Welcome to our new blog!!

Well, since we use Google for everything else, why not move our blog here too?

The pros: it doesn't auto-delete old posts (like babyhomepages.com does), it actually works out here (shutterfly & babyhomepages require FAR speedier servers).
The cons: SLIGHTLY less snazzy (but WAAAY more user-friendly!).

Since we move around a lot and since the only other blog title we came up with was "Sgts Caluag", "Oh! The Places We'll Go!" will be our new family blog title until further notice. Plus, Dr. Suess is the nursery decor we plan on using for all our kids--super-cute, timeless, and gender-neutral, so it definitely works! :O)

Well, we are now super-settled in Japan. Our TMO has arrived, as has our lost baggage, sans our camera and memory card (which were stolen, but which we have already replaced). As luck would have it, I had been uploading Ha pix on a pretty much daily basis, so we hardly lost anything! As soon as I figure out how to get pix on these things, there will be MANY coming!

I'd like to kick this new blog off with a wrap-up of Cali and an intro of Oki.

Our last weeks in California were heartbreakingly wonderful. Ha's playgroups both had such touching farewells that I couldn't help but tear up--and grow terrified that we'd never find another (much as the leaving TN event went). Shelby's mom, from the on-base playgroup made us the most beautiful diaper bag I've ever seen and the whole group filled it with activities & books to ease the plane stress for dear Ha (plus some mags for Ma!) and our off-base group made a mini-scrapbook with pix of all Ha's dear friends. We had such a great time there and never would have imagined we could have grown so close to so many people in six short months. Da keeps teasing me because I always make playgroup out to be so much for Ha, but it really is for me, too. For example, when he came to pick us up from our Thurs. session so we could attend his going-away luncheon, he walked into the chapel playcenter to find all the moms sitting in a circle, gossiping about who knows who/what--and all the kiddos getting into the VCR, lol! Of all the times to walk in! Usually the kids are always playing with toys--I promise! He has yet to let me live that one down. Our off-base playgroup was amazing, too. It broke my heart after we got orders b/c Ha would always hug little Trevor and Kylinn. Don't get me wrong, I always attributed tons of emotional awareness to her, but I never realized just how close to her little buddies she was getting. She even had a best friend over there, Emily. LOL, I knew they were close because they would fight all the time! Like a little married couple! Too cute. One minute they'd be running around, holding hands--the next one/both would be in the middle of a meltdown. Thank goodness for pictures and the internet. Ha will have many memories to look back on when she is older--especially since I have now more than doubled the # of scrapbook pages I've completed for her (went from 2 to 5!!).

Within a week of getting to Japan, to my utter amazement, we ran into Laurie at Coffee & Coloring (a base-sponsored twice-monthly playgroup-type event). She is a mother of two (with a third in the oven) and founder of an amazing island-wide playgroup here: Okidoki Playgroup. Ha has already made some great friends here (Ma too!) and we no longer have a single qualm about the overseas adjustment! In fact, it is easier than ever to meet people out here since hardly anyone has family--you really have to rely on each other for companionship and fulfillment and we have already met so so many great people. It is such a change since last time we were in Japan. Don't get me wrong--we met plenty of wonderful folks then too, many of whom we still keep in contact with--but when you have children, you tend to seek out much more grounded folks than in those younger, carefree, wilder days, lol.

So far, since arriving on station, we've:

*Attended one local festival; the Eisa (type of Okinawan dancing) festival. It was great! And very reminiscent of our last time in this country. '80s fashion and stilettos on gravel still prevail. As do nonsensical sayings in English on tee shirts. One new quirk: in addition to being able to win goldfish at fair games, now dyed live chicks are also a popularity. This festival featured pink, blue, and green.

*Hit the beach! Last weekend, I wanted to attempt an open-water 1/2 mile swim at a marine base. We got horribly lost and ended up getting there just when the last of the racers were coming in, but wouldn't you know it? The ocean actually had a cordoned off area that you could swim laps in?! So I got my swim in afterall, and I was sort of glad it wasn't in open sea since it was SO hard! I forgot my goggles, swallowed and inhaled an unbelievable amount of water, and could hardly walk afterwards due to severe dehydration. Ha & Da had an absolute blast playing in the water, though!

*Hit the local zoo. There is a great zoo about 10 minutes off-base that we went to last weekend w/Ma's friend Jen & Hana's friend Hanah. So fun! Very big on turtles! The last time Ha went to the zoo, she was 3 months old and slept through most of it--so it was super-great getting to see her enjoy all the animals (she is a true Elmira at heart!)--especially when it came to the petting zoo! We had to get her out of there fast before she (unintentionally) killed anything!

*Found an amazing indoor play park! Ha, who has always feared even 2-foot playground slides, was an entirely different tot at Mona's Jungle--an ENORMOUS indoor playground about a 1/2 hour from here. There was not a slide she wouldn't go down or a shaky rope ladder she wouldn't crawl across. I figured she'd be all over the playground next visit. But no, she is still my little cautious angle. Mona's just brings out the [temporary] adventurer in her!

*Been to some great restaurants. One of our favorite places in Misawa was "Viking", a place where you cooked your own food at an open grill on the table. They have a place exactly like that (down to interior decor) here, too! Only it is much more difficult going w/an active toddler, lol! We also went to an interesting place the other day called "Hamburger Steak", where they serve about 20 different kinds of hamburger, made out of marinated steak meat. Very tasty! And with portions large enough to satisfy Da! Ha loves the restaurants here b/c she gets to eat her fill of her favorite food (that we never cook at home, due to health concerns): white rice (we always cook brown or wild).

*Hosted playgroup. I was very proud that we were unpacked & clean enough to host a playgroup w/in one month of moving, lol. And tomorrow we are hosting a brunch. When I really stop to think about it, though, I think it might be that since we've only been here one month, we haven't gotten messy enough NOT to host things, instead of the other way around, lol!

*Petunia is loving it here, too. For a dog who loves to sun herself, there is no better place. The poor thing is used to having a doggy door, but due to high-frequency typhoons, our home has a heavy steel door that you can't really work a doggy door into w/o risking flooding. So for awhile Tuni was always sitting at the door--but when we'd let her out, she'd just want to lie down in the grass and sun herself. Unfortunately our backyard is not fenced in--and to erect a fence would cost upwards of $1K, which we can't really afford--so I did a little DIY project this week and made her a 900cmx900cm outdoor pen--which she (thankfully!) really loves and always wants to go out in! We have a wonderful neighbor across the street w/a 2-year-old daughter and a beagle pup--so both of my gals get plenty of neighborhood playtime!

*Da's work is going great! He is in charge of an entire shop (the Geo-Base drafting shop) for the first time ever!! And he is also considering staying in as enlisted as opposed to going officer because he is doing so well. Once he makes TSgt (the next rank), he has the option for MUCH better "deployments". I put that word in quotes because I consider them "vacations". He has the option to apply for 6-month positions in places like the Caribbean(!) and have them count as the tours to Iraq that the rest of the team goes on! His supervisor is about to embark on one such adventure, lol. Too bad the plumbing shop never offered deals like that, lol!
Anyway, just wanted to fill everyone in on a little of what we've been up to. I'll close the post w/some info about Ha:

*Ha is an ASL [American Sign Language] guru! She can sign: hi, bye, cat, dog, horse, frog, fish, bird, bug, up, medicine, please, thank you, cracker, food, drink, juice, milk, banana, hat, sleep, book, bath, shoes, socks, blanket--and that is just the off-the-top-of-my-head list! Some folks have said signing thwarts vocal development, but we 100%
beg to differ. Ha always vocalizes when she signs--and speaks even more words than she demonstrates!

*Her favorite show is still "Little Einsteins"; she calls them "Shiens"--and when you ask her: "Ha, how do you give Rocket power?", she pats her knees, just like on the show!

*Her fave food is rice, hands down! She also enjoys warm glasses of milk, especially during nap and bedtime--she now puts herself down for both, cry-free!!

*Hana is enrolled in Kindermusik Sign & Sing and is a star student! It meets once a week out here at a local church. She loves music and dancing!

*Ha's favorite things include: playdates, balloons, sidewalk chalk & paint, balls, stickers, and Wheel of Fortune (she loves to clap, and no other show we know off has clapping more frequently!).

I will try to upload some of our favorite pix from our last weeks in Cali now!
xo,
Ma