Did you ever have one of those days when everyone around you is a stinky-pants? No amount of cuddling, rocking, singing, feeding, etc will do any good because everyone (in this case, two little ones in particular) have decided to be unhappy. But here we are at 3:00 pm, and Nana and I have outlasted them and their bad moods. They’re both asleep. And I’m detoxing. And Nana is probably upstairs thanking God that she’s only visiting.

There’s Emma, after a screaming fit, resting on Nana. Not sure what Emma’s problem was, although my guess is that she finally figured out who was doing all the squealing and screaming while she was in utero…

Ah, yes, there she is. And looking like she’s in a spectacular mood! Ana had a DPT shot last week, followed by an MR shot this week. (Soon to be followed by a mumps shot and a chicken pox shot. Yeah, stinks to be Ana.) She’s quite irritated with everyone as a result.

Anyway, life is returning to normal. A new normal, but normal nonetheless.

To celebrate this new normal, I finally packed away my maternity clothes. I say “finally” because even though I did have a three month break of not being pregnant, I feel like I wore those same clothes for two years straight. It’s good to pack them away and know that I won’t be getting them out again for a good, long while. (Of course, I said that last time, and you see how well that all worked out, huh?) It’s taken a lot of organizational work to change out my closet, and in an effort to make life easier in general, I’ve taken it a step further and tried to organize everything in our house. It’s been interesting, trying to figure out why I put things where I did when my preggo brain was calling the shots. (I’ve located probably ten thousand yen in spare change. The weird thing is that there are jars EVERYWHERE, in all of the cabinets, full of change. There was even an old box of envelopes that I had emptied out so that it, too, might hold some spare yen for me. Was I hiding money from myself?) I cleaned out my purses the other night and found five — no kidding — five pacifiers and the crumbs and remains of probably ten crackers. And a few more stacks of spare yen, of course.

Wes and I are going back to school… online. We’ve enrolled in some online courses and start listening to lectures and doing our reading at the beginning of September. I never took Systematic Theology during seminary and have since regretted that, so I’m really excited that I have the chance to take a course in it now. I’m a little nervous about the time demands and how I can manage it in this new normal, but we’ll figure it out.

Sandi and I took the girls to the zoo this week, where we were (again) shocked by how close the animals are to the spectators. We could’ve hugged the hippos if we were so inclined. It didn’t bother me until we got to the male lion, who had been roaring all morning long. We had heard him from different points throughout the zoo, but by the time we reached him, he seemed to have calmed down. We took some pictures, then started to move along, when he began pacing and started roaring again… behind what looked like just a chain link fence! Needless to say, we got out of that section of the zoo pretty quickly. Our girls are going to go to a US zoo and wonder why the animals are so far away. And why the lions don’t seem to want to maul them to pieces. They just don’t know how authentic the zoo experience here is! (Speaking of Okinawa, did you happen to catch the news on the China Airline plane that burned down/exploded on an airport runway? That was our airport! Apparently, it’s international news. No one was hurt, which was amazing, given how quickly everyone had to exit the plane.)

And on that note, we recently booked our flight to Texas, and we’re SO excited! We’ll be arriving on January 17th and coming back to Okinawa on February 17th. I can almost taste the Mexican food…

Till next time…