Sterling had to get me a new computer two days before Mother's day. A big gift ! But my birthday is in May too. So, I am allowed a big gift in the month of May. :)
My computer is only for me. I use to share it with my kids. Athena loved watching youtube on it (silly cats videos) and Tiberias loved googling pictures of his favorite superheros and villains and Power Rangers.
I did not necessarily like sharing my computer. Now, I have an excuse to keep it all to myself...to avoid it getting wet and broken.
Sterling also asked where I wanted to travel Mother's day weekend. My choice. Even Disneyland Tokyo was an option.
I decided on the Sankeien Garden. A beautiful large Japanese garden with lily pond, temples and old traditional Japanese homes.
We left Saturday morning at 7:40. It took less than two hours to drive there. It would have cost $30 an hour to take the toll road but would have gotten us there in half the time.
We choose not to take the toll roads.
The gardens were wonderful! The weather was just as wonderful.
The kids' favorite part was the fish in the water. Their circular mouths opening and closing at the top of the water. And then, feeding the fish bread. At one point we went to buy the kids a snack. We thought we were purchasing thin baguettes (bread). We purchased them from a cafe that had the bread displayed right on the counter. But once I felt the bread I knew something was weird. The bread felt like styrofoam... stiff and dry. I handed it to the kids then Sterling realized "This might be fish food!" Luckily, we didn't sit at the cafe tables and feed it to our children. That would have been embarrassing. Luke and Ty tried eating it down by the lake as we decided whether or not it was edible or if it were meant only for the fish. We decided it was solely fish food. lol
I loved seeing the beauty of the trees, plants...everything! I loved the buildings and the roofs!
The kids learned about how rooftops use to be made. They tried it themselves. The material was thin slabs of tree bark soaked in water. It needed to be wet for pliability.
The nails used were made of wood as well. The slabs were layered and hammered in.
They have to replace the roof every thirty years.
Our children received certificates with their names on them for learning how to carve the bark slabs.
We hiked up to the Japanese temple and did a family picture there. The kids studied and tried to catch bugs. There were so many bugs they were even flying around the camera lens as our picture was being taken. Luckily, the focus was on us which caused the photos to not even capture the bugs.
We found a restaurant at the garden and we bought lunch there. Japanese meals can be bizarre to an American. Even the textures of the food can weird us out. There are a lot of spongie foods and a lot of fishy tasting foods.
For our kids at this particular lunch we bought them two fruit dishes that are suppose to be a dessert. The bowl had a sweetened bean paste surrounded by plain gelatin cubes and a little bit of fresh fruit. My kids ate up all the fruit then tried the other things. It is likely meant to be eaten together. So eat the gelatin cubes with the sweet stuff in one taste.
After lunch we hit the road to go back to Fussa. It took us an extra hour to drive home because there were more cars out on the road in the afternoon. Our vehicles have screens and dvd players to make the long hours in the car more entertaining.
On this road trip the boys practiced reading and my kids started learning Spanish. The Spanish teacher at the elementary school sent a book home for Ty to study. They have been studying Spanish and Japanese all school year but Ty hasn't been here for that. So, we studied this weekend.
We decided to stop for a second lunch at Mcdonald's since our children did not fill up at the Japanese restaurant. It turns out Japan serves Mcdonald's hamburgers with different ingredients than Americans do. We ordered food based off the pictures displayed...assuming we were getting American food.
The chicken nuggets and french fries to correct. But the hamburger and chicken burger were not what we expected! My hamburger had a weird sauce in place of ketchup. It tasted very Japanese.
Sterling's chicken patty was not a chicken patty he thought he was ordering. It was a sausage patty with bacon on it and that same Japanese sauce.
We did not enjoy the Japanese version of Mcdonalds.
On base we have a Burger King and it is exactly like BK in America. So, food on base is American and food off base from the same named restaurant is Japanese.
The Mcdonald's we stopped at had a playland on the roof. The kids enjoyed that stop on our road trip.
We got home around 4pm. I had to immediately go to our neighbors house and let the dog into the backyard. Our neighbors went to America and I ended up accepting the plea to watch their dog for two weeks. I felt the desire to help out because 1) Misty (my neighbor) has a mother dying from cancer right now. That is why they needed to go on this trip. 2) Misty's 3 year old son has autism and they are going to do some testing or start some work with him while there in America.
How could I not help out?
I do not like dogs. But Athena loves them. So, she is helping me keep Burdee company and take care of her. I was told I only needed to drop by once in the morning and once in the evening. Burdee is still in quarantine time. Once an animal moves overseas they might have brought a disease with them so they have to be in quarantine (no walks or going away from their home) for 6 months.
But twice a day is not enough for a dog. They get lonely. So Athena and I have been visiting Burdee about 6 times a day. Taking her outside for potty breaks, spending 5 to 10 minutes with the dog at a time. She misses her family so she barks and howls for a long time when we are not there.
She goes in her kennel to sleep at night. So far it has been mostly quiet nights but she has howled and whined one night that kept Sterling awake and unhappy.
The first night I went to my neighbor one more door over because they share a wall with Burdee. I wanted to see how well the family could hear her when she barks and whines. The sound of the dog does not go through the thick cement walls. However, it goes out the windows and into other peoples windows.
I warned those neighbors that Misty and her husband are out of town for two weeks and I am taking care of the dog. I apologized in advance.
Burdee seems to not like being outside in the yard ...which is crazy ...because the weather is perfect right now! So, if I leave Burdee in the backyard for an hour she might bark and bark to not be alone. So, I have to bring her in the house if she does that. But I think she needs yard time so I leave her outside for a while every day.
Athena and I spend time with her playing fetch in the yard whenever we come visit (6 times a day).
We even leave the television on half the day while we are not here so she feels it's not too quiet alone here all day. But, she still gets lonely and howls for her family to return.
I have only been dog sitting maybe 4 days and it feels like a whole week. It is stressful. I thought they would only be gone two weeks but now I find out it's two weeks from now. :(
I don't think I will ever pet sit again.
A friend suggested I bring Burdee to my house. Burdee sheds like crazy! No way would I bring that to my home. Ster would kill me. lol
Mother's day:
Luke and Ty had activity day boys last week and made a surprise mother's day gift. Athena wanted to give me gifts for Mother's day and was disappointed when we did not take her to buy me chocolates and gifts. So, first thing this morning while I was still in bed she brought me her pillow and a toy and told me she wanted to give them to me for mother's day. Ster and I then suggested she make me a card. She went to her art supplies and found a small piece of paper that had been previously colored with markers. She folded it in half and wrote the letters A and R. Athena and Roundy. She excitedly gave it to me. Then I got up to start my day.
Fruit smoothie for breakfast (I had to make it because my smoothies are the best). Then we got ready for church. We took my mother's day photo with the kids. Ty had a mother's day card for me written in Spanish...he didn't know what it said though. His Spanish teacher made the kids do it. hehe
At church I enjoyed the kids singing in sacrament meeting. Went to Relief Society for the first time ever in this ward. The ward gave us beautiful flowers and homemade chocolate chip cookies after sacrament meeting. And Relief Society was wonderful.
I have the best husband and the best children! They love and appreciate me. They are so sweet and I appreciate them too. So, of course mother's day was wonderful.
The boys gave me potted flowers and Twix bars. Luke also gave me a coupon for a mother's day photograph. I'm not yet sure what that means.
Tiberias was confused about what to put on the coupon so he thought it was a coupon for what I would do for him. He wrote "Clean my room" then he crossed it off when he learned what he was suppose to be doing. So he just wrote "I love you" lol.
I have been trying to not eat sugar or carbs this month. Saturday I ate lots of Twizzlers on the road trip. Then Sunday I ate a lot of sugar too. My family really wanted me to make chocolate chocolate chip cookies after seeing the cookies given to the moms at church. So, I did.
The Twixs I will give to my kids later this week.
Hopefully I can get back on track...cut out the sugar again tomorrow and finish the month healthy.
By the way...I decided that Sept/Oct will be the perfect time to go to Disneyland! I have always wanted to go to Disneyland to celebrate Halloween! And here we can afford it (cheaper tickets than in America).
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