Ketchup

<-(sunrise view from our balcony.)
Hello all. I know it's been a while since my last post but there's not a whole lot to report...

We bought Rockband 2 for the Wii and have been enjoying that. Andrew plays the drums, I sing and Helayna "plays" the guitar. We've been trying once again to potty train Helayna without success. She just isn't interested in the potty and when I put her in regular underwear she just pees them and continues playing-she couldn't care less. She's actually grown hostile toward the potty so we've decided to just let it go for a month and try again. Silas has mastered crawling backwards but hasn't quite caught on to crawling forwards. He can also do baby push ups! Andrew managed to capture it on video:

We're still enjoying our apartment but the weather has been rainy and cold most days the last couple of weeks so we haven't gotten out much. Friday night I babysat for our friends Della and Mario Vargas and kept their 2 year old boy, Dominic, while they went out. Saturday Andrew's shop had a football game and cookout at the recreation center right across from our apartment. Silas didn't like being out in the cold so we went shopping at the NEX while Helayna stayed with Andrew and played with his shipmate's 11 month old son, Gabe. 

Sunday night, Mario and Della returned the favor by keeping Helayna and Silas while Andrew and I went out. We went bowling with some guys from his shop for about an hour, but I got bored with it after I kept guttering my ball. We went to this little restaurant called Pepper Lunch in Yokosuka where they serve your food raw on a very hot plate and you cook it yourself. Then we went to the Honch to sing kareoke and just enjoyed having a night to ourselves without the kids.

We stayed up late on Tuesday to watch the inaugeration of President Obama, which took place at 12AM our time with his speech starting at around 2AM. We were very tired but still had Della, Mario and Dominic over for dinner last night. Andrew made spaggeti, meatballs and garlic bread all from scratch. Saturday we are all planning to go to the Buddhist Temple that I've wanted to visit since I got here, and go out to dinner afterward. Hopefully the weather will be nicer than it has been the last few days and I can get some good pictures.

Currently we are waiting for Andrew's Eval. which will determine a lot concerning the path of his career and whether or not he will re-enlist in 2011. He should get it in the next month or so and we are hoping for EARLY PROMOTE! 

We still haven't gotten our address. Andrew has to go to the post office and Housing I think and they won't let him leave work to do it. We're going to try to get it done this weekend or next if possible. 

I guess that's about all the news I have. Will update in a couple weeks. Feel free to call or email us any time! Peace.

Settling In

First of all I apologize for the delayed blog. We finally got our internet set up on the 26th but it was all messed up and kept dying every 5 minutes so every time I tried to make a blog post it would die on me and I'd have to start over again.

I'm sure most people reading this know by now that we moved into our apartment. It's a 3 bedroom highrise "Fugi Heights" is the name of our building. We love it! It's pretty spacious, has a beautiful view of the ocean from a balcony in the dining room and a big stainless steel kitchen, where Andrew has been spending a lot of his     time. I bought him a cookbook for Christmas and he has taken up cooking as his new hobby! On Christmas Eve he cooked roast duck and made fresh "beer bread" from scratch! Tonight for my birthday he is making me fresh home-made pasta and Italian bread. :)

As far as furniture so far we have bought our living room set, a wrap around couch with a recliner, and entertainment center and our dining room set. We still have to get our beds delivered and then Housing will come and pick up the loaner furniture we've been using. 

Anyway our Christmas was okay. We celebrated here a few days early because Andrew thought he had duty on Christmas Eve but it turned out that he didn't. We spent Christmas day in Negishi with Andrew's shipmate Mike Hood, his wife Casey and their newborn girl Paiten. They also have a dog and 2 cats so Helayna had a blast. Other than that we have just been really busy getting things for the house. We were lucky enough to get an apartment right across from the commissary and NEX. Every day we realize that we need something we don't have so we go for a NEX run. 

Andrew is planning to take a week of leave toward the end of the month and I am hoping we will get to do a little more sightseeing. If I haven't mentioned it already, the weather here is gorgeous. We haven't needed anything more than a light jacket since we got here. 

Also we now have a phone number. It's 7cents a minute for us to call the States and free if you call us. If anyone wants our phone number feel free to email me and I will give it to you!

Anyway I hope everyone had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year celebration! Peace.

Cuties

This isn't much of a blog, just some cute pictures and video of the kiddos. Thursday we might be moving into our own high rise apartment, and I don't know when we'll get internet/when I'll get to update again after that. Andrew had duty last night (they have duty every 4 days until 2009 when it moves to every 6 days) so I'm waiting on him to get home so we can start making a list of things we'll need immediately upon moving in. Housing is providing us with loaner furniture for 30 days until we buy our own. We've already gotten a loan from Navy Federal and volunteers from Andrew's shop to help us move in our new furniture. I'm waiting until after we get our taxes back to buy a couple things because I found some Japanese pieces out in town that I really want to get. Anyway keep your fingers crossed that we get the apartment on Thursday.

Christmas Party 2008 and such.

Well yesterday was quite busy. Andrew had duty on Thursday and did not get back to the hotel until 2pm Friday. Stephanie came to pick up the kids and take them to Ikego for the night. They ended up staying with her neighbor, Angie, overnight who I met the day before and interviewed. After the kids left we had to make an emergency run to the NEX because Andrew did not have any slacks or dress shoes to wear to the semi-formal event. After half an hour of him ho-huming about which pants to get he took my advice and got the grey slacks. We got a taxi back to the hotel and started getting ready.

After a photo or two of us all glammed up, we called a taxi to pick us up and take us to Club Alliance.

Now I'll go ahead and be honest, the party at Club Alliance was LAME! It was on 3 different floors so we spent most of our time going from floor to floor so that we could see everyone that Andrew knew. The activities were cheesy and there were horrendous lines for drinks and food. I was introduced to "chu hi". We ran into Della and Mario-the couple that hosted Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago-and they were planning to go "The Honch" a bar strip in Yokosuka. So after a couple more rounds of traveling up and down the stairs to visit every floor, we headed out to a bar called Tsunami.

After a few drinks and games of pool we then headed to a Kareoke bar down the street. Andrew sang "Here Without You" the 3 Doors Down song that was sort of our theme song during his deployment, while Della and I sang Mariah Carrey's version of "All I want for Christmas is you."

After a couple of hours at the Kareoke bar we went to Andrew's favorite restaurant CoCo's, where, in typical Andrew-fashion, he orderd the largest spiciest plate of food available. After that we headed back to the hotel.

Saturday after Stephanie brought the kids back, we spent the rest of the day being lazy and I washed the kids' clothes and blankets in the hotel's laundromat and made a quick trip the NEX to buy some formula and sippy cups for Helayna.

Andrew just left about an hour ago to go bowling with Baumet and some of the other guys from hsi shop. He's been saving his "going-out-card" since I went shopping a couple weeks ago. He really didnt want to go because he was still tired from last night, but I told him he'd feel better once he got there. I need to clean up the hotel room and I wanted him out of the way for a little bit.

Andrew has also been nominated for 2nd Class Association Treasurer so he's been busy with that...I also got a very encouraging phonecall from Housing yesterday and they think they might have an apartment for us by Thursday! I'm supposed to go to the housing office at 9 and find out for sure. The guy said that he got not guarentee anything just yet but to be prepared to move on the 18th or 19th! Please pray that works out! Hope everyone is doing well. I'm hoping we'll have some sort of phone number once we move into a place but until then feel free to email me any time. I like getting updates on everyone.

Housing Update

Well we have good news and not so good news.

Our command sponsorship finally came through and we are officially on the housing list!

The bad news is that PSD is now refusing to give us TLA (paying for our hotel stay while we wait on our house) because in the paperwork they have that he did not acquire dependents until after he got to Japan, or something...and it says that we are inelligible.

This wouldn't be such a big deal, except that we will probably have to wait another 3 weeks before an on base house opens up. They offered to move us to Negishi at the beginning of next week, but we do not want to live there because it's an hour away from base, we don't have a car, and Andrew can't drive because he doesn't have a license. There is a work shuttle to base and back 2 hours each way, but really you need a car to go to the doctor, commissary, etc. We just do not want to live there. We want to live on base, but without TLA we will have to continue to pay for our own stay at the hotel-$66 a night-which is quickly draining our savings.

So we will not be going out to eat, ordering out or exploring Japan anymore until we have a house! We just can't afford it. Looks like we'll be living on spagettios, PBJs and playing a lot of Wii for the next 2-3 weeks while we pray to the Housing gods that something opens up ASAP. We might have to go Navy and Marine Corp. Relief if money gets too tight. We talked about me getting a job but it wouldn't work because of Andrew's unpredictable work schedule. So, yeah, lots of STRESS STRESS STRESS!!!

The kids are doing fine though. I took them to my friend Heather's house yesterday and she has a new kitten, so Helayna was tickled to death and had a great time holding and playing with the kitty. Silas is still a big, happy boy, always smiling and trying really hard to crawl. He's almost got it! Friday night they will be spending the night at Stephanie's house in Ikego while we go to the Christmas party. It will nice to have a night to ourselves without the chitlins.

Hope everyone is doing well. I know a lot of people have asked us for an address. If you would like an address to send Christmas cards, etc. I can give you Andrew's FPO address in an email. He gets his mail a lot sooner now that the GW is on land. We still don't know what we'll do on Christmas if we're not in a house by then (and right now it's looking like we won't be.) We have been invited to spend Christmas with Andrew's shipmate Michael and his wife, Casey, who live in Negishi but we haven't decided if we will or not.

Hanging Out

Andrew got home early today. It was too windy and rainy to really go anywhere, although we did manage to take the kids to the playground at the hotel for about an hour and get them some fresh air. Every day has been pretty much the same as we wait to get on the housing list. We get up at about 7am, Andrew goes to work, the kids and I hang out at the hotel. We occasionally go to the nearby gas station when we are out of diapers, wipes, juice, etc. Andrew comes home and we either order some food or eat out, put the kids in bed, have a beer and watch "House" (Andrew has two seasons on DVD.) Nothing much exciting or adventurous has really happened but we are thankful to be together again, even this ever-shrinking hotel room.

Andrew managed to get a Wii for $88 at the NEX. He has been trying to get a Wii for almost 3 years now so he's very excited and has been playing it at the hotel as well as taking it on the ship with him when he has duty. I haven't gotten to play it much and I can't say I'm too excited about it but I'm happy he finally got one.

Tomorrow Andrew has some business to attend to on the ship (long story) and I am HOPING if the weather is good enough we can finally go to that Buddhist temple. We will also be having dinner with another couple, Heather and Nathan tomorrow night.

Well Silas is now asleep and Helayna is singing to her stuffed pony in her bed. (She gets a whole queen size to herself!) Andrew wanted me to link his myspace to those that might be interested in seeing more pictures of the George Washington, etc. http://www.myspace.com/brainiac10

Have a good weekend everyone! Will update when we find out about housing! Peace.

Week 1

Helayna and Silas were both amazingly well behaved on our 13 hour flight from Chicago to Tokyo. They both slept during take-off and landing so I did not deal with popping ears. Silas napped off and on through most of the flight while Helayna played with her My Little Ponies, stickers and watched cartoons (albeit they were in Japanese) on the little screens on the plane. The Airline staff was very friendly and helpful although the language barrier was a bit of a challange at times (we flew a Japanese airline).

Upon arriving at Narita International Airport outside of Tokyo a staff member took us through customs. I had to show my military ID and get a special stamp since we are immigrants and not just tourists. We were finally escorted to the arrival lobby where Andrew was waiting. Andrew brought his friend, Adam, to help us carry the luggage and it was a good thing he did. We spent about an hour shuttling around the airport to find our bus to the Yokosuka base. The effects of sleep deprivation didn't really hit me until we got on the 3-hour busride. The kids immediately passed out and I nodded off several times.

We arrived at the hotel about 8pm. I put the kids in bed while Andrew went to his favorite restaurant "CoCos" to get us some food. I fell asleep while he was gone and he had to wake me up to eat.

The kids both woke up at about 4am and it took a few days for them to adjust to the time change. The first few nights they kept waking up between 3 and 4am. They are now waking up at about 6-7am which is much easier for me. :)

We did not get out to really see Japan the first few days I was here. The very next day after our arrival Andrew had a math test and wanted to rest and study all day. After that he had duty, or the weather was too bad for us to get out. Finally on Thursday (Thanksgiving) we went to one of his shipmate's house on base for Thanksgiving dinner. They reserved the party room in the apartment building so that the kids would have plenty of room to run around and play (there were three 2-year-olds including Helayna, and they were all abou the same age within a couple of months.)

Friday, a girl that I met through a friend, Stephanie, picked me up for shopping in Yokosuka! Stephanie, another wife named Courtney, and I went to several Japanese stores including "Homes" which is like a fancy Home Depot, a department store sort of similar to our Walmarts only much nicer, and the Dyai-Japanese mall. I learned that I am a size Large in Japan-no surprise since most Japanese women I've seen are very slender. I did manage to find a pretty black dress for the Christmas party coming up on Dec. 12.

I am still trying to adjust to some culture differences here, although I have not yet experienced a huge "culture shock." One thing I kept forgetting to do is put money in a tray on the counter when I buy something at a store. It is considered rude to hand money to the person directly. They also thank you and bow after you buy something. Also you do not tip in Japanese restaurants.

Saturday Andrew had duty so it was another boring day in the hotel for me and the kids. I did end up going to the Nex alone with them but I will not do that again until Silas is old enough to walk or at least sit up in a buggy. It was a complete nightmare.

Yesterday we took the bus to the gate and walked around Yokosuka. I love the city and think it's beautiful! I forgot to charge Andrew's camera so I did not get pictures but I will soon. We ate at a Japanese Italian restaurant, which was pretty good.

I wanted to visit the Buddhist temple today and see the giant Buddha and take some pictures, but Andrew had to be a sponsor for a new sailor today and show him around the ship and the base so he didn't get home until almost 5pm. I'm hoping we'll get to go this weekend if not sometime this week.

Anyway, so far I really like Japan! I need to learn a little more Japanese to get around. All I really know is "Hello" "Thank you""Excuse me" and "Yes".And once I get a car I'll have to get used to driving on the other side of the road and driving in their tiny, tiny lanes. As Stephanie said, "Driving in Japan is like playing a video game."

We are still living in the hotel, but Andrew learned today that our chit has been signed by the C.O. and we now just have to wait 5 days to get on the housing list and get offered housing. We're hoping for on-base housing, but if we can't get that we are considering living off-base out in Yokosuka in Japanese civillian housing. It's more expensive but more convenient than living in Ikego or Negishi.

I apologize for not having pictures yet, but I promise I will have some soon! Peace.