Eenie Meeny Miney Mo!

The Commandant's Own

All the way from Washington D.C. to here in Okinawa. We were visited by The Commandant's Own - Drum and Bugle Corps and Silent Drill Platoon. Brad, Olivia and I saw this special performance a few years ago at Camp Pendleton and yesterday the girls and I went to see an evening performance.

In the audience were veterans of Iwo Jima. Honored to be in the same audience as they were.

I didn't capture many "good" photos of the actual event. You can check out my facebook page and I put a link to photos that my friend Aviva took that were splendid.

The girls enjoyed the event. Olivia said that her favorite part was "all of it" and Alessandra particularly liked the band. Here she is dancing (or rather jumping) to the music. I think she jumped up and down for the entire performance.

Green Belt Girls!

We did it!

The weekend in general was a whirlwind with an earthquake waking us up on Saturday morning and a tsunami warning on Sunday. Our Karate testing began on Sunday morning, so it was smack dab in the middle of a just crazy couple of days.

It was a wonderful day. The adults all tested in the morning and the kids followed suit.

It was so wonderful to see my classmates after all of their hard work - be greatly successful. I feel thankful to be a part of this experience. They have all taught me so much about myself - and things that I never thought I would/could know.

The kata that Olivia and I had to perform was Seisan. This kata is one of the oldest in karate of all forms (and if you look it up on youtube.com it looks a little different with each person that performs it.

Here I am:


I felt good about my performance (although I was REALLY nervous).

Here is Olivia:

She did wonderfully. It's hard to tell sometimes, but she really does KNOW her kata.

Because of the tsunami warning, we didn't get to take too many other photos. I did get a couple...

Here are all of the adults that tested this past weekend.

My friend Cinda and I both received our Green Belts

Alessandra and mommy

Olivia shaking hands with all of the Black Belts

Receiving her Green Belt

Here is what little sister's do during karate testing. Playing Doctor I think - Lauren (on the left) was the doctor and Alessandra and Sophia were the patients.

Karate Kids!

Happy Day for all!

The Fire Station

I have more photos to add to this post, however, I wanted to get something on here this morning (I have SO many posts to catch up on).

Alessandra's class took a field trip to the Fire Station (off base, Japanese fire station). We had a great time.

Here is the class in front of the fire truck (after I coaxed Alessandra to get into the photo)

Alessandra sitting on the back of one of the trucks. She wanted to stay there.

Watching the fire fighters "training" routine. She loved this part

Going to work the hose with Ms. Nancy. Didn't like that so much ("mommy, I got wet")

More to come...

New Year's Shrine Visit 2010

You may have remembered when I posted last New Years. My fantastic Mother-In-Law Heather was visiting. Brad had broken ribs and Alessandra was sick. So, Heather, Olivia and I headed off to the shrine to celebrate, Okinawan style.

This year, our family Aiello headed off to the same shrine (Futenma) for a visit to celebrate the new year. Here are the girls on the walking overpass of the street the shrine is on (you can see the shrine in the background).

Olivia, happy... Alessandra... not so sure.

Ceremonial washing of the hands.

The girls with daddy in front of Futenma Shrine

One of the best parts of the New Year's celebrations is that you pick up your fortune for the year. It is somewhat reminiscent of a fortune cookie (without the cookie) and the English version is a tad bit more entertaining. I love things lost in translation...

This is one of the many places you can tie your "fortune" on - to give it to the spirits.

Brad tying his on the fence

And of course... (as Ron would say) "Fair Food" Nothing better than a GIANT corn dog.

Or french fries (after chicken yakitori...)

Happy New Year!

Happily, the sun has come back to visit!

It is late February. Now, I realize that there are many of you who have suffered through some of the most treacherous winter weather that the US has ever seen. I can't complain when I watch the news and hear about all of the inches... correct that... feet of snow. It is usually in the low 60's here through the winter, nighttime gets down to the 50's and we even get great spots of 70's every now and again. Sorry, I'm not trying to rub it in just wanting to express what our weather life is like...

So, for the past 10 days or so it has been gray and rainy. It was a funny reminder of our winter's in Oregon, actually. Where the gray settled in and I actually was able to function normally in the dreariness (I owe that completely to the vivid greenery everywhere in that glorious State).

Here, however... it was dreary. We were just WAITING for the sun... and today (actually a bit yesterday too) out she came. Glorious and lovely!!

So, we did what we always do on wonderful sunny days. We headed down the seawall to our favorite place (Daisy's of course), had some dinner and headed home. Here are some snapshots of our evening. I figure it was worth passing some of the sunshine your way!

Alessandra en route home. She is carrying a stick, a puppy, a flower and a Sweettart candy. I can't even tell you how many stops we had to make so she could re-gather her booty.

no words...

Go forth, and carry a big stick!

Our bike rider. Sorry it's a little blurry... action shot.

We don't have any visitor's signed up for this year... any takers??

Are you feeling lucky?

We have hunted for 4 leaf clovers over and over again. Olivia has made it a mission that she would find one, sometime (and was starting to wonder if they actually existed). Yesterday WAS the day! The girls and Brad went down the seawall to the park and found a clover patch. They took a look and found the first 4 leaf clover she has every seen! Here is our lucky girl with her special clover. Now we wonder - will we find a leprechaun later in March?