Blogging slacker

I haven't blogged since before Christmas. Slacker. We have been so busy with the Dad having off work. By the time he gets back to it, he will have been off for 11 days! We will start with Christmas Eve.

We took the kids to the mall for a train ride and Christmas light show. Ever since, every single day Caden reminds me he went on a train ride and it made him happy.

We also found a birthday present for Mimi. 

I searched and searched the Swarovski store and nothing was standing out to me. On the way out the door I found THE ONE. Cant wait to send it to her soon!

Since we celebrated our Christmas on 14 December, we didn't have much to do on the real Christmas Day. We spent the day at the beach, had naps and then went downtown to the Guam USO for a free Christmas dinner buffet. The food was amazing, the service was amazing and it was beyond what I could have had imagined. We would have stayed for a visit from the big guy, Santa, but it was so crowded...we barely even managed to find a seat. It was great though and we are thankful it was offered, otherwise we would have had Chinese for dinner. ha! With no oven or real stove top here, I couldn't have made a nice dinner.

Kayla made a 'cupcake'

Kayla carrying a sand 'meatball'.

Making sand 'meatballs' for Kayla.

(swollen eye from a chicken pox episode we been going through. At least the over the phone consultation resuluted in the doctor calling it chicken pox but I think it was some type of poison from a plant. I ended up getting it all over my legs!)

USO Guam Christmas Dinner

"I cant hear you" says Dad.

Scheduled to DEPART Guam- FOR GOOD!

Delta Airlines
Departure Wednesday 01 Feb
Duration: 4 hours 0 minutes
1561 miles
Departing Guam 10:10 AM, Arriving at Tokyo Narita Japan at 1:10 PM


(Great times for these flights! We depart at 10 am so its not too early that we have to wake up, get all 562 pieces of luggage ready plus a cat and 2 toddlers, 2 strollers and carry on bags, not to mention the needing to be there 2 hours prior for check in that is required for international flights. We are very happy with this time!)


Delta Airlines
Departure Wednesday 01 Feb
Duration: 10 hours 15 minutes
5458 miles
Departing Tokyo Narita Japan at 3:30 PM, Arriving at Los Angeles CA 8:45 AM


(Also a great time to arrive so we can purchase breakfast during our layover before our really long flight. And usually I hate going to Tokyo because it's always been a 4-5 hour layover which is dreadful, this is nice since its only 2 hours)


Skywest Airlines
Departure Wednesday 01 Feb
Duration 1 hour 12 minutes
0241 miles
Departing Los Angeles CA at 12:00 PM, Arriving at Las Vegas, NV at 1:12 PM


(VERY VERY happy with this arrival time! It gives us the rest of the day to get a rental car, get to our hotel, get a cat litter box and spend time with our best friends who we haven't seen since we moved from Italy, so its been 7 long years! Plus it gives us time to wear the kids out and get them settled down to crash for bed time.)

Amended To Read

This morning I woke up to a very welcome surprise just in time for Christmas!

REQUEST AND AUTHORIZATION FOR CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATIVE ORDERS

AMENDED TO READ

(Identify item in order being amended:)
49 Civil Engineer Sq
Holloman NM

IS AMENDED TO READ
820 Red Horse Sq
Nellis NV



This folks is living proof hard work and persistence pays off. Work for what you want, don't ever give up.

This is where we are meant to be.

5 weeks, 3 days to go.

Introducing the LONG over due arrival of Hannah Dawn Wondra

Introducing the LONG over due arrival of Hannah Dawn Wondra

Born 12-20-11 at 4:41 p.m. 6 lb 8 oz 18 inches

Finally physically in Mommy's arms.

Hannah, Mommy and Birth Mother.

Birth Mothers are amazing..

I know I have said it before, but could you imagine creating a life, carrying for 9 months knowing you cannot provide what the child deserves in life, giving birth and then handing over the little tiny life to her proper Mommy and Daddy?

It takes so much strength over such a long  period of time to do this.

God chooses who is strong enough to be a birth mother, to carry and grow a child safely until birth.

And then he chooses who is strong enough to love that life like no one else can. To love that child like he/she was created by blood in your family, but love that child even more than that, because of the work beyond pregnancy that goes into having that child.

Thank you to Hannah's birth mother for giving her the life she deserves to have and for making Tammy and Mark's dreams come true.

We have watched them go through so much and it's now finally

over.

The best is yet to come for them.

And I cant wait to watch it all happen.

*updated to add*

As of 21 Dec:

Baby Hannah update from Tammy Gustafson Wondra herself, "BM has relinguished rights and Hannah is legally ours. Feeling so sad for the BM Please keep her in your prayers! We are feeling so overwhelmed by the support and love you guys have given us. Thank you so much!"

Fitness Updates

<----------MY GOAL

So, yesterday morning I stepped on the scale for the first time in a little while. Before yesterday, 7 Dec was the last time I had gone for a run. BAD BAD BAD. I was dreading the scale but I got on and swore that it was wrong.

This morning I got back on it and I was wrong and it was right.

116 pounds.

I havent seen this weight in 8 months. Since Nick was TDY to Japan before last summer. And then I was 116 pounds only for a day. This makes 2 days in a row.

Yesterdays ab workout was the first time I was able to do left side plank and right side plank and last 15 seconds on each side. (Picture above is of side plank) This is a first. I was also able to do 5 half push ups which is also a first.

Operation Strong Mama in progress!
Pictures from this morning after my run.

Look at the top roll fading away! Just the spare roll under the belly button, which drives me bonkers!

I cannot wait to get to our new home in Vegas....our new home which WILL have an entire room devoted to fitness.

So crazy how I can go from obese and out of shape, to this. And this isnt even my best.

The best is yet to come.

For us both!

Starting our 'lasts'

Today marks 5 weeks and 6 days left on this tiny island. We have started enjoying doing our 'lasts' here. For example, I have been wanting to go to the market here early on Saturday morning just take stroll slowly and take advantage of picture taking. Its pretty crowded usually so I didnt get as many as I would have liked, but it was a

GREAT

feeling to walk around knowing it was one of our last times there. I imagine, in late January once Nick has off work here for good, we will probably go to pass the time, although we wont be able to purchase anything because we want our luggage to be as light as possible. We have to carry at least 1 suitcase each plus an extra suitcase for Nick's military gear, plus 2 toddlers, plus 1 cat, plus 1 carry on bag each but I know there will be at least an extra for laptop, plus 2 car seats and a double stroller.

Anyways, we have started enjoying the thoughts of our 'lasts' here on Guam.

Zucchini flowers ( I guess they eat these somehow) and local bananas.

Local eggplants and calamansi, which are the local lemon/lime type things, and I dont know what else those are.

Local music which they always play obnoxiously loud.

The vendor that we always get chicken sticks from for the kids at $1.25 each.

The kids always each 1 stick each, every bite.

Boonie dog...homeless dogs here on island. They are everywhere. Pretty sad.

Puppies for sale in a small cage. Normal here but sad for us Americans. 

I couldn't focus on the puppies because I couldn't stand there long enough before people started coming over in my way.

Caden and the $1 jeep he got from the market. He carried this thing with him everywhere for 2 days.

Trying

I am trying to get back to blogging daily but it just isn't happening. My brain is obsessed with our upcoming move. I cant sleep, I cant watch tv, I cant run, I cant cook...I am way too excited to do anything but think about what our future holds not too far away.

I am excited to see this island disappear in the window of our flight.

I am excited for the anticipation we will feel during the long 20+ hour travel time.

I am excited to see our friends when we get off the plane and see them for the first time in so many years.

I am excited for my husband's new challenge for his new position at his new work place.

I am excited for our children to have a place to call home. Its been too long living in this 'hotel'.

I am excited to purchase our forever home and make a house into a home.

I am excited for our children to see more of this world besides only what Guam has to offer. Which is not much at all.

I am excited for our friends and family who will come visit us. Especially my mother and father in law.

I am excited to renew our wedding vows on the Las Vegas strip for our 10 year wedding anniversary and then jump off a 108 story high building to celebrate.

I am excited for our children to bond with the family that helped spark that desire for us to create our own family bu showing us how much we enjoy and love children, and how much we can love children that our not ours through blood and dna.

I'm excited for my husband to be able to drive a car that he enjoys for once in a very  long time.

I'm excited to have 3,000 square feet of living space in our new future home. Will I ever see my cat again?! ha!

I am excited to explore a new state, new grounds.

I am excited to be able to walk into a store and get what I want. (unlike here!) And to have a selection of stores to shop in besides the BX, the NEX, the Commissary, Ross (which I love) and supposedly the world's largest Kmart (which has a terrible selection and is very expensive because it cater's toward the Japanese tourists)

I'm excited to have a Las Vegas address...weird I know.

I'm excited to have area to landscape again, which has been a long time.

I'm excited and ready to feel cold air.

Among so very much more.

There is so so so much to look forward to and it all begins in just 6 short weeks from today.

Current pictures

For my records mostly:

The past week's stress level has been high. I haven't been dieting as strict as I would like. I have skipped runs and ab workouts. Now our car is shipped and our household goods in the condo and from the storage unit have been packed and shipped off to Holloman AFB, NM...which will then I assume be diverted to Nellis AFB, NV. This is an annoyance not a stress since we wont be in a house anyways until we purchase a home and move in. Its a VERY VERY VERY welcomed annoyance. BUT, now I am so excited I cant sleep at night. I'm trying my best to get back to it!

I don't see a change in the mirror which is why I like to take pictures. When I look at pictures I see a physical change. Now  that Nick will be training hardcore to jump from airplanes at Nellis, he has to be in tip top amazing shape which I am thankful for because its going to push me more.

Anyways, currently I still weigh the same but I feel and appear to have a thinner mid section. I think anyways. I assume this is from gaining muscle.

Here I am just trying to be creative with my picture. I DID clean the mirror but it looks like I didnt.

Side view from today.

Side view from Day Two. I see a change here. The top roll has disappeared! 

WOW!

Front view from today.

Front view from Day Two.

A whole lot more jiggle going on here! I see changes!!

And finally, full body shot, holding a weight so you can see I have lines in my arms! Not just skimpy thin twiggy arms!! 

CHANGES!

GO ME!

Reminder of my goal:

GETTING BACK TO IT! FOR REAL!

Car is shipped. Household items from storage unit and from condo is all shipped except for unaccompanied baggage. I have no reason to be out of my routine. No excuse. Time to seriously get back to it.

The Dad got the Mom some new 5 lbs weights for Christmas and she's been putting them to use.

I can see and feel a change happening!

Rerouted household goods and car!

Nick and I always write random messages to each other in the bathroom on the mirror or glass shower door.

A few days ago right before the car shipment and household goods pack and pick up, we were pretty stressed. So he wrote to me, "We can do this."

Yesterday morning (Wednesday) I was struggling to get out of bed because Kayla had me up several times that night crying about being scared. ( I cant wait until this phase passes!)

To make it easier for me to get up out of bed Nick took me into the bathroom and showed me the message he wrote.

I remember standing there for about 5 seconds not registering it. I couldn't think. I couldn't see right to read it right. I don't even remember what I said once I realized what he wrote. I remember not believing him. I remember being in state of total shock. That took a while to wear off and even today more than 30 hours after this I am still a bit in a state of shock. THIS is what we wanted. How, once again, is it possible for us to get SO LUCKY in life? How?

Everything we want and work hard for just falls into place. Its always a struggle and fight to get what ever it is we want. Always. But in the end, we always win. 

We can hardly believe it. And now, nothing else matters...

We keep telling each other, "Who cares?! We are going to Vegas!"

And then the day continued...the condo got packed and loaded onto the truck.

After packing we had a celebration dinner. We had a $20 gift card too Nick won at the Christmas Party.

(Not on my diet, but who cares! We are going to Vegas! Now back to the diet. lol!)

On the walk back home I saw this...Praying Mantis... aren't they supposed to mean good luck? And doesn't it look like this one is giving birth? Or what the heck is that?!