Wednesday....

This whole week is going so slowly for me, and I think its because we are so out of routine. Things after school the last two days and the girls had a half day today with two more half days to follow. They are very excited about it because they are going over to a friend's house to play for the afternoon for the first two days of it.....and they are slightly disappointed because Kevin will be picking them up for the third half day- didn't want to overstay the welcome at the friend's home in case we need them again....

Tomorrow after I am done work I will be meeting Kevin and the girls at the school for parent/teacher interviews. I always look forward to hearing how the girls are doing in the classroom. I will try to remember to bring my camera to the school to give you a glimpse.

Have been putting Christmas presents together so I can send things off...did the pictures for the Christmas cards this evening. Here is a sneak peak....

Here's hoping the rest of the week goes smoothly- and quickly!

Playing Catch-up

Taking some time now to catch everyone up on the week thus far. Not much of anything unusual to report.....the girls swam in a meet on Saturday and did well- best times all around. Kevin and I timed for it- gotta say we make a better couple then we do co-workers. I found myself snapping at him when things weren't getting done- I much prefer working with Micki :) sorry Kevin....oh and Micki- Kevin and I didn't even touch the record of 8 perfect times...we only had one.

Sunday was church in the morning and shopping in the afternoon- trying to find Christmas dresses. Found the Christmas dresses and walked out with two extra outfits as well....didn't need them but the price was right and they were cute.

Went to the long awaited book fair after school today.... we were hopeful for some fun book shopping. Had more of a rummage sale feel to it- very glad we went on the first day as there were very few books there and very few copies of what they did have. I guess the key is to be grateful for what was there. Madison managed to pick some books while she was grumbling something that sounded like "you call this a book fair"...... Ellie of course- pleased as punch as she bought their entire stock of fairy books plus one "Catwings". A new record has been set in the house- Maddie has finished two of the books she bought at 4 pm today (its 8:30 pm now).....and she swam for an hour and half of that! Granted one book was fairly short- like 60 pages, but the other was at least 150 pages. Ellie would like it noted here that she too broke a personal record as she read one whole book today....fairly long one- those fairy books are nothing to sneeze at!

I would like to say a thank you to Ellie for being the guest blogger last time. I know its nice for you guys to hear how things are around here from someone other than me. Thanks Ellie!

Oh, and a happy note for me- the temperature reached a chilly 78 degrees this evening! First below 80 I have seen- thinking of breaking out the parka.....

Guest Blogger- Ellie!

If you give a kid a camera.....

Here is an Ellie sized view of our house- she took my camera today all over the house....

Hi Ellie here.....if you give a kid a camera she'll go crazy with it. And she'll also take a lot of pictures, including Daddy playing his computer game. She'll also want to take some pictures of herself, her mom, her sister and also her dog!

This one is a picture I took of myself, you can tell because my arms are out.

Maddie, Maddie, she was being so silly that I couldn't even understand what she was saying. I kept getting pictures of her hand because she did not want her picture taken. She was also wearing her new dress, and that is why I wanted to take a picture of her in the first place. The next picture is her new Christmas dress that she just bought today. I bought my Christmas dress yesterday, we say that Grandma Gillam will like it because it looks Scottish. It is very pretty, it is a shirt and skirt with a scarf. Barb will like the Christmas pin for it because it is very pretty and decorative.
Now I am moving onto Aggie because she is sooooo cute. I took a picture of her next to our American Girl dolls because they are cute too. Anyways, the reason I took a pictures in this room is because a lot of people were in it (except for Mom, she was out here with the computer). I like being in the room with the most of my family because I like spending time with them.

This is a picture I took in the mirror thats why it looks like a huge ball of light in my hands. Daddy is playing Batman on his xbox. It is a new xbox and it looks cool it is black and has the number 2 on it.

This is a girl on the game her name is Ivy because she can control ivy plants. Batman explained to her that she needs to leave there otherwise something will happen to her and the plants. Mama is making me say here (and I don't want to) that I am usually not allowed to watch Daddy's games but it was not violent at that part because they were just talking about some sort of formula that he needed.

This is Mama where I said she was for the whole time. She is playing with her camera right now, she wants to take pictures of us but a lot of times we don't like it.

This picture I took of Mama while she took a picture of me.

Thats all I have for now. Thank you for looking!

Bye from Ellie :) ( I love doing smiley faces) :)

Happy Birthday Joe!

A very Happy Birthday to you Joe! I hope you know how much you mean to this family, and how much we appreciate you. Thank you for all you do.

Remember this photo?- seems like yesterday.....

In a nutshell.....

What do I have to say that would sum up the week and the girls right now?

-Maddie has joined the choir, still begs daily to be home schooled, sometimes complains about going but still loves swimming once she is there, mostly plays nicely with but still will psychologically torment her sister when the opportunity arrises, seems to be reading even faster now -reads one to two books a day depending on the book and the day.

-Ellie is coming across personality issues in the classroom that she is attempting to mediate (the boy with the bad behavior saying bad words- she is working on him), still loves school and Ms Baza, is very excited about the book fair next week at school, will now attempt to eat cafeteria food if what is listed doesn't look too offensive-but really is just as happy with a peanut butter sandwich, reads daily but not obsessively- she would actually rather have long drawn out conversations which are always entertaining :)

Kevin and I are the same. He is still tolerating work, even liking it at times I would guess- but you would have to ask him.

My work drives me slightly crazy- but I am pretty sure that is normal in the teaching field....I'll have to remember to ask Micki and Laura about that..... not to mention that Guam is a bit backwards about some things so that gives you the "one step forward, two steps back" feeling most days.

Ending on a happy note this week- they are rebuilding the burnt down hut in the courtyard at Southern High! Actually took this picture while I was on the phone with Julie- so nice chatting with you Julie! The new hut is being built because Chamorro day is coming (don't know what that is but I will keep you posted as I find out). A new hut seems like a small thing- but a positive thing...

What's Southern High up to now?

"A random search of Southern High School resulted in one male minor being taken into custody, the confiscation of drugs, and the entire campus being placed on lockdown. Acting Principal James Petitte made good on a promise he made to students by having police, corrections and customs officers come to the school to conduct a sweep for drugs.

Five teams of dogs swept the Santa Rita campus and found a 17-year-old student in possession of marijuana. The student evidently had hidden 8 sticks of marijuana in a potato chip bag stuffed into a pill bottle. Authorities also confiscated several marijuana pipes made out of pens.

Petitte says he is now recommending that the student be expelled, saying, "Southern High's a good school, these are wonderful young people. Unfortunately sometimes kids make bad choices, and when they're caught they're going to get dealt with like I said swiftly and effectively. So this is part of that process."

The male minor was released to his parents and will have to appear before the Juvenile Investigation Section at a later time."

Ya, and what that doesn't mention is that many teachers spent over an hour outside the gate parked in their cars waiting for the lockdown- one of those would be me.

Honestly, glad they had the drug dogs come through- anything to let the kids know that the school is serious about cracking down on the issues- just hope I get the memo next time so that I can be sure to bring more coffee with me :)

Day at home.

Nice day off.

By the time I got out of bed at 7am, the girls had already typed their letters to Santa. Can you believe kids now a-days? Letters to Santa done on the computer with fancy fonts, borders and clip art.....paper and pencil did us just fine growing up!

Here is what Maddie's looked like on my computer before printing it.....

.....and since we are out of various inks for my computer and Guam doesn't sell my ink, this is what Santa is ending up with.....
I am sure Santa won't mind, besides its still nice and its what the letter says that really matters anyway. We will be very thankful when the inks arrive....Grandpa Gillam is on it!

Ellie's Santa letter was very cute and she made snowflakes for Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

The girls had some nice down time at home (as seen by the dress-up photo at the beginning of the blog). We went out to breakfast and did some browsing at the Exchange- actually managed getting some Christmas shopping done. Also bought some sand castle making equipment for Ellie- she embarrassed me into it.....when I read on her blogging day that she was not liking using the kitchen equipment I really felt obligated.

The day ended at Gab Gab Beach with some snorkeling. We invited our friend Mike Thornton along. He was our neighbor in Panama City and is here without his family- they are coming for a month in December and we are excited to be seeing them! Mike loves snorkeling- he is actually the guy that has the eels living in his beach waters. Maddie was enthralled to have a fellow fish enthusiast along.

Because we went so late in the day- it was literally my best beach day yet! Cooler outside and high tide. I suggested to Kevin that we should go at this time all the time- he wasn't so big on that.

Ellie made a lovely sand castle with the new molds- of course I didn't bring a camera- I know right? I took a picture with my phone...so as soon as I figure out how to get that on my computer.......ya, I'll keep you posted.

Hope your day off is as unproductive as mine was- the one thing I wanted to do was put the Halloween stuff away.....I am thinking I will just wait a while longer and swap the Halloween things out for Christmas decorations!