We're Here!

We made it Okinawa safely! The flights were great...good food, service, comforts as expected from a Japanese airline. The first leg was a straight shot to Narita, Japan...Danno enjoyed the complimentary beer and non-stop movies. We managed to watch five! (Seven Pounds, Yes Man, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionare, and Minority Report). Then a quick connecting flight to Okinawa, and strangely we got seats at the very front of plane where we enjoyed huge reclining seats with so much leg room, I didnt know what to do with it! hehe. And btw, our girl was more active than ever during the flights...crazily kicking and stretching my belly every which way! I think at some point she even had the hiccups.

We arrived right at the rainy season, so the air is cool, and not as hot and uncomfortably humid as expected. We're now at our temporary lodging and will begin the island exploration tomorrow with our sponsors. They've already been a great help to us by arranging our transportation from the airport, our lodging, and even stocked up our fridge with food.

Now we're off to conquer the time adjustment and must force ourselves to go to sleep! We'll be back with more updates soon.

Last Day in U.S. of A

Tomorrow is the day we're actually leaving to Okinawa!...Since returning from R.I., we've been non-stop....until we step on that plane, I'm sure we'll have that moment for it to all sink in that yes, we're actually leaving. We've done the "farewell" once before when we left to VA, but this time it's so different!

Important things to take note is that our cell phones will be no longer active tomorrow after 1130am since we're putting our accounts on hold prior to boarding. When we get to Oki we will set up ways to make it easier for everyone back in the states to call us. So until then, everything online is the way to go...email, AIM, Skype. We'll do our best to update our blog as much as possible...already we have lots to catch up on from the past two weeks of being here!

Well, we're so thankful we had the brief time here in Cali to spend with our friends and family...and to celebrate the coming of our baby girl. We'll post the 4D ultrasound pics, and the baby shower pics once we get them from our friends. (We had such a blast!) Thanks for everyone for your support.

We'll miss it out here and hope to see some of you guys in Oki!! Back to packing we go...

Congraduation #9

Back to Rhode Island I have returned and I was able to attend Danno's 9th Graduation of his lifetime last Friday! I am pleased have been by his side for his past 4 graduations - Officer Candidate School, UH Law School, The Basic School, and now Naval Justice School. I'm so proud of Danno and all that he has accomplished.
Of course his schooling is not completely over, being that he has one more class to complete before we leave here from RI. "Death by powerpoint" (never-ending lectures) is what he and his classmates get to look forward to this final week, but at least there are no exams in sight! Danno can finally relax and catch up on sleep...and research baby stuff with me! haha. We're glad to be near each other again, and best of all he's been able to feel our girl kick n punch in my belly every day! I think she's excited to have daddy around and I know she's proud of him too!

Surprise Visit

My bro and his fam drove down here from up north in Rocklin and gave us a surprise visit last Friday. It was so great to spend time with them especially since it was the last time I would see them before we leave to Oki (they won't be able to make it to our shower). We hung out in downtown Redlands, grabbed delicious breakfast, they took me shopping in a cute baby boutique "Kissui," stopped by our local skateshop, and hung out with various friends throughout the day. Saturday we all went out to dinner to celebrate my Grandma's 91st birthday a few days early...yup, 91! wow. She's about to be Great Grandma not only to our girl on the way, but my bro and Meli are also expecting another one! There's lots to look forward to this year!...

EJ is nothing but cheers all the time. We were all so excited to see him walking now.

Thanks again for stopping by! Looking forward to the day all the lil cousins will finally get to meet each other!

THE Ultrasound

At 21 weeks now, I finally had my appointment for a thorough ultrasound. No one could make it to my appointment with me, but fortunately I was at least able to narrate everything to Danno over the phone! Most of the time koguma was not very cooperative, and the positioning made it a challenge to view the right parts! Eventually we got a good enough look at everything, and the nurse was able to determine koguma's gender...a girl! Well, we seem to always run into challenges at every turn and having a girl will definitely be one of them (for the both of us!) People who know me, know that reaching for pink is typically the last thing I would do...and of course, Danno wanted to make sure this item was on our baby registry. haha. But truly we are blessed and embrace the adventures in parenting that awaits us!

It was a joy to see our baby girl. I wish I could have taken more photos with me. There was one moment she even gave a "hi-five" at us, which the nurse said usually babies tend to keep their hands in a fist. She was moving and kicking soo much the whole time (and I continue to feel her move so often!) When Danno comes back in April, we plan to do a 4d ultrasound so he can get a good look of our growing girl too!

So here's some ultrasound pics, though they may be hard to decipher. I tried to help you guys out a bit on the first image...rather than the typical profile, she's positioned like lying on her belly on a flat surface. hehe. Glad to see all four limbs!

Id rather not detail this one out. They say "turtle" = boy..."lines" = girl . Nurse saw no turtles here.

Profile shot you can see lil nose, lips, jaw, left arm...Face shot is just closer and you can see where the brain is, lens of her eye...I think her right fist is up by her face.

Short but Sweet

Danno has been busier than ever. NJS has been working them like its finals week, every week...non-stop studying and very little time to sleep, and he can only expect it to get worse until graduation day. But surely all his hard work will pay off!

On the brighter side I was able to make a brief 3 day trip to Rhode Island 2 weeks ago to help him finally receive his shipment of things (since of course his schedule hasn't allowed him to be available at all during the day). Plus we got to celebrate a belated Valentines Day together. The trip was very short, but was worth the opportunity to spend the little bit of time together! We treated ourselves to a nice filling dinner at The Canfield House in Newport.
...then off to a night stay at a very unique hotel in Warwick called the NYLO Hotel -- loft style, modern, hi-tech, free stuff (like bottled water and wi-fi) completely non-smoking and prides itself in being "green." We stayed in one of their "PURE" allergy-free rooms thanks to medical-grade air purifiers, hypo-allergenic bedding, and contaminant-free climate control. It was pleasantly refreshing!
..Back to work. Only one more month to go and I'll be heading back out there for his graduation!

Shipping up to BOSTON!

Danno sure has been toughing out the cold in RI! His first week of school has been keeping him very busy, but fortunately we're still able to talk a little bit every day. It was nice to hear he got the chance to take a break and go out on the weekend with some fellow classmates. He sent me some pics, which I added to his post below...
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Went to Boston for the weekend to watch the UFC fight and to see some of the sights.

Saturday I went down to the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Forgot to take pictures but they had some amazing pieces: Monet's Water Lillies, Jackson Pollack, Manet, Van Gogh and Jan Jensz den Uyl, John Singleton Copley and many others.

Then went to watch UFC fight at Cask N'Flagon. Of course BJ Penn got rocked by GSP. It was a completely one-sided fight. We stayed at the Omni Parker Hotel and Sunday we woke up walked over to Fanueil Hall and grabbed a Cannolli at the North End (little Italy). Grabbed some Dim Sum in Chinatown for lunch. Also checked out the USS Constitution aka Old Ironsides.

Dannos friend in the photo actually went to UH with him, but at that time hadn't decided to go JAG yet. And there's actually one other UH classmate Danno ran into who is in the same program (both are Navy though). Small world!