The Worst Day Ever

So I find myself sitting in the car with a screaming baby totally stuck between a van across the street and the pole to our carport with non-English speaking guys trying to help.  Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse.

 We found out on Friday that Luke was going to be deployed at the end of the next week.  That was kind of a shock.  We thought we had a few more weeks.  But it was definitely doable.  We had a great weekend spent together.  Then on Monday Luke found out at the end of the workday that he would be leaving the next day (Tuesday).  He had to stay at work until around 8:00 scrambling around to get everything done before the next day.  Tuesday rolls around, and to make a long story short, it was a long drawn out process of saying goodbye.  I'm finding out that the Navy constantly changes their plans, and you can't really count on any one thing that is said until all is said and done.

So now I get to the part where I'm stuck.  I had just dropped off Luke, and we said our goodbyes.  I'm a complete mess trying to drive home.  I get to our house, and there is a service van parked on the street in my way.  The worker kindly moved his van so that I could back into our drive (Side note:  The Japanese back into parking spaces because the spaces are so tight that you can't back out of them.  Our driveway is VERY narrow and we have to back into it in order to be able to pull out.  Also, our street is very narrow with a light pole right across from our driveway.  I'm still mastering this skill.)  Well,
this time there is a van parked in a parking space across from our driveway, and it is sticking out into the road.  I begin to back up into the drive when I find that I have completely wedged myself between this van and our carport while these two worker guys are watching.  One starts to help me, but cannot speak English so there is not much he can do.  They talk among themselves because they of course cannot communicate with me, and they decide to knock on doors to find out who owns the van.  They find a girl who comes out, and it feels like it took forever for her to finally figure out how to back up her van out of my way.  Meanwhile, Bronson is screaming in the backseat and the entire neighborhood is watching the fiasco.  I almost laughed at how ridiculous this all was.

Well, I made it into the driveway and successfully consoled the baby, but I don't think I'm going to leave the house again....:)

Konichiwa!

Hello, from Japan...finally!  We have had a crazy ride since getting here.  I hardly know where to start.  We've bought a car, moved into a house, got our drivers licenses, went to 2 festivals, visited a Buddhist temple, went to Chinatown in Yokohama, went to a rugby game (America vs Japan), and have eaten soooo much Japanese food.  It's been 4 weeks now, and we've picked up a lot of key Japanese phrases.  Luke is already reading a lot of signs and advertisements.  We've learned and done a LOT.  Bronson already knows his first word, "Kawaii" (meaning cute).  He has heard that word so many times when we've been out and about.  Those Japanese love his big blue eyes.  I am going to post a bunch of pictures since there is too much to write about.  Hopefully that will catch you up with what is going on with us.

Our house.  We love all the trees.

Front door

Our small yard

Front door from the inside.  Small cabinet for keeping shoes.

Toilet room

Shower room

Our car in a two car driveway

Where Luke works...HSL-51 Warlords

Chinatown in Yokohama

Qipao (Chinese dress) I bought in Chinatown

Lost

Most cheerful add for a graveplot we've ever seen

Gatorade-type drink

Plastic food!  They have it outside of restaurants everywhere here.

Coldstone!  Definitely not as good...they give Japanese-sized servings.  :)

Of course, I have to put Bronson in here too.  He's doing very well.

The End of Tour de Bebe...Finally!

From St. Louis we drove over to Kansas City, KS to visit some old friends from Pensacola.  We had so much fun catching up with Roy and Julia and eating Kansas City BBQ....mm mm.  I was feeling pretty tired and worn down by this time, so I wish that we could have stayed longer with them. 

Checking out Uncle Roy's tattoos...sorry, Bronson, not allowed until you're at least 18.

The next morning we booked it up to Pella, IA to visit my parents and siblings.  This was Dad's first time seeing Bronson.  They fell asleep in front of the TV together pretty often during our stay there.  We stayed for a week, and of course, I got a horrible cold almost the entire time which I passed to poor Bronson.  We took a lot of walks, got pedicures, went shopping, and visited the winery in Leighton right across the road from where I grew up.  "Grandma" was ecstatic to show off the boy to all of her coworkers and friends at church.  We went all over the place.  :)

Proud Grandpa

Watching his first movie, VeggieTales: The Ballad of Little Joe

Aunt Rachel

Uncle Ben

high school baseball game

After a week in Iowa we headed back towards Indiana.  At the last minute we decided to go up to Bair Lake Bible Camp for a day in Jones, MI because some old friends of ours happened to be there that weekend.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures to document our short time there.  We had lots of reminiscing while there, and both Luke and I wish we could do camp again this year.
 
The next morning we went back to Warsaw, IN to spend a few more days with Luke's family.  At this point it was finally starting to hit me that we were actually going to Japan.  We did a lot of last minute arrangements and things while there and spent as much time as we could with family playing cards and hanging out.  One night we cooked dinner and had some old high school friends over.  I have more pictures of the family in a non-digital format that I will get on here another time.

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Lindemuth

On July 20th we drove up Chicago for our flight out to Seattle.  We were at the Seattle airport overnight and flew out the next morning to Yokota Air Force Base, Japan.  We landed on the 22nd in Japan.  It has been an adventure, but everything has gone very smoothly from traveling to transitioning.  More to come...

All ready for the flight in his airplane outfit