It's Winter I Think

Okay, so it's winter. It's cold. I have to wear pants. I have to wear a jacket in the mornings when I drive the quad to work. I have to sleep under a blanket. I guess on the upside, it's not raining anymore and the sun has come out. I know it's been cold because Ross has put pants on too.

Well, as of today, the swimming pool is sort of fixed. The leaks are fixed we think and the painting repairs have been done. Ross started refilling the pool at 10 am this morning and after eight hours, it is about half full. By tomorrow, it should be full, chemicals can be added and we are good to go. The only work left is some exterior cement repairs which Ross and I decided we would do ourselves instead of waiting for warranty work. For something that should have taken a couple of weeks at most, it's now been two and a half months.

Doggies
Not many new developments with the dogs. Boss is growing like a bad weed. He is now 18 weeks old and weighs about 50 lbs. I can't pick him up anymore and if he decides to be stubborn and not move, Ross has to intervene. He really is a good natured dog and hasn't been very destructive. His only real claim to fame is up-rooting a few trees, stripping leaves of the banana trees, chewing up one of Ross's shoes and picking green tomatoes off the tomato plants. He loves to go for walks and is behaving nicely on the leash. His ears are now standing up completely which this picture from about two weeks ago shows his ears still flopping down. He's getting a really big bark too!

We're planning a Chinese potluck night at our home next month with some friends. Ross and I are going to be doing all the cooking (Ross makes a mean chow mein). Should be a good time..last get together we had at our friends house had several people taking a midnight dip...I was extremely well behaved and didn't get into any trouble!! Ross would probably say that was a first but I have to admit it was only because I've been sick with a bad chest cold. Tourists are bringing so many cold and flu bugs to the island that everyone is getting sick.

The doors are in! Ross has got our fabulous mahogany doors installed. They look great! He's got some finishing touches left to do but they are functional. They have really changed the atmosphere of the house...really nice finishing touch. He's got a few talents I didn't know he had!

A couple of weekends ago, a family friend named Allison Sade Rivera performed her singing along with her band at the Jolly Roger to a full house. What a talented young lady. I think she has some of her music up on You Tube so if you are interested and have the time, search her music and enjoy! We wish her success!

Ross had a run-in with a wasp last weekend. Fortunately for Ross, the wasp lost this round. Thankfully, we had an Epi-pen handy and there were no ill effects. We are working on getting a new supply of Epi-pens from Canada as they are not available in the DR. Strange because I am sure that people have severe allergies in this country too.

We got some bad news about a week and a half ago. My ex-husband, Dale, has suffered a brain aneurysm and had to have emergency surgery. He hasn't yet woken up from the coma he has been in. Krista and Kaylen have made a couple of trips to Saskatoon to see him. Dale's wife, Stephanie, and the rest of his family have been with him and remain hopeful that he will begin the long road to recovery. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of them at this difficult time.

We are awaiting the arrival of spring and some fantastic thunderstorms. I love a good thunderstorm! The weather should starting getting much hotter soon too. Gotta get that suntan back!

OMG....again

We have had alot of experiences since we have moved to the DR...however, I can honestly say that after experiencing a hurricane, my next least favorite experience is an earthquake..

Earthquakes make you feel like you have had a cervesa or two too many...a floating feeling...your stomach isn't quite right...I have a friend who described the feeling as being on a gently rocking boat...that's a very good description. The first one we experienced made me think that the dogs were running under my lawnchair and moving it around...but....no dogs...

The strongest tremor we felt was 5.1, we have also had several aftershocks which gave our windows a good rattle.

I don't like earthquakes.

The pool isn't fixed yet...and that's all I'm going to say about that.

Ross has a new project. Friends gave us some fabulous mahogany doors. He is going to install them into one of the door arches in our house.

I am going to move away until the work is complete (won't be any arguing that way...safer for everyone...lol)

Oh...and Ross can keep the dogs while I am away! LMAO

The sun has finally been shining again...poop is drying so now I have a project too....

Life is moving at a frantically, leisurely pace...wow...an oxymoron if you ever had one!

Work is good...life is good...who give a rat's *$$ is my pool isn't fixed!

Cheers!

OMG

I have four dogs and I'm retarded.

Dog #1 - Jack
Jack desparately needs a nail trim. Jack won't let me touch his feet because when he was young, I cut one of his nails too short and I hurt him. He tried to bite me. Ever tried to hold onto a 45 lb washing machine agitator that is trying to bite you? Ok, I decided it just isn't worth it so I have a special treat for Jack that I picked up at the animal shelter.......no, it's not "THE" shot, I picked up a nice little pre-op sedative for him...hehehe...I'm gonna knock him out and cut his nails!

Dog #2 - Shelby
Shelby thinks he is a cat and a racoon. He hunts small crawling things and sometimes eats them too. He chases the cat over the furniture and makes everything like his own personal jungle gym. He also excels on gathering up all of the dog toys and makes a pile of them on the couch so the other dogs can't get at them. He also has an obession with NOT getting his feet wet...now, this is a bit of a problem right now because it has been raining so much.

Dog #3 - Chip aka Devil Dog
Okay, so Chip isn't really that bad of a dog anymore now that he spends quality time in his own sin bin when we go out. No more chewed furniture, dishes, towels, pillows etc. However, I did learn a difficult lesson...don't place the sin bin under clothes hanging to dry because Chip can pull clothes through the tiny little spaces on the side of the kennel and chew them up. Lesson learned: place the kennel in the middle of the room where he can't reach ANYTHING!!

Dog #4 - Boss...the baby
So, we have had Boss for about five weeks now. When we got him, he was smaller than the cat..maybe four lbs. Boss is now 10 weeks old and weighs about 25 lbs. He is a mean, lean, pooping machine who has discovered the joys of tormenting the cat and the older dogs. He is developing this huge deep bark which he loves to use constantly when playing, and even more so when he is being ignored.

Okay, so when you have FOUR dogs barking, you simply want to hide in a dark space and suck your thumb in the fetal position. Now, I don't mind when the dogs are barking outside at something they are supposed to bark at, but seriously, it just isn't necessary to bark just because you can. We are working at this terrible behaviour, but dogs are like kids...they just won't listen.

Ever played Balls??

What a riot. Ross and I played Balls at our friends, Bruce and Mary's house. Now, playing balls outside can be somewhat dangerous expecially if you aren't looking at what you are doing. Teams of two work best. Balls is a game of skill and mostly luck when there is a small quantity of alcohol involved.

Now, GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER!!!!!

Balls is two drilled out golf balls tied on a length of rope ( O-------O ). You hang onto one ball and carefully swing the two balls towards a plastic frame about four feet high that looks kinda like a ladder that has three rungs. If you are skilled, but more lucky than anything, and managed to get your balls hanging on the rung, you score points. Distracting the other team is allowed.

Swimming Pool Repairs
Well, the time finally arrived to have the warranty work done on our swimming pool.

This work started in the middle of December.

Step 1 involved a Dominican pool expert (LMAO) plumber type guy showing up to assess the situation.

FYI - he speaks almost no English and saying hello doesn't count.

Step 2 involved a jack hammer and our shovel. This guy proceeded to break a hole in our concrete/rock patio and dig a hole down to the pipe work. THERE WAS NO LEAK THERE.

Keep in mind we tried to tell him where the leak was.

Step 3 involved digging up the grass in each location of the water circulation jets around our pool. THERE WAS NO LEAK THERE either. Now my yard looks like land mines have gone off and the dogs (remember the thing about me being retarded) are really loving the piles of dirt (and remember it has been raining quite a bit) and they love the muddy dirt. The cat is loving climbing into the bottoms of these holes which are about two feet deep.

Step 4 involved digging up the lawn checking the line that run from the pool into the pool house. Guess what? He found a small, insignificant leak but to look on the positive side, he finally found something!

Step 5 involved smashing another hole in our patio. No jack hammer this time, just a hammer and a chisel and friggin conrete flying EVERYWHERE! Finally....SUCCESS! He found a major leak where the pipe ran through the pool wall right where we tried to tell him it was leaking. Just like one of your kids...they just don't listen to you.

Safety equipment?? You have got to be kidding me.

Step 6 involved this big hole being broken into the side of the pool. What a soggy slopping wet mess of mushy concrete. So, now all this wet sloppy mess has to be broken out and guess where the bulk of it is landing? In the three feet of water still in the pool. We decided it would probably be a good idea to drain the pool at this point.

Step 7 involved repairing all the holes the land mines made.

Don't get too excited, we were far from done. One major leak found, one yet to be discovered. Only, the non-english speaking dude doesn't understand. So, we have to talk to his boss who is an a**hole to the nth degree.

Step 8 involved digging a trench around the outside of our pool to install a brand new suction line. Now my yard really looks rough. I have rocks, concrete and more crap laying around my yard (now this isn't only the crap from the lean, mean, pooping machines). We went out for a few hours and when we arrived home, the lawn was put back...well sort of. The dude had a few extra pieces of sod, chunks of concrete and rocks left over but he was nice enough to save them for me.....all over the yard!

Step 9 - dude comes back to finish filling the hole in the pool and pick up one or two rocks but not the sod.

Step 10 - I spend approximately two hours crawling on my hands and knees and picking up the mess he left behind.

So, the painting isn't done yet, partly because of the rain, partly because the guy will show up when he is ready to and we have no idea when that will be. We really don't know if the pool leaks are fixed yet.

So, there might be a part 2 to the swimming pool saga. On Christmas Eve, we were invited to a friend's home close to where we live. They have a really pretty water fall beside their pool that runs back to the pool.

I'm getting a water fall.....Ross is going to build me one....he dug up my lawn AGAIN.....lol and I have this great two foot hole at the end of the pool and a pile of dirt! He's assessing the job...I'll report back as it progresses.

We had a very quiet New Years this year. Ross had been fighting a terrible cold for a couple of weeks so we decided it was probably best to stay in. We were treated to the most awesome fireworks display from our deck at midnight.

(Remember the barking dog thing....dog's don't like fireworks)

We couldn't hear ourselves ohhhing and awwwwing over the barking but the fireworks really were spectacular.

That's enough of our continuing saga for now....stay tuned!

OH....OH.....OH!!!!!!!!!!!!! My passion fruit (chinola) finally began to have flowers and fruit....the fruit is ripe when it falls off the vine and lands on the ground. I gathered them up as they ripen, cut them open and was draining out all the juice and freezing it. Once I had enough...I made Passion Fruit Jelly. OMG what a spectacular tasting jelly!

I have to be quick...the lean, mean, pooping machines like passion fruit and the little ********** are pulling the passion fruit off the vines and using them for chew toys!

Merry Christmas

Our annual Christmas letter to our friends and family is now in a new format! I decided to make it our "blog". Sending out Christmas cards in the Dominican is a no-no. We do not have a true mail system here.

To get a complete recap of our past year, please feel free to read my old blogs posted. I'd give you a recap, but that might put you to sleep!! LOL

We want to wish all of our family and friends the very best Christmas and and a very happy New Year. You all know where we hang our hats and if you are going to be in our neck of the woods, give us a holler!

Feliz Navidad!

P.S. Is it to late to be good? I want Santa to arrive on a motoconcho this year that doesn't spew black smoke from the muffler!

Ross and Colleen

One year is complete now!

Well, one year ago, I was sitting in a hotel room in Winfield with our dogs, six suitcases, two laptop cases, two carry on bags and Ross. Shelby was wearing his little plaid sweater because he was SO cold. Now, we are sitting in the tropics...freezing our butts off..It's only 20C and has been raining for over a week now. It is damp and cold at night and we are wearing PANTS...yes, pants and I have a hoodie on!

It is crazy how fast the year has gone.

What have I learned in the past year?

1. Patience
2. Rice is good
3. Puppies will eat anything
4. Dominican drivers are the worst drivers on the face of the earth (yes, worse than Calgary drivers!) There are no real rules of the road here...biggest tires win...ok, that's kinda like Alberta! LOL
5. You can make alot of things with 200 lbs of bananas.
6. Ross is grouchy when he wakes up from a nap
7. Beer is best frosty cold
8. Frogs can lay thousands of eggs in a freshly cleaned pool through the course of a night
9. Puppies will eat anything
10. Laughter is completely necessary
11. Hurricanes are not fun
12. Grass grows quickest when the lawnmower is out of gas
13. Gringos throw some mighty fine potluck dinners
14. Don't light fires when the grass is brown and dry and it's windy
15. Ross can change a lightbulb on a 20' ceiling without a ladder or chair..can you say broom handle, tongs, and rubber gloves?
16. Driving a quad in the rain isn't that bad
17. Puppies will eat anything
18. Four dogs and one cat poop lots

So, you might have noticed I said "four" dogs. Yes, in a blind moment of stupidity, we got another puppy. "Boss" is the newest member of our family. He is a Belgium shepard and is now seven weeks old. Boss is a "man" dog. He is showing very strong personality traits and is going to get some obdience training/guard dog training when he gets older. Since we got him he has almost doubled in size. He loves to play tug-o-war with Jack. He torments the cat endlessly but I think the cat secretly loves it.

The dogs are getting along really well and have accepted Boss into the pack. Here is a favorite pass time:

We are into the "rainy season". In the last week or so we have had at least 12 inches of rain. Ross is waiting for someone to come and fix the leak in our pool so he had drained about half the water out of the pool. He is going to have to re-drain the pool as it is almost full again.

So, what will Year 2 bring? Probably lots of the craziness that Year 1 brought except, we are a little wiser (notice I didn't say older??).

To all our friends in the motherland, ENJOY THE WINTER!!! Keep warm, happy, and healthy!

Another month in Paradise

We are well into month #11!

When we moved to the DR, we thought there would be lots of time for fun, sun and cervesa...were we wrong!

I have a part-time job now. I'm working as a breakfast cook at the Jolly Roger. Great hours, great employers and I am having lots of fun with it. I have never had a job quite like this before and it sure beats sitting at a desk for nine hours a day!

We are busy looking after our two neighbour's yards and pools as well as our own yard and pool. Did you know that frogs can lay thousands of eggs in a very short period of time and the little suckers hatch really quickly? Now, the cat seems to take care of quite a few frogs (we hear them screaming when she kills them - sounds like a small child crying) but clearly the cat isn't doing her job well enough!

I am becoming more and more "Dominicanized" as time passes. My primary mode of transportation now is our quad. I'm ripping around everywhere on it. I can drive for about two weeks back and forth to work on about $10 worth the gas. Can't complain about that. Now, the "winter" rains haven't started yet but I am sure I can figure out how to hold an umbrella when I drive it...I will truly look "Dominican" if I can manage to do that. Either that or I will just wear a black garbage back with holes cut for my head and arms...lol Ross put a little red basket on the front so I can stop on my way home everyday with the few groceries I pick up. I even pick up one of the neighbours and give her a ride into work one day a week as we are going to the same place.

Ross is spending some time at the golf course every week or two. He complains about having to use my golf clubs because his are still in Canada. Now seriously, do we think that is just an excuse for his bad games? LOL In any event, for less than $20, he can golf and have a couple of beer, have a caddy and cart. How can you complain about that?

Devil Dog: Ok, devil dog is STILL chewing. Actually, I have decided that it is separation anxioty. He only seems to eat things when we aren't home. I no longer have any bed linens with out small holes eaten in them. So, if anyone wants to bring us a house warming gift when they visit...we have queen size beds...

The wicker couch must be particularly tasty...

Last night the cat's plastic dish went missing. Not sure were it ended up but no great loss, there wasn't much left of it anyway. I'll probably find little red plastic pieces deposited around the yard when I next do poop duty! That's how we found Ross's brand new white leather golf glove...but we won't talk about that anymore.

And...sigh....the dog pulled the six month old laptop onto the concrete/tile floor...smashed the hard drive. Ok, laptop is working with a new hard drive but I don't think the keyboard will ever be quite the same. Yes, the dog is still alive.....for now.

My middle daughter, Kaylen has been working very, very hard the last year on an excersize and diet plan. She's lost an incredible amount of weight and inches and has recently competed in a fitness competition. She looked wonderful and if you want to see pictures, check out my facebook! She is an inspiration as now my other two daughters (Krista and Hailey) are using the same personal trainer that Kaylen used. I think it would be very cool if all three of them were in the same competition next year in May!

Did you know that Ross is a retired Chippendale dancer? LOL Actually, that was his Hallowe'en costume this year. He sure charmed the ladies...great time was had by all at the Hallowe'en party.

On another note: CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS ARE NOW IN THE STORES HERE. I thought it was just North America that was retarded but clearly the shopping bug is here too. Mind you, the prices for mini lights are REDICULOUS...Over $20 for a small string of lights...NOT!! There is even one hotel downtown that has had their Christmas tree up for almost a month already.

So as our first year winds down, we are looking back and thinking...'what a great move!'

If you are going to be down our way this winter, please let us know so we can show you our little piece of paradise and have a cervesa or three!

Cheers!

Good Times!

Time flies when you are having a good time!

Where to begin?

Our neighbours from Pennsylvania have been here twice. They had such a good time, they came back for another week! Unfortunately, they had to leave this morning.

We have had a few great dinner parties with friends. Great food and great friends and the odd hangover.

Our friends, Patty and Kelly (owners of the Jolly Roger Bar), took a short vacation and left the bar under the care and control of us....what a lot of hard work running a bar. We had some long days, but with the help of our friends, Bruce and Mary, the days passed quickly.

This past weekend, Patty and Kelly threw another one of their fast becoming famous parties. This was a theme party...Cross Dressing. Well, the women had it easy this time...we threw on some shorts, tank tops, and ball caps and we were ready to go. The men had a little more work involved. Ross went as a ballerina...If you really want to see the entire event, check out my facebook page and find the pictures.

I'm starting a job next week...morning breakfast cook at the Jolly Roger. It will give us a little extra pesos and me something to do. Living in paradise, not to mention having a good supply of cervesa and rum, costs pesos.

Well, fall is upon us here. The trees are shedding a few leaves and the grass is brown. The nights are starting to cool down to 25 C which is a welcome break. The swimming pool is cooling down as well. We are told we are entering the "rainy" season. The rain would be welcome at this point as things have started to dry out again.

Last night we had a really wicked thunder/lightening storm roll through at about 2:30 am. There was a crack of thunder so loud that we though someone shot a gun inside the house. Car alarms and house alarms everywhere were going off. The dogs were barking. Ross jumped out of bed screaming, "WTF!" Scared the crap out of us. The rain was coming down like cats and dogs.

I love a good thunderstorm!

So, now that fall is here, we are looking forward to having friends returning for the winter and lots more social occasions.

It's hard to believe that we have been here for 10 months already!

PS Chip has eaten another bedsheet and another plastic bowl. Said bowl contained an entire can of peanuts. On the upside, he now has his adult teeth so hopefully his chewing will start to slow down. We are going to get him a cocoanut for a chew toy.