The grass is greener where you water it.

 

The grass is greener where you water it. I read this simple quote the other day and the words struck me instantly as I realized how fitting this was for my life right now. About mid February we purchased plane tickets home to California. Initially we were just planning on spending the summer and after a few different variables were thrown in, the tickets stretched into what will be a six month trip for me and Deliah. I am over the moon to be reunited with my Chihuahua. I am thrilled to be home in time for one of my best friends weddings. I’m looking forward to holding new babies that will be born. I am grateful to have time with my in-laws before they leave on a mission. More than anything I want to show off my perfect beautiful baby to all my family and friends. Deliah is not the same 2 month old infant who flew out to Guam with me anymore. She is a fearless 9 month old little girl who is so eager to try new things. I am already nervous about how I am going to handle a squirmy 9 ½ month old who is already attempting to walk during 18 hours of flight time, but that will be another story. The reason this quote had such a profound impact on me is because my feelings towards Guam have really changed recently. It’s almost like the second plane tickets were purchased off this island that is 6,000 miles away from everything I care about, I realized there is so much I care about here as well. There are still a million reasons this island makes me crazy, but that has not been my focus. Knowing I will be leaving and suddenly have limited time has allowed me to enjoy myself more, appreciate more, explore more, smile more, and hopefully be a better  wife and mother because of my shift in mood and perspective. I have allowed myself to feel happy when before I felt like that wasn’t allowed because this wasn’t my plan. Silly, yes, but understanding this about myself has helped me grow in a way I needed to grow. Lesson – life doesn’t always go your way, but water where you are and you can find beauty anywhere! For me it has been very literal beauty in the form of sunsets that light the sky on fire, amazing hikes, waterfalls, and the ocean! 

Guam was never on my radar, not for a place to live, and not even a place I considered for travel. I honestly knew absolutely nothing about it. I couldn’t even locate it on a globe, but then again I can’t locate most places on a globe. We have been here seven months now. Like anywhere you need to learn the ropes a little to feel comfortable. The learning curve in Guam is just steeper than when we moved West Coast to East Coast. On Sunday we met a new young couple with a 6 month old baby from Utah who just moved to Guam three days prior. Hello, sound familiar! I can relate to what this new Mom must be feeling so uniquely and I know too well the feelings of stress and loneliness that will creep up on you in a new place, although maybe she didn’t move here as reluctantly as I did? I thought about how I wish we had someone to help with the transition and tell us all the best places to shop, eat, hike, and explore on the island. We were told the same two spots to visit and once we went to those right away all we did was go to the beach a lot. Now we are discovering there is so much more to see and I love how blessed we are to be surrounded by so many fun excursions we can do in just a day. In the spirit of being appreciative and watering where I am planted here are 10 good things about Guam.

1.   The beach.

2.   The sunsets.

3.   Taking a hike, literally.

4.   Playing tourist for the day and exploring the island.

5.   The amazing scenic backdrops and vast amount of photo opportunities.

6.   Renting three movies for $5 at the video store across the street, we don’t have Redbox.

7.   The year round swimming in warm water. I miss seasons, however my baby is half guppy and loves to swim so this has been nice.

8.   A baby wearing an Aloha print dress.

9.   Laughter. There are plenty of strange things about Guam and we have really learned to have a sense of humor about it all, or try to anyway.

10.      My husband has a job here that can support his family, and every weekend is a 3 day weekend.

 

 

What have the Fox's been doing?

When we first moved to Guam we made a conscious effort to go and play tourist on the island as often as we could. Initially it was more like an extended vacation. We really wanted to be happy here and the beautiful sights eased the distance. The last few months we have been in a slump. We bought a car on Craigslist and were scammed. We took it to a repair shop that kept it for two months, and were scammed again. We are currently driving a car that literally has the head gasket glued together. We poured a lot of money into this car and not wanting to waste another dime on our Guam bomb have been without a consistent reliable vehicle. A few kind people lent us a loaner for a while, but there were weekends we were stuck at home. January rolled around and we were broke. Glenn was on winter break and only receives paychecks on the months he works, so it was tight. We were happy to spend days swimming at the pool in our complex. We kept saying how lucky we were to be swimming in January. Life in Guam has really surreal moments and the year around swimming weather is a perk, especially when you have a baby who is a natural born bubble guppy in the water. We discovered the video store across the street rents three movies for $5! We binge watched TV shows on Netflix and spent more time with the characters from Chuck than actual real people. We were living life on the cheap and kind of stopped exploring the island. The last month we have started to emerge from our shells again and have been able to enjoy some fun family outings. Here are a few of my favorite moments recently. 

Our Valentines Day dinner date turned out to be very memorable and kept us laughing the whole time. We ate at a new place called Tapenade and didn’t know any reviews or anything at all prior to walking in the door. We asked the hostess what it meant and she said it was a serving for two. The menu looked delicious so we ordered a few things with the plan to share. I asked for a strawberry lemonade to drink which wasn’t on the menu. The bartender said he could whip it up no problem. We watched as he sliced strawberries, juiced lemons, shook it all around and created his masterpiece. Since there were no refills on this creation I savored and drank slowly. Throughout the entire meal the bartender kept walking over and adding to my drink. He dropped in diced orange and apple and garnished with extra fruit. He just couldn’t stop! When the food came it was delicious, but turns out Tapenade means a taste for two. We had two skewers and split between the two of us it was three bites of meat each. We ordered two other dishes and joked about hitting up the Wendy’s in the parking lot on our way home. Neither of us had ever eaten at one of those tiny bite size portion restaurants before. It made for a memorable dinner and the food honestly was fantastic.

Last Monday Glenn had a surprise day off work that we weren’t expecting. Guam literally called a Holiday out of nowhere and schools were closed. One of our favorite places on the island is a place called Tumon. This is the capital of everything touristy on the island. You have the best shopping, restaurants, resorts, and therefore the best beaches. We spent the first part of our day wandering around the stores and waiting out the buckets of rain that were pouring down outside. We ate lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. To some it’s just pizza. To me anything that I enjoy in the states and can still enjoy on this island feels like a little piece of home. Once we finished the weather was all cleared up and we were planning on swimming in the ocean. When we walked down to the beach we were warned about jellyfish. Being the cautious Momma that I am I chose not to risk going in the water with my baby. Glenn however thought he could dodge any jellyfish that he saw, put on a snorkel and mask, and proceeded with caution out into the water. He was back on the beach five minutes later after getting stung. Lesson learned we chose to take a casual walk along the beach taking pictures. Immediately we noticed the beach was littered with these Pacific Men-Of-War, dozens and dozens of them just washed on shore. They are a bright royal blue and look like chewed up spat out pieces of bubble gum with a giant clear bubble stuck to them and a single long tentacle. Unlike anything I have ever seen before at the Monterey Bay Aquarium that I visited many timed during my childhood. We came upon a catamaran that was a perfect posing my baby moment. We saw this triangular glass home that had a wedding going on in that exact moment. This little beach walk was my favorite part of the day. I experience a lot of emotions in Guam, some good and some not. This day I was grateful that we will have so many cute family photos on the beach because of our time here.  

I feel like each time we go out on a Guam exploration I think that’s the most scenic place on the entire island. Seriously though I really think this hike we went on to Tarzan Waterfalls last Friday was my favorite so far. We have talked about hiking pretty much every weekend, and up until now have only done one very small very short hike down to a place called Haputo Beach. Tarzan Falls was a 3 mile roundtrip hike and perfectly baby friendly. The trail was so wide and kept opening up to these gorgeous scenic views of the island. It was absolutely impossible to get lost because even when the trail split off it always converged back into one. The weather that morning was spectacular and we had a nice little breeze. There were some muddy patches and one place we had to do a little bum scoot down a crazy steep slippery hill but that’s the reality of nature. I can’t say enough good things about this hike and this day. The funniest part was this group of Japanese tourists that were taking an ATV tour down to the waterfall and as they kept stopping to navigate we kept catching back up with them while walking. They were shameless about photographing our beautiful baby. When we were down at the waterfall one of them just randomly put his arm around Glenn and Deliah to take a picture with them. I feel like wherever we go our white baby is such a novelty and we’re constantly getting compliments on her beauty, her gorgeous eyes and curly locks of hair. People can rave about my baby all they want, this Momma eats it up. The waterfall was spectacular. Who doesn’t love a waterfall?! The water was so refreshing to jump in but was a little cool for Deliah’s liking so we didn’t stay in too long. Deliah got real worn out hiking and being so photogenic that she slept the entire hike back. All in all it was great family day and I was feeling very lucky by our surroundings.

Not every day in Guam is all rainbows and unicorns and waterfalls. Those days it’s effortless to see the magic in my day and the unique experiences that Guam has brought us. Whenever I’m out of the house and we’re trying something new and exploring the island that’s when my mood is at its best. The most challenging aspect of living here is the feelings of loneliness that can creep up on you. I have never struggled as much socially and felt like it was so difficult to make friends as it has been here. Some days I am perfectly content at home tending to my Mommy and Wife responsibilities. After too many days without venturing outside those walls I start to get bored. I love spending my days with Deliah but I think about how awesome it would have been to have Deliah while we lived in North Carolina. There are a lot of young moms in our previous ward who supported each other and were excellent about keeping a playgroup going. They always invited me even without a baby, but now that I have a baby I see how crucial those groups are to both baby and Mommy. I love showing off Deliah and her new tricks on Skype, but it’s not the same. I’m already looking forward to being back in California and having games nights, and people over for dinner, and meeting friends at the park with their kids. We really do lead a pretty good life and have exceptional options for fun weekend outings but I do wish Guam wasn’t in such a stupid location on the Globe.

 

 

 

 

A walk along the beach in Tumon. March 3, 2014

 

 

A hike to Tarzan Falls. March 7, 2014