Things for a Wonderful Day.

-That first squeeze of a C.O. Bigelow Mentha Lip Shine.
-Sunday brunch of sweet brunchy things.
-Three cups of coffee.
-Finishing up a sewing project.
-Finding that gorgeous, wonderful gray Gap sweater you thought you had lost on your way home from the States after only wearing it twice.
-Snuggling with your dogger.
-Sipping hot tea in a cold air conditioned house after walking across the street in pouring rain.

All things I have experienced today.  I am particularly happy about the gray sweater situation.  xoxo.

Vacation, Part 2: Arizona.

Returning to Arizona always brings me a feeling that I never really thought would be possible. It brings me a feeling of coming Home. I always feel like I'm telling a bit of a fib when people ask where I'm from and I say "Arizona," but I suppose that's a story for another time.

We spent about a week in Tucson - hitting up The Gap (I went at least twice and touched absolutely everything in the store), relaxing at home, seeing old friends and making new ones. Mom and Dad-in-law took us to Tubac, AZ one morning for some Arizona centric shopping. It was like the Sedona area without the red rocks and the vortex-kitsch. It made me wish I had more spending money and more luggage space. And more spending money.

We spent Mother's Day in Phoenix doing something all mothers would love - going to a Diamondbacks game. Matt scored a sweet "Los D-backs Beisbol" tee shirt to support our Mexican brothers. Or maybe just to piss people off.

From there, Matt and I drove up to Flagstaff, probably my most favorite place ever. After a morning of Brandy's amazing Eggs Benedict, we decided to if anyone remembered us at church. We were excitedly welcomed home by Pastor Paul and made plans to meet for breakfast the next morning to catch up. I love our church family.

Crystal met us for dinner at Fratelli Pizza (a.k.a. the best pizza in the world, ever) and we spent the night at a casa grande she scored for the night. Hot tubbed it up in the cool, dark Flagstaff night. Amazing. Perfect. Best ever. (E-mail me those pictures, pls, Crystal? You know the ones I'm talking about... :D)

We bummed around the hometown for a while that day then early the next a.m., we hit the road to catch our flight to Tampa.

DiaBirthday #6.

Every year, I try to celebrate the anniversary of my diagnosis in a special way. Diabetes themed parties in college, theme park visits, special dinners, etc. This year, with all of the excitement of my impending reunion, I completely forgot about my Diabetes Day until about 6 days before... I didn't make any plans and pretty much expected it to pass without much notice.

Enter the best co-workers in the world. I mentioned my special day to The Best Co-Worker Ever this morning as I was reading the e-mail Mom sent me about it. When she returned from lunch (after a few strange calls for our other co), she carried cupcakes and a bag full of Twizzlers, Good & Plenty's (the Official Candy of DiaBirthdays), other candies and a box of Truvia - quite possibly my new favorite sweetener. They both wrote wonderful things (I'm assuming, half was written in Japanese) in a fantastic card addressed to Adrenaline Andrea.

The first few years, I celebrated my DiaBirthday so that I had something to look forward to, so I didn't spend the day crying and lamenting my bad pancreas. Now it is a reason to be silly and over indulge and maybe even to remind people that I'm a little different, but that's okay. I'm still really cool.

Celebrate!

Last night, I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins to celebrate the birthday month of my dear friend and frequent commenter on this blog, Crystal! They are pretty good, although maybe a little heavy on the chocolate chips. I know, I didn't think it was possible, either.

And I'm going birthday shopping at the San-ei this afternoon! WoooO!

H is for Half-Hearted Hostess.

(I hope I'm getting double and triple points on all those Hs!)

So, I always get excited when we are going to have people over. I make plans and find recipes and think about how fun it will all be.

It never goes according to plan. By the time the actual date come, I have worn myself out thinking about about everything I have to do. And I never have the right stuff. And I always end up thinking "What does it matter? Marines won't notice, anyway."

It's true. They never do. Take Easter, for example. I had a ton of food ready. My girls brought food. I was planning on feeding four hungry men, three women and a kid. There was a TON of food.

Do you know what I was left with after the guys were gone? Seventy-five percent of that food. They wouldn't even take a tupperware of leftovers. Matt said the guys were hung over. Stacee said she thought they had eaten before they got to our house. Either way, they are so not invited ever again.

To End.
You are not invited to my house if: You are hung over. You already ate. You expect something fancy. You expect my glasses to match. You expect anything I own to match. You do not want sweets or baked goods. You do not want to get things for yourself.

You are invited to my house if: You enjoy Jambalaya. You like to try new sweets. You love fresh bread (I'm working on this one). You like to talk about celebrities. You care more about the people you're with than what you are doing. You love leftovers.

B is for Best Friends.

As kids, we believe that we can only have one "Best Friend" at a time. I have been fighting against this delusion for much of my life.

As an Air Force kid, I was always "the new girl." The one plopped into the class after friendships have been made and solidified. The one in the clique by herself when everyone else buddied up. It wasn't until sophomore year of high school that I really, truly learned what a best friend was. And it seemed as though everyone else had it wrong.

A Best Friend is not just someone you sit by in every class or call every evening. And you can most certainly have more than one.

My best friend is someone who, regardless of what is going on in her life, would always ask me how I was first and sincerely wanted to know the answer.

In the past few years, I've realized that my mom is my best friend. We have the same nutty sense of humor and the same compassionate heart.

I have a best friend who I've hardly seen. We forged our friendship over a year of rough waters, while she was in Phoenix and I was in Flagstaff.

A best friend is someone who sets aside 5 hours in her busy schedule so sit and sip coffee (and raid Justice: Just for Girls) so I'd felt like I'd done something that week.

And a best friend made me feel closer when I'd just moved to the other side of the globe. Ask me how that works...

These women are all my best friend, each in their own beautiful way. (And I'm sure I've missed some.) They each enrich my life and I am luckier to have all of them now, than to have ever had a partner in Earth Science class.

Flea Markets and Friends...

This morning, Matt and I decided to check out the Camp Courtney bi-monthly Flea Market. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but we certainly didn't find it. Apparently, "Flea Market" translates into "Mass yard sale of things people have found on the side of the road on bulk trash day" in Okinawan. It would have been a total bust, had I not invited my good friend Stacee from Virginia Beach to scour the piles of random stuff with me. I hadn't seen her since she left the beach and it was beyond good to catch up. It also reminded me why good friends and great people are important to you mental well-being. Unlike the night before when I gasped to a few of Matt's friend's wives "Can you believe Jamie Lynn had her baby?!" and got responses of "Who's Jamie Lynn?" and "I didn't even know she was pregnant!", that comment to Stacee was met with "Oh my gosh, and did you hear there were all these complications?!" Which made me feel like a s;lightly better person for my celeb gossiping ways. Her comments about John Cusack also made me feel more at home, but that is for another time and place.

I guess the point of this is to say, I do have one good friend over here and I am working to make a few more. Keep that in your prayers. Oh, and driving. It's a little stressful.

P.S. I'm not sure I can trust someone who says "John Cusack? Yeah, he's all right in Serendipity, I guess, but I don't really like him." HE'S A CUBS FAN. Really, people.

The Update: Letter to the Family.

As most of you know, Matt has been here in Japan for the past two weeks getting things ready for the arrival of Molly (our dog) and me. Molly and I flew from Tucson to Seattle with the assistance of my mother-in-law, Dena, on Tuesday, and then off to Japan on our own on Wednesday/Thursday. We flew from Seattle to Yokota AFB, on mainland Japan in about 12 hours. I was able to go to Molly and walk her around a bit before our 3 hours from Yokota to Kadena AFB on Okinawa. I was relieved that Molly did not seem traumatized in the least when we stopped at Yokota. She is such a good dog and I feel very blessed that she was able to make it here with us. She even made friends with some Corporals at Kadena before I was able to pick her up, Thursday evening. She is such a wonderful, resilient pup!

I want to thank you all for your prayers regarding our housing situation -- they were answered mightily. After picking Molly and me up from the airport, Matt was able to take us back to our 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom on-base house! It came with a washer and dryer, fridge, oven, dishwasher and garbage disposal. And Matt had gotten me a beautiful food processor! I can't wait to make Hummus! Woo! It is more space than I could have dreamed of, and frankly, I'm not quite sure how we are going to fill it. This afternoon we should be getting some government "rental" furniture for the spare bedroom and living room. There will be plenty of space for visitors, so make your reservations soon!

Friday, Matt took off of work to get some housekeeping details taken care of and to show me around the island. I got a cell phone (very similar to my Chocolate back in the states - only hot pink) and we picked out our first pieces of real, non-IKEA furniture. Matt picked a lovely bed and dresser set out from the Base Exchange. We will be getting all of our belongings from the states delivered to our house on Saturday, June 21. I cannot wait to see all of the wonderful things we own that have been in storage since December! It will be like Christmas.

Well, I think I am going to leave off with the chronology and just let you know some other various things. Tomorrow I will be getting my Driver's license here. Okinawans drive on the Left side of the road so this will take some getting used to. Fortunately, no one drives too fast around here, so I'm not too worried about it. On the side of the roads all over the place there are drink vending machines. Apparently, Okinawans love drinks because you cannot drive for any distance without seeing one. There are many Coke machines, a few Pepsi and lots of Coffee machines. Some machines even have heated drinks. Matt's favorite drink so far is "Miracle of Grapefruit," which I tried today, but don't like nearly as much as "Bikkle," which reminds me of an orange creamcicle.

The food here is good even though I have not eaten out a ton. Matt is in heaven with all the sushi. Most places we are able to just point at the menu to order and don't seem to have to many problems communicating. The people here are very kind, very understanding and very used to dealing with Americans.