Instructions

Okay Jen, This is for you. But you need to PROMISE that if you do it, you will post a picture on your blog. I am tired of looking at Christmas pictures.



For those that want to do the project that Sabrina and I worked on here is the link:



http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=243314



Happy Stamping!

The Isolation continues.

I am spending the day power cropping for the Scrap event I am going to on Friday, and I have the TV on in the background. I just watched a new announcement regarding our "Period of Reflection". The guy on TV (some Marine officer) has announced that "after reviewing the events they have decided to extend limited activity off base. This policy will next be reviewed on March 3rd"

You have got to be kidding me! Two weekends, stuck on base, not able to shop for local fish and produce(not to mention Yen store items), not able to visit any of "the beautiful Okinawa sights" our AFN TV keeps telling us to take in, and no local restaurants. After this weekend, Lyle is on Weekend duty for the following two weeks. All because of single soldiers ( marines mostly) that can't behave. I say kick their butts of the Island, send them back to the US, courtmartial them out of the service and let me and my family enjoy our time here.

Just my two cents.... Thanks for listening!

Lock down... Day 6

Day 6... The weather has turned against us so not only are we restricted to base, we can't send the kids outside. The rain came quick today and neither kid took an umbrella. So when I got home they had both showered and were making hot chocolate.

I spent the day doing what I missed most. Stamping the day away with a friend, talking, trading supplies and having someone appreciate the little ideas that come to mind while being "crafty". Sabrina and I did a One Sheet Wonder that was a little off the norm. It used a two sided preprinted piece of 12 x 12 card stock cut into pieces to create 9 cards and a card holder. I still have a little tweaking to do on a couple cards, but I am including a picture anyway.

I have asked Sabrina to send a pic of her handywork too and I will add that when it shows up in my inbox. She REALLY needs the "period of reflection" to end as she is out of adhesive. I need it to end too so I can pick up some more fun ribbon.

***Update*** Sabrina's tote & cards:

Bonnie

Lyle's mom passed away yesterday after a short but hard fight with pancreatic cancer. I am grateful that we had the chance to say goodbye, we love her and will miss her deeply.

Lock Down... Days 3 & 4

Yesterday was the Marketplace day. I set up my little booth and waited for people to start throwing me money :) It didn't work quite that easy, but it was a successful day and word is out that there is a Creative Memories lady here on the island! After a full day I laid low for the evening. It was a pretty good day.

Today Lyle went with Stephanie to hand out water and oranges to the Okinawa Marathon runners as they made their way through Kadena. Chris and I hung back home and work on making Chicken Rice burritos. I figure if he wants to be a chef, I should start teaching him some of my favorites (plus I would like someone to cook for me occasionally). I also laid out my scrapping stuff so I will be ready for the crop I am attending on Friday.

I don't have any real plans for the week, unless they lift the ban on leaving the base, except for a stamping day with my stamping friend, Sabrina. She has been stamping for a while, but has never done a One Sheet Wonder, so we are going to play.

Lock Down.... Day Two

Day Two, I got the car so I could run some errands. Not that I could really go anywhere, but the family wants to eat so I had to shop. I just ran to the commissary, BX and Post office to check the mail. I was done in an hour.

I left home to pick Lyle up for lunch and he told me on the way home that people driving off base with military plates were getting pulled over by Japanese police. They would ask where you were going, what you were doing off base. So we decided to leave base for the evening and drive over to the Seafood restaurant (run by Services so it's still a military establishment) on the shore.

We did not get pulled over (Chris was disappointed) and we had a delicious dinner. Stephanie even tried Calamari... And liked it.

Tomorrow is "Market Day" on base. Home based business get to set up a booth at the community center and try to lure people into spending money. I am hoping to get rid of some leftover supplies as well as get some new customers here on the base. Since we are not allowed to go anywhere else I think it might be busy.

Locked On Base.... Day one

Since the option of heading off base was taken away, I caught up with some other mundane tasks.

I went for a long walk/run this morning logging in 4 miles. Then came home and got started with my day.

I spent the most of the day finishing my swap cards, realizing a dozen different ways I could have made them better.

Then I cooked my family a burger dinner that was SOOOO yummy. The recipe came from Taste of Home:

They are called Hawaiian Honey Burgers

2 pounds Ground Beef

1/2 Cup Honey

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 cup soy sauce

8 slices canned pineapple

Combine the beef, honey, cinnamon, paprika, curry powder, ginger, and nutmeg until well blended. Shape into 8 3/4 inch patties. Grill over medium hot for 3 minutes on each side. Place pineapple rings onto grill. Baste all with soy sauce. Cook an additional 4-6 minutes, turning and basting occasionally. Serve burgers topped with pineapple on a bun. These need no other condiments.

Next time I might drop the honey down to 1/3 cup, and triple the pineapple. The slices were delicious all on their own!

I have no idea what I might do tomorrow since shopping off base is still not an option.

Stuck on Base

Because of the actions of a small handful of military members that can't seem to behave in a reasonable manner I am not allowed to enjoy the eating establishments, shopping centers, parks and (worst of all) Yen stores until further notice.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080220/ap_on_re_as/japan_us_military

Good thing I did my shopping last weekend. I guess this weekends plans are on hold.

Weekend Review

We had a very busy weekend here in the Spring household. Friday night Lyle was still recovering from the time change, so we stayed home and went to bed early (for a Friday!) Saturday morning he took the kids to Girl Scout thinking day and I went with my friend, Sabrina, to a crop. Yes that's what I said..... I went to a crop. Run by other people, so all I had to do was bring my stuff and work on my own books.

I was totally unprepared. I remembered my pictures, my box of preplanned pages, I remembered my tape and tools, so I was ready...Right? I did the 8-10 pages I had preplanned and ready to go, then went to start working with my box of printed pictures only to discover I didn't bring any paper other than a small box of scrap :(

Good thing I planned far enough ahead to think about what to do if I finished my pictures. I had also taken 3 different stamping projects along. Don't worry, Sabrina already told me people stamped at these things too, so I wasn't committing any craft crimes. I had time to cut and stamp my swap cards, and get started on a One Sheet Wonder before it was time to pack up and go home. It was nice to be able to work on my stuff for a change but I really missed all of my regular croppers. The conversation was a little more proper than I am used to...KWIM?

Saturday night was nice, with Lyle cooking dinner (after having the kids all day) and doing clean up after!

Sunday we had decided was going to be our shopping day. Since we went back to the states so quickly there were a few finishing touches the house needed, so we headed down to Camp Foster. We went first to the PX to look for a new crockpot. They didn't have any but they did have a new pair of running shoes in my size (odd since my feet are wider than they are long). Then we went to buy a new grill. We got a good one with a side burner for power outages (planning ahead for the typhoon season). The box was huge but we got it to fit in the car. Then we drove to the furniture store to check on rugs. I found one I loved but we hadn't measured the living room and Lyle thought it might be too big. We also found out that mattress sets were on sale, so we broke down and decided to buy a Queen set to replace the midget bed we are currently using. We drove the grill home and measured the living room, then rushed back to Foster to get my rug before someone else did. We were originally going to get the mattresses and the rug delivered at the same time, until we found out the set we wanted was sold out and wouldn't be in until March. So we made a 12' x 15' rug fit into our car and drove that home too.

After all those trips we still had one more to make. We had told the kids we were eating in a regular (not base run) restaraunt for dinner. We went to the hardware store to get house keys copied, spent an hour in the Yen store (I LOVE that place) then went to find a place called Dragons. It is a Japanese Style Chinese place that one of the scrappers was talking about at the crop. Her directions were bad (or I didn't listen well enough) because we couldn't find it. But we promised so we pulled into the first eating establishment that had lots of cars in the parking lot.

We ended up at a place called Skylark Gusto. We were the only white faces in the place, but they had an English menu (translated) for us so we decided we would stay. It was very much like a Denny's but with Japanese food. There were some american dishes: Stephanie got popcorn shrimp and fries, Chris tried the fried chicken and Lyle got a Hamburger patty. I stepped outside the box a bit and ordered a Pork Cutlet meal that came with a variety of little side dishes. I have to say, I got the best meal of all of us. The pork was incredibly tender, the shredded cabbage with Japanese dressing was yummy. Chris finished off my rice, Stephanie ate all of my soup (I did get a small taste) and the pickled veggies were awesome. I tried to convince Lyle to get the camera from the car so I could snap a picture but he wouldn't budge :(

Monday was spent putting the grill together. Then returning the keys that didn't work and spending another hour in the Yen store. A nice grilled dinner of Steak and Shrimp with a bottle of Red, and the weekend was over. I can't wait for next weekend, I am exhausted!

Valentine's update

I know this should have been done 2 days ago, but my valentine came back home on Valentine's day so I was pretty busy (wink, wink).

I had a good valentine's day, my hubby came home, bringing chocolate covered espresso beans (my favorites) for me and other chocolates for the kids. My son gave me an origami flower bouquet (hard to do one handed) and a box of chocolates. Secretly I think he is trying to kill me.

My chocolates:

I know they look delicious, but notice where they were made. I have said for the last year that I believe China is trying to take over the world by killing us off. Yesterday's Yahoo headline was about lollipops sold at Dollar General that were made in China and contained metal shavings. Chocolate Anyone???

Windows cleaner

Saw this on a friend's blog and had to share. You would not believe the stuff it got off of my computer!

http://theglobalbible.com/temp/screenclean.swf

Brr

Okay, to start I don't want any hate mail after I say this (especially from the Freezer section of my fan club) but I am cold.

It is 55 degrees, overcast and windy, and I am freezing. I would turn on our heat in our house but it only has 2 real options..... On and Off. On makes it really warm, off doesn't (of course). What I really need is a blanket, but I sealed them all up in vacuum storage bags and don't want to go through reasealing them. Maybe I should just go make another pot of coffee......

Can I just say EWWWWWW

This morning I was on the phone trying to set up our cable tv installation (again), and while on hold I finished cleaning up breakfast in the kitchen. I happened to glance up and noticed something was in my light cover. So I went over to take a closer look:

It wasn't moving (and still isn't). Thank goodness.

Now, we spent 2 years on Guam and I liked watching the geckos, and we did get them in our house occasionally. But they were always alive and eager to go back outside.

This gecko was not here when we left 2 weeks ago so I am not responsible for its death, but fair warning to any of it's family members still living in my ceilings. Leave quietly (and quickly) or suffer the consequences!

PS to my husband, this will still be here when you get back.

Back to the daily grind

I gave myself yesterday to just kind of hang around the house. We were all up early, so I went to see if this was a flea market weekend (it wasn't), went to claim our 2 weeks worth of mail (new cm catalog... wait for the e-mail!), and went to the commissary to buy milk and bread. We drove by the theater to see if anything good was playing. No good movies but the community center was having Family Bingo from 2-4.

So we went to family bingo. It was fun, but typical of a services run event anywhere, if you bought a 6-pack of bingo cards you got a free dauber! However, they don't sell daubers, so we marked our cards with a crayola marker! We didn't win... Neither did the VERY loud woman and her 4 kids sitting behind us. At one point Chris said (in a whisper Thank God) "she is annoying, we shouldn't sit by her again!"

Anyway, I told myself last night I was going to get back to a semi-normal routine. I got up this morning (still early, but that is okay) and dressed for a run. Now I haven't actually walked more than a mile in the last two weeks, so I knew I wouldn't run far! But I set out anyway. I wasn't able to run more than a half mile in a stretch, but all totaled (thanks to my watch) I walked and ran 3 miles this morning.

I also have plans to do laundry! Gotta love being back home :)

Home at last

We made it! The kids and I survived the 3 flights totaling 17 hours. The person that was supposed to meet us at the airport was there (good thing, as I forgot to get his phone number from Lyle). My house survived, and more importantly I had a nice cozy bed to fall into when we got here.

I know I updated from the Rochester airport, but that was before they called a 45 minute delay on our flight. That concerned me a little as we only had just over an hour layover in Chicago before boarding our Japan flight. When we got on the plane we were greeted by Richard, our Steward(ess) who immediately started talking to us (and only us). This lasted the entire plane ride, fortunately this was a short flight. Had Richard been on our 14 hour flight he would have been shark bait. He told us how much he loves Asia, how he was stationed in Korea while he served in the Army (Don't ask, Don't tell), where we should visit in Japan, what foods we should try, asked about Chris' arm, wanted to sign his cast (but he had to think of something clever), how he finished college over here, etc, etc, etc. It was only a 50 minute flight, but it took forever.

In Chicago we had to hustle to get from our landing gate to our departure gate. It was in the same terminal, which was good, but at the opposite end. As we passed by Starbucks I decided I had just enough time to get a Mocha for me and hot chocolates for the kids. We got to our gate just as they were starting to board.

The flight wasn't full which was nice. We shard a middle section of 5 seats which allowed us to spread out. We all tried to sleep at various times on the flight but none of us was very successful. I watched 2 movies, a handful of TV shows, beat my new DS game (7 wonders of the ancient world), and read a book. I didn't care for Michael Clayton (the movie) but liked Martian Child. I was also going to watch The King of California, but our movie system went on the blink for quite a while.

After Landing in Tokyo we had to go through Customs and Immigration. This was a very orderly process, but since our flight came in at the same time as 2 other overseas flights it took over 1 1/2 hours to get through the line and claim our bags. We only had a 3 hour layover to begin with so another quick connection.

All three of us passed out the minute we boarded out Okinawa flight and slept until the captain announced out descent 3 hours later. After getting our bags and meeting Ryan (our ride home) we climbed into our car. He asked if I wanted to drive. Ummmm, let's see.... Sleep deprived...Driving on the wrong side..... in a backwards car.... through okinawa Friday night traffic.... I said no.

After a phone call to Lyle (and a quick game of internet Canasta with him) I went to bed, 27 hours after I had woken up in Minnesota.

I think the jet lag won't be as bad since we all slept (until 6 am anyway).

I got up to no milk and no creamer. But we have whipped cream in a can, which makes a pretty good substitute. I am going to have to shower and go to the store. I am glad to be back.

just an update

I know it has been a week since I last updated.

Lyle's mom is not doing well, her kidney's are starting to shut down, the chemo isn't working, she is in pain and disoriented. She will be going into a care facility in the next couple of days. Lyle is staying in MN for another week to get this done. Doctors are saying it is only a matter of weeks.

The kids and I are headed home. I am posting this from the gate at the Rochester Airport. I love that small airports give free internet.

I will post about the flight after we get there, but I can tell it is going to be interesting already. We got the TSA agent from hell just getting this far. Apparently my son poses a risk to national security and might be smuggling something in his cast. But they let him through after a swab up his arm said he was safe.