Photos from our quick trip home to Portland

I didn't take too many photos on our trip to Portland... but here are a few of my favorites from our week.  

Chantry & Amy

Silly niece!

Best of friends.  So sweet of her to fly out.  

:-)

Father and Son...

~Family~

Goofy nephew!

Oh Steve... :-)

Sisters

S & L

L & I  had such a fun shopping day with these girls!  I can't believe how grown-up they are now!

E & D

So nice of Daryl to come over also!

Saying goodbye.  :-(

G & G came up also... sorry for the fuzzy photo, it's the only one I have!  Didn't have much time together, but we snuck in a quick breakfast together on Saturday morning!  

A special, unexpected surprise to get to give Mom and Dad a squeeze while we were there too!!  They were in Boise for Christmas, and changed their plans to come over for the funeral.  Mom's blog has more details on their trip.  

And finally... we came home to a kitty cat who has a new favorite perch... :-)  

Nice to be back home in Kwaj, but so glad we could go home to Portland for the week too. 

A day in the life of...

Good evenin' dear readers. A few of you suggested as a blog topic to describe what our typical schedules entail.  As I lay here pondering how best to go about this post... "Do I write separate blogs for my schedule vs. Peter's?  Should I post an hourly schedule?..." I'm realizing it's going to end up being a bit more obtuse than I originally planned.  Ah, well.  :-)

Peter's schedule is much easier to write about than mine.  Not because his life is easier, it's just more structured!  Tuesday through Saturday he works from 7:00 to 4:30 with a 1/2 hour lunch break around 11:30 that he usually pedals his long 2 minute commute home for.  Our weekends on the island are Sunday and Monday.  This causes the island "workweek" to coincide with the Monday-Friday workweek in the states.  (Remember, we are a day ahead of most of you folks...)

My schedule however is quite variable.  Oh, to be island fluff.  :-)  It's a rough life.

Tuesday is my BIG day.  Some of us "fluff" ladies have a scheduled dive at 9am.  We meet at Emon Beach, plunk in the water for awhile, and then I try to be home in time to whip up something fantastic for my hubby at 11:30. After he leaves to go back to work, I clean up and then head over to the Post Office around 12:30.  I volunteer there on Tuesday and Thursday (when my schedule allows). ;-)  I'll help sort mail and packages until 3:30 or thereabouts then head home to grab my grocery bags and book it to the grocery store.  You see, the same plane that brings our mail on Tuesday, also brings our weekly fresh fruits and vegges.  :-)  The plane arrives at 10am, and usually the shelves are stocked by 3:30.  So you see my logic here?  If I time it just right, I can get my mail first and first pick of the fresh food!  :-)  After stocking up on the necessities, I'll head home and can typically make it back before Peter gets home.  Then dinner (we eat pretty early) and a leisurely evening together.  Tonight was a little different since some of our friends who are bowling on a league are out-of-town and their teammates asked us to fill in.  It was good fun, but oooh boy do I stink at bowling!!

Wednesday is much less hectic.  In fact, my schedule on Tuesday is as rough as it gets for me.  :)  The only thing actually booked for Wednesday is another fluff dive.  We meet at 1:30pm at Emon Beach and spend a bit more quality time underwater in the lagoon.  Peter and I also have our bible study on Wednesday nights around 7pm.  However, often the IT group does their server updates on Wednesday night, so if Peter has to work late on Wednesday we will have our study on Thursday.

Thursday another plane arrives from Honolulu, but this one just brings people and mail.  Thus I'm back at the P.O. after lunch sorting and sorting and sorting.  No dives are scheduled for this day, however the end of P's pay-period is always on Thursday, so if he has hours to comp we will usually grab a late afternoon dive when he gets off work.

Friday is a completely boring day.  I love it.  :)  Usually I try to catch up on laundry on Friday.  Sometimes I'll even get a bee in my bonnet and actually clean the house.  

Saturday is prep for the weekend.  I try to bake on Saturday so when we are diving over the weekend we'll have delicious calories to keep us going.  :-)  Often we'll get a 5pm scooter dive in after Peter gets off work too.

Sunday we have our fellowship meeting in the morning at 10am.  We typically spend the rest of the afternoon in the water.  Sometimes we'll go out on a boat so we can dive either oceanside or at some of the wreck locations otherwise we'll just haul our gear out and get some shore diving in.

Monday is much of the same.  We enjoy sleeping in (when possible... remember the cat?) and usually don't dive until 10am or so.  This past Monday we were able to squeeze three shore dives in and even made it home in time to throw together some Turkey Pumpkin Chili for a birthday dinner for a friend of ours!  :-)

Ok, 'nuf about us.  How about you?!  Send us a line (or leave a comment) and let us know what you're up to?

House Pictures

Ooftah.  It's been almost a month to-the-day since our last update!  Much has happened... here's our life in bullet points for the past month:

- Dec. 19th - Fly to Portland/Vancouver for Peter's mother's funeral

- Dec. 25th - Begin the long flight home

- Dec. 27th - Arrive home on Kwaj

- Dec. 29th - Friends Ben and Anna Byrd arrive

- Jan. 3rd - Friends (and Ministers) Bob and Larry arrive

- Jan. 10th - Bob and Larry depart  :-(

- Jan. 16th - Ben and Anna depart  :-(

If you read between the lines you'll know there was MUCH activity accomplished during that timeframe.  Suffice for now to say it involved: sweet fellowship, diving, bowling, eating, visiting Ebeye, sleeping in, diving, eating, boating, snorkeling, golf cart tours, beach bar-b-que, diving, pool, foosball, biking, diving... you get the idea, right?

Now I'll share some photos I took before we left of our humble abode.  Hopefully it'll give you some sense of our space and where we spend our evenings! :-)

Dining room - The window looks out on our back patio.  The kitchen is to the right in this photo and the living room is behind the picture-taker.  

Shells.  :)  

Looking into the living room from the front door.  We had JUST gotten all new furniture before we left; it's quite nice! (Thanks to the Army.)  Oh, fiddlesticks (hah! my mom used to say that!) my photo is already out-dated... since this photo was taken I have some pictures hanging on the walls.

Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Back of the house - the door on the left enters into the laundry room and then kitchen.  The lower level windows on the right look into the dining room.  The upper level windows on the right are in the guest bedroom and the small window on the left is in the bathroom.  

Peter's primary mode of transport.  (Although currently not functional due to a broken pedal.)

Marissa's primary mode of transport... in desperate need of a new chain!  

Kitchen space... with our luggage all packed and ready to go!  Mind you, the large suitcase on the right was empty (with another empty suitcase inside of it).  We managed to fill them both with Costco purchases to bring back with us... including 12 pounds of coffee!  That should last us another 6 months.  :-)

Now that I'm re-reading this post, I realize I'm missing a picture of the guest bedroom.  Bah!  Ok, picture a small room with laminate floor, one twin bed (with a yellow comforter), one (brand-new!) double bed (with a lime green comforter) and a desk.  There you have it.  :-)  It's nothing lavish, but we'll do our best to make sure you're comfortable when you come!