*WARNING- AVISO: This
blog may contain strong opinion, heartache, adventure, and the grind of daily life.
By Emily:
I will start with an
introduction of ourselves. My husband Adam has served in the Army for 10 years
and is currently serving. Many of our ups and downs, learning, and life
experiences are because of this occupation. We had been married 5 years when he
was talking about seeing an army recruiter and a small town street festival. He
said, "Before we were married I had thoughts of serving in the
Army." The look in his eyes was wistful and thoughtful. Then after a
moment he added, "But I would hate to leave you and the kids and it would
be hard for us all." I didn't hesitate - I had always wanted my husband to
be happy in his profession. "Don't let us stop you. If that is what you
want to do, I will support you." From there I let him decide. After
thought and prayer, we were quickly on the Army team. I say we because it is a
profession that truly affects all of us... for better or worse... for good
times and bad.
I am a professional wife and mother, I wouldn't have it any other
way at this point in my life. Before I was married and the birth of our
children, I worked in labor and delivery at the local hospital. I loved the
job. I am an active person and can't sit for long. I loved working with new
moms and babies, I also worked as a home health assistant for a time and loved
meeting many different people there. Even earlier in life I was a live-in nanny
and loved the family I was with.
We have six children. As of this writing, Kaylee is 14, Caleb and
Justin are 13 year old twins, Daisy is 12- yes that is four kids in 2 years!
Let's just say God loves us and has an amazing amount of trust in us. Then we
have a 7-year gap and next comes Kyle 5, and Vivian 3.
Besides the Army the other big shaping factor of our life is our
Christian belief. We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
also known as Mormons. The church, Army, family, and friends are the biggest
shaping factors in our lives.
Now as for the present, we are currently living in Cabo
Rojo, Puerto Rico. After saying this we
usually get asked, “Were you there for the hurricane?” The answer to that is, “Yes.” We were here for both hurricane Irma and
Maria. We will have lived here a year this May (2018).
Living in an area with different cultures and language has
been a neat learning experience and has its challenges for sure. There are
times I am confident, having fun, and loving all the new experiences. Then there are other times I get frustrated, I
want to give up and go back to things I know and I am comfortable with.
So to start with I am going to list some of the things that are
quite different about homes here to me. Here
the homes tend to be pretty simple, it is not common to have storage sheds or
garages, even the closets in the homes are much smaller or non-existent. Some homes don’t have water heaters. Our home has an instant water heater, it is
about the size of a toaster and it heats the water as you use it. It is not
common to have a dishwasher. Before we moved here we bought a small portable
dishwasher to bring along. With 8 of us I didn’t want to hand wash all the
dishes. I do way more hand washing than I used to, since it is a smaller
dishwasher. Although, it kind of makes me feel spoiled to have a dishwasher. Some
people do not own a dryer, they will wash clothes in a washing machine then
hang the clothes to dry.
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| Vivian peeking through the louvers |
Windows have louvers that you can control from in the home, some
will have screens and some will not and it will be open to the outside (can let
bugs in). There are also things called
air conditioning screens, (it’s like a plastic wrap window.) We put a bunch of the air conditioning
screens in our home, so we could open the louvers and let natural light in and
see out, but not let the air-conditioned, cool air out. We also have some louvers that just open directly
to outside, no screens. As for air
conditioning, it is very uncommon (and expensive) to have central air
conditioning. Here the best option is to
have air conditioner inverters in each room.
We only turn the main air on when we are in the room. The bedroom units are only used at
night. Electricity is VERY expensive, so
we are pretty conservative on the air condition use. Luckily in the home we live in there are
ceiling fans in all the rooms, those really help. I can tolerate warmth and heat better than
some. Our house (in the day) is usually
from 80 to 86. I usually turn the air on
when it hits 85. We keep our rooms
cooler at night about 74.
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| Coqui Frog |
We fall asleep to the sounds of coquis, other frogs and toads, and
crickets. Sounds from outside can be
heard inside the home better than with a sealed glass window. I like the feeling of connection with nature,
I like to camp and hearing the sounds of nature so well is calming to me. The area we live in is a smaller town and we
live by the ocean, so it is a quiet place.
We don’t even have annoying barking dogs (that is a personal pet peeve
of mine. I am unable to tune the
constant sound of a dog barking and it becomes very annoying to me if it is a continuous
bark). In the morning I wake to the
sounds of mocking birds, parakeets, and other birds singing. I absolutely love
falling asleep and waking to the quiet, calming sounds of nature.
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| Millipede visiting the house |
Also, about the homes here, most are constructed of cement for
many reasons, one is that there are tons of termites and ants that will damage
wood. Another is that the moisture levels would ruin wood and it would rot
pretty quick. Another reason is that it
is much sturdier for hurricane season. The
homes here are often painted brightly or any random color- ours is a nice
neutral color. Our home also has gaps under the door that bugs and lizards can
come and go as they please. One night
while standing in the kitchen all of a sudden a large (6 inch) millipede came
crawling right past my feet (I go around bare feet most of the time). It gave me quite a start!
I am quite a curious soul and like to see new things. Another
night a few months after moving in, it was night and I was sitting in our
living room and I heard a very slow scratching sound against the glass and
metal of our back door. Sounded quite
creepy! I was at full alert. I listened closely and there it was again,
the sound of either long hard fingers or nails scratching the metal. Something was trying to come in! I had to put aside any scary movie scene that
was playing in my head. I was thinking, ‘I
have to see what wants in.’ I grabbed a flashlight and quickly opened the door
and saw a huge blue crab (its body was about the size of a grapefruit) Whew! That
also startled me. After that for a few
months every once in a while the blue crabs would come by (they have a season),
I don’t know why they wanted in our home (maybe they smelled food).
We also have a YouTube channel in which we post many of our adventures. Sometimes it takes a little while to get them edited and posted. We have one in the works that shows our home and talks about the different things in the homes here. The channel is called Hess Family Adventures (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZMwMFfsTpiGRDm4QagVQg). We post videos of snorkeling, food, and other adventures. We will be posting more videos too.
