When I count my blessings, I count you twice.

It's like camping.... but not.

2011-08-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

Well, on Thursday August 4th, my official due date, around 1:07pm Okinawa time we got the heads up that our TCCOR status (Typhoon Cyclone Condition of Readiness) was set to 1C because typhoon Muifa was getting close. TCCOR 1 means "Caution: Destructive winds of 50 knots or greater are anticipated within 12 hours. Actual winds are 34-49 knots." 34-49 knots = 39-56 MPH. This is the time that I was told to report to the hospital to hunker in until the storm passes us and they down grade our TCCOR to All Clear.

When I reported to the hospital they took down our names and information and gave us a choice between a cot, or a cot with an air mattress and then showed us back to where we would be ~~corralled~~ ..er.. housed until the storm passed. They later came around and told us we to choose between a cot or an air mattress because they were afraid the mattresses could slip off the cot in the night and someone might get hurt.

Most of the women came alone, per instructions from the dr's office that asked that we not bring any children or our husbands with us due to lack of space. Some brought their husband and children, but no one was turned away. At first I was bugged that Ezzy and Josh weren't with me, but after Muifa wouldn't move her big butt off of us, I'm just happy they were comfy and happy at home. :)

I've heard reports that the hospital had 70-ish women on standby to come in because they were either considered high risk or far enough along to warrant being here. In all actuality, I heard that only around 39-ish of us showed up.

The room that they had us stay in didn't have windows, two TV's that aren't hooked up to cable (so you're at the mercy of who's ever brought movies), it is carpeted, but it's just carpet on top of cement, and it doesn't have any wifi. (Good thing you all know I am married to Mr. Technology and I brought our wifi with me. Suckers!) Here's a picture of our area first set up before they took away part of our bed. Sorry it's so grainy; I took it with my iPod.

I don't know how me and all these gals ended up bunking by each other but the gal on the left was 2 days over due in this picture (no labor yet for her), then my bed and this day was my due date (no labor) and the gal far right was due in 2 days in the picture (no labor). I think we all jinxed each other. haha!

Most of the women thought this typhoon would pass as quickly as the others we've had and we'd be home by the next day or night at the latest. So really the majority of us packed a change of clothes and some pajama's and the few toiletries to get you through an overnight stay because, hey, we'd be home in 12-24 hours right? WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Muifa is proved to be a slow moving wench that kept throwing her butt around. So before we new it, we were going on our second night and the very real possibility that it could be a third.

So, I was reminded that sometimes you just have to stay positive and learn to laugh at lives craziness.

1. When asked if they had towels we could use for a shower, they came in (a couple hours later) with a handful of towels and said that they were all they had. So some ladies used their slept in shirts to dry off, and others (myself included) ended up using paper hand towels. haha!
2. Some people asked if they had some soap we could use and they said they were all out, but they handed out baby shampoo. :)
3. We were told to bring small bills and change for the vending machines for snacks or drinks.
Two problems with that: A. The machines are located outside. ...There's a typhoon raging outside. B. The American machines were taped off with plastic so they wouldn't get ruined in the rain...the Japanese machines only take Yen. So needless to say, no one really used them.
4. The snack shop on the 2nd floor is closed because there's no one to run it.
5. The only time to get food or drinks is during the designated hours in the galley. The only way to have access to that food is with cash... which no one tells you about. So most people didn't bring cash to pay for meals with. What's that you say? ... just go get money out of the ATM? ... Great idea! ... excepts it's outside and you're not allowed outside during the typhoon. FAIL! (They did end up taking down peoples information and then making a tab to bill them later for.)
6. If you want water you can get it out of the water fountain, but if you want ice you have to ask some one to basically escort you into the ER or if they are feeling really generous they will let you into the galley when it's closed to get ice.
7. The galley has a seating area with two tv's and lots of windows that would provide a nice area to sit and relax apposed to the room without windows or the waiting rooms that have limited seating. You are not allowed in there unless it's eating time. ...even for that ice cold water. (They did bring us in a basin filled with ice and some plastic cups the first night.)
8. I guess Labor and Delivery here is considered busy once 3 patients are in labor. This really is comical to me because back home L&D would be having a nice relaxing day with 3 patients.
9. Their post-partum floor has 9 rooms, and I think they hold 2 patients each. ...18 patients total?! I think that would require only 2 cna's back home and that'd be an easy load! (I hope the new hospital they are finishing up in the next year has more beds then this. Especially if they have 70 something women ready to go into labor at any given time.)

I didn't type that list to mock or bad mouth Lester Hospital and the staff that stuck out Typhoon Muifa with us. There's just times where things aren't going to go perfectly, and when that happens, you have to find the humor in it. If you don't, you won't make it through... or you will look like one of those really rude people. Who wants to look like that? ;)

In all reality, these men and women were stuck there too. When they weren't on shift they had to stay at the hospital, some of them being there for as long as 5 days! Everyone was incredibly nice, helpful when they could be and genuinely concerned for our comfort. They were creative when times called for it (water leaking in through windows creating giant invisible puddles just waiting to take someone out) and seemed to react quickly if there was a problem somewhere.

It's was an experience to say the least. One that I will definitely look back on with a smile, but I won't want to do again.

Some funny pictures that I've taken while sitting at the hospital.

When we went to look at the vending machines outside the ER (before we weren't allowed outside) we noticed this sign:

The ER has a Typhoon Entrance that was clearly marked in red to the left. Lol, people must have missed it.

I found this ad in a news paper here. It is so random!


So many weird things: 1. Mexican Style Pasta? 2. Bald grungy biker...apparently at a fair, with a balloon and ice cream. (I like his pointy boots.) 3. The random cows ... and then the one with the conversation cloud coming out of it's but. haha!

No Typhoon + No Labor = A Day At The Beach!

2011-07-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast said that we would be hit by a big typhoon Sunday or Monday Japan time. The last typhoon we went through was a category 2, and that was enough of a taste for me. We've been through wind storms back home, but this was unearthly and really unnerving. Our windows in our house would bow in and out from the force of the wind. Typhoon Ma-jon? It was forecasted to be a category 4, double the one we went through!

Another catch is that since I am past 36 weeks, I would have to go and stay at the hospital to prevent any dangerous emergency situations or just a home delivery. Josh and Ezzy would have to stay at our home and we'd be split until the typhoon passed. The possibility of going into labor and delivering Kanyon alone was scary, but doing this while my husband and other baby are without me in a major typhoon? Give me a break! I was an anxious mess. haha

Thankfully, the typhoon was T-Boned by another tropical depression and it spun it hard to the right and made it miss us all together. We have been very lucky and blessed!

So, without a typhoon to keep us in doors and no onset of labor, we decided to go to the beach for the day. I'm always hesitant to say the real location of these great 'secret' beaches because the fewer people that know about them, the fewer people we have to put up with at it. Is that rude? ... No, I don't think so. Picture when you go to the lake or the dam for the day and you some how managed to pick the day that no one is up there. We all like some time in the sun to ourselves. :)

Vaughn and Josh

Hot, sweaty mess before we started trekking water up to her. The tide was going out and causing some good size waves. Ezzy hasn't really been to a beach that's had waves like this and it freaked her out. We couldn't get her to go near the water to cool off until 30 minutes before we left.

Josh enjoying the view.

Loves Nutter Butter's and Oreo's. :)

Just love this little girl!!!

Me taking in the view. ...Really I was probably thinking about baby Kanyon and when he'll get here. I've got labor on the mind 24-7! haha

So pretty! These rocks have a little cave through them that when the tide is low you can walk through to another great beach. The waves were breaking a little to hard for us to try and see the other side though.

The other end of the beach. It's more rocky here, but seemed to be a good fishing spot for the locals.

One of the first places we didn't see the rocks covered in Urchins.

Right before I finally tempted her to come and play in the water. Once we had Josh hold her on his lap and then lift her when a wave came, she had a blast! She would get so excited for the next wave. I just wish she would've done it earlier because she was pretty sad when it was time to go home.

Looks like I know where we will be spending a lot of our beach weekends. :)

Playing Catch Up

2011-07-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the hiatus from blogging. Really, I don't know what made me stop...I think I just forgot. Oops! But now with the start up of Google+, I want to see if I can turn my social sites, blogging, and news reading into a one site stop. I hope it will
tie everything together and make it a lot easier to remember to post to blogging even after I have posted the same pictures and information to Google+.

Anyways, enough tech stuff! Lets get to the good stuff. :)

I become sad when I realize just how quickly the time has gone since we had Ezzy. I never truly understood what it meant to be present in the moment until now. There are such great parts of every day with her that I never want to forget. From her coming in to wake me up in the morning, the way she smiles and says, "Hi momma! You sleep good?", to the way she says, "Mom, thanks so much for helping my Ezzy get chocolate milk." to bed time when she wraps those little arms around my neck, gives me kisses and says, "I love you mom." Really, I NEVER want to forget these, and it's only going to get better with our Kanyon due any day now.

Some of these great little moments I've pictured below.

June:

A rainy day makes for a perfect opportunity to paint and that makes a perfect opportunity for a FUN time! Josh helps me remember to not to be so serious. He's a great father and husband. :)

June:

Playing at Araha Beach.

June: Father's Day

I was making Josh Chocolate Chip Cookies for Father's Day and Ezzy helped me. She loves playing with flour.

Father's Day Kisses :)

June:

Finger painting again.

July: Okinawa Zoo

Could these spiders be any more disgusting!?

Merry-Go-Round Rules

Once we get some new pictures uploaded I will get on the blog again.

Castle Ruins and Scary Stories

2011-05-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

When the afternoon rolled around on Easter Sunday, we really didn't have anything else that we needed to do for the day. We decided to go for a drive to explore a different part of the island we haven't been to while Ezzy could nap in the car. We headed out with no where in particular to go and as we were navigating through random left and right turns, Josh realized we weren't far from a haunted hotel he'd read about online.

The Royal Hotel itself is off limits to all US military/military-civilian persons and their families; but we still wanted to see if we could find it and look at it from afar. We parked at an overlook of the hotel and snapped some pictures. We didn't really know the story behind the hotel at this point, only that it was considered haunted by the locals and off limits to us. We drove on and saw that we were right by the Nakagusuku Castle Ruins so we gave Ezzy some more time to sleep and then turned around to see the ruins.

We went up and paid to go into the castle site and started our long walk through the grounds. The ruins were built sometime in the middle of the 14th century by the Ryukyuan Lord, Sakinakagusuku Aji. It's a beautiful site built high on a hill and provides many scenic spots for photos. It's well worth the money to just stop, take a relaxing walk and appreciate the beauty of it all.

Every wall is built with hand laid rocks, boulders really. Each one cut and chiseled to a snug, puzzle like fit. On some of the outlying stones you can still see the chisel marks made by the workers of the castle.Their pride and love for their work shows in how long those stones have stood through the times; even through the Battle of Okinawa. It was amazing to think how many generations of royals had walked those same grounds that we were standing on as well.

Some of the pictures were a little hazy looking because of the yellow dust storm that was moving in from China.

First views of The Haunted Hotel

The initial walk up to the ruins.

Looking at The Third Enclosure and The Rear Gate

The Rear Gate that leads to The Ufugaa Well path.

A very nice Japanese couple took this for us. :)

The stone archway of The Rear Gate.

Stairs leading to the wall of The Third Enclosure. I'm assuming the guards would walk these walls looking for attackers.

She loves rocks. I had to keep her from trying to take them home.

One of the outer walls on The Northern Enclosure.

One of the 'older' walls.

View from the top of The Third Enclosure looking south over Nakagusuku Bay. ...At least I think so. Lol!

The third enclosure, also called Miigusuku, or New Castle. It was added later and was built in a more advanced way called, Aikatazumi, or Turleback. Meaning all the rocks are in curvilinear shapes.

Josh and Ezzy going through an archway to the North Enclosure.

Going through an archway that lead to the Kanjaagama, or workplace of the blacksmith.

Ezzy running on a grassy flat the over looks the haunted hotel.

Ezzy got a little to far away. ;)

The Haunted Hotel! It looks haunted, and it feels creepy.

Scary and scared faces.

The walk going down to The Ufugaa Well, which is located in The North Enclosure.

This is how Josh and Ezzy made it down to the well.

The walk up from the well.

Playing on the castle grounds. ...How is Kanyon still breech? I was doing handstands at 6 months pregnant!

...And cartwheels!

She is such a sweet girl!

Ending the night with some dancing in her Monkey jammers. :)

The Royal Hotel story, as I understand it:

A wealthy Okinawan businessman decided to build a luxury hotel in the early 70's on sacred ground that once held a portion of the Nakagusuku Castle, or was apart of the grounds. He was warned multiple times by the locals that the grounds were sacred and from one story I read, from local monks telling him that the hotel was too close to a cave (or tomb?) that held restless spirits. The businessman didn't listen to any of them and went along with the construction of the hotel. He aimlessly built without blueprints or plans, putting in stairwells that lead to dead ends and doors that open to no where. As the work continued, multiple construction accidents claimed the lives of some of the workers. Soon everyone refused to do any work at the hotel and construction was stopped. Having spent his entire savings on building this hotel, the businessman went insane and was committed to an asylum. In other accounts that I read, the businessman's son was killed near the time construction was stopped. Some accounts claim he was killed at the doomed hotel, and shortly after that is when the man went insane. It's said that a monk now lives at the hotel remains and has built a small altar to help the spirits rest.

When we were at the grounds of the grassy flat that looks directly at the hotel, Josh and I were talking about how ominous it looked and felt. It's eerily still, silent. We stood there for a moment listening and we heard an odd distant scream, or wail from somewhere around the hotel. I passed it off as something from an animal, like a birds calling. Then Josh jokingly said to me, "Did you hear that scream? It's the spirits." I laughed it off, but right then the same wailing cry called out again. I'm convinced it was something foreboding from that shadowed place.

Obviously I can't say it was a restless spirit, or that the hotel is even haunted. What I can say is that Okinawa has very long standing traditions that are believed and followed still to this day regarding the deceased. Even if they aren't followed, they are still very deeply respected and honored. The spirit world is not something forgotten here; nor is it to be disrespected without consequences to follow. You know when you walk in a cemetery and you get that quiet feeling that almost warns you to be respectful and mindful of where you are because there's something else that is watching you? That's the feeling I've gotten on multiple times at seemingly ordinary spots on the island. I truly believe that even the deceased's spirits believe in their traditions of respect for theirs and other spirits. I believe that some still protect those rites, and that's not something I want to mess with.

Happy Easter!

2011-05-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

Having multiple families to visit on holidays isn't always a bad thing. We've always been pretty spoiled as far as Easter breakfast and dinner go. Someone is always doing the bulk of it, and we just have to pitch in here and there. This year, like so many other 'family' times, we're flying solo. I decided it can't be a real traditional Easter because we have to forgo all dairy and eggs right now to see if Ezzy has a dairy allergy. So, I decided that we would splurge a little in some other areas besides dinner.

The Saturday before Easter we dyed eggs and made sugar cookies. Even though we've been really good about not letting Ezzy have anything with dairy or eggs for the last week, we let her have some cookies and a couple boiled eggs. She was in heaven! We used to have scrambled eggs with every breakfast, and now we don't have any in the house. :( (It did show us that she definitely has some thing with eggs and dairy going on because her cheeks got bright red eczema spots on them within 12 hours after eating them.)

Sunday morning I made scones and bacon for breakfast. It made me think of my dad because scones are his thing. :) We've always eaten scones with dad. Ezzy got some new pink monkey jammies, a new outfit, some fingernail polish, chap stick and a bubble gun and then some candy. She loved everything, but she was stoked to go outside and find eggs.

Coming down the stairs to see what the Easter Bunny left her.

Finding eggs and sampling some candy.

Got a lizard in one of them.

Dyeing of the eggs.

She is such a goof! She had so much fun. :)

Ah, cute daddy-daughter moment.

Holding an egg for baby brother Kanyon!

I Got My Toes In The Water....

2011-04-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

Lately it has really started to warm up over here. I know I've said this before, but I am shocked how cold it gets over here! At first it was neat to see the different changes in this climate, then I got pregnant. I don't know what it is about the air outside when it's cold, but I think it stinks so bad! I had a hard time motivating myself to get out of the house because I would dread 'The Smell'. ha ha! I just miss that cool, crisp way the winter air smells right off the mountains in Utah, inversions and all. ;) ...*sigh*... Okay, moments over. Now that it's warming up, 'The Smell' has gone away and the birds sing every morning. We went to the beach 2 out of 4 days this weekend and I could easily of used a little more beach time.

Josh gets every other Friday off at work, so we got up and went for a long walk at Araha Beach and then let Ezzy play in the sand. I explained to her that the water is very cold right now and we weren't going to swim...only our feet could get wet. She said okay and we let her go walk around in the water. Next thing I see is her jumping in! Seriously, she walked to where it was knee deep and jumped in on her bum! I couldn't help but laugh at her excitement. :)

That hair is out of control! She hates barrettes, pony tails and any head bands. I comb it in the morning and a couple minutes later those curls have reverted back to this. ha ha!

She was having so much fun. I wonder how she'll do when we move away from the ocean.

The next time we went to the beach was with some of our friends on Saturday to Secret Beach. It's a bit of drive but man it's worth it! We forgot to take the camera down to the water with us, so we snapped these right as we were leaving. ...You have to hike down to it, so that's why the pictures are so far up. *I carried Ezzy up this when we were done...best workout of the week! ha ha! * It was really nice when we got there because some Okinawan fishermen (?) were there collecting sea urchins. I'm sure they sell them or get paid by the pound by local restaurants. Anyways, it was nice because if it's lower tide (like that day) we usually have to watch out for sea urchins on the rocks around where we let Ezzy play in the water. Since they picked that place clean, besides one urchin, all we had to do was put a rock in front of it and she was good to go. :) They carried up 5-5gallon buckets of urchins! Crazy!

Besides the fishermen, we were the only people on the beach for the 5 hours we were there.

The van brigade. I drive that sexy red minivan...and I rock it! You quickly learn that if you want to fit car seats, kid supplies, and stroller without being cramped then you need a minivan. SUV's in our price range don't exist over here. ;)

This is the entire beach. Just a cozy little cut out.

That little patch of sand up next to the rock is where we set up for the day. The water is calm and shallow and the sea urchins aren't as abundant as the other side of the beach. ;)

Lately I've had this crazy craving to bake. Not necessarily to eat, but just to bake. Maybe it's nesting...I don't know. So while I made chocolate chip cookies, Ezzy did her 'makeup'. Grandma Shellie sent Ezzy some play time makeup and she can't get enough of it!

The makeup 'pallet'.

She has so much fun playing with this.

Don't mind those messy hands. She went from eating chocolate chips to doing makeup. ha ha!

Oh Boy!

2011-03-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I probably should have come here and posted first, but I just couldn't help myself! :) I flooded Facebook with pictures and status updates and I'm feeling like this may be a little over the top. Then I remember that Josh and I agreed to having 2 kiddies and I'm not going to be experiencing this personal excitement and these little kicks that are sometimes all my own, ever again. So that putting things back into perspective...It's a boy! ha ha

When I was pregnant with Ezzy, but before we found out she was a 'she', Josh and I went over names for both sexes. We actually came up with a name for a boy then, and we've been holding onto it for the second go around. We've decided to still use that name and we're going to name him: Kanyon Joshua Pacheco. Pretty stinking cute if you ask me...but I'm pretty bias.

I'm just happy everything's going good with Kanyon and I up to this point. Although this pregnancy has been a stark difference to my last, I'm really fortunate that I've had great pregnancies. I can't complain about that.

Face on shot

Side Profile

Love those hands!

Crossed feet...funny because I'm sitting with my feet crossed just like this. :)


He's not bashful! ha ha, can't wait to pinch that bum!

8 Months Down, and Only 4 to Go! ...sorry, long post.

2011-03-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry this post is so long, but July is only 4 months away and I just realized what that means for us. For Josh and I, that means we will start to put a lot of hard financial times behind us.

I think sometimes we hide a lot of the 'hard' parts of our daily lives from everyone else for a number of reasons. Maybe the reason that Josh and I have never shared this big struggle with anyone has simply been because we've always known that hard times come and go. For us, we just had to work hard to get ourselves out of this part. Also, a part of it for me has been pride. It drove me nuts that he and I worked so hard for so long just to start scraping by again. ...I should explain...

Ever since Josh and I have started dating we've been together. We moved in 3 months after having the we're-exclusive-only-me-and-you-please-don't-break-my-heart talk. We've always been a two income team who understood that our jobs didn't bring in a great amount of money in the beginning. BUT we managed to do well for ourselves and we were getting to a comfortable place, but it didn't seem that we would move far past that.

I don't want to sound greedy, because that's so far from what this is. Josh and I have goals for ourselves and our family. We understand if all we ever attain is a 'comfortable' living, then we've done well; however, we'd like to add some perks in there like vacations without stress of money, eating out without having to budget money from somewhere else ... that kind of stuff.

In comes Japan. When Josh first told me about it, I cried and said, "No, I can't leave my family, or my job." Well, then I lost my job. :) (Nothing negative here.) Some of you might not know, but my boss at the time was also one of my (still) very dear, best friends. I hold no ill regard, only thankfulness. If I never lost my job, we'd never have moved to Japan and had this awesome experience.

After I lost my job we went from comfortable to survival. Josh started working almost 60 hour work weeks to supplement our lost income and even still we were in the negative every month. We were putting more and more on credit and trying some how to 'rob Peter to pay Paul' type of things. If I'm completely honest with myself, we were heading for big, big trouble. It was heart breaking to watch all your hard work sift through your hands. We weren't irresponsible by any means. We just went from 60 to zero in a blink of an eye and it was hard to real it all in and this time, we had a little girl to think about and take care of.

So Japan, part 2. Josh brings it up again, but this time with the information of how much money we would be saving a month, and how after just a few short years we'd be debt free and have restored our savings. ...How do you argue with that? I'd be a selfish wife and mother if I said no. This is what our family needed, desperately! I feel like I have to say this too: I didn't apply for a job because we wanted to be ready when we got the opportunity to go to Japan. Also, because Josh's work schedule, we would have had to utilized day care somewhere in there and after crunching numbers, we'd still be losing money. At my previous job, I was allowed to take Ezzy to work with me.

It felt truly hopeless.

Fast forward through more time of a limited super tight budget and Josh got the news that he got the job! Away we moved to Okinawa about 4 or 5 months later and let me tell ya, it hasn't been a financial picnic over here either. Although we're WAY better and actually going to be debt free before our estimate, there's some different expenses that we couldn't foresee.

We were making our UT house payment for 3 months because we didn't get a renter in our house until September. Add that with the fees and expenses with renting a house in Japan and that's a HUGE portion of our monthly income.

When you rent a home over here, you have to pay fee's to the agency that found your house. The fee's are around (are you sitting down?) $12,000.00 for our house. No joke, and that's not covered in our moving or rent supplementation. So the government lets you take out an interest free cash advance on your pay. The kicker is that it HAS to be paid off in a year. That's $1,000.00 a month we are losing on top of our UT house payment. (Thankfully we found a house where our awesome land lord includes all utilities and internet.)

Then, you can't move here without having a car. For Josh and I, we needed two because (add another expense) Ezzy was in and out of dr's offices repeatedly the first 4 months for her ears. The van we bought through a dealer and we are making monthly payments on an interest free loan. (pretty sweet) Josh's car we bought from a guy who was moving back to the states, so that was another 1,000 out of pocket. (He actually gave us a really good deal.) You can't have a car without car insurance and American's have to pay two types: JCI and regular insurance. JCI is around 1,000 a car, and you pay it every 2 years. Ours was included when we bought the van, but Josh's we had to pay out of pocket.

Add misc. money grabbers like cost of living, poor yen rate, groceries (3.89 for a 1.5 gallons of milk! $2.00 for 1lb of potatoes! Apples just under $5.00 a pound! YIKES!) and they absolutely do not sale anything 'generic' on base. (Don't get me started on this!) Then that our UT house's roof just had to be fixed because it was leaking and our home owners insurance doesn't cover any of the roofs portion... $1200.00 later... but they cover the interior portion ...almost $900.00...but we need to meet our $500.00 deductible.... Ezzy's ears are still giving us problems and I'm coming to grips with the fact that tubes in her ears are inevitable and that's another medical expense.

[insert frustrated scream here....big breath]

Now you have the idea that these last 2 years our family has been literally scraping every penny and making them count. We've had major set backs and major rewards. Leaving our home and families has been heart breaking-ly hard, but there's a finish line and I'm so damned determined to reach it!

July is in 4 months and we don't have to pay that $1,000.00 to ourselves. We literally will have that much extra in our account. I can't even tell you what that means to me. (*tears, lots of tears*) Literally surviving is over and recovery begins. We will be even more comfortable then when we were 'comfortable'. It's been so hard and scary.

So that's why we are so excited for this summer. There's so many good things that will be happening to our family. You know what else? What better way to welcome July then with our new baby!? Holy moly! It's going to be a great, freaking, fantasticly amazing July!

As if I couldn't love Summer more!

There's not a lot of pictures that I could tie into this post, so I just figured really any picture is a reward if you really read all that. :)

The insurance EOB's since we arrived in Okinawa. The stack on the left is EOB's I'm still waiting on the ins to pay...and the one on the right is EOB's that we have paid for. I am so thankful for our insurance! It's AMAZING!!!

This is all we can afford for Josh when he needs a drink. Lol! He giggled at this. :)

Ezzy's new 'cowgirl' hat ... and the stick she found in our back yard the eerily looks like Jack the Pumpkin Kings hand. At first she was freaked out about it, then she wouldn't put it down.

Eating Spam Musabi: Spam, and sticky rice wrapped in sea weed. She loves it!

Playing at the park with her play group.

Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE these things on play grounds?

There was a plane flying by. ha ha

Whew! Look at that static! ha ha!

So cute. :)

She started out going feet first...I got the camera read to get a picture when she rounded the corner.. and this is how she somehow came out! I was laughing so hard. She had the most startled look on her face. Lol!

Love and miss you all!

Just some funnies from around the island :)

2011-02-25T07:05:00.000-08:00

So, we don't have nearly the funny pictures that some of the people we've met on the island have, but we have some that have made me giggle and go, "Ewwe!", and, "Ah...wait a minute".

None of these were taken to mock or be offensive in any way. (let me get that out there right now.) I'm sure there's been some good laughs had from the Japanese or Okinawan people because some person got a funny tattoo in their language or they've seen us eating something that just doesn't seem natural. Anyways, here's some that Josh or I have taken while we are out and about. Hopefully you find them as interesting or giggle producing as we have and do. :)


This is a kids shirt in American Village. he he


So, I always get a kick out of the use and non-use of 'r' and 'l'. Notice it's George Fomon? Lol! I giggle every time. :)

Both of these are from the zoo. ..can't say they didn't warn you!


Want to get your car tuned up and running great? ...well I was sold at the little elf dressed like Santa!


A candy bar named Crunky? ...you know you're giggling. Galbo Chips are a chocolate cookie with a light chocolate coating on them and the Koala Cookies (that's our official name for them) are a vanilla cookie with chocolate or strawberry frosting inside. weird note, my sister Jackie and I remember eating these as kids growing up in Utah.

Vending machines are everywhere! ...within a 3-4 minute walk from our house we have 7 or 8! ...thank goodness this wasn't isn't close, because it sells beer in it! (bottom left row)

Traditionally 'Sashimi' is raw fish thinly sliced and served with soy sauce and wasabi. Josh and I could only assume that Beef and Horse Sashimi would be thinly sliced cow and horse meet! WEIRD! I'm an adventurous eater...but that's outside my realm of daring.

KitKats are pretty crazy over here. You can get your usual chocolate wafer deliciousness ... or you can get one of the other varieties like: Sweet Potato (in the picture), Green Tea, Soy Sauce, Buttery Potato ... and the list goes on... seriously there's been around 80 varieties of Kit Kats. Don't believe me? Go here and read the article on these. It's crazy! That Kit Kat I was holding was 1600 Yen, at the time that was $20.25. Yeesh!

Only on Kokusai Street. ha ha

Really? .. Really? Even the guy in the billboard doesn't understand what the little kid dressed like that means. ha ha!

Produce...it's a bike shop, not a farmers market...like I thought. ha ha!

So, that's it for now. I'll get back to blogging some family stuff after this weekend. Love you all!

Bright as a Himawari (sunflower)!

2011-02-21T05:16:00.000-08:00

Saturday we woke up and figured we'd try our luck with the weather and go see the sunflower festival that was going on not to far from where we live.

I have to give some major credit to Josh. We actually didn't know how close the sunflower's were to our house, so we figured that Ezzy could take a little nap on the way. In that thinking, we decided to leave the house at nap time... A.K.A. The time that she decides to throw some of her worst tantrums. So while she's starting to let out her naughty side before we even leave the house...I was already at the end of my pitiful rope. Call it pregnancy hormones or whatever you will, I was running on empty with her.

Josh was trying to get Ezzy to be happy and calm down and trying to get me to be happy and calm down...all before we left the house. Yay!!! I even caught myself saying to Ezzy, "We're going to go look at the flowers, and we're going to have a good time!" ha ha! How many times have we heard that from our own parents. Bless them. Truly, bless them. But, Josh kept his wits and sense of humor, I laughed instead of crying and Ezzy got a little nap in the car. All in all we had a fun time.

Ezzy loved running through the flowers and the mud. She even fell on her butt twice and got pretty dirty, but she just laughed and got back up. We all were pretty muddy, but only Ezzy rode home in her diaper. I don't think it would have been pretty if Josh and I rode home in our skivvies. :)

So here it is: thanks babe for being the patient one when I don't have it in me. Thanks for giving me a couple hours to myself the next day so I could recharge my 'battery' and thanks for letting me nap on the couch for an hour today. ha ha!

Since you read that, here's the pictures! Enjoy!

I couldn't believe how tall the flowers get! They dwarfed Ezzy.

The young and perky ones. ;)

We had a really hard time getting her to look up at the camera. ha ha

Running through the mud and the leaves.

I can't pass this picture without laughing. Josh pulls the funniest faces...even after the rough start to the morning we had. :)

There were bumble bees everywhere!

Too bad she wasn't looking up. She just wanted some more dirt to play in.

Thousands of sunflowers! This was one of 4 fields.

Hey! We got her to look up. :)

I loved this ones white washed petals.

So cute. :)

What do you write about this one?

Watching out for cars.

She didn't want to go home. She was having too much fun!

The bump.

Bed Time

2011-02-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

Every night we go through the same bedtime routine: If it's bath night then we get in the bath, brush teeth, get jammies on, give daddy kisses goodnight and then we climb into bed and read a book or two. The books usually change up every once in a while and at the time of this video (a couple weeks ago) Ezzy was loving JUST A THUNDERSTORM by Mercer Mayor. She's reciting from memory, she can't read .. yet. ;)

Some quick updates about the pregnancy: Last week I started to feel our baby move. :D It's been fun to sit down every night and get to experience those little kicks and squirms. While the morning sickness still comes around every so often, it's not as frequent as normal so I'm starting to get some more cravings. Lately it's B.L.T.'s ...heavy on the mayo and tomatoes. Other then that we're all doing well and holding out for the time when we can get back out to the ocean to swim.

So, until we do something fun this weekend...I'm thinking the Sunflower Festival up in Nago, I hope you enjoyed this little video of Ezzy. Love and miss you all GREATLY!

Put up or shut up time :)

2011-02-10T23:52:00.000-08:00

Well I realize since the last threatening post I wrote, I better get back on here and get some pictures and a good story for you all to read. It hasn't been easy to get back to blogging because our main laptop that I use is out of commission until we get a new power cord. (We think the difference in voltage here may have fried it.. oops!) So now I have my pregnant behind on the hard floor so I can blog from our little netbook. Can you hear the violins playing for me? I know, sad hu? Any who, here's what we've been up to since we've had a warm break in the weather.

It gets a little warm and 'Magoo' can't help herself. Every time Josh and I looked outside she had one less article of clothing on. Then when Josh washed off our grill, Ezzy took that as time to run through the water. :) How do you say 'No' to a naky bum like that?

We drove up to Nago (the northern part of Okinawa) with our friends Vaughn and Becky to the Nago Castle Ruins to see the cherry blossoms. In true Oki fashion, the road that leads to the ruins is a two way road, but you are barely able to fit two cars side by side on it. So when we turned down the road, another car was coming and they wouldn't move over anymore for us (we were pushed over as far as we could go without hitting cement sidewalk guards). So Josh tried to pull into a little drive way and the back tire clipped a brick on the side of the road and it blew out our tire! He ended up stopping the car right in front of the festivals little parking lot. Yeah.. awesome! So after a parking attendant came and directed traffic around the our van and a very nice Okinawan man came over and helped get the tire off the bottom of the van (directions were in Japanese, lol!) they got the tire changed and went and parked the car.


The drive to Nago is a lengthy one, especially because I drank a little too much coffee and water on the way there. As soon as I had the chance I went to the bathroom...and I realized, I don't think I've ever taken a picture of these toilets! We loving refer to them as 'Squatty Potties'. At most public restrooms (even in the airport) you will find these. Sometimes the only way to get a sit down style toilet is to use the handicapped stall. ...They aren't optimal, but when you got to go...You got to GO!

At every festival we have been to, this same type of food set up has been there. They have fries, and a type of fried chicken similar to chicken fingers, but then they have yakitori (meat on a stick that has a sauce on it) and other types of traditional fare. There's always a big bucket of ice cold drinks to pick from as well.

Ezzy waiting for dad and Vaughn to get back from parking the car.

The Dettman's, Josh and Ezzy all getting geared up for the long flight of steps to the top.

Josh helping Ezzy up the stairs. Notice the Orion lanterns strung from the trees? That's the locally brewed beer and pride of Okinawa. Also, the brewery is right across the street from the castle ruins.

She got tired so Josh let her ride on his shoulders, she did the dress thing all on her own, ha ha!

One of my favorite pictures of the blossoms.

Family shot! It's so fun to finally start to get the belly showing. :D

There's something about this picture I love. Maybe it's that the jungle looks so wild and green behind Ezzy who looks so innocent in her pink crocks.

Josh, Vaughn and Becky at the Castle Ruins ... well they say the ruins used to be here. lol!

Is this a poinsettia? I have no idea, but it is beautiful!

Nothing says peaceful, beautiful walk like seeing an old mans underwear hanging out to dry. I told Josh the guy must have had some serious 'Sw-ass' and had to dry his chonies.

She's smiling because she was throwing rocks at me...but it makes for a good picture! ha ha

This bridge was really neat ... and really high up!

Litter...there's always litter. It's so odd to me. ..Don't worry we picked it up and threw it away.

This plant reminds me of a Lime Ricky. ha ha

While we were walking back down I noticed this bat in the tree. It's really unusual to see a bat anywhere during the day, especially awake and active like this.

She is so funny! I laugh every time I look at this picture. ...Poor josh though, he has her stinky feet in his face. And they are STINKY! ha ha ha!

When I see neat plants like these it makes me think of my mom. :)

Ezzy looking into the pond. A couple times she would jump on that one rock...I was so afraid she was going to fall in.

Evil Laughter "Bwa! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

2011-02-01T05:27:00.000-08:00

Well, I am stuck in limbo between just being a blog follower and a blog poster.

Before we moved to Okinawa, I figured I'd keep this blog going more for the grandparents and any family or friends that wanted to check in and see what we've been up to. But lately the majority of my internet time is spent surfing through oodles and oodles of crafty blogs for inspiration and motivation instead of posting our adventure.

I know in my heart that the grandparents aren't checking our blog weekly to see what we've been doing. (Shame on you!) ..To be honest, I don't think those grandparents are savvy to the blog world. (Man are they missing out!) ...and if you want to get real technical I don't think the grandparents were aware that I've been doing a blog! (Shame on me?)

So this January I came up with this great idea! I would send out a monthly email update letting everyone know what we've been up to and with that email I would attach some fun pictures (because everyone pays attention when pictures are involved!)

So today is February 1st, and I was just sitting down to type the new months email when it hit me. Uh...isn't the email basically blogging? It's just the really really REALLY old way of doing it. So, lead into my evil laughter (it's not just a random title), I'm forcing them to come and look at the blog. At least for this month so I know if it's worth it to them to come and read up on us every once in a while. Then I'll be able to figure out where to go from there.

So grandparents, no more email updates!...well maybe just a couple to remind you to visit the blog.

BWA HA HA HA!

October Part 1

2010-10-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

Well, October has come and gone apparently, so I better get to blogging about some of the stuff that we did.

This really was a month that has tested Josh and I on a lot of different levels. We've dealt with numerous more problems with Ezzy's ear(s), including her rupturing her ear drum with a sucker stick! Her ears only add to the growing terrible two's that have taken the sweetness out of my girl and left 90% naughty attitude.

wusah....wusah

Onward, we finally got people to rent our home back in the states; however, because it's taken 3 months to find a renter we're at a point where living frugally is they only way to live at the moment. It gets tricky paying a mortgage back home, rent here (the yen rate is so low, we are losing 20 cents on the dollar and making up the difference out of pocket), car payments, insurance and all the rest that comes with a big move to another country. So needless to say, I'm welcoming November with open arms at this point. Another good thing about November, we are spending Thanksgiving at the Okuma Resort in a cabin on the beach. ...I think my insides just sighed a little.

With all that said, there really have been some good parts and I'm going to focus on those right now.

Ezzy has made a new friend, Abby. They are so cute together. :)

One of the Sheisa that guard the entrance into Fushuken Gardens. They are carved from a solid piece of marble! AMAZING!

This is Becky and Ezzy at Fushuken Gardens. Becky and her husband Vaughn have fast become our friends here in Okinawa. We just love them, and Ezzy especially loves Becky! They are so cute together. :)

Ezzy and I sharing some Puffy Snow on the top side of Kokusai Street. From what I can tell it's a milk mixture that's frozen, finely shaved and then topped off with a topping of your choice. The table we are sitting at shows all the different toppings you can get. It was pretty good!

Torii Station hosted Rocktober Fest at their beautiful base. When I say beautiful, I mean BEAUTIFUL! They have a view that any other base should envy! This is Josh, Bob, Bob's son Matt and Ezzy all sharing some drinks together. *don't worry, Ezzy's is a kids slushy.*


Josh ... well what can you say? He's my soul mate!

The Whale Sharks tail is as big as Ezzy.

Scuba diver cleaning up the tank.

Sweet Potato ice cream. The local sweet potatoes are purple, that's why it's purple. It was pretty good. :)

If ever an Eel was cute, this is it! The Garden Eel is probably as big around as a pencil and can bend it's little body at an unnatural 45 degree angle. I can't help but laugh every time I see these pictures. I love them!

That's up to the 12th of October. I will post some more pictures in the next week. Right now, I need to get ready while Ezzy naps so when she wakes up I can scoop her up into the car and get us to the ocean! We've been away from it for too long! She and I both have cabin fever!

A busy day in August

2010-10-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

...Trying to get caught up. Sorry! ....

On August 6th we went to Manzamo Point, Nago Pineapple Park and Nago Castle Ruins

Manzamo Point

Manzamo Point is (surprise) absolutely beautiful! When you arrive, there is a parking lot surrounded on both sides by vendors selling souvenirs, t-shirts, towels and food. Most of the vendors are older women and they loved on Ezzy like any good grandmother does to her grandchild. They were so sweet and gave her free trinkets and flowers to put in her hair. Every time we go out anywhere I am shocked at the level of hospitality and genuine friendliness that the Japanese people have.

...anyways, back from that tangent..

So! They are really nice to Ezzy...after you pass the shopping area you head to left and there's a trail that leads through thick, green foliage. The trail snakes along the cliff top and offers amazing views of the ocean below. Sometimes I have heard Manzamo referred to as 'Toilet bowl' because when the tide is high, there's a spot where the water churns and smashes in a circular part and it looks like a toilet flushing. Anyways, you can look straight down to crystal blue water and see the coral below. It really was breath taking.

This is the 'toilet bowl' part. It really is something amazing to see in person.

The water just draws you out to it.

I was so happy that we got a family shot in. A really nice man offered to take a picture for us and he did a great job!

Crazy curls. :)

Another view from the top.

All done and ready for some fresh pineapple!

This picture of Ezzy cracks me up every time I see it. We went to the wrong place at first, but it was worth the mix up just for this picture. :)

About 30-ish minutes later we figured out our way to the Nago Pineapple Park. Once you go inside you pay for a ride on a computer controlled golf cart through a green house type building where you see pineapples in different stages of growth, and varying flowers, trees and shrubs. The smell inside the park is filled with ripe pineapple and flowers. It's by far one of my favorite smells.


Rows and rows of pineapples. :)

At the end of the golf cart ride you can go through a sea shell gallery that houses many different shells, coral and skeletons of giant crabs. We managed to snap a decent picture of Ezzy looking at the giant clam shells. It's amazing how big these get! I know some people who have found a giant clam shell (not as big as this) when they were digging in the sand making a sand castle.


At the very end of the tour you can sample, and if you wish, buy some Pineapple wine. There's 3 different kinds, but they only had two to sample. There was one that still makes me shudder. It tasted just like salty pineapple. It was not good at all! There other kind that was really good. It was super sweet and would be more of a dessert wine..... probably made to go with some of the sweet cakes they also sell here. In the same area they had different juices to try. There's a variety of juices including pineapple, lime, and goya. Goya is a bitter melon that is popular with the Okinawan people...but seems to be a love/hate relationship with Americans. I like it. (Go figure.) It's really bitter and other then that, doesn't have a lot of taste but it's packed with nutrition.

Nago Castle Ruins

As we were driving home from seeing the pineapples we saw a sign for these castle ruins. It was interesting finding where to go, but in the end we made it. ...I just wish we would have realized you can drive straight to the ruins....instead be climbed all these stairs.

Just starting the climb. Josh is such a good daddy. He carried Ezzy like this all the way up and all the way back down these steps. WOW!

First landing. ...We were covered with sweat already. The humidity is something you have to experience to understand.

Landing #2 ... now we have 'sweverything' (sweaty everything) lol!

Landing #3 Loving the view

Landing #4 Light at the end of the tunnel


As Josh so accurately put it, "after we walked about 300 stairs.. all that the ruins were was a little building and a bell.. so i rang the shit out of it!! lol" ...so true

A walk way to none other then a parking lot. ha ha

The carvings on the lantern that flank the stair case.

Christmas thoughts already?

2010-09-07T06:40:00.000-07:00

I know! I know! Thinking about Christmas at the beginning of September is a little neurotic, but I'm a little homesick right now. :(

My mom called me on Skype this morning and we talked about everything and anything and then came some little tidbits about how the holidays will be different this year because we will be going camping in a cabin on Okuma Beach for Thanksgiving.

I didn't mean to cry, I actually didn't even think I'd start crying this early, but this will be the absolute first year of my life that I won't go to my grandparent's house on Christmas Eve and open presents with them there and see my family. We have done this since forever and last year I even went three days after having my ankle operated on. I literally had to crawl up their front steps because it was too icy to use my crutches...and I was a little dizzy from the pain medication. ha ha ha!

I have taken so many traditions for granted and now am realizing I'd give a lot to be home with them all.

It's funny though, because there have been so many times that Josh and I have said that we would love to start some family traditions of our own for our children to grow up with. (He and I come from parents who have all re-married, so unfortunately there's a lot of driving on the holidays and not a lot of time for us to be at home on the actual holiday.) Now that we have this opportunity, I'm having a hard time coming to grips leaving my childhood traditions.

I guess we're just going to have to come up with some thing small this year and add to it each year until we come home. :) I can tell you this much, this house will be a winter wonderland! I read a quote today that said, "He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree." ~Roy L Smith. I love that quote and will focus on that while gearing up for the holiday season. It will be fun pulling ideas from the traditions we did as kids and apply them to our new traditions for this year.

Now I'm getting excited. And now I can sleep!

I really will start posting somethings about where we've gone and the stuff we've seen/eaten/smelled/heard...all that good stuff.

We miss everyone and can't wait to have visitors and to come home and visit.

Dinner with a view.

2010-07-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight Josh, Ezzy and I went to Seaside Ristorante (that's really how it's spelled on the building). It was an overcast, rainy day with wind gusts that carried the rain onto the patio where we chose to sit. I'm starting to realize these are the days to sit outside in Okinawa. You get to enjoy all the beauty AND you get to be some what cooler then if it were sunny with no rain or wind.

When we were seated they gave me a baggie filled with pieces of bread and told me to give it to Ezzy so she could feed the fish. I instantly thought, "Well how will the fish know that she's throwing bread to them?" (Thankfully I kept this to myself.) We took her to the balcony and those suckers were practically doing tricks to get some food thrown in for them.Within a nanosecond of the bread hitting the water there was a frenzy of silver and gray splashing in the water. There had to be at least 20 fish fighting for space to get to a quarter size piece of bread. At one point when I threw a piece in, a little fish jumped out of the water and over the swarm to get to the front and eat the bread. We left the fishes to be and ate our dinners while they were still warm. After we went back to our hungry buddies there were a couple different types of fish that joined the party.

The original ones were a bland gray color, these new ones were a black and white striped fish and then a very colorful butterfly fish, (picture 'Gil' from Finding Nemo). It was pretty cool to look down and there they were. If you walked up and down the deck the school would follow you.....can we say "Pavlov". I got a couple pictures, but nothing spectacular.

Dinner was really good and after we ordered some drinks. I got coffee (go figure, right?) and Josh got a mixed drink. It was green with a lime flavor and STRONG! For our friends that drink, just know when you order a drink here, you get a drink. They aren't messing around. :) The coffee was amazing! It came with chocolate mixed in with it and home made whip cream on top. I thought I was going to cry! I love a great cup of coffee like Josh loves electronics. ..yeah, that much.

All in all it was a great night to go out for dinner. We had a lot to celebrate since we move into our house tomorrow. Tonight is the last night that we get a daily per diem for food and we had to take advantage of it. :)

Time to go off on a tangent real quick. Japan does kids meals better then any where else! When you order your child a kids entree, they usually get an entree, drink and ice cream at the end. I have yet to see a sit down restaurant that doesn't do this. It makes it SO nice! After dinner you want that minute or two to just unwind and enjoy the great food, maybe have a drink and relax for a minute. That ice cream provides the time you need. I'm all about a little treat after dinner. And while we're off on this tangent, at this particular restaurant, when you order a drink they bring out your drink in a glass full of ice AND a big ol'pitcher of whatever you ordered. It's so nice to not have to flag down your server when you need something more to drink. ...that is all...

Oh, this post is called 'Dinner with a view' so I should post some pictures of the view off the balcony!

At the end Ezzy was pretty sad that we had to leave the fish and because I am a deeply devouted parent, I couldn't pass up this moment to take one of those 'crying' pictures. Some times that's cute, right?


Butterfly fish

The Gray fish swarming around the bread.

Ohayo gozaimasu! (Good morning!)

2010-07-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well. Look who's back to blogging.

It just took something as little as uprooting our whole family and moving half way across the world to get back on here and start writing again. Weird, go figure.

I'm sure all of you know that we moved to Okinawa, Japan on July 18th because Josh got a new job at one of the bases here on the island. The first flight was a 12 hour flight into Tokyo, Japan. This flight went pretty good, except Ezzy only slept for TWO HOURS! ... So when we landed in Tokyo at almost 2 am Utah time, and Ezzy had been up for 19 hours on 2 hours of sleep, this was the beginning of the recipe for disaster.

Once we arrived at Tokyo we had a 3 hour layover before our 3 hour connecting flight into Okinawa. The Tokyo airport is by far the most confusing airport I have ever been in. For those of you who have flown to the big airports, this blows Chicago O'hare out of the water, JFK? LAX? not a chance to coming close to this! We were so confused, that by the time we went through immigration, collected ALL our bags (we were lucky we spotted our bags on the turning belts because they apparently don't send your bags to your connecting flight carrier), went through customs, (still not even close to our flight), figured out where Japan Air flies out of, (a bus ride to terminal 2), check in at Japan Air and drop off our checked bags to them, back through security, and finally to our gate, we had about 30 minutes until we boarded the plane. YEAH!...none of that is made up....and I think, so they can get a kick out of the poor people who aren't acclimated to the humidity, there's no a/c... nope, none. You just have to slowly melt into a puddle of sticky goo and wait.

So at this point, we're starving and sitting at our gate waiting to board. Ezzy, Josh and I have been up for around 22 hours. I went and bought some fried rice and we shared the bowl. I was holding Ezzy and that's when I noticed she felt a little warm. Checked the ol'temperature and low and behold we're sporting a temp of 99.4. "Oh NO!" My sweetie doesn't get little fevers. They only start little.

So I give her a good helping of Ibuprofen and we board the plane. The take off to this flight was a little sketchy. We were right in the last row and I could feel every swerve and pull the tail did during our acceleration to take off. Once we were in the air all three of us passed out. Next thing I remember is landing...which was just as sketchy. You should not be swerving left and right on the run way. It's sad, but my flight attendant training kicked in and I went into my rear jump seat position...and started rehearsing in my head how I would quickly rip ezzy out of her car seat...hey, 25 hours of traveling on 3 hours of sleep makes one a little dramatic. :)

We made it safe and sound, got off the plane, collected bags and walked straight out of our gate to mercifully find out sponsor waiting right there. That was a reassuring sight. :) We got to our apartment/hotel and I thanked our sponsor, grabbed Ezzy and went to bed. I slept all night in the very clothes I spent the last 26 hours in and didn't care at all.

Next day, Ezzy didn't do well at all. Josh got up and went to breakfast with out sponsor, but I stayed back with her so she could nap. While she slept I kept checking that temperature and it wouldn't stopping moving upward despite the ibuprofen. I have never felt so helpless and scared in all my life. She wouldn't really move around. She just laid there with me and would sometimes open her eyes, but mostly she would be awake with her eyes closed. It was truly heart breaking. I knew Ezzy had to be seen by a doctor and I was in an unfamiliar place, didn't speak the language, didn't know where a hospital was, didn't know how to get a hold of my husband or how long he would be and I had a very ill baby. I just thought, well, I will take her and I will walk. I will ask where the doctor is and I will walk there if I have to. There's nothing else that I can do at this point.

Within 10minutes of me thinking this, Josh and our sponsors came in and they took one look at me and Ezzy and told us we better get her to the ER at Lester Hospital to be seen. I couldn't help it then, and I still can't help it now, I cried. There's no relief like that which comes from knowing you have help when you need it most.

We went to Lester and Ezzy had a fever of 104.8. I was ready to be admitted (*still not really laughing about this yet*) but they gave her some Tylenol and then checked her out. She had a double ear infection plus some virus that's going around. Her fever came down after the Tylenol and another helping of ibuprofen. We were sent on our way with some antibiotics and more tylenol and motrin and lots of instructions.

Fast forward a week and "All done! It's all better!" Ezzy's over producing mucous is drying up and everyone's functioning at a healthier level. We now have a car and this Friday we will start moving into our new house that we are renting! YAY US! It's funny what a couple of days can make.

I was ready to call it quits and tell them to send us back at exactly our two year mark; now I can understand why people fall in love with this island and the Japanese people and want to stay a little longer. The Japanese people are very nice, proud and generous. Without their hospitality over the course of this week I wouldn't have made it.

Just some quick things to catch you up to what we've done during the week and this weekend:

Jusco: Japanese mall. Level 1 is a grocery store similar to Smith's. If you want something from this level you purchase it here.
Level 2: is just like a mall. It has a food court, video arcade, then a bunch of little stores with clothes, electronics and baby items. We bought Ezzy some knock off "Croc's". They are too cute!
Also on level 1 is a doughnut store called, "Mr. Doughnut". You can get your everyday deep fried deliciousness or you can get the weird doughnut with the green frosting like I did. ...It's still unclear whether this was a green tea doughnut or a sea weed doughnut but it was WEIRD ... and kinda good. I like weird food, and I kinda enjoyed it. I don't know if I would get it again, but it wasn't horrible. I wish I had a picture of it because seeing a greenish doughnut (picture zucchini bread green) with light green frosting isn't the norm to us. ...But I'm still going with sea weed doughnut because that's exactly what my taste buds told me when I bit into it. lol

AmericanTown: This is a shopping complex that houses a huge out door mall, movie theaters, that Jusco mall, tons of restaurants and a gigantic Farris wheel. It's a really neat area that you can go to. The clothes are pricey (8000 yen or 80 dollars for a sun dress! YIKES!) This is the spot that many Japanese come to vacation.

Hedo Misaki: This is the most north point on the island and is considered one of the most spiritual and religious places on the island. I'm trying to find out more information regarding it, but I believe it was one of the spots where many Japanese (and Americans) lost their lives during the Battle of Okinawa during WWII. It's a beautiful place, but very sad considering what was lost here.

Nago City Beach: Just the city beach. ...if your city beach involves crystal blue water and amazing pieces of coral and shells that wash ashore. ...yep, just the city beach.

How do you not post something so sweet? She was so good during the day. Didn't have any melt downs and didn't cry when she fell in the down in the ocean twice! Ha ha

This was a jumbled post, but at least there were lots of pictures to get you through it. :)

We wish(ed) you a Merry Christmas!...and a Happy New Year!

2009-12-26T11:04:00.000-08:00

Quick disclaimer: I am on some pain meds right now for my previously operated on ankle. Due to these great drugs, I have been a little bit ... grammatically-challenged. My spelling and sentence structuring abilities have taken the biggest hit. So bear with me when reading this post. ....you will find many mistakes even though I've read through it a couple times and it make perfect sense to me. :)

Each year since I have been married I can't help but relate how similar Christmas planning is to Wedding planning. ...What?....you think I'm crazy don't you? Well, lets draw some similarities here:

Wedding planning takes months to years to plan for...Christmas? Months to a year to plan for.
Wedding planning takes money. Money for everything......Christmas ... well seriously? Is Christmas ever cheap?
Wedding is centered around you and your spouse that you're about to marry.....Christmas is centered around family (isn't your spouse family?)
Wedding- you stress about what to get your soon to be husband/wife for a pre-wedding gift.....Christmas you stress about what the hell to get them ...again...
Wedding- you have to buy flowers for decorations....Christmas you buy poinsettias or Christmas cactus's because they are festive and pretty.
There's so many more, but for the sake of everyone's time, let me just end with this one: after the wedding (it may have taken a day or two for this to happen) but all of a sudden it dawns on you and you think, "I just spent 'X' amount of time planning this wedding and it's over in one day!?" .....Christmas- after everyone has opened their presents and you all are sitting around in a wrapping paper daze there's a thought that dawns on you, "All this shopping for 'X' amount of months and it's all over with in just hours!?"

So, I know that at least you women out there have some kind of semblance of what I am talking about with that.
That being said, I love Christmas and all the holidays. I love to start getting ready for them and I truly love to see if I can find that gift that fits perfectly to each person on my list. Then getting to watch them open their gift and see the happy looks on their faces, well, that's what you wait for.
Josh's tradition every Christmas is to make me cry out of shock and happiness for the gift that he bought me. Two years ago I cried because he bought me some diamond earrings, the year after it was a mothers ring with a peradot for Ezzy's birth month and both years produced shocked and happy tears. I really didn't think he'd pull it off this year because we set a small budget and what I wanted didn't fit in this budget...it didn't fit in 10 of our budgets.
So when I we were finished opening presents and we were all just starting to settle and watch Ezzy play on her new poka-dot chair and he pulls three blue wrapped packages from behind Ezzy's new shelf....I honestly didn't know what to think. He handed them to me and with a sneaky-self-impressed smile he watched as I ripped the paper open.
As soon as I saw 'Rebel' I started to cry. Did he really spend the money?! Did he really buy the camera that makes me salivate and go giddy for?! YEAH BABY!!! He sure did! Underneath that beautiful wrapping paper was a Canon 'Rebel' 15.1 mega pixel camera with extra lens and bag just screaming for me to take some pictures with it. Finally when I realized there were other people in the room with me and the camera, I looked up at Josh and he said, "Number three....check."

So, that being said, here's some great pictures from Christmas day that have been taken with our new camera.

It was a great day. :)

Little miss running around and playing with her new gifts.
Josh and Ezzy handing out. She was so happy Christmas morning.

Ezzy was watching Grandma and Grandpa leaving. I love these little flannel pajamas!

Ezzy giving grandma Shellie kisses. She loves her toys from them.

Ezzy being a little ham.

I parked it on the couch and put my foot up.
Josh enjoying relaxing after a long day of taking care of me, Ezzy and then doing the Christmas thing.

Our little nativity set back lit by the Christmas tree my mom made me while I was in high school.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice....

2009-12-09T21:28:00.000-08:00

So...I have a little girl and now that makes me want animal print anything, turquoise shirts and shimmery eye shadows? ..... let me start from the beginning....

Growing up I was doing good to be able to pull my hair into a messy bun or a decent looking pony tail. ...Fashion...well that was work I left for other people to take upon themselves. I wore T-shirts, jeans, some decent shoes (mostly tennis shoes because I wouldn't have to change to go to practice) or flip flops. Clothes? Yeah, they came from sale racks and the cheaper I paid the better I felt about them. (*I once paid .75 cents for a pair of Nikes. Yep, that says seventy-five CENTS!...It was a proud, proud day for me.*)

Where were we?...Ah yes,... Makeup? Mascara, occasionally some sunblock and chap stick or lip gloss....I didn't venture out more then that. After high school I tried some eye shadows but lets be honest...you would really apply that everyday?

So then this beautiful baby girl comes a long and I realize something....there's TONS of other colors besides my wardrobe staples of black and white and occasionally pink. There's bows, and ribbons and flowers and purple butterflies and hot pink nail polish and bracelets and shoes and socks that match the pink flowers on your shirt and bibs that go with your pants and binky clips that sparkle and ANIMAL PRINT CLOTHING THAT HAS HOT PINK ON IT and ...well...you see what I'm getting at right?

Ezzy has made me want to wear my clothes, not just exist in them. Now I want to play around with colors and styles and cuts. ....I can't help but feel that this is a lot to get from a beautiful girl who looks great in anything pink and oober-girly....but it's true.

I really was serious about animal print....zebra especially. I just want zebra print everywhere right now.

Ok...so mixing textures and patters I love too. You can't tell but her cardigan has ruffles with jewel buttons, then she has the zebra print with the argyle print bow. Get out....love it.
Ezzy and I. Two peas in a pod. :)

1 Month....

2009-12-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been a month and then some since the last post. This holiday season is flying by! Josh has been working some long days at work, and now we're gearing up for the holiday party extravaganzas that will be taking place shortly and then I will have my foot operated on and then three days after that will be Christmas! We have a lot to do before then.

Josh and I borrowed my father-in-law's camera and went and took some family pictures, but because Josh forgot to get the tripod from his dad, we didn't get really any family ones of us. The pictures of Ezzy turned out great along with my mom and sisters family pictures. The Union Station on Wall Avenue is such a good place to take pictures; the colors from the trains makes for some great backgrounds.

I celebrated another birthday on November 23rd and Josh spoiled me as usual. He's a great husband and I don't think I give him nearly enough credit. He knows me like he knows computers.....and you all know, that's really good! He's a computer wiz....... He gave me a gorgeous necklace and a bouquet of Lily's and Rose's, then we did a dinner at home. (mostly because I was craving french dip sandwiches...ha ha)

It's been a great month and we are still so thankful for our family and our friends. We have a great life and can't be happier with the way things are going. I hope everyone else is having a great holiday season as well!

This is our whole fam-damily. Starting top left: Casey, Mom, Dustin, Jackie, Ava, Ashton, Me, Josh, Ezzy and in front is Destry and Alyk.

Ezzy and Daddy looking around the trains. It was so cold outside but Ezzy did great with it. She was such a champ.

Ezzy and I on the train. I can't even stand her she's so dang cute!

Our little family.

Miss fashionista in her zebra print dress. How do you not love her?

Empy threats.....

2009-11-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess my threat about information overload was a bunch of bull, hu? With one post since redoing the blog there hasn't been much activity on my end of posting. However! I have been reading or looking at everyone's blog daily. (Especially yours Diane. I always crack up when I read it.)

On some lighter notes, I am so excited for Christmas! I have begun plotting ways to get my shopping done before Thanksgiving (or at least before December). I just brought up the Christmas decorations and am getting them dusted and sorted so I know how and where to put things up this year. I want them up before Thanksgiving but Josh has put a nix on that. So the day after we eat that delicious turkey will be D-day.

Christmas music is only a day or two away for me....

I want it to be a winter wonderland inside our house. I've ordered a 'Christmas Tree' Scentsy bar and am ready to put up the tree. ....too bad the modern day Scrooge lives with me. ;) I'm kidding Josh....I'm kidding.

So just for fun, I thought I'd post some pictures from Christmas seasons past.

We go and see the lights (I'm sure along with everyone else) every year. Last year we went to Ogden City's lights and Christmas Village.
I was, and still am, a little anal about making sure Ezzy stayed warm. I put her in two layers of clothes, a baby winter body suit bundle, a beanie, mittens, her blanket, and then this awesome sleeping bag that Josh's cousins Dom and Lisa gave us for a baby shower gift. Needless to say Ezzy stayed nice and toasty and it really was so cold that under all these layers, she was comfortable, not sweaty. :)

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but last years winter weather was AWESOME!!!! I hadn't seen snow like this since I was a little kid. This is Josh snowblowing our drive way and trying to get a spot where we could stick a bucket in the snow so we could receive our mail. It was SOOOOO nice! Can't wait for this snow again this year. Lets cross our fingers.
I know what you're thinking, "Pictures of snow are boring." and yeah, at first glance this probably just looks like snow....except our back yard is two tiered and the snow is almost as deep as the second tier is high. That 'bar' you see on the right is TOP of our old porch swing. Yeah, it was that high.

Christmas is officially 48 days away from today. Hip hip! Hooray! Hip hip! Hooray!

Hope you all are doing well!

This is Halloween...Halloween! Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well, happy Halloween everyone! This is the first year with Ezzy that we've actually done some celebrating (and some celebrating with adults *smile*). We decided to make Ezzy a little Bee and she was such a good sport about it. We decided to visit family members during the day and then during the night we handed out candy and relaxed. Ezzy was going all day on a 20 minute nap so by the time we got home, it was into the jammies and bed for her.
This is Shellie, Josh's mom. Her birthday is on Halloween day and she loves to dress up as something scary and ghoulish. She hates being something pretty and girly for Halloween (which I love about her!) We went to see her and surprisingly Ezzy wasn't too afraid of her. After a couple minutes she wanted to be held by Shellie.
Our first stop of the day was visiting my sister and brother-in-law along with my niece Ava and nephew Ashton. Ava was Belle and Ashton was Jack Sparrow. Both looked GREAT! We tried to get a good picture of all three of them and Ezzy was too much of a busy bee. (ha ha, pun intended.)
Bzzzz.....Bzzzzz....Bzzzzz..... She had so much fun running around Jackie and Dustin's front yard with the kids. She was sad when we had to leave.
KILLER BEE!!! .... This sword was laying on the floor at my dad's and Josh gave it to Ezzy. How could you not give a little girl dressed in a bee costume complete with yellow tu-tu a blood stained sword? It makes for the funniest pictures. Look at her smile....there's too much enjoyment from holding that gruesome thing.
She was such a happy, patient girl. After leaving my dad's house she was exhausted and ready for a little siesta.
So...here we are waiting for the witches, ghosts and goblins to come collect their candy and I realized Josh and I hadn't gotten any pictures of each other on this Halloween. So I grabbed the camera and start snapping a couple pictures. We're both notorious for pulling funny faces but when we looked at this one Josh started cracking up and told me that I look like Mad Madam Min from Disney's 'The Sword In the Stone' cartoon movie. Now I can't look at this picture without cracking up too.

This one is just to prove we CAN look semi normal at brief moments. This was a good year as far as trick-or-treaters is concerned. Let me explain.....last year we handed out maybe 30 cans of pop (while dodging dirty looks from overseeing parents). So this year I bought 40 Capri-Suns and then we had maybe another 20 pieces of candy as a reserve that I never thought we would need. Well, about an hour after we got home ALL the Capri-Suns were gone. Not a one left and two hours after that we had two pieces of candy. All in all we made it without running out of candy, but I was pleasantly shocked by the number of Halloweeners out there.

*******Halloween Ranting Alert*******

I have to get something off my chest real quick.
If you are over the age of 12 you should not be going trick-or-treating any longer. We had a number of groups of kids, mostly boys (just stating the truth here), who had to be close to driving age that were going house to house. THEN when we opened the door they didn't even say those coveted (and necessary) words, "Trick or treat!". *(Josh wouldn't give them candy until they said it by the way)* and, they never said thank you. Foreword on, if you have the word 'Teen' in your age, or anything older, go buy yourself a bag of candy and share it with your friends and leave the neighborhoods to the little guys. They're the ones who look forward to this holiday with giddy anticipation, go all out on their costumes and timidly say, "Thank you." then run and exclaim with animated happiness at what kind of candy was dropped into their Halloween bags. They're the ones who make it worth it. You older kids don't even dress up half the time, and if you do consider yourselves as 'dressed up', well you are a sorry and lazy bunch of free loaders.

*big breath* ... *exhale*

I feel better now. Sorry about that.

Too many problems...

2009-10-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the new blog to everyone that we were already connected with....all three of ya. :) I was having too many log in problems with the original blog that Josh set up, and since it was through his e-mail it was a pain having to retrieve the password through his account every time. So long story short, here we are to a brand spankin new blog that I can actually post our stories to. It's been a while....so get ready for some information over load.