Pop Tarts: A Disaster Necessity

So I sent Matt to the store again yesterday for some last minute disaster necessities. Guess what he comes home with........a Costco size box of Pop Tarts, NO JOKE!!! In his defense, they are a shelf stable food, right? Wait can you even consider Pop Tarts a food?!?!

Storm Watch Update

Wow, this morning has been quite the rollercoaster ride. I woke up this morning to the news that Guam has been put on a Tsunami Watch. I seriously had to laugh at this point. Really, a tsunami too, is this a joke or what??? American Somoa was hit with a huge 8.0 earthquake which triggered a massive tsunami. Many islands here in the Pacific were put on Tsunami Watch, but luckily the Tsunami watch has now been lifted for Guam!!! Yay, one less thing to worry about!!!

Now on to Tropical Storm 18W. It is still considered a tropical storm with winds expected to hit at 40 mph. The storm will be hitting the southern part of the island coming in from the east. We are located in the middle of the island on the east coast, just so you know.....not that this island is by any means big or anything :) Anyways, it is expected to hit us around 4 pm local time (it is 1030 am right now) but the military is going on today with "business as usual". I'm am definitely not worried about 18W. We have been through a tropical depression back in Dec, and 40 mph winds aren't too bad. We might lose power, but we have a generator and I am almost positive the power will be restored before our building's generator is out of juice.

Now on to more serious news! We have another HUGE storm coming! The next tropical storm 20W, named MELOR, will be approaching over the weekend with typhoon strength winds of up to 100 MPH. Holy crap, this is the one to be scared about!!! Although the current forecast is for a Saipan impact on Sunday morning (Saipan is located north of Guam), computer models are not in agreement on the track and the forecast may change over the next 48 hours.

As I learned from 18W, conditions are constantly changing. In fact, I could have updated this blog 5 times yesterday, but decided to hold off until this morning because I knew the conditions would be changing yet once again. We will expecting to hear more about 20W on Friday morning local time. That will be Thursday afternoon for you all who are stateside. We will be praying that this storm slows down just like 18W did!

I do have to say though, that I think I have been handling all this stress/anxiety over these storms and tsunami warnings pretty dang well. So I am pretty darn happy with myself. I tend to get anxiety attacks pretty easily, but I have been really trying to stay calm and not freak out too much through all of this. Especially since the conditions are constantly changing, so what's the point? Am I nervous about 20W, heck yes!!! But I need to stay calm for me and the baby and for Rian too. So that is what I am doing for the time being. :)

It's Coming....

I am scared. There is a big storm heading towards Guam. I've never been through anything like this before. We are just waiting for it to hit us and just sitting here waiting is not a fun thing.

Tropical Depression: winds less than 38 mph
Tropical Storm: winds between 39-73 mph
Typhoon: winds over 74 mph
Super Typhoon: winds over 150 mph

Over here in the pacific, we get typhoons. They are just like hurricanes. Yesterday we were informed that Tropical Depression 18W has formed and was gaining speed. It was heading straight towards Guam and would most likely become a Tropical Storm by the time it directly hit us Tuesday evening. Luckily, it slowed down and moved south yesterday afternoon and now will actually hit just south of Guam. This is great news!

As of this morning (it is 9am Tuesday right now) 18W is 625 miles east, southeast of Guam. Damaging winds will most likely hit us starting around 5am Thurs. Since it will hit south of us, we will most likely just encounter a Tropical Depression on Thursday, however a Topical Storm watch is still in effect for Guam at this time. Hopefully it won't be too damaging. However, the speed of the storm can change at any time, so we still need to prepare for the worst.

One problem with these storms is that it affects the power and water. Losing power is a very common thing here and we actually lose it during almost every thunderstorm. However, losing power means losing internet access and phone (we have digital phone), which then means, we lose all communication to all of you who are stateside. I do not like that! I have been stocking up on water and non-perishable food ever since we got back to the island in May. But I keep asking myself, do we have enough?? I can't seem to answer that question. And this is one of the reasons why....

...There is another storm following behind Tropical Depression 18W and possibly another storm (yes, that's #3) behind that one. Since this first storm won't be too damaging (hopefully), I am pretty sure we can survive that; even if we were out of power for a few days or so. But what happens when this next storm hits. The next one has yet to be named, but has been rumored to be much more intense than 18W. Will we have enough to get us through another major hit? Because you know we won't have a chance to restock after each storm, especially since we live on a island and there are limited supply of everything to begin with. And sometimes the power and/or water can be out for weeks. The next storm is projected to hit us Sat morning.

I just feel have that motherly instinct to protect my family, and I am worried that I won't be prepared enough to do that. We have food, water, gas in our vehicles, flashlights, batteries, hurricane lamps, candles, clean clothes, clean towels, clean dishes, toilet paper, paper products (plates and stuff), clean bath tubs to fill with water before the storm hits, charged electronics, etc. I've gone over the list several times and I think we are prepared in that aspect. But this is still a scary thing.

Matt just sent me this link: http://www.goes.noaa.gov/guam/guamloops/guamir.html If you want to see satellite images of the storms. I'm going to try to keep you all updated with this information as it comes to us. Please remember all of us here on Guam in your prayers :)

Beijing: Day Three: The Great Wall

This was the last day of our trip. It was BY FAR the BEST day of the entire vacation! Here is a picture of Matt and I in our hotel before we headed downstairs for breakfast and then our long car ride to the Great Wall!







Unfortunately, it was so hazy :( Of course, the visibility was the worst today out of all the days we were in Beijing. But we still took tons of pics!

If you didn't want to walk up the steps on the steep mountain, you could opt to be carried up. Some of the group tried talking me into it, because they were worried I wouldn't be able to hang.

But I was up for the challenge and wanted to be able to say that "I climbed the Great Wall while I was seven months pregnant!!"!

As you can see, the visibility was horrible. But this picture was taken from the parking lot looking up the first set of stairs. I love how you can see all the people climbing up and down.

Here is the group before our big hike up the Great Wall! We were all so excited!

Once we got through the entrance, we stopped to take a few pics. Here is looking back at the entrance.

Looking up the wall. We made it all the way to the far tower on the right.







Matt and I at the bottom.

Percy at the bottom.

The little village to the right of the beginning of the Great Wall.

A little bit of a clearer view of the first set of stairs.









Another pic of us before we started climbing up the stairs.

Can you tell how steep it was from these two pictures??

It was totally nuts!

Looking down after we stopped for our first break.

I loved this picture. Look how high we climbed and that was only the first tower.

And look at how steep it is!

We still walked up to two more towers after this.

Taking another break!

I had to pull my hair back into a ponytail at this point :)

Looking down from half way up the second set of stairs.

Lora and I. We were almost to the top of the next tower!

The boys.

Action shot of me and Lora.

You could climb up the into the towers.

This picture was taken from the top of one of the towers.

At the third tower!

Another view to the fourth tower.

Another view looking down.

Peek-a-boo!

Can you see us?!

We only had a short time to climb up the wall. I wanted to go up further since I felt totally fine (Lora wasn't feeling so hot at this point). But we only had a few more mins before we needed to head back down, so Seth and Matt practically ran up this next set of stairs to the fourth tower. I would have taken too long, so I sat back and enjoyed the view instead! I still wish I had gone up further, but I'm pretty dang proud of what I did accomplish being so pregnant. Everyone on the wall was given me the thumbs up and then rubbing their tummies. I think they were trying to me that they were pretty impressed with me considering I was so preggers and all.

Matt took this picture looking down to the third tower. He stopped before a bend in the stairs. He was trying to get a picture of the three of us waiting down there.

Same picture, just zoomed in.

Can you see us now??

Another picture of the third tower. This one was taken a little further up on the set of stairs.

Zoomed in again.

Can you see us again?!

At the fourth tower, looking down at the third tower.

Zoomed in again.

A centipede on the Great Wall.

On our way down the Wall.

Matt was right by my side the entire time, making sure I wasn't in too much pain from my SPD (symphysis pubic dysfunction). I was 'diagnosed' with it back at 20-something weeks, and with all the walking on this trip, I was pretty sore the entire time. But I hung in there, didn't complain about it, and didn't let it get in the way of this amazing opportunity we had to climb up the Great Wall of China! Although, I was feeling it the next morning, for sure :)

What a gentleman, huh?!

As we were walking down the Wall hand-in-hand, we were enjoying this little bit of alone time and were talking about how awesome this is that we are actually on the Great Wall.

I told Matt that there was nobody I would rather be doing this with than him, my bestfriend.

I love this guy!!!

How many people actually get to say that they climbed the Great Wall? Seriously!!!

At the bottom again. Looking up at another view.

We actually made it down the Wall in record time, so we did a little exploring. When we walked in the entrance we took a right to head up the wall. This pass was to the left.

This is the Juyong Guan Pass. There were cannons built here to help defend themselves.

Here is one of the cannons.

And that is the Great Wall in the background on the opposite side (the part we didn't walk to).

The wall actually was all alond the ridge, but the visibility was so bad, so it's hard to see in the pictures :(

Zoomed in with the flag.

Another view from where the cannons were.

These little things on the roofs again.

I think they are so cute!

After the Great Wall we went to have lunch. We were all starving after that huge hike!!

Ming Tombs

We headed to the Ming Tombs after lunch. This is the resting place for 13 of the 16 Ming Dynasty Emperors. This dynasty reigned from 1368-1644. The tombs are spread out over 15 square miles and it is absolutely amazing to see the architecture and effort put forth for the tombs of these men. This land was actually chosen because of the feng shui element. It has mountains surrounding the tombs on three sides which is believed to protect the tombs from the evil spirits carried with the north wind.





The entrance of one of the tombs.

Hair Pins

Belts made of jade.

Emperess Crown

Gate to Heaven. It is believed that once we cross through that gate that we have left earth and entered into heaven.

We couldn't go to the actual tomb, it is closed to the public. But we were told that it is somewhere behind this fence among the trees.

These trees were seriously growing out of the wall. It was so cool!

Have you ever seen anything like this before?

So awesome!