Aquarium and update

Hey everyone. Been a little while since we've posted a blog and I'm (angela) being lazy on the couch so no better time.
Not much has been going on really. Ken got a few extra days off for Memorial day last week so that was nice but we didn't really do much. I think we actually ended up going bowling on Memorial day..ha. We did go to an aquarium that weekend and that was pretty interesting. It's called Okinawa's Churaumi Aquarium. It's apparently supposed to be one of the largest ones in the world. I don't know about that, but it did have the biggest viewing glass that I had ever seen at an aquarium. My favorite part of the whole thing was the dolphin show. It only lasted 15 minutes but it was still pretty neat. It made the hour and a half drive worth it. Plus we got to see some beautiful sites along the way.
I had another OB appointment last week, everything is still good with baby girl Freeman. My belly is measuring at 27 inches now which is amazing to me considering I was 19 inches at my last appointment just a month ago so she is definitely growing. Everything on the ultrasound we had done a couple weeks ago looks good, and my due date is still September 3. Only a few more months! We're still working on the nursery and on a name! It's such a hard decision! Hopefully we will figure it out before she's born! : )
This week is all Army week on base. There is every branch of the military where we are so this week the Army gets to have events and such. Saturday is an Army formal, that we are probably going to. Let's just hope this preggo lady can find something to wear!
Not much else going on here in Okinawa. Hope everyone back home is doing well. We love and miss you all!!!

Confirmed GIRL!!

Had an ultrasound appointment today and they saw what they needed to see to tell us it's definitely a baby girl kicking me! : ) Now we just have to settle on a name.......

Decorating

(Angela post)
Well finally Japan is starting to seem a little more like home. We received our household goods shipment last week (much earlier than we were expecting) so we're not having to live with the bare necessities anymore. Before we received our things, all we had was two end tables, a coffee table, two easy chairs and a bed. We learned to live with it but I was SO glad to finally be able to decorate and to have our furniture back. We were very fortunate that none of our belongings were damaged in the shipment and also that we didn't have to wait until the end of May like we were expecting to have to. I went to work the same day our things arrived trying to make this place seem as much like being back in the states as possible. Although I quickly discovered that hanging things on the wall is no easy task here. Sometimes you hit wood, sometimes you hit concrete...and sometimes within only a few inches of each other. The houses here are made to withstand typhoons so I am not complaining about the structure, it just became quiet frustrating after a while. Needless to say...there are a few more holes in the wall than needed in some places and some things are barely hanging but nonetheless, our housing doesn't look as bare as before.

We also started decorating the nursery and putting everything together. Me being the impatient person that I am, couldn't wait to start on Gabriella's room. We're just hoping that the 4D ultrasound was correct and we are actually having a girl, otherwise a lot of pink stuff is going to have to be replaced with blue. We will find out for sure though on Thursday at my next ultrasound appointment. Oh and the diabetes test that I had done came back fine, thankfully. So no gestational diabetes here. I'm 24 weeks and a few days and we're anxiously awaiting our little princesses arrival. Other than that, not much is new here in Japan. Hope everyone back home is doing well. Enjoy a few pictures and feel free to leave comments.
Love and miss everyone!!

Ken, Angela & Gabriella Freeman

Golden Week

Hello Everyone,

I know, I know. Your wondering why am I ( Ken ) posting another blog so soon. Well in May there is something called Golden Week. It is holiday type stuff. Well I know in previous blogs Angela has mentioned that I was going to be on the Army Dragon Boat race team. I didn't get as much practice time as some people did since we arrived at the beginning of April. But it was easy to pick up. On Tuesday was race day for the team. They had a festival type thing set up and there was food stands, shows for kids and various little play areas for kids. There were many race teams there so we thought we weren't gonna do good compared to the ones that train all year in preparation. But once it was our turn and we started racing, well we got pumped up and smoked the two teams that we raced. The way it works though is the top 3 teams that have the fastest times will compete at the end for the prize. So even though we beat the two teams we raced against we still would have to be fast. We were close. We placed 5th overall in the competition. We found out that the 1st place team was only 20 seconds faster than us. So that made us feel good. Overall it was a great day and myself and Angela had a great time while we were there. Thought I would share that with everyone.

Ken

This video is of the Army's women race team starting their race

It's already been a month!

mina-san konnichiwa! (Hello everyone)

Angela's turn to post! Figured I would take this time to give an update of the week while Ken plays XBox. : )
Not a lot really to update about. This week I've gotten out a little bit with some ladies that I have met here. Tuesday a girl I've met named April took me to Araha beach, one of the many beaches here. It is maybe 10 minutes from where we are living and pretty nice. We also went to a store called ETWS News Market. It is a three level store that has a little bit of everything from gag gifts to dishes, to scrapbooking supplies. The third level is like a Japanese version of a Disney store. I took Ken back there on Saturday and he found all kinds of Donald Duck stuff he wants to buy. haha.



Ken and I went back to the beach on Saturday as well and walked around a bit and took some pictures. We had lunch at this tiny little Mexican restaurant called Mike's Tex/Mex that was on the way to the beach. It was pretty good. Not as greasy as some Mexican food in the states, but we enjoyed it. The salsa was homemade and fresh. Mexican food is one of the things that I have craved since I've been pregnant, so I was relieved that we found a decent mexican place to eat. We've only tried eating off base twice, the mexican resteraunt on Saturday and our first week here our sponsor who was helping us get settled took us out to dinner to an Indian resteraunt. Not my favorite but was okay. We have yet to try any authentic Japanese food yet. The closest we've come is probably the sushi from the commissary. Ken got to where he tried a different kind every week. Last week it was eel. Can we all say...eewwww!!!! Even if I could eat sushi right now I wouldn't have tried that. But he said it was good.


Thursday I met another girl named Crystal and we went to get pedicures. SO relaxing!! She is pregnant as well so we both deserved some pampering..haha. They do some awesome pedicures here and there are several places to chose from. One of the popular places to go is called Cocok's but they're kind of expensive so we went to a little salon here on base and I think it was just as good. $50 for an hour of foot pamperin'. My feet are happy! They have tons of options to chose from as far as what you get painted on your toes. You can even get Stewie from Family Guy painted on your toes if you want to! "Oh no ya'll!" haha. (that was for Lee)



Baby girl Freeman is kicking up a storm these days! Recently I've been able to actually see her moving around in there and it is the most amazing thing! Ken finally felt her kick the other day but there for a little while, every time she would start kicking and I would say "Ken come look" she would stop. He would walk away and she would start again. Sneaky little thing. But these days I love to sit and watch her move around. Would ask for a quick prayer request. My OB called the other day and said that my sugar level is high in my urine, second time in a row so she wanted me to take the glucose tolerance test early just to check. So Friday I went in and drank that orange sugar stuff so they could test me for gestational diabetes. We're praying that everything is fine, and hopefully we will hear the results back early in the week. Normally they don't test for that until 28 weeks and I'm only 22 so I will probably have to test for it again later on. Oh, and in case ya'll are wondering, I think we've settled on the name Gabriella and I want to call her Ella for short. We very well could change our minds again though before she's born.

We're hoping some time this week we get the rest of our belongings delivered to us. They said that it is here but still has to go through customs and it might be a few days. We're so anxious to get our furniture!! We did buy a recliner and had that delivered this week. Ken and I take turns sitting in it but I'm home more than he is so I get to enjoy it a little bit more.

Well, hope everyone back home is doing good. It's hard to believe we've already been here a month. We miss everyone! Hope everyone enjoys reading our blog. We will try to keep it interesting, but we're pretty laid back people. : ) Everyone take care and have a good week!!

Love,
Ken, Angela & Baby Girl Freeman