Continuing Life During Covid19 Times

 Over the past year my little family has been in this sheltered place. A haven from the world of chaos and madness. Living a small town life on an American base in Japan ...Japan where the virus has not spread as bad as other places of the world. 

We see the news stations of America broadcasting violent protests and riots of people who are angry. Angry at the situation of losing their jobs, losing elderly loved ones and staying indoors. Angry at the government ...feeling they are making things worse and trying to control the people.

Angry at racism. Angry at policemen who are corrupt, power hungry or racist.

Being outside of America we cannot see what life has really been like over there. If the riots were by mostly the same people who travel city to city around America causing destruction and fear. Or what it has been like during the times the news isn't showing or the places the news isn't covering. Is it as bad over there as the news stations say?

Here things get better and worse and better and worse in little ways. Currently we are still attending sacrament meeting with half the ward every other week. We partake of the sacrament even though that is participating in someone touching our food and drink and then we all eat out of the same trays. They have procedures to make it sanitary but it's still not safe enough. It didn't hit me until sacrament today that we could be spreading the virus at sacrament meeting and not know it.

To travel for vacation now you have to have a negative Covid test three days prior to your flight out however, the base does not have the tests for families. And to get tested off base is super expensive.

Yesterday the restriction of going to theme parks was lifted. Disneyland is outside of the restricted Tokyo area so the families are once again allowed to visit Disneyland. The members are very excited about this. Me personally, all I care about is getting myself and my family back to America to visit our loved ones this summer as we've planned for two years now.

Going to America is not yet off the table. Every day I pray we will be going home this summer and not have to wait another year.
To get us to take this trip we just need the base to get the tests for families so we can get tested and approved in time.

The kids are still in school and doing well. They have their academic struggles. But they are better off than they were last school year. I know kids who have been doing at home school are likely falling behind in their education.

Yesterday was a gorgeous and warm Saturday. So we took our children and a friend for each other off base to a playground. Luke brought Ethan Strickland. Tiberias brought Branden Hutchinson and Athena brought Lumen Hutchinson. Branden and Lumen admitted they have not been anyone in many months. Their parents dont risk taking them anywhere. They are a very homebody family.
So, the kids were excited to visit someplace off base and away from their own street.

We tried to go to Showa Park where you hike from one playground to another. However, for an unknown to us reason the park was closed. So we drove to the obstacle course park. That park was crowded! The Japanese needed somewhere close to go to replace their outting to Showa just like us. Then we stopped at 7eleven and let all the kids pick a snack before taking them back to the base.

That evening we had a campfire. We invited a family...the Pope's. Laurie Pope was a keyspouse but her pregnancy got far enough along that she couldn't handle it anymore. She also has a 3 year old daughter. And they were in quarantine for a few weeks recently.
Mr Pope is one of Ster's bosses.
They came for a campfire, smores, Tarzan on the outdoor projector and some fun social time. It was nice.

That night Ster was falling asleep on the couch and I was fast asleep in my bed. Around 11 o clock an earthquake reached the base. There have been many small earthquakes here these past almost two years. But I never felt a one. I had never felt an earthquake in my life.
People living in the tall towers on base feel the little earthquakes. But they never shook my house when I was awake. And I always slept through the ones at night.

This time...it woke me up. The whole room was shaking it seemed. The bed was shaking. I was not sure if I was awake or dreaming at first. It was a long one. Long enough for me to full wake up. Realize it was an earthquake. And listen to the sounds of the tall dresser next to me rattling and the closet doors rattling. It was really cool actually. A stage 4 earthquake.
The kids slept throught it. But Ster came upstairs to see if I experienced my first earthquake. :)

The next day was Valentine's day!
We had church at the building off base. Athena gave everyone in our family a cute little valentine themed pin which we attached to our church clothes. I wore red to be festive. Athena wore red also.
Athena made me a ceramic bowl at school for valentine's.
At the end of church the pianist played "Where Love Is" (A Primary song). It was so beautiful and so perfect for this holiday that I was inspired. I went home and practiced singing it then recorded my singing and shared it on Facebook to my friends, family and ward.

I gave my family a valentine's day gift...homemade coupons. Of things I knew they would want. For the kids: "One outting just you and Mom", "One outting just you and dad" (where the kids can choose something fun to do for some one on one time), "Storytime with Mom" (because I only do that with Athena these days and not even very often) and "Free hug. Hand this coupon to anyone for a hug" (and brothers have to be happy and willing to give a hug for that coupon if presented to them).For the Sterling the coupons for more adult.

Sterling bought me flowers a few days prior just because he wanted to. And he plans to take me to lunch a day or two after Valentine's day. 

At 2pm we shared a box of Valentine chocolates while watching the beginning of Willow.

We have a wonderful family life. We are truly happy.

  

 Volunteering at the Airman's Attic:

Before Christmas we had so much stuff we couldn't get it into the store. So we had a yard sale out back where drop off is. A free yard sale. haha

Decided to paint some fun stuff on the kids' walls. Athena got a pet house. I made it big enough so she could pretend to be inside it herself but she wanted Binx and Bonesie painted in there. Binx is her cat persona and Bonesie is Lumen as a pup.
Then the boys wanted : Luke chose Perby (A Prince Fluff and Kirby mixed made up character). Ty chose his made up characters of himself and Branden. Larry Jr and Frostburn. Here are Ty's drawings that I had to go off of to paint their images...

As a keyspouse for Sterling's squadron I have been busy. We hosted a valentine's fundraiser in partnership with the Sumo Council. We had to create the candy gram options photograph them and make a flier. Then get the sumo council to share that flier and get reps in each flight/work place. They collected the money. Then we made the baskets and delivered them. Some went to work places and some to homes. It was more work and more stressful than I had originally planned.

We sold to the whole squadron and had about 50 orders come in.

We lost Laurie Pope from our keyspouse group because she is pregnant and has a toddler at home and it became too much for her. We lost Zonnia because her autistic son became a homeschooler.

Now it's myself, Lia (Efthalia Barriga), Jaymee and Meagan.

After the packaging night we went out to dinner. Lia had to get home but the rest of us a fun time socializing and eating at Chili's.

Valentine's day:

Athena's 7th! Cute Stories and Drawings

 Athena turned 7 years old. To celebrate we had a party, of course!

Yokota's base restrictions for this COVID 19 time is that groups should not gather in more than 6 people or two families at a time. Athena had a big list of friends she wanted to attend her birthday. So, I thought outside of the box. We would have one hour with her female friends then one hour with her male friends with a 30 minutes gap between to give me time to tidy up from the first group and do any sanitizing I felt needed.

Her birthday, Friday January 15, was a no school day. It was perfect. At 10am the party began. Athena has a great group of girl friends right around our house now. Since Arianna moved in these girls have had a stronger bond. Sophia, Athena, Lumen and Arianna. 

At the girl's portion of the party they played shopping using toy food, a shopping card, cash register, toy dollars and yen and a shop stand which I found someone was throwing out with their trash.

Then we did face painting and bubbles. The girls snacked on popcorn and mini doughnuts. I found a donut maker at the Airman's Attic (free). I also got a giant popcorn tub there.

I used table cloths for wall decor. And toys Athena already had mixed with free ones I found at The Attic. Including the Shopkins pillows I made for her when she had her first Shopkins birthday party. 

We sang Happy Birthday and Athena opened her gifts. The girls ate cake and ice cream then played with some of Athena's new toys. They had a blast! Leaving they took with them personalized goodie bags. With food themed Polly Pockets, Japanese treats and food themed prize. They also took with them their ice cream cone bubbles.

When the boys came it was Kailen and Luke and Athena's two brothers. I knew they wouldn't want to pretend to go shopping so we had a different kind of party.  We snacked and did bubbles. Then we took the balloon arch that was decor and went outside with some sharp darts. That was a fun time. The boys left with a goodie bag including an ink stamp and treats.

We sang Happy Birthday and ate cake and ice cream. Then played around. Athena got out her new playdough set that is an ice cream shop scene. It was a great time! Athena loves spending time with her friends and celebrating and eating sugar. So, she couldn't have had a better day.

Athena received a scooter from her parents. She was so happy to have that wish come true. She also got a fancy pair of headphones for traveling. Now everyone in the family have them.

 Stories Athena wrote at school:

I would like to live in the sea. I would get a clam bed.
We would be a mermaid family. I would be a mermaid cat.
My home would have pearls. They are pink pearls.

I went to the zoo. It was fun. I had ice cream. I saw a tiger, penguin, cheetah.