Enjoy the Moment

After a long day, Jonas and I fell asleep on the couch. I think I fell asleep first and then he joined me. Shailey was sweet and took our picture. I was glad because, aside from the first week Jonas was born, I don't think he has ever slept next to me. A peaceful moment like this doesn't happen everyday, so when it does, enjoy it.

Sister Lisa Engaged!

Louis sister number 5 (the baby) is getting married December 18th in the Newport temple to Brent Brown. They met at BYU Idaho over three years ago. Brent is from Colorado. He is finished with school and Lisa has 1 semester left. They are a very fun couple... they don't take life or themselves too seriously. Brent will be a fabulous addition to our tribe. Ahhh, young love.

Our First Typhoon

We survived our first typhoon! We woke up to the the phone ringing at 5:00am telling us school was cancelled. The kids were disappointed because it was "spirit day" and they had fun outfits planned. So instead, we spent the day indoors playing games and watching shows. However, by late afternoon, the kids were restless. It was still raining, but the wind had died down quite a bit, so I took a chance and walked them to the local AM/PM mini mart where everyone could pick an ice cream. We love Japanese ice cream treats. The one they are eating here is like a crunchy Eggo-waffle with vanilla ice cream and a thin layer of hard chocolate in the center. Yum!

Notice Jonas' Power Ranger gloves... ice cream tastes better wearing Power Ranger gloves!

Lost In Translation

While I have been really enjoying Japan, not knowing the language or how to read Japanese has been tricky. This is a picture of a yogurt. Any guesses what it is? It is green, so we thought maybe "white grape" or "apple". Nope. It does not taste like any yogurt we've ever had before. Glenn tried reading the label and came up with "aloe". An aloe vera yogurt? No way. But later, at another grocery store I saw the leaves of an aloe vera plant on a yogurt container.... mystery solved. Glenn was absolutely correct... aloe vera yogurt, who knew?

We went to a new Costco here. We were excited because they had those yummy hot dogs, pizza, and smoothies like they do in the states. While Glenn was in line at the membership desk, I ordered our family some lunch. Problem. The guy at the register had no clue what I was ordering. I saw him look around in a panicked way, hoping to spy a worker who knew English. Then he looked back at me and said something I did not understand. Hmmmmm. I was far from Glenn (my favorite translator) so I came up with a new plan: I said the exact same thing as before, only with a Japanese accent:

Caesar salad = see sa sa red

pizza = pi sah

hot dog = ha dah guh

mango smoothie = ma un go smoo ie

Guess what??? It worked. He totally understood my order and smiled at me with relief. I was proud of myself for finding an alternative to waiting for Glenn's help. My only problem then was when he confirmed my order I kept saying "si" (Spanish "yes") instead of "hi" (Japanese "yes"). I have a strange desire to speak Spanish here. Uh, yeah, Spanish is not really going to work. I think I will stick with broken English.

Karoke Night Details

Glenn took us out for a family night of karoke (pronounced kar-ow-kay). It was at a hotel here where they have a variety of private karoke rooms. Some of the rooms had a Japanese style low table where you sit around it. We selected a more "American" table because the seats are more comfortable. A few of the rooms actually had a large jacuzzi tub inside.... karoke plus a soak in a hot tub... it can't get better than that. Jonas saw the "pool" and requested that we swim the next time we do karoke. You can also order food in your room from the phone on the wall. There was a huge selection of songs to choose from (it looked like a fat phone book). We had a blast. Even I had fun singing, when really karoke is not my thing. Whoever comes to visits us, this experience is a must.

Ostlund Karoke Night

Goodbye Grandma September 13, 2007

Today my Grandma, Dorothy Elizabeth Mushett Haines passed away at 84 years. She is my mother's mother. She has lived in Kentucky for the past 7 years. My children and I made trips to visit her often. Our time with her there was very peaceful. We mostly sat around and visited, leaving the house now and then to go to Cracker Barrel restaurant or to spend time with Uncle Bill and family. It has been a big part of my children's life. They know their great-grandma, where some children are lucky if they have ever met their great-grandma. We will miss many things. We will miss her great sense of humor. Even in the worst of moments, she could find something to giggle about. Sometimes she laughed just for the sake of being a "stinker". In fact I think she was happiest when she was purposely being a stinker. She was definitely feisty. We will miss the scent of her home. She loved her perfumes and lotions so her home always had a flowery smell from the hundreds of perfumes she collected. We will miss her hospitality. While I always served her with cleaning and helping her with whatever she needed done, she served us too. She always offered us her silk pillowcases (reserved only for her best guests). She always shared her favorite candies. And when I devoured her chocolate orange sticks (my favorite... I love how she kept them cold in the fridge) she was sure to have a box just for me the next time we came. She was very generous and always bought me a tank of gas and took us out to dinner. She spoiled the girls with prizes even when I said "no". She loved to see the look on my face when they arrived at the car with the treat I said they could not have. When she asked me if I wanted something I would say "no I am fine" and she quickly scolded me with "I didn't ask how you were feeling, I asked if you wanted...." I guess she wanted to spoil me too. Emma will remember Grandma always had fresh fruit around. Emma inherited Grandma's love for the citrus: lemons, grapefruit, oranges. Both Shailey and Emma inherited her artistic side. We will miss her drawing for them whatever they requested. We will miss playing card games with her. We will miss her life stories; both the happy and the sad. We will miss her faithful and heartfelt prayers each night. She always offered detailed prayers for us. It always tickled me that she would even put in a good word for Glenn when he was not there, thanking the Lord for him being a good father and husband to our little family. When it was time to leave, she prayed for specific safety details for our drive home: that our car would "function properly" and that "all four tires would function in the way they were designed." Her prayers provided me a lot of comfort. We never did have a problem driving home... not even when we drove through a tornado. We will miss her waving at us from under her chin like she did my entire life. Last night I dreamed about Grandma. When I saw her, she said "hello beautiful". It made me cry. Grandma I miss you. Grandma I love you.

The Karate Kid

Jonas is having a ball at pre-school. Each day I pick him up from school, he runs into my arms covered in dirt from head to toe, and smiling from ear to ear. Today he made a really cool hat he called his "karate kid hat". I couldn't help but feel a little proud that he knows who the Karate Kid is. This blue eyed blonde hair boy gets a lot of attention here... maybe from the "Konichi wa" he shouts at everyone, or because he is shooting at them with the cowboy gun he hid in his shorts. He is such a joy to me. I love my little buddy.

I am a Bag Lady

Question: What do you get when you take a girl and give her one wimpy umbrella stroller, plus 2 backpacks, plus 3 lunch bags, plus 4 sacks of groceries?

Answer: BAG LADY.

For the most part shopping here is a daily event... unlike how I LIKE to shop and how I USED to shop (once a month Sam's club with an occassional run to Kroger's for milk). This is a big change, but I am liking it... especially taking that trip to the veggie stand down the street just before dinner... it makes me feel like I am fitting in. DON'T HASSLE ME I'M LOCAL (thank you Bob)

Can You Read My Sign?

So, three weeks of living here and I have driven more regularly than I thought I would. That poses a problem to a certain degree... uh... I can't read the street signs. I soon realized this was a problem when I went the wrong way down a ONE WAY street... oops. Other than the dirty looks from the drivers, we got out of there unscathed. When I drive, I just laugh and tell my children "we're having an adventure right??" and then I quickly ask "is everyone wearing their seatbelts?"

Now some of you may ask yourselves "How did Tracey pass her driver's test if she cannot read street signs?" To that I will reply "What happens in Tokyo, stays in Tokyo."


Okay, this sign is easy enough to read.

What about this sign? I mean it has the shape of a yield, but it is red like a stop sign... see what I mean? This sign reading stuff gets tricky.

Can you read this sign? You are doing well...

But then this sign poses a problem... is it telling you the speed limit for cars or for walkers and bicyclists? The circle with the line through it probably means something is not allowed, but I am unclear what. So I decided this means that no one under the age of 40 is allowed to walk a child or ride a bike here. How's that?

Oh good, another easy sign.

But then this sign came along and well... I have no clue what it says...

I can read this sign loud and clear.

But then I found this sign and I don't know if it is telling me the type of tree it is or that if you touch it you will die of sap poisoning... hmmmmm. Be safe and don't touch it.

Last but not least, here is a sign I can read, although I don't get it. It is a picture of a gorgeous white Mediterranean home surrounded by several beautiful pools and it reads "For Your Future". I am looking at this tiny, disheveled lot, and I think to myself, "someone has a great imagination."

Chopsticks and Class...

Last night we went for a family dinner at an okonomiaki restaurant. It was a classy joint with fun leather couches that surrounded a low table. We prepped the kids to be really brave about "trying new foods". They all did really well, even though some of what we ate was a mystery. Our biggest quest was keeping Jonas from drawing spit pictures on the glass windows ("see, it yooks yike a ghost mommy"). We all use chopsticks well and Jonas is improving.... he was able to pick up a couple pieces successfully. The evening went off without a hitch until Jonas gagged on a long noodle and BARFED up everything he had eaten... "see, I tode you I didn't yike it". Yuck. We played it cool and used the washcloth napkins to casually wipe him up and then asked for the check. So much for trying new foods.

These are the wet wash clothes they give you at restaurants to wash your hands before you eat. What do you think of this for an advertisement... "not only for washing hands, these classy restaurant washcloths will also clean up....."

Driving Miss Tracey

Okay, originally when I learned that Japanese cars have steering wheels on the right side, that they drive on the left side of the street, and that there are many teeny, tiny, ONE WAY streets, I vowed not to drive in Japan for at least 6 months. Well.... only 3 days after living here, I needed to go to the grocery store and rather than take a taxi I decided to drive our minivan.... ahhhhh! I drove with my new friend, April Cook. She was fabulous. Not only did she not panic when I instinctively tried to drive on the right side of the road, especially after making a turn, but she would very calmly remind me to stay left. Only a few times did she shout "stay left, stay left, STAY LEFT!" It was totally funny. You've got to have a sense of humor about these things. I felt very accomplished when we reached our destination without injury.

Daddy's ABC game

Years ago, when Shailey was a toddler, Glenn invented the "ABC" game. The game is played with the challenger laying very still while Daddy walks his fingers up to tickle you, while he sings the abc song. If he makes it all the way to Z without the challnger laughing, they win, if any hint of a giggle squeaks out, he wins.
Shailey usually starts laughing before Daddy even starts, and Emma can usually hold her giggles in the longest. Jonas doesn't care about winning or loosing, he is in it because Daddy is playing a game with him.

I spy in Tokyo

What do we spy each day in Tokyo ? Here is Emma and Jonas just walking down the road, next to a sushi shop... there are foreigners here and there, but mostly we see Japanese people.

I spy the Mormon Temple on our walk to school each day... had to move across the world to live near a temple... back home it took us 3 hours to drive to the temple... here it is a 10 minute walk.

Another view of the temple with the top cut off... just for perspective... sidewalk/street, that perspective... not much lawn space..

Of course if the Mormon temple does not suit you, there is always a Japanese Temple nearby. I think this one is a Shinto temple by the way it looked, but I need to explore further to find out... we spy this everyday too.. Don't know who's car that is... a priest's??

Another view of the Shinto temple (just to be fair... the Mormon temple got two photos afterall)

Next to the Shinto temple is a building Jonas calls the "TOWER OF TERROR" because it reminds him of the Disney ride (which is totally scary and awesome). I like how this photo shows old and new right next to each other.

Here is a street we climb everyday... you can't tell, but it is very steep like a street you'd find in San Francisco.

We spy unique architecture too...I think this house is COOL... the Japanese have excentric artistic tastes (Stew would love it here)... this is one example... all the same house.

These are actual GEMS in there door... they are shiney...sparkle like diamonds in the sky (do you want crittel gel?). Do you like the eagle head door knob? One good turn deserves another... who knows that quote?

I love that the front looks like an old brick oven that has melted... way cool... Jonas is melted too... it was such a hot and humid day. Still the same house... some Aztec head on the front of it... I should probably research this casa, it may be famous. Maybe the head is a sign to show "canibals live here", or to show "we love head hunters"...not that I am saying the Japanese are savage.... have a sense of humor here please.Because this is a huge city with hills everywhere (Japan is made up of Volcanoes... did you know that?) you see these large retaining walls everywhere. People call it cement city and I guess this is why. I appreciate the many ways they add plants to still make it feel green. One last cool architectural wonder we spy everyday... a TINY, no a tiny door. I don't know why it is so small, perhaps little people live here. Or, maybe this is a pet door for a large dog??

School Days in Tokyo

1st Day of school at the Sacred Heart, a Catholic school. Because it is SOOO hot, Emma and Jonas will not wear their official uniforms for a few weeks...

Emma's new best friend, Maurielle. She is daughter of my friend, April. These two are two peas in a pod... both 1st graders at Sacred Heart.

Hello, does it look like I am wearing a sombrero??

Jonas' teacher... from the UK... LOVE her! He adores her too. She is amazing with children... she has the gift.

Here, Mrs. Rees is teaching the kids to hop on one foot...