Valentine's Toes

Happy Valentine's Day :)

It's been a long week for me ... but I am now a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt!  Woohoo!  We're heading to a show at the Butler O-Club tonight, "Taste of Asia", so I am hoping I get some good pictures to post!

Super Bowl Monday

On the Monday morning of the Superbowl, Michael woke up early to make us some pigs in a blanket for breakfast (aka "piggies") ... Piglet and Bailey were good helpers.

Especially Piglet:

Bailey got bored and went to the couch for a stretch and a snooze:

The game was good ... but the relaxing morning was even better :)

An Unexpected Trip

Because of a tumultuous beginning to 2009, I felt the need to catch a hop and see my folks for a quick visit!  I wasn't able to catch the Patriot Express (military charter), but I was able to catch a supply plane that was going to Elmendorf, Alaska and then to McChord Air Force Base.  It was a L-O-N-G and COLD flight to Alaska.  Luckily, this wasn't my first rodeo with cold hops so I came prepared by wearing every piece of warm clothing I had packed in my suitcase.  When we got off the plane in Alaska to refuel the nice airman driving the bus (with cold gear covering all but his eyes) announced "It's 30 below and snowing.  Welcome to Alaska."  Hmmm... no thanks.

Me on the plane.  Nice seats, huh!

The plane was HUGE!

The only cargo until we got to Alaska ... and then it was full of random stuff (i.e. ship propellers):

I got to see my sweet nephew while I was there!  I was also able to give him his bday gift since his bday was a week or so after I left (He is obsessed with transformers.  I earned big points for knowing the difference between Autobots and Decepticons). 

Here he is with Ratchet, it was a bigger hit than Sentinel Prime which took me 5 minutes to "transform" following the directions:

It was great to see not only Tay, but Ryan and my parents.  What a great quick trip - and great timing since Michael was TAD the entire time to mainland :)

Happy belated Birthday Taylor!

Toes and Babies

It was definitely time to get the toes done ... to get the Christmas-ness off of them :)

Bailey sleeping on the Mac:

It's nice to see Bailey not sleeping once in awhile:

Piglet being a little moochy-mooch:

Bailey tired from all the activity:

I love my little animals.

Pics from December

Time has flown.  Are we really almost done with January!?!  Here are some pics from our Post-Christmas party.

Michael getting the food ready:

Everyone sitting around playing our Buzz game on the PS3:

Friends outside:

Marie and Piglet became friends (she brought homemade lumpia ... YUM!)

Max and Craig with their adopted dog:

Merry Christmas from JST

Merry Christmas everyone!  

To start off our morning we gave the kids their gifts first.  Bailey took right away to her new little sanctuary:

We even saw a little bit of a playful spark emerge:

Then she hunkered down for a nap .... while Piglet felt left out:

Alas, Piggy didn't feel bad for too long as we bought her the softest blanky in the world from the little kiosk in the concessionary:

the only thing that got Bailey to emerge for a nanosecond was the toy her Aunt Mandy and family sent - what could be better than feathers and a bell on a stick!?

and Mandy came through in the clutch with the perfect gift for Piggy ... a weiner dog dressed like a snowman.  Absolutely Perfect.  It has already been dubbed "Leon" (from Elf), and she loves it:

Michael was insanely surprised that I had gotten him his Wustof Classic Ikon knives.  I got the best wife ever award for this purchase:

Bailey hung out for a little bit while we opened presents:

Piggy and me amidst the Christmas goodness (see what's in my lap!?): 

A new camera!!  Michael came through with the new Nikon camera.  Here are some of the first shots I took with it ... hopefully I'll get better :)

Piggy all sleepy on her new blanky with Leon and a chewy:

Bailey - absolutely exhausted after playing for a full 3 minutes:

the Ryukan glassware that Michael bought me :)

okay ... Merry Christmas (still a little early for all of you in the states), but now its time to go play Little Big Planet (before Michael monopolizes the PS3 with Prince of Persia).

We miss everyone - have a great holiday season!

Random December Pictures ... and some ranting.

We're trying to prepare for another Christmas with just the two of us (still no takers for family to fly halfway around the world to visit us on a holiday ... I digress) but I made a trial run on some Cinnabon scones yesterday morning.  One word - DIVINE.  Wow, my mouth starts to water thinking about them.  So here is Michael with a cup of coffee getting ready to dippy-dip his scones with a smile (sidenote - "dippy-dip" was stolen and adopted from my niece Olivia when she was really little eating breadsticks and red sauce ... not that it matters, just thought I'd share a little insight into our crazy minds).  

A rant if I may:

The month of December is generally the only time I will allow myself to spend a fortune on the Coffee at Starbucks.  However, on the first of only two trips we went there I was unpleasantly surprised to find that the miser Starbucks has decided that Okinawan customers do not need Peppermint Mochas!  This is the only coffee I'll step foot into Starbucks for (unless its a desperate need for some caffeine and no SBC or Tully's is around)!  No wonder the economy is in the toilet - j/j.  I did find a decent alternative - and Michael has made the claim that he actually likes it better (of which I promptly told him to bite his tongue) ... the Gingerbread Latte.  Whatever Starbucks ... whatever.  

So on to more pictures from my camera that I'm hoping I don't ever have to use again after Christmas because I'll be getting a new one:

Here is little Pigdog all sleepy on the ottoman:

and that's all she wrote.  I was just trying to get the last of the pictures off my memory stick so come Christmas morning I am ready to go with uploading off a new camera.  I am going to be SO disappointed if Michael doesn't come through on this one, aren't I!?

Christmas Toes

I know ya'll have missed seeing my toes :)  Only in Okinawa would they have an extensive selection of Christmas toe artwork to choose from.  I was moments away from having Santas, reindeer, and snowmen all over my feet ... looking back I'm having some regrets ... but I went a little classier with some poinsettia-ish flowers and the ever so classic red, green and gold.

... and it IS warm enough to wear open-toed shoes (and catch 18 holes in a short-sleeved shirt).  Up for a visit anyone!??

Attention Hogs

The kids try to act real cool - as though they really don't care what we do when we're actually in the house.  So here I am wrapping Michael's Christmas presents ...

and Bailey decides to just take a quick gander at what I'm up to:

Piglet is trying to play it cool as well...

...curiosity definitely got the better of Bailey so she decided to investigate why I wasn't focusing solely on her:

She's making sure I change my attention from the present-wrapping to her:

Piglet couldn't stand being left out so she came over to make sure I hadn't forgotten about her (they are both sitting in-between my legs now):

Michael tried to surf the net and ended up getting swamped by the attention whores we call our bebes:

We wouldn't trade it for the world though!

Officially Retired

My parent's finally bought something for themselves and we couldn't be happier!  We can't wait to visit and take the new truck and fifth wheel on a road trip :)  

This is nicer than our house...and bigger.  How sad. (insert sad Charlie Brown music here)

Congrats on the big purchase!!

Merry Christmas ... shitter's full.