Babbling Bernards

Korea Vacation

2010-12-02T08:53:00.004+09:00

I know. . . I know. Before any of you say anything. KOREA - for vacation!! It sounds insane, but can I just say - Seoul is the COOLEST CITY EVER!!!

For those of you who don't read my random facebook status updates, I am really into Korean Drama's right now. They are really fun and have new creative story lines. After watching a bunch of these I decided I wanted to see Korea for myself. Samuel had gone to Korea a couple of years ago for work and really wanted to go again, so for our anniversary we decided we would take a vacation trip. It was so worth it.

First, can I say, Seoul in the fall is beautiful!!! The girls loved the fall leaves.

We got to see cool old temples and castles.

I love Cala's face in this picture. She finds her dad embarrassing already. :) We got to see some cool old Korean art at the national museum. And, Sam got to try to be art.

We even got to go to the Kimchi Museum. We got to learn about all the kinds of Kimchi (and there are A LOT), and we learned about all the nutritional benefits of kimchi. All of us really liked the kimchi tasting part of the museum.

One of the coolest things we saw was the technology district of Seoul. THey had these cool media towers with touch screens. They told us the news, the subway route, city maps and more. They even take pictures and email it to your home website. We'll show you all that picture later.

Yes there was that whole gun fire and bomb thing up in the northern part of the country, but honestly, it didn't really effect us in Seoul. Overall, it was one of the best family vacation trips ever. We all fell in love with the country and will go back again.

Introducing Da Jeong (Irene)

2010-11-12T13:23:00.004+09:00

So, since our life isn't busy enough, we chose to open up our homes to a Korean exchange student from our girl's school (World Mission Christian School). Every year the school takes in students and Australia for a semester and sends our students over there to study. This gives the students chance to learn another language and experience a new culture. Our student's name is Da Jeong, but her English name is Irene. She already speaks English, but she is trying to learn Japanese. She will be staying with us until January 4th. She is such a sweetheart and we enjoy having her in our home. Pray that she has lots of fun with us too. :)

Audrie's 7th Birthday!

2010-11-08T08:40:00.004+09:00

My littlest angel turned 7 years old this past week. Can I just say how old I feel right now! Now birthdays are a HUGE deal in my house. They are even bigger than Christmas. My kids could care less about the presents. They actually never ask for anything. It is all about the birthday party.

Birthday party planning starts about three months before the birthday. They plan everything from the location to the food. This year, Audrie insisted on having a pony birthday.

The kids got to learn how to take care of a horse and each one got to take a long ride around the track.

Audrie got to ride two different horses!

Everyone had tons of fun. Already we are excited for the next birthday party day!

Hello Again

2010-11-04T22:39:00.004+09:00

Yes, before any of you say a single word. . . it has been FOREVER. But, in our defense we have been insanely busy! Life continues to come at us in all directions, and we are managing to juggle our roles.

So what have we been up to you ask? Well, let's start with summer. This summer was so much fun! We really got to relax and hang out with friends. I worked a day shift all summer, which was a pleasant change and let me get regular sleep hours. My niece, Rayann, came to visit again. We did a lot of shopping and touristy things.

Summer flew by and we got full swing into the rush of life. Sam is fully enjoying his time out of the marines. He grew a beard in celebration.

The girls are doing well too. They are getting HUGE. Cala is in third grade and Audrie is in second grade. They each have their own little cliques and think they are so cool now.

I am doing well too. I am in my last 8 weeks of my master's program. I need a lot of prayer to survive it! I have about a year and 2 months left in the military. Overall, I am just excited to see what life will bring.

I will try my hardest to keep you all updated with all our adventures. We love you all!

TOO MANY HOLIDAYS!!!

2010-05-12T12:02:00.005+09:00

So, life again has gotten insanely busy, and it is all my kids fault. Okay, so I am not really upset with them, it is just that they have had entirely too much time off of school. Our children are carbon copies of us. They have these vibrant loud personalities and need social interaction to cure boredom. School is their outlet. Our girls need school, not just for the whole education thing, but also to burn off their energy. Without this, mommy, daddy and the girls all go a little insane.

Well, here in Japan there is a huge love for holidays. Okinawa is notorious for holidays. It is actually nick-named the "festival island". Well, my girls go to a Japanese-American school, so they get the benefit of both American and Japanese holidays.

The first break came with spring break. This is a huge season here because the Japanese school year actually ends in spring, so there are all the end of the year festivals, and then a 2 week spring break. They have this great military beach resort here. So, for the first break, I took the girls and one of their friends out to the beach for a couple of days.

Sam got to relax at home in an estrogen free environment. All i can say is that i must have been insane! It was like i was a camp councilor and personal ATM all rolled up into one. All i did was pay for things and say "NO" all week. The girls had lots of fun though.

So, after we finally recovered from the insanely long spring break, we are all ready for the start of school. Well two weeks go buy and then the girls tell us that they have next week off! We are like "WHAT!!! Didn't you just have TWO weeks off school?!?!?!" Well apparently those two weeks were for spring break. This week was for Golden Week. Golden week is a week where 7-10 different holidays fall right in a row. All Japanese employees and kids get these holidays off, so the week is called "Golden Week". So we had to find a way to entertain our kids for another week. We went to the Pineapple Factory.

Well, thankfully, school is back in session, and there are no scheduled holidays for another 4 weeks -- at least we hope so. :)

And Disney's The Princess and the Frog gets 5 thumbs down

2010-04-07T00:17:00.007+09:00

Our family are generally very big fans of all things Disney. We understand the controversy that surrounds the company, but we love the Disney princesses. They are great for our little girls. There movies are all really innocent and fun. Now some people think that the princess obsession is a bad thing. I mean we don't want to create materialistic children. . . right? Well, Sam and I have found a positive spin to the whole princess thing. We explain that because of Jesus we are adopted as children of God. That makes us princes and princesses. With that title comes responsibility. There are some behaviors that princes and princesses cannot have. So the title of princess is one of great responsibility. When the newest Disney movie came out we were so excited. Here is a black Disney princess to add to positive role models of other princesses. WE WERE WRONG. So, to explain our full hatred of this movie, we have chosen to break down the movies suckiness into five thumbs. 1rst thumb down: Animation. The animation in this movie is terrible. The coloring is very dark. The drawings are roughly done. It lacks the clean look of the more modern Disney cartoons. The animation is very reminiscent of the poor 1990s animation move. 2nd thumb down: Music The songs were poorly done. None of them were catchy, and your definitely won't catch your little one singing along to any of the songs. 3rd thumb down: poor character development None of the characters were likable. All of them were shallow and poorly developed so the kids couldn't identify with any of them. Most of them were nasty backwater hillbilly characters that we wouldn't want our kids talking to on the street, much less watching in a hour and 1/2 movie. 4th thumb down: The over use of voodoo Can I just say how dark and evil voodoo is. The movie goes back and forth between over glorifying it with the "good voodoo witch doctor" to showing so much evil with the "bad" voodoo witch doctor. There magic to turn the prince into a frog was done by getting a voodoo skull full of the prince's blood. Later in the movie there is a whole song in which the bad guy conjures up demons to go hunt down the prince. Then there is this creepy dark shadow chase. 5th thumb down: The main character isn't a princess Can I just say that the title of the movie is the PRINCESS and the frog. Ten minutes into watching the poor 1920s black female lead who lives in the slums of New Orleans and works tow waitressing jobs and helps out with a wealthy white family whose daughter is the town princess our girls turn to look at us and say "why isn't she a real princess like the other Disney princesses?" In the end the movie comes off as a poorly put together, mildly racist, eerily evil cartoon. Our advise to you all . . . skip it! Poorly done Disney. . . Poorly done!

Strawberry Picking

2010-04-02T16:08:00.005+09:00

A couple of weeks ago the girls went strawberry picking at school. It was a1 1/2 mile walk down the road (really long for kindergartner, first and second graders). It was still worth it. We paid one flat rate and then we got 30 minutes to pick and eat as many strawberries as we wanted. The kids went crazy. We had so much fun. The nurse in me had to cringe every time that the kids picked the strawberry right off the plant and ate it. The farmer swore that it was all sanitary, so I just smiled and turned my head. In the end we all ended up with stomach aches from eating too many strawberries, but it was still a fun experience. :)

Everyday Life

2010-03-23T05:48:00.007+09:00

So, it has been a while since we posted on the blog. So sorry everyone. Life here has been insane!!! There is work, and trips to the states, and then more work, then trips back to the States when my grandpa passed away, then Haiti. You can see how life got ahead of us for a time. Well, I can't quite say that things are calm yet, but they are looking up. Many of you have asked what a day in our life looks like. Well, no day is quite the same. Sam does accounting at our church now, and is LOVING it. It was a huge pay cut, but it was worth it because he has more time with the kids. The girls are doing great! Audrie and Cala now go to a Japanese/American School. They are picking up so much of the language. Here are a couple of pictures of them in class. On days off the girls like to go hang out with friends. Here is a picture of them after going to a military kids play. Their friends were mice in the Cinderella story.

Over all, we do our best to have lots of fun despite the insanity of life. We will try to do better about updating our blog so you guys can stay connected.

The Swine Flu

2009-09-18T03:27:00.005+09:00

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

2009-09-01T23:21:00.007+09:00

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.

2009-08-21T03:28:00.002+09:00

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

2009-08-17T17:38:00.002+09:00

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

2009-08-04T13:16:00.004+09:00

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!!!

2009-07-30T19:14:00.003+09:00

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

2009-07-23T03:33:00.007+09:00

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.

Sam's Birthday

2009-05-09T12:00:00.005+09:00

So life here has been really busy. The girls are finishing out their school year. Sam is closing out his time in the Marines and I am busy with work and school. We all decided we needed a short break for Sam's birthday (he's 29 years old now!!!). Sam really doesn't like cake, so the girls and I decided to take him to this ice cream parlor that is right across the street from where I work.

They have the most amazing menu items. There is this one AMAZING menu item. I forgot my camera so I tried to find a picture of the ice cream he choose online. This is the closest one to the one he picked. Only add corn flakes, chocolate syrup, bananas, oranges, kiwi, and an upside down ice cream cone. I am NOT exaggerating.

We finished it all. We were on a sugar high for the rest of the day, but Sam said it was the best birthday dessert he has ever had. I admit. . . we all liked it too. :)

Should I stay or should I go?

2009-03-29T17:53:00.004+09:00

We are officially in the countdown for Samuel's departure from the USMC. Sam is so excited. He is so happy coming hoe from work. He is working on his resume all the time. Sam has been in the military since we first got married. It feels strange to see this time in his life come to an end. Now I will be the only military member in the family. My contract ends in 2011. I am trying to figure out what to do.

The Navy wants to send me to grad school to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner, and i want to go. I LOVE my job. Working with psych patients is fun. But recently Sam and i have been debating whether i should stay with the Navy or not. Our nation's leader has recently irritated some of our long standing allies and befriended some of our allies long standing enemies. This makes me and Sam uncomfortable.

Then my boss gave me this book called Rule Number Two: Lessons I learned in a combat hospital. Its a memore from a Navy psychologist who was deployed when her kids were 15 months old. Its a great book. Kinda sad though. It was suppose to inspire me, but its had the opposite effect.

Let me explain by telling you the two rules of war. "Rule number one is that young men die. Rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one."

All of you often ask what me and Sam are going to do in regards to the military. The truth is we don't know. We are at an impasse. I love my job with the Navy, but does that mean i should stay? We are praying for wisdom. We'd love to have you guys out there praying for us to.

My baby turned 7!!!!

2009-03-21T23:06:00.003+09:00

I feel that there is nothing harder to watch as a parent than your little kids getting bigger. My little Micayla just turned seven! This is so strange for me and Sam. Looking at her all we can think of is 'Where did all the years go?'. I think it is extra fun for us because we had Cala when we were just 21 years old, so we have grown up with her.

Well, I feel that birthdays are should be the BEST day of the year. My girls agree. They love birthdays more than Christmas - really. See, we stress that Christmas is about giving to others, but birthdays is the day that is all about you. They get to plan their perfect party. Their friends have to all be nice to them, and they can't get in trouble.

The only rule of children's birthday parties for me and Sam is the they can NEVER EVER be in our home. This year Cala wanted a sleep over, and i was so consumed with mommy sadness over my little girl growing up that i said yes. Why? What was i thinking? It was CHAOS.

There were 15 girls there, but thankfully only 12 stayed the night. We started with cupcake decorating.

After we sugared the girls up we did Disney Karaoke and dinner, a pinata, more cake and a movie.

I didn't think this whole plan through. With all the sugar in their system they didn't want to go to sleep. Sam and I were up till 2am!

Cala had a wonderful time though. She barley made it through the next day. Both her and Audrie were spent.

Looking back I guess it was totally worth it. You do only turn seven once. :)

Food in Okinawa

2009-03-01T00:26:00.009+09:00

I was having a conversation with my dad the other day about foods here in Okinawa. When we first arrived on island everything seemed quite overwhelming. We were surprised about how different Japanese food was here on island compared to how it was in the movies. It took us awhile to get use to everything, but now we have developed quite a few favorite foods here on island.

Okinawan food is different than food on mainland Japan. Okinawa is really famous for their soba. Its a soup that is a lot like ramen noodles only made fresh and a lot better. Sam and I LOVE soba. It is made with homemade egg noodles, tofu, seaweed, green onions, pork, and this salty ginger seasoning. It tastes a lot better than it sounds.

The girls love more traditional Japanese food. The most famous kind is cutlet curry. This is a crispy fried pork cutlet served with curry and veggies over rice. I admit we have this at least once a week.

There is of course the even more traditional sushi. Sushi is more of a eat out thing here. There is this place here called sushi-go-round where the chefs make the sushi right in front of you and it goes around this wheel and you just pick the kind you want. Its kind of hit and miss, but I like it anyway. The girls usually just order fried squid, which tastes surprisingly like chicken.

Tea here is a real specialty. Its in every vending machine. You have to be really careful when you by them because 90% of them don't have sugar. The first time Sam and I tasted them they were really gross. It tasted like chalk. I really like it now. My favorite drink comes from a place called Quickly's. They make all kinds of cold teas. I wasn't sure at first, but now I am addicted. My favorite is Jasmine Pearl Milk tea. It is a Jasmine tea with milk and tapioca beans. It is surprisingly addictive. But don't worry. If any of you make it over to this side of the world there are more traditional foods here.

Overall we are really loving the food here, and are kinda worried at how well the kids will adapt when we take them back to the states. Who knows, maybe we will find someplace that makes fried squid in the U.S. too. :)

Poor Sam

2009-02-25T19:22:00.004+09:00

Yes, I know i am way overdue for a post on the status of my injured husband, but i got to say. . . he is a difficult patient and makes getting on the computer hard. :)

Actually he has not been that bad. He has done AMAZING with pain control and is tolerating his cast a lot better than i would. The area is taking a little longer to heal than the doctor first expected, so he had to leave the staples in. Sam gets the staples out in one week and goes back to work in a couple of days after. I have included some pictures for your enjoyment. Be forewarned, some are kinda gross if you aren't medically minded.

This is a picture of them taking off his surgical dressing.

Here is what it looked like under all that gauze.

Just so you can see how big the incision actually was:

He got a brand new cast. Its a regular fiber glass one, even though the staples are still in. I love the color blue it is:

Now he can gimp around on crutches like this:

The doctors tell us he will be back to normal in a year! Keep him in your prayers!

2009-02-14T04:37:00.003+09:00

Okay, every once in a while you have to have a mommy moment. Some of you might know that i firmly believe my children are the cutest things ever. I think its a mom requirement to find your children endearing. Well, I know that it is valentine's day and i should be writting about hearts and candy, but my little Cala wrote the cutest essay on President Linclon ever. I just got it back from her teacher, so i had to share it. This might be something only grandparents enjoy, but you all have to suffer. Sit back and enjoy the writings of Micayla Rachel Aurora Bernard. Keep in mind that she is only six years old.

2009-02-05T22:47:00.000+09:00

So I have been awful lately about updating our family blog. I have a valid excuse though . . . life has been crazy. Our new year started off with a bang. The girls are back in school and doing GREAT. They surprised us early this month by telling us that they both had decided that they were ready to be baptized. Sam and I debated it for a while because they are so young, but they assured us that they had Jesus in their hearts and they were ready. So one Sunday night we let them take the plunge. (Hehehe - get the pun?) They were so cute. Unfortunately we don't have any really good pictures because they were so short. They couldn't see over the baptismal ledge. It was a really proud mommy and daddy moment. Other than that we have been really busy with work and injuries. I just diminished up my physical therapy from the knee surgery I had in December. That was a relief because I had three appointments a week! Sam decided that he was tired of all the attention I was getting with my hurt knee so he decided that he was going to tear his Achilles tendon. Seriously though, he was playing basketball for the first time in YEARS and someone ran into him and tore the tendon. He has surgery tomorrow. :( Keep him in your prayers. Well, unfortunately I have no interesting pictures to post on this blog entry, but I wanted to let you all know that we are still alive here in Japan. I promise to post pictures of Sam in his huge leg cast and post surgery stuff too. We miss you all!

Just wanted to make you all smile!

2009-01-16T09:16:00.001+09:00

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Puppy Love

2009-01-07T07:55:00.005+09:00

Okay, so Sam and I have this love/hate relationship with pets. We have gone through quite a few dogs, cats, fish and turtles in our seven years of marriage. Our kids now ask us "Can we keep this one for a long time?" That's bad I know. Well, recently we were given our dog number six after dog number five came down with doggie cancer. Our little pure bred American Yorkshire terrier was found abandoned on the road. The girls named her Rosebud after the dog from Snow Buddies. (If you don't know what movie I am talking about just take a second to be thankful that you don't have elementary aged girls.)

So this is Rosebud. How cute is she!?!? Oh, and yes that is a blue Mohawk she is sportin'. The Japanese groomers here love their small dogs and the girls and I couldn't resist. Sam just shook his head when he saw her and said "I want boys.". I don't know what he's talking about. ;P

Here's a better look at her cute hair cut.

Well, as adorable as our little Rosebud is she is getting on my nerves. She refuses to potty train. We have had her for almost seven months, which is really long for us! She pees in her crate. Holds her pee on walks and then pees as soon as she gets in the house! Everyone tells me that small dogs are the hardest to train because they have these tiny bladders. She's full grown and she is even smaller than most Yorkies.

I have promised the girls that we will actually keep Rosebud for a long time, but i am breaking here. What ideas to you guys have on how to potty train a stubborn dog?

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T21:31:00.012+09:00

Wow! It is 2009! I have to say 2008 was one of the longest years in my life! Sam agreed too. It is hard being half way around the world from family and friends. :( We love you guys. Well. . . we were so excited to welcome in the new year. We decided to for-go all the mandatory military activities and do something more family oriented. I am so glad we did! There is this BEAUTIFUL botanical garden here. Every winter they decorate the whole place up with lights. They do a light show with fireworks for new years! We decided to go with our neighbors. Here is a really cool pic of one of the areas they lit up.When we first got there all the employees were dressed up like Santa's helpers. It was so cute.

They also opened up really awesome play areas for the kids. Somehow everything looks more magical in the dark. The girls went WILD.

Sam and I had to join in on the fun too. It got really dark - even with all the lights, so Sam bought the girls these cute lightsabers. (Did I mention we LOVE Star Wars.) The girls quickly broke out into Jedi fights. They were really getting into it.

Of course the dads saw the girls having fun, so they stole the lightsabers from them. I thought they were funnier than the kids.

We ended the night with the beautiful light show. There were all these lasers and stuff. I couldn't get a clear picture of it though. :(

Over all it was a wonderful day! We hope your New Years was wonderful too! Happy New Year! Hope each of you has a GREAT 2009!

PROMOTION

2008-12-29T22:52:00.010+09:00

Rank in the military is a very very important thing. It is the first thing that people see when they look at you and it effects how they react to you - literally. For example, Sam is enlisted and I an officer. People automatically freak out when they hear I am an officer because officers are usually the 'big bosses'. People are a little more relaxed when they meet Sam because he is enlisted. Then they hear that he is an enlisted Sergeant in the Marines and they freak out again because Marine Corps Sergeant's are literally known world wide for how mean they are! Well, I have been an Ensign in the Navy for 2 years. Ensign is the lowest rank of officer. People fear me because I am an officer, but not very much because they know I haven't been in long enough to know how mean I can really be. They call us 'butter bars' and other irritating nicknames when ever they see us. The time finally came for me to be promoted. Its a whole ceremony. I hate having all the attention on me so the whole process was a little embarrassing. I had to go to my Commanding Officer's office and re-swear in to the military. Then you have people who are close to you remove your old rank and put your new rank on. I had Sam and my direct boss do it. My boss is a huge fan of Star Wars (Sam and I are too) so she decided to 'knight' me with Yoda's light saber. Now, my Commanding Officer is also a HUGE Star Wars fan, but he loves Darth Vader. (Hence the pictures of Darth Vader on the wall). So he decided that we needed to remove the enemies light saber from his office and gave us the Darth Vader light saber to 'knight' me with instead. - Yes I know . . . the rumors are true. . . medical personnel really are THAT nerdy.

Well, after the whole light saber thing was done Sam had to complete the final part of my ceremony which is to put on my new jacket with my new rank.

After all that it was finally official. I am now a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Navy. Yeah!!

Christmas

2008-12-27T22:13:00.013+09:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OKINAWA!

I think I might have mentioned this before, but in case I haven't. . . . We LOVE Christmas! Sam and I had different Christmas traditions growing up. When we had kids we decided that instead of arguing over which tradition to follow we would create our own.

We decided to start celebrating on Christmas Eve because Christmas day is usually busy with the military. So Christmas Eve we make a huge breakfast dinner and stayed up late watching t.v. This picture of the girls cracked me up. They were completely sucked into this little British cartoon called "Charlie and Lola".

At midnight we read the Christmas story and then open presents. I have to make a disclaimer to make before the next picture. . . Sam and I have a four present rule for the girls. Every year they are suppose to get something they want, something they need, something to share and something to read. This is the plan, but the girls have Sam wrapped around their fingers, so this is what they actually got for Christmas.

Cala just smiled at Sam and told him "Your little princesses are so spoiled." I have to agree with her.

The girls got distracted after their fifth present. We actually had to prompt them to open the rest. Their favorite were the Leapsters, these hand-held kids game systems. Audrie started playing with her's as soon as she opened it.

And she continued playing it throughout the next day. . .

She gets this addiction from Sam. Christmas morning one of our Navy friends came over to hang out. They played video games for HOURS!

On Christmas day we always go hang out with other military families. This year we were really blessed to have Christian neighbors. This is a real rarity in the military. We all got together and had Christmas dinner. The kids were so cute. Here in Okinawa everyone throws up a peace sign whenever they take a picture. All the kids have picked up the habit too.

Right after dinner the dads did what they do every Christmas. . . they jumped on the video game system. This year it was the Wii. The kids were all playing Mario cart and the dads took over. They were so funny because they got so competitive.

After all that fun and excitement we end our Christmas by coming home and falling asleep in front of the TV. We hope all of you had fun celebrating Christmas in your own way! We missed you all this year!

Christmas Cookie Party Fun!!!

2008-12-22T00:04:00.006+09:00

Cala and Audrie have been begging us all Christmas season to make a huge batch of Christmas cookies. Our family LOVES cookies and we usually have a constantly full cookie jar, but Sam and I have never really been Christmas cookie people. Sam isn't really a big icing person and I don't like the taste of sugar cookies. I was still trying to figure out how to avoid making Christmas cookies when my friend called and invited the girls over to her house for a Christmas cookie decorating party.

I was surprised when I came into her house. All I can say is it was organized chaos. Kids and sugar were flying everywhere! Here is a picture of the main decorating table.

The girls dove in and had tons of fun! I loved watching them decorate. Their little personalities came out in full. Cala was very precise. She made sure each of her cookies were evenly colored and carefully sprinkled. I think Cala is so cute in this picture. I love the snowman she decorated (I admit I helped a little.)

Audrie was all about tons of icing and sprinkles. She tried to be careful about color schemes, but the table of icing was too enticing. She was so cute because she wanted to put EVERYTHING on each cookie. This picture is one of her with a ton sugar in her system. She is in true Audrie form here. You can see her plate of well decorated cookies.

The girls tried to offer Sam and me some of their party goodies. We smiled and said yum. I actually ate my entire slobbery, sugary cookie. Sam on the other hand snuck up stairs and flushed it down the toilet when the girls weren't looking. -- hehehe

Overall it was a wonderful time for the girls. . . and I had fun too.

Christmas Decorating

2008-12-16T21:43:00.000+09:00

I meant to post this sometime ago, but life and knee surgery got in the way.

ANYHOW. . .I am so excited! All our Christmas decorations are up and all our Christmas shopping is done!

Decorating the house was a little challenging this year. This year our daughters insisted on being involved in every step of the process. This sounds sweet, but it is really difficult keeping a five and six year old out of trouble while still allowing them to feel as if they are an integral part of the decorating process. Sam helped by taking pictures of the girls while i worked on the harder parts.

I must confess that I am a little OCD about my Christmas tree. I have been this way since I was. . . well about Cala's age. It was kinda funny watching both my children try to decorate the tree. Cala is so much like me. Everything has to be color coordinated and in the perfect spot.

Audrie is more like Sam. She could care less about where things go as as long as they get there. In the end she was easily distracted posing for pictures while Cala and I fixed any part of the tree that wasn't up to our OCD standards.

In the end the tree was up, the Yankee Christmas Candles were burning and nothing was broken. I have to say the whole process was a surprising success.

We can't wait for Christmas!

Knee Surgery :(

2008-12-12T19:45:00.000+09:00

When I first joined the military I had to go to something called Officer Indoctrination School (OIS). It is a time when you learn all things military and get in great shape. For those of you who know me, I am not the most athletic of people. I am one of those irritating people who eat what I want and don't gain weight. Sure, I get winded going up a flight of stairs, but its a sacrifice I am willing to make for a life of apathy.

Well, to my surprise, the Navy DEMANDED that I be physically fit. Not only did they demand it, but they also mandate that all Navy personnel do a physical fitness test every 6 months. OIS attempted to help me get ready for this new life of fitness. My instructors made me run, jump, do push ups and more. Do you know what Igot from all this? - Several nose bleeds and a torn meniscus. I think my body was trying to tell me something.

Anyhow after 2 years of complaining of knee pain the Navy finally agreed that it was time for me to have surgery.

Our hospital is really small, so having people you know and drink coffee with do your surgery is a little nerve racking. It brings trust in friendship to a whole new level.

Everything went pretty well. There was one incident when they gave me IV fluid that I was allergic to and my heart rate went up to 110 beats per minute, but one of my friends was my anaesthesiologist and he caught the error so all was well.

After surgery I had a week of looking like this:

I was ordered to keep my leg elevated and iced. I don't exercise, but I am a pretty active person just the same . This was a NIGHTMARE for me. I hated not being able to go anywhere! Sam tried to confiscate my crutches but I got them back. My kids call my crutches 'crushers'. You know you accidentally knock a kid over a couple of times and they have to get all dramatic!

I finally got to take of my dressing today. My knee looks something like this now.

It still swollen, and I can't straighten my leg all the way yet, but I am on the road to recovery. The best part of this whole process is that I have 2 weeks off work. :) Sure having surgery is a kinda of extreme way to get time off during the holidays, but overall I have to say it was totally worth it!

Christmas Party!!

2008-12-10T19:01:00.001+09:00

I LOVE Christmas!

It really is the most wonderful time of year. Christmas cookies, Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas Carolers, and Christmas Parties.

Every year the hospital I work at has a big Christmas party. In all honesty the party kinda sucks. The food isn't great, the entertainment is terrible, the sound system never works right, and you are stuck talking the the same people you live and work with every day.

I love this guy's face. He is honestly bored and is totally ignoring everyone at our table.

There are two redeemable facts about the work Christmas Party.

1- It is mandatory semi-formal attire. This is very exciting for people who spend most of their days in uniform. Its time to dress up and be an individual! Here's a picture of me and and my boss all dressed up in front of the Christmas tree.

2- Every year the party committee raises money to try to have the party at an awesome location. Every year they fail. They are then forced to buy raffle presents with the left over money. This year they gave away $50,000 in prizes (and no that was not a typo). In all honesty this is the only reason people go to the party. This year there were X-Boxes, Ipods, big screen flat panel T.V.s and more!

Here's Sam and some guys hanging out waiting for good prizes.

Unfortunately we didn't win anything, but we had a good time anyhow. You know what they say come for the prizes . . . stay for the fun. Okay maybe the saying doesn't quite go like that, but you all get the idea.

Anyhow. . .hope you all are having a wonderful start to your Christmas Season!

Happy Holidays!!

Dual Military

2008-12-01T15:49:00.000+09:00

Often we get questions about what are life is like as a military family. I figured i would take a second to try and answer that question.

If I had to discribe military life in one word it would be BUSY! There is always something going on.

Sam has a more typical schedule. He works Monday-Friday from 7:30 - 5:00. He works in accounting and travel. Once a month he has to stand duty. Which means he acts as a guard on base. It is for a full 24 hours! Sometimes he has to go on TAD which means that he leaves for a month or so to a random country where the military is working. Last time it was 40 days in Korea!

There are balls and festivals and unit parties. And as if that were not enough there are also random formations and safety stand downs. That is when the military gets all the marines together after work hours to lecture them on safety or how to be better marines or how much they suck as marines.

Here's a picture of Sam getting promoted.

Believe it or not my schedule is even busier than Sam's at times. I work random hours because i am a nurse. Right now I am on the night shift. I work 7pm-7am about four days a week. I also have what the military likes to call collatoral duties. That means that they make military members do jobs that in the civilian world world would take another person. I put in about an extra 5-10 hours a week for this.

Here's a picture of my cool Japanese name tag.

I also have all that extra stuff that Sam has too. I have uniform inspecions, formation, balls. Here is a picture of me and some of my coworkers in our "dress uniform" (the fancy one) at the medical ball.

With all that work insanity Sam and I really work hard to make sure we spend time with just us and just the kids.

Here's us and my niece at this fun park called Okinawa World (and yes that is a real snake). To sum it up. . . Over all, yes life is busy, but it is still lots of fun.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T18:29:00.000+09:00

Ahh! Thanksgiving in Japan. What is it like you ask? Actually it is a lot like Thanksgiving in the states. Well at least on base it is. The military is really like one big family at times. We work together, live together and even eat together. Sam's accounting shop go together at his boss's house to celebrate thanksgiving this year.

This is pretty much what happens every year, but this year there was a lot less alcohol. This was actually a very good thing because usally everyone starts doing shots after dinner and don't stop till midnight. This year everyone played video games. Call of Duty 5 is out so the guys set up two t.v.'s so everyone could play. The kids got into it too. here's a picture of them playing the Wii.

My girls just discovered the magic of video games so they got into it too.

Over all it was a really great time full of food and fun.

The only thing that could have made it better was if each of you were here to celbrate with us.

We miss and love you all!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Starting out. . . Again

2008-11-27T04:40:00.000+09:00

I have recently heard complaints from friends and family about how terrible we are about keeping in touch with everyone. I hate to admit it. . . but i totally agree. So, in effort to be much better about the whole communication thing we have decided to start a Bernard Family Blog so each of you can keep up to date with all the exciting events going on in our lives.

I have tried this blogging thing before, but, quite honestly, i suck at it. All web pages here in Japan have to be translated into English, and I just figured out how to do it.

Let me take a quick moment to update you all on where we are now.

-We are still calling Okinawa, Japan home.

-Sam is still in the Marines, and is set to get out in July (Yeah!!!!)

-I (Dacee) and still in the Navy. I am a mental health nurse now.

-Cala is 6 years old and in first grade, and Audrie is 5 years old and in Kindergarten. (how did they grow up so fast?)

Other than that we are livin' and lovin' life here in Japan.

I promise to send more interesting points later, but that is all i have for now.

We miss you all, and hope to see your comments on our blog!