Happy anniversary, Father's Day, birthday, birthday!

Look how skinny and young I was! So long ago!

I just realized tonight that my first wedding anniversary came and went (June 11th) without any acknowledgement on this blog. As did Father's Day, my husband's 40th birthday (June 19th. Wow! I'm married to a 40-year-old!) and my own 37th birthday (July 14th)! None of these occasions were celebrated in real life either. Man, we suck!



In our defense, Otis was in the states for the first 3 celebrations, by himself in Denver. And my birthday was on a Monday and he was on call, not a whole lot of celebrating could be done. But we are planning a belated, combo celebration tomorrow night, just the two of us taking the train into Roppongi for dinner.

Ethan's gotta girlfriend!

This is Ethan's "girlfriend". She's 4 and goes to his school. Her mom and dad were both TDY, so she spent a night with us and Gabi is putting her on and off the bus for the rest of the month. Ethan adores her, he talks about her all the time. She's the first person outside of our family that he's ever shown any kind of interest in. He's very much a loner and is usually very stand-offish, preferring his own company to anyone else's (no, he's not shy, just weird and anti-social, which he totally gets from his father), so the fact that he not only talks about her, but also interacts with her and happily shares all his toys is a huge deal!

Like father, like son

Apparently my 3 year old son, like his father, is butt man. Ethan came up to me in the kitchen tonight, hugged my gludial megamaximus region and said "Mommy, I wuv your butt! I wuv, wuv, wuv your butt!", then he just walked away. (In the last few weeks, all his l's and r's have turned to w's)

Fennigan Ray Blues Clues Chestnut

Fenni is without a doubt the best dog we have ever owned. Sadly, we've been through a lot of dogs and had become convinced that, as much as we love dogs, we just weren't "dog people". But I know now we were just waiting for Fen! He's so smart and friendly, he's great with the kids and they love him so much, he's a perfect fit for our family!
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The Gabi

Look how tall she is! Closing in on 5'4"!

Today my baby girl made her very first deposit into her very first savings account. She's making a good bit of $$$$ babysitting and we've agreed she'll put 20% of everything she makes into the bank. I'm determined that my kids will be better money managers than me. She saved up on her own and bought an iPod for $130, now she's saving for a Flip video camera.

Big Whammy

We had a big earthquake last night, just before 1230a. It was the biggest one I've felt so far (as I've noted before, I say that every time we have an earthquake, but they are honestly stronger every time!) This one was a 6.8 and was centered in Hachinoe, near Misawa AB, which is way up in northern Japan. It was strong enough to wake me from a fully Ambien-ized, dead sleep, my door was shut but the frame rocked so much that the door came unlatched and the wooden frame of my bed was squeaking! The news is reported 43 injuries so far, but I don't think there are any fatalities.

Secret Squirrel

As everyone knows (I hope) the 2008 G8 Summit was held in Japan July 9 -11. During this time Yokota was home to one of George Dubbyah's secret squirrel Nightwatch backup planes.

Ethan very quickly dubbed it "My plane!" We have to cross the runway everytime we go to the other side of the base, so we were able to see it up close several times a day.

We headed out to the flight line just before it left; as they headed to the plane one of the crew members walked over and shook Ethan's hand and asked him if he was excited to watch the plane take off. He was completely awe-struck. We were able to get, what I thought, was much too close, but I changed my mind about that as the engines revved and 5 guys with M-16's at-the-ready-popped out from nowhere and surrounded the plane until it was ready to taxi.

And the Lost is Found

Okay, it wasn't really lost, it just wasn't where we wanted to be.

Last week the girls and I took the train to Shinjuku where I know for a fact there is a Shakey's. And it's the same Shakey's I ate at as a kid!

Quick recap: Gabi and I went to Shinjuku not too long after we moved here to check out the Tokyo Metropolitan Government buildings. We hiked around the city for hours, and were starving just as we were about to cross the street, heading for McD's, I saw the sign for Shakey's Pizza. I had absolutely no idea it was still there and hadn't even thought about Shakey's in YEARS! I still can't believe that out of the entire, sprawling metropolis that is Shinjuku (see below) we landed right on the door step of my favorite restaurant from 30 years ago! Weird.

This Shakey's is in the basement of a building on Shinjuku Dori, along with an Indian restaurant and another food place.

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Yesterday, we headed back again, bringing Meg with us this time. Both girls are a little weirded out by Japanese pizza toppings, and really just wanted a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, but they both found flavors they liked, including the chocolate, marshmallow dessert pizza.
On the menu (but not on my plate): shrimp and mayonaise pizza , cuttle fish and onion pizza, octopus pizza, corn pizza (very popular in Japan) and all-you-can-eat curry and rice.

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(Check out the size of the coke!!! Without a doubt these were the biggest sodas I've ever seen in Japan, and sadly they're totally out-of-the-ordinary)

Sweet n' sour

(Yes, that's dirt smeared across his face)

In his zone

Ever since he was just a little guy, barely even sitting up, Ethan has loved to sprawl out on the floor to play with his cars. He lays on his side and rolls the cars all around. He'll do it anytime, anywhere: in waiting rooms, on the train, anytime he's in the same spot more than 10 minutes, chances are he'll end up laying the floor rolling his cars.

(Look at that curly hair! I miss my baby.)

Since moving to Japan we've discovered these very handy picnic mats, they're just plastic tarps that fold up really small and are great for using anytime you have to sit on the ground. They come in all kinds of colors and sizes and I've picked up several small ones at the 100Y store to carry around in my purse. I can whip one out for Ethan to lay on when we're out and about and he needs to have some car time. The one pictured below came with the kids' meal at KFC. They did a super cute beach theme with Pingu: one week was a little beach bag, then a beach bowl, the mat and then I think it was a towel.

He's getting so big :(