Homeward Bound!

Guess what?? Corey and I are coming home to visit! YEEEHAAAWW!!

Corey will be spending nearly two months in Maryland for a language class in

 August/September, so I'm taking the opportunity to take a trip back to the states- both to visit my family in CA and to visit Corey and his family on the east coast. 

Plane tickets are booked- I'll fly into San Francisco the morning of Aug. 18th, spend two fun-filled weeks with my family and friends in the Bay Area, then fly out to Maryland to visit Corey for a week (and it just happened to work out that our one-year anniversary will fall during my visit, so we'll get to spend it together as opposed to being on opposite sides of the world like I originally thought was going to happen- yay). During that week, we're planning to take a long weekend and drive to Massachusetts to visit Corey's family too, which should work out perfectly (actually, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if he's actually told anyone in his family about this plan of ours... so if you're reading it here for the first time, my apologies). 

I'm beyond stoked. The only dreadful thing about the trip will be spending a total of 34 very long hours on planes within 3 weeks. UGH! It'll be worth it though.

Can't wait to see everyone!

Congratulations Nate and Kara!

Our friends recently got married (in Hawaii- the lucky ducks!), and this weekend they had an amazingly fantastic party here in Misawa to celebrate! They had friends from all over Japan (heck, from all over the world for that matter!) attending, and it was a truly awesome time!

I took on the task of making their cake, which was fun! I've never really made a cake of this scope before, and it came out decently (if you ignore the lopsidedness and the fact that I have no skills when it comes to decorating). At least it was yummy, which is the important part! Here's how it came out:

At least I know it was enjoyed...

We all had a great, goofy time hanging out in GORGEOUS weather! They had a box of props which made for very silly badminton and volleyball games...


The people we met this weekend were seriously awesome. So very interesting and fun! They were quite the worldly bunch, and it was so cool getting to know them.

Of course the night wouldn't have been complete without some karaoke and dancing! 

We were joined at one point by a group of drunk Japanese boys...
We finished off the night by playing with some fireworks at the park. 


SUPER FUN!!! Thanks guys, and again- congratulations!!!

Check in

Why hello there!

My blogging has been a bit lacking lately. This is mostly due to the fact that I haven't had much of interest to write about, and I haven't been taking many pictures so I don't have anything cool to share. But this weekend was fun, and hopefully the rest of the summer will be exciting and will inspire me to write more and keep on the ball with the updates.

For the past few weeks, I've occupied A LOT of my time by watching past seasons of The Biggest Loser. I have to say I've become mildly obsessed. I had never seen it until my sister got me into it a couple of weeks ago, and now I've watched seasons 6 and 7, as well as the first season and a half of the Australian version (broken into 10 minute clips on Youtube- now THAT'S dedication).  This might be kind of lame and corny, but watching this show has given me MAJOR motivation to get back into better shape. I've been working out like a fiend lately as well as eating super duper healthily, and I'm loving it! Running, weights, and of course, keeping up with the 30 Day Shred. I want to get some of Bob's videos. I love Bob.

My feet, however, don't love me for the pain I'm putting them through. They're pretty darn blistered up. 

The weather here has turned- and it happened FAST! It pretty much rained non-stop for a month and temperatures were nice- in the 50's and 60's mostly. Then one day we woke up in a pile of sweat and it's been hot ever since. I'm assuming the humidity is going to roll in soon, and then we'll be dying for a month or two. Something to look forward to...

More entries coming soon!

Promotion!

Corey's getting promoted!! That awesome, brilliant, hard-working husband of mine got his promotion test results back yesterday, and is now an E-6 Tech Sergeant-select! I'm bubbling over with pride. Congratulations my love!!

We celebrated last night at the most delicious korean restaurant EVER in Hachinohe. It was awesome... as is Corey!  :)

Stanley

It's your birthday!!!!! YAY!!!!! Happy 24th!!

I love Stanley (aka Kristan). She's my best buddy in the world. We met in 7th/8th grade when my sister befriended her and brought her over to our house. Upon first meeting me, Stanley apparently thought I was mean and was afraid of me (she probably had good reason- I was in 8th grade, ok? I was soooo much cooler than those little 7th graders). Anyway, it didn't take long before the 3 of us were stuck to one another like glue, and it's pretty much stuck that way ever since.

Thankfully my pictures of our early years of friendship are at "home" in California or else they would be plastered all over this post so fast it wouldn't be funny. We were fairly odd teenagers (ok, let's face it, we're pretty odd adults too), so it's good we had eachother! We nurtured/devoted every ounce of attention to a very intense Backstreet Boys obsession, and along with that came countless concerts, several road trips, a Florida vacation, and MANY stalking opportunities (which we took full advantage of). In between those memories, we look back on the "missypants" days fondly and will always remember the pickle, Ikika the corn, and our special AMA outfits, all while hoping to never again run into the Prince of Hearts. 

We've since given up the days of weird New Year's Eve chants and jumping into pools fully clothed at midnight in the middle of winter (because apparently if you shout "We love the Backstreet Boys!" while doing it and get it on video, it proves you really are their #1 fans). We've grown from very strange children to slightly-less-strange grown ups, and seen eachother through many changes in life- jobs, relationships, school, family dramas, friend dramas, a marriage, etc. I can't get through more than a day or two without talking to Stanley. She's necessary. Absolutely necessary. Life would most definitely not be the same without her.

So, to my best friend, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I love you so much, and thank you for being there for me all these years. I love you I love you I love you!!

P.S. Since I can't be there to celebrate with you this year, I'll send along a virtual delicious Roadhouse Tea (just don't have an allergic reaction and break out in hives all over your body and almost stop breathing ok? Cause that was scary.)

Things to Look Forward To

It's been a rough week. A very rough week. I got knocked out by a cold/flu bug and am just now coming back to life. It feels good! Unfortunately, I think Corey is now coming down with it. Hopefully it won't get as bad as mine did. 

Maybe what made me feel better was thinking about the awesome things we have coming up! First of all, we're planning a super fun camping trip on 4th of July weekend with some cool new friends (one of whom happens to be a certified scuba instructor). On this camping trip, along with having boatloads of fun, we're gonna get scuba certified! Woohoo! 

Then at the end of July we've signed up for a trip down to Tokyo to climb Mt. Fuji! The trip they offer through base is an AWESOME deal, and we're looking forward to spending a long day climbing the 3776 meter mountain and galavanting around Tokyo for a couple of days. It's gonna be SWEET!

And then, there's the flirting little whisper of an idea of coming out to CA/MD for a few weeks in August and September. We shall see... Oooohhhh boy!!!

Corey fell down!

He opened the door and promptly toppled over for no apparent reason. Silly hubby. I love this guy so much!

Boo!

I've got a nasty cold coming on. I have a feeling it's going to be a doozy. I'm feeling very not-good at the moment.

As I sit here with a terrible sore throat and stuffy sinuses, I'm thinking about the poor souls who are living on base right now, a mere 2 miles or so from our house. I'm typing away on lighting fast internet provided by a Japanese company (HeroNet). It's the best internet service I've ever had by a long shot. Fast and reliable 100% of the time (unless you don't pay your bill...), and we pay maaaaybe $30 a month for it (if that).  

The poor people living on base have no such luxury. As of 2 months ago, Verizon took over as the sole internet service provider on the base (no other options available). Since that time, people are getting an average of maybe 2-3 hours of working internet a day, often going days at a time with no service. Even when the internet IS working, they can't get onto social networking sites like Facebook or Myspace, can't play online games (think of all the poor WoW kids going crazy with withdrawals), and can't use internet-based phone services like Skype and Vonage. Basically, they can't stay connected with their friends and family back home and have a helluva time managing their online classes, banking, etc. This has been going on for 2 months now! I'm completely internet dependent and I would DIE of frustration with such limited access. To top it off, they're paying $60 a month for this "service."

The worst part is that nobody from Verizon cares AT ALL. They have many HUNDREDS of complaints, online forums full of people absolutely desperate to have somebody from the company answer their questions and get things fixed, and no one has gotten a single response from those Verizon buttheads. People are starting to file lawsuits, and it's getting rather ugly. 

Basically, this is a rant to state that Verizon sucks. It's not even affecting me, and I'm pretty aggravated. Hurmph.

Add this to the ever-increasing list of reasons why I'm so very thankful we don't live on base.

Final piece of Yellow House Tour

We left off with the guest bedroom at the end of the hall, down here:

Turn to the left, and you'll be ready to enter the final room of the house: the master bedroom.

The master bath is in that door to the left (you'll excuse me if I don't post a picture of that- it isn't in photo-op condition today). 

It has a nice big closet which actually has much more space than our walk-in did at our last apartment (pardon the clutter).

Ta-da! There you have it- a complete tour of our little yellow house. Hope you enjoyed it, and come visit us and see it yourself, mmmk????