Sanoja Family est. 2005

9 Months Old

2011-12-11T14:33:00.000-08:00

Emma Rose Madison is 9 months old.

Emma has two teeth, rosy cheeks, and is growing lots of hair. She loves any kind of meat and red sauce, she likes ham, and hates chicken/turkey. Still a veggie girl, chowing down daily on squash and carrots, and she loves her grilled cheese and mac'n'cheese.

Still not walking but getting more practice every day. She has now discovered that she can pull me around wherever she wants to go by standing next to me and reaching for my hand. She will walk for several steps just holding one hand with one hand, but to really "fly" she holds on with both hands. She's a master climber - climbing up on top of anything she can by pushing other things up to whatever she needs to get up onto.. the other day she pushed a toy truck up to the dresser so she could stand on it and reach the top of the dresser, and all the treasures that lay on top of the dresser. Sneaky girl!

She has a HUGE sense of humor - she laughs at the puppets on baby einstein when they make "jokes" and she laughs at daddy and mommy when they are being silly.. and when she is silly or is a stinker to one of us.. she laughs!

Emma says "MOM' now! She says "mom" and means it - mom is a word only to be used when she needs my attention, never a babble word and never a word to be used when playing with dad or anyone else! It's quite amazing and melts my heart. she also gives kisses, she will snuggle up and then tilt her head back and open her mouth and lean in, planting a wet and slobbery kiss right on your lips, cheek, or nose. She will wave if you wave at her any say "hi!" and she's started pinching, too. Not so funny but she thinks it is!

Emma will sign "all done" and then rock back and forth and cry when she is finished eating.

She still goes on the potty, though lately we've had a few "accidents" at random times of the day, usually when she starts to teethe again.

Emma now goes to sleep on her own, without mom or dad's help. She is learning to slowly sleep through the night and it makes us so happy! :) She is a big girl who sleeps all night in her own room.

Some of the things I love about this month:

Cuddle bug

Kisses

Independent woman

Always willing to try new food

Feeds herself

Loves bath time and eating bubbles

Says MOM and Mama

Loves to play with dogs

Bonding more and more with Daddy, and will even say "daddy" some times.

7.5 Months

2011-10-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

Crawl-running away from Mom at bed time

You've been keeping your mommy VERY busy, Emma! I haven't been able to update... even now you are crawling around getting into EVERYTHING of course!!!

In the past 6 weeks (or since I last updated your blog) you've:

Mastered the art of crawling, you can now crun (crawl/run) away and do so every night at bed time.
Learned how to pull up
Learned how to sit back down after standing up
Started waving
Walking along furniture and walls
Climb up stairs
Climb up everything else
Learned how to tell me you have to Potty or that you want to eat
Learned how to sleep longer than 30 minutes at nap time (HALLELUJAH!)

You pick up and taste everything. You LOVE to eat whatever we are eating. You also love squash, it is totally your favorite food. You will find the smallest piece of lint on the floor and put it in your mouth. You love finger foods! You give hugs and snuggles, and you've started to let me know when it's nap time by laying your head on my lap. You also love yourself, and give yourself kisses in the mirror several times a day. You throw things... if you are upset and don't like what we are doing, you pick things up and throw them..... You're also learning that when we say "NO" that you have to stop what you are doing or we will take you away/move you away from whatever you are currently trying to do. You throw tantrums when you don't get your way but luckily they only last a second or two! You love to wander around the house.

You still sleep with us most of the night and you still don't sleep through the night because you are ONE HUNGRY BABY! You eat all day and all night it seems, but you're growing like a weed so I don't mind. Of course I'd love to get more sleep....

Speaking of sleep, you're learning to put yourself to sleep. You'll fall asleep on your own at nap time for morning nap when we are at "work" You know it's nap time when I buckle you into the car seat and lower the visor. night time.. not so much.. all you want to do is snuggle. Like I said, you try to crun away from us after bath time before sleep time.. usually when you are still naked.. you do a hyperventilating smile and crun as fast as you can in the opposite direction! It's so funny!

First visit to Pumpkin Patch

Learning about WT Sherman

Walking with Daddy

Climbing stairs

6 Months Old

2011-09-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

AHHHHHHHHHHH STOP IT! Time flies too quickly. And you are just growing up too fast, emma!

So, we've started solid food. You love everything you've tried so far! You're also sitting up much better and you've started to crawl. You love to smack your hands on everything. Especially water! Although sometimes you startle yourself when you smack the water and it splashes you in the face!!
You've also started to sleep on your own - for the first part of the night anyway. You still love to nurse all night long so I feel tired, but worth it! Because you are growing so fast! 14 pounds 2 ounces now, and 25 inches long. The doctor says you have beautiful skin for a baby your age and that you are one lucky kiddo! You're healthy as can be - and still vaccine free. Since you are a super star, the doctor said it'd be no problem for you to go without vaccines until 18 months - 2 years. :) We still put you in cloth diapers, though not as much. You still potty on the toilet every day, and we're working on sign language for the word "potty" so that you can let me know if you need to go! You've given up your 30 minute nap - stubbornness. For the past week you have taken at least one "long" nap each day! This makes mommy VERY happy!
You are mischevious - you like to get into everything. The other day I found you playing with the kids lip gloss , and you didn't see me yet. You noticed that your hands were sticky and made a weird face, and then tried to wipe your hands on the carpet! Naughty girl! You gave me this look like "SHOOT! I've been caught" and then you put your head down on the carpet and whined. So we washed your hands and you were back to being a happy girl.
You LOVE to give kisses, and you absolutely love to snuggle. When you wake up in the morning you roll over, crawl half way on top of me, then collapse when I put my arms around you. Sometimes you crawl up to my face and wake me up with sloppy kisses. You've just started to crawl over me to get to Daddy to give him snuggles as well.
You can't get enough of our cell phones. If you see one, whether it's next to you or across the room, you've got to have it. You will crawl over, under, around and even try to get through, everything just to get your hands on a cell phone. You goober!
Some pictures? OK!

Snuggles on the couch. Yes, you would just sit next to me and snuggle FOREVER.

Daddy was eating a peach while playing with you.

You decided to stare at it and reach for it until he gave you some.

You munched and sucked tons of juice out of that peach, and made a cute little bite mark!

You still love bath time, every night.

You now crawl right up to theTV when baby Einstein is on

Silly sunglasses! They confuse you. It's pretty funny :D

5 Months Old

2011-08-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Emma, you are already 5 months old! (well 5 months and almost 2 weeks, Mommy's been too busy to take pictures of you and write an update, Shame on her!)

I can't believe how quickly time flies. When I see newborn babies around now I think it feels just like yesterday that I brought you home. You're such a big girl, and so advanced! Pediatricians are stunned.

You are:
Sitting up unsupported
Scooting forward (not crawling because you don't use your hands and legs together, usually hands then legs)
Rolling around
Drinking from a sippy cup and water bottles, by yourself I might add, I don't have to hold them

Sometimes you get to eat rice cereal and apple sauce, and you just love the yumminess of trying new food. You grab everything and anything I'm eating and stick it in your mouth, sometimes too fast for me to stop you when you take somethign you really shouldn't. You tried lasagna the other day and even tried to go back for more!! You can't wait to eat real food like mommy and daddy. When we feed you rice cereal and apple sauce, you grab the spoon and shove it in your own mouth. I can't even believe it.

In the mornings, you've started to wake up and roll over, scoot your little tush over to me and give me snuggles and smooches. It definitely makes waking me up that early worth it.

One downfall you have, you don't want to let Mommy go! The moment I walk out of a room or leave you alone with daddy (or anyone else for that matter) you get really upset. I'm definitely seeing this separation anxiety. Just remember, I'll never leave you anywhere for too long, honey!! I'm always going to come back for you. =)

You're pretty awesome. I can't believe in a few short weeks you will already be 6 months old... 1/2 a year! Yikes!

Standing up (that used to be a dress..)

Helping(?) Mom do Laundry

4 Months

2011-07-05T19:43:00.001-07:00

Emma is already 4 months old. Time really flies, doesn't it!!

My Darling Emma,

You are talking up a storm, telling us stories in your own little language, squeeling with delight when you wake up and see our faces or when Daddy comes home from work. You just love to smile and laugh at us when we make silly faces and noises. You don't talk to everyone though. Sometimes if a stranger in a store approaches you and talks to you, you look at them and scream and cry until you look back at me and realize you're not being taken away. You definitely know who your Mommy and Daddy are, and you like being with us the best.

Here's what we do with you on a "normal' basis:

Wake up. You usually wake us up around 6am. You open your eyes and look around the room for a moment before you start kicking your legs and flapping your arms, and then you begin to tell us what it is you've dreamed about in a very excited, dramatic way. You smile and coo, you just love the mornings. Then we go potty on the toilet, and you smile big and proud at Mommy when you're done. We go downstairs where you sit in your swing playing with toys and talking to Baby Einstein on the TV while Mom eats breakfast. Usually Mom comes to play with you on the floor after this until it's time for a nap.

After your nap you use the potty again and come back downstairs to play on your activity mat. You reach for, grab and try to "eat" all of your toys, often times talking to them and kicking all over. Mom never leaves you in the room alone, she does some light cleaning while you play by yourself until you play yourself to sleep on the mat. You nap on the mat or on a blankey on the floor. When you wake up, you guessed it, we go to the potty again.

The afternoon is all Mommy and Emma time. We sit up, play tummy time, practice standing and sitting up, you tell mommy stories and usually "play with mommy's hair" or in other words, you yank on it. We laugh and I tickle your tummy. I read you a story and you try to grab the pictures in the books we read. Sometimes if you are cranky and tired and don't want to play, I will rock you in my arms while watching TV or listening to music.

Then Daddy comes home. Daddy likes video games, so he'll sit with you on his lap or next to him on the couch while he plays video games. He likes to ask you questions about your day and you like to grab his nose.

Then bath time. Daddy reads to you and mommy washes you with lots of bubbles. We sing a few songs, and then it's time for bed.

This month you've learned how to sit up for a few seconds on your own, roll over, and so many other things I can't keep track of. You grow and learn new things every day and I am such a proud mommy! I love you Emma.

Here are some pictures of you doing some neat and cute things.

love,

mama

Emma Rose Madison - 1 month old

2011-04-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

Emma,
One month old already! Time flies too fast, and I am not ready for you to grow up yet! Slow down honey, mommy waited forever for this newborn and she's growing up too quickly!!
It's amazing to see you change from day to day. So far you've fount your hands and you like to hold them and suck on your knuckles. You love to look mommy and daddy in the eyes when we talk to you, and you've smiled at Daddy already! You have three, yes three teeth coming up already. When you were born you had two slits on the bottom where the teeth would soon come, and now I can see the teeth coming up under the surface of your little gums!
You love to sleep on mommy's chest. It's your favorite place to be. You can lift and hold your head up by your self, you love to stand up (with assistance) and do squats while someone holds you. You have your own sleep pattern at night, so we know when to expect you to wake up already. About once a week you have a sleep day, where you will sleep all day, and all night, waking up only to eat a little bit and then straight back to sleep!
You love, love, love bath time. You can be crying and crying about who knows what, and as soon as we stick you in the bath tub you are totally content - until it starts getting cold of course. You don't mind being sprayed with the shower either!
You are quite the snuggle bug and you don't like to be left alone, or put down. Sometimes you'll fall asleep and we'll put you down and you'll wake up right away and cry to be held again. We love to hold you, we don't mind!
You like to be rocked back and forth, and you like it when we pat your back. Those are two sure fire ways to get you to sleep when you are cranky!

You are amazing and we love you so much. You have completed our world, and given us a daily reminder of how wonderful life is.

A good day

2011-01-03T08:00:00.001-08:00

I really just want to share this in as many ways possible. I feel like it is so important to appreciate all that is given to you. I've been let down by negative statuses posted all over Facebook, and after seeing this I just want to share it with everyone.

You think this is just another day in your life. It’s not just another day; it’s the one day that is given to you today. It’s given to you. It’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life, and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.
Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes you can open, that incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for pure enjoyment. Look at the sky. We so rarely look at the sky. We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment with clouds coming and going. We just think of the weather, and even of the weather we don’t think of all the many nuances of weather. We just think of good weather and bad weather. This day right now has unique weather, maybe a kind that will never exactly in that form come again. The formation of clouds in the sky will never be the same that it is right now. Open your eyes. Look at that.
Look at the faces of people that you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom, not only their own story, but the story of their ancestors. We all go back so far. And in this present moment on this day all the people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the world, flows together and meets you here like a life-giving water, if you only open your heart and drink.
Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us. You flip a switch and there is electric light. You turn a faucet and there is warm water and cold water — and drinkable water. It’s a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.
So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which you can open your heart. And so I wish for you that you would open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you, that everyone whom you will meet on this day will be blessed by you; just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch — just by your presence. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you, and then it will really be a good day.
– Brother David Steindl-Rast

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

Year in Review: Since I didn't update my blog... ever...

January: New House!
We moved into our new home here in Radcliff Kentucky. We are proud home owners!

February - We received devastating news from our doctors after a two year struggle, we were informed that it was medically "impossible" for us to conceive. Vanessa got a job working in Retail. We experienced and enjoyed our first snow storm.

March: Danny got a promotion! We Dog sat an awesome Dog (who Atreus loves) named Sasha, and decided to search for a new puppy to adopt. We explored Mammoth Caves. It warmed up, so we went golfing..

April: Danny went TDY for a while (no pics of that, and I don't even remember where he went.. honestly..) We found and adopted Naia. And there was a rainbow after an intense rainstorm.

May: Danny went TDY somewhere (again). We played more golf. Naia got bigger. I had several photography jobs that month. Danny took me to Saunders Springs. And Atreus tried to eat a Bee.

June- Danny went TDY (surprise!), Art Jr. & Fam came to Kentucky, & we found Amy's G-pa. We all got in the car to drive down and visit Danny while he was TDY, Danny ate a slab of ribs at the SHED and went to New Orleans. We visited some old friends at Keesler in Mississippi, while Danny was still TDY.

Visiting Melissa

July: SURPRISE! and then Danny went TDY.

August: Danny was still TDY.. I had morning sickness. A roommate moved in with her son.. no comment. I got poison ivy and could have died from allergic reaction(as the swelling had moved into my lungs), was on steroids for 3 weeks.. and I got to see our baby.

September: Danny came home from his TDY. I entered my 2nd trimester, morning sickness followed. We went to Wisconsin, The Mall Of America, and Chicago. Danny ran a marathon. We put Naia up for adoption.. and gave her away.

October: We celebrated 5 years of marriage and went to see The Phantom Of The Opera. Went to CALIFORNIA for a baby shower and visited with family. We carved pumpkins together gf It's A Girl!!!

November: Danny went TDY. My morning sickness finally faded. I worked a lot. I completed my second trimester. I saw Emma on an Ultrasound.

December: Danny returned mid December. We got our first real Christmas Tree. People started to recognize my pregnant belly. We spent the last two weeks of December at home, in the house, as Danny had a serious viral infection and had invasive testing done, which he had to recover from. He felt better finally the day before New Years Eve. We went to a friend's house for a NYE celebration. Happy New Year!!

Baby

2010-09-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Baby Girl!

http://makingasanoja.blogspot.com

Naia: Up for adoption

2010-09-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

It breaks my heart, but Naia is being put up for adoption.

We were told in February that we were never going to have children of our own. Danny and I decided to expand our family by adopting another puppy, Naia, a Giant Schnauzer. She needs lots of exercise and play time, a firm disciplinarian, and lots, and lots of love.

When I found out I was pregnant, and started getting back pain, I could no longer walk Naia on my own. She pulled too hard when she would want something, hurting my back further. Danny started running with her, but soon the TDY's started and he no longer was around to run with her, so I would play with her out back until she started running away. At that point, we decided to get a huge tie out rope, so she could enjoy the back yard without running away. We could play fetch until she got bored and tired. Unfortunately, it still isn't enough.

Not only does she lack exercise when Danny is gone (which now-a-days is a lot!) but we can't let her out in the house very much when she's inside because Atreus hates her. Really, really, cowers when Naia is around. she won't go outside if Naia is out, and hides behind us if Naia is in the house, out of her kennel.

We cannot afford to put in a fence so she can roam freely and run freely on our land, because we now have a baby on the way. We are putting her up for adoption for her own well being, so she can have a better life. One we thought we would be able to give her, and no longer can provide. I love Naia very much but she deserves so much better than we can give.

Wisconsin, Minesota, and Illinois

2010-09-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

What's a road trip without FuN dIp!?

Once Danny got home from his latest TDY, we hit the road. Our first stop was in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to visit our dear friends from Okinawa - the Kruegers. We had fun visiting them, we went to see some of their home town and places they grew up. I didn't have a sim card for my camera at this point, so no photos :( :( :( We have a few on our iPhones but those are NOT real photos! :*(

The next day we headed up to Minesota with the fam, and hit up the MALL OF AMERICA! It was fun, huge, and I got super tired. We picked up Lindsey's husband from the Airport and what a sweet reunion! As we were driving back to La Crosse, we almost ran out of gas and were driving through corn fields, cursing the GPS for telling us there was a gas station out there somewhere... when Danny found one on his iPhone Maps application! SAVED us! We were in the middle of nowhere!

Then we went to the Wisconsin Dells, and because my huge fancy camera is NOT waterproof, and Danny did not bring his camera, we have no photos of that day either. but it was fun, I couldn't ride all of the slides, but i did ride a few and boy was it fun!! I can't wait to go back when we have lots of little ninos running around.

THEN we headed back towards KY and spent the night in Chicago. When we got up in the morning we headed for the Sears Tower!! How amazing that was... the photos really speak for themselves..

And then we ate fun dip all the way home :)

Military Wife Gripe

2010-08-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

We've been through the deployments. More TDY's than we can even count, even just this year. But none have been worse than this one.

Going to prenatal appointments alone, going through trial after trial, struggle after struggle, without so much as a phone call has been really awful. Danny's unit has not been very helpful through this, and how could they be? Everyone is always here or there or everywhere but fort Knox. I've never relied on the help of others more than I ever have during this current TDY.

Happy to report however that everything with baby is just fine. After all the scares, and numorous trips to the hospital for one thing or another, little Baby Sanoja was jumping around in his or her last ultrasound. You can read more about our pregnancy here: http://makingasanoja.blogspot.com/

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has helped through this TDY. I don't know what I would have done without your support.

Two years in the making... and 100% natural.

2010-07-07T12:58:00.001-07:00

How it feels.....

2010-06-27T14:45:00.001-07:00

Today I read a pamphlet called, "Infertility - What it feels like" and it got my mind twisting and turning, feelings are so difficult to put into words. And so as I read, agreeing with parts and disagreeing with others, I decided to write my own feelings down.

"You may describe me this way: obsessed,

moody, helpless, depressed, envious, too

serious, obnoxious, aggressive, antagonistic,

and cynical."

On the contrary, I feel this way.

ANGRY - Angry at myself, for not being able to bear a child. Angry, every time I see another pregnancy announcement, a newborn child, an accidental pregnancy. Angry at God, for not viewing me as a fit candidate to birth one of his spirit children as my own.

ISOLATED - Everywhere I go, reminders of my infertility haunt. Baby strollers. Pregnant Bellies. Tiny Shoes. New Babies. Diaper Commercials. Families. It is hard to relate how hard it is to see these things with friends, coworkers, and family members who have been blessed with the gift of family. To feel like no one understands how it feels to face the impossible. Lonely.

PAIN - Physically is easy to describe, tests, poking, prodding's, blood work, even treatments are uncomfortable to go through. Hormonal treatments, hot flashes, mood swings, headaches...ohh the headaches.
Emotionally... the emotional pain sometimes turns to physical pain on particularly bad days. Most days it takes a trigger, a newly pregnant friend, a complaint about children, all on top of an already difficult day. In the past two years I have not had too many of these particularly hard days... but when one comes along, it is hard to forget. I have found myself fallen on the kitchen floor, grasping at my heart, feeling the ripping, tearing, unbearable break of my heart, sobbing. I have heard, once, a scream of pain that came from deep within my soul, when a child was lost whom we had planned to adopt.

SELFISH... and Guilty - For avoiding baby showers, for wondering "why her?" For constantly asking "why not me? When will it be my turn?" for saying "congratulations" and not really meaning it.

HOPELESS - After being told we could try for a hundred years, and never fall pregnant, my spirit was shattered. My world was left empty, and without hope. With no stars in my sky, or light at the end of my tunnel.

And after all of that, I still remain THANKFUL. To have had my eyes opened, to the vast and secret world of infertility. To have found support in unlikely places. To realize that there are so many, in all parts of the world who suffer from this silent terror. Our stories may be different, but our pains are the same. I am thankful to have God in my life, to help me carry this weight on my shoulders. For showing me greater patience, understanding, and will than I ever knew I had.

A day in paradise

2010-05-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday, Danny and I both had the day off of work. (That doesn't happen very often!)

We started the day with some much needed sleep in time. Naia didn't get up until 7:15! I woke up and put on my clothes for the day, a chore, it seems, since we are terrible at putting the clean laundry away. We gathered up the dogs and piled in the car. It was a long drive having two dogs fighting for my lap the entire way. We went to Freeman Lake. Neither of us had been there before so we went to explore.
To cut to the chase, we weren't impressed. We walked around the lake and found a secluded spot, and let the dogs off their leashes to run ramped through the grass. Naia runs fast for longer periods of time, but can't keep up when Atreus sprints. Atreus puts her ears back and runs close to the ground, it was amazing to see the differences in them. Atreus didn't want to have anything to do with us while we were outside, and Naia didn't want to play unless she was interacting with us. We were out there for quite a while, letting them romp around and expel some energy. Naia got really dirty, playing in the mud, and on the way back to the car it started to rain on us, so we decided we needed to find a groomer. We failed to find a good one with an open spot for Naia, so we went home and wiped her off so she could sleep the afternoon away after playing hard.

We showered and got redressed to go out on our own. We had lunch at Panera, which is always fantastic and delicious. Then we went shopping at the mall for some new clothes and sandals for summer time. After the mall, we drove out to the motorcycle shop to look at bikes for Danny and found the one he really wanted, but decided to check other dealers for price comparison. We drove up towards Louisville and stopped at a bike place, where they had some 'cycles for less than the first place (SCORE!), and then continued on to Louisville to the Temple.

We arrived at the temple to do Baptisms for the Dead. It was really an amazing and spiritual experience. I had never done them before, and even though Danny had, it was his first time doing the baptizing rather than being baptized. He was able to baptize me in behalf of those passed and it really brought back some memories of my own baptism. The spirit there was incredible.

Then Danny and I went to Olive Garden for dinner, and it was soooo delicious. There aren't many good restaurants around Radcliff and Elizabethtown so whenever we go to the Ville it's always nice to go to a good place. Olive Garden's chicken scampi is sooo YUMMY I could eat piles of it!

We headed home and watched some "How I met your Mother," and awesomely funny sitcom that we seriously think everyone should watch. Hilarious. A great way to end the perfect day.

A well deserved update

2010-05-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

I don't usually like to blog unless I have photos available to share, but since I don't have any new photos I'm just going to word blog.

We moved. (Duh). Right now Danny and I live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home on .24 acres of land with two dogs and zero children. I work at American Eagle Outfitters, and Danny still works for the Air Force, SURPRISE! I bet you didn't see that one coming!

Danny works for a small detachment on Fort Knox, called the Det 1 10th ASOS. Don't ask me what that all means, I won't be able to tell you. He is a radio maintainer and is supposed to work with equipment in Hummers but they don't have the equipment for him to work on so he doesn't really do his assigned job. Danny works with TACP (Tactical Air Control Party Apprentice) and gets to go out in the "field" all the time to do training and crazy stuff with guns and explosives and all those fun things all the time. This entails long hours and many many TDY (Temporary Duty Yonder)'s. In addition to all that, Danny is now a COLLEGE STUDENT!! He is working on a degree in... something to do with computers. (forgive me, honey...)
Danny is in the process of applying to change career fields. He has applied to be a PJ (Pararescue man, I don't know where the J came from.) He wants to jump out of airplanes, make more money, and save lives. I know that if this is the right path for us, the Lord will push the application through to approval.

I work in a retail store called American Eagle. Although it's not nearly as rewarding as working in the school system, and less than half the pay, I enjoy the social interaction that I get from working there, and have made some great friends while working there. After July 2010, Danny will have been in service for 6 years and I will be allowed to use his GI bill, and will be able to afford to go back to school (WAAAAAHOOOO!!!) and finish my bachelors degree. I only have about 2 years left! YAY! Go Me!

On another note, we got a puppy, and she is named Naia! She is a giant Schnauzer, about 12 weeks old and already bigger than Atreus. She is a demon, devil dog... to say the least. She loves to play and is too much for us to handle sometimes. But we still love her and cannot wait until she calms down a little bit and learns how to potty outside and not inside. And I will love her more when she stops eating all my beautiful shoes. :)

On the fertility side of things, we are in the process of hurrying up to wait for ART (assisted reproductive technology). With Danny's crazy schedule and a Doctor that doesn't actually work in the Hospital, it's been quite a windy road to getting any appointments. We finally qualified for IUI (google it if you don't know what it is, I don't want to explain it here) and were supposed to start that in June, but are going to have to wait until July because Danny will be.. guess ... TDY in June!

Either way we are blessed, and happy to have what we do have in our lives, and excited to have our dogs to keep us busy. We love each other enough to just lean on one another for now.

Faith in the Lord, and Faith in His timing.

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-02-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

Today we got a few messages early this morning, (And by early I mean <6:00 grrrrr) saying that due to the weather, Danny's show time for work had been pushed back to 10:00am.... and then 12:00pm... and then "don't come in to work today" due to the awesome snow that fell last night and continued through the day today.

We took this opportunity to go exploring in the woods across the street from our house. It was pretty freakin' cool and Atreus had fun digging in the snow and jumping over logs. Danny and I had a snow ball fight, and I rolled down the hill in our back yard while Danny made a snow man. Then I shoveled a bit of the driveway while Danny continued to make his snowman (which ended up being over 6 feet high) and then I went upstairs while Danny decapitated his snowman and I made hot chocolate.

All in all it was an awesomely fun day.

Mobile phone photos of the house

2010-01-24T18:56:00.000-08:00

So far all I have are mobile phone uploads of the house. We'll do better photos when everything is set up, we still have to finish putting together the office and bedroom.. other than that the house is pretty much done! (Above: what it looked like Friday, around Noon!) (Below: Basement/MAN CAVE *lol*, Kitchen 24 hours after above photo, living room)

We Made It!!

2010-01-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

We made it to Kentucky! We've been here for about 3 weeks and so far we love it. Our new house is awesome, and I can't wait for our household goods to arrive so we can set it up and make it into a home.

I will update again soon, to show off our amazing new house when our things get here!

Moving Out!

2009-12-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

Friends & Family!
We're moving out! Today we have a laundry list of items to do, one of them being huge... cleaning our house for inspection (eek!)
I didn't realize how dusty some corners got or how dirty some windows get... until all our stuff was gone. Oh and the walls... have you taken a photo off the wall only to see a nice square space where the photo used to be? It's weird!
This is our last weekend on Okinawa, and we'll be spending it cleaning our house up. I'm excited, scared, nervous, and anxious all rolled into one!
We're low on sleep, staying at a friends house who has a Black Lab along with our Atreus has proven a bit of a challenge. Atreus whines, then the Lab whines, and they do that all night long, not to mention that anytime something out of the front door moves the auto light comes on and Atreus like to bark at it, in the middle of the night. We're keeping her on their balcony and him in their kitchen for now. And from monday to friday we're checking into TLF.
Oh yeah, and whoever said a blow up bed was comfortable was wrong. LOL!

Other than those seemingly negative things, everything is going great. The stars are aligning and we are feeling so blessed. Everything is working out... we've been able to sell the things we don't need and pack away the things we do, we found someone amazing who is going to take Atreus to LAX, and we have our tickets to fly from seattle to Nevada all lined up, as well as my ticket from vegas to lax to pick up Atreus. Woo! It's all so exciting. OH yes, and we've begun to close on our new HOUSE! WOO HOO!

*We no longer have our vonage phones. If you are on island and need to reach us, please call 080-3588-6971 (Vanessa) Or 080-3356-9786 (Daniel)

We will miss....

2009-11-28T04:02:00.000-08:00

The beaches...
The sunsets...
The Sky...
The Ocean...

FINALLY! We went to explore! sort of.

2009-11-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

After a long, hot, humid summer rather spent indoors, we finally got out of the house and did some driving around. I wanted to get some photos of the beach before we left, and Danny wanted to eat at this burger place on island. We also headed to the 100 yen store to get some japanese stuff before leaving island. We got some funny chop sticks... and not much else. Then we ran around the scuba shops on island looking for a wet suit that would actually *fit* danny, and we found one! HOORAY! We didn't buy it yet though, Danny wants to see if it'll go on sale after thanksgiving.
Anyway here are some of the photos from the day. It was a good Saturday. :)

Fertility Update!

2009-10-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Family! (And friends),

As you all know, Danny and I have been trying for what seems to us like forever to have a child. After months of trying to get in to see a doctor about fertility treatments, reasons why we haven't been able to conceive, and options we might have, I finally got an appointment. On Ocotber 6th, Danny and I went in for a consultation. This basically was an appointment for the doctors to ask us how long we have been trying, how long during that time Danny has been deployed, and whether or not we 'know how to time intercourse.' After they clearly realized we knew what we were doing, they put in for a referral to see a specialist. One catch, I needed to get blood work done before my appointment with my specialist. When you get blood work done for fertility testing, you have to wait for certain days of your cycle, and mine are crazy, so I never knew when that day would come, where was the light at the end of the tunnel!

On the 19th (our anniversary, go figure!) I got a phone call from the specialist, saying "You have a referral, make an appointment with us!" I told them how my Primary Care Manager (pcm) had told me to wait for my blood work to be done before making the appointment, and they told me nonsense!! and made the appointment. So at 10:20 today, I had my appointment.

I go in, and play 20 questions with the doctor. After 30 minutes of q&a, he decides I'm the most well informed patient he has ever had, and starts me on clomid. He also checked my ovaries for swelling, and booked me for an ultrasound to make sure that I don't have any abnormalities on my ovaries and to make sure that the huge cyst that family practice ignored 10 months ago has resolved itself. He told me my right ovary still feels a little swollen, but not huge, so that's a good thing.

For those who don't know, or aren't sure what clomid is, let me explain. In the beginning of the month, a woman's body produces FSH (Follicle stimulating hormone) to produce a follicle or cyst where the egg will be released from the ovary. If you estrogen levels aren't high enough, there won't be very much FSH in your system, and you won't ovulate, and you won't produce a lot of progesterone at the end of your cycle either, so even if my some holy miracle sperm swam all the way to the ovary and fertilized an egg, your body wouldn't be prepared for pregnancy and wouldn't keep it. Clomid blocks estrogen receptors, and kicks your estrogen production into over drive, causing extra estrogen to produce and basically kick starting the ovaries to ovulate, and produce all these hormones that are necessary.

I hope that all makes sense to everyone. Any questions feel free to email and ask!! Thank you guys all for your prayers and positive energy you have put into the universe for us. We are thankful to all of you. Keep praying, though, we're not pregnant yet!! :) Thank you!!!!

Just to keep you guys posted, fertility drugs have a reputation for producing multiples. So watch out! :)

Love,
Nessie & Danny

4 Years

2009-10-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

I LOVE YOU DANNY!

Our New Home... well maybe.

2009-10-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is a home iN Kentucky that we've been looking at buying. I love it, I love that it's so close to base, and it's clean and only 3 years old! The owners say there are no houses across the street, just dense forest, and that the neighbors all keep pretty much to themselves. With amazing views of the sunset and a back and front porch, finished basement, 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, I'm in love. We're working on buying it as soon as possible, so we have a home to live in when we move. I can't wait!

Wisdom Teeth

2009-10-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I had my wisdom teeth taken out. This is what I looked like immediately following the surgery! Not bad, though i don't remember Danny taking this photo NOR do I remember how I got home and in bed!
Immediately following surgery, I felt great! I had no pain, I was happy, and sleepy. We watched FRIENDS for a while, while I zoned in and out of consciousness. Every few hours, Danny would give me another percocet or motrin, and I would take a sip of whatever (can't even remember now) and slip back into a sleep.

At around 3:30 am I woke up feeling horribly nauseated. After three bouts of nausea and "sickness" Danny took me to the ER to get some fluids. The doctor for some reason didn't want to put an IV in, so he made me drink horrible tasting hospital tap water which made me run for the bathroom but I didn't throw up, they gave me some sort of evil anti-vommiting meds which make me feel like I will but prevent it from happening, which I think is probably a worse feeling.
Come to find they think I have an allergic reaction to percocet, so they prescribe Vicodin (stupid, it's the same family as percocet). after returning home and taking the vicodin, i vomit even more! Oh dear. I stopped taking the pain killers they gave me and stuck to Tylenol, which only helps so much. The sickness continued for several more days! Luckily, Thursday rolled around and since then (which is only yesterday) I haven't been sick, just in mouth pain. I miss solid foods.
Anyway here is a photo of two of the teeth that came out. i am guessing they were the top teeth, since the bottom ones were impacted, and the other "teeth" I got were just broken pieces of tooth. Check out how big these suckers are! No wonder I'm in pain.

For all Eternity...

2009-09-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

While we were in the states, Danny and I made our way to the temple in Bountiful, Utah, to be sealed to each other for time and all eternity. This means that when we die, we will still be married to each other and will find one another again once in Heaven.

It was an amazing journey, and I feel so blessed to be sealed to my loving husband. I'm so grateful that families are together forever.

After being sealed in the temple, we spent some time at the Buckner's house. We ate a fantastic meal, talked, laughed, and enjoyed each other's company. They have a beautiful home in Utah and have amazing neighbors! While we were there, a deer (wish I had a picture!) came up and just started eating apples in the back yard, like it was no big deal that it was in someone's back yard! It was so cool!

it started to get late, and we had to head home since it was a long drive back (this didn't bother me, of course, because I passed out in the back seat).

more posts to come of our trip to the USA when Danny finally uploads his pictures.... erglegurgle.

A trip to MeXiCo!!

2009-08-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

waY BACK in July (lol) Vanessa took the long flight(s) back to the USA. After 22 hours of travel time, she finally arrived in Los Angeles where she was greeted by and stayed with her sister Jenny. They had a blast taking a few shopping trips to Ross and eating junk food you can only find in America (In'n'out, Papa Johns, Islands..) and watching SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. A day and a half later, Jenny and Vanessa headed off to LAX to take a wonderful 7 hour trip to Cozumel, Mexico where their other sister Heather would be getting married.

Upon arrival in Mexico, Vanessa and Jenny rapidly changed clothes and got dolled up for a wonderful evening with many peeps in Heather's life eating Mexican food and chatting around the bar. (I actually didn't stay up for that, thank you Jet Lag for putting me to bed early...) The food was OK, something Danny and I refer to as "FANCY Mexican" food. It was presented beautifully though as you can see in the photos of the drinks and dessert. 1. Margarita 2. my virgin strawberry daiquiri 3. dessert

The next day, Jenny and Vanessa got up in the morning (or something like that :D) to put swim suits on and head to the pool. We ate Tatopos and guacamole, drank (virgin) pina coladas, and played pool volley ball where Jenny whacked me in the head with a volley ball in front of about 20 other people. i went under... but i survived! We are TERRIBLE at playing volleyball. We lost by a million and a half points. There was this cutie cute pool activities coordinator who looked like Danny. His name was Daniel. hA! Something to make me miss my husband I guess. Although, this Mexican Daniel actually spoke Spanish, unlike my witty and charming husband. :D

At 3 or 4... I don't remember... we got ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. That night we ate Italian I think. My Mom, Dad, and sister Christina finally arrived, and I spent most of dinner time getting my mom ready for bed but it was amazing to see her. The fish (or whatever it was ) that I ate tasted great, even cold (because that's how I ate it). For dessert, we had this amazing fried ice cream. YUM. For drinks, they brought out these fruity melon cocktails, i couldn't tell you what they were because I didn't taste them.. I drank water with lime, and it was fantastic. Yum!

Then I'm pretty sure I went to bed.

The next day, we woke up once again during a time of day that should have been morning, but I'm pretty sure it was not. We laid by the pool for an hour or two, then ran upstairs to get ready for Heather's wedding. It was beautiful, and I was glad i brought my own camera because I didn't like the way the wedding photographer was. I don't know, something about his style, everything had to be posed... and as we all know I do not shoot like that. I followed him around when he did outdoor photos of the couple, because otherwise there was no time for me to take photos of them. So if they look like they aren't looking at my camera, it's because they're not! Ten minutes into the reception, right after taking photos of the 100 cakes that they had, my camera's battery died. And was suffering from my kidney infection so i didn't run upstairs to charge it... so I now regret not doing that because I wish i could give Heather and Jason more photos :(

The next morning we got up, ate Brunch and ran off to the airport. What an amazing and hectic adventure. Beautiful wedding, we all cried our makeup off. Even J. ;-P

More posts to come of our trip to the USA. Stay tuned.

YYY Resort - IE island

2009-07-18T01:09:00.001-07:00

YAY! Finally a blog update. I have lots to back update on but for now I'll keep it current.

For my birthday, Danny and I went up to the YYY resort on IE island. It was amazing. We got in the car, drove north about 45 minutes, took a 30 minute ferry ride, and landed at Ie Island. We had two days and one night at this beautiful resort, where breakfast and dinner are included.

We arrived about lunch time, so we dumped our stuff in our room and headed down to the lobby to get a map of local restaurants. We were headed down the beach, looking for one of the listed restaurants, when we decided to take a small detour. We were attacked by barking cicadas, and nearly ran into this HUGE spider. There were many of those big banana spiders along the path. We decided to turn back and never found the restaurant we were looking for. Starving, we decided to eat at the restaurant in the resort. Everything on the menu was uber-expensive, so I ordered the cheapest thing, and also - the safest thing, a hot dog. YUCK it was so nasty I didn't even finish it. Danny ordered a Soba set, and I got to eat his rice.

After lunch, we decided to head to the beach. Snorkels in hand, we found a great spot to start. We drenched ourselves in sunscreen and jumped in! The water was so warm and so clear, it was a great place to swim. We saw two puffer fish and a weird, very colorful fish that chased me, along with some other interesting looking things.

After getting a little sea sick, I decided to just play in the waves. Danny continued to snorkel and chase fish around while I collected coral and swam around the blue green water. We stayed in the ocean until well after 5 pm, and were pruney when we went back to our room to shower and get ready for our dinner.

Our dinner was pretty good. We had some sort of risotto wrapped in bacon topped with shrimp, a salad, steak, potatoes, broccoli, an interesting deep fried carrot mush, and for dessert, a tiny piece of cheese cake with fresh fruit.

After that, we decided to go for a walk on the beach. it was pitch black, so we found a sandy spot and lay down to watch the stars. Danny pointed out about 20 satellites, and we saw a shooting star! I nearly fell asleep on the sand, so we decided to head up to go to sleep. Quite a long day!

The next day was not quite as amazing. We got up, went to play in the water for a little while, and checked out of the resort. We rented a little car so we could drive around the island. We made it to a cave where people would hide during the war. In the cave is this "special rock" and it is said that if a woman picks it up, she will have a baby soon. So of course, Danny made me pick it up. HAHA.

My eyes had been sun burnt the day before, and after little exploring, were burning so badly that we had to head back to the ferry to go home. They were watering and stinging so much that I could hardly see and barely keep my eyes open at all.

In case you were wondering...

2009-06-08T05:04:00.000-07:00

Just in case you were wondering where we've been and why the blog hasn't been updated....

Afternoon at the Beach

2009-05-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

Danny came home from Thailand on Thursday night, and Friday I had to work. But after work, Danny and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful afternoon and go to the beach. Danny had his heart set on swimming in the water, so we got in our swim suits and headed down to Teguchi Beach. It's really beautiful there and we swam by ourselves in a secluded part of the beach. It was such a beautiful day and we took some pretty cool photos, so we wanted to share them with you. After we were done on the beach, we went to the restaurant by the Kadena Marina and ate some snacks. It was amazing, we got to sit over the water and watch the sun go down. What a lovely way to spend our first afternoon together after a TDY.

Something to love

2009-04-05T17:44:00.001-07:00

I must say, I love photography.

For several years (maybe longer) Danny has been telling me to "get a hobby." Not in a mean way, but he's been bugging me to find something that I love to do that I can do on my own. He's constantly on the computer or TV playing games with his brothers and friends back home, and this is what he considers his hobby. I don't mind, as long as it doesn't consume every waking moment of his life (the way it used to ... aherm...)

Well as most of you know, a year and something ago Danny got me a nice digital camera. Nothing super special, just a point and shoot camera that puts out much better quality images than the one I had previously, that I hated. It took like ten minutes to click out one photo, and hardly ever focused right! Anywho pretty soon he showed me how to use it, how to change the settings, macro, and so on. I started taking that little thing with me everywhere, to work, to the commissary, shopping at the 100yen store (see previous post). . . and soon I was buying and reading photography magazines. I kept asking, "What do they mean set the shutter speed, I can't find that setting on my camera!" and so on (I know, seriously I didn't know anything about cameras, so call me blonde...). Soon to discover that I didn't have the right kind of camera at all!

Well this past Valentines Day Danny got me a new camera. A CANON Digital Rebel XSI 12.2 mp. It didn't get here until March, but it was worth the wait. 3,000 photographs later, I might be getting a handle on my camera, and am already discovering the limitations of my lens. *hint hint*

I can't believe how quickly and unconditionally I've fallen in love with photography. Even when I come back from shooting somewhere or something or someone and have no good photos to show for it, I still love the experience I had trying to capture that something special about my subject. It's good that I come back with horrible shots sometimes, it just means there is more to learn and I can't wait to uncover the beauty of photography I've yet to discover.

So the meaning of this post, I've decided through much encouragement of my friends around Kadena to start offering my services to friends and families around Okinawa. I won't promise any wonderful shots, but I will promise to put my heart into all my work.

So here's to it - Charming Memories (or Memorias Encantadoras) photography by Vanessa Sanoja

http://charmingmemoriesphotography.blogspot.com/

April Fools

2009-04-02T04:25:00.000-07:00

I hate April Fools Day. Let me tell you why.

Danny is a funny guy. He really is, probably, one of the funniest guys I know. He loves a good joke, to make himself and other people laugh. And I love that about him. But sometimes... he takes it too far and makes me cry in the meantime.

Well usually he forgets about April Fools Day until later in the month. One year, in April, he told me he wanted a divorce, followed quickly (but not quick enough) by an "APRIL FOOLS!" and starts busting up laughing. I'm sorry, but divorce is not a joke, and not something that I believe in anyway. You get married, you're stuck! So marry the right person the FIRST time!

One year had something to do with one of our friends cars breaking down, which it did, but they exaggerated big time. Danny calls me and tells me our friend's car broke down on the 23 fwy right near the bridge. It started making a funny noise, and Danny, stopped in his car several hundred feet away, saw Chris RUNING away from his car and towards Danny's, and soon the car erupted in a firey blaze, sending Chris flying. He says he's on his way to see Chris at the hospital... and as I'm trying to get details and directions to this "hospital" (which doesn't exist, by the way, he made a hospital name up... but me being in frantics didn't realize this) his phone "loses service" and cuts out. I panic, and start looking for a phone book to find this hospital, when I get a phone call back filled with laughter and an "APRIL FOOLS!" I tell him countless times over countless years that April Fools Day is on the 1st of April, not the entire month.

Anyway this year may have been the worst yet.

It's 5pm on Wednesday. I'm expecting Danny home any minute, so I take the dog out side, sit on the stairs, and wait for him to arrive. Here comes his car, YAY! Leaving his engine running, he hops out of the car, bolts up the stairs, and the door is closed before I even have a chance to stand up. (either he's really fast or I'm really slow, or possibly a combination of the two)

I go inside, find him in the office and I ask, "what the heck are you doing?"

"I'm leaving" he says as he pulls out his pelican cases, throws them open, and pulls out his deployment bags.

"WHAT? You're leaving? Now? Right now? Where? when? how long?"

Meanwhile he's throwing things into his backpack like crazy. Shirts, bdus, the works.

He tells me he has no answers, as he doesn't know yet. He says, "when it's real world stuff going on baby, we just don't know until we get there."

and he hugged and kissed me and said good bye, ran downstairs and threw his bags into his car.

Needless to say I was in hysterics. Laying on the floor crying, my dog lay by my side. I picked myself off and took some deep breaths, to calm down. Well about 20 minutes or so later, the door swings open, and here he comes, laughing and smiling as usual, yelling "APRIL FOOLS!"

Of course still being in panic from before, I sob my eyes out some more and tell him how angry I am, he brought me icecream to "fix it" but I wasn't in the mood for sweet treats. Grrrrrrrr. What a mean joke.

At least he did it on April Fools Day this year.

On a lighter note....

I cut my own hair today. After dropping nearly $3000 on plane tickets to be able to make it to my sister's and Danny's sister's weddings, we are striving to save money, so I decided to save myself $20 and trim my own hair. I figured if I messed it up too badly I'd just go in and spend the $20 anyway. Turned out pretty well. Now I just need my hair to grow super fast so I can cut out the artificial blonde that is in there from when I covered up my artificial brunette from last summer...

Oh and I took my own head shots after trimming my hair. Hooray for self sufficiency!

Pregnancy Photo - Jen

2009-03-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

My friend Jen got pregnant with her first in December between her husband's deployments. Soon after finding out that she was pregnant, her husband Max left again for an 8 month deployment. He returns just a few days before her due date. By a twist of fate, Max was able to come back to the island for a few days this month and she asked me to snap just a few photos of them with her tiny baby belly in case they don't get another chance. Here's hoping he comes home again when baby bump is a little bigger so we can get more shots. My first attempt at maternity photography. I wish I could have done a better job for them!

March - Photoshoot with Alexis

2009-03-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

The other day I had the opportunity to do a photoshoot with my friend's little girl - Alexis. She is so sweet. She was grumpy most of the day but I managed to get some wonderful smile pictures from her. What a cutie, huh?

February 27 - Shooting with a Photographer

2009-03-01T01:55:00.000-08:00

On Friday afternoon the sun was out and I didn't have to work. My friend Amanda Webb (of Footsetps Photography) had offered to help me learn my camera and teach me about the different functions of it. She taught me about shutter speed, apeture, color balance, and more. She brought her daughter to the park with us and we practiced shooting. I actually came out with a few good shots! I was so impressed with myself. :) Thank you so much Amanda for teaching me about my camera!!

22 Feb - Okinawa Marathon

2009-02-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday sure was a long day. Back in December, Danny signed up to participate in the Okinawa Marathon. Longer than a traditional marathon, the Okinawa marathon is 26.4 miles (or 42k for those of us who are used to seeing distances in k). Starting in Awase, they run full circle around central Okinawa. (map)

The morning started early. Around 6am the alarm went off and Danny practically jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen to start breakfast. He ate toast with Peanut butter and Jelly spread on it, and drank water and sports drinks. At about 7, I finally rolled out of bed, threw on my (Go California!) in'n'out t-shirt and jeans, ate a quick breakfast and got ready to go. We made sure we had everything we needed, hard candies, water, crackers (for me :D), cameras, keys, ID cards, iPod (essential!), running shoes (Danny wore chanclas[slippers or "house shoes", for those who don't speak spanish] to and from the race), sunscreen, and runners socks, and headed for the door. We needed to get to the designated parking spaces before 8:10 when the last bus would leave for the Park. We left the house at 7:30, and got stuck in traffic on the way down to the park. We got to the park at 8:10, and parking was still 5k (about 3 miles) away, so I told Danny to pull over and get out, I would walk from the parking lot to the park but I didn't want him to miss the race. We turned off the main road, looking for somewhere to pull over, and... as luck would have it, found a grassy parking lot in a housing area. Free parking within a 5 minute walking distance to the starting line! AmAzIng! Lucky!

Whew.

We parked and got out, walked to the Park where the race was to start, and found Danny's starting point. He was #7539 and they had to line up in order of their numbers (by 500s, so not in exact order). At 9:05, the race started. I walked with him for the first bit, because lets face it! You can't run when you are smooshed against 9,999 other people. I stopped just before they hit the street, where the jogging began. I watched him for as long as I could see him, which wasn't very long. It's very easy to lose someone in a crowd that large.

30 minutes later, the 10k was about to start. I knew a few people running the 10 k, so I took pictures of them in their adventures, and marveled at the strange costumes that Japanese people are able to run in. See our FLICKR of the Okinawa Marathon to catch a glimpse of some of the costumes. (Some photos compliments of Amanda Webb, Footsteps Photography). It was neat to see how fast people can run and how many people are excited to run 10k!!

After the 10k ended, I waited for the finish line to clear and plopped myself down in a spot that I thought would be good to sit in when the Marathon ended. I wanted to make sure I would be able to see Danny come in and take Pictures of it. Even though the race had only begun an hour before, I was determined to stake my claim on that spot for the entire marathon. I didn't move for nearly 4 hours.

As Danny ran across and around Okinawa, he was amazed by the support from those who were not running. Lining the 26 mile route were thousands of people offering food and drink to runners. Along the way Danny was able to enjoy Bananas, Strawberries, Pineapple, Popsicles, Aquarius(a Japanese Sports Drink that tastes like grapefruit juice, yum), salt (yes.. they ate salt while running), wet sponges which he smashed on his face and killed his iPod earbud for a few miles until it dried out (oops!), countless other fruits, and much more. He said there were people who would spray their legs with something sort of like Bengay or Icy-Hot and rub it on their leg muscles as they ran by, people who gave leg massages en-route, etc. Thank you to all those who cheered him on when he ran through base, it was a real energy booster!

Running past gate 5 (about 20 miles in) a friend of mine called to say he was on his way back. She took photos of him running by, cheered him on, and said he was a real trooper and looked like he was doing great. He was only about an hour behind the Marathon winner at that point! Unfortunately soon after, his legs were "done" and didn't want to go anymore. It was all mental. Just a few more miles! He would tell himself, and trek on.

At about 1:15, I stood up, still in my spot, watching the marathon. I couldn't sit anymore, my butt and my legs had fallen asleep and my back was hurting (not that I can complain, I wasn't the one running the marathon!). As soon as I had stood up, I started to get crowded by people, pushed and poked, but I held my ground. I felt that Danny should be running in soon, so I turned on my cameras. I saw this girl dressed up in tiger print, and took a picture of her, then looked past her and down the final stretch before the finish line and there he was, still jogging along. I had two cameras, one to take video on and one to take photos, so I wasn't able to get the best shots as I was trying to do two things at once, but I was still able to get some! The pictures speak for themselves. (video on the bottom)

I was so proud. He came through the gates where I was able to meet up with him and fell into my arms. Exhausted and happy to see my face! I went upstairs to use the restrooms while he sat at the bottom of the stairs stretching his legs. I came down and he was gone. I found him, he had been pulled into a tent where Japanese were massaging him with ice bags and trying to ask him where he hurt (I think...). After that I helped him walk to the car and we headed home where he soaked in a lukewarm bath full of Epsom salt, and then covered his legs in bengay. (if you come by our house in the next few days, it smells like bengay.)

Today he is feeling alright. He was able to go to PT and jog half a mile to stretch his legs, and he went in to work after that. What a trooper. I'm beaming with pride.

Burning at Both Ends

2009-02-21T04:34:00.000-08:00

Lately I feel like I never get a break. It’s good to be busy, but it’s also nice to have time to relax! This week I dropped off friends at the airport on Monday, worked on Tuesday, had heart link orientation with a new spouse in the squadron on Wednesday followed by a class Presidency meeting for YW, worked half on Thursday and then did all the house cleaning during the afternoon, and worked a full (and very difficult, long) day with first grade during the day and had 9 young women in my house watching a movie and painting their toe nails until 10pm on Friday, Saturday started with a YW Leadership meeting , followed by a trip to Comprehensive Park to pick up Daniel’s marathon Torso Tracker and number, then off to do my duty as a RAV and attend a deployed spouses dinner, and finally came home to help my husband make dinner. Tomorrow I’ll be spending the majority of my day watching runners start and finish running at Comprehensive Park so I can get photos of Daniel running his first marathon. He wants me to go down there, take photos at the starting line, drive back to base, take pictures at the half way point, and then drive back and take pictures at the end of the race. That’s not going to happen, with all the roads closed off for the runners, so I’m going to just wait around at CP for him to finish the race. Followed by that, some guys from the sq are coming over to play rock band. WHEW!

Coming up this week, my schedule is still full… starting with work, FHE, Work, a YW presidency meeting, work, change of command ceremony, YW activity, work again, something thurs night that I just can’t remember, work again, Friday night is free as far as I know so far…. But I’m sure that’ll change, then Saturday I have visiting teaching, followed by a visit to my friend Brook at Market day (haven’t seen her in like 3 weeks!), and Sunday I am going to District Conference where I’ll be giving a talk that I don’t have time to write.

Somewhere in there I have to get my booty to the gym, clean my house, walk my dog, and see my husband.

Talk about being exhausted. All I ask is that God help me and my body stay healthy so the world doesn’t fall apart. My calendar is already full. I don’t have time to go to the ER again.

Thanks for reading my little... vent.. if you will.

Fukushuen Garden - Feb 16 2009

2009-02-18T17:30:00.000-08:00

Last Monday Danny and I had to drive down to Naha to take some friends to the airport. On the way back we decided to stop at the treehouse resteraunt for Lunch. Every time we drive down to Naha for some reason we pass the resteraunt and say "We should go there one day!" Well, we finally did. It was worth the experience, but the food wasn't great so we won't be going back. It's neat looking, a resteraunt sitting in a tree, basically. You take an elevator up to the resteraunt, and as soon as the doors open there is a hostess waiting to seat you. There aren't very many choices on the menu, but we each found something new to try. While waiting for our food Danny snapped portrait photos of me that turned out looking pretty, even though I wasn't feeling that way, so I decided to put one up here. I'm so vane, I know.

After lunch, as suggested by some friends, we stopped at the Fukushuen gardens. This garden is dedicated to showing Chinese architecture and landscaping tecniques here on Okinawa. The best part: It's Free! It was so cool to see all of the interesting structures and statues, along with some weird looking flowers and a whole lot of bamboo. It was fun, even though it was a cloudy dreary day, we still enjoyed seeing the sights. We spent probably two hours roaming around the garden, even though it really isn't very big. We plan to go back on a Sunny day, because there is no beauty in a garden quite like on a sunny day. There was a waterfall that you could walk behind, and a funny statue Danny tried to mimmic. To see all of our photos, view our flickr account. (click)

On the way home, there was so much traffic that we decided to stop at a McDonalds drive through for icecream and french fries. Something about the French Fries here on Okinawa is just so wonderful. The Japanese do McDonalds a better service than the USA does, that's for sure. You wouldn't catch me sitting at a McDonalds in the states, but every once in a wild blue moon, I let Danny take me to McD's.

January 31 - Cherry Blossoms / Sakura

2009-02-16T01:13:00.001-08:00

Over then next few days I'll be posting blogs from the past few weeks, because I haven't been keeping up. SORRY!! I've been working every day the past two weeks, and I've recently taken on the role of 320th special tactics squadron RAV.

So, two weeks ago Danny and I drove up north to Nago to part take in the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was fun, but we didn't enjoy the crowds. The Cherry Blossoms were out this year and it was beautiful. Last year we headed up and the rain had killed all the Sakura before the festival even happened, so it was nice to see the hills covered in pink. Bright pink and light pink, and nearly white pink. I wish there had been less people so that we could have taken photos of the stairs without people all over them, but what can ya do?

We saw these two girls everywhere, Herijuku girls fo sho! Dressed up and decked out like sparkle gangsters. It was hilarious to see them walking around so we snapped a few photos of them. This is so funny because we see people like this everywhere, and since we had our cameras out this time we decided to show the rest of the world how silly some of them actually look.

Click their photos to see the big size.

Then on our way back down the stairs I saw this creepy looking building, so I had to take a picture of it and play around with it on photo shop.Click the photo to see actual size.

After that we drove down to Torii station to watch the sunset. We didn't stay until the sun went down because it got windy and I got cold. :D

Kendal's Birthday

2009-01-26T04:01:00.000-08:00

Kendal Elyzabeth is 2!! Our very good friends Aly and Shane just gave birth do a baby girl, Audrey, about two weeks ago (not posting the date, :D). Still, this week their first born, Kendal, turned two and they threw her a birthday bash this past weekend. (They are AMAZING!) We went to celebrate with them, because we love love love Kendal and family. Always a little awkward to be pretty much the only ones without little tykes running around, I love to take pictures. The lighting wasn't great and my camera doesn't like to be indoors but I got a few usable shots :D. Kendal had a blast, she ran around and around her house with lots of friends, jumped on her bed, ate cake, and played in the wrapping paper and gift bags, smiling a wide-toothed grin the entire time. I just love little children!! They are amazing to me... and I can't wait to experience the joy of having some of my own!

Market Day

2009-01-26T03:07:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday was a cold and windy one, no good for exploration. I helped my friend Brook with her Vinyl business (vinylology.com) at market day. The night before we spent hours peeling vinyl, and then she had to go home to paint boards and apply the vinyl to all of her products before the morning of Market Day. To my surprise, it was an extreemly slow day, there weren't many vendors and hardly any customers, but Brook still walked away with profit. (yaay) It was a long day, but it's always fun to spend the day with a friend.

January 17 - Pineapple Factory & Nakijin Castle

2009-01-18T16:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a bright and sunny weekend. A little bit chilly but all in all fantastic weather for exploring. We headed north again on 58, a long drive since we've already explored a lot up there. Our first stop was the Pineapple Factory. We had never been and had heard mixed reviews, but it was only 400 yen per adult, so we decided to give it a shot. There wasn't too much going on in the Pineapple factory, but it was still cool. First thing, you buy your ticket and get on this golf cart thing, but it's got a pineapple on top! It's yellow, of course and it drives itself! We didn't get any pictures of it because they take one for you that you have to buy (For 1200 yen?? YAH RIGHT) and won't take one for you with your personal camera. But it was cool. It wasn't on a track or anything, it just... drove itself! CRAAZY! We got to see how pineapples grow, it was interesting... and then you drive into this little tropical garden type room that's full of flowers and plants. Nothing we hadn't seen before but it was still beautiful. There was a waterfall (which you can see in the 4th photo on the left ) and a little pond with a huge pineapple dude in it taking pictures of passing carts. Then you get to walk through their store, where everything is made of pineapple! You get a little tiny glass so that you can taste everything they have. They have pineapple wine (it wasn't good.) and pineapple juice (SO GOOD, the best kind I've ever tasted. We bought a bottle of it. YUM). They have pineapple cakes and cookies, pineapple chocolate (YUM) pineapple jello-looking stuff, pineapple gummies, pineapple candy, pineapple pie, you name it, they have it in pineapple. They were also selling pickle juice, and me being curious tasted it and i nearly threw up. I had to get some more pineapple juice to get rid of the taste in my mouth.

Then we drove again. We looked all over to find a Japanese Historical Landmark or something like that but the signs were obviously misleading because we drove for like 30 minutes trying to find it. So we decided to move on. We ended up near the Ocean Expo Park and found Naki-jin Castle Ruins. It was cool, again another 400 yen per adult. We stopped in front for lunch, Danny had some pork soba and I had pork Chow Mein. The only kind of meat they had there was... you guessed it... pork. It made me wonder if there was something significant about pork to that specific castle but I really have no idea and could have totally pulled that out of nothing. My food tasted like ginger, so I didn't eat much of it (not a big fan of ginger unless it's used in gingersnaps or teriyaki sauce).

We headed up to the castle. There were a million stairs, or so it seemed, but lots of cherry blossoms along the way making the sight prettier than it would be at any other time of year. Unfortunately it's only the beginning of sakura season, so there weren't a whole lot of blossoms... but the ones that were there were little pink masterpieces. On we headed, there were quite a few people running around, so we weren't able to set up our tripod just anywhere we wanted to because people like to walk in front of it. I got tired and a little dizzy, so we sat on a little hill looking at the castle walls and beyond those, the ocean. It was a beautiful day. Unfortunately it was getting close to 5pm so the sun was already beginning to go down. If we had stayed longer we probably would have gotten to see the sunset over the ocean, but I was hungry and ready to head home. Plus there were some annoying high school girls playing on the hill ahead of us making crazy noises and laughing like they were high. They started taking pictures of themselves jumping off of the castle walls and so we decided to leave.

On the drive home we saw the sunset. The skies and sunsets are two things I will miss most about Okinawa. They are so clear and so beautiful. We didn't make it to the beach we wanted to sit on in time to watch the sunset due to traffic, so we watched it from the car.. but at least we were together. The sky is so vividly orange and the water so blue... it's an amazing contrast I wish I could have caught better on camera. All in all we had a wonderful day, and ended it by eating at a Hawaiian restaurant called Ono Kau Kau near base. One day I'll get pictures of that, too.

I think after finally having some time to spend with my husband and actually going out to see the island, I may be starting to like it here a little more. It isn't enough for me to want to stay here, because I'm still so far away from family, but it will make my time left here more enjoyable and a little easier to bear. I just wish my sisters and my mom and dad could see this too. I'm so glad that the Sanojas made it out last year to see some of the island with us.. and hope with all my heart that more of them visit us in our last year here.

Military Medical

2009-01-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

So frustrated.

Back in November I went to the doctor for pain. Female pain. Six weeks later, they finally got me in for an Ultrasound. By then my pain had subsided and I didn't know why they wanted me to get a U. Well they didn't find anything (big surprise). Monday night I went to the ER for pain in my right side. It started out as a stomach ache, right around lunch time. I was at work, so I couldn't do much about it. By the time I released my class at 3pm, I had unbuttoned my pants and pulled my shirt over the top of my pants and put on my buttoned up trench coat so that my pants didn't feel tight on me. (Sounds bad, and probably could have gotten me fired since I work at a school.... but I had to, I was in pain!)
I went home and lay down on the couch. Danny emailed and told me to go to the doctor's office before they closed and I said no, they won't do anything.
He came home around 5:30 and told me I should go to the ER. I was resistant, but he had appendicitis 4 years ago and told me that the way I described my pain sounded like what he experienced. . . so we went to the ER. Immediately, this is what the ER doctor thought I had. Dr. Shepard ran tests, got me into ultra sound, got me a CT scan, and finally, gave me morphine. The best drug in the world, by the way. Around 11:30 they had a shift change and I was left with a Dr. Gray. She was pretty much absent the whole time and I didn't meet her until I was discharged at 2:30 in the morning. I saw a lot of the nurses though and made good conversation with them every time I got another dose of morphine. They kept me posted on what they knew was going on, even though they're not supposed to report information to me I asked anyway and they would tell me what they knew.

Finally at 2:30 I get my results, full scale. I have a cyst growing on my ovary. Its 7cm (almost 3 inches) and hasn't ruptured ... yet. Here's what they tell me about large cysts:
They are painful (DUH)
They can burst and cause more pain and damage to the ovary.
They can twist the ovary, cutting off the blood supply.
The ovary can die.

Why tell me this when I'm high, tired and can't think clearly? UGH. I couldn't ask any questions because I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that I have a 7 cm cyst on my ovary.

If the ovary gets flipped or twisted, I have 6 hours before the ovary dies to have surgery to correct this and to remove the cyst.

She said, "At this point... we're not going to remove the cyst."

WHY NOT?

"But here's some vicodin for the pain. You shouldn't drive or go to work when you are taking vicodin."

So I didn't take vicodin and I was at work at 8am the same morning. I didn't want this stupid cyst to ruin my life. It was a bad idea to go to work though and I ended up leaving at 1:15, being replaced by another substitute teacher. My bad. Sorry Jennifer...

Today I woke up feeling ok, but after sitting on the couch for a little while watching some stupid tv shows I started to get that throbbing pain again. So I took vicodin this time. Pain hasn't gone away yet but I only took it about 10 minutes ago.

I'm just really upset that they aren't going to remove my cyst. What is wrong with them? I may not be able to have children if this cyst messes up my ovary. I know I have another one but... chances are if I get cysts on one ovary they come up on the other one too. *sigh* I've got to admit.. I'm scared.

Happy Birthday Alexis

2009-01-11T03:11:00.001-08:00

Meet Alexis. She is the daughter of my good friend Lindsey, and she turns 1 tomorrow. Yesterday Danny and I went to her very first birthday party at Mona Kids Jungle. It was kind of like a chuck-e-cheese, except way cleaner and was much more of a jungle gym/obsticle course set up than an arcade. It was fun watching all the kids play around and of course being able to practice my photography.. especially since I didn't have any toddlers of my own to follow around. I just love Alexis, she has such a spirit about her and is such a happy child! What a joy.

Brook And Aaron Parker

2009-01-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

Recently I was able to go out and practice my photography skillzzz on some friends who were in need of some updated "Family Photos." I don't have any expereince and this was my first shot, but I think I did pretty well. She wants to go out and do some more on a sunny day at a gorgous beach she and her husband found, so hopefully I'll be able to get out and take some more pictures when the weather clears up a bit more. I need a new camera... Maybe a good gift from the hubbs?? *hint hint* They weren't into candids and wanted me to "count to three" every time I took a picture but I told them no. Hahaha!

Time off from Work

2009-01-02T18:14:00.000-08:00

Futenma Shrine

These past two weeks have been GREAT. Danny and I have both been free from work & therefore all obligations and most responsibilities. It was great, I felt like a teenager again, not having to worry about work calling, spending most every moment I had with Danny, and him with me... We need to take more time off. Life is too darn short. Alright... so what have we been up to you ask? EVERYTHING! When we first got to island, we used to just get in the car on Saturdays and Drive.. we would stop anywhere we thought looked interesting. Back then we didn't find the need to be responsible for our cameras, so we never got any pictures of anything. Ahhh but I have become obsessed with photography lately so we took a camera everywhere we went these past two weeks. Please check our flicker account for more photos. Its free to look at, you don't need to sign in to anything. :D

The first thing we saw was the Futenma Shrine. It was pretty cool, we don't know anything about it because no one spoke English and there wasn't anything posted in English either. But it was pretty cool, we went into this underground cave and saw what I think may have been a tomb, but I'm not sure because you aren't supposed to take pictures of them and they told us we could take pictures of this one.. though that might not have been what they said.. my Japanese isn't very good.. so we took pictures anyway. There was, of course, also the shrine, where people were praying (I think) and worshiping whatever it is they worship there. Pretty sure they worship their ancestors... but don't quote me on that because I'm not 100% sure.

Next we came across some castle ruins. Katsuren Castle, to be precise. It was pretty cool, to many stairs for me. There was an awesome view of the ocean on one side, and an awesome view of... well the ocean... on the other side. You could also see what I'll refer to as the city, though I'm not sure you can call anywhere on Okinawa a City... because nowhere on this island is anything like LA, NY, or DC. It was a beautiful castle though, I'm sure, at one point. It's pretty cool to be standing in a grassy field surrounded by rocks thinking, "Wow I'm standing where royalty once lived. Sweet!"

This time we traveled north on Highway 58. We stopped first at Okinawa Hollywood, but the beach was littered with garbage and it was too windy and cold to try and find anything worth photographing. I think this is the only beach where I've ever seen trash litter the sand and the shallow waters. So off we headed, going north. We found this place called Cape Manzamo. Very beautiful, and would have been much more enjoyable if the wind hadn't kicked up and nearly knocked us off a cliff. It was cold. Wind chill, burr! But there were some awesome waves, and the water was absolutely breathtaking. The view of the ocean was great. We'll definitely be going back there when the weather is a little nicer and the sun shines on the water, turning it a crazy-beautiful shade of turquoise.

Back on to HWY 58.. We came across this interesting looking building, so we decided to pull in. We found that it was a sweet potato factory! This starch is so popular here. Its purple, and they put it in everything. Pastries, ice cream, stir fry... you name it. If you see something edible and it's purple, its probably not grape flavor... its probably sweet potato. So about this building. Out front there were so many little girls dressed in their Japanese style clothes, the traditional kind, not the crazy weird fashions you see walking down the street on a daily basis. We went inside and it was as if the color purple had decided it was going to be king and this was his castle. Everything was purple. The pastries, the noodles, the flowers, the uniforms... it was great. So here we are wandering around this building when we come across the factory, so awesome, machines making these purple pastries faster than I ever thought possible. It was a beautiful process. To make it even better, they have their own private beach out back! So we trotted down there and took some pictures by the water. It was gorgeous. It looked untouched! No footprints, just sand, waves, and some cool rocks. You'll probably see one of these photos in our Happy New Year! Newsletter we send out.

And finally, our last stop of that day, and probably one of the most exciting, the Okinawa Tropical Kingdom. AKA the Fruit Farm. YUM! They had the best pineapple I've ever tasted. Ok but I'm getting ahead of myself. So you drive up to this building, and it looks like a rainbow threw up all over the front of the building. Colors colors everywhere! It was insane! You'd never see anything like this in the states. Alright. We bought our tickets (about 700yen each) and walk into the factory. Well I have to admit, at first I was a little disappointed. There were plants, hooray, but no fruit. Not only that but it didn't even seem like there were many plants in there. Luckily I didn't tell Danny right then that I wanted to go home now, because we found some cool stuff. First we found the pineapple farm outside. COOL we had never seen a pineapple plant up close and personal before. As we walk along, I hear so many birds. And then I hear a prerecording telling visitors not to be afraid if a bird decides to land on their shoulder. I was getting excited. We came up to the "bird room" and wow! So many colorful, awesome looking birds! Weird ones i had never seen before! I even got close enough to take a picture next to a few rainbow birds. I didn't want to hold them like some other people were, because lets face it, birds are dirty and they poop a lot. But I got to stand next to them and get some coool photos. Danny was the camera man during this event. So, as if my day couldn't get any better... we walk out of the bird room and into.. that's right.. the butterfly room! These babies were freakin' huge! And so awesome! They would just crawl right up to you and get on your finger. Or fly onto your hat (true story!). They were so cool that I'm putting up several photos of the butterflies.

As soon as we walked out of the butterfly room it started to rain.. so we decided it was time to call it a day. What a great day.

My Doggy is Awesome

2008-12-23T15:33:00.000-08:00

My dog learned a new trick with her elephant toy, "Get the Elephant." I say, "Atreus, Get the Elephant!!" and she'll jump onto her toy elephant! She's too cute, and I love her.

Here's a video, not very good lighting or quality. I'll try and get a better one next time I owe her a treat :D

Xmas Tree

2008-12-02T03:15:00.002-08:00

Our Tree! USA theme. Sorry this isn't the greatest photo, my camera hates nighttime for some reason. My dog posed for me. :)

a sign over the doorway to the "back" part of our home... if you can call it that. From vinylology.com

My cute Santa pillow, I'm so proud of them, I think they are sooo cutie cute.

Check out my doggy posing with the couch and Santa pillows. Cute huh?

Christmas Decorations

2008-11-29T01:38:00.001-08:00

YAY We finally get to put up our Christmas Tree and decorations!! Unfortunatly I don't have any paperclips OR ordiment hooks so I will post photos of our tree after I get that situation all... situated. :) Until then... here are a few of the cute things around the house. Love love.

Marinos

2008-11-17T14:44:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to a cute restaurant called Marinos. Its the Japanese way of running an Italian resteraunt, and I have to say they do an excellent job. We love the food! We get a "Dinner for Two" called "La Marino" and it comes with salad, pasta, pizza, and dessert(pictured above). So yummy and quite a treat for us when we have a formal Date Night. Last night we did a "double date night" with another childless-couple with whom we've been spending a lot of time with. It was a fun time and it was great to get out of the house (and quite frankly - out of the obligation to cook dinner and clean up after!). Hopefully we'll be trying more exciting and yummy restaurants, as well as finding new sights, as it is our last year on island. :D

100 Yen

2008-11-15T19:48:00.000-08:00

Danny and I went to the 100 Yen store to find goodies to send back to our families back in the states. It was fun and I took some pictures of some of the neat things we found. Enjoy!

Photography

2008-11-15T01:08:00.001-08:00

So recently, Danny showed me how to use a camera.. here's what I came up with.. (lol)

I'd love to learn how to use a real camera (as opposed to a point-and-shoot digital camera) and photograph children as a hobby. It's a lot more fun to play around with photography when the photos actually come out looking fairly decent.

I've also fallen back into web design. It's been years since I played around with it, but I suppose after finding myself with way too much free time on my hands, it wasn't such a bad thing to fall into after all. Its very time consuming and will be fairly useful one day.. maybe.