This weekend we are planning to go to Hedo Point.  It's at the northern top of the island.  I had no idea what it was but now having seen the pictures I'm pretty darned excited.  It looks beautiful.

We are safely in Japan, have been since the 17th or so. It was a ridiculous journey to get here and is continuing it's ridiculous course even now - though with a pending deposit of back-pay FINALLY showing up in my online banking, I have some sort of hope that things are going to mellow out and start returning to normalcy and decency very soon. We move into our highrise tower apartment next Tuesday. It's been a total whirlwind. I am hoping I'll have some sort of internet from the house, but I'm not counting on it, to be honest.

For now, what's important is that we are safe, we are [mostly] healthy, and we are here in Okinawa. And our newest little one is definitely another girl. My elective 3D sonogram the day before we left California confirmed it. So I'm easing into actual excitement over HER upcoming arrival.


And that's about it for now. I need to be off to bed soon, it's after 10PM here and our schedules seem to be at a point now where they are never going to completely straighten out.

This is easily the coolest song on Noggin these days. It makes me happy. Goofy old Dirty Socks Funtime Band and their hit, "Dinosauring".

We had an uneventful weekend. Mark ran in a triathlon (he was on a team, which I think is actually cheating as far as triathlons go... but whatever) on Saturday and then we came home and slept. And then we went to the crappy sushi place here in town and had some barely edible sushi. I heard somewhere that it takes 3 years to learn to properly make sushi. The chefs at Nakamura didn't bother to figure it out. Everything there tastes dry and dissatisfying, even when doused in various sauces.

Anyways, then yesterday we had breakfast at Denny's, took Amaris to the playground, ran a couple of unnecessary errands, and then cleaned house for movie night. Very eventful, see. We watched Dodgeball. To my disappointment. I wanted to watch The Goonies.

I'm getting increasingly more excited about going to Okinawa. The brainstorming about Disney parks led to a lot of researching and it turns out that MCCS in Okinawa has a really awesome, extensive website. And they offer a ton of really cool annual tours, both on and off the island. It's my intention to do AS MUCH traveling as we humanly can while we're there. And since Mark will inevitably be deployed at some point, I figure I'll have plenty of opportunities to save up money to fund these excursions.

MCCS also has a lot of job opportunities. I'd LOVE to score one. But I'm not real sure I'll feel comfortable putting the little bean in daycare. I'd really like to have Amaris in daycare even just for one day a week, but I am not sure I'll feel comfortable putting my newborn in someone else's care. So I'm not quite certain if and how that'll work out for us. Time will tell, I suppose. I may potentially just apply myself to school while we're there since they offer STAP to spouses of service members stationed in Okinawa, and Mark's GI Bill will finally be coming available to me as well. We'll see what happens.

At any rate we'll have plenty to do to fill our 3 years there. And of course, I'm looking forward to the food. Genuine sushi and yakisoba and...

Yes, we'll make the most of it. We'll have a good time. Mark my words.

I have found purpose. I am finally elated to be heading out on this new adventure to Okinawa. You want to know why?? Well of course, I'd be delighted to tell you why. (Since you asked so politely and all.)

Somewhere I read that Okinawa was approximately the same distance by air from Tokyo, Japan; Hong Kong, China; and I think someplace in Taiwan. When I learned this, initially, it did not register in my head. In fact, it meant almost nothing to me. I was too bitter with the very fresh, very new knowledge that we would soon be moving against our better wishes to a foreign country I knew very little about (except what I'd heard from other military families, which was not by any means famously good news).

Today, while chatting with my friend Melinda, somehow the topic of Disney resorts came up.

Now, I grew up with a fanatical Disney mom. My mom has always said that if she were ever to get a tattoo, she'd get a Mickey silhouette on the back of her hand, right where she could see it. Often. She took my brother and me to Disneyland on a yearly basis for as long as I can remember, even when it meant running up a credit card (and often, I suspect, it did). She was never happier than when she was walking through the main gate and onto Main Street, U.S.A. She rubbed off on me, I'll admit. I got quite obsessed myself. And it got to the point where if it wasn't Disneyland it didn't feel like a real vacation.

One year, my brother wanted to go to a week-long Anime convention in Anaheim, CA. I think ordinarily my mom probably would have laughed at him and said to take a hike. But this was different. This was Anaheim. Home of Disneyland. Mom quickly agreed to take him. She bought 5-day passes for the two of us, and we spent the entire week overstuffing ourselves with as much Disney as we could manage while Robert indulged himself in the anime craziness going on just across the street at the convention center. We set out to do everything we could do at Disneyland in those 5 days, even the things we'd never wanted to do before. All the way down to the canoe ride - which was exhausting.

Shortly afterwards, she bought us Annual Passports. Not the dinky ones with half of the calendar blacked out as no-use dates, but the BIG Premium passports that were good 365.25 days a year and got us free parking and 10% discounts at almost every vendor in the park. I can remember MANY weekends where she'd look at me on a Friday evening and say, "Want to go to Disneyland?" And I of course agreed and off we went early on Saturday morning, to spend the day there and drive home Saturday night.

Fond memories, I tell you.

Which is why it shocks me that it took this conversation with Melinda this evening for everything to click in my head.

Boys and girls, I'm on a mission.



The airfare is potentially going to suck. And we're going to have to save lots of money to be able to pull off these vacations, but damnit I am DETERMINED! I went to Switzerland last June to visit one of my best friends, and we toyed with the idea of going to Euro Disney in France for a few minutes, before we realized we were holding the price sheet and there was just no way in Hell. But the thought was there. The thought has always been there to visit the foreign Disney parks.

The more I think about it, the more I really hope we can find a nice, similar-to-ours family to be our travel buddies (so that we can alternate who sits out with 'the kids' for the rides they won't be able to partake in). But, like I said, DETERMINED! This is my one big opportunity to visit these two parks, and I have 3 years in which to do it. I think it's do-able with a little discipline and a lot of will.

I am seriously so excited that I feel like I just might burst. When I logged into the Hong Kong Disneyland website and the music started to play, I almost cried. (Yes, hormones.) And of course, Tokyo Disney looks absolutely lovely too. If we're going to do this, we'd better be doing it all the way, too. I want to stay at Disney owned hotels. And I want to stay for more than one or two days. I'd like to ideally make each trip at least a week long so that we can do the parks and then we can see the rest of the cities in question. I've always wanted to see Tokyo, and grandma used to always tell me how much she'd like to visit Hong Kong one day, and like I said, this is pretty much my one big chance for all of those things.

Yippee let the planning begin! I think that I might pee my pants before Mark is available to discuss this with.

For the 4th of July, we drove to Houston to see Tori and Jim. Let me tell you, that was a long, boring 6 hour drive. But once we got to The Woodlands (the suburb where Tori and Jim live) all was good. Amaris loved Tinker (their Pomeranian) and Johnalynn (Oh goodness I am sure I'm spelling it wrong... But that's Tori's little sister). We saw fireworks by the lake on the 4th, and then went into Houston on Saturday to have real Chinese food - the selection in San Angelo is extremely depressing and consists solely of filthy buffets - and to visit the Aquarium. It was a good trip. We hadn't seen them in almost two years, so it was really nice to get together with them before we head off to Japan for three years.

I didn't take a ton of pictures because I realized my stupid self forgot the SD card at home. So I had limited space on my camera's internal memory. These pictures are from the aquarium, and are proof enough that we were in Houston at all. :-P






Mark has duty today, so Amaris and I are alone till tomorrow. We talked on the way to and from Houston about our plans - we're probably just going to keep the car and have the military store it for us. After being financially raped (thank you so much, DCH Honda of Oxnard), we owe $12,000 on it and it's currently worth $8,000 at best. So we either keep it and continue to make our monthly payments while we're in Japan, or we take out a loan and sell it and pay monthly for a fat load of nothing the whole time we're in Japan. At least this way we'll come home to a car and will have a trade in when we go to buy new cars. I'm not thrilled with the plan, but like all of our plans regarding this move to Okinawa, most of the options aren't perfect. We're having to do a lot of compromise and taking the lesser evils. This has led to a lot of stress and head-butting between Mark and I but I just keep reminding myself that things are going to get better as soon as we have a better handle on things. Sometime around the middle of the month, we're expecting our orders.

I've started shopping for cars already. I know I'm a little over 3 years away from being able to buy new cars, but I'm excited. What can I say. I've settled on the Mazda5 for myself, and I think Mark is pretty much sold on the Tahoe Hybrid. The Mazda is economical and fits in our budget and has enough space for us without being too big for me to drive comfortably. The Tahoe satisfies Mark's need to have a truck, and by the time we get back to the states, we ought to be able to buy a used Hybrid for less than their current sticker price of upwards of $50k. I hope, at least. Geesh. It also has a crapload of space for us (I'm smelling roadtrips) and a lot of cool features. I'm excited. I've spent a decent amount of time at the Mazda and Chevy websites today, ogling the galleries. Yes, it's 3 years out, but a girl can plan and daydream, right? I'm really just so excited to have my own car again.

Speaking of cars and such, it also came to my attention this weekend that the DMV's notice of renewal never showed up for the Honda. We left California in February and all of our mail has had an easy time forwarding to us, so we thought. But I haven't gotten anything regarding my car's registration, and I think it was up in mid June. Which means my tags are probably expired - I'd know if I had looked at the license plate but I didn't remember to when we got home last night. This does not make me happy. Mark is going to call the DMV and see what's up today or tomorrow, depending on when he has an opportunity.

One other thing we did to consume time during our 6-hour drive was to compile a list of the things we plan to get rid of before leaving the states. We're going to have a really healthy yard sale, let me tell you.

Anyways, I need to buy groceries, but I can't do that when I don't have a car, so Amaris and I are going to scavenge for dinner tonight. A part of me says we should order in pizza, but a bigger part of me says, "Nah, you're crazy. Save your money."

McDonald's chocolate chip cookies rock my world.