Its my 24th birthday

Well it was my birthday yesterday. I think it was honestly the best birthday I have ever had! Well my birthday in Germany was pretty great but yesterday everything was just perfect. We woke up early to Andrew's call and I was glad because I told Daniel I wanted to go walking the morning of my birthday on this pretty walk over by the ocean. So we got up and Daniel told me to go buckle the kids in the car and then he surprised me with my double jogging stroller. I was so happy. I have wanted one since Eva was born and I wanted one after Alexander was born and now I am so excited. So we got to use it on the walk and it is so much easier than two strollers and it pushed along so well. Oh and no one else was on the walk that morning (its usually pretty crowded) and it was raining all night so the walk was nice and cool only 75 degrees and it didn't rain at all on the walk. Then we went home and the kids and Daniel took naps and I watched what not to wear (there was a mini marathon). Then I took a shower with no interruptions and I was able to get ready with no distractions. Then we were going to go to lunch but decided just to go to the mall (they have this great Hawaiian food booth there). But we ended up just going to Macy's (they were having their pre fall sale) and Daniel let me try on whatever I wanted and took Alexander to the ball machine for 40 minutes. I was able to try on 20 pairs of pants and shorts and found a perfect pair of jeans ( I know that is a lot of pants but all I brought to Guam was my maternity clothes and I haven't bought much since having Eva) that I liked so I got them then I found two great pairs of shoes and I got them. Daniel didn't complain the WHOLE time. It was wonderful. Then we went home and got ready for our date. Rachel came to watch the kids. So we went to dinner at the Jamaican grill and it was delicious. Tangy spicy ribs and chicken, they call it JERK. I LOVED that place. I usually hate going out to eat (because of the kids). I hated serving, every minute of it was torture so when I go out to eat all I think about it serving and how horrible it was. But we checked out the street menu then ate outside so we got to look outside. We knew what we wanted so we ordered everything at once. She brought out our drinks and then my fruit bowl and Daniel's soup and the dinner too!! ALL OF IT AT ONCE!. It was lovely. It took her like 5 minutes tops to bring it all out. So we ate and they didn't have good dessert. But WHOLLY COW what a great experience. My best dining experience to date! We were in and out in 30 minutes and the food was sooo good. I hate eating out because when I decide to go eat I am usually hungry and I don't want to wait a half an hour for my food to be made or my order to be taken but that was great.
So we made it to our movie perfectly (we were running really late). We decided to see Mama Mia and Peirce Brosnan can't sing and I even felt uncomfortable when he sang like I was embarrassed to watch. I loved the songs I knew and the movie put me in a happy mood although I will not see another singalong or musical in a long time ( I don't like movies where they keep breaking into song unless its old such as singing in the rain or the wizard of oz or Mary Poppins). Then we went to Cold stone I got pineapple sorbet and I didn't realise until we left that people go there so they can make their "own" ice cream. I didn't want much dairy so that was a dumb choice. But then we got home the kids had gone to bed just fine and I was so happy. What a great birthday I got to go clothes shopping and shoe shopping and wow it was the best birthday ever!!! Thanks Daniel you made it a wonderful day. I felt very spoiled and now back to reality. Sorry I wrote for so long.
Miriam
P.S still no pictures sorry

sorry guys

Ok that last post was way more depressing than I intended. The YW program really isn't that bad, we just had youth conference over the weekend and I tried to boil eggs for it and they just kept going badly and I had to throw them all away and then daniel got really sick so I think that is why I was so bitter about that. Sorry Im over it now and its really not that bad. K bye

Life

I haven't blogged in awhile so here is a quick update

Our Camera is officially broken completely. It wont even turn on now. Eva is smiling and giggling a lot well her kind of giggling. We don't do much here at home with Alexander and Eva. We have gone to the beach and we went swimming with Line,Eva (American pronunciation), Kalena and Maysa at the Hilton on Friday and it was quite a bit of fun. We might be going tomorrow again. All the kids really like it and Daniel and Augustine both have to work on Labor day so we figured we would. (They are our new friends). Eva is about a year older than Alexander, Maysa is 5 and Kalena is a month older than Eva Sunna. Daniel just got done being sick again. We get sick all of us at least once a month and it is very annoying. We found out the other day that the Kathryn and Ralph are coming to visit in October and we are so excited to see them. Eva seems so big and receptive now. If you talk and smile at her she will talk and smile back. I never got that with Alexander but he wasn't as social or needy as Eva either. Sorry for no pictures. The card is even broken. The computer wont upload pictures directly from it so Daniel and I figure we will get one for Christmas or something. Although we will miss all the holidays. We will see I guess.

I am trying to do my Immigration stuff and its so expensive so we have to take care of that first. It is made so difficult and confusing. I can't believe how expensive it is getting either. I am not going to blog more about it because it is stressful and annoying. We have just been relaxing I guess. My calling is so time consuming! I can't believe it. It keeps me very busy and Young Women can be so dramatic sometimes. The busy season is coming up. I can't help but think I would be a lot more helpful or willing in my head if I didn't have two young children and a husband. I feel like everyday of the week something is expected for it and it is rather overwhelming sometimes. There are so many activities. Over here they aren't just on Tuesdays. If we decide to do a Saturday or Friday activity we do all of them, there is no canceling of one to substitute the other and that has been happeneing for the past few weeks. It is rewarding but demanding. Anyway enough of that.

Its my birthday on Saturday and I hope I get to relax. Daniel was already sick this whole weekend so as long as The children and I don't get sick it should be a good weekend. I am hoping Daniel will be able to take me to dinner on Saturday night because there are no good movies out. There is a place called the Jamaican grill. I am hoping to go there and I already set up babysitters.

It has officially been a year since I was in school and I really miss it. I feel like my brain is turning to mush and I don't' have anything to read. I found out my local library doesn't allow children under 3 in there PERIOD. So that strikes out both of my children. If there is a low literacy rate here that is not helping it. I hope in a year I can find somewhere I want to get my masters and at least think about it. I don't know when I will be able to do it considering my family is here and grew but I don't want to give up that dream. OK I am boring and done. I am not sure when you will here from us again because of no camera and that was the main purpose. We will have to work on that.
Bye for now.

A blog from Daniel

I finally set up the projector the way I wanted to with the ceiling mount and everything. For anyone that knows me they know this is pretty big for me. So here are a few pictures of me measuring the projection on the wall and making sure it was square and everything. You will notice Alexander coming to help me.
Here is Alexander helping me measure the picture on the wall to make sure it is centered and square, such a good little helper. Every time I do a project he feels he has to help, because he either wants to help or he doesn't think I know what I am doing.
This is a picture of our temporary dinner table while we were waiting for the new tables paint to dry. It is now being used as Bubba's table he loves it. We bought it because he is always putting his drinks and food on the couch (one of the reasons we bought a dark colored couch) this way he now has something new to put his drinks on.

Now for an update on how we are doing in Guam. Miriam and are really busy with church stuff and we really like it. I teach Sunday School every other week and am the District Executive Secretary. Miriam is in young womens, and her calling takes up more of her time than both my callings do combined. Last week we had family home evening on Monday, then Tuesday Miriam went to young womens, then we both had meetings on Wednesday night (she took the kids to hers in hopes that it would get her out of it, didn't work) then she had another meeting on Thursday night. Then on Friday night we had the missionaries over for dinner and invited 2 young women to come as well. one of them is a member the other is not yet, so we told the missionaries they could teach her at our house. It was a good experience. What was really great is that after the missionaries left, the 2 young women babysat. Not only did they babysit they cleaned our house. Then they just slept over (I guess that's the norm here) and we made them breakfast in the morning and they did the dishes again!!! It was awesome the best $32.00 I have ever spent.
The church and mission here reminds me of a warmer more successful Iceland mission. so when the missionaries come over I bore them to death with stories from my mission. One reason it reminds me of Iceland is the missionaries hardly ever get fed by the members, which was weird to me I thought it would be more like a Island church culture like Tonga where missionaries get fed all the time. So Miriam and I have the missionaries over once a week and we try to have an investigator over when the come. That is pretty much it.

Our Project ( A guide for mom and dad to blog about their "project".

Table finished. I know these pictures are probably boring to everyone but Miriam and I spent a lot of time on the table so here are some pictures of the process. The first one is after we finished the initial sanding of the top of the table with 100 grain sandpaper.
This is doing the final sanding of the table with 22o grain sand paper. I really wanted to stain the table and was mentally prepared to do all the extra sanding that is required to stain the top of the table. But see that dark spot on the opposite side of the table as me? That is where the wood was rotten or stained all the way through, so we had to paint it. I was really upset because if I had known that then I would have just sanded the original paint on the table and not stripped and sanded all the paint off. (We sanded and stripped the paint over the dark spot last) Anyways this is the table with the legs finished. We put 2 coats of a white spray lacquer on the legs.
This is the finished product with the chairs we got with it. All in all it was a good deal and I really am glad we painted it white. We used 2 coats of oil pant on the top to give it as much protection as possible from the destroyer (Alexander). Another useful tip when painting in Guam don't paint with on oil based paint out side and let it dry over night, because when you wake up in the morning there will be about 50 little bugs stuck in the paint and that means more sanding. See how are window is open in this picture that is because we painted the final coat inside and had to air out the house from paint fumes. Miriam is going for a blue and white cape cod beach theme in our Kitchen. So we are planning on buying blue cushions that you tie to the chair seats and once the stools are done it will look nice. All in all the table and chairs cost us $115.00 plus about $50.00 in painting supplies, so a pretty good deal I think. The even better deal is the one below. This is a picture of our son and our new TV (32 inch, high def, flat screen) which only cost me $350.00. Guam is a barter system and I have some pretty good connections with the Hotels. Do you see our sons plumber crack,that is the actual reason we took the picture. It was funny we tried to get him to turn his head and look at the camera but all he did was yell at us and run.
This is where he would run to, behind the couch and hide with his blanket, like he was embarrassed we were taking a picture of him in his underwear. It was hilarious.

I put this blog up to show mom and dad how to do a blog about a family project (I think they are in the middle of one right now). For example how I wrote "But see that dark spot on the opposite side of the table as me? That is where the wood was rotten or stained all the way through, so we had to paint it. I was really upset because if I had known that then I would have just sanded the original paint on the table and not stripped and sanded all the paint off. (We removed the paint over the dark spot last)" Mom and dads blog could go something like this : "See under the southwest corner of the house under the Adobe brick where the foundation should have been? Well as you can clearly see there is no foundation. So we ended up having to tear the whole house down. Had we known there was no foundation we would have ripped the house down from the beginning instead of fighting the historical society and waisting all that time trying to save the original house" (Sorry I had to, this is what happens when Miriam encourages me to blog more). I am going to do another blog right after this one because I have a few more pictures I want to put up.

Quick note

I don't have any pictures, the computer wont read my memory card. Anyway so Eva had her 2 month appointment. She got 3 shots she didn't like it but it made her sleep all day and all night. Anyway she is 11 lbs 14 oz she is 22.3 inches tall and normal. She smiles now and cues when we talk to her. Anyway I wanted to ask a question what movie should Daniel and I go see this Friday night in the theatres? Two of the young women are coming over to babysit so we get to go see a movie! Yay. Anyway we need suggestions for a movie we would both like (Daniel already saw Dark Night and I can wait til dvd). So comment some suggestions please.

This week in Guam...

Eva

Alexander

Well if you can't tell these are pictures of Alexander and Eva yesterday. I like this picture of Alexander because he actually looks related to us. Yay for that but it makes him look so old. I haven't blogged for two weeks now because I was waiting for Daniel to do it and he didn't. Also nothing exciting has been happening. Daniel and the kids got sick again. Maybe we are a family of sickies I can feel it in my throat. Its burning and has been all weekend. Eva has been sick 3 times already and she is 2 months old on Tuesday! Its all just colds but you would think in a tropical climate you wouldn't get colds as much.

Family Projects

Yesterday we found a kitchen table I really love and now Daniel love/hates it too. Its made of something called Manchu wood (I assume that means some tree from Manchuria)

We were sanding it and put a chemical on it to take the dark brown paint/stain/lacquer/ everything else these people could think of adding to the table to see if we wanted to stain it ourselves or paint it.

Everyone says staining is a lot of hard work and I believe them but Daniel told me whether we paint it or stain it we are still putting 2 layers of lacquer on it either way so the prep work is what is making the difference in time. I am thinking I still want it white so I can have my cape cod beach themed kitchen but we will see.

I am also trying to redo my bar stools. (Believe it or not these are really tall like a bar stool, it looks like a chair but its not)

First I bought the exact same colored paint as the walls are in the house. (I don't want camouflage chairs) Then I bought hospital white (as you can see in this picture) and they are both just wrong and so I have finally bought one called Satin Ivory. I haven't put it on yet and I call the other wrong colored coats primers because they were originally wicker color. Then I was going to cover the cushion part. (Don't worry that is not the final product, I was just trying to see how the material looked and if I liked it) First I couldn't find the plastic cover stuff (I need it for Alexander) in the right size. Once I found that I went and bought a staple gun and the WRONG STAPLES (these trips to the store are one a day because the kids don't last). So this small project has taken me a week already with nothing accomplished.

HOME DEPOT MORE LIKE LARGE TORTURE CHAMBER

I really don't like hardware stores to begin with but going there alone with Alexander and Eva makes it a real chore so I am not looking forward to buying the right staples. I was at Home Depot yesterday getting sand paper (with a different variety of grains ranging between 60-400) Daniel wasn't with me so I called him 20 times asking about the sand paper. Then I bought paint thinner (Daniel's instruction) so I could strip the table (paint thinner is for wet paint not stripping). Then I sent Daniel to the store to get some new strip stuff and it was a spray on kind, well it was too thick to come out of the bottle. We were very sick of going back and forth to the different hardware stores on Guam so we ended up having to pour it out of the bottle and spreading it with my frosting spreader thing (don't worry it is now an outside tool). That was our frustrating day of projects yesterday. I didn't put the picture up but the top of the table is completely back to its original wood look. I will post the final product pictures when there is a final product to photograph.

You may all ask why we bought a table to redo. Well if you are like me you like to keep busy and have projects. I live for my to do lists and I need new things thrown in every once in awhile so these house furniture projects are just what I need to keep my repetitive schedule appealing.

It was a fun day outside even with all the project headaches and these are pictures I took from different sides of the house at 7 last night. The clouds looked beautiful so I couldn't help taking the pictures. The Green leaves are the top of our palm tree.

This one looks like right after a storm

This one looks like a volcano erupting