Did you get another invite to the blog?

Sorry, I couldn't remember who requested a second invite to the blog, so I just re-sent everyone. Then I realized I had too many, so I removed those that I knew had invites. I think we are all set now though.

Our Little Car

We decided to go crazy and get a funky car. I know some of you are eager to see pictures, so here she is! It's a 2000 Nissan Cube. It has 50,000 Km, which is about 30,000 miles, I think. (welcome to the metric system) Not too bad for 8 years old, then again, how many miles can you really put on a car thats trapped on an island? It actually is in pretty good condition. It is common here for people to get older used cars because you are only here for a few years, so why spend a lot on a car? It takes 8 gallons to fill the tank, lol. And we have already learned that it does not beep when you leave the lights on, nor do the lights go off automatically...Mike killed the battery the second day we had it. Nice.

We drive on the other side of the road here, its a little weird and takes time getting used to it. That also means the drivers side is on the other side of the car. And the passenger sits where the driver normally sits, weird. So when we first start driving, instead of turning on the blinker you turn the wipers on, lol. Craig says that is how you know someone is new, if they are sitting at the corner and their wipers go on with no rain...Yep, we've done it. And I've only caught myself driving on the wrong side of the road once! :)

Side view, thats my shadow...

Front, hehe

Back, its a little bit of a hatch back. Thats our housing in the background. I'll save those pictures for another day...

What do you think?

Guess who rolled over?!

On Wednesday, September 3rd, just short of being 4 months old, Miss Olivia rolled over. Daddy put her down on the floor for some Tummy Time, which she hates, and after she had enough of that we just had her laying on her back. Mike walked away, and I called him back in and she rolled over! She was pretty proud of herself, until she realized she made herself go onto her tummy and didn't know how to go back. We were both here to see it for the first time. What a big girl! We caught it on video the second time she did it. Take a look!

"Oh crap, I made myself go into Tummy Time!"

"What did I do and how did I do it?"

Life's a Beach!

For Labor day, we went with our Sponsor and his family (Craig & Jennifer, and daughters Michaela, & Maddie) and other new friends to the beach. If I haven't already told you, the beach is like right down the street from us. So nice. And so pretty. It was a little cloudy the day we went, which wasn't too bad because then I didn't worry too much about the baby in the heat. It really hasn't been much hotter than Georgia here, at least not yet. It is definitely more humid though. But we get the ocean breeze that keeps it a little cooler, especially at night. This was Olivia's first trip to the beach. She liked it for a little while, then got bored.

We went to Tori Beach, it is on Camp Tori, a Navy base, I think. Look how pretty!



Crystal Clear.

Olivia and Craig. She LOVES him. I mean LOVES him. She could be screaming her head off and he'll come around and she is all smiles.

Olivia's first beach trip! (Yes, she does have a bathing suit, but its being shipped.) I told you she got bored.


At Kadena Marina. We didn't go in the water here, but stopped to check it out. I'm not sure what this little hideaway island is...



At the Seawall. We have been told there is an awesome sunset here. Haven't seen it yet though, but maybe we will go for a walk there soon and watch it.

I was thinking it would be cool to live in these apartments, until a typhoon comes around...

Meat Locker

So they are really big on being green here, so in an effort to save energy the room temperatures in the hotel are controlled by Maintenance. Which is a good theory, but stupid in action because by controlling it they turned the air on and never turned it off. So that left it freezing in our hotel room. Which left Mike satisfied and me miserable. Luckily we didn't stay there very long, but here we are just hanging out.

She fell asleep like this one night.

"What are you looking at?"

Watching football with daddy, already.

Dressed up for the BBQ.

Thanks Izzie for the outfit!

Eisa Festival

On the second night here, our sponsor and his family took us to the Eisa Festival in town. It's a traditional drum festival on Okinawa. It's a dance celebration for prayers of good health and a good harvest. You can learn more about it here: http://www.japanupdate.com/?id=8868
It was a pretty neat experience of the culture here.

Instead of the typical fried dough stands you see at fairs, they had stands where you could get noodles, fried rice, or yakitori (chicken on a stick). They also had stands of the exotic, crazy, huge bugs found on the island, but I did not take a picture of that.

Trying out chopsticks

The drums!

She slept the entire time!

The Plane Ride

We made it! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, we were staying in a hotel and didn't have Internet. Now we are in our house and getting settled. So I will catch you up to speed. The trip wasn't too bad. Olivia did very well. She slept most of the time. The plane was HUGE! So we could walk around with her throughout the trip. And everyone loved her, other passengers even offered to hold her for us! Jill did well too. She was nervous and all but didn't escape from her cage, which is a plus. We had little TVs in the backs of the seats in front of us, so we could watch movies, play games, or watch the GPS screen of the flight track. So that helped pass the time of the 14 hour plane ride. We left Atlanta at 10:15 AM Thursday August 22, we got to Okinawa around 10 PM Friday August 23rd.

Here we go!

One of the in-flight meals. Came with a complimentary glass of wine! And Chopsticks!

"Are we there yet?!"

We went for a walk around the plane, came back and daddy was sleeping like this:

Big plane, three rows wide.

Landing in Tokyo, Japan.


Our plane

Going through customs, pretty nerve wracking, but it went quick since we were military.

Next stop Okinawa!

Tiny Dancer

As you know, Olivia and I are in NY visiting family and friends. We decided to raid my childhood closet and play dress-up. Olivia was very cooperative and we had lots of fun (or at least I did). We came across one of my old costumes from a ballet recital. Now tell me this child isn't going to be the perfect ballerina?!

My Favorite:

Awwww. Little feet!

Olivia is 3 months old today!

Wow. Such a big girl! I can't believe she is 3 months old already. I'll give you some updated details about her: She smiles all the time, sometimes you even get a little giggle. She loves music, her favorite lullaby is "Hush little baby." But she is all smiles if you sing "My Girl," she'll even try to sing along with you. She turned out to be allergic to milk, so is on soy right now and is a completely different baby. Much more happier. She loves her bath. Not rolling over yet, but probably will soon, as she spins herself with her legs in the crib. And she is starting to drool like crazy...maybe we will see some teeth starting to try to come up soon?

Things are falling into place

Well Olivia and I made it to New York. She did wonderful on the plane ride. I fed her taking off and she fell asleep both on the way to ATL and on the way to Albany. She cried a little bit landing, but I think that was because she was bored with sitting. She rode on my lap and I'm sure she was thinking it was just an awesome car ride where she got to get out of her carseat and we never had to stop for red lights. The only bad part of the flight was that we were delayed in ATL for 4 hours. We never even got into Albany until 1:30 AM. I was upset at first, thinking "oh gosh, do I have enough formula?" But then I realized I needed to stay calm for the baby. And everyone else was flipping out on the airline people, so I figured I would just go with the flow. And I actually stayed calm.
We are having lots of fun in NY! Olivia is meeting so many new faces! Mike is doing fine in Nebraska, learning about his new plane he will be working on. We will meet back up with him on the 21st on the way to Japan.

The movers came last week and took all our stuff. Our house looks so empty, its pretty sad. But I guess that means things are coming together and falling into place. I just took some pictures of the baby, so those will get posted later. Until then!