Family night.

I was excited when Ellie said for her choice night she wanted Pizza Hut. I am a huge proponent of any food that arrives prepared at my door.

Then she added in the second part of what she wanted for her meal night- titija arina. You may be asking yourself what that is- ya, I asked too.

You see, Ellie has really taken to the Chamorro culture. She is now doing cultural dancing twice a week, and loves to come home with new Chamorro phrases. You should hear her sing the Fanohgue Chamoru (Chamorro Anthem). So cute. Anyway her teacher- Senor Guzman- gave her a recipe for sweet torillas.... titija arina.

So with some help from her friend Katie, we followed the recipe as best we could.

They turned out edible but not pretty enough to take a photo of them :)

Ellie also wanted me to report that within one day of studying this weeks words:
... she was able to get 100% on her pre-testing. She was quite proud.

Gotta go watch the end of City of Ember- Ellie's choice for family time!

December?

I don't know if anyone remembers (since it is now the end of January) but I started a project to take photos and journal everyday through December. Sad part is- just finished the album today!
Sorry for the grainy photos- but you get the gist of it.

Turned out to be a cute album. Lots of journaling so it'll be nice to look back on. I am hoping to make it an annual tradition- though next year may just be some December Daily scrapbook pages instead of a whole mini album. I had fun putting it together, but there is just something about the smaller albums that I am not in love with- and no way am I doing a BIG album for just December... I'll stick with the 2 years it usually take me to fill one of those!

Saturday!

Great day- started out with a swim meet that the girls did very well in. Both were swimming events that are unusual for them (eg 50 and 25 fly, 100 IM) and really stepped up and put in an all out effort. Ellie even had a nice compliment from Coach Toshi about her backstroke. Really proud of them both.

Also need to put in a "whoooooot" for Zion! He had his first swim meet and was ALL over it! Really great job Zion!

After the swim meet we had Ellie's friend Katie over. And out came the American Girl stuff!
You can tell they had a great time.

The girls had swim practice tonight.

Just to add in here a note about the weather the last three days- its been so tropical-storm-ish! Everyday has been wind with sideways rain, even dipping to 74 degrees! So I need to give the girls Kudos for swimming through it all. Even the meet today was unpleasant weather-wise following into stormy yucky weather for practice tonight. The best part- not a complaint from either of them. There is something to be said for two girls swimming in cool water, driving rain and wind...... again, proud of them!

So with the weather so rotten- Kevin decided to take Aggie out for a "walk" between torrential downpours:
This means strapping on her harness (remember no collars because of her laryngeal surgery) and strolling down the sidewalk and back. Its not much but it really seems to give her some joy. Especially after the week she has had- lets just say her one paw was missing some inches of skin.... pretty ugly and still not sure how it happened. All's well now- its healed nicely and she is no longer limping.
Sweet girl- gotta love the little grandma-dog living in our house!

So why....

... would someone buy furry boots on Guam?

Answer: cause they were cute and 90% off! I guess there isn't much of a market for them here so they went straight to the clearance section. Yay me!

The great part is now my feet are ready when we head back to the other side of the world, which for all of you that are wondering- we still have no idea.

I would like to think that when we are supposedly 5 months away from moving that we would know where we are moving to. You'd think the orders would already be written right?

The problematic part of all this is that the reason behind the delay is that they haven't gotten a replacement for Kevin yet....... really hoping one pops up since I don't think they are letting us out of here without one!

I'll keep ya posted ....... in the mean time, I got some cute boots to store until we get back home :)

taking it easy...

Again! How lazy can one girl be?

Melda took the girls swimming and Kevin is bringing them home. I'll just sit here with my feet up.... see, what'd I tell ya, lazy!

I am feeling much better and am sure to wake up tomorrow perfect- so I'll stop whining now.

Jodi is back from her mission work in Haiti. I am so anxious to hear how it all went. The snippets I've seen from her posted on facebook seem to say she found it to be a life altering experience. Though I would venture to say I am sure she altered quite a few lives while she was there.

We are SO looking forward to having her here on Guam at the end of February. The girls are psyched!

I have to add this quote in:

... hoping its not plagiarism since I pulled it directly off Ali Edward's blog...... oh wait if I give her credit its not plagiarism right? Anyway- saw it today and it struck me as relevant.

I hope I am treating this life I have with the focus it deserves.

.... sorry for the diversion, cough medicine is making me sentimental :)

Stay at home mom.

I have some sort of throat virus so took tonight off from my usual obligations- just heated something up quick for supper, only dropped the girls to swimming and let Kevin pick them up, and begged off my usual Wednesday night volunteering at church. All this to be home eating take-out Thai in my pjs by 6:30.

Its nice to stop everything and just be home on the couch- hoping my voice holds out for another day of teaching tomorrow :)

Oh to find some shoes....

Before I start- take a peak at this photo.....

My Dad, Jodi, Micki and myself :) This was my smile today- thanks Scott for finding this and passing it on.

So, finding shoes on Guam.

Really- not an easy task. I have spent the last two days hitting all 4 available stores that would carry the shoes we were looking for. Trying to find high-tops to try and retrain Maddy from walking on her toes. Fortunately the high-top shoes pull on her heel which won't allow for the toe walking- the fourth store where we went today after school was way north at the mall.

The mall feels so far, that Kevin actually suggested I order the shoes online instead of driving all that way for them! Funny.
- the girls love this perpetual motion machine that is at the Micronesian Mall...
Lucky us- there is a Foot Locker there that carried the high-tops.

Sincerely hoping that they do the trick. Really starting to worry about Maddy's tiptoeing.

Since we travelled ALL that way- the girls figured they should get pretzels.... since it's the only place on island to get them.

Funny how traveling 15 miles north is like taking a massive road trip to a different state.

Crazy how Guam has changed our perspective so much- buying shoes used to be much easier!

Guest Blogger- Ellie (Sunday-palooza!)

Ya , I'm guest blogger.

So last night I caught Mom&Dad having a kiss in the car. It was fun while it lasted,they kinda stopped after a while- thank goodness.

So today I (Mom was out) took pics around the house. Maddy played ANGRY BIRDS. She passed 5 levels . The rest of us DID do different things.........
like Dad did Halo Reach. I don't know very much about his game cause I am not allowed to watch it (because of mom:(
Ya , so every day has work for us Gillams. I am making a Guam monopoly project for culture class and I had to clean my room and do 30 min. of reading! Maddy pulled weeds, did studying for two tests and math homework- outrageous!!!!!!!!!!

And I (on my free time) went directly to www. inner star u. com.Kate (she is my online doll but I also have a real Kate too) was waiting for me to move her ,to play with her & to buy clothing with her. This is her room:
this is Kate online.
A couple of days ago, Maddy got hold of my camera she took pics of...........
Jack Pook-a-looz....
Christmas Barbie....
And her. That's it for her.

Today we went to YL (Yogurtland!) . Dad didn't get to go(giggle giggle giggle te hetehe)

These are the frozen yogurts that Maddy & I got .......
Dad got ..................................
Sushi from the commissary- yuck.

(Any comments pleases write to me in the comment section below)

Thanks for reading- bye!

Love, Ellie

Saturday at the pool...

Yes it was pouring rain but we still headed to the pool on base,
Kevin because he is still training for the Exterra and wanted to do laps and me because I am beyond out of shape at this point!
The girls went just for a fun time!
Maddy takes any chance she can to put her "bikini" on underneath her swim shirt..... showing me she snuck it on!

The rest of the day was some shopping and out to eat (Mexican- yum) on the way to swim team.

A fun Saturday.

Usual Friday Traffic

I really don't understand where everyone is going? Do people go home from work more- or more on time- or more often on Fridays- I don't get Friday traffic.

Back home, there may be seasonal more traffic on Friday's but that is due to people going out of town for the weekend, or to their cabin up north for some R and R. On Guam, there is no such thing as going out of town. First off, there are no towns, but more importantly nothing is more than 30 miles away- there are no vacation migrations.

I don't get Friday traffic- and don't get me started on payday Friday traffic.......

The only benefit today of being stuck in traffic was we had a "Zion Car" sighting. There is a car on Guam with a "Zion" license plate- since one of our friends name is Zion :) we always loved seeing the Zion Car!

Thai food from a roadside shack?

Yup, I sure did.

The food is actually cooked in the back portion-grungy trailer enclosed in a screen of some sort. There were chickens running in the yard next to it- so I went with a vegetarian meal....

It's funny what some time on Guam and some hunger will do for you......

mmmm, Thai......

WWII bomb?!?!

What is that? Is that a WWII bomb?

Ya, not too unusual here on Guam to find old bombs- the bummer was that it still had a fuse and was in one of the main villages so lots of evacuations and traffic issues.

Fortunately the above photo is just a reenactment of how bad the traffic could have been on our way to swimming....
We actually passed through the area way after it was taken care of-thank goodness!

Yesterday was 80's day for middle schoolers:
Maddy planned her outfit over the weekend and thanks to Melda keeping some 80's garb..... Maddy had the perfect neon tights and leg warmers to pull it off.
Almost like she was made to be an 80's girl.

(photos courtesy of Ellie as I was getting ready for work at the time :)

Happy Monday.

Hope everyone had a great day. We were all off today for Martin Luther King Day. Nice easy going day- laundry, homework, scrapbooking (thanks Melda :), out to supper for my "choice" night and then all four of us playing a new Wii game that Kevin got from his birthday... pretty fun!

Hoping for a happy four day week.... I mean how bad can it be- it's only four days, right?

OOG- Doggy Jaf Jaf

Really, because Aggie hasn't been through enough..... she has come down with a case of Jaf Jaf.

People get the people version of it here, I have heard my students talk about it like its the plague. As in "ya, she has Jaf Jaf- ewww" or "that mark on his arm, its Jaf Jaf". It's never seen as a positive thing, thats for sure...

So not only has Guam been home to 24 hours in doggy jail for Aggie when we first got here, major trachea surgery, and mass allergies...... it is now causing her to have a fungus. Her body is literally rejecting this island.

We are hopeful after two weeks of chemical baths, a cortisone shot, Benadryl twice a day and lots of cookies 'cause we feel so sorry for her.... that the Doggy Jaf Jaf is gone. I will say this- the cortisone shot has also improved her breathing and her hips.... so we will now be getting monthly shots for our puppy to improve her quality of life :)

Another OOG:
Six weeks to get suits in the mail.

Really. I guess its good in the fact that you really get full use out of completely worn out suits- you just gotta hope their tush doesn't completely wear through the old suit in the long mail wait.

The long wait also makes the girls that much more excited about getting them!

Saturday- Kevin's Birthday!

The girls were up early today- they were in charge of wrapping Kevin's birthday gifts, so decided to make him work for them. He was on a hunt throughout the house to find them. The girls also put up some streamers first thing this morning- really cute and thoughtful of them.

He had breakfast taquitos, some video time with his new birthday games, then was off for biking/swimming/running for his exterra training.

Leo Palace practice tonight.
Finally took a photo of this sign. It's out in front of a vast jungle area. Really have no clue what the Texas A & M Foundation would need with a field on Guam? A mystery.....

Wanted to give big kudos to Coach Lewis.
Sincerely love this coach, and so do the girls. I know you can't tell from these photos, but it was POURING rain- and he didn't once even flinch or run for cover. He walked the deck, back and forth with his swimmers in the down pour for over 40 min. He was the only adult (including the head coach) who wasn't under a shelter.
Really love this coach.

On the way home from swimming, we happened to see a huge movie playing on a huge screen out in a huge field on base.
We of course stopped off to catch an hour of it- how could we not? A spontaneous drive-in movie- too cool to pass up.

Happy Birthday Kevin!