We're more than friends...

I think every day for the last week I have been telling myself I was going to write up a post. Better late than never!

So... since I last posted we had elections for AESA. I was so ready (yet still very nervous) for my speech. Frank was even an awesome husband and gave me a message that morning to help me relax. I got up there and froze. It was the worst thing I had ever gone through, I could not remember a thing and just kept repeating the same thing over and over again. Needless to say I lost. I wasn't too surprised, I wouldn't have voted for myself. A few people afterwards asked how I was doing about losing. Losing didn't bother me that much since I knew it was a possibility running against two other people. The fake that I bombed my speech is what upset me. I got over it by the end of the night and the next day was back to the normal daily fun times.

Because I am still very busy with work and the Red Cross it makes getting out and exploring a little (A LOT) difficult. Before coming here I wanted to travel and do as much as possible, however, I also wanted to work and do something for myself. I am working and doing something for myself and loving every minute. But I miss being able to do whatever I want when I want. Talk about nothing being able to have everything ha. It would make things a whole lot easier if Frank and I had the same days off!

Not a whole lot is going on in our house right now. There is a lot going on around base though, I am trying to squeeze things in when I can. So maybe one day I will have pictures from some events. Oh I found out I get to participate in Bon Odori this summer!!

 I put together a beautification project for the Red Cross with the help of AESA. I hope we can do more of these projects around base!

 We got caught ha

 It's like I am two different people. Red Cross in the morning.. the gym at night...

 I guess I have been living under a rock because I have never heard of these before. Oh my. So amazing!

Speaking of amazing!

Update in pictures

This post is long over due! I have been trying to write it up for a few weeks now but something always seems to get in the way. Since there is just too much to share at once I am going the easy route and doing bullet points :]

about a month ago I volunteered with the Red Cross at the base Elementary school for the Pre-Deployment fair that is put on every year.

 

 

I also volunteered for the 10k/half marathon about a week or two later. I volunteered on behalf of AESA.

 



I became the new volunteer coordinator at The Red Cross :]

{on my way to work with my backpack ha I bike}

{Our latest event today, March is Red Cross month}

I got a job at the gym! I am loving it :]

I am running for the Vice President of AESA (Atsugi Enlisted Spouses Association). They invited all the nominees to attended the Single Sailor Dinner they were putting on so we could get to know more people. Normally only those on each committee attend the events. I had a lot of fun with this one since I had desperately wanted to be apart of this committee (I didn't get to the sign up in time).

Sakura (Cherry Blossom) season is going right now! I have not edited any of these and since I don't know how to set the right setting yet the lighting isn't the best.

Almost forgot about my girls day to Yokosuka with friends :] Our bike ride to the train station had to be the funnest thing ever! It was crazy windy out so we could barely stay on our bikes. It was insane, best way to put it ha.

I could post random pictures of the dogs... but then I'm sure this would never load! I think I got everything for the last few weeks. Now that that is done I am going to go finish my Orange, banana, berry sorbet Frank made me in the Vitamix.

A little update

Well it's been a little while since I posted something. We have been very busy the last few weeks! This last week feels like it flew by yet the rest of the month felt like eternity. Frank and I both wished it had gone a bit faster.  Speaking of Frank, he is on his way to Lemoore for school. He left yesterday morning and drove to his uncles house which is about 3 hours north of base. He ended up making great time getting there and was very happy to be out of the car for the night. Both of us are happy to be back on schedules after not having one for the last month plus.

I have so much to catch up on i'm not even sure where to start! I guess a good place would be to upload the pictures I have to the computer. We did lots of exploring the northwest! For our anniversary we went to La Conner for a late lunch/early dinner. Then headed over to Deception pass since neither of us had been in years. Then on the whim decided to explore Whidbey Island and the naval base. Drove down to Coupeville then headed home.

A treat to ourselves for paying off our debt (WE'RE DEBT FREE!!) we took a day trip to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands and fell in love!

We FINALLY paid off our debt so we are very happy about that. Now time to work on the savings account before heading to Japan.

We also got our flight info much earlier than we expected. We told them Frank was driving to and from school so they did not have to book him a ticket. We put a request in to do a MAC (military) flight our of Seattle but they weren't able to find us a day that could work with having room for pets. So we are flying commercial out of LA. The issue. They have Frank flying out of Lemoore to LAX and myself flying out of San Diego to LAX. We are working on having the first flights canceled and just flying out of LAX with no connecting flights before hand. I haven't talked to Frank about this yet, and it will all depend on how much money we can save, but I was thinking of driving up to San Francisco for the night after I pick him up from school. It's somewhere i've always wanted to go and we will be 3 hours from it.

As I was writing this blogger shut down on me and didn't save the rest of what I was writing :[ What I do remember... Frank and I are more than ready for it to be December. We are very excited to start our next adventure in Japan!

What we've been up to...

I realized today that I hadn't written a real post in quite a while. I thought the reason we were having issues with loading pictures and such onto the blog was the Internet. Turns out it was the computer, we had some big download going on that I didn't notice. All is better now.

Let's see.. We've been BUSY! Dogs have their second appointment next week for being able to go to Japan.

Someone Frank works with bought him Diablo 3.. Many arguments will be coming because of this. I'm not the laid back play video games all the time type of wife. That's what being single is for.

I will be spending much more time with the iPad because of the above. Glad we have this at least!

Tomorrow were going to the safari park (part of the San Diego zoo, I can't add links) with Ricky and Yumi. Best part it's for free : ] Frank and Ricky can use their military ID to get in free and Yumi and myself will use the free tickets we got from Ashley and Tony. I've been wanting to go here since we moved to San Diego. Finally making it 3 years later and 2 months before we move ha.

Shampooed the living room, dinning area, and entry way today with the Kirby for the first time. Love it! So much easier to use then a big bulky shampooer and drys so much faster since its waterless.

Every weekend is pretty much booked with spending time with friends or doing things we've wanted to do before we leave. One thing we want to do is hike El Cajon mountain. Gotta prepare for Mt. fuji next summer : ]

I've decided that when Frank goes to school from October to December I am going to stay in Washington (we'll be there all of September) so that I can get my group X certification while paying off debt. Only two months, I'll be busy studying and training. And of course volunteering at NOAH, so it should fly by.

As mentioned above we plan to leave the states debt free. We have very little left and want to start debt free and working on our savings while in Japan. We know how much we can save a year while there.. So we want to get a head start. Also it will be amazing to see how far we've come while in California with our finances.

I need to make a list of places I want to travel to while in Japan. Hmmm... Frank and I have already talked about this, but if we can we would like to stay overseas after Japan. Italy, Spain, even Guam (yes Guam ha), Germany.. Anywhere really.

Once we get to Washington I'm getting my travelers passport (I will have two, a no-fee military passport that is only good for getting to Japan on orders really). Can't wait to stamp that thing up!

Well that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure within a few minutes of posting this I will think of more stuff that has been going on. Until next time blogland...

6 months down...

7 months to go. Frank is back to GTMO which means his R&R is over and we're half way through this deployment. It's pretty amazing how fast it has been going, I have a feeling this second half will go even faster since we have the holiday's coming up. I think I've also decided for sure that I'll stay in Washington up until right before he gets back. I'd gone back and forth with staying until November when the explorer will be paid off or waiting it out and being able to pay down his car by at least $6,000 if we're lucky. Even Frank was telling me I should just go back in November since he knows how much I don't want to be here. But... it was the numbers that got me excited to stay. In April we are planning on going to Dallas for my cousins wedding (and see Haysel!) so we decided to add a vacation to it as well. Now I just hope it all works out! So staying here to save money for that is another thing I added to the list of pros to stay.
So Frank's leave.. Since he got in at midnight we stayed down in Seattle for the night then spent part of the day at Seafair. This was are one time alone the whole 12 days he was home.. and it wasn't long enough! (lesson learned, if he is gone long enough to get R&R we will never take it at home!) I was excited for Seafair since I hadn't been in years and love watching the hydro's, it was also Frank's first time so I was pretty happy to be the one to take him.

We got really lucky and Frank's cousin Ricky who is stationed down at Pendelton was up for Seafair representing his shop. We had one day (afternoon/night) to see him so we were pretty excited that it worked out well. He came up to town for a BBQ at Frank's parents house after we got home from Seattle.

Our first week was just busy busy with work outs and running errands. I had Nicole's bachelorette party on Friday up in Bellingham then the following Saturday we went up to NOAH so I could show Frank what I do up there. They were also doing a big adoption-a-thon so it was madness ha.

The next day was Nicole and Brad's wedding (BEAUTIFUL!). I was so happy that Frank was able to be home for it, we had a great time and loved getting to get dressed up :]

The next day (Monday) I took Frank to the shooting range as a birthday surprise. It's something he likes to do and has been wanting me to join him for some time. Monday's ladies pay no range fee.. and we got lucky because on the 1st and 15th military have no range fee's either. Needless to say we saved A LOT of money! Frank loved getting to show me how to shoot.. I don't suck too bad.. but I'm no where near being good ha. I let him do most of the shooting since taking pictures is much more fun for me.

The rest of the week was again busy, seeing family, eating.. not enough working out! Now it's back to the grind. Oh I almost forgot we got Frank the iPad 2 for his birthday! I LOVE it and was sad to see it go. We had been wanting to get him a laptop but didn't want to spend the money, then right before he came home I got the idea of an iPad. He can play games on it, he can skype with me (love facetime!) and use the same text app he uses on his phone to text me for free. We got some accessories so he can upload his pictures onto it. So it was a cheaper laptop pretty much! We only got wifi since 3G doesn't work in GTMO so it made it a little cheaper. It was also nice knowing we had the cash to pay for it, I love not charging anything anymore :]

This post is all over the place. Sorry about that, I'm having a hard time remembering everything. I'll post pictures later, they aren't wanting to rotate right now so I'll have to work with them to see what's wrong. Anyways, that's my little update about the last few weeks...

Still here.

Frank comes home VERY soon so I have been a crazy women getting ready. Mostly just lots of volunteering with NOAH. After running myself into the ground 24/7 for the last week I finally had to take a break today. So instead I went to the mall and FINALLY found myself a pair of jeans. I HATE jean shopping because it's torture for me. Needless to say I was really happy to find a pair today :] I'm also still on the look out for a pair of shoes to go with my dress for Nicole's wedding that is coming up. Speaking of which, last weekend was Nicole and Brad's bridal shower.

The happy couple.

There was a lot of good food, but the desserts were so pretty.. and yummy! So they made it onto the camera ha.

They also did the toilet paper dress game.. I need to get some of those pictures to share, along with a few more. All in all it was a good day. After stuffing my face more than I should have I was ready for a nap. The hour drive home was very quiet ha.

Hello! My name is George...

... and I'm looking for my forever home!

Meet George, our (around) 10 month old foster dog. About a week in a half ago Frank and I volunteered, through the dog lovers ministry were apart of at our church, to work an adoption event with SNAP. Each person has there own dog for the event and George was Frank's.

When they brought George out of the truck the lady let us in on his story. Both George and his sister, Georgina.. ha yup the shelter named them, were left for dead in a park. When they were found they were half there body weight, dehydrated and hypodermic. There body temperatures didn't even read on the thermometer. Needless to say they were blessed with a second chance at life.

At first George was insanely shy and scared of everything. Over the three hours we were there Frank and George bonded, and Frank was able to bring George out of his "shell". At first Frank really wanted to adopt him, but it's obvious he needs a yard to run around in, but having him go back to the shelter was something neither of us wanted. So we agreed to foster him until he found his perfect family. Of course we fell in love with him, I mean who wouldn't look at him. He's adorable!

He's still very much a puppy, even though he looks much older because of his size. He's a boxer mix and by the size of his paws I'd say he still has quite a bit of growing left to do! Within a day of being home with us he learned "sit", although it took a few days before he would do it right away. He has learned to sit and wait before he's allowed to eat, again he still has his moment's but is good at stopping when I tell him to.

He is still learning basic obedience like not nibbling on us when he's playing, he IS NOT a biter! I just want to put that out there for anyone who might take the "nibbling" in the wrong way. He is also learning not to jump on people.. really I have three dogs I'm working on that one with, Molly and Ellie are horrible at it! One thing we have learned since having him is that he is NOT aggressive what's so ever. Molly and Ellie would prefer if he left, but while he's here they just tolerate him (they don't like dogs bigger then them. Little dog syndrome ha.). At times they will growl or go after him barking, he does nothing back. He just brushes it off like it's nothing! Whenever Ellie starts barking at something outside George freaks out and goes running for me or Frank or to the spare bedroom. He is still very nervous about things, and is nowhere near being a guard dog ha.

Something that George needs to teach Molly and Ellie is how to walk on the leash! He's amazing at it, I for sure thought that at first we would have problems with it but I was proven wrong. Molly and Ellie need to pay attention to him ;) A few days ago we took all three dogs out to the dog park since I figured George would love being able to run around and possibly socialize. He was scared out of his mind. Poor guy. If we threw a ball he would just stay right next to you, he'd only go off if he were with Molly and Ellie (go figure they don't even like him, but he loves them) or with us. We didn't stay for long but it got me to see that he needs short visits there to get used to it all, but not long enough to scare him away. He would go over to a group of dogs and start sniffing them, but as soon as they would all start playing he'd run the other way scared. It will take time but I see potential in him.

Whomever adopted George will be getting a great dog, one that has so much love to give. I will be sad to see him go, but I know that he's not meant for us. We were meant to be the buffer, getting him out of the shelter was our initial goal and I know for myself that I am very happy we were able to do just that. He still has lots to learn, but in the short time he's been with us so far he has opened up so much. George needs a family that has a big yard for him to run in and some very energetic teenagers or adults. He craves attention, not to be the center of it all, but just to have someone there with him. He needs a family that will be home with him and involve him in there daily lives and activities.

George is up to date on all his shots, microchiped and Neutered. If anyone in the San Diego area is interested in George, or want to know how you can help with other dogs feel free to contact me through comment (my email is down right now) or the Chula Vista animal shelter. You can also check out the other dogs they have for adoption by going HERE.

Busy Bees

Sorry for being blogger MIA this past week, but as the title says... we've been busy! Before I get into everything you've missed out on I have to start with AVATAR.

If you have not seen this movie, or do not plan to see... change your mind and go buy a ticket! It was amazing. I had no desire to see it, in fact the first preview I saw for it I said "wow that looks stupid". The more previews I saw the more it looked interesting, but still not something I wanted to see. Then the other day while watching the 4th hour of the Today Show Kathy Lee and Hoda were talking about how they had seen the movie the night before. Neither of them thought they would like it.. however, they said it was unbelievable! You couldn't take your eyes off the screen the whole time in fear you'd miss something. There was a love story along with the script that isn't shown on previews. One of the big turn offs is the 2 hours and 45 minutes of sitting... you never even realize it's been that long by the time the movie is done. After hearing all that I knew I had to see the movie! ha If they liked it then I knew I would. The movie is showing in regualar 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. I highly recommand you see it in IMAX 3D.. but not in the front row {we tried getting there early, we even preordered our tickets but we still got there just before it started and had to sit in the front row. Big bummer.} Frank and I enjoyed it just a tad..we plan to see it again around next pay day :]!!

Okay now to everything else... Last week I started volunteering at the food bank distrubution center. I've been wanting to work there, the animal shelter {still waiting to hear from them} and the USO. The food bank was the easiest to volunteer with since I just pick a date online and sign up for it. I worked 3 hours sorting foods to make sure they were good to be given out, and I learned some things about the things you can and can not donate. If a can or pop is dented they don't except it, any pills or vitamins are a no... and they take cleaning products. Did not know about that one. I signed up to volunteer again Monday i'm hoping to make it a weekly thing until I can find a job. I also went downtown and found the USO to fill out a volunteer application with them. They aren't filling any positions till after the new year.. so it's another wait and see.

All last week was beautiful and warm and I was dieing to take the dogs outside for a walk. Specificly Mission trails and Cowles Mt, but I bruised my leg up pretty bad and walking for long periods of time was out of the question :[ boo. The next few days are suppose to cool down a little and be cloudy, but I believe Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are going to be sunny and warm so i'm hoping we can take the dogs somewhere those days.

Speaking of dogs.. for Christmas I decided to make our friends dogs {and ours} some homemade dog treats. It really wasn't hard at all, but i've learned my lesson and will never make dog treats with peanut butter again! It was a horrible horrible mess. I thought it would be a good idea since Molly and Ellie love peanut butter so much...

this was the highlight of there day ha. I found the recipes at DOGTREATKITCHEN.COM, they are all easy recipes with few ingredients which is super nice. I made peanut butter with oatmeal...

and peanut butter with pumkin...

 

the dogs loved them, so i'm hoping all the rest of them like them as well.

BREAKFAST SKILLET from allrecipes.com.. who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? It's one of our favorites that's for sure. I did leave out the peppers and mushrooms.. and the bacon was just for Frank. I could go for some more of this right about now!

THAI SHRIMP LINGUINE from tasteofhome.com, the recipe called for thai peanut sauce but since I wasn't able to find any I used a mixture of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and housin sauce. It was very yummy :] and was just as good cold the next day.

Last night before rushing out to the movies we made GRILLED BLACKENED SALMON WITH PINEAPPLE MANGO SALSA from Fortheloveofcooking.net. There is no picture since we were in such a hurry, so make sure to check out Pam's picture and recipe. We really liked this salmon! I didn't however make a salsa since my mango had gone bad, so I just paired it with some canned pineapple (I was too lazy to buy a pineapple and cut it up) and a salad. If you make just the salmon with no salsa it's super easy, all your doing is mixing up some dry ingredients and sprinkling it over the salmon.

While cutting out coupons I found this Ginger Cookie recipe. I'm sure it's just like any random ginger cookie recipe, but since I got it with a coupon they use the product they are selling... I just used what I had :]

 

 You can easily gain about 5 pounds eating these things.. they are too good.

2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 salt

2 teaspoons ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar in the raw

1 egg

1/4 cup dark corn syrup

1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar in the raw

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves in a medium bowl and set aside. Beat butter and 1 cup of sugar in the raw (I ended up only having 1/2 cup of sugar in the raw, so I used cane sugar for the rest) until well mixed. Beat in egg and corn syrup until smooth. Stir in flour mixture. Chill dough 1-2 hours, or until easy to handle. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar in the raw. Place balls 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 9 to 11 minutes or just until golden around edges. Cool on wire racks.

Last thing since this post is full of random fun stuff. I FINALLY made my own all purpose cleaning product! I am so happy I finally got around to doing this, i'm in love :] hehe. I just used a recipe from Gorgeously Green...

32-ounce plastic spray bottle

2 cups water

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 teaspoon pure castile soap{I used citrus.. I was going for a certain smell}

3/4 cups hydrogen peroxide

20 drops tea tree oil

20 drops of your choice essential oil. I went with lemon, in the book she recommands lemongrass but they were all out.

If you lasted until the end of this post... THANK YOU! Sorry that it's all over the place, I wasted about 2 hours with this now it's time to tackle the mess of dishes and finish up the ginger cookies.