Tarrah's Birthday!

On Monday night, we celebrated our good friend Tarrah's 25th birthday.  We went to "Dodgy Dock," which is apparently one of the big student hangouts.  This may or may not be related to their happy hour specials which include $1.00 Caribs (beer) and $1.00 chicken wings.  Anyway, Dodgy Dock is located in True Blue which is the peninsula just next to Lance Aux Epines (where we live).

They had some really good food, as well as some great drinks.  Including the amazing pina colada that I had.  Yum!  Tarrah's boyfriend Kris and our other friend Allison joined us for the evening.  We had a great time socializing and discussing everyone's first day of 3rd term classes.



Kris, Tarrah, Allison, Me, Joshua



The birthday girl and her man!

Remember those pina coladas I mentioned?!?

Unloading the Crate

Remember back in May, when Josh and I were getting ready to leave Newcastle and I wrote this POST about packing up the crate?  Well, yesterday was the culmination of that whole mess.  Unloading the crate.  Only this time, it was about 30 degrees hotter, with what felt like 100% humidity, and our stuff was no longer together like it was when we loaded it, it was scattered all over SGU's campus.  And we had 19 pieces to find!  It was seriously like the "Where's Waldo" of box hunting.  If I thought packing the crate was chaos...well then unloading it was pure pandemonium.

Go find your stuff!!!

Our only saving grace in this whole mess was that we are renting our friends Lyndzee and Dustin's car for the summer and so we didn't have to deal with bargaining with a taxi driver or truck driver for how much it would cost to help us.  Although, it still took two trips to get our stuff back and forth to our apartment.

Poor Josh..so much loading and unloading.

Somehow, we managed to find all of our things in a timely manner.  And in all honesty, I really don't have a better suggestion on how to coordinate the whole crate process.  Jin, who is a student in Josh's class was in charge of the whole thing, and I think he did a fantastic job.  If I were him I would have been pulling my hair out! So thanks Jin, we really are so appreciative of the time and work you put into this for the benefit of all the students.  I am SO SO SO happy to have all my things from Newcastle!

Of course, getting our things back to our apartment was only the first step in the unloading process.  Our apartment here isn't huge, and it felt like a cardboard box bomb exploded in our living room.  However, opening up everything was almost better than Christmas!  "Oh there's my picture frames!"  "And my coffee pot!"  "Hey look, here's a spatula and a wooden spoon!!!"  I kid you not, that's how I sounded while opening up these boxes.  You would have thought Santa Claus himself was in Grenada. 

Box Explosion

And to my surprise, NOTHING broke on it's way from England to Grenada.  NOT ONE THING!  Even my full length mirror made it all the way across which is very exciting because full length mirrors cost a fortune here.  Everything's out of the boxes and now I'm busy organizing cabinets, hanging pictures, and making this place feel like a home.  Check back soon for "after" pictures.

Paper and Clocks

I'm not sure how many people are aware of this, but there is a traditional and modern list of anniversary gifts.  For the first wedding anniversary, the traditional gift is paper.  While the modern gift is a clock.  You can find a full list of anniversary gifts HERE. 

Being the somewhat crafty person that I am, I decided to have fun with my "paper" anniversary gift.  I searched the internet for unique "paper" anniversary gifts and ended up copying something that I had seen on my friend Louise's blog a few months ago.  She also copied it from this shop on ETSY.  But honestly, why spend $400.00 on something that is so easy to do it yourself?!?

So, I went to Target and bought a 14"X18" white frame for about $20.00, got a piece of white matte board and a heart stencil at Michael's Arts and Crafts Store for $6.00, and went to AAA where my Mom is a member to pick up maps from different places around the world.  I think I bought 8 maps and the total was $16.00.  In total, this entire project cost me less than $50.00.  And I guess you can be the judge, but I think it turned out just as awesome as the $400.00 one.

What do you think?!?  Every heart in the center column is a place that Josh and I have lived, while every heart in the outside columns is a place that we have visited/vacationed.  Each heart is cut out of an actual map (the "paper") and then using rubber cement, glued onto the matte board.

Since our anniversary was taking place in Grenada this year and it would be very difficult to ship this gift without it costing a fortune and probably breaking, I decided to give it to Josh a week early.  Plus, we had our frozen wedding cake as well as wine and champagne from our wedding that my Mom had saved to celebrate with.  So we nibbled on one year old wedding cake (not so great), drank white wine from our wedding, and I presented Josh with his "paper" gift.

I think my Mom might have written something on this in icing before freezing, however, it didn't translate a year later.

I think he really liked it.

And then he surprised me with something extra special!  Apparently, some guys do look at those anniversary gift lists.  Because my amazing hubby got me a watch!  I had been wanting this particular watch since I saw it at a boutique in England.  He remembered that I wanted it, and when he saw that the modern gift for a one year anniversary is "clock," he decided that this was the perfect gift.  And it most definitely was.  I absolutely love love love it!  :)

Isn't she a beauty!?!

On our actual anniversary, Josh and I went to the Aquarium Restaurant in Grenada.  It was very romantic with an ocean view.  It reminded me a lot of some of the places we ate in Cozumel, Mexico on our honeymoon.  The food was delicious and we had such a good time.

We took a little walk on the beach, even though it was dark.  I just can't explain how beautiful this island is, and how special it was to celebrate our anniversary here.

365 Days Ago

It was just a short 365 days ago that I made what was undoubtedly the best decision of my life thus far.  I became Mrs. Joshua Ryan Scurlock on June 26, 2010.  That wonderfully perfect day, which you can read all about HERE, has lead to an incredibly adventure filled year with an amazing man.

Just 365 days ago, I would never have believed that I would have traveled to Cozumel, Mexico, Newcastle, England, Edinburgh, Scotland, London, England, Dublin, Ireland, Ibiza, Spain, Rome, Italy, and Grenada, West Indies.  You would have thought it wasn't possible to do all of this, AND successfully accomplish year one of medical school.  But then again, my Joshua isn't just any regular ol' guy.

Three hundred and sixty five days ago, I was scared about moving to a foreign country.  I was afraid of the unknown and the unfamiliar, but now I know that there isn't anything that the two of us can't get through as long as we have each other's support and love.

It's been 365 days, and I grow to love you more and more everyday.  I love ALL of you, the good parts, the not so good parts, and the sometimes really annoying parts too. :)

In 365 days, I've had a crash course in what being a wife really is.  It's being your #1 biggest fan.  Being proud of your accomplishments and supportive of your failures.  Making comprises with each other because some things are in the best interest of US and not just ME.

Over the last 365 days, we've laughed together, cried together, been nervous and scared together, traveled together, worshiped together,  rejoiced together.  But mostly, we've just been together.

These past three hundred and sixty five days haven't always been easy.  It's hard to live so far away from all your family and friends.  It's challenging to live in a foreign country.  And it's difficult to have no one else to go to when things get tough.  But I think that's the beauty of it.  In the last 365 days, we've had no one to run to but each other. 

In three hundred and sixty five days, I've learned that grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and quizzing you on anatomy are some of the easiest ways to show my support for the journey that we are on together.  And I've learned that for the most part, I actually enjoy doing all of these things.

I wouldn't trade these first 365 as days as your wife for anything in the world.

I have no idea what the next three hundred and sixty five days holds for us.

Maybe these first 365 days were the easiest.

But I think that the next 365 days might be even better than the first.

Happy first year anniversary Joshua!  I love you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  And I can't wait for the next 365!