Why, oh why, do I torture myself like this?

Every once in awhile, I get this weird desire to be a "good" mom.  You know the type.  Her kids socks are organized alphabetically by color.  Schedules are color coded.  Exciting, stimulating activities are planned-exposure to so many diverse things!

Then there is me.  I buy socks in white, cream, and black.  There is no matching of socks to outfits.  Schedules are kept in my iPhone.  They are also forgotten in my iPhone.  I do, every once in awhile, plan exciting, stimulating activities.  They sounds fantastic in my head.  Doing them is another story.

Yesterday was a lovely, bright, sunny and warm day.  Perfect for playing in the water.  I could have pulled out the water table.  Or the sprinkler.  Or bought a little pool.  However...it was project time!  My chairs have needed to be scrubbed down for some time.  They have mold.  Gross, I know.  It's a combination of them being in an incredibly humid place and having small people that spill a lot of food.  And drinks.

So, what better way to have fun and play in the water, and generally go crazy than to have the kids help me scrub the chairs?!?  Really, what was I thinking?

I armed the big one with a soapy sponge and put him on hose duty.  Turn it on, then turn it off.  Only, half the time, he couldn't remember which way to turn it.  I guess I can forgive that-he is not yet 4.  However, he seemed to have a thing against getting the faucet soapy. 

The little one did not get a sponge.  He just toddled around, falling all over the place, getting in the mud and overall was underfoot.  He, of course, had a blast. 

In the end, my chairs ended up sufficiently cleaned and the boys had fun anyways.

Move on to today and my hairbrained ideas...today's idea was baking cookies with B.  My mother (known to B and K as Mama) sent a box with some great Mickey mouse stuff.  Unfortunately, it's not any thing that happens to be great all by itself...no, she sent, amongst other stuff, a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter and Mickey Mouse sprinkles.  Thanks Mama.  Just because I let my kids play with playdough...

So, against my better judgement, and frankly, because I was tired of hearing him ask, B and I made cookies today.

He actually did decently well.  While K napped, we mixed the dough.  I set up the mixer, measured out ingredients (B learned 2 new words-ingredients and recipe.  How is that for stimulating!?!?) and generally cursed the thought of making cookies.

B then came over and helped make a mess, um, I mean, make cookie dough.  He actually did pretty well.  He got to add in the sugar (we used Splenda actually-because, you know,  calories count when you're making cookies!), the eggs and the flour. 

After dinner, a walk, and putting K to bed, B and I finished up our cookies.  We pulled the dough out of the fridge, he helped me cut it out, and we baked and decorated our Mickeys.

That poor fellow on the bottom left-yeah, that's Mickey's little known second cousin once removed, Vinnie.  Poor Vinnie lost his ear at some point.  He doesn't like to talk about it.  Next to Cousin Vinnie-the naked Mickey-well, that's because Mom ran out of icing Mom didn't think that the baby needed all that extra sugar.

 

Apparently, they were good.  I must concur-after my 3rd cookies, I think they came out okay. 

An ode to my (internet) love....

Except I am not really going to write an ode, because, let's face it, I suck at poetry.  I don't even like reading it.  I'm damn sure not going to write it.

But, back to my non-ode....Google, I love thee!  How on Earth did we survive for thousands of millenia without Google?  Without the internets??  I look back, even to just high school, and wonder how different it would have been if I had been wired.  Hmmm.

Tonight, I had to vacuum.  Very exciting, I know.  I lead an impossibly exciting life-there are days where I am just absolutely sure that I may drop dead if things get any more intriguing.  Tonight was one of those nights.  I was not only going to vacuum, I was also planning on......wait for it.........MOPPING!  MOPPING!  My nine-thousandth favorite thing to do!  And tonight was the night.  The excitement, the joy!  However, I had to get through the vacuuming (my 9002nd favorite thing to do-it narrowly lost to dusting).  Lucky for me, I have this incredible vacuum cleaner.  I am a crazy fool and spent entirely too much money on a Dyson vacuum.  I mean, the thing doesn't even vacuum for me, no, I still have to do that.

Anyways-for those of you wondering what the hell this has to do with my Google infatuation-the beater bar on the vacuum wasn't working.  I'm a well-learned sort of individual-I immediately turned the vacuum cleaner upside down and opened it up, expecting to need to replace the belt.

Well, no.  The belt was fine.  More than fine.  Looked mostly new.  I cleaned up the bar, thinking maybe it's had enough of having my hair all tangled up in it...nope, didn't fix it.

What to do?  Ah, of course.  Google!  I googled "Dyson carpet bar does not work" and voila!  In a matter of seconds, I had my solution.  It took less time to find the solution than it did to actually apply the solution.

What isn't there to love about Google?  Where else can you look up the lyrics to your favorite song?  See naked pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio?  Learn what to do to fix your Dyson?  Stalk your friends and enemies?  Oh, wait, no, that's Facebook.  Where else would I have learned that I am suffering from hypothyroidism, depression, stress, Lyme Disease, Irritable Bowel Disease, and general malaise, with a good dose of binge drinking thrown in there every once in awhile?  Google, of course!

And if you think you've reached the ends of the internets?  (I have nearly done this-I was horrified at what lay ahead...nothing new to read!).  Simply Google some random and fascinating subject.  Or, Facebook your former enemy and note with glee how fat they've gotten...oh wait.  I never, ever do that.  Never.  Besides, this post is about Google, not Facebook. 

I have always thought that the public library was the greatest invention ever.  I may have to revise that thought, and allow Google to take the number one position.  Right now though, the library still holds number one by just a slight margin....after all, you can access Google at the public library!


PS-Happy St. Patrick's day to my friends...who are out at the bar....without me.  :(

Um, did you just lick my toes???

My children routinely crack me up.  (When they aren't driving me crazy, that is.)

The things that they do and say-my god.  I often wish I had recorded it to send into America's Funniest Home Videos-assuming that show is even still currently running.  I have no clue-I'm a little TV isolated here, in Japan.  We don't have any cable, so we don't see anything brand-new on TV, ever.  We actually pretty much never watch TV actually-just the kids stuff.

So, today, we were at the commissary, picking up a few things (60-freaking-dollars of a "few" things!).  We had paid and I was waiting for the bagger to finish up.  Brendan was jumping around and stepped on my toe.  I reminded him not to jump around-told him he had stepped on my toe and hurt it.  He apologized, and I went back to paying attention to the bagger.

Suddenly, I felt something-something wet-ON MY TOE!  Warm, wet and kind of squishy.  I looked down and it was Brendan, licking my toe!  Eww, eww, eww.  I'm not sure what was grosser-him licking my toe, or me having him lick my toe.

I told him (in my best parent voice) "Stop!  You do not do that."  He jumped up, the bagger finished, and we started walking out of the commissary.

I told him as we were walking out of the commissary, "Don't do that again.  We don't lick toes."

He said to me, "I was kissing your toe Mommy.  I hurt it."

I said, "Well, thank you for trying to make it better.  But, no kissing toes please.  That's yucky."

And then we went about our merry way.

The Clearance Aisle: A Very Dangerous Place

Today ended up being a wonderful day.

It started out on the wrong foot...kids up early, cranky, husband home from work late trying to sleep, tantrums (the kids, not the husband)....

I was done with the day by 8:15.  A.M.  Yes, it was that bad.  Luckily, it was time for the cranky, tired wonderful husband to get (woken) up.  I had to leave at 8:50 to workout.  Yes, workout.  Yes, on a Saturday.  I wouldn't pass it up for the world...CrossFit, while looking at that gorgeous ocean, without kids.  What's not to love?

The husband finally stumbled out of bed and I rushed off to workout.  After a workout that was 2 parts strenous and 3 parts a little too easy (I should have used more weight, I know, I know!) I headed back home to get ready for the rest of the day.

We rushed about, showers, lunch for the kids and piled into the cars.  Once again, bliss...Daddy drove with the devil darling children and I drove my car, peacefully, listening to the sounds of....only the radio!  No whining, no crying, nothing but the not-so-good AFN deejay.  Hey, I'll take what I can get.

We dropped my car off for a much-needed oil change, and then dropped the short ones off at the CDC, for Give Parents a Break Day.  We kissed, hugged, said "You'll be fine" and dashed out the door...freedom!  5 hours of freedom!

We went to lunch at one of our favorite Italian (!) places and stuffed ourselves with delicious soup, pasta, pizza and dessert.  I could hardly walk out the door.  (Remind me again of why I wonder why I can't lose weight???)

We, being the boring people we are, headed over to the PX on Foster to look for the printer ink that Kadena was out of.  No ink.  Then, we wandered over to the Twilight Zone...aka, the Power Zone Clearance Aisle. 

Printer ink.  We came to purchase printer ink.  We did not purchase printer ink.  We did however, purchase a Nintendo Wii.  And a game.  Same thing right?  Ink, video game console.  You can see the similarities, I'm sure. 

We've (okay, I've) been thinking about a Wii for awhile.  While the boys aren't quite video game age yet, Brendan is starting to get interested.  He has a Leapster that he enjoys, and a preschool computer game-and he delights in playing Daddy's flight simulator game.  So, with that said, a Wii seemed reasonable...for maybe Christmas.  Only, it's um, well, March.

But, it was ON SALE!  Yes, that makes all the difference in the world.  It was a customer return, and marked 25% off.  It has all the parts.  Good as new-and $50 bucks cheaper!   Score one for impulsiveness.

We also bought a scuba diving game.  I can't remember what it's called.  It came with a Wii Speak.  I'm convinced this is an important piece of Wii-quipment.  (It is, isn't it?  Pleaes tell me it is.)  Now, when we can't get out to actually scuba dive, due to the weather, the sea condition, it's too cold, no babysitter for for the little darlings, well, we can scuba dive anyways.  On the Wii.  BCD and regulator not required. 

But seriously, we're hoping to find a few family friendly games, and ones that can be good for being active and burning of the excess of energy that two little boys seem to make in endless quantities on rainy days. 

We wrapped up our day by a Starbucks date with friends (we shared a Frappuccino-calories don't count that way, right?), went to the Kadena BX to check out their stash of clearance stuff-not nearly as exciting-and picked up the kids, the car and came home. 

In Love with the Ocean

I have had the pleasure of living on the island of Okinawa for two years and four months now.  To some people here, that is a long, long time.  To me, it's a short little flash.  It's been 2 years, and four months, already? 

Some are bored of island life after the initial enchantment wears off-which probably occurs sometime shortly after the third or fourth day of non-stop rain.  (I am not kidding.  It can, and does rain like that here-sometimes for longer stretches.  It's rather amazing the amount of water that can pour from the sky.  Amazing in an annoying sort of way.)

Two years, four months and counting...and I still love island life.  Admittedly, my viewpoint of island life might be just a tad different than thousands of others on this island-I get to enjoy it all day, every day.  I traded my 7-4 job for a 24/7 job...but one that allows me the freedom (mostly) to enjoy this island life.

I see the ocean every single day.  Multiple times a day.  I never get tired of it.  It looks different every single day.  Some days are so gray, you can barely tell the water from the sky.  Some days are hazy and you can't see anything but water stretching before you.  Other days, it's so amazingly clear you can see the other islands around us, off in the distance.  Some days, it's stormy, with whitecaps visible and small waves crashing up on the shore.  (The water around Okinawa is for the most part calm-we do not have lots of waves constantly rolling in, as you might on the California coast.  Our ocean surroundings surprised my California-native mom.) 

This morning, the ocean was glass.  It looked like a giant pond-smooth, still, lit by the early sun.  It was incredibly beautiful-I wish I had had my camera ready to go.  (Instead, I was loading kids and driving to preschool and to run errands.)

Early this afternoon, the ocean was full of ripples and small waves breaking around the reefs.  I went for a run-most of it in sight of the ocean, some of it close enough that I could see into the clear water right down to the sand and reefs.  It was low tide-and the shallow water was a beautiful turquoise, slowly transitioning into a deep blue    It was beautiful out.  Breezy, warm, low humidity...and that glittering ocean.  I wanted to jump in. 

Two years of island life has spoiled me.  I honestly do not know how I will fare going back to a landlocked existence when our time in Okinawa ends.  In the meantime though, I will get my fill of the ocean on a daily basis-and hopefully store enough pretty pictures in my head to sustain me when we leave.

Thoughts from Nearly Half a Lifetime Ago

Today, it was a normal day-wake up, eat breakfast, get the boys ready to leave.

Then, I looked at FB.  And I was reminded of my high school days, and nearly instantly transported back 14 years ago (nearly half of my life ago!) to a time of sadness.

Memories, some that I haven't thought about in years have flooded back to me today.  Fuzzy details.  As each hour has passed today, I have recalled more and more.  Time has dulled the memories-I no longer remember each detail sharply, rather, it is more like recalling a dream.  A bad dream.

14 years ago, two of my classmates died in a car accident.  Two well-liked girls, best friends.  One worked with me at Dairy Queen.  And, one of those fuzzy memories has just popped up...I think they other girl had just started working there as well.  Several of my classmates worked there-we all knew one each other-it was a small school, and many of us had known each other for years.

It was a weekend day....Saturday maybe?  Sunday?  I don't recall.  I just know it was 1996.  March of 1996.  I didn't (until FB) remember the exact day even, though I do recall thinking I would never forget that day.

One of the girls boyfriend's came into Dairy Queen.  (Many of these memories are actually coming to me as I am typing).  Chris, Amy's boyfriend.  He had a police scanner in his car (?).  He had heard an accident report on it.  I don't remember what tipped him off-maybe the location?  A description of the car?  Description of the girls?  A gut feeling?

He (Chris) tried to page Amy.  She didn't answer.  That was unusual.  For some reason, he came into Dairy Queen.  I don't recall why.  We were working-it was a slow day.  Midafternoon?  Late afternoon?  He told us what was going on.  We let him come use the phone behind the counter.  The owner walked in. He was really upset at us letting him behind the counter to use the phone.  I don't remember what happened next.  I don't remember if we got any sort of confirmation at that time.  I don't think so.  I remember feeling disbelief and shock.  Just the night before (at work) Amanda, my other classmate, had asked if I wanted to go to the end of the basketball game after work-and could I give her a ride?  I declined-I didn't really feel like driving a half hour out there so late.  I regretted that for a long time.  It wouldn't have changed anything-but it would have been a nice thing to do.

I can't remember how long I was at work after all of this happened.  I vaguely recall calling my mom...wanting her to pick me up.  I didn't want to drive.  I also remember her getting nearly hysterical when she originally thought it was Gina in an accident-a fellow classmate, a member of my Girl Scout troop, and someone we had known for years.  I do remember quickly reassuring her that it was not Gina, that Gina was fine.

It's a blur after that.  Did I sleep that night?  I have no idea.  Was anything even confirmed that night?  Again, no clue.  I don't even remember how we were told at school.  Was it in our classes?  An assembly?  I don't remember.

I do remember though that Amanda was in my Honors English class.  I remember that empty desk, just a few desks away from me.  I remember all of us looking at it.  Every last one of us.  Our eyes would go to that desk, and we'd have to look away.

I also remember the funerals.  The differences in them.  Amanda's-at the chapel on Peterson.  Very solemn Very sad.    Amy's.  At her church-a Catholic church I believe.  It was sad, of course, but more of a celebration of her life.  A lively eulogy, an urging to remember her as she lived.  I remember food afterwords, cookies and cakes...and the irony of eating cake after a funeral.

I remember it was just before spring break.  I went to California with my family, and with Jason.  Amy and Amanda were supposed to go to California too-I think to maybe visit Amy's sister, who had just had a baby (??).  I remember the entire time I was in California, I thought of them.  Thought of how they should have been enjoying themselves.  

I also remember that desk.  I don't remember how long it sat empty, a Monday through Friday reminder of loss.  I do remember vividly when that desk was filled.  It was the "empty" desk-and the new student got it.  But to us, it wasn't empty.  It was occupied by the spirit of a girl taken too soon-and having someone new sit there was another blow to us all.  It finalized things in some way-before, it sat empty, waiting for it's occupant... and once filled, it slowly turned back into an ordinary desk, occupied by a  ordinary teenage girl, rather than by the ethereal spirit that had lingered there. 

Fourteen years has passed...and this still brings tears to my eyes.  I was not even a good friend...just a casual friend, fellow classmate and co-worker..and yet, it affected us all.

Weekend....bliss??

Bliss, not so much actually.

Brendan, as many of you know, is proving to be a rather difficult child-lots of ignoring us, doing the opposite of what we've asked, doing anyways what we've told him not to do...so it can make for some difficult days. He's also prone to some temper tantrums when things don't go his way. All can add up to some rather trying times.

Our Saturday started out like this-attitude from the get-go. We didn't think it would be much of a good day-but we managed to mostly salvage it.

We started out with a walk to show Jason the market where we have been buying fruits/veggies. We got a few more things-some various greens/lettuces/something green and presumably edible for salads anyways, garlic (I want to make baked garlic like Arin Krin), a lemon, and maybe some other stuff I can't remember. We walked back through some neighborhood areas, saw beautiful views of the ocean, Fisherman's Wharf restaurant, and generally just sweated our way back home.

Once home, it was lunchtime for the boys and Jason left to play basketball with friends from work. Kieran decided that screaming was the appropriate naptime behavior (rather than sleeping, of course!) and Brendan, who had earlier lost his TV, computer and playroom privileges, entertained our neighbor with the story of his life. (We live next door to another American family-also Air Force.)

While I worked on cleaning Facebooking, Kieran screamed and Brendan both charmed the neighbors and watered the flowers for me. Jason came home sooner than expected, as no one else showed up for basketball. He wonderfully entertained the boys in the backyard with the water table and the sprinkler, while I actually got to clean the house. (Or Facebook maybe??)

We ended the evening by going and getting a movie to watch, went to a new (to us) restaurant- Hanahou- and had fabulous garlic shrimp, tuna sashimi and shrimp/avocado/wasabi salad. MMM. The boys (and mom!) shared a great Hawaiian pizza-the crust with thin, crunchy, and delicious. No tomato sauce on it either-there was some fantastic cheese-it had a slightly smokey scent, but I'm not sure of what it was.

We came home, put the boys to bed and watched Night at the Museum Two. It was funny, though I fell asleep through some of it, as tired as I was.


Sunday (it's Sunday early evening-ish now). Sunday started out okay...I made pancakes for breakfast. We lazed around a bit-boys watched a Kai-lan DVD and we finally decided to run a few errands. Unfortunately, the temper tantrums and attitude started rather quickly. We've currently got veggies roasting in the oven for dinner (brussels sprouts and green beans), corn soaking in the husks to be grilled, and steak marinating.

We'll see how this evening turns out....

Back online...back to the civilized life!

Ahh, the internets. Nothing makes you realize how internet-addicted you are like not having internet.

We moved into out new house and we're loving it. (Did I mention in a previous blog about moving? If not, we've moved!)

We love, love, love having a yard. I love being able to kick the boys outside, especially during the witching hour of making dinner. We love the house overall. It's actually slightly smaller than our apartment-we have one less bedroom, but somehow, it seems larger. I guess because it's 2 story?? Either way, we really enjoy it.

For the detail lovers-we have 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. The boys share one room, we have a playroom and of course, the master bedroom. It's huge. Crazy huge. It has 2 closets-a walk-in that we use for storage, and a large in-room closet. Full bathroom in the master bedroom as well. We have a little half-bath at the top of the stairs. Downstairs is the other full bath (seems weird, but perfect having the tub downstairs with 2 little boys) the kitchen and the living/dining room.

In other stuffs...

Hm. Oh. Yeah. We got a new date for surgery for Kieran. He'll be having surgery on the 12th of April. We'll leave Okinawa on the 7th of April. Unfortunately, it's not going to be cheap for us. When this is all said and done, we'll have spent probably close to $8000-$10000 out of pocket for this. It's a bummer-we had other plans for that money. But, whatever it takes to make sure we are all there when he has his surgery-that's what's most important to us.

I'm sure there is tons more that's happened...but I just can't think of it. Hm. Jason's parents are coming to visit in June-I am sure they are excited to see him and the boys. I think Brendan is still slightly confused as to who is coming. He's pretty focused on Hawaii and my mom right now. :) My parents are supposed to be coming out again at Christmastime, so that will be nice. Brendan misses his Uncle Ian a lot. Probably a lot more than his Uncle Ian misses him. :)

I guess that's about it right now. I'll try to get some new pictures posted up.