Activity Days and Flea Market

This week has been about the same as usual. Work, School, and play. For Activity Days we have been working on cultural awareness. We spent a week talking about how manners differ by culture, learning basic manners and some new words to use while dining. On Wednesday we took the girls out to eat to practice these manners. The girls seemed to really enjoy the activity.

Today was the first Saturday of the month- that means flea market! Okay, so maybe it's not exciting enough for that ! mark, but Lalee likes to think it is. And this time, we rented our own space. Let me back up just a bit. As you all know, Lalee applied for and was accepted as a participant for the Youth Yoron adventure that is coming up this month. She is stoked to be able to travel to another island, spend the week away from home with her Japanese hosts. Of course, mom and dad expected her to pay for 1/2 of her trip. At first, the idea of earning $275 was a very daunting task for Lalee. So Lalee decided to participate in the flea market. With mom's help she went through all the closets and cupboards and got everything ready for the flea market. You can't have yard sales on base here- it's against the rules. You can rent a parking space- literally, one parking space, in a parking lot during the flea market for $15.

(Towards the end when over 1/2 our stuff had already sold!)

Set up was between 5:30-6:00. Of course you only have one parking spot so basically you only sell what you can cram into your vehicle. We got all set up and then hordes of local-nationals show up to buy whatever we Americans are pawning off. It's quite the crowd and can get a bit crazy. Lalee did well. She still needs to earn $20 but that's all and then Yoron, here she comes!

And Finally.... Tech Sergeant Peter Burger

Remember last February (2010) when Pete tested for rank? And then in July when we found out he had scored high enough on his tests to 'make it'? Well... finally, a year later, they have finally gotten to Pete's line number and they had his promotion ceremony. As of March 1st he will no longer be Staff Sergeant, he will be Technical Sergeant (Tech Sergeant). The kids and I and Kacky (Our week long foreign exchange guy) went to squadron wide promotion ceremony and "tacked" Pete's strips on for him. Yep, basically we got to hit him in front of a bunch of military dudes. So Proud of you Pete!

Pete's Birthday

Pete's 30th birthday was a peaceful, mellow day. We started out by making Pete a big breakfast of his favorite foods (Belgium waffles, Hot Oatmeal, fruit, sausage and lots-of-pulp OJ). And then we had breakfast AGAIN as Pete woke up and ran straight to PT.

We spent the morning doing Pete's favorite things: Rock band, chillin with TV shows and staying at home. Earlier in February Pete had bought tickets to a Valentine daddy-daughter dance. The girls and Pete went out to dinner and then to the dance, they all came home smiling and laughing. I'll try to get them to post the memories of it. The picture above was taken right before they left for the dance :)

Alex's Bobcat

Last night at the blue and gold banquet Alex got his Bobcat and a couple of belt loops. He's working diligently on his next badge and hopes to have it soon. Thought I'd post a picture or two :)

Presidents Day Weekend...

A three day weekend is always full of opportunities. Pete has been participating in this exchange program at work where a Japanese military service member shadows Pete for the week at work, evenings and weekends. We have spent quite a bit of time with Kahki: dinners, round one, walks, shopping, breakfast, lunch :) Pete's enjoyed it. The kids and I explored a castle ruin, enjoyed a walk through a traditional Japanese garden and ended our morning at Wago family land. Below are a couple of pictures from our weekend. Hope you enjoy :)

Wago Family land

Cherry Blossoms

Bamboo gardens

Japanese Gazebo

My kiddos exploring gardens

Kahki, Pete and Alex playing Rock Band. He liked :)

I love the old stone paths and bridges, the way the water and weather has erodes them over 100s of year makes the gardens feel almost sacred.

Look at all the roots on those trees!

Halloween

Halloween this year was really low-key. We weren't sure if it was going to be canceled because of a Typhoon but it ended up being a beautifully balmy 80 degrees that night and the kids really enjoyed it. As you can see, Alex was Luigi (I'm sure I spelled that wrong and that Pete will come and leave a comment on how to actually spell that ;) Lalee was a butterfly, Zach (our close family friend) was a vampire and Becca was a princess / fairy.
We went trick or treating with some of the neighbors. Alex and Evan were absolutely thrilled when they realized Evan was Mario. Cool. There were a ton of kids out that night as they let many of the Japanese on base to trick or treat as well. It was rather crazy- I'll post a picture of the crowded streets when I get the right camera. The kids had fun and fortunately, they didn't end up with too much candy this year! Mom was happy.

Pics from my work

I took these pictures of my counseling office and classroom at the beginning of the school year. Of course the classroom has changed a bit since then ;) Just another snapshot from our life here at Okinawa.

Looking into my office from the hall

My desk

Moving around the room...



The kids all painted me pictures that hang that across from my desk. I love looking at them throughout the day.

Lalee and I painted this together so I would have something to match the other picture (below). We added Dr. Seuss's quote: You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can point yourself in any direction you choose. You are on your own, you know what you know. You are the guy who will decide where you go.

And just a couple of pictures from my classroom:

I have a map wall- for this unit a string lead from all the student's pictures to their favorite place in the world. Right now we are doing "snap-shots" of different ancient civilizations as we talk about them. It changes as periodically.

This is my graffiti will. Each unit the students have to find something (picture, new sarticle, comic, etc) that ties into what we are talking about in class and bring it in a present it. Trying to enhance that continual outside of the classroom learning thing. It always ends up looking different each unit and it's fun to see what the students find :)

If you all wanna see more, meander over here and I'll take you on a tour :)