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!