Messy

I have only taken out my camera about three or four times this month.  It's definitely a change for me but I just don't have the interest in taking any photos right now.  There are too many other things to focus on.  Mike has been in Korea this week.  He's got trips to Korea coming up in October and  November, and then a trip to India in January.  I wish he didn't have to travel but we knew eventually he would have to.  Too bad I can't join him on any of these trips.  

It continues to be hot and muggy.  It is August and the typhoon season so the current weather is expected. I find that it gets unbearable and then a big rainstorm comes through (or, more likely, a few days of rain) and then it cools down a little.  The first day that I took Eli to the doctor I arrived in the office dripping from sweat and the second day I arrived dripping with water from the rain.  I'm not sure which one is preferable.  I also had to get gas for the first time since moving here.  Mike usually does it because he usually drives but after Eli's appointment I realized that the gas light came on and I was imagining a situation where we ran out of gas in the middle of a busy Tokyo road and then my mind wasn't even able to come up with what that scenario would actually look like, which is good.  I didn't have to worry about how to overcome that situation because I was able to make it back to Hardy Barracks in time to get gas.  Hardy Barracks is where Mike works.  They have two fuel tanks there.  You have to call in and ask the Japanese man at the NEX (a little shoppette) which one to use and then go in and pay him when you are done.  Our gas at Hardy Barracks is cheaper than the gas on the economy.  It is currently $4.96 which is cheaper than it was a month ago.  Mike sometimes gets gas at the Enos down the street and you just pull in and give the attendant your credit card and they do everything for you including washing all your windows for free.  While at Hardy Barracks I also picked up some packages--a few items of clothes for the girls that I got off of clearance from Target.  Piper's been waiting for a doll she earned early in the summer and it's taken over five weeks to arrive.  It wasn't there and she cried and cried.  Most packages do not take that long so it's been a sad summer for her as she waits.  She keeps saying, "by the time the doll gets here I'll be in school and then I won't have time to play with her!"  Poor girl.  Anyway, Eli's physical therapy is giving me so much grief.  I mentioned it in the last post but it just continues to cause problems.  I don't want to go into it all (and you probably don't actually care about the details) but as soon as I think I have everything squared away, I discover that another challenge presents itself.  I can choose one path for his therapy that is complicated or another path that is also complicated.  He prefers the first and I think I've settled on the second.  When we were considering coming here, everyone in the family but me was healthy and I assumed that after my thyroidectomy, things would settle down and I'd just need the occasional visit to the doctor for refills of medicine or random things here or there.  I hadn't obviously, anticipated this.  Between Will's ingrown toenails, a physical for Felicity, my injured toe from dropping the griddle on it, my injured back, thyroid management, Eli's injured knee, and Isaac's sprained ankle, I have spent more time at this doctor/physical therapy than any other time of our lives up to this point.  If I had known we would require so much we would not have put Tokyo down on our list of options.  The insurance hassle is such a pain and I wish I had known it would be like this.

In other news, Mike and I got an email from the Stake Presidency this week and while he was in Korea, we all got on a zoom call and he was extended the call to be in the bishopric. One take away this week is that when I think I can't handle more, I am given more.   When I look back at some of the things I've had to take on over the last few years, I realize that time moves on and we get through them, whether gracefully or not, I can't really say, though, probably not.  More will come in the future, some bigger, some smaller, and I guess we just try to lean into them.  I currently feel like I'm in a pretty messy season and I'm not sure when it will end.

My list of positives from two days ago:

The rain cooled things down a bit

Mike is in the same time zone

I have clothes to change into when the umbrella seems useless

I didn't run out of gas and it wasn't complicated to figure out

Nicole is an awesome secretary

Good music to listen to

Lemon Gallette

A good book to read

Girls are happily playing

The sunset was pretty

New Sanno for dinner

A heart shaped rock on my path during my walk

People willing to be subs 

Will spending an hour a day with Isaac to help him practice for his SAT

Swimming at the compound

These photos were from two weeks ago when Mike was working weird hours.  He has a conference to attend that was held in America so he started work around 9:30 PM and stayed up until about 4 AM and then slept during the day.  The last day he didn't stay up as long so he had a few hours in the day to spend with the girls and I.  I had finished all my trips to and from the doctor with Eli and it wasn't raining so I decided we would head to a ravine just outside the city.  We hopped on the subway and walked through the ravine and then found a park for the girls to play at.  It was exactly the outing we needed.  I felt thankful for the lack of rain, vending machines, Mike joining us, and a few hours to spend with the girls.