My Llaurel

I just read Llaurel's blog so for those of you who don't read hers, please bear with me.  In fact you can just ignore this blog...Now for the rest of you. 

First and foremost..Llaurel made mention of Chy and her great babysitting rule of cleaning up the house before the parents come.  It results in ooows and aaahs from the parents, more money AND they call you back...I, me, Monica, I taught Chy that rule.  Of course Chy had much more sucess of it.  And I love the fact that I taught some one something that they thought was important enough to pass along.

As for Llaurel and her great story...I really could see you making outfit choices and telling that little Whataburger man that you would come back.  I can hear your voice and the excitment you must have exuded.  I miss you too Llaurel.  And I miss fighting with Jess, getting frustrated with Chy and how long it takes to tell a story, rolling my eyes at Llaurel and her dramatic ways, laughing at mom and dad, and playing games.  I MISS YOU ALL SO FREAKIN MUCH!!
Soon my family.  I will see you soon

Our First US Visitor and other info

So I am running around in my tank and flannel pj bottoms cleaning this morning.  Now mind you, I have no new clothes, well not many at any rate, and so my tank is 20Xs too big for me and body parts aren't covered very well.  First to come to our door.  My girlfriend Gail came to drop her daughter Rachel off.  I had invited her mind you, but completely forgot as I finally had enough time and energy to clean.  I am sure Gail got an eye full, but hey we are talking about one of my island peeps and well we share EVERYTHING, so it wasn't that big a deal. 

Then as I am scrubbing our disgusting toilet when I hear Alan cusing as his pager goes off.  A few minutes later, and I am still scrubbing the awful toilet, I hear Alan giving directions to our house to someone.  I am thinking it must be the other pharmacists they just flew in to help with the Haiti relief.  Then Alan comes in and says Devin Lewis is here and on his way over....DEVIN??  As in Devin?  I ask.  After Alan laughs at me and says yes I go into panic mode.  Shoot I have no clothes on, the downstairs isn't very pretty, yikes...So I do a mad dash for the clothes and the broom.  And of course the house is fine and in comes Devin.  He is here are part of a flight crew that is flying stuff into Haiti every day.  It was so nice to sit and talk to him and see him.  I miss the Lewis Family, such good friends....At any rate he stayed for about an hour and then told us to come see him on the Leeward side sometime this week.  He said if we go later in the day when his flights are taking off we'll get to see LOTS!  Yippee.  So hopefully we'll get to go over and see the relief effort we are doing here in Gtmo.  I was just so happy to see one of our off island friends, and having Devin be our first visitor was great.

Now for me and my plans.  I am supposed to be going to VA this week coming up.  Maegan is staying here with Gail and I am nervous as can be.  Of course I still don't know when I will be leaving.  The hospital is in charge of getting me on a flight and making my appointments and that is taking too long or something.  Anyway I will be sure to let you all know when I am headed to the US.

So other than our visitor we are having friends over tonight to make friendship bread and have dinner with us.  Of course I am sure we will fit a game in there as well.  Then tomorrow we will finish our aborted cleaning upstairs and Alan has to fix our lawn mower.  I hired two local boys to mow our lawn for a whole $16 instead of the $60 the Filipinos wanted to charge me...So now I will have a nicer mowed lawn.  Lets see what else?  Oh on Monday night Treasures and Trivia is hosting a wine and cheese night to bring in all our memembers to shop.  That and the board wants it to be my "thank you" night.  Then I may be leaving on Tuesday.  If I don't then back to work on Wed and all that jazz.

Nothing new with the kids.  It is back to being pretty dang hot outside, today it is 95, and so even though Adam has been outside ALL afternoon, he is now here in the house complaining that he is bored.  Madie and Rachel are playing PayDay and Maegan is moping and sweeping with her cleaning stuff from Santa.  I am about to go check my roast, mop my kitchen and make the kids clean up their crafts that they did earlier.  Good times...I hope your lives are as fun packed as mine, I send you my love

Haitian evacuees and other such info

We finally got some sort of official word yesterday.  Since the quake last Tuesday we islanders have just been hearing and passing along the rumors.  But finally this Tuesday the CO of the base, Capt Blaisdell got on our local radio station and did a Q&A session.  Then they posted some info on our roller channel on the TV, the roller is like the newspaper as we don't have one...Anyway, as of right now we have no Haitians on base.  We had UN and American's come in for medical treatment the first few days after the quake, but since then nothing.  That doesn't mean NAVSTA GTMO hasn't been busy.  The hospital is gearing up for thousands of Haitians.  The hospital has converted their ER into an ICU and the ER is now out in tents.  They have flown in extra help as well.  Alan ordered enough drugs for 10000 people and they are converting the office space in the pharmacy to store meds.  They are also in the process of adding people to Alan's office so that other offices can be converted.  As for the rest of the base..We have an old airport here on the Winward side of the base.  There are two sides to the base, Winward ( the side we live on) and Leeward.  There are a few residents on the Leeward side, but for the most part all base activities happen on the Winward side.  The Leeward side has the airport.  Anyway, we have an old airport here on the Winward side as well as a huge complex that isn't being used at the time.  So for now that whole area has been closed off to the residents, in order to put Haitians there if the Leeward side gets too many.  However, most of the tents and supplies are over at the Leeward side of the base.  The only thing that has really affected the residents is the cancellation of all visitors for the forseable future and they closed our favorite beaches.  Girl Scout and Glass Beach are now off limits.  I will have to go snorkleing in order to get sea glass now....Small price to pay to help so many.

So that is the update on the base goings on.  There are not plans to evacuate us any time soon.  Heck we don't even have any Haitians yet, so.....

As for other news.  I am leaving Treasures and Trivia.  My last day is Feb 15th.  It is a bitter sweet end really.  I loved working there for two reasons.  First it gave me a great opprotunity to meet new people and two Maegan made a ton of friends.  But alas, Momma needs more money, so I am hoping to babysit and/or sub at the school.  We shall see what happens. 

I am leaving the island sometime next week.   The down side, Maegan has to stay on island.  I am being medivaced out,I am getting an MRI as well as my post sugery check up. Since I will be a confirmed seat, and Maegan would be going as a non-paid seat, the chances of her getting on the plane are slim.  If the quake hadn't hit, then it wouldn't be a problem, but all available seats are being used, so...I have some wonderful girlfriends here and two or three of them have offered to shuttle Maegan around next week for me.  Which means I get to go to VA, and be with my Peyton all by myself.  YIPPEE...I have shopping to do, appointments to go to and chit chat to catch up on.  I am so flippin' excited.  Nervous too, I haven't ever left Maegan for this long.  I know, I know she is four, but Lord you know how long it took me to leave Madie and Adam.  I will be worried about the family the entire time I am gone....and with the earth moving the way it has been, what if I can't get back to my family???  Yeah I have to stop going down that road or I will never get on the plane...

The kids are doing great.  Madie has now spent the night at another friends house.  That makes two times she has had sleepovers.  She has gotten so sure of herself...Adam is, well Adam.  He is still dirty all the time and he is turning into such a BOY.  Just two days ago Maegan found a lizard in the bathroom and instead of calling on Dad, who was laying in bed by the way, she yelled for Adam.  Adam came into the bathroom, scooped up the little dying lizard and ushered it outside.  Course the damn thing died and ants ate it within minutes, but he tried to rescue the lizard.  Go boy go.

So that is it for now. I am missing the family somthing fierce.  I just read Llaurel's blog.  I love that girl.  She is too much.  Too cute, too sweet, too MUCH!!  Jesse, well shoot I have no clue on.  I know he was starting P90X, which Alan has started again, and he is headed to school somewhere and lets see he graduates soon.  I know nothing about this boy...And there is Chy.  I have been praying like crazy for Chy and her job situations, but we don't talk like we used to.  Who coould, heck it costs a ton to talk to each other.  As for mom and Randy.  Well quite frankly I just want to be with them.  And my Dad hasn't been hinting enough that he misses us and would love to visit with us as well.  Lord I love Gtmo, but I miss the ability to just get in a car and drive to family...

Okay until later I send you all my love

Earthquakes, Gtmo and Haiti

Hello All.  Boy has it been busy here, I thought I would fill you in.
We felt an after shock or our own earth quake about the same time that Haiti got hit. We have had a lot of earthquakes here in the last few months, nothing big just slight tremors but the seismic activity has definitely increased according to our environmentalist. The kids and I didn't feel it at all, we were driving, but almost everyone I have talked to felt it, as did Alan. We were on tsunami watch for the 12 hours right after the quake, obviously nothing came of that.


Alan was called into the hospital the yesterday morning around 5am, we had inbound wounded and all essential hospital staff has to be on premises...Alan being the only pharmacist on island, in he went. On top of being the pharmacist he was the Command Duty Officer for the day, essentially he was the man in charge of reporting all the goings on to the Commanding Officer (CO) and he was the gofer. I saw him this morning and he seemed to being doing good regardless of his lack of sleep. He is needed at the hospital until all the surgeries are finished ( and they flew in an extra surgeon last night) and no wounded are immediately inbound. Being the ONLY pharmacist on island means he has to be at the hospital to make all the drugs needed for the surgeries and then he has to stay until the surgeries are complete in case they need anything else. Same with the incoming wounded. At any rate according to Alan as of this morning:

We have had at least 8 wounded helo-ed in, and four have had to be evacuated to the US. All of our wounded that have come here are from the UN or Embassies...We are supposed to be getting at least 8 more wounded sometime today.
Since we are such a small hospital, think rural country size here, I think we only have something like 12 beds if that...anyway, since we are so small and we are not a trauma center by any means most of the wounded are going to other places. We are ready and able to support refugees but that is still up in the air. 10 years ago when Haiti was in the middle of their civil war Gtmo was turned into a tent city. We had thousands here apparently. And if that needs to happen again, all the dependents ( the kids and I ) will be evacuated. However, as of right now, that isn't in the works. I think the US and UN are still just trying to get there to help.

As for any of our personnel being deployed to Haiti, that isn't what this base does. We do not have helicopters, airplanes or ships of any kind. We are simply a functionary base. All the troops and relief will come from Norfolk and/or other bases in VA. The Norfolk base in VA is the largest Naval base in the world and they will do all the deploying. There is a naval carrier on its way, and an LHD which is smaller than a carrier, but is equipped with a hospital area ( this is the same type ship Alan was on last year) and either the Comfort or the Mercy will be headed there. So, here on Gtmo we are just going to be helping here, not out there.

As for the wives here, we have been busy. We raided the thrift store I manage and packed 20 trash bags full of clothes for people there. And I know the chapel is getting together a bunch of food. Haiti has had a time of it...I have been praying for them for years. I am sure God has a plan for that little island, just wish it wasn't so devastating....

I will keep you posted as things happen here. I send you all our love, keep sending your prayers...

Some pics

A few pictures of our little one right before the Christmas Pagent

And here are some pics of what I did on New Year's Eve.  I was invited to go snorkeling for the first time.  I had a great time and can't wait to go out again.  This first picture is what I usually find on the beaches.  The sea glass we have here is mostly browns, greens and clear.  We can usually find some small shells, nothing huge.

Blue sea glass and larger shells are rarer.  Not an impossiblity to find mind you, just rare.  For example jewlery made with blue sea glass will cost you about double what other colors will.  On New Year's Eve I did find some blues, nothing too big.  But I did find the mother of all reds.  Red and Black sea glass is the rarest, at least around here.  There are many ladies here who haven't found any red the entire time they were here.  I never expected to find any.  But I did.  The best part, I had no glasses on.  For those who don't know I can NOT see without my glasses on at all.  I can see blobs of color, but in order to actually see something I have to have it no further from my face than five inches.  So while we were snorkeling the girls would watch for jelly fish and lead me to where I needed to go, because I couldn't see.

So at one point we swam up to a small beachy area and Kristene was sitting in the rocks digging for glass.  It took me a good five minutes to get to where she was.  I had to get my fins off and then make my way up to her.  When I got there, I looked down and saw some red.  I thought it must have been a rock since Kristene wasn't bothering with it.  It was right between her two feet.  So I bent over and picked it up thinking that I could use the rock since the red was so briliant.  What I picked up was NOT a rock.  What it was was a gigantic piece of red sea glass.  It is huge.  Worth somewhere around $400-$500.  I was screaming, Kristene was screaming and then Chris, our other friend made it over to us, and she screamed.  An amazing find....

 

This is the piece next to greens I usually find.  You can tell how much bigger the red is.

Kristene makes sun catchers, ornaments and jewlery with the sea glass she finds and then sells it at the craft fairs.  She suggested I make a sun catcher out of it.  Chris however thinks I should get Rebecca, our jewlery maker friend to make me a necklace out of it.  Now I must say as far as jewlery is concerned, Rebecca is a class act.  She makes the most beautiful jewlery I have seen.  So what to do with it is the question. 
News of my find has traveled fast and I have been called a lot of names, all in good fun of course....My favorite being the "Red B####"  Everyone is jealous in that nice kinda way, at least none of the comments hold malice...
So I just thought I would share my finds with you.  I send you all my love