Celebrating Chamorro Week with....Carabou rides!

Well March is the month that Seth's school is celebrating Charmoro week(celebrating Guam's history). Yesterday Amber and I took the kids back to the school and let them ride the carabou...or in english a big old water buffalo! They loved it! I didn't think they would, but I had trouble getting Landon off! Tomorrow(Friday) is the big Chamorro fiesta! they have set up straw huts and canopies right on the beach for the festivities! All of the kids at the school are very excited! After all tomorrow we will find out how much the school raised for the fundraiser!


Seth has raised a grand total of $620!!!! WOW, Thank you again everyone!

What a great turn-out! I will post a ton of pics from the party this weekend. Things have been crazy here, Landon's party is this Sunday and I am still in the works to either get Elmo or Big Bird to show up for a surprise vistit! It should be fun! I hope everyone is having a great week....ahhh the weekend is almost here!

Tyler and Kalea. Kalea is not a fan of the carabou!!!!

Luis's Deep Sea Fishing Adventure

Luis finally got to get out and go fishing with the guys! Of course they are not like us women who take a zillion and one photos! So this is all I got!! He had a great time!

Mahi Mahi Fish

More pics

Looking down at the Ladies Market
Taken from the ferry.
Looking down from the Peak.

I just can't get over how HUGE the city was. It seemed to stretch for Miles!

What a trip!!

I had such a GREAT time in Hong Kong! That place was made for shopping. I can't even begin to explain what we saw or bought, it's a little overwhelming! What a great group of gals. I don't think it could have gone any better. I have so many great memories! Thank you gals, I had a BLAST! We went non-stop from 7am till midnight! I am ready to go back! We went to the jade market, ladies market..any kind of market you can think of, we were there. It's just like New York, people never sleep!!

Meet the ladies!

Elaine, Monique, Jackie, me, Karen & Merideth

At the market.
At the airport, getting ready to fly home.
Getting ready to board the ferry.

Me at the top of "The Peak"! What a view!

Roy Minkin Benefit

A letter from my sister Amby:

Dear family and friends,

As some of you know, my father Roy has Subcutaneous Panniculitis T-Cell Lymphoma, a rare form of cancer. He will be undergoing a Stem-Cell Transplant in April. They will take stem cells out of his bone marrow, give him high doses of chemo and then return his own healthy stem cells back. Here is some info from the Mayo Clinic:

"If your bone marrow stops working, your body won't produce enough healthy stem cells. And that means you may not have enough healthy white blood cells, red blood cells or platelets, putting you at risk of life-threatening infections, anemia and bleeding."

A stem cell transplant is the infusion of healthy stem cells into your body. If all goes well, these healthy stem cells take hold in your body and begin normal production of blood cells.
Although the procedure is generally called a stem cell transplant, it's also known as a bone marrow transplant or an umbilical cord blood transplant, depending on the source of the stem cells."

After his transplant, which will require 3 to 4 weeks in the hospital, he will be moved into a "home care" setting where he and my mom will stay for roughly 6 to 8 weeks. He will have no immunity left and will have to gain his strength back and wear a mask. He can not have flowers, plants or animals around. He will love to see healthy visitors when the time comes to keep his spirits up.

As you can imagine, the expense emotionally, spiritually and financially will be great.
We are going to have a spaghetti dinner benefit for my father on APRIL 21, 2007 at our church in Ironwood, Mi (Trinity Lutheran Church) from 4-7pm.
Time, food (pasta or sauce) or financial donations are greatly appreciated.
As most of you know my father is well know in Gogebic County and we hope to have a great turn out. We will need a lot of volunteers to help cook, serve and cleanup.

If you are interested in volunteering your time, please reply to this email (ambrosia617 @ yahoo.com) or call me at 763-390-4008.
Cash or check donations can be made out to me, Amby Beasley. I will issue one check at the benefit dinner.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, encouraging thoughts and your help.

Amby (Minkin) Beasley and family

3512 Adair Ave N
Crystal MN 55422

All wonderful updates.........

Well things have been going in high-drive this week. Mom and Dad called this afternoon to tell me that Dad has handled the 3 straight day chemo treatment very well and that another 3-day hospital treatment is scheduled in 2 weeks. All of this is leading to the stem-cell transplant. Very good news on the home-front!! Dad also informed me that my home town church and their preschool in Ironwood has decided to sponsor Seth's preschool Tender Sheperd here in Guam for a year! What wonderful news! As for an update for Seth's Fundraiser, so far we have raised about $400!!!!!!!! There is still 2 weeks left for us to hand in the money, so I will send out a final total at the end!!

ahhh and things are official on the Hong Kong trip, got my ticket this morning, so I am all set and very EXCITED to go!!

I am going to Hong Kong!

Ok here is the latest and greatest. I am going to Hong Kong with the gals next week! Finally I will make it to CHINA!! Just talked to my girlfriend Karen who is going with a few other ladies to go to the jade market for her jewelry business. We had talked about going together in Jan. but all of our hubbies couldn't get their schedules straight to be home at the same time and then I went home to MI. The only thing I am bummed is that Amber can't come on this trip because her in-laws just came to visit for 2 weeks--don't worry girl we will go again! I will have to take a trip with Luis back to China so we can go to my ultimate dream vacation spot! Now I am starting to get excited. I believe there will be 5 of us ladies going--more to follow!

Successful Auction!

Well Amber and I had one heck of a day at the auction! We were there for almost 5 hours and watched the most amazing pices of furniture whip right by! We had a great time and cannot wait until next year when it comes through. I saw this chair that matches our leather sofa to a T! We have been looking for one since we bought our couch over 4 years ago and either didn't find "the one" or were not paying the price. I gritted my teeth and didn't bid on one single item until the chair came up, just in case it got a little pricey! WOW WOW did I get a steal! I think I am still in shock--Full Italian leather chair for the price of the cheap pleather ones that you can get!!! Can you tell I am EXCITED! There were so many beautiful pieces that were there. The next taller piece was just meant to be. It was towards the end of the auction and I didn't have the patience to wait another 3-4 hours so we left. Amber's neighbor ended up getting it for 55 bucks! Amber told me and I told here if she didn't want it to send it my way--well she didn't have room for it in her house so I bought it from her! Again, it was just meant to be! It matches the other piece I just bought a few weeks ago.......now where to put it. Good thing Luis is on a trip right now.

Dad's new chair!

Had to throw one in of Sydney sleeping with Dad. She is doing great! Boys enjoying the chair and each other below.

More family pics!

I just think all of these pictures are great to have to pass down to my kids when they get older!

My Mother, Dawn Elizabeth
Grandpa never told me who this was???
Parent's Wedding....
I believe this is my Nana,(Mom's Mom)but I could be completely wrong!
This is Grandpa, (Mom's Dad)

Speaking of different generations......

Now I know what my parent's were talking about when they used the word generation gap! Or here was my favorite "What the hell is going on with your generation?" Yeah right, like I had the anwser!--Still makes me smile, because I can picture my Dad asking/telling me that! (Say a quick prayer for my Dad, while he is undergoing major doses of chemo over these past 3 days and to get over some major hurdles over the next few months.)

Since I went home last month, we went through all of my Grandma Ruth's photo's that she had saved. Then I made my parent's go through all of theirs. So I shipped them all to Guam so I could put them all nicely in a scrapbook(that Amby should be doing!) and so I could scan them and save them on a disc for everyone. When we move back to the states and I get some wall space back, I am going to hang all of them together and find some kind of fancy way to inscribe the pictures. Here are a few of Grandma Ruth's(mind you I have like over 200 pics to choose from and can only post 5 at a time!).

Grandpa Lloyd(Dad's Dad)Grandma Ruth(Dad's Mom)Grandparent's on their wedding day(Ruth & Lloyd)

My Dad and his brother Dan(Uncle Danny!)

Grandpa Llyod in Switzerland(that is what most of them say on the back?)

I can't wait to get all these pics on the wall! Next post....pics from my Mom's family!

A different generation....

Well things have been crazier than ever here. My Bowling league has started back up along with Luis and I playing softball! I am still going to school and lately I seem to be swamped with essay questions. Seth has been busy with school and all of his little projects. He is taking a computer class at school(can you believe that?) so when he comes home he wants to "show me all the stuff" he has learned. Whatever happened to getting out the actually Memory cards out and begging Mom and Dad to get on the floor and play with you? Oh no, he wants to play the Thomas the train memory card game on the computer! I have to laugh, but it's scares me because it just shows that he is growing up WAY TOO FAST!! Dad has issued a 20 min. time limit for him to be on the computer. I thought I had lots of time for that, I guess not!

Seth playing his memory game on the computer!

Landon is completely facsinated by anthing that moves...butterfly's, bugs.

Seth working on writing his letters. I can remember my Dad making up dotted letters for me to trace. I use to love sitting there with him and beg him to do more words so I could write them out. Seems like it was just yesterday.

Speaking of growing up way too fast, Landon is turning 2 in one month! Just thinking about that makes me want to cry! He is still my baby and always will be. He is completely into Sesame street and Diego. You should see him dance to the music--it reminds me of Luis's impression of Uncle Terry dancing(for all of you out there that have see Terry dance.......we love you Terry!). It cracks all of us up! I wish I could put a streaming video up of that, I think everyone would get a smile out of that. Have a great weekend everyone! My girlfriend Amber and I are off to a Antique furniture auction tomorrow so hopefully I will get some good things!