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It's been a while since I've written anything and it seems people are starting to notice. I guess it's time for an update. Things here in Okinawa are going well. We're about to hit our 1.5 year mark, well in January. Half-way to home as Derrick says. He is by far the most homesick of us all. The heat is killing him, that and the lack of hunting and fishing. We've done a little but it's hard to figure out what to use where. There are fish here we'd never even imagine seeing- the colors are crazy and the shapes they come in too-just something else. Who knows what they eat or how to catch them. So aside from the lack of outdoorsy stuff Derrick likes to do we are having fun. We snorkel often, during the spring and summer months. About October the water conditions change so we take a break. This summer we picked up a little underwater digital camera but haven't had much luck getting those amazing pictures. Tons of goofing off taking underwater pictures of the kids. Brandon has really taken a liking to snorkeling also. Melanie has her bouts of liking it, but for the most part there are fish in the water and that's just gross. Luke is still content with playing in the water but will occasionally put his mask on and watch the fish swim by his feet. I'll include snorkeling pictures in my next photo album.
September started a new school year for us all. We are now a family of 5 students. Melanie is now officially a high schooler, Brandon is in 4th grade and Luke is in 1st. I started my second year at UMUC and Derrick is taking his first class there as well. We are actually taking that class together. It's been really fun working with him academically. Less competition than I suspected there would be. I'm going to miss when this term ends and we have our own classes once again. Melanie is working with the guidance counselors to determine what she needs to take to put her on the right career path for her. This week she wants to be a defense lawyer. If you ask me it's because she saw a pretty cool lawyer show the other night. But hey, if she sticks with it that would be awesome. Brandon is loving 4th grade. He has a great teacher (last year his was awful) and he's doing awesome academically. Luke is following in his footsteps, he's reading above grade level and soaring in math, oh and this year they have introduced the Spanish Immersion classes for 1st grade. This program will follow him each year until all grades have it, but in it's first year they started with kindergarten and first grade. So along with the Japanese culture classes he is also getting Spanish lessons 3 times a week as well. He is doing amazing. His class just won the "Good Behavior Party for Septiembre" so a party is in the works for this week.
Last month we had two birthdays, but one party. Melanie turned 14 and Brandon is now 9. They are growing so fast. Brandon had his first (and hopefully only) sleep over birthday party. It wasn't that bad, but when is a houseful of 10 boys good? And Melanie was going to have a Luau but her crazy teenage attitude put a halt to the party. Instead we had a family day that ended with dinner at Chili's. There only because we knew they would sing one of those oh so embarrassing "Happy Birthday" songs to her. And they sure did!
The kids are waiting for sports to start up again. The seasons are so different here due to the heat and humidity. Basketball is about to start, but we have one who doesn't want to play and the other is going to have a hard time landing a team locally. The big typhoon I mentioned before damaged the courts near our house so the teams up here are limited & with the 3 kids & school, me driving 30-40 minutes 3 times a week for practice is not a real option. What the boys are really looking forward to is baseball. So we'll be waiting until January for that to start. I'll be sure to add pictures and updated when that starts up.
Right now we are all looking forward to Halloween! Putting together costumes and making sure we'll have enough candy to pass out this year. We don't want a repeat of last year. We will be having the Okinawan children joining us again this year so look for pictures of that in early November. All is great on this end, we're having a blast and enjoying everything about Okinawa! Hope all is well on your end too. We send hugs and love to all!
(Pictures can be found at Picasaweb.google.com/denicordo)
We survived our first "Super typhoon!" Apparently you all in the states are hearing more about it than we are. We only know what we saw and what friends on different parts of the island have told us. We don't have real "American News" here, just updates recorded weekly, and newspapers also a week behind. It took an e mail from my mom to know that people actually died and many are missing as well. We were very fortunate to not lose power or phone at all through the 3 days of torrential rains. Most of our friends were not as lucky. Some are just now getting power back on today, 3 days later. For the most part damage consists of downed trees and power lines, 95% of the houses here are made of re-enforced concrete so they don't budge. I don't know what our windows are made of, but they are the sturdiest windows I've ever seen, especially for how big they are. I'll be attaching pictures of our typhoon adventures to the list of albums and I'll send more updates as typhoon season continues. Other than a few days of complete stir craziness we are all good, enjoying our summer and trying to explore more of the island every sunny day we get. We send our love and will talk to ya'll soon.
Love, Denise, Derrick, Melanie, Brandon & Luke
Our pictures have moved, you can check out pictures of the Typhoon and other Cordova family things on Flickr through this link: www.flikr.com/photos/cordovas_n_okinawa
Sunday June 3, 2007 - 06:41pm (JST)
It's definitely been a while since I've updated this. I think my last one was just before or just after Derrick left. Since then we've seen so many things happen. The best is, Derricks home. He's been home since April and we've all readjusted to having both mom and dad home. We're nearing the end of our first school year on Okinawa. Luke is more than ready for first grade, as he's been working ahead of his class with a few other students for the past semester. Brandon is going into the fourth grade and wishes that the Eisa Drum Program was going to be available next year, but due to funding it won't be back. I'll be attaching some pictures of one of his drum concerts from this year. Melanie is 8 school days away from officially becoming a 'high school-er'. She's had her share of struggles this year, but managed to blow us away once again with her placement test scores. It's truly a case of she does what she wants when she wants, but excels when it matters. And that's the kids. For me- I'm half way to my associates in general studies. I'll be taking the summer off with the kids, the starting back in August, in hopes of having my AA before the kids end their next year of school. Derrick is weighing his options right now, as to when he'll be able to start on his degree as well.
There are a few rumors that have been flying around about an early homecoming for us. I guess anything is possible, but at this time it's looking more like the long haul for us. In July it will be one year down, two more to go. This month is going to be an informative month for us. Tomorrow will be Derrick's first day back after a month of leave. We've spent some time sight seeing, showing him all the things we saw while he was gone. We managed to get all our spring cleaning done and he even had time to buy his first Harley Davidson and take a drivers safety course. (I'll include pictures of that too).
As well as it being his first day back at work, it will also be the first day that he'll see the list from the HRST team. They are the group who decide who will go on recruiting duty and who will not. If you remember, we opted to come here vs. him going on recruiting duty about this time last year. Now that we're here, sometimes he wishes we would have done that instead. Derrick really doesn't like Okinawa. If he is on the list, and is deemed qualified we could end up back in the states sooner. The odds on that are very slim, as the military tends to not do the transcontinental moves more than once every 2-3 years per family. But if he's told to go, then off he goes. He will attend a school in San Diego for 2-3 months, then after he completes it, he would come back here, pack up and we would go where ever he'd be assigned to. Again, just another variable in the crazy mix. We've really learned to just roll with the punches.
Some of you may have heard about an early return to Camp Lejuene, NC by a Generals recommend. That is still a very faint possibility, but because we haven't been on the island long enough it doesn't look that promising. We were told in a year request orders and if the same command was in place at the receiving unit (in NC) and they remembered him directly then they would approve it. He and I both know the likelihood of that isn't good, so we've pretty much written that possibility off.
Another newsworthy item is Derrick being in the zone for promotion. Right now the board that overlook promotions are in session and he just barely made the cut. It's based on his time in current rank and the date he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He managed both by the day, exactly. They are only promoting about 50 of the best 100ish that are in the zone. I don't know the exact numbers, but Derrick has them. Because he's been in combat environments and lead his last deployment as acting CO (commanding officer), he's also completed all of his military training required for his current rank we are hoping that he'll be one of the more qualified Marines and be selected for promotion this fiscal year. If he gets it this year, he'll make Gunnery Sergent (E-7) in 11 years. If he does get passed over this year, we know it's simply because there were more qualified Marines higher on the list that he was and next year he'll get promoted. We should know something either way by months end.
We survived our first Okinawa winter. It was beautiful. I don't think I even looked for our winter coats once. Jeans and a light coat seemed to work for us. I could definitely do winters like this every year. Though I might trade the summers. We've had our first reminder of what an Okinawa summer is like, it's something I definitely forgot. The temperature never gets above 90 degrees, it's just the humidity that kills. The heat index is easily pushing 100 degrees already and it's only June 3rd. As soon as school lets out, we are going to become beach bums once again. It's the only way to survive here. We're hoping that the kids will all embrace the water a little more and take up snorkeling this summer. It's amazing out here.
We've seen our share of changes here. We've all met new friends, when we arrived and when they did after us; and we've seen close friends leave to new locations. It's definitely an amazing adventure here on Okinawa. Whether we stay 2 more years or end up back in the States early, I don't think anyone of us would trade the times we've had here. I'll do my best to keep on top of this blog. The kids are getting too big too fast to not stay on top of it. We hope this reaches you all in good health and wish you all a wonderful summer.
We send our love and biggest hugs, Denise, Derrick, Melanie, Brandon and Luke
***UPDATE**** 05June2007
The HRST screening list came out yesterday, and Derrick was not on it- he will NOT be going to recruiting school this year. (yay!!- I didn't want him to) I'll update again soon, once we hear back from the promotion board.
Its amazing how fast time has been going here. We've already been on Okinawa almost 5 months. The kids are almost halfway through the school year and I've almost completed my 2nd term at UMUC. Derrick called last night just to let us know he's arrived and will call again in a few days when things get situated in the Philippines.
We had a great turn out for Thanksgiving, about 10 Marines joined us for the long weekend. It gave them a place to go for a home cooked meal, and it helped me put faces to the names of the guys Derrick has working with him. We had a unit Christmas party this past weekend and the boys had a blast. Santa rode in on a firetruck with the ocean as a backdrop. The boys now know Santa can make it all the way to Okinawa. They were a little concerned.
Other then that, there isn't a whole lot of news from this end of the world. How are things on that side?
I'll update this when I get more information on Derrick's deployment or any other 'newsy" stuff from this end. We miss you all and hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season!
~Denise and the kiddos
PS. I'll be adding pictures from our farewell weekend to the picasa albums soon.
Tuesday October 31, 2006 - 08:18pm (JST)
Man what an amazing evening we have had. The kids got home from school and finished up all their chores and homework and quickly got into their costumes. Brandon was Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean and Luke was Darth Vader. Melanie threw together her costume- she wanted to be an Emo dude. If you don't know what that is, you're not missing anything. She looked crazy. Her friends said she made a 'hot guy'. I guess that's a compliment. They have trick or treating on base from 6-8 pm and the gates were open from 7-8 for the local Okinawan children. In the first hour we ran out of candy 2 times and before they opened the gates for the nationals I had Mel run to the store and get $20worth of candy. Then the gates opened...
It was absolutely unbelievable. I don't know that words could even explain what we saw. The pictures I took don't do justice. These children, some in costumes and some just with pumpkin bags, couldn't speak anything more than trick or treat and thank you, but it was the cutest thing. We tried to talk to some and they would just smile and wave. I am still just taken back by the whole thing. It was amazing. After about 15 minutes of complete craziness we ran out of candy and took one of the boys bags and started passing that out. When that ran out we called it a night. I have never felt so bad about not having anymore candy. There was one girl who came up and did the trick or treat thing then reached into another bag and put 2 small decorated bags full of Okinawan cookies and candies down next to us. I can't wait until next year. I am going to start stocking up about a month early, and might even wait to pass out candy until the locals are allowed on base. They were so much more polite than any American family was. It was something else. Poor Derrick though, he said it was like a humanitarian mission passing out candy. The kids just kept coming.
Check out the pictures I've added from tonight. Some are blurry, my camera doesn't do movement well and there were too many people to try and get them to stay still. But I wanted to capture a little of what we saw in front of us to share with you guys. Tonight was amazing!!
What a weekend! We went out and saw some more of the Island. We stopped by one of the castle ruins on the island, but it was already closed, now we know to plan earlier in the day. I didn't get any pictures, but the view from the road up was amazing. We had a friend, Joe, from Cherry Point as a tour guide, he and his family had been here before. (7 years here) and he's back to finish his Marine Corps career here. We ended our day at an amazing park. We were told about the concrete slides with a straight down drop, but never imagined they would be what they were. And the roller slides- we knew they were big, but until we saw them, I had no idea what BIG really was. The climb to the top is a workout in itself but very worth it. There are pictures of both slides in the new album I posted on here. It's labeled Okinawa pictures. I am about to add some from yesterday. I brought the camera when we took Joe back to his place and got some amazing sunsets over the Pacific Ocean. All is well on this end, nothing new to report except ~ Brandon starts Eisa Dance and Drum classes this week. There was a lottery to determine who got in, so we were really happy when he made the group. They will train all year and get to perform a few times, and wrap up the school year with a performance for some Okinawan nationals. I'll keep the updates coming and will attach more pictures as I take them. We love and miss you all!!!
Well, We've survived another month here on Okinawa and seen and done some really awesome things. Last month we had a family party for Brandon's 8th birthday. We had cake and ice cream and went to American Village to play in the arcades. It's the closest to Chuck E Cheeses we can get. There was a typhoon that blew through the day before so we still have to reschedule our Ferris wheel ride. There is an awesome 6 story Ferris wheel here that takes 15 minutes to go the whole circle.
The next weekend we had Melanie's Pretty in Pink party. She had a houseful and everyone had a blast. They had a cake fight and her friends toilet papered her to a chair and we took tons of pictures, they are here on 360 in the birthday album, go figure.
We made it to the beaches a few times. We are still exploring them, I don't know if we will ever see them all and each one seems better than the one before, for the most part. On top of seeing the beaches last weekend we went to the Shisa Mai dog festival. It was really neat, and we had a friend who knew the story behind it all, so we actually understood what we were watching, well to a point. Things are so different here. Shesa's or shesa dogs are protectors. They ward off the evil spirits from the Japanese houses and their crops. A fall festival of sorts. I have some pictures of that too, that I'll attach this evening. We saw several different groups in traditional costume doing karate and taming their Shesa's. The dogs are something similar to what you see when you see the Chinese Dragons during Chinese New Year. The music and food were amazing. Later this month we are going to go and watch the bull fights. It's not like they do in Spain, but actually 2 bulls fighting each other. More of a bunting heads, so we've been told. We want to check it out, we're trying take in as much of the culture as possible while we are here.
School is in full swing for everyone, and I think everyone is liking it. Luke is ahead of the class when it comes to math and counting. He amazed me the other day counting all the money he had in his wallet. He knew all the coins and their value. Brandon is taking to swimming and science well. His teacher has commented on his love of science a time or two. Melanie is about the same as always. She picks one or 2 classes and accelerate in those and stresses us out over the others. It's crazy that she can get such a high grade in a language she can't speak but do so poorly in ENGLISH. As for me, I'm doing awesome in one class, nothing less than an A and in the other nothing less that a 18 out of 20. I am really enjoying myself and can't wait until next term, so I can increase my workload a little more. My goal is to have my BA in Psychology within 2 1/2 years. It'll be non stop school the whole time I'm here.
Things with Derrick are busy. He's seen a few more Marines check into his unit, freeing up a little of his workload, but as new ones come in, old ones leave, and the workload keeps growing and changing. There are a few upcoming deployments that he's a candidate for, one leaving before years end and the other in the spring. Knowing his abilities and strengths we know he will probably be on at least one of them. It's all part of the job, we just take it as it comes. We are sponsoring (helping an incoming Marine and his family adjust to the island and set up all the initial classes/appointments) a family that will be here in mid November, so on top of work and school we've been getting things in order to welcome another family to Okinawa. The kids are excited, The incoming family has a 13 year old daughter and a 9 year old son. It's been fun for us so far, We had a less than eager sponsor helping us, so we are really trying to do everything in our power to make their arrival much less stressful for this family.
I think that's about all that's going on over here. If i missed anything or you have any questions, give us a call, e mail or leave a comment on this blog and I'll get back to you. As things happen, or change here with Derrick deploying or anything else- I'll post it here. We miss you all and send our love!
We send our love,
Denise, Derrick, Melanie, Brandon & Luke
Hello everyone,
With all the e mail updates I've been sending over the last 3 months I thought finding a place to get it all together would be great. I am going to try and keep this up to date with everything happening here. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier.
So what's going on here?
We've settled in, the house is in order and everything is unpacked. Work is in full swing for Derrick and he's hoping to fill the position of Company Gunny soon. It would put him on the right track to go the First Sergeant route.
Melanie and Brandon started school on the 29th and both really like their new schools. Melanie is taking Japanese and at the elementary schools they go to culture classes every 4 days. Brandon's class is working on getting 20 stamps/stars. The reward is a Japanese Tea Party. Luke's response to that was, 'Tea parties are for girls!' He says that now, but when school starts for him next week he will learn that he too will have to work for that same party with his class. Another cool thing here is the pool. It's next to the school and for PE all students take swim lessons. Melanie has a pool at her school and they to do lessons but also water sports and have a scuba club. With all three kids in school now I'm able to go back myself. I've registered for 2 online classes with UMUC (University Maryland University College) that start on Monday. I've jumped the gun and already completed the first assignments in both classes. I'm taking Asian Philosophy and Environmental Geology. Two classes I really had no interest in taking, but am really getting into it. Right now I am just working on general education classes but am thinking I am going to major in psychology with a minor in human resources or education. I'm a long way from there now so the direction I go may change.
On top of school and work this month we have both Melanie and Brandon's birthdays to plan for. Melanie is thinking she wants a themed party. She's seen too much of MTVs 'My Sweet 16'. She wants it to be Pretty in Pink party. Brandon hasn't decided what he wants to do yet, fortunately he's only going to be 8 and doesn't care about all that themed stuff.
It's Saturday morning and the house is buzzing now, kids are getting restless so I'm going to close and maybe take them to the beach. I'll snap some pictures and add them soon.
We send our love,
Denise, Derrick, Melanie, Brandon and Luke
1 comment:
OMG Denise, the picture of the whole family made me cry. You all look so happy and the kids look so young. It's only been a few years since that picture, but it seems like 10.
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