Life with the Lokeys

Happy New Year from Okinawa!


Happy New Year! I can’t believe 2017 has already come and gone.  I hope each of you had a great year full of love, health, and happiness, and I hope that 2018 is your best year yet!

The new year is also special for me because I started Life with the Lokeys exactly one year ago!  To be honest, when I sat down to write my first blog post, I really had no idea where to start.  I just knew it was something I have always wanted to do but never went for it.  It took a few of my sweet and dear friends to nudge me a little to take the leap and start writing!  There are so many people I would like to thank for reading along and sharing this journey with me.  


I took another leap of faith this year with my new children’s book, Patsy Bea!  I will tell you that I was so nervous about the release of my book.  All the scary questions go through your head when you put something out there that you created.  It took me several days to actually have the courage to publish the blog post I had written about my new book.  I have realized that sometimes you just have to do things afraid.  If I had not done it afraid, I realize now how much I would have missed out on!  I am so thankful for all the support, sweet messages, and amazing opportunities I have had with Pasty Bea!  I have some more exciting news for Patsy Bea that I will share as the year goes on! 


To celebrate and reflect on my first year of blogging, I want to share a few things that I have learned this last year…

1. If you have a dream and passion that you think about daily, pursue it!  No matter how scary it might seem!  Go for it!

2. Trust God that when he closes one door a much better door is waiting for you!

3. Say “Yes” to things that scare you.  Take the leap of faith because it might just be the best decision you ever made!

4. Always be kind to others!  You never know how your words can change a person for good!

5. Invest in others!  Support their dreams!  Be there for your family and friends and encourage the things they are passionate about!

Finally, I want to leave you with one more thing for the new year!  On the way home from our trip to mainland Japan (I will be sharing more about that in the next few posts), I watched one of my favorite movies…Hope Floats!  One of my favorite quotes is from this movie..”Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most…try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up…and it will.”

So as we welcome 2018..make the middle count!!  I love ya’ll and I am so thankful for you! XOXO

The Year Without a Santa Claus

After hearing the sad news that our Santa had passed away it reminded me of the title of a movie..The Year Without a Santa Claus.  Like so many we had been going to see “The Big Guy” as he was called since my 14 year old son was only 3 months old.  Everyone near our hometown goes to see this Santa year after year!  And this year some were able to have one last Christmas with him but others are going to have a year without him.  We were not able to visit him last year because we were overseas and not able to make it home.  But every other Christmas we were there waiting in line to see “The Big Guy”!

One Christmas Brandon was deployed to Afghanistan and it was the first Christmas he was going to have to miss with the boys.  We were all sad that he wasn’t going to be home.  We went to visit our Santa like we always did and a few days later I got a call that I had won a raffle and that Santa was going to come to my house to visit my boys.  I didn’t even know I had been entered into a raffle so I was kind of confused.  It turns out that everyone that visited Santa that year was entered into a drawing. I was so excited once I finally figured out what I had won.  I explained to them that we would have to do it at my mother in law’s house and that this was perfect because my husband was deployed and it might cheer my boys up!  We got all the cousins together and Santa came to visit just a few days before Christmas!  It was so amazing and magical.  He was so kind and talked to all the kids, ate cookies with them, and read The Night Before Christmas to them.  I was just so thankful for everything he did for my boys and family.  We got to know him that night and I explained that Brandon was gone to Afghanistan, and he explained that he was a veteran too! Everyone had an amazing evening and it’s something my boys will never forget.

 

 

 

 

The next Christmas we went to see Santa again and this time we were able to introduce Brandon to him. Every Christmas we went to see him he remembered my boys and family and he would spend lots of time talking to the boys and seeing how they were doing!  We are going to truly miss our Santa!!

Please excuse the boys without their shirts on…they had been playing before Santa arrived and had gotten hot..lol! Thank you to my sister in law, Cindi, for all these beautiful pictures!  I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas filled with lots of joy and happiness!! 

World’s Largest Tug of War in Okinawa!


Several weeks ago we had the amazing opportunity to attend the world’s largest tug of war in downtown Naha in Okinawa!  The Naha Tug of War is an annual event held in Okinawa that can be traced back to the 1600s.  It is held on Route 58 and is a battle between the east and west side of the island.  The competition began between the two rulers in the Naha area in the old days.  

 

 

 


In 1997 this event was first put in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest tug of war in the world.  The rope used in the tug of war is the biggest rope made from natural materials in the world. The rope is 186 meters long and weighs about 40 tons.  It is carried in on a large truck and lifted off by these large trucks with cranes!

 

 

The tug of war was so exciting and the east side won this year!  We were happy because we live on the east side of the Island!! After the tug of war is over, they cut pieces of the rope off for you to take home as a souvenir!

 

 

 

 

 


We had the best time at the tug of war!  If you are ever in Okinawa during this time of the year, you should definitely take your family to this event!  It’s something my boys will remember forever!!

 

Happy Thanksgiving from Okinawa!

Last year for Thanksgiving we flew up to mainland Japan!  The fall colors in Kyoto are so beautiful this time of year!  Kyoto is a beautiful historic city that was once the capital of Japan.  There is so much to do here and so much history, but we only had time to visit the Bamboo Forest and the Monkey park.  We hope to go back and see more of Kyoto!  This was one of our favorite family vacations!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We also had the chance to visit Osaka.  Universal Studios Japan is located there and my boys were so excited to go and experience Harry Potter World.  When Brandon was deployed to Afghanistan, I started reading Harry Potter to my oldest son.  It was a way to spend a little time with him while the other boys were asleep.  He fell in love with it as did all my boys.  They have always wanted to go to Harry Potter World ever since it opened in Florida.  I never imagined their first trip there would be in Japan.  It was one of the best days ever and my boys LOVED it…even though Harry spoke Japanese!

 

 

 



 

 
Chocolate Frogs at Honeydukes!!

 

 

Thanksgiving dinner at the Three Broomsticks!!
 

 

 

 

 

Hogwart’s Express!!
 
 
 
 
 

Park Front Hotel Universal Studios Japan

 

 

 

 

 



This year we are having a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends!  We miss our family and friends back home and hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today I woke up with a grateful heart!

This is not the post I thought I would be writing this week!  Last week we had plans to take a family vacation to Zamami Island.  We were going to take the ferry over to Zamami and just relax on the beach, scuba dive, and snorkel for several days!  I had been looking forward to this trip for so long.  Well as it turned out God had other plans.  I had not been feeling well for awhile but it got so bad I ended up in the emergency room and had to have emergency surgery on the same area that I have had two previous surgeries.  I ended up getting really sick after the surgery and had to stay in the hospital a little longer. We are praying that the third time is the charm and this surgery fixes me for good! Now that the storm has passed, I woke up this morning with such a grateful and thankful heart!


I am thankful for Brandon!  I honestly don’t know what I would do without him in my life!  He loves me like no other, he takes care of me, protects me, supports me, encourages me, and can always make me laugh!  He always tells me how beautiful I am whether I’m in a beautiful ball gown or I’m in a hospital bed with tubes everywhere and I haven’t showered in a few days!  I pray that everyone that reads this finds a love like that and loves like that in return!  


I am thankful for my boys!  My boys love their momma!  They were so worried about me.  I hated them to see me so sick.  They talked with me, and sat with me, and gave me sweet hugs which is exactly what I needed to get better! They took care of all the chores at home for me and made sure the house was beautiful when I came home!  They made beautiful welcome home signs and cookies for me!  That’s the thing about having all boys…they always take care of momma!


I am thankful for all of my family and friends!  I was just amazed and blown away by the love we were shown while I was in the hospital!  All of the calls, messages, texts, flowers delivered, magazines, and visits to check on me made my heart so full.  Every time a nurse or doctor would enter my room they would say how amazing it smelled with all the beautiful flowers!  You took care of my boys bringing delicious homemade meals to them every night!  You let Brandon know that you would help in any way you could.  There is something special about military families.  You become as close as real families especially when you are stationed on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere away from all your family and friends back home! 


I am thankful for the doctors and nurses at the Naval Hospital Okinawa!  As someone who has had 5 surgeries, 4 babies, and a lot of other visits to the hospital, the care I received at the Naval Hospital in Okinawa was above and beyond anything I have ever experienced.  My surgeon was absolutely amazing. She took care of me like no other doctor I have ever had!  The nurses at the hospital barely ever left my side.  I watched as they were constantly on their feet for 12 hours taking care of me!  They were there to make me feel better, get me anything I needed or sit with me when I felt like giving up.  I honestly don’t know how they do it and they always had a smile on their face!  

This is definitely not what I had planned to be doing for the last 2 weeks but through it all I was shown the absolute best in everyone and everything around me! I am thankful to have each and every one of you in my life! 

So today and everyday I am going to continue to start each day with a grateful heart!!