This is a story I thought was cool. This was writen by my AWESOME AUNT AMY.

Maybe we all can think of a P A K and carry it out soon!

Kindness... inspires kindness!

I had a nice experience that I wanted to share. I've been growing increasingly aware of the self-centeredness of my pre-teen daughter. She's a good kid but it seems she's following the groove of society and has started to turn more inwards and is settling on her own needs and feelings instead of thinking more about others. I'm not complaining here, just trying to set the stage and give a little more of the back story.Wanting to give her the opportunity to turn outward and do something nice we set up an after school PAK (planned act of kindness). She invited several of her friends over and we spent the afternoon making Hershey Kiss Rose bouquets that could be left, anonymously, for workers at their school.As the girls gathered in my home, I introduced the idea of an act of kindness and giving without getting and then turned them loose hoping they'd stick with it to make at least 12 bouquets. What happened instead was pretty amazing. These girls took the idea and ran with it. They starting working in assembly line fashion all on their own. Some were in charge of flowers. A few wrapped them in tissue paper and the others made the cards. The whole time chattering with excitement about who they were going to leave them for. In the end they made 25 bouquets and would have happily made more had time allowed.





When the bouquets were done, it was time to deliver them. I had made arrangements with one of the night janitors to let us into the school after the teachers had all left. So, with much excitement and giggling, the girls snuck around their school and left their treats. With each bouquet they left a tag saying "thank you" or "have a nice day" and they signed them "The 7 Secret Sixth graders". Several good things came out of this activity. The girls got to experience first hand what it felt like to do something nice without expecting anything in return. They were focused on making someone else's day instead of worrying about themselves. And, the teachers and workers at the school arrived to find that someone cared and was thankful for the work they were doing. But the best part for me was what happened with the janitor.I know this man, he is a very kind, quiet man. He goes into work just prior to when the kids leave so he doesn't interact with them, nor do they really know who he is. He said usually the kids will pass not even noticing him. However, when we delivered the bouquets, we also gave him some cookies and the girls made him a card to personally thank him for letting them into the school. Since that day, when the girls pass him, they will call him by name and say "hi Mr. so-and-so." He said being called by name is something that never happened before and has been meaningful to him. Overall it was a great thing for the girls to do. They really ran with the idea and much to my surprise the girls want to get together again and do another planned act of kindness. We just might start a PAK club.

222 feb 22 09

we rode our bikes to church today. The other churches have church buses that come around and pick up all the members... I think that is kinda cool. There are over 300 churches on this island. Our church building was built only a year ago but the membership is growing rapidly. We have had six baptisms this last two months. Brett and I teach the youth sunday school class. We have only two boys that are 13 in our class but they are really fun to work with. Today our lesson was on prayer and one of the boys said he prayed for a PS2 and eventually got it and that strengthened his testimony of prayer. I thought that was really funny. They are characters. Brett takes charge of the class mostly and I am glad, I think the boys really look up to him...

Our branch is a really great branch.

Tonight Brett and I practiced a medical case. I looked one up on the internet and I memorized my symptoms and he practiced the way he was suppose to talk to a patient, he took my blood pressure and asked about all of my symptoms and he figured out what was wrong with me. He did really good! It was fun to practice!

Brett wanted me to put up our video of our scooter ride. So I am trying to upload our video.

We rented a scooter a lil while ago we needed to travel far and didn't have bikes. so we made a scooter video.

This is the dance studio that I am teaching classes at. Nice huh!

Well the video isn't working but I will keep trying.

Valentines Day & Liat Airline

I am truly blessed to be married to Brett! I love him so much, and I feel so loved by him. This last weekend was Valentine’s Day and we decided to not do anything big no gifts or anything like that. So Saturday I woke up to some yummy smelling coffee cake! He had woke up early and made Breakfast for me! I thought that was an awesome V-day gift. But the cuteness didn’t stop there. When I had gotten home from Babysitting he had cleaned the whole house! It smelled so nice! He then made dinner for me! Then after dinner we walked down to the beach, and watched the sun set!

This is my favorite part, while the sun was setting Brett grabbed me close and we danced on the beach while the sun was setting… Oh yeah we also wrote I love you in the sand it was really cute!

Sounds like a love story doesn’t it!

I loved it. We walked home and we watched the NBA dunk championship. Nate Robinson 5'8" won the Dunk Championship by dunnking over Dwight howard 6'11" Last years Dunk Champion.

It was the most fun and romantic and fun Valentine’s Day I have ever had.

You could say I am bragging about how great my husband is and I would say I don’t care I like to brag about him. I know his life is very busy and I contribute to the business but I never feel like he is too busy for me. He always makes me feel loved and special no matter what. Brett always helps me with dinner and the house. He is always surprising me with funny things. I am so grateful.

On a meaner note.

I know my friends from Dominica will understand but a lot of you who read this may not. The only airline that you can catch a flight with to Dominica is called Liat.

Liat is a terrible terrible airline! In the past they have lost our luggage for a week! And the first time I used my new luggage from my Grandma they ripped a huge gash in the side of it. They stole Bretts cell phone from his luggage and just have a terrible terrible reputation. They have changed our flights without telling us and plain out cancelled flight without telling us. They are scary to do business with. I know some of you know what I am talking about. Well here is the story: We don’t use our credit cards except to purchase airline tickets mostly and so we haven’t been checking our credit card statements on line as much but the other day Brett had a feeling he should check it. So he checked it and he found that Liat had just barely charged us 500.00!!!! just the other day! We haven’t even been in that country for a few months and haven’t bought anything from them since October. Well Brett contacted American Express and they are looking into it and he also is in contact with some Liat worker who could care less if they are scamming us. Anyway that’s not the best part!!! It gets better! So American Express is investigating and Brett didn’t want to just wait to see what they had to say and so he went through all of our statements and guess what he found. The trip that we got charged for was our honeymoon flight that Liat cancelled on us before we took it! He also found that they charged us for the flight when we booked it and when they cancelled the flight they charged us again instead of taking it off or cancelling the payment. So far this airline has charges us over 1000.00 for a flight that they cancelled and we never took. The Lady Brett is in contact with from Liat called him FOUL! Can you believe it! He has never cussed or called names just said they are not reliable and their company needs to get their act together. I really hate that airline. Anyway I am glad I have a blog I can vent. I know some of you feel our pain when it comes to Liat and I wish we never had to do business with them! If it wasn’t such a monopoly!
Anyway good luck to those of you who still have to fly Liat. Don’t leave anything in your bags of value.

Those Loveable Zany Idiots At LIAT Airlines Still Pulling The Ultimate Practical Joke… “Welcome To Your Vacation - Your Luggage Will Be Here In A Week!” HA HA HA!!!!!

Flying LIAT? You Might Want To FedEX Your Luggage!
Time and time again it happens with LIAT, so it must be a deliberate joke.
Nobody, but nobody, is this incompetent.
Right?

Ha ha I hate Liat!

Update

Well we have been on Freeport Grand Bahamas Island for almost a month now, and we decided we love it here!

The only challnenge we have faced is transportation.

Our neighbor gave us this sweet tricycle and Brett rode it to school last week.

I wanted to ride it too but apparently the door has been bolted shut and I can't fit our trike through only one side of the door I need them both opened. Man you should have seen me pounding on that door trying to get it open, I really worked up a sweat and was really frustrated! Then I looked up and saw the metal piece newly screwed to the door. I was so frustrated but at the same time relieved that I didn't ask anyone for help and then felt dumb when they pointed out why the door wouldn't open. We have seen a lot of cool thinngs here. Start fish, a shark, cool buildings. Brett's first test is coming up this coming monday. Wish him luck. He has been studying so hard. I know he will do great, but it's stillnot the funnest thing for him to have to go through.

The school here is sooo nice. Everything in Brand New and Brett loves it. They clean the school often and take good care of the students. Brett studies really well at the school.

We rented a scooter this past weekend and next to Brett it is the love of my life. ha ha! we used it to go to a baptism saturday and also church and all over. It was fun to have and take rides. We are thinking about getting one, but are not sure yet it's kinda expensive.

It has been cold here the last little while and a little rainy. It has got down in the fifties. The Bahemians are freesing and have beanies and coats and all we have are jackets on. They look at us like we are nuts but they don't realize we just came here form Utah where it's so freezing cold that the fifties for us is nice.

Well we love you all and hope you are enjoying life as much as we are. :)