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!

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.