Where's the Rice?

I was so excited when I got home from the Saigon Oriental Market. I had in my possesion so many lovely ingredients. Feeling a bit sad about the fact that Japan is so far away along with all of her delicious foods. I got out my Sushi cook book. I wanted to take the time to make the rice the traditional Japanese way. This is when I realized that with all the trouble I had taken to get just the right ingredients to make my food taste like I remembered it tasting...I had forgotten to buy rice. There was not a single grain of rice in my house. Back to the store.

I still have not found Sake, but otherwise the dinner turned out pretty good. I still miss Japan. Jeff, who had lunch at a Japanese restaurant last week said at least my meal tasted more like Japan than the one he had at the very expensive Japanese retaraurant. Oh well I guess you can never go back. My rice turned out perfect though. Here is the recipe in case you would like to eat Japanese sticky rice.

Be prepared to have a ton of rice that will last all week.

5 cups calrose rice
5 cups water
1 large pot
1/2 cup sake (optional)

put 5 cups rice in large pot. fill pot with water. run the rice through your fingers. pour out water (not rice). fill pot with water again. run fingers gently through the rice. pour out water (not rice). One last time, fill pot with water, run fingers through rice, dump water (not rice). (this process is called rinsing the rice) Some books say that at this point you should put the rice in a strainer and drain the water for at least a 1/2 an hour. I do not do this step because my dear friend and the world's best Japanese cook Ritsuko doesn't do this...

Now add 5 cups water to the rice in the very large pot. Cover the pot and put on the stove over medium heat. Do not remove lid at any point from now until the end. Heat until the water begins to boil. (usually takes 10 to 15 minutes)

Once the water has started to bubble (I use a clear lid) turn up the heat to high for 3 minutes. If your pot is not big enough it will start to boil over at this point and you may have to reduce the heat a bit sooner.

Now reduce heat and boil for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Now reduce the heat again and boil for 5 more minutes over the lowest possible heat.

Now remove the lid, add the sake, give it a good stir with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat. Return lid to pot. Let finish cooking for 15 minutes. Now your Rice is ready to eat.

Great for kids. Lily always eats several bowls full. The Japanese eat the rice plain. They eat their food separate from their rice instead of mixed together. Just a bowl of rice to accompany almost every meal.

In China they also eat the rice separate and do not pour their meat and veggies with the delicious sauces over the rice. In China they do not eat rice until the end of the meal. They had a specific order in which food is eaten. All I can remember is that the rice came last. Because this was the only thing Lily could eat, she was terribly hungry and they would absolutely refuse to bring us rice until everyone was done with their meal. So frustrating. Luckily I had a $2 Gucci purse filled with bananas.

Oriental Market

Yesterday's trip to the Saigon Oriental Market went well. I only made one wrong turn and was able to turn around and find the store. The store was in a bad area. I had forgotten about this aspect of the Asian culture in America. Everywhere we went in Asia, it was clean. I personally have been all over Japan and to China. Jeff has also been to Korea and Vietnam. The store I went to yesterday had an odor to it. A bad odor like a dirty bathroom. I never experienced that type of thing in Japan, stores, restaurants, even bathrooms were always very clean. Same is true during our trip to China. It is just such a shocking contrast. I guess you could say I am not in Japan anymore.

But, the people were very nice and the stuff I needed was all there plus a whole lot more. I found sweet rice flour - 1lb for 69 cents (compared to $3.79 at the Health Food Store) same with Tapioca starch and potato starch. I found a liter of soy sauce for 79 cents - the good kind not the crap at the grocery store. I found my favorite sushi rice vinegar. And I found MSG I bought a one pound bag of the white stuff!

Jeff went out to a Japanese restaurant with his work mates the other day. He came home very upset at how they had mangled the Japanese food. They were Japanese people running the restaurant and doing the cooking but it didn't taste right to him. He was very sad. Now that I have all the stuff I am going to hopefully be able to recreate some of our favorite things. Probably not, I am not the world's best cook.

Jeff did the relay for life last night. He has just come home and gone to bed. He was up for more than 24 hours. From what he told me he got a bit goofy and was the life of the party at the relay. I imagine he will sleep the entire weekend. All told the local relay for life raised more than $57,000 yeah. It is a huge thing for our community, another step toward recovery from Katrina.

Every day I hear people talking about Katrina. When I meet someone for the first time they always tell me their Katrina story. How much they lost, how scared they were, how long it took to rebuild, how long it took the insurance company to pay, how long it took to get a contractor, the loved places that were destroyed, etc. Everyone has a story. And then on the TV and radio they talk about annual events being held again for the first time since Katrina. Or they talk about the people who are still in FEMA trailers and why. And they talk about the evil insurance companies, the worst of which is State Farm.

I see their dumb commercial everyday and it really makes me mad. So many people in this community have been screwed by State Farm. They banded together for a class action law suit against State Farm. State Farm retaliated by refusing to create any new insurance policies for anyone in the state of Mississippi. Along with other companies. So everyday State Farm runs auto insurance commercials on our TV. I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be for the thousands of people still trying to get their money from State Farm to see those commercials. I wasn't even here and it makes me mad.

From the Oriental Market to State Farm I guess I am rambling today.

Shrimp in a van

This has been such a crappy week. I am feeling like such a fish out of water. I have that feeling like nothing is working. I have spent the entire week trying to find the ingredients to cook some Japanese food. I have been missing Japan. Finding a decent soy sauce, fresh ginger, and sake have been a very trying experience. Today I am driving quite some distance to an Asian food market, I believe it is Vietnamese but I still have hope. Lily and I are going on our own so I am trying to memorize the directions.

I am still having a bit of trouble adjusting to the driving in America. Even though I first learned to drive in California as a teen. First there is the driving on the other side of the road. I accidentally go on the wrong side every once in awhile especially in parking lots, where I tend to get really confused. And then there is the speed thing. I am no longer used to driving so fast. I believe the fasted I drove in Japan was around 30 MPH (which was the day I got ticketed for speeding), here I am supposed to drive 70 on the freeway and around everyone else seems to be going around 70 on the highway too even though the speed limit is 45. I swear if you get caught going 45 they will run me down with their big ass-ed pick up trucks. Every time I leave the house I see an enormous and aggressive pick up truck coming up on me in my rear view mirror. They use an awful lot of aggression and tail gating to try to get me in my tiny little car to speed up. It all freaks me out. And heaven forbid if I have to change lanes because I don't know where anything is, they get very irate at lane changers. Anyways the driving is driving me crazy. I have found some small back roads to get to the places I like, but today I am going to take all the crazy roads in order to try and find some decent Asian ingredients.

The cookie store ran out of Lily's cookies. I tried to bake a batch based on this recipe from Gluten-Free Mommy. I had to spend a small fortune in ingredients and then I made some modifications. This recipe is a cookie recipe with no wheat or egg, but it had some corn in it and so I tried some modifications. The cookies turned out a bit too sweet and very crumbly. They explode into tiny little pieces when you hold them. The reason they are too sweet I believe is that I substituted sweet rice flour for the Pamela's baking mix. But, otherwise the texture and feeling in the mouth was the best I have had. Even better than the store box cookies we have been eating. I am thinking of trying again with less sugar and adding some Xanthum Gum, first I have to check and see what Xanthum Gum is and if it contains corn. For now we have no cookies.

This is probably a good thing. While Lily was initially overcome with the joy of the cookie and I was able to use this to convince her to do many things. She caught on to the fact that I was getting my way and she told me I could keep my cookies she was not going to be listening to me again. In fact this last week she has been extra bad to make up for the good I got to enjoy previously. I think we are all caught up and I wont be using cookies for behavior modification anymore. I asked her to stop screaming in the car, if she did she could have a cookie. She stopped screaming and said in a clear sweet little voice, "I think I would rather cry than have a cookie." And then she continued to cry/scream all the way home. So I pulled over to the side of the road, pulled her out of her car seat by her hair and gave her a good beating. Just kidding, but wouldn't that have been shocking. I imagine she would say, I would rather have a beating than quit screaming right now but thank you for asking.

I have high hopes for today. I am going to make it to the Asian Market, without a single missed turn or tailgater. Lily will be an angel. And then we will find the children's park and play with all the other little children and eating our sack lunch. We will drive home, and Lily will fall to sleep and sleep for several hours while I enjoy my favorite soap operas and eat bon bons. This is my hope for the day.

Tonight is the Relay for Life. Thanks to all of you great Internet friends Jeff was able to meet his goal. He was also the fourth highest fund raiser in his group. Which I think is really great since we just got here and don't know anyone. He wants to donate more money so he can be at least third. What a nut. So tonight after working more than 70 hours this week he will be staying up all night running around a track. I hope he has fun. I will be here at home feet propped up eating a new batch of gluten-free, egg free, corn free chocolate chocolate chip cookies and beef donburi. If any of it turns out edible I will post a recipe.

Here is my question to you wise peoples. I live on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, this region is famous for shrimping. The seafood market was destroyed by Katrina and has not been rebuilt. There is a guy in a white van on the corner across the street from the Wal-Mart who sells fresh shrimp out of an ice chest. He is there everyday. I see that many people will stop and buy shrimp from the van guy. I would stop and buy strawberries or boiled peanuts from people on the side of the road but, buying shrimp out of a van, does that sound sane to you? Would you buy shrimp from a guy in a van? I imagine that he or his friends go out on their shrimp boat and get these lovely shrimp early in the morning. They could be the freshest most delicious inexpensive shrimp in the world. But, they come from a van. Just wondering.

Romance

Thanks for all the preschool advice and sympathy. Yesterday, Lily was so bad - I was sure her little head was going to spin around and her eyes were going to roll to the back of her head and I was going to have to find a good priest. An early nap helped for a bit but by the time Jeff came home she was back to being less than sweet.

A few days ago I was lucky enough to spend the day with one of Jeff's new workmates. She is a mom of a little girl around Lily's age and the girls had a blast together and she and I hit it off really well. Toward the end of the day the girls were playing in the McDonald's play land and we were quietly chatting. Jeff called me on the cell phone (I am loving having a cell phone) and told me that he and Mandy were going to go out to dinner and would be a little later than expected getting home. I told him that was OK since I was out and about as well. Turns out they were right across the street from me. Mandy and Jeff had been to the movies and I wasn't sure what they had seen. My friend asked me which movie they had seen and I told her I had no idea, it was something violent that I had no interest in and therefore I did not really pay attention when they told me the title and plot of the movie. Truthfully there isn't a lot of information that can stay in my brain and I try to be selective about what I remember and what I just let go.

My friend laughed and reminded me that over the weekend Jeff had taken me on a date, to dinner at a sports bar and a violent movie. Which is true. She was giving Jeff a hard time about his lack of romance and now was ribbing me about it. This got me to thinking about the fact that I do not believe that Jeff and I have ever gone out to see a Marsha type movie. The movies and restaurants we go out to on our dates are always very Jeff friendly.

Not that I care, just getting out of the house is nice. We are lucky to have Mandy available to babysit and Jeff and I get to go on dates quite a bit. I used to be very sensitive to keeping track and making sure that our marriage was equal. Equal chores, equal say in money, equal time to ourselves, and lately I haven't really been keeping track. I don't know why it used to be very important to me. I really wanted to make sure I was not being taken advantage of and I therefore kept careful track of things to make sure I was treated correctly. But, I can't remember the last time I kept track of things like that.

When I got the chance I brought this up to Jeff, the fact that we only go to see his movies and he never goes to see my movies. I also mentioned that we never go out to candle lit French restaurants for dinner, we always go out to Jeff type restaurants. I was only joking around, giving him a hard time for not being romantic enough. He reminded me that he had taken me out to dinner at a French restaurant. When he took me to the French Riviera for my birthday, and again when we spent two weeks in France including going to Paris and strolling threw Monet's Gardens. Shut my mouth, the dude is romantic. Maybe this is why I quit keeping track, because I always end up looking bad.

It is interesting, meeting new people, trying to make new connections. I seem to be coming across as a spineless simple woman whose husband is insensitive. You can never judge a book by its cover.

I went ahead and uploaded some pictures from our trip to France, notice Jeff's expression in the museum compared to his expression visiting WWII memorial sites, and check out the pretty pictures of Monet's water Lily pond and garden. I am a huge fan of Claude Monet and he painted many pictures from his garden and home in Giverney, France just outside of Paris. His home and gardens have been turned into a museum and you can go there and visit, and also buy some prints.

Grumpy Jeff in museum of modern art in Paris.

Mandy in Monet's garden.

More of Monet's garden.

Jeff at Pegasus Bridge in Normandy. Just prior to the invasion of Normandy on D-Day there was the taking of Pegasus Bridge. Jeff has written and I have edited several papers about this battle during his quest for first a bachelor's degree in military history and now a Master's degree in World War II history. We also visited all the D-day beaches and memorials in Normandy, and the ones in Belgium the site of the Battle of the Bulge. Isn't that romantic?

Preschool

Yesterday we had so many plans and none of them came to fruition. Lily had a hard time with gymnastics. Jeff had to drag her to the car screaming after less than 10 minutes. I guess we will try again next week. She has been following directions and acting well and I thought she would be able to handle gymnastics again. I don't know if she is just testing her boundaries or if maybe gymnastics is just not for her.

I worry about how well she will do in Kindergarten. I am not sending her to preschool and as of right now she lacks the ability to listen to other adults. I want to make sure she has that ability before I unleash her on a Kindergarten teacher. We have debated the preschool issue but in the end we have decided to wait until Kindergarten. 1. food allergies 2. I think behavioral she is still in a place where a one on one adult to child ratio best suits her needs 3. money-preschool is a fortune. So this is where we are. I am hoping the gymnastics will help her to learn to listen to another adult. At least here there are almost as many adult teachers as there are kid students in the class. And there is the option to pick her up and leave. She looks forward to going and has friends there, so hopefully she will start to behave. I know she has it in her.

I remember when I used to work at a preschool. There were several kids in the class who needed one on one attention. I ended up quiting because of how angry those kids made me. I was not able to do my job, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get those kids to act right without my undivided attention. All the other kids therefore got no attention. And since I couldn't give all the wild children my undivided attention at the same time there was always at least one kids climbing the walls. It was a horrid experience. Put me off taking care of other people's kids for life. I don't even like to babysit anymore.

I think it is human nature not to like kids who are so much more work than the other kids. I am afraid if I unleashed Lily in her current state on another adult that she would have a bad experience. I am pretty sure that her trying behavior would cause at least a bit of friction for her and the teacher. I would be nice if I could get her behavior a bit more under control before I unleash her on a poor unsuspecting teacher.

On the one hand I am amazed by how much progress she has made behavioral. On the other hand I don't think she is quite there yet. We still have a bunch of work to do. But, a part of me is worried that if I just let her go to preschool she would learn to behave. I have noticed that she is no longer a million times worse than her peers.

Meanwhile Lily and I are working on her numbers, letters, drawing, painting, puzzles, etc. Right now it is the time to register for fall preschool. So now that decision is made I can stop thinking about it and move on with getting her ready for Kindergarten. If they only had cookies and Dora the Explorer in Kindergarten she would be an angel.

Lily and Jeff got home from gymnastics and Lily continued to cry for over an hour. I tried feeding her, and then I just put her down for a nap. By the time she woke up from her nap we were not in the mood for festivals. We went to a bookstore and then out to dinner. Lily was OK, not great the rest of the day. At least there were no more fits. We also discovered that you have to pay $12 to go to the craw fish festival and then you have to pay for rides and food. That seemed like an awful lot, especially since with Lily we probably wouldn't stay more than an hour or two tops. We still have next weekend to go, I guess we will have to think on it.

Today I have to unclog a sink, remove a stain from the carpet, and fix a hole in the wall where Lily slammed open her bedroom door. You should see her right now, all angelic, sweetly playing with puzzles. You would never know that she has the will of iron.

The Interview

Dixie from Dixie Peach has graciously agreed to interview me...

1. What would be your best advice for a military family moving overseas for the first time to help them adjust?

Get out of the house! During our time living outside of America we met many other Americans living overseas and without fail the people who were happy explored the country they were living in and the people who hated their experience of living overseas stayed on the military base.

The advise people always give is to learn the language. I imagine that learning the language does enhance one's experience of living and traveling to foreign places. But, I am not good with language, and the thought of learning to speak another language in just too much for me. Most American military families don't learn the language. Some people feel that this means that they cannot leave the established American military community and venture out into the country. But, this is not true. In Japan the base we lived on and shopped on, it was picked as the best overseas military installation in the Air Force many times. It really was nice. But, I cannot imagine never leaving that base for four years, yikes. My fondest memories in Japan are all off the base.

Adventures, this is where it is at.

2. What's the primary thing you'd like for your daughters to know as they grow up?

My girls are smart, intelligent and confident. What I am trying to impart though is how to be a friend. I have discovered in my life that people are the most important component to a happy life. I want them to know how to listen, be unselfish, to be a friend. We don't have the luxury of living in the same community all our lives and making friends is the primary thing I'd like my daughters to know. I hope that we learn how to do this together.

3. Did you have any daydreams as a child about what job you'd like to have when you grow up?

I have always been a daydreamer. I cannot think of a job that I wanted when I grew up. This has been a serious problem for me, a lack of direction. In high school, when I originally went to college, and even now I don't really know what I want to be when I grow up. I was working toward being a teacher for a long time. But, I have had the courage to admit to myself that I am not nearly patient enough to be in charge of other people's kids. I am great at making plans, I am the world's best math tutor, but I get frustrated easily and that doesn't mix well with kids. With my girls I can go take a time out. But, I don't think teachers get a time out.

I think most of my daydreams as a child were about being loved, being in love, having someone love me. Now that I really and truly feel love, I have expanded my daydreams to include some sort of focus. Now I dream of having a job where I play on the computer all day. Might as well get paid for what it is I am going to be doing anyways.

4. Do you think that having the experience of living overseas and having traveled quite a bit and also having a daughter with Celiac disease has made you better as being flexible and able to improvise?

Absolutely. I can still remember my first time flying overseas. We left Washington, D.C. and landed in Frankfurt, Germany. We had a four hour lay over before our flight to Venencia (Venice). In the Frankfurt airport, I almost had a nervous breakdown. I was so worried about everything. There were no problems or snags during this trip, just sitting there waiting for four hours was so hard. And the bathrooms. I had always been a hold it until you get home kind of girl, or in case of emergency use toilet seat covers, hand sanitizer etc. Going to the restroom in a foreign country, and allowing my then 9 year old Mandy to use a restroom in a foreign country almost caused me to lose grip with reality.

We then flew to Venezia (Venice) Italy and then drove to our home in Pordenone. Which was Jeff's little two bedroom apartment. The hot water heater for the radiator didn't always work well, it often had to be sweet talked back to life, and during Jeff's three weeks away from home it had stopped working. When we arrived the apartment was very cold. The floors were all ceramic tile, the walls were concrete. The cold damp air from outside had seeped into the house and it chilled me to the bone. Everything I touched felt damp, and I was so cold I just couldn't get warm. Plus, Jeff's sense of style meant blond couches, blond tables, white walls, and ugly art placed up at his eye level. Not the warmest welcome.

It took me a long time to feel at home there in Italy. We really didn't have to over come any crisis or anything but it was a hard time for me. Then if you look at my move here to Mississippi, just about everything you could imagine has gone wrong. The funny thing is that it really doesn't effect me the way having to go to the bathroom in Germany for the first time did. I guess having diarrhea in Egypt curred me of ever having a problem with a bathroom again in my life. I have seen things you cannot even imagine in the bathroom department and nothing fazes me now.

I guess what I am saying is that I no longer need for my reality to meet with my plans in an exact way. I make my plans, I try to think things through, I try to make sure I have thought of everything, but I except that shit happens. In reality nothing ever seems to go the way I plan for it to go anyways and that is OK. I also try to remember that the discomfort I am feeling during travel is temporary and not forever, like a pap smear, you just grin and bear it. Somehow not making a big deal about it helps the bad stuff to pass by a little more easily. I used to feel that all my pain and suffering had to be acknowledged by others.

And Lily's Celiac disease has really further taught me the same lessons. Life on earth as we know it is not really effected by whether or not Lily gets to eat cake on her birthday or has a bowl of fruit. Her first birthday without the cake made me cry. Her second birthday I did the fruit. Her third birthday I bought a gluten-free, egg free, corn free cake mix and made her a cake. Her fourth birthday is coming up and I don't know what I will do, but it doesn't really matter all that much as long as there are balloons, one of Lily's favorite things - she will be happy.

5. What's your favorite part about living in Mississippi - so far?

That is the easiest question to answer. The people!!! I have been to Roanoke, Virginia a couple of times and I noticed it there. But, otherwise this is my first time being in THE SOUTH. If you live here and have ever been anywhere else you know what I mean. People are just nice. We really enjoy the pace of life here too. Jeff notices it more than I do. People are not really in a hurry, except on the highway 90. At the restaurant, at the check out counter of the grocery store, people will chat with me. Everyone chats and is polite. They take a few minutes just to say hello and exchange a few words. I cannot tell you all the places I have had little chats with people. Anywhere you see another human being chances are you are going to have a five or ten minute chat. It feels very welcoming and makes me feel at home. Even for Mandy on her first day of school, the other teen aged girls took her under their wing and made her feel very welcome. This is a place where even teen aged girls are nice to each other. Oh yeah and everywhere I go people speak English. I can ask someone where is the post office.

This weekend we are going to a craw fish festival, where they are giving away free bags of tobacco. I am very excited.

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Now it's your turn to play if you wish:

Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” I will respond by asking you five questions in the comments here on this post so check back here. I get to pick the questions. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Turning off the TV

Monday I spent the entire day glued to the TV, crying my eyes out. Tuesday, I decided it would be best not to turn on the television set and find something else to do. Lily and I had a lovely day. We weeded the back yard a bit. We found a children's park a block from the cookie store. This is the most amazing playground in the world. Complete with stream, bridge, ancient squirrel infested oak trees, beautifully landscaped grounds surrounding several climbing and swinging areas. Too bad it is a 20 minute drive from our house, but what else do we have to do?

Wednesday I watched a bit of the news in the morning but had to turn it off. We went back to the playground and then to Walmart. We bought some lovely hanging spider plants for our front porch and some flowers for the flower bed out front. We spent the rest of the afternoon weeding and planting it was lovely. Later when Lily took a nap I tried to fix my computer and set up a wireless router. Turns out that the thing you plug the Ethernet cable into... hub, socket??? Well it got damaged in the move. It also turns out that the new cable modem I bought isn't working. This all caused me unimaginable amounts of time on the phone with customer service, and without Internet. Have a temporary fix, not sure what the permanent fix will be, thinking it should involve a sledge hammer and the Gulf. Perhaps computers should not be my career field of choice, cause right now I am not terrible fond of them.

Speaking of school, I have registered for college, start at the end of May, will cost a fortune. I am on track to finish my degree before Mandy starts college. Hopefully I will then be able to find a job that pays for her college. Not that I am going to allow her to leave home. Just saying.

Mandy continues to be happier than I think I have ever seen her in her entire life. Bubbly would be the term best used to describe her. Remember Darlene on Roseanne, when she was going through her wearing black and grumpy all the time stage, that was Mandy, and now she is giggling and silly. I used to believe that my poor parenting skills were the cause of her funky moods. Turns out I really don't have that much of an impact on Mandy at all. I am still the type of mom who is not sweet and full of sunshine, but a bit too critical and usually pretty grumpy and now instead of being upset at me for days, she brushes it off and is smiling and telling me some funny story within five minutes. You know I am not perfect and when I have a three year old screaming at me, and a non working computer with customer service on the phone, and Mandy wants to know when she can check her email, my response was not exactly all sunshine and butterflies.

Today I am on a mission to find stamps, enjoy the sunshine, and to buy more cookies, and find out exactly how much sledge hammers are going for these days.

The Cookie Store

Yesterday, I took Lily to the beach. We threw rocks into the waves, walked to the end of the pier, and saw two beautiful cranes and an alligator. Then, we went to McDonald's. We bought a milk and played in the indoor play area. Slides, tunnels, and tons of kids were all there for Lily to enjoy, and she did enjoy McDonald's for about an hour. Then we went to Five Seasons Whole Foods Market, AKA - the cookie store. Followed by a trip to the grocery store and then a trip to a local playground. We then went home, had some lunch and took a nap.

After Lily's nap, and after dinner, she was taking a bath and we were having a little chat. I asked Lily what we did today and she said, "we went to the cookie store." I thought that was funny seeing as how we did so many things, the only thing that had an impact on her was the cookie store.

Long story short is that Lily has a hard time digesting wheat, oat, corn, and egg. Those things make her sick and we found this out when she was only 9 months old. Living in Japan I didn't have access to the things I have access to here in America. One of those things is stores that carry cookies which are somehow magically made without any of the above mentioned ingredients. I tried making baked goods for Lily myself a few times, I tried mail ordering baked good for Lily a couple of times, while we were living in Japan. But, for the most part poor little miss Lily had never had a cookie in all her three years and 9 months of her life. Poor dear. She actually had rarely had sugar either. Poor, poor, Lily.

So we found the "cookie store". I actually find it ironic that I go to the health food store in order to buy junk food for my kid. he he, I will probably get struck by lightning for saying that.

When people find out about Lily's food issues they become fraught with anxiety and ask me what in the world the child eats. I am thinking to myself, ummm ....food, she eats food. Stuff like meat, potatoes, veggies, fruits, rice, beans, cheese, nuts - you know the stuff in the grocery store hidden around the edges. We don't really even go down the isles anymore, nothing from a box, or a can, or a bag for Lily. I guess I have just gotten used to cooking this way for her.

We eat bananas with peanut butter. We eat sweet rice with blueberries. We eat French fried potatoes (that I cut and fry myself) covered in fresh grated cheese. We eat meat at almost every meal, seasoned with salt, maybe some lemon and garlic or cheese. I am a pretty boring cook. We eat beans and rice, we eat lots of green beans and broccoli. Lot of nuts, Lily loves nuts, mostly pistachios and cashews, she wouldn't touch a peanut with a ten foot pole, but loves all natural peanut butter, by the spoon or on bananas. She loves all kinds of fruit, mostly the expensive stuff, like strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, and raspberries. We eat carrots and squash a lot too. I am a horrid and boring cook so I shy away from questions of what we eat because it is embarrassing, that I serve my family such plain and boring food all the time. Poor family.

Anyways, now I have learned the power of the cookie. Lily will do anything for a cookie. She will finish her dinner. She will stop saying that word that she has refused to stop saying for the past three weeks that someone taught her and she repeats every time we leave the house. Basically cookies are like gold. Now I know why other mommies get that look in their eye when they find out I didn't give her cookies, cakes, ice cream or candy. Now I know why Lily never listened to me before now. Just kidding. But, I am loving the cookies.

We may have accidentally bought the last box of cookies in the cookie store and the lady at the counter said they were on order. What will I do without my cookies. We have been back to the store and bought a box of cookies three times this past week. It was the only box of cookies in the entire store with no egg, wheat, corn or oat. It is a hard combination to try to remove from baked goods. I seriously stop by there almost everyday and see what is in and say hello. Bonus is that I found a playground just down the street and a little mom and pop grocery store on the way home.

These people know me well enough now after one week , that they strike up conversations with me. Just yesterday the lady stocking the apples talked to me for fifteen minutes about the Wiggles. But, nothing beats the cookie store.

I know a little girl who swallowed the egg dye, I don't know why perhaps she'll cry

How long have I been here now? It is hard to tell. Sometimes it feels like forever and other days it feels like I have just gotten here. I now have all my stuff, everything we have bought, everything we shipped here from Japan, it is all here waiting to be unpacked. I am feeling pretty good, getting settled in and enjoying myself. But, this wasn’t always true. In fact there was about a week when I was very upset and frustrated Lily was also having a hard time adjusting. We weren’t sleeping right and there was just so much to get done. And I needed a break.

Last Saturday, the day before Easter, we had been here a little over a week and we had no refrigerator, no washer or dryer, no furniture, etc, While I was cooking dinner and boiling eggs, Jeff looked through the cable guide and announced to the family that all this money on cable TV, all these channels and there is nothing on TV. Mandy took a look and agreed nothing on TV. So I took a look and discovered the British comedies on PBS, I used to watch them all the time before I got married and moved out of America. I was so excited, one of my favorites was coming on, Keeping up Appearances, it is hilarious. It was then decided that Jeff and the girls would dye the eggs without me while I would watch my show.

Mandy got the dye ready and set it on the table. Jeff was doing something at the kitchen sink, probably acquiring some paper towels, he has a bit of a paper towel addiction. Which bothers me because I feel paper towels are wasteful and I refuse to buy them, and he then buys them in bulk and stores them in premium cupboard space. And then I hide them in far away places, like the attic, and he buys more. But, I digress… Lily sat down at the kitchen table in front of the multicolored cups filled with water, vinegar, and dye…and she took a big drink out of one. Mandy screams, Jeff yells, Momma…Lily drank the dye. Etc.

I was trying to ignore them while I watched my show. A really funny show I haven’t seen in six and a half years. But, it wasn’t really as funny as what was going on in my kitchen. What a hoot my family is. So I wandered into the kitchen and participated in the egg dying process. I had a blast and I believe that was the moment that I stopped feeling frustrated and crappy about the move. I realized how much I love my family and my new house. All the things that need to get done will get done, eventually. Until then I am trying to slow down and take the opportunity to enjoy the process.

Thank you

Thanks everyone for all your support. I am about to cry.

Speaking of support...

Everyday Lily and I walk down to the Gulf of Mexico from our new house. It is about a quarter mile, perhaps less. Between my house and the gulf is an area that was completely destroyed by Katrina. Many of the lots have been cleaned up and all that is left is perhaps the foundation. Some lots have mobile homes parked on the foundation. Some of the lots have not been cleaned and you can still see the wreckage, the skeleton of the house, the fallen trees, the trash. There are so many homes in the Gulf Coast area that need to be rebuilt that it is nearly impossible to get a contractor to build. People who have the money are just waiting and waiting.

But, everyday I see volunteers from out of state building homes. I see them in restaurants when we go out to eat. I see them snapping photos of each other in front of severely wrecked landmarks and I see them with hammer in hand nailing away on homes just down the street from my house. Everyday the landscape changes and more and more work is being done. It is so amazing to see the improvements happening in just the short time I have been here.

When I first came to buy the house I thought that after so much time how come more hasn't been done. How can there still be so much garbage and wreckage everywhere. Then when I returned six weeks later I was amazed at how much had changed in those short six weeks. Over the course of the first week here we drove from Georgia, through Alabama, through Mississippi, to New Orleans-Louisiana. I had a glimpse of the devastation, the width of the devastation is several house wide going 80 miles per hour on the highway. It is unimaginable how many hundreds of thousands of buildings need repairs, perhaps millions. Even in an area like this one where there is money, there still aren't enough workers to do the work. If you know someone who needs a job, the local fast food joints start at $8.50 per hour. There just aren't enough people to do all the work that needs to be done here. Not just the rebuilding but everything. Everyone is hiring and with such a shortage of workers the pay is outrageous.

I wanted to say however, how awe inspiring it is to see so many people from all over the country volunteering their time to help rebuild the Gulf Coast. Still after such a long time. It may not be in the news anymore but it is in people's hearts. The government may have failed these people and the progress is really slow. But, there has to be something said about all the thousands of people who continue to pour into this area, using their vacation days and their own money for travel and lodging, with hammer in hand are slowly but surely building the houses one at a time. It is a nice thing to see on our daily jaunts.

I have debated taking pictures to tell some of the story. I am afraid the sensational nature of the pictures and the devastation would simply tell the story of the bad, and not tell the story of the good and the kindness of strangers. Plus, I tend to forget my camera at home.

But, I get the same feeling when my blogging friends take the time to donate for Jeff's Relay for Life event. So, thank y'all very much.

Relay For Life

Jeff is participating in the American Cancer Societies Relay for Life. He is hoping to raise $500, and since we don't know very many people here in Mississippi we are reaching out to everyone we know from all over. Cancer has touched our lives and Jeff has dedicated his participation to the memory of his father. If you are looking for an opportunity to help contribute toward the cure for cancer, just click on this little button. It will take you to the American Cancer Societies website where you can enter you contribution information. One of the first things Jeff did when we arrived here was to find a way to get involved in raising money to help find a cure for cancer. This cause has been near and dear to his heart and mine and we are glad to be back in a position to help.

The Relay for Life is an event where Jeff and his team along with a bunch of other teams run around a track continuously for 12 straight hours. At least one member of the team must be running at all times for the entire 12 hours. Since Katrina it has been difficult for this area to put on fund raising events like this. There are not a lot of participants or contributions in comparison to this event before Katrina. But, it is part of the healing process, a step in the right direction. It would be great for every one's spirits to have a successful fundraiser, but the most important thing is to raise money to cure cancer. Every dollar counts. I am not a great sales person but isn't my button lovely?

Happy Easter!

Monday

On Monday Mandy starts school and Jeff starts work. I will be doing the happy dance!

saying goodbye to Misawa

Our Stuff

The damage to our stuff was not as bad as we had anticipated. We lost our entertainment center, some book cases, Mandy's desk, and some of Jeff's art work. Some various miscellaneous other things. All told not so bad. They did unpack all of our things and attempt to dry everything. They dry cleaned all our clothes and blankets. They professionally cleaned all the furniture that survived. I have tons of art work, I love art, oil paintings from all over the world, prints from my favorite places. Not one of my pieces even got wet and all of Jeff's art got ruined. I thought that was weird. He is taking it pretty well. His pieces are all replaceable I found it all online. And now we can buy some more new furniture that will match the new stuff we just bought. Maybe in about 10 years when we recover from this past week of spending. We still have to buy a second car. We are hemorrhaging money like you wouldn't believe. The refrigerator is supposed to be delivered today and the dryer. We have been living out of ice chests and eating out a lot.

The day we had our stuff delivered Lily was sick. She had a fever for some reason and she was taking a nap when they arrived. She woke up from her nap, she hadn't eaten a single bite of food in over 24 hours, or drank any liquids. Her body was still on Japan time, for the first week Lily would be up all night and sleep all day. When I tried to keep her up all day she got a high fever and quit eating. She woke up from her nap with all these boxes and people and things everywhere. And she lost it. She screamed for the entire rest of the time the movers where here, about three hours. It was hell. I took her into her room and closed the door and rocked her. I didn't let them bring anything into the room and I just held her until they left. That was a pain but it seemed to work a little. Then I just brought in a little bit of stuff to make her feel at home. That night she actually slept through the night and yesterday she ate and played and acted like she has lived here her whole life. So the whole trip she has had one major breakdown. Hopefully.

Today I still have a ton of unpacking and organizing to do, Jeff has to work all day and Mandy is on spring vacation. Hopefully we will get a chance to walk around and explore our neighborhood. We have just been so busy from the crack of dawn until we fall in bed at night. It feels like we are working, working, working and nothing is getting done but really we are slowly progressing. Have I told you lately how much I love my new house and new laptop. So life is good here in Mississippi. The people are incredibly nice. We are so happy to be surrounded by all things American. Look at me with my big house, laptop computer, cable TV, and cell phone.

mobil phone tracker

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Moving In

It has been about two weeks of living out of suit cases but today we are moving into our new house. Today they are hopefully going to be delivering our first shipment of furniture. The shipment that left us two months ago and that has been reported to be damaged. Crossing my fingers that the reports have been exaggerated.

Yesterday we were able to acquire a refrigerator, washer, dryer, couch and two chairs. However, they are not going to be delivered right away as we hoped. The refrigerator and dryer come on Wednesday, the washer next Monday, and the furniture 2 to 4 weeks. So we will be ruffing it for awhile in the new house.

Lily has been very well behaved during this entire process, she is handling everything except the time change. She is having the hardest time adjusting to the change in sleep times. She is awake all night and asleep all day. So we kept her up yesterday. She threw up in Sears. She woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and was still pretty much awake all night. So now she is sleep deprived and sick. Still she is being pretty good. Except the pj's and long sleeved shirts. I almost forgot. It is pretty warm here. She is having the hardest time not wearing her flannel pj's with feet to bed and not wearing long sleeved shirts in the day. She is beside herself to have her arms exposed. Each of us I think has some crazy thing that is manifesting itself due to the difficulty in adjusting to a new life. Come to think of it Mandy has been wearing her jacket everywhere. She swears she is cold.

The plan for today is to sit around the house with no furniture and wait for people to deliver us stuff. We also have schedule the cable company to come and install the cable and Internet. We also still have to acquire cell phones and home phones. We did get electric and water turned on. Another busy day. But, cross your fingers I may just get to sleep in my very own bed tonight.

Sweetie.

Today Jeff and I went to lunch just the two of us. We have been working hard and accomplishing relatively little. Or so it seems. We have the car, the house, and ... a lot more to do.

Our waitress was lovely, very friendly and personable as are all the people in Mississippi. When she asked us what we would like to drink Jeff asked her what they have and she went through the entire list which was exhaustive. We ordered drinks, him a sweet tea and me a water. Later when she came for our food order, Jeff asked if he could also have a chocolate milk shake, he told her that it had been on his mind since she mentioned it. And when she brought him his milk shake she set it down on the table and said...

here you are sweetie

After she walked away, I said to Jeff - she called you sweetie. He said to me, welcome to the south baby. Have I told you lately that I love Mississippi? It is warm here too, so warm and so lovely.

Tomorrow we are hoping to find a washer, dryer, refrigerator, cell phone, couch and chairs. Monday our furniture is being delivered and our cable, Internet and phone are being hooked up. What do you think the chances are that if we buy all that stuff tomorrow we can have it delivered Monday? I am thinking not bloody likely but Jeff is convinced.