Merry Christmas and Gledilegt Jol

It Feels like christmas today and I am so happy. It is Christmas Eve. We finished our christmas shopping last night and we are excited. We woke up this morning and Daniel put all kinds of christmas music on and we are cleaning the house and it feels like christmas. We wanted to tell everyone Merry Christmas wherever you are we love you all and we will do another post after christmas and we will make sure to take pictures on christmas morning. I think its the last christmas that we will be able to sleep in so we are going to enjoy it. We are so excited to spend it with Heather Kathryn and Ralph.
Gledilegt Jol or farsaet nytt ar!

I guess

Our family picture in Japan, this is our christmas photo sorry no cards this year, I promise next year.

I guess its time to post. I have been avoiding it because I don't know what to write. I have been sad and glad and mad and blad. We are in Utah. We were relieved before we came because we were coming. Then when we landed Daniel and I both got rather depressed about being here. It was strange we should have been happy because family and christmas is here but its been a rough two months and we miss Guam and its freezing here. I think we are doing better now and that is why I am willing to post today.

We went to Japan for 12 hours and it was great there.

I couldn't find anything to eat but it was just beautiful. We went to a Temple. I am guessing Shinto but I don't know for sure and the gardens were beautiful.

Daniel and I both really enjoyed it. We decided we only got on day trips to these places. One day of daylight in Japan and a night and morning in Hawaii. We are short travelers I guess. The flights were very good the kids behaved the whole time and I was very grateful because that would have been a mess otherwise.

Chicago was freezing and Utah a little warmer. We all had our winter coats for Utah. The day after we arrived snow storms came daily. Anyway we are here in Utah now. We miss the Jimenez family. I am still very sad about that although I shouldn't be because we are good friends and will make it a point to see each other whenever they move back stateside.

Its christmas in 2 days oh just one day in Guam. In two days here and we haven't gone christmas shopping for the kids yet. I figure one stop at toys R us should do it. We can't decide what to get bubba. I hope the New Year brings good things. Wish us luck.

Miriam

Garage Sale

So Daniel and I held our very first garage sale today and it was the everything must go type. We made all these signs last night and printed out flyer's so that we could go early this morning to put signs up. We put an add in the paper on Thursday to advertise it and I was worried no one would come because we didn't advertise very much. Low and behold its 630 am on a Friday morning and someone is banging on the door. We go get the door and there are three "early birds" asking if we are having a garage sale at 7am"Yes we are at 7." Then they wanted an early peek. So we let them and they were really nutty. They got mad at us like we were secretly holding out of them because half the stuff in here was already sold through craigslist and one lady came last night to buy a chest of drawers and ended up buying half my kitchen. So apparently you don't need to advertise for a garage sale here. They can all just sense it. Its been crazy all morning. We did it from 7-2. Too long in my opinion and we were going to do it for 2 days, but there is hardly anything left. People were crazy and buying everything. They kept looking in the house and asking if we had more but we kept having to explain that those things were already bought and paid for. Now I am scared for tomorrow when there are only 20 items out and the people will break the door down to buy more. We didn't even put the signs up!! Not even 1. I made all the signs but there was no need for them and we have hardly anything left. I can't wait until tomorrow when all the garage saleness is over. Who would have thought people would buy all that stuff. We already sold all the big stuff except our TV and mattress before the sale so the sale was more of a you are taking it off my hands so I don't have to worry about it next week. So it has been entertaining. I was a little sad because I specifically overpriced the things I wanted to keep (my osterizer stainless steel blender with all the fancy parts) but a lady still bought it!!!!!
I doubt we will do another garage sale for awhile because they are a little scary but now we know, maybe its just a crazy Guam thing though.

On a crazier note, 4 people kept asking if they could buy the GARBAGE CANS. But apparently Daniel sold them to the nutter early bird people. Oh and they wanted to buy all the plants which are ugly and gross in my opinion but I guess people like plants.

Miriam's History of Reading

Last night I couldn't sleep which has been a regular occurrence for a few weeks now so I decided to update my read books book. I am one of those personalities who loves lists specifically because I love monitoring my own progress. That's not always a good thing though because I am my worst critic. I looked over some of the books I have read and I decided to go through and star all my favorites. I made a pop up on the blog for those. I decided that I haven't truly enjoyed many of the books I have read. I want to start a new chapter of my life where i read one book a week. at least one fun fiction a month and then hopefully one classic and two historically significant books. I was appalled by my reading record. In the last 14 years (from all the books I can remember, I just started logging last year) I have only averaged out 10 books a year! Atrocious. I have the tendency to reread my favorites if life starts to feel mundane but I need to expand my mind. I have been out of school for 16 months now and I don't like it.

As some know my goals are high when it comes to my education. I want to become a history professor and reach tenure. Thus I must read. This new reading schedule will rejuvenate my mind. I am going to start in the new year. The only problem is finding the titles. When I look back on my short life I see different parts of it that were major turning points for the path. I can specifically remember all the crucial decisions that have brought be to this exact spot

If this post is really weird I must say that I wrote this post to clarify my thoughts. I am excited for the move back to the mainland specifically because I am going to start looking into Masters programs. I gave myself (in my mind) a two year break before I would start my masters. So I better get on it.

All this takes me back to a time when I used to thrive on five and ten year plans. I have yet to fail to accomplish anything on these lists. Although in 2003 I made the goal on my 10 year plan to be published within 10 years. Not a book necessarily but an article at least. I don't think this goal is unrealistic I just need to continue to work on it.

When I look back at the books that made me love the escape or reading the specifc title that comes to mind is King Arthur. I must have been a nerd my entire life. I remember as a child I loved everything medevil. It started in second grade when the theme of that year was the medeval era. I remember when we first moved to the United States when I was in fourth grade my obsession for the kind Arthur story started. There were only 5 different stories for king Arthur in that library and I remember I would borrow them over and over again and just reread them. They all had rather drastic differences but I loved it. I think I will start collecting King Arthurs now. How thankful I will always be for king Arthur (that sounds absurd but I don't care).
For those who took the time to read this I would deeply appreciate a list either commented or emails with your top ten or however many you want to put. I loved to read and I believe a persons taste in books is a great indication of their personality. So either comment them or email them to me so I can have some titles I can trust.

Miriam