(Almost) A Day in the Life of a Mom

Today I was privileged to spend my day with a family of the sweetest, most well behaved boys. It began early this morning, just after breakfast, and lasted just until dinner time. At first, it was just the 3 and 4 year olds and me playing with legos and trains. These boys love legos and have many sets. And the 3 year old is going through the Thomas the Train stage. After playing for a while we went to church for my Wednesday morning bible study.

The bible study we are currently doing is by Shaunti Feldhahn on her book, ForWomen Only.In this study, we are learning that the est way to show love to our husbands is by showing them respect. They need to see, hear, and feel this respect as much as possible. By affirming them, we can build up our husbands to be more confident and, in turn, have stronger marriages.

After bible study, the boys and I headed back for some lunch, yummy peanut butter and nutella sandwiches. Except for me. I wanted some of that nutella so badly. And after lunch, nap time! I was amazed at how quickly the boys fell asleep and how long they stayed asleep. I enjoyed some quiet time, cleaned the house a little, and then actually had to wake the boys up. While the younger two were sleeping, the oldest came home and we worked on his homework.

We went outside to play and they ran and ran and ran. I was glad to see them going so much, playing so well with the other kids, and having the time of their lives. They were having so much fun we stayed outside for over an hour despite the cool temperatures. By the time we went in, I was an icicle. Then the woman who stays the night with the boys was home and preparing their dinner.

So that's my day, good times with three adorable little boys. Luckily I have a wonderful hubby who let me come home and relax tonight, he's doing the dishes!

Working on Working

I finally finished my sub application! I entered all the information, printed it out, signed it, and turned it in. I also had to get fingerprinted, a very nasty experience. In Bartow County, I was printed using a digital scanner; no ink, no mess. Here, however, they used the ink and I got to roll, press, and print to my hearts content (it really wasn't that long).  Luckily, most of the ink came off quickly thanks to that orange cleaner, but I still have the outlines of my fingernails to get cleaned. Now I just get to wait until I'm in payroll to begin working.

This week I am babysitting for a family in the afternoons everyday. The parents went on a vacation and I pick up the kids from school, get their homework finished, and entertain them for an afternoon. There is another girl who comes and stays with the kids all night and get them off to school in the mornings. Today her and I got a chance to talk and, come to find out, she currently works in the school on base. She was hired straight from the States, no military affiliation at all. I enjoyed a long chat with her today, getting more tips and hints that teachers are in fact leaving this school year and that I have a hope for getting a full-time job before the summer. I am getting very excited about possibly having a job by then! Now we just wait.

The Never-ending Sub Application

I thought I was almost done, then I get an email and a phone call: I need to go in (yet again) and fill out another paper. My next instructions were to wait for an email.

Then I got the email.

I am supposed to login to a website and answer questions about my background. "Easy enough", I think. Until I began the questions. I spent about one hour and only got to question ten out of at least twenty. On top of getting stressed over not knowing all the answers to my questions, my computer dies in the middle of question ten. So, I decided that Saturday would be the perfect day to complete this form, Alan is working and I'll have almost all day to complete it. After I finish this, it will only be a short amount to time until I can begin working.

Also, this last time I was at the school, I overheard the office administrators saying that a couple teaching positions were opening up before the end of the school year. I plan to apply and hopefully I'll finally have my own classroom!

My plan of attack tomorrow: wake up, go to Body Pump, come home, and get it done. I'm not looking forward to it.

The Hunt for Paint

Today began as any other day would, rising early to make the hubby breakfast, going back to bed for about an hour until I really HAD to be awake, enjoying some breakfast, and making a trip to the gym (today was body pump, yay!). While riding to the gym, my friend and I discussed what we needed to accomplish today and discovered a trip to VivaHome was in store.

VivaHome is a store not far off base that has all kinds of things, similar idea to a Wal-Mart. It has outdoor things, indoor things, hardware things, puppy things (and adorable puppies to look at), and more! My friend was in need of some paint for a home repair and needed a specific color and brand. Our housing office said that the paint can be found at any hardware store. So we entered.

We found the paint... but not the brand. Finally after a few minutes of looking around at all the different options, my friend called our housing office to ask for more assistance. Then before we knew it, we had a sales associate talking on my friends phone to our housing office and trying to find the paint. In our AOB/ICR class (orientation class) our instructors told us to use any means possible to communicate with the Japanese nationals. I suppose we did just that today at the store. Luckily, the sales associate was able to order the paint!

Today's experience makes me thankful for the people who work on base helping newcomers adjust to living in another country.

Static Electricity

Remember in school when the teacher would give us a balloon, tell us to blow it up, rub it on our heads, and the charged balloon would stick to the wall? The funny hair after subsequent balloon rubbing? Maybe it's scrubbing your feet across the carpet then inching over to your friend (or little brother) and giving them a shock?

In Japan, static electricity runs rampant. Yesterday, when making the bed, I was shocked no less than fourteen times. Oftentimes, Alan will come home from work and stop to give me a kiss on the way in, shocking my nose in the process. And finishing my hair in the mornings with the straightening iron requires a dryer sheet nearby to help tame my charged hair. Folding laundry gives me repeated shocks even though we use sheets in the dryer. The static electricity here compares to nowhere I've ever been, shocking you at unsuspected moments and making clothes stick to you and to each other at all times.

I think we are going to try using fabric softener to help with the static in addition to dryer sheets. Hopefully it will help. Needless to say, our lives in Japan are quite electrifying.

(Almost) Three Months In

In four days, Alan and I will have lived in Japan for three months. We are still figuring things out and tell ourselves everyday: "I want to learn to read Japanese". Recently we explored a grocery store off base to find the ingredients to make a beef bowl and udon soup (udon are think noodles). We looked up the kanji (Japanese symbols) for our ingredients and headed out for the store. We walked up and down aisle after aisle trying to find the section for our ingredients and then we tried to match up the kanji we found to what we could see. To further explain this experience, imagine looking for a needle in a haystack, a contact on the bathroom floor, or an earring backing on the sidewalk. Needless to say, we did not find our ingredients.

This month, I started going to gym classes regularly and Alan has begun studying to further advance his Naval career. We keep ourselves busy running (or should I say walking) everyday errands and filling free time reading on our Kindles and watching movies.

The theatre on base plays movies every night and charges $3. We watch a movie about two times a month, sometimes more. So far we have seen Red, Megamind, Little Fockers, Due Date, and last night, Morning Glory. We are going again this Tuesday to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. It released here while Alan was on the boat and luckily it's playing again so he can see it.

Also this month we have started a new diet in hopes of becoming healthier. It's a sensible diet, we're not cutting out any food groups, just moderating our intake of the less healthy ones. I think it will be a successful journey and hope to have pleasant results soon!

Making Pasta

For Christmas, Alan received a pasta roller set to use with our Kitchen Aid. First we had to make the pasta dough, a simple enough recipe but difficult to combine. We attempted two different recipes to see which turned out best. In the end we used both.

First we made the dough and we had to let it sit before we could use it. Then we split the dough into easy to use sizes and rolled it out using the first pasta roller to the perfect thickness of the pasta we wanted to make. Using this, you roll the pasta through over and over again changing the setting between rolling to acheive the perfect thickness.

After reaching our desired thickness, we switched the roller to a fettuchini pasta cutter. This part was quick and simple, putting the pasta in and seeing it come out into perfect noodles. As we do not have a pasta drying rack, we made do with what we have. :)

Japanese Licensing Class

Although Alan and I decided not to purchase a car while in Japan, we did decide that having a license would be a good idea. That would enable us to rent a car if we wanted and would not have to rely solely on the train system to pick up people from the airport and take trips without having to pay the train fees.

Some things we have learned, pedestrians have the right of way and if your car is towed a large sticker will be placed on the ground where your car was telling where your car is. Besides this, the main emphasis of the class was not to drink and drive. The penalties here are extremely severe, ranging anywhere from a few years hard labor (prison that is worse than the United States) to fifteen years and a yen fine up to 1,000,000 yen.

Luckily, our instructor was very animated, reminding me of a flight attendant preparing us for our adventures on the road in Japan. The class was about as interesting and exciting as these things can be but we did learn the basics of the Japanese roads.

 Now I just have to remember to go pick up our licenses. :)

Weekend Adventures and Thoughts about Dogs

Alan and I headed to Ebina today in search of a few things: some furry boots for me and some everyday gloves for him. Also, we wanted to stick our head in at the pet store and glimpse the adorable puppies. We miss our dogs terribly.

After the trek to the train station, we rode just a few quick stops to Ebina and began our quest. The boots were easy, we had spotted the shoe store last time we had visited and knew right where to go.

The gloves on the other hand were another story. We searched store after store for the perfect pair of gloves, finding nothing but the puffy gloves for serious winter weather. Also, most everything was not large enough for Alan's hands, looking funny trying to stuff them into the gloves made for the nationals smaller hands. As we meandered the outdoor mall, we saw a flea market type affair taking place on the bottom floor, many people covering the ground offering their goods. As we walked we saw everything from clothing to figurines to dinnerware to jewelry.

Finally we stopped at the pet shop. It was much more crowded than our previous visit but then again, today was Saturday. We saw the popular mini dachshunds, poodles, and maltese. We oo'd and aww'd over the puppies, lingering by the ones who showed interest in us and would follow our fingers across the Plexiglas. Then, our hearts nearly stopped. There was a small female Chihuahua puppy, marked in black and tan, who looked exactly like Roscoe, our rescued male Chihuahua left with good friends so he would not have to suffer the quarantine process of moving to Japan. As we teared up, we moved on because we knew if we lingered, there would be no way we could leave that puppy.

One day, when we leave Japan for our next tour of duty, we will have a puppy again, and we cannot wait for that day. Our dogs became our family and were very difficult to leave behind. However, we knew they would not go through the process of flying from the States to Japan then through the quarantine process well. Thankfully, we have some of the best friends ever, who took in our furry family members and are caring for them with as much heart as we did.

Korean Barbeque

For dinner two nights ago, we traveled with a group to a new restaurant. In this restaurant, there are grills in the center of the tables and you order your food raw and cook it on the grill in front of you. The waitresses make sure to replace the coals and grate of the grill so you are ensured a clean grill.

We ordered food, two platters of meat: beef, chicken, squid, and one meat we couldn't name;vegetable plates, rice, and beverages. It wasn't long until our food was delivered. Tradition is that one person cooks while the others around eat and then take turns cooking so everyone has a chance to eat. you are served on small plates, no bigger than your hand, and grab a bite here and a bite there. A sauce was served on the tables used for dipping the cooked meat into that had a sweet, tangy flavor. Overall, it was a fun experience, cooking our food in front of us and sharing everything family style.

New Year's Eve

 On New Year's Eve, we took a trip with a few friends to the technology district of Tokyo, Akihabara. Upon arrival, we were all looking up at the tall buildings and amazed by the quantity of people. As we roamed the streets, we were immersed in the selling/buying environment of small sellers bringing their goods and setting up shop on the sides of the streets. There were all kinds of electronic items, some I have no clue their purpose.

We toured the different shops, finding everything from video games to clothing to small vendors with a little of everything. The stores are located in the buildings, different shops being on different floors. Inside, there is a system of escalators that move people up and down the floors. One shop we found looked like a novelty shop, just a little of everything, and the guys all decided to try something on.

Also while we were out, I kept seeing these hangings on doors all around. I guess it's a tradition of Japan to hang these on their doors in celebration of the new year, maybe also to bring luck. In any case, it was interesting to see.