Yesterday was our June outreach event - BOWLING!  In times times we have attempted this event only to have it flop, so we have avoided bowling parties in recent history.  After yesterday, I am wondering why - it was SO MUCH FUN!!

We had a total of 17 bowlers + 2 little brothers & a couple moms who came to watch.  I will let pictures tell the rest of the story

Ball inspection!

Let 'er roll!!

Fun with family & friends!!

We may have to do this again, soon!!

"Let's go hiking instead of going to Costco today." I said.

"It will be fun."  I said.

"I've been wanting to take the trail we saw the map for on the 12k in May." I said.

"Costco is so far and with the party last night & a ballet recital this evening, hiking would be better." I said

Conclusion - I. Am. NUTS!

Jerry indulged me.  We headed out about 9:15 and were on out way up the mountain by 9:40.  The thought was we would hike for an hour and then head back.   It took us almost 2 hours to hike 2km O_o

It looked peaceful enough.

On the other side of the bridge we immediately came to this.  Hind sight - THIS was the easy part!!

Then we came to points, MANY points, where ropes were the thing...  I thought they were nice on the way up... they were a true BLESSING on the way down!  We ended up hanging on to the rope and backing down the trail in many spots.

Even though the trail was narrow, there were a few fairly flat stretches that were really nice hiking !

AND - it WAS beautiful!!!

Memo to self... Buy hiking boots BEFORE attempting this again!!  Walking shoes just do not handle this type of hike.   BTW ~ I am not sure I am in any hurry to go boot shopping

Every year the parents & teachers at Joshy's school get together for a Nomi Kai - literal translation, drinking party.  While, there is some drinking it is not a drunken brawl, rather a time out to socialize and enjoy a good Japanese meal.  Last night was the night.

When we arrived there were plates of crab to share, along with, snails at each place.

Next came in huge trays of sashimi.

(There were a couple other dishes that I didn't get pictures of, as well)

At one point a dish came in that I have never seen.

We had to take a mallot to the hard salt paste shell.

Then we pealed back the leaves to reveal the succulent Tai (red snapper)

Next came big bowls of a cold, spicy soup, which we dished up into individual bowls.  It was rather slimy, something I usually do not like, but this was actually good.

Last came rice with small shrimp & snow peas... SOOOO Good!

It was a nice evening.  As always, there is constant chit-chat with numerous conversations going on simultaneously.  Let me tell you, that this is hard for me!  My introvert side has a hard time with large gatherings.  My Japanese brain needs to concentrate super hard to understand.   This combination tends to leave me in the middle of everything not having a enough of a clue to feel comfortable jumping into a conversation.  (I do this in English, to some extent as well.)   HOWEVER, I did notice that I was not the only person who was mostly listening 　It was still a fun.  It was good to hang out with the other moms & teachers!!

Yesterday was our monthly checkup at the cancer center.  Over all not bad, but one count still left me feeling sad.

WBC's & ANC were up - YAY!

RBC's & Hbg were steady - good!

Platelets were up slightly from last month's cancer center check, but down considerably from recent local hospital checks - bummer  I was really praying that they would at least be in the same ballpark.   The doctor is not concerned.  They are well above "need a transfusion" level.  I was just wanting them to be higher.

Kidney function tests are still out of whack - more stable than they were, but still not good.    We are going to lower the dose of the immune suppression drug, in hopes that this will help the kidney functions without causing the other blood counts to drop.

Once again I was also hit in the gut with the sad truth that cancer is everywhere.  There is never a shortage of patients at the cancer center.  Yesterday we meet another little one.  She is 11 months old and has been a patient for 10 months  We also ran into one of the little boys who was in at the same time we were there... he is now in 1st grade  He is still on a biweekly checkup schedule :/

The trip home was long... almost twice as long, due to construction.  There was bridge work being done in 1 section, tunnel work in another and miscellaneous work in 3 other spots.   The bumper to bumper traffic in spots reminded me to be thankful we live where we do and don't have to deal with this sort of thing day in day out!!  I am also glad I let Kei come along for the ride.  She was able to feed Joshy lunch along the way.

Roses Are Red

and yellow

and orange

and...

Sunday afternoon, while Jerry & the girls were at AWANA, Joshy & I headed to the national park to enjoy the rose festival.

Joshy enjoyed being outside.  I enjoyed strolling through the flower gardens.  We both enjoyed some rose ice cream.

It was a lovely afternoon

Four consecutive days involving 3 different health care facilities with 2 children + 1 parent/child outing for school leaves this mama TIRED!

Monday was Joshy's weekly checkup day at the local hospital.  Good news, CBC are holding steady at the higher level.  He has a checkup at the cancer center this coming week and CBC's there hold a higher importance in regard to his Aplastic Anemia treatment - praying they are still steady or higher on Tuesday  Other good news, kidney functions are looking better.  We have been really pushing fluids, which seems to be helping.  Giving drinks or tube feeds 8-10x/day is a challenge, but if kidney function look better as a result then we will deal with it!   AND provided numbers look as good or better on Tuesday we can go to checkups every 2 weeks!!

Tuesday I took Kei to a new doctor/hospital.  She has been suffering from what we think is PMDD (think PMS on crack) since the beginning of the year.  We have tried herbal supplements & vitamins which have at least helped her bounce back between cycles, but our sweet girl is totally lost to us for about 2 weeks every month.   New hospital = new...new everything.  Ended up that what we thought was the correct time to go was actually a by appointment only time.  The hospital staff did go ahead and do a pre-appointment medical history and then told us to come back Wednesday to see the doctor.

Wednesday Kei had a dental appointment @9 and then an appointment that the other hospital @10.  Of all mornings for a dental appointment to take forever...this was the day  Kei ended up being in the dentist chair for 2 hours.  We then went directly to the other hospital, but because we were so late we had to wait an hour to see the doctor.  Good appointment, very compassionate doctor.  We have started Kei on medication with will, LORD willing, help even things out.  (She will have weekly appointments for the time being.)  We arrived home just before 1, giving me a whole 20 minutes before I needed to head to work!

Thursday... From March, Thursdays have gone from being my light day to being a day of running.  I have a morning class, home for a quick lunch before heading to therapy with Joshy - this was my old schedule - then back to ECS for 2 more children's classes.  LOVE the classes - Hate the back & forth.  This week, I decided to walk to my morning class because getting a morning walk in just wasn't happening.  I got 98% of the way there and realized I did not have my keys  Turned around, sent a text to Kei to get find my keys & then put them & my purse in the car.  I went directly to the car and drove back to class... Arriving AFTER my students.   On the plus side, I did get my walk in and the pace was much brisker than usual!!

Friday was the yearly parent child recreation for Joshy's school from 9:30~2:10.  This year we went to a local park/culture center where we made a Japanese rice flour dumpling sort of thing. It was good.  It was fun.  I think I would have enjoyed it more had the week been a little less hectic.  Also the weather was not pretty so we were not able to take a walk   We also, had to leave early because I had class from 2.

Two ladies from the community talked us through the dough making process.  The dough was a mixture of several varieties of rice ground into flour.  One dough was simply the flour & water.  The other dough has a leaf added.

After the dough was made, we shaped it and added the filling (greed dough had sweet red bean paste & the white dough had salmon).

Then the dough balls were streamed before they were fried.

THEN they were eaten!

I am praying for a quiet weekend!

While out on my morning walk, I saw a sparrow.  This reminded me of the song, His Eye is on the Sparrow, which I proceeded to start singing.   I was on a meander through the park hike sort of walk/hike and shortly after seeing the sparrow I turned onto the trail that would take me to the upper plateau.  That's when I screamed!

See, I don't do snakes.  I screamed, jumped back, probably did a few circles as I checked for any friends.  Mr snake just stat there, so I paused my gps app and took his picture  I also changed course!!  I figured Mr. snake was telling me to stick to the paved path... ALL the way home - which is what I did!!

As I neared home, on a totally different route than I had planned, I saw an older couple whose car was stuck in a small ditch.  The man was attempting to push the car out.  With an extra pair of hands we were able to get the car back on the road.

Coincidence, I prefer to look at it as Providence!

"His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me."

Seems like only yesterday that they were this size...

How can it be that the little one in the red jacket is now 17????

We celebrated as a family on Saturday.  Bekah's request was no bake cookies in lieu of cake.

Sunday was a full day with church in the morning & CS (church school) / AWANA club nursing home visitation.  CS has 5 birthdays in June, 4 of them this week, so after visiting the nursing homes we had cake.

It was a fun, full weekend.

However, I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we now have a 27yo - with 3 kiddos of her own, a 17yo, a 14yo, & an 11yo!!!   Say what?!?!?

When a C course, home bound, student goes to school it is called - schooling スクリング.  On Wednesday, Joshua had schooling.  Joshy's teacher was a little surprised that I was willing to bring him at 9:30 (I now understand that a little more - see below).  He was there for a slightly late "morning time".

There was some time to sit & play with friends.

Then it was music class time with all the B course students - elementary ~ high school.  The theme of music class was Rain/Rainy Season.  The teacher in charge did an awesome job.   There was the frog song:

Then, Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, where she enlisted the help of a couple of the other teachers to do a dance.

Last, there was a rainbow song.  I didn't catch the name, nor did I recognize it.

It was a nice morning.  I am glad we were able to go.  However, it wasn't the easiest thing to work into my schedule because I had to stay the whole time.  Last school year when we were talking about B course vs C course for Joshua this year we decided to go with C course with the option that Joshua would be allowed to have schooling almost every day during the healthy seasons.  We had talked about my needing to be there until the teachers were used to his needs, but after that I would be able to drop him off just like a regular student.  That is what I went into the day thinking - yes, I need to be there, but this is short term.  I ask the teacher about Joshua staying by himself, she was surprised & said she would get back to me.

She got back to me today...

with a big NO.   Joshua can go for schooling whenever, but I have to stay with him the whole time.

To be honest this felt like a kick in the gut.  A reminder of all we have been through the past 2 years & 8 months.   I had thought we were heading back toward a more normal life.  I feel as if something else has been stolen from us.     I will try to figure out how I can be at school with Joshua on a somewhat regular basis.  It is going to be a struggle to juggle yet another thing.

The teacher also shared the plan for Joshua's 6th grade school trip... which is another long, kick in the teeth, story.  The verdict is still out on this, but suffice it to say, we need the money tree to start producing beforehand and the trip isn't even to anywhere exciting!

P.S.

I do not have a newsletter ready to send out.  I might have gotten the hard drive off the laptop, which means that I might, possibly, at least, have the format in tact.    However, between being tied to a school schedule for Joshy, schooling the girls, running to weekly checkups & therapy - different days of course, teaching 4 days a week, making sure Joshy is getting extra fluids to help with kidney trouble - meaning we are giving drinks 8x/day, church responsibilities, English camp coming up, dealing with some issues Kei is having...   Please don't hold your breath for a newsletter.

SIGH...