What Are the Cowleys Up To?

It's been a couple of weeks since we've posted. I've been a little busy. But here's what's up:

Jason has been in training at work. He finished his scuba certification with his last two open water dives on the 14th. Last Friday, he went to Career Day at Cassie's school, and apparently he was a huge hit.

Cassie has three more weeks left of school. She's had a pretty good load, but it's nothing that she can't handle. She's looking forward to the summer. So is Jessica. She's sad every day when we Cassie gets on the bus. "I just wish I could get on the bus with her." Next year.

We've gone to the beach two times in the last two weeks. We have a play group that goes to different parks or beaches. I took pictures of the kids at Araha Beach on the 13th. This is one of my favorite beaches, because they grade it and clean off the stuff that washes up shore, so you can walk without sandals. Also, they put a net around to keep urchins and stuff out so the kids can play. Jessie wasn't so sure she wanted to go in the water at first, but by the time we left she loved it. Carston likes to play in the sand. I haven't invested in sand toys, yet, but it's on my list for the BX the next time I'm there. We took a road trip a couple of weeks ago to Zanpa Point. There is a big Shisa there. Here's a picture. There was also a Japanese man selling raw sugar cane there. We bought a couple for the kids to try. You have to kind of bite and suck on it to get the flavor out. The kids loved it.

This week, I have been working on my scuba certification. The class was Sunday-Thursday 5:00-9:00. During the day, it seemed that I was just preparing for class, because I needed to get a new swimming suit and rent a wet suit, get stuff together, and I tried to get dinner ready for my family, but I wasn't always successful. Plus, there's the fact that the class wore me out, and I just didn't have the energy. We did class work the first two days, and then we learned and practiced our skills in the pool for the next three days. Some of you know that I'm a little afraid of water, so I had to spend some time getting over this fear. When I have to fill my mask or remove my mask, I get a little panicky. Just swimming in the pool is exhausting. Saturday was my first open water dive. We did two dives. I passed all of my skills- even filling my mask, which I discovered is easier if I open my eyes. The hardest part is getting in and out of the water. It's hard with the waves, and trying to step in the right places and all the weight from the gear. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if it's worth it, but then I've been a little pessimistic about the whole thing from the beginning. There are two more dives to do before I am certified. The rest of my class did them on Sunday, but I will probably do them in two weekends. After that, I don't know. We'll see. I'm a little hesitant to just get out there. Just getting certified is quite an accomplishment for me, but in typical Jennifer fashion, I'd like to be good at it, so we'll see. I don't have any pictures, like Jason did, but there will be other opportunities I think.

Jason and I have been called into the nursery in our ward. We've got a large group of kids. On Mother's Day we had 18. Normally, we have around a dozen. There are quite a few people in our ward leaving this summer, so we'll see what it's like as people leave and others come. It's not my favorite calling, because I feel very isolated. The kids are fine, and they are getting used to us. On the other hand, Carston is getting very used to us always being around, and that's not really good, either. But, it's going okay.

Everyone is doing okay, but we're a little homesick. We miss everyone, and that tends to make us extra emotional. That's pretty much the goings-on around here.

Scuba Certifacation Course

Last week I started my scuba certification course. The course was good, and we practiced a lot of the skills we learned in the pool, as can be seen from the attached pictures. Yesterday we did our first ocean dive. We went to a place called the Sunabe Sea Wall- The Water Treatment Plant. The entrance is really close to the base. We worked on some more skills and then had some time to investigate. We saw various underwater creatures like, Sea Snakes which are a poisonous snake whose venom is as strong as a Cobra. They are harmless as long as you leave them alone and don't impede their path as they go to the surface to breathe as they are air breathers. We saw a puffer fish and the instructor passed it to us so we could feel what it felt like with our gloves on. We saw various sea cucumbers and a lot of different kinds of fish. The best of all was when she took us over a colony of clown fish (Nemos). I'll have to go back there with an underwater camera and take some pictures after I finish my next certifications dive.

Jason

Mail!

So, in addition to adjusting to life in another country, we've been adjusting to life on a military installation. Even if I never left the base, it's a whole different world there. Sometimes I have to pull out my map to figure out where I want to go; and then I often find out I've gone to the wrong place. I pretty much just tell everyone that I have no background information, so they should just explain everything assuming I know nothing, because I don't. :)

One of the places that amazed me was the post office. Here's a picture off my phone from the first time Jason took us there: I know it's not the best picture, I'm sorry. I took it on a Sunday, when it's not very busy. A guy walked in while I took it and looked at me like I was nuts. I know! I blog about the strangest things. Anyway, there are three or four of these rows of boxes, and each box is very small. This is the APO box office. There are other FPO box offices for the Navy and Marines on other bases.

This week we were lucky and got a package (thanks, Mom, we love mail). When you get a package too large to fit in the box, they put a yellow slip in your box like this one: She's excited to get a package, can you tell? Then you take your slip and ID to the desk, and they give you your package. (He looks excited, but he's really looking up in the sky at the F-15 flying by.)

Going to the post office every day to get mail is one of the things that's different for us here. Usually, Jason goes by when he's at work, but if we're on base, Cassie and Jessie love to check it, so we go by. You never know when something exciting will be there!