One Whole Year!

As of October 7th, Garrett and I have been in Okinawa for an entire year! Wow has the time flown by, but it's been great! I absolutely love the life we have here, even without the perks of America. The anniversary was rung in with two typhoons in one weekend, the first ones we've had since living here. We believe we haven't had any others earlier in the summer because of the construction work for our new chapel building that was started in January. The first typhoon rolled in Friday, when we were already planning on having a 'Fort Friday' in our living room with our friends Alex and Kandice and watching Boy Meets World all night long. So, the typhoon just made it even more fun because they didn't have to leave anyway! We cleared out the furniture in our living room and took it into our kitchen and set up our tent inside. We blew up our air mattress, and the Johnston's had their sleeping mat. We had lots of junk food, their dog Penny, and our camping lantern and stove just in case we lost power. We weren't too concerned about a typhoon. We live in a cement house and it wasn't coming straight over us anyway. TCORR-1 (category where we can no longer leave our homes) was set about 8 pm Friday night and we hunkered in for a long night. You couldn't hear the storm, and there was just wind and rain outside. We took the dogs out as the wind

permitted, only for short chances to pee with leashes on securely. Koji didn't have a problem going outside and he seemed to quite enjoy the wind and rain, no surprise there. He's such a strange dog. Penny had a little more trouble, but she's a cute little weiner dog who would have easily blown away. Koji I think felt claustrophobic in the tent and had to be coaxed inside, often only staying for a few minutes before retreating back out to the carpet. We all stayed up far too late, woke up ridiculously early because we had forgotten to turn off alarms, and then slept more after being up for a little while. We all pretty much stayed in pajamas all day. When we took a break from Boy Meets World, the boys would play video games and Kandice helped me to cut out the fabric for the crib bumpers I had decided to make. TCORR-1 remained in effect all day Saturday, so Kandice and Alex stayed a second night. A little bit on how we became friends with them. We were introduced to them through our mutual friends Britta and Nathan, who happen to live up the street from Garrett and I and are also in our branch. We started doing FHE with them every Monday and Britta is also my visiting teaching companion. Alex and Garrett are seemingly twins separated at birth, except that Alex is black and about 5 years older than Garrett. They both are way into superheroes and often go into discussions that Kandice and I just roll our eyes at. They are also both super dorky and have fun and weird tendencies. Kandice is super fun to be around and is incredibly willing to help and offers whenever or wherever she is able.

We have now hosted many a game nights at our house with them and the Sinexes. We unfortunately didn't invite Britta in time for our typhoon party before TCORR hit and she didn't have time to get her kitty, and the things she would need for the weekend before it was too bad to make it to our house. I felt awful for leaving her alone during the storm while her hubby was deployed. Anyway, Saturday night came and Koji was exceptionally anxious and sick of being stuck inside and unable to romp around on his normal walks. I decided that since the storm had passed at this point and we were just waiting for the official change to Storm Watch, it wouldn't be an issue to let him out back to run back and forth a little like I often do in normal circumstances. Boy was that a bad idea!! He was definitely more than excited to be free outside off of a leash, he ran back and forth across our whole back yard at full speed half a dozen times, each time he left my sight I would simply call him and he'd come racing back the opposite direction. However, then he disappeared around the corner of our house and didn't come back when I called him. I walked around the corner to see if he just got distracted smelling something, but no, he was gone. Garrett came outside and I told him what had happened. He told me not to worry and he started walking around the house calling to Koji. I walked the opposite direction and still no Koji. Mind, this is 1130-12 at night and we were still technically not supposed to be leaving our house... But Koji had just poofed! Alex and Garrett then started walking around the block on our normal long walk route with Koji. Kandice and I stayed a little closer to our home, I was heading in the direction he had typically run back when he ran off SEVEN months before. No luck. I posted on a wives group page with a picture of Koji and asking help from anyone in our neighborhood who may be able to look outside and see if they could see a loose dog running about. About thirty or so minutes after Koji had first disappeared, TCORR was lifted and Kandice and I jumped into our cars to begin searching that way. Alex stayed inside in case Koji came back to the house, and Garrett continued looking around outside and calling. About ten minutes after leaving, Garrett calls me and tells me they have Koji.

When I made it back to the house, Kandice told how she found him around the corner and up the hill from our house just hanging around and smelling the 'roses'. She tried calling to him, but he still doesn't know her incredibly well, so she said he got a wide eyed, freaked expression (STRANGER DANGER!!) and bolted back towards our house. She kept with him and every time he would slow down and she would call to him, he'd burst again. She said we would be proud to note he stayed on the side walk the whole way home and when he went around the corner to the back of our house, she raced in the front to tell Garrett and Alex he went around back and to grab him! They told her that they already had him because he'd gone straight up to the back door. Garrett and I were so incredibly relieved to have Koji back. There was a second typhoon behind the first and I hadn't been sure at the time how soon it was supposed to be hitting. I did NOT want Koji out during a typhoon that was supposed to be worse than the first. We certainly made sure he knew he was in trouble for what he'd done, but also that he knew he was loved and home. However, he was 'grounded' for the two and a half weeks following where we did not allow him to walk off the leash at all.

The second typhoon hit Monday afternoon. We were lucky enough to make it to my 37 week appointment that morning and Garrett went to work for a few hours after, and came home around 1 o'clock. I spent this typhoon working on the crib bumpers and Garrett played video games the whole time. I had originally just been going to order a plain bumper online since I didn't think I had the time or resources to make one from scratch, having a very limited fabric supply and not wanting to deal with batting or padding or anything. But then the 'Store lord' as we call him listened to me at the Thrift store and supplied me with plain pillow-like crib bumpers made to just have a pillowcase type sham put over them. So I decided that if I could find fabric on island and didn't have to order any online, I would make the pillowcases myself for them. I was in luck!

The fabric store I went to off base had the PERFECT fabric to match the blanket that was given to us by my aunt that I love and had based most of the nursery around. I hadn't gotten extra fabric in the States for the gray and white opposite that I am using for another project in the nursery, but I was able to go to another small fabric store in a 'mall' that worked well enough for me to be happy. So I sat down and got to work during the typhoon. With four total cases, each one got better as I went along because I was able to realize how to adjust how I was laying them out to make it neater and more secure where the ribbons were attached to tie them to the crib. I am rather proud of myself with my less than mediocre skills. I have had very little experience before buying my own sewing machine once we moved here and using it for the hot pads and my straightner holder.  With the completion of the bumper I have now got most of the nursery complete and am just waiting on a letter that my mom is bringing to be able to put up the wall decor that I'm putting together. Here are a few almost complete pictures!

Bookshelf I found on the side of the road that I will redo when I'm no longer pregnant!

The week before the typhoons hit, Garrett and I also purchased a second car! I don't have pictures of it right now and since it's dark now, I can't exactly go get good pictures.  But it's a 2001 Subaru Legacy B4. It has a turbo engine that shuts off a few minutes after you pull the keys out of the ignition(freaked me out the first time!). It's a sporty four-door sedan. Garrett loves it and is excited to have his own car and no longer have to rely on me being there to pick up or take him places when I've got work. We are very blessed to be able to afford this and still have money to spare. We are so grateful for the blessings of tithing and know that it is supremely important. Some may scoff and argue that we would have more money if we didn't pay tithing, which in a sense IS true, but we are able to help the Church and others who truly need it while still prospering ourselves. I am so glad to have set that as a priority in our lives and to be reaping the benefits of the sacrifice.

I hit 39 weeks tomorrow and my mom comes in to spend the next 5-6 weeks with us to help whenever this little one of ours decides he's ready to come into our lives. We are so excited. We rearranged our room this weekend to fit the pack 'n play in it for the first little while after he's born until we move him to his crib. Took some maternity pictures yesterday with a friend from the branch which I will display as soon as she gets them to me. I will keep you updated on when this little guy decides to come into the world!