Back to Dominica, Back to Reality

I arrived in Dominica this afternoon and was welcomed by moist air, a loving and hungry husband, and a new place ready to be decorated and organized. Kyle and I both had such a great time on our visit home to AZ, but at the same time it was nice to get back to Dominica, for one main reason...we ran out of luggage space! Kyle and I each had 2 bags to check, weighing 50+ lbs. each, and we each had a carry-on and a LARGE personal item. I am sure we were both quite a sight as we walked through the airport. After an overnight layover in San Juan, made complete with an earthquake, and a flight delayed by an hour to Dominica. I was exhausted when I arrived, but I spent little time relaxing since I immediately wanted to start unpacking and organizing. Some of this time was spent redoing what Kyle had so "neatly" placed in cabinets and drawers. I appreciated the effort anyway. We grabbed dinner at KFC (it was one of the few places open on a Sunday night) and they surprisingly had chicken. By the way, Subway was open too, but they were out of bread. That night, as Kyle and I laid in bed we thought back to our wonderful trip home, so I thought I would share with you some of our favorite memories.

1. We, of course, loved getting to see family. We both took every advantage possible to see our families. We stayed with my parents, so we saw them often, and we were also able to be a part of a surprise award Beth, Kyle's mom, received for teaching. We had many dinners and lunches with everyone which is one of the main things that we miss while being here in Dominica. We also saw some of our closest friends while we were home. Unfortunately, our time seemed so short and we only got to see some of you briefly so I do apologize.
2. Kyle loved being able to go snowboarding in Utah, as well as golfing, fishing, and camping in AZ. He was quite a busy guy while we were at home. I hope he enjoyed every minute of it, since he is pretty much glued to the books while he's here. He really deserved the break. It's a lot of work to get straight A's, but he managed to do so. We're all so proud of him.
3. As many of you can imagine I did a fair amount of shopping. I shopped for not only clothes, but household items and home decor that would be practical for down here. In fact, Kyle and I went to Wal-Mart and were there for over 3 hours! I told him we needed to go up and down every isle, just in case we saw something we needed, and I don't think he thought I was serious, but sure enough we saw every inch of the store. Anyway, I can't wait to get everything together and take a video of our new place.
4. The day Kyle came back to Dominica, the 5th of May, I started work at Edible Arrangements with my mom as a temp. They use fill-in people around certain holidays, this one happened to be Mother's Day, and they were extremely busy. I worked Wednesday through Sunday for a total of 46 hours. I am not going to lie, I thought I would die the first day. It was so busy, we did over 200 orders, I wanted to take the skewer I put into the strawberries and stick it into my eye. I told this to my mom during our lunch break and she couldn't stop laughing. Glad she thinks my misery is funny, but I just couldn't believe she actually enjoyed her little part-time job. She explained to me that it wasn't always like this, so crazy, and if it were she wouldn't like it either. The next 4 days I was in charge of pineapple. Let me tell you, I never want to see another pineapple! Unfortunately, I believe it is about to be pineapple season here in Dominica. In the end, I actually had a great time and made some extra cash, which is always helpful.

That was our trip home in a nutshell. What a great time it was. Our next break, in August, we hope to visit another island. As for now, it's back to reality here in Dominica. For Kyle that means school and studying and for me that means...well, you all seem to have a good idea of my life here. Not such a bad reality, huh?