Family Update

We are all doing well and life is moving a thousand miles an hour.  Noah is two now and Caraline almost five months old.  Last week my Grandma Betsy and sister, Kristen, came to visit us for a week.  The kids and I were able to take them a few places out in town and show them Japan.  While Kristen and Grandma Besty were here...Kristen often made comments while we were out. I would reply...that's how they do things here! For instance, we were at a subway stop for Chinatown in Yokohama. I knew that we were exiting differently than when Zack and I went with Noah...but I couldn't figure out how to get us there. We exited and I was trying to figure it out when a Japanese lady stopped and tried to ask Kristen if she needed help in broken English. I was talking to the man at the information desk and figured out which way we needed to go. She walked ahead but the entire time we were walking the few blocks to Chinatown she stayed ahead and kept looking back at us to make sure that we were following her. Kristen was amazing...but me not...because that's how they do things here! We also took a few taxis and Kristen would rush to get out the stroller and the diaper bag from the back of the taxi. She didn't understand at the time that she was hurrying the taxi cab driver's "feelings" because he wanted to do that for us. He was trying to rush to pay back the change while looking back to see if she had opened the trunk. While out with friends we stopped at a little bar and they all had a beer...we wanted something sweet and asked the man if he had ice cream...strawberry! He spoke with the cook and then all of a sudden the man was headed out the door and had gone to the store to buy us strawberry ice cream! There is no point in arguing and telling him that it was unnecessary...doing that would have hurt his feelings. That's how they do things here.  In the beginning of June, my parents are coming to visit and we are also expecting visitors in October.  It's wonderful to be able to show our families how/where we live!

Zack will be leaving us in about one and half months or so.  I don't have the exact date yet...just a month.  He will be gone for a few months and then return for a bit and then out again for a few months.  We are starting to gear up for the deployment and doing all that pesky paperwork stuff...as well as planning those last few train trips before the ship pulls out.  Zack recently started working on an Associates Degree through an online college.  He takes one class every five weeks.  He is nearing the end of his third class now.  If all goes as planned he should be done next summer.  Having this degree will help him advance.  Zack has been working a lot lately and doesn't have much free time between coming home from work and bedtime.  He comes home and we eat supper and then the kids get their bedtime routine.  He then goes and works on his homework and I put the kids down.  And if he is lucky he might get an hour or so for free time before bedtime.  But in the end it will be worth it...hopefully!

Noah turned two last month and enjoyed a Handy Manny birthday party will all of his friends!  We took away his bink and started potty training.  Some days I would swear that he grew up right in front of my eyes that day.  Two is a challenging age and sometimes it does get the best of us...but it's also a lot of fun.  Right now he's into imaginative play and love to cook, play doctor, and pretend to be animals(monsters, lions, and his favorite dinosaurs!).  His doctor play consists of the patient having to stand on a "scale"...he looks into their eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.  He then has this string lace that he puts around his neck to listen to their heart and belly.  And of course the patient must be laying down with their head on a pillow!  He's been to the doctor maybe 3ish times since we got here in July...two being well check ups...but if he sees it once then he's got it.  He loves on Caraline quite a lot now.  He likes to put her bink in her mouth and pat her telling her that it's okay.  She usually stops fussing and smiles at him.  I am sure that he is looking forward to warmer weather so that he can play outside...or maybe that's just mom! :)

Caralinebink in and out of her mouth now and often wakes herself up because she's taken it out.  I now put her down holding a little blankie and it seems to keep her hand busy instead of reaching for the bink.  She recently just came off of an almost month long fussy stage...Noah did too right around four months old.  It got a little hairy there on a few occasions and I called up a friend to come and get Noah so that I could focus on her.  Overall she is a pretty easy baby...as long as you know what and how she likes things to be done!  She enjoys talking and chatter but does this the most for Zack.  She love to put her hands up to his face so that he pays attention to her and then jabbers on and on! 

And now me!  I am doing wonderful.  I've been off the Zoloft for a few months now and pretty much ended my one-fourth life crisis(self-proclaimed!).  I've found some hobbies...doing pins from Pinterest and crocheting mostly.  I've gone out with friends a few times to Yokohama and developed a social life outside of play dates.  I've also updated some of my clothes...some of them weren't me anymore and had to go.  There have been quite a few joyous times in my life but I would say that living here right now...I am happier than I've ever been.  I'm in my element here...there is culture and plenty of things to go see and do.  I have amazing friends and Noah too!  I cried when we left Virginia...and I know that I'll be loosing a lot more tears over the move from here...but then we'll be onto other adventures!  And we can't get too comfortable in our lives.  I know that at least in my own life that when I feel too comfortable and settled then something always happens to bring me back down to reality that we are a military family and are expected to bend but not break.  It's a life about being comfortable and happy in your surroundings...making a life for you and your family while you are there....but it isn't a "secure" life.  The military does own us to some degree...it often reminds me of that country music song about if you want God to laugh, tell him your plans!  Should we decided to make plans for the future...there must be some sort of mind control radar out there that the Navy pinpoints you and decides to give you a little push out of your comfort zone to remind you that you are after all a military family!  Or the alternative is God giving me a push to remind me that I can't get too comfortable!  While I know the second option to be true it doesn't stop me from thinking about the first!  After all I am the person that hates birds because they seem to "mechanical"!