For More Options, say "Stop Baby!"

Today, I'm spending most of my day on the phone. I'm doing this because my entire to do list seems to involve calling someone. First, I have to get a land line set up at our house. While I'm doing that, I'll see if I can get a package for our TV as well. Once the land line is up, I have to call our security people and get that started (I know I really should have done that like a month ago). Then there's a call to the doctor's office to set up either a really late nine month check up or a really early 12 month check up for the baby. Also, I need to find out my teaching license number for a job I'm applying to, and that will take a call because I don't think I can find the piece of paper in our storage area at the moment.
I realized last night that I've been putting off everything on my to do list that involves phone calls. Why? 1) I expect to be hassled when I'm doing things over the phone. I'm not sure why I expect this, but I do. I figure either the person I talk to (if I'm lucky enough to get a human) will be incompetent, or rude or both. Call it conditioning or pessimism. Either way, I hate using the phone to conduct business. I was glad not to have to do it at all in Japan. 2) Worse than the hassle of the actual business conducted over the phone is the automated menu that always precedes it. I hate trying to pigeon hole myself before hand. And as often as not, I've found that I really don't fit the menu options, at least lately. For example, I call Verizon to get a phone line and TV added to our internet. The menu says, "For phone information, press 1. For TV press 2." Which do I press?
I have learned a trick to make this easier, though. I'd heard that with the voice menus, mumbling will get you sent to a real human. And guess what? It works! I kind of found this out by accident. I was on the phone and watching Ela, and I said "No, honey, come away from there." instead of "Yes" or "No" and it said, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand that." so I thought I'd keep trying. Three mumbles later, I had a human to talk to. Yay! So now I tend to revert to that as soon as the menu gets frustrating. I realize this might be a very old trick, but I probably never would have tried if I hadn't been playing with the baby while calling.
If I ever figure out how to make the humans less frustrating, I'll be sure to let everyone know.

Home for the Holidays Part 2: Christmas

We spent the beginning of December in DC trying to get move in. All our stuff arrived. The most depressing moment: when our shipment from storage arrived. This is the stuff that we haven't seen in 3 years because it was more than we could hold in our house in Japan. We could think of about 20 items that we knew were in there, so we were expecting a list of may be 30-40. No less than 100 items showed up. Since we had spent a whole week finding places in our new house for the stuff we'd had in Japan, it was completely demoralizing to try to find room for all that stuff. We took many trips to goodwill and our new storage space: Mom's attic. It's finally getting under control now.
Anyway, over Christmas, we took a break and went back to North Carolina to refresh and enjoy family time. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures of anyone except the baby. So here she is playing Frisbee in Eastern NC before Christmas:

We had a nice family Christmas there, and Ela enjoyed playing with the ribbons. Then on Christmas Eve, we moved on to Raleigh for my side of the family...

Ela got a stroller to help her walk and a dolly to put in the stroller from Santa the next day. Ela takes the dolly out as soon as you put it in the stroller, and still only pushes the stroller one handed. She also walks entirely on her own now (with lots of tumbles)! Crazy! Luckily, she doesn't know how to get from sitting to standing on her own yet, so if I need her to stay put, I just don't set her on her feet. It won't be long now before no where is safe. The baby proofing has begun.
Christmas morning, we gave Ela her stocking and headed back to Winston Salem for more family Christmas.

The stocking, I made for her. Inside were just a few toys from Japan, nothing big. She really likes the squid bath toy at the moment. From her Daddy's parents, she got a nice set of keys and a toy camera that can keep her entertained for fairly long at a go. I failed to get any more unwrapping pictures, though. I was too busy enjoying the company.

Ela had a very good time, too. A few days later, we were on our way back to DC, and over New Years, we finished the unpacking. The boxes leave on Saturday, and we're gradually getting back into the swing of things. It was really nice to spend so much time with family after such a long time away.

Home for the Holidays Part 1: Thanksgiving

This year, we got to spend Thankgiving with my family. We started the holiday off in a healthier-than-usual way: with a fun run. Emily and Zack ran, while Mom, Dad and I walked with Ela. We did one mile, then walked around the neighborhood where the event was taking place while the runners did eight. It was a good way to make us all feel better about eating a ton later in the day.
Ela hated her hat.

Back at home, the feasting began. Zack says that every time he goes to my parents house, he learns something new. Usually that something is in the kitchen. This year, Mom soaked her turkey in brine, something new she'd heard about from a friend. She put Zack to work "massaging the turkey" before it went in the oven.

I usually don't like turkey, but this was pretty darn good. It was tender and flavorful. And of course, there were all the traditional sides to go with it.

Ela had everything soft: stuffing, sweet potato, cranberry and mashed potato. She liked the sweet potato pretty well, and the stuffing too. We all enjoyed watching her eat her dishes.

It's hard to beat a great meal with family!

November: a summary

At the end of 2009, we began our return to the United States. Here are the highlights.
Ela had her first plane ride. She loved it! She got to spend the "night" (never mind all the time changes) on my lap playing then nursing then sleeping. When she was awake, there were other people to flirt with. She didn't fuss at all.

We spent a few days recovering from jet lag, then we headed to Illinois, to visit family...

... and attend the wedding of one of my best friends. Ela liked the music a lot.

Then it was back to North Carolina to meet up with Zack and hang out with more family.

It was a lot of travel, but it was also really fun to see everyone again. Before we knew it, it was Thanksgiving!

Pardon Our Dust

I know I said I was going to try to get caught up before the move, but that didn't happen (as you might have already guessed). Now we're back in the USA and in full unpacking mode. If you have tried to contact me and gotten no answer, it's because I'm way behind. I will update the blog again someday, I promise. But it'll be awhile. In the mean time, have a Merry Christmas!

A trip to a Temple

Every year the wives of the Japanese officers invite OSC to do something fun, then we invite them to do something fun later. I've never been able to attend one of these outings, but this year I made it. The Japanese ladies took us to a Buddhist temple in downtown Sasebo. I actually had found this temple by accident on another occasion, but never been inside.

At the temple, we were told that Buddhists practice calligraphy, writing out sutras, as a way of meditating. We were given a sutra to trace out. The monk in charge of the temple suggested wishing blessings on our families as we wrote. It was very peaceful to sit there and hold Ela (who wanted to eat the paper), while everyone quietly concentrated on writing. It reminded me a little of monitoring tests when I was teaching.

Then one of the ladies finished and took Ela so I could write...

Finally, we were given a lesson in making balloon animals. One of the ladies is apparently very good at it and volunteered to teach us to make a Halloween wreath. It was a lot of fun. Ela fell asleep and not even the popping balloons (and believe me we popped a lot of them) could wake her up.

In case you're wondering, "What's with the rush of posts?" Ela is have a nice nap, so I'm trying to catch up on what has been a very busy month. In less than a week, I'll be on a plane back to the US, so I'm trying to get caught up before I go into total travel mode... Stay tuned!

Nakaoyama

A few weeks ago, I took my last OSC trip. The group went to Nakaoyama, a small pottery town near Arita. OSC had gone there before, years ago. It is very pretty, and there are lots of pretty things to buy. So we strolled down the streets a bit and took in some of the pottery that lines them.

Then we got to see an artist at work in his shop...

Here's a view of the whole city. The chimneys mark where kilns are. Some of them are several hundred years old!

For lunch we went to this lovely little pizza place. The owners converted their kiln into a pizza oven. They cook 3-4 pizzas at a time. It's quite fun to watch.

It was a lovely trip. I'm glad I got to go back before we leave.