Monday, August 26, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Quick Trip to HOME
Hi all!
So Andrea made a quick trip to see the chief over our Golden Week (May 1-8) She was really blessed! The entire trip from our home in Japan to Utah is nearly one day total. The trip begins with a 4 hour trip from Kagawa to Osaka airport. Waiting for check in and then the 12-13 hr flight to Seattle. YIPEE! Then a 2 hour layover in Seattle with the final destination in Utah 2 hours away. Yes... she did this 5 months pregnant. Now you want to know the blessing? :) Well.... she was able to have a center seat in the plane and AmaZinGly the plane was not full. She had 4 seats to her self. She was able to lay down and keep those feet up so as to avoid swelling..... She spent every waking hour with the chief. She helped out running errands etc. Then the trip back to Japan.... Well you might be able to guess by the positive note in this post.... YEP center seats again and 4 seats to herself.... Again able to relax and keep those feet up, thus avoiding the horrible swelling that can occur. She arrived safe and sound back to us on the evening of the 8th. We missed her greatly while she was gone, but we know it was a wonderful thing to be able to spend time with the chief! I will try to post some photos of her trip soon.
We are all well. Surviving in Japan and enjoying every minute of living in a foreign land (which is beginning to feel more and more like home) We look forward to hearing from you all!
Take care for now!
さよなら！
Z.A.H.H and .5
So Andrea made a quick trip to see the chief over our Golden Week (May 1-8) She was really blessed! The entire trip from our home in Japan to Utah is nearly one day total. The trip begins with a 4 hour trip from Kagawa to Osaka airport. Waiting for check in and then the 12-13 hr flight to Seattle. YIPEE! Then a 2 hour layover in Seattle with the final destination in Utah 2 hours away. Yes... she did this 5 months pregnant. Now you want to know the blessing? :) Well.... she was able to have a center seat in the plane and AmaZinGly the plane was not full. She had 4 seats to her self. She was able to lay down and keep those feet up so as to avoid swelling..... She spent every waking hour with the chief. She helped out running errands etc. Then the trip back to Japan.... Well you might be able to guess by the positive note in this post.... YEP center seats again and 4 seats to herself.... Again able to relax and keep those feet up, thus avoiding the horrible swelling that can occur. She arrived safe and sound back to us on the evening of the 8th. We missed her greatly while she was gone, but we know it was a wonderful thing to be able to spend time with the chief! I will try to post some photos of her trip soon.
We are all well. Surviving in Japan and enjoying every minute of living in a foreign land (which is beginning to feel more and more like home) We look forward to hearing from you all!
Take care for now!
さよなら！
Z.A.H.H and .5
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Ok so if you ever wonder..... What am I going to make for dinner.... well here is your answer.
Japanese チャハンchahan (fried rice) My two ate it like it was going out of style. Seriously, I was SHOCKED! It is super easy especially when you have left over rice hanging out in the refrigerator.
Ok so Who wants to know how to make it??? I'll tell you right now...
Ingredients:
about 2 cups cooked rice (we use part brown and part Japanese sticky rice) hahaha the two youngers in our house have no idea that we are getting them to eat healthy.
Ham or any other meat of your choice. The amount is up to you. We use sliced ham as it is available here in Japan. Chopped to about 1/8 of an inch.
2 tablespoons of finely chopped carrots. ( we use more, again sneaking that health in)
4 large eggs scrambled
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
Here is the cool part.... you can add just about any veggie here as long as it is small so they don't realize you are sneaking the veggies in.
i.e. green peas, snow peas, corn, just about anything. Unfortunately broccoli is to big to hide.
about 4 tablespoons of soy sauce or even better Braggs (available a health food stores or on www.iherb.com) Sorry about the plug there. iherb is a life saver for us in Japan. Shipping is dirt cheap and it gets here in 3 days!
1 1/2 tablespoons of butter. Skip the margarine or FAKE butter stuff made with GMO corn. Ok, ok I'll not get into my feelings about the whole GMO thing happening behind our backs all over the world.
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the scrambled in a shallow fry non stick fry pan. We will add the BUTTER later. :) Don't let them stay wet. You know what I mean? My grandma makes the best eggs and they are not dried out. But for this we want them fairly dry. Break them into pea sized pieces and set them aside.
Next put the room temperature rice in a large bowl. Add the finely chopped carrots, green onions and any other veggies you want. Stir gently. Now combine the scrambled eggs. Add in the meat of your choice.
Heat a large wok or frypan and add the BUTTER (yes you heard me right the REAL stuff) Allow it to melt but not burn. You will want your heat set at medium high. Add the rice mixture and stir fry constantly. Salt and pepper then add the Braggs or soy sauce. Stirring constantly. Now the best part allow the rice to kind of stick to the bottom of the pan (burn a bit if you will humor me) Now flip these burned pieces with the other non cooked rice and continue for about 5-8 minutes. You need to be the judge. We like the "burned" texture and flavor. Serve hot to warm. I've never tired it cold but rice is not good when it is cold out of the refrigerator.
ENJOY! I know my young ones do! Secretly I do as well.
Here is a picture of the finished dinner!
We love and miss you all!
Z, A, H, H and .5
Japanese チャハンchahan (fried rice) My two ate it like it was going out of style. Seriously, I was SHOCKED! It is super easy especially when you have left over rice hanging out in the refrigerator.
Ok so Who wants to know how to make it??? I'll tell you right now...
Ingredients:
about 2 cups cooked rice (we use part brown and part Japanese sticky rice) hahaha the two youngers in our house have no idea that we are getting them to eat healthy.
Ham or any other meat of your choice. The amount is up to you. We use sliced ham as it is available here in Japan. Chopped to about 1/8 of an inch.
2 tablespoons of finely chopped carrots. ( we use more, again sneaking that health in)
4 large eggs scrambled
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
Here is the cool part.... you can add just about any veggie here as long as it is small so they don't realize you are sneaking the veggies in.
i.e. green peas, snow peas, corn, just about anything. Unfortunately broccoli is to big to hide.
about 4 tablespoons of soy sauce or even better Braggs (available a health food stores or on www.iherb.com) Sorry about the plug there. iherb is a life saver for us in Japan. Shipping is dirt cheap and it gets here in 3 days!
1 1/2 tablespoons of butter. Skip the margarine or FAKE butter stuff made with GMO corn. Ok, ok I'll not get into my feelings about the whole GMO thing happening behind our backs all over the world.
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the scrambled in a shallow fry non stick fry pan. We will add the BUTTER later. :) Don't let them stay wet. You know what I mean? My grandma makes the best eggs and they are not dried out. But for this we want them fairly dry. Break them into pea sized pieces and set them aside.
Next put the room temperature rice in a large bowl. Add the finely chopped carrots, green onions and any other veggies you want. Stir gently. Now combine the scrambled eggs. Add in the meat of your choice.
Heat a large wok or frypan and add the BUTTER (yes you heard me right the REAL stuff) Allow it to melt but not burn. You will want your heat set at medium high. Add the rice mixture and stir fry constantly. Salt and pepper then add the Braggs or soy sauce. Stirring constantly. Now the best part allow the rice to kind of stick to the bottom of the pan (burn a bit if you will humor me) Now flip these burned pieces with the other non cooked rice and continue for about 5-8 minutes. You need to be the judge. We like the "burned" texture and flavor. Serve hot to warm. I've never tired it cold but rice is not good when it is cold out of the refrigerator.
ENJOY! I know my young ones do! Secretly I do as well.
Here is a picture of the finished dinner!
Z, A, H, H and .5
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Long over due update 2013
Hi to all who are wondering what in the world happened to the Jackson family. Well.... it has been a busy few years. Mom took over the full time teaching with dad being the other full time teacher. Dad is busy keeping on top of work, his church calling, PTA for the kindergarten and more. Mom is busy doing the accounting for our business, being mom, FT teacher and church calling (went from Primary to YW). Older brother will be in 4th grade this year. He has a love for history and reading. He is really doing well in science, math and his other subjects. English is not so fun for him as he only gets to read with mom or dad at home. School is all in Japanese so.... well you know. He has been asked by his swimming instructor to join the "athlete league" They see huge potential in him. He set his mind on being able to swim the very best at school during his 4th grade year. Nothing is going to stop him. Little brother will be in the oldest class in the local kindergarten. He is picking up the local dialect with no problem. He loves to sing and ride his bike. He also has a natural ability to play any sport. He loves to mimmic his older brother and is often seen looking at what is brother does before he chooses to join in. The dog is still our dog. He loves to run with mom and dad every other day respectively. So he is running about 6 times a week. We were able to visit home in the USA over the Christmas season. Mom's dad was diagnosed with lung cancer and so we felt we needed to spend some time with him and other family members. It was a good time that went by really quickly. We miss being close to everyone. We were also surprised to learn that we will have another little one join our family this coming August. YES. We are as shocked as you are! We look forward to welcoming our new family member. Mom is staying healthy, jogging and eating well. We were lucky to find an English speaking doctor, with the help of some of our close friends. He studied in England. He does an ultrasound each time we visit. The next appointment is scheduled for this coming saturday March 16th. We will continue to keep you posted on our status as well as the new little one. We will post some family pictures so you can see how much older and how much we all have changed.
Our love to you all.
Our love to you all.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
North Eastern Japan Help Efforts
I was blessed to be able to travel to North Eastern Japan to assist in the clean up efforts since the Earthquake and Tsunami. I was so impressed with the volunteer efforts. This "tour" that I attended was organized by my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) in Tokyo. I traveled with the 2nd counselor in our branch presidency. We flew to Haneda in Tokyo from Takamatsu on Shikoku and then gathered at the Tokyo LDS temple/ Area presidency building to leave for Iwate prefecture. We traveled by bus that evening for about 8 hrs. I was exhausted when we arrived but knew I needed to muster my strength to serve that day and the coming day.
There were about 30 volunteers in our group from all parts of Japan. It was a wonderful experience. Words nor pictures can express the reality of the situation in N.E. Japan.
I am grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who has seen fit to spare Japan for a season from the natural disasters. This is not to say the the earthquakes, nuclear problems and other things are over, however, we continue to be blessed with the ability to assist and gradually overcome the difficulties. I am thankful for Fox and his desire to serve in N.E. Japan. Here are some pictures from my experience.
A view of some of the aftermath of the tsunami
Tsukuru Nagahama ( a guy I knew from my mission, university and after ) whom I met again after about 15 years.
Fox Ellis and some of his efforts in cleaning the aftermath. A baseball team in the background that was there volunteering with the cleanup efforts.
A view from inland out to the Pacific Ocean. There were homes in this area. Not much left.
Our volunteer group with a few of the bags of items that we cleaned up from the devastated areas.
There were about 30 volunteers in our group from all parts of Japan. It was a wonderful experience. Words nor pictures can express the reality of the situation in N.E. Japan.
I am grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who has seen fit to spare Japan for a season from the natural disasters. This is not to say the the earthquakes, nuclear problems and other things are over, however, we continue to be blessed with the ability to assist and gradually overcome the difficulties. I am thankful for Fox and his desire to serve in N.E. Japan. Here are some pictures from my experience.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
I feel the Earth MOVE under my feet!
This blog is a long time coming. I turned one year older this year and on my birthday I received a HUGE earthquake 9.0 and Tsunami in Northern Japan. This has to be one of the largest tragedies that Japan has experienced. We are about 600 miles south of the quake and tsunami area. Now to add salt to Japan's recent wound the Nuclear power plants in the area were severely damaged. We are deeply saddened by the loss of life and the destruction that has come to Japan. We pray for peace and hope to once again prevail on this beautiful country.
For all wanting to know. We are safe and continue to be blessed with safety and health.
Oniichan is doing well in school he will be in 2nd grade in about 2 weeks. He has been the top in his class in Kanji (chinese characters and math) Way to go Oniichan kick some rear (only foreigner in his class and top is Japanese) !!! He is going for the Justin Beiber hair lately. :) We will see the hot, humid summers are not good with long hair.
Ototoyo is hanging in there. He still feels like he is an only child. He will begin preschool/kindergarten in about 2 weeks as well. He is constantly talking. Sometimes mom and dad want him to just "be quiet". His apologies are sincere and very heart felt! Mom and dad are looking forward to some free time without needing to entertain him. Hopefully he will adjust well.
Both boys are taking Japanese lessons with a family friend/teacher and English lessons with mom and dad. They will pretty much be bilingual. :)
Mom is doing well. Primary is keeping her busy. She planned and pulled off a wonderful "great to be 8" baptism program for the 5 soon to be 8 years olds in our branch. It was really fun. We will try to post some photos of her finished product. She has taken over the other full time teacher position here at the school and between dad and her teaching and taking care of the boys, she is exhausted at the end of the day. She is experimenting with new recipes she is finding on the web. Some are keepers and others.... well..... not so good. We did find a fantastic Teriyaki Chicken pizza recipe, yummy fish tacos (did that come out of my mouth Mexican food yummy?) and many different types of pasta dishes. Most of these recipes can be prepared ahead of time and frozen. This is GREAT since we both are teaching at night now. Juggling the boys has been a challenge but has been very rewarding as well. We are blessed to have such a wonderful, loving mom and wife.
Dad is working at keeping his head above water. The branch calling keeps him busy and taking on the extra full time classes that mom can not do is keeping him really busy. He wants to start riding his road bike but just doesn't seem to find the time. He is working Monday through Saturday now and trying to full fill his calling on Sunday doesn't give much time. The change in school year brings along with it the sadness of seeing some of our students move on to University. Tears are shed and promises made to visit in the future. Dad just finished his 3rd year teaching for a private school and was really sad to say goodbye to his classes here in our hometown. He got emotional on his last day teaching! (such a wimp)
All is well with our little tribe here in Japan. We miss Auntie and her help. It was a wonderful last week... wink wink! Hang in there Goob!
We love you all!
The Jacksons in Japan
For all wanting to know. We are safe and continue to be blessed with safety and health.
Oniichan is doing well in school he will be in 2nd grade in about 2 weeks. He has been the top in his class in Kanji (chinese characters and math) Way to go Oniichan kick some rear (only foreigner in his class and top is Japanese) !!! He is going for the Justin Beiber hair lately. :) We will see the hot, humid summers are not good with long hair.
Ototoyo is hanging in there. He still feels like he is an only child. He will begin preschool/kindergarten in about 2 weeks as well. He is constantly talking. Sometimes mom and dad want him to just "be quiet". His apologies are sincere and very heart felt! Mom and dad are looking forward to some free time without needing to entertain him. Hopefully he will adjust well.
Both boys are taking Japanese lessons with a family friend/teacher and English lessons with mom and dad. They will pretty much be bilingual. :)
Mom is doing well. Primary is keeping her busy. She planned and pulled off a wonderful "great to be 8" baptism program for the 5 soon to be 8 years olds in our branch. It was really fun. We will try to post some photos of her finished product. She has taken over the other full time teacher position here at the school and between dad and her teaching and taking care of the boys, she is exhausted at the end of the day. She is experimenting with new recipes she is finding on the web. Some are keepers and others.... well..... not so good. We did find a fantastic Teriyaki Chicken pizza recipe, yummy fish tacos (did that come out of my mouth Mexican food yummy?) and many different types of pasta dishes. Most of these recipes can be prepared ahead of time and frozen. This is GREAT since we both are teaching at night now. Juggling the boys has been a challenge but has been very rewarding as well. We are blessed to have such a wonderful, loving mom and wife.
Dad is working at keeping his head above water. The branch calling keeps him busy and taking on the extra full time classes that mom can not do is keeping him really busy. He wants to start riding his road bike but just doesn't seem to find the time. He is working Monday through Saturday now and trying to full fill his calling on Sunday doesn't give much time. The change in school year brings along with it the sadness of seeing some of our students move on to University. Tears are shed and promises made to visit in the future. Dad just finished his 3rd year teaching for a private school and was really sad to say goodbye to his classes here in our hometown. He got emotional on his last day teaching! (such a wimp)
All is well with our little tribe here in Japan. We miss Auntie and her help. It was a wonderful last week... wink wink! Hang in there Goob!
We love you all!
The Jacksons in Japan
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Happy Halloween!
Ok, so I know I'm a little behind, but things just get crazy around here starting in October! That means Blog Neglect! And since it doesn't really slow down again until the first or second week into January, that means a lot of missed updates! So I am trying to keep you somewhat current on our happenings here in Japan, but that also means you might have to hear about things a little late! But I am determined to get them on here, so here we go!
Halloween isn't celebrated here among the general public and even Halloween decor is hard to come by. But we really enjoy Halloween and we have tried to help bring some of the SPOOKY SPIRIT to Japan and enjoy it with our students. This year we were fortunate enough to find 2 American Pumpkins for sale under $30 each! The first year we were here we couldn't find any at all! Last year you had to take out a loan to afford one and that was also after our failed attempts at trying to grow one! This year we had our friends help us get our plant going, but then we had so much rain that it had mold problems, along with many other farmers crops. So we had pretty much decided we would have to do without pumpkins during our japan stay, I just can't bring myself to pay $30 for a small pumpkin that molds in less than a week.
The Monday before Halloween I was picking up some fruits and veggies and what beautiful orange colored object catches my eye, but an american pumpkin! It was stacked with the other dark green japanese pumpkins and I was so surprised I thought it was a mistake. Zack and I walked over to see how much this little jem was and then we saw it, a second orange american pumpkin! Now I was scanning the rest of the pumpkins and adjacent bins to find the source of these beauties and they were the only ones around. I decided they had to be too expensive to buy and made Zack look at the price! One look at his face and I wanted to know what outrageous number was on the tag, usually you can't pick up a small one for less than $3o and these weren't so small. But then Zack grabbed both and brought them towards me! 300 YEN! What?! No, it must be missing a 0! Really? 300 YEN each, which makes them around $ 3.60 each, Yipee, we get pumpkins!
Fortunately, there were two pumpkins, so we didn't have to fight over who got to choose what to carve! This was also Holden's first time ever carving a pumpkin and Hos' first time in 3 years, so it was pretty much a new thing to both of them.
They both wanted to clean out the seeds from inside, but once they got their hands in there they weren't too sure they wanted to keep going! Holden was happy to grab the seeds, then he said "EEWWWW!" as he strung them across the table trying to get them off of his hands.
With the lack of Halloween supplies, we had only a dull knife to make our jack-o-lanterns. So the boys drew the faces with marker first, then Zack carved them while they got in the tub and got ready for bed.
Holden was stoked to have a lid that he could put on and off by himself! He decided since he was going to be a Vampire for Halloween, his jack-o-lantern needed to be one too!
Spencer of course, opted for a dog! And he and his dad were creative enough to even come up with a way to make ears, similar to his favorite SCOOBY-DOO!
Here they are with the finished products! We were pretty happy with the results! (Yes, that is a dog on Zack's lap, and normally it is a friendly dog, but this photo makes it look like an evil halloween dog)
Since we are talking about Halloween I thought I would throw in the two Halloween photos I got of us in our costumes, despite the 3 or 4 times we actually got to dress up and put them to use!
So Holden pretty much took control this year and said that He wanted to be a Vampire, Mom gets to be the Witch, Dad gets to be the Big Green Monster (from a Halloween song we teach our students) Hos gets to be the Wizard and Auntie gets to be the Pumpkin. Auntie took some freedom in the interpretation of Pumpkin and she was Super Pumpkin the Super Hero! And the Pirate is our wonderful secretary/japanese mom Yasuko!
Here's a little closer shot of Holden the Vampire and Hos the Wizard! Happy Halloween!
Halloween isn't celebrated here among the general public and even Halloween decor is hard to come by. But we really enjoy Halloween and we have tried to help bring some of the SPOOKY SPIRIT to Japan and enjoy it with our students. This year we were fortunate enough to find 2 American Pumpkins for sale under $30 each! The first year we were here we couldn't find any at all! Last year you had to take out a loan to afford one and that was also after our failed attempts at trying to grow one! This year we had our friends help us get our plant going, but then we had so much rain that it had mold problems, along with many other farmers crops. So we had pretty much decided we would have to do without pumpkins during our japan stay, I just can't bring myself to pay $30 for a small pumpkin that molds in less than a week.
The Monday before Halloween I was picking up some fruits and veggies and what beautiful orange colored object catches my eye, but an american pumpkin! It was stacked with the other dark green japanese pumpkins and I was so surprised I thought it was a mistake. Zack and I walked over to see how much this little jem was and then we saw it, a second orange american pumpkin! Now I was scanning the rest of the pumpkins and adjacent bins to find the source of these beauties and they were the only ones around. I decided they had to be too expensive to buy and made Zack look at the price! One look at his face and I wanted to know what outrageous number was on the tag, usually you can't pick up a small one for less than $3o and these weren't so small. But then Zack grabbed both and brought them towards me! 300 YEN! What?! No, it must be missing a 0! Really? 300 YEN each, which makes them around $ 3.60 each, Yipee, we get pumpkins!
Fortunately, there were two pumpkins, so we didn't have to fight over who got to choose what to carve! This was also Holden's first time ever carving a pumpkin and Hos' first time in 3 years, so it was pretty much a new thing to both of them.
With the lack of Halloween supplies, we had only a dull knife to make our jack-o-lanterns. So the boys drew the faces with marker first, then Zack carved them while they got in the tub and got ready for bed.
Holden was stoked to have a lid that he could put on and off by himself! He decided since he was going to be a Vampire for Halloween, his jack-o-lantern needed to be one too!
Spencer of course, opted for a dog! And he and his dad were creative enough to even come up with a way to make ears, similar to his favorite SCOOBY-DOO!
Here they are with the finished products! We were pretty happy with the results! (Yes, that is a dog on Zack's lap, and normally it is a friendly dog, but this photo makes it look like an evil halloween dog)
Since we are talking about Halloween I thought I would throw in the two Halloween photos I got of us in our costumes, despite the 3 or 4 times we actually got to dress up and put them to use!
So Holden pretty much took control this year and said that He wanted to be a Vampire, Mom gets to be the Witch, Dad gets to be the Big Green Monster (from a Halloween song we teach our students) Hos gets to be the Wizard and Auntie gets to be the Pumpkin. Auntie took some freedom in the interpretation of Pumpkin and she was Super Pumpkin the Super Hero! And the Pirate is our wonderful secretary/japanese mom Yasuko!
Here's a little closer shot of Holden the Vampire and Hos the Wizard! Happy Halloween!
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