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

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!

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!

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

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?

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.....

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