the closet

so, i have too many clothes. it's a problem, i know. and in this humidity, they need to be more spaced out so that they don't grow mold and get mildewy. (yuck!)
well, although my closet is big, i still needed more space. and the rod on one side was high enough that another could fit underneath it and luke decided he would add another rod and some more shelf space in there. he really is QUITE handy!!!
and here is the finished product....

seriously, how does he just figure this stuff out?? such a crafty guy.....
and now, i get to go re-arrange things and organize. yay!!! i'm actually excited to organize and clean the closet!!!! :)

Luke Won!!!

Luke entered this contest where he had to take a picture of his surfboard "quiver" and possibly win a new surfboard. So, I took this awesome picture of some of his boards, and put little Sprockette and her cone in for good luck, and guess what... HE WON!!!! (It was Sprockette's cuteness that really won it all!!! )
They published the picture of his quiver and another I took of him surfing his Catch Surf board at a spot here in Oki. Pretty awesome!!!
Check out the link here to see it all!! :)

http://www.catchsurf.com/blog/

fish market

on saturday luke and i went to the fish market here where they have TONS of fresh fish, right off the boats, and you can pick your fish of choice and they fillet it right there in front of you. and it is SO fresh that it hardly even smells in there! :)
here are some of the buckets of fish waiting to be picked out. there are many different bins, with all kinds of different fish.

one of the bins had HUGE tuna and the lady in front of us in line bought like 5 of them. this is them preparing it, just to give you an idea of the size of these fish.

and then there was our cute little guy, being scaled and the outside prepared

 after they scale and clean the outside, they cut open and clean out the inside

 i have spared the gross pictures i took here of them ripping the guts out and whatnot, but trust me, it happened. ;)  i'd rather them do it for me than have to do it myself!
so after we got the fish all filleted and cleaned out, we put some ice in the bag and took it home.

from there, luke decided he was going to stuff it with sliced garlic and butter and top it with lemons and bacon and wrap it all up and let it cook inside the tin foil on the BBQ.

now, i'd love to show you an after picture of the final product, but it looked so tasty that we just dug right in and totally forgot to take any more pictures. but trust me, it was delicious! (we did not eat the eyeballs... i should have saved them for my grandpa, cagui!!) we served it with some fresh green beans that we bought at our local market down the street and steamed on the BBQ as well. a DELICIOUS meal!!! :)

surfing!

today was a good day!
school was pretty chill and relaxed... all of the 2nd graders were on a field trip, so i didn't have very many classes, and the kinders and 1sts were pretty good! and then.....
luke called me when my school got out and told me that the surf was pretty fun for longboarding and it isn't going to stick around very long, so he was going out. i left school as soon as i could after getting my room prepped for taiko drum club (they borrow my room on fridays after school) and headed home to see what the waves looked like. the weather was pretty sucky and cold the past few days, but today it warmed up nicely again. :)
i spotted luke out at our "home break" right out our backyard and quickly changed, got my board ready, and grabbed out new waterproof camera that we just got last week.

after the LONG paddle out, i met up with luke out there and we had a nice afternoon of surfing. it was wonderful! the waves had mostly died and were small but fun and the weather and water was so nice!

every once in a while some good sets would come through. we didn't get any shots of us surfing anything, but we did take some "artsy ones" :)
all in all, a fabulous day!!!

poor little sprockette

so, my cute little baby girl usually is VERY excited, jumpy, an all around the CUTEST thing ever. kind of like she is here!!
she loves exploring and checking everyone and everything out around her.

 

but today, we had to take her to the vet to get fixed and get her back du-claws removed. she is just a little poor pathetic thing now. and still a little bit on the drugs, we think. ;)

 

they fixed her up really good, and even put little hearts on her feet wraps. its pretty cute... everyone just loves her and wants to take care of her!!

and now she is just laying down, whining a whole lot, and just being sad. i feel so bad for my sweet little girl. and she has to wear the cone for 10 days!!! she didn't really like going outside with it on earlier, because she really couldn't smell everything, and walking up the stairs was pretty funny. i have to laugh a little, because watching her walk around with it is pretty funny... but i also feel bad that she isn't feeling well. poor little sprockette.

luke's new creation

luke has decided to make himself a new surfboard... an alaia style board. its pretty much a little plank, but is an original hawaiian style board.

 

gluing the boards of wood together

 

clamped and glued

 

drawing and cutting the shape

 

shaping and planing the board

 

applying the varnish

 

 shape of the bottom

 

finished product

he hasn't caught a wave on it yet, but he only tried once. i'm sure he'll keep trying until he gets it. if it works, awesome... if not, then we have a cool new coffee table. :)

crafty days

recently i have been quite crafty.... the latest activity was making shisa dogs at the ceramics shop in the glass factory. shisa dogs are traditional okinawan statues that are supposed to hold in happy spirits and shoo away the bad ones. the boy dog has the mouth open and sucks the happiness in and the girl dog has the mouth closed and holds the happiness.
luke and i made our very own shisas, complete with our very own personalities. :)

first, we started with just the ball of clay, with only the hole for the mouth.

and then we molded the mouth into the appropriate shapes. we both made ours "smiling"

then comes the tails, feet, eyes, nose, etc...

we added the ears, and extra facial details.... we had to roll out each piece of clay and make the shapes we wanted and then mold it onto the main body.

luke added a funny tongue to his :)

he is so good with the artistic details.... flip flops, goatee, winking eye, crazy teeth.....

and, of course, dreadlocks!!!!

the artistic process takes a little longer and more concentration for me though...

but in the end, they both turned out fantastic!!! mine has eyelashes, cute little toes, and a fun bow-tie! :) and the main ceramic sensei (master teacher) made the cute little one for us too!! :)

we get our creations back in 2 months... they have to dry them, glaze them, and fire them.
a super fun, crafty day for the flemings!!!

happy new year!!!

:)

making stockings!!!

so, i used to have a christmas stocking... but that's a whole 'nother story that is not discussed...

this year, i decided that i was going to make stockings for me and luke, and it would be special and crafty and fun!!!!

we were already headed to the 100 yen store to find $10 each worth of stocking stuffers to surprise each other with, and there we found some fun fabric and cool iron-ons for the stockings.

i am not a very experienced seamstress, but crafty luke knew what he was doing (of course!) and gave me instructions every step of the way. but, i did all of the labor on my own!!!!
making the pattern, cutting the fabric, sewing it all, making the hems, ironing on the patches.... all me!!

and here are the end results!!!

this one is luke's....  he loves chocolate, candy and donuts, of course, and tigers.... they're fierce!!! :)

and this one is mine... i love sunshine, donuts and candy, and lots of LOVE!!!

the fabrics are just the reverse of each other. and i added a border of fabric to make them thicker.... for more presents, of course!!! heehee

and here they are in the window.... sprockette's is the one on top, that jim and jackie got her. we need to get a little more fabric so i can finish hers, but she gets a family one too!!! :)

i am SO happy with the creations and SO happy that luke and i have our very own family stockings!!!
merry christmas, everyone!!!

okinawa glass factory

a couple of weekends ago when heather was here visiting, we made the trek to the southern part of the island to hit up the most beautiful and happy place that is known as the okinawa ryukyu glass factory. everything is colorful and beautiful and amazing.... i want it all!!!

they make the glass right there in front of you, so you can see the process... it is so cool! you can see this guy blowing the glass, shaping it with his hand, and applying a mold for texture.





this guy down here is making a wine glass. first they make the part that holds the wine, then the stem, and finally the bottom piece. it is such a rad thing just to see how exact they are with everything and how they keep applying just the right amount of heat and twisting the glass in just the right way.... amazing!







this last one is a picture of the ceiling inside the actual store where you can buy all the glass. everything is this colorful and wonderful.... so happy!!!

moving out......

Luke and I arrived here in Okinawa on August 17th and checked into the Shogun hotel. We have since stayed there for 89 days and finally just moved out yesterday. All this time, we have been waiting for this most beautiful house.... a LONG but worthwhile wait. There were times of craziness, when we thought it all wouldn't work out and that we might not be getting the house, but in the end, our perseverance prevailed and all is well. We moved out of the Shogun (the desk clerk said in a very astonished voice, "you've been here for 89 days!?!?!?") on Saturday morning, and took our hotel stuff to the new house. Bye bye, Shogun, you did us well for 3 months!!!

Our furniture and other belongings aren't coming until Monday, but we are staying with our very good friends (who are now our next door neighbors!!!!) until then. It is such a blessing to have good people around who care enough about you to help take care of you in your times of need. So thankful!!!

So, after Monday, we'll have our stuff again!!! And then the house will really be ours! Just in time for my friend, Heather to come visit from Korea for Thanksgiving!!! :)