Good Things Ahead

We have had a really great week. Oliver has had to work this weekend, which was a bummer, but it's the first time it's happened since we got here so I really can't complain. Mostly this post is going to be a random mix of stuff, so bear with me.

First, I have finally figured out where to send our Church records. Through a convoluted way, we received a phone call from the President of the Kingston Jamaica Mission. We'll be sending our tithing to the mission office and can do interviews and such there, too.

He did confirm that as far as he knows, we are the only LDS members on Andros Island. That is a very weird feeling, but I kind of already knew that. It's going to be an interesting challenge, but I believe we will be fine.

Ok, on to happening number two: Yesterday, they had a craft fair on base. I wasn't able to get there until the afternoon so I missed quite a few of the booths, but I was able to stop and talk to some people manning a booth with cake and jams on it. I felt like I was back in Washington at a farmer's market for a minute there, and it was a good feeling.

Apparently, they make the jams on base with mostly local fruits. The store here only carries jams and jellies containing high fructose corn syrup. Since we don't eat that, I was worried we were going to have to ship some in from Florida or order online, but now I don't have to. I quite happily bought a kind called Guinep to try. Here is a pic of it. You'll have to pardon the weird marks on the table. I swear, I actually wash it; the flash just bounced off the wet marks:

 The jelly is actually more of a pale orange, but the aforementioned flash messed it up and I'm not yet handy enough with Photoshop to fix it. Or edit out the bad table marks. In taste, it is very mild. We had it in sandwiches for lunch today, and Wyatt refused to try it because it's not his normal strawberry, but everyone else liked it. I will just have to wait until the strawberry is gone for Wyatt to become a convert. When he has no choice, he's pretty good about eating what there is.

Next time, I'm going to buy some passion fruit jelly. That really sounds good.

The third thing to share are a few beach pictures. I have many more, including some very windy shots from last weekend, but I have zero patience to weed through them right now. I have managed to bring my camera to the beach several times in the last week, but these pictures were taken on Veteran's Day. After the ceremony, Oliver had to go to work, so I packed up the boys and took them to play in the sand. I appreciate that we are so close to the beach that it is not intimidating to do that here. It takes more time to get us all ready than it does to drive there. We just played for about an hour until they were ready for lunch, then we went back home.

Finally, I leave you with this fabulous photo of our youngest. We very rarely buy chips, but when I left to go to the store yesterday, Oliver asked me to bring some home for him. When I got there, all they had were these jalapeno Doritos and some baked Lay's barbecue chips. They are playing war games this week, which is why Oliver is working this weekend, so the place is swarming (well, as swarming as it ever gets around here) with pilots and helo crews. The bonus for us is many a fantastic helicopter sighting, including watching them carry the torpedoes mid-air, but the downside is all the chips were bought up. So, jalapeno chips it was.

Oliver opened them right away, and we all tried them. They were pretty hot, and Wyatt was quickly disinterested. Oscar, though, he dove right in. We had to cut him off after awhile. Apparently, this little guy likes it spicy. He also asked for some hot sauce on his pasta tonight and actually ate it. He never ceases to surprise me. I'm really, really happy he joined our crazy clan.