Best husband/Daddy ever!

I just had to write about how cool my husband is. The other day I was in the PX gazing at the Godiva chocolates while in the checkout line, but having no time with 3 crazy kids to actually see if they had the kind I like. That night, without having told Rob anything about my encounter at the PX, he brought me this box of my favorite chocolates home. It was wonderful and so unexpected. Rob repeatedly reads my mind like this. I don't know how he does it, but he does.

I asked the kids to draw a picture for Rob for when he leaves. I said to draw something that reminds them of their dad. Noah said this is a picture of Rob praying because he likes to pray. There are also a gazillion hearts because he wants him to know how much he loves him while he's gone. The big guy in the middle is Super Daddy (like the "S" in Superman, but a "D" for Daddy instead). He's the best dad!

Did I mention he's also a super athlete? He loves being active and loves running. There are a couple of guys who are into cycling and have roped him in. He already had a nice bike from his "commute" in Cleveland and Pendleton, but now he's road racing. Saturday they rode almost 60 miles! Can you believe it? He was hurting pretty bad as evidenced in this photo. It was pouring rain the whole trip, but he is a trooper. I love that he takes care of his body and likes to work out. I also like that he has an outlet for all his extra energy and is finding a hobby. I love you, Babe!

Dog tags, scissors and our tree

Rob doesn't want me to say anything about the specifics of his deployment, but something hit me the other day. He had to get dog tags. He doesn't normally wear them. Okay, so you may say "so what?"...he's in the military. That's not a big deal. But, why do you wear dog tags? So they can identify a wounded or dead body! That kinda freaked me out. Does that mean there is a chance of that where he is going? Just thought I'd share a thought on my mind today. I'm sure he'll be perfectly fine. (The scratched out part is his SS#).

The kids have been asking me to buy them some scissors so I finally did. So what does Noah do straight up? He decides it would be a good idea to try out the sharpness of them by cutting his tongue. What was he thinking? Of course he was bleeding all over. His tongue is kinda split like a snake now.

We have a wonderful tree in our backyard that the kids love to climb on. Ben and Issy can't get up there on their own and Noah is perfectly capable once he is up there. Noah and our neighbor Max spend many an afternoon playing Tarzan in that tree. We put Issy and Ben up there for this shot and they are happy as clams to be up in their world for a minute. I'm glad Noah has a place to climb because he is a little monkey.

My day off

At our orientation when we got to the island I received a voucher for 10 hours of babysitting at the childcare center on base. That means I get a day off! So I took my day off today.

I did some family history work in the morning and then got my nails done (mostly for a ball we have this weekend).

I headed down to the Peace Prayer Park about an hour away. This is a park dedicated to the Battle of Okinawa where 200,000 lives were lost in this battle alone (and some people think the death count is high with the current war). It was really nice...kind of a cross between the Vietnam Memorial and the Holocaust Museum. However, most things were in Japanese and the stuff that was translated into English wasn't that interesting to me. I wish more stuff had been translated. These pics are atop a tower overlooking the ocean where a lot of the fighting took place.




After skipping lunch and driving 2 hours for something that turned out to be a disappointment to me, I returned back to base where I met up with Rob and we tried to kill time looking at a furniture store until we picked the kids up. After we ate dinner I stepped on a rusty nail outside and so our evening walk was down to the hospital to get a tetnus shot. My day ended up being not as fun as I wanted (although I did get a little bit of shopping in), but I still liked my day off. What would you do with a day off (w/o husbands or kids?)


This pic is for my mom. This is the new sewing table I was telling you about. It is from India and I bought it from a furniture store on base.

Date night

Rob and I got to go on another date night last night. We tried a place called Crocodile's. Rob wanted to go there because of this cool waterfall and crab that is on the outside. Sadly, we thought it was over priced and the food was only so so. The abiance was wonderful, though. We had these lovely birds in a glass cage right by our table that bickered like an old couple the whole time. We probably won't go back again but since we took a bunch of pics I thought I should blog about it.


No spoons for soup here.

No forks, either. Okay so I understand that they use chopsticks. I'm getting much better at them. However, I thought it was funny that they gave me a steak knife to cut my chicken, but no fork. I had to stab the chicken with a chopstick and then slice. Weird.

Saturday morning

Rob went biking with the other LDS guys from our cul de sac on Saturday morning. 32 miles to some beaches and points and pretty spots I'm sure. I'm glad he's getting out and finding some hobbies. He worked too much in California.

I went to a Japanese farmer's market when he got home. Fruits and veggies are outrageously priced at the commissary (the grocery store on base). They had peppers and cherries and potatoes and tomatoes and lots more...all for 100 yen per bag (about $1.00). They also had a meat market with some gross things (like these pig feet). When I brought the fruits and veggies home Ben ate the whole box of cherry tomatoes and Issy ate the whole box of cherries. Guess I better buy more next time!

Old friends become new friends

It's been super fun getting to know the Peterson's all over again. Our kids are constantly playing together. They run back and forth between each other's houses and have the best time imagining together. I had to snap a quick shot of all the munchkins.

My quirky little Ben

Ben is such a cool kid. He is so unlike me that I have a hard time relating to him sometimes. He is cool nonetheless. He can go from pajamas, rainboots and swim goggles with a toy knife in the boots happily stabbing all things in his path to a complete meltdown the next (as happened in this picture while I was on the phone with my mom). His highs are high and his lows are low, but the spectrum is lessening as he gets older.

The real reason for this post is to share his quirky little habit with you. Ben loves money. He knows which coin is which and what presidents are on them. He has a fondness for Washington (who wouldn't...he's worth $.25!) He is found to have a coin in his hand most hours of the day. Sometimes his hand is green from holding it all day. He sleeps with money in his hand. Yesterday at the playground he wanted to do the monkey bars. Fine. So I help his onto the first rung and he starts struggling. It seems he doesn't even want to put the money in his pocket to do the monkey bars. Crazy kid. Maybe we have a future investment banker or accountant or Wall Street broker on our hands.