Yesterday was Music in the Parks, a competition amongst middle schools from all over the state of California, other states have them as well. CMS won first place with a superior rating across the board- concert band, jazz band, orchestra, choir, and chamber choir. They did the same thing last year, we have an amazing program and the kids were so excited. It did feel a bit awkward as parents to watch our school sweep every category (this included best soloist vocal and instrumental and best all around something or other) but I will take a little mild discomfort for an amazing music program ANY day.

Jane had a great group for the day and my friend Kristine Ellison and I were chaperones together, which was really fun. We even managed a picture of a Robert Pattinson look alike. We thought we were so funny.

I feel like all I ever do here is complain about the weather. It’s either too hot or too rainy and I know it will only get worse as we head into spider season. It rained so much this weekend that ceiling started to leak...good times. However, the weekend before this I was reminded that this is just the price we pay to live in a tropical paradise. We went with some friends on a weekend excursion to the Karamas Islands. They are a little grouping of islands known for their scuba diving. They are just off the southern side of Okinawa, the opposite direction that we usually go when we travel to these little islands. It was quite the adventure!

It started with a high speed ferry ride on a stormy rainy ocean.The weather was terrible but our reservation was non-refundable so we went anyway. On the ferry all the passengers went down inside and it felt like being in an airplane. We were flying and hitting off the huge waves practically catching air. The kids were screaming with delight and excitement it was like a roller coaster. I was as sick as could be but managed to hold it in, Hayden and a few other kids were not so lucky and ended up throwing up. None the less, they all loved it. We got off the ferry and swam through the rain to get on a bus to the hotel. We were straining our necks to peer through the rain to check out the island. I could just see green everywhere!! Our hotel was a little resort right on the beach. We had a Japanese style room which means it was just a room with tatami mats on the floor and a small bathroom. In the closet there were futons, blankets and pillows that we threw out at bedtime.From the balcony of our room you could look down onto the beach.It was still pouring rain but it was warm so we quickly changed into our swimsuits and were just heading down the beach when they told us it had just closed for the night. So we changed and headed into the dining hall for dinner. Dinner was included in our stay and consisted of lots of Japanese cuisine. Hayden ate nothing but the rest of us enjoyed delicious food. The girls especially liked the chicken wrapped in seaweed. After dinner we put the kids to bed and played games at the table in the hall.

The next morning we took off for a drive around the island. We hiked up to a peek with a monument to remember the mass suicides that took place there. Back during the war many people marched up there and jumped off the cliff when they were invaded. We drove through rice patties and admired the Japanese scarecrow and all the cranes. It was beautiful.Then we raced back for breakfast at the hotel. Demonstrating true Japanese hospitality it appeared that the kitchen staff had tried to make food for our group of American children. The hotel was practically empty so our group with it’s 12 children was the dominant presence. The children were delighted to see that breakfast was chicken nuggets, french fries, scrambled eggs and pancakes along with a whole lot of Japanese cuisine like their traditional salad and pickled stuff. It was awesome, it was like they just tried to think of anything American and that’s what they made for us. We were touched and the kids got full!

After breakfast was the highlight of our trip- we finally hit the beach! The women took first shift and headed off to snorkel. It was the most amazing snorkeling I have ever done! Right off we saw a HUGE sea turtle just 4 feet below us and followed it for a while. The coral reefs were massive, covered in anenomes with clown fish and tons of sea life. So many colors and fish, it was fantastic. We saw two more huge sea turtles, surrounded by fish. Then just as we were heading back in we saw a large manta ray just swimming by. It was amazing! We spent the rest of the day on the beach, exploring a second beach and snorkeling there and just soaking up the sun. Yes, the sun came out on Saturday and it was beautiful. We had to catch the ferry again at 5:30. As we loaded on the bus at the hotel the entire staff came out and stood and waved good-bye and then bowed. This happened again as we left on the ferry, they stood on the port and waved. It was the perfect end to an amazing weekend. I can’t wait to go back!

-Peter

Just thought I'd relieve Barb of her photo menagerie. And I'm loving this picture - especially Forrest's pants.

Here it is!

Kim: Substituting is turning out to be a not-so-great situation. This time last year I had jobs almost everyday. This year is a different story. I get maybe 2 calls a month. Anyway, so I am looking for something else. I would have anyway since I would not be subbing during the summer. I have applied to a couple of places. I did get a job but it does not start until the end of June so it is on the back burner. I am trying to get something else before then. We will see if something turns up. I am currently a substitute at a daycare which is working out well and it is definitely helping! I am pretty much thankful for anything I can get right now. Other than the whole work situation, I am gearing up for my first half marathon this Saturday. It should be a lot of fun. I am pretty nervous and I plan on going pretty slow and just finish. We are all planning on doing another one in October so I feel like it will be easier to train for. This half marathon has been hard to train for with the weather. I have been doing most of it on a treadmill. One another thing for me, I passed my last certification test so now I can receive my 5 year teaching certificate in Washington State!

Treven: Treven is loving work still. He received a two dollar raise when he received a promotion to Apparel Lead at Dick's. He finished the semester out at WSU and will be taking the summer off of school. We are working on filling out all the paperwork for him to gain his residency so he can go full time in the fall. He doesn't know really what to do when he gets home from work now and has time since there is no school work. He is planning on getting some exercise back into his schedule since he now has some time and our apartment complex has a gym.

Melia: I always say both girls are growing so fast and that is because they are. Melia decided to do gymnastics a little bit ago and did it for about a month, but there was only one other kid in the class so she didn't enjoy it much. She said she wanted to do swim lessons with her cousin, Andrew so we switched her. She is loving it and getting more comfortable in the water. She finally stopped being scared of the depth last week. I think the fact that she doesn't have her glasses on in the water does not help! She has about one month left of swim lessons then our pool opens here at the complex so we figure we can work on it with her there instead of paying $50 a month... at least until I do find a job. :) She is loving Sunbeams at church and has a new friend Elyse from her class and begs to play with her all the time. I love how social she is!

McKenzie: Well McKenzie is nuts! She has a lot of Treven's reflexes and she isn't scared of doing a lot of things. She jumps off of the ottoman onto the couch, off the couch, off the table onto blankets... she is nuts. If she falls down my parents stairs, she will catch her self on the railing like 2 steps down. It is crazy! She has done that three times. She is talking a lot more in sentences and picking up everything. She said her first prayer tonight with help! Some sentences are, "I want (enter item) too!" and "I love you too". But she will go on with more. She calls Melia "girl" since she can't say Melia. She loves to run, jump, and dance. She loves playing with her cousins, Noah and Beck. Those three are trouble all together! I am thinking of getting McKenzie a hair cut because she has such a mullet! We will see! McKenzie really is growing fast. She is wearing a lot of 2T AND 3T clothes. She is getting interested in going potty on the toilet so we will see if she gets interested enough to get potty trained!

Well that is really all from us. Pictures coming soon.

So this morning I went to the commissary with Alyssa while Danica was at preschool. I was minding my own business searching for swedish fish (because they have been out for the last month) when I heard a voice behind me say “excuse me, can you please reach up there and get that for me?” I turned and saw a nice Japanese woman and then glanced back over my shoulder so see if she was talking to me. No one has ever asked vertically challenged me that question. But sure enough, she was asking me and even better, I was able to reach the box of chocolates she wanted. Two of them in fact. She seriously made my day!!! I love being around the Japanese...

I had a nice birthday last week. Thank you for all the well wishes. It was a normal busy week with soccer practice, Tom’s meetings, watching some extra kids, making a DVD of girls camp stuff, helping with a girls camp final activity Wednesday night, and RS presidency meeting. But I managed to squeeze in some fun and went out to lunch with my friends on my birthday, we got ice cream after dinner on my birthday (in between soccer and my presidency meeting). Friday night we went out to Chili’s, with the kids. We actually had a good time and they even sang to us. Hayden was so embarrassed and Alyssa loved it. It was great to feel American...

Alyssa is a little cheese ball and loves attention and teasing her older siblings. She’s in that grab something and run away phase...love it... the other day I was buckling her in the car seat and she started going crazy. I asked what was wrong and she smiled and said “Oh, me just freakin.” Such a clown. Her favorite game is to play mom and dad with Danica and her friends. Alyssa gets to be the baby and loves it. When the other kids aren’t around she tries to play it with me and will tell me that she is different kids and insist that I call her the other name. At gymnastics she announced she was Danica and I had to call her Dani the entire time. It turned out great, she was so obedient and participated in everything. I wish I had figured this trick out sooner...

Danica really is a nice obedient little girl. I feel so lucky. Right now her thing is to say “I love you the whole wide world!” It makes no sense but I know what she means so I love it. She’s great at taking care of Alyssa and is a huge help to me. I can ask her to help her get dressed or go potty, whatever and she’s eager to do it. It’s awesome, I hope it lasts...

Hayden is sitting over here complaining about having to do homework. He’s currently spinning his new yo-yo frisbee and saying that he has more important things to do than homework, or at least more fun things.... yeah, don’t we all? Luckily, I just say to him “fine, then don’t do it and get a bad grade.” He freaks out and gets busy. I wonder how long that will last...

Tom and I went on nice bike ride on Saturday. He’s nice to go at my leisurely pace (leisure to him, killer work out to me.) We had time to go 30 miles thanks to the free child care we can use the first Saturday of every month. Saturday night we had friends over for a fish fry. They went deep sea fishing early in the morning so the fish was very fresh. Tom and I told them we don’t like fish but they could come over and cook it and hang out. Turns out we do like fish, it was really good! We’re lucky to have great friends. Too bad they are leaving us. It’s actually really depressing and I try not to think about it. Several of our really good friends are moving this summer. Okinawa will not be the same without them...

So anything else random I can write about it? Hmmm.... yesterday we went to the Dragon boat races. This week is Golden Week, a week that has three Japanese holidays so schools are closed, businesses shut down and everyone enjoys the festivals. I took Hayden out of school and we went to a big festival so we could cheer on my friends who were on the Navy women’s racing team. They won and it was very exciting and a fun atmosphere. Hayden was just happy to be out of school eating cotton candy and sno-cones. Lucky kid...

In our effort to become triathletes I recently tried swimming. My foot was injured so I needed something different and thought it was finally the perfect time. After a few failed attempts where all the lanes were full (no, I was not going to crowd into a lane that already had three marines swimming in it, thank you.) I finally got in one day. Swimming was great, it was the first time in my life I had ever swam laps. I didn’t expect to be good, I just wanted to try it. So then I went a second time and sadly the more I tried the more I realized I was terrible!! I loved the challenge and the instant fatigue and muscle soreness but I was so embarrassed knowing that I look like, and feel like, I am on the verge of drowning at the end of each lap. So until I save enough money to fly Adina out here to coach or find someone local I think I am going to back off and focus on my biking for a while. They do have adult swim lessons here and I think I may give that a shot. I’m not giving up, I just need help...

Well, I could probably babble all night. I actually wrote up a long blog entry earlier today and then the power went out and I lost it all. I don’t know if this one is as good but I am just sitting here waiting for Tom to finish up some paperwork for a background check at work and figured I’d try to get it done. The weather is really unpredictable right now, it goes from sticky humid hot, to cold and rainy, to gorgeous warm and clear. You never know what is coming. My eyes are starting to get blurry so I may have to give up on waiting for Tom... have a great night!

Ok, Ok, I guess I'll do my part to keep this blog thing alive. We have already killed our own blog shortly after Brent started it.

I guess I'll give an update since it's been a couple weeks and people are whining about no posts. ;)

So my life in the past two weeks has been pretty uninteresting, as is normal for the end of the semester in an MBA student's life. I am done with classes in two weeks so I have been spending just about all my free time in the last two weeks writing, editing and practicing presentations for my four final projects. Been learning a lot about things like UPS' sales process, credit card security, risk management in corporations and virtual phone numbers for online daters. So pretty varied semester over here.

Now that you are asleep from just reading the description of those subjects, what else have I been doing? Work, work and more work. I'm getting quite a bit of hours at Sport Chalet. Probably more than I want but money is money, I guess. I'm also figuring out my work with my internship company and how/if I will continue to work with them after my internship is over at the end of this semester. I'll keep you updated on that.

Other than school and work? Sleep. :) But really, um...LOST? I guess that is taking up a nice spot in my mind lately. It is all coming to an end and that makes me sad but excited to see the final shows. Aside from planning a series finale party with my friends that also watch the show, I am going to a concert in LA next Thursday that I am super excited about. It is called "LOST Live" at UCLA and it is basically an orchestral concert of all the music (background music) from LOST being conducted by its composer Michael Giacchino. He also did the music for Up, Star Trek, Alias, Ratatouille, and The Incredibles. Some of the cast will be there along with, I am sure, the executive producers and head writers. We also get to see a preview of the episode that will air on May 18th. It'll be such a fun way to end up my obsession with the series with a concert hall full of other superfans so I am WAY excited. Also a new episode tonight! And it's a BIG one so watch it, people! :)

I've also been filling my free time with finding and listening to some great new music. Here's a few song recommendations for ya:

• Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks" (the rest of the album is great too)
• The Avett Brothers - "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise"
• Animal Collective - "My Girls"
• The Hours - "Ali in the Jungle"
• The Shout Out Louds - "Fall Hard"
• The Temper Trap - "Sweet Disposition"