Have you ever wondered.....

In 10 short weeks our time in St Maarten will be over and we will have lived here for 2 years. I know many of you probably have wondered about our lives on the island, so every week or so I'm going to do a post that starts with "Have you ever wondered." Then your going to get a little glimpse into life on St Maarten. This week we are wondering about the grocery stores in St Maarten.....

The grocery store here is called Le Grand Marche. It is very American. Here is a shot at the start of the deli and produce section. A tid bit- most of the fruit, milk products, and eggs are from Florida!

Here is the milk section. We always have to be careful about checking dates, since things are sent by sea by the time they actually reach the shelf the expiration date is growing pretty near. And sometimes the milk will be bad even before date because of lack of proper refrigeration between the boat and the store and then the shelf. But the selection of milk, cheese, yogurt, and sour cream is pretty extensive.
Here is a look at the labels they use. If you look close you can see that the big price is in Gilders. The smaller number is the US price...so gilders for the parsley is 2.75 and US price is $1.24. If you go to the Phillipsburg Grand Marche the prices are in Gilders, US and in Euros. Current exchange between US and Gilders is US $1= 1.80.
Here is the meat section. A lot of different stuff to chose from, most of the time good qualilty. Some even US Certified. They also have local stuff like pigs ears and chicken feet. Ummm no thanks!

Here is a glimpse of the lunch meat, hot dog and bacon section. As you can see we aren't lacking anything, the main difference is here we don't get a lot of choices. One brand is about all you get to chose from where in the US you would have 30 brands of different hot dogs to buy.

I just thought this sign was a good look into a typical thing we see in the store...a list of where all the different apples are from.
And here we are at the end of our shopping trip. See the stuff in the cart? How much do you think I spent today???
Grand total for this shopping trip was $173. Yes, for a cart that wasn't even that full! I typically spend around $150 a week on groceries and then take 2 trips to Cost-U-Less (sort of like a Sam's Club) a month each costing around $180. Total for groceries for 5 in one month.....$960!

Hope you enjoyed your journey through the grocery store....next week look forward to a glimpse into washing clothes with a European washing machine!

If you have something you have been wondering, leave it as a comment and I'll answer it in an upcoming blog!

Notice anything missing???

Can you see what's missing?? Yes, our car. You know time is ticking down when you can finally start selling stuff, and today it was our car! Yippeee, one less thing to worry about getting rid of before we leave!

Also, thank you Grandma Jean for sending the Halloween costumes! You have never seen kids so happy about a mail package! And thank you for the special treats inside!! The boys are already planning what to spend their money on.

We don't know what to do about Carter, he keeps climbing up all the walls..here is Dave helping him get off the wall. There must be something special about that costume!

And Gavin was so thrilled with his costume he passed right out wearing it! Isn't he sweet when he's sleeping? I can't believe he can sleep on that hard tile floor...I guess when your Superman pain is relative.

Busy busy busy

Well the weeks are flying by- we're down to 10 1/2 weeks until we fly home and we are making the most of them. I got my haircut this weekend. I couldn't stand the old cut anymore and it was time to go short again! I just love a good hair style that only take minutes yet looks like you spent a lot of time! So here it is...what do you think??
This weekend we also had a Spouse's Org getting to know you pot luck! It was so much fun and also really weird because I knew a lot less people then I didn't and that's kind of strange after having 5 semesters of always knowing all the spouses. There are just SOOO many new people! The food was awesome though, as it always is at pot lucks. There were so many people that all the food was actually eaten at the end which was nice...there's nothing worse than taking 1/2 your dish back with you and having to eat it for the next week!
Here are the kids having fun with their new friends at the pot luck.

On Sunday the spouses got together to make 150 cinnamon rolls for a fundraiser. By the time I got home I smelled like a giant cinnamon roll! Dave could smell it as soon as I walked in! Although, it was a lot of work it was great hanging with the ladies and chatting. We sold them this morning to the students, who LOVED them, and we'll be back tomorrow morning to sell the rest!


And I just had to share the latest picture of our nieces Hailey and Calleigh. Calleigh is a month old in this picture and big sister is reading her books! So cute and look at that hair! I just can't wait to meet her and I'm so bummed I don't get to enjoy her when she's a little baby!
So since we can't get our Calleigh fix we are getting our baby fix with little baby Lilly! Here is Gavin holding her, he was so proud of himself. Carter and Gavin love looking at her and patting her back...then when we get home they tell me that they love baby Lilly. It's pretty cute! Lilly belongs to my new sponsor family Kathy and Luke. When they arrived Lilly was 5 or 6 weeks old. Can you imagine moving to a Caribbean island with a newborn?? On another note, Luke and Dave hit it off immediately since they both served with one of the most elite military units, the 82nd Airborne! The brotherhood is quite strong even if you didn't serve at the same time and when we all get together there is plenty of Army talk. If it's not Army talk its medical talk...I guess they just don't have much more in their lives right now! Poor guys!

Tagged by Rachel

5 things I was doing 10 years ago...
1. Breaking up with Dave
2. Starting my last year of college at SCSU
3. Thinking about what would be next
4. Working full-time at Old Country Buffet
5. Going to Venezuela for Spring Break


5 things on today's "to do" list...
1. Laundry
2. McDonald's Play date
3. Grocery shopping
4. Making dinner
5. Lounging around


5 snacks I enjoy...
1. Doritos
2. Chips and salsa
3. Popsicles
4. Brownies
5. Angel Food Cake


5 things I would do if I were a millionaire...
1. Pay off all debt.
2. Buy new cars and a house...give our old ones to a family who couldn't afford them.
3. Save
4. Shop
5. Donate to Pancreatic Cancer Research

5 places I have lived...
1. Kansas City MO
2. Elysian, MN
3. St Cloud, MN
4. Hastings, MN
5. St Maarten, NA

5 jobs I've had...
1. D & B Foods
2. Old Country Buffet
3. SCSU Public Safety
4. Gymboree
5. Target

5 peeps who should consider themselves tagged...
1. Alicia
2. Laura
3. Kathy
4. Maren
5. Kori

Moms Gone Wild

Well, I just got the pictures, so I had to share a fun weekend I had recently. A group of Mom's and I decided we needed a night away to veg by the pool, eat out (without distractions from children), and go out dancing the night away! We did just that and had a wonderful night! We stayed at the Sonesta and spent the afternoon hanging out by the pool relaxing. Once we were prunes we went back to the room to get dolled up for a night out. We went to a great piano bar for dinner. The food was awesome and the music even better. Everytime we tried to leave they would play an even better song and we would be dragged back in to dance to another song. Once we finally dragged ourselves away from the piano bar we quickly lost a few dollars at the Casino...so we didn't dabble there to long in fear we would eventullay leave with nothing. On we moved and we ended up dancing most of the night away at a fancy night club called Bliss. When we got back to our room we ordered room serivce...FYI the only thing you can get at 4:30 am is a hamburger and fries...and boy oh boy did it hit the spot! YUMMY! We had a great time and really enjoyed sleeping in that morning and not waking up to someone yelling "Mommy!" It's so nice to know that even though were a bunch of moms we still know how to have a good time! Thanks for the GREAT night ladies!

Could it really be here already?

Today was my last Welcome Breakfast. I can't believe it! All the spouses go around the table and introduce themselves and say what semester they are, and today I FINALLY got to say "5th semester." I can't believe it was finally my turn to say it! Such a long time coming. This welcome breakfast brought a huge batch of new spouses, the group literally doubled in size! This incoming class was over 180 students....Dave's class was around 80. So whoppppeeeee, wow this is really starting to feel real now, but everytime I begin to feel excited to leave a little piece of me is sad too. I have met so many great friends here and I'm going to miss them so much. But hopefully sometime, somewhere we'll meet again!

Here are a couple of my gal pals, Hanna and Stephanie.

Natalie and I started this journey together in December 2006...we have both been on the 6th semester plan and I'm glad we are still here together!
Here I am with Kathy, she is a new spouse that I helped sponsor. We have become good friends and I'm glad we were able to be here together for a semester.

Welcome to my office......

I'm so excited to show you all my office! I am so thrilled to announce that I have been asked to help with the Behavorial Science class at AUC and with it I got my own office! Yes, I'm a total geek and made Dave take pictures of my first official office! I have already been very busy with ICM/surrogate patient business and this is only the 2nd week of school. We have been offering students the oppurtunity to interview a patient one-on-one instead of in a group like they do in class, so I have been very busy fitting in the interviews. I've also been having meetings about my role in Behavorial and that kicks in next week, so the next few weeks are pretty busy! All the better to make the time fly by! Only 12 weeks to go!!!!