Flashback Friday...Bahhhck in the Day

Bet you didn't know this about me, did you?

This is Cosmo.

I raised this lamb from a bottle.

He really thought I was his mommy.

Even when he was 250 lbs., I could lead him around without a halter.

Once, when he was quite a bit bigger than this, I brought him to a 4-H sponsored petting zoo in the parking lot of the local Alpha-Beta grocery store. (Remember Alpha-Beta?) Anyway, it was just a big pen made of stacked hay bales, surrounded by a flimsy fence, with lambs and goats and pigs and such.

Everything was going smoothly...until some kids who I baby-sat showed up. I tied Cosmo's lead inside the fence and took them into the store to buy them each a cookie from the bakery.

When I came out, I saw people running around like they were trying to catch something. Turns out, they were trying to catch Cosmo. He panicked when I left and jumped the fence. I just called his name and he "baahhhed" and came running to me.

I loved that lamb.

BTW...he won grand champion in the wool division at that fair. The judge said his was the nicest wool he had ever seen and that when I sheered him, I should enter his wool in the fair, too. The next year at the Lakeside Fair, I was told the same thing. And Cosmo won grand champion, and his son won reserve champion. Good genes, I guess.

He died about a year later. Died WAY too young at the hands (or should I say head) of a wild, "range" ram. We don't know exactly how it happened, but it appeared that he jumped another fence and just wasn't strong enough to fight what he found on the other side. I was in seventh grade. It was devastating...but that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is what a great experience I had raising Cosmo...and participating in 4-H in general. It's not a typical thing in many communities anymore.

As a matter of fact, it's so not typical, that I can use the fact that I raised sheep in 4-H in that "two truths and a lie" game...and people never think it is the truth. Funny, huh?

So, that has me wondering...what is unusual about you or your past? What is true about you that people would most likely guess is a lie? Anything?

High Adventure

Man, the house is seeming empty. Cliff left yesterday to help with a CREDO personal growth retreat...and an hour ago, Troy and Patrick left for this:


Their first high adventure trip with Boy Scouts. It's supposed to rain the whole time. They are packing everything in and out. They are purifying their own water. They could encounter deadly snakes. That does not sound like my kind of adventure. My kind involves an all-inclusive resort with cute monkeys and dolphins. Snakes aren't on that list anywhere.


I think Troy's got everything. Patrick was still strapping his together, and then it got loaded into the car while I was distracted...before I got a pic. He said I could take an "after" pic when he's all grizzled and manly instead.


Brownie wants to go SO bad. Poor doggy. I think her high adventure days are far behind her, though.



Brother Neal is so awesome to arrange all of this.

Can you tell what sign they are flashing? No, it has nothing to do with Glee.

(J for Jungle. Nerds.)



And they are off. I felt like such a stereo-type shouting, "You have your jackets?...and your water bottles?...your flashlights?" Here Patrick is, mocking me as he lists everything in his backpack.

Most of the boys had to give up something important to them to go on this trip. Troy had to give up a big wrestling tournament, "Rumble on the Rock" (and his coach was none too happy about it). Josh and Patrick had to give up their highly-anticipated winter formal dance (all of the high-schoolers had to give that up...it just meant more to some than others). I think they all made the right choice. (As I cross my fingers and pray that they have the time of their lives and that it doesn't suck too badly...and that no one gets eaten by a snake.)

I'm gonna miss this monkey...

And not just because he's so agile and can fit into small places...



But because he is always SO willing to help. I love me some Jacob. I'm not implying that he's the only one of my kids that willingly helps...because they all do...to different degrees. But just as all of our personalities are different, Jacob is actually happy to help with any project. Cooking, cleaning, heavy-lifting...you name it. He's happy when he's hard at work.

If only that translated to cleaning his own room without being hounded. I wonder what the heck that's about?

Hair 101

It was Coree's turn to visit the Hair Whisperer this week, and this time, she learned some valuable hair lessons.

Coree loved getting her hair cut short last time, and wanted it cut short again. She planned on going with a similar style...but Rumikosan shared with Coree, the vision she had for Coree's hair. I was having a hard time reading Coree's face while Rumiko was detailing her plan. I got Coree's attention and said, "It's totally up to you...you need to tell Rumiko what you want."

Coree said (with a smile), "I'll go with what she said." I was surprised she wanted to go so short...but she really seemed excited about it.


This was the finished result...



And the back view...



And here she is with the Hair Whisperer.

When we got home, Coree came to me and said, "I don't like it." I asked her why she said OK to it, then. Just as I feared, Coree said she felt pressured and didn't want to hurt Rumiko's feelings.

Even though It's not Coree's taste (I didn't think it would be), I think it's darling. Very sassy...just like her personality.

I reminded her what I said...and told her she should never be afraid of hurting a stylist's feelings...it's her hair, she's the one paying for the service, and the stylist wants her to be happy with the result.

Hopefully Coree learned two valuable lessons:

(1) Never feel pressured into a hair style you're not excited about.

(2) The difference between a bad and good haircut?.....A few weeks.

Sometimes it's tough being a girl!

Flashback Friday...Boyz Bein' Boyz

Oh my goodness, I swear these boys came out knowing how to tussle.


These pics were taken before the days of the digital camera...so that's why the quality is so bad. No do-overs here...it's just all a big mystery until you get them back from Wal*Mart.


But boy does this bring back memories.

They still do this sometimes, actually. But now the odds are not in Cliff's favor. Luckily they go easy on him, though.

I love my boys!

Remember the Weird Family Conversations?

While they never cease to amaze me...tonight's was particularly amusing.

Remember, I said such conversations are never abruptly out of the blue...there is always an evolution...

This time, it started with Coree lamenting about the travel brochure she had to create for her geography class. She needed to pick a country in East or Southeast Asia and design a tri-fold brochure promoting travel to that country...and she'd get extra credit for adding things like a poster, a Power-Point, a slogan or a logo. Several suggestions were made...including Korea.

It ended with the suggestion of an interpretive dance to a song set to the tune of "Maria" from West Side Story. It included such words as Korea, meat on a stick, diarrhea, and onomatopoeia.

I'll let your imagination take over the rest. You're welcome.

Who's ready for the prayer?

Commando Mimes

Tonight we attended Patrick's drama performance at Kubasaki. The drama teacher puts on a "coffee house" performance each quarter so friends and family can see what they've been learning. This time, the theme was pantomime. All the performances were good...but Patrick's was pretty epic, actually.




But don't take my word for it...you can watch it here:




Here's some snapshots I took after the performance, too:










Patrick loves Jake...honestly.



Even Patrick's group of Young Men from Church and the YM President came to see.



One of the twins helps Patrick with the buddy carry.



Great job, everyone!

A THREE hour tour...a THREE hour tour...

Cliff had another 96 this holiday weekend...but the kids had school today, so it was just the two of us...woohoo! Yokosan was scheduled to be here, so we needed to get out of the house so she could work her magic.

We had a few errands to run, we stopped and had soup and salad for lunch. (Soup because I'm sick AGAIN and it's the only thing that feels good on my throat. Otherwise, I would have gone for something more exotic.) Then we decided we'd finally bite the bullet and try to track down Jake's cell phone.

Jake lost his cell phone at Cliff's unit Christmas party at Round 1 (featured in a former blog post). We checked their lost and found, we left our card, a manager gave us his card and assured us that they would be in contact should the phone turn up. Then, right before the new year, we got a letter (in Kanji) from our cell phone company. We took it in to our on-base branch to have them translate. Turns out, someone at Round 1 found the phone and turned it in to the police station...who in turn contacted our cell phone company.

Two problems: (1) It took us half a day (in an adventure that looked like something out of The Three Stooges) to find a specific Japanese post office when we needed to (and I was starting to have flashbacks), and (2) They were closing for new year's week. Yes...week. Everything shuts down here for the first several days of the new year.

It has taken us this long, even with Jake's pleas, to finally take on the task of tracking down the Ginowan Police Department. All of you back in the US who may be judging us...it's not like you can just look it up on Google Maps. Anything you might find on the WWW (we looked) is in Kanji...so we don't know if it was helpful info since we can't read it. And the roads here are insane. I don't want to offend anyone, but I wouldn't be surprised if the planning commission was doing illicit drugs when they drew the lines here. If you can really call the roads "lines". I'm just sayin'.

We put in some calls to a couple of knowledgeable friends, and Melene said she thought they had moved to a new building down near the convention center. She suggested we could just drive around that area since any police station was always marked with:

(1) A gold star

and

(2) A flashing red light.

So we drove up one side of the road till it sort-of ended...then back down the other side. Nothing. We took some back roads. Nada. Then I brought out my trusty little Japanese conversation book. We stopped into a convenience store, and through a few words in Japanese, a few in English, lots of pantomime and a crude map scribbled on the back of a notebook...we thought we understood where we were going. As we got back into the car, my trusty friend who works in law enforcement (and has to deal with the Japanese police at times) returned my call and she confirmed that we were on the right track. YES!



(I'll get lost with him, anytime!)

So we sat in traffic for awhile, headed in the same direction we had already been...and when we got to the crucial turn...there was NO label for our street. Several intersections kind of converged together...and before we knew it, we passed it. To make matters worse, our road turned into a choice between the expressway (you DON'T want to go there) or a major road with NO turn offs for several kilometers. We had no choice but to roll with it. By the time we were able to turn around, we passed several overpasses going all directions...so the return trip ended up to be just as chaotic.

We made the wrong choice of turns, but we were at least headed in the right direction (on an island, if you have a rough idea of where you are, at least you can head for the water). This whole ordeal was shaping up to be crazier than the post office debacle. I decided to just sit back and photograph the ride. It sure beat getting upset over things. Here's some of the random things that I found photo-worthy (you can click on any to enlarge):










LOVE this Hello Kitty graffiti on the wall of a preschool...



And of course...Anpanman!



LOTS of different road work delays.



This was kinda scary.



Darling Okinawan school children...



Safely walking home from school through busy streets.

We finally got back on the right street and had our eyes peeled for a 2 or 3 story building with a flashing red light. As we got closer and closer to Camp Foster, we knew we had missed it again. We went down to a small "police box" and asked the officer on duty if he could help us find it. He spoke no English and could only say "San kilometer" and point in the direction we had come from (3 kilometers).

So, we hopped back in O'Malley, checked the odometer and tried again. We saw a large building set back from the street, so we turned around and headed toward it...but as we approached the parking lot, we saw it was actually a school.



But we snapped this bonus class photo!

So we got back on the road and headed further down. After we had gone over FOUR kilometers (remember, the policeman said THREE) we saw this tiny sign:




And underneath that, this marquis with what on top? Red lights.


But were they flashing? No!



And look...as we walked up the steps...there's the gold star...and ANOTHER red light...but AGAIN...no flashing!

We approach the friendly officer at the customer relations counter, and with one pointing gesture, we see that our ordeal is almost over:


Finally! I explain our situation, the clerk tells me to fill out a report (at which point I'm very confused since I'm trying to tell her that this office sent us a letter saying they have our phone, it's not still lost). She still insists on the form. I fill it out, describing where, when and what I lost, and she points us to the waiting area. Now I get it. It's just procedure. What would a government agency be without the requisite layers of bureaucracy?



So we sit and wait. There wasn't much to look at. Posters in Kanji. This one was my favorite. I guess in any language, the policeman is your friend.

Eventually, she calls us back up and has Jake's phone in her hand. I'm now required to fill out another form in order to claim the phone, and we are on our way.



Aren't their little police cars cute?

So we head back toward home, and after about 2 kilometers, I notice this store on the corner to our left:


Then I realize that this store was straight ahead of us at the first intersection we came to when we arrived in this part of town. I remembered Cliff pointing it out to me because he wanted to check it out sometime. Then I looked at the clock. It had been almost THREE hours earlier! If we had simply turned left instead of right, and been able to recognize the police station, we could have gone 2 kilometers up the road and been done with it. But that's not how we roll.

So, we head home to tell Jake how much he better behave himself because he owes us BIG time...

And we get this bonus "dog out for a drive" snapshot.

Just another day in paradise.

Things That Make You Go YUM!

It's been awhile since we've tried a new restaurant as a family...so Cliff said it was about time. This is where we went:


Well...it was new to everyone else except me. This was my 5th time, I think. Not that I mind at ALL. This place rocks!



It's really not that common to order a soft drink with your meal on Okinawa (like people typically do in the USA). Mostly, it's water...or tea (if you drink it). There were a few drinks listed on the menu, though...and Jake just HAD to try the "mint juice" for himself.



Then he passed it around for others to try. See Coree's expression?



It was pretty nasty stuff...or so I hear, anyway. I wasn't about to try it. Cliff knows my gagging issues with powerful, "mediciney" flavors and advised against it. He said it tasted like liquid toothpaste, or thick mouthwash. I think between the 5 people who tried it, there was less than an inch consumed from the whole glass. So...don't waste your money on the mint juice...unless you like drinking toothpaste, that is.



Jake had Tom Yum with prawns. Mmmm...mm!



Cliff and I had the shrimp Pad Thai. It's always good. I like mine with everything.



Troy chose a red curry set that looked delish.



Patrick chose a beef pho set that he loved. Here he is losing the contents of his spring roll in the sauce. Dip fail.



And Coree got these spicy, fried dumplings whose name I can't remember.



And then Cliff got...the check.

(Just kidding...it wasn't bad at all.)

Thanks for such a fun and yummy night, sweetie!