Joe made the base website!

This week our base was doing a big exercise (where they practice different emergency scenarios). Anyway, Joe was alerted at 3:15am and I didn't see or hear from him until 9:30pm that night. I was getting pretty nervous since that is a really long day and I was wondering if something might have happened. Anyway, he finally came home and was drenched, smelled, and had camo paint all over his face. He told me how they were assigned to be a "downed aircrew" got later got captured and had to find a way to escape. It sounded intense and I think all his resistance training came in handy!

He made the base webpage:
www.kadena.af.mil

and for further pictures:
www.kadena.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123196876

Teaching Opportunity!

I'm excited to say I was offered a long-term subbing position at one of the schools I've been subbing with! It's for a 4th grade classroom and at the moment I'm scheduled to work for about 6 weeks... but could very well teach the rest of the school year.

I spent the day shadowing the teacher (he's awesome!) and getting familiar with his schedule and the way he runs things. He's great and is totally wanting me to make it my own classroom (as much as I can at least) and do things how I want/need to. I'm excited to have the flexibilty to run the classroom my way (although I'll definitely follow through with how he's already set things up) and make/modify my own lesson plans.

I feel important... heh! I actually get keys and an school e-mail account (which subs normally don't get), and will need to attend staff meetings, etc. I already know one of the other 4th grade teachers who I subbed for before, and she's really excited I get to teach and said such kind things about me to the teacher I'm taking over for.

It was really last minute and I start tomorrow, so I'm trying to mentally prepare for everything I'll need!!! Joe and I already booked our Tokyo trip before I was offered the job, so I'm still going. Looks like I'll be leaving "sub plans". Then the next week is Spring Break which is great. I'm thankful for the opportunity and excited! The principal officially knows who I am and that I am a fully certified elementary teacher!

I'm hoping it doesn't tire me out teaching all day (longer days now that I need to do lesson plans and grade papers) and tutor for a few hours each day. I'm thankful Joe is so helpful (when he is around and not sent on a trip) to cook dinner the nights I don't get finished with tutoring until pretty late. Hopefully taking over a class this late in the school year won't be a problem... I don't think it will... the kids are great and they already know me. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on how it goes... but bare with me if I don't blog as often... I have a feeling I'll be pretty busy! :)

Joe's Birthday/Marathon Weekend

I realized I forgot to blog about these events!!! For Joe's birthday, we had a joint celebration with two other guys from the squadron! We were able to host a big BBQ at our house and it was a great time. We had tons of friends over to just hang out, relax, and eat yummy food! Unfortunatley for Joe (and several other guys from the squadon who were planning to run the marathon) didn't get to fully enjoy the night because they couldn't drink and needed to go to bed early!

We woke up bright and early on Sunday (like 6:30... and unfortunatley didn't get to bed until around 11). It was raining and we were worried the weather was going to be yucky for the entire day. Fortunatley, the weather cleared up as soon as it was time to line up. There were over 11,000 runners and about 8 people we knew from the squadron who were running the marathon!

I hung out with one of the husbands (his wife was running) for a bit. He fell asleep (he was smart and brought a sleeping bag... I know better for next time) and I entertained myself by playing with my iPhone (I can't believe how much I didn't think I wanted it!), reading a book, and walking around taking photos. 4 hours later I get a call from a friend who was at the 20 mile mark saying she just saw Joe pass by! That only meant 6 more miles to go! I woke up Marc and we went to the finish line to see if we could see everyone finish. It was now sunny and warm outside so I was hoping Joe would finish before it started getting too hot!

Joe and Jimmy finished right under 5 hours. Their goal was 4 1/2 hours, but I think they were overall thrilled to finish under 5... and well, Jimmy (Joe's buddy he trained with and ran with) was just happy to finish! They both claimed they would NEVER run another full-marathon again... but the next day they said they probably would sometime.

We celebrated by going to an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place! MMMMM! Such an amazing idea! We ordered plates of meat and grilled it up on the table. The guys really stuffed themselves! Sadly, Joe said even with all the food he ate, he was probably still at least 6,000 calories negative for the day!

I was really proud of Joe for finishing the marathon! The 5 hours of waiting was kind of boring, but next time I'll be better prepared for sure! :)

Summer must be coming...

Well, it happened. I got my first mosquito bite of the season... I guess this is a sure sign summer is on it's way. I was really enjoying not having to bathe myself in bugspray multiple times a day! *Sigh*... this also means the dreaded humidity will be here in full blast very soon as well. It's alright, bring it on summer! I'm ready for you (I think...)!

March Pedi

Woohoo for pedis! I took Mimi, a gal from the squadon who is new to Okinawa, to get her first pedi. She was just as amazed with the whole process as I was my first time. Nothing beats getting pampered for two hours!!!

Natural Disasters

Well, as you know, we were struck with our own earthquake the day before the big Chile one. When I woke up on Sunday and heard about the one in Chile, I just couldn't stop thinking "thank goodness it wasn't us".

All day we were pretty much in a tsunami warning. They had predictions it was going to hit Hawaii hard. We have several friends/family out there and were concerned. It blew over with no major waves.

They then predicted it was going to hit us hard, and I received several calls from the squadron (thank goodness they keep the spouses informed even while husbands are away) about people who live 30ft or below sea level need to evacuate. Fortunatley, on base is considered part of the "green" zone and we hopefully wouldn't be affected. Although, they were claiming it wasn't just going to affect people on the coasts, but the entire island.

The warning was in place until 5:00pm. Fortunatley, nothing came from it (10cm waves!) and all was clear. I think we were all exhausted from all the worrying that weekend!!! I hope Mother Nature doesn't have any other surprises up her sleeves. Thanks everyone who was concerned for us, and I'm thankful we were all okay in the end!

Nothing like a 5:31am wake-up call from Mother Nature...

Well it's 6:30am on Saturday and I've been wide awake for an hour now. We just had a 7.0 (the epicenter was about 50 miles away) earthquake at 5:30am. It was really scary and of course, Joe is away on a trip. Fortunatley, it only lasted for maybe like 20 seconds, but it literally felt like forever. I woke up out of a dead sleep to the house shaking so much it felt like it was swaying back and forth (our bedroom is upstairs). The dogs were freaking out and didn't quite know what to do, and honestly I didn't either! I prayed for it to be over, and for nothing serious to happen (flastes of Haiti came to mind).

I thought maybe I was over-reacting and maybe everyone else slept through it (ok, I was trying to convince myself maybe I was imaginging it) but I went on Facebook and literally a few minutes after it happened, over 10 Okinawan friends posted they were awake, felt it, and were scared too. My friend, Susan, called me to check to make sure I was okay since she know Joe was gone. So thankful for good friends to check-in on times like this! I called another friend who is alone and lived right by the seawall to check in on her and let her know of the tsunami warning. I turned on the news and they had it as "breaking news". I'm not sure how I felt about the newscasters reporting that Japan gets earthquakes all the time, as if it wasn't a big deal. Sure we've had a bunch of little ones, but nothing like this!

There is a tsunami warning in effect right now, and they said to prepare for waves up to 6ft high. We have a lot of friends who live right by the water. Hopefully there isn't any strong aftershock. I saw on Facebook quite a few friends who live by the water are evacuating their houses. I guess it's never a bad idea to play it on the safe side.

Anyway, all is well here and thought I'd post in case anyone in the states saw the "breaking news" and was alerted when they heard the words 7.0 earthquake and Okinawa in the same sentence. :)