My Little Preschoolers

Like A Girl

I absolutely love this commercial!! 

 

This is exactly why I would never tell my kids that they are acting like a girl - or like a boy! 

It should never an insult to be either gender! 

 

THIS is a commercial that should be aired under the legendary Superbowl commercials this Sunday, when a lot of people (both genders) are watching. I'm sure it would hit home to most people!

Watched it Jenny's blog this morning, and it's too good not to share again!!

Cherry Blossoms

Lanterns at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Nago City

While I'm doing a lot of research about different things, I came across a lot of information about the upcoming Cherry Blossom Festivals that are coming up on Okinawa. I'm a bit upset to miss out of these festivals this year, but will for sure be there snapping my own pictures next year!

Nakijin Castle Night Display

 Cherry Blossoms during peek season on Mt. Yae

 Japanese White-eye feeding off a Cherry Blossom (Yaedake)

 Cherry Blossoms on Yaedake

All pictures borrowed from this source:  http://www.mapitokinawa.com/

Oki Preparations - Countdown: One More Month!

Today, January 27th, it's exactly ONE more month to go before we land on Okinawa! One more month....where did the time go??? As you can understand, it's been a lot going on here lately for obvious reasons, and not much time to catch up. Anyway, we have a much better plan on what's going on now:

- We have had our tickets changed. As it was way too difficult to travel to Tracy, CA to drop our car off and then rent a car and drive back to LA to fly from LAX up to Seattle, we now have made arrangements to drive to Oakland, CA, drop the kids, all the luggage and myself off there, and Chris will drive the Honda the rest to Tracy himself, get all set up there and then rent a smaller car (with all our luggage it would have been almost impossible to rent a car...), and drive back to us in Oakland. Then we will fly from Oakland - Seattle on February 25th. Coming in a few hours before we have to wait around for an "all nighter" at the airport before we fly out of Seattle early morning on February 26th.

- We have had the movers here on Friday afternoon to estimate and check on what we bring for our different shipments. NOT a wonderful afternoon to say the least. What a stress, going through the rooms, and to check off things on the lists, what can go where, in what shipment, what is too big to go at all etc etc. After total chaos for a while, we have some idea of what we can bring. Luckily, we will have the movers come and pack up the Express shipment (30 days) and the Household shipment (75 days) at the same day! Crazy? Yes normally, but for us I think it will work good, as we then can see if there is still space weight wise in the Express, then we can shift a few boxes around, but if we already are reaching the 1000 lb limit, we can still put them in the Houshold shipment. And vise versa. So hopefully, this will work out!! I will just have to pay close attention to what they pack where..

- I have had a yard sale over the weekend and sold lots of stuff, and also sold a lot of the furniture that we had planned to sell. In fact, I had to pull a few ads off Craigslist, so Cassie would still have a bed (the futon we had planned to sell) as we sold her bedroom set. It's hard to know when to put the ads out, sometimes there is no interest at all, and sometimes they just blow up your phone with calls and texts a day after you put them up. Rather have it sell early than to sit on them in the very end..

- I still have had a lot of planning and organizing regarding Rusty's travel. Still working out details there..

- There is a never ending running around getting things done, making appointments and trying to schedule everything fitting into times when the kids are in school, so they don't have to run around with me all the time. It's stressful enough anyway, and I'd like to spare them of as much as possible of the planning and stress around it all.

- But, the countdown has begun. For good or bad, it's only another month to get everything ready!

Pre Packing & Estimating Weight..

Very true, as above in the comic strip, the oversea PCSes are extremely limited on weight allowances. At least for our branch of the military, USMC, and I only wish that I could estimate 1000 lb/room right now. Instead, I have to try to organize our 4 bedroom house with about 2000 sqft plus a 3 car garage with lots of boxes and "stuff" into 2700 lb, that's it! Everything above that, goes to storage here for 3 years.

So, I'm pre packing, sorting out things, putting in piles in different parts of the house what goes on our Express shipment (1000 lb) and what goes on our 75 day shipment (1700 lb). NOT a very easy task, as you have to try to think about what you need right away in the house, what can come later, what do you put into storage here, what is not worth it to bring at all, but rather buy new there...

Lots of things that you have to part with for 3 years that you don't want to, but need to. Kids are upset about not being able to bring all their stuff, having to sort through and decide on what to bring and when...

The house looks like a tornado went through it with things, toys, clothes, boxes and it's piling up EVERYWHERE, and I'm somewhat overwhelmed on where to start..and the moving company is coming tomorrow to estimate our weight and to know what goes when and where... I had not planned for them to come already, and I found out yesterday that they are coming tomorrow, so not much notice there.

And, did I mention that I'm having a yardsale this weekend, so I have to get things ready for that, as we won't have time later on. That means I also have to take pictures of some furniture that we are selling and post on Craigslist and hoping to get it sold, and if it's on there, people can come and look when we have the yardsale anyway, and hopefully feel the need to buy more things than what they come for...

So, 15 minutes break over, finishing up my coffee and time to roll up my sleeves again!

Volleyball Camp & Winter Weather

I was just scrolling down my pictures in my phone, and of course there is a bunch of pictures that I still have to down load, but I wanted to post the ones from about 2 weeks ago, when Cassie was attending a volleyball camp all Saturday. I drove her there in the morning and it was cold and the car showed the outside temperature to be 36F!! And that was close to 9am, when normally the temperatures would be much higher, even during our "winter". I know, most people smile at these temperatures, but like our local meteorologist stated, it was almost 20 degrees below normal even during the day's high.

Anyway, back to the volleyball part. I had found this camp online, and Cassie was so happy that she was able to attend. Girls 10-16 I believe the age group was, perfect! That meant some beginners, and some High School girls that have lots of experience to play with. She loves to play, and has been wanting to play all fall. As there isn't a team here in town, she was attending practice of a traveling team, but that didn't work out for us in the long run. To travel to Phoenix, Flagstaff, Tuscon and even further away in AZ just to play every weekend, no, it wouldn't work for us.  So she attended their practice and some Saturday camps during the fall. Now, the school will have try outs for the school team in volleyball, but not until the beginning of March, and of course she is very upset and bummed about missing this. Three of her best friends will be trying out, and they have been practicing together and would have so much fun with it.Well, I just keep crossing my fingers that we will find a good team for her in Okinawa. She is so motivated, I just wish she doesn't loose her interest.

During this camp, her best friend A also got to go, and they had of course a lot of fun together. I only dropped her off at 9am and came to pick her up at 4pm. A long day, with lunch break. I wish i would have come a little earlier, then I would have seen Cassie play match, but now she was practicing her serve with her friend when I came 15 minutes earlier to pick up. I only had my phone, and it was some distance to the second net, so the quality is bad, but it's fun for her to have these pictures.

 Cassie & A.

 The other group that was finishing up their game.

Haircuts

 Awhile ago, it was time for the kids to get much needed haircuts. Benjamin's hair was really long, and we had the intentions to get it cut before Christmas, but it was hard to get any appointments. Now it was probably the longest he has ever had. Isabella needed a good trim, as her hair is so thin and she was happy to feel special and get a hair wash there too.


I had thought that I got before and after pictures, but I didn't, but here are some of the before.

Last week, when I had to take Cassandra for her allergy shot, the little ones were having a playdate with a friend, so I only had Cassie with me. So after the shot, we took the time to get her a cut too. Even if she only needed a trim, she probably got a good three inches off, and if feels so much softer. Downside with having such long hair- she had to stand up during the whole cut, as the hairstylist couldn't get the chair up high enough for her to be able to cut it straight otherwise.

Here during and after, while she still was styling it before leaving the salon. Now it's only my turn left to get a good haircut before the move. Don't know when we will be able to get a good place next time, and as it always takes some time to get organized after a move, I have booked my appointment for next Monday!!

Port Call

Soon we will be one of these families in Seattle. Standing in line at 2am waiting to get the boarding passes. We got our port call yesterday. We are flying from LA to Seattle on February 25th and leaving Seattle February 26th. We will arrive on Okinawa late evening on February 27th. It's getting closer and getting the confirmed date, truly made my heart skip - I can't wait to be there! And I certainly can't wait to leave this moving stress behind!!

It's a shame that we will be arriving late at night, we won't see these beautiful beaches by air. But as soon as we are on the island and somewhat settled, we are going to one of these beaches and letting the kids dig for treasures!

Play Dough Play Date

We are doing other things, or I try to keep the weeks interesting and fun also for the kids, that they don't just have to stay at home while I'm busy with the move. So, here and there we are having play dates and some fun times for a few hours. The other day, we were invited to a Mommy group here close to our house. This lady has started the mommy group to get to know moms here in the Foothills, and there are a lot of ladies in that group. How I wish that I would have known about this group when I first came here, that would have saved me a lot of heartache with no friends! Now, I haven't really the ambition to really hang out on all their dates as I'm moving away anyway, and most of the moms have very young children, their first borns, so the age difference is pretty big, but still, so nice to feel included! Plus, I really don't have the time now to meet up a couple of times a week, as they are doing! But, just imagine if I would have had that two years ago, when the kids had to get out of the house when Chris was sleeping after night shift. That would have been wonderful then!

Some of them also work out together, but the times don't fit in with my kids' preschool times, but sometimes they have something planned in the afternoon, like on Tuesday, when we were invited to a Play Dough Playdate! The kids had a lot of fun, and even if I took these pictures pretty early, there were more kids coming. Fun times, and T. who was hosting, had a great table for them to work on!

Isabella's pieces.

 Ben's pieces.

Some Things Never Change..

This cartoon is most likely a few years old, nowadays the books have been replaced by the internet, but the idea is the same:

The active duty gets the orders - the dependents do the research!!

A Good Morning After All..

This morning (or I should write, Wednesday morning as we now past midnight), we overslept. Cassie had switched off her alarm, too, and I had been up a lot with Isabella who now is in the order to have a lot of coughing going on at night, so I was very tired this morning too, and at 7.20am, I looked at the time and jumped out of bed! But, we were all dressed, and ready out of the door at 8am, and Cassie and the twins eat breakfast in school, so it worked out well. Cassie's school is luckily on the way to the kid's Preschool, so we could drop her off there first. She got there in time! While there, I noticed the light came on. Only a few more miles left of gas...really, on a stressful morning and all..!?

So, I knew I couldn't make it to Preschool, so I had to turn around, knowing that we would be late for their school that start at 8.30am. Being stressed I didn't really check the price on the pump, and while the gas was pumping, I was washing the windshield and didn't pay attention. Not until it "clicked" and it was done, I saw - what could it be right? I only looked at the $$ sign first and not at the gallon, and I thought it must have switched off too early somehow.

 Full tank for under $40!! Wohoo! 

Normally, just a few months ago, it would cost me around $70 for a full tank.

We broke the $2 mark!!

So, with this, my mood lightened up a lot and we put the radio on "louder" as the kids "demanded" from the backseat while we drove to Preschool, singing along to all the songs. We only got there 10 minutes late too, and the kids still had time to eat breakfast. It was a good morning after all!!

Bringing Rusty

One of the first things that crossed our minds when we got orders, was ofcourse, could we bring Rusty with us? After a lot of immediate research, I found out that yes, it's possible - according to bring him into Japan. What wasn't as clear was HOW to bring him, with what airline and how.

 
Now, after getting the wrong information about bringing him on the military flight in cabin, they only allow cats and dogs, I had to start looking for other options. As it seems to be different answers and different prices every time I called the PetSafe Program at United. Some times they even told me that they didn't even bring rabbits in cargo, some times they told me yes, and from these information centers, you can never get a confirmation or even speak to the same person twice. And let me tell you, EVERYONE from the military, the airlines and random people that you speak to about this, they all say the same- leave him behind. It's JUST a rabbit, why bother....

Frustrating? Much!!

So, after many busy days by the computer and over the phone, I finally seem to have found an answer yesterday on how I can go about it without having to travel separately, Chris with the kids on the AMC flight and me with Rusty in cargo on a commercial flight. Thank god for the internet and for different groups on Facebook that I've joined for people living on Okinawa and where you can ask lots of questions and you can read up on a lot of answers to other people's questions and you might get some information that you wouldn't have found on your own.

Yesterday, I found a way to get Rusty on a commercial flight in cargo with United PetSafe program to Narita, Tokyo, but we have to bring him to San Diego. When he arrives in Tokyo, I had no plan and I couldn't find an airline that would take him cargo and to call Japan directly with the time difference of 16 hours from us here in AZ, isn't the easiest. Anyway, I got in touch with a woman that works with a Pet Service company and after emailing back and forth the whole afternoon, we have a plan. When he comes to Narita, she will pick him up, take him through custom and to the quarantine. 

 Source here

Normally he would have to stay 3 days in quarantine in Tokyo, in a kennel that I would have to book, and then I was worried about who would care for him  there? But, as we are military traveling on orders, and we will live ON base, (this is the big deal here with the quarantine) he doesn't have to stay there. She can then take him and check him onto a plane from Narita, Tokyo - Naha, Okinawa where we will pick him up!!

I'm so relieved that you have no idea about this plan!! Now, we know that he will be OK, and I can travel together with the rest of the family on the AMC flight from Seattle. We can all go to Tracey with the car, put it into storage, get on our way to Seattle and then leave from there. I was so worried about not traveling together with the kids, and that is with this option, it will be OK. I still have to book tickets for him, as soon as we have ours booked from the military. Then, we have to see if we bring him to San Diego on our way up to Tracey, or if we have to ask our friends to bring him there for us. I'm so happy that this will work out, even if I won't be able to breathe out until we have tickets booked and even more so when we pick him up in Okinawa!!

 Rusty's travel kennel.

 He liked it and laid down for a nap at the first time checking the carrier out!

Oki Preparations - Ticket Trouble

The last couple of weeks, it feels like we have been waiting and waiting for some answers. We still don't have many, but at least a few. Part of why things have been going slow is due to that the holidays came in between and slowing down our paperwork.

Part of why we haven't gotten further with any plans regarding this move, is that apparently my area clearance hasn't been approved yet. That we found out in a meeting last week, and I was stressed about that we maybe had to add some paperwork or whatever, and with a 16 hour time difference it's not the easiest to clear things right away with the people in Okinawa or the base here..

So, for friends and family that are wondering and asking about how everything is going, here goes, to sum some of our "problems" up right now:

- Date of departure. With what airline and from where. Normally, all active duty and family members will be flying out of Seattle, and if they don't happen to have any spots left on the AMC flight, the military will book us on a commercial flight that they are working with. To Okinawa, they only work with United and with American Airlines. They could fly from a few places, and that is unclear to this point. What we do know for sure - my husband has to start to work in Okinawa on March 3.

- Why is the airline and airport important? Well, as the AMC flight from Seattle don't transport rabbits to Okinawa, we have to hope for full aircraft there, so they have to put us on one of their commercial airlines that they work with, and of those two, only United flies rabbits in cargo to Narita, Tokyo. THIS, has become a huge problem. As they transport small dogs and cats in cabin even on the AMC flight, we had gotten the information that they also would take rabbits in cabin, that was false. If they still have spots left on the AMC flight from Seattle, we have to take those seats, or pay our own tickets with a commercial flight. THIS will be expensive. We have no answers yet how we will do this. If they have spots left on the AMC flight from Seattle on the 26th of February, Chris as the active duty, has to take the kids with him on that flight, and we have to pay a ticket for me to take Rusty on a commercial airline from where ever that will be.

- Storage of the vehicles. Our smaller car, we will store at a family friend's ranch in TX, and Chris will drive it there beginning of February, and then fly back home. It might seem out of the way, and it sure is, but as the military only will store one vehicle for us, we have to find a solution that would work for us. As we don't know where we will be moved to when we come back from Japan, we might end up at the west coast, or the east coast, and then the car is somewhere in the middle. Instead of having to drive it coast to coast again, we only have to get it half way, either way. Plus our friend can keep an eye on it, start it here and there and make sure things are alright.

The van, the military will store for us - at their closest location. The closest location they have a storage is in Tracey, CA. That's not close!! That's close to Sacramento, and totally out of our way. So we have to take kids, rabbit, luggage and everything with us and drive to Tracey, CA and leave our car in storage there. Crazy, but the military won't pick up the car, and it's up to us to get it to the storage place. This will take us about 2 days to even get there from where we live. From there, the military would have to pay for tickets to Seattle where Chris would have to take the kids and travel to Okinawa with them on his own, without me, and I have to somehow get to LA for me and Rusty, and depart there to fly to Narita, Tokyo, this is where United flies, and then I still have to get to Okinawa, how? No idea at this point, as there also is a quarantine time in Narita involved from 1-3 days.

Still following? I hardly do either...This is very very stressful, and yes, it would be so much easier if we didn't have a pet rabbit, and all would travel from Seattle together and no problems, but that's not how it is now. Rusty is a part of our family, and most people think that we are crazy even considering to take him along, as it's only causing us problems. I have spent hours and hours trying to find the best solution to fly our pet rabbit Rusty out to Okinawa with us. It's not easy, as there are many regulations and not that clear information from the different airlines. Most information that there is to get is only for dogs and cats, and nothing is to be found about rabbits. Many phone calls later, I have gathered some information, but a lot changes depending on who you talk to. Frustrating? Much!

- Moving company. There is 3 different appointments to book. Not easy to know when to book them, when we don't even know when we have to leave the house to go to Tracey, CA with the car. I have to think about what we need right away, I have to take into consideration that Walmart and Target is not around the corner if we need something right away, like it's been before when we have moved. If you miss something, you just go and get it. This time, it will a bit different.

1. The express shipment. This shipment will only be 1000 lb and it takes about 30 days for it to get to Okinawa. We would like to book this appointment as early as possible in February, to hopefully not have to wait for some necessities as long when we are there. In this shipment I'm planning to pack bedding, pillows, linen, towels, shower curtains, bath rugs, kitchen stuff, cooking utensils, pots and pans, knives, coffeemaker, a few plates/cutlery/glasses/cups etc. some clothes, toys, and what else fits into those 1000 lb.

2. The 75 day shipment. This will be the rest 1700 lb of our things that we are allowed to bring. Not much!! Anything else that I can fit into this, will be sent here! This shipment has to be booked as late as possible, as we still need most of the things to continue to live our daily life until the move.

3. Storage shipment. All furniture, and everything else that is still in the house at this point, except all of our suitcases, will have to go into this shipment. This one has to be booked to come two days earlier, the most to reduce costs of staying in a local hotel, before we have to leave Yuma behind us and travel to Tracey, CA. We will also here need one day to finish cleaning the house and hand over keys to the owner.

So, without departure date, flight information all cleared, we can't book the movers. Everything goes hand in hand, and all of the things above, has to happen within the next 5 weeks! And, it's not just that easy to figure out what to bring and what to put in storage either! It feels like a never ending story with my lists, and late nights by the computer to research, to put things up on Craigslist, have people coming to buy things..and in between all this, there is still a normal everyday life going on with all it's normal things, homework, play dates, science project that needs to get finished, and anything and everything. Like that my husband had to leave this weekend to go to Miramar for a course this week and I'm on my own with a lot of this that can't wait!

I miss being able to blog about anything and everything, and I miss being able to read and comment on my favorite blogs, but there is next to no time for that now. I hope that I can come back soon, or maybe later when there is more time! Hopefully, you all still be there when I get back and that you keep checking in!

Me - Right Now..

It's been a long week, there is a lot going on as you all know and  I will sit down tomorrow and wrap the latest up for you. And for myself not to loose track!!  But as you can understand, this PCS is on my mind - day and night! I LOVE Julie Negron's little comic strips, but maybe have to be a Military Wife to totally understand and smile about it!?

Hello January!

Hello January - Hello 2015! 

Our countdown has officially begun. With everything that is going on right now, it feels almost like a dream thinking about that next month, we will already be in Japan!! We would have left all this behind. We are leaving Yuma, leaving AZ. Leaving pretty much everything that the twins know. Our  house, our friends, the children's schools, our neighbors. Everything! Like I have said before, there are so many unsure things floating around in the air still, and it's very stressful for all of us. Not being able to be more precise to the kids, not being able to find any comfort in knowing how, where, when...with other words, it's a busy and very stressful time right now - both physically and emotionally.

It's hard to keep calm. It's hard to be flexible and relaxed. Take on the change, "go with the flow". I try so hard to keep everything positive, keep everything exciting and interesting for the kids. Looking up playgrounds, Disney on Ice in Japan, the Aquarium that is one of the largest aquariums in the world that is located on Okinawa. Looking up beaches and making plans on where to go, to have things to look forward to. Finding any information for the kids that they want to hear. Anything that can keep them happy and enthusiastic! Ben can start playing soccer, as there is a team on base. They have several different ballet or gymnastic classes for Isabella if she can make up her mind, or why not try out both. There is hopefully volleyball for Cassie, not confirmed yet etc etc.

In all this, there is very little time for me to sit down and daydream and look forward to everything. For myself, it's more survival mode here, coping with the unknown. There is much going on at my husband's work too, so not much time to spend together to really plan and look forward to this together. I miss that, dreaming about this, talking about this, looking forward to this together. We are now in totally different chapters of this journey. He has thousands of things to take care of at work, not just his new work, but paperwork related to the move, screenings, school and classes that needs to be taken before he leaves. Yes, he will leave for a week here in January for a school. Just like that..Sure, only a week, but at this stage, it's a long time! So he has so much other things to "worry" about, that he doesn't get "my worries" and concerns. Instead of being able to have deep conversations about all, it's more: "it's going to work out", "well, not much we can do about it now", "we'll see when we are there", or mostly on my thousand questions, "I don't know!".

I'm hoping to be able to reconnect when we get closer to the move, and it gets down to business with travel, booking of movers etc, as then he will be done with a lot of "his worries".

Wow, I didn't really mean to get in to all that here in this post, but so be it. Some days are better than others, let's just leave it at that! I have gotten some comments from people here in town like, wow that's so exciting and that they too, would love to get a "paid vacation" like this for three years. So if anyone is thinking that, well now you know. It's not just worry free "the military takes care of it all" when it comes to these things - at least not for our branch and not for the moves that we have been through. It's a lot of stress, and it's not just happy faces around here now.

What a lot of people tend to forget when it comes to PCS'ing is that we did NOT choose this - we didn't have any say in when or where..To not have yours or your family's future and fate in your own hands is one of the most stressful things with living the military lifestyle. For me, I should say. That's the truth. Sigh. But when it feels like I'm just slipping on my way up this big mountain, instead of being able to see the top, and enjoy the more beautiful way down on the other side- I try to tell myself, hold on and cope, sooner than you think, we will be there.

And then the REAL adventure will begin!