Movember Matt

Movember has arrived here at the Rich house.  Movember, as you might know, is the month formerly known as November.  It is when men are encouraged to grow mustaches to promote awareness for men's health issues.  Matt's department at work decided to participate so he has been growing a mustache all month.  (In the Navy, you are not allowed to grow beards but you can have a mustache.)  While I am not a fan of facial hair, I must admit that Matt has grown a pretty good mustache these past few weeks.  He's said he has received many compliments at work for his mustache.  It's no Tom Selleck 'stache but then again, there's only one Magnum PI.

Movember, Day 2

Movember, Day 6

Movember, Day 15

November, Day 27

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Thanksgiving-Style

So today is the day before Thanksgiving and I have finally turned the corner on the head cold I picked up from Matt this past weekend.  No one likes to be sick and being so before a holiday can add extra stress.  Luckily, our Thanksgiving should be very low-key; we are staying home and not entertaining guests.  And since Matt does all the cooking (I only have to make the dessert), this cold thing should be a non-factor.

I do know that for many people, this is not the case.  You may have to travel and deal with weather delays or get up pre-dawn to cook some enormous bird for a houseful of people.  For those of you who are getting more stressed the closer it gets to Thanksgiving, I hope this makes you laugh as much as it made me.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Hashtags: #ThanksgivingFail

Quote of the Month: November 2014

It's been a pretty Navy-centric month this month.  I know, Matt is in the Navy and we live in military housing so every month is pretty Navy-centric, but this one more so than most.

I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: 'I served in the United States Navy.' - President John F. Kennedy

I thought this quote was fitting as today is Matt's 20th anniversary of joining the Navy.  Yes, he's hit the 20-year mark.

THE FCC Rich

Yes, we are all very proud of Matt.  Unfortunately, he had duty today (which means he has to stay on the ship overnight) so there were no big celebrations.  Plus, he's currently dealing with his second head cold of the month so there are no big soirees planned.  The kids, however, made him an anniversary card.  It depicts how they greet Matt when he comes home from work.  The second they hear the lock at the front door turning they stop whatever they are doing and run at full speed, screaming "DAD!" at the top of their lungs and practically tackle him.  Matt loves this over-enthusiastic greeting and it has become a game between the three of them.

Veteran's Day was earlier in the month.  Although its a Federal Holiday and the kids had the day off from school, Matt had to work (which I found ironic).  On November 5, the school put on a Veteran's Day concert with the Music Club performing.  Last year Leah was in the Music Club and performed, but this year she wanted to have a break so she didn't.  There was a "dress rehearsal" during the day in front of all the students and in addition to the Music Club performing, Leah's class recited original acrostic poems.  The kids were divided into pairs, wrote a poem, illustrated a poster board to accompany it and on the day of the dress rehearsal, recited it to the school.  Leah was partnered with her classmate, Nolan, and they created a poem using the word "veterans."  Aaron's class also saluted veterans by dedicated one of their weekly writing assignments to "writing a letter to a veteran."  Aaron wrote a letter to Matt.

Aaron's letter to Matt.

Leah and Nolan reciting their poem.

Seems funny to end with the beginning, but finally, we started off this very "Navy" month with the daughter of the author of this month's quote.  US Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, visited Matt's ship on the afternoon of November 2.  She was in Fukuoka with her cousin, Tim Shriver, earlier in the day for a Special Olympics event (check her jacket in the video) so I'm sure since she was so close (as compared to Tokyo) she just piggybacked a trip to Sasebo.  There were a limited amount of people who could attend and since it was Matt's department head that was in charge of the list, we got on it.  I saw a lot of people from church and many teachers plus a few friends but funny enough, not all that many from Matt's ship.  I'm sure he recognized more than I did.  Active duty members were instructed to wear their NWUs while family members were instructed to "dress appropriately."  I don't know how long Ambassador Kennedy was on the base, but she only spoke for about five minutes to the crowd.  Afterwards she posed for pictures with everyone who attended, which was probably about 200 people.  She was very accommodating, considering the amount of pictures and this whole thing started around 4:45-5:00 so it was running through dinner time. They did have it down to a science, though.  They had a Public Affairs officer on the ship take everyone's picture--no personal cameras--to expedite the process.  I thought it was really cool of her when I saw she had taken pictures with not only all the families that had come to meet her but all the sailors who had duty that day and were working on the ship.  So our visit wasn't memorable and we didn't say anything clever when we met her and while she was probably kind of tired (or else she's not very engaging), we did get to meet a current US Ambassador as well as someone who's probably met every famous person (and not that fake Kardashian kind of fame) in the world.  At the very least, she's the daughter of a President of the United States.  A President who served in the Navy.

Matt and me with US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy
 on the deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard.

When in Rome (or Japan)...

Last Saturday (Oct. 18) I went to sushi for lunch.  I know what you are thinking, "Julie went to sushi for lunch?  She doesn't even like seafood!"  This is true.  I have never liked seafood and I still don't, but I went for sushi with my friend, Michelle.

Cucumber Rolls are oishii!

There you go--proof I ate sushi.  I always knew there was non-seafood sushi at sushi restaurants/bars just like there is always a token non-seafood entree at a seafood restaurant; I just didn't think there would be enough options for a complete non-seafood meal.  It turns out I was wrong.

So last Saturday was the last day of soccer.  My friend Michelle was in the same position I was.  Her daughter is on my youth team and their game was at 10:00 am.  My women's team, which Michelle plays on, played at 3:30 pm.  Both games were at Nimitz and while having four hours between games gave us the time to go home in between, it really didn't make sense to do that so we hung out together all day.  Michelle suggested going to sushi for lunch.  I was reticent, as you could imagine, until Michelle mentioned she doesn't eat seafood either and that it was her favorite restaurant.  This intrigued me and I figured, "When in Rome..." so I agreed.

I'm really not sure what the restaurant is called.  It is located at the new mall near Main Base.  Everyone just refers to it as "sushi" or "sushi-go-round."  I think the actual name is Sushiro.  I was able to find out the website from the receipt.  It's really cool because there are all these individual booths with a conveyor belt that runs alongside them.  Each booth has a touch screen ordering system (with an English language function).  All the food travels along the conveyor belt just like luggage on a luggage belt at the airport.  There are various items where you can just grab the plate off the belt or you can order a specific food using the touch screen and then it will arrive on a color-coded serving tray on the belt.  The atmosphere alone was just worth the trip.

Sushi conveyor belt.  White plates are "regular" sushi.  Yellow
plates have wasabi added.  The touch screen is at the top.

The table had everything you might need:  a box of chopsticks,
two different types of soy sauce, ginger, green tea powder and
a spigot for hot water.  There is also a pricing guide--round plates
cost Y100, square plates cost Y180.

I had cucumber rolls, which I totally knew they would have, but I didn't expect them to have salad, ramen, french fries (Michelle's kids had them) or even ice cream.  I tried some of Michelle's favorites like prosciutto with apples and roasted pork with scallions as well as something she'd never tried like Japanese roast beef.  After nearly one of each of all the non-seafood items, we were full.  Michelle pushed a button on the touch screen and nearly instantaneously a person came to our table.  He counted our plates to calculate the cost (using a specialized ruler so he didn't have to actually count thus expediting the process), entered it into a hand-held scanner, scanned a laminated sheet with a bar code on it and gave it to us.  Then to pay we took the sheet to the register and the bar code gets scanned again bringing up the information that was calculated at the table and we then paid.

Various types of sushi and bowls of ramen.

Sushi plates ready to be counted.

It was all a very interesting (and very Japanese) experience.  I was glad Michelle took me (and treated me) to lunch there.  I would go there again but I wouldn't call it a favorite place.  I was excited to have Matt and the kids go there so they could experience it for themselves.  Today we did just that.  As I expected, Matt and Leah liked it and would go again but Aaron wanted nothing to do with it.  I ordered him french fries and he ate only four (and that was only so he could have ice cream).  He refused to try anything, even if it was stuff he likes, such as ham, because it was "Japanese."  Ironically, Japanese ice cream seems to be the exception to Aaron's self-imposed ban on Japanese food.

Matt trying the prosciutto.  The roast beef was his favorite.

Leah liked the plain ramen noodles, the chicken nuggets,
the rice from the sushi (but not the meat) and of course,
the ice cream.

In between the two Saturday sushi visits, I went out to eat lunch one day with my friend Kathy (obviously not my FL friend Kathy, but my Australian friend Kathy who lives here) at a place near Hario called Brick.

The Brick is the tiniest of places about ten minutes from where we live.  It is a bakery and lunch place and it is the size of a very small house.  There are maybe about a dozen (mostly two-person) tables at most for seating.  There are even less parking spaces available.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of the building to show how small it was.  I have driven by it a bunch of times and always wondered what it was like to eat there but it never seemed open to me.  Kathy said, "it is like having three old ladies fix you lunch."  Lunch is available from 11:30 am - 2:00 pm and there are three sets (think combo meals) to choose from:  a sandwich set, a pizza set and a hamburger set.  It was almost like a mini-buffet and it only cost Y500 (a little less than $5 with the current exchange rate).  We each got the hamburger set.  (Japanese people, in my experience, do not cook pizza correctly.  It's always soggy.)  It included a small hamburger, a salad served in a cupcake liner (to give you a sense of size), three slices of fruit, a tall shot glass amount of soup, something that resembled a bread pudding, piece of cake about the size of a eraser and a small cream puff.  It also included a drink which is a choice of orange juice or coffee.  Kathy said she brought her husband, Nick, once and he left hungry but it was plenty for us.

The hamburger set at the Brick.

I would go back to the Brick again too but again, not a favorite.  It is hard to beat the value for the money, though.  Between the recent onsen experience and eating at the local restaurants, I am feeling very Japanese-y these last few weeks.  When in Sasebo....

Just Keep Swimming (Some More)

This month (October) Leah and Aaron started swim lessons again.  They have 30 minute lessons every Monday and Wednesday afternoon at the indoor pool from now until May.  Last year, Leah was very motivated and she learned how to swim.  (Last year she could swim enough not to drown, but she was very inefficient with her movements and would easily tire.)  She was thrilled when was able to pass the swim test and was able to use the water slide and the diving board at the outdoor pool this summer.  I don't know if Leah has a goal in mind for this year so we'll see how hard she works.  For Matt and I, our goal for her is to make her a stronger swimmer and of course, it's great exercise.  Leah has the same instructor she had the second half of last season, Alex.  Leah and Alex are a great match, personality-wise, so between her love of the water and her relationship with Alex, Leah will have another great year at swimming.

Leah and Alex

 Aaron had a very challenging year last year, not limited to just his swimming lessons.  He had no desire whatsoever last year to learn how to swim.  In all fairness, he was afraid to put his face in the water for a good portion of the year, so just to be able to jump in and go underwater for him was a big deal.  Last year Aaron didn't always want to go to swim lessons and most of the time he just wanted to play and splash water.  It didn't help that Aaron's instructor, Hirofumi, enabled him.  Matt and I had been telling Aaron all summer that he needs to learn to swim, that it is an important life skill he needs to have and that swimming lessons are not playtime.  We also sweetened the deal for him by giving him an incentive:  if he learns to swim before we move (May 2015), then we will go to a water park when we get back to the US.  I don't know if that is making him work hard or if it is a combination of that and he is maturing, etc., but he has been doing really, really well so far.  He's floating and gliding and he's listening and following directions (a majority of the time).  And while routine and continuity works best for Aaron, he's had three different instructors for five lessons and it hasn't seemed to phase him.  The problem seems to be that besides Alex, there is not currently another instructor that works both Monday and Wednesdays during the time of our lessons.  I think they've sorted it out going forward so Aaron will have one instructor (Victor) every Monday, and another instructor (Chiaki) every Wednesday.  Chiaki, as you might guess from the name (which it took me a couple tries to not say "Chachi"), is Japanese.  She's very nice and she cracked me up the other day trying to explain Aaron's progress to me.  She speaks English, better than most Japanese people, but there is still a disconnect.  She was trying to convey that Aaron can dog paddle almost 2m so if he fell in, he should be able to reach the side of the pool safely.  What she said though is "Aaron went 2m without drowning."  I was able to work out what she was saying and we both laughed.

Aaron and Chiaki

Aaron's progress, though, over a short period of time is pretty remarkable.  At his last lesson he was diving to the bottom of the pool to pick up items where last year he would have just used his foot to bring the toy to the surface to keep his face out of the water.  For our Tampa Bay friends, I think there will be a trip to Adventure Island this May/June.  Yea!

Splish, Splash the Rich Family Takes a Bath

It's hard to believe we have less than a year left here in Japan.  (No, we don't know where we will be going next yet.)  We've been putting a list of some things we want to do/places we want to go before we move.  Initially, we thought we might go to Kagoshima this weekend (Oct. 11-13) since Monday is a holiday (Columbus Day).  Kagoshima is the southern-most prefecture in Kyushu, and there is all kinds of cool things to do (aquarium, space center, volcano, beaches, etc.).  Unfortunately, it is also a Japanese holiday on Monday (Sports Day) so with the Japanese three-day weekend, there was no vacancies for a four-person room in any of the hotels.  Looking on the bright side, it turned out fortuitous as Typhoon Vongfong, at the time of this writing, has passed over Okinawa and will most certainly hit Kagoshima.  (Luckily, the typhoon is forecasted to travel on the east coast of Japan and we live on the west coast.)  So instead of traveling we decided to something on our list:  go to an onsen.

An onsen (sounds exactly as it it written) is a Japanese bath.  Typically, in Japan, most homes have a bathroom that is completely tiled with the shower part outside the tub.  The tub is usually very deep and is not for cleaning oneself, but for soaking and relaxing.  Onsens are public baths (separated by gender).  They consist of three parts.  The first is like a locker room where there are cubbies to put your clothes.  The second is the shower area to get clean.  The third is the big tub/pool for soaking.  The water in the tub is very warm, almost like a jacuzzi without the jets.  Some of the nicer onsens may have more than one tub--one might be filled with spring water while another may have an essential oil infused into the water.  We went to a family onsen at a local hotel & spa.  In the family onsen, we get a smaller version that is private for just us (with a locking door), which was good since the kids were very excited and somewhat hyper at our onsen appointment.  Had we been with the general population, I don't think it would have been relaxing for many people. 

The website onsenjapan.net has good information for those who want more information about onsens.

Our onsen adventure took place at the Hotel Lorelei, which also has a "wellness spa."  For my friends back home, I thought of it as a lesser Safety Harbor Resort and Spa.  There is a separate check-in for the spa and after checking in and paying, we were led to lockers where we exchanged our shoes for indoor shoes.  We then walked upstairs to the second floor where an attendant met us, took us to a door and there we exchanged our indoor slippers for outdoor slippers.  (This is all very common in Japan.)  The onsens at the Hotel Lorelei where we were are open-air.  There were separate, small wooden buildings with their own entrances (and locking doors).  There were walls on three sides with the fourth side really being a tall hedge.  We could look out and see Huis Ten Bosch (the Dutch theme park that is walking distance from us).  The roof consisted of wooden beams covered with partially-opaque clear plexiglass.  The whole thing gave you the feeling of being outside while retaining privacy (and protection from the elements, which was important as it had rained twice prior to our appointment).

The Hotel Lorelei is about ten minutes from our apartment.

It has a wellness spa where we enjoyed a family onsen experience.

It also has a restaurant...

...that is a beer restaurant (whatever that means).

The onsen had three distinct sections.  The
first was a changing "room," that was enclosed
to prevent your clothes from getting wet.

The second was a washing station, with
a stool, a bowl and a shower.

The third section was the bath.  It had adjustable temperature
controls (the water flows from the rocks like a water feature)
and some "benches" on two of the sides.

Overall it was an enjoyable experience although as I mentioned, the kids were pretty hyper so I wouldn't call it totally relaxing.  It cost us about $30 for one hour so it wasn't crazy-expensive, but also not something we would do every week.  I think we will probably go again at least once before we leave. 


Ahh, this is the life!

Quote of the Month: October 2014

Trying to get caught up over the holiday weekend so I'm starting with October's quote of the month. 

I think that you just gotta have the bad days to love the good days even more.  Trust me, I would know. - Alexander Cooper from the movie, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day.

Friday (October 10) We saw Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day. It was really funny.  We give it a thumbs up.  The Cooper family (the family in the movie) really did have the worst day ever but in the end, they were able to turn it around.  It reminded me of my very bad day (parking ticket, dead battery, missing a chance at meeting Mo Willems, Leah having a bloody nose while riding on I-95S, and being at a literal standstill on said interstate as a tornado passed across the road five miles south of us).  It was while crawling (figuratively, as I was driving my car) on I-95S near Quantico, avoiding fallen tree limbs, that I made the conscious decision to look for the bright side instead of dwelling on the negative.  For instance, instead of complaining how long it took to get home, I was thankful that we weren't in the direct path of the tornado.  From that day, I've tried to remember this and always focus on the positive rather than the negative.  Steve Carell's character in the movie, Ben Cooper, does what I do times 100.  I think I would have cracked had I had such a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day but it just goes to show you, no matter how bad you have it, there is always someone else out there that has it worse.

Quote of the Month: April 2014

Since I am trying to catch up on my blogs I thought I'd backtrack and catch up on my quotes too. 

What you give up for Lent changes lives. - Catholic Relief Services

I don't exactly know who said/wrote that quote.  It was printed on the rice bowl Leah received in her Faith Formation class at the beginning of Lent.  You might remember our rice bowl experience last Lent from a blog entry I wrote in April 2013.  We gave up our Popcorn Friday treats and lunch out after church & Faith Formation classes and donated that money.  The enlightenment Leah and Aaron received about being grateful and thinking of others by participating in the Operation Rice Bowl project last year was priceless.  This year we decided to step up our game.

We again gave up our Popcorn Friday treats and donated the money instead.  Leah and Aaron also donated their "give" money.  (They each put $1 of their weekly allowance in a "give" fund.  Once they collectively reach $25 or more, they get to decide how to donate the money.)  Sometimes they would give an extra dollar or change.  In the six weeks of Lent we collected over $25 without feeling like we gave anything up.  The great part is, and what follows the quote, is our donation based upon what we gave up for Lent really has the power to change lives.  According CRS (Catholic Relief Services) a donation of $10 buys two weeks of food for a family of six.  $25 buys health exams for 13 kids and $30 can provide up to two years of seeds for a farmer, all because we gave up having popcorn and cookies after school on Fridays for six weeks.  It's pretty amazing when you think about it.

This Lent we stepped up our game by trying some of the recipes too.  As you may know, Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent.  CRS has weekly stories from around the world of how donations helped individuals or villages from a region then they include a meatless recipe from that region.  This past Lent we tried two of those recipes:  Mukimo from Kenya and Frijoles Volteados from Guatemala.

Mukimo was not a big hit at our house. 

Mukimo is a concoction of potatoes, peas, spinach and corn.  Honestly, it didn't taste like much of anything.  It was kind of like eating mashed potatoes with corn and peas stirred into it.  Leah tried two or three bites (which impressed me) but Aaron refused altogether.  Needless to say it will not be made again at our house.  The Frijoles Volteados had potential.  It was like a black bean paste that was served in a tortilla.  It was kind of bland and I didn't even bother to try to get the kids to taste it.  I do think you could use the recipe as an outline and build on it into something a little more interesting.  I may try do something with it for Lent 2015.

I can't tell you how many people I have encountered in my life, many of them not even Catholic or practicing Christians, who give up chocolate or some sort of sweets for Lent.  They use it as a springboard for beginning a diet and they lament over how hard it is for them to do this for 40 days.  I think the big picture is maybe for 40 days out of the year (at least), we can think of someone other than ourselves.  And maybe we need to remember that living without chocolate for 40 days is not hard living compared to people who have to spend hours a day hauling clean water to their homes so they can safely drink and cook for their families.  Lent is not about giving something up for ourselves, it is about giving alms to someone else less fortunate.  This rice bowl project has helped remind/clarify this to me.  I plan to make this rice bowl project a tradition for Lent for our family regardless of whether the next parish we move to participates.  I would encourage anybody of any religion to consider giving something up for 40 days then donate the money they would have spent to the charity of their choice.  What you give up could change a person's life.

Quote of the Month: August 2014

Yes, I know it has been a while, but I am trying to get back into the swing of things, blogger-style.  Last night (August 2, 2014), Matt and Leah went to the Father-Daughter Dance here on base.  It made me think of this quote:

          A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart. - Author Unknown

Leah wore her Easter dress and Matt wore the
tie with matching pocket square and cuff links
that the kids gave him for Father's Day.

I guess I wasn't the only one thinking of that quote; it was on the ticket to the dance.

Matt and Leah had a good time at the dance.  There were quite a few familiar faces.  It was a pink-and-silver themed event with tiaras for all the girls.  There was a buffet that even had a candy bar (meaning a table full of candy, not a candy bar, singular). 

After dinner there was plenty of dancing for Leah and Matt.  There was a DJ, who Matt said did a pretty good job.  Leah even learned how to do the Cupid Shuffle.  She enjoyed dancing and the DJ until he played (inevitably) "Let It Go."  Matt said while 98% of all the girls under the age of 15 were on the dance floor, Leah asked if it was time to go home.  (Our kids are the only kids I know who do not really like the movie Frozen.)  They ended up staying and dancing more.  Leah got a gift bag with a picture frame, a wand and a tiara hair comb as well as a lot of Hershey Kisses.  She also got to bring home a bouquet of pink mums, which was part of a centerpiece.  Overall, they had a good night.

While Leah and Matt were dancing the night away, Aaron and I had our own fun.  MWR also sponsored a Mother-Son Movie Night with a free showing of Toy Story at the Hario Theater.  Aaron and I went with some friends who also had husbands and daughters at the dance.  A much more laid-back evening for us, but fun all the same.

You've got a friend in me.

Spring Break Staycation

Leah and Aaron had their Spring Break on April 4-11.  We didn't make any plans to go out of town because Matt is still deployed and we have a family vacation planned for Hong Kong in June.  Also, we had (and still have for another week) a house guest so a "Staycation" made sense to us.

Our house guest is the perfect guest:  quiet, polite, doesn't make a mess and doesn't eat.  He's also small enough to fit in a purse or backpack.  He is a Flat Stanly that our friend Brady Suan sent to us.  We actually renamed him Flat Brady.

Brady Suan and Flat Brady

The idea of the Flat Stanley/Brady is that he spends some time with us and we send back postcards, trinkets, etc. back to Brady.  His other classmates send their Flat Stanleys to friends who all do the same.  The class then can learn about different places.

We took Flat Brady all over the area, to some of our favorite spots...



Leah and a friend at Bio Park.

And to some new ones...

Leah and Aaron at the Sasebo Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

One day I plan to blog it all but until then, if you want a taste of what these places are like, feel free to read the blog I created for Flat Brady:  http://flatbradyinjapan.blogspot.com.  I created Flat Brady's blog because I was afraid if I sent postcards to Brady Suan, it would take too long to get to him.  Brady's mom, my friend Beth Ann, said that Brady loves the blog and that his teacher has been reading it to the class.  Please remember, if you read it, it is written with a first-grade audience in mind.  Happy reading!

Leah, the Toothless Wonder

Leah lost another tooth tonight.  For those of you counting along at home, that brings the grand total to six:  two on the bottom and four on the top.  The interesting part is that since she lost the first one in mid-July, about eight-and-a-half months ago, none of her permanent teeth have grown in to take their place.  She truly is a toothless wonder.  I don't know how she eats sometime and all things considered, she talks pretty well despite having a huge gap on top.  Leah likes the gap--she says she can drink through a straw without opening her mouth.  I sincerely hopes some of her teeth start to grow in before she loses any more.  Are there such things as partial dentures for kids?

March Madness

Well, as I sit in a surreal world where Duke lost in the first round loss to Mercer, I have mixed emotions.  I vacillate between denial and anger.  There is, however, one thing that brings a smile to my face.  As we were watching this morning during breakfast (the game came on live at 1:15am Japan time so I DVR'd it), the kids were attempting to rally Duke with some cheers.  Leah, using a blue and white pom pom that I actually got from a Lightning playoff game back in the day when they played at the Thunderdome (yes, that's pre-Tropicana Field), sang a cheer she learned last year during cheerleading:

Go, go get them Blue
Go, go get them White
Go, go get them Blue White!

The best, however, was Aaron's cheer.  Carrying a blue foam Blue Devils pitchfork, he made up his own cheer:

Give me a "D"
Give me a "U"
Give me a "K"
Give me a "silent E"

Now that is a very detailed cheer!  I just wish it had helped.

Just Keep Swimming

For most of the school year, Leah and Aaron have been going to swimming lessons.  They both took group lessons in Virginia, but never progressed very far.  Aaron refused to put his face in the water so I stopped signing him up for lessons.  Leah worked hard but had difficulty coordinating her arm and leg movements together.  Her movements were inefficient so it would tire her out easily so she couldn't swim far.  I tried last year to get her into lessons, but I was on a wait list.  When the opening for private lessons for the kids came up, I grabbed them and didn't look back.  Leah was thrilled.  All summer I had made her stay within reach of me in the pool and she didn't like it.  Aaron was less than enthusiastic but I told him swimming was a life skill he needed to have and lessons were not an optional event.  I think if it were up to Aaron, he'd be happy floating in a life vest.

Leah is excited for the first day of swim lessons.

The outdoor pools here are only open from mid-June to mid-August so the lessons are in the indoor pool at the Fleet Fitness Center on Main Base. Leah and Aaron have lessons twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays after school. It's nice because they each have their own instructor, but their lessons are at the same time.

Leah's had two instructors, both college-aged guys.  The first was Taiga, and currently she has Alex as her instructor.  She likes them both--they are both super-nice.  Leah is highly motivated.  One, she wants to have her freedom in the pool when I take her swimming.  More importantly to her, though, is she wants to go down the water slide and jump off the diving board at the outdoor pool.  She doesn't reach the height requirement so she has to pass the swim test--swimming the entire length of the pool non-stop--in order to do these things.  She has been working hard.

Leah works with Taiga.

Aaron's instructor is Hirofumi, an older Japanese man.  He doesn't speak much English yet he and Aaron seem to have a good rapport.  Probably because I would say 80-85% of Aaron's lessons seem to be mostly playing.  He's still not really swimming although I would say that if he fell in I am confident he could make his way to the side of the pool so that is something.  He lacks motivation and focus.  He has learned to be comfortable putting his head underwater so that is a big step.

First, Hirofumi got Aaron comfortable with his face touching
the water...

...then he got Aaron comfortable with jumping into the water.

Even though it is an indoor pool, the water is still cool.  And as it got cooler outside, the water got colder in the pool too.  It got to where the kids weren't putting forth much effort because by the end of their 30 minute lesson, they would be shaking and chattering because they were so cold.  For Christmas, my dad gave them money for their college accounts like he usually does, but he also gave them some money to buy toys.  I took their toy money and bought them wetsuits instead and it has made all the difference.  Even though it is mid-March, they still need their wetsuits so it has been a good investment.

Leah and Aaron give their wetsuits a thumbs-up.

As I mentioned, Leah has been working hard.  She can now not only swim the length of the pool non-stop, but today she swam the entire length of the pool using the backstroke.  She's very excited for summer to come so the outdoor pool will open and she can slide and jump off the diving board.  Sometimes as a reward for working hard, at the end of swim lessons, Alex will let Leah jump off the diving board.  She likes to jump and yell "cannonball! or "cowabunga!"  She's even progressed in her diving board skills.

Leah loves to jump off the high dive.

Like most things in Leah's life, it's a slow, uphill ride with lots of work, pushing and prodding but then it's a quick downhill ride where she masters lots of things in a short amount of time.  I can't wait to see what she does next week.  I hope Aaron will get motivated to work harder after he sees all the things Leah can do.  It may take until this summer when Leah is sliding and jumping off the diving board by herself while Aaron is stuck with me or Matt to light the fire. 

COWABUNGA!

Quote of the Month: March 2013

Over the last year I've started watching the TV show, Criminal Minds.  Thanks to all the repeats on A&E, I think I'm all caught up on the show.  At the beginning of each show, when the FBI agents are flying to their case, there is always a quote which foreshadows something about the case or the criminal.  The quotes are from a wide variety of people, some of whom I've never heard of before.  There was one a couple weeks ago that I really liked.
 

Marriage is a mosaic you build with your spouse. Millions of tiny moments that create your love story.  - author Jennifer Smith 

I thought it was appropriate for the March quote since today is today is my ten-year anniversary.  As is typical for Matt and me, he is currently deployed and so it is yet another anniversary spent apart.  It's becoming a tradition, just like watching the "highlights" section of our wedding DVD, as the kids and I did tonight after dinner.  Matt got to call from the ship, so that was a nice surprise.  An equally pleasant surprise was the card and "gift" I received from Leah and Aaron this morning. 

Leah has been asking me for days, "How many days until your anniversary?"  When I told her today was the day, she ran into her room and came out with a shoe box colored with crayons and tied with a ribbon.  When I opened it there was a red, heart-shaped card that she wrote and all kinds of "treasures" including, but not limited to:  origami pinwheels, pencils, and a "slingshot" (which is actually some contraption Leah and Aaron created by rubber banding some plastic Fisher Price camping toy pieces together).  It was super-sweet and Leah and Aaron were so happy to share their goodies with me.  I can't wait until Matt comes home and he can see our gifts for himself.

Quote of the Month: January 2014

Like most people, I made a health-related resolution this New Year's.  Mine was to incorporate more activity into my life.  I didn't necessarily mean strictly exercise but that is what it has turned out to be as a couple of my kindergarten mom friends recruited me to play intramural basketball and then they pushed me into joining the Fleet Fitness Center's "Lose to Win" contest.  Maybe that's why I like this month's quote so much.  I should preface it by saying that there will be some of you who just don't understand it.  There will also be some of you who understand it but don't think it is funny.  I think it is hilarious and since it is my blog, that's all that really matters.  This is in no way a timeless, thought-provoking quote.  It is a Twitter response to a Late Night With Jimmy Fallon hashtag request by a guy with the Twitter handle (?) of "Hamburger Helper."  Matt and I saw it on a "Best Of" Jimmy Fallon show we DVR'd and we laughed so hard we had to rewind it and watch it again. 

     tryna eat healthier but then I crack open a box of lucky charms and go marshmellow huntin.
     quaker oats dude be starin at me like #awwhellno
     - hamburgrhelpstr

Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu (Happy New Year)

New Year's Eve.  It's never been my favorite holiday.  I've always felt like there is some unspoken pressure to have an incredible evening.  My friend (and former roommate) Vanessa is just the opposite.  She's always loved New Year's Eve.  When we were roommates, we hosted our fair share of parties and we've been to our fair share, even before we were roommates.  Often I would volunteer to be the designated driver.  It always seemed to lessen the pressure for me and also then I knew my friends would get home safely.  I have some really fun New Year's memories with my FL friends (like when Susan's sorority sister plummeted from a tree at Joe's party), some not so great ones (one Kathy can share with me--the day after the Party Bus) and of course some not-so-great (even worse than plummeting from a tree) for some people but funny for me, the sober, designated driver.  All of those memories seem like a lifetime ago, and in a way, they were.  They were made BK (Before Kids).  Now that I am living in the AK (After Kids) era of my life, New Year's Eve has taken on a very different look.

For our last year or two in Northern VA, we celebrated New Year's Eve during the day with Matt's grandparents.  I would bring the party supplies, we would have lunch and do the countdown at 12 noon rather than 12 midnight.  The kids loved it (and so did Matt's grandparents).  After dinner we would give the kids glow sticks to play with, let them use the noisemakers again and watch fireworks on CNN or on the Internet from London or Sydney.  The kids would go to bed at their usual time and they were happy.  Often, Matt and I wouldn't even stay up until midnight, but it was all good.

Now that we are in Japan, we've tweaked our celebrations a bit.  We've been trying to integrate the Japanese culture into our New Year's Eve.  New Year's is a huge holiday in Japan.  It is often celebrated for several days.  Japanese families and friends perform Hatsumode, the year's first worship at Buddhist and Shinto shrines shortly before midnight.  They pray for good health and happiness.  We don't do that, but we do hang kadomatsu, Japanese decorations made of pine straw and bamboo (in our case, a wreath) on our door for New Year's. 


The wreath symbolizes good luck.

I bought the wreath at the NEX last year in the section where they sell Japanese gifts, but I've seen "fresh" ones in the local farmer's market, complete with an orange in the bag.  (I do not know what the orange is all about--I will have to ask a Japanese lady I know.)  In Leah's & Aaron's Japanese Celebrations book it states that people burn their previous year's decorations and good luck charms in a big bonfire, or dondo-yaki.  I've not seen or heard of anyone around here doing that.  I hope it's not bad luck to re-use my kadomatsu two years in a row.

Another Japanese tradition we have embraced is toshikoshi-soba.  It is a Japanese tradition to eat long noodles on New Year's Eve to represent a long life.  Ours is not quite kosher, so to speak, as Matt makes his own chicken lo mein rather than make soba noodles in dashi (hot broth).  We totally messed up this year, however, as we mistakenly bought ramen noodles (not the 5-for-a-dollar variety) instead of the soba/lo mein noodles.  I think eating long noodles on New Year's Eve is definitely a tradition we will continue to do even after we leave Japan (although I'm sure Leah and Aaron would prefer eating spaghetti to lo mein).  

Matt is a wizard with a wok!

Matt used his Darth Vader light saber
chopsticks.

Leah and Aaron used the new dinosaur chopsticks the
McClintock's gave them for Christmas.

We ate dinner on the early side because Huis Ten Bosch, the Dutch-themed attraction/theme park (http://english.huistenbosch.co.jp/) located within walking distance of Hario, was having fireworks at both 6pm and midnight.  From the top of our apartment's parking garage, we can see the fireworks.  We knew the kids would not be able to stay up until midnight and they would not be able to watch any on TV as Sydney is about the only major city who celebrates New Year's before we do and that is only by an hour or two.  Matt quickly made some hot chocolate (or "cup of cheer" as Leah calls it) and put it in a thermos as we headed off to the parking garage.  We were the only people up there although some kids came out right when it ended 15 minuted later. 


We finally used our Thanksgivukkah
cocoa mix.

What's better than a cup of cheer and fireworks?

Oooohhh!

Aaaahhhh!

After we came back inside the apartment, the kids were really obnoxious.  They were like wind-up toys that had been wound as tight as possible.  They were running, yelling and playing with glow sticks and noise makers.  It really got on my nerves.  Finally, after a glow stick performance (think interpretive dance) and plenty of turns with the various noise makers, Matt and I were able to talk Leah and Aaron down and we all sat down to watch Escape to Witch Mountain (the 1975 original), which I checked out from the library.  I am happy to report that the kids loved it as much as I did when I was their age.

 

To truly appreciate a glow stick performance,
you must witness it in person.

Throw on some platform shoes and Leah
would resemble a 1976-era Elton John.

When the movie was finished, our New Year's Eve celebrations were almost finished too.  All that was left was a New Year's toast with sparkling cider and setting of the poppers full of confetti.



Leah and Aaron did not like the cider.  Aaron said it
tasted like, "carpet-flavored apple juice."



Unleash the confetti!

By the time the poppers were popped it was 10pm and the kids were tired.  They didn't complain when we told them it was time for bed.  Matt went to bed, too.  He wanted to be fast asleep before midnight.  Last year we made the mistake of going to bed after 11pm and then just as we were drifting off to sleep we were jolted awake by some 20-plus minutes of fireworks.  I stayed up until the fireworks ended; the three of them were sound asleep.  It's kind of strange not to watch the ball drop at midnight but AFN did air Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve live so we did a countdown and watched the ball drop at 2:00pm today (New Year's Day).  It was both surreal and fun to experience the countdown to midnight with our East Coast American friends even though it was after lunch time for us.

Like the Japanese, we pray for good health and happiness not only for ourselves but for our friends and family in 2014.  Happy New Year!