Happy New Years

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! WE sure wish we could have been there to celebrate it with you.

Things are going fine here in Japan. We had lots of snow today. It melted for about an hour this afternoon and then froze as the sun went down. Now it is snowing again. That sure will make for a "fun" day tomorrow.

We are having our first "sleep over" tonight. Fun. Joey's little friend is actually the youngest son of Brandon's boss. They just got back from a month in the states and are trying to catch up on laundry. Joey invited him (as well as every other person he talk to) to come over and play the Wii with him. They spent the first 2 hours playing with Joey's trains and now they are playing the Wii.

Think we will get any sleep tonight?

Not much else is going on. Brandon had today and has tomorrow off but goes back to work on Wednesday. He and Joey spent time out on the hill with the sled today while I did laundry. With the way our programing works here, we will not get to watch the ball drop for New Years but we always seemed to fall asleep 30 min. before it happened every other time we tried to stay up.

We hope everyone is doing well and miss you all!

Christmas Eve

Well, it is Christmas Eve in Misawa and we have our little guy all tucked into bed. Something tells me this will be the first night in a long time we do not get repeated pleas for something to drink, more snuggles or another story while he tries to avoid going to bed.

Joey decided that leaving Santa just cookies and milk would not due. Soooo...leave it to Joey to decide to put out cookies, milk and pizza.

There are probably going to be several post here over the next few days so we can share our pictures.

Out In The Cold Again

Now I'm startng to get a little bit angry.
We had to evacuate this morning AGAIN.
7:30 in the morning and alarms are going off. Its cold and its raining. Everyone was still in there PJ's but still we went down the stairs and sat in the car for another false alarm.
The first time was smoke from someone frying chicken. The second time was because a kid pulled an alarm in the hallway. This time....something dumb I am sure. The firemen let us back in after 20 min.
Oh, Happy Christmas Eve everyone. I'll write more when I am not shivvering.

Bad News

We lost the contract on the house. Again. I guess the man who was buying the house lost his job on Thursday. This just stinks. I was upset first about what company would fire someone so close to Christmas but it turns out he was having problems at work for some time and had been warned that he would be let go several times if things didn't change. So....anyone want to buy a house in Virginia? We will give you a great price on it!

Remembering

Tonight, Brandon and I were trying to organize our DVD collection. We have several movies where we have multiple copies from where people have given them to us or movies Brandon bought, that we already had, while he was in Bahrain. We are BIG movie bugs. Our date nights usually consist of waiting for Joey to get into bed and then popping in a movie. We are also working on updating our movie index. Its kind of silly but it helps us keep things organized. We don't keep our movies in the original case but in several binder type things. We have index cards with the movie title and description on one size and the cover art from the DVD case on the front. We label them with what binder they are in so they stay together by category. Any who....it was fun to go over the movies and remember the ones I watched growing up and being shocked that Brandon had not heard of some of them.

Movies like: The American Rabbit...My Stepmother Is An Alien...The Cat From Outer Space...Flight Of The Navigator...The Last Star Fighter...Cloak and Dagger...Bed knobs and Broomsticks...Fivel Goes West...That Darn Cat...and so many others.

They made me think about how much fun and how much imagination we have when we are little and watch these movies. I can remember going into my room and turning the knob on the end of my day bed, fully expecting it to take me to this magical world. I am enjoying seeing Joey do the same now. I love that he enjoys watching these movies with me. Like the Cat From Outer Space and That Darn Cat. I have no clue when they were made. I'm thinking the late 60's and early 70's maybe. He picks them over some of the new things like Dora or Firehouse Dog even! I remember sitting with my mom and watching these and now I get to do it with my little guy.

I remember going to my grandparents house almost every weekend as a little kid on Saturday night to spend the night. They would pop in the VHS tape of Cinderella (but not the cartoon one) and my PawPaw would pop pop corn. JuneBug (my grandmother) would drowned me in the No More Tangles spray and spend at least half, if not all of the movie, brushing out my hair. When she would roll my hair, instead of using rollers, she would cut strips out of old pantyhose and use those. My mom would use socks. The pink foam rollers just aren't the same but I can't seem to get Brandon to not laugh at me if I come out of the room with my hair rolled in CLEAN socks.

Growing up, I only remember going to the movie theater twice. I am sure there were several other times but these two are the ones that I remember. My mom took me to go and see the My Little Ponies movie at the Tomball theater. She bought me the dinosaur eggs candy and let me pick where we sat. I marched right down to the very first row and was so proud of myself. My mom didn't complain or try and talk me into moving back a bit. She sat next to me and giggled and shared our eggs. The other movie I remember is when my Uncle Bob took his daughter and me to go see Beauty and the Beast. It was such a magical movie. Talking tea pots and dancing wardrobes. I loved that.

While Brandon was in Bahrain and I was in Tomball, we were able to take advantage of the movie theater. They offered free tickets for military families. When they had a kid movie, Joey and I would go. Sometimes I sat there, feeling the dead brain cells dripping out my ear, hoping the movie ended soon. Sometimes I sat there trying to figure out what the heck all the kids were laughing at. But a lot of the time I was watching not the screen but watching my little boy truly enjoy the movie.

So...I look forward to our movies being organized again and being able to introduce Brandon to some of these movies that I love. He has a little list going himself of movies he just can't understand how I have gone 26 almost 27 years without seeing. The Hobbit? Hmm, we shall see. I didn't very much enjoy the Lord of the Rings but maybe it is different.

Cross Your Fingers, Toes and Eyes (A Little Prayer Might Help Too)

Well, we recived an email from our real estate guy again this morning. We have a new contract on the house. The last two contracts have fallen through at the last minute but we are hoping this one goes well. It turns out that this offer is made by the parents of the people who fell through with the last two due their not being able to finish the lending stuff. Sooo....before our agent sent us the contract he first called the lender to make sure everything was firm and then emailed copies of what we needed to sign and mail back to him. If all goes well, we close on the 28th of this month. We have been praying for someone to buy our house for over a year now but things have gotten harder since we arrived here in Japan as we no longer recive a housing allowance. Actually selling this house will be great.

As for what else is going on with us, some of you know that the planes that Brandon works with has had some issues, and they have grounded some of them. Its a little confusing on how it will take them 18 months to fix the problem on each plane. Couldn't they build a whole new one in less time? Oh well. It looks like half of the planes will be able to continue to fly so not much will change for us.

Joey has been sick the past week but is feeling a bit better. He was upset to not be able to go and play in the fresh snow this week.

I made my very first batch of homemade, from scratch bread this week. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. The second batch is being made right now. Its Whole Wheet Raisen Oatmeal Bread. Fun. The thing takes like 7 cups of flour!

Thats about it for us. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Navy Christmas Party (I Tried To Keep My Clothes On)

Like any company, the Navy (individual commands) seem to enjoy having an annual Christmas party. This year, the command here in Misawa, chose a rather inconvenient day to hold it. They decided to hold their party on a Thursday night. This same Thursday was also the night the High School and Junior High were having their combined Band, Choir and Drama Christmas show. So….there went over half of the available babysitters.

Normally, I would have just written off the occasion after 3 of the girls we knew that babysat told me they were not available. Nut then the Navy threw in something “special”. For $10, we could go to this Christmas party, be served a wonderful meal, be entered into a raffle for some really neat prizes, compete in strange games, dance…and…here is the big one…IF YOU CAME TO THE PARTY YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO GO TO WORK ON FRIDAY!!!! So…I called around and finally found one teenager not involved in any of the school activities and was not grounded!

It was a pleasant night. We didn’t win any of the raffles but a friend from Brandon’s shop that was sitting at our table one an I-Pod. One neat thing was I was able to meet two of the people Brandon worked with in Bahrain. Because Bahrain and Misawa are the same command for the Navy (I don’t understand it but it is) they flew out one of the sailors stationed there who was nominated for Sailor of the Year. They also sent a Chief along with him, probably to keep him out of trouble. It was neat to meet people he worked with. The sailor actually won Sailor of the Year and that was exciting. What Sailor of the Year does for him, I have no clue but he got a nice glass statue thing for it.

Then came time for fun and games. They asked for volunteers to come up, not telling us what for. Stevens, the guy that won the I-Pod and Brandon went to join the other 8 in the front. They had to sing a few lines each from a Christmas Carol. It was funny. Some of them had no clue what the songs were. Then for the next game, they asked for one person from each table to come up. Brandon and Stevens had been quite embarrassed by being made to sing in front of everyone so there is no way they would volunteer. The other sailor that we knew at our table had his girlfriend visiting from Tokyo and she is Israeli and her English is a bit hard to understand…sooo, they didn’t volunteer. That left me and a brand new to the navy (as in just a few weeks out of school and boot camp) and one of us had to go.

Fine. I went. It turns out the game was a scavenger hunt. Every round they removed one chair and you had to make it back to a chair holding the item they just called for. Everyone was in simi-formal clothing so there were no bulky purses full of “stuff”. They wanted lip balm, hair clips (I actually had to take one out of my own hair for that), a Military Credit Card, a restaurant punch card (get a punch for every meal you buy, the 5th meal is free), an ATM receipt, a government issued pen, hand lotion, gum, and 5 pennies (and we don’t use them here in Misawa, they round up or down because shipping them in would cost too much). Things were going great until about half way through. Everyone was rushing around to other tables trying to get them offer up what they were looking for and I was headed for my own table when one of the Officers that we actually go to church with pulled out his chair, catching the edge of my pants leg under it. I didn’t notice so I kept moving. Then I noticed! The chair was pulling down my pants! I quickly dropped to the floor and didn’t know what to say. This was an Officer but we have a personal relationship with his family through church and the fact that I watch their children a few hours each week. Things are much more relaxed here in Misawa. In Norfolk, if was frowned upon for enlisted sailors and officers to mix socially. Here, because it is such a small base and even smaller Navy community, its not so much an issue. So, I screamed at him, by name, trying to be heard above the crowd. He noticed me on the floor and did not understand the whole pants issue, so he reached down to help me up. Not happening! The pants would just come off again! We were able to get it all situated and I was surprised to see that I made it back to my chair with my item before the last person. With a lot of running around, I made it to the final two….and then won!!!

I was excited and tired. Our prize? I won a $20.00 gift card for every person sitting at my table! It was a blast other than the whole, “An Officer Tried to Get Me out Of My Pants” thing. He and his wife stopped by our table later and I was able to explain fully what happened. We were both very much embarrassed. When we got home, we found that the sitter had been able to not only get Joey to eat all his dinner, pick up his toys and get into his PJ’s but that he was actually asleep! I was amazed! It was a good night and we enjoyed the dancing and the food.

Our Strange Little Boy

Anyone who was able to spend time with Joey with we were recently in Texas, especially if that visit was during a meal time, that Joey LOVES Macaroni and Cheese and Spaghetti. You simply could not get him enough. He would gladly have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if we let him. I guess when we crossed the date line flying here, something happened. Now our little boy picks at the spaghetti, taking out and only eating the meat and doesn’t come anywhere near finishing even his first serving of mac and cheese. We have been through something like this before. Prior to Brandon leaving for Bahrain, Joey LOVED hotdogs. Specifically the Hebrew National ones that Daddy grilled outside. He LOVED them. Then, around his birthday, if you were to offer the boy a hot dog, No Way! He won’t touch them! We still love pizza. Not sure that will ever change. Pepperoni and cheese only though. Put something else on it and he wants nothing to do with it, even if you take it off his slice. Strange Little Boy.

Cookies, Repair Calls and Everything Else

Today has been a very long day. When we woke up this morning, I thought we would have a nice relaxed day with not much to do. Wrong. Joey and I have been working hard on our letters and the sounds that they make. We also have been spending a lot of time working on a "top secret" Christmas project for Daddy. But...it seems the boy is unable to keep a secret so I am sure Brandon will know about it soon if he doesn't already.
We had to call the housing people again today. The fridge was making a noise that wasn't normal. These poor people must think I am crazy when it comes to noise. They have replaced all but one fan in our house and two washers because of noise and now the fridge is bothering me. They came just after lunch and after pulling the fridge out and cleaning the coils, they decided the fridge needs to be replaced but they have none to replace it with right now. They are waiting for a shipment of new appliances soon....so we wait. So...all that is left to replace now is the dryer, the stove and the dish washer. No strange noise coming from them yet.
We have a new family living next door and their shipment of household goods have not arrived yet. The military lends them some temporary furniture but it does not include things like a vacuum or a broom. She came over to borrow both. After giving her the explanation on how the vacuum worked (we have a Rainbow so it is a little involved) she asked if I ran a preschool out of my home or something. I had no clue what she was talking about. She pointed out all the things on the wall and it made me laugh. We have the Letter People proudly displayed on the wall across from the table. They are about 8" tall and colored and laminated. Then, over Joey's door are cut out letters and Sesame Street Characters spelling out his name. Last, there is the "Make a Better Choice Chair". It also has large colored and laminated letters telling what it is above it. Guess it could be confused as day care.
Today has been a "Cooking Day" for us as well. Joey helped me to make dinner tonight and then, following a trip to the gym, we all made gingerbread cookies together as a family. Fun Fun Fun. Joey likes to help stir and to measure the ingredients and gets rather upset if you don't give him the chance to help.
My schedule is starting to fill up a bit. We have only two other Navy families in our Branch(church), the rest of them are Air Force. We try and forgive them for that. One of the other Families has three children, ages 4, 2 and 6 months. Sister French also teaches piano lessons and is obviously having issues keeping the kids under control while she is teaching. I have very much wanted to take piano lessons sooo...we worked out a deal. I will be watching her children during her other lessons two days a week and I get lessons. Joey is looking forward to having friends coming over to play or going to their house (we are still trying to work out the details on the where and how).
We sure miss everyone back in the states. Its been hard to not be able to simply pick up the phone whenever I have the want to call and see how everyone is doing. No, we have to check the time and do the math to figure out just what time it is where.
Hope everyone is doing well. Time to get ready for bed here. Tomorrow is a busy day as well. We are meeting Brandon at the Weasels Den (a rec. center here on base with a rick climbing wall, put-put golf, a moon jump, and go-carts) for a picnic lunch and so we can watch Daddy climb the walls and Joey can play with the other kids. After that we get to join Daddy at the gym for an hour. They make all the service members go to the gym here, we might as well join him. They have a nice separate room just for parents. They have a little half wall dividing the room with cardio equipment on one side and toys on the other. After that is a quick dinner and then off to church for enrichment night. Fun fun fun.

Evacuation!!!

Today was like any other Sunday. We went to church, came home and ate lunch, spent the afternoon watching a video together, ate dinner and tucked Joey into bed. Brandon was getting ready for bed and I had just finished cleaning the kitchen and sat down on the couch when the alarm went off. It took me a second to even figure out what the alarm was. There was no smoke or fire in our apartment so we pulled on our slippers, I threw on a robe around my night shirt and we pulled Joey out of bed. Poor little guy was only in a night night shirt and there was no time to dress him. We walked down the stairs with the rest of the people in our building greeted by firemen on there way up. Poor Joey was in a tee shirt and wrapped in just the blanket off the back of the couch. We sat in our van for a little while and then after about 20 minutes, we were allowed to come back in. Things would not have been so bad if this had not all happened at 10:30 at night. Fun Fun. Once we got back in the house, we had to give Joey the grand tour of the apartment again and point out the fire and smoke detectors and then discovered what bad parents we are. We forgot, in our rush, to grab Joey's Care Bear on our way out. He's back in bed now and I think asleep. Hopefully we can get some sleep tonight.

Meals

Tonight we drove to the local mall, a Japanese one, for dinner at the Pepper Lunch. Oh, and also so Joey could have Chicken Nuggets from McDonald's. Ordering food here can be fun. At some places, they have wax plates of food in the windows with little signs that say what they are. Small problem for us is we can't read them. At those places you motion for the woman at the counter to follow you to the window and point to what you want. Then she prints out "tickets" for your order and you pay. Then you go find a seat and give your waitress the tickets so she can go and pick up your food. At other places, like at the Pepper Lunch, there is a vending machine that reminds me of buying a subway ticket in DC where you put your money in and then press the buttons for the picture of the meal you want and your drink, then present your tickets at the counter. McDonald's makes it a bit easier for us, they have a sheet with pictures of their menu at the counter and if you look American, they flip it over and its in English! The Pepper Lunch is one of my favorite places to eat. They serve your food on what looks like a round cast iron skillet that is sizzling hot. The meal I get is beef, rice and corn. The beef is very thinly sliced, and only about 6 pieces of it, and not cooked (it cooks on the "plate" as you let it cool off) circling a mound of steamed white rice with a bit of corn on top. Its simple but oh so good. One nice thing is they give you a spoon for this meal. Brandon has the chopsticks down but I still can't get them to work. A sweet little Japanese man was walking by our table and asked if he could show Joey a magic trick. Joey enjoyed it very much. He then asked where we were from and we said, "Texas" and he responded by asking, "Like John Wayne". It was funny to learn that they think of cowboys when they think of Texas.

Everything else is going pretty okay here. We are looking forward to the weekend and spending time doing a whole bunch of nothing. I think Joey might talk Brandon in to taking the sled out some time this weekend, its supposed to snow again on Saturday, but other than that and church, we have no big plans. Things seem to be much more laid back and go at a much slower pace here. I'm not complaining. While there are some odd things we can't seem to find around here, there are some other new things we are discovering and don't know how we could have possibly lived without them back in the states. Heated toilet seats. Oh so very nice on a cold day. That's all I will say about that.

Oh, for those of you waiting for Christmas gifts to arrive from us here in Misawa, the wait will probably be a bit longer than usual. They tell us most priority mail takes about 3 weeks but with the holiday season they say it could take twice as long. Sorry! We thought we had shipped with enough time. We will try to be more on top of things next year!

I Don't Think You Can Catch My Cold From My Blog

Being sick just stinks! Well, stinks isn't the right word. I can't smell anything. I have been fighting, and loosing a battle with this cold for several days now. Brandon has been lucky to not catch it yet but I know just as I start to get over it, he will come down with it. Great. Then, just as he gets it, so will Joey. Fun. Brandon actually has a duty weekend this weekend so we could not go anywhere so I guess this was a good weekend to be sick. Duty days/weekends are kind of nice here. Brandon had to stay about an hour later at work on Friday and unless it snows this weekend or there is a problem and they call, doesn't have to do anything. If it snows, he gets to go shovel a bit around the building but there doesn't seem to be any forcasted this weekend. He actually voluntered to be a driver Friday night/Saturday monring. He got to go hang out at the on base 24 hour cafe with another guy in his shop and wait for drunk people to call and ask for a ride. The base offers the program on the weekends for free to help prevent DWI's. He got a free meal out of it and it goes down as volutere work for promotions and evaluation stuff. Joey is doing very well. He is on a big Care Bear kick right now. Not exactly sure where it started but he likes playing with them. We also just got done printing out all of his Letter People and coloring all of them. We even got the laminated and ready to stick on the wall. The problem we seem to be running into is there is no ticky-tack to be found here and I don't want to use normal tape that might damage the paint on the wall. So...if someone back in the states could throw some in the mail for us that would be great. If you don't know what the Letter People are you are missing out. At Tomball Elementary we had these cute little visitors once a week to teach us the alpabet. The Letter People are funny looking "People" whoes boddies are formed from letters. They are cute and funny looking but they work. There are funny silly songs to go with each one and even movies from the 70's for them. They have updated them a bit since I was taught them to make some of the politically correct but we are using the older ones because they are the ones I was able to get all of the materials for. I guess even one of the preschools in JuneBug's area uses them. What was funny was one of the other Navy wives here in Misawa, and there are few of us, was talking to me about having trouble getting her daughter to learn her abc's and I was telling her what we were using the letter people. She looked at me funny and then asked if the letter T was "Tall Teeth". It is! She is 30 and she used the letter people way back when she was in kindergarten too in Utah. Small world. Everything else is about the same here. One neat thing is we can use coupons from the states here in Misawa on base up to six months after they expire. So....if any of you have any coupons laying around and a spare stamp somewhere...we would love to take them off your hands! That's about it for us. Hope everyone is well. Oh, also, we would like to welcome Brandon's mom, JoAnn to the blogging world! Now someone just needs to help her learn to use it.

Lesson Learned

Well, I learned a new leson tonight. My hair was getting too long and Brandon suggested I go get it cut. The BX actualy has a beauty shop inside so we took their next available appointment wich was today at 4pm. I should have known I was in trouble when I walked in and there were no American workers, only Japanese. I have a problem, I speak no Japanese other than to say "Domo". They spoke not near enough english to understand what I was wanting. My hair was about an inch shy of being clear to my waist. I wanted it about 1/2 an inch above my shoulder bladdes. I pointed to where I wanted and she seemed to understand. After she cut about half of my hair, she showed me the length and asked if it was okay. It wasn't quite as short as I had wanted it so I asked if she could take off a little more. She quickly went to work but not cutting the length any, she was taking chuncks here and there and just cutting but keeping the bottom layer the same length. I tried to explane again what it was I wanted and she said she understood. She didn't. Now my hair is anything but I guess I can live with it. My hair seems to grow fast. So what was the lesson learned? I learned that next time I go to get my hair cut here in Japan, I need to take someone with me that can speak and understand Japanese.

A Little Under The Weather

Its cold and snowing outside today and I'm not feeling all that great. Think I can just stay in bed all day? Don't think Joey will go for that. Things are going pretty well here in Misawa. We had a wounderful Thanksgiving dinner with the guys Brandon works with and Joey has had a blast with his new sled and the hill just outside our building. He seems to find it just as much fun to fill the sled with snow than just using it to go down the hill. Whatever makes him happy, right? We have issues getting things here. The most recent was a Christmas tree. You would not think finding a tree would be all that hard. The fake ones at the BX just cost way too much and out in town they are all about 3 to 4 feet tall. So, Joey and Daddy picked out one they liked and I guess it will work. I'll try and add a picture later. We also can't seem to get a hand can opener here. Odd. Not much is really going on here. We sure do miss everyone back in the states and wish we could see you all for Christmas!

Another Day In Misawa

Today I have spent most of my day getting house work done and making sure I have the things I need for Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow. Its still snowing and its very cold. They gave us the official snow fall for the last snow as 7.8 inches. Thats a lot of snow. I think they said we have three more days of snow ahead of us. Fun. We have a little grill now. People here put their bulk trash out on Mondays and everyone, well everyone we know, drives around to see if anything "good" was put out. They do have a thrift store here were you can take things you no longer want but they only take things during odd hours and you have to take it to them. Most people just end up putting it on the curb knowing that someone will more than likely pick it up. Well, we found a little grill. When I say little I mean like maybe 2 feet tall. Tonight we are going to grill on the patio, well, Brandon is going to grill. I think its too cold! Tomorrow morning Brandon is going to go play football and then in the afternoon we have a Thanksgiving meal with the guys from his shop. One bad thing about Misawa is there is no WalMart. That means there is no day after Thanksgiving sale for me to go to! No fair! Shopping here is frustraiting. The Exchange gets a very limited amount of things in and once they are gone, who knows when they might have it again, if ever. One thing we needed was ink for the printer. We have a HP printer that take a common black ink cartridge. We went to the exchange and they were out. We asked when they were going to get more and they said they had been out for some time and had no clue as to when more was coming. Great. Tuesday morning is when they put the new shipments out so I was getting to the exchange as soon as they opened on Tuesdays to see if they came in. Finaly this week they did. I was watching them put the cartridges out and saw they only put up 3 of the one that I needed. I asked if they only put out a few at a time or something. No this was all they got and they don't exspect another shipment for another 6 to 8 weeks. I asked if this was an unusualy small order or something and they told me that no, they usually only get 3 at a time! Its similar with other things and it causes a huge fight sometimes. One thing they have issues with is the Ninetendo Wii. They get only one or 2 ever few months. The problem is the past two shipments, all of them went to people working at the BX and were sold before the doors opened. Thats not fair! Oh well. We spent yesterday and the day before getting our medical stuff in order here. The military doctor's don't much like when you bring them civilian medical records. Well, guess I should get done with doing the laundry. The new washer is nice and so quiet. The poor housing people here probably think I have issues with things making any kind of noise. Of all my service calls, and there have been a few, all but one were because something was making lots of noise. Fans and the washer mainly but lots of noise. Now my dryer seems so loud compaired to my washer and it doesn't match. Oh well. Oh, and JoAnn, the washer is a top loading one. Its a bit odd. You know how your washer has the aggitater thing in the middle, this one does not have one!

Washer From Space

When we first moved in, the washer and dryer that we had simply did not work. They brought us a new washer and dryer the day after we moved in. The worker warned us that the washer makes a "small" noise and then packed up and left. The first time I used it, everything was going just fine until a loud screetch noise sounding like metal rubbing against metal made us all jump when the spin cycle ended. This was no small noise. We called the housing office again and asked if someone could be sent to look at it. The workers came the following day. One problem with housing here is the management and workers are all local. They speak little of my language and I speak none of theirs. I was able to get them to understand by turning on the washer (empty) and motioning for them to wait for the spin cycle to end. They both jumped when the noise happened. Another problem here on base right now is the local workers are doing weekly strikes because the government of Japan is trying to reduce their pay by 10%. So, for 4 hours of their shift, once a week, the are on strike. The day they came, was the day it was all starting. The workers asked if they could please come back today and "fix" the washer. Not a problem at all. This morning they knock on the door and when I answer I find 3 workers with a brand new washer, still in the box. Neat! It turns out it is a Whirlpool Cabrio Automatic Washer with 6th Sense Technology. Not sure what all that means but it sure looks neat. After about an hour, they had the old washer out and the new washer in. The worker then opened the door above the washer, where I keep my washing powder, pointed and said "No use." I didn't understand what he meant. He kept pointing to the washer and then the powder and saying "no use". I thought maybe he meant I could not use powder but only liquid in the washer. No problem. I have a bottle of liquid in the closet. So I pulled it out and pointed to it and asked "Okay?". He shook his head at me and the three of them began talking fast and not in english. One of the men went diving into the box and pulled out the instructions, pointed to it then the liquid detergent in my hand and said "no use" and then they all packed up and left with me standing there completly lost. It turns out the new washer is a HE washer and using normal soap will cause lots of foam and could cause damage to the unit. My problem is just last night I opened a new, big box of Tide powder and I have this half used bottle of liquid detergent that I can't use now! Oh well. This afternoon, Joey and I both have doctor appointments so after I will try and go by the store and get the right kind of laundry soap. I think I might drop the soap I have now off with one of the guys Brandon works with. Not too sure I want to drive in the snow today but I guess I am going to have to at some point and I am not sure how Joey's tractor will work in the snow.

First Snow

Today we had our first real snow here in Misawa! Boy was it cold. We had gone to the "Blue Bunny" store and bought Joey the winter stuff he needed but we forgot to go looking for ourselves. After we got him all dressed up we took him down next to the apartment tower and he and Brandon worked on making a snow man. It was fun to watch him get so excited over snow. He would just drop down and make snow angels when ever he felt like it. Our poor snow man fell down when we went inside to get gloves. I think our snow man was the first for our tower. It was fun but cold. We also have a little plastic sheet thing that I guess is a sled type thing for Joey. He took it down the little hill right infront of the tower (its maybe 3 feet high). He was not too happy when we told him it was time to come back inside. We kept telling him that the snow would still be here tomorow but he seems to think it is all going to melt away. Now we need to figure out just how we get my van into 4 wheel drive. We got snow tires just on Friday. One problem we seem to have is that my van has sensors on it to warn me if I am about to hit something. We cleared off the van and even where the sensors were but by the time we got moving, the snow had covered them again and the dumb thing would not stop beeping! We had bought the snow brush for the cars last week out in town thinking that once there was first snow here on base, they would sell out of them here quick. Guess we were right. The exchange seems to be out of them and people were being rather creative in how the got the snow off their car, if they tried at all.

Japan seems to be so very far away from our friends and family back in the states. There have been so many little things that have happened that I wanted to share with you all but with the time diffrence and all, its a little hard to call every time.

Its getting very cold here in Misawa. And boy is it windy! Today we had our first bit of snow flurries. I'm not ready for snow! Do you think if I close my eyes and invision a bright blue sky and comfortable 75* weather, it will happen? I doubt it. We are going to venture out into town this weekend to the "Blue Bunny Store" and get Joey some clothes that fit better with the weather here. Its a local clothing store that has very good prices! We have to measure him to see how many centermeters tall he is. They do children's sizes by their height in cm. We are not sure exactly what the actual name of the store is. It has a sign our front with a Blue Bunny and all the American's simply call it the Blue Bunny Store.

There is some sort of Navy Family Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow that we are supposed to go to. Brandon's boss is also having a Thanksgiving dinner for the shop on Thanksgiving. I will be taking June Bug's Sweet Potato thing. Yummy! I will probably go ahead and make a second batch so I have some at home. Leftovers are good!

I will try and add the pictures from the Salmon Catch and of my clean house (someone doesn't seem to trust me when I say the house is clean) tomorrow. Hope you are all doing well!