Home SWEAT Home

Yep - you read that right. We're back in hot and humid Okinawa. With the humidity it feels like 100 degrees out. Ugh! I had forgotten how drastic it is here, but I was quickly reminded as soon as I stepped off our plane. Our dehumidifiers are working hard to stave off mold.

We arrived home last night after a whirlwind trip to the US. First, I went to Fort Collins to see Mike and Jess. Then I headed to New England to see family and friends. Then Noa arrived and we traveled to New York for a wedding. Here are a few highlights from the trip:

Fort Collins, CO:

Sarge plants a wet one on Jess. I had lots of bonding time with Sarge and other local dogs. We found out that 2 more will be moving into the neighborhood shortly. Their yard will most likely become a doggy playdate locale in the near future.

Jess and I goof off in Target. I had just got my new camera and we were trying out the timer with these gigantic dog food bowls. Even these are too big for Sarge!

And what's vacation without eating out with 2 of my most favorite people?? The only thing missing was Noa.

New England:

There was a mass birthday party for me (June birthday) and Anya, Megan, and Anoli, who all have July birthdays. Best of all - it was ice cream cake!

I spent some time in Massachusetts with Cristyn and we went to visit our alma mater, Gordon College. We snuck into one of the newer dorm buildings and checked out the rooms. Here is our lovely self portrait. We joked that the campus is becoming a "real" college due to the growth of the campus - they are building a new science center, there are new dorms, parking lots and athletic fields.

There was a garden party at Noa's parent's house on our last night there. It was so great to hang out with friends and family in the midst of such a beautiful setting (Noa's mom is a very skilled gardener). Here are Aaron and Cristyn with us. Notice the cool necklace I'm wearing? It's a gift from Cristyn, who is a representative for lia sophia jewelry. I dropped a whole lot of dough after perusing the catalog. Oopsie.

Marc and Vanessa with their little one. We felt so lucky to see them since they have moved to Connecticut. Lucky for us, they were traveling to the New Hampshire area anyway for a family vacation.

The Bragdon family: (left to right) dad, Anoli, Noa, mom, and me

New York:

Noa demonstrates his water skiing skills. Although it was a beautiful day, that water was cold!

Here are the boys with the happy couple. Brian, on the left, went to Cornell with Garth and Noa, was a groomsman with Noa. Then, the beautiful bride, Carrie, with her new hubby, Garth and then, of course, Noa. This is one talented couple. Garth works for special forces in the Navy and Carrie is a vet!

And the other happy couple. We're back and the blogging continues....

Live from FoCo, CO

Here I am sitting in Mugs coffee shop on Jess' laptop with an unexpected blog! So, live from Fort Collins, CO - it's me!

My first few days have already been busy, but it's great to be with the Apostles again (however, we all miss Noa dearly). I thought I'd share some photos of some of the recent events so far.

Upon my arrival, I soon found myself in a hair salon chair getting my hair cut and roots touched up. Here I am with my updated hair and Jess afterwards. Can you tell I had traveled all day? I look so tired!

On Friday, Jess introduced me to the community pool (the weather here is very hot, but unlike Oki there is no humidity - I'm happy about that. While there, Jess and I got to sunbathe, read magazines, and even used the water slide during the adult swim time. Fun!

Tonight we're going out to eat with friends for margaritas. The next few days look like they'll be bringing shopping, manicures, massages, and more pool time.

It's so good to be back!

Happy 4th!

We celebrated the fourth of July in typical American style - burgers, beer, and fireworks. We had some friends over and got to watch the fireworks from our balcony.


The dogs weren't quite used to so many kids chasing them around the apartment, but they were troopers and behaved during the party (although Gunnar tried to sneak a hot dog out of the garbage at the end of the night!).


On a separate note, I leave for the US today and will most likely be on hiatus from the blog for a little while. I'm heading to Colorado first, then to New Hampshire, and then Noa will join me to travel to New York for a wedding. So, there will be much to blog about when I return.

Flower Power

I've decided to try again with keeping some plants alive. Instead of putting them in front of my house, I put them out back where there's a lot more sun. I picked out this hibiscus in honor of Jess, who had a beautiful red hibiscus tree behind her house in Jax. I'm hoping that mine will flourish like hers did. Although we all know about my lack of a green thumb...but so far so good.




Speaking of thumbs...check out my toes!! Teresa took me to the famous CoCok's - a nail salon here in Oki that is famous for its elaborate nail designs. Not only was the foot massage and the comfy chairs heavenly, but they were able to put a beautiful design on my little, bitty toenails (anyone who knows me well, knows that I like toenails kept short!). I might just have to grow them out longer now. Look how cute!

Weekend Happenings

It was a typical hot and humid weekend in Okinawa. I started out the weekend by hanging out on Araha Beach - my favorite beach (so far). The beach was nearly empty early in the weekend, so I had prime beach estate, although I'm sure the beach filled up as the weekend went on with the rising temperatures.

Saturday evening, I joined my travel-weary friends, Perry and Jenn, who had recently returned from the states, for the first annual Torri Beach Jazz Festival. Although I'm not much of a jazz fan, I thought it was a great event (although, it was really, really crowded). It was held right on the beach, which is beautiful and scenic. People just brought lawn chairs and blankets and enjoyed the music, the food from local vendors (lots of Orion and teriyaki chicken), and drank wine - there was a wine tasting, but the tickets were sold out by the time we arrived (next year, it's a must!). My favorite part was when they mixed the jazz music with some Okinawan drumming - a very cool mix!

Tonight I was out on my porch reading and was able to catch this shot right before the sun went down. Beautiful!!

Birthday Boy

Guess who turns 2 today??

Celebrations have included new treats, wrestling with sister, trying on new collars, having a hundred photos taken (well, maybe not 100....), and sleeping in the sun. Tonight's party includes barbequed chicken on the porch. Let the good times roll.

Happy birthday, little man.

A New Toy

After almost a year of living here, we finally got ourselves a grill. Actually it's more like Noa's new toy. He's loving it. We celebrated with grilled turkey burgers on Saturday night.

Northern Sights

If you take the freeway up to the northern part of the island, you will see these signs on the side of the road. Teresa calls these "Pumba Signs"*. Unfortunately, I have yet to see a real Pumba hanging out by the freeway.

*in reference to Pumba, the wild boar, in The Lion King

Stuck

My Summer Vacation
by Julie

After celebrating my birthday with my husband, I spent the next week stuck at home due to extremely painful sinus pressure. The doctor decided that antibiotics were needed...

I hate being sick.

At least I have company.

Birthday

It's official. I'm now 28. Megs made me a rice krispie cake, but by the time I was able to take a photo, I had already eaten a corner of it - oops!

Yesterday, Noa had the day off and he had planned a dive trip for us, but it was cancelled due to poor visibility (most likely, I'd have to raincheck the dive anyway because my sinuses are messed up right now). So, it looks like we'll take the dive this weekend instead - we'll be diving with WHALE SHARKS! I'm so excited. He even borrowed a friend's underwater digital camera because he knows how important it is for me to photo document everything ("it's all about the blog" are famous words in the Hammer household). So, stay tuned for details on that trip!

In spite of the poor weather yesterday, we decided to drive up north and see the butterfly garden and aquarium (one of my favorite places on the island).

Noa and I model the goofy red hats provided to attract butterflies:

Our self portrait:

At the aquarium:

I still think the garden eels are cute, even if they are eels:

I tried so hard to get a good photo of this sea turtle, but I missed my window of opportunity:
After that we went out to dinner with friends and had an impromptu game night at our place. Much fun was had.

Lastly, here is one of my favorite gifts from Noa - a "purse camera" (as I call it). Now I can have a camera with me at all times to capture more funny things in Japan.

Done!

Well, the school year is officially over and I am now on my summer break. Here are pics of my packed up classroom. I think it looks so sad like this!

What does the summer hold in store for me? I'll be headed to the states in July to visit Jess and Mike, then my family, and then go to a wedding with Noa. When in Okinawa, I plan to do some diving and island exploring with Noa, spend time with some friends and my dogs, and of course, plan for next year (you just can't stop me!).

Parting Gifts

Today was the last day of Kindergarten for this school year. Tomorrow and Friday, Teresa and I will be packing up the room for the summer. It's been a tearful couple of days at school between saying good-bye to a great group of kids and trying to function on little sleep. I received some very thoughtful cards and gifts this year, including this quilt which was made by some of the parents and all of the students. Each student (except one who moved earlier in the year) made a square on the quilt.

6 Years

1 cruise

2 dogs

3 moves (one international)

4 graduations*

5 cars

6 years of marriage

Yep - we did it - we made it to #6! Unfortunately, I had to work most of the day (with the end of school right around the corner, I'm putting in some long hours). In spite of my crummy hours working away from him, Noa still treated me to his famous flower bouquets (photo to come), we went out to dinner and enjoyed a movie. We also had many calls from family and friends, which is also a welcome treat. It was a simple, but sweet anniversary.

This year, I'm just glad to be together with Noa. Being here and living among other military families, I see a lot of people who cannot be with their loved ones for anniversaries, birthdays, and other holidays, so I cherish the fact that we can be together.

Happy 6th, Babe. I'd choose you over and over again.

*okay, technically 3, but I'm counting my graduation from Gordon, which was a month before our wedding. The rest were Noa's graduation from Tufts, graduation from his medical residency program (NAS JAX), and my graduation from UNF.

Graduation Masquerade

I know, excuses, excuses. However, there are very, very, very good reason why I haven't been in the blogosphere lately. Most pressing, and now over, was Kindergarten's Celebration of Learning Ceremony (AKA Kindergarten Graduation). You see, it's DoDDS policy that we refrain from referring to this ceremony as graduation or even promotion (although that's exactly what it is). Also, the students may not wear caps or gowns or really anything that may cause one to think, "hmm, looks like that kid is graduating." Although I strongly disagree with this decision, I have to go by these rules and thus sucessfully worked towards our Celebration of Learning Ceremony, which was held on Friday morning.

It was a huge sucess. The kids were cute. And I only messed up reading one name (not bad, in my opinion!).

Just a few photos:

We had a patriotic theme. Here's the stage set-up, complete with the handprint American flag (made by the students, of course).

These tables were for our families.

My paraprofessional and friend, Teresa, who helped with every step of this huge event.

Conehead

Well, it looks like Sarge isn't the only one on the mend. We took an emergency trip to the vet a couple of nights ago because Gunns had a ruptured abscess on his rear (sorry if that grosses you out). It's looking much better with daily cleanings and antibiotics, but he is not liking the cone he has to wear around his neck. Sadie on the other hand is taking full advantage of having Gunnar in a constant state of submission.

Beautiful Aka

Noa convinced me to take 2 days off this holiday weekend to spend with friends on the beautiful island of Aka. Aka is one of the small islands off of Okinawa; it's only an hour and a half ferry ride to get there.

Aka truly is an island paradise. We spent time hanging out with friends, exploring the island, snorkeling, swimming, and sunning. Here are some photos from the weekend. I'm already looking forward to going back and diving Aka someday.

Noa and I at one of the many look-outs on the island.

The island has many deer. We went looking for them at night.

Some of the group on our night walk exploring the area.

A (large) hiding hermit crab.

Beautiful beach photos (I felt like I was in Hawaii, minus all the tourists, while on the beach)

Sewer covers depicted the deer.

The ferry

The view from our minshiku (basically, a guest house/hotel).

Dairy Issues

Milk is one of Noa's favorite substances on Earth. He drinks milk everyday. However, living in Oki has challenged Noa's enthusiasm towards his favorite beverage. First of all, milk is only sold by carton - no gallon jugs. So, we have to buy several cartons at a time to support his milk habit. We usually keep about 3 cartons in our fridge at a time.

I think the process of getting milk from the states to us is to freeze it, ship it over frozen, and then put it out in the dairy cooler at the comissary. We have learned from experience that this process is not fool-proof. We've found spoiled milk, chunky milk, and today we discovered brown milk. It doesn't smell bad and it's not quite the right color or consistency to be chocolate milk either. Neither of us wanted to test it to find out.

Cousins

I've always said that IGs and meerkats act so similar, it's like they are related! Check out this IG Post entry of an IG service dog named Byron who visits the zoo and gets an up-close view of his "cousins". Cute!

http://www.igpost.com/index.php?showtopic=63271

My Big Girl

Sadie turned four years old this past week. Here she is in her new kimono. Although it was a busy work day, she did get a special birthday dinner, got to play with a new toy that dispenses treats, and got to cuddle with dad on the chair. Life doesn't get much better than that.

Happy 4th Sadie!