Mijajima Firewalking Festival

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!