Our Guamazing Adventure

Just a quick post tonight since I have SO much left to do before CHRIS GETS HOME TOMORROW!!! Yeah!!! But, today was a big day for me. I built a bookshelf, I figured out how to use a power drill to hang something on concrete, and I eventually mastered the faucet filter (more on why that was such a proud accomplishment in a minute). Now for those of you laughing at my naievity surrounding power tools, I would like to kindly remind you that I grew up with Tim the Toolman Taylor for a dad, and two brothers who could always "fix things" for me. This is the girl who in 2006 put together a wine cabinet from Bombay Company totally on my own, only to discover I left out the racks... that's 6 hours of my life I'll never get back. Fortunately Chris came over and took it apart and rebuilt it (correctly), and we still have it. Nonetheless, I've got hammer and screwdriver down and have never needed anything else. But TODAY was my day!

Chris is supposed to be home by noon tomorrow and I cannot wait!! Not sure what the plans are for New Year's Eve, since in his email today he said that all he wanted for Christmas was to not have to make decisions for three days. Guess I can take the rest back ;)

I'm making beef tenderloin for dinner tomorrow so I need to go channel my mother and start the marinade. If I can conquer a power drill (who knew you needed to charge those?? Thank the Lord for google and blackanddecker.com) I can God willing conquer a recipe, even with vague instructions...

AND, tomorrow folks, from 8:30-9:30a I have a GOLF lesson!! Free women's lessons on Wednesday mornings conducted by a former PGA guy (technical term). I'm pretty sure I know how to hold the clubs, but other than that.... So, tomorrow morning I'll be channeling Aunt Karen and hoping for the best. I don't think (think is the operative word) they've ever kicked anyone out. I'll let you know....


My pretty wreath mom sent me



We'll finally celebrate Christmas sometime in the next week...



New bookshelf... now I just need to finish unpacking books before noon tomorrow....




Yep, that's hung on CONCRETE!!! Yeah power drill!





Fairly certain this is NOT how the water filter is supposed to work while trying to get a glass of water. Where's Uncle Jim when you need him??

Okay, not really... in fact not even really close. Went to the BX twice (once for a meat thermometer - no dice, once with Julie because she needed soap), continued my war on terror (aka the ants who have infiltrated my home), finally did the godforsaken spouse club newsletter (the BANE of my existence), and even mowed the lawn... which is always an experience for me... my career in yard services is short lived - I'm fairly certain from the air our yard looks like I'm doing crop mazes. I can't really decide the best "pattern" with all of our palm trees... but the important thing is that I DID it. AND, drum roll please.... today I officially REGISTERED FOR CLASSES!!!! My program starts on February 2nd, and I selected to do the 8 week semester (YIKES!) versus the 16 week program. Rationale below, but here are my classes:

NSEC503 U.S. National Security

NSEC611 Covert Action and National Security

NSEC504 International Security

NSEC500 Research Methods in Security and Intelligence Studies-National Security Focus

And now, my rationale: the "finals" for the 16 week courses would be in May, which is a BIG month in the Truesdell/Robinson family -

May 3 - Curt, Alex AND Shannon Robinson graduate from Regis University (Denver)

May 9th - my cousin Erin Nacke is getting MARRIED! (Omaha)

May 14th - lil sis Arie graduates from Cure of Ars - ending the Truesdell DYNASTY that started in 1990 (Leawood, KS)

May 17th - brother Tanner graduates from Kansas University (Lawrence, KS)

I'm still not sure how all of these events didn't end up on the same weekend, especially since Bree and I graduated from college (her from nursing school in KS, me from SLU in St. Louis) on the same day. Nonetheless, can you imagine trying to take FINALS during all of these festivities?? I cannot - hence a full semester of classes crammed into one itty-bitty 8 week period. Like everything in life, I will either end up toasting myself using our fabulous champagne glasses after an interesting and successful first semester of my masters program, or I'll be in the fetal position wearing my glasses since my eyes have rejected my contacts due to stress and tears. Can't wait to see the outcome, can you??

Not a bad first year anniversary yesterday. Thinking it would be infinitely better if dare I say, my husband were here to celebrate, but that's just par for the Navy course. Still hoping he'll be back on New Year's Eve. A few of the girls took me out for dinner last night to PROA, a great local restaurant with the best deep fried coconut banana dessert in town. Fortunately for all parties involved, the spouse's club starts Biggest Loser on January 1st. The pot is $300, so you'd better believe I'm channeling my inner-Tracy Gold (too soon?) to win this one.

More tomorrow. Almost 1am on this side of the world. A few pics:


Christmas decorations Guam style. The main street in Tumon Bay is lined with these glorious candles. Note the Guam Flag in the flame.


Told you.



More Guam tchotcke lights



Anniversary dinner - from left: Bea, Jolene, Julie, Me, Andrea, Jackie, Tracy. I tried to convince the waiter it was my first Anniversary, but he was skeptical.

Being from Kansas, one of my all-time fave movies is Wizard of Oz (fourth on the list; after White Christmas, Spy Game and Tommy Boy). That being said, of course I'm familiar with Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my! Last night it was geckos and tree snakes and boars, oh my! I saw my first LIVE brown tree snake! What a red letter day! It was slithering across the road while Kate and I were driving to dinner. Driving back from dinner we saw a wild boar. I should mention that we went to dinner ON BASE. Yikes!! The highlight of the evening though was really while I was on the phone with Kate before dinner, and I plopped down on my bed. I looked up, and frantically crawling in the ceiling light was a gecko! Quickly I used my emergency response background to try and create some contingency plans - 1 - leave it, hope that it dies a quick hot death and dump the body later, 2 - try and spare the poor monster so it can continue making commercials, or 3 - call for male backup. I opted for 3, but mysteriously all of the gentlemen I called were screening their calls (or potentially not home, but I elected to feel it was a personal attack). I was afraid to leave it because if it did get out, what if I found it in bed later??? Or worse, what if it was still in there and escaped while I was sleeping and fell on my face?? Can you imagine?? Also was afraid to try to rescue it for fear of retaliation for letting him bake as long as he did. What a conundrum. Finally, Kate and her sidekick Hayden came to the rescue, and Kate helped unscrew the lamp, while I stealthily covered the lamp with half of a Limited box (thanks, Mom), and eventually returned the creature to his natural habitat. I did however, almost fall off the bed....

It's true. There is no place like Guam. It is pretty much how I left it though. I FINALLY made it back home late Christmas. Christmas was pretty anti climatic really. Woke up on the plane, looked at the screen, realized we'd crossed the international date line, turned on some Christmas music on my ipod and went back to sleep. Christmas dinner consisted of a bag of Hawaiian cookies, a stale dinner role and about 8 diet cokes. Ah, the glamorous life of a Navy wife!! We landed about 7:30p Christmas and I was so excited to see my friends Kate and Julie waiting for me at the airport. I was a little nervous about coming home and being alone, but fortunately I had about 7000 ants anxiously awaiting my arrival in the kitchen. Hats off to whoever stayed at our house and threw trash away despite the "use the phone, internet, tv, just don't throw away anything" note.. ahhh!!! But, it certainly gave me something to do, and I even put on a bad Christmas sweater to scrub the floor. It really was so nice to sleep in a good bed and take a shower without flip flops on!!

Well part of it anyway!!! After 6 full days of terminals, vending machines, and about 30 minutes of fresh air, I am FINALLY heading home to Guam!! About an hour after I posted last night, they announced that the part they needed to fix the aircraft was nowhere to be found on the island. My favorite crewguy (technical term) told me that he thought the soonest they would be fixing the plane would be after the 1st of the year, and even then the plane would not be headed to Guam. Fortunately for me, I have the greatest in-laws in the WORLD, and their Christmas gift included buying me a commercial one way ticket to Guam that leaves today! That's right... flight attendants, windows, facing forward on the plane, and DRINKS!! YEAH!!! I am still in awe of their incredible kindness!! I leave for Guam in about 3 hours (3:30p Christmas eve here) and get to Guam a little after 7:00p on Christmas night. Julie and Tommy Donnelly will be waiting at the airport with "jingle bells on." I am SO excited to get home!!!! I was so worried about waking up on Christmas alone, and now, thanks to my good friend the International Date Line, I won't have to! Perfect! Everybody wins!!

Chris is on duty tonight/tomorrow, so he too will not be having his favorite Christmas. But, we are so thankful that although we're both fending for ourselves this year, and although neither one of us will even make it to Christmas Mass, we have incredible friends, families, and somewhere out there - eachother. While being sequestered to a terminal with no ability to leave for 6 days has not been ideal, I am still so lucky that no one is shooting at us, and he and the people of his crew are doing absolutely incredible things. He is still on schedule to be home New Years' Eve, and I cannot wait!! Until then, it's a flight home, watching White Christmas AGAIN, and then I'm thinking about having a West Wing season 6 marathon when I get home. Big plans, but all worth being SO proud of my husband!!! Merry Christmas to all and I am so excited to say with confidence that my next blog will be from the other side of the world!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

When life hands you lemons.... DRINK PINEAPPLE WINE!!!!

Spent the night at base lodging last night with Emmy from volleyball, after camping in the terminal for 5 hours... only to find we weren't leaving. Arg! Returned to the terminal early this morning, and were cleared for takeoff about 11:15a. TWO AND A HALF HOURS into our flight, we had engine trouble with TWO of the four (50% for you non-math majors) engines, so it was a mandatory turn-around and return to Hawaii. I'm starting to believe that Aloha means HELLo, and my new friend Ginger (of Bob and Ginger, roughly 60) told me that a terminal has never had a more appropriate name... as in our trip is terminal.... AH!! So it's back to the glorified DMV waiting center (aka passenger terminal) but we are still optimistic!! I will say I rallied the troops a bit when I found out the gift shop sells 9.99 bottles of Pineapple Wine!!! And, a few of us bought Hawaii 08 or 09 t-shirts and are sporting them PROUDLY. Pictures when/if I get back to Guam!!! :)

Chris is doing really well (by the sound of today's email). He is finally on the upswing after having an IV and several days of bedrest. They went to the wild animal park in the Philippines and had a blast. Honestly, with so many kids here, I FEEL like I'm at a wild animal park. I at least had a much better seat today... here's hoping I can reclaim it if we take off!!

Not exactly the Christmas Eve I was planning for, but I've made some great friends and it will certainly be a memory!!! If we don't take off tonight, I have every intention of plugging in the Christmas lights in my carry on. More to come, hopefully from home :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

The title should be a pretty good indication of "where I'm at" right now!! AHH!! Only a quick post, since we have a "meeting" in a few minutes. Keep reading - you'll figure out who the meeting is with and why. I finally got out of Travis AFB on Sunday, after a NINE hour flight delay. We landed in HI, and after spending a hellish night in the terminal with everything from bats and birds to screaming children, we were scheduled for take off a little after 9 this morning. We finally took off at 12:30, and then a little over 2 hours later, landed in Hawaii again. Apparently you need ALL your engines functioning in order to continue on your journey... interesting concept. Nothing quite like being somewhere over the Pacific hearing that one of your engines is no longer working and not having windows. Coupled with the two kids next to me literally waging war on eachother I about lost it... turns out in the movies when the crazies start rocking back and forth to calm themselves down is actually an effective method of coping. Since I'm "single" I was just about the last person on the flight, so had to sit by the little (earmuffs) bastard brothers. Fortunately the guy snoring in front of me drowned out the 3 year old screaming behind me. Not even noise canceling head phones can combat that. It's probably a good thing we turned around. I feared for my own safety and of that of those around me... I was ABOUT to go postal. All fun and games til you get elbowed in the head by a FOURTEEN year old... I explained very kindly to the parents that then yelled at me when I literally jumped over the kids to get out of the seat when we landed that their precious angels had hit me in the head not once. Not twice. But three times. And that it might seem like they are "playing around," but their right to play ends where my slight concussion begins (maybe a little dramatic, but still)... I also informed her, again kindly, that there are six kids in my family. We learned at an early age to turn the other cheek. Twice. And then hit back. Okay, my parents never taught us that part, but it's survival of the fittest in the Truesdell house. And Bree ALWAYS won. Fortunately, the parents continued to yell and my new friend Molly turned around, looked them both dead in the eyes and said, "you are being RIDICULOUS. Your kids HIT her. If you would PARENT them, we would not have a problem." End of discussion... GO MOLLY!!!!

Other than that, Chris is sick as a dog and poor thing has been puking on the boat for the last 2 days. We're falling apart!!! It's time to get home! Hopefully at our "meeting" with the crew we will have good news, although I winked at one of the crew men to get a little more information: that's right, although my sanity, patience and composure are LONG gone, I still have my feminine wiles about me to try and garner a little extra "scoop." And I should mention a smile and a wink WORKED!! The crew guy (technical term, crew guy) thinks they'll skip the Guam stop and go straight to Japan. Yikes!!! There were some people on our flight that were SO rude to the pilots and crew. It's not their fault!! So, I told the head pilot that because of this inconvenience I wanted a free flight. He had tears in his eyes he was laughing so hard (all Space A flights are free... har har) So although I've waged a small war on one of the families, at least the pilots and crew like me. Got ONE thing going for me!!!

In conclusion, it could be another several days in HI, a trip to the Far East, or God willing, back to Guam. We shall see!!! You'll most likely know when I do -- when we land :)

Made it to Travis AFB in Northern California. Nothing like booking a shuttle, reserving a room at the Base Officer's Quarters, walking to the BX to buy cheap twist off wine (to avoid purchasing yet another wine opener), ordering pizza... and then watching a HORRIBLE movie to renew my sense of accomplishment... or not.

Good news is there are 2 flights from Travis to Guam on Sunday... fingers, toes, eyes, everything crossed I can get on one of those!!

I finally got to catch up with Chris this evening. All is well in the Philippines. He found out today that he has duty on Christmas Day, so that's less than optimal. Although, he is looking forward to the tour of the engine room that he has been promised. Nothing like celebrating the birth of the Lord by walking around the basement of a boat, but I guess you take what you can get!!

More tomorrow... a little tired after staying up with Tanner and Blaise until 2 and then leaving for the airport at 4:45....

Heading back to Guam!! Horribly sad goodbye with the fam, but it will all be worth it when I get to see my husband NEXT WEEK! I've made it all the way to.... Vegas. Now it's a layover complete with a flight delay on the way to San Fran, a shuttle to Travis AFB, and then WHO KNOWS!?!? A little nervous about the next step since I was banking on a flight to Hawaii tonight and it's leaving early now so I won't make it. Sadly, the Air Force doesn't have to make arrangements to accommodate my schedule... ugh. So maybe to Japan tomorrow and then on to Guam? Maybe wait a couple days and try to get to Hawaii? Maybe curl up in a ball under the slot machines? Either way I have my carry on suitcase full of Christmas lights my mom bought me, so I can decorate any airport and or hotel room to the nines!

Haven't heard from Chris in a couple days, but last I chatted with him, he was having a pretty good time!

More later... I hear a Wheel of FORTUNE slot calling my name!

It is really coming down!! Yeah! This reminds me so much of our wedding week... freezing, lots of snow, and so pretty outside once you get past the 12 degree BITING temperatures!

I talked to Chris for a little bit longer last night. He was at the Subic Bay Yacht Club and suddenly I didn't feel so bad for him (see pictures below)... I was even was rethinking my "the Philippines = much too dangerous for me to travel to" posturing. But then I remember that 14 marines were killed (10 beheaded) there in July 2007, and I am immediately back to my constant worrying state. Pretty constant really. BUT, Chris is doing well, and is just glad to be on dry land. He is allegedly going to post more pictures later, so fingers crossed!!!

I took a field trip to the Steamboat Arabia yesterday and I must say it was awesome! Kind of makes me want to move back to the midwest and try to excavate sunken steamboats in hopes of finding some wedgewood. Pretty interesting story and the museum was great. I surprisingly really enjoyed it!! Check out the museum website http://www.1856.com/ or wikipedia :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabia_Steamboat

That's about it from KS. Got my hair "did" today which was long overdue (December LAST year) and watched White Christmas again tonight. I've watched it 7 times since I've been home and still love it!!! And of course, have been getting in plenty of family time. My nephews MIGHT be the cutest kids on earth! At least til we have some ;)


Subic Bay Yacht Club



SBYC Pool



SBYC interior. So while Chris is living it up here.... I'm here:


And more falling!!

Pics from the field trip:

Brings you right back to age 7.



Celia and I sported some sweet Davy Crockett caps...



Treasures of the Arabia



Treasures I wanted to take from the Museum.



Treasures I didn't mind leaving.


The Paddleboat...

THE NEPHEWS!!!

Declan


Bud all bundled up.

And then of course, best movie of all time:

Chris made it to the Philippines yesterday! I got to talk to him on the phone for about 13 minutes. He was in a cafe and using the restaurant's phone, so "mass chaos" would be a gross under-exaggeration. They will be there for awhile, so here's hoping I'm still going to get to see him around New Year's!! He said last night that they'll be spending Christmas on the boat. Poor thing!! I'll at least be able to drink by myself on the beach... silver lining!

Chris assures me he will stay with his "buddy group" and take lots of pictures while he is there and post them on the blog.

Kansas City is still here. FREEZING today!! Good weekend full of nephews, cousins, siblings. Even took my little sisters to my old stomping grounds on Saturday afternoon - the Roeland Park Aquatic Center where I used to dive. I busted out a few of the old tricks and I'm still sore!! Sophie is going to be on the Blue Valley North dive team this year, so we had to get some practice in. Today I'm heading downtown to the Steamboat Arabia Museum... for a field trip with my god daughter, Cecilia (Michelle's second). She is a trip!! Should be exciting, but it's JUST SO COLD!!!

I must say - I thought this whole deployment "stuff" would get easier. IT'S NOT!!!!

Still in Kansas. Still no Chris. No phone calls. One email early this morning, which was great!! He's flying quite a bit and studying for his 2P boards - I think that means he doesn't always have to be co-pilot if he passes... but I could be making that up. I know he's studying, so no doubt he will do fabulously. I bought a plane ticket today for San Fran.... leaving KC next Friday, heading to SF. Then it's a shuttle to Travis AFB, and hope hope hoping that a plane will be leaving for Guam soon and that I will get on it!! It would be infinitely easier if they would post their flight schedules on the internet, or even if they were available more than 48 hours out, but alas not the case. Might be why it's free!! Nonetheless, hoping to be back in Guam in time for my Lonely Hearts Christmas Party.... ugh!! It will be good to get back to the heat though!!

And, get excited!!! I'm almost officially a grad student. It's looking like I will start my Master's Program (yes, totally online - masters of National Security from American Military University) beginning of February. YES!!!! So excited for that to start!

More tomorrow... and if I ever find my camera battery charger, I might just take some KS pics.

I may be a tad biased, but I think No Guam No Glory is really well named. No Guam, and well, no glory. Not that I'm not livin it up here in Kansas, but really not much to report!! I was able to talk to Chris on the phone two nights ago, and they finally fixed the broken satellite so it's off to somewhere else. They will port at the next destination in a few days, and then stay there for Christmas, and hopefully head HOME the day after! Not terribly great news, but it could be much worse. I was hoping to go visit him for Christmas, but the port they're heading to isn't exactly known for being good to Americans traveling alone... i.e. kidnappings, slavery, the likes. That's a big old no for me!! But, I'm still heading back to Guam at the end of next week. I'm afraid if I wait until after Christmas it will be nearly impossible for me to get a flight out. Basically we're looking at a tropical Christmas. Alone. (okay, not entirely alone, I will have the other "lonely hearts," but you know what I'm saying...)


More tomorrow, and I promise, I'll take some pictures....

I (Tessa) spent the weekend with the fam getting ready for Christmas. I LOVE this time of year, and I gotta tell you, no offense to Guam, decorating a fake tree when it's 100 degrees outside just does not appeal to me. So it's more Kansas, more family, and more missing Chris for me. I was so disappointed last week when their satellite was down since they couldn't email, but now it's worth it as I've been able to talk to him on the phone 3 nights in a row. So nice!! I think I'm going to head back to Guam the 18th-ish. Chris and I are both hoping that he will be home for Christmas and maybe just MAYBE our first Anniversary!! I still need to figure out what I'm going to get him... anyone have good suggestions for a "paper" gift? Next year is cotton, so apparently the gift guide regulator doesn't want you to go ALL OUT the first year....

Friday night we went to a concert at church (which was actually really good... I was pleasantly surprised), and then mom, dad, grandma and I went downtown to the Phoenix Bar. So fun!! The Dan Doran Band, who played at our wedding was playing and they were awesome!! Dan recognized us right away, gave a shout out to his "good friend Tess and her husband Chris, overseas with the US Navy" and even played "Into the Mystic" for dad and me (it's what we danced to at the wedding). And here I thought I'd make it a day without having a breakdown. Not Friday!! After Into the Mystic, he played Bon Jovi's Please Come Home for Christmas, with the lyrics "my baby's gone. I have no friends." Really necessary?? :)

Saturday morning I went to Arie's basketball game, hung out with Sophie for her birthday (the big 1-5), had some good Blaise-time, and watched my all time favorite movie White Christmas (Sisters, Sisters!!). Today was more decorating, baking, etc, and after a good chat with Chris it's time for me for bed! He'll be in Kadena til about the end of the week, and I think we are both WAY ready for him to port in Guam!!

More tomorrow... must sleep! A few pictures from the house/weekend... I have pictures of Dan Doran on a different camera that I'll try and load tomorrow.


Stockings hung by the chimney with care... and Arie being goofy.


More stockings.. different chimney.


The cheerleaders at Arie's game... Grandma, Mom, and the cutest little girl who decided she wanted to be friends with me... I think because I told her I loved her red shoes.




Sophie blowing out the candles



The fake tree... which I am in LOVE with.


And the real tree



Oh how I love the flocked tree





One of my fave ornaments