Spottings In Hawaii In the Small World Category

So the Turner family moved to Hawaii. As you may know. I'm in touch with Kanoe of course via email as my plan is to go visit. Definitely. More than one family to visit (HI, Edith!)

I got an email from Kanoe yesterday. The house they're renting in Hawaii? It belongs to my neighbor Maggie's aunt.

Kanoe headed to the landlady's house to pay the rent and Maggie happens to be there visiting with Chuck (her hubby) and her two daughters and spotted Ella and recognized her from my photos!

Craig and I about died when we got that email. The world keeps shrinking.

In other news - I'm busy! DUH.

Mia is loving t-ball and swimming, and is also playing piano begrudgingly. I hope she starts getting it soon, I'm tired of being the bad guy when I say, "Time to practice!"

This weekend is full with not one but TWO photo shoots and I can't wait! More to come on that on my photography blog (which I WILL update soon, promise!).

I went snorkeling yesterday with Anne and had such an amazing time we're bringing the kids today! (Wonderful Derek took the kids ALL FIVE OF THEM to t-ball practice, so we had a couple of hours to go play..... oh it was heaven!) Today we'll take their camera that we can use underwater and hopefully I can hook you up with some local snorkeling scenery. Let's just say there were plenty of moorish idols, parrot fish, tangs, clown fish, butterfly fish, wrasses, giant clams, and triggers to name a few. And the coral.... wow.

For The Web Geeks, TV Geeks & Resort Freaks

If you have no clue what this means, it's ok. I only sort of do. It's our download and upload speeds on fiberoptic cable Internet. Basically... blazin'. Craig said it's yet another reason we're happy to be living here.

I love: So You Think You Can Dance, Swingtown, Mad Men (STARTING UP SOON), and Burn Notice. Please begin watching at least the latter three shows so that they stay on TV. Take my word for it, they're fantastic.

Now - about a 15-minute ride up the road from us starts the "resort" area of Onna. It's gorgeous at this time of year - the sea has jewel tones you never thought existed in nature. But wow, don't get out of the car or you might melt. Unless you're in the water.

We went to the Renaissance Hotel up in Onna this past weekend. Mia and I had been once, we took Craig to show him. he was just as impressed.

In the lobby, there were several resident tropical birds hanging out. This is Pinkie (their names are on plates for us to read in English or Japanese):
Craig calls him the Buckeye Bird now as he is donning Ohio State colors. I think that's cool.

This is Oscar. He has a friend, Charmie who's orange - but I didn't get a good picture of him as he was preening.. very busily. Behind Oscar there's a stairway in the lobby, the bottom is turquoise and has those cool circles underneath it. It's a very pretty and tropical-looking lobby. Occasionally they have a woman on staff making balloon animals for the kids! It's a very happy place.

Mia made a friend, and they insisted in trying to give Pinkie back his feathers. He played along though, it was sweet. The other girl's parents were smiling at them too.... they were cute together.

This is the INDOOR pool. With water slides. Kid heaven. I could just leave Mia there to grow gills, she'd be fine with that.

Outside we wandered around for as long as we could stand it. Those cone-topped buildings sort of reminded me of the Hotel Del...right? To the right of this bridge were enclosures where the dolphins swam. The dolphins you could swim with if you paid enough. They're rescued, and it's an amazing program actually - I hope to do that before I leave Okinawa. (Yes, Mia was going bananas over them.)

We took the glass elevator to the top floor (12th I think?) and at the end of the hall was this. The reflection is unfortunate, but you understand why I'd put this up here. I mean... wow.

Not a postcard. A photo I took from the top floor lounge on the balcony. I hate it here. It's not like being on vacation every day or anything... I mean really. Sigh.
This is the area past the swimming beach where they give sailing lessons, scuba lessons, and they snorkel and dive. It's gorgeous, I'm dying to get out there!

Ok, more soon - I have too many photos and not enough time! nothing new. And many cool stories to share regarding my new friend, Robin. Stay tuned!

Things That Make You Go, "Mmmmm?"

Every so often (ok, almost every single time) at the grocery stores out in town, you'll pass by a Japanese twist on some American candy creation. As my friend Jen says... the saying in Okinawa is, "Why not?"

Hot soba soup on a 90 degree sticky sub tropical day? Why not?
Garlicky pasta restaurant and an ice cream parlor under one roof? Why not?


Chocolatey KitKat goodness - in watermelon flavor? Why not?

I was intrigued, to say the least. I like chocolate, I like watermelon - how bad could it be? I mean they do have curry-flavored Pringles, and wasabe-flavored Doritos out here.

So I opened the bag, and instantly it smelled of sweet watermelon Jolly Ranchers. These little snacky dudes came out:


What's inside looks like a regular KitKat snack bar, but since there is no smellivison yet - world wide sniff? Monodor... ooh, I like that one - I'll tell you. It's a kit kat that has watermelon flavor in it. I can't describe it, that's just what it is. And it's odd - but yet, still chocolatey enough to be kind of good. Will I buy another bag? Probably not.

Interesting side note - the other day as I was coming upstairs, a homeless man came up to me. He was holding a small bottle of that bright blue Gatorade. He was pointing and asking, "Drinku? Drinku?"

Finally I pieced it together and said, "YES! You drink that, it's ok to drink. Hai."

Honestly - the stuff could be a Windex refill, I mean nothing naturally occurs in that color - and the bottle was in English.

Happy Birthday, Hubby.

Warning: Mushy post below... if you hate this stuff, move along.

Well, it's still your birthday in the states; as a matter of fact you were born about 15 hours ago, east coast time, at 6am-ish.

It's an age I won't give away here (but most of our friends know what it is.. it rhymes with "shorty") - and I know that for whatever reason this turn of the age odometer has been tough for you. I know the reasons, but I'm in denial because it's only 3 more years away for me and we all know how quickly that will go!

In September of 1998, nearly 10 years ago, we met on the Internet. The www was still quite young at the time, and so were we. You were sweet, funny, had good taste in music, and you were darned good-lookin'. (You still are all of those things and more.)

Since then we've been through a lot, not the least of which were plenty of days enjoying each other in San Diego, San Fransisco, even Mexico...a kick-ass wedding, a delightful honeymoon traveling up the coast of California, the birth of our daughter, three deployments to a war zone for a total of 2 1/2 years spent apart, a couple of fun family vacations, and a move overseas to enjoy our current adventure. We've spent a quarter of our lives together so far. And it has flown by. Except the deployments, of course.

As you eloquently said last night over the birthday carrot cake - I'm "the happiest I've ever been right now". With you, Mia, our amazing time in Okinawa, and the experiences we've had and continue to have.

I'm so happy we're together as a family, and we're all thriving on that. You support and encourage me in so many ways, you've made me a better woman. I love going out and taking photos with you - and even though I whine about it, your opinions and encouragement You are the most amazing man who I respect, admire, learn from, love more than anything - and more each day, and am so lucky and proud to call my husband. My soul mate. The incredible father of our (mostly) perfect child. My better half.

Happy birthday, honey. Here's to at least.. um, shorty more years.

Japanese Shirt

"Mama.... can I get a Japanese shirt?"

"You mean like you want me to buy you a shirt at a Japanese store, or a shirt with Japanese characters on it?"

"Yeah, one with Japanese writing so that the people can see that I'm saying something nice to them."

(anyone who speaks the language want to come out with me to find a shirt that says something nice in Japanese?)

Buy Me Some Peanuts & Cracker Jack

Saturday morning, Mia's team - The A's - had their first t-ball game. I had no idea how entertaining and cute this would be. The kids had so much fun.

The rules at this point are a bit more lax; they have about 15 kids on the team, and each kid gets to bat. The ball is on a tee (obviously), and there are no outs counted and no score kept. Until they're 7. At which point, they're back to the regular rules.

What this means is that everyone can bat, which is great. But it also means that every time, the kids in the field are directed to throw the ball they catch to first base. Or home plate, but mostly first base. THAT means all the kids in the outfield and anywhere to the pitcher's right are not seeing any action. At all. In this heat.

So here's Mia at shortstop. Charged to go. Wait a minute.... nothing's coming my way. Ok. Officially bored to yawning.

Mia's first time on base!


Heading in after rounding the bases.

In the dugout cooling off.

Cutest batter EVER.

Hm. Ok. What to do here. (Guy on the left is the head coach - awesome coach. Like him very much.)
We need to work on the power in that swing....
But that girl can RUN.
Hot and sticky in the dugout.

All in all, great game! The kids fielded REALLY well! Mia goes right for the balls - in practice. But yesterday she just didn't get anything coming her way so no chance to practice. Soon enough. She's so happy to be out there.

Dear Swim Program Director...

My daughter loves her swim lessons. She's happy as a little fish when she gets to swim.

She's made new friends and learned about safety. (This makes Mom & Dad very happy and more confident in her ability to stay safe in the water.)

She got a certificate when she finished level 3, and proudly displayed it at home. Very big accomplishment. It did start to rain really hard during the last day, so the certificate (and the kids) were quite soaked with rain water... but that's ok.

While dancing in the pouring rain, something I love to do as well, I took a few photos as she puddle hopped. How much concern should I have about the fact that there's an electrical wire running through the puddle my child is standing in? Thankfully, she's fine.... but maybe it's time to reconsider the wiring situation near the swimming pool.

(I have to say, I didn't even notice this. I showed these photos to Craig so that he could see that it was pouring cats and dogs because it didn't rain a drop at our house! Craig pointed that out and in hindsight I laughed, but... um, yeah. Wow.)