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.