Happy Holidays

Well tons of staff happened over the last two months. Ronnie was selected for orders. We went to China. I started an intensive recreational dive program. I reenlisted in a very special way. Our lives were planned for us from January 2011 to August 2012 and we don't like it.

It took us a while to get Ronnie his orders. His detailer wanted us to request to be located together. The problem with that is that I was going to school. So Ronnie needed orders to San Diego and we need to request to get stationed together when I am about to graduate school. This will get me assigned to where ever he is.
This kinda creates a problem that I will get into later.

China was a nice trip and a good getaway for us. We needed it. The one thing that bit us in the ass was Jack Frost. After being in 85 degree weather year round for 2.5 years we have grown quite accustomed to it as anyone would. In China, it was in the low 40's. Talk about shock. I had a beanie and gloves packed up with my winter clothes from Everett but Ronnie had none (that we could find). We ended up buying him a beanie!

This past summer Ronnie decided he was going to take some really advanced dive classes. Neither one of us really know what we want to do when we retire in 10 years. This class is the beginning of the professional side of diving that leads to becoming an instructor. I gave him shit about it because it is expensive and we are planning on buying a house and new furniture (that we now know may go unused....more about this in another entry) when we get back to the states. I am now in that class. Like Ronnie I have a desire to go ahead and go instructor because right now we have the time and it is a bit cheaper here in Guam. It is still too expensive to go instructor....like in the thousands each.

With my funny looking mask and refound love for being under water, I reenlisted.....underwater! I do have pics but they have not been down loaded yet. Where I work, you have to do this in uniform. I decided to do this in my whites and this was the last time I will wear them. For a very few select people in this world......screw you....this time they were blue....blue and green as a matter of fact.

Lovin' It

I went diving again this past weekend. I am very glad that I started again. I am also kicking my self in the ass for not doing for the first 2 years we were here on the island. We had a good time.
The first dive was cool. The reef was very active. We planned on taking a lot of pictures so we did not move very fast or very far. While we did spend a bit of time on each place we stopped, we missed the coolest part of the dive....an area of reef with several sea anemeonies. Oh well. I know better for next time. One thing that was not soo cool was my bad judgement. As I attempted to move a starfish, I hit my hand on something and it stung. Well, it still hurts. I hope it clears up in the next few days!
After we were all in the boat, we noticed that we had a group of dolphins haning out. We sat around and watched them for a little bit and then drove to the next dive site.

This place was also cool. We saw several crown of thorn starfish and ended the dive with an eel.

Labor Day

This past weekend, I planned on diving. Diving, diving, diving. The only problem is that we have had a storm off of the coast. We had storm advisories for the weekend. Friday it was scheduled to go until Monday morning. Sunday we checked the water conditions and they were a little rough but not too bad at one spot. We tried it. When we got out ou could not see any thing. We swam back in.
Sunday night I checked the forcast and the warning had been extended to Tuedsay night. I was very bumbed. I ended up driving around the south side of the island and took pictures of the waves:

Trip

Ronnie arrived safely at his destination. He is board out of his mind. So am I. I terribly miss him. I am not sure what we are going to do when one of us deploys for an extended period of time.
The two days prior to him leaving were busy. I took my advance dive class. I did 5 dives in 2 days. Ronnie did 3 of them with me. We were expecting him to be my buddy. (When you dive, you must have a buddy. Ronnie was also going through a program where he had to complete a certain number of dives and assist in teaching.) Due to my ear problems we were expecting him to be assigned to me. I ended up getting assigned someone else. At first, I was kinda upset but she understood my problems. Her son has ear problems when diving also so she knew what I was going through. She ended up being a great instructor. I really enjoyed diving with her. She noticed things that I would have never noticed like this awesome star fish. I can not find a picture of it, but it was cool. If you picture a regular star fish and imagine it puffed up like the difference between a Cheeto and a Cheese Puff. You could not really tell the difference between the arms but if you flipped it over you could see the individual arms. It was COOL.
Ronnie still does not have orders. He is going to make a phone call in the morning and try to find out what is going on. This is so frustrating! I hope he can get this fixed soon.

I Can Do It!

I did two dives today. I have not tried it in 7 years since my trip to the Kerama Islands when I was in Okinawa. Next weekend I am taking a class that requires me to do 3 dives in one day and 2 the next. I have been worried that my ears would not allow me but I was fine today.
I also got us a dive camera. We are still working on learning how to use it!

Rain

We have not been doing much lately. It has been raining much more that I remember from the last 2 years. Two weeks ago the main road on the island was completely flooded at 530 in the morning. It was horrible. I passed 3 stalled cars and 2 wrecks on my way to work. 10 minutes later the number of stalled cars had tripled!

School is going well. Ronnie is not going this semester but my Oceanography class is kinda interesting. I am looking forward to the Anatomy and Physiology class I will take next semester in preparation for my year long school.

We are having trouble getting Ronnie orders. He applied for orders and was told that he was "a perfect fit" but the orders could not be granted because we had not submitted our spousal collocation. We have attempted to submit our paperwork, but I have been told that it will not be approved because I am going to school. He needs to have orders cut and I will request to be assigned where ever he is once my school is over. Once again we have 2 people telling us 2 different things. (DEEP BREATH to prevent me from screeming......EXHALE.) So, here we go on this wild ride! I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.....again.

Training

I found out this morning that I have been accepted to IDC school. This is a military school where I will learn how to manage basic medical conditions and run programs. We will leave Guam in May?!??? I won't get my official orders to transfer until February but my class starts in June.

Later

One thing that is difficult about the military is that you move every 2-3 years....and so does everyone else. In the last year, we have said, "See ya later" to several families and it does not gett any easier. The only good thing about this is the more people we see off, the closer we are to returning to the states!

Warly this week I submitted my package for school. Hopefully we will know in 2-4 weeks if I was accepted. I have no clue when we will be leaving Guam (should be April or May). It will take another 8-12 weeks or so to before we get to pick our date to move back.

We have also started looking for a house in Californina. Not a pretty situation but it is what we will have to deal with.

Now We Know

Our court date was not too bad. We have to pay for damaged carpet, door draft guards (that were not even damaged), and a handle for the sliding glass door. I am a little upset about not getting everything back by default of the home owner not following the lease, but we are getting something back.
If I ever rent again, I have learned my lesson. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. No matter what it is.

Who Knows

We were contacted a few days after we moved out of our house by the realator that our land lord used to pick up the recommendations from the final inspection. Our security deposit was over 3K and the final inspection exceded that.
To back track a bit, we had always had issues with the home owner. Phone calls not returned. Repairs not completed. We would have to call several times to get things done. It was just not a good situation all the way around. When I told him that we would be moving out, I told him that I wanted a preliminary walk through to get an estimate for the return of the security deposit. He told me that he would do a walk through, but not to expect a return on the security deposit because he wanted to repaint the interior of the home. I told him that I was not going to pay for things that we did not damage and it was not my responsibility to pay for the inside of the house to be repainted. Ronnie asked 2 times for a preliminary walk through and the home owner never showed!
After picking up the final inspection paper work, I sought legal advice. I was told that my best bet was to send a certified letter requesting the return of my deposit due to non compliance with the lease. I sent the letter and waited. Once the letter was returned uncollected after 2 notifications, I returned to legal advice.
Now, we are going to small claims court. What a pain in the astrick. I have had to take 3 days off of work to take care of this crap andnot I have to take more time off. We do have a court date, but that may change. I am just so frustrated with this situation. It would be different if we trashed the place, but we took very good care of it. Compaired to the tenants that Shelly had, we were like angels. We just hope that we do not have to reschedule the court date and we can get this over with.

Legs

Bear seems to be doing better. Only 2 days after we started him on his meds, he started chasing Ares around the back yard again. He has completed his supplements that are designed to lubricate his joint. He is now taking daily pain meds. Fortunately for us, he likes them and we are not wrapping them in cheese or some other yummy food.

Court

So, I wrote a rather long story about having to go to court and then decided not to post it because it was legal. We went to court for the first time last week and we have to return in 2 weeks. Hope things work out in our favor. This entire situation just makes me nausiated. I can't wait until it is over.

Doggies

We took Ares and Bear to the vet on Friday to get their teeth cleaned. I told Ronnie to have them look at Bear's hips because he seemed to have trouble getting up after he had been sitting for a long time. I got off of work early on Friday so I was able to pick them up on my way home. I guess Bear had his teeth done first because Ares was still a little drugged up when I got there.
I got out bill (that was VERY large) and medicine for Bear. This told me that we had a problem. The vet brought me into an exam room and showed me Bear's x-ray. I actually teared up. This left thigh bone is messed up. Ever notice the piece of cartilage on the top of a chicken leg when you pull the meaty part off? Well, Bear is missing a piece of bone that is similar to that. His leg bone has some thing called a neck and a head to it. (So do you.) The head of the leg bone sits in side the pelvic bone and when he walks, it is suppose to be a nice smooth motion. (This a ball and socket joint just like on cars.) He is missing the head.
The Vet told me that he was probably born this way and right now there is not too much to worry about. I told her that he does not limp and pretty much the only time I notice it is when he has been sitting for a while or when we go up the stairs. She (the Vet) thinks that his is not in much pain but is probably just sore.
The treatment-herbal ligament meds 2 times a day until the bottle is gone and pain meds for 3 days. Then we only need to give him the pain meds an hour or so before we go swimming or to the dog park. She is also getting us some other med but she had to order it from the states.

Sun

Last weekend, we brought the 4 wheelers out and rode with our ridding group for about 4 hours. I forgot to grab my long sleeved shirt so I was applying sunscreen like crazy. We had a great time and I am glad that we got out of the house and went. I did happen to misread the e-mail and we were an hour late. Lucky for us, other people were late also.
Sunday we took the dogs to the beach. They had a good time. For some reason, Ares does not want to get into the water any more. He will walk in up to his 'elbows' and then he runs back out. He did get a good work out running up and down the beach.
Tomorrow, we are getting the dogs' teeth cleaned. I am not looking forward to it, but Ares' teeth look bad and I am sure Bear's need some love. We are also going have Bear's hips looked at. He seems to struggle a bit to get up when he has been laying down for a long time.
Saturday we are going on another trail ride. I am really looking forward to this one. We went on a ride in this area when we first got here. It was our 2 4 wheelers and 2 Jeeps. I think we are going on a different path this time but I am hoping to be able to get some really good pictures.

Weekend

We have had house guests for the past week! Chuck, CeCe, and Axona (sorry about the spellings) came to visit. They flew in on Tuesday night and Ronnie had been home sick all day with the shickies (contact a member from the Lincoln for a definition) so I picked them up from the airport. We just hung around the house and did a little of this and a little of that. Ronnie had Friday and Monday off so he and Chuck did a bit of diving.
We did not do much of anything this weekend. I worked for 24 hours on Friday (and everyone else went out again) so I slept until 1 pm on Saturday. We went to Gab Gab so Ronnie and Chuck could dive. Sunday, they dove again so I sat home and did the last 3 assignments for my college course! Yeah......3 week break and then American History to 1877 starts!
Today was just a rough day at work. My office is FULL of shredded paper and copies of records and stuff. It has just been crazy.

School

I keep saying that I am going to get better at blogging, but I seem to be getting worse!
We have been pretty busy with work and school lately, but we have managed to get out of the house for the past few weekends.
About a month ago we took the 4 wheelers to channel 10 for the morning. We had another quad and a dune buggy out there with us. It was a good time. We cooked out and just hung for a while.
The following weekend, we went to the beach for a few hours. Ares and Bear were tired as heck, but they had a good time. We just sat around and hung out. A friend of mine and I snorkeled for a little bit and found a very pretty blue starfish. We brought it back to the shore to get some pictures of it. Bare decided he wanted to play with it. He picked it up and tried to walk away with it. Surprisingly, he was very gentle with it!
Last weekend we went to Smokin' Wheels. Saturday we helped prep the drag strip for the night races. (We did not stay because I was really tired and it was hot out.) We also hung out with our ATV riding club for a little bit. Ronnie was asked to ride one of the quads for the next day's 2 hour enduro race, but he had duty and would not be able to get there in time. We did go back on Sunday and watch the end of the race and the beginning of the motorcycle enduro.

Dance

We all know that I can not dance. This past weekend a few friends made us get off of our butts and go to the Chammoro Heritage Festivl. A very nice young lady taught me how to dance. Despite her best effort, there was very little improvement!

Phone

We have our phone and internet hooked up now. It was a nightmare. Maybe later I will post about it. Our new number is the same as our old number except you replace 649 with 564.

A Little Walk

A month or so ago, we went on a Boonie Stop. This is what the locals here call hikes. We chose a route that was all beach with a few coral barriers that we had to climb over. It was a good time, but the dogs required a little assistance.
Here is a crab!

Bare checking out the pond.

Jason and Ronnie

On our way back:

I would like to do these more often, but I am so damn lazy! If John could find more super easy ones like this, I would get up and do 'em!

Yeah

I got my Associate Degree in the mail today! Yeah. I guess now I have to start on my Bachelors!