A Blessing

So, the big news - our land has been blessed. It was an interesting ordeal and I'm still not sure what the significance of everything was. It was an informal get together of Chris, Reina, and I, and our "lender" and the architect - who we both see at all of our meetings. We see so much of each other that I"m starting to think we need to exchange phone numbers and hang out! So, what happened at the blessing? Well, Chris and Yuji (the lender as I've dubbed him) sprinkled rice, salt and sake in each of the four corners of the land and in the center. I also think it was significant that we started in the east corner and went clockwise ending with the center. Neither Chris nor I know the significance of the materials, but Chris guessed it might have to do with all necessary things for living? We also remembered that the sumo wrestlers always throw salt before matches, so there is something special about salt!

Other news. Gosh I feel like a lot happened this week. I totally forgot to mention our two natural disasters last weekend. I'm sure everyone knows at this point, but

Saturday morning there was a 7.0 earthquake close to us. It woke up all of us, but after a quick feed, Reina went back to sleep and slept in till 8am. Of course Chris and I couldn't get back to sleep. We had 1 picture frame fall over and two kitchen drawers jiggled open. It was pretty exciting. THEN, the huge earthquake in Chili caused a non-existent tsunami that we were supposed to evacuate for. However, since we were on the fourth floor and on the west side of the island, we stayed home. We were watching the ocean at 3pm and I don't think A wave ever hit! But, nevertheless it was an exciting weekend.

Reina has been insistent lately on climbing everything. She

finally managed to climb up onto a table (hence the pics). And I got some pictures of Reina and I after we got caught in a downpour. It was one of those Okinawa downpours where you can feel and see the dark clouds rolling in. I was walking faster and faster as the coolness came, and when I turned the last corner to our house I actually heard and saw the rain coming at us like a wall! It was crazy. Reina murmured when it started and then we jogged home.

Oh, I forgot. Reina is also working on some molars. Forget those other front teeth (4 top, 2 bottom of which she has), she's going straight for the ones she needs to chew that food!

PS - Mom: Look what I found and they fit! :)