Let the Countdown Begin

"The Day" has come and gone. The squadron had us out to the hangar this morning to say goodbye and watch the plane take off.

Yesterday I took this picture on my iphone and sent it to him at work saying I was ready to go with him. He got a kick out of it. Luckily, it happened to be a rainy day, so my lessons got canceled and I got to come home early from work and spend a nice last night at home with Brad. I made him his favorite cupcakes and we had a nice dinner. It was over too soon!


Today was much harder than I imagined it would be. Saying goodbye was super tough, but I know that Brad has trained long and hard for this and I am so incredibly proud of him.

*I had to turn the first few photos we took black&white or sepia because I was nervous and my neck and chest got super red! So hot. Not.




When the time got down to the last 10 minutes I started to loose it! But, I tried to hold it together because I knew how hard it was for him to leave me regardless and it would have been harder for him if I didn't show a brave face. Brad said he had to bring his stuff out to the plane and that he'd be right back. Well, he wasn't able to come right back and I was beginning to think he wasn't able to. But, then someone said "here comes your hubby again." I think it was extra hard watching him walk away twice, but I wouldn't give back that last extra hug for anything.



Video of Brad taking off:


Once the plane was out of sight some girlfriends and I went out to a nice lunch. My insides felt like they were melting, but it was nice to have company. Before going home I stopped in at my favorite flower shop for some pretty peonies. Nothing like good friends and pretty flowers to cheer me up.

When I got home to my apartment I just felt like I needed to check out for a while. I hibernated for like 4 hours. That's a long time even for me who totally loves naps. It was a very emotionally draining morning. 200(ish) days and counting.

Good Luck to my amazing, super smart, strong and brave "aerial warrior" husband!

Enjoying the time left

As Brad's time before he left got shorter and shorter we managed to squeeze in one last really nice date night. I tried not to think about it like our "last" date, or last time we held hands in the car, last snuggle on the couch watching a movie, last laughs in the kitchen making dinner or last time we went for a run together. It of course isn't the last time. But, it sure makes me appreciate our time together more.

So, back to our date. We went to a Thai place in Mihama called Jai Thai. It was pretty cute in there, all Thai-ed up and all. Brad surprised me by ordering a bottle of champagne. We had never splurged on Moet before, so it was quite a treat.



We ordered a few dishes of the menu to share including the mandatory Pad Thai. The food wasn't anything super spectacular, more like Japanese Thai, but I did like how the pineapple dish we ordered came in an actual pineapple and the carrots in it were cut into shapes like hearts and flowers.

After dinner we had dessert over at the amazing Yogurtland. Then we walked around and had fun window shopping and going into a few interesting stores.



We did find this adorable wine and cheese shop that I totally fell in love with. They had fresh breads, snacks, a variety of cheeses and lots of wine and foods imported from Europe and the USA. What really caught my eye was that they had some organic foods and candy. I asked the wonderful Japanese store clerk if they carried any organic wines and he took me over to a whole organic wine section! He helped us pick out a nice bottle of organic white wine and I got some organic cherry hard candies too. Really good find!


We went home and talked over a nice glass of wine out on our balcony. Such a sweet, romantic night with the love of my life. So blessed.

I've been secretly working on making Brad a video. I've never made one before, so this is my first try. For some reason youtube kind of squished some of the photos, but this will give you the gist. I put it on a DVD and also made him a mix CD and will sneak it into is flight bag so he'll find it on his trip out.

Introducing Prince and Wild

Last Friday was a really exciting day at work. We went to pick up 2 new horses! We've been asking the owner for more horses and he finally pulled through. Two prior race horses from mainland Japan were put into a shipping container, put on a ferry and boated on down to Okinawa.

We went to the Naha seaport to watch the boat come in, dock and unload the containers. A huge crane picked up the horses container off the boat, brought it down to the dock and then a fork lift tractor thingie picked up the container and moved it to it's assigned spot. Of course it was pouring down rain, but nothing could make us more excited to see the new boys for the first time. It was like Christmas!


We don't know too much about these boys except that Wild was never in a race. It looks like he has a prior injury - blew out his knee. And he was gelded only a few days before transport. Prince has been used for riding off the track already, we think. They both sure look like race horses!



The shipping method here in Japan is sure different from what I've seen before. The horses were put in a metal container in non break-away halters, tied to the side. Prince broke his lead rope leaving a metal clasp hanging off his halter and Wild untied his so his was just hanging down so he could trip all over it. The bottom of the container was disgusting, as in like inches of muck. They had buckets of water that promptly spilled everywhere leaving them nothing to drink and even more icky stuff to stand in. Fabulous. But, they both seemed very calm and totally fine with all of it!



I was pretty nervous about how the horses would load onto the trailer, but they both went on just fine. As you can see the "horse trailer" is totally not what we think of in the states. Once we got back to the barn they both came off the trailer fine too except Wild decided to totally skip the ramp and just jump from a stand still cross country style all the way down to our surprise, especially Madie's since she was leading him.

We immediately turned the horses out into the arena so they could stretch their legs after their long journey. Here is a video of them when they were first set loose:



They had fun showing us their moves! Both are super pretty movers. As a side note, in the video I call the horses by the wrong names. Yama goes "I made a mistake!" The names are opposite! Prince is the chestnut and Wild is the young bay.



They also got to go out on the grass for a little bit before we brought them in to look them over and shower them off. Then into the barn they went to meet the other boys and eat their first meal.

I'm totally in love with them already!

Typhoon Party

This holiday weekend was very rudely interrupted by super typhoon Songda that rolled in Saturday night. Since all the planes have to be flown out by our husbands to avoid the storm my neighbor had a typhoon party for the wives. Wine, lots of good food and fun music is the perfect way to let the storm pass. Since Brad didn't have to fly out the planes since he's leaving soon I left the party a bit early and we snuggled up on the couch and watched a movie when we weren't watching the crazy storm out the windows.


The cat3 typhoon got pretty strong around 10pm. Our doors and windows were shaking so bad from the wind, it was actually pretty scary. Our lights flashed a few times and the street light kept going off and on, but fortunately we didn't loose power. A lot of off base places were without power all night and into the next day.

The next day we went for a run over to Tropical Beach check out the damage. This storm was not very friendly to the trees and plants that's for sure. So many trees went down. And all the plants look totally dead now. Everything looks brown and bedraggled. But, knowing how fast these island plants grow I'm sure they'll make a comeback in no time. I've heard a lot of people say that this is the worst storm that's come through here for a while.

It's not even officially typhoon season yet and already two storms have come through. Lets hope that Mother Nature is just getting them done early this year.

The Big "D"

There is a country song I heard a while ago with lyrics about The Big D, and while we're not going through a divorce or Dallas like in the song, we are getting ready for a different Big D. Deployment. Things were really up and down there for a while, weather he was going or not going, but it ended up that he is going, for about 6 1/2 months. I debated if I was even going to mention it on here. I'm not going to get into any specifics about where he's going and what he's doing (opsec! ha), but I know all you out there will have lots of good advice and will keep my spirits up while he's away.


My guest room is under here somewhere and so is my yoga mat. What you can't see in the picture are 2 closets with it's contents spilling out and more in Brad's office. It's a pretty incredible amount of gear.

As Brad gears up, I'm trying not to feel like the next half of the year is looming ominously ahead of me. I'm trying not to think about how the bottom of my stomach feels like its falling out. I know I'll be able to talk to him, see his face on skype and I know he'll be fine. I'm going to work on setting up some goals and milestones to work towards while he's away to keep myself motivated. And of course I'll be busy with work and friends. And I'll throw some traveling in there. I'm pretty excited about making the next 7 months go by as quickly as possible!

Good Advice

Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.

Good advice on Yogi tea bag this evening.

I have been seriously slacking on blogging lately. For one big reason that I'll share with you soon. Stick with me, I promise I'll get back to adventuring and posting interesting things.

This weekend was full of friends, parties and bbq's for us.

I hope you all had a fun weekend too!

Rain Rain Go Away

We've been getting an awful lot of rain on Okinawa lately. Last week we had a tropical storm. It seems like it's been going on for weeks. Hello rainy season. Rain sucks a lot as is, but when you work outside it sucks even more especially when it means people won't be coming for lessons. Yesterday it down poured all day and once again all my lessons were canceled. So, the day was filled with playing with the horses and bunnies! Lots of fun.

The horses don't get a lot of turn out time as is, but when it rains they get even less. So, I turned them all out into the arena yesterday afternoon and they were running around having a blast.



They all rolled, of course, and got totally covered in wet sand. I had to give all 9 of them showers when they were done playing.



*Sky thinks he's a giraffe!

Recently some new baby bunnies were born at the barn. Ummm can you say overload of soft adorable cuteness?! These bunnies just opened their eyes. Love. Last week all the bunnies in the "bunny stall" were freed! Freedom! All the bunnies now come and go from their stall and they seem much happier. They are fast and there is lots of places to hide if something was to chase them, so I think they will be fine. They are staying close by to where they know they'll get food and water too. One night a bunny hopped into Makoto's stall and he was so careful to tiptoe around the bunny and even put his nose down to smell him. Adorable. Makoto has a little bun bun buddy.