Sorry Sorry Sorry

I never promised I was good at this blogging thing. Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this. Moving to the other side of the world really does require a lot of attention and detail, and so this thing really hasn't been a priority. But my friend, Heather (one of my three Heather's on the island) informed me she was sick of pulling up my blog and seeing that Harry Potter was still the top of the list. ;) Here are some pics of our beautiful little island.

This is the view from the top of our driveway...yep, pretty much every day I want to stop and just sit there all day to see that beautiful ocean!

Also from the driveway, just a little bit down.

The pics below are at Sugar Dock Beach...it's one of the best beaches for the kids. When the tide it low it's shallow and you can walk out really far without it getting deep. If the tide is high and you're lucky, there are some great little waves to play in or surf on (if you're lucky and you have friends who have surf boards, or you remembered to bring you SUP Board).

A picture of B running into the clear blue ocean really brings about an "A ha" moment. This is our home for the time being, this is where we live, and it's such a beautiful one!

Harry Potter, Cow Surprise, and a Typhoon.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 came out last week, or the week before, I can't remember (ok, it was really a while ago, because I started writing this, then things got busy, and I'm finally getting back to it). Time is blurring here. But we went on opening day, which is a day ahead of the States! Neener Neener. But with the first showing over here being at 1:15PM and the states showing it at midnight over there, I think we all saw it first at about the same time. I think I should mention, however, that we and our friends braved a typhoon to go and see the movie. That should earn us 50 points for Gryffindor don't you think? Now comes some of the sad parts of movie watching comparisons. Though I think Saipan is a fun place, they really can't beat watching a movie on opening day with the States. Our friends and us actually bought tickets on Fandango, thinking it's opening day, surely we'll need to buy tickets ahead of time. Not! We got to the theater about 45 minutes before the show started and there were only two (2) other people in the theater!!! Granted, it was the afternoon on Friday, but c'mon! People in the states probably would have taken work off to go and see it if it was the first showing. The positive, we totally got the best seats in the theater! Score. More people did show up, by the way, so it wasn't totally empty, but it wasn't completely full either! We saw it. We loved it. I totally cried when Harry used the resurrection stone and saw his family and friends! The boys did really well, and at the end when Voldemort died the whole theater was silent and Ravi said, "They won!!!" Hee hee hee. It was pretty cute.

So prior to going to the movie, Jeremy was running some errands and I casually mentioned, "Hey, can you pick up some lunch so the boys aren't hungry when we go to the movie?" He said, "Sure, no problem." I guess I should have been more specific, because if I'm not, I end up with a story like this:

Jeremy comes home with a bag of food and says, "THIS IS SOOOO GOOOD! YOU HAVE TO TRY IT!" so I get all the forks and plates etc. out and he proceeds to tell me about going to this tiny little bakery/restaurant. He told us it was beef, but when he saw the label he thought, "Wow, I didn't know you could eat that part of the cow." *Warning #1* and informs us that we have to guess what it is (he should have said, "boys, you have to guess" because I guessed it too quickly). We start taking a few bites. True, there is some beef in it. But there's also some questionable things. It also was pretty spicy, so I knew the kids wouldn't like it that much. I started guessing, Tail? No. Tongue? No. Intestine? No. I take a few more bites. He tells me it's a muscle. Ding...it all snapped into place. "Jeremy, is this heart???" Jeremy is silent. "JEREMY!?!?!?!?!" "Yes...and a few other things near the heart." "JEREMY?!?!?!?! IS THIS LUNG????" Silence. "The lady also said there might be some arteries and liver in there too." Aaaaaah! Not exactly the lunch I had envisioned right before going to one of the most anticipated movie of the year. Oh well...it at least makes a good story and is quite entertaining to share with all of you. ;)

Yep, that's what it looks like folks! Cow Surprise and rice! If you ask nicely, I *might* try and get the recipe and I'll make it for you the next time I butcher my own cow.

Engrish

I just love all of the funny things you find while shopping. There are funny pictures, misspelled words, and just different ways of doing things over here. I really do mean that I love it. Diversity is a wonderful thing in the world and it would be boring without it. When it comes to the mistranslations and "Engrish" on all of the signs, I laugh, but I also have to remember that if I had to translate anything into Chinese, I'm sure that I would make some pretty funny mistakes as well.

This is probably the cutest rat I've ever seen! Guinea Pig glue trap, anyone?

There's a Japanese market, Himawari, that makes the best donuts and sushi! And to top it off, they have the coolest carts that Ravi and Beckham had lots of fun with.

My friend Heather (she is 1 of 3 Heather's that lives on the island) took me to this fabric store. It was awesome. Imagine three rows of fabric like this, all in a tiny 15'x20' room and that's the store. He also had jars and jars of buttons! It was so neat!

Third from the top...Smoodie anyone?

This is the outside of Himawari...I love the slogan, "Try our Meals for your Long Life!" They do have excellent food. We also picked up some yummy bento boxes from them...I got a beef and noodle bowl and it was tasty.

This was outside another store...

These sandals cracked me up. Those fuzzy brown things are kush balls! Remember those from growing up? And now they're being used on shoes! Love it!

Ramen Sense

First, I just love how they package things in Asia. I have no idea why a guy in a purple/pink cardigan sweater is on the front, but I love it. It makes me want to buy it more, because back on the mainland, we don't have stuff like this.

Another thing to be xcited about was the shape of the noodles...a circle! How many of you out there have been so annoyed because of that big rectangular brick of noddles that Ramen sells? The other thing I thought was great, though I didn't get a picture, was there were three little packets that came with the noodles...a flavor packet, a little bit of sesame oil, and dried vegetables that actually tasted pretty good when they were in there.

A Few Things I Löv

Fresh avocados and mangoes from our new house

Fresh pineapple from the market...

I guess you can't see it very well in this pic, but RAIN! We woke up to rain! I can't remember the last time it rained in NM.

The sunsets from our balcony!

Wraiths on Wings

Thursday night is the best night on Saipan (in my opinion). It's street market night! Tons of restaurants from the island come down to the street in front of the Hyatt Hotel and you can buy 6 things for $5. It is seriously the best. It's like getting a huge thing of take out food for super cheap. There are also some smoothie stands and a few vendors selling touristy things. Apparently they have dancers, but we still haven't managed to see them yet.

The boys can never pass by the characters that you stick your head through without begging for a photo op.

Three Saipandas on a Banana Boat

Coconut People

Here's the good stuff...all the yummy food.

Ravi's favorite is "that chicken on the stick"...it is pretty tasty.

Here begins our bug adventure. We got all of our food then went and sat with some friends on a hill. The boys were having fun running up and down and rolling all over. Jeremy and Ravi were standing in the same area and he started getting bit all over by red ants...then Ravi started screaming and he had them all over his legs, too. They eventually got them off and we decided to move over to the amphitheater. Not only was there seating, but some of the local teenagers were practicing some dance moves. I was going to get a picture, but only a few minutes after we sat down we were descended upon by millions of flying ants! They got in our food, our hair, some got in our shirts. By the time we were driving back it looked like a little snowstorm in the headlights of all the cars. We nicknamed them "wraiths on wings" from LOTR. We got back to the house and I was looking down at myself and there were tons of little wings that had been displaced by their owners. Gross.

Anyhow, that's the latest from here. Lov you all!

The Move

Whew! What an insane week it has been. One week ago Jeremy and I were hastily finishing packing our bags and storing away anything that we didn't want to come with us to Saipan. This morning, we woke up in Saipan, and spent the morning at the beach. It's amazing what can happen in your life in such a short amount of time. Our week was not without it's bumps...we actually got into the habit of waiting for the "one bad thing" that would happen in our day. And without fail, one big thing would occur. You might ask if we were creating self fulfilling prophecies, but we really weren't. But Tuesday-Friday we had crazy stuff. Monday actually went fairly smoothly...the movers came and packed all day. There were a few things they weren't technically allowed to pack...like my nail polish, because it's flammable. Or anything liquid that is in plastic. Or any glass container that has already been opened. But overall, not a big deal, and they got the house part packed. The garage and packing the truck would happen the next day. Only it didn't. Because Tuesday morning they called and said that our shipping container hadn't arrived so they weren't even going to shop up to finish the packing part. So this kind of made a ripple affect for the rest of the week. We had to move cleaning stuff back by a day, but overall, not a big deal, but kind of a hassle. So then Tuesday afternoon comes and Jeremy calls me and says, "Um, I just got a call, and we're not flying out on Friday." Our traveling plans are made by a travel company contracted by the NHSC. When they make the plans they have to get our approval and the approval of people at the NHSC. Apparently, six weeks is just not enough time for the NHSC to give approval *sarcasm*, and by the time the travel agency got after them for it, because of paperwork, we couldn't leave on Friday. Luckily, the travel agency caught it in time, and our travel plans were just pushed back a day. Glad it wasn't pushed back a week! Wednesday came, the movers came with it. But the movers did not come with a truck. Apparently there wasn't a truck at the company that could be used, so they had to go rent one, which took half the day. The poor mover guys were frustrated because by noon they could have been half done, but instead they were waiting for a truck to come. I brought Jeremy some lunch, and while I was there I made an inquiry about how our car was going to get to the moving container, and they responded with, "What car? You're taking a car?" The lady who came to evaluate everything knew about the car, but I guess the info didn't get passed along. By 6:30 that night they still weren't done, and we decided that it would be easier for everybody if they just came back the next morning. Thursday morning...we go to the house getting it ready for the movers and for the lady who was going to clean my house. Lady calls and tells me she's really sick and can't come. By this point, it really doesn't phase me. We decide at this point just to borrow a vacuum and mop and clean everything ourselves. Haley to the rescue...she brought us a mop and vacuum and I didn't even have to go to her house and get it! So incredibly appreciative for that small act of kindness. Let's go back to Tuesday, when we found out we weren't leaving Friday. We talked to the car rental (we were renting a truck to help us tote around our 16 pieces of luggage, plus make a giant trip to Cotco) and talked with the hotel to extend everything a day. The hotel told us, "no problem, just come down here Friday morning, check out, and we'll check you right back into your room." Can you guess what happened? We went down, talked to the front desk and they said, "Well, we can't check you back in because someone else will be staying in your room." Aaah! Once again, by this point, I had expected it. They did have another, more expensive, room, and they could have it ready by 9ish, so we just went ahead with it. We had to transfer our bags to one building over. Jeremy got a lot of heavy lifting this whole week. Saturday. Big day at the airport. We had weighed all of our bags so they were all exactly 50 pounds. Got to the airport, some nice airport people help us take our bags in, we went to the front of the line at Delta. Delta man, Seth, is super nice and helps us get everything checked in. Go to security, before we even get there, when they are scanning our passports in the pre-security line, they have to call a higher up on Beckham's passport. Higher Up person comes and tells us that Beckham has "a similar name" as someone else...but he's incredibly vague. I ask him if this means Beckham is black listed, and he says, "not exactly" but refuses to explain anything else. ????? Anyhow, poor Beckham has to go through a pat down, Jeremy was carrying too much change in his bag, so he got pulled aside. We made it through, we're at the gate, we're standing in line to get on the plane, and Beckham's ticket gets scanned, and it beeps, and the lady says that TSA didn't sign the ticket, and we can't get on to the plane until it's signed/stamped. *sigh* Jeremy and Beckham RUN back to the security check point and get it stamped and run back. We are the last ones to get on the plane, but we made it. Salt Lake City...we have less than an hour to get to our plane, we make it as they're just starting to put people one. Beckham's ticket is scanned and beeps, again. They pull us aside. At this point I want to scream to people that Beckham is not a 7 year old terrorist! They actually printed us out new tickets, and once again, we were some of the last on the plane. But it was OK, after this everything went really well. Luckily, we all had little personal TVs, the boys got child meals instead of nondescript meat and vegetables, and we were all able to sleep a little bit. We got to Tokyo and at one of the "duty free" stores found Totoro stuffed animals! Then we got to Saipan and it was raining! Probably one of the most welcome things EVER!

On a side note, despite all of the frustrating and annoying things that happened this week, it all worked out. To outweigh all of those things we had friends who had us over for dinner, watched my kids so they didn't go crazy, got tons of hugs and I Love You's, went to a movie with some friends, and overall really did have a great last week in Albuquerque. We can't believe that the medical education thing is over and that Jeremy has a real, adult job! We're excited to start our adventure out here in the middle of the ocean. So come along with us!

Here we go......

Here are a few random pics for you...once I get a little more organized, other posts will be better:

Saturday morning, waiting while Jeremy gets all of the bags packed into the truck.

Dirty hobbit feet from the first day of moving.

The boys were passing out as soon as we got to the hotel every night.

Here's the massive truck that saved our lives, but confirmed that I am so not a truck person! And I had to drive this thing around for a week. Jeremy laughed whenever he saw me in it. He said you could just see the top of my head in the drivers seat.

Totoro fans out there??? One of our favorite kid movies. They had HUGE Totoro's, but they were $62 each! As much as I love my kiddos, and as much as I would have wanted one, no.