Close Out

September is over, which means the fiscal year is over and Scott gets to go back to normal work hours. Unfortunately on Thursday and Friday he had to work 40 hours in a row with no sleep, literally working all night on Thursday. He did get to come home Friday morning and get a shower, but then right back to work. Painful. I feel so bad for him. It's been a rough month. Luckily they got all the work done and money spent for the fiscal year and everything turned out well, despite a very busy night the night of close out. Read another article about close out HERE (Scott's office is called the Comptroller - CPTS, or finance, and they work closely with Contracting - CONS).

Hopefully things will be able to calm down a little bit now.
Thursday night Scott's whole office was working til 1am (Scott and few others had to work all night and on into the day again). We went and had dinner with them at the office on Thursday. Here's Anna smiling big and eating her pizza. We had to wipe down her chair a bit after she was done, but no permanent damage. It was one of the only times the kids have gotten to have dinner with Scott all month. So I'm glad it's October. Our last month in Okinawa, and we have so much to do to get ready to move, but I have to believe it won't be as bad as September. Or at least that's what I'm hoping. :)

Pirate Ship Park

aka Araha Beach

September has been pretty much a wash for me. Scott has been working all day every day to close out the fiscal year at Kadena. I've been sick all month and most of the summer. I'm starting to think its something in the house that is making us sick. Like mold spewing out of some air conditioner or something...which wouldn't be that far fetched. Eww! In any case I haven't been feeling the most adventurous. The kids are a little sick too. Matthew finally got our sickness, but I thought the kids were still well enough to take out and about. Matthew did announce loudly at story time today that he couldn't sing the song very well 'cause he has "a nasty cough," which was kind of embarrassing. At least he didn't cough while we were there.

After the library we went to the pirate ship park at Araha Beach.

It was such a pretty day. Not Okinawa summer hot - still humid but only mid 80s. The beach was still open but pretty much empty, which was nice. Matthew tried the zip line (with me running along side) only once. Then he decided it was too scary. Anna did it too (with me holding her on there and running alongside). She liked it I think, but didn't ask to do it again.

Here she climbs up the big pirate ship steps.

She walked across the high wobbly bridge.

The beach was pretty. I wished we'd brought our swimming stuff. This is more like southern CA summer weather...a little drier, not as hot. Love it. I gotta enjoy the beach while I can...we'll be leaving it soon (tear).

Ooh, that water looked tempting.
Maybe we'll come back tomorrow and swim...as long as its not raining. ;)

We got shaved ice at a little stand at the beach. The prices were all in yen but there was a sign that said they only take US dollars. Of course the sign was in English only. I paid in dollars and he gave me change in yen. Hmm Anyway, we enjoyed our icy treats and then headed home to read our library books. I was happy we got to get out of the house today for something other than errands and chores. Gotta enjoy Okinawa while we can!

Soccer Practice

Yesterday Matthew had soccer practice. He is in "first steps" soccer for 3 and 4 year olds. Last week we were rained out of practice after about 30 minutes, but this week they went the whole hour, which was a bit long for Matthew. He's never had any trouble paying attention during T-ball practice, but the things they did were a lot easier for him and they took a lot of water breaks. So today he was not loving soccer. He kept attaching himself to my legs and saying he was too tired. There were a lot of kids who didn't want to participate today (you can see one of them in the background of this pic). Here's Matthew scowling at me as I try to get him to pass with me.

He fell down on the ground a few times ("accidentally") and didn't want to get up. He was not having fun. He has shin guards, (which he didn't wear today) but no cleats (not the reason for him falling down). I quickly realized how unimportant those items are for kids his age. Maybe we'll get him some cleats next year...if he ever wants to play again.

Here Matthew passes next to one of his teammates. She's a bit older and one of the more skilled players on our team. Matthew got the ball away from her in one of the drills, so that was exciting for him. Later when he told Scott (who was at work) about soccer practice he was a lot more enthusiastic about it. He was also excited (at least later he was) about getting his soccer jersey. Maybe we'll do better next week.

For Aunt Ruth

Matthew with his card, smiling BIG!

When I told him to smile "normal" he did this.

Today while we were coloring, Matthew randomly told me that he wanted to make a card for Aunt Ruth. He cut a shape of paper out and wrote MATTHEW on it (in his own way). Then he decided he wanted to put string on it and asked me to help him punch holes all around it so he could decorate it with string. I helped him tie the string at the end. Then he told me he wanted to send it in a box to Ruth and put some toys in there for her. This is what he said about it:

When Aunt Ruth gets the box she will say (in a high voice) "Oh my gosh, who sent us a package!" Then she will open it and say, "Oh my goodness it's a box! It's from Okinawa! It's from Matthew! I'm so surprised!" And then she will see my card and she will be so impressed!

He also read his card to me. He told me it said this (as I furiously tried to write it down):

Dear Aunt Ruth,
*We have some dishes for you. They are from the store. They are for Aunt Ruth.
Love, Aunt Ruth.
You are far away in (where does Aunt Ruth live in?) You live in Washington and that is far away.
And I know that is true.
This card says M-A-T-T-H-E-W. Matthew made this card and he was a good maker.
I know that you don't know me, 'cause you are far away in Washington.
We got the dishes from the store, from the Make Man store and the dustpan is for us so we won't send that to you.
This card says "LOVE **VIGIL KEEPING."
I saw you go to Washington and I cut out a kitty shape and I'm going to cut another one, but I'm going to wait until the ant goes away.
Love, Aunt Ruth in Washington
(I think he meant Love, Matthew).

*After Matthew started making the card for her I told him I was going to send her some dishes we got for her too.
** A line from the lullaby All Through the Night

It made me laugh. I guess she won't be surprised now, since I told her about it in this blog post. Sorry. Not to be outdone Anna had to make a card for Aunt Ruth too.

Anna's card

Then she "folded" it up special

And a few days ago...

After playing in the water, Anna came to me for help getting her wet jammies off. When we had a little trouble getting them off, I commented that they might be getting too small. This was Anna's response:

That's ok. Aunt Ruth will get a new one for me when she comes to our house. She will say (switching to a high voice) "These ones are wet! Don't worry, I will get some new ones for you!"

I guess she thinks Aunt Ruth will solve her small pajama problems. :)

Aunt Ruth doesn't really have a high squeaky voice like Matthew and Anna's impressions of her. But I thought it was funny.
We're thinking about you Ruth!! You can expect an awesome card in the mail soon...and expect to be impressed!

Scott, me, my sister, Ruth, and her husband Dana
Christmas 2006

September

Scott in his office, his home away from home.
This was on a weekend on the way home from church (a few months back), which is why he's wearing church clothes and not his uniform.

September is the busiest month in the military budget world...so we've seen Scott very little this month. He's been working very hard to finish out the government fiscal year since he is the head of the budget office at Kadena. He's quoted in an article about it HERE.

Over the past few weeks he's been going to work before the kids wake up and coming back after they are in bed...and he has to work Saturdays and Sundays. It's exhausting and stressful for Scott and exhausting for me.
I'd been looking back at my picture a day photos for the year and realized how often Scott has had to work on the weekends this past year. Part of it is that he just has a lot of responsibility in his positions and part of it is that Kadena is a very big and busy base. I'm really hoping he has a more normal work life at our next assignment (but not holding my breath). We've already been told he will travel 25% of the time at his next job. Hmm
To make things a little worse for us this month Scott, Anna and I are sick. I don't know how, but Matthew seems to stay relatively healthy while the rest of us have been getting recurring colds all summer.
So September has not been the funnest time for me.
I'm REALLY excited for October, although Scott seems to have lots other work that will probably be pushed to October. So we'll see.

100 Yen Halloween

Last week I made a trip to one of the 100 Yen stores nearby and found a bunch of fun Halloween stuff. I have a plastic bin full of dress up clothes for the kids and I'm always on the lookout for new things to add, especially if they are cheap. Here are some of our finds.

Here's Matthew all decked out as a pirate complete with eye patch, sword, hook, pirate vest and hat. He loved being a pirate - we told him to say "ARRR matey!" and he kept asking us what a "matey" was. Also it took all his self control not to hit everyone with his new sword, but somehow he managed to be good. Well done Matthew!

I love this hat! Maybe I'll wear it for Halloween!

Anna with a kitty hat and a little cape.

And happy in the pumpkin hat!

Here's Anna with the ninja mask on. She didn't like this one too much.

Here we all try on the animal hats - I'm wearing the monkey one, Matthew is the frog and Anna is the duck, although she kept pulling it down over her face.

Now I've got the pumpkin hat. Anna and Matthew both wanted this trident (which I think was supposed to be a pitchfork). They wanted it 'cause King Triton has one. We recently got Disney's The Little Mermaid golden book and they want to hear it (that and Snow White and Pinocchio) every chance they get.
We had fun with our 100 Yen store finds, and everything we got was 100 Yen - about a dollar. I'll miss those stores when we go back to the states!

T-ball Pizza Party

Saturday was the end of Matthew's T-ball season - their team name was the Incredibles. I think the kids learned a little about T-ball and playing on a team, and had a lot of fun. We had a pizza party to celebrate the end of the season (which was only 6 weeks long).

The kids enjoy their pizza

Matthew ate a bunch of pizza and drank two big glasses of Hi-C fruit punch. He hardly ever has punch or juice, and when he does, we water it down, so by the end of the party (and for the rest of the day) he was bouncing off the walls. He was laughing giddily (and randomly), running around, laughing some more (at nothing), running up and talking to strangers. He was CRAZY! Here he is after a glass or so, already slumping down in his chair.

Here he is getting his certificate and bear from coach.

The kids all got these cool bears that say Kadena first steps T-ball. It was pretty cute, and better than a trophy, at least for their age. Matthew really enjoyed playing T-ball. Next week we start soccer.

Tide Pools

Scott had four days off work this weekend, which is great 'cause he'll be working a lot of long and hard hours for the rest of September.
Friday we took a nice early morning walk. We walked past the steps on the seawall on the way back. When the tide is low you can walk down the steps and check out the tide pools.

It was slippery down there, but the kids were really interested in seeing all the little creatures.

We found a little sea urchin which Matthew thought was cool.

There were these really bright blue fish swimming around in there.
We could see the bright fish from the top of the steps. They were so pretty.

Anna wanted a sea shell to take home, but we couldn't find one without a little critter living inside.

We had a lot of fun looking around in the pools.

The kids didn't want to leave! We'll have to go back again soon.

All Clear Again

Tropical Storm Malou (our second storm of the week) turned out to be pretty minor. I think we got the worst of it Saturday evening when we had some rain and a lot of thunder and lightning. It was no big deal, no damage, didn't turn into a typhoon. So that's good. Now hopefully we can make it through typhoon season with no more big storms. We shall see!

Another Tropical Storm

Are you kidding me? I can't believe another tropical storm is headed right for Okinawa. We are so small in the big pacific! How can two in one week hit us directly. We'll see how this one shakes out. It's supposed to be only a Category 1 and get here about Saturday night/afternoon. More HERE.

Update: Saturday am - the tropical storm never turned into a typhoon, so it was pretty much a non-event for us. It was a little rainy, but not anything unusual for here.