After my temp job ended in October, I was happily unemployed throughout November, staying quite busy volunteering at our Officers' Spouse's Club Gift Shop and doing other things here & there. Thinking there really wasnt much else out here for me, I recently put in my application to substitute teach at the school and I did that a couple days this past week too - to my surprise, I actually really like kids! haha.
But being a sub isnt the dream job I was talking about.
I went to Guam Interview #8 or so today (#3 with this particular company) and came out a WINNER!! I got my dream job here in Guam! Who woulda thunk it. It's a HR Generalist position for the base operations support contractor - though the job itself is actually at its head office downtown, making it the same drive that I had for my 2 month temp job - 10 miles/30 minutes, not too bad. I am SOOO incredibly thrilled about this opportunity. I interviewed for 2 other positions for the same company and the interviewers told the CFO great things about me and my education/experience and the HR department called me up to come in for an "interview" today and they basically made a HR position for me. Talk about feeling BLESSED.
I am very happy that my HR career will continue, that I will continue to grow and learn in a great company, and that my choice to choose HR for my masters degree focus area was a smart move because indeed it is a relatively "portable" military spouse career. We are still discussing a start date, but it looks like Monday, December 14. Merry Christmas! Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support during these last 4 months. I just completed Beth Moore's Bible study of Esther - all about how God has a plan for me and it's all in His timing - ummmm YEAH. I told myself this all along my job search and I am so humbled and happy to have seen His hand throughout the entire process.
WOOHOO!!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Trip to Cairns, Australia
On the evening of Thanksgiving Day, Andrew & I took a fairly quick 4.5 hour flight to and spent 4 days in Cairns, Australia (northeast Australia - where the Great Barrier Reef meets the Rainforest). Because Continental flies directly from Guam to Cairns, they have GREAT package deals that include hotel + airfare at prices we could not miss out on. We took a ton of pictures and posted many on kodakgallery.com - if I did not already send you the links to our photos and you're interested, leave a comment or email me and I'll email them right over! But in the mean time, here's a quick overview of our FABULOUSLY AMAZING trip!!
We stayed at a 4 star hotel, The Hotel Cairns. The staff was amazing, the complimentary breakfast (also included in our package) was delicious, our room was really clean and modern, the location was just 2 blocks away from the Esplanade/where everything is...Could not have asked for a better place to stay.
Andrew on the aforementioned Esplanade. We spent a lot of Day 1 walking around the Esplanade (where a lot of shops/eateries are) and just touring the area.
We went to the Night Market a couple of times - it was great if we wanted touristy knicknacks (which we didnt) but it was a fun experience nonetheless.
Another great thing about our hotel was that it offered complimentary use (well, you had to pay a small fee for insurance) of a Smart Car for a day! We took advantage of that on Day 2 to travel all around the area.
In fact, we chose the convertible Smart Car. It was such a thrill - especially considering Andrew had to drive on the opposite side of all the twisty-turny roads to get to where we wanted to go...
We first drove to the Kuranda. There were many outlooks to stop at along the way. What a gorgeous view!
The Kuranda is the "Village in the Rainforest" - a lot of the experience is riding in the train or skyrail, but since we had use of the car and I had other places in mind to visit while we were in that area, we chose to drive. While we were at the Kuranda we stopped at a lot of the little shops they had there and then went in to BirdWorld! We got to see and feed the native & exotic beautiful birds. Here I am with one of my favorite - Eclectus Parrot, otherwise known to me as Candy Corn Nose.
One of the main reasons for driving was to go to the tiny town (if you blink you miss it, seriously) of Mount Molloy to try "the best hamburger in the world." HOLY COW the burgers were huge!! (Mine was a regular burger, Andrew got his "with the lot" - whatever that means...) Indeed, they were quite tasty!
Then we continued North to Port Douglas, known mainly for its shopping and beaches. The beaches were really gorgeous - we got our 5th annual "Piggyback Picture on the Beach"!
Then we walked all the way down to the other end of the road - past all the shopping - and found another beach. Isnt this shot absolutely breathtaking?! It looks so fake, but we just used the self timer on our camera around sunset.
On Day 3 we went SCUBA DIVING ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF!! What an AMAZING adventure! Dont have pictures developed from the underwater camera yet though. 
The water was SO beautiful - the color difference is where the Reef is. Most of the beautiful fish and coral were at about 30 feet below.
So glad the company we went with gave us wetsuits! We dont have to wear them in Guam because the water here is so warm, but it was definitely chilly in Australia!
We stayed at a 4 star hotel, The Hotel Cairns. The staff was amazing, the complimentary breakfast (also included in our package) was delicious, our room was really clean and modern, the location was just 2 blocks away from the Esplanade/where everything is...Could not have asked for a better place to stay.
Andrew on the aforementioned Esplanade. We spent a lot of Day 1 walking around the Esplanade (where a lot of shops/eateries are) and just touring the area.
We went to the Night Market a couple of times - it was great if we wanted touristy knicknacks (which we didnt) but it was a fun experience nonetheless.
Another great thing about our hotel was that it offered complimentary use (well, you had to pay a small fee for insurance) of a Smart Car for a day! We took advantage of that on Day 2 to travel all around the area.
In fact, we chose the convertible Smart Car. It was such a thrill - especially considering Andrew had to drive on the opposite side of all the twisty-turny roads to get to where we wanted to go...
We first drove to the Kuranda. There were many outlooks to stop at along the way. What a gorgeous view!
The Kuranda is the "Village in the Rainforest" - a lot of the experience is riding in the train or skyrail, but since we had use of the car and I had other places in mind to visit while we were in that area, we chose to drive. While we were at the Kuranda we stopped at a lot of the little shops they had there and then went in to BirdWorld! We got to see and feed the native & exotic beautiful birds. Here I am with one of my favorite - Eclectus Parrot, otherwise known to me as Candy Corn Nose.
One of the main reasons for driving was to go to the tiny town (if you blink you miss it, seriously) of Mount Molloy to try "the best hamburger in the world." HOLY COW the burgers were huge!! (Mine was a regular burger, Andrew got his "with the lot" - whatever that means...) Indeed, they were quite tasty!
Then we continued North to Port Douglas, known mainly for its shopping and beaches. The beaches were really gorgeous - we got our 5th annual "Piggyback Picture on the Beach"!
Then we walked all the way down to the other end of the road - past all the shopping - and found another beach. Isnt this shot absolutely breathtaking?! It looks so fake, but we just used the self timer on our camera around sunset.
On Day 3 we went SCUBA DIVING ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF!! What an AMAZING adventure! Dont have pictures developed from the underwater camera yet though.
It took about 2 hours to boat out to the reef - we sat on the top deck of the boat.
The water was SO beautiful - the color difference is where the Reef is. Most of the beautiful fish and coral were at about 30 feet below.
So glad the company we went with gave us wetsuits! We dont have to wear them in Guam because the water here is so warm, but it was definitely chilly in Australia!
Day 4 was spent walking around Cairns one last time and then we headed to the Zoo!
Every day on this trip was my favorite for different reasons - Day 4 was my favorite because I GOT TO CUDDLE A KOALA!!! :) The photog at the Zoo was really nice - she took pictures with our digital camera after taking the professional one of just me that we had to pay for. The koala's name is Piper, she just hung around like that in my arms - koalas are pretty lazy, they sleep about 21 hours of the day!
We also got to feed the kangaroos which was a cool experience too!
We relaxed, we had FUN, the weather was so nice, we saw a ton - all in all, we decided our trip to Australia was the "BEST TRIP EVER (so far)"!
Every day on this trip was my favorite for different reasons - Day 4 was my favorite because I GOT TO CUDDLE A KOALA!!! :) The photog at the Zoo was really nice - she took pictures with our digital camera after taking the professional one of just me that we had to pay for. The koala's name is Piper, she just hung around like that in my arms - koalas are pretty lazy, they sleep about 21 hours of the day!
We also got to feed the kangaroos which was a cool experience too!
We relaxed, we had FUN, the weather was so nice, we saw a ton - all in all, we decided our trip to Australia was the "BEST TRIP EVER (so far)"!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Turkey Day Recap
As it has been Andrew's & my "tradition" for the past 3 years, we spent our Thanksgiving Day with friends and delicious potluck. We went to our friends' Kevin & Helene's house - Helene set up the table quite festively and would have fit perfectly in my friend Kim's Dare to Do It Yourself blog party - Dare to...Entertain!
Here are the boys - Kevin, Chris & Andrew
Helene & me! (Forgot to take a picture of the commander's family who were also there, dagnabit)
Kevin used a lot of butter on his turkey - it was SO moist and delicious!
Here are the sides... mmmmmmmm homemade cranberries, croissants, corn pudding, potatoes and Waldorf salad...
I was in charge of desserts so I prepared 2 yumyums I'd never made before (I like trying new things!). I made homemade bread pudding, which turned out pretty good, and also made a pumpkin roll. O.M.G. the pumpkin roll turned out SO perfect, cute and delicious!!! (I used THIS RECIPE - but instead of putting 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon & 1/2 tsp ground cloves, I just put in 1 tsp cinnamon since I dont love the strong taste of cloves...rolling up the cake part was a little difficult and I thought I put too much filling in, but all was well in the end!)
Here are the boys - Kevin, Chris & Andrew
Helene & me! (Forgot to take a picture of the commander's family who were also there, dagnabit)
Kevin used a lot of butter on his turkey - it was SO moist and delicious!
Here are the sides... mmmmmmmm homemade cranberries, croissants, corn pudding, potatoes and Waldorf salad...
I was in charge of desserts so I prepared 2 yumyums I'd never made before (I like trying new things!). I made homemade bread pudding, which turned out pretty good, and also made a pumpkin roll. O.M.G. the pumpkin roll turned out SO perfect, cute and delicious!!! (I used THIS RECIPE - but instead of putting 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon & 1/2 tsp ground cloves, I just put in 1 tsp cinnamon since I dont love the strong taste of cloves...rolling up the cake part was a little difficult and I thought I put too much filling in, but all was well in the end!)
After eating and chatting all afternoon, Chris dropped us off at the airport and we headed out for Cairns, Australia. We just got back this morning (Dec 1) and we had the time of our lives!! Everything turned out perfectly - I cant wait to share our trip with you! Pics and stories coming soon!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
A couple of months ago, my friend Bev tagged me to list 6 of my favorite things. Well, days-weeks-months went by and now as Thanksgiving approaches I find it ever so appropriate to reflect on 6 of my favorite things that I'm most thankful for.
I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1. My wonderful husband of almost 2 years - Andrew. He's still the silly, patient, kind, and romantic gentleman I met 5 years ago. Here we are on our wedding day 12-29-07.
2. Getting to spend the holidays and anniversary with my husband!! He was deployed last year from Halloween thru Cinco de Mayo - it will be nice to celebrate WITH him!
3. Our wonderful families! While I am thrilled to spend the holidays with my husband, it does hurt my heart to be so far away from family - hopefully we'll get the opportunity to go back to Texas to visit sooner rather than later.
4. GUAM! What amazing opportunities we have and what fabulous memories we will make here on this tiny island.
5. Friends - How blessed I feel to have made so many great friends on this journey called life. We will be feasting with some of those great friends for Thanksgiving lunch!
6. The opportunity to spend Thanksgiving "Down Under"!!
What are some things you are thankful for?
I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1. My wonderful husband of almost 2 years - Andrew. He's still the silly, patient, kind, and romantic gentleman I met 5 years ago. Here we are on our wedding day 12-29-07.
2. Getting to spend the holidays and anniversary with my husband!! He was deployed last year from Halloween thru Cinco de Mayo - it will be nice to celebrate WITH him!
3. Our wonderful families! While I am thrilled to spend the holidays with my husband, it does hurt my heart to be so far away from family - hopefully we'll get the opportunity to go back to Texas to visit sooner rather than later.
4. GUAM! What amazing opportunities we have and what fabulous memories we will make here on this tiny island.
5. Friends - How blessed I feel to have made so many great friends on this journey called life. We will be feasting with some of those great friends for Thanksgiving lunch!
6. The opportunity to spend Thanksgiving "Down Under"!!
What are some things you are thankful for?
IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS!! 1 Thess 5:18
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Hike to Tarzan Falls
Andrew and I went on a hike to Tarzan Falls today. It was another beautiful and great day in Paradise for hiking.
Here we are in front of Guam's gorgeous landscape.
We went with Outdoor Rec again (we like going on guided hikes while we're still inexperienced :)) Our friends Kevin, Chris (and Kevin's wife Helene) went too.
In front of one of the water cascades.
We finally made it to Tarzan Falls! Here we are in front of the waterfall.
The boys decided to be adventurous and climb the Falls. So silly.
Wow they were high!
Here we are in front of Guam's gorgeous landscape.
We went with Outdoor Rec again (we like going on guided hikes while we're still inexperienced :)) Our friends Kevin, Chris (and Kevin's wife Helene) went too.
In front of one of the water cascades.
We finally made it to Tarzan Falls! Here we are in front of the waterfall.
The boys decided to be adventurous and climb the Falls. So silly.
Wow they were high!
Crescent Layer Bars
I went to Caitlyn's last night to play Bunco (woohoo!) and brought these Crescent Layer Bars. They were SO delicious and very easy to make. They're best when served chilled.
Crescent Layer Bars
Ingredients
1 can (8oz) Pillsbury refrigerated (reduced fat) crescent dinner rolls
1 cup white vanilla baking chips
1 cup semi sweet baking chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped peanuts
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
(the recipe called for 1 cup slivered almonds and 1 cup cashew halves and pieces instead of the walnuts and peanuts, but I used what I had on hand)
Directions
1. Heat oven to 375*F. Grease bottom and sides of 13x9 inch pan with cooking spray. Unroll dough into 2 long rectangles. Place in pan, press over bottom and 1/2 inch up sides to form crust. Bake for 5 minutes.
2. Remove partially baked crust from oven. Sprinkle next 4 ingredents evenly over crust. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over top.
3. Bake 20-25 minutes longer or until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen. Cool 1 hour. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until chocolate is set.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tarague Beach Hike
We are blessed to have some of Guam's most beautiful beaches right on base. On Sunday morning, Andrew & I again joined Outdoor Rec on a guided hike around Tarague Beach. It took us about 3 hours to complete the 3 mile hike - but we stopped a lot to look around.
I love my coconut trees!
Andrew walks softly and carries a big stick. Hah.
In front of the beautiful water.
Guam's gorgeous water and the coral.
This hike was by no means as strenuous as the first hike we went on, but the scenery was breathtaking once again. We bought "The Best Tracks on Guam" guide book to the hiking trails around Guam at the NEX right when we got here so we are excited to cross another hike off the list!
I love my coconut trees!
Andrew walks softly and carries a big stick. Hah.
In front of the beautiful water.
Guam's gorgeous water and the coral.
This hike was by no means as strenuous as the first hike we went on, but the scenery was breathtaking once again. We bought "The Best Tracks on Guam" guide book to the hiking trails around Guam at the NEX right when we got here so we are excited to cross another hike off the list!
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