Saturday, November 15, 2008

Blue Lotus

This is a really great blog that you should check out and bookmark:

Blue Lotus

Amy is a Canadian girl, married to a Japanese guy, living in Tokyo. She's an awesome writer and photographer, and a major foodie. Since we live in the same area, we go alot of the same places and see/experience a lot of the same things (not at the same time though, I've never met her) although she is far more adventurous than I am, especially when it comes to food! She speaks Japanese and is murch more in tune with the country, customs, food, etc., so she does a much better job of describing and explaining things than I do. Especially the food.

Check out Amy's blog for a taste of the real Japan, not the diluted glop I tend to give you here.
>
>

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Congrats Brainiacs!

Both girls did extremely well this term: both earned 6 A's and only 1 B. Gabi's B was in Language Arts, Meg's was in Science. They both had straight A's the whole term, but for some reason in the last week they each dropped a few points in the one class. I'm so proud of them both!

As you know, they were both on the Cross Country teams the entire term, which meant practice 4 afternoons every week, and meets every Saturday morning. Gabi's season was really intense, some evenings she wasn't home from practice until after 6 pm, and several of her meets involved travel and being away from home and school for several days at a time. She's also very active in JROTC, participating in a lot of afterschool and weekend activies, PLUS the drama club, which will be giving its first performance this Friday. But they still managed to find time to study and finish all their assignments in top form.

Yatta! I'm so proud of both of you!

>
>

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

YES WE CAN!!!!!!!!!! YES WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>
"Change has come to America!"
>
“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America”
>
>
“If there is anyone out there who doubts that America is a place where anything is possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer” Barack Obama

>
I'm absolutely in awe as I say for the first time:
>
>
>Barack Obama, President of the United States of America
>
>
I can't think of a time that I've been prouder to be an American.
>

>I've been crying literally for hours, since I left my class at 11:30a and heard on the radio how big Obama's lead was. I continued crying through the afternoon as I ran errands around town listening to the radio as the results continued to come in. I'll remember for the rest of my life where I was when I heard "Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States". I can't explain my feelings, or why I'm so incredibly emotional, but I'm overjoyed and so proud.
>
>

>This was the first election I've voted in since I voted for Clinton (it was only my second time to vote ever) and I am so proud to be a part of this incredible moment in U.S history.
>
Proud to be an Obama Mama!


>




Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Funniest Halloween Party Ever!


Thursday was my culture group's Halloween party. We all wore costumes and went out for lunch and a bit of karaoke. What a riot! We had so much fun! I took so many videos, I had a tough time deciding which ones to post!
>

>

E-san. That's a Halloween toilet paper wrapper on her head! E-san is the spunkiest member of our group.

>

>

The whole group singing "Tennessee Waltz", for some reason it's their favorite song!

>

>

Happy Halloween (better late than never!)



Meg and her best bud B, who lives next door.
>

Ethan at the first house. He wore the mask! Hurray! He really got into trick-or-treating this year, he's finally old enough to understand what's going on, but still young enough that visiting only 10 houses is more than enough to make him happy!
>
>

E trick-or-treating at my old house.

>

Helpless and heartbroken

Last night I witnessed two of the most horrifying things I've ever seen......I watched our dog get hit by a car, and worse than that, I watched my child watching our dog get hit by a car. The complete helplessness I felt at that moment is indescribable. I saw the car coming, saw the dog running, saw Megan across the street, calling the dog, unaware of what was about to happen. And there was nothing I could do about any of it.

Megan and I had Fenni outside about 9:00p, playing fetch, off of his leash. I grabbed his collar to hook him to the leash so I could go in to fix him some dinner. Our neighbor across the street came out with her dog Miko, who Fen loves to play with. Fen saw Miko and yanked away from me, running across the street. I immediately headed over to grab him, as I stepped into their yard, Megan called Fen's name from our back porch and he started to run to her, back across the street, a car plowed into him, dragging him about 10 feet under the front bumper. Megan started screaming hysterically and Fen jumped up and raced, yelping, into the house. We both followed him as he ran upstairs. He cowered in the bathroom, trying to hide behind the toilet and it took us awhile to coax him out. He was so scared and obviously in pain. Megan was still screaming and sobbing the whole time, Ethan was jumping around yelling "My dog got hit by a car!" Otis was in the shower and I'm screaming "The dog got hit! The dog got hit!", he's yelling "What?!? What?!? I can't hear you over the shower!". Absolute paniced chaos.

Meanwhile, the person that hit Fen kept going.

The police came by and stopped to find out what the commotion was all about. We filed a report and they went out to try and find the car. No luck so far.

We took Fen to the vet. He has lots of cuts and scrapes, and a lacerated liver, but no broken bones or major injuries. The liver should heal itself, and he's got some pain medication, other than that he's just fine. Unbelievable.

Megan, on the other hand, was completely traumatized. We ended up having to sedate her to get her to sleep, she was crying so much and blaming herself for calling Fen and making him run across the road, she couldn't even look at him for the rest of the night. She had a fitful night of sleep and I let her stay home with us today. She's much better now, but still gets nervous everytime Fenni goes outside.

Wow, I'm exhausted again just typing it.

>
>