long misawa winters

It's been a very very long winter here in northern Japan. This is the most snow we have had in our three winters spent in Misawa. I think we have had no less than two feet of snow for the past two months. Just when you think it is about to melt away, it dumps more snow again. Over the weekend we must have accumulated about four feet of snow. Our skin is so pale and pasty from being indoors so much that you can see through our skin. If we stand under bright florescent lights and then go into a dark room, we actually glow. Yes, that is how pasty pale we are. We are rocking it though, still gorgeous.
Even the snowmen we build are gorgeous....we built this guy today with all of our free time.



Some new developments....

We got that puppy I kept writing about. Crazy for bringing a puppy home nine weeks before an overseas move, YES. Is he peeing and pooping on the carpet? YES. Is he so adorable he is worth all of the craziness....YES! See for yourself!!!


And Kai is getting more adorable by the day. Sitting on his own now and playing with his toes as much as possible.

Happy New Year!

2011 was an extremely trying year for us. I would say the entire year was a wash if it weren't for the birth of our son Kai. Not to sound ungrateful for what we have now, but even his birth did not come without a nightmare for the first week of his life. Having to spend 3 days in a Japanese hospital where the doctors could not communicate with us due to a language barrier was awful. Also, the hospital was an hour away from our house. I could go on and on about that but I don't like revisiting that week. All that matters is that today he is plump, happy, healthy, and home with us.

We are very excited about 2012. Amazing things are in store for this year. For one, we finally get to move back to America. Having two children overseas has been challenging as I am very close to my mother and friends back in the states. I can't wait to have our children recognize people in real life as opposed to through my computer monitor via Skype.

Also, Pete starts his dental residency where he will gather all the tools he needs to be an even more amazing dentist than he already is.

We will probably get a puppy....something we have both wanted since we were just dating, but the timing was never right.

My best friend in the whole world will be having her first baby.

I just know 2012 will be amazing and hold great things.

Here is our first 2012 dinner...nothing special, just fun times :D

Merry Christmas!

Santa is hard at work over here....

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and don't forget what this holiday season is all about....the birth of our savior!!!! How blessed are we?

Although I have a lot I could complain about this year, all I can do right now is be thankful for this adorable family of mine. Through the tough times, I have become a stronger person with even more faith in God. Funny how that works.

hugs to all!

I'm not a pony

Pumpkin wanted to write today's blog post:

"In case you are wondering, yes, she still tries to ride me. Every. Single. Day.

No place to hide.


Oh well, at least the new baby is really cute...hopefully he will understand the difference between a pony and a cat."


I know, Pumpkin isn't very witty and doesn't have too much to say, but we love her anyway.

Total Lunar Eclipse

Last night Pete and I were able to be a part of something really neat and amazing....a total lunar eclipse!

We watched the lunar eclipse from the beginning until the shadow started moving off of the moon....it was so neat to see the shadow of Earth slowly creep over the bright full moon and eventually turn the moon completely red.

It was freezing cold outside, but that didn't stop us from checking out the sight! For the first time since the earthquake, I was truly thankful to be living in Japan. Thanks, God! It was greatly appreciated to see amazingly beautiful parts of nature as opposed to destructive nature.

There isn't supposed to be another total lunar eclipse until 2014, and I know the chances of living in the right place and having perfect clear weather is not likely when it does appear next. We are thankful that the stars were aligned for us to see such a sight!

We were without a tripod, so here are the best images we could capture...










...wasn't till the very end that Pete figured out how to get the stars in the shot and the awesome red color...wish we could turn back time to reshoot the eclipse with the stars surrounding the moon..it was so beautiful!

Cute Cupcake Lampshade

I won some lamps at an auction for our Dental Squadron here at Misawa Air Force Base over Thanksgiving. They were really cute, except the lampshades were a little on the dull side.

I wanted to use one for Sabrina's room since it's SO HARD to find lamps around here in Misawa. Do Japanese people only use candles or something? ANYWAY...I scrounged around thinking about what I could do to jazz them up, even searched on Etsy for NEW lamp shades that were what I was looking for. Nothing really impressed me!

Then, it dawned on me.....CUPCAKE WRAPPERS! Don't ask me how...it just did. My brain is wired funny like that....


All you do to make it is get a lampshade, some glue (I used elmers), and some really awesome cupcake wrappers that match your room motif. Next...just glue away in a random fun way! First spread the wrappers out....but that is pretty obvious....

I doubled up some big cupcake liners under some mini cupcake liners. Get CRAZY with it! I'm excited to make some more of them...such a low calorie way to enjoy cupcakes!

I like the DIY projects that are REALLY easy and involve things you probably already have laying around the house :)

Here is the before....


And here is the after...


For better comparison at the extreme FUN that will adorn Sabrina's bedroom for years to come...


Total cost of this project for me....$6 (won lamps for $5, tiny tube of elmers, and gifted cupcake wrappers already on hand)

Quite Positively Certain

I am quite positively certain that we own the two most uneventful cats in Japan.

Sabrina is always trying to ride the little calico one, Pumpkin, like a pony. But, for some reason, Pumpkin thinks that game is ridiculous and never wants anything to do with it.

This is why we are planning for a puppy in about 6 months....

Because everyone knows puppies LOVE to be ridden like a pony!


If you are wondering, yes, our 'kitty condo' we built has, in fact, made it THIS FAR!