Daddy, I told you we could both brush at the same time...

Look Mom. This present is for ME!!

Flying seems so much harder with someone holding your foot down.

Would you like my new teeth?

Before Christmas Thomas had fun wearing Daddy's boots! After that we enjoyed a Christmas parade! Then We had fun opening Christmas presents! Yay for Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Eve!! I'm so excited for Christmas! Aaron was too excited and had us opening presents early during the week. I didn't mind cause this will be the only year we can do that for Thomas will understand what's going on next year!

Aaron was silly and got us a Wii and I was silly and got him a couple of obnoxious ferrets! But at least they're learning not to bite!

Due to the opening of the Wii Aaron has been having fun with the little puzzle games and what not that he got with it. I don't mind so terribly cause I'm busy cleaning. Just so long as he watches Thomas for me so I can finish!

For those who don't know Thomas is crawling everywhere....Well....I guess scooting is the best term. He uses his toes and his elbows to move everywhere.

Thomas loves to say da da and when he's upset he says mum! it's funny! He loves people and everyone says he's got the cutest smile and the funniest expressions. I'd step in an elevator and Thomas would instantly smile at the other people standing in there. Cooing or laughing to them. It breaks a lot of ice and they'll start telling me how adorable my son is. It's a lot of fun! I don't know what I'd do without him. I hope he never stops smiling at people!

After much consideration I have decided to allow people to post Thomas's pictures! I figured I was being silly any how so anyone who has pics has free reign. Thank you for putting up with my silly wishes!

~Ambar

So, yo hellow! Some people have been telling me that I should update my blog so here goes! Some interesting things have happend lately. First we all got sick! :) The doctor told Aaron that he could possibly have H1N1 aka Swine flu! They didn't do any tests however and I was pretty sure that he had what Thomas and I had a few weeks before, and we got over it ok! However, the doctors told us to go and get checked out. Long story short I still don't think it was H1N1 and we're all better and ok!

Thomas has discovered his right hand and is constantly holding it straight in the air in front of him to view it, this gives Aaron and I cause for laughter because he looks like Superman when he does that!

I have been told that this island is a hot spot for Asthmatics and that some people who don't know they are asthmatics are suddenly aware of their Asthma problem when they get on the island. So, when I had trouble breathing I went in to see if there was something they could do. They decided to test me for Asthma and funny enough, I am not an asthmatic! LOL it's either one of two things either A. I thought I had asthma all my life because a doctor said I did and used it as a crutch without thinking! or B. I had asthma when I was younger and have gotten over it. I've had some relatives that as they grew older their Asthma went away. Either way it's pretty funny I think! I'm so excited! I'm gonna go for no Asthma medication and pray I don't catch bronchitis, something I caught every winter my entire life until I started taking asthma meds.

Good news! Aaron Thomas and I were going to get our passports soon. We have our passport photos already taken and forms filled out we just need to get down there and pay for them.

And now I really should get to bed it is 10:13 and Thomas likes to wake at 4 in the morning and stay awake for the rest of the day (save for 30 min naps) so love ya'll but that's all that's really interesting that's happened lately! That's a lot of "that's" :) chow!

Ok here's another update. Although some of you may think I have all the time in the world let me tell you what I've been up to. I am now in Japan. Upon arriving here I had two glorious days to spend with Aaron alone and then it was straight to work. So far in using the bus system, which takes about 30min to an hour out of my day for each bus I wait for, I have accomplished very little and gone everywhere.

Thanks to Aaron's work I have to work hard in accomplishing all that needs to be finished now that I'm here alone. Aaron's work is kind enough not to let him off to help me accomplish these tasks. As a result I have gone to the WIC office to get WIC. Gone shopping for the food in our house and any appliances we need to make a decent meal, gone to IPAC only to find out that I'd have to come again another day with two more items in order to change Aaron's current pay. Attempted to go to a TMO brief in order to get our stuff shipped here only to find out that military language is so foreign to me that I would not be able to accomplish this one alone. Attended a New Joins brief which is required to anybody new on the island (this took all day). Got a cell phone. Went back to IPAC and got Aaron's pay changed. Got the internet working in our apartment. Went to visit the Doctor about my pregnancy. Went back to TMO with Aaron and got that finished. Called various people to retrieve our stuff from them. Brought Aaron lunch whenever I could to save on money on food. attempted to keep the house in working order and get dinner ready before Aaron got home. Attempted to get myself a drivers license only to find out that I wasted my morning going to a class that wasn't a class but a drivers test for those who knew where to go to study for it. the list goes on but I can't think of what else atm.

Now I'll be happy to list the things that I still need to do. I need to go to Legal and try to get Aaron's and my money back from the airlines this is proving to be difficult because apparently we both need to be there to get anything accomplished and his work won't let him off easily. I need to re-enroll in tricare to get it changed from west to overseas. visit a lab to get two types of tests done for pregnancy. Pick up pregnancy perscriptions. Make three appointments with three different doctors for three different things all dealing with pregnancy and then plan a time I can attend them according to when the bus goes to the base that they are on. Pay back a few people I have borrowed money from. Send Karen a special power of attorney so that Aaron and I can get our stuff out here. attend a baby shower that apparently is being held for me on the 13th. go to another Dr. Apointment on the 18th. Get a drivers license and then see about getting a vehicle. clean the house. Go about seeing if Aaron and I can get a DSN line and a Vonage phone. Take pictures for those who have been begging for photos. attend a pregnancy class so I know what to expect when I go into labor. Get Aaron and my taxes done. (sigh there's more but I can't think of them right now. Aaron has a whole list that we have to do written in his notebook.)

As it is I wake with Aaron around 4:30-5:30 in the morning almost every morning catch the 6:20 bus with him to work. The bus drops him off at his work base then continues on to the base where I need to go to get things done. Drops me off at the base around 6:50 am depending on traffic. I use the 44 bus to get around that camp as much as I can but the bus only runs certain times and only to certain places so I end up walking to most places on a base that is made entirely by hills. Accomplish or get close to accomplishing my tasks and then catch the bus home. Usually the bus I catch is the same bus Aaron catches in order to return home. On average I return home at 6-7 pm with Aaron and have barely enough energy to fix something quick and fall asleep. Aaron is so helpful whenever he's home. Lately he's been fixing dinner much to my delight and dismay and he's always trying to help me with the shopping when I'm still out shopping or what not when he gets home. So all in all I'd just like to let you all know that although I still need to clean the house, walk to the clinic to get things done, go to the commissary to call Kaylyn like I promised and such I am dropping a line to politely ask that you wait patiently for me to respond to you. I know it's hard not knowing what your family members are up to but trust me when i say I don't have the time right now. All of those dr. Things I need to do I was told to finish by the end of this week and I haven't been able to start on them yet. So please give me some time to get settled and I'll get back to you.

~Ambar

Ok so that everyone of you know what's going on with Aaron and my life here's what's going on in a nut shell.

Ok so I arrive at the airport in plenty of time for my flight. I had bought the ticket in Decker for i assumed that if Sieba and I were to get money back for the tickets it would need to be in my married name. So the reservations were in Decker and my passport was in Goertzen (my maiden name). I thought this would be no issue for I had both my military ID and my marriage certificate with me. I was wrong. Alaska airlines would not let me board. they would let me board if we were able to changed the reservations to my maiden name but in order to do that they said we needed to call EVA airlines, which would be my next connecting flight across the ocean. We used the number they provided for us but EVA airlines was closed until the next day. Thus there was nothing left for me to do but to return home. After hours of struggling to call someone in Japan to tell Sieba that I missed my flight I finally got hold of a member in my church and they played the phone tag game with me until we reached Sieba. After talking to Sieba I realized that maybe we could contact EVA airlines at the Seattle airport, which is where the Alaska Airlines flight would have taken me.  We made the call but they couldn't do anything for us they were only allowed to do so much with their computers so we would need to still call the number that Alaska Airlines gave us tomorrow.

The next morning we called EVA airlines. EVA told us they couldn't change the name on the ticket or refund the money. We would need to contact Travelocity, with whom we had made the original reservations with. So we called Travelocity. After a long phone conversation with someone who barely spoke a lick of English we found out three things. One they couldn't change the name on the ticket. Two they wouldn't change the date of the ticket. and three they refused to refund our money.

So, our money was stolen from us. Whether or not we can get it back or not through other means still remains to be seen. Lol you'd think this would be the end of the story but no.

So here i am with no ticket, less money then I started out with, and a passport that still read Goertzen. Sieba called and said not to try and buy another ticket. He would get the military to pay for it this time. I said, "But Sieba my passport still says Goertzen won't the military still put the reservation under Decker and we be left with the same predicament?". Sieba believes that through his orders i'll be able to fly. I don't know if this is true but when my parents were in the military my mom had to have a passport in order to fly to Scotland to live with Dad. I told this to Sieba but he still thinks I can fly. He then told me not to get a new passport. Would the Military consider making the tickets in my maiden name?

You can understand my anxiety as I keep thinking that I'm not going to change my passport only to have history repeat its self. So I decided to go see how long it would take for me to change my passport. Going to the courthouse here in the tri-cities I found out that it would take two to three weeks for me to change my passport, however, they told me that I could get my passport "same day" changed if I drove to seattle. They provided me with a number in order to make an appointment.

I got home and called the number provided. It was here that I ran into more problems. The option menu mentioned a Military Dependent passport. Did I need to get that one or a regular one? and if I got that one instead of the regular one would I be able to go anywhere but where the military let me? Would they take the MD passport away from me when Sieba leaves the military? If I get a regular passport would I still end up buying a MD passport? Finally i was able to talk to a customer service personnel. I asked them if they did same day passport changes. Apparently not. However they would change the passport as quickly as I needed it if I had tickets for an out of states airline with me at the time. This was a problem. Sieba told me that the military was working to get tickets for me for the 18th. But as of yet i didn't have the tickets. For all I knew I could get the tickets the same day I was supposed to fly. What if I were to start the process of getting a new passport only to be passport-less when the tickets arrive? Would they take my passport from me while they made the transition? They said they'd do their best to get the passport to me at the time that I need to leave. But would they be able to finish it in time? Finally I explained to them that I didn't have the tickets and why. That my husband was in the military and they were getting the tickets yada yada etc. And I ended up telling them that the airlines wouldn't let me on my flight without it changed even with my marriage license. Unsurprisingly enough the Customer Service Representative was shocked that they wouldn't let me on my flight. So here I am left with around a week to get my passport changed and I'm not sure if I should even get it changed. I just don't know what to do. If I changed it would I get it in time? would they have time to change it if I had the tickets with me? what if they couldn't change it in time?

(sigh) so i don't know what to do. I wish desperately that I had changed my passport when I first got married. but that is no longer an option. Now my choice now will determine whether or not I'll be able to fly to Aaron in Japan sooner rather than later.

:) thanks for taking the time to listen to my strange little tale. I'm sure I'll have tons of these stories by the time my life is over.

Good news and bad news! Good news is that Aaron has his orders changed! The bad news is that now we're waiting on my area clearance. As soon as we have that I can fly over to him.

Scotland Pictures

This is a picture my brother took of a sign on a church in Scotland. Like I said I have no idea what pictures to put on the blog so I'm just going with the ones I have right now. I have no pictures of me save for the ones in the snow that were posted on Facebook So i hope you're entertained by the pictures I find in the deep recesses of my laptop!! Love ya'll!!

Here's a pretty sunset Sieba and I saw while walking back to the room one evening. The building to the left is the second half of the hotel we stayed at and the building under the pretty colors is the officers barracks.

There are a lot of these gravesites in Japan. The first thing I learned about these gravesites were that I was not allowed to approach them. No one but the family member of the deceased can approach the gravesite.