Iphone Update

Last week I went to develop some pictures from my iPhone and realized I had about 1,100 pictures on there!  I think it's time I start documenting some of the favorites and start deleting :)

This is one of my favorite spots in Yomitan - It's about a 10minute walk from our house and it's just so peaceful at sunset.  When the tide is low we are able to walk out on the rock... I've listened to some great music and had some pretty amazing times out there throughout the days living here.

Speaking of Yomitan, we are moving out of Yomitan to a place called Chibana in a couple weeks!  We are very excited about it.  We decided we wanted to pay a little less per month, live in a newer house, and be closer to base.  Right now the grocery store and my friends are a 30mn drive away.  It's getting old making that drive. Oh - and the golf courses (3 of them) are within a 10mn drive now from our new place for Tony.  He is very happy about that ;)  Here are a few pictures of Yomitan just so we can always remember ;)

If you look closely, that's Tony taking Quinn for a walk around the 'hood.  

Just a few different places in our Yomitan neighborhood.  They are all so different...

Some are very new, very old - and some are just simply ugly. (just being honest)

This will be our new place come November 15th!  There is no yard, but all that blacktop is basically ours.  We share it with our neighbor (just to the right of the picture).. The house is almost exactly like ours (bigger) and they haven't moved in yet.  I'm crossing my fingers they are either people we like and can hang out with OR they have a 16 year child who loves to babysit ;)

We will be about 5 minutes from Kadena, which means we are 5 minutes from the grocery store, the gym, golf course, etc.  YES.

Our neighbor here in Yomitan has an absolute beautiful garden.  On our nightly strolls I always go past it and stop and look.  Wish this picture did it more justice, but you can see why it's so beautiful.  Well, look what the typhoon did to it :(

I'm guessing this shows the direction of the winds during Vongfong.  Crazy, huh.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not sure what else it could be.

Last night we went to one of our favorite places to eat here in Yomitan.  Of course we have no idea what it is called, so we just call it the "pig place" because of the pig statue in the front of the restaurant.  We sat on the floor, true japanese style and had a great dinner with a delicious ice cold beer.  So once again, I have to admit, I still don't know how to use chopsticks very well.  I think I can blame it on my "half finger nub" - although that's just an excuse.  Anyways, when we got to the restaurant the waiter brought out a plastic bowl, spoon, and fork for Quinn.  (funny).  It was perfect because guess who got to use the plastic fork and not be frustrated throughout the entire dinner???? Yup, ME!

Last, but not least, I gotta throw in some favorites of this girl!  You might be wondering why I put a picture of that cute diaper.  My favorite diaper company (who delivers a months supply of diapers and wipes to your door back in the states) now delivers to FPO addresses.  It takes forever, but I'm happy about it :)

This girl LOVES to stand :)

One of our favorite times of the day: When dad comes home!

told you they are cute!!!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful month of October.  Time is flying!!!

Typhoon Vongfong

*blue dot is Okinawa

Since living in Japan (July 2013), Tony and I have experienced 6 typhoons.  Quinn has been through 2 already....

Of all the typhoons we've been through, Typhoon Vongfong was probably the worst one yet.  As you  may have heard on the news back home, Vongfong was considered the strongest typhoon of the year.. and the looks of it on satellite you could have seen why!  The typhoon was moving SO slow (around 8mph) that we had the strong, loud, obnoxious winds for nearly 3 days.  Here's the breakdown

Friday night:
The winds really started to pick up Friday night which caused a few lost "zzzzz's" on my part.  Tony and Quinn slept great - not sure how!!  We knew Saturday was going to be the worst day as Vongfong was predicted to hit Okinawa directly around 11:00pm.  I remember wondering Friday night how the heck it was going to get any worse!  It did.

PREPARATION

Satellite came off the roof

Margaritas poured (notice how small my drink is - had I not been nursing, I can assure you more margaritas and more wine would have been consumed)

Bringing the flowers/plants in.  The salt water ruins them in a matter of minutes.  I saved them all!

Filling up the bathtub, just in case we run out of water

Saturday:  Little did we know that today we would lose power for 28 hours straight.  The morning was fine.  Quinn took her normal naps (somehow) and Tony and I did our normal chores inside.  I made some food and did all the laundry in case I wouldn't be able to.  Around 2:00 the power kept going in and out. I crossed my fingers, but it didn't work!!!  We lost it at 3:00pm  The night was actually pretty fun.  We lit a lot of candles and cozied in for the night.  Quinn was amused and I'm sure was wondering what the heck was going on with her weirdo parents!

Through the window to our backyard.  Wish I would have recorded the sound of it that day!

Starting to burn the candles...

What else to do when you're bored????

Our Japanese neighbor brought over some GREAT curry!  

Tony made me some coffee from his Jetboil.  Thank god.

Saturday night:  I was over it.  The cozy night in, constantly checking the weather, the TV not working, worried all our food was going to spoil, blocking out the wind as much as I could, etc.  It was finally time for bed and there was no way I was going to sleep a wink.  I managed to get a couple hours of sleep, but I couldn't get much knowing that the eye of the storm was going to hit us.  My phone was about to die, but thankfully my mom bought be a pocket juice charger before I left the states.  That gave me another hour or 2 of weather updates.  Quinn ended up sleeping with us that night.  She also decided to spread her arms out as wide as they possibly could go, too.  BED HOG! ;) We put the sound machine on right above her head, in-between ours and turned it to the "rain" option - thought that made sense considering...

This is what comes up on our phones when there is an emergency.  Now if only I could read it!

Sunday:  Lets just say that being inside with no power for a day can really put your marriage to the test :)  Tony and I were going a little stir crazy...ok, A LOT.  We decided to get out and take a drive and look at all the damage.  The crops looked awful - so did all the trees, bushes, flowers, etc.  It was all brown and dead...so sad, especially for the farmers.  As I was putting Quinn to sleep that night the power finally came back on. I've never been so thankful for power in my life.  I felt human again.  After Quinn went to sleep, I ran a quick mile on the treadmill (training for the Thanksgiving mile run) and made some dinner.  Phew.  It was over.  Here are some pictures that I took from people who posted on Facebook.

Cape Zanpa.  This is about a mile from our house.... 

The typhoon didn't cause as much damage to the island as some were predicting.  I am thankful that the houses here can withstand all of the craziness that rips through.  There will be more of them in the next 18 months we are here, but for now I am happy that the typhoon season is about to come to an end.  Free until June now!!!  Or so we should be :)

Time never stands still...for a reason

Ever since Quinn was born - well, actually since she was 6 weeks old - I have wanted time to just slow down!  For as long as I can remember, time has always been my enemy.  In high school, I just wanted to be in college.  In college, I just wanted to get a job and have my own apartment.  After a few years of that, I just wanted to get married and start a family.  Looking back on it, I wish I would have slowed down a bit, but I have such great memories regardless.  Nowadays, I just want time to stand as still as possible.  Many of my friends and family are probably wondering where this is coming from because all I could (and still do) talk about is WHEN i'm coming home next!  I have always been known for my infamous countdowns (In case you were wondering we have 629 days left on Okinawa..It's an app on my phone so don't think I have a calendar that I mark off everyday. I like it more than that here).  But today I am so happy with the now, yet excited for everything yet to come!

Anyways, back to time.  I thought this would be a blog worth writing after a conversation I had with my good friend, Rose the other day.  She has a 10 year old daughter, Anna (sweet girl) and 7 year old son, Nate.  Nate has just joined tackle football with the 8 year olds (against Rose's preference) and he is excelling beyond belief.  I saw a video of him - and it was unbelievable.  He even runs like a football player (Don't laugh at that comment - you know what I mean).  The other thing that I remembered is my niece, Mya.  She is 6 and has recently been invited to join a gymnastics team with a few other girls.  When I was fortunate enough to spend time in Canada last month, I was able to go watch her and she blew my mind.  This kid has talent....  So many new things every year with all my nieces and nephews and friends' kids.  It's easy to get sad seeing them all grow up, but man its FUN!

So as I sit here soaking up Quinn at 3 months old,  I can't be too sad when I put her newborn clothes away - and soon her 0-3 months.  Tony and I have SO much to look forward to!  Every age of a child's life is awesome.  Sure, there are the challenging days...but how lucky are we as parents, grandparents, family and friends to witness all these changes and see their world expand!

for the record, this blog was not written after a glass of wine.  ;)