What I'm Dealing With.

Hi guys, it's been a long time since I've posted any pictures so get comfortable. I did a lot at once. We had a great summer here in Okinawa. It was kind of hot to play outside, so we got acquainted with the ocean. I took up scuba diving, Troy came with when he could. And the kids are expert snorkelers now, even William. I really fell in love with the ocean here! It's so beautiful and the coral reef is just off the beach, 10 minutes from our house. You only have to walk off this island and you hit views like a scene from Nemo.  I can't believe my kids are growing up with these experiences like it's just normal. If I had an underwater camera I could try to prove it, but I don't. Sorry. Anyway here's your update on what we've been doing.

This is what we do when it rains hard and the yard floods

William = the crazier the better

Oh man, those underpants will never be white again!

Veronica lost a tooth and she had a genius plan. She wanted money from the tooth fairy but also wanted to keep the tooth. So she took a gamble that the tooth fairy can't swim and if she could swim she wouldn't want to do it and get her wings heavy with water. So she got a clear glass, but the tooth in, filled it to the top and left it for the tooth fairy to see what would happen. Turns out the tooth fairy had the proof she needed to leave money because she could see the tooth and true to Veronica's prediction, the tooth fairy didn't want to get wet to take the tooth with her. SO the tooth was left behind but Veronica had to get wet to get the money because the tooth fairy put the coins in the glass with the tooth.  In the end Veronica came up with all this so she could give ME the tooth because I had mentioned that I was sad to see those baby teeth go, mostly because they were so much trouble to grow in the first place. How sweet. She still believes...

Of Mice and Men - anyone else scared?

Goat exhibit at the local zoo here in Okinawa. It was basically just a junk yard.

I caught a lizard for the kids to look at up close.

This is Troy making fun of the kids because they can't smile or look at the camera because the sun is so bright.

They have fun sports programs here on base. I sign the kids up for all of them to give them a little sampler and to see which ones they really like. Veronica, so far isn't impressed by any of them. She wants to do cheerleading and be on stage doing plays. I have access to neither of those consistently here.

It's only by the grace of God that she hits the ball to run the bases at all.

Lemons!

There is an Okinawan past-time that we discovered this summer. It's river trekking. We had so much fun hiking up this river to the water fall at the end. It took about and hour and a half. It was wet and refreshing in the heat.

Copy Cats

Make-shift swing near the waterfall. 

The End.

Cutie Pie

Standing behind the falls.

I was crazy enough to make the kids climb to the top of the waterfall, through the jungle on a precariously steep path. 

They climbed in swim suits and surprisingly not a single scraped knee or elbow.

Sitting right on the edge of the falls.

Fresh water swimming is fun!

This is the ocean. William has learned to swim over the summer and the buoyancy of the ocean makes it even easier for him. He's a total beach bum and he's only 3.

Just some cool rock formations at the beach.

This is one of the places Troy and I have been scuba diving. I love it.

One of our friends signed up the neighborhood to go to an adventure park. 

The kids stayed home.

Troy, passing his safety check to do the zip lines.

This island may be small, and isolated, and it doesn't have a Target store, but it sure is beautiful.

Backwards is never good.

Hopefully the only crash landing Troy ever has.

They have a little version of each sport for 3-4yr olds. This is William 's turn at t-ball.

His jersey said William, because I was in charge when the team had them embroidered. When Troy took him to practice, he called him Wild Bill - his nickname. The coach started calling him Bill which was pretty confusing to poor William.

READY!

TIRED - it was sweltering under the blazing sun with 1000% humidity.

O-well.

Good enough, and he's off!

We had pictures done on the beach. They had a lot of fake smiles going on. These real smiles came after a poop joke. Did you know that that word is the funniest thing on earth in the Broskovetz household? That single word is also an insult bad enough to cause an all out screaming and possibly hitting match. Oh the power of that one stupid word. If I never hear it again, that would be ok.

Beautiful if I do say so myself.

Totally handsome! And oh, have I explained what Ben's skin does with exposure to the sun? His skin turns the color of  some beautiful bronze god - he doesn't burn, just gets more golden. The other two kids prefer to burn.

Sweet little munchkin.

Just us - first pictures done since our wedding.

Guess what you're getting in your Christmas card from us?

We're really, really mad at Mom right now!!!!!

Later that day...nutty.

Ben was mad that I was taking pictures.

He chose the number 15 because teenagers are 15 and he thinks teenagers are cool.

Concentrate!!

Success.

Veronica has found her calling. She participated in a children's play this summer. She loved it!! She is mad that there aren't more opportunities to do them. She was a sheep with no speaking part, unless you count baaaaing. She's gunnin' for the lead next time. 

She wasn't alone. Her best friend and neighbor, Brenna was a sheep as well.

Banana spider. They are ginormous! One chased William when he bumped into it's web.

So we've had a handful of typhoons here (aka hurricanes) We have to move all of our outside stuff indoors, which means we end up with a lot of extra geckos, ants and all sorts of creepy crawlies in the house. If we had a garage it would be way nicer, anyway, we found this strange hammerhead jungle leech in the house. Totally gross.

One of the typhoons this summer. We had branches down in the yard, but no major damage. The housing on base is small, and kinda crappy, but built to withstand some serious storms. Which is good because there's no where to evacuate to. 

First day of school. 2nd grade.

Veronica with her best friend and her crush, Asher. They're all in the same class. I warned the teacher before the school year even started.

Ben's first day of kindergarten. His teacher's name is Mrs Shepard. So she has a classroom full of sheep. If they misbehave, she threatens to "send them to the wolves" and then they have to go up to the board and move the sheep with their name on it over to a picture of a wolf. Mrs. Shepard has 30+ year of experience and I LOVE her. She really loves the kids and seems to really, really care about them. She also exudes a kind of confidence that only comes with having seen and done it ALL over the years. I couldn't have dreamt up a better teacher for my sweet sensitive Benny.

Holy Crap!!! William's first day of preschool.  I was scared for his teacher.

Warming up his math skills - I guess???  This kids makes me think, WTF several times a day.

Tone it down William!

A little Magic Mike action for you. I did NOT arrange this photo, the pose is completely William's doing. Again I find myself asking, what the.....? Who is this kid?

Again. I just said "smile" I did not make them pose like their in a Pottery Barn catalogue.

It's popular for the little girls to get these colorful swaths of fake hair braided into their  real hair on this island. It's basically a weave, my daughter has a weave. Veronica was very excited to show all her friends at school how cool she was. 

Waiting for the teacher to come bring the class indoors. Ben was a little nervous, but more  excited than anything. No tears. So far his teacher says he's a really well behaved sweet boy. Party of me is happy that all my children seem to be one of the "good kids" in class, but the other part of me wonders why they save up all the bad for when they get home. I take the brunt of the abuse, but at least they're behaving when it counts. Kids that are good all the time must be zombies. 

This smile had a  little bit of nervousness creeping into it. But again, no tears.  William  goes to school for 4 hours a day Monday- Friday. His teacher thinks he's really cute and says he behaves really well. It's a relief, at least for now, because William can be such a clown that it takes him a while to be serious. I'm glad I'm not getting bad reports - yet. Forgive me if I'm waiting just a bit for the other shoe to drop as they say.