February Adventures

February has been a pretty busy month so far! On the 3rd of February, I celebrated my 25th birthday! I had to work all day, but when I came home Chad had the whole house clean and he had drove an hour away to get my favorite Okinawan cake! He even managed to put 25 candles on this tiny cake. It was perfect! We went out to dinner to one of our favorite restaurants, Sams by The Sea. It was delicious! I started going to the gym at the end of January, so for my birthday I got a lot of fitness related gifts. I got a new set of ear buds that actually stay in my ear when I'm moving and my favorite part is on the cord there is a button where I can turn the volume up/down, stop/play the music, or go to the next song. I love them! I am still waiting on a couple of my gifts to arrive in the mail. Chad ordered me a Polar Heart Rate Monitor watch, which I am so anxious to get! My Mom sent me an Amazon gift card, so I bought an mp3 player with it. It's tiny and will just clip on to my clothes. It will be perfect to use at the gym instead of having to wear a big armband with my iPod touch. I can't wait to get all my gear, hopefully my packages will arrive early this next week!

The best part about my birthday weekend was Chad surprising me by booking a trip to go whale watching! It was an amazing experience! We've been wanting to go but I was hesitant to pay the money to possibly not see any whales or get sea sick. We took dramamine the night before and the morning of, and thankfully the water wasn't very rough, so neither of us got seasick! Plus, we saw a ton of whales. I was surprised about how much whale activity we got to see and how long we got to watch it. It was a beautiful perfect day for it as well! The only thing that could have made it better if we saw multiple whales jumping. I did see one jump for a split second but that was it. Regardless, it was amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to go!

My coworkers also made my birthday special! Blossom had my desk all decorated when I came in to work. And the day after my birthday, everyone from my work went to dinner at Chili's. It's nice to have coworkers that you get a long with and consider friends.

The first couple days post-treatment, Myah was being such a baby.

Besides my birthday and being extremely busy at work these last few weeks, another thing that has been going on is Myah's heartworm treatment. We had to drop her off in the morning at the Vet for her first heartworm treatment on Valentine's Day. We were able to pick her up later that day to take her home. For the heartworm treatment, they don't have to give her anesthesia but they had to put a big needle deep into her muscle so it was really painful. We could tell she was in a lot of pain when we brought her home. She would try to lay down but just couldn't get comfortable. She likes to hide from us when she is sick, so she kept trying to go in our spare bedroom or office. I felt so bad for her! The next morning though, she started acting more like herself and now 3 days post treatment she seems to be in no pain. The only tough part is for the next month, she pretty much has to be on bed rest. She is not allowed to exercise. The worms in her heart are going to begin breaking up and if her heart gets pumping fast then there is a higher chance that one of the worms will get lodged and then terrible things will happen. Myah LOVES her walks, so it breaks my heart that she can't go and there's no way of explaining to her why. We have to take her back on March 13th for her second and third treatment. She will have to spend the night that time, but hopefully after that she'll be healed. She will then have to be calm for the following month as well, so it's going to be a long 2-3 months!

I almost forgot... another exciting thing that has happened this month is Chad sewed on! For all of you who are unfamiliar with this slang, it means he ranked up. He is now a Senior Airman! As mentioned in one of my previous posts, he got BTZ so he got to sew on 6 months early! Woohoo! One of the traditions that the Airmen have is to have their new stripe "punched on," usually resulting in bruises. Chad only got punched by 2 people, but his bruise is HUGE! 

Other than that, Chad and I have just been trying to get out and explore on weekends. We just take off and drive with no end in sight. We usually find neat little interesting villages and get to see a lot of the culture. Today, we went for a walk and I snapped some pictures to show everyone back home a little bit of what Japan looks like, so I'll leave you with those.

Our Adventure in Michigan!

We've been back in Okinawa for almost a month now and I've been meaning to update my blog about our trip home!

On Wednesday, December 18th, we started our adventure back to the United States! We had 3 legs of our journey. Our first one was from Okinawa to Tokyo. As we were getting off the plane for Tokyo, they were holding up signs and announcing for any passengers going to Washington D.C., which happened to be our next flight. They rushed us through security, and then we had to get to our gate, which little did we know was at the other end of the airport. As we were fast walking through the airport, there were several airport attendants who were looking for us and other passengers on the flight. They would radio ahead and let the people at the gate know that we were on our way. I had to add this story into my blog, because I just thought it was so nice of the Tokyo airport workers to get us as soon as we got off our first flight, escort us through security and pretty much all the way through the entire airport. I'm pretty sure we would never experience that kind of customer service in the United States. End of story is that we made it to our gate before the plane took off, even if I was sweating a little bit from running through the airport. It was a 13 hour flight to Washington D.C. and I barely slept a wink, which made it very long and tiring! After being delayed a couple hours in Washington D.C., we finally made it to Detroit where both of our parents were there waiting our arrival! It was so nice to see them all again! :)

On Thursday, Chad and I went out to lunch at Panchero's with my best friend, Brittany and got to meet little Miss Audrey for the first time!

On Friday night, we went out to dinner at City Limits and met up with a lot of friends we hadn't seen in awhile!

Before we knew it, Christmas Eve was upon us and the festivities with our families began. My brothers, who live in Kentucky, came up for a few days around Christmas. It was nice to see them, even if Adam left us all with his sickness! I was so happy to be home for Christmas this year! It just isn't the same celebrating without family around. My Mom and I went on a shopping spree and she bought me a ton of clothes for Christmas! It was nice to go shopping again, especially with my Mom!

One of the things that made me miss home the most was hanging out with our friends. It was so nice to just hang out, laugh, and have fun with our old friends. Brittany and Eric got stationed in Hawaii, while Chad was at basic, so it had been a long time since the 4 of us go to hang out. I am grateful that they were able to be in Michigan as the same time as us! We got to catch up with Amy and Kyle a lot while we were home too! Like I said, it was so nice to be around friends. It didn't feel like we had been gone for a year a half, it felt like just yesterday we had left them.

Another thing that I really miss while I am over here is Mason Cheerleading! I am happy that I was able to make it to a couple of their practices and a competition while I was home! I miss those girls so much! And I got to catch up with my good friend, Becca, who I used to coach with/work with/do everything with! It was really nice, but it made me miss cheerleading even more!

And a third thing that we both missed was all the scrumptious food here! I think we ate out just about everyday. We got to eat at all our favorite restaurants and we totally pigged out! (I'm happy to say, I got back to my pre-vacation weight a week after being back in Okinawa).

Toward the end of our trip home, I made a day trip up to Frankenmuth with my Mom and Greg. It was a fun day! We ate lunch, walked around all the little shops, toured a brewery museum, went to Bronner's (aka the World's Largest Christmas Store) and bought some customized ornaments and then ended the day at the outlet mall.

Another thing to mention about our trip is the horrible weather we experienced! We obviously knew it was going to be cold in Michigan but we got to experience first hand one of the worst Michigan winters in history. The first week, there was an ice storm that left us without power for about a day and half. We literally slept without any heat one night. The next week, we just got dumped on with snow! Tons of snow! We were snowed in for a day, but at least we had power and heat!

Despite the weather, we had an amazing trip home! The only reason we wanted to come back to Okianwa was for the warm weather and our dog, Myah! We had an awesome flight back to Okinawa. On our longest flight, we had a row all to ourselves so I was able to lay down and sleep for a few hours! It was a lot more comfortable than on the way over to the states, so we were happy about that! I could write for days about our trip home, but I'm sure it would get boring to you all. We have a year and half left in Okinawa and we're hoping we get stationed stateside after this! Seeing the world is great, but being closer to family is priceless.

News Update!

I wanted to update my blog before we headed home. Since my last update, we haven’t really done much but we did get some exciting news. Chad got put in for Below The Zone (BTZ), which is a competitive early promotion program in the Air Force. He had to go in front of a board early December, where he answered questions about Air Force history, current events, and his career so far. Being nominated for BTZ is a huge accomplishment in itself. Not all Airmen get that opportunity! For two weeks after the board, we waited anxiously for the results. He found out last Friday that he got it! This means that he will sew on Senior Airman 6 months early. Come mid-February, Chad will be a Senior Airman and he will hit his 2 year mark in the Air Force! I am so proud of him. He is a hard worker and I’m glad that doesn’t go unnoticed.

In my last post, I noted that Myah had a case of ringworm. We had been going to an off base vet since July and it still was not going away. In November, we took Myah to see the vet on base. At first glance, the American vet said it most definitely wasn’t ringworm. We had been taking Myah on an almost bi-weekly basis to see the off base vet for 4 months to treat her “ringworm”, and it’s not even ringworm, WHAT?! The bad news is that the on base vet doesn’t even really have an idea what this spot on her skin is. She put Myah on oral steroids for 4 weeks and those actually seemed to help a lot! Her bump was still there but it had decreased in size so much and she didn’t even itch at it anymore. But as soon as she stopped taking the steroids, not even 2 days later, the bump had grown in size again and additional smaller bumps had appeared. UGH! We took her back to the vet and she said the next step would be to sedate her to take a biopsy of it and potentially remove her skin from that area. Since we were getting ready to go on vacation, she gave Myah steroids to stop the itching in the mean time. When we get back from our visit to the states, we will have to schedule Myah’s appointment to get a biopsy. I feel so bad for her!

If that wasn’t bad enough, Myah also tested heartworm positive. We’ve had her on Heart Guard ever since we adopted her, but the vet says she may have had it when we first got her and the first test they did just came back negative at the time. We have opted to do the adult heartworm treatment on her, which will also have to be scheduled when we get back from vacation. She will have to have 2-3 procedures and for 30 days after each procedure she is basically on bed rest. She will not be allowed to exercise at all, which means no more of her nightly walks that she so much enjoys. My poor baby!

Enough of the bad news… the good news is that we are leaving this week to visit our families for a whole month! We are beyond ready to get off this island! We feel like we’ve done and seen everything on this island and are ready for a change! Myah will be staying in our house with a friend while we’re gone. We’re going to miss her so much! She will probably be the only reason I look forward to coming back to Okinawa. That… and the warm weather

Typhoons Fitow & Danas

Last summer, we arrived in Okinawa in late July. A few weeks into our time here, we experienced our first typhoon. We would go on to experience 3 more typhoons all before the end of September. This year was quite different! Typhoon season in Okinawa officially runs from June 1 to November 30. We finally got out first typhoon of the season on Saturday, October 5th. I felt better this year knowing what we were in for and even excited to have our first typhoon hit the island! This island was built to withstand the fierce winds and rain that typhoons bring so they don't even worry us at all! Typhoon Fitow had us locked up in our house all day Saturday. We don't have cable, so we rely on Netflix for our main source of entertainment. Well with everyone and their brother using the internet, Netflix wasn't working out too well for us. It would have to buffer every like 3 minutes. We gave up on that pretty quickly. We started watching DVDs that we own. I'm not a big fan of watching movies that I have already seen, so it got boring pretty quickly! We had gone to the video store to rent some movies before the storm hit but they were sold out of all the good ones, of course! Typhoon Fitow didn't hit us very hard, it just brought a lot of rain. The winds weren't even that strong at our house. There was a flattened cardboard box that had blown into our yard before the storm hit, and it was still there afterward. Considering one of the typhoons last year was flipping cars over, this one was pretty weak!

Since the storm had passed by the time we woke up on Sunday morning, we were able to leave the house. After one day of staying inside, we already had cabin fever! I think the worst was knowing they were reporting another typhoon was approaching the island and predicted to hit us on Monday afternoon. The first thing we did was go to the commissary to get some extra groceries. Of course everyone and their brother had the same idea. One must avoid the commissary at all costs before and after typhoons, it's always a mad house! We had enough food to last us through Monday, but you never know with these typhoons how long you'll be stuck inside! We got in and out of there with the essentials pretty quickly. We spent the day out of the house as much as we could since we knew we'd be cooped up inside the following day.

By Sunday night, we were already in TCCOR 2 again, which means destructive winds of 50 knots or greater are anticipated within 24 hours. Typhoon Danas was quickly approaching Okinawa! The different sites I follow on Facebook were all reporting that Danas was going to be more of a direct hit than the last typhoon and some even calling it a Super or Severe Typhoon. Monday morning we were in TCCOR 1 and still able to be out and about. We took Myah for a walk to try to get as much crap out of her as we could so she didn't have to go out during the "Super Typhoon". By 11:00AM we were in TCCOR 1C which means you have to stay in your house because the storm is here. What a joke! It barely rained today and I don't think our trees barely moved. It was weaker than Fitow in my opinion. I waited all day to see this typhoon and nothing even happened. It was another boring day at home but at least this typhoon hit on Monday so we didn't have to go to work :) That's always a plus! We went into TCCOR Storm Watch about 7:00PM and shortly after Chad got called into work. He only has to work a few hours and then he'll have all day tomorrow off. So while he's gone, I'm sitting here bored out of my mind and that's why I'm updating my blog for once.

So that was our exciting long weekend full of typhoons. I didn't even take any pictures or videos of the storms, that's how unexciting they were. We didn't have Myah last year during any of the typhoons so I was kind of wondering how she would act during one. She acted like she didn't even know anything was happening and she kept wanting to go outside like she normally does. She didn't even care that it was raining and windy during the first typhoon. She had to do her business and that's all that mattered to her. I think she even wanted us to take her on a walk during it! lol

Speaking of Myah... she has had a case of ringworm since June. We've been to vet just about a dozen times now and it's still not going away. It's not getting any worse, but not getting any better! She's been on fungal meds and antibiotics for months now. This last visit, they finally gave us this shampoo to bathe her with 2-3 times a week. The kicker is we have to keep the shampoo on her for 10 minutes. Let me tell you how fun that is! I just hope it clears it up and I was finally happy the vet wanted to try something different. I just want it to go away!

On a good note... 71 days until we're America bound! We are so excited!!! :)

August Update

Chad and I haven't been up to a whole lot lately. The first weekend of August, we went to see the annual 10,000 Eisa Dancer parade on Kokusai Street. Eisa Dancing is a big part of the Okinawan Culture. Groups of people dress in traditional costumes and dance, chant, and beat drums to music. There were tons of groups lined up doing performances down Kokusai Street. It was HOT! I felt bad for all the dancers, dressed in long sleeves and pants, dancing on the hot black pavement. They were even throwing water on the black pavement to cool it down. Chad and I didn't stay very long because we couldn't stand being in the heat; however it was an awesome cultural experience!

When Chad's parents were here, we took them to Kokusai street because it has a lot of souvenir type shops. There is this one shop called, Fukugiya, that sells this delicious cake called Baumkuchen. It's heaven! Chad's Mom bought a couple cakes from them when we were there with them and they were so delicious, Chad and I went back for more this time! We got one that was purple sweet potato flavored. It is so soft and sponge like, it's delicious.

Another day, we were looking for something to do and I had saw someone on Facebook post about this 3D art museum in American Village. We decided to check it out. We were kind of disappointed, we thought it was going to be real art that someone drew in real time, but it was all like printed displays. I still thought it was pretty cool. We brought our camera and took pictures with each display.

Other than that, Chad and I haven't really been doing much. We are in the midst of typhoon season but we haven't had a typhoon yet this year, which is surprising! The weather still has been very hot. During the last week, there has been a tropical storm passing near our island and we're kind of getting the outer edge of it, so we're experiencing wind and a little rain. It's kind of a nice change from the hot and sunny heat everyday.

I did get a new job! I have been working at the Youth Center since November as a desk clerk and I was given the opportunity to transfer to the Teen Center. I will be doing the same thing I am doing now but just in a different atmosphere and it will be different since the Teen Center doesn't have all the instructional classes as the Youth Center. I am excited for the change!

Only 117 days until we're on an airplane home! Woohoo! 

Visitors!

Chad's parents came to visit us on June 29th for two whole weeks! We did a lot of sightseeing around the island and even did some things that Chad and I hadn't experienced yet. One of those being, going to the Tadake waterfall. It's about a 20 minute hike through water and rough terrain to get to the actual waterfall. Once you get to the waterfall, you can actually get in the water and swim. It was pretty cool and super pretty! While I was taking pictures and admiring the waterfall, Chad had started hiking up a huge hill. We decided to follow him, but he was so far ahead of us that we actually lost him for a second. This hill was so steep and rough that someone once upon a time had put ropes up to help people climb up it. Once we got to the top, we still didn't see Chad but there was a little trail to go down the other side of the hill, so we decided to hike down it. So after getting all the way down, it brought us to a little creek and we weren't sure which way to go. We thought if we went one way, it would bring us to the top of the waterfall. After calling for Chad a few times, we finally found him! He was out exploring the top of the waterfall. He had us hike back up the mountain and then hike up even more and then back down to get to the top. We did a lot of hiking, it was a lot of work but so worth it! We enjoyed our time at the waterfall. The only down fall was there was huge horse flies flying around our heads the whole time!

Another adventure that Chad and I hadn't done yet is go to one of the surrounding islands. We had heard that the Kerama Islands were surrounded by beautiful blue clear water and was a great place to snorkel! We figured out how to get reservations on a ferry to go there (not a very easy task when you're in a foreign country) so we were all set to sail on Tuesday! The Kerama Islands are about 20 miles southwest of Okinawa. Four of the islands are inhabited, but there are a total of 22 islands that make up the Keramas. We took a ferry to Zamani Island, which was about an hour ferry ride. I was pretty impressed by the ferry. Seating wise, it looked like an airplane on the inside. On the way there, we decided we would enjoy the scenery from the top of the boat, which was pretty neat! Even though we were just on a short boat ride, it was kind of cool to step off from the rock that we live on and go explore another island. So we get to the island and we start making the hike to the beach to go snorkeling. It was so hot outside, we didn't make it very far and were already starting to wonder how much farther the beach was. Lucky for us, a shuttle stopped and picked us up. If we were in any other country (say.. Mexico), I would have not stepped in a foot in a strange man's van who doesn't speak a lick of English. We realized how thankful we were for the shuttle because the walk there was very hilly and a lot farther than we imagined. So once we got to the beach, we geared up in our snorkel gear and headed into the beautiful blue water. The snorkeling there was amazing! The corral was so pretty and we so lots of neat fish as well. We even saw a reef shark! I was freaking out when we first saw it and then I wanted to chase it to take a picture of it. That thing is fast! It was pretty cool though! Chad and I just got an underwater camera so I've got lots of pictures of our snorkeling experience! Our time at Zamani Island was short during this trip. Chad and I would like to go back again and maybe rent scooters or something to actually explore the island or go to one of the other islands.

Other than that, we took his parents to see all of this beautiful island that we live on. We even had them try sushi for the first time! While I still don't think they are fans, they admitted it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be. Here are some pictures just recapping their visit.

Today marks 1 year for us here in Okinawa. This time last year was probably one of the most stressful times in my life. Living in a hotel, not having a car for a month, not having any of our belongings for 2 months after we moved into housing... all of that was not fun! I'm glad we are now settled here in Okinawa. We love it here, the island is beautiful! We do miss a lot of the conveniences of home such as American malls/shopping, being able to order something online and not having to worry about it taking 2 months to get here, American food, etc. However, in 2 years, we will have all those conveniences again, so in the mean time we're just soaking up all the Japanese culture that we can!

Summer is Here!

I was told by my friends and family back home that I need to update my blog more often. I tell them that nothing exciting happens to write about, but they want to hear about my boring life anyways!

Last weekend we went to the Futenma Flight line Festival. Futenma is a marine base about 20 minutes away from us. They opened up their flight line to the public and loaded it with Marine and Air Force aircraft. They also had a little festival with a bunch of different food vendors and entertainment. Chad and I got to tour an AWAC and KC-135. It was pretty cool to see the inside of the planes that we frequently see flying over our base.

Yesterday, I went with a few girls from my work to get a pedicure! Ever since I got here, I've heard people talking about this nail salon called Cocoks but I had never been. After going, I can now see why people all rave about it. It was an amazing pedicure and the artwork is outstanding! They give you this book of nail designs to look at while they're doing the pedicure and it practically takes the whole time to choose which one you want. They also have this amazing complimentary tea that they give you to drink. I don't even like tea, but this was really good! I can't stop looking at my toes; I will be definitely going back :)

Chad and I have been looking in to getting scuba certified. We really want to do it, but it makes me nervous at the same time! I think it would be amazing to see a whole part of the world that not everyone gets to experience but at the same time, there are a lot of deadly creatures in the ocean! We will probably take the class to get certified after Chad's parents visit, but until then we've just been snorkeling. Yesterday, we bought wetsuits. We figured we would need them to go diving with and it'll be nice to have in the meantime to protect us against jellyfish! After purchasing them we went snorkeling at Madea Point, which is a very popular snorkeling spot here on Okinawa. The coolest thing about that snorkeling adventure is that we saw an octopus!

Chad's parents will be here in less than 2 weeks! We're pretty excited to have visitors again!