Google Earth

One thing I love about my new computer is that I can play around with Google Earth. It's like I can go on a vacation and tour the world. Here is an arial view of Okinawa.

And here is the city I live in. You can clearly see how congested it is:

I found my house. Don't you see it?

Here's a better view with a tiny white arrow:

And here's the street view (the white house at the end of the driveway):

It's so cool. I could play on here all day. It's also great for researching future places to live and homes to buy.

Winter is Over

I love it when spring starts in Janurary.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today was gorgeous! We took advantage of the beautiful warm weather and went to a nearby park. Charlie had never visited this park and he wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

The girls brought their radio control cars and had a great time playing around the walking trail.

Round and round you go,

where you stop,

nobody knows.

This is a great roller slide.

A view from the top,



and away we go,

All smiles here

Charlie contemplated this one for a while

but then chickened out.

I don't blame him. We all chickened out even on a double dog dare.

A Little Shaky Tonight

We had some excitement tonight experiencing a 5.3 magnitude earthquake. It happened at 8:08pm and lasted about 20 seconds. The actual earthquake was about 100 miles away and at a depth of about 70 miles under the ocean floor. It was nowhere near the extent of the earthquake in Haiti. We only felt some light shaking. We are very thankful that we are all well here but our hearts go out to those in Haiti.

Just Thinking

So everyone is excited about our #1 pick of GA. It's still so early. I mean, we don't even have orders just a "dream sheet". We have a really good chance of getting GA though. There's 4 positions available for just his rank in his job and we have been on a long overseas tour (to say the least). The only way someone could beat us out is if 4 people of the same rank and in his job are leaving from Korea, Turkey or Lages during the exact same month and they all want to go to the same place or if someone has been overseas longer than us. How likely is that? Our hopes are up.

We have been doing some research about the area. Warner Robins, GA is small town USA. The population is only about 50,000. Atlanta is about 1 1/2 hours away. The beach is 3 hours one way and the mountains are 3 hours another way (sound familiar?) Houses are very inexpensive. We can get a nice 3/4 bedroom house between $170-150,000. It's the time to buy so that's good for us.

We've known when we would be moving since we got orders to Okinawa. So we've been saving for this move for a while. It's stressful that everything is going to happen at once though. In a matter of a month or two, we'll be selling our Oki junkers, moving out, buying a house, two cars, furniture for all rooms ('cause we have none except for the living room), oh, and we're hopefully going to Australia as a side trip on our way back to the states. Are we insane? Who does that? Overseas moves can be rough on the ol' pocketbook. And I forgot to mention we'll receive a huge cut in pay. Welcome Home, your now broke!

The "List"

Last night the list was suppose to come out at 10 pm our time. We sent the kids to bed, logged on the site and refreshed it every 5 minutes until something appeared. Three hours later still nothing. Instead, there was a little note saying it was postponed until the following day.

Story of our military lives.

This morning I was checking in on Facebook and someone had asked what bases were available. Well, I wasn't going to check the website again because it had said it wasn't going to be ready but I did anyway. The list is out and had been at some point after we went to bed (not that the info. was going to change or someone was going to beat us to the prime choices if we had stayed up). So for those that care:

In ABC order
Barksdale - Louisiana -1 position
Cannon - New Mexico - 1 position
Lackland - Texas - 4 positions
Peterson - Colorado - 1 position
Robins - Georgia - 4 positions
Scott - Illinois - 2 positions
Tinker - Oklahoma - 5 positions

So, Charlie is not up yet (he still doesn't know) but we will probably pick in this order:

#1 Georgia
#2 Illinois
#3 Colorado
#4 Oklahoma
#5 Texas

Most likely we will get Georgia. We have friends that are there now. It would be great to be near them. Also, it's fairly close to home. A weekend trip wouldn't be too hard to make. We should find out in Feb. If we don't get picked then the next list that comes out is an overseas list on Feb. 3.

How Come...

How come when I call the clinic to make an appointment I get put on hold for 20 minutes, told the system is down, told to talk to a nurse to see if my need is relative to make an appointment for, told the next available appointment is in the next month but they can't make an appointment that far out and to call back in a week, I call back for said appointment and get one two weeks later, see the doc. for 10 mins. told to take some Motrin and feel better at home because I obviously didn't do that yet and I'm waisting his time?

And Charlie calls for an appointment for Jasmine's toe late in the afternoon, gets an appointment for 9:00 the very next morning, gets seen, decides to go ahead and cut the nail off right then and there in the office and gets her antibiotic right then along with a doctor's note to skip gym for the next 10 days.

What is up with that? I can't stand the double standards at the clinic here. They must have my name written under mental patients not to make an appointment for. I almost died last year with walking pneumonia and was finally seen 6 weeks later just to be told to go home and make some chicken soup. I mean really? I never call for an appointment unless I'm almost dead.

Was ist Los?

What's going on, you ask?

Last night we went to Four Seasons for dinner. It's a tepinyaki steakhouse where they cook your meal in front of you. Anyway, when the waiter asked me for my two sides I could only think of one, potatoes. I have my soup, salad, rice and bread already what more do I need? He shows me the list and I can either have bean spouts or spaghetti also. Well, I'm not having the bean sprouts so spaghetti it is. Weird. I'd never have thought I'd get spaghetti at a Japanese steakhouse. It was just strange watching him fry up the noodles on the stove with oil and garlic. And it was even more strange eating spaghetti noodles without sauce along with my chicken, steak and potatoes.

Today Charlie is taking Jasmine to the clinic to have her nasty ingrown toenail looked at. This will be her 3rd one taken off. This one is worse than all the others but I will spare you the details. Since she's 13 now, I don't ask to look at her toes. She avoids talking about it at all cost. She's afraid of needles and knows the process of having part of her toenail removed. Actually, this time she asked us if they could put a chemical on it so it would never grow back. We'll talk about it more this week (at this point in life she doesn't care about cute heels, painted nails and hideous big toes).

Our "list" comes out tonight. There's no definite time on when it will be out. So every 5 mins. I'll be refreshing the computer page until it shows (even if I have to stay up all night). We're hoping for something good!

Charlie took the week off work to study for his college math exam. I've been tutoring him for a few weeks now. He'll be taking his test next week. Wish him luck. He'll have his CCAF (Community College of the Air Force) completed and be one step closer to making the rank of Senior Master Sergeant which is a very big deal. I'm proud of you honey!

Moving On Up

Loving my new HP TouchSmart. Our old computer is on it's last leg. It's 7 years old and things are breaking little by little with it. First, the keyboard stopped working, then the mouse, then the printer. We got new hubs for the mouse and keyboard but we were unable to have the printer. I could still print using a sd card but it's more difficult. This week it took a few times to start it up so we weren't sure how many times it would last. Originally, we decided to wait until we moved since we'd have a better selection of computers in the states but once we saw this one, we were hooked. So far we love it. It only has 1 wire to plug in instead of our 8 or so wires from our old computer. Everything is inside the screen; the hard drive, speakers, camera. Plus, it's a touch screen. We don't have to use a mouse we can just touch the screen to do all the work and even write and draw with our fingers. It's awesome!

A Taste of Asia

Charlie's sister called the other day and said her daughter is doing a project on Asia (how convenient). She was asking if we could send anything about where we live (why, of course!). So we went to our local travel center and picked up one of every brochure and magazine of places to travel here. They are neat because they are in Japanese on one side and in English on the other side. We bought a few things around town: an origami crane, umbrella, shisha dogs, chopsticks and a package of candy and snacks. I also printed off a lot of pictures we took of castles, shrines, people and landscapes of Japan, Thailand and China. She's sure to get an A on this project. How many kids from small town NC can say they have family in Japan?

Happy 78th Birthday Paw!

(My, don't the girls look so small there? They've grown tons in the last four years)

We were home getting ready for bed and watching the Today Show (bed...Today Show...live?). Yes. The Today Show live at 10pm. Anyway, back to my story... A segment about Elvis's birthday comes up. Charlie turns to me and says,

"It's Paw's birthday! I have to call him!"

He can't remember anyone outside of our immediate family's birthday but he can remember Paw's because he shares it with Elvis (only if he is reminded that it's Elvis's birthday).

Happy 78th Birthday Paw! We love you and miss you. Can't wait to be home later this year!

So It Begins...

Lately it seems that all I do is tell the girls to pick up their stuff. They've been leaving it around everywhere for me to trip over, get tangled up in, and leave it all over the counters so when I need to drop the groceries I'm left to search for another spot. It has gotten out of hand. So today when we got home from school, clubs, commissary shopping, I immediately head for the kitchen to unload my bags. I see once again that Jasmine had beat me to the space. She's stands there and looks at me with my hands full.

I ask, "Can you please move your stuff?"

She whips her hair around, snags her purse under her arm and walks away. I see the attitude and lash back,

"Stop the attitude."

She looks at me and with her most dramatic voice says, "That's no attitude. That's acting!"

It's great living with a teen.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking...first what is that thing in the picture? It's Charlie's scuba thingy but the numbers at the bottom tell the temperature. It reads 50 degrees. Gasp! Ok so you aren't gasping but we are. Come on, we live on a tropical island here. It's not suppose to get that low. I don't own any long sleeved shirts. I have one blue sweatshirt that Charlie just loves (not really, he hates it now because I have nothing else to wear). We don't have central heat either. We all sit under one heater that never warms up the place. Wah, wah, wah. Anyway, can't wait for spring to get here. It's just around the corner and those beautiful cherry blossoms will be Springing up by the end of this month!!!

This is how I felt too. She snuggled herself under the blanket.

Totally Random

These are things that went on this weekend. They are totally random and is usually what happens in our house day to day.

I made cake balls. They were easy to make but time consuming. 1. bake a cake 2. mix it in a mixer 3. add frosting while mixing it 4. make into balls 5. refrigerate 6. melt chocolate 7. dip into chocolate and set aside to harden. They are yummy but very rich.

Charlie grew a goatee over Christmas break. The kids hate the scruff. He loves to rub it on their faces and they hate it. They kept asking him when he'll shave it. Tonight.

We've been working with Sandy on cuddling. After 2 1/2 years she has finally decided that she loves us and wants to stay. She wants to cuddle but just doesn't know how. Usually, we have to grab her and put her into position. She only stays for about half an hour max.

Maya is working on puzzles again. She completed a 1000 piece before break and she finished this 750 piece in 1 day. I can never go wrong in getting her a puzzle.

Charlie went scuba as I said in an earlier post. Jasmine got sick early Sat. morning and slept until noon Sun. She's better now. The girls (well, this girl) are ready for school to start tomorrow. I dread the 5 am wake-ups but I'll be happy to have the day to myself and have the house clean again. We are still counting down the days for the all knowing "list", 10 days now. So those were the highlights of our weekend.

First Dive of the Year

Charlie started off the year with a scuba diving trip. He has warned me that he'll be scuba diving every other weekend until we leave (I think it will be much more than that actually). He took some AMAZING pictures on this trip.

Black Lion fish

Long-beaked butterfly fish

Crown of thorns star fish

Yellow tang

Clown fish

Clown butterfly fish

Morish idol

Necklace sea star

Happy New Year 2010

We rang in the new year 14 hours ahead of the US east coast with our close friends (that's always been odd to me and really hard to not have the New York City ball being dropped as we count down the time and celebrate the new year. It was a big tradition growing up to watch Dick Clark and see the anticipation of all the people). But anyway we shared stories, the kids played around us, we ate snacks and watched the clock as it struck midnight. We made toasts to the new year, celebrated with some Miscoto (mmm, delish) and lit some sparklers for the kids to wave in the night.

Morning came early since Charlie had promised some friends we'd help them move their kiosk from one location to another. It wasn't a whole lot of work and we were done relatively quick. They treated us (we'll mainly the kids) to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel at the theater. It was great for the kids.

Our friends are great examples of givers. They are always giving and giving and giving. Charlie and I were once that way but we seem to have lost that unconditional love towards others (maybe because we've been burned many times since being in Okinawa and it has harden our hearts). I want to be a giver again but protective at the same time but I believe that's not possible. You either give unconditionally or don't give at all. So another resolution of mine is to be a true giver.

I have an awesome husband, wonderful girls and a great life. I have friends and family that miss us and are looking forward to seeing again this year. I'm truely blessed.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2010 brings you joy, good health and best wishes!

Legos

I had heard relentless tears for four years of how I gave the girls' Legos away before we moved to Japan. If I had known that they loved them that much I would have never given them away. So this year they all got Legos for Christmas. They got a City set that makes houses along with cars, police sets and a beach set. They have played with them non-stop. Charlie gave me the thumbs up on how that was the perfect present for them. So today while we were out running errands, Charlie stops by the Lego section of our BX and picks out this Castle set. (There he goes spoiling them again.) The girls were so surprised and grateful when we showed it to them. Right away they got to work on building it.

Separating the pieces:
Daddy being silly and attacking them with a dragon:

Still working hard:

Almost done:

Finished!

I guess this the closest Charlie will have to playing with boys. He's commented many times on how I'll never be able to give him a boy. Good Grief!

BTW, while the girls have been playing Legos non-stop, this has been Charlie for the past week non-stop.

He deserves it though. Work has been rough lately and he's just finally starting to feel relaxed after months. Oh, and he's clear to go scuba again so be looking out for some underwater posts coming soon!

New Year's Resolutions

2010 is just a day away. I've been thinking about the new year, the many changes it will bring and what changes I can make as well.

Things that WILL happen in 2010:
1. we're moving to a new land
2. the kids (and we) will have to adjust to new surroundings
3. the kids will start new schools
4. Charlie will start a new job (and I will start working??? what?)

Our New Year's resolutions:
1. buy a house
2. look to the good things in life
3. be more creative
4. think of others before myself
5. be more patient (do I really want to commit to this one?)

Good plan, lets just hope we can stick to it. The new "list" comes out in 2 weeks. We can't wait to see what's on it and think about the possibilities it may bring (Just praying that it's not filled with the northwest. Been there. Done that. Don't want to do it again! I'm a southern girl.).

Soon Enough

It's driving me NUTS! The house is a mess (to my standards anyway!). Charlie and I made a plan for this week:

1. to truly enjoy our time off
2. to not worry about the house
3. rest
4. play video games (or do whatever I want) ALL day

So it's day 4. I did do some laundry today (well, I had to. I can't let it go past 2 days. That would be insane.) I also had the kids wash dishes (can't let that one go long either). Today I even vacuumed once (it really needed it).

For the most part we have been doing absolutely nothing. It's been nice. Next week will be here soon enough and the craziness will start again. I already know what I'll be doing! We have 150 days left on this island. We don't have orders yet but they'll be here before we know it. I don't want to wait until the last minute to get things done.

Little by little I've been cleaning up, sending things to the thrift store, thinking about what needs to stay and go. The girls and I have been talking about their new rooms, how it's going to look and how they want to decorate it. I made a memory board with each girl. They picked out their fabric and ribbons and we designed it together. With the leftover fabric we made pillows for their beds. They each got new rugs for their room for Christmas. It's funny how I had bought them months ago but they matched the fabric they had picked out perfectly. I'll have to blog about them later. I have no idea if these kinds of rugs are in the states but I couldn't pass them up. They are THE softest rugs I have ever felt. The price was amazing. I'm thinking about picking up some more for our bedroom before we leave.

I know the time is going to fly by but at the same time we still have 5 complete months left here. I can't get into the thought that we are on our way out the door. There is still plenty of time to have to keep focused on what's at hand. The girls will finish the school year, clubs, maybe even fit soccer in there somewhere and Charlie is finishing up some work and school. 5 months = 20 weeks = 150 days = 3,600 hours = 216,000 mins. = plenty of time to stay focused.

Beanie Men

I don't really know what you call these but we call them their little beanie men. I'm sure they've been out in the states for years (I wouldn't know) but we've started seeing these pop up in Japan just recently. They are just pillows in different sizes and colors filled with teeny tiny beads. My girls haven't let go of them. They are addicting. Once you feel one, you can't put it down. I actually fell asleep on one yesterday. Charlie says he wants one (just a round one because he can't be caught snuggling up with a dude) now I want one too. And I just saw Sandy snuggling up with one as I walked by to check on the kids.

The Morning After

We made the kids go to bed at 1am. They had been up for 21 hours playing non-stop. That's how you know it's been a great day! So this morning this is how we found them all snuggled up. This picture was taken at 10 am. It's noon now and they are still asleep. They are catching up and I'm leaving them alone. They've got all week to play and I'm not worried that they won't sleep tonight.