?cixelsyd

Ethan has a pretty big vocabulary for and almost 4 year old, especially when you considered the fact that he didn't speak until he was nearly 2! He didn't say "Mama" until well past his 1st birthday. But I'm convinced he just didn't have anything to say! LOL
>
Anyway, for quite a while now, he has been saying "got-for" instead of forgot. I've tried and tried to get him to say forgot and while he can repeat it correctly, when he's talking it always comes out as "gotfor": "I gotfor my hat!", "Mom, you gotfor my bento today!" (once a month he has to pack a lunch for school, I usually forget).
>
At first I thought he was just confusing the word, whenever I walk in the door he asks "Mom, what you got for me?", expecting that while I was out, I must have gotten something for him! But in the last week or so I've also heard him say "headfore" instead of forehead and "wardfor" instead of "forward", but he says "backward" just fine: "That train goes backward and wardfor!" What do you make of that? I haven't noticed it with any other words, only ones that start with for- . Weird.

>

> >

Stupid F*%$*&! Science Fairs

>

I HATE SCHOOL SCIENCE FAIRS!

>

Really, I hate them! I'm not even sure if HATE is a strong enough word!

>

Every school the girls have ever attended have held mandatory science fairs every year. It's such a total pain in the ass!

>

Trying to come up with a new project idea, every year. Scouring the stores for supplies. Pissing around for weeks trying to conduct the experiments and studies, which, 95% of the time never work out like they're supposed to. (Any teacher who thinks the kids are actually doing this crap and putting it all together themselves is grossly deluded. It's always the parents that end up doing 3/4 of the work). And after 9 years of crapping together crappy projects for a crap-fest science fair, I can honestly say they have absolutely no educational value. My kids learn less than nothing from this process, except to avoid science whenever possible.

>

It'd be one thing if either of my children were even remotely interested in science, were excited about the project and signing up for an *optional* science fair because it was something they enjoyed and wanted to do. But to make it mandatory, and to add some pretty unrealistic parameters and grading guidelines.........I'm seriously thinking of writing a letter saying it's against our religion to participate in any sort of organized science competions. And the crap supply hunt is quadrupally difficult here, because there's only one store that offers products labeled in English, when we shop off base, we're really and truly just guessing at what we're buying.

>

AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

>

I'm so frustrated! And of course, my frustration and negativity rubs off on the kids and makes them even less willingly to do any of the work, but I seriously hate this so much that I cannot contain it!

>

>

Whoa. UFO. Help!

In an effort to see more of our local area, we have started taking good ol' fashioned Sunday drives. There is so much to see, right here in our own backyard! I think we're in the perfect location. Just head 20 min in any direction (except East) and you're in the countryside, or up in the mountains. 20 min East puts you in the big city, heading for T-town.
>
We usually leave after lunch, we don't pack snacks because part of the fun is stopping to pick out something at a conbini (convenience store). Two weeks ago we headed up to Lake Tama and the area around the Seibu Dome. This weekend we went north, towards Mt. Mitake and Lake Okutama. We chose that area because from down in the plains where we are, we could see snow on the mountains, and we were determined to get to it! I'll blog more about the whole trip next, but this blog is about......a shrine to UFO's. At least as near as I can figure.
>

While at the lake, I noticed this on a hill above the lake (the white dome, not the crane):
>

>>



>
I couldn't figure out what it was. It doesn't look anything remotely like the typical Japanese shrines and temples you can find all over the mountains. It reminded me more of a mosque or some sort of Indian (as in India) temple.
>
We got home and I posted the picture on a couple of local discussion forums I'm in to see if anyone knew anything. Turns out tons of people have taken pictures of the exact same thing, trying to figure out what it is. Jackpot! Kind of. I've managed to track down a website that I'm almost 100% positive is about this building. Unfortunately, it's all in Japanese! It definitely says something about UFOs, but there's also a statue of Dorimon (???). This is where all my lovely, new, blogging mommy friends married to handsome, Japanese men come in! Can anyone figure out anything from this site? UFO Shrine How cool it would be if it really is a UFO shrine?!?! But I'm sure it's something much more mundane. But it's still very interesting. I'm on a mission to figure this out! But I'll probably have to wait until Spring to go exploring, the roads get pretty bad up in the mountains during the winter, and from the looks of the website, it may not even be accessible by car. Oooooo, I'm so excited!

>

>

In loving memory...

..of my cherished HP Special Edition "Lance Armstrong - Live Strong" computer. Lil' Lance died at the tender age of 4 years old, victim of maltreatment by ungrateful children who maliciously downloaded any and every virus-loaded gadget, gizmo and game they could lay their grubby hands on. Defenseless keyboard drowned in koolaid and buried in cookie crumbs, even though eating and drinking near mom's precious computer was STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.

My undying gratitude to SJT Computers for your valiant attempts to resuscitate my beloved. I'm eternally grateful that you were able to salvage all of my pictures and documents, saving me from complete devastation.

LL, you will be missed more than you will ever know. I'll always cherish our hours of internet surfing, your wonderful photo editing abilities, and the steadfast way you saved every major document in my life.

Despite the fact that your replacement is an adorable, pink, little number that travels in the cutest, hot pink tote, remember, that even though she's taking your place on my lap, she'll never take your place in my heart.

Adieu mon cherie
>
>

i heart faces - Week 1

>

A two-year-old Ethan after a swim (he put on his mask by himself!)

>

I've never entered an online contest before, and I've certainly never entered a photo contest before, I'm no photographer, but I have captured some great shots of the kids over the years, so I figured, why not? (and I love any excuse to post the kids' baby pictures on this blog!) This is my first entry for i ♥ faces , in Week 1 of their photo contest. Be sure to check out all the other cute-patooties in the contest!

>

>
>

Low miles, slow miles, no miles

I've blogged before about how little we drive in Japan. It's not unusual for a tank of gas to last me nearly two weeks and O can go almost an entire month on one tank. The girls literally go weeks without ever getting in the car. There's just no need to drive much. Everything we need is within a 2 mi radius of our house, if I'm going further than that, I take the bus or the train.

Back in November, my piece of junk van finally bit the Big One and my wonderful hubby bought me a shiny, new one. Well, new to me at least! LOL It's a 1997 Honda StepWagon and it's a beaut! I love it (Lord help me, I can't believe I just said that about a mini van!) It runs great, is really roomy, has crazy low milage and even has an in-dash CD/TV/DVD/GPS, all for the low, low bargain price of $2800!!!! Can you believe that price???? And that's actually the high end of car prices here on and around the base. You can regularly find a decent car in the range of $1000 - $1500.

And those crazy low miles? Today my van clicked over 76,000km. That's just over 47,000 miles!!! On a 12 year old car! Back in the States a 12 y.o. vehicle would have upwards of 180,000 miles on it. That's 4 times as many miles! When I think about how far I was commuting 5 days a week in the States, usually about 70 miles A DAY, I get nauseous. So much time wasted stuck in the car! I can tell you, I'm spoiled forever now.
>>
>

>

>

ITT Tours

Another perk of being in the military, in Japan. We have our own travel agency on base called ITT - Information, Tickets & Tours, check out them on on the Yokota Services website to see a sampling of the cool trips they offer.

Tours for a given month typically go on sale the second Saturday of the preceding month, so Feb tours went on sale this past Saturday. There are lots of popular tours in Jan and Feb and the two we wanted to take always sell out, so I decided to be at the ITT office when they opened at 10:00a on Saturday. I was expecting a long line, so I got there at 9:30, but no one was there! I was really surprised! I just sat in my van reading until other people finally started showing up, I ended up being # 4 in line.

When the doors opened at 10:00, there were about 40 people in line. It ITT staff had hot coffee and donuts for people to enjoy while they waited, I guess the 1st day of sales are usually pretty busy! I happy to report that I was able to book both tours and was out the door in 18 minutes! When I left, the huge lobby was crammed full of people! I was fully prepared to spend several hours of my Saturday waiting to book these tours! Kudos to the ITT staff!

So, where are we going?

On Feb 7 we'll be taking the kids on a bus tour to the Jigokudani Monkey Park to see the snow monkeys (Japanese macaques), they are wild monkeys that come to the park to warm up in the natural hot springs. And as a bonus, for being members of the Club on the base, we had a $10 off coupon, and got a 10% members' discount! That brought the price of the trip from $138 (already really reasonable) to $114, for all 5 of us!

The next day, Feb 8, Otis and I are taking another bus tour to the Ryogoku Kokugikan to watch the Grand Sumo Tournament, well, one day of it at least.

We had to cram both trips into one weekend because both tours are only available in Jan & Feb, and that weekend was the only one we had free. We only have one more winter left in Japan and I didn't want to risk waiting until next year for either trip, who knows what will be going on next January or February? So, it'll be a long, tiring weekend but I'm so excited and I know we'll all have a great time!
>
>
>

Believe me, it's worse in real life

First, the layout: The base here is split in half by an active runway. We're on the East side of the runway, along with the hospital, theater, an elementary school and a gas station. Everything else is on the other side of the base, on the other side of the flightline: the grocery store, post office, library, bank, the girls' schools, all my meetings. To get to any of them, I have to cross the flightline.
>
There are planes flying in and out of the base nearly 24 hrs a day, 7 days ago. They fly from around 6a to around 10p. There's no schedule, no way to know when planes are landing or taking off, no way to know when there will be training...."Why should this be a problem?", you might be asking to yourself. Well, I'll tell you why. When planes are landing, or taking off, all traffic around the runway must stop. There are red traffic lights and warning bells at all the entrances of the flightline overrun roads to stop traffic for the planes. Usually traffic only has to stop for 4 -5 min as one plane lands or takes off, a little longer if it's really big, or more than one plane. This is a major pain in the butt when you're in a hurry or running late (which 99% is exactly what I am). And it's completely unavoidable. There is no way to get to the othe side of the base, other than going off base and driving a-l-l t-h-e w-a-y around it to the other side (easily a 40 min drive) and no way to know when it's going to happen. And here's what happens if you're unlucky enough to try to cross during training:
>

>

These C-130's are practicing "touch and go's", they take off, land, taxi, take off, land, taxi.....over and over and over again. If their timing is just right, there isn't enough time to let the traffic cross the runway between take-offs or landings, so you just have to sit and wait, and wait, and wait.

>

>

>

>These videos were taken on Wednesday. I was on the main side of the base and just needed to run home and grab something, normally a 15 min round trip. It took me 40 minutes! I got stopped in both directions. And I was in such a hurry! At one point I actually pulled my hair and screamed. It seems so benign, and I suppose in the big picture, it's a small, insignificant thing, but in my tiny, little corner of the world, it's INFURIATING!!!!!!

>

>

Roppongi Hills

From my getaway weekend.

>

I made it to Tokyo City View in Roppongi Hills just in time for the sunset, in fact I almost missed it. If I had taken the 4 flights of stairs up to the Sky Deck, I would have missed it, so I opted to take in the last bit from the 52d floor, then head up to the SD after.
>>
>

>
All I can say is: absolutely breathtaking! It was a beautiful clear evening, I just wish I had gotten there a little bit earlier to catch the full sunset.
>

>

Now I know why they call it the 'Rainbow Bridge'! I didn't know it lit up rainbow at night! D'oh!

>

>

>

>My new camera took much better pics of the spider than my old one

>
>

Roppongi Hills is a great place to go. Tons of shops and restaurants, it has nightclubs and a movie theater, lots of exhibits and it's an awesome place to people watch

>

Super huge Santa. I swear, he was pushing 7 ft!
>

>

TCV is on the 52d floor, from there you have to take 4 flights of stairs up to the Sky Deck. The elevator goes so high, so fast, that your ears actually pop when you're riding in it!

>

>

Not yet

I really thought we'd wake up to snow this morning. But when I got up, the sun was shining bright and it was about 50 degrees out. Not a flake in sight. It's 5:30p now and the temp has dropped significantly, the windchill is 35 degrees. We're planning on taking a Sunday drive up towards Mt. Mitake tomorrow, hopefully we'll find some white stuff!

>

Such a tease!

Slush on my windshield last night

>

>