One Down...

…two more trimesters to go! Fortunately I didn’t have a miserable first trimester as some may have it. I only suffered a few occasions of sickness. Today was my 2nd appt and Danno got to join me and hear koguma’s heartbeat for the first time. As we were leaving the office, the Doc quickly detoured us into another room to give me a surprise ultrasound so Danno could see the baby for the first time too! Usually you don’t get one done every visit and she complained how people always try to ask her for additional ones. She appreciated that we never even bothered to ask, plus she knew Danno wouldn’t be able to be there for the next one during my 2nd trimester (since I’ll be in CA). It was a special treat for the both of us to give Danno the chance to see and “bond” with the baby in this way. Danno was so happy to hear its strong heartbeat and see the baby, he was smiling ear to ear the whole time.

There’s such a difference now that koguma is about 3 inches, has lil fingers, legs and a face! At moments you could make out a lil nose, eyes, and mouth. Koguma is already quite active and kept moving around and stretching out his limbs…making it a bit of a challenge to take good still shots. We were joking that koguma is trying to make more space in there because there’s no room to move! Haha. Turns out I'm successfully gaining some pounds…starting from 101 when we first discovered I’m preggers...to 103 at 8 weeks...and now 107 at 13 weeks. Slowly but surely I will gain the 30lbs. I’m supposed to. Consequently Dan has been gaining some unwanted lbs trying to help me eat! But as we all know him, he can PT and shed the weight in no time.

A Happy Holiday

Wow, the year has finally come to an end…and so has packing up and shipping out the bulk of our stuff to Oki and Danno’s stuff to Rhode Island. Woohoo! Holidays always keep us busy one way or another, either scrambling to shop and wrap everyone’s gifts, decorating the house, preparing food for Christmas parties with friends and family… This year’s holiday was busy indeed, but instead we spent it doing the complete opposite… discarding, donating, packing everything away, and attempting to eat whatever we had left in our kitchen so things don’t go to waste. We had no problem spending Christmas Day with our TV dinner trays, 2 borrowed chairs, and my laptop as our entertainment center!

Although we had to keep things super simple this Christmas, we couldn’t take for granted the ample time we’ve had together. While Danno is in transition, his flexible schedule only requires him to check in the morning...with very rare occasions of duty for a few hours, otherwise none at all. He’s had plenty of time to rest and relax. And he’s been nothing but helpful with every little thing, even making sure Koguma and I are well fed everyday!

Now that we’ve officially moved out of the townhome and living out of our suitcases, we’ll be staying with some friends in the area until we part ways at the end of Jan. Which reminds us…from now on please don’t mail anything to our recent VA address! (it will be forwarded to CA anyways) As always, we’ll keep you updated on our whereabouts. There’s so much we’re looking forward to this coming year and we’re excited to bring you along in our journey (at least via internet!). Until next time, take care and Happy New Year!!

Rewind

Before we get too caught up in the hustle bustle of the movers next week (that’s right, we’re practically spending our Christmas shipping out all our stuff!)…Here’s a recap to show you some pics from our time in Cali. We were definitely eager to leave the cold weather behind in VA – as you can see, we’ve been dealing with light dusts of snow from time to time.
We were fortunate to spend Thanksgiving with our family at Danno’s parents house…and indulge in the delicious lumpia, pancit, turkey, roast, apple pie and other holiday goodies enough to put you in a wonderful food coma for the day. It was also the chance for us to announce that we’re expecting a baby, so it was a great time to be together and see the surprise and joy on their faces!

With the future grandparents and great grandma.

It was nice to see Emo again!
After spending time with our Emo in the I.E., we headed off to stay in Irvine for the remaining days to visit our friends. Finally we got the all-u-can eat Korean BBQ we’ve been craving for so long!...not to mention a stop at Yogurtland, first time trying 85°C Bakery Café, and we got our dose of playing Rock Band! Best of all we got to spend precious time with some of our closest buddies.
Thanks Howie for letting us stay in your new home!

While in the O.C. we also had the opportunity to attend Danno’s godson’s 1st Birthday in Long Beach. Again perfect timing, so we could spend time with the growing boy and his wonderful parents. Ana Lisa was preggers with him during our wedding, and just gave birth to her second son this week! She’s amazing! It will be great to go back to meet their newest addition to the family.
We loved the time we had in Cali, even though it was very brief. We’re happy to know we’ll be returning once again before we leave to Oki. I’ll be staying in CA while Danno finishes up in Rhode Island. We expect him to come out to CA one last time once he graduates, then off to Oki we go!

Great News!

We’ve had the greatest time this past week…having spent a wonderful time with family and friends in CA during Thanksgiving, and Danno graduated TBS yesterday! Yay! We also got confirmation that we will not have to leave to Okinawa until April..phew!...which means a little more time to pack up our VA home before Danno leaves to NJS, and that we’ll get the chance to see everyone again before we go. We’ll be catching up with a couple of posts to recap and share photos of our good times this past week, but for now we’d just like to announce that we’ll be bringing along some extra “baggage” to Okinawa since I’m confirmed to be 2 months pregnant. We are so excited and looking forward to both adventures of relocating overseas and becoming parents for the first time!

Here’s some pics of the first sonogram. Since we don’t know if our baby is a he or she, we call it our “ko kuma” (pronounced koGUMA) which means “bear cub” in Japanese. Seemed fitting considering we call each other Mama Bear and Papa Bear. Haha. Anyways, it was so nice to hear the strong heartbeat and see that something is actually growing inside of me! It’s truly a blessing. We’ll keep you updated as time progresses. For now my greatest challenge is trying to gain weight! The doc told me I have to at least gain 30 lbs! I’m sure returning to CA will help me accomplish that.

Semper Gumby

The Marine Corps wife embraces “Semper Gumby” just as the men live by their motto “Semper Fidelis.” Our Marines “Always Faithful” to their duty, means the wives’ duty is to be “Always Flexible.” In the past few weeks since we received confirmation of our move to Okinawa, we’ve been scrambling to secure the moving dates…undergo medical and dental screenings…waiting for area clearance…applying for official passports…appointments after appointments. Having gone back n forth on different moving scenarios, we’ve already adjusted moving dates several times. We finally thought we had it all figured out, with shipments scheduled next week, housing applications ready to go, and ready to request our flights. Ah yes, now we that we’ve hurried, we wait…again.

After contacting his command in Oki, turns out they would rather have Danno arrive after NJS. This is actually what we were pushing to do from the start, but was unsuccessful. Some reason everything was set out for us to report prior to NJS, which meant we leave right away in mid Dec. We now have both Oki and Quantico working on it, and it seems promising that we will know the final verdict before we leave to Thanksgiving. So we are already thankful for the possibility of pushing back the move dates. And it will feel good to know if we will have the chance to see you California faces again after this weekend, or if we should actually be saying our last goodbyes! Semper Gumby everyone.

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!