Here Comes The Bride

My best friend of 20 years got married over the weekend! Of course I'm stuck in Japan and couldn't attend, but thanks to technology, I was there.  

See...here I am with my totally awesome Momma!

And here is the Bride and her Daddy <3

It, of course, wasn't as good as actually being there.  Actually getting to take my Maid-of-Honor position like we had talked about when we were little girls, but I was able to see some of her wedding. 


I met Amanda when I was 6 years old. I was in Kindergarten and she was in 1st grade (Thanks parents for not conceiving me earlier!!), and our classes combined one afternoon for a movie.  She was sitting in front of me and had the longest, darkest hair I'd ever seen in my long 6 years of life. So naturally I started playing with this strange kids hair because lets face it, small children can make friends in the weirdest ways. Anyway...BOOM! Friendship started.  


Normally this is where I'd do a photo journey of our youth, but she'd probably kill me and I'm not too keen on showing some of those pictures myself.  I mean...we were just too beautiful for words.  With our...*Gulp*...bangs and lanky legs.  Simply. Stunning.  At least our parents told us so.  


Fast forward to high school.  I only do this because I think we'll still be friends if I show these.  With high school came petty spats, gossiping about "those girls" and drooling over some of the male specimens we went to school with.  We had similar tastes in boys so sometimes this is would lead to an argument that sounded something like this:


Amanda: "Haley...you knew I liked *insert random name here* and I saw you talking to him in Senior Hall."


Me: "Yeah, well I saw *Some dude* buying you a coke out the machine earlier and you were all smiles then."  

Tacky Day 2003 - of course she looks awesome.

Ahhhh...high school.  Somehow, we made it through with friendship still in tact.  Now I could go in to every little fight we had, and believe me there were plenty, but I'd rather focus on the good stuff.   There were more sleep overs than I can remember. Our parents could've claimed us on their taxes, respectively.  Girls Night Outs.  Parties down at the cabin.  Sneaking out of her house.  I mean...that had to have been..."those girls"...not us.  


After she graduated, we headed down to Panama City Beach. Now THAT was something I'll NEVER forget.  Without going in to detail:  Jager+Funnel+Amanda=hilariousness we can laugh about now. 

PANAMA CITY!!!

This was another trip to PCB, but we look super cute in it, so I'm sharing it.  It's a girl thing.

That was in May of 2003, I followed suit in 2004 and just a few short months later, I met my husband and moved away from home.  






Still, through the years we've remained friends.  Even though she hated Kendall when she first met him. Even though I lived 750 miles from her and then moved to Japan.  Even though I missed the birth of my honorary niece, Isabel.  She still wubs me!! 

At my "Going Away. Again." party - 2011

I can't say enough how much her friendship means to me.  Outside of my family that I was born in to, she's been the only constant in my life and I in hers.  That's because our coolness bounces off one another.  We can't help it.  

Christine, Me and Amanda - 2010

As always when we hang out, hilarity ensues.  The night usually ends with Amanda giving a speech about how much she loves everyone.  Every picture has us with our tongues hanging out. I haven't quite figured out why we do that. Wether we are sitting around in PJ's, going shopping, drinking - moderately of course, or talking on the phone, we have a great time.  We spend more time laughing than we do talking sometimes. 

Her calming me before my wedding...see the looks of stress on our faces?  I can.

And some time after this picture,  she met Brandon.  Well...re-met him??  We've known him almost all our lives.  We went to church with him and Christine (2 photos up from here) is his sister, we went to school with her.  Most of the girls in our church would drool over Brandon.  Sometimes quite literally, would drool.  I didn't call this person out to Amanda's attention that day, so she has no clue what I'm referring to there.  But I do and I can't stop laughing at the memory.  Anyway...They bring out the very best in each other, although I know sometimes they can't see that.  Brandon and my husband could be long-lost brothers in the attitude department, so Amanda will understand my previous sentence.  Sometimes we just want to throw a rock at their faces.  But we still love them.  And what's better, Kendall and Brandon actually LIKE each other.  Kendall hated Amanda's last boyfriend with the undying passion of a thousand suns, and because he and Brandon are so much alike, we were worried about them meeting.  Luckily, the boys hit it off almost immediately which left us PLENTY of time to do what we do best;  Drink margaritas and have girl talk. 

Us in my parents awesome garage

Okay, so she wasn't drinking Margarita's in the above picture, since she was pregnant with Izzy...but this was the only picture I have of the 4 of us where we weren't acting incredibly stupid.  Don't forget I'm trying to post pictures that she'd approve of.  


But - now she is a married woman. This won't change anything in our friendship department.  Most people worry that being married will change things, but that was never a worry for us.  I'm just upset I couldn't be there.  Another reason why I'm ready to leave Japan in our dust. Seeing pictures from their special day and hearing the stories, I know it was a beautiful ceremony and I can see the joy in their faces.  I wish them all the love in the world and many, many more years to come.  

The Bride and Groom with their beautiful little Isabel

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.

1 Corinthians 13:7

Getting up to date

I'm awful.  I forgot about this blog.  *Hides behind couch*

Alright...since last September what all has happened??  Let's see...let's see....???

Well we still live in Japan.  
We haven't traveled anywhere else. 

Yep.  I'm boring. 

Ahh well.  I still have an awesome husband, kids that are awesome 80% of the time, I have all my limbs and they function as they should, so I can't complain about anything.   I'll just take this time to post some photos of major things I want to talk about.  

 OCTOBER:

          Kendall and I went to the Navy Ball!  Isn't the love of my life handsome? LOVE that man!

My babies on Halloween! Kaylee was Snow White (again) and Dylan was Flash Gordon

NOVEMBER:

The little humans

The LASSEN FRG took me out for my birthday!  Good dinner and then karaoke in the Honcho!

DECEMBER:  
- So by this time Kendall had been underway for some time and we were gearing up for a homecoming just in time for Christmas! :)  Those are the best Homecomings!

Kaylee had just finished her first tap recital! 

The sign we made for Kendall! We surprised the kids that night, they had no clue he was coming home!

Best. Feeling. EVER. 

I just feel the need to share with you all the look he gives me when I want a picture of or with him. He'll kill me for this, but hey, this is what a good wife does.  She posts pictures she knows her hubby will hate.  This is just payback for him snapping a shot of me being sick as a dog on our family day cruise. BAM BABE...this just happened. 

Christmas in the White House! 

 JANUARY: 
- Besides ringing in 2012 with my family, nothing of importance happened.  I mean, I don't know for sure, but judging from our pictures we didn't do much. This is what I get for not updating my blog for 7 months.  What is WRONG with me?!

FEBRUARY: 

Kendall had told me a while ago that he wouldn't buy me  any more flowers until I bought him some.  I'm sure he was joking about that, but I took it seriously. So this is from me to him, not the other way around as the picture might suggest to the normal viewer.  

MARCH:
-Apparently nothing of importance happened in March either, but here is a photo taken by our 4 year old daughter.  

Not bad, eh?  I thought she did rather well for such a novice photographer.

APRIL:

Oh yeah...I started working out in December.  I have lost 15 pounds total and 3 inches off my waist! I know...go me.  Hold your applause until the end of the caption.  THIS dress, my husband sent me while he was on our first deployment together back in 2005-2006.  I was 20 years old at the time and had no children, size 0, 98 pounds. And look...it fits again!!!  6 years after getting it, 2 kids later and it fits again!  NOW you may erupt in applause.  Thank you!  You're embarrassing me.  NO, keep clapping! 

Dylan turned 3! Leave it to Kendall...the man hates pictures. We had to celebrate  before his birthday though since Kendall was underway on the actual day.  Yay Navy life! 

Dude's actual birthday!  I can't believe he's THREE!

Yeah, that's us...petting a dolphin.  Big deal. Happens all the time if you're awesome like I am. But seriously...this was during an MWR tour to Kamogawa Sea World here in Japan.  Amazing place and yes, I paid 1000Yen to be able to pet this dude.  I'd do it again too.  Although next time we go, I'm getting a kiss from a killer whale.  Pray it doesn't find me extra sweet and decides it can't let a little morsel like me go.  

Us at Sea World.  

Random shot because I love this top.  Women are allowed to post shots that aren't relevant to a conversation as long as cute clothes/shoes are involved. 

MAY:

First trip out to Zushi Beach and I've lived here for 2 and a half years.  Shame on me. 

Bought myself some golf clubs.  Kendall plays and I'm hoping we'll be able to have this in common.  If he'd ever be home for longer than a week. So far though, I have been able to hit the ball almost every time.  Not bragging or anything.

JUNE: 

-Ahh June.  June brings the beginning of Summer and the pool being open every day. It also brings us to the current month.  So as of now, Kendall is currently on what is classified in Japan as a "Deployment."  Obviously I won't be putting any dates/lengths of time out here, but this is the longest we've been apart since my first "actual" deployment with him.  However, we got lucky and they had to come in to port for a pit-stop for 3 days so we got a little break in the middle of this thing! He surprised me and took leave.  Sneaky old man.

I may be a little biased...but I think we're an extremely good looking and simply awesome couple. Just sayin'.

We went to eat one night at a place whose name I can't even begin to read.  Traditional Japanese place where you have to take off your shoes upon entering. You have private little rooms where you eat.  So far, this is probably my favorite place to get Japanese food.  Now Coco's is my FAVORITE, but it's curry and that's a whole other post. 

Now...people who have never been to Japan think, "Ohhh...I love Japanese food, I'd love to live in Japan."  I know, I was one of them.  But REAL Japanese is NOTHING like Americanized Japanese. These, my humble readers, are dried fish of some sort and they were casually hidden in our fried rice. They are either a constant ingredient in their rice, or they were put there maliciously by our waiter.  Either way, once we realized what they were, we casually put the rice back in it's bowl and covered it with a plate.  Even my husband, who'll try anything once, didn't eat it anymore.  Come on...dried fish babies in fried  rice?!  Should be a sin...

We had an amazing 3 days together.  It was the best time our family has had in months. We aren't complete without our main man home.  We just kinda cruise through the days until we're whole again.  I can't speak for every couple in the world, but for Kendall and I, the Navy life works for us because it makes us appreciate the days we do get together.  In our case, absence really does make the heart grow fonder.  Not to get all deep and mushy on you, but he is truly my best friend in the entire world and I consider myself to be the luckiest woman alive because we have each other and the strong, happy marriage we have. 

Not a Daddy's girl at all. :)  

And look! The sun came out long enough in the rainy season for me to get burnt! WHOO HOO!  I know, yall must think I'm crazy.  I don't LIKE getting burnt, but it turns in to a tan soooo.....      Next time I'll use sun screen. Happy?  

And my final photo for the day.  My Nanny sent me some of my PawPaw's things.  You may or may not remember the sweetest, most caring and understanding man in the world left us this last July.  In some of the photos she sent was this newspaper clipping.  It is a story about Kendall's first ship, USS Cape St. George, getting in to a gun fight with Somali pirates. Immediately after seeing this, the tears started falling. He was an Army Veteran himself and loved to poke fun at Kendall calling him a "Swabby" but he was beyond proud of my husband and his career in the military. Just last week I found a movie my mother made me for my 25th birthday. After the pictures came videos of my friends and family and the first one was Nanny and PawPaw.  His first sentence, like it always was when I'd call him was, "Hello there my little Navy wife." He continued with, "I never thought you could make it in the military life but you have and I'm so proud of you."  I will hold that movie near and dear to my heart for the rest of my days just to hear that man tell me he was proud of me and the life Kendall and I have made together. 

So there you have it.  A long post, yes, but I've gotten you up to date and I promise I won't fall behind again.  If we could pinky promise through the internet, this is where we'd do it.