Who's Flying This Plane?

One of the best parts of the Misawa Aviation and Science Museum was the outdoor exhibit - planes!

No Cirque, Just a Cough

We didn't make it to the Cirque Dreams show last week. Jeff came down with whatever I have, so we were both pathetic coughing creatures all week. I struggled through work, trying to learn as much as I could while recovering and hopefully avoiding any additional germs. The kids are smaller, but still funny and challenging and everything you'd think handling a roomful of children would be. I love it.

This weekend the plan was productivity. But the last days of my cold are still kicking. So all I've managed is to pull out all the random papers I have all over the house and make a big pile on the floor to reorganize and make sense of it all. I'm skipping dinner and ordering pizza instead, and hopefully making it to the grocery store tomorrow.

I watched I Don't Know How She Does It today, it was cute and realistic. I was getting visions of my future trying to juggle everything. No rush for that!

Not much on my plate right now besides getting used to the new job. Lots of planning to do. My parents are vising in a few months which will sneak up on me and be tomorrow in no time. I need to figure out what I want them to see of Japan while they're here! We have big plans to climb Mt. Fuji in the summer and I am a) terribly out of shape for climbing the stairs, much less climbing a mountain and b) having all sorts of trouble getting into a workout routine. I have dreams of a big honeymoon for our 5th anniversary (summer 2013), since we didn't have the chance to do a honeymoon after the big day. If that's going to happen, I need to start figuring out what, where, and how we're going to find the money for it. Hm. There was more on my planning to-do list. Maybe I should make a list that's not just in my head.

I should stop avoiding the papers and get to it. Jeff even brought home a label maker for me to use. He doesn't understand my organizing habits, but at least he lets me do my thing. And I repay him by taking care of things like taxes and keeping track of our files, mostly. If keeping track means they're piled somewhere in the house, then that counts, right?

Life Lately

I haven’t been updating very frequently lately. But nothing has been happening that prompts pictures or detailed blog posts, so I’ve mostly just gone about my business and called it a day.
Then I got a birthday card from my wonderful aunt who reminded me that some people can’t regularly check my Facebook and look to my blog for life updates (If you’re reading this Aunt Alice – thanks! I meant to send a thank-you card, but you know how that goes.) And even I’m not going to go digging through my Facebook page to try to remember what happened a few weeks ago, much less any longer. I was trying to remember the exact date we landed in Japan, and looking on my blog was way easier and faster than trying to use my Facebook. Better.

So.

I’ve started a new job. I bumped up to a salary job and I’ve bumped down my age group – I’m still working with kids but now they’ll be toddler sized. I haven’t been given a specific age group yet, so it’s anywhere between 6 weeks and 5 years. I’m bouncing back and forth between school age and child development for a few more weeks, and the contrast is refreshing. It’s hard not to love your work when you spend your mornings playing dress up with toddlers (I was a cop, firefighter, and construction worker this morning) and spend your afternoons making Christmas cards with school age kids and talking about anything from where we’ve lived (some of these kids have been all over the place!)  to what we love to do on the weekends. Of course the getting puked on (babies) getting hit or bit (toddlers) or getting screamed at (school age) puts a damper in things, but not for long. Regardless, I’m very excited about my new job.

Jeff and I haven’t been exploring too much lately. Snow has hit Misawa already, so the roads are going to get tricky fast. Japanese don’t really plow, so snow piles on ice on top of snow on top of ice on narrow, winding roads. It’s fun. On base the roads are fine, at least. We’ve also just been really lazy lately and have been choosing to spend our weekends at home relaxing rather than adventuring. We’re hibernating?
We’ve ventured out a few times.

We visited some caves and an amber museum a few weeks ago (I just realized I never blogged about this, I should do that soon!)

Last week, we had Jeff’s command Christmas party. We had a lot of fun, I could probably do a quick blog post about that at some point too…
Next weekend we have my command Christmas party. The week after that is Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, we’ve been shipping boxes all week. We had bought most of our gifts for family back home well before Thanksgiving with the intention of mailing them all out before the big turkey day. The best laid plans, right? We got them out this week, which happened to be before the priority mail deadline, which was today according to my radio. We splurged on some special gifts for our nephews, and then bit the bullet and paid the price for the hassle of shipping something that didn’t fit in a flat rate box. Ouch! Not happening again! I can’t wait until everyone gets to open their gifts and see what we’ve picked. I’ve loved shopping for unique gifts to give from our end of the world.
I even took pictures of mostly everything I bought before I wrapped and packaged.
Health wise I’m chugging along at pretty much the same place I was at weeks ago. I’ve cut back drastically on soda. I’m now down to very little each week. We usually eat out once a week, and I usually end up having one or two more sodas throughout the week. But that’s miles better than the one to four sodas I’d been drinking daily. Workouts are relatively nonexistant, but I’m working on it. Diet is still mediocre at best, but oh well. You can’t do everything perfectly, right?

Hmm, what else to update on? It’s hard to think of what people will actually be interested in reading. Life in Japan lately has mostly consisted of working and sleeping, which really isn’t very different from life in the states, except for which side of the car I drive in and what timezone I’m sleeping with.
It’s hitting me that we’ve been here for almost a year. It’s hard to believe on one hand. How have I lived overseas for a whole year?! On the other hand, it feels like home. Our apartment is good enough for now, we’re both working full-time, we’ve made friends and we’re involved in the community. We know enough of our town to maneuver the streets and enough Japanese words to at least decipher gestures and broken English. I’ve fallen in love with sushi and the scenery. If you asked me exactly a year ago if Japan would ever feel like home, I’d have looked at you with wild eyes and said “no!”. How things change, eh? (You can bet when one year hits, you’ll get a long blog post about how much change a year can bring!)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the incredible mothers out there. I hear it's the hardest and most rewarding job in the world, and it takes a lot of courage to keep doing it day after day. To those of you who do, you're pretty amazing :)

Since I can't be with my mom on her special day, I figured I'd post some of my favorite pictures and stories instead!



I happen to look a lot like my mom. (I also look a lot like my dad, but I'll save that post for another day). My dad always says we have the same smile. We have really similar personalities and have always gotten along really well.



Like when we're driving from Illinois to California together to move me into my new house while my new husband is still deployed in Japan. Spending days in a car together and a week in a house together doing all the tiring jobs of moving in and making it liveable would test anyone's patience, and we did pretty good at not blowing up at each other!



Even when we had to drive through miles of beef factories. Not the best part of the trip. We left Illinois on January 1st, and surprisingly and thankfully had amazing weather the entire trip. We hit snow in Flagstaff, AZ, but not enough to delay our travels. (Surprisingly, Jeff's and my return trip back from CA - IL was equally wonderful considering we drove home in December, despite some rain in MO and IL. I have no idea how that worked out both times).



My mom and I share a love for musicals. We also have birthdays less than a week apart, so one year it made for easy birthday plans for my dad! He surprised us both with tickets to Wicked. We had both read the book and had been dying to see the musical. We went to Giordano's Pizza (a must in Chicago) and then enjoyed a fantastic musical. Such a fun night in the city!



My mom is a natural with babies. She ran her own daycare for a while when my brother and I were little, and babysat any and every child as we grew up. It's why I'm so comfortable with babies and kids and everything in between, and I have no doubt when I do have kids I'll be calling her every other day for advice about something or other. She has a knack for calming crying babies down; she's one of the few people I know who wants a crying baby in her arms. At my wedding reception, my best friend had recently had her second son, Arik. My mom held him the entire reception, and loved every second of it.



My mom's also the one who fueled my love for animals. Animal Planet was always on our TV growing up, and every Mother's Day we'd go to the zoo. Chicago is blessed with two wonderful zoos, so we'd alternate each year. She and my dad still go to the zoo every year for Mother's day, because he knows how much she loves watching all the animals. She'd spend hours in the gorilla exhibit if she could, but would happily skip the reptile house that was my brother's favorite.



When she and my brother came out to visit me in California (another surprise from my dad for Mother's day! He's great with gifts), we checked out a nearby wildlife conservation center called Cat Haven. It was up in the foothills, about an hour and a half away, and we went right after I picked them up from the airport. We saw the most well-cared for big cats I've ever seen, and closer than any zoo will ever let you go. The animals were well cared for and had large and comfortable enclosures, and each had a relationship with the trainers that led us through the tour. It was an amazing place and I regret only going once while I lived nearby. But, it was a perfect afternoon with my mom and brother, and we loved seeing all the big cats. Like a zoo, but more up close and personal!



When I got married, my mom joked all day that I was joining the "Mrs. B's" in the family! (Both my maiden and married names begin with B) She helped me plan the quick courthouse wedding and laid back reception, she helped me find my dress, she helped make sure the big day was relaxed and wonderful. (I also have a pretty fabulous mother-in-law to my left in the picture!)



There have obviously been a lot more great moments than these few photos, but she's a wonderful mom and a really special person. She repeatedly calms me down when I get frustrated with all the little things in life, she celebrates the great things that happen, and she encourages me to explore and try all that life has to offer. I feel so lucky to have her in my life.



Hope you get a chance to recognize a wonderful mother, or be recognized as a wonderful mother today!