It's the final countdown!!

The final countdown is about to begin, with the Walker's going into the next phase of being Grown - Ups. lol!!! We have been waiting to hear the news of us having the house for sure. Well we have the green light. We will have more information tomorrow and on Monday or Tuesday. They want for Brian to come in and fill out paperwork on Monday morning, but that is a No GO, because PRT comes before house paperwork.

I am so excited and can't wait!!! I searched online for the floor plans and I was able to find them.

The Walker's may be on the move again!!

We have been searching and placing offers on so many houses. It is now to the point where, I know we put an offer on something, and I know that it is going to be turned down, because there are people that are out bidding us on these things. Last Thursday, we went to see 2 Houses.

The first house was nice, it was 4 bedrooms 3 baths on a corner lot with a really nice backyard. It was nice, but I feel the outside of the house looked a lot better than the inside. The house was about 2200 sqft and they were asking $160,000.00 for it.

The second house is located on the Northside of Jacksonville, but it is in a new subdivision that is really nice. This house didn't have anyone living in it, like the previous house. This house is also 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, and it is about 2900 sqft. It has a really nice kitchen that has double ovens. That is what I wanted for our home to have.

We knew when we saw the huge bedroom downstairs with a really nice bath, that this was the house that we really wanted. We put an offer in on the house that night.

Well all of the paperwork was done on Friday and sent off to the company. I totally forgot about us placing the offer on the house. Brian calls home this afternoon to tell me that it looks like we are going to get the house.

YAY!!!!

We hope that it will continue going in the direction of good.

Tired of the hunt!!

We have been house hunting for the past 3 months and I have to say. I am so sick and tired of the hunt for a home. We have put offers on many houses and each time, someone else has put an offer on the same house. The last 2 houses that we placed offers on the 1st one we offered the amount that they were asking and the 2nd one we over bid by 5 thousand, just to be on the safe side and it didn't work.

So, we are back to the start. We have been searching and searching. We found a great house today and loved the inside. We placed an offer on it and we just hope that this one goes through.

Everyone keeps telling us that we need to hurry and find a house and close before this whole tax thing ends. That is not what we are trying to do. We are just wanting to be in a home before Rian get here and before the possible deployment.

The appointment was great!

Ok....so I have had a problem with Naval Hopsital Jacksonville, since finding out that I am pregnant. The Doctor that I was suppose to see when I first got there was dealing with an emergency family issue. The 2nd time I was suppose to see him, his wife was having surgery. So, needless to say I was having a really hard time wanting to have the baby on base. Anyways today was another appointment to see Dr. Walton and I told Brian that if I didn't see him today, that I was going to see if I could have the baby somewhere else. Well the appointment turned out to be a lot better than we expected. All of the test that were taken before turned out good, all of the labs are great so we are good to go.

On Monday, I had my official 2nd trimester ultrasound and everything looked great, we know for sure that Rian is a girl. But the Ultrasound tech pissed me off because she tells us that she is done and that the Dr. will have my results on Thursday. We leave out of the room and then she comes running down the hall and asked us to wait in the hall that she had to speak with the radiologist about something. We sat there waiting for like 15 minutes. It seemed like FOREVER!!! She comes back and tells me that I need to be careful and not lift heavy objects. These are things that I already know, but that wasn't the reason I was mad with her. She could have told me that while I was in the ultrasound room.

Anywho all is well with Rian and we should be on board with our Doctor from now on.

We can't wait until Feb 24th or before!

Today was the day!!

I swear 5 pm could not get here fast enough. Michelle and I were on the phone for a while and we were saying how time was dragging by. Finally Brian made it home about 4:05 and we left and thank goodness we left when we did, because traffic was crazy!

We get there and she was ready to start. I mean as soon as she started looking, the baby had the legs wide open. I guess she (Baby Rian) knew what she needed to do.

I have to say that today has been the best day EVER! It was so amazing to see Rian just laying inside there, she was moving her mouth like she was talking and then she had a couple of yawns in there, It was so beautiful!

We can not wait to meet Rian Ella Walker

Tomorrow is the day!

WOW!! I have not made a blog posting since July!!!

Not a whole lot has gone on....OK yeah right!!

On July 24th, I went in to the Naval Hospital here in Jacksonville for my routine baby appointment. The Dr that I saw was amazing!! I was able to get the first ultrasound of little baby Walker and all was just great! Dr. Sandburg let me know that I needed to do the 1 hour GTT. I went a couple of days later and had it done. For some reason I did not get another appointment set for 4 weeks later like I was suppose to have. Lets say the Ball was dropped on their end and I have been pissed with their service since then. I called the number that they told us that we needed to call to get appointments and information, I called so many times and they would not return calls. Finally Brian went over to find out what was going on, I got an appointment for about a week later.

I went in for the appointment and the Dr. that I am suppose to see is not there AGAIN. This was the reason for me seeing Dr. Sandburg, but I can't see Dr. Sandburg anymore, because he is deployed. Great..... so I see this other Dr. He was a super nice guy, but was upset that I lost 10lbs since my last visit. So...he goes on to tell me that I need to do the GTT, because I had not done it. I said "Oh yes I did do that crap" He tells me that they do not have a record of it and I have to do it again. So we get our appointment for 4 weeks from then. I go and do that dang GTT, had other blood work done, a flu shot and scheduled my BIG Ultrasound.

Well Radiology tells me that they will call me in 5 days to schedule this ultrasound. I was pissed at the time and said that I will go home and make an appointment for an ultrasound off base. Yeah, we have to pay for it, but we want to know what the baby is.

So....tomorrow is the big day. We are going to find out what the baby is....Hopefully!!

I have truly fallen in love with this song.

Ordinary Miracle...It just seems to truly fit, how things are progressing for Brian and I. We are Blessed in so many ways, but Swee'Pea is such a wonderful blessing.

Swee'Pea is our Ordinary Miracle and we hope and pray that he or she will continue to stay in place and continue to grow stronger.

It?s not that unusual
When everything is beautiful
It?s just another ordinary miracle today

The sky knows when its time to snow
Don?t need to teach a seed to grow
It?s just another ordinary miracle today

Life is like a gift they say
Wrapped up for you everyday
Open up and find a way
To give some of your own

Isn?t it remarkable?
Like every time a rain drop falls
It?s just another ordinary miracle today

Birds and winter have their fling
But always make it home by spring
It?s just another ordinary miracle today

When you wake up everyday
Please don?t throw your dreams away
Hold them close to your heart
Cause we?re all a part
Of the ordinary miracle

Ordinary miracle

Do you want to see a miracle?

It seems so exceptional
That things just work out after all
It?s just another ordinary miracle today

Sun comes up and shines so bright
And disappears again at night
It?s just another ordinary miracle today

It?s just another ordinary miracle today

Houston we have a heartbeat!!!!

I have to say that today was the BEST day EVER!!! We had our first OB visit. The Dr. that I had was awesome and answered all of our questions. He went through and explained all of the blood work. We were able to see the HEARTBEAT and it was just so amazing!!!!! We were also able to get a couple of pictures of the sonogram of our little popeye. It's only just begun.

To be continued....

Everything seems to really be falling into place. We are in our new place, we have our car and working on getting our 2nd car, going on a mini vacation and then Brian will check in to his new command. We have not done a whole lot of stuff since we arrived, but that will change once we are on regular sleep schedules. I will go to bed at like 10pm and sleep until about 2am. Stay up until about 7am and sleep until about 3pm. I am all out of wack!

I think that it's going to turn around.

It's June....and I am happy to be home! I miss my dear friend in Okinawa very much. Yesterday morning, I woke up and got out of bed to see the view. And all I had to view was a lake and a tennis court. Oh..how I miss my mansion in the SKYYYYY. Other than that things are looking up and we can't wait for the future.

Today is moving day!!

Today is the day that we move into our new place. We were going to move into Mariner's Wharf here in Orange Park, but after getting here and riding over there. It looks like they have a lot of people out there. We decided that we would look at their sister company across the street called Bridgewater. Yeah that place is a HOLE. The office staff members were nice, but my issue with this place is, the lady told us that they would have a place ready for us in 5 days and that they would show us the place that we would be renting. She also tells us not to be jaded by the way the apartment looks right now, because they are going to clean it up, paint and all of that good stuff. We get to the apartment and OMG that place was a dump!! The carpet was so dirty, it just smelled so bad. Then we move on to the kitchen and the floor is FLOODED and she didn't seem too surprised about that. I knew right then and there, that we were not going to rent this apartment.

We finish the tour of the apartment complex and by this time, I am feeling super bad(this cold is kicking my butt) I let Brian go back inside to get our license, we sat in the car a while and talked about how crazy that place was and how we will not move there.

We decide to go and check out the old complex that we lived in before moving to San Diego. We had no complaints about it, but we knew that they only had 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. We knew that we really needed more room, but we really wanted to be in Orange Park. This apartment complex is close to everything, actually everything is in walking distance. We were just impressed from the start. They had an apartment that was available right then and took us to the apartment and we were happy with what we saw. There was new carpet, new paint and it smelled great in there. We took the apartment, the only reason we didn't move in the next day was because we were locked into(already paid for) our hotel room for a couple of more days.

The next couple of days should get pretty busy. We bought new furniture and it is being delivered today. We are having cable installed on tomorrow so we had to buy a new tv. So much going on!!

Okinawa to Jacksonville

I have to say that, I thought that we were never going to leave Oki. The reason I say that is because they kept telling us, that our flight was leaving on Saturday, but never giving any kind of time. Friday evening is when we found out what time we were leaving Okinawa. Our flight was to leave Naha at 11:50 am. So, Denise drives us to the airport(Because she is just that awesome of a friend!) and we get there about 2 hours early. The line was PACKED with all kinds of American's. We journey on to the gate and say our goodbyes and head on. The flight from Naha to Narita wasn't so bad. I had a window seat and Brian had the aisle right beside me. We land in Narita and search around for our gate, we find it and we are looking for a place to eat. What do we have....ummm...Sushi!!! We eat and wait. Now, the flight from Narita to Chicago is was just miserable. I had the window and Brian was stuck in the middle between me and a Japanese man. There were so many crying babies on that flight, it was just insane. Once landing in Chicago we are told that we have to get our luggage and go through customs. We do that without any problems...but the problem came after that. The people that had connecting flights to other places had to recheck their luggage. Well, OHare had an awesome system going....NOT They told everyone to just sit their luggage with all of the other luggage and it will be placed where it needed to go.

Now, the flight from Chicago to Jacksonville was AWESOME, we were able to score 1st class tickets for FREE!!! Because there were not that many people on the flight. We land about 30 minutes early and everything is going good..until we get to the baggage claim. Mind you we checked 4 pieces of luggage, only one of those bags made it to Jax. We were not the only ones who didn't get all of their luggage. EVERYONE on the plane had pieces of luggage missing. So, we all file into the United room and put in our claims. Sunday the 2 suitcases arrived and then on Monday the other seabag arrived.

To Leave or Not to leave?.....this is our question

Wednesday night was our last night in our Mansion in Kanna-Ginoza. We had our last dinner from downstairs on Wednesday night too. Such a sad last meal.

Thursday the movers came and I tell you it was a whirlwind..4 or 5 guys come in and start packing the house up. I had to make sure that I had all of our items that we were keeping were out of the way and some of the things that we were going to keep out were packed away. Oh well......Brian should have been home on his day OFF. The movers were not there that long. By the time Brian decides to show his face, they were almost done. Once all was done, we cruise down to Foster to turn in our propane tank and to also do the Vehicle registration with Bestie. Once that was done we went to Cash Sales to look for a poncho liner, which they are out of stock until August.

By the time all of that was done, it was time to where we could check into our hotel room. We lucked up with our room. We are staying over in the WestPac Inn and our room is great! King size bed and leather furniture for only $30.00

So....we should be leaving tomorrow heading home, but the closer to 4 it gets. I am thinking that we are not going anywhere tomorrow. Brian called the PS2 over at PSD and she told him that our flight is leaving tomorrow and that it is a commercial flight, but that was it. He told her that he would be over there, but there were other things that are a bigger than that. Our housing inspection was at 12:00. I have been waiting to hear from Brian, but I have nothing. So.....we may be leaving on Monday or Tuesday.....who KNOWS!!!

Cape Manzamo

Today was the day the Brian and I decided that we needed to go ahead and turn in our trusted mailbox key and start our check out process of the things that we need to do around base. After we did all that we could do for a Saturday we just went riding down Highway 58. I told Bri that we needed to check out Cape Manzamo. Denise, the kids and I went there one day while B was on the Mercy last summer.

So, we head on and make it there and there were so many people there. It was beautiful, just as it was the last time that we were there. Brian was glad that he had a chance to get out and see the sites from there.

Lucky Cider!

I found a fantastic soda when we are on the verge of leaving Okinawa! Yesterday, Brian and I were leaving the apartment and we decided that we would pick up a drink from the Boss Machine in the lobby. I notice that they have added a few new items to the machine. Brian gets a C.C. Lemon and I pick the Lucky Cider, one because the dolphin stood out on the can and because for the huge can it was 100 yen. I also bought a lemon tea, just to be on the safe side, incase the Lucky Cider was a piece of crap drink. Turns out it is not a bad drink!

And so it goes.....

We are into our 7th day before we PCS out of Okinawa. I am happy to be going home, but I am also sad. I have met some wonderful people while here in Okinawa. It's kind of like a song called "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" by Billy Joel. He says

Moving on is a chance that you take. Anytime you try to stay together, say a word out of line. You'll find out that the friends that you had are gone. Forever....Forever.

So many faces in and out of my life, some will last, some will just be now and then. Life is a series of Hello's and Goodbye's. I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again.

I have been truly blessed to have the small amount of friends that I have here in Okinawa or that I have met here in Okinawa. These are the ones that I don't want for it to be just a now and then kind of thing.

Thank you for being my friend.

10 days to go!! and Buttons

I think that today is the day that it all starts! We had our government furniture pick up on this morning and that was an adventure in itself. The movers arrived around 9:30 and they buzzed up to our apartment. I didn't hear the bell until the last ring. I ran and tried to press the button to let them in. Well I pressed the wrong button, I pressed the alarm for an intruder. Yes....that button. So, the movers eventually make it up to the apartment. The guy is asking me questions and we converse and all of a sudden a woman appears and she ask me if I am ok. I tell her yes, she starts to talk to the guy in Japanese and they go back and forth it was kind of like she was yelling at him. I guess he told her that he was there to move stuff and that I accidentally pressed the help button. She ask one more time if I was ok. I let her know that I am fine and she goes on about her business.

The movers were in and out. They were out of here before 9:45. Even though we only had 2 chairs, a sofa and a dresser.

The ball is starting to really roll now, Thursday we have the movers coming to see how much stuff we have for them to move with out Household Goods.(HHG) On next Tuesday, we have our Express shipment pick up. Thursday is our HHG pick up and our first night over in the WestPac Inn. And I have to say that we lucked up with the lodging. Like I said before we are going to be in the WestPac Inn, since the WestPac Lodge is booked up until the 17th. So, instead of paying $110 a night for our room, we are getting to stay in the Inn for $30 a night. We should be out of there by the 13th and on our flight to Florida.

Yay!!! It's starting!!!

Wago Park!!

Wago Park has the greatest SUPER SLIDE EVER!! It is so much fun! It is a concrete slide that you have to use a sled to go down it. The sled has a break on it to where you push it forward to go fast and pull it towards you slow it down.

Thanks to park finder Cordova for finding such wonderful adventures!!

We are at 16!!!

16 days until we are out of Okinawa. The more I think about it, I am going to really miss it here. It's a simple life being here. No major violence happens here on the island. And the further North you get it is super quiet. We had our final 96 holiday and we tried to make the most of it, because we know going back to a Blueside Navy command. We will NOT have 96's...dang them. Anywho...we spent the holiday riding around the island. On Saturday we got in the car and drove up north to Nago and just went wherever. We ended up heading over to Cape Zanpa, it was beautiful and it was a nice breezy day. We did the walk up the narrow stairs to the top of the lighthouse that is there. We jumped back into the car and headed south and to Naha...well past Naha. For months, I have been trying to figure out how to get to this huge JUSCO that is in the south. As we were heading home on 329 from Yonabaru, I see the AEON sign and we just had to stop. This is like the flagship store for Jusco, because it is a huge place.

I decide that I am going to see if they have any MOW(Ice Cream) in any other flavors besides Cheese. Sure enough, they have strawberry. So we pick up a couple and continue to look around. We left with 3 pans, mow and a grocery bag. But, while we were checking out. The lady is speaking to us in Japanese and we just say Hai and go on. She takes the mow and places it into a bag with the spoons for it. She ask us something else, we say "Hai" then she pulls out another plastic bag puts the mow into it hands me the bag and then reaches into the register and pulls out a coin and hands it to Brian. He looks at her with a funny look. She points over to a machine. We gather our things and go over to the machine and look at it for a while. Laugh, because we don't know what to expect. We did what the pictures told us to do and then inserted the coin and pushed the green button, all of a sudden we hear a loud boom. Something lands into the bag inside the machine. We pull it out and it is Dry Ice!! It was so awesome!! Our ice cream was not a milkshake by the time we made it home.

I am so going to miss the customer service over here. On a scale from 1 to 10 and 10 being the greatest. I would have to give customer service out in town 100%

Bad Grandma

Have you ever had a phone call to come late at night and you look at the phone and it is a family member calling. You get really nervous because, you are thinking that something is wrong with a family member or someone that is close to you. Well, I got a phone call last night and I looked down and saw that it was my Grandmother(my awesome Grandmother) calling me. I was so worried!!

My grandma tells me that she hates to call so late, but she just could not wait until the morning to call and tell me this news. She goes on to tell me that my Dad's mother saw her waiting inside her car at the grocery store and came over and started talking. She said that she just spilled her guts. Telling my Grandmother how she wanted to be a Grandmother to me and how my Granddad(Tiger) kept her from being involved with me. Gran says that she went on and on saying how she keeps me in her prayers every night. Gran was telling me how strange it was that she was telling her all of these things. But, also knowing my Gran. I know that she really layed it on talking to Nadine(Fake grandma) Gran told her about how we are moving back to Florida, wasn't so thrilled that she told her that.

The funny thing with all of this is, whenever I see this lady, her mom(fake great grandmother) or her daughter(fake aunt) they never speak or say anything to me. But, whenever they see my Aunt, Grandmother or Great Grandmother they always ask them about how I am doing? What the heck is up with that? The last time I saw my dad we were in Wal-Mart in 2001 my mom spoke to him and all he said to me was "Hey Baby girl" and kept moving with his trailer park looking wife. It didn't hurt or anything, because he has never been involved in my life so it just blew over.

Now getting back to fake grandma or as I shall now call her GG. No...that does not stand for Good Grandma that stands for GAY Grandma! As she was telling my Gran about how Tiger is at fault for her not being a grandmother to me, well that is just an excuse. Yes, Tiger did get mad because they did not help with half of the medical bills. He and my Gran paid it and went on with life. Now, my Gran and Tiger got a divorce when I was like 8 years old. I am sure that GG heard about this because Bartow is not a big town and everyone knows everyone. My Gran stayed in the old family home and Tiger moved to Lake Wales. GG lives about 10 blocks away from my Grans house. If she wanted to be involved she could have stepped up then. I came to stay with my Gran every summer and I am sure she knew that too. She can't say that Tiger kept her away after he moved.


There was this one particular summer, we went on vacation to New Orleans and then to Detroit, I had such an awesome time. We made it back to Bartow and on this particular day my Gran tells me to get dressed and we went for a drive. We pull up at the house of GG! I was like what are we doing here, Gran says. " Now honey, she wants to spend some time with you" I was like you aren't going in? She said No. I end up spending like 4 hours maybe more with GG and her Mom. While I was there she went on telling this same lie about how Tiger is the reason for her not being involved. Now, I guess she thought that I was a dumb bunny. Because, I was sitting there and she must have made some kind of contact to get my Gran to bring me over there. Boom Roasted! Tiger was not keeping me from that very uncomfortable meeting.


I called Tiger the day after I spoke with my Gran, about this conversation that Gran had with GG. He said that Nadine(GG) is full of BS! He also said that he was going to call my Gran and tell her that she doesn't need to have GG visit her house, because she is one of those Lesbians. LOL it was so funny.

Since, I am going back to Florida. I am sure that there will be a part II to this saga.

I'm all in

For the past couple of days, I have been cleaning this house up. Due to our upcoming PCS move. I turn up the music here in the house and just clean away. Music is my motivation to clean.

I have my iPod set to all of TobyMac's music. There is a song on his Portable Sounds CD titled All In. For some reason, I came to a stop and just listened to this song.

I have had this ongoing thing with Leslie, to where I would tell her that I am turning over a new leaf. I am going to stick to this. I'm all in this time.

I'm letting go
I'm letting go
I'm letting go
I'm letting go

Why?s it always circumstantial?
Never any real potential
Obvious and so sequential
It always ends the same (always ends the same)
Holding out with all that?s in me
Is it worth all this pretending?
A story with an ugly ending it?s never worth the pain
So right here and now I am all in


?Cause I?m letting go of everything I am
(I'm letting go, I'm letting go)
And I?m holding on to everything You are
(I'm holding on, I'm holding on)
I?m letting go of everything I once was
I?m all in
I?m fallin? into Your arms again
(I'm letting go, I'm letting go)

Can we just wait out the weather?
I could stay right here forever
Got to get myself together
Real life is on the way
Call it my foregone conclusion
I'll always welcome Your intrusion
You?re the master of my choosing
I?m all Yours



This time I?m so for real (come on)
It?s time I sealed the deal (come on)
Shut down my lame appeals
I?m letting go
I?m letting go
I?ll throw caution to the sky (come on)
Kiss all my fears goodbye (come on)
This time its do or die
I?m letting go ?



Into your arms again
(I'm letting go, I'm letting go)
Into your arms again
(I'm letting go, I'm letting go)
Into your arms again
(I'm letting go, I'm letting go)
I'm all in
(All in)

It's the Final Countdown!!

The time for leaving Okinawa is coming closer and closer to an end.

There are so many things that I am going to miss about Okinawa. I love the culture and how friendly the Okinawan's off base are. I am truly glad that Brian and I made the choice to move off base. It sucks that we are so far up North, but it is so quiet. I am going to miss my trips to Family Mart, to see what the new Kit Kat is for the month. The restaurants here are so amazing and SO AFFORDABLE.

Things are coming along...I have been doing laundry for days to make sure all of the clothes and other items are clean for when TMO comes. I think that we have everything together. We need to make our reservation at the Lodge here in Okinawa. We gave our verbal notice to our housing office about 15 minutes ago.

I am missing you Oki and I am still here. LOL!!!!

Our next duty station and Home Sweet Home

Ok...So if I have not told you already. We are going to be stationed in Jacksonville, FL!!! Brian is going to the Navy Entomology Center of Excellence(NECE) we are so excited about going back to Florida.

Last night Brian made a phone call to the housing office there at NAS Jax and he was told that they have a list of Apartments that have the Military Partnership Program and the guy emailed the list right to us. Prior to call the housing office we have been looking at apartments. We had a list of 5 that we were interested in. One of the apartments that we had on our list was the one that we were living in before we moved to San Diego. After seeing the list last night it is one of the places on the list, but we decided that we are going to Mariners Wharf. We found a 3 bedroom 2 bath 1606 sqft apartment and it seems perfect.

We are totally excited about getting back to jax!

oh wow, my life!

It has been over a month since my last blog. ALOT of things have happened since then. On Monday, March 2nd. I took a pregnancy test and it came out positive. Oh my gosh...talk about excited! I went for my Dr's appointment on the 9th and they had me take the test there and it was positive too, so I set up my prenatal labs. Went and had that done on the 11th. During the afternoon I had a few spots and for some reason it really freaked me out. Brian and I went to the ER. It went from a little bleeding to full blown menstral cycle bleeding.

The Dr came in and spoke with us and told us that it looks like we had a miscarriage. II slept the whole day of Thursday and was like a zombie. I feel bad and sad. I feel like there are or were things that I could have done to prevent this, but then I also think that it was God letting us know that it wasn't our time.

Please keep Brian and I in your prayers.

Sakusaku Panda

With all of my wonderful trips to Family Mart, I have found a new cookie, that I love, love, LOVE!! These cookies are cute little panda bears. I picked them up to give to my friend Michelle's son for while we were at Cocok's. He really liked those cookies, so I thought that I would stop by family mart on my way home and pick up a bag for myself.

I finally opened the package a few minutes ago and I have to say. I totally see why Bubba loved those cookies so much. Again, they are such cute little cookies they have 4 chocolate panda faces and when you turn them over they look just like a little panda.

Oh the wonderful things that you find at Family Mart.

Brian on his 36th Birthday.

I think for the past 3 years, there has always been something to keep us from celebrating Brian's birthday.  I felt like I really needed to do something nice for him since last year, he spent the whole day getting all of my paperwork done for me to fly back to Florida for Aunt Myrt's funeral. I purchased a couple of Corpsman shirts a couple of days ago and I have been purchasing different DVD's offline for him.  He was really happy and that was what I really wanted.  We also went to Marino's for dinner and as usual it was Fantastic!!!!   All in all, I think that he had a great birthday.

Miffy is a Slut Bunny!!

Really Miffy?????  What the heck?  So, this evening we went to Coco's and had an awesome dinner with Denise and the boys.  We decide that after dinner that we would go to the 100¥ shop aka Daiso shop.  We laugh at all of the amazing and wonderful things that they have in the store.  Then Denise points out the cups and plates have Melamine warning on them or something about Melamine,  isn't this the crap that we are suppose to be staying away from?     So then we head down the toy aisle 

and we see the Hello Kitty items that 

they have in this particular Daiso shop

then Brian points out this little bag for

a small little girl and it shows this little

girl bunny on roller skates and there is

a boy bunny standing behind her and it

just does not look right.  It really

makes Miffy look like she is a Slut

Bunny. I mean  tell me what you think of

this picture?

Andie loves to beat the drum

Yes......I love to beat the drum. Our first Christmas here in Okinawa, Brian and I spent the day at the Jusco playing video games. In all of the video arcades here in Okinawa and I am guessing on mainland Japan have the game Taiko no Tatsujin It is a game that has 2 drums and you are hitting the drum for each little drum that comes across the screen. This game is so cool and I enjoy playing it. The other day Brian and I were at the Yamada store and we were looking at all of the wii games that they have. I was totally shocked to see that they had a wii version of Taiko no Tatsujin. I picked it up and was about to go to the counter with it and I remembered that Japanese wii games are not supported on the American wii. So, there it went back to the shelf. I am now on a mission to find someone to mod my wii to support Region 2 games. So, that I do not have to go out and buy a Japanese wii, just for this game. I have been tempted to do this if I can not find someone to mod it for me.

Oh what a night!

I was so tired last night, there was no way that I would be able to write this. So last night we went to Toneau Bistro and had a wonderful dinner. We have had dinner there a couple of times before, but our friends Aimee and Paul had never been. So, we get in and get our table. They bring us our appetizers. The usual appetizer is a piece of fried fish, a plum and a hot pickle, tempura veggies or the wonderful dish of squid that we had last night. Well when they brought the appetizers out they hand Paul, Denise, Brian and myself a small plate with the squid on it. We look at each other and wonder why they didn't bring another one for Aimee. Well...the server comes back with 5 trays. He hands one to each of the 3 boys, one to Mackenzie and one to Aimee..yep......They thought that Aimee was child! It was so funny!!

So, the meal continues...we enjoy our wonderful food and make fun of the drinks that they have given us, because the ice in the glasses are 2 huge balls. I wanted to see if I could fit one into my mouth. Anywho....the meal continued and all of a sudden the waiter comes out with 2 plates that had these cake like items on it. He said it was a present.... I have to say that I was thinking at first what the heck are they bringing us bread with chocolate syrup? But once you cut into it, that thing was so warm and so good.

I have to say that it is always so wonderful to go out to dinner and have a great time with such great company.

Photography here a go go

For a while, I had been going back and forth with should Brian and I do a photography shoot with a photographer here in Okinawa. I kept putting it off, and I don't know why. So, we finally did it. There are so many people here in Okinawa that do photography. The person that I wanted to use was the HM1 that worked with Brian. I knew that he did awesome work, because the command would have him doing all of the pictures for command events. Well.....he PCS'ed in December so using him was out of the question. I turned to Japan Update to see if I could find a photographer, all of the photographers that I saw on there did awesome work, but they were a little pricey. Then I turned to the new site here in Okinawa, which was Okinawa Yard Sales and I found a photographer named Deena with Makana Photography and I have to say that I was impressed with the work that was shown on her site and I am extremely pleased with the pictures that she did for us. I love, Love, LOVE the pictures. She did an awesome job.