Bullfight...Sort of.

This weekend I had my first Okinawan bullfight experience. It was very different than I had imagined. During my undergraduate years, I went to Spain and studied there for a semester. The bullfighting experience there is quite gory and involves a crazy man (in my opinion) and one bull in a ring. In Okinawa there are two bulls who "fight" each other. They have handlers who hold onto a rope attached to the bulls' nose the entire time.

The bulls basically push each other around. The looser is the bull who gives up first. I think this one we went to was more for show than the real competitions they often have. Apparently they hold real competitive matches with judges and possibly a little betting on the winner.

Of course there had to be quite a few performances by kids. The Japanese love being entertained!

As many of you know, I HATE clowns and anything or anyone dressed up, it just creeps me out. This guy was no exception, but Laura was brave enough to take a picture with him!

At the end, we went down into the ring where they brought out an old bull and you could take a picture next to it OR sit on top of it. Of course I couldn't be a wimp, I had to get on! Only in Okinawa!

Here are my friends Laura and Sabrina with me and the host, the creepy clown and of course a girl dressed up as a cow because, well why not?

Texas Part II

I am so sorry my blogs are not quite Japanese-y. I do venture out, but it is to do everyday things that don't seem blog-worthy. So I apologize if you are reading this blog to see all of the cool things we have done in Japan, and you see posts about the zillion times we have been to the States! When John comes back we will do a few more touristy things, I promise, but for now, I guess it is the "Andrea Show". Ha ha!

Hopefully you all had a chance to see the snow madness we got in Texas. I am still shocked over the amount we got, and the havoc it caused in that town! Here is my younger brother, Jacob's huge snowman!

I have to post a few more pictures of the trip. Here are my cousin's girls who greeted me at the airport when I got into Dallas.

The next few days we spent at home because the roads were so horrible. Fortunately, my brother Daniel has a 4-wheel drive truck and was able to trudge through the snow so we could see them on Christmas. Here is my nephew, Cade who is too cute for words!

I love this boy!

Finally I was able to go with my dad up to Oklahoma city to see my grandmother and some of my aunts, uncles and cousins. As soon as I walked in here house I saw this and immediately staked my claim to it! My dad had the same idea but I called it first!

See, my gramma is a fabulous seamstress and always has a quilt in the works, so when any of us go over there and see something we really like, we have to put our name on it before someone else does since the family is so big! Luckily gramma saw how much I was in love with it and let me take it home. It is so fitting for our home and our life here.

For some reason my cousin Chris and I thought it would be funny to wear my grandpa's suspenders, and Jacob found some old sweatbands and tube socks!

Back at my mom's house I had a fun time playing with her new West Highland White Terrier or Westie, as they are known, his name is Cooper and he's adorable but made me realize how much I do not want to ever have a new puppy!

On New Years Day I had lunch with my aunt, uncle and cousins, then it was back to Dallas to get ready to head home.

The night before I left I got to have dinner with some of my best girlfriends. It makes me sad that I can't be around them all the time I really miss them.

Now I am home safe and sound. The flamingos are out of my yard and I am working on my very last class for my master's! Woo hoo!

I Got Flocked!

I made it back to Okinawa safely and even got bumped up to business class on the long leg of my trip. It made for a MUCH more pleasant ride! I guess all of those trips back and forth to the States has paid off with the airlines!

Two days after I got home, I woke up and heard some kids laughing and talking very loudly outside my house. I peered out the window to see what was going on and I spotted a pink flamingo. Uh oh. It happened to me. I got flocked!

The youth group at our church are always coming up with ideas to raise money and I think this is the most fun one yet. Anyone can pay them to put a little heard (or whatever you call it) of plastic flamingos in another person's yard. They usually sneak around in the middle of the night so you have a big surprise when you wake up. You can also buy flocking "insurance" to protect yourself from this happening to you! I think it is hilarious. I knew they had started doing this, but didn't think it would happen to me! This definitely made my day!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

I made it safely to the other side of the world to Texas! This is me and my dad who decided to go for the Santa-look this winter!

My cousin Jessica and her husband drove through a snowstorm in Virginia to be with family for Christmas and were there to greet me at the airport.I got in just in time because 2 days later, we had one of the biggest snow storms this area has ever seen!
Here I am with my Dad, brothers, and Brittany on the 23rd (notice the tshirts and clear ground).

This is my adorable nephew, Cade hanging out with his daddy!

Just one day later, we woke up to this...

Central Texas rarely gets snow, and when they do, it is only an inch or so, melts immediately, or turns to slippery ice. They had a record amount of snowfall on Christmas Eve. All of the highways were shut down. There were people stranded in their cars for hours, some even overnight! It was a mess! Fortunately I was nice and warm in my mom's house. My brother Jacob and I got out in the snow and took a few pictures.

Check out the yardstick we stuck in the snow where it had accumulated in a corner.

John and I received a great Christmas present, some very exciting news last weekend. John was selected for promotion. For those of you who do not speak the military language, this is a big deal. He will move up in rank, get a nice pay raise, and will no longer be considered a junior officer. As in the civilian world, not everyone who is up for promotion gets it. There were 660 United States Marines who were selected and John was one of them. Soon he will pin on the rank of Major. If you are not familiar with the USMC officer rank structure, here it is. Bring on the oak leaf!I am so very, very proud of my husband. He is an amazing man, and a fantastic officer. It is apparent that he is great at what he does. We will keep you in the loop when the times comes that he will become Major John Franklin.

Merry Christmas everyone! I'll post more pictures of the rest of my trip (if the weather clears and we can actually get out of the house!)

Tis the Season

This Christmas Holiday season has by far been the most stressful one I have ever had. First of all, forget shopping for gifts around here. Last year we did the whole get-everyone-Okinawan-gifts thing, so for anything else it is pretty hard. We don't have the greatest selection of things to buy! As most of you know, I am also in the process of getting my Master's degree and I stupidly took 3 online course this Fall. I cannot believe my brain has not exploded yet. Top all of that off with a zillion cookies to bake for every party or "forced volunteer" cookie donations, AND my husband being so far away. I am ready for a break! I am sorry, this blog was not meant to be a gripe-fest, I guess I needed to let off a little steam!

In all of the madness, I still put up a tree and decorated the house a little bit. The 75 degree weather does not make it feel Christmas-y, so I had to do something! I am planning on going home to Texas for a few weeks to see my family for Christmas. I think that will be a much needed break! Not to mention when I get back it will be January, and that is one more month closer to having John home! I am so ready for him to be back here with me!

I almost forgot to add one more thing to the madness; this weekend at the church we had a dinner theater performance. There was a little acting, lots of singing, and of course dinner for those who came to watch. It was a very nice evening. Here are the choir members. I must say we have a very talented group of fabulous singers!

These girls, Caralee and Katelyn are two of the sweetest people you will ever meet.

I am truly blessed to have made some good friends here. Friends can make or break any duty station. It is always so hard when you move to a new area and know no one. I finally feel used to this different world. I didn't say I liked it, but it is growing on me!

Merry Christmas to everyone! I will hopefully be posting pictures of my trip back home very soon!

Even if it's not me...

I am a sucker for reunions. Have you ever seen that show "The Locator"? It gets me every time when I see long lost siblings, children, or friends reunited. What is even better, is seeing military families come together after long deployment. Tonight I had the pleasure of going to the airport to capture photographs of quite a few friends of mine as they hugged their Marine for the first time in 6 months.

My good friend Laura's husband Matt is one of John's best friends here. He was where John is now, luckily they had a few weeks to hang out before Matt headed back here. Ridiculous, I know.

I arrived at the airport to see so many anxious faces and signs that said "Welcome Home" and "We love you". My heart leaped! I love this stuff!

The worst part about the airport in Okinawa is there is a HUGE glass wall that separates you from the passengers waiting for their bags. It can be torture when you have waited to long to see someone, then you finally do, but you still have to wait for them to come through those doors! After what seemed like forever, our Marines walked out the door to cheers and claps! Wives and children ran to get that first hug and kiss. My heart just melted!

Eventhough it was not me who was welcoming home my hero, I am so happy for all of them and I know my day will come soon!

My 50th Blog!

Well, I can't believe I have had enough to say to write 50 blogs! What better way to celebrate than to wish a happy 234th birthday to the United States Marine Corps! Happy Birthday Marines! Thank you for all you do to protect us. Of course thanks to the the other services, but I am a little partial to the Marine Corps!

I decided to go to this year's Birthday Ball even though John isn't here.

The commanding Officer of our squadron (who is also our next door neighbor!) invited me and the other wives with deployed spouses to the ball as his guests. So I figured why not, I always welcome a good excuse to dress up! My friend Christina, our squadron's Family Readiness Officer was my date. It was her last event before she moved in a week. Her husband is a Marine so they are on their way out of here. She's the one in the cream dress. My friend Rebecca and me.

My favorite part of every ball is when the young guys get out there and strut their stuff! This year was no disappointment! They crack me up!

Apparently the Executive Officer took pity on me and we did some Two-steppin'. I am sure he assumed since I am from Texas that I would be a pro. Not so much, but I have gotten better after working on it with John since he is great at it! We were pretty much the only ones on the dance floor because these 18 and 19 years olds had no idea what to do with country music!

I have had surprisingly a lot of support since John has been gone. My faith has been restored in the kindness of others. I honestly believed that because I am living in such a HUGE military community where almost everyone's husband (or wife) deploys, that the attitude would be "Well my husband is gone, or has been gone a lot too, so suck it up". But I haven't experience much of that. The first few days after he left I felt so much love and support, and for that I am so thankful.
My loving co-workers even left a "We love you Andrea" note on my desk along with literally mounds of candy piled on my desk and chair! Granted, there was so much candy in my office that had been donated to the church for the Fall Festival, they had quite a bit to work with. Don't worry, we finally got rid of the left overs so we would stop eating it!
Our church recently opened our new playground, so the staff decided to get out there and be the first to try it out!

The pastor is on the left with our crazy associate pastor in the slide!

Thanks again everyone for all of your love and support!