Happy Birthday Josie!

Today was a special day for our little peanut. After all that she has been through it was a very meaningful first Birthday. We didn't have a big celebration, just our little family, minus Taylor, and it was a perfect day. We missed you Taylor! I think she had a good day and she was in bed a half an hour early which surprised me since she had just had a considerable amount of cake and icing. Oskar enjoyed playing with her new toys as much as she did, they had a couple nice little tea parties.

She's not walking yet but she's close. She has a small vocabulary, about five or six words but I think that will be changing very soon. Funny how someone so small can have such a big personality, she takes the cake. I hope you enjoy the pictures and video, she's a treasure.

Happy 4th of July!

Today has been so much fun already and it's barely halfway over! Our development had a 4th of July Parade for all the little kids to participate in. It was so cute to see them all decked out in red, white and blue. Oskar helped decorate his 4 wheeler and he had a BALL. I pushed Josie in the stroller (our teenager who is at home was still in bed during all this) and it was, well, rather interesting watching Oskar drive that thing through the throngs of other people and their little inexperienced drivers. He was so busy gawking at the onlookers and giving them the thumbs up that he ran that thing up the back of Jeff and my legs more than once. Whee.

Oh well, it was still fun and Josie fell asleep at the very end. Here are some pictures, Taylor if you read this, we miss you!

It's a Small World After All

Well, Taylor has been gone for 12 days. She will be back in 35. How could you not expect me to know that? Since she has arrived we have received one phone call, less than a minute long, to let us know that she was safely with her host family. We've been getting emails from her almost daily. I have to admit, my anxiety has lessened as I get excited for her and all that she is experiencing.

One of the first things that we learned from her was that her host mother, Mama-san she calls her, was actually a graduate of Political Science from UGA. She spent almost 3 years in Georgia, very close to where my parents live. It's a small world! She says that Mama is very sweet and helpful and has shown her around Yokohama personally. I've also heard from Mariko (mama) via email and she has let me know how she thinks Taylor is doing, what a sweetie she is!

Taylor started school there this week, here is an excerpt from her latest email:

but school is fun. everyone tells me i'm cute. tell dori i went to the pokecenter today, and that i bought her a mudkip. oh, and i took purikura. and had bubble tea. mmmmm
yeah. soooo busy. my feet hurt. we take trains everywhere, but we have to walk to the stations first... and me and emma went to this fancy mall place at the harbor today and walked like, everywhere. my feeeeeet
and host fam is awesome. i kind of like that we speak english. i already love everyone :( when mama took me to school, she gave me a hug before she left and i was like...WAAAAH NO DON'T LEAVE. and the house definitely feels like my home. i miss my futon when i'm tired. and i love talking to amiiiii and i speak japanese at school so it all evens out.

So, it sounds like she is doing great. No, I don't know what a mudkip is, her sister probably does. I asked her what purikura is and she said it's kind of like a Japanese picture booth. Or something. Yeah, the day that my kids finally knew more than me came a long time ago. I've accepted it. Anyway, her host mother emailed me today and said this:

She tries to enjoy her life here. She has strong will to take this opportunity to be valuable. She is very positive and tries everything new to her. I feel she is so generous that she tries not to hurt our feeling. I appreciate her kindness, but I don't want her to get stress of what she doesn't want to. I want her to be honest for her feeling, too. So, I try to care about her health as well as her feeling, hopefully.

I told you that she was sweet. I feel so blessed that she ended up with this host family, it seems to be a perfect match. I know that I will not be getting back the exact same daughter than I sent to Japan, I think that I will be getting back a somewhat changed one, but for her best.

The top picture is from one of her outings with Mariko, they visited a Buddhist Temple and a port on that day and the bottom one is her with all her Japanese goodies (junk food?) that she bought at a convenience store.

Birdie flys from the nest

Today marks the beginning of a remarkable journey for one of my wonderful daughters. She applied for and received a scholarship to be an exchange student for the summer in Japan. Kikkoman (the soy sauce) is the sponsor of her trip, and she will be staying with a family who has a parent that works for Kikkoman. My mind is in a million places at once this morning, I'm so proud of her, I'm so worried about her, I'm so excited for her. Thank God this is not as final as when she will go off to college, I know I'm not ready for that.

Of course I bawled when she left for the airport with her dad this morning but she was dry eyed. Only later did I hear from my husband that she cried when it was time to say goodbye and go through security. Her sister and identical twin will miss her as much as me, they are like one person sometimes. It was a rough morning for her as well, but we will get through it and start getting excited to hear about all of the adventures her twin is going to have.

I'll try to add updates about her trip, I'm crossing my fingers for some pictures. The photo at the top of this post is of both of them, the one in the purple is the one who is traveling this summer. The picture is from homecoming. The one at the bottom of the post is of them with their date, which they shared. Yes, shared. Let me just end by saying, I'm going to miss her something awful and can't wait until she is home again, safe and sound.

The twins turn 16, where did the time go?

Today is a big day for the girls, they are 16! We're so proud of them, they are amazing girls. Their heads are full of driving lessons and first jobs and meanwhile mine clings to the fact that they are only turning 16, not 18. "At least they are not 18!", I tell myself. Thank God there is a 17 before 18 because I don't think that I could handle it if they were going to turn 18 next year.

They had a small birthday party this weekend. We went to one of the nicer malls here, and they trekked around with their friends. I was a little apprehensive about taking seven teenagers to the mall but it went without incident. Well, actually there was one small one. We were in a store that sold clothing and home goods, a rather eclectic little place. I'm just moseying around looking at all the expensive stuff and when I look to check on the kids I notice that they are all making a beeline for the door, like fast. So I walk out too, and I ask "What's going on?" Amid all the giggles, one of them tells me that they set all the kitchen timers in the store to go off at the same time. About 30 seconds later we hear all these bells clanging and they are in fits of laughter. I was halfway between being annoyed and wishing I thought of it myself.

Here are a few pictures. You may notice little man in them, he actually blew out their candles before they could the first time so we had to relight them and start over. What a turkey.

Wordless Wednesday

Just was looking at pictures on the girls mac and found these in photo booth...had no idea that they had taken them. Had a few laughs anyway, silly kids.

Our Trip to Disney

Here is something blog worthy.

My mother-in-law has been asking us for the last couple of years to take us on a trip to Disney World with her. Although we really wanted to, between job changes, moving and being pregnant we just couldn't do it. Finally this year over the kids winter break we got to go. It was kind of cool because we didn't know that we were going until the week before we left. I remember texting the girls at school to let them know that we were going and getting back something like "OMG, OMG, OMG, ARE YOU KIDDING?" and various other thrilled responses.

We spent 3 days in the parks, Magic Kingdom first, then Animal Kingdom and finally Epcot. It was so much fun! Thanks mom! I still can't believe how good Oskar and Josie were. Three days of trekking around those parks and not a single melt down. I don't think that I saw the girls hooked to their ipods even once, they had a ball because they were finally tall enough to ride the "big" rides. (barely five feet and I don't think they are getting any taller) Mom was so sweet to take us, we can never thank her enough. Here are some pics, I wish I had taken more!



This picture deserves to have the story behind it told. Oskar was so excited to meet Mickey Mouse. When we pulled into the Disney resort there was a big picture of Mickey at the entrance. When Oskar saw it he said, "I love Mickey...his heart has my heart." Remember, he's three. My mom and I just ate that up. Well we stood in line for almost an hour and when we finally got in the room alone with Mickey, Oskar just walked up and hugged him...and hugged him...an hugged him. All I could think about was what he had said about Mickey's heart and before I can help myself I'm bawling! (still not sure where that came from, maybe a little stressed from hauling four kids and all their stuff around?) I look at mom and now she is bawling too and we're like, "Okay, that's enough...Mickey doesn't have all day." I think that they understood and thought we were pretty funny. Mickey wouldn't let me leave until he gave me a hug too. When we got outside I asked one of the girls if they thought I was silly for crying and she said "No, I think that your crazy."

This is Josie at Disney:



This is what she thought of most of it:



All the kids with Mickey:



Oskar's "OMG" moment when he saw his first Disney parade:



And some other various pics. Looks like the girls were playing with my camera when we got back to Mom's condo.







We will never forget this trip, that's for sure. Well, Josie might so I guess we will have to go back in a few years!