Busy few days

Saturday and today we went out with our Realtor (who for the record is amazing) and looked at rental homes in the area. (more on the house situation later) That night we went to a Guam food festival downtown. It was a beautiful evening, and gave us a chance to try some local island style BBQ (pork, chicken and squid) and sausage. It was delicious!

They also had a Whopper eating contest sponsered by Burger King, a best burger on island contest (didn't try it, too preoccupied with foods I can't get anywhere else), and a local fruit and vegetable stand. Finished up the night with calamansi juice and headed home.

Sunday we went to church and then took the kids to go see "The Lorax". It was a cute movie, and the kids appreciated the change of pace.

Since Sunday, storm clouds (that are now part of the newly formed tropical storm) have kept us from doing too much exploring outside.

our "view" of the Solar eclipse

We've had plenty to do otherwise though. Yesterday we registered the kids at medical. Medical here, I have to say, is much more customer service oriented than I've seen in a long time. It may be an old building (they are building a new one), but the care and concern among the staff for the patients is huge! I had a Commander stop us and give us a positive comment on the size of our family too (not the normal smart remarks I get). Bonus for the visit: The lady who set our records up is a local, and after talking she realized that I have a genuine interest in her island and the local food, and gave me a few pointers on places to go!

After medical we hit another Payless market, this time in the Agana Shopping Center. The center as a whole is a smallish mall, but has what appear to be cute little shops, and there's a "Tokyo Market" with quite a few of the food things I came to love while in Japan. The Payless there is a bit larger than the last one we went to, so of course we had to spend some time figuring out all the things they had there for sale.

Today it was back to medical for Levi's 6 month shots (I found out they require an MMR by 6 months here unlike12 months in the states) and an appointment for the younger girl before heading out to look at more houses with our Realtor.

We've seen quite a few homes over the last few days and finally selected and put a rental offer in on a house today. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an ocean view but we'll never find a place that has everything we want, even in the 3 bedroom range.The one place we found with the view we liked had no way to enjoy it (a porch or big windows that faced it) which made the view a bit pointless. Village choice and area is what won out, and given the 5 kids probably one of the more important factors. If we get it, there is more than enough room for guests, which is another big upcheck! Now, we just have to wait on the reply, get housing to approve the lease, etc. etc. Fingers crossed it all goes well!