Cute, but Naughty

Akari says...

We've been seeing this wild bird around our house. He's cute, but he's naughty. He's pooping all over our car. I have no idea what kind of bird this is, so if you happen to know this type, please tell us.

Snow

Akari says...

I like snow. It makes everything look nicer than it actually is. It's rare to have such nice snow in Tokyo. But I was rather horrified when I heard Nonny say someting like,
"Look, someone's dropping dandruff from the sky!"
Nonny,Dad, Yuya and I went outside to have a good snow fight. We couldn't make any snowmen because it was powder snow.It was soo much fun.

Went on a stroll...

Eiko says...


It was far too beautiful outside to stay in the house, so Mom, Akari and I took a stroll down to the nearest (not to mention only) store around. We got some mushrooms for a pasta dish I was planning for dinner.

Check out the photos!!


Akari-chan enjoying the weatherMom and Akari in the far distance
I would hate to get unfriendly with this particular neighbor...
And here's that cow farm I was telling you about
You remember Heath (L), Brandon (M), River (R)--the stinky cows Boris has fallen in love with?
Your faithful bloggers, us! (Brandon in the background)
Posing with Heath!

Beauty shots of Ichthus

I love you, Daddy!

Eiko says...

I came out of my bubble bath last nice smelling good, feeling great, relaxed and ready for bed. The hot bath, alcohol and chocolate really worked their magic and I was almost falling asleep in the tub, so before I really did fall asleep, I stumbled out, dried off, got into comfy Pajamas, and made my way to my futon for a good night's rest. I was exhausted and in need of some serious Zzzzs.

And so I guess my reaction wasn't too cool when I found Dad curled up on my futon, sleeping like a baby...literally.







I let the emotions show.

#$%*6&@2!!!

I nudged him, patted him, poked him, but got no response whatsoever. He was dead out! Exhausted to the bone, no doubt.

But I was too.

I yanked my futon from under him, and curled up on the couch, muttering nonsense under my breath and thinking unpleasant thoughts. I could almost feel the little horns growing on my head. My yanking the cover from under Dad did the trick though, and he stirred, mumbled to himself, and woke up. I got my bed back. I quickly reclaimed my futon before he collapsed back in my bed, and soon after, fell asleep.

Apparently, the sight of Dad curled up in covers on my bed was the cutest thing EVER to Boris and she snapped some pictures of him, which is why I'm able to share them with you, but I didn't think "cute" when I saw Dad there, stealing sleep from me. I was...well, angry! ...

Until today while I was browsing photos on Mom's camera. Like Boris said, Dad is cute. As I was thinking how cute-looking my Dad is, I came to the realization for the 100th time that he's the only person that I'd be happy with as my Dad.

The other night, I couldn't sleep because it was so cold, and my nose started clogging up, and I couldn't keep the coughs in. Dad heard me coughing and came and asked if I was cold. I told him that I thought the heating system was screwed because it was unnatural for it be this cold. So Dad put his coat and hat on, went outside around the house to see if everything was ok. Apparently, everything was indeed okay with the heating system. I was just feeling the temperature drop--like it usually does past midnight. After reassuring me that everything was ok, Dad brought another blanket, and tucked me in. The next morning, he asked again if I was alright. Dad is the sweetest.

I respect my Dad like nothing else. Childhood memories of Dad are of him waking up early in the morning to pray, his hands tightly pressed against eachother, eyes closed shut, and mouth muttering words of adoration and love to Jesus. Also, when he was an extremely, and unrealistically busy VS and barely had time to eat, he would go on walks with me and hear me and my complicated, 13-year-old-emotions out. When I was going through the toughest years of my life, and when I had lost all vision of living, he fought and lived for me. As a pre-teen, I would always go to my Dad whenever I had nightmares, and I knew he would wake up no matter the hour and no matter how tired he was, and pray for me. He adopted teen-lingo to better understand and communicate with me and sis as our adolescent years budded into full bloom and glory.

Dad had asked me once what "chilling" meant, as I would always give him that response when he would ask what Yuri and I were doing behind locked doors. "Chilling, Dad" was my faithful reply no matter what the activity was--movie viewing, novel reading, junk-food binging, alcohol downing, girl bitching...and other crazy, teen-activity you can think of.
A few days later, Dad came knocking on our locked door, and after letting him in--with exagerated rolling of the eyes and heaving loud sighs of irritation--and trying to act as annoyed as possible, Dad pulled a plastic bag of chips from behind his back that he had bought from the nearby store, and surprised me by using the newest addition to his English vocabulary, "I want to chill!"

I still choke up when I remember what Dad said he was most thankful for at the closing of 2004 as tears wet his cheeks.

Dad, I may sound, and look, and seem angry at life and even at you sometimes, but I want you to know that you are the best Dad, and no other Dad will do. I thank God for giving me someone so loving and understanding as you. Not many ppl out there will be able to raise 12 children the way you did. You are amazing!

And I love you!

Christmas Dinner

Eiko says...

WHAT'S UP?!!!!

Do you remember the movie "Jesus" (starring Jeremy Sisto) where at the end of the film, Jesus walks down the street in modern clothes and welcomes a crowd of children that come running at him? Well, I just found out the other day while watching the movie with Boris, that what he's saying to the kids is, "What's up?" This disturbed me greatly. Don't ask me why. Anyway, that's completely irrevelant. Let's go on with the Christmas post!

It was the first time we were able to celebrate Christmas on the 25th, and also the first time we celebrated Christmas with no one else but our family. Christmas dinner was very laid back, relaxed, and enjoyable, not to mention yummy if I may say so myself! LOL!

I made Christmas dinner and had a hard time figuring out how much 8 people would eat on Christmas. I found out that we're not such big eaters, and although I thought I made barely enough, we had some left overs and everybody ate till every corner of their stomachs were packed and stuffed.

Menu:

*Fried Chicken
*Mashed Potatoes with gravy
*Pasta
*Cream Stew with biscuits
*Salad
*Apple Pie
*Punch

After dinner and the dishes, we watched "Enchanted" all together, and that includes Dad and Mom. I wasn't so sure how they'd like it esp. since Dad doesn't like comedies, and cringes when Owen Wilson, Jacky Chan, Mr. Bean and Jim Carey are on screen, but they both really enjoyed the film.

Me: Hey, Dad, how did you like the movie?
Dad: I like her.
Me: Gazelle?
Dad: Yes. I think she's cute.
Me: Ah! So, you're into stupid-princess-like-girls?
Dad: That's why I married your Mother!
Me: Ahhhhh, right...
Dad: Don't tell her I said that. Hahaha!
Me: No worries Dad. She won't find out!

I ended my Christmas with a hot bubble bath-- alcohole in one hand, and dark chocolate in the other-- with my favorite songs playing in the background. It's most relaxing. You should give it a try when you feeling like treating yourself to something extra special. Hot bathes are my most recent, new "thing"--perfect after a long day in the kitchen (which is every day, 'cuz I cook all the meals.)
Anyway, I had a good Christmas.
Check out the photos.

Christmas Morning

Akari says...

Our Christmas tree looked extra nice and inviting with all the wrapped presents underneath, especially so because today is Christmas and we can finally rip off the wrappings and enjoy the presents.
But before we opened the presents, we first ate the chocolate-chip scones that Eiko made for us, and we read a few Christmas stories on Mama Online. It made me forget about the presents for the time being but as soon as the stories ended, I felt like wiggling out of m y chair to get a hold of my presents, totally forgetting whose birthday it actually was.
Anyway, afer the prayer, we kids ventured slowly towards the mountain of presents.
When almost all of the presents were gone, I decided that this was the time to give Ai her present. Before we left TOM Home, Yuya and I decided to give a secret present to Ai. IT's a book called 'The Silmarillion'. She always wanted this book and I think my best present was seeing Ai's shocked expression when she opened thge present. This present was better than my new pair of boots and my ne MP3 put together!!
I will let Eiko post about the dinner because she made it and it's almost time to watch our movie.
I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

Our New Home Name is...

We were all sitting around the dinner table on Christmas Eve as we discussed what our new home's name should be and things were sounding desperate.

Dad: What about the Healing Cottage?

Me: I don't know which one is worse--"Healing Cottage" or "Little House on the Prairie" (Little House on the Prairie was a name Dad was originally insistent on, and one that I would cringe at)

Yuriko: I'm still voting for Porcas. You know how they stick the names of couples together, like Brangelina? Paul and Dorcas stuck together would be Porcas. Or the other way around would do just fine: Doal!! Being that Mom is the dominent one in the relationship, it would be more appropriate if her name came first. *snicker

Yuya: What about Nasu Home? It's simple, and ...well,...safe.

Me: I liked Blades home. That was a cool name for a home...

Akari: I like that name. Let's be Blades Home.

Mom: Or New Blades Home or something.

Yuriko: Or! What about BaJiNa? B stands for Banana and you know how Dad loves bananas. J stands for Jesus, and N stands for Nasu! We could so be the BaJiNa Home!! Or NaiJaBa. Same thing, same meaning, you know.

Nozomi: I like Yuriko's ideas best!!

And all this went on for quite a while, and can you guess which name our New Home ended up with?

None of the above, ( Thank Heavens!!)

The genius among us by the name of Ai, came up with "Ichthus". It was settled in a matter of seconds.

Doesn't it sound fantastic?

Not convinced about how cool our new home name is?

Well, read on!!!

Ichthys or Ichthus (Greek: ἰχθύς, capitalized ΙΧΘΥΣ or ΙΧΘΥC) is the ancient and classical Greek word for "fish." In English it refers to a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs, the ends of the right side extending beyond the meeting point so as to resemble the profile of a fish, said to have been used by early Christians as a secret symbol and now known colloquially as the "sign of the fish" or the "Jesus fish"

Symbolic meaning

The use of the Ichthys symbol by early Christians. Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ, Greek for fish) can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of several words. It compiles to "Jesus Christ, God's son, savior," in ancient Greek "Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υιός, Σωτήρ", Iēsous Christos, Theou Huios, Sōtēr. (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for Jesus.

• Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for Jesus.
• Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (Χριστóς), Greek for "Christ" or "anointed".
• Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), that means "God's", genitive case of Θεóς, Theos, "God".
• Upsilon (u) is the first letter of huios ( ͑Υἱός), Greek for Son.
• Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for Savior.

So, everybody, we are NOT "The Healing Cottage", nor are we "Naijaba", "Paulcus", "Doal" or "Blades". We are not Nasu Home, or the "Paul and Dorcas Home", We are officially Ichthus!! Remember that, and don't forget it.

One thing I thought was so cool about this name was that it means "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior", and that we named our Home Ichthus on Christmas Eve when the world is celebrating Jesus' birth. It's very significant, if you'd ask me.

Some pictures of our Christmas Eve gathering, the Christmas tree, presents, etc.

Greetings from Nasu!

Eiko says...

Ladies, gentlemen, the rest of our team (Dad, Nozomi, Akari, Yuya and Ai) has arrived, and the Internet is up and working!

These past few days have been insanely busy for all of us with the whole moving deal going on, and we're looking forward to celebrating Christmas tomorrow in our new home. At first I wasn't so sure about how things will be over here, but I've made up my mind that I like it for the time being. The house looks homey with the furniture in place, the neighborhood is quiet, (although with us here, things will change in that department) the nature is beautiful, and the people are nice--much nicer then people in Tokyo. Yup, I like it.

I was hoping for a white Christmas, and at one point, I thought we just might have one as it snowed almost everyday since coming here, but the last 2 days have been warm, and most of the snow has melted. No worries though. It's freakin' cold over here, and it's bound to snow sooner or later. Before winter is over, I'll be sick of snow.

And may I introduce 4 of our new neighbors that I've had the pleasure of being acquainted with recently: Brandon, Sergei, River and Heath! They smell like cow manure, and that's probably because they just happen to be cows! Boris fell in love with all 4 of 'em the moment she laid eyes on them, and she fondly named them after her favorite dead male celebrities. The coolest part is that she can actually tell which name belongs to which cow when to me they all look the same. They live right next door, and we're all determined to live here in Nasu long enough to learn to communicate with them, just like how Kronk in the Emperor's New Groove can communicate with the chip monks.

I will upload pictures of our new home, how the rooms are set up, the neighborhood and the cow-friends as soon as I can, but for now, below is the only new pic of the house:

Our Dinning Room/kitchen



Here's a gigantic thank you to every person and every Home that helped with donations, and support! I was thinking of listing names, but decided against it as there are so many of you who helped, supported and prayed for us. We appreciate every little and big bit you contributed, and couldn't have done it without you. Have a Merry Christmas, and may the good Lord bless your giving souls!

We're moving!!

Akari says...
This is finally the end of all postponing. We're going to move to our new home tomorrow and I'm so excited.
I scrubbed the oven today and I bet it wasn't cleaned for 5 years. It was caked with hardened grese and oil, and it took me and A.Maria at least an hour to clean it. But that task had to be done because the oven was the landlady's, and I don't think she would be too happy to see it in that condition.
Anyway, We're all quite tired and are ready for some good sleep. I'm soo sorry this blog post is short. There's no internet conection over there so we have to buy an e-mobile. Till then, well, no posts.
And now, I have to pack the computer so I have to go. Bye!

Art

Akari says...

I had time to make this christmas card because our moving always gets postponed. And we just might be able to move tomorrow...IF the roads aren't icy. Please pray so that we can move as soon as we can.

bye bye tom home

Peoples, I'm moving to our new home at 7 A.M. tomorrow, and I'm not coming back!!
I'll blog as soon as our internet gets set up over there, so until then this blog will be very inactive.

Merry Christmas, ladies and gentlemen!!

Adios!

tsukareta... MAJI DE!

Eiko says...

It is finished.

I'm not dead. Just paralyzed.

The Open House went nicely despite everything being short notice.

I ended up making yet another cake this morning in addition to the chocolate cake I baked last night after realizing that the choco cake would be no where near enough. It came out to be pretty good.

I stayed in the kitchen all day from breakfast to dinner... I didn't like that too much.

But I'm alive!!

And tomorrow is our last day at T.O.M Home. The next day is official, 'moving' day. Pray that all will flow smoothly, for health, and joy unspeakable.

Merry Christmas!

Eiko is dead.

Eiko says...

I really, REALLY dislike Open House baking. I've been disliking Open House baking for quite a few years now, but I've continued to bake for our yearly Open House despite my negative feelings.

Just like with anything else, I like doing things when I'm inspired to do them, and this certainly applies to baking. I can bake fairly well when I'm inspired about what I'm about to bake. When I'm NOT inspired,...well, it's simply a disaster! That's why I do believe I witness a Christmas Miracle every year when our visitors go ranting and raving about how delicious the no-inspiration-cookies that I've baked are!

This year, like all the other years, I was asked to bake cookies. Unlike all the other years though, I was asked to make the cookies on the last day. This messed with my groove as baking is a big deal for me, and I like planning, and knowing what and when and how I bake whatever I bake. So I quickly looked up a recipe, and spent all day baking cookies and packaging them, going out for ingredient shopping as well as cooking lunch. I was originally on dinner cook as well, but the good Lord knows what I'm NOT capable of, and that would be staying in the kitchen ALL day, and He saved me from that form of torture. Cooking dinner in addition to all the kitchen work I've been doing would have K-I-L-L-E-D me!

Anyway, I was literally exhausted by the end of the day to say the least, and all I could think of after dinner was taking a shower and getting the cookie-smell out of my hair. (Pet Peeve: my hair and clothes smelling like whatever I cooked) So you could imagine how I reacted to my Dad hitting me over the head with a, "Sweetheart, do you think you could bake us a cake for tomorrow's party? I really don't think we could possibly have a Christmas party without a cake!" I'm afraid I let my jaw drop to the ground and left it hanging there while I tried to make sense of the request.

Huh? Bake a cake? Am I suppose to know what that means? How does one bake a cake? I don't know what an oven is. The words flour, sugar, Baking Powder, and even salt can't be found in my vocabulary right now.

etc. etc.

Of course, I did end up baking the cake. In fact, I just pulled out of the oven. It smells like a chocolate cake, so it must be one. After all, I did put cocoa in it.

Now I'm beyond exhausted.

I just found out that I'll be doing all the cooking tomorrow. Wow. Okay, I think I'll need another Christmas Miracle in addition to the visitors liking my baking...I need to somehow be alive tomorrow!

Happy 13th Birthday, Akari!!!

Eiko says...



What can I say? You're a smart, adorable, sweet, funny, witty, artistic, and musical 13 year old!
You're thoughtful and caring and mature, and despite your adolescent ways, you always have a way of making me smile, even if it's a smile I'm smiling inside as I correct you and give you more quiet time assignments!! Heh!
Your future is bright, sweetie! May this year be your best yet!! Muuuuuah!