Who knew?

So, the problem with falling behind on posting on your blog is that you end up with all these great stories and photos & no time to present them...in short, a glut of material. I wanted to try to post about Easter and the visits to Moms' and all kinds of things, but I don't think I have time today, so this will have to do: pictures of Dillon's new haircut.

But it's not just an ordinary haircut. Jeffery "Dark Horse" Doss once again proved that, with him, all things are possible; in short, he cut our son's hair for the 1st time on the weekend! I didn't even know he COULD cut hair. I don't think he did either. He was doing his own with the buzzer thingie and Dilly really wanted to get in on the action, so I gave consent (his hair was looking rather straggly). I was very impressed by the clean-cut Pickle that came out of that bathroom. Behold:

I think this pose says it all. Here's lookin at you, kid. All he needs are the finger guns. Kapow! More later.

My Japan

As with most things in life, it's when what we have taken for granted starts to go downhill that we begin to appreciate how much it means to us. I have found this to be true of Japan. I moved away from it and made a whole new life here in the U.S over 10 years ago, and in many ways it's been "out of sight, out of mind." I used to marvel sometimes that I didn't miss it more, having grown up there. But it's sure been on my mind for the past week.

So here it is: I miss Japan. I miss it and cry for it because of the unimaginable suffering of the bereaved and displaced. I know this same sad scenario has played out many times over the past years in different countries, images of people wandering the streets without homes or missing family, and it's always been terrible to see, but this is different. These people feel like my long lost relatives. I lived in small villages by the ocean. Those destroyed houses you see on the news, I stayed in any number of ones just like them all my young life. They are my people too, and I grieve for them and pray for them. And I'm proud of them. I see articles about how no one is looting, how desperate people are still lining up for food & water, patiently; how hundreds of men are basically sacrificing their lives at the nuclear power plants to try and save everyone else, and I think, yes, those are my people too, I'm proud to say that I was born there.

May my family there be safe and fed and warm, may everyone else be as well, and may God be with those who lost so much. And mostly, may it all end well and heal, not least so that I can take my little family back to the place that gave me so much and show them all about where Mommy came from.

I am posting a poem that I wrote long ago, while I still lived there, about Japan. (Thanks, Nikki, for digging it up for me!) It's poor poetry, but I happen to like this one almost best of all, because I said what I came to say in it. If you don't speak Japanese and want to know what the weird words mean, I included a glossary at the bottom. Enjoy.

My Japan:

Weeping willow, tall and fair
Woodland fern, and maidenhair.
Aged Bonsai, twisted limb
Greenest bud on newest stem;

Orange skies at close of day,
Semis sing the night away.
Morning glories, fading fast
Small blue buds and spider grass.

Bamboo forest, small and proud
Long brown leaves, strewn on the ground.
Little sisters run & chase;
Grass stained shorts, a purple face.
Swinging high, swinging low
This is the way the summers go.

I see the moon, the moon sees me;
Homeward walk, outlined tree;
Birthday candles, hanabi,
Cool yukata, matsuri.

Glowing lanterns, strung on high,
Dancing platforms tower by.
Catch a goldfish; catch him twice;
Pink and green and yellow ice.

"Gaijin da!" "This is a pen";
Ice-cream for a hundred yen.
Kiokabe, stifling heat,
Tickling fan and crispy sheet.

Yellow nightlight, shoji door,
Bean bag pillow on the floor.
Now I lay me down to sleep,
True contentment, joy complete.
Father singing sweet and low,
This is the way the summers go.

Glossary for those who don't speak Japanese:

Semis: cicadas

Hanabi: fireworks

Yukata: summer kimono

Matsuri: festival

"Gaijin da!": "It's a foreigner"

Kiyokabe: traditional wall covering in older Japanese homes

Shoji doors: rice paper doors

Both sides of the coin

So, today is V day. I know it's not cool to like it, and everyone goes on and on about how it's just canned sentiment and romance commercialized, big bucks for the florists and Hallmark, a money-maker in the cold months for the restaurants, etc. And I'm sure it's all true. I kinda feel two ways about the holiday: on the one hand, I dislike anything forced when it comes to romance or love. (Jeff will joyfully confirm this.) I don't like being told when I should feel loving toward my other half, or when we should celebrate our love. What if you had a big ugly fight on the night of Feb. 13th? (we didn't). (but still). What if you want to make May 4th your big celebration of love? Or whatever. So that's on the one hand.

But I think, in support of it, that sometimes, as busy as we all get, it's nice to have a day that takes you by the hand and sits you down and smacks you in the face with sentiment and chocolate. It's a day that makes you really parse out your feelings for your significant other, and maybe makes you appreciate him/her a little more than you usually do. Maybe it's a good thing to schedule in some amore, especially because there's really precious little time for it the rest of the year. You know? I find that when I'm writing in the card, or planning the dinner we're having, it's a good reminder of what my husband means to me...makes me tap into & express the things that just become passing, unexpressed thoughts all too often.

So Happy Valentines Day to all of you. Everyone can celebrate it, because we all have people that we love.
In closing, here is something for you, Jeffery Doss: a picture that I love of us, which I was trying to print out & give to you as a gift. The #$()*&@%^# printer won't print the thing, so I am reduced to posting it here, with all my love.

The Snow Day

We got SNOW! FINALLY! We've been having below zero weather for days now...it's gotten down to about 4 or 5 degrees at night sometimes, which for those in Japan is about -15...anyway, we finally got snow!! I was so excited that I stayed way up past my usual bed time just watching it. I felt like the snow sentinel...if I watched it, it wouldn't stop snowing and we would have a nice little blanket of snow in the A.M. And we did!! I took the kids out to play in it, and they had a pretty good time. Then Noah started throwing snowballs at Dilly, who immediately began screaming because snow got on him, and then Zoe started crying because her hands were cold (you know, that painful cold that you get when you've been in snow), so I took her in. Then Dilly was crying about his hands too, and they both screamed merrily in the house for about 10 minutes straight. It was quite humourous and I laughed.
Anyway, enough about my stress free life and wonderful children; here are the pictures (mobile uploads) that Jeff sent home. Alas, I have no camera to record the winter wonderland, because my dear husband took my van to work this A.M with cameras inside. Oh well.
Enjoy!