I should have known...

that something was up when Stephanie said she had to pick something up at the BX and she would meet us at the commissary.





Or maybe when she answered, "two rolls of duct tape" to the question, "What did you buy?"





Imagine my suprise when I went up stairs and saw this:

Lyle and I both had Monday off and the kids had school, so we decided to forgo the Superbowl festivities and head up to Nago to see the cherry blossoms.

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful view. Unfortunately, due to construction at the park we visited, we were unable to get to the official "cherry blossom viewing area". Enjoy:

Time flies!

Can you believe it has been 9 months since I last wrote anything on this blog?

Actually I am only using it now to share a few recipes, but maybe I will have to get back into writing about our life here on Okinawa. Especially since we will be here for another 18 months.

Okay, now to the reason for the post.

Pizza in a crockpot Two different ways -


Crock Pot Pizza

1 1/2 Pound Ground Beef
16 Ounces Mozzarella Cheese
3 Ounces Pepperoni
16 Ounces Macaroni
10 3/4 Ounce Cream of Mushroom Soup
30 Ounces Pizza or spaghetti Sauce

Brown and drain hamburger. Cook and drain pasta. Using about 1/2 of each ingredient alternate layers in a 4-quart crock-pot in the following order: Hamburger, Pasta, Cheese Soup, Pizza Sauce, and Pepperoni. Repeat layers with remaining ingredients. Heat for at least 4 hours on low heat. *You can add anything you would like on a Pizza*

Hint to make it better - Add sauce and soup to meat, or at least put a small layer of sauce on bottom layer in crockpot to prevent meat from burning.


Pizza in a pot

1 ½ lbs hamburger
1 green pepper chopped
1 can cheddar cheese soup
2 Tablespoons oregano
1 medium onion chopped
4 oz sliced pepperoni
1 can tomato soup
4 cups cooked spaghetti
8 oz package of mozzarella cheese

Brown and drain beef. Add all ingredients except mozzarella cheese and mix lightly but well. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Top with mozzarella during last 15 minutes of cooking.

Both are good and each is a bit unique which is why I kept them both. Also, it is good to have a back up for when you are out of Cream of Mushroom soup!

Bobbi - this one is just for you

Tex Mex Chicken - Spring style

1 bag of Individually Quick Frozen Chicken Breast Tenderloins
1 Jar Pace Picante Sauce
1 envelope Taco Seasoning Mix
1 Can of Fiesta corn (regular corn will do in a pinch), drained
1 Can Black Beans, drained

Dump the frozen chicken in the crock pot, sprinkle with the taco seasoning mix. Pour the picante sauce, corn and black beans over the top. cover and cook on low for 8 hours, stirring once or twice during the day.

Serve over white rice sprinkled with cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream. If, like me, you are watching the amount of rice you eat, it is almost as good on top of a bed of lettuce, no cheese, just fresh chopped onions and a bit of Fat free Sour cream.

This recipe was originally on Kraft foods website, but I modified it for my family and it turned out YUMMY!

Spring Sunday Scoop

I know I have been awful about updating. Mostly because I catch up on what everyone else is doing through facebook and never think about filling anyone in on happenings here.

I am going to try to remedy that with a once a week update. We will see how that goes :)

This week Lyle got his promotion results. He is a Senior Master Sergeant Selectee. His line number is 150, which means he will sew on (and more importantly get a raise) in a couple of months. This also means we are going to start looking into building our house a little sooner (YEAAA!) I will post the official pictures after I get them off the AF site. My camera didn't cooperate the night of the promotion party.... probably a good thing LOL.

I also got a line number this week. I picked up my race number for the Okinawa Marathon on Saturday. Before you think I am too crazy, I only signed on for the 10K portion of the race.

Sunday (today) was race day and I was a little apprehensive. I had a few worries, but first and foremost was finishing in the allotted 1 1/2 hours. I shouldn't have worried, because even with the inchworm start I got an official finish time of 63 minutes!

Next year I will do even better!
Me before the race:
The final stretch: Crossing the finish line:
Me with my medal:

Earthquake

This is what I woke up to on Saturday morning at 5:30 am. It immediately brought to mind the Big One on Guam, and I jumped out of bed to get the kids. Lyle stayed in bed :) Fortunately there was no damage in our house, but we did have a bit UNDER our house: The guy from housing said we had about 60,000 gallons of water under the building. They turned off the water, pumped the crawlspace and repaired the broken pipes.

The broken pipe gave us some fun. Check out how much pressure the water under the house was putting on the manhole covers:

I'm going to Disneyland

Actually I already did. I learned that Disneyland is just a very small version of Disneyworld. I walked the whole thing, rode a few rides and did my shopping. Finished it all before 3 in the afternoon.

I am sure I would have stayed longer, if I had someone else to share it with. Even the happiest place on earth isn't that happy without your family or friends!

I am very happy that I am getting back on a plane to head home. The show was incredible, and it was nice to get away for a bit. But I am ready to go back to my busy, hectic and wonderful life!

See you all when I get back to Okinawa!

Where did the time go?

Today in Okinawa (tomorrow for the rest of us) is my baby's birthday. He is 17. 17! How did this happen? One day he was my little boy, now all of a sudden he is all grown up.

Happy Birthday Chris. I love you so much, and wish I could be there today. Stephanie, you have my permission to give him 17 birthday swats from me!

Day two

The second day of the Craft Fair was just as much fun as the first day. I didn't get to do as many make n takes since it was Saturday and there were so many more people. But I did get some goodies:

And I spent an hour knitting with Deborah Norville:

But I guess my greatest achievement today is this photo:


(according to my rubber addicted friends anyhoo!)

What a day!

After yesterday, any day would be a good one, but today was the whipped cream on my hot fudge sundae.

I started with a call from my store Director, Ray. He had arrived on Wednesday, had the rental car and wanted to know if I wanted to get breakfast. Um, YEAH! So I showered quick, ran my fingers through my hair (no brush), popped a piece of gum (no toothbrush either), and headed out to IHOP! Pancakes, YUM.

After breakfast Ray dropped me off at the Target store so I could pick up a few necessaties:

Then he took me back to my hotel so I could get ready for the CHA Craft Show starting at noon.

CHA was heaven.

I blissfully wandered from booth to booth, taking part in Make & Takes, making notes for future purchases for the store and reveling in the feeling of being around other people as crazy as me. Only crafters can get high on beads and glitter, tape runners make us quiver and don't even talk about *new* or *just release* products!

Here is today's bounty:

Best part, I get to do it all again tomorrow!

Did I mention I got to meet Carol Duvall?

Back in the U. S. of A!!!

Have I said lately that I love my job? Due to the manager's impending first child, I had to take her place and go the the CHA in Santa Ana California this week.

Of course, nothing is perfect and this trip is no exception. Thursday was the LONGEST day of my life. I started at 4am Okinawa time with a quick trip to the gym. I didn't do my normal workout group (sorry, Jeanette, you know I love you) as they were doing "The Centurion" and I just couldn't do that knowing I would be on a plane, immovable, for the next day. So I ran the track and steps with Chris, while Lyle ran his 1 1/2 mile. Then I headed home to finish packing.

At 9 Lyle and I headed down to Naha Airport. We enjoyed a Family Mart lunch at the airport while waiting for my boarding time to get a little closer. I boarded my plane at 12:15 and enjoyed a turbulent 2+ hour ride to Tokyo. After disembarking at Tokyo, I walked to my next gate, found the Starbucks and enjoyed a coffee and a Pumpkin Veggie wrap (WAY yummy!)

We boarded at quarter to 5, after going through a second carryon bag check, any people also received a quick pat down from the Japanese version of TSA. I was disappointed to learn the flight was full and I was in a center seat. I did meet a very nice airman, heading home after doing his first tour, a remote to Korea. I couldn't help but notice on his Customs form that his year of birth was 1988....I am so old!

Fortunately, since my morning started early, I was able to fall asleep shortly after dinner service and slept just over half of the flight away. We landed in San Francisco at 9:38, according to my boarding pass my next flight, the one to Santa Ana, was boarding at 10:15. In that short amount of time, I had to claim my bags, go through customs, recheck my bags, go through the security again and find my gate. I found my bags pretty quickly and stood in the customs line for almost 10 minutes, checking my watch CONSTANTLY, knowing I was never going to make my flight. Customs was a breeze, and I was beginning to think I might possibly make it. As I rushed to recheck my bags, I was told my flight was cancelled. So I waited in line with a bunch of other passengers whose flights were also not leaving on time. The lady at the United counter was able to get me on a 12:30 flight to Santa Ana. I rechecked my bags, went through security and found my gate with plenty of time to spare.

I took the opportunity to grab some lunch at a sandwich shop. This was probably the BEST sandwich I have had in a while, Turkey with Avocado on authentic San Francisco Sourdough. YUM!

I finished my lunch and headed back over to my gate, just in time to hear the announcement that this flight has been cancelled due to weather. I got in line with everyone else to try to book a different flight. I was told that the earliest flight to Santa Ana that they had seats for was at 8:45 PM, but if I wanted to fly into Los Angeles I could leave earlier. Since I already knew that LA had a shuttle to Santa Ana, I agreed to go to LA. I was confirmed for a 4 PM flight, and put on standby for the earlier 3 pm flight.

Once again I walked to find my standby gate and settled into a knitting project and a book on tape. I noticed the marquee listing the confirmed and standby passengers and was a bit disheartened to notice I was number 45 of 77 standby passengers, but you never know what might happen, so I waited. At 2 they announced the flight was delayed and wouldn’t be leaving until 4:30. That was okay with me, since I was already confirmed at 4 on a separate flight. I packed up my knitting and walked the terminal to get to my other gate.

When I reached my “confirmed” flight gate I was surprised by the red cancelled sign. I doubled checked the info, sure enough, this flight was cancelled. So I hoofed it back to my standby flight and settled in to wait. At 4 they announced the flight was cancelled, so I headed back over to the customer service counter.
I was given another confirmed seat for Santa Ana at 8:45, but was told I could go on Standby for the 7:15 flight, also to Santa Ana. I agreed, got myself a coffee and a scone, and went to my next standby gate.

I was beginning to wonder if I would ever leave San Francisco. At 6:30 it was announced that the 8:45 flight to Santa Ana was cancelled…. Of course, since this was my confirmed seat! I went up to the check in counter and asked the attendant what my real chances were of getting on this flight. According to the marquee I was standby number 31 and there were 0 seats available. She told me it didn’t look good. I asked about my bags, thinking I would just get a hotel room and try again in the morning. That is when I found out my bags were sent to LA on a separate flight (why wasn’t I on standby for that one? It actually left the airport!). By this time I had been traveling for 26 hours and my face must have shown it. She told me to have a seat, and not leave the gate. They started calling names of people that hadn’t confirmed their seats. At the end, they had 5 seats available. She started calling names. My name was the fourth one called. You KNOW I was on my feet and running before she finished my last name!

I got on the flight and we waited… and waited. We had to wait for the mechanics to finish something up. We were told that unless we received clearance in the next 15 minutes we would NOT be flying into Santa Ana. Fortunately, we got our clearance and got underway. We landed at Santa Ana at 10:15 PM. Since I didn’t have any bags to claim, I filed my missing luggage voucher and grabbed a taxi to my hotel.

I got my room, dropped off my backpack, and walked up the block to the 7-11. I bought water, and some trail mix for breakfast, was a bit upset that they didn’t sell Febreze, then headed back to my room. I rinsed my clothes the best I could, laid them in front of the heater and turned it on High.

Maybe tomorrow will be better!

Winners!

This is me (in the back) with most of my Extreme Fitness Challenge group. This was taken just after we finished our 3rd and final group challenge. I have to brag a bit when I say, we won all three group challenges.... and our team took 3 of the 5 individual challenges. Kelly (the man with the goatee) won for most weight lost with 20.5 pounds. I was runner up with 16. The other teams didn't even come close to our results!

We loved our trainer, Jeanette, so much that we forced her to sign up to teach a group fitness class for us until the next EFC starts in January. I will be seeing her and 9 more of my teammates for the next 6 weeks!

On Saturday, Lyle and I went out to Monte Carlo night at the club. My favorite chief, Rita was dealing blackjack, so that is where I stayed all evening. Lyle wandered and played a couple hands of Texas Hold 'em. We each started the night with $3000 of funny money, and I ended the evening with $30,000. We didn't want to stay for the prize giveaway at the end, so our cash was donated to a friend. It was a fun night, and I have to say, Rita is the best BlackJack dealer EVER!

Just Cleaning out the camera

It has been forever since I did a real update post. Mostly because I have been working full-time, taking 3 college classes, taking a cake decorating class, enjoying my Extreme Fitness Challenge workouts for an hour a day 5 days a week, and then trying to recover on the occasional minute off.

But I don't have quite so many excuses now, 2 of my three classes are finished, I have a week before my new face to face class starts, so instead of writing my business final paper, I decided to update you with pictures from September to today!

I put them on the slide browser, just because Blogger has been difficult about pictures the last couple of weeks.

Enjoy the show

Update!

I have a lot of things to post about, but have decided to hold all that for something more newsworthy.... Tonight's dinner.

My BFF (Best Foodie Friend) Susan posted a recipe yesterday that sounded yummy. She gave the link and some advice about trying to add a can of black beans. I checked the pantry and noticed we had all 6 ingredients needed, so I dropped them in the crockpot for tonight's dinner.

The recipe: Slow Cooker Tex Mex Chicken

I added the 1 can of black beans, drained and I used a can of corn, rather than frozen.

The result:
And for dessert: Cherry Almond Angel Roll

I substituted Strawberry Pie Filling for the Cherry, since Lyle doesn't care for cooked (aka Mushy) cherries. It was incredible!

And it even looked pretty:

Thank you again Susan, for an incredible dinner suggestion!

A Winner and A Loser

I am usually up early to exercise, but it has always been on my own, or with my workout buddy, Rita. After a year (yes a year!) of seeing the ads for "Extreme Fitness Challenge" I decided to give it a try. I paid my fee, decided on the 5 - 6 am class, and waited nervously for the first day.

That day was September 14th. I met my trainer, Jeanette, and the rest of my group. We all got our Blue Team t-shirts and started with a bang. Jeanette is very motivating and always full of energy, even when we aren't quite there. I love every workout even when I am dripping with sweat and every muscle in my body is screaming STOP!

Yesterday we had our first challenge against all of the other teams. The challenge was a dead hang from a pull up bar. I held on for 1 minute and 42 seconds, the average for our whole team was 1:54, and that was enough to declare Blue Team the winners! My prize: A brand new workout towel, embroidered with the fact that I am a winner!
Today was our first official weigh in, which also made me a Loser. Since our start 3 weeks ago, I have lost 7 pounds, but that wasn't the surprising number, I also lost 1 inch off my hips, and 5 (yes FIVE) inches from my waistline. I credit that to Jeanette and her evil "waist-shapers". Those numbers were enough of an incentive for me to get down the box of size 12 jeans I have had in my closet since we arrived on Okinawa. The result:

They fit!

I still have 5 weeks to go, and I am sure Jeanette has more in store for the Blue Team.

On a sadder note, today I had to say goodbye to an old friend:My first "biggest loser" win, with my good friend Tanya, has come to the end of it's usefulness. My favorite shirt lost it's battle with the sweat monster and had to be put down. It was for its own good, but it will be sorely missed.

I do have more updates to do, but homework beckons. Writing a paper a week has really put a damper on my "fun" writing, but I only have one more paper to go for writing class and one final paper for Business Management, then I will be back.

Nutter Butter Banana Pudding Trifle

All I can says is YUMMMMMMM! I saved this recipe, because it sounded like it would be good. Nutter butters in banana pudding? Why didn't someone think of this sooner? But then I made it and it was OOOOOOHHHH so good! Unfortunately, everyone else thought it was good too, so there wasn't any to bring back home after the picnic.

The recipe:
Nutter Butter Banana Pudding Trifle
Southern Living Magazine
February 2009 (page 86 if you have the mag) or use the link

Prep: 35 min., Cook: 20 min., Stand: 30 min., Chill: 2 hr. This homemade pudding is divine, economical, and uses on-hand ingredients. The pudding has thickened enough when a distinct trail is left in the mixture when you stir with a spoon. The cookies will soften the longer the dessert chills.

Yield
Makes 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients
3 cups milk
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 medium-size ripe bananas
1 (1-lb.) package peanut butter sandwich cookies
2 cups sweetened whipped cream


1. Whisk together first 4 ingredients in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla until butter is melted. 2. Fill a large bowl with ice. Place saucepan in ice, and let stand, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes or until mixture is thoroughly chilled.

3. Meanwhile, cut bananas into 1/4-inch slices. Break cookies into thirds.

4. Spoon half of pudding mixture into a 3-qt. bowl or pitcher. Top with bananas and cookies. Spoon remaining pudding mixture over bananas and cookies.
Top with sweetened whipped cream. Cover and chill 2 to 24 hours. Garnish, if desired.

Shortcut Nutter Butter®-Banana Pudding Trifle: Omit eggs, sugar, flour, and butter. Substitute thawed extra creamy whipped topping for sweetened whipped cream. Reduce vanilla to 1 tsp. Place 3 cups milk and vanilla in large bowl; add 2 (3.4-oz.) packages vanilla instant pudding mix. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed 2 minutes or until thickened; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in 1 (8-oz.) container sour cream. Proceed with recipe as directed in Steps 2 through 4.

My notes on this recipe: This will serve more than 8-10 people as it is pretty rich. I made the full-fledged, make-your-own pudding version. It tasted much like a vanilla custard. I think the quick version would also taste good, but not nearly as rich and creamy. When I make this again, I will layer the cookies and bananas differently as it was a bit too much mass in the middle. Next time: 1/2 the pudding, 1/2 cookies and bananas, remaining pudding, remaining cookies and bananas, then the sweetened whipped cream. I sweetened my heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar. No measurements, I just kept sprinkling in spoonfuls, until it was thick.

Back to school

It took me a while but I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up! I enrolled in college and have finished my first week back to school. Granted I am only taking 2 real classes (and 1 one credit "required" class)but I am still a little worried about how well I will do.

I am already having a little anxiety about my writing class. I like to write, and I don't think I totally suck at it. I also have opinions, and I am usually good at sharing them. So why is it that as soon as my writing teacher handed out our course list and I saw that we had 4 papers to do, my mind went blank. And it still is...totally and utterly blank. What do I know? What should I write about? Can I actually convince anyone to see my point of view in 600 words?

My business class is an online class, and the instructor just posted our first information this morning. I glanced at it, printed out and am getting ready to actually look at it, but I am a bit afraid. Do I really have what it takes to be a college student? Am I putting to much pressure on myself?

I guess only time will tell. I have already enrolled for my next term classes, so I have commited myself until the end of December. Maybe by then I will be more confident that I am doing what I need to do.

Off to study.... wish me luck!

Ohayo Gozaimasu

....means Good Morning in Japanese, but on Okinawa it means Nice to see you. And after such a long time it is nice to see you!

My computer troubles were a bit more than I thought and we ended up having to dump my whole computer and start it from fresh, so I have busy updating software, reinstalling programs, trying to figure out why my CM Software quadrupled my photo bank, and resigning myself to spend the time deleting said photos!

These last few weeks have been extremely full. Stephanie participated in the DEFY program (Drug Education For Youth), spending a week touring jails, climbing walls, visiting parks and having fun.

Chris went to a Survival Camp (called NIKO, but I have no idea what that stands for) for 4 days. He camped in the jungle on the northern end of the island. The highlight of the trip for him was roasting a whole pig in a ground pit. He came home battered, bruised, dirty and stinky. He can't wait to do it again next year!

I am loving my new job. I should have started up in the craft section to begin with! I am in crafters heaven! I love the people I work with and am so much happier than I was in the frame shop. I also took a giant step and enrolled in school. That's right, at 38 I am a freshman! Today is my first day of school and I am more than a little nervous.

Lyle is still Lyle. He has been busy working as well as helping me with the regular house stuff and running kids from here to there. He plans on taking some time off in September, but we will see.

That is about all the news that's fit to print. I didn't want you thinking we fell of the face of the earth!

Tang Dynasty Dinner Show

I really am trying to finish the China posts and move on to real life, but some minor technological difficulties seem to be preventing that. I think I have the final kinks out of my internet troubles (thanks, Rick!) but you are all going to have to make do with pictures of our Dinner Theater rather than a video (someday you will see the video and thank me for sparing you now).

Anyhoo, We landed in Xi'an, which is remarkable like the central US. It was flat, a little more brown than green and the bus ride from the airport seemed to take forever!

Some of the sights on the street included more motorcycles than in Beijing. It has something to do with the additional taxes on motorcycles in Beijing (thieves tend to prefer motorcycles, this cut down on crime, supposedly).

We enjoyed watermelon with EVERY meal we had in China. In case I hadn't mentioned it, watermelons run about $20 each here on Okinawa, so it is a very rare treat. In China, this forbidden fruit was plentiful:In Xi'an each street seemed to sell it's own specialty. This street was filled with pet shops: But just like Beijing, the traffic was horrible. So bad that they had traffic cops in intersections WITH stoplights! Unfortunately, I was unable to get the picture of the police car with lights and sirens going that was hood to hood with oncoming traffic. The oncoming traffic refused to move out of the cops way!

After arriving at our hotel, we had just enough time to get our room keys, check out the room, then climb back on the bus to head to dinner. This is when the duck for lunch started to catch up with Lyle. He missed most of the dinner and all of the show :(

The food was incredible, and the dancers were very good. The musicians were everything you would expect from a Chinese dinner theater, specializing in instruments that are no longer played by anyone..... except at this theater. Again, you will thank me for not posting the video! Even Lyle could hear the final performance from where he was sitting!

Beijing, the final day

We started our final day in Beijing with only three stops planned - The Lama Temple, Lunch and the Airport. No shopping, so Lyle went out to haggle with the "One Dolla" guy for some final souveniers.

We boarded our bus and were on our way to the Lama Temple. We had seen this sign a few times, but I was finally able to get it on camera:


The Lama Temple:

The Shisa Dogs of China are very similar to the Shisa Dogs on Okinawa with one difference. On Okinawa the male and female are different only in how they hold their mouth, open versus closed (no comment necessary). In China the Male Shisa always had a decorated ball under his paw, while the Female was always holding down a cub. I think I prefer the Chinese Shisas!

After Lama Temple we were on our way to lunch. No trip to China would be complete without a meal of Peking Duck. We stopped at this restaurant with a duck outside.

While we started in on the dishes at our table, a waiter brought in the cart with the duck. Our tour guide said" You will want to get your cameras out for the demonstration on how to carve the Peking Duck" All of the men (and Sharjuan) got out their video cameras, stood for a better view and readied themselves for what we thought would be a wonderful display. We were all VERY disappointed when he just carved it as we would a turkey. No talented knife show, just a man carving a duck..... We all tried it and agreed that it wasn't spectacular, but it was good.

After lunch we were off to the airport, where I was able to get one last Beijing sign:

See you all in Xi'an