Today...

 ...sucked.

Only the 2nd Post of 2026

Well, it's apparent that things have been quite busy the last couple of months, and it seems like there's no end, even during the Summer.

Let's go through the months.

Last semester started a little weird in terms of the clusters and electives. Clusters I believe started a little later than it should have, so I had less time with my group, but that was okay since I was afraid of running out of stuff to do each week. I had Emmeline again and, in fact, they gave me all 5th graders. Not sure why as I think the younger kids would have liked the cluster, but oh well. They did tell me that 19 kids put my cluster as their #1 choice, which was cool. A couple of kids were added at the last minute, too. Both were brand new kids in Emmeline's grade, so that was good to get to know them a little better.

Electives were strange because some were given choices if they wanted to keep doing the same elective to the end of the year or get new students. I sort of panicked because I didn't have enough content to the end of the year, so I said if you want to give me new students, that's fine. So, my 6th graders were replaced with new 6th graders, but my 8th graders decided to stay. It was awkward since that would mean they would redo some of the stuff they'd already done, but I did try to switch it up so they did some new stuff. Overall, it was fine, I guess. 

Through all this, we stayed busy with academic bowl, new basketball practices, voice, etc. It got real busy for a while there and I think the most busy was actually a couple of weeks ago when Laura had to go to Denver for a week and I was literally driving from place to place with both kids. I used an entire tank in a few days.

And, speaking of that, while Laura and the kids were at St. Thomas this past week and into some of next week, we finally decided to get the van to the shop. I think they were able to fix the clanging noise coming from the engine which they said was a stabilizer bar but they tried to fix the juttery acceleration and after a transmission fluid flush and new computer firmware update, they were unable to and said the transmission probably needs to be redone. They estimated that to like 9-11k, which is more than the van is worth. So, I think we're just going to drive it a little easy from here on out and try to trade it in for a new car. Not sure if it'll be a van or not, maybe an SUV, but we'll have to do that soon. He said we should avoid longer road trips, though, which my cause some issues.

Other than that, I was supposed to do some projects around the house but I've literally done nothing while Laura and the kids have been gone. I'm watching the dogs, so I've been doing that and actually sort of tired since I'm still waking up early-ish. Zero motivation to do anything! Ugh.

Our Portland trip is in a couple of weeks, so we'll have that and...flying. I don't like flying much because of the crowds and the process and everything. We also have to leave at like 7 in the morning and on the return trip, we're getting in at like midnight. Then, in the blink of an eye, school is going to be back in session. It is what it is.

We still have to talk to Molly about something. Earlier this year, Liz, when she was doing the FACTS billing for the upcoming year, mentioned that Molly wanted to let us know not to pay for anything after the PCTC tax credit came through for the kids. I just looked at the balance that was "credited" and it was like $2k! I dunno, I feel bad accepting that. I know I do a lot for the school, but it's because I like to and enjoy doing it. I've talked to Laura to maybe see if we can cut them a check or something. It just feel wrong to me.

Anyway, off to try and find something productive to do.

2026

And, just like that, 2026 is here. This may be the fastest I've written in the blog after the new year in quite a while. Christmas was normal this year. Nothing big. It was unusually warm. In fact, I think OKC hit a record high Christmas temp. It was 80 or something like that. In Tulsa, it was less warm, but enough that the AC kicked on. I was cold as always either way.

School is back in session starting today. The kids were getting pretty bored so that's good. As the routine kicks back in, I'm waiting to hear about clusters. I need to know what days and times it's going to be (if it even starts at this point) so I can plan other stuff like academi bowl tournaments. I'm not a fan this year in the group we got thrown in. Usually, we're with the Edmond schools, but this year, we're in with the Norman schools for both 5th and 8th grade, so they usually host and it's so far away. Need to mention that next year when assigning groups start.

I don't think I'll be doing the computer club for this semester. Too much going on and I don't want to put any time into that. I think clusters will keep me busy enough.

Starting to look at flights to Portland. It's not too bad and we can finally make use of our companion passes that come with the Alaska credit cards. I just thought of it last night. Unfortunately, you can only use it on economy seats, which then you can upgrade to "premium" seats, which is basically the same as economy but with a few more inches of legroom. Everyone says it's not really worth it, but I dunno. We'll probably end up doing it even though it'll be about $600 more. Although, looking at it that way, it doesn't sound like a very good value. The car rental will be about $550 through Costco. 

About it for now.

The Post Before Christmas

1st semester at school is nearly over.

I can't believe 2025 is almost over and 2026 is just around the corner. I feel like this year went by super quick and I don't remember much of what happened apart from our Ireland trip.

The first couple of months of school were pretty slow, but then it picked up quick. Both of my academic bowl practices started up, electives started up, and then all of the other kids' activities have been keeping us busy driving from place to place almost every day. I guess it's good to be busy, though. My elective group is great. Just 5 kids and they're all pretty good. Clusters got pushed back to 2nd semester because apparently I was the only one that volunteered that wasn't a teacher or staff. I do hope that it starts up because I've spent quite a bit of money on prepping for electives and I have a lot of stuff leftover. It has been fun doing Japanese Culture, though. Hopefully, the kids are having fun. Testing it on the middle schoolers has been good because I'm definitely going to tweak some things for the younger kids.

This year's trip to Estes Park was good. Driving was fine and we didn't have to drive 17+  hours back home. The weather was good and although it seemed fairly warm for the time, it did get cold and snowed once on the last night we were there, which was fine. I don't think it has snowed since. I think that's the first time it's snowed so far, which is crazy. 

In a week or so, we'll be in Tulsa. Actually, in a few days. In a week I think we'll be back home as Laura will have to work. Then it's the New Year's meal again. It seems like our list of things to do just doesn't stop. It's one week after the next.

We are going to visit my Mom on the 22nd, I think. She's been texting about not wanting to be there and stuff. I'm not sure if she's even able to watch YouTube right now, though she sometimes says she can. Who knows if my sister cut off internet or not.

Really, that's all I have to write in these few months. It's just been busy. Emmeline has been doing club volleyball which has been a lot of practices and driving around. Hopefully, she likes it. Her voice has been going well, too, I think. She's had a couple of recitals and it's been great.

I guess the next post will be after the New Year, at this rate...

Connor took his placement test and stuff for McGuinness and he's enrolled. Can't believe high school is already here. 1 more year and he'll have his driver's permit. Crazy.

Fall-like Weather

Can't believe it's already been a month. School's started and it's starting to ramp up. It's been super hot in August, but the last few days it's been raining and it feels like Fall weather which I don't mind at all. Not sure if the heat is going to come back, but we'll see about that.

Currently, we're down to 1 car since I've been doing A LOT of maintenance and repairs on the van. It's probably warranted because, I can't remember how many miles we got it at, but it's currently at 125k and we didn't really do the 100k tune-up. So, after addressing the A/C issue, which seemed to be just a really low freon amount (it was at 8 oz out of a possible 26), we're currently just doing the timing belt, water pump, and serpentine belt. Oh, forgot about the spark plugs and power steering flush as well. I'm not really sure if they really flushed the power steering, but whatever. I also bought this VCM muzzle for the car because I guess it's a big issue with this van and lawsuits are currently ongoing. They even extended the warranty just for this misfire issue. Ryan addressed this a couple of years ago and it's funny that we're now experiencing it too. Hopefully, after this, we're good for a while. I hate dealing with the dealership and I wasn't sure how they were going to "fix" the misfire issue, but I've been trying out Meineke for all these repairs and although they seemed to be fine for the A/C issue, it's slowly becoming one of those instances where I've decided to give them more business because they were good the first time, but they're sort of meh now. Anyway, I probably won't be using them again for anything major...dunno yet though. I hate trying to find a good mechanic.

Researching Universal Hollywood right now. We might try that for spring break, but it's going to be so expensive.

A Quick London and Ireland Summary

 The kids are currently at St. Eugene's Pelican Bay outing, so it's finally quiet around the house for the first time really since the start of Summer. Well, with both of the kids out at the same time, I guess. Anyway, thought I'd put a short summary of our trip while it was fresh in my mind.

First few days in London

The flight there was where it all started, actually. Literally upon take off, Laura tells me that Connor is freaking out about something. He was all sweating and panicking. Turns out, he had a fever and he was sick/getting sick. Not sure yet with what. So, that pretty much made Laura anxious for most of the flight. He slept a bit, but the kids watched movies and Laura slept a bit. I watched movies. I moved from my original seat once so that this family could sit together. I moved one seat back and my row also had a family of 3 with a baby. The baby actually did great. I don't think I heard it once.

After we landed, we had no checked bags, so we went straight to our next step. Last minute (like a few days before), we decided to take this bus service from the airport to a station a few minutes walk to our hotel. It was fine. Once there, I can't remember now if it was the first night...actually, no, it was the second night. The first night we just ate somewhere close and went to bed. I think we did Buckingham Palace the first night. Remember, at this time, Connor had a fever and wasn't feeling very well. The next day was Westminster Abbey, War Rooms, and the London Bridge via a river tour, I think. That night, Laura decided to take Connor to the ER/hospital to get some medicine since, after getting a thermometer at the grocery store, he was hitting 103-4 degrees plus. Emmeline and I decided to walk down the street to this pizza place which was really good and ended up, probably, being one of the best places that I ate at. Go figure. It was also the place where the dad of a family asked Emmeline if he could use our spare chair at our table and Emmeline misheard, so she immediately said "No!" and he was like, "Oh..." and then I had to correct her saying she meant "no one's using it." Anyway, we got back and we waited for Laura and Connor. After a couple hours of using the tax to get from hospital to hospital, they couldn't get antibiotics and just used ibuprofen. It wouldn't be until we got to Dublin that we could get a hold of some.

There are a couple other things we did in London, but, honestly, I was not a fan of it. It was crowded, smelled of smoke all the time, hot (although they don't have control over that), and the ONE bus ride we tried to take, we didn't know that most of the buses in London DO NOT have AC. My god, it felt like we were in an overly hot sauna. I signaled Laura to get off at the next stop and we walked back the rest of the way. I don't understand how they can't just get some buses with AC. Everyone else was just sitting there like it was normal. Never again. The only funny thing that came of it was this one old lady who was also trying to figure out which bus to take like us was CERTAIN it was the number 26 we needed. She even went into a bus to ask some questions but I didn't see her walk out, so I was surprised when she walked right in front me again from the other direction. Apparently she walked out of the bus. Anyway, she became our inside joke for the rest of the trip.

In the end, we hit most of the tourist spots in London and I was good. The British Museum was cool, but, again, it was hot with no AC in most of the floors. AND, the 5th floor, which was the Japanese floor, was closed. I just was not impressed with London. The place we stayed was all right, but it had the worst pressure shower that I've ever used. Just fix it!

Dublin

After taking the bus service back to Heathrow, we were on our flight to Dublin. It was packed and there was no meal/drink service. Drinks could be purchased, though. I thought that was weird. After arriving in Dublin, we exit the short terminal to the taxi area and decided to just take a taxi to our hotel. It was about 25-30 min I want to say. The hotel we stayed in was really good. It was here that we started watching a couple game shows called the The Chaser and Tenable on the quiz channel. We watched that through the rest of our trip. 

The big thing we did in Dublin was our Riverdance show. I think that was the 2nd night? I can't remember if it was that or the 3rd night. Must have been the 2nd. The first night we just found a place to eat? Can't remember already!

The 3rd day we went to Newgrange, which was pretty cool to see after seeing it all these years on Discovery and History shows. The one downside of that day, if I had to say, was that it was the ENTIRE day. Literally from like 8:30 to 4pm was the Newgrange tour along with a couple of other places. I would have been fine if it was just Newgrange and it ended about 1 or something. Actually, I wonder if that night was also our Riverdance night? Now I can't remember if we stayed in Dublin 2 or 3 nights.

Oh, it was also here that Laura just did a facetime doctor visit to get some antibiotics for Connor. We chose a pharmacy close by and that worked well. Thankfully, no one else got whatever he had. Still not sure whether or not it was strep, but oh well. We got it the first day in Dublin, I think. We had to refrigerate it, so we had a 2-3 days of keeping it cold, then we had to figure out how to keep it relatively cool until the next hotel with a fridge.

Getting the Car

On the day we were to leave Dublin, we had to pick up the rental car in the morning. After some trouble getting a cab to the rental place, we had our car. A small little hatchback made by Dacia. It was labeled an intermediate auto, and it was an auto, thank god, but I dunno if that's what I'd call intermediate. At any rate, it worked for us. Barely fit all of our stuff and it was small, which would come in handy with all the narrow roads that we drove on. I came to like our car and it was sad when we had to drop it off.

Getting the car was relatively fast. In the US, we usually get paperwork and stuff handed back, but here all I literally got back was the keys. After orienting myself, we were off to our next destination, which were the Wicklow Mountains about an hour away. Most of it was on the highway, so that was good, but near the trailhead and after we left it, it was mountainous and slightly narrow, all while it was off and on raining. I guess this was about the time that the weather was a steady 65 or so every day, overcast, and rained or drizzled a few times a day. It was great, though, after the horrible weather in London. I had my fleece jacket on for most of the trip.

The Wicklow Mountains were ok. We did a short walk along a lake to a waterfall, I think, and we were on our way. It was about another 2 hours to our next stop, Cashel.

Cashel

We got into Cashel around 3:30 or so. We went straight to the Rock of Cashel and did a quick tour of that castle. It was ok. I'm not a castle person. It was cold, though, I remember that. Good thing I had my jackets on. Afterwards, we drove to our hotel for the night. There was this horse trainer guy who had a big dose of dry humor and crazy old man strength. He was showing me where the extra toilet paper was and he literally grabbed my jacket and pulled me outside the room. The rooms were fine. We COULD NOT find an open restaurant in Cashel since it all closed at like 5pm. We ate at this subpar pizza place. After that, pizza became a joke since we always suggested pizza as an easy place to eat, minus Connor not eating any. We had breakfast the next morning and then we were off to...hm, I think the next place (I just had to look it up) was the Cliffs of Moher. It was windy and drizzly, but it was pretty cool. It was a couple of hours of driving. What's crazy to me was that up until this point, we barely used any gas and we hadn't filled up yet. I can't remember the first place I filled up, though. Also, by this time, the antibiotics were kicking in and helping a lot for Connor's attitude.

Galway

After the cliffs, it was a 1.5 hour drive to Galway. We stopped at Galway crystal to pick up a few things before they closed and then we, or I, rather, had to face the Galway downtown traffic. Although, at this point, I was pretty confident in driving. Driving a little bit in Japan probably helped. By the 3rd day or so, I was passing people and stuff on the highway! And roundabouts were pretty easy, too. After a hiccup trying to find our parking garage, we got to our air bnb and thus began our clothes-washing for the rest of the trip. It had a washer AND dryer so Laura was happy about that. I liked Galway, although the arts festival JUST started like 2 days before we got there so it felt really crowded down this one main street, but it was fine. Even though it was crowded, it still didn't make me feel how I felt about London, and that way less crowded. We had some good desserts, ok food, and overall had a good time in Galway. We visited this beach where so many people were swimming in the shallows, mostly old people. It must have been freezing. We walked back which took like 40 min, but that was fine. 

It was around this time, I think, that I was starting to get nervous about the Killary Harbor kayaking thing. I had no idea when it was, so it was like a waiting nightmare. 

Upwards to...Derry?

Not sure, but I think after Galway was our long day of driving. I think it was a total of like 4-5 hours of driving that day, not including some stops we had. The day we left Galway looks like was our hawk walk. It was one of the things that I didn't need to do, but it ended up being alright, especially once you had the hawks on your hand walking with you. One of them landed on Connor's head and then hopped to Laura's shoulder, so that was fun. Our guide was from the states but decided to work there and as we left, Laura mentioned we were headed to Killary Harbor and she casually mentions that maybe we'll see some basking sharks there, and I was like what? and everyone else was like, noooooo. 

Sorry, Clifden was next?

So, I think, actually, our next stop was Clifden, which was where Killary Harbor was. I really liked the feel of this town and was probably my favorite place. Something about it with the colorful shopfronts and small town. We also ate at 2 great restaurants as well, so it was just overall great. This was where we stayed at the expensive-ish manor as well. There was a resident dog that Emmeline loved playing with. We actually stayed 15 min from Clifden and 15 min from the adventure place, so right in the middle. Killary Harbor turned out fine. We didn't go very far out in the kayaks and Emmeline and I actually ended up in a 2-person. We played some games as we were grouped up with a couple of local boys probably doing the adventure camp or something. They were funny. After a short while in the water, we walked up the waterfall basically back to our parking area. It was fun, but that river water was cold! At one point, it was up to like our chest. I felt like that was pretty dangerous, though, like a kid could get injured pretty easily. It felt like our Belize expeditions. Like it's through a company, but it seemed like safety could have been better...oh well. Oh, one last addition after I was looking stuff up. We went to Kylemore Abbey here! Cool looking castle. We walked around a bit and ate lunch there, I believe. It was raining pretty good at this point, so we didn't do too much here.

Donegal

After 2 nights here, we were now on our long day of driving, not like I mentioned earlier. We had to make it up all the way to Donegel where we stayed at the Millpark Hotel. It was expensive and it was all right. It felt like a popular tourist hotel or something. On the way, though, we stopped I believe at these other cliffs, can't remember how it's spelled but it was like Sleigh Lige or something. It was like a mini Cliffs of Moher, but it felt cooler since we could get closer-ish and it was less crowded. Afterwards, we drove our last bit to just outside Derry at a bed and breakfast. That night we had pizza, lol. We were only there 1 night? The next day, we left early and visited a few places in Derry. We were headed now to our last city, Belfast.

Belfast

We arrived in Belfast and I think we were going to use the hotel parking, but after panicking about where to park to get unloaded, we just went into the car pack right across the street and it worked out. We ended up parking the car there for the 2 nights we stayed. We were in a pretty fancy hotel here and it was great. The location was pretty close to a lot of restaurants as well. The crowdedness felt like Dublin and London, but I liked the vibe here as well. Laura said maybe we were in a nice part of Belfast, and we may have been, but I liked it. Unfortunately, my long-time friend Suzanne, who lives here, was not here at the time. Apparently she was living in London for 10 years or something and then was recently back in Belfast until like a week before we got there. Now she's in France for a month. Anyway, that was a bummer, but...next time? I asked for a couple of restaurant suggestions and she mentioned a sushi place, so we tried that. It wasn't out of this world, but there was a conveyor belt thing so that was fun for the kids. That day, we also did the Titanic Belfast museum. It was cool overall, but I had in my head that there was a sister Titanic ship there that we could see, but I guess that sunk, too...so I didn't get to see any ship. Bleh.

After scrambling for some last minute gifts, our trip to Ireland was coming to an end. 

Back home

After dropping off our car at the airport, our last stay was at the Maldron Hotel a few minutes from the Terminal. It was average. We had McDonald's for dinner that night because there was nothing else around that was open.

The next morning, we get to the terminal, so all our security and we also checked a suitcase. We actually did customs when we departed, so we didn't have to do it in Dallas. That was great. I guess only a few places do pre-customs like that.

Now, we're starting to gear up for school I have some things I still need to finish up at the school and we're off to another year of busy-ness!

We're Back and Tired!

 Full summary to come...just tired at the moment.

2 weeks-ish until schooooool!

Already Halfway Through Summer?!

Way late for this post but let's recap.

End of school went fine. There was a little hiccup during the yearbook signing I guess because some middle schoolers wrote inappropriate things in people's yearbooks. As a result, ALL of middle schools' yearbooks were taken and we still don't have them. 

Since school has been out, it feels like it has been just as busy as when school was going on. Connor has been doing CCYO basketball and there's been games a couple times a week and they're all over the place in terms of locations. Lots of driving. Emmeline has started voice lessons and I think it's going fine. They're still learning the basics, so we'll see.

Oh, one thing I need to mention is that during the last week or two of school, I can't remember when, it finally happened...I totally forgot to pick up the kids at dismissal. It was a Tuesday and for some reason, I was doing some errands at the grocery store and I had in my mind to get them at 3pm. When I rolled up to the gate at 3:10, it was closed, which I thought was weird. Then I immediately realized that it was a Tuesday. I went into the after care door and picked them up. They were like "what the heck?!" The strange part is that after normal dismissal time, they had sat in the foyer until like 3 when they finally went to after care. I don't understand how no one called me, they couldn't find a teacher to call me, or literally no one walked by to ask what they were doing just sitting there. Very strange. Anyway. Hopefully, it doesn't happen again.

The first few weeks of Summer had just random activities sprinkled throughout, then Emmeline had a week-long camp with Quinn at Camp Classen, then right after Connor had a week-long camp thing for scouts in Arkansas. They both had fun. Now in June, we're finishing up mostly basketball for Connor and voice lessons once a week for Emmeline. Taking care of a few house things like getting our big front tree taken down because the treatment last year didn't work. It looks bare out front for sure. We've been having some weird smells in the kids' bathroom again and I finally went up in the attic with a newly bought usb camera and found some dead mice in the walls, which I think was the smell. Although, I removed 2 old mice and the smell, although better, still seemed to be there. I went up again this past weekend and found another dead one in the walls one stud over, but that area doesn't smell, so that's strange. There is this one spot in the wall on the other side of the first 2 I found and that smells really strong. I tried to see if there was a way to see on that side, but I couldn't because of studs and joints. I'm not sure if anything could have fallen in there, so I don't know what it is at the moment. The only thing I could think of is that the mice I got had juices or something that went down the walls on that side, but I'm not sure if that's even possible. I don't want to cut open the drywall since it's right next to the bathroom mirror and it's right at the corner, so it'd be hard to patch up. I might need to anyway, though, if this smell continues. I did see a bunch of mold or mildew in the vents above, which I initially thought was the cause. I removed the moldy parts, bought new ducts and put it in, but the smell lingered, which sparked the mice finding.

It's exactly one week now from our Ireland trip, and boy are we not as ready as Japan. We have to head to Tulsa for the 4th for a few days so we really only have like a day or two and the Sunday before we leave to pack and stuff. This weekend is going to be VERY stressful. I don't even want to think about it!

After we get back, Summer is basically over, with a couple of weeks before school is back in session.

I've been thinking about clusters and electives and I think Laura has convinced me to do an all-about-Japan cluster and elective. We brainstormed a bunch of ideas and I just have to test some of them out during the Summer, but it's going to be hard to do with this trip in between.

Wish us luck.

Spring Time

Spring is here and the rain as well. It's been raining quite a bit the last few weeks. Sports have been cancelling left and right and I'm not complaining about that at all.

It's still quite busy because both are doing soccer, scouts, and Emmeline has theater on Wednesdays. Tech week is comin up in a couple of weeks and her performance is right after that.

I can't believe that school is actually almost coming to an end. Just a few more weeks. Emmeline has 1 more field trip left and Connor has none. Yesterday, I took Emmeline to the Food Bank to do some volunteer work. This was probably the most fun field trip that I've been at. We all worked on the assembly lines to pack food and, even though it was only for like 2 hours, it was busy, rewarding, and very tiring. We all had fun, though. 

Nothing much new since last time. I upgraded my PC just a little bit and it does run smoother. We're all booked up for our Ireland trip, which is great! Actually, I have one more thing to do and that's to go get the international drivers permit from AAA. I don't think the upgrade to premium economy is going to happen on either the departure or return trip. Looking back, I think I feel like we should have splurged for the upgrade when we bought the tickets which was about a couple of hundred dollars for each of us. Now, the upgrades in the app are like 600-1600 dollars which is ridiculous. Even if it came down to like 3-400, which I would bite at, there are no more 4 in a row spaces, so, yeah. Oh well. That would have been nice on the way back. At least we got the main cabin extra seats.

I feel like the next post is when school is out!

What is Going On?!

What is going on with America right now. With all these stupid things I'm reading about that the government is doing, it's not looking good. And it's starting to affect Laura's work as well. We should really consider moving to Canada or something. I don't understand how everything is being ignored.

A quick review of the last couple of months. Christmas was fun. The McGuires came for a few days and for the first time in a few years, NO ONE WAS SICK! Well, I think a lot of us had runny noses, but it wasn't anything that stopped activities. That's really about it. Did the normal stuff we do during Christmas. I really can't remember the weather during Christmas break. I think it was cold and rainy for the most part. One thing that I thought was that it didn't feel like "Christmas" this year. I may have wrote that already in the last blog, but because it was so warm leading up to Christmas, it just didn't feel the same.

After Christmas, we actually went down to my Mom's new place since she moved to a more complete care apartment about an 40 minutes from Rockwall. It's still about the same time for us to get there, strangely. We stayed for a couple of days, but my brother was actually heading out there at the same time, so we met up with him and Reiko and Steve while we visited. That's probably the last time we'll all be together for a long time. That was the first time we saw Ken and his family since Justine's wedding, I think? He invited us to Vegas over Spring Break, but, that's in a couple of weeks and I don't think we're going to be able to with all the stuff going on and we're just (at least I am) tired of having something going on EVERY weekend. Spring Break is literally the next open weekend with NOTHING going on. I actually might take this time and take the kids down to Dallas for a couple of days because Laura wanted a weekend to herself without the kids. Currently, I'm contemplating Meow Wolf or Medieval Times or something and then visiting my Mom for a bit. It's just a lot of driving.

Other than that, I've been getting quite overwhelmed with helping out at school between academic bowl and clusters/electives. The good thing is that cluster and 4th grade acbo ended at the same time at the end of January, so that was an immediate load off the back. In addition, 7th grade acbo only has 1 more tournament next week and for electives, I have 2 more sessions before the showcase. Basically, after Spring Break, a lot of things are ending, so that's good. Not sure if I'll do both clusters and electives next year, but we'll see. In a way, it was nice to be busy, but only until it wasn't nice to be busy. The cluster showcase actually went really well. I would really say that our booth was the best. I think I put in the most work overall, but maybe a couple of other clusters did as well. Not sure though from what I saw. Some of the obscure ones I don't even know WHAT they did over the course of a few months.

Anyway, that's about it. Oh, we did finally buy all our plane tickets for our Ireland trip in July. I guess that is happening! The flights were pretty expensive in total, but probably about the same as Japan, actually. And that was with using points for the majority of it! I don't think we're going to get business class for either leg, sadly. For now, we have main cabin extra seats, which is coach with a little more room. We'll see if we can snag a cheap upgrade to premium economy on the way back for a couple hundred more each. It all depends on the availability of the seats prior to departure.

Winter Update

I could have sworn that I wrote something else in the blog after school had started, but I guess not!

Lots to catch up on. 

So the first couple of weeks of school were fine. The kids were settling back into school mode and we were getting used to the new routine we would be having. September I remember being pretty chill because there were no sports and the only thing going on I think were scouts meetings weekly.

Then October hit and things kicked into gear. Emmeline started volleyball, which felt like a pretty short season. The team did great and ended up 2nd place in the championship, if I remember right. Now she's playing basketball, with the first tournament being this Saturday. Connor is also doing basketball and he has a new coach this year. For some reason, they're deciding to do A LOT of other basketball-related tournaments, so the calendar is full of that up to like February. They're going down to Tulsa this weekend with all the other basketball teams to compete on some tournament. There is practice a couple of times a week for both Emmeline and Connor, but Connor's is from 8 to 9pm. WTF! Not a fan of that and the new coach, really, as they don't seem to respect people's time. 

I've been pretty busy this school year as well. I knew I wanted to do an elective or cluster for the school regarding photography, but I didn't plan on doing BOTH. So, I've got that going. It's going okay, actually. The kids are having fun. The funny part is that because the 8th grade elective was starting up sooner than I had anticipated, I actually opted, at first, to not do electives and only do clusters. However, they contacted me back and said "what if we promise to give you the best 5-6 kids (max), would you reconsider?" I was surprised that they even offered that, but that was technically one of the reasons I was hesitant about (getting unruly kids), so I caved and said sure. They don't seem as into it as the younger kids, but that's okay. Planning for that has been pretty straight forward, but I've already bought a bunch of stuff for that, so it hasn't been cheap. Plus, I'm winging it, so if I do it again next year, I'm going to adjust some stuff. One thing is that I should have just bought proper soft boxes for the "portrait day" activity, but I got cheap LED lights. They don't get as high as I needed them to and it turned out after buying all the lights and stands and stuff, I thought I would be saving money going the cheap route, but in reality, it would have been about the same. Oh well. 

On top of that, I'm doing academic bowl again for the 4th and 7th/8th grade teams. All in all, it's a VERY busy first semester. The flip side is that I think this is better than having nothing to do, I guess. It has been kind of stressful, though, when that is combined with all the other stuff like scouts, trips, Emmeline doing theatre again this year, and the like. There hasn't really been a weekend where we've just chilled. There's always something. 

This past couple of weeks, we went to Branson and Silver Dollar City for Emmeline's 10th birthday. Not a fan of birthday trips, but hopefully this is the last for a while. It was fun, but it did get cold on the last day at the park and both days it was REALLY crowded. I think one day would have been just fine. I stupidly rode on this one roller coaster that had barrel rolls and a pretty much vertical drop. Maybe when I was younger, but I'm really not into that anymore. Then after a few days of that, we were in Tulsa for a  few days, so we were away from home a good amount. Just wanted to go home there for a while. 

I was also sort of sick for a week with a bad cold or something. It just lingered for longer than a normal cold. No fever, but stuff nose and coughing. Now everyone seems to have it. I still have a weird cough from time to time.

Now, as we head into the Christmas season and break, things are on a good routine, I think, as long as there are no other surprises. Oh, actually, just a couple of days ago, my Mom did start her move to the new apartment a little farther from her old place. This place has more care, which she needs because she really can't remember much other than the really important stuff. She emails me now instead of texting, which is sort of annoying because sometimes I can't see the message if I don't use the correct browser. Anyway, on the day of the move, she, of course, forgot she was moving and was convinced that she wasn't going to move. She went to the office and stuff to figure out what was happening and this was when Steve, Justine, and David got there to help pack her things up and stuff. She freaked out and called the cops on them. Reiko had randomly texted me if I can call her to explain the situation. When I called, the cops had just gotten there or something. After talking with my Mom for a bit, I talked to the cop a bit as well and explained everything. Then back to talking to my Mom to make her okay with moving, which she finally did. Not to brag, but I literally saved that day by calling and I wonder what would have happened if I didn't or didn't get Reiko's text in time or something. My mom did said a couple of weeks ago that she wasn't moving and if they came, that  she would either call the cops or jump out of window. Sigh. The only thing that worked was to keep saying that she did know about the move and she was fine with it, but that she forgot. She kept saying she didn't, but whatever.

So, later this month, we'll try and give her a visit to check out the new place and maybe visit Reiko as well. I don't want to stay more than a night there, though. 

It hasn't been feeling like the holiday season lately, I think mostly in part due to how warm it was until literally like last week. It's still warm-ish, but it's getting colder. I think it's too late, though.

Anyway, looking forward to Christmas with the McGuires later this month. I'm more excited about Estes Park next Thanksgiving, actually.

Not Quite End of Summer

I hadn't realized that April was the last post I made. That's essentially right after our Spring break trip to Santa Fe.

So. What happened. Obviously, school ended mid-May. I remember the first couple of weeks after school ended, we had quite a bit going on with kids' activities. Emmeline had tennis camp, I believe, and then Connor had his Boston trip that he went by himself with the middle schoolers. He had fun on that I think. He did come back super late on the last day because of plane delays. Like, 1 or 2 in the morning. Then, the next morning he had some scouts thing. 

Oh, after that, Emmeline had her scout camp for a few days as well. She had fun I think with her friends but I felt bad because it was so hot already during that time and they were in cabins with a few other people with no A/C.

Then, finally, after that (I had to look at the calendar real quick), it looks like we had a couple of weeks to relax a bit. Although, Connor had decided he wanted to do baseball during the Summer with the good team from PCO. He had fun and won a few, but I think they were outmatched at the tournaments by the other players.

Anyway, then came mid-July and it was time for our big trip of the Summer to Yellowstone. We'd be there quite a bit, but a few of the days would be strictly for travel, so actually not as long as you would think. We did A LOT of driving. Driving out there caravan-style was, I think, a bad idea. I didn't like it and having to stay in line was horrible for me. Plus, if we ever go back, I'm flying straight to Jackson Hole. 

The first day, we drove all the way to Cheyenne. A long day, but it didn't feel like it, actually. We stopped at our usual places along the way, with the last stop at Firestone to eat with Chris. We got to Cheyenne at like 8 or 9 I think and we just went straight to bed. The next day we would be driving into Yellowstone. This was a stressful day because there was a lot of passing and staying together that I had to manage. We were all getting to Yellowstone to the same location, so I don't know why we had to stay together. Anyway. We arrived at Lake Yellowstone, I think, and right off the bat, we saw a mother bear with 2 of her cubs walking along the lake. It was pretty far, but we had brought all our binoculars. Good thing I still had my semi-good binoculars from when I was a kid. I don't even know where I got it. Pretty sure it was my brothers that I just took or something like that. 

We stayed and traveled basically every day, so I can't really remember all the stops and stays we did. Heck, I can't even remember the first place we stayed. I think it was Lake Yellowstone lodge, with the big yellow building. Every time we stayed, we would have to bring in so much stuff because of bears and then bring it back out the next morning. The next day, I think was the day we saw wolves. I didn't think we would see any, but we were driving around and we saw this wolf-tracker van and group and they were looking up at something, so we parked next to them and tried to look. It took a while, but we were all able to see this tiny little black speck WITH our binoculars moving around. I guess that still counts as a sighting. Afterwards, I thought it was cool and didn't think it was THAT rare, but apparently there are only like 100-120 wolves in ALL OF YELLOWSTONE, divided into like 9 or 10 packs. If you think about it that way, seeing the 1, and however many there actually was up there, that's pretty cool. 

Afterwards, I think the next stay was the Roosevelt Lodge, where we had 5 or 6 small lodges with a tiny bed to share 2 a piece in. I stayed with Connor and Laura stayed with Emmeline. He woke me up so many times. Plus it was super loud with people walking by our lodge. Not even a lodge, more like a shack. I didn't like this stay. The area was nice, but bathrooms were communal. Laura did sign us up for a chuckwagon dinner, though, and that was cool. We departed right near our lodges and then took a carriage ride to a location where we ate stake and stuff. There was a guy singing country songs, pretty well, actually, and just hanging out in general. It started to rain for about 20 minutes or so, but it was actually nice because it kept the mosquitos away and kept it cool. We stood under the trees during it and stopped pretty quickly, so it was all good. It also made the carriage ride back not dusty at all, so that's another plus. The steak and dinner was good.

The next day, I believe was the day Laura couldn't find her credit card. That was stressful. We were basically driving the same way we came from, so we tried to backtrack and, thank god, it was found at the stop we had made the previous day. I don't think this was the day we went to the Tetons...maybe it was. No, I think it was another lodge along the other side of Lake Yellowstone. It was a much better stay than Roosevelt Lodge. We had a little stressful dinner because of our seating arrangement, but it was fine.

The next day, we were on our way to the Tetons to meet up with the McGuires, if I'm not mistaken. We got there a bit before check-in and met them at this huge lodge/great hall area. The view was great. I took a lot of photos there. We all hung around until our rooms were ready and it was dinner time. Dinner was good at this little diner-type restaurant. Afterwards, we went outside to the overlook outside and the view was amazing. This might have been my favorite day/time. I really wish I had my camera - or any camera at that, since I currently don't have one. Something about looking at the Tetons during sunset and seeing it all hazy and how vast the view was, made me want to get a camera and start shooting again. I kind of imagined that was the same feeling one would feel if you had summited Everest and stood at the top. Everything quiet and you're just staring into the horizon thinking about how insignificant you really are compared to these huge mountains. We saw the "grand canyon of Yellowstone" earlier in the trip and that was pretty cool, but something about the Tetons was different.

The next day, we did some day hikes at Jenny Lake after yet another stressful time driving, this time because we needed to find 4 parking spots for 4 HONDA ODYSSEYs. To boot, we had gotten to a late start and everything was full. It didn't help that the first place we stopped at, we all were able to find spots...then we left to head to Jenny Lake, but that was completely full, so we had to go back and it was just a mess. It ended up all fine, though. That night, we stayed at the lodge for a 2nd night, for the first time during our trip, and ate at the diner again. We hung out that night because the boys and Emmeline were slated to white water raft the next day in Jackson Hole.

Oh, we did visit the Grand Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful as well. I forgot when that was. I think after the chuck wagon place but before the Tetons. The Old Faithful Inn was pretty cool. However, it was the first time during the trip that I was overwhelmed with how crowded it was. The parking lot literally looked like the parking lot of Disneyworld or something. Anyway, we sat around and watched Old Faithful go off a few times. 

Last day was in Jackson Hole. White water rafting ended up being pretty fun. First time in a wet suit and first time rafting, so. The rapids weren't too bad, either. It was just right. I felt bad that Emmeline and Joseph were cold after they got wet the first time because they both had shirts under their wet suit. If I had known, I would have told them to not do that. Oh well. They all had fun. It was nice that our raft was an 8-person one and we filled it up with just us.

Afterwards, we hung out in town, went shopping, and then ate at this fancy place that Dave and Karen liked to go to. It was pretty good. We hung out for the rest of the night and the next way, we would have to be leaving at a decent time because we had to get all the way to Colby that day. A longer drive than our first day to Cheyenne. To boot, we had decided we would take a detour to Independence Rock and Laramie on the way, so that added a couple of hours to our drive. The other parties went straight there and got there a couple of hours earlier. Independence Rock was pretty cool, though. I still think Laura should have climbed the rock, but she was in sandals anyway. Seeing Laramie was cool, too. I still miss Laramie when we lived there. We saw our old townhouse, which wasn't take care of, it seemed. It was still white like we painted, though. 

After getting to Colby, it was straight to bed since it was like 10pm. The next day, we got to Edmond in time to pick up Libby. Oh, to add to the stress - about halfway through the trip, Laura got a call from the kennel saying Libby hadn't eaten the first several days. She finally ate some wet food or something, but yeah. She did the same thing for a little bit at home, but then finally started to eat again. She had lost like 3-4 lbs so she was looking pretty skinny/healthy, actually. I think she's gaining back some weight now, though. 

After we got back, a couple of weeks went by and now school has started. THANK GOD. I think the kids were getting bored, too, anyway. It's looking to be a busy year, especially if I intend to do some of the things I was thinking about. I want to do a photography enrichment cluster this year. Not sure if I can pull it off, but I still have a month or so to think about it. Then there's academic bowl and during the back to school day, I had put out some interest sheets for a possible chess club and computer club. There were a lot more sign-ups than I had imagined. Good thing it's not a definite thing. Still, I would like to do it, maybe even as a monthly thing. Dunno yet. I think I'm trying to juggle too many things, but it's something I'd like to do.

Anyway, Laura and the kids are in St. Louis tonight watching the game that just ended. I'm about to head to bed. I woke up early today for some reason. I always do when they're gone...They'll be back on Sunday, I think. That's going to be a long day because they need to be at the confirmation meeting at 3:45. Gonna be an early start.

Spring

We're finally into Spring and the weather seems to be holding at a more cooler temperature than I remember in the past. However, I'm sure that it'll soon get blistering hot. 

I've been in a lull recently with being on the unproductive side of things. There are lots of "things" to do and get done, but with the kids' schedules being really busy the last month or two, it's been hard to get motivated to get other stuff done other than extracurriculars and anything school-related. Things seem to have finally eased up a bit, though. I'm looking at the calendar and for the first time in I don't know when, there's absolutely NOTHING scheduled for Wednesdays. Tuesdays are still quite stressful because of piano and Girls on the Run. Right now, sports are limited to soccer for Emmeline and Connor's 2 baseball things at PCO and McGuinness. I should really start considering side hustles to make some money as they're in school, but it's hard to pin down what to do.

Here are some of the things on the to-do list that just keep getting postponed:

• Mulch the yard fully
• Master bedroom new headboard
• Declutter
• Dentist appointments
• Get back to proper weekly meal planning
• Carpets possibly replaced with wood?
• Move money to a interest yielding account
• ...bunch of other little things

To add to this, I had to recently get our van brakes replaced because it was quite bad. Then, the day of/after, I found out that there was a screw in one of the new tires we bought like 3 weeks ago. 100% Hibdon tires did it while they were driving it around diagnosing it, but whatever. Discount Tire was able to fix it. 

We just had our Spring Break trip to Santa Fe with the Bonds. It was fun, but the driving wasn't. 8 hours each way was almost just as bad as going to Colorado, but whatever. Was also only for like 4 days, so it just seemed like half the trip was driving. The airbnb was good. Maybe wasn't as cool as I thought it would be, but the others liked it. The Bonds chose the casita and pretty sure that was the worse of the 2 living areas, although both seemed fine.

The other thing that is kind of disappointing is the money we have just sitting in one of the investment accounts. I think we need to finally just put it in SOMETHING because for the last 6-7 years maybe, it hasn't done anything. I was doing some calculating and we're literally just throwing money away, as with just a minimal 4% annual interest rate, that's a free $10k every 5 years. Then I got even more depressed playing around with seeing how much that money could have been if we had invested in something as simple as Apple stock and just letting it sit there this entire time. Because of how covid affected the tech stocks, we literally could have bought a new house in some scenarios. Even in the lowest performing scenario, we could have used it as a down payment to a bigger house, easily. We've been kind of hunting around, but the minimum we'd like to upgrade to is juuuust out of our price range. House prices are still crazy to me for what you get, but it does seem like it's coming down albeit slowly. 

We are still, sort of, planning on a UK trip next year, but for some reason I'm not as motivated to do research and figure out ticket prices and such as our Japan trip. Randomly watching Japan videos makes me want to just go there again, but I think we need to try other places. It just doesn't seem the same, for some odd reason. The logistics seem to be harder to work out and I think the biggest thing is that since our airline points situation is different, it's harder to figure out where to buy tickets for the best deals. We'd like to do business again at least one of the ways, but I'm not sure if that's feasible with the tickets available, the routes we need to take, the airlines we need to take, etc. I hope we can, though. 

Well, I've got some chores to do. The house has been a bit messy lately. The kids are supposed to help with chores, but they haven't really, so.

No Way - 4-Month Update

There's a lot of catching up to do! 

Let's start with the rest of September if I can even remember.

So, at this point, school would have just been going on for about month or so. I can't really remember anything significant. I think the biggest thing I can remember is that we finally got the iPads and stuff all set up for management and we got it all ready for the first round of MAPS testing. Then literally like the week of, they decided to not use MAPS and switch to another testing software. Of course, it was a difficult one to configure and set up. I had to scour instructions that were written by other universities and stuff and I finally found a piece of document that explained most of it. In the end, I was able to figure out how to set up the school's profile on the testing system's database and then use the info from that to input it into the app. I was sort of happy that other schools were having trouble figuring this all out but we were able to figure it out. The testing went great, but the presentation was horrible and the kids didn't like it.

October was the start of academic bowl. This year, I decided for some reason that I'll coach the 3rd grade team as well as the 5th/6th team. Well, the 5th/6th team is quite the bunch. They're getting worse in terms of being quiet during practices. At one practice, I almost called it because I had enough of them and they weren't listening at all. I remember that was the practice after I had a bad cold for a few days, too. I much rather enjoy the 3rd grade team, honestly. 

I believe it was around this time that the IT guys installed new access points in the entire school side. They're so bad to work with. We're still having issues from time to time and they're no help. I'm spending more time on the church side, now, too...hopefully, once this last round of updates to the wires and stuff go through, we don't have to rely on them.

We actually decided to do a trunk or treat because they needed trunks, but then in the end, there were a lot of them so we really didn't need to. Anyway, we did a Super Mario themed one and it was awesome. We were definitely the best, but the "tourists" themed trunk won it...not sure why, but whatever. The kids loved it. I made an interactive one where the kids needed to punch bricks from underneath while we put candy up on top and the candy would "come out" of the blocks. They really need the kids to vote, because it's basically an adult vote fest. 

Then November came around and we prepped for our trip to Estes Park. This year, we did decided on one, large reunion cabin, which I sort of pushed last year after seeing they had something like this and how 2 cabins was sort of annoying when people had to go back and forth, babies sleeping, and overall couldn't just hang out as easily or longer in the evenings. I think it worked out well. We probably could have worked out the room arrangement a little better in hindsight, but we can always tweak in the future. So, we left on Saturday and we decided to do the entire drive in one day this time. Got to Firestone in the evening and we had dinner with the Bonds. We stayed at a hotel and hung out the next day as well, which is when the Lemons came in. Monday we left for Estes Park and we were actually able to check-in and go into the lodge early this time, unlike last year when we had to wait until 6pm or something like that. We gathered and ate at Penelope's and shopped around until about 3pm and headed for the YMCA. After settling in and choosing room, we relaxed a bit. Through the week, we did some hikes, some went on a cold, morning hike to a mountain, and then on Thanksgiving, we had dinner at the Stanley again. It wasn't as good I don't think because it wasn't a buffet, but it was still pretty good entrees. It snowed once a good amount and I think that was perfect. The first couple of days it was pretty warm, then a cold, snowy day, and then warmed up again. It was nice to be able to hang out all together in one place. I didn't see many animals, but one time Emmeline and I headed out to town to get some gifts and on the way back, we saw a huge elk, so I drive by it and stopped even and she took some pictures.

Now, the horrible day was the day we were leaving. We opted to do it all in one day which, even though it was from Estes Park this time, wouldn't have been so bad if the weather didn't get crappy mid-day through the drive. It was slated to be bad weather about halfway into Kansas and was it bad...it wasn't just snow, it was icy rain. We all pretty much caravanned back, but Laura's parents were a couple of hours ahead of us since they had to leave earlier to drop Uncle Kenny off at the airport. So about halfway, maybe around 2pm or so, we were in the middle of Kansas and the bad weather started to roll in. It wasn't too bad for the first hour, but then it got to the point where we were going under 50-60 most of the time. By the time we were taking a south to head to Salina and OKC, we were right in the middle of the bad storm and we were literally going 30-40 the entire way. We stopped in Salina because there was a break in the weather. The Lemons stopped as well. We got dinner and decided to just drive all the way back (mostly because I wasn't wanting to stay in Salina overnight, but I don't think staying would have done anything for the next morning - it would have been worse, I think, and we wouldn't have been home until in the afternoon, probably). It was 30-40 all the way to the OK border, pretty much. The roads and visibility was so bad. I was in front for a bit, but the Lemons went first because we had to take a detour through a small town because they closed parts of the highway. 

We finally were going normal speed the last hour or hour and a half of the trip...it was a LONG day. We left around 8 or 9am in Estes Park, I can't remember exactly, but we ended up getting back home a bit past midnight. I don't think it was 1am or later, but it could have been. I was just glad to have stopped driving. My legs were SORE because it was 15 or so hours of driving mostly WITHOUT cruise control due to the icy roads. I didn't realize how much that would affect my legs keeping the gas at a steady 40mph. The next day we all just rested, pretty much. We had to go get Libby, but that was about it.

Then in December, we had our usual Tulsa trip over the break. This year, I've been watching this guy help the homeless on YouTube and decided I wanted to make bags for homeless that had different kinds of things in them. The kids got into it and they've been the ones giving them out whenever they see someone at a light. It cost a few hundred bucks to make 18 bags, but it does feel good when they are thankful for them. Hopefully, they can put it to some use.

We're in the middle of a cold snap right now...slowly getting better finally. For about a week, the HIGH was in the single digits and teens. It's been cold. I'm sure it's just gonna be super hot with no transition to Spring or anything like usual. 

We've been throwing the idea around of England, Scotland, and Ireland as our next big trip, possibly for Summer of 2025. We'll see. Flights are going to be much harder to plan and buy...I don't think business class is happening this time and we'll be lucky if we even get premium economy.

This Summer, I guess we are headed to Yellowstone with everyone. I can't remember if I've been there, I feel like I have, but it'll be fun hopefully. 

I'm about all caught up now in terms of news. Nothing else I can think of!

Part 2 of...2?

 Apparently, I started writing the Japan summary late June and I never came back...hm. It seems like I finished up writing about it, but now I can't remember what I had left to write. Oh well. In the end, it was a great trip. There were some pluses and minuses, but mostly good. I do miss it now. One of Emmeline's classmates just went there for a week and came back. That actually made me miss it again. I think we should take another trip there sometime - maybe when the kids are in high school or something. I think the biggest thing that I liked were the tons of little alleyways and such with shops everywhere. There's just not that kind of stuff here in the US. Sure, there are places like 28th street or 29th street or whatever in Boulder, but it's just not the same. Plus the vending machines everywhere!

Anyway, really can't remember much of the rest of the Summer. It's been ungodly hot the last month or more. Relief seems to be in sight, but then it gets hot again. I can't wait for the Fall and Winter.

School has, of course, started and Emmeline got Mrs. Parks, the new teacher, instead of Mrs. Schmidt. I think she's doing fine with her now. Connor is in 6th now and doesn't really have a homeroom teacher. They've both been having an attitude and listening problem, though, lately. It's getting to me. 

Things are already so busy and we're only a month in to the school year. Tech stuff at school is...tech stuff at school. Things are starting to "work" for the most part, though. This weekend, I have to make sure the iPads are good to go for some testing that's supposed to start next week. The IT guys are a bit annoying and pushy, though, to sell us more stuff. Extracurriculars are also kicking up. Piano, baseball, gymnastics, choir, scouts, and soon, academic bowl for both of them, which I'm probably going to be coaching. It's gonna be so busy.

One annoying thing that happened in the last couple of weeks is that I was stupidly trying to trim the hedges for our house on one of the hottest days of the year because I wanted to for some reason and I was using the pole saw. Later that day, I guess I used some muscles that I don't usually use and got sore. It was difficult walking. This has sort of happened before. The next day, oh man. I could hardly walk. It hurt when I took a step and maybe like every 4-5 steps. Thankfully, it was the weekend still. This continued for the next few days. It got better each day, but man, it hurt. I had to use Emmeline's scout walking stick for the first few days to even walk and get up from sitting. Then, it seemed to be all good, but yesterday, I was laying on the bed and when I got up, I got up in a weird way I guess and it hurt at the original spot that hurt. I think I may have ruined it slightly again. Ugh.

Tomorrow is Eagle Run. Not sure if I'm going to go, but, yeah. Tomorrow night or Sunday I'm going to have to go into school to work on the ipads. Laura wants to go to Dallas next weekend. I just want to stay home and have nothing for a weekend!

Japan Trip Summary Extravaganza - Part 1 of 2

Howdy. Well, this one's going to be a big one. Might take a couple of days write, even. The last month has been quite the month in terms of stuff happening. I'll just go step by step and also break down the Japan trip further to the locations we went to.

So, the end of the school year went by without much fanfare. I really can't remember if there were more field trips since the last post, I think Connor did, but Emmeline I don't think did. Yearbook signing I think was really the last thing to happen. 

As you know, a couple of days after school was when we were set to leave for Japan. The Friday before, we had left for Dallas as we had a hotel right at the terminal basically. All of that went well. We saw my Mom that day as well. The day of the flight out, we had gotten boarding passes digitally. Laura had hers and Emmeline's in her phone's wallet and mine and Connor's in my Google wallet. Or so I thought. The day started off GREAT with that QR code or whatever not working at security, so we had to go to the JAL counter to get tickets printed out. Got that done and finally got through security, which was quite fast anyway since it was pretty early in the morning. It just added like 10-15 min to have to go get physical tickets. Anyway, we get through and we have a couple hour wait until we board. We do the usual stuff like eat and sit. 

We board and economy wasn't so bad in reality. Laura and the kids sat together in a 3 seat configuration and I sat in the aisle across from them. I think I had pretty much the best outcome as far as the person to sit next to. He was an older teenager traveling with his family. He really just kept to himself and he only said one word during the flight and that was "Sorry" because he dropped his headphones or something on the ground. Overall, the flight was long, but it was fine. I watched several movies but didn't sleep. I don't think anyone else slept either. Maybe Laura. The food was ok. I felt stuff after the first course and the second course wasn't as enjoyable. Maybe I'll opt for the Western meal next time.

First days in Tokyo

Anywho, once we landed, it was time for immigration and customs and all that. That probably took 30 min total? I can't remember but it wasn't long. Already I think I had some Japanese understanding issue, but it went fine. Since we didn't have any checked-in bags, that helped a lot. We made ourselves over the arrival terminal and got to work getting all the stuff we needed. The wait for the JR passes was labeled as 90 minutes or something ridiculous, but it probably took 30-40 min. The kids were already tired of standing and waiting by this point. It's hard I'm sure because we're in Japan, but we really can't do much until we get all the important stuff done first and THEN we have to still head to our first hotel. Anyway, we got our passes and while we were doing that Laura had gone and exchanged the cash we brought to yen. Afterwards, we had one more thing to do and that was to get the pocket wifi from another location. Now that we got all that, it was time to head towards Shinjuku and our first hotel for the next couple of nights. Finding the train went fine and it wasn't crowded all the way to the hotel. That's what I was really afraid of since it was close to rush hour starting, although it was Sunday, which I think helped. We got on the train and navigated all right.

The hotel was fine and we got checked in around evening. We were super tired, so I think we just went to the 7-eleven close by to get some food and I may have gotten cash out of the ATM so we knew that worked, which it did. I don't think we walked anywhere that night. We just chilled and tried to get to bed.

Of course, we all woke up at like 3 in the morning and couldn't really go back to bed. We also found out that sunrise is super early in Japan for some reason at 4:30 and the curtains weren't that good to cover the light. So, we were all up at like 5 and cranky. Of course, nothing opens in Japan until like 10, so we did the best we could and left at like 8 or 9 I think to head to a shrine, park, and Harajuku for the day. Actually, that day was super busy I thought for it being the first day. After walking through the shrine, we walked down Harajuku to eat cotton candy and stuff. Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel through the park next to the shrine. We chilled in the hotel for a bit and I think we spontaneously went to the Hello Kitty cafe a couple of stations down after seeing it on YouTube. Then we came back and went to bed. I may have to start looking at photos to see what we did in what order because I really can't remember. 

Next Cities

The next day, a Tuesday I think, we were headed to Matsumoto. Our initial plan was to stop by and see Saori in Chino, which is like 40 minutes from Matsumoto, but since she couldn't we chose to go straight there. This was our first longer train ride. Think it was like 2 hours or so. Oh, I think it was this morning that before we left for Matsumoto, we took a detour and checked out Hattori Hanzo's grave since it was right there. It was already getting hot, but we found it. 

I can't really remember the hotel now, but I think it was a tatami style place. That night, we ate dinner, can't remember where, and then went to Matsumoto Castle at night, which was pretty cool. The next day, we had our dreaded rental car to get at 9am, I think. We got our stuff and walked about 10 minutes to a McDonald's nearby for breakfast. A few more minutes and we had our car. I was nervous, but this first drive would only be several minutes to a parking lot right next to Matsumoto Castle. Everything went ok. We went inside the castle and stuff. At this point, we had gotten a few vending machines as well.

After we were done, it was the longer 40ish min drive to Takayama, I think. I did make it, but this segment made me nervous as I didn't know it was like, up and through the mountains. There were some close calls with hitting things on the left side of the car because I still wasn't used to driving on the right and sitting on the right side. I didn't know how much room I had on the other side of the car. The car was a Corolla Touring which wasn't too big. Probably the size of a normal sedan in the states. Once we got to our hotel, there was a little hiccup in figuring out where to park, so we parked at a 7-eleven and Laura went to the hotel to check-in and the front desk person showed us where to park. Glad that was over with. This was a cool hotel as it had a bunk, but I guess our first hotel in Shinjuku, the Mimaru, had bunks too. This had a cool bathroom/shower set up that was sort of the norm in japan. It was fun to fill the tub all the way and when you got in, it spilled over. By now, it was later in the afternoon, so we walked through the food/shop street that was near our hotel. We got some stuff and on the way back, we saw a sushi bar that seemed open, so we tried to go in, but the owner was still getting ready and told us 6pm. We went back to relax for a bit and came back.

He was an older guy and he was pretty quiet at first, but after he made the sushi dinners for us, he did open up and started talking, mostly to me in Japanese. He's been there for a long time and has family around. I did enjoy talking a little even though I wasn't fully understanding everything. Up to this point, I've probably been about 80% confident in talking. There are a lot of things I remember but also a lot that I don't understand, so I sort of just wing it or assume what they might be saying. The sushi was good, though the kids didn't finish the octopus and squid and stuff. We finished and went back to the hotel. 

Shirakawago

The next day, we check out and it's another 30ish minutes to our next stop Shirakawago and then a little farther to Ainokura. It was mountain driving again, but not as bad as the early segment. We stopped at the main Shirakawago village and man, that was a tourist area if I ever saw one. It was mostly rude, Southeast Asian tourists just coming and going in bus after bus. We only spent an hour or so there I think, but yeah, it was cool to see the village, but it was just way too crowded. Laura and the kids did go up to this high overlook at the mountain ridge, but I decided to stay down.

After finishing there, it was finally time to head to our next stop in Ainokura. This was the stay with the family. I was actually nervous/not looking forward to it because of shared bathrooms, etc., but it turned out pretty fun. So we got there around 2pm I think and got to the house. They weren't ready yet, so we parked in front of the house and dropped off the luggage and then explored the village a little. We went to the washi shop and after some waiting, the kids did get to quickly make some of their own washi paper. After a little more walking, we get to the house around 3:30 or so and we find out that we weren't the only ones there to stay for the night. I wasn't too happy about that possibly happening, but it was this Australian family with 2 girls about the same age as Connor and Emmeline, so I think it actually worked out pretty well. We basically sat and talked from about 4pm to dinner time which they said was around 6pm. The host was cooking the fish over a fire in the living room. Kids being kids, they were shy at first but I don't know if it was Emmeline or Connor who first started talking to them, but once that happened, they just started playing all over the house. We talked with the parents while waiting for dinner. After dinner, they all took baths but I did not. After the baths, I think we just all went to bed. I was nervous about any snoring because it was literally 2/4 rooms separated by the washi doors and you could hear everything on the other side. It went fine and the next morning, we all woke up around 7 or so and breakfast was at around 8. The Australian family was scheduled to leave around 9:30 or something via a tour bus and they were headed towards Shirakawago and we were headed towards Kanazawa. They were also heading to Tokyo Disney later on in their trip. That would have been funny if we ran into them, but obviously we were headed to Disney Sea. The kids played a little more in the morning before they left.

After they left, we gave the dreamcatcher gift that I had gotten to the hosts and they liked that. We walked a little more around the village before we departed. Unfortunately, ever since dinner the previous day, it rained and rained, so that kind of put a damper on things. I think if it wasn't raining, we could have walked around town at night more or the kids could have played in this huge field in the village, but oh well.

After getting in the car, we were off to Kanazawa.

Kanazawa and the Festival

It rained a little bit for the next day or so, but we got to Kanazawa safely. After watching the documentary around roadside stations, I tried to find a rest stop on the way to Kanazawa and we actually did stop at one, but it wasn't as good as it could have been, I don't think. Anyway, after the stop and getting something to eat, we drove into Kanazawa and parked sort of close to the next hotel we were staying at. We couldn't check in yet, so we walked around town and checked out the fish market. It was a bit crowded for my taste, but when it was finally time to check in, we went to our car, got our luggage, and headed to the hotel in the rain. Once inside, everyone was tired, so I offered to just go drop off the car and walk back. I think that was a good idea because I'm not sure if the kids would have done that without complaints. It was only 8 min or so by car but like 20-25 minutes by foot. On the way there, I missed like 3 turns so it took longer than expected and I was literally on the busiest road in downtown, or at least it felt like it, but I got it returned and walked home fine to the hotel. 

Since it was raining, we did find out that the lanterns in the river part of the festival was cancelled, which was a bummer, but that day was the last of the rain for a while. That night, I was looking at some places to eat and found a shabu shabu place sort of close by so we walked to that a little after it opened. It was a smaller place, but the owner was nice and she talked to Connor a little since her favorite movie was Top Gun. The kids liked the food as well and even though we ordered way too much, we ended up finishing most of it. It was a fun dinner. Afterwards, I think we walked to the shrine that was nearby and because it was festival time, there were lots of booths and stuff open with games and street food. It wasn't as crowded as it would have been if it weren't raining, though. After looking around, I think we went back to the hotel and rested for the night. 

The next day, we got an early-ish start to the festival activities and went to the castle grounds where a lot of the things were happening. Oh, I think this was the time we ate at a donut place on the way. I can't remember though. The kids played some games and we ate there as well. This was also the point where the sun came out and it was hotter than I expected and we all got sunburned pretty badly. We didn't flake or anything, but it was bad. This was also the point at which we started using umbrellas as a sun blocker. I actually liked that and I did that lot for the rest of the trip. We then headed over to Kanazawa station as that was where the festival was to begin and there was a taiko performance there as well. This was probably the worst part of the festival, however, because, man, as we got closer to the station it got so crowded, we just stood by the sidewalk and we couldn't move, literally. The kids couldn't see anything and I couldn't either, really. After the initial taiko performance finished, we decided to walk back to the hotel as the festival was supposed to go by there. After a grumpy walk, we got to the hotel and funnily enough, the first part of the festival was literally crossing right across from the entrance of our hotel, so we sat there and watched most of the parade. There was plenty of seating. We should have just did that from the start. I actually enjoyed it as bands played some iconic songs, etc.

I can't remember what we did for dinner that night. We must have gone out, but I can't remember where or what we ate. I think, oh, we went back out for the night activities at the castle ground and walked through a lot of the booths again on the way. It was super crowded this time and of course we got to the castle grounds when all but 1 or 2 of the food shops were closing up. We luckily were able to get some food before they closed and we watched a couple weird shows and then decided to walk back to the hotel via the lit up garden or something. I think this was the place we checked out one of the most beautiful gardens in the world, apparently. I think it was here, at least. This was our last night in Kanazawa.

Kyoto

We had another long train ride from Kanazawa to Kyoto. Getting to our next hotel was a little harder than just arriving at the main station as well. We had to take a couple of smaller trains as it was far from the station, but also because those smaller trains didn't take the JR pass. Now that I think about it, I can't remember when we got our Suica cards, which were essentially debit cards that you can charge and can pay train and bus prices, etc. Come to think of it, we may have gotten it at Kyoto station. I remember that we had to go into a JR office to get the kids' ones, but, I really can't remember. 

So, we get into Kyoto - I can't remember what we did or if we came into the city right at check-in time, but we found our hotel and got checked in. This was a cool hotel because we had gotten the top floor and it was basically 2 rooms turned into 1. It was huge and there was an outside bath where we could fill it up all the way as well. One of our best hotels, if not the best.

I think our first night, we had decided to do one of the famous shrines with lots of torii gates. That was a good idea because it wasn't crowded at all and it was cool. If we had done it the next day, it would have been so hot and crowded, we wouldn't have enjoyed it at all. I really can't remember what we did for dinner that day, because it was dark already when we came down from the shrine, so it could be that we did that after dinner...but that wouldn't make sense either. Really can't remember.

The next day, I think we did a quick detour to see the 2 Nintendo headquarters. Basically a white building with the word Nintendo on it. Well, one of them wasn't a headquarter but the old building where Nintendo started their business selling playing cards. After that bit of nostalgia, we went to the main shopping area right near our hotel and got some dessert to bring home to eat. This day is totally lost in my memory. Kyoto was also the place where we did a samurai museum, so that was part of it on one of those days as well. Laura will have to straighten out all that happened, but it's bits and pieces to me. 

I mean, we spent 3 nights there, so we did a lot, lol. Afterwards, it was off to Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Hiroshima and Miyajima

This train ride was our first shinkansen ride. By now, we were pretty good with the JR pass, but I think shinkansens confused me because of how to gates worked and stuff. We have both the JR pass and shinkansen tickets, sometimes 2. Then we had to put them both through the ticket machine at the same time and stuff. The other big thing that I never understood was a couple of times, the ticket gate wouldn't open for us because something went wonky with our entries and exits with our tickets. Like, I thought I had it figured out at one point, that shinkansen gates are different from JR/station gates, but there were a couple of times where we went from shinkansen to a normal train without leaving the shinkansen area and everything worked, so I never figured it out.

Anyway, we took the train to Hiroshima, then took a bus to the peace memorial park, put our stuff in lockers, and then toured the museum. It was funny because we had big backpacks and there were no lockers left, so we were dreading carrying it, but then Emmeline had walked off and around the corner into a room and she was like, "There are tons more here for bigger luggage!" and saved the day. After the museum which I can't remember if I did or not the last time I came here with Brian (I don't think I did), we talked around to the dome area. After, we got our luggage and then took the ferry from the park to Miyajima island. That was a 40ish minute ride.

It was touristy on the island, but as the day went one, the day trippers left and we were staying 1 night at a very expensive hotel. Laura was bummed that because they were short staffed, we couldn't get the in-room kaiseki experience that we hoped for, but it was all right. I feel like I should have asked if we could get the regular room rate because really the only reason we paid way more for this one cottage was because we could eat dinner in the cottage. Without it, it was basically a normal cottage. Laura and the kids went to the huge torii gate again while I rested at the cottage. Although, people kept coming in and out setting up the futons and stuff. Laura loved the experience there, but I didn't see anything special about it. The cottage wasn't the best as it didn't have a shower or bath and stuff. I think it was a little overpriced. This was also the first place where we saw deer just walking around. 

Osaka

So next was Osaka. I was nervous about the travel for this one because I realized that we would be arriving at one of the busiest stations right at rush hour. We actually talked about if it was busy that we'll take a taxi to our hotel.

It was another shinkansen ride after taking the ferry to the Hiroshima station. We got our bento boxes and were on our way. If we had left early in the morning, we would have been able to catch the Hello Kitty special shinkansen to Osaka, but we went to Mt. Misen so we could. Oh, right, after we checked out, we went straight to Mt. Misen to use the cable car close to the summit and then walked 30 minutes or so to the top. It was okay. It was cloudy so we couldn't see too far, but it was raining a little bit, so it was cooler than it would have been. We had gotten a round trip cable car so we took it back down as well. In hindsight, I don't think we would have made it back all the way down walking. We were already tired walking to the summit and the kids, namely Connor and his horrible walking and leading, wouldn't have made it. So, back to the shinkansen ride. It was fine and once we got to the station at Osaka, we had to take a metro line to the other station by our apartment. 

So this hotel was really close to the famous Dotonbori street with street food and such, so the location was great. Unfortunately, it was raining the first night so the ferris wheel was closed. And then the next day was Friday, which is the day the ferris wheel is normally closed, so needless to say, we didn't get to do the ferris wheel. It was fun to walk around, though. We had some ramen for dinner and then went to Round 1 since it was right next to our hotel. I was able to get a couple of things from the claw games and went back home. 

The next day we were doing a day trip to Nara. We got there and on the way, there was a 7-eleven that sold sub-zero coke that became a slushie if you did it right. We tried it on the way up but it didn't work so we said we'd try again on the way back. At Nara, the deer were everywhere. We got some deer snacks and everyone except me fed the deer. It was interesting that the deer have learned to bow to get food, probably because Japanese people bow to them, I guess. We then headed to this shrine right next to the park that had one of the biggest Buddhist temples and Buddhas and that was actually pretty cool. Probably my favorite temple we went to. Connor climbed through this hole that represented how big the nostril of the Buddha was. It was hard to get on pictures how big this Buddha and temple was. I can't remember now why Emmeline didn't do the nostril thing, but I think actually at this point, Emmeline was starting to or was sick with a little cold or something so she wasn't feeling too well. More on that later.

After the temple, we got some Western style lunch and then went through the park once more to feed the deer on the way back. That's when one of the deer got a little aggressive and bit Emmeline on her upper arm. Hard enough that it left a bruise and cut skin. She was upset and I was worried she might get some kind of disease, but it turned out okay. Once we got home, we headed over to the Dotonbori street again. I can't remember what we ate once again, but I think we went to Round 1 again as well.

Nikko

The next day was check out day and we were headed to Nikko. It was a long travel day with multiple shinkansens. At this point was probably when I started to feel really tired during the trip. It's been a busy 2 weeks and we still had a few more days left. When we arrived at Nikko, we actually decided to take a taxi to our hotel. It was reasonable and much faster than the bus. At the hotel, we got checked in and then almost immediately, I smelled this weird gas smell near my bed. I didn't say anything at first but mentioned it again near dinner time. It actually gave me a little headache and we were freaking out sleeping in this situation. We didn't say anything, but opened all the windows a little. The thing is, I think I saw on our 2nd day that there was some kind of heater/AC thing right outside the window that I think was creating the smell. 

Anyway, the first day, it was raining again, but we went to the little Jizo area near our hotel. Wasn't crowded at all because it was out of the way from the main part of town and it was raining. Afterwards, we found one of the 2 open restaurants before it closed and had dinner. It was a weird cafe, but it was good.

The next day, we went to a big shrine of the famous Tokugawa Iyeyasu. This was about the time Connor and I were at our throats because of his mannerisms and also because he was on his way to getting sick. Laura had worn sandals and there was a section of lots of steps and on the way down, she fell and hurt her back, luckily not too bad. Once we got home, Connor and I went to get dinner at the 24-hour Lawsons, where we saw a Japanese biker gang come in right as we were about to check out. Once home, Connor started shivering and he was officially sick. That night, I fell asleep for like 30 minutes and when I woke up, man, my throat hurt. It was crazy how fast it turned that way. And so, now, I was sick. 

The next morning, we checked out and took a taxi to the station. Connor and I rested there while Laura and Emmeline, who was totally fine now, shopped around. Connor and I both had waves of feeling fine and feeling cold and crappy during the day for the next few days. We got on the train around noon and then traveled back to our last few days in Tokyo, in Asakusa.

Asakusa and Home

This stretch was also an annoying travel segment because of so many transfers and the inability to use JR trains around the hotel we were trying to get to. That means we had to use this horrible Ginza line that wasn't as ideal. We finally managed to get to the hotel, another Mimaru and rested. Today was also the day that my friend Jesse from HS messaged me back and said he could possible meet up tonight. I was in a predicament because I was on and off feeling like crap and I didn't want to overdue it since tomorrow was Disney Sea day. In the end, I did end up meeting up with him just outside the hotel at like 8pm for about an hour. It was good to talk to him. He seems to be doing all right. Was different than what he looked like in HS. 

The next day wad Disney Sea. Now, I can't remember if it was that night or the night after that I just kept sweating and sweating through the night and I would have to change clothes and even try to dry my clothes with a hair dryer until Laura finally woke up and found more clothes for me. I still sweat. I thought I was finally breaking my fever, but no, I had many more days of it. 

So, after some deliberation, we decided that all of us would go to Disney Sea and Connor and I would leave early if we started to feel bad. Now, the morning started off a little bad to begin with. We left a little later than our planned time. That was okay, but that meant we hit the trains we needed to hit right at rush hour during the week day. Our first train ride was horrible. It was literally a step away from the sardine-packed trains that we saw on YouTube. All of us were smooshed and we had a few stops to go through. We finally get through to our transfer and we were actually confused if it was the actual train, but it turned out to be the right one and we were finally on our way to Disney. I didn't realize it was so far out from where we were.

Once we got there, I was feeling meh and was feeling meh for the entire time there. We started towards the first ride that we wanted to do. I think it was 20000 leagues or something. We did get a fast pass thing for Soarin'. I chose not to since I've already done it before. I just wanted Laura to do it. After 20000 leagues, we headed over to Journey to the Center of the Earth. It said it was a 50-minute wait, which wasn't TOO bad, but oh well. Better than the 2.5 hours wait times that some of the rides have sometimes. We did the ride and the last bit was unexpected and Emmeline I don't think was expecting it either and she cried. Then they did Soarin' while I sat and waited. Afterwards, we got a little lunch from where we could find any, which was basically this weird naan thing that Connor didn't eat. I was hoping for a sit down restaurant but the kids wouldn't eat any of it and the western style foods were in a place near the entrance. We then did this weird Aladdin magic show. I'm sure the family didn't know what they were saying, but if they understood, it was pretty funny. After that, we hit up Indiana Jones as the last ride for Connor and I. Wait was like 30-40 minutes again, but Emmeline cried again. It wasn't even that bad of a ride either. Connor freaked out saying he was gonna throw up in line after he took an ibuprofen, but he didn't. After the ride, Connor and I had to deal with an hour trek back and we were both annoyed at each other and not feeling well. 

We made it back to our hotel around 3:30 or so and got some food to eat then pretty much crashed until Laura and Emmeline came home, which was like 9:15 or something. They stayed and watched the night show and left. She didn't end up doing Tower of Terror, but that's okay. 

The next day, we had a meeting with Saori at around 10am, but we all were tired and sick and woke up at around 8 or 8:30, can't remember. It was a 40-minute train ride to Harajuku station, so we actually didn't have too much time in the morning to relax or even get packed up at a slow pace. Since it was our last night and we were checking out the next day, I was hurriedly trying to figure out the best way to go about this, with our luggage and all. We decided since it was a better route to the station near our last hotel from Shibuya, we found coin lockers there and took a quick train to Harajuku. We met Saori, went to a cafe, unexpectedly got glasses for Connor since they were super cheap, and then walked around and had Kura sushi for lunch. It was fun. We exchanged our gifts - we had gotten some dreamcatchers for their family and she had gotten me 4 rolls of 5 yen coins, which was a huge help.

After lunch, we grabbed our bags and headed to our hotel. It was crowded and after checking in, we had our last ramen at a shop near the hotel. It was good, but keep in mind that Connor and I were still sick.

Flying Back Home

So the last day finally came. We had all our luggage and we were ready to go. The night went okay. Since it was a close hotel, I couldn't find a room with 4 beds, so it was 2 Kings. They may have been Queens, but I don't think so as they were quite big. Laura was with Connor and I was with Emmeline. I was against the wall most of the night, so it wasn't bad, but she did try to kick a couple of times.

The shuttle ride to the terminal was fine. We missed the cool 2nd and 3rd floors at Haneda, but oh well. We checked out the business class lounge, but it wasn't as cool as we had hoped. We ate and waited until our boarding. 

Now, the business class seats were...I dunno. Underwhelming. Yes, it was nice to be able to lean back if you wanted, but there was like, too much service on the JAL planes. I don't think I could have ever reclined it flat and went to sleep. I'm glad that we got the opportunity to use it, but it was a different experience than what I had in mind. Connor and Emmeline liked it, though, I think. He got like 2 ice creams and when he tried to do a 3rd, they said something I couldn't understand and said they couldn't, so. I think either they ran out or hit a limit. 

Home

I'm missing a lot of stuff and I'll add things here and there as I remember them, but after we got home, we still had the 3 hour ride back home. We skipped visiting my Mom because 1) we were tired and 2) we were sick. We got home, got Libby, and the next day, I took Connor to the doctor to see if it was strep. He was negative for everything, which I thought was weird and he was embarrassing because he said he felt fine and he wasn't sure why we went. Jerk. I was sick, so I dropped him off and went to urgent care. I was also negative for everything, but my throat was hurting so bad, they gave me antibiotics. For the next couple of days I rested. Finally better, but I don't feel 100% for some reason. I still have a weird sniffle. 

Now, Connor is at a boy scout Summer camp for a week in Colorado. Emmeline has tennis next week, but that's it for now. Taking it easy. I'm so tired and I haven't been rested in a long time. It was a great trip overall. I do miss some things about Japan already, but I also am glad to be back with certain amenities. People were much nicer in Japan, especially retail workers.

Oh, how could I forget. So while I was sick, this crazy windstorm came through OK and the power was out for like 10 hours at our house. That was just long enough to ruin most of the groceries that we got literally the day before. Bummer. We found out that Tulsa was hit way harder and there are still a good chunk of people that are without power there. When this happened, Laura's parents were on their way back from Colorado visiting Ellen. They stopped by here for a night, then went home to assess the situation and then they came back to stay until the power came back for them on Thursday I think. That's a long time. Laura just said that they lost power again for some reason, so that sucks. Laura and Emmeline went to Tulsa today to swim. 

I've got more to write, but I'm tired of writing, so I'll come back maybe tomorrow.

1 Month to Go!

Wow - it's already almost May. That means a couple of things. As of today, we're 1 month away from our Japan trip and school will be entering the last month before Summer. I don't know where the first 4 months of 2023 went, but anyway.

We're finishing up the last few bits of things we need to take care of before our trip. The biggest thing left, both logistically and expense-related, are the JR Pass tickets for each of us. We decided to go with the official JR Pass issuer who is literally the JR train group. This route is a little more expensive but it gives you the ability to reserve shinkansen tickets online, which is a little convenience. I did learn that if you buy from them directly, you don't get vouchers that you then need to take to Japan to exchange for the actual tickets. You can just take your e-mail or whatever and get it at the airport. I think that's good because it's one less thing to manage/lose. I'm still afraid that we're gonna lose a JR ticket or something sometime because I didn't know that they made the change from a little passport-like pass thing to just regular, tiny square pieces of paper that resemble a train ticket. Laura will be managing them at each station because the kids will just lose it and they don't re-issue tickets so we would end up having to pay for all the tickets, which defeats the purpose of the pass.

I think other than that and a couple little website travel registrations for customs and stuff, we're ready to go. We have all the hotels and stays booked and hopefully confirmed. The airline tickets are good still, though I saw that the flight is completely booked. Oh, about that. Alaska Airlines decided to increase points redemption totals for business class a month or so ago without notice. They increased the points required from 60k one-way to 80k, so basically, it would require I think like 80k more points total to even start to try at upgrading to business, which was like an additional $1600. We said no at this point. Plus, I don't think we could have anyway because the flight is full. Anyway, it'll be coach there and business back, which I think is fine. Being able to relax on the way back after we're all tired is better, I think. 

I'm still worried about my ability to talk Japanese there. I haven't used it in so long and I often have trouble trying to find the right words even when just talking to my Mom. 

Other than the fact that the kids have WAY too many things going on at the moment, like 3-5 things each, things are chugging along, though it's getting me a bit stressed. We're literally driving from thing to thing every day and missing some things because of overlap. After a week or two, things die down, but still busy until we get back from Japan. Then Connor has a week-long scout camp or something right after. He's gonna be so tired. 

That's it for now. At this rate, the next blog might be after our trip...