February is Here

Wow! Just finished watching the awesome SuperBowl! Go Giants!

Whew, lots of changes for my family since Christmas. I have changed jobs and Michael started a new one. I am sad to leave my Kirkland's Family and happy to have a new one at Beach Treat.

We have received our first round of passports, the regular travel ones. We went to the post office to get them and had them back in TWO weeks. We were very surprised. It was $64.00 for the pictures for our passports from Walgreen's. The passport cost was $376.15 for the four of us. The adults were $98.05 and Bryan (12) was $82.00. Wow! Be prepared for the costs associated with overseas moves!! We have been warned that once we get to Japan, it could be close to $10,000.00 to move into a Japanese rental home. Yikes!

Michael and I have finished the required physicals prior to overseas screening. Bryan goes on Friday for his appt. Michael had to get a Meningitis shot and a shot for Tetanus.

On Tuesday, we all have our dental screening and hopefully our paperwork from the first passports will be back so that we can apply for our no fee passports. We have heard that the lady at Dam Neck is very mean, we will see.... I think if she is nasty, I'll let her know about her reputation.... maybe that will help someone else that has to go see her?

I have also purchased two more books about Japan. One is the "DK Eyewitness" book on Japan. It is like a lonely planet guide to Japan. It has maps and a whole bunch of info about culture, food, happenings. It breaks Japan down into sections and talks about hotels, restaraunts and entertainment venues. The second book is "The original point and speak phrasebook" by Toshiya Enomoto. It is a really cool book for people traveling/living in Japan that need HELP! with translating all kinds of stuff! It has pics with translations that are phonetic as well as written. You can go to a train station and say "excuse me" and point to the phrase in the book that asks where the bathroom is..... I really like it. It is very funny and functional. I ordered it from Japan Center in the UK. It cost $43.00 to have it airmailed here and took two weeks to receive.

DH and I did attend the Fleet and Family Service Centers, Overseas Relocation class and Boy, was it worth it! We found out all kinds of info, from money we didn't know we would get to the fact that they have changed how much weight you are allowed for your express/unaccompanied shipment. It used to be 1000 lb's for everyone, now it is by rank and we only get 400 lbs. Very sad about this!! If you are going to be going overseas, you definitly should take this class it was very informative and allowed me to confirm what I knew and to learn things I didn't know.

Dolly and Mr. Jenks went back to the Vet at Fort Story for their 2nd round of rabies shots and have an appt soon for their FAVN blood test to make sure their rabies antibodies are up! I do have to correct the fact that the vet only gave me one copy of my original rabies certificate. The second time around they gave me the correct 3 copies.

Well, that catches us up for now, except I am more anxious lately about going then I was last month. I don't think the nervous, am I going to be okay feeling will wear off for quite some time. But the more I learn about Japan, the Japanese, and the other military families there, I know I'll be just fine.