Hampostles Unite!

I don't even know where to start in blogging about our trip to Colorado. In summary, it was a fabulous trip. To be back with the Apostles again makes me feel whole. It was as if we had never missed a beat since last seeing each other. Jess did a great job blogging about the daily activities; here are my favorite highlights:

Massage: Upon arriving to Colorado after a 22-hour trip from Japan, Mike and Jess had scheduled each of us an hour massage. It was the perfect way to start the trip and deal with jet-lag. I'm trying to fill out the paperwork here - I'm sure my answers are incomprehensible at this point.

Snow: We were fortunate enough to get snow on our first full day there. Mike and Noa even went skiing (with freshly powdered slopes). I loved it. It brought me back to my days in New England.

Hiking: We got to experience the beautiful Colorado terrain on Sunday with a hike in the snow! I didn't love how I felt like a smoker as I hiked up the trail. My lungs weren't quite used to the altitude at that point. However, the beauty of the surroundings and the great company, the Apostles and their friends the Seebas, made it a great time.

Noa and I scrambling up the rocks.

These trees reminded me of powder-white old lady hair.

Shellie and I at the top of Arthur's Rock.

Sarge: Wow - he had grown so much! I loved hanging out with Sarge, playing with him, taking him out for poop runs. I only wished Gunnar was there to keep his friend company. I can't decide what his funniest antic was this week: it's either chasing the reflection of his tag from the sun or learning to open the storage ottoman to get to his toys. Sarge is my favorite rottie ever!


Holidays: When we lived in Jacksonville, we spent almost every holiday with Mike and Jess, so it was great to be back together again for Easter. We went to a friends' house, Rob and Lindsey, who hosted a big dinner, Easter egg-dying, and games!

Shellie, me, and Lindsey dying Easter eggs.

The girls (yeah, I know Jess posted this photo, but it's a good one!).

Playing Taboo (notice Mike in the dog crate!).

Dancing: There was no shortage of this at the Apostles. We had one impromptu dance party and then one planned party with dancing (Mike is pretty much the best party host on the planet), complete with a strobe, colored lights, fog machine, the works. It was fun to help them prepare for the festivities like we used to in Jax. Noa, as usual, was a dance machine.

This is very Japanese of us - peace, baby.

HAMPOSTLES!

Jess: Probably the best thing next to being in Colorado with Mike and Jess, is the time Jess and I spent together. Mostly, we did shopping - lots of it. I did a lot of shopping for school and for clothing (online shopping just doesn't cut it when it comes to buying clothes). Jess was outfitting her new house. But we also did other things together, like running errands, DIY projects (painting some shelves), and got our nails done. Together, anything is fun and this time was no different. I cherished every moment with my best friend, whether it was picking up Sarge from day care, cleaning the house, or doing laundry, it was time together. I had a hard time leaving, knowing that I won't have those kind of moments again for several months.

She took me to her hair dresser so that I could finally do something with the mop atop my head.

Our self-portrait.

Pedicures.

On our last night (this is me prior to bawling my eyes out about leaving).

There is so much more I could blog about: playing games, hot-tubbing it, picking out furniture - but really, you get the idea - it was a blast. Mike and Jess, you know we love you and can't wait for the Hampostles to reunite again. Give Sarge a kiss for me.

Pre-Colorado

I had to share the cute Easter "buckets" that Teresa and I made for the kids this year. They loved them! On our last day of school before break, the students had a walking field trip to the Mess Hall and on the way back we surprised them with an Easter egg hunt at the playground. It was a great day both for the kiddos and us (the teachers).

Back

I'm back and I apologize for the lack of blogging - it's been a rough week back. Adjusting to the time difference and catching up on work has been the main priorities this week. But, after sleeping for about 12 hours (yes, 12, I'm not exaggerating, sadly) last night, I'm now ready to go. So....onward with the blog!

Loving It

Just to let you know, we're still here in Colorado having the best time with the Apostles! We've been hiking, home decorating, shopping (lots!), and simply hanging out. It's like a great reunion and time is going by so fast. I'll be blogging with photos upon my return to Okinawa, but be sure to check out Jess' blog too. Her link is http://teamapostle.blogspot.com.

So Excited!

We leave Okinawa in a few hours to go to Colorado!! We're spending spring break with Mike and Jess in their new house. I am so excited to see them, play with Sarge, and, of course, go shopping!

Dancing in the Streets

Noa and I had dinner in American Village on Friday night. It's common to see street entertainers of all sorts out performing on a busy weekend night, such as this one. We stopped to watch this show - it was a hip hop school, much to Noa's delight.

Misguided

Sadie has decided that I made a very misguided shopping decision over the weekend.

I couldn't pass up a crazy Japanese dog outfit on clearance.

You can tell she's plotting to chew up my socks tonight in this picture.

Our Dragon

Meet Dragon, my Kindergarten class' newest member. I surprised the kids with this pet for our classroom because we've been studying living things. The kids just love him! Can you tell that they picked out his name?

Unfortunately, this is actually our 2nd Dragon. The 1st one died quickly (I think I purchased a diseased fish) and I had to replace him over the weekend. Thankfully, betta fish are easy to find and I chose one with common coloring. I decided not to tell the kiddos about this part of the story.

The only problem with getting a class pet is that now I have the "bug". My para and I have already discussed getting a bird next year and then maybe something furry, like a rat or a hamster. We'll see about that one. Having a class pet brings up lots of stories from the kids about pets they had to leave behind in the states (very sad) or pets they acquired while living here. Mostly though I hear about fish who didn't make it very long and ended up getting flushed down the toilet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this Dragon doesn't have to go there for a while.

In case you were confused...

My friend Teresa knows my penchant for humorous Japanese signs and took this photo for me the other day when she was out in town. I guess the standard bathroom picture signs with the male figure in blue and the female figure in a dress in red weren't cutting it anymore.

Pet Box

I haven't found a fabulous pet place yet, but this place is decent. Pet Box* actually sells some wholesome food** from the states, so I can't complain since I thought I would be forced to feed the cheap junk from the grocery store. Nothing but the best for my babies!! Anyway, Pet Box does sell puppies, which makes me sad, and also sells other little creatures, such as fish, rodents, and even the occasional spider monkey (Americans are not allowed to import these, so some military families have found themselves in a pickle after purchasing one of these crazy creatures).

This is where I found those dried fish treats. I also found it interesting that I found another product with an IG on the packaging (this is so rare in the states). This happened once in another pet store that sold small necklaces for dogs, but this time it was for something normal: dog treats! I also found this odd, since I have yet to see a local with an IG, even though the Japanese seem to favor the smaller breeds.

Anyway, REPRESENT!

*The wording at the bottom of the Pet Box sign reads, "keep happy friendship with your pets."

**Wholesome dog foods include, but are not limited to Natural Balance, Royal Canin, Solid Gold, and a couple of others. The Whole Dog Journal publishes a list of nutritionally sound dog foods each year.

San-A Seafood

There's a store here called San-A. They are everywhere, kind of like Wal-Mart. San-A is actually separate stores all housed together in one big building, so you have a clothing store, and electronics store, and a grocery store. Noa likes to pick up sushi from our local San-A, so I snapped a few pictures of the sushi and some of the other delicacies one can buy there.


Here's Noa's favorite San-A sushi platter. Just think; this is just a supermarket-type platter, not necessarily the most gourmet stuff around! It sure beats the sushi he used to get a our super Target (no offense to Target - as most of you know that's my favorite store and I miss it dearly).

Squid (yummy...)

These are fish heads. I'm not quite sure what recipie calls for these.

Since we were on a seafood theme, I picked up some dried fish for the dogs at the pet store. Check out these crazy treats. The dogs love them!!

Surprise Guests

My class is studying pets this week (yeah, it's one of my favorite topics). Today I had some surprise guests for the kiddos - our dogs! Noa had the day off and brought Sadie and Gunnar to school. The kids loved it and the dogs were great. They were surrounded by affectionate pats, kisses, and were given lots of cheese! I can't post photos of the kids, but here I am with Gunnar in the classroom (notice that he's more interested in Noa instead of the photo op).

Sunday Brunch

After church today, we headed over to the Rose Garden for brunch - a great place for omelettes, french toast, and crispy bacon (a rarity here). We ate with some friends and enjoyed conversing about Okinawa, travel, and told stories about "back home." As we were leaving we realized we had been there for about 3 hours! Although the restaurant staff was probably glad we were finally leaving, it was a nice way to spend a cool, rainy Sunday morning.

Here we are as we were leaving: Tom, Laura, Noa, Jen, and Perry.

And to you guys: welcome to the blog.

New Duds, New Attitude

A couple of collars came in today for the dogs. I thought I'd show them off by taking some photos. Look at what happened during my photos shoot:

First, I started with Gunnar, who is usually the difficult one to photograph. He doesn't like to sit still and he gets weepy eyes, so I usually can't quite get a good shot of him. Today, though, I finally got a few decent shots. Yeah!

His collar is called "sock monkey" which I think is perfect for him. Noa is not thrilled about it. He wants me to go back to his old camo collar, which is actually my favorite too, but not in it's current ratty condition.

Sadie was hard to photograph today. This was mostly because she was more concerned with Gunnar and Noa. She's here's a shot just to show off her new "cherry blossoms" collar, not my photography skills.

So, then I tried to get a photo of the two of them together and here's what I got:
My theory is that Gunnar was making comments under his breath the whole time and Sadie wasn't going to take it anymore. Yeah, these little dogs can be sweet, but it's WWF when you are not looking!

The Ultimate Experience

I'm going to warn you now and let you know that the following images are a little gross. Let this be a warning that you may not like the pictures in this post.







I bet you're curious now.....seriously, though...it is a little gross, so be warned......








Noa has decided that a fun bonding activity with some of our new friends is to play ultimate frisbee on Sunday afternoons. Now, don't get me wrong, I think ultimate is great. My sister is a champion player in fact*. However, I didn't realize that "ultimate" in this sense meant ultimate injuries.





Check out the trauma from a slide during yesterday's game:

Noa's right arm:

Noa's right leg:

*Well, she didn't actually play in a major tournament or anything. However, she'd always be my pick for an ultimate frisbee teammate. She'll take on the best of them!

Traffic

One of the more comical (or death-defying) activities here in Okinawa is driving. I always crack up when I see this light (and I see it all over the place). What exactly is the need for the red light in this situation, might I inquire?

No going backwards, I suppose?