well, i have enjoyed reading others' trips down memory lane, and wanted to try it for myself! here goes....

2000: my first year as a jet, i went home in march, came back totally in love with japan. traveled to nara, kobe, himeji and hiroshima in may, studied japanese in kyoto over the summer. didn't do much else for the rest of the year (you know, besides the usually playing in japan stuff.)

2001: went to kyoto in the summer again, for studying. went home in august with friend's ten-year-old son for english immersion. had a great time, came back to japan a few days before 9/11. still feels unreal to me. met yoshi at christmas.

2002: tried snowboarding for the first (and last) time in march, hurt my knee. yoshi told his parents we were dating, was made to 'break up'. instead, we continued dating in secret. yoshi got notified of transfer to shimane in june, we moved in together in august--in shimane (i finished jet in july). was very easy to have secret relationship further away from his parents. went home for thanksgiving. came back for very lonely new year holiday by myself.

2003: started an eikaiwa job, which was fine in itself but not a dream job. got engaged just before 30th birthday. yoshi told his dad about me the previous new year holiday, now had to get telling his mom out of the way. yoshi and i went to my parent's house for christmas, his parent's house for new year's.

2004: finally decided on a wedding date in june. got pregnant in february. got married in april, mainly because my boss at my eikaiwa job was thinking of changing my hours to part time, which wouldn't work for my visa. boss didn't change hours, but left job in june. started blogging (yay!). yoshi got transferred back to fukuoka, for various reasons but scariest was weirdo coworker threatening to burn down our house. love fukuoka, move to munakata at eight months pregnant. spend lots of time (and money) at costco. hiroyuki born in october.

2005: yoshi had to work in kagoshima for several months, so i was on my own with four month old hiro. wasn't nearly as bad as it might sound. my family came to visit in may. enjoyed time with hiro. worked part time at an eikaiwa. hiro and i went home for christmas and new year. got pregnant with sasha day before flying to the US. hee hee hee.

2006: a very low-key year, until sasha was born, two weeks before her due date! she was born with a hole (or two, or more) in her heart, so there was a bit of worry there for a month or so, but after a second check (ultrasound?) her heart was whole. oh, finished part time job in march. i got norovirus in december, and did some substitute work in kita-q.

2007: moved into our new house in january. got pregnant in february. got a 'new' car in april. pretty much felt blue all year...tommy born in october, five days before hiro's third birthday.

2008: no more pregnancies! LOL nothing really big happened this year. lovely, normal life...except for PPD. nothing serious, but definitely blue for most of the year. i did learn to knit and crochet in the fall.

2009: again, not pregnant! yay! love my children, enjoy them immensely, but definitely done having babies, no matter how strong the baby lust gets. i think my baby blues definitely started to lift in september, and that was a good thing. i was really homesick this year, too, and hopefully we'll be able to visit the US in 2010.

not an exciting life, but my life! i hope the next decade will be happy, healthy and full of love and laughter!