I know it's been awhile...

... so sorry for the delay in posting! Life here has been busy for me, I have been in the throes of the college semester, with my students' first major research paper to grade. I am also now the President of a new organization on MCAS Iwakuni, the Iwakuni Home-based Business Organization, or IHBO. It's a group that allows all types of home-based business owners to network and share ideas. Plus, in January we plan to start requesting membership dues, which will go toward advertising and events to promote the members' businesses. One of the ways we are doing that is by launching a Iwakuni Business Directory web site. You can see the prototype of you click on the name. It was not yet been finalized and I am the only one listed so far. This is so other members can see what the directory will look like, we haven;t started taking requests for listings, yet. Ads and events will then promote the directory so that all members can benefit. Fortunately, the web site is simple a blog like this one, so it is free!

Tenaciously Remembered is also taking off. I have had four orders since the web site launched, and I have also had requests for classes. There is a craft sale on base Nov. 24 that I am planning for, and I am looking in to the possibility of doing a scrapbooking class as soon as Dec. 4.

Additionally, I am planning for a trip to the States. I am flying "space available," or, Space A for short, which means I do not have a ticket and am not guaranteed a seat. It's a crap shoot, so wish me luck in getting to the States on Saturday, and returning (which is the harder thing to do, I hear) in a couple of weeks. While I am gone, Rodney will be here in Iwakuni holding down the fort. I have left him with a schedule of events and a very important envelope with checks for bills that need to be paid, field trip information and more. Wish him luck, as well!

In other news...

Rodney celebrated his 16th Marine Corps anniversary Oct. 8... just four more years to go! I gave him a bottle of sake from Miyajima and a handmade card. :) He also recently score his highest bowling score ever... a 193. Now he is working on his consistency!

We took the boys to the sushi restaurant with the conveyor belt that runs through it. That was an epic fail. They were willing to try anything, which is a great attitude, but, unfortunately, their eyes did not match their palates. I let them pick the things to try. I may not like certain things, but that doesn't mean they won't, is my philosophy. The both liked the fried fish pictured below, but that's about where the liking stopped.

First, Will chose something off the belt that looked like steak. He tried it, hated the taste and the chewiness. Here is his face:

And here is his face when he found out it was marinated horse meat:

I don't have photos, but Xan selected a couple of seaweed-wrapped little bunches of red marble-looking things. It turned out to be very salty salmon roe, which he immediately spit out. A few days later we tried a Japanese barbecue place and went to the Joyfull restaurant, kind of like a Japanese Denny's, for ice cream and fries. This was much more to the boys' liking.

Last Wednesday was the boys' Open House night at school. There wasn't much time to take photos because it was a pretty strict schedule, but here is a photo of the principal and teachers in the gym, and Will with the Yoshi pinata he made in class.

Also, in case you were wondering about what scares Xan, here is a photo of a project he worked on in class yesterday:

Personally, my favorite is the flu snot. Just kidding., His "h" is a little short.

Finally, in case you haven;t been on Facebook lately, there truly is something called a free meal... when you guess the cost of your Mongolian BBQ correctly! Two weeks in a row I have guessed $14.92 and have been within 10 cents. Tasty and free! Can't beat that!

Week 1

Week2

I have also turned in my receipts from couponing the past three months. We'll see if $295.70 is enough to win the massage.

Last but not least, we walking in the MCAS Iwakuni Breast Cancer Awareness Walk Saturday. It was a 5K walk along the seawall and the weather was gorgeous. Here are the boys festively dressed:

Of course, don't forget to check my public blog for more!

A visit from Kanoko and Isabelle...

Kanoko, the wife of a retired Marine, Joe, who used to work with Rodney in Pensacola, is a native of Japan and came to visit her friends and family for a month. We got to see her last night, and we all went to what the Americans around here call "The Chicken Shack." In Japanese it is called Sanzuko. It has a very traditional feel and the food is delicious. Here are some photos from yesterday:

Belle is 21 months and hadn't ever ridden in a shopping cart she could "drive" before. She loved it!

The kids discovered pretty white butterflies and stopped to take a look.

Kanoko and I at the house.

The boys at The Chicken Shack as samurais

The front of the Shack - they are decorated for fall/Halloween.

To the left of the photo above... and my car, which is the first one on the left.

Walkway inside the Shack

Outdoor dining area within the Shack

Inside the dining room

The lanterns and ceiling woodwork

The boys enjoying their noodles

Rodney REALLY enjoying his noodles... these were his favorite.

Me trying a "rice bowl" for the first time - a pack of sticky rice stuffed inside a  seaweed  wrap. It was good.

Belle enjoying chicken on a stick. She wanted to do it herself and would not let her Mom feed it to her on a fork.

Rodney was excited to see a beer machine.

400 yen later, he got one (this is a $5 can of beer.)

A cute group photo in front of the Shack's koi pond

The boys in front of a fall display

On a different note, here are photos of Will in his class' garden, and one of his latest writing endeavors, a baseball card:

Karate sparring and promotions...

Below are five videos from today's karate class. The boys had a great time!

Will and his friend both earned their black stripes today.

They got new places in the "line" of students.

Sparring 1
Sparring 2
Sparring 3
Sparring 4
Promotion

And here is some more of Xan's writing from last week. I think it is a list of things he has to do. However, I had no idea he had hens to wash.

Add caption

Excerpts from the boys' writing journals...

September has come to an end, and so did the first full month of school. The boys each brought home writing samples they worked on this month. I took pictures and added them here so you could enjoy:

I have no idea when this happened, but Xan obviously remembers it in detail.

This happened at Grandma Peggy's two or three summers ago.

Molly has been with us for a week at this point. Xan is working on understanding time.

Will had to write a "tall tale" as his class assignment. This is Page 1.

Page 2

Page 3 with illustration.

The boys were featured on the front page of the Iwakuni Approach, the base's weekly newspaper, last week. They were at the Kids's Day event two Saturdays ago. Xan has a terrible look on his face, and Will's back is to the camera, but they are there, with a couple of kids from their karate class.

Sorry this is on its side... it will not cooperate.

 Will is very excited about his class' garden. He brought home a couple of small green bell peppers and two small eggplants. Luckily I had a recipe in the South Beach Diet book that required those ingredients. I took pictures before and after baking the veggies, as well as a copy of the recipe and sent it to Will's teacher at Will's request. His teacher was thrilled and then shared the recipe with the rest of the school. Here are the photos. The entire family was surprised that we liked eggplant. Of course, we can;t find any at the commissary...

Many of you have expressed an interest in learning more about Molly. Here is a video of her learning to use her Wodent Wheel, a contraption that is safe than an average exercise wheel and has the added bonus of a sandpaper liner under the mesh she runs on to automatically trim her nails, which grow long and sharp very quickly.

The Gi is here!

Will's karate gi finally arrived! He is now official!




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The Glass Village

I took a tour to the Glass Village in Hiroshima Friday. Click here for the scoop.

Busy week of odds and ends...

This week was anything but dull. They kids and I got ready for Rodney's arrival home from 29 Palms (he should be home late tomorrow - Sunday - night). Will has been selected to be a reporter for the school news show on Fridays, so he has an hour-long meeting on Mondays after school. I picked Xan up form school this first Monday, even though he was eager to walk home by himself. While the base rules say that he cannot be left alone at our house by himself, he can walk home from school or be on a playground by himself for 2 hours. Something about these rules just don't add up, but that's the Marine Corps for you.

I am working with some other people on base to get an organization started for home-based business owners - everything from crafters like myself, to Pampered Chef consultants to accountants. Our first meeting is Tuesday at lunch, so I wanted to get the news out across base. I figured the best way to do that is via the base radio station and newspaper. Once we got there, the Gunnery Sergeant in charge gave us a tour of the studio, and Xan got to sit at the Armed Forces Network news desk on the sound stage.

Later that night, I brought homeMolly. If you haven't heard how we acquired her, read this blog post. The kids love her, Rodney is tolerating the idea of her, and she has made real progress with bonding with us in just a few days. In fact, she ate watermelon while she was out with us last night. Eating around us means she is feeling more comfortable with us. This is a photo Will took:

Here is a YouTube video of Molly on the move.

The kids have been busy with homework, especially Will, who seems to have atl east an hour of it every night (I wonder if they are accomplishing anything in class!). Xan's homework, so far, has been very easy for him, so he is done in a matter of minutes. He feels like he should be doing something while his brother is doing homework, I so I set him up on Khan Academy and he's been working through the math levels. Here is Will teaching Xan how to read analog clock:

Thursday, they had karate. Here is a video of them playing the "square" game.

I've also been keeping the kids busy cleaning their room and bathroom before their Dad gets home. They weren't thrilled,but they got to go to the high school's homecoming game afterward. They saw the homecoming parade yesterday after school, which went about a square mile around the base's "downtown." They collected a lot of candy and Xan really impressed the football team on one of the floats when he caught the candy they threw at him one-handed.

Side note: There are two black Explorers that I see driving around on base. It makes me miss mine. :( But it'llbe waiting for me in Grandma and Grandpa's garage when I get back.