Big Sister

It's true, I am expecting! Not sure on a due date yet. I am hoping to see a doctor in the next few weeks. I will keep you updated! We are so excited!

New furniture

I am so excited that Nick and I finally decided (we've been thinking on it for over a year now)that we would get a new bedroom set. We didn't necessarily need one, but this one is just GORGEOUS! It is fancier and nicer than anything we have ever owned (although our entertainment center is pretty close). We are also upgrading from a queen to a king size bed. Nick says I hog the bed too much, hee hee! It is better to get it here because we don't have to pay taxes on it and it just happens to be 15% off right now. *SMILE* We are also getting the nightstands and dresser. I am still debating on the chest, because it is so expensive. The tops of the nightstands and dresser are marble and the drawers are lined with black velvet. The bed has four post that go to the ceiling that have roses and vines carved in them. SO PRETTY! Talk about feeling like royalty. I have always dreamed of being a princess and now I will feel like one in my beautiful room. I am still in search of a comforter. I have changed my mind about doing the light green/blue room for us. Nick didn't really like those colors, so now I figure I will build around what ever comforter I happen to find. We also found some end tables and coffee table for our living room with marble tops. I really like marble tops, can't you tell? I like it because it is easy to clean. Anything that is easy to clean (and pretty) is right up my alley. So I know you are wanting to see these beauties so here they are ....

What do you think?

Okinawan grocery store

Yesterday I couldn't wait any longer to venture off base for some fresh veggies and fruit. I have been wanting to go to Naval Kadena and the Farmer's market for a while now. And to make things better I remembered my camera! I didn't take any pics at the Farmer's market because it was so crowded/busy... maybe next time! The grocery store that I went to is actually pretty small, but still fun. I took as many pictures as I felt comfortable taking. Most of the time the locals were looking at me like I was insane. I guess it would be weird to see someone taking pictures in the grocery store. But anyway, here you go...

Here is what you see when you first walk in. Looks normal, right? Well if you walk past the fruit/veggies you find this stuff. I have no earthly idea what this stuff is. It all looks really weird and being the picky person I am, I have no intention of trying ANY of it!

Here is some of the meat, which has a lot more selections than you would ever find in say an Albertson's. But keep in mind that the Japanese love fish and all sorts of meat, where Americans tend to be a bit more selective. Speaking of fish...here are some whole ones in their freezer section. I gaged a little just taking the pic, but thought you might like to see it. (Did I mention I HATE seafood?)

I can't even begin to tell you what this might be, maybe some type of seaweed? All I know is that it looks D.I.S.G.U.S.T.I.N.G

Now for a few things that you might recognize. These are bags of rice, LARGE bags. I don't think there are little bags of rice in this store. Which makes sense, because the Okinawans use a lot of rice. Sticky rice is what the Americans here call it. It is different than the rice we have in the US, much more well stickier. YUM!

I had to take a picture of his for my father-in-law. He loves Mountain Dew and will be glad to know it's even in Japan. The bottles are slightly different and a bit smaller than a two liter bottle.

Fun at the pool

Lately we have been going to the local pool 2-3 times a week. At first Kara was unsure of the water, but now she is putting her face in the water and kicking her feet. She loves the pool! When I tell her we are going there she gets so excited! We will be so sad when it closes down in September. It's hot here until at least October if not November!!! Oh well, we plan to enjoy it while it last. Is anyone else out there enjoying some pool time?Kara and mommy loving the swimming pool! Notice the cool water slide behind us. I still haven't tried it, maybe this weekend.

Daddy was trying to get her to swim on her back, but she's still a little leery of that.

Kicking her feet in the water! YAHOO!

Attack of the ants (and a spider), YIKES!!!

Being that Nick was on leave this past week, we decided that a camping trip was a must. Why we decided to do this in the middle of the hot, humid Okinawa summer is beyond me. We both came to question this later. So on Wednesday, after he reenlisted five more years of our life to the military, we packed our little bitty car to the max and away we went.

Life was good as we traveled for almost two hours to the campsite. We got there and got set up pretty quickly. We only intended to stay one night, but it was still exciting!

The campsite is right on the beach so we decided to go take a swim to cool down. Kara was so excited that she took off toward the water. She usually is kind of skid dish about water, but we've been taking her to the pool a few times a week to get her used to it. She was so excited and you can see that excitement in the pictures.

After we swam, I went to look for shells, while Kara tried to drink some of her daddy's Monster energy drink. That's all we need is a hyped up Kara, she has enough energy on a normal day! I tried to get Kara into looking for shells with me, but she wasn't having it. I was sure missing Maddy at this point, she was always down with shell hunting with me. I found some pretty cool ones to add to my collection. Maddy would be proud!

Dinner time was near so I began grilling the potatoes and corn, we also had steak, YUM! I was surprised how good the potatoes were on the grill. I had never tried cooking them that way before. While eating dinner we noticed some ants on the table, so we had to kind of rush our eating (hence the lack of pic of our food), but it was still very tastee.

Kara and I went and checked out the little park that was near our campsite. She was so funny on the slide, she just likes to sit on it. She also is getting pretty good at climbing the stairs and bridges. She will go a little bit and look back like, "Come on, Mom!"

After dinner, we blew bubbles and then went to watch the sunset. It was so pretty and relaxing to watch. We also enjoyed looking through all the coral for shells! Luckily we had a nice ending to the day because the night had some surprises in store for us....

After the sunset, we got Kara ready for bed. She fought me until her daddy came into the tent and calmed her down. She was out like a light for him in minutes. It always happens that way. So Nick and I made a little fire and roasted some marshmallows. I would have taken pictures, but my camera's battery was dead at that point. It was the first time I ever used this camera, so I had no idea on the battery life. My new camera is really cool being that it is waterproof!!! But on with the story. Not too long after we ate our marshmallows, Kara woke up. It was very hot outside and she was sweating so bad. It was around 9:30 so Nick and I laid down with her. She was so hot and upset that Nick took her to the car to cool down. I stayed in the tent while they were in the car. I looked over and saw a HUGE spider on the side of the tent. We're talking about the size of my fist people. No joke! I wasn't sure if it was inside the tent or not. As Nick was coming back into the tent, I could barely talk to tell him to turn the lamp on. I was so freaked out. Turns out it was inside our tent. My husband was a trooper and killed that massive thing. I wish I could have taken a pic of it to show you, but I was way too horrified to think of anything other than creepy crawling things. When we finally got over the shock of that we tried sleeping again. Kara was still resisting, with the help of the men that decided to play basketball right outside our tent at 10pm. At this point none of us were happy campers. We were hot, we were tired, we wanted peace and quiet. So Nick took Kara to the car once again to cool and calm her down. This time I decided I was so hot I would make myself a little ice pack to sleep with. I then saw that ants had invaded our ice chest. They were EVERYWHERE! It irritated me, but I tried not to focus on it too much. I. NEEDED. SLEEP. Finally at around 10:30-11:00 I think we all dosed off. It was a rough night with the heat and my not wanting to walk to the bathroom that was forever away. We awoke at around 6:30 am to find that our tent had also been invaded by ants. Luckily they weren't on us or our bed, but the rest of our tent was covered. YUCK!!!! We were fed up with the craziness so we cleaned everything out and packed our little car up. We were home by 9:15am and took a nice nap that day. I think we have learned our lesson about camping. DON"T do it during the hot summer or on a rainy day. Ha ha!