Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

M. says... (quotes from my 5 year old)

"For a small guy, I'm a big know-er..."

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Get the TV! GET THE TEEEEVEEEEE < insert dramatic slow motion voice here

Picture this:

It's 12:30 am, you're fast asleep in your oh so comfy bed and the ground starts to move and things start rattling around. You reach out and touch your husband.

"I feel it too."

Earthquakes are common in this new country you live in, so you lay in bed for a second, waiting it out. The shaking gains in intensity a bit and you think to yourself - oh this must be the peak, it should be dying down right about n- HOLY SHIT!

Suddenly your house sounds like it's splitting in two, things are falling around everywhere while you run/fall into your children's room. You grab the oldest out of bed and throw him on the floor in the doorway. Then you run to get your baby - who is almost two but darn it, he's still the baby! Amidst all the cracking and crashing and noise, you remember your brand new, very expensive television perched ever so precariously on that damn skinny entertainment center you just had to have.

You shout to your husband to save the tv while he's stumbling around in a sleep-induced stupor, being attacked by falling ironing boards. Okay, it was just one ironing board, but I bet in the dark, in the middle of an earthquake, it felt like two or three at least. He makes it to the doorway with you and the kids by the time the earthquake starts to die down.

"We lost the tv" you say. Which may sound petty and ridiculous in the grand scheme of things, but seriously - you JUST bought the thing.

"I bet we did," says your husband, and now that he's come to his senses he heads down the hall to survey the damage. You stay on the floor, shaking with adrenaline while your oldest cries and your baby sits there, very confused about the whole thing.

But no, the tv is okay, in perfect shape! Sure your entertainment center moved about eight or so inches, along with your sofa, refrigerator, and other things - but the tv is good to go! Why? Because unbeknownst to you, your husband actually did attach the handy dandy strap that came with the tv to keep it from tipping over.

So you put the kids in your bed and join your husband to see just how much broke. Which wasn't that much really. A tall shoe cabinet fell over, a few things fell out of the tops of the closets, a shelf in the bookcase came loose and fell down, but nothing broke, except the iron.

Your husband goes to comfort the kids in bed and you run to the computer to find out where the epicenter was and just how bad things were at this handy website:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/

And the earthquake isn't up yet. So you hit refresh. Nothing. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.

There it is.

Turns out a 6.8 hit about 65 miles south of your town. Crazy! You check outside to make sure the Japanese aren't running around hysterically in the streets, because if they are, then you darn well better be too! But they're not. And you see your Japanese neighbor through the window, calm, replacing things that had fallen on the shelf. And you hear your American neighbors sweeping up glass. A few minutes later you hear a car driving around with some chime/siren type thing on it. You assume it's telling you that all is well, and not -

"Everybody run we're all going to die!"

You head back to bed. Wait for the aftershocks. Nothing. You put the kids back in their own bed and try to relax enough to fall asleep, unaware of all the little messes you'll have to clean up tomorrow, like the Tylenol and other things currently floating around your toilet.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Wet Wet Wet

For full effect, click on the video.....



You see, right now, as I type this, it is 80 degrees - with 90% humidity. What does this mean, really? Well, I like to think that I am only 10% away from my house raining on me.

My walls are wet, my doors are wet, the floor is wet, the mirrors in the bathroom are foggy, the cabinets have beads of water running down them. I went to grab a few Little People toys to join L. for naptime and all of those are wet. Blech!

I think it's time to try and figure out how to make the air conditioner work before my house turns into a giant mass of mold. A dehumidifier is definitely in our future.

Sing it with me...

I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my toes
Love The wet is all around me
And so the feeling grows
It's written on the wind
It's everywhere I go
Oh yes it is
So if you really love me
come on and let it show buy me a dehumidifier or two.....

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Tanesashi Coast

There are no words to describe how peaceful and gorgeous this place is so I'll do it in pictures. The sprawling grass lawn is natural, and the soft cream (ice cream) is delish!


Here's T. - still as hot as the day I married him - 10 years ago, aack!!

Cheryl, these are for you...

Eh, Tsunami Shhm-unami....

Where do you go when a 7.0 (and 5.0) earthquake hits a couple hundred miles south of you? Drive closer to it and go the beach! Heck yeah!

Okay, so the earthquake hit while we were already on our way there, and now we know what the Japanese guy kept saying over and over again on the loud speaker. But we watched and nobody else was running away screaming, everyone was swimming, so all looked okay. And it was. It was really, really okay! Quite lovely actually.

We spent the first half of our Saturday at "Swimmer's Beach" about an hour south of Misawa.

The beach was lined with great little shacks selling yummy food and beach toys, hats, etc. I went to one to try to buy a shovels and pails for the boys and I was 30 yen (30 cents-ish) short as all of my money was back on the beach and the ladies sold it to me anyway - cause the Japanese are awesome like that. Then, to shove their awesome-ness in my face even more, when I came back later with the 30 yen I was short, they wouldn't take my money, and then gave the boys free french fries. They just had to show off and one up my good deed :)

I tell ya what though, L's blonde hair & blue eyes gets him (and us) REALLY, REALLY far in this country.

Construction House

This was in a separate play area at the Aviation and Science Museum. It was so neat that it deserved it's own post.

Step 1: Load the wall pieces onto the belt, turn the crank and watch it go up the belt and fall into the cart...




Step 2: Wheel the cart around to the crane. Place the wall pieces into the frame on the first story, or fill the basket on the crane and turn a series of cranks until the basket is raised high enough and over the 2nd story, then lower again so one can reach into it, or until your arms fall off, whichever comes first.

Step 3: Complete the walls and roof on the 2nd story.

The first story had the frames in such a way underneath that you could make hallways and separate rooms. I don't know who had more fun with this, me or the boys. Okay, it was me!

Misawa Science & Aviation Museum


What I thought would be a 1 or 2 hour adventure with the boys turned into 4, and I was still dragging them out of there with things left unseen, untouched and unclimbed upon.

And the greatest thing about this place is everything you see should be touched and/or climbed upon. Imagine the Exploratorium in S.F. meets air museum. The boys had so much fun climbing inside of planes and helicopters, learning about wind and centrifugal force, riding in flight simulators and other cool stuff. But hands down - the greatest thing, out of all the great things there, was making butt impressions in the pin screen...

In fact, they boys so enjoyed playing with this that eventually I just sat down and let them go crazy!


Here is some more fun...


Tuesday, July 15, 2008

M. says... (quotes from my 5 year old)

"Mom, my friend's friend had a friend who went to the beach and saw a vampire. A REAL VAMPIRE MOM! And the vampire ate him!"

Sunday, July 13, 2008

The funniest thing ever...

Uncle D. showed this to T. and I when we were visiting him in Portland. We pretty much think it's the most hilarious thing we've ever seen...

There are a couple bad words, just a warning if you have tiny ears wandering around the room!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Where no SANE mom has gone before...

No, I'm not the first mom to drag her two small children to the mall on a shopping mission in a foreign country. Millions have before me. But I feel qualified enough to say that not one of those women was actually in her right mind. And neither was I.

We are driven out of desperation. Desperate for human interaction. Desperate to escape the house. Desperate for silver strappy shoes to wear to a formal dinner just over 24 hours away because the shoes you ordered online took forever to get come in and they Hurt. Like. Hell.

Now, shopping with two kids for recreational purposes is hard enough. Shopping with two kids when you actually really need to find something in particular is an entire different experience.

M is a typical 5 year old and/or male shopper, only interested in doing it if there is something in it for him. If not, he's whining and asking when we can go home. Wow, I wasn't aware the guy mentality kicked in so early.

L is always fun and enjoyable as long as everything is on his "I'm almost two" terms. Let's outline those terms:
1. Absolutely no stroller whatsoever unless I'm exhausted from running and said stroller's tray is full of my favorite snacks.
2. All fabrics must be touched, especially if I choose to be in my stroller with sticky hands, and even more so if there is a possibility of my hand getting stuck in the fabric and broken off.
3. If it has an animal on it, I am allowed to spend as long as I want pointing to the animal and making animal noises. Do Not Rush Me!
4. Shoes are negotiable.

Fully aware - and terrified - of my children's terms I stuffed them into the car and headed off. 20 minutes later and a few small towns over we arrived at the mall.

And then a miracle occured.

L sat in his stroller - and they both managed to follow me around the mall twice, through both stories, with minimal whining, screaming, and grabbing. M was on a silver shoe mission, calling out to me whenever he spotted a silver shoe, be it a toddler's flip-flop or the most hideous boots of all time. We stopped briefly by Kid Vegas (more on that another day) and nobody cried when it was time to go. I found my shoes (paid twice as much as I wanted to for them but oh well) along with other things I needed but figured I'd never ever find.

At lunch the boys ate all of their food (because McDonald's is so hard to eat), never tried to escape, and they even let me enjoy my own yummy Japanese lunch. And all it cost me was two happy meals, and a couple japanese die-cast vehicles that are so cool I actually wanted to buy them for the boys.

So, one pair of fancy shoes, one expensive backless bra, and 6 pretty baskets later we arrived home. Alive. And no more insane than we were when we left. Ready to shop another day!

Psshaw! I'm quitting while I'm ahead.

Here's hoping Japanese bra cup sizes are the same as Americans...

Thursday, July 3, 2008