Japanese Update

Have you ever held $8,500 cash in your hands? As of today I have! I would post a picture... but I thought it might be a little weird... yeah... So we sold Cliff's car today!! Woo hoo!! Such a RELIEF! The family we sold it to was awesome. We really liked them so we felt good about the whole situation. I guess they had been looking for a car just like Cliff's and had been praying about it just like us!! Here's the rest of what's going on in our world right now:

- I got my overseas medical screening approved a few weeks ago. I ended up only having to get two booster shots so that was GREAT. If you remember from a few posts ago I was a little worried about this...

- We got our entry approval this week. This means that we can begin setting up our move (specify dates for the movers to come and booking airfare.)

- We finally got my no-fee passport. It looks exactly like my other passport. The only difference is the back page that says something about how it only functions for dependents of active duty military personnel...blah blah... and is only good for 5 years.

- We have made arrangements to initially fly out of ATLANTA on the 25th of July. We are leaving Jacksonville on the 18th of July. So... all of my peeps in the ATL - we are going to be there from the 18th to the 25 if you would like to drop in and say "hello." This will be our last stop in the Area for... years?

I guess that is about it for now. We are planning on putting our washer and dryer in storage as the Navy will pay for it (so why not?) and everything else we own is coming with us. It's pretty surreal to think that we will be LIVING in Japan in about a month...

Fallon Comes to Visit!

Dolphins! We saw at least a dozen when we were at the beach on Wednesday.
You might have to click on the image to see them better but I could have swam out and touched them they were so close! ( I was afraid though... That's me in the picture watching them from a safe distance...)
Yeah for the beach!
Close-up of the Bald Eagles at the zoo!
Crazy big Ostrich
Uh.... Not sure? Check out those feathers on top, though!
Fallon being Fallon :)


Sometimes the lines between friends and family get blurred. I can't say that I have experienced this with very many people in my life - two or three at the most, but Fallon is definitely one of those people. We met at the orientation for UGA's study abroad in Spain back in 2004 when she came up to me out of nowhere and asked if I had already found a roommate. I told her that I had not and without skipping a beat she asked "would you like to be mine?" We were glued at the hip from that moment on. I had never shared a room with anyone before and was incredibly nervous about this. She put all my fears to rest before we even got on the plane. She was the best roommate EVER in Spain. We saw each other at our highest highs and our very lowest lows. We had all of the same classes together and we took all of our excursions together. We got a long so well that we even backpacked together through Europe for a two weeks after our program ended. By the time we got back from Spain we didn't know what we were going to do without each other - so we decided that we might as well just stay roommates at UGA! We lived together for another year. Once the lease was up at the house (that we shared with two other girls) that we lived in my first year in Athens we both moved over to a different apartment complex. We each got a single apartment this time around but we still lived so close to each other that we cooked meals together at least 2 or 3 times a week. She was just a floor away. I can't tell you how many times she rescued me from giant spiders or helped me NOT write a paper... (we were excellent procrastinators.) We have since graduated from college (we sat next to each other during graduation,) and I have gotten married but that hasn't stopped us from seeing each other as often as we can and staying up-to-date on each other's lives. She was with me throughout Cliff and my entire "courtship." She was also one of my bridesmaids in my wedding. I can't count how many times she has put up with my rantings and ravings and worries. We having Shared tears and belly laughs and too many adventures to count. I could write a novel on our crazy adventures in Europe... we never planned more than a day or two in advance :)

I am going to miss her so much when I am in Japan. I am so grateful for her unconditional friendship. I know that a friendship like ours is a rare thing and I'm very blessed. Here's to you Fallon! Love you!

Recipe Rendezvous

Chicken in a Cashew Nut Sauce (Indian)
MY Sour Cream Enchiladas
Caribbean Crunch Short bread Cookies

I just started a recipe blog! I have been cooking a lot lately and I wanted to post some of the things that I have been making but I ended up with a lot of pictures and recipes. I didn't want to bore those of you who read this that don't care for cooking so I created another blog specifically for recipes and cooking! I would love to have some input on it as I am very much a novice when it come to cooking so please check it out! I would also eventually like to add other authors to the page so if you think you might like to contribute - let me know!! The link is on the side bar!

Das Boot

Last Thursday/early Friday morning, I finally did the thing that puts "Naval" in Naval Aviator: I landed on the boat. I have officially been in the Navy for 3 1/2 years, and have been commissioned for over 2 now, and this was my first time on a naval vessel, believe it or not. As part of the Fleet Replacement Pilot syllabus, we need to get our initial deck landing quals before we head out to our fleet squadrons. So we took off at about 4:30 that afternoon to head out to the USS Simpson. It was almost 70 miles away, so it took about 30 minutes at the 150 mph that we were doing. Since I am headed far, far away, I got to do my landings first. The day free deck landings were pretty simple; it was just like landing on a spot with a slight pitch, roll, and 10 mph forward motion. After another guy did his landings, I grabbed some boxed lunches for the crew, and we headed back to shore for some gas and the other student that needed to do his boat quals. I was excited for the boxed lunches until I realized that there were pringles, and I was in the back with the door open, and we were doing 140-150 mph. I opened the box, and chips went flying everywhere. Needless to say, I had to wait to eat until we were on the ground. Once back at Mayport, we fueled, and I ate my lunch in the short time that there was no wind blowing it away. We went back to the boat, and took turns doing day RA landings (RA landings are when you use a cable, often during high sea states to help bring the helo safely down). While the first student was trying to do his night RA landings, the trap broke, so he had to orbit overhead, leaving two of us on the boat, so we caught the first part of the Lakers-Celtics game. Finally, the trap got fixed, so we all got out night RAs done, and had to head back to base to drop off one student and get more fuel. We got more gas, and got back to the boat about 11:30 pm. There, I finally got my night free deck landings done, and finished my boat quals. We headed back to base, and I finally set out for home around 1:15 am. It was a long day, but in one day I stepped on a navy ship for the first time and also became qualified to land on one. By the way, the picture is of an SH-60B taking off of a frigate, just as I was doing. The only difference is that they are from HSL-46, and I am in HSL-40.

A Walk on the Beach

So most of you know that Cliff and I live about.... less than a mile from the ocean. One would think that we would be at the beach every other day, but this is not the case. Not sure why that is.... I guess we are both working and find other things to do. Today, however, we decided to take a walk on the beach at the base. It was a beautiful HOT day and we thought it would be a good Sunday activity. We didn't stay for too long because it was (as I said before) really really really hot but I am so glad that we were there! We got to see jelly fish and dolphins and... well more jelly fish! When we first saw a dolphin fin I thought that it was a shark and was about to start yelling at everyone in the water to get out! Fortunately.... Cliff held me back and we realized that they were just dolphins, just dolphins swimming really close to the shore. I wish we had gotten some pictures of them but we didn't. Jelly fish will just have to do. Mmm..... my banana bread smells just about done so I am going to go check on it. Enjoy the jelly fish!