The Gulick Family!

Valentine's Dinner

2010-02-14T07:17:00.002-05:00

I love holidays. I didn't used to. Ever since my kids started school and the teachers started making a celebration out of every possible holiday did I get caught up in all the excitment. My kids now take Groundhog's Day very seriously and the 100th day of school is something big enough to paint shirts and wear bejeweled crowns. Valentine's Day is no exception. My kids could hardly contain themselves when they and Dad went to the commissary and bought me a "suprise" valentine's gift. I have to admit they were so good at keeping it secret amidst all my jovial proddings. So far all I could tell was that it was "soft" and wasn't in dad's underwear drawer.
I'm way bad at gifts. I'm very practical so I have a hard time spending money on what I deem as worthless. I needed a better gift for my husband and the kids so this year for Valentine's Day I made a 4 course meal for my family.
I fully expected my kids to snub the food, but I was going to give them this experience and hope that they would be grateful and feel my love through this service. Of course, I prepared them with this dialogue: "Kids, we are going to have a fancy dinner. There may be some foods that look funny, but I want you to try it and I don't want to hear any whining." To which my kids responded: "Okay, mom." I hoped that was all they needed to make this an enjoyable dinner.
I put up a curtain across the entryway to the kitchen to keep out any curious eyes and got to work. I actually started the day before with preparing the soup and dessert.
Here was the menu:
Spinach Mandarin Poppy Seed Salad
Zuppa Toscana
Lasagne (off the Barilla no-boil lasagne noodle box)
All served with Breadsticks and Pink Punch (7up and Hawaiian Punch)
For Dessert:
Applebee's White Chocolate Walnut Brownie
The kids were really good sports about it all. They tried the food at least and they were so excited as I served them each course. Ed, of course, LOVED it all! It was alot of work, but so worth it to hear Hannah's squeals as I brought out dessert with a cute little white chocolate heart on top of the ice cream. Our whole family loved it so much that we decided that this would be our Valentine's Day tradition: I serve the food they shower me with gifts!
Oh, I got a box of chocolates from all the kids and a lovely card from Ed. Dallin was so impress that it took me two days to prepare this meal that he couldn't stop talking about it. We had a lovely evening and hope that the rest of our friends and family did as well!

Swimming in January

2010-02-06T02:19:00.003-05:00

It's rainy and gloomy and cold right now. Hard to believe that a little over a week ago it was warm enough for the kids to take a little dip in the water. Jacob has an aversion to bright sunlight so he had that umbrella with him for much of the time. We were unprepared for the great weather, so that is why the kids are swimming in their shorts.

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Dallin really wanted to go snorkling, but it just doesn't work if you don't go all the way in.

Hannah's face is just so funny in these pictures!

What I've been up to

2010-02-05T23:30:00.002-05:00

I'm a do-it-yourselfer. It's something my mom passed on to me. I could have bought a vinyl tree and slapped it up on the wall, but that would have been just too easy for me.
Hannah helped me paint and I cut it out and glued it up on the wall. Total cost was hmmm...maybe, maybe $5. My mom should be so proud.

My family's reactions:

Ed: "Wow, that looks nice. Are you going to put leaves on it?"
Dallin: "Why doesn't it have leaves, Mom?"
Jacob: "Where did you get that tree, Mom?"

I think it looks fine as is, but I have thought about a bird or two or some flowers. Anyway, I am very happy with how it turned out.

Wait there's more!

2010-01-20T04:40:00.008-05:00

After lunch we went through the rest of the aquarium. We saw these cute little guys called Garden Eels.

Outside the aquarium is a ginormous net climbing structure that the kids had a blast on! Check out the air Dallin got on this jump!

Hannah and Dallin mid-jump:

I would feel bad if I didn't include a picture of Jacob. He wasn't quite so daring.

What a great day it was! Just the pick-me-up I needed!

A Really Great Day!

2010-01-18T23:29:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we went to the Churaumi Aquarium. We took the Missionaries and our friends the Rios' came with us. We had such a great time. As you know I'm not much of a writer, but I think we have some great pictures.

We all got to touch starfish and sea cucumbers!I never knew starfish could be blue.

Next we saw a dolphin show. Hannah likes dolphins just about as much as she likes horses so this was probably the highlight of the trip for her.

I was reluctant to admit that this aquarium was better than the one in Baltimore, but after I saw the huge shark tank I was convinced. Plus all the other activities, like the giant net climbing structures, the gardens and the BEACHES, it definately trumps Baltimore.

Boring

2010-01-13T21:21:00.002-05:00

My life seems kind of boring right now, but wanted to tell ya that Hannah started preschool. It's a small in home thing with a couple of ladies from church. Here is the blog for it.

Fire up the grill!

2009-12-29T18:48:00.004-05:00

I suprised Ed with a new Weber grill for Christmas this year. He was so excited. We haven't had a grill since 2006. Ed is also particular about it being a charcoal grill. We all need to be adamant about something right?
Last night we fired it up for the first time.

We had hamburgers and they were so good. It's strange that we love a grill, but aren't big meat eaters. Oh, well.

Gingerbread Houses!

2009-12-22T22:25:00.003-05:00

For FHE we invited some friends over for gingerbread house decorating. It was a pain to make the houses cause here if you leave anything out too long it will go soft (no dry winter like Virginia). So as you can see they are droopy a little. Yet it was still fun.

Cape Zanpa

2009-12-19T18:43:00.005-05:00

It was cold this weekend. That didn't stop us from venturing out a little. We drove up to Cape Zanpa to see what we could see. There is a lighthouse there where you can climb up and see for miles! The water was churning and it was so windy!

WATCH OUT! THERE'S A GIANT SHISA DOG BEHIND YOU!

Dallin can ride his bike without training wheels!

2009-12-13T21:05:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday Dallin learned to ride his bike without training wheels. I came home from decorating for the Branch Christmas Party and found Dallin and Hannah playing outside. I had a quick idea to practice with Dallin on riding his bike. When we were living in Virginia Dallin wasn't very confident riding his bike without training wheels. There were a lot of hills and he would fall down frequently. He was in a good mood today so I thought I would try. He got on the bike and I pushed him a little and let go (cause you know that you all do! even if the kid says "don't let go!"). He was balancing very well and I ran right along side him as he rode all by himself! He was so proud of himself! Now he want's to go out all the time to keep riding. Yeah, Dallin!

A Wonderful Weekend!

2009-11-28T05:41:00.008-05:00

We did so much this weekend! After talking with some friends and seeing some neat marine life, I am super excited to try snorkling (when the water and weather warms up).
Our first excursion was a trip on a glass bottom boat. Some people would call this lame compared to snorkling or scuba diving, but as I have done neither I thought it was awesome. Just another reason for me to consider taking a scuba diving class.

Too bad Dallin and Hannah were complaining of seasickness. They enjoyed as much it as they could.

Next we went down into an underwater observatory.

We saw lots of neat fish! I won't bore you with the lousy pictures. It was cool that's all.

The next day was even better! We love to go to the beach at low tide to do some coral walking and discover new things.

This time we decided to go up to Maeda Point. Ed started out on his bike to get a ride in and I followed later. We were to meet up and begin our hike. I nearly didn't find the place and got lost only once. I'm glad that we DID find this place because it was so awesome!!
It's a great place to go snorkling and diving apparently. There was a lot of that going on. Anyways...

Here are the fabulous pictures for you to enjoy!

Someone made "Happy Birthday" out of coral. The kids thought it was neat. I did too.

Dallin and Hannah could not stop talking about this picture. It showed where there sharks were spotted and warned divers about them. I knew he would love a picture of it.

New Ottoman?

2009-11-19T02:39:00.006-05:00

We have an old ottoman. It was given to us over 11 years ago before we got married. It was from the Dalby's. Remember them? It was stained but really bouncy and comfy. I'm so glad that I found these directions from Dummies.com on how to make a slip cover. Yes apparently they needed to dumb it down for us pess than lerfect people.

Okay here is before:

The pinning:

The cutting:

and the final product:

I think it turned out great! Now on to pillows...

Veterans day and the longest rollerslide yet!

2009-11-11T03:50:00.008-05:00

Our plans for Veterans day kinda fizzled for our trip on the glass bottom boat. The sea conditions were red today meaning no activity on the water. But we went to the seawall anyway and it was amazing to see such large waves!

Then we went to the fitness center to get some practice in for Jacob's 100m run at the Kadena Special Olympics this Saturday. We think he'll do well.

Later in the day we discovered this awesome park with an incredible rollerslide. We've uploaded a hilarious video of Ed sliding down behind the boys.

Finally here is a picture of the view from atop the tower.

Halloween

2009-11-06T17:28:00.004-05:00

My kids are obsessed with Mario and Luigi. Jacob is always the one to play Mario, Dallin is either Luigi or Koopa. Hannah is of course Princess Peach and I have been dubbed Rosalina. I love their imaginations!

For Halloween they were their favorite characters. Hannah went for Erika from Princess and the Pauper. Even though it wasnt the exact colors she thought her costume was just right. I love that she is so easy to please in that respect. She's not so much in other ways. We had a great time!

Roller Slide

2009-11-05T21:17:00.003-05:00

I have never seen a slide like this before. It's a bunch of little rollers on a long slide that roll you all the way down. Can you tell Jacob loves it?

Click on our YouTube video on the right to see it in action!

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-11-03T19:00:00.002-05:00

I'm 31 today.
It's so crazy! Seriously I just turned 30 a couple of months ago!

Yea I voted on that drizzly gray day.

We went to IHOP.

Obama won the election.

I ate Pumpkin Pie.

What happened to the last year?

Our Place:)

2009-09-14T01:09:00.004-04:00

This is our place. It is 3 minutes outside base in a place called Chibana.
What sold us is the HUGE garage. We desperately needed a place to put all of our bikes and accessories.

Oh and here’s a picture including our van. It’s a Nissan Bassara. The boy with the blue shirt is Jacob. Ha ha ha.

The street in front of our house dead-ends just past the last house. It’s the closest we are going to get to a cul-de-sac here in Japan. The houses are so close together! Even more than what we were seeing in DC! If an earthquake hits us the whole neighborhood is going down!

Sunset on the East China Sea

2009-09-14T00:59:00.003-04:00

Saturday we went to the seawall just outside the base to eat dinner and watch the sunset. We were in the mood for Mexican and had a delicious dinner at a place called Mike’s. Jacob even ate a plate of rice and a whole taco. Dallin and Hannah were a little bit harder to please. Don’t you hate it when all your kids want is chicken nuggets and hot dogs? We got them a plate of nachos. I had the most delicious guacamole ever! Who would have guessed that I would taste my best Mexican food in Okinawa? Anyways, it was delicious and then there was enough time to catch the sun before it set over the East China Sea.

The clouds were beautiful and we were able to get some really great pictures of the kids and scenery. Okay so I Photoshopped it a bit, but the effect is still the same.
Enjoy!

When we got back to the van, we notice that we had been issued a parking ticket. Guess we need pay more attention to those strange Japanese signs.

Home Sweet Home?

2009-09-10T21:26:00.002-04:00

Because Ed is a civilian here at Kadena, we are told that we will not be able to live on base. When I first heard this I was disappointed. I wanted the security and convience of living on base. Besides what kind of house can we afford to rent outside of base?
Nice houses here run from 300,000-600,000 yen a month. That is 3,253.00-6,507.00 dollars a month. I was fully expecting to live in a tiny apartment in a crowded metro area.
Ed went to the Civilian Personel office and was told that he is allowed nearly 500,000 yen for his Housing and Utility allowance. Can you believe that? That's like 5,000 dollars! That can get you alot! We really like this house. However, it's not uncommon for electricity to run from 400-600 a month. I've even heard of a 1,000 electric bill. Yikes. Also, being on an island there is a need to conserve water too. But I'm okay with that. Hope everyone in the States are doing okay, and Christina if you could pick up that tie at Target that I was looking at for Ed that would be great. Ha just kidding, but not really. hahahaha

We have arrived !(finally)

2009-09-05T00:22:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone!
Wanted to let everyone know that we got to Okinawa safely. It sure was a loooooong trip. We got in on Tuesday afternoon, which would be about early early morning on Tuesday for those of you on the East coast. Ugh. Life here is gonna take some getting used to.

Biggest cause of anxiety:

This is so wrong!

We were able to purchase a van here with the money we made from selling the Honda and since we are civilians, not military, we have to find a place off-base. That'll be fun. I will get some more pictures posted as soon as I can, or whenever I can lock myself in the bathroom and have 5 minutes peace without the kids fighting with each other!
Hope everyone is doing well back in the USA.

Best Friends

2009-08-23T20:04:00.002-04:00

I love the way that Karsten and Hannah play together.

Long road home

2009-08-22T08:53:00.001-04:00

Here's Hannah zonked out on our trip home from Florida. I think we all felt this way.

A fun picture

2009-08-12T07:21:00.000-04:00

A week full of events (continued from Christina's blog)

2009-08-12T06:57:00.003-04:00

We have been to DC countless times.
I am so happy that my kids love to go.
Here are some pictures of our fun with everyone.

Alex and Jacob like to do alot of things together. They sat by each other on the metro, but doesn't it seem to you that Jacob is rolling his eyes? I know that is not Jacob's nature, but when I captured this picture it made me laugh.

A lucky shot of most of the kids in our group (well except Ed...and Grant is not a kid anymore, but I refuse to use the backspace key right now so there!)

Then I was able to get one of Jacob and Alex holding hands. At first I thought that it was Alex who wanted to always hold hands with Jacob, but as I later observed Jacob, I noticed that he was the one initiating the holding. Ha ha ha! Very suprising to me since Jacob is usually not a touchy boy. So cute.

Vacationing for a month

2009-08-02T17:06:00.003-04:00

We are homeless. Thursday was our final day at our place in LakeRidge. It was a tiring day of cleaning, but Todd and Ed did most of it on Wednesday. I was so tired I didn't have time to feel sad about the place. Plus I had the company of my sister and sister-in-law. Moving is hard. Now we are on an extension of our vacation down here in Florida. It's hot, like Okinawa is supposed to be. I hope we have GOOD air conditioning there. Ugh. I remember when we were poor and struggling. Our first apartment had one bedroom and one window unit. We used to go to Wal-Mart to cool down. I vowed never to have a place without central A/C. Oh the luxuries we enjoy! Besides visiting the beaches here we plan to go to Bush Gardens and Sea World. Yea, we're passing up the Disney thing. Been there done that. Dallin learned to stay afloat in the pool today. He was very proud of himself for his accomplishment. We are proud of him too. Jacob tried to do a back flip off the edge of the pool and bruised his coccyx. Ouch. He's okay. Ice and Ibuprofen do the job well.