Halloween

When we first arrived in Okinawa the kids asked all sorts of questions. Mostly about family traditions that were going to have to change. Like the Christmas tree- we used a miniature green tree in a pot. That will be our Okinawa Christmas tradition. For Stephanie, her concern was carving pumpkins. In North Dakota, you could get a pumpkin anywhere, but what about Okinawa? My friend Heidi reassured us that they bring pumpkins in for Halloween, but by then we had already joked about having to carve something different- like a pineapple.

This whole conversation came back to me last night as I was about to cut up a fresh pineapple to go with out dinner:


This is what I started with.









Gave it a haircut




cut a few holes for a face (next time I need a bigger pineapple).


Then light it up!

Scary Hot?

While out and about on Saturday, the kids and I stopped to shop at a local grocery. As you all know this has become one of our favorite pastimes and we always leave with something new to try.

This time we actually went with a purpose, to buy ourselves an ice cream. I think mine won the taste test hands down(sorry no pics). It was a crepe, filled with chocolate mousse type ice cream, then frozen into a flattened wedge. I will be buying that again, and I will get a picture of it for you :)

After choosing our desserts, we were walking to the register when we saw these:

a little debate about which one to get, we decided on both. We were a little concerned that the pictures on the package might now be for halloween. After closer inspection you can see the word Habanero in flames above the picture. We tried them while playing Monopoly that night. The taste was similar to a bugle snack, followed by some serious hot. The skull package was definitely hotter than the Habanero package. Even tho they were snack sized bags, over half of each is still in my cupboard!

Can you remember

As often happens in my family a conversation that starts on one subject often leads to something completely different. That happened a week or so ago when we were eating dinner. The subject of Mr Yuk came up. Suprisingly (or maybe not) Lyle could remember most of the words to the Mr Yuk song. Can you?


I was originally looking for "They're coming to take me away", which is what my dad used to sing when my friends were over. Do a search on Youtube for that one if you aren't familiar with it. The reason I was looking for that particular song is a post for another day :)

Mama's got a brand new bag

There are two things I REALLY hate shopping for: Shoes and purses.

I hate buying shoes because of my inherited feet (thanks mom!) Short and wide, with a high instep, makes for very hard to find sizing. But when I do find a pair I like I am in heaven!

I hate buying purses because they are all SOOOOO different, but none of them ever have exactly what I need: space to carry a wallet, keys, change purse, pens, etc as well as comfort and a casual look. I don't like those purses that scream LOOK AT MY BAG!

With that said, I was finally forced to get a new purse. My old blue purse lost it's handles about 2 months ago. I put the shoulder strap that came with it back on, but it did look a little sad. Lyle kept telling me to buy a new one, but that would mean shopping for a purse, which I already said I hate to do.

This weekend Rita looked at my purse and asked, "What is that?" "My purse" I said and she just shook her head. She then told me she had the perfect bag for me in her stash. She stocked up on "almost famous" purses while in Korea, and she gave one to me. She was right, it was perfect for me, and I even had a wallet in my closet that matched! Of course I owe Rita dinner, or dessert or a bottle of her favorite wine (the things I like to buy!) for giving me the perfect gift!

Called to serve

I received a Jury summons in the mail today from the US District Court in Bismarck North Dakota. The pamphlet that came with my summons says I will receive $40 per day if I am selected. They will also pay my hotel($109/night) and they will give me money for transportation. The flier says 50 1/2 cents per mile for the round trip, which according to Ask.com is 13,096 miles. That comes to $6613.48. Since I know I can buy a ticket back to the States for under $1500 I would gladly take their money! Heck I might even bump myself into first class :)

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mom's birthday! I have that one written on my brain! Still have not located my birthday list, but my brother was kind enough to share his. I should be caught back up on family birthdays soon (on my side of the family anyway).

Whirlwind Weekend

This weekend was a VERY busy one and the fact that Lyle was leaving today (Tuesday) made it go by even faster.

Friday was Stephanie's Girl Scout rededication. She is thrilled to be a cadet wearing the a tan vest. Here she is with her leader and her troop:

Her leader gave each of the girls a name tag with their name in English and has prepaid the engraver so they can have their names in Kanji added. Stephanie has already gotten her name transcribed by a friend from church so we can take it to be engraved.

Saturday was the Chief's Group Monte Carlo Night. I didn't take the cameras (less incriminating evidence) but we had a blast. Lyle and I started the night with $3000 each in "cash" and ended with a total just over $29,000. It was enough to win one of the prizes (we got a small vase).

Sunday we took the kids to Okinawa Deal or No Deal. This is just like the TV show (top prize $5000) but for us military folks here on island. We didn't win a chance on stage but Lyle did win a shirt! We were all hoarse from yelling by the end of the night. Chris and Steph loved it!

Monday was our big day out. Since there was no school or work we packed up early and went out to explore a little more of the island. Our only destination a new shopping mall and maybe some lunch. We ended up finding two new shopping spots to explore and had our best meal on island so far!

I had read about Marino's on OkinawaHai and added it to my mental list of things I wanted to do over the next 4 years. I was thrilled when we stopped at the Main City San-A shopping plaza and saw it right there in front! After wandering the mall for an hour we went over to get some lunch.
I will let you enjoy the pictures before telling you about our experience:

We ordered a set meal for 4 that included a little of everything on their menu, and when I say EVERYTHING I mean it! We started off with a huge bowl of vegetable soup. Stephanie ate at least 3 bowls! Followed by a ceasar salad and cheese fondue. After the fondue our waitress brought out a small pizza made of just bread, tomato sauce, basil and cheese. We were already full, but there was more to come! A waitress rolled this stand up to our table that had a giant wheel of Parmesan cheese and a chafing dish on it. She put freshly cooked pasta into a pan, added some sauce and an egg. Cooked it until it started to thicken, then she put all of the pasta into a hollow in the cheese. She stirred it some more, then put it into a serving dish. When I tasted it I was in heaven. Little pieces of bacon, fresh pasta and a creamy parmesan sauce! Lyle and I both kept making "ummm" noises as we ate. Then when we thought we had had everything on our little menu our waitress brought out a dish of lasagna. It was not typical lasagna, more like flat spinach noodles covered in cheese and creamy tomato sauce, but the few bites I had were very good. But wait, then comes dessert! EAch of us got to go up to the dessert bar and pick out 3 mini desserts each. There were so many to choose from! My favorite had to be the mini chocolate mousse cup. It ws in a glass slightly larger than a shot glass, but just as dangerous. It took us about an hour and a half to eat our lunch.

Afterward we all needed to walk, so we drove down to another shopping plaza. This was the most like an american mall we have found so far and was a nice way to work off some of lunch. I had to laugh at the manniquins tho:



We drove home so Chris could deliver his papers then took off for the beach to let the kids do a little swimming while Lyle and I relaxed on the sand while the sun set. Since none of us was really hungry (can you blame us?) we just stopped for ice cream. Caramel Macchiato McFlurry's from McDonalds.... YUMMY!

A new take on recycling

Long, Long ago my Grandma Grunewald taught me to crochet. I never made anything real, I just borrowed her yarn and hooks and played.

While blog hopping one day (one of my vices, anything to keep me from housework!) I happened on this site. I dug thru my craft books and found my knitting and crocheting for dummies book and brushed up on the basics.

Now, one week later, I have taken 71 (I know, I counted) commissary bags, turned them into "yarn"


and turned that ball of plastic into a new bag.


The only bags we have on island are white (or opaque-clear) so I can't make it with pretty stripes, but as soon as I have enough bags I am definitely making another :)

Maybe, if I ask nicely, Lyle will bring me back some blue Wal-mart bags from Vegas!

Happy Birthday to you?????

I know I have a few birthdays in October, but I lost my birthday list. I know I had it when we moved here. I remember putting it somewhere "safe". But now it is missing! Please, please if it is your birthday forgive me, if you have my list give it back!

Gimme a bee

That is what Chris thinks he looks like in his marching band uniform.

They had their first (and possible only) performance at homecoming on Friday night. We did get video, but the stands were loud so you wouldn't be able to hear much over the yelling. Kadena has never had a marching band before, this is the first year. Mr McGlynn, his band instructor, doesn't know if they will march again this year, but he is already making plans for a band camp this summer to prep for next year.

Dining Out - Japanese style

I know most of you have heard of Bento meals. The craze is sweeping America, but Japanese have been doing it forever. Ben means Convenience and to means Set, so what you end up with is a convenience set of food. Bento's can be found at many restraunts, every Family Mart, and all grocery stores. Even the product mart I go to have a section of Bento box meals. Since I can't read Japanese it is always a guessing game as to what we end up with. A lady I met at my last Market day (her name is Spring, hence the conversation) said she had been buying a specific meal for years, they have been here 5. Just recently she befriended a local, and while out for lunch she got her normal bento box. She asked her friend to tell her what it was and was suprised to learn it was Gizzards.

We took the kids for dinner this last week, but we couldn't decided on a real restraunt. We all wanted something different, so we decided to hit the San-A grocery. Since I already had Sesame Noodles at home (Steph's favorite school lunch) we built an asian feast to go with them. Below is what we got:

Picture one is my Sesame Noodles, these are served cold. Stephanie likes taking a small container of these to school for her lunch. Give her some Edamame to go with it and she is in heaven.

Picture two is Onigiri. Onigiri is translated "take hold of with your hands". There are many different Onigiri. Steph likes it with plain rice wrapped in seaweed. Unfortunately she doesn't read Japanese either and what she ended up with was Salmon (we think) with some sort of black sauce. She braved a few bites before deciding she prefers the plain ones.

Picture three are the meat buns Lyle and I have tried before. The bread is so soft it almost melts in your mouth. One of these was barbecue, the other was pizza.

Picture four were Chris's picks. Anything on a stick has to be good, right? Turns out the stick food was pork and onions, skewered shishkebab style, then wrapped in bread crumbs and deep fried. They were very good! The sandwich behind them in the picture was spam and egg, wrapped in bread crumbs and fried. Also very good!

Picture five was Lyle's sushi choice. We have gotten braver with our sushi selection and I think we are almost ready to go to a real restraunt to get it. We have no clue what the rolled sushi was, except tasty :) The "breaded" sushi is actually white rice wrapped in a layer of sweetened egg. It tastes almost dessert-like and has become a family favorite.

Picture 6 was another Onigiri. But this one was cut in half so we could see what it contained. It looked like spam and egg so we bought it. We were suprised to find a layer of tuna salad between the spam and egg. It was an odd flavor combo, but it grew on me.

Finally picture 7. I put this last because it is dessert, but honestly we ate these first! The best, by far, was the raspberry pastry. It tasted much like a dessert my mom used to make with cream cheese, raspeberries and jello. The other two were typical eclairs, except the Japanese don't use a lot of sugar, so they weren't nearly as sweet as you might expect.

Our dinner cost less that $20 and we all ate WAY more than we should have! This, to me, is the best part of living overseas. These are foods that my kids (and hubby)never would have tried had we not come here!

Chris' Trombone performance

As promised... Chris playing trombone at church.Thank you Stephanie for the videography and Lyle for figuring out how to get it from the Digital Video Camera onto the computer :)