Last night I took the kids to see High School Musical 3 at the base theater.
I don't think William blinked once during the entire movie.
He just loves it. I think he wants to be Troy Bolton when he grows up.

Today, after I dropped off the boys at preschool, Marcy and I went to theNavy Gift Shop on Lester for their Christmas shipment opening. I picked up a few things but nothing major. Then we went to the Foster BX to check out their electronics because they tend to have a better selection. I picked up a Wii fit for me and Joey for Christmas and the Wii Diego Game for William for his Birthday. I'm going to get Sarah the Littlest Pet Shop PC game I saw at our BX so she will have a computer game and he'll have the Wii game and there will be no fighting! Yeah, right.

We also found out that our friends Rosie & Pappa Cioppa are coming to Okinawa in January so that will be fun!
S has her Thanksgiving program on Friday and then all the work Turkey Day festivities start next week.

I'm determined to send out ALL my Christmas cards this year.
Last year I did not get them out to people who have moved in the past 2 years and the year before that I only sent to family because we were "en route" to Japan. So, today we borrowed the best camera lens we have access too (thanks to Holly) and met the Sukenik's at the Kadena Marina for a little photo shoot.
Since I'm no pro, there are shadow issues which I'm trying to overcome.
I downloaded the pics and messed around with a few...
let me know which one you like best for the Christmas card
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS

Today, W and I will go to the commissary to purchase everything I will need to make the stuff I'm supposed to bring to Thanksgiving Day dinner at the Antedom's and the stuff for a few Thanksgiving celebration lunches before actual Turkey Day. Let's hope they have not run out of pillsbury pie crusts yet.
I found mint M&M's yesterday so I stocked up on those but will not put them out until after Thanksgiving - out of principle.
I am very bothered by something.
We all know how important a calendar/planner is in our busy lives.
We all know how hard it is to find just the right one - right layout, right amount of space, right size, etc.
Everyone's requirements are different.
Every year I get the Mary Engelbreit Wall Calendar and the "Breit Days" pocket/purse calendar. The smaller calendar is very cute and the PERFECT size for a small purse. It shows you a week at a time and has just the right amount of space to list a few things for each day. I have bought this calendar for at least the past 3 years, maybe more. It's a staple in my life. Well, I saw the calendar display last week at the BX so I picked up my wall calendar but they didn't have any of my smaller calendar. I was a little worried but figured I'd find it somewhere else. A few days later, I saw the calendar display at the other BX - same thing. I started to get panicky. I came home and looked it up on-line and now I'm freaking out. Apparently, there is no "Breit Days 2009" calendar. It's been replaced by aMONTHLY planner. THIS JUST WILL NOT DO. First of all, the paper is glossy so pens smear if they are not dry, AND it's a little bigger AND there is simply not enough space to write anything down on each day. I'm so frustrated. I had the perfect calendar.... NOW what am I supposed to do?

A few random things...
I found a new massage therapist so I'm very excited about that because I've been in a lot of pain lately. The new massuse is also a Physical Therapist AND a trainer so I'm hoping that she can give me a really good "overall care plan". Something my military doctors have not been able to provide. So, I'll be paying $100 a month for massages that I need to function. I think this should be covered under my medical plan. If the PT's here were any good, I could go to them but, that's not the case. When I was going to Physical Therapy here they would set me up to do my exercises while they were on the computer checking their e-mail.
I wonder, will I have the opportunity to choose my healthcare under Obama?

We're STILL paying $4.06 a gallon for gas... and they are lowering our Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).
Nice.....

We're joining the "gaming world" with a Wii for Christmas. I know nothing about it so any advice on games is welcomed.

Well, William is sick AGAIN! He was saying yesterday that his "mouth hurt" but other than that he was fine... until about 3:00 when he had a temp of 100.3. This morning he slept in until almost 9:30, which is way out of the ordinary for him. I'm taking him to the Dr. at 1:55. He wouldn't swallow anything this morning and was spitting out slobber (I know gross!) by the mouthfuls into the trash can. The only thing I could get him to eat/drink was chocolate milk. After he drank some he perked up and said, "Mom, chocolate milk sure does make my mouth feel better!"

Joey got home on Sunday night and he's fighting the jet lag. He has to go to Misawa around the 17th for a week so he may take off a few days next week so we can all "do something fun" together.

Yesterday I met Leslie B. and Marcy for coffee at the NEW Starbucks on 23 after I dropped off the preschoolers. It was a very nice, relaxing morning. Sometimes I forget to stop and breathe. I spend all my "free" time running around like a chicken with my head cut off - gym, commissary, dry cleaners, BX, errands, volunteering, etc. It was nice to just "be still" and visit. Even though we all spend a lot of time together, we don't have many opportunities to really talk. Sounds funny, I know...

I made the cupcakes and they turned out really cute!
I did take pictures but then my memory card crapped out so I have pictures to share.
All the sudden, at Sarah's school, the camera said "Memory Card Error".
The only way to fix it was to replace the card, so I did and the camera is working better now.
I'll upload the halloween pics today.

We went to Desmond's birthday party (I think Halloween is the best birthday ever!) and then went trick-or-treating for an hour and came home and passed out candy for an hour. The kids had a blast... and now I think we'll have candy in our house until after Easter!

William has had lots of "bloggable" moments lately but none come to mind right now.
They have both changed a lot in the past 3 weeks, especially their speech and vocabulary.
I think Joey will notice a difference in how they speak and phrase things when he returns on Sunday.

Today Sarah has a birthday party and we have a joint wives naming. We'll be naming Marianne Williams, Kathy Banks and Cindy Ortel. If anyone has any stories to share, please do!

I did some looking around on the internets and found some easy to decorate halloween cupcakes.
I'm going to make the Scrumptions Skeletons from Family Fun and then the Eye and the RIP from this picture and maybe someFrankenstein-types from this picture. I thought I'd try those and see which ones turned out the cutest. When I was gathering the supplies today I found out that the base is sold out of black gel so I'll have to substitute brown. I looked for a bag of candy corn too (to see if I could take the easy way out) but there's not a one to be found. I have one bag in the pantry but that's for the T.O.M. Turkey cupcakes I make every year.

I bought a new crock pot today for a recipe I'm making tonight. Lianna and her kids are coming over for dinner. It's a chicken stew type recipe that has 2 cans of hominy in it. I ate hominy growing up as a kid and I'm excited to make a recipe that calls for it.

I went to the dentist today because on Friday I woke up with a horrible pain in my jaw. The dentist said there is nothing wrong with my jaw or my teeth so it is probably muscular. He's probably right because usually, when I have a pain in my body it's muscular, due to my muscular imbalance from my scoliosis. I am really tight on my left shoulder and up my neck so I'm sure it is related. I guess I can't give up my bi-weekly torture sessions, I mean massages.

and I made a random purchase at the commissary today... Tapioca pudding. I had a craving. Do you like it? I think most people don't. I do. I'll be making some soon.....

Well, Joey's been gone 2 1/2 weeks and I've done very few things that are on "my list".
The mundane, everyday things get in the way of the "extra projects" and, I won't allow myself to work on any of my fun hobbies until I get the other stuff done.
I am planning to get the filing and e-bay listing done today so that then, I can make some cards tonight.
There are a lot of baby showers coming up.
Scrapbooking might have to wait until he goes to Misawa in a few weeks.

I'm supposed to make cupcakes for Sarah's class's Fall Party on Thursday.
Any suggestions of something cute and "fall" ish?
Must be easy to decorate...

Yesterday, we went to the Kadena Elementary Fall Festival.
Today, we went to the very small Fall Festival at William's preschool because he wanted to go to the one at his school. It was very small... about 50 people (maybe) there.
Tonight, after baths, we watched High School Musical.
These were their observations....
Sarah said, "They don't go to school very long but they spend a lot of time at school."
At the end, when they win the Championship game and the coach hands them the trophy
William said, "Look Mom - they won the Piston Cup!"
(He's a big Lightening McQueen fan...)
and then, when they were dancing, Sarah said, "Almost everyone has on shirts that you can see their armpits."
I thought all three were funny.

How much is your gas?
The national average is $2.92
Our gas on base, here is $4.06
Yes - $4.06.
THAT IS RIDICULOUS.
The story is HERE. and is nothing but ridiculous.
It's way past Oct 1 and our gas is still at $4.06.
It's almost cheaper to buy gas off-base on the Japanese economy, which is CRAZY.
We do get "Cost of Living Allowance" for being over here but our COLA has gone down since the gas prices have gone up because the Yen and dollar are about even. None of this makes any sense.
This is what happens when you "trust" that other people will make decisions in your best interest.