Just Another Dental Emergency. (Sigh.) WARNING: GROSS PICTURES INCLUDED!

Everyone knows I can't have an island stay without some kind of medical/dental emergency. (Every. Single. Year.) There's been several rounds of Shrek Disease, Guam Flu, the crazy island rash--face edition, the crazy island rash--legs edition, and on and on and on. I just knew by having Covid when I should have originally came to the islands, I was scaring away the normal mishaps. Obviously not.

I'm just minding my own business (perhaps having a small slice of 7D Dried Mango) when I felt something hard swishing around with the mango in my mouth. Either I got a bad mango or something really bad just happened. Unfortunately it was the latter.

I was so upset.  Why do I have to have such terrible teeth!? Why?  (For the record, this happens to be one of my Shrek Disease Teeth.) I attended a short course at MDS (Messenger Dental School) with my dentist on how to DYI my crown until my return in case I couldn't get in to a dentist.  Super glue may have been involved.

On Tuesday, I was pretty positive I needed to see a dentist because the crown didn't seem right and I wasn't too keen on supergluing something to my mouth for them just to pry out later.  Sure enough, Dr Island Dentist said it wasn't going to work.  

It's funny how things work. Just earlier that day I was praying to God that I really needed the motivation to lose a few pounds. (I'm not looking good in these pictures and had quite a few buffets in Saipan--and ate a lot with Covid.  But the food is sooooo good here.)  So just a few hours later, God made a way that forces me to eat really, really slowly and my mouth gets so tired and exhausted I don't eat much.  Perfect.  😂  (The first 60+ hours, there were sharp points that cut my tongue with any movement--talking or swallowing.  During that time I still had VBS and a women's retreat--lots of talking. All the talking made my mouth very painful.  The dentist smoothed it out a bit to help it not be so painful, but it's still so cut up from the first few days that it makes eating difficult.)

For the freaks out there who want to see the pictures, here ya go....

The love crater in the back 24+ hours after it happened.
The orange you see means there has been a root canal. (See what I learned in dental school?)

I'm slightly down in my princess powers without this crown.

Rocky Railway VBS

I didn't give a daily play by play for VBS because...well....I was just too tired every night! (And by day, Perry and I had to explore.)  

This year's VBS theme was Rocky Railway VBS where we traveled by steam engine through the rocky mountains.  On our adventure, kids discover that trusting Jesus pulls them through life's ups and downs.  We spent the week exploring the power of God.  

We had 31 kids attend.  (This was AWESOME because they hadn't had more than five kids on a Sunday in more than a year. Dumb pandemic.)  We had 17 youth helpers.  I am pretty sure the youth are the most excited of all about VBS! We also had at least 10 adults each night.  Kids were fed a full meal for five days straight, which is very important too.  It felt so great to be back.  

Sunday VBS Service hotdogs and ice cream

BUBBLES! 

The youth work really hard.
We all no there's no tired like VBS tired.

Each night the youth had pre-VBS basketball.

Singing songs in the sanctuary.

The youth love motions too.

It was so good to have a house full again! 

The Many Braids of Laura, 2022 Edition

It wouldn't be a time in Guam without many girls braiding my hair.  (Oh to have the do my hair every single day!!!)

When You Don't Have an Underwater Camera

You know the water is clear when you get really great pictures of underwater creatures out of the water! 

This area is known for the blue star fish...

Another popular creatures, the moray eel  (For the record, I hate eels!  I find them creepier than snakes.)

And when I was in the water, I met a crazed parrot fish. I'm walking out in to the water (not quite waist deep) when something hit my let.  I jumped, startled, and then continued my journey.  Thud. Again! I look down and I'm a standoff with a fish.  I try to take step forward. Thud.  He just runs straight into me.  I take a step back, the fish relaxes. I try to go forward...thud. The fish just kept swimming around and around this specific area as if it was guarding something, and I wasn't allowed to cross.  (I'm guessing maybe it had laid eggs?)  If I tried to cross, it would "attack." I found it rather amusing and perhaps tortured the creature a bit more than I needed to by acting like I was going to cross. But just in case his best fried was a shark, I decided to go another way. 

Nikko Hotel

Another favorite spot of mine is Nikko Hotel.  Back when I was rich I had a membership at this hotel.  (Oh maybe that was "Back when it was $100/year, I had a membership at the hotel." I think it's in the the thousands now, so by saying I had a membership at the hotel, I sound rich!  And by membership, it meant I could use the pool.)

A trip to Guam is never complete without at least a day at the Nikko.  Sadly, I wasn't able to use my normal "sneaking in to hotel pool" skills because Nikko now requires the guests to have a bracelet to swim.  (How rude!) So I had to be a law-abiding citizen and use their beach chairs instead.  😂  (Actually, I'm not sure that's legit either, BUT no one was using them. Therefore, I wasn't keeping any hotel guests from the honor.)

Here are the Top 5 Reasons I love the place so much! 

They have a great table for me to do my Bible study without getting sandy...

And the view of the pool and gardens are amazing. (Even when you can't get in. Sigh.)

There are great hiking trails around the cliff line...

And a really marvelous view at the top of the trails...

See those four empty chairs in the middle? That's where I spent my time

And then a pretty good view from one of those beach chairs! :) 

Ritidian Beach

 With VBS underway, I felt like I was able to escape a bit and enjoy the beach.  So let's just start out big and go to Ritidian Beach! On the way to the beach, I noticed really tall fences and many construction projects.  It turns out the "military buildup" this island has been talking about for years is finally starting to happen. The Marines are coming!

Ritidian Beach is at Ritidian Point which is the northern most tip of Guam.  It is owned by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  It's known for the most amazing view heading down to the beach, the white sand beaches, and butterflies.  You can also find some ancient cave markings as well.  

For a platypus, Perry doesn't really spend a lot of time in the water.
He kept Shan company

So beautiful!

Perry takes selfies too.

So clear.

There black spots are butterflies--it's just a really bad picture. :/ 

I don't go to this beach nearly enough because "it's so far"...and it's kind of remote and I generally use a little sense and don't go to those beaches alone.  But it is absolutely gorgeous.  (And you can see the island of Rota!)

Perry Calls a Workday

 After a grueling 25 minute flight between Saipan and Guam (hey--when you hate to fly, they're all grueling!), we got IMMEDIATELY to work decorating for VBS.  Over the years, it's generally been a small team decorating.  Just Perry and me.  (Except when I had Ashley with me---or I would call Ben and beg for help--or force Pastor Rex and Tisoy to help me during their days.)  But this year--we had a huge team of youth helping.  It was a blast, and we finished in seven hours.  SEVEN HOURS!  I should have them helping every year!

Like in all the worlds I reside, the drums still distract people from the task at hand...

So you just have to say, "I need you to go make a train to fit in that tunnel."  Then all the boys go lock themselves in a room (and only come out to get very strange supplies).  Though I did get one picture of the work in progress...

But they really did great work...

And we ended up with a wonderfully decorated stage and Sunday School Building! (Somehow, I didn't get pictures of most of the building. Oops.)