What are the things you would take with you if you knew you were leaving your house for good? Last month I was faced with this question. For real. It was terrifying. The earthquake and tsunami were rough, but the radiation in the air and the fact that I might never see my stuff again freaked me out. (The State Department has since given the all ( Read more... )

 On March 29th this article was published. It has enraged many and as someone who voluntarily departed I am APPALLED! So I wrote up a reply to the editor. It's probably too long to publish, but I was lividand really had to say so. Here it is:

I am thoroughly disgusted that the Stars and Stripes would print such an absurd, inflammatory, and ( Read more... )

Random things to get me back into the habit

1) I know it's cool these days to go against buying your kids character stuff. But I happen to enjoy it. Ainsley loves princesses and Riley is a Toy Story maniac, so yes, I buy them the stuff that goes with it. Because it's just ADORBS to see them love it. For Christmas Riley got almost every Toy Story toy ( Read more... )

Since this is my last full summer in Japan, I just had to participate in the Bon Odori dancing. Bon Odori is a summer festival celebrating stuff. I dunno, go look it up on wikipedia. The best part of the experience is that we get a free yukata (thanks AESA!) Anyways, this past Saturday we danced our first festival. The Yamato Awa Dori is a festival ( Read more... )

So...I'm pretty sure my building was on fire. This happened last week and I just thought it was those darn smokers again. But tonight around 10pm my apartment started to smell like charcoal, then if filled with smoke. I made sure to check all my appliances, nope, my apartment was not on fire. It smelled as if someone had a hibachi in their living ( Read more... )

I don't take nearly enough pictures of Riley. Ainsley has 3 albums to chronicle her first year of life. Riley is 3 months and he just barely got his 2 month shots...so imagine how up to date I am with photos. :D Mostly I'm too busy taking pictures of this:


( Read more... )

I needed wipes and diapers so I got up this morning and decided to go to Costco. I could make it back before Ainsley had to go to school, so it would have been fine ( Read more... )

After my last post I found some photos of when we went to the zoo a few weeks ago. It made me feel better (as did all of your comments) so here's a picspam. Ainsley was given the camera and she went wild. These are just the highlights.

( picspam )

In case some of you forgot, I live in Japan. Every now and then I see things in Japan that make me laugh hysterically. I've also taken up Kit Kat collecting. You can get them in all different flavors. The one I got today was sports drink flavored. Yum! A friend got me some peach and some rose flavored ones. They were tasty, too.

So...a few ( Read more... )

Those of you that know me well, know that Ikea is my 'happiest place on Earth.' I didn't go to Disneyland until I was an adult and it didn't impress me. But Tuesday we hauled our Ainsley over to Tokyo Disney Sea theme park. We chose Disney Sea because it has an entire area dedicated The Little Mermaid, Ainsley's favorite Disney princess.  It's been ( Read more... )