for the time being....

........Eddie is deployed.  He will be gone for awhile.  Because we have to be aware of information we give out to the world (anyone can look at this blog) I can't tell you all where he is or when he will be back.  Sorry!  But if we talk I can 'try' to code it in a way that gives you some idea.

We (Elijah and I) are doing alright.  We are trying to stay as busy as possible so it seems as if the time doesn't stand still.  This weekend we participated in a scavenger hunt with the teachers!  YEAH!  We are SUPER tired....at least I was...Elijah spent the day eating pizza and playing with kids!  I mean I am amazed at all the "STUFF" teachers have around  their house.....i.e. two sumo wrestler costumes, a Florida shaped candle, a Rock Fest ticket stub, glow in the dark pumpkins and 7 pairs of angel wings!  Really?  I am pretty sure I had 2 things on the 7 page list......workout gloves and a completed coloring book!  ha ha ha ha!

What's YOUR heart's desire?

I'm telling you ..... if you ever get over here to Japan, you will NEVER go hungry with the plethora of vending machines available to you. Now I am not talking about the typical snacks and drinks, coffee etc. Check these out!

freshly fried french fries, hot chicken nuggets, sushi and hot soup with dumplings! Yes, it really is fried in the machine when you order it.

Hello Kitty is BIG TIME out here....I mean BIG TIME! You can watch the popcorn popping in this machine when you order it...you can choose butter, salt and cheddar toppings!

Our Lil Super Star

So I decided that I was going to play American Idol on the Playstation....hmmmm until Elijah walked in the room and literally took over the mic! I think this is reading fluency practice at its best! I mean he asked to change the character to a male, picked his songs and all.....pretty bold for a 7 year old huh? I couldn't even get upset - he is just so cute:)

I found more snow festival pics!

These were pretty cool too -- I thought I would share these as well!

Sapporo Snow Festival

So have you all ever seen those forwarded emails with the pics of huge snow and ice sculptures? We went to the island north of us this weekend to see the hundreds of snow and ice sculptures -- it was the 60th anniversary of the festival. We left home at 9pm Thursday night on a ferry, got there.

Friday at 6:30am, went to a native Shiraoi Ainu Village, Otaru City Tour, Sapporo City Tour, Sapporo Ice Festival tour all on Friday.

Saturday we went to a morning seafood market, Sapporo Snow Park, Sapporo Beer Museum and cooked mongolian barbeque, Mt. Okura Olympic Ski Jump stadium and sports museum, Shikotsu Lake Ice Festival, Tomokomai Shopping Mall and back to the ferry at 8pm

We arrived back in our house at 5:45 am! A whirlwind of a weekend and Elijah stayed with it all weekend! We would do it all over again - AWESOME TRIP!!
Here are some pics:

Elijah's igloo

sliding down the ice slide - like a penguin!

Eddie cooks mongolian bbq!

The Sapporo Beer Bear ice sculpture

at the Mt. Okura Olympic Ski Jump Stadium

He was scared to pick up the live crab

Tokyo Disney's 25th anniversary snow sculpture

Olympic - Michael Phelps- snow sculpture

The Breaux Family and the Japanese natives

They were drying salmon OUTSIDE - because it was so cold they didn't need refrigeration!

Inaugural Ball

We went to an inaugural ball this past weekend. Eddie and I spent the evening dancing the night away, while Elijah got to spend the night at his friend's house. It was a really nice event!

There was a live Japanese jazz band. They were REALLY good....I am not exaggerating! Eddie said when he closed his eyes he thought it was actually Ray Charles singing - yes, the little Japanese lead singer had sunglasses on the whole time - but he wasn't blind because he walked around without any assistance.

There was also a female saxophonist that would have given Kenny G a run for his money!

Eddie surprised me and bought the dress for me while he was TDY.......right color, size and everything!

So here is a small 'joy' of living overseas. For years I have made a dinner menu and then made a grocery list according to the ingredients I use. I know it's a bit OCD! Anyway, I went to the commissary (the only American-like grocery store here) and needed 5 lbs. of ground turkey.

Side note: I don't eat ground beef

I noticed there was none.....hmmmm that's strange I thought - it has always been in the same spot! I asked the commissary dude (A.K.A. meat manager) when they will have some more ground turkey. "Hmmm," he said, "we cancelled the whole ground turkey order - I don't know when it will be in!"

Huh? But I made my 2 week menu out and I need five 1 lb. packages of ground turkey?! After going to the commissary for 4 days in a row...... we decided to ground our own chicken breast up. YUMMY and SUPER low fat!

Eddie volunteered to use the hand grinder to grind the chicken breast for the family. What a great guy!! Yes, we actually have an old-fashioned meat grinder! Thanks Judy S.!

We had 5 lbs. of FRESHLY ground chicken --- here we come 'tacos, meatloaf, and chili'!! Now if I was still in America I would have went to another store i.e. Safeway, Piggly Wiggly (go South!!), Winn Dixie, Albertson's, or Basha's. No such luck here! Hey, it's a small sacrifice!