While I'm congratulating...

I should congratulate Annie and Dave on the August/September arrival of Baby Wrigley aka Jenarbra!

You two are going to make the best parents and I can't wait to meet her/him some day!

Let's just plan on meeting in Norfolk in September 2011when we all move there, sound good?! Great, I'll see you there! Congrats!

Congrats Chris and Emily!

So many things to update the blog about, but lets start with one of the most exciting- my bestest friend, Emily, and her boyfriend Chris got engaged!!! Please note my post on February 18th, I predicted it! He DID get her something small and sparkly for her birthday!

I can't wait for the September 2011 nuptials! I'll be moving back from Japan around the same time. Congrats you two love birds!!!

We'll be back soon...

We've been busy busy sightseeing all over Japan! We went to Kyoto for two days, then a tour to Mount Fuji a trip to Kamakura and now we're headed to Tokyo Disney for 2 days. I'm going to be exhausted, but I'm loving seeing Dave and Jen. More updates in a few days! Maybe Glenn will be in a picture eventually as well. His flight home from Cali was delayed so we didn't get to see him last night, but I'm hoping he's on a plane right now!

Happy Birthday Laura!

Happy Birthday, Laura! Japan misses you! This picture is from Laura and Tyler's last weekend in Japan. Laura ordered a drink that came with a sparkler, so fun! We miss you guys still! Here's to meeting in Norfolk in 2011 (I hope!)!

Happy Birthday Emily!

I hope you get something small and sparkly from this guy! Have a great birthday!

Dave & Jen Visit Japan!

I'm off to the airport to pick up Dave & Jen! It's the first time I've driven by myself, so I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous! I've made the trip 3 or 4 times with Glenn so I should be okay. I'm bummed Glenn isn't here to meet them, but he'll see them when he gets home this weekend.

It's going to be a busy busy 10 days, but I can't wait to see them! Dave's been practicing his peace sign since July!

We're off to Kyoto tomorrow and then Fuji, Disney, Tokyo and Yokohama!

Valentine's Day

As I posted on Sunday, Glenn is gone this week. Just in time for family to arrive, but such is they way of a Navy wife, I can do it on my own.

Glenn was really sweet and ordered me flowers before he left. He told me they were being delivered because I was going to be gone in the morning. When the NEX came to redeliver, I was a little shocked at the size of the flower arrangement he picked out, but it is beautiful! My entire living room smells like flowers or as my student yesterday said, "Oh, stinky!". I don't think she's mastered the good smell words and bad smell words. :)

 

In addition to my beautiful flowers, I hung out with two beautiful ladies on Valentine's night, Rachel and Emily. Their hubbies are also gone, so we decided to celebrate together. We went to Rachel's house for a few glasses of wine and then went to her local yakitori restaurant, Daikichi. Here is us and her favorite restauranteur!

A great Valentine's day!

Happy (early) Valentine's Day

Since Glenn is going to be in California over Valentine's day, we decided to celebrate a week early. Mostly because Glenn really wanted to give me my present I think. He got me a new red iPod nano! My old iPod can't leave the car because it has to stay plugged in to work. Now I can watch TV shows at the gym from my iPod, yay! Glenn got a new pair of jeans and slippers since he managed to loose both in the last few months while on trips.

We decided to make a fancy dinner at home to celebrate and we made one of my favorite foods in the whole world- crab legs. Even though we live on an island famous for it's seafood, we actually had a surprisingly hard time finding king crab legs around here. We did find some at a local supermarket, but they were frozen and really expensive and we knew we could buy frozen ones at the commissary so we gave those a try. They turned out really well and for $20 for 2 lbs, you can't beat the price!

 

We also made potatoes, salad and had some champagne (leftover from Christmas for mimosas that we were too hungover to drink :) ). I miss you today Mr, but I'm glad we got to celebrate! Come home soon!

 

New Brooke Pictures

Adam and Laura have their hands full with a baby girl that sleeps all day and is up all night, but they posted a few new pictures on Facebook. Man, I LOVE Facebook!

Week 1:

Week 2:

Week 3:

What's for Dinner? Shredded Beef Tacos

This meal is probably one of Glenn's favorites, but is also one of the easiest. Glenn could also eat tacos/burritos/etc for every meal of everyday though. I start with a 4 (ish) lb beef roast, a jar of salsa and a can of green chilies. Put them all in the crock pot covering the roast with the salsa and chilies. Depending on how long I am going to cook the roast, I also add 1/2 a glass of water. If you cook the roast on high aka faster, you may not need the water. I usually cook the roast for about 6 hours on low. (I forgot to take a picture beforehand)

After about 5 hours, remove the roast and shred the meat and then return it to the liquid.

Then let the meat simmer for about another hour to soak up more sauce.

After it simmers for awhile longer, we pull the meat out and then pour the liquid in to a pot (measuring it first) and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, we add rice (depending on how much liquid you have). You get a main dish and side dish out of most of the same ingredients. Note: if I could the meat for too long (like last time when I cooked it for 8 hours), you may not have enough liquid remaining to make the rice too.