The Fowler Family Blog

It’s so hard to believe that one year has already gone by!  We are still amazed at how quickly it happened!

It helped that we took several vacations mid year and got to see our family and friends. 

Japan in October was fabulous and Tokyo ranks up there on our list of favorite cities!  Australia in February was beyond fabulous!  Fortunately from here the flight was “only” 9 hours, but much better than going from the States.

South Carolina in March was absolutely perfect.  Getting to see Garlow, Camp Pendleton buddies (The Palmers, Feit/Jensen, Cormac and the Sanchacks among others was great!)

Getting to spend time with our parents, my grandma, Aunts and Uncle, Tom, Christine and Ella and seeing Jeremy and Sara and their kiddos along with Melvin was perfect! 

Our year in review…

We dealt with our fertility issues as soon as we arrived here with the help of Ms. Cho, Ryan’s Office Manager.  We were so fortunate to find a great clinic and a great Dr. that was able to assist us with getting pregnant.  We only have a few weeks to go until we get to meet Cormac!

Ryan has learned a tremendous amount this year being the Officer In Charge.  He’s mananged a staff of 6 people, dealt with being “stuck in the middle of nowhere” and he has been commuting to work on his bicycle for a year!  I think his biggest challenge is being everyone’s Dr. and having a limited number of friends here (due to his Rank and not being allowed to hang out with too many people on base).   He’s in the best shape of his life with daily and sometimes multi daily workouts and is beginning to train for a 1/2 marathon in September and another 1/2 marathon in November.  He misses his road bike and would love to get to ride his moutain bike more often.   

I worked for EOS for 9 months, which was a bit challenging considering that I was a contractor and didn’t feel like I received much support, but it was nice to still be “in contact” with the outside world.  I also taught English on the Korean Navy Base and subsitute taught, which was a lot of fun. 

I’ve been fortunate to make some great friends that I believe will be friends for life.  Kim, in particular has been a strong support system for me this year.  Ella, Tammie, Jill and Jamie are also great.  We all still can’t believe that we ended up in such a place, but we’re all just making the best of it.  

Duke has also enjoyed his year here, although he misses some of his buds back in California, dog beach and the dog park.  He also misses his weekly trips to Petco, but for the most part, he has adjusted really well.  He loves the jogging trail here and very rarely has to be put on a leash.  Recently some new puppies were born and they became fast friends.