You Can Single Me Out As A Foreigner Anyday, As Long As There Is Free Food Involved

About a month ago we got invitation to a party. Why did we get invited to the party you ask? Because we are foreigners. Yep, they wanted all the foreigners in the area to be there (are you thinking what I am thinking? That they wanted to get us all in one place so they could kill or something? Yep, that's what I thought. But then I remembered that I am in Japan...Hahaha). I was excited because it was at a really nice hotel which means the food was going to be catered. And free food that is good is ALWAYS appreciated ( I would even take it if it was bad at this point).

So the party was last week and I decided that I would do all the boys hair before we left. This happens about once every 2 months.....as you can tell by all our other pictures. Here they are all ready to go and party!

How did Rev get so old? I can't believe it. And everyone always ask if Dasch or Xander is older. They are now only 1 lb difference (Xander still has the advantage) and Xander is still a few inches taller but probably not for long.

So when we got to the party we had no idea what to expect. I was a little embarrassed because everybody was dressed up. Had I known I probably would have dressed the boys up a little bit more. Oh well. I was at least wearing dress pants so I was not too out of place. All of the other teachers in the area were there (I think the free food thing is enticing for anybody on our budget).

I still don't know exactly what the party was for, but I do know it was a New Year's party for some women's association (what they do or who they are I do not know). And why they wanted all the foreigners there I am still a little confused as well. But I am not complaining.

The boys are usually well behaved for the first hour or so at these type of events. They all sat and ate all the yummy food, except for the liver. There were lots of skewers with different kinds of meat on them. I had a chicken one that was really good but I picked up a few other kinds to try. One was chicken skin (Yes, the Japanese people love the chicken skin. They cook it up like it is chicken only it is not), and the other one looked like some kind of beef. However when I took it off the skewer I noticed the texture was not like beef, but more like liver. So I handed it off to Dasch. He took a bite and started gagging and continued to spit it out. Trevor was not so lucky. He took a bite thinking it was beef and had to choke down the rest of it. Props to him for being such a polite foreigner! (I assumed this was liver but it actually could have been anything)

Me and Trevor decided we were going to be very patient with the kids. And they were so happy the whole time (I guess that is what happens when they pray for mom and dad to not be so angry)

While we ate some of the ladies did a traditional dance. It was very pretty.

And Xander could not take his eyes off them.

At one point while I was feeding Dasch I looked up and there were 5 or 6 women with their cell phone cameras trying to take pictures of the boys. It was a little awkward because I could not decide if I should look at them and smile, or just pretend I didn't notice they were taking the picture. I think I opted for trying to get Dasch to look at them and smile.

So Japanese people love Karaoke. They busted out the karaoke machine and Trevor and a few of his friends got up and sang. I got video of it but am not allowed to post it (says Trevor). Or else some of my not so nice pictures will end up on the Internet. Let's just say they might need a little bit of work before starting on any kind of singing career. Haha..it was great though!

The boys really wanted a turn to sing on the stage as well. Since they don't know any songs (besides a few rap songs that they probably should not know), we decided to go up on stage as a family and sing Once There Was A Snowman. The boys love that song and even Dasch gets in on it. We then sang Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam. Dasch knows all the beam parts when he can get excited and flail his arms. Apparently it was a hit among the Japanese people because the kids got handed 4000 yen ($40). I guess they do that in Japan when people sing karaoke. They also each got a stuffed animal. Rev got Winnie the Pooh, Dasch got a Ducktales Duck, and Xander got a Hello Kitty. And he was not too happy about it. At the time he was trying to get Dasch to trade with him but Dasch had already fallen in love with his duck (and is right now holding it in his hand as he sleeps). A lady at the table noticed that Xander was not happy and went and got him a little pink Carebear. Slightly better then the Hello Kitty but Xander was very excited! (I guess he is too young to not like the pink stuff).

So they played this funny game. One person is behind and uses their arms to feed the other person a banana. The first person that can finish wins. Here is a video of Rev doing it. He is so brave. I would never have gotten on a stage at his age, especially since he had no idea what was going on.

Trevor got to have a turn at it as well.

Everyone there kept handing the boys things. The lady next to us made them several origami pieces and then gave them a whole stack of origami paper. Somebody else came over and gave them some paper airplanes (which they then flew around the room). Somebody else made a little origami ball and gave them a paper towel roll to use as a bat. Every time they went on stage they were given gifts, as well as the little gift that was left at each place mat. We walked away with 2 big bags full of stuff (we seem to always do that when we go to any party). They also gave us some of the extra food that was left over.

What a fun night it was. It is experiences like these that remind us that we are in a different culture, and we love it!

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California Rolls are not Japanese?

I am still going to my friend Nakanishi-san's house every month do learn some Japanese cooking. Usually though Rev and Xander are in school so I just have to bring Dasch along with me. We always do it the second Wednesday of every month, which is the same day that I have to make the kids a lunch for school (once a month I have make them a bento box, so they get peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that day). Anyway, because the kids were home on that Wednesday I completely forgot that I was supposed to be there. I usually get there around 10:30 to start cooking with her so around 10:30 she called me to see where I was. Oops.

Trevor had stayed home that day because he was not feeling well so I told him that he had to watch the kids while I went. So I get to her house and she asks me where my kids are. I told her that I left them home. She told me that her plan was to make California rolls and have the kids help do it so she wanted me to bring them with me ( I think she might have been trying to tell me that on the phone but sometimes there is a slight language barrier). So I ended up driving all the way home and picking up the kids and going back.

She had never made California rolls before but she wanted to try it out. She told me that California rolls are not Japanese and I said Really? That's weird. Of course I was kidding but I am not sure she knew that (Japanese people have a hard time picking up on sarcasm). The boys loved getting to help and they also loved the sushi. I could not believe how much they ate. I think we are going to have to make these again sometimes and maybe get creative and try some rolls with fish. She even gave me a wooden sushi bowl to put the rice in. She is such a nice lady. I swear I never leave there without lots of food and always extra things that she just decides to give me. And she loves the boys. She has grand kids of her own but they don't live close, so she loves to play with my boys.

I made some microwave popcorn the other day for the boys to snack on. I noticed that Xander was carrying the bag around but I did not think much of it. Until he looked up at me and I saw this:

So I had to take a video of it. It was cracking me up. He was licking it for 20 mins!

Dasch is at the age where he just wants to copy everything anybody does. He is pretty predictable when he is hanging around his brothers because he will do anything they do, even if they have just gotten in trouble for it. It's like he just can't help it. So I should have known this was going to happen. Trevor still thinks I am very dumb for doing it.

I have a water bottle that I always am drinking out of. One day Xander and Dasch were whining because they wanted a drink. So to be funny I dropped a few drops of the water on their hands. At least then they were laughing instead of whining. Dasch then got the idea that it was funny to dump the water on his head, only this time there was not water in the bottle but juice. And apparently the juice stains.

This is a good shot of our kitchen. This is now where we have to put our kitchen table because it no longer fits in our living room with our couches.

This is him showing us how he dumped it on his head. Good thing he caught us at a time that we are trying to be extra patient with the kids. We all had a pretty good laugh over it.

Here are some cute pics of the boys watching tv. This is basically the room we all live in during the winter (since their bedroom is too cold to play in until we warm it up for bedtime).

Our friends gave us a little TV tray to use and I thought it would be a good idea to use in the morning. Our real kitchen table is really tiny and only has 2 chairs with it. In the mornings I am lazy and don't want to pull out the other table to eat breakfast on. So Rev and Xander usually get to sit on the chairs and me and Dasch sit on the floor while I feed him. I thought this tray would be good so Rev could sit on the couch and then Dasch could have his own chair to sit on. But this is what happened when I pulled it out. They all 3 had to use it. Needless to say I have not gotten it out since and me and Dasch are still eating breakfast on the floor....

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Rev's First Time Skiing..Or at least going down the hill with skis on.

After we went to the bunny hill and saw all the kids skiing, we decided it would be fun to start Rev out. So we went to the sporting store to see if we could find some cheap skis. I think the cheapest skis and boots together were like $200. So basically not in our budget. We found some really cheap kids skis that you strap in your snow boots too. There were a little bit more in our budget ($20)so we bought them. But we quickly realized that they were going to be pretty hard to learn how to ski with. I guess ski boots are normally really tight because it makes it easier to control the skis. So we used them around our neighborhood with Rev, but were a little concerned about taking him on a big hill.

In the meantime Rev's snow boots wore out so we had to go buy him new ones. We went to a few of the recycle shops in town to see if we could find anything that might work for him. We not only found a new pair of boots for 200 yen but we also found him a pair of boots and skis for 800 yen ($8). We were pretty stoked about it (and you can imagine how he was).

So we took him out to the bunny hill to try it out. He was having a hard time because the boots dig into his shins (don't know if this is normal or not). Trevor was so patient with him. It was cute to see him teaching Rev how to do it, and how excited Rev got when he made it down the hill. He was getting a bit frustrated though because he had to crash in order to stop. I guess he needs a few more lessons.
Here is his first attempt.

This was a pretty good crash at the end.

And then he started to get better.

And then he started to get tired and would freak out every time he fell. You can hear him at the end of this one screaming.

Overall I think he did great for his first time. I think we need to do a little research on how to teach a kid to ski so he can get the basics down. When he does this hill will be perfect for him.

When Rev was done skiing we went sledding down the other side. Xander and Dasch had a fun time just playing in the snow.

At about 30 seconds on the video you can see a kid way in the background that is standing on the sled and then crashes. That was Rev. I wish I had the camera and not just my phone. It probably would have turned out better. Rev was trying to go down the hill while standing on the sled. He did it once really well, but could not get up again after that. I guess this is his pre-training for snowboarding. He was pretty upset by the end though. He said, "You said this was a good idea and it is NOT a good idea." (in his really mad Rev voice).


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More Sledding...(what else is there to do with this much snow?)

Sorry for all the snow pictures. That is just what we have been up to this past month. I was trying to get some cute action shots but I think I might need a nicer camera for that. I love this picture of Xander but it is blurry.

Haha...we seemed to have lost all our hats in Misawa, so again with the Princess hat...

Here is a cute video of Rev sliding down the hill and Xander getting stuck in the snow. The snow is so deep in some parts, that when I try to walk through it I just sink. And then I have to dig my boot out. Not very fun. This is actually a big parking lot that they just made for our apartments. It was covered in a couple of feet of snow, and it has banks all around it so it was perfect for sledding. Unfortunately they came and cleared it all so we can park there now, but that means no more sledding there.

I love this picture of Dasch. It looks like he is determined to go and climb that mountain or something. Really he is just holding onto the pole so he does not fall down the hill.

Rev is so cute about taking Dasch with him on the sled. Dasch loves to go sledding too. He says, "more, more" if you try to stop.

Trying to get a picture when they are all looking at me at the same time is almost impossible.

Rev went pretty fast on his knees.

He always tries to take his mittens off outside so we figured out how to keep them on. We put the mittens on and then his coat, but we don't pull his hands out all the way. He basically just has little nubs coming out but it works. He can't get the gloves off and he has not really complained about not being able to use his hands.

The parking lot had a few feet of snow on it, and then it rained. So there was a layer of ice on top of the snow. This made it fun to push Dasch around on the ice. I tried to get a video of it but it was hard to push him and record it at the same time. Sorry the video is really short.

Rev and Xander like to race down the hill.

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More Snow....Will it Ever go Away???

This post should have been before the last one, but oh well. It finally started snowing here and it has not stopped since. Really, I have never seen so much snow before. It amazes me how much can fall in such a short period of time. Here is a video looking outside our back door. This was the first week it had started snowing.

The kids had 4 weeks of school off, so I figured I had better start learning how to like the snow and have fun in it. We went out almost every day and played. These pictures were all taken from my iphone, so the lighting is a little bit off. This is a big pile of snow that is on the road behind our apartment. After we climbed this we then walked around all the empty houses. The snow was so deep. I think we all lost our boots at one point and had to dig them out. It was crazy! We also went to our little park and climbed through the snow to go down the slide. It was pretty crazy to see our playground all covered in snow!

Here is a video of the boys on top of the hill:

Here is Rev sledding down a tiny hill. I was trying to get a video of them all going at one time, but it just didn't work.

Rev decided he wanted to sled down a steeper hill. I can't believe he really went down this. I was a little bit worried.

But I thought it was pretty funny when he caught some air.

Here is a road behind our house that the boys found to sled down. This was the first time Xander was getting brave. Up to this point he did not want to go down a hill without me, but he now loves the thrill of going really fast.

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Our First Family Sled Day!

We were very excited to be go out and do some real sledding. It takes forever to get us all ready and layered up to go out in the snow. You can see Rev is wearing a New York Princess hat. I use it for the boys when I can't find any of our other ones. Rev knows it says Princess on it but I tell him not to worry because nobody can read it anyway! (although probably more people then I think can read it.).

This is right outside our apartment. You can see the wall that we almost hit the first time it snowed and we did not have snow tires on yet.

Here is a video of the boys outside:


There is a big hill to get to our house, and it is perfect for sledding. Although you have to watch out for cars since it is a road (probably not the safest thing). One great thing about the snow is that we can now put our garbage on a sled and take it down to the garbage box. We have to take our trash to a shed that is at the bottom of the hill, and usually I have to carry it down (which sucks when the bags are heavy). But now I put it on the sled and take it down. See Trevor, I am not always negative. I just thought of one good thing about the snow!!

The snow got really deep, really fast. This is our storage shed in front of our apartments. I thought it would be fun to sit on top of it (although it proved to be harder then it looked).

So we set out to find a big hill around our town to sled at. But we did not get very far. We were ready to go home and decided to drive up to Trevor's school where we met one of the teachers. He told us the best place to sled was at the ski hill on the bunny slopes, and it was even free. So we drove there and sure enough, we found plenty of people sledding. (We actually went there earlier but I thought you had to pay for using it or something so we ended up leaving). There is a little conveyor belt to help you get up the hill. Although it does not make you feel very good when you step on and it starts to go really slow and jerk like it is going to stop or something (probably made for Japanese size people).

We had tons of fun here. One side was a bunny hill for the kids to learning how to ski, and the other side was for sledding.

Here is Dasch after he went down the hill:

Can you see the view from this place? It was so amazing to be on the mountain sledding, and look out and see the bay. Wow, I can' t believe we live here. This place is about 5 mins from our house.

Rev and I built our first snowman here. I thought it was pretty cute (not so cute is when Rev said my stomach looks like a snowman because of the rolls that are in it).

Somebody was nice enough to take a family picture for us.

Can you see our kerosene containers in the back of our van? That is how we have heat in our house. But we did find a gas station that will take them out of your car and fill them for you. So much nicer then doing it ourselves and spilling kerosene all over.

Here is a good picture of our new van. It is so nice to have so much room.

Not sure what this was supposed to be. Maybe Trevor can explain.

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Boys being boys....

Dasch is my lifesaver! I love that kid so much. He is such a big bundle of joy and I LOVE that we get to spend all day together. He really is always so happy and loves to laugh and giggle at everything. I just can't help taking lots of videos and pictures of him because he is so stinkin cute. And I love how he is learning how to talk and he loves to sing songs. He also likes to hide from me.
This is the closet door in their bedroom. You can see what happens when your doors are paper and you have 3 boys all in one room. I would love to replace the paper but I think I am going to have to wait until we are ready to move out. In the meantime, this means Dasch can get in the closet and look out at me. I thought he was pooping in there (you know what kids do whenever they run away and "hide"), but he was actually just hiding.

He thought it was pretty funny when I found him.

Here is a video of Dasch trying to lay on the couch. Sometimes when he is tired he will get a blanket and pillow and lay down on the couch. It takes a lot of work for him to do it, and it cracks me up because he can usually only lay there for a minute and then he gets wrest less and has to get up.

He loves to talk on the phone (what kids doesn't). And he loves to wear hats because his brothers get to wear hats to school and he wants to be one of them.

Here is another video of him hiding from me behind the couch. I love to get him to talk because I love to hear him try and pronounce words. And in this video you can hear is funny laugh that he started doing.

Here are some cute videos of Xander and Dasch. Rev has recently learned how to play video games and now wants to do nothing else but play video games (yep, he is a boy). Since Xander is not really interested in games or TV this has created some new best friends. I was teasing Xander the other day that Rev is his best friend and he said, "No, Dasch is my best friend" (they also fight like best friends too).

This video was at our hotel in Misawa. We have stayed there a lot since it is really hard to make the two hour drive to church on Sunday's. So we go down Saturday night and spend the nights. This video shows you how they love to make each other laugh.

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Christmas Pictures!

Trevor already wrote about our Christmas but I thought I would add all our pictures and videos as well. Christmas was very odd this year. I guess it just never really felt like Christmas for me. The only decorations we had was the tiny tree somebody in the ward let us borrow. And even that was only up for a few weeks. I guess because the budget this year was really tight (like nothing) I did not get to go and do the Christmas shopping that I usually do for the boys.


And all the traditional things we do for Christmas did not happen either. I usually buy the boys new pajamas that they get to open on Christmas Eve, but I did not have the money to do that this year. I also fill their stockings full of candy and new toothbrushes but I could not find stocking anywhere here in Japan so that also did not happen. It was a good thing that our parents and friends sent us presents, and that the ward brought us presents otherwise I think it would have been a sad year for the kids (not so sad for me because I am not big on the whole present thing for Christmas).


I was able to make a little bit of Christmas candy (thanks to our friends letting us shop on base). Although it was a bit frustrating in my tiny little kitchen. I was planning to make a lot more to give out but that just did not happen. I think next year I will be a little more prepared and hopefully (fingers crossed) we will have a bigger budget to work with for Christmas. Oh yeah, and maybe me and Trevor will not be fighting. That has proven to kill the Christmas spirit as well..... :(


The pictures are backwards because I uploaded them wrong. That's alright though. Here is a picture of our new sheet set (so nice). Thank you Susan and John. It is like sleeping in a real bed again.

One thing we did not skip out on is the traditional Sausage Blueberry Cake for breakfast...And pecan rolls (although I could not find the motivation to make them until a few days after Christmas. Refer back to my tiny kitchen).

Rev got some new tennis shoes for the summer since his broke a few months ago!

Here is a video of the boys with their new pillows:

Our friends Nicole and Mike sent us a package from Utah. She made these pillows and some blankets to go with them. They also sent some hot wheels (always a hit) and she made some plastic sheet worksheets that Rev can practice his writing in English and Japanese. It is awesome for Church. Thank you Mike and Nicole. We love and miss you guys!

Here is a video of the boys opening up the cars:

And another one of them with their cars:

She also made this hat and scarf for Dasch. So cute!

Dasch got a new hat and gloves. It looks like the turtle type things here called Kappa's, so that is what we call the hat. I would think he would hate how tight it is on his head (he has a HUGE head), but he loves the hat. However,I am sad to say that we lost this in somebodies van in Misawa a few weeks ago. We are still trying to find it and I hope we do because it is SO cute on him. And I love when he says "appa".

Our little tree with the presents around here. You can see how small our room is!

Here is a cute video of Xander when he opened up his BIG present. He was so excited.

Here is a video of Dasch opening up his castle. He loves this toy.

Xander got some new boots from somebody in the ward:

As a result Dasch also got "new" boots. Sorry Dasch that you get to have all the hand-me-downs. I promise we will make it up to you one day!

Here is a funny video of Rev when he opened up his new Leapster game from Grandma. He did a little happy dance!

Here is a video of Dasch opening up a present all by himself. He loves being one of the big boys.

Here is another video of Rev opening up his Pokemon toy,and trying to get Dasch to say it (which he does when the camera is off).

The boys got lots of clothes from Grandma and from the people in the ward. It is nice to have new clothes. Their clothes were looking a little raggedy

Last video of presents.

Thank you everybody who made this Christmas happen this year. Next year I will hopefully have more Christmas cheer (and I think it should be on a Saturday so Trevor will actually have the day off).

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I had a feeling Trevor was the Real Santa....

My friend Nakanishi-san had a Christmas party for all her ECC (English Conversation Class) students. She needed somebody to be Santa. Let's see. Big guy, jolly, likes children = Trevor! I don't think he was not too excited about it. I think he was most nervous about the kids talking to him in Japanese and him not knowing what they are saying. But Rev and Xander thought it was great (of course he is not the real Santa either because the real one is in Misawa).


I had bought Nakanishi-san a turkey from base because she really wanted to try and cook one her self (they don't have turkeys in Japan). And she wanted all her students to try it since most of them had never eaten turkey before. We told her how to brine the turkey and what seasonings to use. It turned out really good. A lot better then my first turkey. It was a nice potluck party so we got to try lots of different Japanese foods. And my only job was to make the mashed potatoes, so I was happy about that.


All the kids played Bingo and got to choose prizes as they won. Xander won some dish soap (so random) which actually came in handy as we were trying to clean up in the kitchen and did not have any dish soap to use. Haha....I love Japan.

Trevor then helped hand out presents to all the kids. It was basically lots of Japanese snack foods with a pencil holder and pencils. The boys of course had fun running around with all the other kids.

I caught Lindsey right as she took a bite.

She decorated the room with Christmas stuff which was nice. We also sang a few Christmas songs in English.

Trevor said the suit was very hot, and was very eager to take it off.

After the party Nakanishi-san invited us to go out to eat. Her sister owns the best sushi restaurant in Mutsu. Of course with Sushi we could not refuse (even though we were still pretty full from the party). The sushi was amazing and the restaurant was VERY nice. I was a bit worried how much it was going to cost because the prices were not on their, and she just kind of made us some food. The kids got all the sushi they wanted and got to take some home. Me and Trevor both got a sushi sampler platter. They also made the best tempura I have ever tasted.

I don't know why I was ever worried about the price because of course Nakanishi paid for it all ( I am sure she also gets a discount from her sister). She wanted to thank us for all the help we gave her at the party (although Lindsey said she has been there a few times with her and has never once paid). She is just such a nice lady. I am so glad that I am friends with her.

It was very good and we would love to go back, but I am not sure that will happen in the near future. As we were leaving we saw that they had the famous puffer fish there as well. And the cost of that was about $80 for the meal. Yikes. I am sure our meal was pretty expensive as well. Thank you Nakanishi for letting us experience good sushi in Mutsu!

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I had no idea Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was a Christmas Song

The kids had a Christmas program at school. Always a treat to go and watch them with the other kids. Rev got to be in the bell choir. I think he had a total of 3 notes...But those were the best 3 notes of the song! Here it is:

Not sure how that song got into the Christmas program. But it was a little better then the next song he was apart of. He played the triangle (is that what it is called?)

Xander was next with singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer (Japanese version). I am not sure he knows the words to that song in English, so there was pretty much no hope for him in this. He looked cute with his little hat on though.

I am not sure what this next song is, but luckily it had hand motions with it. Now that Xander can do. Unless the girl next to him starts distracting him.

Sorry the quality is not the greatest. We were in the very back and everybody behind us had video cameras on tripods so we were trying to stay low so we would not mess up the picture. Maybe one of these times we will actually get there early so we can get a seat up front...not likely but just maybe...


So after their performances they did a little Nativity play. It was very cute and fun to hear all the Christmas songs in Japanese. Some of the little kids did solos and they were very impressive.

Santa Clause made a visit after that. Except he could not hand out all the presents himself so another Santa Clause showed up as well ( I guess they don't know that he usually has Santa helpers or elves for that, but they figured two would do the job). No worries. Rev and Xander knew it was the fake Santa because they saw the real Santa on the military base. So these guys had to be fakes. They handed out bags of treats to all the kids.



It was very hot in that room and Dasch's cheeks were all red. Poor kid.

This was the whole Nativity cast. As you can see on the left they have additional characters in their story. Not sure who the sailor looking people are and the musketeers next to them. Maybe I need to reread the Christmas story...

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Tochigi Nissan Assembly Plant

One of the coolest thing we were able to do was to visit the Tochigi Assembly Nissan Plant. Wow. I have never seen anything like it. I guess I have never really put thought into our a car is actually assembled, but to see it in action was amazing.

I love the Nissan carved into the bushes. Reminds me of Edward Scissorhands for some reason. Here is the whole gang wearing their Skyline Owners Club shirts.

I thought this picture was funny because nobody told them to fold their arms. Everybody just ended up doing it.

When we first arrived we sat down and watched a little video about the history of the plant. We then got on a bus and drove around the plant. It was huge. They have their own doctor and dentist on the grounds. We were then brought to a test track where we were able to ride along with one of the drivers. I guess everybody GT-R they make gets taken out on the track to test everything before it gets sold.

Here is a video of me taking a ride in the car. I was a bit nervous and the brakes were smoking by the time it was my turn to get in.

Here is some more video of the cars on the test track:

And another one.

This was the sign in the front lobby welcoming the club. We all thought it was pretty cool.

We were then taken to the assembly lines to watch how the cars were made. Holy cow. I have never seen anything like it. Sorry, these videos are really loud. All the workers there wear ear plugs. It was amazing to see the workers putting the car together while the car was slowly moving. And the organization of it all was amazing. They did not have all of the same type of car grouped together. So every car had different parts that went with it. So not only were the cars moving along but all their parts were having to be matched up with the right car. Here is a video of the lines:

Here is a video of the boxes of car parts moving. The factory was like something out of a twilight movie where the machines are alive or something. They had carts of car parts that were moving around by themselves. And little machines driving around as well. They looked like somebody was remote steering them but nobody was. And if you got in front of them they would stop and wait for you to get out of the way. It was like all these carts had a place to be and knew exactly where they were going ( I mean, I guess they did).

Here you can see how the car is moving as they are working on it.

And here you can see them putting in the rear diffuser and the drive train.

It was such an amazing experience and really a once of a lifetime experience. Thank you John Fuggle for letting us tag along with you guys and arranging all this awesome stuff for us!

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Car Stuff...Just Pretend Your Interested...(that's what I do)

Just kidding Trevor. After some many years of it I have been able to enjoy it (a little). So here are a few of the "car" pictures. Although all the pictures that are just cars I left out. Because I think if you have seen one Skyline, you have seen them all. But wait I take that back. Have you ever seen parking lot after parking lot full of Skylines? Well, that is a different story!

This was the day we went to the Nismo Festival at the Fuji Speedway. It was a lot of looking at cars and more cars. Did I mention there were A LOT of Skylines? And they had some races going on so we got to see the cars in action. Trevor thought this was pretty exciting because he said he has seen pictures of a lot of these race cars, but to see the actual cars in person was surreal.

We also learned that it was pretty convenient that we did not read Japanese. We parked in a lot that was across the street from the event. It was a very small parking lot and after we parked and were walking towards the event we noticed that everybody had signs on their dashboards. And there was a sign in front of the lot. I think it was parking for security people only, but we didn't know. So we got the best parking spot out of our ignorance. As we were leaving we saw where we should have parked which was like a mile away from the event. Oops.

So these are 400R Skylines. Not sure exactly why they are different or so cool but when Trevor says they only made 44 of them, and there were 8 of the 44 parked together you should believe him (I googled it!). And once you know it is really true it actually was pretty cool to look at how many were all together in one spot. I mean what are the chances? Although I just kept thinking about the other 36 and wondering why they were not there. There goes my pessimistic attitude again..anyways.....

This car was also a one of a kind car. I will have to ask Trevor again why but they were really excited about it. And they got to meet the owner of the car as well (But don't try to get him to pop the hood. We asked and he said no.).

This is a good picture of Trevor with the race track in the background.


This picture has nothing to do with the car and everything to do with the matching boots this couple was wearing. I guess we can assume those boots are uni-sex.

Don't we look awesome? We actually overslept that day so we didn't have time to shower or get ready. I asked him if he set the alarm, and he thought I said I set the alarm. So Matt came knocking on our door at 6:30 when we were supposed to be leaving. Oops. So we basically put our clothes on and walked out. But no worries, this incident insured us to have a nice wake up knock from Matt 10-15 minutes before we were supposed to leave on every other morning.

The day after Nismo festival we drove a few hours away to go visit some car tuning shops. The one we went to first is called Mines. I guess they have some pretty fast Skyline race cars. The owner of the company was very nice. He took us all out to eat (and paid for it) at a sushi restaurant that was right on the water. I think it was probably the freshest fish I have ever eaten.

A few of the English people in our group had never had sushi before they came to Japan. I guess the night before this somebody else had taken them out to sushi and they thought it was pretty good, but they said they got back to the hotel and went straight upstairs to order some food and they all shoved it down really fast. They didn't want to say anything but they were all starving. I guess you have to be a sushi eater to understand. When you are used to eating huge quantities of meat, eating such a small amount of fish doesn't really fill you up.

But we love sushi. And the presentation of this was amazing. They just ordered everybody the same thing. The only thing I could not eat was the sea snail. The texture really bothers me.

This was right outside the restaurant. They had probably just caught the fish we ate (or at least that is what they wanted us to think).

This is Trevor with the president of Mines.

The is the president of Honda's house. It was across the street from the sushi place. We asked the man what kind of car the president of Honda drives and he said he does not drive. He helicopters to and from work. I thought it was actually pretty modest looking. But I am sure it is not his only home.

We walked down to the end of the street where they had a beach with a nice view. Here is a picture of some of the guys. They were so hilarious. They really made the trip so much fun. I loved all their stories that they had to tell. A few of them were millionaires and were telling us that they were neighbors with Catherine Zeta Jones. Wow, such a different life then we live.

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Who ever thought we would be in Tokyo for our 8 yr annniversay? Or that we could stay married for 8 years?

I finally got to see Tokyo. And I think it has just replaced New York City as being my favorite big city. It was awesome. And huge. There are SO many people there. Or maybe I have lived in a small town for too long.

Trevor and I were celebrating our 8 year anniversary(that is how we justified the trip). But I think 8 years is a big accomplishment. A year ago I did not know if we were going to make it another week and look at us now! (Don't worry, Trevor never reads this blog so I can say whatever I want) (Yes I do, and I agree that 8 years is a HUGE accomplishment with both of our baggage. Love you!). Not only did we get to go to Tokyo but we left all of our kids with some friends in the ward. They were very generous to take all 3 kids for 5 days. They have 5 boys of their own so we figured they were probably the most qualified out of anybody (and don't worry they don't have 5 young boys, their oldest is 18).

Okay, so the trip was supposed to be for our anniversary but if you ask Trevor the trip was really all about the cars. (Did you forget that it was a weekend car trip that we turned into a weeklong adventure including an anniversary celebration? People are going to think I hijacked our anniversary you crazy animal.) The Nissan Nismo festival was the real reason we went to Tokyo. Trevor is part of a Skyline GT-R owners club that is based out of the UK. So we met up with 8 guys who came from England and Wales. One of the guys plans the trip every year and has a lot of contacts in the car industry. Everyday they had several car tuning companies that they were able to go and visit, along with a guided tour of the Nissan Factory where they make the R35 GT-R. I will post about all the car stuff on another post.

We have friends from Misawa that are also part of the club. So they were our travelling buddies. Matt and Rose and their son Jonathon. He is Dasch's age and unfortunately they did not find a babysitter for him. Note to self: When going on vacation and leaving your kids behind, don't travel with somebody who did not leave their kid behind. Haha..It was not too bad, but it would have been nice to be kid free for a few days.

Matt is in the military so he was able to hook us up with some sweet hotel deals. The first couple of nights we stayed at a military lodge about an hour outside of the city. The next few nights we stayed at the New Sanno base in Tokyo. It is an very nice hotel and we only paid $45/night. You can't beat that for Tokyo. It was one block away from the subway, so we were able to get around easily. We also were able to fill up our tank on the military bases around Tokyo which helped us save money on gas (gas on base is about half of what you can get locally).

We were able to get an ETC which is like an Eazy pass in the states for our tolls. And on the weekend it is only $10 to travel to Tokyo instead of $150. So that also saved us some money (although we might have made up for it by how often we got lost in Tokyo and having to get on and off toll roads to find our way).

We also were able to go to the commissary on base and buy LOTS of American candy for the trip. It made me giggle because a road trip is not really a road trip without lots of good treats (that is a whole other post about my sugar addiction...uggg). So normally when we are traveling around other countries we love to taste all the local sweets and all the weird candy that they have. So I was laughing to myself that now that we live in Japan, we take a trip to Tokyo and I was stoked to go and be able to buy some American candy. It was like an extra special treat. Okay, maybe it was just ironic to me.

The trip was awesome. We got to do LOTS of fun things and there was a day that I got to hang out at the hotel by myself and just relax. So that made it even more perfect. Trevor took hundreds of "car" pictures but he said he is going to post those on to his car site (not sure what he is talking about but okay, saves me the trouble).

So this picture makes me laugh so hard. We saw this sign several times on the subway. It says Please do it at home, and it is a picture of a guy drunk and passed out on the floor. I thought it was funny because I was thinking wow, this must be a problem if they really have to post signs up everywhere about it.

So I really could not stop laughing when we were coming home from the Subway around midnight and sure enough, there was a man passed out on the ground laying in his own vomit. I thought it was quite alarming but the police officers standing over him just seemed really annoyed and embarrassed. I am not sure what they were waiting for, maybe a medical worker or something, but they just let him lay there on the ground the whole time we were standing there. And he was all dressed up in his suit so I am assuming he stopped into the bar on his way home from work and then drank a little too much. I wanted to take a picture so I could post it next to this picture, but there were lots of people around and I didn't want to be disrespectful.

Here is a picture of some Okinawaan Nabe. It was so good. I guess Okinawa is also famous for their pork. So we had some pork as well it was very delicious. This was an Okinawaan restaurant that we found in downtown Tokyo. We were just looking for something that was open and cheap and this is what we stumbled upon. And they had an English menu or I should say a part of their menu translated in English (always a plus).

This is outside the subway station in Shibuya. This place is so crazy. I LOVED IT! This was actually the only thing I really wanted to see in Tokyo. I have seen this crossing on so many tv shows and movies so I really wanted to see it for myself. Here are a few of the videos of the crossing. This was around midnight. So you can imagine how much more crazy it would be during the day. Google Shibuya crossing and you can see daylight pictures of it.

Here is a video of some more streets of Tokyo. I just love big cities.

We went to Tokyo tower to check it out. The view from the top was amazing. I had no idea how BIG Tokyo really is. There was a ledge that we set the camera and used the timer to take a picture of both of us with the view.

Not sure why my hair looks so poofy. I think maybe it was windy or something on the walk over..

This was inside the elevator at the Tokyo Tower. We paid a little bit extra to go to the very top. It was a little nerve racking when we got in the tinier elevator to take us to the top because a recording came on. He said it in Japanese and then English. It said that on the way up we might here a loud cracking sound, but that it is normal. Really?? I don't want to hear any loud cracking noises when I am that high up. I guess I was the only one in the elevator who thought it was funny..

Here is a video of the elevator ride to the main level:

Since it was Christmas time they had some decorations out front. I loved how many Japanese people were amazed by all the lights. Me and Trevor were laughing that they would go crazy at Temple Square if they were this excited about this small display. Here is Trevor looking at the lights:

We took a subway to the tower and it was about a 10 min walk from the Subway.

We spent one day at the Fuji Speedway Race Track for the Nismo Festival. It was basically a big car meet. You should have seen all the nice cars that were in the parking lot. In fact we had drive around all the parking lots to take pictures of all the nice cars (I fell asleep after about 1o mins of this but maybe Trevor will post about. I guess there were so pretty rare cars that were there).

The drive to get there was beautiful. It was very close to Mt Fiji. You can see it in the back with the snow on top of it.

The first night we met up with all our new English friends. Trevor and Matt had only become friends with these people through some online forums, so we had no idea what to expect. We just knew there were 8 of them that would be showing up. I think we were all a bit surprised when they all showed up and they were all old (okay, not really old but they were all a lot older than us). There were 7 guys and 1 women. I guess not all of them knew each other either because they were all from different countries. But they were all hilarious.

We decided to meet up for dinner and eat with them the first night we got in. We went to a little Yakiniku place. It was a very tiny place, especially for such a large group but we were able to make it work.

Instead of a grill in the middle of the table they had these little grills with charcoal in them. It was a cool experience and the food was really good (although when you split food with that many people, it was not very much food). I told myself that we were going for quality over quanitity.

This is Matt and Rose and their son Jonathon poking his head up.

So can you see how red her face is in this picture? I can't remember her name (too many of them to remember). I am laughing to myself as I write this. It was so funny. Apparently she had no idea what wasabi was. Well, she definatly knows now. I guess they dont' have a lot of sushi places in England so she has never seen it with sushi (and where else would you see wasabi?). So we got a tofu appetizer that had a glob of wasabi on top. She decided to eat the ENTIRE blob thinking it was some kind of vegetable or something. I could not figure out why she was burning up and asking for water because the tofu had no spice in it. Until she told us what she ate and then we all had a good laugh. She won't make that mistake twice!

There is the glob of wasabi on top. And this stuff is potent here in Japan. I can't imagine how much they must have burned going down, especially since she was not expecting it.

So the food was really good at this place but it ended up being really expensive. We had no idea how much it was going to cost because we just ordered lots of different things and everybody shared them. So in the end everybody figured the fair thing would just be to divide the bill with everybody equally. Note to self: When eating with a large party who are all drinking beer and Sake, splitting the bill equally does not turn out to be so equal. Let's just say the meal ended up being WAY more then I had expected and we did not eat dinner with them the rest of the time because we could not afford to pay for their alcohol bill. A few of these guys were millionares so I am sure it did not put a dent in their wallets like it did ours!

Oh Cold Stone. How we love thee!! We saw this place as we were going to dinner that night and wanted to go back and get some ice cream. So we show up after dinner and they had just closed. I think we got there at like 11:10 and they closed at 11. So the next night we were still craving Cold Stone and we show up a few minutes after 9:00 and they had just closed again. It was a week day so they closed earlier. The the 3rd night we went and got ice cream BEFORE dinner, to insure that we would not miss it again. And it was good. They even sang and danced for us like they do America:)

I just found the video of them singing:

So that was the trip. I will post a few things about the car stuff (mostly just the pictures that we are actually in). It was such a nice break. And the boys did very well at the Cott's house. Xander only threw one temper tantrum ( I forgot to warn them about him). I guess he got mad and hit is bowl of cereal and it flew all over the kitchen. And then he refused to clean it up. Yep, that's our Xander! But the boys were so happy when we picked them up. Which was a good sign. And we have been back to their house since and none of them freak out like we are going to leave them again. So I think that is a good sign that they were well taken care of. In fact, I think Dasch would rather be there since they give him so much attention.

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Rev and Xander's Birthday Cards

I just found these pictures of the birthday cards Rev and Xander received from their school. I was going to add them to the birthday post but I am not very good with blogger and I know they would get added in some random place in the post and I would not be able to move them where I want them. Since I am trying to control my anger I decided to just create a whole new post just for these pictures. Haha...So they are posted and I am not angry. Mission accomplished.

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Thanksgiving in Mutsu!

Thanksgiving was a success here in Mutsu (I guess that is just my opinion though). Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday (July 4th being my first, although I am not sure how fun that will be anymore now that we live in Japan). So I knew I wanted to celebrate it but I was not sure how. Trevor had a good idea that we could invite all the other English teachers around the area to join us. So I was thinking an additional 10-15 people along with our family , nottoo big of deal. Since there is no way I could cook a huge meal in my own kitchen (and have room in our apartment for everybody to sit) we decided to rent out the kitchen room at our local community center. This is the room that we do the cooking class in, so there are lots of little mini ovens and plenty of burners and more importantly some counter space to actually cook on (my kitchen seriously lacks this).,

So of course with any party that I do, I first came up with my menu. This is the best part. Going through all my recipes and deciding which recipes I want to use. Although it is pretty easy now because I have lots of recipes that I use every Thanksgiving. So here is the menu that I came up:

Appetizers:
7 Layer Dip
Nutty Bacon Cheddar Cheese Ball
Jalapeno Jelly / Cream Cheese and crackers
Taco Cheese Ball
Brie En Croute
Cranberry Meatballs

Main Dishes:
Fried Turkey (or Turkey Roast if we can't get a fryer)
Honey Baked Ham
Rolls
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Fruit Salad
Sausage Stuffing
Deviled Eggs

Pie:
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Silk Pie
Pecan Pie
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Banana Mouse Tart
Pumpkin Cheesecake

Yes, I do tend to over do things when it comes to cooking. I love to cook and I LOVE to cook for other people. But this big of a menu took a lot of planning and work. Luckily I was able to do a lot of shopping on base (since half the stuff I could not even get in Japan, let alone be able to afford what they charge here for it).

So one reason that I did not want to do Thanksgiving was because I was worried I would make tons of food and nobody would show up (worst fear whenever I throw a party). And the other was the expense of all of it. So we came up with a good solution. Have everybody contribute 1000 yen ($ 10). And we let everybody know early on when it would be so we could get people to commit to coming. As it got closer to Thanksgiving I realized we then had a new problem. Not only did everybody want to come but our Japanese friends found out about it as well and wanted to attend (and they all wanted to bring somebody with them). So we ended up having about 30 people there. Wow. I think that is the biggest Thanksgiving I have ever put together. Good thing it only comes once a year.

I ended up making all the pies the day before (I think I made 11 of them). That was fun. Trevor never lets me make that many pies if it is just us, so this was a good excuse to get to make every kind of pie. Although I really hate making Apple pie. Not sure why. I saved that pie until the very end because I was dreading it so much. Luckily a few of my Japanese friends came over that night to help me finish the pies and I let them make the Apple pie for me. I can't figure out why I hate it so bad. As Trevor would say I have negative pie making energy.

So the pies were all made the night before so that just left everything else to do the day of. Haha ... We were planning on borrowing a turkey fryer from somebody on base, but it ended up being broken. So luckily I had bought a really small turkey and we were able to stuff it into the one real oven that they have at the community center. And we really did have to stuff it in there. It barely fit! One thing we have learned about turkey is that you have to brine it the night before. I never liked turkey because it was always so dry. But if you brine the turkey it turns out so moist and delicious. Trevor was actually in charge of the turkey this year and he did an awesome job. We also put an apple and onion inside to help keep the moisture in.

Everything else went pretty smooth. I decided before hand that I was going to have to let go of my desire to be a perfectionist with my food. The small ovens they have do not cook the same as a normal oven. And there were things that I had to cook on the stove top that normally would be cooked in an oven. For some reason when I cook for other people I get anxiety if it does not turn out how I imagine it to be. But I decided that all these people were going to be satisfied no matter how bad I screw it up. As one of the other teachers Damien said, It was made with love and that is what matters.

I had lots of people show up that day to help me cook. Although we were a little behind schedule since that morning I did not get there as early as I wanted to. At one point I had a mini panic attack and was mad that I had decided to make SO many different recipes and was sure there was no way I could get it all made in time. But I got over it after a few minutes and everything got cooked (and nobody got sick as far as I know).

We were able to reserve another room at the center to eat in. It was not as homely as Thanksgiving normally is but at least it fit us all and we were all able to sit down.




Here are the appetizers

The boys had fun running around and being the center of attention.

Starting to eat ...

The main course

The boys playing with their toys that Nakanishi brought them.

Some of the other JET's. Some people came from a few hours away.

This is Peter and his wife and child (I can't remember their names). He is not a JET but they come to a lot of the parties since he speaks English (although he is from Denmark) and his wife and child are pretty fluent as well. They are very nice people and Rev had a fun time chasing around the girl (of course).

We ended the dinner around 7:00 and I was completely exhausted. I had been going for two days without a break. And as I was cooking everything I did not have time to clean up as I cooked. So the kitchen looked like a tornado had gone through it. As we started to clean up this room I was dreading having to go down to the kitchen and then clean all that up as well. But when I walked into the kitchen everything had been cleaned for me. A few of the Japanese people had snuck down there and cleaned it all. I wanted to cry. I was so relieved that I could finally go home and relax and I did not have to worry about being there another few hours cleaning up.

And the Japanese people were so cute and helped divide up all the food for everybody to take home. There was LOTS of food leftover so everybody got to take some home. And I figured out a good way to not overeat on Thanksgiving: be in charge of planning and making it all. I had no appetite when it was time to eat. I think I took a bit of everything just to taste it, but other then that I did not even eat any of the food. And we did not bring any of it home. So a few days after Thanksgiving I was really craving all the food that I just made. I guess I learned my lesson that I should have taken home some leftovers and eaten them when everything was over and I was hungry again. Oh well, I guess there is next year.

So everything was great. Trevor (or somebody else) came up with the idea to have everybody that paid us write their name on the whiteboard. I was concerned that people would leave before they paid us but that name on the board thing really was a success. Nobody wanted to be the only person that did not have their name on the board so everybody ended up paying us. In fact one guy Trevor told did not have to pay (can't remember why) and he asked if he could at least write his name on the board anyway. Haha ... I think I ended up breaking even in the end.

Here is a little video of the room we were in:

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School Birthday Celebration (Catholic Style)

I get a lot of notes and letters from the preschool, but most of it I can't read (obviously). But at the beginning of every month they give me a basic rough schedule that is translated. Which is really nice, except most of the time you have to try and translate the translation. Whatever English translation program they use is not very good. I am pretty sure I have missed a few things that I should have attended, but what can you do. Luckily I did understand that I was suppose to arrive at the school at 10:15 for a birthday celebration.

Rev had been talking about this heart that he was going to give me and he was very nervous that I was not going to be there on the day of the program (I was quite nervous that I would somehow mess up the day as well).

So here are a few pictures and videos of the event. It is always such an experience to go to their school programs. I get a glimpse of what they must feel like everyday to be surrounded by people you can't really communicate with. It is also fun to see how the school runs things. The first video is actually not at the school. This was taken a few days before the program. We were putting Rev to bed and he started saying this little speech in Japanese. It was so hilarious. He then explained that in the beginning he could not say it but that now he can (and he was really proud of himself). I later found out this was the speech he was practicing for the birthday celebration when they had to introduce themselves in front of everyone.


When I first got to the school the kids were all still in their classes. I got to watch them all walk up the stairs carrying their chairs. It was fun to watch Xander and Rev with the other kids. They didn't notice that I was there watching for a minute and they both looked so happy. They were cute because they just kind of waved to me and then went and stood at the back of the room where all the other birthday kids were supposed to stand. I think they were really excited about this program.

You can see how the kids lined up in perfect rows. All the girls are wearing yellow smocks and the boys are wearing purple (a little ironic to anyone else?). You can see Rev and Xander standing in the back. All the moms of the birthday kids were seated up on the stage.

Rev and Xander holding their flowers with their Birthday hats on.

This video is the beginning of the program. I think it is cute how the sensai greets all the kids.



The kids then walked slowly up to the statue of Mary and offered her the flowers. They were then supposed to stop and pray to her ( you can see the way Xander does this). At this point I was laughing to myself about sending my kids to a school where they pray to the virgin Mary. A little different then Mormonism. I guess this can just add to the experiences this boys are having.

I love watching Rev and Xander pray at school. Sometimes when they pray at home they hold their hands like this without even thinking about it. You can also see Xander's cute little wave he does.

The principal then gave a little speech to the kids and then talked to each kid individually and put on a little cross necklace. You can hear everybody laugh a little when Rev says "arigato" back to him.

It was then time for each of the kids to get up and introduce themselves. This is what Rev had been practicing. He was doing such a good job but I think he got a little nervous so they had to help him. Xander's is funny. I think he actually knew more then he let on, but he was fine with just copying what they were saying.

This program was actually very long. I think it was almost 2 hours long (which I thought was long, I can't imagine being 3 and sitting through this). At one point the principal got up and did magic tricks for all the kids. They all loved it. Another point in the program they told us a story about how God has given everybody gifts (talents). The story was quite longer and they had picture but I am assuming that was the main point of the story. She then asked all the parents to name a gift or talent that their child has. Luckily there were a few people before me so I caught on to what they were doing before it was my turn. I said that Rev's gift is that he is very smart, and Xander's gift is that he is very cute. I kind of wish I would have looked it up quickly in Japanese and said it in Japanese for them, but I did not think about it until after. Oh well.

The teachers then handed out birthday cards to all the children. They were big cards that have a picture of them standing next to the statue of Mary (you would love it Crystal!). As the teachers handed out the cards they said something nice about each child. I missed Rev's teachers giving him his card but I wish I would have recorded it. For Rev she had it written in English on his cards and she said it to him in English. She actually did a good job but I think she was a little embarrassed. Here is Xander's teacher giving him his card.

At one point all the little kids were getting wrest less, including Dasch. He wanted to go sit by Rev and Xander until he figured out how much fun it was to push his chair over there. He then decided to push his chair back and forth across the stage. Luckily the other little kids were running around too.

Rev is such a good brother trying to help him onto his chair.

Rev and Xander have learned how to play Jan-ken-pon (rock, paper, scissors) in school. As soon as they get on the bus I see Rev playing it with the boy who sits behind him. They love it. And Rev told me that he always wins. And after playing with him I see why he always wins. He likes to change his move after he sees what you have thrown (nice try buddy!). Did you know this game originated in Japan?? I just learned that from wikipedia.

So all the birthday kids were given 3 stickers. They then played jan-ken-pon against all the other students. If the other student won then the birthday kid had to give them a sticker. I guess they played until nobody had any stickers left (this is all what I assume was going on).

The last event was a song and dance the kids did. It started out at the speed you see on the video. I had to stop recording because the kids all ran up to the stage and brought us parents down to join them. The song got faster every time it played. Once we did it once we then had to run out to the students and pick one of them to come and join us. It was repeated until all the students were up dancing. It was such a fun event. I am very glad I didn't miss it!

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Christmas and New Years as told by Trevor

I was typing an email to a friend and realized that I didn't want to re-type everything I had just told him about our holidays this year, so I decided to just copy and paste it all here. Two birds with one stone!

So I had to sell my WRX after we bought our Nissan Largo (KA24) Van. We had to put a bunch of money into the van, and had some other unexpected expenses, plus our trip to Tokyo, and combine it all together and there just wasn’t enough money to keep the WRX and pay for everything. So we are a one car family again. Tamara says it helps us to spend less money because that means she can’t go out and do any shopping during the day since I usually take the van to work. She could have it all day if she wanted to drop me off, but it’s too hard to get the boys up and ready and out the door in time to get me to work by 8:10AM every day.

Last week was my time off from work starting at noon on Monday. I spent the first few days at home with the boys and Tamara just relaxing and playing Wii. We even went to the local Ski resort (5 mins away, $10 lift tickets for 2 hours) and spent 3 or 4 hours on the bunny slope (free!) with a sled that Rev got for his b-day. The bunny slope has a conveyer belt going up the middle of it that you can stand on and let it pull you up. Then on the left side of the hill is sledding and snowmen, etc… On the right side is skiing. We bought Rev some $20 skis that slip on over his winter boots, but I realized after that having stiff ski boots to support your ankles is a big part of learning how to ski. So I’m not sure how that will go for him.

The second half of the week we spent at the base hotel in Misawa. We went out to an Italian restaurant off base for dinner and it was actually really good! Then over to a friend’s house for the rest of the evening until after midnight. I played games with Tamara and a bunch of other people. The boys got to hang out with other American kids and play with their toys. We stuffed ourselves with even more food. I played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox360 with a few of the other dads and got my rear handed to me every time. Then after midnight we lit some fireworks outside on the snow/ice covered street.

We were Secret-Santa’d by several families in our branch. On Dec 12 we came out of church to find a big box full of 12 days worth of presents on top of our van. Anonymously given. The branch president called later that day and asked if we would give him a list of items that were outside our reach so he could put them on the charity Christmas tree and have other branch members buy them and donate them anonymously. He came up the next week (2+ hour drive in bad weather) with all the stuff and a big box of food he and his wife picked up for us at the base commissary and we went out to lunch at a local restaurant. We went to run some errands later that day and when we came back to our apartment we found 2 more big boxes full of food and medicine and toys and gifts in our front entry hall. We always leave our front door unlocked since this is Japan, and lo and behold another family or families from the branch had secretly made the drive up and left a bunch of stuff for us. Of course it was anonymous again.

I think more than 90% of the present under the tree were not bought by our family. The boys had a great Christmas, and I truly felt my Savior’s love through the kindness and acts of giving and service from those around me.

-Trevor
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Japanese School Lunch

Ate my first 給食 (kyuushoku = school lunch) last week at my school for kids with disabilities. Kids in Elementary and Middle School (and schools for kids with disabilities too apparently) all eat school lunch. In high school is when kids start bringing their own lunches every day. Teachers eat with students in the classrooms.



It's cute because there was one adult supervising 3 or 4 kids who were wearing aprons and masks serving up the food to the other students. I think my mom told me she worked in the cafeteria of her school when she was a kid, but I think that was so she could get free cafeteria food. In Japan I believe all the kids rotate through serving food to eachother. I know Rev and Xander have to bring masks to 幼稚園 (youchien = pre-school/kindergarten) for those days when they are serving lunch to the other kids.

At my school last week it cost me 310 JPY (about $3.50 USD), and as teachers we are expected to eat everything they serve us including the milk box to be good examples to the students. That worked out fine for me because they served something good　ビビンバ ("bi-bin-ba", korean rice dish), but I've heard from other ALT friends that it's kind of a rough policy on days when they serve stuff that's not so good. You have to still smile and eat it all!


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Misadventures with Japanese bureacracy and winter weather!

This is an email that I just sent to my dad. After I sent it I realized it would make a great blog post. I'll try and edit it later to add some pics of the snow and the van, but for now it's all just text. Many gaijin (foreigners) in Japan complain about inefficiences and the bureacracy and red tape of dealing with the Japanese government or Japanese businesses. It is true that there is a very exact and specific way that things must be done, and there is no recourse for working outside of the lines...

We have received at least 24" of snow these past two days. They don't really plow the streets here either. They send a bulldozer up some of the main roads, but even that still leaves the bottom 4 inches of ice pack on top of the roads. SCARY to drive. Tamara had to spend over 6 hours round trip in the car yesterday in the middle of the blizzard to jump through some hoops to get our van paperwork transferred into our name.


Here is my Subaru (now sold) that I had half dug out before work one day before I took this shot...

We bought the car from an Airman who was leaving Misawa. US military members drive cars in Japan that have license plates starting with a "Y" this indicates that the car is registered under the "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) and only SOFA members can drive it while it has a Y plate (technically speaking, heh). So the car was registered with the Land Transportation Office (LTO = DMV) in Hachinohe so the plates on it were Hachinohe Y plates. Well where we live in Mutsu, we are serviced by the Aomori city LTO, so all our cars must have Aomori plates (kind of like plates from different states). We got the ownership transfer paperwork from Misawa Air Base to bring the car out of SOFA status and register it with a normal non-Y plate as if we were Japanese citizens. So we took the paperwork to our local LTO branch here in Mutsu, and they faxed it to the main office in Aomori to look over and the answer we got back was, sorry we can't help you with paperwork issued by Misawa base, only the Hachinohe LTO can do that (Hachinohe is 2.5 hours away on a dry clear day).

That wouldn't have ordinarily been a problem because we are down in Misawa (near Hachinohe) every week so we could've just stopped in at the LTO down there one weekend and taken care of it. The problem is that the Hachinohe LTO can't help us as the new owners of the car because we don't live in their jurisdiction. We live in the Aomori LTO area and we must be serviced by them. But Aomori LTO won't take the base paperwork, only Hachinohe LTO will. You see the quandary we were in.

So the solution they actually recommended to us was to find someone in Hachinohe who is not SOFA status (non-US military), and have the ownership of the car transferred to them initially, so it can go from a Hachinohe Y-plate to a Hachinohe hiragana plate (non-Y plate). Then once the ownership and registration is changed to a non-SOFA member, that person can then give us paperwork that the Aomori LTO branch in Mutsu can actually process.

I will throw another wrench in the works. The guy that sold us the car back in October gave our friend Matt (US airforce in Misawa) a power of attorney that was only good through November 30. Well, we didn't anticipate all these problems so we didn't jump on the transfer of ownership until the last week of November. Luckily Matt was able to re-do the paperwork on Nov 30 to transfer the ownership to the Japanese wife of another friend Will. This paperwork does have a 15 day expiration though. So everything had to be completed and transferred into her name by Dec 15, otherwise our paperwork from the base would be invalid, and we couldn't re-do it since the power of attorney was expired. In effect, our car would become a very large and expensive paperweight since we would not ever be able to register it in our name, or even de-register and start over again. Our only option would be to junk it if our plan to transfer ownership to Will's Japanese wife didn't work out in time.

Needless to say we were a little bit stressed these past two weeks.

So we gave Will and his wife all the paperwork, and then he had to go and get a parking permit issued by the city. This involved getting a letter signed by his landlord approving the parking of the new vehicle at the house. Then taking that letter to the police with a map of where the parking spot is going to be. Then waiting 3-7 days for the police to come out and inspect the spot in person and issue the parking permit and sticker. The permit and sticker are required by the LTO *BEFORE* they let you transfer the ownership. Last Friday the 11th Will still hadn't heard back from the Police about the parking permit, and Monday the 14th he had to work so he couldn't go to the LTO with us even if he did have the permit and sticker. His only day off would be on Tuesday the 15th (yesterday). So it all hinged on whether the permit would come through in time.

We were on pins and needles until Monday night when Will called to tell me he got it. So Tamara was to head down to Hachinohe Tuesday morning to meet with Will and his wife at the LTO since the LTO office needed the van to be there so they could remove the old Y plates and affix the new hiragana plates. There is a special seal they put on the rear plate to prevent illegal license plate transfers from one vehicle to another. The only problem was that it started snowing on Monday afternoon. By Tuesday morning we had over 12" of snow, and while the van has snow tires, they are almost bald. Remember how I said that roads in Japan aren't really plowed? Well they are also very skinny, usually no more than 1 lane in each direction and they are WINEDY!! (sp?). The speed limit on these roads in the dry is between 40-50 kmh (25-35 mph).

So poor Tamara who absolutely hates the cold, and isn't very comfortable driving in Japan already, has to head out on a super duper long drive in deep unplowed snow on roads where she probably can't go any faster than 30-40 kmh, to go to a town she has never been to before, to meet a guy she doesn't know very well, while crossing her fingers that all of the paperwork has been done correctly because Tuesday is the last and only day to get things taken care of.

Well, she made it safely. The paperwork was correct. The car got new plates and new registration in Will's wife's name. Then Will's wife filled out the paperwork we would need to transfer ownership to our name. Things were looking up until Tamara got back in the car and it was snowing so hard in places that it was almost a complete white-out with very limited visibility. She also had to keep the gas depressed only .5" at all times because if not the tail would hang out to the left. Tamara doesn't like to drive with that little amount of pedal modulation. She is more of an "on or off the gas completely" type of driver. Well she made it, and finally arrived at 6:15PM. She had left that morning at 9:15AM. Her body was stiff and sore from how she had tensed her muscles the entire drive to and from Hachinohe from all of the stress and anxiety she felt.


Here is the van one morning later that week!

I sure love her and am proud of her for coming through for our family when we were in a pinch. I am also grateful for Matt's help along the way, and especially Will and his wife's help. We got a great deal on the van, but it would have been a complete waste of money if it weren't for these guys.

God is aware of us, and he answers our prayers. He did mine yesterday!

P.S. Here is a video of a few seconds of my drive home from work to give you an inside glimpse into what winter is like in　むつ市青森県日本 (Mutsu City, Aomori Prefecture, Japan):


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A bunch of Random Pictures and Videos

I just uploaded all my videos and random pictures off my phone. So there they are. Here is a funny video of Dasch being weird. I was not paying attention to him because I was trying to study Japanese but he was being so weird I had to get my phone out and start recording him.

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong....So this is one Japanese egg compared to 2 American eggs. Can you tell the difference??

Dasch loves to wear hats...

Here is another funny video of Dasch and what he does when he is alone and bored.

Okay, so I saw this while I was driving and I took a picture of it( I know, very dangerous, I won't do it again). I just could not figure out what it was supposed to be. Do you think it is the Japanese version of a herse?

Our friends from Misawa came up to Mutsu to hang out. We went out to dinner at a really good ramen place up the street. We were quite surprised to see how well Rev and Xander were doing with chopsticks. They are not technically using them the right way but they will get there eventually.

So we had a tragic accident with some Japanese hair clippers and this was the result. We were only trying to trim his hair, but the clippers ruined it so bad we had to take it all off. I cried which made Dasch cry, which made Trevor kick me out of the room until I stopped crying. It was all very tragic...and now we have a very old version of Dasch, but still just as cute.

This is me trying to tease Xander. I thought it was pretty funny.

The day after the boys had their school program they had the day off. The next day was a Japanese holiday. So by Wednesday I was ready for them to be back in school. I got them all ready and we went outside and waited for the bus. And we waited and waited and waited. It never showed up. I figured maybe the bus got in an accident or something. The problem is that I cannot just call the school because they don't really speak English. So I had to call one of my friends to call the school for me and wait for her to call me back.

The good news was that there was no bus accident, the bad news was that 2 kids in the school had swine flu so the school was closed the rest of the week. AAAUUGGH...(that's what I was thinking). It is just cold enough outside that it is not really fun to go out and play outside anymore (until there is at least some snow on the ground to play with).

My friend Yukie was kind enough to invite us over one of the days. I was embarrassed (again, that happens a lot here) because she invited us over around 11 and made lunch for us and everything. I completely spaced it and was not thinking that she was inviting us over for lunch. In Japan it is tradition to always bring a gift to someone when they invite you over to their house, especially if they are inviting you over to eat. And I didn't bring anything. I am usually pretty good about remembering this but somehow with the kids home all week I spaced it.

One of Yukie's friends also has a girl that goes to Rev's school. She invited her and her daughter over as well( I should have remembered their names but I don't). She did not speak any English so it was fun to see her talk to her daughter and then have Yukie tell me what they were saying. I sure found out a lot about Rev. The daughter was telling her mom all about Rev. She was saying how everybody knows that Rev has a special girl at school that is his girlfriend. She also said that Rev says bad words at school sometimes (of course). Trevor was excited that this time it was not him that taught him the swear words. I guess she said the boys at school say bad words a lot and he must have picked up on them. I am sure he has no idea what they mean, he just likes to repeat everybody else. Hopefully it does not become a problem.

The girl was really cute too. She said she thought Rev was very cute (apparently all the girls think he is really cute as well) but she said he can be really rough. As she is telling me this Rev was running around the room trying to chase the girl and grabbing at her arms and her shirt. Yep, that's Rev.

At one point my friend Yukie was talking to Rev in English. The girl came up to Yukie and in Japanese told her that she did not need to speak English to Rev because he understands Japanese. I thought that was cute. Here they are at a little table Yukie set up for them.

You might recognize this coat from when Rev wore it. It is way to big for Xander but it is his favorite coat to wear. When he put it on he was so excited and said, "Look at me, I look like Daddy" Trevor has the same coat but just a teensy bit bigger :)

Here is another video of Dasch being silly.

And another funny picture of him. His personality is hilarious.

Here is a car we saw wrecked on our way to Misawa. We got there right after it happened. As I saw the car I thought, "Wow, that is the worst car accident I have seen in Japan." You see car accidents like this all the time in America, but I have only ever see fender benders here. Partly because the speed limit is so low everywhere you go. I am sure in the bigger cities this is probably not the case. Anyway, as we were passing it a guy noticed our Military plates on our car and waved us down. My thought was, of course this was an American. Apparently he had just picked his girlfriend up from the airport. She is Korean and did not speak much English. Neither of them spoke any Japanese and his cell phone did not have service. So Trevor got out and translated for them. I was very impressed with what he was able to say. He was able to ask the Japanese police if the man could use their cell phone to call the military police to come. And tell them not to take his girlfriend to a Japanese hospital. We ended up leaving so I am not sure what happened. They were both okay (amazingly) but were really shook up. The other half of the car was completely smashed up.

And speaking of cars, here is video of the boys all sleeping in our new van. You can see how much room it has in it. Very nice.....Me and Trevor both say the best babysitter is going for long rides in the car because all the kids are strapped down....

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Birthdays, New Couches, Human Trains.....

One good update is that we got new couches (new to us that is). You can see from these two pictures the before and after. So the pro is that we actually have a comfortable place to sit down that feels like a real home, but the con is that we no longer have any extra room in our living room. You see the rug in the middle of the room? That plus a few extra feet is all the space we have. So that means our table that we fold out to eat dinner on now has to be put in the kitchen. So less space, but more comfort and totally worth it!

We actually got these couches for free. We belong to a Yahoo group in Misawa. Everybody sells stuff or gives away stuff they no longer need. That is how we found our van. So I guess a guy was told that the off base houses in Japan were pretty large, so he decided to bring all his furniture. But unfortunately for him (and fortunately for us) they have now made a rule that everybody coming on base after September 1st has to live on base. I guess they have tons of empty houses that are not being filled and they are losing a lot of money (go figure, it's the government). Since the houses are not as big on base he could not keep these couches. So TADA! We inherited them. Our friend on base (awesome friend) Dave Cotts offered to rent a pickup truck and drive them all the way up to us. So I guess they actually cost us about $60 for the truck rental. We were pretty excited.

All that couch space and they are still all huddled together. It must be the Chamberlain in them.

Or maybe they are doing something with my phone they are not supposed to be doing..

Here are some pictures of my continued attempt to make Japanese food. These are homemade Gyoza and Katsu don. They both turned out really good.

You can see how tight the fit is with the table. We now have moved it to the kitchen where it is still tight but reminds us we should not eat too much (or else we really wouldn't fit around it).

This is what happens when I try and lay on the floor at any time. I will have 3 kids on top of me. Another reason why I am so thankfully to now have a couch to lay on.

The boys call this the train, and they run around in circles until Trevor comes home and stops them (cuz they are really loud). And no, my boys don't usually wear clothes if they are in the house. Summer or winter....

Rev and Xander's Birthdays were last month. I overheard them talking one night in their room while they were supposed to be sleeping. Rev was telling Xander that they have the same birthday because they are twins...I thought it was pretty funny. One of these years they will realize their birthdays are 2 days apart and will probably start demanding to have their own parties. But for now, we can get away with one. We even got away with having only 1 cake this year.

These are the only pictures I have of their Birthday cake. I actually forgot my camera the day we had their party. We decided to have a party at the Weasel's den in Misawa. Trevor invited a few of the families that we know to come and eat pizza and celebrate their birthdays. The problem was that was also the day that Dave Cotts was bringing our couches up to us.

So we had to wait in Mutsu until he arrived. It ended up being later then we had anticipated. I wanted to get to Misawa and get ready for the party and made sure we had everything we needed. Well, we ended up showing up right before the party was supposed to start. I realized how amazing all our friends are here.

One of our friends ordered the pizza for us so we stopped by Pizza Hut on the way to the Weasel's Den. They also brought with them plates, drinks, plastic silverware and his wife also made homemade salsa and another salad. They also ordered the birthday cake and brought it with them. I could not believe it. Our other friends brought their camera so they took all the pictures for us. I just need to remember to get the pictures from them so I can post them up. We literally just showed up and the party was there for us. I was a little embarrassed but was very grateful it all turned out.

The day of Rev's birthday we went to the Arcade and played around. Here is a video of Trevor and Rev racing:

We let him open up one of his presents that night, and the rest he opened up at his party. I went to the dollar store and bought him 10 presents for $10 (that is what happens when you are poor). Good thing he does not know the difference yet. Here is a video of him opening up one of his presents from Grandma Doodie. You can hear my excitement at the end of having a new toy that makes noise (my favorite!):

We also let him choose where he wanted to go out to eat and he chose Kappazushi. We decided to buy a candle and put it in his dessert and sing Happy Birthday. Here is the video:

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Weasel's Den...and a bunch of weasel's in it (my kids)

I don't know if I have blogged yet about the Weasel's Den in Misawa. They basically converted a huge airplane hangar into a big playgound for kids. Of course our boys love it. They have all these jungle gyms on one side of it, in the middle is a basketball or soccer court and then the other side is a minature gold course. I guess it is another perk of being in the military. We just go whenever we are staying on base and let the kids run around and play since it is free and warm inside.

Sorry the pictures are blurry. Something was off with my camera and the kids would not hold still.

Dasch was very brave on the big slides. It scared me to watch him, but even if he fell at the end and hit his head he would go right back up to do it again. As I was leaving I noticed the sign that side the slide was recommeded for 5+ years. Oops.

They have these little cars that the kids can sit on and push themselves around. Rev and Xander love them and could ride around for hours. They actually get going pretty fast on them too:

Dasch's hair would fly up as he was going down the stairs. I kept trying to get it on camera but I had to keep putting the camera down when he got to the end because I thought he was going to hurt himself(which he did, he left with a big goosebump on his head).

Rev and Xander loved the slide too.

This is what Dasch does when he is bored. He dumps all the clothes out of the basket and then makes himself a little car to sit in.

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Brothers and Japanese Cooking

So these pictures are hilarious. Dasch and Xander love to climb all over Rev. Rev was trying to watch tv but the boys kept bugging him. Usually he is pretty good about it and just lets them climb all over him.

I am still trying to cook Japanese food. I go to Nakanishisan's house once a month and I love it. We have made some really great things. These is called Sukiyaki. We ate it at a restuarant one time and I figured I could probably make it cheaper. It was really good but not quite as good as they make it at the restaurant. I guess I need to keep practicing.

These is the meal that you cook everything in front of you and pour sauce over all of it. Then as you take it out of the pan you dip it in raw egg. Oishi!

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Shipwrecks and Hidden Treasure..

So on our way down to Misawa for the weekend we stopped at a place called Shipwreck Beach. You will see why from the pictures. It is only about 40 mins away from our house, which I think is pretty awesome. The funny thing is that not very many Japanese people know about it. We heard about it from all our friends in Misawa. One of our friends explained to me how to get there and told me that it is gated off, but there is a little dirt road around the gate that they drove on and could then drive right up to the beach.
So we had just bought our new van (I forgot to blog about that too. We got an 8 passenger Nissan Largo van for $2K and trips to Misawa are not as dreaded anymore). We had no idea how low to the ground the van actually is. In our minds we are thinking we have a van, of course we can make it on this dirt road. So I get out and start guiding Trevor over the road when the van gets high centered. Uh oh....We laughed for a minute and then we thought, what are we going to do. It was pretty bad. We could not reverse or go forward. The back wheels would just spin because it could not get any traction. I am surprised I did not panic any more then I did. I tried lifting up the van (haha...that obviously did not work) and then I remembered when we used to get stuck in the snow that we would stick wood or branches under the tires to get traction. It is a good thing that worked. It took us a little bit to maneuver it out of that spot but we did it.


What was really bad was that Trevor had taken the day off that day, so we could not have really called anybody from his school, and we don't speak Japanese to call the police or a tow truck, and all our friends in Misawa are an hour away. So we are very luckily that we were able to get the van out.
So after getting out of the van and making the 1/2 mile walk to the beach we came across these mountains of whiteness.



I don't know if you can see from the close up by they are actually shells. I think they are scallop shells. Apparently this is the dumping ground for all these shells. It is a very odd sight.




So here are the shipwrecks that we found on the beach. We have no idea how old they are, or why they were just left here. Here is a video of the boys climbing all over the boat:












We propped our camera on a rock and did the timer so we could get a family picture by the boat.









Here is another video inside the boat:

If anybody knows anything else about these boats (Tabitha) I would love to hear it.

This was a random little house by the beach. There was tons of trash all over the beach. I am not sure how it all got there. I think a lot of it gets washed up, but some of the stuff had to have been dumped there.

So our new adventure in Japan is to go Geocaching. We have GPS on our iphones and they actually make a Geocaching app. This was our first Geocach and it was so much fun. There are actually several close by us. We have found 2 already and attempted to find a 3rd one but we could not locate it. Google Geocaching if you don't know what it is but basically you get GPS cordinates to help you find a box that contains little trinkets and a log book. You can take a trinket if you leave something else in the box. It is fun to see the log book and read about other people that had been there. Check it out in your area. Geocaching is all over the world from what I understand.

Here is the video of us finding the Geocache:

Here is some video of the scenary around the beach. It was very pretty:

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Statue of Liberty Park

So we found a park in Hachinohe that is nicknamed the Statue of Liberty park. Oddly enough they have a replica of the Statue of Liberty in it. Not sure what that is all about, but the park was pretty fun.

Here is a video of Dasch and Xander on the playground:





Not quite as big as the real thing but pretty impressive.

Dasch loves to swing and loves to slide:

We actually went to this park because I heard it had a roller slide. I guess these slides are everywhere in Japan but this was the first one we have found. It is very long and a lot of fun. Although it does make you feel pretty fat because I barely fit in it.

Here is a funny video of the kids going down. We brought along our friends kids too if you are wondering who the other white kids are that we are hanging out with:

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Halloween

The boys got to celebrate Halloween twice this year. They got to go trick or treating in Mutsu as well as in Misawa on base. My friend Nakanishisan teaches English classes to younger students. She puts on a Halloween party every year for the kids. Most of them don't know much about Halloween and it is hard to find costumes here. A lot of the kids just put a cape on for their costume. We missed the Halloween party becauase we were driving back from Misawa, but we were able to go trick or treating. She rented a bus to take all the students around in. They then trick or treated to all the children's' houses. The parents all went home so they could hand out the candy. It was an interesting way to trick or treat. She has so many kids this year that they did not all fit on the bus. So she had to pick up one group, drop them off, then go back and pick up the next group. We followed the bus in our own car . Each house gave them a bag full of treats (and I say treats because it was definitely not all candy, crackers with little fish anyone?) They ended up with tons of stuff between the 3 of them. I took about 3 / 4 of it that night and hid it so Trevor could take it to work with him to give to his students.

Of course the boys were a hit at every house. One lady was kind enough to give Dasch a cermic pumpkin that he kept point at (I swear our kids are ALWAYS getting free stuff from people, it is amazing), which he then proceeded to drop right outside the door where it shattered in pieces. I was a little bit embarrassed.

Our friends from our ward were kind enough to let us borrow some of their Halloween costumes. With 5 boys of their own, we had plenty to choose from. Rev decided to be a ninja while Xander and Dasch were both pirates. Although Xander was not just a pirate but Jack Sparrow himself. I think he won the cutest costume award but I could be biased. We attended our ward's Halloween party before we ventured off to go trick or treating on base. Although this is probably the first Halloween party I have been to that did not hand out any kind of candy. I guess having a group of health nuts (and I mean that kindly) in the ward kind of influenced that decision.

This is our friends Matt and Rose's son Jonathon. We are really good friends with them and he can't get enough of playing with all the kids. He cries whenever we leave him.



This is Matt and Rose. They didn't want me to take their picture so I snuck it. They are not Mormon so I am sure they were trying to figure out what the hell was going on.



The boys were wrestling and you can see Rev in his white ninja costume with his black mask.

Xander cracks me up....

Maybe this is the only picture I have of Dasch. And he is not looking at the camera. The costume barely fit him.
We went trick or treating on base after the party. The military base shares the base with the Japanese military (except it is not called military because they are not allowed to have a military but you get the idea). So Halloween is CRAZY on base because all the Japanese people are on base trick or treating as well. They even set a time that you have to trick or treat between 6 and 9. We got there about 6:45 and tons of people were already out of candy because there were so many people. There was a church on base that had a bunch of fun booths for the kids. They were also giving out drinks, chips and hot dogs. Needless to say this is where we spent most of the night (a hot dog has never tasted so good). But we did get to trick or treat at a few houses, and the boys got enough good candy that made the 2 hour drive home alot better.

I think these picture are from the Halloween party that we went to on base. I forgot we went there. They had face painting which is like crack for kids, they just can't walk by it without wanting their faces painted too .

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Way Behind in Posting...of course..

I guess that is what a little bit of depression mixed with homesickness will do to you. It has been a rough few months for me. Moving to Japan I knew there was going to be a lot that I would miss out on. I guess that is one of the cons of moving out of the country. You can't just jump on a plane last minute, unless you have a lot of money (which we don't). So needless to say I missed my brother Jeremy's homecoming from his mission, and my Grandma Hone's Funeral. Along with all the family togetherness that both of these entail. Of course I wanted my family to call me every few days but was sad as well to hear all the laughing. I really miss laughing with my family. But I guess that is just the way life goes. It is December 2nd and the sun is shining and it is almost warm outside. I think that God is trying to tell me that everything is going to be okay.


So here is what we have been up to the last month. Of course we have been busy (I swear we always have something going on). So here are some of our pictures to prove that I have not locked myself up in my house for the last month (although I kind of wanted to).


We attended Rev's and Xander's School program. We were a little late getting there so as we showed up their teachers were waiting and grabbed the kids to go and change into their costumes. We went up stairs to try and find a seat in the auditorium ( and by seat I mean find a place to lay down your mat to sit on the floor, which of course we didn't bring .... so American of us).
We thought that Xander might have been kicked out of the program because the day before the teacher said that Rev only was going to be in the program. So I don't know if she didn't understand what she was saying, or if they decided to put him back into the program that day. He has been a little bit uncooperative at school so I figured it would not be the end of the world if they kicked him out of the program. All the students got to perform in small groups . The costumes they had for the kids were amazing. We left after our kids performed so we did not get to see all the dances. We noticed all the other parents leaving so we figured maybe that is what we were supposed to do. Come to find out everybody was scared of the swine flu, so that is why people were leaving and not staying for the entire program.
Here are a few of Rev's Friends outside of his school.





This dance would never go over very well in America. These are little bunnies but happened to be the only costumes that showed the girls stomachs. I just thought it was interesting.

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You can see the amazing costumes some of the kids got to wear.



So here is the video of Rev performing. He did an awesome job and actually remembered most of the dance.



And here is Xander. I could not stop giggling at how cute he is. And how little.



This was the night after Halloween when we had to wake the boys up to go to their school program. I don't think Dasch moved all night.

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Pajamas and bed time (the best part of the day!)

This picture is funny. Every Saturday night that we are in town (not spending the night in Misawa) we go to the onsen. It is nice to relax and have the kids be all clean and ready for Sunday. We bring their pajamas with us so they are ready for bed as soon as we get home. It is hilarious when they have these on and then put their shoes on.

The boys were all sitting there listening to Trevor tell them a goodnight story. He tells them Bible or Book of Mormon stories which I think are not very kid friendly sometimes....(take your son to this hill and kill him? Cut off all their arms? It rained so hard and they had to build an ark because everybody else drowned?..geez,I am scared).

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Dasch's Funny Faces

Dasch makes the funny faces. Everytime we give him something cold to drink he makes a sour looking face. So we were at an arcade and the me and the boys won some candy out of a machine (it just took a little bit of bumping to get it out). Of course the boys wanted to eat the candy so I let them open it up and I laughed so hard. Dasch made the funnies faces and then actually starting gagging. I wish I would have gotten it on video. I thought maybe I could give him another one and capture it on video again, but he refused to eat another one. So I had to shove it in his mouth to try and get him to make the face. I know, I am a mean mom. I tried one of the candies and it was very weird. It was like a smarty but really soft in texture and it kind of just melted in your mouth. I am not sure if it was the taste or the texture, or maybe both of them combined that made it not very good. But when a kid does not want candy, you know it must not be good.


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