Happy New Year!

We get to say it first!

Hope all of you have a fun and safe New Years Eve.

Slow day...

But really so great. Doing nothing is like a little piece of heaven.

Sat at home most of the day doing odds and ends, then the girls and Kevin went to Gab Gab for a bit and I went to the commissary.

Chatting with a friend in the ethnic food isle- I get a phone call that the car won't start! I checked out with what I had and raced home to get the portable battery (thanks Gene! That thing has come in handy way more than once.) Turns out someone (no names to be mentioned.....Ellie) left the sliding door open which probably caused the headlights to be left on. Alls well- except I will be back at the commissary at 7 am to finish the grocery shopping!

The Staples puppy is finally home! All thirty pounds of him-and he is only 9 weeks old! His official name is Albus but his house name is Sheldon.

Beyond cute. Welcome to the family Sheldon!

Quick Update....

All is well in our neck of the woods. The girls have been busy playing whatever games they got for Christmas. I think trying to jam it all in before they go back to school. Ellie was bit by a red ant on Christmas day, caused her foot to swell up a lot- so she spent yesterday with her foot up and lots of Benadryl doses. Today her foot is much better, a little swelling left but nothing bad. I was glad we got to miss the Dr. on this one.

Maddie went today to get her first military ID card- its a 10 year old thing... You would have thought we were asking her to go to her slaughter the way she cried about it. " I don't want to be 10, I don't need an ID card, I won't turn my head to the camera" and on and on. After I explained that she couldn't have it both ways- if she wanted to do "big girl" things like stay up later, read certain books and watch Harry Potter movies- then she needed to do the other things that were all part of the growing up package. I feel bad for the girl- she really fears growing up- but man it wears on ya! At least I got her to smile for the picture I took!

Had a day with the Thorntons. Went to Pizza Hut for lunch, and tried to go to the base pool. It was of course closed for 24 hours- I believe the words "explosive diarrhea" were muttered as the reason. So we headed to Gab Gab Beach instead and had a nice time.
Afternoon movie and swim practice rounded out the day.

Really busy! Again, trying to jam as much into our days off as possible!

Its noon.

And the girls are still in their pajamas!

You would think it was the first day of Christmas vacation rather than one week into it. I will say this is a well deserved down-day. Its nice to see them do a whole lot of nothing. I am having a slow day too, but that consists of 4 loads of laundry (sorry Barb, I got behind), two bathroom scrubbings, and a lot of putting things back where they belong.....happy to have a day to do all this.

We had a sad farewell to Coco. The girls (all three of them) had tears last night. Kevin took her to the airport early this morning. If it all works out we may be able to have her stay again next year as this is an annual thing......thats assuming she didn't mind being with us, not understanding a lick of what she said.

I am hoping for a less busy week on the back half of vacation. A lot going on with people back home this week.

Dad and Esther will be starting their annual winter golfing spree- I know they so look forward to it. They will be followed soon after that by Barb and Ross.

Micki and Greg back from their cruise, will be going to pick up their new addition tomorrow. Hope you guys have a great last full night of sleep. I know the sleeplessness will be worth it though- really excited for your new puppy.

Ann and Gene are traveling back to Mississippi, and I am hoping for better weather for them this time.

More folding awaits me on this perfect "down-day".....

Two days later....

....and I am still recovering! It has been SO busy, so I apologize for not blogging but we have been running! Christmas day went well. We opened gifts in the morning and I moved on to cooking for the Thorntons coming for a late Christmas lunch. Before I knew it we were running out the door for swim practice- home by 9 pm with three girls to shower and get in bed. Day after Christmas was a swim meet followed by swim practice in the evening- again home by 9. These people take their swimming seriously! Today- yup, swim practice.

Coco I think had a really nice time here. As far as I can tell she has learned five words/phrases from us, "laundry" "ok" "yes" "stop" and "oh my gosh". Very nice girl. It has really put my miming skills to the test but we got along fine with no mishaps. And gotta say- one of the more disciplined children I have seen, which would account for her being so fast! Her swimming is amazing- all strokes with great form and LOTS of speed.

Here are some pictures from the last two days:

Also have to put out a huge thank you for the gifts sent- the girls enjoyed all of them- here are some pictures of the girls and their gifts:

We are off to dinner with the Japanese team as a "farewell" to the visitors. Should be interesting for the one english speaking family!

Merry Christmas!

Pies are done so I am officially calling this Christmas Eve over! I am sure to have a lot of pictures to post of Christmas Day. Hope all is well with you and yours- and that you have a blessed Christmas Day.

Busy but good....

Got out to see my friend Melda who is only on the island for a few weeks. Really enjoyed that. The kids really enjoyed playing with the boys out at their beach house. Zion is so similar to Ellie and Isaac very well paired up with Maddie. Their eldest, Michael is not in this picture. He is older than the rest, so was more into his own thing- he caught a little lizard and was really thinking that was great.

Later in the day went to the airport to pick up CoCo. She is our Japanese exchange swimmer. Seriously so cute! Kevin wants to keep her. She knows very little english. The cutest is when Coco is trying to teach up Japanese. So mature and even keeled for an 8 year old.

Its hard to believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve. All of a sudden I am out of time- I have an exchange student here, Melda and the boys coming again tomorrow and pies to bake. Gotta feeling tomorrow will be even busier....but still good!

Ellie the organizer.

A lot of whining today.

This is how it goes at the beginning of any break from school. They don't know what to do with themselves. Always wanting to be off school, then have a hard time settling into an activity if a teacher didn't tell them to do it. So the morning was siting around, wondering what to do next.

Eventually the girls wrapped the gifts for the Japanese girl (Kokoro) who is coming tomorrow. Maddie went on to read two books (re-reading AGAIN a Percy Jackson book, and also the new one from Kate Dicamillo) and Ellie took it upon herself to remove all presents from the tree and replace them in groupings according to who they are for. At one point Maddie looked up from her book and said with disdain "Ellie, you are such an organizer." Sounds like it should be complimentary, but the tone made it sound like a definite dis'.

So our presents are ready to be opened Christmas morning in an orderly fashion. Although Ellie pointed out that I only have two presents under the tree. I offered to take some of hers, and Ellie counter offered that I can sit with her while she opens them all. Ellie has even gone so far as to number the order that she will be opening her gifts. She really is an organizer (said as a definite compliment :)

We are excited to be seeing the Thorntons tomorrow morning- haven't seen them since we lived in Florida. Later in the day off to the airport to pick Kokoro up. I should have some fun stuff to write about tomorrow night!

A P.S. to anyone wondering- all travelers from last night's post have made it to their destinations safely ;)

Short and Sweet.

Sweet because I am officially on Christmas vacation- except I think it is pronounced more like "sa-weeet".

And short because I am officially on Christmas vacation, so am taking a night off from blogging :) Really, nothing new to blog so don't feel cheated.....

Wanted to be sure to send happy thoughts to Ann and Gene as they have been traveling across the snow laden eastern states to get to Michele's for Christmas. Their tender Mississippi make-up can't handle the snow, so I am sure its been a rough trip. Also thinking of Micki and family as they are traipsing through that same snow to get to a Christmas cruise. Though their rugged Canadian-ness will serve them well, it'll be like any other winter day for them! Then there is my friend Melda, waiting on a flight from Hawaii to get to Guam- their traveling not so stressful, worst thing that could happen is they spend Christmas at the beach. Godspeed to all of the travelers.

I gotta go get the turkey into the fridge to start its long defrost schedule. You know Christmas is coming when.....

Christmas Traditions.

On a slow day such as today- church, movie, groceries, supper- I thought I could blog some of the Christmas traditions we have picked up.

Like the tree you see here. This is Ellie's tree. The girls each have their own trees to decorate each season. Last year Ellie went with a Jesus theme, this year she toned down to blue and silver. You will notice that Madison's tree isn't here. That is because she donated it to the Thorntons so they could have a tree- all their Christmas decorations are back in California. Proud of her for doing that.

One of our funnier traditions is dressing up Mark. This is Kevin's Mark V ( I think thats right) dive helmet that is always in our living room. The girls and I have taken to giving him a Santa hat and some holly every year so he can be festive too.

An all time favorite is the countdown calendar- which I think I have mentioned. Ann gave this to us years ago. Everyday a little character gets put into the pocket so that the girls know how close Christmas day is. Every morning without fail they will stumble out to do this even before they go to the bathroom!

Nativity scenes are big here. I have the Willowtree one that Julie gave me- which frankly stays out all year- really love it.

Then I have my Jim Shore one (you've seen in previous Christmas pictures). Its taken me a few years to get all the pieces- I buy them bit by bit at the day after Christmas sales. Only missing the drummer boy- but really do we need him? He isn't really a confirmed part of the nativity anyway!

The girls have their own nativity scene. You will notice below two things. One is that the wise men are WAY down and away from the manger scene- this is because Madison is quite obsessed with the idea that the wise men were never at the birth of Jesus. Apparently historically speaking, they didn't make it until two years after he was born. She is always trying to move my nativity's wise men away too- but I am ok with the inaccuracy. The second thing you will notice is that there is only two wise men. The trouble with low wise men is a certain brown dog's tail- wise man number 3 is in for repair....where is Ross and his glue when you need him? That'll teach Maddie to be so correct!

This book is the last of the traditions I will write about. Its "Santa Calls" and we read it every Christmas Eve. Ellie is going to read it this year (though she is worried about the Japanese girl not understanding it). Its about a brother and sister who don't get along and the girl's only wish is that her brother would like her. Santa puts them through an adventure which ends with them becoming friends. First copy of this I bought was for Alyssa when she was a baby. We've read it every year since Madison's first Christmas. The girl's name is Esther- so the story must be great :)

Last week before Christmas- my holiday won't start until after tomorrow as I have one more day of teaching before break. Can't come soon enough!

Christmas vacation day one...

So nice. The girls are so relaxed, and pulling out games, toys, dolls- anything they usually don't have time for. Kevin and I woke up at 7am to the sounds of "You landed on my railroad- pay up!" Monopoly always makes me so nostalgic for when we were kids. The game you see above is the game the girls and I started with my first coffee this morning- we had to pause for swim practice at Leo Palace and then some room cleaning- but I am sure will resume after I am done blogging. The girls pulled out the American Girl stuff in between but they are anxious to get back to monopoly. Maddie is quite the property acquire-er, and Ellie is a bit of a miser.

Here is the end product of a cleaned up room. I am trying to let the girls be in charge of their own domain but it gets crazy-cluttered. It calls for a clean sweep every now and again. And today is as good a day as any- we have a little girl coming to stay with us next week from Japan. She is coming for "swim camp" over Christmas with Tsunami and we offered up our home- the least we can do is have a neat room for the girl! It should be a different experience- the coach says she doesn't speak english....he suggested I learn some Japanese- not sure he understood my laughing response.

Gotta go, I have two girls waiting "patiently" at the monopoly table....

Choir in pictures.

Seriously so good! Kevin was sure that the music that went with the singing had prerecorded voices of other children on it. Not so. It was just the choir singing! They were really, really good. Lively and lovely.
Lots of really fun songs. This last one was a jazzy number about Santa being noisy in the house. At one point Santa says its not him- its just a "land shark". That cracked me up a bit. The kids all did a great job. Maddie did a great job.

One more day of school for the girls...... Christmas is just around the corner....

No gifts for me?

Ellie had been quite bothered by the fact that Madison had a gift wrapped under the tree for her but there were none with Ellie's name on it. Now to be fair, we haven't done any of our wrapping (including the ones from Grandma Sue and Grandma and Grandpa Gillam- by the way, not really enjoying being so far away that everyone has the company send the girls gifts straight here so I become wrapping queen.... not to diminish how grateful we are for the gifts, the girls will be SO excited :) So really no one has presents under the tree yet. The reason Maddie has a wrapped gift under the tree is that it is from Ellie, who was anxious to wrap it up days ago. So everyday Ellie has been looking under the tree to see a gift for her to no avail. Last night was the last straw.... " You know what I'd like, I'd like to see a gift under there for me, would that be ok?"

And since I am still up for mom of the year- I grabbed a gift and wrapped it up while she was sleeping. You would have thought today was Christmas- I have never seen a child so happy to not be opening a gift.

She did ask if she could open it early. Seems there is a plot afoot to open at least one present early because "Mom opened her iPhone early!" So it turns out Gene, you are right- nothing good can come from before Christmas openings.....though I am sure Ann disagrees since she got to open one early this year too! Hope you are loving the Scentsy Ann.

Along the same lines, I would love to mention my Dad and Esther here. Every year they donate various needed items to people in need on behalf of their grandchildren. The girls get to pick what they want donated. Madison chose to educate a girl in a country where it is frowned upon. When she picked this she yelled "fight the government!" with a fist in the air....oy. Ellie chose to give a toy-saying every child deserves one. I'd like to thank Dad and Esther for giving my girls the opportunity to think past themselves. Love you guys.

Nine days out people...... everyone ready?

An instant hit!

Apparently (according to Kevin) Maddie was great in her Sherlock Holmes play. She really loved doing it, sad that it is over. We have the Christmas Concert to get through and we are free and clear. I am sure after all the adrenaline of this week, the weekend will be a bit of a crash.

And for the Staples (if you have been following along) its almost puppy time! So cute! I will have to live vicariously through them....

I would love to get my hands on one of them!

One week and counting...

Monday is officially over and the girls are counting down to Friday when Christmas break officially starts. Course I have to work the following Monday as well, but who is counting....

Tonight we are blessed to all be home and having a little down time. Doing laundry (me) finishing up school projects (Maddie) getting in a little extra tv time (Ellie) and catching up on emails and videos (Kevin). The plan is to all meet up and watch Night at the Museum part 2 before bedtime.

Maddie did her first time through her Sherlock Holmes play today and said it went well. Didn't have to be prompted once! She has the part of Watson. Kevin is scheduled to go see it tomorrow afternoon. Ellie will be seeing it with her class in the morning. I am the odd man out. I have powered up the video camera and my small camera for Kevin so that I won't miss out too badly. Madison's choir performance is also this week, in the evening though so I am all over that. I am sure to be posting pictures of it all later in the week.

Here are the lost pictures from yesterday's post:

They grabbed these star fish from all over to create this collection.

I still owe you one huge shell picture.....

Sunday is over?

Its like I blink and the weekend that I looked so forward to is gone. Oy!

To those requesting, no we did not take any pictures when Kevin and I went out last night- don't worry we weren't that dressed up that you are missing anything- but sorry anyway!

Today was running around- and running smack into Santa! A pleasant surprise for most- except for Ellie. She has never been fond of the big guy- she only went up to him after Maddie had done so already and I had to ask her really nicely to come out from behind me to go see him. Again, every year the same thing- loves the idea of Santa- but from afar.

Ellie had a birthday party in the afternoon. Maddie and Kevin went to Mike Thornton's house to snorkel outback at his beach. Had a really great time. Maddie came back with some great pictures and one of the biggest shells I have ever seen (forgot to take a picture of that!). Not sure what the spiny guy is, but pretty sure you shouldn't step on him. The other one is a puffer fish of sorts.

Maddie took some other pictures with a different camera that wouldn't load to my Mac for some reason. I will try in a few days to get them for you- I'll get the shell picture by then too :)

Saturday

Between swimming this morning out at the big pool (Leo Palace) and Kevin having his work Christmas party tonight...I am exhausted. That is all it takes anymore, two things per day is my limit- must be getting old.

The swimming went well. The girls enjoy the big pool when they get to practice there. They got to spend the afternoon doing absolutely nothing- showered, got in their pj's and that was them from noon on. The babysitter came about 5:30, and really that is what Maddie and Ellie were waiting for, they like Sara and always look forward to the nights she is sitting.

Kevin's work party was nice. It was at one of the hotels at Tumon Bay. The food was really only average- and that is saying something 'cause I am not picky- any kind of food that is bad for you and I am on board. So to compensate for the not so great food I overloaded on carbohydrates- good noodles and rice!

Oh, and I got an early Christmas present- an iPhone! Its really neat, now I can email anytime I want-it'll keep me in touch all the more. Here is a picture taken with the phone:
Not bad!

Honor Roll

I am marking today as the first emotional trauma related to me going back to work.

Madison had a ceremony to award her the principals honor roll certificate today at 2pm. I can't leave my classroom, so we looked at Kevin's schedule. He had a meeting that would make it tight for him getting there on time. Maddie told me last night she was scared no one would make it. Kevin did his best but was 15 min late. When he got there he saw Maddie up on stage with her award, and tears. She was so sad to have no one in the audience. She said she saw Kevin come in at the end giving her some relief. I am feeling a little guilty about the whole thing.

There are two plays and a Christmas concert next week- I am hoping for no repeats.

On another note- went to see the new Disney Scrooge tonight- not recommended for the faint of heart. It stays true to Dickens story and takes the imagination one step further- really scary at parts! Ellie and I spent half the movie hiding behind my hands and chatting-deciding which of us should look to see if the scary part is done. Don't know about them, but I may have nightmares tonight!

"She's touching me!"

Ellie totally busted beating on her sister.

The two of them screaming and play fighting all the way to swimming tonight- to the tunes of beautiful Christmas music I will add. I just kept turning it up louder to drown them out- when they got too loud, I looked in the rearview mirror and saw the "fighting". Caught on film in the act - and frankly, having great fun and making great memories.

You know its Christmas when....

Love all the Christmas specials, always have. I remember looking forward to them every year- Charlie Brown, Rudolf, and Frosty. Now a days, everyone has them on DVD so they can watch them any time, there is no waiting. Well tonight we are getting to re-live a little of my youth- we are all actually home and snuggling up to see the Charlie Brown Christmas special and then a brand new one- Disney's Prep and Landing. I will let you know if it stands up to the likes of Linus and the gang.

Will the real block-head please stand up.....

Happy Lady of Camarin Day

******Gone Fishing, back tomorrow********

A December Monday.

I know I have told you that Madison takes issue with most Mondays- historically Mondays after a four day weekend are worse. I have discovered that Mondays in December are just as bad. Besides the daily asking if she can be home schooled-Mondays have recently brought a fresh batch of begging and tears. Lots of fun at 7am.

Then there is Ellie. As usual, all business. Up, dressed, hair done, ready to eat by 7:15. Do you think it is the contrast that makes Madison's behavior seem more difficult? Ellie has a new love of oatmeal- which I find funny that this habit started in a tropical climate. No matter, its a healthy start.

No matter how rough the days start- there is usually a lot of happiness and laughter by the time school ends.

Brown Bear and Purple Bear getting the trampoline treatment before bed. Tons of giggling followed by a screaming wrestling match all to the tunes of our favorite Amy Grant Christmas songs. Good times :)