Website Update!

I have updated my website! This is joyjill.com version 3.0 Every time I update my site there is immediately something I want to change. However, as of this moment I am quite happy with it. There are some things that I would do differently if I was absolutely amazing in Flash, but I just don't care to take the time to do anymore to it. It would take FOREVER and be extremely painful to do the things that I would like to. Someday when I am making millions I will pay Randy to build me an awesome site with a custom blog, but for now I think this will do.... crap, just typing that I realize that I forgot to put a link to my blog.... suck!

Well, check it out and I will work on that one extra button I need :)

It's COMPLETE!!! Just so you know adding that button turned out to be quite the hassle (only cause I found other problems with it), and you are pretty much looking at version 3.7...

Keep Praying for Daisy

Daisy is doing great! She came out of surgery and is doing well. They said...

"Praise the Lord!! We are walking in miracles!! Daisy is already awake!! They are planning to remove her breathing tube momentarily! The doctors are flabbergasted with the how well this is going!! Even the unsaved doctors are attributing it to the many prayers!"

They were able to remove the tumor all in one piece, and so far so good :) This little girl has SO many people praying for her, it is really incredible! Please go to the site they created for her! and read for yourself the healing that is going on. It is so awesome to see God's hand through this and to read the updates as they post them. Keep praying for them!

GOD IS GOOD :)

Can't Sleep...

So, it happens from time to time while Brian is away that I cannot sleep. This is a very normal thing too as I know MANY military wives who have been in the same position. Somehow, I have been VERY lucky that this is only my 2nd time having trouble sleeping since Brian has been gone... which has been about a month now. Seriously, that's amazing. And actually no offense to Brian, but both this time and the last time, I don't even really feel like I miss him exceedingly, I just can't sleep. I do miss him, but there is definitely a difference between missing him and desperately missing him and somehow I have not reached the desperately missing him during this deployment. However, I am ready for him to come home and word is that may be happening soon :) Yay for me!

So for now I will post some pics that I just ran into. I don't have too many of Brian with his sis and in fact, these actually may be the ONLY ones I have, but I really like them :) I took them right before we moved to Japan. Tamara was pregnant so they were pretending to be pregnant together... like sisters *cough* I mean siblings do :)

Pray For Daisy

My Santa Barbara Pastor Brit Merrick's daughter needs prayer. The doctor's say she has the Wilms' Tumor. She goes into surgery on Thursday at 7:15am, SO if you pray... PRAY, and if you don't pray... PRAY. You can get more info here

Joy Jill Photography Blog

Alright everyone. I have created a new blog for my photography. It might be overkill and hopefully I will do ok with posting to two blogs regularly. I figure I will just make it part of my workflow so that a few of the top images from each shoot goes on the blog.

So go check it out! I have several shoots I need to post from this weekend, and MAYBE I will post shoots from before. I am mostly doing family portraiture here in Japan. It's more just a side thing, but I do consistently get several shoots a month, it's just not anything to live on. So, whether I am shooting for work or for fun (stock) I will post all photography related things to The Joy Jill Photography blog!

Brian's post

I know it's been a long time since I wrote anything on the blog. It's hard being underway so much and when I have duty and watch and my regular Damage Control job it's hard to find time to write anything. I also couldn't remember Joy's password to log on so I had to ask her (again).

Well I've been to a few different countries lately. I went to East Timor which is a small, very poor country just north of Australia. I went to Bali, Singapore, S. Korea, and different places in Japan. All these ports seem cool but I would've rather been home with Joy and Shugo. I can't out right say where we are at this moment but the place we're at is apperantly the biggest exporter of fugu in the world. Fugu is the poisonous blowfish that people eat and could possibly die from if it's not cut right. Well the other night I ate some, I mean I'm in the fugu capital of the world, I had to. It's very expensive so me and two other guys had just a plate of it and that was about $48.00. A whole platter is $100.00 and up.

Joy mentioned earlier that we're moving to florida "soon" and that's because I submitted a request to go to Explosive Ordnance Disposal school and it got approved by my commanding officer. The 'soon" part is because we're still waiting to get orders but I'm not sure how soon that will be. I may get them in a week or I may have to wait a month. You never know with the Navy. But at least the hard part of that is over. I put together my package and did all the physical and medical checks and somehow got my command to approve it. My command has actually been very supportive of me leaving for EOD.

What are we Really up To...

So, I put this pic on here, just cause I think it is super cute and I don't have any other pic to post right now. Shugo does look bigger than Brian in this pic, but Brian does actually weigh more than him.

So... what are we really up to here in Japan. Well, since June Brian has been gone a lot. His ship pretty much goes out for 4-6 weeks and is in for 2 weeks and then back out for 4-6 wks. So, when he is here we cram pack all our free time with exploring. So, when you see me posting all these things that we are doing, it's not that we do cool stuff all the time, it's just that we do a lot in a short period of time and I spread it out over several blogs.

I am working on base doing Graphic Design. It is very weird having a desk job, but it is definitely nice having a set schedule and a little better pay. So, when I am not working I am usually either working out or going on a hike somewhere with Shugo. I get in my outdoors time when I get home from work. I spend at least an hour playing with Shugo or taking him on a long walk or hike somewhere. The weather has cooled down a lot and it is really nice. We've had a bit of rain and it seems like winter is just around the corner.

As I am sure some of you know and have heard... we may be moving back to the states soon. "Soon" as in it's likely to happen in the next year. We don't have orders yet, but things are slowly progressing. We are definitely going to Florida when we come back cause Brian will be in training there for a year and a half. So, for those of you who thought we'd be here until 2011, we won't. But either way, Florida is on the other side of the country, so it's not like we are going to be within an easy travel distance anyway...

So that is an update on the simpleness of our lives. I know I usually post about all our adventures and craziness, but I figure I should give a normal life update for those of you that I don't talk to on a regular basis.

The Hayama Police...

So yes, I had a nice little encounter with the Hayama Police. I was just thinking it was time for bed when I hear Shugo growling at the door. I look out the window and there is a police man in my yard, poking his head through my open door saying "Konbanwaaaaaaaaa". I, in my beautiful Japanese say, "Just a minute". Run down the stairs with Shugo trailing close behind ready to attack. They of course take one look at me and give a little sigh of, "Uh oh, hope she speaks Japanese". They say, "Boxer?" as they are looking right at Shugo. I say no, cause well, he's a mut really and he possibly has boxer in him, but we have no idea. They say some things in Japanese and I stopped trying to understand. I have been told that the police hold you to a different standard if you speak Japanese so unless you are fluent you are better off playing entirely dumb. So I of course followed this great advice. My favorite word is wakaranai (I don't understand) anyway.

So they called someone on their handy cell phones to translate. The basic story is that I left the sliding door open so Shugo could chew his bone outside. I went upstairs to jump on the computer and wasn't entirely paying attention to him. He came upstairs though not too long after me as usual and all was fine. I don't always pay attention to him cause he isn't always in the same room with me. I did forget the door was open downstairs and I think he went for a little walk... someone called the police and they showed up at the door.

So they asked if he has a collar and if I keep him on a leash. When we are gone we tie Shugo in the yard and at that time, yes he has a collar on. He also is wearing one when I take him for walks, but if we are just hanging around the house he is not wearing one. I told them this and how sometimes I have the door open while I am home so he can go outside. He must have gone down the road and I didn't notice...

One of the policemen seemed to like Shugo. He was petting him, but the other seemed a little scared. Any sudden movement though and Shugo dashed away and barked at them. He is so skiddish. I think he was more so because it was dark, but HOW FREAKING HILARIOUS IS THAT??? I asked if everything was ok and if I was going to get a fine. They said no. Someone just called cause he was roaming around alone. He didn't bite anyone or do anything wrong. All is ok, but they did take down all my info. My dependent ID card, military driver's license, and passport. Yikes... I guess it better not happen again. I am wondering if maybe he wanders a lot when I am not paying attention and whoever called just finally got fed up??? Who knows, either way it was a funny event. I really wanted to get a picture of the policemen with Shugo, but I figured it might not come across well with the language barrier...

THE Spider...

HOLY CRAPPER! This was THE BIGGEST spider I have ever seen in my life! I SWEAR these pics don't do it justice... but seriously, have you EVER seen a spider so big even when it is dead? Blehhh!


Shugo did want to protect me, but I wasn't about to scare the thing off the wall and have him chase it around the house. It would likely jump off the wall right onto my head and then I would freak out and probably fall down my steep Japanese stairs. This is embarrassing to admit, but I had to get my neighbor to kill it. He came over right away and the freakin thing (just as I suspected) ran down the wall, jumped onto the stairs and ran down the banister, LEAPING off of it and almost landing on me! I almost had a heart attack. The second video is that one... and too bad you can't see it, but I SWEAR it jumped when it was mid-banister which is about 4 ft. up! What kind of creature does that!!?? It ran in the closet and died shortly after. I don't think I will sleep tonight... I will leave the lights on and have a broom in hand...

Last bit from Okinawa

So these are the last bit of pics and stuff that I will be sharing from Okinawa... We of course went snorkeling while there. The water is SUPER clear and awesome. Beautiful beaches. We had a lot of fun using our underwater happy snap :) Although it is much harder than you would think to get a snap of yourself while underwater. Brian is good at holding his breath, but I really suck.

So serious...

Pretty beaches
There were A&W's everywhere! I am amazed at how many I saw... so of course we went to one for lunch. It was pretty funny to see the cashier's nametag that said "All American Place" and then her name was like the pound sign :) I wanted to get a picture, but wasn't sure how to go about that....
On our last day there, Brian got a lovely sun burn with my hand print. I put the block on his back and did one swipe on his sides... he was supposed to get his stomach. And below is a lovely video of a very weird stick bug. Brian made a friend...

The Aquarium

So while in Okinawa we went to an aquarium... The Churaumi Aquarium. Apparently it is in the top three in the world. As some of you may know I really don't much like going to the zoo, so why would I want to go to an aquarium right? Well, I heard it was pretty darn cool and I figured if it is one of the best in the world we should probably go. It was cool, but not as cool as you would expect the "best in the world" to be. Obviously there was a dolphin show... below is a pic of the huge space they have. I think there were 3 of those huge whales in there. Tons of fish and that tank was pretty cool.


Outside there was a very nice park, with cool plants. Brian of course wanted to be fed by the mama birdie :)



I really liked the octopus. I thought it was pretty darn creative. These plant creatures were all over the place!

So this was one of our less exciting things we did. We were there for probably 2 hours and then went straight to the beach.... no funny stories from this place.

The Japanese Gameshow

So Brian and I went to this place called Forest Adventure while we were in Okinawa. It was really fun. Apparently these things started in Germany. A lot of zip lines and then in the end there was a fun course to do. Totally reminded us of a Japanese game show as you will hear in our videos. We didn't get any good pics of it, just lots of funny video, so here you go... well, one of the better videos won't upload cause it is too big, but oh well, there is plenty more :)