Jamie's art projects

Jamie loves to write and draw. Here are two of his creations:

This is a picture of Bruce the shark from Finding Nemo (he has the stuffed animal):

This is a sign he made for his toy shelf, he taped it to the top:

It reads "This is Jamie's shelf and Abby's too. I love this shelf very very very much so I want to kiss it."

Voluntary Evacuation

This story begins on March 16th, very late in the evening. Because of the worsening nuclear crises in Japan, US Naval Base Yokosuka issued a voluntary evacuation of dependents. This means that you could go if you wanted to, but did not have to. However, since it was also decided that Chad would be leaving with the ship in a few days, I could not stay there alone with the kids (nor did I want to). So I called United and changed all our flights to Friday March 18th. United did this free of charge. They also refunded my brother's ticket that had been scheduled for the next week. And since we would have to leave fairly early to get to the airport on Friday, that gave me one day to pack up an entire apartment that we had lived in for 2 1/2 months. Not fun. The fear of traveling alone with the kids under such circumstances managed to give me travel's stomach instantly and I was popping antacid pills all the next day. I didn't sleep well that night and was very tired as I packed and packed and packed all the next day. Things were prioritized into high, medium and low priority. I would take two bags with me to the airport as long as I didn't have to take the train alone. That left two mightily heavy suitcases for Chad to carry with him onto the ship and his backpack for his own personal belongings. Everything else in the apartment was either left or tossed out. Some items were placed in a friend's apartment in hopes that all our stuff may be there should we return someday (things for the apartment like mattress topper, toaster oven, etc.). Chad also had to make a run to the library to return some books we had checked out. Thankfully a friend with a car helped him do that at the last minute.
So back to me leaving. Thankfully there were several moms and their kids leaving on the same day and even on the same flight as me. The two that I traveled with were Tish and Kelli, and I honestly don't know if I could have made it without them. A bus had been arranged for us to take us from the base to the airport since none of the guys could get any time off to accompany us on the train. The bus was a huge blessing as it had a space for our luggage and dropped us off right at Terminal 2. Tristan even took a short nap as a bonus. Once we got to the airport we were a bit confused as to when and where we should check-in and we walked all the way to one end and back (5 kids, 3 moms and plenty of bags). We found out that we couldn't check in for at least another 2 hours so we found a place on the floor and let the kids play while we took turns watching them.









After 2 hours we found the end of our very long line and began our slow walk to the front. Now, that morning as I was getting ready, completely overwhelmed and with tears in my eyes, said a prayer "please God, just show me to today that you love me". Now normally I wouldn't offer up such desperate cries, but it truly felt like a desperate situation with such an enormous task at hand. Back to the line. We had not moved all that far when a United attendant grabs us out of line (those with young children) and checks us in at Business class. No line at all. And as Kelli said "God must be shining down on us", I knew that he truly was.
After checking in we needed lunch and the kids proclaimed McDonalds which sounded easy so that's where we went. The McDonald's menu was extremely limited with only 6 or so sandwiches, fries and drinks to choose from. All tables were taken so we once again situated ourselves on the floor and ate our lunch, which really wasn't that bad for McDonalds. Tristan ate his lunch out of his feeding trough bib (it has such a large pocket that I just put the food in there and he grabs it out and eats it)! Once lunch was finished it was time to go through security. The security lines were running so smoothly that we made it through in about 30 minutes, and we didn't even have to take our shoes off! After arriving at our gate, we still had another 2 hours until we could even board the plane so the kids made themselves comfy (this time in chairs!) and the moms took turns shopping and using the bathroom. I had fun buying some souvenirs and Tristan took another bonus nap in the stroller. I saw many areas of the airport that had caution tape around them because of damage from the earthquake.
Well, we finally made our way onto the airplane and settled in. Tristan decided to poop his pants shortly after takeoff and I unfortunately had to wait to change my squirmy baby until after the fasten seat belt signs were turned off. He happily played in front of me and Abby and Jamie for awhile. Now the only bad part of our trip was the guy in front of me who after the first hour or two turns around and says "can you please stop pushing on my seat?" (in a not very nice way). Now I honestly didn't know what to say. How could this man be unhappy with my non-crying baby? I told him that "he's just playing, if I hold him in my lap he'd just cry", because he wasn't even pushing on the seat or kicking it or anything, he was simply walking in front of my legs brushing up against the seat. The man replied "I don't know what to tell you". And I felt like saying I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU! How could this man not realize that the whole plane was filled with women and children, 18 lap infants and several small children too. I don't know if I saw any dads! Everyone was doing their best so I all could resolve to say was "I'll try". I certainly didn't want to make a scene but there's no way I could promise to keep my infant still for 8.5 hours either! But thankfully shortly after that, dinner was served and Tristan ate most of Abby's and I somehow managed to eat mine without him getting it (I don't think I chewed). We took some walks around the plane and I had to change another dirty diaper and put him in jammies but then once dinner was cleaned up, I made him a bottle and he actually fell asleep! Which was SO much better than our flight over there. His naps throughout the day helped him not be too tired and besides that I didn't give him any benadryl which seems to have an opposite effect on at least Jamie and Tristan. Tristan slept for about 5 hours. Sometimes he'd wake up and I'd have to walk and rock him a bit but he always went back to sleep. Abby ended up falling asleep too after she finished watching Rapunzel. Jamie's DS ran out of batteries since he had played all day in the airport. I thought about giving him mine but told him to try and get some sleep instead and he did. At one point Abby woke up and started in on one of her middle-of-night-completely-irrational-screaming-and-kicking fits. Tish took Tristan for awhile so I could take her into the bathroom, get some jammies on her, and bring her back to reality. I made her seat cozy with a blanket and pillow and she fell back to sleep. Both Jamie and Abby, at separate times, ended up sleeping while kneeling on the floor with their head on the seat. At one point I put Tristan on the floor and snapped a few pictures.



I was hoping Tristan would stay asleep on the floor but apparently it's not as comfortable as his mom and he woke up within 5-10 minutes. My kids slept through breakfast and on Chad's advice I did not eat mine (he says it always makes him nauseous shortly after landing), which kinda makes sense since it feels like it's the middle of night for you. Everyone did end up waking up about an hour from landing. Tish held Tristan again for me while I filled out the customs forms and packed up our bags. Once we landed the people across from us said the kids did pretty good considering and commented that "I had my hands full", yes, quite literally as I slung bag over bag over bag over shoulder to get off the plane with baby on one hip. Twelve strollers had been checked in at the gate so we all had to line up and wait ours. Customs went smoothly and we were finally allowed to go home! My dad picked us up in our van and he drove us to a home that had only been ours for a mere 5 weeks before we left. The kids remembered it well and were quite content with exploring it and all their long lost toys. I walked around like a zombie considering I had been awake at that point for over 24 hours. My dad stayed so that I could get some sleep and my mom came over after work to help out too. My dad picked us up some pizza for dinner and then I went to bed again while my mom played with the kids and then put them to bed too (but wisely kept them up until their proper bedtime). Tristan awoke a few times and I had to give him an extra bottle in the middle of the night. Abby woke up too and at 2 am we ate pizza and chocolate together (after all, it was dinner time back in Japan). After that everyone adjusted quite quickly, back to normal within another few days.
In recap, I just have to say that everything went much better than I expected. At nearly every step of the way I was pleasantly surprised. But the emotional toll that the last few weeks have took on me has been enormous, from the earthquakes to the tsunami warning, to evacuating and now being apart from Chad is all really hard. I still have many happy memories and pictures from Japan to blog about and hopefully I'll feel up to it soon.

What we did the day of the earthquake

What we did the day of the earthquake:

rode the ferry to Monkey Island


The dock at Monkey Island
{up-close: you can see how high the dock is, there is no railing where you get on the boat and you have to step way down}
we played in the sand
found a rock (a monkey-skull according to Jamie)
took a hike thru the old fort

came to the end of the trail
Laura took the older kids down the stairs
while I watched the babes-a-sleeping

and then we returned to the boat and caught the ferry back at 2:45pm.

The earthquake hit at 2:47pm. And you know the rest of the story.

Plum blossom festival week 3

This was the 3rd week that the plum trees were in bloom. Normally, there would have been a festival going on, but it was canceled due to the earthquake that happened 2 days prior. There were still a few people in the park, and we had a picnic and a nice walk. It was a beautiful day but there was a sadness that permeated the air.




Jamie mastered the zipline:






Tristan loves potato chips:




The hills were lined with plum trees in full bloom:

Japan Earthquake

This is the note I posted on my facebook page:

Actually, my story isn't even about the earthquake, because honestly, I didn't even feel it (but more about that in a minute...)

I'll start by saying that the kids and I were originally planning on being in Yokohama Friday at a zoo there. Yokohama is a fairly long train ride away and NOT within walking distance. My friend, Laura, and I had planned all week long to take our kids there on Friday. However, on Thursday, I suddenly decided that I did not want to take the time to go all the Yokohama the next day. And so we didn't. I assure you that if we had, we would have been stranded there at least overnight.

Instead we decided to do something fairly close-by. We went to Mikasa park for a picnic lunch and then took a short 10-minute ferry ride to Monkey Island where the kids played on the beach and we took a small walk on a trail through the island. Laura's daughter started to feel sick so we decided to take the next ferry, which was at 2:45. Minutes before the quake hit we were standing on a dock a fair ways above the water, no railing, 2 strollers, 5 kids.

The quake officially hit at 2:46pm. We were completely oblivious to it on the ferry. I didn't notice anything wrong and we wouldn't have even known that there was an earthquake except that someone told us to check tsunami warnings in our area as we got off the boat. Really? We were thinking it was just another small one like we've felt several times here during our stay in Japan and she was being overly cautious. Nobody else seemed concerned.

We started our walk to the train station but I said good-bye to Laura and her kids at the Daiei so that I could pick up some groceries. We took about 20-30 minutes to get some stuff and use the bathroom. Abby was really tired so I put Tristan in the ergo and Abby rode in the stroller. On our walk to the train station I realized that not everything was normal. There was a police car that went by with it's lights on and was giving a message over it's speaker, but it was all in Japanese. I also saw a navy ship suddenly pull away from the pier. Nearer to the train station, there was a huge line for people waiting for taxis. As I got into the station I noticed it had been closed. Not speaking Japanese, I had to wait to talk to someone at the station. He could really only tell me that the bus and trains had been shut down. Soon somebody came over to help translate and I learned that it was due a possible tsunami warning and that we needed to leave. But nobody really told me where to go and everyone seemed to be going in different directions so I went over to the bus terminal and the guy there asked me where I lived. I told him Taura. He explained to me that it was 3 km away and told me how to walk there. I didn't know how to ask him if it was safe so I got out my ipod and used my translator to show him the word for safe. He gave me the "okay" sign for Taura.

So we started to walk home along highway 16 but I was still a bit concerned because the highway is still at a fairly low elevation. I knew that if we could make it home that we would be safe in our 5th floor apartment. We were walking quite fast but at about halfway back I started to hear sirens over the public loudspeaker. It was soon followed by a message in Japanese AND English. "This is a tsunami warning, please move to higher ground." Well, seeing that I had no one to consult about what to do, and not knowing how imminent this warning to a possible tsunami was, I did the only thing that I felt was sensible - head UPHILL. And wouldn't you know, just after the message was broadcast, not more than 20 ft in front me was a sign (in English) "Tsunami Evacuation Route". So that is where we headed. The sign said to go to a certain Elementary school, so we were headed uphill, looking for this school. I'm not sure exactly, but I'm guessing that the evacuation warnings started going off at about the time the major tsunami hit north and the water in Yokosuka bay receded significantly.

After about 5-10 minutes we approached an intersection and a woman gets my attention "Hello! How are you?" Do I know this person? I realize, that no, I do not, she simply sees that I'm frantically trying to get myself and 3 small children to higher ground, and that I'm obviously not Japanese. It turns out that her husband works on base as well. She had also heard the evacuation warning and was wondering what to do. I tell her that it said to go to a school and she tells me that the school is right here, across the street and her house is right here too, on the other side of street. She and her son were taking their dog for a walk anyways and figured they might as well go farther uphill. She said there was a park and playground up there so we joined forces and went there together. We stayed until about 5 when it was starting to get cold and dark. We heard another evacuation warning and figured it probably was not safe to go back to the highway yet but since her house was near the evacuation meeting point, why not go there?

We went back to her house and she put a movie on for the kids and got us something to drink and then we went about trying to figure out what to do. Cell phone service had been down since just after the quake happened. We learned that she still had internet access so I quickly updated my facebook status and contacted Chad, who was still at work waiting to hear from me. He told me that the water had gone down below normal levels and then had risen again and gone out a second time but not as much. They had made him stay on the ship but were letting him go soon and said that it should be safe for me to return home. My new-found friend graciously offered to give us all a ride in her car because I still wasn't sure how much farther it was to the apartment. It was stop-and-go traffic but it didn't take us too long and we were so ecstatic to be home.

Not much fell over except a plant and a sippy cup that was probably on the edge of the counter. I noticed a small crack in the wall today but nothing major. And although there was never a tsunami wave to hit Yokosuka bay, I don't regret my over-cautiousness. It's really unbelievable to see the destruction that has happened to an area that's really not that far away from us. The trains are still down and there continues to be aftershocks. The last major one I felt was at 4:45 and 5:10 this morning (*update - there was just another one at 3:58pm). Aside from all that, I'm kinda in a state of shock myself and anytime I try to tell my story I start to cry because I remember once again how scared I was.

I thank God for his orchestration of timing and events throughout the day that kept us safe - our safety on the dock and on the boat, the woman who helped translate at the station, to the tsunami evacuation route signs and the perfectly placed American woman on the street. I know that there has been a significant loss of life and surely there will be those who wonder how God can even let this happen. Nature is nature and he if he didn't let anything ever happen then nothing would ever happen! I continue to keep those affected in my thoughts and prayers.