Memorial Day Weekend

We decided to get a  pool membership again this summer since we will be around and not off on a long road trip.  The kids enjoyed it so much last year, so we'll be poolside a lot again.  The water hasn't quite warmed up yet and I only had 3 brave souls venture in, but we had fun.

 
With the public schools out, Ami and Johanna have enjoyed lots of extra play time with the neighbor girls.  Ami and Sofia were having a blast belting out songs with the keyboard and microphone.  So funny!

We made our best effort at going to the Memorial Day parade, as we have for many years now.  We were walking up to find our spot on the route when news broke that it had been cancelled due to impending rain.  I love this parade each year.  It's not full of advertisers, candy, or anything else except for focusing on honoring past and present service men and women.  We are so very thankful for those that have served and are serving our country!

In other news....Michaela is still up in Ishinomaki with my sister's family.  Today they had a dedication of the new Nozomi House, a building for the jewelry project I have posted about before, and had a very special guest that led worship for them....Jeremy Camp!  He was in Japan helping with relief efforts and graciously came to take part in the dedication.  He didn't even have his guitar with him on this trip, so bought one in Japan to use.  Fun experience for Michaela, and a neat encouragement to the mission team there in Ishinomaki. 
 

A New Look

We're kidding Benjamin that he looks totally different with his newly acquired contacts.  He just got them yesterday....poor kid, he didn't stand a chance with the genes that Chris and I each passed down to him.  He actually has done quite well and once had "eagle vision", but with this last couple of years of growth and change his eyes took a turn for the worse.  They're fairly borderline, so hopefully he'll never have the blindness that I have.  The doctor said that about half of her patients at this stage opt to use no correction, but Benjamin is already raving about all the things that he can see clearly now.  Fortunately everyone else checked out fine (with no change) and Elijah and Ami remain our two with great vision.  :)

Speaking of this blue-eyed kid, he is just about equal with me in height now.  And as his height goes up, his voice continues to go down.  There are many times that I'll hear someone downstairs and think, "Who is here?"  Oh, it's Benjamin!  His voice has changed so much, and I don't recognize it on the phone either.  Love this kid!

New Duds

So Johanna dug out the baby doll clothes that haven't been played with in ages.  Enter our poor kittens (both male, I might add)....looking forlorn, but oh so cute.

No, the kittens are not allowed in the house.  So why do I keep finding them being cradled like a baby in the kids' arms?!

New Adventures

The boys started an archery class yesterday!  They had so much fun and were grinning ear to ear the whole time.  Their immediate discussion, as soon as we were in the van heading home, was about saving up to buy their own equipment.  This summer session is only four weeks long, but I have a feeling we'll be signing up for continuing classes.  Cool stuff!

(Yes, we have a lefty and a righty!)

Catching Up

I finally feel like we're mostly caught up on things.  Even after just a week-long vacation there is so much catching up to do, but especially after being gone almost two months, there is all the more.  We got started back up on school, although it's somewhat of a lighter load.  We are almost finished with our school year and hopefully we'll be done in just a couple more weeks.

I've also been getting summer schedules in order.....swimming lessons, archery lessons, gymnastics, wedding RSVPs, wedding and grad gifts, etc.  My piles are dwindling.....mail sorted, bills and accounting up to date, accounting is caught up for Dad and Mom's mission and Chad and Jennifer's mission that we handle Stateside things for, souvenirs put away, packages sent out, the rest of our winter clothes put away, suitcases back in storage, and more.

I still haven't made it out to the yard.  There is so much weeding and maintenance to catch up on.  At least Benjamin has mowed for us!  I haven't done major grocery shopping yet.  We've kind of been winging it and stopping by the store each day to get what's needed for the next meal.  Oh, here's a funny.  I was running errands and texted Benjamin that I was on my way home, just needed to make a quick stop at the grocery store. 

Benjamin:  Real cereal please.
Me:  Such as?
Benjamin:  Cinnamon toast crunch, life cinnamon, lucky charms.  Nothing 'organic' or 'all natural'.
Me:  But isn't that the definition of "real"?
Benjamin:  Nope!

Oh my, I'm losing this battle!  Anyway, the more I get done, the more I seem to keep adding to my list.  I've got fall curriculum to order, our next fall trip to plan (yippee!), other house projects to work on.

Michaela is doing great. I really do miss her.  It is so weird to only count four children, or six total.  We usually Skype twice a day (morning and night--as we are 14 hours apart).  She is currently back up in Ishinomaki with my sister's family, enjoying her cousins and helping there.  She's supposed to send me pictures of some of her activities and when I get them I'll share (hint, hint, Michaela!).

Last night we got together with our Chinese student, Cici.  She had to move out of her dorm for the summer, and is returning to China for a couple of months.  We are storing a bunch of her stuff at our house while she's away.  I really felt old, like we were college parents helping our child move out of the dorms.  It really could be us, we're old enough to have a college student.  Wow!  Anyway, we enjoyed a nice evening with Cici.  We had dinner at Outback to celebrate our school studies we are doing for Australia.

  
And that's my only picture from the week!  I think my camera is enjoying the break from daily blogging.  :)

Mother's Day

It's 4am, but jet lag is beating me badly, so I gave in and got up.  I usually don't allow myself to do that and try to stay in bed, but I just couldn't, so I'm making the most of it and getting something done.  :)

We didn't make it to church yesterday as we were all still in quite a fog.  To top things off, Ami was feeling sick and threw up throughout the day in between napping on the couch.  She hadn't had anything to eat since Saturday evening and couldn't even hold down water.  Poor thing.  The only thing that seemed to perk her up was holding a kitten. 

 

Finally, in the evening, Ami seemed to be a bit more chipper, so we decided to try to go out to eat for Mother's Day.  Unfortunately, she lost it in the parking lot as we were going in.  So, Chris went on in to order dinner to go.  We also made a quick stop at the grocery store.  Chris stayed with the kids and I ran in for some basics.  I'm tellin' ya, the size of the store was huge, the aisles were way wide, and the carts were enormous.  Reverse culture shock!

So, we made it home, but I seriously had a hard time riding on the passenger side of the car and letting Chris drive on the right side of the road.  So weird.  I've traveled back and forth a lot to Japan, but I guess because we stayed such a long time this trip, things there became more normal to me. 

I've been up and down since 12:30am because Ami is apparently feeling better.  She's been hungry and not tired.  Hmmm, wonder why!  She's been keeping down crackers and water and is now sharing the couch with me.  We are supposed to get back into routine with school tomorrow (I mean today!), but I'm thinking that just might not happen. 

Anyway, I felt very much like a mom today with the task of cleaning up after a sick one.  But, it was a nice day of relaxing, napping, unpacking as I felt like it, and just being with my family.  I did get to Skype with Michaela and my Mom.  I'm thankful for a Godly mother that set such an example for me.  I'm also thankful for the last two months that I got to spend with her.  And I also can't help but think of two birth mothers that gave life to their children, such that I now have the privilege of hearing them call me mom.  Many blessings all around.

Okay, now I'm off to see how many more crackers Ami has snuck.  ;-)

Home

It feels kind of surreal to be home, but I think it's the terrible jet lag and tiredness that is making it all seem like we're walking through a dream.  Chris and I slept from 7-10am and then made ourselves get up.  I slept again from 2:30-4:30pm and made myself get up.  Oh, it was hard.  Everyone was dropping like flies here and there.  I let them sleep some, but was also trying to keep them somewhat awake so that they will sleep all night tonight.  It may be hopeless, but I was trying!

 

 Sorting through 2 months worth of mail:

We got a good bit unpacked today, but there are lots of piles all over the house.  Thankfully there was plenty of frozen food remaining that I had left for Chris's "bachelor days".  I don't think either one of us could have driven to the store safely for food!  I am so ready for bed tonight.  I feel like I could sleep until 4pm tomorrow.  It has been well over 48 hours since we left Osaka.  We are very thankful to be home safely.....and ever so thankful for our beds tonight!

A Very Long Day

We got up at 5am Friday in Osaka to get ready to head to the airport. 

We made it to the airport fine and got checked in.  It was a relief to get all the checked bags out of our hands and only have to worry about counting kids and backpacks after that.  

Good byes are never easy, and especially when you are hugging your 16 year-old daughter for the last time in 6 weeks. We squeezed lots of hugs and tears out and finally made our way through security and onto our first 3 hour flight to Beijing.

When we arrived in Beijing we got off the plane outside and transferred on a bus to the terminal.  The air was SO gross and you could even see thingies floating around in the air.  Yuck.  But it was fun to be in China again.  We got some Starbucks and waited a short bit for our long connecting twelve hour flight to LAX.

Chris spent this last week in Las Vegas for work, so was able to fly from there to LA to meet up with us.  He was there to greet us when we came through customs.  Four weeks is a long time to be apart.  I don't know how military families do it, makes me appreciate them all the more.  We Skyped twice a day and were able to text, so that definitely helped and made us feel not so far apart.

We were scheduled for a 5 hour layover, so that also gave us time to meet up with my brother again.  He works only 15 minutes away from the airport, so he brought In-N-Out to us again for lunch.  It was his birthday, so we joked that we flew in just for him, but he had to bring the birthday dinner to us!  Even though our time together was short, it was great to be with him for a while.  Thanks for meeting up with us, Jonathan!

After lunch we had quite a bit of time left, so we sat outside for a while.  It wasn't the quietest or cleanest area, but we enjoyed some "fresh" LA air and sunshine.  Johanna and Ami rested for a bit on some unused luggage carts.  I really wanted to join them, but restrained myself!

So tired, and little did we know that the long day was about to get even longer...

We found a good corner of our terminal to camp out in for our remaining layover.  Chris and some of the kids spent some time in a back hallway....the only place they could find outlets to charge electronic devices.  I can't believe such a huge international airport doesn't accommodate customers better!  We were just getting ready to board our last 3.5 hour flight to STL when the airline announced that there were mechanical problems.  The best they could do was fly in another plane (from STL!) and our departure time would be delayed 5.5 hours!  Instead of getting in at 10pm, we would not arrive until 3:30am.  We made the most of it, used our meal vouchers to get some supper and coffee, and continued our camp out in the terminal.  Some of us caught a few winks, but not much. 

When we finally arrived in STL we had to wait almost 45 minutes for a shuttle to take us to long term parking to get our van.  We finally got on our way and arrived home about 6:45am.  We had originally expected that Chris would feel like he was on PST and have no problem driving us home and that we would be home by midnight.  Now, he was on "jet lag" with us.  In the end, we should have had the airlines get us a hotel in LA and fly home the next morning, but we were just ready to push through and get home.

The kids were so excited to see their 4-week old kittens that they had only seen through Skype.  Cute!

Tomorrow - Heading Home

Bags are packed, kids are tucked in, lots of hugs have been given.....we head to the airport early tomorrow morning.  Can't believe the time to leave is here.  My heart is full, but it will be hard to leave, as part of my heart is always here in Japan. 

We got a lot accomplished today.  Kids enjoyed playing a bit more before taking apart their fort.  I went next door to say good bye to Keiko.  She has been given less than a year to live.  We shared some memories with each other, prayed together, cried together.  I will miss her.

Dad and Mom treated us to dinner and then we came home for our last evening devotion time together.  Dad and Mom have been so good to have us here for seven weeks.  We are all at home here and the kids have been great helpers with dishes, chores, cleaning and trashing, and more.  We are blessed to have the relationship that we do with them.  I am so thankful that despite the miles, our kids have great contact with them and know their grandparent's home in Japan.

Good-byes at the airport will be hard, as always.  But it is time to go home, time to be with my amazing husband again, time to get back into the groove of life at home.  God has been so good to us, so very good.  Thank you, Dad and Mom.  Thank you, Father.  Thankful.....

Phone Pictures - Japan III

Cleaning out pictures from my phone again!

Click on the picture to enlarge if you want to read some more funny English.  :)

Our morning Skype with Daddy for the "Kitty Cam".  Aren't they adorable?!

Bicycle parking lot:

Time to pack:

One morning Ami and I walked to 7-11 for milk for breakfast.  We also just happened to stop by our favorite bakery and brought home delicious pastries for breakfast.  Oh yeah...yum!

The third and final kitty rescued from the garage at about 11pm!

Cutting wood, sorting, piling, trashing in progress....now the area is totally cleared!