Noah Speaks...

Noah turned six months old on February 22nd. He's now making attempts at feeding himself, helps his mom and dad with clothing and diaper changes (he understands "feet up, Noah" and "hands up, Noah"--pretty amazing!!), and survived his first real in classroom English lesson with some of my old Japanese students. During the classroom experience, he was very patient and EXTREMELY good...a perfect little angel...especially considering that a mob of fifteen 4 and 5 year olds surrounded him after the lesson with many exuberant "ooohhh"s and "ahhhh"s. They would smile at him and he would grin right back.

Here's a video of him saying his first word:

Photos to come!!!

Good Night!

Amanda

Overseas...again????

Chris and I were discussing the course of his naval career last night and where it might take us--Hawaii (already "booked"), back to Whidbey Island, Annapolis, D.C., San Diego...and then I turned the conversation to mutually-agreed upon, unmentionable territory...ANOTHER overseas tour. Did I just "go there?" Did I open a can of worms? Maybe...maybe not. ;)

As many of you know, I wasn't thrilled, initially, about the prospect of coming to Japan. Three years ago, I had completely different school plans laid out for myself and because I was hearing the undeniable "tick-tock" of a certain biological clock (Chris', not mine :) ), it meant that I was running out of time in achieving them. Actually, the words "not thrilled" do not begin to accurately describe our reaction to coming here...devastated was more like it. Well, God certainly had different plans in mind for us--my career included. But, I've realized that's not a bad thing. Despite my boredom in being in Misawa, Japan has given us Noah and has allowed Chris and I to both complete school. It also paved the way for my career to take a different course, which in turn, allows me far more flexibility, opportunity, and comes with an extra special perk--the potential of being able to work out of my home. :)

(Arrgghhh, I got sidetracked...sorry. Back to future station possibilities)

Several of our friends have had the opportunity to be stationed at various overseas locations in Europe--Rota (Spain), Naples (Italy), Sigonella (Italy), and locations in Belgium and Germany. They all loved it...but who wouldn't love Italy, right??? :) So, I thought, "Why not?" I've lived in North America, lived in Asia, adding "Europe" to that list would be extra-special, super-duper cool! So...let's see...I would then be just be four continents away from having achieved residency status across the globe!!! :) Ha, ha!!

So, we're seriously entertaining the idea. Chris thought he could get us to any of those locations in five years--during his department head tour. I think it would be pretty cool to live in one of those places and use it as a springboard to various destinations in Europe, as well as maybe Africa.

Egypt, maybe? Because I've always wanted to see the pyramids....


Love to all,
Amanda

Out of Sorts...

Maybe it's the yucky snow that's sitting over a foot high on my lawn...maybe it's all the crappy drivers that cut me off on a daily basis...or maybe it's because I only have 9 channels on my television and can only watch just so much of Dr. Phil and Britney. Ahhh, wait. I don't want to admit that I keep up with Brit-Brit's erractic, highly delusional, bipolar behavior. Back to the weather...let's just say it's the weather.... *sigh*


Regardless of the reason, I'm finding myself becoming desperate to leave this joint. Remind me not to put Misawa, Japan, on any list of "Top Ten Places to Live" anytime soon. I'm really bored, and frankly I'm beginning to wonder if I've grown so accustomed to military life that I start getting a little antsy when I can feel the grass growing under my feet (figuratively speaking--I haven't seen grass in months). Yes, Noah and school keep me very busy, but there's only so much you can do within the confinement of your home and getting ANYWHERE--even to the metropolitan area an hour south of here--cost the equivalent of ordering 25 Tall White Chocolate Mochas at Starbucks, which BTW, is the only reason I'd want to go to Morioka anyway...to drink some Starbucks. Speaking of Starbucks, the base finally got a clue and started offering Starbucks coffee! So, scratch Morioka off my "to do" list--there's no reason for me to go there anymore when I can get my coffee fix here.

I digress... :)



So, I'm beginning to put a list together of things I want to accomplish, career-wise, when we finally get to Hawaii. Whenever I'm feeling a bit blue, contemplating future plans and ambitions is always a picker-upper-- "Numero Uno" being that I put the finishing touches on the degree I've been working on for the last year and a half. I should only have one class left when we PCS in Feb 2009--yippee!! Second, I'm hoping to chase the dream of starting my own grant proposal writing biz. That should be fun. The third and fourth kind of fall into the same category--volunteer work as a member of a board of directors--but in different arenas. I'm looking at being on the BOD of both a charitable organization and an association. Time to put all that knowledge I've been gaining in the virtual classroom to work in the real world. It would be awesome to do both. Actually, I think it's the fact that I'm getting all this "nonprofit management knowledge" and have no way to apply it that's really giving me the itch to leave Japan. Aside from my importnat roles as mommy and spousey, I'm feeling professionally useless. That's got to change...and soon.



Anyway, here's a new pic of the little guy. He'll be six months old this coming week. My little precious one! He's working on his "M" sounds, so I'm hoping it won't be too much longer before I hear the word "ma-ma" fall from his lips. :)



Later!



Amanda

Just the two of us...

Usually, I'm the one behind the camera taking pictures, so it's rare that Noah and I get a photo opportunity together. Chris managed to get a couple last night of us cuddling together on the couch. He's such a good boy! (and so is Noah!) :)

Love,

Amanda

February Updates...

Here's what's new for our family:




Noah turned five months old on January 22, 2008. He is eating solids and still "talking" up a storm. He loves his activity gym and taking strolls in his Baby Bjorn.

Chris and I are still plugging away at school. Work is a bit crazy for him right now, so getting in "family time" has proved to be rather difficult over the last few weeks. That leads to my next announcement...












A scheduled family getaway to CHINA!




We're visiting three of the country's cities--Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian--in April and are excited to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Terracotta Warriors. It should be exciting to see how Beijing has prepared itself for the upcoming 2008 Olympics. What an adventure! Noah will be quite the world traveler before he even reaches a year of age! :)

~ Amanda

Winter blues=drastic measures

When I get bored and need a pick-me-up, I tend to do drastic things to my hair, which usually amounts to either dying it or chopping it off. I guess the winter blues kicked in and once again, my hair was subjected to my desperate need for some sort of transition. I didn't go too crazy, but the process required five hours, lots of bleach and foils and toner, and two...I repeat...TWO haircuts. :) I have massive amounts of curl now (thanks to Noah) and going shorter was the only way to manage the stuff. That and a handy-dandy flat iron....

Pics to come!

~Amanda

Spinning

I started going with my friend, Erin, to spinning class right before the holidays--I LOVE IT!!! So I was very sad to have to miss this evening's class--Chris was on 24 hour duty at work and therefore couldn't watch Noah.

Unfortunately, it looks like I may have to find a babysitter if I want to make this a permanent routine. As of the end of this month, Chris is scheduled for a lot of travel, leaving me to fend for myself with the little guy. It's frustrating, because this is HARD exercise which I really enjoy doing.

On a positive note, however, I've located the parent/toddler room at the gym which will enable me to work out several times a week without having to worry about making babysitter arrangements. How cool is that?!?! It would actually be nice for Noah to "grow up" in the gym--making it something that he assumes is an ordinary and routine part of one's life, instead of sitting in front of the television all day playing video games. Hopefully, we can get him into golf (I'm taking lessons this Spring) and tennis as he gets older and we can do a lot of family activities on the course and court. Until then, he'll have to settle for the "tummy time"--something which he absolutely hates. :)

~ Amanda