It hits again..

this is on my drive... The bottom? That's a park.. Those are trails..

So it snowed again all day yesterday and this morning. Weirdly enough, it never snowed on base this time, but it came down and STUCK around my house. Unfortunately, I was on base the entire day, so I just saw flurries and sleet. Fun. LOL

saying goodbye..

Otherwise, we've been keeping busy. Tim deployed again, so it's just the girls and I for a while. It's all good, we've been so busy that it's kind of hard to even think about. Kadie's cheer is going well, she even had a clinic with the Cardinals' Cheerleaders! She LOVED it, and says it was one of the best days of her life.. haha

cheer clinic!

She had her first game today, and she was happy to be there.. Well, until she got tired, then she was miserable. LOL It's my fault though, they weren't in bed until late because we were at a friend's house last night until about 10.. oopppsss... Next weekend? She gets in bed earlier. LOL There are plenty of pictures on Facebook, I just can't upload all of them on here. There's also a video of the half time show.. Check it out - Kadie introduces herself to a crowd!

revving up the girls for half time!

Besides that, it's been FRG related things, and hanging out. Overall, we're doing pretty well this time, so I'm happy about that. We got some (hopefully) GREAT news this week! If the orders go through, Tim will be going back to SD for school for about a month. The girls and I will tag along, and I really hope this works! I would love to go back home and see everyone!

That's it for now! I've got to go get the girls dressed since we're heading back to the base for a dinner and a movie with our Yoko BFFs!!

SNOW!

Look carefully, you can see it snowing and you can see surfers in the water.

Wow. So uh. I haven't been here in a month huh? I'm sorry guys! (and hey, Tim, you could have posted too.. LOL). We've kind of had a pretty busy January, and well, things just kept slipping my mind.

They LOVED it!

This weekend, it snowed a bit here in Yokosuka! Keep in mind that while I've been TO snow, and I've been in a car when it was falling, I've never actually walked around in falling snow. There's something actually pretty magical feeling about it, and I LOVED it. I don't think I would have loved if it had stuck and I had to deal with it the next morning, but I loved walking around in the flurries we had all over. These are a few pictures from it, there are even more on my facebook!

An update on our lives in general though..

Last month, I was voted into our FRG to become the president. (Not that I had much - or any - competition. LOL). So one of the things I've been pretty busy with is the switch over - the old president is now my VP, and she's been so wonderful and such a HUGE help. Thank GOODNESS! I was really nervous about taking over things, but she's been great about stepping me into it. I think I've got a fairly good handle on things, and I can't wait until I've really got a handle on it. HA!! So far, I'm loving it! We spent the past two days at the pre-deployment fair (you read that right, we're gearing up again), talking to families and Sailors about our FRG and what it is that we do. :)

Otherwise, you saw that we're in pre-deployment phases right now. It stinks, but hey, it's what we get paid for right? It's why we get to live in this amazing country and experience everything we've been able to. And you know what? I'm OK with it. I don't like it, but I'm OK with it. I haven't been OK with it for the past 2 years or so, and you know, this time around, I really AM fine. That'll make things easier on not only me, but Tim and the girls as well. I think a lot of it is being more settled here.. Or at least, that's what Tim keeps telling me. LOL I don't know if that's the case, but whatever it is, I'm not completely dreading it and crying over it. Yay for me, right? ha! At any rate, I'm just looking forward to homecoming. :P

Kadie's report card for the quarter should be coming home today or tomorrow. I can't wait to see it. I spoke with her teacher yesterday, and she told me how proud of her she was. Kadie has come a long way, and is FINALLY at 2nd grade comprehension. She wants her to be a little higher before she pulls her from the class, but there is FINALLY a light at the end of the tunnel in this chapter. Kadie might finally like school again - or well, let's hope this class didn't permanently damage that. She is doing really well with math right now (you know, now that they've switched from addition and subtraction of large numbers to money.. LOL), and her spelling is really coming along. She even won her class spelling bee last month, and was asked to be in a school wide one coming up next month! She's very excited about it, and is currently studying the LONG list of words she was given. :)

Molly's potty training came along, did really well, and then it went. LOL I'm not sure if she wasn't ready or if we just have too much going on right now, but after three days of not making it to the potty more than once a day, we've switched back to diapers and pull ups. She asks to go every so often, but with prepping for a deployment, we decided it'd be better if I waited until Tim was gone. (She does MUCH better with it when he's not home.. Go figure - I think she did it on purpose.. Maybe they had a talk.. haha). Her speech is coming along, and now instead of not talking at all, she sounds like she's speaking German (as a friend puts it). I'll go for German over nothing any day of the week! Oh and she SINGS - I really should tape her doing it, she LOVES to sing, and will sing with pretty  much anything I put on - including some Katy Perry.. hehehe I don't think her Dad's too happy about that one... (And she knows the words and tune to them).

SooooOOoooo.. That's us here. Just living life half way across the world from where we grew up. We're good, and we're all pretty happy. :)

Views..

I'm loving my views today. :) Fuji and the hawks are coming really close to the house. Not sure what they were going after on the street, but it brought them right in front of us! On the other side of the glass, I've been having a blast photographing my tulips. They are starting to bloom - instead of just my yellow one now, I also have a purple one and an orange one.. :D

Bonsai

not the best picture, but oh well.

pruning the tree I ruined. (yay me)!

Apparently, you give us one bonsai tree, and we go a little nuts with it. A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a plum bonsai tree. The blossoms are almost identical to sakura, but they are much darker. That tree bloomed for a few days, and then, I apparently made a cardinal mistake and misted the blossoms. It stopped blooming, and we'd been trying to figure it out ever since.

It's like a bonsai's bonsai - it's SO small.

And what's a person to do except go buy more bonsai trees right? So now we have three in the house. You know, the two bedroom, small Japanese house we live in with three bonsai trees and a few tulips because, well, they are my favorite flower.

You wouldn't expect me NOT to take a picture of it...

Wish us some luck as we try to keep these things alive. Tim's better at this than I am, but then, he leaves for months at a time - I don't know if these trees will be alive when he gets home from the next deployment.. LOL

2 minute update

Just a few minutes here. Sorry I haven't talked about Enoshima Aquarium yet, I promise that'll be coming.. Maybe not for this last trip, but overall, we'll be going more often, so expect posts about what it's like. :)

Tim went back to work today - vacation is officially over. I think I could cry. LOL He has duty one of the days this weekend, so we won't get much of a weekend - boo to that. We had a great leave period though, so I can't complain too much. I just wish he was still here this morning! Especially since the wind was awful last night, and I had a really rough time sleeping.

Kadie's back in school. She's happy this time around, but still hates her reading class and begs to be let out of it pretty much daily. :(

Molly is potty training. Really potty training. She is wearing big girl undies during the day. So far today, no accidents, but then, she is only two, and I'm sure we'll have at least one today!

That's about it here! My two minutes on here are up, and now I need to go give a spoiled toddler some more attention!

It's Fish Time!

The big tank. SO reminded me of the Aquarium of the Pacific!

We went to Enoshima aquarium today. We had an absolute blast. I'm REALLY tired and my back hurts from sitting here editing and posting pictures all evening, so I'll write more tomorrow. However, I did want to get a couple of pictures up!

Molly and her first love. :)

Kadie was quite the photographer today

not the best picture of us, but I love the fish behind us. :)

A look at Palau... (Tim)

The plan from square one has been for both Sarah and I to contribute our experiences and such, which I haven't done so far. So here goes nuthin'....

Republic of PALAU

              Where is Palau? Palau is a chain of islands South East from the Philippines. I'm not going to lie, I had to look it up on Google Earth and I've been there. The picture above is probably my favorite from the trip.

              A few short days in Palau are more than enough to experience most of the adventures one can have on a small island. Snorkelling, kayaking, swimming, (insert other aquatic activities here), it's all part of the relaxing and esthetically pleasing feel of Palau... unfortunately, there's not much more than that (at least, from my experience).

Building relations via COMREL (Community Relations) projects 

We do a lot of little things in other countries to show that we are good sports, and I had the opportunity to take part in one of these projects. Our mission: paint the administration building for the local high school. Yeah, I know... I've always said I'm a over-paid janitor! Here are the pics...

Of course all big projects will eventually lead to a big lunch. Luckily we had an army representative who had been on the island for some time before we arrived and he had the inside scoop on a home made barbeque business a half mile or so down the road in a picnic area. On certain days of the week she starts cooking up lunch and people flock in. We were told she doesn't have a closing time, she just goes until she sells out... and she always does.



Another note about Palau:  Stray dogs litter the island. Lucky for this pooch, some of the group had been
willing to give up what they couldn't finish.

Walking along the main road, we found a few things of interest....

Creepy, huh?














This was some sort of shrine... I don't know how it relates exactly but its also along the main road.

Houses down below the main road. Some of the houses we saw were pretty nice by our standards, while others had the island shack feel.

Probably the most original item on our venture down the main road... Its a memorial and a reminder of the toll drunk driving can take on a small community. I don't know how much attention locals pay to it on a daily basis, but it caught our eye.









Just a shot of the "bar" where you first land on shore.














Another favorite pic from the "trip"










Okay, one last favorite... needless to say, this had been the best picture trip I've had.










Until next time!



/Tim/