17th letter
Fri. 12/29/06
I guess it’s actually almost Saturday. I can’t sleep and so after lying in bed for an hour I was thinking I was wasting time! So I thought, of the list of things I need to do, this was something I could do in the middle of the night.
Really, I sure haven’t done much through these holidays. It’s been SO awesome to have Bryan home so much (as if he’s not home a lot already). He helps with Brock so much that I start feeling guilty that I’m not doing enough. He’s so great, I just couldn’t ask for more! (Or much more anyway… haha just kidding).
So after getting a few congratulations for finishing my Bachelor’s degree, I realized what I made it sound like in my last letter. No I am not done with my degree; I still have 25 credits left. I was just celebrating that the semester was over and that I was done with that certain class. Sorry about the confusion. It’s only Bryan that’s done. Wish I was too. I’m taking 2 classes this next semester but after that there are no more online classes that I can take with UVSC to finish my Accounting degree. So it might have to wait a bit.
Bryan met with the board to compete for the Squadron-level Airman of the Quarter on Thursday. He thinks that it went well and had his uniform and appearance right in check. Although of the 4 questions he was asked, he got 1 right, answered 1 wrong, and just told them he didn’t know the other 2. Sheesh eh? But he feels that he was straightforward – they say even if you give the wrong answer if you are confident it’s not that bad. And that if you don’t know the answer to just say you don’t instead of trying to stumble through something you make up. Later on Bryan’s supervisor was talking to one of the people on the board and she told him that Bryan had exceptional speaking skills, so that’s a nice compliment. I’m not sure when we find out who was selected.
We went to his squadron Christmas party and I suppose it was okay, but too long. They gave a raffle ticket to each person at the door, and we were so excited when they called one of our numbers to draw a number for one of the gifts or money tree. What a bummer when Bryan came back with an envelope containing only a dollar!!! Sheesh. But half the time they were trying to get us to drink – so that part wasn’t all too great.
For Enrichment we went caroling and delivered cookies to Japanese church members. But of the 4 families we had selected only one was home, so we ended up doing it to just some random Japanese homes. It was hilarious! You should have seen some of the looks on their faces. 2 of the men looked downright scared! One lady looked really grateful but was trying to ask us something about the cookies, but of course we couldn’t understand. They understand “Merry Christmas” so we sang ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” I’m not sure they knew what to do with this plate of cookies that some foreign strangers gave them.
So Christmas Eve we got together with a group of friends and had a nice dinner –it was fun! We attempted to cook turkey for the first time (yeah yeah you can make fun all you want). Um….I think we know what to do better next time. And they were only turkey loaves. This was our first Christmas away from at least some sort of family. Kind of sad, but what can you do. Jobs just take family in different directions I guess. My parents just moved into their new house a week before Christmas – I want to see it so bad! My whole family is in Texas except for us and my sister on a mission. I don’t think I’ll ever think plane tickets are expensive again once we’re back in the U.S. Quite a new perspective here.
So one of the reasons I was so excited for Christmas was because I got a new snowboard for Bryan and I was dying to give it to him. He’s been riding a board that I bought off someone for myself, back in high school. And I gave him a snowboard backpack. He gave me a Nintendo GameCube that he bought off a guy from work (cuz I love Nintendo) – ‘course that was before we knew what John and Naomi were giving us! And he gave me snowboard goggles that let in 80% of the light ‘cuz I can’t stand those amber lenses!! (And of course I got that expensive hair job earlier). We got great gifts from family – VERY much appreciated. We had a good Christmas – we stayed in the whole day and played MarioKart DoubleDash and had a nice ham, potato, and corn dinner - - complete with a shrimp cocktail appetizer (had to at least incorporate some of the 7-course traditional Bergquist Christmas Eve dinner!). Bryan makes excellent mashed potatoes. When I asked him how he knew how to make them he said he saw it on the O.C.!! (A television show). So funny. The shrimp wasn’t so great…we bought it at a Japanese grocery store…it was really fishy.
And then the next day I turned 25! I’m so old now! HA- My dad just turned 53 today! Now that’s old. Bryan gave me the Zelda collection set (my favorite game), and we got an awesome deal on black K2 snowboard boots and bindings from a Japanese sports store. I am SO excited about that. I’ve been riding with boots too big ever since I started this sport. Hopefully we can try out all our new stuff next Saturday. Can’t just pick up and go when you’ve got a kid!! Bryan cooked me an excellent breakfast of puff-oven pancakes and that night we went to Angelo’s – the Japanese’s best effort at Italian food. It was good…definitely not the American way that’s for sure…but we won’t be ordering cheesecake there again.
I’ve discovered that Japanese diapers are awesome. They work so much better for Brock (meaning less clothes cleaning for me!) than anything I’ve had a chance to try on base. They have these little lines down the front so you can see if he peed and how much! It’s cool! I’m hooked…so I don’t know what I’m going to do when we leave here!
Brock is such a great kid. He’s officially 3 months old as of Wednesday. It’s so fun being a mom- I think I can do this another 5 times! But yeah…he continues to grow…
So – the pictures I’m attaching - - Brock sits on Bryan’s lap while he plays (pic from 2 wks ago) – Brock’s jeans are a little tight…I had to unbutton the top button – me eating a little Christmas breakfast – Brock sleeps while we open presents – a few other Christmas pictures – and a couple that Bryan took of Brock today. He’s our favorite kid!
Well I suppose this letter’s boring enough so it can end. I think our upstairs neighbors must have gotten a nice stereo or something because I can hear their bumpin’ music and it’s 1am.
We miss everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas!!
Love,
Julie – Bryan – Brock
Here is the slideshow link for the pics:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.23nk1pg8&x=0&y=-i5u3bm&localeid=en_US
Friday, December 29, 2006
Christmas Day!
2 days away from being 3 months old! - Wow!You can see all the hair loss!
Our little tree!
A very weird face Bryan's pulling there...
Thursday, December 14, 2006
12/14/06 - 16th Letter
16th letter
Thurs. 12/14/06
So we found out Bryan’s AFOQT scores the day after I wrote the last letter to everyone. They are good scores…but…not as good as we had hoped they would be I guess. There is not an overall score, it’s divided up into 5 scores and they were 96/88/95/91/76. Yeah, that last one was for “Quantitative” and surprisingly low! Bryan was hoping his absolute lowest score would not be below the 80’s, but was really hoping that they would all be in the 90’s. The first score is for “Pilot,” so that’s good that that’s his highest one. The second one is for “Navigator,” and he was hoping that that one at least, would also be in the 90’s. Those are the 2 he was worried most about, I guess you could say. But he has joined this online officer forum and sees other candidates and other selects (people who have been chosen by the board) and he thinks his scores put him roughly in the top 10% of everyone, from what he’s seen (everyone posts their scores and stats and all that). So they are pretty good compared to a lot of other people. I guess I should tell you that the scores aren’t straight percentages out of a 100. They are scores based upon everyone else who takes the test – for example, he did better than 96% of the people on the “Pilot” portions of the test. So that’s how it works.
He also is being nominated for Airman of the Quarter. Meaning, out of his flight (over 50 guys), he is having a package (all that he’s accomplished this last quarter) put forward to have him considered against everyone in his squadron. Hopefully he gets it! That would be such an awesome thing to be able to put in his Officer packet.
And he is officially done with the semester…meaning done with all his requirements for a Bachelor’s degree!! It’s so exciting! I think it will be more official once we actually get the certificate in the mail in about 8 weeks. He was laughing at me because he was done and I still had tons of homework, saying that he wasn’t going to have to say that for a long time! (He will most likely get his Master’s Degree down the road). Yesterday I took my Final and so I am done too – HALLELUJAH!!! His job is awesome. They let him take a much extended lunch so that he could come home and watch Brock while I drove down to main base to take this test. It’s so awesome that we can do that, unless he’s extremely busy. But anyways, we TOTALLY need to have a huge celebration for him! It’s such an accomplishment! Oh yes, and he ended his degree well – he got a 4.0 this semester. His ending GPA will be a 3.8 I think. Awesome, eh? He is the first in his family, and my family, to get a baccalaureates degree. My husband’s awesome.
He went snowboarding last Saturday with 2 guys from work (his supervisor/trainer and his Supervisor - ? -), and had fun. He tried to convince me to go…but sheesh I’m not anywhere near in shape and I was afraid I’d get tired too fast to keep up with them. Besides, leaving such a little babes all day with someone….? We’ll actually probably go the week after Christmas. He went to a kind of “back woods” ‘resort.’ So this next time we’ll go to a different one because I’m not really up to that. They’re not exactly like American ski resorts here…good ‘ol Brighton…we miss America! But it’s kind of cool – you pay 4900 Yen (about $45) for 5 runs (these are long runs – they snowboarded for 5 hours and he only used 4 runs) – and they take you up in a gondola like at Snowbird…ALL the way up a big mountain – and they punch your card each run. If you don’t use all of them, you can use them the next time you come. That’s nice because in the states sometimes you pay for an all day pass but get tired before the day’s through and feel like you wasted a little money. -But it was 2-hr drive for them to get there – so they’re not exactly real close. We’ve gotten a little snow on the ground here – just enough for Bryan to shovel a little bit. But we’ve got MUCH more to come!
Update on Brock. He turned 11-weeks old yesterday. Just over 2 weeks ago, on December 5th, he had his 2-month appointment (he was more like 2 mos. 1 wk). And…guess how much he weighed. My little chunk was 15 pounds 1 ounce - ! And 24 ½ inches long. Let me remind you that when he was born he was 7 pounds 14 ounces, and 19 ½ inches long. Yes. He is in the 95th percentile for height and weight. He is in the 75th percentile for his head size. He is a heavy dude. I am glad that he’s growing his hair back. It grows kind of fast – but it’s thin – so unless you’re close I guess he still looks kind of bald. Sunday night, the 10th, I think I can officially say that he slept through the night! He was asleep in his room at 11pm, and woke up at 7:45am. …pretty sure that’s what it was anyway… I think it had been about 10 hours since he had last eaten!! He did another 7-8 hour chunk of time the next night. Yet I couldn’t fully enjoy it because I was doing homework. I was up ‘til 6am one of those mornings. Man I’m glad the semester’s over! My house was a mess until that test was done. So we’ll see how consistent Brock will be with his nights. Man I LOVE that kid to death!!! – He’s so great!
I can’t believe Christmas is so close! I can’t believe I’ll be 25! We finally were able to pick up a Christmas tree on Monday. A little one for $25. So now it finally feels like Christmas in our house. It’s so nice! I’m so excited! Our first Christmas with a family of 3! Last year Bryan was in Basic Training, so it was just me, his mom, and his dad last year!
I am sick again. Sucks.
Bryan gets a week off for Christmas! These are days that don’t count against his regular leave – it’s awesome! He gets next Thursday and Friday off, then Monday (Christmas), Tues., Wed.; goes to work Thurs. the 28th, then has Friday off in conjunction with the New Year’s holiday the following Monday. We are enjoying being in the Air Force…! The 28th he has to go before a board for this Airman of the Quarter nomination, so it works out well that he has to go to work that day anyway.
We just found out that they are moving him from being a Sunday school teacher to working with the Boy Scouts – Webelos. So that’s cool.
With the pictures I attached – you’ll see Brock’s ‘cool’ overalls, him watching Bryan play Playstation, his little hand poking out of his Swaddler (what we put him in for his long sleeping times – not during the day), and amongst other things, the socks I put on his hands to keep them warm (Bryan thinks it’s unnecessary but his hands get cold!).
Um, well, I think that’s it for this time. We love you guys!
Merry Christmas!
Love,
Julie, Bryan, and Brock
Here are the pictures I was talking about, in slideshow, though most of them are posted below, anyway. (Click on the link, then the picture, and the slideshow starts - you don't need to sign in or anything).
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.bs1rx2jc&x=0&y=-o61bbq&localeid=en_US
Thurs. 12/14/06
So we found out Bryan’s AFOQT scores the day after I wrote the last letter to everyone. They are good scores…but…not as good as we had hoped they would be I guess. There is not an overall score, it’s divided up into 5 scores and they were 96/88/95/91/76. Yeah, that last one was for “Quantitative” and surprisingly low! Bryan was hoping his absolute lowest score would not be below the 80’s, but was really hoping that they would all be in the 90’s. The first score is for “Pilot,” so that’s good that that’s his highest one. The second one is for “Navigator,” and he was hoping that that one at least, would also be in the 90’s. Those are the 2 he was worried most about, I guess you could say. But he has joined this online officer forum and sees other candidates and other selects (people who have been chosen by the board) and he thinks his scores put him roughly in the top 10% of everyone, from what he’s seen (everyone posts their scores and stats and all that). So they are pretty good compared to a lot of other people. I guess I should tell you that the scores aren’t straight percentages out of a 100. They are scores based upon everyone else who takes the test – for example, he did better than 96% of the people on the “Pilot” portions of the test. So that’s how it works.
He also is being nominated for Airman of the Quarter. Meaning, out of his flight (over 50 guys), he is having a package (all that he’s accomplished this last quarter) put forward to have him considered against everyone in his squadron. Hopefully he gets it! That would be such an awesome thing to be able to put in his Officer packet.
And he is officially done with the semester…meaning done with all his requirements for a Bachelor’s degree!! It’s so exciting! I think it will be more official once we actually get the certificate in the mail in about 8 weeks. He was laughing at me because he was done and I still had tons of homework, saying that he wasn’t going to have to say that for a long time! (He will most likely get his Master’s Degree down the road). Yesterday I took my Final and so I am done too – HALLELUJAH!!! His job is awesome. They let him take a much extended lunch so that he could come home and watch Brock while I drove down to main base to take this test. It’s so awesome that we can do that, unless he’s extremely busy. But anyways, we TOTALLY need to have a huge celebration for him! It’s such an accomplishment! Oh yes, and he ended his degree well – he got a 4.0 this semester. His ending GPA will be a 3.8 I think. Awesome, eh? He is the first in his family, and my family, to get a baccalaureates degree. My husband’s awesome.
He went snowboarding last Saturday with 2 guys from work (his supervisor/trainer and his Supervisor - ? -), and had fun. He tried to convince me to go…but sheesh I’m not anywhere near in shape and I was afraid I’d get tired too fast to keep up with them. Besides, leaving such a little babes all day with someone….? We’ll actually probably go the week after Christmas. He went to a kind of “back woods” ‘resort.’ So this next time we’ll go to a different one because I’m not really up to that. They’re not exactly like American ski resorts here…good ‘ol Brighton…we miss America! But it’s kind of cool – you pay 4900 Yen (about $45) for 5 runs (these are long runs – they snowboarded for 5 hours and he only used 4 runs) – and they take you up in a gondola like at Snowbird…ALL the way up a big mountain – and they punch your card each run. If you don’t use all of them, you can use them the next time you come. That’s nice because in the states sometimes you pay for an all day pass but get tired before the day’s through and feel like you wasted a little money. -But it was 2-hr drive for them to get there – so they’re not exactly real close. We’ve gotten a little snow on the ground here – just enough for Bryan to shovel a little bit. But we’ve got MUCH more to come!
Update on Brock. He turned 11-weeks old yesterday. Just over 2 weeks ago, on December 5th, he had his 2-month appointment (he was more like 2 mos. 1 wk). And…guess how much he weighed. My little chunk was 15 pounds 1 ounce - ! And 24 ½ inches long. Let me remind you that when he was born he was 7 pounds 14 ounces, and 19 ½ inches long. Yes. He is in the 95th percentile for height and weight. He is in the 75th percentile for his head size. He is a heavy dude. I am glad that he’s growing his hair back. It grows kind of fast – but it’s thin – so unless you’re close I guess he still looks kind of bald. Sunday night, the 10th, I think I can officially say that he slept through the night! He was asleep in his room at 11pm, and woke up at 7:45am. …pretty sure that’s what it was anyway… I think it had been about 10 hours since he had last eaten!! He did another 7-8 hour chunk of time the next night. Yet I couldn’t fully enjoy it because I was doing homework. I was up ‘til 6am one of those mornings. Man I’m glad the semester’s over! My house was a mess until that test was done. So we’ll see how consistent Brock will be with his nights. Man I LOVE that kid to death!!! – He’s so great!
I can’t believe Christmas is so close! I can’t believe I’ll be 25! We finally were able to pick up a Christmas tree on Monday. A little one for $25. So now it finally feels like Christmas in our house. It’s so nice! I’m so excited! Our first Christmas with a family of 3! Last year Bryan was in Basic Training, so it was just me, his mom, and his dad last year!
I am sick again. Sucks.
Bryan gets a week off for Christmas! These are days that don’t count against his regular leave – it’s awesome! He gets next Thursday and Friday off, then Monday (Christmas), Tues., Wed.; goes to work Thurs. the 28th, then has Friday off in conjunction with the New Year’s holiday the following Monday. We are enjoying being in the Air Force…! The 28th he has to go before a board for this Airman of the Quarter nomination, so it works out well that he has to go to work that day anyway.
We just found out that they are moving him from being a Sunday school teacher to working with the Boy Scouts – Webelos. So that’s cool.
With the pictures I attached – you’ll see Brock’s ‘cool’ overalls, him watching Bryan play Playstation, his little hand poking out of his Swaddler (what we put him in for his long sleeping times – not during the day), and amongst other things, the socks I put on his hands to keep them warm (Bryan thinks it’s unnecessary but his hands get cold!).
Um, well, I think that’s it for this time. We love you guys!
Merry Christmas!
Love,
Julie, Bryan, and Brock
Here are the pictures I was talking about, in slideshow, though most of them are posted below, anyway. (Click on the link, then the picture, and the slideshow starts - you don't need to sign in or anything).
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.bs1rx2jc&x=0&y=-o61bbq&localeid=en_US
2 - 2.5 Months Old
At his 2-month appt Brock was 15 lbs 1 oz!!! - That's the 95th percentile.He was 24 1/2 inches long, which is also the 95th percentile. His head size is in the 75th percentile. (Reminder - he was 7 lbs 14 oz and 19 1/2 inches at birth - so he has really put the weight on!!!)!
Watching his Dad play PlayStation! Such a bonding experience...
The Swaddler is AWESOME! Recommended for all! Sleeps so well in this and then you don't have to keep wrapping them up when the blanket (the alternative) gets loose!
Bryan hated when I put socks on his hands...but they were cold!
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