Random

The Japanese American Society held their annual cultural event and we went.  Rylee was happy to make this Pikachu. 

They have a lot of cool things, but I got busy and forgot to take more pictures! 

A sweet little doggie.  Levi is the best! 

One of the teachers gave this hat to Rylee after the school play (Peter Pan).  I believe it was a hat for one if the Indians.  She loved it.

And I don't know what this is.  But I don't have a lot of photos of Delaney, so it's going in here.

Marian's Birthday

 Marian had another birthday.  She is a tough one!  She doesn't need anything or want anything, so it is impossible to shop for her. I spent hours on Amazon looking for suitable things and managed to find sufficient to please her.  She was very cute though; she knew exactly what she wanted to eat: Biscuits and gravy for breakfast, chicken enchiladas for dinner, and an ice cream cake for dessert.

I'm not sure where I went wrong.  I made the cake the day before, and yet it was melty when I took the springform pan ring off.  Still tasty though!  Just messy.  

 I used this recipe from "Our Best Bites" and made it in a springform pan.  It was fabulous!

With her loot pile. 

Sneaking a selfie with my girl! 

Rylee was enthralled. 

Gift from Delaney. 

I do love this kid!  She's so amazing!  

Pi Day 2017!

The annual tradition continues!  And this year we had a total of 24 pies with a whopping 12 different kinds served up, and 3 more that were brought in by friends.  There were some old favorites and a few new ones.  Here are links to them:

Toll House Pie
S'mores Pie
Butterfinger Pie
Lemon Chess Pie
Chocolate Chess Pie
Chocolate Truffle Pie
Black Bottom Chocolate Pie (From the mom of one of our awesome sister missionaries)
Heath Bar Pie (This was not good.  It was mushy and messy.)
Banana Cream Pie
Girl Scout Samoas Pie
Irish Beef Pies
Chicken Pot Pie

Friends contributed a Sweet Potato Pie, an Apple Pie and a Cheeseburger Pie.  All were met with enthusiasm. I do not know how many people came, but a lot of pie was consumed! Nary a morsel was left 48 hours later.

Heath Bar Pie.  It did look nice, but it was a bit runny. 

The Girl Scout Samoas Cookie Pie.  Rich and delicious! 

It has turned my photo sideways.  But here we have the amazing S'mores Pie and Lemon Chess. 

A very happy Sister Bready, enjoying her mom's chocolate pie. 

Joshua and Far East Drama

 So.... I have mentioned that Joshua was in the Drama Club and acting in the play.  He was also selected to participate in Far East Drama.  What is Far East Drama, you ask?  It is merely the competition of 12 or so teams of DODEA schools in the Asia area who all get together and compete.  This means that Josh spent the week I was in Hong Kong, puttering about Korea and honing his acting skills. He flew out Sunday morning and returned Friday evening.

Why so long?  Well, there were 12 teams and each team presented their plays and monologs.  They were judged on them and awards were presented.  Joshua said they were rather outclassed by the really good schools, but they were not the worst.  He was pleased with the performance and all that he got to do.

Here are the only photos I could scrounge up from his experience.

Hong Kong: The End

 Thursday evening was the start of the Asian Women's Conference.  And it went 9-5 on Friday, then 8-1 on Saturday.  ZERO photos of that.  Why?  Well, because I was busy and there wasn't much to photograph.  But it was amazing and fabulous and I loved it. I took lots and lots of notes and have grand ambitions to be a better me. The ladies there were delightful and friendly and wonderful and the speakers were incredible, and somehow you can't really take pictures of all that. But trust me when I say it was marvelous.

Thursday after Conference we went to the big mall in Kowloon and wandered around.

Saturday we did Conference for a few hours and ran off early to catch our flights home.  Ug.  It takes forever.  Train, bus, plane, more train.... But I made it safely home. Dan and Marian and the dog were waiting at the train station to drive me home and all was right with the world.

Night view from the hotel room.  We were on the 21st floor here!

Morning view from the hotel room. 

The way to the MTR trains.  It was crowded. 

Look what is at the mall! 

If you can zoom in, you can see that a pound of See's Candy is $498 HKD.  That's roughly $65 PER pound! Crazy! It was over $5 for two pieces, which is all I purchased.  

This is the mall with the indoor skating rink.  Cool! 

I was so proud of myself!  I managed to fit all my stuff, plus all my recent (and copious!) purchases into the suitcase and backpack.  Joy!

Saying goodbye to my lovely view. 

Almost home!  Okay, fine.  I was on the correct continent, but still had a taxi ride to the train station, a trip on the Shin, and a short drive and THEN I was home! 

  

In case you wondered what the Shin looks like.

And this is what a Shin ticket looks like.  If you happen to have an office of super nice folks where you buy the ticket in advance, they might even write the important stuff in English for you.

This was another style of Shin.  Very NASA.  

So yes, I made it home safe and happy and tired.  It was a wonderful trip!

Hong Kong: Temple and Victoria Peak

 Thursday morning we checked out of the MetroPark Hotel and shlepped our baggage over to the Temple.  We did the 9am session and it was lovely. We went across the street to visit the Mission Office, and were a little disappointed that the Distribution Center didn't open till 12:30. We traveled across the river and checked into the Holiday Inn Express.  We dumped our luggage and ran off to see Victoria Peak.  Which was not as easy as it sounds!  We had to take the train, then roamed around till we figured out which bus we needed, and we took the bus over to the area and wandered around some more.  Eventually we found the tram station and took the tram straight up the mountainside to the top!

The weather was perfect!  The air quality was great and we could see far far away.  It was pretty amazing. I had to take selfies from every angle. There was a Bubba Gump Restaurant there at the top so we had dinner there. Then we took the tram back down and hot-footed it over to get to the start of the Women's Conference.

Me at the Temple!  Lovin' it!

Hong Kong Temple shot.  Be impressed.  There was a bunch of construction making it unsightly, so I was delighted to get a good photo.

And there I am! 

This is an exciting moment.  I am not adventerous, but we managed to find the right bus and we took it.  I know, me, on a bus!  I did it!

Posing at the wax museum display.  Yeah, I'm cool.   .... or not!

View from the top. 

Just to prove I really did go up there! 

And the other side.... 

Lynnette and I were trying to see if we could recognize the "Stark" building from the Disney Iron Man ride.  

And I loved this with the boats. 

I'm sad that you can't see that the sign says something about being at the highest point. 

This sign is to say "I love you" at the top.  I think it is sweet.

Hmmm.... I sure took a lot of photos of myself! 

It was just so impressive! 

And here is Bubba Gump's restaurant. 

On the tram.  It only faces up.  So when you go down.... you go backwards!  Yikes! 

It was a good time!

We interrupt this series with an Important Message

So, we learned 2 months ago that we would not be staying in Iwakuni. I was rather heartbroken, as I had my heart set on another year here, and kind of hoped we'd get to live here forever.

Okay, fine.

I didn't expect forever, but I love it here so very much and honestly, we expected them to approve an extension for a 4th year. But, they said no.  Unequivocally, no.

We have been waiting since then to find out if where they said they wanted to send us was, in fact, where we would actually go.  This morning we had web orders!

(Mostly) Officially, we will be moving to Okinawa Japan this summer.  I know, it doesn't seem like much.  A move from Japan to Japan is largely the same..... unless it is you.  Moving from Iwakuni to Okinawa is like moving from North Dakota to New York City.  Nothing is the same but the country.

Now we wait for more things- to see if Dan can change his NLT date to something earlier than Aug 14, we wait to get movers scheduled, wait to see when we fly over.....

So the fun begins anew!!

Hong Kong: DisneyLand!!

Wednesday we took the train out to DisneyLand!  It was an absolutely perfect day.  I got to hang out with someone I really like, and the weather was perfect, and there were no lines.  I couldn't have  done a thing to make the day any better! We rode all the rides we wanted and I did Space Mountain, the Iron Man ride, and their version of Thunder Mountain twice.... no lines!  We snacked, we shopped, we walked, we talked, we saw a show, we rode rides, we took pictures, and we had a really great day. And I have a multitude of photos (yes, mainly selfies!) for you to enjoy.

I know, I'm a dork.  But this is me and the 12th story view from the hotel.

Look at me!  I'm on the streets of Hong Kong! 

I'm on the MTR train and it is almost empty.  Cool beans! 

There is a special Disney train that takes you right to Disney. 

Lynnette HATES having her photo taken, so don't tell her.  But I figured in 10 years I'll be thinking "Who was Lynnette?"! Now I'll look and remember. 

I'm so excited to be here! 

We arrived 15 minutes before the 10am opening and the entry was pretty empty. 

Rats.  You can barely tell that I'm hanging out with Iron Man. 

 And I found Buzz Lightyear.

 Seflie with the Castle!

 Me and Woody!

 I crack myself up.

Yeah, I think I'm funny!

 So.... these guys came walking out and I wanted a photo of them.  But not up close, just from here.  Sadly, they walked right up to me and Lynnette grabbed my phone and giggled and took pictures while I cowered in terror.

 He got right up in my face and I didn't even know what they were saying but I did not want to be there.

Lynnette thought it was hysterical.  But I was totally intimidated and apparently have no talent for hamming it up.  I just froze.

Then he backed off a little for pictures. 

So I posed for pictures. 

 And the sun was heading down behind the castle as we left.

 We went to dinner at a local little place and the menu was unclear.  One would assume that the servings are for one, and we did.  And ended up each ordering meals that were for 2 or more.  Oops!

I could not finish it!  But I enjoyed it very much.