Japanese Festival

This weekend there was a big Japanese festival in downtown Phoenix, so a bunch of our friends got together to head down there and sort of commemorate our move to Misawa. Unfortunately, most of it was rather kitchy and touristy and hardly authentic - but it was still fun to walk around and whet our appetites for when we get to experience real Japanese culture. They had multiple stages set up where one could see all kinds of performances, as well as dozens of food vendors and booths full of Japanese paraphernalia. There were definitely some cool items for sale, but we figured it would be kind of a waste to buy anything today when we can get it from the source in a month and a half. But we did enjoy hearing some Japanese folk music and watching their traditional "lion dance". Our friend Dave was asked to feed the lion head during that performance, which was pretty exciting.

The coolest thing we saw while at the festival was one of the 12 remaining masters of the ancient Japanese craft of candy sculpting. He had a hot pot of a sugar mixture that he would work with and turn into these elaborate and beautiful edible sculptures. (It's not the easiest to see - but in the picture below he's almost finished sculpting a bald eagle in flight.) I totally would have bought one of those, but I guess he could only take so many requests in one day so they were already sold out. Maybe we'll run into someone with that training while we're in Japan and I can get one then.

All of the walking around really made us hungry for some Japanese food - but unfortunately the lines at all of the kiosks were ridiculously long, so we all drove back to a good Japanese restaurant in our neighborhood and had a delicious feast of sushi and fried noodles (the noodles were for me, of course. ;^) I was excited because James took this opportunity to teach me how to use chop sticks - a skill I really struggle with but need to master if I ever want to eat out in Japan. Thankfully, I finally managed to get it down after several failed attempts and ate most of the meal without the fork I requested!

After today we are definitely excited for our upcoming over-seas adventures. Hope you all are too - because Lord knows I will have all kinds of stories and pictures to post in the coming months!

Washington D.C. and Lousiville Trip

Our trip out east to visit family in Washington D.C. and Louisville, KY last week was wonderful! We were very nervous about how the crazy weather they've been having would affect our travel plans, but thankfully all of our flights ran on time and the weather was nice enough for us to get out and see a lot of the sights. It was also special just spending quality time with some of our family members that we haven't seen in a while, and may not see again for another couple of years. I am so glad we took advantage of James' time off from flying to see people before we go to Japan!

While in D.C. we stayed with James' uncle Brad and his family. He and his wife Nina have both worked in the Peace Core and had been living in Morocco for the length of James' and my relationship. However, they moved back to the states this summer and so we jumped on this opportunity to see them while we're on the same continent. =^)

We were not there long, but the time we had was very exciting. Brad and Nina made sure that we were comfortable, well fed, and well entertained. We were excited that Brad was able to take some time off from work so that we could all go see the monuments and museums together. We walked all over the mall (from The Lincoln Memorial, down past the reflecting pool to the Vietnam and WWII memorials, to the Washington Monument and on to the Smithsonian and Capitol buildings.) It was A LOT of walking - but thanks to my recent physical therapy, I was able to handle it all ok. There was SO much history to take in there, and I was just excited to finally see all of these famous sites in person.

One of the coolest things that happened while we were down there was that we got to see President Barack Obama himself! All day, James had been joking that maybe we would see his boss while we were in town, and sure enough - there he was! They had the roads all blocked off as the Presidential motorcade went through, and we managed to catch a glimpse of him on his cell phone in the back of the second limo that went by. You can't see him in this picture, but he's in there!

After seeing all of the monuments, we decided to walk around in the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. We only had time to really see one of the museums there, and I figured that would be an appropriate choice since that was a very patriotic day. Brad and Nina were not able to stay with us the entire time because they had to go make sure their kids could get home safely from school, but we had plenty of time to wander around before taking the metro train back to their neighborhood.

One of the most impressive exhibits was called "The Star Spangled Banner". They actually had the original flag that flew above Ft. McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem. I was amazed by how HUGE the flag is. I wasn't aloud to take any pictures in the exhibit, but it's just about the size of that metal sculpture outside the doors. Truly a sight to behold!

After that we walked around in various smaller exhibits - looking at some fun pop culture items like the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and the original Kermit the Frog muppet. We also saw some really old musical instruments that I'm sure my parents would have appreciated. After that, we moved into the area that James was most interested in, which was all about the American Presidency. We got to see all kinds of original artifacts like Abe Lincoln's famous top hat and suit, furniture and toys from various occupants of the White House, and all kinds of other important documents and pictures. James even got to see what it feels like to give a Presidential Address.

After that we went through the exhibit that I chose - "The Price of Freedom", all about the various wars we've been involved in. It was fascinating tracing our history trough these different events, and seeing how technology and weaponry developed over the years. They also had some other neat things to look at in there including example of clothing and advertisements from the time period. There was a whole display case full of products made for women on the home-front during WWII including leg make-up that would make it look like you're wearing stockings even if you couldn't afford any, and a bullet shaped lipstick dispenser. I think James and I walked out of that exhibit feeling very grateful that we get to live now rather than back in any of those time periods.

One of the last exhibits we saw (which I was very excited about) was Julia Child's kitchen. It probably would not have been as interesting if we had not recently seen the movie Julie & Julia, which depicts the biography of Julia Child and one of her fans named Julie Powell. At the end of the movie, after having cooked through all of the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook, Julie and her husband go on a pilgrimage to see Julia's kitchen at the Smithsonian. I was thrilled to be stepping into a scene from one of my new favorite movies and seeing everything in person. It was a very overwhelming day!


Our final stop during our tour of DC was at the Capitol building. It really is a very impressive sight, and I'm so glad that we went!

Our trip to Louisville was much longer and more laid back. We had planned on trying to see some of our friends who live in the area while we were there, but we just weren't feeling up to it. Anyway, I wanted to spend as much time with my grandparents as possible since I don't know when/if I will see them again. Sad - but true. =^(

We had a great time just visiting and swapping stories about our families and recent things that we've done. We also had a lot of fabulous food - as always! My grandmother saved the last of this year's cream corn for me, and made up a batch of her famous sweet potato casserole, which James devoured pretty quickly. Saturday night we went to church with them so James got to see what the inside of a true mega church looks like. And Sunday - my Grandparents and my Uncle John gave us a special treat by taking us down to Claudia Sanders' Dinner House in Shelbyville, KY. Claudia was the wife of the famous Col. Sanders - founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. This is the restaurant where they first started serving their special recipe and so we got to have real Kentucky fried chicken, along with an all-you-can-eat buffet of fabulous southern cuisine.

I definitely had a hard time saying goodbye to my grandparents, but we had a truly wonderful time and I know we'll keep in touch through email and such until I can find a way to get back and visit again.

Valentine's Weekend in Tucson

Over the three day weekend we had for President's Day, we decided to drive down to Tucson to visit James' Uncle Tom and Aunt Cindy, as well as our friends the Chapmans. Since Sunday of that weekend happened to be Valentine's Day, we rented a room at a fun southwest-inspired hotel and celebrated the holiday in style. =^)

The first thing we did when we arrived in Tucson was to meet Tom and Cindy for lunch at one of their favorite restaurants. The food and atmosphere were great, as was the conversation! It's crazy to think that the last time we saw them was the summer of James' USAFA graduation three and a half years ago! They enjoyed hearing all about what we've been up to since then, and had some fun stories of their own to share. Apparently the theater company that they work with a lot were finally able to open their own venue instead of always switching venues. It's called the Rogue Theater - and just happens to be in the building where they first met! After lunch they took us on a tour of the theater and told us about some of the shows they've done recently. Sadly, that was about all of the time they had since they were busy preparing for the opening of their next play. That's ok though, we really enjoyed the time we had!

After that, we went and met up with the Chapmans for some Valentine's themed fun. Patrick had bought a stunning Valentines Day cake for Ashley which we got to partake of. Mmm! The rest of the afternoon was spent in leisurely fashion - taking a stroll around their neighborhood with their dog Remy and watching the Olympics on TV. When we got hungry, we all went out for a Valentine's double date at a Mongolian BBQ restaurant. James and I had never had Mongolian BBQ before, but it was really tasty! After that, we went to a near-by dessert bar and talked for a long time over coffee. In honor of the occasion, the staff were handing out complimentary strawberries dipped in chocolate that looked like little tuxedos - very cute and festive!

Since we didn't have anything to be back for on Monday, we decided to spend the afternoon at the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson with the Chapmans. I always enjoy zoos - all of the fresh air and funny looking animals never get old for me. This particular zoo trip was a lot of fun because the Chapmans are silly and love taking pictures just like we do so we had fun posing with all of the animal sculptures in the park. We definitely got some priceless shots for our scrapbook! B^)

Oh - and the animals were cute too. I took this picture of a river otter for my mom because they're her favorite!

All in all it was a great trip. It was good to soak up as much of the warm Arizona sunshine before heading out East two days later to visit more family in DC and Louisville. More on that in another post to come...

Medical Clearance

Well, it has been a long and stressful month, and I am so thankful that I can finally relax and be at peace. This year has been really rough for James and myself because I have had near-constant, mysterious health problems that have caused me more than my fair share of anxiety. Luckily, all of the tests the doctors have run came back saying that I am perfectly healthy and normal, so I can finally relax and try my best to heal (physically as well as emotionally.)

The most recent bout of problems relates to the back surgery I had four and a half years ago to correct a bad case of scoliosis. It was a pretty serous operation. As you can see from the image at the side there, they had to straighten out two large curves in my spine and secure two titanium rods to my vertebrae to hold the correction in place. Up until a few months ago, my back and muscles have been feeling ok - a twinge here and there, but nothing to be really alarmed about.

However, a couple of months ago, I started having bad headaches and disturbing bouts of numbness and tingling in my limbs - particularly on my left side. Understandably, I was concerned since many of my symptoms are reminiscent of a stroke. However, all of the blood work and tests from neurologists, cardiologists, etc. said that I should be normal and healthy. After a while the symptoms went away so I relaxed and tried my best not to think about what could be wrong with me.

Of course, that only lasted so long. The numbness and tingling came back at the beginning of January after I started trying to ramp up my exercise routine to help build up some much-needed muscle. I figured maybe my symptoms had something to do with straining myself while working out, so I went to see the doctor again and ask if he thought seeing a physical therapist might help. He said he was willing to send me to see a therapist who is trained to handle my kind of problem. However, he also wanted to have me do a full MRI - just to make sure I don't have some sort of big auto-immune problem like Multiple Sclerosis.

... =^O

Yeah... SO I had to live with that idea floating around in the back of my mind for over three weeks until they could get me in to do the MRI and scan my brain for any lesions or signs of a deep, underlying problem. To make matters worse, all of this was coming at the time that I needed to start processing my medical clearance to move to Misawa. I was very stressed and worried that something was going to show up that would force the medical staff to reject my application and force us to be reassigned. I know it doesn't sound like a huge deal to have to go somewhere else, but after finally working up the nerve to leave the country, I want to do it now rather than waiting until later in life when it would be more difficult.

Thankfully, all of the tests came back negative so I can sleep easier knowing that I am, in fact, healthy. I may not always feel like it, but there is nothing internally wrong with me. Also, the physical therapist I've been going to is wonderful and has been really helping me get back into better shape. He says that he thinks the problem is mainly stemming from the fact that my core muscles are so weak that I am not getting the support I need. As a result, my lower spinal column and shoulder/neck muscles are having to work harder to compensate for that lack of support and it's putting a lot of strain on those tendons that go down to my hands and feet. Also, the muscles around my shoulder blades where the surgeons did a lot of cutting during the surgery are so weak that my shoulder blades are not sitting where they should. So we've been working on correcting that problem.

I still have a week or two left of therapy, but with everything that they have taught me, I should be able to continue to care for myself and get stronger at home. This is the first time I've done any kind of serious physical therapy since the surgery so I'm hoping it will be another several years until I'll need to go back again.

The final bit of good news came yesterday (Wednesday, Feb. 24th) when I had my final meeting with the heads of the Medical Group here a the base to discuss my medical clearance. They went through all of my paper work and my whole medical file, and after asking me a ream of questions, they said that they didn't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to go to Misawa. Apparently the final decision rests with the receiving base...so it's still not 100% official yet. However, they gave us the paper work we need to submit to get our official orders processed... so it sounds like I'm good unless I hear from them. No news is good news - so I am now officially planning on being in Japan in 2 months!!

Haiti Follow-Up

I mentioned that as soon as they put up the video recording of our pastor's sermon the week we talked about the earthquake down in Haiti, I'd post it here. So here is the link:

http://www.palmvalley.org/Growth/WatchMessagesOnline/tabid/98/Default.aspx

That will take you the the page on which all of our recent messages are posted. The two most recent ones may also be worth a viewing if you have time. We've been doing a series called "It's the End of the World as We Know It" about what the Bible has to say about the end times. That's a subject we're usually very skeptical about, but it's been great. We're looking forward to the series conclusion this weekend.

F-16 Graduation Weekend

Well - James has officially graduated from his F-16 training here at Luke AFB! I can't believe how fast time has flown. It feels like we were just getting settled, and now he's finished! We've arrived at the beginning of the end. All of the fun activities we packed into graduation weekend were a fitting conclusion to the program, though. We were glad that James' parents, Bob and Nancy, could be here to help us celebrate!

On the morning of the graduation ceremony and banquet, all of the wives of the instructor pilots put together a big breakfast buffet for all of the student pilots and their families at the squadron. After we ate and mingled, our squadron commander got up and said a word of welcome and allowed each of the guys to introduce their guests. Then he gave a brief history of our squadron beginning back in WWII. It's incredible to think that we have been a part of a squadron that has such a long and illustrious history! At the end of the briefing, a few awards were given out to the guys who were the best in their Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground phases of training. James did not receive any awards that weekend, but we are proud of him regardless!

After the breakfast and briefing, we all broke up and went off to various activities that were going on around the base. Some people took their families to see the flight simulators, while others took tours of the tower and saw how they handle air traffic control for the base. I, however, had the privilege of taking part in one of the most fun AF traditions for wives - the spouse taxi.

Every once in a while, they organize a day where spouses get to dress up in a flight suit and get into one of the planes and taxi at a high rate of speed down the runway. There have been one or two other opportunities for me to do something like this since we've been married. However, we always passed because it probably would not be good for my back. This time I really didn't want to be left out, so we worked it out so that I could still get all dressed up and take pictures by the plane without having to actually ride in the plane. So, I was issued my own tiny flight suit and got to borrow James' patches, helmet and harness, and had fun posing by a stationary plane while the other ladies took their rides.

That afternoon was pretty stressful because James and I ended up needing to stay on base and help set up all of the audio/video equipment in the hangar where they were holding the banquet that night. Since I took the pictures and put together the slideshow, I guess the people organizing it expected that we had all of the technological aspects of the night figured out - which, of course, we didn't. SO we had to spend several hours making phone calls, as well as several trips back and forth from the house, squadron, and hangar just to get everything working the way we needed it to. Really, everything for this graduation was thoroughly disorganized, so it's a wonder that the night went as well as it did. Thankfully, through some solid team work, we got everything set and ready to go about an hour and a half before people were going to start arriving. I very much appreciated the fact that the MC made a point of thanking James and myself for our hard work during his acknowledgements at the banquet.

The hangar was a very cool venue for the dinner. When we arrived, they had the back doors open to the flight line, which was lit up with one of our spectacular Arizona sunsets. They had some displays by the base security and firefighters set up that people could check out during the happy hour before dinner. We mainly enjoyed meeting up with friends and getting to know some of their parents better while we waited.

We were seated at a table with one of James' favorite IP's and his wife, as well as one of the cooler academic instructors. We very much enjoyed talking to them about moving over-seas over dinner. It was great to hear everyone be so encouraging and excited about what James has accomplished here, and all of the great things we will get to do at our first assignment.

One of my favorite parts of the ceremony was watching the video slideshow I put together for the class. I incorporated pictures and video that the guys had taken during their training, as well as pictures of our families and all of the fun and exciting things we have gotten to do while here in Arizona. There were many pictures in front of the Grand Canyon and other AZ landmarks, as well as some lifetime landmarks like weddings and a new baby. Everyone was very impressed with the way I cut it all together, so that was a nice little ego boost for me while we were all so focused on the guys. O=^)

After dinner, there was a brief speech by our guest of honor - Major General Lawrence D. Johnston. He is a highly decorated retired General with some crazy stories to tell about his time in combat. His speech was short and entertaining, which many of us enjoyed, but I don't really feel that what he said had much substance to it. It was clear he wasn't very prepared, and just wanted to get up there and say something memorable to the pilots and their families. What he said to the guys was actually pretty cool. He pointed out that, in the grand scope of human history, we have only been flying for a very short period of time, and the way things are headed, there may not be manned fighter planes for very much longer. So, they should be thankful and very proud that they are able to be a part of the peak of air combat. However, all he really said to the families is that we should be comforted because there is some kind of "magic" out there that will keep our guys safe. That would have been a great point if he had left it at a "higher power" - but he repeatedly attributed it to magic, which I found disappointing. Oh well. Cest la vie.

After the speech was over, the awards were presented, then all of the guys received their diplomas and took pictures with the Generals and muckety-mucks who were present. In the picture below, the man on the far right is James' squadron commander, Lt. Col. Pete "Cujo" Bilodeau. He was a great commander, and a total riot in social situations, and we will definitely remember him well after we've left Luke.

After the ceremony was over, we were able to go around and take pictures with friends and family before heading out. By that time it was fairly late, so James parents headed back to their room, and we followed the rest of the people from our class to the after party at a local sports bar. We were pretty worn out, so we just ordered some food and hung out with our closer friends until we went home and crashed around midnight. Over all, it was a good day, and all of the hassle of the afternoon was worth it to make the evening go well for everyone.

The next day, we decided to take a long drive up north through Prescott and Sedona with Bob and Nancy. The area up there is beautiful - with all kinds of stunning rock formations. The scenery up there is what you normally associate with Arizona. Unfortunately, it started raining when we finally got to Sedona where the scenery is the most breathtaking, so I don't have any great pictures from up there. But below are a couple from a scenic-over look where we stopped on our way through the Verde Valley. I think Bob very much enjoyed getting to drive around and explore while still visiting with us. =^)

When we arrived in Sedona, we found a fun restaurant where we ate a late lunch/early dinner. Then we wandered around in a local art gallery and drove around to see some of the near-by parks and attractions before heading home. James and I are glad that we were able to finally get up there to see Sedona, and are thankful that Bob and Nancy provided the motivation necessary to get us up there! Now we've seen almost everything that we wanted to see here in Arizona and are one step closer to being ready to move on.