Visit to GA

A week after I arrived back the the U.S. I hopped back on a plane for a much shorter trip to G.A. to see Mom and Dad H ( Anne and Lee Higgins) in Duluth. I stayed in Ga. for a month and we had so much fun together. I will hit a few of the big activities in their own blogs, but here is a list of some of the great times we had! I thank God everyday for Him bringing me to my love Charles, and allowing me to meet Anne, Lee and the rest of my second family!

* Lee and I went to a Marine Corps Birthday brunch to celebrate the 233rd birthday :-)

* VOGEL!

* Grandmother and Granddaddy's visit

* Redskins/ LSU/ Alabama games

*big fires and movies

* chillin with Orrie and thowing lots of balls for him

*dinners and relaxing with Anne and Lee

* Bible devotions for Charles, moving the beans and putting up the Yellow ribbons on the tree

* decorating the Duluth neighborhood for CHRISTmas!

*Baton Rouge Thanksgiving! -road trip with Anne/Lee & meeting family!

* Chateau Elan's Christmas tour of homes

*Costco and Christian Book Store Trips

* RIBS!

*Church:-)

* field trip!

* the Rein family visit... meeting Meredith!

* TWILIGHT!

* TV dates with the Rasmussen family :-)

* Trask's visit

* dinner with the Vaught's

* and so much more...

I will individually blog a lot of these great times soon! Thank you so much Anne and Lee for iniviting me to your home, and helping me to get through this time away from C :-) Thank you to everyone else who made this time in GA so special!

Fran and Noah's Wedding!

Frances and Noah Green


Me and my big bro Web

Me and Sisterfriend



Crazy cousins- I love them dearly!
Anna T, Me, Helena, Anna H


My two Nantucket favorites
Uncle John and K.C.
-on South Street, Philadelphia

Ok, so I am back tracking big time, but I will catch up :-) Soon after arriving in Md, the fam traveled to Philadelphia, PA for a wedding of my second cousin Frances and her husband Noah. They met on an airplane, and fell in love soon after. Awesome love story, and I wish them the best of luck in their marriage :-) It was a great time and I very much enjoyed seeing family I haven't seen since going to Okinawa. While I was in Philly I was able to meet up with K.C., a friend of mine from Nantucket. She is an amazing person and friend and it was awesome seeing her! One evening, a bunch of the family got together to go into downtown Philadelphia and had dinner on South Street. My Uncle John had a GPS in his rental car I named Murphy. We had some issues, but Murphy got us to where we needed to go :-) It was a great trip, but I missed Charles the whole time. Above are a few pics of the wedding and good times with the family and friends!

Hiatus

Apparently I am not very good at being a frequent blogger, but it is my before New Years resolution to be better about it. I have so much to blog about, but just do not sit down and actually take the time to do it, especially when I am busy. Sorry!

I was blessed to be able to go back to the United States to see family and friends for some of the time that Charles is away. It is so wonderful being around family and good friends during the holiday season, although I miss my Oki girls so much! I am at my parents house in Md after a month in Georgia and Louisiana! I have much to share from those times, but it might take me a few days to do all the posts... I am on it though :-) I miss Charles very much and have to turn off the sad country songs that make me think of him! He is doing well though which is a blessing! I am going to back date my blogs and catch up!

Lost and Found

duing the search for the key...


Thank God I found the key!

God is so amazing! Throughout all of the craziness of Charles leaving, his ONE car key got misplaced. YES, we only have one key for his car which I plan on fixing as soon as possible. Before leaving Charles told me he left his house and car keys in our Ashes of Obnoxious Teenagers" jar. The jar is of my favorite gifts from my family by the way :-) When I needed the key and dumped out the YEN in the jar, the key was not there. I looked and looked and searched and searched and no key anywhere. I was able to talk to Charles and he had no idea where the key was either. So...I had to figure out how to get a key made in Japanland before I head back to the States on Tuesday. As I headed to work on Friday, the key was on my mind. I was told a place called Kitame made keys, and so on my 35 min break I rushed over there. All I saw at Kitame was a run down building with piles of wood and no people...I went back to school and was thankful to be subbing with a student teacher who spoke Japanese. He called Kitame for me and after translation he told me they were on the Northern side of the island and could not make a key for me. Then, we called another Japanese locksmith. The student teacher explained the situation in Japanese and it was going to cost us 9,000 YEN to get the key made...that is around $90 in America!!! Holy Cow! However, I had no choice, so we set up for the dudes to come make the key right after school ended. During our 35 minute lunch break, I had to rush back onto base and get the 10,000 YEN to pay for the key. On the back to school I realized Charles' CD was still in the player. I have had more anxiety lately than usual, so I decided to slip in one of my favorite Christian CD's and say a prayer. After my prayer, I had a thought that I needed to keep looking for the key. I then opened up the ash tray in my car which I have not opened in over two years, and there was Charles' Skyline key. AWESOME!! Apparently during all of this your going, no your not mess one of us thought that would be a good place for the car key. Either way, Thank you God! It was such a tremendous load of my mind, and we saved the $90 as well!! Here is the key and its home, where it will stay!

Back where it belongs :-)

Hurry up and wait...

Most of us in the military world know all about this phrase, because we do it often. It is very annoying, but also extremely normal. We have to hurry up and get ready for them to leave somewhere, and then plans change, so we wait...the HSV (High Speed Vessel) is stuck , so we wait, and wait and wait. Plans change again and we wait some more. This last time around was no different. Charles was supposed to leave one day so I was sad, and as we were walking out the door, word changed and we were able to have a little more time together. I got excited :-) Soon after, they were supposed to leave and we were actually at the terminal, and again we were told that plans changed once again. Once again I was excited :-) At the terminal Charles and I were blessed to be able to see a rainbow. We both thought about the God and how amazing He is!

Here is some scripture that tells us a little about the meaning of rainbows, and I incorporated a few pics of the rainbow Charles and I saw in this blog.

"I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. "

~Genesis 9:13-15

God's beautiful work!

Amazing!! Just as God promised this, He also promises that the Lord will protect us. Anne, Charles' mom, had a wonderful idea to send out different scripture verses for Charles every day he is on his adventure. Looking over some of the verses for October, one caught my eye. It is Psalm 121: 7-8

"The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.

Thank you Anne for all of the prayers and support!

Soo....back to Hurry up and wait... The third time after waiting very patiently, Charles did leave. As sad as it was, my family and friends have been such an amazing support. Two Okinawa friends Lourdes and Eleanor, drove to the airport to pick me up, so I did not have to drive home from the airport sad, and by myself. They also took me out to breakfast to cheer me up. I am so blessed! Sorry this was so long.! Here are some pictures of before the goodby...I miss him already!

So proud of my Marine!

Charles waving to everyone back home!

Quality time

our romantic Kobe beef and shish kabob dinner
at Ourawan Beach

walk on Ourawan Beach

C and G in the cabin
the Kimono cabin

Before meeting Charles and falling in love with him, I do not think I fully grasped the true importance of quality time with loved ones. I always got excited about spending time with family and friends, but sometimes I think I took advantage of it. Growing up in one town, having a small immediate family, going to the same church, having friends within walking distance...there was never a lack of quality time. Now, my life has changed drastically. I am in Japan with the man I love trying to spend AS MUCH quality time as possible with him before he goes away to do his job for quite a while. We are away from family, and even though I have met some amazing friends here, some have already moved far away, and that is just how this life is. Since this trip was pretty sudden, I felt like I had to make a schedule for us to do as much as we possibly can before he goes away. We both have all of thse emotions...sad, happy, sad, happy and sleep for me is slim to none. The military life is not a normal life, but it is the life Charles and I love. I know this is not the most uplifting first blog, but I'm sure it will get more exciting later! Here are a few pics of some of the quality time my wonderdul husband Charles and I have had together lately. I will miss him very, very much.