Adios!

Corey and I (and my mom and dad) are off to Guadalajara tomorrow morning bright and early! A Thanksgiving full of yummy mexican food, sisterly bonding, family time, and hopefully many fun memories- sounds good! I will miss the traditional Thanksgiving feast (I can hardly stand the thought of missing all the delicious stuffing), but I think our little trip will be well worth it. We'll be back Sunday!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Have a good one!!

Happy Dance!!

As of yesterday at 3:31 (a minute AFTER the office closed), we officially have all of the months and months worth of paperwork we've been working on for Corey's assignment turned in and should have our orders within 5 days!!! YAY! No more stress, and Japan here we come!!!!!

Surprise!

So apparently we'll be in Japan for 4 years now, not 3. Good to know a month before we leave. 

Nihongo o benkyoo shimashita!

This is what I have spent the majority of my day doing:

Yes, playing My Japanese Coach on Nintendo DS. It's super addictive! And actually fairly useful... at least for vocab. And it's reminding me of everything I learned (and then presently forgot) in my Japanese class last summer. I'll get the hang of this language eventually. Hopefully I'll have the basics down by the time we leave. I'm on level 29 already! Woo hoo!

Close call!

So Corey was just told (after specifically asking MONTHS ago and being told the opposite) that I will in fact need a government passport for our move to Japan.  We're supposed to leave in roughly 6 weeks, and technically they say it takes 8 weeks to process (although the gal there told us it's been taking 3-4 weeks recently, so we have our fingers crossed).

So we go down bright and early yesterday morning to the base office to be sure we're there right when it opens. We spend almost an hour figuring out which forms to fill out and how to do it (because, of course, like all things military, no one in the office knows what is going on). I've brought all my documents- birth certificate, social security card, marriage license, military ID and current regular passport. We finally get done with everything, turn in the paperwork with my current passport for them to send out, and then leave and cross our fingers that my new passport will be here in time.

Corey and I go to the gym on base and play a fun game of raquetball, carefree as birds.

We're in the car driving home, and the conversation turns to our trip to Mexico for Thanksgiving. All of a sudden Corey turns to me and says, "Ummm... We're going to Mexico. You need your passport!"

DOH!!

So we drive back as fast as we can praying that they haven't sent out our stuff yet. We were in luck! So we spend another hour RE-filling out all the forms in a different way so that I won't have to give them my current passport. But we left the building with our forms taken care of and my passport in hand! So all is well!

Phew!

I know it's getting old, but...

...it's still wrong. So I'll still post about it. This is a blog by my *beloved* Darren Hayes (former lead of Savage Garden): I Wanna Grow Old With You

Read it and weep. On a good note, I know someone who voted yes on 8 who has changed their mind since the election. Timing sucks, but better late than never. One step closer...

Slowly but surely...

So I'm sloooowly loading the wedding pictures onto my picasa page. There are over 2000. Lots of really good ones, lots of ones to be weeded out. But they'll all be up shortly! 

On an unrelated note, I just bought a BUNCH of Daily Minerals trial size makeup for $3. Woooo hooo!! 

I have nothing else to say. I've been doing nothing but loading pictures, and looking at pictures, and organizing pictures, etc for the last 3 days. But it's so fun!!!

P.S.

And, by the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIBBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got the pictures!!

They're here!!! Finally! There are literally thousands of pictures. I've spent the last 9 hours loading them to our computer and looking at them! I can't even begin to sort through them or post any tonight, but they will be a-comin'! Woohoo!! Finally!

The Countdown Begins!!

Wed. Jan 21st at 9pm. 

I will be scouring the internet to find when it is posted sometime after that to watch (that's assuming we will have our computers and internet by then). Or, I will watch it dubbed in Japanese.

Stupid having to go to Japan during the last 2 seasons of Lost!!!

Pictures on the way!

Our wedding photographer is getting our pictures in the mail tomorrow morning! YAY! I cannot wait to see them!

Día de gracias en español!

Three weeks from today Corey, my parents and I will be in Guadalajara visiting Kibby (Katherine to those of you not cool enough to pull off the Kib). I'm really excited! We get there on Thanksgiving and leave the following Sunday, so it'll be a short trip. Although we'll pack in a lot of fun to make sure it's well worth it! I've never been to Mexico before so that'll be really awesome, but honestly I'm most excited to spend time with my sister. It's going to be so sucky to basically not see her for 3 years (aside from a visit or two I'm sure). So this trip will be really great! I can't remember the last time we've had a real family vacation with all 4 of us (5 now with Corey). It's been many years. I can't wait!

How far have we come?

Well, no surprises about our president-elect. It was a historical night, and of course I am proud that our country has progressed to the point where we can elect a black president, but that's about it. Watching all the happy, teary-eyed people celebrating on TV last night made me sad. I'm afraid that they're not going to get what they thought they were voting for. Our country is at rock bottom, everyone wants "hope and change" in a profound sense, and Obama hijacked people's dreams and turned them into an empty catch phrase to win the election. Nothing about his voting record shows any modicum of "change." He's bound by the corporations who got him into office by paying for the most expensive campaign in history. He isn't what he pretends to be. He fooled us all.

Will things get better? Of course. I believe they would have gotten better if McCain had been elected too. Let's face it... there's nowhere to go but up at this point. But will we get sufficient health care reform? I doubt it. Will we drastically cut military spending and give proper support to education? Probably not. Most importantly, are we going to get corporate lobbyists out of Washington? Absolutely not. And let's face it, "we the people" will continue to be screwed while corporations control our government.

Obama may have fooled us to get into office. I have very little faith in him. However, his campaign did kick people in the butt and wake them up. People are mobilized now; we're waiting for him to cash in on his promises of change. He'll be held to a high standard, and maybe, just maybe, he'll be forced to start acting, voting, and fighting along the lines of his campaign's slogan. I don't see it happening myself, but I'm hoping he'll prove me wrong. He has the chance to kick some butt, and turn me into the fool for having no faith in him. 

Finally, I would like to address my shock and disgust that prop 8 passed in CA. It's sad that on the night our country makes such a historical decision that reminds us all of how far we've come as a nation, the most progressive and liberal state in the nation passes a blatantly discriminatory and unconstitutional law taking away the rights of its citizens. Discrimination is apparently alive and kicking, so how far have we really come?

Victory is mine!!

Take THAT you stinking ants!!! Liquid Terro Ant baits. Mwahahaha! I have 6 of these going on in the kitchen. You're going down, suckas!

I Love My Husband!

He's so sweet! He kissed me goodbye and left to go to his friend's house in Roseville (20-30 mins away). 20 minutes later he came back through the door and gave me a big kiss and said, "I just came back because I had to kiss you!" Then he left and drove to his friends house. I feel loved!

So obviously I'm in a better mood now! Corey, a glass of wine, and some time to mellow out helped me along that path. 

Cozy day!

I'm LOVING the weather today! It's so cozy! I'm having a blast just curled up on the couch in my pajamas (actually they're Corey's pjs- even more comfy!) watching TV and playing Super Mario Galaxy. I love the "view" from our apartment (of a dirt field and I-5) when it's raining because it's so wide open and it's fun to watch sheets of rain poring down. 

I made a red velvet cake last night and it's quite delicious! 

Not the prettiest thing I've ever made, but it got the job done! Notice my Japanese labeled bread box in the background... :) I'm learning! Watashi wa tabemasu o pan! 

That's all for now folks, I'll get back to my rainy day activities! Enjoy this wonderful weather!

Insomnia

It's just about 4am and I haven't gotten to sleep yet. Dang it. I'm quite tired, but once I hit the pillow my brain just starts turning. For instance, I just remembered that I need to get my car smog checked and update the registration soon. Which got me thinking about how we need to sell both our cars, which is going to be a major pain and a money-losing endeavor, which stresses me out to the max. ARG! Anyone want to buy a 2002 Honda Civic or a 2007 Honda Accord???

Another thing I can't stop thinking about is getting our wedding photos. It's been 8 weeks and we still don't have them! We're only getting digital copies, so I'm not quite sure what the hold up is. Most people say it's typical to get them within 4 weeks. So grrr. I'm REALLY looking forward to making a wedding scrapbook and doing some fun things with them before we have to pack up all our stuff. I want to get a move on!!

As a side note, I rented the first season of Arrested Development tonight and got a decent way into it. I know it's supposed to be this amazingly awesome show and everyone loves it, but I'm just not digging it that much to be honest. A couple characters are funny, but otherwise... eh. I find my attention wandering a lot. 

Alright, bedtime- take 2...

Welcome to my blog!

I've decided to jump on the blog bandwagon. Here is my initial attempt- I'm sure it'll change as I figure out what I'm doing. 

Happy Halloween! We actually got a trick-or-treater tonight! The bag of candy I got wasn't for naught after all. I didn't dress up or do anything exciting (Corey had to work tonight), but in the spirit of Halloween, here is a pic of the last time I dressed up as Iron Chef Sakai:

Well that's it; I don't have a reason for this post other than to see what it looks like on the page. :)