In my last post about the beautiful Cosmo flowers that grow here in Okinawa, I mentioned the Indian Blankets that used to fill the fields of our Texas farm.  I looked forward to these blooming every year! There is a little more to the story about these flowers…I lost my grandmother 9 years ago this year to breast cancer.  She was everything to me and my best friend.  We would talk on the phone for hours..and she taught me what unconditional love really is.  When I was pregnant with my oldest son, I lived in Camp Lejeune, NC and I was really sick the whole nine months.  She called me EVERY day just to see how I was doing…that’s just who she was!  We moved into our Texas farmhouse the week she passed away…she never got to see it.  Her favorite flower was the Indian Blanket wildflowers that grow in Texas during the Spring.  I would always pick these flowers for her, and we would put them in a vase in her house.  She just loved these flowers so much.  The Spring after she passed away…I found that my entire pasture was filled with these Indian Blankets as far as the eye could see.  I just know that somehow it was her saying I’m here with you and you are going to be ok. We lived here for 8 years, and every year the flowers would fill my fields during the Spring.  I looked forward to them every year!  These pictures are so special to me because she never got to meet my sweet Colt…I believe that somewhere in Heaven their paths crossed and she gave him a big hug before he came down to me!  She was an amazing woman and I miss her so much! XXXOOO

I have an exciting project that I have been working on to honor her.  I cannot wait to share it with you in the next few weeks!

If you had to sell your house, sell your car, move half away across the world and you can only bring a few of your belongings..would you do it for the one you love…if you’re a military wife the answer is always yes!  You do it because you love your spouse and you love this country.  Moving to Okinawa is not easy and the whole process can be very overwhelming.  You have to leave everything behind including your friends and family.  You just show up with your suitcases and thats about it..you don’t even have a driver’s license.  I always try to make the best of any situation.  I believe you are as happy as you make up your mind to be, and that is exactly what I decided to do.  Trust me there are those days when I get frustrated with little things about living in a foreign country..but I can usually look back on those days and laugh.  Like the time my baby was screaming and my other boys were all starving and I just wanted to order through a drive thru.  There are not many to choose from in Okinawa…{oh how I miss chick fil A, Dairy Queen, and Sonic}..we ended up at McDonalds.  I tried to order and we all ended up with fish sandwiches instead of chicken.  Now at the time it wasn’t that funny but now my boys laugh about the time mom ordered everyone fish sandwiches!! And how I scared everyone to death when I drove on the left side of the road for the first time..I have never heard my boys so quiet!

One of the things I was most nervous about was the house we would move into.  We are a family of 6 and the houses here are a little over 1000 sq. ft.  and they are all concrete.  Okinawa is known for getting some of the strongest typhoons every year so your house has to be able to withstand the winds.  Last fall we almost had a direct hit from a category 5 typhoon so I was glad to live in my little concrete house that day!

It’s like that song…

Love grows best in little houses,
with fewer walls to separate.
Where you eat and sleep so close together,
you can’t help but communicate.
And if we had more room between us,
think of all we’d miss.
Love grows best in houses just like this.

As all military wives we make any house a home.  I know a lot of military wives coming to Okinawa are most interested in what the houses look like here so I will be posting pictures of my house to help.

Today we said goodbye to one of the kindest and strongest persons I have ever known.  My grandmother was always so happy and wanted to make everyone around her happy too.  She never said an unkind word about anyone.  She was so proud of her family and loved to tell me how good everyone was doing.  She took care of her family and everyone else in our small town.  Everyone knew and loved Grandma Veal…they would even call her “grandma”.  She loved the lord and went to church every Sunday and she would always bring all us grandkids with her.  Then we would come home to her delicious Sunday cooking.  The entire family would come over and eat every Sunday.  She made the best Banana Pudding…and she knew how much I loved it and would make it just for me!  She had five children and they had to move every few months and years as my grandfather worked.  She never complained.  She would get everything packed up and move to the next town in Texas.   I think my dad said that he moved 21 different times while in elementary school.  This makes the military life not seem so bad.  I’m so thankful I was able to see her before we moved to Japan.  She would even FaceTime us every few weeks, and she never forgot a birthday.  I am so thankful that I had her as my grandmother.  I learned so much from her kindness and love of life.  Grandma…I love you and I’m going to miss you so much!  I’m also going to make some of your amazing banana pudding tonight for my family!