Ramblings. Just - Ramblings.

I'm in the mood to blog, but I'm also having one of those, "Bleh - nothing to write about" days. I'm hoping that by just typing whatever comes to mind will help get the creative juices flowing.  

I want new workout gear. 

The dogs are being annoying today. 

The rest of my household is sitting on the couch playing Xbox. 

Nothing interesting so far. Well, as far as workout gear goes, I signed up for The Color Run in my state, so I'm excited about that. Hence not really needing, but wanting new workout gear. New shoes I'm thinking. Those are my new high heels. Perhaps some compression shorts.  A friend from Japan who just got here is going to run it with me! Yoko besties UNITE! I'm trying to talk her in to wearing a tutu but so far the odds are not in my favor for that one. 

Another little update, Baby Girl lost her first tooth a few nights ago.  She allowed her Dad to pull it out, which is something I could NEVER do.  No sir. No way, no how.  But once it was said and done, she said it was the best day EVER! The Tooth Fairy came, left her all the cash she happened to have on hand, which was four measly dollars but to a 5 year old, it's like a million.

We just rented a home in Va Beach. We'll be moving soon'ish to get my girl enrolled in school.  It'll hopefully be an improvement to our house now.  It's a 4 bed, 2.5 bath house, with a fireplace, fenced in back yard, with an attached garage in a really cute little subdivision. The only thing we aren't looking forward to is it being attached to a....*Gulp*....Homeowners Association.  And cue Wilhelm Scream and creepy music.  I suppose we should be used to that kind of thing, living in military housing for so long, but I'd be lying if I said we wanted to get off base housing to avoid all the rules.  Having to get an approval from a HOA to have a bird bath in my FENCED back yard is a bit much, but hey, it's only for a little while so I'll play along.  Plus the kids and the dogs are going to love the back yard. Who am I kidding?  I'M going to love the back yard.  Kids being too loud?  GO OUTSIDE!  Dogs being incredibly annoying?  GO OUTSIDE! It's going to be...A-MAH-ZING! I've already gotten a few boxes packed up. Productivity points for me! 

I'm out of topics again. Shoot.  I have one thing I want to talk about, but I feel that if I do, I'll somehow jinx the outcome we're hoping for, so I'm REALLY trying hard to not type it all out.  And no - we aren't expecting, or hoping to expect.  Don't you put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby. I'm done with all that noise.  Literally.  Kids are noisy.  They're all cute and cuddly but when they're in the mood, they could bring the walls down.  I feel like this thing of which I won't speak is the reason I felt the need to blog today, but me being superstitious is just preventing me from writing about it. 

So - unless I just start rambling the odd, off-the-top-of-my-head things again, I'll just close this one out. Maybe if I go lift weights I'll get my mind off this...thing. Real women lift heavy you know.  

We've Dropped Anchor!

America.

Sweet, sweet America.

PEACE OUT, JAPAN!!  It was real, but we're HOME!

We arrived on April Fool's Day and are now settled in Virginia for the time being!  My husband is in school, the kids are growing like weeds, we have two dogs (what were we thinking?!), two new vehicles and I have only used the Japanese language when I accidentally bump in to someone at Wal-Mart.

Ahhh...Wal-Mart.  Never thought I'd miss that place until there wasn't one.

Japan was great, don't get me wrong.  It was an amazing place to live, the culture is so steeped in history, the country was beyond beautiful...but we're 'Murican's.  We're back in the land of restaurants that have a menu we can read.  No more pointing at pictures for us!  No sir!  Back where road signs make sense.  Back where I can have a full on conversation with someone in public.  It's wonderful.

Will we go back overseas? Probably not.  If we do, it will be for a shore duty and it certainly won't be back in Japan. Why go overseas if you're just going somewhere you've already been you know?  Perhaps Spain?  We have to get through the next few years of sea duty, then we can decide on all that jazz.  Maybe leave it up to the kids, who knows?  All we know is that we love being home.  Landing in Chicago was pure bliss.  Cars drove on the right side of the road.  There wasn't a teriyaki burger in the McDonalds. Hello Kitty! wasn't plastered on everything in sight.  Then we got to Texas and Alabama. Ugh - big jacked up trucks. Actual BBQ joints.  Ah-may-zing.

Meet Monroe, our Texas Heeler and Roland, our yellow lab!

We have a backyard where our kids can play, in fact Kaylee is now riding a bike with NO training wheels! Props to her.  We have a smoker again, an actual house instead of a horrible apartment.  It's good to be home. Kendall is up for advancement, we're just waiting to hear the word on the exams.  He says it's unlikely he'll advance this cycle, but we'll see.  I, unlike my usually arrogant husband, am hopefully optimistic.  If it doesn't happen this cycle, we'll work on the next exam.  (Side note: Exams for advancement? I've always hated that notion.) Things will be pretty busy over the next few months, with his school and us having to PCS again when he graduates, but hey!  At least we're back in the USofA!