Happy Birthday to our Daddy

From the moment of birth

you've helped us grow.

You teach us lessons
that you think we should know.

You are always there to give us a hand
even if that means you get covered with sand!

We want to shout out across the sea
Happy Birthday to our Daddy!

Surprise birthday party for Chris

As much as he hates surprises (and I love pulling the wool over his eyes!) I had to have a celebration for his last birthday on island. What better place to have it than at work where his ladies know how to party! I sent Tess a little email with an idea of having a potluck that included all of his favorite foods and she took care of the rest. Gotta love that! She even had the cake made! I was able to get our Hong Kong crew together to join in on the festivities. A big thanks to all who brought food and celebrated with us. You made his day (and mine too!).

Chris and his ladies!

These ladies from the island sure know how to PARTY!

Hong Kong reunited! (minus a few kiddos) Thanks for sharing in our day!

How Great is Our God

I watched this tonight at church and was blessed by it. I encourage everyone to rent or buy this video and watch it! It's amazing how great our God really is. This video is just mind blowing!!

Peek-A-Boo (and a boo boo too!)

Seeing these pictures brings back memories of when Logan and Tyler would play hide and seek in our cabinets in NC. Ryland and Tyler had a blast playing peek a boo with the camera.

You can't see me!

BOO!

I said that I wasn't going to post a picture but on the eve of his last day with staples I decided to take this for memories sake.

Logan's ER Visit

We haven't seen the boys' friends, Isabel and JoJo in a while so we made a visit to their house to play. Right before we were about to leave I hear crying coming from upstairs. Meredith and I ran up to find Logan holding his bloody hand out. I thought that there was a cut on his hand until Meredith turned Logan around and my eyes slowly went from the blood stains on his shirt, up his neck to head where there was a lot of blood. I saw a small puncture wound and knew immediately that he needed to go to the hospital.

Upon arriving the Dr checked him out and cleaned the wound which was several inches in length. He was given a topical numbing agent and then an oral dose of morphine. After all was finished, he walked away with 13 staples. Thank God for that hard head!

I won't post pictures of the wound with the staples in it because it hurts my heart to look at it and I don't want to subject any of you to that. Below you'll find pictures of Logan with the pot that he fell on. Apparently he fell off the top bunk and his head was the first to hit the pot which was sitting on the floor upside down. He hit the bottom of the pot with such force that his head dented the pot and the part that came up from the pot was what caused the gash. Bizarre.

We're so thankful to God that he is ok. Please pray for a swift recovery and no infection of the wound. Momma is a queasy one so with Daddy gone it falls on me to lather the wound up with antibiotics....greeeaat.

Sights and Sounds of Chamorro Village

Chamorro Village is a must see if you're new to the island. It's an introduction to the local food, culture and craftsmanship of the Chamorro people. We had to go one last time before we leave island to pick up a carving I had made for Ryland and also to get some Guam souvenirs.

This is Chief Quipuha (which means "striving to capsize"). He was Guam's first Catholic Chief and gave the land for the first Catholic church to be built, the Dulce Nombre de Maria {Sweet Name of Mary} Cathedral Basilica in 1669. This church still stands today.

Care for a drink? Coconuts a-plenty!

Local fare

Octopus ball, anyone?

Crowds, crowds and more crowds! We're so spoiled here on Guam as this is as bad as it gets and it's not even that bad!

Bread Fruit...this is one of my favorite trees because of the unique looking fruit and beautiful, large leaves. They say that you cut it up and fry it like a potato.

This actually looks like a fake picture but it's not doctored and I did not insert Logan into it! That's the famous Chamorro village tower in the background. You can see that from the plane when you're flying in!

I don't know what this is or was but I've always liked it because it looks like an ancient jailhouse.

Robert Taitano graciously completed a wall hanging for little Napu (means "oceanwave"). Robert is a master carver and was commissioned to carve Bill Clinton's chair and presidential seal when he came to Guam in the 90's.

Shells....

Shells..........

And more shells!!!!!! All are indigenious to Guam.

This thing sounded like a loud tugboat horn. I could hear it across the village. The blowing of the shells was sort of the ancient "cellphone". It was used for communication but also for ceremonies.


Carabao


Gotta love the hawaiian (or ISLAND) print!


Local craftsmanship

When the toys are gone...Improvise!

The movers left behind a little something special that Ryland got a hold of. He wheeled himself all over our bare house!

A visit from the USDA

One of the perks of living on Guam is that you get a visit from Cannon, the USDA dog, AKA...snake finder! His handler, Mark was very informative and told us stories about the snakes he found on base. One snake he found was in the lining at the bottom of the couch! There was a hole in the lining that the snake took full advantage of to make itself a home. Can you imagine sitting down on your couch after a long day and not knowing that there is a snake right beneath you?! All military moves are subject to an inspection before the items are shipped off island. Just goes to show how big the brown tree snake problem really is.

Mark and Cannon the snakefinder!

Cannon in search mode!

It's moving time again

At this very moment I'm overcome with a mix of emotions one of them being a sigh of relief, not because we are leaving Guam but because all of our preparation over the last several weeks is finally over. The scramble to buy furniture and souvenirs, the painting of several pieces of furniture, the purging of all our stuff (which isn't complete by the way), the sorting of what stays here and what goes and anything else that goes along with a move. That was phase I, the preparation phase. Now for the start of phase II, the reflection phase.

Forget the packing...let's go to the beach!

After several weeks of purging we were finally at the end of our preparation phase. The movers come tomorrow. There's nothing left to do but wait. So....why not 'wait' at the beach? Ryland, momma's little heart attack, is not one to back down from what the big boys are doing. If Logan and Tyler are running and jumping into the water, he needs to do the same...even if it means that he goes under again and again and again! That boy did not cry once even when he was coughing up salt water and his little eyes were red. Logan was on the hunt for hermit crabs with Tyler in tow. Who had to bring up the rear? Ryland. Another thing he's not afraid of were those hermit crabs. Remember way back when we tried to get Tyler to hold one and he thought it was just a shell until the shell grew legs? That ended with a scream and the crab was airborne. Not my Ry. He thought it was the funniest thing to see the little crab walking all over him.

Codemeister had to get in on the action even if it was unwillingly! His knee is pretty messed up and the vet said to exercise it by getting him to swim at the beach. That didn't go over so well but at least we tried. It took some coaxing to even get him in the water!

On the hunt for hermit crabs!

What you can't see here is a little bitty hermit crab right in between Ryland's hands. He had to lie down to get a better look at it. That was a close as Tyler would get to it. He kept saying, "I'm not scared anymore, I can hold it!" but when we would get it close to him he'd scream and pull away.

Hooters comes to Guam!

We get pretty excited around here when a chain restaurant from the mainland opens up even if it is Hooters. This place is just like back in the states, half dressed women, ogling men and loud music...oh yeah, and the chicken wings (which Chris claim is why he comes...uh huh...yeah....). Chili's Restaurant also opened up at the same time. We haven't been there yet but have heard that it's a bit disappointing. Hooters was right on the mark.

My FL boy posing under a Clearwater, FL sign. Can't believe it's that far away!!

Ry was happy as long as he had his balloon.

Same goes for lil man.

Before and After

I've given myself many little jobs to complete before our exodus to Tennessee and one of them being the tv armoire. I purchased this from a liquidation center here on island. It came from an upscale hotel after they decided to remodel. It was a good price but a little too light for decor.

So I painted it black. I found some cool drawer pulls in Bangkok but couldn't get four of the same so I'm left with the originals until I can find something to fit the new look. There's quite the glare on this when I took the picture and it's only a semi-gloss. In all my projects this was the most time consuming. It probably took a total of 12 hours after all the coats that I put. Let's hope that it's not destroyed in the move and all my hardwork was not in vain!