Otanjyobi Omedeto to Gracie!

 
 

Happy Birthday Gracie! She has changed a lot from 2001 to 2006! She is excited about her birthday and is looking forward to her party on Saturday!

She must have ordered some birthday snow because it is pouring down snowflakes this morning for the first time in about two weeks!

Happy March 1st to all!

Love,

4Vs 

Penny for your thoughts!

Sorry for the delay in updating.... not too much exciting going on with the 4Vs lately.

I thought I would share an interesting military overseas phenomena...it was something I had not thought about....

Last week, my friend Angel helped out at the elementary school for "Problem Solving Day". Later, at dinner that night, she explained that she was happy to be able to show some of the fourth graders a couple of pennies from her wallet. (Angel had just made a quick trip to the states and had some change on her!)

I couldn't figure out what was so special about her pennies at first. Then she explained that some of these kids had not actually held pennies before. They have been at overseas bases for most of their lives and were pretty excited to see a US penny.

I should explain that while we use US currency on base, we don't have any pennies. The folks at AAFES (the company that runs most of the stores and restaurants on military bases) determined that pennies are too expensive to ship and generally not worth the hassle at overseas bases. So, when you buy something on base, they just round up or down to the nearest five cents. (Coke $1.57, you pay $1.60 and so on...)

I was surprised at dinner when I went digging around in my own purse and could not come up with one penny! Too funny isn't it? We have been here for 8 months and I had forgotten to miss pennies! (I have missed Target, Wal-Mart, Goldfish crackers and being able to find diet Coke in a vending machine!)

Rest assured that after dinner we ransacked the house and were able to come up with about ten pennies. Brock and Grace were not all that impressed, but I can rest easy knowing that the two of them are familiar with the smallest US currency!

I hope you all are well and enjoying your last days of February!

Love,

4Vs

Happy Valentine's Day!

 
For Valentine's Day, all of us in Misawa got a Heat Wave! Yes, after receiving 40 inches in snow in twelve days, we woke up to forty degree weather. Please note that our home thermometer shows a high in the 50s!

It is melting like crazy outside with much snow and ice falling from the roof. The kids are thrilled to be a little less bundled. We plan on partying in the heat for another twenty four hours before it starts to snow again!

Sending you love on Valentine's Day,

4Vs 

Super Icicle

 
I am happy to report that all 4Vs have survived our super winter weather week! We have had two early base shut down days, one two hour delay going to school, one afternoon of blizzards and over fifteen inches of snow!

Things are looking better this morning and now we have huge icicles hanging everywhere.

We ain't in Texas anymore!

Love,

4Vs 

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

 
Here is a picture of the house this morning just before 6am. Mike and I had already spent over half an hour digging out from nine inches of snow! Big snow storm hit the area yesterday. Base sent everyone home around 2:30p and work/school were both delayed this morning for two hours so we could all have time to shovel and get the roads cleared.

Weather man says we will pick up another 2 to 4 inches today. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Love,

4Vs 

Setsubun

On Friday, February 3rd, the kids and I made a quick trip to the Momoishi Shrine. The Japanese were celebrating Setsubun. This is a ceremony that marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring (ha!).

At the shrine, we gathered around the steps on the outside. The crowd was largely made up of older folks and some local elementary school children. At the appointed time, dignitaries came out of the shrine and onto the porch. They had small, wooden boxes filled with beans and brand new five yen coins. As everyone shouted "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (Out with the demons and in with happiness!), they tossed the beans and coins into the crowd. People scrambled "Mardi-gras" style to pick them up. The coins are good luck and you are supposed to eat a bean for each year of your life.

Brock and Grace were all about the coins, but I could not convince them to eat the beans!

As a note, it was freezing out there! So much for the end of Spring! The coins and beans would fall in the snow and it was hard to dig them out! We were happy to see the ceremony, but even happier to get back to our warm car!

Happy Spring!

4Vs

Brock's new Maverick Basketball Team!

 

Super Bowl Monday!

I am taking time on Super Bowl Sunday to try and set this thing up. This is my latest attempt to stay in contact with everyone and keep in touch during our time in Japan.

It is 9am our time, we are in our jammies still, and enjoying the first quarter of the game. MSV is off for the day as is Brock. The base is trying to hide it, but they basically gave us all the day off since they know we would be trying to watch the game and drink beer all morning anyway! It just makes us feel like we are back home! (Sadly, without the superbowl commercials, but we have friends that are taping and sending!)

Little bit of snow today, but we don't care 'cause we are staying inside! Will write more later!

Love,

4Vs