First I'd like to introduce my herd of elephants. Adorable, right? Ainsley had her heart set on being a Ninja Turtle. Grandma sent the Ninja Turtle costume, along with various other costumes she'd found in her stash. (the TMNT costume is circa 1988, the original turtle power!) I'd already bought Riley an elephant costume but when the box had another elephant costume, Ainsley decided that next year she'd be a Turtle and this year, she'd be hip and be an elephant.






Riley was not really into the whole thing because he was ready for bed. But he fell asleep in the stroller and wasn't too bad. Ainsley had a great time. She made sure to tell me she thanked everyone and that if she ate too much candy, she'd get sick. (Thank you Yo Gabba Gabba!)Also, random fact, I didn't wear a jacket. It wasn't even cold. I think it might have been 65 so that was awesome.

Here in Japan trick or treating is not my favorite thing. It's not an open base event (where they open the gates and let anyone in) but people can sign on their English students and friends. The base allows one ID holder to sign up to 24 people in! I love the Japanese people, I do. But it's absurd to trick or treat here. I was out of candy in 45 minutes. I had between 15 and 20 bags. Seriously. People buy hundreds of dollars of candy and still run out. Last year we started an hour late and Ainsley only got to hit about 10 houses. Now, I'm not upset because of the candy. I hate it because she's three for pete's sake. All she wants to do is say "trick or treat" but she can't because there's 12 kids in front of her not standing in line, only occasionally saying the time honored phrase, and even less saying thank you. It's just sad for the little kids. Kinda like in the states when big kids come and take all your candy and you think "um, I'm pretty sure that when I had to shave my legs I quit trick or treating."

Okay, end rant. Hope you all enjoy your thrilling holiday. I know Ainsley did. She passed out on the floor before Casper even got out of the opening credits.

I'm alive. I'm mostly moved. (the fish tank is still in the apt, but it's gotta be out by Monday.) And I have reached the point where I'm done with boxes. I can cook, the kids can watch movies and everyone has access to their clothes and beds. I can be done now right?


I've also decided I'm crazy. I will never do this again. Seriously.

Guess who got a call about a 3 bedroom? ME! Thanks for all your prayers. I hung up the phone, did a happy dance, and then said a big fat prayer to thank Heavenly Father for helping us out.

So...how good is it? Well, we live in an 818 sq foot apt on the 5th floor. One bathroom people! Just one!



We're moving to a townhouse! Besides the obvious plus of three bedrooms we get a yard and three toilets! (You know the lure of multiple toilets if you've ever potty trained.)





WHOO frakkin' HOO! My stroller will no longer sit in my entry way, Ainsley's bike will be far more accessible (it sits on the balcony currently), and oh yeah, I'll get better sleep since my Oh, Oh, Oh, O Riley gets his own room!

Now...who wants to help me move?

One of these boys is 6 months old. The other left us for a thrilling jaunt in the pacific ocean on a large metal box.



Riley is a joy. Seriously. Except for the late night cryfests (he wants to play and I want to sleep, ergo the crying), the constant need for attention from anyone (thankfully, it can be Ainsley instead of me), and the drooling/teething that's been going on for months now. He really is fun. He's happy, he laughs, he eats real food. I don't put him on his tummy because he might start crawling and that's just not okay. He's learning to use a sippie cup and he's already had a french fry.

We went to BK and he sat in a high chair, yay! Anyways, I was so excited that I didn't have to hold him and eat my whopper jr at the same time that I didn't really notice him. Looked over and saw him gnawing on a fry. Um, where did he get that? "I'm such a good sharer mommy, I gave brother a french fry. He likes it!" This is where the second time mom thing comes in handy. My response? "You are a good sharer! But no ranch on his fries, k?"



partners in crime (notice Ainsley's fake smile?)

Fall is sorta here. If you mean that we have a typhoon and rain. Mostly it's just an excuse for us to wear our cute rain boots instead of sweaters.

We're moving up the 3 bedroom list and I can't wait. (see cryfests above) More than one bathroom and a room for a screaming baby seem surreal at this point. Every time the phone rings I pray it's the housing office. For my sanity, you all should be praying, too. (I'm even willing to move without my husband. Poor guy is afraid he'll come home and not know where we live.)

I've been scheduling modeling auditions all week. Here's hoping this doesn't turn out to suck.

Lots of other things have been happening, but I'm just too busy these days. I haven't even watched the new eps of dollhouse! I've been a neglectful tv addict. My house isn't clean! My kids are lucky to be fed, etc. If anyone has some kind of plan I can follow to get all of these things figured out, let me know.




Had to include this one of Ainsley and James. Those kids are whack.

Cheyenne loved Dollhouse ("once it got over that boring 5 episode hump") but he can't get past Dichen Lachman. He likes Sierra, but he swears the character looks like Lola. What do you think?

So...in the shower Cheyenne told me he hasn't been able to get his hair to lather. I explained sometimes if you use the same shampoo too much, that can happen. (I might have pulled this explanation out of my butt. Typing it makes it seem ridiculous.) I hopped in the shower to try and get his hair to lather. Then I discovered that he scrubs the crap out of his head. I laughed and was then appalled to find out that he scrubbed Ainsley's head like that when washing her hair. ("No wonder she doesn't want to bathe when you do that to her head!") I decided he needed to be shown how, so I started to wash hair. I asked him for my shampoo he handed me conditioner. Aha! Since he got home, three weeks ago, he's been using my conditioner instead of shampoo. When I mentioned he might have a reading problem he said it didn't say conditioner. When I pointed it out he stated he misread it and thought it said conditioning. "My shampoo is conditioning!" No honey, this is conditioner. Silly man.

So...about a million things have happened...and I've been too busy/tired/lazy to blog about them. This will be a picspam post. Instead of giving you words, I'm giving you pictures to catch up. You guys like pictures better anyways.


Riley is a poor second child. My sister always complained that she never got the good stuff/attention that I did as a first child. I always thought she was being dramatic. ("marsha, marsha, marsha!") But she wasn't. Such is the life of a second child. I put him on the floor the other day on his stomach. He pushed up, looked around, smiled, rolled onto his arm, got almost on his back, then came back to his stomach...on purpose! I know, how could I know that...but trust me, it was totally on purpose. When I told my friend Tamara this she said, "Maybe he stopped because he keeps rolling off the ottoman and now he's scared to roll!" He has fallen off the ottoman a few times, but I can't figure out how, now I know. I've also decided not to put him on his stomach anymore because he's pretty keyed up to get mobile and I just can't have that. I need to keep him in the same place I put him. I'm just not prepared for him yet!

I have been giving him solid food for about a month now, but he wasn't all that interested. I mean, he didn't hate it, but he didn't get excited about it either, until recently. Boys fine motor skills develop later than girls. You ask this guy to hold a rattle to his mouth for more than a minute and he's got nothing. But, like all men, if you give him a spoon, he's got no problems.




Don't laugh at me, but I'm now the treasurer for the Atsugi Enlisted Spouses Association. Okay, it's laughable, go ahead and laugh. I never thought I'd be in this type of thing. I'm a fun loving gal, but this kind of organized fun is not my scene. But a good friend of mine is the president and there aren't any dues and we do free stuff all the time! (They gave us $50 when we went to Ikea!) We also give away mass quantities of cash every quarter to help organizations on base. Our last quarterly meeting we gave away like $4000 and that was a low meeting. It gets as high as $8000 sometimes! Plus, every event has food and we all know I like food.



Here's Tamara and I looking hot.

We went to Disney Sea and Disneyland for a mini vacation since Cheyenne came back. It was fun filled, but we decided Disney Sea is SO much better than Disneyland. Ainsley did ride Space Mountain and then hyperventilated after.



again, second child syndrome. Riley's in the stroller.

I did realize that being a parent your fun meter changes. I went on a roller coaster by myself and it was fun, but the rides I enjoyed most were the ones that all four of us could go on. I loved the train around the park and even Small World was thrilling because my kids loved it. (even if that stupid song got stuck in my head!)

one more picture! I would have more babies to keep using my stroller. I love it. Also, the extra back that Amy made for it is the best. Ainsley fell asleep on the train ride home and was oh so comfy.



I'll post a tv chatter post later. there's a lot i want to discuss.


looky there, that's a lot of words for a picspam.

Join whedonland!!!!

Me loves the word games, vids, and Team Firefly!!!!!!!!!!

is it weird that I want this?

Everyone should read this . It's made of Twilight critiquing win. (language is used...a lot.)

So...we spent some time at the Urgent Care Clinic today. The new doctor is lovely and fantastic with kids.

I took Ainsley bowling, before she even got to bowl a frame she tripped and the bowling ball landed on her hand and the bowling alley guy drove us to the UCC. (apparently this was the second bowling alley accident in a week so they were not taking chances) She needed 5 stitches (2 of which she had while the lidocaine was wearing off) and she's got to have xrays on monday. mostly as a precaution since nothing appears to be broken. I had to call Shelle (thank you!) to come hold Riley while I held Ainsley for her stitches.

Ainsley was a trooper, mostly because she was in shock. From the time we got to the clinic until she was being prepped for stitches she said nothing, only communicated with head nods. Her pinky had a gash about an inch long (I could be exaggerating because I'm the mom that would pass out if I looked too closely) on the palm side. She's gonna have a hard time writing and she couldn't go swimming today. But don't worry, I plied her with treats and she's totally using it to get out of stuff. "Mom, I can't pick up my stuff...my hand!"

BTW does this ever happen when Cheyenne is home? Nope. Oh yeah, and Riley had a massive blowout. Thanks again Shelle! Next weekend I can sleep in. At this rate I'm not sure I'll make it to next weekend.

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 room.

I had my next door neighbor come over and we checked her apartment. It was fine. But outside on the balcony it was bad. So we went to another neighbor's apartment and her balcony smelled fine so it had to be someone below or above me. I called the emergency housing number. The guy was either very stoned, or very stumped as to what he could do for a smoke filled apartment. I suggested maybe I should call the fire department, he agreed. We searched and searched for a non emergency after hours number and couldn't find one. I went ahead and called 119. They came out within a few minutes and checked my apartment, validated my feelings and headed off to check the apartments above and below me. (The funniest thing ever is to see a Japanese guy in all his fire gear tip toe to the back of my apartment where my kids were sleeping.)

Turns out the apartment below me was cooking something and fell asleep and that's where the smoke was coming from. Really? I'm not sure I believe that because it happened last week, but maybe they just like exotic, charcoal smelling foods. Now I'm trying to get the smoke smell out of my house. I've got my A/C turned up to high, my balcony doors open, and a borrowed fan blowing. I'm pretty sure my nose hairs are singed from the smell. Ick.

I've decided to stay home. My trips are always so eventful, I'm not sure I can take it all. I had to go to Yokosuka for a root canal which is always fun, but I couldn't put Riley in CDC because of how long I'd be gone. I invited my friend Tamara to come with me to hold my baby while I went to the appt. I told her we'd have Chili's and she was sold. I asked Katie to come along to entertain Tamara while I was in my appt.

We got in the car and found out that the A/C died. We went an hour-ish in a hot, humid car. Luckily, one of the babies along for the ride fell asleep. Mine didn't. Riley decided to get a tooth on the way to Yoko. By the end of the day he had two teeth. I felt bad for Katie who had to sit in the back with him.

When we got to Chili's we had to wait 45 minutes for our food. You heard it here, no matter where in the world the Chili's is located, the service is always terrible. Then I dropped the friends off at the exchange while I went to the dentist. I forgot my record, but they still saw me. I went back to get my friends and do some shopping. We visited the big commissary and on the way out Riley had a massive blow out. It was all over the stroller, it was so bad that Katie and I did a quick bath in the sink of the bathroom for him. Katie has two girls so when he started to pee at her while we had him in the sink she did a little freak out. It was pretty funny. We finally got in the car with our Ben and Jerry's. Yes, we bought ice cream pints for the ride home because remember, we didn't have A/C. On our way out of the base I got pulled over for going to fast down a hill. I had no idea how fast I was going I was just trying to get out of there because my kid was screaming and Katie was stuck in the back with him. (her baby is the one who slept both ways. Josslynn is so good.)

After all of that, we made it home in one piece. But I've got to go to the dentist again. ugh. My car's A/C is still out. But I'll survive the rest of the summer. Riley has two teeth and the drooling hasn't stopped, so I assume there will be more to come.

Ainsley just finished swim lessons and loved every minute of it. I'll leave you with a photo of her after she jumped off the diving board. In a little while I'll have photos of Cheyenne's homecoming. He just needs to hurry up and get home so I can take those photos.

Can I call it The Best Canceled TV? I think that's suitable. All of my favorite shows would be on in a super lineup. Can you picture it? Firefly followed by Pushing Daisies, Veronica Mars and Middle Man. Add things that are in danger of being canned like Dollhouse, Chuck, and old standards like Buffy and West Wing to make the perfect evening. Oooh, adding people who were on Joss shows like Bones, and How I Met Your Mother. I would never leave my house.

He's been to the Philippines. Please note that the opinions of the guest blogger do not reflect the opinions of this blog. PG-13 rated, so if you are faint of heart or have never met my husband, you might be offended. :P

( the PI )

Does anyone remember when Ainsley got her black eye? I know Naika does. Well, she biffed it today walking to the car after swim lessons. It was traumatic. Lips bleed a lot, I know that. But I was worried because her gums were bleeding and I was worried they might need stitches. They didn't, but the dentist was glad to see her. She made sure that Ainsley got some fancy Neosporin type stuff for her gums and gave us instructions on care, etc. Here's her tonight:


                                   

She's not in pain or anything, but it looks really awful. She even wanted to go to school after.

Riley just had his 4 month checkup. He's 16lbs and 14oz and 25 inches long. He's not rolling over, but not 'cause he can't. He's done it once (right off the ottoman) but he hates being on his belly so I figure he doesn't want to roll. He loves to sleep on his side. He blows raspberries, he talks up a storm, cooing, gurgling, and squealing, and he's recently found his feet. The biggest problem I have with him is that he won't smile for the camera. (BTW I commend you photographers that can get good shots of kids. Mine move so fast I end up with missing limbs, heads cut off, and frowny kids.) These were taken yesterday...back when Ainsley had a clean bill of health.




      

Okay, last thing. I saw Harry Potter a few weeks ago. I liked it, but had issues with the Harry/Ginny thing. What did you guys think?

This is a true story. The names have been changed, but the crimes are real.

This morning I got a message that looked like this:
Hey Buffy,

Hope you're doing well---random question: I noticed in our mutual friends that you know Cordelia? Her husband, Xander, was in my postgraduate program! Small world!

So I sent back this:

Hey Willow,

How funny. Isn't facebook fun that way? I am always sending messages to people going, "how do you know so and so?"

I know Cordelia from Texas. We were in the same branch in college.

Then I looked at Cordelia's page. I don't know Cordelia. She looks familiar, and she asked to be my friend, but I don't know her from church in Texas. So I sent this to Willow to keep up this air head persona I've got going:

Whoops, no I didn't know Cordelia in Texas, I think I knew her in HS. Oh geez, how embarrassing.

Then I sent a message to Cordelia.

So....Willow Rosenberg sends me a msg this morning and is like "OMG how do you know Cordelia Chase?" and I just assumed I knew you from church in Texas, then I was like, hmmm...that can't be right, then I was thinking maybe HS, but I"m not sure about that either. So...um, terribly embarrassing, because you look SO familiar...how do I know you?

I'll keep you updated on how I know her...when I actually know how I know her.






Do you have a facebook faux paux? send them to me and we'll do a weekly one. :D

Check out this video for some entertainment, too. Courtesy of Tamara:

Cheyenne had a lovely port call in Australia recently. He really did enjoy it. I promise, but he had all these silly things to say, so I suggested he write a review and I'd post it for him. For those of you that don't know my husband, please know he really did enjoy Australia and this is just his personality.


( Perth by Cheyenne )