Blog posts

So, I think I'm really bad about keeping up with blog posts. In fact, I know I am. It's just one more thing to add to my day of stuff that I never get done. I feel that since I've become a mommy this has been the story of my life.

Today has been "one of those days." It started out to be what I thought would be a great day. The kids slept in, so I got to sleep in. They even came and cuddled with me before we got up to start our day. The kids went off ahead of me to pour cereal and turn a cartoon on so I could get up and get ready for the day. When I walked out of my room 30 minutes later, a scene of mass destruction lay in each of their bedrooms. I went downstairs to find out that not one of my kids had decided to actually get breakfast and were just starting to make oatmeal when I walked into the kitchen.....which actually ended with just as much dried powdered oatmeal on the floor as there was eaten. After breakfast, I sent them all upstairs with my words trailing behind them, "CLEAN YOU ROOM AND THEN YOU CAN PLAY." All morning.....no cleaning occurred, had to take the van to the Toyota dealership for new spark plugs....no cleaning, all afternoon......no cleaning occurred, daddy came home from work........still no cleaning had occurred. Fighting, more destruction and a lot of whining had occurred instead.

It's "one of those days" when you pull out the Cabernet Sauvignon at 4:00 PM. No....I did not drink the whole bottle though it crossed my mind at first. Luckily, my knight in shining armor took the three minions to the store with him to give me a break before we had to go pick up our van. I thought I would get a chance to fold some laundry and then relax. Instead, I just relaxed. So much nicer that way! I thought the day was looking up. Not quite so sure after the following episode.

After dinner, Cora was still hungry so she got a banana which happened to be a little overripe. It was not brown but it was soft in parts. Cora decided that since it didn't look right, she was no longer hungry after a couple of bites. I proceeded to listen to "I'm fu-ull, my tummy huuurts, I'm fu-ull, my tummy huuuurts.....over and over and over again. Ryan took matters into his hands after we listened to the whining for 10 minutes or so. All I can say is thank goodness for my wonderful hubby. I'm trying to pick and choose my battles and the wasting food battle is one I choose to fight. Lucky for me, Ryan battles it a whole different way. The whining stopped, the children are in bed, and I'm starting to return to halfway sane. I guess it's time for homework now.

So, though I'm horrible at this blogging thing....hopefully, the story of how a day in the life of my family goes, helps justify my not getting to this task. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but with so little to do here in Iwakuni on a small budget....the whining and fighting has increased tremendously. Oh how I look forward to moving back to the states to have things to do!

On a side note...and thinking about it now....it probably should have been the main part of the post, if I was a good mommy, but here are some pictures from our wonderful Christmas day which for once had very little fighting, yelling, screaming, kicking or punching.

Busy week

This has been a busy week for all us, more for than the kids than me, but since I get to play chauffeur it seems pretty busy to me also.

Dominick is in his second week of DEFY camp. It's Drug Education For Youth camp. They are teaching him and many other kids how to resist drugs and giving him great alternatives to drugs. They have been keeping him busy all week long with team building activities, games, trips to the Kintai bridge, bowling, movie theater, fire and police depts. and on Friday they are even doing some community service at Tsu Tsu beach helping to clean it up! During the school year, once Saturday a month will be devoted to DEFY for either fun trips or tutoring. I think this will be a wonderful way for Dominick to spend his year having good role models and feeling he's part of something good. He has also been going with his brother and sister to Vacation Bible School at the chapel on base in the evenings.

Cora has been going to a Vacation Bible School every morning out in town at our church, Calvary Chapel. She is really enjoying spending time with her friends and learning about God's Word. She asked Jesus into her heart this morning while praying at her church. She's becoming a wonderful young lady. In the evenings, she's been going to Vacation Bible School at the chapel on base. She has very little time at home this week because she's so busy at church. The time spent at home is to eat and sleep.

Hayden is joining Cora and Dominick at Vacation Bible School at the base chapel each evening. He's kind of rambunctious and the director had to talk with me after the second night telling me he wasn't being a good listener and that he was actually taken out of his room that night. After a long talk with Hayden, last night seemed to be pretty good. I don't know if he's bored or if the difference in structure between yochien and Vacation Bible School is so great, but I was very surprised that he was acting up. I've never had a bad report about Hayden in the last year at yochien so it definitely wasn't expected.

I've finally gotten enrolled in college. I ordered three out of my 5 books and I'll be taking 4 classes this fall. My classes will consist of Introduction to Business Management, Principles of Accounting I, Advanced Business Writing, and World War II History Class. This should definitely keep me busy but I know I need to get it done before my $6,000 grant for military spouses is no longer available to me. I'm hoping since I start the same day that the kids do at their school that I should be able to get a lot of my homework done and not have to worry about it interfering with my time with the kids. I do have to worry about it interfering with my time where I should clean. But hey, who needs a clean house anyway?

Ryan is enrolled in the same University I am. He is taking the same History Class with me also and will be taking two computer tests to CLEP out of the basic computer classes. His class load will definitely be lighter than mine but that comes with him taking classes while he's working full time. I wanted him to take a class with me so we can share the cost of books and we can help each other with assignments. The more we can do together, the easier this whole school thing will be.

That's what's happened so far this week and hopefully we'll have a new post about has happened over the weekend. We will definitely have to make the most out of these last weekends of the summer with the kids since school will take up a lot of our time. The kids will hopefully see the importance of homework when watching us scramble to get all our stuff done. I'm hoping they're smart and go to a regular university when they grow up. That way they're not cramming all their school work into a week full of kids and work like we are.

Well, off to get dinner for the kids before I chauffeur them to Vacation Bible School

Summer is finally here for all kids

Cora finished her summer school program and is excited to have a full-on summer vacation now. Unfortunately, she has had some problems with keeping her room clean and with taking other people's things, so her summer vacation is resulting in no toys and grounding. Hayden is joining her in this endeavor as he is her partner in crime. So, while he has finished yochien and is having his summer break, he is also indulging in the wonderful world of being grounded!

On a happier note, Dominick is becoming a wonderful helper around the house and is enjoying being able to go out and play with his friends. He is spending time at the pool, the park and lately at the skate park with his friend, Braiden. Hopefully, with a little more coordination, we can get him a skateboard.

Ryan and I are starting on something we've been putting off for way too long..................school!!!! I have enrolled in University of Maryland University College for an Accounting and Business Administration Double Major. It will definitely keep me busy but hopefully, it will eventually result in me becoming a CPA. Ryan has called the school about getting his Tuition Assistance and has a meeting with an advisor this next week. Hopefully, he'll get enrolled in this Fall Session with me and we can take some of our classes together.

We've been trying to figure out a way to get all 5 of us back to the states in October to attend Ryan's dad's wedding but unfortunately, it looks like we will have to have more adventures in Japan instead. Flying 5 of us to the states is a huge expense and we can't rely on the Patriot Express (military flight) since it is during the school year and Ryan will only have a certain amount of leave. We would hate to get stuck back in the states and Ryan not make it back before his leave runs out or the kids get stuck and be out of school for even longer than the two weeks we plan. We will miss getting to see him get married and miss getting to socialize with everyone but it's a little more than a year and we will be back in the states for good.....well, at least the kids and I will be. Who knows if Ryan will deploy or not. Oh, the joys of the Marine Corps.

Well, I'm off to do some laundry before piano lessons start for the day! Hopefully, I can tackle Mt. Laundry and get me in shape for Mt. Fuji next summer. HAHAHAHAHA!

Long time No Post

So, it's been a long time since I've posted anything on here. I keep starting all these new sites to try to keep in touch with people and allow family and friends to see pictures of the kids. However, I'm not very good with sticking with it due to everything else going on in our lives. This blog in particular shows that the most.

So, to catch everyone up; Dominick and Cora finished their school year. Dominick is officially a 4th grader and Cora officially is a 2nd grader. Dominick finished out his school year at the top of his class, had an awesome science fair project about electromagnets, and according to his teacher was a big help in his class. Cora successfully reached all her goals in her IEP for speech! She no longer needs the speech therapy as she is finally caught up. She does have an extra reading class now to help give her support during he normal classes. The extra help in reading has allowed her to progress form a reading level of 4 to 10 in a matter of a couple months. I'm so proud of her. Hopefully, with her new medication to help keep her focused, she will continue to progress. We're hoping to take her off the medication this fall and get her tested for a learning disability right away. I'd rather handle any problems with extra help and support in school and from us then to medicate her. Currently, she is in a summer program to reinforce everything she's learned throughout the past school year and add additional learning before the next year. Hayden is still finishing up his school year. He has another week or two before he's done for the summer. Right now he is swimming at his yochien, learning to speak Japanese better and is even starting to talk to people in the community which is really helping us out. He's such a good little translater. He's growing up so fast and soon I won't have any little kids in the house anymore. So scary, but also such a delight! I'm enjoying how much less my house gets destroyed by them as they grow up.

Today is a day with no children, but also a day where all our money will disappear into the Japanese economy. JCI = Japanese Compulsory Insurance. We have to go take our new car into to get an inspection and purchase secondary insurance on our car. The exchange rate is going to crap right now so we spent $571 on new tires so our car would pass the inspection and we wanted to take at least 70000 yen with us which normally with a good exchange rate that would be close to $700 but instead is over $800. Ouch! on our pocketbook. Well, time to take the kids to the sitters so we can head off for our inspection. Wish us luck!

Camping at Seven Falls (Zyakuchikyo)

We planned a trip up to a place called Seven Falls for the weekend of July 4th. We were supposed to go with our friends the Griffey's around 1 PM on July 3rd. Unfortunately, that morning we realized our car was not going to make it up the mountains with our brakes as bad as they sounded. So, after a couple different stops, we found a Toyota Dealership that could fix our brakes but wouldn't have them done until 6 PM. So, our friends left and went up to the campground to set up while we got the brakes done, fed the kids and had them nap. We were on the road a little before 7 after picking up the car, getting gas and getting food for the kids. Luckily, the trip only took a couple of hours and we arrived there around 9 after a couple wrong turns and much rain pouring down on us. So, unfortunately, the campground and our tent which our friends were nice enough to set up for us were soaking wet. Also, our tent was missing a pole which kept the ends of the tent up so water would pour away from the tent and not in the tent. Since we were missing that pole, we had a tent full of water along every edge and corner. We hung out for an hour or so with our friends to relax, then laid our sleeping bags in the middle of the tent and piled our bags on top of the kids feet of the their sleeping bags since it was the only dry spot an none of them really reached the ends of their sleeping bags and we tried for about 2 hours to get them all to go to sleep.

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast. The kids had cereal and bacon and we had some eggs and bacon and bagels. We all put our tennis shoes on except for our friend Amy who did the whole hike pregnant and in flip flops and we hiked up to the top of the mountain to see the water falls and the view and then we came back down. Here are some of the pictures from the hike.
The picture on the top right is one of the first waterfalls as we were starting up the stairs to get to the top of the mountain.These pictures are of Ryan and the kids. The one on the left is them by the manmade waterfall early in the morning. The one towards the right is as we were hiking up the mountain. They are standing on a bridge in front of one of the waterfalls.Here we all are standing on the same bridge. Our friend Amy was nice enough to take a picture for us so everyone in our family could be included. Then, we swapped and I took pictures for their family. It was a great but tiring hike up the mountain. I definitely got a workout since almost the entire way up the moutain it was steps. Talk about a step aerobic workout! This would definitely be it.

This waterfall was farther up the mountain. It was awesome to be able to watch all the water rushing down the mountain and was definitely a calming feeling to hear the water. We really enjoyed the trip there.Luckily the whole way up the mountain there were stairs and for the most part, they had handrails so Hayden was able to make it up to the top with the help of Ryan.This waterfall in this picture was one of the waterfalls we found towards the top of the mountain. I was so happy that I remembered to take my camera and was able to get some great scenic shots from our trip. This will definitely be a place to take family to visit and camp when they come to Japan. Hope you all are ready for the wilderness. The part of the hike that I thought the kids might get scared of was the cave that we had to walk through. It was pitch black and you couldn't see the end of it when you walked in. Luckily the flash from my camera was bright enough to get the picture! The kids were just excited and all I heard was "ECHO, ECHO". It was very cute. The rest of the hike had some very narrow steps, some missing handrails and at the very top had no steps and no handrails. Only Ryan and our friend Dustin went up to the top. Since Amy, the kids and I couldn't see the top view, the guys got us some pictures of the top of the mountain. Here is a partial view from the top with Ryan showing how high up we hiked. Definitely a good workout! The picture of Ryan and Hayden walking together by the man made waterfall is at the end of our hike back down the mountain and the rest of the pictures that will be posted on here are some pictures showing the campground and the kids having fun. We hope you enjoyed looking at our pictures because we know we enjoyed taking them.

School's Out....Summer's Here!

Well, school is officially out here in Iwakuni. The kids finished up their last day of classes on June 11th. They had a half day of school and then a half day of playing outside with their friends! To end the school year we followed the tradition Grandpa Greg started with his kids and enjoyed rootbeer floats at A&W. Because the restaurant is inside the bowling alley and joined with Pizza Hut, the kids enjoyed bowling and some new Chicken Alfredo and cheesesticks from Pizza Hut! What a fun way to end the school year. Cora is now in 1st grade and Dominick is a 3rd grader! Dominick's teacher is moving away and going to teach in Okinawa Japan so he gets to see what a regular 3rd grade class is like. No more combined 1st, 2nd and 3rd for him. It'll be good though to see if he's ahead in anything or if he's behind in anything. It will show us if the combined class was beneficial or not because they also have the combined 4th and 5th grade class. We'll have an idea if we want him to be in there or not the following year.

Summer is now here and the kids are already enjoying themselves. They have had watergun fights at the park with friends and turned the park's slides into water slides by getting them all wet. We enjoyed almost an entire day at the pool and are definitely going to be going back for more. Dominick has enjoyed riding is bike, playing horseshoes with his daddy and hanging out with his friends. Cora plays in the backyard with her friends and has enjoyed some days at the park too. She's not old enough to be outside on her own unless she's in our backyard, so if it's hot and too muggy for me to go sit outside all day, she has kept busy with her Littlest Pet Shops up in her room. Thanks to our friend Devon she has kept her room clean for over a month. I don't know what Devon said to her but thank goodness for her miracles! Hayden is still going to yochien during the week. On the 22nd, they start teaching him swimming. At least I have one I won't have to pay for swimming lessons for. He has enjoyed his afternoons swimming or playing at the park with his brother and sister. And of course they have all enjoyed not having to be in bed by 8 every night. They love being able to stay up late. I just wish they'd now learn the art of sleeping in. I'm sure they'll learn it soon enough and they'll escape chores and everything I think is important by staying in bed. Then I'll wish I never wished for it, kinda like wanting my children to talk and walk. I don't know if that was such a good idea now. :-)

I hope everyone is doing well and I'm sure there will be more posts of our summer fun soon. For anyone in South Dakota, we'll be seeing you at the end of July!

Bad mommy

I had the case of bad mommyitis last Thursday. After Cora went to school, I discovered that she was supposed to have a field trip on that day and that I was supposed to have sent her to school with a lunch, water, sunscreen, and a change of clothes in her backpack so she could go to the Asa Zoo up near Hiroshima. Instead, unaware of this field trip, I sent her to school with a backpack full of library books and a blanket for nap time. The paperwork specifically said to make sure there was nothing extra in her backpack as she was going to have to carry it around all day at the zoo. I felt horrible.

So, I called my friend and she got ready to go with me, I made a lunch for Cora, grabbed a smaller backpack and filled it with the lunch, the water, and sunscreen and stopped at the ATM for yen and off we went to meet up with the bus at the zoo. We drove up to the zoo and when we got there discovered the zoo is closed on every Thursday of the year. Not only were all the gates to the zoo closed, the parking lot was all roped off so we couldn't even get in there. I thought I read the paperwork wrong. So, I called Ryan, had him borrow a car from a friend since we only have one van at the moment, and asked him to go to the house to look at the paperwork. He got there and told me I wasn't going crazy and that the paperwork said the 28th so he called the school. They informed us that the field trip had been canceled for that day and moved to June 2nd. They said paperwork was sent home about it but unfortunately we hadn't seen any. When Cora got home from school that night, she produced that paperwork and then we realized why we had no idea. Even though I had the bad mommyitis and forgot about the lunch...at least it all worked out in the long run.

On the plus side, my friend Devon has been visiting Japan for over a month now and has seen very little of the country so we were able to stop at Miyajima and tour the island with no children. So, here are some pictures from our trip there.