Merry Christmas!

Well, Christmas night is winding down here in Japan & just getting ready to start in the states. Other then being a little homesick a few times, we've had a great Christmas! On Christmas Eve I cooked a traditional Christmas meal. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green beans, green peas & 2 pies! I was exhausted!!! This was my 1st time to do all of the cooking...luckily, I've had one of the best cooks out there to teach me. Thanks Mom!!! Overall I think I did pretty good. I was a little concerned we'd have a Griswald moment & the turkey would go kaput, but it didn't it was great! We had Kenny's friend Do & his family over for dinner. It was so fun to have other people around.
After they left we cleaned the kitchen & I got started on the traditional Greene family Christmas breakfast....scaled back slightly for just the 2 of us. It included homemade cinnamon rolls, egg casserole & baked fruit. YUM!!!! This morning when we were eating breakfast I realized the good thing about being in Japan...I no longer have to fight my Dad & Rebekah for the gooey cinnamon rolls in the middle of the pan! =)
Since we went to Hawaii on our way here, we didn't do big Christmas presents with each other this year. But Santa did bring me the complete series of Gilmore Girls on DVD & a Netflix subscription...both of which will be great when Kenny has to go out of town.
Tonight we went to have a Christmas dinner with some of the singles in Kenny's squadron. It was nice to hang out with some of our new "Air Force Family". I am so thankful that we got to celebrate the holidays with our real families before we left Little Rock though.
I guess that is it for now....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Can't sleep...

So it's 12:30 am here in Japan...after laying in bed for almost 2 hours trying to go to sleep I figured it was time to get up for a while. It's incredibly frustrating to be so tired, but can't get to sleep. Unfortunately, this has happened the past few nights.
Things are still going well here, although this week has been a little tough for me just thinking about Christmas coming up. I absolutely love the holidays! Spending time with family, cooking, buying gifts for people, Christmas music, the lights, the smells and most importantly the ultimate reason why we celebrate the birth of our Lord & Savior! It just doesn't feel quite like Christmas yet to me. Yes, we got to celebrate the holidays with our families before we left Arkansas, but I've still been pretty sad thinking about not being with them next week. I know Kenny & I will have fun. It's just a little tough that this is my 1st Christmas in all my 29 years to not be in Little Rock, Arkansas with my family. Please pray that this time will be a smooth transition for me & that I will be able to enjoy the holidays.
Other than being a little homesick at the moment, everything is great. Kenny is slowly starting to get into the swing of things at work. He won't really start getting busy & flying much until January. So it's kinda nice to have him easing into it, that means he's home a little more right now. =)
Well, I guess that's all for now...

Japan - Week 1 =)

What a week! So much has gone on this past week, I don't even know where to start. On Thursday, we had our first experience eating off base....we went to Joyful Honda (and no, it's not a car dealership) with a group from base. It is a huge Home Depot-ish, pet store, Wal-mart etc type place. They also have a grocery store & food court. We only had time for the food court on Thursday, but that was plenty interesting! Kenny & I were walking around looking at pictures on menus, & I found something that looked like postickers (which I love) so I decided that's what I wanted. We went to the counter, pointed at the pictures of what we wanted & paid with our Yen. It was fun!
After Joyful Honda, we went to the car dealership to officially purchase our car. We got to pick it up on Monday!!!! It is so nice to have a car now. I tend to have minor issues with the blinker....it's on the right side of the steering wheel, instead of the left side. So needless to say I turn on the windshield wipers quite often. =) But at least I haven't pulled a Kenny yet, he was loading the car at the BX while I was walking to the post office. He was going to pick me up there. He got there & told me that I had missed a "Silly Situation" as Will would call it. He got in the car, only to realize that he had gotten in on the wrong side of the car. Instead of getting our & walking around the car, my 6'2" husband crawled through the inside of our compact rental car to the other side. I was crying I was laughing so hard by the time he finished telling me about it. =)
Friday was a huge day....we got our house!!!!! We also got our household goods. Such a blessing. They moved all of our stuff in & we were 90% unpacked in a total of 2 hours. It is so nice to have our furniture and all again.
Saturday & Sunday were not so fun for me....Kenny & I had both been fighting a bug of some sort, and it got the best of me on Saturday. I spent most of the weekend in the bed with fever, chills & aches. No fun. But I have the best husband ever! He took such good care of me while doing his best to organize the house at the same time.
Fortunately I am feeling better now, not 100% yet, but better. Monday we got our new tv, tv stand & car. We are starting to feel normal again. Ben's Uncle Mark took us back to Joyful Honda to look around more & to another mall called Mori-town. They had a really cool grocery store. We bought some food to experiment with for dinner tonight.....
Overall things are going well for us in Japan so far. They are having an inspection on base this week, so there isn't much going on by way of social activities. I still haven't really met any friends our age yet. Please pray that we will meet some new friends soon.
That's all for now...I'm sure there will be more to come soon!

In-processing

God has really been taking care of us! With the exception of 1 thing, everything has gone extremely smooth for us. We get to move into our house on Friday, and they can deliver our stuff on Friday!!! If they couldn't, we would have to borrow furniture until they could. We are so ready to get settled in our house. We were only guaranteed a 2 bedroom place, which only has 1 bathroom. But we are getting a 3 bedroom with 2 bathrooms!!!!!! We are so excited about that.
We are really ready to have a vehicle! We've done lots of walking. It hasn't been too bad so far, but once we move to our house on Friday, we won't really be within walking distance of the BX & Commissary. We have found the car that we want to buy for me, but there is one little problem. They only take cash or yen. Having the money is not the problem, but we are having trouble getting the cash out of the bank. We think we have it figured out....I'll keep you posted! We will be taking our driving tests tomorrow to get licensed to drive in Japan...on the other side of the road. =) We are hoping to rent a car on base for the weekend so that we can run between our house & the BX/Commissary to buy the necessities that we did not move with us.
Tonight we are getting our 1st home cooked meal since we've been here! We are very excited about that! My brother-in-law's uncle & his wife are here too. Cheryl is a teacher in the DOD schools here at Yokota. They are having us over for a late Thanksgiving dinner. Yum! They have been extremely helpful to us so far by driving us a few places that were a little far for walking.
It's been a long week of in-processing for Kenny & just kinda waiting for me. I think we will both feel better once we get settled in our house. We are ready to make Japan our home.

Japan!

We have made it to Yokota Air Base! Our trip here yesterday went exceedingly better than we could have ever imagined! We were in the upstairs of the plane....that's a HUGE airplane!!!!!! I've never been on a plane that big before. We were lucky to be in a exit row, so we had tons of leg room. The airlines in the US need to take some lessons from Japan Airlines! It was the best flight I've ever been on. Once we got to Japan we easily got our luggage & through customs. The airport was not nearly as crowded as we had anticipated. Then it was time to find our bus to bring us to Yokota, which with good directions from the base we went straight to.
Probably the worst part of the day was that we had to wait 2 hours before the bus left (it runs on a daily schedule) and then it was a 3 hour bus ride! Needless to say we were tired of sitting!!! We got here, got checked into the hotel on base & got some dinner.
Now, we are experiencing the jet lag at it's best! We were both awake at 4:45 am! Not my idea of a good time.
Today we are going to try to get our local cell phones & figure out the lay of the land a little. I'll keep you posted!

The Big Adventure!

The last few weeks have flown by faster than I could have ever imagined! We had a lot of fun getting to see friends & spend as much time as possible with our families before we left. I am so thankful for the wonderful relationships God has blessed me with!
As is typical with most things....they never go quite as you have it all planned out in your mind. Well, getting ready to leave Arkansas was no different. We left on Sunday morning, so on Friday mom & I began washing clothes to get everything packed back into our 3 suitcases each. When I got home that night I put a load of whites in & went back downstairs. Mom & Dad got home about an hour later and the washing machine had stopped, with clothes & water inside. Front loading machines are great until the door is locked with your clothes inside & you are moving to Japan! I didn't realize they were stuck until Saturday morning. Mom & Dad decided to not tell me until then. Fortunately, through some tag-team effort we were able to figure out how to get the door open & drain the machine. Rebekah was great to help me finish the laundry at her house!
Our last night at home was spent with our families. Kenny had dinner with his Dad & his wife. Mom & Dad took me to Faded Rose followed by a stop at Copeland's for cheesecake to go. We then went to Rebekah's house for a good game of cards. (Ben was gone too, so it was just the 4 of us.) Just like old times!
We are having a blast in Hawaii!!! There will be pictures & a post to follow on that later.
We will be leaving here on Friday morning to head to Japan. This will be a long day for us! About a 9 hour flight, a 2-3 hour wait in the airport, then a 3 hour shuttle ride to the base. Please pray that everything goes smoothly for us...that we will get all of our luggage, find the shuttle, and somehow overcome the language barrier.
More to come later!

3 Weeks...

So I'm sitting here at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel having a great little getaway with Kenny. (He had to come here for a meeting for work.) I love being here, and I am having a blast. At the same time though I am filled with a whole other mix of emotions. We only have 2 more weeks left in Arkansas, in the United States for that matter. I wish that I could push pause on life right now. The exciting news is that Caroline Elise Lowery joined our family on Monday!!! She is absolutely precious. I am so thankful that I got to be here to see her, and that I got to spend some good quality time with the WHO. Hayes even told me that he is going to move to Japan with me.
This coming week we will begin saying our goodbyes to friends & family. I get a little teary eyed just thinking about it. While this will be hard, I know that God has such great things in store for us! I am totally excited about our new adventure, but scared to death all at once.
If you think about us, we would greatly appreciate your prayers as we are beginning this new chapter of our lives.
I know this post is a little random, but most of my thoughts seem to be random these days. Sorry! =)

What a year!

One year ago today, I married my best friend! In some ways it seems like this year has flown by but, in other ways it has been a long year. I told Kenny that if we made it through all the craziness of this year, we can make it through anything!!!! For those of you that don't know...Kenny was in severe back pain when we got married. He ended up having surgery in January, 3 days after our reception. The surgery postponed our original move date of March. The same day he had surgery, my Mimi fell. I had him in surgery & her in the emergency room. Not a good day to say the least! For a while we thought we were losing Mimi, but she is doing very well now. After we got through all of that, we helped keep Bek's kids for a week while they were out of town. This summer Kenny went to Hawaii for a week, came home for 5 days then had to go to Alabama for 6 weeks. All of this time they kept telling us that we were moving about every 2 months. Once Kenny got the clear to fly again (6 months after surgery), he got crazy busy at work. I don't think he's stopped much since then! Finally, the movers came about 3 weeks ago, & we are Japan bound in 1 month!
Like I said, it has been a crazy year, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I can't imagine having gone through this past year without my husband!
I love you honey! I am so incredibly proud of you! I can't wait to see what the next 50 years have to bring us.....

6 weeks....

Wow, now that is a crazy thought for me...I'll only be an Arkansan for 6 more weeks! Things have settled down quite a bit for us since the movers came. We have just been hanging out at Mom & Dad's house wondering what we should do. Kenny calls our apartment here "the dungeon". The folks have been gone some lately, so it's been kinda nice to take over the upstairs & dream of the day when we can have a house like this.
October has been a fun month of memories for me this year. Remembering the day that Kenny officially proposed to me, going to register with my mom & sister, & coming up on the 20th our 1 year anniversary! It was a crazy whirlwind last year, but we wouldn't change a thing!!!
There will be more to come soon as we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the latest addition to the WHO. Baby Caroline will be here by the end of the month, & I am so excited to meet her!!!

What a week!

It has been a hectic week so far for us! On Friday we packed our suitcases to move to mom & dad's house on Saturday. Do you know how hard it is for a girl to pack for 2 months?!?!? Saturday & Sunday we moved Sasha out to Roland & finished getting the house ready for the movers. First thing Monday morning the movers showed up to pack our house. It was absolutely amazing!!! There were 4 of them & they totally just did a divide and conquer. They did in 5 hours what would have taken me a week probably. By 3:00 our entire house was pack up in boxes. They came back yesterday morning to load up the crates. By noon yesterday everything we own, except for the suitcases we packed, was beginning it's journey to Japan!
The movers were great! I'd heard several horror stories about them coming, but everything went perfect as far as I'm concerned. Let's just hope it's all in one piece the next time I see it!
We will now be in the downstairs apartment at my parents house until we leave on Nov 22! We are extremely thankful for them letting us stay here & borrow one of their vehicles since we're down to 1 car.
God's timing has been perfect as always with everything. We sold the house & the truck at just the right time. He is good!

Moving Ahead

Great news....we closed on Kenny's house today!!!!!!!! This is a huge relief for us! Now the only major thing we have left to sell is the truck, & we pretty much have it sold. We should have everything complete on that transaction by the end of the week. God is good! Everything happens in His perfect timing.
We have movers coming to our house on Monday, Sept 28 to begin packing our house. They will have everything out of here by Sept 30. We will be moving to mom & dad's house the weekend prior to that. We are so thankful to have a place to go live!
After so many delays, it is crazy that this move is finally happening. Ready or not, here we go!

Labor Day Weekend

Well, let's just say our weekend didn't start out quite like we had planned....we were supposed to have closed on Kenny's house Friday, but that didn't happen because of a mistake the appraiser made. Unfortunately, Kenny had ripped off the roof over the laundry room before I got a phone call that the roof didn't have to be repaired. So we spent what we thought was going to be a relaxing Friday night replacing that part of the roof, thank goodness my dad was able to come help Kenny!!! I just kinda sat & watched. =) Now we are scheduled to close on 9/14 because the buyer is out of town this week.
The rest of the weekend was much better! I got to go cheer my HOGS on to a win (Kenny even went & cheered too, but he was keeping a close eye on the OU score. Too bad they lost. lol) After the game Dad, Kenny & I went to meet mom at the lake! I'm going to miss that place!
In other news....we think we have sold Kenny's truck which is a huge relief to us! We don't want to be sitting on that one when we leave. Also, Kenny got his official orders last week. That means now we will set up our official days that the movers will come pack up my house & we will buy our plane tickets! After all of the delays it's looking like this move is really about to happen in the next couple of months!
Have a great week everyone!!!!!

Just got an update....Kenny & I found out today that the movers are going to come pack our stuff at the end of THIS month...not a huge deal, but it is 2 weeks earlier than we had thought. Thank goodness we can stay in the downstairs apartment at my parents house until we leave Nov 22.

Japan!!!!

Well, we have official word...we are for sure still heading to Yokota Air Base in Japan! We have to report there by November 30th. I am full of so many emotions it is tough to explain. I am more than excited about the new chapter of life we are starting. I'm extremely sad to be leaving my family & friends. I'm nervous about all of the changes. But most of all I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for Kenny & I! With Kenny by my side the leaving will be much easier. We will probably leave Arkansas about a week before the 30th. I am so thankful that our move will come after the arrival of my newest niece Caroline!!! And we will get to celebrate Thanksgiving & an early Christmas with family. I'll post more as I know it....

Kenny Can Fly!!!!

Well, we have been waiting on the edge of our seats for this one at our house...Kenny just got cleared by the Air Force to start flying again after his back surgery!!!!!! This is a huge thing for us. Had he not been cleared, we would have been looking at different career choices which is a little scary. But as always, GOD IS GOOD! Now Kenny will have to get current on the C-130 again which will take a couple of weeks. Then they will start working on getting our move turned back on. As far as we know it is still Japan, but in the military world that is always subject to change. I'll keep you posted!

Home

KENNY'S COMING HOME TODAY!!!!!! I'm so excited! He's been away for 7 of the last 8 weeks. He was in Hawaii for training for 2 weeks, home for a week then off to Alabama for 5 weeks for a school. I am so incredibly proud of my husband & what he does. He has been running & doing push ups & situps for this class all of 5 months after his back surgery! He's amazing!
While he was in Montgomery, I got to go see him & then drive on to see Lyndsey, one of my dearest friends in the whole world, in Atlanta! It was great to see her & spend some her & Matt. God has truly blessed me with some of the best friends ever!
Now we are looking forward to spending the 4th of July at the lake with my family. Home away from home! Just a quick little update in what's been going on with us....there will be more soon. Have a great holiday weekend!

New to Blog-land!

Well, since my sister decided to switch to this, I thought maybe I should to. Our lives aren't too exciting right now, but I'm sure I'll have plenty to fill people in on once we move to Japan!