So I realize that it has been at least a few weeks since I last posted, but I've been very busy lately.  Despite Spring Break taking many people off-island for a week, in the last 4 weeks I've made about $1200 just babysitting and substituting (that includes the 3 days I subbed in 2nd grade this last week, which I won't actually get paid for until 2 weeks from now, but I digress....)! Which means I've finally paid my friend back what I owe her with spending money left over!! I'm so excited.  All that, plus the sale of our car in the states meant that we could finally get a 2nd car here (with the payment less than half what we are paying on our current one here or the one we sold in the states) and I could get an updated laptop.  Don't get me wrong, I loved my little netbook--it was lightweight and small so I could drop in just about any purse I own, but the hinge was broken and the processor had slowed down.  I managed to get the hinge fixed for $60, at an independent shop here at our BX, which was WAY less than the $300+ that Best Buy quoted me when it happened about a year or so ago (I've had the netbook about 3 years now)--telling me that it would be better just to get a new one.  It still turned on, and if the internet connection wasn't too bad it worked fine, so why get another one?  Well, after I had picked it up from the shop and paid my service fee, we were at the PX at a nearby base looking for something else when they announced a 15-min sale on a specific laptop exclusive to their store.  They knocked $200 off a 17.3 inch laptop.  We scooped it up (talk about right place at the right time), and I walked away with a laptop that functions basically as a desktop replacement for $400!  I've got the full keyboard, including the number pad, but all the portability of a laptop!  We had been talking about replacing the netbook with something else (JJ wanted a desktop, but I can't really carry that around with me, can I?) anyway, so this was great!  We had been looking at tablets, and despite my slight desire for something from the PC world, JJ was pretty sure I would be getting an iPad.  I was not willing to spend over $400 on whatever it was, so this sale was right up my alley! Of course, with the added protection plan it was about $480, but it was still within the budget that I had.  Now we both have laptops and I can do things online while he's at work.

JJ has been taking his laptop to work a lot lately in preparation for taking his WAPS/promotion test.  He finally got a date to take it:  May 31st.  Because his group tests in May/June, they all should have started being notified of their test dates at the end of March (90 days out), but apparently there were so many people taking the promotion tests this year that there was a backlog of scheduling, so the best they could do was about 6 weeks out, half the standard time.  Good thing he has been studying since December when the study materials were put online!  He is confident that he will make it this year, along with finishing his CCAF (basically getting an Associate's Degree in his job field).  We have even discussed possibly cross-training into something else, but that can't be applied for until we have only one year left on our tour here in Okinawa, so that has to wait another year.  Otherwise, we are doing great, and having fun here.

My schedule is booked out for at least another 2 whole weeks and then a fairly empty spot for a week and a half before it fills back up again.  Staying so busy makes it a little harder to go out and explore Okinawa, but we do the best we can.  There are things I really want to do, but they are dependent on the weather, and it has been cloudy/rainy/stormy almost non-stop in the last 2 months.  The "rainy season" will be over by the end of next month, though as we welcome in "typhoon season" again, but typhoons tend to be a bit easier to plan around than hit-and-miss rain showers!

All in all, we are having a blast, wish you could join us!!!