St. Paddy's and Progress

Wishing you lots of Irish luck today and always!

I grew up very aware and very proud of my strong Irish roots and I like St. Paddy's Day because it reminds me of my heritage, family and memories of making leprechaun boxes with my sister and my mom's Irish soda bread, and corn beef and cabbage. Holidays are synonymous with traditions in my family. My parents always made them special. Now that I'm away from them I cling to these memories and think of how I will continue them with Boots.

Today I am also remembering my little cousin Connor who died in a car accident on Saint Patrick's Day. He was 11 years old. My heart still aches for him. My thoughts and prayers go to my family today, to my aunt and uncle who lost their only child. Connor was the baby of the family, a sweet boy and we will always miss him.

Connor must have been smiling down on us today because we've had some real Irish luck of our own. We have finalized our housing arrangements and will be moving in on Friday. Good bye hotels! And to top it off, both of our shipments are already here and will be delivered on Friday. I am so happy about that!

Boots had a monumental event happen yesterday. He had his first flight with his first squadron! I can only imagine what it must have felt like to have that feeling of ultimate achievement. All he's ever wanted since he was 2 years old was to be a pilot and he is done it. I am so happy for him and incredibly proud!

We are now the proud owners of two Okinawa cars:

We got the little green one today, very appropriate for St. Patty's. It is a 97 Nissan March, it is very little! The other one is small too, it's a really old Rav4. Cars on the island tend to be older, although you can find a huge range of options. The streets can be very narrow and speed limits are much slower than in the states, so some people choose to drive small cars with less power than a US car. Here, they have a JCI that you have to renew every two years, as well as a road tax every year. We were told to look for cars with AC (because I hear is gets insanely hot here) and cars with JCI's that don't expire for at least a year. We bought both of the cars from people on the island PCSing soon and it was really easy to get the title and registration transferred and the insurance set up. If you come here and are looking for a car there are plenty of car dealerships, but most people look on the lemon lots on base and online at OkinawaYardSales and JapanUpdate.