NOSCO Cupcake Queen

I belong to MOSC (Marine Officer Spouses Club) here, as well as NOSCO (Naval Officer Spouses Club of Okinawa). I served as a rep on the NOSCO board for a year and a half, but now I'm just a regular member. There are lots of opportunities to volunteer and donate time and money to charity, as well as social and cultural events, too. I take advantage of what I can. NOSCO is broken down into "coffee groups" that have a common workplace or community, and the chaplain spouses group is one of the biggest, if not the biggest as far as participation. Back when I was on the board, I was asked what we did to have such high numbers. I had to think about it, and admitted that I didn't think it was anything we did in particular, it was just that as "pastors' wives," we are used to being involved with the ministry and fellowship, and that it seemed to just be understood that involvement came with the territory. I wish I could have been of more assistance with fabulous ideas to help them with recruitment, but that was all I could figure.

Anyway, each month, one of the coffee groups takes a turn hosting a social event for the NOSCO membership as a whole. This month it was the chaplain spouses' turn to host, and they selected a cupcake night. I happen to love decorating cupcakes. I love this book, even though I have yet to make enough of them to justify the purchase. Needless to say, I was excited about their choice.

A professional cake decorator came in and taught us all kinds of tips and techniques. I didn't remember to bring my camera to get pics of some of the creations (from beautiful to bizarre) OR me standing with the group holding my winning, sakura cupcakes.


But here they are at home, properly staged on their matching cherry blossom platter. As beautiful as they are, the thought of eating all that frosting and fondant makes me ill. I would scrape it straight in the trash. These were for my kids, though...and they loved it!



I had to take a pic of these cupcake wrappers the instructor brought. I'm going to have to go to Jusco and buy my own, since they are personalized and all.

Cupcake Queen...another title to add to my repertoire.

I've sure missed hanging out with this guy

This past several weeks have been so crazy for me, but they've been just as crazy back home. I felt so guilty leaving when I did. As Operation Tomodachi was kicking into over-drive here, I left with Jake (leaving Cliff to manage the other three and their busy schedules) indefinitely. Cliff's boss left for the US for a conference and leave for several weeks...leaving him to manage working 14-16 hour days doing his part in the coordination of the relief efforts, while trying to handle things on the homefront, too. I did my best to try to stay connected with the kids via Facebook and email, but it's just not the same. I so wanted to be able to be that support and sounding board for Cliff when he came home at the end of a long day, especially under the current, stressful circumstances. It hurt my heart not to be able to be there for him.

The kids don't seem to have suffered much. There were some tough times with school stuff where I felt one of them really needed me here, but all in all, they did fine. One of my Visiting Teachers from church asked Patrick during Seminary carpool, "I feel bad that I haven't done anything for you guys...could I bring you dinner?" To which Patrick replied, "No, we are doing great! My dad bought all kinds of good food! White bread, toaster strudel, Chef Boy R Dee..."

It made me laugh when she recounted the conversation, because I could totally see Cliff walking into the commissary with the purpose of getting the most easy to prepare, most kid-desired food possible to last the rest of my absence. The kids knew a good thing when they saw it...and who wants to risk the Relief Society bringing over something actually nutritious?! (Now it's back to wheat bread and non "shelf-life" food. Mom's home. Bummer.)



Today was a real treat. We just had some mundane errands to run...but how lucky am I to have this man to run them with? It's SO good to be home!



We managed to squeeze in this lovely tempura and miso lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Jusco (Aeon, whatever! I'll never get used to their new name. Just like it took years to make the switch from Price Club to Costco...and I will NEVER call the Wild Animal Park "Safari Park." Won't happen!)



Even as we sat here with this wonderful meal in this cute little restaurant, things were different. We were more quiet than usual. I think we were kind of struggling to reconnect after fighting separate battles for the past almost-month. I know in the grand scheme of things, what we had to endure was nothing compared to what some people handle on a daily basis. Certainly nothing compared to what the people of Sendai are dealing with. We've had WAY longer deployments, and we've dealt with medical issues, too...so I'm not exactly sure what made this time so hard...except that I wasn't home. In the five deployments Cliff has done, the two that were preceded by a move were the hardest. There is just something about being settled that makes things easier to bear. Obviously for us, home varies greatly. It's wherever the Navy sends us, it's whatever structure happens to house our little family at the time...but having our family split in so many pieces, each of us dealing with our own battles just compounded the stress, I think.

At any rate, it's so good to be back home again. It sure makes one appreciate the little things, like grabbing a quick lunch in between shopping, getting keys made dropping off kids, etc. I'm sure we'll be back to normal in no time.

Living it up in Korea

Just thought you might like to see how Cliff and his friends are living in the lap of luxury on this trip. Nothing but the best for my sweetie.

I could tell you all kinds of funny stories about tents collapsing under the weight of the snow, inadequate space heaters, etc. (Apparently someone didn't know space heaters have limits. With that logic, you could just put the thing outside and heat all of Asia, right?) But I won't. That which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?

World Peace and Inner Rage

Warning: This post is kind of rantish. Normally I like to keep it shiny and happy here (with the occasional mommy breakdown). If shiny and happy is what you are after, you may want to skip this one. My intention is not to offend anyone...(well, anyone other than the whiny, progressive, clueless elitists of which I write.) but I realize my tone here might kill your buzz, regardless. Fair warning.

I've been kind of an emotional wreck today. It's a combination of things, I'm sure...Cliff being gone, the cold, rainy, gray day outside, etc. (and by etc., I'm sure I mean hormones). Before I continue, I'd like you to read a couple of articles:

First, this one. It's short. I'll wait.

Then, this one. It's longer...but please {if you love me} read it. It means that much. I'll still wait....




You back? Thanks for reading those. Maybe now you'll better understand my frame of mind, and the ranting which will now commence.

After reading the first one, I just felt rage. Well, rage, and like I just wanted to throw up. I'm serious. What the expletive is wrong with our country? Or at least with the elite "progressives" in it? I have to say I am a political moderate...I have friends all along the spectrum whom I love dearly and AGREE WITH to some degree or another, I'm sure...but can we not all agree that someone who sacrificed a whole, healthy body and normal life for the freedom of your whiny, elite, progressive behind...deserves some respect?

Listen, you don't have to agree with bringing ROTC back onto your campus...but what these snot-nosed kids did was absolutely shameful and pathetic. {Nevermind that ROTC is a fantastic, self-supporting, leader-developing program...which would help to mold and shape *the very same low-income individuals you claim that the military preys upon*, into the leaders of the future. I hear complaints about how the officer ranks are so lacking in diversity...well here's a missed opportunity to remedy that! ROTC produces leaders.}

And while we are on the topic...let's take a look at the issue of the military "preying" on low income communities. I thank my LUCKY STARS for my (almost) five years in the Navy. It was life-changing. I am not exaggerating when I say it changed my destiny. {Not the least of which was meeting and marrying my husband...BUT THAT'S NOT EVEN WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!} When I joined the Navy, I WAS one of those low-income people mentioned on the sign in the picture! I was recruited out of an inner-city neighborhood, thank you very much! I had ZERO prospects for college...and about as much self-esteem. Since I'm laying it all out there for you guys...here it is...I BARELY graduated high school. I had to go to night school to get enough credits to graduate. I had no money, a part time job at the mall and divorced parents, neither of whom could afford to put me through college.

But I'll tell you what I did have...I had a legacy. Like the beautiful (and pitiful) quote in the second article..."Service to and sacrifice for the nation have become a legacy affair for a relatively small number of families." But even at that, this legacy really meant nothing to me, until I did something to claim it. I entered boot camp with not a lot of prospects, no direction, little self esteem, but a desire to follow in my grandfather's big footsteps. I left boot camp with the realization that I mattered...that there was a big world out there, and that I had the opportunity to invent myself in it. And I did...boy did I ever! If I had stayed where I was, I can promise you...the ending (or at least the journey) would have been much different.

This same scenario happens each time a Sailor (or any service member) graduates boot camp. She becomes part of something bigger. He is exposed to people from all walks of life and learns to work with and appreciate their differences. I realize I'm romanticizing something which is much grittier, but at it's very core, this is the truth. What the heck is wrong with that? I resent being painted as a victim. I resent being presented as someone who was preyed upon or taken advantage of by the military because I had no other options. NO...I was given THE GIFT of options by the Navy, thank you very much. THE GIFT of learning just how capable I am...that no one else gets to define me but me. It's an amazing thing that happens within the walls of that open squad bay. The process of having your "old self" stripped away to nothing so that the "new you" can be built back up.

{Trivia: I remember a friend from high school telling me how sorry she felt for me that I was missing out on the "college experience" she was having (up the street from her childhood home). I didn't have the heart to tell her how sorry I felt for her (and still do) as she is still trapped in the same town by the same family whom she allows to abuse and define her. I might be having a different (and extended) college experience...but I'll take the life-altering lessons the Navy gave me, PLUS the money for college...over frat party life any day.}

{More Trivia: I think this is the main reason I loved my job in military education so much. I got to see these young Sailors, who were just like I was, who had come from similar circumstances and joined the military to "be somebody"...and I had the privilege of helping them to become even better. They were serving their country, and I got to help them through the process of letting their country return the favor with an education. Sweet work, if you can get it.}

Am I ignoring the fact that some of these service members pay a very high price? That some lose limbs? Give the ultimate sacrifice? Absolutely not. I can't even fathom what it is like to make that sacrifice...or to love someone who has made that kind of sacrifice. But I would rather myself, my husband or my child die FIGHTING for something better, than so many other options out there. There are FAR worse things to lose a spouse or child to than death...especially death in the service of something greater than yourself.

In the second article, it was like Adm. Mike Mullen expressed the thoughts I had years ago but couldn't even find words for, when he said, "I worry that we could wake up one day and that the American people will no longer know us and we won't know them." or when Ike Skelton said, "Those who protect us are psychologically divorced from those who are being protected."

Like a horrific flashback, it brings me back to a time in the early days of OEF and OIF, where we were experiencing deployment after deployment...where the price our family was paying was high...and it felt like people were just going about their daily lives, completely unaware of what our reality was. Like we were living in a different country within our own neighborhoods and schools. I found myself tiring of having to muster polite responses to their platitudes. If I had to hear "we support the troops but not the war" or "they just need to bring them all home" in those pitiful, condescending tones, directed at me {their token military friend}; from one more complacent, San-Diego-BMW-driving, quasi-peacenik...I was going to forget my manners. It felt SOOO wrong, that I should have to endure that. To say goodbye to my husband again and again, to steel my kids for the pain and uncertainty ahead, hold our whole world together until he returned...and "play nice" with my "progressive" neighbors who obviously had no idea (or didn't care) whom or what provided them the luxury not to worry, while they thought their progressive thoughts. I can't explain it...other than to say it was soul-crushing on days that I allowed it to be.

So today, I find myself very reflective. Wallowing a bit in that challenging experience...feeling so much empathy for those still in the thick of it (both on the front lines, and trying to hold down the home-front for their families). But I also came to the realization that it is easy for us here on Okinawa to forget that so many military families are still living this experience in their communities back in the USA. It hit me that we don't have that problem here. We are surrounded, day in and day out, by other American military families. Not all of them are in the military...there are civilians (school teachers and asst'd. contractors) but they are all still part of the same basic mission. We all pretty much "get it" with few exceptions. I realized that this was another benefit of living here that makes it hard to want to leave....but isn't that a sad statement? That we would "feel the love" here on foreign soil, more so than in Anytown, USA?

Anyway, this is just one example of why I shouldn't read the news while Cliff is gone. I need to stay focused on doing what I need to do. I really don't normally dwell on these thoughts...it's much easier not to, but whenever I read articles like these, I can really let my emotions get the better of me.

God bless Anthony Maschek, The Kelly family, and all of our service members and their families who are currently fighting the fight, or who have already paid the price for us in so many ways. I promise, I will never forget.

"Freedom is not free, but the United States Marine Corps will pay most of your share."---Ned Dolan

Friday...The Good...The Bad...The Awesome...and The Suckish

Let's start with the suckish, shall we? Suckish=1:30 AM musters for 6:30 flights. Seriously?



Put your hips into it, honey. Isn't it sweet that Jake wanted to be woken up to take Dad to the drop-off point? I thought it was. We dropped him off and went back to bed. At least we had that luxury...it was going to be a long day+ for Cliff.



Good=Kids headed out for a night of branch youth conference, including sleeping on tatami mats and climbing on poles and ropes.

Bad=Patrick having to miss out because it's the performance weekend for his musical.



Good=Just Troy and I getting an opportunity to spend time together. I offered to take him to dinner, since it was just the two of us. He chose Tony's, since he'd never been. We hadn't actually taken any of the kids there yet. It's just been our date night thing. This is just to show you that although I always get the same thing, there are other things on the menu. Especially if you like Spam.



Which Troy does. I do not. This is a Hawaiian omelet. It had spam and pieces of cream cheese in it. And Kimchee on the side, with the obligatory scoop of macaroni salad and a bonus Spam riceball. Would that be Spamnigiri? Anyway, he said it was great.



Good=Garlic shrimp twice in the same week. I think this makes up for the less than awesome birthday, actually.



Awesome=Patrick on stage. This was his first musical. We are going to see it tomorrow...and I will tell you all about it.

Taking Down Christmas

As much as we hated to take away Charlotte's holiday digs...


Christmas had to come down. I usually like to take it down the weekend after Christmas...or at least by New Year's Day. But this year, I just couldn't find the motivation to save my life. So, I decided to be an honorary Catholic and observe the Epiphany. I think it's a great reason to keep the decorations up until after the 6th. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

I decided to take all the ornaments off of the tree and spread them all over my dining room table. This would mean I'd have to put them away, right? We have to eat, after all (and we're NOT doing it on my couches!). Well, although it did get me started, it still took me several days to get them totally boxed up. We simply ate with ornaments in the middle of the table, like one elaborate but tacky, holiday centerpiece.

I've mentioned before that I have a bit of an ornament fetish. A matchy holiday tree doesn't sound like my idea of a good time (although I do admire the beauty of others' matchy trees). My Christmas tree represents a life fully lived. I try to get an ornament from every vacation stop we make. I have them for first Christmases, events and special occasions (although I don't do an ornament per kid per year like some do...too much pressure. I just get one if I see something that celebrates an accomplishment or interest and it all comes out in the wash). I LOVE ornaments my kids have made. I still have some made from dough, cinnamon, paper, pipecleaners, you name it that have been around for over a decade. And if a school/church teacher has my child make an ornament which includes his/her picture? I'll love them forever. They are the best. And ornaments as gifts? I can't think of anything better. I swear to you I remember the giver of each and every Christmas ornament gift and I think of them fondly, each year as I hang their ornament.

My favorite gift to give to newlyweds is an "Our First Christmas Together" ornament. Hallmark's ornaments come out every June (I know, I've checked) so if you get married the second half of the year, you're getting one. (Who am I kidding? Even if you get married in January, you're getting one...because I NEVER get gifts out on time, anyway!) I like them so much because they are my favorite ornaments to put up each year. Those, and these:


'92, '94, '97 and '98...all VERY good years!

While I am happily minimizing in other areas of my life and I'm loving not having so much flotsam and furniture...I don't plan on parting with any of my ornaments, if I can help it. I love the memories they represent.

Something else I've collected through the years (since they started making them in 1996) are dated, military ornaments made my American Greetings/Carlton Cards, sold through the military exchanges. I get at least one each year, and try to get one having to do with whoever we are serving with at the time (Navy or Marines, ship or aircraft, etc.) if possible.


I grouped them all together, and realized, I was missing three of the years. I tried to think of how that could be...and one was the year we were totally broke, right after Cliff had finished grad school and was trying to get picked up by the Navy Chaplaincy, while we were living on enlisted, Marine Reserve pay. Lean times, for sure. An ornament would not have been on the list.

[Trivia: This was also (not coincidentally) the year we decided to blow the lid off of the whole Santa thing. While our choice had spiritual benefits for sure, in our case it had more to do with not wanting our kids to have any doubts about how good and wonderful they were, even with very little under the tree...while the thieving brats down the street got the latest in video game entertainment and custom skateboards. I have never regretted my decision, although I do not blame any who perpetuate the Santa fantasy. It's a great fantasy, when your parents can afford it. Otherwise, it sounds like a pretty crappy thing to burden kids with...especially as expectations continue to rise of what a "good list" gift from Santa should look like. For those who have not been in this position, it might be hard to understand my reasoning...but it does give one pause to wonder about how the good and worthy children of America feel, who are all too aware of "Santa" but fall short of his good grace due to their economic situation. It's not the giving of lavish gifts I take issue with, heaven knows we've had some pretty expensive Christmases, and I realize ours are way more lavish now than they were when our kids were young. The problem I have is tying the giving of those gifts to how "good" a child is. Again, it works great when you have no worries...but when you end up in a situation like we did in 1999, when at least two of our kids were young enough to "believe" but also old enough to see the disparity in the neighborhood, it's hard to rationalize. Why don't we either say, "Santa brings toys to children according to IRS reporting data, regardless of their goodness" or just admit that parents are behind it all? It would be so much easier to explain. Still, my children will have to decide for their own families and I will support them in whatever they decide.]

The other two missing, were from years we went to Utah for Christmas, and so it was just something I had obviously overlooked before we left town. But...thanks to Ebay, my collection is now complete, and I didn't even have to pay more than they were originally. cha-CHING. Can't wait until they get here in the mail.





What about you...do you prefer matchy or hodge-podge in the tree department...or do you even get into ornaments at all? Is it just me?

Yet Another Christmas Party (Ho...Ho...HO)

Look, kids...more mandatory fun! Yes, we were not quite done with the Christmas festivities. The fun just kept coming. This was the Wing Christmas party, where families were invited...not to be confused with the Wing family Christmas party. Are you following me? Keep up!



The most fun part was walking around the building to see the decorated doors of the various office spaces. I'll dispense with the suspense and post the winner right here. Pretty spectacular, no? Talk about over-achievers.



You may want to click to enlarge this, but basically they used their expertise in the area of awards. This medal is for a certain elf...and the door is complete with navigational tools for Santa, and a Wing naughty and nice list. Well played.



The singing, dancing Grinch was in the conference room, and was a big hit with the kiddos. Incidentally, I'd LOVE to know who made the call to include this guy in their 4000 or less lbs. of household weight allowance with which we get to move over here?



The G-6 played the pop-culture card with "Santa's fly like a G-6" and even had the music video playing on a loop, which you can see up top. Very clever, even if ghetto.



Love the coal. It gets clever points.



And this letter's legalese is SO right on, unfortunately.



This was very cute...love the elves. You might not be able to tell, but they have the faces of the medical personnel.



What you would expect from a Marine, Christmas door-decorating contest.



I guess the Chaplain Dept. went all out last year with a shadow box and nativity scene, and even though it was clearly the best, it didn't even get an honorable mention. Leading to this year's "check in the box" theme.



I don't know about you, but I'm thinking Facebook profile pic!



And late that night, while I was baking in my jammies, the doorbell rang...and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but all the Sr. officers on Plaza, caroling from door to door. What a fun tradition!

It's just around the corner...and I have to finish all this baking!

MOSC Okinawa Christmas Social

When you live in a fishbowl, it's a fact of life that people and activities will be intertwined. You run into familiar people at the commissary, and have to go through the mental Rolodex to remember from where you know them. (And you will run into people you know at the commissary. About a dozen. Every time. It's a rule.) Or when you introduce friends, it goes something like, "This is Sue...we know each other from NOSCO...and our kids are in drama together at the high school...oh, and our husbands work together now...really we first met six years ago when our kids were on the same soccer team, two duty-stations ago." You get the idea.

Driving Patrick to Seminary yesterday morning, it finally clicked that the event for which he was saving his Madrigal costume, was the same event I was attending that morning. He had said he was going to Lester, so it threw me off...but it was actually in the 'hood at the Butler O. I was already looking forward to the event, this performance would be an added treat.



Do you recognize the jester hat in the back? I picked open the lining and stuffed it myself so it wouldn't look lame. I may not get the family's stockings sewn this year...but I stuffed and mended a hat. Woohoo!

I took some videos, but I'm not posting them here because they didn't turn out that great with the lighting. The window in back kept washing out the picture. They did a great job and really added a lot to the festivities.



Here's his reaction to my calling his name as he passed by my table on his way out. Doesn't that just scream, "I love you, Mom!"?


After the kids left, the real fun started. Have you ever played blind-folded, musical chairs? Have you ever HEARD of such a thing? Neither had I. The emcee was smart to ask for a volunteer and an asst. volunteer from every table before she even told them what was going to happen. She had the volunteers come up, and then the asst.'s come bring a chair. Then she announced it was musical chairs...THEN brought out the blindfolds. Craziness. This is the part where I was saying my prayers of thanksgiving that I thought better than to volunteer. Navy stands for "Never Again Volunteer Yourself," but it's a lesson I'm sometimes slow to learn.



It starts out harmless enough.



But starts getting a little scary as people lose their direction or trip over chair legs. (Who thought of this idea, anyway? Oh yeah...crazy Wing people were in charge this month!)


And here's the grand finish...it's down to two, and here's how it ends as the music stops one final time:

It was too funny!

But as entertaining as the musical performance was, and as fun as it was to watch grown women compete blindfolded, this was what made the event so awesome. These are all the toys, bikes, balls and other goodies (and essentials) that were donated during this event, to go to a local orphanage this Christmas.

It was a great time, and I met even more women to run into at the commissary and think, "Where did I meet her?"

III MEF Band Holiday Concert

It's that time of year again! We LOVE this Okinawa tradition. The III MEF Band was spectacular, once again.



Here are three of our friends from church who are in the band. The two on the left are married...the one on the right (in the middle of the pic) is now father to five, after his wife had twins the night before!


I love a marching band, so it was fun to watch these guys march out of the building to lead us all outside for cookies and cocoa during intermission...



And did a fabulous half-time show like last year, too.


But this...by FAR...was the highlight of the evening for me. Luckily, Melanie (the one with the twins) told me about it beforehand, so I had the camera ready. You may have already seen the original on YouTube by Straight No Chaser. I think these guys do at LEAST as good a job with their version here...but the uniforms may just tip the awesomeness scale. Enjoy!