Week 33: Hoards of Food (Nov 21-27)

Yikes, a lot of food was consumed by me this week. I think I set a record for the number of Thanksgiving meals I have personally eaten. By the time the week was over I had downed 4 delicious dinners fully of yummy morsels.
Dinner 1: It all began with the Third Grade International Tasting Party on Wednesday. We had 23 dishes from countries around the world that included perogies, cheese curds, and coconut rice balls (my favorite!).
Dinner 2: On Thursday, I was invited to a Thanksgiving Feast fit for a King. It was in the backyard of someones home and even though it was raining it was quite to wonderful traditional Thanksgiving full of turkey, mashed potatoes and more.
Dinner 3: PDR on Friday (Kwaj Thanksgiving Day)- Every year I look forward to Thanksgiving with my Kwaj friends. We all crowd around tables at the chow hall and gorge on some of the best food the dining hall prepares all year long. There is copious amounts of consumption of turkey, crab legs and delicious desserts to tempt the pallet.
Dinner 4: Cafe Roi on Friday - For my second Thanksgiving Day meal, I dined at the chow hall on Roi with Kwaj friends and the boy, FS. I was full and really didn't need anymore food, but once I tasted the yummy sweet potatoes, I couldn't stop. They were AMAZINGLY delicious and I think I may have gone back for 3rds on them.
I think I spent the rest of the weekend eating pretty much nothing since I was stuffed to the brim and sleeping off a food hangover. Good thing Thanksgiving comes around only 1X a year!

Week 27: Airplanes in the deep sea (Oct 3 - 9)

What an exciting weekend!! I was able to dive down into the deep blue sea and there at the bottom was a large collection airplanes. I lost count at 6, but would guess that we saw about 10+. It was such a surreal feeling seeing all the planes nestled in the sand and covered with life. One of the wings must have had a large anemone living inside because every little hole had pink anemone peaking out and a couple of Nemo's friend darting in and out. The same wing had a large crown of thorns starfish camped out on it and looking content as could be. I am always in awe of how quietly beautiful it is underwater and how grounded I become when I am focused on what is around me and my steady breathing. Sometimes I think diving is so much work when I have to pull all the gear out of the closet, make sure that it is work, haul it and tanks down at the dock, but the moment I hit the water I know that it was worth it.

This same weekend also involved a Roi Oktoberfest Party and some good fun with friends. I am so thankful that the life I am blessed with allows for such wonderful and exciting experiences. I am excited to see what each new day brings and the challenges and triumph that I will encounter in the years to come!

Week 26: Half Century Dive (Sept 26-Oct 2)

It has taken over two years and I wondered if I would ever make it to dive number 50, but I made it!!! My 50th dive was at a place called Troy's Coral Head in the middle of the Kwaj Lagoon. Troy's is known for having an abundance of sharks in a variety of species. On this particular day the sharks only numbered about 8, but there were gray reef, white tip, and a nurse shark. The white tips were resting in the sand and just chillin' like some villains.

The best part of the dive was a beautiful medium-sized sea turtle just snacking away on some coral. We were able to get just a couple feet away and watched him for about 10 minutes as he kept munching and every so often he would look up and check us out. I was in awe of his beauty and just couldn't take me eyes off him. What a spectacular sight it was!?! I feel so blessed to have been able to witness this creature in his natural habitat.

I have tried not to post too many dive posts, but already know that next week will be another dive related experience. On Sunday, I will be diving on Roi-Namur and seeing my first airplane (hopefully many) ever at the Airplane Graveyard up there. Thrilled can't describe how I feel about my dives this coming weekend.

This past week I also hit 30.5 years of life. I didn't celebrate my half birthday, but had quite an enjoyable night nonetheless. My 30th year of life is proving to be quite an amazing year and I am loving every minute of it. If 30 is this great, I can't wait to see what 31 brings!

Week 25: Cheesecake and New Friends (September 19-25)

Early in the week there was a dinner party to celebrate some dear friends who are moving far, far away to California. I jumped at the chance to make a yummy dessert that would be gluten free and a big hit with all. After looking at bunches of recipes, I settled on a cheesecake with a macadamia nut crust. It was scrumptious and many went back for seconds. I never realized how easy it was to make a cheesecake and can see myself making them for many other dinners and celebrations in the future. I have a couple tweaks to make, but over all would change very little.

This week I also flew to Roi for a W&D Girl's Night with KC, LC, and MJ. We flew up Saturday after work and returned late Sunday afternoon. It is funny how I build expectations and thoughts of how things will go in my head and then it is all thrown out the window and my expectations are exceeded. Us 4 girls, we like to think that we are an entertaining and fun bunch and that was confirmed this weekend. We started playing some card games and before we knew it had 4 new freinds from Roi that joined us for the fun and ended up in mass quantities of booze flowing. I know that you are thinking, wait didn't you and KC decided to go dry for 30 days, well we modified it to only cover Kwaj. We figured that since it was our challenge we could change the terms:) Well the night ended with me hanging out with one of our new friends for 12 hours. It has been a long time since I talked that long to someone that I just met, and it felt good to let the guard down, well not all the way down, but just a little.