We had a beautiful weekend and were able to spend some time with our friends. One of our favorite things to do in Kodiak is roast hotdogs and marshmallows on the fire pit. We had a lot of fun with baby Malia and Sherry.
From Aaron:
For some odd reason, whenever I travel, I have the weirdest dreams. I think it has something to do with lightly sleeping in unfamiliar places. This dream probably has more to do with the inordinate amounts of news I’ve been watching over here….since there isn’t much else on. Either way, it’s weird, and here it is…
So I have gone to school to have lunch with the boys...sitting at their tables in the cafeteria. It just so happens that on this day, President Bush is visiting the school and decides to sit at the table with us. He’s very personable and is having a good time joking with the boys. On this same day, not to be outdone by the Republican machine, Obama happens to be at the school and decides to sit with us at the table also...note, there are no secret service or other attendants or anything.
So Obama sits down....and we all kind of look at each other. A minute goes by and no one says anything...and Pres. Bush and I making rolling eye contact...then Obama stands up and says to me, “Well I guess I'll head out...Tell Peach I’m sorry I missed her today.” Because everyone knows Peachie, including Obama, then turns to walk away. President Bush looks at me, shrugs his shoulders, and under his breath says, “What’s up with that guy?” in his typical joking President way. Obama had stopped and was standing behind the President as though waiting to hear what else he had to say, and I gave the President the “keep quiet cough cough, he’s right behind you sign”. At this the President covers his mouth and laughs with me and the boys…which was when I woke up.
I know weird...I'm not an Obama hater, I don't love him either, but I thought it was a funny dream. I guess my perception of Bush was someone I'd have agood time hangin around, where as Obama was...going through the motions. Sorry if I offend any Obama lovers out there!
Well I got out to Tokyo this past weekend. I wanted to get on yesterday and make a post but I was just way too beat after Monday's class to go over to the Internet place and do.....so here it is a day late. Just a few pics....
The first is Akihabra....basically "Electric City". You can find anything and everything electronic down there....from patch cable, to computer components, to software.....to uh, weird Japanese sim dating things...you name it electrical and they had it.
The next is the moat around the Imperial Palace where the Japanese Emperor still lives. You can't get inside except for 2 days a year....this wasn't one of them. Either way, the place is awe inspiring.
We then went up Tokyo Tower, which is basically the Eiffel tower...only taller, and not as rickety. This is a photo taken in the direction of the base...somewhere out there.....in the never ending city. No really...Tokyo is huge! I think Godzilla has a summer home here!
The last place we stopped was the famous Shibuya Crossing. This is the intersection you see on all the shows about Tokyo and how populated it is. It's amazing how many people there are. I looked it up, it's 14000 per square kilometer there! Anyhow, I went up to the 2nd floor of one of the corners into Starbucks and pushed some people out of the way so I could get next to the window and take a picture!
Well that's all for Tokyo, I took a lot more pictures, but I just don't want to post them all here. It really is an experience being here, and I truly feel fortunate to be able to see this culture and the people. There's a lot of things I see just from watching them on the trains and how they interact with each other. For instance, it's rude to talk on your cell phone on the train, you are expected to text only, and there's a section at the end reserved to elderly or expecting women to be able to sit down. People either don't talk or chat in very hushed voices on the trains so as not to bother anyone else.
There's a lot of unspoken rules like that. Another one is when you're on an escalator, you are expected to stand to the left, in order to let people who want to walk to go by on the right. But the dumb American I am, I stood there, and this totally goth young Japanese guy came up behind me and just waited....didn't say a thing until I turned around and saw him and moved saying sorry. He just smiled and went on his way...I'm not sure what he was thinking...but outwardly he was polite, despite his appearance. That is Typical Japanese, not the exception! I wish America would take some manner lessons from this place.
I'll post tomorrow about a dream I had last night that Melissa thought was funny. Love you all and talk to you soon!
I added pictures at the end!
I think I will give myself (and Aaron) the bloggy consistency star for the week! We are rockin this blog this week!
Okay so I promised Aaron I would post pictures of the kids and what we had been busy doing this week but I haven't yet! Sorry Honey! The kids were of course in school all week which was great they had a busy week. Wednesday is Awana day and we have 17 Cobbie's which is crazy because we have a tiny room to keep them all in. Thursday was Open House at school. Again, I didn't take any pictures but we had fun with the teachers and the kids got to eat an ice cream sundae at school. Saturday we spent time at home and I got to get a little sewing done and then we went to the pool Saturday night. Caleb spent the day with his friend Logan. Logan's dad is a commercial fisherman who also repairs Crab pots on his off season. Caleb and Logan spent the day with John (Logan's dad) at his shop climbing all over the crab pots! I wish I had a picture of that! We also went to open swim at the pool Saturday night. Sunday after church we went to a bonfire at my friend Sherrie's house. Sherrie and her husband Steve just adopted a baby named Melia she is so cute and a very good baby. The kids are really starting to miss Aaron and I am too. Two weeks is just long enough to really start to miss him.
OK so I came back and finished this post later and actually did take a picture. This is Peachies new bed. I tried to get a good shot but her room is small and the kiddos were in a post bath pre-bedtime crazy mood.
Check this totally true and really awesome story my friend Sarah shared on her blog. It will bring tears to you eyes!
click here Sarah Palin
Well I've been in Japan for about 5 days now. Wow, to say it wasn't what I expected is a little bit of and understatment.
1. Tokyo is HUGE. I expected a large city, but Tokyo is amazingly massive. For instance, cities usually have one downtown, or an area of extreme high rises that you would consider downtown. Tokyo has like 15 of these mini downtowns. With each area of the city kind of having it's own business center. In between these major districts are the standard urban sprawl.
2. Smog is crazy here. I was expecting something a little cleaner, but it's thick and really sucks, cause most day's you can't see further than a few miles, so there's no real city scape to enjoy.
3. The neighborhoods are so cool. When you leave the main gate, it's one of the main highways through Tokyo, though we're on the West side and nearing the end of the city, the traffic is non-stop. But since the buildings and so close to each other and connecting roads so narrow, the incredible noise from that is almost non-exhistant a block or 2 into the communities. We went walking last night and got lost, and at 7 o'clock the streets were almost deserted, and it was so quiet you'd think it was 4 am or something. So even though it seemed the city at large was dirty, these small communitees were very quiet and reserved and clean. Refreshing.
Here's a few photos I took around...
I thought I got away from this joker over here.... :(
Here's our sweet ride to run about the base in! 0-60 in 10.4....minutes!
Tokyo...or Mexico City? Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference!
Well that's all for now, we went and ate at some noodle shop last night. They're everywhere, but I forgot my camera with the pictures back at my room....no in room internet in GOV'T billeting....are we the most advanced country in the world or what? So I'll post some more, or try to post some more tomorrow. I had to do a little jiggying with stuff to get to post here at all. Anynhow, take care, love you all and talk to you soon.
Aaron
Tonight we were studying our verses for Awana. Calebs verse was 1 John 4:14 The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. I wanted to see if Caleb could at least understand the words that he was memorizing so I started to dissect the verse word by word. We got through all the words with no problems until the word Savior. I asked Caleb if he knew what a savior did and why we needed one. He didn't hesitate with his response. "A savior is like a super hero, like Spiderman. Except Jesus is way cooler then Spiderman, he can spray His webs much farther." Hmm..I was trying to remain straight faced here as to find out exactly where his little mind was going. Silly me I said to him "Caleb I don't know if Jesus can spray webs." Calebs response "Yes, He can the Bible says Jesus can do anything, so that means He can spray webs farther then Spiderman."
Is he turning Japanese! Aaron left me alone for two weeks to go to Japan for training. Have fun honey and I will keep posting pictures of the kids for you. Maybe he will check in photo's for us?
I wanted to get to this story last week but I had a lot of homework and didn't get to it. So here we go! It all started about a week and a half ago. I got a call form Mr. Cobaugh the principal of the christian school I graduated from telling me he and his son Daniel were going to be in Kodiak hunting. They wanted to go to dinner or something if the opportunity came up but they would only be on island for the weekend. Daniel and Tom had been hunting in Kodiak before and we were able to get together both Daniel and Michale come over for track or cross country meets every year as well. I think the boys must like the fact that they know someone here because they always call us and ask us to come to their meets. Daniel really likes Aaron a lot. Daniel and Michael have a form of autism and actually they were the inspiration for me to want to learn how to work with kids with autism and other developmental disorders. I have known the boys since they were two and three.
Okay, so we didn't hear from them and I assumed with the crummy weather on Sunday the would simply just be to busy. That was until 10:30 Monday night when Tom (it feels weird to call him that!) but hey were all adults, called us form the ER. Yep, apparently he and Daniel had ridden out the storm Sunday and then Monday they got a goat. The rain had really soaked the middle of the island and Tom slipped while going down to get the goat and dislocated his shoulder. As a result they were unable to field the goat and had to wait for the float plane to pick them up and take them to the ER leaving the goat and all their gear. The call was to ask Aaron if he knew how to field a goat and could go with Daniel to get everything. Now, Aaron is not really the hunter gatherer type and has never had any experience. Thankfully we know enough people in Kodiak who do so at 10:30 at night we started calling people in the church directory. We scored when our church pastor said he could go with Aaron and Daniel out to get everything. Well Tuesday proved to be a no fly day. We ended up bringing Tom and Daniel back to our house. We had a great time. Daniel played Wii and Peach talked Mr. Cobaugh into a few rounds of Go Fish, Princess memory and War. It was also a great excuse for a King Crab dinner. Yum! Wednesday we needed to find a new person to go out with the guys to get the goat thankfully we were able to find someone to help. They guys were able to fly out and recover the goat it was still intact and gather up all the gear. It made for quite a busy week as the Cobaugh's didn't leave until Thursday but it was so neat to be able to spend time together. On a side note while Aaron and I were discussing who we should call Tom overheard us say we should call a guy named Bruce Beehler. Apparently, they had been in collage together. So Aaron and Tom went up to the Beehlers house to "drop" in for visit. they hadn't seen each other in like 20 years. Totally random huh! They weren't able to go out with them but they did lend the use of their freezer.
Zuko really liked Mr. Cobaugh
These scanned pictures came out weird but I hope you get the idea. It ended up being really cool for Aaron to fly to a part of the island he or I hadn't seen. This is smack dab in the middle of the island. There was a lot of snow and so many lakes they dont even have names.
I love this picuture of him holding that dead goat! I asked him why he had such a mad or whatever was going on face he said that he was standing on an incline and that goat was heavy! When I asked him is hunting might be a new hobby for him he said that maybe if he had the whole experience instead of just the messy part he might like to try it.
I know I haven't shared in a while. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to blog about. Then when I do get a cool experience to blog about I find I have no time! I do have a really cool story to share of our amazingly busy week. I spent the better part of the week with the principal of my Christian school Tom Cobaugh and his son. I have pictures of my husband with a dead animal. (something I never expected to see!) I spent a weekend on Woody Island at the ladies retreat. It was so awesome and the speaking was powerful. I enjoyed the fellowship with my girlfriends as well. I think I got like 7 hours of sleep for the whole weekend. Right now I have tons of math homework to catch up on and a blog entry for my tech class but I wanted to share this awesome video. You may have already seen it. I don't usually catch these things until they have been all over the Internet but just the same here it is. Make sure you watch it all the way to the end.
