Whirlwind

Life is pretty crazy when you find out you are moving with a little over a month to get ready for it. Each day we try to tackle another one of the logistics of moving from one foreign country to another. My days have been so busy that I have to stop at times to do the breathing exercises that I used to teach the teens in tobacco cessation. Since so much has happened in the last few weeks, I will use this post as a brief recap.

On November 18, we went to Tokyo Disneyland. Luckily this outing was already planned before the whole moving thing came up. My good friend Jodi Jensen watched Isaac the whole day, so we just had Cailey and Bryant. The kids are the perfect age for Disneyland.

Cailey's favorite ride was Pooh's honey hunt.
Bryant loved the Buzz lightyear ride.

On Saturday the 29th we did our Thanksgiving dinner with the Jensen's. They invited us to their house along with another family that they are good friends with that live a couple of hours from here. Our kids ended up getting along really well with their kids and the Jensen's have 4 boys (ages 8-15) that my kids just love. We ate dinner in the early afternoon and kept eating and talking until around 4:00 (isn't that the great thing about Thanksgiving?!). We went on a walk around Minato Mieru park and Yamashita park which are both famous parks right on the ocean in Yokohama (the Jensens live about 5 minutes from these parks). After the walk we went back and played games. Is was such a fun day and a break from all the stress that I really needed.

Sunday was our primary sacrament meeting program. Somehow the kids always pull it off. Two Sundays before I was not sure it would go too well. After an emergency primary presidency meeting and lots of prayers, they did a great job. There were even many tears during the last song (I am a Child of God). Here is a picture of the Yamate ward primary.

The next day, December 1, I did my final cooking/english class with the yochien moms in my neighborhood. At their request we baked a whole chicken and I showed them how to make gravy from the juices and mashed potatoes. Luckily, this meal was second nature to me thanks to my mom and dad. They absolutely loved it. Since it was our last class, all of the women also brought a typical japanese side dish to share with me. We went around and they each had to explain to me how they made it in English. They also gave me a really nice cookbook of Japanese dishes with English translation and lots of pictures (I think Josh would be jealous). I am going to miss these ladies so much.

One last outing to tell about. This was yesterday. My friend Jodi knows a lot of the English speaking members in Tokyo because she teaches seminary to her oldest boy and meets with some of the moms in the Tokyo wards for support. One of her friends took us to a dish shop that was really a warehouse with some of the coolest Japanese dishes that I have ever seen. I now have a setting for six of all the Japanese dishes I need for a typical meal. With my new cookbook from my friends, I am all ready to host a Japanese dinner. Anyone want to try? Another fun thing about this outing was the company. There were 7 of us American Mormon gaijins shopping and having lunch together. Among the women were Sister Evans and Sister Stevenson (wives of the area presidency). Jodi knows sister Evans really well from when they lived in Nagoya years ago. The Evans were mission presidents and in the Jensen's ward. Needless to say, these were all very nice women, and we had a great time.

More change...

If you haven't heard the news yet, we have updated info on our next move. We will now be moving from Japan at the end of December and heading to Mexico sometime in January. The plan is to be in Utah with our families for the holidays and at the beginning of the year Shane and I will go to Los Mochis to look for our housing. Shane will stay and begin work there January 5th and I will return to Utah until we can all move down. We found this out about a week ago and in the meantime we have been trying to work through a lot of details about the move. I am sad to leave Japan so soon, but very excited to get to be home for Christmas.

Isaac is one!

Here are a few pics from Isaac's first birthday. He sure is a fun boy. I can't believe a year has passed already. This also means that I have been doing this blog for a year now because I started it right before he was born (he was a week late so I had to do SOMETHING with all that time). Time flies.

A visit from Aya

When we first moved to Japan (Sendai) I would frequently go on long walks around the neighborhoods where we lived. I would put Cailey and Bryant (then 2 1/2 and 9 months old) in our double stroller and go. On a day in October I was on one of these walks and on this day my quest was to find all the parks within walking distance of our home. I found a park that I didn't know about up a street that I had never walked on before. When we got there the kids wanted to get out and play. At this point we had only lived in Japan for about a month and I only knew about 10 words in Japanese. The only other people at the park were a little girl and her mom. The little girl (Shiho) and Cailey started playing together. Shiho's mom, Aya, started talking to me. I know that it was not a coincidence that we met there that day. Aya became one of my best friends while we lived in Sendai, we got together with them at least once a week. I just love Aya so much. Last April Aya's husband got transfered to Saitama which is also near Tokyo. Last weekend we were finally able to get together. Aya now has another little girl, Maho. We had such a good time with them.

This is Mitsuzawa park, 5 minutes from our house. Cailey and Shiho played so well together. It was really fun to see them playing together, both a bit older and Cailey now fluent in Japanese.

Eikaiwa/Cooking Class

I mentioned before that I started teaching English again to some of the moms in the yochien walking group. We decided it should involve cooking as well. We held our second class on October 15, and made 2 kinds of homemade pasta, spinach fettucine and ravioli. We always have a really good time together.
Of course we also had an English lesson. Oh, and it's ginger ale...I know you were wondering.

Kodomo no Kuni (Children's Land)

On October 13th (monday) Shane had work off because of some Japanese holiday and so we decided to make the most of the beautiful fall day. We took the kids to a place in Yokohama called Kodomo no Kuni (Children's land). It is a place that is, well...a land completely dedicated to children. It is run by the government and acres and acres of land was set aside for it years ago. It is not like Disneyland, more like the biggest park you've ever seen.

Right after you go through the park entrance a huge black top surface goes up a hill. Sidewalk chalk is in basins for the kids to draw on it, and so EVERY inch is covered in pictures drawn by the kids.

This big blow up bounce house is "Anpanman". He is a very popular cartoon character among the kids here. Bryant had a great time jumping in it.

Isaac and dad hanging out.

Cailey is in something that you go in on one side and climb through it until you come out on the other side.

We lost Bryant inside this next one for about a half an hour. It is kind of like a maze inside. You can climb around and go on different levels. He was having a great time, but we couldn't fit inside to go look for him. Definitely a kid's paradise.

This next picture I took mostly for the benefit of my friend Katie Shepard...just one of those things you will only find in Japan, a spinning onigiri (rice ball with seaweed on it. It's like the peanut butter sandwich of Japan, a staple).

A big roller slide that looked way funner than it actually was.

The cat's out of the bag...

"Where will we be a year from now?" That is a conversation that Shane and I have had many times in our marriage. This past year the topic has come up quite a bit. Will we still be in Japan? Will we be back in Tucson? Michigan? Mexico? Right now it is looking like our next home will be in Los Mochis, Mexico. (Don't ask why I took a picture of my computer screen instead of just embedding the image...I tried and gave up, so do a google map search yourself if you want to see it better!)

Shane just got back from a long business trip and the last week of it he was in Los Mochis. His boss had brought up the possibility of us going there next a few months ago. This was a great opportunity for Shane to "feel it out" since he had never been there before. While he was there someone from HR took him around and showed him Los Mochis. The picture below is of Walmart and Sam's club. After being without those stores for this long, Shane was already sold on the living there.
Here is a private preschool that Bryant could attend.

This is the school that Cailey would go to. It is a private Catholic school that is bilingual. Half the day in English and half in Spanish. Our poor kids are going to be so confused...another language! (sorry kids)

A nice house in one of the communities we could live in (not the house, the community).

So if this really does pan out, we will probably be here in Japan until sometime in March. That is when the school year ends here and when our rental contract on the house we live in ends. We may be in Tucson for a month or two and then down to Los Mochis. How do I feel about this? I really have mixed emotions. I have absolutely loved living in Japan. It has been a great experience. I will be sad to leave, yet happy to at least be on the same continent (and the same time zone, no more jet lag Yeah!!) as our families. I am excited to be able to use the spanish that I learned on my mission again. I am a bit nervous about the crime, drugs and kidnappings. But, we feel good about going there, so everything will work out.