Parties, Theater Sets and Ikebana

Lots of fun stuff happened this week. This weekend was the opening of the play that Ian helped build a set for. We haven't seen much of him leading up to opening night because he comes home from work and then builds set for a couple of hours. We got to go see the play, "Steel Magnolias", on Thursday night and the set was really nice. This play is definitely one of the more polished ones here on base and I'm hoping that we keep having them. I think all the building has made Ian a touch more fulfilled. He even built me a shelf out of driftwood.

Guys, we got a four day weekend for Memorial Day! And then my ikebana exhibition was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday which means that I have to be in Towada Friday night and Sunday night for the arranging and the cleaning up. So pooh, we couldn't just pack our selves up and go camping in teepees like some lucky people did. But the flowers were really cool.

This years exhibition was at the Towada Civic Center. There wasn't as much room as last year but at least they didn't kill all the flowers because they turned the AC off like last year. I got orchids! victory dance! And I even get to do most of the arranging this year! I used sensei's tall skinny blue vase. My friend used a large rectangular shallow vase. Her arrangement was a little more structured than mine. Sensei pretty much told me not to worry about a form and just make it look pretty. No rules...that I can do!

Here are some more of my favorites.

Then on Memorial Day we decided to host a BBQ and boardgames day. We had more people than I expected and our apartment is pretty tiny. It was a grand old time and the weather was really lovely. There was plenty of meat to go around. Though Ian's meat branding iron didn't work as well as we would have hoped. It is a little crazy having kids running around and a board game going on both sides of the house, but we managed quite beautifully. Now we are brainstorming ideas for the next party - maybe 1920's cocktails?

This is Bea when we went out for sushi at a nice restaurant with private rooms and tatami mat floors. You think keeping a kid happy in a high chair is hard? Try keeping them happy when everyone is sitting on the floor and there are pretty decorations littered around. I have to say though, good quality sushi is fabulous and melts in your mouth.

Bea has learned a few new tricks this week. She now drives her cars around and makes vroom vroom noises. She also likes to lounge on the couch and commandeer my kindle, though she doesn't quite know what to do with it yet. It's just so funny to see her lounging on the couch with her legs and belly sticking out. She's very business like. She's also a fan of putting things in boxes and closing the lid.

Birthdays and Standing Tall

The key words for this week are "Busy" and "Exhausting". I apologize for the lack of pictures but I spent most of this week in either a stupor or far too busy to pick up the iPhone. Such is the life of a supermom.

Ian's birthday was this past week and we celebrated for a good three days. It's not everyday that my hubby gets incredibly old ;-D. We got him a new espresso machine for his board game. I was relieved because this is probably the first holiday in which we haven't bought him a board game. Seriously, they are stacked to the ceiling. Anyways, we set it up the night before his birthday and you  should have seen how giddy (not to mention caffeinated) he was experimenting with the darn thing after he got home from work.

Friday night I got a babysitter to watch Bea while I took Ian out for a lovely French dinner. Courses! It was not to be though because the restaurant was closed for a large party going on. This is why you book ahead! I didn't think there would be a problem getting in because only Americans go there for dinner and the last Friday night I went it was a very lean crowd. All the Japanese go there for lunch and I can't even begin to describe how fabulous their eggs Benedict are. Anyways, we ended up at a low key ramen shop called Sapporo Ramen. Very tasty but neither of us were really dress comfortably enough to be sitting on the floor. After that well, with an hour and a half to kill....with the weather hovering just above freezing and raining....and not being dressed for anything so romantic as a walk on a moonlit beach...Ian being on standby so we can't really go out to a bar...not knowing at the drop of a hat where a love motel is... We headed to the Universe for some good old fashioned grocery shopping. We are so pathetic. Ian bought a $10 bottle of Scotch about which he said "The $9 much have been for the import fees because the whole thing tastes like it couldn't cost more than 75 cents. " I being a little wiser than spending money on cheap booze got a bag of croissants. Now I get jam and warm croissants with my breakfast every morning. Heaven!

So we all know that Ian loves nothing more than board gaming with people. However, he wouldn't put anything together for Sunday. He has building a set for the theater company on Saturday. So Thursday I put out a Facebook blast letting people know that we were having and Espresso/Food/Games soiree...practically all day. Ian and I were cleaning and cooking all morning and then people started showing up around 1pm. It was such a blast. Tons of good food and conversation. Our friends brought some wickedly awesome Indian style curry. Ian made Italian bread the night before. The Espresso was flowing. There was chocolate mousse and brownies. Ian got to play games with the boys in the dining room and I got to play games and gossip with the girls in the living room. I think we'll have to do it again soon.

In Bea news, she has finally learned to pull herself to standing! It is so cute because she puckers her lips and hoots at you to let you know that you should praise her. My days of hiding things on chairs is numbered. In fact a week ago, I took her to a baby lap sit and she saw another baby crawl on all fours and since then she's been experimenting with getting on all fours and pushing her self up. I swear a week after she sees another baby do something she's got it down pat. A keen observer that one.

She has also learned to blow kisses. Ian and I discovered this when we were kissing each other, making a kissy noise, and then Bea did the same thing! So we had to test it out, and sure enough she could make the kissy noise after we do. So now we give her lots of kisses just so she will make the kissy noise. We'll have to turn it into a bed time ritual. which we haven't quite gotten around to making one. Usually we put her to bed after exhaustion takes hold.

Bea was helping me sort through my kimonos after I reorganized her room to give her a little more space. Bea has become quite the talker. She babbles too herself and sorts the laundry or the kimonos into piles. Which means she's using her whole arm and body to move the clothes from one side of her to the other. I haven't been successful in getting pictures because as soon as she sees my phone she stops and poses. She did surprise me on Thursday when she pulled off her sock and said "Sock". It was so clear, and then I said sock back to her and she giggled. Those are the moments that make you pause and realize how quick your kid is catching on. It's scary. Ian and I still turn to each other and say "We have a kid". Continual source of amazement.

I feel like some time this week Bea went to bed a baby and woke up a toddler. Now she has realized that she can refuse to eat certain foods, pureed peas, peaches...and the list goes on and on. I think she just likes to spit things out for the hell of it. That and she discovered her tongue so she's always sticking that out. Now the only things I can get her to eat are fruit and whatever we are currently eating. Mommy woes.

This week I got to do a little flower arranging for the officers spouses club. They were have a little bingo night and wanted some ikebana like flower arrangements to give away as door prizes. I say ikebana like because ikebana is really hard to do in the round and since I'm not a sensei I don't really know what I'm doing. Sensei, a friend and I went down to sensei's flower shop the day before and sensei helped up pick out some wonderful flowers. I absolutely adore the azaleas and Gerber daisies. We had a lot of fun arranging them and had to continually tell ourselves that we didn't have to strictly follow all the ikebana rules. Though I tried to follow most of them. We got lots of praise for the arrangements and that's what's important. Here are the pictures that I did actually manage to get taken this week.

On a side note Ginger has a stomach parasite. That was a whole Tuesday afternoon of running around for me. But she's on meds and will probably over come. Shiba's are like cockroaches, extremely loyal cockroaches. Now if I could only teach her not to eat every scrap of bone that she finds on our daily walks.

Ikebana, Baguettes and Goodbyes

We found out this week that our good friends are getting an early separation because of the DOS roll back. It's really tragic for us because they are wonderful people to play games with, talk cloth diapers and baby carrying, and our kids play together. Now they have to sell everything so they have money to support their family of 4, soon to be 5, through a relocation and potential joblessness. So Ian and I had the bizarre experience of walking into our friends house and really looking at their stuff to buy. You want to give them all the support you can and you know that the best way to do that is to give them money...but on the same hand it's creepy to buy your friends stuff. It felt a lot like when my grandparents ask us to go around their house and make a list of what we wanted when they died. Some of my cousins couldn't do it and I completely understand why.

I have a feeling that Ian and I are going to have to do this a lot in our military years. We are going to have to make quick friendships and then just as quickly say goodbye to them or move on to another base. It tugs on the heart strings...but what can you do? Moving on to the next set of friends. And it really sucks.

In happier news, I got a 95 on my ikebana test after a lot of stressing and just a touch of freaking out. I have moved on to the next level, something level 1, it's the beginning of the advanced levels. I think that I am now what you would call a Sensei's assistant.

This is how the morning went down. I walked to the civic center, giving myself far too much time, and getting there half an hour ahead of schedule. I meet my friends, go up and register, buy the flowers, sit down and begin to unrap them. All of this done in a very methodical, zen, now I'm going to do some ikebana type mentality. That's when I realize that I forgot my pin frog and vase, full on panic. I've got 15 minutes till I have to take the test so I call my husband to see if he can drive the vase down while my friend goes to talk to the ladies in charge to give me a couple of extra minutes. Luckily, we know all the ladies in charge because they are students of our sensei (all sensei's in their own right) and I'm gonna get a few extra minutes to get the vase. I go outside and pace infront of the civic center waiting for Ian to do a drive by and drop off the vase. After that's accomplished, I run up stairs to the testing room and sit down in a flash to get ready to arrange my flowers.

 Usually, all that extra time spent before the test you get to do some thoughtful contemplation of what flowers go where and how you want things arranged. When your time is done arranging you step out into the hall and talk about how great or crappy the flowers are this time, everybody compares what they think they will be dinged on. Pretty much that means all the other students were coming over and asking me if everything was alright because all they could understand was that I was freaking out in English and rushing around. All the explaining of my thoughtlessness makes me super nervous and embarrassed. But I keep telling myself that the disaster for the day has happened and so hopefully my score wont be a disaster too. Then we are let back into the room where we see our scores and success! Then the judge explains all our scores and talks about our arrangements. She said my varigated iris leaves were leaning back a little bit too much but she complimented the length of my roses. Because the roses were so big and deep pink in the center I kept cutting them back and cutting them back because they seemed to overwhelm the arrangement. She told the advanced students to take note because even though I cut the roses shorter than the typical "1/3 the height of the subject" rule I cut the roses to the correct height for their size and color. I was super proud and got lots of congratulations.

Our judge is the woman in grey. She goes around to all the other arrangements and talking and rearranging everything to show you how to do it next time.There weren't any 100s this time. Just a few 95s. Most people get 90s and 85s. Getting an 80 is like not showing up.

This month there were a lot of abstract arrangements! They non traditional vases or they get to free form the materials. I really love these arch vases. I'm gonna have to find one.

In other news, Ian has had a pretty uneventful week inspecting Hazmat programs. He did however bake me some wicked awesome baguettes! So I think that every weekend I'm gonna make him make me bread. He went to a coworker's going away party the other night.

Bea has been scooting around being whiny this week. I think her teeth and sinuses are bothering her. She has started saying gok for dog. I'm pretty sure that's her third word. She is also very preoccupied with putting plugs into walls, the keys into the door nob, the leash on the dog, the glasses on mom, stirring pots with spoons to name a few. She really likes for us to hold her and let her stir dinner on the stove. I like to play the please and thank you game with her. I hold out my hand and say please.Then she puts what she's playing with in my hand and I say thank you. We got some cute new diapers for her. That's all the big news for now, she's not talking or walking or doing complicated arithmetic equations.

I can't remember if I shared this on the blog, but Bea found my knitting. Hilarious baby experimentation photo shoot ensues.