Not much going on here. Been parked here on the couch for the better part of 2 days now. Still not sure what is wrong with me. I've been breathing OK & sleeping well. I am just mostly feeling really tired & worn out. I think some of it is side effects from the meds I was on. I finished them on Monday, so hopefully I will start feeling better soon! If not, I'll have to go back to the doctor. :-( But so far, they haven't really been able to pinpoint anything.

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Today marks the one year anniversary of my arrival on Guam! Wow! I can't believe it's been that long already! In some ways it feels like I've always been here (not in a bad way, just "normal" & that Stateside living was a lifetime ago!) In some ways it seems I just left the States.

80 days until I leave to go visit my family/friends in the States!

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Well, I'm sure some of you read my post about moving. You can forget about it. On Thursday I was asked if I wanted to stay in my apartment. Apparently "the powers that be" had been doing some rethinking (maybe they felt sorry for me trying to move while being sick & extremely busy?!) and reworked some things & I could stay in my apartment if I wanted to! Hooray! Now, I have about 1/2 of my belongings packed up and the entire apartment is in disarray from it, but it's easier to unpack what is boxed up than to continue packing, move across the street and find new places for all my stuff! While the apartment is all torn up, I'm turning it into a "Spring Cleaning" too!

I am temporarily displaced for a couple days. My new roommate painted her room yesterday & with the breathing problems I've been having I didn't think it would be healthy to sleep here with all the paint fumes! Not a big deal. I'm staying with my old roommate in her new apartment. (She was mostly moved already and had made plans with her new roommates, so she decided to go through with her move.)

This last week I went back to the doctor (Urgent care. I can't get in to see a "normal" doctor for a month!) He is the same guy I saw when I went in for bronchitis, so I was able to bring him up to speed on what had happened since I saw him 2 weeks before! I did well for a couple days after the ER, but then had 3 bad attacks in one night where I woke up & couldn't breathe. The inhaler helped, but it's hard to go back to sleep after that, so I wasn't getting much sleep! He upped my medications a little and thinks if we can give my lungs some rest, they will heal on their own & this won't be permanent. It seems to be helping. Last night I slept through the night!

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Over the last weekend, I suffered two attacks of not being able to breathe. The first time it was in the middle of the night and I thought it was random related to being sick with bronchitis the week before & not quite better yet. The second time, I was sitting watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and all the sudden I couldn't breathe. Kelly & Christina took me to the ER to get checked out. (Kelly had been off island and wasn't supposed to return until 4:30am the next day. I had been staying at her house with her kids while she was gone, so was thankful that God had allowed her to come home early because the second attack happened at her house while she was home!)

The ER here is very different than in the States. Kelly & Christina were waiting with me and Security periodically came through and kicked everyone out who wasn't waiting to be seen by a doctor. Now, the waiting area was getting a little full, but if a sick person came in, they always gave up their chair and stood. But then the guard told them they couldn't stand and wait either. They had to go outside. One of the other patients explained to us that here on Guam, if someone goes to the hospital, the entire extended family goes too! We quickly realized that many of these people had at least 4-5 relatives or more waiting with them! The waiting area seats only about 15 people, so no wonder they don't let everyone in! It definitely a new experience for us!

I am now on some medications to help and an inhaler if I need it. I also have been doing some research on asthma triggers. (warning, this next part is kind of gross!) One of the main triggers listed is cockroach droppings. Yuck! We do get roaches here. (I always thought of them as being in dirty, unkept places, but not here on Guam. They like clean houses too!) Roaches are so disgusting! And they're fast little boogers too! So now that I know this could be what is triggering my asthma, I'll try to take more steps to prevent it. Including a treatment for allergies!

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Chad & Kelly were off island for a few days. I decided to have fun with the boys and have a mini-vacation of our own! We started off the weekend by going to Outback for dinner. This is Luke enjoying his pasta. (Sorry, no picts of Jeremy - the camera battery died!)

Below are a couple shots from our balcony. Visit my Photo Album to see more pictures!

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I woke up at 3am with a coughing fit. (I'm recovering from bronchitis.) At 3:10am, I heard a screech, screech, CRUNCH! I looked out my window and saw a truck had hit the utility pole across the street. The driver desperately tried to get his truck to move, but it was damaged too badly and wouldn't budge. For two hours there was commotion out there - various people trying to help move it, tow truck hauling the vehicle away, police, etc. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep!

This morning I took a look at the damage. The wooden utility pole was split in two and the telephone pedestal (grey box that sticks up about 3 feet out of the ground) was completely destroyed. He had mowed it down. Amazingly enough, we still have telephone service!

The utility company came out today and replaced the pole with a concrete one, so we were without power for a little while today, but we have generators on campus, so we kept working!

Here's my take on the situation - 3am, driver hits utility pole 8 feet from the road (on a straight stretch). Driver is gone when the police show up. I'm guessing he was drunk!

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A lot has been going on the last several months. Every summer Harvest ships 2 containers (a container is basically the trailer of a semi) from South Carolina with help from Men for Missions. I have been doing a ton of work to get things ordered and on the container. It is quite a process to coordinate getting supplies & equipment to the container within a window of about a week and a half! (Some things have to be ordered months in advance, but timed to arrive during the "window".)

In addition to the container stuff, the Uniform Store (which I manage) had to be completely packed up and stored in another location. A crew of people came and helped me pack everything up and get it moved. (We're talking thousands of shirts, shorts, skirts, pants, etc.!) The next day the Maintenance crew knocked down a wall and began remodeling. They redid the ceiling, repainted everything, installed new carpet, cleaned the air cons. It looks wonderful now! I'm very excited about doubling our floor space and having room for the customers to move around! And we now have a WINDOW! It was such a depressing, dreary place before. Unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" pictures & I don't think anyone else did either. I'll try to post some "after" picts when we get it finished!

So, now that it's remodeled, I have to get everything put back together! I couldn't see how in the world I can get everything done before school starts! I have to keep reminding myself that God is in control and take it one day at a time! (I think I'm a slow learner!) God provided - Christina has graciously volunteered to help me out. I did some of the layout of what goes where & she's been stocking the shelves for me. I've felt a little guilty about not helping very much, but I've had last minute loose ends to tie up before the container ships next week. And I've been out sick on top of that! (Not a good time to be sick, I feel like I am wasting so much precious time! But again, I remind myself that God knows what I need to do and how much time I have to do it!)

So, the moral of this story - stop stressing and worrying about everything you need to get done! All my tasks looked huge and insurmountable at the beginning, but God has worked everything out His way and in His timing. Ways I hadn't even imagined.

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No, I'm not moving back to the States! I'm moving my blog. I started a blog a little over a year ago on MSN. I'm moving my blog here. I like the flexibility blogger offers. If you haven't seen my old blog, you can check it out here: Ertlnet on MSN

I'm also moving out of my apartment and getting a new roommate. We aren't sure of the exact moving date, but somewhere around the 20th of June. I'm moving across the street, which is kind of a pain to move such a short distance, but after moving halfway around the world, it should be cake!

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I've been sick off & on for a couple weeks. On Thursday I had an especially bad coughing fit, so my boss said, "Take the rest of the day off and go see the doctor!". So I did. He tested for strep - negative. I got an antiboitic and some cough medicine. He said I may have a touch of bronchitis.

After taking the first dose of cough medicine, I noticed a difference. I was still coughing some, but it wasn't as hard/severe. I slept pretty well last night and planned to take Friday off to recoup and just work on things from home. (I have plenty of catchup work to do on the computer!) I did sleep in some and hung out on the couch, resting & working. I did go in to do a couple things on the server that needed to be done. (Our other network guy is in the States right now, so I had to do it.) I ended up working for about 2.5 hours and it was past time to take my cough medicine! I am now home resting again. I think I'll take a nap now!

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100 days until I see my family in the States!
104 days until I see my best friend in the States!

By the time I go home, there will be a new member of the family! My brother & sister-in-law are expecting a baby mid-July! I'm excited to be an aunt!

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2 posts in one day! Wow! I think that's a record for me! I've been really busy, so I don't get much time to post. But I'm staying up late tonight to do an airport run.

My first nickname is Jenner - given to me by Joshua when he was little. He couldn't say Jennifer. His way to say my name was "Jenner". It stuck. His family calls me that. My family calls me that and my best friend calls me that. Josh just graduated from high school I feel old!

My second nickname is ertlnet. Kelly gave it to me because I have a knack for being able to find just about anything on the internet. I love the challenge. One of my favorite things to do is search for the best price on things.

My third nickname is is Queen of Search. Mr. Bob gave me that one. Also because of being able to find things on the web.

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Life is busy. We have a couple containers shipping with supplies for next year. One shipped at the beginning of May. The second is leaving South Carolina mid-June. We have a lot of work to do and coordinating to make sure things arrive at the loading dock at the right time - not too early and if they're too late, they'll miss the boat. Literally! :-) I'm almost done with most of my big orders.

My birthday was yesterday. It's the second time I've celebrated here. The first time I was here visiting. Happy Birthday to Nadine too! My parents called in the morning, my brother called later & I webcammed with my sister-in-law for awhile. I was a bum for the day and went to Filipiak's for dinner. Then Kelly & I went to Tamah's house to "see her kitchen". She had just finished painting it a hunter green. It looked great, but I later found out it was all a ploy to get me over there & we went out to TGI Friday's for dessert. We took Brenna along too. She turned one on May 31st. She's a cutie! She just learned to walk this week & is practically running now!

School has been out for a couple weeks now. We have since emptied the uniform room and it is being remodeled and expanded to twice the size we had last year. Now I have to figure out how to rearrange everything! Maintenance finished the remodel. It looks great! They redid the ceiling, knocked down the wall, gave the whole place a fresh coat of paint and new carpet. Now we have to figure out how to arrange our existing shelves to make the best use of our space and make room for a couple dressing rooms.

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