Aktau, Kazakhstan

David spent 5 weeks in Aktau, Kazakstan this summer. Here are some pictures he took while he was there.

The Caspian Sea:



This is called Ploff, and it's very common in the Soviet Region. David said it was "pretty good".

And a Camel, of course:



Statues on the way to the airport is Aktau:

The balcony of his hotel, complete with his homemade clothes line:

And the airport in India:





Jodie's 25th Birthday!

First off, let me just say that I can NOT believe I am already 25 years old! That quarter century flew by.

As luck would have it, David flew in from his trip at 2pm on my birthday. I picked him up at the airport in New Orleans and then we headed over to the French Quarter for lunch at Bubba Gump's.

We had a great time. There is a gift shop with all kinds of funny and cute things from the movie, and the dining room is decorated with lots of posters and memorablia, including the actual clothes they wore. The food was AMAZING.

 I had Mama Blue's Fried Shrimp:



And David had Lt Dan's Drunken Shrimp:

We did a little shopping in New Orleans and then came home. As we were pulling into our subdivision I noticed all my friends were outside, and then as we rounded the corner I saw why. This is what our front yard looked like!

 I got FORKED!!! As I was standing in the yard laughing with all my friends (who were the culprits!) I remembered that one on them had a key to my house! About the time I realized this, David opened the front door and this is what we found inside...

I love my neighbors! These girls crack me up. I was finding new surprises for days, like the bows in the microwave, or that the confetti was TAPED to the floor. Or the most surprising, that the veggie sprayer at the sink was taped, so that it sprayed water all over me when I tried to wash my hands. Gotta love the "Nickel Loop Laides"!!!

And the sweetest part was that David had asked Andrea to have flowers waiting for me when we got back. It was so sweet that even though he was flying home from a foreign country, he was thoughtful enough to have flowers for me on my brithday!

It was a great birthday! Thanks to all those who made it wonderful!! And especailly David, I love you!!

78 Days until the movers come!

Our progress on the move has been fairly slow the last few weeks. David was out of the country for a month, and I went home to visit family. But we're both back now, and David is on leave all next week so it's time to get cracking. We've planned our yard sale for October 9th, and next week will be devoted to getting things sorted and priced for that. Once all of the yard sale items are out of the house, it'll be easier to see what we're working with. We've pretty much decided not to take any of our furniture. We'll be taking our mattresses, but not the frame, a computer hutch, desk chair, and bookshelf. For everything else we'll be using the government provided furnishing.

Our friends who are moving with us left yesterday to spend a month with family up north. They'll be headed to Japan in October! We're going to miss them for the next 3 months until we get there. But it does make us realize that we are getting closer too, and still have a lot more to do.

We've also been playing around with the idea of spending a week in Seattle. When familes PCS to Okinawa, they fly to either California or Seattle and wait or a MAC (Military Space Available) flight out. If we fly through Seattle, we're thinking about flying out there 3 or 4 days before we fly to Japan and doing a mini-vacation. Neither of us has ever been to Washington, so we'd like to do a little site seeing while we're there. Plus, in January they'll probably be snow, which we don't see much of around here and we definietly won't see in Okinawa, so that will be a lot of fun!

Y'all take care!

A few links to share!

I've been doing hours and hours of research and I thought I'd share a couple links that have been very helpful to us.

www.okinawahai.typepad.com  has been the best source of information, hands down. There are also many other blogs linked on this site that have been helpful. It's got pretty much everything you need to know, or a link to it. Including a map in English, which has been hard to find!


Next is www.okinawayardsales.com, which has been awesome for car shopping! It's also great to buy things like clothes, or home furnishings as many people sell things before they PCS out of Oki.

www.mccsokinawa.com is a great place to find out what's happening on the Marine Bases. If you're familiar with any of MCCS's sites, it's the same set up. If offers information about LINKS classes, a phone directory, gym locations and classes and many kids activities.


Like I said, these have been wonderfully helpful and with all the research on places to shop and dine we can't wait to get there. Hope this was helpful for you, too!

Honey, we have orders!

Every military wife has come to both love and hate those words. Or both.

I know we were expecting orders, it seems like we always are. Within the next month we'll be starting on our 3rd enlistment. (I say "we" because even though David signs on the doted line, I'm right there along for the ride.) We spent our first 4 years in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. It's one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the world and most Marine families have been there at least once. We LOVED it. Since both of us grew up in the south, it was like being home, just 12 hours away. We're crossing our fingers to go back there next. In fact, before getting these new orders, that's where we thought we were headed. It's crazy to assume you know where you're going next though, as I have recently learned.

The next 3 years were spent in Slidell, Louisiana. This is where we are now, and we jumped on these orders because it puts us only 4 hours from home. We've really enjoyed being close and having the opportunity to visit so often and have family visit us. We know that we likely won't be this close to home again while David's active, so we've made the most of it. But we're at a Navy command here, and while we've met amazing friends, it will be nice to get back to a Marine base.

Which brings me to the new orders. I was having lunch at my favorite place, with some great friends when my phone rings. I answer and David says "Can you step outside?" Great. I knew that wasn't a good thing. Once outside he tells me he got orders to 3rd CAB. Um...OK. I don't know what that means but I assume it's in North Carolina. Then he drops the bomb. "Jodie, that's in Okinawa, Japan." Never my wildest dreams did I imagine a small town girl from a tiny town in the south would to move to Japan. When I came back inside and told my friends they all laughed. They thought I was joking and if the tables had been turned I would have thought the same thing . But no, I wasn't. We were to report to Okinawa by February.

Our saving grace was that our best friends, and the only other Marine stationed here with us has orders to report there a few months before us. We started doing research and slowly got excited about the idea. Now, I can't wait to get there. I realize this will be amazing for us and we'll learn more then we ever could have if we'd gone back to North Carolina. The move will be stressful, as most moves are, but the end result will be worth it. The shock has worn off and has been replaced by plans of traveling, beaches, and learning new things. It's going to be an awesome adventure!

Hey Y'all

I'm Jodie, and this is my life.

David and I met in middle school. He was in 8th grade and I was in 7th. His family had just moved up from the beach to my tiny little town. To say the least it was not love at first sight. But by the time his graduation rolled around we were already talking marriage. He joined the Marines when he was just 17 and left for boot camp the weekend he graduated high school. I still had a year of school left, but within a month of my graduation we were married and had moved to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Two deployments, two re-enlistments, and 6 years later here we are. We now live in Slidell, LA and within five months we'll be packed up and headed Okinawa, Japan. (But that's another story all on it's own!) We don't have any children, instead we have a 3 year told Boxer who is our pride and joy. I hate to call him a pet, because to us he's so much more.

Why a blog? Well, for a couple different reasons. It's very hard to keep up with friends and family from back home. And it's even harder to keep in touch with friends we've made at various duty stations over the last several years. While we're moving all over the world, so are they and phone numbers and addresses change. This is a way to share what is happening in our life and places we've been. Another reason is because since we found out we'll be moving to Okinawa, I've been doing hours of research. The resources I've found have been helpful but few and far between. So I've decided to blog about the things we've learned during our PCS (Permanent Change of Station) and things that I think might help other's planning a move. So here we go!