Monday, October 22, 2007

My Favorite Things




Seeing as we are home, sick, again, I figured I'd take the opportunity to address what items we packed or had shipped that have been of the most use on the island.

Let's see, ummm.... not that I haven't mentioned it before, but THE STROLLER. It's like our car. I consider it indispensable.
MY LAPTOP. Yes, it is my link to the outside world. I can use the internet to find almost anything I could want and have it shipped to family to ship to me, or download it directly, or even print off coloring pages, games, activities and recipes, which brings me to my next item....
MY PRINTER. Okay, so really, maybe it shouldn't be on the list. I've seen printers here for pretty decent prices. I don't know whether the ink cartridges would be at decent prices though...
MY IPOD. Man, I sound like my husband with all this digital stuff. Really, the iPod is my DVD player and my radio and my portable television.
THE EXTERNAL HARD-DRIVE. 500 gigs of whatever I want... most of it movies, but room for Shane's school stuff too!
KEEN SHOES. I can't imagine life here without them. They're almost a part of us....
CLOTHING. I think I'd go crazy if I tried to find clothing for the whole family here.
SCHOOL SUPPLIES. We saved a ton of money by buying these in the States and then bringing them with us.
KITCHEN STUFF. My Pampered Chef food chopper, the Magic Bullet blender, the slow cooker, the rice cooker, a good spatula/flipper, princess cups... I cook a lot here. It took a lot of time to buy all of the kitchen things that I needed, and I should have found a lot of the stuff in Roseau in our first couple of weeks on the island, except that we got here so late that Shane was all ready in school so going to Roseau was a fond dream. Buying a lot of this stuff at the 4th semester sales saved us some money, but it was difficult living without them for an entire semester until then. I think our best purchase on the island was either the sandwich maker or the area rug.
WIND-UP FLASHLIGHT. Oh yeah. We even use it as a night light.
RECHARGEABLE LANTERN. The electricity is out again? No problem.
RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES. Batteries are not candy, but we go though them like they are.
OUR PILLOWS. Yes, the pillows truly suck here.
LIFE-JACKETS, SNORKELING EQUIPMENT and beach toys. The safety of my children is paramount and once I've strapped them in I worry a lot less and actually enjoy myself on the beach.
MAGIC ERASER. I have children. Enough said.
MY CAMERA. There's no way I could feel good about living here in paradise and not chronicling it with a camera. ;)
SUNGLASSES. All though you can purchase them here, at least we have the types we like at decent prices.
TOYS. Yup. Toys.
PAPER CRAFTS. We can always find something to do with some construction paper and markers and glue...
5 GAL. WATER CONTAINERS. The collapsible ones on the camping aisle at Wal-Mart. I sleep a lot better knowing that we have water stored for an emergency.

Okay, okay, so I admit it. Everything we brought has been pretty useful. You can get a lot of things here, it's just that they cost triple what they should, or they are only available once in a three month period. I'd put the sunscreen and repellant on the list, except that they are available here. Like everything else they cost a lot more here. It really was worth flying to Miami and purchasing all sorts of food and items to ship back here. We could have done without, but it was a small price to pay compared to trying to get all the stuff we need on the island. We've all ready noticed a big difference in our comfort level and our budget. A lot of my friends have been using Beach Groceries for their food and they are loving it.

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