Thanksgiving 2018

So the kids get the week off from school, which is really nice.
Monday we did a zombie scavenger hunt with my mtb buddy Teresa and her kids and Kim's boyfriend, Chris, and his girl.
We started off by the city council building and went from there to take pictures of certain things etc.
It was fun for the kids but could've been better.
We started off by getting pizza for lunch and hanging out then doing it.
Piper and Masaru came cause I think they thought it'd be cooler, but they ended up thinking it was kinda lame, which I can totally see.
We went into this coffee shop which had some cool stuff in it then headed home and hung out.
Tuesday I picked up Nydia's kids and they spent the afternoon and part of the night with us.
It was good for the kids to have mates and they made a little money picking up acorns for me.
Yuki ended up going to the movies with Susie and Masaru hung out with Wesley for a little while.
Wednesday we all packed our bags and got ready to leave.
Masaru and Dru went to the foodbank with the youth and then came home and we all left for Utah to spend Thanksgiving with Dru's parents and brother's family.
His sisters were going to go camping in Yosemite but the weather was crap and their kids were sick, so they ended up doing their own thing in their respective places.
We didn't make it to Utah till around 9pm and hung around with Grandma and Grandpa until it was time for bed.
Grandma had just come back from Africa and so had plenty to talk about that trip and showed the kids some pictures of the animals she'd seen and the adventures she'd been on.
While Grandma was gone, Grandpa decided to get a dog. Her name is Rae and she's a mongrel and pretty cute. She's still getting used to life with Grandpa and I don't think he's her favourite. I think she's like women and girls.
Rae loved Yuki and it was pretty sweet to see her with her. It almost makes me want to get a dog except now I'm home and don't have a dog, and I remember that I like it that way.
Grandpa is helping this next weekend and so will bring Rae down, which helped Yuki when she had to leave.
Rae's had diarrhea because Grandpa decided to feed her spicy ribs. So he's been paying for that act for the last week and so leaves her in her kennel a bunch and we all feel sorry for her.
She started getting better by the time we left though.
Grandpa would tell us not to take her out of her kennel when he was gone, so we'd wait till he was gone and take her out and play with her the whole time he was gone, then quickly put her back when he came home.
You should see her with the kids. She comes alive and is happy. She's just a puppy, so I think chasing the kids around is fun for her you know.
Hopefully she'll be ok man. She doesn't bark and is pretty sweet. So we'll see how it all goes. Grandma is taking it pretty well, so that was nice.
Here's a video of the kids with her.



Pretty cute right?

Thanksgiving day we slowly got up and I knitted for a while.
I'm trying to get Kristin's top done for Christmas and am almost there.
We helped with a little of the prep. work and Dru made apple pies as well for the meal. A couple of pumpkin pies were brought out of the freezer as well, for those that like pumpkin pie. That is not me. Dru's apple pie is the best and I won't bother branching out to store bought pie, especially pumpkin. Like Ryan said "Is this store bought pie?" "Yep" "Ok not worth my time" and walked away hahahahahaha
Dru's pie doesn't need anything either, no cream, no ice cream, nothing. That's the mark of a truly good pie, one that can be eaten on it's own, no embellishments. His Grandmother was the same way with the things she cooked, like her sushi, if you dipped her sushi in soy sauce you got an earful, trust me.
Ryan popped in with the twins all day back and forth. It was good to see him and the twins. Masaru was especially happy to see the twins and be with them. He stuck with them the whole day, which was nice. I'm glad he's got them.
Ryan did the turkey this year and it was his first time. We figured since Shauna had just gotten back from Africa, it'd be nice for her not to have to stress about that.
It really didn't seem that stressful to be honest. It was pretty awesome.
He smoked the turkey and it was pretty amazing.
It was nice to hang out with everyone most of the day.
We didn't eat until 4:30pm which made the day pretty chill.

Because there was only a few of us, we could all fit at the 'big kid' table. It was really nice.
Shauna said the prayer and it was about her love of her country and how great America is. It was interesting.
I decided since this was a special time where we could all fit, we should go around and say what we're thankful for. I liked it. I started off by saying that we all assume you're most thankful for Jesus and your family, so branch out and tell us something else.
I can't remember everyone's but I'll try to remember.
Les was the heat in her house.
Ryan was MAYBE his job?
Mas I can't remember
Shauna was her things since in Africa she saw such poverty she was grateful for what she had.
I think Tate was his friends
Masaru I can't remember
Takeshi was his mountain bike
Seth was the gospel
Yuki I can't remember
Emiko's was food
Dru's was his job
Mine was genuine relationships.
It was nice. The food was wonderful and the conversation was mostly about Shauna's Africa trip.
Les and I stayed and listened to Shauna's trip while the boys all went and cleaned up.
Then we all hung out for the rest of the night.
We played the game settlers, where Dru smoked us all then we hung out in the living room and talked the night away.
Dru had a headache and so slept on the couch and eventually went to bed.
We were planning on going to a movie but Ryan was tired too and wanted to go to bed. Bunch of party poopers man.
So Les, the kids and I stayed up and talked and hung out till around 10:30pm then everyone went to bed.
I stayed up and knitted a bit but Mas man has made the living room also his bedroom and sleeps on the chair by the fire. So it tends to get a little awkward if you wanna hang out cause it kinda changes to being his bedroom ...............so there's that as well.

Friday Dru and I got up at around 8ish and decided to go look at some deals at rec. outlet. They had some stuff on sale that we wanted to see if they still had.
They totally did, so we totally got a couple of things for our camping and backpacking needs. It's been nice hitting that place each black friday, so we can expand on our camping gear.
We then just came home and hung out with the kids and played games.
Since they didn't have their cuzzies there with them, apart from Masaru, Dru and I had to step up our game and spent quality time with the kids. It was nice. We played a bunch of different games with them.
Then we decided to go to the movies while Grandma napped. Jet lag wasn't doing her well, so an afternoon of quiet was on the ticket.
We went to the local theater and the kids watched "Wreck it Ralph" while Ryan, Les, Dru and I watched 'Instant Family'

What a cute movie. I LOVED it. I was crying and laughing and crying and laughing. I'd recommend it if you haven't seen it. So wonderful.

I then went home and did some yoga and showered for dinner that night with mates.

Dru texted his high school buddies to see if they could all meet for dinner this night at Kyoto restaurant. It turned out that everyone totally could. It was the first time in a couple of years that they could and it was pretty neat.

We always meet Puggs and Stacey and ride with them to the restaurant and then Travis and Mandi usually come and sometimes Matt, but Dave and Chris could come as well and it was a full night with lots of laughing, memory lane time and good food. So awesome.

So Chris is in the front with his wife Corine opposite him. Then Matt is poking his head up behind Chris, opposite Matt is Dave and behind Dave is Travis and opposite Travis is his wife Mandi, then behind Travis is Puggs and Stacey in the way back with us.
Good times.



I don't know the best way to accommodate a large amount of people who wanna talk you know. A revolving table? hahaha We made it work though and went out for ice cream afterwards but it was closed so talked a little in the rain and said our goodbyes to everyone.
Puggs, Stacey, Dru and I didn't miss out on ice cream, however. We stopped at coldstone in Bountiful and got a caramel apple and ice cream and talked the night away some more. We stayed so long talking that Puggs and Dru went in for seconds hahahaha
What a great night.

Saturday Dru and I got up early and got Masaru and Yuki up with us to head up to Park City outlets to do a little shopping.
Yuki had said that for Christmas she wanted Van shoes and there's a Vans outlet up there. So we headed up.
It'd snowed that morning, which was exciting, but it wasn't much though. It just made shopping cold and wet.
Yuki found some shoes that'd work and Masaru found some shoes that'd work for him too. Dru and I paid for half of Masaru's shoes and he's gonna pay us back for the other half as he doesn't really need shoes. What he needs is pants. He's the same size as his cousins so the gravy train clothes department has shut down on us and we have to purchase clothes for Masaru, which is kinda suckie hahaha
I don't like shopping. So we'll see how that goes.
Dru found himself some jeans and I found myself a mtb jacket for the colder weather. So we all won in the shopping department which was nice.

Masaru proceeded to tell us, in one of the shops, that he'd shaved the night before while we were out with our mates at dinner.

I couldn't believe it!! We'd totally missed it. His first shave. He shouldn't have done it. I think he thinks it's exciting but he'll regret it and we told him that. He shaved his armpits as well, which I have no idea why he'd do that. We said he'd regret that as well. I put something up on instagram about how I felt about it at the time. So I'll paste it here.

This guy just informed me that he shaved last night for the first time WHILE WE WERE OUT. We weren’t even around 😢 He said he didn’t like his fake looking mustache 🤣 I can’t even get enough of this guy ........ he makes me laugh all the time and cry cause he’s growing up too fast. Teen life is rough because it seems like your on a fast track front row seat to your child growing up and leaving and there’s nothing you can do about it but watch and be present the best you can for it until they finally leave the knife in your heart and move forward to live a wonderful life without you, which is what I want but it’s emotional. Ok crazy rant over.

We got back and Takeshi and Emiko had been playing card games with Grandma which was nice of Grandma. They had fun with her.
We then headed over to our mates, Trevino's, house.
We dropped the kids off, as their kids are the same ages as ours and they kinda know each other, then us four adults all headed out to lunch at a vietnamese soup restaurant. Laura had gotten the kids pizza so they wouldn't starve, which was nice.

Their soup was amazing. Nice and healthy and fresh and it was just what I needed. The conversation is always good with these two as well. I love seeing them and catching up with the latest. They know the area well as well and where the good food is. I love it.
We also saw Dave's work and saw some amazing pictures he's taken. I walked up to one picture and said "This reminds me of home" and then he told me "I took that in NZ" so I'd totally called it hahahaha
He's so gifted. He's amazing. I'm glad he's done so well with his talent. He deserves it. He travels a bit though and Laura does really well with him doing that. They're really great friends which is nice to be around.
We then also headed to get some dessert at a place in downtown. I forget what it's called but it was pretty good. Dave got some ice cream that reminded me of a lolly from NZ as well. It was pretty awesome.
We came back to their house and the kids hadn't killed each other which was great. They all had had a good time.
We helped Laura get some things ready for their party later on that night and then played bananagrams together.
It was way fun.

 We never get a photo together and so I forced us to do something.

I think it turned out pretty cute. I'm glad we still hang out and see each other.

We then came home and had dinner together with Grandma and Grandpa.
Then Masaru and Ry, Les, Tate and Dru and I all went to see Robin Hood at the movies. It was really good. Another winner.
I liked that we all went to a couple of great movies together this weekend.
We then came home and collapsed in bed.

Sunday the Grands went to church and Rae was crying.
I got up and did Yoga with her watching, just to keep her company.
Grandpa put a note on her cage telling us NOT to let her out.
So we let her out for the 2 hours he was gone hahahaha
She did great and was happy, no accidents, played with the kids and was pretty cute.

Dru and I packed and the kids cleaned and ate and we slowly got ready to head back to Boise.
We got packed up and had lunch with Shauna and Mas and Ryan and his sons came over for lunch as well. We all talked and hung out till it was time to leave.
Ryan showed us this video of a kiwi kayaker who almost died. It was horrible man.
Then we headed home to Boise.
We were so excited about Christmas we unpacked and then got the decorations out and started decorating the house. I knew a box was missing but left it till the next day to finish off.
Now all we need is a tree!!!

What a wonderful week. I loved seeing everyone and am truly grateful for the friendships we have and the good times that were had with family as well. The week was just what I needed and I"m grateful for that.

Random collection of family life

Alright, how about we begin with Masaru aye?
He's having a blast with wrestling. He's winning most of his matches but just did a tournament this weekend and lost both of them.
I felt bad for him. Some of these kids are good man.
It was nice though, cause then he didn't spend the ENTIRE saturday at a wrestling meet and with us doing his chores, earning money from a neighbour and getting out of the red with us for the first time in months, and being with his family. So I was ok with it and I think he was in the end.
His body is sore too, so secretly I was happy he lost both as he's been quite sore from it all lately, and I worry about that.
I dunno man, it seems a bit rough on his body and he's only 13 you know. I worry.
Here's a video of one of his matches the other week.



Then the other day I was up all night as I couldn't sleep and had to get up early to drop Dru off to the airport and so slept in.
Masaru woke up and Yuki helped him with his crazy hair day at school. I'm glad they took a picture of it for me.
They've been doing things all week. Like wearing certain colours and doing certain themes. Masaru's gotten into it which I think is cool.




And here's a video of their gross room that gets neglected due to business and sports and such. Don't worry it's spic and span now.
I often am amazed at how quickly a room can go from perfectly ok to a bomb site. Such is the life of boys right!!
Moving on.


Here's Takeshi's dessert the other night. He decided it looked like a face and wanted to take a picture.
Takeshi is doing well and sang in the stake church choir on Sunday. It was pretty cute and the opportunity was given to him because of his stay with the Bleazards.
It got us some nice seats at the front and all the kids did a really good job.
I don't do the best job at parenting Takeshi and need to do better. He's very different from the other kids and I need to figure out how to do better.

Here's the next art auction piece for the school to sell. This one is Takeshi's class one and I've finished it all bar the kids step, which will be easy and quick enough. So that's nice.
I just found out another teacher is in need of help though, so I'm going to help her out.
So I'll have four pieces in the auction. Hopefully they'll all do well. We'll see.


So we were given the wood and Dru sanded it for me and got it nice and smooth and the edges rounded a little.
Then I drew the outline on it.
Then a friend let me borrow her wood burning tool and I went around the outside of what I drew.



After that I used the dark stain for the tree part.



Then my girlfriend printed out these numbers on her vinyl machine which was way nice of her.
So I stuck those on as you can see from this video.
Then I put a final finish over it 3 times to get it all sealed and nice and protected.
Last step is for the kids to draw on little wooden discs and put a seal over them and then I'll woodglue those on and we'll have a measuring board!!
I feel good about getting it all done.

Our pumpkins are looking great. Time to throw them out.







Kids think it's hilarious and so wanted to get pictures hahaha

Here is some of Emiko's work from school.



She says she's grateful for Gunnar (mate), family, Keegan (friend), Santa, water and friends. Pretty cute.

This one says:
I like frogs.
I like horses.
Do you have a dog?
Do you have a rat?
Etc Actually I don't know what this is about so I'll stop interpreting it actually. It was cute so I took a picture of it.

I really liked this saying in a book I'm reading at the moment. I figured I'd share it with Masaru.

 Next we can talk about Yuki.
Here's her list of chores she had to do the other Saturday. She likes to write out a list and mark it off. I get it as it's always good to mark off a list you know.
She cracks me up man. She's so good. The other's just roll around and cry about it for a while or do a crap job.

 She was with Caleb the other day and his mum always sends me pictures of them hanging out. These are the ones from the other day.
Yuki decided to try his violin. She did great.

 Caleb teaching her.

Them hanging out on a tree. This is a nice picture. I love it.




Then we went over to Nawang's house for dinner the other night. She's back in her old house and her divorce from John is final. It's really sad but she feels good and happy and that's great you know.
It was nice to be with her and Jojo and Tashi. They're so great to us.
Dru was in Baja and so being with them was good company.

 Pretty cute photo's and video of them playing around.
They had so much fun that Emiko threw up.
It was horrible. At least it was mostly on her clothes, so that helped a ton.

So much fun.
It's good to have good mates.
Dru was gone to the Baja having a good time with his homies.
With him being working hard on the shop for months and leaving for work and play I haven't seen him much and it's taking a toll on my finally.
I had a bit of a breakdown and a rough week.
I think I've been strong and helpful and supportive and I think it all just fell down around me and I was a mess for a few days.
I cried a lot and Dru was worried about me, but I'm alright. I guess you can't run on empty for too long right?
I'm glad for good friends and for an open communication with Dru so we can work on things together.
I didn't tell him anything cause I didn't want him to worry you know. I guess you need to find a balance.

Sacramento

So Dru and I flew into Sacramento Friday lunchtime. Kristin came and picked us up with Kate, which was really nice.
We went back to their place to see it, for the first time.
It's a really nice house in a cal-de-sac and so that's awesome. Kristin always does a great job with making her place look good. Something I admire since I'm not good at it, or care to be really.
I'm sure she's slowly make it hers and it'll be even better than it is. It's roomie and I think will be great for their family for sure.

Luke came in from SLC to be with his family for the winter and then Ryan's family came in with Mas from the airport and Brooke and her family came in as well. So we were all together that night at Kristin's house which was pretty awesome and way random. Who knew that all of us would be there for this weekend! Pretty great.

We stayed up late talking and I stayed up knitting and fell asleep on the couch.



The next day we got up slowly, had breakfast and hung out till it was time to go to Auntie Mickey's luncheon that we were all there for.

It was a really nice luncheon celebrating this wonderful ladies life. I didn't know her but was happy to be there and listening to all the stories about her and happy to be a part of it.
She wrote a book which I'm excited to read and might read it out loud to my kids so they can hear about their family history and what life was like and about.
She was in the camps for a while and was sold to a family as a child to pay off her father's gambling debts. Yet she's so positive and just sucked it up, so to speak.
It's amazing to me and I'm excited to read more about her life and who she is as a woman. It was a blessing to be there and to be able to sit and admire her.

We got to meet family that I haven't met before which was really nice.
We talked and talked then headed back to her sons house for dinner and more family talking as well.
Her grandson married a girl from Sth Africa and so I talked to her for a while, which was really nice. It was good meeting them. I hope I can see them again one day soon.
We headed back to Kristin's house and stayed up talking again.
This time Brooke and I lasted the longest with Kate and the twins.

The next morning I went to Yoga with Kristin and it was the best class I've been to. I was laughing and secretly crying a little. I wish I lived closer so I could attend the class once a week.
I love yoga. I'm grateful Kristin took me and grateful to the instructor who I'll never meet again.

When we got back we had some breakfast and hung out as a family and talked and I knitted. It was really nice and what I love the most. I'll always love that on my side as well as Dru's side of the family. I love our families, they make me happy.

Then Ryan's family had to leave and Brooke's family had to leave and it was just Dru and I.
So we decided to go into downtown old Sacramento and have a look around.
I'm glad we did cause there was some cool stuff.

There was this awesome dressups place that had every costume you could imagine and more. It was amazing and I wonder if we have something like that here in Boise?
Here's Dru trying on the 'Beast' mask.
We got a few things for the kids Christmas stockings and called it good. I got myself some earrings as well. I'm always drawn to the earrings.
We also got ourselves some beignets to eat. They were nowhere near as good as New Orleans, BUT they were good nonetheless.

We then went to the old train station and looked at some old trains. They were very intricate and amazingly detailed and looked really heavy. Pretty fascinating.


We got a picture of us down by the river and sat in the smoky sun for a while.
There were massive fires going on down there that burned a town down. The air was very smoky and it was a sad event apparently which is horrible for those people. I hope they can find peace in their chaos.

We then were dropped off at the airport and said our goodbyes. It was a great weekend.
Our plane was late, however and Dru and I were over it, as you are.
I think once you're ready to leave you just wanna leave.
I guess someone might have thrown up or pooped or something and they had to get it properly cleaned up, which I'm totally grateful for.

There was a lady there with her two boys running around and I think a man told her off and walked away.
The boys were like 10 and 7 and were bored man and so were playing tag and such, trying to keep themselves entertained.
She told them to come sit down but they were having fun and I thought nothing of it.
Then Dru said 'She's losing it' in a nice way, not a crazy judgmental way.
I looked at her and saw she was crying and I totally got it.
I've been there and completely empathized with her.
It's so rough to be doing it on your own, number 1, and number 2, the plane is delayed and your kids are bored and over it as well. You know no-one, feeling judged and alone and a little hopeless.
So you start crying cause you have nothing left and it's the only thing you end up doing cause your completely done.
I knew it all.
So I got up straight away and went over to her and gave her a hug.
I looked her in the eye and told her I get it, I've done it before and no one cares or is judging her and if they are...............they don't matter.
I said most of the people here are understanding and she'll be ok. We'll make it on the plane and it'll all work out. Then I gave her a long hug again and let her know she's amongst friends and I 'see' her, she's not alone.
She cried and hugged me, wiped her tears, said thanks and then we all got on the plane.
I hope it helped and she didn't just think I was a crazy woman, which I am that as well, and that she knew she was supported in her rough time for a moment.

That's what I needed when I was at the airport crying years ago when Dru's plane got delayed and I was looking at going to NZ by myself and southwest didn't give a stuff and gave ZERO support to me and my kids. If I could never fly southwest again I wouldn't. But I do. There have been other moments when the staff have helped me and the kids, so I try to look at it as the people that day that let me down, not the airline.
There were two angel ladies on that flight, however, that saw me and supported me the whole flight, they walked with me and the kids all the way to baggage and helped push our bags to our next flight and made sure I got the support I needed.
I don't know who these women were but they 'saw' me and did what it took to support me through my trial.
I get it, and I got this lady in her struggles.
I hope we can always show kindness where kindness is needed to be shown.
I hope I helped that lady and she was ok.
I'll never know, but I knew I had to do it.

We got home, thanks to Nawang, and Takeshi was the first one out giving us hugs. He ran straight passed Dru and hugged me first. I was shocked but took the hug and we went in and talked to the kids.
It was past 9pm and so we could only talk to them for a wee while and then had to get them in bed for the night cause it was school in the morning.
It was good to be home.
It was a great weekend that wouldn't of been possible without of the help of 7 family friends who were willing to help us out.
Thanks to them.

Kids weekend without us

So Dru's great Auntie Mickey had planned a living wake in Sacramento. She's 98 and wanted to do something special while she was still alive, rather than have everyone come when she's dead. I think it's a great idea and told Dru to go for it.

I wasn't planning on going, but then changed my mind and ended up going.

So I had to plan for places for the kids to go, as all of our family who'd we'd usually get help from, were going to be in Sacramento. 

So I kept the girls together since I don't think Emiko would do ok without Yuki.

The first night they went to Cesha's place.

They had a lot of fun with Cesha and Piper and I'm grateful that they had them.



The second night they went to Jobecka's place and had fun there too with Hand and Harper.






They even got to go to some hotsprings which is super fun. They had a great time and I'm grateful to Jobecka for taking them.
Yuki said that Emiko threw a few fits so that's great. Sorry guys.

Takeshi, I sent to the Bleazard's for the weekend. He's the only one I sent for the entire weekend with one family.
Natalie always makes good food for her kids and does a great job so I knew that'd be a match made in heaven for Takeshi. Plus I knew Natalie wouldn't mind.
He had a fun weekend earning money with Carter raking leaves and playing.
He said that on Sunday night he started missing us and our plane got delayed and so that made it tough for him cause he thought he'd see us at 7:30 and he didn't see us until 9pm and we basically hugged him and then sent him straight to bed cause it was late. So I feel bad about that and he went straight to school the next day. So he needed some one on one time with me, so I made sure to give it to him.
I'm grateful to the Bleazard's for taking him for the weekend and keeping him fed, warm and safe.

Masaru spent the first night with his homie Wesley and I think they had fun.
They did a service project Saturday morning and then hung out and rode bikes. Wesley's tire got a flat and while Masaru was trying to find a pump Wesley left and Masaru couldn't find him, so Masaru just came home, showered and went to his second mates' house for the next night.
That's Masaru's story at least.
He didn't go back to Wesley's house so his mother wasn't sure where he was and was worried.
So she came to the house and had a talk to Masaru about letting her know where he was etc.
Lesson learned for Masaru and we had a talk to him about being responsible.
He has a watch phone but we didn't programme Trisha's number in there and we should've. So I felt bad about that one.

Once he got to Kaleb's though he had a great time. They watched movies and Masaru said they fell asleep super early Saturday night which is hilarious.
They went to church and played soccer and ate. They seemed to have a fun time together.


I'm grateful to Tyson for letting Masaru come and stay as their mother was out of town. Tyson is pretty laid back so I knew it'd be ok and am grateful to him and Trisha for looking after Masaru and making sure he was fed and warm.

So there were some ups and downs from the weekend and I'd change a couple of things for sure, but hindsight is always 20/20 right?
It's nice to have good mates to share the load with and to make sure just one person wasn't getting 4 kids for a whole weekend. I figured one kid or two for one night wasn't that much of a big deal.
We also had one friend drop us off at the airport and another pick us up.
So in the end we had 7 friends helping us to make this weekend work.
Just so grateful we have good mates.
Blessings man.

Yuki & the Harlem Globetrotters

Works been busy and I've been traveling a bit, so I missed a few of Yuki's basketball games. Her school choir was chosen to sing the national anthem at the Harlem Globetrotters game, so taking her to the game was the perfect way to make up for it. She had to pay to get in, even though she was singing--good one. And we couldn't go and watch unless we bought a ticket--what a racquet.

It's probably been 30 years since I saw the Harlem Globetrotters as a kid. They're still playing the Washington Generals.



Yuki's choir did great. Afterwards, she came and sat with me. We had pretty good seats, first row in the upper bowl--no one to block our view. It was a great night of skills and comedy. I think Yuki really enjoyed it. I think our favorite part was the trampoline dunks.

Since it was a school night, we bounced after the third quarter and hit Westside Diner on the way home for a burger and shake. We raced back to the car and after a block of sprinting we stopped and I said, 'wait, wait, wait, we don't need to run.' and Yuki said, 'yeah, let's just fast walk.'

Cheeseburgers and a chocolate banana shake ended a good daddy daughter date with Yuki. Love you poohs.

Art, Wrestling and Piano

So they wanted the art auction art done early this year which has come straight after doing all of my coaching. So I've gone from being busy with one thing, right into being busy with another. Then there's the holidays............so it never ends.
I got some ideas together then handed the reigns to the teachers to see what they'd like to do. Mrs. Gibson, Emiko's teacher, decided to do this.
So I got the kids to cut out the papers and then help me glue them all on.
I'm glad it's over.
It's the solar eclipse from last year. So I figured that was fun you know.



Then Mr Herron chose this one and the kids did the water colours and then Lyn and I cut out the butterflies with her machine and then I painfully set them out and stuck them on last night.
I'm glad it's over. I think it turned out cute and hope that someone else thinks so too, enough to want to purchase it. We'll see.

Now I have one more left, which Dru helped me with a little last night. It's the hardest of all three of them and so I don't think that one will be done till after Thanksgiving, which is fine. I'm glad these two are finished with.

Yuki and I spent about an hour putting these up in her room. She loves it and that's awesome.
It's harder than you think to do it well with them looking like they're flying. A couple she did have fallen down and I know what I need to do to get them up there, but to be quite honest can't be bothered. So I guess I'll have to figure that out sooner rather than later. I'm glad she's happy.



Here's an art project I did with Takeshi's class. Pretty cute.

Some mathmatical art Yuki did in class wiht her teacher.

Emiko's writing around Halloween. Pretty cute.

And then this started. Masaru's wrestling.
He loves it and I don't.
So I tried to put on the heat to take it away from him. I told him to get his grades sorted out and do his washing as well as other things. He did them all and with zero support from us, pursued his loved of this sport for another season.
It cost us nothing and the school takes him everywhere and so there's really no reason for me to say no apart from being a grinch.
So we let him do it and it's been a wild success.
Last season he sucked and this season he's only lost once. How crazy is that?
Let me show you some of his matches. Check these out.



Can you believe it? It's crazy and I'm impressed with all of it. Especially since we're not involved at all and he knows it's not our favourite. I'm glad that he's taking some initiative and doing it against all odds. He loves his coaches and is having a blast.
He did come home last night with a sore back though, so he needs to take it easy.
I posted it on instagram and this is what my brother Delwyn said:

He likes the competition, true competition were you either win or lose no middle place no team mates to excuse urself by. In front of everyone wins feel twice as good and loses feep twice as bad, wrestling or any other martial art has so much more on the line. You cant lie about ur training either if you get smoked u know ur not training hard enough. Really proud you got the win masaru, keep going hard smoke them kids ##getthestrap

Then Delwyn put it up on his instagram and said the following:

My nephew Masaru has been dominating at his wrestling this year it gets me super pumped to the point were I bust out a bit of shadow boxing after watching it.

He started last year and got smoked every match but stuck to it and this year he's way better now.

This win shows character because he was getting dealt to at the start but new if he just hung in there he could slowly drag this kid out to deep water and drown him with his cardio and technique, to secure the win.
#wrestling #pumped #neff #shadowboxing#dontgiveup

So it kind've made me feel bad and start to change my attitude a little. Plus my other mate said this:

Wrestling is one of the toughest and most emotional sports there is. It builds character. If you have heart and drive, you will be a champion. Sounds to me like your boy has both of those. I wish him the best! 😊

So I kind've got the mad shame and figured I should give it a shot I guess.
Anyway it's finished after the first week of December and I don't have to do anything so it's pretty great as far as sports go for me I guess. I'm glad he's staying active, cause I know he totally needs that. I'm a little worried once it's over and he still has all of this aggression in him. I'll need to send him out for runs.




Then here's Yuki perfecting her Christmas song on the piano. She sounds amazing and I love it.

Halloween 2018

So the kids got to celebrate Halloween three times this year.
The first was the church 'trunk or treat' where we meet in our carpark and back our cars in and give out candy out of the back of our car. Some people decorate their cars, cause they're awesome, and others, like myself, just show up with candy and sit there handing it out till it's all gone.
They serve dinner as well, which is a double bonus. So I made chilli, dressed up like a cowgirl and invited all I knew to come and join.
I didn't get any pictures so I guess I was having a good time.
The kids had multiple friends there so they were super happy.
That was on the Saturday night before Halloween and I liked it cause it meant the kids could test out their outfits which was awesome.

Then the day of Halloween the kids had their school parade which they love as well as their class parties.




Here's Takeshi showing us his outfit and being crazy as per usual. Is their an outfit for crazy? Maybe we should consider that for next year. Takeshi is Snape from Harry Potter. He figured with his long hair he had a few choices. Snape was the easiest.



Here's Yuki. Luke was with me at the time which was fun for the kids. Yuki was Chihiro from the movie Spirited away. She totally got that outfit for her birthday from Cesha and she loves it. She looked really good. It's a sweet get up and perfect for Yuki.


And apparently I didn't get a video of Emiko which is a bummer.
Later on that night the kids had plans.
Yuki wanted to go with her BFF Caleb. So we dropped her off and she went with them that night.
Masaru wanted to go with his homies, so he took off to do that.
Then I took Takeshi and Emiko and we went to our mates neighbourhood and trick or treated with them. Super fun.




Cowgirl Emikokopops.



Masaru pulled his outfit together and was some 50's Grease, John Travolta, beaten up dude. So who knows what was going on, but it looked great and he was happy with it which is all that matters.




I totally forgot to get pictures of Yuki so told Caleb to take some and send them to me.




Caleb was a zombie ballerina and pulled it off well. This kid isn't afraid of pink or crossdressing.



Crazy kids.



Some pictures of them trick or treating.




Here's some video's of me and the younger kids trick or treating. We went to our mates neighbourhood then went to the same neighbourhood as where Masaru went. It's called 'Wood Duck' and is a richer area with pretty cool decorations. We'd promised Takeshi we'd take him there.
We had a really good night and it was tons of fun. I like Halloween for the most part. I know my kids love it so that's great. What's not to love right?


The kids got a lot of candy.
It's pretty crazy man.
This doesn't include the candy they got at the trunk or treat at the church a few days earlier.
So we did a few things with it.
Dru took a bag for when he goes to Baja in a couple of weeks.
I took some out for the kids stockings at Christmas time since things are tight due to the shop.
I also took some out for my brother's family, since I have them this Christmas season. If my sister doesn't come over, however I might not send it cause postage is a rip off. So we'll see.
The kids still have candy now but they're slowly devouring it.
Pretty crazy right?