Life is a funny thing

Well Jarrett and I are settling in to the fact that he is no longer deploying this summer. For those who were not aware, Jarrett was tasked to deploy this summer with his squadron and I was planning on making the trek back to California for a few months. Well last week, Jarrett received word that the deployment is off. This news is frustrating because it's the third time Jarrett has been tasked to deploy only to be told he isn't going. But despite our frustrations, we are even more overjoyed that he is staying here in Guam with me! So now we moved forward and feel like we can actually really settle in to our home here in Guam. This is the first time that we will be able to settle into our life and home without anticipating a deployment or move. It's actually a strange feeling for me as I have felt afraid to get too attached to a place, home, or current way of living pretty much for our entire marriage. Jarrett and I don't know quite what to do with ourselves but feel excited that we can just be a normal married couple. That is until the Lord decides to spur something else on us! But until then, we will soak this time in.

And because blogs are always more entertaining with pictures, here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks.

Here is my man looking all buff!

Beautiful golden sunset.
Local cuisine. Throw the fish on the grill and serve as is!
Local fire dancer. He then proceeded to accidentally light his skirt on fire. Entertaining none the less.

Pictures

Here are a few of my recent photographs that I took for a photography class I am taking. The assignment was to capture the environment and welp, since I live on an island, most of my photos were of different beaches.

I'm home!

Well I have been home for a couple weeks now. I left Florida on a Friday and spent a wonderful weekend with my mom in San Francisco. I then drove back to Travis and planned to catch a flight that was going to Hickham, AFB in Hawaii and then on to Guam. By the grace of God I made it onto the flight to Hickham, and I mean it truly was a miracle. There were probably 100 people trying to get on the flight and only 10 seats. I was considered category 4 and they didn't even make it to category 3. But last minute, they opened up a few more seats and needed passengers who were traveling alone. And I was the only one in my category traveling alone! I made it onto the flight but found out just as we were about to land that they weren't going on to Guam until the following morning, if they were even going to go to Guam at all. Fortunately, I friend of mine in Hawaii found out I got onto the flight and met me at the terminal. I stayed with her for the night only to find out the next morning that the flight was canceled and the next flight to Guam wasn't until Wednesday (it was Sunday). Come Wednesday and the flight was canceled and the flight on Thursday was only carrying active duty passengers. So in the end, I ended up buying a commercial ticket to Guam. All in all, my trip was amazing and I got to see so many great friends and my mom. Most importantly, my time with Katie was priceless and I am happy to say that as of yesterday, Katie was released from the hospital after 51 long days! I wasn't able to take too many pictures but here a few from my trip. I'm not going to include any pictures of Katie because I don't think she would be comfortable with that (she really hated her feeding tube). But I did capture some great pictures of her getting her hair done in the ICU and the moment when I walked in the door of her room; I think she will appreciate those when she looks back on this really difficult time.

This is Natalie holding baby Anna. Natalie is one of my best friends from Travis and Anna is our friends Paul and Leigh Anne's new baby.
Me holding sweet baby Anna.
This is the beach in Waikiki. I tried to enjoy Hawaii as much as possible while I was "stuck" there.
Me and Leigh Anne.
I just so happened to arrive at Travis the weekend of Tate's 2nd birthday party. Tate is Paul and Leigh Anne's first born and probably my most favorite baby, well not so much a baby anymore, ever.

Last Minute Trip

If you would have asked me last week what I would be doing this week, I would have never guessed I would be in Florida. Yep, I'm in Florida. My friend Katie received her liver and kidney transplant exactly a month ago. Initially, the transplant appeared to be a huge success. Unfortunately, a few days after the transplant, Katie began to experience a tremendous amount of pain and has had about 10 procedures and numerous complications since then. Last Wednesday I spoke with Katie's parents and they informed me of everything that was going on. Everything that happened after that phone call was nothing less than a work of God. I knew in my heart that I had to come see her. Normally, I would worry about how i was going to afford to buy a ticket, or other meaningless worries, but for some reason, I felt a deep sense of peace that the Lord would work everything out and get me there if it was His will. I looked into catching a hop to Travis last Friday (unfortunately it was also Jarrett's birthday) and one blessing after another, I managed to catch a hop straight to Travis that afternoon. I stayed with my dear friend Natalie until I flew out to Florida on Monday. I'm here with Katie until Friday when I will fly back to California and then hopefully catch a hop back to Guam beginning on Sunday.

The only way that I can accurately describe Katie's situation now is that it is a rollercoaster. Instead of taking it one day at a time, we are literally taking it one minute at a time. Her liver is taking very well and her kidney is beginning to wake up. We pray that there will be no more complications so that she can move out of the ICU and not have to deal with so many people poking at her and walking in and out of her room. Fortunately, her sense of humor has managed to pop out in moments when we least expect it which always brings a smile to everyone's face. Despite the struggles and the hardships Katie and her family have had to endure, the Lord has been so present in everything. Whether it's her nurses, the good news that brightens the day, a simple song on the radio, or the fact that she was reading her Bible when she got the phone call about the donor, it is so evident that the Lord is working. Please pray for Katie and that her health would progress. Particular prayer requests would be that she would be able to move out of the ICU onto the regular floor and that her anxiety and pain would decrease. I heard this song on the radio as I was driving back to Katie's house and the lyrics really spoke to me so much that tears began to roll down my face because I'm so faithful that the Lord will see Katie through this desert.

Chamorro Village

I finally made it to Guam's version of farmer's market the other night. Chamorro Village consists of an array of local cuisine, vendors, and its fair share of characters. There were a couple locals showing off some of Guam's popular animals and it made for some cool photo opportunities. All in all, I had a great time although I did find myself feeling slightly claustrophobic from all the people in a tiny area along with my ever present friend named Humidity. But it's those things that add to the fun and memories, right?

Taking a leap of faith

I have never been one to take many chances. I like to stick to what I know and what I'm comfortable with. I think the most outrageous and shocking thing I've probably done was marry Jarrett at the ripe ol' age of 19. I don't like taking many chances because I have this incredibly deep fear of failure. The majority of people would say they fear failure too; who wouldn't? But to me, fears of failure often keep me from trying anything at all. Case in point:

I have had this deep love and passion for photography for 5 or 6 years now. Up until now, I have kept this passion hidden for the most part. See in my mind, if I don't even admit that I love photography, then no one will have expectations for my photographs and therefore I will avoid all criticism. But over the past couple years, the Lord has placed photography on my heart and in some not so subtle ways. I have avoided this topic for the most part, hoping maybe the Lord would somehow forget and point me towards something else; something not so personal and open to criticism. But alas, the Lord is a stubborn God too. On top of failure, I'm concerned how I can even support such an expensive passion. But I guess that's where faith comes into play.

Today a friend asked me if I took photographs because she needed a photographer. I politely said, "No, I just enjoy taking pictures for fun." Inside, my heart was screaming something entirely different. Later on at Bible study, I was given the opportunity to finally share my heart and my struggles regarding this issue, and to my surprise it was received with open arms. After less than 24 hours of deciding to open my heart to the idea of taking pictures of others, I managed to set up three different photography gigs. I'm scared/ nervous/ anxious out of my mind. So much so, my blood pressure has been sky high and I even managed to break out in hives. Lovely. Even though I have about a bajillion fears and questions, I'm really excited about this opportunity and hopeful future opportunities to come.

I'll keep you updated... :-)

I will leave you with a few of my recent photographs. Notice most of them are nature or architectural photographs because in my mind it is easier to take pictures of things that don't talk because then they can't judge the photo. I have a weird thought process.

Me+You=Love

What is there not to like about a day filled with chocolate, love, and lots and lots of pink? As a kid, I loved celebrating Valentines Day for many reasons. I loved creating little gifties for all my classmates and excitedly placing those gifties in everyone's personal "mailboxes" at their desks. I loved that I could draw extra hearts on the card that I would place in the "mailbox" of my interest of the moment, and he would never know I drew more hearts on his card than the other boys. And I loved opening a box of candy hearts and giggling as I read each and every message; eating all the girly colored ones first because "duh" the green ones taste totally gross compared to the delicious pink ones. As I grow older, Valentines Day seems less necessary and slightly silly. Do I really need to be reminded to tell my husband I love him? Or even worse, does he need to be reminded to tell me he loves me? Eek I sure hope not! Regardless, I still tend to have high expectations for Valentines Day. And I also think specifically on this day, the Lord gently, or maybe not so gently, finds ways to bring me back to reality. I will illustrate this belief for you with a few stories of past Valentines Days. And yes, I do laugh when I think about these memories now.

Valentines Day of eighth grade was one for the books. How about a break up to say I like you? Yes, I was dumped on Valentines Day by my first "love." Eighth grade and love probably shouldn't be said in the same sentence but it totally felt like it was love in that hormonal 13 year old brain of mine.

First year of college, my Valentines Day was spent wallowing in my sorrows. Jarrett had left for basic training only a week earlier. Walking back from my classes, I grew angrier and angrier with every sight of a kiss or bouquet of flowers being delivered to lucky girls. I walked with a mission back to my room with a frown so nasty I could hear my mom saying, "You better turn that frown upside down otherwise it may stick like that forever!" Tears were welling up in my eyes as I opened the door to my lonely jail cell of a dorm room. There sitting on my desk was a single pink rose. A sweet gift courtesy of my wonderful roommate. "You are loved," she wrote. I immediately felt so loved despite the absence of my sweetheart. I also felt like a complete imbecile and drama queen...but that I was not foreign to.

My first Valentines Day as a wife; boy did I have high expectations. I spent most of the morning spinning the wheels in my brain. I hope Jarrett does this and this and oh goodness I will be so heartbroken if Jarrett doesn't do...Oh how I despise the drama queen in me. I hopped into my Taurus aka Rosie and headed towards the local community college where I was taking a few classes. My radio was blaring and so were the thoughts in my head when I suddenly heard another not so lovely sound blaring. "Is that? No it can't be coming from my car...wait, why does it sound like I'm driving a race car when I step on the gas pedal?" Hmmm...interesting. Why is my speedometer slowing going down 70...60...50..40...? Oh ya and did I mention I'm in the far left lane of a FIVE LANE FREEWAY!! To make a long story short, I managed to coast across five lanes of freeway, coast off an offramp, and park safely on the side of the road in a not so good area of town. I called a tow truck and eventually learned that my transmission had taken its last breath. In the end, I got a ride home from the sweet owner of the transmission shop and I walked my disappointed self to the local Walgreens where I managed to spend $40 on ridiculous Valentines Day crap for Jarrett. I think I even managed to buy him a little teddy bear inside a blown up plastic ball...? I had so many expectations but in the end, I was just so happy to get a hug from my husband after such a horrible day. God's not so stealth way of reminding me what was important.

So in honor of Valentines Day, may your day be filled with lots of love with little expectations. It's always more fun that way anyways.