Someone is a sucker for puppies.....

As you all know we are pet less because of the move out here. I hadn't planed on getting anymore till at least the last year we are here and Craig said NO MORE PETS..... well Merry Christmas to me! Craig came home last Thursday, asked me a bunch of questions making me think he had volunteered us to watch some one's pets over Christmas and then says Merry Christmas lets go pick out your new puppy! I was so surprised and excited.

I picked out an adorable little girl who we named KUMA ( it is Japanese for bear). She is about 9 weeks old and a black lab. She is so much fun to play with. She likes to stalk her toys and loves to run after Austin who in turn loves to run after and tease her. We are working on the teasing part. He says she is his favorite!

She loves to play and sleep under the table!

The sucker!LOL

Pretending he doesn't like her....
I think these photos say it all. ;)

Ice Skating

This weekend we took Austin ice skating and he had a blast. I can not go which stinks but I had fun taking pictures.

Austin started out having Craig push him around.

Someone throwing a fit about who knows what. The fact that Daddy tried to hold his hands instead of pushing him?

Austin saw an escape and took it. He was having fun and just thought the box looked interesting.

Progress! He went all the way around holding the wall and Craig's hand.

He was trying to taste the wall. He ran his hand along the wall and got some"snow" on his glove and then into his mouth it went. Ewwww! Oh and the skates were the OLD ones which have no ankle support. It was sooo funny watching them walk. I kept waiting for Craig's ankles to snap as they would bend sideways and almost touch the floor. I will try for pictures next time!

Squdron X mas party

We had our Christmas party this past weekend and it was pretty fun. We had a gift exchange kind of thing in which we got a pair of ski goggles and some pans. Craig loved the goggles and promptly put them on and my pans have the Teflon coming off so it was perfect! Hahaha
Yes that is Craig jumping off Santa's lap. Iwas supposed to go and sit to get our gift but kind of goofed that up. Oops! I still got a great picture though. :)

Our first snow

Hurray! Our first snow in Misawa. Actually my first real snow that doesn't just cover the ground and that is gone the next day. Austin is real excited about the snow, he got to throw snowballs at Craig last night.

This was taken last night a few hours after the snow started.....
and these were taken this morning.

I now have to go buy some long johns and a pregnancy coat. Oh darn!

First day of pre-school

This is from Austin's first day of school. Below is what he takes his lunch in. The white thing in the blue cup is his wash cloth. They use this instead of paper towels and they have them at every restaurant for you to use.


This is his lunch bag....

These are his inside shoes which only get worn on the hard wood floors.

This is how you spell his name in Japanese, first and last. I only know how to write his first.

This is his Smock. They use it for eating and other messy stuff.

Austin put his socks on all by himself. They are a little sideways but on!

Day at the beach

We are about five minutes from the beach.... we probably won't ever get in but it is pretty and close. The water is way to cold and there are many strong currants.

We saw some Japanese surfing out there, it was pretty neat to see them.

This picture isn't the beach but was taken to see the mountains better.

Japan cars

Here are our "new" cars. This one is a Surf and it is the one I have been using. Though I like the other one better, it isn't conducive to putting Austin in his seat.

This one is the Pajero, it's kind of like a Jeep Wrangler. Not bad for a passed around car.

Funny Pictures

I posted this tub picture to show you haw big our tub is! I love it.

Ramen night

This day was beautiful! 75 degrees or so and overcast. This is the base lake which you can do just about anything in.

Which one do you like out of the three above? I am taking a painting class and would like to see if I could use one of these.




My first painting ever.

Shrine tours

We went on a tour of the town we live in and another town. While there we got to visit 2 different shrines and a museum.

This one was from the Shinto shrine.

These photos were from a Samurai House.

Tea Room

This is where they receive their guest.
I didn't get a lot of pictures from here as the tour was behind schedule and everyone was rushed. I know we will be going back so this will have to do till then.

Japan....

Yea! I finally have my camera stuff so here are the pictures I have been promising everyone.....

I know this isn't one but aren't they cute!!!! The puppie's name is Miso which is a type of soup here which is sooo yummy.

Alright, the rest of these pictures are in the order of discovery.

The thing below is a toilet for us females. You have to squat! I know, I know, I said the same thing..... I have to what!? Where!? Most places have this and a some what normal toilet. This one was at the airport. The one in my house has a tushie warmer for winter.

That afternoon we rode the subway about three times and walked to our hotel. We then took a cab to a restaurant where we had our first taste of fresh sushi. It was up 41 stories and had a neat view over looking Tokyo.

The next day we spent wandering the streets of Tokyo. I Didn't know where to start taking pictures!


We rode the bullet train which (was about 160 a person!) from Tokyo to the town where our base is.

The train ride was about 3 hours. I got to read a lot of Harry Potty.

I tried to capture a little of the country as we flew by but as you can see it didn't work out so well.

Well that is all I have for this post. I will try to put up the rest a little bit later this week.