I love getting mail

Because sometimes you get unexpected presents from friends named Michelle who see a Playdoh ice cream maker and automatically think of you.

I also love getting mail because you sometimes get your $100 worth of Hanson merchandise earlier than expected.

And then you get to show off your new Hanson, zip-up hoodie.

And your comfy new Hanson shirt which actually doesn't say Hanson anywhere on it so no one will ever know.

And because you're a freak and like to plan years in advance, you receive the ever popular Hanson one-sie for your first born who hasn't even been planned yet. This is the first thing your baby will wear as soon as you poop him or her outta your vagina. Let the brainwashing begin!

Botanical Gardens at Christmastime

Last year this time, we had just gotten to the island and were living at the Hamagawa Lodge off base. We had no friends and we were a couple of sad Santillans. But we had read that there was a wonderful light display at the botanical gardens and since we're super into lights and sparklies, we decided to go. We went on Christmas Eve and it was packed. We found out why as soon as we walked in.

They had gone ALL out with their decorating. There were lights on every palm tree and bush. It was quite the festive sight. Then there was an amazing laser, lights show that even had awesome fireworks at the end! Fireworks on Christmas eve! Needless to say, we loved it and it was great to do at least one Christmas thing that year. Christmas day we watched 30 Rock, ate cup of noodles and McDonald's, and I suffered from a severe allergy attack.

So when I figured out when the Southeast Botanical Gardens were doing their Christmas display this year, I was all in. And I invited my friend Stephanie Hodge and her husband, Erik(also Hodge...what are the odds?) along for the adventure. I had previously trained Steph at the Banyan Tree Club and we bonded right away. Then she quit the next day. Actually, it was more like 2 or 3 months later but it still felt like the next day. And then I was sad and I missed her.

I was sorry to see that apparently, the botanical gardens did a budget cut this year and they had about half the lights that they did last year. I was super bummed out but the Hodge's still thought it was pretty sweet. Then we found out that they weren't even doing their fireworks show. Then I was even sadder. We ended up staying only two hours cause it was cold out and there was no stinkin' show. Here's some of the shots I was able to get.

Before we left, I modeled to humor Dustin.

Super awesome pose extreme!

We look good together, I think.

Ugh. I always squint. And you can't see it here but we were sitting on frogs.

I wanted to steal that tree topper. But it was probably the size of my tree.

You could have someone take your picture in front of this tree with various props. Like stuffed animals and giant hearts made of tinsel(I think). Then you had to give up your first born if you would like to keep the framed picture in your home. So we passed on it this time. Because we were lacking in first born children.

Who doesn't love penguins?? No really. Find me someone that doesn't love penguins and I will fight them to the death.

Sooo pretty. It matched my makeup that night too. :)

A lot of the lights were out. It was kinda sad. Still pretty though.

Some dude.

He may not look like it, but I swear he was having fun.

Christmas hula. You know...that old traditional gig that we all grew up with.

These little girls were so cute and probably freezing their tiny hineys off! It was in the low 50s but with the humidity it feels a LOT colder. I was shivering after about an hour of being there and I was wearing 4 layers! I have a lovely video for you guys of the hula dancers 'cause it's hard to take non-blurry pictures of swaying hands and hips. Towards the end of the video when the little ones are dancing, the sound gets all crappy. I don't know if it's my camera or maybe I had my finger over the microphone or something. Enjoy the video anyways. I command you!

On the pond...

They still had some pretty sweet lights. Just not as many by far, as last year.

I loved this scene for some reason. I think I called it the "tree of life" at some point and made everyone stop so I could take a picture of it.

I'm still trying to get the hang of not making all my pictures blurry. One day I will be the master though.

Here at the Southeast Botanical Gardens, you can pretend that your entire head (and sometimes shoulder and arm) is Dori's single eyeball!!! I'm telling you...nothing gets me in the holiday spirit like creepy wooden fish.

Steph and Erik had to be Nemo, of course. Finding Nemo IS the best Christmas movie out there. I like how happy Erik looks here.

I was trying to be polite and listen to what Erik was telling me, while also looking glamorous for the camera. I don't think I succeeded on either because I don't remember what Erik said and I have a very pained expression on my face here.

So not ready for this.

I decided Dustin needed to be in more pictures. And we just need more pictures like this of us, in general.

Then the flash refused to work for a little while.

I guess I got scared. Of Dustin's face, of course.

Laughing at Steph (not pictured, duh) doing all this sexy modeling pictures while Erik captured every single one for blackmail later in life. Well, at least that's what I assume he'd be doing with them. If not, he's an idiot.

Checking out the stunning results of her photo shoot.

Haha, I look like the ultimate third wheel here! I should've squeezed in between them. Steph's boobs, I mean. I was cold and I can only imagine how toasty it would've been in there.

I wish I had gotten a better shot of this bridge. I have one on my phone from last year but we need to get the cord to hook in up to the computer. Anyhoots, this is when we started to head back once we found out there would be no laser, light, fireworks spectacular show. Quite the disappointment. But the Hodges had fun and it was a good excuse to just hang out with them so I'm still glad we went.

God really loves US!

So, we've been getting a lot of good news lately. The kind of good news that makes me hysterically sob with happiness. The kind that gives me uncontrollable heart palpitations of excitement. The kind that causes us to praise God and realize once again, how much He really loves us. I can hardly sleep at night from being to excited.

Good news #1:


This darling girl (who just ate a lemon apparently) is coming to visit us for 10 days in January!!! Oh my goodness. This was completely all God's doing. It was all meant to be! Let me start from the beginning.

As you probably know, we have been working to get our lovely Jack Russell, Ariel here. We had everything all set up for Ariel to get here. We hadn't bought the plane tickets yet, when Dustin found out about one piece of paperwork that he had overlooked. Apparently, he needed to inform the Tokyo airport of Ariel's arrival at least 40 days prior to her getting there. So we were super bummed out obviously. Dustin probably more so than me because he promised me that Ariel would be here by Christmas. He felt really bad about it and like he failed. I, on the other hand, felt strangely (Celexa) optimistic about the situation and told Dustin that it would be OK. I knew that we would still get her here soon.

The next day Dustin came home for lunch with a fantastical idea. He was still feeling pretty crappy and had been thinking about Ariel all day. His marvelous idea was for my darling sister, Brittany to fly to Arizona to pick up Ariel and then fly with her here.

See, the original plan involved Ariel flying by herself from Phoenix to Tokyo, then I would fly to Tokyo and pick her up and bring her home. The more we looked into this idea though, the more complicated it became. I would be landing in a totally different terminal than Ariel. And her terminal would be so far away that I would have to take a 30 minute bus ride there and back and try to make it back on my plane in time because I wasn't going to spend the night there. We also had no idea how long going through customs would take. Talk about stressful. No amount of pills could keep me from freaking out had I done this.

But, if Brittany took Ariel, they'd be together the whole time and she wouldn't have to go looking for her. Plus, it would cost the same amount for them to fly together. AND, it would only cost about $100 more to get Brittany from New York to Arizona.

I called Brittany as soon as Dustin told me his plan. Since we're paying for everything and it would totally be helping us out, Brittany, of course, was all in. And her boss said she could even take 2 weeks off!

So, we didn't get Ariel here for Christmas but now we get Ariel AND my sister! Hooray! I'm sooooo excited. She will be our first visitor here! We can have many adventures, even better than the ones we used to have!

Like this adventure that I like to call, "Very Pretty Girls Get Drunk off Their Asses and Still Manage to Look Beautiful While "Step-brother", Miguel, Takes a Picture". I think we're 14 and 19 here. Oooh, rambunctious youth.

I still like her even though she's taller than me and has bigger boobs.

I'm just so excited to see this lovely shinning face again! Except she doesn't exactly look like this anymore. Her head is a LOT bigger now.


On to Good News #2:

Remember when I told you all how I was beyond excited that our good friend Matt was getting stationed here in 2011?? Well, double that excitement by about 2,000, because now the Zimmerlys are getting stationed here as well!

Do you remember them?? They're the ones with the pug named Pugsy who is Ariel's BFF.

Beth Zimmerly is also the one that made our first wedding cake! It was delicious and had boob cupcakes on it!

But here's how we found out they were coming. Beth sent me a facebook message about 3 weeks ago. In the subject she wrote, "We can't visit you guys in March". I was like, "oh shit. Why?????" because they had been planning to come see us since before we even moved. They'd been saving up their money hardcore and everything. That's why they weren't able to make it to our wedding. But then I opened the message and it said, "Because we will be moving there in August!!!". I screamed with excitement and then ran into our bedroom where Dustin was still sleeping. I jumped on him and started blabbing loudly. He was extremely confused and probably a little startled as well.

I was finally able to spit the great news out to him, and even though he was still half asleep, he was able to show how happy and excited he was. That's when I started bawling. Geez, I must have looked like a close family member had just died or something. But I was just so overwhelmed with joy that I just couldn't contain it. God really really loves us.

We got exactly what we had been wishing for since we got here. We wanted our friends here more than anything and it's so amazing to me that now it's happening. The Zimms' "report no later than" date is August 20th, which means they'll be here a few days before that at least. And that ALSO means that they'll be here for my birthday (the 19th)!! Best birthday present ever!

It's going to be so beautiful, us being all together again. It'll be almost like old times. Beth and I get to be cooking buddies again! Ariel and Pugz will be reunited! We'll have food competitions and wonderful parties once again! It's going to be so amazing.

Since the Zimms will be here from 2010-2014, and Matt will be here from 2011-2014, we may have to extend our time here. Actually, we're really thinking that we will now. Beth and Matt were the people I cried over the most when we left Idaho. That last day at the lab was torture. Ugh. We don't want to go through that awfulness again. If we extend for 2 more years, we could leave the same year as them. Even though they would leave 9 and 4 months before us which will still suck but not as much, I think. And who knows? Maybe we'll get stationed with them again!

I cannot wait for Sammee to visit us here!

I just love Beth. She's so much fun to be around.

And I'm clearly adoring her in this picture.

I love how they're our oldest friends but look younger than any of us. I'm pretty sure they're actually only 16 years old.

Once upon a time, I worked at a magical place called Mrs Field's Cookies, where I make a giant cookie cake for Beth on her birthday.

OK. I have no idea what what we're looking at here. But I know this wasn't planned. Except for Matt's face. He's always and forever ready for any camera anywhere. That's Kati on the far left there. She's in Korea right now where Matt will soon join her.

I do indeed miss this face.

Oh, Mountain Home PMEL. I really hope Pete (middle) comes to visit real soon.

Going away party. Before all the crying started.

You can tell they're best friends because they both have blue shirts on and they both have fucked up faces. Pardon my french but come on. Look at those faces! What the hell is going on??

I'm pretty sure they'll walk like this together every day when Matt gets here.

I'm also sure they can't wait to be reunited like two old lovers. I wonder what shenanigans they'll get themselves into this time around.

I'm hoping the nights won't end with Dustin's face looking like this. I would hate for it to get stuck like that.