This summer has been a scorcher......

...SERIOUSLY! Just know that the housing on base does NOT have A/C. The powers that be say that it does not get hot enough for long enough AND the power needs can't be met if everyone has A/C.

Really? So for the past 2 summers it wasn't really a big deal for us. THIS SUMMER WAS DIFFERENT! Last week it got to 100 degrees -- 3 times last week....with 84% humidity AND we live on the 5th floor of a 9 floor tower. 7 fans in the house......all the windows open and it was still deadly!

Thankfully, the Lord provided and we were allowed to house sit for dear friends that were out of town for the summer (fellow teachers) and they keep their A/C on because of their caged pets. (you all that know me -- REALLY know that I don't get down with animals AT ALL)

We (Elijah and I) spent EVERY free moment over there (Eddie is still in Okinawa for training)!

This is how Elijah spent MOST days this summer............... on a trampoline!

Now let's kick it up a notch with the addition of water balloons and water hose!

We call it "Avoid the Water Balloons" game. Hey, it's FREE fun, he loved it and he stayed cool!

Elijah after he came inside...soaking wet and H.A.P.P.Y!!!

Our 24 hour Korean trip

Every Monday, the base has a military hop to Korea. The hop

comes back to our base the next morning. So I was thinking:

1. Eddie is gone for 6 weeks

2. I haven't done ANYTHING this summer, except teach summer

school

3. I wanted my hair braided

4. The hop is FREE <---- important factor!!

So I figured...LET'S DO IT!!

Here is a run down of how our last 36 hours went!

0645 - Report to the Passenger terminal with Elijah to check in for roll call...waiting, waiting, waiting to see if there were any open seats for us...

0745 - YES! We are 'in like Flynn; checked in again to get our tickets

0830 - boarded the plane and off we flew to our destination

1045 - arrived in Korea (on base) and processed through immigration

1130 - out the door - we didn't bring any luggage with us besides our carry on bags - in a taxi to the front gate of the base to do a little shopping

1150 - found the Dr. Fish pedi, manicure place.......awwww this is what I have been waiting for so badly.......fish that feast on the dead skin of my feet. YES! It tickles and no it doesn't hurt at all. Elijah and I had the feast nibbling away on our feet for 25 min!!!

After my pedi and mani (Elijah said that only girls do that kind of stuff - so he decided to p

lay his video game on the couch) We were hungry.

1530 - took the taxi back to base to see if there was any space available room in in lodging - really wanted to stay on base because I felt a lot safer on base -- no rooms:( So I made a reservation off base. It's not a bad neighborhood by any means -- it's just that when you live and work in a secure. military environment you get comfortable within that environment ..... especially in a foreign land when the emergency evacuation system is an escape rope! In case of emergency we were to tie this to the leg of the bed, throw it out the window and scale down the from the 5th floor. Needless to say...I didn't sleep very well that night!

1600 - Oh yeah - I forgot that we were hungry and we ate at Chili's on base - this may be no big treat to you all, but we have NO American commercial restaurants where we live -- so to see a Chili's is quite a BIG deal.

1700 - Off to check in to our hotel and relax for 20 min

1730 - walked around the shopping area again....Elijah wanted a toy

1830 - off to get my hair braided by the sweetest, Christian lady. She is from Camroon.

1900-midnight - getting my hair braided at her house...she had kids that Elijah played with and a college aged brother that taught Elijah about apartheid (kid-friendly version), since they lived in Africa before they moved to Korea 2 years ago. Elijah was really asking questions and into it too.

midnight to 0100 - walked back to the hotel, showered changed and fell asleep.

0400 - awake again (that's right 3 hours) and off to the passenger terminal for some hurry up and wait time!

0500 - checked in, waited for available seats, got tickets and waited, waited, waited and waited until the plane was ready to board at 0900!!

1145 - back in Japan!!!

Elijah slept for 4 hours once we got home, woke up and said he really liked his trip and wants to do it again.......my response you ask??? "Sweetie, let's just unpack from this trip first!"

Elijah 'deploys' to an undisclosed location

The base held a mock deployment for the children this past weekend so that the kids could understand what their parents go through when they get deployed. It was called Operation C.O.D.E. (children on deployment exercise). Elijah was recalled (called in the a.m.) by his military training instructor at 0700 and had to report to the outprocessing section by 0800.

Checking out the weapons.....really closely!

Getting ready to be 'Fit to Fight'.....push-ups on the exercise balls

Out of 18 kids, Elijah was chosen to get dressed up in the fire fighter's suit....of course he entertained others while he did it!

...with his I.D. card and outprocessing checklist. He had to wait in line for over an hour at various stations to get outprocessed

Elijah signing a Power of Attorney.....to place Daddy in charge of:

-- taking care of his toys while he was gone

-- giving people hugs while he was gone

-- to clean his room and watch over his piggy bank (but don't spend any of the money)

-- to wash my bicycle while he was gone

Camo paint and all! Does he look F.I.E.R.C.E. or what!

Raising his right hand to take an oath to get DIRTY today! I am not joking...that was the oath!

The campsite...Camp Defender

The 'troops' listening to the briefing from the base commander.

loading the troops on the bus to their undisclosed location......psssst Camp Defender!

eating lunch.....TEARING up that hotdog! He really worked up an appetite by lunch!

Taking down the bad guys!

Successfully completing the obstacle course!

Eddie said that Elijah's group reminded him of Major Payne's group in the movie!

Cherry Picking Road Trip

It's fruit picking time again. This time we picked cherries and Elijah LOVED it (unlike the blueberries last year) We went with friends, Chris and Chiaki. They are both teachers and speak Japanese and English fluently....which really helped us out in knowing what kind of cherries we were eating.

Elijah and Hannah (Chiaki's daughter) Yep, she is bilingual too!

Eddie THOUGHT he was a professional sweet cherry picker by the end of the 60 min we spent in the cherry picking area!

Goof!

The yellow cherries were my FAVORITE! Super sweet - they were a Japanese variety!

Yep, we let our son climb a ladder in FLIP-FLOPS to pick the cherries that were at the top of the tree!

Ever tried this?

So unlike many people, I will taste things at least once. I don't want to leave Japan and say that I ate at McDonald's and didn't try any of the ethnic foods. Elijah will try anything too! YEAH!!
Here are a few 'treats' we picked this weekend.

GARLIC CANDY! So the only reason I bought this is because I figured "why not-you are only in Japan once" So I tried a piece and it was REALLY garlic-like. GROSS! I could not finish it ..... but of course Elijah chomped down on it, like it was cherry flavored life saver! Huh? Really he likes it and ate about 4 more pieces.

Notice the slight grammatical error.......corn versus cone. You know when you say it out loud it kind of sounds similar??

Just a quick snack of mini soft shell crabs. You just pop the WHOLE thing in your mouth! They were yummy a bit fishy....Elijah could NOT stop eating them!

..b/c we don't have access to 2 liter soda bottles here...

....we can not make Diet Coke and Mentos explosions....bummer:(

So we decided to have Elijah create 'rockets' with 35 mm film containers, bak

ing soda and vinegar. He was overly excited and turned them into grenades.

1st try

2nd try

Learning NEVER stops!

I am SUCH a teacher......I am a strong believer that learning shouldn't stop in the summer time. So a few families got together and went to tour the base recycling center. We viewed a PowerPoint about recycling facts....America produces the most trash out of ALL nations and recycles the least!

Here are some pics:

Trying to lift a cube of crushed aluminum cans.....it was 5 large garbage bags full of cans before it was crushed

We've all seen these metal drums (they collect liquids). It was placed in the crusher and....

...here it is! The kids thought this was cool!

Elijah and his friend, Maxx! A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E.

Viewing the results of the cardboard crusher...each child threw a box in, they turned on the machine and got to view how small the boxes were afterwards