The Scenic Route

The Latest News

2008-08-18T21:17:00.004+09:00

PATRICK'S HOME!!! Sorry it's been a while - Patrick got home about a week ago and we've been working on baby stuff. He is SO excited to see the baby moving around in my belly. I guess it's finally becoming real since he's seeing it in person instead of in pictures!

His primary task, besides talking to the belly, has been to get the baby’s room ready. Our second bedroom has been the catch-all room for the past two years, since we have pretty much no storage in our 950 sq ft house. He got the whole room cleaned up this week, got the crib up, and we bought lamps and a few things from Ikea. Our house is so small that even standing in the doorway, all I can fit into the picture is half of the back wall!

We haven’t broken the news to Mr. Man that the new room isn’t for him!

My fantastic friends threw us a baby shower yesterday - it was great! I'll post the pictures shortly in a new post, but that's all the stuff that is in the center of Aden's new room.

May the Force...

2008-07-30T22:02:00.003+09:00

Can you believe that I went to a StarWars convention? We (marketing) accompanied 3 buses last weekend to a convention celebrating 30 years of Star Wars in Japan. Here are a few pics from our trip. Enjoy!

Play Our Baby Game!!!

2008-07-21T22:07:00.003+09:00

My friend Michelle found this cool site where you can guess different things about the baby before he's born. Check it out and place your vote!!! Go to: http://www.expectnet.com/games/BabyAGuessingGame

Ultrasound

2008-07-16T20:59:00.002+09:00

So, I guess one of the benefits of having a 'high risk pregnancy', thanks to my hypothyroidism, is that I get more ultrasounds. Baby Aden is doing great. No pics today to keep, but I know that he's in the 45% - average. His legs are measuring a week ahead, his noggin is a few days ahead, and his tummy is about 3 days behind. Guess that means he'll be built more like I runner than Patrick or I could ever hope to be - especially the small tummy part! They said he's on track to be just shy of 8lbs at birth - let's keep our fingers crossed on that one!

Belly Shot

2008-07-09T22:56:00.002+09:00

I know - I wanted to be better at blogging, but that just hasn't happened yet! Here it is 11pm and I'm just getting home, again that late for the 3rd night this week. Now you can see why I'm not blogging :P

A few of you have asked me for belly shots. Here is the latest (it's two weeks old). Baby Aden is doing well. He likes to wake me up or keep me up at night 'playing' and then the dogs want to play in the morning. Between the three of them, I don't get to sleep nearly as much as I'd like!

I have more pictures to post, but I brought the wrong thumb drive home. I'll try to update this weekend. OH, and if you know anyone (good/bad) with the name Aden - I don't want to know - LOL :P It took us FOREVER to come up with a boy's name that we both liked!

It's been a while

2008-06-18T22:11:00.004+09:00

Hi Everyone! Sorry, I've been gone a while - things here are absolutely crazy. Since my last post, I've been in 6 cities in 4 states, 3 countries, 14 air flights, put on a major race for over 8000 Japanese, or AND am still working and trying to grow a bambino somewhere in there ;) Whew, I got tired just typing that!

I have tons of pictures to post and more details to follow, but wanted to let everyone know (quickly) that things are going well. OH and Patrick will be home from his deployment in less than 2 months now - WHOOP!

I had a 3-D ultrasound done in Houston. The baby is a bit scrawney in the picture b/c it was done about 3-5 weeks earlier than it should have been (at 19 weeks).

Here's the face, behind the arm. Keeps hiding the face.

But he isn't afraid to show us everyhing else! Yep - HE. His father is so proud. :)

Missy's Home!

2008-04-17T19:21:00.002+09:00

I picked up Missy yesterday. She's doing great! She has a 6" incision from the top to the bottom of her poor little knee (okay, not so little). I'll take pictures tomorrow. It's been raining, so I haven't taken the camera out and pictures inside would be really dark.

I didn't realize how much more of an attention hound she is over Mr. Man. It's weird to have her underfoot, following me around the house, putting her head on my laptop while I type... Mr. Man just lays around. Polar opposites!

She's cracking me up too. She has one of those big collars and runs into EVERYTHING! I take it off when I can watch her, but put it on when I leave the house. I put it on her last night when I went to sleep. All night long I could hear her running into the curtains next to the bed. Then she's scare herself, forcing the curtains to move the other way, never realizing that she was the one moving them. Crazy mutt!

Missy Update

2008-04-10T21:37:00.003+09:00

I dropped Missy off for surgery yesterday. For those of you who I haven't talked to, Missy injured her knee the last week of January and I've been carrying her up and down the steps ever since, and she's been on cage rest when I'm not home. It's amazing - this same thing happened on her other leg in Alaska and she had surgery in a week. In the middle of Tokyo, it takes 9 weeks. Does that make sense to anyone else? The base vets haven't exactly been helpful. Our vet's x-ray machine has been broken for over a year, so I've been having to drive 1.5 hrs to the Army Vet. That vet had the x-ray machine, but couldn't do the surgery, so he was supposed to set up an appt off-base. He forgot about Missy and made the appt 7 weeks after I started making the trek back and forth.

SO, yesterday I dropped her off for surgery. They called at 8:15pm last night to tell me that she made it out of surgery and is doing great. I have to leave her there for a week for recovery - a long time, but it's best for her. This way she isn't trying to rough house with Mr. Man!

This was Missy when I dropped her off. She looks thrilled, doesn't she :P

Cherry Blossoms & Tulips

2008-04-07T20:35:00.009+09:00

My friend Jess and I took her daughter out to Showa Park this past weekend. All of the cherry blossoms are out, and they were having a tulip festival. Check out these fantastic flowers!

There were flowers EVERYWHERE!

She wasn't a big fan of sitting near the flowers, but still had a good time!

We don't know if these two were actually getting married, or if they were models, but it was still really pretty!

This is one of my favorite pictures :)

Here are all of the Cherry Blossoms. I love that in Japan people go on picnics. You never see that in the states anymore. Some place in the park were so full that you'd be lucky to be able to put a blanket down.

Howdy

2008-03-31T20:43:00.004+09:00

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have pictures to put up, but for some reason my card reader isn't working. I'm doing fine. I'm at 13 weeks now and feeling great (except for being a little tired). The other night I fell asleep during the first 5 minutes of The Bee Movie and woke up 2hrs later!

Patrick is doing great and say hi to everyone. I'd say he's counting the days until he comes home, but we're still on the upswing, so that would be depressing to count! He's really excited about the baby and sends me e-mails on a regular basis, asking about what kind of stroller we should get, etc. It's really cute.

I'll post more when I get my files downloaded. Hope everyone is doing great!

Little Samurai

2008-03-22T11:05:00.004+09:00

When we were moving to Alaska, we were convinced that we would have two kids while we were there. Patrick wrote on a box of baby heirlooms that we've been toting aroung "Little Eskimos". Well, as you guys know, we didn't get around to it while we were there. When we found out we were going to Japan, Patrick scratched out "Eskimo" and wrote in "Samurai". So, here's our future Little Samurai :)

Patrick and I are SO excited. Patrick is away at the moment, but will be back in time for the birth - and to help me put my shoes on when I can't see my feet any longer! I'm at the end of 11 weeks and am starting to feel better. Things have been pretty good - just a touch of evening sickness, but nothing that going to bed early doesn't fix! I'll keep you guys posted on the progress!

Fertility Festival

2008-03-18T18:41:00.010+09:00

This past weekend we took a trip to the Fertility Festival. Due to the nature of the trip, we decided it would make an excellent girls trip. WARNING: SOME PICTURES MAY BE A BIT OFFENSIVE!

Background: Each year, a new giant wooden phallus is carved from a large hinoki (cypress) tree. In Japan newly made objects are thought to express more purity and vitality. The tree is brought to the shrine for purification rituals during the coldest part of the winter, before a master craftsman begins to shape it. The craftsman uses only traditional tools and wears clothing that has also been purified through rituals at the shrine. It is this phallus that will be the central focus of the procession, and then be placed into the Shinmeisha shrine as the principal phallus after the festival. For more info, go to http://www.yamasa.org/japan/english/destinations/aichi/tagata_jinja.html

Okay, here are the pics:

This guy leads the parade.

These are wishes

Women carry phalic symbols like babies.

Yes, it really was this big!

These are prayers for good fertility and healthy babies/

Here are three of the six of us that took the trip. We didn't get lost at all on the 10hr trip. It was great!

He's Still Around?

2008-02-24T22:02:00.003+09:00

Hi Everyone! Here was the latest celeb. sighting at Yokota. We had Sinbad visit us and he put on a pretty good show. I didn't know he was still around and wasn't too excited about going to see his act, but it was actually really funny!

Snow?

2008-02-15T23:13:00.004+09:00

Does anyone still ready this thing? Geez - whoever owns this blog is really a slacker...

Ok, but really - it finally stopped snowing. Yes, SNOWING! The pups thought we were back in Alaska - who'd have thought that it would snow in Japan (except of on Fuji of course). BTW, nobody here knows how to drive in the snow :)

e were supposed to have a race on the first day of the snow - that didn't happen :)

Throw the frisbee Mom!

Kisses for EVERYONE!

Will Smith

2007-12-29T18:31:00.000+09:00

Okay, so it's been a while... Hope that everyone had a great Christmas! Not a lot going on here - Christmas was good. We got a special visit a few weeks ago. Will Smith came to promote his new movie. Enjoy the pictures!

Fish for your Food

2007-07-08T21:01:00.000+09:00

So we went with my office friends out for dinner last weekend and fished for our food - crazy huh! You pay a lot of money and still have to do the work ;) It was a great time and we had so much food we practically had to be rolled out of the resturant! Enjoy the pictures!

They have a "Ship" in the resturant from which you fish off the deck or from the windows.

Not quite the same as Alaska - but still fun! And not so cold...

Ah, the fearless fishermen.

Miss Me?

2007-04-17T23:59:00.000+09:00

Sorry guys, things here have been so crazy. I promise - you're not missing much of the Smith's in Tokyo, considering I've been working 60-70 hr weeks! There is an end in sight though - the new director gets here at the end of the month, so hopefully I'll get my life back :)

In the mean time, I have been able to sneak away to my culture group meetings. Check out me in a kimono! Our Japanese counterparts took us to a formal tea ceremony and dressed us up. We felt like little kids. I have to say, I have a new perspective on why the Japanese have squatty potties - I can't imagine going to the bathroom, let alone breathing, in one of these things for very long. Not to mention getting ready for your day hours in advance! Enjoy the pictures, miss you all. Anyone coming to visit anytime soon? ;) (right...)

Marathon Pictures

2007-02-21T20:03:00.000+09:00

Okay, it's been 3 days since the marathon and we are both feeling pretty good - not to mention not waddling any more! Here are some pics :)

Pre-race photo of the girls. There were actually 32 of us from our running club that went.

Where but Tokyo do you have to take a subway to the starting line???

Running with a few other people (25000). Did I mention it was raining? We all looked really sexy in our ponchos! Note, the starting line is nowhere in sight from this point. It took 12 mins to get there.

One of the shrines along the way.

There were drummers on the course for entertainment, but they had to take shelter from the rain.

Post Race calm.

We Finished!

2007-02-19T15:34:00.000+09:00

We Finished! I’m happy to report that we both finished the marathon and can still walk :) In spite of the pouring down rain, the marathon went well. There were over 30,000 runners – it was crazy! I took a disposable camera with me and should have the pictures back tomorrow. I’ll post them as soon as possible. Miss you all!

Countdown

2007-02-03T00:58:00.000+09:00

15 Days Until the TOKYO MARATHON!!! Me, nervous???? Maybe...no...yes... yep, pretty much. I can't believe that in two weeks we will be trying to run 26 miles - all at once. I plan to run with a camera, so I'll post pictures when we're done :)

Snow?

2007-01-20T20:42:00.000+09:00

We couldn't believe it - we had snow flurries today!!! We were setting up all day for a race that our base is putting on tomorrow, so naturally, since the race is outside, it had to snow... It's pretty much the coldest that it has been since we got here. Crazy, huh!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2006-12-28T20:47:00.000+09:00

Have you missed us? Sorry, our blog site was broken for a while. Patrick got it fixed for me, so now I can talk to everyone again :)

Christmas in Tokyo is very interesting. Not being primarily Christian, they are just now starting to celebrate the holiday. They have Santa, decorate trees, play music and buy each other presents. They just don’t celebrate the religion behind it. It’s more like a celebration leading up to the New Year.

Patrick was TDY for a few weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was a really hard trip… to Hawaii… we don’t feel sorry for him. By the time he got home, it was a few days before Christmas and I hadn’t had time to get out our tree. Last year we had a pre-lit 9ft tree in our large living room. This year, the though of getting out our old 6ft tree, which has seen it’s better day, didn’t really appeal to us. Instead, the day before Christmas we found a small 3ft tree that fits much better in our whopping 980sqft home.

Christmas was good and everything else is going well. Patrick is still training for the Tokyo Marathon, which is in 53 days. I’m on the injured/reserve list, unfortunately. I still intend to run, but we’ll see if my knee will let me. I’ve developed “runner’s knee” – the cure for which is simply not running…yeah right. Patrick is still doing great and I know he’s going to do really well in the marathon :)

That’s it for now, hope everyone has a great new year!!!

Mission: Grand-dog Retrieval

2006-11-12T18:18:00.000+09:00

Hi Everyone! I’m on my way to Texas to get our cute ‘little puppy” dogs – when last we had the dogs, we dropped them off in Houston after our quick exit from Alaska. They have loved being at my in-laws house and we have reports that Mr. Man has lost 10 POUNDS – which we are chalking up to chasing squirrels, pacing the fence with the dogs next door, and a cooling hair cut :)

(The 'kids' helping with our last minute garage sale)

After all of the craziness involved in preparing to export dogs, I'm hoping that everything goes smooth from here. I’ll let you know how things fare on the trip home. I am routing through San Francisco with high hopes of getting to see the dogs on my layover. Wish us luck!

Happy Halloween!!!

2006-10-31T20:29:00.000+09:00

Hope you all have a great Halloween! We spend this evening handing out candy with all of our neighbors. Next year, we are going to get a kids pool and fill it with candy – think of the look that will be on the kids faces!

Last week we had a Halloween party with my culture group. The ladies were so cute and ALL of them wore costumes. Check it out.

The "Zoo"

2006-10-26T20:26:00.000+09:00

While out of town on a race last weekend, we had time to stop in to a mini-zoo. Overall, it was pretty sad… small cages, lots of really large, sad, animals. But that’s not the point. The crazy thing is what they consider “zoo animals”. This one made me grin!

We Got In!

2006-10-26T20:19:00.000+09:00

Tokyo Marathon, here we come! Patrick and I both got into the marathon, which takes place on 18 Feb. We will be in good company. Many of our friends here are running, as well as the remaining 25000 people who were also accepted. Hard to believe with that many runners that they are turning tons of people away. Guess now we actually have to start training instead of just talking about it :) Wish us luck!

Miss us?

2006-10-22T17:38:00.000+09:00

Have you missed us? Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written; things have been crazy/busy here! We’ve both been working a lot the past few weeks, plus we’ve participated in three races this past month, which turn into all day events!

Let see, what the latest news… I decided to push off school until next term, after not getting my books on time and having the Japan IP addresses blocked by Troy State. Little things… Work is really busy, as I am helping with programs outside of normal duty hours. I've also gotten involved in a bunko group, a culture group, and of course, the running club. Never in a million years did I think my lazy self would ever be in a running club!!!

I have a few new blogs that I’ll put up in the next couple of days, so keep an eye out! We miss you all! For those of you in Texas, I'll be visiting Houston in November. Give me a shout if you are going to be in the Houston or Austin vicinity in the Nov. 12th timeframe :)

ICE BAR TOKYO

2006-09-26T20:45:00.000+09:00

Ice Bar Tokyo

Yes, I can appreciate the irony of moving from Alaska to Tokyo, just to end up at an ice bar… What can I say, we miss AK!

We went to the ICE BAR TOKYO with friends on Saturday. Everything in the place is made of ice, even the glasses. Of course, they only serve Absolute Vodka, so we were in heaven! Here are a few pics of our adventure. Kampai :)

(Left) My Yummy Drink! (Right) We dared him to do it…

(Below) Us, trying to look cute

2006-09-18T17:46:00.000+09:00

Check out our new stuff under "fun facts" Scroll down to the bottom of the page. I tried to move the info to the top, but it made everything centered, so I have to work on that... Anyway, this way you guys know what time it is here, just in case you are wondering. I'm sure we're always on your minds... :P

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

2006-09-13T19:41:00.000+09:00

I know, I know, we should have realized that getting an average of 7” of rain a month in the summertime would mean that it actually HAS to rain – but it still isn’t much fun… It’s been raining since Monday and it is so humid here that my car seats, which got dampened on the way home from the indoor pool on Monday, are STILL wet! It’s just craziness. Needless to say, our marathon training (or lack thereof) has taken a turn for the worse. Tomorrow, I’m determined to go running in the rain. There’s just something about going back to bed at 4:30am when it’s dreary and raining that’s just oh-so-good!

What the...!!!

2006-09-10T21:34:00.000+09:00

It's a bird...

It's a plane...

It's -

Patrick eating sushi???

I wouldn’t have believed it either, except that I was the one taking the picture! We went to the AF Ball this weekend and Patrick actually tried sushi. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are witnessing the very first piece of sushi he’s eaten in his life. Will wonders never cease…

We had actually had a great time at the ball. Probably because they had better beverages and music than similar events we have attended in the past. Plus, we finished up the night with some friends and two bottles of sake. Here are a few pics :)

Sidetracked

2006-09-03T22:55:00.000+09:00

Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve made a blog entry – sorry!!! It’s been a crazy week at our house. I started a new job on Monday. I am now the writer/editor for our marketing department. We put out a monthly publication as well provide marketing support for 60+ groups here. All of the people I work with seem to be great, so it should be a good time.

We also received all of our household goods this week. It would have been too convenient to be able to get our stuff before I went back to work. We also spent this past weekend in Tokyo. We went to an 8 course dinner, then out on the town. Today we went to a "Shrine Sale", which is like a flea market. I’ll write more on that later after I download the pictures to share. It should only be a day or two. :)

Friendship Festival

2006-08-21T20:43:00.000+09:00

Hi all! We went to the Friendship Festival this weekend on base. It was FREAKIN' hot out! We were working a booth for the running club we just joined. They actually consider themselves a social club with a running problem - that works for me :) We were supposed to be selling t-shirt with some drinks, but all the money that came in was from Gatorade - it was the craziest thing. People were going nuts over it!

There were lots of different planes at the show. It made me think of our AK friends - miss you guys! Here was Patrick's favorite part of the event...

Oh The Insanity, Day 1

2006-08-14T22:02:00.000+09:00

No, this is not a journal of how I’m losing my mind while on “unpaid sabbatical”; this is worse. After much deliberation (not really), we did it. We’ve signed up for the Tokyo Marathon. Many thanks to our running buddies from our first and only half-marathon who have given us the confidence, however misplaced it might be, to run such a distance.

We’ve registered for the event, but it will be on a lottery basis. Apparently the city can only handle 25,000 runners and already have too many registered. For those of you that know my luck with lotteries, here’s a great example. My friend Andrea and I were supposed to both run the Mount Marathon (a very strenuous 3 mile mountain race) this past spring, but she got in on the lottery and I did not. Patrick has already started contemplating the appropriate consolation prize required if he gets to run and I don’t!

We’ll keep you posted on the process. Today is day 1 of our training and we’ve survived. Only 183 days to go. Wish us luck!

Hiking Mt. Fuji with a few friends…

2006-08-10T19:40:00.000+09:00

Our first weekend here and we hiked Mt. Fuji with some friends...

The Crew

And a few other people…

Yes, those are actually people. We were hiking from stations 5 – 10, an increase of about 5K ft (up to 12,387ft). The idea was to go on a night hike so we would reach the top of the peak in order to see the sunrise. We left station 5 at 8:30pm. It took us 4 hrs to get from station 5 to 8.5… and then we hit the wall… of people. It was like a Tokyo train station had migrated to the top of the 2nd highest single mountain on Earth. For FOUR HOURS, all we saw were the pants and shoes of the person in front of us!

We reached the peak just in time to see the sunrise at 4:30am. Spent a little bit of time up there, and then took about 3 hrs to get back to the bottom.

A few things we learned on our adventure:
1. Make sure that you don’t go on a Saturday…
2. Make sure that if you do go on a Saturday, that said Saturday is not a Holiday…
3. It really is about 50 deg colder at the top, and windy as all get out!
4. As the altitude gets you, you are more than willing to pay ~$2+ to get a stamp on your hiking stick… at every stop…
5. People actually hike Mt. Fuji in skirts, shorts, and flip-flops. These are the clinically insane…

We really did have fun, and recommend it to anyone that travels this way!

The Scenic Route...

2006-08-08T20:54:00.000+09:00

Howdy from Tokyo! Those of you who know us, know that we never do anything the easy way. Hence the scenic route… the ongoing collection of our grand (and not so grand) misadventures that we seem to get ourselves into. That and just the crazy things that happen on a day to day basis! I hope you find entertainment in our entries, and feel free to leave comments!