No news is good news

Whoever said that no news is good news? The whole no news concept is a little frustrating if you ask me. It has been over 3 weeks since Justin submitted his paperwork to get his PRD changed back to this August, and we still have yet to hear if it has been approved or not. Not to mention we have been dealing with this mess for 2 months now, and are only a smidgen closer to hopefully fixing the problem. I understand that his paperwork needs to be routed up his chain of command, and requires the signature of the 2nd highest person on the ship, who I'm sure he is a very busy man with more important things to do than decide the fate of a fellow shipmates future, but 3 weeks for a darn signature? Come on now people... This whole process has been very antagonizing. Every day I wake up and think today’s the day; today Justin is going to go to work and his paperwork is going to be there waiting for him and we are finally going to find out where we are going to spend the next year of our life. Every day I sit at work waiting for Justin’s phone call wondering when he calls will he sound ecstatic or distraught? And every day for the past 3 weeks Justin has called me knowing no more then he knew 2 months ago, and we are left hoping for tomorrow.

A lesson in English

Today Justin gave me a lesson in English. I was talking to him online while I was at work when this conversation came up. Mind you it all started because Shibuya, one of my Japanese English Teachers who also sits next to me in our office, made a comment about some cookies I was eating. Everyday he takes interest in my lunch, and no matter what I am eating he always says "Mmm smells good." Meanwhile I think the exact opposite of that when he pulls out his lunch! I usually have to hold my breathe while he is eating, and most of the time he talks while he eats and food flies all over my desk! But as for him, I could be eating dog poop for all he knows and I'm sure he'd say the same thing "smells good!" Shibuya calls my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches "berry bread", thinks root beer is actually beer and thought the red sugar on top of the Valentines sugar cookies I brought was, in his words, "spicy pepper". Anyways, today he made a comment that taught me, the native English teacher, a lesson in English! Here is my conversation with Justin...

12:39:31 PM Kristen: shibuya saw my cookies and said "ooo everyday sweets take care of your waste"
12:39:39 PM Justin: ?
12:39:42 PM Justin: waste?
12:39:51 PM Justin: or weight
12:40:09 PM Kristen: waste
12:40:12 PM Justin: ?
12:40:20 PM Kristen: your waste
12:40:28 PM Kristen: you dont know what your waste is?
12:40:36 PM Kristen: like where your pants sit, on your waste
12:40:37 PM Justin: your poop?
12:40:42 PM Justin: waist
12:40:47 PM Kristen: oh hahah
12:40:49 PM Kristen: true

UPDATE!

Hi, Im not sure if anyone reads this anymore but I thought I would update anyways with some important news that Justin and I just found out. Well.. I wont be coming home in May, and Justin will not be coming home in August. The navy has decided to keep Justin over here for another year, until August 2010. This all came about when Justin called my friend Christinas dad, who is a CWO in the Navy, to ask a few questions about a ship he had put down as a request in case he didnt get the Lincoln. Mr. Lewis said he would call the detailer (the person who decides where to station Justin) to see if he could find out more about Justins orders, and hopefully push for the Lincoln. The detailer explained to Mr. Lewis that Justin is not up for a new ship because he has not completed 24 months on the George Washington (the ship he cross-decked to from the Kitty Hawk last August.) He said that Justin has to spend 24 months on his new ship in order to be able to change to another one and that 24 month time period wont be completed until August 2010. Ironically, the same day that we found this out was the same day that my company emailed me offering me another contract for the coming school year. So I will extend my contract to March 2010, and come home between then and May 2010 and Justin come in August. Its the same time frame as what would have happened this year, only pushed back a year because he has to complete 24 months on the Washington. That means no moving to Washington to live with Bonnie and Jeff, and Justin has to spend yet another year over here, but what can ya do? We just gotta go with the flow, and look at the good that comes out of all of this. We will be able to save up more money over here, and hopefully be able to put down for a nice place or car when we get back to the states, Ive been looking at the job market back home and its looking pretty grim for people with BA degrees in my field, we get to spend another year exploring a beautiful country that who knows when we would ever get to visit again, and Id kinda like to see how Obama does his first year in office, without actually having to be there and feel the effects of it. :) OH and not to mention that because Justin will have spent 4 years over seas, when he gets back in August he goes straight to shore duty, which means he doesnt have to do another deployment :) All of this came as a complete shock to us and totally out of left field. At the very least, we were expecting to be sent somewhere that we didnt want to go, but to hear that he has another year left over here took a little bit of time to comprehend and accept because it was completely not what we were expecting to hear. That being said, I will try my hardest to update my blog more, seeing that we have a whole 'nother year of new journeys and experiences to come. :)

And also, I couldnt be more excited that my Steve's (my brother and his best friend who is like my other brother) are coming out here at the end of March! :) I cant wait!!!!

'08 was great!

So I was thinkin about it the other day and a lot happened in 08. Justin and I got married, Christina and Chris got engaged, Chrystal and I graduated college and she got accepted in to Grad School at CSU Fullerton and also got her dream job working at CSUSM as a counselor, Bonnie and Jeff survived their first deployment and also had another baby, Krystal and Anthony got engaged, Justin turned 21 and I moved to Japan. Thats a lot to happen in one year! I hope '09 is just as good =)

Speaking of Japan, there have been some things I have wanted to share about this country. For starters, there are no public trash cans. Not even in the park or at the train stations, I guess thats how they keep their country so clean. Not to mention the day I moved into my apartment I got handed a book on how to seperate my trash. They are very big on that kid of stuff over here. Another interesting fact, there is no soap or paper towels in public bathrooms... yuk! And no toilet seat covers either. In fact, I have noticed that most toilet seats are warm... maybe thats to make up for the lack of seat covers. The trains come about every 5-10 minutes, depending on the time of day, and there are red, black and green trains. The black trains are the local and stop at every stop. The red and green trains are the limited express trains and skip stops, the green train is the fastest and stops at the fewest amount of stops. For example, the green train does not stop at our stop, but both red and black trains do.

Well Justin and I have been very busy lately. We went ice skating the other day, which I will post pics from, and then we are going snowboarding this weekend! I cant wait its going to be so much fun! I only have one more day of work and then Im off until the 8th of Jan. Then I work Jan-March and Im done! I cant believe how fast it has gone by. The other day my Vice Prinicipal was in my office talking to one of the teachers and he told her to tell me not to go back to the states, he said "Only your husband go." Haha trust me I wish we could stay here, but I have to go where the hubby goes! Lol anyways, so tomorrow is Christmas Eve here, Justin has duty and I have to work. He gets off duty Christmas morning and I think we are having a few friends over for breakfast. We will probably do dinner on the base again like we did for Thanksgiving. Alright well here are our pics from ice skating! Ill try and post again soon, I know Ive been slackin. Merry Chrismas and Happy New Year just in case! =)

Slacker!

Sorry Ive been slacking on the posting lately! We have just been so busy, and when we arent busy we are tired from being so busy! Justin is on duty right now, which means I am home alone and figured Id use the time to update. I have so much I want to write about, and a lot of pictures to share, but Im am too tired and lazy to write a complete post so I think Ill just post the pics. Sanae finally gave me the pics from when we went on that trip, and I have pictures from our Thanksgiving meal. :)