Montgomery Gentry Concert

I'm going to take a break from the Hong Kong posts (I still have two left to write!) to do a post on the Montgomery Gentry concert.  Unless you are a country music fan, you probably don't know who MG is.  But I GUARANTEE you've heard their music and just don't realize it.  They have so many great songs that are played on mainstream radio too!  Concerts like this are few and far between on Okinawa.  It's one of the things I most miss about being in the States... or other civilized areas of the world.  We've lived here for almost a year and four months and no concert of this sort has come our way, so this was a big deal!

The USO is a great organization that has helped the military family in so many ways.  I could do an entire post just on them.  They are responsible for getting MG here on island - for a FREE concert!  I love free! :)

Anyway, my friends Robin and Misty and I had a little girls night out on Saturday night and headed out into the cold Okinawa weather (after you've been here awhile, yes 50 degrees seems cold!!)  It had rained all weekend but it held off for the concert minus a few sprinkles!

The concert was fantastic.  We met up with a 'new' friend of ours, Antonia, and her husband Jack while we were there and had a great time.  It is such a rare occasion that we would be there together singing, dancing, drinking without our kids and stress free.... between us, we have 8 kids.  Robin's husband is in Iraq and Misty's husband is in Afghanistan... Misty just had a baby 3 months ago and her husband welcomed her into the world via Skype after the birth.  This was the first night Misty had been out in a YEAR!

MG was amazing - they sound just exactly like they do on the radio, which is always so nice.  I hate it when you go to concerts and you barely recognize the music because it has been "altered" so much.  And they were just so genuine in their appreciation of the military and the military families.  They must have said half a dozen times how much they appreciate us and what we all do - not just the troops but the families.  At one point I just wanted them to STOP talking about it, because here I was with two deployed spouses on either arm and ready to bawl my eyes out.  It was so great that they were willing to come all the way around the world to play for us for no reason other than because they thought we'd have a good time. 

After the concert Antonia and Jack somehow convinced us to go to a hole-in-the-wall bar called Flex something or other. All I know is they serve the best jerk chicken I've ever tasted!  A great finale to an all-around fabulous night.

Adventures in Hong Kong, Part II: Disneyland

 

A trip to Hong Kong wouldn't be complete without taking the kiddos to Disneyland.  Personally, I've never been to a Disney anything, and with all that I'd heard about the Disney "way" from articles, a friend who works for Disney, and friends who visited this particular Disneyland, I had high hopes.

It was super easy to get there even though it's on a neighboring island from where we were staying.  We took the subway and at the last transfer they even have a special Disney subway that takes you to the park.  The subway had Mickey-shaped windows and various bronze statues made out of Disney characters.  It was even painted in Disney colors!

Walking into the park was very nice.  You can check out these pictures, walkiing through the "entrance" to buy your tickets.  Unfortunately, the "wow" factor was left right there at the ticket booth.  Once we got inside the park I was just sort of unimpressed. I don't want to be negative, so I'll leave it at that and just show you the things that did bring a smile to my son's face!

Meeting Buzz Lightyear was definitely the highlight!  It was cool because at one point as we were standing in line, Buzz looked over to the crowd right at Wyatt and waved directly at him!  Wyatt was in awe of him and really had a good time taking pictures with him!  Wyatt said, "To infinity and beyond!"


 

We rode only one ride...the flying Dumbo ride - but Olivia even got to go on it and both the kids seemed to really like it!

We all loved the 3D show!  I was sitting by Wyatt and it was so much fun to watch his face light up as the Little Mermaid's jewels flew off the screen, with his little arms grasping at the air to try to catch them!  Olivia didn't care much for the show, though... this random Chinese lady behind us was happy to hold her (told you, they love those American babies!!)

That was really about the extent of our day there.  Wyatt thought it was cool just to look around and see all the stuff, and I think he had a good time.  I'll leave you with just a few more cool pics!

Hong Kong, Part I: 15 minutes of Fame

 
The flight to Hong Kong was uneventful; we were delayed a little bit leaving Okinawa, but Wyatt made friends with a Japanese boy and they took turns giving each other their precious little toys.  The little boy made the first move, giving Wyatt some of his Japanese action figure trading cards.  Wyatt gave him a matchbox car.  The boy reciprocated in kind with an action figure mask; Wyatt gave him two sheets of Scooby Doo stickers.  Finally, as we were about to depart, the boy gave him his actual action figure!  Wyatt gave him another Matchbox car.  It was so sweet - these two little boys, who couldn't converse in each other's languages but so sweetly shared the most important language to them both: Toys. :)

We had a hard time juggling Olivia on the flight (doesn't she look so happy???).  She just wants to go, go, go everywhere and not sit still, but all in all, arrived in Hong Kong no worse for the wear.  We marched our way over to immigration, and I was bent over in line filling out our immigration cards and only vaguely aware that Wyatt was sort of acting up.  Not in a bad way, just being silly. When I finally looked up, it turns out he was actually putting on a show for the 20+ Asian people surrounding us, who were all busy laughing at and admiring our children while whipping out their cameras to take picture after picture of them.  I was confused as to why all the attention, and then I remembered....we were Americans. Americans with small children.  In fact, we had an American baby girl. 

For the remainder of the trip, we were hounded by Chinese people taking pictures of our kids.  Especially Olivia, but they liked Wyatt too because he was so charismatic.  They would follow them around, taking 5-10 pictures at a time, sticking cameras directly in their faces, just to capture an American baby or child on film.  By the end of Day 2, I seriously felt like we had paparazzi following us!!  It actually crossed my mind that they MUST think we were movie stars of some sort.  I honestly could not believe the insane amount of attention our kids were drawing! 

 

We took a shared bus to the hotel and this turned out to be a great way to see the city at night - we were able to witness the hustle and bustle of the crowded walkways, the MILLIONS of shipping containers at the ports, and the night markets full of "copy" purses, souveniers and the like without having to drag the kids through it. We got to our room at the Salisbury YMCA Hotel and tried to get settled, but by the time we set up shop, found our pajamas and brushed our teeth, it was almost 11 p.m.!

Olivia had a rough night.  I guess it was sleeping in someplace new, I don't know, but I only got about 4 hours of sleep.  Nonetheless, we got up bright and early with the kids, ready to take on Hong Kong.  Except that we couldn't. Olivia was pretty much inconsolable.  She wanted to be held, but when you held her, she wanted down.  So you put her down, and she burst into tears.  I think she was just pretty much exhausted, so we eventually got her to sleep and hoped she would wake up in a better mood.  In the meantime, I took Wyatt down to see a water fountain he had spied out of our window.  We walked through the Heritage Museum area and to the pier where the ferrys leave from Kowloon (the islet we were staying on) to Hong Kong Island and Lantau Island.

2011 is the Year of the Rabbit - there were rabbits all over Hong Kong!!


We saw the famous Clock Tower down by the pier.

Another display for the Chinese New Year starting February 3...definitely a big deal!

Looking toward Hong Kong Island from Kowloon islet.




After Livy awoke, we took off for Victoria's Peak.  Hong Kong has one of the world's best subway systems, so we took it to Hong Kong Island and then walked to the Peak entrance.  Wyatt had fun pushing Livy through the Subway tunnels - actually they both loved it!

 
Holding onto the Subway pole!!



It was an absolutely beautiful day, sunny and 70 degrees.  We waited in a crowded line for quite awhile, cameras snapping all around us at the kids, and finally boarded the train to take to the top of Victoria's Peak.  From there, we could see views of most of Hong Kong. 


It was beautiful, but the kids were having none of it.  Once we got to the top, it was Wyatt's turn to have a meltdown.  It was then that I got really frustrated with people taking pictures of my kids.  The last thing I needed while my kid was kicking and screaming at the top of a mountain were people capturing it on film!Finally we got out of there and hit up Bubba Gumps.  Let me tell you how excited I was to find this restaurant there.... SO EXCITED!  Keep in mind that I haven't eaten "American" food in one year and almost four months.  WOOHOO!  I probably consumed 3,000 calories.  But that's ok. We walked a lot on this trip! :)

 

Back to the hotel for naps all around.... then we walked through the streets of Hong Kong to Temple Street Market.  Hong Kong is renowned for its bargain shopping.  They have markets and markets and more markets full of stuff.  I didn't buy much, but it was fun to look!

That pretty much wrapped up our first full day in Hong Kong.  Part II of the adventure later!

We're Baa-aack!

Just a short post to let everyone know that we are back!  We had a great trip.  Some ups, some downs, some highs, some lows - literally :)  In the days to come, I"ll get posts up about each of our days spent in Hong Kong.  We covered a LOT of ground and I can't wait to share it all with you!

The funny part to me is - someday we'll look back on this and say, "Remember that one time, when we were in Hong Kong?"  For some reason, I just think that's funny. I mean, who goes to Hong Kong?  Well, lots of our friends here do, but you know what I mean. 

We were walking down the (very busy) street one day, and I said to Tommy, "We met in England, we live in Japan, we're from the United States, and right now we're in Hong Kong.  Isn't that cool?"  And on the way home, he asked me, "So where to next?" 

We shall see, dear husband...we shall see!

Flat Stanley visits Japan!

Flat Stanley paid the Parkers a visit here in Japan!  Tommy's cousin, Andrew and his wife Monica sent him to us.  He is a class project for the daughter of one of Monica's friends.  Each child in the class had to send Flat Stanley somewhere and Stanley is to bring back a memento from his travels.

Since Stanley is our very first visitor to this lovely island, we thought we should take him out for a typical Japanese-style dinner.  Here we are at Yoshi Hachi's, one of our favorite sushi restaurants.  The owner, Yoshi-san, spent many years in the U.S. and from the golf pictures covering the walls, I believe he was a caddy for Tiger Woods and the like back in Tiger's early days.

The Japanese ALWAYS take their shoes off when entering a home/business and they often sit on the floor in tatami rooms with mats and a small raised table to eat dinner.  We are sitting on tatami mats on the floor here, although you aren't really able to tell from the picture.  Wyatt is eating a typical Japanese kids "set" (everything is a 'set' here...sort of like the American version of "combo meal" I guess).  They always pile on a variety of food, from teriyaki chicken, dumplings, rice, fried potatoes, and fried shrimp to custard or jello-ey dessert and, of course, an orange drink.  Because no meal would be complete without orange drink here!  And it is usually served in some funky dish or plate... in this case a big boat and a French flag.  We took that out for the picture because we didn't want to confuse people!!

Then here I am with Stanley and some of our sushi.  Yummy! We were going to mail Flat Stanley back home today, but Wyatt is very sad about this... he specially requested that he come to the Post Office to see Stanley off after preschool. :)  So instead, I think I will let him stay with us another week and he can go to Hong Kong with us.  Maybe Stanley would enjoy Hong Kong Disney?  We will see!

Okinawa World

Tommy had the day off for Martin Luther King, Jr. day yesterday, and we had to get out of the house to let our mama san clean, so off we went in search of an "adventure...."  and that is what we found!

Let me pause here for just one moment and say how grateful I am that we had a man like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to help set this country straight.  Of course there were many others along the way that fought the fight, and we have a ways to go toward true equality.  But he broke serious ground on that path, which should not be forgotten or tossed aside as just another "day off" of work.

Now back to the adventure.

So our goal was to head down south toward Naha to visit the Toys R Us to see about getting Olivia a new car seat in hopes that there were more than the two options offered on base.  But as the sister of a friend  (Danielle Farrell) likes to say, "Maps and directions on Okinawa are more like mere suggestions of how to get there...."

And so it goes that we ended up instead on some of Oki's back roads, far away from our destination  point, but not so far from Okinawa World.  Since we had never been, we decided to just go there instead of wandering around aimlessly even further.


Okinawa World's big attraction is their cave.  They have a cool underground cave about 300 meters long.  Wyatt loved it, although he was a bit spooked during certain dark portions where there were signs for bats!


After the cave we had a small problem.  We had left Olivia's stroller at the entrance because of all the stairs, and our 20-pound sack of potatoes was getting heavy.  We were also starving, having gone so far off the beaten path in our travels without food or snacks.  Yet we were very far away from both stroller and food.  So we walked the 300+ meters back to the entrance to find them (stroller and food) and were finally successful.


After lunch, we walked back through Okinawa World's village.  It is supposed to be all things Okinawa right in one location - glass blowing, pottery, sugar cane dyeing, fruit and tropical gardens, a brewery, etc.  It was nice but it seemed sort of commercial to me.  Well, as commercial as it gets in Okinawa. Everything seemed to be an extra fee or exhorbitantly priced and we just weren't in the mood for spending more money given our upcoming trip to Hong Kong in a few days.  So we toured around a little but ended up walking away empty-handed.

So all in all, not quite that cool.  But if you're lost somewhere on a small island between mainland Japan and the East China Sea and you see a sign for Okinawa World, it's a good way to spend the day.

I hope you enjoyed your MLK day, and took some time to pause and reflect on why we celebrate his life in the first place!

The Future's So Bright...

I gotta wear shades!  Except that I don't own any.  My kids I keep breaking them!

Anyway. I am excited about life right now.  Which is nice, because there for awhile I really wasn't (almost a year ago at this time...).

Why, you ask?  Let me count the ways.  So many good things happening!!

First off, my parents finally booked their plane tickets!!!  That's right, they are coming to Japan!! I am just so excited.  They will get here on February 17th, the night before Olivia's 1st birthday - how cool is that?  On that day, it will have been 1 year, 4 months, and approximately 20 days since I last saw my parents.  That's a long freakin' time!  So, of course I am excited to see them just for that reason.  Also, we were honestly beginning to think that no one would come and visit us while we were here. But my parents are the two people in this universe who would (quite literally) go to the ends of the earth for us. Yay!  I can't wait to show them around the island, have them experience a little bit of the Japanese culture, and of course spend time with their grandkids, one of whom they've never actually laid eyes on in person.  I have already booked the beach cabin for two days and am looking to book a deep sea fishing tour for Tommy and my dad as well. 

Secondly, we are finally busting outta here!  The one reason I agreed to come to Japan was so that I could travel.  Granted, the whole baby scenario threw a wrench in things for awhile, but recently we have tried (and failed) several times now to get off of this island and something has always come up.  But this time - this time is different.  In a mere 9 days, our family will be departing Okinawa and heading to.....

HONG KONG!!!!

Can you tell I am excited?  Nothing will dampen my spirits.  Nothing!  Not 4,000 layers of government paperwork to file before leaving, not 3 more office stops for unecessary stamps, nothing!  We are going to Hong Kong, and that's all there is to it.  My butt will be seated in a plane and we will be heading to Hong Kong very soon.  We will go to Hong Kong Disney, we will visit the Big Buddha and a monestary full of monks, we will traverse mountains via gondola rides, cable cars, trams, and the like.  We will go, see, smell, hear and experience another country.  Hallelujah!!!

Last but not least, Montgomery Gentry is coming to OKINAWA!!  Yes, that's right folks, a CONCERT is going to be playing here on this island in only a few weeks.  This is big news in the land of the limited.  Honestly, there are not many things I miss about America aside from all of YOU, my readers, friends and family.  I would list Target, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, TJ Maxx as first on the list.  But a very close second would be Arts & Entertainment.  There are no plays, no concerts, no shows, no musical acts here.  They are very few & far between.  But when I opened up the internet today and saw that Montgomery Gentry was coming here.... well, that just sealed the deal.  The icing on the cake, the cherry on the sundae, take your pick.  2011 is looking up and life is good. :)

Thing One's Baby Shower!

Our good friends Kyle & Jen are having a baby in only about 6 weeks!  We are SUPER excited for them!  They are having a surprise baby (yay!) and have chosen a Dr. Seuss theme for the baby, so of course we had a Dr. Seuss baby shower (Thing One!)


Here is the invitation, "borrowed" from Kara's Party ideas (click to go to link - her amazingness puts my party to SHAME!):

Here is our guest of honor, wearing her "star upon thar" (Sneetches) and looking oh-so-beautiful!!

Green eggs...no ham, as Jen says! :)




Horton says, "A person's a person, no matter how small..."

We had brunch at our house, followed by gift-opening.  Jen's mom was able to attend the baby shower via Skype from Iowa!  That's her on the computer in the background.

Then it was off to Cocok's for some much-needed pampering - a wonderful pedicure/leg massage for all of us!

The mama-to-be with her feet up - exactly how it should be! :) 

Our biggest congratulations to the parents-to-be.  You are in for a wonderful ride, my friends!

Another One about the Mama San

Friday started out like any other day, except that I didn't get much sleep the night before and I didn't have time to shower before I had to get out the door at 8 a.m. Which should have been my first clue about what type of day lie ahead.

Let me be clear: I can count on one hand the number of times I've left the house without showering in the last 5 years.  Without a shower, I just feel plan GROSS.  Like I haven't really woken up yet.  And I feel all... balmy.  Sticky. Unclean. Whatever. I have to shower.  It's not negotiable.  This is why I can't go camping; there are no (clean) showers.

So my mama san arrives bright and early at 8 a.m. It is that time of year again (ALREADY) to get her base pass renewed. Yippee skippy!! Lucky me!  I am exhausted but have successfully fed and clothed both children and we are ready to go.  But first, it takes me about 20 minutes just to get mama san to fill out her portion of the paperwork.  Simple questions like "Where were you born?" turned into a mime game of charades that could have won me an Emmy.  Only about 25% confident that the paperwork was filled out correctly, we left the house and headed for Office #1.*

(*Author's Note: I am going to refer to things by Office numbers on the off chance that it might prevent myself or my husband from getting yelled at.)

I load up the kids and we go to Office #1, where we trudge up to the 3rd floor.  I present the paperwork and fix approximately one-half of the items that mama san and I incorrectly identified during our game of charades.  Thank goodness for bilingual office staff.  However, said office staff then presents me with more paperwork that they forgot to give me the first time around, and informs me I need to go to Office #2 to actually print off another form that absolutely MUST be typed, no exceptions, despite the fact that it is in reference to a Contractor form, which I am definitely NOT a contractor, and of course it would be misappropriation of funds to actually print it in THEIR office... so off we go to Office #2.

I go down 3 floors, load the kids and mama san up and I drive across base and successfully print off said document at Office #2.

Then I drive Wyatt to preschool because it is already past 9 a.m.

Then I drive back to Office #1 with infant daughter and elderly mama san, and again climb 3 flights of stairs only to be told that I need a "Stamp" at a 3rd Office which is up over yonder on the hill.  Fine.  We trudge down to 1st floor (I am sweating by this time) and I am starting to get frustrated.  Is it really necessary that something so simple be so complicated??? With every stair I get more and more agitated until I am borderline fuming when I strap my daughter into her carseat and pray that she doesn't fall asleep because it is now her nap time.

I put the keys in the ignition and turn the key to start the car... and nothing.  Ummm.... for the love of Pete. What the heck is going on? I try again. Nothing.  Confused, and refusing to take no for an answer, I try no fewer than 6 more times to start the car because this cannot be happening.  I am in the middle of a parking lot with my baby and my mama san and my car will not start.  The baby, I can handle.  The mama san, I cannot.

Have I mentioned that I am exhausted and haven't showered yet?

There is nothing else to do but laugh hysterically.  Mama san looks at me like I have lost my mind.

"Too cold," she says firmly.
"Huh?" I say.
"Too cold.  That is why car no start," she says, matter-of-factly.
It is 63 degrees outside, folks. I sincerely doubt that it is too cold out. This isn't Iowa. We aren't in the arctic. There are no sub-zero temperatures.

And so, I do the only thing I can do - I cheat, and call my husband, just because I can.  Because 9 times out of 10 he is typically gone when stuff like this happens, but for this one time, he is actually HERE, a mere 15 minutes away, and because although I could handle this myself, I just plain don't want to.  So he agrees to come pick me up and then I call the car dealership and have them send a tow truck.  Luckily, they can come right away.  Unluckily, they need to be escorted onto base, meaning that I would need to trapse very far away to go to the gate and meet them to sign them into base. But - I can have my husband do that, since I have already called him in the first place.  Yay!

One hour later, my car has been towed, I have received the "STAMP" from office #3, turned in the paperwork to Office #1, dropped mama san off at the bus stop, and have driven my husband back to work.  And lucky me, it is only 12:00 Noon, so I've only wasted 4 hours of my life :)

Stay tuned for Part Two next week, when I have to retrieve the (hopefully) approved paperwork from Office #1 and take it to Office #4 for yet another layer of processing!

2011: The Year of Me

I don't normally do New Year's resolutions.  But it just so happens that this year, I am starting quite a few new things in January, and so I decided those could conveniently be my New Year's resolutions! Sort of sly, right? Yep. That's how I roll.

Also conveniently, most of these resolutions revolve around ME (well, I guess, who else would you be resolving for? You can't very well resolve something for someone else, I guess).  Therefore, 2011 will henceforth be known as the Year of Me.

Resolution #1: Write More.
I really miss writing, so I have started contributing to a website called OkinawaHai.  This webiste is known to every American on this island.  It contains all information pertaining to living in Okinawa: how to move here, how to find housing, cars, child care, preschools, regular schools, and what to do here - beaches, parks, fun stuff, historical stuff, festivals, everything!  Check it out in your spare time, but be sure to check it out on February 7th, because that's when my first write-up will appear!  I have two more articles in the works as well. 
Resolution #2: Do More Fun Stuff, Just for Me.
I have been hosting a lot of events lately and have had so much fun doing it!  I am excited about entertaining more.  And now that Olivia is almost one (!!!) I decided I need to get out of the house more with my friends.  My friends have also started doing fun stuff, and have invited me to take part as well.  My friend Robin just started a monthly BUNCO group and my other friend - also named Robyn -started a monthly book club, both of which I'm excited about!  I am also looking forward to continuing my involvement as co-organizer of the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap and volunteering for Tommy's unit. 

Resolution #3: Join (and Get Involved in) a Church
This is a harder one.  It has been a long journey for us to find a church. I grew up Catholic and Tommy grew up Baptist.  When we got married we intended to do so in the Catholic church, but after a lengthy debacle that left both of us disappointed, we ended up having a Protestant service and with brief exceptions, have flailed around homeless ever since!  I won't bore you with the details, but we really struggled to identify a church that was both in line with our personal views (relatively liberal) yet conservative by nature in terms of its service.  In other words, (and I sincerely hope this doesn't offend anyone) big screens and powerpoints weren't going to cut it for us.  We needed to feel inspired by the message.  We have tried a few different places but nothing seemed to fit the bill.  Turns out that all along, the answer turned out to be right under our feet - literally!

I had been resisting going to All Souls for church service because it is where Wyatt attends preschool and I didn't want Wyatt to feel like he lives at the place.  Plus, my neighbor and good friend is the priest there, and I felt funny trying it out because if I went and didn't like it, I would have to explain why I didn't like it and that might be sort of uncomfortable.  However.... they happened to have a service on Christmas Eve that was early enough that the kids wouldn't be falling asleep at it.  So we tried it.  And loved it!

All Souls is an Episcopalean (Anglican) church.  But the service was so strikingly similar to a Catholic service - almost verbatim - that I wondered what the differences were and started reseraching it two days later.  Turns out there are many similarities and many differences.  For me, the similarities tend to be in the service (Yay! It felt so familiar!) and the differences in its liberal views (Yay!!).  There is a great summary here if you are interested (warning: it is a bit lengthy), although it doesn't cover it all.

Resolution #4: Eat Less, Exercise More.
Isn't that everyone's resolution???  Enough said. :)

So those are my New Year's resolutions for 2011... the Year of Me! :)  What are yours???

DIY Valentine's Day Decor

I stumbled upon this very cute and clever idea from The Idea Room for a DIY Valentine's Day craft the very day I had taken down my Christmas decorations.  I had taken the wreath off of my door outside and thought how plain the door looked without anything on it. It's not like I can just run to Michael's or Hobby Lobby here and pick up a cute ready-made door decoration.  But then...viola! I found this post and thought, "I could make that!"

But the bigger question was, "Can I find the stuff to make that?"  Really, it shouldn't be that hard given that there are only three materials involved: straight pins, a yard of velvety fabric, and a styrofoam heart.  I was pretty sure I could find the pins and fabric, but alas, a search of several stores produced no styrofoam hearts.  However, upon searching my friend pointed out one of those green heart-shaped planters with fake styrofoam in it.  Maybe you don't know what I am talking about, because they might be a Japanese thing. Anyway, I had to make do so I got three of them, followed the instructions in the online tutorial and ended up with this:

I think it turned out ok, yes? Perhaps not as wreath-like, perhaps not as velvety (couldn't find velvet...or felt... just plain fabric...), and the pins do have a tendency to fall out because the green stuff sort of crumbles instead of retains its shape, but that's ok. I'll just have the kids wear shoes in the house.

I hung one on my front door and one on my back door (the inside, so we could look at it since it's in the middle of my living room and butt ugly), and one is just sitting on our buffet as a decoration. It looks sort of small and measley on the front door, but I think I mentioned the limited options here...  Anyway, the whole thing took about 90 minutes MAX plus half that time I was multitasking on the phone with various offices on base who provide crappy exceptional customer service. Wait, am I going to get in trouble for posting that?  Oh well.

Anyway - give it a try!  It was fun to make, and they have some other VERY CUTE ideas on that blog as well!