On the go

Today I am blogging from the Shinkansen! 

My mom and I are on our way down to Kyoto for a few days. Quick little update for now...

My mom got in on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. It rained the first few days so we didn't get to do much. We did make it out to Yokohama for a few hours. 

We had a friends Halloween themed baby shower. So much fun!

We had our last Bon Odori for the year. Instead of wearing our yukatas we went in "American" costumes of cowgirl wear ha. 

This was afterwards, I was a sushi eating cowgirl ha.

Frank is enjoying Singapore for a few days.

Happy Monday!

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I have zero energy today :/ I should be at the pool doing laps before work... but making it to work will be my only accomplishment today. I take that back I did stop by the school to ask about something and stopped by the post office in hopes my Advocare order was in. I could go for a spark right about now!

Today is such a beautiful. Perfect for nap with the sun shining in to warm me up... ahh if only...

My vacation countdown is down to 4 days 10 hours (as of this moment, 11:30)! Which means my mom gets in shortly after that. Not sure which I'm more exited about, my mom coming in or disconnecting from anything with responsibility for two weeks :]
For the most part I am all ready for her to get here. I did a shopping trip out to Yokosuka and Ikea on Wednesday and got just about everything I've needed. With the luck I've had with bedding and the fact that i'm always changing my mind on what I want. I decided to go with a duvet and cover for the spare room, I think the next time I change up the bedding in our room that's what I'm going to go with. No pictures of that yet since I want to vacuum the bed before I put it all on.

I finally got a curtain to hide the washer and dryer in the kitchen. I am loving it! I threw it in the dryer after washing it in hopes it would shrink since it was insanely long. It did thankfully shrink.. I also left it in the dryer all night and the next day so it has some lovely wrinkles all over it.

I also got new décor for the bathroom. I had seen this set last time I was at the Yokosuka exchange and fell in love. No matter how you decorate these bathrooms they will always look ugly due to the amazingly awesome pink backsplash. So I figured.. lets make this room pop!

I put this picture up on instagram looking for some advice/help since the green bathmat was a bit too much. I am going to exchange it for a blue one (same color as the towel) and then get a green hand towel to put over the purple towel. FYI those Ikea towels are HUGE! Too bad they aren't soft.

A friend tagged Frank in a picture from back in the day on Facebook....

 

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this :] I forgot to ask when it was, but he may have been right out of A school (or possibly in it). Since I'm in the sharing mood, another one of Frank. This one from last week.

 

 

You'll definitely have to understand the military to get the humor in this one. They had taken an NKO test online and were board afterwards haha. I told him the next time I take an NKO test at work I'll have to take my own picture ;]

 

I need to do a whole post just on the dogs with all the pictures I have. This one is sure to put a smile on your face :]

 





Vacation countdown!

My moms visit is fast approaching. It can not come soon enough! I am taking time off from everything, unplugging from any responsiblity! 

I have a pretty packed schedule so far, but I am also making sure we have time to relax. My monthly message falls around the time my mom is here so she is getting one as well. Great way to start off a vacation :) 

I forgot to put Mt. Fuji in my notes. I have been planning things that I haven't even had a chance to do yet. This is very much a vacation for myself as well ha! 

Kyoto was the big part of the trip, but this morning I was able to book a room at The New Sanno for a night. I had called a few weeks ago but they were all booked, then an awesome friend (shout out Senita ;] ) reminded me about booking a package deal. Food and beverage sets aside rooms to be booked with the restaurants they have. We had one weekend available to try for so I knew my chances were slim. They had one room left which was for the Wellingtons package. Not my favorite restaurant (I really really wanted Kekuya, my fav!) but I wasn't going to complain. 

So now we have two full days in Tokyo and don't have to worry about coming home at night :) I am very excited! And I can't forget about brunch!!

Vacation, I am ready for you!!

iPhone//Instagram photos

Homemade hot cocoa :)

This blind dog was following along with us one day on our walk by the flight line!

The girls and i finally walked the whole flight line! Still have only done it the one time ha.

My view while reading and waiting on Frank before he left. Every time I go out to Yokosuka it makes me miss living right on the water.

Gotta love Japan!

Honeymoon-check!

After 6 years of being married I finally booked our honeymoon!

We had no money and more debt than anyone that age should have. So a honeymoon was a distant dream. I had told Frank that once we paid our debt off and worked on our savings account that I wanted to go on a honeymoon. He pretty much left everything up to me on what we ended up doing. He's pretty awesome and knows how much this means to me :)

Talk about knocking two things out at once. We'll be in Turkey for my birthday! So we still have a few months to wait for the cruise itself. Next up I need to book our plane tickets. Now that's scary ha. 

It still doesn't seem real... Not only that we finally booked this after years of talking and planning, but the fact that we could afford to pay for it! So for anyone who might be reading this and feeling overwhelmed with debt and bills.. There is a light at the end of the tunnel! Just stick with it :)

Oh and no Frank does not mind spending half the year on a boat and then going on a cruise.. Only to return to the boat shortly after this. People like to point that fact out. Not sure why. He's not working, I'm with him and it's much nicer digs ;) ha.

6 years

Holy cow 6 years! 3 states, 2 countries, 2 PCSs, countless smaller moves, 3 deployments and 2 dogs later! We also did the math an realized we have spent 22 months out of our 6 years married apart (as of right now). To our civilian friends that probably seems insane. To our military friends were lucky. 

It has been an amazing 6 years with my love and I can not wait to see what the next many more have to offer :)

I have no idea how Frank is spending our anniversary, but I do know it involves a ship and working ha. I thought I would get to enjoy the day at home having a Dawson's creek marathon due to the typhoon blowing through. However, min-ya decided to pass through by 12 so the gym opened back up and here I am celebrating with 3 awesome guys and some pizza ha.

I would also like to wish Keri and Brian a happy 7th anniversary and my sister in law Melanie a very happy birthday!!

Get-a-way

A mini get-a-way for the day was just what I needed! Once I found out I would have Labor Day off with Frank I jumped at the chance to get out of our area and explore more of Japan. The peninsula it was.

We packed the dogs up and headed south to the Izu Peninsula. We were heading towards the Jogasaki-Kaigan Coast not really knowing what we were going to do exactly. I had been told there were nice trails to walk on with the girls that had amazing views, but I wasn't sure if that was along a beach, cliffs or whatnot. Initially I just dropped a pin in my maps for that area...

And this is where the pin to us ha. We ended up in the tiny little village of homes with the tiny crazy Japanese roads ha. All we could do was laugh about where I had us end up. We thankfully were just a few miles, if that, away from where we wanted to be.

It ended up being a Nature Preserve type park. We didn't realize that there were three parking lots so we ended up parking in the second on half way down the trail.

And off we go headed south...

 

If you can't tell these were all taken on my phone an edited with camera+. Now for some from the actual camera!

 

 

It was so beautiful! The heat and humidity were too much for Ellie and she was starting to go far too slow for our us so we didn't get to do the whole trail. I would love to go back in the fall once it cools off so we can do the whole thing.