It's Official!

We now know that we are definitely going to be heading to Oklahoma for our next duty station! We will be at Tinker AFB starting at the end of April! So, that means we'll be heading back to the States at the beginning of April. We can't wait to see everyone and be so close to family again! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and have a safe and Happy New Year!!! :)

More Pictures!

I just wanted to add a few more pics from the China trip! :)

CHINA

We are back from our adventures in China and I have managed to go through our first media disk! We got a little camera-happy and managed to take 1000+ pictures! Thank goodness they're digital--I don't know what we'd do with all that film!

Our first stop: Xi'an (pronounced She-ahn)

This is a very old city with a lot of emporer's tombs because it is an ancient capital of China. It is also the location of the famous Terra Cota Warriors which are statues of soldiers buried around an emporer's tomb to protect him in the after life. It is the only example where they made life-sized sculptures. A lot of other emporer's made soldiers but they were much smaller.

In the pit behind us you can see all the soldiers! There were over 8000!! Some are still buried because they are trying to preserve their color until new technology arrives.

Next stop: Beijing

There was a lot to see in Beijing! First was Tienamen's Square and the Forbidden City!

As you can tell, it was VERY cold!!

We needed some American food and what's more American than Hard Rock Cafe?! :)

Shaun and I at the Ming Tomb.

THE GREAT WALL!! Our favorite site of the trip!!

To Thaw or Not to Thaw....

We had an early Thanksgiving with our closest friends since we would all be out of town on Thanksgiving Day. I volunteered to make the turkey--my first!! So, I went and picked out the perfect size bird for our small group of six, brought it home and began to let it thaw. This morning I went to the kitchen ready to prepare our feast--and that's when I saw it. Printed on the turkey packaging "KEEP FROZEN. DO NOT THAW." I was so confused! Every article I read about how to prepare a turkey always started with how to thaw the turkey! I studied the packaging some more to realize I had purchased a "pre-stuffed" turkey. I can only assume this is why I was not supposed to thaw the thing. So, unsure of what to do, I hustled back to the commissary and purchased another bird. This one was promptly seasoned and placed into the oven without thawing. I was very nervous, but it actually turned out to be a delicious bird! We also had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and a couple desserts all brought by our friends. It was a delicious Thanksgiving meal! So, we are most thankful for making such good friends that can be our 'family' while away from our real families on the holidays!

Some cool pictures

Believe it or not, this is NOT a picture of a hummingbird! I thought it was a real hummingbird when Shaun was photographing it, but after I got home and looked at the pictures, you can see antennae and it looks segmented like an insect. So, I did a little research and discovered the hummingbird moth! It looks like a tiny hummingbird, but doesn't scare away when you get close to it. A very interesting find--but apparently they are also in the States!

Also while at the aquarium, we saw the Dolphin Show! We were able to get some really cool pictures of the dolphins showing off their acrobatic skills! We couldn't understand anything the narrator was saying, but it was very cool to watch!

Okinawan Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! I love Halloween living on base! There are so many kids that come trick-or-treating--a far cry from the 4 kids that lived in our neighborhood! All of the neighbors just come sit on their porches with a big bowl of candy to hand out to the parade of kids. They also allow some of the Japanese locals come on to trick-or-treat. They come in costume and know how to say "TRICK-OR-TREAT" and "Thank You!" If you try to ask them anything else, like "what is your costume?", they smiled and said "Trick-or-treat."

I know that someday I will dress up and parade around with my infant in a cute costume, but does a child with no teeth deserve candy? Something to think about.

Last year I ran out of candy in 1 hour, so this year I was determined to have plenty to last the whole 2 hours! I don't know how many bags of candy we went through, but I didn't run out!! But, now I still have a couple bags leftover. Oh well, they will feed my patients at the clinic! :)

Shaun and I didn't have an opportunity to dress up this year. That's probably a good thing since my Pregnant Britney Spears costume wouldn't be as funny as it was last year! Well, now it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving, which for us, will be celebrated on a plane to China! I'll post more later! :)

1st blog

Howdy! Thanks for coming to look at our new blog. Since my sister Marci started one, I thought it would be a good way to let people know what's going on in our lives! We're still living on Okinawa and enjoying our time overseas, but our time here has gone by very quickly. We now only have about 6 months left.

The pictures are from our adventure to Neo Park on Okinawa. It was sort of a glorified petting zoo. We got to feed flamingos, lemurs and tortoises, but I don't think we'll be returning back to this particular park. I think American standards for how animals should be kept is very high, and I think that 's a good thing!

So, since I am new to the blogging, I'm going to end this a little short. But I hope you enjoy the pictures and come back to see more!