I bet you have no idea what Sawyer is obsessed with right now.
We went to this awesome Japanese recreation center on Friday as part of a family fun day for Tom’s work. It's called Round 1 and is this huge indoor facility with a little bit of everything to do. It had ball pits and bike tracks for the kids, basketball, tennis, ping pong, darts, etc. for the adults, a roller skating rink, huge arcade with free games and much more. In the kids play area they had 8 nice big massage chairs for the adults to sit in while they watched their kids play, it felt really nice! Sadly, I didn’t have my camera but it was a lot of fun and nice to be out in town again. We’ve been spending far too much time stuck on base! My favorite two Japanese observations were these:
1. We went to the snack bar and found that we had two main choices, chicken nuggets or octopus dumplings. (I wish I could say I had tried the dumplings but a las we just got a sno cone.)
2. The main kids play area was didn’t allow you to wear shoes. When I took the girls to the bathroom they had plastic slippers laid out at the door for you to wear into the bathroom. It was so perfect. They had adult sizes that said "toilet" and kid sizes with Mickey Mouse, the girls loved it! The Japanese are really onto something here...I searched online and discovered this is normal and in most houses you would remove your house slippers and put on the toilet slippers when entering the bathroom. It makes perfect sense! I love it and just may buy myself a pair!
Nike shoes, $90
Waterpack, $50
Sports shorts and tank, $35
Babysitter, $15
Sportsbeans, $4
Running 17+ miles with Tom, priceless.
We're on our way to 20...
Let me tell you...there we were, relishing the fact that it had actually cooled off enough to make us want to go jump on the trampoline to kill time after dinner. It was Saturday and Tom was at a church meeting. I was chasing the kids in circles and playing a new zombie game that Hayden made up. Then it was Hayden's turn to be the zombie, he laid down on the trampoline, closed his eyes and when he opened them he just froze, pointed his finger and started stammering "ummm...mom...ummmm....mom..." I looked at where he was pointing and found this, dangling above my head!!! 
Danica yelled "Kill it mom!" I yelled "Run!" and we all scrambled off the tramp as quick as we could. Luckily, Tom walked in the front door as we ran in the back. He came to our rescue, took pictures of it (you can see the top off the trampoline net enclosure in the second picture to give perspective) and then killed it for us. He sprayed it with spider killer then knocked it out of it's web onto the trampoline, you should have heard the THUD it made! It was still alive so he flicked it off the trampoline and told me to step on it. Yeah right! I was in flip flops!!! But I had the spider spray in my hand so I coated him with it and that was the end! I ran in the house and didn't look back! Tom informs me I need to go clean the guts off the trampoline before I let the kids jump again...hmmmm....when will that be? We've been out there a lot lately and that spider and his web were so big he's been around a while, I wonder how long he's been watching us and we just didn't notice because we never looked up! You can guarantee I will always check from now on!
Adina couldn't make it to the concert tonight with Dave, Mom and I so Taylor was the next in line to default to when one of the parents can't make it. Isaac made it to James Taylor. Taylor makes it to, "HEART". Well, as it turned out, PaPa bought tickets in the seating section four rows back from the stage and at the right side. Now,this puts you pretty close to the singers, however, once we caught on to the protocol there, Taylor and PaPa ended up on the rail/fence in front of the stage, about two feet off the front of the stage and closer to the entertainers as you can see in the photos or film, whichever I am able to get uploaded. Taylor and I watched a young girl one person away from Taylor receive the drum sticks from Ben King, the drummer for Heart after the first goodbye. I know they were coming back to do a couple more so I told Taylor to stay up front with me and he might get a surprise after the last number. So, ends the last number and Mr. King walks down to the front of the stage right in front of Taylor and I and hands Taylor his own autographed set of drum sticks used in the last piece played for the audience tonight. I'll try to download that song and a picture of the happy recipient. I also, just plain enjoyed listening to Heart, one of my favorite rock groups. Listen on.....sorry, couldn't load the video.
I found these as I was looking for Tom's mission pictures....
Tom, hamming it up with the other missionaries
Now we know that Taylor got his face pulling from the Duker side as well!
Anne from Softball Days...I think about 1998 would be my guess
Dad at Basic Training-obviously posing! 130 lbs!
Quick update from me - I'm tired. I have too much to do. So, naturally, I am blogging.
Anyway, things are a bit stressed here this week. This will probably end up being my busiest week of the semester in regards to school work. One of my three classes is over this weekend. There is no final for the class, but instead we have case discussions. Basically these involve the prof giving us four different cases last week and telling us we have to prepare a 20-min presentation and analysis for one of the cases for this Friday and then moderate a 2-hour discussion with other class members about that case. Then we have to discuss the other three cases (for 2 hours each) with the other groups presenting. It all works out to a lot of work, group work no less, stress, 10 min of presentation time from just me and two full days, Friday and Saturday, of discussing (read arguing) over four company cases. Doesn't that sound exhausting?? Well, it is.
I'm more than halfway through the week at this point so I am pretty sure I will survive but I feel like I have gotten the majority of the work due to my enviable position as "THE native English speaker". This means that, of course, I know the best way to say everything and so I have to write out what needs to be said for our entire presentation and present the majority of it. Let's just say, at this point I haven't even read the other three presentations I am supposed to discuss and I have one day to get that up to snuff. Yuck. Oh and on top of this I have another group in another class that has meetings just about every day for a marketing "game" that I have to be constantly reading up on and make decisions for.
Anyway, this isn't my favorite part of studying abroad - the studying part. But, yes Mom, I know that is why I am here. I am frequently reminiscing of my last weekend in Paris (see my blog for the report on that, if you are interested) and looking forward to my next trip to London in a couple weeks.
It is getting cooler here. Still not cold but enough to need closed-toed shoes, a jacket and the occasional pair of gloves when you go out and to turn the heater on when inside. I hear it's burning hot in San Diego. Don't totally miss that part of the year but a good day in the warm sun would be pretty nice right about now. I warn you that I will probably look a little Cullen-like by the time I get back from here.
Ok...sleep is not going to be held off for much longer so I'd better get back to work. Great hearing from everyone - keep it up!
After 5 weeks of waiting, here they are! They already make a huge difference. She looked at my face like, "That's what you really look like!?" haha She says that "Outside looks silly!" She was scared to walk at first because her depth perception was off , but it is already catching on. She is watching Tinkerbell right now (she has seen it like 100 times) and she is saying wow at every part like she has never seen it. The doctor showed us what the world looked like to her... all I can say is Wow! It made me go cross eyed! I am SO glad we went in!
Noah's Birthday
After a fall, while waiting to go eat lunch...
I made them pose like this...
Too tired...
Isaac had a meet on Thursday - down at Cottonwood Beach. Three schools. When I got there, I saw him pacing, bending over and putting his hands on his knees, rubbing his eyes - just generally not looking good. Turns out he had a pretty nasty headache - you can see his discomfort in the picture above - he's near the back.
There were a total of about 50 boys running this one - not an easy course as you can see - starting out on the grass, running down the beach a couple of times, and some hills up to the dike. The gun went off, I tried to find Isaac in the crowd of boys with no success - because he had tripped up and fallen (again) and was just scrambling to get up and run. Dead last.
Playing catch-up.
Post-race, nursing his scratches from his fall.
He ended up coming in 9th overall, 3rd for Washougal, with a time of 19:44 for the 5K.
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