Jennifer's Birthday 2011

I am really behind in my blogging! I better get caught up.

I turned 36 in January. Guess I'm on the downhill slide to 40, now.

We didn't do a whole lot for my birthday. We had a meeting scheduled with Cassie's teacher, which put a bit of a cramp on our evening. I spent the day playing around with my Bosch. I made some homemade bread to have with dinner and some refrigerator rolls for later in the week; and I helped Jason make cream cheese pie for dessert that evening. I also made some of Aunt Janna's yummy clam chowder in the crock pot so it would be ready for us when we got home. I spoke on the phone to my mom and my father (who actually remembered my birthday on time) and also to Ryan and Kristy. It was really nice to hear from them.

Here I am with my pie. I'm not a big fan of cake, so I told Jason I'd rather waste my calories on something I love.
The next day was Friday, and my girlfriend volunteered to watch the kids so that Jason could take me out for my birthday. We had a delicious crab dinner at Seaside Ristorante at the Kadena Marina. The best part was that I got to eat my dinner without listening to how something was icky or smelled like throw-up. There were no crayons on the table to keep track of and no need to try to keep anyone in their seats or keep them from disturbing our neighbors. Just actual dinner conversation. It was magical! And the food was good, too!
I thought for this year I'd post a little bit about the birthday person and what they've been up to lately. I have been working on two things- running and photography. Jason and I started running using the Couch to 5K program that my girlfriend told me about last November. On the 5th of January I finally made it- 5K. We're continuing to increase our mileage and soon, we'll break it into four days of running instead of three. Hopefully I can burn some calories and lose some weight. I have a huge sense of accomplishment making it to the 5K.
I've also been trying to learn how to use my new camera and improve the quality of my pictures. I end up taking tons of pictures just to fool around with the settings. I'm so glad we're in the digital age. Jason bought me some digital photography books and I'm learning how to take good pictures. Hopefully you'll be able to see the products of my work on the blog soon.
The majority of my time is spent shuttling the kids to activities, preparing meals, and refreshing my 5th grade education. Not as much time on cleaning as I probably should. I've had the cross-stitch bug, lately, so I try to spend some time on that after the kids go to bed. Since we've moved here, I've done a lot of reading- actually reading words on a page, not just listening to books on my ipod (although i still do that when I'm cleaning). I never had time to read back home. I'm always looking for suggestions for good books, so send them my way if you read anything good.
I miss my family, but I've made some friends here, and I'm getting used to it. I still only know a few words in Japanese, but I smile and bow a lot, and say thank you as often as I can. My visiting teacher put it in a very good way: Life will never be as simple as it is in Okinawa again. There are a lot of things that are harder to do here, but there are a lot of things that I just don't complicate my life with while I'm here. It's nice to simplify for a while.