Monday, July 2, 2007, 10:55 PM - Family, Nathan, Lisa, PC, Food, Japan
Well, Lisa and Nathan successfully made it back to the States yesterday/today. We got to the airport an hour and a half early (normally that's WAY too early, but we figured Nathan would like to play on the inside playground for a while). As soon as we walked in the terminal, we saw like 500 people in a line that snaked across all of the ANA counters and into the middle of the building. We looked at each other in utter disbelief...never has it been so busy in our small little airport!!
Lisa waited in line with all the stuff while Nathan and I went and changed his diaper, played on the airplane playground, watched the airplanes and airport trucks drive around the tarmac, etc. It wasn't until 11:20am that Lisa finally got up to the counter (for a 12:00pm flight)!!! After about 20 minutes, Lisa got all their tickets AND an ANA escort to take them to the plane. I couldn't go past security, so it was kind of a quick goodbye. After talking to Lisa today, she said that the airline lady walked them all the way to their seats and helped install the car seat too!!
I'll let Lisa tell the rest of the story on her blog, but that's the beginning part.
So, what did I do with my new found bachelorhood? Mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, read my book, and tried a GREAT new ramen restaurant. I'd been wanting to go there for the last year or so, but it just never worked out (they open late). Anyway, the place is basically a shack on the side of the road but their ramen is awesome! Just like the stuff we had in Sapporo. The have a set menu where you choose what type of ramen you want (soy sauce, miso, etc) and you get a drink, gyoza, japanese salad, and garlic fried rice all for about $8. Definitely a keeper.
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Saturday, January 20, 2007, 08:00 PM - Family, Nathan, Lisa, PC, Japan, Pictures
I've been lazy about putting pictures up lately, but today is your lucky day! 17 pictures that we've taken around Sunset Beach (right near American Village) in the last couple of days (click the related link at the bottom to see all of them).
;)
The first four (including the one to the left) are from about a week ago when we went down there to watch the sunset from the beach. Of course we had to stop and get Lisa a Starbucks (and let Nathan stare at the bad ass ferris wheel), so just as we rolled up to the beach we saw the last 10 seconds of the sun setting. DAMMIT!!! As I said to Lisa, we were one Carmel Macchiato too late.
;)
This picture is of the sun rise the morning Lisa drove me in to work because I left my car at the airport. Let's be realistic, when I say airport I really mean the building we call the "terminal" on the flightline. It's really just a waiting area with a door onto the flightline. Aaahhh, gotta love flying Sumo Air!!!
;)
And finally, the pictures from this morning. Today we were going to look at the AN-124 on MCAS Futenma, but it turned out that it took off about 30 minutes before we left. Oh well, we'll go see the one that's flying in tomorrow!!! Afterall, it's the second largest aircraft in the world! Anyway, we decided to go get Starbucks and walk around the beach a little bit. Nathan enjoyed eating his chocolate scone, feeding the pigeons, and being fearless by trying to walk up and down all the stairs by himself. He also tried to jump down from the picnic table bench and...well, you can see what happened:
;)
Don't worry, his nose broke his fall!
And, lastly, a little bit of Engrish for all you lucky readers out there. At the snack bar, they sell Squid Arm Fries for only $5!!!
;)
You also have the option to rent beach ambrellas and ash trays. Sweet!!
;)
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006, 03:02 AM - Family, Nathan, Lisa, PC
Lately everyone has been asking me how things are going, how I'm doing, yada yada yada. The answer as of late has been "busy busy busy" followed by a big sigh, rubbing of the temples, and shaking of the head.
On my way home tonight I was gearing up for a big fight with Lisa because when I talked to her aroud 5:30pm,, I told her that I'd be late tonight and would miss dinner. This would mark the 4th dinner I've missed with the family in the last 2 weeks. So, I was all ready to come in and be like "hey, I've got a lot going on at work and I'm trying to do the best job I can being a good husband, father, and Marine so cut me some slack".
As I walked up the sidewalk, I noticed that the light in Nathan's bedroom was on which could only mean one thing at 7:15pm: the bedtime routine had started. I opened the door and wasn't greeted with the typical "DADDY'S HOME!!!!" Nope, tonight I walked upstairs and went in to Nathan's room and was greeted by a "dadduh" from Nathan and a "oh look, Daddy's home just in time to say good night to you" from Lisa. Of course I gave her the evil eye at that time...but then I just looked at Nathan and realized what a jerk I am.
My son, the one who I'm supposed to love, nurture, teach, protect, etc hasn't seen me for about 13 hours. He briefly saw me at 6:15am when I left for work, but that's it. At first I was thinking "hey, I've got a lot of things to do at work in order to prepare for this exercise". Just from looking into his eyes, staring at his face, and touching his skin, all that crap fell away and I saw myself as being a failure in the last couple of weeks. I'm going to be gone for more than 30 days for work, there's no reason why I need to extend that just because I can't get everything accomplished in one day.
If I can't get everything done during the normal 7:30 - 4:30 work day, then I need to do that work after Lisa and Nathan go bed. For most stuff, it's not worth being away from my family because THEY are the priority.
After I kissed Nathan goodnight, we went in and changed our sheets then went downstairs and cleaned the kitchen, picked up the family room, and ate dinner. Actually, I ate dinner while Lisa did all of those things. So what's the other thing I feel like a jerk about? Yup, you got it: not only is Nathan paying for my workload, but Lisa is too. She's acting like a single Mom, doing all the clean up, laundary, cooking, etc ON TOP OF taking care of Nathan. Her day never ends and yet I expect to come home after a LOOOONG day of work and relax.
See, I told you I was a jerk.
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Saturday, June 17, 2006, 11:25 PM - Family, Lisa, PC
We were married on June 16th, 2001 - 5 years ago yesterday! Wow...that's a lot to take in! Yesterday morning I came home at about 8:00am after being on duty the previous night and showered. I spent a little time with Nathan and Lisa and then went back in to work for a couple of hours. At 1:00pm we had a bouling tournament to raise money for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball in November. The HQ pretty much shutdown and everyone was at the bowling alley having a great time. I cut out a little early to get back here and spend more time with Lisa on our anniversary.
When I got back, Lisa was cleaning the kitchen in preparation for our baby sitters coming over. Lisa of course asked when she was going to get her present
She gave me mine right away. She made an awesome slideshow from all of our pictures together, cataloging our time together. She also made me a really cute picture matte that has all of the important dates from the time we first met up until now. Also, as you already saw on Lisa's blog, she sent me the same card as Marc and Vivian!! After she finished unloading all of her presents, I couldn't very well hold out on her so I gave her the tanzanite necklace I bought for her.
Of course we also got a great gift from my parents: an ice shaver! We've been wanting one for a long time but never really looked into it. Well...we've made drinks for us and Jeff and Stephanie the last couple of nights
Tonight, for example, we recreated the "Kiss on the Lips" from the Cruise over Christmas.
After the gift exchange, we finished cleaning up the house and went out to dinner. We got take out from Ono Kau Kau and went to the sea wall to eat. We watched the sun set (kind of...it was pretty cloudy) and came home after about two hours. Jeff and Stephanie were like "we weren't expecting you home for a couple more hours...what's going on?" Ha ha ha...little do they know that we don't go out!!!
Anyway, it was a great anniversary and we're looking forward to seeing what the next 5 years holds for us.
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Monday, May 15, 2006, 03:19 AM - Family, Lisa
Happy Mother's Day! I was hoping that today would be as beautiful as yesterday, but it wasn't. Oh well, we made the best of it. Nathan and I gave Lisa her card this morning. Now she has a set of 9 month old hand and feet prints!!! She got some other nick nacks along the way this morning also. We went down to Camp Kinser and had Sunday brunch at Kinser Surf Side. It was really pretty. We were the first ones there, so that was kind of neat! It was just as good as the one at the Butler Officer's Club, but cheaper and less crowded. After that we ran some errands, came home, and sat outside for a while. The sky was pretty cloudy but it was nice out. In fact, it reminded us a lot of Colorado. So, we had dinner outside and then used our little Yakiniku grill to roast marshmellows for s'mores! I certainly had a good time. Let's see what Lisa says on her blog before we make the final call though 
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