Where are we going from here?

You may be wondering what is next for us.

I have one week left in Okinawa, followed by one week spent with Girl Scouts in South Korea.

After that I will be moving in with family for about 5-6months to complete observations and tasks in an elementary classroom. These tasks are pre-student teaching. We decided it was best for me to be in one place right now so I can knock out these tasks and get it done... instead of starting and stopping in three different places. Because of this I will be moving back to Iowa sooner, and staying later, than Carrick will.

Carrick will be staying in Okinawa until sometime around the 1st of Nov. He will get to come to Iowa for about 30 days of leave, and then move to North Carolina before Dec. 2nd.

I'm not looking forward to us being apart, but I know it is only temporary and will be worth it in the long run when I finally have my degree! Because I won't be able to move to NC until I get my tasks done in Iowa it will also be great motivation and keep me working hard so I can join my man sooner!

So that's the outlook for the Johnsons. Up next, Korea!!!

International Move Take 2

So it begins the packing up of our life in Okinawa.

Everything is bitter sweet. We're sad to be leaving, but happy to go on to our next adventure.

I will miss the friendships that I have made, which are really beyond words to describe on this blog. I have met people who will forever be a part of my life, and I hope to visit them again on their island in the Pacific! It is a great feeling to know that you have people who care about you all over the world. Thank God for facebook and email.

We'll both miss the food... we've already been searching online for Thai and curry restaurants in the states. We're not to hopeful that we'll find much, and we're pretty sure it will never be as good as it is here.

I will miss perpetual summer (but not typhoons and 100 degrees at 7am).

I will miss having every outing, whether it be going out to dinner, or to the beach, or shopping, be an experience in culture.

This really has become our home. Our marriage has grown, we've added a dog, we've experienced happiness and heartache, and we'll be moving on to our next home eager to continue learning and growing.

Recent Crafties

I recently finished this monstrosity of a quilt. It's made from my old t-shirts from high school, Girl Scouts, and life guarding. I love my old tshirts and couldn't part with them, but was tired of them taking up so much space in my drawers. This is a great way to display them and hold on to those memories!

Our (soon to be) New Home

In between my turns to love up on my new baby niece, I set out on an alternate mission while I was visiting in Iowa, to find us a new home. For the past few months we (really 'I' with Carrick following along reluctantly) hatched a plan for our living arrangement when we move back stateside to allow us to save as much money as possible to eventually buy a house when we choose to settle permanently.

Are you ready to hear our crazy plan?! We will be living in a 31ft travel trailer for the 18 months that Carrick will have left in the Marine Corps once we return stateside.

I have been researching online families who live fulltime in campers and rvs, and it really seemed like a viable and inventive way to live while we work on saving. Many of these families travel the world, which is why they choose a more moble lifestyle. However, we will be parking our trailer, which has been fittingly named "Happy," at our next duty station, most likely North Carolina. I'd love to take some time after Carrick get's out to do some traveling, but that will probably take some more convincing :).

So here are the specs of our new home:

1996 31ft Holiday Rambler travel trailer
Super slide in living room/kitchen

and of course pictures!

I plan to do some redecorating and painting, so these will be the 'before' pictures.

Kitchen

Living Room

Entertainment/Storage in LR

Hallway Closets

Bathroom

Above toilet and little bit of vanity

Shower

Bedroom

Abbey is Here

I'd like to introduce you to my niece Abbey Mae! She was born June 17th, and I was honored to be at her birth. I made it home just in time to see my sister, Meagan, pregnant for a day. I got home on Wednesday night, and Thursday night we were at the hospital!

Abbey is so precious and already cracking us up. She is so animated with her facial expressions and has her own little diva personality at times! I loved getting to spend so much time with her, and it was sooo hard for me to leave. I can't wait until we're back stateside so I can visit this little peanut.

It's June?

In the words of Albus Dumbledore... "Time is making fools of us again."

I seriously can't believe it's June. I can't believe this is our last summer on Okinawa, or that I will be home in 10 days, or that I will be meeting my niece in around 16 days!

Everything is happening fast, but I like it that way! If you know me you know I am not very patient and I hate waiting.

So since the last time I wrote here... I survived Girl Scout Camp. I was planning on writing a post about it afterwards, but it turns out I would rather block the whole experience out of my mind! Well not the whole experience I guess... We did manage to have an adequate amount of fun. I met some really amazing women, who I can now call friends, and I hope to visit in Korea before we move, but some aspects I will be happy to forget forever!

I'm still trudging away at school and will be one more semester down in August. I will start observing in classrooms this fall which I'm pretty excited about.

We had a pretty big typhoon hit a couple of weeks ago. The largest one since we've been here. There were a lot of trees broken and uprooted and some property damage. Carrick's car was the worst hit for us, with a big dent in the front fender. He just got it fixed this weekend though.

He's been keeping busy golfing, and I'm hitting up the pool and beach like it's cool. I'm also rereading Harry Potter for at least the seventh time. I just love my HP. I'm almost finished with the sixth book and I'm just reminded how much I love these books. JK Rowling is truly brilliant! It's just amazing how she's created this whole world and weaves together this story through all the books. Each time I read them I catch new details. Not to mention the characters... I feel like I know them and care about them..... and Yes, Carrick thinks I'm a huge nerd!

I've also been sewing a lot. I'm trying to use up my fabric stores so we have less stuff to move (my reasons may be coming in a post to follow) and I'll post some pictures of what I've been working on soon.

Sunday in the Kitchen

We get really bored on Sundays. Usually we use up all the fun things we can think of on Saturday, and Sunday we stare at each other and ask, "Well, what do you want to do?" Thats when we walk into the kitchen and find something to make. Usually something that takes longer than 5 minutes which is why we aren't up to making it on weeknights.

This Sunday it was Chicago style pizza in the cast iron. Recipe thanks to my Aunt Beaner!

Carrick insisted on an "action shot."

The dehydrator also saw some action.

Black berry and raspberry fruit leathers... didn't turn out as good as we hoped but it's a learning process :)

A girl can dream right!?

Some day, when I have a house I can acutally do stuff to, it will look like this:

It will have awesome built ins everywhere...

Rustic Country Charm? Yes Please!

And white kitchen cabinets.... I LOVE white cabinets. Whenever we look at houses online we usually say what we'd do to them... Now Carrick just says, "Oh those cabinets will be painted white," for all the kitchens.

Where we'll sleep...

And our children...

And YOU, our guests...

Don't forget the most important room in any Johnson house....

I'd actually want to do laundary here...

Or maybe we'll go the "cabin in the woods" route...

There you have it! You can tell I'm into the white trim and blue-green color spectrum. Someday this will become a reality. Until then these pictures will sit in the same folder on the computer they've been in for two years. I don't have photo credits for them and probably should but oh well. Sorry copyright police!