Ahh Cocok's.

9/10-9/17

It was a somewhat uneventful week and weekend actually. Dan's squadron did another Exercise so he didn't get home until around 7:30 every night last week which isn't terrible (except for him since he went in at 6:30 am!) So I just enjoyed relaxing all week. I took advantage of our base library for the first time and got myself a library card and a few novels to keep me entertained until I start my job in a week! It was so peaceful just reading in the library for a little while and a nice change of scenery. I actually read through most of my first book that day!

The craziest part of the week was Monday evening after I got the kittens home after being spayed. We were told they were supposed to wear these cones for like 3 weeks to keep them from messing with their incision. Yeah RIGHT! Not growing up with cats, I was clueless. If you've had to do this, you probably know why I am saying yeah right. It was miserable. Once I opened their kennels and they figured out how to step out of them with the giant blocker around their neck, Sophie just decided to go absolutely crazy and ran at full speed through the entire house while I'm freaking out trying to catch her. She ran into probably every item in our house and I was afraid she would rip her stitches out. Bella was a lot more calm...at first. She just kind of walked around sadly trying to keep her head off the ground. Poor little girls.

Like I said before, Bella was good at first until she spooked herself and then took off running like mad around the house until she got caught under the sofa :( So after many unsuccessful attempts at wearing the cones, we decided to try making them little onesies which worked until Sophie wiggled her way right out of it. It was a stressful night in the Stone house... but we locked them up in their room for the night and said oh well! We can't stop them no matter what we try. And the next morning, they were all cleaned up and looked just fine. Guess I was too worried about our little furry friends!

Wednesday night, we went to Foster's BX to buy Dan's very early birthday present, a nice dressy watch. The only reason I caved to getting it so soon (a month early) is because 1) he might not even be here on his birthday depending on training and 2) he could wear it to the AF Ball that weekend. When we first walked in, we saw all of these sheet protectors for $0.10 a box! Can you believe that? So as you can see, we stocked up! Who knows what we'll need them for in the future...and at the register, they ended up being $0.08 a box! haha what's the point of even charging?? I'd say that's the deal of the year for us. Anyways, then we found the watch he has spotted a few weeks ago and were able to resize it there and then we headed home.

Thursday morning, I went back to Foster to check out their tent sale (90% off items) and the case lot sale at their commissary which was full of good deals on food. I ended up getting like 35 items for $36 I think. They had a ton of cheap cereals, granola bars, meal items, soda, and other random things. I was pretty happy to stock up on cheap food items; some even had additional coupons on top of the cheap prices.

Lovely fountain when you walk in and then rows of recliners.

Also, Thursday was my favorite day because I had the most wonderful pedicure at Cocok's which is a pretty famous nail salon around here. I think about 90% of the women I've met here have mentioned Cocok's. :) I now know why! We were a little early, so we started looking through their books of nail designs which was about 20 pages of different designs. It would have been a much harder decision for me except that I wanted my toes to match my black dress for the AF ball so I wanted them to have some black in the design. We were then escorted to these huge, comfy brown leather recliner chairs and had a lovely cup of iced tea waiting for us. Our appointment lasted about an hour and a half as they massaged every bit of our feet and calves and painted these fantastic designs on our nails. It was the most relaxing thing...I could have fallen asleep while they were massaging, Anyways, it was a great time!

I just wanted you to see the chairs-so comfy! And the book of designs that had pages and pages like this. 

After I got home from that appointment, it was hard to want to do anything because I felt so relaxed! But I made an Oreo Fluff pie dessert for small group that night. And for once, we didn't have to drive because the hosting couple lives just down the street from us. That was a nice change!

Friday the 14th, I was so proud of myself for venturing off base by myself. I was actually just completely sick of being in the house and needed something to do, so I grabbed by book and drove to Kadena Marina while I waited for Dan to get off work. But alas, as soon as I pulled in the parking lot, Dan said he was headed home. So I turned my car right around, after taking a picture to prove to him where I was, and met him back at the house for a gourmet meal of spaghetti and green beans. I still hadn't been out of the house long enough though, so we decided to go for a drive after dinner. Around here, we haven't really discovered what to do at night that doesn't involve eating or drinking except for going to the theater. We ended up making a giant loop going out one side of the base and coming in a different side. But the best part of the trip is that we discovered a restaurant called Tortilla Factory. Dan said someone recommended it saying that it was made after Chipotle in the States, so we looked for a place to turn around so we could go check it out! But we never found a good spot to turn around and it started to rain pretty hard, so we decided we'd check it out Saturday for lunch. 

So on Saturday, Dan found the restaurant again and we enjoyed some lovely burritos and chips! It was very similar to Chipotle in that you choose if you want a burrito or tacos, and then decide the meat and the toppings. We had the whole place to ourselves and were very pleased with our food! Dan has already decided that we WILL be back. 

My burrito is in the middle and it had basil rice, lettuce, cheese, and a honey mustard glazed chicken. Dan's is on the right and he chose Mexican rice and beef with some other toppings. Although nothing can quite top that perfect burrito at the real Chipotle, we were happy with our Japanese versions. 

On our way home, we decided to stop by the BX to have something else to do. It had already started with some more rain because of the typhoon that was about to hit the next day. We pulled in the parking lot and were completely shocked to see how many cars were there. The parking lot is pretty big, but the spots in the back are NEVER occupied. But that day, they were all full! I said no way!!! I wasn't about to wander in there just because we were bored. It was truly insane how busy it was, so needless to say, we left. Instead, we went to find a good movie to rent from the library. We settled for the newest ones we could find, from 2001 and 2004. Not the best movie I've ever picked out, but it sort of kept us entertained during the beginning stages of Typhoon Sanba. We went to return the movie and signed me up for Rosetta Stone. We signed Dan up back in June but never received an email saying that a spot opened up. But as we were signing me up, they said Dan's account was active and we could have been using it for the past month! That was disappointing since I've been sitting at home doing nothing when I could have been using it! Oh well- I started that evening! I already like it so much better than any other program we've tried. Hopefully this helps me pick up some basic Japanese! It is a little frustrating because they don't translate ANYTHING. Its all pictures and repetition and using intuition to recognize a word from before and applying it in a new way. I am starting to recognize basic vocab (boy, girl, man, woman, some foods, some colors) and whether the verb is singular or plural, but at times, I really have no clue what the sentence says. 

My peaceful Sunday morning. Coffee, kittens, and a good book.

Sunday was supposed to be when the typhoon actually went over us. We do think this one felt a little stronger than the last one. We had a lot of leaves end up on our little back patio. But we slept through the worst of it, and we didn't lose power this time! After we were released from our houses, we decided to get out of the house and drive to the water to see how rough it was. We then realized that our house is truly protected from the wind! It was quite windy where we went and the water was fairly rough and just nasty looking--not the pretty blue we were used to seeing. 

We didn't stick around for too long for obvious reasons. Personally, I think I'll be plenty sick of typhoons by the time our 3 years are up. I just get sick of being stuck in the house. I'm sure it will be better once I'm actually working and don't spend so much time here. We'll see soon! 

Monday, September 17th, I received an email with my official job offer/contract! That was good since I still hadn't heard anything about my salary or personal days and such. And it had my official start date on the form- September 24th!! I'm so ready to be employed again and just do something during the day! I'm sure I'll have lots of stories to come in the next couple blogs between the AF Ball (that was pushed back a week) and the start of being a kinder aid!

Wow, I never think I have much to say in my blog and then it turns out to be pretty long... hope everyone is doing well back in the States!

Krista