I love Skype

I just got to talk to my parents and end the day on a great note. I LOVE Skype!!

Oh, also had a dr. appt and loved her! I'm healthy, so I now have less to worry about. You know I always have to have something to worry about, but now I'm running out of fewer and fewer things. Good day.

blah

I have a cold. Gross. I sound like a man and I blow my nose approximately every 6 minutes. I don't know what I can and cannot take due to my "delicate condition" so I'm trying the old "lots of fluids, vitamin C and rest" routine. I've only taken 2 Tylenol, but I can see myself taking more as the day progresses.

I've neglected to blog as much as I intended to so far this new year. When I come home from work, I just want to collapse in our oh-so-comfortable bed. But we've had some interesting small adventures! Jared is now employed!!! It was worth the wait as he is in an awesome position working with good people, with a view of the ocean from his office! The neatest view in Charlestown was the fair, one week out of the year. I'm so excited for him.

I think I'll blog more as the day progresses. We went Thai yesterday for lunch and I took some pictures. It was good, but I'm getting the soup next time. Soup sounds so good to me right now. I digress...

Had a teeny tiny taste of home yesterday!

Mr. Jared and I were not in a food preparation mood yesterday, at all. We are bad. We went to a new place (for us) on the Marine base nearby. I saw a teacher from my school there, so that was nice, kind of like being at home and seeing someone you know when you are out! There were tv's on the wall in this place, and the Louisville-Notre Dame game was playing! Sounds very silly, but seeing the Jewish Hospital logo on the announcer table board, and Papa John's advertisements in Freedom Hall, really made me happy-you forget how committed to memory local advertisements are until they are no more. They are comforting!

They should be grateful

It's Girl Scout cookie season on Okinawa. I guess it's the season back in the States, too, but I never paid attention. There were always tons of different types of baked goods available at home, plus cookies aren't like my favorite thing in the world. Well, things are exaggerated here and seeing the Girl Scouts selling their goods outside the door to the BX reminded me of home, and I wanted to support the "troops", as they seem like one of the positive activities for young girls and women to participate in here on the island. Well, looking back, I wish I had not handed over $10.50 for 3 boxes (geez, I don't think I've ever paid 3.50 for 12 cookies. I'm a cheapskate). The high school aged girls I chose to buy from had ZERO salesmanship skills, and personality. One girl had the audacity to TEXT when I was asking questions, having her mom, or the troop leader, whoever she was, do the entire transaction. The two other girls were unable to make eye contact, and didn't even say "Thank You" after my purchase. Seriously?! When I was leaving, one of the mute bystanders meekly said to the texter (who I determined to be the "queen bee" of the group that she didn't think they were supposed to text while they were on duty). Queen Bee, and her mom/troop leader said it was all right!!!

I was hoping I wasn't being hypercritical due to my fluxuating emotions, but all suspicions were confirmed when we ran our next errand to the Shoppette to rent a movie. The G.S. troop there were a bit younger, like maybe middle school down to 5th grade, but they made such an effort. They smiled, interacted with customers, and said "THANK YOU!!" with the bravo I felt it required. It made me wish I could return my unopened cookie boxes to the original sellers and go back and re-purchase at this new location. Grr!

I know this sounds silly, and it's all mental, but my Samoa's, which are not coincidentally called Samoa's here, but Caramel Delights, just don't taste as good as they typically did when I purchased from excited, grateful girls.

This baby is already making me worry

Kids just over .5 of an inch long and he/she is already making me worry. Scary week, but today I got to see the baby and see the heartbeat!

Kid resembles a gummy bear more than a Sawin or Robbins, but that's cool. I won't pretend to be able to make out any distinguishing features, except that the heartbeat was in the middle of the blob.

Happy Birthday Kyle!

My baby brother turns 25 today. Quarter of a century experience under his belt. My brother is a good guy, patient, understanding, good at explaining technology. He's also very compassionate and caring. Did you know he takes his only vacation time to volunteer at Muscular Dystrophy Camp? How many early twenties decide to be that selfless? The greatest thing is, it's fun for him, old friends to catch up with, new friends to meet. Mom and Dad did a good job with this one.

Happy Birthday, Kyle, and may your 25th year find you adventure, stimulation, and happiness!

I'll take 90 more days just like today

Or however many more days we have of school.

I love coming back from long breaks because the kids are zombies that first day back. I had NO issues today! My talkers were quiet, the fidgeters stayed still, the angry were placid. It was awesome! We did a fun activity on making snowmen for our winter bulletin board "People Are A Lot Like Snowmen....No Two Are Alike!". I thought I won the creatitivity of the decade award for that one. It's appropriate for my line of work.

I thought my grad classes started today-I had my calendars marked, etc. Come to find out, this evening, it's NEXT Monday. Geez oh Pete. I feel like an idiot, e-mailing the professor that I haven't received my textbook. I am trying to figure out my schedule for finishing grad school. Before the Big News of December, I planned on graduating in December 2009, but with Baby S. on the way, that definitely changes my schedule. I don't want to write papers when I am 1/2 of the sole caretakers for Baby S. Maybe if we were at home and I could get some help, but I'll have even less time here. I want that degree for the big bump in pay, but I guess it'll have to wait. I shouldn't complain, though, and I'll stop. And hey, we will soon be a two income family!

Everyone at home-welcome back to the workweek! Here in the future, work in 2009 is EXACTLY like 2008.

Questions and answers

Trying to combine the questions we've received since our big announcement, I'm going to try to write a Q&A blog.

When is your baby due?

August. The most miserable month of them all. Perfect for a person who hates hot, humid, muggy weather. :)

Will you have the baby at home or there?

Here. We are fortunate to have an AWESOME military hospital on Okinawa, Lester Naval Hospital. It's a real hospital! The people are very friendly and helpful-one of the BMOC (big men on campus) gave us an impromptu tour our first visit to the hospital! We've already attended a "Welcome to Pregnancy" class and they are super, super accommodating. Plus, they have a NICU and high-risk prenatal specialists, if that will need to be needed. Pregnant women from all around the Pacific are sent here.

Is your baby going to be able to be president?
Yes. Lester is a military facility, so he/she will be born on "American Soil", just like John McCain in Panama. He/She will have this "certificate of foreign birth" that we are told not to lose as it is irreplaceable. I already have something to worry about.

Were you trying to have a baby?
Pointed towards NO ONE in particular, but seriously, who asks this? What a private question.

How did your families take the news?
Seeing as the doctor confirmed the pregnancy the same day Jared was officially offered his new job, we didn't want to overwhelm them with two HUGE life moments at the same time. At least I didn't want to. All are taking quite well to being grandparents-to-be. I am sure Uncle Kyle will advise me as to stock portfolios to ensure that little Sawin will walk in financial peace forever.

How did you react?
Shocked. I was beat up at work and several people said to me "At least you aren't pregnant!" Uh oh! I get to thinking, do some mad mental math and lots of home laboratory tests, and learn that two vertical lines do indeed =pregnant. We both laughed, a lot, as we are immature and that's how we react to life changing news. Then I started freaking out about the fact that we have zero friends, zero out of work acquaintances, zero family here. Still freaking out on that one, but we have until August. This summer I'll work on teleportation so I can get our loved ones here for help whenever I need them (and I'll forget about the 14 hour time difference). I never thought I would share pregnancy news until the second trimester, but we are alone, almost as alone as alone can be. I had to share with someone, so here we are. However I'm not the first person in this situation, so that provides lots of relief.

How are you feeling?
Um, like I did before I knew? Only two days or so of really icky feelings at some point during the day. Ginger ale helps, as does yogurt first thing in the day. I have been hungry beyond all imagination. It's weird. But it's so early, lots of things can change! I was a bit worried because I didn't feel "morning sickness" but felt a little relieved when it reared it's icky head.

Baby It's Cold Outside!!!

One thing we didnt' think about when we moved onto the fifth floor was the howl of the wind. Goodness, has it been windy the past three days! It is COLD here! You are more than welcome to laugh when I tell you the temperature, because I'm laughing that it's making me freeze. Are you ready?

59 degrees.


Yes, I am turning into a Southerner, a Floridian, or something. I am so cold. When preparing to move here, I was told to leave all winter clothes at home, it's hot in Okinawa and you won't need warm clothes. I call wool over the eyes on that one! I miss flannel pajamas. My husband took pity on me, or was tired of me stating how badly I wanted some slippers, and surprised me with a sexy pair of gray Isotoners. For the indiscriminate foot. They fit, they are warm, and very supportive in all the right areas! Somehow our set of flannel sheets made their way over here and I'm putting them on the bed tonight. Jared translated the Kanji on our air conditioners (individual units in the rooms) so that they should now blast glorious 30 degree Celsius heat into our uncarpeted rooms. Oh, I am cold. But you know that I'm going to post a vastly opposite blog in 5 months or so on how HOT it is in Okinawa, how I didn't bring enough warm weather clothes, blah blah blah. Oh well, weather is something we can all complain about!

Happy New Year!!

Wow, was it a wild party! I fell asleep and previously instructed Jared to wake me up at 11:45. We tuned into our one American station, and there was no countdown! The tv program and one clock were on the same time, the kitchen was off. We waited to see if we could see/hear fireworks, but not so much. Toasted with ginger ale and water. We are two crazy cats.

Happy New Year, and for this brief amount of time, I am ONE YEAR AHEAD OF YOU!!!!

Auld lang syne!