This is a picture of Vanesa and I at a place called "Top O' the Mar" on Guam. Vanesa and I met in college and quickly became best friends. Thankfully God led us both to the pacific where I went to serve in Guam and she went to teach in Saipan. Since these islands are only about an hour flight apart, we were able to spend many of the major holidays together which helped us not miss home quite so much.

This is my friend Sarah. She was one of my soccer players and my office assistant. She was also a great friend. We had a few great adventures on hotel row with my cool convertible.

These are a bunch of my sports players at Nikka's big birthday party. I had just returned from Bali, which is why my hair was still in braids.

These are my friends, Karen and Holly. Karen was a teacher out in Guam and became a good friend. Her husband was one of the principals I worked for, so I was able to see her on a regular basis when she visited the office. Holly was a friend of mine from college, who eventually became a roommate on Guam. We had awesome times and have great memories. No matter how long between conversations or seeing each other, I know we will always pick up right where we left off.

This is Mrs. B. She became one of my closest friends while on Guam. She accepted me exactly as I was. I have great memories of Kmart at 6 a.m., tons of meals together and a summer of riding around on a golf cart on "granny patrol". She took care of me when I had my wisdom teeth removed. I'm very thankful that the Lord allowed me to know this special lady.

These are a bunch of the really cool people we hung out with and had awesome fellowship with on a regular basis. From left to right: Mike (my handsome husband who was only a friend back then), myself, Jason Scheck, Tim Harmon, Julie Plonk, Noel Infante, Jonas Macapinlac, Lisa Flower and Emily Davis.

I miss them hugely and cannot begin to express how much their fellowship was a blessing in my life.

Here's to friends near and far: (though most of these are VERY far).

I was just thinking today of how much I miss some of my friends. The Lord blessed me indeed when He led me to Guam. Each of these friendships were either started there or continued there. Thank you to those of you who invested your lives in mine.

Disclaimer: While there were many other close friendships developed on Guam, these were the pictures most quickly accessible and in my quest to blog more often, they became the ones I grabbed first. I'm sure more of you will find yourselves featured here in the future. :)

Also - no matter how much time I spent playing with the formatting on this, I couldn't get it to line up how I wanted it. I finally gave up, though every bit of secretarial perfectionism in me fought it.

Continuing Randomness...

Here is yet another random picture from "the old days". This was taken sometime in 2002 I believe. Next to me is the beautiful Mabel Duguies (I hope she forgives me for posting this picture). We were having a youth group unique dress day. Really, I promise we didn't normally look like this.
Working with the youth group at Harvest was awesome. I am so thankful that both Mike and I had the privilege to do that. I miss that type of ministry. Thankfully I still have the outlet of coaching at Providence to get my time with high schoolers. Oh yes, and if you do happen to read this, Mabel, I would LOVE to have you come show my girls how to drive to the basket.

Well, I admit to being kind of at the lack of ideas/not sure what to write point in blogging. I'm sure this isn't a shock to those of you who randomly check and find out that I haven't blogged anything in a month and a half. So, I thought I would start posting some random pictures. This is the first of said pictures.

This is from the trip I took to Bali, Indonesia in 2002. I went with April Briggs, Bob Shuck and Dr. and Mrs. Watson. Good times were had by all and I loved getting my hair braided by locals on the beach and having the awesome opportunity to touch and hold various reptiles. Maybe later on in my random pictures series I'll break out some more Bali pictures.

Whohoo! Here is a picture of my team after they won the championship match. They finished the season 17-2 in conference games and most importantly, pulled off the championship victory. They lost the first game, but then came back to win the next three. The 4th game was really exciting. The girls were down 7-16 and ended up coming back all the way to win the game 25-19. Check out their super cool socks they received right before the championship. They loved them and I think it helped take their minds off being nervous. Way to go, Lady Knights!

These pictures basically sum up my life right now. You can see first of all the crates for the dogs. Then you see the four dogs. I find myself understanding stay-at-home moms more. Yes, I realize they are just dogs. However, every time I come home to smell aromatic fragrances in the house as a result that the puppies left me a present, and as I find myself continually cleaning up after them, I can imagine that they could be sort of like kids. The pile of dirt was one I couldn't resist taking a picture of. Each day I have to sweep the floor. That pile was accumulated in less than 24 hours in our living room alone. I'm amazed by how much they can bring in. So, I sweep. We talked about using the Swiffer, but we would have to buy stock in the company for how many of those little Swiffer sheets I would go through in a week.

The last picture is of my volleyball girls. I'm spending lots of time with them these days. We have games about 2 nights a week right now and practice on the other 2 days a week. I'm enjoying working with them and especially enjoying the fact that they are currently undefeated.

So, this is my life right now. Volleyball and the dogs. I do try to spend time with Mike as much as possible, but he has had a super busy work schedule lately. It's a good thing business-wise, but not so much fun timewise. I have had the opportunity to work with him several times in the past three weeks, so that has been a blessing. I enjoy helping him and it lets me see him during the work day.

Call us Crazy...we've doubled our pack.

Yes, friends, we've done it again. We've added to the family. We'd like to introduce you to our new "kids", but unfortunately we still don't have names for the newest members of the family. They are both girls and both desperately in need of names. Since they are of the rottweiler family first and foremost, my husband would like to point out that they will NOT have sissy names. So, calling out to all of you who have some measure of creativity...we'd love suggestions.
The vital stats...both originated in Farmington, Iowa. They are half sisters (both have the same father), purebred rottweilers. One was born on April 13th and one was born on May 25th.
Let us know if you have any great name ideas. :)

My Kids

Here is an updated picture of "my kids" for those of you who may be interested. Each day when I come home from being gone, I open the door and say "Hey Kids" and you can immediately hear Sheba's tail start pounding the edges of her cage. Poor Cody is left with only a silent wagging of his stub.

We had the Herrons here for volleyball camp this week and they would rotate who got to say "Hey Kids" upon the opening of the door. The response was always the same though - ecstatic waving of the tail and stub. Maybe that was just because they knew they could finally go outside to the back yard and relieve some pressure.

I'm thankful for the companionship of these dogs. They give me someone to look after and "mother" around. They give me someone else in the house during the days and in the evenings when Mike occasionally has to work late. And even though I do recognize that they are "just dogs", they'll always have a special place in my heart.

Basketball -
Thanks to Kassy Harper for the picture. This was taken on our last night of basketball summer practice (two hours each Tuesday night). I was so excited because it was the first time we only had 9 girls (WHICH MEANT I COULD FINALLY PLAY AND NOT JUST REF). You might note that I have a very red face - which usually follows anytime I play. The girls improved tons over the summer and I'm looking forward to seeing how the season goes!

Yes, it is true. I caught this beautiful fish while we were on vacation in Michigan. For those of you who want the technical information. It is a 23 inch Northern Pike caught on a simple pole with a small night crawler. Nothing special, nothing dramatic...oh wait - it was dramatic. You see, my Dad, sister Barb and Uncle David were out not very far from the dock in a pontoon boat with all the little tykes fishing (where they could see the whole thing). I decided to stay on the dock and fish off the dock. They had the net and the bucket with them. Suddenly I thought I had a fish on and started reeling him in like crazy. Then my pole broke in half. I kept trying to reel in and finally just reached out and grabbed the line and pulled him up onto the dock. My wonderful husband was nearby and came and stepped on the neck and put his hand down on the body so the fish couldn't get away. He held the fish there while my Aunt Becky went running in to get us a bucket - all while I kept saying "Don't let him get away!!" This is without a doubt the biggest fish I've caught in life and I would also like to point out (in true Stapilian competition form) that it was the longest fish caught on vacation this year. Thank you. Thank you.

I have been tagged by a fellow blogger to list some random or weird facts about myself...

“Rules:” After posting these rules, each player proceeds to list 8 relatively random facts/habits about himself/herself. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, leaving them a comment on their blogs to let them know.

1. I broke 8 fingers during my 8 semesters at NBBC and dislocated a finger once. I guess collegiate sports weren't good for my bones, but certainly good for my spirit.

2. I have been toilet-papering 46 times in my life. Thankfully, I only chose to toilet paper people I knew and who had at least relatively understanding spirits, so I never had any run-ins with the police during my excursions. The all-time winner of home I toilet-papered the most was Pastor Mike and Brenda VerWay - yes, I believe it is a prestigious award.

3. Up until 9th grade, I was known to all as "Sandi". At that point I decided I was much too grown up for that name and informed everyone that they must now address me as the name on my birth certificate - Sandra.

4. For a period in high school, I held the state championship distance (though really our "state" only represented fewer than 10 other Christian schools - I can't remember how many) in shotput.

5. I'm a missionary grandchild, pastor kid and deacon kid all at once (since my Dad recently was a deacon following his pastoral retirement). I guess that makes me one of the biggest brats of all.

6. My major in college was "Church Secretarial Science" and I received a Bachelor of Science degree. I'm still sometimes puzzled how much science is involved in being a church secretary, but who am I to question?

7. This probably isn't really news to anyone, but I thrive on competition in almost any arena. Since growing old and leaving college, I've used coaching as my avenue to feed the addiction. I've coached girls high school volleyball for 5 years, girls high school basketball for 4 years, girls junior high basketball for one year, girls high school soccer for 4 years and guys high school volleyball (my personal favorite) for 3 years. I was even a basketball referree for one year.

8. I met my husband on the island of Guam where I served at Harvest Ministries for 4 years. He is amazing and I never could have imagined that God would bless me so greatly with someone like him. All that I ever planned on in the "perfect man" is encompassed in my husband. I praise and thank God for bringing us together and for giving Mike an extra measure of patience to put up with me.

There you have it - probably far more information than you ever wanted.

Praise the Lord!

Mike and I have wanted to have wood laminate flooring put down in our house for awhile. The arrival of one and then two beasts who shed like maniacs and who track in dirt like they are planning to build a sand castle indoors meant that our creamish colored carpet was crying out for delivery. So, we bought the flooring when it was on sale at BJs and started the project. We didn't get very far when we found ourselves very frustrated that everytime we banged one piece into place, three others that we already perfect decided to come apart. We then decided we were going to need a little help.

We inquired with some guys at church as to who might be available to help us and found someone to help. He has been a big blessing. So far the living room and kitchen are done except for the quarter rounds on the edges and I think he'll be finishing the master bedroom floor today.

I'm so excited. I keep walking out to see the progress and finding myself so thankful that we are able to get it done and so amazed at how much better it looks. Of course, I'll be sweeping 12 times a week, but at least it will look nice when I'm done as opposed to that carpet which will never look nice again.

My Three Cuties

Well, here you go. Maybe one day my blog will not refer to my husband or my dogs, but not for the near future at least. :)

This was taken a few weeks ago, so Sheba already seems to me to be much bigger than this picture. I just love it because it has Mike, Cody and Sheba all together.

I'm blessed to be able to share life with these three (though especially with my husband - I don't want to group him in with the dogs on something like that). Mike takes great care of me and of our little ones. Some people deal with diapers...we deal with housetraining a puppy. Anyway - just thought I would show you all my cuties.

Addition to the Family Once Again

We thought sometime this fall we would get a puppy to be a playmate for Cody. We didn't plan for that now. However, we innocently went into a pet store in NC (where we were visiting Mike's parents) to pick up a collar for their dog and left with a 5 1/2 week old female rottweiler/hound mix puppy for me and a kitten for Mom Herriage. Approximately three minutes later when Dad Herriage said "we should have gotten the male puppy", the van turned around and we went back to get the boy puppy. So, Mike's mom and I enjoyed our new puppies together for a few days before having to split them up and come back home to Florida.

Sheba is the name of my little girl. She is a cutey. The biggest difference we have found from Cody and Sheba is the fact that Rottweilers don't really make much noise vocally. Cody has only barked a single bark probably less than 10 times. However, Rottweiler/Hound mixes apparently enjoy using their vocal prowess to share their every emotion. We are hoping to crate train/potty train her quickly as the whining/howling and the releasing of bowels everywhere is starting to drive me a little crazy.

Anyway...meet our new cutey. We love her even though we don't sleep.

Here are a few pictures of Mike, Cody and I from last month. At this point he was about 8 months old. They are a little blurry because they came from Mike's camera phone. I like to call the one on the bottom "In the Doghouse". We actually added that so that Cody could have a cool place to hang out when we weren't home. The crate we had for him was getting seriously cramped and we both feel better about leaving him home alone if we know he has room to move around and can have his food and water in there with him. It is 4 foot by 4 foot by 6 foot tall. On the right hand side of the doghouse, you can see where Cody has done some creative redecorating of our vertical blinds. That happened during his maniac separation anxiety day when he pointed out to us that we would not be able to leave him home alone loose in the house. Anyway, here is our little guy. He is a good dog and we are thankful for him.

Ahoy Matey!!!

This is my awesome brother-in-law, Mark Dickerson, and my really cool nephew, Mark Dickerson.

They happened to be down in Florida with some youth group kids visiting college. At the same time, my aunt and cousin and family were visiting from Illinois, so we all met up for dinner. Since Mike occasionally drives like a maniac and we left early to account for traffic, we got to the Disney area in time for a quick stop at Downtown Disney (basically a shopping area and best of all FREE). I figured little Mark would love some of the cool things to see. This was our first stop and a great picture. I enjoyed seeing them and look forward to spending time with the rest of the family this summer on vacation.

Slowing Down

Well, Mike and I spent a lot of time this weekend discussing life and the busyness of it. We don't want to get 10 years down the road and wonder why we wasted so much of our life being busy. So, one of our first major changes is that we are closing down the Ebay store for Mouse Memories (my sister's Ebay store that I manage, keep all the inventory in our house, ship packages daily for and make it all work). It has just become too much of a 24/7 job. When I'm home, I'm always thinking of the work that could be done on the computer and Mike and I spend several evenings a week with me in one room working and he and the dog in another room. We just don't want to continue that. The hours pile on top of each other and overwhelm. Even when we work together on it (and he is AWESOME about helping me), it is just too time intensive. So, we discussed it with my sister and her husband and we are going to close it down next week. I'll go back to working in her warehouse 3 days a week from now until August 1, which won't be so bad once I have evenings and weekends free. Once August 1st hits, I'll be full-time into volleyball season followed by basketball season and won't work outside the home at that time. I'm excited about life slowing down and being able to enjoy it as opposed to work the whole time.

Feeling Better

Finally I've overcome the food poisoning episode and the killer cold. The Lord gave me strength when I really needed it and gave me the rest I didn't realize I needed as well. Thanks to all who prayed that I would feel better.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (King James Version)
8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Okay, so I might be about to stretch this a little out of context, but these were the verses that came to mind this morning after spending a little over 36 hours with some form of flu/food poisoning. My entire body still aches and I haven't been able to eat much, but I think I'm headed out of it as opposed to still going strong. In the first 12 hours of it, I lost over 5 .5 pounds, probably from the fact that everything in my body had been emptied out. Now I've put one pound of it back on, so I think that means my fluid levels are getting back up there.

I was reminded as I was fervently begging God to take this away from me of what a small issue it truly is in the scope of eternity. Could I really have the same spirit that Paul had? How does one really take pleasure in infirmities? I do recognize that it is much harder to feel like you can do things in your own strength when you are sick and just praying that it will go away fast. So perhaps God is using this to remind me that I can't operate in my own strength and I need His help. It did give me the opportunity to slow down a little - certainly not in my timing, but I've had to recognize that I'm not in control and wait on God's timing to feel better.

Please pray that I'll feel better quickly. This weekend is the big scrapbooking expo consumer show that my sister's company participates in. This requires many hours of work and I have an important role in preparation and being cashier for all day Friday and Saturday. I'm just asking the Lord to heal me as I know my sister needs my help and I don't want to let her down.

Okay, off to take a nap. I can only be up for a little while at a time before needing to rest again.

Straight Hair

Here is a picture of Stela and I (courtesy of Cristina Vielmas). Right before the game she said that after the game she was straightening my hair. I said okay and hence the picture. I do like my hair straight and loved it when I had it professionally done in Saipan several years ago. It just makes it so much easier to deal with. Unfortunately this one went away after washing, but the professional one lasted about 6 months. I just don't have the skills or patience to deal with straight ironing it every day.

As for the weight loss goals, I'm now at 33.5 pounds. It feels like it is much harder now. I'm working out more and feeling more of a difference in my clothes, but the scale isn't budging. I just can't give up. Jenny, here is the picture you've been asking for. It isn't full body, but I can tell a difference and that makes me feel better.

It's official.

Now that Mr. Redmon told the basketball girls in the locker room that I would be coaching high school girls volleyball and basketball next year, I feel free to share the news here as well. Since some of my girls check the blog, I didn't want to break the news before he did. My plan is to start with a two-day practice in May for those interested in playing volleyball next year. That will allow us to have a better idea of who will play on which team and warn the girls who might be on the bubble so they can work over the summer. That will also allow me to introduce the plans for the new year. They are going to find themselves in a whole new world. I'm seriously going to be pushing conditioning much more and allotting time for it in practices. Even if you are an expert at a skill, pack on extra pounds and you'll have a hard time performing it well. Now imagine that you aren't expert at a skill and you have extra pounds...and hence you see the need for extra conditioning.

During the summer, we are also going to have two practices a week (one for volleyball and one for basketball) as well as a week of camp for each. I think this year we will need to do that camp in house, but I'm hoping that next year we'll be able to start bringing in some other help to run the camps. We just need to keep the cost down this year and build the basic skills. That is something I can do.

So, that is my good news. I'm excited about continuing to work with the girls next year and having the freedom to make the coaching decisions. Even though it will be a lot more work for them, I think we have a group of girls who will rise to the occasion. If some choose not to work hard, I will be disappointed, but I'll also have a great spot next to me on the bench for them. No matter the skill level, I'll only reward those who work hard. That might be a new world for them too.

Roll Call & Favorite Movie

I admit to copying this idea from someone else's blog, but it would be cool to know all the people who occasionally stop in and read my blog. So, if you don't mind, I'd love to have you drop a comment. Let's make the topic "Favorite Movies".

I'll start off by telling you mine. I love "Runaway Bride" and "Sweet Home Alabama". I tend to lean towards the romantic comedy genre. I also love "While You Were Sleeping". Some of my friends in Guam and I would watch the same movies over and over and then have fun repeating the lines. "Hey Luc, is this guy bothering you? Cause it looks like he's 'leaning'."

Anyway...would love to hear from you if you stop by to read occasionally.

A Visit With Friends

Well, this picture was taken the Saturday before Christmas when Mike's parents and brother were down visiting. The couple on the left in the picture is John and Robin Beaton, friends from Guam. I'm very thankful that we live in the same general area (about 40 minutes away) as the Beatons. We've enjoyed several opportunities to get together with them and each time walk away being thankful for the fellowship. Once again, our friends from Guam often end up feeling a lot more like family than just friends. Thanks to the Beatons for always welcoming us in and letting us know when other friends from Guam are traveling through.

Test. My blog has been down much of tonight, so I'm testing to see if it is back up.

Well, I thought I would report in on the diet progress. I'm now 31 pounds down. I have 19 more to go. I've had a few weeks of slow going where I only lost a half pound each week, but I guess that is better than gaining and I made it through the entire holiday season and continued to lose rather than gain. So, I try to use that to encourage me when I get frustrated that the weight is coming off more slowly now.

Cody in the Bathtub

Okay, I promise that ALL of our blogs won't have to do with Cody, but he is still the new and exciting in our house. The other day, Mike got up early and left for work. He took Cody out and played with him a little before leaving. I should have had another hour and a half of sleep, but Cody didn't think so. He pestered me until I finally got up. He was just a wild boy that day running around the house like a maniac. I was in the office working when I heard his metal tag clanging against the bathtub and found him hidden in there. He was just so cute peeking around the corner that I had to snap a quick pic.