As promised, here are some more pictures!

Here are a few pics from our plane ride:



Here are a few shots from the nasty Lemoore Days Inn:

How disgusting right? The toilet paper wouldn't even stay in it. Not like I would have put the t.p. on that gross thing anyway!

A lovely crooked light:

The gross floor:
Ethan doesn't get to jump on the beds at our house, but we could have cared less here!

Damn it Ethan, put on your socks!!!
I wasn't kidding about the yellow bath water now was I??!
This has been Lainey's bed now for a few weeks, but today her real bed arrived. She was so excited!
Ethan and Lainey made this little bed and Ethan told Lainey stories. It was really cute. Look how tired Lainey looks..

I am so sad, we left her darling, expensive canteen in Japan...so so sad!
Here is a sneak peek of the house. I was up to my ears in stuff!


We had to use the computer as a babysitter so we could get stuff done. I thought this was a cute shot.

Ethan and his missing bottom tooth!

What fun things 7 year old's do:

Pictures!!

Ok, I finally have some downtime to put some pictures up! Here are just a couple for now. We are loving it here so far.


Our new house
Backyard
Lainey loves her stroller!

The view from our backyard

Our new car..well not new, but new to us

Lainey has a cool new park right across the street!!

UPDATE...

WOW, it's been a whirlwind these past few days! I still don't have the software to download pics, but they will be coming soon. Until then, I have much to blog about. Where to start....
We moved into our new house a few days ago and we LOVE it! It has lots of storage, it's new, has new carpet (YES!) and we even made a little "play room" for the kids out of one of the storage closets. I can't wait to show pics of it all. The house is still very much a work in progress, but we have managed to unpack all of our stuff from storage. It WAS like Christmas and so much fun to see all our stuff again. We had forgotten how much stuff we had though, we will definitely be having a garage sale! Our next shipment arrives this Tuesday and Lainey will have her bed and her beloved Elmo chair. She will be elated. It has been a hard move for her, but she is slowly adjusting. Ethan is doing wonderfully. He started school last week and LOVES it. I can't tell you what a relief that is. We have wonderful neighbors who have quickly become friends. There are two girls his age, Lilly and Hayley who are actually in his class as well. He has a male teacher named Mr. Avery whom Ethan adores. He was so excited because he finally has his own desk. He loves having a place all to himself :).
We celebrated Ethan's birthday on the 26th and he got a new bike. He also lost his first tooth that day as well. Well, it's his third tooth to be lost, but this one fell out on its own and wasn't knocked out. Whew! We got some pics of his toothless grin that we will be posting soon.
I won't be getting my kitchen stuff until our last shipment which is supposed to arrive sometime in May so until then I have only one pot! We finally broke down and bought one so I can at least try to make us some homemade dinners! The artichokes here look AMAZING, I can't wait to try them.
I am also super excited because Breck and Jayson are coming to visit us this coming week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are driving here with all three kids in tow and will arrive on my birthday. I can't wait! My brother has never come to visit me, so it is a super special for me. I have never met Breck's kids before and I can't wait to snuggle them! Lainey will be ALL OVER Breck's baby boy Owen, good thing he is such an easy going baby. I am sure that Quinn and Lainey will get into lots of mischief while they are here. I welcome it though, I can't wait to see my best friend again!
So far, I am loving it here. It is so nice to be in a place of our own. I don't even care that we are sleeping on air mattresses and don't have any kitchen stuff, really I don't. I just love knowing that we are safe, CLEAN and all happy. Ethan has adjusted amazingly, Lainey is getting used to being here and Andy and I aren't so stressed out anymore. Things are coming together very nicely.
I know that it is boring to just read posts, so I promise, pics will be coming soon!

We have a house!

So I checked into housing today and we have a house!!!! We were ready to accept anything they offered us after living in the Days Inn for 4 days. Fortunately we were offered a nice house. It is only 3 years old and in a nice neighborhood. The best part is we can move in tomorrow! So long Shady Days Inn!!!! We think that we are really going to like it. I guess we don't really have a choice cause we will be there for 4 years. We also found a car today so things are going really well. Lainey is still sick and not adjusted to the time change yet, but the rest of us are back to normal. Our stuff that was in storage for 3 years arrived today so when we get our house tomorrow we will be able to see what we have had in storage for so long. It is going to feel like Christmas. We will post pictures of the Shady Inn and our new house in a day or so. I just wanted everyone to know that Annie was about to....or was already at her breaking point but when we saw our house and found out that we can move in tomorrow, it felt like a huge weight lifted off our shoulders. I think she is still pissed that we have to stay here 1 more night though.

We made it!

The plane ride sucked, but that was to be expected. Lainey slept a TOTAL of 2 hours the entire flight. Although she didn't sleep, she was such a trooper! Ethan of course did awesome, he always does. We had to run to catch our connecting flight from Tokyo to L.A. and made it, but I tell you, we were the very last ones on the plane! Mio did well and arrived a bit dehydrated, but fine. The things we do for this dog, good thing she is so wonderful! Not only did we have to drive here from L.A. because she wouldn't fit on the plane, but we also have to stay in some not so great places as well. There aren't very many places that will let you stay with your dog, especially a 100 lb. Rottie.
We are in the Days Inn right now. This has to be the worst place I have ever PAID to stay in. We didn't pack flip flops so I am making the kids wear either their shoes or socks at all times. You think it's a bit obsessive, I think not. I don't want to catch some foot fungus! Really, the moment they step out of the nasty tub, they have socks on their feet. Speaking of tubs, the first night was the *best*. We all felt nasty and in need of a shower. I was the first to take the plunge. I step inside the bathroom and see a not so great sight. It is far from clean and the bath mat was coming apart in places and in others it seemed stuck there forever. I tried to peel it off, but had little luck. So I just started the shower and tried to wash the grime off my body. Come to find out, the water here is soft water. I know that some of you think that soft water is awesome, but Andy and I think otherwise. I feel like I can't ever get clean, like there is a film of soap forever stuck to my body. After rinsing my hair for the 10th time I realize I am now ankle deep in shower water. By this point I should have realized that of course the drain wouldn't work. I about had a meltdown right then and there, but I saved the meltdown for the next day after having a horrible night's sleep with Lainey bug.
Anyway, back to the getting clean saga..Ethan and Lainey were next. I showed the horror of a tub to Andy and we wiped it down as best we could and stuck the kids in. The kids are sitting in YELLOW bath water with things floating around them. Nope, can't do it, kids, GET OUT NOW. Let's try this again. Andy gets the floaties out of the tub and the kids get the quickest tub of their life. We get ready for bed and I am so ready after not having slept for something like 28 hours but Lainey had other ideas. We were up a lot that night and have yet to get a good night's sleep, but I am still hoping that she'll get her clock set on U.S. time soon!
She caught Ethan and Andy's cold and I had to run to the store last night for a humidifier and she didn't end up going to bed until a bit after 10:30. Thank heavens for ear plugs!
Andy is going into work today to see when we can move in to our house and if it looks like it is going to be awhile we are going to look for some new lodging. I can only be a "trooper" for so long before I lose it! So keep your fingers crossed for us that we'll be in our new home soon. I'll write again when we have news. I am still getting used to typing on a laptop, it took me far too long to write this. I keep making mistakes...argh. Love to you all, annie
p.s. I took some pics of our time here so as soon as I can, I will post pics. That should give you a laugh :)

Our Last Post from Okinawa...

Wow, can you believe it has been three years already??! Yes, so can I! Our first year here was quite rough for me, the 2nd was manageable and the 3rd I really have enjoyed. Go figure! This island has it's good parts and bad, but all in all, I am really going to miss this place. It has been a GREAT place to raise the kids, has beautiful places to go to, the people are kind and considerate (the Okinawan people, not necessarily our lovely Americans here), and you can't beat the parks! We have come to depend on our daily C.C. Lemon drinks, Calpis, Japanese pull-ups for night time, tiny yogurt drinks, Japanese energy drinks, 100 yen stores, the beaches and parks, JUSCO, and of course the ever so yummy Okinawan Salt Cookies! We are going to really miss all our staples that we won't be able to get back in the states.
I have made some great friends here, most have already moved on...but I know that I wouldn't have fared very well without them (Kasey, Melissa, Rumi). Thanks for being such wonderful women! We can't wait to see all our friends and family when we get back to the states, it's been too long. Lainey will finally be able to put faces to the names! We move out of here on Monday and we will be in base lodging until the 19th. We won't have a phone come Sunday night, but we will still have email (I think). Wish us luck on our travels back stateside. The flight is BRUTAL and then we have quite the drive from L.A. to Lemoore. Hopefully we'll arrive without too many horror stories! Well, I better get off and go and organize some more.. :)
As Lainey would say, "Bye Bye, see ya, PEACE OUT!"

Ethan's 7th Birthday Party!

We wanted to celebrate Ethan's birthday before we left since we will arrive in Cali a just few days before his actual birthday (March 26th). We took the kids to this place called Round One and it has everything there! There is a big playground with slides, a ball pit, you can go roller skating, play video games, tennis, batting practice, boxing, the list goes on and on. Really, you can do practically everything there! After taking the kids there we headed back to the house for cake and presents.


Here are the kids posing for the "birthday shot"Jacob, Ethan, Truman, Connor, Taylor and Jessica. Poor thing, she was the only girl!



Here they are doing their silly shot..gotta love the butt one!




One of the many places inside Round 1. It is nice and clean too!



The video game area

I thought this was a cool shot from out one of the huge windows...


The window was really cool, I could look ALLLLL the way down into the parking lot.
Our neighbor Mary Beth was super nice and made Ethan's birthday cake this year. Ethan helped decorate it:


Here is the darling little sister:
I will post more pics on his actual birthday. I wasn't able to get a pic of his presents because the moment his friends went home he opened them all! He got 3 sets of Legos and some money. He is one happy boy!