Japanese French Toast

Time to catch up the weekend happenings. Lyle took me out to dinner Friday night. He took me to a restaurant here on Kadena called Jack's Place. Unfortunately someone decided that this "upscale" dining facility was the place for a family birthday party. We were seated next to a group of 11 kids and 13 adults. The kids were at their own set of tables, while the adults ignored them from their tables. It was so loud and disruptive we didn't really get a chance to talk, but the food was good and the conversation on the way home was fun :)

Saturday I had Market Day at the Community Center. Another chance to get rid of some retiring CM products and get more people interested in the workshop I am having in October. It was pretty slow but I made enough to make it worth while.

After that ended I made my trip to the commissary and saw this bread in the Japanese section:

The label said Choco Circ Bread. I thought it looked good for French Toast, so that is what I made for breakfast this morning:

It was very yummy. We also had some Turkey Bacon (Butterball brand is best). I love Turkey Bacon, but Stephanie has always said she doesn't. Today Lyle told her we were having "real meat bacon" She ate her 2 slices and one of Lyle's before we told her it was Turkey Bacon. She got upset for a second before saying she only likes "some turkey bacon".

Chris is performing at Church this morning so I hope to have a video to post later.

Happy Anniversary

Today is the official day Lyle and I got married, 19 years ago. There are no pictures from this day, only very fond memories. This was the day of my first ever visit to a Wal-mart. I needed to buy shoes to go with my white summer dress, all I had were sneakers :) I kept those shoes until we moved here.

Lyle and I stopped to pick up our best man, Mickey and my bridesmaid, Mark. Mark was from a small southern town, I remember him being suprised that stop lights were on poles! We got lost trying to find the church in Champaign Illinois.

We did find the church, we said our vows, I cried like a baby, then we took our "wedding party" out to lunch, at Arby's. Every anniversary dinner since (until now) has been at Arby's. Fortunately I found a recipe for a copy cat Jamocha shake, so maybe I can recreate the magic LOL.

Wow, the last 19 years have gone by so fast! Here's to the next 19!

Bad Bloggers Unite

There seems to be a large number of us (okay all of those listed on the right side under Friends) that have been lazy when it comes to keeping everyone up to date. I am no exception to this trend. It has been almost a week since my last post, so I thought I should catch you all up on what I have been doing.

This week has been a busy one. We celebrated Lyle's birthday with a lasagna dinner, served with freshly made rosemary garlic bread, a salad, and our favorite $6/bottle wine :) We capped dinner off with a triple chocolate bundt cake served with Cool Whip and fresh strawberries (a rare thing here on Okinawa). It was a delish dinner and a fun night.

After the birthday celebrations were over, Rita stopped by to give me her newest addition, Latte. Rita had to head back to the states for chief school and needed someone to watch her kids and her dog. I got the dog. Latte is only 2 1/2 months old, still potty training and loves to chase Haru's tail. Latte makes my 19 pound Haru look like a giant! They are learning to get along and Haru's mothering instinct is coming out. She has swiped him with a paw once but has refrained from biting him... so far. (How many moms can relate?)


I was in charge of the dinner portion of our craft auction at church. I had graduated from feeding 13+ women to feeding 80! We served Spaghetti, choice of 3 sauces, meatballs, garlic bread and a large variety of desserts. My dessert contribution was quick, easy but VERY good. Thanks to recipezaar

Easy 4 Ingredient Blondies Recipe #271759

25 min | 5 min prep

SERVES 20

1 (18 1/4 ounce) box yellow cake mix
2 large eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Set aside 13x9 pan. Blend cake mix, eggs and melted butter with electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients are moistened (about 1 minute). Scrape down sides and stir in chocolate chips, stirring until well incorporated. Mixture will be very thick. Scrape mixture into 13x9 pan. Using fork or fingertips, press batter out evenly so that it reaches all the sides. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes before cutting into squares.

I think next time I am going to try strawberry cake mix and dark chocolate chips!

Saturday the family went out shopping. I had heard of this small shopping complex that just opened, housing a couple of furniture stores and a home store. Okinawa Hai reviewed it saying it ws as close to Target as we were going to get on Okinawa. Needing a Target fix we went. I walked through the three stores there, overwhelmed. It was as good as being back home. Gadgets I didn't know I needed, furniture I have no place for and home accessories from pillows to curtains, garbage containers to rugs. I wandered for almost 3 hours before the kids said they wanted to go home. I bought a couple throw pillows for the couch and a small rug for under the shoe rack. I will be going back as soon as I measure a few closets and windows!

I have been crafting too. I made this Sister board book for Rita to give to her sister as a thank you for watching her other dog, Joey. I am in the process of making another one, since the first turned out so nice.

While in the Marine bases PX last week I happened to find a WiiFit. Lyle had been on the lookout since it was released, so I picked it up. The whole family has had a blast doing Yoga, balance games, strength training and even running with the Wii. I do have to admit it is a little disconcerting to have my game system tell me to step on the board then say "oh!" But it does that for everyone, even skinny Stephanie :) If you haven't gotten one yet I recommend it!

Last note is a food review. Part of our shopping trips out is always picking out something new to try. We actually bought this a while ago, but it stayed in the cabinet for a while. Black Pepper popcorn! Stephanie and I both loved it, the boys weren't so sure.

Okay, now I am caught up......... Are you?

Happy Birthday!

Today is Lyle's 38th Birthday. I was going to put together a slide show of him through the years, but those 70's and 80's were so unkind to all of us. So you will have to settle for a single baby picture :)

My weekend just flu by

I meant FLU too! I woke up Friday morning at 3 am with a stuffed up head and a sore throat, so I took some allergy meds and went back to bed. When I got up at 5:30 I was still stuffy, but I figured it would fade away. I took some more allerfy meds on schedule, went to the store, made food for the crop and decided to lay down for a bit. Allergy meds always make me drowsy. I tried to nap, but I was freezing cold. By the time Lyle came home for lunch I was completely miserable.

I tried to nap it off, hoping to recover in time for this workshop I waited so long for, but when Steph came home from school at 2:30 and woke me up I knew it wasn't going to work. I cancelled the crop, rescheduling for October (and apologizing to EVERYONE)made some hot lemonade with honey, wrapped up in a billion blankets and went back to bed.

For the next 36 hours I was took my Motrin, drank my hot lemonade and laid there. It hurt to move, hurt to think, and hurt to breathe. Fortunately I have an incredible husband that took Steph to girl scouts, got Chris from the teen center, did the library run, bought food, did dishes and ran every bit of laundry in the house. I am feeling much better today, but have to wonder how long it will take before the other three are sick.

**Side Note, Lyle said he should have taken a picture of me in my misery to post on the blog. Fortunately he didn't think of it until this morning when it was too late, so none of you have to be subjected to the horror of a sick Heather :)

Wobble Away!

Last night Sinlaku wobbled. He wobbled enough to change paths. He is now expected to go between Okinawa and Taiwan. And he slowed down a bit so his wind and rain won't be bothersome until Sunday or Monday. Good news for me and the gang I have coming to scrap with me tomorrow night.

I have to run to the commissary to get some food for them!

Cyndy, I am hoping Ike is as accommodating to your family as Sinlaku was to mine!

Sinlaku

That is the name of the typhoon that is bearing down on us. I have put it's picture above. The forecasters expect it to pass over us between Friday and Saturday. Which is probably the WORST timing possible. I have spent 9 months here trying to find a decent scrapping group. Since I haven't found any I started one of my own and we were supposed to be meeting on FRIDAY!

I haven't cancelled it yet, I am waiting until Thursday to decide what to do.

For now here is Sinlaku's forecasted track. We are the island marked by the city Naha.

Bingo was a bust

I didn't win..... Rita didn't win..... But we still had a good time! Rita invited another lady chief to hang with us. She was a riot, the posse in ND would have loved her! There was bingo drama on a couple of the games, which made the afternoon even more fun for the 3 of us. We talked about getting a Bunco group going, we will have to see how that pans out.

Yesterday I took the kids and went Yen shopping, Lyle went to hit some golf balls on the driving range. I wandered in the yen store so long, Chris finally came up to me and said "It's 3:30 and we still need to buy groceries". Both of them had had enough, and were ready to leave. I will need to go alone next time :)

Where have I been?

Okay, my husband yelled in from the kitchen as said "You haven't updated your blog in a while"..... All I can say is, Don't you live here? Can't you see what we have done for the last week? Anyway, he made me feel guilty for not letting all of you know what's happening over here in the WestPac.

Over Labor day weekend we didn't do much of anything. We went to a promotion party for the guy that made SMSGT and made our token appearance. We stayed long enough to be social then hightailed it home. I think though the BBQ was bad, because I felt yucky for 3 days after that

On Labor Day, we took the kids out for more clothes. Did I tell you about UniQLo? We have seen this store everytime we went to the big 100Yen store, but never stopped in to take a look. Lyle and I peaked in there on Friday and knew the kids would like the clothes there, so we took them. It was like Old Navy, but better because the more you buy the lower the prices get :) We got 7 shirts for the kids for 6700 yen (less than $67)! Lyle then took us all home and made me a birthday dinner, a day early.

Tuesday was my 38th Birthday. I don't know why but 38 seems like a turning point in the aging process. I guess we all have that "magic" number that we don't want to be. For me it is 38, I am sure I will look back and talk about how young 38 is, but for now I feel old. Chris and I each had dr appointments in the afternoon then Lyle took me to members night at the club.

Unfortunately, I had the date wrong and member's night was on Wednesday. We had already fed the kids so we went home for grilled cheese and soup.

Wednesday we went to Member's night and won a Three Stooges lunch pail filled with 3 collection DVD's, a Whoopee Cushion and a hand buzzer. The kids want the pranks, I have hidden them away so they don't go to school :)

Thursday Chris had an ortho appointment. On our way home we stopped to check the mail. Whenever we get the mail I put my ID card in my pocket in case we get a package. We did get a package (Creative Memories box) but somewhere between claiming my package and driving home I lost my ID card. This is the first time in 19 years I couldn't find my ID. Lyle and I walked the route to the mailbox, checked the parking lot and walked home... No ID. Called security forces...NO ID. So Friday morning I was at the Post office when the window opened at 9. All I said to the guy at the window was "I was here yesterday and had my ID" and he pulled it out of his cash drawer! Now I can still say I haven't lost an ID card in 19 years, just misplaced it!

Friday night Stephanie had her first Girl Scout meeting as a Cadet, and Chris had his first band event, playing at the homecoming football game. Chris is in marching band this year, but they haven't had any time to practice marching so they sat in the stands to play.

Today is Saturday and I am going to go play Bingo with Rita at the club, it is $50,000 Bingo night! Wish me luck!