A Gorgeous Day For An Adventure

Wow, post typhoon days are bee-u-ti-ful!  We went with our friends Kristen, Crystal and Maria (and their kids, of course) to check out Sea Seed, a local coral farm.  Unfortunately, due to the typhoon and our limited understanding of the language, it seems that it's closed for an unknown amount of time.  Darn.  Well, we couldn't let a gorgeous day pass us by and quick thinking moms that we are, we improvised and had a great adventure.

Did I mention that the day was beautiful?

You know you live on an island when ALL the moms have beach toys, towels, and sunscreen in the back of the car.  This totally reminded me of Hawaii.  The water was an amazing color and so warm.  Thankfully, it was also very shallow.

Because the water was so crystal clear, we were able to see some cool sea creatures.

There was the sea cucumber (which is freakishly snake-like)

The sea urchin

The sea, um, spiky thing

And the ever elusive, sea carrot

Oops, that's just Adam's snack, which he promptly picked up and resumed eating.  Much better than the hermit crab I found in his mouth. Yes, I said crab.  Luckily, he found one that was terrified of being eaten and was too scared to pinch at Adam's mouth or tongue.  I hope he'll forgive me for freaking out and flinging him across the sand.

The kids had a fabulous time playing in the sand.

He looks like he's "up" to something.  Oh yeah, he was!  This is right before I found the crab in his mouth!

Mary's castle.  She had so much fun decorating it and making a shell driveway.

It's a bittersweet time in our lives.  It's PCS (Permanent Change of Station) time and our wonderful, supportive group of friends are moving away.  Our huge, boisterous playgroup is dwindling down and we treasure these few days/ weeks we have left.  Thanks for a great time, Ladies!

Super Typhoon Songda

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center classifies a 'Super Typhoon' as a tropical cyclone of 130 knot winds or greater in the Northwestern Pacific.  Thankfully, it was downgraded to a regular typhoon before it hit us Saturday @11pm, but we still faced wind gusts over 100 mph.  Kadena, (the Air Force base next to us) clocked one at 110mph.   It was the worst storm I have ever witnessed. 



I am amazed at the generosity of the human spirit.  I am humbled by the kindness of strangers, acquaintances, friends.  I am in awe of the power of Mother Nature and how we are truly at her mercy.  I have never been in a tornado, but this storm certainly had a "tornado-like" feel and look to it.  There was a definite "path" of destruction in the neighborhood and I was left speechless when I saw our shed broken and missing pieces, our neighbor's shed totally decimated and their neighbor's totally untouched.  It was a strange night.  My kid who sleeps 12 hours every night without a peep, was scared out of his mind and didn't want to sleep.  I finally forced him and let let him cry it out in the pack in play next to my bed at 2am.    Thankfully, the storm was almost over by then and the wind was down to a minor roar.  Mercifully, he fell asleep within minutes.  Unfortunately, he only slept till 6:45am.  Of course, I was wide awake at 5:45am doing damage survey of the house and yard and taking photos.  My other kid, who spends most nights in the throes of nightmares slept all the way through the storm.  Go figure.  With Doug out of town and being the only parent, it was a blessing.  I can think of very few things worse than trying to soothe 2 kids at the same time...by myself.

Jaw Dropping

I first checked on the shed to see how it had weathered the storm.  It didn't.  Only later, did I realize the doors are completely missing along with a section of the roof.  We did a complete walk around the block to see damage in the neighborhood and never once spotted our missing pieces.  Wow.

The piece of shed with the window on the ground actually belongs to our neighbor behind us.  Their shed looked like it had exploded, but left a neat and tidy pile of their belongings in the middle of their yard.  Totally bizarre.

Speechless

Trees, branches, debris everywhere and yet the thing that amazed me the most was how calm and cool and beautiful the morning was.  None of the humidity that had been plaguing us for weeks.  None of the angry wind and rain from the previous night.  We had trees and branches in the backyard, but most amazing was the front yard.  We were so fortunate not to have any windows broken.  Adam's room is on the right side- the one with the 3 windows.  No wonder he was so scared.

I opened the front door to show the kids the damage and I saw their water table upside down and under the tree limbs.  The table had been in the shed.

*Sniff* Tear Inducing

After our morning walk around the block, the kids were busy watching a movie and I had breakfast on the stove when I heard talking outside in the front yard.  I peeked out and saw some friends from up the street; the husband, the wife and their 2 boys.  They had hand saws and gloves and bottles of water.  They started cleaning up our yard before I could even get my shoes on.  I thought they came to talk.  They came to help.  They didn't wait for an invitation, they just got right in there and sawed and pulled and hauled and even bled (scraped on branches).  Gretchen said, "I knew Doug was out of town and you were alone.  Figured he's gonna get chewed out enough since he wasn't here, he might as well not have extra work."  I had looked at this mess this morning and not even known where to start.  It was too overwhelming.  She told me I was lucky not to have any damage in the backyard.  I gave her a funny look and said that we did have downed trees and branches.  I took a look and they were gone.  Our neighbors behind us (the ones with the decimated shed) had sawed them down and hauled them to their curb.  Because, they too, knew Doug was gone.  I helped haul, I took pictures and I watched as an amazing military community banded together and helped one another.  Every single person that walked by while we were working, from the wife with 3 kids, to the man and his dog, stopped to help.  The lesson I learned today is that when someone needs help, you don't just offer your help and tell them to let you know if they need anything (I would never have called anyone to come help me haul away those huge tree branches- except maybe the housing maintenance office), you jump right in and get your hands dirty.  I totally plan to "pay it forward" and hope to make a difference in someone else's life someday.  Words cannot describe how grateful I am for their assistance today.

Yes, Joe climbed up the tree.

See, not all lawyers are bad.

So that was our big adventure this weekend.  Adam was thrown all off kilter by only sleeping a few hours and was a complete and utter whiny, screamy mess the whole day.  Hopefully, he'll sleep all night and get back on track.  Fingers crossed.  Mary, who was amazing last night, continued that behavior throughout the day.  We invited ourselves to our neighbor's house to play in their bouncy/water slide (while the husband put together their new shed) and Mary walked up to the wife (totally unsolicited by me) and said, "Thank you for letting me play on your water slide."  Awww.  She was so impressed.  I was so proud.  And now, it's time for me to call it a day and go to bed.  I'm exhausted.

For Those of You Who Don't Have Facebook...

I'll update you on some of my latest postings.

-Had both kids in the bath tonight. Told Mary I need to start washing Adam's stinky feet. She said, "I'll wash the balls." She then grabbed one of the bath toy basketballs and washed it with her washcloth. Whew! Dodged that bullet!

-I'm painting Mary's finger nails tonight and she points to her index finger and says, "I call this my mommy finger." Maybe I point a lot? She then moves her middle finger and says, "I call this one the daddy finger." And no, I didn't spill a single drop of polish as I was rolling on the floor laughing.

-And probably most importantly, We have a house!  Doug spent this past week looking at a ton of homes in Chesapeake, Virginia and had it narrowed down to our top 3.  #1 was rapidly becoming a problem and a big stressor for me thinking about all the work it would need; heavily stained and nasty carpets, an affinity for lighthouse wallpaper, air conditioner units that would need to be replaced soon and a new refrigerator.  Not to even delve into the complications with a bankruptcy and the extra paperwork.  Another couple was seriously looking at our #2 and Doug jumped in and started a bidding war.  We won!  Yea!  I'm so excited about this home, for it's in much better condition and will require practically no "fixing up" before we move in.  No tacky wallpaper, nice neutral wall colors, carpet in great condition, flowers in the yard (which I swear I'll try to keep alive).  The only down side is that the garage is small and Doug will need to build a detached garage.  Oh well, it will give him something to do so he can get his Torino to Virginia. So a big "Thank you!" to Doug and Bev who spent this week going from home to home and taking pictures to e-mail to me, so I could feel included in this process.  Now I can truly start preparing for the next phase.  Packing? No.  Moving?  No.  Decorating!  Oh yeah!

Thank You, Anti-Bubble Lady!

It works!!!!!  We braved the mushy, muddy, wet backyard (because we're not afraid of a little mess) and tried out the bubble feature.  Luckily, I kept a ton of old empty bubble bottles and one of them fit perfectly. Yea!!!  All is good with the world.

"working" on the mower.  He had his handy bubble wand that he was using as a wrench.

His version of cussing, since the wrench didn't appear to work.  Like father, like son.

Success!  Just had to show it who's boss.

Vroom-vroom!

Well, Doug will be happy, we are now proud owners of a new (gently used) lawnmower, I mean, bubble mower.  We've been talking about buying one for a while.  Whenever we would go to friend's homes, Adam would immediately seek out the mower and push it all over the yard.  He loved it.  I decided to wait until we moved back to the States to get one, but yesterday, he pushed Mary's pink doll stroller all through the neighborhood and today, I saw a lady selling a mower on okinawayardsales.com for $10.  I couldn't pass up that great deal.  I asked her if the bubble function actually works, since everyone I've met with one says the bubble part breaks almost as soon as it's out of the box.  She told me she's not sure, since she's anti-bubble.  What???  Yep.  She doesn't believe in bubbles and doesn't allow anything messy around her 2 yr old son.  She said she can't stand mess, so she has a strict anti-mess philosophy.  My first inclination was to fall on the floor laughing, but since we were in a parking lot, in the rain, I decided against it.  You know, because I'm anti-dirt and I was wearing a white shirt.  My second thought was, poor kid.  What a rough childhood.  How on Earth does a person have a kid and NOT have a mess?  Especially a BOY.  What kind of fun can they have?  There are definitely some strange people in this world.  {insert head shaking}  It's raining, so we couldn't try out the bubbles in the backyard, (because even though I may scoff at the lady for her strictness,  I'm not completely insane to allow bubbles in the house) but Adam didn't care.  He was happily "mowing" the living room and the dining room.  Hopefully, there won't be any more fights over the baby doll stroller.

Of course, he gave the the biggest grin immediately after this picture was taken and then took off to continue mowing.  Oh well.  He's one happy boy.  *And yes, he's resumed the massive drooling again.

Nap Time

A Well Deserved Treat!

Every once in a while, I pick up cheap little toys from the dollar section and put them in Mary's "treat bag".  Whenever she's extra good, she can pick a prize.  May has been a rough month for sleep.

An X is for crying.  Boo!  1 smiley face is for sleeping all night.  Yea!  2 smiley faces is for getting up to the bathroom all by herself in the middle of the night without waking us up and sleeping all night without crying.  Double YEA!!!!  After 7 consecutive stickers, we get to go to a store of choice for a bigger prize (usually Toys R Us).  Because sleep is so precious to me, because Doug's out of town, and because she's slept 2 nights in a row without a single nightmare, I let her pick a small prize this morning.  She choose stamper markers and boy, was she happy.

She immediately started making a Father's Day card for Daddy.  Awww.

Adam decided he should have some marker time too.  He actually did a better job of keeping them on the paper and out of his mouth...well, mostly.

What a Day!

This morning, I grabbed the kids and we headed up north to buy a special surprise present for Father's Day.  It is so hard buying anything for Doug that doesn't include car parts, tools or a gift card.  I finally thought of something and needed to buy it while he's away on his trip.  The kids were amazing.  A full hour long ride and not a single whine...of course, they consumed an entire bag of Japanese vegetable chips.  Adam, not only went an hour in the car, but was immediately bolted into the stroller for the errand then put back in the car seat for another 30 minute drive to the aquarium.  He was never allowed to stand up and stretch his legs.  And he never complained!  Actually, he fell asleep on that second ride, thank goodness and had himself a mini-nap.  I gave Mary the option of heading to McDonald's to play at the playground and eat an early lunch before heading home (it was 10:50am by this time and I thought we might even be able to make it in time for a nap at home) or we could drive to the aquarium and play on the cool net playground.  Of course, she heard aquarium and she was all for it.  I even told her I didn't have enough time or money for us to pay and actually walk through and see the fish, but she was ok with it.   Once we got there, she immediately wanted to see if the dolphins were out.  The 2 times we've been, we've missed the shows (because we were inside looking at the fish) and haven't been able to see them at all.  They've built a new tank and a huge seating area (in the shade -Ahhhhh).  Did I mention the show is completely free?  It was fabulous.  She was so excited to finally see them.  You can tell, it was finally a gorgeous day here.  Yea!

Now, that's a happy girl!

After the show, we walked to the playground to run off some wiggles.  By now, it was 12:20pm, but because of the amazing "mom bag" we'd had plenty of snacks to tide us over until lunch.  This place never ceases to amaze me.  It has nets for 3-6 yr olds and some for 6-12 yr olds.  There's even a toddler play area...that Adam really wasn't interested in, since his sister was busy somewhere else.

After we finished playing, I still figured we'd hit McDonald's drive thru on the way home, but as we were pulling out, I saw the sign for the Butterfly Garden.  My little girl LOVES butterflies.  She even wants a butterfly birthday cake...and she was wearing a butterfly skirt today.  It was meant to be.  This was probably the last time we were going to drive this far north before we move.  Better do it today.  We pulled in and I knew we needed to eat first, so we headed to the restaurant and had a typical "tourist trap" kind of meal; filling, ok, but not fabulous.  Mary really enjoyed her beef curry, though and that's all that matters.  The kids were amazing.  By this time it was around 1pm and they still hadn't had lunch (we normally eat at 11:30am) and they weren't even whiny.  Though I'll be honest, Adam let out quite the excited squeal when I found the last remaining pieces of Skittles in my purse and offered them up as appetizers.  

Mary gets way too shy when people offer to take our picture with my camera.  For some reason, she always refuses.  Oh well.  At least she lets me take her picture, so I can't complain too much.

We walked to the butterfly house where they have netting on the doors to help trap more butterflies inside, so we could get up close and personal.  It was really cool.  I guess Adam didn't realize what he was looking at, since he reached out and grabbed one by the wings.  It furiously started flapping it's wings for dear life and Adam freaked.   It was pretty funny and of course, I had to snap a picture first.  Sorry, lil' man.

After sweating like crazy in the hot,humid day, I decided the kids (and I) deserved some ice cream before driving an hour home.  It was delicious.  We had a wonderful, thoroughly exhausting day.

You can tell it was a good day by looking at Mary's shirt (beef curry and chocolate ice cream).  There was many a chuckle by the Japanese employees as we were walking out the building and a flat out belly laugh by me.  Aww, makes me say, "I love my kids today."

A Ray of Sunshine

We woke to beautiful rays of sunshine this morning after what felt like weeks of rain.  I would have been shouting for joy, but that pesky brightness appeared at the unholy time of 6:20am and soon after, little man decided it was time to get up too.  *Sigh*  Coffee, please.  Of course, we had to get outside and run around, since it had been forever.  We had a good time in the yard playing with bubbles, sidewalk chalk, running to pick up the dry cleaning and finishing off the morning at Spot park.  I think this was the first time in a long time that Adam hasn't left there bloody.  Of course, he did fall off a step right before we were to leave, but he sort of hung on by a foot and I was able to rush over and grab him before he got hurt.  Whew, time to go.  During nap, the clouds started to blow back in and it looked like rain.  That didn't deter the kids who'd had a taste of freedom and yearned for more.  So we went back out.

Can you tell they're related?  Hmm, maybe to Michael Jordan?  Just kidding, Doug.  What's up with those tongues?

I decided we needed a little pizza delivery, so we ordered up our favorite pie and "stick bread" (bread sticks) and ate "alfresco"  That's one of Mary's new favorite words since reading it in a Fancy Nancy book.

Of course, they weren't satisfied eating at the table the whole time, so alfresco turned into..."al-grasso"

Then, "al-by the chalk outline of the crime scene-o"

"al-stairs-o"

And to complete the eating outdoor experience, they multi-tasked by running and carb loading at the same time.  

Adam was so exhausted by 6:30, he didn't make any complaint when I mentioned going to bed early.  Hope we all sleep well.