Hasta Aquí, me gusta España

We have arrived safely and so far, we think we’re going to like it.  The check-in process has not been a non-stressful process for Glenn.  He’s been running constantly since Wednesday morning until Friday afternoon.  After getting very little sleep on the flight Monday night, it wasn’t easy to hop off of the plane, figure out how to get Rajah out of cargo and then make the 6 hour drive to Rota from Madrid.  Good thing I remembered how to drive a manual car.

The first night in the temporary house was very uneventful.  It was full of sleep, and that’s about it.  The kids and I were able to explore the base a bit the next day.  Little did we know, there was a bicycle race that was about to start as we left the house.  Something called Fertilidad…..we are still unsure of what it means because we never looked it up.  On the plus side, we do know not to try to find a way home during said race because you will get told to pull over into a parking lot, and shut off your engine by the Spanish police.  We ended up waiting for about 20-30 minutes for the actual bikes to go by. 

            The second night was nicer.  The kids went to the park behind the house and Rajah went with me.  She was able to enjoy her first sunset in Spain. J  The kids were able to use up some of the energy they had been saving from the long flight and the last day being used to catch up on sleep that was lost.  They did get that thing going pretty fast.  I, on the other hand, got it going much faster and Christopher could barely lift his head up.  Maybe there will be no need for lifting weights if I can just get one of those things installed in a basement….just a thought.

                                       Rajah taking in the night time breeze.

 
                                                   Rajah's very first sunset in Spain.  

       Friday we were able to get the kids registered for school, sit through 2 orientations and make it to the pool as well.  Christopher passed the swim test at yet another pool so he could go to the deep end and use the slides.  This pool was the most important yet.  He wanted to be able to climb the rock wall in the deep end.  Both him and Madison climbed it over and over again.  Alexander practiced his swimming in the shallow part of the pool.  He will learn to swim one day soon.

                                                The birdies getting a drink at the pool.                          
     

The rock wall that Christopher passed the swim test for...he said it was worth it and it was awesome.

Friday night was so much fun.  Glenn took us to los Carreros de Caballos (Horse races on the beach), we tried some new snacks, some of which were delicious and some that were just so so.  Needless to say, they all got eaten so they weren’t horrible.  As we walked down the beach, there were booths that kids had designed and built for people (children mostly) to place bets at.  The beach was beautiful, the sunset was gorgeous and the kids all had smiles on their faces.  Each of us placed our bets for the first race, and the winner was……

Madison.  She bet 1 Euro and won 3.  We are still dumbfounded by how this occurred since she picked horse number 8 and that horse was clearly in last place in the video we took…..Then again, we could have been betting for the loser of the race and not known it since we only understood about 15% of what was being said during the bet placements.  On to the last race of the night.  We all wanted to try out our skills once again.  While we were waiting for the second race to start we decided to venture out into the shallow waters of the beach.  I have to say, Glenn took a pretty nice picture.  He saw a little cart rolling past and decided to grab one of the two pastry type treats for all of us to try.  I absolutely loved the cuña and Alexander loved the carmela.

                                              The horses on their way to the starting line.

Beautiful sunset on the beach.

                                        My beautiful family (not the lady on the right with her back turned obviously) and my bad, Christopher's eyes were closed....aaahhhh the memories we're making.

Any guesses as to who won this race?  It sure as hell wasn’t my horse….again.  I am at horse race betting as I am at lottery ticket winning….I suck.  Madison won the damn bet again.  This time it was legit, we saw her horse win.  She ended up paying me back the euro she borrowed to place the first bet and ended up with 4 of her own.  Not a bad night…..for her.  Yeah, we teach our kids to bet early, since we all suck at lottery tickets we might as well teach them how to be good at some sort of gambling right? ;) 

                                         
                                                      Her first winnings of the night.

Christopher placing his second bet of the night....hoping for at least one win.

                                               Glenn sure took a lovely picture of us. :)

The bet pamphlet, my betting ticket and my delicioso cuña.

Another pretty sunset.

                                         THERE THEY GO!!!  Well, not my horse...

Madison going to pick up more winnings as Christopher watches from the losers sidelines with the rest of us.

Glenn decided to ask one of the locals if they could recommend a good restaurant.  After trying out our tiny bit of Spanish, and him trying out his tiny bit of English, they brought their interpreter in.  Their daughter translated for us and we ended up trying out a place called Paco Secundino.  We, meaning all of us, not just a few, tried fried shark, marinated clams (we’re still not 100% sure if the two stalky looking things were eyes or not), grilled shark, marinated shark and noodles with seafood.  The funny thing is, the one thing that seemed to be the most well known dish was our least favorite.  The noodles were no bueno…no me gusta.  None of us cared for them.  The grilled shark came in first place because everyone loved it.  Christopher loved the clams and said they were in a tie with the grilled shark. The fried shark was pretty tasty as well.  

On the way to the restaurant.

 
                                            The restaurant that ended up winning over the others.

The kids wanted to walk home from the pool the other night.  I figured, why not?  They weren't going to get Daddy's truck all wet and we would get some quiet time at least for 20 minutes. Boy do they walk fast though.

So far, it seems like a great place to be able to live and explore.  As for the cost of the meals….let’s just say shark and clams will not be on the menu very frequently.  

I'm not so good at this....

I'm not even going to try to remember what's been happening for the past year plus.  I think most of it has been on Facebook anyway.  So I'll just start with things I can remember off the top of my head, recent things.  Christopher has got 3 more games of flag football as an Eagle and then summer vacation is just around the corner.  All the kids are excited and they have been counting down for a few weeks now.  The kids saved up and bought themselves a trampoline, again, probably on Facebook but just in case you didn't know, now you do. :)  All 3 of them have been keeping their grades up and working hard just to make it to summer.  Christopher found out about Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy...the list of little white lies goes on and now he knows the secrets of my magical footprints and the reason why Marty the Elf had different answers to the questions he just had to ask.  Darn my memory for forgetting how big I said he was 2 years ago...

We've got a game to head to this afternoon and then I think we're going to hit up Red Robin for some burgers since that's what I want for Mother's Day.  Yep, pretty simple, just a burger, planting flowers with my family in the front of the house and for someone else to make the yellow cake with chocolate frosting that I have had in the pantry for about a month now.

Rajah has been growing just like the kids, a weed.  Thank goodness we don't have to buy her new pants!  The kids cleaned out their closets and I swear, the older 2 need a whole new wardrobe!  It's amazing how fast they grow without even knowing it!

New stuff that you may already know, Madison and I have become a mother/daughter team selling Origami Owl jewelry.  She's learning how to balance a checkbook, save half of her earnings and figure out how much she has to spend along with just how long it takes to save money...good stuff.

My mind is blank, I need more coffee now.  I have decided to save a little money by using the reusable k-cups and folgers coffee grounds for a while and it's just not as fast...or strong in my opinion.  I need some of the jet fuel k-cups to get me through the rest of the school year I think.  Maybe I can just make some sort of coffee cookies for myself...I do love my cookies.  Speaking of cookies, I need to start running again.  I use weather as an excuse, probably will until I die but I'd rather it be later than sooner, so I need to kick myself in the butt and get to running before I'm so unhealthy that this upcoming winter of holiday foods and cold weather might put me into a true food coma.  So I'll leave you with some pictures to take your minds off of the fact that this post is so scatterbrained and does not have any sort of flow to it at all.  Have a great day!

Alexander had a lovely view right?  This is what you get when you hand your 8 year old your camera.

And this is also what you get.

I think he almost made me pee my pants on this ride he had me laughing so hard.  

Tea Cups at Busch Gardens.

Frolicking in the snow that is not being missed right now.

Cold guy.

Self instructing herself to do a little bit of everything gymnastic.

Rajah is just the spectator.

Yep, she can do these things...I think she's related to Gumby.

One armed handstand while mommy is trying to bust out a flippin' headstand that she's obviously struggling at.  Rajah the self proclaimed EMT is worried in the background.

Waiting to go in.

She sure loves her bubbles.

Their awesome trampoline tricks.

This is MY indestructaball!

The daddy mack didn't make these guys jump, mommy did so she could take some pictures. :)

Still loving those bubbles.  She tries to cheat just like Nani used to.  She just cuts out the middle man, a.k.a. the actual bubble, and goes straight to licking the bubble wand.

Peace out from Madison!

Done with 3 days, 27 more to go

So far Glenn and I have done great on this Paleo challenge.  I feel super full most of the time and Glenn's getting there, it's because of the tastes in some of the meals that makes him not want to eat more of it...I will be changing some ingredients in the next few days.  Last night we had the paleo fajitas on romaine lettuce and they were so stinking good.  I'll be making those again and again, especially since they're easy for Glenn to take on the ship to microwave on duty days.  There was zucchini in the goulash that he didn't care for so we won't be making that again.  I made this stuff with cauliflower (turned into rice) and added onions, mushrooms and some chicken and apple sausage.....I would eat that for every single meal if it didn't take so much elbow grease to shred all of that cauliflower.  I'm thinking about adding shrimp the next time.  So far I've lost 3.5 pounds, I know, probably water but hey, I'm out of the 150's FINALLY!!!  Since that vacation in May I have let everything go and I'm sick of it.  Squishing into shorts that I fit into perfectly in the middle of May does not make me feel very good about myself.  Glenn's lost 4 pounds so far and he hasn't weighed himself for the past few days.

We all went on a bike ride/run (kids rode bikes, we ran) yesterday and sweated out almost every drop of water we had in us!  We took a turn on a back road thinking it would take us out a different route then it did....The kids had quite a bumpy ride in the neck of the woods we were in.  Today Glenn's changing the oil in both cars since they finally opened the hobby shop on base back up.  Little did he know that they jacked the prices up before they reopened.  Christopher is down at his friend's house for a Webelos thing, he is getting his pinewood derby car cut into the shape he wants for the race.  He'll have to sand and paint it after it's cut, then we will take it to the Den meeting on Thursday to get it weighed.  He was so close to winning the space derby I hope he wins this one.  The kids that do the majority of the work on their projects should win, not the ones with the dad that has the most woodworking skills.

Madison babysat a friend's kids this morning, we had to get up at 5:00 to make sure she was ready to be picked up at 5:25, waaaay too early but at least I was able to go back to bed since I kept waking up worried that I had missed the alarm and overslept, or that I wasn't going to hear the alarm or to go to the bathroom.  At least she had a good time and came home with some experience and cash.  Alexander did so good on the bike ride yesterday, he only complained once...yes, that's excellent for him.  He's the complainer in the bunch.  He earned himself some computer time after that long workout.   Tomorrow morning I think there'll be another workout at the park for me and then my ship shape class in the evening for the biggest winner challenge.  So far I've gotten all the points I was able to plus a few extras (5 max) for our team.  I wish Glenn was going to be here on March 9th to go to the final team challenge and results but he'll be away, again, with the stinking ship.  I'm hoping he'll be able to come home to some good news...Maybe I will win, you never know.

Other than that, not much has gone on here, the same old stuff happens day in and day out.  I should go get to cleaning the kitchen, I did make quite a mess with my cauliflower and fajitas and some of it is still there.  Have a great day everyone, so far we are. :)

Dieting or getting healthy??

So if you've seen my facebook post from a few days back you know that when Glenn gets back from this short deployment we will be starting the 30 day paleo challenge.  He said he will eat what I make and I am going to try to make meals that are actually appetizing and delicious so that we can stick to it for 30 days with no cheating.  No, there aren't any cheat days allowed in the version of the challenge that we're doing.  I'm hoping that we will get into the vegetable and fruit thing after these 30 days and try not to eat as many cookies and snacks that we tend to munch on.  It will be healthier for both of us as well as the kids because yes, I am going to make them eat some of the meals that I make.  There are some that I know they will most likely not have the taste for but others will be just fine.  I hope I don't go through fake sugar withdrawals.  I will post before and after pictures after we are done and hopefully you will be able to see a big difference.  

I have also signed up and started the biggest loser (they call it biggest winner this year) challenge at the gym.  I have to go to a nutrition class once a week on Monday evenings and Tuesday and Thursday evenings will be the days I go to the team workouts (because without the points I get from these things, I will not be eligible to win on my own).  I have only missed one of the MWF workouts at the park since starting the Monday after Thanksgiving.  They do cross fit up there and I have to say it's super tough most of those mornings but I feel so much stronger.  I can actually do the standing box jump onto a 2 foot box now!  I was so proud of myself that when Jessie and I went to the gym, she and I both tried the slightly taller box and were both able to get onto it!!  I think it was about up to my thighs!  I had to do a minute test of push ups and sit ups for the challenge and a mile run.  I did 20 push ups (yes, real push ups) and 22 sit ups in those minutes (this was after the cross fit workout at the park earlier that morning) and my mile run time was 9:53.  Under 10!!  In order to win you have to have the highest percentage of body fat loss and improvement on all 3 of the above tests.  We'll see how I do.  We are going to officially start the 30 days on the 20th of this month after we have all the groceries and supplies we need to get going.

On another note, Alexander had his first sleepover last night with his buddy Sam and had a blast.  Christopher can bust out about 15-20 pull ups on the pull up bar we hooked up in the hallway (and I still have yet to do 1) and Madison is a machine on the pull up bar as well.  They are growing so fast!!  Only 128 days until we will be back in the states and we'll be able to see how much all of their cousins have grown!!  I know it's going to go by slow some days and then other days will seem to fly by, particularly the days that I need to last longer.  Right now Glenn is in Saipan and says it's just like a mini Guam.  I'm sure he's not excited about that!  We're over Guam and cannot wait to get back to the "real world".

So, I don't have any more news right now.  I'll leave you with this picture of my reluctant party-goer. :)

Peace out Dudes!

Almost Finished With Guam

We have began a countdown until the day we leave Guam.  We will be leaving about 3 weeks before Glenn so we will be able to spend more time on the west coast without him using up all of his leave time.  The ticket requests have been submitted and we're just waiting to see what they come up with.  May 20th is the day we're shooting for so we'll see.  I'm not sure if I'd prefer to fly through Japan or Hawaii honestly.  Japan at least has a McDonald's at their airport.  Hawaii has a Quiznos....Hmmmmm.  

Yesterday Christopher had a scouts camping trip but we ended up not camping overnight.  I'm happy about that because it ended up pouring last night!  We did however stay the whole day, and when I say whole day, I mean 10:00 am until 7:00 pm, at the campsite.  Glenn had his golf league in the morning and the plan was for me to take the kids there in the morning and swap out with Glenn at around 2 when he was done and I could take the other kids home.  Well plans change, he came there and we were both wiped out from being in the sun all morning but I hadn't been doing anything physical like he had so I volunteered to stay the rest of the afternoon.  Glenn hung out and did the activities with Christopher and then him and Alexander headed out.  Within 5 minutes, Alexander was asleep in the car.  Madison decided to stay because 2 of her friends were there.  

We went fishing with cane poles and had to scrounge up some bait.  First we tried to hit up the snails that are all over the place but they have this hard bottom layer that they slide over the "door" and we were not making any progress there.  I told them we should use the hermit crab, Madison was not having that...yet.  We tried to crush the snail shell but the rock crumbled and that was a no go.  Then we found a crab that was half smashed by a rock but still moving and decided he was a goner anyways.  We hooked him up and Christopher had some bait and was on his way.  We ended up walking around the little edge of the small island we were on and found some hermit crabs...Madison was to the point now that she wanted some bait and the hermit crab seemed like the only option.  We made this little guy so mad that he ended up jumping out of his shell, I'm not joking.  He just gave up on life, so we hooked him up and she was on her way.  Neither one of them caught a fish but they did eat up an hour just fishing.  Christopher wanted to slip and slide so we headed down that way and they were closing it down.  I was of course blamed for this because he wanted to go 5 minutes ago.  I let them decide whether or not they wanted to slip and slide first or fish...they chose fish.  They had a long day and so did I.  We hung around and ate some food and headed out at 7:00.  

I think last night was the first night I've gone to bed and haven't laid there waiting to fall asleep.  I was out the minute I put my head on my pillow and slept 12 hours.  I didn't realize how wiped out I actually was.  

I of course left my good camera at home because I didn't want to carry it around all day (yes, it's heavy) but I decided to go with my baby Canon...we got there and it was dead.  My phone was the only option I had left, thank goodness it takes some alright pictures or I would have been mad, at myself for choosing to leave my good one behind.  

The fire had been lit and the smoke was rolling, can't you tell?

Both boys had to cook their own lunch for a change.  I think they appreciated it a little more after sitting next to a blazing fire while the temperature outside was around 95 degrees.

Being instructed on how to shoot the bb gun he was about to get his hands on.

Waiting for Christopher to get those instructions and head back to the breezy side of the trees because it was just plain old hot.

Picking up the bb gun the way he was taught.

Line it up buddy.  I think he hit the target but those things were so small that I couldn't tell.

Happy that Daddy arrived mid instructions and gave him some shade under that nice visor.

Making his survival bracelet with Daddy.

Finding out that the spark that blew his way actually burnt him and put a nice little hole in his shirt.  No, he wasn't pouting, he was trying to look down at his burn.

Bracelet weaving with Daddy.

The second snail we tried to hook as bait.  He looks mad!!  Those little "eyebrows" actually moved around and it looked like he was shouting at us.

Christopher fishing with his baby crab on the hook.

Madison hooking up the hermit crab that so kindly gave up his life so we could catch a lot of nothing.

That's it for now, I'm not so good at remembering everything that has been going on.  I suck at blogging constantly although I have my moments.  Have a great day everyone!

Wow wow wow.....

August 12th, the last day I blogged.  I didn't realize it'd been 3 months but hey, I've been busy.  I'm not sure what that "busy" part consists of but it does involve 3 children, a lawn that's overgrown most of the time because of the weather here in Guam, a house that needs cleaning constantly and a family that needs to eat.  I've been busy taking pictures and loving that part.  As of now we have about 6 months until we are heading back out to the United States, the real United States, not a "territory" of it.  Somewhere with a Walmart, a REAL Outback Steakhouse and people that think that know what "Open at 9:00" means (that doesn't mean open at 9:23).

The kids are growing like crazy and so are their attitudes.  At least I know their brains are up to par with their bodies and that they are advancing like they should.  It's hot here, yes, still, and it only rains every once in a while.  I am so excited for Thanksgiving to get here that I can't stand it.  I am ready for this holiday season because once it's done, it's the new year, then after that it's only a few more months until we leave and then we get to spend some time in Idaho and Montana before Glenn leaves Guam to meet us up there.  I'm ready to get some family pictures and spend some time with everyone that I haven't had the chance to in a while.

Alexander just said he "a little bit" wants one of the Tom Bergeron bobble head dolls that he's giving away on America's Funniest Videos...that's my boy.  I really don't have anything much to say right now so I'm going to watch AFV with the family and get ready to edit more pictures. :)