Starting school

Well, Adysen started first grade and Kelsey started ninth grade on Tuesday!! They have both had a great start to the year. Adysen loves her teacher and loves eating in the cafeteria. Kelsey has changed from a school of 3,000 kids in Keller to a school with 500 kids here. A small school has it's goods and bads - she will get a chance to participate in more things here, but we found out that schedule conflicts are a problem. The only time choir is offered is during her English class, so she can't take choir! She is taking Drama instead which she also enjoys. She is taking Japanese for her foreign language class which is great for her - she will be exposed to that langauge alot around here! Adsyen goes once a week to a "culture" class to learn about Guam and she also has a Spanish period during her class daily. They are getting lots of good experiences here! :)

Allie will start kindergarten next Thursday full time. She is MORE than ready to go!!!

Sunrise

I woke up early enough to take a walk and watch the sunrise this morning and what a blessing that was!!! God continues to amaze us with His beauty here!

Chamorro Village

Tonight we made our second trip to the Chamorro Village. It's every week on Wednesday nights. Jason and I went last week while the girls were at VBS just to check it out and we LOVED it! We couldn't wait to take them back and they loved it too! There is food everywhere and shopping, which is Kelsey's favorite of course. The hula show was one of Adysen and Allie's favorite parts! (how CUTE is that chubby girl???)

Soccer in Guam!

Adysen and Allie started soccer practice last night - they are SO excited! Strangely, they are both on the same team. They have 5&6 year olds together here which should be interesting!

LOOK!!!

Just a towel hanger?? No, it's Jason's first ever handyman job that he did ALL by himeself with no help from Brian, Bruce or anyone!! Isn't that awesome! He did it perfectly too!! I am SO proud!!

Snorkeling!!!

We finally got to go snorkeling today - I have been wanting to go ever since we got here and it was worth the wait!! It was absolutely amazing and incredible!! We felt like we were RIGHT inside the Finding Nemo movie!!!! Kelsey was just amazed and didn't want to stop!! It took Allie a little while to figure it out, but she did great for her first time. Adysen was a little nervous at first too, but loved it! Next time we will get an underwater camera and take pictures - it's just amazing!!!

Fish Market

We had a truly Guam experience today... the fish market! We had been wanting to go into one on the main road that we always see and decided to do it today. It was very intresting. Not the bargain we had hoped for - the fish were $4.50 per pound WHOLE! We decided to try one anyway and picked a Parrott fish - it was beautiful before it was chopped up - not so pretty afterward, but hopefully it'll taste good!! The girls were very intersted in watching the cleaning.

VBS

All 3 of the girls attended VBS this week at the church on base. They had a GREAT time! Kelsey got many babysitting prospects out of helping with a 3 and 4 year old group. Adysen did not want to leave each night - she loved the music! We bought the CD and they have played it constantly here at home. Jason and I used our "we are new" card and didn't stay to help. We felt sort of bad, but rationalized it by the fact that we helped with Southlake's VBS already this summer and we enjoyed a little time to ourselves!

Nature in Guam

Adysen and Allie made friends with nature this morning. I guess we're going to have to do that here! :) Adysen caught a lizard and a frog and had fun torturing, I mean playing with them. Allie and Dad found a little birdie that had fallen out of it's nest. The bird story didn't have a happy ending, but Allie had fun taking "care" of it for a while.

Picnic

After bowling, we went to the beach for a picnic. Yes, I know nachos and Pepsi aren't the most nutritious lunch, but it was FUN!!

Bowling

Today Kelsey went to the water park with her friend's church youth group. Jason and I took the little girls bowling! We were kind of feeling bad that we haven't taken them bowling before!! It's just not something we think of doing for some reason. Things are SO easy here - it's less than a 5 minute drive with NO lights or traffic to get almost anywhere on base and things are so much less expensive than we are used to! We all bowled for an hour for $16 including shoes and they have even better specials than that some days!! Anyway, Adysen and Allie LOVED bowling SO much and we were not surprised to find that Adysen was very good at it.

Interesting things we have learned in Guam

1. there are lots of cool melons to try and the Santa claus melon is GOOD!!
2. most of the resturaunts have an Asian buffet or menu regardless of the name. "Seafood Chef" has fish on the Asian buffet, it is NOT an actual seafood resturaunt.
3. Asian people eat weird desserts - jellied soy beans, cabbage and yams with crushed ice are NOT my idea of dessert!
4. If you go to a movie on base, you only pay $3.50 - this is very COOL. You also should be ready to stand for the National anthem before the movie which is cool also. If there is a movie you want to see, you should GO right away becuase there is only 1 screen and they rotate quickly.
5. Milk is very expensive here for some reason. It's about $4.50/gallon and is mostly sold in a 1/2 gallon for about $3.00.
6. Sour cream does not thaw out and return to it's original state of creaminess. If it is still frozen in the grocery store, it will remain like cottage cheese!
7. Never walk around your house or sit at your kitchen table without being dressed or ready to greet someone at the back sliding glass door. This includes ALL hours of the day - like 7:15am!!

Beaches

We decided to venture out a little today on our way home and check out the beach that is on the base. WOW! Were we amazed! The water itself looks a little rocky, but is sure is pretty! The water is SO clear!! We didn't have our swimsuits on this time, but will definitely be revisiting this beach when we get a chance!!

Schools

Yesterday we registered Adysen and Allie at school and also got to see where I will be working since it's the SAME school! :) The place is HUGE!!! I think it's at least 3 buildings - I know I will get lost! My office is in the building with the kindergarten and first grade, though - how handy is that?? Then, today we drove to Kelsey's high school - it's about 15 miles from here, but takes at least 30 minutes to get there. She will be riding the bus there. It's a very old building - they are opening a new building next year. The views of the ocean are gorgeous from there, though! We are all excited about school!!

Our home

We have enjoyed settling into our house over the past few days. We've been busy with getting ID cards, registering for school, etc, but we have had fun having a "home" again....

Housing

We were assigned a house the day after we got here! I went into the housing office to check in thinking they'd say the wait would be a week or even 2 and they gave me 2 keys for houses to look at RIGHT then! Amazing!!! That was Thursday afternoon, we accepted a house on Friday and moved in today (Monday). We had to get loaner furniture since our stuff won't be here for a while and today was the first day they could bring it. We also had to borrow plates, coffee pots, vaccum, etc from the "loaner closet". Feels weird to have borrowed stuff, but we are thankful to have it!!!

The house is much nicer than we expected and we have a playground right in our backyard!!