Summer 09' is upon us.

I can not believe we have already spent 1 year here as of tomorrow! That is absolutely crazy. We have met so many awesome people and have seen so many things that we could not even have imagined was out there, we are so blessed to have this opportunity and to share it with you all.

Steve and I were just talking about how we wonder if the random, odd, strange sights that we see here will still amuse us as much when we leave in two years as they do now? You never know when you might stumble upon a little old Japanese Grandma scootin' past you at a stop light on her scooter with her leather jacket on or a bull meandering up the road on your way to the grocery store. Gotta' be ready for anything over here!

11 more days and the kids are out of school for the summer. I am so excited to have them home so we can explore this awesome island without concern of homework, bedtimes, and restrictions. Who knows what we will be able to get into...

We spent Memorial Day weekend at White Beach and then kept the kids home Tuesday for our long awaited family deep sea fishing trip. We drug ourselves out of bed at 0145 to meet up and leave from Naha port by 0400. I have never been deep sea fishing before so I was so completely distraught over having motion sickness that I think I was making myself sick before we even got on board the boat. I drugged EVERYONE up with Dramamine and apparently knocked them all out so we ALL slept for 3 hours while we trolled out to the "location" which was not much of a "location" after all.

Minimal fish and nasty weather coming in made for one VERY expensive private charter to sleep on! We fished for 2 hours then had to head back due to weather. I caught one Yellow fin Tuna and the kids did great catching some Rainbow Runners and Skip Jack. I had placed my order with Captain Billy as we pulled out for Shark, Swordfish and Mahi Mahi and even planned on sacrificing my HUGE storage bags to ice down my catch in but it did not work out so well for me, they just barely got away ;) I did have an awesome time but I think we will have to go again next year since this trip was cut short, I really don;t think I will have ANY problem talking Steve into it!

The local Ostriches

Every now and then a caravan of Americans must stop at random ostrich farms and mingle with the locals.

And to think...we all were in one little SUV. Can't say we have not learned to be compact!

The little thank yous

I received these beautiful flowers from a little boy who experienced an extreme fracture to his right arm while I was working at the school as their nurse. After calling EMS and arranging for parents to meet at the hospital and all that other good stuff I began to think how ineffective I felt at helping the little guy out who was in understandably excruciating pain. My perfect ideal complete fractured patient is one brought into me on a stretcher or stumbling through the door that I immediately place IV's, give drugs and off to X-ray. No more pain just a simple sleeping, relaxed, sedated patient. Perfect.

That does not happen so much at an elementary school - It was more like a whaling and screaming for "Mommy"; I found myself tearing up a few times because all I could think is as a mother I could not imagine not being there to ease my babies fears.

I have received many "Thank yous" throughout the years. Some come in the form of a thumbs up as they are wheeled out the helicopter for transport to the next hospital, some in the form of a high fives, some by a simple hug or a note from family. They all are worth the time and energy and care involved with each individual patient but this one really touched me because I really felt like I didn't do anything for the little guy.

Just think how big that bouquet would have been if I could have pushed him a bit of Morphine...

So I lied.

The weather is horrible out today. We are going nowhere.

It's a beach day!

Spring Break- The small gift given to mothers' around the world from the local school systems to enjoy a break from the mundane school routine and to allow you time to enjoy the fun things in life.

Marissa has had other ideas for us this year. We have spent the last 4 day trampling back and forth from ER to clinics dealing with her severe allergic reaction to ummmm....Idunno? The child is a mess and after 3 days of oral steroids and 1 mega dose of Solu-medrol in the buttocks I think we are headed on the downhill slide. Sooooo...for one of our nice weather days AND I don't have to worry that I may have to resuscitate her at any minute we are packing her up, wrapping a blanket around her head to keep the sun away, carting her to the beach and gently placing her under our huge umbrella today.

Sorry your Spring Break was a bust baby, our summer will make up for it!

I would post pics but I have to tell you I have no possible way right now. Just wait though, I will have plenty when the laptop is up and going again!!!

My kitty's been to Cocoks

OK, not really but that is what we told the kids.

You can not get your cat de-clawed on base here in Okinawa and it is seen as inhumane here on the island out in town so de-clawing your sweet little Freddy Kruger kitty can be quite tricky around here.

These are her new stylin' Soft-Paws and she is currently in a "trial period" to see if they are going to work for us.These little vinyl tips cover her existing claw and it allows her to continue using her scratchers but she is clueless that it is not tearing up my furniture, the kids faces, the curtains, my clothes,the comforter - you get it. Steve and I wrangled her up and glued her pretty pink little paws on last Tuesday and currently they are all still attached! My kitty is sooooo fashionable. Maybe we will go for zebra stripes next time!

Ikei Island hopping

Soooo....I have ALL sorts of excuses as to why I have been so bad at keeping this thing up. First one is:Steve has diligently been working on moving all the pics off of my laptop and placing them onto our external memory. If I recall he said something like "Cindi, STOP placing photos onto the laptop that I have to keep moving over to external because blah, blah blah, something, blah and whatever" BUT that has been forever and I feel like I am so behind in telling you guys all the fun stuff we have seen and done that I can not wait any longer. Plus, thanks to Terri and Larissa I think I am just going to start over fresh and act as if we have lived a total life of solitude and boredom and try not to get crazy catching you guys up otherwise I think I might get overwhelmed and say -F.O.R.G.E.T it.

(Here comes a total lie) We have not done anything since the beginning of the year until TODAY and I thought I would run right in and tell you all about it!!! Lucky you!!!

I have been looking for a place to camp for Steve's B-day and so I thought that we would venture out to look at a little beach on Ikei Island just about 25 kilometers from our house(ummmm...I only say this because that is what the sign says) They have camping and other fun stuff on this beach and it was ever so pretty but it seems that they will yen and dime you to death while you are enjoying your stay with them. The little fella' explained (in pretty good engrish I might add) that you can not even bring your own grill, you have to rent one from them for 3,000 yen (appx. $30.00) They do have a place where you can set up some small tents but he wanted to charge me 200 yen just to go look to see if we thought this sight would work. Crazy, I know but I was persistent is asking him more and more questions until he finally said "Come with me!" and he took me (for free I might add) to see the facilities. Playing the "dumb" American has its privileges! Long story short, I don't really see us camping with a large group out there due to fees but I do think it would be a great place for a day out with the fam or a one nighter.

After leaving Ikei Beach we went to a resort right down the road called Big Time Resort and although I have seen and been to much nicer resorts here on the island this one looks like it would be a nice day adventure to lounge by the pool and have a few drinks! Ahhh, summer can not come soon enough.

Of course the day is not complete without stopping by some random cafe and trying the Okinawa fare and we located this fun little place on the hillside overlooking the ocean. It reminded me of sitting in some little cabana on a remote island. HA! I guess that is exactly what it was! I'm not the kinda girl to fool you with words...




We had an awesome day and I am going to go ahead and upload pics and wait for my consequences, it will not be pretty but I will take one for the blog. Pray for mercy.