Something flamingo-ish and then....something else, not flamingo-ish

Do you remember my love affair with all things parasol?

Well, honeys....

I found something new to put on my "wish list":

How lucky I feel to have so many things just screamin' my name!!

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Concerning last week's Happy Lei Day post....

it seems I've been lei'd before!!

I found this picture in one of my extremely short-lived/almost non-existent de-cluttering moments in time. When I first saw it, I sat here and just laughed. This was taken back at the end of the school year in 1991. Every year, the teachers at our school had a "Thank God We Survived Another Year And No One Died" party and that year's theme was Hawaiian. Actually, my good friend, Lisse, didn't work at my school, but....since I didn't have a date for the event and there was an extra chair at our table, I asked her and since she was always one for good, free food and beer, she agreed to go with me (but she swore it wasn't a "pity date"!). I think we made a very cute couple!

Do you like our leis? We entered the "homemade lei" contest. We got the idea to make a "beer lei" (I'm assuming while drinking beer already!) and proceeded to drink many more cans of beer (hey! sometimes you have to take one for the team!!) so we could make our creations!! We didn't win....or at least, I don't think we won....but we had a great time!!

Upon looking at this picture, I realized a few things:

*Wow! But I looked young back then. Of course, I was young, but still......

*My face was really round!

*That perm looked pretty good...I've been thinking about maybe getting one. That color was nice, too. My natural blond hair has decided to turn dark...or (dirty)"dishwater blond", as my grandfather used to call it. Yuck. Time for a change!

*Good Lord!! I still have that shirt!!

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Thursday and today were hard days getting up for the boys...they were pretty worn out from all the "adventuring" we did. I do so love that kind of tired on my boys....it's so much better than the Nintendo-tired or the "I've been sitting on my butt doing nothin' but complaining"-kind of tired.

Me? Oh...pfffft. My energy runs pretty high on most days so it was no problem getting up and going and ready to "seize the damn day"!! (Coffee does help a little!!)

And...well....since I have your attention...I just thought I'd let you know that...........and Queens are notorious for bouncing back, being strong, encouraging others around her to do the same and standing on the edge of cliffs while their husbands take photographs!!

And so we played, for tomorrow....it's back to school and work

In the last 2 days, we have done more as a family than we have done since the Christmas/New Year holiday. On Monday, the weather was cold and rainy and down-right dreary, but we packed up some provisions and spent the afternoon at some friends' house....just hanging out....chilling with some good food, great wine and had a lovely time with our hosts. I'm glad we relaxed a bit that day because when we woke up on Tuesday, the rain and drear were gone and it was a great day to be outside.

So....we had an adventure. A 2-hour--493 meter's high (about 1,618 feet worth) climb....hike, if you will or..."climb of death", according to Issei!

But...we did it and we had a pretty good time.

(Oh yes, we did, dammit.)

See....it wasn't so bad. Of course, this was taken about half the way up!

Along the way, there were many little shrines and one temple...at which we stopped and prayed at each and every one.

Many Gods and Goddesses along the path....we kept wondering....how the heck did they get them up there?!?! This would not have been an easy job as the path was barely that in some places and rough steps the rest of the way!

At the top, we were the only ones there. It was a great place to have a picnic and then prepare for the hike back down (which only took about 50 minutes!!).

(Some of us take our hikes verrrrrry serious.)

We had parked our car at a shopping center and when we made our way down, we treated ourselves to some ice cream!

That night, during dinner, it was decided to get our onsen bags out and go to the new hot springs place that opened up here in Nagasaki a few months ago.

The new place is called Fukunoyu (foo-koo-no-you) and it was built on the big mountain that is a major landmark in Nagasaki City (Mt. Inasa for those of you who have been here!). It's a true hot spring and a very lovely place to spend a relaxing couple of hours.

(Please, if you have time, click on the links to see what I'm talking about....you might not understand what is written, but, if you click on the smaller pictures to the left of the big one, you can get an idea!)

The main bathing area and inside baths were very nice. The area is quite spacious and it was easy to forget that I was with about 150 other ladies, girls and small children!!!

The rotenburo (outside bath) was incredible. There were almost as many places to put my naked butt as there were on the inside of the building! And the view from there?!?! Lordy, but it was beautiful!! It is quite amazing how being naked, in hot, herby water, outside under the stars and on a place overlooking the whole city will help you realize that life....yeah, life is pretty good.

I plan on going back to this place....and soon! There was an area that I have been really wanting to try....it is called ganbayoku....and I'm not really sure how to translate that into English...maybe "hot rock bed"? It's tied in with the massage part of the onsen.

Hmmm...Mother's Day is coming up....maybe I leave some hints for a gift certificate!!

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And so today, Wednesday, the adventure continued. We took a drive along the coast....

...and found ourselves at a nice beach so decided to get out and look for shells and beach glass...
...and do some "hunting", or whatever .

Then....we drove to our favorite park where we rented bicycles...

...and rode 5 kms (3.1 miles) around this!!

Another great day for the Kuroiwa Family!!

We came home after getting a quick dinner (no, huh-uh, I was NOT going to cook!) and got ourselves ready to "seize the day" bright and early tomorrow morning!!

We took many pictures today, but this one....is one of my favorites!!!

Happy Golden Week!

Technically, Golden Week really shouldn't be the term used for this holiday....very few of us actually have a full week....some only, like this year, get 2 or 3 consecutive days!
The official days in Golden Few Days Week are:

April 29
Shōwa Day (昭和の日 ,Shōwa no hi), from 2007
May 3
Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日 ,Kenpō kinenbi)
May 4
Greenery Day (みどりの日 ,Midori no hi), from 2007
May 5
Children's Day (こどもの日 ,Kodomo no hi), also customarily known as Boys' Day (端午の節句 ,Tango no sekku).

Tomorrow, May 6 is also a holiday....an extra day....I guess that since last Wednesday was an official holiday, then they can get away with saying Golden Week.

Let's see.......

On Sunday.....take 3 First Graders who went to daycare together since the beginning but are now in 3 different elementary schools....

....plan a play date during the holiday because "surely, the weather is going to be nice."

Then...have it rain....grrrrrrr....so after you pick them up and let them play in a park for awhile....you drive through for Happy Meals to take home for a picnic under the covered laundry area then, because it's kind of chilly they come inside and after they have played inside for a couple of hours taking every Lego out of storage and building a "very cool place" which also included the racetrack and part of the train set then, they made a fort out of chairs and blankets. But, while you were in the toilet (and not for a long time, mind you!) they go out into the rain and do their own version of "getting crazy in the rain", you decide to take them to the shopping center near your house....(it has a very fun clock that does some 'interesting for 6-year-olds' stuff on the hour).

Then, take them to the 3rd floor of the shopping center and to the game center where they spend all the money they each brought PLUS most of yours trying to defend the universe (actually, to me it looked more like a big playground!) from mutant creatures in Pokemon land and mastering a variety of other very important games for the next hour and a half.


Then, it is back to your house (still raining) but it's time for the parents of the other 2 First Graders to come and pick them up so you try to get them to straighten up at least some of the stuff they got out (total failure! you give the older brother 1,000 yen~~$10~~ to do it instead!!).

Your First Grader gets invited to spend the night with one of the other boys and before you can get "well...I don't know..." out of your mouth, he is already in the house getting a bag together.... you question the other parents thoroughly...."Are you sure? Really? Truly, sure?"
And they are...so he goes....and after an incredibly quiet dinner with your hub and son #1 that also included two (big) beers, you find yourself on the sofa.....like this....
...realizing that you remember the start of Cold Case and now it's the end of Law and Order.
Oh well....no problem...you can watch the "catch up" next weekend!

Three more days to go....I wonder what Kamp Kuroiwa has planned!

Let's just say that today (Tuesday) wore us all out....but in a really good way!

The K-man takes his holidays pretty seriously......but, we always have a good time!!

More later......

Getting lei'd, home visits, and flamingos...always flamingos (it's Friday, ya know!)

Happy May Day!! Or...if we were in Hawaii (like totally in my dreams!!), I'd say

Happy Lei Day!

In Hawaii, May Day is also known as Lei Day, and is normally set aside as a day to celebrate island culture in general and native Hawaiian culture in particular. While it was invented by a poet and a local newspaper columnist in the 1920s, it has since been adopted by state and local government as well as by the residents, and has taken on a sense of general spring celebration there.

If you come to my house and see all the leis that I have....don't get the wrong idea...okay? Okay.

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Today, the boys' teachers came for home visits. No....they haven't done anything bad as would be the case for a home visit by a teacher in the States. This is a yearly event that we, usually moms, have to endure. (Though, from talking to students that are not from this part of the country, the home visit is slowly disappearing elsewhere.)

Here in Nagasaki, every spring....usually at the end of April/first of May, homeroom teachers go and visit each student's house and talk to, more often than not, the mom. It's kind of a quick "meet and greet"....parent and teacher checking the other out....each secretly knowing that the genkan is never that clean, except for the home visit.....it's a quick 15 minute chat. Some people will offer tea or cookies, but both are usually declined. Some teachers have been known to ask to see the student's room and desk....I've never had this happen, (thank God!) their room is a "disaster area~~enter at your own risk" kind of room!!

So, at approximately 2:00....... the genkan (entrance way) in our house was clean......shoes were put away...fuzz bunnies disposed of, the pile of jackets/picnic blankets/slippers/hats either hidden or put in another location. The floor had been swept...the barely alive little gecko I found under the bench was gently put outside...bug boxes placed in other parts of the house...knick-knacks dusted.....I was ready!! Issei's teacher came at 2:20 and Koji's came at 3:00.

This year I was told that Issei is having no problems...he is turning his homework in on time...he is raising his hand and answering more questions...he has volunteered for various jobs in the classroom. At this point I think I actually asked, "Issei?" She smiled and said that he is very different from last year and he seems to be really trying hard.

~~whoooooooooof~~
(That's the sound of a year's worth of stress leaving my body.)

Fingers are crossed this really wonderful behavior continues!!

And then.....Koji's teacher. (Can you feel the stress starting to build back up?)

While Koji is very energetic and excited to learn, according to his teacher, he seems to have 2 things we need to work on: the incredibly short fuse on his temper and the inclination he has to follow the "my way" way of doing things. No, nothing to do with Frank Sinatra, but instead that is the term used to describe people who are independent and do things the way they want and when they want.

We've been working on that temper thing and he has gotten better but he has setbacks sometimes, but I'm not really worried. Also, I'm not so sure we need to really work on that other thing so much. As she was talking, I flashed on that story that gets passed on to all university students working on Education degrees. You know the one....the little girl who draws the beautiful pictures with so many wonderful colors and then when she gets to school, the teacher tells her that "trees are green...clouds are blue...and the sun is yellow"....and the little girl's creativity is smashed forever.

Though I understand the need for Koji to understand that there are rules that need to be followed and a time and a place to sing (he tends to sing while he's writing or drawing)....he has so much imagination and creativity racing through his little body, I don't want to see him lose that fantastic energy that just oozes from his whole being.

And then....after the teacher left and I had a beer (this is stressful, man!), I remembered that Issei's 1st Grade teacher said basically the same thing about him. And you know what? He has turned out okay.....and Koji will too.

But...just in case things get a little rougher before they get better....I'm keeping this recipe handy....you know....to help put things into perspective!!

Happy Friday, everyone!

May your day be a good one and a great way to start the weekend!!!

Something Bob Marley would be proud of

My good friend, Assunta, sent me a video from the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music" (http://playingforchange.com) - and after watching that one (Stand By Me......which was great, by the way!), I clicked on some more and found this one.

Wonderful.

Just watch.....




We have a national holiday here in Japan today....Showa Day...actually a day celebrating the birthday of the late Emperor of the Showa Era, who passed away 21 years ago.

The day is warm and sunny and I have plans to finally get my room de-clutterized and whipped into shape (oh yes I do!!) or least.....that's the plan....and you know how sometimes plans "look good on paper"....we'll see how it goes.

I'll have an update later for you....you know...just in case you're wondering how things went.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!!

Another post with no title. (Are there any rules here that I'm breaking and yet, don't really care about?)

It finally arrived!!!

For many new 1st Graders, getting the randoseru, (backpack) is just part of the whole experience of this new and wonderful stage of growing up. Many also get a desk. A nice desk. An expensive desk.

Starting in February or so, furniture stores start the big push for.....the desk.

Depending on how much one is willing to spend, these can run up into the big yen. A friend of mine and her husband spent about $1,000 on the desk for their oldest daughter. Granted, some of these desks will be used for all 12 years of school and then possibly even taken to university. If you look at it that way, then, okay....I don't want to throw up thinking about the money.

We here at Kamp Kuroiwa don't think like that. We did some comparative shopping and then found a desk that was functional, fit into the space we had and was something that Koji thought was "cool"...and didn't cost us the proverbial "arm and leg"!

And today....after 2 very long weeks of waiting and asking pretty much every single day since we bought it if it was coming that day......it arrived.

It took the two very efficient delivery/put together guys about 30 minutes to get us up and running.

The youngest Kuroiwa is quite happy with his desk....

**FYI...there is a bookshelf under the desk, against the wall and a small file cabinet just behind Koji. Lot's of storage space for important stuff....you know...like Lego's and comics and pictures that he draws!

Now, Koji's desk is very clean and neat....but soon, it will probably look like this:

....let's just hope he uses it for doing actual schoolwork and holds off on the stickerage for a few months. And yes, Issei was actually doing homework at his desk tonight...he doesn't do that very often as he usually opts for the kitchen table. Ergo...the picture...to use as proof that he does actually study...sometimes!

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And Debbie drops back 5 yards....and punts!

A friend of mine called a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would make a birthday cake for her son. She was wanting a soccer themed cake and, thinking it would be no problem to find soccer stuff, I told her "Sure, no problem."

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

When, of when, will I ever learn? Obviously, not anytime soon.

I had an idea in my head as to what I wanted to do. Picture this: rectangle shaped cake with green frosting on the top....white frosting piped to resemble a soccer field...with small plastic soccer player figures and a couple of nets on either end.

Sounds good, right? I thought so.

~~sigh~~

Yesterday, I went to about 6 different toy stores (yes, even that BIG one that seems to flippin' carry anything a child might possibly ever want).....did any of those places have small, plastic osccer player figures? Crappity-crap-crap! NO, they did not.

So....last night...with my creative energy waning...I came up with a plan and figured that if questioned about it, I would justify my simple cake with "what it lacks in woohoo-ness, it makes up for in taste, many times over".

I hope I was right. It was a dreamy-chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and seriously...it would be very hard to complain about that delicious combo....or at least, that's what I'm hoping!!

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For a good part of the afternoon, this is what the floor of my living room looked like:

For one who has confessed to not really knowing how to sew, it seems that I have spent a lot of time at the wheel of my sewing machine. There are people from my high school who may or may not remember that I worked on a dress for about one whole year my sophomore year...the struggle I went through. (I wonder if an apology to Mrs. Christie after all these years would be appropriate?) Sewing just never appealed to me and my whole theory was "why spend all that time and energy making something that I probably won't wear/use anyway....it's just better to go to the store and buy it."

Fast forward 30-some (**gag**) years and here I am....with a sewing machine that I use more often than I have ever thought I would.

When it comes to hobbies, I'm a "hobby hopper".....I keep trying out different things until I find one (or three) that I like. Knitting, quilting, embroidery, cross stitch, crotchet and such-like activities, take too much patience and time....of which I have very little of either. I bow down in the direction of any person who can do these.

In he blogosphere, I visit quite a few blogs that focus on art and crafty-type things. I am now dabbling in making greeting cards and doing some sewing. (My candle-making energy is still alive...just ran out of wax!) I have also been intrigued lately by glass bead making....THAT just seems so cool!

A few weeks ago, I was over at 3rdEyeMuse seeing what fun and creative things she was doing (she always has a few projects going) and I found something that I thought,

"How incredibly cool!"
and
"I think can do that!"

She had requested a pattern for Goddess dolls from another incredibly talented artist, Ronda Kivett, and started making these really fun ladies. When I saw what she had made, I was hooked. And...since I do have that extra time in the mornings.......I got a pattern and got busy.

I love these so much.

The ones on the far left were my first attempts. I was having a hard time getting the "hips" even and then decided that, you know what? Those were the Dancing Goddesses. Michelle, (over at 3rdEyeMuse) kindly offered me some advice and the little problems I was experiencing seem to be worked out...at least, for the most part. (Thanks so much, Michelle!)
I have added some accessories to a couple and have made one or two into Rattle Goddesses to give as presents to friends who have just had little Goddesses of their own.
Personally, I'm liking the Hula Goddess the best....she's my favorite.

Like yarn for knitters (or so my Mom told me yesterday), not just any material is for everyone. A doll has to fit the receiver....or how I perceive that person.
As in the case of my friend, Karen....the Goddess I gave her IS her. Both are English Rose Garden types....and they are the perfect pair.
I have a list now of people to give Goddesses to....and when the perfect material comes into my possession, a Goddess will be made for each.

Have a great Sunday....I hope you find something to do that makes you incredibly happy!!

I'm sorry...I can't hear you over these sox SCREAMING my name!

So there I was...doing some power shopping at my favorite discount store...headset on (3 Doors Down, today), shakin' it like Shakira (in my head!!) meandering through the aisles looking for the good deals I know are there.

All of a sudden....

I heard....

"debbie, DEBBIE, DEBBEEEEEEEE!!".

I turned slowly towards the underwear and T-shirts section

('cause that's where the sounds were coming from)......

there they were....

I knew that even though I'll never wear them because they sort of freak me out and make my toes itch and if I even know someone else is wearing them it bothers me almost as much... I KNEW I had to have a pair.....or three.

I hate it when that happens.

This picture?

Sometimes you have to suffer to get the shot....

It makes my feet itch just looking at this.

~~shiver~~

How I ever survived 6th grade and the whole "toe sock revolution, I have no clue!!!

Happy Friday everyone!! I hope that something you really, really, really like yells at you today....and you buy that something even though you really don't need it.

C'mon....join me....it's Impulsive Shopping Friday!!

Have fun!!

And the zori winners are........

The names were printed out.
Then carefully cut out, folded and placed in a really nice bowl (that I actually never use but thought this was the perfect time to get it out).

At about 7:15 this morning, over scrambled eggs and toast we had the drawing.

Yes....there are three hands in that bowl....GUESS WHAT?!?!

In one very short-lived 'decluttering' mode I was in the other day....

I found another pair of zori....so....

we have three winners.

YEAH!!!!!

And the winners are..............

Congratulations to

SmallTownMom,

Moxy Jane and

(Marie Millard's) Nancy!!!

I'll get the packages ready and to you in the next few days...I've got some backlog of mailing that needs to be done...you're in line!!!

Thank you everyone for visiting and commenting and just for the record....if I had enough zori, I'd send you all a pair...oh yes, I would...but for now....I'm just sending hugs and thank you's....did you get them? :-D

Actually...my students assured me that the zori sandals were "really easy to make" and one pair "could be made in about a day". SooooOOooo....I mentioned possibly having a zori making day...you know....IN ENGLISH!! I'll keep you posted on what develops from this!!

Hmmmmm....there might be a culture exchange chance here, me thinks!! :-D

Now, it's time to get this teacher-type person ready to "seize the damn day"!!

(But first....more coffee!!!!!)

You all have a great day......more later on yet another Flamingo Friday!!!