Mona's Jungle

So with sun and humidity beating down on Okinawa, we try and find things to do indoors. This ensures that no one melts! Today we went to an indoor play area. If anyone remembers Discovery Zone, it is similar to that choas. Only the prices here are better!

Kenna and her friends like to run, climb, and of course eat snacks. She met a little Japanese boy on this trip. It was fun to watch them run around and play together. One speaking English and the other speaking Japanese, but it didn't matter to them. I didn't manage to get a picture of them together. I wish I had.

Saying goodbye

Having to say goodbye to one's child is not easy. While it is not that they passed away or that they are taking a right of passage like going to college. No, I am saying goodbye as we prepare to head back to Okinawa for Shawn to return to duty. 30 days of leave never seems like enough time. However, I don't think that all the leave in the world would make any difference.

Our last day together was filled with mixed emotions. Jenaya woke up rather ornery and Elle was quiet. She was in her thinking mode. Ian and Marni constantly picked at each other. I knew that it had to do with being torn. They were ready to go home. They were excited to see their dad and mommy number 2-Kelly. They wanted to see how much their little kitty, Pippa, had grown. However, all of these things meant that Mom, Shawn and MacKenna were leaving... again.


We filled the day with packing and searching Papaa's house for forgotten items and lost treasures. The kids filled their suitcases to overflowing and packed the back of the van. Already, the house seemed less full of life.

We did have one last hurray. Nay-Nay wanted to have a whipped cream fight and I had told her yes. To be honest, I didn't really want to. I was tired and depressed and struggling through my own emotions. However, she must have known something that I did not. She must have known that we all needed to laugh one more time together. That, as a family, we needed to be silly.

Shawn bought 7 cans of redi-whip and we all dressed in 55 gallon drum garbage bags. Those bags were huge! Poor Kenna had to wear a garbage sack instead. Less to cut off and less around the middle. However, all the rest of us wore one. Ian had to tie his on the side so that he had room to run and move. He looked like he was dressed back when it was in fashion to tie your shirt in a knot on the side of your outfit. Nay-Nay figured out that you could tie two of the corners between your knees and you would look like you had on knickers of sorts.

Flying handfuls of whipped cream and screams of laughter erupted from Papaa's backyard. Somehow the kids and I were more covered than Shawn. Must be some military tactics that he used. It may have only lasted for 15 minutes, but it was worth the memories and the laughter it created on such a yucky day.

While saying goodbye is never easy for me, I have strength in knowing that this road is the road that God wanted for me. I find comfort in knowing that He is in charge and has blessed me.

Oreo race

Did anyone else know that Oreo's were good for other things besides eating???

I had read somewhere that you could race with them. So Shawn, all the kids, and myself tried it. We split the cookies in half. Getting all the cream filling to stick to one side. Then we licked the frosting and stuck it to our foreheads. The loser was the one whose cookie fell off their face first.



Marni, Shawn, and I managed to break our cookies in the process of sticking them to our foreheads. Kenna didn't really understand what we were doing and proceeded to stick her cookie to her check, hand, and anywhere else that would make us laugh.



Elle, in all her wisdom of 13, decided that we were too silly and did not partake any further than being the photographer of us goofballs.



It took so long for the cookies to fall off (our body heat was supposed to melt the frosting, but I think I remember it needing to be double stuffed-oops) that we had to resort to helping them. We tried jumping jacks, but that only made us out of breath. We tried wrinkling our foreheads, but that only felt weird and maybe only loosen their position.



Finally out of frustration, Shawn pulled his cookie off and ate it. Winner or not, I was left looking like a dork all by myself!

Queen of three letter words

The kids and I have been playing Boogle like it is going out of style. It is amazing to me that even Marni and Ian can play. And since when did Jenaya get smarter than me??

There is something about sitting around the kitchen table with all of us searching for words, that has filled me with a sense of peace and greatfulness.

Peace, because I can see all four of my kids and know that they are healthy and happy. I can see how they have grown and the changes that they have made.

Greatfulness, because all seven of us are under one roof. I get to be mom, even if it is only for 30 days. This past year has had its moments when I questioned if we were going to be OK. God has shown me that he keeps His promises no matter what. He never forgets and always remembers.

And so I am off to be the Queen of three letter words!

Beauty Parlor

Kenna played beauty parlor with her big sisters, Miss Elle and Nay-nay!

She also did her own make up!! Isn't she beautiful?

Here she is putting "lips" on her client.

Nay-nay doesn't like how her "eye lash polish" went on.

Miss Elle let the new nail technican paint her nails

(Thank God for soap and water)