Category: News (Page 8 of 29)

For the past month I have frequently visited the link on my sidebar “Earthquakes!!!!!!!” I added the link shortly after I started this blog. I have used it periodically over the past few years to check on the small quakes we have felt. This month I have clicked on the link at least once a day. Last Thursday night after the 7.1 (at the epicenter) aftershock I couldn’t sleep because I wanted to know where it was located ad how strong it was. I got up and clicked on the link.

Although I am glad I am here, I always feel like the ground is always moving a little. Sometimes it is, but mostly it’s just my imagination.

Bloomberg says that there have been over 900 aftershocks!

Today we finally had a project to aid the earthquake victims that we could help with.  Yesterday we took the train to the Mushashino Stake Center in Kichijoji and helped put together 4,000 hygiene kits that are going to be sent to Sendai asap. It was great working with the Japanese members from that stake. There are a few that I know and I was glad to see Rie Takanazawa. I hadn’t seen her since the earthquake. We had a few members of our district in attendance and our good friends in our branch, the Scoffields.

We started by folding in towels and then just jumped on the lines where they needed us.

I loved watching the children who were working as hard as the adults.

This little girl was about 3 years old. She worked tirelessly for over 2 hours emptying the toothbrush packages from their boxes so they could be put in the kits. She would empty the toothbrushes and then flatten the box to be recycled. She was so darling.

Do you remember that PBS show? Today I had a message on my Facebook wall that asked, “Where are you now? Australia?” I feel like the question is often, “Where in the world is Vanalee?” I am in Australia on a “business trip.” As my daughter-in-law Ruth explained to Rick…my business is being a wife, mother and grandmother and when I am away from home in any of those roles, I am on a business trip.

The sky here is incredible almost everyday.

Yesterday we drove to the Swan Valley. We visited the Margaret River Chocolate Company, a vineyard where non-alcoholic wine is produced and ate lunch at Stewart’s on an equestrian farm. It was a great day!

Stewart's

Since moving away from the USA in 2001 I have had to realize that while most things I cook using a recipe will turn out using the foreign equivalent of an ingredient, that is not true for baking. I have had more baking failures in the last ten years than in all the years before that. Most often, I think it is the butter. Right after I moved to Tokyo there was a butter shortage and the foreign market started selling American butter. The quality of my baked goods improved as soon as I began using this butter. Well…the American butter didn’t last long and I rationed out what I had stock piled in my freezer. Eventually, it ran out and I was back to Japanese butter and baking failures again. I mentioned this one day to my friend Natosha and the next time she came over she brought 2 pounds of this:

I had both pounds in the freezer until last night when a batch of cupcakes I needed for today failed. I pulled out the Challenge butter and made a perfect batch of red velvet cupcakes with it. This afternoon Natosha stopped by to bring me an inspired birthday gift…you guessed it a pound of Challenge butter. It is such a great gift because I cannot buy it myself in any store in Japan, Natosha can but I cannot ask her to buy it for me. It can only be a gift.

I’m not really missing, I’m in North Carolina.  I thought I would be able to post daily, however I’m keeping busy playing with Leigh and Rorey and as of today Rorey and I are on our own during the day. I’ll finish my year of photos when I update from Tokyo next week.

I have been posting a lot of travel days recently. Today after church I am going back to Narita airport and I’m on my way to Sugar Grove, NC to see Andrew, Leigh, Rorey, Chaco and Emma. I’m going to help them with Rorey and the dogs while Leigh is at a conference in Minnesota.

For one of our “additional” Relief Society meetings we had a cooking class in my kitchen. My Australian friend, Tammy, taught us how to make 4 Aussie desserts, Chocolate ripple cake, Anzac biscuits, scones and Lamingtons. They were all delicious and we had a fun time visiting.

Marisa requested a photo of the hat I bought in her comment on yesterday’s post. So Marisa this is for you.

Next week, I am going to be in Boone, NC to visit Andrew, Leigh and Rorey and then take care of Andrew, Rorey and the granddogs, Chaco and Emma while Leigh attends a conference in Minnesota (even brrr-ier, I’m sure that isn’t a word). It’s really cold in Boone and they will probably have snow. One of my duties is to take Emma, the husky, outside a few times a day and put her on the zipline so she can run. I also get pretty cold at night, especially my head. So when we were at the flea market I bought a hat. It’s not a hat you would expect me to wear. I bought it at the same stall that I bought a possibly identical hat from for Kristina two years ago. It is a group that supports health missions to Nepal. They bring handmade hats, felt purses and other wool items back from Nepal to sell and use the funds to support their missions.  So here are the photos (Marisa, you have to know I love you to post such a lovely photo on my blog!):

My Hat

Me in my hat!