Monday, June 13, 2011

Dreaming of Dinner

THREE of the kids had a hail (to the incoming 7th graders, Nolan is one of them!) and farewell (to the Seniors) Beginning of Summer BBQ tonight.  It was on the north side of the base - about 35 minutes from our home.....I didn't want to drive back home after we dropped them off. 


Zander and Stacia got the rare privilege of selecting a restaurant for dinner. They chose the Lake View Grill  - not really sure that's the name.  It sits on the top of a hill on base looking over Lake Ogawara.  This is a new discovery for us and frankly it isn't known for HEALTHY food.  We all ordered our food and were SHOCKED by the HUGE portions last week until Michael's Chef Salad arrived - teeny tiny. LOL 


Evidently Stacia had been "dreaming" about fried mac and cheese....



The meals come with a basket of fries each....


We have two boxes of fries and onion rings which we couldn't finish. We drove back down to main base and spend a couple of hours at the library and then retrieved the youth and headed home....settling in for the night. Tomorrow will be another long day. 


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...


Stacia's New Goal

This is not a self-directed goal. I've dreamed of family bike rides for YEARS. There was a bit of time when we actually pulled it off....meaning all the older ones could ride bikes and we had a bike trailer and seat for the youngest 3.....We sold our trailer when we moved, thinking Stacia would be riding a bike anytime.....

Alas, Stacia does NOT like falling, or ouches of ANY sort....she feels this bike thing is highly overrated and has been happily STILL riding the faithful old Tryke.  She's had quite a growth spurt this year....and will be 6 in August....it seems time for her to learn to ride her bike...but she has been too scared to try even with training wheels.

Last night Arielle and I went out for a ride. Stacia saw merit in being able to go out with us for "girl time".  Today, Arielle and I decided she needs to be riding her bike by her birthday in August.

She was less than convinced but gave it a try....and oh what a lot of drama we had......but she did get a bit more comfortable with the training wheels...if Arielle and I run along side.....

The moment she realized neither Arielle nor I were holding on to the bike....

Here she learns how to use the brakes...a mixed blessing, that! 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...


LAUNDRY.....laundry...laundry....

Some will remember last spring/summer's laundry entries.. here for starters. We never really solved the problem of laundry flying around the neighborhood or posts and concrete blocks being blown over in the typhoon strength gusts of wind.....

When we were rationed to one load of laundry a day after the tsunami,  I pulled the posts out of storage and set it up by the garage. It didn't blow over. We slowly migrated the set up the carport.....now it's protected from the wind AND the rain....and I've been happily drying load after load. In fact, I recently doubled my capacity....a very needed splurge.

Nothing has blown over or away and we still have room for the van! It's amazing how quickly Michael finds solutions for things which perplex me for months. ::snort:: Have I said lately that it's nice to have him home this spring/summer? 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...