From Huey

Huey got a box filled with presents from "Grandma" today and he was too excited! For all of you dog lovers, here's a little clip of him enjoying his gifts ; ) 

Keep a look out for my next post as I'm hiking Mt. Fuji with Mike and two other friends tomorrow! If you don't get that post, it means that I'm still stuck on the mountain somewhere. 

A typical day for me

I start the day off with some morning toast with a schmear of peanut butter and topped with a drizzle of honey. Mmm, delicious. Where's the toast you ask? Well I ate it of course!

I settle myself on the couch and check my email. I may even make a few stateside phone calls to any of you lucky few ; ) 

I do household chores, including take out the trash. Sometimes the local Japanese even host an impromptu performance in my honor. Take a look: 

I also get my bruised ass to the gym. And when I say bruised, I'm not kidding. I fell on Monday while walking up the steps to the gym and boy do I have a mark to prove that it hurts! It was quite embarrassing and all I could do to show that I still has some dignity was laugh at myself, although I really didn't feel that it was very funny at the time ; (  *Warning, picture of butt cheek below so if you're not interested, I suggest you stop reading*

While driving to the gym, I abide the Japanese street signs and make a conscious effort to drive on the left side of the road. I also drive over the HUGE runway where 747's and C-5's land and takeoff daily. Pretty cool. I'd post a pic of that but I'd get arrested so sorry, you'll just have to come here and see it for yourself. 

I go to the YCC (Yokota Community Center) where the Commissary and BX are located and gather things on my always too long list. Today I must get sliced cheese and body wash. What? Haven't you ever used sliced cheese to wash yourself down? It's great for the skin. 

I then get dinner ready. Tonight on the menu is spinach and mushroom lasagna. I think Mike may just stare at it if I tell him what's actually in it. I may say there's just LOTS of basil which is why there's so much green in it. 

After dinner, Mike and I like to snuggle on the couch and whisper sweet nothings into each other's ear. Haha, just kidding. This picture was taken back in Easter and really Mike is just sleeping and its the only time that I like him the best! 

And then the routine starts all over again. Although, I did leave one important thing out! I felt he deserved his own paragraph. Yes that's right, Mike and I have a new family member. Say hello to my little friend, Huey Quinn. 

He's 5 months old and FULL of energy and unexpected accidents which has made my life quite stressful! I've never had a puppy before and gosh has he tested my patience quite a bit! I actually didn't know if we were going to keep him for a while because he was such an adjustment for me. But I've stuck with it and now he's become a part of our family. He's so lovable and funny and even seems to be learning with a lot of patience, persistence and attention. Ugh. Throw me into that mix and you'll see why I've been practically pulling my hair out these last three weeks! 

What you've all be waiting for~

Well folks it's been too long since my last post and I sincerely apologize for that. So as a special treat because you guys have been so patient, I have decided that I am finally ready to show you our house! It has been a "work in progress" as us teachers like to say for the month and a half that we've been here but it now really feels like home for us. At the end of the day, Mike and I like to sit in our living room and compliment each other's decorating skills and eye for design. I will forewarn you that it's still not done, and probably never will be, but hopefully by the time you guys get on a plane and visit us, it will be in tip-top shape. I tried taking a video of the house but its too large to load so I'll have to do it room by room I think. Pictures work just as well in the meantime! 

View of tree pictures in the hallway

Looking into our red kitchen from one way

View from the kitchen into the dining room

Our Belgian bench that my mom gave me and the Huey Helicopter that Mike's parents gave him! And a new bookshelf from the BXtra! 

Modeling some of our new Ikea stuff. Basically everything in this room was either second hand or from Ikea. 

Another view of the family room

Here's our dining room, right off of the family room. That china cabinet was from my mom and the hutch was purchased from Yokota Ads (kind of like a craigslist.) The table was bought at a consignment shop back in Haddonfield, NJ. 

I just hung up these stars yesterday but I think I need to find something to go in between them. 

View of our room. On the wall are two blue pictures which I thought were 8x10 frames from the Japanese store. Turns out my pics didn't fit quite right so instead I found some of our dried wedding flowers and pressed them into the frames. Mike says it looks too Asian for him...

Since we finally feel a little settled in our new home for the next three years, we've branched out a little bit and started to take advantage of our weekends. For the 4th of July weekend, Mike had four days off so we spent most of the long weekend working on our house but we also hung out with our new friends. Two sets of neighbors are friends of ours and when their husbands were out of town for the weekend, I invited them over for a spaghetti dinner. Mike did quite well eating and chatting away with the ladies ; ) Then on Saturday we went to the flight line and ate free food and listened to live music. We also got to watch the fireworks from the roof of Mike's work which was an awesome site to see. On Sunday, we were invited over to Mike's commander's house where he made homemade pizzas on the grill! We've also tried to get into a routine where we go to church followed by brunch at the O' Club. We recently got a new priest for our Catholic community and boy is he entertaining. I can't understand a lick of what he's saying. To quote his homily, he said something about using a "warking stick for eba and eba..." so I will have to do a lot of deep reflective thoughts to get the jist of his message! And finally, today I was lucky enough to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before anyone in the states! My friend Tiffany (who I met after finding her blog while doing research about Yokota) invited me to go to a matinee showing. You would think all movie theaters follow the same principals but not in Japan. We were given tickets with assigned seats which was nice because we didn't have to arrive early to get a good spot. The movie was in English with Japanese subtitles and the whole place was immaculately clean. At the end of the movie when the credits started to roll, I was happy to get up and stretch since the movie was almost 3 hours long. However, to my surprise, no one stood up as the credits began and continued NOT to stand up until the last word disappeared, the screen went white and the lights turned back on! Oh my gosh, it was longest ten minutes of my life. I guess its just polite to wait until the very end of the movie but my gosh! I really had to go to the bathroom and was totally pinned on both sides! I really don't understand the point of it because its not like they can read the words or understand what a key grip is. Oh well. I read a lot of interesting names. 

Lastly, here are some pictures of Mike and I at Showa park. It's about three miles from base and we had a nice time exploring the grounds and taking stupid pictures. One Japanese guy offered to take a picture for us and seemed to regret his decision as soon as he offered. By the time he figured out how to use my camera, he handed it back in a huff and said "Vely difficult!" Until my next adventure...

Waiting for our train. See the billboard in the background? She's lovely isn't she?

Yes that is Mike sitting inside of a dragon mouth

Mike walking over a Japanese style bridge

Me posing next to some flowers that matched my shirt

Mike jumping on some weird trampoline that kind of resembled marshmallows or clouds.

Hanging out on some rocks