You say it's your birthday!

Today I celebrated my 42nd birthday! For about a week and half Cesario kept asking me what I wanted to do. He really wanted to have big to do by going to the club or out with a group of friends. What I wanted was to be with him as the last time he celebrated my birthday with me was in 2007. My day started out good! Cesario bought me some beautiful flowers, cool perfume and a watch, granted it was a watch he'd already bought me 2 Christmas' ago but it was the thought that counted and I will be exchanging it. I also got some flowers from my friend Bernette.

Most people at work did not realize it was my birthday as we were doing a farewell for Sharmane and I did not want to steal her thunder. After lunch a group of my co-workers realized it was my birthday so they came and sang to me.

All day we'd gone back and forth about what to do. The weather was horrible which makes me lazy so it was hard to decide. I had come home from work and noticed some stuff in our mail box at home. It had been there for a while but I decided to look. All I saw was something that said relaxation. I was thinking, oooh a massage! I grabed the flyed and it was an advertisiment for an izakaya called Umizora Beach House. This was the same place my old boss Rich had told me about. We got ready and headed out. It was only about 10 minutes from the house which was perfect!

We had a fabulous time! Unfortunately we were the only customers of the night but we had a great time with the owner, Seiji-san and his other worker Gen-san. The food was absolutely amazing and we defintiely found a new spot to go eat! We ordered Beni-Buta (pork) and bean sprout saute, beni-buta spring rolls, black pepper chicken, salmon and shrimp tempura.

We had such a great time and it was a perfect way to celebrate my last birthday on Okinawa.

Julie's Farewell & Cynthia's Welcome

The military has what we call MFLC (Military Family Life Consulants). They are put at our installations on 8 week rotations. They are a huge asset to our community and we are so thankful to them for their service. We have been extremely lucky to have had some fantastic MFLCs. We typically have a farewell and welcome luncheon but things seemed to have been super hectic this past week and we were unable to do it. We decided we could not just not do anything so a few of us decided to go to Yoshihaci's. Our incoming MFLC, Cynthia, has been in Okinawa before but had never been to Yoshi's and Julie had been dying to try it. We had a small little group but had a great time. It is always fun when you can spend time with your co-workers outside of work.

Sunday Walk

We got up this morning and decided to take the girls back to the seawall for a nice, long walk. Although it was a little breezy, the sun was out and we had a great time. We got to see girls playing softball. It was so cute because instead of doing the high five thing at the end of the game like Americans do, they stood in two rows and bowed to each other.

While we were out we sat down at the end of the seawall to take a quick break. I saw Cesario and McKenzie's shadow and decided that this would be a cool way to capture a family picture.

It was a little hard not get my arm in there taking the picture but it sure was fun. As we wind down to our last 3.5 months here we are trying to soak up as much of our beautiful island as we can. This has been home for almost 6 years and we are truly going to miss it.

Shinnenkai

While trying to make plans last weekend everything was booked solid. Come to find out that the Japanese celebrate Shinnenkai. A shinnenkai (Japanese 新年会, literally "new year gathering") is the Japanese tradition of welcoming the arrival of the New Year, usually by the drinking of alcohol. A shinnenkai is generally held among co-workers or friends in January. There were about 15 of us and we had a fabulous time. We went back to Poco a Poco where we had celebrated Bōnenkai. For a mere 3,000 yen per person for 3 hours you can't beat it. Their food, drinks and atmosphere are fabulous. This is another great Japanese tradition we plan to take with us when we leave and celebrate!

A Saturday Morning Walk

Every weekend we talk about getting out of the house with the girls and never do it! This morning we finally got up and took the girls for an outing on the sea wall. We stopped at Starbucks, grabbed a coffee and headed out. It was cool, windy and overcast but it was nice to get some fresh air.



We came across this funny graffiti while we were out. It actually had a picture of a girl but Cesario stood in front of it so he could be my special.




The girls seemed to have a good time and enjoyed smelling a bunch of new stuff!

New Blog

I had this bright idea today to start a fitness blog. I figured if other people could read it, I may just might hold myself much more accountable. We will see how it goes. I just set it up today and hope to add more odds and ends to it. Comments are welcomed!! Click on "New Blog" above to check it out!