Mil Spouse Friday Fill In

1. Have you and your spouse agreed to live in separate locations (a geographical bachelor tour) knowing that the short-term inconvenience would have long-term benefits for your family? How did it work for you?

Our first year of marriage, hubs was stationed overseas. I didnt really have a choice in the matter but it definitely made us a stronger couple. We made it work the best we could. I worked full time to keep myself busy and save money. He called as much as he could and I went to visit him twice. This was while he was in Japan.


2. What is your favorite thing about being a MilSpouse?
Traveling is a huge perk. Meeting so many great friends is way up there on the list. I love a lot of things about it.


3. If you could still have your spouse/significant other and your family, but take the military life out of it…would you?
I like the military lifestyle....but no matter what my husbands job was, we would still be a strong family unit.


4. What have your homecoming experiences been like after a year long tour of separation?
It was a huge relief that it was finally over and we could finally be together. A year is a long time, and people change in a year. We were both nervous and unsure of what to expect I think. But we picked up right where we left off.


5. If you have a child(ren) why you chose their name(s)? If not, why you would name your child something?

We picked their names at the hospital when they were born. We picked them together and our oldest's middle name is my mothers middle name. Other than that, all original.

MilBloggers of Okinawa Brunch

The brunch will be held on Tuesday (5/3) at the Tengan Castle on Camp Courtney at 11:00 am. Looking forward to it!! Please RSVP to LindseyM764@aol.com with how many people you will bring including yourself and your kids (if youre bringing them) Cant wait!

House Pictures, Part 3

Here are the last bit of house pictures. Our living/great room along with the girls' room. And a couple pics of our great view

Friday Fill In

How many pets do you have? And what type?
We just got a pure bread English Bulldog named Maggie. She looks mean as hell and thinks she's a total badass but she couldnt be any sweeter if she tried.

What are your favorite projects to do while hubby is away?
I try to stay busy when the hubs is home or away. Its usually with our kids' activities like dance, music, sports or art classes of some type. When he is gone, I usually hit the gym a little harder.

What are the must-haves in your deployment care packages?
I usually send my hubs some health or gun magazines, some healthy snacks or homemade cookies. Our kids put in art projects and pictures. I sent a ton of toiletries last time because they literally had no PX to buy toothpaste or deodorant or anything. I usually just take requests from the unit...once my hubs told me to send all the supplies for s'mores.

If you could star in any TV show, which would it be?
I am drawing a blank. It would be fun to play a Zombie in The Walking Dead. That makeup must take hours.


What's the biggest hurdle you faced during your significant other's first deployment?
Define deployment...would that be his one year unaccompanied tour right after we got married? Or his first time in a war zone? Not sure BUT the toughest time I had was his deployment right after we moved to Tampa. I had just had our second daughter and found it hard to juggle the new baby and the 2 year old without any friends or family around. I pulled it together and came our swigin' but it wasnt easy at first!

House Pictures, Part Two

Today is the upstairs eddition. I took some pictures of the Master bedroom/bathroom and the playroom.

Here is the girls' playroom. I really like how it came together. I hate the look of toys in kids' rooms for some reason. They havent played much in here yet because the weather is so nice I kick them out to the backyard. This will be so great for days when its too hot to play outside. I had almost everything. I purchased the shelving from Naval Kadena and the curtains and baskets from Nitori.


I LOVE these curtains!


Here is our Master. Very simple and neutral. We didnt have a single thing for our bedroom because of the weight limit, our Cal King set was way too heavy. We purchased this set on sale from Foster Furniture. Curtains from Nitori and Lamps from Foster as well.

Another View




Master Bathroom complete with a space ship shower. The doors close around you and it has like 20 jets from all different directions. Quite interesting.

The Jumbo tub that the kids swim in like fish

Another view of master bath


This is the view from our Master bedroom deck. Our friends call it the "party deck" although we dont really "party" It overlooks the water and is gorgeous to wake up to. I should have taken pics on a prettier day. It rained all day today!





Well thats most of the upstairs. I left out the girls' room because its not yet finished. Hopefully sometime this week I will get to take the rest of the pictures of those house. I still have the living room, girls' room, and backyard.

Thanks to my bestie Melissa who made me a new header even though she is going to have a baby any day! She always finds time for me :)

I also have a bunch of pictures from the Zoo, Fruitlands Farm, and Pineapple Winery. Ill save those for the next rainy day!! Hope you all had a great weekend. Im off to spend my Gymbucks before they expire!!

Friday Fill in...it's been a while!

With PCS moves happening every few years, do you take the time to paint and decorate your home?

Yes, it's very important to me to make it feel like "home" Its worth every penny because when my husband deploys and Im
eating dinner alone, I at least want to see some pictures on the wall. I love when someone walks into our house and says "it's so homey in here!"

If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be?

The home from "Seventh Heaven". I love that TV house!!! With my family living in it...not theirs! lol!

What inspired you to start blogging?

The first blog I followed was Thrift Decor Chick. I love to decorate on a dime and make a lot of things myself. From there I fell into the military wife blogs, money saving blogs and parenting blogs. I love to talk so I figured why not do it on here. Its a great support for military wives. Also, it keeps our far away friends and family a little more personally involved more so than Facebook.

What is the weirdest thing you have ever seen on base?

I thought about this for like 5 minutes and I cant think of anything "weird". Ive seen the nasty, embarrassing, sad, ignorant, you name it. But nothing really weird.

Which historical figure (politician, writer, artist, scientist, actor, etc…) would you like to have dinner with? I know he doesnt really fit this catagory....but he has made history already. President Obama. It wouldnt be a nice dinner, there wouldnt be any smiles and jokes, but I have sooooooooo many questions for that man that only he could answer.

House Pictures, Part One

I will do the house blog in parts because It's a lot and honestly, I dont feel like doing it all right now. BUT I promised I would take some pictures tonight.

We live wayyyy North on the Island. Between Camp Courtney and Camp Hansen. It's nice because if you are standing in the front of our house, you see mountains and if you stand on the side, you see trees. The best part? The backyard. It faces the beautiful beach with that aqua crystal clear water.

I started our with the front of the house. Here is the outside. Having a garage here is sooooooo rare, I LOVE it because we had a large garage in Tampa. I thought I would definitely have to give that up. SCORE!




Here is the dining room. Its directly off the kitchen, toward the back of those house. It has a big window and a sliding glass door out to the back yard. So while we eat, we have an amazing view of the ocean. We had to leave all of our kitchen furniture because of the lame weight limit. So I got this stuff from yard sales. First I got the beautiful book case (which I display all of my glass vases and urns) for $40!!! A steal for sure. Then I found this pub height table and chairs that matches perfectly for $75. Cant beat that!!


Kitchen View 1. I love my kitchen. Again I was sure I would have to deal with little storage living off base but got super lucky with the kitchen. Most Okinawan houses have VERY little storage. And hardly ever a pantry. I should take a picture with the pantry open to show how big it is. IN LOVE!

Kitchen View 2. Obviously the rest of the kitchen. The ONLY single complaint I have about this kitchen is that there are no outlets. When I say no outlets I mean it. Ok, fine. There is ONE. See the plant in the corner? its hiding the wires from my iLuv. That is THE ONLY outlet. I plug my microwave in my using an extension cord going all the way across the kitchen. No big deal. I guess.



Laundry room. Again a huge privilege here. Okinawans hang dry their clothes outside but our house came with a dryer. Yes, that tiny thing is a dryer. Needless to say, I hang dry my clothes too. The base was nice enough to loan me a washer. There is door in there that leads to a giant bathtub. I forgot to take a picture of that.


The downstairs half bath. This is the only room that actually looks "Japanese" The tiny sink. Its barley big enough for me to wash my hands in. Isnt it cute??? I used all the same decor from my last houses' half bath. Perfect!


And thats half of the downstairs!! I have so much more to show. The playroom is finished so Ill be posting pics of that tomorrow hopefully. The master bedroom is ALMOST done, I need lamps! They complete the room! And the girls bedroom is finished except the custom curtains havent come in yet. Yes custom, and they were worth every penny. They are sound blocking and 100% light blocking. ANDDDDDDDDDDDDD they are the same print as the bedding I purchased. Im obsessed with the fabrics here. Last time, we had basic American curtains in our basic American style house. Boring! Im loving all the different things we can do and use off base. And I am a proud club member of Nitori. If you are in Okinawa, and you havent been to Nitori, shame on you!!!! Stay tuned. Next post I will post a picture of our new Bully, Maggie. The cutest English Bulldog in the world!

Im back for real!

AAHHH, Internet! After 2 months, I finally have internet again. I logged on and didnt even know where to start!

Luckily I was able to blog a bit from my phone. Which bring me to phones. I hate to do the whole "when I was here last time" because Im sure it gets annoying BUT!!! When I was here last time, everyone had a basic flip, prepaid cell phone. No one called (unless it was an emergency), texted or even THOUGHT about having internet on their phones. When we got here and saw iphones were out and totally enabaled with smart phone capabilities, I was thrilled. Its a huge breakthrough here. I know it sounds lame but when you are out in the middle of Oki-no-where, you just pull out your Kanji App or GPS App and bingo...life is good. Sooooooo to my point...Oki friends...stop bitching about how "slow" your iphone is. Stop bitching that it doesnt do every single thing your phone in the states did, You are LUCKY to have a smart phone in the first place!

Next! Living in Tampa, we were so disconnected from the Military lifestyle (aside from all the deloyments). But we lived 45 minutes from base, I had maybe 2 military wife friends and never shopped at the commissary or PX. I knew being back in Okinawa would be...different. I totally forgot how "motivated" this island is. You dont have a friend, unless she is a military wife. Your kids dont have friends, unless they are military brats. Everything and anything you do, is military related. Which is fine, Im proud that my husband is a Marine. I guess Im just saying that its a tad overwhelming being forced to surround ourselves with it all. I do as many things as I can off base though. We live off base, Im looking for off base schools for the girls, Ive found an off base ballet school, I do a lot of shopping off base too. Although I do love shopping at the commissary here because of all the money I save! I dont know the reason, but base life just isnt for me. I do like getting involved and volunteering with the unit and making myself available for help or advice for the younger Marines and their wives. I made my MCCS profile to start job hunting, but was told there are about 30 Zumba instructors in front of me and that I should look for other options.

We gave in and got cable off base. If you want to call it that...its 9 channels and 2 of those are sports so they dont count in my book! It's perfectly fine with me though. If you saw the view from my house, you would understand. Sitting on my patio with a book while the girls play in the yard overlooking the beach is PERFECTLY fine with me!!

I didnt imagine it would take this long to get settled but hey, let face it, the genius' at IPAC are on my shitlist. We were in TLF so long that when we finally got in a house and got our shipment (which only took 2 months!!! Awesome!) I spent 3 solid days and nights unpacking and organizing. We sent all the living room stuff, which all arrived broken. Who brakes a couch?? There is a nail hole right through the top of my entertainment center and the bookshelves are all scratched up. I can claim it of course though. We bought some stuff new (bedroom), got some government stuff (girls beds) and got some from yard sales (dining room) Its coming together very nicely. I feel so lucky to have landed this house. Its far away from most Americans (we have an identical house right next to ours, with the best neighbors anyone could ask for) but other than that, its trees and beach and mountains. Although the neighbors are probably wondering why we live here. We are about 15 years younger and enlisted. So to pay the same amount for rent rises a lot of questions.

If you have stuck around to read this whole post, as jumbled as it was, thanks, Cause I really felt like rambling. I am GOING to take pictures today, I promise. Wait until you see my spaceship shower! Ive read back for the most part on all of your blog post, so I feel pretty caught up. Be sure to check back for pics!! The Okinawa Military Wife Bloggers Meetup has 4 girls so far. Cant wait!! If you are in Okinawa and would like to attend, please email me at LindseyM764@aol.com

Ok iPhone peeps... Is there an app for blogger? I hope so because blogging from my phones browser is a pain in the ass! Anyhow, I know of 3 or 4 milwife bloggers on Okinawa. I'm organizing a lunch for bloggers of Okinawa. Please email me at LindseyM764@aol.com if you would like to attend. Super casual! Bring a friend I'd you'd like, kids are welcome also. I have no idea what anyones schedule is like so please include that information in your email. Looking forward to this!!

I am off to start list making. Am I crazy for inviting my husbands entire unit (43 Marines plus their families) to my house for Easter dinner? Perhaps. By the way, I am now a crazy coupon lady! Last week I saved 75 dollars in coupons at the commissary! Booya!

Update; getting settled

Hello hello! Here is another attempt at blogging from my iPhone so bare with me!! I'm not sure where I left Off with my last post? We are in a house now and our TMO has arrived. A lot of our big stuff is broken, like the couch, entertainment center and bookshelves. Bummer! Did I announce that we got a dog? She's awesome. I love her so much already. I know the families are dying for us tO call... We do not have a phone yet! We are expecting to get Internet next week and cM hopefully skype call you! Other than the explosion of TMO, we are settling well. I am expecting tO hold the Unit Easter get together at our house , so I have a few weeks to get it tOgether.

Hubs has been working some crazy schedules ever since the Earthquake. At first it was 8am until 8pm which is more like 7 am until 9pm. That was no fun! Then it was changed to overnight shift, which isn't too bad.

I am in the process of job hunting. There are wAy more fitness instructors here than I thought! Also looking for a good private school for big sis. We are exploring our new neighborhood more everyday. The girls love it here already. They have a nice big yard with a new Playhouse to run around in all day. They are trying Japanese food and making lots of new friends. We even have a neighbor with a 5 year old little girl.

SPeaking of 5 year olds, our big girl turned 5 last week!! I made her a hello kitty cake and she gOt some great gifts too! I can't believe she is 5. I feel like I just had her, 3 lbs 12 oz 17 inches long back in 2006. She has turned intO such a great, beautiful, smart kid!

Having a preemie was incredibly hard. That's why the March for babies is a very important Organization to us. This will be my second year in a row participating. Please take a minute and a couple dollars to help prevent premature babies and help support healthy pregnancies by donating tO my run. It's super easy! Just go to www.MarchForBabies.org/LindseyMorse and click donate! Thanks for the support!!!