Risa's Pieces

Okuma and Hedo

Beautiful sand, inviting water, lush greenery and gorgeous sun rays, Okuma has it all.  Perfect for a picture taking gal like myself with a new camera.  Yes, a spanking, brand new camera.  Apparently my other camera cannot behave right and likes to collect dust in the sensor.  We took my little baby camera into the camera shop for emergency repairs only to find out my camera would be sent away for about month to receive it's surgery.  Me without an camera for a month.... never.  I'd rather live with the dust showing up in every picture I take.  Okay, not really.  After debating when a good time to ship it (umm, never), the wheels in the head started turning and we came up with this scenario.  Ship it to camera shop for repairs for a month, get it back, use it for a month, Okinawa = dusty = more dust on the sensor, ship back to camera shop to repair again. Repeat.  Not good.  Better solution, buy a camera that cleans up after itself (automatic sensor cleaning).  And what I'm really getting at is that I've got lots of pictures to share.

 

We took a little glass bottom boat tour offered by the Okuma resort at a reasonable price . Incredible.  We saw Dory (vibrant blue fish) Nemo (clown fish), trigger fish, angel fish, Patrick (star fish) and other fishy fish but we didn't see any Sponge Bobs.

Once back on land, we took a little stroll to check out a look out point on the grounds.  We get lost walking as well as driving.  We somehow managed to take a wrong turn and ended up going through a cicada forest.  Not only are they loud just hanging out, but if you get too close to them they'll come screeching like a mad man at you.  Freaky things.  But getting lost led us to a secluded little beach area and eventually the look out point. I'll just keep pretending in my head that the real path that goes straight to the look out didn't go by the little beach, because that would be too easy.

Sunday, while we were in between checkout and check-in times for the Studio to Suite room, we drove up to Hedo Point.  Many, many things to look out for on the drive to Hedo Point ...

On the one day in many, many years (probably something like ten), I didn't try to maintain my half straight, half wavy and always frizzed out hair, I run into someone from Blogland. 

I'm know some of you have heard of Robin's story: her father was stationed in Okinawa when she was a teenager, and being the lovely little paradise that Okinawa is, it lured Robin back.  She's now spending three weeks exploring Okinawa and soaking in all it has to offer.  Her story is amazing, which isn't surprising because she really is an amazing person.  I loved that my girls got to met Robin and see her living her dream.  A fantastic role model and a very sweet lady.

A picture of our family that the sweet Mrs. Robin took (crazy hair and all).

Okuma Get-Away

A few weeks ago we decided we needed to get away and we busily got to work making plans to head to Okuma.  When we called Okuma, all they had available was a one bed studio room and since our kiddos were little, the reservations lady told us they could sleep on the floor.  Desperate, we took it.  We'd just bring our air mattress, the kids would be cozy.  After having a few weeks getting excited for our vacation, the one bed hotel room didn't sound so great, even with the air mattress we would be inflating and deflating everyday so we would have room to walk around.  But we were still going with it, who cares about having only one bed when we'll be at the beach having fun.  The morning we were to head to Okuma, Marcus called to ensure they had refrigerators (they do) and found out they had an opening for a two bed Studio Room for two days and a two bed suite for our last day there.  We took it.  Even though it meant repacking all our stuff to check out for a few hours.  I'm so glad we did make the room switch because the Studio room was still a little cozy even with two beds.  The suite was great, lots of room to twirl around and not bump into anyone plus I think we only paid $10 more for the extra comfort.

Never having seen the hotel at Okuma, I had a white, ten story hotel with balconies overlooking the ocean pictured in my head.  And then this is what I saw...

Typical government buildings although it seems they were going for a more tropical feeling and went with a lighter shade of military beige when they painted the building. Yippee.  Really, the inside was much better, but I don't have any pictures.  But instead, here is the view from our suite room.

Gorgeous beach with soft sand.  Almost reminded me of the beaches at Melbourne, Florida.  Almost.

More pictures and stories to tell later.  Plus, I met the nicest person from Blogland while we were at Hedo Point, details on that too.

As far as housing is concerned, we've decided to stay put in the pee-pee towers. Yes, I'm now calling it pee-pee towers. I think it's been about three weeks since the last puddle was made in the elevator or stairwell, we usually see, or smell, the yellow liquid at least twice a month since we moved in. I know it's only a matter of time till we see our next urine surprise.  Or maybe they PCS-ed.  Why someone would want to pee where they live is beyond me, but then again, maybe they don't live in these towers, who knows?  What I do know is that it's pretty sad that my girls have gotten into the routine to check the elevators for wet spots before entering.  We were so, so close to taking the house on Kadena, but I don't think the girls stuff would have fit in the bedrooms.  And I'm already second guessing myself.  For instance, if we would have taken the house on Kadena, Marcus would have been home already.  I hope I'm not going to be kicking myself in the butt for months over this decision.

6.0

Our little rock island got the wiggles yesterday evening, an earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter Scale. Luckily, no reports of casualties or damage have been reported.  Since we are located about 100 miles away from the epicenter, we only felt a little jiggle.  The girls and I had just got home from gymnastics, parked the car, Chloe hopped out, me and Caitlin were still gathering our stuff in the car. That's when the car started bouncing around.  I immediately started looking for my goofy husband who I thought might have gotten off early and was trying to surprise and scare me.  He wasn't there.  Then I asked tiny little Caitlin if she was jumping up and down.  Nope.  I came to the conclusion that something very expensive was wrong with my car.  It wasn't until I walked into our tower's lobby and fellow residents were asking me if "I felt it".  That's when it clicked, earthquake.  Chloe, who was outside on the sidewalk while Caitlin and I were still in the car, said she didn't feel anything.

Of course, all this earthquake excitement was followed by the mandatory cheesy phone call to Marcus.

Me:  Honey, did you feel me rock your world?

Him:  Yes, indeed baby.  Yes, indeed.

Marcus' version of the world moving wasn't quite as thrilling.  He was in his office. Things shook.  Maybe a pencil fell off the desk.

Housing Offers

One of the perks that comes with Marcus' promotion is two new housing offers.  It was the extra push he needed to try even harder on his promotion's test.  We received this information from our housing counselor when we were making a choice of what house to take when we first moved here, although she forgot to mention that we would have to pay for the move ourselves.  So we accepted an apartment in the towers (with the help of flipping a coin) knowing it would only be temporary and as soon as he got his promotion we would move out.

Today was the day we received our housing offers.  Finally, we thought, it's our turn to get one of the pretty houses, something close to Marcus' work and most importantly, something with a yard for the girls to do cartwheels in.  The Housing Office shattered that fantasy and here's what we got offered in reality.

This one is on Kadena, the base we wanted.  It also has a great backyard.  Then you unlock the front door and blah!

Doesn't the front door just scream welcome?

The kitchen, same pale yellow cabinets we have in the towers.

The nice repair job done with some putty on the holes in the kitchen counter.  It's hard to see, but I guess someone decided to beautify the counter even more with scratches all over it.

One of the kids rooms.  I know, it's so small you almost missed seeing it.

On to the house they offered us on Camp Shields.

See the little specks by the dishwasher? Guess what it is.  No really, guess.  Hint: it's not little bugs.  Okay, I'll zoom in a little for you.

If you guessed raisins, sunflower seeds or chocolate chips, you guessed wrong.  The right answer is rat poop.  Wait, wait, it gets better.  Let's go upstairs.

The lovely design on the ceiling... mildew.  The master bathroom had it too.

Those are our two choices.  I know there's people who have it a lot worse then this. As disappointed as we are, we're not going to let it get us down. We're actually kind of debating whether or not to take the house on Kadena. We have to let them know something by tomorrow afternoon.  It would save so much time with Marcus driving to and from work, all the girls' activities are on Kadena (and are not offered on Foster) and the green grass to play in would be nice.  I could get over the mismatched floor tiles, small bedrooms and yucky kitchen... in a year or two.

Our Independence Day

I woke up wishing I could be in the good ole US of A celebrating the 4th of July at my Mom and Dad's.  I envisioned smacking on chicken wings, nibbling on corn-on-the-cob and going for a dip in their pool, not to mention the fun and lively conversations we usually have, I miss it.  Instead, after finding out for sure that Marcus would not have to work as a volunteer at the America Fest (a static air plane display, food and game vendors, Eve 6 in concert and fireworks festival), we headed out for a fun family day.

I took Marcus to Gordie's (this time he drove and there were no incidents) so he could try out one of their burgers.  I wanted to try out a burger too, since the first one I had went down without flavor.  Pretty darn good.

We went to a Japanese arcade were I proceeded to win 1st place against Marcus in a Mario Kart Race.  I had to prove that, really, I am the better driver in our family, even though he reminds me that I'm the one who hit the two vehicles in one week.

We took silly pictures in one of the photo booths at the arcade and managed to navigate our way through the Japanese instructions to get the pictures we wanted to print out.

We ended up going to the America Fest in the evening, trying to avoid the hot sun steaming up off the concrete on the flightline. We got in the longest line there in order to get a delicious funnel cake, enjoyed a little music while we ate (heard the music but couldn't really see the singers) and watched fireworks blast in the sky without Caitlin covering her ears for the first time.

Hope everyone's 4th of July was as lovely as ours!

Mona Kids Jungle

Monday we had plans to picnic and play with friends.  Way too hot.  Instead, we went with our friends to Mona Kids Jungle, an indoor play place close to Naha.  An air conditioned play place.  We forgot socks and forked out 200 yen each for the cutest socks made.  Good deal to me.

I only had my baby purse camera and the ones I took inside Mona Jungle didn't turn out so hot, but I did manage to get a picture of my girls on the way out.  Even the outside of the building is neat-o.

We had our first sleep over since we've been here on Monday too.  The kids made their own pizza, played, stayed up way too late talking and woke up way too early so they could continue to play and chow down on pancakes before heading off to summer school.

 

The stack of pancakes, four kids managed to kill the stack leaving only two small ones on the plate.  Guess they worked up quite the appetite playing.

Oh, and I did manage not to hit any cars on this Monday.

My Sweetie is 35

 

He still looks like the young guy I married, but it's true, he turned 35 on June 25th.  Older and wiser now. I'm really glad he's trying out this age first because I don't think I'm quite ready for it.

One of his presents he received this year was an espresso / cappuccino maker from my Mom and Dad.  Love the thought of waking up in the morning, grabbing a cappuccino and heading to the balcony to enjoy the morning.  Our first experiment with the machine was an espresso.

Potent stuff.  I'm guessing it's not supposed to taste good, it's main purpose being to give you an instant caffeine bolt, so drink it as fast as you can mustard.  Just like a shot of liquor isn't supposed to taste good, it's main purpose just to get you drunker quicker.

Crash, Boom, Bang

The lovely sounds that started off my week. Bad.  Monday, after the first day of summer school, me, some friends and our kids headed to Gordie's to try out their hamburgers.  Sounds fabulous, right? Until I try to go three wide (parked car on the road, car on the other side of the road and me in the middle) down a Japanese road wide enough for two cars.  That parked car never stood a chance as I decided to scrape the paint off it's back fender with the left side of my car.  Luckily the owner was easy to find since he was in the restaurant we were eating at.  After ruining his lunch with "hey, I sort of hit you car", he calmly came out, glanced at his car and said "oh, that's nothing", and he went back to eating his lunch.  Phew.  I can't even remember what my cheeseburger tasted like at Gordie's.  Guess I need to go back, not run into anything and find out if those cheeseburgers really are good. Ready for the next one? 

Wednesday, parking to walk the girls to their summer school classes, I smacked into a van in the parking space next to me.  Lovely.  Couldn't find the owner, so I left a note, talked to a friend who stopped to see if I was okay, climbed into my car and called Marcus.  On his birthday. I'm sure he thought I was kidding for a .0001 seconds until I broke down crying my eyes out.  Of course he said it was okay, it's just a car and I'm okay, but come on, twice in one week?  Thursday, after summer school, still haven't heard from the owner of the van.  Chloe's summer school teacher comes out to talk to me.  I'm wondering why she has the note I left on the van in her hands.  And then, OH, it dawns on me, I hit Chloe's teacher's van.  Apparently, I'm not the first one to hit the van in that spot, just the first to leave a note. She was great about it, had a few laughs over it actually and we're working out the cost.

But there are good things that happened this week, like my friend Anna, the one who stopped to check on me, brought me these beautiful flowers because she knew I was having a bad week (she was there for the Gordie incident too).

And Marcus ended up taking a few days off to help me cope, time with him is always fabulous. The girls spent the night with some friends Thursday, so Marcus and I got to go on a date at night (a first) and had dinner at a new place (Jai Thai).  After I got over the shock of how expensive the food cost, I was able to taste how yummy it was. Then of course the great promotion news Thursday night (that he probably won't put on until April we're guessing). Friday we celebrated at the club with other promoted members.  Saturday, we went out to eat with Marcus' boss and his family at a cook-it-yourself restaurant and then coffee at a  cozy place called Some Time.   See, really my week did get much better.  Much, much better.

The best part is, all the damage happened to the left side of my car, so if you only look on the right side of the car, you would never know anything ever happened!

More to come on Marcus' 35th birthday, because he deserves his own special post too.

Promoted

I know my last post was a bit confusing for some.  Some of the Air Force promotions came out last night and Marcus was on the list to be promoted.  Big, big deal for us. Through out the day today, the good news would pop up in my head and make me smile like a crazy woman.  He's worked so hard for this and I'm so proud of him!

He did it!

He made it!  We're ecstatic!