Just a quick note...
Less than 2 weeks and we make the trek back to CONUS! Such mixed emotions...I'm feeling so sad to leave Japan and my friends, but will be so glad to have my bed back!! We're using "loaner furniture" right now, and my back can't take much more of our Japanese sized double bed.
Things have been a little crazy around here as usual-
I got in a fight today with the base aquatics director because she wouldn't let me take a stroller in the pool area, not even the dressing room. Her reasons were that the wheels were dirty--I offered to hose them off--and then also that it might roll into the pool. Hello--let's weigh the risks here.....baby quietly crawls into water, no one sees him, he drowns....or, stroller brakes mysteriously release and stroller rolls into pool, big splash, everyone sees it, and someone pulls baby out. HELLO!! Seems like a no brainer. And what about the locker room? How am I supposed to get dressed, shower, or pee! She told me I would just have to come in my suit, and not shower. I told her I guess I'd just have to pee in the pool. Whew! I haven't been that fired up in a while.
Last Sunday after church the kids found a baby bird that had fallen out of a nest, and couldn't be put back in. They tried hard to nurse it back to health, but were unsuccussful. It kept them busy for quite a while though.
I found a sink full of dirt and worms in my downstairs bathroom. Yikes!
I'm looking forward to the day when my girls start babysitting and I find money in the wash instead of rocks.
I am making "value quilts" with my YW, they are turning out so cute. We've got to get them finished before I leave though, we're running out of time.
I am working on a couple of quilts for Emma and Sarah. I have been working on them for the past couple of months. I pieced them together with cute Japanese fabrics I found in Hiroshima. I kept thinking that when all my furniture was gone, I'd have an empty house with nothing to do, and quilt them. I got Emma's up yesterday. The empty house part was right, but nothing to do....yeah, right. I'm hoping I can at least get one done. I got a little slowed down tonight though...I was quilting, and Jacob was on the side of the quilt, it looked like from where I was sitting he was driving a little car up and down the side of one of the quilting frames. I thought, how cute, he's entertained, not asking for a "snack, snack". Unusual for Jake. Then he came over a few minutes later and showed me his "spiders", marker all over his face, hands, and leg. My stomach dropped. I thought, "please, not the quilt". I went over to where he had been "driving the car", and nope, of course, it hadn't been a car, a royal blue marker. And not just on the frame, it was all over the bottom of the quilt. Cream fabric. Since the quilt's been up I had been especially careful not to leave any scissors accessible, Jacob's had a real thing with scissors for about the past year. And markers? Where did he find that? It's all I can do to find a pencil or pen these days, everything got packed! If it'd been a crayola I wouldn't have been worried, but it was a Mr. Sketch, I wasn't so sure if it was water-soluable. Luckily after about an hour of scrubbing, most if it came out, and I think when the quilt's done and I wash it the rest will come out. Never a dull moment with a 3 year old around.
We've been staying busy trying to do all those "lasts". We had FHE with our good friends the Pershings last night. Took a bucket of chicken and rode out on bikes to one of our favorite parks. It was a lot of fun. Tonight we had the Trouts and the missionaries over for dinner. Tomorrow we're making Sushi at the Hinton's.
Well, it's way past my bedtime. Happy late Father's Day to Dad and Dan! We miss you!

Yesterday Jacob walked off the bus looking like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently one of the Sensei's has been doing hair at recess!

I survived Jacob's birthday party! It was a lot of fun. I'll post pics later. Sunday was totally crazy trying to finish getting ready for the packers. Monday was a breeze. Nobody's told me to sit in a chair all day and do nothing for a long time. It was a much needed break to just sit and supervise the packers. They were AMAZING. I have never seen such maticulus packers. Bubble wrap must be cheap here. They bubblewrapped EVERYTHING! Even my plastic tubs. The funniest was when they bubblewrapped a beat up plastic sandbox bucket w/a missing handle. They were so fast at it too. At one point a crew down the street finished up their job and came over to help my crew. I had at least 15 packers!! They finished up yesterday around lunch time. They brought "loaner furniture" over, that's what we're using for the next month. Our house seems so big w/just a few pieces of furniture...I'm really liking it.
Well, Luke and I are off to a field trip w/Emma to the chip factory!! I've been dying my whole life to find out how chips are made. (lol) I tried to get out of it yesterday, but she flipped out, so I'm going.