Fun Day

Good morning America!

I hope you had a wonderful night's sleep, and have a fresh look on the day in front of you! We are all well here.... Um, most of us are. Coen is acting like it's the end of the world today... But other than that, we are all doing well. I don't know whether it's wheat in his system, or just that his first tooth is about to come through the skin.

I have had an interesting day. There was a Tokyo team staff meeting today that both Roger and Abi went to. Eastin didn't go to school today, so I had both he and Coen all day. Aidan got home about 3:30. Thankfully Alex was here all day from about 10:00 AM. Having him here made my day go a lot smoother. He went to the 7-11 to get lunch for us while I tried to feed screaming baby. Then he went to get us both a coke later in the afternoon. It was a comfort to know that I could wash dishes in the kitchen while the boys played in the living room without damaging themselves or anything else.

This morning I made muffins for breakfast. They were really good! Then I did school with Eastin for about 1.5-2 hours. He was the teacher today and I was the student... ;) We got lots of school done. I have found that if there's any way I can make a game out of it, we can get more done. After school, we did a craft. It was a little something I picked up at the preschool. I took three coffee filters, laid them out flat, and let him dye them with colored water. After they were dry I folded them up and attached them to the end of a straw. (We used pipe-cleaners in the States, but they don't have those here.) Anyway... It made an adorable flower. Then we made play-dough together. We made it his favorite color: yellow, or "hedd-o" as he says it. He played with that for some time. I am still trying to decide what to do on Friday with Hinako and Eastin..... She prefers to read, and he prefers to write.... I have also found that working with two 4 year olds is a lot different than working with twelve 4 year olds.

I feel like I need to explain the pictures I have included. The first one is tonight's sunset. It was incredible... The picture only captures a tiny particle of its beauty!!! The second picture requires a little more of an explanation. :) Eastin is much like one of my sisters. When the television is turned on, he is absolutely absorbed. :) This picture was taken right after I finished folding laundry on the other end of the couch. They were watching Cars and I was folding... I looked up, and Eastin had taken his mother's sweater and draped it over his head as seen. He was completely oblivious to my getting the camera and taking this picture. He is so funny! Tonight he said that he was thankful for his red power ranger in America, and his Mommy. :)

To completely change the subject... I just want you to know the difference a good set of ear-buds makes! While on the plane somewhere over Alaska I realized that mine were torn. My wonderful family sent me a new pair. I really love them! (My family and the ear-buds.) Besides the sound, my favorite thing about the ear-buds is that they're bright red. They match my laptop. :)

Oh. By the way... I am still interested in what is happening there too... Be sure to send me lots of emails to read! Send pictures too!

My love to you all!

Hannah

Day 27

I realized recently that the last time I wrote was after my really trying day.... Sorry to leave you all hanging there with no seeming resolution... I have had no more days like last Friday. :)

Yesterday I made more garbanzo bean, tapioca, and rice flour bread. I cooked it for a full hour and twenty minutes, and it was none over done. Alex and the boys liked the

way it tasted though... It's already almost gone. :)

I have posted some pictures of Coen's birthday party... The first one includes Eastin, Hinako-Chan and her mother, and Abi. You can also see the gluten-free cupcakes I made. In the second picture you can see Coen and his first cupcake. :) For the longest time he didn't know what to do with it... Finally he just stuck his whole face into the icing... He was on a sugar high for the next hour and a half! After he finished eating it, he sat in his chair happily singing for about 15 min. The third picture shows the sunflowers that Hinako's family brought... I love sunflowers. They make me happy. I just took this picture because I think they are pretty. The last picture is of Coen. He looks like the Gerber Baby in it. :) I thought it was cute.

Yesterday Eastin was telling me why he loves his family...

He loves "Daddy and Aidan because they are cool... They do pillow fights and build awesome space ships out of legos."

"And what about Mommy... Is she cool?"

"No, Mommy's not cool."

"Why do you love Mommy?"

"I love Mommy because she's just........cute. And that's all. No body else is cute like Mommy."

I thought that was the most adorable thing he has ever said... And he has said some adorable stuff... Like calling a book named Hiccups for Elephant, "Elephant for Hiccups".

Well, the concert on Saturday went really well. There were around 50 people there. Alex even made a third bow, because people would not stop clapping... which is not typical of Japanese. He performed the two pieces very well.

Last night I made baked potatoes for dinner, (using Golden Coral's recipe ;) ) and made marinated Chicken on a stick. I'll have to give you the recipe for that... It was truly delicious. I also washed and snapped string beans. It was nice to do that again... I have not snapped beans in so long... It brings back fun memories!

Well, I think that's the highlight of what has happened over the past three days...

My love to you all!

Hannah

Argh.....

Wow, what a day I had yesterday.............. I hardly know where to begin! Thinking back over it, it seems like yesterday was about a week long. I had more culinary catastrophes yesterday than I have had in months and months. Looking back, the whole day was kind of humorous, but didn't seem that way as I progressed through it.

The day started off wonderfully. I began by making pancakes for Roger, Alex, and myself. While I was mixing them, I was thinking about the first time I tried to make pancakes on my own... :) I had to smile. :) Then, after my two peanut butter pancakes with maple syrup, Roger and I left to set up a Japanese bank account.... About an hour later, I got back to the apartment with no bank account. Then, I remembered that we were celebrating Coen's first birthday that afternoon. I set about to make cornstarch cupcakes. I made up the first batch by hand, and put 6 of them in the oven. I cooked them, and as soon as I took them out of the oven, they all sank! So then I decided to put the next six in the oven, and cook them so long that they couldn't have the possibility of falling! I cooked them for 30-40 min. They did not fall!!! And surprisingly, they were not too hard to eat either. From that point on, I cooked them all for 30 minutes. Then I made a second batch, and they all turned out well. By the time I finished all of those, it was lunch time. Abi made lunch, and she, Alex, and I ate. (Roger was not back yet.) Directly after lunch, I remembered that I had a lesson with Hinako-Chan at 4:15, and had allowed Eastin to finish all of the papers that I had printed out earlier in the week. So I sat down for about 45 min. to make new work sheets for them. As soon as I finished that, I started on the icing for the now cooled cupcakes. I started by whipping cream, coco, and powdered sugar together, and making beautiful whipped cream icing. Then I added the last ingredient, and it all melted into what looks like chocolate cottage cheese. It was a disaster! So! After that, we decided to make regular chocolate icing, which meant beating together (by hand) butter and sugar, and chopping up bakers chocolate and melting it. I ended up chopping the chocolate in pieces using a very large knife. They looked more like they had been ground than chopped. I admit I was frustrated by this point, and needed something to grind. The chocolate presented itself at the perfect time. After starting the second batch of icing, and being distracted by hanging out a load of laundry, Hinako arrived. I left the icing and the laundry unfinished, took a few deep breaths, pulled myself together, and gave a cheerful English lesson. Directly after the English lesson we had Coen's party, with an 'ice-your-own cupcake' party. That was fun, and I took some adorable pictures of Coen and his first cupcake. :) Then Abi and I made dinner. She did everything but the salad. She gave me the job of washing and tearing the spinach, which perhaps, was a mistake. I was so tired and absent-minded by that point, that I ended up more like pureeing the spinach. Abi says that she walked into the kitchen, and I was tearing and re-tearing the spinach with the blankest stare on my face. She said something about it, and I looked down and realized what I was doing... Anyway... it didn't change the taste. :) So yesterday was very tiring for me.... It didn't help much that I was running around all night chasing a ferret in my dreams either...

This morning I feel much better!!! I woke up and had my cereal, and then the cold coffee that I got for free at the 7-11 two days ago... I don't think I've ever had such a concentrated dose of caffeine and sugar before. The taste was not exactly what I was expecting! After the first sip I don't know whether I almost fell over, or jumped into the air. I drank the whole thing. Now I feel really good! :D

Hopefully I will not have any more days like yesterday, but looking back on it, I have to laugh at myself. It makes a great story! If it had been a movie, I would have laughed all the way through. Especially the part where I was so determined to make the cupcakes not fall. They actually turned out well in the end. I successfully made something gluten-free! Today promises to be much calmer. This afternoon is the big concert for Alex. I will tell about that later, as this is already really long...

My love to you all!

Hannah

Hmmm.

You know, sometimes you just get weird cravings... People tell me this is weird, but every time I eat ice-cream, I crave a glass of milk.... Last week I had a strange craving to wear my leather work boots.... Today I had a random craving to read Systematic Theology.... This morning I tasted a cup of coffee to make sure it was still hot. It was still black, as I had not put anything in it yet. You know how in movies, when someone tastes something, the camera zooms in and goes to a scene from their childhood when they tasted something that reminded them of what they just ate? When I tasted the hot black coffee, something like that happened to me. It was wonderful! :) I "zoomed" to a scene from this January when I was in the cold for up to 12 hours at a time, with almost nowhere to get warm. When all around me was what I love. Where there were wonderful...and awful smells. When I was dressed in so many layers that I looked like a snowman. I had a combination of dirty water, dirt, hairspray, hay and grass seeds, and other stuff all over my clothes, and all there was to drink was strong black coffee. Yes, I was back in the show barns at the Dixie National Livestock Show. Something about the taste of strong black coffee will probably always remind me of those special days! Although they may not sound very fun to most people, they were one of the highlights of this year, and the one before it. :)

I can't really think of any more things that have happened to me like that since I've been here, but that was really a fun 45 seconds of my day. :)

Today we made Chai tea to drink cold. It was very good. I still miss my hot tea before breakfast, though.

Today Roger and Alex are getting back from Korea. By this time, their plane has probably landed here in Japan, but it will take them several more hours to arrive at the apartment. The past week for Roger, Abi, and Alex has been very tiring... I almost feel bad for having such a fun week. I got to take Eastin to the park, have fun in the kitchen, get mail, wash dishes, hang out clothes, rock the baby, etc. Everyone else has been working hard...

Back to more of my random thoughts.... Have you ever liked doing one part of a job and not others? For instance, I have never minded washing dishes, I've just never particularly liked putting them away. The same goes for folding clothes and putting them away. I don't mind sweeping, but vacuuming has never been a favorite of mine... It's really random, but I have noticed those things today as I have done them....

Can you tell it's 10:00 pm here? I should probably go....

My love to you all!

Hannah

Quick Pictures

Hello all... It is the middle of the afternoon here, so I really don't have much time to write, but I just wanted to share a few of my pictures with you. These were all taken today while I was in the process of baking some bread. (Which was a flop, but tastes really good.) The first picture is just a really cool looking boat that passes here about once a day, that I thought you might like to see. :) The second picture is my bedroom and futon. I realized that the Japanese bed is something that I was interested in before I came, so I thought maybe you'd like to see what a Japanese bed looks like. It's about 4.5'' thick all together, but very comfortable. The third picture is what you see when you look straight over the balcony outside my room. This is the view straight down from 28 stories high. For those of you who are wondering, hanging my camera (or myself) over the edge of the balcony was a one-time thing. I do not intend to do it again. Do not try this at home. The rail of the balcony is three feet of solid concrete, and 1 1/2 feet of glass. I couldn't fall over it.

Anyway, I need to go make meatloaf, so I must go for now....

My love and a good morning to you all,

Hannah

Three Firsts

Well, I hope that everything is going well in the States. Most everything here is going well. Besides the hang-ons of my cold which are a scratchy voice and random coughing fits in the middle of the night, I feel great. Today I got to go to the park with Eastin. We stayed there for about an hour, and then came home. He did not go to school today, as he has not been feeling well. He has had gluten in his system for the past week, and is trying to recover. He was doing much better today.
Well, The first "first" that I experienced today was going to the grocery store. In feel it was like a Walgreen's or some small place like that. But it was bigger than Walmart. The fish department was HUGE! There was more tofu than I've ever seen in my life. The seaweed section was also big. Then we saw the lettuce and other things that we think of when we say 'salad section'. It was about 3 feet of produce, and that was it. I still do not understand some of the...organization...of the store. Right beside facial tissues and toilet paper, there was pet food. Not just 'pet food,' but mostly cat food... I have not seen one cat in the three weeks I have been here. I see LOTS of dogs, but not one cat. Nevertheless, there was plenty of cat food at the store. :) Anyway, at the grocery store we bought two things to have for dinner that I have never tried before.
The second "first" of my day was trying something that, if you had asked me a month ago to try, I never would have tried. I had maguro, which is one cut of tuna...raw tuna... For those of you saying "ewwww", it was really good. The thing that surprised me the most, was that it did not taste 'fishy'! It tasted like any cooked piece of meat. I don't think I'll eat much more of it, just because the thought of eating raw fish is still nasty, but the fish itself was alright.
The third "first" of my day was much like the second one. I would definitely not have tried this in America... I had calamari. We took whole little squid, battered it, fried it, and ate it with salsa. As long as I didn't look at it and see one of the little eyeballs before I put it in my mouth, it was really good! I think that was what I ate the most of at dinner. :)
Who would have thought that three weeks in another country would change my diet this much? While I have been here, I have also come to greatly appreciate dried seaweed and tofu. I don't know if I have told you about all the different types of tofu here, but as this post is already long, I will have to do it later...

For now, I pray God's blessings on all of you!!!

Love,
Hannah

Day 20

Well, I have a little time now, so I guess I should tell you what I was doing in Honda. The Chiba team helps teach at a missionary school, and several of the members of the team are teachers there. A new teacher arrived about a week ago, and so they had a welcome party for her. They invited me, so I had to travel about an hour both directions by myself. I had a lot of fun. There was about an even ratio of Japanese to Americans. We played three games of bilingual mafia. It was really fun! I still find that no one believes me when I tell them my age. Everyone seems to think I'm older than I really am.... I can't figure out why.... Instead of trying to get back to Tokyo on the 11:00 train, I decided to stay the night in Honda and come home on Sunday morning.
Sunday was good. We had a good church service, and I met several people that go there, both American and Japanese. After church the singers for next week came here to practice. We all had dinner together.
Yesterday was a fun day too. It was really relaxed for me. I did school with Aidan and Eastin, and not a whole lot for the rest of the day, except getting ready for school for today. Hinako-Chan is coming this afternoon to do school with Eastin. I have lots for them to do this week.... If they don't finish it all they can do it on Friday.... For dinner last night I had something that I never would have thought I liked. I had rice with dried seaweed in it, with a medium done poached egg on top. It was really good.
Oh! Today is Coen's first birthday!!! Happy Birthday Coen! He is about to cut his first tooth! We are so excited. We will not celebrate his birthday until Friday when Roger is home. I just got finished putting a loaf of rice flour bread in the oven a few minutes ago. I am excited to taste it. The thing I like about gluten free bread is that there is no rise time. It goes straight from mixing bowl to oven!
Well, I had better go for now, and see what the baby is getting into. I hear him banging stuff around....


All my love,
Hannah