dressing up for halloween

We stopped at Toys R Us again for a round of Halloween dress-up pictures. I love Art's yellow hair-do!

Out for the day

We went out after Sports Day to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (we LOVED it--except for the OopaLumpas). Here's Art and the kids at the mall.

Green Jacq

Jacq loved the pompoms from Janina's Sports Day dance, they kept her occupied for about an hour.

Julia Bully

Julia is Jacq's number 1 enemy, here she is terrorizing the poor thing.

Art and I

A very rare picture of Art and I, taken by Jason on Sports Day.

Children's Sports Day

Every October we have Undokai (sports meet) in Japan, every school, every grade, every child is involved in this. Fortunately this year, all our kids are at the same school, so we only had to spend one day watching, next year it will be at two different schools (Janni will be in Jr. High).

The little red girls are Julia and her schoolmates, they were dressed for their dance, and the rest of the girls are Janni's classmates. We couldn't catch Jason for this picture.

And here is Jacq reading a comic book with Julia. Jackq thinks she's human and can do whatever we do. She especially likes fried eggs and toast.

Here we are, three of us, taking a silly picture. Can you believe I'm related to these guys?

Time Traveler's Wife

I've spent the past 2 days listening to the audio version of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's fascinating, I can't hardly stop myself. It's close to 20 hours long and I've already listening to 13 hours of the book. One day I'd like to get the hardback copy.

My Niece's Birthday

It's my niece Marylin's first birthday, and we want to wish her a most wonderful birthday and a big congratulations for making it through the year and let her know how happy we are to have her in our life and our hopes that one day we will meet and get to know each other. We love you Marylin!

I tried to upload a picture of her, but unfortunately it wouldn't upload. Maybe later!

Dragons

I have a thing for dragons, I think it has to do with the Inheritance Series by Christopher Paolini (Eragon, Eldest). For those of you who don't visit my webshots pictures, here's a recent cross-stitch project I completed over summer, I haven't framed it yet, or decided what to do with it, but it took me about a month, averaging less than an hour/day, and it was a free pattern from my favorite designer--Teresa Wentzler--she does some awesome work!!

Podcasting

My dad introduced me to podcasting and now I'm into it. You have to download the ipodder software, a very small application, and with it you can find 'podcasts' for news, music, fun, entertainment, sports..., download them into your computer or directly to your MP3, and listen to them. For me this is really ideal cause I'm on the trains and I like putting things on the MP3 player, and there are various news broadcasts you can download for listening. Yesterday I listened to an interesting interview with Chavez from Venezuela. To be honest, there's not a whole lot I remember, but something that did strike me is this:

The Cuban government's effort to give free medical services to the poor by training doctors from anywhere in the world in Cuba for free, and expecting only that they donate a few years of free service to the poor in return for their medical training.

From what I understand, Cuba actually has an excellent medical program, with excellent doctors, and they are more than willing to share that with the world, but the US refuses the help and most likely is scaring other countries off from taking advantage of it as well, which is really sad because SO many people in the world would benefit from cheap or free medical help. What's up with that anyway?

I also heard something about the US refusing to accept aid from other countries during Hurrican Katrina, when the help was readily available and even on its doorstep, but they turned the help away. What's up with that??

Some things I just don't get. Now, if I were king...

Growing Kids

I just realised that Janina is growing at a rate of about 1cm/month, she was 138.7 in April, in September she is 142.6, and she's gaining weight too. Soon she'll be taller than me, she just can't wait for it to happen!
Here we are in front of one of the beaches we wish we'd gotten to on our vacation--next year!

My youngest siblings

I spent a day with my 3 youngest siblings, we managed to get a picture of us together. (The dork looking away from the camera is Tim--pretending to be Napoleon Dynamite--admittedly, there is a very strong resemblence!)
from the shortest to the oldest:
Jerry (13--that's the most of a smile we could get)
Me (a bit pale in comparison!)
Timmy Dynamite (the best pose we got so far!)
Aimi (is it 15 or 16--I simply can't remember!)
Dad (the head of the clan)

Summer is over

Summer is finally over, fall is here, the kids are back to school and I am back to work. Life seems busier than ever and I hope I can figure out how to use Dreamweaver and make my 2nd ever web-page. I'm too lazy getting around to it, but I am determined!

Here's a picture of darling Jacq all dressed up (the kids could never do that now--she'd rebel and scratch the hell out of them!) and the kids in front of the hotel we stayed one night at in Ise.