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!!!

I'm attempting this blog from my iPhone so let's see how it goes! We FINALLY got a house! It's a great house with an amazing view. I can't wait to post pictures. It's empty ( we haven't received our TMO yet). We also have some exciting news, our family expanded by adding our latest member, Maggie! She is an English Bulldog (representin' USMC) lol! We adopted her from a family who is MSG and can't bring pets. We love her sooo much already. The kids are so in love, it's as if we've had her for years. I'm dying for things to get back to normal but I know it will be a little while. But it's going good now thatvwe finally have a house. I LOVE living off base. There is a produce stand less than a block away where we buy veggies from. I shop at a local Japanese grocery store... Last night I made homemade yakisoba. It was delicious! Tonight I went traditional with chicken/broccoli and Ziti, but I got some of the ingredients at the Japanese store! As soon as we get Internet I will be posting pictures so stay tuned!

*UPDATE*

Im Alive! I often use that phrase when I havent blogged in a while but it seems a little more meaningful since there was a massive earthquake and Tsunami in Japan this past weekend.

Hubs and I were walking around an Ikea type store looking for furniture when we saw a bunch of locals gathered around a TV watching with their eyes wide open. Hubs even said "maybe there was a natural disaster or something". Sure enough we are on our drive home a few minutes later and the sirens were sounding all throughout the city. School kids were running home and EVERYONE on the entire island was on a cell phone. We heard exactly what happened on AFN radio. Of course we went right back to the hotel to watch the news. Sure enough Okinawa was scheduled to be hit by a Tsunami at 6:12 that same evening. They evacuated all low lying areas of on and off base housing. There is always those moron who sit on the seawall and watch though. We just headed out to dinner with friends. We remained on Tsunami warning until the next morning.

Marines have already been dispatched from Okinawa to help. Since my hubs works in the III MEF, Im not sure how this will effect him. But I know III MEF do a ton of humanitarian assistance so I wouldnt be surprised is he was sent up to mainland Japan to help. They have set up a lot of fundraising and donation centers around the bases here to help too. I read a story about a 4 months old baby girl pulled from a collapsed house this morning. She is starving, but alive and crying.

We spent all of last week house hunting (even before we had our clearances, but I was done waiting). We looked at some teenie places, some dirty places, some places with a million stairs to climb. Its tough to get what you want off base. And I have a large wish list! I knew I would have to give up some things I wanted. Until we found The House. Yaka Beach House to be more specific. We got SUPER lucky with this one. The houses here get snatched up literally the second they go on the market because of all the incoming people going off base and the renovations on base are forcing people off. Back to the house. Its sits RIGHT on the water so it has amazing views and a gorgeous beach. Im so happy its not in one of those super congested, American filled areas like the seawall. Yuck. It has a garage (very rare here) with an opener too! My kitchen has storage, which is also hard to find. The girls have huge jacuzzi tub to swim in. Beautiful hardwood floors, a large backyard, a huge patio on the second floor. I LOVE this place, if you cant tell. The locations isnt ideal, but Im willing to drive since the house is so great. Its very close to hubs work but will be far for me to drive to work. And since everything in Tampa was 5 minutes away, driving 15 minutes makes me cringe. Ive been spoiled with the convenience of the states, I know this.

We cant move in until all the paperwork is complete which takes forever. We've now lived in TLF for 6 weeks, including 3 fires and a giant natural disaster. Im done complaining about TLF, I know we are lucky to even have a roof over our heads right now consider the poor people on mainland.

Here is a picture of our house and our beach.

Finally!!

After over a MONTH of waiting, we finally got our area clearances today. Im happy we got them, but still extremely frustrated with the sponsor ship that goes on here. I WILL make a difference in the system for future incoming families. They actually have us sponsoring a family already...before we had cars and housing or anything!! EFMP families get priority for expidited paperwork (like area clearances) because without it, you cant check in to medical. I could go on for hours about all the mistakes that have been made and set us back but Im not going to. Im happy we have them but action will be taken for the mistakes. Anyhoo, Here is a picture of our super cute daughter getting ready for bed and a picture of my sweet new Japanese car. I will post more pics later. Im sooooooo excited to start house hunting!!!!! Be prepared for some awesome pics of Japanese houses!

My bittersweet relationship with Okinawa.

Sorry bloggers, but blogging has been at the bottom of my list lately.

Things are not going as planned. (Go Figure). I forgot that being on base/doing things on base is almost impossible. We still dont have area clearances. I have no idea when we will get them. Without them...the housing office wont even look at you. So here we sit, in TLF. The worst TLF I have ever seen mind you. Not sure if I mentioned anything about it before. But they put us in a 1 bed hotel room. 1 bed...for 4 people. Oh, excuse me, there is a pull out couch from the 70's that my kids keep getting cut on because the springs are popping out everywhere. Im like - close to writing my congressman about the conditions of TLF.

Anyway. Hubs cant get leave until he is all checked in. Which you need an area clearance for. So he goes to work every day while the kids and I are in this crappy room. Luckily, we have some nice connections. Hubs has a lot of civilian friends from our last tour here. One of which has an auto business and he is letting us borrow a car for free until we find one of our own. I am soooooooo thankful that he is so generous with his recourses.

So we have spent the last week test driving about a million cars (more like 10 or 12). Seems like a million because it's ALL we do. Look for cars online or in the lemon lot, call the people, set up a time, test drive, Decline. Im getting REALLY impatient too. People need to stop WASTING my time. I ask them on the phone if the car has any problems and they say "no, its in great shape" then I get there and they are like "oh the ac is broken" or "it has a coolant leak" or one guy said "its a great car, but needs an engine". Oh? Just an engine? We drive way out of our way to test drive a car that Hubs "had to have" and the chick tells us she is selling it for a friend so we cant test drive it. UGH!

FINALLY I find a car that I really like, in my price range, new Japanese inspection (they inspect your car every 2 years, and it cost between 500 -a few thousand dollars) so getting one with a new inspection is ideal. I really liked it and made her an offer. She accepted but said she needed it until the end of March. UGH! I said I have cash now and she changed her mind and said we could have it Monday. So Im realllllllllllllly hoping this works out and I get this car on Monday.

In the meantime, Im going to start harassing people about our clearances. It drives me NUTS that some Lance Coconut is sitting at a desk not doing his Job. He actually told us "I never got the email" When here I am LOOKING at the email that was sent to him.

Wish us luck. End Rant.