friends

one of the great things about the church is you meet some really great people and make some great friends. i think i've gone out pretty much every day for the past week with people from church. we had book club one night, went to lunch one day, went to the pool one day, played bunco one night, we had a game night for fhe monday night, went to ebina yesterday, and just lots of fun stuff. it's been great to get out of the house. granted it's always hot and humid, and you go outside and just start dripping which is disgusting, but i get bored sitting at home all day. so friends are great. i don't know what i would do with out them. and i'm starting to see more of japan and learn my way around. i think i've pretty much figured out how to take the train now. it's not too bad. it's just a matter of getting to the right line. it can be a little confusing. i've decided the worst part of living in japan is not speaking/understanding the language. i can deal with most everything else. the driving can be dealt with, the train isn't too bad, the food is still kinda questionable, but overall it's great. i'm slowly learning the language. it's not easy though. i know some key phrases, but still wish i knew more. i need to look into taking some japanese classes and see if that helps. but until then, i'll keep going out with my friends that have been here longer and know more than i. =)

grrrrrr!!!!

it really bugs me when people don't tell us stuff that we have to know or do. we took the dogs up to the vet today for a pre-op appt to get their dew claws removed. we had the surgery and everything already scheduled for next week. we get there today, keep in mind it's a 45 minute walk since we don't have a car, only to be told they can't do the surgery until they are done with the quarantine which is october 5th. apparently it's japanese law. also turns out that we are supposed to take them in for a check up once a month while they are on quarantine too. no one bothered to tell us any of that! we knew they were on quarantine til october. that much we knew. the monthly visit and no routine surgery we didn't know. the whole surgery thing is frustrating since ben will more than likely be deployed by then which means i'll be taking care of the dogs on my own, and as much as i love them, they can be quite a handful. grrrrrr!!! with something so routine as saying you have to come in once a month, how can you forget to tell someone that? needless to say ben wasn't too happy when we left. as we were leaving though, one of our friends that works there pulled up from getting lunch. so we talked to her for a bit and she was going to talk to the vet and see if they could figure something out. so annoying! stupid vet people...

orders

so i got the news yesterday that pretty much every military wife doesn't want to hear. after a long day of not feeling well and cleaning house, ben came home from work and told me he has orders to deploy. his unit leaves in about a month. granted he won't be leaving with them, as the dr has told them he's not going until his shoulder is better. we're not going to send him over and him screw it up even more. so his orders will be amended, but basically it's as soon as the dr gives the ok, he will be leaving. even if it's just for a couple months. that is unless by some miracle we can keep ben here until april, he will reenlist and we will head back to the states. as nice as japan is, we are both ready to return to the states. so that's what i'm hoping for. that i can keep him here until april and then we'll move back to the states. if he has to deploy he has to go, but i would much rather keep him here with me. he promises he'll be safe and not come back dead, but no one can ever be 100% sure of that. all we can do is hope and pray that everything turns out ok.

Happy 4th of July!

so lately i've come to realize just how good we have it in america. not that japan is bad, but we really are truly blessed to be american citizens. with all of our many freedoms, it's no wonder that so many people want to come to america. it really is the land of the free and the home of the brave. there really is no better place to call home! i hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday. and if you get a chance, thank a soldier for protecting our country and allowing us the freedoms we often take advantage of.

YAY!!

just as a little disclaimer, this post might make more sense to those that are military or ex-military. i'll do my best to make it clear as mud though... =)
as of today, my husband is now SGT. HULSE!!! yay!!! we've been waiting a long time for this. in the military, earning rank has part to do with a point system. you earn points for taking classes, awards and certificates, and i don't know what else. it's all kinda confusing to me. but i do know you have to have a certain number of points plus recommendations and such to be promoted. but anyway, he would have had the promotion a few months ago, but missed it by like 4 points. and if the people that he works with would have done their job, he would have had it. he had a few awards that needed to be entered, but they didn't do it in time so he didn't get it. so anyway, he finally got it this month. i don't remember the last time i saw him so happy. he is so excited. he deserves it too. he has worked long and hard for it. it's about time he finally got it. so yay on that!
speaking of the military and ben... last week before we went to girls camp, we had a bit of trouble with his unit. now to put it nicely, his unit is "special". holy cow! so his sgt came over monday night, and gave him a packing list saying he needed to get all of it ready by tuesday to be shipped down range for when they deploy. we weren't even sure he'd be going! and there's no sense in sending all his stuff down there, if he's not going to be there. first off they don't know when they are going. technically they don't have orders to go right now, as something was messed up so they were pulled and are being revised. second ben just had surgery less than a month ago and the dr said he is nondeployable right now. so here's how "special" his unit is... the dr gave ben a profile that says something to the affect of is the soldier healthy enough to deploy and the dr checks yes or no. the no box is checked. that profile was good through like the 5th of july or something, and they were saying that they would be leaving after that and that ben would be going. so ben called the dr and the dr extended it until september. so we got the new profile and sent it to the unit. then his commanders were saying well that doesn't say he can't deploy. they wanted it in black and white. so ben called the dr again. and the dr sent another profile this time he wrote in the comment box UNABLE TO DEPLOY!!! it was underlined with exclamation points and all. now here's the kicker... we were at the dr today for a follow up and the dr said that his commander called the dr personally and asked "so this means he can't deploy?" hello?!?! can you not read?!?! it says right there black and white, especially for you, UNABLE TO DEPLOY! and his whole unit is like that! a bunch of retards (to put it nicely)! we haven't heard anything back from his unit, so he shouldn't be deploying with his unit. atleast not right now anyway. there's always the chance that he could meet up with them later on, but he won't be going before september. yay!
like i said, ben had another follow up appt today. things are getting better. he pretty much has full range of motion back. there's still a lot of scar tissue that needs to be broken down though. so we'll continue physical therapy and working on range of motion. he doesn't want ben doing any weight training or anything on it yet. his shoulder has a tendency to get all swollen when he does and then his hand and arm go numb. so we'll keep doing the physical therapy and continue to break down the scar tissue, and then go back the beginning of august. he's gettin better though.
so yeah, that's pretty much all that's going on here right now. not all that exciting, but it's life. more to come soon!