Snickers is Gone

I checked the hamster. He hadn’t come out for any of his treats or food. I knew he had to be dead. He is a little piggy! He is tiny but eats a ton! Well, maybe not a ton, but it is a lot for something sooo little! I lifted up his little house and sure enough,he was burrowed in and all curled up. He really does look like he died in his sleep! I sure hope so. He was such a cute little guy! I loved holding him. He always hung out in my pockets when i was wearing cargo pants. He just didn't like it when i vacummed when he was tucked in my pocket. He never bit anyone and he went thru a lot between Ty and Ryan and their little friends over the last couple of years. He has ridden in everything from the Millennium Falcon to the Pirate Ships. He’s been carried around in buckets, boxes, treasure chests, you name it, he’s probably done some time in it. He even underwent a bath by Ryan! I think it was only one bath, I made it very clear that hamsters do NOT need a bath! I picked him up and held him one last time. Maybe that sounds gross, but it wasn’t. I put him in a zip lock bag and filled it up with cedar shavings and carried him out to the backyard. I dug a hole somewhere by the spot we buried our pet octopus and covered him up. Yeah, I cried. I’ll need to have Ed help me dig a deeper hole. The ground here is like made of coral and I didn’t get very deep with my kitchen spoon! My gardening tools are forever disappearing! I have spent a fortune at the 100 yen store re-buying my little shovels and stuff ………..I dried my tears and went back to work. I came home and buried him on my lunch break. I think I am just going to go with Jorden’s idea to just clean the cage and let Ty and Ry think he is just always asleep and just tell them I gave him away when it gets closer to pack out time….Ed came home tonight and asked if I had taken care of the hamster. He wasn’t thrilled when I told him I needed him to help me dig a deeper hole. He thinks I should just throw him in the trash. I can’t do it, so I guess I will be the one digging a deeper hole. We got a big down pour today, so the ground should be softer…………

Finally Grown In!

These are my naked toes!


I went to get my toe nails painted! YAY! They are finally all grown in! I lost my two big toe nails and a couple of little toe nails over the summer when I decided to climb Mt Fuji. It took awhile for the big toe nails to finally grow in. I’m thinking maybe the big toes just liked being naked! I always have cute toe nails, I have ugly feet and fat toes, but the nails are always beautiful, sooooo it has been quite frustrating to have naked toes! I did brights with polka dots! Each toe nail is a different color. I did pink, blue, green, yellow, and orange with white polka dots and the French tips. They turned out fabulous!






The other part of the story..........

I took my daughter with me when I went to get toes done. I thought I would surprise her with a pedicure after school. While they are filing our nails, sanding down our feet and doing the foot soak we are looking thru the books with all of our choices of nail art. I happen to like the same one my daughter is choosing. She is NOT happy about our toes matching. We both end up with polka dots, but she has a bow added to her big toes and I have the French tips put on, similar but not the same. My feelings were totally hurt ‘cause I would have loved to have had my Mom’s toe nails match mine! She was done before me and I told her I would see if there was anyone available to do her finger nails while my toes were getting finished. There were not any openings. She has the nerve to say, “I want to go home now” It makes me soooo mad that she thinks it is perfectly acceptable to demand for me to leave before my toes have even finished being painted! She fully expected me to say okay, and leave without getting the painting finished on my nails. I was selfish, and maybe some would regard me as a bad Mom, I don’t know, but I stayed and she waited the additional 10 minutes for the rest of my nails to be finished. I kindly told her that I will not bring her again to get her toe nails done. She is on her own the rest of the time we live here. She was still Miss Attitude and said, “Fine”! Later when we were about half way home she looked over and said thank you.

I'm Dreading Tomorrow.....

I think the hamster is dead. I haven’t seen him come out for a day or two, I hope not three! I am the one that feeds and waters him, so I know he hasn’t been neglected. I put out his favorite treat. If he doesn’t get it by tomorrow, then I will lift his house and see what he is doing in there. I’m dreading tomorrow.

"Do Little Men Come And Lick It Off?"

I found this really cool spa that you can go to and they will completely cover you in chocolate. I was telling one of my friends about this place, I won’t mention her name, just in case she doesn’t want anyone to know that she was the one that said this line that made me laugh out loud and giggle for an extended period of time……..so, anyways I am telling her about this chocolate massage and she asks, “So, how do they get it off, do a bunch of little guys come and lick it off of you?” We were IM-ing back and forth on facebook (there’s a hint, you can look at all my friends and start guessing….) and I just totally cracked up and couldn’t stop laughing. Sooo, I am going to go try this place and hopefully this silly chocolate loving friend of mine will come with me! I’ll let you know how they take the chocolate off after I go. I doubt it will be licked off though! LOL

Now I Know!

I have discovered how a lint brush works! I’m 40 and never knew the secret until I watched my daughter peel this sheet of sticky paper off the brush. I had always wondered how it worked….? I never caught the concept on how you could just continually roll this brush along your clothes and lint and stuff would come off………..? Now I know that there are sticky sheets that you peel off so it can keep working! AND, there are refills you buy to put on your brush! WOW!!! Yes, I know, I have a Marine husband, a Marine Dad….i should know these things….and now I do!

I Guess His Time Is Coming...

I think the hamster is going to die soon. He had a growth on the side of his head for awhile, but it didn’t seem to bother him. He still ate and drank and was sweet when I would hold him, no biting or anything. Wasn’t sure what to do, but then the growth went away. He’s been a little slow lately and kinda wobbly. He’s such a cute little guy. We’ve had Snickers for a few years, so I guess his time is coming…

Thailand Make-Over's

Thailand Make-Over’s
I was telling this story to some friends the other night and was told I should blog it, so I went to my journal and pulled it out. A few months ago one of my friends asked why I had never blogged this trip…..so I guess I will do a few Thailand blogs in the next little bit….gotta find the pixs….they are on an external hard drive…….soooo, I’ll find them in the near future…I'll have to have Ashley e-mail me one of hers as i never got a copy of hers. TMO was packing her out the day after we got home from this trip......and Cliff, I even included the same closing line!

My friend Ashley and I had been having a blast in Thailand. On our last night we decided to zip over to the mall and shop around one last time. On one of the upper floors we walked by this place that looked like a photography studio. We watched and realized that it was kinda like a Glamour Shot place in the States where they dress you up and do your hair and make-up and such. We asked, and yeah, we had been right. They showed us the prices and we decided to do it as they would have the prints ready that night and delivered to our hotel. (Everything can be delivered to your hotel room here!) We were staying right there in Bangkok. They asked us for our passports and offered to lock them in their safe for us along with our bags and purses. We didn’t feel good about that. They kept telling us to just give them our things and they would keep them safe for us. We ended up keeping our things with us, it just went against every brief I have ever had to listen to when traveling to specific countries…..not sure if we hurt their feelings or not, hope not …..but we just didn’t feel comfortable giving these strangers our most valued possessions. (Thailand is a country that my SOFA status does not apply, so gotta be extra careful here, no room for a blonde moment.) They took us to a back room and sat us down in these chairs and began doing our hair and make-up. Ashley and I were talking back and forth and not really paying much attention. We also realized all the ladies that worked there were really men who had now chosen to be female. This led to some really interesting conversations, their English was really good. Basically if you are in Thailand, specifically Bangkok, and you see a REALLY hot looking chic dressed to tease, it’s a guy. Trust me, just look closely at the neck and you’ll see for yourself. There was also another couple back there who were very nice, clean, and looked to be on vacation. They were the ones we saw being photographed when he were walking by. So, we felt comfortable in our surroundings……until…….we both pretty much realized at the same time that everything they were using to apply make-up and the brushes and combs used in our hair were not sanitized. Just the same stuff used on anyone who had ever been there. UUHHGGG! We were both freaking out over this, not so the people doing our make-over knew but Ash and I have the raised eyebrows back and forth kinda thing going, the girl gestures of what the frick is going on here….?!!! They were almost done with us, so we decided to finish it out as we had already been contaminated, yes, girls can have this whole kinda conversation without saying a word….we get dressed in our outfits and take turns watching each other’s things while we get our photos taken. The photographer was a real guy. Ashley wore this cool almost Aladin kinda thing and I opted for the more traditional royalty dress. We quickly changed, viewed the proofs, paid, said our thank yous and left. We could not get to our hotel room fast enough! Once there we began scrubbing our faces and washing our hair. We were cracking up as we were wondering out loud how grotesque we might look by morning! I was wondering if we might not even pass as the pictures on our passports by the time we have to board our plane that following morning!!! We went out one last time that evening. I also picked up the last of the clothes I had had made for me. Our photos arrived later that night. We were laughing and wondering AND hoping it had been worth it! We went to bed that night terrified of any little sensation we felt on our scalp, lips, eyes……we awoke in the morning to find no oozing sores, puffy eyes, itchy heads……our faces still matched our passports when we arrived at the airport! We didn’t even get a cold sore!!!

What Could It Be?

We have been here for almost 6 years and I have brought three of these home so far…..can you guess what it is? I’ll give ya a day, and then I will let ya know! Your hints are:
1. IT was not pLAnnEd
2. It is not cuTe!
3. It is not FRee!

Ed Says Goodbye To His Bike

Ed’s Harley has sold and is no longer at our house. Ed is sad. He didn’t want to sell his Sportster, but he is getting a bigger Harley made in the States, so it will be just a temporary loss of bike for him, but he is still like totally sad. He had bought the bike thinking I would want it and he would get a bigger one for him. He doesn’t quite understand that I would rather be hanging onto the back of him……he took it for one last ride under the stars…………

He Always Knows!

Tank always knows when Ed is going to be gone. I’m not sure how he knows…..but he does. When Ed isn’t going to be home, Tank will always sleep on Ed’s side of the bed.


It’s the only time he sleeps on that part of the bed. When Ed is home, he loves to curl up on his cammies or snuggle up on his gear. I love this picture of Tank sticking his tongue out at me!

Huuummmmmm......

January 20 2009

1. Outgoing President George W. Bush quietly boards his helicopter and leaves for Texas, commenting only: "Today is not about me. Today is a historical day for our nation and people."



Eight years ago:
1. Outgoing President Bill Clinton schedules two separate radio addresses to the nation, and organizes a public farewell speech/rally in downtown Washington D.C. scheduled to directly conflict with incoming President Bush's inauguration ceremony.



January 20:
2. President Bush leaves office granting less than half the amount of pardons granted by President Clinton. He also granted 8 communtations, 2 were for the Border Patrol agents who were convicted of shooting a drug runner in 2005. He did not grant any type of clemency to Scooter Libby or any other former political aide, ally, or business partner.



Eight years ago:
2. President Clinton issues a total of 396 pardons and 61 commutations. Included in these are: billionaire financier, convicted tax evader, and leading Democratic campaign contributor Marc Rich; Whitewater scandal figure Susan McDougal; Congressional Post Office Scandal figure and former emocratic Congressman Dan Rostenkowski; convicted bank fraud, sexual assault and child porn perpetrator and former Democratic Congressman Melvin Reynold and convicted drug felon Roger Clinton, the President's half-brother.



January 20:
3. The Bush daughters leave gift baskets in the White House bedrooms for the Obama daughters, containing flowers, candy, stuffed animals, DVD's and CD's, and heartfelt notes of encouragement and advice for the young girls on how to prepare for their new lives in the White House.



Eight years ago:
3. Clinton and Gore staffers rip computer wires and electrical outlets from the White House walls, stuff piles of notebook papers into the White House toilets, systematically remove the letter "W" from every computer key-pad in the entire White House, and damage several thousand dollars worth of furniture in the White House master bedroom.


Headlines On This Date 4 Years Ago:
"Republicans spending $42 million on inauguration while troops Die in unarmored Humvees"

"Bush extravagance exceeds any reason during tough economic times"

"Fat cats get their $42 million inauguration party, Ordinary Americans get the shaft"



Headlines of the 2009 inauguration:
"Historic Obama Inauguration will cost only $170 million"

"Obama Spends $170 million on inauguration; America Needs A Big Party"

"Everyman Obama shows America how to celebrate"

"Citibank executives contribute $8 million to Obama Inauguration"

I would have to say his speech did not ring to the ears of those that REALLY needed to hear it! I know that many trash cans were removed for security reasons, but common sense should tell you that if there is not a trash can, well ya just take your trash with you! Obviously common sense was lacking in the Obama voters....

The aftermath of the "Followers of Obama"....



There has never been this amount of trash EVER left, after any event in history. Yes, it was a historical day after all!

Valentines Day 2009

Valentine’s Day 2009 I’m not the type of girl that demands this totally romantic Valentine celebration. I think if you have to force the guy or drop a ton of hints, why bother. Obviously he would be miserable, so what would the fun be in that?! Yes, flowers, a surprise date, or something like that would be totally awesome, but I don’t expect it or worry about it. I was hoping to go diving, but the sea conditions were RED Saturday morning. RED means we are not allowed to enter the waters. There was a movie I wanted to see, but I didn’t think Ed would be too thrilled with it, so I just did what I wanted to do on Valentine’s Day this year……………………. Kubasaki High School had been hosting Far East Wrestling all week. (Far East Tournaments are at the end of each of the sporting seasons for the High Schools. The DOD (Department of Defense) schools rotate hosting Far East. The kids at the various High Schools throughout the Pacific get to travel to whichever school is hosting for the championship games/matches/events, whatever it may be. Kubasaki was hosting Far East Wrestling this year. There were 12 other schools attending, 10 off island, as Kadena and Kubasaki are both DOD High Schools here on Okinawa. Kubasaki is primarily Marine Corps with some Army and Navy and Kadena is mostly Air Force with some Army and Navy. Of course each school has kids whose parents are not military as well.) I’ve been subbing for the wrestling coach so I have only been able to catch a little bit after school. The championship matches were being held on Saturday, the 14th. I really wanted to go to this, and I did. Ed was bored out of his mind. I kept telling him that he didn’t have to sit there with me and watch, but he stayed and kept coming back with me. He never wrestled, he was a baseball and hockey player during his high school years. My brothers wrestled in high school and that is where I grew to love the sport. My younger brother Monte wrestled for Kubasaki when he was over here in high school, so that made it fun, as well as I know the kids. I’ve been subbing here for about 3 years now and like to watch their sporting events. We spent just about the entire day there, leaving in between matches when our Dragons were on break. There were two girls from Osan (Korea) who were wrestling. Vicki came a few times with me and she thought about wrestling in high school for a moment, watched the two girls get pinned and decided she didn’t want some stinky guy putting his arm pit hairs across her mouth. Good decision. Kubasaki ended up taking 3rd. Not bad. Kadena took first, Kinnick, second. We got out of there around 7 that evening. We would have been able to leave a lot earlier, but I had wanted to watch the 210 guy from Kinnick, he was awesome, had a 5 point throw on Friday, but he ended up forfeiting his match and we didn’t know until that match rolled around. If ya don’t know how wrestling works, well it goes like this, it starts at the lightest weight and goes in order till you get to the heavy weights. 210 is the second to last match. I had also wanted to watch Kadena’s 141, so it wasn’t a complete loss….. (Ed was even disappointed, that was the one match he actually wanted to watch! Maybe I got him a little bit into this sport…..?) The Kinnick 210 guy had really hurt his knee earlier and had won his last match, had to struggle, was limping hard, took some abuse on it that match from our guy, but won in the end with a sudden surge of adrenaline or frustration of pain and pinned our Dragon. Kadena was winning by enough points that even if he and the heavy weight both won by pins, Kadena would still win, so it was a smart move to not have him injure himself more. Soooo, yeah, I kinda blew it on Valentine’s Day this year wanting to watch Far East. I apologized to Ed for his excruciating long day of watching something he described as “exciting as watching paint dry.” LOL! If the waters hadn’t been RED, we would have atleast gone diving, but can’t enter the water when the sea conditions are RED. Ed actually said it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was going to be. He said he liked listening to me talk thru the matches, saying all these phrases he had never heard of before, watching me lean side to side, and he thought it was cool I knew how the points scored and stuff. We laughed, because this was like the first time EVER I knew more than him at a sporting event! Yeah, that will never happen again, unless of course, we go to another wrestling meet! Ha! He did like the Harley Davidson hoodie pull over sweatshirt I got him. He wanted an Okinawan one in Konji. Now he has one and loves it. I guess it wasn’t a total loss of a day for him. I also laughed and said he wasn’t out any dinero this year! I wonder if he’ll be home for me to torture next Valentine’s Day…..? Our Kubasaki wrestler was taking advantage of Kinnicks injury throughout the match...
The Kinnick guy took our Dragon down and pinned him...yeah, he was just a little stoked! LOL

Urashima Dinner Theater

February 2007
Worst Valentine Date EVER!!!
I’ve been reminded that I haven’t shared the worst Valentine’s Date EVER yet…..so here it goes….. I had been wanting to go to the Urashima Dinner Theater for like as long as i had known it existed. I was talking to my friend Anna about it and we decided to take our husbands for Valentine’s Day. We made our reservations and bought the tickets ahead of time. The night of the event we carpooled down to Naha. We had been given decent landmarks to look for, so we found it without too much difficulty. There was only one other American couple there. That is usually a sign that I will love it and Ed will be simply, enduring. Dinner wasn’t so bad. I gave Ed my lobster. I can’t say I don’t like it, just haven’t been brave enough to try it to know if I like it or not. I was permanently traumatized in the Philippines by live lobsters at the market, and will just never be able to bring myself to put the pieces from inside those hideous looking creatures into my mouth! Ed said it was good and I’ll just take him at his word. (Although he wasn't too fond of the cheesey mixture thing on it...) The rest of our dinner was yummy, aside from a few other odds and ends things I didn’t feel like trying. I have to wonder if foreigners visiting America are just as leery of our fried mozzarella sticks and other such appetizers as I am of wormy, slimy, non cooked, fishy things…? The performances began and Ed pretty much knew immediately that he would rather have a bullet in his head then watch the next couple of hours of dancing. I’ll go into detail on all the dances below if you happen to be interested….Anna and i loved it and our poor husbands had each other to share their misery! I think this Valentines Day, 2009 is actually worse than this one in 2007…..i’ll share it later……

The theater was just an average looking place with a small stage. When we came into the theater our appetizers were already at our seat. It was the traditional salad of shredded cabbage and sprouts and such that we are served just about anywhere on island. There was also a bowl of miso soup and a bowl of soft tofu. During the first act our main course was served.

The first dance of the evening was the “Kagivade Fu.” This is traditionally the first dance performed at any concert or celebration. This is a happy dance that celebrates longevity of life. Usually this dance is performed by an elderly man and woman, but here it is done with two young women. The entire evening is performed by four ladies who continually change clothes for each of the dances. It is a happy dance, but it is slow in movement as it is a reflection of life after many years, so the movements are to reflect that of the elderly. Of course with all Okinawan music you here the “Ah-sah-sah-ha-i-ah-ah-sah-sah

Dance 2 was called the “Nuchibana.” The dancers used garlands of red and white flowers for this dance. These are supposed to be cherry blossoms that the dancers have picked from the Shirashihai river to give to their loved ones. The guys were fading…..

Dance 3 was the “Hatoma Bushi.” This dance comes from Hatoma island. This is a little island below Okinawa. It celebrates fruitful crops. It begins slow but really picks up. The dancers used umbrellas for this dance.

Dance 4 was called the “Umi no Chinbora.” Basically means “Ocean Conch Shell. The dance portrays young girls along the beach picking up shells to take back home to use for different things. The guys were rolling their eyes in quiet misery…….

Dance 5 was called the “Kurushima Kuduchi.” It shows the celebration of the festivals held on the islands of Kurushima and Yaeyama. While they danced you could tell that they were planting rice and gathering their crops and such. Ed was antsy by now wanting to know how much longer….?

Dance 6 was called the “Yotsudake.” This means “four bamboos” which is referring to the cool castanets the dancers hold in their hands and click to the music. I have learned to use these at other dances and they are cool, kinda like the ones from Spain, just a different shape and a little different hold between this fingers. The original use for castanets was for the ritual purification of the area that the celebration was being held. The hats that the dancers wear during this performance are called Hanagasa, which means flower hats. I have referred to them as “lamp shades” in other blogs. The kimonos the ladies wear for this dance are beautiful! They are made of genuine Okinawan bingata fabric.

Dance 7 was the “Tanchame.” This one showed the reflection of life in the Tancha hamlet of Onna Village. The dance showed young couples walking around. The men werecarrying oars for going to fish and the women were carrying baskets to hold the fish the men brought home. It was a more upbeat dance. Ed and Matt had the look of “Why, why, why….. and when will it be over, when, when….?!!!”

Dance 8, the last dance, was the “Taiko Bayashi.” The taiko drums were used with this dance. It was very entertaining to watch. The performers also showed some humor as they pretended to hit the drummers on the head with their drumsticks. I think the drums helped wake up Ed and Matt. The performance lasted 2 hours. I think Ed and Matt were done within about the first 20 minutes into the performance or when they had finished their meal. Whichever came first.

Following the performance we were able to go up on the stage and have our picture taken with the dancers.

Just a bit of tid bits in case ya wanted to know…..
Each of the dances shows the islands history, its people, and the life that once existed on this beautiful island. Dancers must train for atleast 3 years to learn the techniques needed to be able to perform at this theater. They must memorize the steps for more than a dozen dances, know their stage presence, be able to do their make-up and costume as well as have vocal talents as some of the songs require singing. Even after all the years of training, they still have to go thru a rigorous audition to even make the cast!

Sunset Dinner Cruise Music

On our Sunset Dinner Cruise.....

Spring Training

I saved the best for last as far as all the things I had planned for our anniversary. Every year all the professional Japanese and Korean teams come to warm Okinawa for their pre season training, or like Spring Training stateside. I found out where all the teams were practicing and took Ed to watch the Dragons at the Chatan ball park. It was fun and he seemed to really enjoy it. We’re going to one of the preseason games in a few weeks. It was fun to watch. I had to keep asking Ed dumb questions ‘cause it has been a LONG time since I’ve been to a game in America and I wasn’t sure if what the Okinawan’s did was what we did. Here is one example. When a homerun is hit the crowd claps, I believe I was the only one that hollered out in the stadium, oops, then everyone stops clapping, not because I hollered, just because it was time to stop and then they begin to clap when the batter has run across home plate. I had to ask Ed if we clapped both times in the States, ‘cause I just didn’t remember that. The Japanese also do absolutely NO butt grabbing! No matter how good the play was or the runner coming in to score, no behinds are slapped! I loved watching the fans! They had their bowls of noodles, brought their dogs, and the younger kids were there in their baseball uniforms. You could see the sparkle in their eyes as they knew their dreams of being a ball player were still tangible! All the newscasters were there and it was sooo cute to see the young kids with their gloves and pen and paper for autographs! I didn’t think to bring anything for autographs and Ed didn’t want any anyways, even after I bought a ball! But he did take a picture of me with one of the players. We were walking around later and #45 was just sitting out there on a bike, not a motorcycle, a bicycle! Only in Okinawa…..We watched them play each other and then do batting and infield practice and headed home. Oh, we did buy hot dogs, cause what is a baseball game without a hot dog??!!

Sunset Dinner Cruise

I continued the torture for Ed as our anniversary celebrations continued…..the weather held out and we were able to go on our Sunset Dinner Cruise on the East China Sea. I thought it would be fun to take a dinner cruise, since we have never done that before and it is in the ocean that we dive and became scuba certified in……We headed down to the Naha port and got their about 30 minutes early. I checked in at the window. I had bought our tickets awhile ago and wasn’t quite sure how it worked…..I showed her my ID card and the cute Okinawan lady gave me a laminated brown card that she said I would need for when I boarded the boat. We just walked around for a little while. When we were outside by the water there were a ton of the conex boxes. They brought back bad memories for Ed. We were laughing as he was telling me some of the stories from when he and his buddies lived in those in Iraq. He said they were flippin freezing in the winter and they were very stinky! We were laughing that our household had been in this very place August 2003 and would be back here in just a few short months! It was now time to get on the bus to take us to our boat. It was funny as Ed’s head touched the ceiling of the bus, it was one of those you stood on and held on to the little handles hanging from the ceiling. We climbed the ramp to the boat. There was a sign that said to watch your step. They needed a sign that said “watch your head” as Ed had to duck getting into the boat. LOL Once in though, it was plenty tall enough. I showed them my little card they had given me at the port and we were led to a table that had our name on it. Ed was releived to find that our place settings had regular silverware with the chop sticks. He can eat fine with chop sticks, just prefers not to, where i prefer chop sticks. That's just because i used them alot when i lived with my Dad and have just always preferd them. I ordered some sort of tropical juice thing that was really good! Ed just wanted water. This is when he informed me he doesn’t like boat rides. I didn’t know that as boat dives and deep sea fishing are things that he likes to do…..e said those are different. I had bought some Dramamine or whatever that stuff is called for our boat dives for him, so he had brought that with him. Yay! He didn’t get sick either, thank goodness! I’ve already made this week miserable enough for the poor guy! LOL The Enya song “Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away” was playing as we were all getting seated and served our drinks. The appetizer came first…..not so appetizing! But, I did try everything except the sardines. I just have never been able to get myself to try those! So, I don’t really know if they taste bad….but just looking at the head and the eyeball and like, yeah, just can’t do it…but did try everything else. Not bad. The quiche looking yellow thing had this taste to it I didn’t like. The veggies were in some sort of vinegar and were good. I think that was the only thing on the plate that Ed ate. The sea weed thing was alright, but just couldn’t bring myself to eat more than a few little strands, don’t care for the texture…..the other thing tasted like shredded chicken. It was really good. The soup, salad, and bread was delicious, as always! We had chosen steak for our entre when I bought our tickets awhile back. The main course was really good and Ed got my shrimp. Just another one of those things that I have no idea if I like or not, but just can’t bring myself to try! For dessert, we each got a plate that had several different treats on it. Obviously you can tell what the fruit was, than there was a cream puff, a brownie, a cake thing, and another sort of pastry thing. We were entertained by an Okinawan who played the guitar and sang beautifully! Most of his songs were in English and there were only 3 American’s on the cruise, so I don’t think it was for us! Ha! Later we went out on the upper deck and watched the sunset. It was beautiful! There was also a full moon, so you could see the sun sinking into the ocean while the moon was up on the other side. I used the camera timer to take some pictures of us and then the Okinawan who had been singing saw us and offered to take some photos for us. His turned out much better than mine that were balanced on railings. Ha! When we were looking down into the water we were wondering how many unexploded ordinances were down there. It's a lot!!! There was a never ending stream of planes taking off from the Naha Airport. We were laughing that soon we would be on one of those planes flying out of here. There was a ship headed out loaded with who knows what along with military families households, and an airplane flying overhead. We were just like wow, that will be us in like a blink of the eye! I got a photo of it all, sun setting, plane in air, and ship full of conex boxes headed away from the island. I’m going to put it on my fridge to remind me how little time I have left on my little piece of paradise. I’m gonna really miss the sunsets here! I love watching the sun drop into the ocean! As we approached land the singer began playing one of the main Okinawan songs that you hear everywhere. Everyone sang along and clapped. It was a really fun evening, worth the $132 I paid for it! The bus ride back was packed and as everyone kept squishing in I told Ed this is what it felt like riding the subways in Tokyo. Everyone was laughing about Ed’s head touching the ceiling. All in all, it was a fun night and I think Ed actually enjoyed it!!!

Valentines Day 1998

I figured that since it is February, i would blog about some of our Valentine Memories.......This was the best Valentines gift ever! We were stationed at Camp Pendleton and lived in our Parker House. The nicest house we have EVER lived in! I'm not being sarcastic, it really was the nicest house we ever lived in and we were the first ones to live in it! Life was good back in the Corporal days....we were poor, but happy! I had stopped working to be a stay at home Mom, so we lost about $3000 a month when i went from 20 hours a week to no hours a week! But i wouldn't have wanted my life to be any different then it was at that time! Had great friends on Parker Road and over on Dogwood and i got to stay home with Jorden and Vicki! Ed gave me a giant heart shaped sugar cookie! It was delicious! The next blog, i'll explain how i gave Ed the WORST Valentine experiance ever!!!

Words That Perk The Ears

I was in the kitchen making dinner one evening when Ryan comes running in. He went straight to the fridge and filled up this tiny little paper cup, or maybe it was a lid to a laundry detergent container, with water. As he dashes out I ask him what he is doing. He hurriedly, but nonchalantly says he is putting out the fire. My ears immediately perk and I tell Ed to follow Ryan out to the fire! It turns out that there was a fire in our backyard! I don’t have smoke detectors out there, but might consider it now…..our neighbor on the other side of our wall, Matt Schmidt, had seen the smoke and was right in front of Ed with the fire extinguisher. Of course all the kids scattered…..the fire was pretty easily distinguished, this is a tropical island and the ground remains somewhat moist between the rain and the humidity. It took a little while but we finally got the group of kids involved together so we could talk to them about fire. The culprit who brought the lighter was identified (he’s a cute little guy and his Mom felt soo bad about him climbing the cabinets and I was quite surprised that it wasn’t Ryan! Ed and I had a family meeting with the kids on fire safety, again. Ty said he didn’t do anything, he was just there watching and Ryan said, “I didn’t do anything, I just held the paper”! The paper is what the boy with the lighter, was lighting!!! Soo, we had to have another discussion on being an accomplice! I want to hear back form all my cool friends on stories where YOUR ears have been perked!!!

Finally Found It!

Ed has very few pictures, so what I have acquired I guard with my life, ‘cause like ya know me, I am a picture freak! When Ed was in Iraq in 05/06 I made a wall for him. He hates that whole “look at me” wall kinda thing, but I needed something to keep my late nights busy and I wanted a “look at Ed” wall so I could see him while he was gone. I thought it would be good for the kids to see it every time they went up and down the stairs as well. I also knew it was the only time I could get away with putting something like that up! LOL! I started at the top of the stairs with his boot camp pictures and went from there with other photos and what awards/plaques, whatever you call those things that I could find. He usually tosses stuff like that and when he isn’t looking, I pull from the trash and tuck away. (yes, like I say, I’m like the lamest person EVER!!!) I had some pictures of when he was in Okinawa in 1994/1995. I framed a cool one of him and his friends and have always wondered where that picture was taken. Ed had no real concrete memory of the day. He, like most Lance Corporals, spent most of his time drinking back then. Well………………..the place has been discovered!!! I took Ed’s picture next to the monument thing! I asked him if he now remembered any of it, and he said it was still a pretty big blank….but we now know it was at the northern most tip of the island, Cape Hedo!

Diving Cape Hedo

Cape Hedo

We have lived on this island that is only like 68 miles long for over 5 years and we finally went to the most northern tip of the island!!! Jorden has been wanting to do this for awhile now, so he had his day and we did the drive. An island 68 miles long doesn’t seem very big to somebody who has NEVER driven here, but trust me, driving 68 miles here can actually take a whole day depending on the traffic! Jorden and his friend Cody actually were going to walk to the tip of the island last year, but didn’t quite make it. They got further then I thought they would. Slept on a beach and then the next day called it quits and hitch hiked down to the closest Marine base and road the Green Line or as Vicki calls it, The Looser Cruiser, back home. We went to Cape Hedo, the northern tip of the island! It was a cool drive as we were pretty much along the ocean the whole way! Beautiful!!! We got up there, parked, and began walking around. I was just like, Wow”! The cliff drops, jungle backgrounds, caves, the ocean, waves crashing along the walls, it was just breathtaking! This area is called the Okinawa Kaigan Quasi- National Park. Ty and Ryan were excited and began to follow all the paths. It was windy, so just a bit cold, but the sun kept shining so it wasn’t freezing! Jorden immediately headed over to climb the cliffs. Of course, Thing One & Thing Two were right behind him. I just kept telling them to be careful and not climb on the edges. It was a LONG drop down! They went to the very top. Ed was sore from this massive PT thing he took his class on Friday and didn’t feel like following the boys. Ha! I was in my gladiators, so I wasn’t doing too good of a job keeping up, so I just hollered over to Jorden to make sure we didn’t loose anyone over the edge. Vicki was in flip flops and wanted to climb, but sliced her feet in a few places. She was also hobbeling all day because she had banged her knee really hard the other day on the door to the jeep. It was beautiful up there looking down on the water! We headed back over to the paths. It was too funny because we finally found the rock statue thing we have been looking for for over 5 years! I have this picture of Ed hung up from when he was here on Oki in 1995. We have been trying to find where the photo was taken as Ed couldn’t remember. Well, we found it! I took a picture of Ed at the rock again. As Vicki and I were walking over there we kept feeling rain drops but when looking up at the sky, it was clear skies with fluffy white clouds. Later when we went around the corner we realized that the water was just ocean spray from the waves crashing along the sides of the cliffs…..yep, great minds think alike! This is a place that Ed and I have obviously never dived, since we have never been here before, together. We know people that have dived here and it was a place we wanted to hit eventually, but wow, after watching the water…..i’m not so sure…We were discussing various entries and how to get down with our gear. Jorden offered to throw our gear to us from the cliffs so we could hike down not being weighed down by it. Ha Ha! Ed said we could just jump in. Another haha! I kinda freak out when we jump in at Bollo, there is no way I would consider it here! Jorden took Ty and Ryan and they actually found us a path that would be easy to walk to this beach area where we could walk right in. Soooo, maybe we will hit this spot before we leave…..when we were heading back to the car we saw the Okinawa Ghost Riders motorcycle gang. There are several groups that ride their bikes up and down the island on the weekends. Ed and I are going to do it once before we leave. I talked with these guys for a few minutes and took a few pictures of them. Ed and the kids always disappear when I begin conversing with the Okinawan’s. We began the loooong drive back south to our house. An ambulance pulled onto the road about 2 km from Cape Hedo, so we had a nice fast drive to start out with….about 25 minutes later the ambulance got to go thru the red light and so we were stuck behind a slower vehicle and went back to oki pace. There were several tunnels to go thru, so we did the normal of holding our breath and of course Ed would slow down as we got near the exit! Ha! The drive was beautiful! It will be weird to be stateside and NOT driving along the ocean whenever I go somewhere…..We hit traffic as we got back down to Nago were the Cherry Blossom Festival was being held. All the statues are lit up at night along the climb up to the shrine. There was just a non stop line of cars coming up for that. Glad we were heading the opposite way! I bet it is amazing to climb those steps at night! We stopped for dinner at McDonalds. Ty and Ry played in the tunnels real quick while I was ordering everyone’s food. I set my money down on the table while I was waiting and Jorden reminded me that I need to get out of that habit before we get stateside. Here, you just never have to worry about crime. I could lay my cash right there on the table, walk away, use the restroom, and it will still be there when I get back. Ed started laughing and told Jorden how he had just had this conversation with me yesterday as I was walking around the store with some 20’s in my hand. He said I needed to start putting my money in my purse and not walking around with it just out there in my hands. UUUHHG. The States is going to be such an adjustment for me! After we ate we headed back home. Oh, a funny flashback, the McDonalds that we were at was the same one I had tp’d one of our friends van’s in. We had been heading back from camping at Okuma and had all stopped at McDonalds for dinner. We finished before one of our friends and so I was buckling kids in car seats and saw that I had a package of tp in the back of the van. I tp’d their van while they were still in there eating. The Okinawan’s that were going thru the drive thru were cracking up as I was wrapping the van in tp. Lots of photos were taken that day, not sure why I didn’t take any!!!! Ha! We made one last stop at the fruit stand. I bought some yummy tangerines and then we jumped on the expressway and made it home! Another fun adventure!

Festivals & Food

The Okinawan's always have an abundance of food at thier festivals. It's fun to watch them make it! There are all kinds of funky stuff. We have fun trying new things but usually just stick to what we already know we like! LOL!

Cherry Blossom Festival 2009

Every year around the end of January or early February is the Cherry Blossom Festival up in Nago. Many different vendors will be set up selling food or offering the chance to win prizes by hitting balloons with darts and other such games. We went for the first time back in 2004 with our friends, the Martin’s. We decided to go one last time as we will not have the opportunity to go again before we PCS. We jumped on the expressway and headed north. We actually lucked out and got a parking spot right I the first lot at the base of the climb! We made a restroom break and headed over to the stairs. Ed and I took some group shots for some Okinawan families and then they took a family picture for us, same place as where we had our family picture in 2004! We began climbing! The stairs just go up and up and up! Vicki was bummed because her knee was still hurting, but she was quite humorous on the hike up. There are several different spots where there is number painted on the stairs so you know how many steps you have gone. I think the last one is 470. I think that is also about the half way mark…? It is an amazing walk as there are over 30,000 Taiwanese Cherry Trees. Not sure if that is exactly how you would call those trees…? Huummm…. We had gorgeous blue skies and the trees were in full bloom! It was nothing short of beautiful! Ty and Ryan ran basically the whole thing! They would stop at each level and wait for us. I wish I had their energy. Jorden complained, but very good naturedly, on why we were doing this, and Ed wondered out loud if he could bring his students up here for a pt run, obviously after the festival was over and during the week when there would be nobody here. We got to the top and watched some of the Okinawan’s pray. They pull on the rope, drop down some yen, and then offer up a prayer. The rest of the climb up is thru this like woody area. It was really pretty and I didn’t walk into any spiders this time! Yay!

Anniversary Night 2009

Our Anniversarry Evening
Our Anniversarry fell on a Tuesday this year and with Ed’s work schedule, there just isn’t really much available to do, well that he would like and that works with his limited free time on a week night. He wanted me to pick where we would go out to eat. I HATE to pick!!! I choose wrong, in everything, NOT just food choices, just everything in general, so I was not happy with this…..so i decided to choose somewhere we would more than likely never celebrate our anniversary at again, as well as a place that I knew Ed would like….soooo, I chose Arin Curin. It’s one of our favorite places and we haven’t been there in like a year. It’s down by Camp Kinser, so I was hoping the traffic wouldn’t be too bad. It wasn’t and we made it there in like 15 minutes. Amazing! Even more amazing was that we were the first ones there, so we even had a place to park without parking down the road and walking back! The place was empty and we had the restaurant to ourselves the whole time! This place in normally packed! It opens at 5 pm and is only open for dinner. We arrived at 455. Ed ordered #16 Beef & Broccoli & #37 Fried Chicken. I ordered #4 Tomato Salad and #52 Garlic Pasta. We ordered #34 Deep Fried Garlic, #62 Garlic Toast, & #63 Garlic Fried Rice to share. I tried to talk Ed into ordering #32 Stir Fry Octopus & Asparagus with Garlic, but he wasn’t interested in trying. He wasn’t in the best of moods either, so I didn’t press my luck with having them bring that to our table. He was already grossed out that there was a tomato next to him that I was consuming. I guess I shouldn’t have ordered that. He HATES tomatoes!!! But it is such a yummy salad!!! He couldn’t eat his beef broccoli thing because it came with this white creamy garlic sauce, so that upset him a little bit more…..but I loved it and gave him all the fried rice and offered him my pasta, but he said he didn’t like the pasta. He loved the rice and his chicken though! The bread is always good and we both really like the garlic corn thing. I loved it all and he reminded me that I weighed 115 pounds when we got married……….as usual, I chose wrong………..the following night I took him to Chula-U. I was just continuing the torture, like I said, it is tradition for me to basically put him thru hell on our anniversary, I just totally suck as a wife and that is probably why I am on husband number three!!! LOL! Chula-U is a very popular spa here on Okinawa. I go here with friends as well as take Vicki and her friends when they want to go. When you enter this facility you take off your shoes and slide them into a cubby. After paying, you are given a key so you can lock up your stuff and just enjoy the spa. I took Ed first to the massage chairs. I put in the money and helped him adjust the settings on the remote, he was not thrilled with this and I even gave him the chair with the English translations, I took the one with the remote in Kongi. I just ignored him and enjoyed my chair massage. He didn’t want to do the foot massage so I took him out to the mineral pool. This is a heated pool where the water is full of minerals that leaves your skin super soft. He was bored at first but finally began to relax a little and enjoy himself or maybe was just humoring me, I’ll never know…..from there we went and sat in the sauna and then got back into the pool. After that we changed clothes and I took him to my favorite part! The Foot Doctor! I love this!!! If i was rich i would have my own little Foot Doctors at my house and put my feet in several times a day! Ed wasn’t too sure about this, but he put his feet in anyways. He was okay with it and the fish went to town on our feet! These little carp originate from Turkey, I think, and are now very popular in Asia. I love it!!! Afterwards we got a scoop of ice cream and headed home. He did wake up this morning saying he slept REALLY good last night. He normally doesn’t sleep well at all and I think that is why he is grouchy sooo much of the time. He just always has these never ending headaches from lack of sleep! Soooo, maybe he won’t stay too mad at me about the spa thing…? The suffering will continue when we go on our Sunset Dinner Cruise, if the weather holds out this weekend! Maybe I’ll even get him to dance one song with me out on the deck so I can officially make it the worst night ever for him!!! LOL Another year down, what will I torture him with next year? Ha! I do remind him that he is more than welcome to plan our anniversaries!!!

The Big 13!

Sooo, our 13th Anniversarry is like today, February 3rd. Wow! It amazes me that it has been that long and that I still have a husband! The last ones didn’t keep me very long. LOL! I think I just always picked someone waaaaaay out of my league and after they realized it, well then, the story just ended and they moved on to better pastures. I thought Ed was like totally super out of my league when I met him and was shocked he even wanted to talk to me! Even more surprised he wanted to see me the following night! He was really drunk the night I met him, so I didn’t really count on him even remembering my name. He actually didn’t remember my name the following morning but after asking his friends he found out and showed up at my friend’s birthday party that next evening and two weeks later asked me to marry him! He was 6 years younger than me, just a little Lance Criminal in the USMC. I said yes,and was terrified he would change his mind, so didn’t marry him right away…………just kept putting off a date. Finally one Saturday morning he said “marry me today or never!” Sooooo, we got in the car, drove to Nevada and got married. We had to keep pulling over ‘cause like I was throwing up the whole way there! Yeah, just a little nervous to be doing that again. That was 13 years ago, and here we are, still married. I got him a jersey for our anniversary. He is really hard to shop for as he always says there is nothing he wants. He did say he wanted his next jersey to be the Steelers #43, so I got him that and let him have it early, since Super Bowl was Feb 2nd. Ed got me the bride and groom kokeshi doll set. I love it! The kids were teasing me saying Dad had spent more on my gift then I had spent on his, this led to another conversation that I had forgotten about. Ed asked the kids if they knew what my first gift was from him. Of course, they didn’t know and so Ed told them it was a video camera for our first Christmas and that he always spends more on me then I spend on him…….uuuhhhggg! The kids of course asked Ed what his first gift from me was and he told them I had gotten him a birthday card with a glow in the dark star in it. Yeah, makes me look like the worst girlfriend EVER!!! But, I had to remind the kids I had only known their Dad for like not even 2 weeks when his birthday rolled around on November 16th …..i had these glow in the dark stars on my ceiling at my house and Ed had said he wanted the biggest one up there to put above his bed in the barracks so he could look at it and think of me……so when his birthday came along like after the maybe 4th time I had gone out with him I gave him my biggest star. Sooo, yes lame as far as dinero spent, but I am more a sentimental person and I really do have a hard time shopping for him!!! Of course Ed then tells the kids how he took me to Mackinah Island for my 39th birthday and the jewelry he’s bought me and stuff….uuhhg! Soo, yeah, I am like a total looser! !!! Sooo I remind the kids that I don’t ever ask for big gifts! Like he could tie a string around my wrist and it would stay there until it broke off, and even then I would still keep it in my jewelry box and love it just as much as the diamond things he has bought me over the years! But the kids are still telling me that I loose, Dad wins. He did get the Harley last year for his birthday and has a bigger one getting made in the States right now for him…so if ya really want to calculate dollars…? But then we told the kids it’s not the gifts, it’s the memories that go with the gifts! Yeah, can’t tell about some of those gifts! LOL Not sure what we are going to do….wanted to do a cool dive, but the waters have been too rough, I made reservations for a sunset dinner cruise….hopefully the weather holds out….. It’s kinda a tradition for me to plan a miserable evening for him. Hopefully this one will not be sooo bad for him…….i’m just lame…………oh well……I just keep kinda wondering when he is going to trade me in…but he does still have that star i gave him back in November of 1995.......

So Far, They Have All Been Kicked Out!

I like consistency in some things…..but as for Ryan and his teeth…….huuummmm…..
Ed and i had only been gone for a little while.....we pull into the neighborhood and as we are getting out of the car we are getting a bombardment of information from the kids in the hood about a tooth getting knocked out....it all starts coming together, One of Ty's friends accidently kicked out his tooth on the trampoline. UUHHHG! First, we had just spent the afternoon at the dentist with Ty getting a cavity filled.....second, my rule is that they can NEVER jump on trampolines (or climb trees, ride bikes,....) when i am NOT home! Also kinda wondering why nobody called the cell phone?!?! Ty has his permanent teeth, this just can't be good and i was totally dreading going into the house....it turned out it wasn't Ty, it was Ryan, and it was his bottom baby tooth that got kicked out! I couldn't stop laughing. Jorden kicked out Ryan's 2 top teeth Dec 2006. Ryan learned real quick you don't tickle somebody's feet when they are sleeping, or atleast with your face right there in front of their feet. Another one of those after hour’s trip to the Doctor.... Now a bottom tooth was kicked out by his friend. I'm beginning to wonder if he will lose ANY of his teeth the natural way??!!! He said that only his lip hurt and was excited that the Tooth Fairy was going to come!!!

Okinawa Nesting Dolls!

I really like "Nesting Dolls" Always have! As a kid i always thought it was soo cool how you kept opening up the doll and another smaller one would appear. I never had my own, but loved the every once in awhile rare occasion that i got to play with one. I have bought a few in our travels. Ty really loves them too. His favorites have been the Toy Soldier one and the funky Japanese one i picked up. He wasn't too thrilled with the Russian ones or the Hawaiian ones i have picked up when we have been there. I have been looking for some from here on Okinawa to no avail....the other day i was walking thru the concessions mall and like wow, i couldn't believe it! There were four different ones!! Ed asked if i was going to have another moment like when i saw Breaking Dawn in the PX, this was after i had already searched the big book stores in Tokyo for that book knowing it wouldn't come to our little PX, and it did!! Soo, yes, it was another Breaking Dawn moment. I was thrilled and bought one of each! Ty loves the ninja and sumo ones!