April and May 2014

 Biggest news ever!!   We're having a baby!  More specifically, we're having a girl!!!  She's due to arrive September 19th.

 

We waited to share our news with everyone (besides our close family and friends) until we knew Baby Gal was healthy and well.  Prior to that, I was happy to be able to tell many of our friends and family in person, while I was back home in the month of March. 

  My first trimester was about as expected.  I didn't have much energy, but I did okay.  I also didn't have much of an appetite at all and even avoided many foods.  Sadly, my love for Japanese curry is (hopefully only temporarily) gone. I also couldn't handle any other strongly flavored food, so my favorite Thai and Indian restaurants down the street were out of the question.  Also, I did a lot of apologizing to Bryan since cooking was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do.  I'm normally pretty good about meal planning and cooking full meals several nights of the week, but it just wasn't happening.  While I didn't have any particular cravings in the first trimester, I ate a lot of carbs, especially cereal (Hello Wheat Chex!).   Although I, of course, didn't enjoy feeling nauseated around the sight or even slightest smell of food, I guess you could say that it worked out pretty okay because I barely gained any weight at all.  This also benefited our budget, since when you don't have much energy or an appetite, you don't want to go out and eat! 

Me and Baby Gal at 22 weeks, finally starting to show a bit of a bump (if I wear something fitted)!

For those of you who are wondering--yes, I will be giving birth in Japan.  However, I will be delivering at the much larger Navy base, Yokosuka, not at a Japanese hospital.  I'm very happy that everyone that I've spoken with who has delivered there has nothing but positive things to say.  Unfortunately, my child will not have dual citizenship though, just a sweet Certificate of Birth Abroad.  Yokosuka is not far, distance wise from us, but traffic can be pretty terrible, depending on the time of day.  Therefore, about 10 days before my due date (or sooner if there are any complications) we will be going down to what they call The Storks Nest, a hotel where all the pregnant ladies from other US bases within a couple of hours go to hang out until baby arrives.  I'm not particularly excited about this part so I may hold out until just a few days before my due date.  I'm gonna wing it!  Let me know if you have any other questions!

One of Bryan's cousin's daughters (his second cousin??) asked us to help out for her Flat Stanley project.  We took Stanley around base to see the planes and helos, the sakura, to the sushi-go-round, and on a train ride.  It was a fun little project that we enjoyed.

I had a few days off of work in April, including the day Cooking Club was held.  I usually don't get to attend because of my work schedule, so I jumped at the opportunity.  Cooking Club is attended by some Officers' spouses from base as well as Japanese ladies who live in the nearby community.  Lucky for us, most of them speak English fairly well.  We alternate between American and Japanese recipes every month.  This particular month we were teaching them how to make some American brunch classics.

Jimena and Christine worked on the fruit salad.

Kristin and Amanda made some delicious waffles.

Desiree was teaching us some new ways to dye Easter eggs, including using old silk neck ties!  We also made a spinach and strawberry salad and eggs benedict.

Every spring the base holds The Friendship Festival, a day where the local community is welcome to come on base.  The main attractions are getting to see the planes and helicopters, meeting the pilots, and buying American food.  They have to show proper identification to get on to base (as I always do too), but since there's soooo many people who want to come (I believe over 50,000 this year!) the line is very long--it wraps around part of the base, probably almost a mile long.  Many of the commands and groups use this day as a major fundraising opportunity.  This was the first year that AOSA had a cupcake stand.  I helped make the signs, baked a couple dozen cupcakes, and worked a shift selling them.  I believe we sold around 75 dozen very patriotic cupcakes and a lot of bottles of water.  The money raised from the event goes directly back to the base community, by means of the scholarships and grants that AOSA gives out every year.  Last year they were able to give more than $30,000 back to the community. 

Me, in the middle, with some other AOSA ladies.

The pilots are treated like celebrities on this day!   People line up to sit in some of the planes and helicopters, of course take pictures with them, and even have the pilots autograph posters. 

The clinic had a Dining Out, a fancy traditional dinner for Officers that many commands in the Navy have every year.  It's a really funny (strange) night.  We all get dressed up, sit in order according to your years of service, and then have a list of rules to follow.  If you break any of the rules, anyone can call you out, and then you have to take a shot from The Grog, which is a nasty mix of many different drinks.  The rules are set by the committee who plans the event.  Some rules this year stated that you couldn't speak a foreign language (even though we're in Japan and several spouses are Japanese), you weren't allowed to address anyone by their rank (which you normally do), you had to have the correct uniform, you were not allowed to be late, you weren't allowed to bring a drink from cocktail hour into the dining room, you were not allowed to speak to the head table directly, and many, many more.  It's all silly.  The whole night is mostly scripted between the President and the Vice.  It was fun, but strange. 

It's easy to look good when your date is in Dress Whites. 

Karen, Kristin, and I, trying to show off our pregnant bellies.  I didn't pick the best dress for that. 

Most of the Officers who attended, mostly doctors and dentists from the clinic. 

We finally went to a sumo tournament!  In fact, we went to the last day of the tournament, when all the good guys have their matches.  It was much more fun than I was expecting.  We had a great group of friends with us too.  The matches start in the morning, around 9am. However, most people don't show up to the event until the last couple hours, around 2pm or so.  Each match is actually really fast, once it starts, maybe 10-25 seconds.  The goal is to knock your opponent either on to the ground or out of the ring.  The main time consumer is the wrestlers getting ready for the match.  It's quite the process and I believe some of them are quite the divas.

How fun is this cut out?? 

This was part of the Entrance Ceremony.  These are the best sumo wrestlers.

Bryan told us we all had to choose our favorite sumo wrestler to cheer for when it was their turn.  I forget my guy, and I actually forgot to cheer for him too.  However, Bryan chose to cheer for Endo (mmmhmmm, the dentist is cheering for Endo).  Turns out Endo was probably the most popular sumo wrestler there.  He wasn't the best, but I'd say he had the most people cheering for him when he was introduced.  Please enjoy this video of Endo winning his match.