Paging Dr. House...

I wish Dr House was a real doctor that I could take my husband to. He's not doing so well again. He's been hurting so much that we ended up going down to Yokota after church this afternoon to go to the Urgent care clinic. Zama doesn't have any real emergency care, so if we went there they would have sent us to a Japanese hospital and I didn't feel like dealing with that. So we made the hour and a half drive down to the Air Force base to see what they could do. Yeah, that was a waste of a trip. Yeah they got us in quick, but that was about all they did quick. They really didn't do anything for him. The dr looked at his medical record, said we can't give you any narcotics (because his dr down in Okinawa said not to), so here's some "liquid ibuprofen" and follow up with your dr at Zama tomorrow. Umm, yeah, thanks for nothing! They didn't do anything that helped with the pain, let alone try to figure out why he's having pain. I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it is. He's been hurting for the past 6, almost 7, months and we still don't know why. And we can't find a dr who will do anything about it. I think our choices right now are to go back down to Okinawa, and have the dr there cut him open and see if he can find anything. And also start really looking into getting a medical reassignment and heading back to the states where he can see actual drs. Preferably at Madigan (Ft Lewis Washington) or Tripler (in Hawaii). I don't know how easy that's going to be though. But it would be so nice to take him to a civilian dr where they might actually do something to try and figure out what's causing the pain other than just trying to treat the symptoms. I'm so tired of seeing my man hurt as much as he does. :(

Holiday Cooking

Christmas here was pretty quiet for us. Just us and the dogs. We had invited some friends over to share a big dinner with us, but no one showed up. I can't say I was totally disappointed (although I was a little) just because both Ben and I haven't been feeling the greatest lately. But we still made a big feast for the two of us. Ben made the turkey, and I'm glad he did. He is so amazing in the kitchen.

Isn't it beautiful?! It was delicious! We bought a 26 lb turkey since we were expecting to share it with 5 other people. Needless to say we'll be eating turkey leftovers for the next month. ;)

I also tried my hand at pie making. I think this was the first fruit pie I've made, and I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself.

It's a Cherry-Berry Peach Pie. Made with cherries, peaches and blueberries, and I made it all by myself- crust and all! Ok so I used a pie crust cookie cutter type thing to make the snowflake on the top, but I think it turned out pretty nice. And it tastes pretty yummy too! :)

Photo Shoot

Here's a few of my favorite pics that we had taken.

4 years later and still so in love!

Gotta love the Idaho Sunsets. They were beautiful that afternoon!

Thanks again Holly! They turned out better than I could have hoped for. To see all of our pics, I've got them posted on Facebook or you can check them out on Holly's website. Just email me and I'll send you the website and password. :)

Vacation

After living in Japan for over a year and a half, we finally made it back home to Boise for a visit. It was a much needed vacation for both of us. We decided to take the military Space-A flight from the air base here in Japan to Seattle to save us a couple thousand dollars. I'm not totally convinced it was worth it though. They have two flights that fly from Japan to Seattle, one on Tuesday and one on Saturday. We told everyone we would be home on the Saturday flight, but thought it would be fun to sneak home a few days early on the Tuesday flight. Well, that didn't work out so well. We were planning on leaving Japan on the 17th, but the plane broke down and they cancelled the flight. Since we didn't know for sure when the plane would be leaving, we decided to get a hotel room there at the air base instead of driving all the way back to Zama (I know, a whole hour and a half away). So we stayed there, calling at least a couple times a day, until they finally got a plane to take us back on Friday. Still a day earlier than people were expecting us. Looking back though, staying in the hotel wasn't all that bad. While there I was less than thrilled just because I was ready to be home, but it was nice to have some alone time with Ben. We left the dogs with some friends, so we didn't have to worry about them. Didn't have to worry about work calling. It was just us. Anyway, Friday came and we got ready to go. Got all checked in, then sat around in the air terminal all afternoon and a good part of the evening. We did luck out when it came time to get our seats. We got first class seats. Lots of leg room, reclining seats, the works. It was the most comfortable flight I have ever been on. We did have a layover at Misawa in Northern Japan. It was only supposed to be 2 hours but ended up being 4. I guess they were having issues getting the plane fueled up. But we finally got back on the plane, and it wasn't long before both Ben and I were passed out. We ended up sleeping most of the trip, which made it more pleasant. We got to Seattle about 4 Friday afternoon (yeah we gained a day coming back). The airline gave everyone an apology letter and a $50 Visa gift card for all the problems that the broken plane caused. That made us feel a little better. We got through customs, got our bags, and went to find a flight to Boise. We got up to the ticket counter, and we found that we had lost Ben's ID card. So we're searching everywhere for his card, while rushing around getting tickets for our next flight which leaves in less than an hour. We went to Lost and Found, made a couple phone calls, and found we had left it at the customs counter. They get someone to bring it up to our gate while we go through security and get ready to board. We get to the gate, get his card, and have just long enough for me to pull out my computer and tell my brother to be at the airport to pick us up in about an hour. We fly into Boise, and I can not tell you how happy we were to be home. We met my brother at the gate, got our bags and headed out to the car. It kinda freaked me out a bit as we pulled out of the airport. It really felt like we were driving on the wrong side of the road. It's a good thing my brother was driving. We had to make one stop before we went to the house. We had to stop at Qdoba and get dinner. They have the biggest and best burritos there. So good! We got them to go, headed home, and just as we were getting out of the car my mom pulled up, coming home from work. I don't know who was more happy to see who. We went in, visited for a little bit, ate dinner, watched some football, then went to Wal-Mart. Yes, our first night home we went to Wal-Mart. I miss that store! Saturday was our anniversary. 4 years! We went to IHOP for breakfast, went and saw New Moon at the theater, and did some shopping. Ben got a new pair of Oakley sunglasses and I got a new ring with my birthstone in it. That night we went with my family to a friend's house for a "Wild Game Party". Every year they have a party where the guests bring whatever game they may have hunted that year. Nothing too exotic this year. Lots of deer and elk. It was good though. Sunday we went to church with my parents. Had the whole family there. Pretty much took up the whole bench. :) It was nice to visit with those friends that we haven't seen in a couple years. We went and saw the grandparents after dinner. It was nice to visit with them too. We didn't do much the next few days. For Thanksgiving, we got together with my mom's family. They were all there, all 40+ of them. It was good though. Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, my aunt's rolls, pies, oh so good! It was great! We spent the rest of the evening/night playing board games. We decided not to stay up late or get up early for the Black Friday Sales. We went out later in the afternoon and hit up Old Navy and a couple other places. Still got everything we wanted, with not much of a crowd, so it all worked out. The next week wasn't super eventful. We did go to the temple with my parents and my dad's parents. That was a really special time, for me at least. Again, that sweet peaceful feeling was there. I love it! We had planned on going down to Idaho Falls to visit Ben's family, but decided not to. Ben wasn't feeling well and didn't know if we could make it that long in the car. So his older sister, Savannah and her husband Charles and their boys, came up to Boise to visit us instead. We had dutch oven chicken and potatoes and made a some peach cobblers. Dominic, our oldest nephew, really wanted to help so I let him help me make the cake batter for the cobbler. After that, both Dominic and Eli (the younger one) got a kick out of playing with the dishes in the kitchen sink. It was pretty cute. Eli cuddled up on the couch with Ben after that to watch some tv before bed. They are such cute boys. I can't believe how much they've grown since we've been gone. We had a good visit though. Not really long enough, but Charles had to get back for work. We sent all the Christmas presents with them so we didn't have to worry about shipping them. We had brought one suitcase full of only presents home, so we really didn't have to ship any, which was nice. :) Let's see, what else did we do while home... Lots of shopping. It was so great to be able to go out and actually have some where to go and stuff to buy. I had a shopping afternoon with my mom and sister. Ok, so we only went to Craft Warehouse, but we spent a couple hours there. That's such a cool store! We also went out to Caldwell to visit with our friends, the Miller's, from Ft. Irwin. It was so good to see them again. Holly did a photo shoot for us (I'll post some of those pics in another post), and they turned out great. I'm so happy with them. We stayed and had dinner with them, played with the kids, and talked and visited for a while. The kids were super excited to use the chopsticks we sent them for Christmas last year. They were pretty proud of themselves when they could pick their dinner up with them. It was pretty funny. They are such cute kids though. Such a great family. I can't wait until we get out of the military and move back to Idaho and we can get together more often. There was also an afternoon when I went with a couple of my brothers to Downtown Boise to take some pictures. One of them had to take some photos for his photography class at school so I went with him. I got a few cool pictures of my own. It was nice and cold by the time we got done, so naturally we had to stop at Moxie Java and get some hot chocolate on the way home. :) We had a kinda white Christmas while we were home. We celebrated early with my family before we left. It was so nice to see snow again. We actually got quite a bit while we were there. We were afraid we might not have been able to fly back up to Seattle when we were supposed to because of the snow. Our flight did leave on time though and we made it back up to Seattle to try and catch our flight back to Japan. We made it on the flight, which was not nearly as comfortable as our flight over. The plane wasn't as nice and no where near as comfortable. We had a 4 hour layover in Fairbanks, and a 1 1/2 hour layover in Misawa. It was a long trip! From the time we left my parent's house to the time we got to our house, it had been 32 hours. Waaaay to long for my liking! I wasn't entirely ready to leave the states. I was ready to get back home to the dogs and our own bed, but I didn't want to come back to Japan. I'm ready to be back in the states. We've got about a year left here in Japan. Hopefully it goes somewhat fast. It was so nice being back home for the 3 weeks we were there though. Oh, I almost forgot... I got contacts while we were home too. I'm loving not having to wear my glasses. Still tend to have some issues taking them out, but over all they've been wonderful. I debated for quite a while if I was going to get them, finally decided to do it, and really couldn't be happier about it. :)

The Good, The Bad, and The... Ummmm... Yeah...

We'll start with the not so happy news... Our chameleon, The Bandit, died over the weekend. One thing we didn't know when we got her was that the females tend to have more health problems, and she was no exception. One of the big problems was that she lost sight in both her eyes, she didn't eat much, and just wasn't doing all that great. So we were expecting her to go, and she lasted a lot longer than we thought she would, but it's still sad. It does solve the problem of what we would do with her when we go home for a few weeks, and the problem we would have had when it came time to move again, but it's still sad. We'll get another one someday, because they are really cool animals, but it won't be until we're out of the military and done moving around (whenever that will be...).

Now for a little more positive news... we bought a keyboard the other night! Someday we'll get a real piano (again when we're out of the military and done moving around), but this works for now. Ben has been wanting to learn to play, and it's been a while since I've played, so we bought a keyboard. It's pretty cool. It's got the lessons built into it for the songs that are pre-programmed. Ben can already play the melody line of "Silent Night." He is a quick learner. We're still working on the reading the music part of it, but it's a work in progress. I'm pretty impressed with him, and I know he's proud of himself. But he's such an awesome guy who can do pretty much anything and everything anyway, it shouldn't be much of a surprise. :)

Now for those of you who are patiently awaiting "the news"... this isn't it. No, I'm not pregnant yet. We're still trying. I've been taking the fertility med Clomid the past couple months and it hasn't helped yet. I'll start round 3 of it tomorrow. It's really kind of frustrating that it hasn't happened yet. Before Ben came home, I really felt that it would happen shortly after. But here it is 3, almost 4, months later and it still hasn't happened. I know it will happen when the time's right, but when it's something you want so bad and you have the constant reminder all around you that it's something you can't have, well it can be a little depressing. If it's any indication how ready we are, we've already got the nursery set up. Maybe we're crazy for doing it so early, but we had some extra money from Ben's deployment and just happened to find a crib/dresser/changing table set that we loved for $250 (I'll post pics one of these days). And we also used my Deployed Spouses Discount at the Px (before I couldn't use it anymore) to get a car seat and stroller that I loved, along with a few other things. So we've got all our big purchases taken care of. Now if I could just get pregnant...

Sweet Peaceful Feeling

Have you ever noticed that when you are trying your hardest to be your best, that's when Satan is working extra hard to make you fail? I sure felt that way tonight. The first Friday of every month is our scheduled Branch Temple Trip, and Ben and I made the effort to go. It wasn't without some hassle and trouble though. We had to get new temple recommends as our old ones were expired, so we were scheduled to meet with a member of the District Presidency before the session. With our District (Stake) being so spread out (literally from one end of Japan to the other), meeting with a member of the District Presidency isn't always the easiest to arrange. But we had it set up to meet at the temple and just do the interviews there. The plan was to take the bus down that leaves from Zama that they have set up just for us. Well, that didn't happen. Ben had let his command know Monday that he needed to be off early Friday so he could be back in time. They said it shouldn't be a problem, but wouldn't know for sure until Friday. Well, that never sounds good. And guess what, it wasn't. His commander didn't let him leave until about 445, we were supposed to get on the bus at 500, and it's a good 30-45 minute drive from where he works to the house. So I ran down to where they were meeting, let the Elder's Quorum President know we wouldn't be on the bus, but we'd take the train and get there as soon as we could. I ran back home and got everything ready so that as soon as Ben got home all he had to do was change and we were out the door. He got home about 510/515 and we were out the door by 530, but then we had to walk down to the train station which is a good 10 minute walk. We missed the train we needed to be on so we had to adjust our route a little bit. We got there without much trouble though. We were supposed to have our interviews at 645. We didn't get to the temple until about 710/715, and the session started at 730. So we kinda rushed through the interviews, and hurried to change. Somehow we made it there on time. And let's just say, it was what I needed. I've needed to go for a while now, and just being there in that special place with the one I love, I really couldn't have asked for more. Ok I could have asked for a little more time to just sit there and soak it all in, but we were taking the bus back so we couldn't sit there all night. It was such a sweet peaceful feeling though. To sit there in the Celestial Room with Ben, not having all the noise and stress of the outside world pounding on us. It's really an indescribable feeling. The temple is such a blessing though. We are so lucky to live so close (only about an hour away) and we're going to make it a point to go more often. Our next trip will be when we go home for Thanksgiving and I can't wait. What a great feeling! I'm loving this Spiritual High right now. :)

November Already?!?!

I realized I hadn't updated my blog for like a month so I guess it's time to play "Month-In-Review". Nothing really happened. There ya go! :) Just kidding, sorta. We really didn't have anything happen. We had the "typhoon" (aka wind and rain) at the beginning of the month. Ben had most of the month off to recover from his shoulder surgery. He just went back to work last week. The first time he's really had to go to work since coming home 3 months ago. It's been great having him around. Even being sick and hurt. He is slowly getting better though. His shoulder is doing alright. He's ahead of schedule for where is range of motion should be, which is good. He starts the strength training part of physical therapy this week, but I think we're gonna take it a kinda slow just to make sure he doesn't re injure it in the process. We're happy to report that he hasn't had any kidney stones in the past month. He's on like 5 different pills for it, but they are working so he's not complaining too much. He still has the pain in his side, but we still don't have any answers there yet. It was getting better for a while, probably because he was all drugged up for his shoulder, but it's starting to not do so well again. Hopefully we figure it out one of these days. Anyway, he's back to work and doing alright. As soon as he got back they made him the Training Room NCO. Meaning he's in charge of that particular area. He gets to make all the schedules, and I don't know what else. But stuff is getting done because that's what happens when he's in charge. :) He has to attend a class in Hawaii in January. Oh darn! We're gonna try and find someone to watch the dogs and I'll get on a military flight and meet him there. We're excited for that trip! As for me, I haven't been up to much. I've worked a few days here and there, but not really a whole lot. Not nearly as much as I was last spring. It's been alright though. Since Ben was home, it wasn't like I was sitting here doing nothing. Then I got my new calling in Primary which I think I mentioned before. We had the Primary Program last week (I got to sit with the Sunbeams), and then yesterday I officially started my job. I'm the new primary chorister. I think it'll be great, but I really have no idea what I'm doing right now. Yeah, I can get up there and wave my arm around, but I'm at a loss when it comes to planning which songs to do, how to teach them, etc. Then I get mixed messages as to what I'm supposed to do. The Primary President says to just do what I want, but her counselor (who has been around longer) says/thinks we should be working on these certain songs. So I'm kinda confused. We're having a Presidency meeting tomorrow (because I guess I'm kinda the Secretary by default too) so hopefully I'll have a better idea as to what I'm supposed to be doing. But if anyone out there has any tips or advice I'm more than open to them. :) What else happened this month... Oh, we got a new washer and dryer. New to us anyway. The heating element on the dryer went out and the washer was making the clothes stink. I'm not sure what was causing the washer to do that. Some bad connections that got moldy maybe? But regardless we have a new washer and dryer and it's so much easier to do laundry when I can get it all done in one day because it doesn't take 3+ hours to get a small load of clothes dry. So that was pretty much our month. We didn't really do anything for Halloween. We "carved pumpkins". Kinda. Japanese pumpkins just aren't the same as American ones. They aren't as slimy and the inside is just different so you try to carve it and it kinda just falls apart. :( I miss going to the pumpkin patch and getting humongous pumpkins with my family. Oh well. I did hand out candy to the few trick or treaters we had, all 20 we had. So it wasn't a very exciting night. Much like the rest of the month- not very exciting. November will be better though. We'll be home for Thanksgiving. I'm counting down the days! I can't wait! We'll be home soon!

That Was It?!?!

I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed in the typhoon. I was expecting a lot more. We had a thunderstorm early Thursday morning (like 3 am early) that I pretty much slept through, and then it was just windy yesterday. The wind seriously reminded us of Irwin. They sky was bright blue, it was warm, and Ben cooked lunch on the grill on the back patio. We haven't been out around post yet, but as far as I can tell, there's no damage up around us. So it wasn't a very exciting storm. The power didn't even go out. :( Oh well. At least we were prepared.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

For those that haven't heard, Typhoon Melor is headed straight for Japan. As of right now, it is mapped to pass us by about 70 miles or so. Which means lots of wind, lots of rain, and hopefully not lots of damage. I think we're all set though, and I'm really not too concerned. We've got our 72-hour kit together, plenty of food and bottled water, extra batteries. The patio set, grill, and garbage cans are all strapped down to the fence so they shouldn't go anywhere. The car is topped off with gas. And we've got plenty to do around the house. Things should be ok. I'm not too worried about flooding or anything (at least at our house) since we live on the top of a nice hill. I'm pretty confident we'll be ok. It's still kinda surreal to me though. This is the first place I've ever lived where we actually have to worry about natural disasters. Nothing really happens in Idaho (at least in the Boise area), and we supposedly had earthquakes at Ft Irwin, but they were never felt like we feel them here. Here in Japan we have to worry about earthquakes and typhoons. It's kinda crazy to think about. We're always told to have our emergency kits/supplies ready, but I will admit I never really paid much attention to that until we moved here. And hopefully I won't have to use it, but in case I do you can all rest assured that we are prepared. I'll keep you updated on what happens.

New Calling

Ok, it's not really a "new" calling, but more of a "repeat" calling. Our Young Women's president is moving, so for obvious reasons I was released as a counselor. I was without a calling for all of about 2 seconds, before I was asked if I would accept a calling in the Primary. I just can't get away from that place! :P I don't know what I'll be doing exactly yet. They are just getting ready for the Primary Program right now, but I may end up as a teacher, the chorister, or possibly the other counselor in the presidency... Not that I really mind where I end up. I do enjoy the primary and working with the kids though. I was talking to the Primary President on Sunday and apparently they asked for me a while ago and had pretty much given up on getting me. (Hmmm... sounds kinda like what the YW told me a year ago...) It's kinda funny how the Lord's time works sometimes.

I'm A Slacker

I know, I know, it's been a while since my last update. Not a whole lot going on around here. The big news is Ben had his shoulder surgery last week. Everything went well, and he's slowly starting to feel a little better. There was more damage this time than there was last year when he had it done before he deployed. He managed to tear the labrum (the cartilage that goes around the shoulder joint to help keep the arm in place) all the way down to the bone in one spot, so the dr had to go in and tack it back down. He also cleaned up some cartilage that was fraying and what not. We go back in tomorrow to get the stitches removed. It appears to be healing well. He started physical therapy yesterday, and will be doing that for the next little while. It's going to take a good 6-9 months for his shoulder to be completely back to normal. There's no rush this time, so hopefully it is. He's doesn't have to go back to work until the last week of October. He'll go back for a couple weeks, then is taking some more time off so we can come home the end of November for Thanksgiving. He'll go back for a couple weeks, and then will be at a reduced work schedule (if he's working at all) for Christmas. So he should be able to pretty much just take it easy for at least the next 3 months. We'll see if he actually does though. :P He's also started taking some meds to help with the kidney stones. It's only been a week so I can't really say if they are working for sure or not. We'll give it some time and see when/if he gets another kidney stone. Hopefully he doesn't. His side is starting to feel a little better too. Not sure if that's just because he's been so drugged up since the surgery, or if it's actually feeling better. I'm hoping it's the later. So that's about all that's been going on around here. Lots of just hanging around watching movies and trying to make Ben comfortable. I've worked a couple days over at the elementary school (before Ben's surgery of course). But other than that it's been pretty boring. Hopefully something more exciting happens soon.

Update On The New Car

Yes, I'm talking about our new car. It seemed all fine and dandy when we first bought it. You would think that buying it from a dealer everything would be all good, right? WRONG! In order to get it all registered and everything, you have to do the base inspections along with Japanese inspections. Well, it failed. The base inspector said there was all kinds of problems with it and it would cost $600 just for labor, no parts included. So we took it back to the dealer. It really wasn't necessary to do everything they said, although it did still need some work. We got it done at the dealership and a week later were able to finally get all the registration taken care of. Not everything is fixed yet though. We still need to replace the brakes (they aren't super bad yet, but will need replaced soon) and we are having problems with the alternator. It's ridiculous how much stuff costs in Japan. One auto parts store wanted $800 just for the alternator. Ouch! We can order a new one online for $150. Ben talked to the Auto Shop here on post though and I guess they got something figured out. One of Ben's buddies is going to help him fix it all up, so hopefully by this weekend it will be up and running. It's great when we can get it to work though. Most days Japan has perfect convertible cruising weather. I love it!

Right off the lot!

It's so much smaller than my car! So much fun though!

Isn't it cute?!?!

Only in Japan

Living in Japan, you never know what you'll see as you drive down the road. Here's a few examples from our last trip to Yokota...

This was actually on post, but it's "American" and "Japanese" style outhouses.

Sorry, no bikes or handcarts.

I don't think she had enough stuffed animals in her back window.

Ummm, excuse me, but my car is that top middle one...

Wait! Which way do I go?!

The Japanese Police, hard at work as usual.

Duh, you just gotta "Reflax"!

The "Vacation" Part of Oki

Our trip to Okinawa wasn't just dr appts. After a few days of having to take a cab everywhere we decided to rent a car which made it easier to get out and see stuff. We went to a couple of the other bases down there, went to the beach, and were able to just get out of the hotel room for a little bit (which is always a plus). :)

I'm not sure what exactly they were celebrating, but there were fireworks right outside post over the weekend. We had the perfect view from our hotel room. It was so cool!

Torii Station is the Army installation down in Okinawa, which just happens to be right on the coast. So we got to go to the beach and the only people there were those somehow affiliated with the military in one way or another. It wasn't crowded, the water was great, and it was super nice to get out and enjoy ourselves for a little while.

It was so great to see Ben smile again too. We both ended up with some sunburns (his were worse than mine). But it was so nice to get out and enjoy some sun.

We got poured on that morning on our way there. Luckily it had let up by the time we got there.

We rented a 2-person kayak and some snorkeling gear for the afternoon. That was pretty cool. I wish I had an underwater camera so I could have gotten some pictures of the cool fish we saw while snorkeling. Just for the record though, ocean water doesn't taste that great. Yuck, too salty for me. :P

All in all, a very relaxing day. Just what we needed.

Trial and Error

We went back to the dr this afternoon for test results. Or really the lack there of. We still don't know what's causing the abdominal pain or the kidney stones. He did a few tests the end of last week. For the kidney stones he had another CT Scan done and had to do a 24 hour urine collection. The CT Scan didn't show anything, and the urine collection has to be sent to Texas or somewhere so we won't know those results for a couple months. For the pain, he had to do a test where he swallowed a camera the size of a large pill and was hooked up to all kinds of wires and a machine and it took pictures as it went through. That was done to make sure there weren't any problems with his small intestine, and there aren't. We didn't think there was, but just to be sure. So we don't know what's causing the pain. There's really no point in doing another colonoscopy. He's had two done already and nothing was found so there's really no point in doing another one. While we were there today, the dr went and grabbed one of the surgeons who deals more with abdominal surgeries and such just to make sure he didn't miss anything and to see if he had any other ideas, and the surgeon was just as stumped as the rest of us. We discussed our options some more, and now we're going to try a trial and error approach and see if we can find a medicine that helps. So he's back on naproxen and something else that I can't remember at the moment, and we've got to get him off the percocet. Narcotics can actually make gut pain/problems worse, and he's been on them almost 2 months now so we really need to get him off. We are trying anti-inflammatory first, which we think may help. He had been on naproxen before for his shoulder and the pain really started when he ran out and stopped taking it. Another thing that makes us lean towards inflammation somewhere, is using a heating pad helps the pain. Doesn't make it completely disappear, but helps some. So that's the plan of action right now. The kidney stones, well we're not sure what's gonna happen with that yet. I guess we wait and see what results come back from the urine collection and go from there. So really we aren't going home with much more than we came down with. And it wasn't much of a vacation seeing how we spent most of the time either in the hotel room or at the hospital. We did go down to the beach Sunday, and I'll post those pics when I find the camera. It's probably still in the backpack. But that's all the news for now. We'll be home tomorrow. Hopefully our puppies forgive us for having left them out on the back patio for the past week. We had someone taking care of them, but with all the rain that's fallen up there hopefully everything's ok...

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

We've been in Okinawa for just over 24 hours now, and let's just say things haven't exactly been smooth sailing. I'll start with yesterday. The day started alright. We got up and finished getting things ready to go before the van came to pick us up. The van showed up early and I wasn't ready to go. Not a huge deal. I just thought I'd have an extra 5 minutes. We stop and pick up one other person and head to the airport. Things still ok. Traffic was pretty heavy most of the way, but luckily the airport we flew out of isn't very far so we still made it with about an hour to spare before our flight. Once we figured out how to check in (because we just had a print out of our itinerary), we got our boarding passes, checked our suitcase, and headed to security. They are so much more laid back here than they are in the states. Didn't have to take laptops out of our bags, let alone take our shoes off. So that was nice. We get through and decide we need food as we kinda skipped breakfast in our hurry to get out the door. What we didn't realize was our choices were kinda limited once we passed through security. We ended up settling on sandwiches and juice. I know, not very exciting, but it was food. We relaxed in a couple massaging chairs while we ate and waited to board the plane. Relaxing, but definitely not long enough. Time comes to board the plane. Who knew so many people flew down to Okinawa. The flight was full. We ended up with middle seats which really wasn't all that comfortable, but oh well. It was only a 2 1/2 hour flight. They had a camera on the front of the plane so we could see what the pilot saw as we took off and landed which I thought was pretty cool. We finally get to Oki, get off the plane, find our luggage and go to find our ride. The hospital sent down a van to pick us up and take us to the hotel. Things still going alright. Just chillin' and watching out the window taking in the sights, when I look down and see this big spider on my door. He was outside, but still gross. Yes, that's my hand next to him to give you an idea of how big he was. Yuck! I have no idea what kind of spider he was, but I guess he thought he was part of the welcoming committee. It's just a good thing he was on the outside and not actually in the car. So after a little bit we get to our hotel. Pulling up outside my first thought was "ok this might not be too bad." I don't know that I could have been more wrong. We go to check in, and are reading over the fees/fines etc and to give you an idea of how ridiculous they are, it cost more to replace the room key if you lost it than it did to stay in the room for one night. We go to the room and I don't think it could have been any smaller. It had a double bed (yes a double bed for the both of us to share) which was super hard, it did have a small kitchen area which would have been nice if there had been somewhere close by to go get food. There was no internet, but they did have cable tv. It's been so long since I've seen American commercials and had more than seven channels to choose from. It was a nice change though. After spending about 5 minutes in the room we decided to go see if they had anything bigger. They didn't. So we called the main reservation desk, and they said they had a room in a different hotel that we could stay in, but it wouldn't be open until the next day. Ok we can deal with this small dinky room for one night. We go back to the room, order a pizza for lunch/dinner, and turn the tv on. Pizza finally shows up, we eat, and then settle in for nap. Not the most comfortable, but it helped. We finally wake up, have some dinner and start noticing little bugs crawling around the room. We don't think much of it right then. It's not until we're getting ready for bed that we realize how bad they really are. Ben picked up his computer (which was sitting on a chair, not the floor) and it's covered in these little ant bugs. Then we start finding more. All over the counter, the chair, the bedside table, the floor, everywhere! It's like 11pm now, and of course there is no one up at the front desk for us to talk to. We call the reservation desk again and tell them we need a new room NOW! There's no way we're going to stay there sleeping with the bugs. They worked something out for us and we're able to get a new room , we just had to find a way to get there. We pack our stuff back up real quick while the cab is called and get ready to head out. By midnight we were checking in to the new hotel. This one's much nicer. Bigger bed, internet, and no bugs. By the time we get settled back in and ready for bed it's close to 2 am. Neither of us slept that great. I'm sure it was because we were sleeping in a different bed, and just having a hard time unwinding after the day. Ben's first appt was at 11 this morning, or so we thought. We got to the hospital and first went to the wrong clinic. I thought Urology was first, but we should have been up at the GI. They didn't tell us that until after we'd been sitting there for about 10 minutes. So we run upstairs, only to find out they have rescheduled our appt for later this afternoon. Now we've got about 2 hours to kill before we had back to Urology for that appt. We get a cab and come back to the base where the hotel is as that's where the food court and anywhere to eat is. We get some lunch, wander around the exchange for a little bit, and then head back to the hotel for a bit. Ben set up a wireless internet router so we can both use our laptops in the room. They provide a computer with internet access in each room, but that's all. And when we both like spending time on our computers that was just a bit of a problem. So he got that all set up and we're a happy couple for the moment. We call another cab and head back over to the hospital. Now our first appt is with Urology. We head up, check in, do vital signs, blah blah blah. We go back to the waiting room for a couple minutes before meeting with the dr. I can't say we are overly impressed with the dr. She seems nice and all, but not too concerned with finding the cause of the kidney stones. She ordered a CT Scan and some blood work, but all that's gonna tell us is if he has any kidney stones now and not why he has them. That's really all she does though. She puts in the orders and we leave. By now we're feeling that this trip is a waste of time. We've got an hour and a half to kill before his GI appt, but we head upstairs anyway. We hang out in their waiting room for a while before the dr says he can see us early. We go back, we talk, and were basically told "I don't know what's wrong with you and I don't know if we'll be able to figure it out." He's willing to do whatever we want, but he has more ideas of what's not wrong than what is. Not exactly what we want to hear. We may just end up treating the symptoms, but really we want to find the cause of the pain. He's been in so much pain lately that he just really can't do anything by himself. He's on Percocet right now, but even that doesn't completely help. It takes the edge off so he can move around, but that's about it. I brought that up with the dr and he said there really isn't anything we can do right now to help that. This dr doesn't like to prescribe narcotics for gut pain, but that's all that helps Ben right now, so he's not going to say stop taking it. So again, we leave the clinic without any answers. He did order a test to check out his small intestine (I can't remember what it's called right now) just to make sure the problems aren't there. We head down to Radiology to schedule it and are told the next available appt is Sept 10th. We're supposed to leave the 3rd and really don't feel like hanging around an extra week just for this test. So we head back up to talk to the dr and he's going to call the Radiologist and see if we can't get it done sooner. If not we'll do a different test. So once again we are playing the waiting game with no answers in sight. You have NO idea how frustrating this is getting. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Why can't someone just give us some answers?!?! So that's been our trip so far. I'll let ya know if we find anything else out.

Leavin' On A Jet Plane...

Here's the latest update on Ben... He's not doing so great. He's in a lot of pain again (or still), and they can't do anything here but dope him up. So needless to say he hasn't had to go to work. He goes down to the first formation in the morning (which I have to drive him down to, again because of the pain), but then comes home and spends the rest of the day either in bed or on the couch. And it's to the point where he hurts so bad, that I have to help him move around. So he's really kinda miserable right now We are headed down to Okinawa to see the GI and Urology Specialists next week. It's taken them 3 weeks to get these appointments set up. We were first told I wasn't going to be able to go with him unless we paid my own way. But after talking to them this morning and saying "um hey, he can't get up on the couch by himself how's he supposed to fly down to Okinawa alone?" Ok so not those words exactly, but you know what I mean. So they bought me a ticket to so I can help him around. We're going to be down there atleast a week. We fly out the morning of the 25th and will be back the afternoon of the 3rd. Unless they decide he needs to stay longer, just because we don't know what kinds of tests and stuff they are going to need to do. I'll try to keep you updated on what we find out. Hopefully it's what's making him hurt so much and how to make him feel better.

Don't Come a Knockin' When the Whole Islands Rockin'!

We had a pretty big earthquake tonight. The biggest and longest I've felt since being here. I was in the shower and Ben was in bed when it hit. Talk about a crazy feeling. It wasn't strong enough to do any damage (not here anyway). But it did have the dogs freaked out. I'll include an article from the AP News that gives ya a little more detail. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think the earthquakes we get are kinda fun... :P



Aug 9, 7:48 AM EDT
Strong earthquake shakes Tokyo area


TOKYO (AP) -- A strong earthquake shook the Japanese capital and surrounding areas Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the temblor, which rattled furniture and walls in Tokyo homes at 7:56 p.m. (1056 GMT) Sunday, the agency said.
The Japanese agency recorded the quake at a preliminary magnitude of 6.9. The United States Geological Survey said the quake was magnitude 7.1 and that it was centered in the Izu Islands some 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo.
The Japanese agency said there was no danger of tsunami from the quake. It was 1,115 feet (340 meters) below the ocean bed in the waters off the eastern coast of Japan, according to the agency.
The agency said the quake shook Tokyo, as well as the prefectures (states) of Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba and others around the capital.
Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries.

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You Sexy Thang!

Since Ben is back, and going back to work, we decided we needed another car. Our house and his office are roughly 45 minutes apart, and just having one car isn't going to work so well. So after doing some looking around, we found a car we both love.

This is the pic of it from their website. It's a 1992 Eunos Roadster S Special. It's a sexy little convertible. :) We only paid $1300 for it, and that includes all the crazy taxes, registration, plates, etc. Not a bad deal at all! It's a small car, only fits the driver and one passenger. So we'll be keeping our other one too. But it is really nice. It was pretty much love at first sight. We'll go pick it up tomorrow after they get all the registration done (it was too late by the time we got there to do it today). But as soon as we get it, we'll get some pics taken and posted. :)

Home for Good

I know, Ben's been home almost a week and I'm just now updating the blog. It's been so great having him home and we've really been enjoying our time together again. He left Germany Tuesday night and arrived in Japan Wednesday morning. His battalion here was able to set up a special van that took me down to the airport to pick him up. So not only did I not have to pay any of the tolls, I didn't have to drive either. Words can't even explain how happy I was to see him there. It took us longer than expected to get there so he had been waiting for a little bit, but not too long. He is feeling somewhat better. Not fantastic, but not bad enough to be in the hospital either. (Not right now anyway) We spent 2 hours with the doctor here on post Thursday morning, and got the referral put in for Urology. We are still waiting on the biopsy results from the last colonoscopy and depending on what they say, will determine if/when they put in a referral for Gastroenterology. Just from the pics they took during it, most of the inflammation had gone away and everything looked pretty normal. So we really don't know what's going on. He's been hurting again the past couple days, but we've got another dr appt set up so we'll see what they say then. We both thank you all for all the thoughts and prayers on our behalf though. It really is appreciated. Hopefully he continues getting better. He went back to work today. He can't do anything (dr's orders), so it's really more for accountability. But he's basically just supposed to take it easy for the next little while. We'll keep you updated if anything else comes up though.

Seeing The Difference

Last August when Ben left I set out on a goal to lose 100 lbs before he got back. Well, that didn't happen. Losing a small 2 lbs a week isn't as easy as it sounds. I am excited to report that I have lost 25 though. That may or may not seem like a big deal to you, but it is huge for me. I've always had trouble losing weight, but no trouble putting it on. That is partly due to me having PCOS. But between exercising, changing my eating habits, and starting a medication for my PCOS, it has been amazing. I will admit, I've been a bit of a slacker the past few months when it comes to working out. I don't go to the gym nearly enough. But I haven't put any weight on in either. So I guess in a way it kinda balances itself out.

A before pic. This one was taken about a week before Ben left.

An after pic. This one was taken about 2 months ago.

It's so good to feel like I have partially achieved my goal. I feel better, I look better, and some certain things have become more "normal" meaning hopefully we're going to have some very exciting news to share in the near future. :)

Heidelberg, Germany

So it turns out Ben going to Germany hasn't been such a bad thing. He's been very well taken care of by the doctor there, and he has gotten to do some sightseeing. We've always wanted to go to Germany (not necessarily this way...), so this has been good for him. They really take care of the soldiers that are medevaced there. So even though I'm jealous that I can't be there with him, I'm glad he's doing better.

Saturday there was a trip that he got to go on that went and did some sightseeing in Heidelberg. He got to go to an old castle and on a river cruise. He had a good time and took tons of pics for me. Over 100. So I thought I'd share some of them with you. :)

Chillin' on the couch before leaving. Group photo.



Look at that handsome man. :)

Yup he took this photo. View of the country side.

Really cool pic.

Ben thinks we need to be stationed in Germany now. And from the looks of the pictures he took, I think it could be really fun. We'll see if we make it there though. Gotta finish our time in Japan first. :)

He's Leavin' Germany...

TOMORROW!!!! He'll be flying out of Germany Tuesday (Germany and Japan time) and should be here sometime Wednesday (Japan time). We don't have exact flight info right now, but he'll go get that shortly. YAY!!!! I am so excited! Seriously, this is the happiest I've been in a while.
So he had his colonoscopy today, and the doctor did some more biopsies. We won't know the results until Friday, but they are going to let him come home tomorrow. He wanted to keep him until Friday because he thought Ben was supposed to head back down range (back to Kuwait), but he's not eligible to be there (for medical reasons). His unit will be home in a few weeks anyway. The doctor is pretty sure he has Chrone's, and because of the kind it is he thinks the kidney stones are probably a side effect from it. So if we can get one or the other taken care of, it should help the other too. It is soooo good to finally have some answers. FINALLY! A doctor who knows what he's talking about!
I have some pics he took Saturday from a trip he took with some of the other "Wounded Warriors". I'll try to get that done in the next couple days, if not tonight. It might be tonight since I'm pretty much too excited to sleep now. He's coming home! No more dumb deployment! WOO HOO!!!

Good Bye Kuwait

Ben is in Germany now. He was finally able to say good bye to the hot desert of Kuwait. They medevaced him out this morning. It was a long and not so comfortable flight. One of the flight doctors ended up giving him an IV while in mid-flight. Poor guy. But he survived the flight and made it to the hospital. He met with the doctors and discussed what's gonna happen now. They will do another colonoscopy Monday. His doctor in Germany is not happy with his doctor in Kuwait. With his last colonoscopy the doctor/surgeon didn't record what he found or include any pictures or anything, hence why they are doing it again. He's not to thrilled with that and I don't blame him. The doctor in Kuwait also didn't do a great job with the meds he's on. He put Ben on several meds to treat several things, but none of them were strong enough to really do anything for him. So this new doc put him on a stronger pain pill and we'll see if it helps. So he'll be there until at least Monday, probably more like Tuesday. Depending on what they find with the colonoscopy and how he's doing with the pain, will determine where he goes next. If the pain gets better they'll send him back home to me in Japan. If not, they'll send him back to the states, probably Hawaii, via a military flight so he can have a flight doc go with him. I'm hoping he's feeling better and just comes back to Japan. I'm so ready to see my husband again. And his new doc is really trying to help him. So hopefully we get this all figured out and taken care of quickly. So cross your fingers, pray, wish on a star, whatever it is you do, and we'll hope he's home next week.

Headed to Germany

Ben will be headed to Germany within the next couple days. They released him from the hospital Wednesday, but hasn't really gotten better. His commander made him go to the ER Thursday, and the dr there put him on quarters for 48 hours and said if he came back he would be medevaced out. So he was off Friday and Saturday and went back to work today. He and a few others tried convincing the commander to just send him back to Japan, but being the retard (I have meaner names for him but I'll keep it clean) he is, he made Ben go back to the ER this afternoon. So guess what, now that the drs are involved he has to be medevaced out. He'll go back in in the morning to finish the paperwork and will be off to Germany within the next few days. From there, they will more than likely have to send him back to the states because they don't have the drs he needs to see in Germany. They don't have them in Japan either, which is why they won't send him back here. There's a very small chance that they may send him from Germany to Japan and then on to Hawaii, but I'm not gonna hold my breath. But we have no idea how long he'll be in Germany or the states. I don't know when I'm going to get to see my husband again. We were so close! The end of the deployment was in sight. He was supposed to be home in a month. Now I don't know if I'll get to see him then or not. This sucks! I'm trying really hard to stay strong and positive, but I don't know how much longer it's gonna last.

Diagnosis

They are releasing Ben from the hospital today, and we have a pretty good idea of what's going on now. The colonoscopy went well and wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Probably because they gave him a sedative that knocked him out. They did some biopsies that have to be sent to the Pathologist in Germany, so it'll be a couple weeks before we have any definite answers. They do think it's a mild case of Chrone's though. There's not really much they can do for it other than treat him with lots of pills. So he's taking like a hundred different pills (ok closer to 20 but still a lot). We don't know what causes it, other than it is genetic and hereditary. But they think that the Naproxen he takes for his shoulder causes it to flair up. He'll be staying with his unit in Kuwait and shouldn't have to go to Germany. It's so close to them coming home now, that it would probably take longer for him to get back to Japan if they sent him there first. So he'll just stay all drugged up for now. We'll go to the dr here when he get's back and see what we're gonna do from there. They don't have a Gastroenterologist here in Japan so they may have us move back to the states where he could be seen on a regular basis by the specialist. Oh darn, we might have to leave Japan. (Note the sarcasm... I'm sooo ready to go back to the states.) So that's what we know now. He is doing better and sounding like he's feeling a lot better. Now if we can just make the next month fly by instead of crawling like it has the past couple weeks, we should be all good.

Update on Ben

Here's the latest news:
Ben is still in the hospital in Kuwait. He passed the two stones he had over the weekend, but was still in a lot of pain. They did another CT Scan yesterday (this one with contrast dye) to see if the pain was possibly caused by something going on with his intestines. They found out two thing. 1) He has another kidney stone. We'll be going to the dr here in Japan when he gets back to see if we can figure out what's causing these. It's kinda ridiculous how many he gets and how often he gets them. 2) There is some swelling of the colon on his left side. So the next step is they give him some stuff to completely clean him out this afternoon/evening and they do a colonoscopy tomorrow. Neither which sounds fun to me. Right now they are thinking it's either Colitis (an infection in his colon) or Chrone's Disease (google it because I don't understand it enough to explain it yet). If it's colitis, they can continue treating him in Kuwait with antibiotics and such and he should be good in a couple weeks. If it's Chrone's Disease (which we are thinking it might be), they will do all they can for him in Kuwait, but will probably end up sending him up to Germany and then back to Japan. It's been thought before that he has Chrone's but for some reason it was ruled out. Not sure when or by who, but it's been a possibility before nonetheless. So he may end up coming home early. It wouldn't be much earlier since they'll be home in about a month anyway (sometime between Aug 21 - 25 are the dates we have right now). So yeah. That's what we know right now. They've got him on Prednisone and something else to help with the pain and everything. It doesn't take the pain away, but makes it more tolerable. But until they do the colonoscopy tomorrow we don't know much else. It's nice to have an idea of what's going on though. And we're both glad he finally went to the dr. He wasn't going to go, and just kept putting it off because he thought it was just kidney stones, but the pain finally got to the point where he had to go. I wish he wasn't so stubborn when it comes to stuff like that, but then I'm the same way so I really shouldn't be saying anything. We are seriously going to have the most stubborn kids on the planet. :P But anyway, as soon as we know anything else I'll update again.

Kidney Stones

Just to let you all know, Ben is in the hospital in Kuwait. He was admitted last night. He's been having problems with kidney stones again/still. I guess they never really stopped after the first ones a year and a half ago. But he went to the dr at Buehring yesterday, and they sent him down to the hospital at Arifjan. He's got two stones in his right kidney, a lot of pain in his left, and possibly an embedded stone in one of the tubes and a UTI. So needless to say he's in pain. They've got him all drugged up right now, so it's not too bad. And he sounded a lot better this afternoon than he did last night. There's really not a whole lot they can do for him right now, other than give him pain meds. They don't have a Urologist in Kuwait. So they are going to keep him there until he passes these two stones and is feeling better. If he's not feeling better after they pass, they may have to medevac him up to Germany to see the Urologist there. Hopefully there's nothing too serious wrong. Not that kidney stones aren't serious, but you know what I mean. He'll be home in about a month, so if he can just hang on until then. He promises me they are taking really good care of him now. I'm still kinda skeptical though, just because I'm not there to see it. I was debating with myself which is worse: being by his bedside seeing him laid up in pain and not being able to do anything or being half way around the world and not being able to do anything. I decided it's worse to not be with him. I'm not there to hear what the dr has to say and to see that he's getting the best care. Atleast when I'm with him I can hold his hand and really know that things are ok. I wish they would just send him home, but that's not the way the Army works. I know, one month. July is almost half way over and he'll be home in August. It's so close, yet still so far. I'm beginning to think the end of the deployment is just as bad as the beginning. You know they'll be home soon, but the days just don't pass fast enough. It's been a really long rough week. My best friend moved back to the states, my husband is in the hospital and there's nothing I can do about it, and it was that time of month on top of it so I've been all emotional and hormonal anyway. But anywho, that's what's going on right now. I'll keep you updated and what happens with Ben. Hopefully he's back on his feet soon.

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July. Make sure you eat an extra hamburger and shoot off a couple extra fireworks for us! =)

Army Ball

The annual Army Birthday Ball was tonight. And even though I didn't have a date I decided to go anyway. One, I got to go for free; and two, it gave me a reason to play dress up. I've never been to an Army Ball before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. As one of my friends described it, it's kinda like Prom for adults. And it kinda was. It started out like most military functions- Posting of Colors, National Anthems (both Japan's and America's), etc. Then they did the Streamer Ceremony. This was new to me, and I can't really explain how it all works. But basically they go through the history of the Army and connect these streamers/ribbons to the Army flag after each time period. I'll admit, I was a little lost then. After the Welcome Remarks and Invocation, they The Toast. This was new to me too. Every one's place setting included a wine glass and each table had a bottle of red and white wine. You pour yourself some wine and then do these toasts. No, I didn't drink the wine. I didn't even like the smell of it. And according to everyone else at the table it wasn't that great anyway. But anyway, the made a toast to the Prime Minister of Japan, the President of the United States of America, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (the Japanese Army), the United States Army, Our Fallen Comrades, and then finally the Ladies. I found the toast for the Fallen Comrades really interesting. They have a table set for one, with no one sitting there, that represents those who have fallen in combat, who are MIA, prisoners of war, etc. And they go through all the different symbolisms of this table, followed by a moment of silence. I don't remember what each thing symbolized, but I thought it was really neat and a great way to honor those who weren't able to be there. After all the Toasts, the Army Band played the USARJ (US Army Japan) March and the Army song. So that was all in the first 45-60 minutes. It was a lot of sit down, now stand up, sit back down, now stand back up. Finally we were able to start eating and the entertainment started. The first thing they had was a Tuna Cutting Show. For those who don't know, Japan has the biggest fish market in the world, and it's actually not too far from here in Tokyo. But basically this team of chefs brought in this big tuna, and cut it up for us. Then of course it was served to each table.

I know these aren't the best pics. They had us at the table in the back corner and it was kinda dark in the ballroom. But that's a pic of them cutting the tuna of the big screen. It's really kinda cool and interesting how they cut it up. It's huge and in maybe half an hour they had the whole thing cut up and served. Amazing!

The final result! It's called Sashimi, and basically it's just raw fish. I didn't try any. I'm not a big fan of fish to begin with. But raw fish?! Yeah, I'll pass on that.

This was my dinner- Chicken Cordon Bleu, carrots and potatoes. It was actually really good. The carrots had some kind of honey glaze which was alright, but over all I was pleased. Could have had a little more food, but I have to remember that servings in Japan are smaller than those of the States. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

After dinner, the entertainment started with Taiko. Those are the drums that the Japanese play. I think that was the first time I had actually seen a Taiko performance in person. It was really cool! I don't know how else to really explain it. I'm sure you could find some videos on YouTube if you wanted to check it out. Then after they performed, a group called Ko-La performed. It's a group of 3 girls from Korea who play classical music on electric instruments (violin, flute, and cello). They were pretty good, but I was ready for them to be done after a few songs. Sorry, didn't get any pics of them. After they performed, they had the Cake-Cutting Ceremony, followed by the Guest Speaker. SMA (Ret) Jack L. Tilley came and spoke. He was the 12th Sergeant Major of the Army and served in the Army for 36 years. He served in Vietnam, was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11th, and really just accomplished a lot in his career. You know, I did pretty good through out the evening when it came to not having Ben there, until the end of his speach. He was talking about how we all have our parts to do in the Army, and then asked us to close our eyes and listen. They then played the song "I'm Already There" by Lonestar. The version where they have the wives and families talking about their family members who are deployed. Yeah, I couldn't help but start crying then. That song makes me cry anyway, but to be there without my husband who is actually deployed was almost a little too much. I know he'll be home next month, but I still miss him. But anyway, I'm glad he played that at the end, and that I had put some kleenex in my purse (not for that reason, but it worked). So then they had the Closing Remarks, Benediction, and Retirement of the Colors. They had a dance afterwards, but that's when I left. I didn't have anyone to dance with and I was starting to get a headache anyway.

All in all it was a fun night. And I learned some new stuff. We've been in the Army for 4 years now, and I'm still learning new stuff. I met some new people, and got to catch up with others. It was fun to get out and get all dressed up. Ben called just after I got home and we talked for a bit. He asked if I'd go again. I'd go again, but not without him. It's kinda awkward being there without a soldier on my arm. But it was worth it.

Just a few more pics. This is an ice sculpture they had at the entrance. It has the US Army Japan logo I guess you call it, along with all the different logos for all the units stationed here. I'm sure there's another name for them, but it's late and I can't think of them now.

Of course, it wouldn't be complete without pictures of me. I should have taken pics before I left, but seeing how I'm living here alone, it makes it kinda hard. It's been raining so it's all humid which makes my hair not so cooperative and you just start sweating when you go outside so my makeup didn't look that great, but oh well. I ordered my dress online, and it got here Monday night. I tried it on, and it fit in the waist but the chest was like 3 sizes too big. So I took it down to the alterations shop Tuesday and just got it back this afternoon. They did a great job, despite how busy they were this week. It fit great! I got so many compliments tonight. It's so fun feeling all pretty. What a fun night!