My Ankle

My ankle is much better, thanks for all the advice, concern and support.

I went to the doctor and it is not broken, just a mild sprain. It appears I am just a big baby. There is no permanent damage. It is still swollen and bruised, but there is no loss of stability. The only concern is that while healing it is very easy to re-injure the ankle. Therefore I have to take it easy and avoid activities that might cause me to twist the ankle again.

I got an ankle brace and some motrin like anti-inflamintory / pain relievers. I did spend three days with my foot propped up, causing me to get behind in everything. Now while taking it easy I am supposed to be catching up on everything. We seem to be experiencing some global warming, and Lily and I have been partaking of the sunshine and snow free playgrounds, causing me to become even farther behind in my homework and housework. School is winding down, only a few short weeks left and you wont be hearing me complain about how far behind I am in my school work. So sad.

I am taking a break from school while we move. Jeff on the other hand is so close to his Master's degree in World War II history that he is plowing ahead and taking extra classes during our move.

Upon finding out that I have not broken my ankle and that walking around is not going to cause me any permanent damage, I bought my ticket to paradise (Mississippi). I will be flying there mid-February to find our dream home. Jeff will be taking leave and taking care of the home and girls on his own.

The trip is going to be very exciting. It is very complicated to travel from here (the middle of no where Japan) to Gulfport, Mississippi. The trip involves, an airplane ride to Tokyo, a bus ride to the other side of Tokyo, an airplane to Atlanta, customs & immigration, another airplane to gulfport. Coming home I have to take three trains from Tokyo to Misawa otherwise I would have to stay in a hotel overnight (very expensive). While I have traveled all over the world, I am a bit nervous about doing it all on my own. I usually rely on Jeff figure it all out and I usually keep track of the girls. I am looking forward to the roll reversal, hopefully I wont end up lost somewhere. I don't even know how to call my house on an American military base in Japan from a pay phone in Tokyo, I will have to put that on my list, find out how to phone home.

In other words, I am alive and well. The ankle is healing, getting better everyday, looks like there won't be any permanent damage, which has been verified by an M.D. Just a little spazzed out by the enormity of all that needs to occur in the next few months.

Happy New Year!

My new years resolution is to have more fun. The other day I was reading Meno’s blog and she told a funny story about turning around the toilet paper rolls at her sister-in-law’s house due to a long lecture given years before on the importance of toilet paper hanging in a certain way. It was so funny. It reminded me of how much fun I used to be. Lately I haven’t really been very spontaneous or silly. These next few months are going to really need an infusion of the good old fun Marsha if we are going to make it through with our sanity.

On that note, on New Year’s day, it was incredibly beautiful here in Misawa. The sun was shining the snow had melted and I took Pixie (crazy dog) and Lily to the playground. We had a blast, but there were no kids there so we decided to walk over to one of the other playgrounds in our area to see if we could find someone fun for Lily to play with.

I cannot tell you how much fun I was having. Running down hills, laughing etc. However, I somehow put my foot down wrong and twisted my ankle. It hurt more than I can say. All I saw was a bright white light, I heard a ringing in my ears, I felt very nauseous. I tried to hobble home. The dog, who is so bad, was pulling me, Lily was running ahead, about to go into the street. I was in so much pain. I called out and asked some kids who were playing near by to help me, I asked them to run to my house and get Jeff. I sat on the ground and waited with Lily and Pixie. Jeff came and took us all home.

My ankle hurt so bad, I took some Motrin and took a nap. It wasn’t swollen so we decided not to go to the doctor. It took about 24 hours for the swelling to show up, now it is good and swollen. It only hurts when I put weight on it for any length of time. Then it starts to ache and swell even more. Jeff had to go to work today. I guess we will see how it goes. I don’t know if it is sprained, strained, or broken. I really don’t know how to tell the difference. My Air Force issued book, “Taking Care Of Yourself” which we always consult before going to the doctor, has confusing conflicting advise. It says that if I stay off the ankle I don’t have to rush to the ER, I can wait a few days and even if it is fractured it wont kill me. So we are taking the wait and see approach. Maybe it will heal itself in the next couple days? Jeff works with doctors so he is going to ask the question, about when or if we should seek help.

The hill I fell on, it was so small, the smallest incline you have ever seen. How, embarrassing, I can’t even walk a dog. If you don’t hear from me for awhile, it is because I have my foot propped up somewhere. Hopefully with my sweet children waiting on me hand and foot. No more New Year's resolutions for me!

Vacation

It was fun to spend time together as a family. I have noticed that when we travel we talk and interact so much. At home, we tend to drift off into our separate spaces. Force us into a vehicle together and we laugh and fight together. I really like my family, we all have so much energy, it is an amazing uplifting thing to spend time together. However, I have to really force it.



This week has been an at home vacation for us. Jeff went into work every morning but was home by 10. We bundled up the girls and went on some local adventures. The mall playground and video arcade, the bowling alley, the children's science museum.

It takes so much work to convince them all to be ready at the same time and to agree to do something together. It was worth all the forcing, in the end we had a great week. I got so many wonderful presents, so did Jeff and the girls, but it was the fun we had together that really made this Christmas special for me.



Next month, Jeff and Mandy are going down to Toyko for a couple of days to see a Sumo wrestling match. Jeff is going snow shoeing. Hopefully Mandy and I can get another ski trip in before we leave. Our departure date is scheduled for late March and I am hoping we will be here to see the Cherry Blossoms one last time. We will see, sometimes spring comes late here, but sometimes we see blossoms at the end of March.

I have to get back to homework and housework. Tonight is New Year's Eve here. We are having a family game night and watching the naked Japanese guy on the TV. Every year we watch him. We have no idea what is said, but a guy strips down to a loin cloth and dumps water on himself and does death defying stunts involving fire. There is always a bunch of Japanese people there watching and laughing. That is all I know. Our Japanese friend says that this year he might not be allowed to do his thing, because some people have complained that it is dangerous. I guess we will see if he get permission to do his crazy new year's stunt again this year. If he does I will try to take some video of it to share with you.

In Japan New Year's Eve is one of their most important holidays of the year. Many people go to the Budist temple at midnight for the ringing of the bells. The bells are run one time for every bone in a person's body and this is done to purify one of the sins of the past year. I have never been to the temple for new year's eve, I wish I had been able to go. Jeff and I feel it is important to be together as a family for new years. It would feel weird to leave Mandy and Lily and go out on our own, so we all stay together and enjoy the holiday with games. This year we got the Amazing Race DVD game, it is fun, Mandy beat us all the first time. I am hoping to talk the family into RISK, my all time favorite game. They don't like it, because I always end up ruling the world!

Happy New Year.

New Camera

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. Here is a video of Lily singing the ABC's made with my brand new digital camera! We had a very Merry Christmas here in Japan. I am looking forward to an amazing New Year. This week we have plans for lots of family adventures, and now I can give you pics and videos of Japan.

White Christmas

This is our last chance for a white Christmas for awhile. Here's hoping.

Most years we miss our families so much on Christmas that we try to find other lonely people and have a big family type Christmas with friends. We go to a lot of trouble to turn virtual strangers into family. This being our last Christmas abroad, and all of us being busy with school, and a bit intimidated by the move, we are having a quiet Christmas.

We did the work party. Other than that we are keeping it simple. Jeff and Mandy are both off the week of Christmas. We have decided that on Christmas day we will open presents, and then have a nice breakfast, and then just hang out the rest of the day. Watch TV, take naps, take turns playing with Lily, play with our presents, and then have a nice dinner. Just us. It always bothers me to be all on our own at Christmas, but this year it is like saying goodbye to an old friend, the family-free Christmas.

During the rest of the week we have decided to be on vacation at home. Very casual and leisurely however, we are going to try to do one small family event per day. Bowling, swimming, ice skating, arcade, jumpy castle - I have tons of ideas hopefully we can come to a consensus, or whatever I will force all this family fun on them.

I still have a ton of wrapping to do, batteries to buy, stocking stuffers too. But, for the most part we are ready. Except for the banana pudding, must get vanilla wafers. Merry Christmas.

Now tell me all about your plans.

Orders

We actually got our orders to go to Mississippi. There have been scads of rumors and such that all PCS's have been canceled due to a lack of funds, however, we are moving and that is that.

Having orders this early is a luxury. It gives us the opportunity to plan a smooth move. It takes quite a little bit of time for our belonging to be shipped from Misawa, Japan to the gulf coast of Mississippi. We have decided that we will ship the stuff early hoping it will be there and waiting for us when we arrive. We also have a car that has been in storage somewhere in America, a car we bought in Italy, we need to arrange to have it shipped to Mississippi and since it has been in storage for four years, we are thinking it will need a super-tune-up. It would be nice to have most of this arranged and taken care of so when we get off the plane, we have a house, a car, and all our stuff.

I am thinking this will help the girls, if the is less of a transitory time period. This decision means that the last couple of months here in Japan we will be without most of our stuff. We do get a second shipment, but this second shipment is of limited space, where we can ship the computer, some dishes, some sheets and blankets. And then we can also mail some things, and the rest we must carry ourselves. From Italy to Japan we carried a lot. As much as was legally permitted, two large suitcases, two large carry-ons, per person, and the cat. Now we have little little which means even more suitcases allowed. But, I have learned my lesson, less is more. I believe what I will be carrying is a toothbrush and a change of underwear. Plus, now we have a dog and a cat.

There used to be a plane that came here to the base and took us to America, due to budget cuts the plane no longer stops in Misawa. This means that we have to drag the kids, the animals, and all of that which we decided to carry with us from Misawa to Tokyo. The problem is that the airplane takes you from here to a domestic airport which is on the other side of Tokyo (1 1/2 hours drive) from the international airport. They do not allow animals on the shuttle bus between airports. There is a train one can take from Misawa and with three switched arrive at the international airport (Narita) however, they do not allow animals on the trains and there are many stairs. This is how we traveled one time on our trip to Alaska, it was hard with a lot of stuff. There isn't really any place to put your stuff on the train, and hey they don't allow pets. So what do we do?

It will be interesting to see how we get our pets to America. Most people are leaving messages on the bulletin boards around base, free pet to good home. We made the decision to keep our pets and to endure all the hell this decision will inure. I do think however, this will definitely mean that we wont be taking lots of suitcases with us on our move. We will arrive in Mississippi with the shirts on our backs and our two kids, our two pets and a smile.

What Ya Doing, Honey?

Lily's latest question. She comes up to me and asks, What ya doing, Honey? Or, What's wrong, Honey? She sounds exactly like me. It is so fun to watch her mimic me or Jeff.

Yesterday I was trying to get her to tell me her name, her whole name first and last, and my name and her dad's name etc. She didn't seem to be understanding the concept. I kept telling her our names and she would say her name is Lily, and that was it. She then asked me if she could watch Blue's Clues. So, I told her she could watch it as soon as she could tell me her name, my name and her dad's name. She rattled them off, followed by sister's full name, dog's full name, cat's full name and then she proceeded to get me the movie she wanted to watch.

That is the thing with Lily I can never tell if she is being defiant, bored, or just doesn't get it.

We have been playing hide and seek. At first she insisted on always being the counter, while I was always the hider. Finally, I convinced her we should take turns. So we take turns. However, on Lily's turn she always hides right next to where I am counting. As soon as I am done counting she jumps up, "You found me". My turn to count.

See my predicament, is she being slightly defiant (because she doesn't like hiding), is hiding boring, or does she just not get the concept? Yesterday, I told her to hide somewhere else, she did, and continued to hide in that new location, just around the corner, each turn for the rest of the game. She is a nut. I run the other way and pretend I cannot find her. I go to all the hiding locations I can think of. She chases me around, but I try to run fast enough that she cannot be found. And our dog always tells her where I am, is that fair?

This is what I have been up to, nothing very exciting. This and homework & housework. Life is pretty good, even though the snows, they have begun.

Bookwormsrus: The book club

Our book club is just finishing up the book, The gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson. One of the themes in the book is date rape, by a high school football hero or "god". After reading the book, which I loved by the way, I got to thinking that I probably need to discuss this topic with my 15 year old daughter. But, what do I say? What are the rules for dating or hanging out with popular boys? Avoid at all costs because they can do what ever they want, including rape, and you have no recourse, because they are "gods"? It is best to never be in a situation where you are alone with a boy, because this is considered to be consent to anything he wants, because he is popular and people will just assume that you said yes? I doubt she would even listen to that advice. So what do I say? Any thoughts?

Holiday Eating Tips

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.



2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnogaholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!



3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.



4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.



5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it.



6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.



7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.



8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?



9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.



10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Re-read tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

Remember this motto to live by:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"

-author unknown, came to me via an email.

moving

Thanks for all the great advice. You have given me a lot to think about. I am surprised by how many of you said not to worry about the flooding. I am totally creeped out by the thought of living in a house that had been underwater, all that yucky toxic waste floodwater coursing through the walls and in the soil of the yard that my child plays in or that I grow veggies in. Disgusting. The more I think about it the more important it seems to me that I don't live in a house that was under water during Katrina or during any other hurricane. My understanding is they get a lot of bad storms in the fall.

Our plan is to buy, there are a lot of great reasons not to buy, and buying may not be the wisest thing we have ever done, still we are determined. Unless we absolutely cannot find a livable house, we plan to buy. There is great brand new base housing, because it was all completely leveled by the hurricane. There are a lot of really great houses to rent. Still we are going to buy. Hopefully it will turn out to be an good investment and help us save for our future home in Roanoke. But, even if it turns out to not be a moneymaker, at least we will be able to live in our own home, paint the walls, rip out the carpet, etc. With all of our animals and kids we want to be able to get off the plane and drive to our house. That is the goal. Hopefully we can make it come true. If not we have other options, so it isn't life and death. Still we are going to try to realize our dream.

My parents totally agree with y'all about renting for awhile. So everyone can tell us a great big I told you so when we end up making a poor decision. But, remember I have animals and kids who are not easy on rental properties. Plus, the lovely military moves all of our belongings, one time - If I decide to move say from a rental to a house in a year we would have to pay for that move ourselves. Who is to say the perfect house wont come up for sale while I am looking and we will find it and it will be ready right when we need it? It is possible. So we are going to try to do everything in our power to make it happen. If not, we will live on base or something.

About the traffic, many of the bridges and major highways were destroyed by Katrina so the traffic is bad right now. This is the reason that living on the outskirts of town is such a long commute. With everyone on the same road at the same time it is a cluster. Maybe someday the roads and bridges will get repaired and living in the country will be less of a commute.

I still think y'all are crazy to say not to worry about flooding, I don't think I could live in a house that was soaked in 10 feet of sludge, no matter how much bleach was used to clean it. Yucky! And what about my veggie garden? I was hoping to save some money by growing veggies as that is pretty much all Lily eats, we pay a fortune in potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, bell peppers. I was hoping to grow all that.

stresses

Slowly but surely I am trying to catch up in school. I have gotten so far behind. It is very stressful. I don't do stress well.

Searching for a house is turning out to be very difficult. There are literally hundreds for sale in the general area in our price range, it should be easy. However, it sucks. After seeing what happened during Hurricane Katrina, it seems obvious that we should buy a home as far inland as possible. Right? Nothing that was flooded during that hurricane or any other. Right? There is a slight problem, all the houses that we want to buy are close to the ocean. We want Mandy and Lily to go to a good school, those schools are for the people living in houses practically on the beach. Plus, there is the commute thing. Do we want Jeff to have an hour commute? He already works ungodly hours here with a 10 minute commute. Add an extra 2 hours per day to him being gone.

Mostly I just feel so frustrated. We did find this lovely house, well it was lovely on the Internet. Big, beautiful, good schools, good commute, never flooded, however - one of Jeff's co-workers took a look and said the area was icky and run down. Part of me thinks, who cares if the neighbors mow their lawns or if the neighborhood is rundown and the house is old, who cares. Good schools, good commute, no flood. I guess now I have to add to the list neighbors who mow? Is that an important indication of their good neighborliness? Do your neighbors mow? Does your neighborhood ever look rough?

I better get my nose back in the books.

PS Lily is so potty trained! She came and got me while she was playing at an indoor play area, way up in the slide, she came and got me and told me to take her to the potty. Where she actually pooped, in a public restroom. So proud. Maybe someday I will let her out of the crib. Not!

Hu's on First