Hey Family,

So things are going well out here in Hawaii. The store is coming along and coming together. Today I took most of the day off and drove down to the Black Sand Beach and the Volcanos. The drive down was beautiful but I could not take pictures while I was driving. The road went right through the lava fields and I could see homes that had been burnt from pass eruptions. Of course something about being all by myself sucks about it. I REALLY miss Buffy and Noah!!! Buffy says that Noah is starting to smile and respond to things she does. Terry is staying with her while I am gone which is a big help. Anyhow here are some pictures. By the way I was stand on the beach and looked to my left and WOW, there was a sea turtle not 5 feet from me. First you were all like "whoa", and we were like "whoa", and you were like "whoa..."

I could give you another travel log of our comings and goings but that doesn’t sound too fun so I’ll keep this part short. Hayden is making more friends at school and seems to enjoy it more each day. He is doing really well, great marks on his homework and always on the green level for behavior. I finally worked out a carpool with a neighbor who has a child in his class. Now I walk them in the morning with some of Hayden’s other friends so he is happy. Then the other mom picks them up in the afternoon so I am able to put the girls down for a nap earlier and get a little alone time before he gets home, so I am happy! Danica is loving her Joy School and is doing really well. However, we had a preschool field trip to the fire station and she hated it! She was terrified by the fire fighter in all his gear and wouldn’t let me put her down. Then they turned on the siren and the loud noise made her cry. Then to top it off they had the fire mascot come out (a person in a dalmatian suit) and she was terrified again. Luckily Hayden had come with me and he really enjoyed it! Danica continues to open up and communicate more all the time. Two funny things she is doing: whenever she does something good she looks and me and says “this making you happy mommy?” Also, whenever Tom says thank you to someone in Japanese she says “you said “arigato” daddy?” It’s funny because she always says it so we just wait for it. Alyssa is a dancing machine, every time she hears music it’s like she can’t help herself. Since she is still not walking she drops to the floor so she can kick her legs and turn herself in a circle. She’s cutting teeth like crazy and her hair is now long enough that it stands up all fluffy and messy so I put it in little pigtails. It looks cute, but a little silly, but it’s better than fluff head.




We visited an ancient Japanese Castle a week ago Saturday and had a good time. I still have a lot to learn about Okinawa heritage but this was a good start and kids thought it was cool. Okinawa became a Japanese prefecture in 1879, before then it was known as the Ryukyu Kingdom. The Shuri Castle served as the administrative center and residence of the Ryukyu kings for several centuries. Wars and fires destroyed Shuri Castle multiple times over the centuries, most recently in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. The current buildings are beautiful reconstructions dating from 1992. They had women doing traditional dances that Danica enjoyed watching and Hayden loved seeing all the “ancient artifacts” and the thrown. Naturally we had to take our shoes off to walk through the castle.




I really feel lucky that we live in our own little western style world on base and can go from day to day feeling pretty “normal.” We even went out to eat at the Chili’s on base last night. After all our fun food adventures it actually felt really good to just sit and be comfortable and be able to read the menu and actually order my favorite quesadilla explosion salad and a strawberry lemonade... ahhhh... it was heavenly. We even got a thing called sling box so we can get T.V. shows from the states because they have close to nothing here on the AFN channels. Tom’s parents are awesome and are streaming TV to us from a DVR unit hooked up through the internet. Technology is amazing! We even watched the BYU football game yesterday. It was played on Friday night in the states so we were able to watch it live on our Saturday morning! So cool!
Okay, now that said I feel the need to be “home” I want to write more about what it’s like here in Japan and some of the things we are learning. Hayden has a Japanese culture class at school so he always comes home telling me cool things. Like the different sounds they use for animal noises (cows don’t say “moo”, if you want to know what they say in Japan you’ll have to ask him.) My observations are much more general, as they are just my observations but here are a few of them, in no particular order:
1. As you would expect people are so nice and friendly- I could write paragraph’s about this.
2. Housing is all very different, no one has yards, just lots of planted pots and herb gardens and such all over the place. Houses are much more apartment style although there aren’t a lot of high rises around here, just buildings crammed in everywhere. Everyone hangs their laundry out to dry on their balcony. Roads are very narrow and wind all over the place. They have this brilliant system of using mirrors at the little intersections so you can see if a car is coming from the other directions, they are great! The two way roads are more narrow than little one way alleys in the states.
3. Pachinko is wildly popular here with lots of huge pachinko parlors that are brightly painted and look like kids arcades but are for adults. Pachinko is a mixture of slot machines and pinball where you get these balls that you roll around and when they drop in then pictures come up on the screen like a slot machine and you want the pictures to match. Then you win more balls. The part I think is funny is that it’s illegal to gamble in Japan. So, if you win balls, you can exchange them into goods that are available in the parlor's gift shop. But you can also bypass the law that prohibits gambling in Japan by exchanging the balls first into some special goods and then exchange them for cash at a small window just outside the parlor. Very tricky way around it. We haven’t actually been there, just see them all the time.
4. The people here don’t like the sun exposure, I heard it is a sign of being in the working class, plus not healthy, to have a sun tan so they women often wear long gloves to cover their arms and use umbrellas to block the sun. Pretty smart really.
5. In the bathroom they don’t offer the thin paper shield to put on the toilet seat like in the states. Instead they have a small thing like a soap dispenser and you put a little on your toilet paper and wipe the seat down before use. Actually much easier than those noisy papers that always fall off. Places often have “non western” toilets as well which are just bowls in the ground you squat over. They actually still flush and are porcelain just like toilets. The sign outside the stall usually indicates if they have a western style toilet. One thing I love is that often times the bathrooms have a stall with a seat to put your baby in while use the bathroom, it’s so handy and so smart. I have seen that occasionally in the states but it is every where here, even at our church building. Okay, enough bathroom talk...
6. I went running down along the coast on Saturday and had a great time. It was gorgeous and the weather is finally cooling off a touch. I made two observations: first of all, running on Saturday mornings seems to be an American activity since I saw about a dozen American’s and only one Japanese person running (and she could have been Japanese American here with the military for all I know.) second: they have signs along the beach with words and pictures demonstrating how to give CPR. They are very big on signs with graphics and I found this one to be very useful if I ever found myself dealing with a drowning victim at the beach.
7. For some reason the Japanese around here do a lot of communication through loud P.A. systems. When out in town we often here this tone of three notes followed by a long announcement of some sort in Japanese. If I am sitting at the computer in my house in the evenings I can hear a lot of Japanese music and such coming from somewhere just beyond the base fence. I’m going to have to learn what it’s all about.

Okay, that is all for now but I intend to keep of history of things I notice and enjoy about the culture here so I can remember it some day. Let me know if anyone wants to learn anything specific!

Dewa mata! (See you later!)

Well, I'm sitting in Brooke and Mike's living room looking out at a sunny northern CA day. The girls are all at school this morning so it has been pretty quiet...I've been doing laundry, taking out garbage and in general getting organized for my stay.

Brooke left this morning at about 1 am to drive up to SF to catch her flight out. Fortunately she called me at 6 am to let me know she had made the flight. It is especially important since I had set the alarm for the morning to go off at 5:25 PM! I have already corrected that for tomorrow.

Ellyn will be home at 12:45....then Sadie at about 3:30...and then Sadie has ballet...I need to pick up Jane from soccer practice and then we'll be going to Costco for dinner and to pick up some stuff for home. Then Jane has YW and then we'll head home. A busy mother's day that I'm not used to anymore!

Marnie, I love the new template but it doesn't seem to have a link to write a posting? Did I miss it?

I just got a call from Brooke that she made her second flight which goes right to Frankfurt where Mike will pick her up. They are both so excited!!!

Love you all,

Mom

Well, so far the response to the new template has been unanimously positive. I decided to change it because, well, I was bored with what we had and change is good.  ;)  And my company is starting a blog for parents (anyone interested can check it out here - I designed the top banner) and, anyway, I spent most of my work day last week perusing the internet for good looking templates. That got me to thinking that with a little interpretation of some code I could personalize one of those templates for my own blogs! So that's what I did. 

Yes, I needed to put this update on the blog at the request of those who shall not be named, simply for historical purposes.  I was released as Scoutmaster and 2nd counselor in the YM presidency.  We had 3 wards in our area split into 5 wards and I was called to 2nd counselor in the bishopric of the Parker's Landing ward.  Extremely humbling, especially since we were sliced into the existing ward, so we are new and most everyone else was in the ward from before the reorganization.  So, guess who has to learn a lot more names and faces?

I don't know if any of you know about this, but I am addicted to it. It is like making scrapbooks online.... you just have to try it out. It is completely free... www.scrapblog.com. I guess you can put them on your blog title as well! If I get it figured out look at our blog.

Kim

Our recent trip to Alder Creek Kayaks' Annual Rental Fleet Sale. We're going back Saturday (today) to find Barb her kayak. Then, off to the river outside Ridgefield for some smooth travel through the reeds. K/B

Yes, I am in Kuwait and finally out of that fledgling...something. It looks like we are stuck here for several days but the place has improved with a really nice USO, wireless internet, hot showers, nice gym etc. In fact, it would not break my heart to get stuck here until OCT 1 whereupon I would receive credit for another month deployed and $1000. But, Murphy will probably have me on a plane at 2300 on SEP 30.

I want to thank Taylor and everyone else for the prayers. I firmly believe they really did work. Despite the many security improvements that occurred in the last year, my unit was often sent to the worst areas in the country. By Iraqis, we were known as the "dirty squad"; not because we disobeyed international law or razed villages but because we were sent in to go after the scum. So for at least the first half year of the deployment, your prayers were much required. I really felt protected and guided.

For the last few months, the internet in Iraq has been blocked for blogs. So I have been unable to view the pictures. I was able to see text because of the RSS feed but it has been very nice to go through and see all the new kids-all beautiful-with their parents.

My time on staff was much busier than I supposed. I had several opportunities to still go out and do stuff. The pics I posted are from my last day when the current H Company commander let me take my vehicles back out for a day. It was a lot of fun and I forgot how much I missed being out there and running things.

I am highly anticipating Brooke and Sawyer's visit to Germany here next week, I really appreciate Mom taking the time in the middle of the disaster to let it happen. After that, it is back to bachelorhood until the end of November. I will spend most that time clearing or studying for the GRE which I will take in early December. And then after my month home with the family for Christmas, it is back to bachelor life again at Fort Eustis, VA where I will go to the Simulation Officers course ofr six weeks. Some time after that, providing I get accepted to the program at NPS, I will start grad school. We will see. If that doesn't happen, I do not know what they would do with me at Monterey so it would probably mean another move. So once again, we ask for your prayers.

Brooke and her parent are working hard to get the house put together. I don't think I could have planned this better:-) No, I would much rather have the family in Germany waiting one me but it has been the right thing to do for little Elly who I understand is getting well taken care of. I guess I will put up with a few weeks of bachelor life for that. Apparently Leanne has figure out how to store my exploding board game collection and give Sawyer his own place to sleep..so kudos and many thanks to her and her work ethic. Oh yeah and some props to Ellery I guess too:-)

Well I expect a plethora of postings now with pictures! Blog away!

Mike