we've been here almost 3 months now and it has been and interesting change and adjustment. it has also been a hard one. the first week was really rough, we got here on monday and that friday i had to take meds to cause a miscarriage because of the chemical pregnancy. dealing with that made me a bit crazy and paranoid about things. hoping i never have to go through that again. it took a while for my hormones to get back to normal, well normal for me since they are never normal because of the pcos. i started feeling better about the miscarriage but not about being at a new base and missing my friends back in ohio.
i also had to adjust to jayson working nights again and working 12s. i had a hard time sleeping at first but i was finally able to start sleeping at night. lucian had to adjust to not having any of his stuff or our the furniture here he also misses his friends from ohio as well. he has no outlet here and it has effected his behavior. still working on that. hoping he will get into preschool and if not then hopefully he can get into the sure start program here. it's similar to head start in the states.
we've already had two different neighbors since being here and both have been great! we get along great with our first neighbors robert and kristen and they have a 3 yr old boy, jacob, that lucian likes to play with. they're in tokyo right now and we are ready for them to come back. our new neighbors are young but very cool! melanie and i get along great! they just adopted a cute dog they named carter and they are expecting their first childe, bennett, in december! i'm excited for them and also that i get to watch another baby grow and help a new mom out like i did for caroline!
this base is very small so i'm seeing some of the military wives behavior i had always heard about but have never seen or experienced. it's a bit ridiculous to me. chose your friends wisely and get to know people from a distance first, this will be my advice to those new wives to the military and to this base i will eventually meet. some things are taken way to seriously here like bunco. its a dice game and i'm going to be honest here not that fun. it takes forever and is noisy because everyone is constantly rolling the dice trying to get a bunco and it tends to grate on the nerves.
i recently didn't go to a game i said i would go to and you'd think i broke a law or hit someone or something. i was given lessons on respcet and being rude the next day by a few women that went to the game and got really mad at me. one kept harrassing me and had to get the last word in so i just deleted her from my fb and one who didn't even say anything to me just deleted me, group mentality there. another said something then deleted me before i could respond to her. the last one, in my opinon, is the only one who dealt with this maturely. she told me what she thought of my behavior and then let it go and neither of us was deleted.
i could understand them getting this upset if i hadn't gone to a bday party or baby shower or something like that that was for an individual but a game of bunco, really? i had decided to stay home with jayson and lucian and jayson and i celebrated him making flight chief that night. much more fun then playing bunco for a couple of hours and watching people get drunk and loud.
i know i will meet people like katie, misty, and caroline eventually and become good friends. for now i'll just stick with kristen & robert, melanie & jordan, and hope to get to know kenny and his wife better when they get back this month. things will get better eventually and i will find my friends, that understand me and are like me, and place here at misawa.
on the japan side of things, uh it is AWESOME. i'm not digging the hottest summer on record in 200+ yrs but it is SO pretty here! jayson will eventually get to take leave and i know we will just go explore pretty much every day! robert will teach us geocaching too when he gets back. we plan to go to tokyo next year so our money will be all figured out. also will need to make a trip to sendai, its where my gma was when she was in japan and she graduated high school there as well!!! there are plenty of beaches here and lucian just loves them! have gotten used to driving on the other side of the car and road and almost used to the narrow roads and the japanese just randomly stopping on the teeny tiny side of the road. i can't wait to see more of japan!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
getting to japan
okay so everyone has been asking for details on our trip here and details about here. i'll try to do my best to remember it all. getting to seattle was challenging, to say the least. jayson, lucian, and dook went first then aries and i followed. the boys were supposed to leave at 8 and get to seattle at noon. well they missed their connecting flight in chicago and ended up getting to seattle about 10 mins before i did. dook didn't miss the connecting flight so he was waiting in seattle for jayson and lucian. as far as mine and aries trip to seattle, well completely different. i check in and find out that the aircraft we were reserved on didn't accept checked pets. this was frustrating because when i called to reserve aries they said it was fine. the lady got us on a new flight that connected in DC instead of chicago. i had about a 2.5 hrs layover in DC. i was bumped up to economy plus on the flight to seattle which was nice because i was actually able to stretch my legs all the way out. by the time i get on that flight i'm exhausted and just slept.
we get to seattle get reunited and get the dogs. we arive around 5:30 pm and our flight out to japan doesn't leave until 4:40 the next morning. yay we get to hang out in an airport all night. we get the dogs outside so they can go potty. that made their day they were both so happy to see all 3 of us and each other. also happy to just stretch their legs. we get them loaded back in their crates, oh by the way we're using the luggage carts and have two very full ones. fun to push around the sea-tac airport. we go back in and try to find the USO. it was a maze but we finally get there step inside and see it is PACKED with the people going on our flight to japan and then those that were also going on to korea. we drop of our bags so we just have the dogs and then go find some food. we go back get our bags then fine a parking some for two hours.
we checked in for our flight to japan at 10pm. we get the dogs and our bags checked then find out we were at the wrong check point. so we find the right one and park ourselves in some chairs and wait. the terminal slowly fills up with all the passengers and it's quiet, except for the screaming baby girl whose parents couldn't figure out how to quiet her. we wake up around 4 hoping to board then plane then find out we have been delayed an hour because of weather in japan. we sleep for another hour then wake up and start to board. of course there are those who never listen to instruction and are in line already when they have to wait for the families with small children to board, therefore they were in the way. we get to our seats and find out we have two seats to the side then an aisle seat in the middle. it's fine we deal with it.
lucian did amazing on the flight over!!! it was about a 9.5 hr flight. we watched 3 movies, had bfast and lunch, and lu took 2 naps and jayson and i dozed off and on the whole flight. there was, of course, the screaming baby girl, but she didn't pretty good as well. there were other screaming children on the flight. if you want a sure method of birth control, go on a 9 hr flight with screaming kids. we got here at 8am monday morning, mind you we left at 5:30am on sunday. we get our luggage, on the carts again, get the dogs checked out and meet our sponsor outside. sgt. wong, our sponsor was smart and brought one of the big SF trucks!!! we get the dogs to the kennel and try to check into our hotel. we had to go back i think 4 times before we were finally able to get into our room. there was a LT. COL. in the room before us so of course he/she thinks the check-out time doesn't apply to them. no biggie, sgt. wong showed us around base some. jayson checked in with his squadron and is asked to start the in-processing briefings that day. he has to take a shower in one of the gyms because we still didn't have our room at the time. he goes to his briefings and sgt. wong drops lucian and i off at the housing office. we have a choice between the house we took or an apartment in a tower. no questions asked i opted for the house. living in a tower with a kid and two dogs didn't sound like fun.
i found my car on wednesday and we got our house on thursday!!! we also got our loner furniture on thursday. it gets the job done but it isn't our furniture. i think we made about 5 trips to the bx yesterday getting everything we need for the house. so now we feel some what settled and we're finding our way around base and today we're putting our feelers out there in misawa city. i know i'll post lots and lots of pics on fb and i'll post pics of our house on there as well. probably not today though. we get internet at our house on wednesday. so that was our trip here and a quick run down of what we've been doing since we got here. i'll keep blogging and posting pics on fb.
we get to seattle get reunited and get the dogs. we arive around 5:30 pm and our flight out to japan doesn't leave until 4:40 the next morning. yay we get to hang out in an airport all night. we get the dogs outside so they can go potty. that made their day they were both so happy to see all 3 of us and each other. also happy to just stretch their legs. we get them loaded back in their crates, oh by the way we're using the luggage carts and have two very full ones. fun to push around the sea-tac airport. we go back in and try to find the USO. it was a maze but we finally get there step inside and see it is PACKED with the people going on our flight to japan and then those that were also going on to korea. we drop of our bags so we just have the dogs and then go find some food. we go back get our bags then fine a parking some for two hours.
we checked in for our flight to japan at 10pm. we get the dogs and our bags checked then find out we were at the wrong check point. so we find the right one and park ourselves in some chairs and wait. the terminal slowly fills up with all the passengers and it's quiet, except for the screaming baby girl whose parents couldn't figure out how to quiet her. we wake up around 4 hoping to board then plane then find out we have been delayed an hour because of weather in japan. we sleep for another hour then wake up and start to board. of course there are those who never listen to instruction and are in line already when they have to wait for the families with small children to board, therefore they were in the way. we get to our seats and find out we have two seats to the side then an aisle seat in the middle. it's fine we deal with it.
lucian did amazing on the flight over!!! it was about a 9.5 hr flight. we watched 3 movies, had bfast and lunch, and lu took 2 naps and jayson and i dozed off and on the whole flight. there was, of course, the screaming baby girl, but she didn't pretty good as well. there were other screaming children on the flight. if you want a sure method of birth control, go on a 9 hr flight with screaming kids. we got here at 8am monday morning, mind you we left at 5:30am on sunday. we get our luggage, on the carts again, get the dogs checked out and meet our sponsor outside. sgt. wong, our sponsor was smart and brought one of the big SF trucks!!! we get the dogs to the kennel and try to check into our hotel. we had to go back i think 4 times before we were finally able to get into our room. there was a LT. COL. in the room before us so of course he/she thinks the check-out time doesn't apply to them. no biggie, sgt. wong showed us around base some. jayson checked in with his squadron and is asked to start the in-processing briefings that day. he has to take a shower in one of the gyms because we still didn't have our room at the time. he goes to his briefings and sgt. wong drops lucian and i off at the housing office. we have a choice between the house we took or an apartment in a tower. no questions asked i opted for the house. living in a tower with a kid and two dogs didn't sound like fun.
i found my car on wednesday and we got our house on thursday!!! we also got our loner furniture on thursday. it gets the job done but it isn't our furniture. i think we made about 5 trips to the bx yesterday getting everything we need for the house. so now we feel some what settled and we're finding our way around base and today we're putting our feelers out there in misawa city. i know i'll post lots and lots of pics on fb and i'll post pics of our house on there as well. probably not today though. we get internet at our house on wednesday. so that was our trip here and a quick run down of what we've been doing since we got here. i'll keep blogging and posting pics on fb.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
the feelings are flooding
as we get closer and closer to moving to japan and getting the dates, such as the departure date, i am having a flood of emotions when i sit an think about it. i am so very extremely excited to finally get out of ohio and to live in japan for 3 yrs. as my family know i've wanted to go to japan ever since my grandma murphy first told me she graduated from high school over there and she told about how different and wonderful it was for her.
that was all it took and since then i've been obsessed with asian cultures and going over there. i'm so excited to get to see the culture every day and really learn about it and not just what they put in books and on tv. i'm also starting to get nervous. i'm not nervous about the move, i'm sure that'll come once we get packing dates and such. i'm nervous about not living in america. it's all i've ever known and i'm sure i'm just like everyone else and am very comfortable here and take all the comforts of america for granted. no it's not like we're moving to the middle east, like my mom did in her teens, but it is a completely different country and on the other side of the planet, literally.
i'm nervous about the language barrier, we'll be the ones speaking the wrong language. i'm also nervous about using yen. again all i've know is the us dollar. i'm not the greatest at math and the conversion part is what i'm worried about. beyond that i'm sure i will get comfortable pretty quickly.
i'm also actually sad about moving. I KNOW big shocker to everyone. i'm sad about leaving my 3 close friends, misty, caroline, and katie. i love my girls so much and i am going to really miss them so much. it really does bring tears to my eyes when i think about it. also that lucian has to leave his two buddies, trey and aiden. katie and i have gotten so incredibly close and we do stuff together ALL the time and our boys are right there with us too. chris, caroline, and whitley have been THE BEST neighbors we've had in the air force. it's hard not to get so close with such wonderful neighbors. misty and i helped each other through deployments and espeically when lucian or trey were just too much. she has been a great friend for the last 3 yrs and love that i've gotten to watch trey grow since he was born!
i just wanted to take some time and write about some of the feelings i've been having about the move, it isn't just excitement it's also nervousness and sadness for having to move away from three wonderful friends. i'm so grateful for technology and that i'll be able to stay in touch with them so easily, gotta love FB!!!
that was all it took and since then i've been obsessed with asian cultures and going over there. i'm so excited to get to see the culture every day and really learn about it and not just what they put in books and on tv. i'm also starting to get nervous. i'm not nervous about the move, i'm sure that'll come once we get packing dates and such. i'm nervous about not living in america. it's all i've ever known and i'm sure i'm just like everyone else and am very comfortable here and take all the comforts of america for granted. no it's not like we're moving to the middle east, like my mom did in her teens, but it is a completely different country and on the other side of the planet, literally.
i'm nervous about the language barrier, we'll be the ones speaking the wrong language. i'm also nervous about using yen. again all i've know is the us dollar. i'm not the greatest at math and the conversion part is what i'm worried about. beyond that i'm sure i will get comfortable pretty quickly.
i'm also actually sad about moving. I KNOW big shocker to everyone. i'm sad about leaving my 3 close friends, misty, caroline, and katie. i love my girls so much and i am going to really miss them so much. it really does bring tears to my eyes when i think about it. also that lucian has to leave his two buddies, trey and aiden. katie and i have gotten so incredibly close and we do stuff together ALL the time and our boys are right there with us too. chris, caroline, and whitley have been THE BEST neighbors we've had in the air force. it's hard not to get so close with such wonderful neighbors. misty and i helped each other through deployments and espeically when lucian or trey were just too much. she has been a great friend for the last 3 yrs and love that i've gotten to watch trey grow since he was born!
i just wanted to take some time and write about some of the feelings i've been having about the move, it isn't just excitement it's also nervousness and sadness for having to move away from three wonderful friends. i'm so grateful for technology and that i'll be able to stay in touch with them so easily, gotta love FB!!!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
sweat so good!!!
i'm getting back on track with the weight loss. i got a little lazy with exercising with jayson's return. i kept up my good eating habits but not my exercising habits. i have since bought a wii and the ea active workout game and am loving it. it has been slowly increases the intensity but i hadn't realized it until today. i gained back 2 lbs since jayson has been back. now wanting to get rid of those 2 lbs and more!!
today i ran on the 1/4 mile track. ran 8 laps which is a mile and walked 7 laps which is .75 of a mile. then i came home and did my ea active and sweat my booty off, hopefully!!! i hate sweating but at the same time it feels so good to sweat that much knowing that's how i'm gonna lose this weight. hoping to have jayson take some pics of me soon with a 20 lb loss. stay tune....
today i ran on the 1/4 mile track. ran 8 laps which is a mile and walked 7 laps which is .75 of a mile. then i came home and did my ea active and sweat my booty off, hopefully!!! i hate sweating but at the same time it feels so good to sweat that much knowing that's how i'm gonna lose this weight. hoping to have jayson take some pics of me soon with a 20 lb loss. stay tune....
Saturday, March 13, 2010
okkuu pasupo-to
this is my first blog about our pcs (move) to japan!!! jayson should have his official orders when he goes back to work. i'm already working on the things i can that don't require his orders. my first order of business are our passports. all three of us are going to get the regular travel passports so we can go visit other countries of the orient while over there and hopefully also australia! lucian and i have to have a military passport as well to keep us from being deported back to america. if we don't have the military passports then every 90 days they could look at us and consider deporting us.
there is a bit of a snag with these passports. when you send in your applications for passports you also have to send your original birth certificate. so you may be thinking that's not a big deal. well not for not for lucian and jayson but for me it is. my birth certificate isn't from a state like their's are. if mine is lost i have to write d.c. to get a new one. mine is american born abroad since i was born in germany on a u.s. installation. this makes me a bit nervous. to add to that i have to send mine twice. once for the travel passport and then again for the military passport.
we have our appt set for 2 on monday to go to the post office and have our pictures done and send all of our things we need to. then we get to wait 4-6 weeks to get all of it back and our passports. then lucian and i get to do it a second time for our military passports. again we get to wait 4-6 weeks for these things to come in the mail along with our original birth certificates. i'm a bit nervous that we won't have both passports before we leave and therefore won't have our original birth certificates when we move. the guy that does the military passports told us to get the travel ones first and that if we're gone when they come back he'll send them to us in japan. we'll be good the first 3 months we're there.
4 weeks from monday is april 12 and 6 weeks from then is april 26. then let's say we send out our second application on april 28th, 4 weeks from then is may 26 and 6 weeks from that is june which could very well be just 2 days before we leave. aaaggghhh i'm gonna be a bit stressed in the months of may and june. let's just hope we get our second passports in may and not june and also hope even more that we get our birth certificates back and that they aren't lost at all.
there is a bit of a snag with these passports. when you send in your applications for passports you also have to send your original birth certificate. so you may be thinking that's not a big deal. well not for not for lucian and jayson but for me it is. my birth certificate isn't from a state like their's are. if mine is lost i have to write d.c. to get a new one. mine is american born abroad since i was born in germany on a u.s. installation. this makes me a bit nervous. to add to that i have to send mine twice. once for the travel passport and then again for the military passport.
we have our appt set for 2 on monday to go to the post office and have our pictures done and send all of our things we need to. then we get to wait 4-6 weeks to get all of it back and our passports. then lucian and i get to do it a second time for our military passports. again we get to wait 4-6 weeks for these things to come in the mail along with our original birth certificates. i'm a bit nervous that we won't have both passports before we leave and therefore won't have our original birth certificates when we move. the guy that does the military passports told us to get the travel ones first and that if we're gone when they come back he'll send them to us in japan. we'll be good the first 3 months we're there.
4 weeks from monday is april 12 and 6 weeks from then is april 26. then let's say we send out our second application on april 28th, 4 weeks from then is may 26 and 6 weeks from that is june which could very well be just 2 days before we leave. aaaggghhh i'm gonna be a bit stressed in the months of may and june. let's just hope we get our second passports in may and not june and also hope even more that we get our birth certificates back and that they aren't lost at all.
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