Happy Father's Day!

Stevie's one wish for Father's Day was to be able to sleep in, but since he was on call the night before, that couldn't happen.  But we tried to make it a great day anyways! 

I made him homemade biscuits and gravy - which I might add, he said was better than Cracker Barrel's (and I took this as a genuine compliment!).  Then we spent the day at the pool and shopping for new running shoes (his choice).  Despite what he posted on Facebook, that I bought him a $400 vacuum, I didn't.  I mean, we did buy a vacuum, but only because ours broke and we're pet sitting a very hairy black lab for a month and need a vacuum (every day!)  But I really bought him an Apple TV and some very cool Star Wars mugs from the kids.  He decided, however, that the Apple TV would be underutilized in our house, so returned it in lieu of some good running shoes.

London giving Stevie his card he made at school.

I love you Dad!

As Yoda says, "Do or do not, there is no try."  One of Cannon's favorite quotes.

May the Force Be with You (press the button and it plays it for you!)

We ended the day with a scrumptious steak dinner - and the piece de la resistance: finding Obi!

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

For the past few days, we've been missing our cat, Obi.  Now I'm not sure exactly how many days he's been missing and that's not because I'm an irresponsible pet owner.  It's because our neighbors, Mike, Kelly and the boys, are his surrogate family.  They have a cat box, cat bowl with gourmet food, and Obi's best friend, Ty (who is an enormous black lab).  They love Obi as much, if not more, than us and he wanders freely between the two homes.  So when I started thinking on Friday that I hadn't seen Obi around I wasn't that concerned because I thought he was at Kelly's.  Little did I know that she was thinking the same thing.  So when she finally inquired on Saturday morning if I'd seen Obi, I started to get concerned.

Skip forward to Sunday night when our efforts to comb the neighborhood calling for the cat, putting up posters and sending out a search party (aka Ty, the enormous black lab who Obi always comes to) hadn't netted a cat yet.  Oh, we had reportings of hearing cat meows, but no sightings.  Until Mike went out on another search party adventure with Ty and found him.  Two stories up on the top of a roof!!!!

Yes, for two or three days Obi had sat in 100 degree heat, blazing sunshine, 80% humidity, utterly exposed on a roof.

The people who live under this roof (four families because its a four-plex), had called Animal Control (twice) who said they couldn't do anything but would come back on Monday with a ladder.  Helpful.  Thankfully, one of the families had tried to throw food up onto the roof and a water bottle with a cracked lid so that he might get some water.  But other than that, they let the cat sit on the roof.

But this was our cat and waiting another day for a ladder didn't seem like a good plan, so we called 911.  Don't you always see in the movies and cartoons the fire department coming to rescue a cat stuck up a tree?  Well, they don't on Okinawa.  We were told this was not a medical emergency but an Animal Control situation so they would not dispatch the fire trucks.  Apparently being without food or water on a hot roof for three days only constitutes a medical emergency for humans, and not animals.  911 referred me to PMO, which is the military police.  So I called PMO who said they couldn't do anything but call Animal Control.  Are you seeing a pattern here?  And that pattern was going nowhere, so luckily Mike and Matt, our neighbors, think the same way as us and decided to take matters into our own hands.  (Kelly and David are in Tokyo otherwise they would have been the first ones out there.)

The Rescue of Obi
Armed with nothing more than a three-step ladder (no one here has anything bigger because we don't do our own maintenance!), Mike and Matt conned one of the families (believe it or not, one man refused to let us onto his balcony, but that's another story I'm going to leave behind) into letting them climb out of their bedroom window onto a sort of landing which runs half way up our housing units.  From there it's another 10-15 feet up to the roof.  Matt (who is thankfully tall and strong and fearless) climbed on the ladder but was still another four feet shy of the roof.  So there's Matt reaching up to Obi trying to coax him to jump, and Obi peering off the top of the roof, but staying put.  So they tried putting bricks under the ladder to lift it up more.  Which left Matt 6 inches shy of the top.  He could touch Obi, but Obi picked this time to be coy and playful and rub on Matt and lick his fingers, instead of being helpful.  Once, Matt grabbed Obi and tried to pull him off, but the fool cat clung for dear life to the roof and refused to come down.  By this point Matt is doing some pretty crazy acrobatics and amazing feats of strength (all supported by his dad) so with one last attempt, Matt grabbed Obi and yanked him off the roof and into his safe arms.  Drama over.

So today, looking no worse for the wear, Obi is one more life less.  Aren't we fortunate cats have nine?

See those two shining eyes, that's Obi!

Getting out onto the landing.

Our hero! (and Obi)

School's Out for Summer!

Words that elate any youngster's heart and send shivers of fear through their parents'!  But, alas, it is that time of year and now all three of the munchkins are out of school.  Now I've got a middle schooler, a second grader and a pseudo-kindergartner.  (Emmy misses the cut-off date for entry into kindergarten by Department of Defense schools standards by one week so I will be attempting home-schooling with her!)


Emmy, giving me her girl power attitude!  She was supposed to be a princess for her graduation routine.

Looking a little more princess like.

Pre-school graduation with pre-school eisa dancers.

Emmy giving one of the kindergarten graduates a flower.  She didn't want to give it up!

And a dragon dance performance!

London heading into school on his last day.

Saying good-bye to Mrs. Murray.

Brothers ending school.

I think it's so funny to see how enthusiastic the teachers are to send off the buses.

Cannon with his graduation certificate from "Coats Academy"!  We made it through a whole year of homeschooling without killing each other!

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Since I'm already getting tired of going to the pool, we welcome any visitors to help us through the summer!

High School Graduation

We may be living in a foreign country, but a lot of our daily lives is still dictated by American traditions and yesterday was one of those.  Our good friends Kelly and Mike's son, Matt, graduated from high school yesterday at the on-base high school, Kubasaki.  Congratulations Matt!

It's been a long time since I've been to a high school graduation (wow, when I stop to add up the years it's even longer than I thought...), but as far as I can tell, things haven't changed that much.  Well, apart from the Power Point slide show of photos and the people taking pictures on their cell phones and iPads.  But there were still the speeches, the tears and the proud parents cheering as their child's name was called to walk across the stage.

And there were the slightly Japanese/military twists to the ceremony too.  Like the military band playing Pomp and Circumstance, and the Color Guard, oh, and the playing of the Japanese national anthem.






Of course the American national anthem was played too, with the Japanese flag slightly lowered.




And I was reminded that we were on a Marine base when the one person joining the Marines name was called and the whole auditorium erupted into "oorah" and cheers.  (There were others joining the Army and the Air Force, but the Marines are far more numerous and vocal here!)

And there was the proof that we really are in an international community - the welcome was made in six languages!

What an interesting twist on a great American tradition.

Congratulations, Matt, for your graduation and your full-ride scholarship to the University of Washington (and that nice gift from your parents)!

Happy Sweet 16

Sixteen years ago two hearts became one when we said, "I do".  We celebrated our wedding anniversary by watching a fantastic sunset on the sea wall and then having a lovely dinner at the Seaside Cafe.

Aren't these clouds amazing?

Cannon's Second Recital

Cannon had his second piano recital yesterday at the Renaissance Hotel.  Despite having a bit of stage fright which led him to begin his piece over (video is edited), he did an awesome job!  I really wish I hadn't stopped taking lessons with him.  He has grown so much in the 2 and a bit years since he started playing and we're so proud of him!

The piece is Hungarian Dance No. 5  by Brahms.

Feeling Batty

Way back when we first got on island, during our first week here, we discovered that Okinawa has bats.  Not just cute little fruit bats, but massive flying fortresses with wing spans of three or more feet (maybe I exaggerate just a little, but only a little!)

Once we got used to the sight, it's been my quest to photograph one of these bats (and I don't mean at the zoo).  It's kind of hard to get a good shot of a bat because usually they fly by and are gone before you can say "bat!" and definitely before you can grab your camera.  Obstacle two is that they come out at night, duh, and cameras don't work so well at night.  Third obstacle, even if you can find one hanging in a tree, they are usually at the top of the tree and too far away for a good shot.

The usual bat shot...

But today was the day!  Kelly came home around 6:00 and told me about a baby bat she found by the side of the road.  It appears to have been injured, maybe in the typhoon, and so is not flying away.  She promptly led me to the creek where we found it hanging upside down on a root by the side of the ditch.  Bats are cute little fellas!  We were able to get some really good shots, especially Kelly who got down into the ditch.

What a cutie!

I guess he was feeling a little camera shy and covered his face!

He was grooming himself - look I caught his tongue out!

And then, as if that weren't enough, when I was cleaning up the dinner dishes, I look out my kitchen window to see a bat hanging in what is left of my banana trees in front of the window!  This was of the grown up variety, not a baby bat, but still quite cute.  I grabbed my camera and snapped these two photos before he flew off.  I guess you could say I'm feeling quite "batty" tonight!

Note my poor, shredded banana leaf...

Can you see his claw?