Christmas Break, 2012

Having the girls back in Minnesota for a few weeks was a special treat. We spent a lot of time just being with each other and visiting with family and friends.  I’ll let the photos do most of the talking, but first, here’s a quick catch-up:

It’s been one year since we embarked on this adventure.

What a year.

The winding path we’ve been on has led us through experiences we never imagined. Many  have been enjoyable.  Some have been… memorable.  And we’re just getting started.

2013 now stands ahead of us with promises of more untold adventures.  Cari will finish up on the island in August, and at this point we have no idea what our summer will look like, or where we will land in the fall. Read the rest of this entry »

Andi gives Tanner a huge ‘Welcome Back!’ hug

With my new job which allows me to work from anywhere, Tanner and I have the option of returning to St. Martin full time. However, there’s a catch: Tanner is loving life in New Brighton, MN. He’s enjoying 6th grade at Highview Jr. High, and he’s enrolled in a baseball tutoring program, guitar lessons, and a martial arts class. And, he and his uncle Tommy (who’s a year younger than him) are loving being roommates.

I just don’t have the heart to yank him out of all that.

And so, until Cari’s done on the island in August, I’ll be doing a balancing act between the two locations. On Saturday, November 10th, I flew down and joined the girls, and on Thursday November 15th, Tanner joined us. (A big “Thank You” to Cory Beard who got up at 3:30 AM that morning to take Tanner to the Air Port!! What a seriously good friend!)

Tanner and I will be on the island with the girls until just after Thanksgiving, and we plan to pack in as much fun as possible while we’re here. Read the rest of this entry »

Lobster and Caviar

I’d like to take a brief break from the narrative of life in St. Martin to share some fun experiences I had recently with my new employer, ACS-Connect, based in Tampa, Florida.

I’ve been in contact with this company since June earlier this year, had done a little bit of freelance work for them in the mean time, and a few weeks ago I joined them full time.

For the first two weeks of my new job I went down to Tampa where I spent business hours in their office receiving a crash course in their products, and in the evenings and on weekends I was treated to a barrage of fun foods thanks to my very Italian and food-savvy boss and the professional chef to whom he is married.

I won’t talk much in this post, but I do want to share some of the pics I snapped with my cheap little iPhone camera.  We’ll start with the dinner to which we were treated by my boss’s wife, Chef Debbie Frangipane, at the restaurant where she cooks. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes it’s the little things that make life more enjoyable, and often times we don’t know to appreciate them until they aren’t available.

Fruit smoothies for breakfast, I admit, are a little thing.  Yet we made them pretty much every morning in our previous life, and when we arrived on the island sans blender, we all agreed that we missed our smoothies.  A lot.

Sometimes, however, it’s also the big things that make life more enjoyable.  Or more challenging, depending on which side of that big thing you’re on.  This has been a week of solving a few little things, while also tackling some big ones as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Mom Studying

It’s Saturday morning. 6:55 am.  Only Tanner and I are awake. When tonight rolls around, we will have been here for a week.  And what a week it’s been!  To be honest, the kinds of things we’ve been doing are the same things anyone would do after moving to a new place and trying to settle in.  We’ve just been doing them on a Caribbean island.  And in the process we’ve been given a healthy dose of island craziness. Read the rest of this entry »