Pain in the rear..

So while its getting closer to graduation, the guys who are being sent to Japan are all trying to find out what all they need to do. Which unfortunatly by going to people who they think should know this stuff who in all actuality don't know, they are getting the run around. However because one guy figured out how to find the information out that is needed he has passed along the much needed informaiton as to what and how things should be done. Needless to say Monday I have to go to the Naval Hospital and go see the Deployment Coordinator about my DOD clearences, as well as any and all paperwork that is needed.... THEN we do not find out the exact date for when we leave until THE DAY AFTER he graduates!! Which is when we also have to set up times for the moving companies to come pick up our stuff.
We now know that because of this twisted and messed up system, we will be arriving in Japan before our belongings.. so we need to bring all our clothing, Athena's dog food, our bathroom stuff and his laptop with us when we go. Then everything else will follow..... Talk about frustrating, now we have like no clue when to tell family that we will be home.. Have I meantioned that I hate doing things by the "seat of my pants" and that I like to have somewhat of a plan for how I'm going to do things... GGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

more waiting...

I look at the calander and I'm amazed we have less than 18 weeks to go before we are "supposed" to be in Japan. (happy dance) Jason has been doing a really good job with his classes. He is currently second in his "class". And he complains that he has studied more now than he ever has in his entire life. My response.. "poor baby, finally is challenged to use that powerful brain of his." ;-p I usually get some smart comment back after I say that to him.
Also my time at Wal-mart is coming to a end. 7 weeks and counting. Now that I know some dates of when Jason wants me flying to California I figured that I aught to give them a extremely advanced notice, this way it may encourage them into hiring someone for me to train to take over my job.
Athena just had her one year booster. And she weighs 67.4 pounds. (another happy dance) As long as she doesn't gain 12 pounds over the next three months we won't have to pay an excessively large amount of money to get her to Japan. She has recenly discovered how to ask me to go for walks.. she goes over to where I have her harness and leash that we use on walks and bangs it against the wall, then whines. Then when I do take her out she calms down the minute we reach the end of the driveway and she walks perfectly!! The only problem is the silly dog can't seem to walk in a straight line...
My parents should be coming to visit within the next couple weeks. Hopefully I'll have the house looking a bit better than like a tornado went through here.. which is exactly how its looked for about a month and a half now. More news coming soon!!!

A few more changes

Things are still going as planned. Jason is #2 in his class, and working really hard to stay there and pass all his classes. He's told me that the guys who are married think he never talks to me because they are on the phone hours with their wives where as Jason and I are on the phone for 5 to 20 minutes. His only response to them so far has been "she understands".. I just told them to tell them about me finishing college during our first year of marriage.
We do have some news on the Japan thing.. Jason is being attached to a unit at Camp Hansen. And with the new policy of all military needing to be on a base, we are more than likely going to be living at Camp Courtney, because Hansen doesn't have base housing.
I got my passport and passport card, now I'm waiting to hear from Jason about my DOD clearance and what I need to go about vaccines and what not.
Athena is doing ok. I've been filling up the little kiddy pool with water and taking her outside during the day and letting her play in it. We've kept in the back yard mostly cause my neighbor accross the street can't seem to keep an eye on her dog. I say that because the first time I tried taking Athena outside to play while I washed the car, her dog got out and came accross the street. Then after her son came over and got the dog he just let her loose in their yard. Frustrating to say the least, but my neighbor who lives right next to me got after her for me.
Which speaking of my next door neighbor we are going to have a "moving/yard sale" next saturday. I've managed to go through enough stuff that I have a rather decent pile of stuff that we could stand to get rid of. So far its mainly two bags of clothes, shoes, books and VHS movies. I had to make a list of the movies though so we can hopefully replace them with DVD's.. at least the ones that I really like and I have seen in DVD form. Weelp thats all for now! Hopefully I'll have more to update soon.

The Countdown to the rush to Japan begins!!!!

Jason left for school a couple of weeks ago, and he met his coordinator person who is supposed to help set up the flights and what not. One of the first things he told her was "I have a dog, and she's coming with us." haha. Sooo now that we have started out from the get go letting people know that the fur ball is coming I am hoping that everything goes fairly smoothly. Athena is getting reeeally bored. Soo hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to play with her some and give her some extra attention that will help her deal with being cooped up better.
I've started packing up stuff, mainly just winter clothes, and a few little things like all my sewing stuff and my yarns. I've even started to sort through drawers!!! Shocking what you find in those things!! Annd thanks to the wonderful ladies on my Marine Wife support group I've been finding out what I can bring, and how things with the mlitary movers is going to be like. Which I will honestly say that knowing some of this information this far in advance is setting us faar ahead of other people. For example Jason told me tonight that his roommate at school is also being sent to Japan, and he's two months into the classes already so he's half way to the ending point and he still didn't know about what all needed to be done with their Shitzu that they want to bring with them! Thankfully for him Jason let him know that the dog has to go through the quaranteen thing and that he needed to go have a talk with their coordinator.
I did recently purchase a copy of Japanese for dummies.. sooo hopefully I will be making head way with learning how to speak Japanese very soon! give me a couple months and maybe I will be able to speak a whole sentence besides "good morning" , "good afternoon", and "good evening". Welp thats all I have for now, will post with more updates as soon as they happen and I get a chance!

Free Passport?? HUH?

Oh the Joys of learning things we need to do/get. Athena needs a special travel crate, and in order for Jason and me to be able to go visit other countries while we are in Japan we both need to get our passports out in town cause while we are eligible for a free passport it only allows us to go to Japan and America. We've found out that we will have three "pick ups" from the military moving companies. The first being what we absolutly need can't live without. While the second being what we would like to have with us and the third and final pick up will be sent to storage. What stinks is we don't get Jason's reenlistment bonus until he is checked into Japan, soo we are going to have to figure something out with selling the vibe cause we are going to have to bite a couple grand to get out from under it. But we've started getting our banks changed to the main Military bank branch that is also located over in Okinawa. We hope to have that all taken care of within the next month.
We found out which "Camp" Base we will be going to. Camp Foster which is more southern Okinawa. Soo while we may need some warm clothes we will mostly be wearing nothing but summer type clothing. Hopefully I really will look like an indian if and when I have to come home to the states. I've started to go through some things, mainly I have a box of stuffed animals and some special figurines I've saved packed that will be going to my parents place to store it so the stuffed animals don't get ruined.
Athena's not liking her quaranteen to much. She's been rather restless and very "vocal" about wanting to go outside just to play. I've been afraid to take her for the walks that she desperately needs cause I dont want to run the chance of her coming into contact with another animal but I'm thinking thats what I'm going to have to do here soon.
Oh and Jason and I have started trying out some Japanese food! We went to the local Japanese steakhouse for his birthday and tried a garlic tuna sushi. It was really good and we both agreed that we will have to try some other types of Sushi now. Well that all of an update tha I have for now.

WE HAVE ORDERS!!!

Jason just called me and we finally got our orders! Jason reports to school July 4th weekend and He is supposed to report to Okinawa Japan just before Thanksgiving. So in an ironic twist.. we will be thankful that we made it to the island safely, with our dog and all our possessions. Now he's going to get in touch with TMO (the military moving people) and find out what we can bring and what needs to stay, and if they will store the stuff that we won't be able to take with us. WOOOHOO!!!

Phase 1- Research

SO what is the first thing you would do if you found out that you were being sent to a new country for three years? Research it right? Yea that's what we started doing. We started researching Okinawa's culture, the language, and what we need to do in order to get "prepared." I made certain that we both started learning a bit about the language because 1. the Okinawa website says not to expect the locals to speak any English due to harsh feelings between them and the military whose presence on the island. and 2 because in my opinion its kinda rude to go to a foreign country and expect them to speak your language. And with thanks to My pastor and his wife, and a co-worker whose background is Japanese as well as the Japanese/English dictionary from the library, I have now learned the Japanese translation for Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good evening.
As far as learning about the Culture.. We are going to see more of that once we get there. However I have learned to just always remain respectful, And never to show them the bottom of our feet cause that would be letting them think that we think they are beneath us.
Now as for what all we have to do.. we are still learning. The first thing we have learned is about Athena. As I said in the last post she can come with us. We had to get her second rabies shot and get some blood work to test the rabies antibodies in her blood. Then once the blood work is started she has to go under a quaranteen/isolation for 180 days (6 months) where she is only allowed outside to go potty and to go for walks and she is not allowed any contact with any other animals. Which if you know our dog, she is a VERY social animal, and still being a 11 month old puppy she is still very curious. I.E. she likes to run after birds and squirrls.
Other than that we need to both get our passports, sell one of our vehicles (cause Japanese Law prohibits any American vehicles made from 1974 to now.) and decide what we want to take to Japan and what gets put into storage.
Needless to say we are waiting on Jason's orders to school, and then once he finishes school then we will get the official orders to Japan. Until then, research and planning.