Marshel and Kite Day

Marshel is in 1st grade at Ott Elementary. It was the Annual Kite Day. Last year Mom was out of town, so she went this time. Mom was a little worried that she wouldn't be able to get the kite up in the air, but everything went smoothly and it went up without a hitch. There was only one incident of Marshel's kite getting tangled with another, but we got that worked out. The biggest struggle was convincing Marshel that he couldn't stand right next to his friends and their kites. It was a fun Mommy-Son Day.

Postcards from Japan

Sasebo at night ( Mike says it's a great little Navy town, but most of the locals speak no English)






India Pier (This is what the port looks like. Mike's ship is not in the picture)







India Pier again






The Ginza (It's a big street roughly a mile long full of shops, clubs, restaurants and bars. In this picture, it's decorated for the Emperor's birthday.

Where in the World is Mike?

This is Mike's ship, the USS Essex.

Here's the latest on Mike:
He's out at sea again. He visited Okinawa for the 3rd time, but hadn't been able to get past the beach there. Others on the ship were being bad - beating on their wives for instance - which caused Mike's whole division to be put on Charlie restriction (grounded to the ship). He and others are so frustrated with being punished for the actions of others. Finally, his Senior Chief took Mike's duty section off the ship, but they weren't supposed to tell anyone. They didn't have time to do much, since they only had 3 hours to be off the ship. He and some of his buddies went to Chili's and ate. They tried to play a prank on their Senior Chief, by sending a birthday cake to his table, but he left the restaurant before it happened.

In Fukuoka, Mike has met a cute Japanese girl, Yurika. They have been out a few times and she is very impressed with his manners and the way he treats her. He made sure to tell me that he opened her door and paid for dinner, even though she offered to pay for her own. He says the Japanese girls like that the US boys aren't afraid to show emotion and romance to the girls, which is very different in their culture. PDA is frowned upon, so they shook hands at the train station as Mike was heading back to the ship. Mike is being a good little missionary to Yurika. He attempted to explain why we celebrate Easter to her, and is working on getting a Japanese Bible and Book of Mormon from the missionaries to give to her.

On Easter Sunday, the ship had a health and comfort inspection. Mike had to sit in the berthing lounge for about 5 hours, while the inspectors searched everyone's rooms and bunks. They were looking for porn, drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately, they also took things that didn't have safety tags on it. Mike was lucky to save his computer cord, but his charging station for his mouse was taken away.

Mike also got his anthrax shot. He said that was not a fun experience and his arm hurts a lot.

Mike has been in the Phillipines, so I'm hoping for a full record of what he did there soon. But, here are some pictures that he sent of the areas he's been in:

This is Yurika

Statue in the Phillipines

Taken from the ship, dead jellyfish

Cherry trees blossom only one week of the year in Japan

What's Michael up to?

Michael's ship has returned to Sasebo after a few weeks out at sea. They visited Thailand for a few days, where he toured around with some buddies a little. I'm still trying to get him to share more details and some pictures, but he's always been a little stubborn in that area. Hopefully, he'll get better at sharing.

Now, that he's back in his home port, he says that he usually only works until around 4:30pm, and then has liberty. He goes out with his friends to some bar, where he drinks their ginger ale. He says its a lot stronger than what he's used to, because it has a lot of ginger in it and it burns when it goes down.

He is interested in starting some college courses, but after being on a ship for so long, working all day, he craves just to wander around town and talk to locals.

He's going to church tomorrow off base with some of the other members. When they are at sea, they have church meetings on the ship, but in port, they can go to the local ward house and meet the local members.

Michael got a new computer so he can play computer games to keep himself busy. He has two IRA's set up for his future retirement, but he is also going to try to save money for his future trips, like Australia in July.

One thing he told me was how they are messing with the new kids on the ship. Here's the story in his own words:

"We pick up a broken phone that isnt even a phone and make them think that someone is on there for them. We set up one guy to go light the smoking lamp.

Everyday whenever they are doing something they say the smoking lamp is out. And we told this new kid he is on the list to go light it when it goes out. He has to do it for a whole day.
The smoking lamp is just a term for no smoking. We told him that for the whole day everytime they say that he needs to go with a 5 lb. jerry can, full of fuel and go to the quarter deck and tell them he is there to refuel and light the smoking lamp.
I also told him that before he does that he needs to go to personnel and fill out an ID 10 T form. Or IDIOT. Get it? Were having fun with them."

More when I know more!

Mom and Rachel have a spa day

It's always important to get a good start to the Spring Break vacation. Rachel and Mom decided they needed a spa day. They left Nate in charge of the little ones. They started with the Deluxe Pedicure, which included the foot spa, scrub, massage, wax and design. The massage chair is always a nice bonus as well.

Rachel and Mom both are very ticklish in the foot area, so there were some lovely faces made on both sides as they buffed and massaged the bottom of our feet. Rachel was giggling and squirming in her chair. Mom has learned to grin and bear it.

After the pedicure, we moved on to the manicure and acrylic fill. We each chose blue for our colors, but they were a little different. After our fun day at the spa, we went to lunch at Bill Miller's. It was a fun day and a great mother/daughter bonding day.

The finished product:

MS Walk San Antonio: March 7, 2009

After a few months of preparing for the MS Walk to support Multiple Sclerosis, we had raised a little over $300. We didn't reach our goal, but we did have a late start. Next year, we hope to do better. Mom designed our shirts and we headed off to the AT&T Center in San Antonio. Nate couldn't go because he had to work, so we missed him there with us.

Before the walk started, we got to meet the Coyote from the San Antonio Spurs. Many people also brought their 4-legged creatures for the walk, so the kids (including Marty) had to pet as many as they could find.

Finally, the walk started. We hadn't been walking more than a minute, when Marshel spotted the port-o-potties, and had to visit them. With that done, we were off. Marshel and Kellee didn't want to walk, they wanted to run, so we gave them destinations to run to, where they would wait for us and then be off again.

We had to make a decision after about a half a mile walk. There was a short cut to do just a mile walk instead of the 5K (2.2. miles). We decided to do the whole thing. We knew Marshel and Kellee would have a rough time, but decided we would help them get there. There were snack stops and drinks along the way to keep everyone hydrated and happy.

We were steadily falling further back in the crowd because we had a 6 and 4 year old, but as long as we finished, that's all that was important. Unfortunately, the ice cream ran out before we got to it, but we still got a picture with the ice cream guy, Scoopy!

As far as Marshel and Kellee, we encouraged, dragged and carried them part of the way, but they really walked most of it themselves. We saw other kids on the route, but they were all in wagons or strollers. I didn't see any just walking like ours. We were really proud of them. Hopefully it will always be a good memory for them. We reminded them that it was a long way, but that they can walk and that there are a lot of people out there who can't and that's why we were doing this.

We were some of the last people to cross the finish line, but we did it and that's what's important. We walked across together, jumping that finish line. We then headed off to lunch. On our way there, we had to wait for the train to pass, so we sat at the crossing for about 15 minutes. When the train was gone, the guy in the car next to us had run out of gas, so we helped him push his car over the hill and into a parking lot. Finally, we made it to the Spaghetti Warehouse and had a good lunch. When we got home, we all collapsed for a few hours. It was a good day!

Kellee caught singing

I was downstairs and heard Kellee singing, so I snuck upstairs with the camera in hand to catch her. She was in her room singing a song from her favorite movie, "The Phantom of the Opera". Even though she had some of the words wrong, she had the music down and was not shy in singing as loud as she could. It's priceless!