Happy Birthday Melissa

Today is My mother- in-law's birthday. She opened the gift we sent her a few days ago!! What a cheater.

I have had a crazy couple of days. I got the quilt top finished. The applique was tricky but I like how it turned out. I got the blocks sewn on Monday and then Tuesday I put the elephant and the borders on. I have to take a break though.... So I will quilt it and finish it next week. Boy, after a couple hours of working on it on Monday I was cross-eyed. I thought I was going to go crazy, but I am glad it looks so nice.

I am reading a really cute book, it's called Dreaming Southern by Linda Bruckheimer. It is about a mom taking her 4 kids on a road trip in a 1953 Packard, she is driving from Kansas to California, but she takes a bunch of side trips on the way taking them to Alabama, Louisiana, and Minnesota. I like it so far. Check it out if you are looking for something fun to read.

Entry for March 14, 2007

Things are finally back to normal around here. After doing so much in the past 6 weeks Dave and I are beat. It was really great to have Melissa visit and I think we showed her everything we had planned to which is why we are so tired. I am looking forward to things getting back to its normal boring routine.

We took Melissa to all of our favorite restaurants and showed her lots of stuff around Misawa. Along with our long weekend in Sapporo and all the shopping we did, I think we kept her plenty busy. She and I flew down to Tokyo on Sunday afternoon. We checked into The New Sanno which was a really nice hotel. We spent Monday seeing some of the sights of Tokyo. We rode the subway to see the Imperial Palace. The East Garden was closed but the outer plaza was really neat. Then we walked from there to the Ginza. We only went in a few store though. But we did find TGI Fridays and ate lunch there. (It was a big deal since it has been a full year now since I visited the states.) Tokyo was really awesome and much easier to get around than I had imagined it would be. I cannot wait to go back down with Dave. There is a lot more that I want to see down there and I would like to see the East Garden.

Entry for March 01, 2007

Geez the time sure does fly by quick!! Melissa's visit will be over in a little more than a week!! I tell you six weeks sounds like a long time but it is gone before you even know it. We have been keeping busy trying to show Melissa around Misawa and around Aomori Prefecture. Next week Dave took a couple days off so we are planning to take her to see the big Buddha park in Aomori. Her and I are leaving for Tokyo on Sun the 11th. We are going to spend 2 days down there just to see the Imperial palace gardens and a few other things like the Ginza.

Lots has happened.... We bought a laptop which is very exciting for us. We have been meaning to for a long time since Dave is TDY so often and we travel so much. Dave also got a new position at work. He got an instructor position, so he will be teaching Crew Chiefs some of the courses they go thru annually to refresh their skills. I am really excited about this. He wont be on the flight line...which means he wont have dirty hands and greasy clothes... and he will work set hours and have weekends off and holidays off too. I am looking forward to him being home at the same time every night and even maybe having him home for lunch sometimes. Eeeeeee.

I don't know what this means for our leave though. We have been planning to visit home in November but I am not sure how they will work leave in the MTF. We will see... But I really think this will be great for us.

Everyone has been so quiet lately... I hope everyone is still alive out there.

LOST IN TRANSLATION!!

WE arrived home last night. THANK GOODNESS!! We had a good time but it is really great to be home. It took over six hours on the train to get there on Friday. When we got in we ate McDonald's and then went to Odori Park. They had already cleared out the snow sculptures but it was still really beautiful. We went up the TV tower which is basically just a small replica of the Eiffel tower. It was really cool to see the city from up there. Sapporo is really huge. Over one million people. Hardly anyone spoke English though and it was tough to order food and stuff. In Misawa most menus and shops have English ... Not in Sapporo. We ate at the TV tower at some funky organic restaurant place. It was good. Then we went back to the hotel and passed out. We spent Saturday seeing the sights. Sapporo has a really great history and it was really great to see the buildings from the 1870's that Americans designed and they are still up!! Surrounded by a modern city. Dave was in heaven at the Sapporo beer factory which was the main reason for our visit. The tour wasn't in English so we just looked around and then went to get some beers. HeHe. There was one really cool part of the tour that had all of their old advertisement posters. They are really neat. I bought a few post cards and will scan and put them in the photo album . Check them out.

We had a great time but are really glad to be home. We pick Wendy up from the Kennel tomorrow morning. Thank goodness I really miss her!!! Today I am cleaning house and doing laundry. FUN. No I really don't mind laundry and cleaning.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Enjoy your Monday if you get it off!!..

Entry for February 09, 2007

Well, its been a week already!! WE have kept pretty busy even though leaving the house means using the shuttle because Dave has the car all day. Today we are going up to get our tickets to Sapporo then we are going to lunch. Tomorrow though Melissa and I are going to the Hirosaki Snow Lantern Festival. It should be a hoot. Dave has to work so he isn't going with us.

Next week we have lots planned. I will try to blog next week more.

P.S. this pic is from Swan they have really great food

We made it

We made it to Misawa last night. Everything went ok. It was a little stressful trying to make sure we weren't lost!! I am sure Melissa has lots to tell of what she has seen so far.

Dave is still sick hopefully he will get better soon!!!

Going to Tokyo today!

Ok ok ok... So Dave came home last night. I am so glad he is back.. . He is sick with a bad cough but this morning he sounded lots better like it is all breaking up so hopefully he will be all better soon. He is all unpacked and I got all of his laundry done last night. Then I got my over night bag packed. I am all set and ready to go. Dave is at work now but is going to come home and drive me to the airport at noon or so. Then I am flying to Tokyo. I should arrive at the airport an hour or so before Melissa lands. Plenty of time I am sure. Then we are going to stay the night at The Holiday Inn right there by the airport and on Thursday morning we are going to take the train up to Misawa. whew! I am sure everything will work out great.. I am just SO glad Dave made it home. I am pretty sure Japan is going to blow Melissa's mind... I don't know what she expects but I am pretty sure it won't be anything like what she thinks it will. Did that make sense? Well, you know what I mean.

Well, Happy Wednesday !! I'll let you know how it goes in Tokyo when I get back!!

Entry for December 06, 2006

So many exciting things going on. 

• We go pick up our new car today.  I am really geeked. 
  
• Melissa is coming to visit in January!! eeeeee
  
• I am half done with the quilt top I started last winter!  I think it looks really nice so far
  
• I started Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich.. Its  a hoot so far
  
• Our tree is up and the house is pretty and I have all of my Christmas shopping done.

That's really it but it feels like a lot of good things.  I am really excited about Melissa's visit.  We were starting to think maybe no one was going to come to Japan to visit us. ( I know Sandy and Sean came to visit but they didn't have to go very far)  I really hope i can get this quilt finished before Melissa comes to visit.  Her favorite color happens to be purple and it would look really pretty at the end of her bed.... Well we don't actually have a bed for her to sleep in yet, but you know what I mean.  We will probably go shopping for a fold-away bed very soon.  Dave will be leaving on the 2nd or 3rdof January for his Vegas TDY so he will be back just before Melissa flies in.  I am sure the three weeks he is gone I will get the quilt finished. 

I have started scrapbooking 2006.  I am to July 4th so far.  I have been going really slow and taking my time.  LOL I only do a two page layout every few days.  The book is turning out really swell so far.  I like it a lot!! 

Well, think that's it. I just really wanted to post a picture of the half of a quilt top I have finished.  What do you think?? 

funny how things get interesting

I started a new book last week.  Widow of the South by Robert Hicks....I had a really tough time getting through the first 50 pages.  It is about the Civil War battle that took place at Franklin, TN.  I have never been a civil war buff.. but Melissa is and it was her pick for the month.  I only had to trudge through it a little further to get hooked.  I am about half finished now and I am really enjoying it.  I even find myself thinking I would really like to go tour this town.  (I looked it up on the net.. maybe next summer I'll go down there. lol)  Melissa is two books behind so she is catching up right now and hasn't started Widow yet.  I think she is getting antsy... I hope she can start it soon so she and I can chat about it in the evening.

I finished all of my cleaning on Wednesday.  Feels great to know everything is spic n span.  I am sure my spring cleaning will be a lot easier.  I made three loaves of banana bread last night and some banana muffin for Dave to take to work and share.  I love the feeling of a clean house and something yummy in the oven!!!

 We should find out today if Dave got the few days off next week that we have been hoping for.   We really want to get out of Misawa and travel to Sapporo to check the city out.  I am crossing my fingers we will get the o.k.

Have a great weekend everyone!!! 

My Step-Sister's Wedding

So my step-sister Jamie was married yesterday.  We had planned to take a trip home but Dave's leave was cancelled.  I was really bummed.  I really wish we could have made it home.  I really hate missing things like this.   I guess today I am feeling pretty crummy.  I get really homesick sometimes.  It is so frustrating knowing that we are pretty much going to continue missing everything for the next 15 years.  It is days like today that I don't think I can stick out 20 years in the Air Force.  I will probably spend the next few days trying to convince Dave that the military 'isn't for us'.  Then in another week I will be back to thinking 'this isn't so terrible'. 

The one great thing is that Dave's mom went to my sister's shower and wedding so she took pictures and sends them to me through IM the next day!  Talk about convenient!  If I had to wait for pictures from my mom I would be waiting for months.   It is nice.  When Dave's brother was married in July we got pictures the next day.  I couldn't live without my IM connection to the real world.  LOL.

Well, that's all I got for now.  Dave has tomorrow off.  Thank you Christopher Columbus!  Hoping to get out of Misawa for the afternoon. Maybe drive to Hachinohe to go to Lapia Mall.  Maybe they will have a movie there we want to see.  We haven't tried watching a movie off-base with Japanese subtitles.  I'll let you know how that goes.     

proof I hated the millenium force.

Hey yall so now that we have a scanner I was gonna put a pic on here that you guys haven't seen.  This was from last summer when we went to Cedar Point.  I think i wrote about how terrible the millennium force was but here is the proof of how much I hated it. 

Thought I should blog before I forget what I have done...

I have  a little more than a week left of my trip but I thought I should blog now before I forget everything that I have done while here in Mich.  I had a little trouble getting thru  immigration in Detroit as you may have read in my previous blog.  I thought that was going to be the beginning of a horrible trip but it hasn't thankfully.  I spent the first few days just enjoying being in America again.  Amazed by commercial on TV,  overwhelmed by the huge grocery stores with so much new stuff Ive never heard of,  new cars on the road.  The first week I was here Melissa and I went to a scrapbooking crop in Lapeer.  We had such a great time and we got a lot of work done.  Melissa  finally got past crying and actually scrapbooked her pictures.  LOL  It was a little rough for her but I really think she is proud of the really pretty pages she has all finished.  I am proud too.   

The week after I got there Melissa and I went to get our haircut by some fancy foreign guy.  He was dramatic and went a little scissor happy on my hair.  I thought I would get used to my short new do but now I thoroughly despise it.  My hair grows fast though so hopefully in a couple months It wont be so damn short. 

I got to go to my mom's band concert the  first weekend I was in the states.  It was really fun .  I have always liked going to her concerts and have found over the years hearing about the concerts make me really homesick like missing a holiday homesick.  I had a really great time and Melissa also enjoyed the music I think. 

Melissa and I stayed busy visiting with Jennifer one afternoon, looking at her Colorado pictures.  My mom and Jim came over for dinner one evening and Jackie came over for supper too.  Everyone at my moms house was sick the first week I was in MI so I kinda stayed away for a bit until that cleared up. 

We went to Chicago  on Tuesday(mar 7).  We woke up early to ride the train from Lapeer to Chicago's union station.  It was fun and of course it was cheap.  Melissa and I walked around the station once trying to find the street we needed.  We ended up walking all of the way to our hotel.  It took us a while but the weather was nice and it was fun to walk around and see everything.  We checked into our hotel and didn't waste anytime, we headed straight for the navy pier.  The pier happen to be just down the street from our hotel.  We walked around a little and ate at the jazz restaurant there.  It was nice.   Melissa got a bag of Oprah's favorite gourmet popcorn, cheddar and caramel.  We went to our hotel changed and got a cab to Zanies Comedy Club.  It was really fun, there were four comedians.  The last comedian was the funniest.  I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt. 

After Zanies we went to BLUE Chicago a blues bar.  It was really COOL.  Live blues and a one drink min.  We sat there for awhile just enjoying the entertainment.  Their was one influenced Canadian that kept asking us to dance..... but what happens in Chicago stays in Chicago.  LOL    We walked home from the bar even though it was late.  Chicago despite the homeless seems very safe.  We were really pooped since  we had woke up that morning at 4 am to get ready for our 6am train. 

The second day of our trip we woke up and headed to a really cool place called Hot Tics.  They have half price show tickets the day of the performance.  We got tickets to Menopause the Musical.  We headed over to the theatre only to get a cab who didn't know how to get there!  He was lost for  30 minutes of our 45 minute ride.  He didn't charge us though.  We felt bad for the guy.  LOL  We ate at a little diner across the street from the Apollo  Theater.   We went to the 2 pm show and had a great time.  It was really fun.  We got a cab who knew his way on the way back to  the hotel.  LOL

We got a tip from our hotel to check out this place called   Howl at the Moon.  It is a dueling rock n' roll piano bar.  So we ate dinner at the Melting Pot (YUM YUM), and headed to the bar.  (Both the melting pot and Howling at the Moon were  really close to our hotel.)   It may have been the best part of our trip!  It was so fun, singing along to all of these requested songs.  Those two guys knew all of those songs it was crazy!  We spent a few hours there and headed back  to the hotel to turn in a little earlier than the night before!  LOL

We woke up a little earlier on  Thursday and decided we would do all of our sight seeing  during the day and catch a show in the evening.  So we walked up and down Michigan Ave.   We went to the American Girl store, the Orvis store,  Burberry, and a couple other places.  We went to the Hancock building and got lots of great pictures of the city from up there.  Then we headed over tot the Sears Tower to see what we could see from up even higher!  We rode the subway to downtown and walked the rest of the way to the Sears tower.   It was really cool.  

We walked around downtown a bit and walked to Greektown for lunch.  It was yummy we ate at a place called Athena's.    Afterward we took the subway back to  the magnificent mile area and walked around a bit longer.    We went to the  Uno's Pizza for dinner.  Unos is  where the Chicago deep dish was created.  It was good, more of an experience than  the best pizza ever. 

After Unos we headed over to the Briar Street Theatre to see the Blue Man Group.  What a trip that show is.  We had a really great time there and loved the ending with all of the toilet paper.   It was just such a cool show.

  We headed back to our hotel and turned in for the night.  We woke up the next morning and had to get ready to leave.  We went to the train station .  We had a little bit of time at Union Station so we tried a real Chicago Hot Dog.  LOL  That's what the hot dog stand claimed anyways.  LOL  It was a good dog and it was a great way to end our Chicago Trip.  

After we got back home I decided if I was going to see my family I needed to go stay at my mom's.  So that's it where I have been.  I went with my mom and dad(Jim) to my grandpa McNary's house to look through old pictures yesterday.  I am planning on making copies this week. 

I am going shopping with Ben today which should be fun.  Tomorrow is Jackie's 17th Birthday so we are going to dinner which will be  really cool.  We are going to great lakes crossing to the Japanese place there. 

Well, that is really it so far.  LOL  I know Dave has been working  a lot, and is hating keeping the house up on his own.  One day he told me he thinks taking care of Wendy must be all I do all day since she is driving him crazy.   He is working while she is home sleeping and when he gets home it is time for her to wake up and eat and play.  SO she has been a little bothersome to him.

That's it so tata for now.

My trip to Michigan so far

Well, I have been here for almost two weeks.  it is really nice to be in the States.  I wish Dave would have come though!!!!  I have been able to get a ton of scrapbooking done.  And spending time with Anna has been great! 

Melissa and I are going to Chicago tomorrow morning.  We are riding the train from Lapeer to Chicago and we are really excited.  Oprah will be on Spring Break so we wont get to seee her show.  Whatever, we are still going to have a lot of fun we are looking at dinner theaters in Chicago.  The murder mystery  gangster style sounds like fun.  I am sure I will take a lot of pictures but I will have to wait until I get home to post them because Melissa's Internet is so F-ing slow it makes me want to scream. 

Hope everyone is doing well.