tada!

YAY!!! we received all of our stuff! yes, our computer is here! i don't even know where to start; in regards to a photo update...... i guess you should check my facebook first. a bit easier...... but i guess i'll post a few photos to give this blog a little umph.....

so where to begin........... i guess at the beginning.

so this is our resort stay.....

view from our hotel balcony, not too bad, huh?

exploring the island.....

golden carabao

tree snake catcher

at jeff's pirate's cove..... a cool touristy bar.......

our base house, soon to be "home".......

"um, i guess we'll take this one...."

our single red bow......

ooh, the rental car....

living room, pre-delivery & pre-paint.....

dining room.... for now.

the shell lights in the bathroom, think we'll keep em

how pretty.... um....

and jump ahead..... here we are at a new year's party...... thanks shane....

time for bed.....

SO glad to be back, i love the feeling of "home"...... it makes such a difference. jeff & i are watching one of our favorite artist dvd's, "the run up" & we have music streaming & a quick online hook-up, a belly full of yummy dinner, glass of wine..... how great! so there's our glimpse into guam. part 1.

home is a day away

so excited to share that our household goods are being delivered tomorrow!!! i am so surprised at how quickly it got here! even our car arrived on island earlier than expected. which is the biggest relief seeing as rental car rates can really add up. so the two shipments that i thought would take the longest were in fact so quick & our "quick" shipment is still MIA...... although my mother-in-law, through numerous phone calls, found out that it should be on the island today! i'm still working on getting info here on my end..... no one likes to answer the phone over at navy TMO. but i'm feeling very excited to make our house feel like our home again!!!
in other news, jeff is photography-ing away now! he's doing really well in the office, seeing as the only 2 photographers there are right out of tech school..... 2 others just deployed, leaving an already undermanned office even more so. but jeff's doing very well & even is considered the head of the photography department now.
so things are good. i can't believe how fast time goes, i've been seeing all my other blog family & friends reflective posts on their 2009 experiences & it leads me to think about how crazy our year has been. certainly hasn't been boring at all. but i'll leave the details for another post, one where i can share photos!!! and the fact that a decade has just ended, it blows my mind to think back to 2000 & all that has happened since then, personally & universally.
i have a feeling that 2010 is going to be another exciting year, already full of changes & potential.
ok, next blog post i bet will be from MY COMPUTER!!!! here's hoping!!!

dear dinfos,

i have so much i want to share, pics, a long lengthy (hopefully not boring) post about our experiences since moving to guam, BUT..... still no computer. so back to the heading of this blog.... it all began when jeff was at his tech school (which they call dinfos- defense information school) & about 1/2 of his class gradutated without orders. which for those who are not militarily (?) inclined is not really supposed to happen. jeff finally recieved his orders the day before we got on the plane for guam & that is the main reason why that after 2 months we're still waiting on our "quick" shipment. which has my computer!!!!
i can't wait until we can finally get settled. & i think i've worn out all the clothes that i could fit into my one suitcase. i've never been very good about packing for a trip, but i think through this i've learned a valuable lesson...... "you can never have enough clean underwear" is not the best advice to base packing a suitcase on. i have yet to run out of underwear, which don't get me wrong, is awesome, but i have been wearing the same 2 pairs of shorts for 2 months now. which is pretty gross.
oh besides our computer, i also really, REALLY need a vacuum. our carpet is grosser than my shorts. tomorrow is our "deliver no later than" date. fingers crossed we'll have our things by next week.
so to wrap it up, thanks dinfos for making this 1st PCS the most interesting experience it could be. in all honesty i think we've learned so much from this & my level of appreciation & gratitude has grown.
signing out now. until the next library visit, or quick shipment delivery........

HoHoHo

Happy Holidays!

I have so much I want to share & update, but don't have the time or our computer (for photos) yet. Just wanted to send a quick, but none the less meaningful, seasonal greeting!

no nuts this year

i really can't believe it is almost christmas time. could that be because it's so hot & tropical here, or most likely that i'm not in a tutu & pink tights hearing waltz of the flowers for the umpteenth time? it really hit me the other day, that i am unemployed. this is both good & bad..... good because i literally could do whatever i want whenever i want (with some understandable exceptions) & bad because whatever i want whenever i want mostly revolves around running errands, cleaning house, watching tv & going to the gym. not so glamourous. missing that sugar plum schedule right about now. i'm gonna try to remind myself that it's still winter & christmas & new years are all right around the corner, even though i haven't heard a single note from nutcracker & i'm wearing shorts & flip flops..... oh & maybe the biggest christmas celebration obstacle we face is that the schultze house is seriously lacking decorations...... no tree, no lights, no wreath..... just a sad little red bow. but i like that bow & it's our start, our new guam life. and in all honesty it really is hard to feel like celebrating when your family is halfway across the world. that is a difficult reality to face. but there will be visits, oh yes, there will be visits.... it's just a matter of time. (and $)
in other news, our car is on the island! been to the dmv twice now (my new guam drivers license & our temporary driving permit) only one more time to go...... to register the car officially.
& all i really want for christmas this year is our computer!! it's on it's way!!

at least it's not algebra

i am horrible at math. no really, i am that embarassed person who has to count on her fingers to do basic addition..... being here in guam has made me feel like we're living in a math problem......
if jeff and amy would like their hotel room temperature to be 76 degrees fahrenheit and the thermometer reads 28 degrees celsius, how many times do they push the little button to make the AC turn on? oh & this word problem is also a great headache inducer...... if amy needs to call the states and reach someone tuesday evening around 6pm EST, what time would she need to call when calling from guam?
it's not too bad, i think i'm figuring it out....
in other news, we have a house now! i'm excited to move in & get settled!

we made it!

yay! we're here in guam!! it's beautiful!! still in the 1st phase of getting settled..... house hunting, jeff's in-processing, using the wonderful services offered by uso...... wink, wink.
can't decide if we want to live on base or off..... i really like 2 of the places we saw today, but i'm concerned about the distance (it's only about 10-15 mins from base, but with one car, that's alot of trips in a day) there are more pros & cons for both sides, & i think we're leaning more toward base housing, but still undecided......
love staying at the resort right now, but will really like finding our place.
i'll post some pics whenever we get our computer, which might be a while considering all of our things are still sitting in our florida apt with no ship date in sight.
overall, guam - two thumbs up! i think we're really gonna love our time here!

ORDERS

jeff just got his orders!

from island 1 to island 2

so close to the move.......

from here........

to here.....

countdown to insanity

we are one grand jeté from a flight to guam & still no orders. i'm having issues because..... A. we have no scheduled move date for movers to come get our stuff, so we're paying rent & utilities for a vacant-ish apartment. B. we will stop receiving BAH as soon as we sign onto base housing in guam. C. we can only take 3 checked bags without paying a fee because our first flight is on a different airline taking us back to jeff's "duty station" - it is not an international flight & usairways was sucky on the phone about our "situation". welcome to the military huh. so awesome. i just hope we can get reimbursed for BAH if we have to pay rent for the rest of this month & if we have to pay to check some bags, which we will most likely have to do because i'm not sure i can live out of 1 shared suitcase until dec 30...... in case you're wondering the other 2 checked bags are jeff's uniforms. so i have to find the biggest suitcase ever (not too big because airlines will charge you for that too) in order to fit the rest of our clothes, records & papers, toiletries, shoes..... i think we can make it work, just at a place right now where i just have to vent.

i will learn to live minimally. it's ok. it'll be kinda nice to not have to worry about stuff. right now we are cluttered with stuff- stuff in storage piles, stuff in HHG piles..... so much stuff to sort through. i guess this "situation" is a blessing. in disguise.

joys (aka deliriums) of moving

ah the moving preparations..... the house is a crazy mess. still no orders. but we had an "awesome" yard sale on saturday.... only lost $13. to explain, the ad in the paper cost $26 & we made a whopping $13, so.... oh well. not entirely a bust, we had lots of laughs & allowed boredom to influence our already silly tendencies.....

waiting.......

trying to fit into the bottom of our tv hutch.....

so after moving the majority of all our sale items back inside, we hung out until it was time to party halloween style...... jen had us all over to her house & then we went to the coast to toast.

the artist & the grafitti

me and adam ant (mr. todd eric allen, my boss)

jen & amanda messin

passport success

so i didn't want to leave anyone (the 2 of you who have read my posts) in suspense regarding my passport situation....... i just got back from base & i have BOTH my civi passport & my no-fee passport! yay! now if only we had orders.

graduation

yay! jeff graduated today! we've had an awesome weekend, went to see where the wild things are, saw built to spill in concert, went to 18th street lounge, ate tapas, bought some furniture at ikea, rode the dc metro, dodged the rain...... we had fun!
his graduation ceremony was great, they showed a slideshow of all the students photos, cool stuff! jeff is done with outprocessing, BUT, HE STILL DOESN'T HAVE ORDERS!!!! i can't believe it! how are we gonna ship our car, get tmo to schedule packing..... ugh.
well, we're gonna be heading back to florida later this week to pack, visit family, etc. we have our tickets booked to get back up here in hopes that by that time, we'll have orders & can get on a plane for guam, with or without our stuff......

here are some photos of our visit..... with our sweet nephews, who will be even bigger, cuter terrors the next time we see them! love them!!

jeff after his last formation at det 2

where the wild things are (aka nephew one)

with little baby nephew & his momma

driving back from a wine tasting out in the VA country - loved the cold, wet, foggy fall weather, very different from guam

someone pinch me

TODAY! today i'm going to see jeff! we have the weekend together & then next week we'll be making our way back home..... TOGETHER! i get my husband back, after 9 months apart!
on another note, i'm really enjoying the freezing, wet weather of the north (northern south, so i can't complain too much, but it's not florida) getting a good taste of the season before moving to a seasonless island...... but honestly, i haven't seen fall in 6 years, the trees are incredible, the crisp air, i love it! well, i've survived without seasons for this long, what's 2 more years? taking it in while i can..... going to put on a sweater & my rain boots!!!

sad farewells

yesterday was my last day at work. "work". how lucky i've been. i am so blessed to have such incredible people in my life. these past 5 years have been incredible & i'm gonna miss my 2nd home so much.

my middle schoolers threw me a party on thurs, complete with a beautiful cupcake cake, thoughtful gifts & letters. one of my students made me a pillow & the students all signed it & then after i had opened the gift, they all passed around the pillow to hug it ...... "now ms. amy whenever you hug this pillow, it's like you're getting a hug from each one of us." wow. pushing back the tears now.

then during company class, todd finished early & they broke out the sparkling grape juice & we shared a toast to new beginnings..... i hate that it has to end.

yesterday, we had a little party where all the students signed a t-shirt for me & we watched videos & played ddr. i love my students! they are a very very special bunch.

so now, i have my t-shirt, my cards, my flowers, my pictures, but the best gift of all is the past 5 years. the bond i have with these students, the teachers, all of NFB! i will miss them so very much, but i have so many memories and maybe one day i'll be back.......

rubies

had so much fun this past saturday! the ballet had a fundraiser at a jewelry store, "wine & rubies".... in celebration of our 40th year! & guess who got to model the most beautiful jewels? of course, yours personally & my two sidekicks. jen had on a necklace that cost over 100,000! amanda's necklace was 80,000, mine was cheap compared..... only 22,000! but i had 80,000 worth of diamonds in my ears! it was AWESOME! but so hard to part with the jewelry at the end of the night! here are the highlights.....

posing it up

diva who?

kimalee & i

do we have to?

in case you can't see..... it says $80,000

the goods.......

my good friend & old roomie on SYTYCD

to quote

”No, I can't explain the dance to you;

if I could tell you what it meant,

there would be no point in dancing it.”

- Isadora Duncan

3 years and 7 months ago

a blast from the past......

engagement photos 06, a year after we met

we met in march 05 & talked marriage in may

got engaged in august & then married the following july