The few pictures I took on Christmas...

Although we claimed this would be "THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVERRRRRRR!!" we kinda failed. Don't get me wrong, this Christmas was pretty much perfect for us this year as far as Christmases without friends or family goes. But it wasn't, by any means, the best or even one of the best that we've had.

Swaroski Crystal Mickey necklace! By far, my favourite gift from Dustin.

But it was nice. We opened presents, snuggled and watched Christmas movies. Then fell asleep numerous times during the movies that we originally were so excited to watch. Then I gathered up the strength to make a mini-feast for Dustin and I. Dustin actually helped me in the kitchen which was awesome because I almost said, "'eff it! I'm too tired and lazy to cook!". I'm glad we did though because everything was delicious. I made this awesome corn casserole, my sweet potatos, ham, and cream cheese mashed potatos (Mommy O'Brien's recipe :)). Then we ate waaaay too much and got sleepy again.

That's when my mom called. lol. I was able to hear everyone open their presents from us and their excited reactions. That was probably the highlight of the day for me. I'm glad I'm so good at buying people gifts. Just hearing the younger kids laughing with excitement over the things I got them, makes paying the thousands of dollars in shipping totally worth it. OK, I exagerated just a tad. But shipping was a buttload. Next year I'm just ordering everything from amazon.uk.com. Or sending money and gift cards.

Later on we called Dustin's family hoping to get our revenge on them for calling us a bunch of times starting at 7am that morning. I was furious because I had worked until 230am the night before and I just hate being woken up in general because I suck at sleeping anyways. I almost cried when my phone rang the second time an hour later and asked Dustin why his mom was being such a meany head and how come she didn't like us anymore. I tend to get dramatic when I'm cranky. I also tried to convince him to "disown her". You know, normal early morning tantrum talk. Merry Christmas!

So we planned to call Dustin's mom and wake her up super early like she did to us. We called when it was 530am her time, thinking she would be dead asleep and hopefully as cranky as I was when we's scream festive greetings into her ear. Surprisingly to us, she answered the phone and actually seemed wide awake. Let me tell you...that was a HUGE disappointment. But never fear, we will get our revenge some day! Just you wait and see. But, we did end up talking to her and the rest of the family for pretty much the rest of the night. We were able to listen to them open up their presents from us as well and I think we did a pretty damn good job. Unless, everyone's just really amazing actors.

So, it was a lazy day that started off with some rage but I was quite content by the time we got to bed. There are so many things that made this year better than last year. List time!

1) We were in an actual home with all our things

2) We were able to decorate and even had two trees this year!

3) Dustin was able to have his cinnamon bun Christmas breakfast tradition

4) I was able to bake cookies and share them with people at work

5) I was able to bake and make Christmas dinner!

6) Since we have cable, we were able to watch all the Christmas shows and movies that we love

7) We had phones to call family! That's the most important of course!

8) We have a dog to spoil with his own stocking

9) I wasn't suffering from a crazy allergy attack

10) We have so much to look forward to in the new year :)

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.

First Christmas nails of the season!

Got them done almost two weeks ago actually. So before I get them changed to different festive designs, I wanted you all to see these. I don't know if anyone actually cares but I think they're super rad. And they totally get me excited for Christmas!

Another reason I love Disney so much

Disney has outstanding customer service no matter where you go. They’re known for their skills in making the customer always feel like they’re right even though they’re probably wrong. And a total tool at that. At the parks they don’t refer to their customers as just that. They’re instead referred to as “VIPs” or “Very Individual People”. It’s true. I learned that little tidbit from my mandatory customer service training classes. It’s about the only thing I remember from sitting in that same room for 12 hours. Well, it was 4 hours a class but it still sucked big time.

Anyhoots, the reason I’m gushing about Disney’s customer service right now is because I have been blessed with it just recently. Remember when I vented about our Halloween costumes not getting here in time for Halloween?? Well, eventually we did get them. About two and a half months after I ordered them. That’s even too long by their standards. I know because I emailed them about a previous shipment that was taking longer than I had expected.

They emailed me back about 2 days later with a very nice, personal, message. I don’t know about you but I think it’s super duper that they have people there that personally respond to people’s complaints. It wasn’t just a generic email where all they have to do is fill in the blanks with your information and give you the same answer they give everyone else. They told me that it takes about 6-8 weeks for packages to arrive at APO addresses. That was the reason I only had one shipping option when I ordered. I have no idea why they take so long when Amazon can get some things to me within a week. They also told me that they tracked down the package and that it was definitely on its way and if it hadn’t gotten to me by November 11th (the end of 8 weeks) that I should get in touch with them again and they’ll work out a way to fix the problem. I totally appreciated that and I got my shipment on November 8th so I was pretty happy.

But when our costumes were taking even longer to get to us I started to get a bit disgruntled towards Disneystore.com. So I emailed them again. And this time I made my complaint really personal and threw some emotion in there as well. I told them that I was so heartbroken over our costumes not getting to us on time because we’re newlyweds and were gunna be Mickey and Minnie and it was gunna be sooooo cute. But then our costumes didn’t get here on time so we weren’t able to dress up and have the wonderful Halloween that we’d been planning. And I was just wondering if our costumes would be here in time for next year’s Halloween because we’d really like to be dressed up super cute and I just wanna know if you know where our costumes are???

So yea, I thought it was a pretty good email. I had fun writing it. It was kind of late though because the next day we got our costumes in the mail. On the same day too, which was weird because I ordered them about a week apart. Then I didn’t check my email for a few days because we were just really happy about how great our costumes were. See??


When I did check my email, Disneystore.com had indeed responded to my dramatic complaint. They didn’t know I had received the costumes yet, I guess, because they decided to fix the “problem” by crediting all the money (shipping excluded though) back onto my debit card!! It was totally unexpected and a FANTASTIC surprise. So sure, we’ll have to wait until Halloween 2010 to wear the costumes, but they were friggin’ free!!

And they were so worth it, dontcha think?? They fit us perfectly, are actually very nicely made, and they totally suit us! I can’t wait until next Halloween! Maybe by that time we’ll find a Pluto costume to force Apollo to wear.

"Are you Tara??"

That's what my co-worker, Ken Miyagi, asked me when I walked into work with my new hair. I finally sucked it up and got it done at a salon on base. Luckily the girl that did it spoke English. It's a lot darker then I was planning. I was actually gunna go lighter! But I found a picture that I liked, brought it in and then looked through their samples to find one that matched.

I really like it though. I wasn't sure at first since I haven't gone dark since I was about 17. I used to dye my hair this blue black color that came in a box. It was awesome cause it just looked black but when the sun hit it just right, I had a blue tinted halo around my head. This new color does the same thing but with a purple-ly reddish color. It's pretty cool.

And with new hair comes new eyeshadow colors that just stand out more. I see a lot more pinks and purples in my future.

As you can see here...my makeup looks amazing because I'm just that good these days. You can also see from the picture that Dustin never leaves me alone. My hair is still wet in this shot but when it dries my curls are all sorts of shiny and bouncy. I had about 4-5 inches cut off so my hair is really thanking me for that. It's a lot healthier and my curls are curlier since they're not being weighed down as much. I can honestly say now that I've learned to embrace and even love my curly hair.

This has nothing to do with my hair and everything to do with my makeup. I should've had Dustin take a closeup shot of me with my eyes closed. There's some blue, pink and about 3 different shades of purple in there. Someone please get me Urban Decay eyeshadow (and Primer Potion) for Christmas!! Sephora.com doesn't ship here!

That is all.

It's the little things

It's the little things that Dustin does that makes me the happiest bitch in the world. Like when I come home from work to find the floors swept or the dishwasher unloaded.

Or when I wake up in the morning on the first day of my period, doubled over in cramping pain to find this, on my bathroom sink. Just so you know, Snickers is the food of choice during that time of the month. Snickers and burritos actually.

Things like this make me overlook the farting and laziness. It makes me overlook the overwhelming, vomit inducing, morning breath that I get exposed to every single morning. If we had a song it would be this one that he had set up on the computer. Lost Without Each Other. Hanson. Of course. I named one of my stories for Dustin after this song also.

How many men deal with their ladies' period issues THIS well??

Tara gets excited!

Fall is here! I don't know about officially or anything, but to me it's already fall. And it has been since September first. I get a little excited at the idea of fall. Fall means that Christmas is right around the corner. And Christmas is the most exciting time of the year for us. And lucky for us, it happens every single year! I love consistency.

Last Christmas was lame. We spent it in a hotel, watching season 2 of 30 Rock and eating Cup of Noodles. Oh, and I had a random allergy attack where I would completely exhaust myself by sneezing 57 times in a row. It totally sucked. We essentially didn't even have a Christmas. We were too busy planning to move here. No time for baking or decorating. Nothing fun.

So this year we plan on having a super duper Christmas extravaganza! Operation BEST CHRISTMAS EVER! That's probably why I'm extra amped this year for the holidays. We already started inviting people over for Thanksgiving at our place. We decided to have a big bad potluck which should be delightful. A friend of ours is gunna deep fry a turkey for us since I don't make turkey. We prefer ham so I normally just wouldn't bother.

For Halloween we'll be signing up to take some local Japanese kids trick-or-treating on base. I'm super excited for that, of course. People don't really celebrate Halloween too much here. You would think they would since they jump at the chance to dress up for everything else. Dustin and I are going as Mickey and Minnie. We already ordered our over priced costumes. Hopefully, they'll come in on time. We wanted a Pluto costume for Apollo but apparently none exist. What's the deal with that?? They have Goofy costumes for dogs but Goofy wasn't Mickey and Minnie's pet. I suppose we'll just have him be himself since he's super cute anyways.

Work has been busy for both of us. We don't like it but it makes our days off and time spent together that much more special. Or whatever.

Here's a few shots of what the fall season means to me.

Baking! Because I don't bake the rest of the year.

Pumpkin bread. I cannot tell you how good this recipe is. When I was a kid, my mom made this in cute little mini loaf pans and would wrap them up all pretty and give them to friends and family. Now that I'm an adult, I make them normal size and keep them all to myself.

It's actually more like pumpkin pound cake but it says bread on the paper I have so I get away with eating it for breakfast. With apple butter. That's pretty much the best fall treat ever. OR, cut a slice and drizzle caramel sauce on it and sprinkle some pecans over that. Hot damn, I love fall!

If you have seen the Martha Stewart Cookies book then you may recognize this cookie from the cover. Dustin got the book for me for my birthday and this is the first thing I made. I needed to relieve some stress and this recipe totally did the trick.

Ready for this? Chewy Chocolate Chunk Gingerbread. Are you dying inside yet? They taste like Christmas and happy.

I fed some to people at my job and (reluctantly) made Dustin take the rest to his job where they were quickly devoured in a matter of minutes. These cookies are trouble. They made me wanna not leave the house so I could just sit in bed and eat them all day. I debated calling in sick so I could do just that.

Acorn squash, apples, oranges, sweet potatoes and a giant pear without the flash on my camera.

Acorn squash, apples, oranges, sweet potatoes, and a giant pear with the flash. I think I like the first one better. It looked more Autumn-y.

This is the only kind of pear I can find at the commissary. It's Asian and huge.

Asian Twilight book cover? They should change the cover to this. With my face and everything.

It's so fat.

This has nothing to do with fall or the holidays. I just decided to post this so you could all feel sorry for me and send me presents. I would like some MAC makeup brushes please.

Fall also means typhoon season. From August to November I believe. Mostly lots of rain for us. Apollo loves this because it means that after his walks he gets to be rubbed down with a fluffy towel and I honestly don't think there's anything he loves more.

Fall also means Franken Berry cereal. But I don't have a picture of that.