Happy New Year

It's hard to believe we are almost six months in to our two years! Not a lot has been going on here in paradise lately. Unfortunately, even though our boat had a brand new engine, we have been experiencing a few problems. Hopefully we will have it back up and running normally soon before our next strand of guests gets here. We have three sets of guests coming within about three weeks of each other starting at the end of February. We are excited to have friends and family back down to visit us!

R has still been traveling frequently to St. Thomas and Puerto Rico for work. Since everyone seems to have keys to our condo (part of island life we just can't get used to), H needed to feel a little more secure while R was gone, so we have installed some extra locks on the doors. R is back in Dallas in April, and H is looking forward to be coming along again.

We are loving our condo. Especially the fact that we can walk right down to the casino. We don't go that often, but have both been pretty lucky lately. They even have a free Bingo game on Sundays! We started the P90X workout program at the end of the year that is for 90 days and we work out right on the patio usually watching the sunrise over the water in the mornings. We just started week five and H is counting down the days until day 90!

The weather has been so great lately. We heard a lot about the Christmas winds, which seem to have arrived a month late this year. It is a nice constant breeze with some really strong gusts. H thought we were going to blow away last night. It has been nice keeping things a little cooler than the hot summer months when we first arrived. We got our first electric bill which was $150. Not bad considering what we have heard about electricity, but if you look at the small amount of power we try to use, along with no air, it's pretty steep compared to the states. So we are still very thankful that we haven't had to run our a/c. We're not looking forward to those bills when we actually have to turn it on!!!

Sophie had a big birthday a week ago turning 12! We are both sad to see her getting older, although she is doing pretty well, and she loves living on the island. H celebrated her birthday a couple of days ago. We headed out to the crab races with a group of friends and then to the condo for cake and drinks. It was lots of fun, and we feel very lucky to have met such great friends. We went on our second search for chaney. Chaney is broken pieces of china that the slaves broke many years ago that you can find on old plantations and some beaches. It is really like searching for a needle in a haystack, but we have been lucky enough to find some pieces. Most of it is the blue and white china, but H has her heart set on finding some brown or pink which is much more rare. It can be made into jewelry, so when H finds the perfect piece, she wants to have a necklace or bracelet made.