When is sweet too sweet? If there is such a thing....

Greetings dear friends and family,
How are you doing? I have had a very busy and tiring week and I must say that I am ready to go on an all inclusive to Dominican or Cuba ( I have been inspired by some of you travellers!) Now you might say that sounds pretty silly....after all aren't I living in the Caribbean? Isn't life just like one big all inclusive holiday etc etc....but the truth is no.....life is life, the same here as it was home....work, kids, studying, house to run, responsibilities etc.....the only difference is the absolutely beautiful weather....the responsibilities are still the same! so Joe is finsihing his first semester in 3 weeks time (can you believe it??) and i would love for nothing more than the 4 of us to go on a cruise or an all inclusive holiday.....so for a few days there Joe and I were looking up last minute deals etc.....and we could find some pretty impressive rates...BUT the problem is getting to them.....to fly from Saba to St Maarten and St Maarten to Florida for a cruise is about $600 per person....or to go from Saba to St Maarten to Dominican Republic is about $700! Air travel is so expensive...so the cost of the last minutes is amazing, but the getting there is the problem....anyway i would love a nice vacation, a reprieve from all the daily grind....so we will see....we may all go over to st maarten for a few days on Joe's 3 week break between semesters....
So I mentioned that I have had a busy week.......when really I have had a busy 3 months...I really never gave myself any downtime when I moved here.....I was working on the 6th day nearly full time (well 7:30-1 everyday feels like full time) and then after a few weeks negotiated Mondays off....anyway very busy .....so I made a decision this week to resign from my position at the school and to take some time off to just enjoy life and get some well deserved r&r.....moving to a new country is alot of work and takes alot of energy to get everyone adjusted! So I will look around and keep my ears open for opportunities but for now I am just going to have a few weeks/month of down time.....
We had some tragedy here this week....our guinea pig finally gave birth (after I was fairly certain that she was going to explode) and she had 2 lovely little babies....but sadly they both died....we aren't sure why (no guinea pig autopsy service available) and they looked so sweet and perfect....well the boys were devestated and there was much crying going on here....we had a "wake" which is a viewing of the bodies, putting them in caskets with flowers and showing everyone in teh neighborhood our dead babies....and then Saturday we had a funeral and burial service.....poor Christian was so sad, he had been going outside every morning to see if his pig had delivered so when he realized that the babies were gone, he was so disappointed.....anyway it was a sad event.....so in steps Monty....and this my dear friends is where I get todays title....when is sweet too sweet? Monty was very upset that his little bro was so sad (monty was very sad too) and so today he tells me that a neighbor will be stopping by at 5 with a delivery.....and I say "what do you mean"...he says "I can't tell you, it is a surprise for Christian" so I continue to ask what he has done and eventually he fesses up to his actions......he describes feeling terrible for his little brother about his sadness over the loss of our babies and so he took his lunch money that he has been squirreling away (again) and spoke to some people (Monty knows all the people) and he bought Christian a new baby guinea pig......I say you did WHAT??? He tells me again. I say where di dyou get the money and he replies that he has been saving the lunch money and oh yeah, he "borrowed" $5 off my dresser to help with the costs....but Mom (with those big blue eyes) Christian was just so sad and I knew this would make him feel better, so I just did it, don't be mad, I did it for Christian......(is this kid destined for politics or what?) Anyway I think Holy Hannah....what am I going to tell Joe? He is going to freak! oh and it does take an interesting twist here...he admits that actually there will be 2 pigs delivered...because he had promised one of our babies to Becka, a student who lives behind us and has lots of pets, and he didn't want to disappoint her so he talked the people into a second pig.....I am floored.....this is well, just so sweet but so not good....but so sweet....see my dilema? He is such a sweet and loving child and for all his faults he is about the most compassionate and caring little person I have ever met.....so how can you get mad? But we don't need more pigs....so I try my best to give my sternest parental lecture about what a wonderful gesture but he needs to ask permission...blah blah blah......he promises never to do it again......so now at 5 today, apparently I am about to get a shipment of pigs......so Monty leaves for a friends house and I start to think, just how am I going to explain this to Joe?? so i say to Joe....a funny thing happenend today, your son is so sweet, do you know what he did........well, joe is not smiling, and he doesnt think it is one bit funny.....so I say ok maybe funny isn't the right word to use? He says try disobedient, we said no more pets.....and I say but he meant well.....and Joe says yes and you know what they say about good intentions? So I agree, yes it wasn't a good choice......
So all in all life is interesting here...never a dull moment......we have had wonderful weather and sunshine.....and some great people around here so lots of good things going on......I can't wait to be unemployed for a while and just sit back and survey the lay of the land and figure out how I want to spend the rest of my time here.....3 months are gone already and Joe's first semester is 3 weeks from finishing.....if time goes this fast, we will be done of our 20 months and back in the canadian cold before we know it.....
So have a great week friends, God Bless and we will meet again soon,
Dawn