Back from Thailand!

Nate and I arrived back to Okinawa yesterday with news of an earthquake and tsunami possibly on it's way! It turned out that the tusnami didn't hit Okinawa, but a small tsunami did hit northern mainland Japan.

We had a wonderful trip to Thailand and will have many pictures to send out once they are uploaded! Some of the highlights of our trip:

Chiang Mai
-going on a trek
-laying with big tigers
-Nate bottle feeding a baby monkey
-Nate getting two suits made by a tailor:)
-eating grasshopers and worms: (

Phuket
-SCUBA diving off the coast of Phuket
-taking a speed boat trip to Phi Phi and Khai Island (we went to Maya Beach where the movie The Beach was filmed
-renting a scooter and exploring the island for a day

Bangkok
-going to seeMuay Thai fights (Thai Boxing)

It has been a while since we have been in touch with a lot of people! We hope that everyone is doing well and we look forward to catching up with everyone !!!!!!!!

Our February donation has gone to Oceana. Check out their website if you are interested!

He's a Spearfisher

Here are some shots of Nate's spearfishing adventures!

He calls these big daddy and little guy... not sure what type of fish they are.

Grouper on the left & a parrot fish on the right

up-close on the teeth

Another grouper....

 Nate & Ray at Okuma with their fish.... 3 of these were Ray's.

Nate with his gun & a stringer of parrot fish.

Helping Out Where We Can

So with the New Year comes resolutions ... and of course we all have/had them. I had been trying to figure out what Nate and I were going to do for other people this year as part of our resolution.

Well things got busy and my plans got pushed to the side .... until one day on Facebook (go figure) I came across a post by Kate Weikert that Susan had re-posted to her wall. It was a lovely note Kate had written about (I am doing her eloquent writing no justice) giving and donating what you can, when you can. No gift is too small. To make a long story short ... what she wrote inspired me to get back on track with my "what we can do for other people" part of my resolutions. (If you would like to read what she wrote just let me know and I will email it to you.)

After talking with Nate about this we have decided that we are going to make monthly donations to charitable organizations that benefit areas in crisis or anything that relates personally to our lives or anyone we know at that time. We decided upon a money range that we would donate each month. Then came the hard part of finding which charity to donate to (there are tons of them) and so on. In Kate's post she had mentioned Charity Navigator, so I headed to the internet and spent some time researching on http://www.charitynavigator.org/. There is so much helpful information there! Please check it out!

In the wake of the Haiti earthquake we have decided that we wanted to support the people of Haiti and the many people who are helping this tragedy for our January donation.
We finally decided upon the Save the Children organization and their "Haiti Earthquake- Children in Emergency Fund "

We plan to post each month what charity we will be donating to and also their website if you are interested in donating or just learning more about the organizations we choose.

Help out where you can! Donating blood is also a great way to give! If you have been to any "third world" countries you will be turned away. Nate and I are not qualified to donate at this time. :(

FYI... A lot of companies will match your donations! If you donate, check to see if the company you work for takes part of that specific organizations matching program.

Just a little fun fact: You can provide a family with a goat for only $30!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010!

Nate and I rang in the New Year at our apartment with friends.

We watched cool fireworks from our porch. So pretty! I love how much the Japanese love fireworks!

Happy New Year to all!

Where has the time gone....

It has been over 4 months since our last blog entry... there are no excuses, just busy lives.

I have been keeping busy with buy trips for work, traveling home for Lynsey's wedding & visiting with family, and now the holidays.

Nate has been keeping very busy with his new favorite hobby... spearfishing! oh yes and also work. We have been eating a lot of very delicious, fresh fish. We eat mainly parrot fish & grouper. Nate now has a special wet suit that is "underwater camoflauge".  Yes, feel free to get your laughs in.

It is never fun to spend the holidays away from your family, but we are so very lucky to have a wonderful group of friends here in Okinawa to spend Thanksgiving & Christmas with. Only one more year away from home at the holidays! We are already at our half way mark of living in Japan. It is really crazy how fast time flies.

Thanksgiving in Hiroshima with Matt, Jody, Melissa & Greg

Family photo in front of our Christmas tree before Matt & Jody's Ugly Sweater Party!

We will do our best to keep our blog a little more up-to-date in 2010!

It's Been a Year!

It’s Been a Year!

We can’t believe that a year has passed already. Where does the time go?

Nate and I decided we would put together a list of things we love about Okinawa and things we miss about the states… one year in. It is really funny the things you definitely learn to live without and the things you never realized you would miss so much!

Things we LOVE about Okinawa:
Sushi, driving on the left side of the road, SCUBA diving, traveling to other Asian countries, finding Tootsa (our new Okinawan kitty), how polite the Okinawans/Japanese are, beach camping, being surrounded by beautiful water, the plethora of restaurants, our scooter, the sea shells, the ocean view from our apartment

Things we MISS about the United States:
Our family and friends of course!, Papa John’s (don’t laugh), being able to drive home, holidays, real TV and real radio, getting a Netflix delivered in reasonable time, being able to call people at normal hours, winter (just kidding!), Target, stores that we both can buy clothes in (Nate is too big), reasonably priced produce, microbrews (Orion lost it's novelty after a couple months)

We will be back to update this list in a year!

Crazy Kitties

We have a little copycat kitty on our hands. Tootsa likes to do just what big brother Monsy does. We can't leave any drawers open.... as they become comfy beds. The little stink stuck her head out for Nate to take the picture.

More of our little copycat...

Monsy loves laying on newly folded laundry... Toots was trying to get on the new laundry, too!

Tootsa likes to sleep on her back. She is a crazy little kitty!