New house

We have been busy! Someone somewhere worked some magic and allowed us to get into a house before Steven gets here, although I can’t drive until he gets here. It has been a crazy mess...which I wasn’t expecting, but it's only a few weeks until he gets here. His sponsor has been very generous and taken us all around to get everything done. Tomorrow we will be in our house, with rental furniture, WiFi, and all the stuff we brought in suitcases. We will be able to walk to school and to the cherry blossom festival this weekend. The Lord has surely provided! 

Sleep, however, is another story.

Emma went to sleep at 3pm yesterday and woke up at 1am this morning. So she was pretty crazy at all our meetings...although the older Japanese women seemed to enjoy her...they just kept looking at her, and she said good morning in Japanese to them and they asked me if she went to a Japanese schoo off base. They were surprised when I told them we just got here. They asked where she learned how to speak Japanese, not really believing that Daddy had been teaching her. But I told them we had a friend who was from Okinawa, and so they figured that she must have taught her. It was funny. 

Here is the link to the video of our new house. I will upload some pictures tomorrow.

https://youtu.be/XkonA7YveBc

Sleepless in Seattle

 Our adventure has begun! Emma has been a great traveler! Monday night we got to Seattle about 9, and found the USO. We needed 2 luggage carts for our stuff, and Emma was pretty excited to get to push one by herself. She did a pretty good job. We got lots of looks....sometimes it looked like the luggage cart was moving by itself. The USO was full, so they were putting families in a conference room across the hall. She did such a great job with it all, and went right to sleep, she got about 4 hours before I had to wake her up. I didn’t get much, if any, sleep. I ended up with a sinus/exhaustion headache and they were doing some construction work either down the hall or the next floor down. Lots of hammering/jackhammering. Somehow all the kids in the room seemed to sleep great, though! At 2am I woke her up and we headed down to stand in line. She was too tired to push the cart so another mom helped us out...as much trouble as it is to travel like this, everyone around us was military and gets what we are doing and was very helpful. Thankfully the family line is way shorter than the normal line...we only stood in line for maybe a half hour, instead of the 3 hours we were expecting. So....we had lots of time to kill...as our flight did not board until 7:30. We stayed up the whole time, which seemed like a good idea...to get us used to the time change early, and I figured we could sleep on the plane. We talked to Daddy, played “I spy,” ate breakfast, got some snacks and water for our flight, and she may have found her new surprise toys that I got for the trip. She really did a fabulous job considering she only got 4 hours of sleep. 

I was pretty optimistic about the flight since we had done so well so far. I figured we would sleep most of it since we were so tired...unfortunately that was not the case. Between snacks, meals, potty trips, movies, and crying babies, and lack of room,  there was not much sleep happening on this flight for us. I did manage to get her to take a nap for a couple hours in the middle, but that’s it. She watched lots of shows and played games on the iPad, and I am learned a lot for next time. This plane was older than what we are used to, and there was hardly any leg room...and I’m short so that is saying something. It made getting into our bags for things like coloring books, snacks, etc. very difficult. And our flight crew is policing everyone about staying seated and being buckled...they said if you are sleeping they will wake you up to make you show them you are buckled if they can’t see it. A little over the top, if you ask me.  

We got right through customs and everything, and MSgt Kimble, from the FD, was there to pick us up at the airport and take us around. 

For next time: We both need our own tablets if only for these trips. I had assumed we would have WiFi so I didn’t even think to put anything on my phone, and I am trying to ignore most of the movies they have played...not super great for kids. I’m also too tired to read anything I brought, so movies would have been the way to go. Emma got to watch a lot though.

 I love my new backpack that I got from eBags, the Weekender Junior, but I should have gotten the one with wheels! It’s pretty heavy with everything in it. I packed it full. It definitely has a compartment for everything. Also, packing cubes are amazing! I got a lot and I’m glad I did, everything is super organized, easy to find and not messy. 

I bought a power bank to charge our devices, but since I charged them in the airport we didn’t end up needing it. I was pretty surprised, but I also didn’t use my phone much.  

I’m glad I brought the blanket and pillow since we slept on the floor, I almost didn’t bring them because of space. 

Ready for the flight to Seattle!

Goodbye California!

Where’s Emma?

There she is!

Excited to be camping out!

She went right to sleep!

Waiting in line. Our line was short. The ones Daddy has to stand in are probably at least a hundred people long. Yikes!!!

Breakfast of champions...at 2am.

Playing with her new toys.

On the plane for Japan!

Airplane food wasn’t bad, pretty much like a TV dinner. 

No fancy picture saying we are here...but we made it. And we are exhausted. Although I’m wondering when everything will catch up to me. Emma made it as long as she could. 

Learning to pipe

Ms. Leslee, my friend, went to culinary school and has been an even planner, etc. She throws great parties. I told her Emma wanted piping tips for Christmas, and asked her if she would teach Emma a few things. So we went over Friday morning and played with icing. We both learned some things. It was fun, we will have fun the next time we bake a cake. Emma stayed to play with Katherine, and I ran some errands. 

Mixing together!

Look at all the piping tips!

Filling the bags

Watching 

Trying it out

Trying differnt tips and shapes



They both liked the grass/hair/spaghetti one.

Last Weekend at Home

This was our last weekend at our house in California. We started off by Skyping with Aunt Grace, and then going to Cookies and Canvas, an event on base for families with a parent deployed. Soon we will not be in that group! Then we came home and met with a family from base who was interested in our van...and they want to buy it! We are so thankful it sold so quickly...I just posted it the day before!

 Honestly, the Lord has really been with us during this whole process. There are so many things I have or could have been worried about, not least of which is the timing of it all. But it has all worked out according to His plan. He does not always provide the way I want or think He will, but in this case especially, in my weakness He was strong. I have been reminding myself over and over whenever I get stressed, that He is able to make all grace abound...He is able to provide for all our needs, which He knows better than we do. Even last weekend when Emma was sick...we needed rest that we wouldn’t have taken if she wasn’t sick. This whole process has been a lesson in faith...I did what I could, accepted what I couldn’t, tried to receive it all...and let Him take care of the results, trusting that He knows best. We still have a lot ahead of us, but we are trying to just take one day at a a time!

We got haircuts yesterday. Emma was tired by the time we got there, asked a million times when it would be her turn. She wanted short, but we just took a couple inches off. She was asleep in the car before we got out of town. Our stylist also has a five year old and a husband who is a fire fighter, in the guard, and a brother in Korea.

Excited to paint!

2 hours is too long for a five year old! And it was pretty detailed, but she had fun! They both look better from a distance. 

We worked in her Easter Hat for the Easter Hat Parade on Thursday.


We got her some hiking boots off the yardsale page!

Ready to go hiking with Daddy! She actually took me hiking around the house.

Oh Uno. Playing Uno with Emma takes lots of patience because: she has to organize her cards, she doesn’t like to follow the rules, the game itself can take forever. I help her a lot...otherwise we would be there forever...or she would just draw cards until she got a plus 4 to use on me. If I’m not careful, when she gets a plus 2 or 4, she will take a stack and go through them to pick our the 2 or 4 card she wants, or just keep drawing without realizing she got one that she can play. She is doing better about not winning though.

She just look so cute!

She tried to wear her new hiking boots to church. Sorry, kid.

We went to Boston Market for Sunday lunch! Yum! We brought back lots of leftovers.

She found some shoes for Daddy! They are green, his favorite color.

Oh playing the bean bag/umbrella game. She has been very creative with no stuff in the house. 

I finally let her wear her boots to school on Monday.

Field Trip

Yesterday Emma’s class went to John’s Incredible Pizza. It’s like a bigger Chuck E Cheese with a buffet and small rides. I got to go along! I didn’t think she would like the rides, but she did. We also went to Awana, so it was a long day. 

Driving a school bus



Hammerhead shark game

Mini teacup ride


I did not think she would like this, but all her friends went on it, so she just kind of did what they did...squeal. 






We had our last picnic in the car at Awana. She was kind of grumpy...I told her she had to eat her dinner to get her toy.

Apparently there was a tornado or two by base yesterday...while we were at Awana. 😭  I missed it.

Needed break

The movers finished everything on Thursday. I was exhausted from the week, and it seemed to hit me Thursday when I walked through the empty house. Now we had to live here for two weeks with no stuff. I asked my friend Bridget to borrow an air mattress and when I went to pick it up, she had a whole pile of things ready for me: 2 air mattresses, sheets, blankets, pots and pans, plates and bowls, table and chairs. I was so grateful for her generosity, especially in my exhausted state. We loaded it all in the van and set up house for the next two weeks. Then while Skyping, Emma fell asleep...at 5:30. She had told me she didn’t want to go to dance class. And I don’t know how, but over Skype Grandma Connie noticed that Emma’s eyes looked like she might have a fever, which she did. So she had to stay home from the school and she missed all the St. Patrick’s Day stuff they did, but we got some pictures. 

Friday was hard. I was tired and cranky. We ended up just watching a lot of Netflix, and we colored...only for Emma to fall asleep again in the middle of the afternoon. Her fever had gone down to 99, so I didn’t think much of it. She acted fairly normal. 

Saturday we started to not be so tired, and she seemed better, so we went to the library to get books, and the commissary for food. Ms. Holly invited Emma over to decorate cake balls, but after sword fighting with Chaplain Tangen, she grabbed her coat and asked to go. I had noticed while we were there she felt warm again, and when we got home I took her temperature: 102. So we had another afternoon of Netflix and naps. Today we stayed home from church, and had “home church.” We also colored, played Candy Land (from Bridget), painted nails, went to the park, pulled some weeds, Skyped and watched more Netflix. We feel much more rested. She had no fever today, so she goes back to school tomorrow. I still don’t have a clue what was wrong with her, but we definitely needed a restful weekend.

Emma finally made the 100 club!

We have actually had a thunderstorm or two! This one went north of us.

We had two moving companies doing two differnt shipments on Thursday...it was busy...they were all done by 1:30ish. 

Empty house.

Emma went to Lily and Reagan’s on Tuesday and Thursday after school. They have a balance beam in their garage.

Random afternoon nap: Thursday.

Silly kid found daddy’s hat.

Friday

These pictures are from my friend Andria, Siri and Eleia’s mom. She took pictures for Emma to see what the leprechaun did.

He made a mess.

Dressing up Daddy Bear.

Helping Ms. Holly.

All done!

Such a little chef

Sword fighting with Chaplain Tangen, whom she remained Taylor? 

Then she came home and did this. 

Home church this morning. She set up chairs and was handing out bulletins.

My bulletin. ❤️

She led the singing. This was her doing announcements...which also resembled handing out awards at Awana or school.