Six Years and 10 Months is Close to Seven

Koji will be graduating from his school in about a month, so as last year, today we had a birthday party with his school friends for him and several other kids.







We went to the newish (don't know when it opened, it was new to me) Jump Zone in Niles. The kids had a super experience, and the only thing regrettable for me was I hadn't frosted the cupcakes and that took away from my play time!

Fast Forward

Someone has pushed a fast forward button on my life, and that's why it is January 25th already with nary a peep from me in this space. Don't even ask me what I've been doing for the last 25 days because it's a hyper driven blur. I really do want to catch up with my own life though, and I'm just presumptuous enough to think that there's maybe one or two of you out there who haven't given up on my blogging and would be so kind as to want to join in the process? Maybe? Any takers?

Will you pay more attention if I tell you that I now know how to make a "bacon mat"? See, I haven't wasted every minute of this new year! Talk to you soon, I am coming back here and you won't regret it if you do too!?!

Two Cute!

A very happy second birthday to my super sweet niece Aliyah Ruth! I'm sure I'll sound more like her great great grandmother than her aunt when I say this, but I can't help feeling like her life (my life?) is happening much too quickly. In any case, I hope this coming year is great for Aliyah, her brothers, my sister and brother-in-law...and Aliyah, no terrible twos, please!

Spells Like Cussing, But It's Not?!

Who knows why I'm having these almost-cussing encounters lately? Blame it on the fact that there's no proper "HU" or "HUH" sound in Japanese and "FU" must be substituted. Is that too much foreshadowing?

So I'm with my English conversation student today and we are talking in Japanese (oops...well, she's a beginner so everything is very meta so far). Specifically, we are talking about a hook. And she says earnestly, "Do you spell that 'eff you see kay'?"

How proud are you that I had ZERO reaction other than to say, "Why no, it's actually 'h o o k'?"

Me too. I'm hooking proud.

Accomplishment

Hey it's the last day and last minute of this month, and I did it! OK, I actually didn't do it, that is, I wasn't able to post to my blogs every single day. But I was competitively close, so I'm satisfied.

What I mean is, I've discovered I'm not a perfectionist. But I do have to feel like I met some arbitrary standard in most anything I do, or I'll be frustrated, upset, and generally feel like a loser. Really. For example, when I play Settlers with Jenny, I'm certain to lose, but if I get at least seven or eight points out of the ten required for vicory and therefore feel like I was somewhat in the running, then I don't mind so much. So though I didn't post every single day, because I came darn close, I'm proud of and satisfied with my effort. Bonus, it was unexpectedly fun! Furthermore, I have been pleasantly surprised to find that one or two friends/family are still out there reading this after all these years (Hi Mom!). Thank you!

I'm going to do my best to keep up daily posts, so please keep watching this space!

IMAX=Max Fear

We went out with friends to the Navy Pier Imax Theatre. We watched A Christmas Carol, the newest version which is in 3D. You already knew that the moment you saw this picture of us in the glasses.
OK, so the movie was kind of a misery sandwich for me. I was surrounded behind by people who were determined to squelch me with shushing and chastising, and before by a blaring, scaring multi dimensional Jim Carrey-fest.

Details are as follows: So I was excited to be out without kids and maybe I was chatting with my friend animatedly as I have occasionally been known to do. So? This is IMAX, people. The sound of one person chatting to a friend is not going to make you miss the point. Especially when said chatting is going on during the previews...!!

Further into the movie when I was shaking in my boots and therefore extremely curious about the movie's rating, can you blame me for wanting to use my phone to immediately answer the question of PG vs. PG-13? Not unreasonable to me, but the lady behind me who promptly hissed/whined "it's (that phone) so bright, it's shining in my eyes!!" apparently thought that was a bunch of crazyness.

Anyway, I had a really fabulous night, and I mean it, because I thoroughly enjoyed being out with a group of friends, some of whom I haven't spent time with in awhile. My fun didn't have anything to do with the movie incidents described above, this is kind of an "in spite of" situation.

God Answers Prayer

This year for Thanksgiving, we didn't have particular plans, yet I wanted to celebrate it with friends. I had invited my parents to come here, but that didn't work out (which also turned out to be an answer to prayer, they needed to be home to help my sister and her family as my latest nephew, Samuel Hector, was born a week ago. There he is with his big sister Aliyah and big brothers Eli and Oliver).

I decided that it would be great to spend Thanksgiving with Grant and Cheryl Lynn, yet I didn't want to call them and invite myself. So, imagine this, I decided to pray and ask God if He would arrange things for me. Remind me to make my prayers nice and specific like this from now on, because approximately two hours after I prayed this prayer, I got a phone call from Cheryl Lynn. She said, "What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?" and I replied, "Nothing," to which she responded, "Want to come be with us at Tom & Andrea's place?". Whoa. I almost fell over! God cares about my details!

Skipping forward to the day, we had a lovely time with Grant & Cheryl Lynn and company. Thanks to them and Tom and Andrea for including us (and to Tom, for sending me these pictures so promptly), but most of all, thanks to God for answering my prayer!

Andrea not only prepared the quiz I referred to here, she also got these Mentos/Coke rockets for the kids!

Long Lost

We got to see our long lost friends today. Here are the kids, lined up in age order. Keep in mind that Ashleigh, on the left, is six days older than Koji, and Blake, on the right, is one day younger than Misaki.
We could hardly have lined our kids up better if we had been able to plan their birthdays. Thank God for such great friends, though we're a little jealous that Blake is a much more of a "model" baby (as in, when we got the camera out, he started posing!) than Misaki.

Farewell, Karaoke Machine

Dear Karaoke Machine, Thank you for the good times. I confess, they weren't as good as I had hoped they'd be. You see, when I asked Aogu to *pretty please* get you for me several years ago, I envisioned us in a karaoke box in Tokyo. I imagined we could recreate the same sort of atmosphere and experience in our basement. Alas, I didn't understand that CD+G CDs would be more expensive than what I was willing to invest, or that it would be impossible for me to sing Japanese songs. I also didn't--still don't--know why my friends weren't as into you as I was. Since they weren't, my fun was diminished, too. Boo hoo. Karaoke machine, we did make some memories together and I will never forget you. I promise. Even though I sold you to Mr. H today, a random guy that found you on Craig's List. And even though I will likely be making lots of new karaoke memories with utamo, in my heart I know that all home karaoke started with you. Thanks, and I hope Mr. H appreciates you even more than I did. Love and vibrato, Jamie

Preparedness

Likely I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: Koji and I are taking tennis right now (separate classes). He's pictured above, putting his moves in action. Koji's is Sunday afternoons and mine is Monday nights. I am THOROUGHLY enjoying my class, much more than I expected. It's great to get out on a Monday night, take a break from being home, move around a little bit, challenge my brain (the part where the coach tells me what to do and then I try to get my brain to control my body and DO what he says). Tonight we played a tournament with foam balls. Excellent tool for reminding me that the way to be good at tennis (and I suppose this is a life lesson too...)is to be prepared. It would be impressive if I could insert here the exact count of number of times I was reminded to "get your racket back," but the fact is that I lost track.
After the tournament, we all agreed that we might not be particularly good at tennis yet, but we are decent at "foamball".

Hiromi's Birthday

Today is my long-distance friend Hiromi's birthday (pictured here on the right, her friend Megumi-san is on the left). I say long-distance friend because, as we reminded one another when we were together for a few hours last month, we've never actually lived in the same city. We became friends more than 10 years ago through Hiromi's husband, then boyfriend Josh, who was a JET when I was. Actually, we weren't just JETs: there are thousands throughout Japan and just being JETs wouldn't have allowed a guy working in Toyama and a girl working in Saitama to meet. We were both part of a JET group originally titled CSG (Christian Support Group). However uninteresting the title of our group may have been, the friendships we formed were anything but. To this day, though none of them live nearby, I remain connected to 10 or more friends that I met through CSG. Hiromi and I may never live near one another in this life (or miracles may happen?) but thankfully, we and the rest of this seemingly random group of friends that met in CSG in 1995~1998 can look forward to being together in Heaven!
Hiromi, otanjobi omedeto!!

Family Day

A blog I read recently mentioned a "Family Day" where each member of the family, including the kids, got to say what they wanted to do, and then the whole family did those things together. Great idea! And a perfect way for us to make a plan for our wide open Saturday.

First, we went out and played tennis with our friends Jennifer P. and the Jeff H. family. That's what I wanted to do. Next time I hope my serves go in.

Then, in a act of semi-retroactive planning, we sat down and talked about our family day and each person's desire. Aogu wanted to take a nap, Koji wanted to play Settlers, and Izumi wanted to go to the park.

So that's what we did for the rest of the day, and it was a great day! Have to note here that while we were at the park we played the "challenge" game. Koji and I made it up because just playing at the park can sometimes be too boring. We take turns making up a "challenge" and then race through and try to complete it first. It's things like "run backwards to touch five trees and then come back to this spot" or "run to those bleachers, run to the top and back down, climb up the side of the play structure and slide down" etc.

Went to Target, grabbed a Redbox movie along the way. It was Appaloosa and I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy it much more than than I expected. It's a western and features Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen. The dialogue and the plot don't go right along well-worn Western plot lines though, so I recommend it. Yes, there are a few F words, and of course people get shot down, but it's a well-told story. Give it a chance! Apparently it was a book first. Think I'll be off to the library tomorrow because I can't resist vocabulary words in unlikely places (watch the movie and you'll know what I mean).

Thought I Was Just Lazy, Turns Out I'm A

Sinner.

I already knew that, but lately I've been really frustrated with myself. Seems like I cannot get my rear end off the couch to save my life...or to clean up the house...or to go to the gym...or to do my Bible study...you get the idea. I was starting to think of myself as doomed to a life of sloth, and then I read this today.

Now I feel a little bit better. This is by no means the "lose 10 pounds by tomorrow morning" quick fix I always want. It's more like a kick in the pants by a large, steel-toed boot, but in a good way. You know?

Welcome to the Family

My sister's fourth baby was born tonight in Portland. Here's a sneak preview: Tell you more about him soon. Welcome to the world, sweet boy!

Learning Engrish

I may have said this here before, but if I can't remember, you can't either so I'll tell you again: Izumi is busy learning English. She's three and a half so she's already been talking for quite some time. But a large majority of her talk was in Japanese until right after Misaki was born in April. My parents came to visit, and I'm convinced that threw some kind of switch in her brain. Within the span of a few days, it seemed like she was all English, all the time.

English is a difficult language. If you need confirmation, or just amusement, please look here. I don't need to go further than my living room to be reminded that English is a challenge. For example, just today, I distinctly heard Izumi say to Misaki,

"Misaki, you are a good job, don't you?"

Helpless

Happy Birthday to Sam!!

For most things that go on around here, even when Aogu has to be out of town for a few days, I can hold it together. Or so I like to think. But lately, Aogu's honed his talent for getting the kids to bed. He's really a master. First he lays down with Izumi and Koji and has Izumi sleeping in 10 minutes or less. Next, I hand over (a well-fed) Misaki and he has her in "sawing logs" and in her crib within another 10 minutes or so. It's amazing! Even though I know the process as he does it should be over in 20 minutes or so, I'm much too impatient to pull it off.Exhibit A: Misaki playing on the floor of our bedroom past 9 pm tonight after my numerous and varied attempts to have her go to bed all failed...

Note that I finally got her down past 10 by laying down with her, falling asleep myself and then dragging myself back out to put her in her crib and put this post up for you! See how helpless I am without Aogu around, at least when it comes to getting the little ones to bed!

Correction

To my two readers, who also happen to be in Book Club:

you are right, and I am sorry. Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, December 1st, and therefore you still have at least two weeks to read The Help, not the eight days I erroneously mentioned the other day. Thank you for tuning in to this blog, though it might occasionally contain mistaken information.

Speaking of books, I'm at a bit of a loss now that I finished the above. So I thought I might try What Should I Read Next? for some suggestions. I put in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and it gave me the following ideas:

The All True Travels And Adventures Of Liddie Newton - Smiley
Twilight Saga Book Set -- Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer
Technogenesis - Syne Mitchell
Life on the Border - Terri Windling
The Tangled Lands - Will Shetterly
The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming - Shreve Stockton
Nora Jane: A Life in Stories - Ellen Gilchrist
Nightwalker - Jocelynn Drake
The Tiny One: A Novel - Eliza Minot
Sword and Sorceress XX - Marion Zimmer Bradley

Hmm. The only books here I've heard of are the Twilight Saga; don't know if that's a good or bad sign. My two readers, or anyone else who might happen to stop by, have you heard of or read any of these books? Any suggestions?

A Warning

Lovers of Settlers of Catan, Beware.

For lo, Koji has learned how to play.

Effusive

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Barnes & Noble looking for my next book club book.

"Where can I find The Help?" I asked an older lady employee. Her guidance was enthusiastic; she informed me that she personally loved the book, it's a great book club book, etc. All this effusive praise left me a little skeptical.

This post is an apology to that lady. She will probably never see this but I want her to know: I'm sorry I doubted you. "The Help" was a splendid book. I couldn't put it down today. And now I'm really looking forward to Book Club in eight days; with this kind of material, we should be able to have an extra lively discussion!

All He Wants for Christmas...

...Koji's "two front teeth" aren't gone yet, but there are still 40 days till Christmas. Anything can happen, right?