ikebana, all by myself!

Here it is! I've created ikebana all by myself, for the first time. I'm sure my Sensei would be able to do it better, but I'm pretty pleased with it.

Curly Hair

OK the photos are horrible, I'm not very photogenic, but I wanted to show what has happened to my hair. Its suddenly turned curly! I can't do anything with it. How/why has this happened? Any ideas? Any ideas what to with the hair? Cut it? Let it go? Help!

Cuteness

A few pictures of the cute boy. Watching a squirrel, taking a rest & modelling his new penguin costume!

Hacklebarney

Hubby and I did some exploring and found a nice state park called Hacklebarney. Will return and bring the boys next time.

Trip to Clinton

Took a trip to Clinton this weekend to see what it was like. We went into the shops on Main St. then walked across the bridge to the old Mill Museum and Village. It turned out they were having a "green" fair and the admission to the museum was free. Here are some photos of things we saw including 2 super cute alpacas that made the sweetest little sound. We also got some free ice scrapers and a computer mouse from one of the stalls! It was nice for an overcast afternoon with nothing else to do!

Ashes

For anyone who knows the saga of the ashes.....here is an update. Of course you know that the ashes never made it to Japan even though they were in the pile designated to go. I could only hope that they were in storage (and not lost like the patio furniture, but that's another story). As the boxes from storage were unpacked I searched frantically for the ashes, to know avail. I concluded that they must be lost. One day last week, I was going through a box of toys and voila..... there I found the box of ashes! Well as you may or may not know, I had made a lovely box in pottery class to house them, but it turned out too small! Luckily I had purchased a back-up temple jar for keeping the ashes in, if the box didn't turn out. I have placed both bags of ashes in the jar and yes, there is a bit of room left for 2-3 more bags, should the need arise.

Cooking not Cleaning

Now that the cleaning and organizing chores are nearly complete, I've been able to turn my attention (a few times, anyway) to cooking! Here I have made the boy's favorite Japanese delights.....yakisoba and okonomiyaki!! They turned out pretty good. The following day I found these little pumpkins at the grocery, so I roasted and stuffed them. The boys were very impressed. Of course I think it was probably hot dogs the day after that, but I can't make a gourmet meal every night!!

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school for the boy. The first time he's had a first day picture without his sis. (sniff, sniff) At least he's got Gil. Hoping for a great day and a great year!

College Trip

Of course its been a couple of weeks now, but we took the girl to college and got her moved in. Here are few photos of the trip. She seems to be doing great and doesn't seem to miss us at all. Of course we miss her though and can't wait to have her back at the break!

Finally!! Internet again!

We are back! We had to wait a long time to get cable/phone/internet due to the strike at Verizon. The strike is over and we are back in business. Although this appears to be the slowest internet we've had in a long time. At least 4 yrs! Anyway, I'll have to catch up on all the happenings. First the hurricane that became a tropical storm! With no tv or internet we didn't know much about the seriousness until we over heard people talking the day before it hit. The stores were out of basic supplies and batteries. The homeowner brought out a generator in case the electricity went out we could keep the sump pumps going. It did go out for about an hour and we did need the generator. It filled up fast. But we had no other damage than that and had no idea that other areas were so hard hit, until we got cable of course. Here are a couple pics of Gil in his hurricane suit. I got this in Japan. Its really a typhoon suit, but seems to work equally well in heavy rain of any kind!