The Big Sweaty Weekly: 2018

I started making this "what's going on in life- the pros and cons" list in response to a friends email, and then decided I may as well turn it into a post. Twofer!

Here's our latest, covering the bases of the (mostly unanswered....) emails and messages friends and family have sent.

👋👋

Cons:

It is hot. All. The. TIme. Don't talk to me about how hot it gets in DC in the summer. DC summer ends.
My hair looks like shit, again, all the time. (I guess I can sling to the pro column that I have almost completely given up wearing makeup- possibly also a con- since it's a complete waste of time.)
Leah needs work. Leah is not a stay at home mom. No one should be surprised by this....
Guam is expensive. We are super #blessed to have base access so that we can get cheaper food/goods/gas. It's tough to be a local.
We spend a ton of our time in cars. It's all cars all the time on Guam. And because we have to carseat-up two kids every time, and you know, fossil fuel dependency, this is a big irritant for us.
We were super duper sick for the entire month of April. At no time was someone not pooping, crying, sweating, shivering, occasionally vomiting, or doing laundry. Parents, I know you feel me when I say we almost lost our minds. Gavin was hobbling to work with a 103 fever...
Gavin works a lot. It's still more manageable and fulfilling than Fellowship, but that dude spends muy time in the hospital.
We REALLY miss you all. So much.
We have two kids. (Kidding! Not kidding,...?)

Pros:

We love our house. It's perfect for us in all ways. Feeling very lucky about that, because housing in Guam can be hit or miss. We have a community center around the corner where we play basketball and take free Zumba classes, there is a nice downtown a (very hilly and sweaty) walk away. It's 1 mile from the hospital, and 2 miles from the kids school. Solid!
Guam is indeed an island paradise. The water/beaches/hills/jungle are absolutely beautiful. I am obsessed with the sky here. At any time it's filled with heavy/dramatic/bright clouds, rainbows, and crystal blues like I've never seen.
The locals are insanely nice, friendly, and helpful. It's made the transition so much easier for us.
The kids school stuff is getting settled out nicely. Still some bumps, but Misha is in a good PreK and just tested into another one for the fall (she's a December birthday so she'll be in preK till she's 14). Eli will start at the same school in a week. It is a Lutheran school, so there is a lot of singing about Jesus, which quite honestly Gavin and I don't know how to respond to, but we do love the musicality....
Gavin and the kids planted a sweet little pot garden, and we're hoping for all kinds of herbs, tomato's, papaya, passion fruit, beans, etc.
We're finally starting to make friends which makes a big difference. Everyone needs a couple of text messages here and there, right?
I am volunteering for a local Senate campaign for an incredible trans woman who splits her time championing LGBTQ/human rights with environmental activism. Check her out and feel free to donate!
I'm also picking up some other volunteer works here and there. I'll follow up more on this as it comes together!
Gavin really likes his work. It's super challenging, but for the first time he's feeling fulfilled by it. (also see related con above....)
We just booked a trip to Hong Kong for mid-June. Yay!

Here are a few pictures related to these lists. Enjoy!

These three photos are from are one evening walk in our neighborhood.

Constantly towing the line between love and homicide.

Hafa Adai! We made it! And I meant to write this weeks ago BUT I AM TIRED ALL OF THE TIME, and so I haven't. Moving is exhausting. Moving 8,000 miles to an island in the middle of the ocean with two kids is really exhausting.

After careful consideration, I have decided to resurrect the Big Sweaty since if there were anywhere as sweaty as Cambodia, it’s right here in Guam. Really it’s just laziness, though…

I promise juicy and insightful posts from here on to keep our fans happy (I see you, grandma's!), but this one is going to be a straight up summary. Here are the basic catch up details (that I am sort of rushing together...), and I'll follow up with more nuanced thoughts/feelings down the road.

Pack out:

From Christmas day through Feb. 6 when we left we bounced around house to hotel, depending on the incredible kindness of friends and family who took us in for long stretches, last minute, and in all of our messy glory along the way. You know who you are and we're forever grateful.

The trip:

Hooo daddy, that was a long couple of days. With the help of Gavin’s family, we made it to the airport in the morning of the 6^th with 12 checked bags and roughly 7 carry on pieces. It was such a CF that we actually were the last to board our flight after doing a sweet set of sprints to make it in time. Nothing makes a marriage feel more fresh.

I was borderline terrified about Eli leading into the trip. The dude is "spirited" and I wasn't looking forward to him demonizing hundreds of strangers for 24hrs. I have to hand it to him, he acted like somebody else's baby and was a sweet little thing the whole time. Both kids were brilliant, really, as was the 70% occupancy on our long flight which meant we had two whole rows....

Made it!

We finally arrived at 2am on the 8th, and by 4am were checked into the Dusit Thani. It felt perfectly perfect to be back in the land of the Asian breakfast buffet and toilets with bum sprayers, but alas, it was only a 2 day stop. We moved on from there, popping out that pack n play for the 15th time in 6 weeks at the luxurious Navy Gateway Inn and Suites Nimitz Hill.

Work:
Gavin literally started work within an hour of getting off the plane. We had a nice week+ where he was learning the ropes, and then he finally started for real on the 20th. So far things have been good, and he is really liking the work. He's one of two docs running the ICU at the Navy Hospital, and things can reportedly be pretty hectic. Most of the patients are locals (Chamorro), and they see a lot of acutely sick people. It doesn't hurt that Chamorro are quite possibly the nicest people on the planet, apparently even when they're laid up in the ICU...

I have no idea what I am going to do, but am already itching to get something going. I'm giving myself until the end of the month before I make a push to start checking my options. Hold me to that. Thanks.

Kids:
Oh yeah, them! Both of them got into the same school on base that they have been in since baby-times, the Child Development Center. It was more of a tough transition than I thought it would be, to be honest. Misha was ok with things, but Eli has been slow to get into the groove.... Loads of guilt there. We've visited a couple of private PreK's for Misha and I think have settled on a good option. She needs more than she's getting, and this place seems like it'll do the trick.

La casa!

The best thing that has happened recently is that we found a house! We knew we didn't want to live on base, but finding a home here was a bit more stressful than I expected. We ended up in a cute little place in a great neighborhood 1mi. from the hospital, 5 minutes to the beach, and very close to stores/restaurants. We got our small express shipment, so we have a loaner couch and beds and lots of random toys. According to an email that I don't trust, we'll have the rest of our stuff in a couple of weeks.

Our super cute house!

First bath in our house!

Overall, we're happy to be here. Guam is profoundly beautiful and interesting, and has it's own brand of crazy that we're still figuring out. It's surprised me how non-military the average daily experience has been. Aside from quick visits on and off base, because of the kids school/visiting Gavin/cheap groceries, we're pretty removed from the whole scene. It's obviously a massive presence here, but at the same time it's easier than I expected to sort of forget about that element.

This has been a very different experience than moving to Cambodia. We're such hardcore adults all of a sudden, and nothing has confirmed that more than this process. It was very hard to say goodbye to family and friends, leaving Daisy behind, and taking the kids from their beloved teachers. Ultimately, we're thankful for technology that keeps us connected "in person" despite being a million miles away.

There's lots to adjust to and I will do my best to keep updating! Here's a few pictures! (sorry for those of you on social media who have already seen half of these...)