Vonage Visual

The ship pulled in to Korea today and I had a missed call from Glenn. Vonage sends me an email with the message now and it always cracks me up. I don't know if their voice recognition software is just terrible or Glenn mumbled or maybe a combination of both, but this is the completely (seriously) sober message I just received:


"Hey babe, it's me. Just calling to say hello. I'm here, it's 515 517. Yes we are going as far as going over to me later. I was calling before I end up throwing up on Skype. I know I can't make the proms any longer. So yeah College I call you later tonight or I'll talk to my house but" 

The actual message made a lot more sense, I promise. Haha.

Happy Birthday Dave & Jen!

Happy Birthday to my brother and sister-in-law, Jen! I still think it's so cute that they are married and have the same birthday! I love you both so much and can't wait to see you soon!

Also, I was just looking back at the pictures from your visit to Japan. What a fun trip. Will you plan my next vacation? You were so organized, it was awesome!

Not ready to leave...

All my fabulous friends behind. It's the part of the Navy that I hate. The good-byes. The community at Atsugi is so tight knit and I LOVE it. It's a daily occurrence for me to start Stella on a walk and end up chatting with a friend at her house for hours. I love the Gilberts.

I love that we leave our cars and front doors unlocked. That I feel comfortable to tell my friends to pop in and borrow whatever they need. This is the only community where it's going to be the entire airwing in one location. It's going to be rare for us, in the future, to be stationed at the same place as the jets and the prowlers and so many fun wives (and husband) in one place. I love it!

Clearly, I love Ms. Madori as well. Karaoke was just too much fun.

I am ready to get my iPhone though. So soon!

So much room for activities!

The moving process has begun! The movers come in just over a week and I've been prepping and getting the house ready. When moving from overseas back to the states, we have two separate moves (as opposed to three when moving from the states to Japan). Our first one is about 3 weeks before our departure and then second is just a day or two before.

The first shipment is our Household Goods (HHG) which will include all of our furniture, beds and the majority of everything else. The second is our Unaccompanied Baggage (UB) and is limited to 800 pounds and will include essentials we need for the 3 weeks, most of our clothes, etc. The Navy will loan us "stick furniture" for the 3 weeks so that we can stay in our house. Our things should all arrive during the first week of December. Yes, it takes 2 months for our HHG to arrive in Virginia!

My world is now consumed with blue tape (UB things) and non-blue tape (everything else). In order to help organize these things and separate them for the ease of the movers sake, I am clearing out one room so that it only contains UB things. So the bed had to go to the other room!

"We'll have so much more room for activities!" Anyone? Name that movie?

 The blue tape continues and after the movers come, the painting and cleaning starts!

Annabelle Tenora

I got to meet Miss Annabelle Tenora Johnson for the first time at Emily's wedding. My bestie's baby was born in July and I hadn't met her yet except for on Skype. She is such a cutie and I loved getting to meet her!

She has daddy's hair.

She's not quite the party animal yet. Just wait, Laura!

"Nice work, Dad. You put my dress on backwards. I feel like a fool." :)

I miss you guys! I can't wait til you come visit us in Norfolk!

Good-bye for now USS George Washington!

Glenn and I made the drive down to Yokosuka to the USS George Washington to onload his things for deployment for hopefully the LAST time last weekend!

He's only got a few more weeks on board until it is time to check out of Japan and head for shore duty! Woo woo! Three years of no deployments coming our way!

Glenn, your email isn't working

Hi mr, I'm sorry you didn't hear from me today. I emailed several times, but they keep bouncing back to me. I don't have any way of letting you know so thought I'd post this here in case you check it tonight. I hope you had a good night. I love you, K

Typhoon Roke Clean Up

The base is abuzz and swarming with seabees and NAVFAC guys cleaning up all the debris from the storm yesterday. My neighbor across the street lost 3 trees, but luckily their house was undamaged and no one was hurt. It seems to be the case all over base, mostly large pine trees that couldn't handle the 85+ mph gusts.

Stella and I hung out at home all day once the storm got closer around 2 pm. Stella about pooped in her invisible pants because she didn't want to go past the stairs. I didn't either! Once the rain let up around 7 pm we went for a walk and checked in on our favorite friends, the Gilberts. Typhoons are lonely when it's just me and Stella!

Typhoon Roke

I'm sitting right in the middle of the orange horizontal band. It's gonna be a rainy, windy day. I wish Glenn were here.

Glenn's Bail

Glenn left on deployment again on Monday (and then randomly appeared for 3 hours on Tuesday) but is gone for a short time. How long? Good question. It depends on the weather, a tiny baby girl's arrival and who knows what else! Hopefully, it will be short though.

Before he left, the squadron "bailed" him and said good-bye.

 We passed on the Liberty Bell bucket to the Gilberts. It was passed on to us by the Lemoore's and not it is on to another party planning couple!

This is the tiny baby girl that we are waiting for so Glenn can come home!

Congratulations on a wonderful 3(+) years as a Liberty Bell, Mr. I am so proud of you and all the hard work that you have done to make this squadron great. 

Come home soon!

Second Day of School

I got to see Connor off on the school bus for his second day of school! He was so darn excited it was cute. He wanted to go out and wait for the school bus (which comes across the street) 30 minutes before it was scheduled to come. I miss you, buddy!

And yes, Brooke insisted on wearing her shoes OVER her footy pajamas!

Emily's Bachlorette Party!

Emily's bachlorette party was the Thursday night before her wedding. I'm so glad she waited for the out of towners to be in town to celebrate with her!

Laura, the other MOH, and myself started the day at the mall so that we could pick out Emily's outfit. We had a pink theme going and wanted her to fit in as well. In retrospect, the black heart might not have been too fitting, but she looked super cute none the less. My favorite part was the white lace 80's half-gloves!

We enjoyed appetizers, drink and opening presents at the hotel bar where we were staying and then...

... the limo picked us up to take us to our start location!

We were starting the PEDAL PUB! This is a 16 person bicycle with a bartender and a driver! It looks like a giant trolley but it is completely pedal powered. I absolutely recommend the pedal pub. It was SO much fun!

Maybe too much fun! :) Here is video I took of us cruising through NW Minneapolis!

 We ended the evening back at the start location and then the limo took us back downtown where we met up with the GROOM and his friends! What?! Gasp!

A super fun night to celebrate Emily and Chris and their second to last night being single! 

New Favorite Thing: Gel Manicure

So I'm sure this really isn't new, but having been in Japan for 3 years where the cost of a spa manicure is approaching $100 (with this current extremely crappy exchange rate we're rocking right now), I rarely get manicures.

For the wedding I was in on Saturday, we got manicures at a great salon in Uptown Minneapolis. While perusing the polish colors I noticed several black bottles that said "Soak Off Polish". I inquired and was told that it was a gel polish that sets with a UV light. Since my nails are rather thin and bend easily, normal polish usually chips within hours or days and I feel like I've wasted my money.

Oh. my. goodness. I am hooked. Literally, minutes after the technician was finished, I ate an sandwich. Seriously, how many times can you do that after getting a manicure. It didn't dent or get messed up or anything! The polished hasn't chipped after almost a week, and it still looks shiny and perfect!

The only downfall is I've got to find a bottle of 100% acetone in order to remove the polish or wait for my nails to grow out completely which would look rather funny.

I'm going to have to find a salon in Norfolk that does this because I never got manicures before, but now I want them all the time!

Wordless Wednesday: Ding Ding Ding!

Mr. & Mrs. Peterson!

After my binger 4-day trip to the States, I am beat! What a weekend it was though! Emily looked so beautiful and so happy to marry her best friend, Chris.

It was such a fun weekend, but it is going to take me a few days to recover! More PG photos of the bachlorette party to come! 

Babypalooza!

I'm back from my 4 night trip to America. Wowzers...not doing that again, but the bachlorette party and wedding were a wonderful time and I'm so happy I made it back. But I'm pretty dang happy to be done traveling for a bit!

Apparently several of my friends were gettin' busy last December, because I logged on to Facebook after traveling for 20 some hours and there are baby pictures everywhere!

Congratulations to new parents Brian and Sarah. Carter James Huff made his appearance a few weeks early! A September 11th, 2011 baby at 11:11 am and he weighed 6 lb 11 oz? How cute is that?!

A new Liberty Bell joined our little family on Monday too! Congrats to Mike and Emily. I can't wait to meet Max in a few days!

I'm serious...I'm not even finished yet. Our old next door neighbors welcomed baby Ashlyn! Congrats Kristin, Greg and big sister Madelyn!

My college roommate Erin is currently in labor as well! I'll be checking her blog for updates today!

Such an exciting time!

Happy and Sad

I stole this picture from Annie and Megan's blog. It is from Annie's baby shower in August that I wasn't able to attend. Annie and Sarah are due one day apart. I'm so jealous that they were all able to spend the weekend together at another friend's wedding. Now the group of us live in 5 different cities and 4 different states/countries and counting. I'm so so happy for everyone's expanding families, but I know that means that it is going to be harder and harder for us all to get together.

I don't know when we'll all be together again, but I am looking forward to that day very much! I miss you girls!

Happy Wedding Weekend, Emily & Chris!

I'm off to America (again!) today. I'm headed to Minnesota for the wedding of my high school friend, Emily. She is marrying a wonderful guy named Chris and I like him a lot and think they make a wonderful couple.

I'm hoping this trip will be less eventful than my trip home from North Carolina. My originally scheduled flight from Norfolk to JFK to Tokyo turned in to Norfolk to Detroit to Nagoya (Japan) + a combination of 4 hours of trains/bullet trains. It was a long day and my luggage showed up 3 days later. I'm still waiting for my $150 check from Delta to pay for the bullet train. We'll see when that shows up.

Luckily, I made it home approximately 9 hours before Glenn did so I was able to see him at his last homecoming! (in VAW-115).

This flight, on the other hand, is a direct flight and (knock on wood) I hope that means it will be uneventful. There is no time for delays with a BBQ, bachlorette party, rehearsal and wedding all to squeeze in before I return on Sunday/Monday!

It's going to be a busy weekend but full of fun and lots of love. I can't wait to see everyone!

First Week of School!

I've been watching the little munchkins on base march past our house in the morning on their way to the elementary school that is just down the street. How is fall here already? Wowzers, this year has really flown by. I can't believe that school is back in session.

It makes me feel like I should be starting something new as well and I suppose I will be, soon enough. One month from today, all our worldly possessions will be packed in to crates to make the 2 month trip to Virginia. Their expected delivery date is December 6th!

My nephew, Connor, started school yesterday and what a little man he is.

Excellent call on the matching Spiderman t-shirt and backpack. I definitely approve! Those little girls are going to LOVE you! Just like I do.

I feel like this what just taken yesterday. Now you are almost 6!

See you soon!