The Dreaded Boonie Bee

I know ~ I haven't posted anything on our Christmas festivities yet. I still need to download the pictures to the computer. The weekend just flew by. We did have a wonderful holiday complete with good food and friends. Stay tuned for photos and all the fabulous details of our last Christmas on Guam.

Today's post has to do with the horrible, nasty, no-good flying creature those of us on Guam refer to as the "boonie bee". I have written about these awful, aggressive bees before (June '08) when I was stung on my wedding ring finger and ultimately had to have all 4 of my wedding bands cut off. Take a closer look at the "boonie bee"...

Notice the yellow band near the back end. That is how we distinguish it from other bees/wasps.

Today I was attempting to tackle my to-do list and knock out a few things before school starts up again. I was outside taking down the Christmas lights when I was stung by the dreaded boonie bee, again on my left hand; this time on my middle finger. Ouch! It hurts so much worse than a regular bee sting. I immediately pulled of my wedding rings (don't want to have a repeat of June). I have taken 2 doses of diphenhydramine, put on the meat tenderizer paste, and applied ice. Right now I can't bend any of my fingers on my left hand and it is swollen about twice its' normal size. If you're lucky I just might put a picture of my hand here later!

Much to my dismay, I think I will need to dig out all of my beautiful flowers in order to get rid of as many of the boonie bees as possible. I knew I was going to have to trim everything down before we moved but I think my time-table has just changed. I hope Lilymei can leave the island without the "pleasure" of a boonie bee sting. The rest of us can't say the same. Does anyone have any bee/wasp spray?

Ho, Ho, Ho

Even though we don't have the snow or cold weather to remind us that Christmas will soon be here Lilymei is beginning to realize something special is about to happen.  St. Nick visited our home earlier in the month and left some goodies in our stockings but since then Lily has resorted to using the stockings as the name implies.

No snow but we do have a few snowmen!

Lily gives this snowman a hug every chance she can.  He's just so squishy.

Riding around the neighborhood we can see many inflatable Santa's, snowmen, and other assorted holiday decorations.  Lily loves them all and we can hear her in the backseat yelling out "Ho Ho Ho" no matter what she is looking at.  By the way, only 3 more days until Christmas!

"Oh my" at Tarza Water Park!

Lilymei has come a long way from the day it took her almost 5 minutes to eat one bite size cracker!

Decorating for Christmas

" I like hanging things on this tree but why is it in the house?!"

"I'm not so sure about this angel though."

"This is my favorite spot ~ right in front of Santa."

What does 1 and 3 make?

I knew today would come, even though I was not ready for it. Scott and I are about to embark on something we have never done before. We are now the parents of a ......TEENAGER! I'll admit it....I'm afraid....very afraid.

How can this be? Wasn't it just a few short years ago that our Nate was born on a cold and blustery day in Mayfield Hts, Ohio? Apparently, while I wasn't watching, 13 years have passed since that joyous day. Nate was born 3 days early at 12:04pm on Saturday, December 9th. He weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. Today Nate is 104 pounds and 5' 1.5" tall.

Scott surprised Nate by taking the day off from work. In celebration of Nate's big day we let the boys take a break from their home school. Here is Nate with his breakfast request: eggs over-easy, toast, and hot chocolate.

Once Lilymei finished with her PT session we packed up the kids and headed to TARZA, (you know, Guam's water park). Nate was admitted for free (yippee!) and we spent the next four hours playing in the sun, splashing down the water slides, and floating on the lazy river. Lily couldn't walk yet when we were at Tarza for Drew's birthday in October so today she was having so much more fun, pushing the inner tubes around the shallow area, climbing up the stairs (by herself!!!), and yelling at the boys when they went under the waterfalls.

Once we were home and cleaned up we let Nate open his birthday gifts. Here he is with part of his gift from Gram ~ The Princess Bride movie.

After dinner, we sang Happy Birthday and dug into the ice cream cake I made yesterday/today. The story behind the 2 day cake preparation is simple....I bought 2 boxes of ice cream sandwiches on Sunday. Monday evening I started the ice cream cake. I used the first box of sandwiches with no problem. When I opened the 2nd box I noticed each one was completely dried out. Gross! (Mind you, on Guam sometimes we are left with no choice but to eat certain foods that are slightly out of date. Most of the time I don't even check the dating anymore because I would have no food in the house.) Well, these ice cream sandwiches were still in date. Unfortunately, the commissary is closed on Monday so I couldn't return the bad box. No problem; I'll just stop at the shoppette when I drop Nate off at his scout meeting. The good news ~ they had ice cream sandwiches. The bad news ~ I was not going to pay $6 for the box. Oh well, I knew Scott was going to be home this morning so I could make a quick trip back to the commissary and exchange the sandwiches and finish the cake. Nate appreciated it and we all thought it tasted great! Here is the happy teenager.

Nate is a wonderful son. He is so loving to his baby sister. Lily is really bringing out the gentler side of Nate that we haven't seen since Drew was a baby. We are so proud of Nate! Congratulations on reaching your 13th birthday Nate! We love you!

Smiley Face Conjunction

What a treat for those of us living in the tropics....Guam's December 1st sky with Venus and Jupiter above the crescent moon.

ScubaRoo Trip

Black Friday found the O's not at the malls shopping for bargains but rather, out on the open water of the Philippine Sea. A couple of months ago Drew had won a gift certificate for 4 people to spend an afternoon out on a ScubaRoo boat trip. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We were at the dock by the appointed time of 1pm. We waited for a few other families and a couple of Japanese tourist groups to arrive. By 1:30 we were on our way. Once we passed through the channel markers we headed out to the front of the boat to catch the breeze and enjoy the ride.

Nate and Drew clearly enjoying their time on the boat.  (Don't mind the date on the photo~Scott pulls out the batteries from the underwater camera each time we use it!) 

After approximately an hour boat ride we came upon a pod of dolphins. What a surprise! There were nearly 30 dolphins swimming around our boat. It was beautiful!   Take a look....

Once everyone had taken as many photos as they wanted the captain turned the boat around and we headed back for the harbor. Time to untie the banana boat! The boys were really excited! Here we are hanging on for dear life.....

After everyone rode the banana boat we pulled into the harbor and dropped anchor.  A handful of Japanese tourists were suited up to scuba dive.  The rest of us jumped off the back of the boat and snorkeled.   The boat crew threw out pieces of hot dog to bring out a few more fish.  We spent an hour snorkeling and relaxing on the boat until the divers came back to the surface.  We pulled back into the dock by 4:30pm.  What a great day!  Drew kept reminding us to thank him for taking us along.  Thank You Drew!!!

This is a sample of what we saw.....

For those of you who are wondering where Lily was, not to worry.  She spent the day with her Nina and Ninu (Carlene and Steve).  They played with the neighbor's Little Tikes car, took a ride in the stroller, and had ice cream!