Our Spring

"Ring-a-ding-ding, Spring is here!" So said Rolly Polly Ollie; Eldest's once favorite cartoon. That comes to mind as I click through the photos of our Spring here in Japan--I am reminded that we have passed our first anniversary of retuning to Japan: April 27. A few days after that would be the anniversary of when we first set foot here in The Land Of The Rising Sun: five years now of living in Japan.

Cleaned Up 'n Shook a Tail Feather

The Girl Scout group of CFAY sponsored the base's Father Daughter Dance and the ship ACTUALLY was in. The Steel Mistress was gracious enough to allow SailorMan and his bodyguards to enjoy an event together without interuption. This was a rare and precious moment to be had.

No Egg Nog and Forget About Tamales

Where the hell have I been?!

Truth be told, sulking and decompressing from the holidays. Yes that's right, I discovered this much while hosting a family friend at our house and she kept coming from work then washing my dishes. By the third night I was perturbed enough to think about why I was so bugged by someone else doing my house work, isn't that what I always dream of?

Unplanned events can do one thing or another and all sorts of combinations of things to one's mind.

Halloween

This year Halloween was not as frantically chaotic, full of last minute sewing going on into the wee small hours of the morning, and the driven hunt for accessories--that final touch to make the outfit complete. I absolutely love sewing and making costumes and one day I will have a sewing space--perhaps even a sewing room. However that is neither here nor now and let me show you what we concocted this year for costumes. We have the Egyptian Princess, with a near to true Egyptian costume. I spent many hours looking up Egyptian clothing--they were simply dressed folk, so it was an easy get-up to sew up. The Mystic Hippy was nothing but taking the Eldest out for shopping spree on SailorMan's pay. We hit up the mega-chic, reasonably priced, hippy store in the multi-floor (10 in fact) shopping mall called More's City. She put the outfit together herself and I picked out the accessories to make her look more the part instead of just a commune living girl.

SailorMan dressed up as a 90's metal roadie, complete with mullet. He was called away to the ship at the end of trick-or-treating and keeping his costume on, freaked out his MPA that was waiting for him, causing him to nearly be taken down by the poor unsuspecting man who was just waiting for his CHENG to arrive. SailorMan truly looked like he didn't belong, so the upset was understandable, lol! I wished I could have been there for that one. I dressed as a belly dancing gypsy of some sort and didn't have time to do makeup for it--wish I did, that's the other fun part of costuming: makeup. This time pictures were not taken as prolifically as normal since I was trying to get peoples r'et ta'go. Tick-or-Treating officially started on base at 17:00, but with people escorting JN Nationals onto base the whole shindig started pounding on our door at 16:10. While the girls were eating dinner and getting ready.
Out the door finally 10min after 17:00.
The loot take was severely small compared to previous excursions years past. The amount of guests that were brought on base truly made a difference everyone's night. Folks ran out of candy in 45min while other were trying to ration out their treats to last at least 1.5hrs. We had fun. This was SailorMan's third time since 10yrs of marriage, that he was home for Halloween. Hopefully we can do Halloween together and go as a theme as I have been dreaming for years. The theme I have been entertaining has been childhood story book characters: Little Bo Peep and sheep; Little Red Ridding Hood complete with lumberjack, wolf, and granny; Alice in Wonderland; you get the idea. Now the touch that will set it all of will be that SaiorStudMan will be the fair maiden in the theme that requires one, or the meek creature in the theme that has one. Oh, this will be fun!!!

I am going to leave you for a bit. Hope you like a few of the photos I found of past Halloween. In The Wild Things picture, Eldest forgot to put on her mits; In the Clown Posse picture, the CrazyOne is getting over a cold--so her snot s clear not atomic green like for days prior. I have 8yrs of costumes packed away here and there in our house. This year is the second year ever that I have not made the costumes. The first year I didn't sew, the Eldest was infatuated with cowhands and went in full real leather chaps, vest, lasso with a real felt red stetson. The CrazyOne was the cow and I was the chuck wagon cook. I have yet to find those pictures. I will once I start to develop the 14 years worth 35 millimeter film rolls I have been ashamedly hording.

Guess Who's the Big 1-0?

That's right, the Eldest Unfortunate!!! And what a week of celebration it has been. Friday night was her sleep-over birthday party and to tell the truth that was a bit wilder than the last sleep-over birthday party in Monterey with nine girls--this party we only invited three girls... go figure... It was fun though and the girls had a great time! To make it a bit more of the Eldest's day, the CrazyOne got to go over to a friend's home for her first sleep over. That idea went over as well as a fart in church when I first clued her into the plan; but a day later she got over it and couldn't wait for her special moment.

That Saturday I made a big breakfast of frenchtoast (made with texas toast bread), sausage, turkey bacon (which the girls couldn't get enough of), mikans (Japanese tangerines), strawberries and got ready for the the Kanto Plain Home Schooler's Fun night in Negishi housing in Yokohama. It had been nearly four years since I had driven to Negishi, so I cheesed out and joined the caravan leaving main base to get there.

Fun Nite was a blast and we can't wait till the next get-together at the mikan picking field trip next Friday. The aptly named party brought out a lot of the group and the exciting part of this group is; I like them--the parents AND the kids.
This group is full of older kids and not chocked full of pre school through first graders. They are great to hang out with single or groupie style--just cause you like someone doesn't make them a great hang in large settings. From 16:00-19:30hr we socialized, had a scavenger hunt (the girls went, I had to sit out since my ankle was still out of operation--still is) and played. Remembering our drive home and morning priorities, we loaded up in our Cube and avoided the toll road; just enjoying our company, the radio, and the 45 minute drive down Rt 16.
Monday was the official day. Topping any present I could have given her, SailorMan pulled into pier Sunday afternoon--of course had duty (but we didn't want him anyways since he's the living dead his first days back and the girls were beyond excited to have him back to give him peace)--and showed up Monday after work in time to take us all out. After a regular day of lessons, swiming, decorating a bit, and Kumon;we all loaded up into the Cube and picked us up a sailor. From there SailorMan and I sprang the suprise of going out to our favorite Ramen house. It is the only place were we all can eat with out complaint. It was so good to have everyone together and eating out (both of which are not commonly practiced in this family).
The food could have been bad, but we were all in such good spirits, it wouldn't have mattered much. Fortunately, the food was a delight and as always quite filling. Rolling out of our seats, we paid and walked back to base for the finale: presents!!! There is nothing like the promise of cake and presents to get kids to do exactly what is asked; no beating around the bush, no stalling, no arguing, no whining. T'was beautiful. Eldest's gifts were what was on the table minus one which was for the CrazyOne, then the addition of the small package SailorMan slipped in. Our family no longer buys presents just for the sake of quantity guilt.
We finally put two and two together and realized the only gifts the kids play with all year long, are the ones they have asked for--not the ones you think they would like or what we think are cool. So we stopped living vicariously through our kids; got our own lives; purchase only what they've asked for; and only buy no more than 2 gifts per child of what we would like them to have. The first time we did this was last Christmas. The gifts were few, but the joy was true. Our pockets thanked us and our blood pressure stayed cool through out the rest of the year since we were not yelling and threating over the neglected toys we spent so much on. Make your money count, believe me, it is worth your sanity and your kid's memories.




All through the rest of the week we had to put up with the now pre-teen who was on cloud 9--I mean cloud 10, lol--and is allowed to get that sacred right of passage on a foreign US military base for all children who become 10 over seas: THEIR FIRST ID CARD. Not just any I.D. card either, this is THE OFFICIAL Military I.D. card. Proof necessary for parents to "understand" that their child is now responsible to handle more duties--UNACCOMPANIED. She can now shop on her own at US Military Exchanges and Commissaries, she can use the gym--classes and facilities on her own, sign herself up for classes at the Community Center as long as she is in their computer system. Last, but definitely NOT the least is the ability to leave and return to base unescorted. Can you say, "freedom?" Can you say, "mommy's commissary and exchange errand girl?" Right now this whole new phase of life is the shiznit! As time goes on, she will realize parental units have an excellent form of leverage to ensure true grounding when necessary. God Bless free will and responsibilities!




Today was when Eldest had her appointment for getting her first ID card. Of course I was there with the camera, but I only posted a few of them for you. We needed our DOD sponsor's paper work--a.k.a. permission--and only remembered it the night before. The appointment was at 08:30 and the ship's admin wouldn't be open till 08:15. SailorMan pushed the work through, and I really thank the guy who typed it all up for us... I don't think Eldest could have handled postponing the appointment well. SailorMan was waiting for us at the gate to the pier and after a quick inspection and correction of some things on the paper, we were off. It was a very exciting moment; for ten years ago on this day we were leaving the hospital, to begin a new phase in life and it was scary and exciting. We were determined though, to prove ourselves capable and worthy of this responsibility; just as Eldest is determined to show such to herself and us. What a beautiful life-cycle.
Now our home is officially blessed with a pre-teen. Life knows how to staying interesting.


I hope you like the pictures and if you read this and realize that this wasn't around the blog 30 October, it is because the date I started working on it is saved as the post date, and yes that is a picture of Smash Mouth's concert stage being set up. They came here to the Kanto Plain bases to put on free concerts over the halloween weekend. A big thanks to MWR and Family Readiness. It was a blast! The Unfortunates loved it, they were up front, David was home to enjoy it, and we all went home with the reminder to bring hearing protection to concerts. Concert photo was taken by my keitai. I didn't know if cameras were allowed... boy, was I wrong!