Today was my daughter’s first day of the new school year. She was nervous about her new class. I told her everything would be fine for her. After I saw her off at the school bus stop, I already had good feeling about her. I had confidence in her to have a great day at school. She is very lovable. Her family spirits and angels always support her.

***

After I came back home from the bus stop, I went to my fifth acupuncture treatment appointment.

Before the treatment, the acupuncturist always starts asking me some questions about my recent life on both my physical health and mental health.

I feel my physical body is on the healing way. When I thought of my mental health, for some reasons I started feeling anger to my husband.

I was not intending to complain about my husband to anybody else, but when I started explaining the reasons why I am mad about my husband, I found myself getting madder about him.

I am mad at my husband for not communicating with me about important things such as unexpected invoice issue. His unexpected invoice will affect our family money, and so, it is my issue too. I need to be updated. Every time when I ask him about the update, he automatically shows attitude to me. That prevents me from having a casual conversation.

I asked him many times to make efforts to learn Japanese language for me and my daughter. I haven’t seen any of his efforts recently.

I was surprised by myself, that I had a whole bunch of complains about him. 

The more I spoke up about the reasons why I am mad at my husband, the more I got upset about him.

***

The acupuncture suggested two actions.

First, I should sit down with my husband and talk about my feeling.

Second, I should get some jobs. Being independent financially will open up the door for me. I will gain more confidence in me and more resource on what I should do, than now.

— Get some jobs.

This phrase resonated with me deeply.

Maybe, this is the main message I needed to hear today.  

I would like to get some jobs that I love to do. I love translating and I had worked for 10 years in Japan. Another thing I would like to try is to get a part time job on cooking at a restaurant.

Maybe I should start searching around the part time worker’s opportunities, which fits my desire and available time frame.

My acupuncturist might be right. Once I get my favorite jobs, it will for sure open my social world. I might spend less time on getting mad at my husband.

Thus, it might be my issue, not his. He might stay as he is, but changing my world will change me. Changing me might be beneficial for both of me and my husband.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Since last night, our swamp cooler has not been working properly. Even though they replaced the water pump for the cooler into a new one two years ago, the pump gets out of order already.

In the late afternoon, around 3 pm, we were having the uncomfortable hot temperature inside the house. We were all sweating, even though all the ceiling fans were working.

In such uncomfortable heat, we heard rain sounds outside. When we opened the entrance door, the nice and cool air came into the house. We felt so good and enjoyed the cool air for a while.

After our body cooled off from the cool moisture air from outside, we satisfactory closed the entrance door.

When I turned back to inside the house, I was frozen at the sight of the living room. Something was flying around in circles.

At first I thought it was a little bird. On my close look though, I figured out it was a small bat.

Three of us screamed. Even though it was small, a bat is a bat. The close look of a bat was nothing but gross. Gross enough to make even adults scream.

I didn’t want the bat flying into the kitchen, so I chased it to the back room, which is the master bedroom. The master bedroom has a wide sliding door to the back yard.

We opened the sliding door and tried to navigate the bat to go through the door. But the bat looked like being panicky and kept on flying in circles.

While tackling with the flying bat, an idea popped into my mind. It was to call the police department.

In this area, when we see a rattle snake in our property, the police would come and pick it for us.

We called the local police department. A nice woman answered the phone. According to her, a bat is considered as a wild animal and they don’t deal with a wild animal. I thought to myself “what about a rattle snake? Isn’t it also a wild animal?”

The nice police dispatcher woman gave us a number of the different police department that they might be able to help us.

We called the number but only found out they could not help us neither. The man who answered our phone gave us some other numbers of pest exterminators. We called the numbers, but of course nobody picked up the phone on Sunday afternoon.

We decided to deal with it by ourselves.

My husband went to the store in the neighbor bigger city to get some necessary items such as a mask, rubber gloves, and a net.

It takes 20 minutes one way to the store. I stayed in the master bedroom and kept staring at the bat. The waiting time for my husband to come back seemed to be very long. After one hour or so, he came back with the fish net.

With the net, he successfully navigated the bat to outside. When it went outside, it happily flew away somewhere.

***

After the uninvited visitor was gone, we started cleaning the master bedroom. The police officer recommended us to clean the room thoroughly because the bat might have brought nasty germs into the room.

We wiped off the area where the bat touched with the disinfectant sheets, vacuumed the walls and bottoms of the entire room, and washed all the sheets and blankets on the bed.

What a hectic Sunday afternoon we had! I am grateful it was over.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today we visited the local canyon. It has been one year since we visited this area. It takes 30 minutes’ drive from our house.

We found some upgrades here and there while hiking. There were new many benches. The sponsors’ names are curved on each backrest. Also we found some newly made wooden handrails.

Since this city is called a retired people’s city, there are many old aged residences. These new upgrades are definitely helpful for old aged visitors.

I like visiting the nature in the monsoon season. All the vegetation turned to vivid light green. The air gets flesh and moisten.

We enjoyed watching the gentle sunlight that filtered through the leaves of trees. It was the solemn contrast between the sun light and the leaves’ light green.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This evening we attended the school open house. At the entrance of the school building, there were announcement papers of each class of each grade, the names of the teachers and the students, and the classroom building information.

My daughter will be the third grader in this school year. The third graders have two classes. One is for third graders only, and the other class is the combine class of the second graders and the third graders.

As I have written in my previous article, the school has incorporated this workaround of the combined class since the previous school year.

In the previous year, the combined class consisted of 10 first graders and 15 second graders. This year though, the combined class consisted of 5 second graders and 25 third graders. There is other class of second graders only, which consists of 25 second graders.

In my personal opinion, the school should squeeze the 5 second graders into the second graders only class. That being said, I don’t know the school rule. Maybe the maximum student number of one class cannot be over 25 students.

According to the teacher, the 5 second graders in the combined class will study with the third graders. The school selected the 5 students who will be able to catch up with one year older students. They will keep proceeding with one year older students. Therefore, they are academically talented students who already have skipped grade at their very young age.

I personally envied them. I think it cool that they can proceed one year ahead of their same aged students.

My personal opinion does not apply to all the people. I heard some parents would like their children proceed with the normal speed, rather than skipping grade.

***

I am surprised at the layout of the classroom. In Japan, we have a big blackboard in front of the classroom. All the students face toward the blackboard in one way.

On the other hand, in this school, the classroom is spacious. There are some small round tables in one area. Three or four students can sit in each table. In other area, there is a carpet where students can sit on the room ground. There is also other area where equipped with a huge couch, where students can sit and relax. There are three white boards on the different three walls. Based on the activity, students will move the area. There is no assigned seat. Students share seat, table, and space to sit.

I never attended the actual class in America. So, there are still lots of mysteries about American school system.   

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning I needed to go to the store to get some more school supplies. With the supported items we received at the back to school fair last night, all I needed to buy was the remainder half more items to complete the list. At the school supplies area in the store, there were many parents with holding the school supply list, doing the same as I did.

This is the routine at the end of summer in America for parents with school aged kids.  

In the afternoon, I took my daughter to the local swimming pool. The town previously decided to close the pool at the end of last month, July, but they changed their mind to extend the pool opening days until the end of this week. I was lucky to get this new information from one of the life guards.

It seemed most people didn’t know about it. From the begging to the end, we were the only visitors at the pool.

Since I have started getting rush in the swimming pool, I didn’t swim today. My daughter was the only one in the pool. The pool was all to herself. It seemed that we had our own private spacious swimming pool with a life guard.

This is also one of the common scenes at the end of summer. 

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Here our autumn has come. It was a hot sunny day. The laundry dried up quickly. Well done to the point where the towels turned out being hard like cardboard boxes.

I like this autumn sunny days. It is hot, but not that too hot as in May and June. It is just tolerable for me.

For this week my daughter does not have any school. She is enjoying her last week of summer vacation.

In the evening we went to the local library for the back to school fair. Japanese people never heard of this fair.

Here is the background of such traditions.

The school system is different from America and Japan.

In Japan, students prepare our necessary school supplies such as pencils, notebooks, erasers, and folders on their own, and use them personally on their own. Japanese schools (the government) provide teachers’ necessary school supplies such as chalks and black board erasers.

On the other hand, in America, students are required to purchase school supplies both for students’ needs and teachers’ needs. The parents are provided the school supply list, and we need to purchase according to the list. The list shows all the items such as pencils, erasers, glues, white board’s markers, facial tissue boxes, boxes of zip lock bags, and so on. On the first day of school, students bring these items. The school keep them at the classroom. I personally feel comfortable to purchase and use my stationary on my own, though.

Every local community asks people donations during summer in advance, so that they can give away school supplies to students. At our local community, they had plenty of donated items to give away. It is always very helpful.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My daughter was given a free admission coupon to Arizona state park. At our closest state park, they have a beautiful lake. There, we can enjoy swimming and hiking around the lake.

Recent years, visiting this state park has become our end of summer routine.

It takes us less than one hour. We can enjoy the green meadow scenery on the way.

Nothing special. Same as previous years. We enjoyed visiting there. At the end of day, my pedometer showed we walked 12,000 steps / 5.7 mile.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

We came back home from Navajoland. It usually takes us around 9 to 10 hours one way.

On the way back on the road, I had interesting experiences that I would like to share.

We have to go through the huge canyon and mountain area. In the area, most of the road has only one lane, and passing is prohibited.

My husband always complains about this area. According to him, he always gets stuck behind a semi-truck that drives slowly as 20 miles per hour, despite of the road’s speed limit of 45 mile per hour.

I felt his thought creates such reality.

***

In order to prove my guess was right, today I offered to drive the half way of the canyon area. My husband drove the remainder half.

Before I drove, I quietly prayed to guide me according to my preferable belief. I believed in my good luck and my manifestation ability. I believed I could drive smoothly and comfortably.

I started driving.

First, there was one sedan car driving before me. This person’s driving speed was just right for me that I could easily follow this car. This car stopped by the first lookout point. I quietly thanked this person to have guided me so far.

After that for a while, I was driving without any vehicles before me. I enjoyed driving on my own comfortable pace.

Then, I reached to one very slow semi-truck before me. I still kept believing in my good luck. To my surprise, the truck started driving to the shoulder, opened the driver’s window, and gestured me to pass him. I gestured thanks to him and passed this truck.

Again for a while, I drove comfortably in the condition where nobody was driving before me. Then after a while, again, I reached to another slow semi-truck before me. This time, again, miracle happened. Once I reached to the truck, within five seconds, I saw the traffic sign says “passing lane 1 mile”. Then of course, I could pass this slow truck without any issue on the passing lane.

At the gas station located at the middle of canyon, we switched driving. My husband drove the remainder, and I fall asleep in the passenger’ seat.

***

When I woke up at the next bathroom break, my husband shared his driving experience. He started complaining about one semi-truck before him. According to him, due to the damn slow truck, he had to drive slower than 20 miles per hour, more than 10 minutes.

***

Believe it or not, we are constantly creating our reality. Our reality reflects our belief and thoughts.

My small experiment proves this well, right?

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

We visited the lake close to my in-laws’ house. It takes 40 minutes from their house to the lake. On the way, we enjoyed the beautiful sceneries of huge rocks, with different colors depending on the location.

The great thing about this lake is that not many people are there. It is a well-hidden place.

When we got there, there were some people who stayed with a fishing pole. This lake belongs to The Navajo tribe, and it requires people to buy a permit to enjoy fishing in this lake. I never bought a fishing permit. The website says the Navajo tribal elders over 60s has a lifetime fishing permit. Thus, my in-laws don’t need to pay for the fishing permit.

I probably will not do a fishing in this lake. The website says people can fish rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, and brown trout. I don’t like the taste of trout, and so I am not going to eat them. If I don’t eat them, why I should risk their precious life for just fun. I hope other people will respect their precious life too. If they don’t eat, they should not catch them for fun.

When we walked around the people who had a fishing pole, I didn’t see anybody had their caught fish. I was secretly happy for their not catching any fish.

All in all, we enjoyed chatting with people there. Among all, we enjoyed receiving the healing energy from the body of water.

***

In the evening, my in-laws took us out to the restaurant for dinner. My dad-in-law just came back from somewhere. I didn’t know exactly where he went because we didn’t have time to chat last night.

We just found out he conducted Navajo sweat lodge. There were two lodges; one was for male and the other was for female. They had around ten each, both male and female, attendees.

I wish I had known this information. My husband and I could have enjoyed the sweat lodge. I miss the sweat lodge. My last time was more than ten years ago, at Lakota land.

I am pretty sure I would have another opportunity soon, though. Because I am always lucky and get whatever I need.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

We are back to Navajoland for our summer vacation. It has been almost one year since our last trip. We have deeply missed the land energy.

When we arrived at my in-law’s house last night, their Internet connection was out. Since three of us are kind of addicted to Internet connection, we were a bit disappointed with the No-Internet environment. Since we could not play around the Internet based game, we went to bed and fall asleep right away.

***

While sleeping, I had a whole bunch of dreams. Right before I was leaving from my dream world, my family spirits told me, grinning, “No-Internet environment was beneficial for you. We had a good time together in the dream world, huh?”

***

And I woke up. I agreed to my family spirits. I did have high quality resting sleep. I thanked them for creating this environment. That being said, I also asked them to fix the Internet connection as soon as possible. The Internet connection, as you can easily imagine, was fixed by 8 a.m.

*** 

We visited the museum. There, I had a casual talk with two tourists. They informed me that there would be a moccasin making class today at the museum.

We decided to attend to the class. It was held in the Hogan next to the museum. When we arrived at the classroom, there were already about ten attendees sitting.

The instructor was a young white man. His late great-grandmother was a full blood Navajo. He learned Navajo language as well as Navajo lifestyle from his great-grandmother.

At the class, the attendees would learn how to make a pair of moccasin for a child size. The fee is $20 including all the materials. It was an all-day-long class, from 10 am to 4 pm.

Within thirty minutes or so, my daughter started whispering to my ear, wishing to leave the class. When I looked at her, I saw her allergic reaction kicked in. Her face and other body parts such as arms and legs got rushes. Her eyes were red. She is allergic to pets’ hair. Maybe her body reacted to somebody’s pets’ hair on their clothes.

My husband and I wanted to stay in the class, but our daughter’s safety comes the priority number one to us. We explained the situation and apologized to the instructor, and left the classroom.

We quickly brought our daughter back home, and gave her a shower. After a shower, she got back to normal, as always. We felt relieved.

We will eventually have the similar opportunity to make a pair of moccasin. It is all right.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪