Hot summer celebrations!

Oh, wow!  It's been awhile since I've been here.  I sure let time get away from me this past month!  We've celebrated two birthdays since Takumi's and a wedding anniversery and tomorrow (today for us in Japan) is Leiya's birthday...  In another couple of days it will be Julieta's too, so July has been the month for celebrations!

Let's see...  the blueberry bushes have been giving us fruit which we pick and store in the freezer.  They are not as sweet as some years but they make a nice addition to our morning granola...

This was how I honored my birthday month in my bullet journal calendar.   Ha-ha!  So true!

I am officially 70 years old.  Should I sigh for the old days or rejoice at how far I've made it?  We celebrated my birthday at our favorite cutlet restaurant.

Leiya made me a beautiful birthday card with photo cutouts pasted onto a pop-up birthday card.  She is so creative!  She also worked long and hard on a patchwork bag for me to carry my sewing or sketching supplies around.  Who knows!  She may turn into a quilter yet!  Her bag is full of pockets and magnets!  And she also sent me a box of Archer and Olive journaling kit materials.  If you don't know, Archer and Olive makes some beautiful journals and pens and stickers and stamps for the journaling community!  I've got another month left to fill in the journal I'm working in now and then I start on the elegant journal Leiya sent.

Japanese heat and humidity is making the summer miserable and everyone finds the coolest place they can for an all day nap.  Here's Toi on a bag.

And John in front of the room fan.  

Cleo spreads out by a window (which actually turns into an oven when the sun hits it.)

Tetsu takes over the sofa...

On July 13th we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversery and Tetsu surprised me with a set of dishes and mugs.  One set for each of us.

They got put to use immediately.

This is what we looked like back then...

And this is what we look like now...

We celebrated our anniversary by going to an onsen with the Yamadas who are also celebrating their 45th anniversary next month.

I was awarded an appreciation certificate and a gold pin for serving as a crosswalk guard for 15 years.  Can you believe I've been doing this morning activity for that long?  I remember writing in my blog about how I was a bit leery about the commitment I was making and if I'd last at the job for any length of time...  The prayers I asked for then, worked!

And then just a few days ago, we celebrated Tetsu's birthday by going out to another cutlet restaurant.  Guess what Tetsu's favorite food is...

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Luka and Taiga are keeping cool with ice cream!

Yummy!

And they seem to have met up with my brother's family who was in Tennessee for a wedding. Wish I'd been there too!

Luka's and Leiya's vegetable garden!

That's all til next time!