Capping off with Field Trips & an Update!

Oh how I've missed you my little bloggy blog!

Things have been slightly hectic (which I accept is the way of my life) these days. With the PCS coming soon, my mind is in 20 different places all day, everyday....you know the usual anxiety a woman goes through every time she has to move her whole family to a new country. I swear the guys don't achieve the anxiety level we women do. My hubby is so the "go with flow-everything will work itself out if we wait" PCS-er. I am the "gotta know what's gonna happen so I can plan out what schools my kids are going to and what neighborhood they are going to hang out in" PCS-er. As you can see, my PCS pre-planning mentality is way better :o) Maybe not on the mind, but definitely for our livelihood. So our orders aren't in our hands yet, but I expect them in the next couple weeks. Germany looks pretty promising since that is the one place George has always had an option of going to throughout his career. Tampa obviously was too good to be true, but it was fun to imagine living so close to our roots. Actually, since we are going back to Germany and George will be getting deployed from there...we will get choice of assignment when we leave there, soooo I still see Tampa in our future!! Until then, we look forward to showing JD where he was born and getting to visit all the fabulous places in Europe we missed the first time. I'll keep everyone posted as soon as we get orders...once that happens we will be in hyper-space mode with getting all the appointments and clearing in order. Can't wait...

In other news...I had, yet again, another field trip with JD this past week to Ocean Expo Park. We have all been there, but it was one of the first places we saw when we moved here...it was nice to get in a refresher visit before the move. JD had fun of course...mostly at the dolphin show. That boy is not ashamed to show his excitement about anything...gotta love it!!

*what a great way to look ahead on your day*

*my group(the girl on the upper right was anti-photo taking)*

*i love his ability to never care what people think*
*he stuck his tongue out and JD got wet from his huge splash*
*as you can see there was one who was a little behind...so cute though*
*"Look Mom, it's Dory"**Saige's favorite fish-the Lionfish*

*I didn't even tell him to make a face*

One of the other things I have been doing is volunteering with Army Family Team Building (AFTB). This program is designed to empower, ready and educate Army Soldiers and Families in order to strengthen self-reliance. I recently completed Instructor Training and taught my first class on Problem Solving. Another great way to give back to the community. I love the power of volunteering!! Anyway, in light of me being a volunteer there, AFTB had one of its field trips to promote morale and to also enjoy the beautiful weather we have been having lately.

*I'm a geisha...NOT*

We spent the afternoon at the Ryukyu Glass Factory where we watched the local glass makers create items for their shop. It was so neat to see how incredibly fast they were. They also had this game where you had to throw a ping pong ball and if it landed in a glass, you got to keep it. I decided to play and won FOUR glasses! SWEET! What a deal since they are pretty pricey to purchase retail side. Check out how they make a glass Shi-sa dog in three easy steps...

*Step 1-get a glob of red hot glass ooze*

*Step 2-use a pipe and shape the body of the dog*

*Step 3-be enamored by the gorgeous color it turns into when it cools and the cute finished product*

*Group Shot*

We also went to this wonderful place for lunch called Pizza in the Sky. It is obviously named that because of its beautiful coastal view of the island.


The food was simple and yet delish!! It consisted of one kind of pizza and one type of salad with many fresh juices to choose from. The menu was quite cutesy, so I had to show it along with the yummy pizza...



After lunch we headed to the Pineapple Park (which I experienced not that long ago...you can see the pics from that post here). The only thing I can say about that place now is that I stumbled upon these shoes...ok flip flops without the flip or the flop. I had to get them and see what they were all about and I decided on the ride home that I would walk in and announce to Saige that I bought her a souvenir. Her first response was "Cool", because they were in a plastic bag and she didn't see the big picture. Once she did, her face turned to that of confusion.

S: What is this?
Mom: Flip Flops
S: They're broken!
Mom: No they aren't, they are topless.
S: Um ok, NO I don't want them...you can have em Mom.
Mom: At least you could try them on since it was my gift to you.
S: Fine...Wait why are getting out the camera? AAAHHH, they are sticky to my feet.
Mom: *giggle giggle*

Needless to say I had her give me her best foot pose and VOILA!!!


Great way to end the week. OK I'm off to run some errands and go play Bingo with some ladies I know. Fun Fun Fun...Hope everyone else is having a great weekend, too...Love Ya!!

Okinawa World

I had the opportunity to go on yet again another field trip with Saige this time to Okinawa World. It is a cultural learning recreation area/park. It had all the traditional Okinawan art practices (weaving, pottery, glass, & the sugar mill) there is also the Habu museum and a cave to explore. The Habu is the local venomous snake here and I am officially scared of it now. I have never seen one until this trip, but I heard stories about it's "bee sting-like" bite and how people don't realize it's a habu until their tissue starts to erode. I am already a snake-a-phobic as is and this did not help. I jumped out of my pants more times than I would like to admit. And wouldn't you know that the kids were all about it!! I will go on more about that later. The cave was what you would imagine a cave to be...dark, wetness, and slightly cooler than the outside temp. I realized when I walked down those steps that I shouldn't have worn my fee fops!! Here is my group in the cave...
We went outside and explored the area and came upon this cool wood carved shisa dog.

Saige and Kenzie stood by the real deal which was much bigger obviously.

We also came across some turtles that were just chillin for no apparent reason. I love turtles...

I enjoyed watching them make the Ryuku glass there. These guys work really fast. In a matter of 5 minutes I saw him make two of these.

While we were eating lunch, we heard the Eisa dancers beating their drums outside. I rushed out there because they are so neat and I love to hear them get all riled up with their performances. I had never seen this size drum before...it was awesome!!

So it was inevitable that I finally had to make my way to the Habu junction. They had a "show" where they obviously brought out a habu for everyone to see and then he assumed we needed to see it's teeth and venom...

I did not need to see that and that picture was 10x optical zoom by the way. No surprise I was in the farthest row back. These habu do serve some good by being an addition to making sake. There was a distillery there where they concoct this traditional alcoholic drink. This is their fate...

The kids were freaking me out when they volunteered to go up on stage and cradle the Burmese Python. What brave souls. I tell ya, I was so far back that if it had started squeezing I might have had to meet up with teacher with one less kid. LOL! Serously, is this really necessary??

I had a good time overall with the kids and on the trip. It was nice to hang with the bigger kids for a change. Of course they think they're bigger than they really are, but good kids.

I have to end the post with a recent pic of baby Camille. She looks so gorgeous with her pinky bow. Kisses to Camille...