To be driving again...

I'm a little behind, but the great news is on Monday we both passed our driving tests. Our scores were 93 and 92 respectivly. Louis scored 1 point higher only because I was speeding 4 kph over. :) what can I say...I am my father's daughter...and hey, I still passed. One can be so much more productive when it doesn't take half a day just to walk to and from an errand.

Beds, Cooking, and so much more...

It's official! We get the keys to our apartment on Monday and our stuff will be arriving on Tuesday! Oh, I can't wait to sleep in my bed again. You know how they say, "You never know what you got until it's gone." Well, I knew what I had, and I knew I would miss it. After three months of beds that weren't mine, hotel and my parents guest beds, I am SOOO ready to snuggle back into my own. We also finished our boring and repetitive orientation brief today. (chorus' of Angels just broke into song) And even better news, we both passed our written licensing tests. Now we just have to pass our driving tests on Monday and we will finally be able to drive the car we already have. Yipee! All the little details of moving to a new place will be accomplished as of the middle of next week. Ah, sweet success. I have also never been more anxious to be able to stop eating out and make our own meals again. All in all, I am very excited for next week. Now I just hope I can catch up on my rest this weekend, before the energy fest begins again.

Modeling Fair

The Japanese love their American models. So Saturday they held a fair with 11 different modeling companies on base here. By doing this they were able to waive the fees for each company. All of them were looking for children 0-18, only 7 were looking for Adults as well. Anyway, Louis insisted that Dar and I go do this. So we got all the forms together and pictures printed up and registered for the morning session. WOW!! It was a mad house. Luckily with Louis there we were able to be in two lines at once so we actually managed to get to all but one of the agencies...not bad actually considering each company took pictures and some even took measurements. Dar was a little trooper. He started being unhappy about the last two agencies, but he made it. A nap promptly followed, after a McDonald's lunch of course. It seemed that most parents promised their kids McD"s as an incentive to finish out the torture because it was full of one b-day party and everyone else we recognized from being at the cattle call...I mean model call. :) It would be nice if something comes of that madness. The minimum pay is $1000 per photo shoot. Plus it would just be a fun experience.

On the housing front it seems there won't be much of a wait. Hooray!!! I am SO done with hotels for a while. We will have an official "offer" on a three bedroom 1425 sq ft apartment here on base either today or tomorrow. Apparently there are several available. We can probably move in shortly there after. It will be within walking distance of all the places I will need to have access too. We hope it will be the vacant one that happens to be next to friends of ours. That would be nice, especially since they've only been here 3 months so our stays should pretty much coincide in length. We inquired about a three bedroom out in town...it turned out to be 800 sq ft. That was a laugh. I think we will stay on base, it will be much more convenient.

We were at Chili's for dinner the other night and who happened to walk in with his family...Louis' former XO on the Vicksburg. We knew he was here, but it was still crazy. His wife is very nice and I look forward to interacting with her. All in all, after the initial shock of the boiled frog ( I am the frog in that scenario ) I am feeling quite comfortable. I'm getting a feel for how everything is located on base, and soon hope to boycott carrying a map around with me.

Last item of business...we found an interesting/favorite place. This will be something I will show everyone that comes over here. We went for a walk yesterday morning just after sun rise and walked along the water. We discovered a star fish cove. They were everywhere, even piled up on top of each other on the cement wall of the side walk we were on. As the water fluctuated you got a great view of them. The water is perfectly clear, another thing I didn't expect. Not the Caribbean which is blue and clear. This is like a bath tub with mosaic tiles of star fish on the bottom, I wouldn't want to climb in there right now though...brrr.

First Day

Well yesterday was fairly productive considering we woke up at 2 am. We unpacked first, and then walked over to the used car lot where we found about 10 Honda Odyssey vans that ranged in price from $1500-$4200 and in year from 95-99. So I am a proud new owner and Louis is more reluctant than proud to own a van. But we bought a 99 Odyssey with CD, DVD, and built in navigation system for the bargain price of $2500. We continued onto the commisary for groceries and once we got them put away in our hotel room a friend came and took us back over to the NEX where we bought a webcam and signed up with skype so we can use it. Naps and test driving then followed. Once a car was decided upon we went out in town for the first time, luckily with our sponser and Emily, another JAG officer, as guides to get cell phones and dinner. This morning Dar and Louis woke up at 3 am. I zoned out until almost 6 before I gave up the enterprise for breakfast. The next important thing is a house. We have a meeting in about an hour that can hopefully give us some answers and get us started for the hunt. Tomorrow should be fun, if not exciting...I'll let you know all about it after the event.

So Far....

Ok, so a few things I never knew before yesterday.

1. Faucets in Japan have to be pushed down to turn on instead of up.
2. Their toilets have two settings, "Small" and "Big" flush.
3. Their showers have three controls, Temp, Liters level, and tub/shower. All of which are labeled in Japanese and you can have water coming out of the shower head AND the faucet.
4. Apparently you DO still have to drive on the left side even on base.
5. I am definately not in Kansas anymore!

Back for more later as I discover them...

One of the worst things any Mother ever has to endure...seriously, grab the tissues

Yesterday, afternoon I sat down to type an e-mail to my husband and Dar said he wanted to go outside to throw the ball for Cinder, my parent's 6 yr old black lab. Typical request, he does this about 10 times a day out here and usually on his own. Both Louis and I as well as my parents have emphasized to Dar not to go into the woods by himself and he never has. However, yesterday Dar and Cinder apparently went into the woods to look for the ball that Dar threw and Cinder couldn't find. About 10 minutes after Dar and Cinder went out, my mom went outside to weed, they usually come running anytime they hear the tractor turn on, so I assumed they were with her. It wasn't for another 15-20 minutes until I went outside to talk to mom when, not seeing them with her, I asked and she said she hadn't seen them. It only took me about 2 minutes of frantic searching in the immediate areas around the house to know they were gone. I was quickly becoming hysterical, the most obvious answer was they had gone into the woods and my instincts told me in which direction, I immediately dropped to my knees in my parents burn field and prayed with every fiber of my being that we would find our son. I didn't fully understand that saying until yesterday. Unfortunately I don't know the property or the lay of the land, I felt utterly helpless because I knew if I went into the woods I quickly would have become lost myself. Mom had the sense to call 911 while I jumped in the truck and made a quick sweep of the very dangerous highway to eliminate that as a possible outcome of destination. Once the Loudoun County Sherriff arrived he made a thorough sweep of the house just to make sure and calmed me down through my first ever hypervetilation episode. I couldn't breath as I tried to tell him what had happened, timing, and likely direction. He only made matters worse for me by commanding me to stay at the house in case Dar found his way back. They asked us to stay out of the woods as it would confuse the scent for the bloodhound that was in route to track him down. Mom had already run down to the creek that runs through the back of the property thinking that they had found it and that Dar was enjoying himself with his favorite thing, throwing rocks in water. Alas, he wasn't there, but she heard some branches cracking under foot to her north, she called out and neither Dar or dog answered and she headed towards it and no deer ran away, she felt compeled to follow but knew I was loosing it back at the house waiting for help. We had three deputies, 2 runnig the highway in opposite directions, and 1 walking the creek, and one LT. running point from our driveway. Mom had just taken Dar's photo to both the Lt and the dep. that was walking the creek when she realized, he's in the woods, and you are going to have to kill me to stop me from looking for my grandson. She went back to the spot she had been before because she felt she needed to follow the sounds she had previously heard. She did, and they led her to our son. She crossed a road, a creek and climbed a 30 foot embankment to find Dar sitting in the middle of an old logging road crying for mommy. The dog was no longer with him. We made the mistake of calling for the dog to come, before I realized that she would immediately head back and Dar probably wouldn't have been able to keep up with her. My mother called me to tell me she had him but wasn't sure where she was, and that she was utterly exhausted. She had pratically ran that half mile to get him, and of course would not put Dar down. As we hung up I turned around to cinder's barking and saw her running up from the creek bed. Mom made it back to the highway and then the sherriff picked them up and brought them home. Dar made this journey through what normally is his nap time and only managed to suffer minor scrapes on his legs. Fortunately he doesn't seem to be traumatized by the endeavor, not sure I can say the same for me, he was right back to jumping, running, and playing around as soon as we got him in dry cloths. Last night I was expecting him to have nightmares but he curled into my side, told me his legs weren't hurting him anymore, he was worried about me, he was scared, but he was safe, and he loved me. Then he promptly fell asleep, and remained fairly nightmare free. He whimpered at one point in the night but I put my hand to his face and he settled back down. I was not nearly as able to sleep. I am not one to excercise a great deal, I tone, but I don't build endurance. When I initially realized he was gone, I was running as fast as I could go for about a solid 15 minutes, and half of that was up steep inclines. My body was aching all over enough to not let me get comfortable and between that and the tears I didn't sleep as well as Dar. Neither Dar or I want to be very far from each other today, as I'm sure you all can understand. As helpless as I felt, it was much worse for Louis who, being 8 hours away, couldn't do anything to help find his son except wait for news. Luckily the ordeal only lasted for two hours. My mother found him before the bloodhound even made it to the house, it would have been another 15 mintues before the K-9 unit would have arrived. Considering the extreme possible outcomes we were tremendously blessed. We also had an amazing response from my parent's neighbors. One gentlemen came out and started looking through the woods in his crocs and boxers. Another was massing a search party on 4 wheelers and was heading our way. The police had the dog on the way and choppers on standby. Everyone was determined to find him before nightfall. Thanks be that none of that was necessary. I can't tell you how grateful I am that my mother was close enough to the spirit to listen and to follow the promptings she was given even though she was upset. I am afraid to say that I was too overwhelmed to do more than pray, my emotions were too loud to hear anything still and small.

Funs over :(

Hmmm...where to begin....I guess at the beginning. Why do I feel a song coming on?? Well, I can report that we have survived eating our way through Newport. The food was fabulous. Thur and Fri Louis still had to be in school so we went and saw a few of the Newport mansions. Three total, and they were eye opening. The extravagance was getting a little ridiculous. Although to be fair we did go see the most popular, gilded, and the largest that was offered. The views were the best part of the sight seeing. We had 4 perfect days of sunny, breezy 70's weather we could have asked for. Saturday was a little cloudy and patchy rain, but other than that not bad. Dar absolutely loved being with his Daddy and I think the only time he cried was when we tried to get him to go to sleep. Typical 3 year old. Thursday night we celebrated my father's birthday having a wonderful dinner on the waterfront. Saturday we celebrated Dar's and mine by taking the tourist train in the morning, going to the children's museum in Portsmouth, RI in the afternoon and then hibachi Sushi which was incredible, that evening in Newport. Dar loved his new light sabers and his Kung Fu Panda stuffed toys. I received a bruised, swollen thumb joint yesterday from his exuberence with those sabers...I guess I have to be more careful. Sunday we went to church before skipping out early in order to go to the Red Sox game in fenway. They lost...I think we are jinxed, every time we go to a game they lose. It's very frustrating. Meanwhile Mom and Dad rented scooters, tooled around Newport and had a picnic on the point. We were joined for dinner by two women, one having graduated with Louis from the Naval Academy was picked up for the JAG program the same time he was is also in the same NJS class he is currently in. And the other a good friend who went to UW with him and then took a job with the Navy JAG is up there for Officer training followed by NJS. It was a lot of fun...a lot of Navy talk, but enjoyable nonetheless. Monday came all too soon in my opinion but it dawned beautifully. We went to the beach in Newport and flew a kite and Dar walked/ran through the red surf and chased the seagulls until they were really annoyed. It was a wonderfully relaxed day. Of course Dar fell asleep for the 10 minute ride back to base which meant that he didn't go back to sleep when we got back to the hotel. So he went to the beach on base with Gram and Gramdad to throw rocks into the water for a few more hours. He's going to become an excavator or something, rocks, dirt, and water are his three main staples. Anyway, dinner followed in a downtown pub and we walked around a little afterwards. All in all a very peaceful day if it weren't for the torment plagueing me because it was our last with Louis. I was not ready to leave. So after crying myself to sleep and a very teary morning we headed back to VA. Dar didn't want to go either but at least he didn't have a tantrum about it. That would have been too hard for me to keep my composure I think. Anyway, we are getting back into our respective routines and facing a bleak 6 weeks before we are forever done with school and can be reunited.