February 1999
Hello and welcome to our website. As you can see we made a few changes. Send us an e-mail and let us know what you think. We hope everybody had a very happy Holidays. We had a great Christmas and New Years. It was fun to see Elizabeth's reaction to all of the festivities. Jessica didn't have a clue as to what was going on. Elizabeth is absolutely convinced that Santa is a bad guy. She is really afraid of him! Hopefully next year she will make amends. The Holidays were wonderful but it is nice to be back into our old routine again. It is hard to believe at times that we have reached the year 1999. Time sure flies. We have a busy year ahead of us and are looking forward to all of the changes to come.
Rob has started the New Years off right with a total fitness routine. He gets up early every morning and heads to the gym we have here in our housing area to get a cardiovascular workout. Later in the day he goes to the big gym on base and lifts weights. He is really enjoying this and is starting to see some results. Rob has also been working on his job search. His retirement date is approaching fast.
I have also started a major fitness routine myself. Unfortunately I put on allot of weight during my pregnancy with Jessica. I guess having two babies in a row took a toll on my body. I have been visiting the gym in the evenings after dinner. Sometimes Jennifer joins me. The babies keep me busy and enjoy every minute I have with them. We are truly blessed to have three wonderful, healthy and beautiful girls. I would like to take the babies a trip to Alaska the end of February. I have been trying to work out the details of this in my mind. It will not be easy to do. It would be nice to have a little break from Japan.
Jennifer has been working very hard in school to bring up her grades. School has been pretty tough for her this year. They have the sixth graders in the middle school here. It is really stupid too because they have no actual building for the middle school, it is part of the high school. She has a different teacher for every subject. Most of her teachers seem to forget that they are teaching only sixth graders, who should actually be in elementary school. They treat the kids like they are high school kids. Since they have no actual building they have no lockers so she has to lug around a heavy backpack all day with all of her books in it and even her lunch. I am so glad we will be getting out of this lousy school system they have here. I am planning on writing to our Senator about it soon. Her grades will come out next week and hopefully we will see some improvement. She is still involved in Girl Scouts and they are having their annual cookie sale now.
Elizabeth is as cute as ever. She will be 20 months old at the end of this month and is approaching the "Terrible Twos". I have heard that they can begin early. Her favorite work these days is "NO". Everyday we find her doing something new and amazing. She is learning to talk. Some of the words she says are Jess ca, Ditter (sister), Mama, Dada, No, (She says this allot!) and Hi. She likes to wave when you leave or she leaves a room. Elizabeth has also started to enjoy watching Sesame Street. She also loves to be outside. She has become a little jealous of my attention to Jessica but she loves her baby sister and tries to help out.
Jessica is growing fast. I took her in for her four month check up last month and she weighs in at 14 lbs 7 oz. and is 25 inches long. This puts her in the 75th percentile for her height and weight. So she is a bit above average. The Dr. commented that she is as alert as a six month old. She is so cute. She loves to smile and we can even get a giggle out of her. She likes to watch TV, it must be the colors that she is attracted to. She has started jabbering allot.
I have gotten allot of questions about what our plans are for Rob's retirement and what and when we will be doing what. Let me give you the run down. We will be leaving here this Summer but his actual retirement date is Oct 31, 1999. First of all in June we will be shipping the motorcycle to Seattle. On July 22nd Rob will be having a retirement ceremony here in Japan. It will be hot here in July so the uniform of the day he has chosen for the ceremony is shorts and pith helmets! Toward the end of July we will have our belongings packed up and shipped off to Alaska. We will be leaving shortly after the retirement ceremony, probably around Aug. 1st. I will be flying to Spokane to visit my family. Rob will go to Seattle to process out of the Navy. Once he processes out he will be on what's called terminal leave until October. He will pick up his motorcycle in Seattle and ride on over to Spokane to meet us and visit. He then wants to take a few days to ride down to Sacramento and visit with some friends there. After that he will head back up to Seattle with a stop in Portland to visit another friend. I will meet him in Seattle and we will visit our friends and family there for a few days. I will then fly up to Anchorage and get settled in. Rob has planned to ride the motorcycle up the AlCan Highway. He is going to take about ten days to do this and hopefully his Dad will come down and make the trip with him in the "chase car". On October 31, 1999 we will be having another retirement ceremony in Anchorage with our friends and family. Please let us know if you would like to attend. So that is our plan. Our time here in Japan has been a wonderful experience but we are sure looking forward to moving back to the States.
Now in other news:
Congratulations to our good friends the Mclaughlin Family on the new arrival of a baby boy on January 9th.
Happy Birthday wishes go to Dad Martin, Mick, Dad Smith and Kash.
Rob and I will be celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary on the 19th of February.
We hope everybody has a great Valentines Day!
That's all the news for this month. We look forward to hearing from you. We are so far from home so it makes our day to get a letter or some e-mail. Write and let us know what you think of our new format on the website. Take Care!
Rob, Kelly and The Girls