Josh's Last Cross Country Meet- Sasebo

Josh's last Cross Country Meet was in Sasebo.  He ended up with a fairly light schedule this year- he missed the first two meets due to an injury.  He skipped out on one of the Tama Hills meets because he had a friend visiting.  And the last Tama Hills meet was cancelled since it was scheduled as an away meet on our Homecoming weekend. So Josh ended up going to Tama Hills twice (out of 4 trips), participating in the home meet, and going to Sasebo once (out of 2 meets).  Only the top 5 boys went up to Misawa and to the Far East Tournament, and he wasn't top 5.  It was a pretty laid back season for him.  Although he may not have felt that way!

But I digress..... We went to Sasebo!

There was no school that Friday.  Joshua and the Cross Country team got on a bus at 8am and departed then.  I got a call from Joshua, not from his phone, at 10:30am  "I can't hear you because it is too noisy.  Don't worry.  We are standing by the road so it is loud.  You probably got the email that the bus was in an accident.  Don't worry, no one is hurt.  Bye!"

Um, I had NOT read the email, so I ran off to do so. It said essentially the same thing, so that was not helpful.  And why didn't he call from HIS phone?! I had visions of his phone engulfed in flames on the bus while he watched.  And I worried and was concerned that I had no way to contact him.  He had said they were fine though, and no one said there was a problem. So I hoped there really wasn't one.

Dan took the afternoon off and we headed out at 1pm.  We did pass the bus 2 hours later- it was getting ready to be towed away.  No boys in sight.  We swung through the next rest stop 3km down the road.  It also was devoid of American high school students.  We continued on and reached Sasebo just after 5pm.  Joshua texted and said he had also just arrived.

We went out to dinner at Chilis and yum!  As we were leaving, the Cross Country Team was coming in, and we got the scoop on the incident.  The bus had slowed or stopped for traffic, just after a curve in the road.  Cars coming up behind them were unaware of the slower traffic, and the guy coming up right behind the bus switched lanes and the poor car behind him didn't know till it was everlastingly too late and he ran into the back of the bus.  The coach was thrilled to mention that the boys all got rides in Japanese police cars over to the rest stop. He said he had pictures, but he has not shared them, although I await eagerly to see this.

We stayed the night at the billeting on base and it was less pleasant than it has been on prior trips- bed with a dreadful sag in the middle and AC that clicked on noisily when it cycled on.

But the sunrise was glorious. And I enjoyed it fully as I went out to get lots and lots of Dunkin Donuts.  I wish WE had a Dunkin.

We opted to sleep in an extra hour rather than follow the bus to the meet site.  I had a pin on my phone and it managed to get us almost all the way there.

I remembered the last mile or so being narrow, but not THIS narrow!

Several miles up the mountain with no place to turn around, and we were starting to get nervous! There isn't room to even pass someone else.  Thank goodness we didn't need to. We get it all sorted out, with a bit of worry and luck and we did make it, with 15 minutes before Josh's race was to start.

Marian and Rylee posed in the lovely flowers. 

Joshua said he was ready. 

Them's my favorite boys! 

See rock, must climb! 

 Rylee wanted to pose with this guy. 

And they were off!  Our guys are in maroon.  They ran around a big lake, so there was no other place to really get pictures.

Not till the end, anyway.

Go Josh, go!

 Dan took pictures too.  It was fun.

 And then we hung around and waited for results.  The girls had a marvelous time.

Did I mention how much they liked this rock. 

And they asked for lots of pictures. 

So I obliged. 

And then we drove the 45 minutes back to Sasebo.  2 of the sister missionaries who served in Iwakuni (Jorgensen and Sundell) were currently serving in Sasebo, so we met with them for lunch.  It was awesome to see them and visit with them.

Rylee as we walked to the restaurant. 

Marian, enjoying her delicious fried rice.

And we saw cats.  So we had to take photos.

It was a very nice cat.

Then we went to pick up Joshua so he wouldn't have to ride the bus home and we drove the 4+ hours back to Iwakuni.  It was a good trip.

Zombies in the Rain

So, the base held a Zombie Run.  I had every intention of going.Joshua was suppose to run with the Cross Country Team in Leiu of the Meet they cancelled (because some idiot scheduled them an away meet over Homecoming weekend).  Sadly, the morning was cold and rainy.  Not drizzly, but pouring rain.  Delaney had her heart set of running in it and condescendingly told me "I'll be wearing a poncho!" when I suggested she may not want to go out.

Dan bravely took one for the team.  While I went to finish my laps for the swim challenge, he took Delaney and Rylee and Joshua off to the Zombie run.  My lovely friend Michelle sent me these photos of them.  While I'm sad I didn't get anything with the Zombies, I'm grateful she thought to take these.

It turns out none of the other Cross Country kids showed up, so Joshua was the only one representing.  Yeah, my boy is hard core!  He had a great run, and especially enjoyed finding out that he could outrun full grown men dressed as Zombies who really were trying to catch him. 

Oh, and he came in second place.

Checking his finish.  That bin is full of "life Belts".  Kind of like flag football flag belts, if you lost your flags you were "dead".  Except this was put on by the Red Cross, so to get your life back you had to answer some first aid questions.  Then you could continue. 

Rylee and Delaney were wet and cold and miserable.  Dan had to carry Rylee the last half, and Josh came back to encourage them home. 

Rylee was not happy to be cold and wet.  Delaney was shocked that her poncho did not actually keep her warm and dry.  She was especially unhappy that her feet were freezing and numb.

 

Medals went to the top 3 and the last runner.  Rylee was pleased to win for being last.

These were the cool Medals.  Joshua got one for his awesome second place finish as well.

Mini Marine Corps Ball

 They put on a pretty awesome event each year.  They do a Mini Marine Corps Ball.  It is just for the kids (ages 5-12) and it pretty much identical to the real Ball.  No parents.  The kids get escorted in by Marines in full Dress Blues.  They sit at tables and have a Pageant and Cake Ceremony.  They get dinner (buffet style for them), cake and dancing.  Delaney and Rylee really wanted to go this year, so I got them tickets and they were excited!

Delaney is her gorgeous Ball gown.

Rylee being silly. 

They wanted matching fancy hair and chose this. 

Rylee chose this dress.

Delaney was SO excited! 

Her fancy hair. 

And the back. 

I could not get good photos- too many people, too dark and too fast. But here is Rylee, getting escorted in, 

And Delaney. 

She went in with her friend Serenity.  It was so fun!

I didn't know I was allowed to go in, so I snaked the rest of the pictures from friends.  The cake ceremony. 

Just like the grown-ups Ball!

And the oldest and youngest KIDS got the first slices of cake.  Such a cool thing.

Sadly, Delaney was upset by several things. It was super-noisy (well, with 400 kids, I guess so!) and she couldn't see or hear any of the ceremony.  I also didn't think to feed her before they left and didn't realize dinner wouldn't be for another 2 hours after the event began.  So she was starving and grumpy about it.  Then she had to wait in the buffet line for-EVER and she was SO hungry.  Plus, apparently she asked a boy to go and he refused to dance with her.  "He DUMPED me!"  So her expectations were not met and she called me in tears to come and get her.  She never even got cake.  The thing I am saddest about is how awesome my kids are at being photo-ninjas.  2 separate professional photographers took and shared about 500 pictures each and not a single one has either of my girls in it!  How does that even happen?!  Hopefully next time will be better.

Making a Kimono Scarf

I really like video tutorials, because they show me what to do.  Except I couldn't find one that does this exactly the  way I do it!  I did like these tutorials though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euLZPZCahKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRyCWbe0Xfc
So you can check them out and have a good jumping off point. You can use it for other ideas or you can just do it that way.  There isn't really a wrong way!

 For our tutorial today, we will start with the kimono itself.

So pretty!

So, I have two complementary colored kimonos to pair up. 

Pull out the seam ripper and slide it in. I only cut a few stitches. 

So I have room to grab and gently rip by hand.  Easy peasy.  

Well, the first ones took me an hour or two to pick apart, but now I rip them apart by hand in under 5 minutes.  The seam ripper gets me started and I use it for the few reinforced spots, but mostly it just sits there. Mostly.  Sometimes there are kimonos with stronger stitching and weaker fabric, then you have to be a bit more careful.

This is the finished product, all picked apart.  It unpicks into these lovely long strips, and the pile of darker purple and white is the lining.  I typically just throw the lining away unless it is silk or I have a specific purpose for it. The colored silk lining makes for good scarves.

For this scarf, I pulled out the longest strips of the widest fabric strips, to make a wide scarf.  I like it to be about 2 yards long and this one is about 13 inches wide and 60 inches long.  So, I find matching pieces in width and length.  Iron them. 

I lay them down front sides together.... 

And sew the long sides only.... 

..... Leaving a one to two inch gap in one of the sides.  

So, no sewing the short ends together, and leave a 1"-2" gap anywhere you want. 

Pick an end, then reach your arm down through the fabric tube to grab the other end and pull it through, but do not turn it entirely inside out.  You want both ends to be together. 

Like this.  

Then, rotate the inside fabric so the opposite fabrics face each other, like this.  Line up the seams, and pin them to keep them in place.

Now you sew the short ends together.   

This way makes the inside nicely hollow. 

Once you finish that, find your 1" gap and pull the scarf right-side out through it. 

Now it looks like this. 

I iron the seams/edges flat and neat.
(Why is my picture upside down?!)

Then go back and re-find the gap.... 

And stitch it shut.  I am not a good hand-sewer, so I just stitch with the machine.

You could stitch the entire border, but I haven't tried that yet (mostly because I'm lazy).

 If I am really good, I'll actually find matching thread so it is pretty invisible. 

And here is the finished product. 

Just so you know, I don't usually make them that wide.  I typically do a thinner scarf- around 6-8" wide. To do that, I take the wider fabric strips that are shorter, 

And cut it in half down the middle.  Sew the two strips together (on the short ends) to make a longer strip  that's about 8" by 64".  Then I do the same thing as with the wider scarf. Really, you just need a strip of fabric that's about any width you like and 60-70 inches long.

This is the thinner style scarf.  It was a bit longer than I meant for it to be. (It looks wider, but it isn't.)

But it wrapped around nicely 3 times. 

(Callie was my photographer of these!)

And, just for funnsies, I'm going to leave a link to another tutorial right here.  I'm planning to try this method soon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-IS2HFLH6U