The ball pictures are finally in! I can't help it, I'm impatient.

Well, not every light, but certainly every appliance. Except the oven. I can change that if you'd like.

I finally conjured up some motivation and did some housework I was behind on. The dishes are in the dishwasher, a load of laundry in the washer and one more in the dryer. The place still looks the same, unless we're talking about my sink. Which is due to be shined.

I have heartburn. This little girl had better be born with as much hair as her sister had.

Also on my list of accomplishments today is that I found an amazing photographer here in Okinawa! I'm super excited, I had been worrying about Christmas cards this year. Worry no more! We are meeting up with Kimberly on November 8. Score one for the team!

I feel like I've accomplished a lot more than that, but now that I'm thinking about it all rationally, I guess I really haven't. I bought myself a pair of slippers and new Christmas stockings for the gang. Both of those things are on their way from America to my FPO mail box. I've also been doing some serious Santa brainstorming. I didn't realize just how hard it could be to shop for a 2-year-old. What I really want to get her is a bunch of stuff she could probably care less about - most of which would have something to do with the new decor I have been eyeing for her bedroom. (It matches her Ikea Mammut furniture PERFECTLY - God help me!)

I am undecided, though, about whether or not I should go the "dress-up" route for her Christmas gift theme, or the "doll houses" theme. There are a couple of things Santa has picked out for her stocking already, but her toys here so far are slim pickings, and I'm starting to feel completely guilty about my child being bored all the time.

Tomorrow, we're making another attempt to go to the Churami Aquarium, so hopefully that'll be a good time.

Amaris is whining and saying "Help me mommy, pooooor baaaaaabyyy...." Over and over again now so I think I am going to go ahead and toss her dirty little butt in the bathtub.

I love my camera. After much research, I bought at the beginning of the year a Kodak Z712 for myself. It is wonderful. Picture quality is great, zoom is fantastic, etc, etc, etc.

But it's kind of big. And it plows through AA batteries like they're going out of style. And many times Mark has asked while we were out somewhere, "Where is your camera when we need it??"

It just isn't a purse camera. It's fantastic for parties and for trips and such, but for everyday purposes, not so much.

Yesterday we went to Target. You'd think that by now we'd realize that Target is the black hole of all spending. And with our purse strings as tight as they currently are, you'd think we'd have a little restraint.

But I got to thinking that I'll be going about 3 years with no Target trips. And there are things we need before we go to Okinawa. So I got cocky with Mark's redcard. And we splurged on an Olympus FE-340, among other random items that we'd have eventually needed anyway - a new portable DVD player for Amaris (since she broke her last one), and... Okay, ipods. I'll admit it. We bought ipods yesterday. Stupid, I know, but we've been talking about doing it for months now. Anyways back to the camera, quit thinking about my stupid and frivolous spending! I'm still tinkering with the settings and figuring out how to take indoor pictures with the flash without making things yellowy and weird, but the camera is cute and pink, and fits very comfortably in my purse. And it has a battery life of longer than 10 minutes. Oh! And it has a 5x optical zoom (which is obviously not as awesome as my Kodak's 12x, but for a pocket-sized camera, it's fairly impressive!) and is 8.0mp.

Win.



We bought AA batteries for the big camera, by the way. I'm just too lazy to load them up. And, it wouldn't really be smart to load them up right now anyways since they'd just be sitting in the camera dying a quick death while I had nothing to snap photos of.

Today we bought Amaris a Cabbage Patch Newborn, and she's learning how to treat babies. She's hesitant, but showing promise.


She has also decided that her bear's new name is "B". She had until now always called him Beau /Bo/Boo (she has trouble with the "r" sound), but yesterday she shortened it to just "B". And now all bears are "B". Or maybe she's calling the bear "Bea" and it's short for Beatrice. Which would give me a slight identity crisis because up until now I'd always thought that "Bear" was a boy.

I miss Jamba Juice. And Presto Pasta. And Ralph's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. And hye roller sandwiches. I'm hungry. And totally unmotivated to feed myself.