Happy New Year

Another year down and the start of new one! This year is going to be bitter sweet for us as we will be leaving Okinawa after having been here 3 years. This has become our home away from home. We are anxious because we have no idea where we are going. We have been told we will know something by the end of this month but it is still hard not having somewhat of an idea. There is a bit of excitement as Maggie heads out on a new adventure to the United States. She was born and raised in Okinawa so it will be fun to introduce her to our house in Arizona as well as all of our family. I know McKenzie will be thrilled to show her the ropes of our house. We are going to try and get as much in locally as possible in the next several months. We will keep everyone posted when we find out where we are going.

Happy Birthday Maggie Mae

Happy 14th Birthday to Maggie Mae!! We have been extremely fortunate to have adopted Maggie Mae. We have had here for a little over 2 years and she has been a fabulous addition to our family. We love you Mag Pie!

New Years Eve

We spent our New Years Eve at the Kadena Officer's Club. We have done this for the last several years and always have a great time!! We went with a whole new crowd as people were either stateside or had PCSd. It was fun hanging out with Carolina, Scot, Sharmane, Stephen, Liz and Ginger. It was our last New Years Eve in Okinawa and we will definitely remember being with great friends. Have a happy and prosperous New Year!

The End of 2010

I can't believe how quickly this year went by. So much has happened over the last year and what is even crazier is we leave Okinawa in about 4-5 months. My friend Liz William's had a great idea and I am going to borrow it to recap 2010.

Cesario started out the year with a 3 week TDY to Thailand. The great part was he had our friends Erin and Brad to hang out with. I celebrated my 41st birthday without Cesario but had fantastic friends who allowed me to celebrate all month long. I started a new job as the sexual assault response coordinator/victim advocate at the end of January. After Cesario returned we went home to Tucson, Arizona for 2 weeks. This was a bit difficult as we had never left our girls for more than a few days. We were both ready to come back several days after we got there but ended up enjoying our time home with family and friends. We celebrated our 7th year anniversary in May. We were very lucky in June. Our niece Tyler and her boyfriend Adrian came to visit for 10 days. They even got to go to the Army Birthday Ball with us. We felt extremley fortunate to have family come visit. Aside from my sister coming for the second time last year, no other family has to visit.Cesario had a medical scare so they sent us to Tripler in Hawaii. He was cleared of all medical issues but we it was a nice to get away even if it was for that reason. We volunteered over the summer pouring beer at numerous Army events as well as at Rocktoberfest. Cesario celebrated his 42nd birthday in November. We had a party at the house with all our friends. We spent Thanksgiving in Vietnam and Cambodia which was absolutely fantastic. We traveled with our friends Stephen and Liz. We wrapped up our tour in Cambodia with our friends Zack. We spent Christmas Eve with the Lee's and the Boucher clan. Cesario and I hosted Christmas day.

Our girls have been fantastic!! We were fortunate in the sense that we have our friends the Odette's that take great care of our girls when we are gone. Maggie Mae is showing her age a bit. She developed a cough in late August and we found a small mammary tumor which turned out to be benign. Her cough stems from a slight heart murmur she has. Just recently the vet told us her knees on her back legs are bad. She has what is called patellar luxation (this means her knee caps move around). I admire Maggie for her will and determination. She has not let her ailments bring her down. Granted, she has good and bad days but overall seems to be coping well. Maggie Mae will celebrated her 14th birthday on January 1. McKenzie has not slowed down. She is still feisty as ever. She turned 10 in September. She did great this year as she didn't beat up on Maggie once. Her health has been great and she is so patient with her aging sister.

We wish you all a Happy New Year!!!!

Bōnenkai

I found out from my boss, Rich, that a group of people from work were going to celebrate Bōnenkai. We could not be left out so Sharmane, Cesario and I decided to join in the fun. But first we had to find out what the heck Bōnenkai was. I decided to look it up on google as I do everything else. Here is what I found on Wikipedia.



A bōnenkai (忘年会, literally "forget the year gathering"?) is a Japanese drinking party that takes place at the end of the year, and is generally held among groups of co-workers or friends. The purpose of the party, as its name implies, is to forget the woes and troubles of the past year, usually by consumption of large amounts of alcohol.



After the year we have had and all the hard work we put into accreditation in September we definitely needed a night like this. We had such a great time as we were people we typically don't hang out with and it was a good chance to hang out with our local national co-workers.



We went to a place called Poco a Poco. For 3,500 yen we got to drink and eat everything off a menu we were given for 3 hours. We have been to a place similar to this with the only difference being there is no time limit and you get up and serve yourself. The atmosphere was fantastic and the company was that much better.

So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, adieu

We can remember the first time we met the Cisneros', it was at Oktoberfest 2008. We met them through our friends the Williams. They were both quiet and we thought they were ready to PCS. Apparently they weren't! They are from Arizona and I think that is one of the many reasons we took such a liking to them. In no time we had made ourselves their only son, Emilio's, Godparents. The funny thing is everyone played along and to this day we are still Emilio's Godparents and the Cisneros' compadres. We feel fortunate to have met them and are sad to see our family leave. I think what is worse is that they are leaving right before holidays. Granted it is great for them as they will be with family and Emilio in Phoenix. Safe travels to our wonderful friends. This is not goodbye but see you again soon!