The Cluff's....Our journey continues: April 2007

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

FIRST SEMESTER EXAM DAY!!!

(BEN PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS!!! WAY TO GO!!!)

We just wanted to wish Ben good luck today on his last exams of the first semester! He has worked very hard this semester and we are glad to see it come to an end!!! Hip Hip Hooray for a two week break where Ben can actually enjoy the island!!!

We LOVE you Ben!!!!

-Holdyn and Jill

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Random Stuff

**Before I start....you can click on the pictures to enlarge and get a better look. FYI**

So a few random things have happened the last couple of days. Last night...Ben was up late studying in the front room and I had just fallen asleep when we hear...BANG...Bang...boom b-bang!!! At first we thought it was gunshots just outside! Then after Ben and I both freaked out....we noticed that a house across the bay was lit up with fireworks!! It was after 10:30 when they started. We're not talking just your play at home firework display....this was comparable to St. George's 4 of July!! There were a lot of people who heard it but couldn't see what was going on and thought the island was being bombed!! CRAZY! It turned out great...Ben and I just sat on our balcony and watched the 15-20 minute firework show. It was really neat...we could see the reflection of them on the bay. The pictures aren't the greatest but at least you get the idea. It was pretty cool.

Random thing #2 are these little lizards.

We've got a few of them running around outside and inside of our house. We actually like them.....they keep down on the bugs. It is just a little startling when they run across the wall next to you!!! Well, the other night...Ben had gotten up to go to the batheroom. He walked in and hadn't turned the light on yet when he feels a

"Squish" under his bare foot!!! YIKES!! He totally squished one of our little lizards! We were laughing soo hard! No more going to the batheroom without shoes for me!!

Random thing #3. THE MONKEY RETURNS!! Those of you who are moms...know that everytime you go anywhere your arms are loaded. Well, I was headed out for our morning walk this morning and I had Holdyn in one arm and my keys and water bottle in the other. I had just walked out and turned and closed the door. I locked it and turned around when I saw the monkey....about 5 ft from me...sitting on the porch railing!!! We looked at eachother...then I turned around and unlocked the door. I ran in and put Holdyn on the floor, grabbed the camera...but didn't get back quick enough to get a good picture before it jumped over the wall! We've gotta start feeding this thing! It's soo cool to see it up close!!

Random thing #4....I just had a few cutsie pictures of Holdyn. Here she is!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Yippee for Walking

As most of you know we were walking about 4.5 miles every morning with some of the gals in the SO. We walked M-F faithfully...that is until we were cornered by a local security guard and told we'd be arrested if we continued walking along a path near the Golf Course........which I might add we'd pass about 30 other walkers/joggers everymorning!!! He told us we were trespassing.......as for the others walking/jogging by....not a word was said to them. I guess it was only illegal for us with strollers to be walking there...nothing made much sense...but we decided to not get into any more trouble and we stopped walking there. It's not good to get a bad reputation here.....all of the locals remember your face and since it is such a small island...you see them again and again! It is best to keep the peace...after all we are guests on their island. This led to a month or so of not much exercise. The pounds and inches I was losing have jumped right back on and and brought their friends.

Thanks to a few of the other gals...I've been trying to get out and walk some new paths.

One of these awesome gals is Hillary! She is a supermom...having 3 kiddo's here with her on the island. In this picture you can't see her youngest strapped to her back! We just started walking together near her apt....about 20 minutes drive from our place (only a couple miles).

There are quite a few great walking hills....when I say hills...I mean steep, straight up hills! They don't believe in the "zig zag"

roads here...it is just straight up! I took a couple pictures but they don't do the incline quite the justice that it deserves! OBJECTS IN PICTURES ARE STEEPER THAN THEY APPEAR! Did I mension that I'm terrified of tripping and losing the stroller back down the hill?! If you slip on this, you wouldn't stop rolling until you hit the ocean! This is a valid concern seeing my track record of clumsiness!!

This next picture is looking back down the hill that we just conquered....

(you can click on it to enlarge) again... mucho steeper than it looks. After the first day of this my legs were sore! It felt GREAT!!

We get a lot of looks with the two of us pushing strollers.....Hillary's being a double jogger PLUS a little one strapped to her back! I don't know how she does it! I try to help out by pushing the double jogger sometimes...she is a toughie!

So what do we do after we exercise?!? WE EAT OF COURSE!!

This is a random picture of me and cute Candace from Georgia eating at Pineapple Pete's restaurant.....one of the SO favorites!

Baby Swap

Here is Holdyn and Jack. Two of the cutest and happiest babies on St. Maarten!
We've just started swapping kids with some good friends down the road, so on occasion we can have an actual date. Plus, it is good for them to be around other kids and moms. I know Holdyn is becoming very attached to her mom and dad.....she is my little shadow, from sun up to sundown.

Jack is the cutest and cuddliest little boy. He and Holdyn are close to the same age and are at the "emotional" phase. If one of them made a peep...the other thought they were crying and would start wailing!!

It was hillarious...they just fed off eachother, and the cries got louder and louder! It was funny, but we were very glad it only lasted about a half hour! Then they calmed down and played great together.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Monkey Business???

Okay, so we got up at 6 this morning and were going through the regular routine. At about 7:30, I sat down on our sofa and looked out the sliding glass doors. We are on the second floor and have a small balcony. I saw something jump onto the fence/wall just off the balcony. I thought it was a cat...since there are about 500 strays running around. But, with a closer look I noticed it was much larger and had a super long tail!!! It was a MONKEY!!!! Yep, a monkey!! Just 12 feet or so from our balcony. I yelled for Ben to come and see. He was just as shocked as I was! We grabbed the camera, but by the time we got the shot, we just got it's tail end!

At first I thought it must be someone's pet. But, nobody was around, and it was bigger than the pets I've imagined. As I talked with people throughout the day, I learned that there are monkeys around...but hardly anyone sees them! LUCKY US! We got a front row seat! I was a little scared to leave later with the baby....what if it wanted to eat us!? We haven't seen it around since.

Seriously, the COOLEST things happen in St. Maarten! You never know what you are going to see!!

Ben did some research to see if we could find out what kind of monkey it actually was and we think it was this one.....it's called a green vervet monkey. Cool eh?