A Room with a View

What a beautiful morning! I'm having coffee with what is truly a 'million dollar view' and it's ours! As I look out I can see Buck Island, St. John, St. Thomas, and possibly Tortola, along with a couple small islands I've yet to learn.  The sail boats are beginning to come into Buck Island, full of snorkelers and divers. I'm surrounded on either sides by rolling green hills lush and full of vegetation with intermittent  yellow clusters of flowers.  The birds and chirping and the doves singing their sweet song.  It's about 78 degrees already and there's a light breeze but not strong enough to keep the mosquitos away, they are out for blood and it's usually mine!

A Long Time Coming

We got the call late Wednesday night that closing was set for 8am Thursday morning and we couldn't of been happier.  We reminisce about our honeymoon almost 13 years ago when we took a trip to Aruba and said to each other how awesome it would be to live in a place where the sun and moon were so large and on any given night we could see millions of stars in the sky. We are still pinching ourselves that this is reality.

The House

Yesterday was a full day.  We closed, came back to the house had a quick breakfast and were off the the races packing up all of our things in the rental property.  We loaded up the jeep with as much as it would carry and headed to the new house.  Rob sweetly carried me over the threshold and we headed straight for the patio.  The moment didn't last too long as there is lots of work to be done.  Number one on the list is vacuum up all the dead bugs and spider webs that have accumulated over time focusing on the bedrooms so we get a good nights sleep.

After teaching the boys how to mow, which they did great and Rob had some 'mowing therapy' (as he calls it) of his own Rob went back to the rental for the second load and I continued to sweep away taking the occasional break to have it out with an army of mosquitos.  As those close to me know, I don't kill things, however, I must admit, I sucked up a few yesterday.

Our tall grass with a Sugar Mill in the background.

Don't Chop Trees!

The boys enjoyed their day too.  Wednesday in Gallow's Bay we stopped by the hardware store.  One important staple for island life is a machete.  Now, I'm not really stoked about the fact of boys running around wielding knives but boys will be boys.  A couple of words of advice from dear mom before they ran into the woods behind our house, "Okay boys, no sword fighting and no cutting down anything that is alive.  No trees, no bushes.  Got it?"  Of course I hear "Yes Mom!" as they run away.  I  can hear the clink of the machete against hard surfaces, I look at Rob, "You don't think they are sword fighting do you?" He replies with a shrug so I head out to check.  Well they weren't, but the a poor tree was nearly in half.  I scold them and they respond defensively how they were sure it was dead.  We had a lesson on how when green leaves are coming out of something, it's alive.  Today might be a good day for another tree lesson.

Supervision Required! 

Nathaniel practicing his machete techniques.

How Can You Beat This?

We worked until 6 or so and took a break for dinner.  We ate a Mahi's, somewhere we haven't been before.  It's a group of bungalows with a beachside restaurant and bar.  We took a walk on their beach after dinner and headed home, preparing the beds and getting cleaned up for a welcomed slumber.  And  it was nice, the next thing I knew, the sun was up, I rolled over and took in the view....talk about waking up in a good mood.