Baby Mark's birthday!!!

Our baby Mark turned one year old today-28th of December. Unbelievable!

A year ago, at this time, we were patiently waiting for his arrival, hoping that he'd come before Robert's Christmas vacation was over. My due date was January 5th, but as always I was a little early.

Mark's nickname is Speedy. And speedy he was:) I will not go into all the details of my birthing story, but I have to say that I didn't even REALLY know that I was in labor until about 2 hours before he was born. At 4:20 am we left our house (our friends, Knudsens, drove over to watch Katya and Alex sleep). At 4:35 am we were checked in at the hospital. And at 4:55 Mark was born! Water broke with one contraction and Mark came out with the next one. A whopping 9 lbs 6 oz (second biggest) and 20.5 in long.

Fort Walton Beach Medical Center-Dec. 28, 2008 around 5 am

I remember that Robert was home by 8 am that morning, got kids ready for church and actually was at church at 9 am. Mom (that is me, of course) was feeling fantastic:)

Mark is 1 day old

Florida was the perfect place to have a winter baby. We were out and about a couple weeks after the delivery.

Mark is 4 weeks old

Mark is 11.5 months old

We love you Mark! You are one of the greatest blessings in our life. The happiest and the sweetest baby ever! Being the third child and the youngest one is not always easy but it has its own perks too:) You know, what I am talking about, Markovka.

Happy Birthday!

Christmas photo session

I love taking pictures. Katya loves being in my pictures. Alex does not like me taking pictures of him, he just likes taking them. Baby Mark loves when I take pictures of him....IF he is the only one that is in those pictures.

Anyway, if I showed you a slideshow of our Christmas photo shoot, you'd see how crazy our kids behave when we are trying to have all three of them look at the camera at the same time. Yes, I could have just taken candid pictures of them doing whatever together, but I needed to see their faces just this one time.
We had some good ones:

This is so Alex...

My Favorite of all three of them

As good as it gets

And not so good ones:

I kept this one so I can show Katya what she looks like when she is about to attack Alex (or me). Do you like my penguin pjs?

Things that happen when you shop online

A little background on this story.

Robert has this friend (well he is my friend too, sort of...most of the time) at work who shall not be named and who wears Crocs. Because Robert really likes this guy and looks up to him, and, let's be honest, wants to be like him, he decided that he needs to get a pair of Crocs to wear to work as well. So, as a loving wife, I went on ebay and bought him a pair of white Crocs--not the most fabulous looking shoes, in my opinion.

So here is where the story gets interesting. When the package came, the shoes looked just as described new and with tags. At first we were quite happy with the purchase, since the shoes were going to really make Robert look like that friend at work who shall not be named. Well, after Robert had been wearing them around the house for a couple of HOURS, he noticed that the shoes were mismatched! They were the same color and the same size. But there was one quite a noticable difference. One looked like this:

And the other one looked like this:

See the difference? The vents!

Anyway, I emailed the seller asking him to let me know how I could send one shoe back and how he could send me a matching shoe. It's a hassle, but I didn't have any other choice.

12:55 AM--I hear beeping. I keep hearing beeping and it's not going away, it's not an alarm clock, I poke Robert on his elbow, and he mumbles, "It's our Vonage phone". Oh yeah, of course!

When I picked up the phone, it took me a minute to realize with whom I was speaking. It was the seller guy who was calling to apologize about the mistake. When I said something about stationed in Japan, he started apologizing even more because he woke us up. And after that, he expressed his great appreciation for everything we do serving our country. He said he thought that we were in FL (because our area code in Vonage is still a FL number), that's why he called. He promised to send the right shoe and asked me to send the extra shoe back.

The next morning, I received an email from the seller again! He wrote this: "Sorry for the phone call. Also as a thank you for serving our country and my mistake, I will just send you the other two shoes. that way you'll have two matching pairs. Thank you, have happy and safe holidays. May God bless you and keep you safe".

Pretty cool, huh.

I need to thank Robert more often for serving his country. I usually don't think about what he does as serving the US, but the truth is--he is. And I am very proud of him (as long as he doesn't have to go fight Ukrainians or something).

Chrysanthemum Festival at Hirosaki castle 弘前城

I can't believe we have been in Japan for almost 4 months now!  Time has flown by so quckly.  As proof, this post is one month overdue, as the chrysanthemum festiveal in Hirosaki was sometime in early November (I think).  Better late than never.  Anyway, we took our first family day trip to Hirosaki, about 3 hours away.  The drive was beautiful as we traveled first through several scattered rural villages and then straight through the mountains -- literally.  I didn't count, but there were at least five tunnels of significant length, including one that was about 2 miles long.  With all the earthquakes, I couldn't help but wonder how these tunnels survive. 

So we arrived in Hirosaki to enjoy the chrysanthemums, which for such a long name is a rather simple looking flower.  I'll get into that later though.  I know you're checking out this post for the pictures, so without further achoo, I mean adoo, here you are:

Katya with Mt.Iwasaki-mura of the Shirakami mountains in the background (yes, a volcano). 

Alex decided to check out the view too, although I don't know how much he saw through the coin-operated binoculars because we didn't put any money in.

At first glance this is just a picture of Katya and Alex at the bottom of some stairs, but with that assumption dear friends and family, you would be quite wrong. It is in fact a shot of Alex falling down the stairs.  No easy feat snapping this shot I assure you.

Don't worry, he's okay.

After Alex's harrowing escape from injury, I attempted to comfort him (as well as distract him and Katya from interrupting Lyana who was trying to get baby Mark to fall asleep in the stroller) by checking out the local wildlife.  Here in Japan there are black ladybugs with red spots, and the kids are really fascinated by these bewildering backward beetles.

Here is a Alex runing toward me, practically tears, because he just accidentally squashed that ladybug in his hand.

Yeaaaaa!  They have seesaws in Japan!!  Real teeter-totters.   From Utah to Minnesota to Florida, the litigation fairies have removed practically every teeter-totter from every playground in America.  But here in this glorious country where parents are held responsible for their own children's mistakes (instead of the guy who painted the see-saw aqua-marine).

Besides flowers that can't be pronounced, Hirosaki is famous for apples.  So part of the celebration was a display of different apple-related artwork, such as this painted apple barrel.  They are also famous for their "apple pies" which are not much more than a whole, cored apple wrapped up in dough and baked.

Alex and Mark hanging out in another apple barrel.

Okay, so I guess it's time to show a some chrysanthemum creations.  Here are a few "statues" covered in flowers (note the samurais' pants and armor).  Due to a chyrysanthemum shortage, the two statues to your left had to be clothed in standard children's attire as an alternative.

Behind the picture-perfect family in this photo is the Hirosaki castle (constructed in 1611 by the local Tsugaru clan) and a chrysanthemum boat in the moat. Try saying chrysanthemums three times fast.  I can barely say it once.

Mark made a new friend.

Those are all apples by the way.

I don't think the pandas are actually made from chrysanthemums, chrysanthemums, chrysanthemums, but those are chrysanthemums, chrysanthemums, chrysanthemums in the pots.

Ever seen chrysanthemum + shrubbery elephants?

Me neither.

Free train ride.  Not as fast as the bullet train, but still fun.  When I sat down in front of Alex (I barely fit) the conductor who sat on the black seat in the back told me not to turn around to take pictures of the kids behind me, apparently to prevent the train from tipping over.

After touring the gardens, we purchased tasty ice cream cones from this grandmotherly street vendor for 100 yen each (about $1).  These carts can be found all over the place. 

Finally, the best picture of all.  Here is the sweet, and brave, woman who ventured halfway around the globe with me.  Here, standing at the entrance to the Hirosaki castle gardens.

Till next time I make the time to write another post,

Robert