First Day of School

Today was Bryson's first day of 1st grade.  I was not impressed with his teacher on Friday at the meet and greet.  I was even more upset when I ran into another mother coming out of Chili's that night and she couldn't believe the way the teacher had talked to me.  I tried to get him changed this morning but the school says no.  They won't even consider it until school has been in session for 5 weeks.

I am also having issues with the cross guards or shall I say lack there of.  Our home is just over 1 mile away from the school and transportation says its considered walking distance.  I am not happy about this, but understand that here on this island there are limited amount of buses for all the children and its hard to spare a bus for a mile walk.  The problem I am having is that Bryson has two major intersections to cross on his walk, and at each intersection he has to cross it twice.  The reason for this is because the sidewalk doesn't continue on the other side and then at the next intersection he has to cross twice again because the school is back on the other side.

One of the intersections is a street light.  This street light doesn't even have a button to push that would allow him to see when he should cross the street.  The other intersection is a stop sign that's a quarter of a mile from the school and it still doesn't have cross guards.  I addressed this concern with the school at first and they said to call the superintendents office and when I called them they said they would discus it with the school.  I feel like I am getting the run around.

If I had a choice I would not make Bryson walk home, and I am still trying to figure out how not to.  The problem I am having is that Carter gets out of Pre-K at 3pm with a very strict late policy.  They will charge by the minute.  Carter's Pre-K is also at another base.  Bryson's school gets out at 3:05pm.  See the problem I am having.  If they would just bus him I would be home by the time he was, the same thing if he walks I will be home before he gets there.  I just want him to be safe if he has to walk.

I will let you know what I find out.

Aria Asia in American VIllage

Friday night we took the boys to Yogurtland down in American Village.  We like to go on the weekends because in the square they always have entertainment.  Last week they had some break dancers.  I of course forgot to bring my camera but Friday night I was prepared and boy was I happy.

As we were walking in to get our yogurt the band was setting up everything.  Once we were done we headed down the steps yogurt in hand and found a seat.  The lead lady is a violinist and she was amazing.  She played a few songs and then a man came out and did a fire show.  Her name is Aria Asia and you can click on her name to take you to her website.

 The music was so beautiful that we bought a cd and she signed it for us.

All the years I played violin I never enjoyed it but the sound of it will make me stop turn and listen.  Its such a sweet sound, and I know just how hard, and what dedication it takes to play.

Here is a video I found on youtube that shows where she was playing and the show we saw.

Here is a better video to see what she actually looks like.

Its my 2nd BLOGOVERSARY

For my 2nd blogoversary this year I thought that I would go over some stats that statcounter has kept for me.

• The most visitors I had this past year was on May 29th with 151 visitors
  
• Followed closely by May 30th.  Thanks to this post.
• 68% of my visitors are from the States
• 21% are from Japan
• 31% of my visitors stay longer than an hour

And now on to the more funny...How have people landed on my blog.  This means what have they typed in to Google, Yahoo, or Google Blog search engines.

• Air Force Family Life.
  

You have come to the right place.

• Air Force Family Blogs

Once again, we are in the air force and this is a family blog.

• how force use in our daily life?

What?  I am lost on this one.  My boys might think you are talking about THE FORCE as in Star Wars.  They use the force in their daily lives.

• air force family of two kids dog

Not exactly sure what two kids dog means.  We use to have two kids and we do have one dog.

• air force family japan's blog

Well, this is a good place to start as I will be talking a lot about Japan for the next three years.

• Dawn Hudson where is she now?

Look no further you have found me.

So...Happy blogoversary to me, and thanks to all that read about us.  And if you want to see where it all began you can read my very first post here.

Futenma Flightline Fair

This past weekend the Marine base held a flightline fair. They had a whole bunch of airplanes and helicopters on display. It was a so so event. It was just so hot, we stayed for a couple of hours and felt that was enough. We were expecting more, as in there would be planes flying and there would be a show. The only show that was going on was a hotdog eating contest. So, we stayed enough to make our way through the planes and then headed home. We will be skipping this event next year unless something changes.

Stubby....

Came back to visit us. I found him in my bathroom upstairs. I scooped him into a box, took a few photos, let the boys see him, and then let him go outside. We are bound to see him again, I am sure of this.

Blogger will only allow me to add the one photo. I was going to show you a close up of his tail. It has grown quite a bit since Bryson chopped it off. I will try and add it later on today.

Another Visitor!

Alright so we had another visitor and after this one I don't want any more. Go away little creatures, there is no room for you in this house.
You can see just how long he was in comparison to Joe's size 12 shoe.

4 months

The time has really flown this past month and it's hard to say that our little Chase is four months old. He had another big month and still hasn't adjusted to everything that he has gone through.

• You flew half across the world.  
• You are now living in Japan.
• You love to roll from your belly to your back.
• If I would let you sleep on your belly you would.
• In the last month you are now not sleeping through the night.  Though after 3 hotels, 2 states, 1 country and several different beds who can blame you.
• You are still not very vocal, though when you allow us to hear you its sweet sweet music to all of our ears.  Your voice is just so sweet.
• You love to smile and you do a voiceless giggle, with a few peeps here and there.
• The Japanese just love you.  As Bryson says "The Japanese love American babies huh Mom?"
• You just got your two month shots 3 days ago.  I know, I should be ashamed of myself but preparing for the move, and then your daddy coming home and then moving,  your shots got put on hold.  I promise to do better now.
• You did great with your shots but still have a nice big lump.
• You went to a few more movies.  G-Force, and Aliens in the Attic.
• You still would rather be held then not.

I am sure there are many more but it's hard to think on the spot.

Our First Visitor

We came into the house yesterday and the boys screamed in delight that we had a gecko in the house.
I put Chase down and practically jump into the closet to catch him
It didn't take long to wrangle the little guy and then I took him outside to our sidewalk.

Bryson then decides to catch him and as soon as he placed his hands on the gecko he hit the tail and it popped right off.


It was actually pretty gross because it keep waving back and forth really fast. The boys were worried that the gecko was going to die but he was fine. I guess it will be just easier to spot the same gecko again.

New Look

Now that Joe's home I thought that I would add a new background. The old one was up for almost a year and I needed a change. How do you like the new look? Quite fitting huh?

We won't be doing any island exploring this weekend. You see I decided to take just a quick short break while the house is empty. Joe took all three boys to the movies to watch Aliens in the Attic. Chase really wanted to go also. He told me so. I on the other hand am a painting fool. I am working on the living room then on to Bryson/Carter's room and then to Chasers room. Sorry you won't get to see any photos until our furniture comes in. We still have 35 more days. I would love to have my bed back right about now but I am sure it's in a crate on an Ocean liner in the middle of the pacific right now.

Ta Ta

Ocean Expo Park-Okinawa Aquarium

The Okinawa Commemorative National Government Park is a national government park that was built in August 1976 to commemorate the 1975 Okinawa International Ocean Expo.

Currently, it acts as one of the main centers of tourism in Okinawa, especially for the northern region of the main island.

Within the three areas of the park, the history and culture area features facilities such as the Oceanic Culture Museum, which displays approximately 1000 artifacts of tools used in daily life and for fishing by the maritime people living within the South East Asia region, the Native Okinawan Village, which recreates the traditional group housing and private gardens from the Ryukyu era, and the Omoro Arboretum which houses 22 of the most renown plants introduced in the Okinawa traditional "Omorosaushi" song collection.

The ocean area features facilities such as the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in the world and home to enormous sharks and rays such as the whale shark and manta ray, the Oki-chan Theater, where our dolphin show has been running since the Ocean Expo days, the Manatee Pool, home to manatees that were a gift from the Mexican government, the Sea Turtle Pool, where visitors can watch sea turtles develop from laying eggs to maturation, the Dolphin Lagoon, where visitors can watch and understand the various skills and abilities of dolphins as well as our artificial finned dolphin, and the Emerald Beach, where visitors can swim (April-Oct) and enjoy the man-made 6-hectare white sand beach, which was selected as one of the 88 best beaches in Japan.

The flower and greenery area features facilities such as the Tropical Dream Center, where we have created one of the world's largest green-houses, allowing flowers to bloom throughout the year and housing numerous tropical plants, such as orchids, tropical fruit, and flowering trees, the Sunset Square, where visitors can watch the beautiful sunset into the East China Sea, and the Tropical & Subtropical Arboretum of the City Greenery Project (Greenery Kingdom), a favorite attraction with our overseas visitors.
























There was so much to see and do we only made it to the aquarium. If you read what I pulled off their website above there is still plenty more for us to see. We bought season passes and will be up there quite a bit. Sorry for the picture overload.