Wow, we're getting old!

I cannot believe that tomorrow is Dominick's 11th birthday! 2 more years and we will have a teenager on our hands! It seemed not that long ago that we were changing those diapers, cleaning his messy hands, and teaching him how to tie his shoes. Now, we're playing chauffeur to drive him to and from gymnastics, baseball and robotics, teaching him how to clean toilets and to cook. Our biggest challenge, though, is trying to get him to make good decisions so that we can trust him since he'll be heading off to middle school this next year. He has mentioned being allowed to have a cell phone and I still think he's on crack but Ryan is thinking about it more and more. I know I didn't have a cell phone until I was in college and yes, times are changing but good golly, if he can't get anywhere on his own and he's for the most part around adults, why does he need to run up our already ridiculously expensive Verizon bill any further? I'm sure though that the first couple times I can't get ahold of him and his new "tweeny bopper" friends, I'll be wishing we had gotten him that darn phone. However, we had a long conversation about how he would never need that phone if we couldn't trust him to be off by himself with his friends. He's working on making good decisions this week so his birthday party doesn't get taken away from him and he knows we're serious because he had no birthday party a couple of years ago for the same reason. The consequence that would go along with no birthday party is no playing outside with friends without parental supervision and don't think for a minute that this mom and dad have any qualms about following our 11 year around and letting his friends know why we're there. He's terrified of that consequence so most of his decisions have been good so far this week. We've had a couple bad choices here and there but they're minimal so we're happy to see improvement. Realizing that teaching these things to our children is in our future instead of ABC's and 123's is making me feel that we are getting up there in years. I'm realizing that it's been 15 years since we graduated, 12 of which we've been married and 11 of which we've been parents. We're growing up and by golly so are our children! Thanks Dominick for making us feel "OLD on your special day. We love you and are proud of the person you are becoming.

Mom and Dad

School sucks! Vacation NEEDED!

Heading this weekend to Virginia Beach and Williamsburg, VA for a much needed vacation over Easter! I can't express how much school has sucked this semester and how much I just want to quit! Then, I look at my kiddos and realize how bad of an example I'd be setting if I quit so I will continue on this hellish journey until I have a degree. This is why this weekend sounds so delightful. Sitting at Virginia Beach with only two kids while Ryan takes the oldest golfing, relaxing the next day in a pool at our timeshare with only two kids while Ryan and Dominick go golfing again sounds like a dream! 3 nights where I don't have to worry about anything but relaxing.......sounds peaceful. Is it Friday yet??????

Valentine's Day

Well......those peanut butter oatmeal cookies I talked about in my last post turned out to resemble rocks. I think I am in need of lessons on how to use the timer properly while baking. I don't know what happened.....one day, I knew how to cook and bake, the next I get married, have kids, and my cooking skills end up in the crapper. Oh well....at least they stuck around long enough for me to teach my husband what he needed to know about cooking before I lost all my skills. Now at least one of us can cook so we all won't starve. That is a plus. :-)

Well, it's Valentine's Day today. There is nothing like taking boxes of goodies from family members that sent things, passing them out to the kids and my husband in hopes of them not realizing I didn't get them anything more than just a card for Valentine's Day. With this economy how can anyone afford to spend all that money anyway? On the plus side....it makes me feel better when I know my gift from my husband was the fact that the white chicken chili he made for a chili cook off at work did not get totally eaten and he brought some home for me! Who needs to spend money when you can win my love with soup? My husband told me today on Facebook when I told him Happy Valentines Day on a post about soup that we had gotten a little too comfortable with our marriage.....I say.....I think not! I LOVE soup and my husband. I'm looking forward to many more years of soup and my husband. I hope he is too. Speaking of........it's supper soup time right now! Off I go! HAPPY VALENTINE' DAY everyone!

Once a month is enough.....right?

It looks as if I'm still taking my time with this whole blogging thing. Once a month is enough, right? Let's see if I can think of the new things that have happened since the last time I posted.

The kids have started gymnastics and are really enjoying it. After switching Dominick back and forth between every class offered to the boys; due to scheduling conflicts with Robotics Club and teachers that weren't working out, he is excelling so much that one of his teachers thinks that if he learns the terminology, he can move on to the more advanced beginner class. He's working with the older kids who are actually wanting to be there instead of the young beginners who still are using this as another recess and goofing off. Dominick no longer has to spend his class time doing extra push ups and sit ups and isn't getting rocks thrown at him by the other kids, but instead is

getting to do gymnastics that we signed him up for. Cora and and Hayden are also enjoying gymnastics but are taking a little longer to get used to all the stretching. Cora is loving that she gets to dress up in the pretty leotard and I think she enjoys swinging on the bars and doing the vault the most. Hayden loves the rings the most. He says he likes to hang from them but he still is working on steadying himself so that he can swing properly. We are really happy that all the kids are enjoying themselves and getting exercise.

Ryan went to a beer festival a couple weekends ago. He had a great time having a "guys" night....something he hasn't had much of at all. He was able to sell his beer tap handles that he had made from wood and antler. He is also learning quite a bit about beer from his friend Eric and is now paying more attention to what he is drinking and can pick out flavors and subtleties he never noticed before. By golly, he's growing up and becoming all fancy like.....well......it is still beer. He may be a beer snob but we need to get him to recognize all these fancy subtleties in wine. Then I can enjoy it with him because there are very few beers that I enjoy.

I am back in school again. I'm currently taking a Biology lecture class and a biology lab class. in another week, I start my accounting class and in about a month I start a Human Genetics class. It should be crazy! I got offered a job at a local grocery store in their cash office, however, I had to turn it down. I thought it over for quite a long time before I realized the amount of money that they could offer me was not worth it to try to figure out how to move everyone's schedules around to accommodate it. Since the kids are in after school activities and plan on starting baseball soon, there was really no way to get them to and from these places and still have me get to work on time. We couldn't afford to pay for childcare on the salary they could offer so we're back to square one. I'm currently trying to build my piano clientele by posting ads on craigslist and business cards around town. I'm still on the lookout for a permanent full-time job but it does have to be a 9-5 type job that pays well enough to afford after school care. Unfortunately, this area does not have an abundance of jobs so piano will do for now. It's enjoyable and the kids are great so not only does it provide a little income, it is fun as well.

Ryan and I had a date night last night and went to Wilmington to see Third Eye Blind. Oh my, we got out on a school night! We had a lot of fun and it was a wonderful break from the nonstop rush of life to spend some much needed time together. Thank goodness for radio shows and winning free tickets! Next week we are also planning a date night to see our friend make his debut playing guitar and singing down in Wilmington in the Calico Room. Two date nights in a

week....what a lucky guy he is........I mean....girl I am. LOL To top it off, the plan for the following weekend is to again go down to Wilmington, this time with the kiddos, go to a beer competition one night while the minis have a sitter and then spend the weekend down there exploring with them. It should be fun for the whole family.

Well, it is time for me to end this as I have a very important mommy mission to fulfill. We are making Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies before we make curry for dinner. Yum Yum! Lucky kiddos!

Christmas is over, New Year has started

Christmas is over and the New Year has begun. However, I feel I need to recap the amazing Christmas we had. Dominick has been telling us for years now that Santa is not real and that he believes that Ryan and I do all the work and pretend Santa does it. We have told him time and time again that there is NO way that we could be Santa because we don't have that kind of money to buy all those gifts that Santa is able to bring. Mommy and Daddy are struggling after the move to pay for electricity, rent and food. How could we afford an air hockey table, an MP3 player and a playdoh kit? Also, what mommy and daddy in their right mind would purchase playdoh for their kids? That is the type of gift that you regift to other people's children and shrug your shoulders and say, "Sorry." Moms and dads that are smart will continue to regift it all year long. Anyway, we were lucky enough to be able to reinforce the fact that we are not Santa and that he is in fact, "real." Uncle Ben came to visit and he was able to capture a quick photo of Santa putting the last present under the Christmas tree. He said he has never seen someone move so fast in his life! This has also reinforced my thinking about my weight. If that fat man can move so fast that Uncle Ben wasn't able to chase after him, maybe I'm just not quite fat enough and shouldn't worry so much about losing weight. Maybe that's why I can't run! Well, that's probably not a good idea but it is a nice thought. After Ben showed the kids this truly awesome picture, Dominick has changed his ideas about Santa and has now said he believes in Santa. I think the fact that he only got one present from Santa this year and a letter stating Santa wished Dominick still believed, helped reinstate the belief as well. I'm just happy my little ones are staying little just a wee bit longer!

Now that Christmas is over and the New Year has begun, the kids have gone back to school (THANK GOODNESS!), Ryan has gone back to work (I'm a little bummed), and I am starting school in 6 days and have applied for a multitude of jobs. Hopefully, someone sees my potential and is willing to hire me. Piano lessons have not taken off like we had hoped and I only have two students at the moment, so it's back to the land of hard work. Unfortunately, NC is not like CA and doesn't have a multitude of office and accounting jobs. So, it may be a little while before someone decides that I'm a good fit. I'm just happy I found a decent resume site online to be able to make it look like I've been doing something in the past 6 years while we lived in Japan. Gotta fool them somehow, right?

Hayden is taking Japanese lessons on Fridays after school and is slowly learning how to read and write. We're hoping to have him stick with it as long as he can. I'd love for him to be able to get to a high school that offers Japanese so he can be bilingual. Unfortunately, his really awesome teacher, Amalu, is going back to Okinawa on the 29th of January. On the plus side, her sister is arriving on the 24th so while he will have to adjust to a new person, his lessons can continue and she's bringing new books with her from Japan for his studies! I'm so thankful for foreign exchange students!

As for my school, I'm not lucky enough to concentrate on foreign languages. I have to take a Biology class, a Biology lab, a Human Genetics course and an Accounting course this spring. People looking at my classes this semester can't believe that my major is Accounting and

Business Administration. Why I have to waste my time on Biology and Genetics is beyond me but it's the ways of the U.S. education system. I guess I'm supposed to be well rounded or some crap like that! It's like putting lipstick on a pig, in my opinion but if I want these degrees, I have to suck it up and stop complaining. Eventually I'll be S-M-R-T!!

During the course of this post, Hayden has declared me to be such a bad parent because

he is NEVER allowed to play with his playdoh! Haha! My job is done! He has also declared that Ryan is not part of our family because he was told he would need to wait to do his "Family" art project that he brought home from school until Daddy came home to participate in being part of the family. What a little booger! He's too smart for his own good. I'm not sure if everyone new but to go along with his smartness, he has a "smart" new look. No longer is he one of the two only people in our family without glasses. He has joined the glasses wearing side of the family. I guess it's so he can say he looks edumacated. Cora is enjoying being the only one in our family with no glasses and hopes she doesn't ever have to get them. We hope the very same thing.

Well, it's that time to start making dinner, to deal with the kids, and to find out where my husband is. He must be hiding out in hopes that dinner will be made before he gets here. Haha! At least I'm not helping him with that crazy delusion. As if this mommy can get things done on time! Yeah right! Good night and hope everyone that is reading this is well. Hopefully, I'll be able to write a little more often since I'm guaranteed to be on the computer for school.

Life in NC

I guess I can't really call my blog "Life in Iwakuni" when we are no longer there. It must be time to change the name. In the meantime, we are now here in NC. Ryan is now working on base at Camp Lejeune. Same type of work, but now he has people willing to help do the work. That is a huge change from what he has been used to for the last 6 years. I'm just excited since he has been able to take more leave in the past 5 months than he has in the past 6 years almost. We can actually spend time as a family which we have been lacking. I've tried to start up piano lessons, however, it's been a bit slow and I only have two students. I'm trying to get through this year without working a real job so I have decided to help watch kids at a local MOPS group through December. Starting in January, I am on the job hunt and starting back to school. I have 4 classes lined up for this spring. I hadn't done any of my science credits so even though I'm going to school for business and accounting, my classes this spring make me look like I'm a science major. I'll be taking Biology and a Biology lab and a Human Genetics class. Along with those, I'll be taking my second accounting class. It should be a tough semester but if I can get through it, I can get through just about anything I suppose. I have been keeping busy since we've moved with getting the house together and knitting. The kids will definitely be warm for the winter.

The kids are enjoying their time here in NC. Dominick has joined the robotics club at school. His team placed tenth out of fourteenth. His team was the youngest team and only had six weeks to prepare while everyone else had five months. I think they did really well. He's going to continue to remain in the robotics club and they'll only get better during the next couple years. He is also reading at a sixth grade level and doing well in the rest of his subjects. He is an honor student his first year in his new school. We're so proud of him. Cora is repeating second grade and doing very well. She has been put back in the classroom instead of taken out for special reading and math classes because she is doing so well. Her teacher said there is nothing that we should be worried about at this time which is the best news we've had since she was diagnosed with ADHD. Hopefully, next year will go just as smoothly. Hayden is enjoying kindergarten but he has said he is bored sometimes. I attribute that to him having been in school for the past three years in Japan. He is in the top of his class this year and is already reading. He has really surprised us all with how well he is doing with his math and reading. He is also taking Japanese lessons from a Japanese foreign exchange student. He says he doesn't want to learn but while he is in the lessons, he seems to enjoy himself. We're hoping that he can stick with it long enough to find a high school that offers Japanese. It would be wonderful if he could be fluent by the time he graduates. Only time will tell. We're coming up on Christmas time. We'll be visiting friends up in Williamsburg, VA the week before the holidays. The kids should really enjoy the colonial houses and Busch Gardens. We'll be spending New Years here at home with friends having appetizers and drinks and playing games. It will be a great way to celebrate 2012 coming!

Back to the grind

Well, the two older kids are back in school. Ryan and I are finishing up our last couple weeks of classes before starting new classes. Hayden is the only one lucky enough to still be on Christmas break.

We had a wonderful Christmas and an awesome New Years Eve Party with some great friends. We hope to get some more rest this year than last but still hope to spend some quality time with the wonderful people in our lives before we leave Iwakuni at the end of this year.

In the meantime we hope to get through as much school, housework, bills and saving money as possible and end the summer with a fun trip to Tokyo and Mt. Fuji. Here's to hoping 2011 brings us all these wonderful things!

We hope this finds you all having a wonderful first part of the New Year and hope to hear from many of you throughout the year!

Off to the accounting homework! WAHOO!