Xan's 7th Birthday...

... was a fairly quiet one. With plans (that ended up falling through) to go to Okinawa, plus Rodney trying to get to Okinawa for a Master Sergeant seminar, it's been a crazy time for us. But Xan didn't seem to mind.

We kicked the day off with his birthday spankings from his Dad...

Then we headed off to a late breakfast at JDs... where he got a happy birthday cheesecake and ice cream after eating his pancakes dripping in syrup. Yum! Sugar rush!

Will and Rodney then went "birthday" shopping while Xan and I stayed home. Will came home with a gift he had bought for Xan. and Rodney came home with a nice cream cake Xan had requested.

We celebrated with cake after supper (which was Xan's favorite, spaghetti), and our neighbors, the Cruz's, came over to help us celebrate. I forgot to get candles, so we made due with one of the emergency candles I had gotten for our base-wide power outage Friday night - more on that in a moment). Three cheers for scrapbook supplies!

The night before the entire base was without power for a scheduled expansion on the base's electrical system. It was from 10 p.m. (and they weren't kidding about 10 p.m.... the lights went off right at 10) until 8 a.m. Everyone living on base was issued a block of dry ice to put in the refrigerator to keep everything cold. We had an impromptu Cards by Candlelight party at our house. We hadn't planned to be home since we were supposed to catch the Space A flight to Okinawa, but since the plane was overbooked, Rodney, who was on orders, didn't even get on! He ended up getting a flight the following Monday and made it to his seminar with no problem.

Once the power came on Saturday morning, we had a block of dry ice to play with., So, taking an idea from one of our neighbors, we put it in the toilet for a steaming commode. The boys thought that was fun for about 10 minutes.

The kids had been really excited to take a trip this spring break and were disappointed that we didn't get to go to Okinawa (so was I!). So, I quickly put together a road trip to Sasebo navy base, which is about 5 hours away by car, to kind of make up for the disappointment. I'll post about that trip next.

Easter, birthdays and dressing up for school...

With spring break and our attempt to Space A to Okinawa, plus baseball practices, my brief trip to Tokyo, and just life in general, this month promises to be busy and go by fast... so we decided to give the boys their birthday gifts from us and the Kasal side of the family early. Grandma Nancy made each of the boys "World Trabel" quilts with their names on them... and, to coin a phrase of Grandma Peggy's, they showed proper enthusiasm. Grandma Nancy was on Skype and got to watch their reactions.

The boys only got one other gift so far, which they will have to share. Rodney and I, as well as the Kasal side of the family, pitched in to buy the kids something they have been wanting but didn't think they could ask for: An iPad mini. Please note the proper enthusiasm on their faces.

I also wanted to brag about how much my kids are loved by both sides of the family: The Easter cards you all sent were very much appreciated and are overflowing our "card display" table. Thank you so much for think of them.

Also, Xan wanted to make sure I showed you this... his favorite fleamarket find thus far: A WWE Raw t-shirt I brought home for him. He tried to wear it two days in a row, but Dad managed to stop him. ;)

This week has been a fun one at school: Each day the kids got to school dressed up in different themes. Rodney got these photos of them before they left for school each day (note the shirttail of the WWE t-shirt). Tuesday was Camo Day (as in military, not hunting):

Wednesday was Future Career Day.

Spring has sprung... which means we have allergies...

Well, at least Xan does. He had to go to the doctor this week because of three weird rashes on his neck, arm and leg, which I managed to capture in the is photo, three days after he started using the cream the doctor prescribed, plus Zyrtec.

But, as you can tell, aside from skipping karate on Thursday, it really hasn't slowed him down much.

Baseball and softball seasons are starting up, so all three of my boys have been busy working on their swings and fielding. Little League officially starts April 20, which is my big craft sale day, with an opening ceremony, and Rodney's season will start Memorial Day. No pictures, yet, but I am sure we will have plenty as the seasons really get serious.

Some other odds and ends from the week:

The sakuras, or cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Iwakuni this weekend, I took photos Friday morning. Check out my public blog to see all of my favorite photos.

This is a photo of Rodney's detachment that I took Friday morning, minus a few people on leave. It would a great photo if the commissary wasn't behind it.

Will ordered a new dish at our base restaurant, JD's... a half rack of ribs. He was shocked by how much food he got.

But it was very tasty, he said.

Today we headed off to the gym for the Health and Wellness Fair. I am not sure what he had to do with health or wellness, but this balloon artist was just amazing. I loved the balloon cherry blossom tree he had at his table.

This was also at the health and wellness fair. And to think I just gave Xan my old cell phone (that did not work) to play with. Will only had the VCR.

In this month's base magazine, The Preview, an article I wrote about home-based businesses was published. It was fun to see my name in print again. You should be able to click on this photo to enlarge it so you can read it if you like.

With their birthdays coming up, the boys made a list of WWE Rumblers that they DON'T have yet. Here is the list:

Today was the base Easter Egg Hunt, which was broken up by age group. There was one golden egg per age group that got the finder a large basket of goodies. Here are the boys looking intently for the golden egg (which was just an egg wrapped in brown packaging tape) for Xan's group.

Xan did his best, but he didn't find the golden egg. However,Will did find an egg with tape on it and took it over to the table. It supposedly wasn't the actual golden egg, but he got a prize basket anyway... not sure how that works, but so be it. Will was kind enough to share the goodies with his brother.

But that wasn't the weirdest part of the day. Here is the weirdest part:

This is Junko (pronounced joon-koh), a Japanese lady I first met at the Hina Doll Festival about a month ago. She happened to be at the egg hunt with some American friends and we got to talking, Turns out, she went to El Toro High School in Lake Forest, Calif., the same time I did, graduating a year before me. We didn't know each other then, but I can't wait to look her up in the yearbook! Her parents still live in Lake Forest, just a few miles away from mine. What a coincidence! She now lives in Japan with her husband and four children. We plan to keep in touch.

And, last but not least, I made fruit pizza for the first time in years and served it on my four sakura plates I got at the base thrift store for 50 cents. Happy Spring!

More of Mt. Aso...

I have blogged about the trip to Mt. Aso, the largest volcano in Japan, on my public blog, but didn't add all of the photos of the trip that I thought you, my family and friends, might enjoy. So, click here for the original blog post, and then enjoy the photos below.

This bridge below connects the Kyushu Island to the Honshu Island.  Honshu is the main Japanese island that Iwakuni is on. Mt. Aso is on Kyushu. We arrived at this location at about 7 a.m. We left base at 5:15 a.m., and didn't get back until 10:30 p.m. It was a long day, but a lot of fun.

Proof our family was truly there:

At Aso Farmland, there was an area called Genki Stadium. Basically it was a game-like wellness test. The kids wanted to try it, so they took off their shoes and put on the Stadium's. Turns out they are well, but not necessarily coordinated.

The Japanese kids had a great time watching our kids.

The kids (and adults) with Mt. Aso.

A local badger we found in a field as we were driving by...

The tree behind us is a cherry tree and it will be completely snowy white with blossoms, probably next week. We were just a little too early to enjoy it in full bloom. Xan was allergic to the yellow flowers behind us and had to stay away to keep his eyes and nose from running. Picture with us are Makalyn (left) and Miho.

Karate, Japanese fame and more...

Will and Xan are really "kicking butt" in karate these days. They are working on learning their kata, which is a choreographed "dance" of karate moves. When they have it perfected, they perform it for the sensei and when he deems it worthy, they can move up to an orange belt. Xan kicked it up a notch, literally, in class yesterday, impressing the sensei with his accurate spinning back kicks, which no one else in class has been doing. While I didn't get the kicks on film, here is a video of him pitted against the sensei's son, an 8-year-old orange belt:

Tenacious Xan

Will has had Terra Nova testing this week, the DoD's school standardized testing for the year. He managed to convince his father to cook eggs for him for breakfast each day and get a ride to school once. They are getting so spoiled! ;)

Here is a photo of Rodney wearing his Charlie uniform for the first time since being promoted (note the new chevrons on the sleeve.)

I was featured in the Japanese media again, which was fun: Yamaguchi Newspaper

I have also had a great time teaching scrapbooking, My March Crafts & Cocktails class was Tuesday and I taught eight Japanese ladies in the morning and 14 ladies associated with the base in the evening. You can find the photos on my Tenaciously Remembered blog.

Last., but not least, a photo of Xan in a bag:

The personalized bag home-party company, Thirty-one, is VERY popular here in Iwakuni and I ordered a couple of bags from a friends party, one of them being this huge bag called Room for 2. I had no idea it was going to be so big, but, for all its size, it only fit one Xan.

Some writing from Xan

Here is some of Xan's writing for the month of February. I just love the phonetic spelling!





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