guys! <3

3rd Semester

Wow...We have been on St. Kitts for almost ONE YEAR already!  That does not seem possible!  The past semester has not been overly exciting...At the Prep School, we have been in Summer Camp so it has been slower paced for me but I have been working on the accreditation process our school is currently undergoing and it is a LOT of work!  Now that the new school year is quickly approaching, I have found myself getting really stressed out about planning and prepping for the new year!  I am excited and have started a teaching blog to keep track of all the things I am doing!

Brayton is off studying for all hours of the day and I haven't seen much of him - the joys of begin a vet school wife!  =)


My parents will be here in 3 days and I am really excited to show them the island and let them get an idea of what life is like here - good and bad!

Our break is going to fly by and the new school year will start soon - which just means, the rest of the year will go fast, and our time here will soon be totally over!

Yes- Island life is NOT easy..its a paradise out the window...thats about it!  I am REALLY missing 'normal life'!

One year?!

I can hardly believe that yesterday was our ONE YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!  It really does not seem possible that we have been married 1 year, have been in St Kitts almost 11 months, and are less than 2 years away from being done here!  Time really does fly!

Since our anniversary fell on the weekend before a big exam, we did not really do anything exciting...I made steaks and homemade mac and cheese for Brayton, Andrew and I (Emily is back in NC for the weekend - and we missed her!) Friday night...and watched a movie and fell asleep on the couch while Brayton studied and today I did some work for school while Brayton studied, watched a movie, and ATTEMPTED to make beef stroganoff, but it was realllly bad =/..

I did try to create for some anniversary celebrations and scheduled us a photo shoot for next weekend with a friend down here to take photos, Kate Walsh, and I also got Brayton a photo book that recaps memories from our past 5 years together! I think these gifts are probably more 'for me than him' but its the thought that counts, right?

Next week we have a busy week with our pets - Monday, Koala has a pre-op for her Spay, Tuesday, Nevi has to have a procedure done on her tooth because it is growing in and not out, so its going into her gum instead of on the outside of her tooth, so she is getting something put in to help move the tooth into the correct place....Thursday is Koala's Spay and Friday is Nevi's Spay!  I took a personal day Friday, but I am not sure it will be very personal (they never seem to be down here!).  Brayton and I are hoping to do an anniversary dinner Friday, and Saturday is our pictures...Things never slow down!

At home this weekend, it was French Fest - two years in a row of missing it...In some ways that makes me sad...in others not at all.  That seems to be my general feelings about home lately.. I cannot seem to find a happy-medium...Some days/moments, I am so homesick and just want to go home, and other days/moments, I love it here and am thankful for having this opportunity..Its really hard! I think the things that make me miss home the most are all the new babies, all the kids growing up, and the fun events our friends are all having...Missing things sucks!


Today marks the ONE MORE MONTH TILL MY FAMILY GETS HERE!  I wish ALL my family was coming..but I am still grateful for my parents, sisters and Travis to get to visit..Maybe some others will come someday before I leave...

Summer in the Caribbean

One thing I have learned about living in St. Kitts during the 'summer season' is what being REALLLY hot and sweaty and uncomfortable feels like.  Northern New York gets hot in the summer, but I just don't think it is the HOT that we have here!  Often times, I get out of bed, and am sweating before I can even get dressed!  I walk to the car and drive to school and continue to sweat (because our POS islandmobile has NO A/C!)   In short - it is hot here right now!!

Aside from the heat, our lives have been pretty normal.  Brayton is working hard on 3rd semester, studying lots and getting good grades.  He is continuing to work on the Leatherback Turtle Project but will be done with that in a couple weeks.   I have been extremely busy with summer camp at the Prep School, but am loving working with the older kids and the change of pace and such that comes with summer camp as opposed to the school year.  I am looking forward to next year though with more experience under my belt!


A week from Saturday will be our ONE YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!  It seems impossible that in the past year we have: flown me across the country for a job interview 5 days before the wedding, got married, enjoyed an amazing time in OBX, traveled back home, packed our lives into suitcases, enjoyed the last River summer for a few years, said 'see ya later' to our friends and family from home, moved to St Kitts, made it through 2 1/2 semester of vet school and teaching in St Kitts, lived in 4 different home, made some of the most amazing friends I could EVER ask for on this island, traveled home one time, and are now looking back at the anxiety we felt about coming here to begin with...Who would have thought a year could go by so quickly!  In no time at all, we will be at this point again and only have 5 months until we are done here!  I do have to say, summer at home, and being here while everyone is posting pictures of the river, and friends and family and summer vacation is making me quite homesick...I often have to remind myself that I will only be here for a short time and I should cherish the things I have here before they are gone and I am missing them!

Nevi is doing great - her skin demadex is all healed up and she will be getting fixed next week!  She is learning her commands and is a GREAT puppy 90% of the time!  Koala is a crazy cat who does what she wants, when she wants - but we love her dearly!  She too, will be getting fixed in a couple weeks!  Our poor girls!


I cannot think of anything new, fun, or overly exciting in our lives.  I have been doing Insanity in the mornings with my roommate, Andrew and signed up to run a 5k in a few weeks (YIKES!)... I should probably start running =)  Brayton has exams the next two Monday's - then we have a slight break before diving into finals!

I am SO excited for my parents and sisters to be here in about a month and a half, and I cannot wait for them to see and experience 'my home', the good and the bad, the fun and the scary.  I am worried my father will be bored stiff - but hopefully he will force himself to relax and enjoy =)

I hope everyone at home is enjoying summer, the river, friends and family.  We DO have skype and email if anyone ever wants to catch up, send pictures, or let us know you're still out there ;-)

An update...2 months later!

It has been a while since our last blog and quite a bit has gone on!  On our last update, we had just rescued some puppies from Nevis after doing the channel swim…now all of those puppies are adopted out and growing big and strong!  The puppy we kept, Nevi, is doing great and we feel really blessed to have gotten such a great Island Dog to keep as our own!  We also have our crazy, manic, kitten Koala who thinks she rules the world…but she’s a cat..don’t they all?! 

Brayton’s second semester ended well and he moved on up to 3^rd ready and eager to learn!  He did well and was glad for 2^nd to be over!  It was a long, tough semester and he worked really hard, I am very impressed by his diligence and hard work!  On April 22^nd, we headed back to the States for the first time since arriving on the island in August.  I know 8 months doesn’t seem like a long time, but we were SOO ready to be back in America!  Upon arriving and renting our car, we ventured out of NYC and hit up a FAST food restaurant.  After living in St. Kitts, FAST food had a whole new meaning!  It was actually FAST!  Talk about amazing!  Our drive from New York City to Syracuse was long and boring, but we made it to Aunt Lo’s and were so happy to be HOME, drive a NICE car, travel on SMOOTH roads and drive OVER 35-40 mph!  The simple things we missed so much!! 

Our time at home was short, but great!  We had many appointments to make, friends and family to see and restaurants we were dying to eat at (Jreck’s, anywhere with a REAL, GOOD hamburger, anywhere with DRAFT beer – the simple things!)  It was really great to see our family and friends and I was sad to leave them but coming back to my SK family was also really nice too!  One thing that makes leaving home and coming to this island a BIT easier is knowing I will have my family and friends at home forever…the family I have made in SK is one of the best groups of friends I could ask for, and knowing I only have 2 more years with them, makes me want to really cherish our time! 

Anyways, we arrived back in St Kitts on Brayton’s 33^rd birthday (he IS getting old) and moved into our ‘new’ house.  Things were going great, we had our puppy and our kitten with us, we were unpacking and settling in and loving the new place…..then we found a centipede crawling under our bed…that is where the hell all started.  A couple days later, our amazing roommates Emily and Andrew returned to the island and the 4 of us were settling in and enjoying our new house…little did we know, our new house would lead us to live a life of pure hell for the next 4 weeks.  Over that time, we tried to get settled and relax as our next semester started, but as we were killing 1-6 centipedes a night (and I mean B I G centipedes) there was no time for anything but centipede hunting and fearing what might be in our beds, on our floors, or dangling on the ceilings above us (we watching a 8-10” centipede crawl from the outside wall into a bedroom via the grooves in our ceiling – AHH!).  Our first 4 weeks were spent with sleepless night, centipede slaying evenings, and many appointments and email with the realtors, Terminix and any other potential ‘fixer of the problem’ (FYI – In St Kitts, not much actually GETS fixed FAST or CORRECTLY…if at all!)  Finally, we had had enough and began looking for yet another (the 4^th place for us since August) house to live in.  Thank goodness for Jo, our past realtor, who found us an AMAZING 4 bedroom, 4 ½ bathroom home that we will be living in with Emily and Andrew and Kate and Trevor for the remainder of our time here (I don’t want to move again!).  The pictures explain the beauty and amazing-ness of this house!!!  We are SO happy AND centipede free!

a SMALLLL view of the centipedes we found...

Crawling on the bedroom ceiling after entering from outside the through the groove 

Our NEW kitchen

New Bedroom (view of the ocean outside the glass doors!

New LR/Dining Room with WIDE open wall!  It has glass doors that shut! 

The open wall, pool, porch and view

The view!  

LR/ Dining Room/Kitchen from the other angle

Aside from all that drama with our house – our car – or should I say Islandmobile -  has also been in the shop because the radiator is not working and pipes and seals are blown and missing and honestly, who really knows – certainly not half the people actually working on the car!  OISK!!!!

Since we have returned to the island, Brayton has been spending Wednesday nights from 8-12 and Friday nights from 8-4 walking the beaches of St Kitts looking for nesting female leatherback turtles.  We has had the opportunity to see some leatherbacks, relocate nests, assisting in the excavating of babies from a nest and learn a great deal about something he has a lot of passion for!  It has been hard on him being up so late/all night long, but he is learning a lot and having an amazing experience!

Baby Leatherbacks after an excavation! 

Female leatherback 

At the Prep School, we are approaching our last week of our ‘normal school year’.  We will then have a 3 day weekend and Summer Camp starts on Tuesday!  Summer Camp is for any students who are on the island still because their parents are working, in school or other reasons.  It is a fun, laid back time with some learning and great interactions and social fun with peers and teachers.  I am working with grades 4-6 this summer and am really excited for the change in age group, although I will miss my kiddos!  Luckily, I will have all of my 1^st graders again next year in 2^nd grade and am only losing 4 2^nd graders!  I am getting excited for another year in 1^st and 2^nd grade although I am nervous as I will have a new group of student, new challenges and a whole new years worth of curriculum – you can’t teach the same thing to the same kids twice!  Lots of planning to do this summer!

I am sure this is only a small fraction of the things that have been going on in our lives since my last blog and now that I have done an update, I will TRY to be better!  I am now counting down the days (although I don’t want ‘summer’ to go too fast) until my family comes to St Kitts.  I am so excited for them to see the good and bad of this amazing and awful place that we call home <3  

PS - i am really bummed that I am missing all my friends and family who are having babies and getting married and falling in love and blah blah while we are away!  It is so hard to see these precious babies in pictures and know I won't meet them until they are almost 2!!  Although, I am VERY happy for them all!! 

Channel Swim and Puppies

Sunday, March 25th, Brayton and I took the challenge of joining many other brave souls and swimming the channel from St. Kitts to Nevis.  It is a 2.5 mile swim, through the open ocean.  There is a fairly strong current and a good amount of waves!  Generally, the swim goes from Nevis to St Kitts (with the current) but this year, being the 10th anniversary of the channel swim, they decided to have us all swim from St. Kitts to Nevis (against the current).  Brayton and I chose to complete the swim using mask, snorkel and fins but there were many people who challenged the swim with just goggles!  We tried to stay together for  a while, but I was swimming 'too slow' for Brayton so went on ahead.  I am out of shape and had a hard time swimming the front crawl (and the fact that the waves kept crashing into my snorkel) and swam a lot of breast stroke - which is so not easy or fast with flippers on!  At first, I felt good about the swim, like I was making progress, had a lot of other people swimming around me, had kayaks within reach and was just enjoying the nice view of the ocean life around me. . About half was across, I started to feel as if I wasn't moving anymore and there were no people, or kayaks around me and I started to get nervous.  I just kept telling myself to put my head in the water and swim!!  But then I looked down, and what was below me but a SHARK!!!!  I think it was just a nurse shark as it was lying on the bottom and not moving, but still - I was scared!  I think if there would have been a boat within reach, I would have bailed out of the water and quit!!  Luckily, I pushed myself on, and on, and on, and on (for what felt like forever!) and made it shore in 2.5 hours!  As I walked up onto shore, with my head spinning and my legs aching, I was happy to see Brayton had made it successfully and about 30 minutes faster than me!  I will say it was one of the hardest things I have ever done but was so worth it and I am so glad I didn't quit!

This is a map of the swim!

The start!

Brayton making his way out!  (notice how little St Kitts looks in the background!)

Me making my way out - my face tells it all!

Most of the group who swam and raised money to support the
St Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network!   Thanks to EVERYONE who
donated money to help us out!  

After the swim Brayton and I joined Kate and Trevor and Beth for lunch and some killer bees at Sunshines.  While we were there, we found some very sick, malnourished puppies..and being vet students and big hearted wives...we decided the best thing we could do was to rescue them..so we did!  We ended up bringing 6 very sick puppies home with us!  2 passed away the next day but 4 of them lived and are turning out to be great little puppies!  Brayton and I were fortunate enough to be able to adopt one of them - who is our little Nevi!

These are our 4 rescued puppies!  So cute!

And here is the precious little girl we adopted <3
She is so sweet!  

Aside from our dog adoption, we have also adopted a precious little kitten who I cannot wait to have a home.  He was found on the side of the road here and is precious as can be!  When I first met her, I said that she looked like a koala bear and she has had the name 'Koala' since!

She may not look it here - but she is about the size of the palm of my hand!

Well - we have two weeks left until we go home and in that time we have:

1) final exams for Brayton (x 5)
2) packing up the villa and moving all of our stuff to the new house
3) making appointments at home for the 9 days we are home
4) take a 3 day CPR instructors course (leann)
5) cancel all our 'stuff' at the villa and renew it for the new house..
6)  Sleep?  eat?  pack to go home?  Maybe..

I am excited to go home, but it is going to be really busy and hectic.  I really wish that it was easier for people to come visit here.. It's really hard to go home and I do not think we will go home again until we are done and its not looking like many people are coming to visit.

We will be home from April 22nd (really late) until May 2 (we leave at 7 am).  We are going to do our best to see everyone and I apologize in advance if we don't.  We will be staying at my parents if you would like to find us =)