Exciting Day

I am feeling more connected to the world now. We finally have AFN (Armed Forces Network). This may not be exciting to all of you that have Dish Network and REAL cable but these 8 little channels is the closest I get to T.V. back in the states. Now it is not 8 networks like I was telling my Mom is is 8 different stations that pick and chose what we that are living over seas are going to watch. They have a news station, a sports station, a family station, a a couple of other mixtures that I am learning about. Right now I am so excited because Oprah is on. I don't know how old this is but it is one that I haven't seen with Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Sugarland, and Daris Rudger. Jackson and I are enjoying rocking out to the country music that I now miss so dearly. I am really enjoying the AFN commercials (sarcasm). They are stupid military commercials. So no I haven't seen any of the funny or great commercials that you might have back in the States.

Whenever I see this sign I just crack up!!

Jackson and I have been at home all day because we still only have one car and Steve needed to us the car all day to run around the base. Usually Steve will drive himself to work in the morning and then come home to eat lunch with us and Jackson and I will drive him back to work. That is when Jackson will explore the town or go to different stores. Today because we don't have car we decided to walk around our neighborhood. We went to this really cute consignment store that is not far from the house and found two really cute outfits. One of them is a very Japanese. When he wears it I will take a picture and post it. We also checked out a cute store called Ginger. It is an upscale women's clothing store. It is super cute with lots of fun summer dresses and swim suits. On our way back we stopped by Coffee Casa and picked up two cinnamon rolls for a snack. Jackson loves going in there and receiving all the attention from the ladies in there.

Jackson showing you all his "nack".

Transit Cafe

We tried out one of the restaurants that is right around the corner from the house. We love living somewhere that we can walk to dinner. Tonight we went to Transit Cafe. One of Courtney's friends said that we needed to eat there because it was her favorite. It is going to be a place we visit often. The view is AWESOME!!!

Jackson killing some time waiting for dinner.

Dragon Boat Races

Today we went to our first festival down in American Village. It is really close to the house only about a 10 minute drive but it was HOT! I was thankful that it was on the beach, Jackson really enjoyed his time.

Even at Japanese festivals all of the food that is served in FRIED!!

The little Japanese clown. He was asking for volunteers and I am sure that Jackson will be wanting to go up on stage with him next year. He made an Elmo mask out of balloons and Jackson was so excited.
The dragon boat races. They were running them in heats. At the beginning of the day they started with the smaller kiddos and later in the day the adults. The adults tipped their boats over a couple of times. It was really neat to watch this.

Her is Jackson with his two Japanese girl "ends". Everyone one on the island loves to touch him and to have his attention. Of course he doesn't mind the extra attention and will usually ask for more when we have left.

The Joy of Cocok

I had the joy of finally getting my nails done at the famous Cocok's out on the sea wall. I promise if you come to visit us here I will take you there. It is a must do. It is also very relaxing and so nice to be pampered for two hours. When you sit down in the chair they had you are large book with pictures of finger nails painted anyway you can imagine them. As I flipped through the book I wanted something that looked like summer and also Japan. Here are some photos of my toes and the view from the chair. When I come home Jackson let me know how pe-pe (pretty) my toes were. At least once a day he points to my toes and tells me how pe-pe they are. He is my super sweet observant boy.

The view.

Notice the bling on the toes. I love them and can't wait to go back in a couple of weeks to try something else out!

My sweet admirer!

Dolphin Park

This evening we took a family walk to the Dolphin Park that is a couple of blocks from our house. If you saw the post that had pictures of the house I also showed you all pictures of the park as seen from the road. We had not been there yet but thought that tonight would be a good night. So after dinner we walked over while the sun was going down and it was cooling off.

Jackson and Daddy headed down the roller slide!

Sobas

The other night we found a restaurant down by the sea wall. I didn't get the name of it but it was pretty good. They served Sobas and it was our first eating experience in a place that didn't cater to Americans. There were given a menu that had things written out in English but they only had 5 things on the menu and only two of them would have been things that I would eat.

The menu!!

They offered Sobas with pig intestines and pigs feet but I went for a more American feel and had mine with just pork ribs. It was pretty tasty and as you can see Jackson really enjoyed the noodles and the rice.

We sat at tatami tables and we were the only Americans in the place. Everyone in the restaurant were watching us. I don't know if we were funny to watch because we had no clue what we were doing or if it was Jackson. The people here love to touch Jackson and talk to him. Apparently it is good luck to touch a blonde headed child. People are always pulling their cameras and camera phone out to take a sly picture of him. It is really funny and Jackson is enjoying all the extra attention.

Steve and his Orion...Large beer, tiny glass.

Little Mind At Work

My little Manipulator!

For Mike and Gina

Just a picture for Mike and Gina. A street named after Mike's Dad.

Use Your Eyes

Today we all made a trip out to this store we had heard about called Nitori.  It was an adventure to find it but we made an afternoon of it.  The store is much like an Ikea/Bed Bath and Beyond.  Just a little side note to Courtney...I am searching out all the great shopping places.  :)  But Jackson was in rare form and wanted to run, run, run everywhere.  That is one of his new favorite things he will yell "run, run, run" and just take off.  He also loves to touch everything in the store.  Steve says that he gets that from his mama.  We were looking at curtains and Jackson wanted to touch them and hide behind them.  Steve told him not to touch them anymore and to use his eyes.  He about rolled on the floor when he leaned into the curtain and batted his eyelashes onto the curtain.  I wish I had had the video camera with us so I could have captured it but I will have to get him to re-enact it.  

Handy Jack

We have been busy putting together shelves at the house because there is not any storage here. Jackson thought that we would help out.

We have also moved Jackson into his own room now that we have it safe for him and he is in his big boy bed.

Walk By The Sea Wall

Today we took a walk after dinner down to the Sea Wall. The sun was setting and it was beautiful. I thought that I would share some of the photos that we took and images we found painted onto the Sea Wall.

Run, Running on the Sea Wall.

For all the Slaziniks!

The beautiful Okinawan sunset!

Tuna

The other night Mackie's wife, Theresa, invited me to a girls night out a restaurant around the corner from her house. It was a special event that night where the sushi maker brought in a tuna fish and cut it up to make fresh sushi. It was really neat to watch them cut it up but I wasn't going to give it a try. I prefer my fish cooked! We had a great day. It was really neat to get out of the TFL and see more of Okinawa.

It's Been One Week

As I sit here in the Internet cafe I see tired people walking into the newcomers briefing that is held every Wednesday. We were lucky to arrive on Monday evening and have the briefing a day later because that is when you take the test to get your license. (Don't worry Courtney and Ian it is super easy they go over everything in the brief and let you know all the answers.) The only thing that is difficult is once you hit the road. But you have to have a license before they will let you buy a car. But let me start from the beginning....it is going to be long with lots of pictures but I promised to keep you all up to date with us.

The View!

We left the states on the 5th of July after a short but great weekend with both sets of Grandparents in Washington D.C. We were able to go to Fort Meyer to watch the fireworks. This is where we use to go when we were kids to watch them when we lived in DC . It was so great to take Jackson to somewhere that is in my history. He LOVED the fireworks or as he would say the boom, boom, boom! He is still talking about the boom, boom, boom, lights, lights, clap, clap, clap, un, un, un (Fun). Follows that with Bubba and if you ask him who else was there he will go on to list hunna, da da, ma ma, ga pa, gan ma.

Clap, clap, clap

Where did the fireworks go?

The flight from the states was so much easier than I ever thought that it would be. It was a very long travel day but Jackson was excellent and didn't have any melt downs. He slept a lot on the plane and woke up when it was time to eat. He also liked when we would walk him up and down the aisle and to the galley. He made a friend on the plane and since then when he sees kids or someone his size he yells "friend" or "end". We took off at 12:50 pm DC time and landed in Naha, Okinawa at 8:30 pm on the 6th of July. We were met by our sponsor, his wife, and Steve's friend Mackie.

The luggageWith Honey's backpack that holds the cars.

We went that evening to our hotel (TLF) and slept until about 4 am. We were up bright and early and walked around the base to see what there was to see. We went to see the cars on the lemon lot and found the BX and Commissary. We took it easy that day and slept and got our cell phones. On Wednesday we went to the newcomers briefing and got our SOFA license so we were legal to drive. Thursday we went to a housing meeting and went looking for a house. We wanted to live off base so the Realtors started calling. We saw 8 house/apartments on Thursday and 2 on Friday. We were able to fall in love with a house on Friday and sign a lease.

I am very excited about our house. We are one block from the sea wall and the water. This is what the Sea Wall looks like.

This is the view from the Sea Wall. It is going to be a great house for us. There is a lot to do in our neighborhood and a park one block from the house. We are in the Miyagi neighborhood near the Sunabe Sea Wall.

The front of the house.

The front door on the side of the house!

The laundry room with our Japanese dryer. This is on the first floor.

The Foyer you can see part of the front door to the left. This is looking in from the garage.

The second floor with the living room and the kitchen.

My kitchen. Very American!

Looking at the living room from the kitchen.

The half bath on the second floor.

Master Bedroom on 3rd floor

Master Bath

Jackson's room also on the third floor!

Guest Bath outside Jackson's room....I love the footed tub!

The guest room on the fourth floor. We have lots of room for company so come on over!

Fourth floor this will be a play room it on the back side of the house.

Saturday we received the keys to our house and did a lot of exploring. We also walked out to the sea wall and Steve was able to snorkel with Mackie and his family while Jackson and I walked around the rocky low tide area.

Low Tide at the Sea Wall.

Jackson and Daddy on the Sea Wall

Jackson's favorite part was seeing the blue fish. Mackie's wife invited us all back to her house and the boys stayed at the house and cooked out while I was able to attend a girls night out with her. It was fun to meet other wives here on island.

Sunday we did some more exploring and went to some Japanese furniture stores and moved a lot of our suitcases from the TLF to the house. We went to bed early that night because the movers were coming on Monday. Monday we were able to sign for our car that we bought over the weekend.

After buying the car we ran over to the house and the movers were there to move all of our furniture in. Although some of our stuff of broken or damage most of it made it in good condition. We are excited to get to go shopping for the things that we have to replace. Monday night was our first night in our new house and Jackson's first night in his big boy bed. We decided that we don't need to reintroduce the crib since he hasn't been in it since January. We converted it into a toddler bed but right now the room is not safe for him due to all the boxes so his mattress in on the floor of our room. He is doing great and loves the big boy bed. Yesterday we went to the Marine base, Camp Foster, and bought snorkel equipment for me so I am very excited to get out into the water and do a little ocean exploring. Steve use to do a lot of snorkeling and scuba diving so he is excited to take me out and do some of it. So that brings us to today. I am here updating all of you and doing a lot of unpacking. It is a lot slower than it was in the past with Jackson under foot. But I would not have it any other way.

An update on Jackson. Jackson is going well. He is adjusting to life here. He adjusted to sleep much better than Steve and I did and faster. He is back on a great sleep schedule. He is still unsure about the move I think. He has 2 sleeping buddies, bear and dog, and they use to be just that, sleeping buddies. Right now he is needing to carry them where ever we go. When he gets upset he will yell for them and is a bit more snugly than he use to be. He is so chatty right now. He will repeat anything and he is very big into telling stories. Stories as is in if Steve and Jackson do something and they come to tell me about it Jackson will tell me the major details. Sometimes he needs a little coaxing. His favorite stories about the boom, boom, booms with Bubba and the drive, drive, drive with ga pa! He loves all the stairs that we have in the house and he loves to be outside and riding his bike. We took him on his first bike ride on his trike last night. I didn't get a picture yet but I will get one soon. Enjoy the photos and I hope to be online again soon.

I am sure there is plenty I am forgetting but I will make notes and catch you up soon.