New Year 2012

Happy New Year!
The island life is something, that's for sure. With it comes beautiful ocean views, quiet beachfront frolics, salty breezes and a general content'ness with less. It also comes with challenges. In some cases we wear the outsiders scarlet letter... which looks like a bullseye to some nefarious folks. In any case, we are less than 4 months from repatriating ourselves back to the good ole U.S. of A.

This year has been eventful. For me, I've travelled to Florida a couple times. I've witnessed Julie's wedding to her new man! I've even made it to Utah and Las Vegas to visit my other family folks. There're a few I've missed. I haven't seen my oldest brother Larry in quite some time along with a few cousins and uncles. I'd like to see Larry, he has to be balding more than I seem to be.

The kids are getting bigger and bigger. They both can speak pretty well, asking for things in full sentences. Brylee can handle her business almost entirely herself, which is a huge plus. It's crazy thinking back to when we first started this foreign journey with her in diapers. I really feel this experience will be good for them. I think we've done well to support their development while protecting them from learning some of the less savory behaviors some other island kids have out here.

Looking forward we can't wait till Jan 18th. We should find out where Jeanann is accepted on about that date. I've been accepted to NCSU's MBA program and we both hope we end up there. It's a good spot and seems to have everything available that we'd like for our family. I'd like to attend NCSU's MBA and use it as a catapult to accelerate my career and professional development in the health/business world. I'm open minded to what opportunities it may bring. My expectations are pretty high...

Jeanann's excited also. NC has a pretty developed lab animal culture along with a couple opportunities for her to look into. Guess we'll have to see.

Happy New Year! I hope to drink 1 too many, and I hope you will all celebrate with me whether you plan to drink or not! Salud!

Sometimes I find myself getting so caught up with all the stress that's going on with school and forget about what's important in life; it just takes a little one to open your eyes. Tonight, I kiss the kids and reluctantly say my good-byes for another stretch of a very long 3 days of spending 18hrs/day at school. I give Nate a bit of a long kiss and turn around to see Brylee smiling in our direction. She says: "Daddy kissed a princess, let me show you", she walks us to our wedding picture on the kitchen counter..."See, Mommy is a princess and Daddy is her king".

Finals are rough. Especially when you have to actually pass one of them (Small Animal Surgery), so you don't have to spend 4 more months and 30K in school loans on this island. I'm sure 5 years from now I will forget what this kind of throat-closing stress feels like; but I'm sure there will be new stresses to endure. Nate and I are going to do the transition back to this blog and away from Facebook - it's a big time-waster. I'm going to help him out with posts this time, I promise ;)

Last Summer in St. Kitts

I haven't edited this blog in awhile, and am not sure I'll keep it up to date. BUT, quite a lot has been going on down here in St. Kitts and I figure a quick update is in order. Jeanann should be done with this portion of her vet education at the end of spring 2013. Then our destiny will be in the hands of the stateside vet schools willing to accept her for her last year. We hope North Carolina will accept her since I've been accepted to study business there at the graduate level, but nothing is guaranteed. If I don't get that opportunity I'm sure I'll attempt to find new ones, although I would be pretty excited to study an MBA there. My MS program is nearly complete. There are a few hoops I need to jump through, and a another couple classes to finish. I may be done by this December, or may take an extra class or two next Spring. The kids are bigger than any picture on this blog. Time is flying. The more Jeanann and I study, the more we want to learn. It can be a challenge balancing our professional aspirations with raising two decent kids, but so far it seems to be working out. The kids aren't bullies or poop heads (like other peoples kids!) and seem to be caring thoughtful kids for the most part. Lots of work! Some people say they need more hours in the day. I say we need more hours in the night so we can sleep more and somehow get that extra boost of energy to get through each day. Seems that boost comes less frequently as I get older. Next week the kids will visit Grammy in Florida for a few weeks. It's a vacation of a lifetime for them! They'll have an awesome time I know. (poor grammy is probably going to get worn out) And I get to go out west and see my older sister get married and visit some family I haven't seen in a long long time. It'll be good but I'll be juggling a bit of school work while I'm out there, and Jeanann has some serious finals around the corner as well. Just another day in our exciting life! Time to move across the island before my flight leaves in 2 days!

1 Year, 2 Months in St. Kitts

St. Kitts, what a wonderful island paradise!

Jeanann is working hard at vet school. So far so good. She has been doing pretty well this semester although the lack of sleep and marathon study sessions drag on her at times. Her espresso machine broke the first week of school this semester. It's slowed us both down a little I think. She will be applying to NCSU to finish up her schooling. It's a pretty slim chance, but she's excited about the chance considering some of the classes they offer there, that are not available at Ross. In the meantime she's learning quite a bit.

The kids are getting bigger. Just last year Brylee was still in diapers! Bradyn's turning into a little boy. Grammy bought him some cowboy boots for Uncle Jakes' wedding and he wears them almost every day. I think they've started something that'll probably last a lifetime. Brylee is a princess. She's still a little reserved but she's talking more and more all the time. Jeanann has been singing with her and sometimes Brylee will be singing some of the songs to herself. They can both be a handful, but they're pretty good kids.

As for me? I'm addicted to Bloomberg. My MSPharm program is coming along. This last class was a challenge and a bit outside of my core skills and interests. We spoke about different systems of healthcare. One thing which stood out to me was learning of some tools pharmaceutical benefit companies can use to improve healthcare. Some of those quality control type measures will come in handy no matter which industry I may end up in. I've applied to NCSU and UNC's MBA programs. If Jeanann gets the transfer and I get in... great! If not.. well at least we tried!

We're crazy, and working crazy hard! We're feeling more comfortable on the island, despite the many challenges. It'll never be home though. As of now, Jeanann is half way through this portion of the program. We both plan on working hard until we get to where ever we want to be.