So Much To Learn

I put together a few cards as thank you letters for the gifts Gwen got for Christmas. I put them all together, stamped the image, and then went to color in the faces with my prismacolors and the black ink from the stamp started smearing everywhere! I was so frusturated since I had almost finished them when I found this out. It turns out I can't use the prismacolors with the inks I normally use. I will have to use a more steadfast ink like Staz-On. I think that is why I have been sticking with stamping. There are endless new techniques and rules for me to learn and research. I really enjoy researching things for some reason so I haven't gotten bored of this quite yet. I know Steven is hoping I don't for a LONG time considering all of my "blow" money (we each have a spending allowance) has gone to this since September. I'm really in need of clothes because somehow my clothes money goes to this hobby too. That is okay since there are no clothes to buy here anyways really. I cannot wait to go back to the States and let the grandparents watch Gwen for the afternoon while I grab some coffee from Starbucks and walk down each and every aisle at Michaels and then try on all of the clothes I want at Old Navy without having to make it into a Peek-a-Boo game with Gwen to keep her happy. :)








I used the same stick-figure set as I did for Gwen's Christmas card (All in the Family) by Stampin' Up. I stamped the body on patterned paper and cut it out to add a little more dimension. I colored them VERY carefully with my prismacolors to try to keep the ink from smearing. It did in a few places, but it is hard to tell.

I will try to write a post on Gwen tomorrow with a little video. She is doing some cute new things I can't wait to show you!! My 3rd anniversary is coming up in a few days! I'm really excited to go on a nice date. Steven is planning it. The only bummer is that we just found out that everything out in town is closed for a Japanese holiday from Jan 1st-3rd so that pretty much limits our options to eating at the one restaurant on base, Macaroni Grill, and going to whatever movie they are showing the night we can get a babysitter. I'm not complaining though...we have only had American food (yes I know it is Italian...you know what I mean) maybe twice since we moved here. I MISS it!

1st Christmas

So Gwen's first Christmas is the day after tomorrow! Tomorrow we start alot of our own traditions with our new little family. We each have a pair of pajamas under the tree to open tomorrow night and wear while we bake cookies and decorate them together and then snuggle up while we watch The Grinch with all of our friends. Okay, so Gwen probably won't help decorate too much, but she will help eat!!

I decided Gwen probably needs more friends as she has recently started trying to make friends with the vacuum cleaner...I kid you not. The vacuum cleaner comes out to play several times a day now that Gwen is eating almost all normal foods. Graham crackers, meatloaf, bagels, corn, you name it and it has been smashed into our carpet this week alone. Gwen likes to stroke the vacuum and even offers it her toys. At least she is not terrified of it, right?

She is more active with some of her toys that I think she did not fully understand how to work before. She site in her corner and laughs and laughs at them. It always makes Steven and I smile at each other as we wonder what is going through her head. Gwen went to see Santa for the first time and she got a quivery lip, but did not cry. She definitely did not like him though. I was majorly disappointed...he did not have a beard! All of her first shots with Santa and he doesn't even look like the real thing. We decided to tell her that he was on a Marine base so he had to shave to keep up with the Marine Corp regulations.

I made this card for her in honor of her first Christmas. I really wish I had some Christ-centered Chrsitmas stamps, but they don't make nearly as many as they do snowflakes, snowmen, presents, etc. The one I HAVE to have one day is called City of David by Stampin Up, but it is retired so I will have to get it off ebay or something similar.

This one is made using the sets All in the Family (a stick figure set I just got) and Flaky Friends (a retired set). Steven says I need to add about 30 more presents to make it more realistic. :)

Mommy's New Digs

This week I had a crazy idea. Like the average person, I actually have lots of crazy ideas, but the problem is that I just won't let mine go. I have been labeled stubborn, impatient, and impractical but I guess it is all how you look at it. Lately I have been getting more and more into my stamping, but I hate using the kitchen table because I rarely finish a project in one night and I want to be able to leave my work out without making the house look cluttered. I am an absolute freak about having a clean house since having Gwen, but we can analyze the reasons for why that is another time. I am extreme. I cannot let myself go to sleep with even a tiny mess in my house. A 10 month old and that philosophy don't mix because sometimes you need a break. I was never like that before. It got to me this week and I was too overwhelmed so something had to go and that ended up being my workout program. I haven't gone ALL week. I really need to because that is the one thing I do all day for ME.

Anyways, back to the point. I really wanted my own workspace. Steven has his own desk in the living room, Gwen has her little corner with her mats and buckets upon buckets of toys. I had a couch to sit on. Although I really wanted my own place, therejust isn't enough room in our 700 sq ft place. Our "living room" is already functioning as part dining room, part play room, and part office as well. Then it came to me.Steven should build me a desk INSIDE our entry closet. I got to measuring and went out that night in search of my desk. I'm impatient, remember? I found one the next day even though I had been told an estimate of 2 months before any desks would be on island. Here is my final result. There are baskets on the shelves to hold all of my inkpad, tools, tape gun, etc. The cute cups on my desk hold all my prismacolors and spools of ribbon. My stamps have been remounted in the CD cases. My paper cutter, die cut machine, and everything else is on the shelf at the top. Talk about making the most of what you've got!! I am in love and the best part is that I can be a mess and no one will know!











The closet shut.




Gwen is not my little helpless baby anymore. It is kind of sad, but fun because she amazes me everyday. How did you learn THAT? Always leaves me scratching my head. She eats the meals we eat now. She had a bit of a Chicken sub from Subway for lunch and some leftover pizza for dinner. She has figured out how to use her other tall toys as leverage to help her get to her tall wicker wastebasket full of toys and can grab things out she wants to play with. She likes to sit in my lap and "help" me with my art projects. She already has quite a little attitude and has recently learned to throw a fit if I take something away from her that she wants which is almost every 2 minutes because she is on the go. Those little eyes do not take a break for one single second. They are always scanning the room for the next thing to get into and the one after that. I swear she just keeps mental lists and she never forgets a single one of them. She has even learned to hit mommy in the face when she gets mad. That definitely stunned me. She is 10 months. Has she even witnessed someone hit yet?!! Let's just say....she is not GOING to be a handful, she IS one. I will be making LOTS of use of my Mommy Space in the evening to unwind. ;)

The Rarely Seen Quiet Side

Gwen is RARELY quiet. That girl is full of spunk and energy. She is a little camera shy though. It is amazing how hard it is to capture her smiling when that is all she does in reality. Here is a video of her just watching Steven work on the grill. I will try to post some more of her playing tomorrow. I figured that soon enough it will be hard to get her to stay still to capture long videos of that sweet face so I wanted to get them in there while I could!

Getting Too Skilled in "NO"

Gwen has definitely picked up on the word "No." Now she will even shake her head every time she hears someone say the word even if they do not gesture it and they are not even directing the term at her. Not sure how much longer that is going to be "cute." She has learned to wave, but that one is much harder to get her to do. She does it at the right times so when you try to get her to do it out of the blue just for the camera, she flat out refuses. She's too smart for me. Today I got her dressed up in her cammie dress, but she was impossible to take pictures of because she was screaming trying to get the camera from me while I attempted to snap a cute shot. I finally gave in and let her have our old broken camera to hold on to. It didn't work for long because the one I had was much cooler of course:

Bootcamp-Week 6

6 weeks ago I signed up to do an intense workout program called "bootcamp." It is normally 3 months long, but in my moment of insanity I signed up for a second session meaning I will be in it a total of 6 months!! Many people told me not to expect results right away. They warned me that you may even gain weight in the beginning as you build muscle mass. They were so right! Tha past 6 weeks have been so discouraging as I didn't lose ANYTHING.

Out of nowhere this week I LOST 5 POUNDS!!! I am so excited! I have 15 to go to get back to pre-pregnancy weight. I am trying to think of rewards to set for myself as I hit 120, 115, and 110 lbs. We have a fabulous place here where you can get amazing nail art done like this:




I also considered getting myself a new bottle of perfume or one of the 1 hour massages they offer on base for $30! What a deal! I already know I am for sure getting a photo session done just of me once I reach my ultimate goal. I had a photo session done of myself right before Steven got home from his last deployment because I had been working out HARD (2 hours plus a day) while he was gone. I sent him the pictures while he was still in Iraq. Then, less than a month later we were pregnant with Gwen. I want to have another set of photos taken when I reach my goal. I still look at those photos from back then as motivation.

100 Yen Creations

I got this little bottle at the 100 Yen store. It is very similar to the Starbucks Frapuccino bottles, but easier to find around here and cheaper too! 100 yen is about the equivalent of 1 US dollar. Our 100 Yen stores are FAR better than US Dollar stores. I made this bottle for my friend whose husband deployed. I still haven't decided if I would like to give her the version with a photo or without. Obviously that is me in the picture and not her. I would like to go print out a picture we took of their family recently, but 1) I haven't done that yet and 2) I want to do everything possible to keep their family safe during this deployment so I would prefer not to post an actual picture of them. Therefore, you get to see me instead so you get an idea of what it would look like finished either way.

I ran 2 different sizes of the Nestabilities Large Rectangle scallops through my Big Kick to make the frame for the photo as well as the stamped image. The image comes from the retired 2003 Stampin' Up set "Simple Somethings" and the sentiment is from the Close to My Heart set "Say It in Style." Both are stamped in Close to Cocoa and colored in with Stampin' Pastels.

World's Largest Tug-of-War

What is this baby so happy about?


Her new zoo toy of course! This thing is bound to drive any parent insane, but Gwen sure does love that little penguin she has in her hand. The little track turns on it's own and she loves throwing any toy (or non-toy object) she can find on it to watch it go around. Gwen has also learned to shake her head "no" vigorously. Everything is "no." She always coincidentally does it at such perfect times that Steven and I are usually rolling on the floor laughing.

Do you see this cutie?! Keep him and his mommy and daddy in your prayers. His daddy found out about a week ago that he will be leaving this upcoming week to go to Afghanistan for a YEAR! This little man will be 15 months old when he returns. That breaks my heart:

Each October, Okinawa has the world's largest Tug-of-War festival. We went today. It is hard to get pictures as you are pretty much focused on trying not to get crushed by a sea of people the whole time (at least that is what I was trying to do because I am slightly claustrophobic so I was pretty much panicking). Can you believe this rope weighs over 40 TONS?!! I was not able to do the actual tug-of-war part because we had Gwen with us and we kept her in her stroller to keep her from being crushed. It was too hard to move the stroller through the crowd. Steven and our friends Mark and Kaley participated in the Tug-of-War and our side won! Here is a video about the Naha Tug-of-War:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=pNN97gOcYTE

Family Vacation Time

We went on a family vacation this past weekend. We were able to go to several places I have been dying to go to since we arrived on island including the Churaumi Aquarium, a restaurant called Ufuya ("Big House") where you eat amongst waterfalls, and a local resort called Okuma.

The Aquarium was AMAZING!! The entire thing overlooks the ocean. Gwen was so excited to watch the dolphin show. She even started making fish faces. What a cutie!







Ufuya serves various kinds of Soba, one of the main dishes in Okinawa. My mom didn't like the food, but she liked the atmosphere. Soba is basically big, thick noodles in a broth that has a very, very mild fish flavor. I DO NOT like any seafood or fish and I will definitely eat Soba because the flavor is so mild. Trying to find this restaurant was quite an adventure and I think really showed my mom and Chris what our life is like almost daily with the language barrier. We stopped for directions several times and the local Japanese kept throwing their hands up in the air trying to make gestures to help me with directions. Finally someone drew a Kanji symbol I had seen while driving past a nearby street so I figured out that was the street I needed to take. Once we arrived at the restaurant, the menu was in Japanese as usual. My mom kept asking me what meat was on the various dishes and I told her time and time again that I did not know. She just had to pick a picture on the menu that looked appealing and point to it when the waiter came. :)

Gwen went to her first birthday party- a carnival. It was for Steven's Gunny's 2 year old daughter. Gwen got her face painted with a little heart and all, but it quickly came off when it started raining.

More "Me" Time

So I got a little more "Me" time this afternoon so I made my second card. I made it using the Close To My Heart stamp set "With Love" in SU! Old Olive and Chocolate Chip ink. The rest of the materials were just some extra cardstock and ribbon I had around the house from scrapbooking.

Creative Session

While my mom and Chris have been here, I have been able to spend a little time crafting. I also got my Stampin' Up order in the mail so I sat down and whipped out a card. This is my first-ever card so be nice. It took about 10 minutes. I hope to really get into this more:

My mom and I also painted these adorable ghosts yesterday!

Giddy

My mom and Chris are coming today!! We already drove to the airport once this morning to pick them up, but their flight was cancelled because of a typhoon in Taiwan. They should be here tonight though! I cannot wait for them to see how big my little munchkin is now.

We started feeding her some Gerber puffs for the first time the other day. All I can say is watching her face as she adjusted to the texture for the first time was priceless, just priceless. Being able to introduce her to everything for the first time is probably my all time favorite part of being a mom. Everything that used to be mundane no longer is.

Shh! Baby sleeping!...

Just wanted to show off Gwen's nursery....pretty good for base housing if I do say so myself. I will upload pictures of the rest of the house soon.

Home Away From Home

Hello again! 5 months later! Shame on me. I have been thinking about this blog alot these past few weeks so I jumped on it this morning to spruce it up a little bit. For now, I am happy with it. So now I have to give you a quick rundown of the last 5 months and hopefully we can move on from there more regularly.

I have mixed feelings about Okinawa. I am trying VERY hard to like it, but I miss so many things from back home and there seem to be alot of new stresses in our lives here that we didn't have in North Carolina. There is the learning to live off one income thing, missing the companionship I found from coworkers when I was in the States that I haven't really been able to match here yet, and many many other things. Still, it is BEAUTIFUL here and I love all of the exploring we have done.

I have started an intense workout program called Bootcamp to try to lose the baby weight. I am in week 3 of 12 right now. I have also recently gotten into stamping so soon you will start seeing some postings about my craft projects.

Gwen is Gwen. She is completely and totally unique. Right now I am glad we named her Gwen despite my unwillingness to do so at her birth. She could never be a Addison, Peyton, Sara, or Emily. When I think of the name "Gwen," it is everything that that child is-spunky, intense laughter, individualistic. Gwen. I'm not sure she will ever truly be a Gwendolyn like we intended. Here she is sporting her Halloween costume:

Moving and Moving On.

I am starting this blog as another way for our friends and family to stay in touch with us during our time in Okinawa. I can guarantee I will probably keep it fairly updated and I will try to coerce my husband into writing a few lines here and there too. I still enjoy looking back on the blogs we both wrote to each other during our college years when we could not be together. It is fun to see where we have come since then.

For those that aren't familiar with us, we are Mandy and Steven. We have been married for two and a half years and have a 2 month old daughter, Gwendolyn. Steven is currently serving with the USMC and is stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Gwen and I will be joining him on this tour shortly.

Here I am packing the 3 suitcases of things I get to bring to this new life awaiting us in Okinawa. Almost all of it consists of toys and room decorations for Gwen's nursery. I don't know why. While I am so excited to see where this road leads, I also have a deep sense of loss. I don't want Gwen to miss out on anything we had planned for her life as it was to be in North Carolina. We always hoped to be stationed overseas, but neither of us imagined now being the time. We have seen a chapter in our lives close that almost feels like it ended too soon. We had a beautiful house in the perfect "family" neighborhood with our little girl's nursery all coming together. I worked at the ideal job in every sense of the word, we had our Great Dane to snuggle with us in bed every night (more like paw us in the face, but hey), and we were surrounded by friends and neighbors who always knew how to show us a good time. I don't think there has ever been another time in my life I would seriously have sat down to consider jumping on an opportunity such as living abroad in Okinawa. Still, I'm excited to instill in Gwen a sense of adventure and curiosity that will continue to lead her for the rest of her life.

So I am exchanging my plans to take Gwen to eat cherry snow cones after a dip in the pool for plans to take her to the 100 Yen store to try Mango flavored Kit Kats. And instead of spending afternoons dressing like clowns and hosting a "magic show," I am sure we will dance in the living room in our home-made Kimonos just like the beautiful women do at Cherry Blossom festival time. Hence the name of my blog. Not quite what I had pictured, but still totally fulfilling.