What up Christmas?

Dude, we sure look like we're having a good time huh? I think Meredith and I wanted to beat up our photographer. Not really sure...

Take #2!

Much better this time around! Anne is on the left, then Meredith, Mai and me. These ladies all friends of mine and their husbands work with Mike also. Some friends are missing from this photo but they had already started their Christmas holiday. 

We went to Tama Hills to celebrate. There's lots of fun things to do there...actually, I've mentioned it in a previous post. Although we didn't get out and explore the grounds, we found ways to entertain ourselves, as you can see me with oven mitts and a securely wrapped present that I was supposed to open! 

Here's another pic of me and my girlfriends at the dinner table. I'm sure going to miss Mai when she leaves in February and Anne when she leaves in June : ( 
And last but not least here's a pic of my little (or rather tall) elf and Santa. Meredith's husband Trey was obviously Santa but it was SO funny because you couldn't see his face! 

Anyway, I just wanted to give you all a little Christmas taste. We're back in the states now and I'm loving it!!! 

Sushi, Mt. Fuji and something Ewwie!

Sushi: Cold cooked rice dressed with vinegar that is shaped into bite-sized pieces and topped with raw or cooked fish, or formed into a roll with fish, egg, or vegetables and wrapped in seaweed.

A couple weeks ago, I had Japanese sushi for the first time. It was quite good although I did not eat anything that had raw fish in it. I can't do that yet!

Mt. Fuji: an extinct volcano in south central Honshu that is the highest peak in Japan; last erupted in 1707; famous for its symmetrical snow-capped peak; a sacred mountain and site for pilgrimages.

This picture was taken from my car on my way to work. It's so cool to see this volcano everyday and it always takes my breath away. 

Ewwie: Gross, nasty, disturbing, horrendous, in the gay form.

Recently I went with my friends for another round of karaoke. None of us were really feeling the love, especially when they brought out complementary octopus balls and clam sticks. 

Here's a picture of Mike early in the morning when the ORI was going on. For a full week, I didn't see him. Anyway, he got dressed in his full chem gear and then fell asleep on the living room floor. Poor guy. 

And lastly, here's a note Mike left me when he discovered that my Oakleys weren't put back in their proper place.

My Classroom

I sent an email to my mom yesterday with some pictures of my classroom and thought I should post them on here as well. I've got a lot of readers that have taught kids and I think you'd appreciate it. I've also got some DoDDS spawn and you'll see why DoDDS is just the best school system to work for!

Some highlights from this week:

"Um, Miss Queen?" says a soft, sad little voice.
"Yes?"
"So and so called you a poo-poo head" the child says with a frown. I in the mean time try my best not to smile.
"Oh, that makes me really sad. Can you tell him that my feelings are really hurt?"
"Yes, I'll tell him right now!" and little guy runs off.

"Ok so we made these reindeer pictures so that you can give it your moms and dads. You can decide if you want to give it to both of them or just one.'
Child #1 asks, "Miss Queen, how do you spell dad?"
"D. A. D." and I write in the board
Child #2 asks "What's your dad's name?"
"John" I answer.
"JOHN!" They exclaim and smile at the same time.
"Yeah. John."
Child #1 states matter of factly, "Well, that's not right cuz teachers don't have dads."

Happy Weekend everyone! It's already the weekend for me ; )

Random Silliness

So I've been jotting down a few funny things that I've experienced over the last week and I had to blog about it. 

1. Last week, Mike and I did some Christmas shopping at our local mall. We are lucky because malls in Japan are quite similar to ones in the states, except that Mike stands out like a sore thumb! He literally towers over everyone. In one particular store, I was browsing some Japanesey gifts and heard Mike say, "Bridget, this kid is following me!" I turned to look and discovered a petite little peanut, no taller than Mike's knee cap, standing right in front of him and looking straight at him. Mike tried to maneuver around the little girl and she quietly tapped her feet behind him. When he stopped to look at something, she again positioned herself in front of him and stared right at his face. No smiles, no nothin! I was standing on the side laughing at this scene while Mike tried awkwardly to move around the store while this tiny child followed him around. She was honestly bewildered with Mike ; ) 

2. Two days ago, Mike and I bought a dog bed for Huey at Joyful Honda. After being rung up, the sales lady took Huey's bed and wrapped it in saran wrap. I couldn't help but laugh. It's really not that silly here, but I just imagined buying  a dog bed at PetsMart and having them wrap it in saran wrap...too funny!

3. This morning I was walking Huey when out popped a dog from his yard. He wasn't on a leash and it didn't look like his owners were aware that he was outside. After participating in the butt-sniff greeting, (what? don't the owners have to do it too?) I tugged at Huey to continue our walk. The dog started to follow us. I tried to shoo him back to his house. Told him to sit. Instructed him to stay. But the dog wouldn't listen. I started to run with Huey thinking it would disinterest him but the dog wouldn't stop. Realizing I had to get to work, I took my cup of hot tea with milk and dumped it the grass. Apparently this did the trick as the dog became suddenly distracted with licking my tea puddle off the ground. Then Huey and I made a run for it and the dog never even turned his head.

3. This afternoon, one of my students came up to me during centers with a drawing on his mini-whiteboard. 

"Miss Queen, guess what this is?" 

"I don't know..." 

"You have to guess!" 

"Okay, a barbell?" 

"What? NO!" 

"Eyes?" 

"Nope."

"Hmmm...glasses?" 

"Miss queen, you really don't know?" 

"No. What is it?" 

"It's a bra!" This is when I cracked a smile and didn't quite know what to say. 

"Oh, I see it now. The two circles with the line in the middle." 

"Yep. When I get home, I'm going to put my mom's bra on my head." And he walked away. 

Just thought these little stories would give you a laugh.

Thanksgiving

Back in the beginning of October, I had a conversation with my good friend and neighbor Kim. 

It was really weird because she was suddenly pregnant again and we were on the top floor of Landmark Tower. Oh wait...this picture was taken almost six months ago! Whoopsy. Any who, we decided that it was high time we got all of our husbands together and had our own version of a family thanksgiving.

Here was the problem. Neither Kim nor I had a dining room table large enough to fit our group of friends. That's where Hillary came in.  

We knew that she loved to entertain and she makes a mean apple pie (see picture above) so her house was the obvious choice. She is also a close friend and neighbor of ours so we got right to planning. I started with the invitations. 

By end of it, 17 people and two babies came for over to Hil-Dawgs for Thanksgiving.  Each of us ladies was tasked with bringing a few dishes. I stupidly volunteered to make the turkey. As most of you know, I don't eat Turkey, let alone meat. So it was quite scary when I had to pull out the innards and even scarier when I actually had to clean out it's cavity and stuff it. I prepared my brine, soaked it overnight, basted it with a white wine and butter mixture and...Voila!

And no Becky I did not try the turkey this year. But I did hear from all my friends that it was really good. Maybe next year? So once the turkey was unveiled, everyone took their seats to enjoy our yummy meal. 

This was the grand dessert buffet that no one really touched because there was SO much food to be eaten. Hillary made the two apple pies and the rum cake, Amanda made the pumpkin pie, and I made the pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust. Oh it was delicious ; ) 

And by the end of the meal, pretty much the whole turkey was gone. That was perfectly fine with me as I didn't plan on making a soup. I was all cooked out. 

For the rest of the night we had some drinks, played some Rock Band and passed around sweet baby Mallory. She's three months and just adorable. You can see Mike is a little nervous holding Mal. 
When I was holding Mallory, Mike told me my time was up after 5 minutes. Guess he doesn't want me to get any ideas! Here we are sucking our thumbs. I totally get why it's the cool thing to do. 

After that night of fun, a few of the girls decided to wake up at 5am and drive to Yokosuka Naval Base for some black Friday shopping. In total, we spent $1800! That's about a $400 average between each girl. 

I miss you all but can't wait to see most of you for Christmas! Mike and I are coming home on the 19th and we'll be there until the 2nd. Yay!