Japan pics

We lived in Japan for a little over a year back in 2004-2005. Mark got stationed in Yokosuka Japan. It was an interesting tour...unfortunately he was not home much.

I wanted to post a few pics (for you Alexis!..lol) to give you an idea on how beautiful it is especially during cherry blossom season:)

Oh Tyler....

Seriously, it takes this little guy about 2 seconds to wreck a room.

Enough said.

$198 ear infection

Daisy, my dog got her 2nd ear infection in the 6 1/2 years she has been alive. I just so happened to notice it when she was sitting on my lap one night. She never itched or rubbed her read (the usual signs of something going on in the ears) So I made an appointment at her vet and took her in. He doctor is wonderful. For some reason Daisy has made quite an impression on him. I am sure he has read her file inside and out.

When we got Daisy almost 7 years ago, Mark and I were married about 2 years. We did not have kids then. Mark was going on deployment and he thought a dog would be a great companion for me while he was gone for the 6 months. Well, we did a big no-no...we went to the local pet store. I know..I know...petstores help puppy mills stay in business...trust me, we now know never to get a pet at a pet store again. We fell in love with Daisy, she is a Maltese. She was a pound and a half when we got her. Cute little fur ball:). THree days after we got her, she was back at the vet because she was not herself. This was a different vet from what we have now. She dismissed anything was wrong. That night Mark and I had to take Daisy to the emergency vet. Doctors told me she was very sick (respiratory issues and low blood sugar). So Daisy had to be monitored for a week there...to a tune of a $1000. We called the petstore demanding compensation and all they told us was go to their vet and they will cover the cost. Luckily we saw a different dr than the one that dismissed earlier. He ended up keeping Daisy at his clinic and at home for 6 weeks while she recovered. She made a full recovery...tough start for a pup!

Right around the time she turned 1, she started having seizures. There is no cause the drs can find to why she has them. Idiopathic is the term It was very scary. She was starting to have them way too much...her worst was right after Meghan was born. She was having multiple seizures in a day. Our vet at the time decided to start medicating her. Phenobarbital. Yep, the same that humans take. She did great...she only had maybe 1 seizure a month. A few dosage adjustments had to be made, but then she hit a plateau with her meds. We decided to add a new med to her regime..KBr (Potassium Bromide). This combo has done wonders. Daisy maybe has 4 seizures a year at most.

Back to the ear infection....the Vet looked at her ears and her ear canal was completely shut. SO the vet techs had to go out back and clean out her ears. So the ear cleaning, the lab test to see if the EI was bacterial or not, the vet visit, ear cleaner, 2 medications...the bill was $198. I am glad to report she is feeling much better...:)

Storytelling....

So now that Meghan is in Kindergarten all day, when she sees me at pick up (3:15pm) she shares her whole day with me;)

So today she was going on and on that she "kinda" threw up, then in another sentence she said she was sent to the office, and a few minutes later she told me she she spilled her drink at lunch and cried. OK, its quite a day with some drama, but I went ahead and emailed her teacher to see if any of this was true. As I mentioned before her teacher is a sweetheart and has a great sense of humor. Well, her response was "if all that happened, its complete news to me". OMG, I feel like an idiot. This lady must think I am a nut!

The email went on to say that Meghan was upset today because her friend Peyton was moving away. Yesterday was her last day. They sat together in the classroom and at lunch and played together with the other kids too. Meg was so sad her friend was leaving. I talked to her about it and explained that as a Navy family there is always the chance of moving away. She immediately thought we were moving and cried. After settling her down, I assured her that were were not moving right now...at least for not another 2 years.

Finally after a LONG 6 1/2 months.....

MARK IS HOME:) Mark came home a few weeks ago from deployment. This was one of the most stressful deployments we have endured. Let me begin...

Mark left in April on his ship. The ship was changing Homeports from Norfolk, VA to Yokosuka Japan. They had some nice port visits...Rio de Janiero and Chile to name a few. After they left Chile...something very wrong happened. Fire broke out. Not good when you are in the middle of the ocean! Back here in the USA, my parents were visitng and I was out getting an errand done. I had no idea what was going on. When I got home, there was a message on the voice mail. It was our friend Dave...he is retired from the Navy, but works for the Navy and has all the clearances. He sounded very anxious to talk to me and asked me if I knew about the fire on board. UM.....NO?!?!? I totally started freaking out....thinking of all the worse case scenarios....the fact is, Mark was on an Aircraft Carrrier--its big and holds lots of jet fuel. Thank goodness my parents were here...they kept me focused. Later that night I got a call from another spouse that Mark worked with her husband. She told me that she got a text message from her husband and he was ok, and he told her to call me to let me know Mark was ok. It was wonderful news....but I just wanted to hear it from Mark that he was ok...KWIM? Then my phone started ringing...it was a text from Mark. All communications were shut down...but some had some internet connections. Mark's friend went to the T-Mobile website and sent a text message via the website....pretty resourceful, huh?

Mark spent over 2 months in San Diego while the ship was being repaired...and the investigations started. It was very stressful for the whole crew. The CO & the Xo were fired and there were rumors that more people were going to get fired. Mark came home once for a few days. I had wanted to go visit him in San Diego, but the air fare was insane and so was the hotel rates. It was an OK visit, but he was beyond stressed out. He told me some stuff about the fire. Its all public knowledge now, but at the time I was sworn to secrecy since there was an ongoing investigation. If you could believe it...it looks like smoking was the start of the snowball that rolled down the hill. There was some illegal smoking and somehow it connected with lube oil and that started the fire. He told me that there were sailors that were trapped for a few hours....THANK GOODNESS they were saved. No one was killed, but a few were hurt fighting the fire. Mark returned to the ship after his short visit. The ship finished the repairs and then ventured off to Japan. There were a few more folks that got fired...but Mark was fine and finished his tour.

It may sound strange, but up until now, I never thought of the ship catching fire. But I have such an imagination...that I am constantly (even now) thinking of all the what ifs and what if he was killed. Scares the crap out of me.

He was home for 2 1/2 weeks on much needed leave. It was a wonderful leave period. The kids were just all over him. :) We did not go anywhere, just hung out at home....just doing day to day stuff (taking Meg to school, errands, taking Tyler to Gymboree).

Mark now has started his courses for his next job. He is up in Newport, RI until next week. I would have loved to go back up there...we lived there when we were first married. Its a great little town...and only an hour away from my family!

First Day of Kindergarten

Meghan started Kindergarten this year. Here in our city, Kindy is all day. We walk up at 8:40am and then I pick her up at 3:15! She loves it though. Her teacher is WONDERFUL. She is a veteran teacher and I am still in awe what the kids are doing in class. Its amazing. Meg's school is very warm and caring. The staff is awesome!

I have conferences in a few weeks so I am looking forward to sitting down with the teacher:)

Every September I get the "itch" to go back into teaching again. My first class I taught is in College...getting ready to graduate! When Tyler is of school age, I will really think about going back to the classroom.

Meghan turns 5!

So I realized that I have not posted anything since August. *sigh*


In September Meghan turned 5:) She was so excited for her birthday. On her actual day she got to bring in some cupcakes for special snack. It was very exciting. Her teacher is really funny. There is a rule about only healthy snacks being brought in for parties, etc. I understand the rule fully, but its a birthday. I talked to her teacher and she was cool about bringing in the cupcakes. I called Farm Fresh (supermarket) and spoke to our buddy "Patrick" in the bakery. Let me digress for a bit...Patrick has taken so many of our orders for birthday cakes, christening cakes, etc that he always comes over to say hello if he sees us in the store. He is always getting the kids a cookie as we pass by the bakery. ANYWAYS, we ordered "rainbow" colored cupcakes. They came out great. Meghan's teacher told me to put the box in Tyler's stroller so the "sugar police" would not stop us;) She then hid them in her supply closet. Anyways, the kids fully enjoyed their "contraband" cupcakes!

Meghan had a birthday party here at the house that next weekend. There were no kids from her class since her birthday was the first week of school and she really did not know them. We had some neighbors, friends, Navy family friends and friends from Gymboree days, and friends from preschool. There were about 12 kids total with moms and dads. Of course it was a Barbie princess party! We had pizza for dinner, had some arts and crafts, played games, played in the yard and had the pinata. We had some tired little people leaving at the end of the party. Meghan melted my heart at the end of the night....she said "mommy thank you for the great party...you make good parties;)"

I still can't believe that my daughter is 5. I clearly remember the day she entered the world--3 weeks early! I went to the hospital that morning because I was having a reaction Amoxicillin and felt like crap. Mark had duty...I called him and told him that I was heading to the Naval Hospital. I got there first...the doctors confirmed that I was having a bad allergic reaction. Since I was there, they checked me because apparently the fetal monitor that I was hooked up to was showing I was having some good contractions. Well, they checked....and I was in Labor. I was 4 cm dilated and they told me that I was going to have Meghan that day! I was crying (happy...yet scared!). Mark walked in and saw me crying and thought something was wrong--I told him Meghan was going to be born that day. Meghan was born at 8:18pm that night. :)