My New Do

 Check out my new hair style. (There are actually 4 braids.) Thank you hair stylist Alyssa.  I am expecting great things every night of VBS!  I slept in it and spent the next day at the water park and it was still in place.  That's my kind of island hairdo!

Breakfast of Champions

Perry was so excited for his island breakfast!  Island breakfast staples are hotdog (yes, I know I left off the "s" after use my plural verb...here they only say hotdog), SPAM, and rice.  Personally, I had been craving SPAM-fried-rice for a few months now.  I may have to go to Shirley's (think Denny's) and order it!

When I lived in Guam, I was a school counselor at an elementary school.  The school was considered "south" Guam where the "locals" live.  I was the only haole (white person) in the entire school. We are talking 700 students, faculty, and staff.  The teachers were always cooking in their classrooms...breakfast AND lunch.  I ate a lot of SPAM fried rice during those days.

Speaking of SPAM, I learned tonight that probably many of you didn't know there are multiple flavors of SPAM.  Here is a picture of the K-mart collection which is probably a lot less than the island grocery stores. I am making it a big picture so you can read that there are flavors such as Jalapeno, Garlic, Teryaki, Black Pepper (which is probably one of my favorites), etc.

Whew.

I'm beat.  I feel like I have been preparing for the band trip all over again...as I'm really just preparing for my churches youth retreat this weekend which is about 75 fewer people.  In the last 4 days I have written 3 youth sermons along with their corresponding powerpoints, video segments, and small group worksheets.  I also prepared six devotionals for our quiet times at the retreat.  Then I had to make all the copies and stuff the folders.  Eventually it dawned on me that I needed a Father's Day sermon for Sunday so I wrote that today...I'm sure my dad will appreciate the pictures I have put of him in the PowerPoint! (Here's an example. He's lucky that all my really good pics are on my computer at home!)

Basically, I put the above paragraph in so that you don't think I just sit on the beach all day.  (Speaking of beaches, I just read an article regarding the radiation in the water from the Japan tsunami a few years back--maybe I'm going to just skip the ocean for the next 10 years and swim in hotel pools instead.)  

But to Susan who fears I may not spending enough playing and too much time working...here's a bit of island beauty for you....

The Break In....

I had "one of those days" on Saturday. If home hadn't been 8000+ miles a day, I just might have hopped back on an airplane. (Well, there's the distance and the whole I hate to fly thing.)

A couple of guys from the Philippines are traveling to visit all the Naz churches in Micronesia. Since they were beating me to Guam, they let themselves into the house.  I arrived at midnight before they needed to leave for the airport at 5am.  I told them to just return all the keys in case my personal set of keys didn't have everything I needed on them.  When I woke up on Saturday morning, I discovered on 2 of the 3 needed keys were there.  The missing key is the only one that unlocked the outside
screen door.

I wiggled the door.  That didn't work.
I wiggled the door harder.  Still didn't work.
I circled the parsonage looking for an open window. Nothing.
I beat on a few windows. They didn't pop open.
I tried the front door....and the back door....nothing.
I emailed the pastor in the states hoping someone had a key.  He did...on his keychain...IN the house.

The only logical thing to do at this point is bust out my criminal skills and BREAK IN.  I was a little worried about somebody calling the cops. Thankfully, it was 6:30am. However, it was daylight and the last time I had to break in to something around here was well after sunset.  (See post from July 8, 2012 for more details on that adventure.)  Also, the parsonage is known for random break-ins.  One a few months ago (hence the all the extra locks around here) and one when I was living on island (they stole jewelry, computers, and my friend Ben's Rav4 that he left at the parsonage because he felt it would be safer than leaving at his apartment while he was off island.) This gives me an idea....

I recall the break in of late December 2006.  I recall the details of how the criminal entered the parsonage.  Would it still work!?  No way...surely in the 7 1/2 years since that break-in someone has fixed the slight glitch in the parsonage.  I take a chair the side window...and wah-la...it opens!

Now for a ladder....

Looking back, it would have much easier to have sent Perry inside, but I wasn't really thinking.  I was thirsty.  I needed toilet paper.  I just wanted INSIDE.

Up the ladder I climbed and down onto the dryer, I fell.

And the side window of the parsonage that someone should have blocked years ago....I did that too.

The Flight

If you know me...I HATE to fly. If I could think of a stronger word than hate right now, I'd use it.  There is one small thing that can help when I'm flying--flying on an airline without USA roots.  No offense to the good ole Red, White, & Blue, but airlines based in that country are terrible.  However, airlines without their roots in the United States have service, good food (lots of food actually...including ice cream and chocolate bars), and MOVIES!  (Yes, other airlines have movies, but they are usually on a set repeating schedule...and the sound is usually broken.  This airlines had 200+ movies.)

I had been dying to see the movie Saving, Mr. Banks.  Of course, my local movie theatre never brings the one movie a year I want to see.  I had anxiously awaited the day it was to play at the McSwain Theatre--only to be given State Band Solo and Ensemble times that put us home too late. But finally...on my dreaded fight I was able to watch the most anticipated movie (for me) of last year!  But that isn't even the best part. The best part is that they also were showing Mary Poppins which I played immediately after Saving, Mr. Banks.  Of course, I sang every word (hopefully to myself or the poor Japanese lady and gentlemen on each side or me had a most miserable flight).  And then what did I do...played it all over again...and again!  Until...

Perry discovered that Phineas and Ferb was also playing....

Happy Halloween!

 It was a spooky day in Thursday's Halloween Rehearsal.   Guys, you are required to shave before the court show.

I must admit, that I'm curious to what Kai, Michael, Eric, and Andrew are looking at...hmmmm....And C-baby is certainly acting like himself.

Band gang sign

While in Lawton with the color guard,  what do we find as a decorative piece in our hotel room? A statue of the band gang sign! (F#\ b-natural)