When I was in PA I stayed at Mom and Stepdad Frank's.
Outside their kitchen window one morning was this beautiful yellow bird,
I don't see many yellow birds.
Birds, especially right now, are going to often remind me of Janet, who just died.
Once Janet came to Japan. 
She didn't really like Japan, not the sitting on the floors, or whole cooked fish, and of course not the cockroaches. One night she and Mom had quite the time trying to kill a roach in their Ryokan (hotel) room. But she loved me, and the kids. And I loved she came once in the 20 + years I was there.
This time was soon after Sheon-chan was born. TV crews were there videotaping us for news casts about how we'd given birth in a tipi in the bamboo filled hills near the town where we lived.
Janet died May 2nd and the service for her was Memorial Day weekend, the 26th of May. Taka and I could be there. (the post following this is a tribute made for Janet).
At Mom and Frank's after the service, some of the many family and friends came .
Two of the six cousins we have could come, and their Mom, our Aunt Ann.
It has been MANY years since being able to see them.
I love them and am so grateful to them for being here at this time.
That's me next to my younger brother Carl too. Charlotte is next to him, she is about my age. Then Mom's half sister Aunt Ann, then Carolyn~ who is an art teacher. I gave Caroyln a book by SAITOH GOROH-SAN from our home town Nishio-shio. I had told Carloyn about Goroh,
I'm so glad I had one of my favorite books of his to give to her for her students.
While at Mom's, Taka got to play with one of his favorite friends, the dog Rosco.
Rosco is crazy about chasing down tennis balls.
He's pretty adorable.
And then I finally got a frizbee to play with Rosco with~ a happy face frizbee!
When Taka and I flew East, we left Sheon and Yuriko to hold down the fort.
I had written info about the garden for myself...and was showing her a couple of times, how to water everything.
The last time I showed her, she wrote out her own map. Hers is so much cuter!
While in PA, near the end of the trip I got to go hang out with High School 'mates getting together in NYC!
It's so awesome to find out about some of these guys, who I didn't make the time to get to know before. So many really, really cool people. This photo, there's a cool Lion statue, which looked perfect with the soccer umpire in red, who had dreadlocks!
NYC, where I got to see a "DON'T HONK" sign for the first time. It's a $350. fine!
This sign was, like, "wow"!
And Jill, Michelle and I, with whom I'd driven up into NYC with, we happened to drive by the World Trade Center, the NEW one~ which they had really wanted to see it.
