Busy in the States

We had a big bucket list of things to do and eat once we arrived back in the States.  Mostly eat.  We have Burger King on base and McDonald's off base, so we mostly wanted to avoid those.  I will have to say that most fast food was not as good as I remembered it being.  We ate at Wendy's, McDonald's, Arby's, Fiesta Ole (never disappoints), Cafe Rio (still yummy), In-N-Out (still great), Olive Garden, Johnny Carinos (Jayce's new favorite), Melina's, and many others I can't even remember.  The best was Barbacoa in Boise - the Hot Rock Fillet - soooo good.  We also had to get some Krispy Kreme doughnuts - so great (we even went out of our way to get to these).

We hung out with family and played lots.  Stayed up too late every night.

Jason and I looked at dental practices for our future.  Things are looking good.  We are excited and getting used to the ideas.  The trip was not long enough and we miss family and are excited to be back living closer.

Tennyson got to see horses for the first time and she is in love.

The horse went between Tennyson and Jason

She didn't even mind.

 Playing with cousins in Utah.

The next pictures I didn't want to use a flash - so I have crappy, blurry pictures.  Still lots of cute faces in them.

Funny things that happened: 

Tennyson's car seat broke while we were stopped at a rest stop.  Jason and I were getting frustrated trying to get it working again.  Jayce kept trying to help us out.  Finally out of frustration, Jason told him to go ahead and fix it.  Jayce immediately snapped it together.

Tennyson would not leave any potted plants alone.  My mom found her in the dirt.  Sat her on a chair while she cleaned up and as she was vacuuming the windowsill, she had to keep vacuuming up higher and higher on the blinds.  She was really throwing it.  I vacuumed at my sisters a few times, too.  Dirt is something new to her.

Tennyson refused to sleep in any form of a cage.  She now sleeps in big beds with her sister.

Sorry For the Disappearance

We had been planning a trip home to the States for awhile.  Then suddenly it was here and then due to unforseen scheduling it was time to leave early.  That is why I didn't get a chance to leave a note explaining my lack of blogging.  I know, they have internet in the States, but I was on vacation and for the most part unplugged.  It was so nice.

I will share the travel logistics to be sure we never forget and incase anyone in the military thinking about Space Available travel.  Space Available travel is super nice, it doesn't cost anything.  You get on a list and you wait for your turn to take a flight on what ever aircraft is going that has room for passengers.

We flew to the states on a C17.  They are big and very noisy.  Thy give you earplugs to wear, of course the kids don't want to wear them.  They have important things to do like play games and watch movies.  The nice thing about the flight was that Tennyson  could scream and nobody could hear her.  You only knew she was throwing a fit, if you looked at her.  This was a big stress reliever for me.  The C17 is a big aircraft that can hold 3 Blackhawk Helicopters in it.

 We should have brought blankets and pads to make the journey more comfy.

Getting to the States was a breeze.  1 try, direct flight, super easy.  Getting back to Okinawa was another story completely.  We decided for several reasons to try and get a flight back to Okinawa on another noisy aircraft.  Our first attempt - the flight was changed to a fly-over.  So we drove a few hours and visited more family for 2 days and then tried again.  This time the hotel near the airport had only one room left - with  one bed, Awesome.  The fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, even more Awesome.

We did get a flight that morning to Hawaii, about 10 hours on a KC135. I froze on the flight.  If you were warm, your feet were still ice.  Unfortunately our layover in Hawaii was only for over night.  We were supposed to leave the next morning for Guam and then onto Okinawa.  They had issues that they needed to fix so the delayed and delayed until they changed the flight to having only room for 3 passengers.  So we spent the entire day in the airport waiting to be told sorry.  Hawaii has a nice family lounge with an outdoor playground and movies and things to entertain.  The next attempt to leave to would be the next morning, so again no time to enjoy Hawaii.  We stayed that night in the airport.  They had 2 cribs, so we put Grahm and Charlotte in to sleep.  Tennyson slept in her car seat and the rest of us snoozed where we could.  We left that morning for an 11 hour flight on a KC135.  We were so glad to be home.  A KC135 is medivac plane and it also refuels other aircraft in the air.  Jason and Grahm checked out he refueling pod and Grahm was also a patient for a training exercise.

Yup - I have bangs... still trying to decide if I like them in the humidity.

More Valentines

For Jason, I had 14 gifts delivered to work for him to open every hour.  It included snacks, miscellaneous randomness from the 100 Yen Plaza.

This was my favorite!  The directions tell you to exhale, hold your nose and inhale, and finally make sounds.  Nothing says romance like a funny voice!

 Grahm is starting to single out his favorite gal.  His hints are very subtle.  I love it.

This was my attempt at a fun Valentine lunch for the boys.  The heart shaped egg - I held the egg the wrong direction - so I will have to try that again.  They get excited when I make their lunch special.  I wonder if the Japanese children appreciate it or if it becomes the norm and meaningless?  Hmmm.

Valentines

We had a babysitter!  Jason took me to this great place - Sea Garden.  The food is so yummy.  I hope we can go again.  Everything was so pretty, I took pictures of it all.

 Drinks and fondue.

 Fish and chips (side dish), California rolls, and pasta.

Beef for Jason, grilled Red Snapper and Salmon for me (so yummy), and Waffle of Okinawa [kokotu(mascovado)].  The waffle was so yummy, it had 2 kinds of ice cream - one salted.

 The view.

It was a great night!

Furniture and Fur

Charlotte - "Why is Furniture called Furniture?"

Me - "I don't know.  (I am sure its a derivative of Furnish, but you don't need or care to know that)."

Charlotte - "There's no Fur on Furniture."

Me - (.....................Very True..............)

Deployment to Korea

*****It only took 5 months for me to hog tie Jason long enough to have him help provide captions to his pictures.  ******

Yes - Jason made it home - early!  We were surprised when he called to let me know he was only an 1 hour away (that took about 5 to get here).

Riding on the HSV (High Speed Vessel).  

HSV with about 20 trucks inside and holds up to 800 people.

An MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected).

The individually wrap all of the fruit while still on the trees.

Trying out the Medical Highback HUMV.

Medical Trauma Bay.  Not near as fancy as the ER.

Jason really liked taking pictures of the Blackhawks coming and going. 

Jason went running in the rice fields.

Eating an MRE

Working on patients using an Adal unit.  Set up in a storage room.  Dentistry on the go.

Portable X-ray!

More field setup - sterilizer, distiller...

Super comfy dental chairs.

No explanation needed.

North Korean watching Jason take pictures of him.

South Korean patrol.  The one South Korean stays facing the corner of the building, only keeping half of himself visible to the North Koreans.

This building is half in North Korea and half in South Korea.  This is where they meet for talks.

Kijŏng-dong is a city just inside North Korea from the DMZ (demilitarized zone).  The city is mostly fake.  There are workers to take care of any thing.  North Korea used to broadcast nice invitations to South Koreans to join them.  Later it" switched to blaring, condemnatory anti-Western propaganda speeches, Communist agitprop operas, and patriotic marching music at high volume for up to 20 hours a day".  Read more about it, kind of interesting.

The Bridge of No Return.  At one time was used for prisoner exchanges.  An interesting history.

New Toys for the Boys (and us Girls)

This is Jason's Valentine Present.  He loves it.  It is the Jungle Gym XT.  It gives all of us a great workout.  

I usually find one of the kids in the middle of some acrobatic move.  More Pics To Come.

Day at the Doc (post for the grandparents)

We were able to spend almost the entire day at the Doctors last week.  They all needed Wellness Checkups.  So off we headed at 9am and returned home at 2pm.  We did stop at Taco Bell for lunch and checked the mail for packages.

Tennyson and Charlotte were lucky and opted to have a few shots done.  Tennyson was so worn out that she fell asleep in her high chair before I could get her some dinner.  She slept through the night.  Poor girl.    Charlotte  fell asleep before dinner with a fever of 103.4, but woke up for food.

Jayce has had some phantom knee pain lately and had a regular diet of Motrin.  Jason and I have wondered if the pain was real or as severe has he had portrayed it because it seemed like it would flair up at convenient moments.  The doctor ordered X-rays and blood drawn.  I almost didn't wait to get all that done.  Then I realized at how stressed he was about the blood being drawn and decided that this would prove to me if the pain was real.  He did it, with a death grip on me.  I am convinced that his knee really hurts.  Just wish we could figure it out so he can get better.

Grahm got off easy this time around, well we do have a ENT appointment later this week.

The Missing Ingredient...

Last week I discovered what was wrong with all the mud pies I ever made as a child.

That is right.  Broken glass.

Yes, once again I was able to use the shop vac to vacuum my lawn and patio area to remove all the small pieces of glass.  Our neighbor girl had a drink in a glass bottle and left it at our house.  They have been playing cooking games for weeks.  I think the bottle was broken on its own in the wind and the kids just took advantage of the situation.  I happened to glance out the window as they were putting a band aid on Grahms foot, or I am sure more fun would have been had.

Grahm told me the glass was their peppers.  Of Course!

Consequences For Mom

One day last year I made Jayce mad at me.  He was sent outside.  I don't even remember the reason for any of it now.  While he was outside he decided that I needed to learn a lesson.  So he wrote me a message...   NO MOM

On the back of the car, scratched into the finish.   Lesson Learned.

The only reason he has lived to tell this tale is our car is a beater and will have to be junked when we leave the island.  Hopefully, they all understand that there is a zero tolerance policy for this choice.