A Little Slice Of Home

I have my Texas Ice Cube Tray, Texas Monopoly, and now....a Houston phone number. With Vonage, you guys back in the states can now call us and it not cost you a months pay check! Please remember that when you call, we are 14 hours ahead of Houston time. I'm not sure I am going to wake Joey up at 2 in the morning so he can talk to yall!

Cute Little Boy

Someone sure enjoyed the Easter Egg hunt we had for the Church kids. He was a little upset that they had to limit each kid to only 6 eggs each. Then he turned into a little police man going around and telling the older kids that they had too many and just how many he had to put back (some of them had 20 or 30 in their bags). It was a bit dissapointing, we didn't get Easter baskets at the exchange here so unless you happen to have brought one with you when you moved here from the States or had someone mail one to you, you didn't get one.

Joey has decided that he will have three jobs when he grows up. He thinks he will be 1) a Nascar Driver 2) a Cowboy and 3) a Mosnter Truck Driver (in that order). He tells us that he is going to need to go to Nascar school and drive a lot to get ready for his race. He can't be a cowboy until his PawPaw names one of the horses for him (he has some suggestions for the new baby). He likes to stall going to bed by snuggling with his daddy after bath time by telling us his plans when he grows up. It buys him an extra 15 to 20 minutes but not much more than that. Mean Daddy, I would let him get at least half an hour.

Joey also went and had his hair cut this week. He liked that the lady wanted him to sing to her songs like the "ABC's" "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Old McDonnald". I went that same afternoon to get mine cut again. I'm never going to learn. I actually went to the Support Center to get them to write out "Please cut only 1 inch staight across". Yeah, it didn't turn out that way. Whe I went in, my hair was just below my bra strap....now, my hair is right at my shoulder. Oh well, at least it is all one length and it grows pretty fast.

Yakisoba (Again)

I made Yakisoba again and it was just as big of a hit this time as it was last. I had to stop Brandon just before he started to eat his second serving so I could get a picture. It doesn't look too good but it taste great. The thing that makes it great is the Yakisoba Sauce. You get one small package of it for each set of noodles and I guess it is enough if you don't add too many vegetables but with just how many I add, well, we needed a bit more. One of my friends went to a local market and picked up a bottle of it for us. This time when we made it, we made all three of the sets of noodles that come in the package and this time we were all able to have seconds! It was great! I wish it was the type of thing we could mail back to some of you in the states but I don't think it would make it there before it goes bad. Yuck. I guess you all will need to come and visit us so I can make it for you!

Funny Things You See....

I just love when you see something translated into English. Something always tends to get lost somewhere. We chuckle a lot at the tee-shirts out in town. Their sayings seem to be nonsence. This weekend, I was taking yet another wife to the Apple Store (I think I am the official Apple Store Tour Guide) when we happened upon some signs indicating we were in a construction zone. I didn't quite notice it at first but then when I looked again, something didn't look right. Do you see it? Look one more time if not, it took us a minute to get it. We actually went around the block and down the hill a second time just to get a picture of it. I'm sure we look like dumb American's taking silly pictures of signs but I just had to.

Update On Family In Our Church

Kim emailed me to let me know what was going on with her husband. We were all very sad at the news. Please keep praying for their family!!! Below is part of the email she sent.

Jodi has a tumor in his spine. It is stage 4 cancer. He is having surgery on Wednesday (had to be postponed due to stomach issues). The surgery will be to stablize (sp) his spine and to try and remove most of the tumor. There are nerves wrapped in it so they have to be careful.

It looks like we will be moving back to the states

PawPaw Metcalf

The new link at the bottom of the blog is for my grandfather's Caring Bridge website. You can go here to get updates about how he is doing. My grandmother tries to update often but if there isn't much change (or there is a lot and she gets home too tired to update) there is no reason to update. I was able to finally call and speak to him last week. I have been trying about once a week since we got into our apartment but it never worked out (he was sick, June Bug wasn't there, ect). It was GREAT!!!

Please keep PawPaw in your prayers. (Joey refers to him as Old PawPaw)

If you don't know who PawPaw is or why we are praying for him....
PawPaw has been fighting the effects of West Nile virus since this summer. He is my father's father and extra special to me. I remember with lots of happy feelings sharing his strawberry hard candy during church and I called to give him updates on the Gaddafi issue since he got home after one of the news reports. When I became old enough to vote, I started calling to talk to him about politics (he is a democrat but I love him anyways). I have had to hold off on that a bit now...I don't think the doctors wanting his blood pressure to go up too much!

Pepper Lunch (Again)

I now have pictures of my favorite place to eat here in Japan, Pepper Lunch. It is GREAT!!! I need to learn some more Japanese....trying to ask "May I take your photo" is fun. I keep trying to speak to them in Spanish..yeah, thats going to help. I reached my 20th stamp of the stamp card there (each meal gets you a stamp) and earned my free meal. The one I typically get is about Y500 (500 yen) but the free one is a Y1100 (1,100 yen) meal. It was very yummy. It was a larger piece of meat and came with rice in a bowl (more rice than you typically get). The ladies working in Pepper Lunch got a little excited at my wanting to take their picture. I am including pictures of my special free meal and one of what I normally get (the one that is steaming). I also took pictures of where you "order" you meal. You put your money in the machine and then push the button below the picture of what you want. Then a "ticket" come out the bottom. Fun Fun. Oh...the little girl with Joey is Caroline (the youngest child of Misti, mentioned in previous post...and sister to Emily, our babysitter). Before Emily took him on a date, he would run around singing "Sweet Caroline". Today he told her he would hold her hand but it didn't mean that she was his girl. She was fine with it...she just wanted to hold his hand.

Double Date (Sort Of)

We had a double date this past weekend. I think it was our first every double date as well as Joey's first "date". (I think it was the sitters first date too). Emily is a young woman from our church (her mommy and I are good friends and scrapbook buddies). The theater here on base only has one screen and when a movie gets here, you better go see it that weekend because it will only be your only chance. This weekend it was the Veggie Tales movie, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything". Brandon and I have been big Veggie Tales fans from even in high school so we just had to see it and well, Joey wanted to see it too. What to do? Hmm...double date. When I picked Emily up and brought her over to the house, Joey pulled out his piggy bank and counted out 11 coins (we said he needed at least 11 dollars) to pay for their dinner at Subway and kept trying to talk her into walking rather than ridding in the car with Mom and Dad. After Subway, we went to the theater, got some popcorn, coke and strawberry straw things for them to share and got them seated. We sat a little away and enjoyed the movie. Emily was great and wouldn't let us pay her for the 4 plus hours we had her. Joey now calls her "my girl" and loves his Emily. Oh great...it starts early doesn't it.

Update On Kim and Jodi

A few of you have asked how the man from our church that was medically evacuated due to a growth on his spine. I saw his wife today at a friend's house and got an update.

She is leaving tomorrow afternoon for two weeks in Hawaii (without her two children) while they work out the care plan for Jodi. She will be flying back to Japan after two weeks and then will pack out the house (sit there while the Japanese workers box everything up) and they will then be moving. As of now they have been given a few options on where to go. One option is to San Antonio and the other is to Oregon, which I guess is where he is from. They will work out the details during the next two weeks.

They just got back the biopsy results (they took 2 days for the preliminary results) and it is malignant. The growth is golf ball size and growing "significantly". They will be doing some sort of spinal stabilization tomorrow (today) and then I believer removing as much of the cancer as they can next week. Then comes radiation and chemo. They also are going to be doing a tissue scan to see if the cancer is anywhere else. They are worried that spots on his lungs mean the cancer is there as well (he has never once smoked so the doctor was thinking it wasn't good news). Jodi is only 30 years old. Way too young to be hearing the words cancer.

Kim is doing the best that she can. Poor thing has been having to rush around closing down her in-home day care, getting Power of Attorney for the two families taking in her children (they are going to two separate homes), getting her last minute OB check ups, getting physical copies of her medical records to take with her, and packing for two weeks. She knows no one at the base she is going to (where her husband already is) and is nervous about it. We have been able to contact the church there and someone is going to pick her up at the airport and take her to the hotel. Another issue they ran into is there is no availability at the lodging in the base. They are having to put her in a hotel off base but said they would provide her a shuttle service. Something tells me they are going to have quite a time getting her to leave his bedside. Kim is dealing with a high-risk pregnancy on top of all this so we are hoping that all goes well.

Please continue to pray for their family and for the doctors working to help them

Please Pray For A Fmaily In Our Church

One of my good friends from church and her family are in a medical crises right now. For the past little while Jodi (the husband..yes with an "i") was having pain in his back. When they did his first scan of it, the noticed a small spot but planned to just keep an eye on it. They did an MRI and got the results in yesterday at 4pm. There is a large "mass" on his spine that has gown 150% since the last scan. They immediately put him in a hospital bed and got him on a medivac 6 hours later. He is currently at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa but will be sent tonight to Tippler Air Base in Hawaii. After they do a biopsy of the mass they plan to then send him to some base in San Antonio. Kim, his wife, is very pregnant and has two children (one age 8 and the other age 2) and also runs a preschool program out of her home. They told her she would need to close the school up, get power of attorney for someone to pack out their stuff and sell their cars and be ready to fly out on Thursday to join her husband. Please pray for their family. I can't imagine my husband waking one morning with a back ache and by that night him being sent out of country and the word cancer being whispered as a possibility.

Busy Busy Busy

Things move from not much going on to busy busy busy pretty quick around here. Between Scouts, College, Work, Volunteer Work, and Joey's new interest in rock climbing...Brandon is pretty busy. I have preschool, after school day care, Relief Society (church) Enrichment stuff, carpool to swim lessons, and just keeping up with house work and the like...I'm not sure when I get to sleep (or how to turn my brain off so I can sleep if I have time).Busy Busy Busy!

I'm looking forward to the weather continuing to improve around here. The weather was quite nice today but everyone keeps warning me that it might snow a few more times before winter is over. The mud isn't much fun. I am looking forward to being able to let Joey run and play without him getting upset when the mud gets on him. A lot of the ladies from church have been dealing with the "winter blues" here the past few months. Its hard not to. The base Health and Wellness Center started a new program where you could go and sit in a massage chair in front of a light box for half an hour. Problem is to get approved for the program you have to go visit someone from the Mental Health Clinic or Family Advocacy and no one really wants to open that door because it is hard to close it after you do.

I made my way out in the "real" Japan this past Saturday and actually didn't get lost. One of the new Navy wives was commenting on not being able to get apples at an affordable price here on base while we were at our once a month scrapbook thing. So, we jumped in my van (actually, Brandon's van..he took mine for the day) and drove to the Apple market by the train station. She has only been here for a little over a month so had not gone far off base other than to the mall. I think I scared her when I was driving on some of the back roads. They are not very wide at all and its not easy to move around the construction. Funny thing here is there is no such thing as parking in most places. you are supposed to just drive up on the sidewalk directly in front of the store you want to shop at or park sometimes up to 5 blocks away and walk (which would not be much fun if you are trying to carry 2 crates of apples with you). I was able to show her the store as well as a few other neat places in the area that I like to go visit.

This morning at playgroup, one of the other moms joined us a bit late. She and her husband had gone to a local beach earlier to pick up sea glass (she collects it). It sounds like a fun thing to try. She brought back a whole bag of sand dollars that she found. I remember that my mom had her own little collection of sand dollars once upon a time. I think Joey and I might make a trip up to the beach one of these mornings to see what we might be able to find. Maybe she might want to add some Japanese sand dollars to her collection.

Joey had fun this morning trying to "write" letters to some of you guys. He would tell me what words he was trying to write as he was trying to sound them out and then write them. If any of you get any of his "letters" have fun trying to read parts of it. I just can't seem to get him to hold his pencil right. I'm going to go crazy if I try to correct him any more.

I'm going to have to take my van to the shop sometime soon. The navigation system, A/C control, TV are all one unit and decided one day to stop displaying. It might just be a fuse. It might be something bigger. Its frustrating not to be able to pick up a book and read about what it could be to fix it. There is a shop just off base that is owned by an American that married a host nation national. At least he will be able to speak English so we can understand what the heck it is they are telling us is wrong.

Guess I need to get to bed. Hope you are all doing well!

Not Much Going On

Its warming up a bit here in Misawa. I have been warned not to get to happy about it...its not done snowing yet they say. I think we have light snow showers almost every morning but by about noon it is in the high 30's or low 40's and the snow melts. What gets frustrating is that when the sun goes down, all the water from the melted snow turns into ice. It wouldn't be so bad if the warmer weather meant I could let Joey play a bit more outside but everything is just mud right now and my sweet little boy hates to get dirty.
The Japanese here in Misawa are having elections right now. They drive around in cargo vans with speakers mounted on the roof while they share their message. Its kind of funny at a stop light if you are the car stuck between two different candidates. They kind of shout back and forth at each other. The only two words at all we understand are "ohiogozimas" and "konniechewa" (probably I spell it wrong). That is good morning and good afternoon.
Brandon has caught a nasty cold and spent a good part of the afternoon just relaxing in front of the TV watching some strange space show. After Joey went to bed I pulled out my Copic markers and have been playing around with blending and trying to understand these strange aliens on Brandon's show.
Tomorrow morning is playgroup. Joey is a bit upset that he can't take his computer down with him to show the "guys" his hot wheel game. Its kind of funny to watch him figure out a computer game. He only wants you to tell him which button moves which way and then step back and let him get the rest on his own. He sure is a lot like his Daddy. That computer of his has also created the best leverage I have with him when he doesn't want to do what we ask. Take the power cord from his computer and it is the end of the world.
I have a few new pictures to add but can't seem to find the thingy that I put the memory card thingy in so it will fit the slot thing on the computer. I'll try and get it done tomorrow.
Hope you are all doing well!

"Teddy Bear" Clinic

Joey isn't much of a fan when it comes to going to the doctor. He gets very upset when we talk about his needing to go in for something. The base held a "Teddy bear" Clinic today and we gave it a try. The kids were supposed to bring in their stuffed animal to see the doctor. Our kid sure can be creative. Joey decided to take his puppy to visit the doctor. We were in a bit of a hurry and running late so we didn't ask him before we left exactly what was wrong with Puppy. There was our mistake. When Joey arrived at the clinic he had to check Puppy in just like we have to check in for our doctor visits. They gave him a "medical record" for puppy and told him to procede to the doctor's waiting area. Joey informed the Doctor that Puppy was eating his food and there was a nail in it so puppy ate the nail and now his tummy and his bummy hurt. We about died when that came out. The doctor gave a little chuckle and then decided to do a quick check before sending us on our way to x-ray. It was cute because Joey told her that she shouldn't bother to listen to the dog's heart because he didn't have one, he was a stuffed animal. She listened for a bit and said he did infact have one and asked if he wanted a listen. She was tapping on the stethoscope making the dog appear to have a heart beat. He got excited at that. She went ahead and put a bandage on puppy because she said it looked like he had been scratching at his fur too much on his tummy and off we went to x-ray.At X-ray they actually had a portable one out and took actual x-rays of the kid's hand and for those who had stuffed animals without batteries, an x-ray of the pet too (ours had batteries). Now we have 2 x-rays of our little guys hand. Then we went off to the lab to get some lab work done. this was the part he did not like one bit. Joey HATES needles. They showed him what blood lookes like under a microscope which he thought was the neatest thing in the world. I had a hard time getting him away from the microscope. I guess I'm going to need to keep my eyes out for a student one for him. Anyways, after he saw what blood looked like under the microscope, it was time for Puppy to get his blood taken. Joey had to hold him tight while the tech took the blood and both were very brave. After labs they sent us to the OR. Puppy needed to have the nail removed from his tummy and the damage that was done repaired. They showed Joey how they putt Puppy to sleep and then how after the surgery they woke him up. Joey wanted to know about every little clamp and extractor on the table. The OR people were great and took about 10 minutes to tell him what eachw as used for and to let him hold them. After OR it was time for Puppy to go up to the pharmacy to get the medicine the doctor wanted him to take following the surgery and then over to imunizations for a shot that Puppy was missing. Again, needles are not Joey's friends. It turned out that the tech in the imunizations clinic was a member of our church and Joey likes him so he did not get too upset when Puppy got his shot. Next we went by the dental clinic so puppy could get his teeth cleaned to get the suger bugs off. After all was said and done, puppy had quite a few bandages on him as well as a mask and surgical mask. Joey said puppy was feeling much better but needed to go home and rest.I'm not sure if this will make any diffrence when it come time to take Joey back in for another doctor visit, this time for himself, but it was fun and he got to see how things worked.