Hanging with the Hollowells

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T01:20:00.002-05:00

The Hollowell family would like to wish everyone a great year! We are excited to welcome the new year and all the adventures it will bring. Instead of adding another entry, I'm just going to add a few random pictures below.

This picture was taken New Year's Eve. We picked up take out. Clara requested to use her chopsticks and I just gave Zach the ones that were packed in the bag to avoid his upset. I've not given him any instruction on the proper usage so was pretty impressed when I turned around and saw him successfully using them. So, of course I grabbed the camera. I will have to say that it wasn't all smooth sailing, but he was patient.
Zach is into everything and often gets in my way when I try to clean. I have discovered that he LOVES to use the Swiffer dry mop. I just thought it was cute, so again I grabbed the camera. He is not a neat freak, but I hope he continues to enjoy helping me dust and sweep. Oh, and he is officially a big boy. No more diapers!
Here is our little lady. Mimi made her this very colorful tutu. She of course admired it but then she disappeared. Shortly she returned wearing a leotard with the tutu and put on quite the show for us.

We have had a lovely Christmas break and I am sad to see it come to an end but am also eager to get back in the swing of things. I start another class tomorrow and work resumes on Tuesday. We will start selling Girl Scout cookies this week (let me know if you want to place an order). Although I did not spend as much time at work as I had hoped with all the sickness and injury during the first week and then potty training the second week, I will be able to go in tomorrow to prepare for the coming week.

Charlie has submitted his final re-enlistment package! I still feel so young (as I am) but it seems crazy that we are at this point of his Marine career. He is also working on starting all the prep work for MSG school. I am sure the next two months will fly.

Well, this post has been mostly rambling. Again, everyone have a happy 2012!

Zach's Bike

2011-12-26T17:04:00.003-05:00

Zach loves his big boy bike and is doing quite well with it. We haven't started working on brakes, but he steers and pedals really well. We took a walk yesterday afternoon and literally had to carry him back inside as he did not want to stop. Clara was complaining of the cold so after two complete laps around the north side housing area we went back in for hot cocoa.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T16:51:00.007-05:00

We had a really nice Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The kids decorated sugar cookies. Then they decorated the gingerbread village, which the kids enjoyed but I felt was sort of a dud. I think I'm going to get a bundt cake mold like this and let the kids decorate it next year. It will be tastier and likely look a lot better.
Clara was very creative while Zach was more about eating the candy as he went. Charlie also assisted him a little bit.

The pictures with the kids were inspired because I am usually the one behind the camera. Periodically I like to get in front of it to answer the question of "Where is mom?"

With the kids all bathed and in their new jammies, we put in White Christmas and started eating our traditional appetizer spread. I made jello for the kids, and it turned out to be the hit of the night. The kids also had their choice of sparkling juice. Clara did not like it at all, so she drank milk but Zach really liked it. He also liked the singing and dancing in the movie.

The kids were able to open one gift on Christmas Eve, which turned out to be Scooby figures. Big hit!
Once Zach realized there were toys in the wrapped packages, he got really excited. They played around a little bit and then it was time for bed.
Christmas morning came waaaay too early if you ask me. The kids were really tickled with all the gifts. Santa brought Clara Grace a kareoke machine plus a free-standing microphone. Zach got a big boy bike.
Zach loves this bike. He is riding it around the apartment as I type. The fact that he can do this demonstrates how good he is at steering because it is not easy maneuvering around this tight space. Clara keeps zooming in on her scooter to make for an interesting experience. Apartment living!
Here Clara is jamming out. For the most part she has stayed in her room singing, but I brought her out and had her watch the video that came with the Taylor Swift kareoke cd.
Zach was very grumpy after waking from his nap, but really perked up when she started. He grabbed a microphone and danced. He LOVES the microphone, but never talks in it. He just holds it.

Hind Sight is Always 20/20

2011-12-20T23:19:00.003-05:00

First, poor Zach. He has had a tough time lately. Last Friday he was sent home from daycare due to a fever than ran through to Sunday morning. He wasn't 100% Sunday but was much better. Then, Monday, he had a dentist appointment, but so did Clara and I so I had to drop him off at daycare for our appointments. By the time I got home, there was a message that he was hurt so I went to check him out. They felt he needed to go to the doctor over his busted lip, to be safe. I now know a lot more about wounds of the mouth. So, I definitely didn't take him back Tuesday but had thought to drop him off for an hour today so I could run a few errands.

Well, he wanted to stay with me so I kept him. We took our school registrar a cup of peppermint mocha. Then I enjoyed a cup of coffee while Clara and Zach drank hot cocoa and ate glazed donuts at the food court (Crossroads to those in Iwakuni). Then we checked the mail, went to the bank, and visited the library. On a side note, I discovered that I can check out ebooks for my kindle through the library! Anyway, we decided to go over to the PX to look for more Christmas gifts for Charlie. We found a few items but I cannot tell you what they are right now. He reads the blog.

Anyway, Zach was running out of steam at the PX. I assumed it was due to the fact that lunch and nap were fast approaching. We walked back over to Crossroads and got a couple subs for Charlie and I for lunch and we went home. Once there, he wanted me to carry him. So, I did. I made pb&j for the kids (I know, but they don't do subs and I wasn't getting them chicken nuggets and fries). Both kids were snubbing their food and Clara said her stomach was hurting.

With hind sight, the energetic boy wanting to be carried, no food desires, stomachache complaints...it all makes sense but I had not yet connected the dots. I was concerned that Zach might not be feeling well. We were expecting TV repairmen to be arriving close to this time so I told Clara to listen for them while I took Zach to his room for story time, rocking and bedtime. We read a couple of books checked out from the library, said prayers and I started rocking him. He said he was ready for bed so as I'm laying him down Clara tells me the guys are here.

I go let them in. Zach starts crying so as soon as I get them in the living room I tell them I'll be right back and to send Clara back if they need me. Zach is upset so I start to rock him. I went to check on Clara and returned. Zach had vomited. I get him changed and clean up. I carry him back with me and find out the repair is going to cost roughly $1500 as the tv is now out of warranty after 18 months of use. Luckily, as I'm explaining that I'll just keep watching the tv as it is, Charlie came home for lunch. He concurred and the tv people left. On another side note, it is interesting that the two Japanese men were accompanied by a Marine from the exchange. I am often reminded of little things like this that are normal for us, but weren't at one time.

So, I'm explaining to Charlie about Zach and Clara. I'm off to get the thermometer when Zach starts fussing again and decides to follow me. And gets sick. A lot. Luckily it was on the tile floor. So, we get him cleaned up and the floor clean and check temperatures. They are both running low grade fevers. I decided to just give them liquids, blankets and let them watch tv on the couch. Zach didn't take long before he fell asleep but Clara is enjoying Tom and Jerry as I type.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is the worst of it and they are both happy as larks come tomorrow.

H&HS Christmas Party

2011-12-20T22:56:00.006-05:00

Charlie came home yesterday with the news that the H&HS Christmas party was that day. I am probably the least informed Marine wife to events such as these. Since I am always up for these things, off we went. Charlie is technically with 171, however is fapped over to H&HS. Anyway, they always do a nice job, but my hat goes off to them this year. The gym was decorated quite well I thought and the way they raffled the prizes was awesome. Each person was given a green ticket as they entered. There were three "big" raffles: a 37" TV, a laptop and an ipad. Anyway, you were able to pick which item you wanted to put your ticket in. Then there were a bunch of other raffle prizes such as Cozy Coupes, camera, Razor scooter, legos, etc. Probably around 20 prizes. There were games set up around the perimeter of the gym such as the hockey goal below, corn hole, shooting hoops, and so on. As you won tickets, which were red, you could go drop your ticket in the box for the corresponding item. At the end of the party, they shut down the games and did the raffles. All green tickets were then put together and they chose one for the grand prize of a 47" flat screen TV. Nice. We didn't win, but I really enjoyed the experience. Here are a few pictures taken during the night.

Zach gives it a try with putting a tennis ball in the goal with a hockey stick.
Clara repeatedly slammed the tennis ball into the goal! Score! She tried to win the iTouch, a Sony cybershot camera and a Nintendo 3DS. She didn't win, but she had fun trying!
Ignore the glistening above his mouth, but this is just a shot of his poor busted lip.

I couldn't get Charlie or Clara to suit up in the Sumo suits. I enjoyed watching these kids anyway. As you can see, there was a variety of entertainment.
Clara wanted a balloon animal and chose to have a cat. She recognized the clown was Japanese and requested her cat in Japanese: Neko.
Zach didn't want one. I'm not sure he knew what to think of the clown.

More Sumo fun!
Yes, Santa puts in an appearance and Zach climbed right up there without any prompting. Shocking!

Clara was not thrilled with the food, although I thought it was quite nice. They were serving turkey, ham, gravy, yams, mashed potatoes, dressing, cookies, and cake. Yum! See the piece of cake, that was her sole motivation to eat.
Can you tell how much she is enjoying it?
Zach, tackling his piece of cake.

2011-12-18T23:38:00.008-05:00

It certainly seems like we have been busy lately. I finally sat down to update the blog and pulled up the available pictures to try to remember it all. I think this was last Saturday. The Girl Scouts of Iwakuni gathered at our food court to sing Christmas carols. It was a nice time but was also right in the middle of Zach's nap time. Trying to be flexible, I put him in the stroller and took him along. The girls did a really nice job with singing. Clara and a couple of her buddies.
Somehow I missed uploading Zach asleep in his stroller. It worked out well for me. Since he was sleeping nicely and Clara left the event to spend the night with the girl on the left above, I walked Zach over to the library so he could finish his nap. It was some nice downtime. I remembered that our library has ipads you can use in the library so I thought I would see what that is all about. As it turns out, I am not very good on an ipad. Although I was able to open up Safari, I couldn't close it to check out the other apps. Luckily I encountered a friend on my way to the circulation desk to get help and she showed me what I needed to do. By then I was done with it. Zach finally woke up and we began enjoying the library. He was absolutely thrilled they had a Cat in the Hat.
Later that evening Zach and I walked over to a colleagues home that was hosting a Christmas gathering. We both had a nice time. The next day we spent working on the home and getting Clara's Christmas Around the World project complete for the presentation on Monday. She was doing China. It was a family project, but Clara made her own PowerPoint (although I assisted with saving/inserting pictures and formatting the YouTube video. I worked it out with her teacher to let her do her presentation during my planning period so I could watch. Here Clara is presenting. Can you see how excited her classmates are? Nah, they did a good job of listening but I did get tickled when looking at the pictures.
There was a glitch with the youtube video so we just had to do a hyperlink. If you would like to watch this short video, click here. It is cute but will get in your head for several days.

This is Clara's investiture ceremony on Tuesday. It was directly after their meeting and was yet another busy day. I had a meeting after school, took CG to her meeting, ran back to school to finish sub plans for Wednesday since I was supposed to have remedial driver training. Then pick up Zach to make it to her ceremony. It was cutting it really close, but we made it.

I promise I ordered all the badges needed, but for some reason they didn't send them all. I wasn't the only one. They were reordered so hopefully her sash will look right very soon. She has earned a couple of badges too, that I have yet to sew/iron on.
After the ceremony, which was very nice and short, we enjoyed a few treats. I forgot to mention I was making cupcakes at 4am. Clara was very nice to her little brother during this time.
Charlie came home late Wednesday night! We were very glad to have him home and it was yet another crazy day at work for me. Thursday, right after school we went to Zach's daycare for a family cookie decorating experience. Zach wasn't into it so after cleaning up we headed out in town so I could shop for my students.
We survived the last week of school before Christmas break. Zach ended up being sent home sick on Friday and thankfully Charlie was able to take care of him as it was just nuts at work. Christmas celebrations, two students moving, etc. Fun, but busy and hectic. Zach was still running a fever on Saturday so we stayed in. The kids and I made dough ornaments. Ignore Zach's crazy hair. He had not been up from his nap for long. We have yet to paint the ornaments but will do that soon.

Clara, Zach and I all had dentist appointments on Monday morning (today). I scheduled Zach's at 7am and Clara and I both for 9am. Charlie had to go with us since the base dental has rules about that. Anyway, Zach refused to open his mouth although it was a pleasant enough trip. The dentist suggested I bring him back in a few months since she didn't want to traumatize him. I appreciate that. We dropped Zach off at daycare so we could go back to the dentist. The plan was also that I would return home to finish a paper due today. Luckily Clara and I both got a no cavity report, although would like to know just how much blood I spilled due to the tender cleaning I received (yes, that is sarcasm). Anyway, as soon as I returned to the apartment I saw a message from the daycare and it just said it was not an emergency but please call. I decided to just go see what was wrong. Zach fell and busted his lip. The picture below looks much better than it did when I arrived and he still had blood around his chin (it is pizza sauce you see below). His teacher said she would take him to the doctor if he were her child. I didn't want to overreact, but decided to take him to be seen. Luckily the pediatrition was able to fit me in immediately and said he is fine. I'm glad she told me how it would heal because she painted a pretty ugly picture that I might have worried about. He was so cooperative at the doctor and hasn't been bothered by it once. Oh, and she checked his ears without me mentioning anything (I wondered if his ears could have been the cause for the fever over the weekend). Luckily they looked great. I brought him on home and was able to finish my paper. All this before nap time.
I'm hoping tomorrow is a bit more relaxing!

A Winter Extravaganza!!!

2011-12-06T06:29:00.003-05:00

Random Pics

2011-12-04T04:09:00.003-05:00

Zach is enjoying his first S'more! He liked it. As you can see, he tackled it in typical Zachary-style...by pulling it apart first.

Clara is always up for a S'more!

Last week I saw these in the commissary and thought they would come in handy one day. Zach did not get a good nap today after our visit with Santa (pic to come later) and we had to go out in town to try to find dress shoes for Clara and go grocery shopping. Once we made it to the commissary I told the kids I had a surprise and pulled these out. Aaaah. What a peaceful grocery shopping experience. I had very few impulse requests from them and absolutely no bickering or grabbing things off the shelf! They should come in a big back instead of packaged individually! These pictures were taken after the grocery shopping experience and back in the car.

MCAS Annual Christmas Tree Lighting

2011-12-04T03:37:00.005-05:00

The annual Christmas tree lighting is a pretty big deal for the base. The kids and I walked over to Cherry Blossom Triangle (isn't that a lovely sounding name for a small patch of grass?). Enjoy the pictures below. I couldn't manipulate the pictures so the picture right below is of Clara Grace after using the gift card she won in one of the video clips below. I included several clips of our high school students performing. I am always impressed with how well they perform under Mr. Strawbridge. It is a very small high school so amazing they perform so well.

The kids are enjoying the complimentary hot cocoa and cookies!

Clara Grace won a $25 gift certificate to the exchange. You hear her saying her name in this clip. I wish I had caught her big smile when she came back down from the stage. She was SO excited.

A Conversation with Zach

2011-12-04T03:27:00.001-05:00

Oh Christmas Tree

2011-11-26T16:51:00.005-05:00

I absolutely love the day after Thanksgiving...Black Friday! Not so much for the shopping, but the official launching of the Christmas Season. I always try to put up the Christmas tree that day. This year is exciting because Zach is more involved in activities. We started the day off by taking Zach to daycare for a few hours so I could work in my classroom. Clara stayed with me. After getting squared away for the next week, we decided to stop by the exchange to see if there was anything worth grabbing. We did gather several articles of clothing for the kids, I put them back and said we might try later. There were very long lines at the few registers at the exchange. So off we went to pick up Zach, eat lunch and put him down for a nap. While he napped, I brought in our Christmas decorations and made sugar cookies (okay, I cut up ready-made dough compliments of Pillsbury) and downloaded a couple kid's Christmas albums. Honestly, my vision of the fun was a bit grander than our actual experience but it was still nice, we have a tree up and the kids are loving the finished product.The kids, just before we left for the annual Christmas Tree Lighting at Cherry Blossom Triangle. Clara, so happy to be sporting the much anticipated lighted up Frosty Christmas hoodie from Nana, and Zach in front of our finished Christmas tree.
The rest of the pictures document our process of putting up the Christmas tree.
We have very tight living quarters, so we started out putting the tree up in the most open space we have. Zach and Clara both helped with the stand. Zach absolutely loved the Christmas music.
This has to be the saddest tree around. I bought it with very limited funds in Hawaii when Charlie and I had been married just six months. I was so proud to be able to bring this tree home and set it up. We have often considered replacing it, but ultimately decided to try to hold out until Charlie retires from the Marines. Anyway, both kids helped "spruce" it up by spreading the limbs.
It was at this point I pulled out the Christmas lights and realized we needed to purchase more. This was rather frustrating as I remember these were quite economical and the ones at the exchange seemed rather expensive. Regardless, the tree stayed in the middle of the room and we ran out to the exchange and bought a set of 300 lights for $20 which I was very annoyed about but did it. When I got home I realized that that string of lights was just not long enough. So, I gave up for the day and the house remained a mess. The kids were not bothered at all as they enjoyed the cookies. Clara later enjoyed the very difficult-to-find hot cocoa after I put Zach to bed.

Saturday, I woke inspired to complete the project. I undid the strand of lights and pulled it a bit tighter and managed to salvage one of the better strands of lights by "hiding" the blown bulbs to complete the tree lighting. Putting the ornaments on was easy and enjoyable as we now have several ornaments other than the super cheap balls I have purchased in the past. The kids will be making new ornaments today after church.
Zach, enjoyed the ornaments.
Zach is very drawn to the tree and alternates between being sneaky and trying to get behind it and being respectful of not touching.
Just a funny tidbit, but Zach knows to say cheese for the camera, but he is not intent on smiling. He just delivers a very powerful "cheese" so I think I'm going to have to work on that.
Blaze has a serious love of the Christmas season too. He chews on this sad tree and lurks beneath the branches. Zach has discovered this. Poor Blaze.
You can see the love Blaze has for Zach.
Cute though. Zach is actually quite concerned about Blaze being hungry. I'm going to try to upload the video I have of our conversation at this time. The battery just gave out so I have to charge it before doing more updates.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T22:38:00.003-05:00

The Hollowell family wishes you all a Happy Thanksgiving. We have so many things to be thankful for and are so blessed. I've never had such a low-key Thanksgiving Day. I woke early only because I had homework that was due and wanted to complete it before the kids woke. Fortunately Zach woke right after I finished submitting it so the timing was perfect. We hung out all morning, doing a few chores and trying to begin potty training Zach. We had 11:00 reservations for the buffet dinner. Zach was a sport and tried a variety of dishes while Clara stuck to the tried and true. She was thrilled to discover they had a special menu with kids in mind of corn dogs and chicken strips. Zach did fairly well and uttered a few "mmmm mmmm mmms"and Clara Grace acted very much the proper young lady. I dug in and enjoyed the traditional holiday fare. I even ate cornbread dressing!

Desert was delicious, however Zach took over my pumpkin pie. Luckily they neither one were interested in my sliver of pecan pie. He must have gotten plenty because he actually fell asleep as I read The Cat in the Hat to him after we got home. That is the first time I have ever actually put one of the kids to sleep while reading.

We miss all of our family very much. We especially miss Charlie and hope he had a good day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hooray for PetFoodDirect.com!

2011-11-19T01:25:00.004-05:00

You may recall Blaze was sick some time ago. Well, he had been on prescription food since Beaufort until we came here. I made a judgement call and thought I'd just switch him to regular food once we made it out here and the base vet did not sell it. That worked for two years until the Japanese vet said to keep him on it. So, we have been making frequent trips to Dr. Morisake's since you cannot get this at the base vet. It was expensive and this is a little bag! I was paying nearly 1500Y (which is currently nearly $20 with the current conversion rate) for this small bag. I decided to search for alternatives and discovered that Pet Food Direct would ship it to me over here if I supplied them with a prescription. I had our base vet write up a prescription for me when I took Blaze in to get the blood work done to prepare him for our next move and placed the order. Today we stopped by the post office to see if the food had finally arrived. It had! That was great because we were on our way to Dr. Morisake's for yet another bag. I ordered the 35 lb. bag. Check is out in comparison to the little bag I get from Dr. Morisake.

I took a close up of the Japanese bag.

I am so glad that I do not need to worry about his food for a while! As you can see, it is the little things that light up my day. So, here is my shout out to PetFoodDirect.com:

Clara Grace

2011-11-19T01:15:00.003-05:00

Clara Grace likes to sing. She likes to dance too. Unfortunately, I cut off the video before she added the dance moves. She is a hoot! What do you think of the flower in her hair? She picked that out at a craft fair we went to today. This was not candid video, she was totally putting on the show for the camera. I wish I could catch her doing it more naturally.

Gonna Fly Now

2011-11-19T00:58:00.002-05:00

Our grade level took a field trip to Miyajima Aquarium yesterday. I just love the use of the Rocky Theme Song aka Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conti. Yes, I looked that up just for this post. This is the same island we visited in this post entry. It was a rainy day and the kids loved it, however getting the kids on and off the ferry was rather tense for me as it was a really busy so lots of people present. Luckily, we made it there and back safely!

I took a lot of video and pictures, but just thought you might enjoy the familiar music paired with a sea lion doing sit ups.

Rain Rain Go Away

2011-11-19T00:48:00.001-05:00

2011-11-12T04:29:00.003-05:00

I've been meaning to take video of Zach riding his tricycle. He mastered the big one at daycare first, but now he is riding his like a pro too. He is so independent. We rode over to a nearby playground, but never made it in. The playground is in front of a friend's house and on a street that has no through traffic. The kids ended up riding bikes up and down the short street and Zach snagged a girl's big wheel to ride too. He was so tired by the time we came home.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T07:23:00.006-04:00

Although the weekend was yucky with rain, Halloween actually turned out to be really nice weather. It was actually warm during the day, but cooled down just a tad for the evening. Clara Grace's good friend and her mom came over for pizza before we headed out for treat or treat. Clara was adamant about not wearing her Daphne wig, so I don't think everyone quickly figured out who she was. Zach cried about wearing the Scooby costume until we were actually trick or treating. You would have thought I was torturing him! Here is a pic of the girls posing just before we left.We stopped at a few apartments before hitting the townhouses. Can you see the tears still glistening on his cheeks? He would not put Scooby's head on though.
This is the father of one of Clara's classmates and he was a hoot. He talked Scooby talk the entire time to Zach. Zach didn't seem to get it, which made it all the funnier.
This is another good friend of Clara and Megan, dressed as Cleopatra.
I enjoyed speculating whether this young man was a prop or if he just ran out of steam.
Zach was definitely intrigued by all the decorations.

If you recall, Zach was a raging lunatic before we left. I just threw the wig on. It looked awful, but I was apparently easily identified as Velma, so oh well. I never did get around to turning the wagon into the Mystery Machine. Oh man, I realize I never once said, "Jinkies!"

The girls posing...again.

Zach, on the last leg of the journey.

We had a great time and I still managed to get Zach in bed by 7:45 and Clara in bed by 8:30. I think it is about time for me to call it a night as well.

Happy Halloween

Clara's Creations

2011-10-30T06:52:00.004-04:00

We had a pretty nice weekend leading up to Halloween, which is tomorrow. We kicked it off by meeting friends at the bowling alley for dinner plus and then we went to the library for pumpkin origami, tasty treats, story telling and relay races. Clara had a friend spend the night with her and I took down the crib.

Clara drew a face on her pumpkin and Zach directed her for his face. I did the carving while Clara assisted with scooping out the seeds. I think their little jack-o-lanterns turned out fairly cute. Clara is in her Daphne outfit as we did this after her Girl Scout event today.
I thought this turned out rather cute. This is a shoe Clara Grace designed using the little beads on the board and you iron them to bond them together. I went ahead and did it for her but didn't think much of it until I saw it bonded. I was impressed!
Clara and I decided to make a cake using disposable pumpkin-shaped pans. She pretty much did it by herself with me giving guidance here and there.

I know we should have used black for the face, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. I think she did a pretty good job though. We took this one to a friend but have been enjoying the one we kept for us at home.

OBBB Day 2

2011-10-30T04:35:00.002-04:00

Operation Big Boy Bed is going. I suppose you would say it is even going successfully. The nap yesterday wasn't too bad. I mean, he did fall asleep although he did make numerous attempts to avoid the inevitable. Last night wasn't too bad either. He fell asleep without too many issues, however he woke multiple times throughout the night. I woke this morning feeling a little less than rested. Charlie called this morning and was surprised everyone was still sleeping at nearly 7am. Broken sleep with do that to a person, even if it is a 2-year-old.

As you can see, the bed has already had a couple of placements in the room. I'm thinking of making additional adjustments, but it is working as it is.

Proof that Zach will eventually fall asleep in the bed.

Regardless that it takes a few minutes to get him to sleep, I truly think it is going well. I would be surprised if he went straight to sleep in it each time. He likes his big boy bed and tells anyone that will listen about it. Now I have to get actual toddler bed bedding, mainly so I can go ahead and find a new home for the crib bedding, which is part of what we are using now.

On a side note, see the pink (I think it is a pig) stuffed animal. This is James, which Zach calls Jimmy, that is from daycare. It is Jimmy's misfortune to spend the weekend with a disinterested Zach. There is a journal that we are to record his activities with Zach and include pictures. Most of our pictures for the journal are like this...inserted for the photo op. I tried to get Zach to hold him and he might for a minute before he passed James right back. I tried to get him to give James a ride while he was riding his four-wheeler...he tossed James off. All the other pictures in the journal show big cheesy grins doing fun things with James.

Operation Big Boy Bed

2011-10-28T07:38:00.003-04:00

We attempted the big boy bed a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn't prepared to put into what it turned out to require at that time. After another busy week and promising the crib to someone I decided it was time. We met friends for dinner and headed over to the library for story time, crafts and treats to make sure he was nice and tired. Clara has a friend spending the night, which I thought would make a nice distraction while I took down the crib so that I couldn't give up.

The distraction worked. I was able to take down the crib and move it into the hall without any issue and Zach was definitely nice and tired. He was very cooperative through story time and was even eager to turn out the light and complete our little rocking routine. He let me put him to bed, and out the door I went. To stand and wait. He did not disappoint. Boy is he one persistent little guy! I eventually decided to sit in the glider, but he just lay there without falling asleep. Finally I decided it was a bit silly of me to just be sitting there in the dark so started leaving again. This time it only took a few very firm returns to the bed. It has been several minutes and he hasn't gotten up again. I put the Angel Care sensor under the mattress so it would go off if he gets out of the bed. Before I go to bed I will put a gate at the door to the living area just in case so his only place to go is my bedroom.

Hopefully the night goes smoothly. I'll be having the girls go to bed here shortly.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

2011-10-22T18:04:00.006-04:00

A colleague at school organized a ticket purchase for the last game of the season for the Hiroshima Carps. I was really hesitant to get tickets because I thought Charlie would have already left and it was a 6pm game, and Zach is usually in bed by 7pm. I finally decided I thought he could handle it and how could I not go see the Carps while living here.

As it turns out, Charlie had not left yet. He leaves Monday so he was still here. Unfortunately he had work stuff to take care of and couldn't go. The forecast was also rather gloomy. A friend that has two kids the same ages as Clara and Zach and I were in frequent communication yesterday trying to decide if we really wanted to do it. We talked at 4:30 and agreed we were doing it. I already was loaded up in the car ready to head to the train station while they were a bit delayed so I decided to head on. He arrived at the train station, got our round trip tickets and luckily there was a train about to pull out so on we went.

Zach was tickled to be on the train for the first six stops or so, then he wanted to get off. Hiroshima Station is 14 stops from Iwakuni (yes, I count as well as check the signs at each stop). The train was pretty crowded as we neared Hiro. Although I knew how to get there, these were my directions to the stadium: Once you get there, it is about a 15 minute walk. Follow the jerseys.

As it turns out, I only saw one jersey and I was afraid to take a chance. I approached her and said: Sumimasen (excuse me), Doko dess-ka (where is it?) and pointed to the baseball on Zach's shirt and her jersey. It is a good thing I asked. She was not going to the game. She pointed me in the right direction and said, "Turn left, go straight". I was thankful for her English. So, I turned left and went straight. At that point, I noticed a few jerseys and heavy foot traffic so with each kid in the wrist grip off we went to the ballgame.

It is a fairly small stadium so we had little difficulty finding our section and then of course I saw lots of familiar faces. The kids had a great time but were complaining of thirst and hunger on the way in the stadium. Once we were settled, I went in search of food. I didn't know it, but I ordered a BLT with some tater tot looking things. I was even able to have them not put mayonnaise on it and was pleased when they called it a BLT (I just pointed at the picture). The kids got chicken. Once I was seated and explored that bacon, it was definitely different. Very thick, not crisp at all and I would guess it had been boiled. Some of you will be amazed that I shrugged and started chowing down. (Since coming to Japan I have a don't ask, just eat policy). About 75% complete, a friend's nephew approaches to tell me my bacon is horse meat. Again, the shoulder shrug. Who knows? I finished eating it though. Zach ate some of the chicken, but those tater tot things must have been good because I didn't get any of them.

As you can see from the pictures, it was a lot of fun. Clara was not thrilled to go, but I kept telling her it would be a blast. Two of her buddies were there and they giggled and had fun the entire time. Zach sat in his seat and watched the game the entire time. We left around the 8th inning. It was already 9pm, we were losing big time and friends were beginning to leave. I decided to take the train back with some. We made it back in the apartment at 10:30 and the kids were in bed by 11pm. It was the latest I've ever had them out but they did great. They are both still sleeping at 7:40am which is a rare thing. Enjoy the pictures. I've included a few captions.

This thing is a bounce house! I didn't realize it when I snapped the picture but Clara pointed it out. I planned to take the kids, but never got around to it and do not think they felt cheated.

Zach really had a good time. His friend, Abigail, sat right behind him. He didn't say much to her at the game, but they sat together on the train home and had a blast! I bet the Japanese sitting around us on the train had a few stories to tell once they got home.
Yes, we lost badly. We scored a run in the 5th inning and it was a big time with the crowd.

Everybody has these little bats and hit them together for various chants. The girls found multiple uses for them.
Proper usage.
Notice the other people with sweaters on? Look at my kids. I was chilly with a long-sleeved tee. Clara had a sweater with her that she took off. She really really wanted ice cream and her friend was getting some so I gave in. It wasn't actually cold. These little helmets seemed safe for both of them so we did that. It really made Zach happy. It was near the 7th inning where they release these balloons that you see in unison. As you can see, everyone around Zach is into it and all he wants is to eat that ice cream. Zach was wearing a long-sleeved tee under his short sleeved tee but he absolutely refused to wear the fleece and hat I brought for him. His little chin was quivering after eating the ice cream!

The release! It was pretty neat.

I'm glad we did it. We might be able to squeeze in another game as a family in the spring before we move.

Kneading Time

2011-10-22T17:43:00.002-04:00

To be honest, I do not do much cooking that is enjoyable anymore. Most of the time our food considered by trying to do the healthiest things possible, as fast as possible. My weekends are a whirlwind of activity to prepare as much as possible for the coming week by cleaning, buying groceries, doing homework and trying to have a little fun with the family too. I enjoy it, but it means I go for easy on the food.

Recently we had a three day weekend because of Columbus Day and I decided to take Saturday and do something new. As it turned out, it was also a yucky weekend so we stayed inside. What to do? Sadly, I am 34 years old and I have never made my own pizza dough. I found a very cool cooking site: Susan's Cooking School. Not only did she have the recipes, but included videos. Since I was making the dough, I decided I would go ahead and make the sauce too.

I watched the videos, was loaded with confidence and made my ingredient list. Then I crossed my fingers as I scouted our commissary for those ingredients. Luckily, everything I needed was there, including bread flour! Granted, this process took much of my day with allowing the dough to rise multiple times. I'll admit that the initial creating the dough had me a bit concerned that I did something wrong but after I finished kneading it, which was quite the workout, it looked just right and did just what Susan said it would do. Once I realized it was turning out just fine, I had a lot of fun working with the dough! I did no elaborate tosses in the air, but stretching it out for the stone was really neat.

The sauce was fun to make too, but it was just not nearly as zesty as we would like. It was a little disappointing. I think I'll still use the recipe, just make a few tweaks.

For this particular pizza I browned Italian sausage and cut up pepperoni. It turned out quite yummy and there were no leftovers. Here is a picture of the final product.

I am looking forward to making pizza again, as well as trying out other homemade bread ideas.

The Latest Scoop

2011-10-19T05:27:00.003-04:00

The Hollowell family is potentially going to embark on a new adventure in late spring of 2012. In July, Charlie was screened to go to school to become a detachment commander on embassy duty. We have been waiting on pins and needles for news to come because the wait time is typically one month. As it turns out, it took three for us. Today we received news that Charlie's package was accepted and he has a school date for early March.

The school lasts for seven or eight weeks so he should be done by the end of April. If he graduates the school (and I emphasize the "if" because it is a tough school and one of the few that you can fail without it hurting your career) then we should know around mid to late April which embassy Charlie will be serving. It is pure speculation, but we imagine we would be moving sometime in May.

You might have a few questions about the duty. As a detachment commander, we would serve two different embassies with 18 months spent at each one. There are so many exciting places we could go.

We are pretty stoked about it. Luckily, with that school date it allows me to finish the school year or come pretty close. I'll conclude with an entertaining video for you to check out.

Poor Blaze!

2011-09-24T10:08:00.002-04:00

The other day it was obvious Blaze was not feeling well. I suspected a urinary tract infection. I placed a call to our base veterinarian office to find out the vet would be returning the third week in October. We were recommended to take him to Dr. Morisake out in town and given his walk in hours. After work, Clara Grace and I picked up Blaze and took him to the vet. It was a very interesting experience.

To begin with, the check in process was a bit humorous. I brought our Japanese translation books and the sheet the veterinarian's office had given me with presenting signs translated in Japanese. Luckily we got it all settled and sat down. And waited. And waited. Poor Clara Grace. It was rather entertaining watching all the pets come in, be seen and sent home as we waited. I was also rather surprised with the number of dogs that were physically carried in.

After waiting for a couple of hours, it was our turn. I was really impressed with Dr. Morisake! First off, it was one open room. He checked out Blaze, put a sample under the microscope and shared his findings with me. It turns out he did have the urinary tract infection, but also some crystals. He gave him a shot, prescribed antibiotics, anti-flamitory meds and he is back on prescription cat food.

Luckily, Blaze is doing quite a bit better now. He isn't completely better. I did find a website that will ship the food out here, but it still might be difficult.

This appointment took place Thursday and it is Sunday here, so hopefully he is doing much better by tomorrow.

Way to go Zach!

2011-09-17T08:11:00.002-04:00

I'll preface this with the statement that I know nothing about potty training. I can give you my experience, but will stop short of offering advice. Working with Clara Grace was unpleasant. I've been really lax with Zach. I bought the potty quite some time ago, have pull ups and big boy undies stocked and have offered lots of encouragement. A few weeks ago I made a potty chart for the bathroom and showed him star stickers and said he could have a gummy bear each time he uses the potty. So far, no interest. He would sit, but not use it.

However, tonight we were getting ready for bed and Zach walks over to the potty and said he was going to use it. And he did! The whole family made a big deal about it, he got his sticker and gummy bear.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this starts a trend. He was really tickled with all the attention he got so we'll see.

Long Time No Post

2011-09-14T06:30:00.004-04:00

I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown since the last post. We returned from Tokyo and I immediately started working in my classroom as well as trying to wrap up a few small projects. As you can see, we managed to make it to the beach. It isn't far, we just do not go often. You might also notice that Japanese women (at least at this beach) do not wear swimsuits. They might wear capri pants and 3/4 length shirts. I dressed to mingle, and while hot definitely appreciate the choice of apparel. The kids had a blast playing in the sand and Clara was quite brave swimming in the water.

Generally, Zach is always dressed. He insists on getting dressed first thing in the morning and gets annoyed to have to remove his shoes. His most beloved shoes are his rain boots. He quickly outgrew the pair that match his rain coat so I bought these out in town. He LOVES them and will try to wear them when it isn't raining. Anyway, this was one evening when I was trying to get him ready for the bath and he took off, put his boots on and was having a good time. What a hoot!
This was one of those days I was working in my classroom. We took this picture because Mimi made this dress for her and matching ribbon. I think she looks quite adorable, and job well done, Mimi! She made several of the same style and luckily we have leggings to compliment each one.
Since Friendship Day was cancelled due to the earthquake and tsunami, they really played up the musical festival this year. Charlie had to work a booth so the kids and I walked over after Zach woke from his nap and enjoyed the afternoon. This festive sinking Titanic (yes, that is sarcasm) was a hit. Zach refused to jump, but he did ride with me down the tiger slide. Who knew how hard it would be to haul him to the top. They look easy, but I have a deeper appreciation for Clara's skill now.

It was so very hot there that shaved ice was a must.

Charlie cooked bbq, made sauce and slaw for their booth, Waycrazy style. It was yummy, but I only was able to enjoy what I ate here. A couple weeks later he made more for Labor Day. The kids enjoyed exploring the P19.
Clara Grace is now in second grade. This was the first day of school. The two pictures aren't great, as I was snapping them at the last minute. She is loving second grade and is such a big girl now.

Other than all that, we are just adjusting to being back in school. I've been working longer days than is ideal but we are all doing really well. Zach is really communicating well and is handling trips to the store and out and about so much better now. We attended the Freedom Walk and ceremony on 9/11 and I thought both kids did really well.

It has been crazy, but I'm hoping things are settling down a little and I'll post something more soon.

Day Two: Sightseeing in Tokyo

2011-08-18T07:53:00.010-04:00

Day two of our Tokyo trip was a lot of fun. It basically was broken up into the following three segments: A trip to Tokyo Tower where we explored on our own for a bit, then we got on the bus and drove around while the guide pointed out places like the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Ginza (Tokyo's version of 5th Avenue) and other various points of interest. After that we unloaded, spent time in Asakusa while checking out the Sensoji Temple. We then took a Hamiko boat ride that dropped us off at Odaiba where we had free time. After that we boarded the bus and went back to the hotel. That is the brief version.

Here we are on our way to the Tokyo Tower. Zach is having his PediaSure, which serves as his coffee boost. It was already quite hot out but what a beautiful day!
We went to the main observatory which is only 150 meters up, just under half of the tower's total height of 333 meters. Due to Zach's overall grumpiness on this leg of the tour we opted to not pay the extra fee to go even higher. A mom of a student of mine was kind enough to snap a picture of all four of us.
This viewing station was really cool. Zach was bold enough to stick his neck out for the view while Clara stood close by.
I'll be honest with you, my stomach dropped a little when I stepped on this and looked down, but you know I had to do it. The rest of the family opted out.
We took a lot of pictures while in the tower, but I'm trying to minimize the post. Here is a picture of the bus we rode from Iwakuni and all over Tokyo.
Here is the picture Charlie took of the tower from the bottom. They are currently building the Tokyo Sky Tree that will nearly double the height of Tokyo Tower.
And we are off for our riding tour of Tokyo. Here you can see Zach having a blast with Charlie.
Again, I took many pictures of the tour but there weren't great since it was through the window of the bus. It was incredible to see though. Here had just unloaded from the bus and were waiting on our guide to secure tickets for the boat ride. After he did that we were free to explore until we met back for the boat ride. The building below is the Asahi Beer Hall which we had an excellent view of while we waited.
This is where I was sitting when the above picture was snapped. Typically I wouldn't have posted this picture, but it shows a happy time right before I spazzed out. It took a while before I could laugh about it, but each time I think about it I get tickled. As you can see, we are chilled out and just sitting. What you do not see is that behind me this area ends in a V, with Tokyo traffic streaming all around. Notice Zach is not wearing "the puppy". He jumped up and took off toward the V. Clara was just sitting there beside me, and I was so frantic thinking he would beat me to the street that I instinctively twisted my body and used whatever leverage I needed to burst into speed after him. It turns out that leverage was Clara. That's right. As I twisted, my left arm hurled her right off that little wall we were sitting on and slung her right onto the ground. I caught up to Zach in record time. As I returned, so did my sanity. I had some apologizing to do as Clara cried hysterically and Charlie soothed her. Afterward he told me that he understood what happened (Clara accepted my apology and I promised her that I would sling Zach to get to her too if I thought she was in danger) but hoped none of our fellow travelers saw it because it looked pretty bad. Yes, I still feel sheepish about it.
Luckily all the crying was over, the puppy went back on Zach and we started exploring Asakusa. It was very packed with lots of vendors selling goods and yummy treats. Zach was quite taken with these mannequins. I mean, we had to drag him away. He would stand beside the tall one, gave it a hug and as you can see is holding the hand of the other one. It was cute, but we noticed as we returned down the street that these little guys had plastic covers on them. Coincidence? I doubt it.

According to our guide, the people are directing the smoke to parts of their bodies for healing purposes.
A shot of the Tokyo Sky Tree.
Did I mention it was hot? We took a little break for ice cream. The vendors here spoke English and were very friendly. After several minutes, he came out and took pictures of us to put up on his picture covered exterior display.
Charlie ordered...something...on a stick and he came out to suggest a seasoning.

This is what a Hamiko boat looks like. It was very cool. We rode it to our next place to explore. We took loads of pictures on this scenic tour, but I'm sparing you.
This is the view of Aqua City at Odaiba. It was pretty cool. I think we had two hours to explore this area.
I'll see if you can figure out why I posted this picture. That's all I've got to say about that.
While at Aqua City we hit the Disney Store where Clara acquired a stuffed Chip (that is because her daddy is a softy) and he bought me a pancake mold of Mickey's ears, and these lollipops that came in handy to calm Zach as he did not nap that day. We also went to Toys R Us where we bought wood chips for Marty (Clara's beetle) and some cool construction vehicles for Zach that were pretty cheap. I'd been looking for some so was really tickled to see them.
If you checked out the link at the beginning of the post of our trip you can get an explanation of why the Statue of Liberty is in Tokyo.
Our last minutes while waiting on the rest of the group to meet was spent down at the water. Zach really enjoyed it and got quite filthy.

This day was really neat. Due to the crowding our guide recommended not taking the stroller so we left it on the bus. That was probably a tactical error on our part, but we made it through the day and everyone ultimately enjoyed it. By signing up for the tour we did so much more than we probably would have on our own. It was really nice because basically our guide armed us with information, dropped us off and told us when to meet back and off we'd go for the next thing. We made it back to the hotel in the late afternoon. I decided to give the kids baths, run down to the deli for grilled cheese and hot dogs for the kids, burgers for me and Charlie, rented Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and we chilled out. We were all pretty worn out by then and looking forward to a day of exploring on our own for day three.

Disneyland

2011-08-11T03:35:00.009-04:00

We spent our first full day in Tokyo at Disneyland. We were to meet our bus in front of the hotel at 9am. I was concerned we would oversleep, but that is often difficult to do with Zach. We ordered breakfast and started getting ready. Clara was a bit sluggish, but again, it is hard to stay in bed long with Zach around.

The kids eating a combo of fresh fruit and poptarts. The breakfast of champions!

It wasn't too long and we were rolling up at the gate. We had a fabulous day at Disney. We exchanged our vouchers for passports and got busy on our day of fun.

A view of Cinderella's castle from the World Bazaar.

And of course, as soon as we found a spot that wasn't streaming with people, I started slathering on the sunscreen.
Don't you just love Clara's Minnie ears? We tried to get Zach to go for a hat but he was having none of it.
After walking for several minutes, riding the Star Jets ride and adjusting to the heat we decided to stop for a little refreshing beverage and snacks. Charlie ordered a shrimp burger but was pleasantly surprised with his Mickey-shaped pizza. Honestly, it didn't look tasty but he said it was good.

We spent a lot of time in Toon Town where we rode several rides and the kids were able to explore various playhouses.

Interestingly, Goofy's car has the steering wheel on the left side...I bet Charlie felt funny!

Zachy...OUT! Charlie and Clara took off to ride the Haunted Mansion while Zach and I walked around with the hopes he would fall asleep. He was not pleased but finally gave in. It was horribly hot but I managed to find a place in the shade.
After Zach woke up, Charlie got the kids push pops to cool down.

Then we went on several more rides including this ship, the train, and a jungle cruise. Zach really got the hang of waiting in line.

This is on the jungle cruise and it was really neat. None of the animals were real, but they set it up quite nicely and the kids were quite impressed.
It was time to fuel up so we chowed down on some chicken curry. Zach loves this meal, and it was fairly tasty.

After dinner we caught a small show that the kids enjoyed. On a side note, I am intrigued by the periodic use of English at the park. All the singing in this show was in Japanese, however nearly at the end Mickey called out: One more time! Interesting. Anyway, as we began making our way on around the park we noticed people already hunkering down for the electric parade. We felt like we had already put in a full day so planted ourselves down right near the World Bazaar for a quick exit after the parade. We wanted to be able to pick up t-shirts before we left the park. We sat there for quite a while. After a time out, Zach was pretty good. Charlie ended up getting the kids a couple of rather annoying (but fun) souvenirs that make plenty of sounds and are accompanied by lights.
Still waiting. Clara has been around the Japanese too much! See her peace sign. The Japanese are often seen posing for pictures with everyone doing peace signs.
This was my first time seeing the electric parade and it. was. awesome. I loved it and took a picture of every single float (aren't you glad I spared you). They just kept coming! It was well worth the wait.
After the parade, we took off to get t-shirts, as apparently everyone else in the park has the same idea. We held off a few minutes and slipped into a shop that was not nearly as bustling as some of the others (but that is not to say they weren't busy). We quickly found shirts in our sizes that had Disneyland Tokyo on them and headed toward the bus. Charlie snapped this picture right before we left of Cinderella's Castle all lit up.
Zach was out in minutes of being on the bus. I took many more pictures but this does a fair job of documenting our visit. We were all rather tired and while I had grand ideas of baths and showers upon arriving at the hotel, Zach didn't even wake up when I carried him from the bus or when I changed him in the room.

Day 2: Tokyo sightseeing tour!

Tokyo Bound

2011-08-11T03:21:00.003-04:00

We signed up for the ITT Tokyo Fun trip in August. The bus was scheduled to leave Iwakuni at 10:30 PM August 3rd. Zach was so excited to be on a bus. We let Clara stay up while we had already put Zach to bed. He handled it very well and kept announcing how fun it was. He finally fell asleep an hour after departure, only to wake up at the first stop (the bus stopped every two hours). So, it was a fun time but all in all I think he did great. Clara was a trooper.Here are the kids at one of the frequent stops. We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds and then did lunch at Yokosuka Naval Base (same place Charlie had surgery last summer). While there we finally bought Clara Grace a pair of Sketchers Twinkle Toes sneakers. They are horrible, but she loves them.

Tokyo! We finally made it. We rolled in just after 3pm, August 4th. We were tuckered out. After checking in, I unloaded all of our stuff and got settled. Showers were in order, then we set out to explore the hotel. We ate at the deli in the hotel, then suited up for the indoor pool. I went ahead and set out clothes for tomorrow, the kids had baths and then we went to bed. The next day we were scheduled for Disneyland Tokyo!

Miyajima Island

2011-08-11T02:47:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago we decided to visit Miyajima Island. Most people visit this nearby island soon after arrival. We had planned to go multiple times but something always came up when we were going to go. I opted to leave out most of the shots without the family although we took many. If you want to see all the neat stuff Miyajima offers, just click on the link.

Here, we are waiting for the ferry which will take us to the island.
As you can see, the kids were fascinated as things were fast-paced. As soon as the ferry docked, out drove the cars and people quickly got off the craft.
As soon as we got to to the island, there were deer...everywhere! These deer would walk right up to you and let you pet them. Both kids thought it was awesome, although Zach did manage to upset one that sort of nipped at him. Hmmm. Imagine that! This might be a good time to mention that Zach is two, and a terror, which is why you often see him leashed although we call it wearing the puppy. I can tell most people appreciate that we do this. The Japanese seem to think the puppy is comical as we get many comments, points, smiles, etc.
Charlie checking out the map to see what all we should do while visiting.
Here was an attempt to get a smiling shot of us in front of the Torri Gate. Two out of three isn't bad.
Clara taking a break to show some attitude. She LOVES to pose.
This picture was taken at the Itsukushima shrine. Zach was at the end of his rope so I spent most of the time trying to get him to chill out. Charlie got several pictures that looked pretty neat though.
It was so hot (as it seems all days are now) so we stopped for some shaved ice. Yum!

We had a lovely time and will go back. With all the walking though we decided to wait until it cools down a bit.

Weekend Trip to Sasebo

2011-07-17T03:46:00.004-04:00

We decided to spend the weekend in Sasebo, where there is a small Navy base. I hear lots of people talk about it, and ITT offers trips down there, so we thought we would go check it out. We liked it, but as you will find out, it provided us a little more excitement than we intended.

As soon as Charlie got home from work on Friday, I had the car loaded and fueled up, and off we went. We weren't exactly loving the directions provided, but we did make it there so no worries. I couldn't stop myself from taking pictures of these girls walking home from school. They kept looking my way and smiling, so I snapped the picture. I love how the Japanese wear uniforms and those back traditional backpacks.
We stopped at a rest area on the way down to stretch our legs and get a snack. We opted for ice cream. I love how you see ice cream vending machines (all sorts of vending machines) all over the place.
You could also purchase it by the cone there, but we passed. Zach was quite interested in the display though.
As you can see, I had the camera out and was snapping away. Clara Grace was being a bit of a grumpy girl from time to time. I wanted to take a picture of her in that state, but she quickly put the book she is reading up. What a stinker! I did have fun messing with her though.
Once we made it there, we let the kids burn some energy at the playground of the Navy Lodge where we stayed.

After the kids played a bit, we went and ate at Popeye's Chicken at the bayside food court. Then we went back to the room where the kids got baths and we were gearing up for bed. The routine was running a little later than usual due to the trip and all so it was already after 7pm when I am getting ready to put Zach to bed. Clara and Zach started playing, which included her running to the bathroom. No sooner had I told them to stop, than Zach was trying to turn into the bathroom when his head made contact with the door frame which was made of metal and not rounded at all. He immediately started crying and I scooped him up. Clara Grace was all sorts of sorry at the time. I was trying to calm him when I turned him to see if he had a bump. That was when I saw all the blood. Then Clara Grace lost her composure so we were dealing with two extremely upset kiddos. Charlie took over with Zach and quickly determined stitches were needed. So, we tried to clean up Zach as good as possible by removing his pajama top and putting on a t-shirt, and had CG quickly put on some clothes and off we went to urgent care. We were there for a bit, and were given three options. Choice A: two staples which would be quick but painful B: stitches, which would be worse or C: clean the wound, shave the area and use glue. We opted for choice C, and doctor said that would be fine so long as Zach cooperated, otherwise he would go ahead and do the staples. Zach was quite the trooper, although he did cry a bit while they were cleaning and applying the glue. Charlie held him down for that while I had CG in the lobby. Luckily she was much calmer at this point. I think we finally got Zach to sleep a little after 10pm and of course he woke up super early. I snapped a picture of the bandage the next day.
We didn't do as much as I thought we might, but we still had a nice time. We did quite a bit of shopping at the NEX. The kids had a pretty good time and we were able to eat at Chile's which was great for me. Below are a few more pictures taken there during our stay. We were about ready to throw it in and return Saturday but decided to leave Sunday morning. Overall, Zach handled the 4 hour plus trip rather well. Saturday night I got very little sleep though. He took a nice nap today when we got back and I'm imagining he'll sleep really well tonight.

This ray (and many more) were right below us. The kids had a great time checking them out as well as the two jellyfish we saw right there at the harbor.

It was a great little weekend trip and makes me feel quite confident Zach will do well in a few weeks when we visit Tokyo! Hopefully we can avoid trips to the ER though.

Perspective

2011-07-06T19:03:00.004-04:00

I love being exposed to Clara Grace's perspective. She is such a sensitive soul and sees something wonderful about nearly everything. She definitely has a flare for the dramatic. To put it mildly, we are as different as night and day. Granted, I think I'm optimistic but sometimes I forget to slow down and smell the roses.

With that in mind, I'll share a moment from last night. She was asked to tidy her room before getting into bed. After a few minutes, she came excitedly running into the room announcing she had something for me. I must admit I expected a delay tactic. She then carefully hands me the slip of paper below.

I'm not sure what you are thinking right now, but I was thinking, "Oh, how nice, a scrap sheet of paper." I'm so glad I didn't reveal my thoughts and waited to see what she would say. She followed with, "It is a strip of friendship! With people around the world!" After thanking her, she gave me a hug and a kiss and flitted back out of the room as quickly as she breezed in. I just love that she sees value in everything.

Which leads me to the other thing she did that further illustrates how seriously she takes everything. She had a new friend come over to play yesterday. When it was time for her friend to leave, Clara came out to announce that she had given a few items away so that Olivia would remember her time spent here. I casually asked what the items were just to make sure she wasn't giving away something inappropriate. It turns out she gave her a little plastic stag beetle, to remember her meeting of Marty, Clara's beetle. I must admit I chuckled to myself and wondered if Olivia thought Clara was a bit batty. I mean, first Clara has a beetle and now she is sending her off like they'll never see each other again.

I wonder what dramatic revelation she'll share today! She definitely helps me see things in a fresh way.

Yasaka Camping Village

2011-07-02T06:03:00.007-04:00

We had talked about going camping for the holiday weekend, but the weather just isn't ideal for camping. Yesterday it rained quite a bit, but today was a rather nice day. We decided to pack a lunch and head out to Yasaka Camping Village for a picnic and to let the kids frolic around the water. We really enjoyed it and are considering camping here when we do go camping. It was really a nice scenic ride to get there. When we arrived, there was a 500 Yen parking fee and a 500 Yen fee to eat at the picnic table. With the current exchange rate, that is over $10 combined. Rather pricey, but still very nice. They told us what table to eat at even. We stopped at You Me Town (sort of like a Japanese Super Walmart...there is a full grocery store plus a nice department store where you in addition to several restaurants) and added sushi and chicken on a stick from the grocery store to our sandwiches and chips for the picnic. Charlie took a picture of the sushi.
After eating, we went down to the water where the kids attempted to skip rocks and enjoy the water. It was at this time that we glanced back up and saw a massive black crow sitting on our picnic table, going to town on the chicken on a stick package. I had closed the plastic container and all other foods but had left it sitting on the table. Anyway, I ran him off and noticed he had pierced the plastic and scattered the leftover chicken. I packed it all away quickly and we had to put the bag back in the car because they were not giving up. You might recall the story I shared about one of Charlie's bike rides when they stopped at a 7-11 for a sandwich and a black crow came swooping down to take it from his hand. Yikes!
We then moved up a little and let the kids play at the stream. They loved it and were able to take off their shoes to really enjoy the experience. Zach seemed a little hesitant at first to enter the water, but really got into it in no time.

After we finished up, we drove around the area. This is a picture of the houses right up from the campsite. This is about as rural as we've seen out here. It was beautiful.
This house had rice paddies all around it. The Japanese are very efficient and maximize space.

This was returning from the seeing the houses above. The campsite was on the other side of the water from where we picnicked. This is a shot from the campsite looking at where we ate.
Just up the road from Yasaka Camping Village is Three Peaks, which is popular hiking area. Just before you begin up a trail, there are several signs including this one that warns you of bears. Good to know!
This is the picture of Three Peaks. Charlie and I are planning to hike this, but will have to find a sitter for Zach and Clara.
As we were leaving, I spotted this really neat display and Charlie did a quick u-turn so we could take pictures. It isn't very often you see rocks in Japanese attire.

We really enjoyed it and I'm sure we'll go back. We are still considering other camping sites.

Clara's 7th Birthday Party

2011-06-25T06:55:00.006-04:00

Clara Grace wanted a Tangled theme for her birthday this year. While searching for invitations I came across a lady online that will personalize invitations and a little over 24 hours after placing the order, I had a finalized proof. I think these turned out really cute. I printed them on photo paper to give a really nice crisp finish. After handing them out we received lots of positive comments on how well they turned out. It was also nice to be able to print off as many as I needed and not worry that I would run out. Since there were two invitations per image, I was able to print off a total of four invitations per page.
Being the smart marketing lady that she is, she also replied with the final proof that she could easily provide a thank you graphic. I'm a sucker, so went for it. I'll have Clara write a personal message on the back, but I thought they were really cute.
We chose to have the party in the community room of an apartment building here on base. Clara Grace is now too old to use the room we used last year. Our community room is booked for the entire year and after we were lucky to land this one. I did some online searching for ideas and it turned out rather well I think. The table below had Tangled coloring sheets and puzzles for the kids to work on upon arriving (or throughout the party as it turned out).

Here are the party favor boxes. I opted to get a more masculine one for the boys. This is also where the gifts were placed.
The braid was inspired by this blog and the "Pin the Frying Pan on Flynn Rider" game from this blog. Charlie and Clara helped me make the braid. I used five packages of yarn. Our backs were rather sore by the time it was over. We measured it after completing the braid and discovered it was 11 feet long. This inspired me to make a game of it. After greeting the guests upon arrival I pointed them over here to guess how long Rapunzel's braid was. There were little slips of paper to make the guess on and then they put their guess in the little bowl. The winner was Haley, with an estimate of 3 feet. Clara Grace came in second with a guess of 20 feet. From there, the estimates were waaaaay off, all the way up to 100 feet.
This is the poster I made for the Pin the Frying Pan on Flynn Rider game. Clara Grace thinks I am wonderful after watching me make this. One day she will discover it only took a lot of determination to complete the thing and very little talent. I found a poster online that someone else had made, printed it off on a transparency and off to school I went to use my overhead projector. Clara Grace had never seen one in use and was quite amazed. I had to explain this was old school technology and how it works. Anyway, I spent a lot of time bent over coloring in all the black once I had it traced. I was quite pleased with how it looked and must admit that I am attached to it. I have no idea what I'll do with it, but I repeatedly had to tell one little girl that kept asking for it that I wasn't ready to let it go.
We did several other games. This is a picture of a couple of girls trying to pop a balloon by squeezing it between their backs. None of the pairs were successful so I eventually ended the competition by giving the youngest little guy a little assistant.
Here we did the pull string pinata. It was quite humorous as there were only three strings left when the candy began to fall. I had to give the pinata a few taps to get a good flow though and the candy was just raining down on their little heads as they scrambled to fill their bags.

I was really pleased with how the cake turned out. A friend of mine made it. She was worried it wasn't going to look good, but all her cakes turn out great so I had no concerns. Otherwise I was going to have to give it a try and that would have been...sad. The commissary has very limited birthday cake options.

Zach had a blast and was cute when the kids played freeze dance to the Tangled soundtrack. For the most part he just ran around and did his own thing.
The kids were so cute watching Clara Grace open gifts. I was amazed that there were no duplicates and the gifts were all really nice and thoughtful.
The time flew and the kids all seemed to have a lot of fun. Clara Grace loved it and was very pleased. She had ten friends show up plus adults. Charlie and I stayed rather busy between leading games, making sure Zach was doing ok. Charlie also had to go pick up the pizza since the scheduled delivery never happened. The result is that we didn't get a ton of pictures of the action. After the party several people stayed and helped us clean up. They had us loaded up and ready to leave in very little time.

Happy 7th Birthday Clara Grace!

2011-06-20T23:57:00.008-04:00

Clara Grace is seven years old today. The time has really passed quickly. She is such an amazing little girl, but packed in that tiny frame is one plucky little lady. Sometimes she pushes back when I push her to conquer something, but for the most part she tackles any challenge with gusto. It will take me a couple of days to pull pictures to cover her entire life span since pictures are on so many discs, however here are a few that I think really capture the essence of the girl she has become.

To begin with, she absolutely loves nature and all animals. Here she is gently approaching a kangaroo at Safari Land. I bet Blaze wishes she approached him so calmly.

She isn't even scared of licking cake batter...she was quite old before I was willing to take the raw egg risk. No fear here!
She is an awesome big sister. When really needed, she steps forward and leads Zach.
She loved taking equestrian lessons. Even when nearly thrown, she held on tightly and kept working through the lesson. She is eager to start back with lessons once we return to the states.
She has been to so many places in her mere seven years. From Plymouth Rock, to Washington D.C. Disneyworld, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and here in Iwakuni. She is always ready to try something new.
Speaking of trying something new...nothing like trying another decades fashion trend. This was 80's day at school last year. Like, oh my gosh! Gag me with a spoon!

I love this picture of her (sorry for the underlining, no idea what I did to do this). She is such a happy kid.

Nope, crocodiles don't even scare this kid!

She'll even tackle a big pretzel at Target!

Soccer, I'm in!

Ballet recital...no stage fright for her! She just considers the world her audience now.

Happy Birthday Clara!

Thank You Aunt Korin!

2011-06-20T23:42:00.003-04:00

Aunt Korin sent a rather large package in the mail, and with a little help Clara Grace tackled it.

She figured out it was something to do with American Girl. I wish I had video so you could hear the excitement.

Reading the Card

Now, she is thrilled to get Kit and Ruthie. She has talked about those dolls for the last two years since visiting Aunt Korin and Uncle Larry before we came to Iwakuni. Now, I have to share Zach's reaction. He loves baby dolls and is a very compassionate little guy. They say he tries to soothe upset kids at daycare. The other day we were in the toy section and there was a baby that giggled and bounced when activated. Zach thought it was crying, so sat down beside it with his arm around the baby and kept talking to her and telling me what he was doing. He tried to bring the doll home with us and kept saying, "My baby!" Finally I got him to say goodbye and we left. Well, when he saw the American Girl dolls he looked at one and announced, "MY baby!" Clara Grace was very territorial of her newest acquisitions and Zach was not happy. I went and got a baby doll from Clara Grace's room (she was not thrilled with me on this one) and gave him the doll to play with. This is a picture of him sitting with the doll. He had her beside him at lunch too and was trying to offer her juice. It is pretty cute. Oh, and check out his boots. He loves them too and insisted on wearing them today. It was a rare sunny day of late so was goofy, but I went with it. He is a funny kid...insists on getting dressed first thing in the morning including shoes.

Clara Grace's First Sleepover

2011-06-20T23:30:00.002-04:00

Clara Grace was planning to have her first sleepover yesterday. It was a little girl that had been over before, they are in the same class and her mom is a teacher as well. We had invited her over and Clara Grace was super excited. She also had her first ballet class in two years that morning. Well, I had dropped Zach off at daycare for a couple of hours so I could do some cleaning, run a couple of errands and take CG to ballet class. When I picked up Zach at 11:30, they were taking his temperature. He had a 102 temperature. I told Clara Grace that we might have to cancel the sleepover. She handled it well, but was bummed. Her friend was flying out for the states on Wednesday. I scheduled an appointment with the doctor, and she said he had another ear infection. Anyway, the mom and I mutually agreed that sleeping over was not a good idea, so she offered to have CG spend the night with them. This was a HUGE decision for me. After talking to Charlie, we decided to give it a try. Boy was she stoked! It was really tough for me and I was eager to have her come home. The mom said CG did great, but did have trouble falling asleep. Luckily she wasn't difficult, just struggled while laying there. She said that finally when she checked on the girls at 10:30 that she was asleep. You can see how tired she is today, but she had a great time.

Meet Marty

2011-06-20T23:24:00.003-04:00

Clara Grace has very diverse interests. She has really been wanting to get a beetle for a long time. We decided that we would reward her with one if she passed all of the timed addition and subtraction drills that were first grade goals. Although she does very well with math assignments, she wasn't really motivated with the timed drills. Once we dangled the beetle in front of her, it lit a fire and she zoomed through them. Soooo, off to the store we went to get a beetle. She wanted to name it Martha, but after googling it, I discovered that the males were the ones with the big mandibles. So, it is Marty. Meet Marty.

He is huge. I haven't measured him, but I would estimate he is at least three inches long.

Photo Update

2011-06-20T18:32:00.007-04:00

Well, when I went to add photos, I realized just how much time has passed since the last pictures were posted. Here are a few brief pictures to span the time.

This picture was taken the day before Easter. A teacher on my grade level invited a lot of families to her house for an Easter egg hunt and visiting. She lives out in town and lives in a traditional Japanese house. Zach was drawn to the drums. See those drum sticks under the drum...yes, they had to be removed from his hands repeatedly. I seemed much more stressed about it than Gina though. I spent my time chasing Zach for the most part.
Clara Grace had a blast playing with all the kids. Here, she climbed up on this rock, which was REALLY high.
Here is a group shot of most of the kids there. Since I was chasing Zach, I got very few action shots of the actual hunt.

Here are our baskets Easter morning.

The kids ready for church.

Walking back from church. We live really close.

Clara Grace completed another year of AWANA.

Charlie took the day off to go with Clara Grace to the zoo on a field trip.

On Memorial day we went out to the beach to search for shells.

Oh, we also got a new car. Road taxes were due, and the van Charlie was driving was also going to have a JCI inspection very soon which it was going to not be cost effective to do all that since it was having some problems...so we replaced it. Luckily we got a great deal and I LOVE this vehicle. I could definitely use it in the states. Charlie is now driving the blue Pajero Mini and I have this since it is so spacious. If the door is open, Zach can climb in and get in his seat by himself. There is plenty of cargo room for groceries in the back. I'll miss it when we leave here, because I know we couldn't buy something like this for $2,000 back there.

The Zachster

Clara Grace on her way to getting very dizzy

A picture to show off the many missing teeth of Clara Grace

The force is strong with this family! I had been vacuuming and Zach grabbed the wand off the vacuum and began using it like a light sabre. Clara Grace is not to be outdone so she scampered off to her room to return with her light sabre.

This is Clara's first grade teacher, Mrs. Clark. Clara Grace loves her dearly. A couple of parents organized a little surprise going away party for her as she is leaving Iwakuni behind after 11 years here and going to teach in Germany.

What ya doin, Mama?

2011-06-03T17:33:00.002-04:00

Zach is coming along on his speech. I think he is probably right where he needs to be with it. Now he is at the point where he uses everyone's name.

"What ya doin Mama?" (I get this a LOT. If I move, it inspires the question.)

"Where's Cwawa?"

"Mama, sit down"

"I sit down"

"I ride bike"

You get the idea. He is also using some adjectives and communicating rather well overall, but there are certainly some times I'm just clueless as to what he wants. He has definitely mastered the use of "no" and "mine". Although I have a pretty good idea of what he wants, I do have to translate for Charlie some so he might not be as clear as I think.

Clara Grace lost another tooth!

2011-06-03T17:25:00.002-04:00

Clara Grace lost her fifth tooth on Thursday, June 2nd. She was soooo excited to lose it at school because then she gets to go to the nurse to get a cute little plastic treasure box to put it in. I find it a little humorous that I get to hear about it multiple times before I actually see Clara Grace in person to tell me.

It is interesting that my class and CG's class are on the same special rotation and we have Spanish on the same days, my class coming later in the day so those teachers let me in on any noteworthy experiences. I dropped my kids off at Spanish to discover she had lost the tooth in class, then later passed her teacher that revealed the tooth was literally laying on her lip before it came out!

That night she put the tooth in an envelope, wrote a note on it to the tooth fairy and drew a lovely depiction of the tooth fairy on it. I hear it was a close call, but the tooth fairy almost forgot but did come through with another book in the Big Apple Barn series that delighted the little lady. I have got to get some good pictures showing Miss Snaggle Tooth's smile.

Pictures to come...

2011-05-29T09:31:00.003-04:00

Ok, it has been a while. Lots has been happening, but I have very few pictures to document. Let's see how concise I can be.

1. We've done quite a bit since Easter. I just cannot remember what it is.

2. Zach gets an average of 3 owie reports a week. The poor kid. Off the top of my head there have been lots of skinned knees, a scratched neck and a bleeding back of the head. That is just daycare. Just the other day Clara Grace and Zach were playing on our little fold up slide set when an accident happened where CG knocked the push popper back to Z that landed on his big toe...and OUCH. We were concerned that Z might lose the toenail, but I think it is going to be ok. Then, CG was getting out of the tub the other night and somehow she managed to cut her knee pretty good. No stitched needed, but I did have Charlie take a closer look just to be sure. She doesn't handle blood well, but we managed to keep her from seeing much.

I did the dunking booth at the recent PTO festival. Fun. But then I was plagued with a two week massive headache that actually caused me to seek medical help. I'm doing much better now.

The kids are doing great. CG and Z both amaze me. Z did recently had to go to the doctor and was diagnosed with another ear infection but it doing great with only three more days of meds left. CG is such a sweet girl.

There are only a few more weeks of school left! I am so excited to spend the summer with the kids and am planning to do some school work with CG to make sure she is completely ready for second grade. Z will still be going to daycare for a little bit each week to keep him somewhat on schedule.

Typhoon season has started, and rain usually means earaches for me, and I've not been disappointed this weekend. Luckily it isn't too bad, but man, ouch. Z is growing so quickly we had to buy him Japanese rain boots. They do not match his rain coat, but they are cute.

I'll have to look at the pictures taken to remember anything else at this point. Hopefully I'll get that done sometime soon.

Charlie and I rented/watched Tron Legacy last night. We loved it and are even thinking we will catch the original. I watched it when I was a kid, but it made no sense to me then. Maybe it will now!

I got a card from my niece Peyton...she is graduating HIGH SCHOOL! I cannot believe she is graduating. Good luck, Peyton and CONGRATULATIONS! Be watching the mail.

Spring Break

2011-04-14T01:37:00.005-04:00

This week is spring break for us. We toyed with the idea of going to China a couple months ago but decided it was a spur of the moment decision and we should wait. Maybe next spring break. Anyway, Charlie took a week of leave so he could do the bike rally and spend time with us. We have most kicked around here, but have really enjoyed our time together. The next few posts illustrate the highlights of the past few days. A few pictures from yesterday are in this post.

First, we took a day trip into Hiroshima yesterday to go to Alpark Mall. I've been meaning to take a picture of these traffic bunnies for some time. You see these, or equally cute guys anywhere there is road construction.
These next pictures are of the kids playing at the playground by the chapel, which is pretty close to our tower. We are fortunate to have quite a few playgrounds nearby.

I'll just have to tell you about Zach and his climbing. It is really getting out of hand. Yesterday I was folding laundry at the couch while Zach was riding his little battery-powered four-wheeler around the apartment. We keep the kitchen and utility blocked off with gates. I was facing the kitchen while folding the clothes. Charlie was sitting on the couch watching TV. He told me to look at something and I just turned my head to see what was on the TV. When I glanced back, Zach had ridden his "bike" up to the bar, stood on top of it to use as a stool and CLIMBED ONTO THE COUNTER. We are talking seconds here. He was sitting flat on his bottom, with a big grin, facing me. He was soooo proud of himself. He is super fast. You should have seen him on the playground in the pictures above.

Clara Grace has had a really good time during the break. She helped me make muffins this morning, or as she described it...I helped her make muffins. We had a family movie night and watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader last night. Tammy, if you read this, Eustace reminded us a lot of Michael. She was a bit put out with me as we picked out her Easter dress. She wanted the one that made her look "more like a princess" while I preferred the more practical one that she will continue to wear throughout the spring and summer. It is too bad the princess dress didn't fit quite right...

Also, she has a super loose tooth right now. As soon as it falls out she will be missing both of her top front teeth. There were several little tales I wanted to share about her that I just cannot recall right now. She is such a little hoot! There we go, I have a little hoot and a little brute! Just kidding, they are both sweethearts.

Anyway, Charlie goes back to work tomorrow and I have a 7:30 AM appointment for the final installment of my permanent replacement crown. And just a week after I finally feel normal after the last appointment. It will be nice to be done with it though. After that I will go in to work in my classroom for a bit and to get prepared for Monday. We are considering going to Miyajima Island on Saturday but we'll see. There are still a few things I wanted to do around the apartment and classroom I've not done yet.

Cherry Blossoms

2011-04-14T01:11:00.009-04:00

On Monday we decided to go to the Kintai and enjoy the Cherry Blossom Festival. As you can see, they are absolutely beautiful. We took a ton of pictures so I had trouble narrowing down the selection. There were lots of vendors set up selling yummy foods and tons of people. We ended up having ice cream since we had stopped at McDonald's for lunch.

We decided to walk to the castle. This picture was taken at the bottom. The castle is the structure on the far right of the picture below.

The last time we went, we hiked up a trail. This time we decided to walk the paved path. This portion was rather bumpy and Zach had a blast. Poor Charlie! It was a steep climb to be pushing such a heavy load.
Once we made it to the top, we saw the original site. You can read about it below.

Original Site of Castle

The Castle

Zach missed his first nap in a really long time. He was quite a pistol once we were inside the castle. I am sure all the Japanese people definitely knew our son's name was Zach. If you are familiar with Bill Cosby's stand up, just remember his bit about Jeffrey. Then replace the name with Zach. After several minutes I have up and waited until Charlie was done, then we switched and he sat with him while I viewed the rest. This picture shows one of his escape attempts, hiding behind the pillar. He was having a good time. Me, not so much. I did remember to bring his puppy leash thing on our next day trip to Hiroshima though.

Pirate Playground

2011-04-14T00:50:00.008-04:00

After returning from Oshima Island (see post below) we decided to visit the pirate playground which is on the base. It is on Monzen side, which is the other side of the base, but still close enough to ride bikes or walk to if we were so inclined...which we were not. We drove. It is a nice playground and fenced in. The kids had a good time. We are considering having Clara Grace's birthday party at this playground. Although he made me very nervous, Zach navigated the structure rather well. We would not let him on the highest tower which has two very long and spooky looking slides.

These next three pictures show Zach's climb. He showed us he can handle this and the ladder.

Here are the two slides. I went down them once and it was rather intense for a slide on a playground. As you can see, Clara Grace loved them though.

GiddyUp!

Argh!

She's Electric!

Oshima Island

2011-04-14T00:35:00.003-04:00

While we were back in Iwakuni, Charlie went to his first bike rally on Oshima Island. He and a couple friends rented a cabin for the night. He went up Saturday afternoon and we went up to join him Sunday. It was a little over an hour to get there and we followed a wife of one of the guys since we had never been there. As soon as I pulled into the parking space at their cabin, Zach vomited. Luckily I had packed extra clothes for him and was able to clean him and the car up fairly easily. We are talking about maybe coming camping out here this summer, although it is rather cushy here. This is the view from the cabin they stayed in. It slept six, but the smaller cabins were already booked when they made the arrangements. There are campsites where you can put up a tent down below too. Definitely different than camping back in the states. You cannot see it in these pictures, but there is a very pretty beach and a resort just down the street as well as several shops and restaurants.
This is the cabin they rented.

There was a small kitchen, restroom and then bunk beds with the privacy curtains lining the walls. There was a sliding door and deck facing the water. Small, but very nice!
This was a group shot of some of the volunteers and attendees that were left at this time. Charlie and his buddies are the ones on the bottom left.

Military Appreciation Day

2011-04-13T23:58:00.005-04:00

April is Month of the Military Child. Last Saturday, MCCS had a big day where there were bounce houses, entertainment, raffles, face painting, crafts and treats. We caught the tail end of it since we waited on Zach to finish his nap before walking down there. My pictures are loaded in reverse order. Since we showed up so late they were pretty much out of treats so I decided to stop at the food court for ice cream before going home.
Here we are watching the awesome live entertainment. Zach loved it and would clap after each performance. Although everyone in this picture looks stoic, I assure you it was enjoyed by all.

ROAR! I think she looks like a tiger, but she is supposed to be the wolf from Alpha and Omega.

A shot of the show!

It was a nice day!

Play Ball!

2011-04-03T07:40:00.006-04:00

This picture is from last weekend. Clara Grace had a friend over and they were gearing up for some Barbie sing-a-long when her friend's time was up and had to go home. Gracie is not one to be defeated, so she continued on with the plan. Please excuse the jumble of cords in the background. She is such a hoot to watch though. And of course, those songs get in your head. I had a song from Barbie and the Musketeers rolling through my mind as I took my students to Spanish the other day. This is a picture from Saturday. My girl is serious on her bike! Sometimes snapping her picture is tough as she is always in motion.

The Zachster, out for a ride! He is finally coming around to the idea of having to wear the helmet. He actually tried to put it on himself this time. Whew! What a relief. At his parent/teacher conference a couple weeks ago they said he was right on with all his skills but pedaling is the next thing. How exciting! We'll see when he picks it up. He moved up to the two-year-old class this week and is loving it. He seems like such a big boy now.

I just cannot get over how big Zach looks sitting on Charlie's lap in this picture! It was right at bedtime. They were watching Allison Krauss on the computer and enjoying some bluegrass tunes. I'm pretty sure Gracie was using the toothbrush as a microphone by this point.

First off, we are super excited as it seems as though the weather is taking a turn and is seeming more like spring. I just placed several orders for the kids for spring/summer clothing and shoes. Saturday it hit the low 60s and we all sported shorts and capris! Very nice. Today (Sunday) was a bit cooler but still pretty.

Although my beloved Red Sox have lost their first two games, we are enjoying ball season and it looks like Zach is going to be a fan of the game, or at least a player. We went to the PX and bought the finest little glove they sold plus a little foam bat for him, then pulled out our own gear. Granted, he has a lot to learn, but he appears to have a little natural talent. We snapped a few shots of him practicing inside. Today we went outside and had a little fun. Gracie even wanted to play! Of course, she ventured to the playground equipment as soon as a little girl showed up. Charlie and I ended up throwing the ball with a second grade boy that lives nearby while Zach alternated with playing with us and Gracie.

I'm fairly excited as spring break is approaching. Gracie has no swim lessons this week so it should be much more relaxed. I have a lot of work to do but plan to enjoy my time off as well.

Charlie and I both had papers due so today while Zach napped, Clara Grace and I went grocery shopping followed by a stop by Baskin Robbins to share a sundae and then we took a bike ride. Poor Charlie was working on his paper. I was very proud of how well she did on the bike ride. I decided we would make it a productive ride so we rode to the video store to return a couple movies we had rented. She was a little nervous at times, but we walked our bikes across the main road of the base when we came to it.

All in all, it was a nice weekend. A lot was accomplished and we had some fun. I'm just astonished how quickly the kids are growing up though. Gracie is just amazing and it is so hard to believe that Zach is already two. Gracie wants to help out so much and is just a sweatheart. I'm really looking forward to spening some one-on-one time with her over spring break. I plan to take Zach in to daycare for lunch and napping a few times during spring break so she and I can do some stuff together.

Zach's Wellness Appointment

2011-03-28T06:06:00.002-04:00

Today was Zach's wellness appointment. It went really well, and I liked the doctor we saw. She is a pediatrician at the clinic and I have heard good things about her.

We did discover that Zach has an ear infection. All things looked good in terms of his development. We discussed his ezcema and she gave me a plan of action for his next flare up along with prescriptions to use in that case. What I really appreciated was the email address she gave me and a message line that she checks daily.

As far as his stats...he weighed in at 27.4 pounds and was 34.5 inches tall with a 19 inch head circumference. I plugged those numbers into the babycenter.com growth calculator and it said he is at the 50th percentile for height, and between the 25th and 50th percentile in both weight and head circumference.

Two Years Ago Today...

2011-03-27T03:18:00.015-04:00

Zach was born!

Happy Birthday Zach!

Zach's 2nd Birthday Celebration

2011-03-27T03:04:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday, Zach!

We decided to keep things very low key again this year. After Zach's nap we brought him in to sing happy birthday to him, let him blow out the candles, eat cake (Zach didn't like his cake!) and open presents. He is currently enjoying all his presents, and I must say the balloons have been a big hit.

What's Going On...

2011-03-21T08:11:00.002-04:00

Actually, quite a bit. Although probably not very exciting for others.

To begin with, Charlie and I made a very important decision this past weekend. One that we have been considering for some time. Since I am now working on my M.S. and he is completing his B.A. we decided it was time for a technological upgrade. The desktop was older than Clara Grace and the laptop came with its own issues. So, this Saturday we purchased an iMac. Yep, we made the switch from PC to iMac and are loving it. We are having to learn a lot as it operates a bit differently but it is awesome. We also purchased the Microsoft Office for Mac and it is soooo much cooler than the suite for PCs, plus the files work just fine when I send them to work. I talked to our ET at work and he sent me a bunch of documents/tutorials to help make the transition from PC to Mac easier. Charlie has already transferred all pictures from the Vaio to the iMac but I have yet to load pictures directly from the camera. All in all it has been a smooth move! The moues is incredible!

We decided to move the Sony Vaio into Clara Grace's room and purchased a cute little desk for her. Since it was the floor model we got a discount too. She is so happy to have it in there. She does not, nor will she, have an Internet connection back there but she can do word processing and play games. I spent quite a bit of time moving her room around and it looks like such a big girl room now. Not completely, but definitely different.

In addition, Clara Grace and I did a couple activities together. Our school puts on a Perry Idol show which is a school talent show. Most of the acts were high school students but one of my students (singing in a trio) auditioned and made the cut so she was in the show. I'll have to say that I was really impressed with the talent! I completely expected to feel sad for some of the kids, but they did great. They chose songs that truly showcased their talent and some of them sang and played an instrument. I enjoyed myself and Clara Grace had a blast. We ended up sitting with a little girl in her class and her family. Tonight we went over to the school in pajamas for a story night followed by milk and cookies. It was enjoyable. Since I had a hair appointment that lasted just under three hours we didn't make it to the first session but we enjoyed the second one. One of the stories read was I'll Love You Forever and I had to really fight to keep those tears at bay. If you've never read it, go for it, but have some kleenex handy.

Not much else happened other than typical weekend stuff. We did donate a bunch of stuff for the earthquake/tsunami relief. I am amazed at how much is being done by our small base. Shelters are being erected for those that need it.

Also, if you ever see colored bubbles by Crayola and are inspired to purchase...don't. I bought a bottle for each of the kids. We went out to the playground and started to blow them. Within seconds Clara Grace looked like she had murdered something that bled green blood. Splatters were everywhere...face, dress, etc. Even I was splattered in blue from Zach's bottle. Inside we went, clothes in the washing machine. In Crayola's defense, it did come out.

My class is going really well, other than the fact that my books haven't arrived yet. They have sent three shipments of books with the first one sent February 2nd. Charlie ordered his books. They shipped March 10th and arrived today. Hopefully my books arrive very soon. I am now in week 4 and the class is only 8 weeks long. Luckily there are lots of online resources loaded into the site plus an extensive online library so that I have been able to meet expectations for assignments.

Spring Break is in a couple weeks and I am very excited. Charlie will be doing a bike rally which the kids and I will probably visit but he'll be staying overnight. It is a very different culture over here and family friendly. I am hoping to get some school and work stuff completed, plus perhaps some fun day trips. We have talked about camping but we will see.

Brief Update

2011-03-18T07:40:00.004-04:00

Let's see. A lot has happened over the last couple of weeks. To begin with, there was the earthquake and tsunami. We've recieved lots of inquiries as to how we are doing. We are doing well. We live a bit south of all the damage. Everyone here is remaining calm and springing to action where possible. Information is being passed along quickly and a town hall meeting was held last night. Lots of plans are being made and people are working on relief efforts.

In addition to that, Zach had pink eye. That was my first experience with it. His eye looked awful when he woke up Monday morning. This past week was standardized testing so Charlie and I worked a compromise where he stayed with Zach in the morning so I could administer the test then I took a half day for the afternoon. We only had to do that two days and he was good to go back to daycare. I have just had to go over on my lunch to administer the antibiotic ointment.

Clara Grace lost her third tooth tonight. It has been loose for a while. I was messing with her tonight and she was eating apple slices when it nearly came out. She got a little concerned and wouldn't let me touch it. I then noticed that she could press her tongue against it and it was completely horizontal, nearly sticking out past her lip. I found that hysterical and wanted to take a picture to show just how loose it was. I got in position to take the sillouette shot when she pressed her tongue against the back of the tooth...and the tooth came off on her tongue! She sort of went spastic at that moment and the tooth shot out on the floor...too bad I missed the picture. She is now in bed with the tooth sealed in an envelope ready for the tooth fairy. Our tooth fairy brings books and I have a hunch she'll deliver a Big Apple Barn book called A Sassy Surprise. The irony is that she has lost two of her three teeth on a Friday that we ordered pizza.

Oh, if you would like to chuckle at my lack of grace, I have a tale for you. I was sorting through mail and dropped a paper on the floor. I bent down to pick it up and completely misjudged the distance between me and the table. I nailed my nose on the way down and was at first concerned I might have broken it but quickly ruled that possibility out, but there was blood and it continues to be tender.

It is late and I'm at a loss for any other interesting tidbits to share right now. As I have concrete information to report on what is happening here, I'll share it.

Read Across America Week

2011-03-06T04:26:00.003-05:00

This past week our school celebrated Read Across America week in honor of Dr. Seuss. It was a fun week and the kids dressed a certain way each day. I didn't catch pictures of Clara Grace on tacky clothes day or crazy hat day and we just didn't make the cut on crazy socks day. She definitely dressed tacky though and on crazy hat day she wore her Bello hat from the circus a couple years ago. That being said, I did snap a couple pictures of her on crazy hair day. I'm rather challenged in the hair department, but I think it turned out rather well and she got quite a few comments. It is hard to tell in the picture, but we made a loop out of her braid on top and then she had two braids on the side and one coming down her back. What a lazy expression she is wearing on her face!

Students dressed as their favorite storybook character on Friday and then the whole school went on a storybook parade off school campus for a short trip around the food court and back. I'm sure traffic enjoyed the view as they had to wait for us all to cross the road several times on our trip.

Anyway, we threw together a costume at the last minute and I think it actually looked better in person than how the pictures show. It was a pretty chilly day so we had to make sure she was warm enough. We started with tights, cut up a green shirt of mine that I had no intention of ever wearing again (nor would anyone else want to) and put it over her glitterly thermal shirt. She REALLY didn't want to wear any pants but we insisted. She had those green pants from last spring and it worked fine but she did have some people guess she was Peter Pan instead of Tink. I managed to put her hair in a bun and threw in a glittery green pipe cleaner for some glitz around the bun. You cannot see it, but we also applied clear body glitter to eyelids and a couple of green stickers beside her eyes. She loved it and was strutted around all day. One day she'll look back on these pictures and realize just how challenged I am in these areas! Next year I will have to start on the costume a bit earlier.

Jan Jaka and Bike Riding...

2011-02-27T03:14:00.002-05:00

You will be happy to know Zach had a speedy recovery from his illness last weekend.

The rest of the week went by relatively incident free. It was busy. Clara Grace successfully completed level 2 of swim lessons and we were moved from the waiting list to a time slot for March lessons. Luckily we have a break this week and lessons start up March 8th for her. Although I'm glad she is enrolled, it certainly keeps me on my toes getting her to class twice a week plus AWANA and my meetings and work.

We were very pleased to have nice weather this week. It was mostly hitting the 50's during the day and several days I skipped wearing my fleece. On Saturday we took Clara Grace on our first family biking expedition. She is doing really well riding. We put Zach in the trailer that I towed and kept Clara Grace between me and Charlie. We took a ride through the neighborhood and walked bikes across the main road on base and then got on the sea wall. Clara Grace was scared but still gave it a try. All in all it was a fun trip. We did stop at a playground and let the kids play for a little while. I think we rode about 3.5 miles total. There was one little incident where Clara Grace wasn't paying attention and slammed right into a completely stopped Charlie. She shook it off though and paid better attention the rest of the ride.

Today we decided to try a restaurant that gets rave reviews. It is called Jan Jaka and is a Korean restaurant. It was awesome. It is very intimate in that tables are seperated by drapes. We were seated in a little room that only had two booths that were down low to the ground and had a grill in the table. The kids shared a kids meal that had curry, rice, french fries and an egg omelet. The waitress brought out a basket and Clara Grace was able to pick out a little toy. Charlie and I ordered a meal for two that had a variety of meats that we were able to cook on our grill. It was yummy and we will definitely go back.

The weekend is coming to an end now. We are about to start out bedtime routines. I was able to get a lot done around the house as we get ready to begin another week. Tomorrow I begin my class. I have access to the online classroom now and realize I am going to be very busy from now on. Unfortunately my books have not arrived but my instructor responded to my email and she was very helpful and understanding. Hopefully next week I will be able to report that I successfully completed the first week of the class.

Until then, have a great week...

Poor Zach

2011-02-19T21:30:00.003-05:00

He is a sickie today. Luckily he is in good spirits and has no fever. He has vomited three times so far but it has been a while since the last time so hopefully he is on the mend and the rest of the family doesn't get sick.

I tell you though, germs will have a hard time surviving after the campaign I've launched since this started. Charlie is out picking up a carpet cleaner as I type.

King Steakhouse

2011-02-19T21:13:00.002-05:00

Saturday we decided to take a scenic ride around Iwakuni. Charlie drove us around and pointed out some places he has gone on bike rides. He took us to a dam that was pretty neat. It was the first time Clara Grace had seen anything like that, or at least that she is old enough to recall. While out, we decided to try out a steakhouse that several people have recommended. What a great idea!

The kids each got a "happy meal" that came with a small hamburger steak, rice, what looked like a cheese omelet with ketchup on it and vanilla pudding. Clara really enjoyed her meal. Zach picked at his, which is funny because he is generally a little more open to different foods than she is. Charlie and I both ordered steak that was cooked perfectly and was delicious. It arrived on a sizzling cast iron platter accompanied with potato wedges, carrots and corn. We each had a warm dinner roll I slathered with butter. We were able to choose between a red wine dipping sauce and some other, we chose the red wine but the steak was so yummy without it that we only dipped a couple bites. It was wonderful and I left not a single morsel of my meal on the place. Our meals also came with the soup, salad and fruit bar which wasn't that great for me but Charlie loved it. Clara went with me on my trip and we picked out Japanese cucumbers, broccoli and something that she swore was jello and insisted on trying. I appeased her, but she said it tasted like coffee. Zach, on the otherhand, enjoyed it and ate all of that I had put on my plate. Who knows what it was.

I tell you what I do know though, I will be going back! They had an English menu and there were quite a few things I'd like to try. They also had a high chair which was a big bonus for us.

The Compromise

2011-02-16T05:16:00.003-05:00

As mentioned in a previous post, Clara Grace wants her ears pierced. I had the day all planned for when she was around 12 or 13 and we would have a girls' day...manicures, pedicures, tea, a trip to the make-up counter and getting her ears pierced. Plans change. Clara Grace decided she was big enough and could handle both the pain of the process and the maintenance. So, we made an appointment for today.

The ears before...
Here she is, all grubby from a day at school but excited as she awaits the piercing.

I decided to not document the tears. She really did great, I must say. When she saw the "gun" she began to get a little concerned. She asked Hannah several questions about how she was going to do it. She did cry for a moment with the first ear and I was a little concerned. She said it hurt. But when she pierced the second ear she only said, "Ow Ow Ow Ow!" and that was that. No tears. Then we spun her around to see how she looked and this was the expression on her face.

She has no regrets and says she would do it again knowing how much it hurt. I'm still not sure how I feel, but I do admit she looks very pretty with them.

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow!

2011-02-16T05:00:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday we woke up to see a few flakes falling from the sky. Those flakes picked up speed and there was quite a bit of wind as well. Charlie predicted a couple of inches but I didn't believe it. Last winter there was no snow, and while we've had many flurries this winter there has been no accumulation. Charlie was right. We didn't get much, probably between 2-3 inches but it was enough to get out and enjoy. We needed to check the mail and I had left the camera in my classroom so I asked if we could swing by and pick it up to document what might be the only snow we experience while in Iwakuni. This first picture is taken from outside my classroom. That dark line just beyond the car is the sea wall. This is outside the apartment building. I personally wanted a shot of the teen building a fort. It looked like he was gearing up for a serious snowball fight. Clara Grace was busy at work attempting to build a snowman.
There was enough snow that we saw several good ones, but by the time we made it out there wasn't much of a chance without a lot of grass involved.

That is Zach off in the distance with Charlie on the playground. I was trying to get a shot of that kid building the fort. Notice all the snowman tracks where people were rolling the balls.

There they are!

We had a lot of fun in a short period of time. Charlie and I had quite the snowball fight and the kids had a blast. Zach wouldn't wear gloves so we were just out for a few minutes. It wasn't that cold for us but without gloves...not a good idea. The trip ended when Clara Grace got too excited watching us have a snowball fight and decided to throw one at Zach. She doesn't have very good aim, and well, she hit him in the head. Fun in the snow over. Hello hot cocoa!

Anyway, it was a good thing we got out there when we did because it was pretty much gone a few hours later.

This week in the House of Hollowell...

2011-02-11T17:54:00.002-05:00

Not much happened this week, and most of this is rambling about the kids. Let's see...

Zach was mauled at daycare. One of the kids was sitting beside him at the table and just turned and with both hands raked the nails down his cheeks. One side is worse that the other. I have to say, I know the age is prone to doing things like this...but this is why I am maniacal about making sure Zach's nails are trimmed. For his safety and that of other children. He is healing nicely though.
Clara Grace has requested to have her ears pierced. I planned to wait until she was older, but I'm willing to make this compromise. If I can figure out how to have them pierced here in Iwakuni that is.
As a parent, you just never know what your kids are going to do. Last night, I was returning some items to Zach's room. As I walked in, the light was already on and I glanced to the right to see Clara Grace standing on the glider. Like she was on a surfboard. And the glider just a gliding. Before I could say anything, she anounced that she was practicing surfing. And got back to business. Of course I had to end the fun, but I found it hysterical.
Disney has a hold on Zach. He loves Mickey. A lot.
Clara Grace is currently memorizing the books of the Old Testament for AWANA.
If rumors are correct, there WILL be a spring bazaar this year!
I cannot believe Zach turns two next month!

Have you ever been so tired...

2011-02-06T14:35:00.002-05:00

you dreamed about it?

I tend to be a bit drained by the time the weekend rolls around. This past Friday, after falling asleep in Clara Grace's bed, then dragging myself out to the couch only to fall asleep there as well and then making it to my bed I fell into a deep sleep. I was dreaming about work, and was talking to someone about how exhausted I was, when my voice woke me up because I was talking out loud! As I woke, I turned and Charlie was staring at me and just burst out laughing. He laughed so hard that I couldn't help but chuckle too...before falling back to sleep.

That being said, I am now energized to make it through another week. This weekend was very productive in terms of home, work, family and sleep!

Photo Update

2011-02-06T13:56:00.006-05:00

As promised, I'm uploading a few photos taken since Christmas. This is a common scene. Since Clara Grace has a DS, she passed her Leapster on to Zach. He has no clue how to play with it, but loves to tote it around to be like his big sister. He is such a happy guy...most of the time.

Don't ask. Clara Grace loves to create little clubs around the apartment for her and Zach. As usual, Zach is up for hanging out with his big sister.

This is a picture after Hurricane Zach hit our apartment.

This construction project was halted when the demolition team (Zach) swept in causing a huge reaction from the construction crew (Clara).

Clara Grace at the 1st Semester Awards assembly.

The next karate kid?

Wheeee!

Just hanging around....

...wanting to be just like my big sister!

Vroom Vroom! Zach LOVES the bike. As does Clara.

And of course, Charlie loves it too.

especially when we have a day that warms up to the 50's.

Clara just a swingin'

January

2011-01-21T16:31:00.002-05:00

The month of January has been a bit of a blur and very few, if any, pictures taken. I'll see what I can recall...

Clara Grace ended up with a slot for a private swim lesson. We had to put her on the waiting list but were fortunate enough to get the slot. We just finished week three and I am very pleased with her progress. She will continue through February and if they are offered in March I'm going to do my best to get her in then too. In order to swim without a life jacket here on the base, children are required to pass a swim test and get an arm band. Even with what she is doing now, the instructor didn't sound promising about her passing the swim test any time soon. However, like I said, I think she is doing great! She is floating, swimming under water, juming in, and able to move rather quickly. I'll admit that she often refers back to the doggy paddle technique when the head is above water though. She is becoming quite a young lady though. She and I are so different but we seem to be able to find a middle ground. She is really doing better with how she treats Zach and problem solving before yelling at him for touching something of hers. It seems that every few months I see a noticeable growth in maturity. I notice that she is getting so big too. She was stuck at 30 pounds for about three years. This year alone she has gained 7.5 pounds. As much growth as she is making, she is still a small fry. She said her current sneakers are too snug. I thought they were a size 10, checked them and they are a 9.5. We are looking for a pair online, but I'm not digging the selection. We have decided to stop her riding lessons for safety reasons, with the promise to resume (if she is still interested) when we get back to the states. She handled it well.

Zach is really picking up quite a few words! He is pointing to lots of things and adds the sounds to lots of the animals. He understands so much of what we tell him too. He is a sweetheart, and the ladies at daycare says he takes care of the little girls. However, he takes nothing from the boys or he uses the chompers. We are working on that, but I had to sign yet another incident report yesterday. These reports are not super frequent, thank goodness, but he is a bit of a brute. He loves cars, trains, and airplanes. Charlie took him to work to pick up some papers last weekend. He showed him around the trucks and all. And he said a pilot taxying (how do you spell that?) by waved at Zach and that it was thrilling for him. Getting him to leave was not easy. The train table is a big hit for him. And books! If you need to divert him, usually the offer of reading a book will excite him. At bedtime he is getting cranky with me when I put a stop to the reading, but it only lasts until the lights are out. All in all, he is a really happy guy and thinks the world of his big sister. It is so hard to think he will be two years old in just two more months. He is growing like a weed too. He needs new shoes too and we'll be ordering a size 6 for him. Luckily, it is just ordering the same exact shoe, new size.

Charlie is doing great. His physical therapy this week has been hard but rewarding. He said he feels like he is turning the corner and feels like he will progress quite a bit in the next month. They have him on a schedule to get him back to running. He is also really enjoying work right now. And of course he is still loving the Harley. Due to the cold weather, he hasn't been riding as much now but he ordered some cold weather accessories so we'll see how much he enjoys it. He is slated to have a short deployment within the next few months but no more details than that at this time. I have seen so many commericials about "opsec" (operation security) that are quite humorous actually but I hesitate to share more details. Of course these things change as well so we'll see. He has to be off limited duty to do it anyway.

I'm doing really well too. I did have a minor dental set back. At my last appointment I had two very small cavities beginning and a silver crown I have had since grade school needed to be replaced. I was able to quickly take care of the small cavities, but the crown has been a bit more drawn out. He removed it but was concerned I might need a root canal, so after doing whatever he needed to do and putting a temporary on there I am to go back next week to determine if anything else needs to be done. Then when the porcelain crown comes in they will complete the process. Although I am not enjoying all this time I am spending at the dentist, it is kind of nice to be losing my "silver tooth". You do not know how many students over the years have informed me that I have a silver tooth. I was a bit concerned that I might need the root canal because after everything he did that tooth was quite sensitive but now it is starting to feel much better and I am even doing a little chewing on that side. On other news for me...I have decided to pursue a little more education. I will be attending Walden University online and getting my M.S. in Education with a specialization in curriculum, instruction and assessment. There are people I work with that have this particular degree from the same school and I am fairly confident it will go well. If I hunker down and do it continuously, I can complete it in 18 months. It is a bit intense from what I have heard but with appropriate time management it should be ok. I just got my acceptance letter this morning and will start classes February 28th.

That is our month in a nutshell. Well, it seems like I just wrote a novel. I'm going to work to get some pictures over the weekend and post them. The kids seem to change so quickly! It is hard to believe that we are almost at our halfway point of this tour. There are so many good things that have come from being here, but are very much looking forward to returning to the states.

Clara Grace is asking to be fed, so I'll skip proofreading and post now so forgive me any glaring typos please. I'm off to the kitchen...

Another lengthy update

2010-12-25T07:13:00.011-05:00

Wow! So hard to believe my last post was about Halloween. Lots has happened since then, and I'll take you back in time as the post progresses. We have been so busy between the events below, preparing for the holidays and just day to day living. I try to snap pictures when I think to, but time to sit down at the computer to update the blog just seems really scarce. The kids are growing up so quickly and it seems they change each day. Zach is a mess, but a sweetie. He is so physical and coordinated. Clara Grace is turning into a lovely young lady, but still goofy and loves to perform.

This picture is right before bedtime Christmas night. Clara Grace is all bathed and dressed in her new American Girl pajamas that match her doll's pajamas. I just thought she looked so pretty sitting there. By the way, after much debate, she chose to name the doll Quinn. I'm assuming it is because we have watched the movie Santa Paws about five times over the last few weeks and there is a little girl named Quinn in it. Here, you can see Zach having a blast on his little battery operated four wheeler. Luckily he was beginning to get the hang of steering by the end of the day. Let's hope he doesn't regress over night. He also got the hang of dragging it into position, climbing on and taking off.

Zach is climbing onto it for the first time on Christmas morning while Clara Grace looks on.

Cheese! He is such a little ham!

Santa came!

Clara Grace and Zach are playing with toys after getting to open one gift on Christmas Eve.

Clara Grace and I made snickerdoodles to leave for Santa. She did most of the work, including cracking the eggs. At this point though we launched into team work.

These next few pictures chronicle our first trip to Ganesh, and Indian restuarant in Iwakuni. Everybody raves about it so we decided to give it a shot. It IS yummy! This is my plate.

Charlie's plate

Zach got a little from each of us, and although he was quite a pistol, he seemed to like the food.

Clara Grace got the kid's meal. She and Zach both got a yogurt drink, but she enjoyed refilling her water cup from the pitcher on the table more than anything.

This is the same day as Ganesh, but it was without Charlie and Zach. Clara Grace and I joined a couple of ladies I work with and their kids for a day trip to Hiroshima. We met at the train station and rode it into Hiroshima. We went first to the children's museum, then ate at McDonald's, stopped at a Starbucks for a sweet treat and then Cafe du Monde for beignets followed by some window shopping and then they took me to the Peace Park where this picture was taken of me and Clara Grace. At this point, I have now been to both Nagasaki and Hiroshima and to each city's peace park.

Although I took tons of pictures at the museum, I am trying to limit the number of pictures in this post. The museum was lots of fun and the language barrier wasn't too much of an issue as it was so interactive. They are looking at a big screen of them inside the game, and if you look at the screens to the left you can see it too.

This was LOUD!

This is a group shot of the ARFF Christmas party that they do each year for the Tsuta Orphanage that they sponsor. We had tasty food, Santa came and the kids ran around playing and bouncing in the bounce house.

I finally got Zach to sit down with his big sister as Santa went through his bag of gifts, handing them out to each one.

The Single Marine Program sponsors an event each year called the Thunder Run as it is a drive for the Toys for Tots donations. Charlie joined it. It was his first group ride. A band was there and a lot of the Japanese riders come on base for this. This picture is of Charlie and Clara taking the toy to drop in the bin.

Charlie is suiting up for the ride.

The kids and I walked down to the corner to take a shot of them before they took off.

The same band that played for the Thunder Run played for the Christmas Tree Lighting event on base. It is nice. They offer free hot cocoa, cider and cookies while the high school band and chorus put on a show followed by the band mentioned. Some prizes are raffled off and the tree is lit.

We were rather proud of Clara Grace as she was selected to perform in living history wax museum the school put on. The students chosen dressed as their historical figure, memorized their biographical information and waited until their "button" was pressed to tell their stories. Clara Grace was Amelia Earhart and did a fabulous job. She did this all day long, with a lunch break, as students/parents came through throughout the day. My class visited first thing in the morning. She seemed a bit nervous but I had so many people come to me and say what a great job she did AND she was among about seven of those that did it that was invited to present at a school advisory meeting the following week. I was also proud of her because of the mature way she handled missing out on a field trip. The first grade had a field trip to pick mikans but she honored her commitment to be Amelia.

The first grade put on a Veteran's Day performance that was really nice. My little performer put on quite a show too. She did a great job, but managed to stand out. And as an aside, while we were watching (I watched as a teacher and had my class with me) I noticed one of my students looking very concerned at another student. Upon closer inspection, this girl that the boy was looking at looked quite distraught. I leaned toward her and asked if she was ok. She looked at me and said, "It is just so beautiful!" And I have to agree. It was really nice to see the kids sing such patriotic songs.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-06T21:42:00.005-04:00

We had a pretty fun Halloween this year. Clara Grace and I did several activities leading up to the big day...decorated a gingerbread haunted house, made halloween cookies and pumpkin shaped jello. She wanted to be a mermaid this year and made a lovely one. I'm still able to select Zach's costume so I decided he would be a fisherman. We also attended the base Halloween party on Saturday, which was fun too. Clara Grace also was able to dress up the Friday before Halloween at school.

I'm also impressed with the way the military families decorate for each of the holidays. I didn't do a good job of capturing the participation but there were lots of people out trick-or-treating and many homes decorated. There were also quite a few groups of Japanese families as well.

As for the pictures, they are loaded backwards in terms of when they were taken. Oops! Clara Grace saw this big cat and had to have her picture made with it.

It didn't take long for Zach to get the hang of trick-or-treating. He would say, "dank oo!"

This is at the halloween party at the gym.

Safari Land

2010-10-16T16:47:00.024-04:00

We've heard about this place but it was way more than we expected. However, I'll begin my tale with the spirit of adventure we had as we decided on the spur of the moment to head south. I printed off the directions from information and referrals, we gased up and began our 2.5-3 hour trip to Safari Land. We did great navigating until we got really close. Luckily we found our destination entering from the opposite direction. (We had zero issues departing though.) Here, you see the entrance.

The way this works is you can drive your own car through or ride a tour bus. We drove on. Nothing like seeing signs like this as you approach. This was all we were expecting, so you'll see later on why we had such a blast. There was much more to it!

The elephants were among the first animals we saw. All of the pictures at this point are taken through the glass of the windsheild/windows so sorry for the glares and spots in advance.

See the zebra painted Pajermos (like a jeep, we drive a pajermo mini)...they were everywhere and zipping around constantly. You'll also notice later on a picture of a watch tower. They were all over the place too. These animals just go where they want in this area, except for the rhino, he was sort of penned in where he was at.

This was the next gate we had to drive through. Can you see the watch towers in the distance?

Just in case you are a complete idiot, here is the official warning. Also, I love how the English translation usually is off by a word or two.

These are bear cubs. They were roped off with their mama. She kept pacing back and forth.

Ok, we had a rather interesting experience at this point. We pulled up and were going on and on about how awesome it was to see a tiger so close. And then Charlie leaned his arm against the door, causing the window to start going down. He quickly got it going in the up direction though and we had our chuckle...and were grateful the tiger was so chill.

This was right before we pulled so close to the rock for the shot above.

After we left the tigers, we got out and enjoyed a petting zoo plus little amusement park.

Luckily, I was armed with a nice sized bottle of hand sanitizer, and off we went.

We've seen a lot of kangaroos, but have never been inside and allowed to pet them!

Next, we were able to enter an area with squirrel monkeys. I think monkeys are basically nasty creatures, but this was really neat.

This couple was feeding the monkey.

This monkey was on the guy's shoulder. I tried to get the shot, but the monkey jumped up as I snapped the picture.

This guy was in a pen...no petting him. He doesn't look very friendly does he?

Also enclosed...

These white tigers looked HUGE in person!

This guy was funny! He knew what he wanted and wasn't afraid to ask!

I gave Charlie a little bit of grief wearing Zach's backpack. I didn't expect we'd be out walking around so just made sure I had his backpack stocked with wipes, diapers, etc.

This area was awesome and really nice. There were lots of places for the kids to run, play and learn. We only did a few of them. If we had left earlier in the day we would have lingered in this area a bit longer.

These lion cubs were so frisky and cute!

This elephant was cool. The kids pumped the lever and water shot out of the trunk. Clara Grace paused to run up to it and then kids swarmed so we moved on. She wasn't particularly happy she didn't get to do it.

Ice cream is always a hit!

This had to be the lamest ride ever, but Clara Grace really wanted to ride it. It went in circles (with a little elevation) with lots of annoying barking.

This concluded our experience at the park and we went back to the car. We had such a blast and will likely return before we leave Japan for good. The kids thought it was really neat. It was out in the country and the scenery was beautiful. We had to drive through a nature preserve to get there. Unfortunately, since this was a spur of the moment trip the camera wasn't fully charged so it died as I tried to get shots of the countryside.

Another long lapse in time...

2010-10-15T17:04:00.002-04:00

Let's see...what has been happening? I don't think we've done too much that has been exciting other than your typical daily stuff. Clara Grace with her riding lessons and Awana. Me working, Charlie working, and all that. I will say that Clara Grace came home last week with a note saying she was chosen to participate in a living wax biography museum the elementary school is doing. She will get to play the part of Amelia Earhart, and will have to memorize lines. She will be A.E. for half the day and then another little girl will take over the part (or vice versa) for the rest of the day. Her grade level is also putting on a Veteran's Day performance that should be very nice. She definitely keeps us busy.

Zach is doing really well. He is a bit of a brute though, and quite a rough and tumble boy. He stays bruised. These injuries happen at daycare and at home. Over the past week and a half he has had a bruise on each cheek. One happened at home when he just took off and walked right into the door frame of his bedroom. OUCH! And then the other he just woke up from his nap at daycare and he had the mark. He had two owie reports that day. He has bitten two kids over the past month and pinched an eyelid (goodness gracious!) and hit a kid yesterday. Not that he is the only one dishing it out as each time he has bitten it was days after being bitten himself. However, he is quite the charmer most of the time. He has a fairly decent vocabulary and I've noticed over the past few days that he really tries to copy the sounds you are making. He says thank you for everything which sounds more like "dank ooo". He is also on rare occasions putting two words together. Last night he wanted out of the tub after bath time and said "out pease" which was pretty cool as he hasn't really been using the word out much. He gives great hugs and loves his books.

Clara Grace alternates between being very pleased she has a little brother and annoyed to have him. I was glad to have my camera with me this morning as we were on our way to school. She pretty much stepped in and took over my role of holding Zach's hand as we made our way to the car to go to school. Although of course I had to watch like a hawk.

How cute it that!?! As Zach has gotten older, they are funny to watch at home. He adores her and follows her around. They play chase and stuff, but if she gets too bossy he puts her in her place. Refer back to the line of him being a bit of a brute.

Charlie is really doing well. He has been swimming at the gym and working really hard at physical therapy. They are impressed. He still has a bit of a limp and some pain but he is getting around really well. This week he decided to give his Harley a spin so after work he and a friend took a couple turns around the base to see how he would do. He was pleased so yesterday they took a scenic ride up to the Chicken Shack to eat (very cool Japanese restaurant). He is supposed to ride to Hiroshima today to experience the expressway. He had to drive there last night to pick up a trainer for work but the guy had a flight delay and was still in Tokyo so hopefully he gets him this morning and still has a chance to take his bike ride today. The kids and I are going to try to be in the 5K walk for breast cancer awareness this morning (did a walk with the youth center yesterday afternoon and listened to a survivor and colleague as a guest speaker) followed by riding lessons and hitting the fall bazaar.

I do have some pictures of our trip to Safari Land last weekend that I will try to post here in a little bit.

Found it!

2010-09-04T08:02:00.003-04:00

If you read the last post you know that we could not find the Rosetta Stone software. It was recovered today...by Zach. Ironically, it was found in the desk, exactly where it should have been. I looked and looked and looked, especially in the desk. Today Zach decided to pull everything out, and there it was. Hopefully I'll be able to report that Charlie and I are making gains in Japanese soon!

Other news...

Clara Grace started the first grade! She loves it and got the teacher we were hoping for. It has been a very long week for us, but a nice one. Charlie had to do the meet the teacher thing since I had my class meeting me. It is strange to not be there for moments like that. Clara Grace loves her teacher though and was bummed today was not a school day.

Zach has a viral eye infection. We tried to take care of him at home but took him in to the doctor today to find out it is indeed viral and it has to run its course. I feel so bad for him, but he is handling it well. I think it is harder for us to see the eyes running like that. While at the doctor he would be crying and they say, "Hi!" to the doctor. It was hysterical! He is picking up new words like crazy too.

Charlie is doing really well. He is getting a lot of phyisical therapy and if I am correct, he is now capable of bending his knee 80 degrees! Just a couple of weeks ago he could only do it 35 degrees.

Sumimasen

2010-08-21T01:33:00.003-04:00

Charlie and I were committed to learning Japanese as soon as we got our orders. We bought Rosetta Stone and got started...well, we completed one lesson each. Then we got caught up in daily life and let it go, promising to get back on it as soon as we arrived.

Well, I cannot find the disc. I'm currently going through everything we own trying to find it. I'm sure it will turn up in the oddest location.

However, this is all leading up to me letting you know that I do NOT speak Japanese and find it very difficult. I have a few things I can say...

konnichiwa (good day/hello)
kudasai (please)
hai (yes)
arigato (thank you)

Ok, maybe a few more but very basic communications. I am working on it. However, I finally drove out to the stable to try to apologize for missing Clara Grace's last scheduled lesson and set up her next one. I went with my handy dandy laminated language map that is a quick reference for basic communication.

Her instructor was busy in the corral giving a lesson so the kids and I hung around petting horses and watching. When she approached I was ready and said, "Sumimasen" which means excuse me or sorry which is how I was using it. She lit up and gave me a big smile at my attempt. We fumbled through my trying to explain why we missed it so I'm not sure she knows why but then it was time to schedule the next lesson. I got applause for my efforts!

I said, Kugatsu, which is September and once again she cheered for me and flipped to September.

Then I said juichi which is the word for 11. More cheering!

Then I gave the time for ten which is ju...big smile!

So that was all fantastic and I was feeling SO proud, but then she started talking more in Japanese and I was totally lost. I searched my language map and so did she but we couldn't find it so we settled for what she had already penciled in.

Basically, I was thrilled with the exchange but definitely see the humor in it. I must find that Rosetta Stone though because I seriously need to do better on learning the Japanese language. If I can find it, maybe I'll communicate better by the next lesson...

2010-08-18T23:37:00.004-04:00

Hooray for Clara Grace!

We've been working on riding without training wheels and we sort of hit a wall since she kept wanting us to hold her steady as she began riding. She did not want to have to start on her own. Since returning from Yokosuka I have taken my bike down and told her that she was on her own. I'd give demonstrations and support but no more physical assistance. She was ASTONISHED I would take this stance. However, as you can see from the video, she is now an official bike rider without training wheels. I thought the video showed her actual take-off but it I guess there was a little delay. If only she could remember how to use the brakes lol.

Can you tell she is proud!?!