On Wed. May 12th at 8 am (Japan time) we headed out of our apartment in Japan for the last time. I was a little sad to go even though this trip was much tougher on us than the year before there are still so many things I enjoy and will miss about Japan. Last year I wrote
this post, and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Japan despite the hardships. This time the hardships seemed greater between Hans working very long hours, me being newly pregnant with morning sickness (more like all day sickness) and exhaustion, taking care of two young girls, and some hurt feelings from a situation at home it was hard at times to keep going and look on or even see the brighter side. Also this time April was not near as nice as it was last year (when I wasn't there) and the final testing program did not go to plan and Hans ended up working a lot at the end instead of having some time to spend as a family. But all in all despite these extra hardships and just being away from home, family, and friends there are so many things that are really cool about Japan and I was a bit sad to leave.
A few of the things I still love about Japan and will miss are the people there, they really are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Despite the language barrier they are always smiling, warm and caring people. Truly wanting to help you whenever possible and see our beautiful (kawaii-cute) kids. Olivia was a bit embarassed by all the attention at times but I know she really liked it.
I still love the way they do there garbage there with 4 different categories and such a small amount going into landfills. We only created two partial bags of nonburnables (or stuff that goes into the landfill) in the 4 and half months we were there. Compare that to the 4 to 6 bags that go into the landfill weekly just from our house alone and it makes me really want to work on reducing, reusing, and recycling (which I already do with a passion). I would encourage you to do the same and at least start recycling one of the easiest things you can do to help care for this beautiful world our Lord God created for us. Let's not trash the place (literally)!
Finally I love the parks, shops, food, snacks, 100 yen stores, etc. There is lots of fun things to do there and even though walking all around and using trains with two little ones isn't always the easiest, I am so glad that we were able to have this experience and that our girls were able to see how a different part of the world lives at such a young age.
We have so much to be thankful for from our experience in Japan. We are thankful to now be debt free (except our mortgage) following
Dave Ramsey's 7 steps to financial freedom and that feels awesome! We are so much more appreciative and thankful for our home here in the states. Our house is large and comfortable, I love my oven and dishwasher (and really appreciate these now), our nice yard for the girls to play in. Things that we often take for granted but after living in a small apartment with no yard, no dishwasher, no oven, I am so much more thankful for them. Many Japanese do not have any of these items ever in their lifetime. And just seeing a different culture first hand for a length of time gives you a new view of how we live.
So here was our view just last week looking out of our apartment
and now this is our view looking out our back slider.
The view has changed a bit and it is a little weird at times. But before I get into that here is the quick run down of how our LONG travel day went. We were up early and ready to go. We left the apartment at 8 am getting a ride (in two shifts) from someone from the shipyard which was great. We checked in for the base bus once we got there (I was so thankful to be able to ride the bus) the train would just not have worked with all of our luggage and children. So we boarded the bus and took the 2 hour bus ride up to Narita. We took the early bus to give us plenty of time to eat at the airport and get through security and such and not feel rushed at all. We arrived at the airport at noon and our flight didn't leave till 4:30. So it was a long day but nice to not feel rushed at all. The flight left at 4:30 pm on Wed. which was 12:30 am Wed. morning in the US. The girls did great on the flight as always. I am really blessed to have such great travelers and have never been that mom with the kid that cries the whole trip. Claire was a little scared during take off it was super rough and it freaked her out and she was yelling "off, now" over and over. I must admit it was pretty scary and I was glad when we got out of those clouds. The rest of the time we watched movies, ate, and napped. Well I only got about an hour since there was a kid who was crying a lot and kept waking me, plus can you ever really great comfortable on a plane. Landing was a bit tough on me as I had a weird pressure in my eye socket and hurt really bad until we landed (not fun). But we made the just over 8 hour flight just fine. We arrived at Sea-Tac at about 9 am Wed. May 12th (for our second day of May 12th). Got through immigration and customs and then waited for the Kitsap airporter home. After another 2 hours of riding we were so glad to be back in Silverdale where we picked up our car (thanks to our friends) grabbed a bite to eat and headed HOME!! So by the time we arrived home we had been traveling (and up) for 24 hours. It is definitely a long trip, but we finished our 4th international flight.
Since then we have been adjusting back to being at home. It is a bit surreal to walk into our home after 4 and half months and have everything be pretty much the same as when we left it. Almost as if we never left although I know we did. The calendars were still in December 2009 and there was a bit of snowman stuff out that never got put away, so begins the endeavor of unpacking, spring cleaning, and adjusting to our a 16 hour time change. The first few nights we were all wide awake around 1 in the morning till 4 or so. The girls both slept till 2 pm the first day back (which would have been around 7 in the morning-Japan). I was running on adrenaline and woke much earlier and worked on unpacking.
Here is how I found them all cuddled up together that afternoon. After that things slowly got better with us just going to bed really late and not waking in the middle of the night for food and play. I just had to start waking the girls up in the morning so that they wouldn't sleep all day and would get adjusted and now a little over a week later we are back on our schedule of going to be around 8 or 9 and getting up around 8.
Does your house ever look like this? Well ours did (and parts still do) for quite a bit as I was going through the kids' clothes getting out summer stuff, putting away too small of clothing and getting out maternity clothing for me.
Needless to say the kids have been in heaven with all their toys again and last night was the first night they got picked up. I just didn't have the energy to put into picking them up
The counter still looks like this, but I am hoping today I will be able to put together our kitchen and finally unpack my new cookware that I received for Christmas. Yes when you leave right after Christmas we often have to do some spring cleaning when we get home to make room for our new Christmas items that we haven't been able to use till this point. It is just a long process but so nice to be home and get settled in again.
So it is a bit weird to be home. To use my oven, dishwasher, go shopping again and be able to read labels. I am loving Fred Meyer now that Claire is two, both girls go in the play place and give me a little mommy time to shop in peace and quiet. Oh the little things in life. The girls are loving having our van back (and I will be happy if we don't see our stroller for a few more months at least). Claire loves to get in and get buckled. She says "buckle me, buckle me" and then "movie, movie". When we got home she threw a fit every time I went in the garage because she thought we should be leaving and was really upset when we weren't. Olivia has loved getting to see her friends and wants to have a play date every day. It was so nice to go to church on Sunday and have both of the girls excited to go to their respective places and get to enjoy a sermon. This is something that I really miss when we are TDY and your church family just can not be replicated somewhere else especially for such a short time. We are so glad to get to see our friends again and be back home. I have a to do list a mile long so my posts may not be as frequent but hopefully I will be able to keep up as we venture into summer adventures, travel to Montana, and preparing for baby number 3 to arrive in the fall. So for now it is back to the project list!
Thursday we had our 20 week ultrasound. Olivia loved going to see the baby (although she got a bit bored in the middle) and thought the baby looked like a boy, a dinosaur (when we saw the spine) and a frog (when we saw the legs). This baby was really curled up down at the bottom of my uterus so it was a good thing we didn't want to find out the sex of the baby because I don't think we would have been able to. She had a tough time getting the measurements she needed as it was. And although Hans and I had our eyes peeled for any signs of what the baby might be we didn't ever get a good look to give us any hint as to what our sweet baby is. Things looked good though as far as we know. So here are a few pictures of the pictures from the ultrasound.
I have been feeling the baby move on a regular basis now, which is so fun. The girls like to talk to my belly, which is so cute. And I am enjoying this second trimester of not feeling too uncomfortable and not being sick anymore. So for all of you who haven't guessed on our game yet, because you thought maybe just maybe we might find out the sex of the bay. Go ahead and vote now. There is a link on my sidebar. It is easy to do and just takes minutes. We love to see what people think and everytime I am on the blog and Olivia sees the game button she wants to play again so please pipe in with your ideas.
