Back In The States

In the end of July, we left our beloved tropical island Okinawa and let the paradise to move to our new duty station- Twentynine Palms in the Mojave Desert in California. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Aside from the base, there is next to nothing around here. Not much going on in town, it's very much run down and a very poor community. There is one grocery store "Stater Brother's" but there is no Walmart or Target around. The closest Walmart is in Yucca Valley, which is two towns over around 25 miles drive away. Next to that, there is nothing around. You have to drive "down the hill" which is locally known as drive over the mountains to get to Palms Springs.

When we drove here, we also took a detour and the roads we drove to get here were out in the desert for sure. Sand covered, some not even paved we really looked at eachother with the look of "Help!"

It sure is a change and it has not been easy for us with this transition. The housing situation was really bad. We didn't get a house on base which was so unexpected. We were told that we were on a waiting list for 3-6 months so we were expected to get a house pretty much right away as we had been on the list since March 2018. So come September, we were hoping to get one. Instead, we didn't get a house at all, but were not expected to get a  house until another 4-6 months again..

To not make this too long, I'll write about our first time here in the fall in another post.

These pictures I wanted to take right away when we drove in to town, but as we came in on a backroad, we missed the sign then, and had to go back a week after to find it. The pictures came out pretty nice and a good sign for our new adventure!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Hoping that 2019 will be an easier year and bring less stress than 2018. I will need less stress before the next stressful year of 2020 comes around. But more about all that in the next post. 

Here, I would like to start the year and this new Blog with pictures from our New Years Eve here at home. We had planned a 6 course menu with different wines and had invited our new neighbors and new friends over. Unfortunately, they got sick after Christmas and couldn't make it. When we finally got the word from them, it was already Saturday, and even if we tried to invite another family for our feast, it was too short notice. A bit of a shame, as Chris had wanted to have more people enjoying his food. 

Friday before New Year, we had taken the over 1 hour drive to Palm Springs to get to the nearest Costco for some shopping. Over the weekend, Cassandra helped daddy with preparing the menu and to make the lobster and crab ravioli from scratch. I instead, took care of the house, cleaned away Christmas and took out the tree, cleaned the whole house to get ready for our dinner party. 

As it turned out to be just us, we still didn't want to change anything, so we enjoyed a very nice dinner menu and had a nice evening here at home waiting for the countdown at midnight. 

 

 New Year's Eve - let it sparkle and shine!

 Menu course #1: 

Shrimp cocktail 
on a toast and salad bed

 

 

 Cheers - with sparkling cider..

 

Menu course #2: 

Home made Oxtail soup

Menu course #3: 

Lobster- and Crab ravioli 
served on a mirror of lobster sauce

Menu Course #4: 

Grilled Duck breast 
served with rice pilaf 
topped with 
an orange/cranberry sauce

Menu Course #5:

Grilled Bacon wrapped Prime Rib Filet Mignon 
served with 
Lemon and Rosemary Potatoes and

Beans, Honey glazed Carrots and Squash 
with a side of 
homemade Bearnaise sauce

Menu Course #5:

Home made Cheese Cake 
with a mirror of Berry Glaze 

topped with 
Frozen Chocolate covered whole Raspberries
 served with Sparkling Wine
 just before midnight by the TV to watch celebrations and fireworks around the world.

New Year's Beauty number one!

My little handsome New Year's dude!!

New Year's beauty number two!

Anything can be used to play unicorn!

In between the courses of the menu, we played music, took lots of pictures and had lots of fun with the kids. We didn't get to the main course until around 10pm, but it was worth it, it was all so good and my private chef outdid himself - again!

Handsome New Year's husband - master chef of the night!

We "might" have cheated on the time and pushed the time forward a few hours for the pictures...

Puss Alskling!

Wishing us as a family a peaceful year with lots of new memories. That we will find peace with the situation we are in and where we are in life and that questions about the future will settle and that we can look forward to the future with excitement instead of stress.

We have tackled lots of up's and down's in the past, and even if a lot is unclear, I'm sure that we will conquer this year and the near future too. 

I also wish that we all will stay healthy and happy and hopefully will be able to add a new addition to this family this year!