Primer Dia de Escuala (First Day of School)!

Today we were all a bundle of nerves and excitement as Ruby embarked on her first day of Spanish school.  This year she will be in the 4-year-old class (the Spanish use the calendar year to determine what grade to assign students; Ruby will turn 4 in November, so she's in the 4-year-old class).  

I'll admit that I was pretty nervous about the day, but tried to show excitement to support Ruby.  We were all very excited for her this morning, especially our nanny, Maria, who helped us get Ruby into the Spanish school system.

A few weeks ago, Maria, while out at a cafe with Ruby and Mila, ran into Ruby's teacher.  So Ruby was actually able to meet her before school started.  I think that made things so much easier today.  In fact, drop off was pretty quick since Ruby was distracted by all the toys in the classroom. 

When we picked her up, Ruby was happy and her teacher reported that she didn't cry.  Ruby told us that she played outside and that she only played with girls.  Haha!  Her teacher also said that she spoke a little Spanish, so I'm thrilled that she's already using Spanish in the classroom setting.  

We are looking forward to this new adventure.  I can't wait to see how much Ruby grows this year!

Letter

Best part of my weekend?  

Getting this in the mail from a former student.

School Stuff

A Kindergarten teacher's reality is the accumulation of stuff.  In order to effectively run a well-managed classroom with appropriately themed (and fun) centers is to have materials at hand.  These materials, however, take up space.  Lots of space.

In a perfect world, I would end the school year by packing up all my school stuff in cabinets in my classroom.  Everything would be carefully organized, labeled and put away by subject, like this:

But, with the upcoming move, I obviously can't keep all my school stuff back in my classroom (sigh...).  The last two days of school were spent frantically sorting, packing, and loading stuff in the car and schlepping* all the stuff up to our apartment.  The past few weeks have been spent trying to reorganize and sort everything and pack it away into Rubbermaid containers for easy storage after our move.  Which means a room, our former guest room in fact, has transformed into a personal storage closet.

Some of the items included in this mess collection include:

- over 1,000 children's picture books

- 30 stuffed animals (we used these in the classroom as "reading pals")

- 25 CDs with children's music or teaching songs

- 20 floor puzzles

- 5 bins bursting with files (lesson plans, forms, activities, etc)

- 2 bean bags

- 1 treasure chest

Needless to say, we've had to put in a waiver for a larger shipping allowance.




*I gotta give credit where credit is due.  I did not do all the schlepping alone.   Mike and Jess, who were in town and my wonderful husband,  helped bring many of these items from the car to our apartment on the 6th floor.  Thanks, guys!

June Happenings

When I was teaching - and yes, we'll get to that - I used to put out a monthly flyer to keep my parents informed about what was happening over the course of the upcoming month.  June is now nearly over, but there's so much to catch up on, I thought it might be nice to have my own little....

June 9: Team Juloa's 9-Year Anniversary

In the middle of the end-of-the-year craziness that is school, I managed to take some time to celebrate our 9 years of marriage.  Since our schedule was so booked for the week, we decided to go low-key.  Noa planned a great date.  First we went to Pizzeria Bella Napoli, a new pizza place located on the seawall.  We enjoyed some wine, salads, and of course, pizza!  One of the perks was trying a new variety: curry pizza!  It was oh-so-good, although I would up the spiciness factor a notch (I'm getting daring in my old age).

  

The restaurant treated us to free dessert for our special occasion.  Even better than dessert, the girls that worked took our picture for their website.  The restaurant is quite new to the area, so they are working on their marketing.  If I see it, I'll post the link.

Following our meal, Noa took me to the one landmark we have yet to visit: the ferris wheel.  We've looked at the ferris wheel for 4 years from our window, but have yet to ride in it.  Tonight was the night!

While Noa was buying the tickets, I was posing with the giant Anpanman in the arcade area.

Seriously though, I was shaking in my boots.  You see, I am scared of heights.  So, the beginning of the ride was not so great for me.  Thankfully, the view made up for my fears and it was truly beautiful from the top.

And soon, I was able to relax and enjoy the view

June 12: Karaoke Good-bye

In anticipation of the majority of our friends leaving Okinawa for the summer (DoDDS teachers get a paid trip home each summer and usually leave the weekend after school gets out), we wanted to have a last hurrah with our pals.  So, we decided that since karaoke is one of our favorite things to do on the island, it was the best way to say good-be to our friends.

Pictured below: Noa, Kent-o, Kenny, and Marc

Some of our girls: Mary Ann, Sue, and Linda - aren't they adorable?!

Me and more of the girls: Amy, ma, Liz, and Tritia, who helped plan the whole event.  She and Kent-o even brought crazy wigs, hats, and other fun accessories to keep the party lively.

And, here's the whole group!  No, I don't have an arm tattoo.  That gem was from the 100 Yen store and TOTALLY awesome.  Tritia was wearing it earlier and then passed it on to me.  Yeah, it was fun stuff.

June 17: My Birthday

As Noa likes to point out, I'm officially in my 30s now.  Great.  Yeah, I'm feeling old and I'm realizing that birthdays are not as exciting to me as they used to be.  However, it was so nice of our friends Tom and Tesha to have us over for a lovely Italian-style meal, complete with appetizers and tiramisu birthday cake.  Oh, and I tried Beatles Rock Band for the first time (yeah, I know, I'm behind the curve....what can I say, I'm old!)

June 18: Last Day of School

That's right, folks.  I'm now officially UNEMPLOYED.  Although I like to still think of myself as a teacher on summer break, Noa likes to lovingly refer to me as a "housewife" now.  Many of you have asked if I'll be teaching after the big move and here's the answer.  Yes, if I could get a job teaching, I'd grab it.  I LOVE teaching, especially Kindergarten, as evidenced by the rooms full of all teaching materials all over my house.  The problem is that each state has it's own licensing criteria.  I am currently licensed to teach under a DoDDS (Department of Defense Schools) certificate (DoDDS is like a state in this case).  Unfortunately, Washington state does not have reciprocity with other states.  So, my license does not automatically carry over.  This means that I have to take the Washington state teaching exams in order to be certified to teach in the state of Washington.  And, here's the kicker: the tests aren't available for me to take until SEPTEMBER.  So...until then, we'll see.

Regarding the actual last day of school: it was tough.  I cried several times that week.  I'm really going to miss my work here.  It's hard to believe it's really over.

June 19: Surprise!

After sleeping in until noon on the Saturday following the last day of school, I couldn't figure out why Noa was "encouraging" me to help him clean the house.  I mean, yes, it was a mess.  Having worked long hours 7 days a week for the last 3 weeks, we hadn't really given the house a good cleaning in awhile.  Plus, I now have school stuff in every nook and cranny in this small apartment.  But still, it was my first day of vacation and I was ready to take it easy.  Little did I know, Noa had something up his sleeve...

That night we headed to the airport for what I thought was a pick up of one of the incoming docs.  Turned out it was my birthday present: JESS!  She and Noa had apparently been planning this surprise for months, so I couldn't tell who was more excited me, Noa, or Jess!

Here's the best part of the surprise...it was a double!  After hugging and then walking to the car, we heard a deep voice behind us say, "do you know the way to the Big Echo?"  It was Mike.  He came out and surprised Noa.  Noa practically ran in front of oncoming traffic with glee.

They stayed with us until Thursday.  It was such a wonderful surprise and I'm still kinda in shock that they were here!

Here are some of the highlights:

At church on Sunday...

Go Red Sox!  Mike is now an official fan and brought Noa a shirt from his recent trip to Boston (the shirt says "Red Sox" in Japanese).

The girls just had to go to Cocoks!

Karaoke was a MUST.  We owned the Big Echo that night (granted it was a Sunday night and not too busy, but you get my point).  Some of our winning songs were: Not Ready to Make Nice (Dixie Chicks), Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Poison), Mr. Brightside (The Killers), and Numb/Encore (Jay-Z and Linkin Park).

We took them to all of our favorite eateries: Seaside Jet City Burgers...

Our new favorite pizza joint (Pizzeria Bella Napoli)...

Transit Cafe...

....just to name a few.  Some of our other adventures included hanging out in American Village, going to a local bakery, the boys golfing on Kadena while the girls shopped it up, and just hanging out.  It was too fun.

 Here's one of my favorite pics of me and Jess by one of the Boss vending machines on our way into a Japanese grocery store.

But we weren't the only ones thrilled with having the Apostles here.  The dogs just loved the extra company.  And I think the feeling was mutual:

It was a great visit - probably the best birthday gift ever!

So, what's happening with Team Juloa now?  We're on to getting ready for the big move back to the states.  We're just under a month away now and we have a LOT to do.  More to come!

V is for Veterinarian

For today's ABC Parade, I had Noa help me gather supplies for my veterinarian costume.  The students had to dress as something that represents their assigned letter.  For J, one little boy dressed as a jellyfish using a clear umbrella with strips of plastic hanging down.  For F another little boy dressed as a fire-breathing dragon.  For L, one student had a shirt with letters all over it.  They were so creative!   I wish I could show you the wonderful costumes that the kids created for today's Kindergarten event, but that would be wrong.  So, you'll just have to settle for little ol' me.  

 

Lovely Leprechauns

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Mrs. Hammer's Kindergarten students! Check out these adorable leprechauns and the stories that go with them:

My leprechaun's name is Liam. My leprechaun is hiding gold in the rainbow.

My leprechaun's name is Tom. He wants his gold back.

My leprechaun's name is Sean. He is surprised.

Don't you just love the Irish names they picked out?! I love celebrating the holidays with 5 and 6 year olds. They make it so fun! Today they kept on reminding each other to wear green tomorrow so that they don't get pinched by a leprechaun.

Lovely Valentine's Weekend

Friday was "Valentine's Day" at school and the kiddos participated in valentine-themed centers, "mailed" their valentine cards, and enjoyed my special snack for them: heart-shaped biscuits and jelly. Unfortunately, the snack ended up looking like regular ol'biscuits after baking them.

Oh, well, I guess it's the thought that counts. I loved receiving all their little cards and notes of affection. They make me feel so loved!

Cute, right? On Saturday, our church hosted a murder mystery dinner at Macaroni Grill on base. It was a blast! The setting was a cruise ship dinner and I played an 18-year-old passenger who recently graduated from high school. The cruise was a graduation gift from my single dad (played by Noa - yeah, that was a little weird). During the dinner, there's a murder, in addition to a love triangle, the revelation of who my mother's identity, and other crazy side stories. We didn't guess the true identity of the "murdered" but had a blast playing the parts.

Here we are, Noa as Jeffery James and me, Liza James, his daughter!

Our friends, Tesha and Tom with their new baby, TJ, and Pastor Brian and his lovely wife, Julie. Brian just became Keystone's pastor this year and we have really enjoyed getting to know him and his family.

This is Shane and Alysa. Shane won the prize for best character. He played the part of the cop on board and was hilarious. Aly played one of the pageant contestants. Aren't they adorable?!

Here's a close-up of my hair. I had my hair done up since I didn't have a gown to wear to the event. I loved the curls!!

Noa got me to finally get with the times and see Avatar on Valentine's Day. I loved the movie, but even better than simply seeing the flick, was seeing it in a Japanese theater. They had an interesting variety of goodies at the snack counter, like popcorn with M&Ms mixed in:

Or I could have chosen a banana split on a hot dog bun.

Instead, I decided to chow on taco rice during the movie since I hadn't had dinner. I loved it and the Japanese theater was great. Oh, and yes, it was in English with Japanese subtitles.

On President's Day, we went to a barbecue and hung out with some friends in addition to doing some jobs around the house. It's been a great weekend together. And - mom, you'd be proud - I DIDN'T go into work. For those of you that know me well, you know that I have a tendency towards workaholism, especially on the weekend. I actually had a real 3-day weekend. It's been fun and over way too soon.

Halloween Weekend

It's been a busy holiday weekend in Okinawa. The festivities started on Friday with our annual Storybook Parade at school. The Sure Start (preschool) and Kindergarten students and teachers dressed up as a favorite storybook character. This year my costume was the peddler from Caps for Sale (which was written in 1940!!). Some of my students were wondering how I grew a mustache. Guess I should have gone to that wax appointment after all....

As you can see, I have way too much fun at these school events.

Friday night we went to a Halloween-style karaoke event for the Japanese medical interns at Noa's hospital. They didn't disappoint with their enthusiasm. The interns were great - sang just as loud with us on the American songs and sang some Japanese tunes for the crowd. Oh, and their costumes were fun - they definitely embraced the idea of dressing up. Check out their fun costume ideas:

Saturday morning, Noa joined his Ultimate Frisbee buddies for a tournament on one of the local bases. Every Sunday he plays with these guys and every once and awhile a tournament comes along for them to participate in. This time, they nailed the first place spot! Nice work, guys.

Halloween night brought us to a local venue on base where some friends were hosting a Halloween party. It was a blast and I'll have more pictures to post later, but for now, here's a glimpse of some of the costume creativity. Now, I owe all the creative thanks to my sister who inspired both of our costumes: Noa was a "chick magnet" and I am dressed as Bjork. We're with our friends Tom and Tesha who are sunburned tourists. Tom was even sporting the socks with sandals look - it was classic!

Lastly on Sunday we said tearful good-byes to our beloved Pastor Dunn and his wife Connie. After serving our church here for 12 years, they have been called to ministry in a church in Sydney, Australia. It was an extremely moving and memorable service and although we'll miss them greatly, we are excited for the new things to come for our church.