Back to it all

We are back to life as we know it in St. Kitts. It is like we never left. Though it has only been one week since coming back, it feels an eternity since we saw you. Austin likewise feels as if his first week of class could have been a month of work. He is pushing overload with his schedule. On top of his normal classes, he is sitting in on another to hopefully lighten the load next semester and be exposed to the material in abundance. He is also TAing for Biochemistry, doing research as credit with a professor, and found out that he was elected to be the Treasurer of AMSA (the American Medical Surgery something, I think). And then there is church. And then there is football. Austin always comes off as invincible. This semester will really prove him to be so.

We were pleased to come back and see that our car was still here and clean, as a matter of fact. Yaba seemed to be grateful. It was a good move to lend it to him. He watches out for us. Besides that, I have a deal with God that if we keep using the car to serve people then He will make it last for us another year.

Eden has already blossomed into a new person than even a week ago when we were with you. She has been over the top happy and excited with her ability to roam as she pleases. One of the Korean girls at church commented that Eden is "always happy," and though it may be true, it is more so now. Learning the confidence to walk by herself is in the near future. Just yesterday Eden discovered that she could push the stroller and walk without my help and the same with her walker. Instead of getting in it to walk, she can walk on the outside (so long as she runs to keep up with the wheels). There's no stopping that little girl! It's so fun. Her favorite thing right now is to practice standing up without hands or help and then see how long she can balance. It's like she knows she is showing off and doing a trick. If only you could see her!

As for me? There are a lot of new changes happening at work. The new manager is accustomed to having employees work remotely, which is good news to me. Corporate Wellness will be starting to print a quarterly magazine in which I will get to contribute and probably help design and put together. That'll be a fun new project! My other goals this year are to finish the stocking I'm working on and to start filming my own workout videos and maybe create my own YouTube channel. It's scary to admit that, but I'm doing it so I am accountable, I suppose. That is, if I can figure out all the details to make it work, I'll do it.

As always, life here brings crazy stories. For one, I caught another lizard in our house. Keep it up and I could have my own nature show too- like Steve Irwin. Eden and I ventured over to the Agriculture Department to buy ourselves a Basil plant this week too. After being ushered back and forth, here and there, we finally came home with an almost 2 foot tall basil plant for only 5 EC! That's Less than $2.50! Finally, a good deal! Our farmer friend hunted us down the day we got back too. He sold us a pumpkin and a bunch of bananas. I'm proud to say that I cooked the pumpkin and found a way to puree it without a blender. We have already had pumpkin soup, pumpkin dumplings, and pumpkin spice cookies.

Mmmm... In case you were wondering, the pumpkin was green and yellow, but still orange on the inside. The guts were more stringy like a spaghetti squash, but it tastes the same as what we are used to. The bananas are hanging in our kitchen. We literally have a bunch of bananas waiting to get ripe hanging from our window. Zumba practically cut off the whole tree and stuck it in our house. I'm only a little skeptical that they will turn yellow- despite his assurance- and a tad afraid that there are lots of bugs hiding in them. 

On another note, I finally got to reading the Ensign from December and January. If you haven't read them, President Packer's last address in December's issue and President Holland's article in January's issue are especially good. What amazing testimonies and witnesses of Christ!