Sure has been awhile!

Wow! I sure haven't written on here in awhile! So much has changed since January/February of 2010! Let's see if i can quickly go through some of it month by month!

February 2010

Went on a cruise along Okinawa. The food wasn't as great as we expected, but it was nice having a fun date night.

We got to explore the castle ruins of ancient royalty! It was beautiful and we found an abandoned building that we later discovered we aren't allowed near!

March 2010

Celebrated my very first White day! In Japan, valentine's day (feb 14) is when the women get men presents. They get their husbands one kind of chocolate and their friends and coworkers other kinds of chocolate called "obligation chocolate." They spend HUNDREDS of dollars on chocolate. Then, the following month (March 14) the women get presents from the men. This was my white day gift from the Mr. He didn't realize it, but the chocolate he gave me was actually obligation chocolate for a friend or coworker. Whoops!
Went out with some friends to poco a Poco, an amazing restaurant right outside our house. It was ladies night, so it only cost us 2,000 yen a person for all you can eat/drink all night!

April 2010

Easter, 2010. Dima was in Yuma, AZ for training at this point, but my friend Robin invited me over for some yummy treats and to watch the kids at the egg hunt. It was a good time with some great friends. Jenn made this yummy easter cake. It was part carrot cake, and part strawberry I believe. Yummy!!
Went out in Naha with Heather, a good friend. Had a good time!
Went to the Dragon boat races with Heather. What a cool event! These people train all year for this event. Very cool! And i just love Japanese festival foods! So much healthier and yummier then the crap in the states! I got some noodles and veggies with a stir fry sauce that was super yummy. Heather got some Okinawian Soba for her and her daughter to share. I then discovered this stand and couldn't figure out what the heck it was! Turns out they were little balls of jello shots that they mix with lemon soda and you drink. It wasn't too strong, but worth trying! Reminded me of taking jello shots in college with Emilie!

May 2010

Went to the Ana hotel for Jenn's baby shower! it was a beautiful hotel and we had a wonderful lunch! Jenn was so surprised she cried! It was a great baby shower and we are glad to be able to go! I made her this baby blanket for her little Vera!


Finally had our second wedding! It was only a year and a half later but better late then never i suppose! We did a Japanese Cherry Blossom theme since we live in Japan and it served to be a pretty wedding.

Just a day or so before the wedding, we found out that I was pregnant! What wonderful timing! It was quite the surprise but truly the best surprise we have ever had. I wish I could say that I was able to surprise Dima about the news with a great story, but unfortunately I had some trouble with the test and needed Dima to get a digital one for me. He was with me and we were able to peek at the positive test together. What a surprise we got after those 3 long minutes were over!

June 2010

While we had family in town, we decided to FINALLY get down to try Dr. Fish. Dr fish is a big tank of fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. Of course there is nothing like it in the States because Americans freak out about it being unsanitary but we were happy to finally get to try this with Sasha! It doesn't hurt, just tickles a little bit. After the 10 minute "spa therapy" our feet felt so wonderful!
We got to get to one of our favorite "fast food" places in Okinawa while we had company. This is Dima, Ric, and my dad enjoying some yummy Coco Curry. At this restaurant, you get to pick your meat, then choose how much rice you want, and then choose a level of hotness you want for your curry. The regular curry is quite spicy enough, so I usually just order that. Dima ordered a level 3 (out of 10!) and said it was so hot that it really took away from the taste of the food. Afterwards we took everyone to San-a, a local japanese store. I can't really describe what these stores are like. They have everything from grocery foods, to clothing, to furniture, to electronics. We went to pick up some yummy fish to make sushi the following night. You can see how unique the Japanese markets are. We bought some Salmon, tuna, yellow tail, shrimp, crab, and squid. But i did see this octopus which looked just yummy. Unfortunately, since I am now carrying a little one, all I can eat is the crab and shrimp. Japan is not the place for a pregnant sushi lover to live!

We also finally made it to the famous Okinawian aquarium. I love aquariums and thought that i had seen the best of the best when I saw the National Aquarium in Baltimore. I was very wrong! Wow this was by far the best aquarium I have ever seen. The whale shark room was by far the most amazing thing i've ever seen! It was a HUGE tank with all kinds of creatures in it. Huge sting rays, and some beautiful whale sharks. I can't wait to bring our little one with us to see the big water creatures!

We made our way to Kokasai Street in Naha while my family was still here. Kokasai street is a very unique place and we got to try some yummy Okinawian purple potato cookies and went out to dinner to a very Japanese restaurant. Again, since i'm pregnant and don't eat red meat, i had some trouble finding something to eat. But I can live off rice I suppose.

In June, we got to have our first ultrasound..."under the table" We are very grateful to our neighbor, Steve who is an OB doc and let us come in to see our little one. There wasn't much to see at this point, I was only 7 weeks along at the time. We did get to see that little heart beating and i think it made my heart flutter just a little.

July 2010

Finally got around to doing some gardening in our front yard. Our neighbor told us about "lasagna gardening," a method of gardening where you place wet cardboard boxes down, followed by compost material, followed by lots of dirt. You then let it "cook" for awhile and can plant into the ground. We spend a beautiful saturday outside our house making our lasagna. It was very simple, but took a lot of dirt to cover. In the end, this is what we came up with. The trees were there before we moved in and couldn't be removed. So we decided to keep them in our garden. We will wait now to plant something in the front.

We went to a Japanese festival in American Village this month too. It was to celebrate 10 years of American Village. We had a good time with some of the neighbors and had some yummy Japanese festival food and watched Japanese fireworks. Japanese fireworks are VERY different then we are used to. They are so much better! They have fireworks that expode into hearts and smiley faces! And the Japanese LOVE fireworks and will use anything as an excuse to shoot some off! We often see a show from our front porch on a random night. It is really cool.


We had another ultrasound this month. This time was much more enjoyable then the last. We were able to make out the head, arms, and legs of our little one. What an amazing sight! Our little one was moving around a lot in there. His/her arms were moving towards the head a lot. I'm guessing he/she was sucking their thumb. It was so cool to see and made us very excited for the next ultrasound. Here is another belly photo... i am 11 weeks in this photo and the baby is the size of a lime. This was taken in our backyard.

I'm tough!

Well this weekend was an interesting and somewhat scary one. On saturday morning at around 5:30 am we got a massive earthquake. We were both half awake because we had just got up to bring the puppy outside to go potty when all the sudden the house started to shake very badly. Dima, the sweet man he is, thought I was sleeping and didn't want me to wake up in the middle so he flung his arms around me to hold me so I wouldn't get scared. I won't lie, that did help, but it was still scary! I was starting to get scared the house would fall.
After this earthquake we had to get ready for our scuba class that morning. I kept assuring the Mr. it was cancelled, but he wasn't sure. Sure enough, the woman was right again. Our instructor tried to call, but since our phones were still not working, we never got the message. Upon coming home, we found out that thanks to that earthquake, a tsunami was going to happen. Luckily, that tsunami was not big, only about 1 foot.
Later that day is when we heard about Chile. When an earthquake comes, one big one comes, followed by an even bigger one and some aftershocks. Looks like Chile got the really big one.
That night, we decided we should go out to dinner to wrap up our mexican month! We had heard really good thing about this small place called Mike's Tex Mex. Well the reviews were totally right! YUM! We started out with a margarita. I asked for it on the rocks with no salt, and they told us they couldn't make it on the rocks because they actually make them from real fresh fruit. When it came out, it looked very different from the usual blueberry margarita! You could actually see the pieces of blueberry in it. I usually don't like margaritas, but this was so amazing!
After the margarita we ordered some chips. again... YUM! These were homemade and so amazing! The chips were so hot we actually burned ourselves! and the salsa was so amazing with just the right amount of garlic.

Then came our meals. I got some kind of california tortilla chicken wrap thing, and dima got one of the meal sets. It came with a burrito and a taco. The burrito was huge! Obviously, their meals looked and tasted amazing! We will be visiting again soon! I can't wait to have another one of those margaritas!


Thanks Mike's Tex Mex!

After that great night, we went to sleep in our bed only to wake up to big announcements on our base saying that a tsunami was coming at 3pm. These announcements went off about every 15 mintues all day until about 4pm! Eventually they started making evacuations. The evacuated lower foster and lester, which included old lester. Luckily, we are on new lester, so we were able to stay home and await this tsunami. Our friend Jenn was freaking out so we went over to check on her, and while we were there some marines came knocking on the door to evacuate her house too! We are so lucky to have been there to help her! I was able to get the kid, and she was able to pack some things up. You wouldn't believe the things she packed! We made our way up the hill to our house to find this:

A TSUNAMI PARTY! There were TONS of people up on our cul de sac waiting for this huge tsunami to hit! how crazy is that?! We waited and waited until around 4:30 and nothing happened. Finally at around 5, we heard that this huge tsunami had hit the east side of the island. It was only about 4 feet big. Craziness was for nothing! It was eventful weekend!
The following day, I went to Jenn's again to watch Harrison and the house while she went to the doctor. When she came home, harrison was running and didn't make the turn into the kitchen right and ran straight into the doorway. OUCH! it was horrible. Thankfully I was there to drive to the hospital. There was a lot of blood. He was a tough cookie and got 4 stiches.
To top these past days off, while sitting on the computer monday night, I looked down at the cat on my lap and realized she was missing more hair from her ears. Suddenly the "spider" bits on my face and belly button seemed to click in place. Turns out we all have ringworm. The cat has gotten worse, the dog has spots on him, and dima and I both have spots on ourselves too. Unfortunately, we can't handle it right now, and will have to give the cat back to OAARS soon.

What a week! but as Harrison would say, "I'm tough!"