My parents are coming, my parents are coming!

And they're bringing brownies!

We have a busy weekend planned with all the Family Weekend activities hosted by SGU.
They should arrive around 8:10pm tonight, hopefully through customs, baggage and the other customs by 9pm.  Then we'll take a taxi to their hotel, the Grenada Grand Beach Hotel.  I'm taking them some snacks and breakfast for the morning (they could have had breakfast every morning at $40usd extra/night hotel rate!).

Tomorrow, Thursday, we will relax at their hotel while Mark is in classes.  Maybe I'll even make lunch or dinner at the dorm so they can see what a normal-ish day is like!

Friday, we'll pick up our registration information and tickets.  Do some more relaxing.  And then head to Fish Friday in Gouyave (pronounced like Guava minus the last "a").  Here we can get fish prepared many different ways from local vendors while listening to the live music.  Mark and I went a few weeks back after his midterms and I had forgotten to put my memory card back in my camera, so we didn't get any pictures!  Redemption!

Saturday, there is a brunch with the administration with great "mingling opportunities."  Aka: free food.  We'll be there.  That afternoon, we are taking a bus tour around the island.  There are a few places Mark and I have been, as well as some just I have been, and places that are even new to me!  If this is anything like the island tour we just did with the SOs, it will be longer than the three and a half hours it's slated for...  I hope to take them out to dinner after--we don't do that much here, but they are on vacation, so we'll take advantage of that!

Sunday from 9:30am-3:30pm is a catamaran cruise to somewhere (I'm guessing).  I'm really excited about this trip because it'll be a different view of the island for me and just a fun, relaxing way to enjoy our company!  Not to mention lunch and drinks are included!  Sunday night, soon after arriving back from our boat trip, there is a cultural BBQ at the University Club (where we get to have our pool days twice a week and where guest faculty get to stay in style!) with live music on the beach.

Monday, the three of us depart and leave Mark with his school stuff, after what was hopefully a relaxing and much-needed break!  My itinerary for DC is almost non-existent, other than arrive and leave, so I'm very excited to have a lot planned for this week and then not a lot planned for next week (but I'm sure I'll stay busy none-the-less)!

What a whirlwind the next week and a half will be! And did I mention I return on Friday (hopefully! flying standby is a little scary!) where TCU is playing BYU in the Cowboy stadium--really hoping to catch the last half!  Saturday morning is a kickball tournament, Saturday afternoon is the SO midterm social on the beach with watersports, Saturday night is the SO halloween party.  And then Monday is a Fall Festival where all the SO's families can take their kids trick-or-treating to the faculty members; we'll have games and a cake walk, too!  So scratch what I said about a busy week and a half and make that a busy rest of October!

And since a post without a picture is just boring, here are a few pictures!

Mark's Post-it Calendar/School schedule from now through mid terms!  The missing post-its are days without classes!

Sandblast!  They encourage drinking...they give your a cup and a lanyard, and the alcohol  is free.  The food, however, costs extra.  Not smart!  

Mark and I riding the "inner tube" behind the boat.   Another think provided for free at Sandblast!  We were wildly sore after this adventure!  

Where did the first half of October go!?

Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  I think about it all the time, but to actually make time for it has been difficult.  Since my last post, a lot has happened!  More board game days (the perfect escape from school work!), more board meetings,  a disaster preparation talk, a PAM Lunch, Bingo Night, shooting baskets with Kat, LIMES music lessons, budget hair cut, sushi night, Island Tour, Mark's midterms, an SGU talent show, etc.  I've been trying to get ahead in school work to prepare for my parents' arrival and my week away from the island.  I'm actually quite stressed as of the last couple of days!

PAM (Program for Adolescent Mothers) Luncheon
The lunch we went to last Thursday was for a great cause.  We took about 3 car load from the IGA up into the mountains to the beautiful PAM building where they held a lunch for us.  The lunch is served by the girls in the program who are using it to get real job-training skills.  It was a great time, with great company, and though the service wasn't great, we were just fine being the practice patients for these wonderful ladies!

awesome building, awesome view!

The menu, though we had to RSVP with our choices nearly a week prior!

The snack before the appetizer (so it wasn't on the menu and I don't really know what it was, but it was good!)

The set-up was really cute!  2 tables, big open room with the breeze blowing through (it actually rained most of the time, but we were far enough away that we were just feeling the cool breeze!)

Pumpkin Soup appetizer (very common Grenadian dish)

Main course (potatoes, veggies, and some sort of fish--too fishy for me, and too cold by the time I ate--one of our table-mates waited nearly half an hour longer for her dish; we gave up after about 5 minutes in!)

Pineapple upside-down cake and nutmeg ice cream!

It's very normal not to split the check...I guess they're good to go on that one!   Only one dropped tray!  I would say they are on their way to success!

The group!

Mark finished his Midterms!  He was happy with his grades!  It wasn't too stressful of a week.  It was three tests spread out of 5 days with a day in between each.  Friday, Mark had a written Anatomy test, and then time off before he had to report to the cadaver lab for his practical.  I was at a surprise birthday lunch for a friend off campus, but Mark informed me that he ate his lunch while watching some review slides of cut-open bodies.  I guess he's growing more accustomed to being around dead bodies...  I'm trying to grow more accustom to the smell of formaldehyde, which strongly lingers on his scrubs when he comes back from lab!  Some of the things we did to relax that weekend were lunch at umbrellas (which I had been to a couple weeks before with Jessie; Mark had never been) and a visit to the beach for an evening swim!  We also did a lot of sports watching and catching up on TV shows.

How does it feel to be done with Midterms? 

At Umbrellas!  I have the beach view...because...

Mark wanted the TV view (strategically hidden behind my head!)

Mark's pepper and bbq sauce burger

My chicken salad (they were both delicious!)  We also got sweet potato fries which are amazing!  

 And the next evening at the beach again!

Waiting for the awful weekend buses--they can not keep a schedule!  

BINGO Night at Prickly Bay

There are two wonderful ladies who have to leave the island early due to discovering that med school isn't the right path.  We had a fun get together at a local marina restaurant on their behalf!

Laminated, downloaded bingo cards and dry erase markers.  TIG's bingo hall!  

Relaxing outside, next to the ocean, playing bingo.  No big deal.  :)

I ended winning a raffle prize of $25 credit to the cell phone company that I don't use.  I traded it for my third of pizza (about $10).  Fair trade in my opinion!

I attempted to give Mark a haircut.  Here are the before pictures...

And for some reason, I don't have any after pictures!  Oh well!  :)  It wasn't a terrible result.  He didn't have to wear a hat to class or anything.  But it was definitely not the work of someone who knew what they were doing.  Maybe next time I'll look up a tutorial on youtube first.  Or pay the approx $8usd to get someone else to do it!

Just another day!

This has been my most time consuming week so far in my masters degree, but I'm still loving it!

Mark has been surprisingly not super busy (I swear I did more school work than he did yesterday!).  He is really good at getting off task (he's watching the GameTracker for TCU, Rangers, and Cowboys, which kept him quite occupied this weekend), and can be a problem because he has midterms this week!  Starting tomorrow morning!  It's biochem, his least comfortable subject and he's ready to get it over with.  He feels comfortable enough with it, hence his lack of studying, but let's just hope it's enough to pull out a good grade!  The midterms are 40% of his overall class average.  Wednesday morning is Histology and Friday morning is Anatomy (followed by a practical).  He has no classes in between, so after his test tomorrow, I hope he'll go back to studying.  And just to brag a little...  Mark is really good with case studies.  They had a practice hour last week where they did 1 case from start to finish, adding in new information as they went, explaining how it was tying in topics discussed thus far in class.  Mark knew probably about 5 minutes into the lecture what the diagnoses was, but each new patient history or test result confirmed his suspensions.  And when the professor asked what the diagnosis was to the class, he was the one to answer!  He sits in the back, left side of the room; there were probably about 450 people there that day...and now he better watch out because he's "that guy"....   Oh, our big mouths.  :)  The actual diagnoses had not been discussed in class, but because of his scribing in the ER, that was easy.  It's those days that inspire him to get through the book work of years 1 and 2 and get to the states for clinicals--where they get to do those sort of things all the time!

I am constantly reminded by reasons Mark and I are so compatible.  Today we had an argument.  Not your typical "I'm mad about this," just a normal debate.  We have normal debates.  That is normal right?  We argue political points, psychological philosophies, what would you do scenarios, etc. even when we don't believe it.  Just to argue.  Argue has such a negative connotation, but I love it when we argue!  We always end in smiles, better educated, and more in tune and in sync than before.  I can't remember what it was, just how fun it is for someone to understand me as well as Mark does, and vice versa.

Random today-notes:

• Mark and I never left the apartment, other than stepping on to the balcony to see what the construction was doing several times to to see the sunset which was beautiful as always...oh and I let a bug out the front door.  






• The construction noise started around 7:30 or 7:45 this morning...on a Sunday.  So weird.  I think I said something about how eerily peaceful it was outside on Saturday.  We are speculating that they are expanding the awesome parking lot view that we have.  
• I wrote some more thank you notes for our wedding gifts today.  I feel so bad that they haven't all be sent yet...but I'm still going to do them.  Even if people have forgotten they got us something, Mark and I are so grateful that we want to tell those people!  And we'll blame it on the Grenadian mail system.  Or the US one which is probably more an issue as of lately.  
• Another Mark and Myra moment: we watched the Daily Show (we are almost a week behind!) today with dinner.  So good.  It's awesome to get to laugh with politics, such a depressing and seemingly hopeless field currently.  To my republican friends, Ron Paul is pretty awesome.  Too bad the media sucks and can't get him some coverage--maybe it's a good thing when you can't uncover controversy...just saying.  What have our politics come to?!  Has anyone seen Rick Perry's movie trailers...I mean political ads?  Seriously wishing we could cash in drama and special effects for policies, effectiveness, and capabilities.  Jon Stewart 2012.  But seriously, I think Obama's time to shine would be right around the corner if he wasn't having an epic battle with the House.  Here's to resolution, please!
• I made chicken nuggets for dinner.  Mark said he didn't even think of those as a homemade commodity.  And the thought never crossed my mind, until I found a great deal on chicken breasts at IGA.  :)



Cut chicken breast, coated with milk, egg, and cracker crumbs seasons with thyme and pepper (the crackers I bought at IGA were pretty stale, so I used as much as possible), and pan-fried.  Delicious dipped in honey and BBQ sauce!  I also made hush puppies with the left over batter (great with ketchup), and had green beans for that green veggie thing that you're supposed to eat so much of...





The mess.  Inevitable.  But hey, the counter space problem is better!  

• I made dessert, too.  Yesterday (and before lunch today), it was a cookie cake in the microwave--I'm desperate for my sweets!  Today, it was a banana split!  Only, blue bell is like $12 and it's been the same 5 flavors in Food Fare for weeks (so probably not fresh), and I imagine ice cream melts before you can get it home.  So we used vanilla yogurt!  Yum!  



Large banana, cut in half then in halves.  Vanilla yogurt, Hershey's chocolate, sprinkles and cherries!  :)