Our newest addition...

Look what we got! I'm so excited about this! I've been trying to buy a used piano since we got to Japan. I'm always just a bit too late and it gets sold. This time I was first! This piano is 47 years old. I bought it from a sweet Japanese woman who had it in her church. The church is relocating so the piano needed to go. We acquired it for $350! If everything works out the way I'm hoping, the kids will start lessons this week. Yay for music in the home!

Plum Blossoms: Hikari

Last year, we went to Hikari to see the gorgeous plum blossoms. We enjoyed it so much, we wanted to go back. Despite the insanity of our week, we did it anyway. They did not disappoint. Although, truth be told, the kids cared far more about the park than the blossoms.

My cute crew. So much bigger than last year!

Nerdy mom with a broken elbow, huge tummy, and a baby on back.

Last week, it was raining and I went to pick up the big boys from school. The kindergarten playground gets super slippery when it is wet, so I wanted to pick Pepper up so she wouldn't fall. Well, being the lovely, spirited child she is, she didn't like what I was doing and she decided to fight me. During the battle, my ankle gave out and I lost my balance. On our way down the only thing I could think of was to keep her head from hitting the concrete. I saved her head(!) but landed flat on my belly and elbow. It caused quite a scene and I tried to just walk it off. After a couple of minutes I realized that something must've been wrong with my elbow because I couldn't move my arm and then I started to almost black-out. I also couldn't feel the baby moving anymore so I was concerned to say the least. I figured I probably needed to get over to urgent care to make sure baby was ok, but I couldn't drive. The principal ended up coming out (along with a counselor) and helped get us inside the school. We tried calling Ken but he was in session and the admin wouldn't go get him. Eventually we got a hold of Ken and he raced over to the school to pick us all up and take me to the clinic. Before going there, I insisted he give me a blessing. He did that and then we went to the clinic. They did a brief check to find a heartbeat and then insisted I go to the hospital out in town to be monitored by an OB. Policy is that when you get transferred from the clinic to the hospital, you ride in an ambulance. I would have no such nonsense. My sweet friend agreed to take the kids so Ken and I could drive our own car and head to the hospital. Funny thing is, we had literally been there for an appointment four hours earlier. Dr. Shoji came in after-hours and declared baby "daijibo" which basically means ok. Relieved, we went back to the clinic for the x-rays of my elbow. The next day I had an appointment and the doctor declared a non-displaced radial head fracture of my right elbow. This kind of fracture only needs to be slinged for a week or two. He also gave me a plaster splint to protect it until the bulk of the pain was gone. I lasted with the splint for two days and the sling for three. Ain't no one got time for that! Since then, it is doing much better. I have most of my mobility back and the pain is manageable. People have been sweet and brought a couple of meals in this week, so that has been nice. They feel bad that the huge woman pregnant with her sixth child is injured! One possibly good thing that came out of this (time will tell) is that the doctor who saw me is also an acupuncturist (in the Navy?! what the heck?!). He does gua sha and I have an appointment with him tomorrow. Gua sha is shown to successfully relieve headaches, so tomorrow I will be scraped near to death and we will hope the result is no more headaches. Since I have had a headache every single day since I got pregnant, I am about willing to try anything. At the end of the day, we are so happy the baby seems to be ok and thank goodness bones heal. We just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Isn't life grand?!

Documented: Baby Bump

So this is pretty much the only picture we've taken of my growing bump. You can see how thrilled I am. Oh well. We figure this kid will want proof he grew inside of me so here it is. Twenty-something weeks along. Also documented, my stellar leggings from the DI and compression socks that I live in.

100 Days of school

Ollie and Grover celebrated the 100th day of school back at the tail end of February. Ollie's teacher took a photo of him and then somehow made him look old. We all laughed so hard at his picture.

Grover got to dress up like he was 100 years old. We put flour in his hair, but he is so blonde you couldn't really tell. It's hard to dress your kid up in a makeshift costume when you have gotten rid of everything you don't use regularly. Poor kid!

Happy Birthday Ken!

We celebrated the love of my life's birthday with a delicious chocolate torte. Didn't even know what a torte was, but it looked yummy online so we gave it a shot. It didn't disappoint. Neither does this great man. Happy birthday Ken!

February thus far

Some days are hard. Some are better. This week Ollie brought home his MLK day project and my heart about burst. It makes my think that sometimes we are doing something right.

 

 

Stone has been playing the guitar since October. He's getting pretty good. Ken took this candid picture last Saturday as Stone was teaching some of his mad skills with Ollie. So adorable!

 

Other days aren't so great. Ken has some crazy stuff going on at work that he's had to stay late to get ready for. It doesn't happen often, but the homework and dinner hour flying solo about does me in. Hamburger Helper to the rescue! Let it be known that this is the first time in our marriage we've ever done this. And it was gross. Lol

 

 

Stone had an awards assembly this week where he was recognized for his great grades!

 

 

What we didn't know is that he was also going to be recognized for his spelling bee achievement. So fun for him to be recognized in front of the whole upper elementary.

 

We've been going to the acupuncturist weekly to help with my myriad of issues and to help Grover with his night-wetting. This week, the acupuncturist and his wife presented Grover with a "body blanket" of sorts and me with leg-warmers. Apparently we are "cold" and these things will help. They are the sweetest people ever. When we leave Japan, we will truly miss the culture and the goodness of the people here.

 

 

 

Randomosities of January

The next handful of pictures are completely unrelated to each other, but give a glimpse into our lives this past month.

 

I had a birthday party to attend with the littlest two and that meant Ken was left home with the olders.  He (being the awesome, random father that he is) decided to take the boys kayaking. It was cold, but of course they all had a blast. Ken is such a fantastic dad!

 

 

This little one continues to be my bright spot.  He picks out his own outfits and does his own thing all day.  One day last week, he decided he wanted to do my hair. It was awesome! I've never had a kid brush my hair and it was so relaxing.

 

This little one makes mischief most every day. She's thrilled with her new height that allows her to reach most everywhere. I'm a little less than thrilled, but it is still fun to watch her explore her world. Grey was helping clean up this particular mess.

 

I snapped this candid shot in the middle of putting away laundry. Their relationship is so tender and sweet. Grey tells me he wants the baby to be a girl so Pepper can have a sister. He is so good to her. I love watching how they develop together.

 

The kids had so many days off of school this month. On one of the days, we forced ourselves out of the house to get some fresh air. They found a washed up jellyfish that they were super excited about. The bottom picture shows the massive amounts of snow we get here. At least we have a lovely view!

 

My newest fashion accessory.  I'm so lovely!

 

This man. This man! I love him so much. While I've been busy with appointments or on the couch in pain, he has kept us well-fed. I snapped this in the midst of one of his latest grilling sessions. Take note of the headlamp. 

Spelling bee mania!

This year, the boys' school sponsored a spelling bee.  Ollie was selected to go straight to the school level (I'm guessing not many first-graders spell the way he does).  Stone had to start at the classroom level.  Stone got second-place in his classroom and then second-place at the grade-level bee. That meant he had qualified for the school bee! They ended up doing just a participation bee for first- and second-graders with only two rounds.  Ollie did great and didn't make any mistakes. The school bee for third- through sixth-grade was held at night. Stone did a fantastic job and ended up coming in second-place!  He beat out everyone but one sixth-grader.  The word he missed was gnarled. He will probably never misspell that word again! Both kids did a great job and we were so proud of them. For me it was one of those "pat-yourself-on-the-back", parent payday moments. I've tried so hard to teach them to read and spell and excel and it was so fun to watch them succeed on their own.

 

 

 

 

 

A broken toe and emergency visit

A little over a week ago, Stone and Ollie were running around and somehow Ollie ended up kicking the back of Stone's heel and seriously injuring his toe. After observing the misshapen toe, we decided we should probably call the clinic to see if we needed to bring Ollie in. It was late at night on a weekend and we really didn't want to make the trip. We told the doctor that Ollie's toe was crooked and asked if we required medical assistance.  I was just planning to buddy-tape the toe. Since I broke my toe a couple of months ago, I'm kind of an expert buddy-taper. The doctor laughed at us (and marveled at Ken's calm demeanor) and said that yes indeed we needed to come in. They took a handful of x-rays and declared the toe displaced and fractured. After some shots to numb the area, the doctor popped it back into place and NOW I get to buddy-tape it every day. Ollie really enjoyed the ride in the wheelchair and the table that moved up and down in the x-ray room.  We were in and out and home two hours later and he will be good as new in a couple more weeks. Brave kid. 

 

We found snow!

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some friends invited us to go sledding. We hesitantly agreed.  You see, we haven't seen any "real" snow for over five years.  In that time we have added a handful of kids and thus don't have warm gear for everyone.  We decided to bite the bullet and make it work.  We didn't believe that Japan actually got "real" snow, so when we committed to go sledding, we honestly thought there was going to be 2-3 inches of manmade snow on this little hill.  When I got a text from our friends who were about 30 minutes ahead of us saying they hadn't chained up yet but the roads were getting bad, we realized how wrong we were. We drive a little Japanese van with tiny tires. We have no chains.  Imagine our surprise when, not more that an hour from our house, we run into this:

 

 

And that was before it got bad. Thank goodness for Ken's mad snow-driving abilities and prayer.  We got stuck a couple of times, but eventually made it up to the Megahiro Ski Resort. There looked to be at least 18 inches of fresh snow on top of the base that was already there. It was gorgeous! I didn't realize how much I had missed being in the mountains after a good snow. We all had a blast. The kids were in heaven sledding and throwing snowballs and playing whatever snow games they created. One thing that was really great about the resort is that they had a room just dedicated to relaxing.  You take off your boots and can rest, sleep, or eat. You'd never find something like that in the States.  It was a super fun excursion and was worth every ounce of stress trying to outfit everyone and get up the mountain.

 

 



New Year Bowling

When I was growing up, we went bowling with my dad's side of the family every year on New Year's Day.  I have such fond memories of those activities.  Even though we live in Japan, we have tried to carry on that tradition.  We all look forward to it.



Peps is too little to bowl, but she did a "bowling dance" for us the whole time!

 

Grey just grinned the whole time.

 

Grover was super-focused.

Ollie just had fun running from as far away as possible.

Stone's getting pretty good at chucking the ball down the lane.

Grey liked the jalapeno poppers.

Peps and I enjoyed the loaded fries!

My favorite part of the bowling alley here is the kids play area.  If you look close, you can see parts of all five of my critters!