We are home!
We love being back in Utah! it's funny because I feel like we have been through so much and changed so much while experiencing so much of the world and we come home and everthing is still the same. you ask people whats new and usually they say not much. I am glad that we have had so many cool experiences and that things are changing.

My view of change has changed. I like it! I like moving and meeting so many new people and going new places!

We are so blessed! being home has really made us realize how blessed we actually are. With families who love us and the church all around us, and temples!!! It's nice to be so close to the temple. It's sad to see people on the island with huge testimonies but not the means to visit the temple.

It didn't take long for us to get use to the comfort of home. We love being close to our families over the holidays. Although we are excited to move to the Bahamas!

LIFE IS GREAT FOR US!

Hey Yall!

Today was a very very fun day!  We slept in! that is a first for us in months! we got up when we wanted ate breakfast when we wanted. Later we met up with some friends and we rented a car to go on a road trip down the island. So we loaded up the car and we headed down the island, the drive is always nerve racking for me cause people are CRAZY! drivers here! I am not just saying this... you would not believe it unless you saw it! We drive on the left hand side of the road here, and there  are no speed limits or stop signs here.  The roads are so windy and twisty.

We went to a place called Titou Gorge earlier on this  blog there are some pictures of it. I have been before and I really wanted Brett to experience how cool it was!  needless to say he loved it!

We leave the island for good on tuesday Dec 23. We are so so excited to go home for christmas before our move to the Bahamas.  Brett did well on his final mini of the semester! It has been an awesome 5 months!  Learning and growing and loving has been a blessing in our lives.

Merry Christmas!

Bahama Bound BABY!

This is a map of Freeport Bahamas, our next home to be.

we are moving January 7th and are very excited!

We will be getting bikes while we are there, we are told it is very flat (unlike here)

and are excited to ride around town.

If you find the red circle that says Ross U. and you see the golf course under it, we will be living to the left of the golf course, in the canal-ish area! water all over! The beaches in the Bahamas are white sand beaches and the snorkeling and diving have a great reputation too!

This is our condo/ timeshare/aprtment builing! We are on the third floor and are paying the 3rd cheapest rent on the list of apartments! We have a pool, Tennis courts, blacony but most of all we have each other! :) ... cheesy? I don't care.

I called prior to comitting to this apartment and asked the landlord if we could make a deal. I told her I would only sign the lease if she comitted to painting a monochromatic apartment for us. She readily abliged! ha ha just teasing! but isn't it sweet! our whole place is white and black... I actually have seen four or five other Bahama apartments that are black and white so it must be a thing they do there? oh well!

Look we have a ice maker in our fridge! and a dishwasher next to it! We have a couch! and a huge table that can seat 6! a queen size bed! I know you American are thinking ok whoopee..... but for us not having a table, couch, toaster, and sleeping on a foam thing with shoved pillows under it we are pretty excited that we have this opportunity!

We hear the Branch there is a good size, we look forward to going to church there!

Brett is currently studying in the other room for his Anatomy test. oh wait he just walked in to get a good luck kiss and know he is out the door headed to his 3rd big test in two days! next week there are 7 more... He is doing great! we are going to trade some of his books back for next semesters books, that is gonna save some mula!

My school is over after I take 2 more finals soemtime between the 6-9 of December! Life is nice here, simple.

Cinderella's house

About a week or so ago me and my friend tori had to go to Porrtsmouth, a  town just north of us. (well I think it's North.) We needed to drop of our security deposits for our apartments in the Bahamas and so we went to fed ex in Portsmouth. After dropping the papers of a Fed ex we wanted to just walk around the town. And we found the coolest house on the island

This is Mike, We had to go talk to him when we saw this awesome house! The house is made out of concrete and he has worked for seventeen years cementing all kinds of shells all over his house!

Tori said it looks like cinderella's house.

Mike was so nice to show us his house and he searched for a huge shell to give me but couldn't find one not attached to his house! :) Mike told me to come back some time and he will give me one! I am excited to go back sometime. cool huh!

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one more month

Today, the first thing said after good morning and I love you was: WOW! we only have one more month left on this island.  We leave dominica on the 23rd of December. The Bahamas will be great but we will always remember our days here on Dominica.  Lately We have been doing a lot of the same. School and studying hard cooking cleaning grocery shopping.  

Thanksgiving is this week and we are not sure what we are going to be doing, I think we are getting together with friends. There will be no thanksgiving turkey and probably no stuffing and all that thanksgiving food. It will be fun though I am sure!  This month we are going to wrap up school and get all packed up and ready to go to the Bahamas. This is the beginning of our professional career as movers! :) Hope all is well. Brett and Kellie 

Someone's got a crush on Brett!

Brett and I are primary teachers for the 7-12 yr old kids. But before we head upstairs to teach our class we sit in sharing and singing time with all the kids. Today was an especially great day in primary it seamed like every kid was crying and hungry... One girl Marrissa never EVER talks in primary and she hardly ever participates. We don't know why but she just doesn't... Until Brett talks to her!!

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Marrissa loves Brett! Today we were making a thankful turkey and all the kids got feathers to color what they are thankful for on single feathers and then they were attached to an adorable thankful turkey. Today was no exception for Marrissa, she wasn't talking or participating until Brett took her out of her chair and held her on his lap, Marrissa came alive! she was smiling and coloring and TALKING!  I think Marrissa was on cloud 9 she was holding brett's hands and pretending to lead the music. It was really cute.

In primary the president and I and all the other teachers try to get Marrissa to participate or talk and it just does not happen. Today when I saw how happy she was on Brett's lap I couldn't help to snap a picture to capture this little miracle.

 I must admit I was a little jealous at how happy she was sitting on his lap! who wouldn't be? he is so handsome!

it's been a bit

I know it's been awhile but sometimes I get sick of being on the computer so much for my school work that I want to get off of it as soon as I can.

These past two weeks have been so busy! Brett is studying hard! and I am too. The weather is cooling off a bit with the exception of today. It hasn't been raining every day but still is often. I have been able to go snorkeling a few times, twice with friends and once last saturday with Brett.  We are for sure moving to the Bahamas  January 7th.  we just sent the lease off for our apartment today! Our apartment in the Bahamas has a bath tub, table with 6 chairs, 2 couches, a king size bed, an ice maker in the fridge, a washer and dryer, a pool. All of those things we do not have now so we are feeling very lucky to have this opportunity. We will be maybe a mile from the reef in Freeport Grand Bahamas.  I am mostly looking forward to the shopping there it looks like it will be cheaper and as opposed to here I won't have to carry it all home in my backpack!

Ross University gave us a barrel to ship our stuff for us to  the Bahamas that will help the move be so much smoother! The barrel is huge! we can fit all our stuff in it and more! 

For those of you who are wondering Brett had his second mini last week all the students said it was the hardest test including him but he did well. I am constantly impressed with my amazing husband.

I finished a book this week called the 5 love languages. The book was required to read in my marriage class. Fortunately I loved the book and it gave me such a different perspective on marriage. so if anyone is looking for a good book I recommend this one. 

Brett was a ref for the championship football game today, he got super muddy as anyone does who steps out on those fields. After the game we headed up to school and watch the friday night movie Wally and Get Smart We are home now watching the bbal game.

We are on the countdown till we leave, I have mixed feelings I am excited to move but there are things about this place I will miss. 

5 things I will miss about Dominica.

1. The clouds here are different looking to me. They look like they go up and up forever. The clouds here move so fast it's really cool!

2. I am going to miss all the rainbows. It rains alot but the rainbows are worth it.

3. I am gonna miss our friends who are locals here. 

4. I am gonna miss our cute little first apartment.

5. I am gonna miss our huge shower!

5 things I am excited about for the Bahamas

1. Better selection and convenience of grocery stores

2. a real bed

3 hot water

4. customer service ( doesn't exist in Dominica)

5. Wendy's #6

This past Halloween Brett studied up at school and I helped with the Halloween party for primary. I had no costume so I colored and cut kitty cat ears and taped them to a headband, then drew a black nose and whiskers with some eyeliner. The party was fun but lasted only an hour. Then I headed home carved some oranges to look like jack-o-lanterns filled them with chocolate pudding so we could have a halloween treat and read a book... That was a weird Halloween for me here.

 

Dominicans don't celebrate Halloween here they are busy celebrating their independence of 30 years. I am talking major parties and stores and banks are closed for like 4 days!  it was cool I got to see a parade of the local school kids they all dress up in their Creole clothes and wave Dominican flags around!

Last weekend Brett and I went exploring! we walked up the road behind our house. We had never walked that road before and were curious to see if we could get a better view of the ocean from up there. Instead of a view we found a grapefruit and banana farm so we picked some grapefruit and Brett showed me his grapefruit juggling skills! it was so fun! Walks here are awesome you never know what things you will see

.This is me jumping and jumping til I finally got that grapefruit!

Brett made home made chicken noodle soup Sunday! with home made noodles too!!! I am not joking! This was the BEST SOUP I have ever had! I ate till I thought I might be sick! I was so impressed by my husbands talent, and I love to brag about it to anyone who'll listen!

I just have to say I love being married!     LOVE IT!!!

wedding photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kentnamy/WeddingPhotos?authkey=g-i0rb6b8xM#

Try to copy and paste this link to see more of our wedding photos

The life of Brett Burtenshaw

I decided that the last few posts were a lot of my adventures and I wanted to show you a little of what Brett does here in and out of school.

A normal day consist of waking up at 5:45. Before we head off to school we shower, eat breakfast, read scriptures and pray.

Brett will either have class or spend his whole morning studying and media sight ( watch his class online) his lectures later in the day. We eat lunch around noon, then more studying.

Dinner is at 5 every day and then headed back to school for labs, TA sessions, PBL study groups or just some plain old studying.

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This is Brett at a Lab Demo. They go in the Cadaver lab and listen to what another student just learned about the muscles, nerves, etc. on the Cadaver. 

Brett studies a lot in the PBL room #4 with his friends David and Erick. They have to reserve these rooms in advance and lately it has been difficult to get one due to it's getting a little crowded here. The PBL rooms are usually freezing cold, sometimes you will see people wrapped in sweaters and blankets in these rooms. Brett likes that they are so cold he says it keeps him awake while he studies.

In between studying we still get to have fun! We took a walk on the Beach a few days after Hurricane Omar caused a mess on the Beach, the fence Brett is standing by used to be a real fence with pickets; they are gone now. 

Brett Plays on the 5th semester football team here and he is AWESOME!  He is #2 and scored 3 of the six touch downs in the game yesterday. Two of Bretts Touch downs were in overtime. The funny thing about yesterdays game is that he was playing against his own semester. After the game some of the second semester people were joking with him beating his own semester.

At the culture show this lady sang a love song in German to Brett. She was singing the song and asked if there was any guy out there who knew German. I was excited! Brett would have never gone up if I hadn't given his Language skills away then the people around us started cheering for him to go so he was a good sport and went. The video is a good one but I think it is too long to upload on blogger. It was really funny. He looked cute up there!

Brett is really working hard and doing well in school. I am so proud of him and thankful for him.

I have THE BEST HUSBAND in the world! He is the Best Best Friend. I am a really lucky girl! :)

Hurricane Omar

HURRICANE OMAR

By order of the President of  Dominica all institutions were to shut down yesterday due to Hurricane Omar. The school was evacuated and we spent the day at home inside.   The power was out for a few hours and we have not had clean water for about 2 days.  Here are some pics of the island during and after. The video at the bottom was from our front door.  (sorry about the end of the video. Dang bugs freak me out! )
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more of TiTou and Middleham falls

This is Tori and I swimming in TiTou gorge! it was so awesome!

 Scaling the wall to get to the jumping point.

That's me jumping!

middleham falls

The hike to Middleham is 45 minutes of stairs! my calves really got it that day! It was another hike through the rain forrest and it started raining on us! a bunch of girls hiked down to th actual fall and got in and swam. Victor our tour guide started cliff diving. and me, Tori and Nellie wanted to too! Victor helped us scale the wall next to the fall and 1.2.3... jump! it was such a fun thing to do! The jump was about 15-20 ft above the water next to the fall. FUN!

A palm tree farm on the way!

Can you see the cave on the left side of the fall? we climbed into that and then scaled the wall towards the fall and up 15-20 ft above the water. I will find the pics of us, I know someone took some.
The trees here are so amazing! the grow in such weird designs not to mention they are huge!


The stairs are man made and have foliage all over them. When it started raining it gets pretty slick.

Titou Gorge

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This trip was by far my favorite! I wish I could bring everyone I know here! we swam through a narrow path to get to a waterfall at the end. ( where they filmed the sword fight in pirates of the Caribbean. where the pirates are in that round cage.)
The picture of the 2 small springs, the one that is orange is a hot sulfer spring, the other is cold.
vicotor was our tour guide, he saved me from drowning. I was really scared. The waterfall was really powerful Victor even said it was the most powerful it had ever been. Well I was stuck between a wall and the push from the fall. Victor was trying to reach me but I just kept going under. He finally jumped in after me and pushed of the wall and shoved me to Tori who was already in the little cavern by the waterfall where you can stand.


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When you look up all you see is a slit of daylight. It was such an amazing swim! The waterfall was beautiful and kinda scary. In the picture is Me Tori and Nellie.

This is the opening of Titou gorge. the water was so crlear blue. There is a narrow path you have to swim through that leads to a waterfall!

If you look closely you can see me! Me and Tori and also one other girl took this crazy jump. There is only about 4 ft. to the other side and so you cannot jump of the ledge you just have to step out and stay straight as a pencil the water is deep and there are no rocks at the bottom! you know me always up for something with a little thrill!

Swimming away so Tori can make the plunge i had to root for her. The jump was kinda scary. Only 3 girls of the 12 jumped and of course our awesome tour guide Victor.

Sorry it's kinda blurry. This is from the inside of the gorge looking out!