Take a Chance

Oh baby!

2011-12-14T20:46:00.000-05:00

Sooooo, I suppose it's been awhile since a real quality post. I feel pretty bad about that but I suppose it's because I have just been feeling, well, bad. I know I was warned but man, growing a human can be exhausting! After three months I'm happy to share that not only am I pregnant, but I have made it through my first trimester! Let's hope the nausea and fatigue subsides soon and I can start feeling like myself again!

Here's a glimpse of our little peanut, taken at 11 weeks. It was such an amazing moment to see a little babe wiggling around inside me!

Baby Season = Baby Gifts

2011-11-27T14:43:00.000-05:00

It seems like it's baby season around here. Ever since I took up quilting I've found myself trying to "make" something for my expectant mommy friends. One (or three) thing I figured out in Guam was:

a) it's a freakin' baby factory

b) baby showers had the frequency of happy hours (mostly because it's an excuse to have a party)

c) it was very difficult to find an original gift when your shopping options are limited to the BX and NEX.

So of course I started to wish I had the ability to make unique baby gifts that the mother could actually use. So fast forward to this year when I finally learned how to sew. One thing my sister warned me about when making a quilt for a friend was to never promise a finish date. Well that just confirms I am a slow learner. Because the following two quilts were made in a combined total of four days. I'm the queen of procrastination but I promised (really, myself more than anyone) I would get these done in time for a baby shower and Thanksgiving. The first one was made for my friend Mary who is expecting a baby girl next month. It was my first time trying applique and while a bit time consuming, I think I'll get better at it and therefore I can venture into names or at least initials soon!

The next quilt has been in the works (ie: my head) for months. My dear friend and former Guam neighbor Julie is having a baby girl next month as well. I called her up a few months ago to let her know that I wanted to make her daughter a quilt. Based on her plans for the baby room I picked out some fabulous Moda and Michael Miller fabrics along with an adorable shabby-chic-esque pattern. In my usual ways I started it but didn't get serious about it until about two days before we were headed down to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with Julie and her family. Yikes! Since I just don't trust the post office with a hand made piece like this I was determined to hand carry it with me for the occasion. Fortunately when I get working on something I can't stop and I guess that worked in my favor last week. I finished it up the morning we left and whew! It's done! It was my second attempt at machine quilting (sewing patterned lines throughout the quilt instead of tying little knots over the span of the quilt, like the first one) and while it takes twice as much time to do, I think the effect is fabulous!

I think I'm going to take a short break on quilts for now but I am sure it won't be long before my mind is conjuring up another creation.

It's so wrong...but so right!

2011-11-17T17:22:00.000-05:00

I feel like I'm committing the Cardinal Sin. Done the dirty deed. Considered the unthinkable....

I've started playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

Where have my standards gone? I've always sided with Nordstrom in keeping all things Christmas to the day after the day of Thanks. I suppose it's relief from the two 80 degree days we just had. Or my two years in tropical Guam. Tonight it's a chilly 43 degrees outside, rainy and downright cozy inside here. With a fire in the fireplace, batch of bread in the oven and our Christmas letter in the works, I just had to turn it on. And if I didn't, I'm pretty sure the Mister would have ESPN on.

Joy to the World!

Checking out the local sites with family!

2011-10-25T12:14:00.001-04:00

So a few pictures of our adventures with Mom and Dad while they were here. This is also to prove that I didn't put them to work during their entire visit.

A visit to the squadron of course. Dad and Colin convinced Mom to climb in the cockpit. This is pretty much her "Get me out of this claustrophobic pit before I hurt you" face. =)

The next day consisted of a visit to Kitty Hawk, NC. Of course we checked out the place where the Wright Brothers made their first flights (Just to the right of the long sidewalk you see in the picture).

Nags Head, NC

Before heading up to Washington DC we all made a detour to Charlottesville and of course Monticello! We stayed at a charming B&B called The Inn at Monticello and spent the day checking out Jefferson's cool digs.

As we headed north we checked out the Shenendoah Valley. What a gorgeous drive!

We spent a few days up in DC with my sister. Mom, Rissy and I spent Saturday at an enormous quilt show. I'm pretty sure I was the youngest person there. But I did pick up some fabulous fabrics for future projects. Plus, I won three tickets and five free classes for next year's show. Not bad eh? To ensure the validity of their man-cards, Dad and Colin ran in the complete opposite direction (wise choice) and checked out the Air & Space Museum and Manasses National Battlefield Park. Good decision boys.

After DC we checked out Jamestown and Williamsburg. The first time I saw these places was on my 8th Grade Washington DC trip. All I remember is a bunch of old boats and houses with people dressed up in costumes. Not much has changed.

Overall a very busy but exciting visit with the parents!

Parental Visit = Home Improvement Time!

2011-10-14T13:07:00.000-04:00

Many people dread the arrival of their in-laws or even their own parents. Me? I love it! Mom and Dad arrived last month to a dreary, rainy Norfolk day and I promised them it would clear up. Well it didn't. In fact it rained for five days straight. Welcome to Virginia.

But. Considering they come from one of the sunniest cities in the country, they weren't so bummed. In fact they took one look at my house and came up with a mile long list of "ideas" to improve it. Not sure if this was an insult or opportunity but I favored the latter and went for it. Three weeks and 42 visits to Home Depot later our house is looking much more presentable. Thanks Mom and Dad!

I've included a few "way before" pics so you can see what everything looked like when we moved in. It seems more impressive that way. I think.

Squeaky clean front door all ready for fall! Sorry, don't have a before picture but just imagine a door. That's all. :)

New flowers!

"Way Before"

"Before"

"After"

Freshly painted shelving, fireplace and back wall. Dad had back surgery four weeks before he tackled this project. He did it while I was not home, I think he feared I wouldn't let him do it otherwise....

Mom lengthened the curtains...yay!

Some pumpkins and gourds we picked up from a farm stand on the Eastern Shore. The front one is called a fairytale pumpkin. It's adorable!

Mom has an eye for this stuff!

The pumpkin I painted at a paint-your-own place while Colin's sister was in town. If they celebrate Halloween in Africa, I think this would fit in.

A rearranged bookshelf.

"Before"

"After"

Colin told mom he flew around the Statue of Liberty a few months back. Now he has bigger plans!

A more esthetically pleasing display in the kitchen!

"Way Before"

"After"

Okay so the pot rack went up a few months ago, but I never posted it. Mom still felt the desire to clean it. She was on a roll.

Curtains!

Mom decided to teach me how to make curtains. I credit her for most of it but at least I have an idea of how difficult it is now.

"Before"

Naked Windows = No No in mom's book.

After: Fully clothed windows!

So there you go! In a few days I'll post a few pics from our travels with the folks as well. What a great time!

1,000 Miles!

2011-10-03T11:46:00.000-04:00

I'm sure I'm the only one who has paid attention to my running log (and that's okay!) so I guess I just have to announce that I surpassed 1,000 miles since I started my blog in August 2009!

I don't normally take pictures when I run (I'm always a hot mess, it's just gross) but here's a few I found from my adventures:

Taking a "nap" break during a run in Sydney, Australia

August 2009

Kona, Hawaii

August 2009

Running with Chels in Fayetteville, NC

January 2010

Jingle Bell Run in Guam

December 2009

One of a few dozen 5K's we all ran in Guam

Spring 2010

Running break in Guam:

September 2010

Safari Park 1/2 Marathon, San Diego

March 2011

Yosemite

July 2011

Hopefully I'll keep it up. Especially with this cooler weather we have now, it's perfect for running. Oh and if you want to be impressed, check out Andrew's blog. Andrew is married to my friend Stephanie in Guam and this rockstar has set out to run 1200 miles in 2011. He's doing so well he's aiming to hit 1500 by December 31st. You might want to check it out, it flat out impresses me.

In the meantime, here's to another 1,000 miles!

It's Tutu Cute!

2011-09-12T10:06:00.000-04:00

Well I've sold my first two tutus! I also auctioned one off at a Basket Auction last week. I feel like the more I get into this the more ideas I come up with!

My Latest Tutus

Simply Sparkly Sweet Tutu

She's all Navy!

Purplicious Tutu: Newborn Size

Pearly Cute Tutu: Newborn Size

Spooky Yet Sassy!

My first hurricane...

2011-08-26T18:37:00.001-04:00

and it already feels like old hat. I'm reminded once again that my time on Guam (and oddly California) prepared me well for natural disasters. This week has been a doozy for Southern Virginia. We've had a huge wildfire (in the Great Dismal Swamp no less) that has been going on for awhile now and this week the winds were blowing the smoke our way to the point where we had smoke clouds resting below our second floor. Then we get the BIG ONE. Or at least the big one for this area. As a native Californian I thought I was just going crazy. My initial thought was "Oh, an earthquake....wait....HERE??" Once I heard the pot rack clanging downstairs I realized I still had most of the tools in my shed and it was in fact, an earthquake. I love that the top complaint on the news was of wine bottles tipping over.

So that brings me to the hurricane bearing down on us. I just came in from a walk with the dog and the humidity is ripe and ready for action. While no direct hits during my time on Guam we prepared for more than one typhoon. I think we had at least four close brushes the first year I was there. Scary enough that the entire island went into TYCOR 1 (island speak for lockdown), meaning everything from the lawn mower to the lawn furniture and BBQ were shoved into our houses, our typhoon shutters (no plywood here!) were locked shut on our bunkers and generators were gassed up. Trampolines and swing sets were chained to palm trees and our blenders were ready for margaritas. We were like a bubble that year, for some reason every storm bounced off our little landmass while managing to hit neighboring islands and then proceeded to hurl itself into the Philippines or Japan. Considering the last major storm to hit Guam was Super Typhoon Pongsona, who's eye plowed right over the island and winds topped 175mph, we were lucky! Still, we were always stocked up on batteries, water, flashlights, candles and gas for our generators. The island has been known to go without power (and sometimes water) for months after those storms. Nothing to mess with.

So I suppose that is why I'm not freaking out about this hurricane. We live in a well built house, away from the coast and far from any of the area's flood zones plus we have the supplies we need (water, batteries, beer and wine...you know, the basics). We figured there was no reason to take up an inland hotel room from people who are under mandatory evacuation orders. If we get tired of the power being out next week, we'll head up to my sister's house and bunk with her for a few days. She doesn't know that yet but she always appreciates a visit from her fun little sister. =)

For now, bring it on Irene!

It's Auction Time!

2011-08-22T10:36:00.000-04:00

Our squadron is having its annual Basket Auction this Friday and I decided to contribute this tutu cute (I know I just had to) set, just in time for Navy Football Season!

Back in the Habit

2011-08-19T08:16:00.000-04:00

I've been struggling to keep up with my running this summer. Mostly because of the heat. But also because I just lost interest in it. When that terrible helicopter crash took the life of 38 people two weeks ago I was absolutely crushed. There are many reasons but mostly because there are so many people around here who were directly impacted by it. I went out for a run the next morning and immediately saw a black sash draped across the sign in the neighborhood next to us. One of them lived there. It made me realize I've probably seen these people before, probably running the same path as me. It made me realize I won't anymore. It once again reminded me of the incredible sacrifice they made for us and for some odd reason, it was the best run I've done all summer. So I began running more and more after that and not only was it not hard, it was enjoyable. I suppose I thought of those guys and how hard they worked to do what they did. I also realized I haven't run a race in awhile and remembered that races motivate me to run. It's no coincidence that a friend reminded me of the Freedom Half Marathon in Norfolk this fall. And that is what I decided to do. I signed Colin and I up and we're going to run it, for those guys and for all those who cannot be here to do it with us today.

Grownup Furniture!

2011-07-24T14:20:00.001-04:00

Colin and I are relishing in the fact that we finally own bedroom furniture! Somehow we got by with very minimal organizing tools in Guam. Did you know cardboard boxes are great for shirt storage? Given our daily wardrobes consisted of tank tops, running shorts, swim suits and flight suits; we didn't need a whole lot in the way of storage.

Now that we're back in the land of seasons, we drove down to High Point, NC (furniture capital of the WORLD) and picked out a nice set of furniture for our grownup selves. The best part is we went with an antiqued "rubbed cream" finish. Anotherwards, bring on the Navy moves!!

Curtains are up next!

It's a Home!

2011-07-18T09:45:00.001-04:00

As my friend Diane said when she saw our newest addition, our house looks more like a home now. The people who lived in our house before us installed shelving and cupboards to the right of the fireplace. However we felt it looked unfinished and wanted to put something nice in to hold our TV and also provide some additional storage. Needless to say I'm extremely happy with the work Closet Factory did. What do you think?

Before we moved in:

After we moved in and painted. Note the gorilla box TV stand. Very useful.

And voila!

Getting down & dirty in Yosemite

2011-07-12T18:53:00.000-04:00

Colin's been traveling to his family's cabin in Yosemite ever since he was a little kid. For the last few years he's talked nonstop about this magical place he spent his summers but given our overseas situation, I hadn't been able to get up there, that is until this past week.

Now before I go any further, you have to know this cabin is miles from anywhere (you really need an SUV to get in), and even comes with it's very own outhouse and outdoor shower. That's right! Colin had the pleasure of taking our good friend James up there over Memorial Day last year while they were training in nearby Fallon. When I heard they had to park and walk the remaining mile due to snow only to arrive to a broken heater; *sigh* you can imagine my disappointment not to have been able to spend the weekend there.

Well we chose to come up a little later this year and to my delight, made it all the way to the cabin with very little trouble! After an evening celebrating with the rest of the neighbors over good ole' spaghetti and meatballs we spent the next day raking piles and piles of pine needles that had blanketed the property over the past year. Considering the cabin sits at about 6,800 feet elevation I got my workout in for the day! Sadly I must have caught something lovely as I spent our second night and third day in bed with the flu, no 4th of July for me! I can't think of anything more fun than having to sit on the porch of the outhouse all night with just a flashlight knowing there are bears snoozing in the woods. I'll spare you the details but Colin can attest that I told him at one point I just wanted to keel over and die. Good grief flu!

Fortunately it was a 24 hour bug and I was refreshed and ready to tackle an 8.5 mile hike along the perimeter of Yosemite Valley the next day. Can't say if it was the 9,000 foot elevation or my recovering immune system but I've run 1/2 marathons that were easier. My hunky husband hoofed through it like it was a mere walk in the park. I guess his Eagle Scout days paid off. Still I trooped along in the heat through a 4,000 foot descent (and a 500 foot climb thrown in for kicks) as we gazed at the GORGEOUS waterfalls that are setting records for the valley this year. The pictures don't do much justice but I'll do what I can to share my experiences with you.

Yosemite Falls

Colin & Aunt Sharon

A view from the beginning of our 4 1/2 hour, 8 mile, 4,000 foot descending hike. Easy peasy.

Taking a lunch break on the Merced River

Nevada Falls

Holy Steps!

On the Mist Trail descending from Nevada Falls to Vernal Falls

Nevada Falls

Steep scary overlook of Vernal Falls

We took this rather quickly as the mist from the waterfall soaked us (and it felt great!)

I'm thinking he's rather fond of having his picture taken as he posed on cue.

Base of Yosemite Falls after our 8.5 mile hike. Yay!

On Friday Colin and I took his sister Desiree for some sightseeing and hiking. Once again, more stunning views that attract people from all over the US, Asia and Europe.

Colin & Desiree

Our main activity was a 3 mile hike to the top of Lembert Dome. With lots of rivers and creeks to cross it ended with a fun climb up the rock that makes up the Dome. The view was AMAZING!

Taken from the top of Lembert Dome: 9,400 feet

I could have sat up there all day!

Tenaya Lake at 8,100 feet.

Chilly!

More rock climbing. =)

All in all it was a pretty fun week. I haven't seen such amazing waterfalls since I visited Switzerland 11 years ago. If you have a chance to check them out this summer, go for it. For now I'll get back to laundry. I think our clothes and shoes collected about a pound of dirt during the trip. =)

Such Creativity!

2011-07-12T09:44:00.000-04:00

So I'm back from Yosemite but while I compile my pictures I thought I'd share this awesome post from my Guam friend, Peyton. She has inspired me to become a little more creative with my sewing skills...and it gave me a little laugh this morning!

Attacking the Mending Pile

It's Tutu Cute!

2011-06-28T18:14:00.000-04:00

My latest tutu.

Go Navy!

Flowers, Family & Food...Oh My!

2011-06-20T21:19:00.000-04:00

My big sister Rissy (Carissa for the rest of you folks) came down for a visit this weekend to see our new digs. Colin and I have been waiting for company to visit so we could try out various local attractions. Saturday brought us a a visit to the Oceanfront Art Festival followed by dinner at Chix Oyster Bar. On Sunday we found ourselves at Norfolk Botanical Gardens, lunch at Azars, and a visit to Colin's squadron which was all capped off by steak and peach pie on Saturday night with our neighbor Diane and her kidlet (as Colin loves to say) Hannah. Additionally our good friends from Guam, Julie and John came up today for a quick visit with their son Tommy. All in all, a very fun and eventful weekend!

Norfolk Botanical Gardens

Rissy's first time in the cockpit of a brand spankin' new helicopter (or any helicopter for that matter)

The wait is over!

2011-06-18T11:31:00.000-04:00

Well if this were a perfect world I'd wait until we would have finished painting and upgrading before posting new pics of our place but we all know how long that will take. So in the meantime, here is a brief photo tour of a few rooms in our condo!

Our very red kitchen. Still trying to decided if I want to keep it this color. But isn't our new fridge awesome? I am all over the new french door refrigerators!

Living Room: We used two different shades of yellow to complement the chair rail.

Instead of acquiring a new piece of furniture for our TV, we decided to splurge on a built-in entertainment center next month. The shelving you see on the right was installed by the previous owner. For the time being we've learned gorilla storage boxes make great TV stands!

Downstairs 1/2 bath. I've always wanted a purple bathroom. So here it is!

Upstairs Hallway

Colin's Man Room was short lived. I recently took up sewing and needed a place for my sewing machine and all the fun that goes with it. I'd say he still wins the "I love me" award as we were able to fit most of his plaques and Navy memorabilia (one acquires an absurd amount of memorabilia that piles up over the course of their career). I still managed to sneak in my running medals though. :)

Our mismatched guest room. The walls are blue at the moment but when we get the urge to go on another painting spree we'll repaint this room. For now, it's the guest room and ready for visitors!

And that's it for now! We went down to High Point, NC over Memorial Day to purchase bedroom furniture. It should arrive mid-July so I'll be sure to post pics of our bedroom and the finished living room then!

Cheddarific Pooch Treats

2011-06-03T17:29:00.002-04:00

So Colin and I don't have kids yet but as many of you probably know, I tend to spoil my dog just a little. Okay a lot. She's my baby and I'm sure that'll change once we have little ones running around. However for now, Cheddar is probably a little too spoiled for her own good. What can I say, she's pretty cute.

I love to cook and one of the things I love to make is dog treats. Mostly because you really can't screw up too badly. Especially when your dog loves to take inventory in the trash can on a regular basis. All dogs do that....right?

So today I made these fabulous treats for the pooper and her current roommate Scooter. While they love to take up residence in the kitchen while I cook, they were particularly intrigued by the smells these gave off this afternoon. Maybe it's the cheese. Maybe it's the oats. Whatever it is they were more than happy to taste test my new creations. So feel free to make these for your furry child. I guarantee they'll love 'em. I can prove it only because these two would never sit on command for anything else. Trust me. I tried.

Cheddarific Pooch Treats

Makes approximately 18-24 small biscuits.

1 cup boiling water

1-2 cubes chicken or beef bouillon

1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened

1 cup rolled oats

3 Tbsp brewers yeast

½ cup milk

½ cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1 egg, beaten

¾ cup cornmeal

3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325°. Combine boiling water and bouillon and stir to dissolve bouillon. In a large bowl mix bouillon water, margarine or butter, oats and brewers yeast. Allow mixture to stand for fifteen minutes or until oats have softened and absorbed some of the liquid. Stir in milk, cheese, egg and cornmeal until combined. Stir flour in one cup at a time until dough becomes stiff and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a floured surface and roll into a ½” circle. Using cookie cutters of your choice, cut into shapes.

1 egg

2 Tbsp water

¼ cup cheddar cheese, shredded

In a small bowl whisk egg and water. Brush egg wash over shapes and sprinkle with a few shreds of cheese. Line shapes on a greased baking sheet and bake 35-40 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cheese is crisp. Cool and allow biscuits to sit out overnight to dry. Store in an airtight container and out of sight from counter surfing canines.

Woof!

Kate's got it right!

2011-05-25T11:36:00.000-04:00

NASCAR, Unpacking & One very neglected dog

2011-05-14T16:09:00.003-04:00

So Colin caught a good deal flight this weekend and is up in Dover showing off his helo at a NASCAR race. Not a bad gig huh? Meanwhile I'm holding down the fort or rather, trying to setup the fort. I can officially announce all 21 boxes have been opened, emptied and thrown onto "Mt Trashmore" (where all the paper that wrapped our furniture is already piled) in our garage waiting for pickup from the moving company. I promise a full photo tour of the house soon...really I promise!

Until then, HRH Cheddar awaits her daddy's return. She figures if she backs up against the door, she can't miss him coming through it whenever he decides to return and love her neglected self again.

Recipe for fun: Just add confetti.

2011-04-25T19:08:00.001-04:00

Colin and I had the pleasure of visiting Washington DC last weekend and Yorktown this past weekend with family. We stayed with my sister Rissy in DC and also got to spend some time with Colin's sister Lara. Visits to the Smithsonian, an awesome quilt store and some awesome restaurants amounted to a great weekend up north!

Colin's dad had a layover on Saturday so we took him up to Yorktown for some history education. When Colin and Slim weren't talking airplanes they were talking about our nation's great Revolutionary war battles.

Colin showed his dad where he worked and we took him to one of our favorite restaurants Captain Groovy's in Norfolk. Not a bad day!

We tried out a new church for Easter yesterday and then spent the rest of the afternoon with our good friends Steve and Diane. They have an adorable 13 month old, Hannah. It was Hannah's first Easter egg hunt but I think the adults had more fun than she did. Diane's family sent her Cascarones, confetti filled Easter eggs. As a notion of good luck, one will crack the egg on top of unsuspecting friend's head thus showering them in a colorful display of confetti.

Didn't see that one coming!

Rather unamused, Cheddar also took part in the action.

Danielle, Me, Hannah & Diane

Hannah took more delight in the attention of six adoring adults than plastic eggs.

She was also concerned Cheddar hadn't been walked in awhile.

And perhaps the best part of the day. Hannah couldn't get enough of Colin. We were all in shock. Maybe he will be ready for parenthood some day!

Sew this is how I kept busy for a month

2011-04-13T19:58:00.000-04:00

So while Colin was in school last month I decided to learn a new hobby. After years of refusing to learn I let my mom teach me to sew. I've always avoided it because it requires some pretty precise work, exact measurements. I tend to be a fan of scrapbooking, where I can get away with imperfections and call it "art".

So anyway, here are a few of my latest creations.

42"x42" quilt made for my friend's newborn

Scented Neck Pillow

42"x42" Baby Girl quilt

Dipe & Wipe Pouch

And when you have scraps of fabric leftover, you make this!

When will Congress grow up?

2011-04-07T09:48:00.000-04:00

As I continue to mature ,(or at least try) I grow increasingly more dumbfounded at the arrogance of our government. There's an issue every week that I just sigh and wonder when someone will be elected into some part of our government who is there to do good, not serve themselves. There's got to be someone right?

This week, similar to about three weeks ago is the budget delay, once again the military will go without pay if Congress doesn't come up with an agreement on their long overdo budget. Something just doesn't make sense here. The MILITARY will suffer the consequences for CONGRESS not being able to do their job correctly. Am I hearing that correctly?

Sure the military will get paid eventually but that doesn't mean service members won't be late paying their bills, rent and mortgages. I just love how Congress voted for an extension last month so that they could go on vacation. Can service members go on vacation while they wait to be paid?

If you'd like to read CNN's take on this, click here.

The Art of Househunting

2011-04-02T17:18:00.001-04:00

King Neptune Statue on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront

So Colin and I have been in Virginia for exactly eleven days and I'm proud to say I can get to Target and back without getting lost! Other than the Food Lion (Colin calls it the Food Kitty), those are pretty much the two places I've really been to. It's progress right?

When Colin hasn't been at work we've been house hunting. Hard. We spent a week here in February looking at places, about 30 of them. After returning last week we saw about 15-20 more. Everything from foreclosed 3,000 square foot detached homes in the burbs to four story stand-alones on the beach. Ultimately we decided to put an offer on a house in a neighborhood that in my opinion, is awesome.

Working at Norfolk, Colin has a tough commute. I won't even begin to imagine how many thousands of people drive to that base every day. Too many! Being an older city; good, safe and affordable neighborhoods are few and far between which has forced us to look further out. It's funny because we originally came to Norfolk thinking: Let's buy a detached, 2-3 car garage, 3-4 bedroom house with a moderate sized yard and maybe a cul-de-sac. Growing up in overpriced Southern California I figured we could easily find that. Well we decided on an attached, 1 car garage, 3 bedroom townhouse with a tiny yard (even that is a stretch). I fell in love with the neighborhood. It's new, gorgeous and next to a golf course. Having mansion sized homes in the neighborhood doesn't hurt either. :)

The good news is they accepted our offer and we're waiting on the inspection this coming week. Still, I refuse to get my hopes up too high for the time being, you never know what can happen in the contract process. If all goes to plan I will finally get to decorate my very own house which I've been dreaming about for way too long. I admit I keep a file in my Iphoto library of home and garden pictures I come across. Colin thinks I'm nuts but then again, he still misses his bacheloresque black leather couches and glass and lacquer coffee table. Oh my.

So hopefully by my next post we'll have some good news from the homeowner front!

OOG "Only on Guam"

2011-03-25T16:13:00.000-04:00

So as I freeze my heiny off in 39 degree weather, I can't help but miss a little (just a little) bit of the Guam weather. Especially as we hop from house to house looking for the ONE. But more on that later.

I thought I'd recap my Guam experience with a few OOG moments. For you non-Guammies OOG means "Only on Guam" and to be classified as OOG, it really must be unique to this very unique island.

So here are some photos that I feel are oozing with Chamorro flavor:

I had thought they were spelling tuna wrong. Nope, it's the local moonshine.

The MuMu rack at Ross. Does your Ross have one?

This makes me laugh!

Everyone who doesn't live on Guam fears the brown tree snake. Everyone who does? We just fear stepping on a dead one. I don't know of anyone who has seen a live snake outside of a trap. In this case we found a dead one that fell out of my friend Crystal's tree. Colin was manly enough to throw it out for us, and he did it with a smile...not.

I encountered this waaaay too often. Locals love their meat.

Chamorros LOVE to celebrate, and why not? They can cook up a storm and are some of the more hospitable people I've met in my life. There is a reason to celebrate everything. From a 1st birthday to a Sweet 16 birthday party to annual rosaries.

Guam's election "season" can run as long as 2 years. Some of these signs were up that long. They love democracy here!

Tire Ripar anyone?

And my personal favorite:

Dang it, I've got 46 people in my family.

Transportation

The well loved automobiles on island are affectionately called "Boonie Cars" or "Guam Bombs." Whichever you choose, they're quite a buy. They putter at a blazing fast speed of 25mph, spew exhaust that would make a liberal Californian pass out, carry more people that they're intended to and are often...decorated. Here's a few:

Helmets are overrated

A literal example of a true Guam Bomb

This screams "Hit Me!"

I will never understand this

Rusty, parted out cars are often found on the side of the road. Found this on the side of the harbor

Back in 2009 we had a squadron event and some of the pilots and their wives/girlfriends chose to arrive in style. A true Guam Flotilla

Nice fro Bro!

Colin stopped for his sister Lara to get a picture of a classic Guam bomb. Right as she snapped it the owner of the property and apparently the car, came rambling out of the bush with a machete. All I heard was "HEY!!!" as we sped off. Apparently we should have asked permission to take photos of his property.

The Carabao

Most of the world knows of these creatures as water buffalo (or as my friend's daughter calls them "water bussalo"). They're known as carabao (cara-bow) in this region and can be found mowing grass on the side of the road all over the island.

Who needs a car when you can ride your carabao to Ace Hardware?

They can also be used to hunt. Colin ran into "Frank" and his owner hunting pig. Now I know why the locals love to buy old uniforms at yard sales.

An icon on Guam, this man walks carabao and dog in the Liberation Day Parade

The Rent-A-Carabao business is booming. Here they're backing this guy into the cave where our church held a live nativity scene on Christmas

OOG Moments

Aside from pictures I asked a few friends (and pilfered through the OOG Facebook Page) to share their OOG moments:

"Maybe not (my) top, but top 5 is driving just north of merizo...people were driving a golf cart on the road like a car with a caribou trotting behind it." ~Abby

"Hard to think of just one... the dinosaur graveyard cracks me up every time I drive by. Probably my winner is the first time we played golf here and Nick said, "Look what's crossing our fairway." And it was a big chicken followed by 5 chicks strutting single file across the 14th hole :) He's also had a pig run onto the fairway... OOG!" ~Peyton

"OOG do you fear the Super Bowl commercials." ~Colin

"Only on Guam does McDonalds serve spam and rice for breakfast." ~OOG Facebook

"Only On Guam will you see a roof rack for your Toyota Corolla made out of coconuts and bamboo." ~ OOG Facebook

"OOG will you get serious directions that include, "turn left at the pack of boonie dogs that hang out at the corner." ~OOG Facebook

So there you have it, a taste of my two years on Guam. I really do miss a lot of it, especially the awesome friends we made. There really is no place like Guam and Colin and I are so glad we were able to take advantage of an overseas experience like this!

13.1 & Done!

2011-03-16T00:51:00.001-04:00

So Courtney and I cranked out 13.1 miles at the Safari Park Half Marathon this weekend and I have to say I didn't do as badly as I predicted finishing in 2 hours 11 minutes. It was a typical race for us, waking up at the butt crack of dawn (on Daylight Savings Day no less) and freezing our rear ends off in the dark waiting for the race to begin. The race was held at the Safari Park in Escondido (Wild Animal Park for you Southern California folk) and we were greeted with a downhill start (yay!) only to be challenged with at least a dozen or more hills throughout the course. We saw lots of cows and horses but unfortunately all the zoo creatures were still getting their beauty sleep (a lot smarter than us!).

As usual I shivered during miles 1-5. Cursed myself profusely during miles 6-12:

and praised myself wondering what race I'll sign up for next at mile 13.1:

Thank you RunningSkirts.com for the photos!

A routine race for me!

One of these days I'll challenge myself to get beat my PR (personal record) of 1:54 but for now, I'm enjoying the scenery!

One HECK of an update!

2011-03-08T20:11:00.009-05:00

So a few of you have poked and prodded wondering when I’ll finally update the blog. Of course I keep giving the excuse that I need time to think about what I want to write, edit etc. Well considering I’m sitting in the Petsmart parking lot waiting for Cheddar to finish her doggie spa day (if only dogs enjoyed pampering as much as we do…) and my purse has already been cleaned out, the excuses are up!

So last I wrote I think we had just gone to Palau. Well hope you’re comfy cause your in for a long one but I promiste I’ll try (that being the operative word) to be humorous. Since then we’ve been a little busy. Packed up our entire house, shipped our car, the dog and ourselves to the States! Our time on Guam came to a sad but good close. Lots of goodbye lunches and dinners, happy hours, luaus, picnics and well wishes until we see each other again (and yes the US Navy guarantees you will see each other again…at some point!). It never gets old to look back at how many friends we've been fortunate to make in our lives, an impressive bulk of them on Guam no less!

Additionally we had Colin's last flight with HSC-25. I barely caught his fly-in on video (sneaky sucker!) but my good friend Jackie managed to catch a couple of photos for me! I had the pleasure of hosing him down, a custom usually reserved to a family member or friend upon a last flight. I think he enjoyed it considering he gave me a big soggy hug!

Our "Bail plaque" at the squadron's

Hail and Bail on GabGab Beach in January

Our church Lutheran Church of Guam held a farewell luau for the five couples leaving island this winter. We were one of those couples and boy did we have a great time! It was sad to see everyone for the last time but again, I'm sure we'll see many of them again someday soon!

Guest of Honor. :)

Pastor Jeff and us!

CHUUK

Our last few days in Mircronesia were capped off with a trip to Chuuk (or Truk, depending on your historical preferences). This is one of those places we’ve been wanting to dive so we managed to squeeze three days of diving WW2 wrecks before flying to Virginia, our next station. Chuuk was pretty cool although it does make Guam look like Waikiki. All the mud ~~lakes~~ puddles made for a 45 minute trip from the airport to the dock. The distance? Two miles.

We took a little boat to our ship, the SS Thorfinn, that we’d call home for the next few days. I wish the trip started out better, there was a pretty bad storm that came in and as a result, brought huge swells into the Chuuk lagoon. From previous blogs you all probably know my tolerance for bad seas….nada. Hoping my Dramamine could handle the battle, Colin and I stowed our suitcases, setup our gear and jumped into the dive boat. It took 20 minutes to reach the dive site and I already knew I was soggy toast. When we cut the motor we couldn’t even standup without holding on for dear life. You gotta love watching everyone take their dear time donning their gear despite the hellacious conditions and seagreen shade of my complexion. Hello?? Girl ready to puke here! I As I ~~shoved~~ encouraged everyone into the water I began to panic as I was about to vomit and couldn’t hold onto the anchor line. I let out the air in my BC (vest) in hopes of a fast descent to get out of the swells….except I couldn’t sink! My lungs were so full of air from the panic I couldn’t allow myself to sink. That’s when my savior, Hayley (our divemaster) swam to me, added some weights to my vest, held my hand and pulled me under. I’m pretty sure this is the only situation I can think of where getting pulled under water in stormy conditions is actually a calming feeling. Pretty sure.

I pretty much spent the 40 minute dive trying to balance my equilibrium while everyone else enjoyed looking at artifacts on an old Japanese merchant ship. Don't I look happy here? ;p

We finally ascended (note: panic setting in again) and as the swells began to carry us we took our 10 minute safety stop (a normal one is 2-3 minutes but they require 10 minutes due to the deep depths of these sites). I couldn’t handle the fact that I was already on the verge of vomiting again so I shot up 3 minutes early and well, fed the fish. All I can say is I feel terrible for the dive guides, our fellow guests and my dear husband who had to witness my first dive with them. Needless to say I spent the rest of the afternoon curled up in the fetal position in my stateroom, sleeping off some of the worst nausea I’ve encountered yet. If you’re still reading this well, I applaud your stomach! I promise, that is the last of my pathetic sickness stories!

The rest of the dives were pretty awesome. ALMOST better than Palau I have to admit. It was like going back in time, we’d dive 90-130 feet down to these Japanese destroyers and tankers where everything literally stopped in time when they were bombed over 65 years ago by the Americans. While we only dived a handful of the 70 or so shipwrecks, we got to see and touch things like teakettles and rice bowls to tanks and bullets. Colin even saw a skull on one of the dives I didn’t go on. I even got to swim with a turtle on our last dive. It made me (almost) forget about the first day and fortunately I will remember Chuuk fondly…I just hope the dive staff of our ship will remember me to such a degree!

Remaining pages of a book...amazing!

One of too many sake bottles I found

Telegraph

Teapot

More sake bottles

I named this dude Speed, it took some effort

on my part to keep up with him!

Colin, recycling.

Tank

11,000 miles later we spent the better part of a week house hunting in the Hampton Roads area, our next station. Here we are: two virgin home buyers, a big city (make that seven little cities) neither of us have ever spent any time in, and five days to make a decision that will affect a substantial part of our future….that’s a lot ot think about! I think we saw 30 houses in five days, my brain about went on strike. In the end we decided despite finding a great house or two we weren’t comfortable enough with the area to make a sound decision. I mean, buying a house IS a big decision! So we’re working on finding a short term rental for the time being until we can find a neighborhood and house that we like!

After the failed house hunting trip we headed back across the country to San Diego. Colin enjoyed a couple of days with my family, we even enjoyed the Naval Aviation 100th Anniversary Air Show on North Island that weekend, so fun!

Colin and his friend Matt (also a recent Ex-Guamite) in

front of the first plane they flew in flight school

Perhaps one of the coolest sights I've ever seen.

The carrier USS Stennis' ENTIRE fixed airwing

flying over in formation...that's 40 aircraft people. All I can say is whoever coordinated that feat needs a promotion...just sayin'

Only because he just loves commercial travel, Colin flew BACK across the country to attend a month long class in Florida earning him a grand total of 17,000 frequent flyer miles in 10 days. If he ever decides to run for political office, he'll have the campaign stop deal down cold. =) So that left me time with the family, friends whom I haven’t seen in awhile. I've also kept busy with running. Gone are the days of 80+ degrees/90% humidity weather, instead I’m running in gorgeous high fifties , low sixties temps and great sights! I’m running the Safari Park Half Marathon next Sunday and hopefully my ten mile training run today was enough to get me through it on Sunday!

So I suppose everything has been updated. I’ve gone through half a box of teddy grahams which tells me I need to put it away and go pick up the mutt.

Stay tuned for a recap on my two years in Guam complete with an OOG (Only on Guam) photo gallery, one not to be missed. =)

Caitlyn

Our international jet-setting poocher

2011-01-25T19:09:00.001-05:00

Well we parted with the pooper on Sunday. We packed her into her "box" as we affectionately call her crate and put her on a plane to Los Angeles. My parents still love us enough to have driven up to LAX at 5am to pick her up. My dad sent us this picture to assure us he did in fact pick Cheddar up and she's still in one piece. Apparently he had to wake her from her nap for this picture, can you tell she's pleased? =)

And so it begins...

2011-01-12T21:54:00.002-05:00

Moving that is. I am currently sitting on the floor with my laptop and hubby "supervising" the packing. It's funny, everyone says "Oh they come and do it for you, you don't have to do anything!". Wrong! We've spent the last two days trying to figure out what we'll need for the next 2 months en route to Virginia. Once we siphoned off our bathroom with all the "Don't pack this!" stuff, exiled all of our yard sale stuff to the backyard this morning, we found out we had to sort through all the rest of our junk to remove liquids, food, flammables (spray paint I knew, duh. But nail polish??), batteries, light bulbs and candles. Because they won't do it. Given they arrived 1 1/2 hours late AND took two breaks before noon tells me it's going to be a LONG two days. I pitched the thought of running out to get food for them because it'd only give them another reason to take a break. Oh Guam!

Holy Cow Palau!

2011-01-10T07:02:00.002-05:00

Well I’d say Colin and I kicked off our New Year’s with a bang. We hung out at home, ate pasta and watched Flight of the Intruder. Woo! I can’t say we’re the most adventurous couple when it comes to partying but we are when it comes to travel. We also spent that night packing and flew out the next day to Palau for the week. All of Colin’s travel paid off and earned us two first class seats and a visit to the President’s Lounge. I’d have to say traveling is 99% more enjoyable if you do it first class. Hands Down.

For the next three days we packed 8 dives in one of the most gorgeous places on Earth. Seriously this island is right out of National Geographic. We spent every day out on the boats cruising around many of the 343 islands that make up that tiny nation. We spent over 7 hours underwater that week exploring EVERYTHING. The corals were so colorful and perfect, the turtles were so happy and friendly, even the sharks were friendly (I think). Considering our dive buddies came all the way from Europe & the States, we knew we had to be in a pretty good place!

I’d say our most eventful dive was in the German Channel where we came in contact with Palau’s famous Manta Rays. They have some enormous rays that span from 6-9 feet wide! An 8 foot white ray seemed to have figured out Colin and I were the true rookies of our group and decided to have fun with us. That included a game of Chase the Newbie Divers, a game of which NEITHER of us were expecting (nor desiring). I wish they had told me about that BEFORE the dive to save our friends from such entertainment. That was also my shortest dive as I went through copious amounts of air during that encounter, grrr. I’m still pretty new at this so hopefully I’ll soon learn how to relax like all our dive buddies seemed to do.

A Black Manta Ray...very few of these exist in the world. It's like seeing a person with one blue eye and one brown eye. That rare.

Me going "Whew!" after the Manta chase.

So pretty much every day consisted of us out on the boat or in the water. At the end of each day we hung out at the bar back at the dock to enjoy the sunset. A gorgeous sunset I might add. Overall the trip was pretty fantastic, I don’t think any camera in the world can do that place justice but here’s my attempt to share a few of our experiences with you.

Almost every view included at least four shades of blue water.

A blue clam, one of the sunken ships we visited had these encrusted all over her mast and beams.

Thousands of fish would surround us.

Here's Colin and I giving the peace sign in Chandelier Caves. Apparently Japanese honeymooners insist on having their picture taken in this particular cave. Cheezu!

We also visited Jellyfish Lake. Essentially this is an ancient saltwater lake completely surrounded by land...hence the lake part. ;) Because they have no predators around them these jellyfish have lost their stinging capabilities. Therefore, you can play with them!

I thought I'd try out my underwater video skills.

We kayaked the Black Tip Lake where Black Tip sharks live. (Again, they didn't warn me about this...eeek)

It was only until we found this unfortunate sight that we realized why we could not find any sharks. When a shark is killed or dies for some unknown reason, the others bail out for a few days. This was one of those few days. :(

Overall I think the trip was a success. When you can see things you only thought existed in books and magazines, you begin to realize there is so much more out there in the world. We hope to continue our adventures long into our marriage because theses experiences are truly unforgettable!

A Guamified Christmas!

2010-12-30T04:37:00.001-05:00

Well I love to brag that I tend to be healthy as a horse but of course that only comes back to bite me in the bootie. And boy did it ever! Christmas outdid me this year as I've been down for the count the past four days with the flu. Fortunately it came after the holiday and not before!

We had a nice Christmas here in Guam. It was my first away from home but I'd say being surrounded by so many friends helped tremendously. So did cooking for 20. I took on my dad's Italian Christmas tradition and along with my fabulous husband, we cooked shrimp linguine for our friends on Christmas day. So delicious and easy to make!

LCG Christmas Eve Service: Christmas at the Caves, complete with a manger scene! Although I wasn't aware there were carabao back in the day...

(yep that does say Bud Light Ct...OOG)

Dinner at the Chance Villa...Buon Natale!

Given the strange angles of my house, I did my very best to get everyone in this picture:

We had tiramisu, cookies and pecan pie for dessert!

The kiddos!

We went diving with our friends the Fishers and Phillips' the day after Christmas. We dove a couple of great locations on Guam, everyone says they found a cool octopus. I did not. So either they're pulling my leg or the darn octo climbed back into his hole before I could swim over.

Overall, a great Christmas! We pack out in two weeks but not without a trip to Palau. More on that to come!

Adventures in Candyland!

2010-12-12T21:39:00.001-05:00

Well one of my big projects of the year is now behind me. I was tasked with organizing the squadron Christmas party this year...again! Planning started in August and along with a few other ladies, we worked pretty hard to get this all together, epecially considering we live on Guam with it's "abundant" source of party resources! Let's just say we kept Oriental Trading afloat this quarter.

The theme this year was Candyland and what fun that was!! Seriously, who doesn't love candy? Or more importantly, what kid doesn't like candy? My friend Julie tasked herself with a mission to find enough candy for 100 children. Since she has a toddler and hungry labrador I had to keep all the candy in my guest room...disgustingly tempting for not only me but my poor dog who would go in there every day to sniff around. My guest room and soon my house was filled to the brim with decorations, craft supplies and of course candy! Poor Colin was a trooper!

So this past Friday 15 of us showed up after work to turn a very industrial space into an imaginary Candyland. I must say trying to decorate an aircraft hangar is one of the more challenging things I've done lately! With the help of some awesome sailors we set up countless tables, chairs, a bounce house, an obstacle course, Santa's corner, food table and of course, the candy buffet! We managed to get it all setup in 2 1/2 hours, of course pizza and drinks is always a great motivator. :)

The festivities began Saturday morning. One thing I really am happy about this year is that we were able to rope in a bunch of the single/childless pilots to help with the party. This way the wives can help with the pre-planning and then be able to be with their children during the party.

The kids started arriving at 9:00am and eventually we had 100 kids and their parents taking part in crafts, games and the candy buffet around the hangar. At 9:30am the children had a big surprise fly in. Santa himself hitched a ride all the way from the North Pole to come visit the children.

I would like to say they were a little bit excited:

Thanks to Steph for this pic, it's my favorite!!

The children each had a turn to come visit Santa, get their picture taken with him and of course, a toy! All I can say is our hero of the day is Jonny, one of the pilots who donned a velvet suit and beard in 90 degree weather.

A very serious picture of the North Pole flight crew

While they were waiting for their turn they took part in several crafts. They made frames for their Santa pictures, colored hot chocolate mugs and Christmas cards and made coconut reindeer. You mainlanders are probably envisioning something completely different from what this craft was. We brought in unopened coconuts and they attached eyes, a red nose, antlers and a scarf (in some cases it was a ninja scarf or bow tie)!

We originally came up with coconut snowmen but had some trouble getting hot glue to stick to spray paint. Unfortunately I discovered the problem was the green, unripe coconut we were using was too oily. It worked just fine on the brown ones so not wanting to waste supplies I made some as decorations and gifts for some of the key volunteers!

The children also kept busy with games. This year we had an obstacle course, a penny toss and a scavenger hunt in addition to the usual bounce house and bubble wrap run. The kids were to try and fill in answers to questions on the page and for the questions they couldn't answer, they'd have to go find a pilot or crewman to find it. The prizes were fantastic and it seemed to go really well!

The final "activity" if you will, of the morning was a pass by the "Candy Shoppe". Each child was given a "Golden Ticket" (Willy Wonka anyone??) to exchange for a candy bag. We converted Santa and Elf hats into handy candy bags. The funniest thing I found about the whole ordeal was the parents found the buffet to be more exciting than the children. And that's saying a lot. It was hilarious watching them "ask" the kids what they wanted to select. I suppose this may be a repeat in years to come, I guess the parents deserve some fun too, right?

Btw, aren't these photos awesome? My good friends Jeff, Andrea and Molly captured the day so well!

In the end I think the children had a fabulous time. We even got some great PR as some of the local papers published pictures from the event. I hope I have an opportunity to plan another party at a future command, if we could pull this off on Guam, the possibilities stateside are endless...

It's nearly Christmas card time!

2010-11-22T17:58:00.000-05:00

So I am sure you all are busy rifling through your address books (or at least you are planning to) as you prepare to send out those annual Christmas cards. I actually find this rather exciting, reviewing all the exciting things that happened that year. I would say in all my life my favorite letter was the one my mom wrote after our house burned down in 2003. Nothing like a distant friend opening the mail to see the whole Barker family in front of a pathetic burnt out chimney saying:

“A very Merry Christmas from our house to yours!”

Now that I’m married, I wrote my first one last year. Last year after using Shutterfly for our wedding thank you cards we decided to use it again including our wedding and vacation photos in our Christmas card:

I must say this is the next best thing to scrapbooking as I do not possess the talent (nor much of a will!) to pump out 50+ homemade cards!

Aside from cards we've used Shutterfly for many things such as photo books, calendars, prints & of course, Christmas cards! And the best thing? They ship to Guam, a BIG victory for those of us our here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!!

So if you haven't figured out what to do for Christmas cards and want to be able to afford to send cards to everyone on your list, check out this promo from Shutterfly and secure 50 free Christmas cards!

Eating, Drinking & Laughing our way through Italy.

2010-10-23T19:15:00.005-04:00

So the travel train continues! I'm currently sitting in Hawaii awaiting a flight back to Guam. It's been a whirlwind of a month! It all started with a "fun" Space-A trip back to San Diego. I had the pleasure of spending some time in my hometown, enjoying the luxuries of mainland life; Target, outdoor running, Nordstrom, freeways, Jamba Juice and about 53 other wonderful things Guam forgot about. The family and I flew back to Boston for a couple of days enroute to Italy at the end of the month. My dad grew up in Boston so it was fun to tour his hometown again. We hopped on a 747 and flew to Naples, Italy. My family along with two other couples Dave & Julie, and Karen & Frank rented a villa in Sorrento for the week. We had a fabulous time. Sorrento is a classic Southern Italian town, everything there; the people, the food, the scenery is beautiful...with the exception of the traffic. Italian drivers make Guam drivers look sane. I don't know how many times we came within an inch of moped or Smart car. Whew!

We began our time in Sorrento with lunch at the Excelsior Vittoria hotel for lunch. Dave's parents honeymooned at this very hotel 66 years ago while they were stationed in Italy during WWII. It was a pretty surreal experience for him and our tummies. Great food and the view was second to none.

Our lunchtime view from the Excelsior Vittoria hotel!

Our week included a trip to Pompeii to see Mt Vesuvius and the ruins of the 2,000+ year old city. We stopped for pizza before starting our tour and didn't realize the size of the pizzas they served. Not wanting to waste any food we asked for it to be wrapped up. Expecting a foil package I could throw in my backpack we got a pizza box. So we were probably the only tourists to ever tour the ruins of Pompeii carrying a pizza box. It did come in handy when we stopped for a snack but otherwise it simply served as a running joke within our group!

We spent the next day touring the island of Capri. Many people who know me well know that I tend to get motion sick rather easily. So I'm always carrying Dramamine, just in case. Well we might as well have encountered the backside of a small hurricane, 12 of us were tossed and turned in a 20 foot motor boat amidst 4 foot swells for 3 hours. Dramamine or not, I was a goner. Apparently the views of the island were breathtaking. I thought the water was rather gorgeous, mostly because that's what I stared at for most of the trip as I continually fed the fish. Once we finally docked I regained my balance and checked out the tourist trap of Capri. I opted for the 16 Euro jet boat back to Sorrento while the rest of the crew motored back. So word to the wise, if you have a weak stomach, take the jetboat to Capri...trust me!

The waters around Capri

Capri

The rest of our stay in Sorrento was a rather pleasant one. We wined and dined ourselves into oblivion. It's a good thing we walked EVERYWHERE or I'd be a qualified contestant for Biggest Loser right about now.

Our next adventure took us to Florence. We spent four hours on the Autostrada enjoying a true Italian driving experience. Apparently traffic lanes are just a suggestion as are turn signals. Most opt to straddle a lane at speeds ranging from 45mph to 100mph. My dad's knuckles were white by the time we arrived in Florence! We stayed in a B&B on the outskirts of the city and since we were a large group, they rented the whole house out to us for the week! The only downside was having to learn the bus system, a chore that was! The first day we got on the wrong line and enjoyed a 90 minute tour of the city. Some say you can stay in Florence for a month and not see it all...I disagree.

The gang on the bus..again

If you go to Italy this is once city you cannot miss. Known for its art it won't let you down. Museums, cathedrals, duomos, statues (naked statues that is), piazzas, government buildings, palazzos, bridges...even the building the McDonalds is in was a work of art. We spent our days exploring the Ufizzi, the Academia (where Michaelangelo's David is) and the Ponte Vecchio (a bridge full of stores selling nothing but 18K gold jewelry....yea!). The city is a feast for the eyes. The shopping was outrageous, I had to constantly keep in mind I had to carry everything back to Guam with me, boo. Courtney and I refreshed our bargaining skills at the San Lorenzo Market, an outdoor market known for it's leather goods. After conquering the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul we were determined to see what kind of deals we could get. What fun we had! Between the two of us (mind you one of us is blond, the other a redhead in a dark haired country) we sweetalked our way to some serious deals. My favorite was when Courtney negotiated a price for an adorable red crocodile skin purse. After she paid the man asked for her phone number. He glanced at my mother and asked she was her mother. When Courtney said yes, he said "Oh! You are the mama! You have such beautiful daughter!" to which Dave points to my father in the background and says "And that there is the PAPA". The man proceeds to bow to my father in hopes of his approval. We were laughing into the night on that one!

The view from our villa!

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

More naked statues

The Ponte Vecchio aka: Goldmine

Arno River

Overlook at the Pitti Palace (home of the Medici Family)

Dave & Dad in their element

You even find art on the ground! (This one is a chalk drawing of a popular painting of Eleanor Medici, a famous European royal who lived in the Pitti Palace)

The San Lorenzo Market

Our trip to Florence also included a day trip to Siena. If any of you has seen "Letters to Juliet" then you probably saw many of the places we went, including the steps outside the Duomo we are sitting on in this picture:

Siena is a hill town so we spent a good portion of the day climbing steps. No one felt too bad about enjoying a gelato or two in the piazza at the end of the day!

Courtney and I waiting on the group

Out of all our day trips I'd say wine tasting in Tuscany tops the list. It was just perfect. Our driver Fabrizzio picked us up and drove us to the town of Greve (Grev-vay), right in the heart of some of the Chianti Region. A gorgeous little town we got to see some awesome wine, cheese and prosciutto shops. I recommend spending a day just observing this little town, it's a classic Italian town and gorgeous to boot. We hopped back in the van and stopped at the Verazzano (yep same guy the NY bridge is named for) vineyards to sample the leftover grapes from last weekend's harvest. It is an ancient tradition in Italy to leave a portion of the crop behind for the poor; after all that shopping, I think we might have qualified. :) We finished our day at a couple of wineries. We even enjoyed a tour of the Vicchiomaggio winery and tasted some exquisite Chianti Classicos. We took some fantastic tours, bought some even more fantastic wines and simply enjoyed the beauty of Tuscany in the fall.

Julie and I in the Verazzano Vineyard

I'm thinking about showing my dog this picture, maybe she'll think twice before taking herself for a walk again...

Overall Italy was a fantastic experience. I wish I could have shared it with Colin but I suppose we will have to visit it together some day!

I'm now attempting to get back to Guam via the US Air Force's fabulous (and I use that term loosely) Space-A program. I'm currently battling a terminal full of people for a coveted seat on a transport plane back to the Rock. I'm praying I get one of those seats because I've been here for three days now and I'm ready to finally be home again!

Arrivederci!

Jumpin' Back on the Travel Train

2010-09-17T18:45:00.000-04:00

I must travel a lot, because this is my fourth post in less than three months on my travels! Once again, I'm on the road...only a little sooner than I expected! Being stationed in Guam, the most practical thing to do on a military salary is to Space-A a military flight back to the mainland. Space-A is in a league of its own. Anyone who has been stationed overseas before probably has some experience with this concept. Essentially Space-A is a program for military and their dependents (me) to travel on military aircraft on you guessed it, a space available basis. Anyone who has done this knows the trip NEVER goes as planned. No matter how simple it may look. They can change/cancel the flight at anytime, EVEN after the plane has taken off. I likened myself to media mail, eventually I'll get there on the cheap.

I'd been chasing a flight headed to MCAS Miramar in San Diego for a few days. To catch a flight from Guam to Miramar (when your parents live five minutes from the base) is pretty much hitting Space-A paydirt. A free trip! When I found out that particular flight was taken off the schedule I was a little happy about that only because I wanted to maximize the time I had with Colin. So I quit packing, went to bed and when the alarm went off at 6:20 that morning, I went ahead and checked the schedule to see if maybe the flight popped back up later in the day. Oh it popped up alright. For 6:40am. Needless to say the tornado of Colin and I throwing stuff into my suitcase, grabbing my passport and driving as fast as those rediculous base speed limits allowed us, I ran into the terminal at 6:40. Bam! On the dot. And here's where it gets fun. After forgetting my travel papers and thouroughly ticking off the lady for not only showing up late but forgetting such important papers she said I could check in but ONLY if I could get those papers to her immediately. Colin ran home and got them and before we knew it I was accepted on the flight. Three hours later I found myself strapped into a jumpseat of a ginormous C-17 talking to a a jet squadron of Marines coming home from a 7 month deployment. I was ecstatically talking about how excited I was to be practically flying into my back yard and they gave me some funny looks. I then overheard something about them getting a bus to the hotel when we arrived when my stomach dropped. "Whoa, wait a minute. This plane is going to Miramar, right?" "Well yes of course, we just have to stop in Hawaii for a 48 hour crew rest. We'll head out on Friday or Saturday perhaps." My freak-o-meter about shot through the roof. Here I am stuck on a plane to a place where I could easily caught a plane to next week. Good thing Colin was headed to work already, I didn't want to ruin his day with that news.

So as you might guess I spent the next 7 1/2 hours stewing over this debacle. I tried to make the best of it, I snatched three airplane blankets and a pillow and found a cozy little (I mean little) spot on the cold metal floor and attempted to sleep as the temperature steadily dropped to 40 degrees. I lost feeling in my toes for the rest of the flight as I tried to ignore the A/C blowing on me. I was pretty jealous of the marines who got to monkey climb up onto the storage containers and stretch out for a nap. We arrived in Hawaii pretty late and after Customs confiscated my food (I'm pretty sure she just forgot her dinner and thought my sandwich looked tasty), I fought for my bag bag (they said if I took it with me, I had to give up my ticket to Miramar, seriously?) and was dumped off at the terminal. In both my experiences traveling Space-A I've arrived with no one expecting me. Great feeling. Really. I was lucky (so lucky) to find a flight leaving for Reno six hours later with a ton of seats...sold!

So 8 hours later I was on yet another C-17 to Nevada. This time I chose a seat near the front, away from the vents, still cold but not arctic. I was pretty tired by this point so sleeping (or at least laying, trying to sleep) on an airplane floor with earplugs in my ears was somewhat enticing. We arrived in Reno and since I was the only passenger not staying in Reno I had to find my own transportation to the main terminal. I much have looked pathetic because a guy from the charter jet terminal gave me a ride over there, for free. What a saint! It only got better. I got to the Southwest desk and met the second nicest person I'd seen in awhile. In less than five minutes I had a SWA ticket (no bag fees!!) home. The butterflies finally settled, I'd made it. The trip was uneventful, thankfully and what do you know I sat next to yet another group of jet guys from Miramar heading home from Tailhook in Reno. When I told them I flew to Hawaii with their rival squadron they gave me a funny look (what's with these marines and funny looks?). I'm pretty sure they believed me, or just assumed I'm one very tired, crazy lady.

I must have been tired I slept from 10:00pm until 1:30 the next day! Who doesn't love jet lag?

So for now I'm just enjoying San Diego, I ran the harbor this morning and got a visit to Target in, this girl is happy!

Our Tokyo Travels!

2010-09-14T03:43:00.003-04:00

Well our travels continue! Sometime this summer Colin and I finally realized we only had six months left on Guam. A "Woohoo!" and a "Boo!" went through our minds immediately. Woohoo! because we'll finally be in the land of Target, Starbucks and Costco again. Boo because we will be leaving some of the best friends we've ever met. Guam is truly a unique place, frustrating as day but the people we're surrounded by make up for it! So we formed our Guam Bucket List and came up with several things we wanted to accomplish before our departure in February.

Try out more hikes
Get Colin Scuba certified (check!)
Go diving together
Dive Palau & Chuuk (see a theme?)
Run the Koko's Half Marathon in October
Visit Tokyo (check!)

We successfully checked off Tokyo over Labor Day weekend. Wow! If I had sum up that city in one word it would be efficiency. The airport, the train system, hotels, the computerized toilets (seriously), even the convenience stores! Coming from an island where it takes half a day to get anything done, it's totally overwhelming, yet so cool. Upon arrival we were whisked through Immigration right to the train that brought us to Tokyo. The schedule said we would arrive at Tokyo Station at 8:57pm. After a 37 mile journey we literally rolled to a stop just as the clock hit 8:57. Amazing! One of the downsides to Tokyo is the population of 12 million people, with most of the population commuting via train every day. Talk about a mass of humanity trying to catch a train! They actually have people pushers who well, you guessed it, shove people into trains to get the doors to close. Half the adventure was walking and riding all over the city!

Our first day was spent at Disneyland. Colin's never been so I just had to take him there, how could I allow him to pass up a chance to experience Disney? Seriously that place is magical, I went there a lot growing up and just couldn't sit with the fact that Six Flags is the only amusement park he knows. No way. So we were probably the only kid-less Westerners there but that's cool. We FastPassed our way around the park and enjoyed every minute of it! It's just like the Anaheim park, just a little smaller. So fun!

The second and third day we checked out various Tokyo sites. My favorite? The Tsukiji Fish Market! This place is one of the largest fish markets in the world and knowing how obsessed the Japanese are with fish we had to check this place out. We arrived at 5:30am and the place had already been bustling since 3am. The tuna auctions were held at 4am but we would have had to line up before 3 to get tickets...no thank you. There were all kinds of crazy fish, things I've never seen or heard of...nor would I ever want to try. I got the shivers looking at the eels swimming around in a bucket full of red water.

It was a quick three day trip but packed full of fun. Before we knew it we were back to the airport in Guam with a full planeload of Japanese tourists. We clearly knew we were home when we were met at the gate by a customs official. "You American?" she asks. "Yes" we reply. "Oh, I don't think there is anyone here [that being the Immigration & Customs desks] yet. Maybe you wait for a while"....

Welcome back to Guam!

Happiest Place on Earth!

Pagoda in Asakusa

TMG Building, 48 floors!

View from the top of TMG...12 million people live here!

Hama Rikyu Gardens

Mt Fuji-me!

Hama Rikyu Gardens

Market in Asakusa...packed!

Here's an important photo...the computer pad

that controls the toilet.

One of the prized auction winners!

A headless one that is.

Ewww.

Geoduck Clams (thank you Lori for identifying this one!)

Cambodia, Malaysia & Singapore...a continuation of our epic trip!

2010-08-29T09:00:00.001-04:00

So perhaps that last blog blogged me out for awhile, sorry it's been so long! Between making our album, talking about it with everyone and blogging about it, I sort of burned out on our experiences! However since we are about to head up to Japan this weekend, I better get this trip covered!

I left off at Cambodia. Wow. This is certainly not a country I ever imagined I'd ever visit. I remember going to school with kids from there when I was little, remembering stories about them and their parents escaping the country so I never had great assumptions for the country.

We crossed into Cambodia by boat. We went on a Mekong River cruise that started in the Mekong Delta (Vietnam) and traveled north to Siem Reap, Cambodia. For 8 days Colin and I explored fishing villages, towns, pagodas, palaces and factories, what a fantastic way to explore a country! It was so neat to see whole villages on the river...literally on the river. The houses were built as small barges so they could float on the water. This is helps them avoid major flooding that ensues after the river swells in the winter.

Some gorgeous pagodas (temples)

We had the pleasure of visiting an orphanage and elementary school as well as fair trade and weaving villages and rice paper and puffed rice factories.

Very hungry...

They even let me try my hand at rice paper, all I can say is I better keep looking for a job. :)

At the end of the cruise we were dropped off in Siem Reap. Siem Reap is home to Angkor Wat. Angkor What?? Haha, a few people have said that. Angkor Wat is a tenth century temple in the ancient city of Angkor. The city, about 60 square miles big was once home to over a million people back in the 900's. It literally outgrew itself and eventually gave into disease. The jungle took it over and was hidden until the late 19th century. Since then various projects have been conducted to restore this incredible city. Angkor Wat is the main temple of the city and is absolutely amazing. If this place were in the West it would be roped off and preserved to the nth degree. However here, for $40 you have three days of full access. We spent three days climbing in, out, up, down and around the structures. Just standing at the top of a building that was once a "city hall" over a thousand years ago is truly a privilege.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Thom

Terrace of the Elephants...and me.

I think this is Bayon

We climbed to the top of this puppy, whew!

Still however, amongst all that amazing, gorgeous history it was painful to watch how some of the country's people spend their days. I don't know what brought me more tears, the children peddling postcards and scarves ("Pretty scarf for pretty lady?" "10 postcards! 10 for one dolla!") when they should have been in school or the young father crawling like a gorilla on his hands and knees because his two legs were blown off by a land mine. Colin and I stopped at a bar for lunch and sat up on the deck while we watched foot traffic below. I couldn't help but stare at this man who wore a basket full of postcards around his neck as sat against a wall hoping to make a sale. I was in tears when I saw him crawl by our restaurant, soaking wet during dinner in a massive thunderstorm. No raincoat, no jacket. Never had I seen such hopeless poverty. This is a country that has suffered for a long time. Earlier in the trip we stopped at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh:

and got to see some amazing ornate buildings, jewels and artifacts. It baffles me to see a five foot Budda made out of pure gold, a pagoda's interior floor made out of pure silver or millions of dollars in precious jewels sitting in glass cases when there are people who fight to make less than a dollar a day. More tears but hope for progress came on when we visited the Tuol Sleng Prison and Killing Fields as well. It was incredible to witness a place that played host to such mass murder 35 years ago. I cannot even BEGIN to describe the nausea brought on by such a sight. Seeing bones, skulls, clothing matted into the dirt all while learning that some of the mass graves we were looking at had yet to be excavated, was overwhelming. You can still see the sadness in people's eyes, they will never forget (nor let their offspring forget) what happened to their parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and friends.

Thousands of skulls preserved in a memorial Stupa

Mass grave sites at the Killing Fields

Malaysia

While Malaysia brought some similar experiences, it certainly didn't have the poverty rate of Cambodia. Malaysia seems to be on the rise, we checked out Kuala Lumpur and Penang. KL is a rising metropolis. A crazy one at that! They failed to build the city on a standard grid so a map of the downtown area sort of resembles a three year old's sketch of his spaghetti dinner. None of the bus or subway lines connected (they're all owned by separate companies) so we spent a lot of time getting lost. A LOT. We did however hit Chinatown, a shopper's mecca. Even Colin enjoyed the shopping here so I think that says a lot!

Penang was pretty cool. It took us two cabs and 2.5 hours to make it from the airport to our hotel (plus the hotel lost our reservation) but the ambiance of the island made up for it. What a beautiful, quaint island! We shared our hotel with a good portion of the Saudi Arabian population. Apparently this is where they vacation! I had never seen a burqa in real life before and I was met by a sea of them! It was most certainly a culture shock. I no longer felt all that comfortable walking around in my tank top and shorts when these women only dared to bare their eyes. Some of the more liberal women chose to don swim burqas. The gift shop even sold them! I wanted a picture but it just didn't feel proper to snap photos of these women donning hot pink spandex. We did enjoy seeing the town, celebrating our 1 year anniversary (oddly enough, on our 1 1/2 year anniversary) at an unbelievable restaurant and hanging out by the pool in Penang. A great segway to Singapore!

Singapore

Singapore was flat out amazing. After all the chaos of our trip Singapore was like a breath of fresh air! Our hotel sent a mercedes to pick us up and we felt like a honeymooning couple all over again! We stayed in an amazing hotel, ate some incredible food and just took in the orderly amazingness of this city. We could cross the street without fearing for our lives, purchase a meal knowing it's fully cooked and we're getting a fair price and enjoying clean streets and sidewalks! It didn't take long for us to figure out why Singapore takes order to the extreme. Surrounded by poverty, corruption and struggling economies, this country has done everything to ensure they do not end up that way. We loved everything here. The zoo, the Singapore Flyer, malls, everything. It was a great way to wrap up such a big trip.

Some people have asked if we felt this was a relaxing vacation. I have to say that it wasn't necessarily a relaxing one. And I don't think we really intended for it to be. Purposely cramming five countries into four weeks is enough to make a traveler dizzy but we wanted to experience as much as we could in the time we had. I almost think I would have left with an excess of guilt if I chose to relax in some of these places. Knowing what poverty and pain we walked amongst everyday is a real wake up to the realities of much of this world. This is definitely a part of the world our history books did not focus on nearly enough, a shame really.

Not to try and depress you my friends, I just want you have an idea of what our trip was all about. Our church is planning a mission trip to Cambodia this fall and we had the honor of sharing our trip with the congregation. I'm excited for more people to learn about this part of the world, it certainly deserves the recognition.

I'm Back with tales of my travels!

2010-08-01T09:27:00.001-04:00

Woowhee! I suppose I've been on a blog sabbatical for a couple of months. I admit it was partially no fault unto my own. It looks like my Gmail account got hacked into and as a result, my account was "disabled"....no blogging for me! Fortunately Gmail is not my primary account so it did not hinder my daily email but it did cause me to be a little lazy in reaching big ole giant Google to get my problem solved. SO, with a little help from my trusty hubby, I'm back! I have soooo much to catch up on. I am trying to figure out how to condense 4 weeks of fabulous Southeast Asian travel into an easy to read and hopefully entertaining read. So here goes....

So in effort to take advantage of every little bit of time out here in the middle of the Pacific, Colin and I decided to plan a trip to Southeast Asia. I have always wanted to see Vietnam and he has been dying to see Angkor Wat (Angkor What?) in Cambodia. So this trip became a hobby of ours while Colin was in Iraq. It helped us keep our eyes on the future, a trip to celebrate his homecoming. Of course like any trip people like us plan, the trip grew from two weeks to four weeks and two countries to five. Time to celebrate!

Hong Kong

The adventure began in the wonderful Antonio Won Pat Airport in Guam. As we got in line with 100 Chinese folks for a flight to Hong Kong we discovered the seats on our tickets did not exist. Hmm. So we got in line at the desk and got a new row. Got back in line. Nope, those seats don't work either. Neither did the next set they tried to give us. Apparently this Boeing 737 does not have a Row 8, 9, 13 or 14. That's a first.

So we finally got some seats and settled in for the flight. We arrived on time in Hong Kong and settled into our teeny little hotel room for the night. The next morning we had the pleasure of meeting up with a friend we met at church in Guam. Greg oversees several Lutheran churches all over Asia, including the one he has been preaching at for over 9 years now. Let me tell you this. If you only have seven hours of daylight to explore a massive Asian city, Greg is the way to go! He took out half of his busy day to give a whirlwind tour of almost the entire city. We rode up to Victoria Peak, rode the ferry, had lunch at a sweet local dim sum joint in Stanley and even a pint at an Irish bar for a break to watch the World Cup. By the time we boarded our plane to Hanoi we were wiped out but so excited to have had such a great friend show us such a cool city. We hope to be able to return one day to see a little more!

At the top of Victoria Peak

With our fabulous tour guide and friend, Greg!

Vietnam

So we flew to Hanoi and wow, the trip only got better. We were dropped off at the AMAZING five star Sofitel Metropole. This place knocked our socks off. Reflecting the French influence of the area, you would have thought the Eiffel Tower was right outside. I loved it. The next couple of days were spent trotting around crazy Hanoi. We walked the Old Quarter where vendors sold everything from knockoff purses and shoes to buttons and motorbike seat covers. You could find anything! We bought a couple of tea sets and silk shirts, awesome! We felt it was mandatory to take a mid afternoon break at Fanny's Ice Cream Parlour each day. After walking the hot humid 95+ degrees streets and dodging the ever present traffic of motorbikes, it was very necessary.

Hanoians get up around 5 or 6am to workout, before the heat kicks in. All around the lake we found people doing tai chi, aerobics (by the hundreds!), badminton, and even singing!

Ahh, ice cream! It sure was delicious!

Like many tourists we knew we needed to stay on our toes to prevent ourselves from getting ripped off. We assumed this would come in the way of pick-pocketers and cab drivers. Not two little 85 pound ladies carrying pineapple. Of course they target Colin by trying to put a hat on his head and give him their pineapple baskets to carry. They motioned for me to take a picture and after two polite refusals I finally snapped the picture in hopes of continuing on back to our hotel. Weeelll, that didn't go so well. As I turned around to leave, they surrounded me, shoved pineapple in my hands and demanded 110,000 Vietnamese dong (VND). Whaaat? So Colin takes out his wallet and pulls 150,000 VND out and asked for change. Before either of us could blink they snatched the bills out of his hand and scurried off. As Michelle Tanner from Full House would say, "HOW RUDE!". Since we knew very well that police in this part of the world are not there to "serve and protect", we knew chasing them or trying to find a cop would be absolutely useless. Fuming we marched back to the hotel, bickering at each other. Essentially we were both mad at ourselves for falling for the stupid trick. When we finally got back to the hotel and calculated the math, we realized we lost a whopping 7 bucks. We're laughing now but I can't quite say we did then. Still it was an interesting start to our trip and when those same ladies tried to target us again the very next day (seriously they did), we were on our game!

The 150,000VND picture

Overall Hanoi was pretty neat. We were only able to see the Hoa Lo prison (a.k.a "Hanoi Hilton") during our time (the Mausoleum was closed, Uncle Ho's body was up in Russia for maintenance) but I'm glad it was the one we got to see. I loved studying the Vietnam War in school, and to see such a famous place in person, was pretty cool. We got to see John McCain's flight gear and pictures of the American pilots during their time as POW's. I had the pleasure of having a family friend of ours, Dave Carey come to my freshman history class in college, to speak about his 5 1/2 years as a POW in Hanoi. His story and book are just amazing and what's more amazing is I found his picture and biography in the museum! It sure was an experience to learn about the war from Vietnam's perspective, compared to what I was taught. Somehow I just don't think those pilots spent their days playing basketball and eating gourmet dinners. I also don't think they were utterly grateful for the treatment they received. That's pretty much what the museum shared, with the typical staged pictures to back it up. Needless to say my Navy pilot husband and I came out of there just as we expected, speechless. I highly recommend a visit to this museum if you find yourself in Hanoi some day. You can't beat the price either. 50 cents admission, not too shabby.

My that stuff looks familiar...

Dave's bio on the lower right of the left page.

Our next stop in Vietnam was Hoi An, on the central coast of the South China Sea. We stayed at a beach resort just 15 minutes outside of town. It wasn't what we expected (pictures and biased reviews can be deceiving) and we quickly learned it was a government owned hotel (they own the national airline and banks too) when they insist they hold onto our passports during our stay. Word to the wise, insist you get them back, they will unwillingly oblige!) Hoi An itself was a fascinating town. Covered in storefronts and markets, it's a feast for the eyes. Like Hanoi, we had to remind ourselves to look up at the old French architecture as we cruised along the dirt streets. We enjoyed some great food, checked out the fish markets and even had silk suits custom made for us, for about a quarter of the price we'd pay in the US, gooo sweat shops. :/ Noticing the large staff and and long hours they seemed to put in we asked them how much they worked. 11 hours a day, 7 days a week with a whopping two days off a month. Wow.

Hoi An had a lot of charm

Studly getting fitted

After spending some time on the beach and thanking our Gracious Lord for such a privileged life, we flew to Saigon. We stayed at another amazing Sofitel and enjoyed some great sights. My favorite sight? The Central Market. Bargain shopping at its finest. In a place that rivals the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul we weaved our way through the tiny aisles packed with vendors selling fabrics, clothing, fish, produce, knockoffs and pottery. I was in heaven. In this part of the world you are expected to haggle for a good price. So I played the game, and I must say I played it well. Even when the power went out, I managed to haggle in the dark! As you can see below I did alright! Colin and I also had the opportunity to see the War Remnants Museum (ironically it was formerly called the War Crimes Museum). Just as we expected, everything shown from the Vietnamese viewpoint. We say tons of American aircraft (with the North Vietnamese flag painted on them) and machinery as well as various artifacts from the war. The museum carried a heavy emphasis of the effects of Agent Orange had on the population of Vietnam. It was a sobering experience to say the least. Another place I recommend seeing, it really makes you realize the Vietnamese aren't completely over the war.

Shopping!

An American Huey at the War Remnants Museum

Nice view through the anti-aircraft artillery (yes, also belonged to the US)

That's it for Vietnam, I'll have another post on Cambodia shortly!

Fur flying everywhere!

2010-05-20T23:05:00.001-04:00

So we finally bought a new camera, a good one for a change. Since we're planning a big trip next month we figured my tiny pink olympus just wouldn't do the sights and scenery justice. So we got a Canon Rebel, so awesome! I'm still learning how to use it but I guess that will come with time!

Things have been pretty quiet around here. Colin and I have been busy planning our vacation. With the problems in Bangkok we had to cancel our trip there. Of course it's smack dab in the middle of our trip and we already had flights reserved. So we're trying to be as creative as possible in carving out a trip to Laos, we'll have to see how that goes!

I thought I'd share some funny pictures we've taken in the last couple of weeks. Cheddar's buddy Oscar comes over to play quite frequently. Between the wrestling matches, games of tag and ball in the backyard he keeps her active as she has a great tendency to lay around and be lazy. Oscar's excessive energy (we have no clue where it comes from, it just keeps coming!) keeps us all entertained.

Good ole game of tug-o-war. Cheddar clearly is doing her best.

Oscar usually backs himself up to the wall and drags Cheddar across the floor

"Seriously dad? Allow me some dignity!"

Oscar in rare form...sitting still

Lots of slobber on the nose means it was a good wrestling match!

He has no shame playing with Cheddar's pink toys

Education

2010-04-23T01:41:00.000-04:00

So I know I normally post updates on the happenings in the family however lately there has been something on my mind that I just have to get out on paper or computer in this case.

I was a history major and chose it not so much because I wanted to learn about history but I wanted to be able to learn how history affects modern society and how we can avoid repeating mistakes today. I tend to look at a lot of societal issues that way. So it's no surprise that my analytical mind has all but exploded since moving to the lovely island of Guam. Now this island has its charms. The beautiful beaches are pretty much the coolest part. However, it's also a third world society heavily dependent on the US government to function. After all we offered welfare up the wazoo just to occupy the island after WWII, welfare is certainly nothing unfamiliar to us Americans. Did you know that many of the ancestors of Guam's WWII victims are still paid war reparations for the treatment they endured during the Japanese occupation? Holy cow.

One might think this is a society that depends on funds solely from the US federal government, after all they do depend on them. However, thanks to my friend Wikipedia, Guam has a functional government that consists of a popularly elected Governor and a unicameral 15 member (known as Senators) committee. While it's nice to see democracy has found its way out here the lack of education is rampant. What good is a democracy if you don't educate your voters?

So here are a couple of issues that have been on my mind lately. Please note they are just my opinion based upon my observations and experiences.

Education

Now we all know many states (ahem, California) are firing teachers left and right and can no longer afford art departments and school supplies. This has pretty much been going on since I was a kid (the district would bus kids from neighborhoods outside our school's area in order to balance the ethnicity of the school's population. As a result we had to provide our own transportation...buuut I'll spare you that rant). If you look at Guam, the average California school could easily be given prep school status. GovGuam recently built a brand new school, complete with air conditioners. However they left one of many things out. Library books. Yep, their library is completely empty. I spoke with one of their Social Studies teachers last May and he said he was the fourth teacher assigned to his class THAT YEAR. He has to supply papers, pencils and even books as most of his students cannot afford to provide their own. I just wanted to hug him for his enduring heart for those kids.

In June 2008 the school district discovered some major problems in the infrastructure of JFK High School here. Among many reasons, asbestos and mold forced the district to relocate the student body to a temporary campus until renovations were complete. The construction company went on strike shortly after the construction commenced and the district still has yet to settle things to get this school back in action. My question is, why didn't they see this coming when they picked up the bid and why on earth do they continue to put this poor school on the back burner. There must be over 100 handmade posters taped to the fence of the school from students and teachers, angry with the school board. I don't blame them one tiny bit.

Driving

This is a topic no one leaves Guam without having an opinion about. I know I have to be careful about what I say but man, I just have to get it out! Generally it is known that islanders drive slower than the rest of the world. There isn't room for freeways, I understand that, I even understand the slow pace of life. But Guam takes this problem to a whole new level. It is absolutely INSANE here. The main road on the island is called Marine Corps Drive (MCD for short). It spans most of the length of the island, 17 miles from the Air Force Base in the north to the Navy Base in the south. It is riddled with pot holes, everywhere. But get this. It has 33 STOPLIGHTS. It currently takes one an average of 1 hour to get from one end of the road to the other. That is an average of 17 MPH! It may sound crazy but it's completely true. Every time another fatal accident occurs on MCD, another stop light goes up. Like a band aid. I wish this government could invest in some drivers education instead. DUI's are way too common. People "fiesta" every weekend and there is never a shortage of Budweiser in the coolers. I am willing to bet every time I get on that road I will drive past a drunk driver. Seriously.

Since the north half of the island is mostly residential, most of us have to drive at least 10 miles, usually more to get to the store, church or beach. Our church is 13 miles from our house, about a 40 minute drive on an average day. We know it's far but we are committed to it and enjoy going. I have trouble putting a distance limit on church, it's important to find one that fits! Anyway, due to different commitments around the island I drive into town about 4-5 times a week, no drive is less than 10 miles. Now picture this. Most cars on the road are what we lovingly call "boonie cars" or "guam bombs".

Every square inch of the car is rusted, dented and/or broken. In fact, when a car reaches the end of its life, one will drive it off the road into the edge of the jungle leaving it to anyone to part it out. So burned out upside down cars are the norm here. It's cheaper than paying to have it disposed of.

So it is easy to understand most of these cars cannot exceed 45mph. The max speed limit on MCD is 35mph. Most of these cars barely get up to that. It is not uncommon to get stuck behind a "Chamorro Road Block," two cars scooting along at 25mph on the road, next to each other preventing other cars from passing them. Pretty sure that's got to be illegal in the states. Or it should be. It aggravates the trash out of people, as a result road rage is a huge problem here. I admit I am one person to pass a car in anger once the next lane clears up, but for the record I would never pull any stupid moves. Now if they just did this on purpose to aggravate us mainlanders, that is one thing. But the kicker here is many of these people are COMPLETELY UNAWARE of their surroundings. They'll have that drunk stare in their eyes, often drifting into the other lane, slowing for no reason or pulling out in front of a car leaving their car in a nice accordion shape. They'll slow from a fabulous 40mph to 10mph to make a right hand turn. Left lane = fast lane? There is no such thing. I can only wish the cops would ticket people for going too slow. Sadly they'll ticket a car for going 5 miles over the speed limit instead, and that is if they're even around. The Guam Police Department typically sends 3-4 cruisers to call outs. Is this necessary?

I guess this is where education comes to mind again. I can only wish this government would invest more in their own people. Many countries on this globe could use some of that. Educate the young, teach them to be responsible drivers and hold down a steady job. Amazing what a difference could be made!

WATER SAFETY

So this is probably another big anger point for me. Mostly because there are too many lost lives here due to poor choices in the water. Everyone here knows Guam is surrounded by a reef line. It makes for some gorgeous Scuba diving and swimming. But it also makes for an incredibly dangerous shore line. MOST people have the common sense to swim within the reef line. That is, in the lagoons after the wave breakers. The reef has a way of creating a washing machine like current that will swallow even the strongest swimmers. It scares most people to stay within the safety zone. However there is a whole other group of people, mostly fishermen who often ignore these concepts. As some of you know the Navy's helicopter squadron here provides 24/7 Search & Rescue operations for the Navy and Coast Guard. They'll be called out to look for missing boats, lost swimmers, hikers and fishermen. Sadly most of these efforts are often recovery efforts. We just had two fishermen disappear from the reef late Friday night. The fishermen were free divers (no Scuba equipment) who used spears to catch large fish. Many will often wear weight belts to help them stay under. While I understand there are fish that only come out at night, why on earth would one free dive at night during one of the windiest months of the year? These horrible situations area a result of zero common sense. As a result tens of thousands of dollars are spent by the Fire Dept (boats and logistical ops), Coast Guard (boats and divers) and Navy (helicopters) looking for these people. In the States, the Coast Guard will send a bill to the victim's family. As a result of the bad decisions these two divers made, over a hundred people spent over 24 hours searching for them. And what about their families? What they are left to endure, parents, wives and children, having to cope with such a loss.

I suppose this is where the education theme comes in again. I wish more children were taught at an early age how to approach the waters around this island. I once learned that women in some of the surrounding islands are not even taught to swim, it goes against cultural standards. I don't know if that is completely true but it wouldn't surprise me. Tribal culture is still very prominent in this area of the world. It saddens me to see the lack of respect people have for not only their own lives but their family's and government resources. Knowing how much these people depend on the government, that may be one tie-in right there.

So there's my two (or maybe 62) cents on some of my experiences. If you're still reading, you may just be bored but my heart thanks you. My biggest wish is that I could do something to help educate these younger generations. To give them a better chance at a successful life. It's tough for us outsiders to be taken seriously, after all we never grew up here. However it is time we all learn from these mistakes and better this society. I'd love to see Guam improve it's reputation, it certainly is a beautiful island. I guess we'll just have to see.

Ice Cream Martinis anyone?

2010-04-13T19:06:00.001-04:00

So my good friend Julie and I threw a baby shower for our friend Kate yesterday. She's having a boy! It was such a great time, I decided that hosting at someone else's house is way more fun. Not to mention my friend Andrea took some awesome pictures of the event.

Since Kate is a fan of ice cream and the party was to be held after lunchtime we created an ice cream martini bar. I once went to an event where they served mashed potato martinis, it was awesome! So we went out and purchased some adorable martini glasses and adorned them with different bows and ribbons for each guest to have and take home.

The stems on the glasses had a zigzag design which was not only cute but great for tying ribbons as identifiers (instead of wine glass rings).

Between Julie and I, I think we came up with every ice cream topping imaginable. As a result, it was a huge hit. Even the kids loved it (of course, what child doesn't love ice cream?).

Even though I have yet to have children I have been to enough baby showers (maybe that's a hint) to realize I didn't want to organize games in which guests were to smell a candy bar in a diaper or measure Kate's waist or keep their legs uncrossed. To say there are a lot of baby showers held on this island is a clear understatement. There isn't a whole lot to do so of course, we throw baby showers for the second, third and sometimes fourth child! So Julie and I decided to lose the games and just have a fun activity guests could do as they mingled. I created an acronym board which I have yet to name, suggestions are welcome. I cut out sheets of paper and using letter stickers, put the name "Sean" on them. Guests were invited to come up with adjectives or sentences to go with each letter of the baby's name. They then stuck them up on the board and after presents, Kate would pick her favorite one. The winner would announce herself and win a prize! It was certainly a challenging game but I was impressed with the creativity that came through. We also held a door prize raffle for two other prizes, including the floral arrangement we had at the table.

Acronym Game

Kate went home with a new wardrobe of baby clothes and a fabulous diaper cake made by our friend Andrea. I think I might try to make one some time, it looks like fun!

All in all it was a sweet success. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and as long as that is the case, I am happy as a clam. Even if we did forget the whipped cream in the refrigerator...whoops!

Caitlyn

Kate, adorable as ever. Can you believe that's what six months pregnant looks like??

AAANNNNDDDDD.....

2010-04-08T21:30:00.001-04:00

He's home!!!!!!

Colin has officially been home a full week and I couldn't be happier for it! All my nerves went out the window the second he walked through Customs at the airport. If you've never experienced hugging the man you married after not seeing him for almost eight months, it's UNREAL. I'd say the first five or ten seconds it's a big strange, but it quickly comes back. The poor guy had been flying for 18 hours so he was pretty much dead to the world. I had my "welcoming committee" along with me, about 8 friends of ours who came out to welcome him back. It was all pretty overwhelming but in a good way. I think these guys sometimes feel under appreciated and perhaps forgotten after being gone so long. They lose touch with the world and as Colin said, it means the world to know you've been missed by so many people.

Me with his picture from church. Our church posts pictures of the deployed members, I was more than happy to take it down!

Love this one.

He must have been tired, we couldn't catch a picture of him with his eyes open!

The first few days were a little strange. I have no idea why I cleaned the house and thoroughly as I did. Before I knew it I had boots, flight gear, flight suits, BDU's, thermals, and a whole lot other sandy crap all over my floor! It's amazing to see what these guys have to carry with them. Then, yesterday his gorilla boxes, basically glorified rubbermaid trunks arrived. Of course I had finally cleaned up the first mess before the boxes exploded with all kinds of deployment fun. I will say Christmas arrived and I was very happy at the sight of that! Colin bought me a persian rug for our computer room and an Iraqi tea set. I wish we had room to display the tea set but I figure we probably will in our next house!

Colin kept telling Cheddar she was going to be shipped back to the states. Hence the facial expression?

Colin went straight back to work on Tuesday, since we didn't know when he'd be home we didn't have time to schedule leave and a vacation right after he got back. We enjoyed the weekend together and even took Oscar and Cheddar to Haputo Beach on Monday. The wonders of going to the beach while everybody else is at work/school. We had it to ourselves, what a gorgeous beach! The dogs of course had a grand time. They could barely lift their heads after we got home.

So needless to say, it's been so nice to have him back. We don't "expect" another deployment for awhile but of course it's the Navy, it can ALWAYS change! So we'll enjoy the time we have together for now!

Caitlyn

The end is here...FINALLY.

2010-03-31T06:32:00.000-04:00

These past seven months must have done something strange to me because today I thought I'd be frantically cleaning house, running errands and sprucing myself up to see my husband for the first time since last summer. Instead, I almost passed out in the Commissary this morning before going home, breaking down in tears and going to bed for the day. This would not be the first time I've come down with a bug before Colin has returned from a trip, I'm pretty sure stress and nerves are mostly to blame for this (so says my wise mother) but I spent much of the day upset as I could not sleep thinking about the mess my house was and that I would not be able to get a run in today. I get funny when I get stressed, often exercise is the first thing to drive my mind insane. Probably because it is the one thing that usually calms my mind in stressful situations.

Nonetheless I spent much of the day in bed hoping by some miracle I'd be better by tomorrow night. I was able to bake the cake I planned for Colin but my house has most certainly seen better days. At this point I figure a) the house certainly wasn't any cleaner when Colin left. b) Colin's a boy, boys don't notice a dirty trash can or unswept kitchen floor and c) Colin hasn't seen me in over seven months, I doubt he'll freak over my latest project (I made a necklace to wear to the airport tomorrow night) covering the kitchen table than his wife. At least I hope not. :)

I found out Colin was coming home less than two weeks ago. Normally we find these things out at least a month in advance so I've been a little uneasy trying to transition myself from the girl who eats cereal for dinner, goes to gym classes as a social outlet and talks to her dog as if she were a real person (although Cheddar certainly thinks she is) to the girl who married just over a year ago and has to start acting like a real wife again. Even though this is not our first deployment as a couple, it's our first as a married couple. The last time Colin came home, it was a week before our wedding and he was pretty much dumped into the pre-wedding/Christmas chaos of the Barker household (poor guy). So this will certainly be a little different but I know one thing, it won't be the last time.

Hopefully tomorrow will go by without any more breakdowns, fainting or worries. I figure I've shed enough tears over this long deployment to waste any more over silly things. Like a dusty bookshelf. I hope.

Also before I sign off, I checked my mile log (see right hand column) and it looks like I've just about made 250 miles since Colin left last summer. Since I didn't know when he was coming home I never set a goal but I can say I never thought I'd run that many. Maybe I'll keep that counter going to see how many I can run in a year?

Adios,
Caitlyn

Scuba Certified!

2010-03-19T20:24:00.000-04:00

So I can officially say I am Scuba Diving Certified! I'm certainly glad I took the plunge (haha) and completed the course, especially since I did not realize how grueling it is! I didn't realize the course I took is really a 7-10 day course shoved into three wonderful days. I probably wouldn't have done it if I knew what went into it!

The two days after the pool were quite interesting. Day 2 had two dives and Day 3 had three dives, sounds appropriate! We had to do about 354 drills which was definitely a turnoff! Things like floating underwater and controlling your breathing, buddy breathing, pulling your gear off and putting it back on while standing on the ocean floor, skills to get yourself to the surface quickly (my ears didn't like that) and my favorite, ripping your mask off underwater, putting it back on and blowing the water out of it. This contact wearer was not a fan let me tell you!! By the third dive on the third day, I felt fairly confident that I could go diving and not a) flip out under water b) forget to breathe & c) get eaten by sea creatures. And you know what? It was actually fun! I felt like I was in space!

We didn't pick the best of days to do this but hey, whatever. We dove Gab Gab on the last two days and it felt more like Boston Harbor than tropical Guam:

Anyway, now that I can do what the other half of Guam does on a regular basis, I hope to hop on a boat in the near future and explore some of the famous reef and shipwreck locations around the island!

Blurry, but that's me!

Nemo says hello.

My Scuba buddy and brave friend Andrea.

Like the Little Mermaid

2010-03-15T10:06:00.000-04:00

So I'm working on conquering a fear of mine. Scuba diving. Living out on Guam has convinced me I'd be a fool NOT to at least try it. So today, with my brave friend Andrea we began lessons. It started with four hours in the classroom learning all kinds of scary things like what to do when you run out of air at 100 feet below the surface. And no, the answer isn't "Freak out and swim to the surface!!". The day included two sessions, the second was 4 1/2 hours in the pool. We did all kinds of stuff, like learning how to find your regulator (your breathing device) and mask when they fall off, controlling your ability to sink and float and blowing water out of your mask, something I had to do about 300 times. I'm still not sure if I'll love this sport when I'm done but I do know I'll appreciate it so much more than I thought!

I still have two more days to go. Tomorrow we go to Gab Gab Beach to start diving in the ocean, eeeks!

Oh Tiger, even the dogs have figured you out.

2010-02-23T22:25:00.001-05:00

This is what I came home to last night. It looks as though my dog does not approve of Tiger's recent behavior either...

A glimpse into...

2010-02-17T18:59:00.000-05:00

the mind of a det wife. This is about the best sight of any week for someone like myself:

Does anyone know why?

Frustration with a capital F!

2010-02-16T01:11:00.001-05:00

I feel like I'm stuck in the dead of winter right now. I sort of feel like a lot of people are feeling the same way. The holidays are over, summer is nowhere in sight. The days that drag on are all the same. Now if I look outside, I'll realize it's 85 degrees and sunny. That's a Guam winter for ya. But when every day is 85 degrees and sunny, a sense of boredom sinks in. When that strikes, I start to crave change. Change is a word that I have had to learn and get used to. I may not always like it but it's inevitable when it comes to Navy life. Similar to the fear of public speaking, most people dread change just as much as I do. Yet, when we get over that bridge, we often appreciate the refreshing feeling that comes with all that "newness". I feel like Guam lacks change. Even more than a small town in the middle of Iowa. Besides the weather, the lifestyle doesn't change too much. In fact Guam really feels like it's running about 15 years behind the rest of the country. Old cars, homes falling apart, lack of technology (typewriter anyone?), large stray animal population, and slow, really slow speed limits (to accommodate those really old cars!). We've been forced to tailor our lifestyle to accommodate these factors. While frustrating, I do appreciate the way it has slowed me down a bit. Colin and I had the first 7 months of our marriage together and without busy and conflicting job schedules and endless activities, we were able to spend more time together than I would guess most newlywed couples do. What a blessing!

I still dread change, don't get me wrong but I'm learning how to deal with it when it's handed thrown at me. It's nice to have that flexibility, especially when you get what I call Guam Fever, a case of boredom all unto its own. I lose control (something all folks in the military must learn) of what's going on and being the "fixer" that I am, I want to change it all. I suppose as long as the 'change' is in my hands, it's all fine and dandy. Unfortunately I cannot fix everything or everyone, only myself. You'd find it to be quite a hoot watching first time Guam residents spend their first few weeks on the island. I was one of them and whew! I must have caused Colin to almost rethink his vows as I drove him berserk with my complaints. Here are the top 5:

5. Me: MUST we really drive 30 mph on a four lane road?
Colin: Welcome to Guam honey.

4. Me: Is that mold coming out of our apartment's A/C vent?
Colin: Welcome to Guam honey.

3. Me: Why is there a carabao (water buffalo) standing in a parking spot?
Colin: Welcome to Guam honey.

2. Me: Why do the locals have to buy 13 packages of meat at the grocery store?
Colin: Welcome to Guam honey.

1. Me: I just found 47 flies, 7 geckos, and 4 cockroaches in our house!
Colin: Cool!!

Now that it's been a year, I've come to realize Guam is quite content with itself and the best I can do is be myself and surprisingly, I have actually come to appreciate the beauty of this place. I still get frustrated, very frustrated but I just try to think of our relatives sitting in 87 feet of snow on the East Coast right now. Yes, I like Guam!

To show my appreciation for this tiny island, I have some pictures below. My good friend Wes borrowed Colin's car after they shipped theirs back to the States. As a thank you he offered to take some photos of Cheddar and I to send to Colin. Can't wait to get the pics (ordered online of course, must wait 7 days to receive them) so I can get started on a scrapbook!

Much love,
Caitlyn

Random shot when a B-52 was on approach!

ZUUUUMBA!

2010-02-05T07:14:00.001-05:00

So I do have to say ever since I've been on Guam I have found exercise to be a challenge. Back in the States, I could run every day, hike, bike whatever. Amazing how I managed to complain then! Now I live in a hot humid jungle with an equatorial sun gleaming overhead all day. Not that I'm complaining. After all, it is February and I went to the beach yesterday. HOWEVER, when it comes to physical activity, you have to get creative! Generally I run before 7am, before the heat settles in. The humidity wears you down rather quickly. SO given the challenging climate I finally decided to fight NOT going to the gym. I worked in one for five years and once I latched onto running, I never wanted to go back! However, my friend Jolene dragged me to this class, "Zumba" last fall. I was terribly intimidated yet intrigued by this aerobics style class. HOLY COW. It was hilarious, disgustingly difficult, intimidating yet fantastic and super fun. Ashli the instructor hails from the Bronx and can bust out a move worthy of a look from JLo. She packs a good 50 gals into her classes four nights a week. For 60 minutes we're dancing until the floor is soaked in sweat. Anything from salsa, samba, merengue to good old modern dance club moves. Not only is she a hit with the twentysomethings but the older ladies too. My favorite is a group of fortysomething Filipino ladies who try their darndest to bust out moves. Sure they can't hit a beat but they have so much fun it makes me smile and laugh. In fact I'd say the most fun part of Zumba is laughing at myself. I went FOUR TIMES this week, including the 90 minute class on Monday. And you know what the best part is? My jeans finally felt a little loose today...WAHOOEE!

All about the Apron

2010-01-28T23:27:00.001-05:00

I've been wanting a pink apron for some time now. Why? I guess because I love pink! So while I was in North Carolina earlier this month I picked up a Williams Sonoma pink apron. I brought it home and decided to snazz it up a bit. I bought some zebra print fabric and with the help of my mom (okay she pretty much did it all) added some fun to the apron!

Back to the Rock & still truckin'

2010-01-27T08:39:00.001-05:00

I'm back in paradise! At least for the next four months! The trip back was painless, no major problems, we even managed to push through those crazy SoCal storms last week, whew!

I've quickly fallen into my daily routine, which these days isn't much. I find myself either running with the dog, at the gym, reading, or out with friends. That's pretty much what we do here! Back home it was easy to fill up a day with errands, shopping, time with family and so on. SO many places to go, so many things to do. Here in Guam, it's a chore just to go and get your tires rotated in town. What takes 20 minutes in the States takes at least 45 minutes here, or more. It's either 25 mph traffic & stoplights. Closed roads. Closed businesses (yes,very common) or a fabulous combination of both. It's the pace of life, what can I say? Which isn't necessarily a bad thing folks. Guam has taught me to slow down, take up things that interest me and appreciate the values of friends and family. And to answer your question, yes it took a full year to realize this. I love being able to walk over to Julie's house and chat with her while we watch Tommy get into everything (he's approaching those terrible twos!). Bible Study and dessert with a small group of friends from church. Or lunch at this unbelievable crepe and tea restaurant with Abby and Kate. One of my favorites, a hike to Haputo beach with Katie and her giant dog June. Back home my days consisted of crazy work hours, volunteer commitments, church activities, all of which were in separate parts of the city. I would typically leave at 6:30am and not get home until 8:30pm. More often than not I wondered why I paid ridiculous rent for a place I barely saw. It was easy to get caught up in so many things that you lose appreciation for them. I still loved my life back home and the hustle and bustle but this opportunity in Guam has given me a new perspective. I used to think I wasn't "up to par" unless my Outlook was chock full of appointments (all color coded of course). There was something about feeling more validated as a human being when I could complain (or is it brag?) about how crazy my life was when deep down I was really just trying to keep up with the Joneses.

I often compare Colin's 2008 deployment with his 2009-2010 deployment. We were dating in 2008, so I was in SoCal and he was floating around the Pacific on a ship for 9 full months. Plus the other 2 1/2 months he was in Guam. We were blessed with two 10 day opportunities for me to come out and visit him. A tough year but we learned more about life and each other than many dating couples learn in the life of their dating relationship. Round two has been a tad different. Colin's been playing in the sandbox since August 15th. This time we have not had the luxury to see each other. Something about the military preferring that dependents not hop a plane into Kuwait City or better, Bagdad. Seriously, what's their problem? [Smirk] Instead we have learned how to enjoy the first year of marriage 10,000 miles apart, both of us away from the comforts of home. We've been blessed to learn even more this time around (and might I add, I've learned many men are far less, shall we say "charming" when they're married to you versus still trying to woo you. I'm pretty sure it's a fact of life). We've had many more fights and arguments but we have also shared some great conversations and had the opportunity to write old fashioned letters. We both know that we'll survive these 8 months apart and will be so much STRONGER because of it. I couldn't be happier for having married my man, I'm proud of what he does and cannot wait to see his face in April after 8 crazy months apart. I am sure most military wives can agree we regularly fall asleep each night dreaming about the outfit we plan to wear when we pick our husbands up at the airport. So far, my outfit has changed five times. I expect another dozen changes or so. Tis' the simple things that keep me going.

I wanna be a pilot now!

2010-01-16T15:44:00.000-05:00

A dream came true for me today. Well, almost. I had the opportunity to visit an F-18 Hornet squadron at MCAS Miramar this morning! A friend of a friend, Dave offered to show us around the place, it was so cool! I took my longtime neighbors Kyle and Cooper with me (boys love this stuff!!) and we got to check out the planes and bombs (duds of course) and learn all about it. Of course, everything is in acronyms so I still don't remember everything Dave told us about but it certainly was a great experience. The boys even got t-shirts, coins and patches. And yes, I'm incredibly jealous. :D

I was the photog this time around so no pics of me (I'm kinda bummed now) but I sure had fun doing it!

Do we have a future pilot perhaps?

Coop checking out the cockpit

Cooper, Dave & Kyle

A vacation from my vacation?

2010-01-14T23:07:00.000-05:00

Why not? This past week I had the pleasure of spending some time with my bud Chelsey and her family! We were challenged with finding the hotspots in Fayetteville, North Carolina, we think we succeeded. We ate greasy southern take-out, hit the Army base (Ft Bragg, HUGE!) and even braved the "Walmartians" of a true southern Walmart. A trip to the strip club and tattoo parlor would've completed the experience but we felt our husbands might not have agreed. :D

A weekend trip to Raleigh gave us the pleasure of lunch with Kristen (one of my other bridesmaids, now a friend of Chelsey) and her family followed by some shopping. By the end of our shopping trip it was Caitlyn: 5 Chelsey and Kristen: 0. Clearly I was the one who was shopping deprived. :)

Here are a few shots from my trip!

We ventured out on several freezing runs. What a change from Guam!

This is where I discovered Jeffrey isn't a fan of flying. Shh, don't tell Colin!

One of Chelsey's many talents

Since I couldn't spend my anniversary with Colin, I spent it with my bridesmaids. Shopping, naturally.

Jeffrey doing his best smile for Aunty "Caytwyn"

Chelsey and Jeff, so cute!

Matching Macs!

Okay is this not awesome???

2010-01-14T00:53:00.000-05:00

Calling all Active Duty and their wives! One of our better known bloggers is giving away a FREE Sony E-reader! With all the traveling we and our hubbies do, this is a no brainer people!

Click here to visit Samantha's Blog: A Day in this Army Wife's Life!