God Bless the USA!

We made it home safely after our trip back to the good ol USA! However, jet lag is rearing it's ugly little head! It was so great to see our friends and family eventhough it was such a short amount of time.

Here is a rundown of the trip. I will try to keep this blog as short as possible, but I have alot of pictures to post!
First of all, I had the pleasure of sitting in an airplane in Denver for hours watching a snowstorm blow by and waiting for the plane to be de-iced. I finally made it to Dallas 7 hours after I was supposed to be there, but I was still happy to be in the great state of Texas!

Here are pictures of me and my beautiful mom and my wonderful dad!



Now, I love my family, but I was mostly excited to see my adorable nephew, Cade! Here we are with him in the kung fu suit I brought him from Japan!
I also got to go to lunch with some of my best friends. I have known these girls pretty much my entire life and it had been years since we were all together at once!

We took a short trip up to Oklahoma City to see my grandma and some of my cousins, aunts and uncle. Here is a group shot of grandma with the grand kids and some of their fiances, spouses, and children; and no, this isn't even all of us! We have quite a large Johnstonbaugh clan!

At grandma's house we were playing Wii Fit and Cade decided he wanted to play! I had to post this picture because it is too cute!

My Texas trip went by way too fast, but I will be back in September for my mom's wedding!
It was time to get on yet another airplane to FINALLY see my husband! We had been apart for 2 months and I was so excited to see him! So I flew to the bustling metropolis of Yuma, Arizona. While I was there, I was able to see him graduate from the school that has been occupying his time those 2 months. He is now a Weapons and Tactics Instructor!
After a few days in Yuma, we were off to California to spend some time with his family and friends.
Here is a picture of us with a few of John's friends: Rob, Andrea and Tony.
The last weekend we were in the States, we headed to John's parents' lakehouse for some family time. We had a major karaoke marathon! It was a blast!

John and I sang "Summer Lovin" together!
John and our nephew Aidan

The day before we left, we met our friends Robin and Shawn and their little boy Gavin in San Francisco. They were our best friends back in Fernley and Gavin was actually born 3 days after we moved, so it was great to see them and meet their little guy!So that was our trip in a nutshell. It was so great to get back home and see everyone, as well as a much needed break from this little island! Love you all!

Tea Anyone?

The Marine Officer's Spouses Club (MOSC) usually has an event every month to raise money for charity. This month they hosted a Japanese Tea Ceremony for all of us to take part in. This one was a little different because there are so many members of our club. It was not as intimate as they usually are, but it was still a cool experience.

This is my friend Rebecca. We always wind up dressed alike. Of course today was no different: black dresses and turquoise necklaces.

Here is our president and one of the General's wives giving a run down of what will go on during the ceremony.

So many people had kimonos on, I wish I had one!

First we were served a gelatin sweet cube, thing. If any of you come out here to visit, you will soon see that they like many foods, especially desserts in this gelatin form! It wasn't exactly the greatest thing I have ever states. Basically, it tasted like hard Jell-o, with a sugar-like flavor and sweetened rice on the inside. It is customary to eat sweets first in order to sweeten the palate in preparation for the bitter tea.

The tea was, uh, interesting as well. They grind tea leaves into a powder and mix it with hot water. I have never tasted anything like this before! It was pretty thick and had a bit of a spinach taste! You could see grimaces on everyone's faces! We were try not to be rude and suck it all down!

This is where one of the men mixed the tea. There is an entire sequence of things he must do to prepare the tea. that was probably one of the neatest things seeing all of the intricate movements he did in order to clean the bowls and mix the tea.

Here is a picture of my friend Haiden and I. She goes to our church and was on the last adventure we went on at Forest Adventire Park (zip lining)

It was a fun experience. Only in Japan would I be able to experience something like this!

In 2 days I will be on an airplane back to America! I will finally get to see my family, it has almost been a year, as well as my in-laws, it has been since last July since we have seen each other! I will also get to see my fabulous husband, whom I have not since in 2 months! I am so excited! I will see you all soon!

Swinging from the trees!

OK, back to blogging about fun times! I am a part of a women's Bible study at our church and we just finished a 10 week long study so it was time to celebrate and do a little hanging out! Ha ha, you shall soon see what I mean! As you may recall, a few months ago, John and I went to the Forest Adventure park where they have numerous zip lines and an obstacle course.

Quite a few fearless ladies decided to take on the challenge and try it out. There were only few of us who had ever been before, so it was really fun getting some of them up so high and racing down a zip line.

Oh we had so much fun! Its pretty difficult to make friends here when you do not have children because pretty much everyone else does, and everything they do is centered around them. I have to interject something for my mother and mother-in-law...no I am not going to have a baby anytime soon. John says making friends is not a good reason to have baby! Ha ha! Anyway, it was nice to be in a different setting and get to know people a little better.

Here are Amanda and I getting ready for our first run!

You cannot beat the view of the ocean from up high.

Here are a couple of the girls taking a break from the big Tarzan swing!

By the end of the day we were all peer pressuring each other to hang upside down! Whew! After 3 times, I FINALLY got it. It is really hard to trow your legs up there, then have the courage to let go and just hang there!

What a rush! Yes, I am crazy, but it was a blast!

Here is my friend Amanda showing us how its done!

Just One of Those Days...

I know I usually only post fun stuff that happens around here, but this is a serious blog. I have alot of stuff to just get out, so I thought I would type it here. These past couple of days have been extra tough. John has been back in the states for 3 weeks now. I still have 5 1/2 more weeks until I get to see him. I started working again for the first time in a year, luckily it is only part-time. I am working at our church doing their financial stuff, it is a great job. and if you didn't know I a working on my Master's degree toward a Master of Human Relations. So I have been pretty busy. It's hard with John being gone to juggle it all and housework and of course the two lunatic dogs we have! On top of all of that, yesterday we lost a Marine to a tragic accident here on Okinawa. He was a guitar player in the band at our church. I didn't know this family very well, but I have still been so sick to my stomach about it. It is amazing that bond I feel towards other military spouses I don't even know. I cannont explain it to you. It is one of those things that could happen to any of us, and when it happens to someone you know, it just hits that much closer to home. Our worst fear is having a man in uniform come knock on our front door. I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it. Why do these things happen? Why do his two young children have to grow up without knowing their father. Why does his wife have to make a huge move back to the United States all alone? Scary. I am a Bible-believing Christian, but these are all the questions I have asked God the past few days. The answer is, I don't know why. It is hard not to be angry. But I truly believe God has a purpose and a plan for all of our lives and everything that happens in our lives happens for a reason. Some of those reasons we may never know. As Christians our faith in God is tested every day. Do I still trust that He holds my life in His hands? Yes. Do I still struggle with those issues? Of course.

For now, I will continue to be thankful for all of the blessings I have been given. I thank God every day for the Marine he brought to me. I don't know what else to say but be thankful for the things you have. Hold your kids a little closer and hug your wife or husband a little tighter. And please keep the Roy family in your prayers.

My favorite Marine :)

Out with the girls

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind and I am busy for the first time in a long time! As most of you know, my wonderful husband is back in the States for a few months, so if you're looking to see what he's up to, I probably can't help you out. I am sure when he's not torturing me by telling me of all the great restaurants he got to go to or his trip to Target (oh how I miss that place!), he's either sleeping or has his head buried in a book studying. So this blog is all about me and the girls! Luckily, I have a found a couple girls that have helped me keep my sanity while John is away. The past two weekends I've had the opportunity to go out with some of them and get in a little girl time.
The first weekend John was gone, we went out to farewell a friend who is on her way to England. the first stop was Kitakaisen, a sushi restaurant that has EVERYTHING! We have been there a few times before, but I am always overwhelmed by their menu. There's something for everyone, whether its sushi, pizza, or even horse meat sashimi...I'll skip that one.
Afterwards, we went bowling. That bowling alley on base was closed for maintenance so we went off base and were definitely the only Americans there! Language is always an issue, but luckily the employees knew what were there for.

I was hoping our names would be put on the screen in Japanese, but no such luck!


Getting shoes was an interesting experience; you puts coins into a vending machine-like thing and out came your shoes. The problem was all shoe sizes were in centimeters, so it was basically trial and error!

Here is a picture of Eve (the girl who is leaving), demonstrating how to use the machine!
We decided to go to the Officer's club after that to dance a little. Saturday nights are pretty dead there, so it was great having the dance floor to ourselves! Oh, I almost forgot, I got a raffle ticket when I walked in the door. I never think much of those because I never win anything, but my odds were pretty good since there was hardly anyone in there! I wound up winning a Coach purse! Cool huh?! I was pretty shocked! I think its a ploy to get more people in there on Saturday nights, hey it works for me!


So this weekend a few of the girls from our squadron went together to our monthly Marine Officer's Spouses Club event. The basis of MOSC is to raise money for women's charities in Okinawa and they generally raise ALOT of money! This month we celebrated St. Patrick's day with some great food, green beer, and an auction. We raised over $2000! Pretty darn good for one event!
Of course, it wasn't all business, we had fun too!


We especially had a good time with the decorations!


A little karaoke is always great! I can't believe they did "Bohemian Rapsody" so well!


My friend Rebecca and I must be long lost sisters. We somehow wind up with matching stuff without even trying. We have the same bedspread, entertainment center, and dozens of other things that were never planned but we laugh about when we find out yet one more thing the other has that we have. This time, we had to take a picture of our new coach purses our husbands bought for us for Valentine's Day (they had no idea either), along with our side ponytails! Ha ha!

I ended this weekend with a trip to the spa with my friend Laura. She had heard about this hot stone spa so we thought we would check it out.


Here is an excerpt of an article I read about this spa: "Ganbanyoku is a sauna-like bath, as it heats your body deeply inside and makes you drip with sweat. The Japanese word “Ganban” means “rock”. The Ganban used at stone-spa parlors contains a lot of minerals and emits far-infrared ray. At such places, the rock is heated up to about 40c (105F) and you spread a towel and lie on the rock for 15 minutes. After taking a break for 5 to 10 minutes, you will repeat the same set for 3~4 times."


So that's what we did. We got into some outfits they gave us and downed a ton of water before sweating our buns off!
It was actually really relaxing and pretty cheap. I'd probably do it again!
So I hope you enjoyed "Andrea's weekend adventures"! If I do anything else that is somewhat interesting, I will keep you all updated!
By the way, incase you didn't know, John and I just might be coming to a town near you in April and May, so watch out, you may have a visitor or two!