The Gresham's Blog

Update: Backyard Project

2007-08-10T15:06:00.000-06:00

Well we have finished adding 1 of 3 stone paths to our yard (pictured above) and have completely ripped out our old rotten wooden deck and dug and leveled the trenches for the concrete-block deck we are installing in it's place. If you want to see the photos of the progress so far click here.

Overhauling Our Backyard -- Step 1: Going Green!

2007-05-24T16:35:00.000-06:00

This summer we are undertaking a large overhaul of our backyard to make it more usable and more inviting... this is our first step towards that goal. We installed an underground composter for our kitchen scraps so we would add less old food to the city dump and every few years when we need to empty it it will give us very rich compost that we can use on our flowers and grass. We also created a special area for Tazzy to do her business so she isn't going all over the yard... we've made it pleasant to look at, easy to clean up after her, and installed another type of underground composter that works something like a septic tank... we just scoop and dump her stuff in the hole and let nature do it's job. The dog composter is still an experiment for us but it's reported to be working very well up in Canada as well as in Alaska where it gets much colder than here so I suspect it will work well for us.

Check out the pix here!

Heather's an ISSA Certified Personal Fitness Trainer!

2007-05-10T16:40:00.000-06:00

Everyone send an email to Heather and congratulate her... she just completed her Personal Fitness Trainer certification with ISSA! It's been a tough, nearly two year, process of study for her but she's finally done it!!! It was really awesome to see her finish it... I think she almost cried! :)

Anyways, here is the photo of her "clicking" on the 'submit' button to submit her exam (which took her I think about 2-3 weeks to finish!) -- about 4 days later she got the results that she had passed. About a week after that we received her Certificate and certification package in the mail... I took her to dinner at Rodizio's Grill and presented her her Certificate in a nice frame she can display it in.

It was a great experience for her! So, if you need some training or eating information... she's your woman! :)

Our new townhome!

2007-01-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, we've been moved in for a while now... about 6 months in fact! But we've been busy and finally just got around to updating our blog with photos for all of our friends and family that might be interested. There are too many photos to post here, so I created a gallery where you can view them with comments as a slide-show, if you want. Check out our new home by clicking on the photo above. We love our new home!

NOTE: To access the photo-gallery, you are going to need a password. If you don't have it, email one of us and we'll give it to you.

2006 American Diabetes Walk-a-Thon

2006-09-10T18:08:00.000-06:00

Well, the walk was yesterday and Heather and I had a *GREAT* time! The weather was perfect for walking and the crowd was a whole lot larger than we expected! The organization was lacking this year, unfortunately (we heard in years past it's been much better) and we never really had a good idea where we were heading (neither did most anyone else!) -- eventually we all met at the back entrance to the zoo and then things really fell apart... there were *NO* signs telling us what the route was throughout the zoo so we just walked around a bunch until we'd had our fill... up to the zoo I figure we walked about 2.5-3 miles. We might have walked another 2-2.5 miles while we were at the zoo, maybe. Either way it was a great time. There were a whole lot of diabetics there and we got some great information about new laws concerning diabetics as well as a look at some new diabetic products coming out on the market.

To those who donated as well as to those who were unable to but wished that they could have: Thank You for your support! Our main goal in doing this was to help bring diabetes to the front of people's thoughts as well as have a good cause to get out and move our feet for... mission accomplished!

We would like to do this again next year, so if anyone is interested in joining us next year, just holler!

Discharged from the Navy

2006-05-24T09:32:00.000-06:00

Wow, what a relief! Today was the official day... it's been exactly 6 years that I've been in the Navy, and just 2 days shy of 4 years at sea... but it's final... today I handed in mine and Heather's ID's and they handed me my DD-214 (that's "walking papers" to us civilian-types!)
:)

True to the Navy way of things, everything has been a mess for the last 2 months... no one was able to give me a straight answer... the whole time I basically had 5 dates in front of me: 23rd of November, 3rd of August, 23rd of July, 23rd of May, or "a date we have yet to determine, probably sometime in June"... UGGH!!!! Well, last week my orders came in and they gave me just *4* days notice!!! But, happily, I ran around those last 4 days doing all of the things that you are supposed to take a month or longer doing, in order to be able to separate on time...

In one great big wave of frustration and joy I unceremoniously threw away my boondockers (again, to us civilian types, that's jargon for "military boots") and put Heather on notice that I will not be shaving every day anymore... in fact, it might be a good long time before I decide to shave at all!

:)

Course that probably won't last long once the itching sets in...

Tazzy Burrito

2005-09-13T17:05:00.000-06:00

This is how I found Tazzy the other morning. Normally when I get ready in the morning she waits on top of the covers watching me to see when I'm ready to take her out. This time she must have been cold. She wrapped herself good and she didn't even get up when I left the room to get the camera. She also doesn't like cameras and will get jittery if you bring one around but she just stayed still. When I found her I came out of the bedroom and didn't see her at all and then I saw this little eye following me around the room. I went to get the camera and when I came back she had more of her nose sticking out. It was super cute.

Brandon's Blood Results Are In!

2005-08-02T12:36:00.000-06:00

Well, I just completed the Navy-mandated 5-year physical the other day... and the last step of it was sitting down with the doctor and going through an exam and looking over my bloodwork.

It was pretty kewl b/c though I don't know my cholesterol levels and sugar levels and such from the past... I do know that my blood pressure was getting a little high b/c every time that I had to see a doctor about any minor complaint, they always commented that my blood pressure was a bit too high. Also, for years I have had all of the symptoms that I was border-line hypo-glycemic.

Well the doc looked at my blood work results and the first thing he said was "Your cholesterol levels look great... you must work out, huh???" -- wow, I was shocked and very pleased!

As it turns out, my blood pressure was right in the middle where it should be, my sugar levels were right in the middle where they should be and my cholesterol levels were so low they were even well below the low-point of the scale where they normally fall... in other words, they were "off the scale"... all that and yet my HDL-to-LDL ratio is on target as well.

Anyways, it made me extremely happy to realize that the results that I am seeing "externally" are showing up "internally" as well!

On another note, I found out the name for the shaking symptom that I have had since as long as I can remember: "Benign Familial Tremors". Apparently not only is it hereditary and goes away with age (typically), but it can also (rarely) become worse at some point in one's life to the point where it affects one's head also and can become quite severe. Interesting, but as the doctor pointed out, typically it is of almost no concern and should stay the same or get better with age. At least now I have a name to refer to it by... up to now when faced with the "what's wrong with you" question, my answer has always been "oh, that's normal, don't worry about it"... now I have a better answer!

"There are personnel working aloft!"

2005-07-12T16:48:00.000-06:00

Well, today I got to go "Aloft" for the first time ever... now, I have a problem with heights, so this was a big deal! Not only do I not like to be up high, but when I am up high I tend to get dizzy/spacey and sometimes feel a little queasy... but as we are preparing to enter the yards for major overhaul on the ship, we are required to take down our antennas so they can be overhauled also... so, up I went! My assigned area: "The Stick"... it's the absolute highest point on the ship, that is actually also the narrowest point on the ship up at the very top where when the wind blows, "The Stick" shakes and sways... before you go up you strap on a safety harness around your body, much like the one used by window-washers on the big high-rise glass office buildings... then you walk up 5 stories of stairs, then you get on this HUUUUUUGE ladder and you climb up ANOTHER 5 stories... then you are the bottom of "The Stick"... it is just a narrow beam that goes up another roughly 15 feet and there are these little ladder-like rungs welded to the side of it that you use to climb up it... there is a pole welded in between the rungs to which you attach your safety harness... once you are at the point where you want to work, you verify that your safety harness is "locked in" on the metal pole, you reach out and strap your safety line to a metal tie-point on "The Stick" just in case your safety harness slips from the metal pole, then you lean back and "sit" in your harness so that you can use both hands to do the actual work... at roughly 11 stories above the ground!!!

Anyways, I was up there all day yesterday, most of the day today, and I'll be there all day tomorrow until we are done... I did much better than I thought that I would... but I quickly learned to not look down or up any more than I had to, just look straight at the bolt I was trying to remove and focus on the work at hand!

I have included pictures!

This is where "The Stick" is located on the ship... that small "post" inside the red circle...

Here is a view of the aft-end of the ship from "the basket", which is the very bottom of "The Stick"... it gives you a good idea of how high up it is up there...

Here is the view of the pier and the parking lot from the basket...

This is the focsle of the ship... the red arrow is pointing at one of the antennas that we have removed and it is being hoisted off of the ship by a crane...

Here's me at the top of "The Stick"... uuuhhhh... "fun stuff", yeah...

:)

Our New Gym

2005-07-12T09:03:00.000-06:00

We joined a new gym. We had grown out of our old gym. They didn't have that many weights and not that heavy of weights. Also, the pool closes early now for Water Polo classes and then the they only have 2 lanes open during the after work traffic so you always have to share with another person. So, we decided it's time for us to move on. We checked into different gyms in our area to see all the different things they had. Only the YMCA and 24 Hr. Fitness had a pool. So, it was between them but the YMCA isn't very close and there is only 1 in Utah so if we were to move back we wouldn't have that many options of where to live. The 24 Hr. Fitness had a lot more of what we wanted so we ended up signing up for the 3 year plan and every year after that is $99/year. It was a really good deal since we plan on really using it and sticking with it. We used our new gym for the first time last night. It was so big and had so many people that it was a bit intimidating to me but I think I'm sure I'll get used to it. There were a lot of fufu girls which I don't really care for that but I learn to ignore that kind of stuff. Our last gym had a lot more older people or less in shape people so it wasn't so intimidating. I'm very excited to learn about the different machines and find out the different exercises I can do that I haven't been able to learn.

He's Home!!!

2005-07-06T20:48:00.000-06:00

Brandon is home!!! YEAH!!! Sorry it literally has taken me a month exactly to put this post up here.
The homecoming was great. The ship pulled in at noon so I was able to decorate the house in the morning, go to Godiva chocolates to get chocolate covered strawberries for the hotel room but they didn't have the strawberries yet so I got other chocolates, get all done up and get to the pier about 2 hours early and still get a front row parking spot. Don't ask me how I managed that one.
I hung out with my girlfriends from the ship. I had brought posters to make Welcome Home signs to wave when the ship pulled up but I forgot the markers. Then I had bought a special marker to write on the windows of the car and I thought I had forgotten it but found it later in the trunk of the car so I wasn't prepared with all the Welcome Home stuff other than at home. He was still happy to see me though. :)
The ship pulled in and shortly after they opened the gate to the pier and everyone went crazy trying to get to the ship as fast as they could even though we couldn't stand next to the ship and we still had to wait a little bit for the people to start coming off. My friend Cindee drew the "First Kiss" ticket so her husband was able to come off first and give her the first kiss. That was really cool. She deserved it since she had done so much in the Family Support Group on deployment. Before the ship pulled in all of my friends made a pact to make sure someone stayed with the last person to take their picture when their husband came off the ship and it was a good thing we did that because my husband was the last to come off out of my friends.
It was a great moment. We were instantly old friends laughing and joking around. Brandon said he could tell from the ship that I had been working out. He always says the most perfect things. I'm very lucky. We didn't stay too long after he got off until we left. We went to the Paradise Point Resort for our first night. I had reserved a suite there and I hadn't told him. He did know that we weren't staying at home our first night and he did know how much it was going to cost so he was ok with it. The hotel was really nice. Our suite was a 1 bedroom bungalow with a patio right on the bay, a 2 person jacuzzi tub and a 4 poster bed. I've included pictures of the room. We wish we could have stayed longer because the whole resort was beautiful. It was like we were in the Hawaiian rain forest and there were beautiful pools, ponds with exotic fish and tons more. Brandon got me a ton of things but some of the main things were a beautiful purplish/green onyx necklace that you can only get in Australia, a really cool silver necklace, carved wooden coasters with a holder made of interwined wooden camels and other carvings in the wood, a very unique incense burner with crystals to burn instead of the incense sticks. You put a little brick of coal that you burn a little first in this pretty metal holder and then you put a crystal in there. It's very cool. There are many different types of crystals and some of the ones he got me were Francinsense, Myrrh. He also gave me a little glass camel that holds your perfume and you pull the head out of the camel and wipe the perfume on you.

The next day I surprised Brandon with his first ever massage. It was a hot rock massage too. He loved it and can't wait to go back. If anyone's looking for a place to get a great massage for a great price just ask me. After the massage I took Brandon to his favorite Thai restaraunt without him knowing where we were going. It was a great first couple of days.
I had to work for a few days after that but then after work on Friday we headed up to the cabin in Julian at the KQ Ranch Resort. It was very relaxing. We hung out at the pool a good amount, read books, went for long walks, played games and watched a few movies. We also felt a couple of good sized earthquakes. We really did see the earth and the cabins shake. It was pretty scary. No one was hurt and there was no damage though so that was good.

Since we've been home from the cabin we bought mountain bikes. We have been biking a few times. Brandon has start biking to the trolley in the morning and then biking from the trolley to the ship. It's about 5 miles each way. He's a toughy. We rode it together one day before he started riding his bike to work and it's fun but sort of long.

We also had a great 4th of July. We worked out in the morning, then we went to the San Diego County Fair for about 4 hours. I think our favorite part was the pig talent show. We never knew that pigs are the 3rd smartest animals. They had a 600 pound pig doing a ton more tricks than Tazzy can do. After the fair we went to the ASW base in Pt. Loma and watched the fireworks. It really is an awesome place to see the fireworks because you can see 6 different fireworks shows along the bay. The fireworks were awesome but they would have been better if people didn't come late and stand in front of other people or wouldn't have stood up because they couldn't see that well with the person in front of them. That was crappy. We tried to plan well for the traffic to get off base too. We parked close to the exit but even with that we had only gotten a few miles away from the base in about a hour and 15 minutes. So, by 10:45 we were so fed up with it that we pulled over into a parking lot and set our alarm for a half hour and went to sleep. We pulled out of the parking lot at 11:15pm to see that the traffic hadn't gotten any better. So, we went back to the parking lot and slept until 11:45pm. By that time the traffic had lightened up enough that we could leave. We got home around 12:10am. Despite people standing up in front of us at the fireworks and the crappy traffic on the way home we still had a great day together and were very thankful that we were able to spend it together.
I've included pictures below.

First Night Hotel Pics

View from inside the room

View from patio of our room

Brandon in the bathtub

Closeup of Brandon - Isn't he hot?!?

My new career...

2005-05-12T17:24:00.000-06:00

Well, some of you know and some of you don't know that I have decided that I want to become a Personal Trainer. It's sort of been a revolation to me in the last few months. Anyways, I'm all gung ho about it and can't wait to get started. I've been researching what I need to do to get certified and I have chosen to go to ISSA as my certification program. I bought the study materials today and I can't wait to get it in the mail. It's going to take 3-5 business days. I'm so super excited for it!!! I've also been talking with a fitness manager at a local 24 Hour Fitness and he will hire people without certifications and train them and help them with their certifications. I'm so excited. I'm going to wait until after Brandon gets home and we are a little more settle to go in for the interview. Anyways, soon enough I will be a Personal Trainer. YEAH!!
I just wanetd to share my big news with everyone. I'm so, so excited to get started. I can't wait for my study materials to get here.

My Fabulous Weekend

2005-04-05T19:28:00.000-06:00

Before I go into everything I want to share that I got to talk to Brandon on the phone for an hour Thursday evening and 2 times on Monday totalling about an hour. That was awesome. I don't realize how much I miss hearing his voice and having a decent conversation with him until I hear his voice. It's a good missing though because I don't get sad. It makes me happy.
The phone calls added a ton to my fabulous weekend.

On to my story...
I had the most fabulous weekend that I've had since Brandon has been gone. It all started Friday night. I had a horrible Friday day and most of the week too and had only slept about 1 hour total Thursday night so I just wanted to go home Friday night and crash but my friend Erin was having a art show/housewarming party. I don't really like to go to parties alone but I went anyways to see Erin's new house and art work. I was only going to stop in for a few minutes but I ended up staying atleast an hour or so. Her and her husband bought an old house that was probably built in the 50's and it's only had 1 owner until now. Since December they've been remodeling the house like crazy. The house was perfect. The house was just beautiful and had been decorated so nice. Then Erin's paintings were absolutely amazing. I would love to have talent like that. I think the way her house was decorated was just how I would want to decorate my place. The only thing is I'm not daring enough to come up with the colors she used. I also got to chat with the ex-Relief Society president and her husband quite a bit and some other people from the ward. It was really fun.
Afterwards I went home and crashed though.
Saturday morning I slept in a little bit but not enough and I went and got new military stickers put on my car and then I met up with 2 other wives from the ship and we headed up to Hollywood to see a taping of America's Funniest Home Videos. It was pretty interesting to see but not nearly as big and glamorous as it looks like on tv. It's pretty corny too but it is funnier in person than on tv because you get to see the mess up and have to redo it and the cast communicating to each other and joking back and forth. Then they have people that are supposed to hype us up and tell us when to laugh and so forth. They handed out t-shirts to the people that were the most outgoing and laughed the most. So, everyone was trying to laugh as much as they could to get a t-shirt. They also move good looking people and families and well dressed people up to the front. We got sat in the back next to the lady that was crocheting her sweater while she was wearing it. :( I just tell myself that it was because we got there a little late. :) At the end of the taping they had a best dressed contest for both male and female. My friend should have definitely gotten picked and won. She wore a pretty blue satin dress and a velvet jacket with it but a lady wearing an all tye dye outfit won. It really just depended on the biggest group you were with because the lady in the tye dye was with a big group and she won by getting the most cheers for her. Anyways, we got out of there around 5:30 or 6pm. We decided to drive around Hollywood a bit and look around. So, we did and it was a good thing my friend Cindee was driving because people up there drive crazy and we would have never gotten anywhere if had been me driving. We decided to go to dinner on Hollywood Blvd. so we ate at this awesome restaraunt called Hamburger Hamlet right across from the Grauman's Chinese Theater where they do all of the movie premiers. We ate and then walked around a bit and looked at the stars on the sidewalk. Then we went over to the Grauman Theater and looked at the stars footprints and handprints. While doing that we found out that you can actually go see a movie in the Grauman Theater. So, we watched Miss Congenialty 2. The inside of the theather is amazing. The seats are super plush and they recline. The whole theater is decorated in very intricate and beautiful chinese art including paintings and statues. I don't even know how to explain the stuff we saw in there. The sealing was like 1 huge and very intricate Chinese light fixture. They had box office seats in the back too. The ladies room had a fancy lounge area to do your makeup. We didn't get don't with that until a little after midnight. Then we walked around and looked at the footprints and handprints more. We had the security guard of the theater take our picture of us laying down on the ground in front of Arnold Schartzennegers stone.
We had a blast. We giggled and were goofy the whole night.
We got home around 3am.
The next morning I had to go to my Home Owners Association meeting where I got voted in as the president of the association now. I have a lot of work to do. I already have met some contractors and we're going to have our front porches and stairways painted and a couple of cabinets built to cover up water meters and also fix some things. I have a lot of plans with the place and can't wait to get started.
A little later that day I went to the dog beach on Coronado and we sat around and enjoyed the sun. Tazzy picked a fight with a big dog though. It took me and my two friends to pull the dogs apart. Tazzy was still kicking and growling for like a minute or so afterwards. It was pretty scary. I thought she was dead for sure.
The next day I had taken the day off from work to go to The Price Is Right with other spouses from the ship. We had special shirts made for us. We could only get 5 people to go since it was on a Monday. The taping was supposed to start at 4:30pm but it said to be there by noon for the ticket processing and it suggested an earlier arrival. We arrived at 11am and found out that people had camped overnight to get into the show. We also found out that the ticket processing started at 6am not noon. They were already overbooked and they had a line of people waiting to see if they would end up having a few more spots for the 4:30 show. We were not going to wait in line for 5 hours for a small chance to get in. So, we drove around to find a good spot to take a picture of the Hollywood sign. That was an adventure in itself trying to find the right spot in Hollywood traffic especially with 5 of us in the car trying to tell Cindee where to go. I was the worst back seat driver of all though. I admit that I'm bad at that. There were a few times that we all screamed though so it wasn't just me freaking out. We made it though and actually Cindee is a good driver she's just more aggressive than me. She lived in Italy before here and driving is a lot different over there. After we got the picture we went to the Kodak Theatre/mall on Hollywood Blvd. The Kodak Theatre is where the Oscars and I think the Academy Awards are held. It's in a really awesome mall with these huge Egyptian elephant statues and other artwork. They had awesome stores and restaraunts. We ate at the Johnny Rockets 50's diner. The food was great. Then the girls went shopping for a bit while the guys sat in the food court waiting for us. :) We saw some pretty funny people there. If you have never been to Hollywood before there are freaks everywhere. People dress up at movie stars and do stuff to get you to put money in their bucket. We saw Wonder Woman, Legolas from Lord of the Rings, a dragon man, a cat lady and much more. Hollywood is it's only little weird world.
We went home after shopping for a bit. It was a great day. We laughed a ton. I think I've got my fill of Hollywood for a while though.

The Cabin...

2005-03-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

My friend Jeri and I went to stay up in the cabin at KQ Ranch Resort in Julian last weekend. For those of you who don't know who Jeri is she is my supervisor from work. She has been like a Mom and a good friend to me. Without her I don't know how I would ever make it here in San Diego when Brandon's gone. Her and I were both stressed out over our own individual lives and needed a break. We'd been planning this for a couple of months and it ended up being the perfect time for us to go. Our friends Kymm and Janice were both supposed to be there with us but were not able to make it at the last minute. Jeri and I went up Friday night after work and stayed until Sunday morning. We had a great time. We watched girlie movies, we went to the little town of Julian and just sauntered around and went through all the little shops, we went to breakfast, lunch and dinner in Julian and had their famous apple pie. We also drove to Lake Cuyamuca which was the fullest it's been in 15 years and we drove to the top of Mt. Laguna which was a very pretty site and also made me miss Utah very much.
Jeri and I just loved staying up there and didn't want to come back. We both came back very relaxed.

Seychelles

2005-03-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Brandon was in Seychelles a couple of weeks ago. Seychelles is a little island off the southern coast of Africa. It is supposed to be a very touristy, exotic place to visit. Brandon hasn't been able to get on the website to tell about his visit there so with his permission I copied his email to me about his experience onto our website.

"It's pretty kewl here, I like it a lot. It's fairly poor, but the people seem pretty nice and friendly. I stepped into a hair-cutting salon the other day to get my haircut... they did a good job, but it sure was different than the states... the chairs were just really cheap office chairs (the roller-chairs without arms), they didn't sweep up any of the hair off the floor in between cuts, they didn't seem to understand what a "tip" was so I just gave up on that, the guy dropped the comb 2 or 3 times on the floor, picked it right back up and started using it again... then I noticed they didn't even have one of those cups with disinfectant in it that they store all the combs in! (gross!) While cutting my hair he stopped one time, grabbed his cell phone, PLACED a call, and proceeded to talk on it for about 5 minutes and just sat there brushing my hair back and forth. It was waaaaaay different. On the sides and the back he used a shaver (as usual) but without a comb... he just free-handed it... which was pretty kewl b/c it turned out looking pretty good. Not the absolute best cut of my life, but it looked pretty sharp so I was happy with it, despite all of the other stuff I didn't want to be the "rude american" and not tip... but he kept giving the change back to me insisting it was only $10... when I said "tip", he just said "no, that is all, $10"... hehehehh....
Diving was super kewl. It was a very small shop at a hotel. We had to carry all of our gear out through the surf (not very far though) to theboat and load it up in the surf (also not as bad of surf as SD). Then we motored off to this little island of rocks... it was so small that in about 30 minutes we swam all the way around it. It was wierd b/c it was just a pile of rocks out in the middle of the water, no dirt, just rocks... and growing OUT OF THE ROCKS was a small cluster of palm trees! Very odd, pretty kewl. We went down around 60 ft. Saw all sorts of kewl stuff. The vis. wasn't as good as Hawaii or even Panama, but it was pretty good... somewhere around 40-50 ft. Fairly clear and pretty. Saw a couple of octopus, the largest I've seen so far (though not huge!).... it's weird to watch them sitting there breathing... they have these ventrical-thingies that open up to breath, it looks sort of like the ventricles of a heart as they switch back and forth... the octopus changed colors and moved around a little bit as we pushed water against them. Oh, we also saw a moray eel soooooo huge! This thing was probably 4-5 feet long if it had been totally expanded... it was totally exposed, you could see every part of him, but he was curled up a bit so the length I am guessing at a bit, but it was obvious he was very huge. I got a few pix of him. Do you remember what Sea Anenome's are??? Those long, worm-like things??? They had some here that were *HUGE*... big green ones that looked like they had a hard shell like an armadillo... I saw a couple of them pooping... it was very odd... also they have another type here that is black and has these long tubular limbs with big pads on the ends that I think they use to pick up small food particles off the rocks and eat with. Apparently the snorkelers that were with us saw a pretty big sea turtle, but we never saw him.
The second dive took us inland just a bit more... that was also kewl. Nothing to see that was too much different, but there was a lot less current there so it was a nice, bit more relaxing dive. That was at about 40 ft. and we were down for about 45min. I enjoyed it a bunch. Still not the coolest diving I've done, but it was very neat. I still think Panama and Hawaii were probably the 2 coolest spots I've been to so far.
After diving we went back, I bought a shirt that says something along the lines of "Dive More", shows two divers jumping off a boat and on the front it has a small logo that says "Seychelles". I got the Dive Master to sign my log and the had this kewl little stamp that she put in my log that says "I dove in Seychelles with Lipkin" (Lipkin is her name) and has these 3 little starfish on it that look like they are pressed against the glass of an aquarium looking out... it's pretty kewl. I also earlier had gotten some aspirin and dramamine b/c that's what the dive shop in Hawaii recommended to me... it seemed to work... the headache did set in but it wasn't until after both dives and we were already on shore... I shoulda probably taken more aspirin, but I was too lazy to find the bottle in my bag... but at least this time I didn't get a headache *AND* sea-sick at the end of the 2nd dive and end up riding the boat back to shore feeling all crappy. I also think I made better practice of breathing more properly underwater... the divers in Hawaii said they thought I was breathing in too quickly and then holding it a bit too long... they said I should focus on breathing in slowly, holding it just for a brief pause, and then exhaling slowly. So I focused on doing that, which probably helped me too.
Then we all packed up our gear and Lipkin took photos for us of our group on the beach. Then we all went back to town and ate at a nice restaraunt for about $20. Fish and chips. It wasn't New England style, but the fish was very very good. Then we went back to the boat, and you were right... I was sooooo exhausted, my head was just pounding, I grabbed a soda and candy bar and flopped down in the lounge... after the movie got over I went and crawled into my rack... that was around 7PM... I didn't get out of my rack until about 9AM!!! Hehehe, so yeah, I was really tired!!!"

A couple of days later...

"Went out with IS1 again yesterday... we had a pretty good time. Originally we left just wanting to go visit the market for a while and grab some Italian food. I bought these odd fruits at the market. They look sort of like a cross between an orange and a lemon. You smash them to open them up and inside are these really large black seeds with slimy white stuff all over them. You suck on the seeds, but you don't eat them. They were very sweet and sour at the same time. They were pretty good. Then we decided to catch a ride to the other side of the island and hang out at the Hotel pool there... no one seemed to notice or at least care that we weren't staying there. It was sooooo hot though. So finally we broke down and bought some swim trunks from the little shop there and went to the beach. The dive shop next door where we went diving a few days ago loaned us one of their lockers to keep our stuff in while we were out. It was really nice, got a pretty decent tan starting to kick in. There are these beach dogs there that just live there, one in particular seems to like me b/c the morning of our dive I fed him half of my Power Bar... now whenever he sees me he comes right up to me to play. Well, we started going out to the water and I could hear IS1 right behind me in the surf and he was really close so I turned around b/c it was annoying... it wasn't IS1, it was the dog!!! He followed me right into the water and just kept coming out... dog-paddling and all! It was awesome. I would holding his front paws to let him rest for a minute and wait for a big wave... and when one would come I would turn him towards the shore and push him at just the right time and he would sort of ride the wave in... it was great... when he was most of the way in, he would just turn around and come back out for more! Anyways, we were there for maybe about 2 hours or so, then we got our clothes, totally used the hotel shower to clean up, used the hotel bathroom to change and everything. Then we walked around the little jungle area and eventually ended up at the Italian place for dinner, and then back to the boat. It was pretty good food. The restaraunt was owned by a guy who came from Italy, and it was pretty authentic, but I guess some of the stuff wasn't too authentic b/c the guy said he had a hard time getting all the right stuff on the island so he had to substitute sometimes. It was yummy though."

Half Way Committee

2005-03-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to dinner with my friends from the ships Half Way Party & Activities Committee. We just had our Half Way Hawaiian Luau Party last Saturday so we decided that just our group would go out to dinner since we all had become friends but hadn't had a chance for all of us to just hang out as friends. Rich treated us to dinner at Rancho el Nopal in Old Town. The restaurant was my idea. I love that place. That was the place my parents took Brandon and I to the first night I arrived in San Diego. The food is excellent there and the atmosphere is so authentic Mexican. They always have the mariachi band playing on the patio area. The people dress in Mexican attire. Needless to say it's a great place.
I love our group too. They have all been awesome and have helped me so much to be able to get through this deployment. Thanks guys!

I have attached a photo of our group.

From Left to Right: Cindee, Me, Rich, Sarah, Joann

Valentines Day

2005-02-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

Even though Brandon and I couldn't be together for Valentines Day it was still a special day. Brandon is always very thoughtful and plans ahead. He sent me some of the most beautiful roses I have ever seen. Their color was like a deep velvet red. He also sent with the flowers a box of very delicious Godiva truffles. Godiva is sentimental to us since it reminds us of the time we wanted a Godiva chocolate covered strawberry but we were very poor and could only afford one. They aren't cheap. So, we shared the one strawberry. We laugh about it now and think it's very cute.
Brandon is very thoughtful and loving.
I love you! Happy Valentines even though it's late!

Here is a picture of me with my flowers and Godiva truffles on Valentines Day.

My New Friends

2005-02-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry it's been a while since I've added stuff to here but I have been super busy.

I have some new friends. They are on the Family Support Group activities committee with me and we've been having a blast planning activities and just hanging out together. I was having a really hard time with deployment before I met them and got involved with the activities. Thank you Sarah and Cindee!

From Left to Right: Sarah, Me, Cindee

(I had to shrink the picture to fit on the page so our eyes look a little funny. They aren't like that in real life. :) )

Do you know YOUR bodyfat percentage???

2005-02-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Most of the time we tend to focus too much on what we "weigh", which is really a bad way to look at how fit or not fit that we are... judging ourselves by what the scale says is too subjective of a method... a much more effective way to determine how fit we are (in terms of body mass composition, anyways) is by how our clothes fit us. If they are a bit tight in the middle area, and loose in the shoulders/arms... well, that's probably not a good sign! :D

Another good way is to measure our bodyfat percentage. The only truly accurate way to do it is to climb in a water tank and have professionals measure your bodymass by submerging you in water which is inconvenient and expensive.

Another way to do it, though not highly accurate, can at least get you a ballpark figure to work with and something to help guide you as you work out and learn to eat better. You can do this in the comfort of your own home with nothing but a tape measure and a buddy; and you can use the results as a gauge to watch your progress. One other thing to note that it is typically considered "healthy" if a man measures in under 22% bodyfat, and a woman measures in under 32% bodyfat. Anything over these is generally considered too much. Though, both sexes will find it easier to move around and generally feel better by getting their bodyfat percentage a bit lower. The above numbers should be viewed as the upper limits, not as the ultimate goals.

* * * * *

It is important to know, not just how much weight you are losing, but how much of your body is muscle and how much is fat. You want to lose fat while maintaining or even building muscle. So, you need some way to keep track of
your body fat percentage.

The following is a simple method to determine current body fat percentage and lean mass percentage.

For this test you will need someones help and a ruler that reads in millimeters (mm).

Step 1. Hang your right arm at your side and have someone find the point halfway between your shoulder and elbow, on the rear (triceps side) of your arm.

Step 2. With his/her thumb and forefinger have him/her pinch a fold of skin and fat away from the muscle.

Step 3. Have him/her measure the thickenss of the skin pinched. (Do not rest the ruler against the skin.)

Step 4. Have him/her do steps 2 and 3 several times and get the average reading.

Step 5. Find your body fat percentage by using the chart below.

Skinfold Thickness(mm) / BF%(Men) / BF%(Women)

6 / 5- 9 / 8-13
13 / 9-13 / 13-18
19 / 13-18 / 18-23
25 / 18-22 / 23-28
38 / 22-27 / 28-33

Which wolf are YOU feeding???

2005-02-04T04:57:00.000-07:00

I have heard about a Cherokee Indian who told his son:
"Inside every man there are two wolves fighting. One is positive, loving, kind, and brave. The other is negative, heartless, cruel, and fearful."
The son asked, "Which one wins?"
The chief replied, "The one you feed."

Christmas 2004/New Years 2005

2005-01-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

This year for the holiday season I went back home to Utah to be with family. I had a great time. I miss my family a ton and it was so great to see them all. It was the best it could have been with Brandon being gone. My Mom flew down from Salt Lake City and drove up with me. It was awesome bonding time with my Mom. I'm still counting the #'s on the freeway Mom. :) We both had bruises by the time we were done from hitting each other every time we saw a red car. It was a lot of fun. Then I stayed until Dec. 30 at my parents house. While I was there my sister Marni bought a fixer upper house and my whole family pitched in to help her family get it painted and cleaned up so they could move in. Even though it was work it didn't feel like work. I just enjoyed being with my family and being able to help my sister. I hate not being to be there for things like this. On Dec. 30 I drove down south 4 hours to stay with Brandons parents at the Bed & Breakfast they run in Rockville, UT. We always have a New Years Eve party. It's a lot of fun. Usually during the day we go horse back riding and then in the evening we have a dinner and play a bunch of games and have a ton of goodies. It's not the same without Brandon there but we still had a good time. I shared a room with my sister-in-law Lynsee. It was a ton of fun having our girl talks and just being able to spend time with her. Jenn my other sister-in-law was supposed to share our room on New Years Eve night but she went to sleep early and was passed out on the couch. Later when Lynsee and I had just laid down to go to sleep Jenn opened our bedroom door and then walked away leaving our door open. She never came back. She went into another room and fell asleep. In the morning we asked her why she opened our door and then left. She didn't remember that at all.
I have included some pictures of my Christmas and New Years.

From Left to Right: Me, Brandon (my brother), my Dad, my Mom

My niece Madeline showing the Barbie horse I gave her for Christmas

Me with Brandon's Sisters Jenn on the left and Lynsee on the right.
It's not the greatest picture but it was the best one I had with them.

Work Christmas Pictures

2005-01-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

Every year my work gets their picture taken for our Christmas card to send to customers. We almost always have it taken at the La Jolla Shores. At the same time the sales support girls get their picture taken together for us to have for ourselves. These people are the best people you could ever work with. I love the people I work with and I have no doubt that God put me in their path to work with them because he knew how much they would take care of me when Brandon's away or even when he is here. I never even applied for this job. I had posted my resume on Monster.com and they found my resume. I already had accepted a job somewhere else and less than 5 minutes after I accepted the job Mike Cappetta (my manager) called and asked if he could get me in for an interview Monday morning. I was supposed to start my job Monday morning but I told him if he could get me in early enough than I would come in. The interview went well and I accepted. The same day that I accepted that job I received another job offer for more money but for some reason I did not accept it and stayed with this job even though it paid less and was farther away. To this day I do not know why I didn't accept the other job at the time. All I can say is that God really had his hand in putting me in this job. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to work with.
My supervisor Jeri is my San Diego Mom. She is one of the most generous and kind people I know. When I started there I had only lived in San Diego a month and none of my stuff had been shipped here yet and it was still going to be atleast another month before it would get there. Brandon and I were sleeping on a foam pad on the floor of our apt. and we were using plastic utensils and plastic plates and bowls. We only had the clothes that I was able to pack in my car. We had a VCR and we bought a tv with gift certificates from our wedding. We were also very poor because it took almost all of our money to come down here because we had to ship our cars since mine broke down on the way to San Diego and I wasn't sure if Brandon's car would have made it, and it cost us $2,000 to get into our apt. with the first and last month's rent. Also, I came down to San Diego before the Navy wanted me to and Brandon wasn't able to live out on town yet so I had to live in the Navy Lodge for 3 weeks before I could get into an apt. Some of the money was reimbursed but most of it wasn't. Anyways, to the point of my story. On my second day at work Jeri came up to me and told me that she had just gotten married and her and her husband each had a house full of furniture when they got married so they had to put almost a full house worths of furniture in a storage shed. She also said she had a truck and if we let her know what furniture we wanted her and her husband would bring it down to us and move it back when our furniture got there. This was only the second day I had met this lady. It still amazes me how generous of an offer that was. That is only one example of how awesome Jeri is to me. Kymm is my San Diego sister. She has also been extremely generous and caring. She is a blast to be with and she is very caring. She has also done a lot to help me get through hard times. Janice is a good friend of mine too. We chat all day long over our cubicles since ours are right next to each other and she listens to my nonsense. I also have to say that Mike is the best manager ever. He has been so understanding of my situation with Brandon being gone a lot and when Brandon is here he will do whatever he can to let me spend more time with Brandon which I appreciate so much. I also really appreciate Pia who is the sales person I support. She is such a caring and sweet person. I really love working with her even though I know I don't show it that often. Thank you all!!!

From left to right: Janice, Heather, Kymm and Jeri

Top row from left to right: Amy, Carl, Fatinha, Pepe, Mike (my manager)
Bottom row from left ot right: Janice, Kim, Kymm, Jeri, Pia, Heather

P.S. If anyone would like one of my work cards please let me know. I have plenty of extras. I bought a bunch to send to my own customers and then I just got too busy and it just got too late to send them out

Update

2005-01-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,
I added a new picture to the Thanksgiving post. It was sent to me by Brandon's Grandparents. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!! I love this picture. I think it's a really cute picture of both Brandon and Tazzy. It makes me miss Brandon a ton when I look at it.

Inspiration for our New Year's Goals

2005-01-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

A little motivation to help you with your goals in 2005... and if you haven't yet set any, maybe this will provide you with the inspiration to set some!

It's all in a State of Mind
Author Unknown

If you think you are beaten, you are:
If you think you dare not, you won't
If you like to win, but don't think you can
It's almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost;
For out in the world you'll find
Success begins with a fellow's will;
It's all in a state of mind.

For many a game is lost,
Ere even a play is run,
And many a coward fails
Ere even his work begun.

Think big and your deeds will grow,
Think small and you'll fall behind;
Think that you CAN and you WILL;
It's all in a state of mind.

If you think you are out-classed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise;
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the fellow who thinks he can.

There is a great little book that explores this subject in quite a bit of detail, "As a Man Thinketh"... it's small, but it made a MAJOR impact on the way I view life; I HIGHLY reccommend it to all!

The book can best be summed up by a single sentence once spoken by a very wise man... but don't think you fully understand His lesson... His one sentence has a whole lot more to it than we at first realize when we read it... again, go get the book cited above and explore it... you will find out that you probably didn't understand this Man's teaching nearly as well as you thought you did... I know it opened MY eyes:

"Faith moves mountains" -- Jesus

May you realize growth in achieving your dreams and goals this 2005!

[- UPDATE -]

2005-01-07T04:20:00.000-07:00

FYI: 2 more Wallabee pix have been added to the bottom of the Australia post!

FYI: The post about Brandon's port visit to Oahu, Hawaii has been updated... it now has several pix from his dive there... scroll down to the post and check it out again!