Braving The Streets

Hi all! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and for those who live in Oki, I hope everyone stayed dry! I didn't leave the house after Saturday night.  Sunday was mainly grey and drizzle-y..but come Sunday night? Oh boy, did it rain, rain, rain!! Monday was very rainy and windy as well...great days to have the excuse to just cuddle up on the couch in my jammies and watch Hulu with the pups!

Now it's Wednesday (actually, I thought it was Tuesday when I started typing this post...oh how the time plays mind tricks on me!) and I am about to start the Swiffering and dusting because the doggie trainer is coming by the place tonight. I'm really excited to get some good tips on training two dogs (let's face it..Petrie can use some brushing up on) and finding ways to get the doggies to be in the same room and not feel the need to play hard, hard, hard. Too many drinks have been knocked over on the coffee table due to the fact the two little fur balls wrestle their way under it and end up knocking their heads on the table. The cleaning never ends with these two! ha!

Tonight is also the big night that I am practicing driving around the island! Normally, I would have waited until the weekend so I can practice during the day, but since a couple new friends have invited me out to lunch tomorrow, I figure I must the driving now. My anxiety has risen quite a bit at the thought of venturing out, on my own, tomorrow to not only drive around my base, but to drive all the way up to Matt's work and back, then drive to another base further south to find a restaurant I have never seen and ,furthermore, figure out how to park a big minivan (Matt's car). The GPS system here is a joke. It's basically just reading a map on your phone, hoping your blinking blue dot is moving on the road you're supposed to be on.  Not much of hands-free help, is it?! I really don't want to drive. The thought of doing so without much practice is freaking me out. I'm sweating right now just thinking about it!  But when asked out by new friends (whom I've yet to meet..they're mutual friends of a new friend here who were kind enough to reach out to me) you just have to take up the offers! It's how you get out. It's how you meet people and make better friends.  It's living a life of your own that doesn't just consist of talking to doggies all day and waiting for your husband to come home so you can get started on dinner.  I'm excited! 1.) these girls seem super nice. 2.) we are eating at a place that serves pizza...pizza! I've been craving a good pizza since moving here!  and 3.) breaking the ice with these roads will be awesome. I can maybe even start borrowing the car more often (until I get my own) and start going to the gym. Gotta get back into my size 4's!

I'll update you on how everything goes! Imagine being on a small island with tons and tons of Asian drivers...then throw me into the mix...the thought makes me laugh. As long as I remember to drive on the left side of the road I think I will be okay.  *sigh...here we go....

The Home Front

So, I know I have been talking a lot about the food and local cuisine, but I haven't really talked much about how the house is coming along!

We are the corner unit of a 4-unit multiplex.  The outside, so far, is still looking bland and a little dirty but seeing what some of the neighbors did with theirs gives me a few ideas. I actually ordered a painted wooden sign from Etsy that reads, "Home Is Where The Marine Corps Sends Us" with smaller wooden signs hanging from that which read where you've been stationed. Since this is our first duty station (I don't count Sacramento) together, ours is going to show Okinawa, Japan. I'm pretty excited for it to arrive! Next chore will be to figure out the rules about planting flowers and plants. I may just have to go with big planter pots (which may be the better way to go since the poisonous Habu snakes hide out in unkempt shrubbery! No thanks...). 

The "hospital kitchen" with it's stainless steel counters, grocery store floors and yellowed plastic counters, has come a long way now! The very first thing we did was paint the cabinets a pretty blue color. It's not quite as light as Sky Blue, but it's still pretty light. Yesterday, I finished painting the walls in the kitchen white. With little splashes of red, pink and yellow, the kitchen is really cute (and clean/crisp). My goal is to always have fresh flowers in there :)  Another thing I love about the kitchen? Sunlight!! That's something that was sorely missed back at our old apartment. This kitchen is big enough to set up our tall cocktail table as our new breakfast nook area, complete with red flowers, Mickey Mimosa glasses, and a couple red and yellow Mickey plates (something you'll notice in the kitchen is that it is very Disney..we went a little crazy shopping on our honeymoon lol). 


With furniture set up in the house, it doesn't look as bland and blah as before.  I have decided that I want to paint the living room now.  We have an oatmeal colored couch and ottoman, black entertainment center and a black dining room table with black chairs. Actually, the correct term is Espresso but whatever, it's black. Sitting in here now I am craving some color! I'm thinking of painting the walls a shade of yellow. Maybe a light marigold color? I think it would lighten the room a bit plus it would go along with the color scheme of the kitchen. Problem is that at the Makeman (local Japanese Home Depot) store there was only two yellow options and they were not what I was looking for: pastel Easter egg yellow and bright neon yellow. I would ask if they could mix the two, but it's very hard finding English speaking workers and my pocket Japanese language book doesn't really have any "can you mix these two paints?" options!  The search will continue.

Moving on..going upstairs, we painted the banister a raspberry pink color. I know, it's a little out there, but when else will I get a change to paint a pink railing? Um, never? The stairway is so depressing, with it's yellow lighting, hospital floors, yellowed walls...I just had to add color! I also want to find black and white paisley print contact/wall paper that I can stick to poster board then apply that to the stair risers. I think the hot pink will make more sense, then.  We haven't touched the two extra bedrooms, but we did paint our room a light, fairytale blue. It really makes all the difference. Our sheer ivory curtains are being shipped here as we speak! The room is just big enough for our Cal King bed and a small night stand. Oh, and the small entertainment stand with our TV on it. That's it. Our dressing rooms are the first guest room for Matt and mine is the walk-in closet in our master bedroom. I just painted some of the bathroom white yesterday. I have to wait to buy more paint before I can finish. In the meantime, I'm really debating on painting the yellow plastic cabinets the same hot pink color or the leftover blue from the kitchen. What do you think? If a bathroom is going to be stark white then it needs a good contrasting color, I think.  Matt is such a trooper letting me paint things girlie and pink lol

Well, that's the little tour of our new home! Now that we are getting settled, I think I want to stay here versus move all over again (for when they have to renovate). I can't handle the thought of all our things being packed up again only for me to have to unpack again and repaint again and put my body through stress...you guessed it..again! But, we'll do what we have to do. (Just don't mind me bitching about it part of the time! )

BTW Here are some ocean shots from a rest stop we found: