Catching Up

Long time.

It's been hitting me that our time in Japan is winding down. We've been here for two years and it feels like a lifetime since Lemoore. Those 20 year old newlyweds feel a long way away! We still love it here and we're fast approaching all the grown-up decisions of careers, babies, homes, etc. etc. etc. etc. So we're trying to enjoy Japan as much as possible before that big headache. Now that the snow is almost melted, we can end our hibernation and get out again. The snow was crazy and I failed again to get good pictures of the piles of snow and ice that gather here. This is the Air Force base with the most snow accumulation in the entire world, after all.

So, updates on life? Jeff and I are still chugging along. We're forever buying a new movie and trying a new recipe so we can cuddle on the couch. Homebodies, through and through. I don't get lost driving around Misawa anymore, but I can guarantee a wrong turn or two with every new drive out of town. I switched jobs last summer and am loving the new one. I also started graduate school in January, so that keeps me busy. I may or may not be avoiding homework right now... No babies over here, although we feel like the last couple we know without kiddos. I swear my Facebook newsfeed is all pregnant bellies and newborn cuties.


Anyways, here's a photo dump to catch you up. I borrowed all of these from Facebook and most probably deserve a story, but this is a start. After I realized it was March and I hadn't taken a photo this year until St. Patrick's Day, I realized I should probably do a better job of documenting my life. We'll see how that one goes!

These are horribly out of order, my apologies.

 Enjoying a friend's aprons after our command Christmas Party, December 2012

Happy birthday to me! October 2012

At the Imperial Palace Gardens while down in Tokyo, September 2012

 Happy St. Patrick's Day, March 2013

 Enjoying a beef and garlic festival, because I am my father's daughter after all. October 2012

 Exploring the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Tokyo, September 2012

 At the Imperial Palace Gardens again, September 2012

 The guys at the command Christmas party, December 2012 (We managed not to get a single picture together....)

 Sumo wrestling! In Tokyo, September 2012

 In the Tokyo Tower, September 2012.

The tower is an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower, only bigger and bright red. Japanese amaze me.

 Edo-Tokyo Museum in Tokyo, September 2012

 Jeff being the Easter bunny for all the kids at a command event last weekend, March 2013

 The girls at the command Christmas party, December 2012

I think this is the only picture I even took of the snow that's been here for a good 5-6 months. Pathetic! At one point the sidewalks were almost as tall as my car, and I never even took my camera outside. Next winter, I swear.

Revisiting the Gorge

I blogged about our first visit to the Oirase Gorge last July. It was so green and so beautiful. We just parked and took pictures at two waterfalls and I couldn't wait to get back and get walking.

Fast forward almost a year. (How does time go by so quickly?!) We were trying to figure out what to do with my parents one afternoon and decided it was too gorgeous to be indoors. Out here in Misawa, a sunny day is something to take advantage of because snow and rain are less than a day away.

Life Lately

I haven’t been updating very frequently lately. But nothing has been happening that prompts pictures or detailed blog posts, so I’ve mostly just gone about my business and called it a day.
Then I got a birthday card from my wonderful aunt who reminded me that some people can’t regularly check my Facebook and look to my blog for life updates (If you’re reading this Aunt Alice – thanks! I meant to send a thank-you card, but you know how that goes.) And even I’m not going to go digging through my Facebook page to try to remember what happened a few weeks ago, much less any longer. I was trying to remember the exact date we landed in Japan, and looking on my blog was way easier and faster than trying to use my Facebook. Better.

So.

I’ve started a new job. I bumped up to a salary job and I’ve bumped down my age group – I’m still working with kids but now they’ll be toddler sized. I haven’t been given a specific age group yet, so it’s anywhere between 6 weeks and 5 years. I’m bouncing back and forth between school age and child development for a few more weeks, and the contrast is refreshing. It’s hard not to love your work when you spend your mornings playing dress up with toddlers (I was a cop, firefighter, and construction worker this morning) and spend your afternoons making Christmas cards with school age kids and talking about anything from where we’ve lived (some of these kids have been all over the place!)  to what we love to do on the weekends. Of course the getting puked on (babies) getting hit or bit (toddlers) or getting screamed at (school age) puts a damper in things, but not for long. Regardless, I’m very excited about my new job.

Jeff and I haven’t been exploring too much lately. Snow has hit Misawa already, so the roads are going to get tricky fast. Japanese don’t really plow, so snow piles on ice on top of snow on top of ice on narrow, winding roads. It’s fun. On base the roads are fine, at least. We’ve also just been really lazy lately and have been choosing to spend our weekends at home relaxing rather than adventuring. We’re hibernating?
We’ve ventured out a few times.

We visited some caves and an amber museum a few weeks ago (I just realized I never blogged about this, I should do that soon!)

Last week, we had Jeff’s command Christmas party. We had a lot of fun, I could probably do a quick blog post about that at some point too…
Next weekend we have my command Christmas party. The week after that is Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, we’ve been shipping boxes all week. We had bought most of our gifts for family back home well before Thanksgiving with the intention of mailing them all out before the big turkey day. The best laid plans, right? We got them out this week, which happened to be before the priority mail deadline, which was today according to my radio. We splurged on some special gifts for our nephews, and then bit the bullet and paid the price for the hassle of shipping something that didn’t fit in a flat rate box. Ouch! Not happening again! I can’t wait until everyone gets to open their gifts and see what we’ve picked. I’ve loved shopping for unique gifts to give from our end of the world.
I even took pictures of mostly everything I bought before I wrapped and packaged.
Health wise I’m chugging along at pretty much the same place I was at weeks ago. I’ve cut back drastically on soda. I’m now down to very little each week. We usually eat out once a week, and I usually end up having one or two more sodas throughout the week. But that’s miles better than the one to four sodas I’d been drinking daily. Workouts are relatively nonexistant, but I’m working on it. Diet is still mediocre at best, but oh well. You can’t do everything perfectly, right?

Hmm, what else to update on? It’s hard to think of what people will actually be interested in reading. Life in Japan lately has mostly consisted of working and sleeping, which really isn’t very different from life in the states, except for which side of the car I drive in and what timezone I’m sleeping with.
It’s hitting me that we’ve been here for almost a year. It’s hard to believe on one hand. How have I lived overseas for a whole year?! On the other hand, it feels like home. Our apartment is good enough for now, we’re both working full-time, we’ve made friends and we’re involved in the community. We know enough of our town to maneuver the streets and enough Japanese words to at least decipher gestures and broken English. I’ve fallen in love with sushi and the scenery. If you asked me exactly a year ago if Japan would ever feel like home, I’d have looked at you with wild eyes and said “no!”. How things change, eh? (You can bet when one year hits, you’ll get a long blog post about how much change a year can bring!)

Three Years Ago

Three years and two days ago (I'm a little late!), I was doing this:



To go say something special to someone special:



And we started a new adventure together:



Three years ago exactly, we celebrated our new adventure with our family and closest friends:







Jeff and I got married on June 19th, 2008. It was a whirlwind of planning a wedding before a deployment with him overseas and me recovering from surgery, but we got it done. We had a courthouse wedding with immediate family, then celebrated in a small reception with family and close friends on June 21st.

Who could have imagined in just three short years we would have lived in CA, finished my degree, survived a year of deployments, moved to JAPAN, and started a real family of our own - the two of us and our adorable little furbabies. We've figured out how to live together and not want to strangle each other, most days. We've started traditions of our own and continued our favorites from our families. We've made plans for the future and made the best of the situations life has thrown at us. And of course, had a lot of fun along the way.

I don't know how I got so lucky, but my husband is pretty amazing. In the way of rubbing my sore and tired feet while I'm adjusting to a new job, bringing me toast when I'm sick or hungover, letting me sleep in late every weekend, only picking movies I'll actually watch from his extensive movie collection, and enduring my incessant need for hugs and snuggles. He's not perfect and sometimes I want to strangle him (I'm sure the feeling's mutual), but I'm happy with my life and the way it's shaping up.

I can't help but wonder where we'll be three years from now! I never would have expected actually moving overseas, so to say some things surprised me would be an understatement. Other things were as expected --having pets was always at the top of my list. I think Jeff's just surprised I've stopped at two.

Just wanted to share. This anniversary was pretty special after all the chaos of moving and adjusting to life overseas.