darrenandjanell.com

I took some great pictures of the house and will post them eventually, but for now I will post this picture that the Google satellite took.  I labeled the different things in the image so you won’t get confused.

Three banana bunches fell in our yard last month and we have been keeping them outside until they ripen. One day I noticed that some of the ripe bananas had holes in the peel and were half eaten. Since we moved in, we have spotted roosters running through our yard and into the jungle. We hear them crow every morning. Lately we have seen them closer to the house.
While staring at the half-eaten bananas, I finally put it together. Sure enough, the next morning I looked out the window and saw 5 roosters and a chicken pecking at our bananas. “Curse you jungle roosters!” I cried. I went outside to assess the damage and found that the roosters must have gorged themselves because they ate almost half a dozen bananas. Now the bananas that are not ruined are inside so the roosters can’t get them, but the whole incident got me thinking. I wonder if roosters fed on bananas would be sweet and tender like bananas.” I guess there is only one way to find out. My other thought is, why didn’t Popoi (our guard dog) chase them away. Lazy useless dog. How can he protect us if he can’t even protect bananas from chickens. Oh well. I just met a guy that eats dogs and maybe we will have to have a barbecue. As we are putting Popoi on the grill I will summon my best Schwarzenegger voice and say, “you’re fired.” Ok, OK, I could never eat Popoi. I like him and he barks menacingly at people who come near the house. Plus he makes this yelping sound that resembles human speech when he is hungry. Further, I find myself referring to Popoi as “he” rather than “it,” whereas I refer to most of my meals at “it”.
Pictures to follow

A lot has happened since last time I posted, but I am only going to write about three things:

First, we picked up some shells from Marine Beach on an evening beach picnic, and left them on the kitchen table.  In the middle of the night, we heard a scraping and scratching sound in the bathroom.  I went to investigate and found the largest shell we collected, scuttling around under the sink.  Lillia loved it, so we kept it for a week as a pet.  Eventually we had to let it go because it began to stink.

Not sure if I mentioned this already, but Janell is teaching a seminary class with 15 kids in it.  She is doing a great job and all the students really like her class.  She takes the scooter down the hill and across the island every morning at 6:00 AM.  Another member of the ward saw her on his way to work and commented on how tough Janell must be.  Janell says that taking the scooter is actually really fun.  The weather is so pleasant and the island is so beautiful that there is no better way to travel.  It is a real stress reliever for me as well.

Janell bought me a tortilla maker for my birthday, which is perfect because, I love tortillas, but they are so expensive here, and they are never fresh.  We have been making tortillas at least once a week since then.  Our favorite meal so far has been the fresh fish tacos we made.  We bought a fresh Mahi Mahi.  I Filleted it and Janell fried it and made the tortillas and our secret white sauce.  Best fish tacos ever.  It is similar to Rubios fish tacos, except that we used ultra fresh fish, so ours is better.

On Thursday night, right after work, we packed our dinner in a bag and headed to the beach.  We ate our food while watching the most beautiful sunset.  We forgot our cameras or we would have posted pictures.  Lillia has been a little afraid of the water since we have gotten here.  The tide coming in and out kinda worried her.  But just this last Thursday she put her fears aside.  She walked right in.  She even began kicking in the water as we carried her.  At this rate she will be swimming by age 3.  Our neighbors have a 4 year old girl who surfs.  She is always on the local TV channel.

For my birthday dinner we went to the revolving restaurant.  The restaurant is on the top floor of the business center and has a great view.  What’s even better is that the dining area is constantly rotating to give you a different view of the island.  I had never thought a revolving restaurant would be in my price range, especially with a tropical ocean view, but the prices in this place were close to Olive Garden prices.  Thanks for visiting.

We celebrated Lillia’s Birthday at micro beach.  She has finally reached the terrible age of two.  And it’s about time, because she has been terrible for the last 6 months.  Actually Lillia is a sweetheart and is usually very happy.Although she began throwing violent tantrums since age one and a half, she compensates by giving lots of hugs and kisses and the worlds cutest smiles.  She cries when I leave every day and when I come home, she runs to me and says I miss you.I don’t care how cute your puppy is, it can’t do those things.

I like the picture of Lillia and me from behind.  Not only does it make our life here look like a tropical vacation, but it looks like I’m in a Corona commercial, except with a baby instead of a beer.

Janell and I are really enjoying ourselves here.Janell is making lots of new friends, including several other American women with babies and children.She goes to the beach with Lillia at least twice a week.  As for me, I’m really into coconuts right now.  You can just find them lying around and cut them open and eat them.I bought a machete, sharpened it up, and cut one open yesterday.  After extracting the juice and meat, I cut off the top and made a planter out of it to grow fresh cilantro (one of the things hard to find on the island)It made me feel so islandy.  Thanks for visiting.

There are always geckos in the house.They crawl around the walls and they don’t
really bother us much, since they are harmless and eat other house pests.Lillia really likes to chase them around the house
and actually caught one a few days ago.
She grabbed its tail. Fortunately for the gecko, the tail detached, and
the reptile got away.The tail, writhed
and wriggled like a fish out of water, which was actually a little disturbing,
but Lillia seemed to like it.

Anyway, we just moved to the Northern Mariana Islands.The Attorney General hired me a few weeks
before I graduated and we flew up a month ago.
A year ago at this time, we had not even heard of the island.Who would have ever thought an Iowa law
degree would take me half way around the world? (That was rhetorical.No need to comment that you thought that an
Iowa law degree would take me that far.)

The pictures below were taken within a block of our
apartment.Thanks for visiting.

here

Lillia is adored by one and all.  Everyone comments that she is a regular Gerber baby and the prettiest baby they have ever seen.  She crawls around and can never hold still which is cute, but makes her a handfull.  She actually skipped scooting because she is really long and skinny which made it easier to crawl and harder to scoot.  See our video page for the latest giggly video.

Janell and I finally are changing our eating habits.  No more giant desserts every night for us!  It truly was a golden age.  Oh well. Janell joined a gym and I am taking a grappling class and helping people move.  We are in a married student ward so during this time of year we have at least 2 or 3 moves a week.  I count it as both service and exercise. 

We went to the Iowa State fair on Friday.  It is the best state fair in the country.  They have a life size cow made out of butter and a bunch of huge Dr. Seuss stuff also made out of butter.  I wonder what they will do with the butter when it is over. They also sold all kinds of fried things like fried Twinkies, fried candy bars, fried Oreos, fried pickles, fried butter, and fried cake.  Janell and I suspended our nutrition goals and ate a fried snickers bar.  It was like a corn dog except with snickers instead of a hot dog.