Friends I Follow

Wednesday, November 3, 2010
So kinda off topic but at the same time not, let's talk about bathrooms. I for one hate cleaning them. Joel and I made a deal when we got married that I would clean everything but the bathroom. And that worked out well till we got here and he's too busy and I have all the time in the world. My mom will be the first to tell you that I can live in my own filth probably longer then one should just to avoid cleaning the bathroom. But when it comes to other people's bathroom filth. Well let's just say I am glad my vision is not that good and I don't see all the things that would gross me out.
Our bathroom here is the place I fear the most. The grout in the shower is not white any more and no matter how much bleach I use I can't seem to get it clean. (Joel told me the bathroom smelled like a public pool once when I was cleaning it.) The faucet leaks and standing water here turns into mold so I am constantly wiping down around the sink. Which is no fun because there is always a puddle. The countertop is laminated particle board which does not hold up well to the standing water. I don't even want to get into how the toilet looks. (You should all be thankful I am not posting pictures to go with this description.) Also this room holds our dirty laundry so you can understand why the window is ALWAYS open.
But this is all just the back story so you can understand my true distaste for this room. As I just told you the window is always open and I am not sure if that has anything to do with the fact that every time I stand in front of the mirror to do my hair and make-up I get eaten alive around my ankles. I can't seem to see the little guys but they get me every time. But I am pretty sure having the window open would be the reason why a few weeks ago while I was sweeping I got stuck in this tiny room with a COCKROACH! Ick! Just thinking about it again makes me want to run around screaming (like I did). They move fast but it was not it's lucky day because I was already holding a broom and a dust pan. I killed that thing good. I was shaking the whole time but it was dead. I know I am supposed to love all of Gods creatures but I have a really hard time loving that one up close.
My second lovely experience in the bathroom happened on Sunday. I had just finished washing my face when I looked down at the drain (which is another pet peeve of mine because it is always clogged no matter how much Draino I use, but I digress) and what did I see but a tiny scorpion. I don't know what is scarier a fast moving cockroach or a scorpion that close to your face. Either way this time I was glad Joel was home because I got out the there as fast as I could and was definitely glad I had him there.
I know this sounds like a lot of complaining but well, it is. Sometimes a girl just has to get a few things off her chest. But I will tell you one thing, when I get home I am going to treasure every clean well functioning bathroom I use. But until then I will be trying to avoid mold, cockroaches and scorpions. The things I do for love.
Monday, November 1, 2010
That is what I have been doing lately, and loving every minute of it. If you are my friend on facebook you might have seen some of these pictures. I brought home a sewing machine and some necessary tools (ie scissors and a seam ripper) from our sewing class. This allows me to set up my house like this.


I have made a deal with myself, I have to earn sewing time. I know it sounds silly but I make sure I do the things I hate (mopping, dishes, dusting...) before I touch the sewing machine. Because once I get started I don't want to stop and hours pass and all of a sudden Joel is home from school. oops! But I earned my time on Friday and was able to get all my blocks of my quilt sewn and pressed. Then I had to figure out how I wanted me placed. This was the first choice but I changed it a little after this and forgot to take a picture..


I don't think I will show any more pictures till it is complete so it is more of a surprise. It probably won't be done till January because I am waiting on a bit more fabric and some batting. Heather has already completed one quilt this semester and is almost done her second. She is a pro. Here is a picture of her quilt using the same pattern as mine but with different fabrics. Funny how it makes them look so completely different. 


Joel had exams on Monday and Wednesday and did really well on them and was able to relax with me on some evenings and this weekend. It was nice to have a husband again even if it was only for a little while. Just the fact of being able to see him everyday makes it worth being here. On most Friday's Joel goes and plays indoor soccer with some other students. This week I decided to join him. I had a blast. Everyone was so nice and fun and they didn't seem to mind me messing up their shots or missing the net completely when I was like a foot away. I never did claim to be good at soccer. My only problem was with what I found the next day....


Yep that is a huge crack in my toenail. Seems to always happen when I play soccer. Joel and Zishan informed me that I do not kick properly. I told them I was just trying to touch the ball never mind proper form. 

Anyways let's move on to Saturday. (I really should start writing more blogs during the week so I don't bore everyone with an extremely long post. Maybe this week I will try that.) I promised Joel waffles on Saturday so I tried a new recipe but I did not like it so I will not post it. I had to buy some berries to go with the waffles too. I love warm berries. 


After breakfast I made cupcakes for church then Joel made me lunch. Yeah that is right and then on Sunday night he did the dishes. What a great guy! Saturday was when Saba celebrated Halloween. Here the kids go business to business instead of house to house because that would be WAY to hard. So SOS sets up a car in a parking lot by the grocery store, decorates their trunk and hands out candy from there. We call it Trunk or Treat. I only have a couple pictures from my camera because I ran out of battery and used Angela's (Minnie Mouse) for the rest of the pictures. 


Isn't my trunk scary? Isn't Sidney cute? Here is a better picture of her and her outfit. Her mom made her tutu. I thought it was adorable! 


That is it for now. If anything fun happens I will post but until then, have a great week! 
Monday, October 25, 2010
Okay I will be honest one of the packages was the fabric I ordered. But the other one was a full fledged parcel from home. It was chock full of goodies and had me jumping up and down with excitement.

We only have a tiny pair of scissors so Joel brought out the big guns... or knife

Joel can barely contain his excitement

Oh the joy! Candy, chocolate, quilting supplies and the pastry mat I asked for!!

Had to put that to use right away, here

and here

That is cinnamon raisin bread, not rolled up yet, if you are wondering.
 Just made it this morning so I haven't tried it yet, but it smelled good! 

Last week was not very exciting except for the fabric and package from home. I know you guys are dying to see the fabric (or maybe I am excited to show it because I think it is beautiful). Either way check out the bright colors! 

Almost too pretty to unwrap

But I had to get started on the quilt

even sewed some together

I know it may not look like much right now but I can't wait to see how it all comes together. We had sewing today and we have another session on Thursday so it will be fun to see how much more I can get done. 

Other then that Joel has been studying for exams (again). He had 2 today that he did very well in and 2 on Wednesday. So he has been studying up a storm and I have been trying to read my scuba course material. I am really not a reader though because every time I start I get tired and want to close my eyes. Hopefully I can get through it. I was supposed to go and get certified this weekend but I forgot I had plans, then the next weekend it the Midway dinner. Midway is a celebration of being half way done here!!! Yes you heard it right Joel is half way done which means we only have 10 more months and then we get to come home. I am sooo excited! I hope time continues to fly for both of us. 

I will just leave you with a couple of random photos I thought were interesting....

my purple beans that turned green when cooked, super tasty

my puppy in one of her favourite spots, usually waiting for Joel

a picture of the moon the other night
it is hard to tell here but it was extremely bright

and finally a visual of the changing weather here
it went from this..

to this in a matter of an hour

This took me a little longer then I thought to get posted with all the pictures. Hope you all enjoy! 
Monday, October 18, 2010
I started the week off busy and productive. Monday I did some things around the house and made a mushroom filled dinner. Yep, they were on sale at the grocery store and I picked up 2 packages before I even thought of what to do with them. So I jumped head first into cream of mushroom soup and stuffed mushrooms. I never realized how easy it is to make cream of mushroom soup and how much better it tastes then from the can. Poor Joel is not a fan of soup or mushrooms but he powered through. I didn't make him take any for lunch the next day because I am nice like that. Here are some pictures of my work, my oh so tasty work.

getting ready to do some stuffing

stuffed and ready for the oven

got a nice little tan in the oven 

our mushroomfest with left over garlic buns

mmmmmmmmmmm

Last week at sewing we had a visitor and an additional student. The visitor was the woman that started the quilting group. Her name is Ruth and she is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and I learned so much from her in the few minutes I spoke with her. Her husband was one of Joel's favourite professors but they are now living on Statia. We also had Lauren come to learn a thing or two because she had a week off work. Her mother-in-law got her started on a quilt before she came so she came to hang out with us and get a little help. When sewing was all said and done Lauren came back to my place for lunch and to sit around the pool and teach me a little about blogging. I have not had time to work on any of the things she showed me yet but maybe by the end of the week. I had fun anyways and it looked a little like this. The picture is a little sun drenched but if you can see we have our matching macbooks and we are hard at work. 



Also this week I went and watched Joel play indoor soccer. It looked like it was so much fun I might even join in next time. Plus I like running on flat surfaces so that will be my only chance. Today I signed up for my Scuba certification class so I should be certified by the end of the month. I have my books so I will be doing some studying along with Joel this time. And last but not least..... my fabric came in today!!!! I was sooo excited! I still haven't seen it but I will be at sewing bright and early tomorrow so I can get started on my quilt. I know, little things amuse me but I have never bought fabric for anything before. 

I am off to go cook dinner because I ran out of gas down here so I will head up and get it all done before the crowd comes home. Don't tell Joel but it is a surprise dinner, Sloppy Joe's! He doesn't get a lot of meat so I am sure he will be thrilled. I hope everyone has a fantastic week and if any of you see Amy Harris (Enns) give her a birthday hug for me! 




Monday, October 11, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful celebration yesterday with all our friends here at The Gate House. Steve's parents came in on Saturday morning to visit and were kind enough to host a REAL Thanksgiving dinner for us last night. I mean 26 lb turkey and all. Which was the only turkey at the grocery store. Here are some pictures from last night. I am not sure why but my camera was pretty blurry some of the time, but you will get the idea.

The buns I made. So good! From the Annie Eats blog soft garlic knots.
  

a close up of my handy work

the table all ready to go

Steve "helping"

 Steve's dad carving the turkey

everyone always ends up in the kitchen

Steve's mom and Angela, the ladies that made it all happen

The pots full of food.... mmmmmmm

the delicious meal: turkey, stuffing, gravy, carrots, peas, corn, mashed potatoes, squash and buns
we did not go hungry

Steve actually helping this time

dessert, my favourite part
pumpkin pie and berry apple crumble with whipped cream

our happy family

Yesterday also marked Saba becoming a part of Holland. We are not longer part of the Netherland Antillies we are living in Holland! We attended a church service at the Catholic church yesterday that all the officials attended and it was a mix between church and town meeting. It was really interesting to be a part of history like that. 

This is video of the kids playing "when the saints go marching in" on the steel drums, during the service. I am sorry if it is bad quality or hard to see this is my first time trying to post a video. 


Other then yesterday's excitement last week was yucky. It stormed all week, our TV got fried in the storm, Joel had exams and he was sick. But I did pick my first harvest (besides some basil leaves). 

Purple Beans!

Pretty right! Apparently they turn green when you cook them. I will let you know. 
Hope everyone is having a great holiday! 

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Margherita pizza is my absolute favourite. Since I have a huge pot of basil growing and I bought like a 10 pound page of mozzarella cheese it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make it. I have been using this dough recipe since I got here and it is pretty good but it is still missing that wow factor. Joel recommends I put cornmeal under the dough when I bake it to give it some extra flavour. I think I will try that next. But if that doesn't work I am going to try the recipe from my new favourite blog of the minute Annie's Eats. Yes I know how appropriate. I thought I would share it with you anyways because it is a great easy basic recipe and you can feel free to play it with how you like. 

Here are some pictures to guide you along the way. 

This is what the dough looks like before it doubles in size. I used all white flour here but I usually add at least one cup of whole wheat flour and it takes great. 


This is what it looks like after 5-10 minutes in the oven


Then you pick your favourite toppings like fresh picked basil 


Bake for 15 minutes and Ta Da! 


The one thing I learned from this is I need about 10 times more basil for my liking. I was just so afraid to pick all my plant and have it die, but there is tons more out there now so I should be okay for my next trial. 

Pizza Dough

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar 
1 1/2 cups warm water (110degrees F/45 degrees C) 
1 teaspoon salt 
2 tablespoons olive oil 
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. (I use two smaller pans and stretch out the dough with my hands on the oiled pan, hence the finger marks in the picture above)
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes then bake for 5-10 minutes to set. Let cool a couple minutes then top using your favourite ingredients.
5. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

*Update on Zucchini Chocolate Chip Loaf*
If you have any loaf left over (meaning you are not like my pregnant sister who turned the recipe into muffins and ate them all in one day) you may be interested in making them into super sweet french toast. Yummy! 


Blogger is driving me a little crazy and I am having trouble formatting this post so don't mind the different fonts etc. I am working on it. 


Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Yeah I am not sure about the new name yet. Thought about it last night but I'm not sure it does anything for me. How about the changing look, any comments or suggestions? I am still learning how to do all this HTML stuff and trying to find things I like. Lauren (see previous post) offered to come over and show me some things next week so I am definitely looking forward to that. This is getting kind of addicting.

I'll move on to what is new in my life. Sea and Learn was so fun! I was sad I forgot my camera on Friday because they had all these kids from the drum band do a performance and they were SOOOOO good! And some of them were so little and cute. It looked like they ranged in age from about 6 - 18. Then we listen to this guy talk about over fishing of Tuna, Swordfish, Grouper, Sharks etc. Made me glad I don't really eat fish, see I'm doing my part to save them. Then on Monday night I went to another presentation and we learned about beaches and how they are formed. It was really interesting because they have a beach on the island that comes and goes. It usually comes in August and leaves around the beginning of December. This year with my luck there was no beach. It may have been because of all the large storms she said. Darn.

Friday I went out with some of the wives. Well first Lauren made us homemade pizza that was delicious then we headed down to Scout's Place to watch "Sabaoke" (I think I spelled that right). It is the only place that does karaoke on the island and they do it every Friday. I had a great time with the girls and can't wait to do it again.

It has really only been a few days since my last post so I don't have any picture well except of Sophie (of course). She is ridiculous. First of all she decided to sit on a chair and secondly look at that crazy smirk.


And yes there are a million jackets and sweaters on that chair. We ran out of closet space. 

If I can pull myself away from looking up blogging things I may have another post for you this week involving food. mmmmmmm