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?