What an awful week!

By P-600

Yes, even paradise has its shares of awful weeks. We just endured ours and hope that tomorrow will be a better day. It all started last week when we returned to a house with no power, mold and water that smelled like the bathrooms at Hawksnest. We changed the filters- all three filters, there was only one filter installed for the entire first year we were here. Ugh!

Then the battery in my car was dead, luckily were under our one year purchase date and Caravan gave us a brand new battery. On Tuesday, Shane became ill. He probably caught something on our flight. It was the worst I've ever seen him, he slept for over 24 hours straight. I had to wake him up to give him water, medicine and chicken broth..he was completely out of it with a fever and throwing up and body aches. Unfortunately, he missed school on Wednesday, Thursday and again on Friday.

We woke up Saturday morning and went for a walk while Shane rode his bike. When we got back, I was next to get the dreaded bug-- down for the count until Sunday morning when Matt woke up sick!

Today, we took Shane to school for his first day, fourth really but who's counting and we headed to STT because we haven't stocked up since we returned. As we backed on to the car barge and put the car in park, my car with my brand new battery dies. Nothing..just dead. So we look over and a guy in his truck, who was just about to sit back, relax and read the newspaper on the 25 minute ride to STT. He jumped out of his car and asked one of the barge employees to grab the battery charger (good to know they have one) and charged us all the way to St. Thomas. This gentleman called a guy he knew over there, gave us the number of a wrecker on STT, and told us we needed an alternator. I called the Toyota dealership for a new alternator but they didn't have one. Alan from St. John Ice and Water went above and beyond for us. We are so thankful! He is a great guy!

We called my friend Dave at Caravan/car quest and he had the right part! So we got off the ferry and got right back on and headed back to STJ. Our car made it to Caravan and Barry installed it in less than an hour! Big shout out to Dave and Barry!

Oh, I forget to mention my broken toe, our tenants in Mass who want out of their lease (because they found a house they just fell in love with)(saying that in the most sarcastic way possible) and the job Matt was hoping to finish isn't getting finished anytime soon.

On a lighter note,I neglected to mention that the girl on the car barge didn't charge us for the return trip. That was so nice! We must have looked really pathetic or maybe I looked like I was about to have a nervous breakdown. All and all, when we look back on everything that happened this week I will remember all the amazing people that helped us out, friends that had our backs, asking if we needed anything, offering us a place to stay when we had no power, strangers going above and beyond just because.

That is what this island is all about! The people make this island what it is!
I/we are keeping a positive attitude. Everything happens for a reason, I'll let you know what that is when I figure it out. Peace :)