USMC Birthday Ball

Last Saturday we had a great time attending our first USMC Birthday Ball, celebrating their 233rd year as of November 10, 1775. Events are held everywhere. Our ball was quite large (compared to others which our friends had attended) with over 800 Marine officers and their dates filling up 2 entire ballrooms of the Richmond Marriott. Luckily since Dan’s company is the next graduating class, we were in the main ballroom where the stage was set, rather than the lower level where people had to watch a projection screen of what was happening!

After cocktail hour of mingling and taking “prom-like” photos, the ceremony begins with a procession of various traditions and songs played live by the Marine Corps band…from the presentation of Colors (the flags), National anthem and Marine Corp hymns, special readings, messages from the Commandant and Guest of Honor, and even a cake ceremony where the first three pieces of the cake are given to the Guest of Honor, and the oldest and youngest Marine present. The air was saturated with the love and pride of the Marine Corps family and its history. After the ceremony and lots of standing, the rest plays out as usual...eating, dancing, enjoying time with friends. Btw, the food was excellent...huge filet mignons! (good thing, since the ball tickets were not cheap. hehe) It was a fun time for us wives to dress up formal and accompany our great men in uniform. Here’s a few pics from the night. None are of the ceremony since I doubt that would be appropriate, but at least you can see us with our friends!

Good to go..

Our Quantico neighbors and soon to be Okinawa neighbors.
Precious and I spend lots of time hanging out when the guys are gone...catching up on all the girly TV shows and movies, and eating the Filipino food Danno and Mike wouldn't care to eat!Our carpool. His date flew in from Texas. There were lots of wives and girlfriends who flew in just to attend the event. Dannos fireteam. - 2nd Squad 1st FireteamGroup shot of the all Filipinos in the company, well minus one. haha. but yes this is just about ALL of them.
My other good friend Lindsey whom I spend lots of time hanging out with her and her two little kids (ages 1 and 3). I've never been around kids so much until now! They're such good kids. Dan does great with them too. Our church buddy and his girl.
Jay is the regular weekend guest in our house who we consider part of the fam.
Jay and Katy are self taught dancers and competitors. They grabbed everyone's attention during the Tango! We helped him put together a free a ballroom dance class a couple weeks before the ball. So thanks to him we know a bit more than just our first wedding dance. hehe. Good Times!

Hurry up and Wait

In the military, “hurry up and wait” becomes a way of life. Whether it’s “hurry up and get married right before your husband is deployed, then find yourself waiting for his return”…or “wake up at zero-dark-thirty for on deck time, then find yourself sitting in the barracks for hours waiting for word on what to do next.” We all encounter this pattern one way or another.

Earlier this week, we already had to give TMO (Travel Management Office) all the dates for our various shipments and storage prior to leaving the states for Okinawa. In our case, there are at least 6 different shipments and storage types that we have to make arrangements for. This is not including getting ourselves to our destinations, nor the planning involved to prepare Emo to come along with us (that is a whole separate mission in itself!) Meanwhile, Danno’s official orders containing all the dates of when he is authorized to detach, move, travel, report…have not even been finalized yet. We have to wait for these critical dates before we can start planning even more.

So planning thus far sounds more like “if this, then that” and researching everything for each scenario eventually becomes tiresome. It’s a tough thing to simply wait, knowing how many arrangements we have ahead of us. The most we can do, is do as much as possible until we are given further direction. So here we are, waiting (anxiously)…being stretched to really trust God and His timing at every step.

One thing is for sure…we need to get rid of lots of stuff! This Saturday our church is having a yard sale that we are eager to participate in. I get to be salesperson since Danno has duty and won’t be finished in time to join me. Oh well, it’s gotta be done so let’s hope I sell off a lot of things!

First Duty Station!!!

Well we’ve officially got word where we go next after Dan finishes school in Rhode Island… (drumroll) …Okinawa, Japan! Japan was our first choice so we’re super excited to have this chance to go overseas. We’ll be stationed there for a whole 3 YEARS so it will certainly be a new adventure. We’re sure to come back with lots of cool Japanese merchandise, and God willing, maybe even a kid or two! Hehe.

Another great thing is that our good friends, who live down the street from us, are also getting stationed there as well! It’s a huge blessing to have people we know travel to the same, unfamiliar place. My friend and I will be planning and researching A LOT in the next few weeks…and I’ll attempt to reduce our belongings to very little since we’re restricted to only 25% of the weight allowance you typically get when moving within the US. Anyone need to buy a refrigerator?! Haha.

We’re definitely glad we will be able to spend some time with our close friends and family when we visit CA this Thanksgiving, since its unpredictable when we will visit again before we report to Oki. We’ll try to say our farewells at least one more time before we leave, but it’s really hard to say at this point. In the meantime, we’ll keep you informed as we figure everything out. For now all we know is that we’re gonna end up in Oki!

After FEX

Anything beats FEXs, diggin trenches, sleeping out in the mud and freezing cold, getting gassed in the early dawn, and a 15 mile hump at 0300...Dan was happy to be home and enjoy a nice long 72...

It felt like a real weekend for once…plenty of time to rest, shop for the ball, celebrate our friends birthday, attend our church’s family potluck, make 100 lumpias for the potluck, catch up on tv shows and movies, and finally stopped by the Marine Corps Museum for the first time! It’s a beautiful place.
We’ll definitely be making another trip to the museum since we only checked out the first floor. History was my least favorite subject in school, but I know, it’s far too important to avoid learning it. Of course I had the most fun at the interactive displays. In the “Making of a Marine” portion, you get a taste of getting yelled at by a drill sergeant, lifting their heavy packs (which essentially I could try to do at home with Danno’s stuff anyway), decision making for various obstacle courses and missions… I was very impressed to see a bunch of artwork and paintings made by Colonels and Lts. They were really good artists! It was also cool to see the “Big Dog” robot that’s in development. I never heard of it before. Click the photo and you can watch the video of it working. It's responsiveness to various terrains, like walking on ice , rubble, and even getting pushed around, is pretty crazy. The technology is amazing, though its buzzing noise is annoying so you may want to lower or mute the volume while you watch.

Silly Pets

After chowin down a house centipede, feeding session comes to a sudden halt when Turbo can’t seem to locate his next victim....Emo had a talent of balancing things on his head and nose...from tennis balls, to dog biscuits, plastic cups...remote controls...

Last September Emo reached 33 (dog) years old (his 5th birthday)! I got him free as a puppy from my bro's friend around the same time our small group started, so Emo's been around since Dan and I first met. We both really miss the guy. He’s so smart and talented. Aside from balancing things on his head, he can give "hi-fives" (shake), make a sad face on cue, stand, spin, will wait at an open door and won't step inside the house unless invited... At the same time he’s such a goofball and always makes us laugh with his funny faces and underbite, loud snoring, and occasional mischief.

If we can’t take him with us to your first duty station, we hope he gets in a good home. It’s difficult to find someone willing to take him considering he has Addison’s Disease…which very much treatable with a monthly shot, yet can be pricey. It’s the reason why the Irvine Animal Shelter wouldn’t take him. Boo. He toughed through a lot before we left Cali...numerous trips to the vet when we were discovering his condition, trip to the emergency room, hospitalized on I.V. for a few days, in kennel obedience boot camp for a month. It's hard to give him up after all we've invested in him, but we're glad he's now healthier and well trained, and we’ll keep trying to find someone who would want to take care of him. Meanwhile he’s at home in Highland with Puma (my brother's first Pit Bull). Here are just some (of many) favorite pics of Emo!

Sayonara Land Nav

Hallelujah Dan passed Land Nav!!! He’d surely tell you it has been a very humbling experience for him out there in the field…just him, God, his mapping tools and a list of coordinates for scattered boxes hidden across miles and miles of Quantico’s wilderness. As a graduation requirement, it was essential that he passed one more test. Sure enough, after many prayers, many early mornings to early evenings, many Saturdays..his perseverance and hard work resulted in victory (with a lot God’s help of course)! We're so happy to have our Saturdays back..there's so much we're looking forward to.

To celebrate, tonight we finally went to try the oh so popular “Five Guys” out here…which closely resembles In-N-Out and a bit of Fatburger. You don't see the word "double" on the menu since their regular sized burgers come standard with double patties and their "little" burgers come with just one. Their fat fries come in medium or large drink cups...we noticed they were ridiculously suuper duper salty, but little did we know that the technique is to empty them out into the greesy brown paper bag (which distributes the salt), tear it open, then enjoy. Ah, good to know. Still does not compare to the wonderful In-N-Out we love back home, but it was quite delicious being that we haven’t had fast food in a very long time. Dan's got a 15 mile hump on Friday so he'll burn this meal off in no time!

October Hump

We've begun to “X” out the days of the calendar as the end of TBS is approaching fast. September breezed by, and Danno had a great time as they got to work with all kinds of crazy weaponry like grenade launchers, machine guns, and C4! Imagine the amount of booms I’ve been hearing from home. Haha.

October is the start of a very busy month. Looking at the event calendar, the month is packed with the most late nights, early mornings, and overnight FEX (Field exercises). We’ve been so fortunate that so far the longest duration he has been gone will be just this week…5 days straight. We actually expected to see each other a lot less than we have, so we’re thankful I came out here with him! Any amount of time together is better than no time.

Soon we should find out our duty station assignments so we will know where we head after NJS in Rhode Island! Our first choice is Overseas. It’s possible the JAGS will “swap” duty assignments with each other since everyone practically wants to go different places. We hope somewhere in the mix is Japan so we can go there! We’ll see where God wants to take us next year…

Once he gets through the October, it’s pretty much all downhill from there. November he’ll have two “96’s” and we have the USMC Birthday Ball (a huge formal event), and graduation will be the right around the corner at the beginning of December! Wow there’s a lot to look forward to. Please continue to pray for Dan’s safety and that he successfully passes all graduation requirements as he approaches this challenging month. We’re almost done here…woohoo!