Torii Beach video

Torii Beach Jazz Festival

Today is Dustin's 25th birthday and before I get started on his Mountain Dew cupcakes I wanted to post about what we did on Saturday.

Dustin had to work on Saturday because of how behind they are at the lab. It's pretty ridiculous and they'll probably have to work this Saturday too. Very lame. But we decided to go to Torii Beach after he got out. Torii Beach is actually on the Army base and so is owned by the military. It just had it's grand re-opening back in May and I'd been wanting to check it out since I knew it would be less crowded than some of the public beaches off base. It also has a water slide, a fountain, cute little over night cabins, and lots of kayaks and other water type dealys you can rent.

The jazz festival was just another excuse for us to go. If you know Dustin, you know that he's a huge fan of jazz. Not the elevator, Kenny G crap though. That's not even music. He digs more of the big band swing type of jazz that just makes you wanna jump around like a maniac. So he was excited. And I was excited to be outta the house finally and on a beach. Thank goodness it was finally sunny out. It was the first sunny day after almost 2 weeks of rain. And not just regular rain. Friggin' thunderstorms every single day. It was frustrating. I've read that May and June are the rainy months. Thank God that's almost over.

Ok! On to the pictures!

Torii Station (the army base) was actually pretty close by. And we had no idea until we looked it up. It was about a 10 minute drive. There were quite a few people there but it wasn't so overwhelming.

Here's the beach. Isn't it lovelery??

Dustin attempting to open our umbrella. He had a lot of trouble with that. I had to eventually put my camera down and help.

There we go! Hooray!

Tiny hermit crab Dustin found and almost fell in love with.

It kept trying to crawl off of him and he kept dropping it because he was scared that it would pinch him.

Here he is still trying to pick up the crab.

Me. Clearly not amused at all the pictures Dustin kept taking of me. There's a pretend boardwalk there. I could've picked it up and walked away with it.

Water slide all the way yonder! Dustin went down it. It was funny watching him wait on line because he looked like a pedophile stalker with his shirt off, surrounded by all those kids. Good times. I was too scared to go down the slide cause I'm a pussy. The last and only time I went down a water slide was when I was 9. It was at Sesame Place and when I landed in the water at the end I swear I almost drowned. Then I stood up and realized it was only up to my chest.

Lame.

Super lame.

Super duper dog dare ya lame. Whatever that means.

Here's the stage where all the performances were. But we could hear the music from the beach. The first few bands were just ok and kinda boring. Eventually we got hungry and got some Japanese food from one of the vendors and sat on the grass here.

Then I realized the sun was setting so after we ate we jumped up (not literally. we're too lazy for that shizz) and headed over to the beach again. After, that is, we got some craptacular pina coladas. Seriously, we paid $5.50 for each and it was like halfway melted alcohol smoothies. They really sucked.

I kept trying to take pictures of the sunset around these bitches but it just got too frustrating. Oh yea, the water was super warm. Like expensive heated pool warm. It was really nice. The only problem was the huge amounts and pieces of coral and rock that hurt to walk on. For anyone that visits us, I suggest you bring water shoes. You'll need them on pretty much every beach.

I didn't wear water shoes though. We didn't think to bring them. But do you wanna know a secret?? See that Mickey Mouse bag to the left? That's our beach bag that I put together about 2 months ago. When we got home later that night I brought it inside so I could wash our towels. Can you guess what was in the bottom of the bag? That's right. Water shoes! We're complete fools.

This is when I decided to take pictures of myself using our tiny table. This face is for the icky pina colada.

This face is for Kelly.

I don't know what this is.

Sunsets on the beach on a tropical island, make me beyond happy that I live here.

Oh yea! There's this inflatable raft thing that kids were playing on. It was cool. I didn't play on it though because I'm allergic to kids.

This is Dustin's artsy shot of his drink and the beach. I think it's pretty good.

Not as artsy. Actually kinda weird. After we couldn't see the sun anymore we got up again and headed back towards the stage. After we waited 20 minutes for some burnt caramel popcorn.

Two of the bands were AMAZING. The band that we wanted to see the most did not disappoint at all. Dustin and I were amazed by they're jazzy swing skills. They were called the Shoei Uehara Swing Quartet and they were all Okinawan except for one fat guy. And yes, I have videos!

BUT, since it was literally taking hours to upload them I'm gunna try to upload them another time, in another post.

Welcome to breaktown

I've been in a total funk the last week or so. I guess it finally hit me that I won't be seeing any of my friends or family for a very long time. I don't even know the next time I'll be seeing anyone. It's been making me very sad. I went from hanging out with my friends and seeing my family every day to sitting alone in the house every day looking for something to do until Dustin comes home to entertain me. And he is good entertainment but he's pretty much the only person I talk to.

I miss everyone a lot and I can't seem to find anything that'll cheer me up when I'm alone. I'm too bored. Being bored causes me to start thinking too much about people I miss and then I just sit around like a vegetable because nothing sounds fun. I've done nothing productive whatsoever and I don't really wanna do anything.

I am working on getting myself out of this awful mood. I've been baking which calms down my anxiety a lot and I've been watching Conan O'Brien constantly on hulu.com. Those things are the only things that make me forget how sad I am. I also updated my jobs application the other day so fingers crossed that I get the job that I really want. I wont settle for any boring job that's just gunna make me more miserable.

Tomorrow is Dustin's 25th birthday and unfortunately, he has to work. But I'm making him a special old man dinner and some Mountain Dew cupcakes. Then I'm making him take the rest of the cupcakes to work so I don't eat 10 a day. I've been eating too much cake lately. It happens when you like to bake but no one's there to eat the final product but you. It's a problem.

As soon as I get myself completely outta this funk I'll be blogging a lot more. After raining for about 11 days straight, the weather is finally beautifully perfect and we've been able to finally enjoy the beaches Okinawa has to offer. Good weather also means many fun outdoor events and festivals going on here. The fourth of July is looking extremely promising this year.

Don't worry about me folks! I'll get over this eventually. I always do. It's nothing that the beach and a manicure can't cure.

Apollo hates baths

He looks like he's lost about 5 pounds when he's wet. It's pretty cute. Even though he was shaking in fear the whole time.

Just thought I'd share

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream frosting. I made them two days ago and would've had more (and better pictures) if the batteries in my camera didn't die and I didn't have to then wait for Dustin to buy a battery charger and then wait again for the dead batteries to charge. Yup.

But I'm very proud of these cuppycakes because they're super amazing and delicious! I gave a bunch to the neighbors because it's dangerous to have this many sugary delights in the house.

I need a new camera. I'm so sick and tired of blurry pictures of my food creations. *sigh* Someone please buy me a lovely new camera so I can take GOOD pictures on my honeymoon. Please???

What I miss the most is you

Being away from Dustin for 3 weeks sucked major balls. It was just as bad as I thought it would be. During the day I was perfectly fine. Yea, I still missed him but I had many many distractions to keep me from getting too depressed.

But at night...that was the worst. I was used to having Dustin sleeping right next to me every night for the past two and a half years. Then, all of a sudden, I was in a different bed and he wasn't there. I cried myself to sleep the first week and I barely slept over 4 hours a night. It was pretty pathetic.

Things got better once we got the calling schedule down. Dustin would call me before he went to work on the weekdays which was about 4pm New York time. Then he would call me before he went to bed at night which was about 8 or 9pm NY time. On the weekends I didn't know when he'd call but I knew I'd be able to talk to him longer. It was a good system. But it didn't change the fact that he wasn't physically with me.

I had to handle a lot of the last minute wedding planning myself. I handled all the RSVPs and getting in touch with people that hadn't gotten in touch with me. I also did the guest list and seating chart. Jen, my maid of honor, helped me with the place cards, thank goodness. But I had to handle all my stress by myself. Without Dustin being there to hold me and comfort me and take care of things. I wish I could be like him and never get stressed over anything. My life would be so much simpler. And I wouldn't need Dustin as much.

It wasn't until Dustin got to NY and we were reunited, that I truly realized how much I really missed him. It sounds pretty lame and cheesy but, when he got there I felt as if there was a piece of my life restored to me. As if there was something totally missing in my heart and I didn't even realize until I had it back and thought to myself, "Oh wow, this is what it feels like to be happy."

I wasn't too surprised though. He is, after all, the love of my life and my ultimate best friend. All I have to do is think of his face and my world feels completely at peace and under control. I honestly don't think there's a single person out there that would be better for me. No one else in the world could make me this happy and content. No one understands me the way he does and I don't think anyone ever will. He's pretty much perfect.

Except he stinks nearly all the time.

We have the best friends and family

Although most people gave us money in cards at the wedding, a few of our friends and family took a gander at our Target.com registry and decided they wanted us to have some funzy stuff we put on there. I'm glad we got some kitchen stuff and some money. Actually, a lot of money. Dustin and I are still ridiculously blown away by how generous everyone was.

We counted all the money on our hotel bed after the party and with every card we actually just felt more and more guilty. We're not used to people giving us money like that so it was a bit overwhelming. We would open a card, see the money or check and go, "Oh my goodness! WHY???" I guess people like us a lot more than we thought. But we are beyond grateful and never could imagine that we would've gotten as much money as we did. Thank you so much everyone!

One of the few things we've bought with the money so far are the lovely orange Rachel Ray cookware set. It was on sale too! Then I had to re-organize my cupboards so that I have cookware in this one and bake ware in the one below.

We also have some cast iron skillet that aren't pictured cause they're waiting to Dustin to season them and make them all prettiful.

Dustin's grandma got us a crock pot!! I'm very excited to start using this, you have no idea! It even came with a few recipes that I wanna try asap!

Love love love this! Brittany got it for us over 2 months ago but we haven't even hung it up yet. We tend to procrastinate. I put a battery in it though.

We also got some awesomely cute bowls and spoons for ice cream from my friend Jessica. Oh, and I think she also got me those amazing cookie cutters. I made heart shaped biscuits the other day! And then Kelly got me the cool beans cake decorating set that I'm worshipping right now.

And lets not forget the incredibly sweet video Dustin's family had made for us. Even if there is a picture of Brittany & Brianna in it that has nothing to do with me. We watched it when we got home. And of course, the book our Idahomies had made for us that made me ALMOST cry. Oh, how I miss those fools and all the fun we had!

Hooray for friends!!

Sometimes I think I'm losing my mind

This morning I got up to go pee and I swear to God, I thought there was a tiny baby shark on my bedroom floor.

I stared at it for the longest time waiting for it to move...or swim away or something.

Then I bent down and blew at it. It moved across the room and that's when I realized that it was just a tuft of lint.

Then I took a picture of it to post a blog about.

Mmmhmmm. Going bonkers.

Another thing I came home to

Because it's not enough that I have my own grownup kitchen to cook in. Sometimes I just wanna use a light bulb to cook tiny cakes and cookies.

I love how much Dustin really gets me. And when he gets me Easy Bake ovens.

I like food

Have you noticed that I take a lot of pictures of food?? Cause I just did recently. I'm slow sometimes. But I really like food. Especially pretty food. Here's some pictures of food from this last month in NY. I would've had a lot more if I didn't have a crappy camera and the lighting was better at certain places.

Burger at Max Brenner. Those waffle fries are actually sprinkled with cocoa powder. I'm convinced Jesus lives at this restaurant. More on it in a later post.

M&Ms!

Back up bitches! Hooray for NBC!

Chocolate rhubarb scone anyone? More on this wonderful place later as well.

A NY trip isn't complete without a trip to Nathan's for hot dogs (not pictured cause they're not exactly impressive to look at) and chili cheese fries.

Diarrhea Castle. Dustin never had it so he felt like we needed to go.

He was a little too happy I think.

I like tea in old timey grandma china teacups as well.

Hello gorgeous salad! You live in the same place as the tea and scones.

This is another gorgeous salad. But this one Brittany made on Mother's Day for our Nana and it was very yummy.

Oh Lordy. Mini cupcakes. Peanut butter & jelly, red velvet, and cookie dough. How could life get any better than this???

"Come to Max Brenner and I'll show you," says Jesus, King of the Jews.

That's all you get now. I hope you're hungry.

Growing up

This is something I grew up always seeing. Polka dotted sidewalks. It's a typical NY thing. I was used to it so I always just accepted it without a thought.

But I remember one day I actually thought about it and questioned my mom about it.

And my tiny young brain could not believe that those black dots covering everything were actually gum.

"But gum isn't black..."

I was very confused.

Now that I'm a big bad grown up, I can look at those same sidewalks and think to myself,

"New York is so poopy disgusting."