Weekend Shenanigans

Our weekend started off to a rocky start, I was not a happy camper that our Jeep had arrived on the island Thursday morning and hadn't been unloaded from the containers that sat right next to the POV lot.  We must have stalked that dang lot at least 20 times!! Just unload it already!!!! I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that our Jeep was there just sitting in a storage pod and they wouldn't get to work and unload it.  The workers here work in SLOOOOOW MOOOOOTION!!! It's very annoying!! We decided we needed some cheering up since we obviously weren't going to get it from enjoying our first Jeep ride in Cuba.  So we decided to head to the beach!! It was beautiful as always with huge waves.  We spent a few hours playing in the water and soaking up the sun.

 

The Movie Theater was closed for repairs so we decided to have an at home date night. We rented Tyler Perry's Temptation and Identity Thief.  Both were good!!

We grabbed some drinks to help us unwind. Tequila Rose = Yumm-o!!!! Tom of course had Bud Light but that's not as pretty to photograph!!

 

Saturday I met up with Alison to head over to Ferry Landing to welcome a few new families to the island!! When we arrived it was so nice to have people waiting to welcome us I knew I just had to make the new families feel just as welcomed! 

This is the ferry that goes from one side of base to the other. It's the only way to get over to this side of the island from the airport. 

Sea glass I found on the beach while waiting for the ferry to cross over!!

After welcoming the new families I went home and grabbed Tom so we could check the POV lot to see if the Jeep had been unloaded.  We were so excited to see that it had in fact been unloaded!! We called to see if we could get it out of the lot but were told that we needed to have temporary registration on it before they would unlock the gate for us to get it out.  The BRO (base registration office) is only open Mon-Fri so it had to stay locked behind the gate all weekend :(

 

Shortly after getting back home with out the jeep good news did grace us!! The movie theater had been fixed!!!  We hung out in the backyard playing with the dogs and talking about what all we wanted to do with the backyard.  The sky was amazing to say the least, the colors were so vibrant the pictures just don't do it justice!!

 

 

The Heat was playing at the downtown Lyceum at 10:30pm. We have been waiting for it to finally show down here so when we found out it was playing we knew we had to go! 

 

Sunday we went to the Nex/Commissary to get some groceries. I figured I would show you a picture of the place that drains our pocket book. COUPONS PEOPLE COUPONS!! PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP!!

 

We were invited to have dinner at Tom's Patrol Supervisors house.  They are the nicest people!! We hit it off right away.  They have the cutest little girl, she warmed right up to Tom.  Who am I kidding? ALL kids warm right up to him, he's such a natural.  They made us these amazing Mexican fiesta bowls.....OMG delicious!! I have never been able to find a wine I actually enjoy. I am 100% a fruity drink girl.  I tried some Barefoot Moscato wine and I loved it!! It went on the list to buy next time we get groceries!!

 

We ended our weekend watching Dexter.  I have loved every season of Dexter, this is the last season and I am so disappointed!! It has been so boring!! They better pick up the pace and end it with a bang!!! All in all we had a good weekend regardless if they held our jeep hostage. I love it when the hubby has weekends off!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ongoings

This is how Dakota spends most of his days......can we say enjoying the lazy laid back island life? 

Loving his daddy!! 

We checked out the Windjammer Pool the other day!! Think resort style pool.....yep it's amazing!! Complete with several water slides and a rock climbing wall!! Oh and weird outside bathrooms with no ceilings!!

A visit to the pool isn't complete without a little Caribbean sunburn....even with SPF 30!!

 The sunsets here are AHHHMAAAZING!! I usually run in the evenings and always get a beautiful masterpiece to look at!! 

 I have been enjoying making real dinners even if we eat them redneck style!! Styrofoam plates and plastic bowls are the new fancy china!!! 

I have been craving ice cream so bad!! It's my summer time addiction!! However, I have been doing so good avoiding temptation so we decided on skinny cow fudge sickels instead of Ben & Jerry's. We were warned that the ice cream here has a tendency to melt on the barge and then refreeze when put into the freezers at the commissary.  This is what I pulled out of the package......looks like poop on a stick but it still tastes good!!

We have been dog sitting for friends the past week. These two did not get along well the first few days at all!!! They tolerate each other now but they still like to tick each other off from time to time. 

I had my first visit to the hospital this week. Have no fear this is where all the primary care managers offices are located. The hospital is bigger than I imagined it being and my PCM is nice. With that being said I really miss Dr Schexnaydre. I had to wait an hour for test results that normally take just a few minutes. I had blood work drawn by a guy who wasn't quite sure what he was doing. He did get blood on the first try but he forgot to take off the tourniquet so my blood was pouring out. I have a nice bruise from it and won't know those results for 3 weeks!! I would normally have those results in just a few hours back home. At least it's nothing urgent and the good news is I won't die in the mean time :) 

I got bit by something, I think I would rather not know what bit me and just go ahead and assume it was JUST a mosquito!!! It doesn't really itch or hurt its just gross and looks like I have a nipple growing out the top of my boob!! 

Good Morning Cuba!!! You are so beautiful!!

So now that I have rambled on and on about what has been going on for the past few days I will leave you with a picture of Dakota and I. He was so happy to see me after I got back from running. I'm pretty sure he was worried I just may die out there!! Tom works tonight.....Boo!!!! But he does have a 3 day weekend!! Here's to hoping we can at least pick up our Woman Jeep (as my nephew would say) sometime this weekend and take her to the beach!!! Hopefully our household goods will be ready for delivery early next week!! 

Keeping it real

Although we are enjoying our new adventure there are a few things that are less than desired. I figured I should keep it real and document the good and the bad.

1.)  The Internet connection here is ok for surfing the web and Facebook. It's not fast by any means but it gets the job done. My biggest complaint is that there is no 3G anywhere on island meaning I can't go for a run and listen to slacker radio. Slacker does have the awesome option that allows you to cache content so you can listen to music without needing wifi. AWESOME!! However with that being said, our Internet here does not have the capacity to refresh my cached content. NOT SO AWESOME!! Running without music is lame!! 

2.) The options we have here for groceries, household needs, clothing, ect are slim pickins!! Our Nex and commissary are pretty small in comparison to those that I have seen else where. 

3.) Everything is expensive!! 

4.) The healthcare here is laughable to me. This could be because I have a background in the medical field and that I am extremely biased to my Dr and Nurse back home. I went into the hospital for an appointment the other day and had to wait an hour for test results that are normally readable in 3 minutes!! I had lab work done only to find out the blood has to be shipped out to Florida to be tested and results will take 3 weeks!! I think this has been by far the biggest culture shock to me. I knew coming here that they had the bare minimum level of care but I guess I hadn't fully grasped just how minimal it would be. Let's hope there is never a life or death emergency!! 

5.) Everything is slow, the speed limit is 25mph all over base. I have a feeling I am going to end up with a few run ins with the law!! I just don't have the patients to go slow!! I have places to be and things to do and I want to go fast!! :) good thing my husband is an MA!! We have been waiting on our HHG and POV to arrive and it seems like it is taking FOREVER!! Once it does arrive we will most likely have to wait 4 more days before it can be delivered!! 

6.) No cell phones, this one is on the bottom of the list because its not so bad I suppose. It just stinks that I can't call or text the hubby when he is on his way home from work to pick something up from the store or remind him to run and errand. It also stinks when you are out and about and are expecting a phone call. If you aren't home waiting for it then you will miss it. 

So really none of those are serious enough to make me hate living here. All of the good things makes up for the few not so awesome ones!! Never had I imagined these would be my biggest dislikes!! I thought for sure my list of not so great would look like this.

1.) huge spiders

2.)scorpions

3.) iguanas

4.) snakes

5.) any kind of bug

I has yet to see any kind of spider, scorpion, or snakes!! I would love to keep it that way!! The iguanas are ugly but they leave you alone for the most part. I almost died of a heart attack leaving the NEX the other day when I ran into GODZILLA sitting in the atrium begging for some guys to give him their lunch!!! He was the biggest nastiest thing I have ever seen!! Imagine a lizard as big as Dakota!!! 

Housing pics (before)

Everyone has been asking to see pics of the house. Keep in mind we have yet to receive our house hold goods so we are living with the bare minimum and little organization. I will post more pics once we have our things are are settled. But for now here is what it looks like. Starting with our bedroom. This is the room that we see the sunset and the water.

 

This is the full bathroom upstairs

Hallway upstairs

2nd bedroom (the room we see the mountains and sunrise)

Downstairs