Whats on your Christmas List???

Today is October 1st, which meansssssss Christmas is just around the corner..Just 85 days away according to today's Saipan Tribune :) Soooo, I thought I'd do a blog on cool Chirstmas Gifts just in case anyone needed any ideas on gifts to give this year (and since I know my family reads my blogs *hint**hint*). Anyway, here's my top 10 so far...(although things could change as I come across new things daily....)

10. Bed, Bath & Beyond's Down Soft Feather bed (www.bedbathandbeyond.com)
(Mine was ruined in typhoon chaba :( )

9. Print by Harry Blalock (www.saipandiver.smugmug.com) More specifically, Turtles #21,81,171,197,347,424,469 or 472 and Lionfish #5. (Just to get one would be great..the bigger the better in this case :) and if your wondering, I like the "gloss" finish :)

8. Crosman Pro77 BB pistol (Although any Crosman or Marksman BB pistol would probably make me happy!)


7. Any thing from LUSH (http://www.lush.com/)!!!!

6. A BIG leather Purse.

(Not necessarily this Jimmy Choo Crocodile Ramona bag which costs a whopping $14,000.00...he he)

5. Gift Certificate from Fishing Tackle in any amount :)

4. Magic Sing Karaoke Microphone :) (http://www.webbyshop.com/)

3. 13' Bongo inflatable floating trampoline (http://www.recreonics.com/fyi/giant_inflatables.htm)

2. Sanyo Xacti E1 Waterproof Digital Camcorder (I'm not a diver, but I see things while snorkling and swimming that I would love to shoot footage of!)


and...

#1. 2007 MAKO® 1901 Inshore,18' 10" Boat, Motor & Trailer


Wishful thinking on my part (I know)...he he...

I can only Imagine...

I wouldn't consider myself a "religious" person. However, I certainly believe in God and thank him daily for the immense blessings he has and continues to bestow upon me and my family! I do attend church services occassionaly and during a recent service I attended, there was a special performance by one of the boys on the worship team..he's a micronesian boy about 16-17 years old and always seemed very shy to me. Normally this boy plays the drums so I had no clue he could sing and was quite surprised when he took the microphone...When he opened his mouth to sing I was in utter shock! He had the most amazing voice!!! The song he chose to sing,the lyrics of the song, and the fact that this boy had the courage to stand up there before the whole congregation and sing for us really touched me!!!! It brought me to tears (I don't think there was a dry eye in the house actually)...Anyway, last night while browsing the internet, I came across a video of the song and it reminded me of that day in church...Although not nearly as touching as the boy in our church's rendition, the words are still very powerfull and I thought I'd share it with everyone...Hope you enjoy!

Sunday Funday

You know your going to have a totally awesome day when you plan to borrow a bush cutter from your cousin to clean your mom's yard and instead your cousin shows up with the bush cutter and two friends to help....yeah! The yard cleaning turned into a day of fun, family, jokes and an awesome BBQ with ribs, steak, sausages, roast pig, steamed fish with miso and ginger and a whole lot more....Yard cleaning is always so much more fun when it becomes a family event (of course that's easy for me to say since all I did was wrap the lumpia..he he)!

(Before) What a mess!

The Gardeners/Chefs

Will's Highway Fish with miso, ginger & onions steamed on the BarB with beer..YUM!

Mmmmmmmmm!

My expertly wrapped lumpia before it hit the fry pan :)

The lady's enjoying the beautiful lawn and delicious food!

Even the kids got in on the fun!

Awesome Day!

How can we stop this?

It happened again today..on my way home from work, there they were...a bunch of young kids darting back and forth through the traffic at the Microl Intersection collection money from cars. Why oh Why don't the police put a stop to this???? I myself am guilty of this type of fundraising back in the day when I was on the Red Cross board. I never thought anything of it when we did it... and infact I would always stop and drop change in the buckets of the people who were fundraising before...that was up until a couple months ago when I witness a group of dancers who were holding up cardboard signs and had thier jars out...the kids looked like they were in grade school ranging in age from 7 or 8 to maybe 15 -16... The leader of the group, an older lady was standing in the middle of the road on the island and when the light turned red, she began pushing one of the kids trying to get her to run out to the road and collect money...the girl looked frightened and hesitant to do it, but the older lady pushed and prodded her till she took off darting in between the cars trying to get people to donate...I then realized how SERIOUSLY dangerous this type of fundraising is! Someone is going to get seriously hurt soon...Is this even legal? It seems like the police should be able to stop this since its a traffic hazard...If I remember correctly, when we did this for the Red Cross we had to seek permission from DPS, I wonder if every group out there seeks permission to do this? It just seems so dangerous especially for the young kids out there...

One thing I did notice is that it seems more people are realizing how dangerous this is and not stopping or rolling down their windows to put money in the jars...most of the jars the kids were holding seemed pretty empty...could just be a sign of the times...but I myself will no longer put money in the jars of these fundraisers...not because I don't want to support their cause, but because I want to prevent a serious accident from happening...

Come to our Restaurant, but please do not chew..

Because I don't want you to be like the guy in Majuro....


To bad we didn't have an "Ocean Reef" Restaurant during the Babauta administration, I'm sure all the people who sat around waiting on him every time he was late for a meeting would have enjoyed a game of shuffleboard..teehee!

Never Underestimate...

THE POWER OF A SMILE!

A very Short Story....

Man driving down road.
Woman driving up same road.
They pass each other.
The woman yells out the window, PIG!
Man yells out window, B I T C H!
Man rounds next curve.
Crashes into a HUGE PIG in middle of road and dies.


Thought For the Day: If only men would listen


bwahahahaha...my mom just shared that with me and I had to blog it since it made me laugh!

My Baby Seaman : )

In 8 days my baby is going to be 18. Yikes! I can't possibly be that old...ok, maybe I can. For the past year (just about) of her life, this is what she has been doing...

She's a "Coastie"






This is her ship, the Polar Sea (http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/polarsea/home.htm)

Right now her ship is under renovation and repairs, so she's been doing a lot of sanding, painting, cleaning, etc...She doesn't feel like she's doing much and she's getting a bit homesick, but I think she's doing a great job and I'm really PROUD of her!

and I know her Gramp's is proud of her too (up in heaven)!

I Love you my baby!

"blogger fear" conquered!

I had stumbled across Harry's blog one day and began to read it quite regularly, his blog led me to several others and I found myself checking up on them regularly. After a few weeks of reading various blogs, I contemplated starting one of my own. My biggest "blogger fear" was the fact that I'm a terrible speller and grammar is not biggest strength either. I feared being ridiculed or having to deal with malicious, mean comments for spelling something wrong, or writing something that didn't make sense. I've never been good at conveying my thoughts to paper. I'm also a very sensitive person and take things said to me or about me to heart...So, needless to say I was hesitant to even attempt a blog...

The other day, my worst "blogger fear" was realized. Sblogger wrote a comment on someone else's page, in which he refered to me as being "dumb" because of my improper use of the word "I" instead on "me" on my blog about a fishing trip I had taken.

At first it bothered me and my gut reaction was to delete my blog and fade back into being the silent blog reader. Then I let myself get upset about it and I thought about firing back at him with a few choice words. But, I took a minute to sit back and think to myself, why would someone who has never met me (although he did say he met me at a restaurant sometime ago..I do not recall that occasion), and does not know anything about me (except for what he has read on my blog over the last week or so)insult me.

Had I previously insulted him in any way? Had a commented on something that he wrote in a derogatory way? Not that I can recall, and if I did, I'm sure my comment must have been misunderstood, and I apologize because that's just not who or how I am.

I finally came to the conclusion that there must be some underlying reason why he would label me as being "dumb" for one minor grammatical error...that there was probably more to the story..could be for the mere fact that I am the "G man's" sister?? But then again, he called someone else dumb in that post too, so that couldn't be it ?!? Could it?... Perhaps..

I will probably never know his reasoning behind it, if any, or behind many of the comments he makes on various blogs...

I over came my "blogger fear" and started this blog as a way to relax, to read and enjoy other peoples experiences in Saipan and share some of my own. I also thought it would be a good way for my oldest daughter who is in the Coast Guard to keep tabs on what I was up to. Not to impress anyone, not to send insulting comments to other bloggers, and certainly not to let myself get stressed out over someone I don't know and who doesn't know me, calling me "dumb".

Truth be told Sblogger, I barely made it through high school, I dropped out of college in my second semester to become a mom, I've raised three awesome straight "A" honor roll Children, for the most part on my own, never relied on any type of government assistance to pay my bills or feed my family, worked my way up from the bottom to the very top of my field, I have struggled and survived through life experiences that most people couldn't even imagine, and if that means that my brother taking Ulu and "I" fishing, makes me "dumb"...May me be dumb for the rest of me years!

This baby is bloggin' on!

*Edit*
Shortly after posting my blog this morning, I did recieve an email from Sblogger apologizing for hurting my feelings :) ..His apology has been accepted and I will leave it at that...What's for lunch I'm getting hungry? Any suggestions for today Boni??? :)

I Love Saipan!

15 year old Lizzy Palmer's video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ervaMPt4Ha0

Move over "Rock of Love"

I've found a new Love....SINGING BEE with Joey Fatone (you remember him from Nsync?!).

It's a karaoke showdown and I'm the biggest "closet Karaoke Star" !!! I love love love this show!
This is the way the show works..

Round 1
The host would provide the year the song was released, the performer, and the name of the song. A portion of the song is performed, and then the contestant has to attempt to sing the next line of the song. If correct, they advance to the next round, and a new song is introduced, which the next contestant in line must attempt; if not, they have to step back, and the next person in line tries the same song. A song is thrown out if none of the remaining contestants get the lyric correct. The first three people who get a song lyric correct move on to the second round

Round 2

While the band is performing, the contestant sees the words to the song in karaoke fashion. As the contestant sings the song, he or she will also see blanks, each representing a word in the song. The player who fills in the most blanks correctly (out of a possible 15) wins and goes on to the Championship Round.


Championship Round
This follows a similar format to the first round, but instead of singing a line, the contestant is required to sing the entire chorus without mistakes from the song performed. If both are correct or incorrect (sometimes after two rounds), then they go to a tie breaker, where they are given the year and the name of the performer and the first person to buzz in will be given the option of singing or passing. If the singer is correct, they win. If the singer is wrong, the other contestant wins.

The winner moves on to the Final Countdown.

The Final Countdown
Up to 7 songs are performed in a similar manner to the first round. For each song lyric that is sung correctly, the player wins $5,000. If the player gets five right, then they are awarded the $50,000 grand prize. However, if they sing a lyric incorrectly, a strike is given. If three strikes are given at any point, the game is over, but the contestant still wins whatever money was accumulated up to that point.

Now my only problem is....will MCV air the show on the same day at the same time each week??? (Tuesday nights at 8:30) Who knows??? Their programing is so unpredictable??? Guess I will just have to tune in again next Tuesday and find out...till then I need to hone up on my Karaoke skillz!



*singing* Her name is Rio, and she dances on the sand, just like that river .... :)~

Taking Pride

This weekend a friend of mine was telling me a story about his family's new housekeeper. He recently relocated with his family here from Guam, so the whole idea of even having a housekeeper is new to them. Anyway, he was talking about how impressed he was with her and what a wonderful job she does. He was bragging about how great she can cook. He said every day when he gets home from work, the kids are clean and fed, the table is set and she would bring out the food so him and his wife could eat while she would entertain the kids in the family room (since they had already eaten). He talked about how she would even make garnishes for the food she cooked. For example, she had made them some scrambled eggs the other day and she layed out some lettuce leaves on the plate, then put the scrambled eggs inside them and garnished the dish with sliced tomatoes. He was so excited talking about all the fancy garnishes she made for the diffrent dishes she cooked. He couldn't be more pleased about having her work for him.

His story really got me thinking...Here is this woman whose job is to cook, clean and watch someone Else's children(four for that matter). Not an easy task by any means...and yet, she is so happy to have her job and to takes such pride in what she does even down to garnishing the dished she cooks for her employer.

Our Gardener, Arnold, is the same way..His job is to cut the grass and trim the hedges for our landlord and ourselves. Our combined lawn is huge! No easy task! Yet he takes such pride in his work and what he does. He takes the time to bush cut under all the hedges and various flowers scattered throughout the yard, then he mows the main portion, he meticulously trims each bush and makes sure that all the hedges are straight, he plants flowers, papaya, and other various plants around the houses (on an almost daily basis) and then he takes the time to prune and water those plants. He picks up any fallen leaves, trash or other unsightly things on the lawns...He does this day in and day out...rain or shine...and always with a big smile on his face...He's "the bomb" when it comes to gardening!

Both of these people have inspired me and taught me a lesson about taking pride in what you do...No matter how menial the task at hand is. Whether it be at home, work or elsewhere, whatever I may be doing, I think about the housekeeper and the farmer and I try to put "a little extra" into what I'm doing and do my best at it...No matter what job you do, its important to someone and it should be important to you.

Can you imagine what a much better place it would be if everyone had the attitude of the housekeeper and the farmer and would take Pride in their work/job??



The beautiful Sunflowers Arnold planted a couple months ago. It's a shame they only bloom once then die :(

More attractive than A casino to me...

A permanent Art Gallery in downtown Garapan

swim with the dolphin's

Sea life (giant clams, turtles, shrimp, lobster, etc..) hatcheries open to the public/tourists

Walk through Aquarium..

Our Own "Micronesian" Cultural Center

and for my son....

An indoor skate park

(The old Basic Construction building on Beach Road looks like the ideal place!)

*note: I realize most of these things can be found in Guam, Palau, Marshalls, Hawaii etc...but what if we had them all in one place? Saipan...

EDIT:

For me...La Fiesta restored to the beautiful Mall it once was..