My class introduction

I used the video below to introduce myself to my online Global Communication class. It looks like I will have more than 40 students. I thought you might like to watch it.

MMC 4300 Introduction Video

I just got word that our household goods have arrived and will be delivered tomorrow morning. So excited!

Another one "bites" the dust...

Sorry for the slight pun, but I couldn't resist. Will lost another tooth this morning, the one right next to the one he lost earlier. So now the hole in his head is twice as big! We'll see what the tooth fairy brings this time...

Rodney left for 29 Palms, California on Thursday, so while he's enjoying the desert climate and visits with the in-laws, the boys and I are keeping busy around here. This weekend we washed Prestige, my car, and discovered that she is actually metallic.It took an hour to scrub her down... the dirt here is kind of greasy.  Apparently no one had washed her for months.

I can only image when the last time the inside was cleaned, so the boys don't know it yet, but we will probably work on cleaning the inside of her this weekend. The "auto skills center" allows you to use their pressure washers, vacuums and more for just $3 an hour. Plus, they have covered bays to stay out of the sun.

The Xbox 360 arrived a few days ago from Illinois, so the boys have been glued to it. Fortunately, they get along more often than the argue over how to play, although they get quite loud in the excitement of vanquishing the bad guys. Fortunately we don't have next-door neighbors yet, so I just pout on my head phones and past episodes of the latest TV show I am catching up on, Mad Men. I rarely watch TV, so these shows are completely new to me. The library on base has them for free and you can keep them for three weeks. Score!

The boys have been able to Skype with their days about every-other day. I don't know what we would do over here without Skype. If you care to talk with us my Skype name is jessicaguthrie22.

The kids are enjoying KArate very much, so I paid their sensei for their gis,or as Xan likes to call them, their "karate suits." The sensei had Xan's size on hand, but Will's is in the process of being shipped here. He should have it anytime. This week they got to kick their "opponents," as well as punch the padded wall.

First day of school!

Here are the boys' photos from this morning, their first day of school at M.C. Perry Elementary School in Iwakuni, Japan!

The fifth grader.

The first grader.

All together

Teachers and Jackpots...

Yesterday was an important day: The kids met their teachers for the year. Xan's teacher is Mrs. Howell:

Will's teacher is Mr. Goering:

After meeting the teachers, Xan wanted to take Will out in town to see the arcade he had been to earlier in the week. Will's new friend, Tyler, went with us. Will and I played a game where the machine scoops up candy to dump on a platform and then prizes get pushed off the ledge. We won the "jackpot," which made a lot of noise and buzzers and blinking lights: We won a bag of chips.

Hiroshima

I found the time to blog about our Saturday trip to Hiroshima on my public blog. Be sure to click this link to see it.Some of the stuff is not on that post, so I've added it here. You should read the public blog post FIRST so the photos below have more context for you.

This cutout of a top hat man was in the lobby of Andersen's. Will did not think the stodgy-looking man should smile while Xan couldn't help but grin.

Across the street from Andersen's and down a few shops was this toy store, which clearly specialized in Legos. Of course, we had to go in. We did not anticipate the over-the-top reactions from the boys, so I did not get them on video. Bummer.

This set is $238.

This set is $211.

I hadn't seen a Vikings set before. This costs $159.

The boys settled for 400 yen ($5) Ninjago characters spit out of a gumball-like machine.

 For you Lego enthusiasts, here is a video I took of all of the Lego aisles at the toy store.

The boys on their first train ride. Note the men digging in to the doughnuts to the left.

The boys in front of the A-Bomb Dome.

This for you, Luke! ;)

Karate!

The boys had their first session of karate Thursday and they loved it. Click here for Will's sparring video and Xan's sparring video. Before you grandmotherly types freak out, it wasn't really sparring, as the videos will show you. Here are the photos I got:

Will and Xan are on the far left. The sensei is the gentleman in the front. Xan was very impressed that he was a black belt.

Bear crawls. The boys were NOT good at this.

Will practices his ninja roll

More ninja rolling.

Xan's turn to ninja roll.

More ninja rolling.

The sensei gives Xan a target to practice his "blade hands."

The kids were very serious about their karate lesson. We will probably continue until baseball season. The class is an hour on Mondays and Thursdays, $3.50 per kid, per session.

Meanwhile, we have been keeping busy in other ways around the house. Will goes to the youth center most afternoons. Xan has been perfecting his painting and we have all been watching a lot of movies. We are looking forward to our final shipment arriving. It is scheduled to arrive by the end of the month.

Please note that I finally found a lamp shade. It was at the thrift store on base for $5. It is pink, but once my scrap stuff gets here I hope to remedy that.

Will also lost a tooth! He put it in a plastic baggie under his pillow and the Tooth Fairy left 100 yen. I guess the Tooth Fairy here is Japanese. ;)

Bowling, big toes and more...

The Guthries have been keeping busy. We are limited in what we can do to keep busy in the house - our household goods won;lt be here for a few weeks. So, The boys and I went to $1 movie afternoon here on base and saw Madagascar 3. Then, all four of us bowled for an hour. Rodney won.

After dinner, Rodney continued the winning streak, coming in fourth in the base=sponsored poker tournament. While first, second ans third place each received trophies, Rodney actually got chips and cards. He said he liked that prize a lot better than a trophy you'd have to dust.

But his smile disappeared today, replaced by a grimace of pain, After years of giving him trouble with ingrown toenails, Rodney had both of his big toe nails removed today, and Tylenol with codeine just isn't cutting through the pain. Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow.

And there is a bit of a grocery shortage on base. Check out my public blog for the details.

Have you checked my blog lately?

Be sure to check out my public blog if you haven't, yet: We've found cars, drove off base and enjoyed Korean barbecue: Click here!

Making ice cream at the library and other things...

The library on MCAS Iwakuni has a great summer reading program and yesterday they had an ice cream social. They actually got to make the ice cream - after story time where an elephant did not want to share his ice cream. This was a great set up because siblings then had to share the Ziploc baggie of ice cream.

Cream

Chocolate (for chocolate ice cream)

Shake, shake, shake!

Getting ready to enjoy the ice cream

Pouring the soft-serve ice cream in to cups.

 Rodney's boss was featured in the base's monthly magazine. It was an article about the activities and services available to the Marines and their families. Obviously,m he likes date night. :) His wife is Japanese.

Since 10-year-olds can run around base without supervision, we got Will an inexpensive cell phone. Here is a photo of him learning to text:

Texting his mother

Every Wednesday the base offers Mongolian Barbecue night, and the kids had a great time picking out their meats, vegetables and sauces for the chefs to cook in front of them:

If you haven't checked my public blog lately, the most recent post on there is about our orientation and Japanese drivers ed.