Semper Gumbi, Always Flexible!!!!!

So I am back... not in the States but online. For a few days we were out the door by 0700 and dragging ourselves back into lodging until way past bedtime so I was too tired to update. When we had the time we couldn't pick up wifi, go figure :)

Soooo, we are still in Japan. We should be home right now but are "lucky" enough to have an extended vacation and thankfully have the means to do so for now. I refuse to be negative and am only looking at the positive :) SpaceA travel has its bumps and we have rolled over a small one. That is all I am going to touch on that because things could be way worse and I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason. We hope to be flying out on a C-17 soon but I am not posting exact days for security reasons- THAT should be interesting seeing how it is a cargo plane carrying cargo and not really designed for passengers but we are adventurous and ready, lol! (I wanted the full SpaceA experience and I sure got what i asked for, ha!)

Between today and tomorrow I will be going back and documenting what we did everyday from my notes and pictures from where I last left off. Today we hung around base, it may sound boring but it was fabulous. We shopped at AAFES and the commissary and laughed at the irony that we spend less in freakin Japan than Canada on EVERYTHING. We people watched and talked to many, really anyone passing by. We even got snagged by the new car sales guy offering insane deals on Josh's dream truck that he wanted to deleiver straight to him from the factory (Only AFTER the van is paid off we kept having to tell ourselves.) We ate a full seafood buffet at lunch with all 5 of us eating for $25..Yes my dear Canuck friends, you read that price right, lol! Boy oh boy do I miss having access to a base! I have also missed the Military lifestyle so much- We have basically been living like civilians the past year in Canada while on PEP orders. At first it was nice to "get away" but we are truly homesick being away from our military family. I have only met one person so far in Canada who "gets it" because they lived it and retired from the Canadian Forces and continues his work with Veterans from both Canada and the US. It really hit today how much we miss the Military lifestyle while walking home from the commissary (where I got 4 full meals for $79 for tonight and tomorrow I must add- WOW!. We happened to be walking while the flag was being lowered and Colours were being played. It was such a refreshing thing to see everyone stop what they were doing and salute our beautiful flag and think of the sacrifices those have made, both past and present. To most people it does not cross their mind but for those of us on a base it it ever present as we see those families left behind while their loved ones are away and while we hear Reveille in the morning and Taps being played at the end of the day. Over the past week we have discussed our short list of next duty stations and we are pretty sure we want Japan next- we really do love it here and also miss the comrade of being overseas.

The plan for tonight? Grilled steak and movies. The kids got Up and Josh and I got Lost in Translation because we have referenced that movie multiple times over the past week :) Over and out!