So much for radiation exposure

Not to say that we want to go to a Ball at the Nuc. plant, but I am now not as concerned about the exposure.  My lovely little girl whom I am trying to protect from a higher likelihood of cancer in future years just received a head CT.

Zap.

We made brownies late last night and, in order to prevent burns from the big bad oven, I put Ioanna in a high chair with arms and pulled it up to the counter so she could not fall forward.  Instead she stood up and just fell off.  Flat on her face with a nice big bump on the temple.  She took the longest breath I have ever seen (I may have too), cried a second then snored (really) and passed out on my shoulder for a couple seconds.  Then she woke and screamed some more.  Jon got home just then (thank goodness) and decided to offer her a cookie to see if she would vomit (sigh).  Instead she watched the many pretty daddys circling around her, at least she really did not realize what the cookie was, or could not pick which one to grab at.  So off to the ER we went.

The nice thing about an ER visit during an evacuation departure...no wait!  There was one unlucky little girl there with a badly broken finger and us.  Io was very quiet for a while and then became quite giddy (at 10pm when she is usually quite grumpy if she is not in bed).  With the passing out, the giddiness, the height of fall and the bruise location, the doctor recommended a CT scan to check for bleeds.  Since the alternative was waiting for her to pass out and hence suffering further possible brain injury (with the hope she would not) I decided to go with the CT.

Zap.

So my kids are playing outside this afternoon.  (Actually the radiation levels have gone down and the base nuc. guys said it was safe enough.).  If she does get cancer later in life I can now blame it on bad parenting instead of natural and unnatural disasters.  At least I was able to put her to sleep for the scan so she was not sedated.  Yeah me!

Otherwise here is the current update.  DOD families are now cleared to leave, our paperwork is in and we are now waiting on orders which should come soon, today even.  We will see.  We are now likely to fly into New Jersey, but with no tickets I still cannot say for certain.  Jon is essential personnel and will be staying in Yokosuka.  Amusingly he was in charge of picking a team to go south to Sasebo and fix the ship we moved down there.  The selected Japanese gentlemen were happy until they found out Jon was not going down to be in charge.  Nice to know they like him. :-)  The ships are now gone so he is working normal-ish hours again, mostly doing paperwork.  The kids are actually seeing him before we go, which is very nice. 

Alexandra started back at school on Tuesday.  One classroom of first-graders of about twenty kids.  No homework and no 'teaching' just lots of playing, which she needed.  Many of the teachers have evacuated.  A's teacher did, but she is early on in a pregnancy, so she rightfully went soon after the radiation was detected.  Other teachers just left, which they are not suppose to do.  The teachers are essential personal, just like Jon.  They are not suppose to leave until the base is evacuated (or at least all the dependents are).  Right now we are have a voluntary departure and the teachers are suppose to be here to teach the children still here.

The main reason The Man okay-ed the departure was to clear out young (under age 2) children and expectant mothers.  (Also so shrill housewives would not be distracting their husbands with phone calls during the emergency.) It was not due to danger to adults.  There is still a commitment to the remaining students.  But some teachers have remained parents have been asked to step in and together they will keep the remaining students a-learnin'.

As for Alexandra, I was thinking of enrolling her in a school while we are gone, but since I don't know how long that will be and since we wish to do some traveling while we are stateside she is being homeschooled for the next month.  Thor graduated from preschool and is suppose to start Kindergarten on April 8th; they said they will hold his spot for our return.   (At least I think that is what they said, my translator left the day before.)
He has a orange hat now and is very proud of it, it is much better than the yellow hat.

We are packed and ready to go.  I even repacked everything.  I may repack the carry-ons again just because it is that fun.  All the chairs are lying on the floor so dizzy little girls do not fall from them.  Instead she can just trip over them like her mama.  I am trying to empty our fridge just enough to leave Jon with a usable amount of food but I have pretty much run out of meal ideas plus I have a hankerin' for some sushi so we may go out tonight.  The kids will probably get fried chicken, you know because that is what you go to the sushi joint for (actually they have killer fried chicken and french fries!)...  or maybe we will try a ramen joint...  or maybe both, the portion sizes are small here!

You may have noticed I spoke fairly little about the ship deployment and such...sorry I have bunches to say about that, but loose lips sink ships and whatnot.  Just ignore whatever sensationalist crap CNN has to say and you should have a basic idea of what is going on around here. 


Oh and for those of you wondering, the brownies are quite tasty.  Due to maternal guilt Ioanna has had some  and loves them!  Also, I have not yet found out why the Japanese man was in my friends apartment.


We'll be seeing some of you soon and sorry to miss the rest of you!