I don’t know if the spammers are bored because the holidays are upon us and things are beginning to slow down at work or school but it seems they’ve been visiting my site. I guess I should be thankful that they care enough to make 52 comments in an hour or so. I mean what type of person has that much time on their hands to copy and paste the same comment on 52 entries? Might they just be lonely and blue? Perhaps they need some direction? I could direct them to move to Seattle, I hear the suicide rate is very high.

Today I got an email from the realtor. Our closing documents and down payment was recieved and if all is good with the bank, we will be homeowners by tomorrow!

We’ve been stuck in limbo since we returned from househunting. There were weeks when we heard nothing from anyone and we were worried that we wouldn’t close on time. What was especially difficult is that we are here in Japan and the current owners are not in Washington either so everything had to be sent to the east coast and Japan. To top it off, this is our first (and hopefully, our only) experience at home purchasing. I can’t imagine why people would go through this more than once in their lives.

Now that we’re so close to closing, we can start concentrating on downsizing. I didn’t realize the size of the house was only 1333 sq ft. The house was vacant and it has vaulted ceilings so it appeared to be much larger than it actually is. I don’t mind that it’s that small, we would’ve eventually moved into something this small as we got older. It’s easier for us to maintain. Anyway, because of the size, we need to get rid of as much stuff as possible. What we have here in Japan is only a portion of what we have in storage so we’ll have our work cut out for us when we move back.

It isn’t Thanksgiving dinner if Grandma’s stuffing isn’t part of the menu. I didn’t always like her stuffing, not because it isn’t tasty, because it is. It was just because I was being a little shit when I was younger.

You see, the age difference between me and my youngest aunt is 4 years. We never really got along as young children because we were always fighting for Grandma’s attention, her being the youngest and me being the first grandchild. I forced myself to hate everything she liked and for many years, that included Grandma’s stuffing. My aunt liked ham so I wouldn’t eat it, she liked raisins so I wouldn’t eat it. I ate almost everything else and my body shows it but those few things that I knew she loved, especially at get-togethers, I simply avoided.

What’s funny now is that noone ever noticed. It wasn’t until I had truly matured in my twenties that I got over it and ate ham and stuffing. I love them both! I can’t believe I waited so long to enjoy the foods that Grandma worked so hard to prepare every year. Now that I prepare Thanksgiving dinner for my family, I appreciate her stuffing even more. I’m not sure if any of her other grandchildren know how to make her stuffing but I will pass it on to my kids and hopefully, they will pass it on to their children too.

I’m thankful that I have something from Grandma that will be shared and passed down from generation to generation. I’m also thankful that my ohana is in good health. The boys called to wish us Happy Thanksgiving and we extending the same to them.

I hope everyone had something to be thankful for this year.

Bases barred from Boy Scout sponsorship. All of my sons were involved in Scouting, from being Tiger Scouts to Cub Scouts and finally to Boy Scouts. Since we are a military family, our housing area sponsored our troop. I always thought the partnership between the military and BSA went hand in hand. So many of our volunteer leaders had expertise in whatever merit badges they had our sons work toward. The military community offered many opportunities for our boys to participate in events such as Schofield Day in which the Army set up different stations for boys to learn different skills and at the same time earn a few merit badges. The Coast Guard had a similar event for the Cub Scouts.

As my sons got older, they began to lose interest but even today they will admit that they have learned things we normally wouldn’t have thought to teach them. They got to experience many things other boys didn’t have an opportunity to experience. All of it is attributed to the skilled and unselfish volunteers who, when not dedicating their time to our boys, are now dodging bullets and riding around in unarmored tanks for this country. How’s that for supporting our troops?

It’s enough that the military families are already stressed and worried about their loved one’s safe return, now they’ll have to worry about whether their son’s troop will be forced to dismantle for lack of a meeting area and sponsorship, especially at overseas bases. Yep, this is something that just boosts morale …. NOT.

Today is my grandson’s first birthday. My son sent some recent pictures of his children and other ohana in MA. I’ve added those to the gallery. We can’t get over how much those two grandchildren of ours look so much alike! Click on the picture to view the album.