Carving Pumpkins

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins tonight.



After the girls gutted their pumpkins, they picked out a template and got busy tracing the pattern. We always do these kinds of pumpkins every year. The girls have become a pro at cutting out the designs.

The finished product:

Fall Festival

Jasmine's school held a fall festival. It was more of an end to Red Ribbon Week where the kids learned about drugs, the effects of drugs, how to keep a clear mind about drugs and to teach others about the effects of drugs.

There were different booths set up around the school sponsored by the school's clubs. Club Zero made a haunted house. The kids worked long and hard on this for weeks. They did an excellent job. Jasmine's part was to act as a druggie who was going through withdrawals. She was screaming and acting like a crazy woman trying to get more drugs.

I signed up to make magic wand treats for the visitors. They are so easy to make. You just cover a pretzel rod with frosting and sprinkles. You could also do this with peanut butter and raisins too. I ended up making about 100 wands. Don't they look yummy?

Just before the festival was to start, the fire alarms went off and the fire department scrambled to the school. I had a hunch Charlie had something to do with it. I was right. He and a friend were playing with the fog machine a little TOO much. Good job Charlie.

Kiera had fun playing at all the booths. Here she has simulated beer goggles. It distorts your vision like you had drank two beers. She did great, not missing a step. I on the other hand would have been written a DUI.

And here she is getting a ghost painted on her hand.

She enjoyed it and got lots of cool loot.

You may be asking where Maya was. She was at her best friend's house working on a project for school. They are studying the countries in Europe and were each assigned a buddy and a country. They got Switzerland. I was able to find some pictures we actually took while in Switzerland and I bought some Swiss chocolate from the BX for them to share with the class. They got most of the project finished which I am really proud of. I really didn't think they would actually do it. She ended up spending the night at her friend's house and they went to see "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" today.

It's raining here. A tropical storm has been passing by for a few days now. We have about three more days of rain left. Ugg! I hope we don't get too water logged.

Oki All Day

We ordered take out from our favorite curry shop, CoCos. Once we got settled at home we had noticed they put a pint size Coke in with our order. Everything is small in Okinawa. So cute!

Wow, What a Week

Wow, I haven't blogged in a week! Can't believe it. It's not that we have nothing going on or we're too busy. It's just been one of those weeks.

We all had to get up bright and early on Tuesday to get our flu shot. The base was doing a clinic from 6-4 all week. Usually these things are packed. Jas has to be at school at 7am and out by 2pm but Maya and Kiera don't go until 9am and out by 3pm. So really the only time I could do it within reasonable time was to get there when they opened at 6am. The kids weren't happy about the time or the fact that they were getting a shot. But they all did well so we went out for Dunkin Donuts before school. Yep, get them all sugared up and send them on their way.

Charlie and I were trying to decided what to do with the rope we cut from the tug of war. Do we hang it up? Put it somewhere? Store it in the memories box? It's really a mess and the straw breaks off when you touch it. So we decided to make a shadow box. I picked up the last one available at the BX for a great price. I was happy about that. At first I was just going to put the rope and an article from the newspaper in the box but I thought it looked too bland. I pondered on it for a few days and decided to put a few more colorful Okinawan items in the box too. I purchased some washi paper and learned from Kiera how to make a paper crane. Once I got started, I made a few from different patterns of paper. It was really easy once I got the hang of it. (Maybe I'll blog about that one day) I also put an Okinawan fan, a set of shisha dogs, some star sand from the beach and a tiny taiko drum in the shadow box as well. It turned out looking much better than I had originally planned. I don't have a picture of it now but I'll get around to it soon.

Jasmine's Club Zero will be keeping us very busy next week (I told you it would. This is one "get it done" program. The kids do tons of stuff instead of just talking about it. Charlie and I will be helping decorate for the Haunted Family Fun Night. And I will be making yummy magic wands (so easy to make, no baking required - that's my kind of treat. I'll have to post about that one too) for all the kids to enjoy. It will be spirit week at both of the schools so I'll have to get some pics. of the girls' crazy clothes.

Charlie has been working insane hours at work lately. He's usually up at 4:30 am and home around 7pm. Last night he didn't get home until 9pm. It's awful. Next week is going to be just as bad but he'll be working the night shift so he'll really be messed up. He always talks about wanting a real massage so I made an appointment for him to get a 45 min. hot stone massage. I don't really know what they'll do but it sounded great. I hope it enjoys it. I can't wait for him to come home and tell me how it was.

That's about it for now. I don't want to bore you too much. Hopefully I'll have some time this next week to get some blogs in with pictures.

Heave....Hoo...Heave...Hoo

We had a blast at the Great Naha Tug-of-War. The rope is the largest man made rope in the world. We get a chance to tug on it in the city as a battle between East and West.

Before the actual war, there are tons of activities going on. There 's a long Parade of the Flags. The men hold these long flag poles as they walk and chant through the city.

Finally, the city streets are blocked off from traffic and the crowd spills into the street. We get our first touch of the rope and our position in the tug-of-war.

Thousands of people gather for their chance of pulling the rope.

We all had a great time. The announcers determined it to be a tie. At the end of it all we got to cut a piece of the rope off and take it home for good luck and as a memento of this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Stop, Drop and Roll

The base fire department came to the girls' school to talk about fire prevention and fire safety. They got to take a tour of the fire trucks and a smoke room. They learned what to do during a situation with a fire and with smoke.

Let's Go Already

27 days to go and we'll find out what's on our "list". The wait has been tiresome at best. Germany is on our brain all the time. We lived most of our marriage there. Our kids were born and raised (practically) there. We love everything about it, the food, the travel, the culture the weather (well, maybe not always the weather). I miss grass and trees (is that so wrong?) being able to hop in the car and drive and see something new every week. I miss planning my trips, exploring villages and going to local fests.

Not having the seasons here has really taken a toll on me. I never thought it would affect me so much. But not seeing the leaves change, having cooler temps. or smelling comfort food has caused me pain. You're not suppose to sweat buckets trick o' treating. You are suppose to freeze your tush off frying up a turkey. And Christmas has been really hard to get use to because no one celebrates Christmas or decorates their house (where we live off base). There's no snow ever (which I never thought I'd be against). You really have to work at getting that holiday spirit around here. Although they do sell some Christmas items in the stores, the people don't really know why.

I've slipped a few times not even knowing that I've said it. I've told the kids, "When we move back to Germany..." and "We're going here and there in Germany." I've mistakenly gotten the kids too excited a couple of times. I watched a show on Germany last night. It brought back soooooo many memories of things we did and places we went while we were there. There's so much more I want to do and explore.

But I know...I know. I shouldn't get my hopes up. The next 27 days have to get past us and even then Germany may not even be on the list. Or it could be on the list and we not get picked for it. What a bummer that would be.

All Clear

Typhoon Melor passed by overnight. I woke up once due to the howling wind. I looked out the windows to see if everything was fine. It was and back off to dreamland I went. I think if you're going to be in a typhoon, we picked one of the safest places. Charlie is back at work today. The kids are home due to a teacher workday. The sun is out. There is absolutely no damage around. Back to normal.

Still Waiting

So Charlie went to work and the kids went to school. We are having a beautiful sunny morning. We are NOT feeling ANY effects that a Cat. 4 super typhoon is only miles away. We are still in TCCOR 3. This is the latest image. Notice that we are the island in-between two storms; what's left over from typhoon Parma and the coming of typhoon Melor. The storm is still moving NW.

Waiting on Super Typhoon Melor

We are in TCCOR 3 (tropical cyclone condition of readiness). At this stage a typhoon is 48 hours away and we prepare our surroundings and fill up on food, water and gas. Here is the last up-to-date image of the typhoon.

Sam's

Tonight Charlie and I went to one of our favorite restaurants, Sam's By the Sea. It's a Japanese/Hawaiian style restaurant with tiki lamps burning outside and the theme of being on a ship and eating by candlelight inside. It's located on the water close to our house. They have some great service. It was raining so someone ran to our car as we pulled up and walked me in under an umbrella. How great is that?

Before your meal, you are served a curry potato soup (Curry is a big thing in Asia). It's awesome! I've tried making it at home but can never get it right. We decided to be adventurous and try something new on the menu (we usually do anyway because everything is fabulous and we have never been let down). Charlie ordered a king crab and shrimp stew. I ordered Polynesian Mahi Mahi with carrots and zucchini with fresh cream wrapped in Ti-Leaves served with purple sweet yams. Everything was fabulous. Charlie's bowl was so big. He actually stopped eating and couldn't finish. He got his money's worth. Everything was delicious and we were happy. It's one place we will miss when we move.

Nothing

Really Nothing...nothing exciting here. The past week has been school/work...home...eat...bed.

Let's see...exciting news...my car was in the shop for two weeks. Of course they found tons of stuff wrong with it but we went there to only get new rear tires and new front brakes. A three day Japanese holiday fell in there somewhere and they couldn't get parts for four days. That's why it took so long.

And there are two more typhoons on their way. We've had a lot of activity on this side of the world with the typhoon that hit Manila, the earthquake in Indonesia and the tsunami hitting Samoa. We got a lot of wind for days from the typhoon. And thinking about the tsunami, if it had hit us, we would have been affected because it went a mile inland. We are just two blocks from the shore. We do have concrete barriers and seawalls, maybe that would help.

So today I will be gathering my supplies (water and food, everything else is in our disaster kit already) to be prepared for lots of wind and rain from Sun-Wed. Here is the forecast from yesterday. You see our little island in the top/left. It's coming straight for us.

And here's today's forecast:

As you can see it has strengthened from a Cat. 3 to a Cat. 5. But the good news is that it's expected to turn. We are still 5 days out and anything can happen. (You see how much of a weather geek I am. I should have been a meteorologist.) The kids will be really happy to get out of school for this. And Charlie will be out of work too!!

We said our see-ya-laters to a great friend of ours this week. He's moving back to the states. We'll miss him. Part of me is happy because out of our friends we are next to go (!!!!!!). Charlie asked me what I thought about Frankfurt/Main today. Well....it's in Germany...but it's not as close to Ramstein as I had wanted to be...and we'd be farther away from what the big bases have to offer...but I love small bases too. The rumor is that there's a special duty assignment opening up there. We are still waiting for Nov. 5 when "the list" comes out for us to see what bases we can choose from.

Jasmine is in Club Zero (Zoological Evironmental Recycle Orginazation) at her school. She signed up for it all by herself without being proded! I can see already this is going to keep her and me real busy. This week she'll be washing cars (my daughter...washing cars?...yeah right...I need to take pictures and mark this day down). Next week she is going to the local zoo and help out in whatever they need (I like this one). And for the rest of this month she will be planing their school's haunted house. All of this and she's making straight A's!!

Kiera is joining her school's taiko drumming club (maybe this will lead into her playing the drums one day. Someone has to be in the band in our family.) I read through the club's profile and it says they'll be learning all the steps to Japanese taiko drumming and have a performance at the end of the year. (Er...we'll be moving before then. Oh well, she'll have fun learning something new anyway).

See, I told you not a lot going on here.