Pretty difficult to bite an apple now!

HALLELUJAH! Elijah finally lost his other front tooth! He lost it Dec 27! It was kinda gross -- he was eating chicken wings and the tooth was so lose it twisted in his mouth 90 degrees. He tried to keep chewing. Huh? Yep, he tried to keep chewing with his front tooth twisted?!
Eddie spots the problem and goes in for the 'pull'!

Look of distress from Elijah ...... I love these captured moments!
Still a bit distressed, but realizing that he wasn't bleeding - he mustard a smile for the camera!

Christmas Update

A month ago, Eddie decided that we should host a Christmas Eve party for roughly 40 people. He decided the theme should be shrimp. The party was a success - lasting til 2 am Christmas morning! Here is a pic of Eddie steaming shrimp and getting ready to fry shrimp for the very first time. He did a great job (with a lot of help from me)! He even cleaned up the enormous mess he made in the kitchen. For real he had flour EVERYWHERE! My job was to make a carrot cake, lemon cake, hot artichoke/spinach dip and a punch bowl of Sangria.


Since we all (including Elijah) didn't get to sleep until 2:40 am Christmas morning, we didn't wake up until 11:00 to open gifts. Here are some Christmas morning pics of Elijah opening gifts. Midway through opening gifts Elijah unwrapped a book that caught his eye Diary of a Fly. He started reading it. I reminded him that he had more presents to open. He looked over and said I know, but I want to finish reading the book first please. Hey -- I can't beat that! I said "Go for it!"

from blissful, to bad, to worse!

Yesterday it snowed, and snowed, and snowed....at least a foot of snow in 24 hours. It was pretty - looks like we are going to have a white Christmas after all.

One thing you should know about me is that I pride myself on how well I can drive (in any condition), parallel park, back up into a parking space and pretty much OWN the road.

I went out for a pedi/mani today. The roads had been cleared of the snow so I figured I was good to go. The pedi/mani was great! I ran next door to the commissary in flip flops so that my toes could dry before I put on my snow boots again. I loaded the car with groceries, got in the front seat and (here's where the story gets bad) The key ignition switch was frozen, so my key wouldn't fit! ARGGHHH I tried for 15 minutes in 20 degree weather .... NOTHING! I went inside the building to call Eddie. Hmmm no answer:(

I went back outside (sludging through the snow) to try again and the ignition switch worked this time, I put the truck in reverse (here is where the story gets worse) ...moved backwards 1 foot, pulled forward.....back and forth for 10 min --- I was stuck!

Oh goodness, I walked back inside and called home again. This time Elijah answered the phone (Hallelujah!) I told him to go tell Daddy that I was stuck in the snow in the BX. He paused (roughly 10 seconds) and said, "Wow, Mom you are stuck in the snow - that's awful". I said yes it is son.....now please go tell Daddy.

Eddie had to shovel the snow off his truck, dig out a path for his truck to get out of the parking spot......... he came to the BX and dug my truck out. He is my hero!

Snow is all fun and games until your right front wheel gets stuck and is spinning, while moving your SUV towards a sedan parked right next to you.

I would have taken pictures for your entertainment, but I was busy unpacking the ice cream I had just bought --- I dug a hole (using my mittens - thanks KT) in the snow right next to the truck and set it in the hole to keep it frozen!

Jude Logan at age 18

With his mom and dad's musical abilities the possibilities are endless!

We love you Logans!

Elijah lost 2 teeth in 2 days. The weirdest part is that he lost one of his top front teeth and now the other top front tooth looks like it is slowly shifting to the middle of his mouth.....huh? I am serious! Ohhh my lil guy is not too cute right now....he looks like a totally different kid.

.....one year down

So we have officially made it to a full year here in Japan. What a year it has been! It was October 07 when Eddie got the orders to come here in 90 days. Could you imagine uprooting your entire life in 90 days?

Selling both cars, moving out, leaving family and friends and resigning from my job....just to mention a few.

That was a challenge in itself...........hey, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?

We have done well, continue to grow as a family while making our house in Japan a really comfy home.

We miss our loved ones sooooo very much and am thankful for the Internet, phone service (no matter how tempermental both of them may be), webcams, email and blogs!

We are still loving it here and enjoy all the experiences we are blessed to have here.....let's see what next year has to offer!

Deck the Halls......

So we FINALLY decorated for Christmas! YEAH! I have been waiting for what seems like forever to decorate too. We couldn't decorate last year because our household goods were not here yet from America. We couldn't buy anything because there was NOTHING left to buy at the BX here.......so there we no lights, no tree, no nativity scene.....but hey we still had each other....in a NEW FOREIGN LAND! So I went on a personal mission after Christmas to ensure we had all the trimmings for Christmas '08! Just so you know there is ONE Internet company that delivers Christmas trees to APO addresses! Way to go to http://www.christmascatalog.com/ - military families really appreciate you!

Here are some pics for you.......I am sure no one is excited as we (actually just Eddie and I) are about these decorations. Oh course had to start the decorations with the reason for it all!

Eddie worked for 3 1/2 hours to get this 7' tree up and all the plugs correctly plugged in. Eddie is a VERY handy guy too................but there were a lot of cords ...I MEAN A LOT!! Elijah decorated the bottom half...actually after 4 bulbs he got bored and heard his friends playing outside so he quickly put up the rest of his decorations in the same 12x12 inch square area.Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas Tree....how lovely are your branches! I barely got Elijah to stand still long enough to take this pic.......his friends were at the door!

In need of desperate recommendations!

PLEASE HELP!!!

We have tried everything on Eijah's feet! From Eucerin lotions, straight up vaseline and hemp lotion (thanks Kim), but all seems to be for not! This is what his feet look 2 hours after a bath and lotioning up......kinda sad huh? Elijah just laughs at how ashy he is daily......so I wonder should I fret?

This year's first day of SNOW......

Today was the first 'official' day of snow in Misawa. When I woke up to go to the gym at 4:30 am it was raining....coming home from the gym at 6am it was raining.......walking out to school with Elijah at 7:30am it was snowing!!

So last year while we were here it snowed a total of 183 inches. Let's see what this year has in store!

Elijah was excited that it finally started snowing.......he is trying to catch the first few snow flakes of the year.
It snowed all day...LITERALLY! A total of 3.5 inches. I always thought full moons effected students' behavior....try the 1st day of snow! I literally had to close my classroom blinds to get the kids to focus on dividing decimals......it didn't work ......they just peeked through the blinds. One of the boys almost got his head stuck in there!

P.S. The grounds, trees and cars are all covered with snow -- they are forecasting snow for the next 5 days! What a wonderful time of the year - snow makes everything look so peaceful!

GROSS....Who does that???

......I am embarrassed to even type this blog out.......

Elijah is notorious for taking a 'lifetime' to get ready for bed at night. I am not joking! He could honestly take 90 minutes to shower, floss, brush his teeth and get in his pajamas. Anyway, yesterday was no exception, so I went to go remind (hmmmm actually if I was honest I would have to say TELL) him to hurry up!

I walked in the shower, the water was running, he had the shower curtain pulled back and was PEEING in the shower! I gasped! Oh my goodness.......I had this look on my face and just called Eddie into the shower. The most horrifying part of this was that we had company over at the time! Eddie wasn't even discrete about it either.......He said, "Boy, what were you thinking peeing in the shower?"........ Loud enough for the company to here it in the living room. Oh my....

After talking to three experienced mothers of boys they said it was 'normal'! HUH?

I am so glad the mamasan comes tomorrow to clean!

Thanks Grandma!

So growing up my Grandma from California was a great life skills teacher. Every summer growing up, I flew out to California from Georgia for the entire summer. I stayed with my Papa and Grandma for almost 3 months. I learned a lot there:

1. How to earn $$ honestly (We had chores and had to complete the chores correctly in order to get paid)

2. How to budget $$ (I was given a sum of money to purchase school clothes for the next school year - I was a penny pincher and made it last,and last and last)

3. How to cook dinner (We had a day a week that we had to cook for everyone else) Of course I started with chili dogs....I have gotten progressively better!

4. Family dinner time was required - we all had to be there and NO TV COULD BE ON IN ANY ROOM IN THE HOUSE.

Anyhow, this morning I put on a sweater that my Grandma crocheted for my Papa a whole lot of years ago -- if I had to guess I would say 25+ years old. My Grandma gave it to me awhile ago. I was SUPER proud to wear it to school. I told both my classes that my Grandma crocheted it for my Papa when he was alive. They were pretty amazed, because the sweater is more than twice as old as they are!

Thank you Grandma for all you have done for me! I love you!

How to say Pop Rocks in Japanese

Eddie and Elijah LOVE candy.

They don't just like it.....they for real love it. One of Elijah's favorite candies is Pop Rocks. My mom usually sends him because we couldn't find them here.


On Saturday, Elijah and I were scouting out new farmer's markets. (WE HIT THE JACKPOT WITH ONE!!) Anyway, Elijah picked out some candy and he noticed that the package was similiar to Pop Rocks from America. We bought it and tried it. He is so sweet that he won't admit that he doesn't like them, but Eddie and I think he doesn't care for them that much. He hasn't even finished the ONE he had. They were EXTRA "POPPY"! Is that a word?

Catching Live Salmon with our HANDS!

So we traveled to the Rokkasado Salmon Festival on Sunday! I was OVERLY excited!!! Since we got here a year ago, I have wanted to go to this festival! You get to catch LIVE salmon with your hands that are swimming around in calf high water! All three of us suited up in our rain boots and went in. Check out the timeline of events:

10:45 - Love waits in line to enter the pool. I talked a BIG (I MEAN BIG) game to everyone around me! There was NO fear in my voice! I couldn't wait to catch my lunch!

11:00 - WHISTLE was blown and salmon catching started! I screamed and froze in the water. I could feel the fish swimming through my legs and around my boots! I turned around to get out the water....I looked at Elijah and he was 'in it to win it'! He was being so brave and sticking BOTH hands in the water! I felt ashamed and turned around to catch a fish for real. I had to take 2 deep breaths and pray silently for strength to get this done! (I AM NOT JOKING!!) I don't like animals of any kinds, let alone live ones that are swimming between my two feet!

11:03 - whistle blown again to stop catching - I had 1 and Eddie had 2. I was sooooo proud of myself! SO, SO, SOOOO proud of myself! Eddie caught one for Elijah....what a good Daddy!

My PROUD catch! I was more proud of myself catching a fish then when I finished grad school! Can you tell with the cheesy smile!?

Eddie's great catch! He caught the biggest one! The Japanese TV stations filmed him!They cut our fish into fillets and one into steaks. Hmmmm okay so I know it was a lot of blood huh? Elijah didn't like this part. He sad he didn't like that the body still moved after the head was chopped off. We had 2 females and 1 male. Both the females had sacks of eggs. There were LINES of Japanese people that wanted our eggs....we gladly gave them away. It's a Japanese delicacy. Elijah tried some of the eggs and said they were good. Eddie and I have had them before...they were a bit salty for us.

1:00 pm lunchtime! Now that is a FRESH catch! D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! This was the freshest fish we ever had! Can't wait til next year! We would love to bring any and all visitors down for some salmon catching fun if you are in town during the festival.

Mohawk?

So for 2 months Elijah has asked for a mohawk!

We figured ...'whatever'.......he can have one, honestly there are so many more important battles to fight --- we let him have it.

So when he looked in the mirror for the first time he frowned and asked for it to be cut like normal??? This is his embarrassed look:)
YEEEESSSS!! Victory on our parts! Eddie finished cutting his hair and I am pretty sure he won't want another mohawk cut!

Superwoman?....I am NOT!

Okay so I know I have totally slacked on the blogging lately. You must be thinking:
1. What's up?
2. She is in Misawa.......How busy could she possibly be?

I know, I know it seems like I and the whole family have been in 6th gear for the past 2 weeks. So after talking to Eddie about me not being superwoman -- mind you he has NEVER expected me to be....perhaps it was false expectations I had on myself?? hmmmm

Could that be some residual Christian guilt?

Anyway we decided to get a mamasan. Basically a Japanese housekeeper. She will come once a week and stay all day. I will see how it works out next week. This would be such a help to me:) Just think of all the time that just got freed up because I don't have to scrub a toilet, shower walls, change sheets, wash or fold clothes! YEAH -- More family time!

I NEVER thought I would be one to get a housekeeper either! Whew I just don't know how MY MOM did it with 6 girls, husband in the military and she worked! Hats off to you Mom!

Training for our Jr. Fire Marshall

This week was Fire Prevention Week on base. There was a base Fire and Rescue Parade and plenty of demonstrations for Elijah to want to become a fire fighter when he grows up. Here are some pics of our experiences today.

Getting dressed to 'fight a fire!' Just the right size!




Fire prevention parade...yes they threw out TONS of candy! No need for Halloween -- he collected about 80 pieces! I am NOT exaggerating!

NEW KICKS!

Eddie has been on this kick to buy Jordans for himself lately. I don't understand ... I mean the man has been retired for awhile now? Hmmm I guess he feels the same way about my purse fetish huh? Ohhh sorry I digress!

Today I brought home Elijah's first pair of Jordans. He was too excited. He asked me to take a picture of his new shoes and put it on the blog. I am pretty sure no one cares...but he asked me to do it.

voluntary nap time

This weekend we went out for a family outing. We went to Veedol Beach. It's about 20 minutes from the base. It's the site of the first trans-Pacific flight. So there is a model of the airplane that was flown, a huge tower to walk up and of course miles of open beach space.

Elijah jumped out the truck and watched a group of Japanese men fly model planes high in the air and do tricks. I have to admit it was pretty cool!

Then he drew pictures of Naruto (Japanese cartoon character) in the sand.

Afterwards, we walked out on the peir .......... Elijah was very hesitant, but he mustarded through it.

Finally we walked up the stairs of the lookout tower. So we went home, ate pizza and of course Eddie and I took a nap. Elijah was playing in his room. We asked him if he was tired. (Come on .....what were we thinking.......he has never said yes!)

I woke up 45 minutes later to COMPLETE silence in the house! Please understand that Elijah does not do silence in ANY form! He loves to make noise. I walked in his room and I found him asleep! Wow, I was shocked that he voluntarily took a nap. Right after I snapped the picture he opened his eyes and was ready to play again.

.....complete concentration

Our lil guy is a very INTENSE person. When he does something he REALLY focuses on it with everything he's got! Tonight we watched The Blue Men group on TV.

He said that is what he wants to do when he grows up.

He is fascinated with music just like his Daddy and Grandpa!

....TAG?

Okay so I got tagged by Kim....the only thing is I only know like 5 people that blog (Kim knows all 5) so I guess I can't keep it going huh?

The rules are:~Post the rules on your blog~Write 6 random things about yourself~Tag 6 people at the end of your post~If you are tagged, just do it, and pass the tag along!

1) I am deathly afraid of cockroaches! DEATHLY! I mean I will run and scream....start sweating and let the ugly thing have the whole room! They are GROSS!

2) I am a bit OCD about organization in my life. I have recently begin to realize that everyone doesn't have their closets organized with like items and then place them dark to light in order. I guess everyone doesn't iron out their work outfits for the week on Sunday evening huh?

3) I love massages! I love pedicures and manicures...heck I just love being pampered!

4) I struggle with listening to doctors when they tell me not to workout and give my body a rest......umm like when I am sick or something?

5) Gosh these 6 things are difficult! I enjoy learning about different cultures. It's pretty interesting to me to learn the customs and courtesies of other people.

6) I think I had an incredible childhood - I was able to live abroad and do a lot of traveling.

Okay that's about it!

1. Jaime
2.KT
3.Jenn
4. Nayibe

and that's about all the people I know that actually blog.....super sad!

...when in Rome.....

So we have 1 high school on base and this weekend was their homecoming game (they play other American schools around Japan). So since we are not in America they had to 'hype' up homecoming in a way that was very unique to our location.

The high school has a homecoming parade around the base. They have pick up truck that are decorated like floats, fire trucks, Elmo (not sure how he fit in to the mix?), golf carts and such, but the best thing was there was a super LARGE snow plow truck in the parade???? No it's not snowing just yet?

So the parade route is set and we were 'asked' to bring our students out to cheer on the parade. Please imagine this with me.......a LARGE amount of elementary school students hanging on to the gate cheering, jumping, yelling as high schoolers throw out candy from the passing floats! OHHHH I can see all the teachers shaking their heads as they read this!

It was I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E!!! Our students were soooo excited about candy and were running around like wild animals to collect it! The teachers were standing behind them, eyes wide open and shaking our heads in amazement.

The great thing is once the parade was over.....all the kids lined back up....came inside to finish the math lesson and went through the rest of the day like normal.

I thought it was great that the high school tries so hard to make their students have memorable experiences in high school overseas.

a delicate moment of truth

One of our neighbors' mother is currently deployed. We were talking about her being gone away from her family with Elijah during lunch today. Here is our conversation.

"She is a solider and she is fighting bad guys. She might die" said Elijah.

"Really? Where did you get that information from Elijah?" replied Mom.

"The TV" Elijah responded.

"Oh.. okay... then is Daddy a soldier?" asked Mom.

"No, he is just a man that goes to work and makes money for our family" he said while eating his soup.

"Hmmm....well why does he wear a uniform to work everyday?" Mom asked.

"So he doesn't look differently then other people who are going to work" he simply states.

"Elijah, Daddy is in the Air Force right?" Mom ask.

"Well...yes he is, but he......." pausing he turns to his Dad, "Daddy, are the bad guys going to kill you?"

"Oh no Elijah God will protect me while I am away from you guys" Eddie responded.

"That's because God is strong and he will help you fight the bad guys Daddy" Elijah responded with a smile on his face.

This was a very unexpected conversation during lunch today. It turned out just fine though. With Eddie's upcoming deployment, we are trying to get Elijah ready and we decided that we need to get him talking about what is going on in the world -- at a 6 year old level of course.

Helping Mommy make breakfast

Elijah really enjoys cooking meals with me. He asks almost everyday to help with dinner or breakfast. Today we had waffles. This is Elijah's first time making waffles from scratch. We read the ingredients and measured everything all out.

His job was to watch the batter rise and tell me when the light on top went off. That way it wouldn't burn our breakfast. He took his job VERY seriously!
Here is his very first waffle. You can see the pride in his sparkly eyes.

Hmmmm...maybe I can train him to take over a day's worth of cooking for the whole family!

Picture Day!!

Elijah's picture day was today.

You know I found it super strange that I work in a school with 886 students and the picture time period for the school is 3 DAYS LONG! Huh? I wondered why it spanned over such an extended period of time....I saw the reason today.....there was 1 photographer! HUH? Well, I guess I don't live in America anymore. (Kim, I think the plane ticket would be so worth it-you would rake up the $$$$)

I decided that Elijah was going to rock a white shirt and vest for pictures. I know, I know...I sent another outfit with him to change into afterwards. He is just so handsome. I have to show him off!

So the tree pose may have worked for Kim Logan Photography...but I just couldn't get him to look natural.

Yes my first touch of sephia!

Oh my lil ham! He has never met a camera he didn't like!

So flippin' handsome!

I am so very thankful for him. He makes me laugh and smile everyday!

P.S. He really took the pictures so his Nana could see him in his outfit!

Well needed time off!

I am so jazzed to tell you all that Eddie got a day off. Okay you may not understand the hugeness of this fact!

I work until 4 pm Mon-Fri. Eddie goes to work at 2pm and gets off when I am fast asleep. Ohh ...sadness....we usually don't see each other until the weekend. Hmmm this weekend he had weekend duty for 13 hours each day...ARGHHH! So in order for us to see him we had to go to his job to see him. It's all good though. He called me at work and told me he had the day off!

YEPEE! It was so nice! We all went to the park and watched Elijah play with other children for awhile and went for (what else?) sushi! Okay so this was the coolest sushi place I have ever been to here! All the sushi was 105 yen, which doesn't mean much to you all, but was a really good price. It's brand new and they have a sushi carousel. It's pretty cool because you can order what you want and then it comes in this train to your table...oh wait..I digress!

The much needed family time was great! Elijah sat SUPER close to Eddie at dinner...yes he LOOOVES sushi too -- even the raw kind!

Finger Lickin' Good!

This is proof that we really feed Elijah!

We know our lil guy is skinny....he honestly still weighs 45 lbs....(hospital scale). He weighed 45 lbs at his 5 year old check up.....he is 6 years and 8 months old now.

Anyway he loooooooves Popeye's Fried Chicken. We have one here on base. He can eat about 3 pieces.....a breast, leg and a thigh! So today we had leftovers for dinner, hence the 2 pieces of quiche, biscuit and chicken on his plate.

He tore it up! Look at the pure skill he has in holding the chicken bones and manuevering his lips/teeth around the bones and grissle! Really? He finally finished and here is a pic of the finished bone....

$19.99 for a 10 piece meal is money well spent!

A 'virtual' workout

Yep another Wii story:

Eddie picked up a new Wii game this week....Summer Athletics. He was sooooo excited he called my classroom to tell me about it! We played Saturday night together. I just don't get it? I was really struggling to run the 100 meter and hurdles. I finally decided to throw in the towel (perhaps it's a virtual towel huh?). Eddie continued to play.

He was REALLY into it. I decided to snap a few pics for you to see. Yes, he is literally holding his breath while 'swimming' the breast stroke. I told him, "I am pretty sure it is safe to breath.....you aren't underwater."

Then he played the indoor cycling competition:

Literally sweating! Goodness....I just love this man!

I love my career!!!

So I had my second open house this week and we (the teachers) introduced ourselves to the parents. You know we have to mention the regular stuff (educaton, years of experience and hobbies) I also mentioned that I spent 12 years in the AF - 6 years active duty/6 years Reserves. A parent asked why I got out after 12 years and I could have retired in 8 more. Honestly, when I was in 5th grade I knew I wanted to become a teacher.



Funny huh?



I have known since I was 10 years old that I wanted to teach....I LOVE WHAT I DO! I truly love it. Yes, it tires me out daily, my feet hurt, there is a lot of pressure to perform, A LOT of paperwork and the pay isn't the best....but it makes me so happy to enjoy what I do daily.



There is always a new story to share with Eddie when he comes home or friends/family. I just wanted to tell you all that I really enjoy being able to do something I love!

So much FUN!

So anyone that has a Wii can totally understand this!

Before we left Phoenix, AZ we grew really close to Kim and Derrick Logan..Oh how I miss their faces!  She was prego and just the happiest pregger EVER!  Anywho we usually played Wii together (the 4 of us) while Elijah watched the million Disney movies Kim owns. 

We always (for real ALWAYS) hung over their house --- we lived in an apartment and the free space was pretty limited!  ha ha ha..... ohh good times!  Eddie and Derrick played Madden late into the wee hours of the morning...Kim and I usually fell asleep on the couch!  Ok, ok long story short.......both couples have Mario Kart Wii and we played online last night together...while talking on the phone.  It was the best time!  It was so funny, thrilling, and relaxing.  I just love them 2....now it's 3...Lil Jude arrived while we were here:(  Oh I am so sad about not being able to at least hold him for a second as an infant!  

We definitely gotta get back to Phoenix to relive old times!  

P.S. We are up for a game anytime ....as long as Derrick gives every other play a CHANCE!  

So the first week of school is over and my feet are killing me!! FOR REAL YOU GUYS!  The classroom floors are concrete with carpeting put on top...no padding....I have resulted to wearing tennis shoes to work with EVERY outfit.  Ha ha ha I am not joking...I really wear them with every outfit! Sad, but true.

It was a great week!  I do miss my old school.  I think I had been there so long and knew what all the acronyms were and who did what it got comfortable to me.  I really had to ask a lot of questions this week, but I work with the BEST team. Really supportive and VERY experienced teachers!  I am blessed!

Elijah says he is doing well in school.....but.....his teacher already came and had to talk to me?  HUH?  I had to pass that on to Eddie.

YEAH Eddie is back and I am still SUPER excited!  It's awesome having him around.  He is sooooo helpful and does so much around the house.  He always tells me "You have a job outside the home - just like me so we have to both do our share at home"  How wonderful! He brought me back this gorgeous formal dress...my fav color!  That is the first time in 4 years he has ever bought me clothes!  I was proud of him....it fit perfectly!     

What happened to summer?

Why has the high temp been 65 degrees for the past 7 days?  Whew, this is a far cry from 7 years in Phoenix, Arizona!  (I am not complaining though -- it's hard to miss 116 degrees) This winter is supposed to be colder than last:)  Yeah another white Christmas!  Good thing heating the house is FREE!

First Day of School

YEPEE!  So the first day of school was great!  Out of 5 years of teaching, I have started the first day on rainy day schedule more then not!  Huh?  Educators can understand the dilemma!  

Elijah was more than excited to go to 1st grade!  He had his backpack packed full of paper towel rolls, Kleenex, hand soap, folders, two journals, pencils, Elmer's glue, glue sticks, scissors, Lysol wipes, crayons, colored pencils, markers and his sack lunch....pretty sure it was heavier than he was.  I sat down and explained to him that we are blessed to be able to afford to buy all these school supplies and that he should be proud to carry the load, because some families can not afford it. He looked at me and said, "But Mom, we can afford school supplies but not school lunch everyday?" I mean really?  That lunch is expensive!  It's $2.20 a day x 5 days a week x 180 school days! NOT HAPPENING!  Eddie and I pack our own lunch and we got JOBS! 

P.S.  EDDIE COMES HOME TOMORROW!!!  

MAN I AM BEAT!

Summer break is exactly 67 days long and apparently I am not used to actually working!  I am exhausted!  FOR  REAL....like I've never worked a day in my life.  I have not cooked a day this week! I know, I know I love cooking for the family, but by the time I get off I am exhausted. Hmmmm maybe I could use more iron in my diet?  Whatever! (have you noticed I ALWAYS bring food up in my blogs?) 

Subway and Chinese fried rice (yes in Japan -- the irony) have been our subsistence this week.  

We had one of two open houses today.  It went GREAT!  The parents were really receptive to having a 'new' teacher on the team! My class size is 23....can I get a Hallelujah? I've never had it so good in my life! I am looking forward to starting the school year off Monday with the kiddos. Eddie comes home in 4 days! 

Earlier this week someone asked me 'how' I do it.  I asked 'do what?' They said become a single parent while your husband is gone repeatedly, keep the house running, faithful to your husband.  I told her I do it because nights alone aren't permanent, missing him reminds me of how blessed I am to have someone to miss and because I am not afraid to make sacrifices for TRUE LOVE.   

Applause for the Japanese Farmers

Okay so if you really know me you know I LOVE TO EAT!! Not just any food.....it needs to be QUALITY food.  So with that being said.....Japan has the best produce I have ever tasted.  Mind you I've been around the world a couple of times but, the Japanese will almost bring tears to your eyes with the goodness of their food. 

So there is a 'fresh market' right outside the gate here.  No frills believe me -- actually I am pretty sure they don't have any lights in the building....just nature.  Whatever!  They sell cheap DELICIOUS produce.  I am not talkin' Sprouts quality!  These will almost make you dance in the street!

So my friend called me to go get some peaches (they were on sell for 100 yen/each) and she told me to get this 'mystery' fruit that was 'sooooo goood'.  Of course, I got off work early to do this (no lie).  Grabbed the peaches and the mystery fruit.  It was as round and large as an apple.  Purplish in color, purple fleshy meat and so much juice I had it running down my chin.  YUMMERS!!  I ate it (while I was driving).....drove home....went to the gym.....and went to buy some more!

When I got to the counter I asked the lovely Japanese woman the name of the fruit.  She said in her ever so lovely English with a Japanese accent "nectarine"!  HUH?  This was no normal nectarine guys!  It was incredibly scrumptious.........I seriously pulled the car over to the side of the rode to finish it because I didn't want to have any distractions!  Man I don't know what they do to their fruits/vegetables, but I am the first tall, Black female in the Japanese markets to buy them up!

P.S. I can't believe I blogged about fruit! You would understand if you were here!  Wait til I tell you about the carrots!

Spaghetti anyone?

So I had to post this one.  Two nights ago we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner ( I love to cook for my family).  Elijah's FAV food is spaghetti and he always seems to finish A LOT of it in record timing.  It's astonishing actually!  So I wanted to know his secret!  As I observed him 'inhaling' a MAN-SIZED plate of spaghetti I was baffled!  Elijah LITERALLY does not chew his noodles up!  He just swallows  the noodles whole....allowing them to slide down this tongue, down his throat and right into his belly without a single jaw moving chew!  

HOW YOU ASK?: Well he eats the meatballs and sauce first.....then goes for the "Michael Phelps speedy" finish with the noodles!  Mind you, I don't break my noodles apart when I cook them.  I mentioned to him that he may want to chew his noodles up to help in the digestion process.  He just looked up at me.....with a noodle hanging out of his mouth --- that I imagined was halfway in his stomach on the other end--and smiled.  

He finished his dinner eating in his very own UNIQUE fashion!  

Yep...can you believe it?

...I know....I know....what you are thinking...Love actually started a blog! Kim go ahead and knock it off your list!  Actually we figured it would be the easiest way to keep up with all our stateside family and friends, since most people don't have MySpace accounts (I am a bit bored with it actually)

May I just begin with Elijah's first sleepover last night!  Goodness gracious is all I could say last night.  He earned a sleepover with two of his friends.  I figured it was a great way for Elijah to experience siblings, because that is as close as he is going to get here in Japan!  I was in a house with a 9 year old boy and 2 six year old boys for 16 hours.  The four of us played Wii from 9pm to 11:45pm! Actually I played for an hour with then and Eddie called (he is TDY) so I voluntarily stopped and let them go at it.  I had to shut the operation down at 11:45pm....against MUCH protest!

Anyhow I popped popcorn...Oh wait!  That was the most fun thing of the evening.  As a teacher I am amazed at how many children have NEVER seen popcorn pop outside of a microwave bag.  I mean that is the ONLY way I pop popcorn at home.....FOR REAL!  It taste so much better....hmmm the air feeling with the sweet aroma of freshly, popped popcorn and real, hot, melted butter (I didn't say it was healthy ....just tasted better) I showed our guests how popcorn pops and explained to them why it pops.  So many teachable moments huh?

The boys grabbed sleeping bags and watched The Incredible Hulk movie.  Whatever....it gave me time to have my quiet time!  They went to sleep circa 2:30am...once again under protest:( 

It was a really good night actually.  Those boys are really well-behaved kiddos and Elijah was overly excited to have friends spending the night!