October Update!

It's been awhile since I updated my blog, so I figure I'd stop in to give a quick update.

At the end of August, we flew home to Michigan for a month. We had this trip planned a few months out and decided that we would surprise Chad's family with him coming home. So the entire time, everyone (but my Mom and a few other people) thought it was just me coming home and Chad was staying behind with Myah. It was a great surprise and of course his family was happy to see he was able to make the trip home too!

We enjoyed our time in Michigan much more this time around than we visited in December because the weather was perfect! It was summer-like weather the first week or so we were home and then the cooler Fall weather came. It was great to be able to go to the Cider Mills and get a little taste of Fall while we were home, since we don't get much of a Fall in Okinawa. One of the reasons we came home when we did is so I could go to my good friend Becca's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and I was so happy I could be there! It sucks living on the other side of the world because we miss a lot of our family and friend's big life moments!

Chad spent the majority of his vacation working on his truck. He got all the final pieces painted and the truck now drives! He was super happy to be able to work on his baby while he was home.

It was great catching up with as many people as we could when we were home. Of course we didn't get around to seeing everyone. It's just so hard when you're home for such a short amount of time and there are so many people to see. Hopefully we'll get stationed somewhere closer to home next so that we don't go as long between seeing all of our family and friends.

Speaking of where we are getting stationed next, that seems to be the big question that we get asked by so many these days. Where do you get stationed next? Do you get to choose where you go? Where do you want to go? Do you think it'll be in the states? Our 3 years in Okinawa is coming to an end here within the next year. Some days it feels like we just got here, other days I feel like we've been here for 5 years. I think 2 years would have been the perfect amount of time here, but the military tells us we're staying for 3. So we're just trying to ride this last year out. As far as the process goes for finding out where the military is sending Chad, basically in January, they will come out with a list of bases where they need him. He'll get to look at the list and then prioritize his "dream sheet" of where he'd like to go. Then after that it's more waiting to find out where they choose for him! So we still have 4-5 months until we have the answer to your question. We are incredibly anxious to find out what is in store for our future, just cross your fingers it's somewhere amazing (and closer to home)!

Another question that always gets asked is, do you get to take your dog with you? Of course we get to take our dog with us! I wouldn't leave her behind for the world! It's been a tough year for Myah, it seems like it's been one thing after another for her. The last update I gave on her was that she was going through heartworm treatment. I'm happy to say that Myah is 100% heartworm free after going through the painful process to get rid of them! :) For over a year now, she has had a spot on her skin that was first diagnosed as ringworm and got treated like so for months. Only to eventually get a second opinion and find out that it most definitely isn't ringworm but the vet didn't know what it was. We opted to get a biopsy done of it, and got the results back right before we went on vacation. The biopsy report says it's Follicular hamartoma, which is not a tumor. It basically has something to do with her hair follicles in that certain spot, and as long as she's not biting and scratching at it anymore than it's harmless. So at least we sort of have an answer to that. As of right now, she doesn't seem to be bothered by it anymore, so I'm hoping it stays that way. But like I said, it has been one thing after another for Myah. When we got back from vacation, Myah had missing patches of hair, she was itching and biting at herself, and was shedding like CRAZY! I couldn't get her into the on base vet for 2 weeks, and I wasn't about to take her to the Japanese vet that misdiagnosed her for having ringworm for months. My co-worker told me about another Japanese vet that she loved, so we decided to give them a shot. I didn't even have to make an appointment, they let us just walk in. Long story short, they diagnosed her with scabies and sent her home with meds. As soon as we gave her the meds, she stopped itching, which was a relief I'm sure to her but also us because her constant itching was driving me nuts. It's been 2 weeks, and she's taken all of her meds. She itches a little bit now but she is so much better than what she was. I'm hoping her hair will grow back quick and she can be a healthy dog again. I just feel so bad for her, she can't seem to catch a break!

We just experienced Typhoon Vongfong which was predicted to be the worst storm on Earth for 2014. By the time it hit Okinawa, it wasn't as bad as predicted. We got a lot of wind and rain but the high winds that Vongfong was packing died down by the time the eye passed over us. In fact, the whole southern part of the storm just kind of disappeared. We were stuck inside Friday night starting about 7:30PM until Sunday afternoon about 1:00PM. Good thing this is a 3 day holiday weekend for us, so we still get to have somewhat of a weekend! Everything is going fine on this side of the world. I'll try to update more often, but nothing too exciting happens in my life these days! Thanks for reading!