12/29/06 - 17th Letter

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