Live from Tormville!

Japan III

Still working through my husband's Japan pictures. I'll have one more post after this. A lot of the interesting food and dining photos are on his phone. 



I love crowd/people shots. 

The way Greg tells it: In years past - over 200 people entered this temple - prayed, explained why they were going to do what they were about to do - and then they jumped off the balcony. But only a few of them died, most just broke a lot of bones. 





I have no idea. 





























Quick - first thing that pops into your head if you were in charge of naming this tower. 

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In other stuffs:

• We enjoyed an unscheduled day off school Friday due to icy roads. I felt like I finally got caught up on a few things
• Greg was both home and had yesterday off work. We both took the boys to swimming
• Then I went out for brunch with my ballooning friends - fun to catch up during the cold season. We see each other much more often during the ballooning season
• I made it to the gym
• Last night we had a rousing game of boot hockey with my side of the family - just the adults. There may or may not be a few of us limping in church this morning. 
• Wendy's team won both basketball games last week. I made it to both games. 
• They play their first home game tomorrow. 
• Greg is getting a ton of dental work done tomorrow. 
• Better him than me. 
• Going to enjoy a low key day today while gearing up for another full week. 
• Happy Sunday

 

Happy Wednesday!

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• More Japan photos soon
• We're enjoyed a little warm up and snowman making weather over here
• hoping to make it to both of Wendy's basketball games this week
• Greg is still in town - for now
• dinner in the crockpot again
• 'bout it
• be good.  ;) 

 

More Japan

I asked Greg if he felt squeemish about not wearing a mask when so many were - and he said no. He said the people who wore the masks were the ones who had some sort of cough/cold. 

The six guys in the above photos will show up in a few photos. They are Greg's coworkers and/or tour guides.  They took one day to go touring temples and shrines. 

One of the items Greg was told for sure to bring to Japan was an umbrella.  He did, and it was well used. 

The guy on the left is Mark. The other American employee who went. 

Snow is very unusual in Japan and the news shared how it shut a lot down in the Tokyo area. I thought it piled up so nicely on the roofing. 

 

I'm just less than a third of the way through the pictures. I won't be lacking blog posts this week.  ;)  

Speaking of this week.....

• We're going to enjoy having my husband home, at least for a few days. 
• 4-7 inches of snow on tap for today
• (yay!!!)
• two more away basketball games
• more karate
• more swimming (I signed the boys up for five more lessons) 
• And I  have a huge pile of laundry waiting for me in the laundry room - all of Greg's ten travel days worth and our own piles. 
• But this morning I have an eye appointment
• Followed by bringing the boys to a birthday party for the neighbor girl. 

Busy busy. 
Time to fly....

be good

and he's home

Greg made it home safe and sound at about 1 o' clock yesterday afternoon. Or 3 in the morning according to his body. He hadn't slept on the fourteen hour flight at all, and stayed awake until just after 10pm in hopes of getting his body back on track. 

He took the kids to Sunday School this morning and I stayed home with a belly aching puker. (Mark).  Our reality. 

It's going to take me some time to go through all his photos. He's got some good ones. Here are just a few that I've gone through so far. 

The longest suspension bridge in the world. (Mackinaw Bridge is the sixteenth longest) 



And proof that he did do some work stuff while he was there.  (he's the one in the coat trying to blend in)

More later - Happy Sunday! 

counting down....

 

picture sent from my husband with the caption - working hard

My husband has been in Japan since February 5th and is on his way home now. His flight should land in four more hours. (It's a fourteen hour flight) (I hope he slept) 

So, yes, it's been a long and busy ten days here at home. His out of town trips have gotten trickier now that I'm working and the kids are in more activities. It's been constant - from sun up to sun down and then some. 

The fourteen hour time difference has made touching base tricky as well - so we're excited to see all his pictures and hear all his stories when he gets home. All I know right now is that he was able to see a lot, he's anxious for a cheeseburger and he can't wait to use real silverware again. 

It's all good. 

But for this morning - a bit of cleaning and wake up the boys for swimming lessons. 

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In other stuffs...

• Wendy's played two basketball games so far. Lost one, won one. They were both away games, and due to scheduling/home/etc - I haven't made it to a game yet. Hopefully this coming week. 
• We have a much appreciated four day weekend
• My original plan was to wake up yesterday morning and dig in. 
• But then on Thursday I decided to call and find out how to schedule the workkeys test I need to take if I want more work opportunities in the school (having an associates degree would have nixed the need for the test, but I don't have that). 
• So I took that yesterday morning. It was three hours long and my head hurt afterwards, but I passed. Dropped off my papers at the school adminstration and now I'm able to step up a bit if the opportunity should come along.  Felt good to get that out of the way.  It had been on my list to take care of since September.
• I'll share some of Greg's photos later. 
• Until then....

February Studio AE Blog Hop from Technique Tuesday

 

I do love winter - but I did enjoy this little taste of summer memories while scrapbooking snuggled in my quilt.  ;)   I think I'll spend the rest of February with the rest of my summer photos. 

For this layout I used Technique Tuesday's February Studio AE - Best Banners. 

 

For more inspiration using this month's set - be sure to stop by the following blogs: 

Ali

http://aliedwards.com/projects

Lisa Ottosson (our Studio AE guest)

http://elisabetottosson.blogspot.com/

Daniela

http://danieladobson.blogspot.com/

Linda 

http://milesofpaper.blogspot.com/

Nichol

http://nicholmagouirk.typepad.com/

Laura

http://itsallrosie.blogspot.com/

Jaclyn 

http://designsbyjax.blogspot.com/

Sharyn

http://sharyntormanen.typepad.com/

Teri

http://terisplace.wordpress.com/

 

We’ll give away a prize:

We are going to give away one $25 e-Gift Card to TechniqueTuesday.com to someone who comments during the hop. To be eligible to win, all you need to do is comment on any of our blog posts! The lucky winner will be announced on the 15^th on the Technique Tuesday blog.  http://techniquetuesday.typepad.com/

Butt Pinching is a genetic thing

First off - sorry for my absence. It's honestly been crazy over here.  

• karate two nights a week
• basketball five nights a week
• tutoring one night a week
• swimming once a week
• add in random other stuff, working two jobs a day, sporadic single parenting and the weeks fly by. 

But stuff still happens. Like this conversation from yesterday. It's not word for word, but real close. 

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Allan:  MARK!!!! Would you PLEASE STOP pinching my butt every time I walk by?!!!!!

Me: oh honey, he can't help it - it's genetic. 

Allan: Genetic. Seriously?

Me: Seriously. Think of your dad's side of the family. Dad's a butt pincher, his mother is a butt pincher, her father - your great grandpa - was a butt pincher, dad has a ton of cousins and several siblings who are butt pinchers. It's genetic. It can't be helped. 

pause

Me, continuing: Even you used to be a butt pincher. 

Allan. When. 

Me: Remember the one time when you were little and you pinched a butt at the store thinking it was mine, but it was a stranger's butt?  I think the shock of it is the only reason you don't pinch butts anymore. 

Allan: Right. That's the only reason. 

Me: oh, and if you would put jeans on instead of wandering around in your flannels all day long - it would totally help. 

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Happy Friday

 

my magic wand

I was on the phone earlier with one of my neighbors. 

Him: Don't you have a wand to wave and make this stuff (snow) stop? 

Me: Whaddya mean? I'm the one that waved my magic wand to MAKE it snow. 

Him: Then QUIT waving your wand! 

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I love the stuff. And, bonus, it's finally warm enough for the kids to get some decent outdoor time. The boys were outside for three hours today - came in soaking wet and jumped right into a nice hot shower. 

It's all good.