Dinner Club - First Meeting

My splenderific friend, Kristen Razvillas is my Iwakuni tour guide in absentia. We were stationed together in Camp Pendleton, she left a year before us and went to 29 Palms, we went to Charlottesville, while we were in Charlottesville, the Razvillas' moved to Iwakuni and then we both moved to Tampa together.  (Follow that?)  So I was able to pick her brain and get fabulous ideas on what to do here, before we moved here.  One thing that she did when she was here from 2004 - 2007 was to have a dinner club of sorts.  They asked a Marine, who was married to a Japanese National,  to make dinner reservations for them out in town.  He gave them the business card of the restaurant, Kristen would arrange for cabs to pick the group up, and away they would go to dinner destination unknown!  It got so popular that the local restaurants couldn't host as many people who wanted to come, so they started having to go "underground" and have the taxis meet them a few streets over!

I have had this in the back of my mind the past six months (can you believe we've been here almost six months as of today?) and last night the "Dinner Club's" first meeting was called to order!!!

I asked Kazumi, Mick's Japanese Jurisdiction Officer, to make us reservations.  She picked Kikutei

a "cook it yourself/yakiniku restaurant in downtown Iwakuni. 

Fourteen of us (regrettably there were to be 16 of us, but Kathy and Brade Goode decided not to come at the last minute.  They called and said they just wanted to stay in, but I do believe that was a bold faced lie.  You see, their daughter Ariele was babysitting the Wagoner children and the youngest Wagoner child was a bit, shall we say, vocal, and Kathy came over to help Ariele get said loud baby to bed. Guilt is coursing through my veins right now.  THANK YOU KATHY!  I don't deserve you!!!!!!!) (Oh, how embarrassing....a double parenthetical reference, but I don't see any other way to say that we missed the Nitzchkes as well!  Hope you feel better Steve!) set off in taxi cabs from the Club at 6:45 for our 7:00 reservation of "Two hours, all you can eat and drink for 3,500 yen for women, 4,000 for the men."

We had four tables and a room all to ourselves. 

The seating was on the floor, but had a cut out for the table so you could put your legs under it.  We also had pillows to sit on.

And here was our plate of food.  ☺

After a bit of discussion we decided to be like a middle school dance and have boys on one side and girls on the other. 

Next to Mick is our new friend, Morgan Nugent, then our old friends, Mike Taylor and Mike Coletta.

Bret Saunders is by himself, the non-smiler is Ken Aikey and the smiler is Doug "KD" Lang.

Chantelle Lang is by herself, Valerie Saunders is with the chopsticks and the long, beautiful locks are Nicci Aikey's.

Me and Megan Coletta on one side, Stacey Taylor across from Megan and Keri Nugent across from me!

And here's how we cook our food. 

It was nice that we had hot rocks in front of us because it was C-O-L-D.  The Japanese buildings are a bit like a swiss cheese slice.  Cold air was whistling in.  We stuffed our coats in the window, but it was still cold!

I was trying to capture the big fluffy snowflakes coming down, but I failed.  You can see the black coats trying to keep the air out!

Before we came in, we deposited our shoes in the shoe holders.  I had gone to the store before we left because my socks I had on had holes in them. 

So, of course I needed to show them off! Valerie's toe socks were my favorites though!

Mick had some pretty snazzy "GO TEXAS!" socks on!

Katy and Dario sent them to him for Christmas!  ☺

The men were a bit grill challenged and had a few mishaps.

Mike kept offering it to the rest of us. 

After we finished our food, the girls gathered....

And the men made funny faces and probably told fart jokes. 

I just realized that this whole ensemble was a Katy/Dario exclusive.  The shirt was a hand-me-down from Dario (very fancy) and the jeans and aforementioned socks were a Christmas present. Thanks K&D!

One last round

Morgan had a Captain Him and Coke

and it was time to settle up.

We had enough "300 yen off" coupons for all of us, so it was 6,900 yen a couple or about $83. 

A short cab ride to the bar where Mick asked the driver to "Turn it up please!" and jammed out to "Creep" by Radiohead.

Mick explained to us that this is one of a few songs that he "MUST JAM OUT TO" when it comes on the radio.  This was my first time in a Japanese cab.  Aren't the lace doily covers funny?

Half of us stopped a few blocks outside of the gate to watch a band, "The Rock and Roll Junkies" at the Galaxy Bar.

Kelly, fellow Marine wife, is the lead singer and Mick, my Marine husband, was the lead dancer!

And then I started to turn into a pumpkin at 10 and Mick and I walked home. 

We were stopped at the train tracks and I fiddled with my camera and got this shot.  I don't know...maybe I learned something after all in photography class!  ☺

And Home Sweet Air Station home. 

Super fun night!  We'll probably not have a meeting in February as most of the dudes are gone, but we will reconvene in March!  

Who's with us?!?!?!!?!?

Photography Class

GrandDad (Tom) told us that he would like to buy us something for the baby, when we were pregnant with Gigi, but he knew we didn't need much since she was our 4th daughter and to let him know if we could figure out something. Audrey was playing softball at the time and I borrowed a camera from a fellow parent the first day that she was pitching and was just astonished at how I could point and shoot and actually capture the action. Not knowing much about photography, but wanting to be able to take pictures of the kids as they did sports and such, we asked if he would buy us a DSLR camera.  "It will benefit you too!"  ☺ (Thank you, as always, Tom for being so generous!)

We got it a few days before Gigi was born and broke it out at the hospital.  Bad idea.  We didn't have it on "auto focus" and many pictures of those first few days are blurred.  Luckily, we forgot to bring it for the actual birth and bought a disposable one at the hospital gift shop so it wasn't a complete tragedy!  We quickly learned the magic of auto (focus)/auto shooting mode and have not left the comfort of the "green box" since.

Here in Iwakuni, we are fortunate to have several professional photographers living amongst us. Laurie was my first Iwakuni friend on Facebook and took the Kintai Bridge pictures for us that were on our Christmas card and letter. I have also asked if she will come to Gigi's 1st (well, 15 month and 3 week) birthday party.  I think Laurie's photojournalism skills are amazing!  ☺

Claire is so CLAIRE in both of these pictures!  ☺

Not much for listening to directions, that girl!  ☺

Danielle is another fabulous photographer.  Before coming to Iwakuni, she primarily did underwater photography and did frequent work for National Geographic as well as the Discovery Channel! When she was blessed with her little girl, Maricela "LaLa", she started doing portrait photography. We are going to have her take the girls' photos sometime this spring or summer too.  She does a "Mini-Model" shoot and while I doubt we will get the girls into modeling, I thought it would be nice to have individuals of the girls, rather than always trying to get four strong-willed little creatures to smile at the camera at the same time.  ☺

However, why I'm writing is I just finished Danielle's first 4 week photography class to try and learn how to get my camera out of the green box!

I am terribly remedial and it still doesn't "click" for me (HA!), but Danielle is so patient and knowledgeable and I really enjoy the fellow Marine wife company.  Here are my favorite shots I took yesterday when we went "on location" to some gardens and a temple behind the Kintai Bridge.

Slow shutter speed for running water.

Rule of thirds?  Or is it my scenery, wide-angle, framed by an object?  I don't know.  I just liked it!

"Macro" photography, which is focusing in on something small.  Aiming to get the blurred background and "depth of field."

Depth of field?  Again, not sure what I was doing here, but I was having fun focusing on the different prayer cards and trying to get the lighting right.  This one was my favorite!

After class yesterday she proposed that we continue to meet weekly and I quickly bowed out because a. I'm not a good photographer and b. I have very, VERY limited time with the kids and my job.  But then she posted this on her Facebook page today.

First this:

Danielle Caceres Photography

Ok some very exiting news to share with everyone interested in photography learning and sharing through the ILC... a super fun adventure group will be starting soon, we will go to off base locations to shoot once a week for two hours with a once a month in classroom critique and tips session! ....let me know if you are interested in signing up or want more info!! :)

I should have NEVER clicked to read the rest of the comments because look what else she wrote.

Danielle Caceres Photography

No you wouldn't need to have attended a class or finished a class. I will try and work one and one with everyone for part of the shoot and we will have monthly in class tips etc. It is more of a formal adventure group to discover new places... to shoot in Iwakuni and the surrounding areas. This is a perfect setting to learn off other like minded budding photographers, and of course leave Japan with beautiful memories through YOUR work! I would like in future to arrange more off the beaten path places and also days away shootings too. There will be a sign up fee and then a fee each time you attend but I will try to keep this low. Payment will be made to the ILC. Hope you girls can make it, I think it is going to be a BLAST!!! :)

And it got worse!

Danielle Caceres Photography Next week is just a social and idea gathering, that afternoon I will then make a special facebook page just for us and will post the places for each month. I would also like to do some theme ones too like getting a Japanese lady traditionally dressed and shoot in and outside of a temple... cherry blossom would be a nice time to do this one I think! But yes we won't be going to the typical tourists spots... we are looking for adventure where no "Gaijin" have been before!! LOL!!

I'm sunk.  Who in their right mind wouldn't come as often as humanly possible to this class?  ☺ 

THANK YOU DANIELLE!!!!!! I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS OPPORTUNITY!

Please oh please crawl just one last time

Yesterday, watching Gigi crawl somewhere, I thought to myself...."Gigi's not going to be a full-time walker when she's 15 months like the others. HOORAY!"

Today, the eve of the 15 month birthday, I sadly followed her around the house, hoping for her to crawl "Just one more time!"

We came home from a few hours out and noticed her toddling, not crawling, everywhere. I got nervous and sat on the floor and watched her go back and forth and back and forth, pivoting to come back and then going forth and my heart started breaking, bit by bit.

When Mick and I did the premarital counseling with the Catholic priest, we took some compatability test and I remember only one question and answer. "How many children do you want to have?" We looked at each others answers and felt so smug when we saw that the other had the fabulous number FOUR written down.

Your first one, you're excited for the next stage....although I'll never forget the moment when I realized that Audrey had grown longer and that was the reason her little piggies were poking out of the layette sack. I was in the glider with her reading her a board book and I cried.

But I always knew (or at least hoped) there would be another. And another. And another. But Gigi was lucky number four. This is it. She is it! And I've tried to concentrate. So I can remember. I look and look and look and look while I rock her. And turn around at red lights and make funny faces. I truly enjoy every diaper. Oh the diapers! That's a whole other post! Oh how I love the diapers! And baths in the sink. Her first Cheeto. Her first baby ice cream cone. Quickly followed by her second. And every outfit. She wears clothes to the high water point because I can't bear to move up a size. And all of these years of thinking "I can't wait to be out of the hand-me-downs" has me sending not so cute clothes along with the super cute embroidered ones for my Mom and Dad to keep in the basement until we have the space. And I think to myself, "Really? You can't part with these balled pajamas from Carters?" and I answer myself, "That slogan....'If they could just stay little until they outgrow their Carters' or whatever it is....these balled pajamas were the ones that I found in the Hilton Head outlet store when Audrey was 9 months and were the bigger version of the 3 month pajamas that I cried about (after the layette tearfest) and yes. I need to keep these balled pajamas."

So this evening, I take Gigi over to the stairs and think, she'll crawl up those and then remain on her hands and knees when she gets to the top.....and....she tries to WALK up the first step! I think, "I'm doomed. I'll never see one of my babies crawl again." I position her on her hands and knees and she makes her way up to the stairs and stands up. She toddles, I crawl into my bedroom and I think, "how, how, how" can I get her to crawl? I spot a tennis ball in our bathroom and throw it. I hold my breath and she takes off on a fast pace crawl! I watch, I cherish, I memorize and I thank her for this one last baby gift.

I have a toddler now. And I will try and cherish every moment. But I know it's impossible. So I just am grateful for tonight. I had one last look at my baby crawling.

Back to Tokyo, posting little by slow

Wanting to close out 2010 and print it for the girls, so I'm going to try and blog about the random things here and there that I missed.  Can't imagine what I have been doing that I'm not caught up with blogging!  I must be lazy.  Too many bon bons while sitting on the couch with my feet up.  YEAH RIGHT!!!!

So on Sunday of our Tokyo trip (November 2010), we had another free day.  We combined forces with Team Coletta and Team Barrientos for an awesome day!  HOORAY for Gentry's awesome navigation skills (props to the iPhone) for getting us around and planning our day.  I LOVED being the Indian (not the Chief!)!

Our first stop was Takeshita Street and when we walked up from the subway stop and looked across the street to the entrance, I thought to myself, "YOU WANT ME TO TAKE MY FOUR CHILDREN THERE?"  A bit overwhelming to look at as a whole, but it was fine once you were in the midst of it!

There were lots and lots of shops, some national stores, but mostly independent stores. 

Claire's was a major attraction for our girls.

Mr. Mike (Coletta) bought some fancy jeans in here.

And Mick got asked to put away his camera after he took this picture.  :)

Here's some evidence of what the Japanese think of our little blonde girls.  :)

Say "Geigen!" 

It was a very unique and memorable experience!  We didn't see anybody dressed up in costumes, which they say happens a lot on Sundays, but it was uniquely Japanese anyway!

We walked and walked and then walked some more this day.

Showing off my new glasses I bought on Takeshita Street.  Gigi is napping in my sling. 

Tokyo is a very modern, new building, city.  Not a lot of old.  

It was time for lunch and Team Barrientos (Gentry, Linh, Christian and Sebastian) lived in Hawaii before here and took us to Teddy's Bigger Burgers which is one of the Top 10 places to eat a burger in the States.  It was DELICIOUS!!!

This sign absolutely CRACKED ME UP.  What could this mean?

I guess, if you're a guy and just need to go #1, go to the Men's room and stand up and do your business.  But if you have to go #2, this is the only place for you. 

Then we walked and walked and walked some more and found this LOVELY park where we played the rest of the daylight hours. 

That's a whole post in itself.  I'll do that one later.  :) 

Whip Your Hair with the Girl Scouts

Audrey has, under, um, gentle pressure, from Mom and Dad, joined the Girl Scouts.  I told her, think of it more like the "Girls' Travel Club" because they're going to Okinawa (the Hawaii of Japan!) over Spring Break and planning on South Korea this summer if there's not, you know, a war.  And they climb Mount Fuji too.

Tonight was the "Special Persons Dance" and Mick was her Special Person.  They brought home a virtual treasure trove of jpeg files! 

I'm so out of it, but apparently there's a song called "Whip Your Hair."  

I love this one and have made it my profile pic on Facebook!

I LOVE THIS ONE!!!!  Mick was really whipping it!!!!  ;-0

Looks like a fun song!  That's Julia, one of Olivia's best buds, in the brown dress.

I really can't get enough of these pictures!  ☺

Our wonderful, fabulous, and thoroughly stupendous friends, "The Goode's" got Audrey in girl scouts. 

Kathy (Mom) is a CPA from Iowa.  (And she's a Democrat!  Perfect match!)  :-)  Ariele is a year older than Audrey and very sweet and always tries to include Audrey.  Julia is a year older than Olivia.  They live just down the street.  Brad is an awesome Marine officer and also from Iowa. 

A very dapper Victor Delflor (works with Mick) and his beautiful daughter Remy (who is in Olivia's class).

I hope Audrey grows to love girl scouts.  Perhaps not this weekend, as she and Mick, along with Ariele and Brad, are selling cookies outside of the commissary from 1-4 on Saturday, but let's hope soon!  There seems to be great girls and lots of fun stuff to do!

She is in the 6th and 7th grade group. 

Mick said the music was like a wedding dance, where you can kind of guess what song was going to be next.  But this was his 4th Father/Daughter Dance, so he's had some practice. 

I asked Mick what song this was and he said, "Some cheesy ballad."

In Charlottesville, at the 1st/2nd Father Daughter dances he went to, they ended the dance with "My Girl."  Let's pretend that's what was playing. 

Audrey definitely looked like she had fun tonight!

I wonder what song this was?

I love this one!

But of course, I have to end with the "Prom Picture". 

Such a good Daddy.....

but he has some pretty good girls to work with!  

☺

Night Owls and my Secret Ultimate Blogging Goal

So I kind of talk a lot on Facebook.  That's like saying James Brown kind of gets down.  Well, this past week, I have been having a conversation with bunches of my girlfriends about Gigi's night sleeping, or her lack of, more like.  All sorts of sympathy, suggestions and general chit chat is going on.

My AWESOME girlfriend and former neighbor (from Charlottesville, the fabulous neighborhood of Burnet Commons), Andrea Kaplowitz sent me an old e-mail of mine, written on January 30, 2006 today.  She said

I was reading your facebook post the other day about needing Gigi to sleep thru the night, and I was truly feeling for you.   I thought that the below email might help, because even though time moves at an eternity when you are sleep deprived (and living across the world!), the truth is that it slips by fast.  Before you know it, they are such big kids.  Take a look back....

You see, before this blog, I used to send e-mail stories along with pictures.  Instead of having captions for the pictures, I would name the picture file something funny or loving or what not.

Before we had Audrey, I made a wedding scrapbook and then started a scrapbook about our married life.  And Audrey came and I had the baby girl scrapbook purchased.  With lots of baby girl stuff to put in it.  And I would take pictures and think in my head how I would lay it out on the page and write the stories in my head of what happened so that she could look back on it and know she was loved and remember the times we had.

But life got in the way.  I never scrapbooked one page.  NOT ONE!  I would still take pictures in sets of 5 or 6, telling a story.  And a few times I got out all of our pictures (remember when you would actually develop pictures and hold them in your hand?) and organized them in shoeboxes in chronological and subject order.  But still, no albums.

I started this blog after some pestering (ahem Nico) because I wanted to capture the stories.  I want to remember that time when I asked Audrey on the eve of her 6th birthday what she thought it was going to be like being six and she answered after much thought, "I think I'll be able to do a cartwheel better."  Or how about the time I asked Olivia what she wanted to be when she grew up (probably around age 2) and she said, "A choo-choo train."  And on Monday of this week, we didn't realize that there was no Yochien (their winter break is different than an American one) and Mick and Claire went out to wait for the bus and a little bit later Claire comes running in telling me, "MOMMY!"  (Claire's very LOUD!) "MOMMY!  THERE'S NO YOCHIEN TODAY!  DADDY AND I WAITED TEN TIMES!"

And Gigi.  My sweet baby Gigi.  Is there anything more wonderful and fleeting than your baby?  She goes from this little sweet scrunched up layette to 18 month pajamas faster than you can say, "Be sure to cherish these times."  I wanted to remember her babyhood as best as I can.

So I'm writing this blog, with the intention of exporting it to a book every year or so in order to save these stories for the girls.  And my ultimate blogging goal (See?  I do go on and on and onandonandon, but I eventually get to my point) is to create a new blog, that will be of interest to very few (And those few will have names that end in Ingram or Wagoner, I'm sure) where I go through my digital pictures, chronologically, event by event, because just like the shoebox, that's how they're saved on my computer.  Not this tax season, but hopefully I can at least start it before we leave Japan.

So back to the "Night Owl" e-mail.  Here's what I wrote about my little girls back when I only had two owls.

Date: Mon, Jan 30, 2006 at 8:51 AM
Subject: Night Owls

Last night I put Olivia to bed at 7:45 and Audrey to bed at 8:30.  Around 9:15 I went upstairs because I could hear Olivia still up, singing to herself.  She was cradling her lamb beanie baby ("Lammie") like it was a baby.  She is such a little Mother and makes sure all of her dollies and beanie babies get naps....we have a very sleepy house (for inanimate objects) and find babies and beanies face down, all over the house, with blankets, Kleenexes, whatever over the top of them so they stay warm.

As I went past Audrey's room she dove down into her pillow and pretended to be asleep, but I found that she was reading a new "Groovy Girls" (don't buy it....it's horrible) book by the light of her nightlight.  Since I was a kid who tried to sneak in reading after "lights out", I wasn't mad and just told her not read that book anymore or I would take it away.

So when I went to bed around 11:15, I went in to check on the girls.  I went into Olivia's room and found her sprawled out, with her 5 mimis that she likes to have near her while she sleeps, no blanket on her, but her favorite blanket pulled up over Lammie who has her head on Olivia's pillow.  It was too darn cute and I ran down to get my camera. 

My sleepy lamb

Taking care of lammie.

So then I go to check on Audrey and I notice she's face down asleep, on a book.  I thought she fell asleep while reading, thought it quite cute and snapped a picture of that as well.  

Ahhh!  Isn't that sweet?  She fell asleep while reading!

 To my great surprise she pops up and yells "Surprise! I'm awake!"  That kid had taken my instructions literally and was not reading the forbidden "Groovy Girls" book, but a more cerebral "Before I was Famous....the life of Ben Franklin."  It was just too darn funny and I had her pose with the book.

Wait a minute!!!!  It's 11:15!!!!!!

 I then set up camp on her floor and had her turn her nightlight off and we both went to sleep.

To my great surprise and happiness.....Audrey was very pleasant this morning and got up without complaint.  Olivia, on the other hand......she was a grump-a-lump and I'm sure is already ready for her nap!

Thought you would enjoy the story and pictures.  I'm sending this to Audrey's teachers and librarian too.....sorry about the lack of sleep on her part today, but I guess I'm excited that she has discovered a love for reading!  :)  Thanks for being such great teachers to her!

Fondly,

sue  :)

 Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
- Maya Angelou

THANK YOU ANDREA!!!!!!!!!  

You absolutely made my day sending this to me!  

I can't believe you still have that e-mail, but it was wonderful to see!  

Love you bunches!!!!!!  xoxo