Happy New Year!

Yes, I'm back.  Sorry about the long silence.  The end of last year was busy to say the least.  October began with a family reunion in Ohio, followed immediately by Zack's visit home.  I spent my time during those two weeks trying to enjoy every minute with him, with a great deal of success.  When he left, it was suddenly Halloween.  Then I think I blinked and missed most of November.  Suddenly it was Thanksgiving and I was running an 8K and then eating delicious food.  Then there was Christmas to prepare for, which was complicated by trying to send something Zack would appreciate (mission accomplished) and the process of trying to make things both special and even for two little girls who don't really need anything.  By the time I got all that sorted, it really was Christmas, and I was playing bells and enjoying family and eating even MORE good food.  So now it's a new year, and we're counting down the weeks until we get to see Zack again.  And to distract ourselves in the mean time, I've got a few things planned to keep us busy.
First up is the somewhat ambitious New Year's Resolution I've set for myself.  My goal is to run 500 miles before the end of the year.  I figure now that I've started running, I need a solid goal to keep me going.  That, combined with the occasional 5k or something that looks interesting, should do the trick.  I have attempted to talk Zack into joining me, and while he readily agreed that 9ish miles a week was nothing for the moment, he's not sure that he can keep it up once he moves to the ship, so time will tell. It may or may not be the year of 1000 miles for us.  So far, we're both on schedule.
At the moment, my folks are off having fun, so Ela, Lily and I are house sitting.  I'm also helping out at the church where Mom works, covering for her a little bit.  It's my good deed for the month.  Ela is becoming a pretty decent dog letter outer.  Since Mom has a tendency to cook for me when she's home, I find myself suddenly much busier than usual.  :-)
Once Mom and Dad get back, my room mommy duties will be heating up for a little while.  There's teacher appreciation, followed by a Valentine's party I agreed to help with, and then the biggest fundraiser of the year for preschool.  Before we know it, there will be birthdays to plan and homecomings (don't know yet exactly which order, but we'll sort it out).
So things will still be going awfully fast, but I am going to try to get back into the habit of writing.   I hope to post some pictures of my girls before they become unrecognizable.  Happy New Year everyone!

Zack Update

Zack is doing just fine. He had a super busy week last week, and he's recovering this week. He works long hours, but in his free time, he plays softball, studies, or goes to the gym. He volunteers at various events as well, such as making "fuel donuts" for the locals to burn for warmth. He has lots of pictures of the girls and enjoys showing them off to his friends in the office. He is keeping in good spirits. Zack has received a few packages lately, and is enjoying the coffee from home, among other things. He gets to call home regularly. Lily smiles when she hears his voice, and Ela tells him stories about whatever is on her mind at the moment you hand her the phone. She says she wants to give him a big hug, but doesn't seem too bothered that he keeps "sleeping at work". He seems to like our silliness. Zack wisely doesn't tell me much about what he's actually doing, but I get the impression he's figuring out the job and enjoying his work, though he's still feeling overwhelmed at times. He seems to like his coworkers and bosses pretty well. So all seems to be going well!

A Disclaimer and a Zack Update

Before I even start, I want to warn my lovely readers (I think there's more than one of you) that all posts regarding Zack while he's away will be incredibly vague. This is for three main reasons:

1) I only know what he tells me, and I seriously doubt he'll have time to write long, detailed e-mails about his life.

2) The internet is public, and I don't want anyone to think that what I write as speaking for anyone other than me. It's really easy for the casual reader to assume that since I'm writing about a military situation, everyone must go through the same stuff. This is almost entirely untrue. I'm not writing about military life in general, just my life (and Zack's) which happens to be affected by the fact that he's a service member. Our situation is not universal, please don't take it that way.

3) The internet is public (in case you forgot). Anyone can read this, including people looking for the kind of information a detailed account might give for less than friendly reasons. I don't want to help them.

Call me paranoid if you like, but I really do worry about what I say, who sees it, and how they interpret what is meant to be just my flippant musings. SO. If you are one of the many friends or family reading this, and you want more information, contact me in a more private setting. I'll be happy to tell you whatever I can (which honestly might not be much anyway). For those with slightly less interest in all the nuts and bolts, these posts should suffice.

Zack e-mailed recently to tell me that he arrived in Afghanistan. The travel was long and jet lag is rough, but he's there now and getting down to business. He seems to be settling in nicely, and he's already too busy to write much, but I'd pestered the heck out of him before he left about getting me his address ASAP, and he wrote to send me that. If you want it, you know how to reach me. He has not yet told me what is and is not appropriate to send, so for now I'll be sticking to letters. It's probably too soon for care packages anyway, right?

I was relieved at how upbeat Zack sounded when he wrote. He seems to be excited about the work he'll be doing, and much more satisfied with his decision now that he's there, so all is well for him.

I'll write a post like this every so often with updates.

Settling In

Over the last few weeks, we've gradually been settling into a routine that will be the norm for the next year. It was my intention to find us lots of activities and to start into them as quickly as possible so we'd be too busy to spend much time missing Zack. I think I've accomplished that. For my own sanity, I joined a Bible study, and I was delighted to discover that our new church has a bell choir, so I'm ringing again, which is nice. Then, in order to combat my tendency to eat when I'm sad and to reclaim my body from my girls, I joined a gym. I wanted to do this in DC, but here it's actually affordable, especially since childcare is included in the membership. So swimsuits should be slightly less scary this summer. Ela goes to preschool twice a week. I want to get her going on either a piano lesson or dance class too, and we started doing story time at the library, but they took March off, so we'll have to get back next month. Lily doesn't have any activities of her own yet, but she's learning to like story time at the library and is getting used to the childcare center at the gym. The new house is starting to feel like home. Ela still calls it her "new house". I haven't found any part of it I really don't like yet, which is a very good sign. It took some work, but we got the car into the garage, and that was super exciting for me. Both girls have napped in their car seats in there while I've been inside getting things done. And not hauling groceries through the rain is a really nice perk. I've also fallen in love with our patio out back. Ela loves being out there, and I can be anywhere downstairs and watch her as she plays in her sandbox or gathers pine straw or draws with sidewalk chalk. Ela also loves that she can let Dory in and out. I have to be careful to lock the door when I go upstairs or she'll just let herself out one of these days. Of course the bedroom wars started up again when we moved, but Lily is almost sleeping through the night again. Ela seems to like her new room, but still tries to sneak in with me in the night. She had a really bad dream the other night, and now she knows the magic words to get into my bed. I need to get her a new bed to replace her current one, since it broke in the move and is currently propped up on books. In the mean time, I'm not encouraging her to sleep with me, but I'm not declaring a full out war yet, since it'll just get worse when the new bed comes. Zack, for those of you who are curious, is still in country for a little while for training. He seems to be enjoying learning about a new branch of the military. It certainly keeps him busy! I might get to see him one more time before he goes abroad. I'm at least confident that we have everything under control here. Time to start looking for adventures!

Bath time in a Navy house

The other night, Ela took a bath at her Grandma's. When bath time was over, I was patiently instructing her to pick up the bath toys one at a time. I pointed at the little yellow barge that was floating in a corner of the bath.

"Okay, Ela, now pick up the boat."

Ela looked at me with a very serious face and replied, "It's not a boat, Mama, it's a ship."

Zack would be so proud.

New Year's Top Ten

Lots of people have done top tens about the past year. I realized, though, I've already blogged about those things, so here's the top ten things you can look forward to seeing on this blog in the next year, in no particular order.

1) The big move - We're moving to North Carolina in the next month or so. That will almost certainly make for a post or two soon.

2) Ela - She does so much cute stuff, she will certainly be featured here, along with her accomplishments and activities. On the list of potential topics are potty training and preschool.

3) Lily - Her big sister will be going to preschool, so she and I should get a little more quality time. This might lead to me writing more about her. Milestones that are likely to turn up here include walking (she might even crawl, unlike her sister) and turning one.

4) My Waistline - Once we get settled into our new home, I'm planning to throw myself into a new exercise and diet regime to get rid of the last of the baby weight. My secondary goal is to look and feel better than ever by the time Zack gets back from the mid-east. I'll probably share my progress or lack thereof.

5) A Visit from Zack - Zack will be gone for most of the year, so he probably won't feature here much. Writing about him will only make me miss him more. However, he will get to come back for at least one visit, and I will write about that.

6) Creative Activities - I'm still trying to clear out my yarn stash, so I'll probably post a bit about what I make. I'm also hoping to do more crafty stuff with Ela as she gets old enough to participate.

7) Cooking Adventures - With Zack gone, I'll have more range in the kitchen. This is a chance to try some new recipes without fear of him starving if they don't turn out. :)

8) Dory - The dog has actually already moved. She's staying with my family until we join her. I'm sure her name will pop up here from time to time.

9) Family Fun - Being back in NC will mean having more family close by and more chances to hang out with them. We're all looking forward to that.

10) Lots of Outings - We'll miss the plentiful sightseeing opportunities of DC, but we'll still be getting out and doing exciting things from time to time.

It should be an exciting year! Stay tuned!

School Days

In January, we'll be moving again (such is the Navy life). Zack has taken orders that will send him to Afghanistan. We girls are going to move to Cary, NC to be close to family. When we move, we've planned to put Ela into preschool at the church where my mom works. There are lots of advantages to sending her there as opposed to any other preschool.  Mostly, it's good because we know the staff and we know they'll be good with her.  Also, it's right where Grandma works, so they can "carpool" so to speak once in awhile. 
This week, we were visiting Cary, and the preschool gave us the go ahead to send Ela to her class just to try it out, even though she's technically not signed up to be there until January.  (This would be another of those advantages I was mentioning.)  So Monday morning, we got her up and dressed, showed her the lunchbox that will hold her snack, and off we went to preschool.

Ela embraced this new experience relatively quickly.   She carried her lunchbox proudly, and marched right into the room full of other kids to play.  She came back out once to find me, but was easily redirected back into the room.  They tell me that she came back to look for me once again after I left, but wasn't too upset that I was gone. 
After her first day, she hung out with Grandma in the office until her work was done, and came home with her.  She had paint in her hair and wouldn't tell me anything about her day (she is two, after all), but from her babble, I gathered that she'd had a good time and learned a little about the class.
On Wednesday, Ela went back for another round of preschool, and was very excited about going.  She brought home the pumpkin she'd painted on Monday, and I think she enjoyed it all greatly.  I'm hoping this trial run will make things easier in January when we move.  She'll have so much change at that point, I want her to at least be familiar with something.  We'll see if it works.  I just can't believe she's big enough to send to school!

Off to the Ball

The Supply Corps Ball was held here recently. Zack and I managed to get a babysitter and go. It was Ela’s first non-family babysitter in the States. It was our second Supply Corps Ball, and a bit bigger of deal than the one in Sasebo could be.
The ball was held at a lovely place just outside of the city, called the Sunset Room at National Harbor. We got a great view of the sun setting over the river as we enjoyed a pre-dinner drink or two.

We were seated for dinner with a bunch of Zack’s friends from work. We were supposed to be joined by an admiral, but he had something else come up at the last minute and couldn’t make it. We had a fun time at our table anyway.

There was a lovely speech by a Lt General from the Army about all the usual things. She said she was going to try to make it different from the usual speeches at these events. I’m not convinced she succeeded, but I appreciate her efforts. Then there was a superb dinner. I felt a little tiny bit homesick for the food that was always served at the Harbor View for these events (which was predictable and good) and for Louis, who ran things there. Then I tasted my steak. Harbor View is good, but this was heavenly.
So we enjoyed our meal, then a lovely cake, and then we returned home to find our miracle worker of a babysitter had managed to get the princess to bed. So it was a very successful and pleasant evening.

Celebration

Last Friday was a big day for Zack. It was his first full day as a 30 year old, and he also had his promotion ceremony. In the grand tradition of Zack's naval career thus far, it was super cold outside. Luckily, this ceremony was inside, so Ela and I got all bundled up and went down to the Navy Yards to be a part of it. First, Zack took the oath promising to uphold the constitution.

Then I got to put the new pins denoting his rank on his collar.

Then there was cake for everyone, including Ela.

That evening, we left Ela with our extremely kind cousins for the night and went out to celebrate Zack's birthday. We had dinner, then came home for more cake!

The cake was a banana split cake that I made. It came out mushy despite the toothpick being clean when I checked it, so I don't know what was up with that, but it was good. It was a really fun day, and we're very proud of Zack.

Moving Part I

On Monday, the movers came to gather up part I of our move: the household goods. This was the bulk of the move. It's all the furniture and everything except what we'll take in our suitcases and some basic necessities that will get us through. The weekend before, Zack and I spent a LOT of time sorting out the things that either a) couldn't go or b) we wanted to keep and putting them away in safe areas so they wouldn't accidentally get packed. We set aside clothes and dishes (and the computers) and we pulled food out of shelves and things like that. We were still finishing up our sorting process as the movers pulled in around 8:30 Monday morning.

The movers were three Japanese guys. I walked one of them through the house pointing out the things that should not get packed. He marked each thing or area with a piece of blue tape and then the guys got to work. Our house was filled with packing materials. One of them took the kitchen, and the other two started upstairs. By 10:30 the upstairs was packed and the kitchen was mostly done. They took a quick break and then finished boxing up the downstairs before taking a lunch break. Ela discovered that she HATES the sound of the packing tape coming off the roll, and Zack and I spent our day with her mostly just trying to stay out of the way.

After their lunch break, the movers called in a few more guys to help out with the removal of everything. Rather than hauling all the stuff down two flights of stairs (one in the house, one that leads to the street level), they decided to lower everything off our balconies into the parking garage. It was cool to watch.

Finally, everything was inventoried, out and ready to go. Zack was signing the papers that said they'd done a good job when the people from housing came with our rental furniture.

One of the amenities offered by the housing on base here is rental furniture for when a family's household goods is not here (either because it's on the way to Japan or on the way back to the States). We got a bed, a crib, two dressers, a table, four dining chairs, two arm chairs, a sofa and a coffee table. Once that was in, we got to work pulling all our stuff out of hiding places and reorganizing it in our new space. I miss having more table space, but we're making it work. We'll stay in this situation for two more weeks, then we'll pack out the rest and move to the hotel before heading back to the States. Now that this first step is done, I feel a lot better. It seems like all the rest should go smoothly, too.

USS Arizona

Another absolute must for us while we were in Hawaii was a visit to the USS Arizona. I was impressed by the production they put together for the trip. First, a volunteer talks about what happened during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, then they have a really nice documentary film, and then they ferry you out to the memorial. The only problem was that they allow only a very limited time at the memorial before they insist you get back on the boat to go back to shore. While I'm sure that their time limit is enough for most people, it makes it a little weird at the end as they hurry the straglers back onto the ferry. Anyway, here are some pictures.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Hawaii notes...

It happens every time Zack is gone at bedtime, so I should be used to it by now, but I'm always surprised. If he's not actually home when it's time for me to go to bed, I unconciously find every possible excuse not to go to bed myself. It's completely stupid. Tonight, he's out celebrating with some other guys from the ship, and instead of coming home from teaching, eating my bedtime snack (which I've discovered is very important to a good night's sleep), and going to bed so I can wake up without being so grouchy tomorrow, I felt the need to check in with my learning team online. And when that didn't take very long, I started finding other things to do. So here I am blogging when I really should be going to bed. Honestly. I know why I'm doing it, and why I shouldn't, and I simply don't care. So here's the update.
I have been waiting to update the blog because I have a bunch of great pictures on my camera to post of our trip to Hawaii for my cousin's wedding. It was a really awesome vacation and we had a super time... and my computer got a virus so I can't upload them yet. The computer is with some very nice tech support people who are cleaning it off entirely, at which point I'll get it back and I can upload the pictures and make everyone jealous. So there's that to look forward to. In the mean time, I have only Zack's computer and so there will be no pictures in this post.
What I really wanted to blog about is the fact that my super cool friends here in Japan had a baby shower for me yesterday and it was really nice and very fun. I forgot to take pictures, which is unfortunate, but also a sign of just how much fun I really was having. I was having too much fun to stop and document the fun. There was excellent food (fruit salad and chocolate cake and cinamon buns... I mean everything was good). I got some really cute outfits for our girl as well as some great baby stuff that I'm confident we'll use until it (literally) falls apart, not to mention a really great diaper bag that was hand made for us! Everything really was just right. The best part, though, was just sitting and chatting with a small group of people for a few hours. It was fun to hear the baby stories from the other moms and nice to just relax for the morning. So thank you to all those wonderful ladies who came, and especially to Alex who threw the party. I had a great time!

The New Routine

We are back in Sasebo, Dory is home, and we are attempting to readjust to yet another definition of "normal life." This is the version where Zack is not allowed to move from a chair unless absolutely necessary. It wasn't so bad when we were living in a hotel room because there was no where for him to go. Now he's trying to do dishes, or cook, or work on laundry or do a lot of things that kind of require him to at least stand up. It's hard work keeping him in a chair! He says it's good practice for chasing around kids, but at least kids can go from the kitchen to the living room without fear of messing up their little legs.
Zack has physical therapy four days a week, and his ship wants him to come in after that each day and work from a building on the peer. We're still sorting out how to best do this without me spending the day driving him around. (They also would like for him to come in BEFORE his therapy, but that would require me to get up at the crack of dawn, and he'd only really get in an hour of work before he'd have to leave again, so it's probably not worth it.) In the end, I'm hoping that I can just drop him off at PT in the mornings, and pick him up when he's ready to come home at night. This would work out fine for the most part, with only a night or two a week where it could get hairy because my primary teaching time is also primary coming-home time. We'll see. We're still sorting out the details.
Also, while we were away, the land lady contacted us to ask if she could install a rail in our stairway. We had never asked for one, though we've both fallen on the stairs at least once (Zack broke a toe that way earlier this year), so we jumped at the remarkably good timing of it. As I type, two men are installing our new hand rail on the stairs, which will bring reassurance to both of us and make Zack's crutches on the stairs a little bit safer (though I'd still be happier if he'd sit when he went down them since he's lost his balance a few times doing that).
Dory is terrified of the crutches, by the way. They make a loud noise on our hardwood floors and Zack has a tendency to tease her a little with them. She hides from them obsessively, and won't go near Zack if he's within arms reach of them. This has led to all kinds of new Dory-tormenting games, poor dear. On the plus side, if I have to take Zack from PT to work every day, I will probably bring Dory with me and the two of us can take a walk while we're waiting for him. That's what we did yesterday, and it was good times for both of us.
Also, the weather is finally cooling off so that walking outside sounds like a good idea rather than a special form of torture. It's still warm in the sun, but the breeze is very cool. We haven't turned on any air since we've been home, and we actually have to close some of the windows at night or it gets too cold. Yay! I know Zack hates the bitter cold parts of the year, but I actually look forward to it after the nasty summer heat.
Hopefully later this month I'll be able to do a little more adventuring and we'll have something less painful to write about. :-)

Going Home

Zack saw the doctor again today, and they did the x-ray thing again. Apparently, we've done something right because the leg is still looking good to continue without a cast or surgery. He's also made excellent progress with the physical therapy. Last week, he could barely bend the knee without pain. Now, he can bend up to 90 degrees without any pain, so that's good stuff. They still don't want him to put any weight on it for at least another 8 weeks, but we're cleared to go home!
So tomorrow we'll check out of the hotel and head back home! We're getting down to the exciting business of informing all the appropriate people of our return so that we get transportation and set up a new routine to fit with the injury. Zack will keep going to therapy in Sasebo and get his weekly x-rays there. I see a lot of new chauffering in my future, but I guess I should get used to that anyway. :-)

May in Review Part 1

So this month has flown by what with visitors and work and more visitors and more work and school. Here's a quick review of some of the more interesting bits.


In the time between when my parents left and our next group of visitors came by, I went to an ILC (Interenational Lady's Club) event where we visited a shrine in Sasebo that is drowning in Wisteria:



Then it was Golden Week (a series of Japanese Holidays that lead the natives to take a week off and have major sales), so Zack and I went to Arita for China shopping. This year we brought a camera, so imagine miles and miles of this:



Golden Week includes a day called either Boy's Day or Children's Day depending on how politically correct the speaker is. The park by our house had a little party in honor of kids that day:



Then there was the change of command ceremony for the ship...

Followed immediately by a renewal of vows ceremony for the new CO, which meant even more men in choker white uniforms...

And that was all before the second week of May was over! After that our friends Emily and Michael arrived, and we did a bunch of sight seeing... more pictures to follow...

Supply Corps Ball

So I've gotten behind again on my posting. Sorry about that. The last weekend in March was the Supply Corps Ball. Since I've been here, I've discovered that the Navy likes to have balls. They're basically prom for adults. There's a ton of them. My theory is that this is because the guys are gone so often, that they have to have 200 a year to give them a chance to appear at one. Luckily, Zack was home for the ball sponsored by the Supply guys, so we got to get all dressed up and go.

The Supply Corps Ball, like every ball in this area, was held at the Harbor View (the only upscalish restaurant on base). It began with a cocktail hour, followed by speeches by various people about how wonderful supply types are. (And I don't mean that jokingly. They really are super important to the Navy.) This was followed by an excellent dinner of either chicken, pork, fish or beef depending on what you ordered ahead of time. (Zack got us the chicken.) The featured entertainment for the night was a high school taiko drum group. Taiko drumming is a traditional Japanese version of a drum line performance and this group was really incredible:

They were as good as any professional group in the States in our opinion. This was followed by some very traditional toasts with Sake. The important folks at the ball cracked open a barrel and we toasted to everyone important to the Navy in both Japan and the US starting with the Emperor and working our way down. We drank from wooden cups and wore these lovely headbands that were provided:

Once everyone was sufficently liquored up, we were all reminded that drinking and driving is a terrible idea and that the taxis would be happy to take us home. Then the dancing began. It was the first time I ever saw anyone in a kimono do the electric slide. Highly entertaining:

So a good evening was had by all. I'll get more up to date on the posting here pretty soon, I promise.

Family Day Cruise

Last weekend, Zack's ship had its family day cruise. The wives and all kids eight and over were invited to go with the crew and see what the guys do all day. Other than having to be on the ship at 6:30 with Zack, it was quite a fun day. The weather was about as good as we could ask for: no wind and sunny. We watched Sasebo disappear from the top of the ship, along with all the excited kids:

While the ship was chugging away towards 99 islands (a scenic area near Sasebo), Zack had to do some actual work (after all, his guys were feeding us that afternoon), so I sat and read, but as soon as we dropped anchor, the crew began entertainment for the kids. First, they showed them all the firefighting gear on the ship and let them try it on:

Then they broke out the fire hose and the kids took turns aiming and adjusting the nozzle.

While the kids were having some fun with the water, Zack gave me a tour of the ship, which was really very interesting. Then it was lunchtime. The food service department served hamburgers, pizza, wings and ice cream, much to the delight of the kids of all ages on the ship. It was quite a good meal.

After lunch it was time to go home. We adults sat around and chatted with each other, and the kids were forced to entertain themselves for awhile:

And before any of us knew it, we were pulling back into Sasebo again. Over all, it was a very fun day.

Big Day

Lots of super cool things happened today, so I thought I'd share. Here they are in no particular order:
1) I successfully got my car into its parking spot despite the fact that there were cars parked in two of the spots I normally would use as room to turn around. I'd done it before with one or the other spot full, but never both.
2) Zack and I both got brand new ID's that reflect his promotion. He is now a Lt. JG, or O2, and that information is not only on his military ID, but also mine. The ID making process was not nearly as annoying as I'd been lead to believe, either.
3) I got my brand new laptop! Now, not only am I able to write a whole paper for my grad school classes without worrying that the computer might freeze at any moment, destroying all my hard work, I can also sit ina giant arm chair watching a movie while I write. I don't have to deal with error messages the moment my computer opens. AND it has a built in video camera. So I've spent all afternoon playing with my new toy. Life is very good.

Cruisin...

Well time just has been flying along. I'm working on my ARP for my master's degree, lesson planning on the fly, and singing a lot recently, too. I joined the choir at church awhile back, and they invited me to join a Christmas Caroling group for the holiday season. Who doesn't like to sing Christmas carols, right?
And just because I had discovered that I'm now officially home only two nights a week on average, the ship's family readiness group was in desparate need of a President, so now I'm doing that too. (It was either me, or the whole thing would fall apart, apparently.) I know that the family readiness group is supposed to support the families, and that ours is clearly not terribly active, but that's about it. How we go about supporting families? No idea. Luckily, the current ombudsman used to be FRG President, and she's happy to help... or basically just tell me what to do... which is what I really need anyway, so I'll be helping to raise money for and plan a Christmas party on top of everything else. I wonder if it's my job to contact Santa...
As a reward for burying myself in random projects, I got great news from Zack last night. We officially have permission to take our Christmas vacation: a Cruise through New Zealand and Austrailia. I'm super excited, and now I get to plan all of that, too. So far, I have the cruise booked and Dory's trip to the kennel: she got the last kennel spot available for the dates, so we found out just in time.
The funny thing is the more I find that I "have to" do, the more I find myself capable of getting done. Granted, I have been resorting to planning lessons in the morning on my way to school (which I NEVER could have done in the States) from time to time, but I get a lot accomplished in the average day now, so life is good.

General News

So this week I started teaching daily. I'm subbing for another teacher at the Junior College until November, so suddenly my mornings are gone. I can't figure out how I used to teach full time and still have energy to walk the dog at the end of the day. Good thing Dory still refuses to take walks here. I think she's afraid the house will disappear or something.
Zack is gone again. He called me a few days ago with two important pieces of information: 1. He passed a major inspection with flying colors thereby winning the approval of his CO for at least another 24 hours, which is a major major major relief because this was causing a lot of stress. I don't claim to understand all the details, but I know that their ship now qualifies again for the Blue E, which is a big award for a ship. So go Zack! 2. He was on his way into Disney Tokyo. I promptly went to MWR and signed up for two trips in November to make myself feel better.
Other than that, life proceeds quite normally. It's FINALLY starting to cool off, so I'm not using the AC so much. I'm almost done with another class for my graduate degree, and I've also teach two private classes a week now, one of which is in my house, which means I suddenly feel required to keep the dust out of my downstairs. This could be a full time job all by itself. So the time is going quickly. I'm not entirely sure where my September went, but I'm pretty sure October will go much the same way.