Island Hopping...How Lucky

Boy have we been busy here in Okinawa. Life has a way of flying right by. I get up with my ToDo list and before you know I go to bed exhausted. I love it. I feel like sitting around is just a waste of a day. So, bring it on. Jimmy left on the MEU yesterday from White Beach. It is absolutely stunning in that area. It is about an hour north of our house. Jess and I, along with the girls, drove up and watch the ship pull out of port. It is amazing to watch the little tugboats push this big ship out to sea. As soon as we knew that Jimmy was off and running we left and decided on a whim to take our own adventure. Coming out of the gate at White Beach if you take a right you will go for a ways and come to a big red bridge. If you cross over the bridge you have driven into another world. There is 3 separate islands you can get to just by driving over some bridges. It is such an amazing view and wonderful drive. The people live off the land for the most part, so it is very much just villages and farms. We even stumbled upon an ancient village from 2500 years ago. Amazing since we live in the city where life is hustle and bustle. I had to pinch myself to see if I was really there. I am so lucky to have been afforded the opportunity to be here. I had to give my speech to Sarah about how lucky she is to be here. I sure hope she remembers this part of her life. Who can say they did these things at 6? I know I certainly can not. Lucky is not even close to how I feel about me being here. I am truly blessed to be able to have this life experience, and to be able to see and do all this with my best friend just makes it that much more special. I am beyond blessed. I feel guilty if we don't go out one day because there is so much to see and do. We only have a certain amount of time here, and I am sure trying to take it all in. So, island hopping yesterday, who know what this weekend? Life is good....

Enjoying Okinawa

We are all settled in and enjoying Okinawa. It is so beautiful here. It is amazing how nice people genuinely are here. We moved in on Memorial Day Weekend. Go figure that a typhoon hit on Saturday evening.  Nothing like the island saying, "Welcome" to the Ensley Family. The only good thing about 125 mph winds blowing is the base shuts down and you are in lockdown. That is good because I had nothing else I could possible do except unpack. So, needless to say, we were unpacked in 2 days. :) After getting all set up in our house, we have hit the ground running. It has been 20 days we have officially been here, and so far, we have done more than a lot of people who have been here for months. I am grateful to Jess and Dom for dragging us along with them to do some pretty cool things.
On a personal note, Sarah is already enrolled in 1st grade for next year. Jimmy is gearing up to go with the MEU in just a few weeks. As for me, I am planning a great summer for Sarah and I. When school starts back up in August, our adventures will cease during the week. So, we have to see and do lots during the summer. I am looking forward to all the opportunities we have in front of us. I am planning on enjoying my time in Japan.
I am posting a few pics of our adventures so far. Please enjoy and I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

All packed and ready to go

Sarah eating her 1st taco rice.

Loved the tacos from King Taco

Jess & I

Sarah getting her hair done. 

Beautiful sunset 

Sarah buying her 1st drink out of the machines.

Nothing like fresh pineapple

Gotta love the roller slides.

Dom and Malia going down.

Sarah and I headed down.

Jess and Malia 

View from the top of the slide

Coral

Beautiful sunsets from Jess' window

We are enjoying our last weekend in the US.

My how I forgot how time flies. As soon as I looked at the blog, I realized it has been a few months since I last wrote in it. Let me get everyone caught up. We have moved out of our house on base. We lived in a camper for a few weeks, and now, we are in the base hotel for the next 4 days.  Grandma and Papa are here with us. They came in on Saturday, and are taking us to the airport on Wednesday. I am truly blessed. I have enjoyed their visit out. We have also had Craig, my brother, out for a visit. He is in Recruiter's School at MCRD San Diego. So, we have went down the past two weekends and brought him back up this way. It hopefully helps his time go faster, and I admit, I like his company. :)

As for us, we are getting on the plane on Wednesday at 11:00am. We are so excited about our journey to Japan. I am "embracing" this new phase of our life. There are some days that I am nervous, but for the most part, I am just excited about this opportunity I have been afforded. I try to thank God everyday for the opportunities he has blessed our family with. I have so many things to be thankful for.

I promise not to go so long without blogging in the future. I won't be long tonight because Sarah only has 2 more days of school, and I gotta get up early. So, have a wonderful night, and I will blog soon.

Busy Weekend

We had a very productive and busy weekend. I hope everyone else's weekend went well. Sarah was out for 5 days for President's Day. (Thursday-Monday) What to do, what to do...so we did what anyone with season passes for the San Diego Zoo and wild Animal Park would do. We paid a visit to both of them this past weekend. On Friday we went to the zoo with one of Sarah's classmates. We had an absolute blast. It even rained, and we still had a great time. Then, we had to do some more packing, because that is what we do now. After that, we decided we needed to head to the Wild Animal Park on President's Day. We were not the only people with that idea. :) The parking lot was packed, but we had no trouble inside the park. Sarah really enjoyed herself as well as Jimmy and I. The only bad thing was that the 5 days seem to fly by. I can't believe how fast time goes when you are having fun. So, needless to say, we are back into the real life this week. Sarah started back to school today, and Jimmy back to work. I volunteered in Sarah's class. After the kids had 5 days off and then came back today, I definitely am taking tomorrow and recovering. Man, nothing like 29 kids going crazy at the same time. We had a good time though. All in all, a very productive, yet fun past few days. We are now looking forward to Spring Break. Please enjoy the pics and have a wonderful week.

Daddy Polar Bear trying to get Mama Polar Bear's attention.

Sarah wants a Koala Bear for a pet. 

Sarah feeding a giraffe.

Panda Bear finding treats.

Brothers just hanging out.

This is EXACTLY what I look like in the morning. 

This is what Jimmy looks like. :)

Look at how cute that baby elephant is. 

Sarah feeding the ducks. 

This is our wild animal after a weekend of watching other animals. 

Busy Week

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week. I can't complain about mine at all. I did get some things accomplished this week. Our entire house is painted back to the basic white. I have done a housing pre-inspection, and the mover's came to do a pre-move inspection. Not too shabby for this week. Sarah is out of school Thurs.-Monday for President's Day. So, she is my little helper bee. She loves helping me do projects. So, I let her help. Sometimes, it takes 4 hours longer, but hey, we are never in a hurry if Daddy is not here. :) So, today we cleaned out the pantry. Oh my how it needed a good cleaning. I love the feeling I get from organizing. So, today I got that good feeling, and a clean pantry. It was a win-win situation. :) We are going to go this weekend to Costco for the last few times we have left before our membership runs out. That is one place I will miss when we move. Then, I plan on taking Sarah to see "Megamind" while Jimmy watches the race on Sunday. Let's hope all works out for us. Oh, and hopefully pics will soon be added to the blog...my lens is fixed. I hope to pick it up tomorrow. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and a blessed week.

Packing, Packing, and More Packing...

So, here it is February 8, 2011. I have all of my counters on the computer of how many days I have left for things. I only have 54 days until the movers come...99 days until we are in Okinawa. Wow...that puts it in perspective. I feel like I have so much to do, but I don't want to do it too soon. There is nothing like living out of suitcases too soon. So, I wait. Impatiently I might add. I am ready to do things. That is what military wives do. We pack, unpack, get things the way we want, and then do it all over again. It is a continuous cycle. I am not patient when it comes to my "To Do" list. I want to start crossing things off. I like the feeling I get when I can finally cross off things. It makes me feel accomplished. Right now, I am not very accomplished. I am just waiting...impatiently. I will say that we have started a few things. We did paint the kitchen back to the original white. That is a start. Pretty soon I will be complaining that it is going too fast. LOL You know I want my cake and eat it too. :) I am going to EMBRACE this little bit of quiet time I have to just savor. I will be busy busy busy in the next few months. So, I think I will go for now and catch up on my Tivo. There is still plenty of time for packing. (Remind me I said this in 54 days. LOL) Have a great day! 

One Word

So, Jessica has me addicted to blogs. It started when she gave me a few to look at which leads to a few more. Now my bookmark site is full of different awesome blogs. So, I was told about a blog that talks about one word that you pick and take on for one year. So, being the person that does not make the New Year's Resolution to lose weight, I thought I might actually be able to do this. So, my word for 2011 is "Embrace". I thought it would be a great word considering all the changes I have to embrace in the coming year. You can choose any word. I think it gives you a meaning and purpose throughout the day. In the back of your head you can keep your word. Just like the other day....I went to get Passport Pics done at Combat Camera. Go figure that they closed on Friday @ 11am. Bad part is that I was there at 1:30pm. I was getting so frustrated at the fact that I now have to come back and do this again. But, in the back of my mind was my word..."Embrace". So, I embraced this problem as best I could. On Monday afternoon, Sarah and I went and got our pics and done a few more errands. We ended our adventure out with dinner at McDonald's. Just us girls having girl time. It was fun. So, I am glad that I "embraced" our issue. It turned out Monday was a better day for us anyways. What is your word going to be? I wish you all the best of luck finding it and sticking to it. :) Have a great week. Embrace everything that comes your way. :)

Happy New Year!!!

2010 is already gone, and we are looking forward to what 2011 has to offer. We are gearing up for our move to Okinawa in May. I have too many things to do before then, but I am gearing up to start my "To Do" list. We have had a busy past month. My family came out for a visit. On Dec. 16 Mom, Dana, and the boys flew out, and we enjoyed a rain soaked week in CA. I have never known it to rain so much. Everyone took the weather in stride, and we still enjoyed each other's company. On Dec. 25, I was unexpectedly greeted by Joni, Jonathan, and Brandon. Mom and them had planned the entire surprise since Oct. and I never had a clue. I don't know what this really says about me. I am guessing I will never work for the FBI. LOL We hit the ground running with everyone on Dec. 26th. We got a tour of the West. First stop was Vegas. I think everyone enjoyed it, even if no one became a millionaire. We then drove to the Grand Canyon. I can never see it too many times. I love visiting every time. I am glad we got to show the boys one of the natural wonders of the world. We made another pit stop in Vegas for one night. After that, it was laundry time at home. We headed out the next day for a 3 day trip to San Francisco. The rain of course followed us, but we had a great time and ended up with umbrellas as souvenirs. We returned just in time for Mom, Dana, and the boys to have one rest day before leaving to go back to SC Jan. 4. Joni, Jonathan, and Brandon were able to stay until Jan. 8. We had a great time. Joni got engaged in San Francisco. So, I offered to take her engagement photos. I think she has a few good photos to pick from.

All in all I had a wonderful few weeks with my family. I am headed home for a visit in April before we leave for Okinawa. It is hard to be so far away from my family. I guess that just makes me treasure my time with them even more.

I hope everyone has a great week.