We survived!!

One more week down, by the skin of our teeth, but we did it. Praise God for amazing friends and family who support us through it all, oh and Skype for making it all possible. I don't transition well, I never have. I do very well with the stress of moving but once I get settled and life slows down a bit it always catches up with me and I start to struggle with all the new. It becomes very hard to keep moving forward and connect with new people. It makes it even harder when I'm doing it on my own. As my kids get older they have a harder time adjusting as well. With that said, I got Hannah and Kol signed up for some activities and we made it to the football games again Friday night. The kids wouldn't let me get away with not going they had so much fun last week.  We also did some retail therapy today at the Hard off. It is a second hand store, with clothes and bags that range from 50 yen to 100,000 yen Louis Vuitton bags. This particular store also had a second floor with housewares. We are now preparing for the Typhoon that is headed our way early Monday morning with possible winds of 50 knots. The kids school has been canceled for Monday. We will have to find something to keep us busy while stuck in doors. I am praying we don't get hit too hard, and if we do that we are ready for it.

Friday night lights.

Hannah played with the high school band at the varsity game. She stayed after school to practice and hangout with friends she had a great time. She is excited for next year when she can play in the marching band. They have awesome uniforms and they did a great job.
The younger 3 took the bus home by themselves and didn't have any problems. Evelyn said she was worried when Hannah didn't get on but Kol said he didn't even notice.
When I told the kids we were going to the football games they complained and said I was ruining their Friday night. I assured them they were going to have so much fun they would be begging me to take them to every game. I made sure they still got their Friday treat.
Evelyn was very entertaining all evening. In the car on our way to base for the first game
Evelyn: You know you can't find true love at a football game.
Me: really who told you that?
Evelyn: A boy at school today, on the playground.
I didn't realize she was looking.
Then we get to the game and
Evelyn: When is the streaker coming out?
me: what, do you even know what a streaker is?
Evelyn: Ya it's when a guy comes to a baseball or football game and takes all his clothes off and runs across the field. When is he getting here?
Really? Who teaches her these things? I have one good guess, Kol. He also had a few good moments last night. He was standing by the fence in front of the cheerleaders and he looks up at me in the full bleachers and he yells I didn't come here to watch cheerleaders I came to watch football. I told him well then get to the top of the bleachers where you can see. These are my 2 kids that have no filter.

All three younger kids found friends from class to play with. Kol invited himself to play football with some 8th graders who were scrimmaging on the sidelines. They were picking him up and tossing him and he would keep going. He was very proud of the fact that he could keep up. He didn't end up watching much football but by the end of the night he smelled like a locker room. We had to ride home smelling him. It brought back memories of stinky hockey equipment. You can see in the picture of Hannah that she forgot to wear a red shirt, she said to me ya I'm a rebel like that. We all had a great time. I love football. We will be going to see more home games, I don't think they will put a fight anymore.

Beginnig of School Pics

Well we are all feeling better and no one else got sick. Praise the Lord.
We had open house for the kids schools last night and I am hopeful this is going to be a good year for all of them. Their teachers are great. The kids are really enjoying them too. Kol was taking full advantage of Hannah's teachers last night and asking all sorts of questions concerning curriculum, because he has any vested interest in 8th grade science. Ever time we moved classrooms I would remind him no questions, but as soon as a teacher would open the floor for questions he would be raising his hand or blurting something out and I would be kicking him under the table. At one point a kid outside the school was making a loud calling noise and the teacher stopped speaking to listen. Kol then thought it to be appropriate for him to cup his mouth and return the sound back 3 times. What am I going to do with that boy.  Hannah was taking it fairly well, she is normally very embarrassed by some of her siblings behavior. She did say however, thank goodness a lot of the teens didn't come last night or she would have been.

I finally got some pics of the kids and yes Kol needs a haircut but he is fighting me on it. I am going to try and take him this weekend. I think I have him convinced to get it trimmed. I tried a couple days in a row to get some good pics but 6am is early and there was always one of them that was not in the mood to cooperate. I think they realized they better just give in and get it over with.

What a week so far

I used Tuesday and Wednesday to clean and get organized now that all the kids are back at school. I have been sending the kids with healthy some what paleo lunches because I believe some of them have the same food allergies that I do. They do much better without bread but it takes some extra planning on my part to not send them with a sandwich but still something they are willing to eat. With all that said, last week Lily brought home some yucky bug from school and made Evelyn and then myself sick along with her. Last night I felt terrible and all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but Evelyn's body had other plans. She complained before bed that her ear was hurting. I gave her some Tylenol, she fell asleep for a bit and woke up crying so I added motrin to the mix, well that didn't do the trick either. She was up all night crying and moaning. We tried everything I could think of blow dryer, hot compress, wheat bag nothing helped. My alarm went off at 5 and she said mom my ear is bleeding. I got the other 3 ready for school and then off to the ER for Evelyn. They took us back right away and she started vomiting. Poor thing I think it was all too much. They got her some pain meds and she was able to sleep. I still feel like crap and the pressure in my head is bad I can't imagine how bad she must have been feeling. We came home and her fever got worse, but by bedtime tonight she seemed to be doing better. Now as long as Lily doesn't fall out on me I am hopeful we can all get some sleep.
I started out so strong. Why, when I decide to get organized does life have other plans for me? Now my house is falling behind again and I just don't feel well enough to get ahead of it.
Oh well "this too shall pass."

A week in review.

It was my birthday on Saturday, it was a very relaxing and a great way to start the week. Kol made me fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. I would have enjoyed eating the grapefruit but it was delicious. The produce here is so good and Lily made me coffee. They also made me lunch when it came time. One of the best gifts a mom can get is acts of service, well and hugs. Liam gave me my gift early as he was not going to be here to celebrate with us. My shinny new purple bike with a basket. I was hoping to get more use out of it in the last 2 weeks but we live at the top of this massive hill and walking my bike up in this sticky heat just didn't seem like fun. It comes with a lock on the back wheel and a pretty decent kickstand as you can see. That night I met some of the ladies from the ship and we went to a luau themed dinner at the O-club, it was good to get out.
The 3 older kids started school on Monday. Yay! It has been an extra long summer for all of us.  I drove them for their first day but it was a zoo. It was a pain to get on base and there are so many kids and no drop off line. I had to park at the NEX and walk them over. The next day I made sure they took the bus. It comes at 6:45am,  this is an early time to be up after the summer we have had never mind catching a bus, although we would have to leave that early if I were to drive them anyway. I also found a new way down the hill from my place a back road it is winding and narrow. I have to say, I have never before said so many times to myself I wish I drove a smaller car. We have always needed bigger and although the van is not big in comparison to many American vehicles it is big when you are trying to pass another vehicle on said narrow road.  
They all really like their teachers, well Hannah says the verdict is still out on a couple of hers. She did get the classes that she asked for band, algebra and Japanese. The algebra and Japanese give her high school credits.  She also says the Japanese is hard but I'm sure she will pick it up quickly and if not I can find her a tutor.
Evelyn doesn't start until next week. I think she will have lots of fun this year in kindergarten. Her teacher is a gem, along with her para pro.  We went and enjoyed some 100 yen sushi after meeting her teacher today. Evelyn's favorite is the omelet and rice and pulling the sushi off the sushi-go-round. Liam and I usually take that spot in the both to prevent unwanted hands touching the food, but when I have just one with me it is much more manageable. I did not get a first day of school pic, I will have to do that with Evelyn and call it the first week photo. I think I did it on purpose so you would all have something to look forward to for next week. :)

CHU-HI

Not sure if my massive migraine today was caused by this one delicious Chu-hi or the fried chicken I ate out of desperation because I took 4 kids school clothes shopping and was exhausted and starving afterwards and so were they, very cranky.You would think they would be kinder to thier mother who just bought them the store. I didn't buy anything for Hannah, she requested to be done on her own day. I may have to enlist a babysitter so just the 2 of us can go. I will however try to never eat fried chicken again, who knew a bit of wheat on the outside would poison me? Oh that's right, I did.

Randomness

Mos Burger.
A very good Japanese chain. Their largest outside of McDonald's but much better quality, I think. They have a rice burger which is very good and I love their fries.

Dad's bunk. They loved seeing the ship and helping him carry all his stuff. It's not often they fight over who gets to carry the bags.

Us girls rocking out to music in the van waiting for Kol and Lily to be done with their AOB class. They had lots of fun learning to count to ten and dressing up in traditional Japanese clothing.

The Cicadas bugs in Japan are very loud. Ear piercing noise. The first time I noticed them was when we walked through the trees at the Imperial Palace. This is what I believe one looks like. It was on the wall outside my front door.  I left it alone, it was gone when I came back later.

Imperial Palace and Shibuya!

We started the day out with Liam waking the children with his new fog horn app, really?!? I made sure I was up before he used it on me, it would not have gone over well. The kids have now downloaded the app to every ipod or ipad we have and have been using it all day, someone please remind me to get Liam back for that.  

Imperial Palace is where the Japanese Emperor and his family live. It is located in the Chiyoda area of Tokyo. It is a very large park with gardens and many outlying buildings. You are able to walk around the gardens, but the actual palace is only open to the public twice a year, I think. It was amazing to see. It reminded me of Central Park in New York. A massive green space in the middle of a large city. We walked around a couple hours and only saw a small portion of it. It was very hot and muggy but we had fun exploring. 

We then got back on the train and went to Shibuya, Tokyo which is kind of like saying we went to SoHo in New York. We walked around Shibuya for hours and saw at most an area of about 5 blocks. The shopping is amazing, the options are overwhelming at times. We end up doing a lot of looking but not a whole lot of buying. 

There was also so many little places to eat at it was hard to decide. We settled on a place where you pay and pick your meal on a machine that looks a lot like a bank machine. You then sit down at what we would call a bar and hand your food ticket to the guy behind the counter and they bring you your food.  We have been here almost 2 months and have tried many different places to eat, some cheap like 100 yen sushi some not so much but we have never had a bad meal. No matter what we try it is very good. This adventure ended up being a very long day about 9 hours of walking and the kids did great.   Some over tired giggling and silliness but at least they were not yelling at each other.

The train again Kol can not get enough pictures of them.

Kol taking a picture of himself in the train window as it went by.

Japanese men dancing in front of a camera on the street. A couple of  local girls where laughing along with us.

This is the moat that surrounds the Imperial Palace grounds

Liam says "Evelyn give me a pose"

7 story Forever 21 store Hannah has been dying togo to.

Street crossing in Shibuya. All the cars are stopped at once and people flood the street in every which way to cross. It is awesome to see this is on a Sunday, I can't imagine what it is like during the week.

The same intersection at night.

This is the 7 floor guitar store. We had to check out.

The kids posing in one of the clothing stores that looked down onto the street.

Household goods.

We got our household goods Friday. My movers rang my doorbell at 7am. I wasn't expecting them until 8, needless to say I was not ready for them. I still had kids in bed. When I opened the front door they had half the truck unloaded up the front steps. I had been laying awake in the tatami room, which is in the front of the house and heard nothing. Can we say ninjas. It was a huge difference from the movers we had on the front end who took 12 hours to pack 2800lbs. Only 3 crates worth. These guys were great they had everything unloaded and in the house by 8:30am. They didn't however believe that our bed would fit up the stairs, they wouldn't even try. They were worried they would take out the walls. Our only option was to lay it in the Tatami room over many flattened boxes and a rug so that we didn't damage the mats underneath. When Liam got home we measured and he was sure it would go up. We have a tempur-pedic mattress with an adjustable frame which is very heavy. Thank goodness for crossfit. It was a workout but we managed to get it up the stairs.
Today we tackled the many boxes that filled my living room and hallway. I just have my closet to unpack.
There is no sign of my coffee press, which I have been desperately waiting for. I was sure I didn't send it to storage but who knows it was a very hectic 3 days. Nothing is broken so far,crossing our fingers. All in all it was a good move.

PIANO!

I will go without a new couch for this. They delivered it today. We are waiting on the women to come and tune it. We are all very excited. I can't wait for lessons to start. They are already fighting over who gets to play next. Thank you Grandma Dorney. We dedicate it to you.

Registered

I finished registering all 4 kids for school today and signed them up for 2 more weeks of swim lessons. I think this will be a summer they will never forget. They are going to get an extra month off because school here doesn't start until August 27th. I am glad they will have had lots of time to adjust. Every time we walk out the front door it is a challenge and we come home exhausted. Not being able to speak and read the language is difficult. It leads to very interesting dialogue. Today I was using my translate app on my phone to navigate a conversation. Thank goodness for smart phones. I feel bad not being able to understand them. I also had 2 phone calls today, which is even harder because you cannot use body language.
My goal for the rest of the week is to get myself enrolled in school. I'm hoping to knock out all my language requirements while I'm here, not to mention what I learn will come in handy.

Chopsticks

We have all converted. The kids all prefer to use chopsticks. We use them at home when we have rice and stirfry, but tonight we had steak and Greek salad and they still insisted on using them. They are all catching on quick. When we eat out that is all they give you unless you know how to ask for a fork. I don't mind they are easier to wash. When we first got here I bought a set that is different colours so they each have their own so there is no fighting. They also have assigned seating in the van, otherwise it is a fight every time they get in. A lesson I learned growing up in a big family. Thanks Mom and Dad. It makes my life less stressful.

Costco.

First Liam and I started the day at Nitori a store that is much like target, maybe even better. It's a 5 min drive from the house.Still no luck finding a couch. I might just settle for a decked out tatami room.

We then went to Costco. It's not a long drive on the Yokohama-Yokosuka toll road(Yoko-Yoko). It cost us about $12 in tolls each way. You can drive on a non pay road but I think it would take a lot longer to get there. The drive on the toll road is beautiful. It reminds me of driving the H3 in Hawaii.

Costco was much the same as any other.Many of the same brands we know. Hannah said this feels like home, but not.The kids love to eat there, the pizza is a favorite. The hot dogs were 100% pork. Very good, but definitely not kosher.

Tomorrow we get internet. Very exciting. Hannah and I have cellphones that tether so we have had some internet but nothing fast enough to run more than one thing and downloading takes forever. The internet company j.com is partnered with our cell company au, so we get a discount on each of our cellphones of about $20. That adds up.
All in all we had a good day, but still no couch.

End of the world!

Tonights disscusion in the van.
Lily: Dad when is the end of the world coming?
Hannah: It is their new topic of discussion. They keep debating it.
Kol: Some people say it will be in December Lily.
Liam: Lily, only God knows the answer to that question.
Lily: Can't you look it up online or somding? Online doesn't have the answer?
Liam laughing: ugh No.

On another note, Liam and I have spent the last 2 days shopping for a new couch and some other things with not much luck agreeing on what we want. We are now off to have some 100yen sushi with the kids.

Shopping in Yokohama

Today we took the train to Yokohama and went shopping at SoGo. A massive 12 story department store, with many little shops on every floor. On the roof top the kids were able to get out all thier extra energy running around and they made a friend. He was imitating everything the kids did, he was so cute.
We then headed back towards home and had some Korean BBQ the kids loved watching us cook the meat on the little grill. It was very good, not sure I will feel from it. I'm sure it had sesame all over it.