June Sunset

We're really going to miss the beautiful sunsets that this apartment affords us each night.

More Changes: Keystone

Our lives aren't the only things changing around here.  Our church recently underwent a large renovation to fix some building issues, such as roof problems, needing new windows, etc.  But, the biggest change for the church was having the exterior painted.  

Here is the before.  We lovingly referred to it as the pink church.  Bepto Bismol pink church.

The pictures don't quite do it justice, but yes, it was very pink.  However, it was an easy landmark for newcomers!  Anyway, when buildings are under renovations here, they are usually shrouded with scaffolding and mesh tarps.  Our church was no different and was soon looking like a blue ghost.

Finally, our "new," bright beautiful building was revealed!  And, I must say, it looks pretty sharp.  I like the name painted on top in Japanese. 

There are still some physical repairs and updates that need to be finished, such as painting the outer wall (yes, it's still pink) and some interior work, but it's been a refreshing change as we kick-off the summer season.  Oh, and we'll be getting an updated website soon too!  For now, you can find the church at: http://keystonenazarene.org/.  The new website should be up in early July.

June Happenings

When I was teaching - and yes, we'll get to that - I used to put out a monthly flyer to keep my parents informed about what was happening over the course of the upcoming month.  June is now nearly over, but there's so much to catch up on, I thought it might be nice to have my own little....

June 9: Team Juloa's 9-Year Anniversary

In the middle of the end-of-the-year craziness that is school, I managed to take some time to celebrate our 9 years of marriage.  Since our schedule was so booked for the week, we decided to go low-key.  Noa planned a great date.  First we went to Pizzeria Bella Napoli, a new pizza place located on the seawall.  We enjoyed some wine, salads, and of course, pizza!  One of the perks was trying a new variety: curry pizza!  It was oh-so-good, although I would up the spiciness factor a notch (I'm getting daring in my old age).

  

The restaurant treated us to free dessert for our special occasion.  Even better than dessert, the girls that worked took our picture for their website.  The restaurant is quite new to the area, so they are working on their marketing.  If I see it, I'll post the link.

Following our meal, Noa took me to the one landmark we have yet to visit: the ferris wheel.  We've looked at the ferris wheel for 4 years from our window, but have yet to ride in it.  Tonight was the night!

While Noa was buying the tickets, I was posing with the giant Anpanman in the arcade area.

Seriously though, I was shaking in my boots.  You see, I am scared of heights.  So, the beginning of the ride was not so great for me.  Thankfully, the view made up for my fears and it was truly beautiful from the top.

And soon, I was able to relax and enjoy the view

June 12: Karaoke Good-bye

In anticipation of the majority of our friends leaving Okinawa for the summer (DoDDS teachers get a paid trip home each summer and usually leave the weekend after school gets out), we wanted to have a last hurrah with our pals.  So, we decided that since karaoke is one of our favorite things to do on the island, it was the best way to say good-be to our friends.

Pictured below: Noa, Kent-o, Kenny, and Marc

Some of our girls: Mary Ann, Sue, and Linda - aren't they adorable?!

Me and more of the girls: Amy, ma, Liz, and Tritia, who helped plan the whole event.  She and Kent-o even brought crazy wigs, hats, and other fun accessories to keep the party lively.

And, here's the whole group!  No, I don't have an arm tattoo.  That gem was from the 100 Yen store and TOTALLY awesome.  Tritia was wearing it earlier and then passed it on to me.  Yeah, it was fun stuff.

June 17: My Birthday

As Noa likes to point out, I'm officially in my 30s now.  Great.  Yeah, I'm feeling old and I'm realizing that birthdays are not as exciting to me as they used to be.  However, it was so nice of our friends Tom and Tesha to have us over for a lovely Italian-style meal, complete with appetizers and tiramisu birthday cake.  Oh, and I tried Beatles Rock Band for the first time (yeah, I know, I'm behind the curve....what can I say, I'm old!)

June 18: Last Day of School

That's right, folks.  I'm now officially UNEMPLOYED.  Although I like to still think of myself as a teacher on summer break, Noa likes to lovingly refer to me as a "housewife" now.  Many of you have asked if I'll be teaching after the big move and here's the answer.  Yes, if I could get a job teaching, I'd grab it.  I LOVE teaching, especially Kindergarten, as evidenced by the rooms full of all teaching materials all over my house.  The problem is that each state has it's own licensing criteria.  I am currently licensed to teach under a DoDDS (Department of Defense Schools) certificate (DoDDS is like a state in this case).  Unfortunately, Washington state does not have reciprocity with other states.  So, my license does not automatically carry over.  This means that I have to take the Washington state teaching exams in order to be certified to teach in the state of Washington.  And, here's the kicker: the tests aren't available for me to take until SEPTEMBER.  So...until then, we'll see.

Regarding the actual last day of school: it was tough.  I cried several times that week.  I'm really going to miss my work here.  It's hard to believe it's really over.

June 19: Surprise!

After sleeping in until noon on the Saturday following the last day of school, I couldn't figure out why Noa was "encouraging" me to help him clean the house.  I mean, yes, it was a mess.  Having worked long hours 7 days a week for the last 3 weeks, we hadn't really given the house a good cleaning in awhile.  Plus, I now have school stuff in every nook and cranny in this small apartment.  But still, it was my first day of vacation and I was ready to take it easy.  Little did I know, Noa had something up his sleeve...

That night we headed to the airport for what I thought was a pick up of one of the incoming docs.  Turned out it was my birthday present: JESS!  She and Noa had apparently been planning this surprise for months, so I couldn't tell who was more excited me, Noa, or Jess!

Here's the best part of the surprise...it was a double!  After hugging and then walking to the car, we heard a deep voice behind us say, "do you know the way to the Big Echo?"  It was Mike.  He came out and surprised Noa.  Noa practically ran in front of oncoming traffic with glee.

They stayed with us until Thursday.  It was such a wonderful surprise and I'm still kinda in shock that they were here!

Here are some of the highlights:

At church on Sunday...

Go Red Sox!  Mike is now an official fan and brought Noa a shirt from his recent trip to Boston (the shirt says "Red Sox" in Japanese).

The girls just had to go to Cocoks!

Karaoke was a MUST.  We owned the Big Echo that night (granted it was a Sunday night and not too busy, but you get my point).  Some of our winning songs were: Not Ready to Make Nice (Dixie Chicks), Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Poison), Mr. Brightside (The Killers), and Numb/Encore (Jay-Z and Linkin Park).

We took them to all of our favorite eateries: Seaside Jet City Burgers...

Our new favorite pizza joint (Pizzeria Bella Napoli)...

Transit Cafe...

....just to name a few.  Some of our other adventures included hanging out in American Village, going to a local bakery, the boys golfing on Kadena while the girls shopped it up, and just hanging out.  It was too fun.

 Here's one of my favorite pics of me and Jess by one of the Boss vending machines on our way into a Japanese grocery store.

But we weren't the only ones thrilled with having the Apostles here.  The dogs just loved the extra company.  And I think the feeling was mutual:

It was a great visit - probably the best birthday gift ever!

So, what's happening with Team Juloa now?  We're on to getting ready for the big move back to the states.  We're just under a month away now and we have a LOT to do.  More to come!

Ch-ch-changes!

Get ready, folks, 'cause there are a lot of changes coming up to the blog. As you can see, I've been playing with some of the layout features in Blogger, but I have a custom design coming soon, wider pictures, and a mega-post about all the crazy things that have happened this month. Stay tuned!

Newest Toe Art

I went with my friend Tesha for a much needed visit to Cocoks this week.  Here are the latest creations:

You can't really appreciate the detail on my flowers, so here's a closer shot:

The level of detail is quite amazing.  I'm really going to miss these when we head back to the states.

"Snack" Pineapple

One of my families (from school) brought me a treat the other day that they had picked up from a local farmer: a "snack" pineapple.  It looks like this:

I put an apple next to it to show that it's not very big.  To "open" it, you have to twist it apart, like this:

Then pull apart the two halves:

To eat, pull off the small sections individually or in chunks:

And then it's ready to enjoy...yum!

Please excuse the post workout look here.

It's very sweet, even sweeter than "regular" pineapple.  I liked it, but did find it a tad messy since it's a juicy finger food.  I'll definitely be keeping my eyes out for these during our last two months here.

Oki Photo Shoot

We recently had a photo shoot with our friend Kim.  We wanted to have some nice Team Juloa pics before our time here is up.  Not only will these serve as an early anniversary gift to each other, they will be reminders of our memorable time here in Okinawa.  Here are a few of my favorites.

I love how this one on the beach steps looked and, not to be completely vain, but I really like my hair in this shot.  Again, I'm keeping it real, people.

We live right by the huge cement "jacks" that line the seawall and knew we wanted a pic of these beasts.  I like how this one captures not only the jacks, but the coastline with the buildings as well.

Our super serious shot.  I'll admit that it was hard for me to NOT smile.

And a silly shot with a funky japanese sign. 

This is my favorite one with the dogs.  Sadie was not into the pictures that day and was much more interested in smelling everything.  Thankfully she looked okay in a few shots. In one of the dog pictures we all look great....except for her....she looks like an emaciated rat.  And, no, I'm not posting that one.  Let's just go with one she actually cooperated in.

At first we didn't think the seawall would work because it was filled with tagging instead of artwork (yes, I know that one can argue that this is a form of art, but you know what I mean....).  As you can see, the tagging actually ended up working out for us after all and this is one of my absolute favorites because it captures the colors of the seawall perfectly.

This was taken in American Village and is one of Noa's favorites.  He says it's his favorite because of the ferris wheel, but I think it's because he obviously said something that cracked me up.  Yes, he sure does know how to make me laugh.

Call me a hopeless romantic, but I just think this one is so sweet.  I have it as my desktop wallpaper right now, in fact.

We call this our "modeling" shot. Calvin Klein, eat your heart out.

Yes, we were dancing outside.

Yes, it was 7:30 in the morning.

Yes, we know we are dorks.

Yes, it was fun!

Last one.  We had to get one with the "Boss" Tommy Lee.  These vending machines are EVERYWHERE in Okinawa, so it wouldn't be right to leave him out.  

There are so much more, but I'm trying to keep this post a normal length and not bore all my readers away.  Hope you enjoyed them and a big thanks to Kim for helping us keep our Okinawa memories alive for years to come!