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!