Warlord Pride

Last week was Badman week on the base.  It was a week filled with sports tournaments.  Each squadron on the base competed against each other in basketball, volleyball, dodge ball, softball, bowling, 5k run, golf, and others.  Luke participated in quite of few of these.  It was a nice break from the usual work schedule, and it was fun for the families to get together with all their gear on to cheer our teams.

This is the dodge ball team.  Obviously they won best uniform.

 

They wore loin cloths for their uniforms.  Luckily, most of them wore shorts underneath.  When they disrobed, gasps were heard around the gym.  I think they also did a little chest pounding as they were approaching their opponents.  The Warlords sure have squadron pride.

The first game ended with Luke against 4 guys from the other team.  He swiftly and gracefully got them all out, and Warlords won!  The second game didn't end in our favor.  Maybe next year.

A Parents' Night Out

The last weekend before Luke went out to sea we decided to get a babysitter one night and go out and do something fun.  We ended up meeting up with a group of friends for a concert in Tokyo.  It just happened to be our friend, James' birthday, and it was super fun to celebrate with him.  We saw Owl City in concert.  Neither of us had really heard of him except for his song, "Fireflies".  But we enjoyed the concert immensely and decided to do some more research on this guy.  It turns out that many of his songs have Christian undertones, and he is a neat guy.  We could not get over how much he sounded like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie.

 

 Big  fast moving sea creature carousel that we could not resist

 

 

We actually became quite a spectacle on the carousel.  The Japanese who were around crowded around the carousel to watch and wave at the big American adults riding.

 

It was a very fun night.  I had a hard time knowing what to do with myself because I've gotten so used to being attached to a baby.  It was very nice to give Luke my full attention for a full night before he left again.  I'm looking forward to another date night in the future.

Tour de Bebe

It has been just over a week on our "Tour de Bebe".  We have already been many places and have seen many people.  Our plan was to visit as much family and friends as we could before flying out to Japan.  Luke will be unable to come back to the U.S. much at all once he starts work out there, so he really wanted to see everybody and show off the new baby.  :)

Our trip started off 2 1/2 hours from Jacksonville in Savannah, GA to see some Coast Guard friends we made in Pensacola (Daniel and Sarah Lavender).  We had a great time visiting with them and holding each others' babies and eating some yummy food.

Bye Jacksonville, FL!

Our next stop was in Burke, VA to see Luke's Uncle Steve, Aunt Maribeth, and the cousins.  We spent a few days in Northern Virginia with them.  We even took a trip into Washington, DC to see the monuments at the National Mall.  We took Bronson to the Capitol and took a picture, so he will know he really is an American.  He even pooped all over the Library of Congress (A story to be told on a later date).  Aunt Maribeth took Bronson one night so that we could go out with cousins Katie and Steven.  We had a great time with them!  I realize now that I don't have many pictures of them, which I am bummed about. :(

Great Uncle Steve

While we were in the area we went up to Annapolis, MD to see Marijo, Luke's sponsor while he was at the Naval Academy.  We hadn't seen her since Luke's graduation, so it was great to catch up with her.  We also had lunch with our friend Heather.  She was super excited to see Bronson, and we loved seeing how big Eva had grown and hearing Liam's progression in conversing.

On Sunday, we went to our old church in Baltimore, MD (Brooklyn Bible Chapel) and visited with all of our old friends from there.  We went out for pizza with Don and Jean Brower (They counseled us before we got married.) and Todd and Michelle Brower.  It was fun to talk nursing with Jean and Michelle.  Luke had a great time talking "Navy" with Don.  :)

Next stop:  Hamilton, OH.  We stayed at Luke's cousin, Ruthie and John's/Aunt Becky's on our way to Indiana.  Bronson got passed around John and Ruthie's 7 children.  Samuel made Bronson look tiny.

Second Cousin Samuel

Great Aunt Becky

 We have done a lot of driving.  This is just the beginning of our long road trip.  I think by the end of our road trip, we'll have driven around 3,000 miles.  Once we get to Atsugi, Japan, we'll have traveled 12,000 miles in 30 days!  We've had a great time seeing everyone and passing the baby around, but we're excited to get to Japan.  I'm definitely ready to be done living out of a suitcase. 
...To Be Continued

Baby Shower

I had a great time at my baby shower.  I received all kinds of gifts that will be useful once this little boy comes.  We also just had a great time of fellowship with one another.  It was fun to have  friends from all the different parts of my life together in one place.

Heather Clement did the leg work for putting the shower together.  The shower was themed "Asia," and had paper lanterns and Japanese characters hanging from the ceiling, and pillows to sit on everywhere.  The favors included:  socks to put on because the Japanese take their shoes off when entering a home, hair clips with pretty flowers, and beautiful wooden fans.  Carrie Kraus organized the food, which was delicious.  Lots of Asian food and tea was served.  We had cheesecake with cherries on top for dessert.  Yum!

Hair clip favor

Another special thing about the shower was that there was a guest in attendance only 5 days old!  I couldn't believe Kristen felt up to bringing the new baby.  I felt very honored to have Elaina Ann there.

 The game that we played was "Name the Baby".  Everyone was split up into teams and were told to come up with a name for Baby Scripture, since Luke and I aren't telling anyone the name.  They then had to present it to me in a creative way to convince me to name our baby that name.  The name that ended up winning was Jedidiah.  The church group ladies came up with quite an act.  Their reasons:  it's Biblical, has a great meaning, and can be shortened to Jedi which goes with the name Luke.  They said, "The force will be strong with this one."  :)

I received a few awesome helicopter outfits.

Emily Sun made this CUTE blanket!

The spouses of the guys in Luke's class came.  I was so glad to have them there!

From Great Grandma Lindemuth

Lamb Chop!  From Grandma Scripture

Christmas 2010

Our adventure started with a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Augustine, FL with our friends, Adam & Anne Reid and Wan & Emily.  Anne Reid is on the staff at the church.  This church was beautiful!  It was the first congregation established in Florida in 1824.

We then had dinner at Adam & Anne Reid's place.  It was a fun time telling stories over yummy roast beef and potatoes.

When I was getting ready for our Christmas Eve evening, I was having a hard time trying to find something to wear.  I don't have as many options now that I don't fit into some of my regular clothes.  Luke handed me a wrapped box to open.  He had picked out this blue sweater and leggings to go with it and wanted me to wear it that night.  I thought that it was very sweet, and the girls were all impressed that he had picked out that outfit by himself.

Laika was anxious for Christmas morning to come.

On Christmas morning, Luke and I exchanged our gifts and lounged around playing with our gifts.  :)  We then went over to Matt & Wendy's place for some Christmas dinner.  We had turkey with stuffing, green bean casserole, roasted potatoes, and pumpkin pie cake for dessert.  It was delicious!  We had a great time over there playing cribbage and singing worship songs after our dinner.

On Monday night, Luke's parents came into town.  We've had a great time with them playing lots of games, going out to eat, and playing golf.  Wednesday we went down to St. Augustine and walked around the historic downtown area.  It was fun to see all the touristy things.  We went to Fort Matanzas and read about Spain's defense of St. Augustine against the British before the United States was the United States.  Then we went to Columbia's restaurant that served Spanish/Latin/American food.

 On Thursday, we spent the day on the golf course.  I became Mom's personal driver on the course since I was not golfing. 

This is just part of our adventure during this holiday season.  I hope you all are having a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes

I finally went maternity clothes shopping on Monday!  Yay!  Clothes that actually fit!  I was surprised how great I looked in maternity clothes.  Instead of feeling big and fat, I felt very cute.  I realized that I just had to find the right size, which is slightly difficult with my build.  My friend, Heather, and I went to Motherhood Maternity and figured out that I just have to find the smallest size available.  Once we found my size (especially in jeans), it was great.  It seemed like I was trying on everything in the store.
I was very thankful to have Heather along with me.  I would have been really overwhelmed.  She helped me figure out what I needed, what I wouldn't wear, and what would fit up until the birth.  It was nice to have experienced input.

 This is me after my shopping experience.

Then....this morning I get a big package in the mail from my mom (Thanks Mom!).  I got MORE cute clothes.  I'm excited to wear them all.