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!

The List

Ronnie is horrible at Christmas. As soon as a box goes under the tree, he loses his mind. "What is it, when can I have it, ......." This year, I made a deal with him. I gave him a gift early so that I did not have to hear it this year. I got us a PS3 but he got it early.

Christmas morning I woke up about 3 am. I could not sleep. I got up about 530 and took the dogs out. When I came back up stairs, Ronnie was up. We waited until Ares and Bear woke the guys up and trashing the living room began. Ronnie scored seasons 3-11 of the Simpsons, Batman The Dark Knight, Lego Batman, some Blu Ray movies and a Camcorder with bag and stuff. I got the Eragon books on hardback, CSI season 1-3, candles, and a new Canon 40D camera with a bag and memory card.

Rock Out

If you have spent time at our house-nothing else needs to be said.

2+3=4?

I finnished my last class for my Associates Degree last week. I checked my score online and was sad that it was 0.4 short of a B. So I double checked my scores and noticed that I was missing 5 points. I e-mailed the instructor and she told me that she was not finished with the scores and I would get my points.

I checked two days later and my points were there-20 of them. My grade went DOWN 0.2 points to make me 0.6 away from a B! I don't understand. I e-mailed the instructor again but have not gotten a reply. Hopefully, there was a misscalculation and it will go UP instead of DOWN.

More inportantly, I only needed a C to graduate! I should get the paperwork in about 6 weeks!

Ares' Puppy

Ares' first puppy dog was this brightly colored puppy that squeaked. He was pink, blue, and yellow. Ares ate it. I sewed it back together. Ares ate it and I sewed it back together. He ate it again and we took it away. After a few months, I stuffed it again and sewed it back together. It did not last for too long, and he had it totally destroyed. We threw it away at this point.

While Ronnie was TAD, I had to buy some dog food. I happened to walk down the dog toy isle and there was the puppy dog. I got one for Ares and the bunny for Bear.


I tired to get them to sit by each other, and Ares just wanted to play. Here is Bear:

Little Change

In November I noticed a very small increase in my pay. I figured it was just a fluctuation in our COLA (Cost Of Living Allowance-money we get to suppliment us in high cost areas). I decided to look at my LES (Leave and Earnings Statement-the equivalent to a civilian pay check stub) and noticed that I was already getting paid for E6!

Anyone who has military friends in multiple branches knows that the Navy is differnt in many aspects. One of them is the way we are promoted. 2 times a year we take a test. Our test scores are combined with several other performance areas and we are given a final score called a Final Multiple. If your Final Multiple is higher than the predetermined Final Multiple required for advancement (this is what we call promotions), then you are advanced.

The Navy then does a Frocking Ceremony. This is like a presentation of your new rank. You put this new rank on, but you don't get paid until much later. People who are frocked get paid in incriments. (I still don't know how they are configured!) All I can tell you is that I have always been frocked in late May or early June and I don't get paid until December. I was very suprised that I got paid a month early this time!

November

Where did it go? I have been really busy with school (my last class for my associate degree) and getting ready for the holidays.

We did our traditional HUGE Thanksgiving here at the house. A good time was had by all. We even played Rock Band just like last year. Not much else to say about our turkey day except Ronnie made the best damn turkey I have ever eaten! It was only his 3rd one ever and it was GGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDD.

My nephew Damon will be home soon. He was born premature a few months ago and is almost at a point where he is healthy enough to leave the hospital. (Nichole I am so proud of you! I am sorry that I could not be there to help but I love you and miss you tons.)

Ronnie left Sunday to go to Sweden for 3 days. He should be back soon. I don't know what the heck I am going to do when he leaves me for 6+ months or I leave him for 6+ months.

Long weekend

Friday we went to a hospital staff dinner. It was pretty cool. A retired Marine open a War in the Pacific Museum here in Guam. This was the second annual appreciation diner he has hosted for us. It was quite nice.

Saturday we took some friends out on the 4 wheelers and then came back to the house and played Rock Band til 2 am!


Sunday we took the dogs to the beach and slept the rest of the day. (At least I did.)

I also submitted my last paper for my English class. One more class to go!

Saved

Our external hard drive is okay. The USB port went out so we had to get a firewire! I am so glad. If I would have lost them all I don't know what I would have done.

Lost

Several things have happened this month. I found out I was getting a new job. I trained my replacement. Ronnie has settled into his new job. We rearranged the living room. We hooked up our external hard drive and it no longer worked!

The external hard drive has everything on it. Documents for work and pictures. ALL OF MY PICTURES. Now it does not work. I brought it to the computer repair center on base and they told me that the USB port went bad. I came home and looked around for the firewire cable, but could not find it. I am going to lose my mind if all of my pictures are lost.

Bear

We took Ares and Bear swimming the other day.
He is part of the family now. Ares and he constantly play and drive us crazy. With Ares, sometimes we could sleep in til 8 on the weekends. This morning they woke me up at 530. Bear will sit on one side of us on the couch and Ares will sit on the other.

Things I Forget

I often forget many things, but a big thing that happened was my iPod got stolen. Right out of our garage!
4th of July, had a few drinks, went to bed. I got up about 130 Saturday afternoon (I know, remember that I was out in the hot sun all day on the 4th) and Ronnie had cleaned all the house except the floors. I went outside to get my iPod and it was gone! The case was still there. The iPod Dock was still there, but the iPod was gone! What a horrible thing. I did get a new one and waited a week to open it, the old one never turned up.
Yesterday I noticed that the weather had destroyed part of our garden. Today I went out side and tried to doctor it up a little bit. The Cheyenne peppers now have a tomato cage for support. The Tomatoes were all pulled up. Ronnie had pulled all of the mushrooms yesterday. I pulled the broken tomato plant roots out of the garden. I also noticed these little white bugs. They look like rollie-pollies on steroids. They are about 10 or so times the size of the little gray bug I played with as a child and I can not help but wonder if they were killing my garden.

4th

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I worked for 7 hours and Ronnie started the party at the house. It was kinda cool to come home to a house full of people, but once again, Ronnie had to do everything by him self and I know that sucks.

Monday the 7th, I geniously sliced my thumb and pointer finger open. Yeah.....it hurt.

Nothing else interesting else happening here except the 5 days of rain that pretty much destroyed the garden.

Saipan

Well, Ronnie ended up not going to Malaysia. Here are a few pics from Saipan. It was nice to get away, but the island is really small and 3 days and 2 nights would have been perfect for us.
This is the scooter we rode for 4 days:

Sunset out of our window:

Bird Island where the battery on our camera died:

One of Many

I tend to stay pretty active with things at work. I am however very picky about the things that I get involved with. I only do the things that really enjoy. I don't do them to make the Navy or myself look good.
There is a very large military retiree population here in the Marians Islands. One of the many things that Veterans can get is a military burial. 3 commands here take turns providing this very important service. This year happens to be the hospital.
It is a very strange feeling to render last military honors for someone and have the wife or husband, son or daughter standing behind you crying as you slowly and respectfully fold a flag. I am damn proud to do it!

Sometimes the midnight phone call is good.

Thursday night, out phone rang at 11 p.m. We did not move. I heard the message and refused to get up. At some time later in the night, the phone rang again and again. The second two calls were at 1 a.m. and about 2 or 3 a.m. I again did not move. Ronnie got out of bed and did what the 3 people who had called us advised us to do about 4 a.m.
He came back to bed and told me that he missed promotion by 6 points and that I needed to get up and go check. About 430 I did. Yes, I made HM1! by 6 points.

Mini Vacation

I am taking a few days off in May to finish up some school. I thought it would be kinda cool for me and Ronnie to go do something on this island one of those days becuase we would actually be able too. As it is now, he gets home about an hour before I do and is 'napping' or I am just not in the mood to do anything.
Well, he is going on a little mini working vacation the same week I took off. I is going somewhere in Malaysia for a few days or so. Now, I am going to be sitting at home looking up what I want him to go SHOPPING for!

When I Grow Up

I have always had a passion for the Medical field. There is NO better feeling to me than someone being sick and in a matter of minutes or hours you can get them feeling better and they look at you and say, "Thanks".
The best memory I have of this is when I was in Okinawa, Japan. A patient came into the clinic and and been throwing up. She was not able to hold down water or food. I ran the tests on her and determined that she was dehydrated and needed fluids (an IV) and medication to stop her from throwing up. I explained to her what I was going to do (give her an IV with the medication already added), how it was going to make her feel (right now-sleepy, and later in the day-groggy and incoherent), and what she needed to do to continue to get better. After I started her IV, I called for some one to come and get her and give her a ride back home. I soon covered her up with a blanket (IV fluids can make you very cold). After the IV was done, she slept for about an hour and was awoken once her ride arrived. I repeated her instructions to get better to her and her ride home. She looked at me as I was walking them to the door and told me that in her 8 years in the military no one had ever taken the time to explain things the way I did or to make sure she understood what was causing her to feel so badly. This is what I love.
I am currently working on my Associates Degree and am taking courses in Human Services. I have never had a desire for knowledge in the Mental Health aspect of the medical field and I am not really sure if I do now, but I am really enjoying the class. I don't think I want to go into counseling, but I think that I may really enjoy social work when I grow up.

No Suprise

Ronnie's birthday is on Easter. I decided last weekend to throw him a suprise pary on Saturday. The suprise was ruined. Everyone still came over. The birthday cake had to be the only cake Ronnie would eat.....yellow with chocolete frosting. One of the guys decided to make it an 'off road' cake. The plan was to use hot wheels. Great idea.....it turned out the be the best and worst cake I have ever seen!