Wonder where...

This morning Mark and I were listening to the strange sounds coming from our daughter, K80. Not that we have another daughter but just wanted to make it clear it was indeed K80. Since the day she was born she has made noise. Believe it or not we had a fairly quiet house until Junior came on the scene. She's babbled since birth, once she learned to talk with real words she started chatting with anything and everything whether its a living breathing object or just a stuffed bear named Courtney! She talks nonstop. When she turned 2 she began to sing and talk herself to sleep, sometimes this would take hours. I guess she had a lot to say, it was scary though when she'd answer herself. This hasn't slowed down at all. She talks to herself, to the walls, to her homework, even to the boys (although I think the walls listen more!) I love it when she talks and tells stories and not one person is listening to her or paying attention and then gets mad when we aren't "up to speed" on things in her life. Don't get me started on what happens in the shower, singing to the top of her lungs (when the door is closed and the shower curtain is pulled she doesn't think anyone can hear her!). I really ought to record her and play it back to her on her prom night, or wedding day or when her own daughter is displaying such odd attributes!

Today was no exception, the girl was carrying on a conversation with herself and then starts to jump around singing and dancing to some weird crazy teenie bopper music (I've always wanted to say that, I sound motherly now don't I!). Mark looked at me and asked "Where did this one come from?"

I could not lie, "it's all me babe! It's all Me!" I remember standing on the side of the bathtub buck naked using my towel as my cape screaming "Captain CAVVVEEE MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" jumping down onto the floor just as hard as I could to make the whole house shake. Never once did I hear my mom yell at me, or punish me for being weird.
In my teenage years I was hip cool and trendy with my totally awesome outta this world walkman! I recall standing at the sink, doing the dishes listening to Def Leppard (w/ my earphones on!) singing "Pour some Sugar on Me!" at the top of my lungs. All the while my mom's trying to watch the nightly news with Tom Brokaw. I remember her yelling at me once, but that's it. Trust me people I do NOT have a good singing voice, I am certain the dogs were howling all over the neighborhood and didn't stop until I went to college! In fact, two years ago when we were home visiting, I heard the dogs. I listened more intently, yep, Junior's in the shower up stairs singing away. No worries, it's all quiet now in Ohio, but you can hear the howling in Japan!

Okay, I totally like wow, like completely admit this, like okay, are you diggin' it... I was a slightly abnormal strange kid, I had great little quirks about me. I was different and I wanted to be different than everyone else. I don't know if I went out of my way to be different, God just made me that way. And I am so happy He did. I like being me, I love the crazy wacky personality that I have and it's a blessing to be able to pass on this outgoing fun loving gene to my children, especially my Junior, K80. The boys, they are a bit more reserved, they get that from their father... NOT! It's okay though... we enjoy being the TheFrancisFreakensteins!

A story in Photos...

K80 + Principal Masters + PTO Fall Festival = A LOT OF HAPPY KIDS!

"Being Student Council President ROCKS!"

Day Out w/ K80

What do girls do when boys are camping! We go exploring.

K80 at the Pineapple Park. It was delicious, samples galore and the tram/cart ride was so fun!
At the Butterfly Garden, she was scared out of her wits! Butterflies scary... she's hilarious!


This picture was taken at the beach we found we pulled over to see on our way home. I just love it... so natural, so free, so very sweet.

Just a snapshot of a local getting ready to go fishing.

The sunset... it's simply beautiful here. The rolling waves sooth the soul.

Got your back...

This blog posting is a follow on from my Facebook comment "when people say they have your back, I think what they are really saying is that I've got your back with a knife in it..." Then I followed that comment up with "it's all good, I am covered in the blood of Jesus, but I sure wish more would splash onto others... guess I need to work on that!"

I'm really at a place where I am in awe... not a good awe, but a you've got to be kidding me, jaw dropped to the ground, you aren't serious... awe. I will not going into details on what spurred this on, but I've been stabbed in the back many many times throughout my life. And it never ceases to amaze me the people who do it; all in the name of 'christian love'. That word does not warrant being capitalized in that sentence b/c Christ is not in that word, it's used figuratively in a very negative get your attention way (just in case you didn't see that sarcastic tone inflected there!).

It is extremely hard for me to open up to other people, for them to truly get to know me, my heart, my family. I will certainly welcome you into my home, break bread with you, laugh and chat. I'll have you over for holidays, football games, and most definitely help you through your most difficult of times in life. But getting to know me on a deeper level, nope you aren't getting into my personal life... why because without fail it turns around and bites me square in the buttocks. It holds on tight and rips my heart apart and causes me to become even more private about me and my family.

I know what the Bible teaches us, I know the heart of God and His plan for His people. I am also not naive enough to know that Christ confided in and pour out his WHOLE earthly and spiritual heart to the multitudes. He only had a few, very few, close confidants. Even they weren't the best of friends. I keep hearing He had twelve. He has twelve disciples, but he didn't share all that was within him with even all those twelve. He had a few (in my house growing up a few mean 2 possibly 3 cookies on a good day!) So if Christ only had 2 -3 people He could be real with then why would I need any more than that. His heart was open and he shared with the many but only a few could truly be called "His friends". He had many followers, but only a few confidants/key peeps.

I've been asked many times by friends why I don't open up more, why I am so open about so much and then when it comes to the meat and potatoes of me and my family we are a tightly sealed door. I've got my core, my key people, my BFF's but to enter that place one must earn it. It was a privilege with Christ, it's is with me.

I sadly opened my gate up and let a wolf in... no worries though. I've chased them out, closed the gate and all is secure again. They may have the "dirt from my life" with them, but I have the harvest of flowers that shall bloom from their crap!

My husband once told me "Never ask a question, you don't want the answer to for the answer might shock you more than the question will shock me!"

Orthopedics...

Today we had to show up at ortho bright and early. It's first come first served here in our ortho clinic and the doors open at 7:30am. We left at 6:40am hoping to arrive by 7:15. We were late, arrived at 7:30 sharp. Yes, it can take 50 minutes to get to the ER/hospital from home! There was a long line. I was skeerd... seriously thinkin' we won't get outta here until noon. They called us back within minutes. We were lined up like inmates... 4 kids with broken arms all lined up on beds w/ trays waiting to be casted. Oh I also forgot to mention the Marine Sgt. with a broken arm who was also lined up with the 6-11 year old kids! Corpsmen follow the docs in ready for their assignments. And just like that we were outta there.

K80 so badly wanted the tie dye cast they had on display. We were told, "that's for display purposes only, we only have solid colors!" My instant thought, how many times are they asked for that cast, why don't they remove it or cover it up... it really was super cool lookin'! So, whats a girl to do... she picked hunter orange! It's beautimus... I sent her to school w/ strict instructions not to allow anyone to sign it before me!

She obeyed wonderfully and I made my mark... K80Rox! She loves it too! I figure by tomorrow afternoon she'll have approximately 10,000 signatures and she will have also fall in the dirt and it will no longer be this pretty.

(in case you are wondering how I know the last sentence to be true... this is the third time K80's broken this arm! History tends to repeat itself!)

Plant Shopping...

On Friday of last week, I was SUPPOSED to go to the Botanical Gardens w/ my peeps! Instead, I was escorting Junior to the ER! I'll post more on that later, but lemme tell ya about the plant sale I discovered. Driving Jr home from the ER I cut thru Kadena AFB, hit 26 then 329. On the corner in this park/field/whatchamacallit was a bunch of tents... I quickly dropped Jr off at school (signed her in like a good girl) and then drove back to the "treasure chest of surprises!" It was too late to go to the gardens, but I lucked out. It was impromptu marketplace so to speak. Not sure how often they have these sales, never seen one before, but boy howdy! It was beautiful, and delightful and simply relaxing. The natives are so kind and generous and truly want to help us culturally inept Englishmen! This is just a side shot from my van of some of the plants/tents in the field, it was actually about 3 times the size of what you see here in the picture.

The picture above is of a Starfruit tree. Yes it's called Starfruit. Then you cross slice it, it looks exactly like a star. We've tried it several times at local eats. I have to say it's yummy, tastes kinda like a green apple but yummier! You can see the green fruit in the backdrop, the one up front, tangerine in color means it's ripe and ready to devour. I didn't pick it, but I sure wanted too!

I have no idea what this plant is called, but I was admiring it along w/ another local family (son and his elderly mother). So sweet, they tried so hard to talk to me... I was clueless. I really need to take a Japanese language class. Then the "farmer girl" came over, she was super cute w/ little overalls on (wish I got a pix of her). She spoke broken English. She broke off some of the red things, and offered them to us to eat. She explained that locals make their vinegar out of it. It was very tasty.

I have no clue what this is... but the fruit of the tree grows on the trunk. In all my years of lookin' at plants I've never seen this. Sadly, the lady who worked at this tent spoke NO English so I just took a picture to prove I wasn't crazy!

Flowers Flowers everywhere. I bought several different kinds, even got local dirt to grow them in. I love this flower, the color is magnificent and out of each pink flower grows this super tiny little white flower. They are so delicate. The ladies who ran this tent, loved that I took lots of photos but they wouldn't allow me to take a picture of them... something about being all dirty and messy and looking like a gardener. Even though they didn't speak English and I not a lick of Japanese, I knew what they were saying, it was so cute. It must have been a older mother and her daughter about my age. Laughing and giggling at the fact I wanted to take their picture as they attempted to brush the dirt and dust off their clothes, pulling their hair back trying to straighten it, bowing over and over again as they kept saying "Nashi Nashi" many times which means no no. I didn't take their picture but I was so tempted... out of respect I didn't and bowed as I thanked them for sharing their love for flowers with me.

I brought home several flowering plants. I will take pictures and post them soon (I think I may have already killed one!). I've just transplanted 2 of them into bigger prettier pots. The other two are hanging baskets, much smaller than the ones found in the states, so I will probably transplant them soon too. Gotta get more dirt! All in all, in spite of missing the Botanical Gardens, I had a peaceful afternoon exploring the local market.