An end

Our time in Okinawa has come to an end.
We have been back in the states for one week now.
Our last morning in Okinawa we were taken to breakfast by our friends James, Kelly, Maggie, and Lanie.

We took two pictures together before we left. I thought it was pretty cute that the girls were all looking at each other in the first one but in the second they were all 3 looking right at the camera!

The

We headed to the airport shortly after breakfast. Check-in went very smoothly and we never once needed any sort of ID. We were able to take a little leave on the way back and stayed 3 nights in Tokyo. Look for another post soon about our 2 days spent exploring the city of Tokyo!

It's a....

GIRL!!!!

We are so excited. Grace is going to have a little sister and we will have 2 little girls!!
Yesterday I had the 5 month ultrasound and it went really well. We were also able to get some out-processing stuff done at the hospital while we were there which was good. They were running ahead of schedule so I was out of there 15 min. after my appointment time. The tech was wonderful and explained every measurement and every image she was looking at. At the end she tried hard to get several good pictures for us - I think we came home with about 8! We got to see our baby move her little eye (kind of creepy! ha!)

So that afternoon we headed to the BX to buy Olivia Joy her first little outfit. When I was pregnant with Grace I had all of the gear before this point. But now we have all of the big things so pretty much everything else we wanted to wait to find out the gender before we did much shopping. I did buy a stroller already that will seat both girls. It is waiting for me at our new house and I cannot wait to put it together and try it out :-) We ended up just getting a cute little Carter's sleeper - it is white with pink footies and a cute little pink elephant. We will wait until we get back to the states to do much more shopping.

P.S. Scroll down to see the pictures I posted earlier!
P.P.S. This is the very first post that I have been able to label "Olivia"

Busy Days

We have had such a busy week! I just transferred all of our pictures from the camera to the computer. So this first one is from last week but I thought I would share it anyways.

Last Monday Grace had to say goodbye to our mama-sans.
I don't quite think she understood that we wouldn't be picking them up this week like we have been doing every Monday for quite a while. They have been coming since Grace was just 5 weeks old so they have become her friends. Every week she would run to the door as soon as she was dressed so she could go pick up her friends. And lately she was so excited about coming home to play with her friends that she couldn't nap! Of course we enjoyed having a clean house. And they sure did a great job and cleaned things that I would never think to clean (who cleans the light fixtures EVERY WEEK?) We are really going to miss them!!

{Kuniko-san, Grace, and Jinko}

This last weekend was a 4-day, which when you are moving and trying to out-process it just means less time to get things done and more time in lodging. We had the final inspection at our house that morning. It was supposed to be earlier but our housing agency wanted to move it to Friday. That afternoon we transferred my van over and now we are down to 1 car. Dustin's car is sold and transferred but the guy who bought it is letting us drive it until we leave!

Saturday morning I went to breakfast with a friend and then to the second hand kimono sale that was going on. Dustin took Grace to get a few things done that morning and then they went to the sea wall and watched the waves in the ocean. After that they went to a park where Grace ended up splashing in the puddles! That evening we went to a friends house for dinner and games.

Sunday morning we decided to take a walk to the BX since it is practically just across the street. We started looking in the little souvenir shops and then ended up almost finishing up our Christmas shopping! That evening we had church and afterward we headed to American Village to ride the ferris wheel! The tug-of-war contest was going on that day down in Naha and we had thought about going but after a tough week with very little sleep for Grace last week we decided to stay in the hotel and rest Friday night instead of going to church then and skipping the tug-of-war. We had heard there would be fireworks to close off the festivities so we wanted to try and see them from the ferris wheel. We timed it just right and did 2 rides on the ferris wheel (almost 30 min!) but never saw any fireworks. But that is OK because the pretty lights on the ferris wheel are just as good as fireworks to Grace!

{We got a free "mini can" for doing 2 rides. Grace liked the grape Fanta}

{Glow sticks we got as prizes in our kids meal at Antony's Pizza - we got 3 slices of pizza and 3 drinks for $3.79 with our buy one combo meal get two kids meals free coupon}

{The Ferris Wheel all lit up like fireworks}

On Monday morning we headed to Torii beach to collect a little more sea glass (boy are we going to have some boxes to mail back!!). I want to get 2 clear vases (a small one that will fit inside the big one) and fill the space between them with sea glass. I think I will try to find some silk hibiscus or cherry blossom flowers to fill the vase and put it in our entry way. I have not been happy with the amount of blue, turquoise, and green sea glass I have so I had to go back. If we end up back at the beach I am sure I will try to find more :-)

{Tired of picking up sea glass and ready for a snack}

Yesterday evening we bought Grace an inflatable Pooh kite. She got to choose between Mickey, Pooh, and Elmo. She didn't like it when Dustin had the string and the kite went into the air. I think she thought the kite was being taken away from her. But she did enjoy holding on to the string!

Today was our last day at Bible study which was a bit sad. Some of the ladies I have known the entire time we have been here. We have some more errands to run this afternoon after Grace wakes up. And tonight we are going to Kiddie Disco at the O'Club. I heard they may even have a clown there!!! And tomorrow is going to be another busy day. I have my last doctor appointment here and we get our deposit back from housing. I am sure there are some other things Dustin will need to do. Friday is his final out for all of his military stuff here.
We are getting so close to Tokyo and Disney!!!

And my van will be waiting in my garage when we get home. My parents are picking it up this Friday!! So all the busy days equal exciting days as well!

Lodging

We have been in lodging for 3 nights now. Today we turned in the keys to our house. This afternoon we are transferring our van to a new family on island. We have got a lot of boxes checked off! We have already transferred Dustin's car but we are still able to drive it. We will actually hand over the keys the day before we fly!

Grace seems to like lodging OK. She has been sleeping really good at night! And there is a playroom on the first floor that she loves. This morning she got to play down there with Maggie since they stopped by to pick up some stuff. We are a very short walk from the BX and commissary - just a little farther than we park when we go on payday weekend :-) Yesterday, after we had pretty much settled in, we changed rooms. The room we were in had a broken phone, broken internet, a broken exhaust fan above the stove which was stuck on, and basically no place for Grace to sleep. She is at an age where she is too big for the pack-n-play but not quite big enough to actually stay in bed without rails. The floor was nasty so I wouldn't even consider putting her there. The pull-out sofa seemed a bit dangerous since if she were to roll off she would most likely hit a large piece of furniture or the metal frame of the bed. So we stuck her in the full size bed, which was pushed up against the wall with the comforter of the bed folded to keep her out of the small crack. The bed is way too small for the 3 of us and the sofa bed was covered in mold so Dustin ended up trying to sleep there so I could at least have a little more comfortable bed. After 2 nights of that and then finding out the internet and phone were broke Dustin called and asked if we could move to another room. We were moved up to the third floor (and no elevator!) but we have a double room. It is MUCH nicer! And we have working internet, no loud exhaust fan, and 2 beds! If they could have fixed the internet and provided a bed for Grace we would have been happy. Why do hotels not have small beds for toddlers??

Packing and Moving

Our first set of movers came this morning and they were gone within an hour. They got here sometime after 7:30am and they were pulling out of our parking lot at 8:30am. Now we are working on getting ready for our big day of moving tomorrow. Today they just took a few things - kitchen stuff, laundry baskets, hangers, trash cans, a few of Grace's toys, our wireless router and skype phone. But tomorrow EVERYTHING goes! We have to make sure everything we are going to need for the next couple of months is already in the car. We have a bathroom that is empty and clean so that is where we will put anything that the movers aren't taking. And then on Wednesday we have our government appliance pick-up and cleaning day. Fun, fun!

Grace will be going to two different friends' house the next two days!!
She will be having a lot more fun than we will.

Random Stuff

This morning we had a farewell breakfast with Dustin's shop. Last week when we did some farewell's they didn't have his gift ready so they decided to do a breakfast this week. So at 7:45 this morning we were at the Tee House watching airplanes land!

We had a nice little breakfast and then they gave Dustin his S4 Hall of Fame Certificate. It is basically something the shop does for people leaving and the rule is only 10% has to be true.

Then they presented him with his going away gift.

After that was all finished Grace and I ran a few errands. I found out the co-op at the gym was going to be closed today (my last day!!) so Dustin watched Grace so I could still go to yoga this morning. They got to go out-process at the library!

By the time I got home they were home and Grace was already napping. This afternoon we spent some time cleaning the last of our balconies. We have been getting ready for our move but now we are in the final days before the movers come so we really have to get busy and get stuff done. We even started packing our suitcases!! We will be staying in lodging for a couple of weeks and I am not sure how the internet is there. I know at one time there was only internet in certain lobbies but that may have changed, we're not sure. So I most likely won't be posting much until we make it back (and then I will have some pictures of Tokyo and Disney Land!!!) so I thought I would post a couple pictures of Grace.

These first 2 we took this evening while Dustin was "grilling" burgers. We gave away our grill so he used the George Foreman. Anyways, Grace found the buns on the table and pulled them off and grabbed 2 to eat!

And on Monday, our mama-san brought Grace a pair of Kimono shoes to go with her Kimono as a going away present! I pulled out her Kimono and had them teach me how to put it on her.

New Cars

Not only do we already have our house when we get back but we will both have new cars! Right now we don't own a car in the states and we will have to sell both of the cars we drive here before we leave (can't ship them and we would have to have major alterations to meet all the regulations in the states). So we got hit up by the car salesman at our local BX. Back in May (I think) there was a great rebate on something similar to what we planned to get for me. After doing some research we discovered that even buying something used with low miles we would be paying almost what we could get this brand new vehicle for. So we got it! It was custom built and everything. It will most likely even beat us to Oklahoma.

And then we just heard that since we are close to our PCS they have some great deals on already built vehicles. We went in yesterday after doing a little more research to see what we were looking at in the way of something to get Dustin to and from work. He said he wanted something basic and with good gas mileage. Well, they sold us on a 2nd vehicle! They were offering a good rebate plus an additional incentive since the car wasn't being custom built.

So.....

Dustin will be driving this:

2010 Ford Focus in Blue Flame
(I think he is most excited about the color!!)


And me and the kiddos will be riding around in this:

2010 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT
in Deep Cherry Red

and, yes, we are getting it with the heated leather!

This is just another reason why we are so excited to be moving back.
I will admit it was a little weird looking at the cars here. I think someone must have put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle ;-)
Hopefully learning to drive on the wrong side of the again will be pretty simple.