Solar Eclipse!

They'd been talking about the eclipse for quite some time now, so everyone was pretty excited to see it today! They predicted it to happen between 9am-12pm and I think it got the darkest around 10:30ish. It was pretty neat, it did get pretty dark, but most people thought it just looked like it was going to storm outside (there was a lot of cloud coverage today). Joe showed me how to see how much of the sun was covered by poking a pinhole in a piece of cardboard and shining the hole onto a white piece of paper. It reflected how much of the sun was visible! Pretty neat! Here's a picture from the internet. Asia and India were able to experience the most of the eclipse. Apparently the next one isn't going to be until 2023 so I'm kinda excited that I got to experience it today!

Island Fever...

Well, it's only been about 5 months and I'm beginning to miss the states. I've been thinking about it more and more and I guess the island is beginning to wear on me, but only a little. However, I thought about it and there are definitely some thing that I do not miss! I've come up with this list so far:



What I miss from the states:

1. Shopping malls, enough said.

2. Bargain shopping (Ross, Marshalls, TJMaxx, etc.- Yes the top two are shopping. The Japanese styles are very punk and shopping online is HARD!).

3. Olive Garden (Ok we have a Macaroni Grill on one of the marine camps, but it's still just not the same.)

4. Chipotle (Yes my other top reasons are food. Hmm, shopping and food are the way to my hear! Hehe! Hm, while I'm at it I also miss Arby's, Chick-fil-a, Sonic, Jamba Juice and well, pretty much every fast-food place and restaurant!)

5. Street signs! There are hardly any street signs off-base. Directions are solely based on landmarks (i.e.-turn at the little mirror thing).

6. Seeing more than 10 different style cars... and more colors than white and silver (that's the majority).

7. The newness of the states. Everything here seems a little old and rundown.

8. Being able to turn right on a red light. Here, you have to sit through the entire light.

9. That motorcycles don't have their own traffic rules! Here, they do whatever they want!

10. How in many places they don't allow smoking in restaurants or other public places. Not here, they smoke wherever they want!

11. The convenience of 24-hour Wal-Marts.

12. Target.

13. Cell phones. The ones here are crazy. I can't even understand half the functions on my phone and it takes entirely TOO long to try and send a text message.

14. Having more than 1 radio station to listen to. I miss my country stations! :(

15. Convenience. It all boils down to everything is so convenient in the states! You don't realize it until you don't have it!

16. Take-out Chinese food. Ok you're probably thinking I'm crazy since I live in Asia, but take-out Chinese in the states is completley different than authentic Chinese food.

17. Being able to run to the store and not run into a million people from work/your husband's squadron. It's a SMALL island here! I seem to run into someone I know everywhere I go.

18. DVR and having HD channels. We are fortunate enough to have about 70 cable channels (which is cool, I thought we were only going to ge tthe 5 AFN channels). However, DVR was awesome and I can't wait to have that function back!

19. Having a mailbox at my house instead of having to drive to the post office and pick up the mail everyday. Not to mention our combination box is possessed and only likes to open after about 5 perfect attempts to open it!

20. Being able to pick-up the phone and call friends and family whenever I want to. With the crazy time difference, it's very difficult to schedule phone calls (via Skype which is AMAZING!).

21. Not having many other options when the commissary is out of something. If the commissary was out of something, we could always run to Wal-Mart or another grocery store. Not really an option here! So when we see something we know is hard to get (i.e.- ground turkey, Pillsbury pizza dough in the can, ground pork, spinach & a few other items) we stock up! It's a drag when we stalk up and then don't use it before it goes bad...

Well, that's all I can think of for now. But don't get the wrong impression, I do like it here in Okinawa! It's just after awhile, a foreign country starts to lose it's sparkle and you start to miss "home"... wherever that might be?! I can't complain about being minutes away from beautiful beaches, being exposed to some awesome culture (I love how polite and friendly the Japanese are!) and having some of the yummiest food around! We also have made some great friends and it makes it all the better. We hope if any of our friends/family want to come visit us that they do!!! Really, there are plenty of great things here! Hm, I'll have to compose a list about the things I like about Japan soon!!!

It's my favorite time of year.... summer's here!

Well, it's been summer for quite some time but it's really been hot outside recently and the humidity is high too!!! On base they have different flag conditions. White flag means there are no restrictions, you can spend as much time as you want outside. Green flag is advised to only spend 45 minutes outside, yellow flag is 30 minutes, red flag is 15 minutes and black flag means to stay inside. I forget the different temperatures, but I know black flag is 86 degrees (not including the humidity and "feels like..." temperature reading). Lately, the kids at school are lucky to get 30 minutes of outside play time at 9am and then by the afternoon it's always red or black flag. Such a bummer!

Today we went to a close by beach and just enjoyed the sun and cool water for momentary relief from the heat. We spent a few hours there, hanging out with a friend, eating yummy food, reading books and just chit-chatting. The sun was so strong we had to leave by mid-afternoon!

Thinking back to a few weeks ago, I realized I didn't blog about our 4th of July festivities. Every year the base hosts a big 2-day "America Festival" with tons of tents/stands with food, drinks and games. Joe's squadron was selling drinks and ice-cream and Joe and I decided to help volunteer for a shift for the day before the 4th. Unfortunatley, the shift we signed up for wasn't very successful. We set-up got everything ready and it POURED!!! We all huddled under the little tent while the wind blew, the rain was inches high and there were few people who braved the weather to check out the Festival (it didn't help there was a "Lightening Within 5 miles" warning out). Needless to say, we didn't make much money... apparently ice-cold water/gatorade and ice-cream isn't popular in the cold rain.

The next day for the 4th the weather cleared up and people were out and about enjoying the Festival! Susan and I went to get our pedis (as shown in the previous post) and then we went to the Festival. It was insanely crowded (they open it up to the public and the Japanese LOVE to come to American events). It took almost an hour to get a parking space. It was so crowded we didn't get any food (the lines were WAY too long). We walked about the static displays of all the airplanes and got to watch the fireworks. It was a fun night and the weather at the time was awesome with a nice cool breeze! It was a nice 4th of July.

We've been enjoying new restaurants, time with friends and busy trying to stay on top of things! I'm working 40-hours a week and Joe's schedule is as always, ever changing. I'd been sick for several weeks with a bad cough/cold, stuffy/runny nose type deal and unfortunatley it seemed as if all my girlfriends and co-workers at work had it too! I finally was able to rid of it (knock on wood) and am starting to feel better and have more energy. We're still waiting on the phone call for a date to move, but we're very anxious to have one of the brand new rennovated houses! We are still tentatively planning to go to Hawaii in September for Joe's marathon and to visit some friends and family along the way. My birthday is coming up in a few weeks and we're planning to spend a day at one of the nicest resorts on the island's beach.

We hope everyone else is enjoying their summer and is staying cool. Here are some pictures of recent events.

Pedi :)

My friend Susan and I went to the beloved CoCok's to get pedi's! Here's my newest one:

It just might be my favorite one yet!

Pineapple Park

This weekend was beautiful and we decided not to waste it seeing that the previous weekends it had been nothing but rain!!! We decided to check out this place called Pineapple Park. It's up north and it took about 40 minutes to get to, but it was really neat. We decided to take the expressway there and it was awesome to see the spedometer go past 60!!! (which is more like 40 mph). I went all the way up to 100kmp (although the speed limit was 80kmp) and the Japanese were still zipping right on by me!!! I was good and didn't speed too much since Joe and I hear all the stories about people getting speeding tickets and getting the picture and ticket in the mail (just like in Germany!).

Anyway, when we got there, the park was so much cooler than we expected! We first got to go on this automated trolley/car thing (which was so mind boggling because it drove by itself on the road and there weren't any rails on the ground or anything!) that drove us around where they grow their pineapples! They had a recorded tape that explained everything we saw throughout the drive. I guess I'm not sure how I thought pineapples grew, but I never knew they came out of the ground and started out so tiny!!!

After the tour, we walked through a random seashell collection room, and then off to the taste-testing portion!!! We got to try several different pineapple wines, juices, cakes, cookies, candies, and of course several different types of pineapples! Anything you could think up they made it out of pineapple! We had so much fun taste testing everything! We ended up buying a few bottles of wine and can't wait to share them with friends and family- how unique!

My heart goes out to her...

Just yesterday I found out the devastating news that my Big Sister's (from my sorority in college) husband passed away from a F-16 crash on Monday. I am deeply saddened for her loss and I honestly have no words to express my feelings. I remember going to her and George's wedding back in 2004. It was a beautiful wedding, so many of her sisters were there, and I know she has a great support system of sisters around the world who are praying for her.

All of us who are spouses of pilots know the reality check we all get everytime we hear of events such as these. My heart hurts for her and I cannot imagine what she must be going through at such a difficult time. It's times like this that make me step back and appreciate everything that I have, not to take things for granted, and not to much such a fuss about the little things in life.

I hope God brings Josie the strength to carry on and to make it through this time with lots of love and support from her friends and family.

This is a photo Josie and George's wedding from 2004. So many of her Pi Phi sisters were there to celebrate with her. Our hearts are breaking for her and send all our love her way...

A little overdue...

Okay it's been a little since I last posted. My apologies :) I'll try to catch everyone up, but honestly, nothing majorily exciting has occurred! I'm still at my dreaded job... it's getting a little better, but I still have days where I continuously tell myself "This is it! I'm going to quit today!" when moments later something good will happen and make me change my mind. A constant battle, but I have to remind myself, it's only for the summer!

Joe's been taking it easy. Since he has accumulated many more flying hours than a lot of the other co-pilots in the squadron, he's has some free time on his hands. It's kind of funny, the days he doesn't have to fly he basically gets to hang out at home!! So now that I'm working 8 hours a day, I leave a "honey do" list for him to take care of since I can't do it all myself anymore.

Let's see... last weekend we went to the Captain's Party. I only recently found out that when you get promoted to captain, you donate your entire month's raise toward the party! That's like $800!!!! So I guess this time next year, I won't get to see a dime of that first month's raise... instead it will be going to food, alcohol and other party related items for everyone else to enjoy. Bitter sweet I suppose.

In our spare time (which is rare these days now), we play Dr. Mario (thanks to our dear friends Jay & Susan). We downloaded it to our Wii and it's SO addicting. It also doesn't help Joe and I are both EXTREMLEY competitive! He takes losing better than me (hehe, good thing too because I dominate in that game!). Because it rained for literally two weeks straight, we didn't get out much. It finally started to clear up this last weekend, however the forecast is still calling for more never-ending thunderstorms. Oh, and as of June 1 we're in a constant stateof TCCORR4. It's means withint 72-hours we could have winds over 50pmh. Pretty much, be prepared for a typhoon to come within 72-hour notice. You'd think that would motivate Joe and I to complete our typhoon kit, but sadly enough we only have a few gallons of water, flashlights, extra batteries... and that's about it. We'll do it this weekend!!! (That's what we ALWAYS say though!).

In other news, I finally got my first paycheck! We've been saying that we were going to buy a new kitchen table, but we were going to wait until I started working. We went out to this store owned by Americans that sell all Ashley Furniture stuff and immediately found the perfect table for us!!! It's that pub style (higher table), dark sturdy brown wood, with 8 chairs. We debated between 6 or 8 but figured more is better! We get it delivered next weekend and we can't wait to have friends over to test it out!!

I know this month I haven't posted a new picture of my toes, but it's because I haven't gone yet!!! There's a groups of girls who want to go, we just now have to figure out when we will actually go. I always get so excited to go to CoCok's!!!

If you're wondering why this blog is so long, it's because I'm home sick today from work. Over the weekend I started developing a nasty little cold... sore throat, body aches, fever, nasal congestion... the works. Anyway, must be all the nasty little germs all the kiddies carry at work. Dang! I was doing well and hadn't been sick in quite some time too. Anyway, I'm just taking it easy, watching the "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" marathon (it was more amusing before Heidi & Spencer left... for real) and waiting for Joe to come home from work. Hope all is well and all you daddy's out there had a great Father's Day!!! And no one likes a post without some pictures... so here are some random photos I've taken lately:

This is a picture our friend Susan took of Brody! It's my all-time favorite picture of him!

Joe and I at Torii Beach at the Captain's Party. Right after the sun had just set.

This is called Dr. Fish. These little fish nibble at your feet, eating the dead skin, calluses (sp?), etc. I hear it's kind of weird, but that the fish can also spread germs. We opted just to watch and not partake. Very interesting!

Japanese books are read backwards. You start from the back, they read right to left, and up and down in columns. Very different!

We LOVE the broken English the Japanese use all over the place!! This was on the Sega Building (video game place). Too funny. Oh, if you're wondering why the second picture is blurry, it's because the humidity instantly fogged up my lens when I took if out of my purse!

YUMMY Korean BBQ restaurant!!! American's refer to this place as "The Communist Korean"... any guesses why? (We make up names for restaurants since no one can read Japanese.)