Cooling down

So it might be cooling down here...today only reached 95 degrees. :-D

The new thing for the day...

Camels. The other day when we took off on our flight, I was looking out the window and saw a bunch of camels, walking single file through the desert. It was something I haven't seen before and was kind of cool.

Also, the sand dunes are peculiar. The dunes are all horse shoe shaped and facing the same direction due to the prevailing wind. Obviously the dunes move around with the wind. I was wondering if anyone has ever had their house engulfed by a dune during a sandstorm, to make it uninhabitable. Would insurance cover that?

On the move again...

I have moved again. I had the opportunity to spend part of one day on a beautiful British island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Since then I am now "at an undisclosed location in South West Asia." That is what we are allowed to say according to our welcome brief.

I miss the tropics. I miss the mountains and the green grasses and trees. I miss the ocean too.

I look out here and see tan, as far as the eyes can see. The buildings are even light brown or tan. Everything seems to blend together. Even the sky has a brown hue due to the fine dust suspended in it. It is almost like a thin fog, only a fog of dirt. Everything has a thin film of dirt, even the computers at work. You can feel it on the keys while typing. Occasionally I see a small plant, a scraggly brush or grass. I saw a patch of cactus at one spot, along with palm trees...they had irrigation lines to them. Can you believe it, a cactus getting artificially watered?

I hope you enjoy the video clip of the Indian Ocean.

Soccer Time!

Brody decided that he wanted to play soccer again this year. All the other kids didn't want to play. Secretly I am happy, the thought of trying to get more than one kid to practice and games by myself was horrifying. He has had two games so far. The second half of the first game Brody was goalie, and he did a great job. The other team didn't even score the second half! Today's game was really fun to watch. Both teams played really well.

Kids Back to School Pictures

So I know I said check back in a few days for the kids back to school pictures and it has been more than a week. It has been crazy around here, and I am just now having the time to get to it. Sorry Scott, I am a bad wife!



I was watching my friends 2 kids during the first week of school. (She decided to go visit her husband) Her kids are 4 and 2, it made for some busy mornings, so I enlisted my kids to help.

Trips 4 and 5.

I was so happy to have Jennifer come stay two weeks with me. It was the best two weeks out of the last 4 months. Only 3 more months to go; over half way there!

I have had the opportunity to go on a few short trips with my crew since deploying. Three of those trips have been to Guam. I posted from my first trip, here's from my last two. One of the three was for a typhoon evacuation. One thing is for sure, while here it seems I spend a lot more time at work than I would prefer. I guess I would prefer not to work when I have such a beautiful ocean around me.

This Hotel was the Leo Palace. It was out in the middle of the island, and our directions to get there were terrible. It was kind of like..."If at the intersection there is a Mobile station on your left and a Shell station on your right you are on the correct road, keep going straight. At the second light turn left, then take the second left, down the road a ways the road will Y, take the right Y. You will know you are on the correct road because you will see a school on the left..."

After getting lost a few times we finally flagged down a guy and paid him to lead the way to the hotel. It was about 2:00 am when we finally got in.

Here was what the lobby area looked like the next morning.


Here's a view from my most recent hotel. A view from my room on the 5th floor.

Here's the hotel from the beach side.

Walked the beach and found this old gun mounted next to a cliff.

I was walking out in tidal area, about mid-calf deep water and came across some cool things. Here's the starfish.

I saw this shark. It was only about 18 inches long.

About a mile down the beach is this cliff, Two Lovers Point. It is named after a Romeo and Juliet style story. Legend has it a Chamorran (Guam native) chief promised the hand of his daughter in marriage to a Spanish general. She, however, was in love with a brave Chamorran warrior. The two left together and were pursued by the Spanish army. At the top of the cliff, they tied their long hair together and as the army approached, hand in hand jumped from the top of the cliff to their death.
I thought the farthest outcropping of rock looked like an apes face, so I cropped it. What do you think?

You know the crazy thing about all this...even with all the places I get to travel and all the things I get to see I would rather give it all up to be home with my wife and kids.

Feeling a little overwhelmed

So I finally made it back from Japan. (after 3 weeks, which was only supposed to be 10 days. Not that I minded be there with only Scott and no kids. I actually missed the little buggers after about a week. It was an eventful trip trying to get back. I was trying to fly Space A (on a military flight that doesn't cost too much...$15-$30) Well the first time I tried, the plane was broken, so I tried again the next day. (Sunday) It had 75 open seats, and I was #76 on the list. Needless to say I was disappointed. Well lucky enough for me I had a reservation for a commercial flight set for Monday. I was supposed to leave at 1:45 pm. I got up Monday morning packed all my stuff and went to go pick up my ticket. When I got to the ticket agency, they said my reservation was canceled, and that the next flight I could get would leave the next day, Tuesday.
Scott ended up having to leave the island on Monday because a Typhoon was coming our way. Set to hit on Tuesday night. I got to the airport early Tuesday, my flight was due to leave at 11:50 and they canceled all the flights after 10:00. I was stranded. I ended up catching an expensive taxi back to the base where Scott's room was, and walking from the gate all the way to the room with all my luggage. (good thing I pack light) It had started to rain at this point, and I was wondering if it could get any worse. Good thing it wasn't that long of a walk. I was able to stay in the room and the typoon made it in around 4:30 in the afternoon. Only a little water come into the room, and then I went and took some sand bags to help the rest of the evening.

I was finally able to get out on Thursday. I left from Okinawa and got to Tokyo. From there to L.A, to San Francisco, to Salt Lake City. I arrived in Salt Lake around 9 at night and then drove all night and finally arrived home at 11:00 am Friday morning. It was so nice to be home. My Aunt picked me up from the airport and said "OK my bags are packed and in the back I am going with you." I guess everyone was worried that I would be too tired to drive. I ended up driving all night just to have my Aunt steal the keys from me when we stopped for breakfast 3 hours from my house. I was able to finally get some sleep around 11:00 that night. I just could not go to sleep.

Saturday, I took my Aunt to catch the shuttle and pick up my luggage, (the airline had lost it, and I didn't get it back for 2 days..note to self don't ever fly United Airlines again!) Scott's brother Kent had also shown up on Friday, and our good friend Chiko was home for a few days from his deployment. So I had a great time visiting and spending time with friends and family. (This is probably getting long, but blogging is like my Journal you really don't have to read on. :))

Sunday was back to the grind, going to Church and being in the nursery. I can't say that I missed nursery. I got peed on. So Gross. I also got to see my friend Augustina. It was so nice to visit with her and catch up. Thanks for spending some time with me Augustina!

Labor day was spent trying to catch up on the housework. It was never ending laundry, I finally finished it all at 11:00 last night. I also had some friends over for dinner, and ended up taking a trip to Everett to drop Chiko off. I was really sad to see him go. He really is a great friend and we all will miss him. He will be gone for around 6-7 months. That is the one thing that really sucks about the military. Deployments.

So now for the overwhelming part. I still haven't noticed to much jet lag, probably because I have been so busy with everything and everybody since I have been back. The kids start back to school tomorrow, and all 4 of them will be in school. I should be doing the happy dance, but I am not. I was nice and said that I would watch my friend's kids for a week while she goes to see her husband. Her kids are 4 and 2. No sleeping in for me, and I get to change diapers again. Don't get me wrong I really don't mind doing it at all, I just really want my scheduled life back. Who knew that I would like having a schedule life. In two weeks I should have it back, but until then I am just surviving, in what I feel is a messy disorganized house that is driving me crazy. It is time for some Fall cleaning. I keep telling myself in 2 weeks it will get done, I just have to stick it out until then.

I still need to finish school shopping and getting all the crazy stuff for school supplies packed into the kids backpacks, I should also find out who my kids have for teachers considering they start tomorrow. So check back in a few day to see the kids first day of school pictures.