Do I still live in Japan? Oh yeah, I guess I do...

Cliff and I went to a bazaar in Yokosuka last weekend and finally bought the step tansu we wanted! I am sooooo excited about this piece of furniture!! If you have never seen one before you can google "step tansu" or "Kaidan dansu" and that will give you and idea of how versatile and beautiful this particular type of furniture can be!
We have ours set up more in the "Buffet" style but if you look very closely to the left you can see where the pieces fit together if we wanted to set it up like a stair case. We hope to have the room to do that eventually, but for now it is going to be a TV stand.
That's rice paper behind the glass and we have our DVD player inside. We can use the remote through the glass so that everything stays hidden!
So... I was bored the other day driving home from Sagamihara housing with Cliff and I started taking pictures... Typical day driving around Japan.
Watch out for people on bikes - they WILL NOT watch for you.
It was pretty grey and dreary on this particular Saturday, but we did spot some wisteria!! Anyone who knows me at all knows that I LOVE wisteria. LOVE IT!
More wisteria :)
So pretty!! They have white wisteria here in Japan as well. I know everyone gets all crazy about the cherry blossoms but this is more my thing. And below you can see an older Japanese woman that took the wisteria thing a little too far.... j/k I really have no idea why she has such a violent shade of purple for her hair color. I just had to get a picture, though...

Cliff's Birthday and a pregnancy update!

Cliff's 27th birthday was yesterday! What an old man!! His favorite sweet combination is peanut butter and chocolate, so for his birthday I went all out....
I made a triple layer chocolate cake with peanut butter/ cream cheese frosting with a chocolate and peanut butter ganache icing. My friend sent me the recipe from Smitten Kitchen although she had never tried the ganache with it. This was my second attempt at baking cakes and I have to say - it was SPECTACULAR! Maybe baking isn't so bad after all! Especially when the results are like this! It didn't look as pretty as the pictures on the website, but who really cares?? It was soooo yummy. I think that Cliff enjoyed it too :) Here is the link if you are interested: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/
The birthday fairy came to visit Cliff! This is my friend Ashley's little girl Natalie. Natalie is fascinated with baby Lilia in my belly. :)
Here is Cliff inhaling the scent of yummy chocolatey goodness. There is a chunk of ganache missing.... I guess someone couldn't wait for me to cut it...
We ate the whole thing in one sitting!! Ha! Just kidding... but we did polish off our very large pieces with a glass of milk. Like I said before... so yummy.
Speaking of baby Lilia, I am now over 35 weeks! My doctor told me on Tuesday that if I went into labor now they probably wouldn't stop it. I guess that's nice to know. We also talked about the upcoming ultrasound and what the plan with my placenta was. He said that we will reevaluate next week when we get the results and possibly set up a consultation with the OBs at Yokosuka if my placenta still has not moved. He didn't seem too concerned but he did hand off my prenatal record to me just in case :)
There's the belly! All out in front as everyone says... Cliff says he wants his basketball back, but I'm thinking we may have graduated to beach ball at this point. I'm definitely ready to have my body back, though. Cliff and I have issued a 30 day eviction notice. It's getting increasingly difficult to tie my shoes and shave my legs. I have trouble getting my socks on and getting out of bed too. It really hurts to be on my feet for too long. I have to give a shout out to my mother for working on her feet all day when she was pregnant with me. Really just in general I have become more aware and more grateful for what my mother has done for me. I'm also so thankful that I have a caring husband who rubs my feet and back at night and cleans the house and puts all of our baby furniture together. He has really been a wonderful partner through all of this. His favorite thing to do right now is play "tummy tag" with Lilia. Whenever she sticks out a foot or elbow he chases it around as she moves across my belly :) It's really very sweet how excited he gets about it.

Well I guess that is it for now!

Flight suit photos

It's a tradition among the Lady Warlords to dress up in their husbands flight suits once a year and take pictures! We decided to wear their red flight suits this year rather than their usual green. I think we look great! So there ya have it - this is what my husband gets to wear to work, (red is just for Fridays, but either way they are practically pajamas!) That is the fancy painted up "show bird" in the background. The glorious SH60 Bravo... er... something like that :)
To change things up a little we also wore our husbands leather bomber jackets. I could barely zip up Cliff's flight suit over my preggo belly but I had better luck with the jacket. Can you even tell I am pregnant?
It was soooo cold on this particular morning. Windy too. We didn't mind huddling up at ALL.
Good looking group, don't ya think?

Badman Ball

Here are the Lady Warlords... and Aaron our MOUSE!
Some of the girls!
I really thought we had more pictures... :( I'm kind of bummed that we don't have a full length one of us that turned out... the only one that was taken was without a flash and really dark. I might see if I can get it lightened up. Otherwise, we will have to wait on the professionals.

So the Badman Ball is a formal event that takes place once a year here at N.A.F. Atsugi to honor the Carrier Air Wing. Badman is a call sign for CAG or the commander or something... Anywho, there is a week of sports and themed parties (Luau, margarita night, etc.) that lead up to the main event - the ball! This is one of the perks of the military. I loved dressing up and going to dances in high school, but not very many people get to continue to do that as adults. With Cliff in the military we are guaraunteed at least a couple of formal events every year. We had a lot of fun. Even without my mom here to do my hair... Cliff and Chrissy really helped a lot with getting me put together and it was fun to show off the tummy in the "fairy princess" dress my mom made me!

Almost 33 weeks

Holy HUGE right?

I had another Doctor's appointment today and here's what's up!

-I have now gained 21 lbs throughout the entire pregnancy! Yikes! I still have almost 7 weeks to go! They told me I should try to gain about 25-30, though, so I guess I am on track. It's still weird when you step on the scale... I told Cliff that if it starts to look like I am going to catch up to him, then he has to start gaining some weight too. We're not there yet...

- My glucose test came back fine.

- My blood pressure is still low and I have not experienced any swelling.

- Lilia's heart rate was good. She kicked the doctor again while she was checking.

- My placenta has NOT moved so I will be having another ultrasound. Again, worst case scenario with a low lying placenta, they just schedule a c-section.

- Nausea and vomiting have returned, so I basically got a two month break from that. This time around it's due to heartburn and the fact that my stomach is in my ribs. Evey time I lay down I feel like puking. It's fun!

- Apparently I am carrying pretty high? (Again, another reason why eating is not so much fun.)

- I haven't gotten any stretch marks.... yet. Although I did confuse my ribs for stretch marks the other day :) Cliff was like "Jill, have you ever even seen stretch marks??"

- I had a pregnant moment at the Cherry Blossom festival. Cliff went to get something out of my purse and said, "Jill?" while holding up our cordless house phone. For some unbeknown reason I had brought it in my purse to the flight line...

- Sleeping is such a pain. My back hurts so much no matter which side I am on and I have to pee like 5 times a night.

- We got our stroller and car seat!! I am so excited about them!

Dressin' up the Dining Room Area - Thai Style

Well... sorta Thai style... or not really. I did get some place mats and a table runner while we were there. I think that they go really well with my color scheme!
There is definitely something Asian going on in here... with the bamboo mat on the floor and now the place mats. I love it! (The flowers are from the baby shower on Saturday.)
There are elephants in both patterns!

I also got a table cloth and some prints that I hope to get framed soon. Don't you just love that pink and gold combination!!?
It was so much fun to shop at the night markets in Thailand. There are no set prices so you just go into it with a price in mind and DON'T BACK DOWN! I walked away a few times and the vendor chased me down and gave me what I wanted :) It reminded me a lot of haggling with the Gypsies in Spain. Wouldn't it be great if we could all walk into a department store and haggle a bit?

Baby Shower With the OSC Girls!

My good friends Chrissy and Kristin threw me a baby shower on Saturday! They did such a fantastic job! I am truly grateful to have such good friends over here in Japan.
They picked these flowers out themselves!
The color scheme was green and PINK of course.
Lilia's nursery is going to be pink and green too... except for the blue carpet... whoops!
Delicious food!
Mother- to - be tiara
Ashley, Erin, and Mari!
Yum!
Lee, Robyn, and Amelia! (Amelia just had her own little bundle of joy in January!)
My friend Angela. She was kind enough to take pictures along with my friend Mari during the shower. Angela also visited Thailand recently and was a big help in planning our trip!
This is Aaron our "Mouse!" (Male spouse) He braved all of this estrogen to come support me and Cliff!
Yay for pink!!
A beautiful print for Lilia's room from Mari! She also got us a kokeshi doll :)
Yay for books! I LOVE children's books. I am so excited to read to my children. My mom read to us every night and I think that is a big reason that I still love to read so much today!
ADORABLE sleeper in a Japanese print. Soooo cute! Erin got us a couple of these and they come with matching hats!
Pink!!
Snuzzle!
I've heard this pack will last me about.... a day :)
Gorgeous smocked dress and bonnet that my mom sent for me to open at this shower. Isn't she talented??
Chrissy, (who along with Kristin organized the shower) surprised me with this fabulous teddy bear quilt that she MADE. We were laughing because she tricked me!! She had been consulting me about the fabrics and techniques for making this quilt for months! and I had no idea that she was making it for me.
Isn't it darling! It's so soft too. I love all of the different prints she chose. (That's her in the background)