Organizing Binge

The best way to kick off the new year is to get rid of excess, right? I felt the urge to deep clean and purge our apartment. It's partly due to the clock ticking down to our move back home and partly the general frustration with every over-flowing closet in our 2 bedroom apartment. We're TWO people, how do we have so much stuff?

I wish I had remembered to take before pictures of the kitchen. Although it's the most organized room in the house, it was full of expired pantry items, piles of aluminum foil pans and cleaning supplies. Apparently, I hoard cleaning supplies.

I re-organized our spices, throwing out everything that's older than a year. I cleaned out the pantry, throwing out expired or unlikely to be used items. I moved the Keurig closer to the fridge because those extra steps in the morning were bugging me (it's the little things, right?). I purged some cleaning supplies and made use of the excess foil pans I've been hiding to help corral all the bits and pieces in the kitchen.

 

 

There are a lot of things I dislike about our current place, but the kitchen is not one of them. For such a small space, it's full of storage and more cabinets that I know what to do with. I would kill for a gas stove, but everything else is perfect.



Since the kitchen was done, I moved onto the biggest disaster. The bedroom. As much as I hoard cleaning supplies, I have a serious clothes problem. As in, I keep all the clothes that don't fit or I don't like even though I never wear them. I had piles under the bed, in the closet, all over the place.

I'm somewhat embarrassed that I moved 5 trash bags full of clothes and random knick knacks out of the bedroom when all was said and done.  But the room looks so much better! Of course I failed to take a picture, maybe next time.

I'm hoping to tackle one closet or room each weekend so the whole place is cleaned up in no time. Once the place is clean and organized, I can focus on things like my new sewing machine I'm itching to play with.

How'd you spend the first week of 2014?

Catching Up

I'm sitting in my apartment in Misawa, Japan watching TV with my husband. He's in the military and I work with kids on base. I just finished some graduate school and we spend most nights trying a new recipe and watching a movie on the couch.

But this time next year?

I'll be a civilian's wife.

2014 is our last year in the military and in Japan. It's the start of a new chapter of my life and I'm so anxious and excited to get to it. Since my time in Japan is ticking away and there are so many changes coming, I'm making a attempt to get back into blogging. To share the journey that is Japan before it's gone and share all the surprises that will come with transitioning to civilian life.

Since pictures make things more exciting, here are some of my favorites from 2013.  (One goal for 2014: more pictures!)

 

Climbing Mt. Fuji! Hardest and most memorable moment of 2013. I was all smiles at the beginning ;)

 

The ride back down after injuring my foot so badly I could barely walk. I rode in a bulldozer and then on a horse! It was awful and hilarious and we knew it would make a great story once I recovered. 

We took another trip to Tokyo to meet my brother!

We enjoyed catching up and exploring with Sean. Can't wait to do it again in Arizona!

 

I finally got Jeff in his blues for the Navy ball. We agreed on going to one ball in his enlistment and this was it. So much fun to get dressed up, laugh, and dance!

  I switched to a new job and no longer work weekends so we've begun exploring again! We took a weekend getaway in Aomori, the prefecture's capital.

The beginning of our last winter in Japan! The snow here is so beautiful, but I will not miss literally shoveling my car out of its spot. 

Busy

Life has been pretty crazy the past few months. Trying to keep up with everything and finding time to blog about the fun stuff is just not happening lately! I'm only on right now because I'm taking a break in between writing two papers for grad school ;)

Updates?

I climbed Mt. Fuji! I need to type up the whole story so I never forget the details, because it was an exciting and crazy journey. I injured my foot near the top of the mountain and was transported down. My foot is healing, but slowly. I am back to walking normally, but cannot do more than a mile walk at the gym without pain and cannot do anything outside of walking on flat, level surfaces. Even though the healing process is very frustrating, getting to the top of the mountain was worth it! Jeff's already planning a trip next year to climb it again - I'm done! I did it once, that's it.

I'm in my last semester for my graduate certificate. I lucked into two rather busy classes at once, so that's fun. I'm excited to complete this certificate and getting excited about all the paths my career could take. I stumbled into something I love over here on this remote military base.

I have a very special visitor coming to Misawa soon. Which is part of why I've been stressed for school - trying to get a couple major assignments complete before said visitor arrives! I haven't seen this person in years and I just cannot wait. Expect major picture overload on Facebook and eventually over here too.

The heat wave has finally passed Misawa. Those few hot, humid weeks are miserable but they went by quickly this year. I'm looking forward to fall weather, but I'm not too thrilled about all the snow shortly after! This will be my last full winter in Misawa, so I will have to soak up as much winter fun as I can. Hopefully my foot will heal enough that Jeff and I can finally go snowboarding this year!

Otherwise life has been pretty normal - working and trying to relax. My schedule recently changed back to days so I'm able to cook dinner with Jeff again. After months of working nights, I'm enjoying it thoroughly. We haven't had the energy to explore much lately, but we've continued to enjoy all the amazing food in Japan.

I should get back to my homework now! Only two and a half assignments to go before I can relax and count down to vacation! (My work day count is in single digits, hooray!)