Facing East

Lake of the Ozarks

2008-12-13T15:07:00.006-07:00

The last weekend of September we went to the Lake of the Ozarks with my brother, Dwain, his wife, Jennifer, and their son, TJ. Jen's mom has a condo on the lake, and they were kind enough to invite us for a 3-day weekend with them. We had a blast!! It was by far one of the best vacations we have ever had. We didn't "do" a whole lot, but it was sooooooo nice to sit on the screened-in deck overlooking the lake, read a book, play Guitar Hero, and just generally relax.

Lily and TJ had a lot of fun playing together. They loved to get into the kitchen cabinets and crawl around, opening and shutting doors and spinning around on the lazy susan. They were hilarious.

We did do one touristy thing. We went to HaHaTonka State Park and saw the castle up there. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch outside, and drove around the lake and did a little sight-seeing. It's so pretty there.

On our last day, Koichi and I went to Bridal Cave and took a cave tour. It was really neat. I'm glad I don't suffer from clausterphobia because there were some pretty tight squeezes through the tour. We even got to see a bat hanging from the ceiling. The ceiling where he was hanging from is only about 5 1/2 feet tall, so we had to duck under the bat. Pretty cool.

Koichi's Birthday Surprise

2008-12-13T14:43:00.005-07:00

Koichi turned 40 this year. I wanted to surprise him, even though I know he really doesn't like to be surprised. I came up with 2 things I wanted to do for him.

First, I wanted to give him a birthday present that would be very meaningful. I wanted to be able to include all of the friends that he cares about, but never is able to see. At first I thought I would try to put together a signature quilt, but then reality set in and I knew I would never be able to get that put together before the end of the century. So, I decided to make a birthday scrapbook for him.

I dug out his address book and sent blank scrapbook pages to nearly 100 different people from all over the world. Over half sent something back. I was able to keep it all a secret by having the pages sent back to me via my parents' house. It was awesome to see the stacks of pages coming back week after week.

When I finally gave Koichi his present, he was completely floored. He said it was his best present ever, and he's spent hours looking through it and reading all the messages from his friends all over the world. I'm so glad I thought of it, and was able to actually get it accomplished by his birthday.

The weekend of his birthday I wanted to surprise him with a party with my family. Koichi gets really shy about some things, including his birthday, but since it was his 40th it seemed like he needed to be celebrated. So on Sunday after he took a nap, I got him up and told him we were going to take Lily to the zoo. We'd been planning on going to the zoo for a few weeks, and that was the perfect day. We started driving to Independence, and luckily for me Koichi has no idea where the zoo is, because he didn't become suspicous until we drove to my brother, Dustin's, house. When we pulled in the driveway I told him I had to drop something off for my brother and his wife, since it was so close to the zoo (wink, wink) and he came inside with me to find most of my family there shouting "surprise!"

Surprise #2 worked equally as well, and Koichi had a great time turning 40.

Trip to Kirksville

2008-10-18T12:35:00.008-07:00

This summer Koichi, Lily and I traveled up to Kirksville, MO to go to my 10 year college reunion at the Baptist Student Union. I was really lucky to have the BSU during my 4 years at Truman, and I made a lot of great friends (some who never ever left!). It was so much fun to go up to the 'ville and see everyone. Here are the people who were able to come with their families. We had a picnic brunch at Thousand Hills State Park. It was hot and humid, but still a lot of fun.

The BSU sure has changed a lot since I was there. In fact, the old BSU building was completely remodeled. Here's me and Lily standing out front.

The night that we got to Kirksville we had a "coffee house" at the BSU. One of the best parts was that we were able to make a Skype internet call to Heather, one of my very best friends, in Japan. It was really cool to be able to see and talk to her. I haven't seen her since last Christmas break, and I'm not likely to see her again until April of 2009 when (I think) she's planning on coming back to the States for good. Doesn't she look awesome!?!

On the way to Kirksville we took a sidetrip to Jamesport to have some lunch, do some shopping, and check out the local Amish grocery stores. We ate a Mennonite buffet that was sooooo yummy. All the little women in their prayer kaps were oohing and ahhing over Lily while we were there.

Lily's First Work of Art

2008-07-11T20:05:00.003-07:00

Someday I'm sure this will be worth millions.

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-11T19:43:00.004-07:00

Well, it was another holiday which means, eating. Lots and lots of eating. So I got to tie on my apron strings and do some cooking and baking.

Since Koichi was not going to be able to come to Independence Day dinner at my parents' house, I made a special Red, White & Blue breakfast for him.

Check out the blueberry pancakes with sliced strawberries and bananas with lemon-flavored syrup. Yep, all home-made my friends.

Then, at my parents' house we had yummy BBQ'd brats and burgers. For desert I made another Red, White & Blue delicacy: blueberry & raspberry pie with vanilla ice cream. Boy, did it hit the spot! My aunt, Cheryl, even said it made the top-10 pies of all time that she's eaten. It was pretty good!

Mmmmmmmm.....pie.

Green Thumb

2008-06-30T12:53:00.008-07:00

I'm trying to learn the fine art of gardening. I figured I'd throw some plants in some dirt and see if they do anything. Well, they did! Thanks to the help of Miracle Grow probably. I've had fun playing with flowers and planting some veggies and herbs. I've become a fan of the container gardening.

I love pulling up to the house and seeing my flowers outside on the steps. They make me smile.

I tried to get creative with my containers. This chair is my favorite! I found it at an antique store, and put an enamelware bowl in it and filled it with pretty pink petunias.

Out on the patio in the back, I planted a little veggie garden, thanks to donations from my Aunt Cheryl. She donated the black fish pond that is being used as the container, as well as the rocks I put in the bottom for drainage, and all of the plants. We've got 4 tomato plants and 2 eggplant plants growing hog wild in there. I also have 2 bell pepper plants in there, but they've not done much.

Here's a tiny eggplant just peeking through!

Lily's Laund-O-Rama

2008-06-30T12:04:00.007-07:00

Lily was so excited to help Mommy with the laundry the other night. She was such a big help! If by "help" one means "helper of the big mess making."

Here's Lily in mid throw.

She's already willing to throw in the towel, it seems.

Checking for any stains the Shout it Out might have missed.

Lily has her own ideas about pressing the laundry. With her car.

Here's a little video of Lily romping around in the laundry having the best time of her life. I think it needs a really good B-Movie title, like "Attack of the Laundry! -- It's come to clean you!"

Lily Learns the Fine Delicacy of Using Cutlery

2008-06-30T11:46:00.006-07:00

Lily is becoming such a big girl! She is getting to use a fork and spoon for
most of her meals now.

Here she is deftly using a spoon at breakfast to dine on gourmet yogurt.

Notice how careful she has been to get an even coverage of yogurt all over her face. Keeps the skin soft and supple.

Lily decides that the spoon is actually hindering her application of yogurt to her face, so she goes for her fingers instead.

Seeing that this procedure is also taking too long, Lily goes straight to the source.

Crafting Bug

2008-06-17T22:42:00.007-07:00

Ahhhh summer vacation. I love it.

I'm using my vacation time to try and get caught up on all the crafting and decorating I've been neglecting to do this past year. With work and Lily, there wasn't enough time or energy to do much crafting during the school year. Even now that I'm free it isn't always easy because most of my time is spent taking care of Lily. But when she's napping, I try to get busy.

Here is what I made today. Curtains! Well, one curtain.

I know you're thinking those look a little short, but actually I did that on purpose. With a curious one-year-old pulling and grabbing everything in sight, I wanted to make them short enough to be out of her reach.

I've been wanting to decorate Lily's room for a looooong time, and one of the things I've really wanted to do was make some curtains for her window. I had this lacy fabric in my stash, as well as the rose trim I used on the bottom. The blue blocks were bought at an antique mall for $5 a piece, the flowers were hot-glued onto the hardware ($2 each from a scrapbooking store), and the curtain rod is from Wal-Mart ($7). I'm going for the shabby chic look.

I'm so excited. My mom is going to babysit Lily tomorrow (well, today now that I look at the clock) for a few hours and I'm going to use that time to do some more crafting and decorating. Woo hoo!

Here are some other things I've made in the past. I can't wait to let the crafting bug bite!

The Tsukioka Family Becomes Orthodox!

2008-06-17T21:12:00.008-07:00

Well, we finally did it! After nearly 3 years of attending the Orthodox Christian Church, we finally took the plunge (literally for Lily) and converted. This past Saturday Lily was baptized at St. James Brother of Our Lord Orthodox Church in Gladstone, MO, and on Sunday morning before Divine Liturgy, Lily, Koichi and I were all chrismated and received into the fullness of the faith of the Orthodox Church. I first started attending the Orthodox church at St.s Constantine and Helen's Orthodox Church in Colorado Springs, and since November of 2005 I have been a catechumen, preparing to enter the Church. Last spring, after Lily was born, I had planned on joining the Church with Lily, and then Koichi asked us to wait for him. So now a year later, we've all become Orthodox together. It's been a crazy ride, but I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Here are some pics of Lily's baptism.

First, I get her all naked and hand her over to the priest, Father Gregory.

Then Father Gregory and his deacon, David, take her over to the baptismal font (in this case a bucket placed on the icon stand) for dunkin'.

Lily is placed into the font where she is supposed to be immersed three times. However, short bucket plus tall baby equals this...

Seeing that Lily isn't going to be dunked anytime soon, Father Gregory instead laps the blessed water over Lily's head three times.

Pretty unorthodox for an Orthodox baptism!

Afterwards we all go to the parish hall for some cake and goodies.

Our good friend, Kathy, who helped us immensely as we prepared for joining the Church over the past few months, gave us this icon of Christ.

When a person becomes Orthodox, they choose a patron saint. Here are our patron saints.

Koichi's patron saint is St. Nicholas of Japan. (He was actually Russian, not Japanese.)

My patron saint is St. Mary of Egypt.

Lily's patron saint is St. Elizabeth the New Martyr, Grand Duchess of Moscow.

Summer Lovin!

2008-06-17T20:52:00.008-07:00

Lily looooooves playing in water. We took to a park in northtown that has a neat little fountain shooting up out of the ground. She had so much fun. We went back again last week with our good friend, Grace, and her son, Nathan. Too many good times playing outside at the park. When Lily's daddy is sleeping during the day, it's a great way to get out of the house and still stay cool.

Today we put up a blow-up froggie wading pool for Lily to splash around in. I was glad to use our electric air pump that Koichi bought for me to use when I pump up my exercise ball for working out. Needless to say, the pump hasn't been used that much. It did a great job of inflating the froggie for Lily to play in. It had a place to attach the garden hose and spray out water. Lily liked that the best.

Finally, a post!

2008-06-17T20:45:00.002-07:00

I've been getting a little bit of grief because it's been over a month since I've updated my blog. So, here I have some time before I go to bed, I've uploaded my pictures to my computer, and I feel like sharing. All good things to help me be a better blogger.

So here I go, watch out!

1st Birthday

2008-04-24T20:09:00.012-07:00

On April 6th, we celebrated Lily's birthday with a big party and lots of friends and family. All of Lily's cousins were there to help her have fun.

No, she's not bleeding. The cake had a layer of strawberry goo in it. Turns out it looks a lot like a bloody mess when a baby smears it on her face.

Lily gets hooped-up on a sugar high from her very first drink of punch. That glass was full when she started....okay, not really.

Lily's distracted by a balloon while her cousins Abby and T.J. check out some rocking toys from the church nursery.

Not only does Lily remain transfixed by the awesomeness of the balloon, but now she's recruited cousins T.J. and Wesley into her little cult.

There are few people as accomplished at lounging and shooting the bull as Lily's uncles. They're pros. Pros who whined for goodie bags of their own when they found out hacky sacks were inside for the kids.

Looks like everyone's having a jammin time! Hey, check out the decor...very nice!

I finally get ahold of my little rug rat.

Check out Lily's haul!

Lily had sooooooooo much fun at her party. It was so much fun to get to play with all the cousins and have the attention of all her aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends. She was tuckered out for a couple days afterwards. It was even difficult to stay awake for dinner that night.

2008-04-08T20:34:00.002-07:00

It happens every night around eight o'clock. Lily has finished her dinner. She's been cleaned up and has slurped every last drop from an 8 ounce bottle of milk while I've changed her diaper and have managed to wrangle chubby arms and legs into uncooperative pajamas. Then I pick her up, plop my tired body into the rocking chair and wait for that divine moment.

Most nights she fights it. Quite literally. She bangs on my chest, pulls my hair, sheds tears of frustration, anything to distance herself from the ever approaching quiet of sleep. Every few nights she succombs peacefully though. Finishing the last dregs of her bottle she thrusts it away and plops her tender head against my chest, slowly closing her eyes as I sing lullabyes and prayers softly in the dark.

I feel the heaviness of her sleeping body in my arms, and her warmth as she lays on me. That's the divine moment when I feel the absolute love of God wash over me and I say to myself, This is what His love towards us feels like. This nightly ritual reminds me that I am the child resting in my Father's arms. And though I rage and fight against Him, though I sometimes beat Him with my fists and cry bitter tears, I can't help but finally succomb to His all-encompassing love. And in the bosom of the God most high I rest my head and am washed in his love as He holds onto me.

THE MANY FACES OF LILY

2008-03-25T20:40:00.009-07:00

Happy Lily

Multi-tasking Lily

Muffin-top Lily

Peek-a-boo Lily

Cute as a Button Lily

Scrunched-up Nose Lily

Acrobatic Lily

Pouty Lily

Play Date

2008-03-08T07:51:00.005-07:00

Last Sunday while her daddy was sleeping, Lily and I went over to my brother, Dwain's house to meet the extended fam. for a BBQ. Lots of good food (yummy pineapply brauts), lots of great people, and lots and lots of kids. With all the cousins, there were 5 little ones running around all over the place. It was a lot of fun.

Here's Lily and some of her "peeps"

Lily and her cousin-in-law, Wes, "play" with blocks. There was actually more taking away of the toys going on than actual cooperative playing. Everybody's still working on the concept of sharing.

Wes and T.J. read a book with Dwain (T.J.'s daddy).

Lily's cousin, Abby, watches all the fun from the safety of the couch.

Lily chills on the patio with Uncle Dwain and a formula-rita, perfect for a BBQ.

Lily also gets to sit on some grass for the first time this year. The last time she was on grass was last summer, and she was still working on sitting up and grasping objects. This time she was able to interact a lot more with it.

She's growing up so fast!

2008-01-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was finally trying to put some decorations in Lily's room and make it look more cute and adorable. Right now it's just the room where she sleeps and where we change her diapers. It's pretty drab. Some of the decorations we have are picture frames, and one in particular holds photos throughout Lily's first year.

Here's Lily's first year so far...

SEVEN DAYS OLD

ONE MONTH OLD

TWO MONTHS OLD

THREE MONTHS OLD

FOUR MONTHS OLD

FIVE MONTHS OLD

SIX MONTHS OLD

SEVEN MONTHS OLD

EIGHT MONTHS OLD

NINE MONTHS OLD

Nine full months of adorable. What a cutie pie!!!

Lily learns to crawl, but mostly to stand

2007-11-18T23:44:00.000-07:00

Lily's first solid food.

2007-11-18T23:34:00.001-07:00

Yummy! Yummy! Organic brown rice cereal is just sooooooooo good!

Silly Lily!

2007-11-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

Just so you know, I had nothing to do with this...

Daddy's Girl

2007-11-18T23:13:00.000-07:00

Koichi and Lily are great buddies. They love spending time together hanging out...

A little bit of chillin'

A little bit of illin'

A Couple of Firsts

2007-11-18T22:52:00.001-07:00

Before Lily could crawl, she had to meet the milestone of sitting up unassisted. It was quite a process getting there. She was like a Weeble, except she kept falling down. She finally got it though, and her balance keeps getting better and better.

Here's her first sitting experiences...

First, trying to get her to sit upright

Then, attempting to let go

To help strengthen her back muscles we bought this neat little seat to help her sit up.

She sometimes got bored of it.

Another first experience...

Taking a shower!

Koichi scrubs her down in the bathtub.

Yes, I actually DO realize what a loser I am...

2007-11-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

just in case you were wondering. I would apologize for not posting for eaons, but since I will probably be apologizing again in the future for the next time I don't post for months and months, I'll just wait until then.

Ok, so lots has happened in the several months since I last posted. Lily has practically doubled in size. Her Japanese grandparents had to cancel their trip to the US because of health issues. Lily started crawling, and immediately pulling herself up to standing so she could practice falling down and bumping her head. Halloween happened with all its costumey cuteness. And Lily has now gained 2 cousins! It's been a busy few months.

Since the whole reason I have this blog anymore is to post pictures of Lily, I'd better get to it. Luckily our handy-dandy camera holds lots of pictures, so I have some from waaaaaaaaay back in August. Let's start there....

This August, Lily met her first cousin, Abby. Abby is my younger brother, Dustin, and his wife, Natasha's daughter. She's a cutie! Here are some pictures from Abby's birthday.

Here's Abby getting her first taste of some yummy formula.

Abby meets her Grammy for the first time.

Abby and PaPa bond.

On the Catwalk

2007-09-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

Lily began her modeling career yesterday at Sears Portrait Studio. We had too much fun with her. Even the photographer was having a good time playing with Lily and getting her into some really cute poses. Here are some of the photos we got to take home. We bought the CD with the copywrite release so we actually are able to print these photos wherever we want.

Long Time Coming

2007-07-31T08:43:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't blogged for a very long time, but I've been busy, people. Since my last entry we've packed up our house in Colorado Springs, been from there to Kansas City twice, put 600 miles on our car just searching for a home in K.C., packed up a U-Haul with the help of 2 very good friends (thank you Diane and Tracy!) and are finally here in Kansas City.

(No, I'm not pulling a Brittany Spears and driving with Lily in my arms. We pulled over at a gas station on our way back to Colorado Springs to feed her and here I am easing out a big burp.)

(It wasn't always easy driving with a baby and dog in the car, especially at feeding time, but they did pretty well with each other. I never once had to say "I'll pull this car right over if you don't stop bickering!")

I think Lily is really happy to be here. She sure does get a lot of love and attention from her grandparents, aunts and uncles. And Koichi and I sure like the free babysitting that we sometimes get too.

Lily is getting pretty big now. I'm not sure exactly how much she weighs, but it's probably close to 13 or 14 pounds. She is rolling over, turning around by wiggling while laying down, grabbing objects and putting them inevidably in her mouth, giggling, smiling, cooing, squeeling, and pretty much stealing the hearts of everyone who lays eyes on her.

Lily's Aunt Jen and Uncle Dwain did her and us a great big favor by purchasing a bouncer for her. She loves it because she can stand up in it and bounce (she still is not a fan of lying down for long periods of time), and I love it because I can have 30 minutes free to myself when she's playing in it.

Now that we're here in Kansas City, the search is on for a job for me. Koichi started his job at Wal-Mart last night, and though he pretty much went straight to bed after he got home this morning, I think he likes it. I haven't found a job quite yet. I've applied for several, but am still waiting to hear back from some districts. Yesterday I had an interview for a long-term subbing position in a very desirable district, and that could get my foot in the door, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for something more stable than subbing. I know something is out there, just gotta find it.

11 lbs 4.5 oz of pure joy

2007-06-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

Lily is just too sweet! It's hard to get anything done because I want to play with her all the time.

Here's what she's doing right now...

Taking a nap with her daddy!

Here's some other good pics of Lily that we've taken recently...

Grammy and Pa Pa come to town!

2007-06-11T16:46:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Lily's American grandma and grandpa came to see their granddaughter for the first time. I think they were pretty smitten with her. My mom did pretty well with having one arm in a cast, but my dad didn't seem to mind getting extra time to hold Lily and give her a feeding or two. We'll all be reunited next week when the Tsukioka fam heads to Kansas City to do some apartment hunting. Hopefully we'll be there for Koichi's first Father's Day!

No More Oxygen!!!

2007-05-31T21:10:00.001-07:00

She's off! She's off!

Her doctor called this morning and said the last oxygen saturation test we did on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning looked fantastic and that she no longer needs the oxygen. Woo hoo! We took the tube off this morning and did a little dance as we threw it in the garbage. It's nice to see Lily's face without something stuck to it.

I think Lily is pretty happy to say goodbye to the oxygen too!

She's Just Too Cute!

2007-05-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

Lily is just about the cutest baby I've ever seen. True, I'm biased, but after looking at these pictures you're bound to agree with me!

Cruising Around the Springs

2007-05-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago Lily's Uncle Dwain and Aunt Jennifer came to visit her. We all had a great time playing with Lily and taking her out on the town. Here are some pics...

Uncle Dwain and Aunt Jen were really excited to meet Lily. She was pretty excited to meet them, too. She even made a special surprise in her diaper to celebrate their arrival.

Lily got an honorary seat on "Russel."

Aunt Jen played lots with Lily and even changed a diaper or two. She was also very attentive to Skippyjon who was feeling a little jealous.

Here we are out and about at the Garden of the Gods.

This happened to be Mother's Day weekend. For my first Mother's Day, Koichi gave me some beautiful ivory roses and gourmet chocolates. Later that night we all went to dinner at Buca di Beppo's and enjoyed some very tasty Italian cuisine.

I got these glasses for Lily's next big weekend outing when she finally gets to meet her grandparents, Grammy and Pa Pa. She sure is stylin'!

2007 Year of the Baby

2007-05-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

This year in the Chinese zodiac is the year of the pig, but this is not just any little porker. It's the year of the red pig, which I think means it's the year of the BBQ! Pass the ribs and sauce please!

Well, in my family, this happens to be the year of the baby. Koichi and I were blessed to have Lily on April 1, my younger brother and his wife are expecting their first-born in August, and now my older brother and his wife have been selected to adopt a little boy as well. It's our own little baby boom!

I think my mom and dad are probably estatic to become grandparents three times around this year. I'm pretty excited to have a little niece and nephew to play with, and cousins for Lily to grow up with. So far, the year of the pulled pork and burnt ends is turning out to be a pretty good year.

Lily Pretty Lily

2007-04-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

Well, after much anticipation for the big event, Lily Sayuri Tsukioka was finally born on April 1 at 7:40 pm. That afternoon I started having contractions around 1:30, and they were powerful enough to wake me up from my nap, so I knew something different was going on. Koichi and I stayed pretty calm and collected throughout most of the labor. Koichi got last minute things packed up while I paced back and forth in the apartment trying to remember my Lamaze breathing techniques.

When we got to the hospital I was taken to an observation room where the nurse on duty checked out my contractions and the baby's hearbeat using monitors strapped to my bulging belly. The nurse said I was the calmest new mother she had ever seen. Kudos to me! It didn't last long though. Not long later the nurse saw that the baby's hearbeat had dropped dramatically and she called in a bunch of other nurses and the Dr. to come take a look at me. The Dr. broke my "bag of waters" (the sack of amniotic fluid), which had been cushioning me from the full brunt of the contractions, and I lost it. Obviously something was wrong with the baby, I couldn't see Koichi anymore because he had been pushed out of the way by a nurse putting an IV in my arm, and I was in heckovalotta pain now. It wasn't long before I was begging for an epidural. But I got something even better... a spinal block.

When the Dr. broke my water, she noticed that the fluid was green which meant that the baby had pooed inside, and there was a possibility that she would aspirate the meconium (meaning she would breathe in the poo) which is not only gross, but very dangerous for the baby. So, she told me it would be necessary to do an emergency c-section, which I was all for by this time ("Get this thing out of me now and stop me from hurting!" was what I was thinking).

Well, after being wheeled to the surgical room for cesarian deliveries, the anesthesiologist made me sit up on a narrow metal bed, bend over, flex my back like a cat, and try to not move... all while still having very painful contractions. I think I said some not very nice words to him, I can't remember. What I do remember is that by the time I was laying back on the metal bed, I could no longer feel my toes, legs, belly, and most of my chest. Nor could I feel the pain. The anethesiologist became my best friend after that.

It wasn't long before the Dr. got down to business, Koichi was let into the room and sat down by my head and we waited for the long-anticipated sound of our baby's voice. At precisely 7:40 pm Mountain Time, we heard Lily make her first yelp this side of the womb. Evidently, not that I could see anything, she was covered in meconium and was whisked off to a corner by some nurses to be cleaned up. Koichi was allowed to go over there and watch the messy event. A few minutes later the head nurse brought Lily over to me and explained that she was having trouble breathing because she had aspirated meconium and it was in her lungs and stomach, but not to worry because it was not unusual for this to happen.

After being stapled together, spending some time shivering in the recovery room (a side effect of the spinal block I was told), I finally found myself in my post-pardum room around midnight. It wasn't much later when the head nurse from the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and a baby specialist came to talk to me and Koichi. They said that Lily was not doing as well as they would like, and had breathed in a lot of meconium and was a very sick little girl. There was a possibility that she would need to be transferred to another hospital in town that had a more powerful respirator and a special kind of gas called Nitric Oxide that would help Lily breathe better. At that time they were still waiting and watching, but a few hours later they were back and said it was imperitive that Lily be transferred to the other hospital's NICU. Since I had only briefly seen my daughter before she was taken away after her delivery, I asked if I could go down to the NICU and see her before she was transferred. Someone brought a wheelchair, and it wasn't easy or pretty watching me get into it, but into I got, and headed out to meet my daughter.

Lily was on a respirator and was very, very ill. The nurse who was watching over her said she was having difficulty with any stimulus, so the lightes were all turned down, everyone spoke in hushed tones, and no one was touching her. It broke my heart. The baby specialist doctor came to talke to me and Koichi about Lily's transfer and asked if we had any questions. There was one question that was buring on my heart, but I couldn't bear to say it out loud...instead, I asked, "What is the recovery rate for babies in this condition?" I was relieved to hear her say that 90% of babies with meconium aspiration have full recoveries, but it was still scary to see my daughter hooked up to a bunch of machines.

An ambulance team from the other hospital arrived and brought in a special guerney with a ventilator attached to it to transport Lily. When they got her all ready to be lifted onto the guerney, they allowed me to hold her for about a minute before she had to go. I couldn't believe this was all happening. I was in a kind of shock about it all....it certainly was not the experience I had been looking forward to when I thought about giving birth and holding my daughter for the first time.

Monday morning I met another OB from my Dr.'s office and he said that because of the special circumstances with Lily being at the other hospital, if I was up to it I would be allowed a *pass* to leave the hospital I was at and go visit Lily. I had to be able to get into a wheel chair, walk a few steps, and pee on my own...those were the conditions. I had a lot of work to do, so I called in my nurse and after she removed the catheder I made my first attempt to use the restroom. I was determined to make my bladder do its job. It had other things in mind however, and try as hard as I could, it would not release an ever-growing need to pee. I tried so hard in fact, that I started getting dizzy and lightheaded and had to call in for the nurse to help me back to bed. It took 4 nurses though because I was ready to pass out. My nurse was not pleased with me and after that I was not allowed to get out of bed without a nurse beside me. A few hours later the need to *go* was even more pressing so I thought I surely would be able to produce something. Alas, nothing... A few hours later and I was in actual pain from an over-full bladder. I was given the choice to try the restroom again or have the catheder put back in, I chose the latter and was never so relieved (quite literally!) as then. Even though I wasn't able to pass the pee on my own test, I was still allowed to go visit Lily, which I was very grateful to do.

Koichi drove us over to the other hospital and though I was quite doped up on percoset, I was so excited to see my little girl. I burst into tears though when I finally saw her hooked up to huge machines. She was also drugged, knocked out so she wouldn't feel any pain from the meconium or the ventilator. It would be another 5 days before Koichi and I would see her look at us for the first time. We were blessed that day to have a very compassionate and thoughtful nurse who took a great deal of time to tell us everything she could about Lily and her condition. She was very encouraging and just what I needed to get through that day.

The next day I was released from the hospital, less than 48 hours after having major abdominal surgery so that I could visit Lily at will. That week went by in a blur as I worked on healing, walking, visiting Lily, and learning to use a breast pump. Koichi did a lot to take care of me, and I spent a lot of time resting and trying to get better. We saw small improvements in Lily, but nothing major until Saturday, 7 days after she had been born. Lily finally opened her eyes for us and looked at me and her daddy for about 15 minutes. We could not believe it! After days and days of fear and crying, it was so encouraging to see her eyes, even though she was still connected to all those machines.

The next day, Easter (or Pascha as we call it in my church), we saw a miracle!

When we came to the NICU Lily was no longer on the big huge ventilator or the Nitrous Oxide. She was well enough to be put on a smaller ventilator, and even better...I could finally hold her! She woke up and I held her for an hour. It was the sweetest feeling. Lily's eyes were open and we just stared at each other. Father Anthony, the priest from my church came by to pray over her and give her an 8th day of life blessing, and it was all so very cool.

Lily continued to improve the 2nd week as well, and we marked such milestones as coming off her medications one-by-one, coming off the ventilator for good and breathing on her own, and being fed milk through a feeding tube. I was allowed to hold her everyday now, and even made Koichi sit down and hold her even though it was scary for him with her still attached to a lot of tubes and wires.

The second week turned into a 3rd as she continued her recovery, and Lily kept getting better and better. We worked on bottle feedings as well as attempting to nurse, changing her diapers and clothes, and just getting to know her better. Finally, exactly 3 weeks after she was born, she was able to come home. Though she is still on oxygen and has one medication given to her in a breathing treatment, she is a completely different baby than when I first held her in my arms. She cries, cooes, smiles, makes the goofiest faces, and does it all as a healthy baby now.

She's 4 weeks old today, and though we've only had her home for a week, it's been one of the best weeks of our lives. I'm looking forward to the day when she won't need the oxygen anymore, but I hope to never forget how sick she was...I don't ever want to take her for granted.

New Camera

2007-02-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

The camera I used to take the pictures at today's baby shower can be found here. It is way cool, and very easy to use. Koichi and I had a great time using it to take both pictures and video at the party today.

Baby Shower Numero Dos!

2007-02-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today was my second baby shower, thrown by 2 of my good friends at the school I work at. They threw a "family shower" for me so that kids and dads could be a part of the fun and festivities. It was really nice. We had a big brunch, and I brought some onigiri (Japanese rice balls) and some little Japanese snack nuts to share. I was impressed by the few people who tried the rice balls. More were willing to try the nuts, except the ones with squid flavor. Those aren't my favorite either.

We got some more very cool stuff. Here's a diaper cake made by my friend, Tracy, who threw the shower.

Also, we got some more baby clothes for little Lily. Boy, I really hope she is definitely a girl, because otherwise we're going to have a very pink-dressed boy!

Our biggest surprise was a gift from everyone. They went in and got the car seat/stroller travel system that we registered for. We were blown away! I really, really was not expecting that at all. Just yesterday I was bugging Koichi that we should just go ahead and buy it ourselves because I didn't want to get caught having the baby early and have no car seat. He told me to calm down, and good thing. He must be psychic, because here it is the next day and we have it! And it only took 3 guys to put it all together for us.

We really feel blessed to have so many great friends here who are so generous. And though I was super-duper excited about the car seat, I was just as excited about this....

ICE CREAM CAKE! YUM!!!!

Baby Shower Numero Uno

2007-02-25T00:21:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday the social committee at work threw a baby shower for me. It was hard to keep that a surprise since I'm the director of the social committee this year, but a good friend saved me the embarrassment of throwing myself my own baby shower. And even though I knew exactly what was going on, it was still a lot of fun. Koichi was even able to come and join in the festivities.

A good friend of mine, who is a parent of a student who was in the first grade last year, is incredibly talented at making cakes. She made this one for my party. It's in the shape of a baby rattle. Not only was it obnoxiously cute, it was muy, muy tasty too!

Baby girl clothes are SO CUTE! Here's me trying some of them on Lily, well, as best as I could anyway.

I got some of the cutest, most adorable stuff I have ever seen. When we got home Koichi pulled it all out onto the couch to take a picture of all of Lily's loot. I'd say that's a pretty good start. She's already spoiled and she isn't even out of the womb yet!

Did you see that I was holding Skippyjon? He seemed to be a bit jealous of all the stuff that was not for him. Or else he was scared of it. It's hard to tell with him sometimes.

But he need not be jealous! He got to try on Lily's Halloween costumes that were given to me by the same parent who made the baby shower cake. Of course you know by now that this was Koichi's doing. I had nothing to do with it. I just took the pictures to remember the occassion.

Stay tuned for the next round of baby shower pictures! Tomorrow we have another baby shower that is being hosted by friends of mine from work. It's going to be a family shower with kids and dads, and should be a lot of fun. Koichi and I bought a new digital camera today that is waaaaaaaaaaay cool, so we'll get to put some more high-quality photos on here soon. Woo hoo!

Long Overdue Blog

2007-02-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, okay. I know I haven't added anything to my blog since December. Yes, I am a very, very naughty girl. But I'm here now late on a Saturday night and since I'm not completely exhausted already I thought I would take a few moments and share some photos with you. Don't you feel special? You should.

First up: Pregnancy pics!

Here's a couple from about a month and a half ago, I think. I kinda forgot when they were taken...

Not only was my belly becoming more rotund, but so was my butt! Aaack! By this time I was starting to live in my pregnacy jeans which I am casually sporting here. Unfortunately, I only have 2 pair of jeans, and the next pair are not quite as comfortable, but I took a picture in them just for you, gentle reader.

Can you see a difference in belly circumference? I wasn't too happy about having these pictures taken this day. I wasn't exactly dressed to impress, and I hadn't done anything with my hair or makeup. The TV doesn't add to the picture at all either. Oh well. Koichi wanted to take these to send to his parents to show them how big my belly has become. Koichi's sister mentioned that I might want to take a picture of my naked belly, sans shirt as a keepsake of this special time. I think I laughed so hard I peed my pants.

Well, from those last two pictures you can see my new hair do, though I think this picture looks a little bit better.

I like how it curls out. It's kicky! I feel so hip when I actually get up early enough to make it look nice. That's the thing about short hair. It can be really cute, but it takes a lot more effort than long hair. I like it though. Boy my face looks round. I've got baby weight everywhere!!

Next up, baby shower pics!

Snow Dog

2006-12-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

Skippyjon loves the snow and we got a fair share of it this week. Koichi took some pic's while taking Skippyjon out for a walk.

After coming in from the walk, Koichi cleans him up and dries him off. Skippyjon loves this and spreads out in relaxation. He's such a goofy dog.

Now he's ready for some cocoa and cookies.

Pregnancy Pictures Take II

2006-11-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

Just about the coolest job in the world has to be that of a sonographer, the person who runs the ultrasound machine. The sonographer who took these pictures was so nice to us. She spent extra time with us because Koichi and I really wanted to know the baby's gender, and the baby was being a little on the modest side at the time. However, she gave us a 90% guestimate that we are having a baby girl! I was flabbergasted. I really thought we were going to have a boy. I had 2 previous dreams that our baby was a boy, so it took me a little while to get my mind around the thought of having a little girl. But now I am all girl-power and super excited to meet little Miss T in a few short months. It's hard to believe, but she is over half baked. As of tomorrow I will be 22 weeks pregnant and in the beginning of my 6th month. Just 4 more months before her big arrival.

(Here's the butt shot! Imagine you're holding her over your head, her legs swing up, and oops, no panties! Her feet are at the top, and she's giving you the full moon.)

Koichi and I went through scores of names before we got the top 10 list. And I mean literally scores of names! We each made our own list of names we liked and Koichi's was about 500 names long (for both boys and girls). It was pretty agonizing for him to cut some of them out, but at last, we narrowed it down. The front-runner right now, and I think probably the winner if our baby is indeed a girl, is Lily. We haven't figured out a middle name for her yet. We're still working on that. She's going to get a Japanese middle name and we have a few that we like, but we're still searching for that one perfect name.

The coolest thing to date, well, the second coolest thing because the absolute coolest was seeing her on the sonogram monitor. That was spectacular! But the second coolest thing about being pregnant is feeling her move. For the last 6 weeks I have been somewhat obsessed about feeling something, anything happen in there. Finally, on Thanksgiving night I am positive that I felt her give me a good kick. It was pretty cool. For the last week or so I thought I had maybe felt some movement in there, but I wasn't sure if it was her or just me being gassy, but the other night it was definitely not the gas. So now I am really starting to feel pregnant with the baby moving, and having a name picked out, not to mention the backaches and sore feet that I'm getting everytime I stand up for more than 15 minutes.

Here's some more picks of our little rice ball cooking away!

This is a really good one! You can really see her head, her right arm and fingers, and her torso. She has her mouth open (that big dark spot next to the word "mouth") and it looks like she's saying Konnichiwa!

Here's another pretty good one. She has her arm up by her head like she's waving Hello to us!

Halloween Fun

2006-11-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

Every year the school I teach at has an afternoon of Halloween fun for the kids. They get to bring their costumes to school and we have a parade, and then a big party in the classroom. This year the other 1st grade teachers and I decided to dress up. We were "Girls Who Just Wanna Have Fun" and dressed in 80's style clothes and makeup. It was a lot of fun to get my bangs to stand up 6 inches tall and wear blue eyeliner again. Koichi came to watch and help out in the classroom and ended up holding baby Jacob, one of my coworkers' kids. He was dressed up as a pea in a pod. Koichi said he was practicing for next year when he gets to dress up and carry around his own kid. I think this was the first time he's ever carried around a baby. He did pretty good, but was all too willing to hand him off when the first offer came to take the baby. He's going to make a great dad someday soon.

Pregnancy Pictures

2006-10-29T22:45:00.000-07:00

Uggh, I hate showing these because not only do I not look pregnant in my eyes, but I look very fat and the whole thing makes my skin itch. However, after much arm twisting by my good, persuasive, half-Italian mafia friend, Grace, I have decided to make these pictures public. If you laugh, I have connections to someone who can break your kneecaps.

The first one here is when I was probably about 2 months pregnant or so. No, that bump is not the baby, it's the previous night's feticcini alfredo.

Koichi made me tuck in my shirt. THAT will NEVER be happening again.

Here's the picture we took just yesterday. Shall we see if there is any difference? Actually, I put my arm underneath my boobs to make sure you could see the difference because as I mentioned before, I will NEVER be tucking my shirt in again.

So that's what I look like after 4 months of pregnancy. Oh, and as of today I am offically 18 weeks pregnant. This baby is pretty much half-baked! Yikes!! Right now it's pretty easy to take care of. Discipline, feeding, changing are all easy as can be while the baby is in utero. What am I going to do when it finally makes its appearance??? Ack! I try not to think about that too much because I'm afraid I'll start to hyperventilate or break out in hives or something. The same thing happens when I try to think of where this little thing is going to sleep. The other night I was mentally rearranging furniture in my bedroom, and thinking "Well, if the nightstand got put behind the bed (yes, I won't really be able to use it, but it just holds my clock anyways), and the CD case got put to the other side of the room (so what if Koichi can't open the closet door all the way, I'm ready to sacrifice my nightstand, he should be able to help out too), then we could put either a bassinet next to my side of the bed or a very small crib." I started breaking out in sweats, so I had to stop thinking about it.

Though I'm already experiencing post-tramatic stress disorder regarding the birth and raising of this child, I am on the other hand eagerly antipating being able to feel some kicks or just general movement in there. Right now if I concentrate really hard......I can feel a lot of gas, and that's about it. This morning I thought I felt something, but I'm not sure if it was an actual baby movement or me hiccuping. By the end of November I should be able to feel quite a bit, and then I'll probably be begging the kid to go to sleep and quit jumping on my bladder (though s/he's already making me go ALL THE TIME as it is).

Here's what Baby Tsukioka may already be doing while biding time in the womb....

Meet Little T in 2D!

2006-09-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday afternoon I had my first sonogram and here a couple of pictures we got to take home. Little T was pretty genki (active), so it was hard to get a good picture at first.

Koichi thinks this one looks like Jar Jar Binks. He's convinced our child has either eyes that bug out of its head or antenna. This picture wasn't too helpful.

Here's one that looks a little better.

If you squint just right you can see her/his (still to be determined) head to the left. S/he's laying on her/his side. It looks like her/his mouth is open and is saying *hello*.

It was a lot easier to make these pictures out when we could see the baby moving on the ultrasound monitor. Now that we have these 2 dimentional pictures, it just looks like a big ol' blob of white and black. We have 2 more pictures and I'll post them as soon as I can. We took the pictures that the sonographer gave us and went to a camera store to have them scanned and then burned onto a CD. Unfortunately they really screwed up our order and we only got these 2 so far. They're fixing their mistake and I should be able to get a new and improved CD with the missing pictures tomorrow. I'll post them as soon as I can.

The Dr. said everything looks good. My bloodwork came back and everything was good and happy. The baby looks fine, thought according to the ultrasound he's 9 days bigger than my calculations put him. Doc thinks he's probably just a tall baby, and it's nothing to worry about. If s/he is 9 days older than we think, s/he'll probably arrive a week earlier than our given due date, and that may be right on my birthday. That would be cool.

In 4 weeks I go back to see Doc for my monthly check up, and in 6 weeks I go back for my second sonogram to check internal organs. If the baby cooperates, we will hopefully be able to find out the baby's gender at that time. We're really looking forward to that.

Gotta go. Blog more later!

Skippyjon, the Multi-Faceted Dog of Mystery

2006-09-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Taking a nap with his favorite Star Wars pillow

Wearing his favorite T-shirt

Ready for a night of syling on the town

Making adjustments and alterations for his Halloween costume....and looking forward to a night of barking, barking, barking

Looking good. Looking darn good.

1st OBGYN appointment

2006-09-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

This last Tuesday I met my OB/GYN for the first of many doctor's appointments to come. Koichi came with me, and we were both pretty anxious and nervous about the whole thing, but it turned out to be relatively painless. Actually, there was some pain, but it's over with so now I'm trying to repress it.

As of today, I am 9 weeks and 5 days pregnant, and my baby looks something like this...

which isn't all that different than last week, though s/he's grown to the size of a medium olive. The Dr. asked us to schedule another appointment for a sonogram in 4 weeks and we should be able to hear the heartbeat as well. We're pretty excited about that.

Koichi has been having me go through a big baby name book at an almost feverish pace. We're up to M's for both boys and girls, and when we find a name he likes we put a K by it, or a D if I like it. The hard part is finding names that are bestowed with both a K and a D. They are few and far between. The goal is to find a few names we really like in both genders before we find out the sex of the baby in November (God willing).

When we get our sonogram pictures I'll make sure to post them for all to see.

Again, monetary gifts and presents are always accepted! Support the Little T college fund!! :O)

Introducing the Newest Tsukioka Family Member! (Take 2!)

2006-08-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

So as it turns out, there is a new Tsukioka family member to introduce! As my brother, Dwain, said, we have a Japanese hybrid on order. I'm pregnant, and have been now for about 8 weeks. So as of now, Little T (the baby's name as of right now), looks something like this...

Right now it looks like a little alien, but he/she is quickly developing into a more human looking baby. Koichi and I are really excited, but of course we're nervous too. All the big questions are floating around: Will we make good parents? Where are going to get the money for ______ (formulae, diapers, college, etc.)? Will the baby make it through all 9 months? Right now that's the biggest question on my mind.

I happened to have a friend at work, a fellow teacher, who became pregnant nearly the same time that I did. That was really exciting for me because she's already had one baby, so she'd been through this before and knew what to expect so I could ask her all sorts of questions. Just this past week though, she lost the baby. She's doing really well, and I'm encouraged by her resilience, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking, Will that happen to me too? But I'm trying to not think about that too much, because even if it does happen, there's nothing I can do to stop it. I have to trust that God knows what He is doing, even if he takes this little one away from us.

I get a lot of the "So how are you feeling?" question these days. And today seems to be a good day, which would make 3 good days in a row for me, a personal best for the past 2 weeks. At first, I was just tired...all the time. And a little crampy. Now the crampiness is gone, the tiredness seems to be here to stay, and added to that is dizziness and blechy nausea that seems to be with me all the time. But right now is a good day, and I don't feel to nauseous.

Koichi is being an excellent daddy already. He's very concerned about the nutrition level of my diet. He asked his mom to send him a book on pregnancy from Japan so he could understand it more in depth. I was pretty impressed by that. But now he keeps trying to get me to eat liver and sea kelp. I stand firm in my convictions that neither of those are meant to be consumed. He is doing a great job though, and has been very considerate of me and my food cravings so far. Actually, I only had one craving that I know of, I had the strongest desire for fried chicken from KFC. For 2 days that's all I could think about. Koichi let me go and get 1 piece of fried chicken, and that really seemed to satisfy the craving. That was a weird craving for me, because I don't usually like fried chicken all that much. Anyway, I'm looking forward to craving brownies and ice cream....mmmmm, maybe I already am.

Well, that's it for now. I go in to see my OB/GYN in a few weeks for my first Dr.'s appointment. I think Koichi is going to try to go with me even though it's right in the middle of his sleeping time. I'm looking forward to it. I'll let you know what the Dr. says and how things are going a little later on.

(If you would like to make a donation to the Baby Tsukioka fund, checks, money orders and cash can be sent directly to me. Presents of any sort are always welcome.) :O)

Life is Short

2006-07-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a "Celebration of Life" memorial service for an 18 year-old girl from the school district I work in, who died last weekend from injuries sustained in a very bad car crash. It was heartbreaking to be there and feel the pain of her family, friends, and teachers. This year was going to be her Senior year, she was a valued member of the basketball team, the volleyball team, and the choir. She had a lot to look forward to, and now it's all gone. As I was walking to my car after the service ended, I thought, "Dying is easy, Living is so hard."

I couldn't help but think of all the time I've wasted doing stupid stuff. Every fight I've ever had with my husband, my family, my friends...all of that was wasted time. Everytime I've vegged out in front of the TV instead of doing something productive or helpful has been wasted time. Every time I've put something off until tomorrow, and then the next day, has been wasted, wasted time. Life is short. I don't want to waste any of it. When I die, I want to leave behind more than an empty bag of chips and an impression of my butt on the couch.

Introducing the Newest Tsukioka Family Member!

2006-06-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not pregnant. Not yet, anyway, but that's another blog entry for the future.

While I was in Kansas City (I'm back in Colorado Springs now, by the way. Got home on Tuesday morning, and still feel like I have jet lag...weird) Koichi endured the tragedy of the untimely death of our beloved clown fish, Juan. Juan was a part of our family for the past 2 years, and my husband had grown quite fond of him. Koichi was pretty depressed when Juan passed away. It was even worse since he was all alone with me in Kansas City. My family members were all sorry to hear of Juan's passing, and my sister-in-law, Jen, astutely pointed out that Koichi was sorely in need of a dog. Well, we followed her advice.

We weren't planning on getting a dog. It just kinda happened. It was canine destiny. On Tuesday after I returned to Colorado we went out to a fish store and were discussing what kind of new fish we would like to get. There were some nice fish, but we didn't get any that night. In passing, I said maybe we should get a dog. Koichi has always wanted a dog, and before the fish, he used to beg me to get one. My comment caused us to make an impromtu trip to the humane society on Wednesday afternoon. Perhaps we were feeling maternal and paternal, since we had just come from a visit to the hospital to see a friend and her newborn baby (who is absolutely the cutest newborn baby I have ever seen....in person). When we got the shelter we looked at all the animals, and ended up looking at the dogs, passing from one to the other. They were cute, but none really caught our eye. Until we happened on Skippyjon. He was in a pen with 3 other smallish dogs who were vying for our attention. Skippyjon was sitting calmly and quitely in the corner, not even barking though his pen-mates were yapping their heads off at us. He just looked at us with his beautiful brown eyes, and we could tell he was saying "Hey, don't go. I think I love you two." We moved on down the row, but we came back to look at Skippyjon at least 5 more times, and then decided to go ahead and meet him.

We had to fill out a form and wait 15 minutes before we were led by a shelter volunteer to a little room where she left us to go get Skippyjon. We'd recieved an information sheet on him and had found out that he had been brought to the shelter only the day before by his former owners who could no longer take care of him. He was curious and friendly when we met, and he didn't make a single sound. It was obvious he was nervous, because he was shaking like a leaf, but after a few minutes he calmed down a bit and came over to meet us. Koichi and I fell in love. Deep, deep love. Within 20 minutes we knew we wanted to make him part of our family.

So we filled out the adoption forms, paid the $98 fee, and made a mad dash to PetsMart and Wal-Mart for supplies while they held him for us. A couple hours and a hundred dollars later we had all we needed to get Skippyjon settled into our home for the first few days: a cage to crate train him in, food, dishes, a brush and shampoo. (Koichi wanted to take him straight to a groomer, but they won't see him until after he has his rabies shots updated. My husband is so Japanese sometimes, especially when it comes to keeping the house clean. But since the groomer couldn't take him, we decided to give him a bath ourselves.)

Koichi rode with Skippyjon in the back seat on the way home and we had a great time getting to know each other while we showed him the apartment and his little room in the crate. Then it was time to brush him and get as much loose hair off as we could before the bath. We still ended up having a tub full of hair, but we were happy to have a clean, minty-fresh pooch. And what a great pooch Skippyjon was! Through all the brushing and the bath, Skippyjon never made a peep. Not a single yip or bark. And he just stood there and let us handle him with no problem; no squirming or biting. We were really amazed.

We were also happy to find out the Skippyjon is a pretty smart dog. He already knows a few commands such as Sit, Stay and No. We're working on Down and Shake right now, as well as going potty in the right place. Found a couple of surprises this morning. Icky.

Oh, by the way, Skippyjon is a Schipperke mixed-breed. (That's pronounced SKIP-er-kee....it took me two days to be able to remember it.) And though he didn't actually come with the name, Skippyjon, he has already learned it, and at least turns his head to look at me when I say it, and usually comes when I call his name. His former name was a little bland for our tastes...Oliver. We didn't think he looked like an Oliver. We thought he looked more like a Skippyjon. He seems to think so too.

Friday morning we are going to the vet for his first well-visit, complements of the Pikes Peak Humane Society. Then it's off to PetsMart to get him his own collar and a training leash. We're so glad Skippyjon has become part of our family. He has a great personality, and though he's sometimes very energetic, he's very gentle and quiet. A great apartment dog.

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round....most of the time

2006-06-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

So, circumstances come up and things change. Such is life.

This last week my mom went to the hospital to have a few tests done on her heart to search for blockage. Heart disease seems to run rampant in my family. One grandfather died from it, both of my parents have had heart attacks, one stroke and now my mom was finding out more bad news. Turns out that 3 of her valves had 4 blockages in them and the doctor recommended that she have immediate bypass surgery. (And by immediate, I mean the next day.) The next morning the surgery went well, but the doctor evidently found more to be concerned about and her triple bypass turned into a 5-way bypass heart surgery.

My husband and I decided that I needed to come home and be with my family during this time. So, due to rising airline costs and the thought that Kansas City isn't all that far from Colorado Springs, I decided to give the Greyhound bus a try and ride my way across the Midwest. Wow. That was an experience.

I left Colorado Springs on Thursday evening around 7:45 and took the bus to Denver. This 1.5 hour ride was pretty nice. The bus was pretty full, so I sat next to an unassuming woman who turned out to be headed to Denver to take care of her sick grandkids. The bus ride was pretty uneventful except for the incredibly beautiful sunset over the mountains in the west. God is an awesome artist.

In Denver I had to transfer buses to go east to Kansas City. When I got there, the line was already long and winding its way through the terminal. I got in line and waited for the doors to open when our coach arrived. At 10:15 it came, and as I slowly made my way to front, pushing luggage along the floor (which was sticky with some suspicious looking substance), I was beginning to wonder if everyone was going to make it on the bus. There seemed to be about 50 people in front of me, and by this time, there seemed to be about just as many in line behind me. Finally I made my way to the front of the line and the ticket taker (which I'm pretty sure was her official job title, by the way), stopped me. She and bus driver conferred over the number of passengers and decided that the bus was indeed filled to capacity. There I was at the front of the line and looked like I was going to be stuck there for quite some time!

But just as I was about to lose hope, another bus pulled in and I got first pick of the seats. Having sat near the rear of previous bus, and in too close proximity to the lavoratory and its odiforous aromas, I decided to take one of the front seats on this new bus. This bus was filled to the brim with all sorts of people. I ended up partnered with a nice teenager who was kind enough to help me get my bags out of the overhead compartment, and let me off the bus to use the bathroom during our 2 scheduled breaks. I thought sitting next to the window would be a good idea as I could lean against it and use my teddy bear as a pillow. Turns out that there is absolutely NO leg room next to the window, so I had to keep my knees bent the entire time which lead to very swollen ankles by the time I arrived in Kansas City. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our first stop was in the Kansas town of Colby. Not too much happening in Colby at 3:00 am. However, the McDonald's was kind enough to be open and allow us to use its restrooms and get a little food. A few hours later we pulled into the bustling metropolis of Salina, Kansas. We pulled into a gas station/truck stop at 6:30, and our travel weary bus driver said that a replacement driver would be arriving shortly and the bus would pull out at 7:05. I quickly made use of the facilities and bought a Big Gulp for the road. Being terribly exhausted I fell asleep on the bus while awaiting its immanent departure. At 7:30 I woke up to find that not only was the bus not moving, it had not moved, and did not seem to be moving anytime soon. Several passengers were expressing concern for the arrival of the new bus driver, who by this time was a half hour late. Some went inside to look for him and to consult with the store attendants at the gas station/Salina bus stop. The gas station attendants didn't have a clue to the whereabouts of the new bus driver, and it turned out that the previous bus driver had taken off to get some much needed rest, but had not waited to make sure a new driver arrived. We were stranded. In Salina. Kansas.

Several passengers used their handy dandy cell phones to call the Greyhound bus line to express their dismay and to ask where the heck our driver was. The word finally got around that there had been a scheduling mix-up and a driver had not been scheduled to drive out of Salina for some unknown reason. Another driver was called, though he was in Kansas City and would have to drive the 3 hours out to get us, pick us up, and driver us back.

Several hours, and 3 magazine readings later, he finally showed up, ate some lunch, and sent out a call that the bus would be leaving at 11:00...about 10 minutes after we had expected to be arriving in Kansas City. A general roar of applause went up when the doors to the bus closed and the wheels started to turn east. I finally got in at 2:30 in the afternoon, a mere 19 hours after I left Colorado Springs. I tried not to think about the fact that I could have driven to Kansas City and back in that time, and just be appreciative to be there.

So, sometimes the wheels on the bus go round and round. And sometimes they take unplanned pit stops for 4 hours. You never can tell.

I sure am glad that I was able to come to Kansas City though and see my family. The last time I saw everyone was for Christmas, and that was a VERY short time together. My husband is so good to me and is staying at home by himself in Colorado Springs. I miss him, but it's good to see my mom and the rest of my family. She's doing well. The surgery went fine, and she's gaining a little more strength everyday. In fact, I'm supposed to go to the hospital and see her bright and early tomorrow morning, so I should get to bed.

Guilty

2006-06-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

Just when it seems like things are going well for me spiritually, I screw up. Sin is so sneaky. And so persistent. Just when I think I've finally got a handle on a particular temptation, BOOM! It comes back at me again and this time it brings its big brother with it.

I used to imagine that sin was like this giant weed that we continually hack at. And when we finally do manage to cut it down we find all these little weeds growing underneath it. But as it turns out that big ol' weed that we sometimes do manage to cut down has deep roots sometimes, and we can't take it out by our power alone.

In Orthodoxy it's stated that Jesus didn't come to just save us from death. Praise God that He did! But, more than that, to save us from our sins. Not only at some future time when we're facing the judgment seat of God, but right here in the present, everyday life that we live. Christ came to overcome our daily sins so that we may become more like him. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, Christ said. Wow, that is so hard.

Please pray for me, a sinner.

I will give them a new heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them; and they shall be my people, and I shall be their God.

Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all transgressions which you have committed against me and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God; so turn, and live.

A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ...
I will put my Spirit within you and you shall live ...
(Ezekiel 11:19-20,18:30-32, 36:26-27, 37:14; cf. Psalm 51:10; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Isaiah 57:15-18; Joel 2:28-29)

A Little UnOrthodox

2006-06-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

For 11 months now I've been going to an Orthodox church in Colorado Springs called Saints Constantine and Helen Holy Theophany Orthodox Church. Theophany is the churchy name for when Christ was baptized by St. John the Baptist in the Jordan river. Saint Constantine was the ruler of the Byzantine-Roman empire in the 4th century who ceased the persecutions against the Christian church and even made Christianity the national religion of his empire. Saint Helen was his mother who was a devout Christian herself.

The first time I encountered Orthodoxy I didn't quite know what to make of it. It was very different from my Southern Baptist background. It's always intimidating to step out of one's comfort zone, but I am now glad I did. Things that were once exotic and strange, if not a little bit scary, are now commonplace and comforting. All the bowing, kissing, prostrating, crossing, etc. has become part of my worship when I enter the temple and I can't imagine ever going back to the Protestant realm, though I still cherish the church I was brought up in and have a great deal of respect for it. But there's something about singing hymns and reading prayers that are quite literally a thousand years old. There's a connection to the Saints who gone on before us, who have fought the good fight and are now part of the Cloud of Witnesses that enthrones the Kingdom of Heaven. It's a wonderful, amazing thing to be able to connect myself with those members of the Family of God as I repeat words that have been spoken and sung for nearly two millennia. And I know that until Christ returns again that the body of the Holy Orthodox Church will continue to sing the same songs and repeat the same prayers, connecting Christians of the future to me as well. Cool!

The reason I'm a little UN Orthodox is because I'm not yet a full Orthodox Christian. I'm currently a catechumin in the church. A catechumin is a person who intends to become Orthodox but is still learning about the church and has yet to be baptized into the church. I've been reading and researching a lot, and of course going to church and becoming involved in the services as much as I can. But I'm longing to finally become Orthodox myself and I think it probably won't be much longer before I talk with the priest, Father Anthony, about being baptized into the church. Because I am a Christian already and was baptized (when I was 6) under the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I do not technically HAVE to be re-baptized. I can choose to accept Chrismation (anointing of the oil and the Holy Spirit) instead, but I think I will probably go ahead and be baptized. The baptismal service is incredibly beautiful and meaningful. This period in my life is similar to being engaged. I'm not yet married to the Orthodox church, but the intent to do so is there. It reminds me a little of my own engagement to Koichi. It was a beautiful, sweet time. But there finally comes a point when I start to think, Okay, let's get married already! I'm ready to get married to the Orthodox church.

The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible.
And in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of light; true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He arose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spoke by the prophets.
In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Busy, Busy Beavers

2006-06-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

School is finally out and I can relax...or so I think. Actually, I have several projects lined up to occupy my time this summer. I have about 101 things to paint this summer including a bench, chair, bedside table, various mirrors, a window, plant stand and knick-knack holder. Then there's the quilting! I just got a bunch of beautiful silk fabric sent to me from Japan by my mother-in-law. I'm scared to cut it, but I'm going to have to get over that fear and make something beautiful with it. I've got fabric piling up everywhere. Time to get a move on!

The last few weeks of school I was already busy doing quilting and painting. My good friend and fellow 1st grade teacher, Diane, roped me into making a quilt for our school's Dean of Students (aka, vice-principal) as a gift for her first baby. Diane has made several quilts and I was honored that she asked me to help. We made the cutest quilt, though it ended up being about twice the size of a baby quilt. Each class made a picture and colored it for one of the quilt squares, and then signed it with their class' name. It turned out great.

Then Diane came up with another good idea for something to occupy my time. For several months Diane and I have secretly been giving out little treats and trinkets to the other staff members and teachers at the school. It's been a tough year for all of us, and Diane thought that a few random acts of kindness might help lift everyone's spirits and boost the morale in the school. As our final anonymous act, we wanted to do something nice for the staff. Diane found some unused terra cotta pots sitting in her classroom and she asked if I would help her paint them. I love painting, so off we went. Diane had in mind doing some polka dots and squiggly lines. I guess I think differently. I got to teach Diane how to do a little bit of One Stroke Painting, and now I think she's hooked. It was a lot of fun, though it took several days to complete the project. We painted about 60 pots, stuffed them with a cute little note and some flower seeds and snuck into all the classrooms and left them for the staff members to find on the Monday of the last week of school. I think they liked them. A few people who knew I could paint discovered that I was part of the sneaky team leaving gifts behind, so my cover was blown. But it was a lot of fun, and it spurred me take on the chairperson position for the Social Committee for next year. It sure did help to boost my morale to do something nice for someone else. Maybe everyone should give that a try sometime.

Tornados, Wildfires, Summer Vacation....Oh My!

2006-05-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

It's the last week of school! Four more days until sweet, sweet freedom. But, this week has already had its share of drama. This weekend a huge wildfire burned up 120 acres of prairie along the road I drive to get to school. This same thing happened about a month or so ago, but not as big. 120 acres is a LOT of land. The black stretch of scorched earth just kept going and going and going. It didn't look like any homes were harmed, but a lot of that land is grazing land for cattle. Probably not a lot of happy ranchers around that area.

Today the school day went pretty well with only a slight hiccup in the daily schedule. Near the end of the day it started hailing. I took my 1st graders to the back doors of the school to take a look. After the storm calmed down I let them go outside to get a piece of hail. About 20 minutes later it was storming pretty hard. As I was attempting to take the kids out to the busses an announcement came on that we were going to wait until the storm calmed down a little bit. Five minutes into playing "Heads Up, Seven Up," the tornado alarm came on. For about 45 minutes my class tucked themselves into little balls along the side of the hallway. I found out later that a tornado touched down only 5 miles north of the school and destroyed a house. Luckily no one was hurt.

Well, with that big storm came the big problem of power lines being blown down and crossing roads. Just when we thought the kids were all secure on the busses and ready to go home, another announcement came over the intercom informing us that the some of the busses were headed back to the school because they couldn't get across the roads with the power lines in the way. I stayed tonight to help out until 6:30. There were still 3 kids left who were waiting to be picked up by their parents. What a nightmare. We even had to raid the cafeteria kitchen for a snack to feed the kids. Spending 3 extra hours at school can make anyone hungry.

But, only 3 more days left. I can make it. I can make it. I can make it.

The Final Countdown

2006-05-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here it is! The final countdown. Only 6 more days left! Each day I find myself looking at the clock more and more, counting the hours until the day is over, waiting, anticipating, until that final day when the bell will ring, the little urchins will stream out of the building and onto the hulking, deisel-belching busses, and school will finally be over. Summer vacation will be trumpeted in by the heralding cry of teachers all over the district shouting in unision "Yes! Thank ya, Lord!" I will be there to revel in the beauty of that day. Oh yes, I will be there. Only 6 days left until freedom. Glorious freedom.

Aging Before My Eyes

2006-05-15T16:54:00.000-07:00

So for this past Christmas my darling husband gave me a bathroom scale. Why, might you ask, gentle reader, would a husband do something like that to his wife? Well, he did mean well. This is our third bathroom scale in our 3 years together. The first befell a tragic toilet plugging accident. Everything on the floor at the time, including Egyptian cotton towels, bath mats, and even the bathroom scale were thrown out.

In order to conserve finances, should another toilet disaster occur, our second scale was a cheapie bought at Target. It was woefully inaccurate. I could gain 12 pounds in under 10 seconds. I had to weigh myself three times and take the average of the different weights.

So, for Christmas, my dear hubby spared no expense and bought a top of the line bathroom scale. Not only does this scale measure mere weight (in pounds, kilograms, or stones/pounds nonetheless!), it also sends a small electric current through the weigher's feet to measure the percentage of body fat. But it doesn't end there! It also gives the weigher a percentage of water in the body, and weighs the bones. How it achieves these marvels of modern science, I know not. But I do know that the most interesting ability this savvy scale posesses is the ability to calculate your body's "real age" as told by weight, height, activity level, body fat, etc.

My husband, who is not only very small, but very active, gets on this super-futuristic scale and it tells him he is only 19 years old! So I get on the thing......and it turns out that I'm married to a much, much, much younger man. According to the scale, I'm nearly old enough to start collecting retirement and wear Depends. I think I'm having chest pains.

WELCOME!

2006-05-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

At the urging of my good friend, Heather, who has recently created her own blog, I have decided to sport my own blog. So, here it is. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but I'm giving it a shot. I've called this blog Facing East because I'm guessing it will be a blog for me and my my Japanese husband, Koichi, but who knows what this is going to turn into. For now I'm typing. And I'd better type fast because it's past my bedtime and I have to get up early in the morning to work out. Uggh.