Another year gone by...

I woke up this morning feeling old. Actually, one more year older. Today is my birthday! It really doesn't feel like a birthday for me. In a few minutes I'll have to make a call to my mother telling her THANK YOU for giving birth. It's her birthday too! I've had several ecards sent - and really enjoyed all of them! THANK YOU!!

So, the infamous question is what do I want for my birthday? Cy asked me that question a few times over the weekend and I just said "World Peace". How dumb is that? My actual translation of "world peace" for me is -- a massage, a pedicure, a birthday cake, dinner, seeing a movie, flowers, new clothes, house renovations to be completed, new shoes, a facial, etc. I know men can't read minds, but I guess I'll have to see what I get for my birthday.

Peace

Back from Japan

The Early's - behind is a view of Tokyo from Sky Gardens.
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After 2 delayed flights, then 2 cancelled flights, an evening spent at the Hilton Dulles Airport Hotel with food vouchers valued at $75.00(courtesy of United Airlines), another night spent at our friend Aleks' house in Falls Church, VA and 5 hours wait at Dulles for a flight home to Columbia -- WE MADE IT HOME.

We left Japan on Friday, Aug. 24th at 4 pm and arrived at IAD (aka Dulles International Airport) on Friday - the same day at 3:30 pm. Our 12 hour trip went by fast and Evan slept most of the way. I'll tell ya to you this way -- he didn't "eat" the plane food that was served. He was always asleep when the attendant came around. This was a good thing for us, b/c NOW -- he's over his jet lag and back on his normal sleeping schedule. I must say that Evan is an awesome traveler. He didn't fuss at all (well, only the normal fussing), but we had several people tell us how surprised that we even had a 2 yr. old traveling with us. One lady on the bus told me that she would have to prepare herself every time she saw a child get on the bus. She said that most, if not all children would cry during that three hour bus ride and it was very unpleasant for her. So, she said Evan was such a good boy. It was very uplifting to hear.

According to plan, we were to board our final destination flight at 5:01 pm. We spent at least 8 hours on Friday waiting, walking, double checking our flights for any time changes, standing in the long customer service lines to make flight changes, watching the many, many people walk up and down to each gate to catch their "ON TIME" flights. Oh and - watching Veggie Tales - "The Rumor Weed." OH well for that plan! Since our flight got cancelled (twice), we decided to just stay in VA for the weekend to visit our friends. We rented a car (PT Cruiser - which by the way, was very weird to drive considering that we hadn't driven in two weeks, plus we just came from a country that drove on the left side of the road) and had dinner with our friends Tino, Lisa and their daughter Olivia. We ate at the Silver Diner. Afterwards, Evan had lots of energy to burn, so we went to Tyson's Corner Mall (suggested by our friends). BOY - was that cool! They had a neat play area for kids and Evan had a blast.

I will have pictures posted soon on our website. We forgot our digital camera at Aleks' house and will have to wait for Aleks to mail our camera to us.

Thanks to those who prayed for our trip to Japan.

The Land of the Rising Sun - Japan

Here we are in Japan on vacation. We left on Aug. 13th - a 13 hr. plane ride - a real nice birthday present for Cy. We arrived the next day, 3 pm. Greeted by my sister Rhojon, her two kids - Ivy and Christian, and my parents too! What a great family reunion.

So far Japan is an experience. From driving on the left side of the road to experiencing the Onsen (traditional bath house). This a neat place! We're trying to soak up as much culture as we can. We have just three more days here - then back to the good ol' USA. Today we are going to Enoshima Aquarium (www.enosui.com) after we drop my parents off to catch their flight back to Hawaii.

Jani (see ya!),
The Early's

July Update

Gosh, has it been a whole month and a half since I've blogged? Eeekkk! Well, lots of things have happended, but I'll have to make this blog short. TWO MORE WEEKS until we fly to Japan for a much needed vacation!!! We are super excited! We'll be visiting my sister and her family. My parents are also meeting us out there too! It'll be a little family reunion, minus Amy and Lani.

Here are a few current pictures of Evan. We've spent a few days at Greer's pool. Greer is Evan's "potential twin". They were both born four hours apart. I will share more pictures on snapfish when I get them organized.

Hugs to all!

Two Years gone by...

Evan turned 2 yrs. old yesterday - May 13th. YEP! Mother's Day. We had a joint birthday celebration with Greer -- she is 4 hrs. older than Evan. It was a wonderful day for a birthday. We had it at Saluda Shoals Park. We had hot dogs, mini sandwiches, snacks, fruit, cake and ice cream. The invited 15 children played at the playground near our shelter at the beginning of the party, then all got dressed and headed over to the Saluda Splash Zone. This was pretty neat! I must say that ALL the children had a blast! I will have some pictures posted on our website soon! I promise.

For Evan's birthday, we gave him a kitchen - along with some pots, pans, and fake fruit and veggies. He has been playing with that non-stop since we gave it to him yesterday.

The nice thing about mother's day -- it was very relaxing for me. Cy made me a really nice dinner and also gave me a retreat to Logan Ray Day Spa. What a surprise! And being the practical person that he is -- he is also fixing our front door. Because we don't have a lot of sunlight coming through the front of the house, he's going to install tempered glass in the door frame. It's gonna look so cool! He was also one of the many men who helped in the KidsCoast church by volunteering to serve in the 3-4 yr. olds class. I've attached two pictures which also posted on our church website (www.seacoast.org/irmo/index.html-- Irmo campus). The other picture is of Evan in his class. He's the one with the red/white plaid shirt.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Pollen = Allergies

Spring is in the air - literally! Our cars have turned yellow in color and I at least have one sneeze attack twice a day! Due to the lack of rain, pollen season has become very bad this year. Everything is covered with pollen. YUCK!

I've been super busy - I hardly have time to blog anymore. I'm busy with work and also preparing for a baby shower. Not mine! My old roomie is expecting and the shower will be up in NOVA. I can't wait to see her and the rest of our friends. It's been a while since we were last there. Just two more months and Evan will be 2 years old. WOW - how time flies. And in two weeks its Easter! My nephew Christian will be 7 yrs. old or 8? Umm...all I know is - he's growing fast and I just feel older and older as the years go by.

I don't have anything exciting to report. Oh - our taxes are done! Woo hoo! I'm not too sure on how good the return is -- but at least we're getting something back this year. I'll find out on Friday. I'm sure it not enough for a trip to Japan though. SORRY Rhojon!!

** Pictures are of Evan helping himself to rice crackers. Cy was the stay-at-home dad for the day! Evan got his first ear infection....thus Cy -- the SAHD.

A NEW CELL PHONE!!

Well, after 5 years of having the same cell phone - we finally bought new ones! I have that feeling as if I just bought a new pair of shoes. :)

We originally had T-Mobile when living in VA/DC Metro area; we were told that they had T-Mobile in SC. They do have T-Mobile here, just not in Columbia! So, we switched to Cingular. At first we had some trouble with contracts and over the limit minutes with Cingular and we would also have trouble receiving incoming calls when we traveled to VA. That's annoying! All-in-all, we now have the latest greatest cell phones! Well, not at this hour - I'm charging the batteries, then would need to transfer the Sim card.

So, with that said - Cy and I will have working NEW cell phones later this evening. I can't wait to test it out! It has lots of features (camera, mp3 player, video, bluetooth cap., etc.) - I'm sure I don't need, but gonna love! Woo hoo!