Ready for Fall!

With my fall toesies!

Yoron Getaway

We celebrated Noa's birthday this past weekend by taking a trip to one of Okinawa's outer islands, Yoron Island. To get there, we had to drive north and then take a ferry ride to this tiny island. Yoron is the sister island to Mykonos Island in Greece and uses lots of white on their buildings, walls, and statues.

We stayed at a small resort called Pricia, which definitely had that Mediterranean feel with all the blue and white. For the first night, we stayed on the ground level in a modest, low-cost room in a building like this:

But, when we realized the weather was going to give us some problems and we wouldn't be spending most of our time on the beach, we upgraded to a nicer room. We later decided that this was a smart move, considering our new room had a hot tub, private yard, a little kitchen, and more space overall.

Here's the outside view from the back. We were on the ground floor and didn't have upstairs "neighbors."

Our hot tub. :)

The view of the ocean and our yard with lush, green grass. I'll admit it, I ran around the yard barefoot several times.

Here is the living room and kitchen (in the back).

Most of the Japanese-style hotels and resorts have separate beds and this place was no different. We're also not big fans of the Japanese pillows, which we've named "rice pillows." It feels like they are filled with cut up straws, which just isn't as comfy as our regular cotton pillows. Still the room was clean and bright.

Now, on to the resort grounds. This is the area where the resort held nightly outdoor barbecues. We didn't get to enjoy this due to the rain, but we did get to watch a lightening storm while we were drinking beer and cooking our raw meat on the table grill in a nearby covered area.

See how the buildings have that Mediterranean look to them. Cute, right?

The little pavilion is for weddings.

Pricia Beach

One thing that was a little bizarre were all the stray cats we encountered, both on the resort grounds and out in town. Although super cute and extremely friendly (especially for cats), most had some sort of disease or infestation. I started to name them after their "condition." We got to know Mange, Disease, the Twins, Momma, and a few others.

Can you find 5 cats in the picture below? Hint: there are 2 pairs that look alike.

This little one was my favorite. We named him Bandit.

These two boys met us at the beach.

Yoron seemed to be mostly farm land or beach with a little Mediterranean/Japanese-style town in the middle. We rented a scooter and spent 2 days exploring. One of our favorite places to visit was Umi Cafe. We ate some delicious lunch there and enjoyed sipping coffees and perusing Japanese magazines. I also loved taking pictures of the eclectic decor.

The entrance:

Some of the decor that I liked. It was beachy, eclectic, and artsy.

Mmm...iced lattes! Oh, and notice how Noa ended up with the beverage with a flower design on top!

Noa's omelet on bread with a small salad on the side.

Their take on a chicken gyros: chicken,veggies, oil, and a warm pita. Mmmmmm...

I couldn't resist it of course.

Nice view!

We explored a couple of beaches. They were lovely, as most beaches are on these outer islands.

Team Juloa on Udonosu Beach

Here's one of the scooters that we used to travel all over the island (it's only about 8 square miles in area).

Okaneku Beach (it was pretty cool and windy this day). We walked along the beach and collected shells and sea glass.

We even found one shaped like New Hampshire.

These two hermit crabs were duking it out on the coral.

And lastly, the obligatory self-portrait.

Happy Birthday, Noa!

Featured

I'm "famous." Okay, not really, but I was featured on Okinawa Hai today. You can see the article here.

Japanese Pancakes

Ever wonder what a Japanese pancake looks like? Last weekend, we went to Okonomi Yaki Osino in American village and got to experience okonomi yaki, or Japanese pancakes, for ourselves.

To create these, our server mixed a concoction of what looked like cabbage, egg, cheese, and some other mystery ingredients in a bowl and then poured half the mixture onto our table skillet. Then, he added our choice of fillers. Finally, he topped it with the other half of the mixture.

They cooked like this for a few minutes and then were flipped.

We also grilled up some herbed chicken and veggies on the side. Here, Noa adds sauce to the top of my okonomi yaki.

Smile! I liked it!

Turns out my "pork" okonomi yaki wasn't just pork, but pork kimchi-flavor. KimUchi = kimchi. Ohhhh, now, I see......

This was the sign on our way out.

Here are the lights of downtown American village at night.

We couldn't resist stopping at Yogurtland for some dessert. Here are our cups of yogurt goodness.

I had to sneak in the Koala Yummies. They are too cute!

Current Classroom Pics

Here's some shots from my fourth year in Kinder. Most of it is similar to last year, but with smaller, less noticeable changes. I gotta keep it fresh, you know?!

The lanterns are new. I love 'em. Plus, I can keep them up all year. No more climbing on that counter to hang up artwork. The counter serves as an art center with supplies on top and contained underneath in the open shelving.
Here's the front of the room where we have morning meeting, read alouds, and mini-lessons as a large group. The "overalls" on the back door has classroom jobs in each pocket. You can see the Listening Center in the corner.

Moving over to the right is our Book Nook area with a display wall. I'm trying to make the classroom all about the kiddos now, so they are displayed everywhere. Plus, it helps with name recognition. The tree will again be decorated with letters this year after we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. The next big project is to paint the coffee table white. I'll be using that for my reading groups.

Some self portraits hang on the windows. Cute, eh?

Here's a close up of the Listening Center. The students choose a book/cassette from the container on the right. Then, they plop down on a pillow, stick in the cassette tape and listen to the story.

Here's the Writing Center - by the windows as always. Lots of supplies live here - paper, notebooks, notepads, pens, pencils, markers, colored pencils, erasers, word books, stencils. It's a popular center. The computer center is behind it. We haven't "opened" that center to the students yet, since we have to teach them how to type a 9-digit password. Don't get me started on that one....

I'm sure all post more pics throughout the year, but I thought I'd share a little of the part of my life that keeps me so busy all the time!

Roller Coaster Life

Ah, the ups and downs of life. We Hammers have been busy these last few weeks (hence the lack of blogging). Lately there seem to be a lot of ups and downs, but truly I am feeling happy and blessed with life in spite of some of the downs right now. Here's a little glimpse of some of these ups and downs:

UP: Just had a great time with friends at Okinapa, the annual wine festival, on Friday night. We are so fortunate to have such great friends here - I'm glad we extended after all.

DOWN: Sadly, it is our last time going to Okinapa. I will miss events like this when we leave next summer.

UP: School "starts" this week for me. The past week was filled with home visits and parent meetings. This week the real work begins with the kids coming to school!

DOWN: I am so not ready! I'll spend my Labor Day laboring away in the classroom.

DOWN: We're down to one car. The Turtle (my car) died on us late Saturday night and we ended up having to walk home. Looks like the alternator needs replacing.

UP: Having the car towed was easy and headache-free. MCCS came through for us in a big way. Also, I'm glad the car died when Noa was around and I didn't have to take care of it alone.

No, that's technically not my car pictured below. My camera battery had run out of juice when it was time to get the car towed. So, hopefully, my car will be running like this one from the web in no time:

UP: We recently hired a dog walker for the weekdays. The dogs are getting some much-needed attention in the afternoons.

DOWN: It's that time of year again when I'm working a lot. I'm still working on keeping balance in my life.

UP: There was a rainbow outside our building the other day. There's nothing down about that! Sometimes, you gotta just count your blessings!