The Swine Flu

Yes, yes. The H1N1 virus has reared its ugly head and made its way all the way to Okinawa, Japan. People here are getting sick right and left. Its kinda cool because everyone wears surgical masks here when they are sick. Its bad manners to be sick and not wear one. Audrie sneezed in public once and we got the most evil glare ever. I tried to take some pictures for you all on the sly, but I couldn't get one. Here is one that I found online. People get really creative.

On the american side of things. . . The hospital emergency room is filled with coughing feverish people of all ages. And of course my family doesn't like to be left out of anything, so the decided to join right in.

Cala, Audrie and Sam all decided to turn against me and get sick within the span of a week. Cala had the most mild case of the flu. Audrie caught it next and was sick with 104 fevers. Sam's wasn't as bad, but all the flu snot got his asthma irriated, so he ended up in the ER. Surprisingly, I stayed healthy. This was very much the result of A LOT of prayer.

Well, the only fun thing about being sick in Japan is trying new remidies. There are these fever cooling jell packs that people use on kids. We had to try it on the girls. Its really sticky and goopy, by you just stick it to their head and it helps them cool down.

Thankfully we are all doing MUCH better one week later. There are more stories to tell, so i promise to blog again soon.

Okinawa Sunsets

There is something about sunsets that drives you to deep reflection.

As some of you know, Sam and I have chosen to extend our time here in Okinawa. We are not slated to leave the island until the end of 2011. With that information in mind, all of our loved ones have been hitting us with a barrage of questions.

Everyone seems to ask us the same question lately. "What is it that you guys love so much about Japan?" There are a lot of different things we like. The peaceful lifestyle. The really polite people. The fun food. The fascinating culture. It was hard to put our finger on just what it was. then one day we sat on the sea wall and watched the sun set over the Sea of China. Then it hit us. Japan is just home.

Every once in a while I have one of those mom moments that makes me shake my head and wonder what my life has come too. Recently I have been contemplating the many random things I have had to tell my daughters this past summer. These are things that I never thought I would have to say out loud. I thought I would share some of these random thoughts with you guys. “DO NOT lick your sister.” (As she holds her sister’s head in her hands.) “DO NOT head but your father there!” (I think you guys can guess this one.) “Ladies DO NOT show their buts to the neighbors.” (One of my daughters grew a fascination with flashing.) “Ketchup is NOT a food group.” (After the fourth serving of ketchup on her chicken nuggets.) “Why did you lick the stove if you saw the pot was boiling?” (I still haven’t gotten the answer to this one.) “No that boy does not have boobies.” (Whispered quietly so as not to embarrass ourselves as the really chubby guy is still in ear shot.) “Yes one day you will have boobies.” (After they thought long and hard about the chubby guy with man boobs.) I could go on, but you get the picture. I love my daughters and I think that with time they will only get more interesting.

First Day of School

So the first day of the school year has finally come. I must confess that I am more excited that the girls. The American summer vacation schedule is entirely too long! This was the first school year that Sam and I couldn't be there to take the girls to their first day. I worked nights and Sam is still stuck in Hawaii. I had a significant amount of mom guilt about this, so I went crazy on the school supplies and let the girls get almost whatever they wanted. Then after school i picked them up and to Yogurt Land.(Check out my earlier post on our fav. dessert place). In all honestly the girls could have cared less that i wasn't there because they were happy to see their friends. But, the let me appease my mom guilt through over sugaring them. Then they insisted on taking a picture to send to daddy who is stuck in the airport. (Before you think they are that sweet. . . they really only wanted to show off that they got frozen yogurt). Here are the griddy pictures from my cell phone from our first day.

Enjoy!

Yogurt Land

There is this new is cream place that opened up here. Its called Yogurt Land. Now, we like frozen yogurt just fine, but I was not sure how I would like a place that was only yogurt. Sam and the girls went first. They came home with raving reviews and said I absolutely had to go! So, one festival weekend we decided to go check it out. It was so AWESOME!! (The pictures are kinds gritty because they were on my phone).

There were walls of frozen yogurt machines in every flavor. I picked peanut butter.

There is then all these topping flavors like chocolate chips, strawberry, bananas, and even corn flakes. We all had very unique tastes.

Making it even cooler was that every one was dressed up all cute. During festivals everyone wears their Kimonos. I thought these girls looked really cute.

I must confess. . . it is now our official favorite dessert place on island!

Sam's Employed!!!

Today Sam got an call from the human resources department of Community Bank telling him that he got the job we had been praying for!!! He goes in tomorrow to sign the contract and starts as soon as he starts his terminal leave with the Marine Corp. He will now be working as the Acquisitions Officer for Community Bank. Or maybe it was Contracts Specialist. I don't know. He'll correct the blog if I am wrong though. :). Thank you all SO MUCH for your prayers. We are SOOOO excited about this HUGE next step.

Work, Life and Summer Fun

Sam and I got a call the other day from my brother-in-law, Joseph. He reminded us how HORRIBLE we have been with keeping up with calling people and updating our blog. I sadly have to agree. Life has been insanely busy -not that this is an excuse. We have been very very remiss and will try our hardest to be better about it. Bear with me now as I work to update you all on the exciting adventures in the Bernard World.

Work:

Busy Busy Busy. I my life is rather boring. I am still working hard as a mental health nurse. Sam on the other hand has much more excitement. This Saturday he will be flying out to spend a week in America to officially end his USMC contract. We are ridiculously excited. He has started the interview process for civilian jobs. He had an interview with a local bank to work as an acquisition officer. We are praying that he gets it if it is God's will.

Life:

Well lots is going on now that Sam is getting out of the military. We prayed long and hard and decided that we want to stay in Okinawa for an extra year. As of right now we will be living in Okinawa until 2011. With this in mind we made the choice to move into a real Okinawan house. We move in this Friday. We will send pictures soon.

Summer Fun:

This summer has been busy. My (Dacee) dad came to visit us for a weekend after spending 3 weeks touring China. He had fun seeing where we live and what we do to fun. The day after he left my (still Dacee) mom came to visit for a month. She has been amazing to have here. She has been watching the girls and seeing all the Okinawa sites.

Eclipse:

One last cool thing that happened today. Okinawa had the longest solar eclipse seen in over a century. I was all excited for it, but it wasn't that amazing. The whole world turned kinda gray like it was a cloudy day. . . only eerier. I couldn't see the sun directly because. . . . well because it was the sun. I didn't have one of those cool eclispy looking things to see it through so like you all I have to see it through pictures.

Well, I guess that is all for now. I promise to try to send pics of the new house to you all soon. We love you all! Keep us in your prayers.