We have arrived......so much to tell......

I apologize for my absence but I have not had internet until this very afternoon.....Praise the Lord that it is now hooked up....I was in serious withdrawl! So now I am working on getting my fix.....So the epilogue is that we are in Saba and so far so good.....but before i update you regarding our new home.....I want to continue the telling of the "journey to Saba"....and what a journey it has been.....

So I last left you with the story of the barfy kid and being rerouted to San Juan the next day...as it turns out the storm kept raging on and so we were postponed until the Saturday, which of course royally screwed up our plans of getting to Saba and there was alot of fanagling (sp) to get us where we needed to be so that Joe could start school on time......we were getting frustrated spending 2 nights in Halifax but we thought oh well lets make the b est of it.....we can have fun anyway....there is a pool in the hotel, blah blah blah.....so we head down to the hotel our first day there and oh my.....it is broken! the thermometer is not working and so the water is basically the same temp as the air.....the outside air I might add! The boys try to brave it but their teeth are chattering within minutes so out they come screaming for hot baths and showers (which they took many of for entertainment over the next 48 hours!) with the storm raging, we decided to hunker down and hang out in the room and get some food, although little did we know that this hotel only has a continental breakfast and no other food available!! So Joe had to take our rental car (barf and all...which they didn't charge us for!!!!) down the road in the blizzard and found a Tims so that the kids could eat.....we rented a movie and settled down for the night.....around 4 am I was awakened to the sounds of little pitter patter feet and another barfing child....oh no, there goes my theory of Monty just being a little car sick or over excited....we have now progressed to contagious barfing.....so Christian gets the stomach flu....he started to feel better by mid day and so we wandered through the blizzard in our non winter clothing for a snack ( hey we were moving to the Caribbean, give us a break...did we really think that gloves, hats and scarves would be necessary?) We could barely see the hotel across the street and we were slip sliding away in our non winter shoes when..oops....down goes Dawn! right onto her back.....my arm was not in good shape....the kids helped me up and we carried on into the restaurant for some snacks...that evening I wasn't feeling 100% and I started to worry that I would be the next victim of the ruthless stomach bug.......yup.....the next morning there I was ...talkiing on the porcelein phone.....not fun and I was not impressed....and the sickest I've been in a long time...Joe also became pretty sick...so we spent 3 nights in Hali trying to nurse sick people and keep kids entertained and keep our ever changing travel plans in order! I think we deserve an award or something??? Anyhoo (as Melissa would say), we finally left for st Maarten on Saturday morning and we didn't book a hotel there because we weren't sure that the storm was over and we didn't want to risk any more cancellation issues (the cancelled hotels may charge us) So we arrive in St Maarten, with a still very sick Dawn (almost passed out on the flight to NY, the attendant looked very worried, fussing over me) St Maarten was a really neat flight in right over the beach so that perked me up a little and I prayed that I would feel good enough to enjoy my stay here. We get to the airport with what seems like 4000 bags, all in one piece, Tigger stogged into a slightly too small carry on bag and we start talking about booking a hotel....well that would be a great idea IF we could figure out how to use the frickin phones!!! We keep asking and they keep looking at us like we are crazy, but i swear, we could not get the phones to work....finally some woman at the customer service desk, after answering our questions about 20 times, decided she better help us out or we would keep returning, looking a little more frazzled and crusty each time! She found us a h otel that would accept pets (1 on the island)...luckily they had space, however the VISA took a hit! It was so worth it though.....it was amazing place with a big courtyard that led to the beach or the pool or table tennis or the restaurant or the jet skiing etc.....LOVED it.....so we spent all day sunday just hanging around the resort.....it was so warm and the water was so pretty! We decided what the heck lets rent jet skiis so we even drove around in the lagoon for a while...it was pretty fun! We had to stay until Monday morning at 7 when we could finally get the first available flight over to Saba! So we pack up those 4000 bags again and drag them all to the airport and fly across in the tiniest airplane ever....I could not stand straight up and there was no room to move at all....Mike H if you are ever reading this...you could never fly on this airplane! Anyway, it turned out to be a very fun flying experience...this little plane can just take off and land ona dime...so the kids see Saba coming and they get very excited (and relieved that we will finally be done travelling and HOME)....we have, after all been on the roads for 6 days now......so all of a sudden the plane turns sharply and to my right if the window was open I could have touched the mountain!!!! It was insane, then I look down to the teeniest air strip I have ever seen adn i think NO WAY......but we drop down on it llike nothing and stop in about 300 feet.....crazy...and fun.....I'm glad that I did it.....so we get into Saba and it is beautiful and one big honking mountain.....it doesn't look like somewhere people can live.....we wait for our bags and oh,,,,no really? NO bags?? Well apparently sometimes Win air doesn't send the bags the same time as the people?? So they tell us to go home and maybe they will come today maybe not? we hail a taxi and up up and away.....as we climb higher and higher I think that I am surely going to plummet to my death...the kids are going "weeeeeeee, this is so cool, look mom" I have my eyes squeezed shut and I am praying to God that we please make it to our house so that I can start breathing again!! We finally get to our house and it is great....we love it, very cute and the weather is so warm and sunny.....our house is at 1686 feet above where the airport was so we basically drove straight up! All i can think of is that eventually I have to go back down....ok, hang on......the adventure is beginning......I'll write soon to update you regarding our new "Island life"....take care all....Dawn