Happy 2010!!

Wow!! What a year!! Cesario said to me last night the he thought 2009 was horrible. Granted he had lots going on with being in command but my reply was, "it was horrible. Things that happened in 2009 make you a much better person and you may not be who you are today." He seemed content with my answer and agreed. I am so thankful for such a wonderful year.

Since the beginning of December we had talked about to O'Club for New Years. For some reason or another we kept procrastinating on buying the tickets. We still had nothing as of Monday. Our neighbors mentioned their unit was going to have a BBQ and bonfire on the beach and had invited us to go. We thought lets do something different and go. Plus it is in walking distance and we didn't have to dress up. The weather had been so unpredictable in the last week that we decided we wanted to be indoors and warm. We had such a great time!!! I actually found a dress the day before the party. Everyone was all dressed up and looked great. We were provided with heavy appetizers, party favors, champagne at midnight and a breakfast buffet. We enjoyed great friends and the best part was Cesario and I got to ring in another FABULOUS year together!!!

Here's to 2010!!!

New Adventure

We have realized that we don't get out and explore to often. We typically do the same ole' things. We went out on Sunday to get my car washed and decided to wait at the Starbucks across the street. Cesario and I talked about getting out a more often even if it is just to take the girls on a good walk down on the seawall. So we decided that after the car was done we would pick up the girls and head out for a while. I remembered my friend Jocelyn taking me to Gala which was near our house and Cesario had never been. We came home, grabbed the girls and I told Cesario I would drive and to just sit back and relax. We arrived in about 10 minutes and he was completely impressed. There are some great walk ways for us to take the girls plus a remarkable view. We stayed out about an hour before heading home. Who knew something so close to home could bring such pleasure to us all.

Maggie's Mishap Part II

Is this craziness ever going to stop? So our day started out like this. McKenzie seemed a bit under the weather so I pretty much let her rest and do a whole lot of nothing.....which is nothing new. I knew something was up when she had picked at her dinner the night before and barely touched her breakfast. She wasn't evern interested in treats! I was a little concerned but figured she would get through it. Cesario on the other hand was a bit worried and had me make a vet appointment. I took her in and turns out she had a temprature. The vet did some blood work and it all came back fine. He said the temprature typically indicates infection so he gave her an antibiotic shot as well as oral antibiotics and cortizone.

We had been home about 45 minutes and we had just sat down to eat dinner. We were eating and talking about our day. The next thing you know Maggie brushes up against McKenzie and that was it..........DOG FIGHT!!! Luckily we were right there and Cesario separated them almost immediately. He took McKenzie to our room and I grabbed Maggie. Everyone appeared fine until I looked down and saw specks of blood. I told Cesario, "someone is bleeding." We checked both girls and I saw nothing. Then I looked at Maggie's face and she was bleeding from her eye, ugh!!!
I swooped her up, called the vet and away we went.

As soon as we arrived they took her in checked her out. Her eye appeared fine but was cut on the lower lid. The doctor said she would need stitches. He told me they would need to sedate her and sew her up. My concern was her age and I asked him abou that. I mentioned she was going to be 13 in January. Right away he told me they would need to do blood work to make sure she was ok. All the blood work came back fine, nothing to be concerned about. They took her to the back and did their business. She wasn't gone very long when the doctor came out and said they were all done. They were waiting for her to come out of sedation. She was such a little trooper!!! We took her home that night and it is funny that after all of that the first thing she did was look for McKenzie.

Happy Thanksgiving

Cesario and I decided that this year we were going to be the guests and not the hosts. Although we love entertaining we felt like we wanted a break from buying food, cooking and cleaning plus it would be fun to do something different. Different it was this year as we also chose to volunteer a portion of our morning and afternoon to serving Thanksgiving dinner at the USO.

Our friend Liz works for the USO and we decided to assist her at the camp she was going too. Liz, Cesario and I left around 1130am to get to Camp Hansen by noon. It took us about 20 minutes to arrive. Camp Hansen is Marine camp in the northern area of Okinawa and is primarily comprised of single marines. Once in the USO, Marines began to trickle in and the next thing you know we had lines of people. We ended up serving 576 single Marines. All of them were nice and courteous, thanking us for what we were doing. Most were extremely young and it took everything I had to hold back the tears. Such young men and women so far from home and yet so content with what was being provided. We went ahead and finished up and headed out.

We spent the evening with our friends and were greatful to Andrew and Cindy Ramos for allowing us to be guests at their home for Thanksgiving. I was more thankful for the scrumptious lumpia, chicken wings and traditional Thanksgiving hotdogs they had. Granted they had the typical turkey spread but loved that they had other stuff too. They even provided us with leftover turkey for Kenzie and Maggie.

We started our turkey consumption on Wednesday (the day before Thanksgving) and continued until Saturday night. We ended up having Thanksgiving at 4 different locations over 4 days. We are so greatful to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Cesario's Birthday

We had a great time celebrating Cesario's birthday. We had to make up for the year before as he was away for his "BIG 40!" To avoid prepping food and cleaning we decided to have his party at Jan Jan's. This is the best place ever invented as it is ALL YOU CAN DRINK and EAT!! Who doesn't love that? We had a great turn out and had a wonderful time with everyone. We were fortunate enough to have great weather as we all sat on the patio.

After a evening of eating and drinking we decided karaoke would finish off the night. We talked about catching cabs to a place a ways down from where we were at. I wasn't keen on that idea as there were several places in the area we could go too. Luckily our friend Mineko was with us and so nicely mentioned that the place right out the door and to the left was a karaoke place. Best thing we could have asked for!! We sang for about 2 hours and when people started to fall asleep aka pass out we knew it was time to go.

It is so nice to be able to count on all of friends to come through to help is us in celebrating special occassions in our lives!

Our favorite thing to do and I am so glad they came out with this earlier this year.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Cool Item

The first time we were in Okinawa in 2003 we belonged to 505th QMBN. We had a very high spirited, greatest attitude Chaplain by the last name of Morales. He and his wife invited us over for the first Thanksgiving we spent in Okinawa. When we arrived at the Morales' house there was one thing that really stood out and I have never forgotten. It was this cool, little house that said, "Home is where the Army Sends Us." Below the house where little hearts that indicated the place and dates this family has gone. I have been on a mission since looking for one. Granted I probably could have made one myself but I am really not that crafty. My mission has been accomplished as we have a very talented individual that makes these houses and sells them at our Army Gift Shop.

I picked it up, hung it and waited for Cesario to check it out. He absolutely love it. I bought some extra hearts for our additional duty stations and will add them as we go.

Happy Halloween

So we decided that we would stay home for Halloween. On Friday Cesario had asked me to buy a couple bags of candy to give out, so I did. He gets home from work that evening with beer and 5 more bags of candy. Where was the miscommunication??? We carved our pumpkin, I had our 4' pumpkin stacker outside, we lit all our candles and played Halloween music. We made fajitas out on the grill and I even managed to make a homemade apple pie. Ok, it wasn't completely homemade, I bought the crust. I did cut all the apples and put it all together. Our dinner was great and so was the apple pie. We had lots of undressed, Japanese trick-or-treaters but we got rid of the candy which was our goal because we had LOTS. Granted Cesario felt the need to give it out by the handful and towards the end we were sweating it as the kids kept coming. We decided to finish off our Halloween by watching Scream but both feel asleep through it. Over all we had a great time.

Gina's Visit

It's been a few weeks since I have posted anything but lots has gone on. My sister, Gina came to visit for about a week. She arrived on 23 October and stayed until 29 October. We didn't do a whole lot as she came to see us the last time we were stationed here. It didn't help that it rained the first 3 days she was here. I did fulfill some of her request. She had to go to Tan Tan Man for ramen which we did. I would have liked to have taken her a few more times but it just didn't happen. We also went to her favorite place the 100 yen store. She could spend hours in there buying stuff she doesn't need but fun to buy because it is 100 yen. Over all it was great to see her. I am glad she took the time out of her busy work schedule to come and see us.

Maggie's Mishap

Gina and I had just returned from being out. I have been trying to teach the girls how to do their business on our patio for those days it is raining. I haven't had much luck but happened to meet someone that had given me an idea. I had grabbed some treats and was trying to get the girls out to the patio. McKenzie had a biscuit in her mouth she'd been carrying around and I grabbed it from her mouth. Maggie came running by and I all can think is that McKenzie though Maggie was going for the treat. Next thing I know I see two balls of fur going at. When I finally got them apart Maggie walked off limping. Next thing I know there is blood running down her leg, ugh. I grab a napkin and put pressure. I cleaned it up and called the vet who suggested we take her to avoid infection. Once they shave her leg she had 6 wounds total. They cleaned her up, gave her an antibiotic shot, and some oral antibiotics. She limped for the first day or so but I an sure her little leg was sore. She is much better now and the hair on her leg is growing back.

The Goods!

So here are the bowls and little jar I bought along with a picture of Jocelyn and I before coming home.

Pottery at Gala

So I went out to the Pottery Sale at Gala. My friend Jocelyn was heading out to check it out in the late afternoon and she invited me to tag along. I went just to get out of the house and be social. I really had no intentions of buying anything but thought it would be cool to go check out what was going on. Come to find out I had never been to this area which is not to far from our house. So I was really glad I went. I ended up buying some beautiful Okinawan soup bowls. We have been looking for large soup bowls but I am glad I bought these gorgeous hand made bowls. I also got a cool little jar which Jocelyn gave me the idea to use as a toothpick holder. Never thought I would say this but the toothpicks look great in this cute hand crafted pottery jar. I also got a cool incense holder for my dad which I hope he will love. I am not sure he wanted one as nice as the one I got him but it is beautiful. After our shopping adventure we sat and had a ice, cold Orion to complete our afternoon out and the sunset was amazing. I am from Arizona where we have some GREAT sunsets but sometimes the ones we get here can be breath taking.

Loser!

So I realized today that I had set up this blog prior to us moving to Okinawa but was a little confused on how to use it. I saw my friend Christine's blog and decided to give it a whirl!!! Really how hard can it be???? And after reading bits and pieces from hers she made sense. Not everyone uses Facebook or MySpace. This is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family. So here it goes in a nutshell. So here goes a quick run down of the last 17 months give or take.

I have lots to do this morning as I decided to host a Scentsy party. The funny thing is I am a Partylite consultant but really love this Scentsy stuff. I have about a 10 friends coming over this afternoon so it should be a fun time!

I recently lost my job. Our contract expired on 30 September. I was out of work for about 4 days when the contract was finally awarded. I went back to work on 6 October and some company decided to protest the contract so we were told to stop work on 8 October until the situation can be resolved. I am also waiting on a job I was offered several months ago. There has been some issues with that so lets see which one happens first.

Cesario is still in command and should be done with that in December.....Thank Goodness!!! He has done an awesome job and I am really proud of all that he has accomplished in the last 11 months he has been in that position.

Our munchkins McKenzie and Maggie Mae are awesome. McKenzie came with us when we left Tucson and we rescued Maggie Mae here in Okinawa. Long story short her owner, which he'd had her as a puppy, died leaving her an orphan as the rescue agency put it. She was alone for almost 2 weeks before the housing agency found her and turned her over to the local police. She spent a couple nights there before they took her to the local pound. She was due to be put down the day OAARS (Okinawa American Animal Rescue Society) picked her up. She stayed with a foster family for about a week before coming to us. I knew we had to adopt her as no one wants and 11.5 year old dog. She will be 13 in January and McKenzie just turned 9. We realized we run an old folks home for dogs, LOL!! They have both been a blessing in disguise. Life with them is extremely eventful and we can't imagine life without them.

I will try and keep up so you all know what is going on with us!!!