Truly Terrible Tarague Hill

I love weekends! Not as much as I did when I was working but still, they rock! It began Friday...at 430am. I wouldn't say this was fun but boy am I glad it's done! I drove down to Tarague beach for running camp. Not having much of a clue as to what was on tap for that day I was pretty relaxed. So like every day we start running down the road that parallels the beach. Not bad, it's pitch black of course so we've got flashlights and reflective gear. We get to the famous Sanders Slope. I say famous because this narrow little road goes from sea level to 600 feet, the highest part of the island in about 1/2 mile. I have never seen such a steep grade before, Colin's car can't even climb it! So we start climbing and about 1/3 of the way into it, I call back to Noemie, our coach in a meek little voice "uh Noemie? "Yes?" "So uh, how far are we going to go this morning?" "All the way Caitleeen (she's french)" "No (pant pant) really, (pant) how far?" "To the top! Keep running!" "(pant)Whaaat??" I yell. "YOU CANNOT STOP KEEP RUNNING!!!!!" (for such a cute little woman, she can scare the pants off you). Seriously there was probably about three inches between my steps as I climbed. Good thing it was dark, I looked PATHETIC! Combine that with cars speeding down the road, I was a mess. Somehow we made it to the top, we all survived it. I only managed to step on one slimy creature (I'm thinking a frog), not bad. The run back down was glorious. I felt like a speed racer, it was fantastic! Somehow the two miles back was nothing compared to that monster hill, amazing how your perspective changes sometimes!

So after I recovered from my torturous run we all went to the Osterhaus's house for Make-Your-Own Calzone night. Wow, Mike could seriously put my Nana to the test. They were fantastic! We played Balderdash afterwards, this is definitely a game you need to play with guys, there is no shortage of creativity in those heads of theirs, reminds me of those times in college when we would put off studying for as long as possible. [Sigh] Those were the days!

Today we all gathered in the "Quad" for football. The quad is the stretch of grass that lies behind our house. Several of our neighbors are from the squadron so naturally, we clearly feel it's our property! Today all the dogs showed up. We had Skipper, Cash, Oscar, Cheddar and Dawson (note, all 60lbs and up) all milling (er, sprinting madly) about the field. The game was more entertaining than College Game day, imagine trying to run down the field for a block as three dogs jump, spin and bounce...right in front of you. Oscar, a tank of a black lab decided to play linebacker and blitzed the QB every time. Poor Levi ran for a catch...straight into Oscar, both executed some Olympic quality somersaults leaving Levi sprawled on the ground and Oscar bounding back up to get the ball. The dog is pure rubber.

My team won of course (why wouldn't we?) and we polished off the evening with brats, burgers and chips. YUM! What is even better is that the ocean breeze swept in and kicked the pants off the humidity, praise the Lord!! The dogs of course were still panting and drooling, but this time by the grill. Relentless I say!

Now it is off to bed, I must rise and shine at 4:30am for my last week of running camp!

Adios!
Caitlyn

Displaying my vote in a rousing game of Balderdash!

Some of us gals after some fabulous calzones!!

Busy Birthday

So I turned the big 2-6 this past Monday. I have to say I don't feel any different. Once you get that discount on your car insurance (and apparently another when you get married??) it's all downhill from there. I've been told once you hit 30, you start receiving those "I'm sorry you're old" cards from your friends so I guess i"ll have to enjoy the next four years!!

Since Colin was gone (again) for my birthday I felt like it just needed to be low key. Well everyone got mad at me for not telling them but I guess I was never one to advertise? It is just a birthday after all, right? Well thanks to Facebook, it didn't take long. My friend Kristina clued in (that clue might have come in the form of an email from my husband) and immediately told me to come over that night for pizza and wine. Who can say no to pizza and wine? I AM a det wife after all. Eventually word got around and before you know it I had a packed schedule for the day! Food court lunch & ice cream with Stephanie (guam kinda closes down on holidays, evenings...whenever it feels like it), pool with Tessa (where we judged a diving competition for some visiting AF dudes who had a grand time making complete fools of themselves), a Pampered Chef party at Erin's (where once again I bought something when I promised my husband I wouldn't...but I've always needed a cheesecake pan and the opportunity was there!), bible study at the Willand's (where I get my share of laughs for the week!) and finally Kristina's for not only pizza and wine but birthday cake! And it was Cold Stone birthday cake...with sweet cream ice cream...with cookie dough on top. Cold Stone knows how to do cakes, if you've never had one, go and pick one up now! Kristina invited a bunch of ladies over as well (including Crystal's little daughter Caroline). They all decided I needed to see a movie that night (it was 10:30pm) so we trucked over to Micronesia Mall. Of course only in Guam would the box office close before the theater ITSELF closed. Now knowing me, I would have said "It's all good!" and gone home, popped in a DVD and called it a night. No. Not with Tessa. My should-have-been-a-lawyer friend decided we were going to see this movie (she rarely loses an argument). So lo and behold, she befriended the usher and over the course of five minutes gave him the biggest guilt trip on this side of the dateline. 

1) We drove all the way from base to see this movie.

2) It was nonsense for a box office to close before the previews even start.

3) It's my birthday!!

4) We are ALL det wives meaning our husbands have been deployed for anywhere from 1-5 months, we are LONELY!

5) Because we're lonely, if we don't get in, we'll start bawling on the spot.

Poor Movie Mark didn't even know what hit him. Before he knew it we had two other employees scrambling for a phone to call the manager at home. Ten minutes later a sweet girl comes back and says "The manager says "Happy Birthday, go and enjoy the movie!" Woohoo! So we even got in for free and had the entire theater to ourselves. Not bad eh?

So all in all it was a great birthday. I got home at 1:30am and called my mom like a good girl to say hello. I got to bed at 3:30am with plans to get up in time to start Running Camp at 5:00am. Yep, lunch + pool + pampered chef + bible study + WINE, pizza and cake + late night movie = I completely slept through my alarm. Argh, so it was almost a perfect 24 hours. I did start running camp on Wednesday however and it kicked my butt, rightly so. 

It's all good right?