July 2007

July 2007 is probably the hardest month of my life to date. This was the month Daniel and I made the big move from Memphis to St. Croix, over 1900 miles away. I had left every comfort behind and was not happy about setting out on this leg of our life but I figured God always had a greater plan. Daniel on the other hand couldn't have gotten out of Memphis fast enough. Unlike me he says he has no desire to ever live by his mom, but if I could I would probably still live with mine. These pictures are from that month. Notice there are few of me from the move, probably because my eyes were always to swollen from crying to open them long enough for a picture.





This was our welcome basket from Hovensa. Unfortunately it didn't have Mom, Duke or any of my friends that would have brought me real comfort.








After about three weeks of living out of suitcases our boxes finally arrived. Also by this point we had moved into our new condo at Carden Beach, Unit 5525, our own little piece of paradise.












When the boxes first arrived I didn't think we would ever get settled in. Daniel was leaving everyday around 6 in the morning and not getting home until 6 at night and I just didn't see and end to the boxes. Eventually we got there, like we're talking in October right before Mom and Dad, our first visitors, came.





This picture is from one of our first outings with other island people. We went to Chenay Bay with two other couples who had also just moved here- Kathy and Anthony Stellerine (who have already left the island and moved back stateside) and Hannah Williams and her fiance Jason Pennington (Hannah and Jason are both AU people also, Hannah is in her third year of pharmacy school and Jason started the same time as Daniel but unlike Daniel is a mechanical engineer.)






Toward the end of the month one of Daniel's bosses and a fellow AU alum invited Daniel and me, as well as the other AU newbies Hannah and Jason, to go sailing for a day to Buck island, the island our condo faces. It was a lot of fun until I started breaking out from the salt water and our captain- Mr. Marion- was nowhere to be found for 3 hours. All in all though it was a lot of fun and made for some really good drunk boss stories.












Daniel learning how to work the jig. I just found amusement in watching and taking pictures while working on my island tan.

















This is from our first poker night with the Hovensa crew. Friday poker nights now are usually a monthly ritual.