Two Firsts Today

Great day over all.

No tears going in this morning, and some positive stories coming out this afternoon.

The girls both like their teachers and classmates, so thats a start! Though Maddie is a little leery about her teacher....gave math homework on the first day, so the jury is still out on Mrs Topasnia.

The best part was after school, Ellie showed up at the "walkers door" right away. So she and I waited and waited....still no Maddie. 15 min later I started to worry, went in the school and had someone go look for Madison in her classroom. The seeker came back with Madison in tow. Turns out Maddie had come down to the walker door, hadn't seen Ellie so went back into the school looking for her. She went to Ellie's classroom, asked around- made a real effort to find her. This is seriously a first...Maddie feeling responsible for Ellie. Really made me so proud of her.

I'd definitely say a really good day of firsts.

An added surprise for the girls today... Kevin got to be the guest bell-ringer at the "ringing in the new year" assembly at the school. They really enjoyed having their Dad (and Mom was invited to sit up with the official-bell-ringing-party too) participating in a school event...Kevin would love the participating part more if he didn't have the public speaking part that goes with it!

New Shoes, Same Old Attitude

I don't know how it happened, but all of a sudden this morning I realized that Ellie's runners were too snug to be her everyday shoes- and Kevin decided that Maddie's runners "weren't real runners". So the day before school starts we were shoe shopping- Ellie a five minute "yup they fit" purchase- Maddie a 30 minute "I don't want real runners, I should be able to choose what kind I want, where are the sparkles" lots of tears.....and sold! I am sure it would have gone much more smoothly if Grandma Gillam were in charge of the shoe-buying-fiasco.

Really not looking forward to them back to school. I love having them home, we always have fun, lazy summer days together.

As they were going to bed Maddie says "I want my summer back". Ellie answers, always the helper for her sister "its ok Maddie, even me, the one who likes meeting new people is a little nervous".

I am sure there will be lots of "first day of school" pictures in tomorrow's blog.

Edge of the Island

Went to Tarague Beach at Andersen Air Force Base. It is the very most north part of Guam. Nice scenery.


Kevin pulled some sort of crawling starfish out of the crevices (with many protests from Madison who felt he was hurting it- Kevin being a boy completely ignored her and kept pulling-rather proud of himself). It crawls around very much like a big spider- needless to add here I was not the one handling it- at any point.
The day ended with an all time Island high-we found a Ruby Tuesdays! The girls and I were excited, ate tons (Julie, I ordered the mini burgers!) Seriously-something small I know, but still a piece of home. A good find after a long day and a couple of homesick weeks.

One day left until school starts...

The Mall that Broke the Camel's Back.

We finally made it to the mall- Maddie spent all week waiting for this, she loves shopping. We got in there at lunch time so went straight to the food court. It was huge, and as it turns out really the favorite part of our trip to the mall.
Madison (more than Ellie and I) was SO disappointed. The whole mall, (and the whole tourist bureau on Guam frankly) are solely geared toward the Japanese tourist. So all the stores were trinket-y, fashion clothes and shoes, and oriental type gift centers- not what Maddie thinks when you say "mall". We were one of the only caucasians in there, literally saw one other girl who was white and she waved at me - kinda like when motorcyclists or Jeep drivers pass each other and wave as a form of camaraderie.

On our way out of the mall- Maddie lost it. Now so you know, she has been really great on this move- she has left friends, and family and traveled half way around the world- all this with very few tears. So in the middle of this mall she suddenly stops, cries and says "thats it, enough, I want to go home, I hate Guam". I can tell you that it was a shock (and causes me some fear that this means she is a little on the superficial side) that it was the mall that broke her.

Its Official.

Well, there it is, the girls are officially on the Guam Tsunami Swim Team....at least I hope they are... I only understood 1/3 of what was said to me by the Japanese coach and Japanese board member- but after they stopped talking they handed over the t-shirts. I am assuming that means they are on the team.

Really glad for them to be settled to a new team. Its funny but I think its really going to work out well- they don't understand their coaches so well, its a pool that is 3 feet deep, 15 meters long and has 60 kids swimming in it at one time... its seriously chaotic- but so cool for them to be mixed in with all the different cultures, and they really seem to be enjoying it. Nice to be settling in.

I only wish I knew what the back of their Tsunami shirts say-hope its nothing offensive?

We are just back from a town hall meeting (a "being supportive of the base" thing we did related to Kevin's new job). It was well run, but man there are some disgruntled people out there! Most of the complaints had to do with the schools. The thing that got me is the complaints weren't related to the education system and such, but more geared toward the aesthetics- uniforms, supply lists, students personal appearances etc. I guess I am relieved at this as it tells me the school as a whole must be good if all they had to complain about where these small things. The girls were very well behaved throughout.

Our day was quiet. Had lunch with Kevin, then went through the exchange (Madison's new favorite thing to do- remember its like a Walmart here on base) picking up a few things. The big plan in the next two days is to find and check out "the mall" here on Guam...I will let you know.

Gecko number two.

Well he was back. I swear it is the same gecko that Kevin took out of the house the first time. Man they are fast little jumpers. This time Madison was in on the gecko catching. It took the two of them some serious effort to catch him, but unfortunately not without mishap...

In the struggle to get the gecko out alive, he lost his tail. Apparently when you grab them by the tail they "drop" it as a distraction to whatever is hunting them. The best part of this, the tail keeps wiggling even after its detached! Madison thought this was great, and was carrying it around the house with it wiggling in her hand-very creepy. She actually asked if she could keep it...

Beyond the gecko sans tail...

Things are coming together. I actually hung pictures and such in the house the last two days. Kevin has been working on our garden- aka tropical patch in the front of the house. He actually went out in the jungle and "harvested" these plants. As I know some of you have already heard, it would seem the tradition around here is to steal the plants out of the houses when people move out. So the front of our house was plant-free when we got here. So Kevin has been working hard planting and weeding (Ross, please tell him he needs mulch or use stones or something to keep the weeds down!). Do you like the white bucket? Its our rain barrel...not quite as big as yours Ross. Most days/nights it is full because of the spontaneous rains we get all the time. Really, any gardening advice would be helpful...

The girls had their first swim practice tonight. Two Japanese coaches-very difficult to understand- and mostly Japanese/Hawaiian/Locals on the swim team- our girls look very caucasian! The team meets at a water park after hours. It is only a 15 meter pool but man do they practice hard. I will be interested to see how it goes. Seems like some good coaching. More importantly than all that, the girls seemed to really enjoy themselves.

A fine house...what's that sign say...

So I haven't spoken much of our actual house. Its actually a very nice house!
I thought I would go around and

take some photos of what the house

and its surrounding areas look like.

No pictures of the inside yet,

its not ready yet for prime time

viewing...

This is Madison on the front lawn under our palm tree (she is taking her life in her hands here- apparently more people are killed by falling coconuts than by shark attacks- we are hoping to get out of Guam before either of those things happen.)

If you look out to the right while standing on the front lawn, this is your view...lots of "mountains" on Guam (not sure what the qualifications for a mountain are-maybe these are just really high hills?)

Looking straight out the front door you would see this view. It is the road out into the boonies- Gab Gab Beach is out this way, and further along from there is the trail to Spanish Steps. There is also some sort of loading area for ships that sometimes gets closed when they are loading explosives...here's hoping we are out of range for any loading "mistakes".

Here is the front of the house.

I want you to notice something.

See the historical marker on

the front lawn?

I wonder what it says...

Yes thats right, we are officially living on the land where some 3 thousand Japanese soldiers were buried in a mass grave....haven't they made some really great horror movies after this premise?

Fortunately for us (the unsuspecting family living in the supra-gravesite house) the human remains were exhumed back in the 70's. Wonder how they know if they got all the remains...

The Weekend in Pictures...

Lots o beaching this weekend! This is a picture from the bottom of Spanish Steps...yes thats right, if you look at the cliff top thats where we started the hike. We had to come down a trail that was pretty steep and rocky using the ropes (which I am sure have been there since the Spaniards were- lots of moss...least I am hoping it was moss) and some unstable footholds. Tons of hermit crabs on the trail- creepy but cute. With all of that it was still well worth the hike, the girls loved it and the snorkeling was great at the bottom. Madison and Kevin saw tons of fish and such including clown and angel fish. Ellie and I saw some fish, closer in to shore....I got out when a particular black fish went after me- he was small but mean... seriously, you could see it in his eyes. Also spent some more time at Gab Gab beach. This time we went over to the three walled ocean pool....I don't know what else to call it? - its got walls and its open to the ocean. Madison and Kevin loved the jumping off the high walls. Ellie took some time sizing up the jump but eventually was convinced it would be fun and she was jumping right along with them after that.

So far the girls are loving Guam. Swimming, hiking, playing with the crabs... what's not to love? :)

Happenings and Birthday Wishes

This is what we see out the front of our house most evenings. Some pretty nice sunsets here.

Everything is going along fine. The girls have one week left before school starts- they are getting at each other more often so I think they are ready for it.

We have spent the last two days still settling in, unpacking very few boxes (out of sheer laziness) and spending afternoons at the pool (figured out the timing on that one). The water is bath-water warm....makes it hard to do laps without overheating! The girls love the time there, it has a slide that occupies most of their time. It rains daily here so the trick is being at the pool when its cloudy so we don't burn, yet before the lightening sets in. Fortunately the rain is short lived so it doesn't dampen the whole day.

This weekend the plan is to work on the house and go to the Spanish Steps- its a beach you have to climb to get to- apparently last time Kevin went with Aggie and had to hoist her butt up for some parts- I will let you know how we girls fare!

Today/tomorrow (never know how to word the timing with being so far ahead of you guys) is Grandma Reddick's birthday. Hope you have a wonderful birthday Grandma, know that I am thinking of you and I love you.

OOG

Kevin has mentioned this term used around here "OOG" which stands for "only on Guam". Like going to the pool on base today -which the sign says opens at 10am, but it wasn't. Returning at 11am as the guy there thought it opened then, but it didn't. Finally coming back way later to be sure to be within pool hours, only to find that noon was the actual opening time, but they are going to Fall hours this week- you guessed it, to be open at 10am. I won't even bother to outline cable guy and McDonald drive through incidents- its just so OOG.

School orientation went pretty well. Madison read a book all the way through it and Ellie continually asked how long "the man" - who happened to be the principal- was going to keep talking. Very little new information given, but its nice to have the handbook verbally reiterated. Comforting.

Unpacked zero boxes today, but I feel ok about that- it was mostly about entertaining the girls today, besides which they will be in school soon enough which will give me unlimited organizing time.....our walls will just have to stay blank a while longer.

No more geckos in the house yet...but they are looming- they hang out on the outside of the windows every night at sundown- guess I should be grateful that they are eating up the bugs, but kinda more creeped out then grateful. They make a really high pitched noise when disturbed. All this gecko business is why it has become Kevin's job to let Aggie out at night and in the early mornings- last thing I need is a screaming gecko in my hair! :) 'night everyone.

Yes, It is Still Hot Here....

Well, great first day of blogging- my internet went down! Two calls and lots of hours later "the guy" came out and fixed it up. Glad to have it back!

All is well on this side of the globe....

Kevin went back to work today. We had four days of him helping us figure out the base, where to go and how to get there. Today just us girls ventured out- not far but just enough that we figured how to get to the pool, the gym, and the exchange. It was still nice though because Kevin came home for lunch so we saw him midday.

The girls are doing well. They are mostly playing together, but were glad to learn that the boys next door were their ages and fun to run around with. Madison declared it to be "like Christmas" today when we unpacked and organized some more of their toys.

The pool on base is really nice. The unfortunate thing is that their swim team is not up and running. The base is looking at starting it up but is missing a coach who is certified. I think they are hoping to have it going in September. I will probably look into a team out in town for the girls. Tennis is also a no-go on the base right now....go figure the two sports we were looking for!

I will let you know how the school is. It seems HUGE compared to Dahlgren. We have orientation tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed that we have less crying from Madison than we did at the school tour!

Aggie is still pushing her nose at the toxic toads in the yard- what was it they said about old dogs and new tricks....seriously you would think she would be done with them by now. She isn't the only one though- we met a dog the other day who casually threw a lizard up right in front of us.

The boxes are almost all unpacked, only a few stragglers left- now if we could just find a place everything. Any volunteers to come and hang pictures? We are missing Barb and Ross helping with this move. Kevin has however been working on the garden (its more of a tropical patch at the front of the house) but the weeds come up as fast as the plants do. We could always just toss down a few coconuts on the lawn- they seem to root anywhere! I promise to post "house" pictures once its looking more house-y. :)

Here in Guam....

These are whole new things for us....living on the other side of the world, and starting a blog! The whole idea behind my blogging is to get information to all my family and friends at once and be able to get instant feedback from them in the "comments" section. Just a little way to try and feel a little closer when we are so far away. Hoping this is going to work...I will blog a lot more once I know its getting to you guys- feel free to click in a comment!

Love Sam