Soon!

This guy is on his way home. You might not hear from me for a little while because he's home. Finally. He leaves again for deployment part II too soon, but I'm not going to think about it.

The last two months have been so long! He's been gone since May but I saw him for two port calls (Japan and Australia). Thank goodness for port calls!

Deep Breaths

Glenn was supposed to come home today. Supposed. The tropical storm/typhoon headed our way has him stuck in Chicago until tomorrow morning.We're in Kanagawa prefecture just to the left of the red one. We're yellow.

The house was clean, the floors were mopped, my classes have subs. I was ready. I suppose I thought that since he was flying commercially and not tied to the whims of the Navy this week that he would be home when expected. I hate you typhoon Krovanh!

Deep breaths though, I suppose. He'll be home soon, but an extra day? That seems like torture.

Badgirl Ball - My Favorite

My friend, Mari, took this picture of me at Badgirl Ball. It's probably my favorite of the night. I think I was dancing. Or pretending to be dancing. Not sure, but it made me smile - plus my hair looks cute. :)PS. I am in crazy

Badgirl Ball - Craziness

Mari and I- my patch is a WWII WASP patch (Women Airforce Service Pilots)

Someone's paper husband that comes to all the events

Dancing on the pool table

Showing off our VAW-115 Liberty Bell tattoos (fake ones of course)

Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!

Badgirl Ball - Outfits

Of course with any theme party, the costumes are critical. The ladies (& man) of Atsugi base did not disappoint!

Miss Massachusetts, Miss New Mexico, Miss Pennsylvania and Miss New Jersey

The 1940s Liberty Bells

Playboy Bunny and Hooters girl dancingGizelle and NancyGizelle, Laura and meLori and meCAG-5 Bad Bridesmaids and BrideVAW-115 Rosie the Riveters

Each squadron also did a "Roll Call" where we went on stage and introduced ourselves. Our group did a military cadence to go with our theme, some did a small skit or joke, but the Maces took the top prize in my opinion with their rendition of "A Box in a Box". Get it? :) I have a video but I think it's too large to upload. Bummer.

Shin's

Last week, I had the best sushi I've had yet in Japan. My friends, Kate and Emily, took me, Laura and Annie there and we were not disappointed!Shin's is a local place to those who live in Zama city (many Atsugi base people live here) but I had never been there. It's not cheap, but definitely worth it! The tiny restaurant only fits 10 people or so, so we made reservations so we could sit at the bar and watch Shin-san make the sushi.
We ordered toro (fatty tuna that practically melts in your mouth), ebi (raw shrimp), cucumber roll, an egg roll that I forget the name and an onion and tuna roll that he is making in the picture above.

I'm definitely going to take Glenn and my parents here. Oishi! (Delicious)

Badgirl Ball - Decorations

Badgirl Ball is a big event around here so it might take me a few posts to tell you all about it. First, Gizelle and myself were in charge of decorations for our table. It's hard to find things for decorations since we can't make a quick trip to Hobby Lobby or Michael's, but I can make my mom and sister-in-law do it for me (Thanks!). I had them go in July when all the 4th of July decorations were 75% off. They found me some great things. You have to be creative when it comes to this kind of stuff while you're in Japan.We also make a trip to IKEA to buy some large vases and then filled them will the decorations. We also put pictures of all the guys with some red lip stick stickers around the table. The sign in the big jar says, "nothing says 'Hello, Sailor' like ruby red lipstick."My favorite part about the decorations were the hand-written notes we got from our guys. Our XO's wife got them from the guys in Singapore at the beginning of the month. I got through the first sentence before I started crying, of course.

Here is the Golden Dragon's table- Ghostbusters. They even made Stay-Puft marshmallow men with their husband's faces.
A few of the other themes of the evening: 1940's (VAW-115), flappers (HS-51), hippies (105), Hooter's Girls (27), Bad Bridesmaids (CAG-5), State Pageant Queens (VAQ-136), Togas (HSL-14), German Beer Wenches (VFA-102) and Playboy Bunnies (VRC-30 Det 5). I think that's everyone!

It's a GIRL!

My brother, Adam, and his wife are having a baby girl! They found yesterday morning! Her name will be Brooke Aubrey Lawson and she'll be making an appearance around February 2nd. That day is also my dad's 56th birthday.Here's a picture of them at my wedding in April 2007. They were enjoying being kid-free for the evening since Connor was with a babysitter. Connor going to be a big brother soon! I'm so excited to have a niece on the way!

I hope I can make it home after the baby is born to meet her. Maybe next summer when Glenn is on deployment. We will see! Congrats again Adam, Laura and Connor!

Single Digits

We're down to single digits when Glenn will be home! He has finished his training in Virginia and is now on a week of leave to Minnesota and Arizona. He is staying with friends in Minneapolis this weekend and had lunch with my family. I wish I could have been there! My sister-in-law, Jen, our forever paparazzi, sent me a few pictures. He's off to Arizona to see his parents on Tuesday and after a few days there, he'll be home to me!

Pantry Game

Glenn and I move often and I think we will continue to for a long time. It's the way of the Navy I suppose. While I love finding a new house and making it our own and discovering a new city or country, I hate all the money that is associated with moving. New hooks for the bathroom, a new rug because now we have linoleum floors, the list goes on and on.

I think the thing I hate the most though is the waste. A pantry full of food, a fridge door full of condiments, a cabinet full of liquor- all of which the movers can't or won't move. It can be such a waste. Which is why I started the pantry game 6 months before we left Norfolk. I didn't buy any groceries except a few veggies, eggs and milk. I suppose I learned my frugalness from my mother. She got to see her student in action as well since she helped me move out of the house the last week we were there. For example, I used a 5-lb box of bisquick in 4 weeks. You'd be amazed all the things you can make out of bisquick.

I've decided now though that this game should not just be a pre-moving game. And yes, to me it is a game. For Glenn, probably an annoyance, but I like to see how creative I can get with the ingredients I have on hand. So now this game as evolved to a spend-as-little-money-on-groceries- while-Glenn-is-gone-on-deployment game.

So far in the last few weeks I have made/discovered the following:

• Nachos with homemade tortilla chips
• Turkey taco salad (tastes the same as beef!)
• Tomato, totellini and cheese salad

Not the most extensive list, but I'm getting there. So far in the three weeks that I have been back from the states I have only spent about $50 on groceries and that is mostly because I had to made key lime pie for my friendship group, an appetizer for the pool party and I had Laura and Gizelle over for dinner. I don't make others partake in my game involuntarily. :)

You should try the game too, you'd be amazed what you came come up with for zero dollars!

Bad GIRL Ball: A History

Last year, before Glenn and I arrived in Japan, the Badman ball was scheduled for the summer or fall, I don't know exactly when. Preparations were made, dresses were bought, food was catered. And then the USS George Washington caught on fire (due to recklessness) and a 3 month deployment turned in to 9 (Glenn caught the tail end of this deployment last year) and there were no MEN to have a BadMAN ball. The women of Atsugi base decided to not let a good party go to waste and thus BadGIRL ball was born.

This is the second year of the ball and now it is considered an "over-the-hump" party although our men will be home before we know it. I suppose it is half way through this year's deployments though.

Of course rather than plain ball gowns and dresses, it has become a theme party, because who wants to dress up pretty when there is no one to dress up for? Each squadron has choosen their own "badgirl" theme. Tonight is the big night so I'll post pictures soon!

Gossip Girl!

It's official - I'm hooked! I watched all of season one (14 episodes, 40 minutes each) in 4 days. I even watched episodes while running on the elliptical (which makes 3.5 miles go by so fast!)Glenn and I were fans of the O.C. while it was on and this show is by the same producers. I love it! And it makes me really want to go shopping...

Geography Lesson of the Day - Sulawesi

The George Washington is in Sulawesi around now according to news reports, but just where the heck is Sulawesi (formerly known as Celebes)? I have no idea, but I looked it up for you:


View Larger Map

Bon Odori Festival

Saturday was the Atsugi Base Bon Odori Festival. The festival went on all day with bands (for example, a Japanese Led Zepplin tribute band) and the Japanese portion of the festival started around 5 pm. I waited til then to go because it was so bloody hot all day that it is pretty unbearable until the sun goes down. This is Lauren, Catherine and myself.

The festival started with a Yokohama high school taiko drum group and an intro from the base CO (his Japanese left something to be desired, sorry sir). Then the Bon Odori dancing began! Here's a video of the American group doing one of their dances. They have been practicing for two months now. I think next summer I am going to do it as well. It's a lot of work and an expensive yukata (cotton, summer kimono) but it will be a neat experience I think.

The stage they made for the dancers looked awesome once the sun set and the lights came on. Whoever organized the festival did a great job. I heard from many of my students that they had a good time. For events like this, they gates are opened so that anyone can come on base (albeit in a restricted area with guards cutting off all the streets that are inaccessible). It's a good friendship opportunity for military in Japan. The only thing that would have made it better is fireworks. What kind of festival doesn't have fireworks?Our XO's wife danced in the festival this year. Here she is with her senseis.Most of the children around here dressed up in their yukata as well. Pretty darn cute.Especially baby C.
I also enjoyed that fact that because it was on base you could bring any food or drinks that you wanted. Hello chu-his and wine! It just had to be in a non-glass container. How cute are these plastic wine glasses of Heather's? I need to get some of my own! I can tell she is from Florida and goes to the beach a lot.
I'm excited for next years! It's just too bad Obon week falls during August when the guys are gone. Another thing to add to the list that they miss. I guess that's what pictures are for. We're now talking less days than the date of my birthday that Glenn comes home! Getting so anxious! Why are the last weeks the hardest?

Kelly and Laura's Adventure Days - Odaiba

My teaching schedule is a little different last week because of the Obon holiday so Laura and I decided to make another adventure day on Wednesday. Odaiba is a man-made island in the Tokyo Bay that is full of shopping, restaurants, amusement parks, parks and more people than I care for. I'm sure it was so busy because of the aforementioned holiday, but I've never had to wait in a queue that went around the train station to get on a train!
There were a couple of things I wanted to see, but mostly we just wondered around and did some shopping and took pictures. The first place we stopped was VenusPort although I think they should have spelled it VenicePort, because that is what they were going for.I've never been to Vegas, but it reminded me of pictures I've seen of the Venetian hotel. Next we saw the Statue of Liberty right in the heart of Tokyo. It is much much smaller than the one in New York though. According to Wikepedia, "The French Statue of Liberty came to Odaiba, the beach area of Tokyo since April 1998 until May 1999 in commemoration of "The French year in Japan". Because of its popularity, in 2000, a replica of the French Statue of Liberty was erected at the same place."Next we saw Gundam! He is an 18 meter replica of a famous anime character. He even lights up, moves and emits smoke. He doesn't walk or anything but we did see him move his head. There were thousands of people crowded around him taking pictures. I think he looks like a giant transformer. He was neat to see with the skyline of Tokyo in the background.Odaiba was a really fun place to visit. Lots of museums, shopping, siteseeing and kid activities. I'll have another post on the Muscle Park later. Laura and I decided this would be a great place to come back to at night because the Rainbow bridge (seen in first pic) would be lit up as well as Gundam. At night we could enjoy the views of Tokyo from many of the outdoor restaurants and patios. And possibily we won't be sweaty messes from the 90 degree weather and 94% humidity. If you can't tell from the pics, I was a sweaty mess.

I like exploring places and finding ones that would be great to come back to with Glenn. I definitely think he would enjoy Odaiba.

Why I love teaching English

On Thursday night I had my English class with Keiko. Keiko is a social worker with 2 high school students, Leon and Anna. Her husband's name is Ken. Needless to say, they are not your typical Japanese names. Her family lived in North Carolina for a little over a year when the kids were in elementary school while her husband did a teaching exchange at Duke university. He is a history professor at a local college. We get together 2 times a month to talk about whatever and share things with eachother, just to keep her English up. She speaks pretty good English.

So I was at her house and she was telling me about Obon and the traditions they have. Obon is a Buddhist holiday where your deceased ancestors come back to visit. She showed me their family altar where her mother, father and grandparents' pictures and "gravestones" were located. The minature "gravestone" was more like a small plaque that had their buddhist name. This isn't exactly what her shrine looked like, but pretty similar. It is set off in the corner of her tatami mat room.On the first day of Obon (13 Aug) families burn special wood outside so that their ancestors know where to go and to come faster. On the altar they also had a straw horse so that the ancestors could ride faster back home. Each day of Obon, Keiko will place specially prepared food on the altar for her ancestors. She let me try several kinds of food that she made for them. One was mochi balls (pounded rice) with a soy sauce and one with red bean paste. Second I tried, a carrot, pumpkin, lotus root vegetable mix.

On the 16th of August, their ancestors will return to heaven, this time riding the straw cow that is on the altar. No rush this time, they can take a slow cow.

I felt really honored that Keiko would share her traditions with me and even let me try the food that she had prepared for her family. These are the kind of things I would never know about Japan if I wasn't teaching English. It was a neat experience.

Keiko even sent me home with homemade tempura and a 6-pack of Japanese beer. I had the veggie and shrimp tempura as soon as I got home. It was awesome! I'm saving the beer for Glenn to try with me.Thanks, Keiko.

Laura's Wedding Pics

Laura got her professional wedding pics and they are just beautiful. I had to share. They were shot by Tim Larsen. Here are a few of my favorites. Lutsen is just beautiful, I can't say it enough!

You'll probably have to click on them to see them bigger. I copied them from Tim's blog so they're lesser quality I'm sure.

Shopping in Harajuku

Last week, Laura and I took Nicole to Tokyo for the first time. We went to Harajuku to go shopping for homecoming dresses. That means homecoming is soon!We brought baby Caroline with us as well and she was just a peach. Such a good train rider. She even had lunch on the bouncy train. I'm amazed at how much people on base get out in Japan with their kids because, wow. It is a lot of work lugging a stroller, baby, baby bag, shopping bags, etc up and down the stairs and elevators at the train station and cross walks. Let me just say- Birth. Control. I think it took all three of us to get one baby around. I don't know how Nicole does it with 3, I'm impressed.

I bought a dress but I haven't decided if I'm going to wear it since I won't have an official homecoming. Glenn will be flying home commercially from the states and not from the ship. Homecoming pics just aren't the same if they're not in their uniform, but I can't wait all the same. I am also calling this a 'homecoming' but the command is definitely reminding us that it is an 'In-Port Visit', not homecoming. Which is just annoying talk for "they will be working, a lot, and then leaving again." Boo. I'll take what I can get though.

Night Out in Tokyo

While Annie deux was visiting Annie uno we went to Tokyo and stayed at the New Sanno Hotel. I love the New Sanno but it is so difficult to get reservations that you are forced to go in the middle of the week, like Wednesday, like we did. Good thing none of us have full-time jobs. I feel very sex & the city in this pic. Maybe cheesy, but I like it.We started out at Gonpachi a restaurant I have been to before, but is always good. It is famous for being what a scene in the Kill Bill movie is based on. Good food, good times.

Annie had compiled a list of fun bars to visit and she didn't steer us wrong. We started at Mado Lounge, a bar on the 52nd floor of some skyscraper in Tokyo. Awesome views of Tokyo at night and the Tokyo Tower.

We went to a wine bar after this which was a quaint, cute little place that I have no idea what it was called. I did enjoy the giant pig leg on the bar though. Fresh proscuitto anyone?The next day Laura and I drove to David's Deli (we were actually able to navigate ourselves driving through Tokyo) for lunch and then headed home. It takes about 90 minutes to drive to Tokyo which is frustrating because it's not the far. The entrance to the expressway is about 25 minutes away (even though we drive over the expressway about 5 blocks off of base). The first part of the trip is easy, the last 5 km took the last 45 minutes. Traffic in Japan sucks, but even paying 1450 yen ($15) in tolls each way is still about the same price and time as taking the train. Weird.

Thanks for a fun night, Annie!

Another Earthquake

I woke up this morning at 5 am to my entire bed shaking (and Glenn's not home :) )! What a weird feeling- two earthquakes in two days! For those of you wondering, we're in the white section just to the east of the orange section of that map. We are in the Kanagawa prefecture so that means we felt a 3 of the 6.6 magnitude at the epicenter.

At first I though someone was in my house because I heard things moving and the chain on the door jingling, but then everything started shaking. The last one I was at the pool so I couldn't really feel things move too much, but in a building- much different story. Stella seemed a little freaked out, but mostly at attention, making sure I was safe. She can be a very protective dog when it comes to me. We watch out for eachother.

Things are getting crazy in Japan - not sure what's going on. A typhoon hit the west coast this week and now two earthquakes. What's next?! I'm not really freaked out at all, but it was nice to be able to call Glenn this morning. I can actually call him whenever I want. It's pretty exciting. He started LSO school today so he'll be in VA for two more weeks.

Tuesday 10 - Baby Glenn

I was looking through some of the old pictures on our computer and came across some fun ones of Glenn. Their mostly from high school and college, but he looks so young! I haven't done a Tuesday 10 in a long time either so enjoy!