Grandma's Visit

Grandma demonstrating her origami trick boat with a helpful volunteer.

At the lunch room.

Grandma in action - making dinner for us.

My Mom visited us from Japan for three weeks from mid March to the first week of April.  I was looking forward to having her here because the kids always enjoy their time with grandma and she helps a lot with the household chores.  She was a lot of help as expected and played with the children, playing games with them and teaching them how to fold origami.  The kids had a lot of fun with grandma.  She is 76 years old, but has the energy of a 40-year-old (that would be like me).  She even took three of the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge by herself overnight by herself.  The children sucked her energy up like a leech, but she was unfazed and played in the pool for a long time with them.  I don't think many 76-year-olds could do that.  It must be something to do with being a teacher for 40 years! 

It happened that Saya's Royal Week (her class has a royal week where a student can be a prince/princess for a week) was on the first week of her visit, so she was able to go to her class to read a Japanese story and talk about Japan.  The kids were glued to the story and enjoyed listening to a Japanese folklore.  She also showed them some Origami she made and they were very curious about the art.  I need to learn how to create Origami as I don't know how to fold other than the simple "crane".  After the classroom visit, my Mom and I went to the lunch room and ate lunch with Saya.  She was very happy to have her grandma and I there.  It was a very special day for her.

We also were able to celebrate Easter with her.  Unfortunately, Mike, Sean, Alyson and I became severely sick with cold on the last week of my Mom's visit.  I had a fever of 104 for four straight days and finally on the fifth day, all four of us went to see a doctor to find out what is wrong with us.  It turns out, Mike, Sean and I had bronchitis and poor Alyson had pneumonia.  It was a terrible, terrible week.  This cold was so stubborn, it took a while even after taking antibiotics to get better.  I finally started to feel normal again in mid April.  Mike still has some coughs and being sick like that reminds me how precious being healthy is.  I felt bad for my Mom because I could not take her anywhere during our sick week.  I was impressed thought that she didn't get sick at all.  I think being around children often and living in a big city toughened up her immune system.  We, who live in the forest, are the weak ones! 

I did manage to take her to shopping often and she was able to experience the life as is, which is hectic, loud, crazy and lively.  She understood that I am barely surviving with everything I need to do, but I am also capable and well rooted in the community here in Bellevue.  She volunteered with me in four classes and saw how her grandchildren are doing in the class.  She tells me those are the things she wished to do, so I guess she was happy.  I just wished that I could have taken her to Vancouver, Canada or Portland.  It seems to me that we haven't yet progressed to giving back all she does for us by taking her to trips.  Next time we'll do that.  I surely will not get sick next time!

Thank you, Okasan, for coming to visit us!  Your visit means so much to all of us and we are very thankful for everything you do!