Mrs. Queen and other fun things

My life has been full of chaos and commotion these past three weeks so I have some serious catching up with my faithful friends and loved ones! That would be you! On the 8th of Sept., Kindergarten had their first day of school. I have 16 wonderful kids that are each different and hilarious in their own special way. A couple stories to make you smile: One afternoon I told my class, "Alright, I'm going to dismiss you" and one of my students raised his hand and said, "I'm going to miss you too Mrs. Queen!" Another time I was drinking a fizzy water, aka a Perrier and a kid marched right up to me and said, "Mrs. Queen, why are you drinking beer???" You see, the water comes in a green glass bottle so I can see why he got confused...but gosh, I sure hope he didn't tell his parents that! Today was the first day I came home and recalled that no one had cried : ) That's a great day in my book. However, I guess I should also add that it was a half day so the kids left at 10:30 this morning! 

Besides work, Mike and I were able to get away last weekend to a place called Tama Hills. Tama Hills is a vacation spot for military members and their families to go and it's awesome! We rented our own little cabin with a loft and explored the grounds. There's a really nice golf course there but don't ask me what par it is! Does that even make sense? You can rent bikes and other outdoorsy things and even camp there if you want. It was just nice to stay somewhere different but where people still spoke English! So now added to our list for when people come to visit Japan: You're going to The New Sanno (see previous post) and Tama Hills! Below are some pictures.

A front view of our cabin

Mike standing up in the loft

An old bunker on the grounds

A view of the golf course on Tama Hills. I have a couple golf-lovers that read this blog so I took this picture for you!

 

Here's a picture that I took while driving across the base. If you look in the far distance, you can see Mt. Fuji! This is a big deals as the days are never clear enough to see it but on this particular day it was! Mt. Fuji in the background!

On Sunday, Mike and I and a group of friends ventured down to Tokyo and watched part of a Sumo tournament. I must say it wasn't that fun for me to see obese men with their dimply butt cheeks on display but all the same it was an experience that I can say I'm glad I did ; ) 

Think this could be Mike's next career move?

I saw this T-Shirt and had to take a picture of it. See the typo?

And now you're basically caught up with my life's major events! I'm home alone tonight while Mike is flying some big cheese around Tokyo. Gosh what a tough life! 

Oh and here are some more videos from the spouse's day when Mike flew me. The first one has a cameo of Mike turning around the second one is of me after the flight. 

Bobby Buckie 1994-2009

After 15 long and happy years, Bobby has passed away. Bobby was a part of my childhood and moved with us from his birthplace in Holland, to Belgium, and finally to New Jersey where he spent his final years. Bobby brought lots of joy (and sometimes embarrassment) to my family. I remember when our relative Eddie was downstairs in our basement and Bobby came down, peed in front of Eddie and took his hoagie back upstairs. Or the time he chose to "pass gas" when we had guests over for dinner. He loved to fall asleep on his back where his privates were in full view to the world or bark in your face until you gave in and gave him a treat. It's easier to think about the funny things than it is to think about the sentimental ones but in all honesty, he was a great dog, one of the best, and we will miss him very much. We love you Bob. Say hi to Binkie for me. 

What a week!

Mike and I in front of Tokyo Tower. We took this picture by putting the camera on the ground but propped up with Mike's shoe! 

Wow what a week I had! It was full of exciting trips and changes! Let me start with the beginning. On Wednesday, I got a call from our school secretary asking me if I had checked my work email and I told her I hadn't. She said Mr. K (our principal) had emailed me regarding a kindergarten position that Yokota West needed to fill right away. When I got in touch with him, Mr. K told me that they needed another kinder teacher because enrollment was higher than they anticipated for just two teachers (that's what you get at a DoDDS school.) If I was interested, he said I needed to go through my transcripts and make sure that my credentials showed 9 hours in ECE as well as 9 in Elementary. Even though I had already set up my other class and felt like I had myself situated, I really couldn't pass up the opportunity and waited on HR to give me the word if I got the job or not. 

In the meantime, Yokota had the annual spouses day on Thursday morning. Because I was part-time at this point, I was able to take a ride in the Huey Helicopter around Tokyo. Guess who flew me??? That's right, Mike flew me over Tokyo and back. It was only a 40 minute flight but it was SO cool to watch Mike fly AND see Tokyo at the same time. We flew over Tokyo tower, the emperor's place, Yujo park, and lots of other cool sites. I took lots of pictures and videos as you will see below. None of my friends were on the first flight but Mike and his buddies worked it so that I was able to sit in the jump seat and wear headphones so that I could hear them talk. I could also communicate with them but I didn't want to interfere with any of their radio calls or make Mike look unprofessional so I kept quiet. It was just an awesome experience!

I was able to make it back to work in time and was working on some paperwork when in walked Mr. K. He told me that everything had worked out with HR and that I was officially the new kindergarten teacher. He also told me to stop was I was doing and start setting up my new classroom. Man oh man do I have my work cut out for me! I just finished setting up my first class and it was all cute and ready go. When I got to my new class, (which is downstairs and in its own pod) I was totally shocked at how much there was to do. All the classroom furniture was piled sky high in to one corner. With the help of the maintenance guy, we were able to move out old stuff and organize the new furniture so that the classroom could kinda sorta resemble a class. Within 2 hours of me getting into my room, I had parents lined up outside my door wanting to meet me. One parent asked if she could see my room! A couple others said they were worried about their child adjusting because they were already "attached" to the teacher they thought they were going to have. These kids hadn't even started school but had met the two teachers when they did home visits. Ugh. Anyway, I'm not taking it personally and fortunately, I've already had two years of experience with kinder parents to know how to handle their qualms and issues. A lot of the parents I met were really nice and excited so hopefully we all just hit the ground running and are able to transition easily. Me especially! On Friday, Mike didn't have to work but I did so I went to my classroom and tried to set it up as best as I could. I'm still working on it. It's a work in progress as I like to say. The classroom itself is pretty cool. I've got my own parking space right in front of my room. In the room itself, I've got my own bathroom as well as one for the kiddies. I also have an office and a kitchen. And I'm talking a full blown kitchen with a stove, oven, dishwasher, fridge and microwave! Ha!

Friday night Mike and I drove to Tokyo and stayed at The New Sanno Hotel. This hotel is only for military and DoD civilians and it's a branch of the navy. Gosh was this hotel nice! They had everything in there that you could ever want, an awesome gym and pool, a really fancy restaurant and couple causal places. They had a bank, a NEX (like a PX or BX), a beauty salon...I could just keep going. For all that you'd think it would cost lots of $$$ to stay there. Welp, they only charge $42 per night! In downtown Tokyo! Insane right??? Seriously, anyone that visits us, (and I hope some of you readers do) will be going to The New Sanno. It's just awesome. When we checked out, I made reservations to stay there on our one year anniversary which is next month! We'll eat at the fancy restaurant that time. After eating dinner at the hotel, Mike and I walked around Tokyo and took pictures. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to get away and relax. I had a lot on my mind with setting up my new class (still do actually) so I really needed to leave all my worries back at home. The Huester was with our neighbors (shout out to Kim and Brett, Jane, Gary and especially baby Mallory for watching Huey!)

So now that I have you all caught up with what's happened this week, I will leave you with a glorious assortment of pictures and videos to peruse through.

Mike with Tokyo Tower in the background. 

With my green tea frap and my new green coach purse that I got as a promotion gift from Mike. 

I had to take a picture of how many of the gas stations look in Japan. The gas is dispensed from the ceiling! 

Doesn't he look so Japanese?