Art Goodies

Hey Everyone! It is almost 2 am and I can't sleep, so thought I would get this out there in hopes that my brain will slow down a little bit.

There is a huge possibility that I will be teaching art this year (things can change up until the minute I begin though) So, I want to be prepared for either art or science.

I have not checked out the art supplies (the Attorney General has condemned the art room so it is currently under construction) but I heard there is not much at all and there is definitely no $$ (I mean I still might not have air condition!) So, I am planning on starting from scratch. I can attempt to collect a small supply fee from the students so that will help. But if anyone has anything laying around and would like to donate it, I would be glad to take it off your hands and promise it will go to great use.

Right now I am in search of art prints (from famous artists or time periods... ex. Monet or Surrealism, etc.) If anyone has old calendars or posters, or finds any on clearance, please let me know! I have in the past focused on:

• Early Art: Primitive, Folk, Medieval, Gothic, Renaissance. Realism, Impressionism

• 20th Century: Cubism, Fauvism, Abstract, Surrealism, Non-Objective, Pop Art

As far as supplies, I usually try to teach with a variety of mediums (tempera and watercolor paint, chalk, oil pastels, colored pencil, marker, drawing pencils, colored paper, anything 3-D)

So, there it is. If anyone has anything or knows where I would be able to order it for a good price let me know (oh yeah, everything is expensive out in town.) Thanks so much.

Missing you all,
Rhianon

9 New Posts

I am playing catch up this summer vacation...
Enjoy some of the highlights from the past few months below.

What's the Catch?

Spear Fishing... at night... believe it!

This IS Heath and Chase we are talking about.

Heath, Chase and our friend Phil went fishing the other night and came home with this... not exactly dinner.

Guam has had a huge problem with Brown Tree Snakes, they are an exotic species that hitched a ride over on a plane and have no predators here so are a problem all over the island and have sadly wiped out most of the bird species and who knows what else (just not the chickens.)

He is really over 6ft long!

I really wanted to keep it... I mean look how beautiful it is!


But if it were to ever get loose and back out in the jungle, I would not be helping out the biodiversity of Guam now would I!?

Last night just Heath and Chase went out and this is what Chase got... wow!
It is a Parrot Fish... isn't it beautiful!



Can't wait to eat him... they are really delicious!
They have also seen sea turtles and huge blow fish... and tons more, that is all they tell me.

Caving on Nimitz Hill

(Rhianon, Phil, Chase, Heath)
We had a blast! I can't get over how much fun this was!

We can't wait to check out more caves here!

Naval Hospital Birthday

We don't have many pics of us lately... so here are a few from the ball.

Livin' the Life!

While Micheal was here, he and Heath and our downstairs housemate, Phil, decided to cut down an old coconut tree and hang a lovely hammock! It seems just too good to be true!

Truly Living the Life!

Party in the Front Yard

Our friends daughter, Marina, was having her first holy communion so we hosted it in our front yard.

The guys carried down the tent from the Mayors house. There was tons of food, the kids (this includes Heath) had a blast in the bounce house.

Such a sweet and beautiful girl!

Making of Our Surfboard:Part 1

At new moon (less bugs to infest the wood) Heath goes out to harvest as much usable Pago wood as possible. It then sits on our porch to dry before he strips it of the bark and shaves off the curves. It then comes inside the house so it does not mold or get bugs. There is still tons of harvesting to do!

Tasha's Visit

My new friend Tasha came out for a vacation... had a great time and I talked her ear off... I didn't realize how much I needed to talk to someone from back home about life here. She was a huge blessing! Thanks for making the trip Tasha!

Cocos Crossing

On May 25, we joined 136 people from all over the world for the International Coco's Crossing Swim Race. We took a ferry over to Coco's island and swam home. The swim was 2.5 forever miles and the water was choppy but clear... We all were able to finish the race in under 2 hours with no major problems, just a lot of choking on the waves. Our pic of "team drown" is below.

Chris (Heath's coworker) 1:17, Rhianon 1:28, Heath 1:17, Michael (Heath's brother)1:08 and our friend Phil 1:37.

That is Cocos from Guam... forever away!

Spring Break

Nina and I had fun my first day of break!
We climbed and picked breadfruit from the huge tree, this was not an easy task. We were planning on making it for family dinner. We then picked Calamancies (shown below... I made juice.. it is kinda like lemon/tangerine juice) We also checked out many other things in her wonderful garden of a yard, makes our yard look pretty lame.
After a productive morning we refreshed ourselves in the shade... ahhh

Calamanci Juice from Nina's tree

Caribou are icons on Guam

Diving at Fish Eye

Heath surfing at Boat Basin ... too dangerous for me
(notice our statue of liberty in the background)

Out for sushi

Last Day To Play

I am posting the last video for the Miller Family Vacation, we had fun jumping off turtle rock and taking pictures at Jeff's Pirates Cove.

They left yesterday afternoon and arrived in Michigan a few hours ago. We had a great time and can't wait until the next time we are all together. (Hopefully, next time with Brandon and Whitney too!)

If you would like to see more of our vacation check out Russ and Amy's blog for more video slide shows.

Family Fun Shots

Family Photo

Visitors!

Hafa Adai Everyone!

We have been having a blast with our families out here... We have been keeping so busy I don't have it in me to give a good long creative colorful update... so I will send you to their fantastic blogs. They are staying up to date much better than we have been able to.

Heath has been able to take vacation for most of the time our families have been here, I was only able to take 2 days off, but am now on summer vacation.... whooohoooo!!!!

Here's the schedule.... Heaths brother Michael was here 2 weeks and left on Thursday, I finished school on Friday, we hosted a going away party for Heath's boss and his wife on Saturday and my family came arrived Sunday and will be here until June 12th.

Check their links below or to the right...

Michael was out here the last two weeks of May (Rachel was out here for one week during that time before she took off for China)

Russ and Amy have posted slide shows of each of the days so far on their blog. The entire Miller family (minus Chase's girlfriend Whitney and Rachel's boyfriend Brandon...whom we greatly miss!!!!!) have been living up the tropical dream with us since June 1st.

MAYBE THE EARTH IS FLAT

Many who know us back home may have begun to question if the world really is in fact...flat... If so it must drop into space just beyond the pacific. We would not be surprised or offended if that is what you think, and we know that true friends will still love and accept us despite our terrible absence... from our blog, email, phone, even birthday calls, and other wonderful things, etc. (That was not totally meant to manipulate you but remind you that you still love us even when we are completely distant ;) And we are thankful for that)

CONGRATS!

Before I give the boring update or excuses why... I must share the most exciting news in our lives... We are finally going to be an auntie and uncle!!!!! That's right if you haven't checked out Russ and Amy's blog they are going to expand the Miller family even more!!!! We are soooo excited! On top of keeping in touch over here, this is going to by far be the hardest part of being so far away!!!! Who knows when I will be able to hold and smell and kiss this little ones cheeks! I don't even want to think about that right now (I already miss my friends little ones like crazy... I can't imagine how much I will miss this one!) Happy thoughts... I need to think happy thoughts!... I am back... phew... OK, so, I will be able to see Amy pregnant in a couple months which I am stoked about... I love seeing my girls about to pop.

VISITORS

So that brings me into my next highlight in our lives... visitors! Here is the line-up... I have a friend who was here last weekend, Heaths brother and his wife will be here the end of may and my family (right now 6 1/2... I am hoping all 8 1/2) come in June, and my little bro will stay all summer! It will be so nice to have people around that know and love us!

FAMILY HERE

I know I have mentioned our Chamorro family here on our blog and have shared more specifically with those of you we have talked to. I would like to share a little more here how wonderful it is to be adopted by a local family. They keep us very busy! And extremely well fed! We just celebrated our 1 year anniversary as part of the family last Month. Can you believe it? We have been on Guam 1 year and almost 3 months already. It has gone so fast.

Anyway, every weekend we have family dinner, and from November on we were so busy with holidays and then in January, our "brother" Joel got married so that kept us very busy for a while. It was great to be a part of a Chamorro wedding! The family did everything including all the food and there were thousands of people, the reception was held in a gym which was packed and people were even crowded around the outside of the building! Two bands played taking turns all evening and then after everyone left it was clean up time, which again the whole family was there helping. It was a beautiful day!

(February disappeared)
MARCH AND APRIL

For Heath's birthday we had our first big big gathering here at our place... I was so nervous to host that many people, (and we pulled if off very last minute) but the beautiful thing about family gatherings is everyone brings a dish (or a few) and the aunties took over helping and putting it together. Which they said they loved watching me in the middle of it all in my indoor kitchen, with out the "necessary" utensils for this size gathering. I think I know what I am getting next year for Christmas :) It turned out wonderful and we had tons of food left over, even after everyone "balutoned" (that we learned is required when you eat at any gathering... you must pack plates of food to go- baluton)

HEATH

Heath has had his evaluation and for a while was studying constantly for his advancement test. He also took placement tests and is getting set up to take classes online to finish his degree.
His newest project is to build a surf board out of a light local wood. So, he harvested a bunch of wood during the last new moon and it has been drying out. Just today he has begun to strip its bark and prep it. We will have to document along the way. Right now I need to go snap some pics. He is so excited about this!

RHIANON

I have been swamped with school and am way more stressed than I imagined this job to be! Our school just had an accreditation team from the states come out, and we are now prepping the school for the attorney general to check us for health and safety issues. They come unannounced and have already shut down many schools on island. I desperately want to finish out the year and get out on time so I can have my summer. So we are busing our tails in hopes we pass. Because of this, maintenance is jumping on my requests to take care of the rat problem and the 1st day we caught 3 rats in my room/storage. Next, we have to figure out what to do with old chemicals and very old specimens from the 70's... like, starfish, squid, some kind of hearts and other buckets-o-fun for dissecting. I already cleaned the science storage room, organizing and trashing things from way back when it was a high school... Big job!

My air con went out February 1st so I have been teaching in the 80 degree heat with loud fans to yell over and distractions galore with the windows wide open... We have been miserable, but there is no money to repair them... I am looking into what it would take to pay it myself, just for my own comfort. There have been many other struggles to overcome... lately, I have been begging God for grace and have learned a lot about what I can and can not handle.

On a much more positive note... the island has major trash issues and have begun to implement recycling aluminum at the schools... as a science teacher this has been a great avenue to educate and share my passion about caring for the environment. So, as a science project, I required students to work together with their family's and recycle 500 cans per quarter. In about 6 months worth of time we have filled the bin 11 times! The island just filled the limit for sending it to the recycling plant in CA and will be bringing in something like $18,000 for the schools... so we should be getting our $1600 soon. I am so proud of my students! We have filled the bin more than any of the middle schools! Go IMS! Now if we could just make it easier and possible as well as teach the value of recycling more items. I have seen people fighting the concept and on the flip, have been so proud of those who are embracing this and are open to changing. I will continue to cheer even if only one hears... "Go Green Guam!"

We are busy, life has been heavy and I often find myself living for the next thing... the days end... air condition... the weekend... the summer... the next adventure... But my dad reminded me today that Grandpa Miller always used to say, "Don't wish your life away." Thanks for that wisdom.

Please excuse my grammar and wordy-ness. This is a rough sketch of our life, I just wanted to get this out and haven't the time or mind power to review it. Thanks!

We love and miss you all terribly!

Our First Christmas... Just the 2 of Us

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas with the family that adopted Heath and I. We were even in on the gift exchange and there were lots of jokes about us hyphenating our last name. They really have welcomed us in as their own. Though we miss our family and friends back home dearly, we are blessed to have people here to spend the holidays with. We felt so loved by the gifts they gave us!

After tons of great food, cousin BJ's amazing dance group performed for the family... Auntie Bic Bic is part one of the dancers so they encouraged her get up an join them... she is in the purple. We just think this little guy in the front is so cute! And the little girls with garland, plumerias and coconuts... truly a tropical Christmas.

I just love watching the cute mother dancers perform... they have such grace and elegance and their smiles just beam... it is beautiful!

I think the teens had fun with this one!


And the grand finale dance these ladies choose men from the family to join them... one of the cousins choose Heath... it was a hoot! They were hilarious, all of the guys were funny especially the Uncles... they really got into it.


Heath was my favorite though... he was great at cheezing it up too!

Christmas Eve's Eve

As Santa's helpers this year, we dressed up and passed out treats to the children for the mayor of our village (our adopted Chamorro family)