Adventures in Okinawa

Video of Audrey! 2 months

2010-03-14T19:22:00.000-04:00

Enjoy the video of Audrey! She's 2 months old and that is her Grammy talking in the background

We's has a baby!!111!11!11!11!!!!

2010-01-24T01:13:00.000-05:00

Hooray, Housing Soon!

2009-12-18T17:51:00.000-05:00

Well it's only a week until Christmas! I can hardly believe it. Hubby and I are still in hotel number 2, however we have good news! We had an appointment with the housing office this past week, and we get to move into our townhouse on post on Decemeber 22!! Yay!!!! And, all of our household goods from the states have already arrived, so they will be delivered to our house on the 22nd as well. We are both super excited. We are going to set up our Christmas tree first thing, so that we can enjoy it for a few weeks. I will enjoy unpacking, and finally having a place to call home again.

As for the baby, everything seems to be well. I had my 36 week appt on Dec 11, and the doc said that everything looked really good. I see him again for a 38 week appt on Dec 28. It's getting so close now. I'd have to say, out of all the months of pregnancy, the 9th month is my least favorite. Having a huge belly definitely makes it difficult to do normal, everyday things. Plus, you have all sorts of little aches and pains. I'll be relieved when baby finally decides to make a debut.

Last night, Hubby's company had an adult Christmas party. It was really fun and the food was great. We even did a white elephant gift exchange. That is always interesting, it's fun to see people steal other people's gifts, haha! Today, the company is hosting the kids Christmas party. The company buys each kid a present, and Santa shows up and gives out the presents to each kid. And they will have food, music, etc. So it should be fun. Even though our kid isn't born yet, we still have to go because Hubby got picked to play Santa this year! HAHA! I can't wait to see him in the Santa suit!

I had a raging head cold this week. I'm finally starting to feel better. For three days though, I was feeling pretty rough. I still have a little of the sniffles, but nothing major. The irony is that two days before I got sick, I was thinking to myself how lucky I was to have not gotten sick during my pregnancy.... well I suppose I jinxed myself! But anywho, life goes on, and I'm feeling better now. Hubby had the cold too, so we were both pretty pathetic for a couple of days.

Hope you all enjoy the holidays!! We'll be thinking of you as we unpack and get settled in our new place over the holidays here.

December already!

2009-12-06T04:25:00.000-05:00

I can hardly believe it's already December! Christmas and baby will be here before we know it. So, here's an update on our past week.

We've been in the new hotel now for a week. It has been interesting to say the least because it is off post in a japanese town. The stove top, oven, and microwave are all in Japanese and Celsius! So I don't really know how to operate them, I just turn dials and hope I don't burn the food! Needless to say, we've gone out to eat a lot this week for dinner because of the issues with the appliances, hehe. I will take pictures so you all can see what I mean about it being complicated.

We also heard this week from the transportation office, and our household goods have arrived! Yay!!!! They weren't supposed to get here until Dec 23rd, but it was running ahead of schedule. So, all of our furniture and stuff from the states is sitting in storage until we get in to permanent housing. Once we get into housing, the transportation department will deliver it to our town house! Woo hoo!!

Speaking of housing, we have an appt with them on Dec 17. On that day, they will tell us what our definite move in date will be. I'm so excited! We haven't lived in a permanet place since October 3rd, so it has been over two months of temporary places to live. Ugh.

As for baby, everything seems to be going okay. We attended a childbirthing class at the hospital on Saturday. It was informative and now hubby is ready to be a super coach! I have my 36 week appointment with my doctor this week, on friday Dec 11. It's getting so close!

As for an address, we went to the post office this week to get a PO Box, and there is 3-4 week waiting list! So, we still do not have a personal address. If you need to send us something before we get our personal PO Box, email me (it's my first name and my maiden name all as one word @yahoo.com), and I can email you either Hubby's work address, or a friend of ours' address.

On a humorous side note, we had our first bad dining out experience this week! We went to this place, and no one spoke english and nothing was in english (that's pretty normal though), however this time it got us into trouble. Each table had a little gas grill on it, so we assumed they cooked your food for you there. WRONG! They brought out a plate of raw vegetables, and a plate of "mystery" raw seafood, and we were supposed to cook it ourselves at our table! Doh! The seafood was strange too because we didn't know what some of it was... I don't know if i want to know. Anyway, we laughed about it and vowed never to go back. There are plenty of other delicious places to go here. Live and Learn!

4 day Thanksgiving weekend!

2009-11-30T00:44:00.000-05:00

*** Picture Slideshow at Bottom of Posting***

I hope all of you back in the states had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday. Hubby and I sure did. We took advantage of his 4 day weekend and got out to see the island a bit.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, was actually really fun! We were invited over to the house of someone hubby works with. They had a fairly decent sized get together, with tons of really delicious food. We got to meet some new people, and stuffed ourselves on turkey (baked and fried), ham, all the sides and fixins, and dessert. Coming to Okinawa has been a good experience so far. We only just got here, and already we were treated like family. We stayed there all afternoon and most of the night. As the night progressed, the drinking continued and we played some really fun games. Lucky for hubby, having a pregnant wife means always having a designated driver :)

Friday we tried a sushi roll express place called Delicious Sushi. It definitely lived up to the name. We ordered three rolls and shared, and it was wonderful! After lunch, we rode the huge ferris wheel on the island. It's 5 bucks to ride, and it takes 15-20 min to go all the way around. The slide show has a few photos of the view. After the ferris wheel we went to a japanese do-it-yourself store... very similar to a Home Depot back in the states. We got a second copy of the car key made, woo hoo! It's always an experience trying to communicate with the locals :)

Saturday we checked out an 18th century famous home called the Nakamura House. There are tons of photos of that in the photo slide show. It was probably one of my favorite things we've gone to see since we've been here. I want a house like that, it was so cool! After that, we drove to a huge something.... we aren't sure exactly what it was, but it was this enormous temple building, and there were monks there. And you had to climb a whole bunch of stairs to get to the temple at the top. Inside the temple were a whole bunch of religious looking objects and incense. No Buddahs though, so we were guessing maybe it was a Shinto temple? We really have no idea though, because nothing was in English and no one spoke english. We didn't take any pictures either because we didn't know if that would have been culturally acceptable or not. But, nonetheless, it was an interesting site to see, and a pretty drive to get there.

Sunday we relaxed, and picked up a Pack N Play for the baby! Yay!

Today, Monday, we moved out of our hotel because they were full and our reservation had run out. We moved into a different hotel, off post, and that's where I am now. It's actually quite large! It's a three bedroom apartment!!!! It makes our old hotel seem like a tiny little shoebox! And we have a huge balcony, you can see the ocean from it. I'll take some pictures soon and post them. Anyway, we will be here until around Christmas time. Our permanent housing is really nice, but we can't move in until around Christmas because someone is currently living in it. Slowly but surely we will get settled here.

Here is the latest of pictures taken over the weekend. Click the purple "PLAY" button to view it.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Car Photos and Trip to Katsuren Ruins

2009-11-22T19:49:00.000-05:00

Click the purple "PLAY" to see the photo slide show

Make a Smilebox slideshow

In the above slide show, I have some photos of the car we bought. So far, we like it a alot. Saturday we took a trip to another island over a really really long bridge, called Sea Bridge Road. Along the way, we took a pit stop at a place called Katsuren Castle Ruins. It was free to see, however, it required a ton of walking up a huge hill, and quite a few staircases. Let me tell you, that really gives an 8 month pregnant lady a workout! But I did it! Woo Hoo! So, there are photos of that as well.

This weekend we also checked out a restaurant called Arin Krin, and an "American Style" Ice Cream parlor.

We are still in the hotel. Hopefully we will be getting permanent housing this week.

Woo Hoo a Car!

2009-11-19T21:19:00.000-05:00

As the title states, we have a car! Yay! Freedom from bus schedules at last. Thursday, we purchased a light blue 2000 Mazda Demio. They don't sell them in the states, but it's a small-ish 4 door car with a hatchback in the back. Surprisingly for being 9 years old, it only has about 40,000 miles on it, and it's super clean and in great shape. We like it a lot, and it will be a great family car for the upcoming baby. I'll try to take some pictures of it today and post them on the site for you all to see what a Demio looks like.

Wednesday evening was the Company's annual Thanksgiving celebration. Everyone from Hubby's Company attended. It was held in the super secure facility where hubby works. We had to walk through so many locked doors and gates (I think 6 total) that I felt like I was the agent in the old TV show Get Smart. Ha! But the food was fantastic. Everyone brought something, and there was of course, way too much. I totally stuffed myself and it was delicious. I got to meet several other wives, all of whom either have small children or are currently pregnant. So, now I know some other mothers or mothers to be on the island. And they were all very nice.

Tuesday evening was a "mandatory fun" event for Hubby's Company. We all went to the bowling alley and had pizza and bowled. The purpose of the event was a "Hail and Farewell." This means that there are several people leaving the company, and several people who are new to the company (including us), so the event was to formally say goodbye to those who are leaving and introduce the newbies. We had a good time. I used a child's bowling ball, so as not to be lifting anything heavy. It was still quite hilarious trying to bowl while pregnant because my center of balance is off. Also, I can't throw it as hard as I normally would. I bowled a 73, which even though that's not very good, I still didn't get last place! You can ask my hubby who got last place... muhahaha!

Hubby went golfing with the company one day this week. He said that the course was great and the "19th hole" (the restaurant) was awesome. He said the restaurant is up on a hill, and it overlooks the flight line, and there are constantly F15s and F22s (fighter jets) landing and taking off right in front of you. The whole restaurant has windows for walls. Also, since you are up on a hill, you can see the ocean! I can't wait to go there with him and see it for myself, and take pictures to put up on here.

As for housing, we are still in the hotel. Our housing counselor is working on our housing offer right now as I type this. She will either be offering us something this afternoon, or very early next week. I am eager to get into housing so I can go head and get the baby room set up with everything we will need. More to come!

Photos finally!

2009-11-14T20:59:00.000-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Above: Click on PLAY to see the first round of Okinawa photos.

Friday in the morning we had an appointment with on base housing. Apparantly there is no wait list, so we should be getting a phone call monday or tuesday with a housing offer. Woo hoo! In the briefing, they went over all the rules, regulations, and procedures with us associated with living in on base housing. Apparantly recycling is mandatory here, so they also told us how we needed to separate everything.

Friday afternoon hubby was able to go with me over to Camp Lester's Naval Hospital for my 32 week OB appt. The doc said everything looked fine and I was measuring well and doing great. My next appt will be at 36 weeks. He checked, and the baby's head is already down where it needs to be for delivery, so I was very happy about that. After the appt, I went to Labor and Delivery and got a tour of the facilities. They are very nice. Also, I was given the phone number of a lady to call to get enrolled in the next child birthing class.

Saturday, we had a very adventurous day. We looked at some cars, and also checked out some of the local areas. We went to an area called The American Village which had tons of eateries, several large shopping malls, a movie theatre complex, etc. There was also a huge ferris wheel and a beach called Sunset Beach. We ate at a restaurant called Ichigenya. That was a neat experience. The two chefs cook your food on a big hibachi type grill at the front of the restaurant. Then the waitress brings it over to your table and puts it on a hot plate on your table so it stays warm while it sits. Then you just serve yourself onto your plate. It was very tasty.

Today (Sunday) we are going to look at more cars, and probably see a bit more of the town. Since we are still staying in the hotel, we both kind of still feel like tourists. I imagine once we get into regular housing with our regular stuff, we'll revert back to being more home-bodies :)

Be sure to check out the photo slide show I posted at the top of this post. Click on the purple "play" symbol to view it.

Starting to Explore

2009-11-11T21:10:00.000-05:00

We still don't have a vehicle, so I've been relying on the hotel free shuttle and my trusty legs to get me around the area. Needless to say, I haven't been able to explore more than a mile or so off base on foot. But, within that mile, I have found a few gems.

Probably about half a mile from our hotel, on Tuesday, I found a cute little park called Wakamatsu Park. I took several pictures, and once I can get on a different computer I'll be able to post them. But there was a neat shrine or tomb out front. There are tombs all over the place here, in the most random locations. The natural, un-landscaped foliage is very jungle-ish here. The park also had a huge sitting area on top of a hill that was underneath a pagoda-like structure. Looked very cool. Also, the playground equipment looked like something an adult would want to climb around on, atleast I did, though I refrained.

Also on Tuesday I walked over to the PX and purchased an international calling card. I was able to call the U.S. for only 6 cents a minute. I didn't think that was too bad. So, I called my mom, my sister, and my in-laws to let them know we were alive and well in Okinawa so far. It was good to hear familiar voices again.

On Wednesday I walked to some used car dealerships that cater to the military folks here in Okinawa. I saw some cute stuff, however it seems the dealerships are a bit overpriced. Now, I didn't actually talk to anyone there, so maybe the sticker prices are grossly exaggerated and they are willing to negotiate way down for a cash offer. Who knows. But, I'm hoping I can find a service member leaving the island soon who needs to get rid of their car asap for cheap.

While I was walking around on Wednesday, I noticed the surf off in the distance was really high because of the winds we had that day. The military base is noticably higher in elevation than the coast, so if you stand in the right spot you can see the beach off in the distance. With the large waves we had wednesday it really was quite pretty to see!

Wednesday evening, hubby and I decided to try another local eatery. This time, we walked to a place called Restaurant China. It was a lot different than chinese food is in America. It wasn't greasy and there were lots of vegetables in the dishes, even the ones that normally wouldn't have veggies, like Sweet and Sour Chicken. But anyway, the place was pretty good, and it was ridiculously cheap! They had a traditional japanese style seating area with tatami mats (no shoes allowed) and no chairs. Then they had a more western style seating area with table and chairs. The staff was very pleasant, though spoke virtually no english, so once again we were communicating with them with pointing and our limited knowledge of Japanese. Hehe, always a good time.

Getting Settled

2009-11-09T02:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday was relatively eventful! After breakfast, hubby and I went to the PX on post and signed up for cell phones with Softbank! Woo hoo, something normal! The way cell phone plans work here are totally different than how it works in America. American plans are much more budgeting friendly, because your bill will be the exact same every month, as long as you don't go over your minutes (which we never did).

In Okinawa, it's a little different. We have unlimited calling/texting to each other all the time, and to other Softbank customers for 20 hours out of the day. However, if you make calls to non-softbank users, they charge you a few cents a minute. Ugh, way to nickle and dime us. Or if you call other softbank users in the 4 hr window from 9pm to 1am, they charge you a few cents a minute. I think though, it will still end up being fairly cheap because the monthly charge is only 10 bucks a month (20 total for both of us). So, even if we do make a few phone calls here and there, i'm thinking it won't be super expensive. Anyway, the bill will be different every month, and that drives me crazy b/c I like to budget and know what to expect! doh!

After we got our spiffy, new, and free iPhones (yes free with 2 yr contract!), we took a cab to a local curry house located just off base. It is called CoCo's House of Curry. It's a Japanese curry house, not like Thai or Indian curries. It's interesting how you order there. First you pick the curry sauce and meat you want. Then you decide how many grams of rice you want (200, 300, 400, 500, or 600). Then you pick your spice level from 1-10. They won't you let you order a 6-10 spicy level unless you have previously eaten an entire serving of level 5!!! At the end you tell them if you want any extras added in like certain cheese, veggies, etc. The staff was very friendly but did not speak english, so we had a hilarious time telling them what we wanted through broken japanese phrases and pointing :) We enjoyed the experience and the food was good and reasonably priced. Next time I need to get hotter, because i tried the most mild and it was too mild for me.

The restaurant is located just 3 blocks from the ocean, so we took a stroll over to the cute little sea wall. It's totally different than what I'm used to. We took pictures of the ocean, a beach, and of the menu in the restaurant. As soon as we are able to get on a computer than we can put our pictures on, I'll be able to post them on this blog. We hopped a cab ( or "honcho" as they are called here) home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Today (Monday), I have been a busy little bee. Hubby's first day of work was today so I was left to my own devices. I called and made some appts that I needed for later in the week. Then, I went up to the safety office and took my japanese driver's license test. Yay I made a 100!!! So now I have my license and I'm fully qualified to purchase a car and drive it. I also checked out the library on post today. It was surprisingly large and had everything you would really need.

So far so good! It's getting close to dinner time so I'll probably just relax for the rest of the evening!

Journey to Japan

2009-11-07T17:57:00.000-05:00

We stayed up what felt like all night Wednesday night packing. Yes, yes, I know, I always wait until the last minute to do stuff like that. Then we woke up around 5am Thursday morning after getting a couple hours of sleep. We packed up the car, ate some breakfast, said goodbye to hubby's mom, and left for the airport at 6am.

We arrived at the DFW airport around 8 am. We had a TON of luggage, so hubby's dad helped us inside with it all. Total we had 8 bags (2 checked, and 2 carry on each). We got our luggage checked, said goodbye to hubby's dad, and made it through the security checkpoint.

Once through, we had about an hour and a half to kill before boarding. We met a nice Navy guy who was on his way home to a different military base on mainland Japan. He was a combat medic coming back from a deployment in Iraq. Not that I was worried, but just in case, I felt good knowing there was someone on the plane who could catch the baby incase it decided to make an early debut :) However, he told me at 31 weeks I had nothing to worry about.

We boarded the plane, and we had fantastic seats. They were all the way in the back, by the galley and the bathrooms. Food and peeing, two of a pregnant woman's favorite things. The time we spent in the air was only 12 hours and 20 minutes, however, we were ready to get off the plane after about 10 hours. I got up and walked the plane every hour or so. Surprisingly, American Airlines fed us a full course lunch, a small sandwhich for a snack, and a full course dinner free of charge! So, we didn't go hungry or thirsty on the flight, that's good.

So we land in Tokyo, and this is where the adventure begins. The Tokyo Narita airport is the craziest, most spread out place. We landed in Terminal 2, and had to take a train to get from the gate area of terminal 2, to the immigration, customs area of terminal 2. I have never experienced a train ride like that before.... there was no concept of personal space. People just piled on this train and we were literally packed in there like sardines. Very different from Americans, who usually prefer not to be touching other people, and would rather wait for the next train than lose their personal bubble.

When we get to the arrivals area of terminal 2, we were surprised to find out that we had to pick up our checked baggage! Doh! They dont route international baggage directly to your destination because they want you to go through customs with it. Luckily they had baggage carts available that were free of charge, so it wasn't too terrible. Once we got our baggage, we went through immigration, and then customs. Surprisingly those two things were the easiest part of the trip! No line, and they let us pass right on through.

Once through customs, we had to figure out where to check in for our All Nippon Airways flight that took us to Okinawa. Remind me not to ask questions in Japanese... because then the person thinks I know japanese and they respond in japanese and I have no idea what they say! However, with the help of a map and some pointing, I was able to figure out that the lady was telling me we had to catch a bus to Terminal 1 for domestic flights. The bus ride was probably 2 miles. Like I said, the airport is weird and spread out.

Once at Terminal 1, we played the elevator game trying to figure out what floor the check in counter was on. We finally found it, and checked in for the flight and checked our luggage. American Airlines didn't ask any questions at all about my pregnancy, however at check in and right before boarding, All Nippon Airways grilled me about how far along I was. Luckily, there were no issues and I was allowed to board the aircraft.

Oh, side note about the toilets in the airport. Some of the stalls had normal looking toilets... but they also had a built in automatic butt washer!! You just had to push a button and the bidet would turn on. No, I didn't not try it out. The other stalls had a hole in the floor!! I'm really not sure how you use that, so I steered clear of those stalls.

Once we arrived in Okinawa, we picked up our baggage. We waited around for about 10 minutes, not sure what to do next, and then our sponsor showed up! Yay!!!! So he drove us back to the base, and got us all checked in at the hotel we are staying at until we get permanent housing. It's a very nice place, and the room even has a fridge and stove. In total, from the door in Mineral Wells to the door at the hotel in Okinawa, we spent 26 hours travelling! Wow!

We crashed and went to sleep, because it was about 11pm local time. We woke up the next day feeling refreshed! We walked about half a mile to the bank and exchanged some yen. Then we went to the PX and checked everything out. We looked into both of the cellphone providers here and got information on both. We will probably be going back today to sign up with a cellphone carrier. The hotel where we are staying provides a free shuttle to anywhere within a 5 mile radius. So, we had him take us to the commissary (grocery store) on post and we bought a few things to eat for the next week or so.

Once we got back from the commissary, it was around 3pm and we were exhausted. Instead of going out to eat at a local place for my birthday, we decided to stay in and have chicken, potatoes, and salad that I made in the hotel room so we could rest. We agreed to go out the next day some place local to celebrate. I went to bed Saturday around 8 pm! This morning I woke up bright and early around 6:45 am. We went to the lobby and grabbed some free muffins, granola bars, fruit, and coffee. nom nom nom!

Now that I've updated the blog with details from our trip, today's adventure can now begin!

Good Times in Mineral Wells

2009-11-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

So thank goodness the hubby made the drive from Augusta to Houston safely on Saturday Oct 24. On Sunday Oct 25, we drove out to Mineral wells and we've been here ever since. It really is too bad that we didn't drive out a day sooner, because apparantly we missed my father-in-law cross dressing for a charity function. See picture for proof! Muhahaha, he'll never forgive me for posting this. It actually made the front page of the Mineral Wells newspaper! What a hoot!

So the first week in Mineral Wells was very relaxing. We visited with some friends in the MW area. The weather was fairly chilly and rainy. The first couple of nights we ate some real comfort type food for cold weather, like chicken and dumplings and tomato-noodle soup. My father in law drove me and the hubby out to Possum Kingdom Lake to show us the lake lot that they had recently purchased. It was really nice! I had never been out to that lake before. On thursday, we drove into the Metroplex and did some shopping, met uncle Stan for dinner, and visited with Grandma. It was really good to be able to see her before we go to Japan.

The next weekend in Mineral Wells was really eventful. The house was full of house guests. Uncle Stan and all of hubby's siblings came into town, even the one who just got back from Iraq. Hubby's parents threw a huge party on Saturday night, and it seemed like practically the whole town showed up at some point! Small towns are so much fun! But the party was a mixture of Bon Voyage, Baby Shower, and Halloween themes. It was so fantastic!!! The man in the tu-tu in the above picture grilled out some awesome burgers and bratwurst. The food was all delicious! A lot of hard work and effort went into decorating the backyard and dining room, it was really neat! It was so good to see everyone who showed up! Thanks everyone for coming, and thank you to hubby's parents for being hosts. I made a photo slide show of the party! Click on PLAY to view it. Be sure your sound is turned on.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It ended up being a really late night, but somehow we all managed to make it to church the next morning. Not like it was hard though, considering we had a "fall-back" time change, AND the church is literally across the street from the house. After church, we took some family photos before people left. Here they are!

We still have a ton of things to get done before we leave Thursday morning for Japan! But it's almost here, I can't believe it. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Japan, Here We Come!

2009-10-23T14:43:00.000-04:00

So it has been a couple of weeks since I've updated the blog. That's mainly because I haven't had any new news to report as far as our PCS. However, just in the past couple of days, everything has started to happen very quickly!!

Hubby was finally able to get the movers to come and pick our stuff up out of the storage unit yesterday. They picked it up on Oct 22, and guaranteed it to arrive in Japan no later than Dec 23! Hehe, we'll see how that goes, hopefully it arrives before our baby! Today he had his final outprocessing briefing and signed out with the company in Georgia. He is now currently on the road, heading here to Houston! Yay! It has been three weeks since I have seen him, so I am now totally excited! Oh yeah, and I get to see my sweet Sake kitty too <3

We will be in the Houston area all day Saturday, and probably Sunday morning. Then I think we are heading to the DFW area to stay with his family for about a week and a half before we jet off to Okinawa. We will be departing DFW on Nov 5th, and arriving in Okinawa on Nov 6th!! Nov 7th is my birthday, so the very next day will be my first real day in Japan and it will also be my birthday! How crazy is that!

In other news, my sister's new little Sweet Pea is just so adorable! I've gotten lots of good, hands on practice with her. I now know how to feed, burp, hold, soothe, bathe, and change the baby. Changing the diaper was much easier than I expected, however I don't think I'll be able to look at peanut butter or orange Indian Curry sauce in the same way ever again :) Hubby and I are so excited for when ours arrives in January!

So things are finally happening! Before you know it, we'll be living in Japan, taking pictures of strange and unusual things! I can't wait!

Baby Shower Bonanza

2009-10-04T20:48:00.003-04:00

Saturday my mom and my cousin threw my sister and I a double baby shower! It was so fantastic! I can't hardly believe how well everything came together on such short notice. It was at this little Italian place in Kingwood that has a great party room. The food was delicious! Almost everyone was able to show up, which was surprising considering we scheduled it on Wednesday, just three days before the actual shower.

My mom designed the cake. It has one baby stork flying to Texas (for my sister), and one baby stork flying to Japan (for me). I thought it was so super cute, I had to take a picture of it. We had another cake at the party too, except it was not edible. My cousin's wife is very creative and made us a diaper cake! I obviously can't take diapers with me to Japan, but now my sister has diapers out the wazoo! But she did a great job designing the diaper cake, we were so impressed!

So the shower was really fun. My favorite part about it was being able to see our friends and family. Seeing everyone like that really made me realize how much I'm going to miss friends and family being all the way in Japan. Why is it called a "shower" anyway? Is it because people "shower" you with gifts? Hehe, who knows! Everyone there seemed so excited about the two new babies coming to our family! I can't wait to have my baby, and come back to Texas to introduce it to everyone. We both received some very cute and thoughtful gifts. For convienience purposes, quite a few people gave me and the hubby money so that we could just buy the stuff we needed once we get to Japan. I am looking forward to getting there and being able to "nest." Picking out all the cute baby clothes and baby items will be really fun! Here are some more photos from the event. I made the slideshow using Smilebox.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thank you to everyone who was able to come. It was a blast! Also, thank you to everyone who made the shower possible! You know who you are :) Much love!

Hello, Texas!

2009-10-04T19:55:00.000-04:00

After a couple days of blood, sweat, and tears, we are finally out of the apartment! Yay! Packing up all our stuff, moving it to a storage unit, and then cleaning the apt from top to bottom is exhausting in such a short amount of time. But it is finished! We couldn't have done it so fast if it wasn't for the help we received from some of our friends in the Augusta area.

Saturday morning we woke up at the butt crack of dawn (330am!) so that I could catch my 530am flight to Houston. I lucked out and didn't have to sit next to anyone on either flight! (flew to charlotte, then caught connecting flight to houston). Wow, that never happens. Mom picked me up from the airport around 930am, and we got a few things done before the baby shower. I'll have an entirely seperate post for the baby shower with a picture slideshow.

Hubby said he didn't have too much work left to do after he dropped me off. He made a handful of trips to the storage unit and put some finishing touches on some cleaning that needed to be done. Then he turned in our keys! woo hoo! Now he and our cat Saki are at a friends house, and he will be there until he gets his orders. I was so happy he was able to finish up at the apt on his own so that I could go ahead and get to Houston for the shower. Thanks honey :)

So, it looks like I'll be here for about three weeks or so! It's good to get some time with the family before we go to Japan.

Plans? What's that?!

2009-09-29T20:42:00.000-04:00

Today I received some exciting news! My sister's OB told her today that she wants to go ahead and induce her on Monday Oct. 5th! She wasn't officially due until Oct 24th, which would have been after we left for Japan. So good news, I'll be able to be there for the birth, and for a couple of weeks afterwards to play with and experiment on the new baby! yay! Then, when our baby is born in January, maybe I'll actually have some experience with changing a diaper, etc.

We were planning on having a double baby shower on October 10th, but we quickly changed those plans today. Now our double baby bonanza blast will be this Saturday, October 3rd. Luckily the restaurant was flexible and able to change the reservation and they had the party room available too. So, I'll be flying to Texas this Saturday, and then I'll just hang out there until Hubby receives his orders and he'll drive out there when he can and meet me. This actually is good because I am so anxious to leave Georgia that I thought I was going to go nuts waiting on those orders.... Now I don't have to wait! I'll be in Texas in just a matter of days.

As far as orders are concerned, no word yet. Surprise surprise. Who knows how long it will take for the clerk to remove his thumb from his hind-end and actually do some work. We know people who have been waiting on orders from him for weeks.... Something isn't right with that.

Anywho, I must be off to continue packing. Hubby's friends are actually coming tomorrow instead of Thursday to move most of our stuff into the storage unit. I'm not even close to being ready for that but we'll make it work. I wasn't expecting them to come until a day later. But, as I've learned the past year being an Army wife, don't even think about planning for anything, because plans will almost always have to change!

Update on the Pre Journey

2009-09-28T14:24:00.000-04:00

So today was actually fairly productive. We had an appt this morning to submit the paperwork and documents neccessary to process my military no fee passport. Now that it is applied for, I can go to Japan on my regular tourist passport, and my military passport with SOFA visa will be sent to me over in Okinawa. Woo hoo!

Also, today we received communication back from Japan. It said that housing will be available for us when we get there, so we were authorized concurrent travel! Hooray good news! We were NOT authorized to ship our POV (privately owned vehicle), so it's official that we will have to sell our beloved Honda Fit. *cry* So, now that we have the travel message from japan, all we are waiting for now is our clerk to write our orders. Unfortunately he was sick today, so we will probably go harass him tomorrow.

Today we also found out that the Hubby will have to extend his military contract by four months. The reason is because going to Japan with family is a three year tour. He only has two years and eight months left in his contract, thus it will have to be extended to cover the full three year tour. Not a huge deal, but instead of getting out in June 2012, we'll now be getting out in October 2012.

We are getting our storage unit rented today. Hubby is on the phone as we speak with the three different storage places trying to find the best price for just a month. Thursday will be the big day that all the crap gets moved out of our apt and into new said storage unit.

So, we're moving right along. I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of getting out of Georgia. More updates to come soon!

The Never Ending Pre-Journey

2009-09-27T13:24:00.000-04:00

So, for months and months my husband and I are led to believe we are going to be stationed in California when he graduates from his training. SURPRISE! A week after his Sept. 3rd graduation we find out we are actually slotted to go to Okinawa, Japan for a three year tour! At first, I was quite shocked, not because I didn't want to go, but because it was just so unexpected. However, now I'm actually quite excited about going and having the opportunity to experience a new culture, language, and geographic region of the world. The only less than desireable thing about all of this is that our first baby will be born in January in Okinawa, and will not get to see her extended family very much during the first 2.5 years of her life.

So, the pre-journey begins! And let me tell you, sometimes I feel like we are never going to get out of Georgia! The waiting, waiting and more waiting for OCONUS moves is maddening. Hubby and I both had to pass medical screening, which we have done. I got a regular tourist passport, but will also have to get a no-fee military passport which takes 6-10 weeks to process! Luckily, I'll be able to order it here and receive it in Japan, so it won't hold up our PCS. Currently, we are being held up by awaiting correspondance from his unit in Japan. They have to let us know that there will be housing available so that I can travel concurrently with the hubby. So until we hear back from them, all we can do is wait.....

To complicate things further, we have to be out of our current apt by October 3rd! That's this upcoming Saturday! So, this week we will be moving all of our stuff into a storage unit temporarily until we receive our PCS orders for Japan. Luckily the hubby has several strong friends that can assist him with moving the furniture. My job will be to sit back and direct traffic, woo hoo! So where will we live here temporarily until we move, you may ask?? We have some friends with a 4 bedroom house whose roommates are leaving. They said it would be cool for us to crash there for awhile. Score!

More updates to come as the Pre-Journey continues!