Iraq and Back.....



He's BAaaacccckkk!!
After 230-some days, Rick finally arrived back in Misawa from Balad Air Base, Iraq. Hannah Jane and I went out to meet him....AT MIDNIGHT, on a Thursday night/Friday morning....IN THE POURING RAIN...only to be told their plane had been turned away due to the bad weather. This delay came after being told 3 days earlier that it would be this night...and before that being told it would be three days earlier, and before that being told it would be "just a little longer" due to the earthquake, and before that, "now 7 months instead of 6" and before that "6 instead of 4' and so on.... You can imagine how elated all the wives and sleepy children were to be told to go back home through the pouring rain and wait for word when the plane might indeed arrive. So home we went. And then the word did come with a phone call at 4am -- the plane was landing. Our guys were home. So back out into the pouring night we went with our signs, flags to wave, and the best smiles we had...at 4am. We did pretty well though -- here's Hannah Jane while we waited for Rick to come through the hangar door......












And here she is waiting patiently with her best friend Katie, whose Dad is one of the pilot's Rick sometimes flies with:












And finally, here she is with Daddy.....






She's telling him here, "Daddy, I'm four now!" (just in case he forgot.....)






After this, we grabbed Rick's bags and headed back home where at 5:45am we decided to skip trying to sleep and had a champagne breakfast instead. To plow through the day and stay awake as long as possible with the idea of getting to bed early, we unpacked a bit and later toured Misawa to see some of the post-clean-up earthquake damage. The waterfront is still in bad shape with roads wiped out and large equipment still turned over in the parking lots, but the trees and hillside built decades ago to guard against large tsunamis did their job. The trees were all leaning landward and you could see the waterline, but most of houses were saved (though some were indeed completely swept away) I unfortunately don't have pictures but I guess at this point you've seen so much footage -- it just seems like overkill...and like it's time to move onward. And that's what the Japanese are doing now. They've mobilized a lot of contract work through their own agencies giving a much need boost to the economy, and things just seem to be moving forward. Things here in Misawa are definitely more "normal" though the base is still on limited power and will be working to massively conserve energy for some time, but we have all we need in terms of food, fuel and decent energy supplies. Off-base we're even more "normal", not under the same energy constraints being on the economy, though we'll continue to do our part. We're just incredibly happy and lucky to all be together again and to have all that we do - including our health (more on that in another blog, another time....) I hope to post some more "post-deployment" photos soon to show you what we've been doing with Rick's two-week "reconstitution leave" which is only now ending. In the meantime, thanks for tuning in and as always, thanks for your support!
take care.......Mary

We're home and homebound!

Hey all, sorry again for the delay in posting -- we are now "home" in Japan! And happy to be so. But the bigger news tonight is....

Rick is homebound...right now!!!

As I type this, I wait at 10:45pm for the clock to reach 11:30pm when I'll head to the base to watch Rick land...at midnight! In true military form, they are sending our spouses back to us after nearly 8 months.....IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. Which is WILDLY convenient considering we are all currently single parents with no babysitter willing to sit until they clear customs at "o-dark-thirty." No kidding -- we're told they land somewhere around midnight and should be ready to pick-up by 1:45....in the morning. Hannah Jane is coming with me which means tomorrow will be so much fun....I can't wait.

In all seriousness though, I'm grateful to be getting Rick back after not seeing him for eight months, and grateful that we're now rested and pretty healthy, and that our house here in Japan is still here! It turns out Misawa did lose both property and people in the tsunami, but the loss and damage was greatly reduced apparently due to the building (or lack thereof) Misawa did after a giant tsunami decades ago that took most of it's coastal property. Houses (and people) here in town were swept away but we did not have nearly the destruction they had further down the coast...and for that I am extremely grateful. There are still a number of volunteer projects going on to help with the clean-up and I'm looking forward to jumping in. But first, I'm going to go get my husband and just enjoy having him home for awhile.

Rick gets 2 weeks reconstitution leave and then at the end of June we'll go on vacation to Hawaii. Turns out Hawaii's a GREAT place to go just after a tsunami! It did reach the islands though I don't think it was too major, but the scare probably ran people off because we got a really nice place in Maui at a greatly reduced price! So we'll head there for a week with a jaunt to Moloki and then onto the Big Island and finally Oahu (mostly because Rick needs to be in a big city after living in a trailer and tent in the desert). Then at the end of July we're signed up to climb Mt. Fuji -- that is if the travel restriction gets lifted! Right now Rick, the active duty member, can't travel within so many miles of the Fukushima power plant -- which we'd have to do on our way to Tokyo. Stay tuned....

I promise to post some pictures soon to show you, we really are OK...in the meantime, thanks for checking in!
take care, Mary

"Home to Nihon" ("Home" to Japan)

Today is Wednesday, May 4th, and we are still in Utah -- but we are heading "home" to Japan tomorrow. Looking back at the last entry I wrote I am sorry it's taken me this long to write! Now for a quick update.......

So the day after my last entry I had a broncoscopy at a hospital here in Ogden (the procedure couldn't be done on base so the base doctor there I saw referred me). My father-in-law went with me which was a good thing because I was pretty out of it when the procedure was done (still not sure how I was suppose to do this on my own in Okinawa unless they were going to keep me overnight...) The doctor told my father-in-law that he saw plenty of green goop basically which made for a good sample. Unfortunately -- almost six weeks later -- that sample has not produced anything. While in a follow-up letter the doctor sent afterwards he was leaning toward something called "MAI" -- a much-less infectious cousin of TB apparently--he now believes it is not. Such a disease would take normally 6-8 weeks to grow so it is still growing, but the preliminary diagnosis is that it's not MAI -- or anything for that matter. The doctor had me do some other tests including an esophogram in case there was a gastro-intestinal problem going on that was causing my lungs to get infected, and from that he's decided that there may be. While the esophogram showed I had no reflux I do have a "chronic swallowing problem" that may cause ineffective clearage or something or other which may be causing/contributing to the lung infections. Right now I am doing fine though I still have the cough, so the next step is to see a gastro-interologist (sp?) for a more definitive test. Fortunately, I can do this with Rick, back in Japan....where I am going....tomorrow!!!!

Yes, I am excited to return to Japan, as it's our home right now, and it's where Rick will be returning to in a matter of days. He should return a few days from a nearly 8-month deployment just after we get back. And we can't wait!!! From what I hear on email chatter and the base website, things are pretty well back to normal -- for us, anyway. It sounds like the nuclear power plant situation is not resolved but from what I've read, the danger goes down with time and distance -- two things we have on our side in Misawa. The poor Japanese people are still suffering greatly, as I think there have been delays in trying to get people temporary housing. They are still searching for bodies. They are still short on supplies. And the roads and (until today I think) the trains have been down. So it's not a great situation for those folks. I'm just hoping it's not too late to join in on some of the volunteer efforts conducted by the base the last two months. They were sending busloads of people out daily but I think that's been cut back and now they may have even cut off official support of the efforts. But I know there will be plenty of work to done still so I hope to be able to join in. We have much to be grateful for. And now -- I have my health!

While in the states we were lucky enough to get in visits with family and to be cared for greatly, so we return rested and healthy. Thank you to everyone for all your thoughts and phone calls. We'll be back in a year "for good", hopefully, and we'll look forward to connecting with you then. I still maintain however that if you want a fun adventure, then come on over to Japan! We'll try and keep it still for you......................ha!!

Take care and "arigato",
Mary