The Reunion- Pictures!

He's home- He's really home!!!
  My best friend here, Mrs. S, was sweet enough to drive me to the airport to pick up Mr. Top Gun and allow us to fill up her car with ALL of his HUGE bags! Since he flew commercial this time, it was a little more challenging getting all of his stuff, but he still made it!! A few days late, but he made it! She slyly took these candid pictures, because as soon as I saw him smiling and waving to me from begind the glass doors, everything around me went silent.... From then on, it was just me, the airport terminal and Mr. Top Gun! Enjoy!

He's Home!!

MY HUSBAND IS HOME!!!!!!!!!!
  I'll post reunion pics later, but for now- I am enjoying smothering him with kisses!!


  Take that, you nasty deployment!!!! I won :)

Where, oh Where is Mr. Top Gun??

 I need my husband home, and I need him home NOW! After a flight halfway around the world, stops in various locations around the globe and one broken ASS plane... He  is *DRUM ROLL*

  FINALLY, HOPEFULLY, ON HIS WAY HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!! With some major prayers and lots of luck, I should be kissing him tomorrow!!!!!!!!

Look for my reunion pictures in a few days... Hey, I am locking the doors and keeping  Mr. Top Gun in bed with me for awhile. Or, as he says: 'We shall eat when we are hungry, and just run around naked."  Ah, now that is my husband speaking. God, how I have missed him!

He really is coming home, and it hit me just now. I am freaked out, nervous, scared, excited, worried about what I should wear to meet him, how should I style my hair? OMG- it's supposed to rain tomorrow, so now I need to find a cute umbrella... His Christmas presents have all been wrapped and placed  under our ficus tree (hey, I flew the coop for the holidays, so no tree this year for the Top Gun's,) and the house is immaculate. I keep pacing up and down the fours floors of our house looking for 'flaws' to fix... At least with all of the pacing and walking up and down the stairs, I am getting one heck of a workout!

So, here's to luck and me getting to run into his arms tomorrow!!!

There was a whole lotta shakin' goin on!

No, Mr. Top Gun is not home yet. Therefore, the shakin' I am referring to is not the shakin' of our bed! *Yep, I just went there!* I apologize to my readers with delicate sensibilities, as well as to my MIL... But, given the benefit of the doubt, I have not had Mr. around forever, and thus I freely admit that my mind is most certainly in the gutter ;) 


It started out like any other normal Saturday evening in Okinawa. I had just returned from a dinner with my fellow spouses, and was sitting down at the table checking my e-mail. I seemed to hear what sounded like a really loud helicopter or plane flying extremely LOW over my house, but brushed it off, since this happens daily. Well, the next thing I know, I look up and notice the ceiling fan in the dining room shaking rather violently. The shaking then turned into a swaying, and then it happened... For the next 10-15 seconds, I felt like I was in one of those fun houses you find at fairs and carnivals, and NOT in a good way either! My house kinda felt like it was all 'gooey' and 'swishy' and I felt like the third and fourth floors were swaying a little bit.


After less than a minute, everything stopped and guess what I did? Go check my house for broken objects? Nope. I proceeded to be a total ditz and didn't even realize an earthquake had just occurred!! So, naturally I went into the kitchen and made cherry turnovers for dessert. After I placed them in the oven, I checked online and that is when I saw the post from the USGS... a 5.3 earthquake hit 90 miles from Okinawa!!! WTF?? Cue me freaking out, checking the house, checking outside, walking the dog outside to check with me, calling friends here and my nana and grandpa and parents. Nothing even shifted in the house- amazing. All I can say is that Japan has extremely high codes they adhere to when it comes to housing, so now I am thankful that my four story concrete and steel bar reinforced house is rock solid! I proceeded to sleep with one eye open that night, terrified of an after shock or a tsunami...


  We never got an after shock or a tsunami warning- although when I called my dad, the first thing he said to me was: "You know you gotta watch out for those tsunamis after earthquakes over there." Thanks dad! Anyways, I survived my first earthquake and now I can add that to the four typhoons I endured since Mr. Top Gun has been away. Good times indeed!

Okinawa Fruits land and Pineapple Park!

Last weekend, some of my favorite girls and  I decided we needed to get out of the house. Their husbands work for Mr. Top Gun, and I LOVE these girls!! So, with their hubbies being lazy and playing video games, and mine over in the freakin' sandbox, we decided to take a lovely 2 hour drive up North to Nago, and visit the Okinawa Fruits Land and the Nago Pineapple Park! It was sooo much fun, and we laughed, told jokes, and totally jammed out to tunes in the car on the way up there. Oh, and the best part of the entire trip? The Pineapple Park, and the endless FREE supply of freshly sliced Okinawa pineapple, pineapple wine *Yes, WINE!*, cookies, candies, lotions, soaps, juice, chocolates, and... PINEAPPLE WINE CAKE. OMG. This is sooo moist and delicious, and one bite of it... you are completely hooked! I purchased one of the cakes, and I am attempting to save one of the individually packaged ones for Mr. Top Gun... Key word- Attempting... Those cakes are killer good :)

                     

                                            

                                                       

                                          

                                                     

                                           

                                            

                                            

                                 

                                                

                                            

Fainting in Tokyo...

I am back!! Well, I have been back for over a week now, but between the jet lag and me healing my busted lip up- I have been exhausted! Now, to explain the busted lip... It seems that while I was standing in line in Tokyo awaiting to check in for my flight to Okinawa, I decided that it seemed like an awesome thing to do would be too.. FAINT. Yes, you heard me right. I fainted in Tokyo!! I dropped like a fly, bam! Went down and rolled over my huge suitcase, and came to only to find that I had been swarmed upon by the Japanese ANA staff... Luckily, when I fell, I had a group of Doctors in line in front of me, so when I opened my eyes one of them was holding my head and taking my pulse. 


He was the sweetest man ever, and I couldn't thank him and his friends enough for helping me. Hey, fall in Japan and it's a pretty sure thing that a Dr. will always be within a stones throw from you. Seriously, they always have Dr.'s around! I ended up being upgraded to first class, and was wheeled through security in a wheelchair. I then was placed into a 'Medical Bus,' and driven down the flightline to the plane... Other normal people who don't faint are driven down to the plane on a regular shuttle bus, but alas, I was able to enter the plane by being 'zoomed' up in the bus and wheeled right through the cockpit... YEAH!! The American girl is a huge idiot... 


The flight was three hours long, and it was the longest three hours of my life. I threw up about 10 minutes after we took off, which prompted all three of the flight attendants to rush towards the lavatory and help me out. 30 minutes later, I crawled back to my seat and passed out. When I woke up, the plane was encountering some turbulence as it always does when we are approaching the island, and there goes my stomach again... God! I swear, I have never been so thrilled to get the hell off of a plane then I was that day. Absolutely trip from HELL, and the worst part was knowing that when I came home, our house would be quiet and there would be no Mr. Top Gun...


I was wheeled out of the plane again, because the Japanese do not take illness and fainting ladies lightly- thank goodness I wasn't pregnant, because my friends who have traveled while pregnant say they treat you like you are crippled (which may or may not be a good thing...) My luggage is retrieved, and then comes the best part ever... I see the Commander and his Fiancee waiting for me to be wheeled out to the greeting area, and the Commander is just laughing so hard he is crying!!!! Thank goodness Mr. Top Gun and I are very well liked and are friends with them, because I could not imagine another wife being happy to see their husband's Commander looking at them with a busted up lip,  bloody shirt and hair that looked as if I had forgotten what washing it meant... Yeah, what an eventful trip!!! Mr. Top Gun now has photographic evidence of me looking like death, and all courtesy of his funny Commander :) Welcome back, Mrs. Top Gun!

The Top Gun's 2009 in review

2009 In Review: The year of traveling for the Top Gun's!


New Years Eve, 2008: Mr. Top Gun and I rang in the New Year at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Kansas City, Mo. We had dinner at the most fabulous 5 star steakhouse, we dressed up in our finest- and I decided to get food poisoning... Apparently, the lunch we had with a dear friend of ours that afternoon did not settle well with me, and by the time we checked into the hotel I had puked all over the side of the road (and in front of people's homes!) Oh- and let us not forget the ghetto bathroom I had to use... yeah, let's just say I didn't TOUCH anything in there. I manage to get the nausea under control (or so I thought,) and we make it to dinner. I proceed to order, and once I smell the food in front of me? PUKe. Yep, I spent the dinner in the bathroom while Mr. Top Gun proceeded to imbibe and thoroughly enjoy our 50$ bottle of wine- all by himself! So, I left with a little drunky drunk husband and then threw up again. HAPPY FREAKIN' NEW YEAR!!!

February, 2009: We move to New Mexico. On Valentine's Day, no less! 1 day of driving to El Paso, staying at the Hyatt and driving out the next day. Happy Valentine's Day! We move into our gorgeous condo and settle in for the next 5 months.

March, 2009: We are loving New Mexico! Mr. Top Gun begins flying his plane *yeah!!* and I fall in love with New Mexico. We also discover our new found addiction to green chiles, and I develop a serious addiction to all things turquoise... We get the first snow of the season, and I go nuts over it.

April, 2009: Our parents come to visit us! We take them to the world famous "El Pinto" Mexican restaurant, and as usual Mr. Top Gun and I refuse to pass up another photo op! We also spend Easter in our condo with Mr's parents, and towards the end of the month we attend the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow at the University Of New Mexico. What an amazing time!!

May, 2009: I turn the big 27! Mr. Top Gun surprises me with a weekend trip to Santa Fe. We stay in the five star Inn of the Anasazi, right in the center of downtown Santa Fe! I find the most breathtaking necklace, and we tour the oldest church in america as well as all of the other famous landmarks.

June, 2009: We are supposed to leave New Mexico- boo :(  But, the weather decides to tell us otherwise. Mr. Top Gun is pushed waaay back in flight school due to all of the storms, and the lease on our condo is up... So, he drives back to Texas with me in my car, stays the weekend and flies back on Sunday. He moves out of the condo ALL BY HIMSELF, and into the BOQ's on base. I don't see Mr. Top Gun for another three weeks... 

July, 2009: Mr. Top Gun arrives safely in Texas, finished with all of his flight school *yeah!* and we begin packing up for our move to Japan... We MOVE TO JAPAN!!

August, 2009: We find our house in Japan! We adopt a dog. We learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road. I get a super cute little car, We become even more addicted to sushi. 

September, 2009: Mr. Top Gun leaves to fly around to god knows where. I settle in to the house, hang out with the girls and then this happens... I got into a MAJOR CAR ACCIDENT. Totaled Mr.'s car, freaked out the entire squadron, and made Mr. fly back home to be with me. We spend the next month and a half dealing with the accident mess...

October, 2009: Mr. Top Gun gets called out to assist in the Indonesian earthquake efforts. A few days turns into weeks, and by the time he gets back, I only have about a week to spend with him. Then the Air Force presents us with the best gift of all time: Mr. Top Gun is deployed!!!! I lose my mind a little bit, find it somewhere on the island and learn how to live alone :(  I party it up with some friends for halloween!!

November, 2009: I catch the first plane out of Japan, and high tail it back home to TEXAS! On my way home, I manage to squeeze in some sushi in Tokyo, and break my toe leaving the house for the airport. 13 hours later, I am back in Texas. Wurstfest in New Braunfels is awesome!! Thanksgiving with the family is incredible, Mr. Top Gun eats Thanksgiving dinner in the DFAC... 

December, 2009: I'm still in Texas!! Missing Mr. Top Gun like crazy, but loving all the time with family. I rent an awesome car to get around in, go shopping, eat tons of delicious mexican food and still miss Mr. Top Gun like crazy. I finally get the swine flu vaccine. Mr. Top Gun calls me from the sandbox with some news from the Air Force... It seems that they have felt bad for being nasty and sending him away from me (ok, that's not the reason) but, he is selected for Captain!!  Santa Claus visits me! I get some awesome presents, and now my suitcase is brimming with goodies. December goes way too fast for me!!

January, 2010: I leave Texas in a few days. Cue the crying, sobbing, not wanting to eat. Fun times!! However, I can say this: Mr. Top Gun comes home soon!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year to all! Here's to 2010 being an incredible year for the Top Gun's, and hoping that it brings a little top gun ;)