Moving Day

What a couple days!  The past two days we have spent saying sayonara to our things.  We have spent days separating things into what is going express (takes a month), what is going household (takes 2 months), and what is coming in our suitcases/carry on bags.  It's been so tiring, and we are very glad it's over.  We feel like we can breathe now and enjoy our last week here.  

Moving Day 1 was our express.  We are very glad we did this shipment first, because there were many things that could not be shipped express that we were still able to ship household.  One example was my nursing chair.  I was very upset that I couldn't ship it express, as it's something comfortable that I can sit in when feeding Eli in the middle of the night.  It's one thing I use every day.  Other then that problem, everything was easy.  I cannot believe how fast it all went.  It literally took 45 minutes for them to pack it all up.  They took amazing care of everything and I was really impressed!  

Day 2 was our big move.  Basically every bit of our things was packed up today.  Our bed, sofa, pots and pans, dishes, everything is gone.  Luckily, the military provides us with a loaner bed, table, and sofa for the next week before we fly out.  Unfortunately we don't get that until tomorrow.  So I am currently laying in an empty living room on the floor with the dog.  We will be sleeping on a blow up mattress tonight.  We are without our pots and pans so are going to be relying on our wonderful neighbors to help out.  And we'll be using plastic plates and utensils for a week or so.  No big deal.  

Again, I was impressed with these movers.  It was the same crew as yesterday, and they were just as efficient.  They took great care of everything and were very friendly.  We had labeled a few areas NO and they were nice enough to double check everything with us.  Unfortunately, there were quite a bit of things they wouldn't ship.  Spices were one thing that many people were able to ship but this company said no to.  I think it all depends on the mover.  Oh well.  We will be shipping a few boxes to our new place to have right away.  

They first packed up everything (big things first) then brought everything outside.  They quickly realized they didn't have enough room on the truck.  So they filled one truck up and had to wait for another to come for more!  I promise we don't actually have that much stuff, they just underestimated.  They were again, so very careful when packing up the truck.  They were so careful putting everything into the crates and did it in such a way that I'm not too concerned about our things.  I hope that our movers in Virginia are just as careful, but I am doubtful.  I'm really going to miss the Japanese.  

Overall everything went well.  Thanks to everyone who helped out.  Wendy for watching the boys while we got everything ready, Ann Marie for watching Zach during the first day, Christina for watching the boys when we had the big move going on, and Joe for entertaining Zach with toy cars during the pack out.  

Now that that's over we can get the house ready to leave and enjoy our last week here!

We had to take everything off the walls and put it all on the ground before they came

The truck before being loaded

Working hard...

They started putting it all in the front yard

Part of the living room

More of the living room

Boarding up some of it

Bye bye!

Saying bye bye!

Afterwards we were exhausted and didn't even want to cook.  So we went for thai.

Zach loves Asian food

Mommy's soup

This was in front of the restaurant.  

Silly boy

I'm glad they didn't pack this boy up.  I like him too much.  As for the dog... well....  (don't know why he's yawning here.  He slept all day.

Forward March!

As you all must know by now, we are in the process of moving back to Virginia for 3 years.  This has come as no shock to us of course.  We have been waiting a very long time now for orders from here.  We are now 4 months past our moving date and will be moving in less then 4 weeks (**gasp!**).  So as you can see, my posts have been very few these days.  The craziness of the move on top of two little boys has really been taking a toll on every aspect of my life.  I will be very happy when it's all over.  I'm currently in bed at 11 on a good night, and up at 6ish every morning.  Not to mention the times I'm up to feed the baby in the middle of the night.  It could always be worse, I know, but the past few weeks have been tiring to say the least.  

You may all be wondering what is all going on and our current plans.  Well, today I'm posting all the updated info on where we stand with our move.  

The outside of our new place!

• We made the decision to live off base.  There are many reasons for this choice.  We look forward to moving back to Stafford, Virginia for our time stationed there.
• We have a house!  
• Located in Stafford, Va (the same town we lived in before)
• 4 bedrooms (with a 5th in the basement!) 
• 3.5 bathrooms. 
• 3800 square feet.  Wow!  Our current place is only 1250 square feet and is quite crammed.  I don't know what we're going to do with all that space! 
• The back yard is fenced in which will be great for the dog and the kids
• Kitchen has an island (Mommy love!)
• Has a living room, dining room, and family room.  The living room will be turned into a play room.
• It's near a winery (because this is very important information!)
• It is near base (15 minutes without traffic)
• Close but far enough to everything- Target, Grocery, Gym, Kohls, Restaurants, you name it!
• If we end up there 4 years it's in one of the best schools in the town.  Though that probably won't be a factor for us, as we will most likely move again before the kids are in school. 
• It is currently waiting for us.  We move in immediately upon arriving in America!
• Moving date:  This is all up in the air still.  We have a date of departure (May 4) but we don't have the confirmation paperwork.  Without that we can't do much of anything.  We can't get our things packed out (which will take at least 6 weeks to arrive at our new place) and we can't book a hotel to stay in before flying out of here.  We are literally held back from everything.  Silver lining though- the dog has a flight!  Don't quite know how he got a flight before us, but hey at least he's booked!

Couldn't decide between silver, black, and grey so went with the grey. 

Grey leather interior.  seats 8.  Much bigger then my "Toaster Oven" looking Honda Mobilio!

• We got a car!  Mommy got a brand new 2013 Honda Odyssey EX-L with navigation (because I'm terrible with directions!)  We did much research before this but decided the Honda was the best car for us.  It will be waiting for us to pick up the day after we fly in!

We are very excited to be back in America and to see our family.  We already have family coming nonstop for awhile.  To those who want to see us- please be patient!  I know you're all excited to see us and meet our kids for the first time.  But please remember that an overseas move is a very big move.  We will be traveling for over 27 hours with two little kids and a dog just to get there.   We will then be very busy getting new phones, setting up a new house, getting new cars, and then unpacking our 3 shipments of things (we have things in storage in Virginia from 3.5 years ago).  So please work with us!  We can't wait to see you all (we will be 6 hours away!).  

In closing let me just mention how much I'm going to miss Okinawa.  It is where we brought both of our children into this world.  We have met friends who became family.  We have both grown in so many ways in our 3.5 years here.  I do not regret a moment of our time here.  We are truly blessed to have gotten the chance to live in Japan.  We both have discussed coming back here again someday.  Okinawa will always be home to us.  As we near the end of our time here, I can't help but feel very sad to say goodbye to a place that has been so great to us.  It's a bittersweet feeling, but we are all ready to open the next chapter in what will surely be a long Military life book. 

Oyasuminasai.

Moldy air

For the 3+ years we've been living in this house, we have had these horrible and huge AC units in our houses.  They worked for awhile, but eventually they finally installed new ones that were better and didn't take up half the room.  They have been slowly removing the old ones from homes, and like always, we were one of the last ones to get ours taken out.  I was quite happy that they finally came, as it cleared a lot of space out of our rooms.  These were in all 3 of our bedrooms and in our living room.  The real kicker of getting these removed was seeing just how disgusting they were to begin with.  Moldy, rusted, and gross don't even begin to describe what was inside these units.  I am disgusted that i've been breathing this air in for so long.  And my children too!  Totally gross.  I cannot believe the military allows such a thing to happen after the water issues they've had in North Carolina.  It took them 3 1/2 hours to remove them, and they then finally came back and installed the fans I ordered over 3 years ago.  It was a busy day of maintenance in our house, but boy was it worth it!!

Before

The inside!

look at all that rust!

There were spider webs in there too

This was the grossest part I think

The wall is totally gross under it

The nice guys taking another one out

Eli's room

Yep- this is my infant's bedroom

Zach's bedroom. 

Zach's room again.  My poor boy

The worst part?  After getting rid of them all there was mold.  What did they do to get rid of it?  Nothing.  They simply painted over it.  No bleach, no cleaning whatsoever.  They just painted it over.  I look forward to moving out of this moldy home someday!

Military Christmas Spirit!

Since we are all so far away from our families, Christmas can be a bit sad at times.  We are very lucky, that the Military community is so strong.  Santa comes, and the USO puts on all sorts of exciting holiday festivities.  This year, we were excited to get to take part, as Zach is now old enough to enjoy it.  

This weekend was a rainy weekend, so we needed to get out of the house.  The boys and I headed to the PX to have our christmas cards printed first.  While we waited the 1 hour, we walked around.  There was so much going on.  When we first walked into the PX, there was a big band there playing Christmas music.  We sat there watching for 3 songs.  Zach didn't dance, but he did enjoy watching.  Nothing like a band of Japanese kids to get you in the Christmas spirit!  

The big event this weekend was Tinsel Town, a holiday celebration the USO puts on every year for the troops and their families.  There are vendors, santa, and christmas crafts for everyone!  We were very excited though, because the biggest event was that Trace Adkins was coming!  We have seen him before, but as you know, country concerts are kind of our thing.  It is how Dima and i started out our relationship, and we really enjoy going.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find a sitter for both boys.  The plan was to keep them up a little later to listen to an hour of the concert, but it ended up pouring outside and it wasn't wise to bring two children.  Such is the life as a parent!  Oh well!  We still had fun at Tinsel Town, even if we couldn't stay!

Working on his letter to Santa!

Dear Santa- please bring hair!

He got a Santa Whistle! 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, we're still here...

Last year we treated our christmas as if it were our last in Okinawa because we were under the impression that we would be leaving by christmas of 2012.  We were wrong.  In fact, at this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if we were here for next christmas too!  

Update: We still don't know where or when we are moving.  Our rotation date from here is December 27th and we still don't have orders.  It looks like we won't know anything until February and probably will be extending our time here until the summer.  This was not voluntary.  It just happened to work that way because moving in the winter is proving to be very difficult.  It seems like we've been jumping through hoops for any kind of information.  We are still hoping for Virginia again, but San Diego is a close second choice!  

Christmas in Okinawa is very unlike what we're used to.  Back home, there is usually snow by now, and it's getting chilly out, which makes it feel like Christmas.  As much as I hated living in New England, it's this time of year I miss most.  There's just something about the fall/early winter in Connecticut that I will always miss.  Going to NYC at christmas time has always been one of my favorite things to do.  Not to mention the spirit of Christmas seems a bit stronger when you live somewhere cold!  We're still wearing tank tops here!  

We try our hardest to make it more of a holiday here.  Santa comes (though he's Japanese!) and we all decorate our homes with lights.  And of course, we get christmas trees.  Most people here get a fake tree, but we opt for the live tree.  It's not important to me, but Dima loves having a real tree because of the smell.  

Unfortunately, the trees came at a very difficult time this year.  Instead of a saturday morning, they came on a thursday afternoon.  Don't ask me why.  Most people work all day and can't go get one then.  Dima was on a course all week on a different base, so I was flying solo again this year.  Luckily, our neighbor Wendy was able to watch the boys, and my neighbor Tim was able to meet me there to get his tree too.  

We got there over an hour ahead of time to get a spot in line.  Only in Okinawa do you wait in a line to get a tree!  There were only 240 trees brought here this year from Oregon.  I'm glad I arrived early, because the pickings were absolutely terrible this year.  Not only were they all labeled wrong, but many of them were already dying, and there were very few large ones left.  Tim and I dug our way around and eventually found two decent looking ones.  

The line behind me.  I don't think some people at the end were able to get trees. 

They were cutting the stumps off of them for some folks

This little girl was so cute watching them cut her tree!

My tree.  In a shopping cart.  Not something you see every day!

Not too many left. 

While I was waiting for Tim to pay for his tree, I decided now was a great time to do a random act of kindness.  I had a little baggie with some candy canes in it in my purse.  So I snuck aside and stuck it into a tree with a note saying this was a random act of kindness.  I never saw anyone grab it, but by the time I left I noticed the tree I put it in was gone.  I hope someone was happy with their candy canes!  

 

If you've ever been to Japan before, you know that everything is much smaller here.  My house is only about 1200 square feet and my car is a very tiny toaster looking mini van.   So after grabbing two 7-8 foot christmas trees we were faced with a dilemma- how do we get them home?!  My car was filled with a stroller and two car seats.  Tim's car is even smaller then mine.  But we stood there trying to figure it out for a few minutes and finally decided we were going to attempt to fit them into Tim's car.  (They were making you sign waivers to tie them on your car and the line was crazy to do that!) I was amazed that they fit into his car.  I don't know how he was able to drive home!  We stuck our trees on our back porches until the evening so we could set them up! 

Gotta love it!

The trunks were right next to his head!

 

 

 

 

 

He must have looked crazy driving around like this!  I bet his car smells good now though!

Happy Birthday USMC

Every November, Marines far and wide don their dress blues in celebration of their birthday.  They are told "Happy Birthday" by both Marines, Civilians, and those of other branches of the service.  It is a big event in history, one that is celebrated every year.  

Just how does a Marine celebrate?  By throwing a Marine Corps Ball.  

The Marine Corps ball is a tradition that's been going on for years now.  Balls are held all across the world, even here in Japan.  It's the event Marines wait for all year.

Now having spent over 4 years with the Marine Corps, we've been to a few balls.  Last year, we had a great time because our best friends joined us.  This year though, they had moved.  

Dima's ball was very early this year.  Just having had a baby, I decided to not attend.  There are few people I would trust with Eli at this point, not to mention I don't feel like dressing up right now.  Skipping out seemed to be the best plan this year.  Dima still attended though, and he took along his camera so I could share these photos with friends and family.  Dima was in the ceremony this year, so I was excited to see these photos.  Looks like it was a good night.  And don't worry Dima, I'll join you next year!  

Dima and Eli ready to go

Zach didn't want to join the photos

Future Marine?

My favorite three boys!

I love this one of Zach!

Happy Birthday Marines!  

Semper Fi!