Update and Halloween

Wow, it's been forever since I've updated this! I knew it was bound to happen since I've done a fairly good job for a year at updated it. That surprises me! Anyway, a lot has been happening. I'm "working" again (hat making), we pulled Avery out of preschool, and Steve was in Fugi for 5 weeks, and will be heading to Liberia for for 6 months(!!!) in January. That coupled with all the holiday craziness hasn't left much free time.
We decided Avery's school was just too academically focused. They seemed to never do anything fun (no art or anything was coming home except writing numbers and letters over and over). She also didn't like it anymore. So she's home with me and Noah now. Which has been nice...and challenging! Especially when Steve was gone, it is a little trying having both kids home all day everyday....no break at all (neither one naps anymore and no break when the hubby gets home when he's gone). I sort of miss having the school schedule which made the day go by sooo much faster. I just run out of ideas on what to do sometimes! Noah entertains himself very well, but it has been a little bit of a struggle for Avery. She needs more of my attention it seems. Overall, I love that I have all this time with them since Avery will be going to kindergarten (full day) next Fall. This is our last low key kind of year where I'll get so much time with her.
Since Steve will be heading to Liberia, I've decided to head to Ohio in May for about two months. I'll stay until Steve gets home and "picks us up" to go back. That's what I did during his last deployment. Tickets home would set us back about $6,000 for just me and the kids (no, thanks), so I'll be trying out the space A thing. Pray for us!!

It's about time I share some Halloween pictures. Avery was strawberry shortcake, and Noah was going to wear the super cute Hungry Caterpillar  costume that my sister made Connor last year, but the slow mail didn't get it here in time. That's ok...he'll wear it next year. I just stuck him in a football jersey as a football player. It worked. Again, Steve was gone, so it was all low key. I invited our Japanese neighbors' grandkids to come trick or treating on base with us, since they had never been before. They LOVED it. So did my kids. It was fun to see. Our neighbors had us over for dinner before hand. Curry and fruit. I brought rice krispy treat pumpkins. Unfortunately, I took no pictures of the trick or treating and not really any of Noah.

As i said before, Halloween was low key given Steve's absence. I wasn't about to go cutting off my fingers trying to carve a pumpkin (normally Steve's job), so I just got a pumpkin and let each kid make a face on it with these fun stickers we had. Each kid decorated one side of the pumpkin.

Noah's pumpkin face:

Avery's pumpkin face:

And finally, these pictures I took with my phone at our neighborhood "Panda" park just reminded me of fall. There were a bunch of leaves on the ground and the kids loved throwing them around. That and blowing bubbles with the cool blowers we got at the 100 yen store.=)

Confessions

Warning! I'll be complaining a lot in this post so feel free to skip it!

Steve just found out he'll be leaving January 4th for Liberia for 6 months. He will be one of 15 Marines joining other branches to train the Liberian Army. He'll leave just a little over a month after he gets back in another 3 1/2 weeks. I think this will be a tough deployment on both ends. The kids are at ages where it's very difficult to understand where daddy is. He has only been gone a week now, and it has been tough. Bedtime especially. Everything is just different. Noah has become more non compliant, and Avery has developed a new level of attitude. My tire blew out yesterday while driving, and I don't know how to change it (I need to learn). It all would have been an easy situation had Steve been there. But instead it was complicated. Everything's fine now, but little things (like car problems left and right! After all, we had to junk our two cars we got less than a year ago) like that worry me. And I will worry about Steve...so much that I think I try and let the little things bother me on purpose so I don't think about the "big" problems.   A good friend told me that your family just survives deployments, you don't strive at all. And it's true. It's not good for our family. I do try and stay busy, but it's hard not having a break. And adjustments can be hard when he gets back as well.
I also wonder how we'll make it back to Ohio. I've heard of another lady who was stuck somewhere for 7 days trying to Space A. My other friend had to stay in a hotel somewhere and wake up at 3:00 AM to catch an $80 taxi ride to the airport only to find out that she couldn't get on that flight. So it's the same thing the next day. A lot can go wrong when you space A. Especially since I won't be with Steve (more priority), and I'll have two kids that, as of late, have not shown me they are at all ready to make a potential week long trip back. Plane tickets are running at about 1500 each. There's a lot to think about. My brain is on overload after this week. I better go rest up. Trick or Treating is just 3 nights away.=) If you're still here thanks for listening to me ramble. I feel better now.=)

Summer Winding Down and Iphone Pictures

Summer is winding down around here (finally!). I haven't needed to use my AC for the past month until today. And that was mainly because we had friends over so it always feels hotter with more people. It's been in the mid 80's and beautiful! Our beach going has been slowing down...

Our last beach trip:

 and we've been going to more parks now.

Avery - now fearless when it comes to playground things

Noah - very scared of heights! He'll get a few steps up and start screaming "too high, too high!"

We've just been spending more time outside, even if it's just in our yard. The kids new thing is climbing up our fence and waving at the cars and trucks that go by. The drivers love it!

Noah loves to collect rocks in his pail and take them across the street to throw in the water.

 He shuts our gate for me every time we get home.=)

We've had a few birthday parties. Avery's all ready to walk down to one of them!

We went back to the aquarium to see the dolphin show. It was awesome! Except all I have is a few not so great Iphone pictures.

First we saw a small "diver's show."

Then the big show!

Noah has been loving building towers lately.

Cool little balancing cactus toy we got.

Along with blocks he also LOVES his trains and train table. And any vehicle really.

Avery loves to draw pictures for me. And play school with me...and princesses with me....she really really likes it when I play with her.=) Noah has been pretty independent lately.

Do you recognize this handsome boy? Noah got his haircut! I didn't think it was going to be that short, but I'm welcoming the change. It will grow back fast.

Some good friends of our came over for lunch today. The girls played dress up.

We all sat by the water.

They got up when Noah started splashing them. lol

Steve is in Fugi until November 22nd, and Avery and him love to send silly faces of themselves back and forth.=)

Typhoon Madness

We had three pretty significant typhoons every other weekend for a month. The third was the worst. I guess it was stronger than hurricane katrina. It's amazing how sturdy they build things over here. The same storm in the States would have way more damage. There was a lot of debris from the 2nd typhoon. Our entire street was covered, and waves were crashing into our fence. We didn't loose power in that one which was nice.

We took a walk down the street after the storm.

The debris had already been cleared from our street.

The 3rd one was crazy! We lost power for 3 days, which caused us to break down and get Iphones. We definitely have not regretted that decision one bit! I can Skype with people so much easier now, because the internet actually works on it. Our home internet is not the best, so it would always cut in and out. It's also great for pulling up maps when I get lost driving! Plus, we don't have any TV, so it keeps me a little more connected. The good news was the days after the storm were beautiful weather wise. Not so much the scenery. It looked like winter because the storm blew the leaves off all the trees.

During the storm:

Power was out for 3 days! The kids were not fans of the dark! They both fall asleep with their lamps on every night.

We checked out a new restaurant the day after the storm (since all our food went bad!):

Yummy salad/tea/coffee/ice cream/scone bar before our meals came out:

ice cream section

 coffee/tea section

Steve's meal

Mine - margarita pizza

Then we went to the same place that we got our family pictures taken because we were nearby.

Avery loved the big slides (Noah not so much - he has been terrified of heights lately):

Notice how bare the trees are. The were so green and full before the typhoons.

That's Steve and Avery way out there. Noah likes to hang low with me.

His pants seem to always be falling down lately! I thought this was funny because he just continued to throw rocks in the water....wasn't fazed at all!

We are so lucky and thankful that no real damage was done for such a big storm. It was the biggest one Okinawa's had in 13 years.