But I Do Love You.

Okinawa, Japan is 12 or 13 hours ahead of Naples, Florida & Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio. It is an up to 30 plus hour plane ride. And not a day goes by that that isn't on my mind.

I never forget how far away Madison is from our family. Her family. She will be nearly 4 years old before our family is an active part of her life beyond a computer screen & phone calls.

Not as important, I can't go out and get an Arby's Beef N Cheddar. Bi-weekly "cheat" trips to Smithfields are out of the question. Cookout's greasy goodness does not drip all over my fingers, and will not be washed down with a blueberry cheesecake milkshake. I indulge in no skyline, and I do not repulse my husband with the smell of two white castle cheese sliders & a small order of onion fries.

I can't buy home goods at Kirklands and hope my husband doesn't notice when he comes home from being away. He can't offer to buy me an unexpected pair of wedges from Buckle as my eyes light up passing them on our way to Gymboree at the mall, let alone go to Wilmington on the weekends to get a better selection of clothes (and still come home with only 1 shirt because I'm THAT picky.)

Friday summer nights don't begin every night in Drew's back yard staying up way too late only to get way too early to go to the beach and sit on the back of a Jeep. Heck no weekend nights at all begin that way. We don't go to Chilis (again!) with Chelsea, Jake, "Sky", and Kali. No more movie nights in their living room. No more promising Sky a balloon (which I always forgot to buy but he didn't care) if he did this or that.

But, Okinawa, I do love you. And I know that these next three years are going to go by way too quickly.

The island is straight off of an internet "paradise" google image search. You have beaches, country side, caves, water falls, children's parks, amazing food, hidden shacks, and soaring building all on one small island. You can wake up and relax in a beautiful quiet park with a small stream running under an old bridge, then end up in a loud bar eating sushi and drinking sake by night fall. Nothing about this island, so far, had made me think "I could do without that." Every thing is so beautiful and I usually sit in the passenger seat for that very reason. More opportunity to view what a wonderful place I have been granted the pleasure of calling home.

The people are just as beautiful as the island they so graciously opened to us. They are genuinely kind & thoughtful. You rarely see a glum face-- and if you do, the moment their gaze meets you smiling and nodding hello their face instantly brightens up with a smile & twinkling eyes as they nod back. Madison is seldom passed without a Kawaii (cute!) or some serious baby googly eyes. They almost always HAVE to touch her cheeks or hands. And I don't mind one bit. Because 9 times out of 10 if the person is even the slightest bit sick, they wear a mask. The courtesy they share for one another is outstanding.

If you are expecting a deliver, and given a 2 hour time frame, typically-- ignore the last hour & a half they say. If they say there will be here between 10 & 12 they will either be sitting in the truck waiting for the clock to strike 10 or will be there before 10:30. Their word is their word, and rarely will any thing change that.

Parking lots, while smaller than Stateside, are typically guided by attendants, both in & out of the parking lot. Often there are men pointing you in the direction of a parking spot.

I have yet to see a trash or recycling bin anywhere outside of a place of business (and even those aren't in plain sight), but I have yet to see litter. Off base at least.

Nothing about this island ceases to amaze me. And I hope it is always that way.

Baby you're everything and more than everything I wanted, more than I deserve...

Five days. Five more days and my baby girl will be 1 year old. It does not seem like we've had her this long, but when you think about it, is 364 days really that many days? Not when you write it out in days, in my opinion. Even shorter a time when you write it down as only 12 months. Which is scary to think that 1 year is "only" 12 months. Makes me wonder how fast the next 17 years will go. Also makes me want to curl up in a cocoon & pretend I'm still in my second trimester (because lets face it, the first & third suck lol!) with this beautiful baby girl and she is still a long way away from growing up :/

She still isn't walking, but she's taken a few steps here and there so I don't think we have too much longer to go for that. I'm excited about it, but I know once she starts walking I'll hate it lol

She's gotten so much more independent it's sort of sour to think about. She's still needy half the time, where she just wants to be in our (well... my lol) arms, or needs me to sit next to her as she plays so she knows exactly where I am and that I'm not leaving her, but usually a couple times a day I will be sitting on the couch and she'll crawl into her room to play with those toy. She has two bins in the living room to play with as well, but a girl's gotta have choices! lol!

Oh, also... whenever she cries in the car, we only have to play this certain song to get her to calm down... and it's kind of embarrassing lmao. Headband by B.o.B featuring 2 Chainz haha!!! That's one to tell her first date. "When she was a baby we would play a rap song about tight lady parts and ganji! It'd make her happy as a clam! No pun intended, of course!

The weekend before this past weekend Madison has her 1 year pictures taken, and smash cake pictures! She didn't get to wear exactly what I wanted her too, because it was too cold, but the pictures are still wonderful, regardless of what she was wearing, thanks to a friend of mine who is an amazing photographer! I cannot wait for our family to get the pictures!! If you're on, or planning on coming to Okinawa any time within the next year & a half or so, totally look into her stuff-- I cannot rave enough about her!!

Photo credits:
http://krystalynnephotography.com/
https://www.facebook.com/krystalynnephotography

They Say It's Your Birthday...

  Happy Birthday Marine Corp... okay I don't really G.A.F about the fact that it's their "birthday" lol... but I do care that I get to get all dolled up! This past Saturday we had our Birthday Ball! For the first time, I actually wanted to stay the whole time! Maybe it was me being a mom, and actually enjoying just being around adults without worrying about poopy diapers & if it's nap time yet. Either way, it ended too soon and I wish I could go back and replay the night (with a few differences, of course, but we won't get into that lol)
  I always enjoy the slide show, but typically after that I slug through listening to a long boring speech, eating crappy food, and then we high tail on out of there once the dancing starts. But the speech was actually pretty good. There were some parts that went in one ear and out the other, but for the most part it was enjoyable (it helped that for the first time the guest of honer, the person who does the main speech, was fun to look at for an older man haha!)
 And the food! Oh man, it was actually warm! And that wasn't the best part... it was GOOD too! "What's that you say!? I must have misheard you!" NAY, my good friend! It tasted like something you actually were glad you paid $35 dollars to come to this play for! And apparently the booze was nice and strong, too, which my husband enjoyed (a little too much I might add lol).
 And lastly, the DJ actually did a great job picking songs! He was smart enough to start everything off with songs that had actual dances attached to them so people would
get out on the floor (Cupid Shuffle, Line Dancing, etc.) and once enough people were on the floor he changed it up to free dancing songs. I didn't hear any slow songs, but apparently those came after I left, according to Mark's text "Of course a song I would want to dance with you to comes on"... obviously -___- He never dances anyway, so whatevs, I'm used to it *shrug*. (Mark ended up coming home with his gunny. I left a half an hour or so before him so I could let the baby sitter go home at a relatively decent hour.)

Oh, and speaking of birthdays! Madison will be 1 year old in 5 days! What. Thee. Ever Loving. Hell!? How did this happen!? And why am I not twig bitch skinny again by now!? Gah, I started Herbalife up again way too late lol what a slacker. I'm down 10 pounds, though... so that's a plus. Now that I fit into my gown, though, I know I'll be slacking more, which sucks... but at least I have plenty of time, even with slacking, to get bikini bod ready ;D
Her party will be on the 17th. This weekend we go to finish up her Birthday shopping, and to get decorations for her party.
Her birthday Party will be a "Royal Affair" where she'll be dressed up (and the guests/their kids if they'd like!) like prince & princesses! We still don't know too many people on island, so it will be relatively small so it will just be in our apartment :)



Now on to a separate and much longer Madison Update in a new post!