Lacey is One

Our little Lacey is 1
 We kept Lacey's first birthday simple. With the island hopping, trying to get settle with unpacking boxes, and Josh starting second term, this past week has been crazy. I knew Lacey's birthday was right after we moved, but it sure crept up on me. I kinda feel bad I didnt do more for her first birthday. I'll make up for it next year. She still enjoyed her day (weekend).

( a picture from each month from the past year)

We love our sweet Lacey so much! I can't even tell you what a special part of our family this little sweetheart is! She's spunky, she's snuggly, very determined, she loves tearing things apart and getting into everything. She makes me smile everyday and I'm so grateful for our little Lacey.

.. And here are some pictures of Lacey's favorite person....

- Cup cake time -

Cake topper that was mine for my first birthday, I saved it for 24 years and I finally got to use it on my girl's first birthday :) Special moment! Yes I brought the cake topper to the Caribbean with us. I'm weird like that! ;)

 Lacey just wanted to grab the candle, she thought it was a game, little turkey.

Lacey enjoying her cupcake. We invited our friends the Tidmarsh's over for cupcakes.

This little monkey has learned how to climb up on the couch. She sure gets proud of herself when she finally makes it to the top.Well that's it for Lacey's number one post. She is growing so fast and learning so much, I can't imagine how much she will change between now and her next birthday! 

Seeing A Women

I came across this article "Seeing a Woman: A conversation between a father and son". Josh and I want to save this article, for the day when Lincoln gets old enough for a conversation like this. 

Someday I am going to have to have the conversation with my son.  No, not the conversation all parents dread giving and all kids are mortified having.  I enjoy making people uncomfortable so that conversation should be fun.

No, I’m talking about another conversation.  The one that happens after I catch his eye doing what male eyes do well – following an object of lust.  We will probably be out at the mall, because that’s what dads do with their sons, and I’ll catch the look.  Maybe we’ll go to the beach and see it.  Doesn’t matter where it is, there will come a time when I will see it.  And then it will be time for this conversation.

*****

Hey, come here.  Let me talk to you.  I saw you look at her.  I’m not judging you or shaming you.  I know why you did.  I get it.  But we have to talk about it because how you look at a woman matters.

A lot of people will try and tell you that a woman should watch how she dresses so she doesn’t tempt you to look at her wrongly.  Here is what I will tell you.  It is a woman’s responsibility to dress herself in the morning.  It is your responsibility to look at her like a human being regardless of what she is wearing.  You will feel the temptation to blame her for your wandering eyes because of what she is wearing – or not wearing.  But don’t.  Don’t play the victim.  You are not a helpless victim when it comes to your eyes.  You have full control over them.  Exercise that control.  Train them to look her in the eyes.  Discipline yourself to see her, not her clothes or her body.  The moment you play the victim you fall into the lie that you are simply embodied reaction to external stimuli unable to determine right from wrong, human from flesh.

Look right at me.  That is a ridiculous lie.

You are more than that.  And the woman you are looking at is more than her clothes.  She is more than her body.  There is a lot of talk about how men objectify women, and largely, it is true.  Humans objectify the things they love in effort to control them.  If you truly love a person, do not reduce them to an object.  The moment you objectify another human – woman or man, you give up your humanity.

There are two views regarding a woman’s dress code that you will be pressured to buy into.  One view will say that women need to dress to get the attention of men.  The other view will say women need to dress to protect men from themselves.  Son, you are better than both of these.  A woman, or any human being, should not have to dress to get your attention.  You should give them the full attention they deserve simply because they are a fellow human being.  On the other side, a woman should not have to feel like she needs to protect you from you.  You need to be in control of you.

Unfortunately, much of how the sexes interact with each is rooted in fear.  Fear of rejection, fear of abuse, fear of being out of control.  In some ways, the church has added to this.  We fear each other because we have been taught the other is dangerous.  We’ve been a taught a woman’s body will cause men to sin.  We’re told that if a woman shows too much of her body men will do stupid things.  Let’s be clear: a woman’s body is not dangerous to you.  Her body will not cause you harm.  It will not make you do stupid things.  If you do stupid things it is because you chose to do stupid things.  So don’t contribute to the fear that exists between men and women.

A woman’s body is beautiful and wonderful and mysterious.  Respect it by respecting her as an individual with hopes and dreams and experiences and emotions and longings.  Let her be confident.  Encourage her confidence.  But don’t do all this because she is weaker.  That’s the biggest bunch of crap out there.  Women are not weaker than men.  They are not the weaker sex.  They are the other sex.

I’m not telling you to not look at women.  Just the opposite.  I’m telling you to see women.  Really see them.  Not just with your eyes, but with your heart.  Don’t look to see something that tickles your senses, but see a human being.  

My hope is that changing how you see women will change how you are around them.  Don’t just be around women.  Be with women.

Because in the end, they want to be with you.  Without fear of being judged, or shamed, or condemned, or objectified, or being treated as other.  And that’s not just what women want.  That’s what people want.

Ultimately, it’s what you want.

- See more at: http://natepyle.com/seeing-a-woman/#sthash.ZBcgyKXz.51qKtszt.dpuf

A few pictures I forgot to post from St. Eustatius!

St. Maarten fun!

• Update on our new island adventure: As I'm putting Lincoln to bed one night. I was grabbing his puppy and blanket and he was laying in bed. I could hear him say "nana loves me, nana loves me". I reply "yes nana does love you". Realizing he was doing something with his hand, I payed closer attention to what he was doing. Then he said " see nana loves me, put my finger down like this, nana loves me" (as he was doing the love sign with his hand)... When my mom was here a month ago she taught  Lincoln the love hand sign. It was so cute that he was remembering this. Anyways, just a random thought I wanted to remember.
  

  It seems like we are in the hottest part of the year right now. And as weird as this may sound, I miss wearing pants. I know I'm crazy. I love LOVE love the heat. But after 5 months of wearing shorts I do kinda miss wearing pants. Maybe it's the part of feeling cold that I miss and being able to curl  up on the couch with a warm blanket. Even thought I hate being cold. I don't know, I'm just a Canadian girl trying to adjust to the change.

  
  

  Continuing with the topic of change... We got rid of Lincoln's soother a week ago and it went way better then I expected. It wasn't planned, but I have been wanting to do it for some time, I just didnt want it to be hard on him. He loved his yellow (what he called it). There was a few days after we moved here Josh would put Lincoln down for a nap and tried with no soother and he asked for it and Josh told him he doesnt need it. Then Josh tried put him to bed one night with out it and there was no problem. So I figure I had to keep going with it the next night. He asked for it and I told him that he didnt need it any more as he's a big boy. He was a bit more restless but fell asleep no problem. (usually when he takes his soother it calms him right down and he's almost a sleep instantly) I was expecting crying and him asking for it but he didn't. So we just kept doing what we were doing. After the second night he was talking about it by himself and how he was a big boy so he didnt need he soother any more, having no problem with it. So yellow is gone and I am a happy mom.

  
  

  Lacey has been teething these last few weeks. She has these 2 top teeth that have been trying to come down but they haven't. They've been causing Lacey to be quite whiny and crabby these days. Poor girl, she's not even into food and she's usually a girl who loves her food. We will be glad when they finally come through. She seems to never stop moving. She started walking at 10 months and hasn't slowed down since! She's starting to make more sounds to let us know what she wants or what she did. For "ah oh", Lacey says "ah ah ah ah". Lincoln has managed to teach her a few more animal sounds the last couple weeks... which he is VERY proud of by the way. :) She know how to say "Meow", and the monkey sound "Ooo,Ooo,Ahh,Ahh"
  
  

Well, besides sitting in our house our family has been asking what I do with the kids all day. So I thought I'd put a few pics up for that! We are so glad that our St. Eustatius friends moved to St. Maarten with us. It made this move so easy on the kids as they still  have their group of friends. The moms in our church group still get together with the kids each week..

St. Maarten has a zoo and the kids seem to love it. It's nothing like the Calgary zoo, but it's better then nothing. They have lots of birds, tree monkeys, reptiles, etc.

They also have a park there. Yay!!! For some reason the parks we have been able to find on this island are at schools in fenced in yards only for their students. This seems to be the only park we can play on. It's run down but it will do.

They don't seem to update there parks here and nothings to fix them , they just let them fall apart, it's sad.

Lacey playing with the Tidmarsh lawn mower in the housing complex we live in.

She loves following the bigger kids around.

Lincoln and Lacey goofing off while having a snack. Lincoln is still the best at making Lacey laugh.

We go on a lot of walks/ bike rides each day. Lincoln never thinks it's too hot outside. It's the hottest part of the year right now, It's been hot hot hot. We seem to wake up to heat even early in the morning... It's definitely a weird feeling. We do have A/C, but we have found that when we go in and out of the A/C it seems to make the outside feel even hotter. We have adjusted to the heat and our house has really good flow through it so we are doing good with just using fans. :)

Went to the boardwalk with our friends to ride bikes. The boardwalk is a street/giant sidewalk right along the beach with no traffic near it. There's restaurants and stores all along the beach. You can see the docks where the cruises come in and Lincoln always says "mommy!... That's a HUGE ship!"... he seems to be testing out a lot of new words in his vocabulary lately.

Lacey modelling her new swim suit from Nana Yamamoto.

 Each day we are either spend time at the beach or pool, it's how we stay cool here.

Lincoln enjoys his afternoons with me while Lacey is napping. He loves to bake and help out in the kitchen. We made Apple Sauce Muffins, Lincoln calls them sugar muffins, he was very proud of these muffins we made, thats all he wanted to eat the whole day.

Lincoln and Lacey enjoying some popcorn and movie before bed. They love their popcorn. These two can sure pester each other at times and get into some good fights. But they also can get along so well. I love seeing the bond these two have already. Lincoln is so protective of Lacey, he loves helping her and loves to make her laugh by scaring her or tickling her.

Someone shot him!... Nope it was all Lincoln. Lincoln got a nerf gun and he has figured out that they stick to his little sweaty body! haha. Making hours of fun.

St. Maarten

Internet is back up and running! We've been here for 2 weeks now.

Our first adventures on St. Maarten, August 21- Woke up nice and early so we would be ready to make it the airport on time. Thanks to the Sala’s, we didn’t have to walk. Lincoln was a little unsure as we were packing his whole house up. But he soon got distracted when we arrived at the airport. It was finally Lincoln’s turn to go on a plane again. We’ve said good-bye to a lot of friends on Statia, and Lincoln is sad every time when he can’t go on the plane too. 

It was only a 20-minute plane ride to St. Maarten, which was nice.  On the flight over we could see Saba and St. Barts. As we flew into St. Maarten on our little 20-seater plane, you could see the gorgeous white sandy beaches. We are excited for the white sandy beaches, no more black sand destorying our swimsuits.We had a rental car waiting at the airport for us, which was nice so. Then we ventured off, having no clue where we are going. We found our place where we were suppose to be living pretty easly; other then that was no street signs on a lot of the streets... lets just say it wasn’t what we were expecting. The house was nice. But the neighbourhood was very sketchy. Josh didn’t want us to even stay there one night... That’s how unsafe we felt. We let Lacey have a quick nap in her playpen at the place, then we left. We were there for an hour. Having no clue what we were going to do and where we were going to live. Worst feeling ever, knowing you have no place to call home and to bring your family to for the night. Lets just say I was stressed out to the max. We were planning on just finding a hotel for the night, but we weren’t sure as that was going to be an expensive night on a vacation island. So here we were a family with two young children in a rental car packed full with 3 suitcases, and 3 carry ones, 3 personal items and a playpen. There was no room to move inside. From there josh drove to where he could get reception to make a few calls.

I had a friend Camille who has been on St. Maarten for almost a week already, email a few days earlier telling me of a place available to rent in her gated community. I looked at the listing online and that was it, as we thought we had a place already. So I then called the realtor that it was listed through (to rent a house here you have to deal with real-estate companies). We were able to see that place at 3:00pm, which was over 4 hours away. So we went and grabbed a bit to eat and try to pass some time. 3:00pm couldn’t come soon enough. Our appointment came and we saw the place for rent, the place is in a gated community ( Kool Baai Villa, in Cole Bay). As soon as I walked in the place, I knew I could live there. The only problem now it, that it wasn’t available till the 1^st, 11 days away, as new flooring was being out in. Lucky enough our land lady has a holiday house in the same gated community she could rent to us for $70/night, until our place was ready and we could move in. We knew we would never find a hotel for that price so we took her up on that offer. We found a place we feel safe with and a place to stay till it becomes available. I can’t believe how blessed out little family is, someone was looking after us, tender mercy of the lord.

The next few days we spent learning the island. Finding grocery stores, I love them, they are more americanized here, There is Gande Marche, Costuless, Divico and Prime, but still not like back home. We were also trying to find a car to buy... and find some beaches we could have some fun at in the process.

We stayed in the holiday house for 6 nights, as our land lady is super awesome and pushed to get our house ready for us early. 5 days early! So we got moved in and settled, well as settled as you can get with only 3 suitcases. Our common saying for the 2 weeks when we were looking for something we needed is "it's on the shipment". The school arranganlly told us that our boxes were suppose to come on August 23rd then the 27th , then they said September 3rd. And they still weren't here. Finally September 4 th they arrive. But they would only let us have half our boxes. I was getting very unpatient. I just wanted our stuff. They wouldn't unload the rest of our boxes till the other students pick there boxes up. Silly thing is the boxes they were waiting to be picked up are students that arent even here  on the island yet. So no fair. So more waiting. Our boxes are on the island in the shipping container sitting at the school but we cant have them.

This is the surfboard on Maho Beach that shows you what time the planes fly in so people can get these pics --> see next pic 

It's crazy how low these planes get. Lincoln loves watching the planes come in. I have a feeling we will be doing this often.

 View of Simpson Bay

Josh and Lincoln looking into Great bay in Phillipsburg.

Visiting Fort Amsterdam

Yes... its been a long time since they have played in the sprinklers...(they dont have those on statia, becuase we were on water rations) Lacey couldnt stop laughing :) Actually it's Lacey's first time playing in a sprinkler. We will be visiting the resort again to cool off. 

It's been nice to have a week and half to try and get settled and learn the island before Josh headed back to classes. I know we are going to love living on St. Maarten. It's way more americanized but still very islandishy, the way the locals live. Josh has been back in classes for a few days now, back to long days of studying and little time with family. I feel like I'm a single parent at time. I just keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end... I forgot to mention Josh did amazing in all his classes last term.