Okinawa World

A nice Japanese man offered to take our picture, little did we know

another man was giving us bunny ears in the background!

Traditional Eisa Dancers

Gyokusendo Cave - the stalagmites and stalactites in this cave were unbelievable.
Some were as big as 20 meters high. The cave was enormous and we really enjoyed it.
It was also pretty neat to see live creatures as we ventured through.











The Snake and Mongoose Show
We started off watching a snake and mongoose race. The snake was a bit slow, the mongoose won. The girls were very brave and wanted to sit in front. We sat in back with the strollers. They had the infamous Habu and a Cobra. The last picture was our big moment. For those of you who know me well this picture will shock you. I must say my smile wasn't really a smile it was fear personified! The things we will do for our kids.. P.S. only in Oklinawa can you play with a mongoose on a pink leash!!



A little Habu Liquor?? Yummy..

Pet Mongoose anyone??
A lizard hut that Samantha could have stayed in all day.
The Cobra
The Habu
The first and the last time this will ever happen !!!

SEA WALL

Jason had a 4 day weekend and we decided to take advantage of the great weather. This is the Sea Wall it is located just outside the Airbase. It is fun to go out at low tide. Taylor wasn't to thrilled at first but she ventured out and had fun. Samantha and Katie were hunting for fish, but it was slim pickings. They were tiny and to fast to catch. It was pretty much full of star fish, sea cucumbers (which were very long and a bit ugly!!) and sea urchins. The big "jacks" behind us are part of the Tsunami Wall @ high tide they are pretty much covered. In the second picture you can see exactly how big they are next to Samantha.

SOBA NOODLES

We have a great group of women here who organize an endless number of outings and classes for the homeschool families here. In this class we learned to make SOBA noodles from scratch. It took everyone to get these noodles made. It required alot of rolling pin work and the girls did just great. We made all of our noodles, our instructors cooked them on the spot and we added the broth and toppings. The soup was very good. I must say we did a pretty good job considering we have never made noodles from scratch before. Who knew making noodles could wipe you out!!

Life in Oki

Jason has figured out the tide schedule here and is now enjoying surfing in Oki. He usually goes out at hours I prefer not to be out of bed. He has a few surf buddies that he has made. One guy lives down the road and will come down to see if Jason can surf. Men and their toys!!

Samantha is again playing her flute and has a wonderful instructor who happens to live just blocks away. She is enjoying the freedom of riding her bike on a street that is flat and safe. A friend just down the road and a great homeschool group. Did I mention we found riding stables near the house. We will check them out this weekend.

Taylor is thriving at school, keeping up with whatever I throw at her. She enjoys riding her scooter and is all over Zach all the time!!

Katie is doing great, she is finding a wee bit of independence and learning that life can still be fun even if your not stuck to Mommies leg.

Zachary is 4 months old now and rolling over, he has cut his first tooth. Weghs 17.7 lbs and is about 27 inches long. I am going to buy his new car seat this week. He has maxed out the one he is in. He is wearing 9 month clothes , bu that won't last long.

Laura, well I can't seem to get it all done. I am trying to scrapbook again. I have decide to go digital or at least try it. I will finish filling the albums I have and then go from there. Having a smaller house is a blessing in that it is alot less to keep up with. I am enjoying school this year and look forward to the different things the girls and I will do.

Okinawa Adventure

This is a 2 lane bridge. Here in Okinawa if a man wants

to fish he just pulls over blocks the lane, sets his tea out

on the road and fishes. This seems quite normal to everyone except

Americans who haven't been here very long (like us).

Beautiful scenery along to way to a beach resort we were told about.

The path at the beach resort was a bit crowded. Samantha saw the snake and grabbed the girls. I was behind her with the baby and Jason was in front looking for the beach that never was. Although there were signs that said "watch out for snakes." Needless to say, we left the snake resort and hit a beach up the road, that had no snakes and actual beach!

All of the delivery trucks here are mini compared to our

honkin huge semi's in the U.S.

Just a little pet store we passed....
I do like the drink machines here. There is always a really good variety of drinks to choose from.
Family Mart and Lawsons - these are everywhere and similar to a 7-11..
Driving from island to island. This is one of the many sea walls. They are built high and built well. The graffiti is much nicer than what we have in the states!!
Japanese Construction... I don't know , you decide...

Doctor Doctor!!

I think these pictures are self explanatory. Zach is the best patient,

he never complains and loves to play with the girls.

No matter what they happen to come up with!

Typhoon Fizzles

Well it has taken a turn to the East. The girls are a bit dissapointed. They were looking forward to putting into action all of their typhoon survival skills. We should just be getting high winds and some rain. I guess all the tents and food supply locations throughout the house will have to be put to use in another manner! So much for Tropical Storm Sinlaku......

Big Typhoon Coming

Well we are preparing for our first big typhoon. It should hit us on Friday I believe. They are saying it is a category 4 - that sounds big doesn't it!! We'll see who packs a better punch. North Carolina Hurricane of 1999 or Okinawa Typhoon 2008... No seriously we might lose the little communication we have, so don't worry if you don't hear from we for a few days. Once we have communication with the outside world I will blog our status. My neighbors have told me what we need to go out and get.
My prediction is we will have a dog living in the bathtub, and 4 kiddos camping with us. Little sleep and lots of banging outside. A crowded house, we have been told to bring all our outside junk in (yeah)!! Anyways, I am off the the commissary to fight over the last batteries and single can of tuna left on the shelves.

OCHEA

Okinawa Christian Home Educators Association

Today was our 1st outing with the homeschool group here on the Isalnd. Who would have thought when we left for Japan that we would have found such a great group of homeschool families. We went to the Botanical Gardens today. Boy oh Boy was it a hot one but we still had a great time. The gardens actually reminded me alot of of Oahu. The girls had a wonderful day playing and getting to know other kiddos. We had a scavenger hunt went on a tour around the gardens and stayed for a picnic lunch. I just wanted to share some of our pictures from the day..

Japan

Wow - I got in!! Every once in awhile I will go to sign in to my blog and it comes up in Japanese. Not what I have written but eveything else. For the life of me I couldn't change it. It is like some wierd Japanese computer glitch. I have learned that if I just keep trying back at some point it is fine and so here I am.

I am still getting my bearing, slowly but surely I will know all the good places to eat, shop and explore. We are feeling a bit more settled each day. Jason really likes his new job and he is home a ton compared to VA so we are all happy. He even has weekends off!! The surf is just ok , but I think he will be ok. We joke when he goes out that he is going out paddling because the surf is small and sparatic. But he still loves it.

School is going better than I expected. I am still holding my breathe after abandoning my 4 year relationship with Sonlight. Doing my own thing has for the past week been rewarding, in some ways it is like the first year of homeschholing all over again. A little apprehensive and hopeful at the same time. The girls are loving what were doing and giving me great feedback. So that is again a good sign. We found a flute instructor for Samantha, she starts lessons again this Thursday. We are praying for a great relationship and great instruction. She lives just a few blocks away! Samantha is excited to start lessons again. Taylor is growing like a weed, I mean really as of this week 90% of her shoes do not fit her anymore. From that sentence you could probably tell she had to many shoes to begin with anyways. She is still freckly and cute and silly.

Katie Watie is doing great. She is our spunky, strong personality who keeps me on my toes. She loves doing school and being involved with school. You can see the sense of accomplishment on her face when she completes something. She is totally in panties and staying dry through the night. This is great, it didn't take long after we finally got here and moved in to our house. Katie is doing more and more on her own and becoming more independent from my apron strings. She will stay in her class at church and enjoys her teacher. She is willing to help me and loves being my special helper. I can see the little girl God is growing inside her and I am thankful for her.

Zach , otherwise known as Bubba lately. Because he is about 15 lbs. and growing. He is smiling and talking up a storm. If he wasn't 3 months old he would be walking because he is strong as an ox. He loves the walker and playing with the toys. I also realized last weekend when I was talking at our church picnic that in 5 lbs. Zach will be out of his car seat. I must report his personality is still laid back and happy all the time. I know it is hard to believe but it is true. He still loves to sleep, his food and when he is awake he is just plain old content. Oh if only we could live that way.

As for me, now that we are all moved in and actually finished the last of the school stuff tonight I can breathe. I am hoping to start working on my photo albums again soon. I officially downloaded our Rosetta Stone tonight so hopefully we will be speaking at least a little Japanese here shortly.

Well the bed is calling my name and a busy day tomorrow. Hope all is well in your part of the world.