The Braithwaites

Updates from the Far East!

2011-02-26T14:24:00.007+09:00

I know it's been forever since I last blogged! Life is very busy with working full time, going to school full time, and spending time with family. As most everyone knows we're moving back to San Diego in July! We would have liked to get orders to the east coast so we could do more traveling around that area, but San Diego is such a nice city that you can't be disappointed to live there.

Things have been busy here. We went to the Sapporo Snow Festival the beginning of February and Morgan got sick for the first time. She got a double ear infection and bronchiolitus. After two different antibiotics, a 15min breathing treatment at the clinic; which was torture the clinic ran out of infant face masks for the inhaler, so Ryan had to keep the inhaler in her mouth for 15min. She was a great baby for being sick though! Besides her nasty cough, you'd never guess that she was sick.

Morgan is growing up so fast. At 4 months she's close to rolling over from her back to tummy, but just can't seem to get her arm out from under her. She talks ALL the time, bats are her toys, and will put ANYTHING into her mouth. She'll chew on her fingers, get all drooly and then try to touch your face with her nasty fingers. She's such a happy baby, and so easy to take care of. She wakes up around 5-6am, which is great because that's around the time I need to get up and ready for work. Then I drop her off at my friends place (who lives right below me), pick her up around 4pm, and is bed by 7-730pm at the VERY latest. She'll sleep all through the night, which she started to do a little after New Years.

She does well with tummy time. Since being at daycare she gets more tummy time and has tolerated it for much longer periods. She doesn't show any interest of rolling to her back, but trys to pull her legs up under her. We just bought an excersaucer, and she'll play in that for about 5-7min before she gets upset. She used to spit up constantly, but since decreasing the amount she eats and changing her forumla, things have gotten much better; though she does spend her days in bibs. I think next month we'll try a little bit of rice cereal.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of months.

Four months old: 26inches long, 15lbs 14.7oz. Doctor said she's growing on the 95th percentile, and thinks she'll be about 5'9".

Three months old: about 25 1/2inches long, and about 14 1/2lbs. (I didn't take her measurements this month either, woops!).

Two months old: 24 1/4th inches long, and 13lbs 3oz, this month she started formula and really packed on the weight

One month old: I never measured her height but she was about 10lbs

Funny pacifier Ryan bought, she is out little piggy. She usually only crys when she wants to eat, or when you're burping her because she's so mad you took her bottle away.

Love the look on her face!

Love this picture! "Please mom, can I have another bottle?"

A Christmas dress

Opening her first Christmas presents.

Baby's First Christmas!

Asleep waiting for Santa to come. I love watching her sleep, so peaceful and precious!

Gotta watch out for this one!

Pictures of our cutie pie...

2010-11-18T11:05:00.004+09:00

Here are a bunch of pictures of Morgan, they really aren't in order I was just going through all of our files. At her 2week check up she was back at her birth weight, and doing well. She's on formula now, she eats 4 oz every 2 hrs! At night she'll sleep from 9-12, but that's the only 3hr stretch, otherwise right at 2hrs she'll start to cry to eat. I'm gonna have alittle chunkster on my hands! Other than constantly feeding her, she's doing great. Starting to make more faces, stick out her tongue and get a smile or two out that isn't from gas. Enjoy the pictures!

She looks exactly like Ryan!

Meet Morgan Riley!

2010-10-27T23:34:00.005+09:00

Announcing: Morgan Riley Braithwaite
Born: October 24th, 2010 10:13am
Weight: 8lb7oz
Height: 22.8in

Thank you all for being patient with us posting about the baby! Everything is going pretty well. We were discharged on Tuesday but when we left Morgan had a slightly elevated bili level, so we had to have it tested today (Wed), before we left town. The limit for day three is 17.9, and she measured 17.8, so rather than getting back to Iwakuni and being admitted to a Japanese hospital was decided to stay and do the photo therapy here. After 4hrs of being under the lights she's dropped to 15.4, and she just has to drop by three I believe. So she'll get tested again in the morning and depending on the levels, if they're good then she'll be taken out of the lights and then tested again in a couple hours, and if all is good then we can finally go home! If not, then we'll be here another day doing therapy. On the 30th, I'll (Alyssia), would have been up here in Yokosuka for a month, so it would be REALLY nice to finally be home.
Well on to the birth story. My due date was last Thursday, 21st, and that day had come and gone. On Saturday we walked to the mall right outside the gate with our friends, looked at a couple stores and then decided to walk to Chili's here on base. In total from the mall to Chili's it's probably about a mile. Which isn't too bad considering we've been walking this base like crazy! I think one day we walked close to 10 miles! So we eat at Chili's and then take a taxi base to the club here on base because there was going to be a live band. We're at the club for a while and I get up to go to the bathroom and my legs felt really big and tingly, I take a look at them and they'd gotten pretty swollen. I've been really lucky with this pregnancy that I had gotten swollen this entire time, so I knew something might be up. So we go home and I put my feet up for awhile and the swelling did go down, but Ryan wanted to get it checked out just in case. We're staying right behind the hospital so it's a 2 min walk to the ER, they take my blood pressure and it was 144/93, which they don't like to see 140/90 in pregnant women. So they send me up to labor and delivery to put me on monitors. I've been having contractions for a few weeks now but nothing that was uncomfortable and that's what they saw on the monitors. The doctor checks me and I'm still 75% effaced, -2 station, and 3cm dilated. She said that since I was over due, with high blood pressure if I wanted I could be induced if I wanted; which I did. So about 1:30am I'm admitted and pitocin is started and around 3:30am I couldn't take the contractions anymore so I got the epidural, which was heaven and I don't think I could have done it without it! At 5:30am, the doctor wanted to check me, and my water broke and I was still at 3cm, so I thought I was in it for the long haul but she checked me again at 9:30am and I was at 9cm and at a -3 station. So she said at 10am I'd start pushing! So at 10am I pushed a couple times with just the nurses, then they called the doctor in and I pushed some more and it all went really quick. I pushed for about 10min or so, and she was here! The doctor didn't even have time to put her gown on, I think she thought I'd take a bit longer to push.
The entire labor went really well, I never wrote up a birth plan and I didn't need to because they were really good about asking what I wanted. Ryan did really well as a coach also; never got faint or sick and even cut the cord, when he cut the cord blood squirt all over. He also got to help out with her first bath and cleaning her up. She was one dirty girl, as soon as she came out she pooped, and pooped while he was holding her in a towel. Breastfeeding is going really well also, and everyone is doing great!
Here are some pictures from delivery.

First Family Picture!

We have some more pictures that we haven't taken off the camera yet. I'll hopefully update with more pictures when we get home and settled in. Thank you for all the congratulations and best wishes!!!

Got our bedding in!

2010-08-04T20:42:00.005+09:00

So we got our bedding in today! I'm so excited, it took FOREVER for me to pick out the bedding and I really really like it. It goes perfectly with the colors of the walls. I need some opinions, should I put the blanket on the back of the crib or front?

A close up of the details.

This is where I found Spartacus the other morning, he wants to stay the baby.

Not too much going on here. The baby is moving and kicking away. Ryan gets back from Okinawa in two weeks, I'm looking forward to that! I need someone to rub my feet at night :) When he gets back we're going to get another ultrasound done, and hopefully get a good look at her face and make sure that she's still a girl! Here is another picture of my belly at 28 weeks.

A little update

2010-06-20T16:57:00.005+09:00

Not too much going on here, Ryan is getting ready to go to Sgt's course next Sunday for 7 weeks and I'm going to the states next Sunday, but only for 2 weeks :( Here are a few pictures of some clothes that we got. They're so cute and small!

I've been trying to find more purple things, but there isn't a lot whole and they're more expensive. So I'm hoping to find a bunch of good stuff in the states.

I think we've finished our registries at Target and BabiesRUs and we got the okay to paint, so we're going to hopefully start that this week.

This is what we want to do above the changing table, and on the other wall where the crib is do it in the light pink and darker pink strips. I can also find the same crib bedding at Target, but I'm not sure if it's what I want to go with, but it's only an online style so we'll see.

Here is a picture at 18weeks

And here is one at 22 weeks!

I'm liking some of the maternity clothes, but still wearing a lot of my regular clothes. Mostly it's my pants I have to use my bella band with. The maternity clothes make you look a lot bigger! But glad to say that I've only gained 10lbs, which is great because my goal is only 25lbs!

This little girl is kicking away, and Ryan's been feeling her kicks! Which is great because I wanted him to feel her before he left. When he gets back in August we're going to take maternity photos, and then baby photos right after she's born!

And We're Having.........

2010-06-10T21:19:00.004+09:00

Out of the 8 people that voted boy/girl, 6 voted boy, 2 voted girl. And the winners are.......................................................................................................................................................................................

GIRL!!!!!!

Here are some pictures from the ultrasound. She was being stubborn at first, and wouldn't let us see, then the tech got her to move. It was a great appointment, it was so nice to talk with someone who spoke English and showed us everything on the ultrasound, answer questions, and give us photos. We got 4 of them, and here at the 2 good ones.

She was breech the entire time basically and had her feet up at her face!

Her cute side profile picture, she has Ryan's lips. It was cute when we got this picture because she was opening and closing her mouth.

Our good friends Casey & Anthony are a week behind us, and they made their appointment for the same time, and they are having a girl too!

We also had a name picked out too, but now that we're having a girl I don't know if it's the right name or not, so we'll see.

Woohooo!

2010-05-04T19:40:00.003+09:00

So Ryan is going to be at Sergeants Course from June 29th-August 17th, and I had taken vacation from June 28th-July 11th, so.... I'm going to come home for those two weeks now!!! YAY! I'm so excited! I'll actually be getting in Seattle on Sunday the 27th at 9:30am and leave Saturday around 1:30pm on the 10th.
I'm so excited because we'll be finding out what we're having the second week on June, so I'll be doing LOTS of baby shopping while I'm back. Especially for a jogging stroller, since retailers usually won't ship those. Can't wait!
Otherwise, everything is going good here. Busy with work and school. I've been taking 3 classes each term and I'm only doing two this summer term, so I'm really looking forward to that. And as far as the pregnancy goes, things are going great. I'm feeling fine, maybe a little more tired since I've been in the 2nd trimester, which is opposite since I was fine in the 1st trimester. Still haven't felt sick, and I'm getting a little baby bump, I'll have to post a picture soon. Other than that, nothing new!

More Pictures!!!

2010-04-28T15:52:00.002+09:00

So I had gone out in town to do Japanese doctor, Dr. Shoji, to get some pictures and hopefully see what we're having because I know a lot of girls who have found out right about now. When I asked the doctor if the baby was too small to tell what it was, he just talked about the size of the baby. I don't mind going out there, but Dr. Shoji never answers the questions that I want. Also, I think he thinks I'm a regular patient becuase I was supposed to pay extra and get a CD of the baby moving around also, but he didn't do that. So we'll see if we go out there. We should be getting our Big ultrasound the second week of June, and that'll be up in Yokosuka. So we'll see if I can wait that long to find out!

And here is the 3D picture, it's not too alien, but it's still cute.

Baby B

2010-04-14T17:09:00.003+09:00

So as most of you know we're expecting our first baby October 21st! Here are a few pictures that we have of the little bean.

In this one I think he looks like one of the ghost gobblins from pac man. (and I'm calling the baby a he, because I just know it's a boy!)

Also, soon after we took this test we took the Intelligender test; which is a urine sample gender test that you take after 10 weeks. If the sample turns orange with the chemicals it's a girl, if it turns green then it's a boy. And it turned green! This test has a 90% lab test accuracy and around 85% accuracy by consumers, so that just confirms my feelings even more. We'll update when we find out probably in about a month!!!

Pictures

2010-02-05T22:50:00.002+09:00

So I'm in the works of posting pictures of Hong Kong; it just takes forever on blogspot to upload a bunch of them. But I was looking through pictures on my computer and found this picture of Dad and me before we left for Japan and realized how much we look a like in this picture, check it out...

I see it in the eyes, nose and smile, what do you think?

Hong Kong

2010-01-06T17:23:00.012+09:00

So I've felt guilty about not posting about our Kong Kong trip that we took for Christmas!!! So here are the photos I had uploaded atleast, and a little about it.
Hong Kong was really great, tons of people but an amazing place and would I love to go work there once Ryan gets out of the Marine Corps.

On the sanpan ride around the floating casino.

How foggy/smoggy it was.

This is the walled city. It smelt aweful in there, like sewer.

Old ladies you pay to take you picture with.

China in the background.

Boarder to China

At the wishing tree.

So far in December...

2009-12-08T16:41:00.004+09:00

Here are some pictures from this month so far...

Ryan's Birthday cake! Happy 27th Birthday!!!

This past Saturday I had my friend shave Mozart because obviously from the picture below her hair was out of control.

Well here she is! We normally have a groomer do it, but she isn't very good and we always end of having to help her. So my friend that works at the vet office helped me shave her... without a guard on the clippers. So this cut will last a while.

Gotta love her "boots with the fur", now she needs some "applebottom jeans"!

Ryan and me at a Sushi place in Hiroshima, and no we don't like sushi, but our friends that we went with really like it, so we tried it out, and we still don't like it.

Here are a few pictures from "Dreamination", one major road in Hiroshima is lite up on both sides with a whole bunch of different stuff. Here's a few pictures, our camera started to die, figures.

Kitties

2009-11-29T20:14:00.003+09:00

Here are some recent pictures of the kitties lately.

Spartacus will lay down and lay out his arms like that.

Yesterday night our friends came over and they have a little kitten that they brought with them. Spartacus didn't really like him, he didn't hiss or swat at the kitten, but we very wary of him. This is them sleeping together; once the kitten (Samuri) got close to Spartacus like then, Spartacus got up and left.

Such a cute little kitten.

Here's Mozart and Spartacus laying in the sun together.

And Mozart laying in her bed that was up sideways.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

2009-11-29T20:06:00.003+09:00

We put our Christmas tree up this weekend. Last year we had a fake one, but we wanted to get a real one this year. We got a noble fir, and it wasn't very expensive at all. Hopefully it'll last until Christmas.

Here are a few pictures of Mozart checking out the new tree.

The tree with just the lights on.

Ryan putting on ornaments.

Now that star is crocked!

And the final product!

We don't be home for Christmas this year though, we'll be in Hong Kong, but it's still nice to have a tree up and our friend will be here to take care of the kitties.

Mijajima Firewalking Festival

2009-11-29T19:51:00.006+09:00

A couple of weekends ago we went to Miyajima for a Firewalking Festival. It was some Budhist thing where they build a fire out of little paddles that people write prayers or something on them, then the priests bless them before they are thorn into the fire. Once they're all thrown in, the fire gets layed down and the head priest blesses it and throws salt or something around. Then the priests get's women's purses or bags and puts them over the fire and blesses them also (which I had done :) ). After that, the head priest walks over the fire, then his lower priests, then it's open to the public. We had planned to do the walk, but after 60 people walking over it, there was a pathway made which was all burned down and only black cold sut. So we didn't feel like waiting for the other 200 people to go through and wait our turn. So we left and had lunch. Here are some pictures from that day.

The stairs up the hill to the temple.

As you were going up the stairs if you looked down to the side there were all these cool monk statues everywhere.

All the people at the ceremony.

That is the head monk in the purple

They are getting the walkway made.

The old people walking over it.

A nice close up of someone walking over it.

Next time we'll have to get there early and get a spot at the front so we can walk over it!

Marine Corps Ball 2009

2009-11-29T19:25:00.005+09:00

On November 12th Ryan and I went to the 234th Marine Corps Birthday Ball. It was held on base inside the basketball court at the gym; not too fancy, they put camo netting everywhere to disguise where your at. Here are some pictures from that night.

Birthday cake

Me and my co-worker Karen.

Our friends Jared and Amanda

Those are two of Ryan's friends, Brad and Ricky

Ryan and one of his Gunny's, Gunny White

Here's a picture of us at the house.

Here are two of the pictures taken at the ball.

New Furniture

2009-10-10T12:35:00.001+09:00

Every Spring and Fall there is a bazaar here on base where vendors from all across the Far East come and sell furniture, clothing, and whatever else you can think of almost. Well I had been wanting something for our hallway when you walk in, but a little end table like thing. But when we checked the bazaar out, we liked too many things; so this is what we got.

We really liked this because of the mirror, but we wanted something that had more storage in it. So we continued to look around.

Then we saw this little piece. We liked it because it had more drawers and it was just the right size; but it didn't have the mirror. So we continued to look.

Then we saw this one, it had another piece as part of a set, but we really didn't have room for it. We liked all three pieces and couldn't decided. So we went home, thought about it and just said "heck, let's get all three!", so that's what we did! And I REALLY LOVE them all! I had just had a partylite party and needed a place for some of my things so these were perfect.

The lantern on top is a present my co-workers got for me because the bazaar was the weekend of my birthday and Ryan told them I wanted it. When I went to go buy it, it was gone. I was so sad, and then on Monday at work they brought it out to me. It was really a surprise, and it was only $26, you can get some great steals at the bazaar. We got all three of our pieces from three different vendors for a total of $975; but if you could have gotten them at one place, we could have gotten them down to $750 I'm sure. It was almost like being in Beijing again, all the haggling for the furniture. Which kinda brings me to my next annoucement, WE'RE GOING TO HONG KONG FOR CHRISTMAS!!! Whoop Whoop! Oh ya, we're excited and we're already planning our 4 day trip!

100 Yen Store

2009-10-10T10:24:00.005+09:00

Ryan and I went to the 100 Yen store (aka dollar store) and found these dog outfits that we thought would be fun to put on the Mozart and Spartacus. They didn't really like them; Mozart just takes it and sits there, and Spartacus will try to take it off, but will still play around. Since they don't like them, we use them as a time out punishment instead. I think Spartacus is catching on because it's getting harder and harder to get it on him.

Spartacus looking hood.

Mozart clearing not liking being held, and the outfit.

Spartacus is in the background trying to take it off.

Cute Mozart with the hood on.

Spartacus trying to hunt. You can see 2 of the thousand toys he has around the house. His favorite is to play with the balls that have bells in them in the middle of the night. So those get hidden sometimes.

And this was just a cute on I took. It looks like hes hugging his daddy.

Again, a cute one. Spartacus loved sleeping on Ryan while he was playing his video games.

Here are two videos of him trying to take if off, it's cute.

Kyoto

2009-10-10T09:42:00.003+09:00

Ryan and I went to Kyoto I think the weekend of the 18th of September. The first day we were there it rained, so I wasn't as good. But we spent half the day on the drive up and most of the other time we were walking inside places. I posted random pictures from our trips. I can never remember what significance the buildings have anymore.

This was some special golden temple on the water.

These pictures are from the second day there. The weather was beautiful that day because it was sunny and warm, but not hot.

Deer, every "special" sacred place in Japan has deer everywhere; and they all want to be up in your face getting whatever kind of food from you.

Ya, forgot to change this was around.

The classic pose. The guy right behind my shoulder was our tour guide Yuji.

Some big old palace that actually burned down and this is a replica of it; and it's only 3/4 of the size it used to be. I believe there aren't any nails in the structure also.

Some scary thing that if you rub it, then rub part of your body that needs healing it will heal it.

This is big buddha inside the building.

Walking upstairs to a temple. We were walking around the monks housing area.

A monks house I believe.

That was most of our trip. Just a quick one on the ITT tour trips.

Our Doctors Appointment

2009-09-26T16:53:00.003+09:00

I thought I would update everyone on our doctors appointment we had on Thursday. It was our first appointment and we had the ultrasound done, but when she was trying to find the baby all she found was the yoke sack. Which she said means that I had a blighted pregnancy and that when the cells were dividing and growing, that a baby never grew but a placenta and sack did. So my body kept thinking that I was pregnant and kept my hormones going. I was 10 weeks along and the sack measured to be 7 weeks, so she said that either I could wait and have a miscarriage, whenever that would happen, or I could go to the Japanese doctors and have a D & C done. So Ryan and I thought about it and on Friday we went to the Japanese doctors out in town and had them do a urine test, and more ultrasounds to make sure that the Navy doctor was correct. Here in Iwakuni our health clinic is just that, a health clinic, we don't have an OB/GYN, but a family practice doctor. So I felt better getting an opinion out in town. Once they diagnosed me with the same thing, we went ahead with the D & C, since nothing had happened since week 7 when the sack stopped growing, I wasn't going to wait another 3 weeks to have a miscarriage. I've had my doubts about being seen out in town at the hospital there because it's NOT what it's like in the states, but even though the nurses couldn't speak English they were really nice and helpful. So I've had the D & C and I'll have a follow up appointment next Friday and we'll get the pathology results back from the tissue to make sure it wasn't a molar pregnancy or to see if there was any leading factor for the blighted pregnancy.
Thank you for everyones thoughts and prayers. We're doing good, a little sore, and sad, but nothing that time won't heal. We'll start trying again in a few months.

We're Expecting!

2009-08-12T06:44:00.003+09:00

Yup, that's right! We're pregnant! The doctor (well nurse actually) says that I'm 4weeks along, and my due date would be April 20th. I'll have an appointment at 10weeks and they'll do the sonogram and know a little better how far I am.

The proof!

Camping

2009-06-17T17:36:00.003+09:00

So we went camping about two weeks ago to Hamada Beach. It's on Oshima Island, which is just a small island around here.

Here is a funny thing I found posted

We were on a cliff over looking the water. It was a really nice place with a cooking area, running water, showers and even washers/dryers. The Japanese way of camping is pretty nice, but not private. There were only small hedges separating each campsite, but luckily the Japanese schools aren't out yet so there weren't very many people there and they placed us away from everyone else.

A jelly fish, we found a couple and took them out of the water.

The beach was nice, except for the sand. I think it's man made so the pebbles were really big and hurt to walk on unless you had sandals on.

It was really fun and I think we're going again this weekend but up to the dam in the mountains.

Arita Chinaware Festival

2009-06-17T17:22:00.005+09:00

So in May I went on an ITT trip to a town called Arita, which is south of here on the next island down from us. That area is known for it's china factories and they were having their annual chinaware festival where the vendors are on the streets selling their stuff that isn't completely perfect. I got a lot of great stuff for only $160 bucks.

Here are some pictures of the town.

It was about 6miles worth of vendors!

Here is all my loot. 6 bowl es, plates, cups and small plates. Then some serving dishes. Next year I think I'm going to get a whole matching place setting.

Spartacus!

2009-06-17T16:48:00.008+09:00

So Ryan's wanted a kitten ever since we've gotten Mozart, our other cat, because she isn't as playful as he wanted her to be. So we've been on the waiting list at the vet clinic for a kitten. Well last Friday we got a call from my friend Leah who's a technician there that there was a kitten coming in later that day. So she called us when he got there and decided to take him home. I guess a momma cat had 4 kittens that she left on some one's saw dusk hill on base and only came back for 3 of the kittens, so he was left there for a few hours. So the people brought him to the vet. Well we had to take him out in town to see a vet because the vet wasn't in here on base. So we take him out in town to get his eyes looked at because most Japanese cats get this respiratory infection that causes their eyes to gunk up and glue shut. So we take him out in town and the vet there speaks VERY small English, and he says that he might be blind. So we got really upset because we weren't quite sure if we could handle a blind 4-5 week old, but on Sunday we got him to play around and he's not blind, his eyes just opened a while ago and doesn't have the best eyesight yet. So his name is Spartacus and is so cute! Mozart isn't quite sure if she likes him yet, but she's slowly getting there.

So scary!

Here are some videos of him playing.

China!

2009-06-16T17:21:00.020+09:00

I know! It's about time. So I'm just going to go through the pictures and say what they are.

These two are when we got to the airport in Beijing

This is at the nations park right outside the water cube and birds nest

Right across the street is the birds nest, water cube and other stadiums

This was on our way to the Great Wall, it's a Disney Land that some rich Indian guy tried building but ran out of money

This is Cinderellas castle

We went to the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall. I didn't realize that there were sections of the wall around different parts of the country.

A watch tower

Of course we took the harder section to walk. The sections that you walk on aren't really the originals. They are redone otherwise it would all fall apart. When we were driving up there we saw a section of the original and it was about 3ft tall and in shambles.

This is the boat we took to get to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was so nice... but we ran over our time at the Great Wall that we only got about an hour at the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace

Part of the walkway at the Summer Palace

This is the marble boat

I don't remember where this was at.

This is all Tienanmen Square

Commies

There are 9,999 rooms in the Forbidden City

The Emperor would have around 3,000 concubines and about 6,000 uni-sex servants, which were men who weren't men anymore so they weren't a threat to the Emperor's concubines.

This was some place to look out over the Forbidden City

This is from the view point looking over the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. See how smoggy it was!

We took a rigshaw ride through part of the city, they went really fast and were really crazy drivers!

This was the ceiling of one of the walkways; everything there was so ornate!

This is the Temple of Heaven, where they prayed for a good harvest

Temple of Heaven

The duck dinner; which wasn't that great

On the street at sunset

One of the theaters we that we saw a kung fu show in

The Beijing Zoo was right across the street from our hotel, so we walked there on our free day. It's a small and depressing zoo; but the pandas were amazing!

Our hotel the Xiyuan, it was a 4star hotel

In the subway

An acrobat show we saw

Our tour guides, Maggie and Sonia.

It was a really fun trip. Ryan had the most fun shopping because you haggled with them and he loved haggling. I didn't like it because the place we went, the silk market, which was 4 stories high and had everything from clothes, fabric, electronics, purses, shoes, and jewlery, the sales people were vicious! One lady had Ryan pinned in the corner with her arms and I had to pull him out and then she yelled nasty stuff at us! Also, all the little blonde children were celebrities there. The Chinese would just walk up to them and touch them and take their pictures. The food was great there too; much better than Japanese food. It doesn't revolve around seafood so much. It was a great trip and I we're going to try to go to Hong Kong sometime. We're also going to Korea for Labor Day weekend!

Beijing, China...

2009-04-27T23:34:00.002+09:00

More to come...

2009-04-01T22:09:00.003+09:00

Hi!

2009-03-26T15:24:00.002+09:00

So I thought that I would say hi! I have two Japanese guys fixing our toilet. Actually, we are getting a new one. I got clogged somehow. I think it just starts on floors above us and work it's was down.
Not much new going on here. I have finals next week and I haven't even read the last 10 chapter of my biology, so you know what I'm doing from now till next Thursday. After that, we're headed to Beijing on the 5th! I'm really excited. If someone wants anything specific from their you gotta let me know! And FYI to all those military folks out there, the Patriot Express flies straight from Seattle to Iwakuni! See call up your AMC terminals to get info if you want to come out here for only $27 a person!

Anyways, nothing else going on besides work and school. I was looking at my credits and I figure if I take at least six classes a semester, which is broken down into two terms, so three each term, than I can have my Bachelors degree in two years. So cross my fingers I can do it. I'm taking three classes this next term and I don't even get a break between classes! Anyways, Mozart says meow and I'll post soon!

MiyaJima Oyster Festival

2009-02-23T21:36:00.004+09:00

So last weekend we went with our friends to the MiyaJima Oyster Festival. It was really fun and we got to try oysters with different sauces.

We didn't take too many pictures because our camera was about to die. There was some kind of perfomance where these guys dressed up and drums were playing.

Cheese!

A behind shot of me (in the pink) and our friends

Grilling an oyster on the grill

Our friends.

So we took a picture of this dog because the owner had him in a stroller and he is wearing a Milo and Stitch jacket AND pants!

Got a picture of him sniffing our his spot to mark.

There isn't much going on right now. The begining of April we are going to Beijing, China!!! I'm so excited! It's during spring break and we're going there with the ITT group. We will have a local English speaking guide to take us to see The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and many other sites in Beijing. We also signed up to go so a Kung Fu show, Chinese Acrobatic show, and shopping at a local market. I can't wait and it was such a great price! More to come after we go!

Nagano

2009-02-23T21:12:00.007+09:00

Nagano is where the 1998 Winter Olympics were held. This was our first trip with ITT (Information, Tourism & Travel), a place here on base that has trips going every weekend. It was a 14hr bus ride up there. It's North East of Tokyo, and we're WAY down south.

Here is the hotel that we stayed at. We didn't take any pictures of our room but it was a weird set up. There were 4 twin size beds in the room and the bathroom seemed like it supposed to be in a trailer.

A picture of us at an Indian restaurant. We wanted to get our left overs to go. So we waived a guy down and he sneaked us some boxes, he said he had to hide it because he could get fired over it!

My ski's (that I rented from the gear issue here on base for free) and Ryans snowboard.

A picture from one the of the main lifts right outside the hotel.

Same location, just a different angle. The first day there it snowed when we were skiing but you could actually still see. I got goggles this time. Much better I might saw. The next day it was sunny, which was nice but the snow seemed harder.

Us on a lift

Me skiing. That's how I usually go down, so I keep myself from going too fast.

I like to ski much more that snowboarding because I let myself go faster and I move around much more. Plus it's easy to move around when not skiing and when you fall, it's less energy you have to use to pull yourself up.

Ryan on his board.

Snapping in

This was the second day. We were at the top of one of the peaks. It was really pretty. The park is HUGE. It's enormous!

Ryan on his board. This was a great run.

Another picture from one of the viewpoints.

Peace! The classic Japanese pose.

We had a really great time. Unfortunately Ryan was still sick and we only did half day passes because he thought he might be coming on with another pneumonia. We went up with our friends Leah and Brad and we always have fun with them. I would say the only thing I didn't like about Nagano was the food. The hotel had classic Japanese food, FISH! Yuck! for breakfast. Oh ya, and we tried to go see the snow monkeys but Ryan started to feel really bad on our bus ride out there, so we turned around.

Mizuho

2009-02-23T21:04:00.003+09:00

The weekend before MLK day we went to Mizuho Highlands, a ski resort near here. We went with our friends and brought one of Ryan's marine, Ryan, because he needed cheering up. He tried going home but had a layover in China and he didn't have a passport, so they wouldn't let him go.

A picture of Ryan and Ryan

Me skiing for the first time. Brad, my friend Leahs husband, skiis and he tought me how. I'm glad I tried it before I went to Nagano.

It was snowing like crazy and it was so windy! I didn't have goggles, just sun glasses so they kept fogging up and couldn't see, but if I took them off I couldn't see either.

Ryan and Ryan on the gondola up.

Ryan and me. My face always gets really red and blochey. I looked like I had a face disease.

Snow!

2009-02-23T20:55:00.002+09:00

We had a little now here late January. Just a little bit though and it all melted by the afternoon.

I took this picture of Mozart today. She looks like she thinks she's going to be eating at the table.

I was looking for her earlier this year and found her sleeping under the table on our place settings. She's always there, on the chair or on the floor under it.

Today she jumped up on the couch and laid with me for a minute until she thought she heard Ryan at the door. He doesn't like her ever since she puked on his pants and the bed. So now he hisses at her all the time.

And a picture of us.

MiyaJima

2009-02-23T20:35:00.004+09:00

In January we went to MiyaJima again with some guys Ryan works with since they hadn't been there. I know I've posted pictures from there before, but here are more.

The sign for this said "bagel, cheese & bacon", yet it tasted really fishy and was disgusting.

Some palace that never got finished. There are paintings from old empirers in there.

A cool 5-story pagoda that is right next to it.

The famous floating Torii

The shrine that loooks out to it.

Christmas

2009-02-22T14:45:00.003+09:00

I know that Christmas was two months ago, and that I haven't blogged for two months. I love to look at everyone elses blogs but don't ever feel like updating mine. So since Ryan is on duty tonight, I thought I would.

Here is our Christmas tree. We only gave each other a few gifts and we had Ryan's marines over on Christmas Eve, and then over for Christmas breakfast.

The stocking that I made all the guys.

Ryan making breakfast.

Some of the spread that we had.

This was taken at my work Christmas party.

Top: Megan (teller), Clem (teller), Karen (teller coordinator), Annie (teller), Tabtha (teller), Yolonda (manager)

Bottom: Heather (personal banker) and Me (asst manager).

It was a great Christmas and I'm looking forward to it again!

Snowboarding

2008-12-15T21:24:00.004+09:00

So a few weekends ago we went snowboarding with Leah and her husband Brad and some of his Marines. We were following other people in a van and had to turn around three times. The only thing is that the expressways here aren't like in the US, you have to pay to drive on them and once you get on it, there aren't very many exits. So we'd get to the toll booth area where you get your ticket to get on and then we'd play charades to tell the workers we need to turn around and they'd have to open special gates and go down little roads.

Here is one of the times the guys were trying to ask them where we need to go. The guy with the blonde high 'n tight is Brad and the other guy is the one we were following. After this (the 2nd time) of turning around we took control.

So I got in the front seat with him because I'm good at reading maps and directions. We did take one wrong exit and we couldn't turn around for like 5miles, but when we read the directions, they were so simple. It took us like 3hrs to get there and only an hour and half to get back.

Ryan on the lift up

A view from the top of the run. It was the opening weekend and there was only man made snow.

Leah on her butt. She couldn't stand up. Eventually after 2hrs right there she took her board off and took the lift down.

Me :)

This is funny, at the restaurant at the bottom you can order Humburgers. I love it when they spell things wrong!

The group that went

A view of the run from the bottom

Oh that's familiar! Me on my butt! The first run down was the hardest because I've only gone once before and that was 4yrs ago. I had an interesting bruise on my butt, when we were leaving I went to the bathroom to change and I could already see it forming. It was like a speckling of bruises.

YAY!! I got to the bottom! This was my second time down, a much better run this time

Next time I'm trying skiing, just to see what it's like

Ryan at the bottom

He was much better than me but also a little rusty too.

It's such a balancing act.

It was really fun and can't wait to go back and especially since there is actually snow up there now. Plus we have to get ready to go up to Nagano in January for Martin Luther King weekend for a big ski trip the the tourism place here on base is putting on.

Ryan's Present

2008-12-15T21:15:00.002+09:00

So I already covered it a little in the Thanksgiving post, but here are some of the pictures from setting up Ryan's new 52" Sony Bravia LCD tv. I thought it was going to be easier putting the tv in but we had to move the shelves out and extend the bridge that goes between them, move some pictures and move the rug.

Working hard to connect his X-Box. He just got an HDMI cable and the picture was really nice before but it's even better now. The only thing that isn't nice is that AFN(Armed Forces Network) broadcasts on analog, so the picture sometimes isn't the best it should be. But his X-box looks good and movies look great too.

The finished product and yes, that is wrestling on the tv too. Except it's not Monday night Raw, it's Tuesday here.

Thanksgiving!

2008-12-14T16:34:00.004+09:00

I know that it's been almost a month since Thanksgiving, but I finally have time to blog (I'm on vacation for the week :) ) Ryan invited his work over for Thanksgiving and I had my girlfriend Leah and her husbad over and she helped me cook. So we had about 18 people over for dinner and a 24lb turkey plus a ham. We had A LOT of turkey left over. It was really fun but really tiring! I made the guys do all the dishes and even mop my floors because Ryan got turkey and ham juices all over the ground and plus my floors are so aweful and show dirt REALLY easily, I constantly have to mop my floors.

This is a picture of the set up. We took the love seat from the wall and put the big one against the wall so we could fit two fold up tables there. There is a gear issue here and you can rent anything from snowboards/skiis, any kind of camping gear, jumpy houses, coolers, chairs, tables and a bunch of other stuff for FREE!

You can see Ryan's new baby. He got a 52" Sony Bravia LCD tv a couple days before Thanksgiving. He was lucky because I was going to have to order it through the cataloge and have it shipped by boat over, and I was on the waiting list here at the exchange and they called me to tell me it was in the day before I was going to order it.

Ryan carving the turkey

What a cutie, I'm right behind him slaving over the stove. We didn't take any pictures of me cooking but I think some other people did, so I'll have to get those.

All in all it was a great time and we're going to have them over again for Christmas and I'm looking forward to that and I'm already planning my meal.

Karaoke!

2008-11-24T21:53:00.003+09:00

This is what we do a lot on the weekends. We go out with Leah and Brad to a place called Niagara and sing karaoke, it's really fun. I never thought that I would ever sing karaoke and like it too. But we have so much fun doing it!

I know for some reason my shirt looks wet in this picture, but it's not. Weird

(I also posted a draft that I had below the Marine Corps Ball post)

New Cat!

2008-11-24T21:32:00.005+09:00

So Ryan and I got a new cat about 2-3weeks ago. I originally had wanted to get two kittens but the vet clinic didn't have any cats. They put us on a waiting list and call us to tell us they had a cat that was brought to them by animal control. She is about 2yrs old they say ( I think she might be 3-4yrs old), she's de-clawed, fixed and micro-chipped. It sounds like someone just didn't want to take her back to the states with them. She was supposed to be put down, so we decided to get her. We named her Mozart, keeping with the classical musicians (remember Beethoven), or Mo for short. She has been really shy and hiding under the couches and entertainment center, so I blocked them off and she goes under our bed now. But at least I can pet her there. She is so sweet, she just LOVES it when you scratch her head and belly, she also purrs really loud too (which I love). She has started to walk around if we're both just sitting around, but as soon as we get up she runs away. But she's doing a lot better. She has also started to play with her toy (that I know of), it's a string with a furry ball at the end, she first only played with the string and now the furry ball too. It's kind of weird playing with a cat with no front claws. It feel like I have to give up more when I play with her since it's not fair. She'll hook her from paw and hold on to it with her mouth.

She is almost completely black, except for under her stomach she has grayish hair. She is a long haired cat but she doesn't really shed that much. But since she was so shy and she won't let us hold her yet, we had her shaved. So she looks like a regular short haired cat for now.

This is where she hid when we first brought her home. It was in the closet in the second bedroom.

Now this is her under the bed. She was playing with her toy :)

Mozart has really big eyes and is really sweet. She has even started to wake me up at night sometimes wanting attention and she'll lay on the bed with us for awhile as long as I'm petting her. She likes to bury her head when you pet her.

One more of her under the bed. Sorry for the things hanging down. This shows her grey belly. I was scratching her and if you keep scratching her belly she'll roll onto her back and stretch out.

Horseback Riding

2008-11-24T21:25:00.002+09:00

I know, isn't kinda weird to think about horseback riding in Japan huh? But my friend Leah loves horses and has horses back home and she found a riding school that you can go and ride the horses. She does there all the time and invited me the last time she went out. It is on the way to chicken shack and because we already live in the mountains kinda, it's only about a 15-20 minute ride out there. It was really fun and exhausting. She kept telling me to kick the horse harder so I could get him to trot but he was being stuborn. It really got my legs tired and warmed me up, which is good because it's really started to get cold here.

Here is the horse that I rode. His name is Cha I think. It almost has an r sounding to it at the end though.

My head looks like a mushroom.

It was fun and I got to learn how to direct horses, so maybe I'll go out again and get him to run or something.

Happy 233rd Birthday Marine Corps!

2008-11-15T18:19:00.003+09:00

This this past Wednesday was the Marine Corps Ball. It was weird going to a ball during the week but because there is only one place to have it on base and different squadrons, we had to share. This is us and Ryan's Marines in his shop.

Ryan and me with the guest of honor, Lt Gen Frederick McCorkle. He was funny and didn't talk for too long, he doesn't look too happy in this picture but I think that's just his normal expression.

Ryan and his Commanding Officer, Lt Col Gackle. He's a pretty nice guy and I'm even impressed the he knows my name aswell. :) I guess we're doing something good.

This is the place setting for all of the fallen Marines.

This is my friends Christy, Leah and me.

Leah and her husband Brad.

Me and my friend Leticia. She is 16 weeks pregnant, looking pretty good!

Leticia and her husband Ben

Ryan and me, there isn't a whole lot of pictures of us together, it's not a great one. We got our pictures taken at the ball, they are putting them on CD. We got our pictures done after we'd been dancing, so I hope they turn out good.

This is Ryan and Dunbar. He knows Dunbar from Miramar.

All in all it was a fun ball. I was worried because I had to do my hair myself because there is only one salon on base and I you have to make an appointment 30days in advance and I didn't do it. But I think it turned out nice.

Commercials

2008-11-08T01:40:00.011+09:00

So whenever I am watching tv I am amazed at how stupid they are. If anyone has ever watched AFN (Armed Forces Network) for awhile, you realize that they play the same commercials and what is best is the ones that the local base makes. They are so aweful and have some kind of propaganda behind them. I also have some Japanese commercials, one of them is for UNI QLO, which is the best store, it's where you can find the most american kind of clothes and the best sizing. It is almost like an Old Navy. The volume might be low on some, so turn it up!

I know this can be death by video, so watch what you want!

So that is just a little bit of what I get to watch on tv. Let's just say that I can't wait to come back to the states and watch real commercials!

Iwakuni Festival

2008-11-08T01:02:00.004+09:00

On October 18th was the Iwakuni Festival. It was held downtown and some of the Marines and Sailors were having a both open where you could get your picture taken with them. There were a lot of vendors, performances and food everywhere.

This guy was Pokemon, but he didn't want to put his hat on because it would mess up his hair. Most Japanese guys spend more time on their hair than I do!

Ryan and his friend Chris Dunbar, he knew him from back at Miramar (San Diego)

Crazy eyes! Trying to be like on Pirates of the Carribean

Guys making rice cake things that are really gross, especially since they put bean curd in them.

Some performers

Ryan tried to get pictures with all the girls!

Peace!

Some dancers

My friend Leah painting a Kanji saying on a Japanese Defense Force guy

A bunch of the other people there

Them up on the stage being recognized

The Japanese girls would try on that backpack that was half full (45lbs) that the camophlaged girl is wearing and they would fall back and giggle.

This is a Boy Scout leader who spoke english, I think he thought they were weird because they wanted their pictures taken with him.

More girls

Random Japanese guy handing out flyers

It was a fun day and it turned out to be nice outside too! Ryan of course was sweating his behind off!

Yokota Air Base

2008-10-27T20:46:00.007+09:00

So I know I've been slacking in the blog department, I love looking at everyone Else's! Here are some last pictures that took while in Yokota.

A picture from inside the plane. I had to sneak it because they count it as an electronic device that sends signals, so the lady was telling me to turn it off.

The first time I went to Yokota, they give you a small map of the base and a list of stuff. There was a list of restaurants and one said The Outback. I was SSSOOO excited, I called Ryan and was rubbing it in his face, I went there that night! This is what I found.....

The sign isn't the Outback sign, but I thought well maybe...

This is the whole building, but I didn't get a picture of the inside, needless to say IT'S NOT the Outback. It's just the "out back" of the Officers club right next to it, you don't even have waitress there! I was so made, but they are building a Chillis that will be done next spring, so I need to find a reason to go there!

Here is the bank, I was on the second floor, that is where the training that goes on for all of mainland Japan. It's nice because they fly you up there :)

This is the Community Center, all Air Force Bases are going to this, the first level is the Commisary and fast food places, the second is the BX (PX, NEX, MCX, whatever you want to call it), then the third floor was the new car sales and parking.

I went to the Sunrise bakery the last day I was there and I didn't realize how close you are to the air field, there is no fence you could just run out there and touch the planes!

Here is the outside of my hotel, it's not the nice one where you check in at, no they put you in the old barracks that we renovated, lucky us!

This is what you see when you walk in. Kitchen to the left, bathroom to the right, bedroom to the right and living area to the left.

Yes, that's right, they used to have a stove there but they took it out and left the hood!

The lovely bathroom that when you were taking a shower it would constantly change from cold to scalding hot!

The bed was not bad, but some really hard pillows

This is where I spent a lot of my time at night because they have regular t.v.!!!!!!! It was so amazing to watch real commercials! One day I'll tape the AFN commercials here, AFN is the Armed Forces Network, so you get all the stupid commerical and propaganda and the stupid ones the base makes.

I know it's hard to see, but this is the big van I drove around.

And this is the BEST Italian food I have ever had, it's at a place called Un Quinto I think, just right off base, it's better not to drive because it's hard to find a parking place. I went there ALL the time! They had some really great Callimari there too!

Yokota Air Base, Tokyo JP Movie overload!

2008-10-10T17:11:00.018+09:00

So here I am again at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, Japan. I was here at the begining of Sept. for two weeks for teller training and then I spent two weeks at home, then I came back this past Tuesday and I'll be here for two weeks again for CSR (personal banker) training. Since I'm the Banking Center Service Manager (asst. manager) I have to know everyone's jobs just in case I have to be back up. I am the 2nd person to be CSR since my CSR is only part time. When I get back from training my manager and CSR will be overlapping their vacations. So I'm going to be doing both of their jobs. Which will be good because we get so awefully slow that it will be nice to be busy, hopefully!!!

So last time I was here I didn't take any pictures because I didn't think there was anything interesting to show you. So I took tons of videos on my way from the airport to the base. Here is right outside the terminal, I was waiting to catch my bus to the base.

This is part of downtown Tokyo, I think it is more of the outskirts.

Notice that we are driving on the other side of the road! It's so weird to watch American movies now and see the people driving on the other side of the car and street. Especially when they are making turns, I'm thinking in my head "Oh no! Their going to run head on with a car!"

Here you can see some of the Japanese housing. That blue sign that says Lawson, that is a convienence store. It's really popular. That place, Family Mart and TONS of 7/11's. At 7/11 you can pay your phone bill, leave your emergency contact information, and buy tickets to a lot of entertainment events.

Here you can see a little of the Japanese housing.

The McDonalds is just the same here. Except there are some shrimp burgers and there is a Mega Mac, it has even more patties and another bun in the middle. It's really big and the food is just as great. Ryan and I were at McDonalds a little south of where we live, not too many Americans down there I'm guessing because we were sitting in McDonalds, eating our food, and there were these two teenage girls that just sat there staring at us! It was really awkward!

So there is this store that I absolutely love here in Japan. It is like an Old Navy and they have the most American style clothes you can find. It's called UniQlo. So I had my hair back and I was trying on clothes, first you take your shoes off before you go in the dressing room and the attendant gave me this thing to wear on my head, I'm guessing to keep my hair looking nice! It didn't really work but oh well. Also what's great about this store is that if you buy something that needs to be a little altered, they will do it there and for free!!

I will take more pictures of the actual base and my room. So more to come!

Birthday weekend!

2008-10-06T16:11:00.009+09:00

So this past weekend was my 24th Birthday, I know I'm getting old! :( But Friday night we went out to eat to a place called Shirokiya in downtown Iwakuni, we've walked past it a lot of times so we thought we'd try it out, plus we had Ryan's marines with us so we thought they'd like it.

This is right inside the doorway, it was a really nice place but still inexpensive.

A lot of food is served like this, meat on a stick. It think this is all pork, or so they say, It was pretty good except for the skin on a stick, I didn't try it because Ryan already said it was gross.

Not a good picture of this, but it was little pieces of beef, all fried up in some tasty kind of spices.

Most of the restaurants have menus outside to look at, so Ryan saw this on the menu but it looked even grosser. This is a 32" sausage, he loved how it got serviced with scissors, he even ate it with chop sticks! When he orders french fries out in town he'll also eat those with chopsticks too, just because we're in Japan.

Him eating a cut of it!

Then on Saturday night, we went out to dinner with our friends Ben and Tish to this Italian place we've seen when we are on the way to Chicken Shack. It's called Campagne, but I think it's supposed to be campaign. They spell a lot of things wrong here. It was great food and I'm trying new stuff out, I have basil pasta with scallops, they were pretty good.

A cute little decoration in the doorway

Ryan looking Japanese.

Us outside after dinner.

Then on Sunday we went bowling and Ryan made me a cake. He was starting night crew so he works Sunday-Thursday 4pm-Midnight(or sooner). But he wouldn't make the cake how I like it chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, because he wanted to eat some too.

And this was my birthday present, and for those who can't read the bear box, it says "A Brand New Baby", he said he was giving me a baby for my birthday, so here it is! The onesies even comes off!

New House!

2008-10-01T19:12:00.010+09:00

So after living in a hotel for the past 3 months, we finally got our housing! It took so long because we wanted to live on base. The place we live in is called Yuri tower, they are like apartments, we call them mid rises here. It's so nice to have our stuff, I didn't think we'd ever see it again!

And this is the mid rise we live in. I'll have to take a new picture, I think Ryan took this because it's the wrong side, but if you look 4 floors up that's how far up we are! They have this netting also on the balconies, I don't know if it's for safety or to keep the birds off of it.

The movers. They are cute little Japanese guys who can barely carry our stuff and when they come in the house they take of their shoes!

A view from our balcony down to see the movers get all of our stuff out of the crates.

This is the view from our living room balcony. The building on the left is the commissary, then on the other side of the road is the crossroads, where there is a food court, Community Bank (where I work), and a few other offices. So I can just walk across the street to work. We are getting a second car though, because it was free and when it's nasty like it has been, it can suck walking in the rain. The building on the right that is cut off is the exchange.

This is the whole view of the exchange/seven day store. So we just have to walk across the street to go shopping and do our grocery shopping and we can bring the cart up to our place. We live on the 4th floor we it's nice being up hi enough to have some privacy.

And here is to the side. We are right along the sea wall. The base is actually on an island so part of the base has water on the side of it. And from our bedroom balcony you can see the water. There is a bridge that goes across it and there is a little bit of housing there. But it's kind of the ghetto over there, they don't even have bus service there.

Our new couch and love seat. The only thing that happened to our stuff was that they lost one of our legs to the love seat. But I don't see how because I saw them take the legs off, put them in the couch and then in the couch box, but oh well, we have something to hold it.

The second bedroom that is a mess. There is a bazaar here at the end of October that I'll have to go to so I can get an office desk and bookshelf.

A picture of the bedroom, we don't have a bathroom connected but at least I have a balcony.

Our new washer and dryer that we bought before we got here.

Here is a video of right before our stuff was brought in.

And here is a video after it was brought in, almost a week later.

Finally!

2008-10-01T19:04:00.003+09:00

I know, I know! I'm finally posting something new! I think everyone hates that 2% milk blog by now. Well this past week Ryan and I went to a restaurant called Jan Jaka's, it's actually a Chinese place, but the food is so great! You order raw meat and you cook it on a grill at your table. It can get pretty pricey if you pick the pricey things but we usually only spend about 40-50 yen. Here are some picture of it. I always seem to think about taking pictures after we have already started to eat. I think the most adventurous thing I've eaten so far is cow tongue. Which really isn't that bad, you just can't stare at it for awhile because it has that tongue look. But sorry, no

pictures of that. There is a place called Homareza, that's right outside the Otake train station(between here and Hiroshima), the food is really great there too and I think I'm going to try blow fish next.

The yummy food you get to cook right in front of you!

2% Milk

2008-08-23T15:19:00.003+09:00

Oh how I wish I could drink a nice glass of 2% milk! Ever since we've got here we haven't really drank any milk and we're big milk fans! The reason why you ask? Because here (atleast on base) they only sell ULTRA pasturized milk. When we first bought milk the expiration date said that it was good for like 2months, we were thinking it was a mistake or their crazy over here. Come to find out it's just ultra pasturized and it's good for 2months. But if you open it, it's bad in like a week. Which is probably why they don't sell it by the gallon, cause it's not that great tasting so you only use it to cook with. So if Santa could give me a nice regular 2% gallon of milk for Christmas I'd be the happiest girl in Japan.

Ichiban!

2008-08-22T10:14:00.004+09:00

There is a restaurant in downtown Iwakuni called Ichiban, it's a great little place to go eat. They have some of the best gyoza (pot stickers just fried), they have good ramen noodles and chicken too. On a side note, if you notice that yellow line with bumps in it, they have this everywhere, it's for the blind people so I hear. The bumps even change when you get to a cross walk or are turning. Pretty cool huh?

Pretty much when I was done eating I realized I should have taken a picture of the food. There is just one gyoza on the right, then some fried rice, then I always get these chicken chunks, there pretty much like chicken nuggets. The food is oh so good and really cheap. The gyoza is $2, fried rice$2-3 depending on your size and my chicken is $4, so it's always about $12 for Ryan and me to eat there.

New Job!

2008-08-19T15:16:00.003+09:00

Last week I interviewed for the Banking Center Service Manager (pretty much an Assistant Manager) at Community Bank, (which Bank of America operates) and I just heard back from the Manager and I GOT THE JOB!!! So it will be like a transfer. I'm starting September 2nd and on Sept. 9th-10-th I go up to Yokota, which is near Tokyo and go to Teller school because I have to fill in whenever needed and then I'll probably just stay up there and shadow a Service Manager and learn that part of the job. I'm really excited to be working again and that I get to go somewhere for training. I'm only nervous about going to school this firt term and just starting work as well.

5 Years!

2008-08-19T14:51:00.007+09:00

So this last Saturday, the 16th was Ryan and my anniversary! We got hour massages in the morning, those always feel so good. And then we went to one of Ryan's work functions ( a BBQ) and then we went to a really nice restaurant close to Miyajima. It was really nice and the food was great, some of the best garlic bread I've ever had and the steak was so delicious. It was thinly sliced and they had it nicely cut already for me and it was perfectly cooked! I would have taken pictures inside but it was a small place and it was too nice to be whipping out the camera.

Here is a picture of the restaurant. It was great because they played American music and the menu was in English. And one of the waitresses spoke really good English. It's amazing how fast our service was. We waited about 10min for a table and after we ordered we had our food maybe less than 10min later.

Us outside, the sky was really pretty, the sun was almost set.

My cute dress I got at the exchange. I felt like a school teacher.

Outside the restaurant.

After dinner on the balcony. The waitress was trying to get the lights of little Iwakuni in the background but the camera didn't pick it up. It was funny because she was saying " Say cheese!" ( said with little Japanese accent)

Thunder and Lightening!

2008-08-14T13:26:00.003+09:00

I don't have any pictures or videos for this post but I had to share it. So this morning I wake up about 2:30am because there is so much thunder and lightening going on. In Washington you never really get a whole lot of it. Then about 5am I wake up and I HAVE to look outside because it literally sounded like a bomb just when off! It was a huge boom and then rumblings so it sound like something got it and it was tumbling apart! So crazy, and it was raining cows and horses(it was crazier than cats and dogs!). And right after that noise the power went out as well! Luckily they have a flashlight next to the bed plugged in all the time. I never thought I'd have to use it. Now I'm really curious to see what a typhoon is like!

Kintai Bridge Fireworks!

2008-08-02T22:19:00.006+09:00

So this Saturday night since Ryan is on a 24Hr duty I went with my friend Amy and her son Chris to the Kintai Fireworks. I don't know what kind on festival it was, but a lot of people we coming in their summer kimonos, which are the same as kimonos they are just a light layer of fabric. So we got there about 6:30pm and the fireworks were at 8pm.

Here is just a picture of the people, we sat just right behind the bridge, so the view was pretty good, but just a little cut off at the top.

Amy's son Chris, but I also wanted to point out the summer kimono right behind him, they are really pretty.

My camera doesn't take the best night pictures, but here are some boats hanging out to watch fireworks but also there are cormorant fishing going on. This is where they tie a leash to a cormorant fish and a rubber band around his neck, and they fish for the fish and because of the rubber band they can't swallow the fish.

Here is Amy and Chris, he is almost 2yrs old and he was really good with the fireworks. He's never been around them and at first the loud booms scared him, he got used to them.

They kept lighting these polls that have something written on them and then fireworks going up the sides and the colors would keep changing.

Here is a good video of the fireworks. Later on they were like bombs going off. Seriously, if you had combat trauma, you'd think you were back in the war. The fireworks went on for an hour and a half, but they would start and then stop again, almost like they had to keep setting them up. But it seemed like they had like 5 finales, and the fireworks were right on top of you, some of them really did look like bombs. They also had some really good food there too. They like to put in on a stick. Their fastfood is really different than ours, it's still actual food like chicken, pork, beef, fish or something on a stick, not burgers and fries and all the stuff.

Chicken Shack!

2008-07-30T14:22:00.015+09:00

So after the beach on Sunday we decided to go to the Chicken Shack. The map makes it look like it's just up the road, but it's through the mountains and everything! Oh ya, and I don't know if I've told very many people but they don't do street names here. So you have to go by landmarks, they only name major highways and the freeway. So we turn on the road and are going up a dark road and we're not sure where it was on the road, then we see bright lights and this is what we come upon!

I had no idea that this was going to be so fancy and cool! I mean chicken shack doesn't sound like it's going to be very impressive right?

Here are our pictures of us being like Samurai soldiers or something.

So you go down a little walkway and come upon this cool eating area, you can eat outside or inside. We decided outside because you can grill your food and it gets smokey, and it's just so cool outside! So this is the area that we ate at. Pictures just can't do it justice. There is just so much to take in and cool lights and colors all around you.

So our waitress knew English very well and she handed us an English menu and this is like the first thing that I read. We all started to laugh and not talk about it since we remembered that she spoke English, so I asked her what is was and she laughed. She was like, "no, it's not what you think, it's not a actual Jew Ear!" She knew we were laughing about it and it was funny.

So our friend Ben decided to order it. Here is a picture of it. The waitress tried to describe it as like a vegetable, like a mushroom or something.

So I tried the Jew Ear! It was actually pretty good. It's really spicy and crunchy, not what I was expecting since I don't like mushrooms and that's what she said it was like.

For dinner we got chicken on a stick, which the chicken shack is know for, gyoza which was awesome we ordered more and some rice. They don't really do fried rice here, I like it better but I guess I'll get used to it.Chowing down on my chicken, you can choose dark or white meat so that was nice. The chicken tasted so good! I think Ryan wants to take his Marines out there next Saturday. This is definitely a place we will take anyone who comes to visit us! Oh ya, most of the places we have ate, you have to sit on your butt, which your legs go numb so you have to lounge out.

Yu Beach

2008-07-30T13:27:00.003+09:00

This is Yu beach just about 20min down the road from base. It's only like 10miles maybe, but since the speed limit is low and the stop lights are really long it can take long to get there. But we went the this last Sunday just to hang out. It's getting hotter here as it gets closer to August, so we'll probably be there more during the weekends. It was a really nice facility though, clean bathrooms(american toilets) and showers and always vending machines and snow cones! Such a nice beach, this was later in the day, about 6pm so it really cleared out, but it wasn't crazy there though like it got in San Diego.

My cutie pie!

Gotta love Ryan's nice tan lines! I know, don't let him blind you with his whiteness, we're working on it. You can see his small pox shot on his shoulder there. We think it's not contagious anymore since it's been a little over a month. I'm debating whether or not to show the pictures of the shot while it was active, it was really nasty!

The water was so nice to get into. It is chilly but once you get in all the way you get used to it. But it's really clean, we need to get some floaty chairs so we can just chill out there. Again (pooch) I'm getting a tan!

Ben and Tish again, I had her take a picture of us in the water and she took it back and took these pictures.

Our friends Bonnie and Dan.

Miyajima Island

2008-07-28T10:44:00.014+09:00

Okay, so last Saturday we went to Miyajima Island which was about a 20min train ride up north, just right next to Hiroshima. It's a really cool island that has a lot of cultural stuff and a hike up the mountain. And this is a MAJOR picture post and it's taken me days to do this because it takes forever to put pictures on, so the pictures are out of order! The end should really be the beginning.

So this is at Omoto Park at the end of our hike down, which we thought we'd never get through, and of course there's deer everywhere and Ryan starts to feed some little deer some sunflower seeds and then this big guy come with a full rack of antlers and starts to nudge him with them! The deer was getting mad because Ryan didn't open the sunflower seeds enough to get any through so it was taking awhile. And when you get off the ferry to get here they tell you to watch out for the antlered deer because they might hurt you! So Ryan dumped a whole bunch on the ground and we ran away because they tried to follow us!

Us at the rope way drop off observatory. I hope you all(pooch) notice that I am getting a tan!

I think this is like a special smoke house where they have a continuous flame or something like that all the time. This is just below the highest point.

A cool little shrine thingy. You see these a lot, you may not be able to see in this picture but they also like to stack rocks from bigger to smaller on the shrine too, probably like a prayer thing.

We were so tired from hiking up and then we had to hold this freakin rock! Man is was a rough one! This is almost to the top!

These are the rock formations that we walked through up to the top.
Nice view of HiroshimaUs at the highest point! We are sweating so bad, and it was even worse when we got back down. Our clothes were literally soaking wet, Ryan had brought another dry shirt in anticipation!

Ryan as a little Monk guy.

Us as little Japanese monkeys going on up the rope way! Unfortunately we didn't see any wild monkeys up there so we'll have to go back.

I think this is the right picture to show what we hiked. The first peak on the left is the area that the rope way brings you, then you have to hike over the the tallest peak where they have an observatory. Then because we went up too late we had to hike the long way down because the short way was still under construction from the damage of the typhoon that came through from when Ryan was here in 2005. It took us about an hour and a half to walk down like 2miles worth of stairs. I'm going on my 4th day from the hike and my calfs are still so sore!

A view from the ride up. It goes slow so you can get a good look around and be grateful you didn't decide to hike up it.

A nice view of the city across the bay, which might be the beginnings of Hiroshima just on the right.

This is a picture of us at our new house! Everyone here lives in Pagodas! Oh ya, we have ice cream in our hand. I'll have to take a picture but there are ALWAYS vending machine for anything cold/hot to drink and ice cream.

This is the Homotsukan(treasure hall) . It has the Heike Clan's Buddhist sutras, the treasures of the Itsukushima Shrine were dedicated by members of the clan as prayers for their prosperity.

Reese this is for you! There was a store there that was dedicated for Hello Kitty! I even took a picture with her! You see Hello Kitty everywhere, they even make her into action hero's, ninjas, a soccer player, a baseball player and a dancer! I'll have to figure out how to spell Reese in Japanese because you could get a lot of stuff with your name on it. That bag in my had might even have something for you!

So this is the Worlds Largest Rice spoon, don't everyone be jealous now!

This is the Torii Gate to Miyajima Island. There are two main religions in Japan one is Buddism and Shinto, and at every shrine/cemetary it is identified by whether it has a Torii Gate(Shinto) or I think a statue for Buddism. So this Torii is in front of the Itsukushima Shrine and marks a pathway into a sacred place.

Gotta do our peace sign!

This picture is a little hard to see, I don't have a program to fix it right now.

Our friends Ben and Tish, we hang with them most of the time.

Nice view of the Tori Gate. Behind it is the Itsukushima Shrine.

This little guy was trying to eat Ryan's shirt and then he was going after the paper, they all wanted the paper for some reason.

It's really weird to be so close to them, you get a little scared

Isn't he so cute and fair!

They just love to sit and chill. It was pretty hot so I understand.

Random Pictures

2008-07-23T15:02:00.005+09:00

So this is from when we went to Osho, which is also called the gyoza house. It was really good food! I had a bowl of fried rice, onion soup, chicken on a stick, and gyoza, then a desert that had mandarin oranges and some kind of jello-y kind of stuff, it was good. The water there tasted DISGUSTING!! It smelled like sea water and tasted weird. Really good food though, it was really good price too, like $7 I think.
This is a funny sign they had there too! Sometimes when the Japanese people try to write in English they translate or spell things wrong. I love it, "Please understand it."

This all of us(except tish(leticia) is taking the picture), at Janjakas. So it's Ryan, Me, and Dan. Then Ben and Bonnie. It's really good Korean place. You order raw pieces of meat and then you cook it on a little grill they have in the middle of the table. It's really good, but can get expensive, but the plates of meat are made for 2.

The grill you cook your food on. Ryan ordered us some potato wedges just in case we didn't like the food. What is weird though is that this is right down the road from Osho, and the water here tastes just fine!
This is cool. Since this is kinda of a nice restaurant and you sit Japanese style, you put your shoes in a little locker at the front and the keys are these cool blocks of wood that can only be used on your locker.Here are our flip flops in our locker.

I should have taken more pictures but I feel funny taking them. I feel like the Asian people America taking pictures of everything. But this is at the traffic circle in the middle of downtown Iwakuni, to the left is the train station and down the way is a long strip of stores. In there is Fuji Grand, which is a 7 story mall pretty much. The first floor is groceries(most malls are like that), then every floor has its own theme. Like one floor is just kids, then underwear and house stuff, them ladies, then men's, and a food court.

So here is a little of the kids arcade( a lot of old ladies playing there too though) it's practically like a whole floor of just this. I would hate to bring kids here because they would never want to leave. You could though leave your kids to play while you shop. It's really safe here, you see little 5yrs walking home from school all the time.

CRAZY!!!

BINGO!!!

2008-07-17T15:58:00.004+09:00

So every Monday night is all ranks bingo! We've gone there the last 3 Monday's and we've won $250 bucks! It's $20 to buy a book, which is 10 games and then you can buy separate ones. The ones in the book are $100, and the separate ones are usually $200, at $2 a game. But the big one is the black out! That one, if you win it by the G ball, which is between #'s51-60. So the first G ball called within those number becomes the G-ball. So like if he calls G-52, you have to get bingo with the 52 ball called in order to win $1199! Otherwise it's $200. We haven't seen anybody win it yet, they always get it the number after!
These are our bingo "Super Dabs", our markers. Ryan plays the blue one and I play the red one. We get there early so we can make out what we need to get. They have all sorts of arrangements. It's not like regular kids bingo, they do like all four corners, or double chevrons, or six packs. It's really fun, we get really into it!
So Monday aren't so dreadful to look forward to anymore!

New van!

2008-07-15T23:32:00.004+09:00

So here is a picture of our new van! This is a picture of me at my first time of driving on the other side of the road and car! It's a Honda Odyssey. Of course, we always buy Honda's, not on purpose here it was just a good deal and what we were looking for. Ryan HAD to get a van here so he could cart all of his Marines around and this is the only time I'll let him get one! It did come into handy today because all three couples went to eat today(that will be another post).

Every time I make a turn onto another road I have to remind myself which lane to go into.
The van is a six seater, two captain seats behind the front then a bench in the back, but I think it's only for two. The back seats also fold down.
Nice side view. Ryan did see another one like this for sale before we knew about this one. It was the same but red and it didn't have tinted windows. I guess Odysseys are really popular, which is good because if we ever needs parts we can find them.

Notice on our plates that it has a 300 number at the top. Well first the characters before means Iwakuni is some kind of Japanese letters. Then the 300 determines how much you'll pay for your road tax and insurance. The smaller the number, the bigger the engine size. So since Ryan is an E-5 and is 25yrs, we paid 430yen for a year. Not bad but when you think about it it's only the very basic of liability. But oh well, it only cost us $1200, which is pretty good because it's really nice inside and the only body defect is the paint on the front hood and top are fading a little. Oh, and also the Y means that it's a Yankee plate, which is an American plate :)

I'm so glad that we have a car now, it get brutal walking around in the heat and humidity!

Kintai Bridge II

2008-07-14T13:02:00.008+09:00

So this last Saturday we were bored and didn't know what else there was to do, (it was already 4pm) so we went back to the Kintai bridge with Ben and Leticia. It was overcast but it was SSOO muggy! Here are a bunch of pictures!

I don't know who this is but I bet it's some great Samurai.

This is all taken on the Samurai side of the bridge.

You can see it in this picture, it's the white stuff hanging from the top rope. Those are fortunes. People pay like a dollar for a fortune and if it's good, then they keep it. If it's bad, then they tie it to anything in that area and the gods there will get rid of it. They also do this thing where there's a tiered thing and people that rocks and make wishes on them. Then they try to throw it on the highest tier, but the key is to NOT knock someone else's wish off of it because then it's bad. So you see rocks on everything almost!

So I HAD to get a picture of a Japanese toilet! Not very hygienic!

So you pull down the pants, and hover over the porcelain whole, the right side is the front of it. Luckily, I haven't had to use on!

Whoops pardon me!

Fishing!

2008-07-07T17:02:00.006+09:00

So this past Sunday we went fishing at the marina with Bonnie and Dan. It was really nice out there, especially since more on base there really isn't a cold breeze, so it was cooler out there, actually bearable. Here is Ryan with the little basket that you put frozen/cold baby shrimp in there and then the line above it has fake ones that are the hooks. I guess right now the season is only small fish unless you're on a river.

Here is me trying to fish.

Me with a little fish I caught, can't remember the name, pretty tasty though. We cooked about 10 of those later that night, they weren't that bad, not too much meat, you would get a lot of little bones but we just breaded them in cornbread and deep fried them.

Ryan
Us. A pretty look out the harbor.
Another part of the harbor, to the left of the picture above.
The pier we were fishing off of.
The main marina. We rented a kayak there for only $3 an hour, the main rec. center thing rents out tons of stuff for free! You can rent everything you need to go camping, fishing, jumpy houses, pretty much anything you can think of, all for free.

4th of July!

2008-07-07T14:45:00.005+09:00

So this 4th of July Ryan and I, Dan and Bonnie went over to our friend Ben and Letisha's place for dinner, then at 8:30 there were fireworks at Penny Lake. Penny Lake is just a runover lake here on the base, you can't swin or fish in it. But it is on the seawall so you could sit on that or at the baseball fields next to it.

So this is a picture of me, Leticia and Bonnie.

Picture of Ben, Ryan and Dan. Not the best picture of them. We were doing goofy ones too, I think this might be one of them. Ryan knows Dan because they were deployed here before togther.

A picture of all of the couples! Ryan and me, Leticia and Ben and Dan and Bonnie.

Picture of us!

Us with the fireworks going off.

Some fireworks.

I had a video to post but it's been loading for more than an hour and isn't done yet, it was just fireworks.

Sea wall

2008-07-02T10:01:00.004+09:00

Here is a video of the sea wall. The base is actually on a small island so this is the sea wall that goes around most of it. I walked some but not all of it. Maybe when I get a bike I will. It may be hard to see some of it. I had another video and it downloaded but it's never uploaded, I've tried it all day, I'll try again later

Kintai Bridge

2008-07-01T15:38:00.010+09:00

So last friday we went on our welcome aboard class and we went out in town to the Kintai Bridge and out to lunch. Even though Iwakuni is a very small town, when you drive around everything is so packed and busy so it took like 30min to get there even though it's not that far. It just seems like your far away from base.
So this is one our way to the Bridge. The roads are really small and narrow as you can see.

This is on the other side of the road at the place we ate at.

This is the Nishiki River. Also on the other side of the road.

This is the restuarant parking lot. I feel like the asian guy in the movie Caddyshack taking pictures of everything. This is the place we ate. The food was not that great. It was Iwakuni style sushi, which just means that they put something different in it. Some noodles and soup, tea and pineapple, which was probably the best. But the table was very low to the ground and we sat indian style, it was one of the nicer stores. It had a little bakery/gift store on the bottom part.

Me next to a very small car.

This is the Nishiki River next to the Kintai Bridge. It was really pretty. The part we are standing on is where the samuri's/politicians lived, it was really nice. The other side is where the commoners lived.

This is the Kintai Bridge. The roadway is actually steps, so you can't really ride over.

View from the driving bridge. The water was like a blue/green, really pretty.

Us at a big water works thing on the nice side.

Below the water is a little area that you can play in it. There was no one there because school is still in session.

Classic Japanese pose. I guess why they do that a lot is because they believe you should pose for your pictures and that's the easiest one to do. Up the hill behind me you can take a tram ride up the mountain and walk to the main Samuri's castle.

Nice picture of the bridge.

The area that you can play in.

There are some shops there and they all serve icecream. I think japanese people love icecream because you can get any flavor you can think of. Ryan got a grape/green apple one, I just got chocolate/strawberry. But every place that has a plastic cone out the door means, they serve it.

We will probably go there this 4th of July weekend because we barely got to see everything there.

Friends

2008-06-26T15:56:00.008+09:00

So yesterday I wrote on the Yahoo blog for wives in Iwakuni and complained a little about being bored and the housing situation and two of the girls really took me in. I met them this morning at the crossroads. There is Amy, who's 23yrs and a little 2yr old, her husband is a Sgt. as well. Then there is Leticia, she's 23yrs as well with no kids and her husband is a SSgt. She just got back into the Marine Corps and is a Cpl. They took me out shopping in Iwakuni called the You Me store and then to Uni Qlo, right off base. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to be funny. But tomorrow I will when we go on our Welcome Aboard tour. Here are some pictures of base though.

So this is my friend Leticia's place. It's just right across the way from us. She lives in a 3brm even though it's just her and her husband. Since he's an E-6 he automatically rates a 3brm. It's nice though, really big rooms and a big living area and the kitchen is nice. I really hope we live on base. My friend Amy lives off base and even though it's a nice house, all the rooms are closed off and would NOT fit our big furniture in any room. Nothing would but our dining room table I think. Not the couches and tv center in one room and the bedroom would fit our bed but not the dresser. So I don't know what other ones are like, but I don't think it's going to work.

This is the Kintai Inn. It's pretty nice. Right behind us is the golf course and to the left and behind us is the theater.

This is the crossroads and the main intersection on the base I think.

And this is the commisary, which is so super SMALL, you have like 2 brands of things to choose from. I almost couldn't find the tomatos. And on the other side of the commisary is the MCX, the exchange. Which is alright. But this is all around the main intersection and all right across from each other and right down from us.

This is the commanding officers house. It's in the neighborhood in front of us and near Leticia's.

I had a pretty good time hanging out with them. Tomorrow night we're going to go to Amy's house and BBQ, so that will be nice that all the hubbys get to meet. I will take lots of pictures tomorrow and look like the Japaniese when they're in America. And I'll update again as soon as possible.

Welcome to Iwakuni Japan!

2008-06-23T06:56:00.000+09:00

I went to sleep so good last night. We got to bed about 10pm Japan time and woke up at 5am and couldn't sleep anymore. We'll see how it goes the next few nights, hopefully I can get used to the change easily.

Getting off the plane in Hiroshima. It's really pretty there, lots of hills and valleys and little islands.

Ryan and I towards the end of our 10hr flight. Wasn't too bad though.

The flight to Tokyo. We didn't get the seats we wanted but the two last ones of the 5 middle seats.

Ryan getting off the plane in Hiroshima. It was kinda of a scary landing to me because the plane was so small and we landed really fast and bumpy, then the pilot was going to turn and we were still going pretty fast so it felt like we were going to flip or something.

Here are some pictures from our hotel room at the Kintaii Inn.

The tall building is the mid-rise apartments. The main area of our room. To the right is a kitchen. Behind me to the right is the bathroom and the left is the bedroom.

So the picture goes from top to bottom. Down the road to the right on the top picture is the main gate and mid-rises and some townhomes. The picture uptop actually goes in-between these two. The picture on the bottom has more mid-rises and down that way of the road is the commisary, exchange and the crossroads, which is the food court, banks and little shops.

Here is a video, it explains those pictures a little better. Hope you enjoy this and I will post more and I get out more!

Japan here we come!

2008-06-18T14:00:00.000+09:00

So as most of you know that Ryan and I are leaving for Japan on Saturday the 21st of June. Just as summer comes! for 3 years, figures huh! Here is a little more information about where we are going. We're going to Iwakuni, which is about 30miles South of Hiroshima.
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-map-4871780-map_of_iwakuni-i http://www.iwakunimcas.com/images/JapanMapEdited.jpg
Here is a map so you can zoom in and out to see the surroundings. I a definitely going to try to learn the spoken language there. So I will post more when I get there and I'll make sure that I updated more.

New Hair Cut

2008-03-17T05:30:00.000+09:00

So after I went with Julia to get her hair cut last weekend, I've been feeling like I wanted to cut mine, since it hasn't been cut since November! So I went from this......

TO THIS!!!! I think it's really cute and fun! Ryan hasn't seen it yet so we'll see what he thinks!

My New Baby

2008-03-07T14:16:00.000+09:00

So this year with our tax returns both of us get to buy something special we want. So I got my new baby Coach purse! Ryans dad has the new X-Box 360 and he has jam sessions on Guitar Hero 3 all the time. The longest I think was 4-5hours. But I love my new purse and am going to be getting my new wallet using my Bank of America Spirit points (rewards points) to get it. The only thing now is that I feel kind of hoity toity walking around with it. But of well.

Update

2008-03-03T06:37:00.000+09:00

I know this is really amazing that I'm actually posting something! Theres not too much going on around here. Ryan just got his re-enlistment package approved and has sent it in, so within 3-4 weeks we'll know what he'll be doing and from there we'll get orders to where we'll go. We requested either Cherry Point, NC or San Diego, CA. It would be nice to go to North Carolina because I've never been to the East Coast and there's a lot we can go see.

Here are a bunch of pictures since August, my last post.

In August Ryan and I went to Las Vegas for our 4year Anniversary. We stayed at the Venetian, it was really great to get away and to somewhere HOT!! It was really hot but great since Washington didn't get that great of a summer.

Us on a gondola ride through the Venetian before dinner.

We also decided to rent a car and drive to the Hover Dam. I think it was even more hot out there and a little scary to look down. But it was fun, we go to go inside and down the side of the dam through some tunnels. It's really amazing and beautiful out there.

Next in November was the Marine Corps Ball. Happy 232nd Birthday to the Marine Corps!
Then for Ryan's 25th birthday, Dec. 2nd we were going down to Seaside, OR and us Jarom and Chelsea's Timeshare there and stopped in Beaverton to see Ryans brother Wes, his wife Kristy and their daughter Jazlyn. That weekend we found out when we got there, there was supposed to be Hurricane winds coming and knocked out all the power on the coast and closed all the roads going to and from the coast. So we stayed the weekend with Wes, Kristy and Jazlyn.

When we left and were on our way back we barely got through Chehalis, WA on I-5 before it closed due to flooding and broken levies.

I was really excited this Christmas because we were actually going to have a REAL Christmas tree! Every year we've lived in San Diego and weren't going to pay the outrageous price of a real tree, so this year we went out and cut down our own!

Of course I had to measure how tall our ceiling was so I could get the biggest one possible!

Ryan's family does Christmas German style and opens their presents up at night, so we did that with his parents of Christmas Eve, then went back to our place and opened a few, then in the morning we opened the rest of our own and then headed over to my parents house. This year it was nice that Aaron and his dog diesel were able to come. I haven't seen Aaron in about 2yrs, so that was great!
I tried to add more pictures but I think this post might be too big. I don't blog often so I'm not quite sure how big they can be.

Camping

2007-09-05T11:50:00.000+09:00

So here are some pictures from when Ryan and I went Camping this Summer. Once we went to a place called Indian Creek next to Rimrock Lake, just across White Pass. We were going to go to Staircase and hike but it was raining so bad west of the Olympics, so I dragged him all the way over the pass. We woke up at 6am and had been planning it all week, so since we were all packed, I was going camping! Then two weeks later we went camping next to the ocean about 30 miles away from Aberdeen. It wasn't great weather, but it was bearable. No rain, which is weird to not camp in in the Great State of Washington! Here are a couple of pictures.

Butterfly Quilt

2007-06-22T12:24:00.000+09:00

Here is a picture of the quilt that I'm working on. It's called Butterflight. With every quilt in the book I have there is always a little note about the insect that might be on your quilt like a butterfly or a spider.

The note for the butterfly is.... The Butterfly is the classic harbinger of spring and nature's rebirth. No one (other than kids!) really like caterpillars, but as soon as they become butterflies, they're magic, spreading hope wherever they flit.

So as you can see I have the middle part done. I still have to embroider the border and then quilt it all together. So still a bit more to go but it's coming along atleast.