A silent month..

It's been a month since my last month. It's not that I do not have anything to say, I have a lot I would like to say but most of those thoughts are better left not being written down. If that makes any sense or not. It has been a crazy busy month with Jacob being more mobile and Jon working some long hours. Hopefully, soon I will find time to write more or find something to actually write that might not come around and get me in trouble later on...

Bathrooms

I have never been a fan of cleaning bathrooms. I think I have even blocked out the memories of having to clean the bathroom in our dorm room during my PCC days. I just don't do bathrooms. It works out nicely because Jon cleans our bathroom for me usually on the weekends. I think he likes cleaning the bathroom actually which is a WIN for me =) I'll clean rest of the house if I can avoid the bathroom at all costs. Mostly, I dislike the bathroom because of our glass shower. I just don't like cleaning it because it never seems clean when I am done. I have been doing a lot of reading about cleaning glass showers this time Jon has been gone and I have been forced to clean the bathroom. Two things that I have read about I have tried now. One site suggested to clean the shower and then use a Magic Eraser from Mr. Clean to get the soap marks off. I tried and it seemed to work but I could still see soap/water drop marks when I was done. I've also tried using vinegar but I am afraid that I may have made the mixture to weak since I diluted the vinegar with water because I shuddered at the thought of my house smelling like a salad or a really bad sun burn all day! The vinegar seems to do much better than the Magic Eraser. I'm hoping to try out the Rain-X idea the next time around if I could ever seem to remember to buy some Rain-X!

Cleaning the pantry...

There is nothing I dislike more about our apartment here in Okinawa than the fact that my pantry cannot be messy because it sits being glass cabinet doors. Usually, while Jon is away I purge the food at least once. I throw away all the items I have bought and decided that they should have stayed at the store because I/we will never eat them. The pantry was a disaster with no organization after 6 months which was the last time it got done. I did find some items I did not know I had but I found a lot to throw out. I wish I would have take a picture before but I have an after picture at least. (Yes, I like SPAM)

Another thing I dislike about Okinawa is having to have 5 trash containers. Well, the 5th one is optional. We have our burnable trash, glass, non-recyclable, and recyclable. I also separate Jacob's diapers because those have to go out once or twice a day because they get smelling pretty ripe if not! YUK! The thought of the smell makes me nauseated. The bad part about cleaning things out is the fact that you have to open and dump packages and rinse containers if need be and sort. I knew I would wake Jacob up from his nap with all the noise I was making but thankfully he is still asleep.

Did I mention that opening and dumping packages isn't as simple as pouring it into the sink? We have no garbage disposal as most off-base housing here. So, instead we have to buy little bags that look like nets and put them in the drain of our sink. Again something that must be changed out daily because the smell can sometimes be worse than Jacob's diaper. But, these little baggies sure do beat having to bang the drain trap over the trash can and then brush it with a toothbrush to get it all clean!

Eating sand is good!

Today was the first day in well over a week that the sun came out to play! We have had swimming lesson for a week and every lesson has almost totally been in the rain! This morning we woke up to sunshine. Jacob and myself headed out to Araha Park/Beach where we use to live to go and walk along the beach on the sea wall. I wanted to be outside today. We ran into friends from the squadron and actually ended up back at the beach after a quick milk snack for Jacob and a change of clothes. Jacob loved the beach. The last time we went to Araha with him was 7 months ago. He didn't like it then. He really didn't even like the Florida beach either but today my waterbug loved it! I don't know if he had more fun eating the sand, feeling the sand, playing in the sand, sitting in the water and having it come up on him, floating in the water, or attempting to get washed off but he had fun or at least I think he had fun! We even ended up taking a bath together because he had sand in every possible crevice on his body! And the sand here is gritty and rough not smooth like the white beaches in Florida so the stuff gets nasty when it gets wet! I was so thankful to have a sunshine filled day! Back to the rain for another week tomorrow!

Show us where you live Friday!!

This week on Kelly's blog it's all about playrooms, bonus rooms, and laundry rooms. I really wish we had a playroom to keep Jacob's toys from exploding all over the house or a bonus room so we could actually have another room to store stuff but we don't. All we have is a laundry room that I spend all day in only one day a week. I put off laundry usually till Friday's and get it all done before the weekend. I love folding laundry I just don't like the washing it or putting it away part.

Here is our government issued laundry machine...thank goodness it is normal and in ENGLISH! And here is our Japanese dryer that came with the apartment. All of it's little buttons are in Kanji. The shelving unit below has three shelves. The top has all of the laundry products. The bottom two house my husband's "boat" bedding and pillows when he is not deployed and gone. Right now those shelves are empty. Fortunately, Jacob has not discovered that yet!

An up close of the dryer. It's gas and I love it! I sometimes don't understand it but as long as I keep cleaning the lint trap that works better than any other lint trap I've ever seen it works fine. Our housing agency gave us a sheet of all the symbols translated when we moved it. My favorite features are it's ironing cycle (yes the clothes actually come out without wrinkles), it's delicate cycle which makes my husband happy because I don't leave my non-dryable clothes hanging around the house anymore, it's thick cycle that i use for towels, and it's bedsheet cycle that actually dries sheets completely! It also has a quiet mode so that it still drys but is quieter if I'm drying while Jacob is napping!

Here is all the extra storage in the room. Whenever we finally get to build our own house my laundry room will have extra storage like this. Besides towels, bedding, bathroom, and extra cleaning products. It is the home to my husband's packed sea bags when he is home, Jacob's infant car seat and some tennis rackets. Our microwave and coffee pot are also used in this room since our kitchen only has ONE plug. We found a cheap TV cabinet at the furniture store on base and so that is what they are housed on. We don't use the microwave very often but it's nice to have I guess.

Our old laundry room in our first apartment was inside the kitchen with a sliding door that just covered the washer and dryer. No seperate room. At least our new one has two sliding doors, one into the hall and one into the kitchen that I can close to keep down on the noise a bit.

Rain Rain GO AWAY!!

Rain Rain GO AWAY! Come again another DAY! It has been raining now for a week here in Okinawa. It's wet. We do need the rain so I am thankful for it but I miss seeing the sunshine. As I write the sunshine is peaking out but it did that earlier today and gave us enough of a break so we could head over to swing after buying baby food for the week and then buckets poured down again! So I may have just jinxed myself and the rain will probably start again in 5 minutes!

Here is Jacob swinging earlier today.

Show us where you live Friday's

I've enjoyed "Show us where you live Friday's on a blog I enjoy reading called Kelly's Blog. I absolutely love how creative people are with their own homes and it makes me really eager to get back to the United States to be able to decorate our first house together. I love Okinawa but not being able to really modify room colors and having combined rooms like living and dining rooms just isn't my idea of design. Here are our two bathrooms in our Japanese apartment in Okinawa. Well, this is the Japanese designers impression of what an "American" style bathroom should look like.

This is Jacob's bathroom. The foam blocks are a nice knee support along with our Fisher Price knee bath pad since the tile is rough.

The mirror and sink has always intrigued me in this bathroom. But, I don't think I would ever place this sink combo in my real bathroom in a house one day.

The shower in Jacob's bathroom that never gets used since it is such a pickle to clean with all that glass!


This is our bathroom in our master bedroom. It is small but it works besides the lack of storage and only one towel bar which is typical of housing here.

Another funky mirror and again our need for storage with all the suction cup holders on the wall. There is no storage in the bathroom just a really small medicine cabinet.

Commissary

Thursday is commissary day! I don't know why but I had decided that thursday work best for Jacob and myself to head out to the commissary. We normally head to the AFB commissary to do our shopping because it's closer and there is a cute little park that I take Jacob to on our way off base once we are done. Today I was reminded why I do not like to go to MCB commissary which amazes me because 6 months ago I use to find all I needed there. I now have to make another trip to the AFB commissary because the MCB one did not have Jacob's diapers, Jon's granola and about 5 other things that I need for next week. Thank goodness I have a typed out list when I go and I'm very particulare about crossing off items once I find them!

I think what aggrevated me the most about this trip today was the fact that the sweet Okinawan baggers put 3 glass jars of spaghetti sauce and about 10 glass jars of baby food in one plastic bag! That was sure fun to bring up 3 flights of stairs!!!