My Fisherman

Lyle got up at 3 am on Saturday to go deep sea fishing with some guys from work. Yes, 3 am, voluntarily (in fact he paid for the privelage LOL). Here is the gang he left with:
The upside to leaving that early is watching the sun come up over the island. Something we never see here at home since we are on the sun down side of Okinawa. Lyle caught a few good shots of the early morning sun.

The "boys" had a long day of fishing. They actually hooked a Marlin, but it broke the line by going under the boat. The captain estimated it to be close to 300 pounds, the largest he had ever seen hooked. Of course, he gets paid to say stuff like that :) Lyle caught 5 fish but only brought home two of them. The largest of which was 19 inches long. He filleted it, which took a bit since we left all of our fillet knives at the lake in Michigan, and we saved it for Sunday's dinner. We grilled it up with a little Old Bay, Lemon and olive oil. It was incredible!

Retirement?? Not yet

When Lyle joined the Air Force he had two goals: Make master sergeant by 17 years and retire at 20 years service.

He met his first goal early but the second goal changed somewhere along the way. That is how we ended up in Japan, by promising to stay in until 2012 (23 years). But just to get the imagination train going, Lyle reminded me that today is the day he is eligible to put in his paperwork for retirement. Where have the last 19 years gone?

It's the little things

Today is a cool 81 degrees. Cool because it is overcast and windy from the Typoon that passed us by. This type of day calls for a good book (I love murder mysteries!) and a cup of something warm. I found a new tea at the commissary, and it is yummy. I bet it would be good over ice when the sun comes back.

Okinawa World

After not venturing out into Okinawa for a few weeks, I knew we HAD to get out. We decided on a visit to Okinawa World on the south end of the island. Steph had already been with her school once, but the rest of us wanted to check it out.

Our first stop was Okinawa Cave. This is by far the nicest cave tour we have been on. The stalactites and stalagmites are huge, the pools of water are fed by streams and actually have fish! Best of all-- no tour guide filling you with facts you don't really want to know.

After the cave, we wandered around the various shops, saw the fresh fruit farm, and ate Taco Rice, Soba noodles and Curry for lunch. Once we were rested from the walk through the cave we were ready to face the snakes in the Snake Museum.

The highlight of the museum is the snake show. We watched a mogoose race a snake (seperate water tubes so no drama), watched the handler irritate a cobra and saw a real live Habu attack! I recorded it to share with all of you. The show is completely in Japanese and I only understood the words Habu, Mongoose, and Kudasai (please) so this is a guess, but the white balloon is filled with cold water and the pink balloon is filled with warm. To prove the point that the snake can't see, but will strike when a warm object comes close.

After we finished up at Okinawa World, we stopped for ice cream at our favorite spot, Blue Seal. Today I tried Honey ice cream. It was very, very good. And we even took a picture this time:

Then it was time to head home so Lyle could get dressed for his work thing tonight. My goal was to stamp, but the kids wanted Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies to take to church tomorrow so I am baking instead. Either way my inner Martha is satisfied :)

Full Friday

I woke up this morning with no real plans. Lyle had a squadron function for lunch so I had the whole day (with the kids). After getting home from the gym, I realized we (the kids and I) couldn't do a whole lot since Chris had over 200 weekly flyers to distribute to the neighborhood, and the dog needed a bath, so we stuck close to home.

I pulled out my stamping stuff, since it had been a while. I decided to try to use some of those items that have been hanging around a little too long. I only got 5 cards made, but since Lyle has a dinner function tomorrow night, I will get to do some more.

For dinner tonight I decided to try the stir fry recipe I found for that Winter Melon I bought. Just in case, I also bought soba noodles so we wouldn't starve :) Cooked, the winter melon doesn't really have a taste kind of like a soft water chestnut. Raw, it tastes like the white part of a watermelon rind. Either way no one thought it was worth buying again and the kids were happy to have soba noodles.

After dinner, since it is Friday, Lyle and I went for a longer than normal walk. We walked up the exercise trail, named the Habu Trail. I was a little nervous since it was getting dark, and the trail is unlit (and near the jungle). We made it off the trail without an incident and stopped to get ice cream at the Baskin Robbins. Hey, we did just walk up hill for over 3 miles, we deserve it! While walking home from BR a car sped past us, braked, and reversed. We weren't sure what they were doing until we heard the bump and thud. Then we saw the Habu Snake! Our first Habu snake, in the middle of the road, right on our normal walking route! It was not huge at 2-2 1/2 feet, but it was enough to make us jumpy for the rest of the walk home.

Now it is time to curl up on the couch and relax for the evening. See you all tomorrow!

Bad Blogger

I haven't signed into my blog since Saturday morning! Not even to update my miles, which are growing thanks to the humidity and my husband. The humidity because it has driven me back into the gym and the miles rack up quicker on the elliptical and my husband, since he has been taking me (and Haru) for a nightly 2 mile walk.

Saturday was a nice day. I invited Rita over for a little scrapping and dinner. We hung out for the afternoon, while Lyle went golfing then had a nice grilled chicken, salad, bread and rice.

Sunday was spent shopping and catching up around the house.

Monday we went to the library. Our library here has a TON of non-fiction books, but is lacking when it comes to novels. Fortunately, they have a book exchange shelf that I use everytime we visit. This time I hit paydirt! Three of the books on my to read list, all in hardback! so I stuck them in my reusable shopping bag, went to the checkout with the kids, then left. Tried to anyway. You know those detectors they have by the doors to keep people from walking out with the books? I set those off. Turns out one of my exhange books still has a sensor in it from the Dallas TX Library it was taken from! After the librarian determined I wasn't a major criminal (can you see me in Japanese Prison?) he said I could just keep the book and not to bring it back.

Tuesday I ran the normal errands, but didn't have time for the produce store so the kids and I headed out there today. I bought what looks to be a watermelon, but I couldn't tell from the signs. I looked up the Kanji from the sticker and deciphered the word Tougan, which is Japanese for Winter Melon. I found a recipe to use it in stir fry we might try tomorrow or Friday.

On our way home I stopped at one of the many vending machines to buy us each a drink. You cannot go more than a block without seeing a few of these machines, even out in the farm areas! Chris got apple juice, Steph bought tea, but I tried something new:

Aloe and White Grape Juice. I didn't know the picture of the cubes on the front meant there were chunks of aloe in the drink, so I was a bit suprised at first. It felt like jell-o cubes in my mouth, but was suprisingly nice tasting.

The Strangers

Since the kids had their own plans on Friday, Lyle and I decided to go to the movies and see "The Strangers". For those that haven't seen the previews it is a scary movie. In fact Lyle and I agree that it was the best scary movie we have seen in a VERY long time. I didn't let go of his hand throughout the whole movie (or he wouldn't let go of mine, LOL). Since it opens with the lines "Based on actual events" I had to do some research after I got home. Mostly to set my mind at easy that the "bad guys" haven't moved to Okinawa :)

While looking up the names and dates shown on the movie screen I found that there was no murder of Kristin McKay or James Hoyt on February, 11 2005 but there was a grisly murder in a remote cabin on April 11, 1981 (check out http://www.cabin28.com/).

I also found a commentary from the director on the official website (http://www.thestrangers.net/):

"As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, when our parents were out, someone knocked on the front door, and my little sister answered it. At the door were some poeple asking for somebody that didn't live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses. In The Strangers, the fact that someone is home does not deter the people who have knocked on the door; it's the reverse."

Either way, it is a scary movie I would recommend to any horror lover!

Steph's Bday Recap

Stephanie spent the afternoon swimming with Chris, Darien and Diana. I dropped them all off around noon at the pool and told them to give me a call when they wanted to get picked up. I had a very nice, relaxing, quiet afternoon. At 4:00 I took the dry laundry upstairs and found the phone, on my bed, off the hook. No wonder they hadn't called yet!

I hung up the phone and hurried over to the pool to pick them up, ready or not. They were all sitting on the curb outside the pool and had been there for almost an hour, trying to call me every few minutes! I took Darien and Diana back to their room, and took my two home. Lyle came home shortly after saying he tried to call a few times and it just rang. I told him about the phone fiasco, but he said he had JUST tried to call and it still wasn't working. I checked the phone and sure enough, our line was dead until he could call the communications office in the morning.

We headed off to go to dinner. Stephanie had chosen Mike's Italian Garden for her Birthday dinner. Unfortunately, Mike's is closed on Tuesday. After a few minutes in the parking lot she decided to go to Platter's a 50's style diner on base. Platter's is right next to the theater so we saw that Get Smart was playing in less than an hour. We ate quick then got our seats. It was pretty funny, we all left laughing.

We had a giant cookie waiting back home (Steph didn't want cake) and she had some presents to open. Our gift hadn't arrived yet (Wal-mart shipping takes forever when you need your order), but Stephanie had gifts from Chris ( art supplies) and envelopes from family back in the states.

Overall, she said she had a good day, and that is what counts!

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Today is Stephanie's Eleventh birthday! I spent a few minutes (okay an hour) looking for pictures of her first 11 years to post and it struck me how fast time goes by. Over her lifetime Stephanie has lived in 7 different homes in 3 different states and 2 different countries, and she isn't done yet! She is still asleep so I don't have a picture of her at 11, but there will be one by the end of the day today.

When in Japan...

At every grocery store, corner market and restaurant we have seen (and tried) balls of rice with different seasonings or fillings in them. We all like them, so when I saw a package of seasoning packets at the 100 Yen Store I bought it.

The instructions were in japanese, but I read between the Kanji and deciphered to read "One packet mixed into 180 grams of cooked rice" Of course, we have no idea what the "flavors" are so I asked the kids, "Green, Yellow or Purple". They chose green, which had a picture of what could be a leaf, or an onion... not really sure. I learned that 180 grams is about 6 ounces (give or take), mixed it up and using plastic wrap formed 4 little rice snacks. To be authentic, they should be in a triangle. I will be buying a rice form next time I am at the Yen Store

I served them up, we each tried one, then wished I had made more :) There was enough left over rice after dinner to mix up one more batch, this time using the purple packet. The purple packet had a picture of berries, or beets, or maybe the purple sweet potato. I guess we will find out when we eat them with lunch today. I am going to try to remember to take the package with me to have one of our Japanese friends at church tell me what the flavors are supposed to be.

Bingo!

On Saturday, Lyle had to go help with the squadron car wash, so the kids and I went to family bingo at the community center. We have played here a couple times before and always had a good time.

Chris was the lucky one this trip. He won straight bingo in only 14 numbers ($25) and was one number away on the coverall for $150! After Bingo he headed right to the BX to spend his "free money". Maybe I should have made him pay me for the card??

Pineapple

I went to the local farmer's market today. I love that place! I enjoy just walking around absorbing the sights and sounds and figuring out what I should take home with me.

Today I bought tomatoes, asparagus, local bell peppers (they are about the size of limes), a korean yellow melon, some fresh rosemary and a local pineapple, all for only 915 yen (about $9).

The pineapple isn't huge, it is pictured against my 15 inch plate, but it smelled incredible. I had to slice open the pineapple right away to serve with lunch. It was by far the freshest and sweetest pineapple I have ever tasted in my life. I wish I could send one to each of you. But since I can't, I will tease you with a picture:

Earthquake

Since I don't get real US news I have no idea if you heard that we had an earthquake yesterday.

It has been so long since I felt an earthquake it took a second for me to realize what was happening. The kids were out delivering papers, so I called Lyle to see if he felt it too. It was a 6.0 according to this web site:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.html
But nothing moved from it original location, no cupboards opened and no damage was done.

Chris and Stephanie didn't even notice since they were outside! Funny since both had been concerned about earthquakes since we got here!

Sunset

We spent Sunday afternoon at Torii Beach. This has quickly become our favorite swimming beach because of the gentle waves, soft sand, and shallow swimming area. The only drawback- no dogs. I took pictures as the sun was setting and thought you might enjoy watching.

What I have been doing-

Not much in the last few days, but we did see a movie - The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Very Very Good movie

And we have been playing the Wii. We got Boom Blox (made by Steven Spielberg) and we are all addicted. This is one of the best games we have played as a family in a while!

I have dreams of Stamping and Scrapbooking one of these days, I actually got my Power Layout box out today, but instead of working on layouts I spent my craft time getting the kids to journal their own albums. Chris finished 2005, Steph only has a few pages left. I on the other hand have quite a bit to do on the family album.

Only 55 days of summer left :)

Picture Cube

Today I took the kids (mine and Rita's) bowling. The base offers a "Summer Strike" program for the kids to get a free game of bowling and shoe rental every day of the summer. They ended up playing 3 games and ate lunch there too.

I am not much of a bowler, so I took all the supplies to work on a craft project I wanted to try:

A Photo Cube Puzzle

Jen PV made one of these towards the end of my ND cropping days and I liked it enough to file it away in my mental "to do someday" list. I found the cubes at the Yen store (6 cubes for 100 yen) so I bought them. I am going out shopping tomorrow and plan to buy more. It was a fun little project, but the instructions were a bit confusing. I had to move my pieces around a couple times to get it to work right.

I found the instructions here: http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/shows_cds/article/0,2045,DIY_15079_2502286,00.html

Just a hint, I made a little model using 8 dice and sticker strips to identify the 10 different sides. It helped A LOT!

Hooray!!!

While Lyle was home for lunch there was a knock at the door. Lyle said "It's for you" which made me wonder what he was up to.

I amswered the door to find Rita (and the kids)!!!!!

She came in on a civilian flight so she was a day earlier than I thought she would be. We spent the afternoon catching up, ate a spaghetti and meatball dinner, and let the kids play Wii.

Sorry, no pictures, by the time I thought of the camera Rita was dozing off in the chair :)

Now if only the rest of you would get orders.....

behind.... again

I know, I know, even my husband has been saying I haven't updated my blog in A WEEK! So it is time to play catch up.

I should start with last Sunday- After Chris's performance at church we came home, did house stuff then packed up to hit the beach and get dinner. Unfortunately, all the food joints at Torii Beach close at 7 pm (We got there just before 7). We let the kids play in the water anyway and said decided to stop at the base food court on our way home. Torii Beach is THE beach for sand glass, and the water is pretty calm so the kids could have a good time too. On our way out we saw a sight that made us miss ND- Sunflower fields- Three of them

On Monday, Steph's girl scout group met for dinner at Chili's and a movie. Chris and I tagged along for the movie portion since it was Kung Fu Panda. This movie is laugh out loud funny. Lyle wasn't able to go with us because of work, but I would see it again in a second!

Wednesday was Kid's Membership night at the club. There were games, clowns, prizes and dancing along with free dinner. Dinner was kid friendly spaghetti and hot dogs, but we all had a good time. Chris got called up to take part in a contest he has trained for all his life: Soda Chugging. He downed his whole can of Coke before anyone else even got half done! There was a split second we thought he might spray the audience, but he held it back and won a prize. Too bad I left the camera at home.

Saturday was our family outing day. I have wanted to go to a castle, any castle, standing or ruined, since we got here. Saturday was my day. We drove to Shuri Castle and spent the morning touring the grounds. The drive there was interesting:

You can't really tell from the pictures but this road is uphill for a few kilometers with a monorail track above us. It was a fun road, not too twisty or frightening (I have been a few of those already)

One of the things I find so amazing is how well the Japanese utilize the limited amount of space we have here. I see buildings like this one on every drive we take. There is a Key making shop in the lower part, and stairs on the back side that lead up to what I can only assume is a one room apartment on top.

Our morning at Shuri Castle:

The actual palace building has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. We were able to look through a glass floor to see the original foundation. While the outer walls have also been rebuilt you can see the difference in building materials from the original to the restoration. By far, the best part of this trip was the view:

There, a week wrapped up in a single post. I will try to do better this week.

76 Trombones

Okay only two.... and a piano. Chris played a trombone duet with the music director at church today during offering. Both Steph and I recorded it, but I only know how to upload from my camera, so forgive the shaky hand and the not so perfect sound.

Farmer's Market

I have been complaining about the produce the base commissary sells almost from the day we got here. The prices are high, even for "local" produce and the quality isn't very good, but the local grocery chains weren't much better for price so I thought I was stuck.

I found out I was wrong. Lyle and I ventured out to find a Farmer's Market that is only about 10 minutes from the base. The selection at this market is incredible and the prices are about half of what I had been paying. The vendors offer a huge variety of items including flowers and many local foods. Best of all they offer samples! We made a lunch of the items we found there and took home some cucumbers and tomatoes. The tomatoes are the smallest I have ever seen!

I will be making that my weekly stop and planning my menu around what I find there that looks good.

First day of Summer

This post is 3 days late, but since I had the pictures I figured I should finish it. Friday was the first day of summer vacation, leaving 74 days until school starts back up again. This is the first summer in 3 years that I haven't been working, I am sure I will survive. Haru is doing great. She gets angry when we have to put the collar on her. We only put it on when we aren't home, or at night while we are sleeping. She has been staying out of the kennel and doing so good that we are going to start letting her choose where she sleeps at night.
I got happy mail on Friday too. I had ordered a computer program to go along with my Cricut. I haven't had the opportunity to play with it yet so I will have to give you an update another day on how much I like it.
And to finish the first day of summer, I made the kids help me make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. I used Ghiradhelli chocolate and I don't think I can go back to Hershey's. They were (notice the past tense) AWESOME cookies. Credit goes to Chris for scooping all the cookies and watching the time in the oven. I love cookies, but hate waiting for the timer to go off every 9 minutes.

Priceless

Dog from Lost/Found ad FREE
Kennel and assorted toys $75
Vet appointment for getting Spayed $142
Finding out your dog was already spayed PRICELESS

That was my (and Haru's) experience today. I had asked the vet at the first appointment if they thought she had been spayed, I didn't notice an incision and neither did they. So I made the appointment and brought her in this morning, thankful she hadn't gone into heat over the last few months.

When I picked her up today, I paid my bill, then was brought back into the vet office to claim my dog. The vet came in first and asked where we got our dog. I told her she was a stray and we adopted her a few months ago. That's when she dropped the bomb that Haru had already been spayed, probably in Europe. She only had her ovaries removed in that surgery, a European technique. The vet said she took the rest of the works since Haru was already opened up.

I feel horrible for my poor puppy now, as she naps on her blankets, but am left to wonder about how she came to be with us. Is she a German dog? Italian? possibly a Russian spy? We will never know why her other owners didn't microchip her, or why they didn't look for her when she got lost. All I know is we lucked in to one of the best (and smartest) dogs I have ever met.

Okinawa Hai

One of my Okinawa friends, Heidi, led me to a great resource- www.okinawahai.com.
This website has information on just about anything on island from an American point of view. They even have turn by turn directions to everything!

After Saturday's trip out, I knew we needed to have something "real" to do for Sunday. I popped onto OkinawaHai and found a post about a new strip mall that had opened up, and according to the directions it wasn't that far from us. We loaded the kids into the car and took off.

Chris found something right away in the first shop we entered. He said this shirt "screamed Chris", Lyle and I agreed it screamed something, but he really wanted it and it was on clearance (who would've guessed) so we bought it for him.


We went through each shop one by one and let the kids waste some allowance in the Arcade. The arcade had slot machines and video poker set up in the far corner, the kids stayed away from those.

Our last stop was a grocery store. I could spend hours walking the Japanese grocery stores. I love the tiny packages of everything, the fun artwork and the cleanliness of it all. We bought a few little things to try. Next time we are eating lunch or dinner at one of the many restraunts that were there.

So if you find some time on your hands check out the site and let me know what you think!

Vegetable Ice Cream???

We spent Saturday evening driving the streets of Okinawa. We were really looking for a shopping area Lyle thought he saw. I know he saw something, but we couldn't find it again. But touring the side streets of Okinawa was a nice way to spend an evening. I know the group of men that were on one corner saw us enough to be able to pick us out of a line up (passed by at least 4 times!) After an hour or so of that we stopped for dinner. Since it was getting late we decided Ice Cream was an acceptable dinner.

Blue Seal is Okinawan Ice Cream at its finest. I tried Mango Madness this time (it was good and VERY mango-y), Lyle tried Goya. At the time we had no idea what Goya was, but it tasted pretty good. I have since located it on-line and found the following:

"Various prefectures (like a state) come to the Expo to promote food and crafts from their part of Japan. At the booth from Okinawa, a local vegetable called goya or bitter melon is used to make different products like tea and noodles."

The kids got the standard Chocolate Cookie and Mint Chocolate Chip. While standing in line to order our ice cream Lyle looked through the dinner menu. Intrigued by "Curry Fries" and "Spicy Fries" he ordered a side of each to go with our dessert. The curry fries were really good, spicy fries were like regular fries. Sorry no pics, I forgot to take the camera along for this journey.

forwarded mail

It amazes me every time we move; we ALWAYS lose touch with someone we need to stay in touch with, because mail doesn't get forwarded or a company refuses to update our address. I am also surprised by the things that continue to find their way to us.

Today there was only one lonely piece of mail in our PSC box. It was one of those things I will not need in the foreseeable future


As much as I would enjoy Father's day Bingo, even after the coupons they sent 6000 miles, it would still cost a little more than my budget allows.

The funniest part is that they have my current address on the flyer, so I will continue to get these, until they check their files and see I haven't attended Bingo in a while.

Cream Cheese Carrot Muffins

Tomorrow is the Ladies Bible Study and I am bringing snacks. Since it is a morning meeting I made something to go with coffee. These muffins are pretty good, I used 1/3 fat Cream Cheese and doubled the muffin ingredients since the filling makes way more than needed.
Ingredients
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can sliced carrot, drained
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup Sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Filling
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar

Directions
Place carrots in a food processor; cover and process until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and spices. In a small bowl, whisk the pureed carrots, eggs and oil; stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened.
Fill 12 greased muffin cups one-third full. In a small mixing bowl, beat the filling ingredients until smooth. Drop by tablespoonfuls into the center of each muffin. Top with remaining batter.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Yum!?

Lyle and I both had tried Korean Sushi while in ND (Kimbop), and I have had California Rolls before, but neither of us had true raw fish Sushi. Our commissary just opened up a Sushi Bar addition to the Deli, and in honor of being in Japan we have started trying some of what they have to offer.




We started last week with the familiar, California Rolls. The kids didn't care for them, but Lyle and I both enjoyed them. This week we tried Cream Cheese Rolls, made with raw (as in uncooked) tuna. They were okay, but we probably won't try them from the commissary again. I don't know if we will ever get brave enough for the eel rolls!

On a tastier note, today was the Women's Ministry Annual Cake auction. Since I left all my food friends in December, I have been looking for opportunities to cook for those that might appreciate it. So I prepared one of my favorites, Lemon Meringue Cake.

I was a little worried about how the meringue would like the humidity here, but it turned out pretty good. It sold for $22. The best part of this auction was that everyone cut open their cakes right away and shared with all. I tried like 6 different desserts, my favorite, Red Velvet Cake Balls. Chunks of Red Velvet Cake, dipped in frosting then coated in melted chocolate! I will be asking Heidi for her recipe!