When Life Gives You Lemons…

Hey everyone! Wow there’s a lot to catch you up on about my life across the pond. So I’ll start with the fun and move into the more… interesting details. So hang in there, there’s a lot of information to give you and please know that I still don’t have all the answers, so bear with me through this post. 🙂 All I can say is that I am really and truly blessed, and I simply love my Japamily (my friends here that have become like family to me). I’m so grateful for all of them, and I’ll explain why. 🙂

So the fun part. On Wednesday night Heather and I went to a concert with Jason Michael Carroll and Edwin McCain. The music was fun and it was nice to do something different. These two artists were happy to come to our tiny base and play for us- mostly wives and families left behind and they continuously thanked us for the sacrifices we make. To be honest, it’s still weird that people thank me- I don’t really do anything but live. I’m just kinda along for the ride. Dan is the one who works all the time, gets deployed and has a dangerous job. Me, I’m just here. I go to my job, I cook, I clean, and I’m lucky enough to be Dan’s wife- have I mentioned that my husband is truly my best friend?? But yeah, the concert was really awesome.

However, once the concert was over things become.. interesting. It was the beginning of something bigger, I just didn’t know it yet. Remember how I’ve been mentioning that I’m not feeling well? Well… that’s not really going away, in fact it’s getting worse. After the concert I had a dizzy spell that lasted a good 30 to 40 minutes till we left- we stayed to meet the artists (see below). However, the entire way down to meet said artists, I couldn’t really stand- so I sat in the rows all the way down. It actually got pretty rough. Heather had to help me out of the theater and my knees were trying to give out. I brushed it off, I mean I’ve been having dizzy spells for a while and almost passing out is normal at this point (almost a month now).

Edwin McCain, Heather and I. Such a true family man. I had a hard time standing for this photo.

Jason Michael Caroll and I. After this photo one of his band members asked if Heather needed help to get me out of the theater. He was a really personable guy and even told me that he hoped the doctors find what’s wrong. 🙂

So let’s jump ahead to Friday, that’s where all the fun is anyway. 😛 I got up and went to work just like I normally do, but something felt different. I just couldn’t put my hand on it. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve not only developed the dizzy, lightheaded, almost passing out thing, but now my body convulsing and shaking but me being fully conscience for the episode has begun. It’s a great time (sarcasm intended). I was at work and my coworkers have watched me slowly degrade, however I was in the back with one, and I began to get weak and shake, she got me a chair and asked if I was ok. I told her I really wasn’t but that I would be OK. She asked, “What do you need” and I said, “I don’t want to tell you.” At this point she was frustrated (she’s a mom) and she said, “No, tell me honestly what you need.” So I told her I believed I needed to go to the hospital. I told her not to worry and I’d go later. (Yes people, I’m that dedicated to work that I would put off my health to be there at the office…) She had to help me back to my office and on the way I almost fully collapsed. By the time we got to my office I was fully convulsing so she called the ambulance. That’s right, I was taken by ambulance to the base clinic. At the same time the ambulance showed up, I got a message from Dan- so I was trying to inform him as we went, which the EMTs and the doctors weren’t fond of- but if it were their families I have a feeling they would’ve had a different thought  process.

Once I was at the clinic, I was seen by a lot of people, and they did a batter of tests. As I was still convulsing, dizzy, and starting with blurry vision, I heard the doctor say, “She’s fine, she just needs to go home and rest.” Thank God my ombudsman was present and alert enough to respond, “Are you sure that’s the best plan? She doesn’t look OK to me”. So he ended up sending me to the emergency room at the bigger base (about 45 minutes away). It was a long night and basically the first time (yes there was a first time) the doctors thought I was stressed and anxious and basically crazy. I re-checked in with a new staff (they had a shift change) and was finally admitted, but again not taken seriously- they treated me like I was crazy and like nothing was wrong, even though it was pretty clear that something wasn’t right.

Saturday I was discharged from the hospital and sent home. Even though it’s pretty clear I’m not really fit to live alone. Medical here is requiring me to rely pretty heavily on my friends- or really my Japamily as I call them. 🙂 Since going to the ER, Heather hasn’t left my side. On Sunday, my ombudsman (who was the one to bring us home from the hospital) stopped by, along with Melissa. Then April stopped by and brought me a lovely card and sugar free ice-cream and sugar free chocolate chips (she knows the way to my heart). Mrs. Esther and Dani stopped by and brought a cucumber from their garden and said they’d check in on Monday. So just on Sunday alone, I had a group of people wanting to check in on me.

Then Monday rolled around. Erika stopped by, she brought me a wonderful card and these gorgeous flowers that she arranged herself. They make my table look so lovely. She also stayed with me for a while. Mrs. Esther brought me dinner (A veggie dish since she knows I can’t eat white flour or sugar) and Dani brought some movies. Erika and Dani stayed with me while Heather was able to go up to her apartment to get some things done there. We watched “Just Like Heaven” and Erika was super sweet and helped get dinner warmed and ready, she and Dani were really great company. I felt so loved, all these people are coming around me and willing to help- they are truly family to me.

Anyway, so basically I am now out of work (my doctor has it till next Monday now but it will probably be longer). All of my tests are coming back normal, but how I feel is exactly how I felt back in college when I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Dan has been really worried and his command is even considering sending him home. My symptoms come and go, but at this point it’s not been good. My memory isn’t good, but my friends say that while I have good moments, I am progressively digressing. The doctors are waiting for my Lyme tests to come back (I don’t trust the ones they’re running, but I have to wait for them to come back before they do a CD57) so prayerfully they can figure it out (even though I’m pretty sure it’s Lyme) and start treatment. Getting military doctors to move quickly seems impossible- luckily I know who is truly my physician. 😉

So for those of you who have been praying for us, please continue. Pray for Dan as he is still out at sea and he’s not happy with how medical has been treating me (especially that they verbally tell me not to drive, that I’m unfit to live alone and more but they put in my notes that I’m fine which keeps him on the ship). It’s been really hard for him since he can’t be here with me but he hears what I’m dealing with. Also, please pray for Heather and my Japamily as I am being required to rely on them to help take care of me while the doctors look for what is putting me in this state. Lastly, please continue to pray for me. It’s hard for me to rely on others, and it’s hard for me accept that I’m even ill. Thank you for all your prayers and know that they mean more to us than we could fully express. We love you all and I promise to keep you up to date with our little lives. 🙂

Off to Wonderland I go….

Hello everyone! Sorry it’s been a while since I posted any updates. The truth is Dan and I have been really busy with him starting classes (and only having one computer) so life has been busy but uneventful. We haven’t been able to do much exploring recently, and with Dan’s schedule changing from mid day/ night to nights and now back to days- we’ve been really tired and even confused what day it is. However, after about 2 weeks, I finally have interesting things to share! (Yay!)

For starters, I finally got a haircut (ok, so I know that’s not super exciting- but just hang in there, the story gets better I promise). I’m really excited about it because it’s easy to take care of, adorable, easy to take care of, and the woman who cut it is simply amazing! I’m pretty sure we made instant friends. Ya’ll- SHE KNOWS SIGN LANGUAGE! Can we just take a moment to appreciate this fact? Like, I was signing to her in the salon, I’m pretty sure people thought we were crazy- but who cares?! SHE KNOWS SIGN LANGUAGE! So we are planning to get together soon and doing lunch and some signing. 🙂 The interpreter inside of me is simply over the moon.

Now on to the really good part. The title says “Off to Wonderland I go…” and I’m not lying. I’m part of a spouse group here on base and every month they go on a mystery event. This particular event was for members only (the ones who signed up- it’s complicated to explain, but they pay for it and it’s a lot of fun) so Dan didn’t get to go- but he had homework anyway, so it didn’t matter. Anyway, we got to the parking lot to meet up and we found out that we were going to an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant! The Tokyo area is known for some pretty crazy themed restaurants, and this is something I have been wanting to experience for a while now. The portions were small- but it was a 7 course meal! Our “tea party” (as the restaurant calls them) was a lot of fun and lasted about 2 hours. Everything is themed- even down to the food and drinks. So below is all the photos I took while I was in “Wonderland”. 🙂

The first thing you see walking down the steps into the restaurant…

So I had to get a photo with him.

Melissa and I in front of the crazy clock!

One of the MANY pictures on the wall.

This is taken from my seat. That whole wall is part of the story- all actually written out. (In English- NOT Japanese!)

More of the “Book”

This was the wall behind us. If you look closely you see the Queen of Hearts… the detail was amazing.

This is the menu. Almost Everything is themed and there is a different picture from Alice in Wonderland on every page!

My drink… I think it was called the “Talking Flower”- it was really good.

Other drinks… aren’t they pretty?

First course. Toast and cheese with a little note on the plate that said “Eat Me”.

Salad- and that middle flower looking thing is actually radish- it was pretty good.

The seafood pasta dish that’s maid to look like the Chester cat…

So one more thing- this restaurant was close to the busiest intersection in the world. It’s in a ton of movies and I had never been. So of course the girls I rode with took me there once we finished up at the restaurant. It wasn’t even the busiest it can be (think work day with everyone trying to cross) but I did get two photos to give you an idea of how crazy it is.

So that was my journey into Wonderland. This coming week Dan has more homework, but hopefully we’ll get to take some time and go out and do something. 🙂 Also, be praying for me and I begin looking into teaching some ASL classes here on base. A LOT of people have mentioned it to me and today (Monday) the lady who runs the Library here asked me if I would be willing to teach some classes- so hopefully it takes off and goes somewhere. I’ll be sure to keep you posted as things progress. We love you all and think of you everyday. Thank you for all your love and support and for keeping up with Dan and I as we are on this crazy adventure of life. Sending all our love.

Aquatic Explorations

Hey everyone! This past weekend Dan and I decided to take an afternoon trip to an aquarium! It was a lot of fun and we had quite the experience. Before we could get to the aquarium though, we had to take the train. Now, I’ve told you all about the train system here before, but let me just give you a better idea of how this particular exploration worked. We had to get off one train, LEAVE the station and cross over through a random bike parking area to go up some steps, walk across a bridge, and find the next train we needed.

Since we’ve never been there before, we had no idea what we were doing. We left the train station and were completely confused. Then Dun…dun..dun…DUNNNNN… I saw Deaf people (did I mention they’re my favorite?!). I started signing to ask for help. The fun part of these two though is that it took a bit more work to effectively communicate. You see, I am strong in American Sign Language and they were strong in Japanese Sign Language and while there are similarities between the two, they are definitely NOT the same language. However, we managed to make it work and they were super excited to meet us and sign with me. They even showed me the sign for where we are living now- it was a really fun experience. They walked us to where we needed to go and sent us on our way.

Once we made it to the train and found our stop (thanks to the Deaf people!), we walked off to find ourselves in a gorgeous park. However it wasn’t exactly where we wanted to be-so thus began our next challenge. We were at the right spot, but how to do we get to where we wanted to be? We decided to take a few photos of the area and use our phones to find the aquarium. It was a colder day and we were right at the water, so the breeze made me really cold- but we still had a lot of fun.

Told you it was beautiful!

Anyway, before long we stumbled upon “Pleasure Island” (I’m not making this up people- that’s the name of this children’s amusement park). We walked around a bit, there were different buildings and stands everywhere but everything was really spread out. We found the food court and decided to get some food- which was interesting to say the least. We tried a cheeseburger, french fries, and a ginger ale…. which tasted odd… all of it (minus the french fries). Then we got some ice cream from a vending machine (yes it happened, yes it was amazing!). Then we were off to get our tickets for the aquarium.

Once we got into the first exhibit of the aquarium we knew something was a bit different. We had a lot of fun looking at the different tanks and wild life- they even had a penguin and polar bear exhibit (don’t worry they weren’t in the same one). Before long we were going up an escalator and were surrounded by the fish and sharks- it was really awesome. As we continued through we had fun seeing all sorts of different fish that we had never seen before- including something that looks like a giant blob with fins on the top and bottom (sun fish).

We took our time going through the different exhibits and walking around the beautiful complex. Before long we headed to the very last exhibit where we were able to pet a dolphin and a penguin (I’ve done both before but it was Dan’s first time). We had a blast at the aquarium and attempting to speak some Japanese (we’re doing a little better). We had a lovely afternoon and enjoyed seeing the different exhibits and the aquarium. We love you all and we’ll be sure to keep you posted. Lots of love from Japan!

Unexpected Changes Lead to Unexpected Adventures

Hey everyone! So… Dan and I finally got some time to actually go sight seeing- but it turned into a grand adventure. It all started when we woke up this morning and decided we wanted to see a castle. So we looked up all the train stops we would need and any bus routes and decided to go. Before we left base, we had lunch with our friend Vu from our introduction to Japan class and he decided to come with us to sightsee. Shortly thereafter, we left base and embarked on our journey to Obawara (don’t ask us to pronounce this) to try and see the castle there (note the word: try.. but we’re getting to that).

After about 45 minuets we arrived at the Obawara train station. We excitedly took off to find the castle. It wasn’t long before we saw it in the distance- the big question was, how do we get there? So we began walking in that direction. A few minuets into our walk I noticed signing. Being the ASL interpreter that I am, and not having any idea as to were I was- I waved and signed “excuse me”. That was all it took! Ya’ll- I MET DEAF PEOPLE!!!!!! Take a moment and let that sink in for a minuet ok? I MET DEAF PEOPLE!!!  And for the first time since we’ve arrived, I could communicate fluently without any issues! Although their sign language was a little different (they were Japanese after all) we could communicate! It was simply beautiful! And the best 2 minuets of my day. Ok, now that we’ve gotten over SOME of the joy I’ve experienced through my brief interaction with probably my favorite language,they asked me a few questions (if I was Deaf, where I was from in the US, ect) and briefly talked to me, they told me to hurry up to get to the castle because it would be closing soon and that we weren’t far from the entrance.

We hurried to try to beat the closing time, while still taking in some of the sights around us. We even saw the castle from a distance through the trees (see above). However, when we arrived at the gate, we were 15 minuets too late. The entrance closes at 4:30, the museum, at 5. Disappointed, we decided to go explore a bit. We walked around to simply see what we could see. This part of Japan isn’t as busy as where we are outside the base, but there was still a lot to absorb. While we were walking in this beautiful, “quieter” city, We stumbled upon what may have been a shrine or something (we’re not really sure) but it was SO peaceful! A drunk man showed us the ritual before entering (clapping twice and bowing twice) and as he somewhat staggered away, we walked in to take photos and try to figure out what this beautiful place was.

Once we finished getting our photos at this peaceful place (maybe a shrine? I have NO idea), we were hungry so we decided to go find food. We had seen this really beautiful (what we thought) restaurant where you sit on the floor and eat (but not really). We walked in and the lady working welcomed us. It wasn’t a restaurant but instead some sort of tea room. The woman asked us if we wanted hot or cold tea (remember, it was difficult to communicate) and we took off our shoes before stepping onto the bamboo/grass flooring. They did allow us to take photos (see below) and the two other people in the place with us were super sweet in taking the photos- they didn’t mind at all. When we went to pay, the woman said “no” and wouldn’t let us! That’s right, we got a completely amazing Japanese experience without charge. It was truly the best green tea I’ve had to date.

Finally, we were on our way to find food (the boys were really hungry). So we went for a walk and did something that you would NEVER be able to do in the US. We walked through a tunnel!  it was a really crazy experience. As a child I always wondered what it would be like… well folks, it was LOUD.. really really loud. However, it wasn’t long after I took this photo that we found a restaurant. It was nothing like what we expected, but it was good. It was very traditional- but it was all seafood, which I despise. So I had soup (see photo below), which was surprisingly good. It was green lavender miso soup and then there was complimentary tea and I had a coke (really a pepsi) and all of our drinks (the guys had orange juice) came from glass bottles and we had to pour them into small glasses to drink! It was really really good.

My meal!

Finally, we decided to head back to base. It was fun to simply go explore and get lost in a new city. We’re hoping to go back to see the castle next weekend, but at least we know now to go earlier in the day and really take our time. However, I must add that it will be a bonus to know which trains to take next time too- we’re really getting the system down! 🙂 Anyway, that was our little adventure today. Hopefully there will be more to come soon. We love you all and we’ll continue to keep you posted!

Us leaving the city.