I am have my wireless internet hooked up and am a HAPPY mom again. Back to my email, online shopping, and blogging.
It's been a while, here's a quick recap:
Aug. 14, closed on the house, moved in with only our suitcases we'd been traveling with and some air mattresses, a porta-crib, and a few blankets from a very nice family we met at church. Thank goodness for a few church friends, I swear I'd have no friends this move if it weren't for church. Every other move I've always had insta-friends....Arkansas, I had other law school-wifes waiting for me, Japan, I already knew a few people and living on base it was totally easy, but this move I can tell is going to be a little trickier.....living on a country road with neighbors not so close (which totally has it's benefits).....but since I'm COMPLETELY engrossed in DIYing this house, I've been fine so far with out many friends, no time. I have however met 3 neighbors, one single woman across the street who doesn't help the skunk problem because she feeds them!! She's very nice though and tells great stories. The other two however were not as pleasant. One stopped by after we'd been in the house only 2 hours and had not gotten the boundaries down yet, and Jakey had ventured out into the road. She stopped by to yell at me. The other was a mother of a girl the girls met and played with.....long story short, she wasn't all that friendly either after she found out I'd mentioned to my "nice neighbor" that her daughter was disrespectuful to Adam and I, and rude to Isaac. She is was quite sure it was just that Adam is very "militant". Yeah, that was it lady. It couldn't have been your daughter.
So, 1 out of 3, not too bad, right? Can't win them all.

The yard has been very enjoyable. The kids have been having a great time running wild with no one but the horses behind to bother. The dog was LOVING the yard and horses behind, til a week and a half ago when we got the invisable fence hooked up and collar on, and she got zapped a few times. I thought we were going to have to get doggy couseling to get her through it. It would take her hours to quit shaking. She wouldn't go outside for anything. Not even to go to the bathroom. She wouldn't touch a ball. It was so sad! So then we watched the video to see what we'd done wrong. Pretty much everything...we didn't realize all the training that should have been involved first before she actually got shocked...so now we're trying to backtrack and redo it all...
So life wasn't quite chaotic enough remodeling a house with 5 kids and a big dog, so we decided to let Sarah get the kitten she's been begging for for years. 8 week old "Fiona" is running around amidst it all now too. She's very cute, grey with a white nose and white socks, and a little yellow and green paint on her paws as well.

Back to the remodeling....I took a ton of before pics of the house, and have been taking pics every step of the way... knocking out walls, adding support posts in the basement, removing and then re-tiling the bathroom, sheet rocking, adding lights, texturing walls, and painting walls. After 11 years of and watching DIY and H&G tv, but never being able to paint a single wall because we were renters, we are FINALLY putting all those useful skills we aquired to work. As soon as we get our other computer hooked up, I can post some pics. Only 2 weeks and it's already come a long way. This weekend's project is going to be leveling the kitchen floor, then retiling it. (Yikes, that means taking out cupboards and everything. )Then finally on to refinishing the downstairs hardwoods after that. THEN, we can move on the to upstairs. I don't know how long I can keep this up, hopefully a little longer though, because I don't see an end in sight for at least a month!!

Aug. 11, 2007
We made it!!

and I can honestly say it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. The first 2 days we pushed pretty hard with as little stops as possible, and one hotel night from HELL, but the second 2 days weren't that bad, we had a few fun stops planned and fewer miles to count down. Don't get me wrong, we TOTALLY had our moments, a few pooppy diapers that took some real skill changing in the car, but, we all made it, even the dog attatched to the back of the Suburban. For all of you who thought we'd get pulled over or she'd hate it, we didn't get pulled over even once and she actually seemed to enjoy it, and would get in her crate willingly after stops.

Our first fun stop was Sunday afternoon at Kirtland, Ohio, a Mormon church history site we'd never been to before. Then that night we hit Niagra Falls from the US side. We didn't want to try to cross the border with Duchess. The next morning we stopped at Palmyra, New York, another church history site. Then we pushed on for the 4th and final day, arriving in Newport around 10pm on Monday July 30.
Before checking in to the Navy Lodge, we wanted to drive by our new/old house and check it out. As we drove by Isaac, who had worked his way out of his carseat and onto the console between Adam and I up front, said, "I think I'm going to cry". It kind of took us off gaurd, everyone else was bouncing off the car walls we were so happy. Then Adam asked him, "Because you're happy or sad?" He replied, "Happy".

From there we drove the Navy Lodge, and that's where we've been staying ever since...all in 1 room together. Hopefully only 3 more days though. We should close on the house on Tuesday. We made it through inspections, and more negotiations, and then back and forth a few times on those negotiations, but finally all should be set to go Tuesday morning. Today we've just got to get a few things like phone, electricity, and internet set up. I tried to stay busy this last week to make the time pass....I tried to make the kids sleep till 9 every Amorning, then we'd try to get out to let the maid clean our room...one day to the children's museum in Providence, one day to library and to check out their new school, several hours at petco while it was rainy with Duch, 2 days school clothes shopping. Memo to self, never take the boys school clothes shopping w/us girls ever again, it was painful, but our only option seeing that Adam is back to work and I don't know many people to swap with yet.

Yeah!!!! We finally found a house!!We went under contract with it today!! I was doubting whether it would ever happen, house hunting was not as fun as I thought it would be, but we did finally find one a couple of days ago that actually fits all our needs and we are excited about!! Everything has just fallen in to place and we feel really good about it. It is an old farmhouse built in 1850, so I figure it's already stood through the test of time, and the boys shouldn't be able to take it down too easy. It is on 1/2 an acre with a cute little gazebo out back, so there should be plenty of room for that trampoline we have been promising the girls for years, and they're convinced their daddy is going to build them a tree house as well.

Yesterday was July 24th (Pioneer Day). Adam and I ran a 10k and the girls a 5K with their aunts, Melanie and Erika. It was their first 5k, the furthest they'd raced before that was 2.5k. Ours started an hour earlier, so we were able to watch them finish theirs. I was in a porta potty taking care of after the run business when Adam started banging on the door yelling that Sarah was coming. They were a good 5 minutes faster than we had expected them. I finished the last stretch with Sarah and Adam with Emma. They both finished in 25 minutes! Sarah has been celebrating her victory ever since, it was only her second time of beating Emma, and the other time Emma had tripped. They are SO competative with eachother!! They had not shut down the roads for the 5k, just the 10k and marathon, and Emma was not happy about it. I did feel bad about that though, who wants to stop at a light during the middle of a race? It was technically a 5k walk, I guess that's why they hadn't shut down the roads, but there were a lot of people running it as well. I was pretty impressed with my girls though...their time had been exactly half of my 10k time, and their legs are about half as long as mine, they had to stop at lights, and they haven't run a race in a long time, just watching a lot of Hanna Montana lately. They were both pretty sore today though. Sarah could barely walk, in fact, she refused to walk until she got tylenol this morning. And actually it wasn't morning anymore though, she slept till 11:00!

After the race yesterday we went to the This is the Place Historic Park, it was great little step back in time. The kids loved it, especially Emma and Sarah, they're always all over the pioneer thing.

Tomorrow we are having a little early birthday party for Luke, only about a week and a half early. Then we take off for the big roady Friday morning, hoping to arrive in RI by Monday night. Our inspection on the house will be Tues. morning, so our goal is to make it there for that. I bought a few new game boy games, leapster games, dvd tv series, and a new magna doodle today, and I'm finding all sorts of good roady activities for kids on the internet....hopefully it'll pay off!!!

Last day of Yochien.....waiting for the bus.

I'm having trouble attatching pics, but was able to get one...this was the day before we left, Yumi, in the middle, had given Jen (on right) and I both Yukata's (summer Kimono's) as a going away present. We wore them to church, it was so much fun! Thank you Yumi! We will miss you!

Wow, it's been a while! So much has happened. We survived the travel to conus. I was a little nervous about the trip when...well, I'll start from the beginning...

It's Monday morning, we had been up late the night before packing up and saying our last goodbyes, and then Adam and I pretty much tossed and turned all night, but 5:00 am finally came and we arose and got ready. For once in our lives were were all ready with all our bags out in front of the TLF (hotel) ready on time at 6:25 am, before our ride arrived. It was pouring rain, but we were waiting under the ledge. After a couple of minutes we decided to walk down to the other end of the building to see if our ride was down there. After we were about half way down, I asked Adam, "how many kids do we have again?" I was only counting 4. I ran back the the room, and there was little Luke, crawling around, like nothing was unusual, like he hadn't just about got left in Japan by all by HIMSELF! He was wet, apparently he'd been crawling around on the wet/post-shower bathroom floor. He was happy though. It was at that moment though that I really started to get nervous for all the travel that lay ahead...it was not looking good so far. But, I am very happy to tell you all that we made it! Through all the trains, planes and automobiles, we made it to Utah on the 4th of July in time for dinner and fireworks, all 8 of us, dog and all. Traveling with a large dog was a little bit of a new experience, we spent our layover in San Fran (after we got through customs) in the doggy play/poop yard with one very excited to see us pup. She was a little out of sorts for a few days, but has now decided that Dan and Jeannie's (Adam's parents) house is her new home, and having fun tormenting their cat, Teddy.

After our layover in San Fran, we flew to LA, where we had our new family car, a black Suburban, waiting for us. It worked out so great. Well, there were a few annoying quirks at the bank. We had found the car online, a woman from LA was selling it, so we had arranged for her to bring it to the airport, then we'd go to the bank and square things away. So, Adam sent me with this lady, Leslie, and her "friend", they were SO nice, I am totally lesbian-friendly now, not that I wasn't before, I have just never know any lesbians before...ANYHOW...I left Adam, the dog, and 5 kids, and about 15 bags on the curb of the airport, while I went to the bank w/Leslie and her friend. Such a pain, the stupid bank wouldn't accept my power of attorney, and to make a long story short, they had to go back, pick up Adam/kids/bags, then back to the bank, then finally a new car for the Workman family! We were so excited, we love the car, and it was great to have keys again. The first thing I said to Adam after we drove away and I stretched out my legs onto the dash was "Man, it's great to be back in America where everything's super-sized, especially my car". We ate at Denny's and grabbed a hotel that night. The kids were so screwed up, they didn't know whether it was night or day, but we finally got them settled down and to bed by about midnight. Our bodies apparently thought it was a nap though, because at 4 am we all started popping up, so we decided to just hit the road and avoid LA morning rush hour. We arrived in Las Vegas before 9:00am, and had the rest of the day to play. We checked Duch into a kennel, and started checking out hotels, and let the kids pick. They liked the idea of sleeping in a castle, so we got a couple of rooms in the Excalabur hotel. We had great day swimming, napping, and then dinner at the MGM grand buffet. I think they might have lost $ on us, Adam had prepped the kids, "no potatoes, rice, breaded foods, and soda, stick with the steak, shrimp, and crab legs". After dinner it was dark and we decided to walk down the strip and try to find the firework show. The first place we stopped was the M&M store. While in the store, I found a $5 on the floor. The kids were all envious, Isaac especially, and I told them, you just have to be observative, look on the ground as you're walking, you'd be surprised how often you'll find some. So we walk out, and not more than 5 yards away was the beginning of people handing out all that Vegas trash, pics w/topless women w/2 little stars to cover them up, people drop it, and it's all over the ground under our feet. Could the timing have been any worse? I immediately tell them, "but there's not any money on the ground here, let's not look for any here, maybe some will fall from the sky, let's look up for some". Yikes! Then not but 5 minutes later, Isaac says, "Look Mom, someone lost her ID", as he's pointing to the ground at a card w/a pic of a topless girl w/2 little stars. He was so serious. And coming from a kid who just spent his last 3 years on a military base where we use our ID for everything, entrance to the commecary, on/off base, everything. It was too funny. Can you imagine the look on the face of the guy taking her pic at the DMV?

The next day we picked up Duch and drove to Utah, stopping in Holden to say hi to my aunt Rose and my grandparents' house.

Like I said, we arrived in time for fireworks, had a little birthday party for myself the next day, then the next morning I headed off for RI w/Luke to find our new home. I have been back for a week now, and can say we still don't have one!! We have been making offers though....they are just so rediculously expensive though, we are trying hard to find something that will work for us and that we can hopefully rent out after we leave in 3 years, and have the rent come close to covering our mortgage. Not the easiest task I've ever had.

This past Sunday I was able to go to my Aunt Anna's house in Brigham City (my mom's younger sister), with both of my brothers and several of my cousins, for an awsome roast, mashed potatoes & gravy, rolls, and homemade icecream dinner. It was so great to see everyone and visit. I left feeling great.

Then I got a phone call the yesterday that my mom's older sister, Marie Coray, had passed away in a tragic hiking accident over the weekend. She had been hiking with her husband in the San Rafeal Swells in Utah. After not showing up for church on Sunday, people got worried and contacted family, who began searching. Search and Rescue found my uncle Monday morning. He had been with my aunt, when she slipped and fell, and after working for hours could not rescue her. She was in cold water, and died of hypothermia. I can't even imagine what my uncle and cousins are going through. Even having lost my mom 12 years ago myself, at least we had some time and were able to say goodbye. The funeral will be on Friday. It's so strange, things like this are in the news all the time, but never to anyone this close to me. It's amazing how life can change so drastically in just an instant. My aunt was such a wonderful person. So humble, never said a negative thing about anyone. She and my mom were very close. It seems strange that they are together again. They both passed away so young, my mom only 43 and my aunt only 58. If anyone wants to watch a news video clip, here is a link...

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1491261

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.

A few more pics from the weekend... Jacob turned 3 on Sunday! We lit and relit the candles about 20 times, so fun to blow out. He got a batman fishing pole that he LOVES. Adam tied a stick onto the end for a fish.

I took this pick out the window while driving by.

Duch is getting so big! She has settled down A LOT lately. Thank goodness. There were a few weeks there a few months ago right before she went into heat that we were seriously thinking the move would be a good time to find her a new home. But, she is doing MUCH better, and we had a fun weekend with her.

Who knew volcano's stink??
This past weekend we rented an RV and headed south about 5 1/2 hours to Aso for the weekend. The mission was to visit Mnt. Naka, an active volcano, and see the Kumumoto Castle (in the top 3 of Japan's castles). The castle was pretty awsome, had a mote and everything. It is celebrating it's 400 year birthday this year. The outside was awsome, and the inside had a great view from the top (6th) floor. The kids were impressed.

The volcano....very stinky sulfur smell that burns your lungs. I had flashbacks of visiting Yellowstone. Inside was a milky aqua color, boiling and steamy, not quite what I had expected to see.

After we looked at the volcano from this spot, Adam and the girls hiked for a couple of hours to the other side of the volcano. The boys and I drove, then took a tram and met them. Yes, that meant I drove the RV, I was a little nervous, not just that it was huge and had never driven one, but I also didn't know where the heck I was going, hello, foreign country, don't speak the language, can't read the signs, but I eventually figured it out and made it! They beat me by about 20 minutes of course.

Ok, so quick story. As the boys and I got off the tram, and started up the short hike to where we were meeting Adam and the girls, we had to walk through a group of about 150 highschool kids on a field trip sitting eating their bentos (lunches). They ALL went NUTS over us.....Luke especially. I seriously felt like a rock star! The were all trying to use their English that they learn in school on us. They loved his blond blond hair and blue eyes. It was overwhelming, there were so many of them...once we'd get past one group, there'd be another. Pictures and everything. I just kept thinking, wow, I never want to be famous, I can't take this.

Look---they're all smiling, all 5 of them. Maybe we should use this for our Christmas card! It only took about 50 shots to get.

I discovered a wonderful addition to camping...visiting an onzen (Japanese natural springs hot tubs)! It's so great to get everyone so clean!! Sunday night I set up the beds in the RV, and we drove to the onzen, just a few minutes down the road. We all had a great time, and the kids got into their PJ's and all ready for bed there. Jakey was asleep in his bed before we even got home to our campsite. It was great. The onzen...they are separate, men and women. And of course, the boys wouldn't go with Adam, so they ALL went with me on the women's side. It took a few minutes for me to get over being naked in front of them all!!! Americans typically aren't quite that open, but it is totally normal for the Japanese. So I figured, what the heck, when in Rome...

For anyone interested in how rice grows....look below! You see it all over the place here. It looks like little bunches of grass growing in straight lines in flooded fields.

The drive was long going home of course. Why is that? That the drive home always seems about twice as long? But we somehow survived it. And we've got pumice rock spread all over the house to prove it. Now back to real life, back to getting ready to be packed out Monday/Tuesday! And planning a 3 year old "fish" birthday party for this Saturday. Any ideas would be welcomed!!

Drama...
So much drama, where do I start! Last Saturday while I was at a baby shower, Luke managed to crawl off the end of my bed and fall on my sewing maching, hitting his eye on the little metal thing that the thread sits on! Yes, I said eye. So, after I got home, I took him to our Urgent Care here on base. You'd have never known, he was all grins. Adam said he cried pretty hard after it happened, but by the time I got home, he was his happy little self again. Anyway, it cut his eye down where the bottom eyelid attatches. We could tell it hadn't affected his vision, but still, it was HIS EYE, so I took him in. At Urgent Care, the couldn't really tell how deep it was, so they sent us on an ambulance ride to the hospital out in town. There he saw an opthamologist. First he just put flourescent yellow drops in his eye, and shined a flourescent blue light in it. But, since he was so little and not so cooperative, he wanted to clamp his eye open. They told me I couldn't watch, but I told them I was going to anyway. I soon realized there was a pretty good reason they'd not wanted me to. The clamp clamped onto his top eyelid, and his bottom eyelid, and opened wider than I ever thought would be possible on a little baby eye. It was so awful. The nurse had a sheet around him and was sitting on him trying hold him still. He was screaming his little lungs out and choking on his spit. It was so hard to watch, I had to keep leaving and coming back in. I wanted him to hear my voice though, hoping it would comfort him somewhat. They poked and prodded, and looked with all their different scopes and lights. There was one peice of skin that looked like a little white peice of plastic floating in his eye, but it was still attatched. It was just a peice of the white of his eye!! They kept messing with it and finally cut it off. ALL WHILE HE WAS AWAKE! I thought that was what modern medicine was for!! So we don't have to feel these things! I just kept telling myself, I'm so glad he won't remember this!! The doc finally concluded that it wasn't too deep, and would heal just fine with some antibiotic drops. Now, only 5 days later, it looks SO much better already! I am so happy! And so grateful that it didn't affect his vision at all. Thank you Mom.
So today the girls had a baseball game. Adam is their coach. They were trying to do pictures. Emma had forgotten her cleats, so the boys and I ran home and got them. The boys unloaded, and I was getting Luke all squared away in his stroller, when bam, Isaac tackled Jacob for some unknown reason, and Jacobs head hit the ground (thank goodness it was only grass this time) and blood everywhere. Jacob got his first bloody nose! There was so much blood, it took me a minute to figure out where it was coming from, his mouth was full too. At first I thought he re-bit his tongue (he bit both sides of it 2 days ago, it looked like hamburger, a lot of blood that night too). He was pretty freaked out. His white shirt was getting bloody very fast. I had to grab a nearby Japanese lady to watch Luke for a sec while I hauled Jacob to the bathroom. Not even sure where to start, I just started grabbing papertowels as fast as I could and holding them to his nose. Anyway, long story short, I finally got it stopped and mopped up his face.
As soon as we got home, everyone jumped out of the car and the girls began playing catch with Adam. About 5 minutes later, the girls come running in the house telling me that Jacob had thrown a bat at a car in the street. I went outside, and sure enough, Adam was in the street talking to some people in a car. Apparently Jacob had just thrown a bat (thank goodness it was plastic!) into the street at a car and hit it's windshield as it was driving by. Just for fun. Good thing we are about to move.
Speaking of moving, we have some dates!! We are getting packed out June 4 & 5, and we are flying out of Osaka July 2. We will land in LA, and working on buying a car that will be ready and waiting for us so we can then drive to Utah. From there I will fly to RI for a few days to pick out a house. We will check in to RI the first of August.
Hopefully things will calm down a little around here. We've been dodging way too many bullets lately!

I'm ready to go back... Luke thought being an only child was all right.

Adam and a banana tree.

Adam snorkeling...I took this pic through a window of an underwater observatory.

Tonight Emma and Sarah were complaining about having to take piano lessons, especially Sarah. I told them I didn't want to hear it, it wasn't up for debate until they could play the hymns for church. A light went on in Emma's head, and she immediately told Sarah, "Sarah, that's great, let's just go learn the hymns right now". It was like a light at the end of the tunnel for her. I had to laugh, they're nowhere even remotely ready start on them. But, I did appreciate the cheerful ambition.

Guam was WONDERFUL!! After being home only a few short hours, I was ready to go back. I thought I was all energized to combat life w/5 kids again, but apparently my batteries weren't charged high enough. It was so great. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach. We had brought the jogger, so we were able to go running a couple of times along the beach. There is a lot of war history in guam, even ran through a bunker on the beach on one run. The food was great. I have learned to love Japanese food while living here, but there's nothing in Iwakuni that compares to eating at the Outback or Hard Rock Cafe....mmm. Even Denny's for breakfast was a real treat. I did promise myself before I left that I wasn't going to step foot in K-mart , but Jacob's birthday is in a few weeks, and since I've bought everything decent at the Exchange, and it's getting a little late to shop online, we decided to go take a look. (It's the largest one in the world....it didn't seem any bigger than any other one though, maybe they just meant to say it's the last one left in the world.) We snorkeled our hearts out, and saw thousands of fish. That was the ONLY time I wished the kids had been with us, the girls would have LOVED it. We hiked to a waterfall, that ended up being more of a little water trickle than fall, but it was still fun to take a little hike through the jungle. Of all the good restaurant food we ate though, I'd have to say the best meal was a lunch when Adam I were driving through some villages after our hike and we stopped and bought a bag full of fruit right off the tree from an old lady selling in front of her house. It was my first time eating monkey bananas, guava, and star fruit. A lot of things about Guam reminded Adam of the D.R. We've always planned on going back to visit his mission, but now he's really planning it, hopefully this winter.

Oh, one last thing, Guam is a total Japanese vacation destination. When we first got there, and were checking into our hotel, this cute Japanese girl was going nuts over Luke. She said over and over, "he's such a door, he's such a door". I couldn't figure out what she was saying. Finally with a little charades on her part, I figured out she was saying he was such a doll! The say their l's like r's here.

A snack for Duchess!!!

Emma called Thursday after school, wondering if I could come pick her up because she had the class bird, Hulk, that she was going to bird-sit for the weekend. I asked her how we were going to keep Duchess from eating the bird, but she assured me she'd keep Hulk safe. She really wanted to bring her home, so I relented. Hulk is not a talking parrot, so I figured if worst came to worst, we could make a trip to Mr. Mac (Japanese closest thing to Wal-mart) and find a look-a-like "Hulk". It's Saturday morning now, and so far there's only been one "incident". Lucky for the Hulk, Adam came to the rescue before Duchess got the cage open. The kids think it's fun to let it fly around the house, but sometimes find it difficult to get Hulk back in it's cage when it perches itself up on high places. I find myself taking cover as broomsticks are being swung to get her down.

Thursday night Hulk was flying around the kitchen, when out of nowhere it decides to fly full speed at my head for landing. This took me by surprise, and I jerked my head down between my knees and tightened every muscle in my body, and pulled a muscle! It felt like a charlie horse in my neck! I thought, "What on earth, is this part of being over 30??" Nothing a little stretching and ibuprofen couldn't kick though.

Luke is into anything and everything now. He can stand up to the dishwasher and pull things out. He can unload my tupperware cupboard in less than a minute. And can shoot a mouth full of food across to the other side of the table, to let you know you fed him one bite too many. He also can stop a street full of Japanese with his blond hair and blue eyes.

Speaking of Japanese, today is "Friendship Day", and there are literally hundreds of thousands of Japanese on base. There will be an airshow, the Japanese version of the Blue Angels, every organization on base is selling baked goods (most Japanese don't have ovens, so cakes and cookies are a novelty. It's rediculous, they sell cake's right out of a mix w/no frosting for $10 each! Hello, such a rip off.) There will also be a bunch of food vendors, the longest line will be at Pizza Hut. People will wait literally hours for a slice of pizza...note to Pres. of Pizza Hut, build some in Japan!! There will also be a lot of airplanes on display, bouncy's to jump in, and carnie games. Adam has the 4 older kids over there right now. I dressed the boys in matching clothes, hopefully it'll make it easier to keep track of them.

He's got teeth!

As you can see from the pic, Luke has teeth now!! He got all four front teeth within a few weeks of eachother. He seemed a little uncomfortable from it all, but nothing like Jacob...with chunks of bloody flesh hanging with each tooth he got. He is such a cute little guy, I get stopped all the time with people commenting on his blue eyes and blonde hair. He seems to really be getting along well with Duchess lately. Duchess knows the best spot in the house is right under Lukes highchair, and Luke loves to lean over and pet her.

Our 11 year anniversary is coming up at the end of this month, and since the surgery vacation to Hawaii got cancelled, and the trip to Thailand never quite happened, today I booked a trip to Guam for Adam, Luke and I next week, Monday - Thursday! Not as long as I'd like, but when you have friends, not family, watching 4 kids, 4 days is a lot to ask. So, Guam for 4 days it is, I'm so excited!! I'm working on finding a hotel on the beach right now....

The Honor Roll... Yesterday Adam recieved an award for doing such a great job here in Iwakuni...I got a sitter for the boys for an hour, the girls were at piano, and Luke and I went over and watched. I told the girls about it after they got home. Adam had to stay late because he has a trial starting today. So it was just the kids and me at dinner. Emma blessed the food, in it she said..."thank you that Dad could make honor roll today". I hadn't called it that, she just assumed that's what his award was for...

Sarah's baptism...

Today Sarah was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is such a sweet girl, we are so blessed to have her in our family. We had such a wonderful day. I am so grateful Dan and Jeannie made the trip out to come and be with us today. Even though we have wonderful friends and branch members here in Iwakuni, it still made me sad that most of our family would have to miss it...but it really helped to have Dan and Jeannie here, and meant a lot to Sarah. She was so excited. She wore her new white dress all morning. We drove about an hour to Tokuyama. (the building there has a font, ours in Iwakuni doesn't) Sarah's sensei from yochien 2 years ago came, a few families from our branch, several missionaries, and a few japanese member families. At the baptism, Dan gave a wonderful talk, and the girls and Jeannie and I sang a song, "When I am Baptized". Sarah beat her dad dressed after the baptism...how does that happen? Then we had a short talk by our branch president and the confirmation, then refreshments. It was such a memorable day! I am very proud of Sarah! And know that her Heavenly Father is very pleased with her also.

A fun week...
This week Jeannie and Dan (Adam's parents) have been visiting. Adam took the whole week off, and we have just been packing picnics and taking day trips every day. It's been so much fun! Below is a pic of the A-dome at the Peace Park in Hiroshima. Visiting the Peace Park is a moving experience...the A-dome is the spot where the Atomic bomb was dropped, everything else for miles was completely demolished, but the A-dome was left partially standing since it was directly above and the bomb kind of mushroomed out. Hiroshima is such a big city, it's amazing to think they have completely rebuilt it all in 60 years. This pic was taken outside the butterfly museum yesterday. Take note of Jacob's kilt. It's a kilt, not a skirt. He had to go to the bathroom while in the museum, so I took him. He didn't want ANY help, so I stood back and watched. He was doing a good job, peeing in a squatty potty (japanese style squatter). Then all of a sudden it starts spraying everywhere, like a run-a-way fire hose. It's going on the walls, floor, every but the potty. I yelled, and he got it back under control. Then he finished up, and I went to help him pull his pants up and he refused because through all that his pants and underwear got sprayed as well. And with Jacob, there's no rationalizing. I tried for a few minutes, but knew it was useless. So, took it all off, and pulled his fleece pullover down around his waist, then tied the arms around his waist. It did the job, at least he was covered and we could go back in with the butterflies. First thing he did of course when we got back in though was flash everyone....

Luke and I at Miyajima...

Adam and Luke at the butterfly museum...Luke really like them!

The moment we walked in the insectarium, butterflies flocked to Adam. Especially his head. I think it must have been his hair gel. Wish I'd put it on all of the kids. L.A. Looks, for any of you planning on going to a butterfly museum soon. Anyway, it was pretty funny, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

The top of one of the peaks at Miyajima Island. Emma hiked to the top with her Dad and Grandpa, while the rest of us took the tram. Not sure how they did it, but they beat us! There are monkeys that live up there, but we didn't see any, they were all off eating.

We hiked up to the Kintai Castle...

Today we're just getting ready for Sarah's baptism tomorrow. I need to finish hemming Sarah's dress, and Jeannie's going to help me make some cookies for after. She's really excited!

The Sakura (cherry blossoms)...
The boys and I spent the morning taking pictures of the cherry blossoms at the Kintai Bridge and Castle. They are both here in Iwakuni.

Below is my favorite street to drive down in Iwakuni during cherry blossom week.

Look doesn't look too sick, but he had 3 baths before 8:00 this morning! Finally I borrowed some plastic pants from a friend, and the day has been a little easier since.

I didn't get much sleep last night, up late with Jacob, then up early with Luke. I was so tired this morning, I thought I was going to puke, and not in a good mood at all. So, I decided the best thing to do would be to get out and maybe some fresh air, a Mountain Dew, and a hike up to the Kintai Castle would make me feel better. So I called my friend Christi, packed up the boys and the car, and left for the morning. And it worked out great with Jacob's schedule, since he's sick all night, and fine all day. His fever was 104.3 last night....still just a virus? Looks like Isaac's getting it now, he's been on the couch since about 3:30 pm with a fever too. One day they'll all get better....

Sarah said the cutest thing last night...Jeannie and Dan are coming to visit in 2 days, for Sarah's baptism, anyway, last night Sarah said to me, "Mom, I'm so excited that Grandma and Grandpa are coming! Everytime I think about it my heart starts beating really fast."

We can't wait!

Don't know about you, but that's my favorite place to nap...it's gotta be the cleanest spot in the house... Poor Jakey...all worn out from sittin on the pot. This evening about 5:30 we couldn't find Jacob anywhere...was a little nervouse when I realized it'd been quiet a little too long...then we found him, sound asleep, right in front of the toilet. With toilet paper for a blankey. Not sure if he was just exhausted from sitting there and couldn't make it to the couch, or if he had been calling for me to wipe and got tired of waiting.

This past Saturday we had an Easter party with the boys' Yochien sensei's and the Razvillas' and the Trout's. It was so much fun. It was the Senseis' first Easter experience...they weren't too sure about the eggs being edible after dying them, but I assured them that they taste better when the dye has come through the shell and the whites are blue, and make for a beautiful potato salad. We had lots of crafts and food, and then had a egg and basket hunt afterwards. The kids had their baskets and 200 eggs founds within about 15 minutes, but then we spent another 20 min. looking for for Mariko Sensei's basket. Finally I thought to check the car, and there it was, the easter bunny had missed one. It'll probably take them months to eat all their candy...they're not used to such sweet sweets as ours. Japanese sweets have way less sugar than ours, and a lot have beans in them as well. I usually try to avoid the bean ones.
Emma very intently dying her eggs.

Jakey and Ayuka playing on the floor. Ayuka's in his class at Yochien.

Sarah and Yuina crafting away...

Isaac helping his Sensei, Yoshimi, get her basket out of the tree. That crazy easter bunny.

Yeah, it's done! I helped Emma's class make a quilt for an art action the school is going to have this month. They each got to draw a picture of something "Japanesy" w/fabric crayons. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work...

Jacob's still not better...I took him to the doctor today, he thinks it's just a virus...we're on the 8th day of it today. He hasn't puked since last Friday, but still spiking the 102 fever every night. Hopefully he's about through, poor little guy. Luke has it now too. He keeps puking, diahreah, and has a low fever. And on top of that he got his first tooth last Friday, and one more that should be through by tomorrrow. So he's one happy guy!

I got released from Primary yesterday and called as 1st counselor in Young Womens and the branch music chairman....for 3 months. I'm excited about YW. Two leaders for 2 YW. They are both great girls, my babysitters.

Well, that's about all for tonight...still no "official" orders. I hear they're behind.