What I've Been Up To

The last time I wrote I said I would write about what I've been up to so here it is....

My flower beds.  I didn't get a chance  think about taking pictures as I was going along so you get to see the aftermath of my crazy digging, planting, weeding, weed blocking, mulching, and rock boardering= a lot of work, time and effort :)  As you can see in the pictures I have white rock across the back up against the house.  I did this b/c my weed block wasn't quite wide enough to fill the space and my mulch was going to end up getting under the block so to serve 2 purposes I went to the vacant house connected to our neighbors and cleaned out the white rocks from the front flower bed (that had no plants).  I know it's not much now but I am hoping it will fill in soon.  But I also can't complain about it since I didn't buy any of these plants b/c my neighbor and I raided empty houses for them and for hers. 

Had plants all the way across then decide we needed stepping stones here

Flowers from a bush in progress

Now for the back flower bed.  I didn't really change anything back here except for moving the mulch away from house in this picture so I could put white rock up against there.  When it rains which it does here a lot it hits about in the center of these rocks so it was moving my mulch all around before but not now :)

Everything is filling in nicely

These next pictures are from my neighbors house.  They have really pretty orchids hanging on their canopy area and they are so pretty!

This one they have rooted into the coconut tree

Now for the grill we recently bought.  It's a Weber and therefore fairly pricey but we think worth the extra.  We did lots of readign on the internet about the grill available to us here and the other options were all Char Broil which are nice "looking" and cheaper but based on the reviews they rust very easily even when wiped down regularly and cleaned.  So we opted for the more expensive great reviewed Weber Spirit!  So far we love it!  I am a charcoal grill person I love the flavor from the charcoal briquets and lighter fluid but we weren't using those we were using lump charcoal and a chimney so there was no taste benefits to that and it took FOREVER to get hot so gas it was!

 

I have also been getting back into running again which I love!  Now that I take Blake to school and drop him off at 7:45 I run around our neighborhood and then home.  Don't get me wrong I love my little man but it is nice to have that time while I'm running for just me and then on occasion when Aaron comes with me!  I have missed it but now I don't have an excuse since it won't get cold nor too hot for it here :)

That's all for now!

Till next time...

TTFN

Things I Love & Ketchup

No I don't love ketchup in fact I HATE it!!  So I guess I can say catch up...

Since moving to Guam but not because of our move to Guam I have come to love certain things/products and I'm going to share that love!

If you cook with onions but like me and our family don't use the whole thing in one meal, this is for you!!  You put your cut onion in this and keep in the fridge and ta-da when you need it next time it is still fresh.  I will not live without one now :)

Second is my new found love of wine but not just any wine Moscato, pink and red to be exact.  I have never really enjoyed wine because we used to only by red wine when my mother in law would come visit.  I know this sounds silly but I don't like the rotten grape flavor of it.  But Aaron had been trying different wines for himself lately and brought home this for me and I LOVE it.  

Although I still love my Blue Hawaiians but to be honest... they make me pee.... a lot.  Wine is also decent for you, well the darker the wine the better but I'll stick to my Moscato <3  

Our love of wine has made us invest in a wine rack....

Not only do we have the rack but we also have both red and white wine glasses because my new wine guru of a husband demanded it.  It holds 6 bottles and is normally full except for the fact that we have some opened in the fridge!

A new shower curtain.  I have been looking and looking for a new one since we moved here when I realized our other one had rust where the metal rings are, from hanging wet towels over the rod.  Since we found out we were staying in this house see my last blog Okay Time for an Update, I have since moved the one towel rack on the door up and put 2 there so no more towel on the curtain rod... YAY, to top it off I found a new curtain at the NEX this weekend and I love it!  It kinda looks grey but is more of a sea foam green, light teal color!

My eReader!!  I have been looking for new books here on the island but since there are no book stores and the BX & NEX are limited I decide I had to have one.  But the catch... I didn't want to pay for it so I gather stuff together from around the house that either don't use or things that were in the garage sale box and put them on the Andersen Garage Sale page on Facebook.  I racked up money quick and I have since ordered the leather lighted cover for it.  None came out of our pocket :) 

My shoe organizer turned tank top holder.  My mom had one of the clothe shoe racks which I have too on the left but my mom had one that she had all of her tank tops folded and organized into and I though it was a neat idea so I had to steal it.  Mine is clothe and bamboo but works just the same.  before the organizer all of my tank tops took up about 6 of these long in my closet so I saved space :)

Now for the wrap up of things that we've done since my last blog...

Well we haven't been able to do much of anything because it has been raining all the time and I mean ALL the time.  Not the rain showers but the all day torrential down pours.  August is our rainiest month so I am hoping for clearer skies at least for a while. 

We did however make it to a secluded beach on a small navy base down the road.  BY secluded I mean a hike straight down a cliff, in the mosquito invested jungle, down 212 vertical steps and a gravel path.  Yea to say the least it was an adventure but it was beautiful :)

Our first and only view on the trail

with sunset mode on

We have also gone a date night which was last Saturday and since it was raining we decided to just do dinner and dessert.  So we went to a Japanese place called Benii which really good and from what Aaron says authentic Japanese, so he enjoyed it!  We also went to a YUMMY gelato place in Tumon Bay which is always good.  I had mint chocolate in a waffle cone and Aaron had banana and cherry in a cup.  I thought of you mom when I tried the banana because it tasted JUST LIKE laffy taffy banana candy... you would LOVE it!!

We have also been having BBQs with our neighbors pretty regularly and the last 2 weekends were no exceptions.  We had one 2 weeks ago but then labor day weekend came around and we deiced to have another.  Great food, drink, and company = a good time!!  Except this time we used our own grill :) We went out and bought a gas grill and I for one love it!  Yes I know I should have put it at the top but just remembered it so that will be for next time!

This last weekend we took Blake and our neighbors to Aaron's work to see the Helos!  

I have also been doing a lot of work on my flower beds especially the one out front.  I haven't finished it completely so I will take pics when I am all done.  I just need some stepping stones, 1 more bag of mulch, some more weed block, and some more boarder rock/coral! I am pretty happy with out it is turning out :)

We also spend a lot of time outside especially at night so here are a few pics I took...

I feel like I am on Survivor

 

since it's so dark on the island the stars stand out and can be seen really well

As you can see in the patio picture I put up gutters on our canopy... redneck I know but a necessity nonetheless.  The last month it has been pouring constantly and flood my flower beds to the point that they hold water, float my mulch and flood the patio area and gets everything wet... so gutters it is!  They serve their purpose with the flooding issue and my mulch but the patio still gets wet a few feet in because when it rains here it blows and always comes in at an angle.    

 Till next time...

TTFN

Update

Okay time for an update....

On our gas issue!  For the past 6 days or so we have been trying to get in touch with housing or/and Environmental Dept. I finally got in touch with housing and got an answer even though it was a crappy one.... our request was still in the Environmental Dept.  Well after that a guy from that Dept cam to our house to look at our A/C unit and told me that he was looking at our A/C so that maintenance could come and put an external intake on our unit.  Can we say YAY!!!  What this will do is take air from the outside hence clean fresh air and pump it into our house the air in our home will be clean!  It also will put pressure in the house and keep the radon from seeping up through the foundation :) 

So a wrap up of our radon numbers... we tested Blake room about a week and a half ago and got 32.7 and we got it down to 13 something but within 5 days of having all of our windows open and fans in the windows it went up 5 points... which is extremely upsetting.  So today they came and put the external intake on the A/C and we closed all of the windows and have no fans and it has actually dropped by .2, doesn't seem like much but for us it means the difference between moving homes which we really don't want to do :)

Back in the 90's they tested homes here on base and the homes that were high (in the 200s) had these intakes placed on the units and within 3 months all but 1 home was way below 20. So we are hopeful that ours will go down as well.  For starters we haven't gone up like we have been for the past 5 days and we have our windows closed :)

Another thing that I am doing is looking into getting a Kindle.  Here on the lovely island of Guam my book choices are limited and for me this is NOT a good thing. So I have been looking up eReaders: the Nook and the Kindle.  Not the iPad since I strictly want it for reading books.  I think I have made the choice of the Kindle for a few reasons

1. longer battery life

2. a little cheaper unit

3. the book themselves are cheaper

4. not to interested in touch screen or internet

I strictly want the eReader for reading b/c I have a brand new laptop and an iPhone so the Wi-Fi and 3G does not interest me at all b/c if I'm going on a trip and I need a book I will download it before hand.  I am by no means attached to my electronic devices... they are not the center of my existence like most people.  

I have been selling some of our stuff (on a garage sale site for the Base) that has been setting around or the stuff that did not sell at our garage sale in Oklahoma.  This way it'll in a way be free... even better :) 

TTFN

Chillax'in Weekend

This weekend we were pretty busy and I took lots of pics so get ready!!

Before the weekend ever started I got great news on Wednesday that we got reimbursed almost $4000 that we paid out of our pocket to get here about to months ago... can we say excited, why b/c I got to get my patio set!!  YAY and needless to say we have been using it a lot since I picked it up on Thursday with the help of our neighbor Glora.

Friday we went to Aaron's command picnic around lunch time we brought Joseph along to give Blake someone to play with.  There was lunch, a bounce house and the playground. In the evening we had a cook out with some great friends and neighbors.  There was 10 of us all together!  On the menu.... for starters~ watermelon, fruit salad, and 7 layer dip.  Main Course~ grilled corn on the cob, roasted, rosemary red potatoes, pork kabobs with pineapple and bell pepper, shrimp kabobs, some had steak and others salmon.  All in all we had a great time good food, good drinks for the ladies beer for the men, and great company all around!

Saturday was pretty uneventful.  We hung around the house most of the day and Blake played with his friends next door while at the Exchange picking up the patio set Glora bought a slippin slide and it entertained all three boys for hours.  Later in the evening we watched all 3 boys while the neighbors having their "date night".  Everyone played good together Blake and Joseph were happy and healthy, and Aaron and Cory played video games :)

 Redneck Pool Club

 Slippin' and a Slidin'

Sunday we were going to go to Tarza Waterpark with our neighbors but decided to go to Big Navy and see Cars 2.  I have to say I was very disappointed in it and so was Blake.  In his words "it was too long" and yes it was but it was also not written for children... by that I mean the story itself children wouldn't understand. Blake had fun anyways since his buddies came along too.  After the movie we had planned on going to a beach on the Navy base buuuuttttt it poured the whole movie and that just wasn't going to happen.  I mean to the point that the roads on the way home were flooded like the two lanes of traffic for my side of the road... you could see maybe a half of one lane.  

At the Movies

The Rain Soaked Roads

On Monday Aaron had the day off so we went to the beach in the morning and had a great time and surprisingly we didn't get rained out.  So I took pics, from looking back at an album from this beach there are a lot of the same pics... sorry if you've seen some before!

 At Tarague Beach

Scuba Steve, I mean Aaron

 My View

Didn't get a chance to adjust my settings so it's really bright

Then we went to a Mexican restaurant that was suppose to be GREAT and had rave reviews: Carmen's Cha Cha Cha!  Was it good???  Well it depends for Guam yes it was pretty good but compared to the states and OTB not so much... not nearly!  Not to mention we paid $50 for lunch... a little in my book.  I would much rather cook my own Mexican food from a recipe which I have been doing since we got here!

 Inside

Until next time....

TTFN