Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Road TRIP

Akikosan took us on an adventure last Saturday. We drove up to Goshogawara, over to Hirosaki, had dinner in Aomori at the Bikuri Donkey (Surprise Donkey), and then drove home to Misawa.

Some general thoughts (tourist photos in future posts):

Fairly early in our trip Akikosan was compelled to give me some driving instruction. ::snort::


"In Japan yellow means go. "

 Red means, "Go cautiously."

Green means, "Go FAST."

This cleared up a lot for me. She also informed me that you drive at least 20 klicks above the limit, but watch for the cameras as they'll send you tickets in the mail. I've never noticed the cameras before. GI Bill Pay pays our bills and so I routinely throw away anything that comes in the mail, looks like a bill and is all in Japanese. She said I may want to let her see those before throwing them away. ::snort::

Akikosan has a cool GPS AP on her cell phone....of course, it was all in Japanese...but I got fairly good at knowing to go straight, turn left or right.....wasn't always sure HOW FAR  before the turns. LOL


There are many long tunnels in Japan. Michael started a family game long ago of holding your breath while in tunnels. Stacia turned blue. This tunnel was over 2 miles long. I'm convincing her that we have a "Japanese by" on this game.  The family also likes to honk in tunnels. I think this is an American thing....as no one but Americans seem compelled to honk in tunnels. 

Ice cream is good on hot days - traditional Japanese isu (slushy in a cone) or modern isu (soft serve). Ice cream by any name may fall off the cone if you attempt to eat it on a teeter totter. ::snort::  Look closely - yes, I DID take a photo....and her tears were short lived. 



This wasn't the funniest moment of the day. That would be when Stacia insisted on going into a stall on her own. We waited and waited......"Mom, how do you make the music start?" We laughed. Waited.....finally....


"MOM! Akikosan! It's blowing hot air and won't stop."

I found this moment fairly funny too. 

From 2010-08-28roadtrip

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Thirty-nine!


39 shoes in our entry way. YES, 39 and not 40.....shoes have a way of joining socks in adventures around here. 


Topped by 2 essential reminders - "You represent the one true and living God, be a good ambassador" and "Take off your shoes" - it's in our lease that we do not wear shoes in our home. 



Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Monday, August 30, 2010

Forty!


The "y" on our plate designates that we are American. Americans with 40 days left on our countdown to reunification - give or take a few weeks. 


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Baking Adventures

Baking in Japan is fun. Most often I simply buy ingredients at the commissary. However, when the commissary is closed....or when I'm in a hurry the local market is quicker and always provides a unique experience. 


Now how many of these little bags WILL it take to add up to 12 oz of chocolate chips....



Somehow, I think the directions to "add 1/2 a bag of powdered sugar," didn't have this in mind.



Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...


Forty-one!


41 surprise blossoms....sent by a great husband and delivered by a wonderful Wing Chaplain and wife. We found these on the door at 10:30 p.m. when we returned from our road trip with Akikosan (which I need to blog).


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Forty-two!!



42 pieces of trash, pounded by the waves, polished over time, renamed "sea glass," and  lovingly collected by the Collector. All different colors, sizes, shapes, degrees of polish, all reflecting the color of the sea.....all now part of a magnificent collection.

I'm praying the next 42 days continue to polish this piece of sea glass...who certainly gains value and a new identity and purpose from having met the Collector.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

TOAD ALLY Humorous!


Totally, American slang with a twist....check out the brand name. ::grin:: No comment on the item name....well maybe a small comment? ::smirk::

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Friday, August 27, 2010

Forty-three!!!














Really - to get the fun of the event you need to watch the video.

From 2010-08-27

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Football Fever Wherein we discover we miss Coach Armstrong a LOT and the SACHSA SAINTS too. LOL

First Football Game of the season.......

From football et al

Head Coach on the left...Jared is number 16. I was too far away to get good shots. Mike would have been down on the field...but I wasn't sure Jared would want his Mommy doing the same thing. 

There was a  helmet mishap after a hard hit. Some folks behind me were talking about it and I piped up with the fact that that was my son, we've spent several nights tightening the helmet after it does this at practice, that this is reaching the level of a "deployment emergency" because we can't seem to get it to stay tight. At that point one of the dads told me to send it home with his son the next time it did this, and he'd fix it with some super glue and duct tape. ::snort::  One of the coaches told Jared he was a "smart kid, you can figure it out." Yeah.....but obviously....if it keeps coming loose and falling apart in practice..... oh well....I may go buy an electric screwdriver...or put superglue on the end of the screws before we tighten them. ::snort:: 

At one point Jared was hit with the face mask of someone's helmet. The doc and coach were checking out his chin and I feared he'd split his newly stitched chin open - but all is fine. It was the exact  spot and it was noted by the tech who had prepped him for stitches, that he's still not shaved.  LOL 

No, I won't give this many details of each game - but then again I know Michael is missing being here to participate.   It wasn't a great first game....I mean they played a much bigger team, they always lose to this team...or so we were later told. We didn't realize that at first...Jared said when they made 3 touchdowns in a row he began to suspect something bad was up. 


Jared had quite a bit of field time. He made a couple good hits, retrieved the ball at the kick off. This is about the limit of my football knowledge here, Michael. 

Stacia seemed a bit confused. She was perplexed that there were no hoops at Jared's game. Her conclusion: "Hummph. In America Jared always won his games." One last comment Stacia made several times, "Jared needs his love hug". She's taken to giving us all Love Hugs.....and he said the best thing about getting stomped in football was knowing there was a love hug waiting from his 5 yo sister. ::sweet::

I learned not to wear blue when the Edgren Eagles play Yokota. ::snort:: 

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Blueberry Coffee Cake (Sue Gregg)




Mix (can sponge for 12 – 24 hours):
1/3 C yogurt + ¼ C warm water (or ½ C dairy)
¼ C melted butter (or oil)
1/3 C honey
1 ½ C whole wheat pastry flour (soft white wheat berries)
If not sponging – add 2 eggs (if sponging add right before baking and adding leavenings)

Topping:
2 T melted butter
1/3 C Rapadura (or Sucanat, brown sugar I suppose)
½ C uncooked rolled oats
½ C chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Sift and add to moist mixture (I didn’t sift):
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325*. Grease 8 x 8 pan.

Add eggs (if you are sponging and haven't already added them) and leavenings. Give it a few quick stirs.

Pour batter in pan. Spread 1 Cup frozen  blueberries over top.  Sprinkle topping over all. Bake 30 – 40 min until toothpick comes out clean.

Says best hot….I eat it cooled fine. LOL   216 calories – 1 piece of 12.

For more yummy eats visit my Recipe Index


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Forty-four!


Forty-four dinosaurs...some faithfully serving children for over 18 years. ::snort:: All faithfully guarding the playroom and our residence as they wait......wait....wait....


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Shew....

I haven't a clue why I'm so exhausted this week, but I am. I'm having many Hashimoto moments.  Time for a bit more self-care me thinks. 


Today was a 3 trip to base day.  It looks like tomorrow will be too. 


Gym. Feels like sludge this week, but I'm burning calories, upping my distance...has to be good...regardless of what it feels like. 


School. Discovered that we somehow misplaced Year 4 Redesign of our curriculum.....so we have books but no syllabus. ::snort:: 


Worked on local Fall Rally. It turns out that I'll be speaking at two sessions of this. Pray for my dear friend, Renee. She and her sweet boy are heading home to spend some time with her family.  Her Dad could use your prayers for a healing touch. 


MOPS Kick-off! This means fall is in the air. Always fun to get a baby fix and spend time with young moms. I'm a MOPS Mentor Mom (member too come to think of it). 


Roast wasn't done in the 30 min we had between MOPS and Japanese lesson......so we had our lesson. We spent quite a bit of time talking about our upcoming road trip. I think we're nearly ready. I hope. Akikosan promises to be our GPS. 


I ran to get Jared from football practice. He hung out at the library after practice as he was done in the middle of our lessons. 


Back home - everyone but me has eaten. I'm too tired and think I'll skip it. Eating is over-rated. 


All are heading to bed. I will too. One last thing......Akikosan brought hanabi for us tonight!


Fireworks! She read the directions for us. How cool is it that Japanese children put fireworks off any ole night of the summer they take a fancy to? I asked what festival the fireworks were for and she said, "No special day. We put them off whenever we like in the summer."

 I love it. My kids love it. We're armed.....but she stressed to get a bucket of water first.....


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Forty-five!


FORTY-FIVE mismatched socks. Don't judge me. Buying new socks helps the American economy....and lately the Japanese economy too. 


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Photo Countdown.....

We won't be saying much about countdowns as the days go by.....long time readers know the drill.....but we decided today to begin a photo countdown. That way when we are too close to mention the excitement in our lives...you may be able to pick it out by various photos on the blog. 


BTW Jared and Arielle would like to surprise at least the younger two when Michael finally does come home. We did that for the olders once....and they think it would be fun. I wonder how the countdown will play into that.....maybe we'll have to be sly so the younger two don't figure it out. LOL Maybe Nolan too....hmmmm....I wonder if we can surprise him. 


The countdown begins.....







Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Adventures....

I discovered something new about the kids today...they love adventures and trying new things. Hmmm...given their parents, and our lifestyle, this is not a surprise.  This came out when we were talking about going to the Swim Beach again today. It seems that they'd like to do different things and think twice a week is fine for the swim beach. ::snort:: I really should have guessed as earlier in the summer they were tired of the lake and that is what led to the discovery of the swim beach. ::snort::

We ran errands on base - including several related to getting this errant sign to STAY on the fence. ::snort:: I heard from another that she had to repair it tonight...I'm guessing this thing is not going to survive the stormy weather.  We'll see.


We headed for the City Pool .....but alas....the slides are being repaired. They say they'll be fixed by Sunday. We'll go back. It looks like a lot of fun.

I decided to head down a different route on our way home...then saw this road. Doesn't it scream at you to try it out? Since we had 2 hours before we needed to pick Jared up from football....we explored.


We ended up at the Veedol Memorial Beach.....had the whole beach to ourselves. We've not been hunting for sea glass since we discovered the swim beach. We tried our luck....found a few pieces. 


I LOVED the big, crashing waves (the swim beach is a little blocked off cove). The kids loved finding barnacles and limpets and such.


Stacia knows I want to find glass floats.....but she thinks these will be "just as nice". She insisted on collecting all she found and plans to paint on them. 


We arrived back on base to pick up Jared just as the team broke up (30 min late). It was a great adventure considering the pool we meant to go to didn't work out. LOL

n other news, I'm going to have a bit more responsibility than I was planning for our Fall Rally. I need to refocus my to do list and settle in. Prayers appreciated.


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Well-Executed Day

Tuesday was a great day. 


We schooled. 


We grilled and had our big meal at lunch time. Stacia helped with prep and was EXCITED that she'd made a "kokeshi" - Japanese Doll.....sort of cracked me up when I remembered Bre and Krista making corn husk dolls a couple of decades ago. 


We took care of "things" on the list...like checking which new school books I still need to order, checking out the new spelling program and  preparing packages for the mail - seven of them. 




We took Jared to football.

The youngers and I went to the swim beach. A storm blew in. We kept swimming. It was a blast to introduce the kids to the pleasure of swimming in a warm ocean in the RAIN.....cool sounds of the rain when you duck under....fresh water on your head, salt water splashing up.....and then there was a rainbow...that seemed to start at the wharf and touch down in the ocean.  I was glad we got caught in the storm.

The day ended with a 2 1/2 hour Skype call with a ministry partner.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Monday, August 23, 2010

So You've Had a Bad Day....

This house sits on a winding, corner across from  the Kihi Shrine. Last winter, someone slid into the corner of their home. They finally re-sided the house, and put up this "fence".  I was skeptical about the fence...but it seems to have stopped a car slamming into their home again.

Look at those tires suspended in the air.....he must have gone airborne.




This spring we discovered both Arielle and Nolan had outgrown their bikes.  We thought the bikes at the BX were too expensive. I've been shopping around off base and they are even more. These two bikes were on sale yesterday. I bought them. Of course it's so HOT that we aren't riding bikes much today.




We're still getting lettuce, peppers and such from our planters. 


Other than  the above - today I went to the gym even though Jared is done with 2 a Day practices. I picked up a check from the chapel. I spent a bit of time on local PWOC things, and regional too. We did school. We worked hard to get out of here and play while Jared had afternoon practice, but it wasn't meant to be. Things kept going "wrong".  Then we remembered youth group and decided to spend the afternoon getting packages ready to mail - but didn't have boxes. I'll pick some up tomorrow a.m.  

We also planned to work on school plans...but it has to be in the 90's upstairs...weally, weally HOT. LOL 

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Friday, August 20, 2010

Humanitarian Aide Drop - Michael

For those interested, I have attached the link to the British Forces News article about the last humanitarian aide drop her in Kabul. I will post more photos later.


-Michael


{Editor's note - click the title or click here to view the clip. 
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Stacism

Today as I talked to Arielle and Stacia, I said, "Stacia, Arielle is such a great sister for you. You're lucky to have her."

She responded, "Yes, I'm lucky she is MY sister. I remember the day she was born!"  In a cooing, sweet voice.....

Arielle and I cracked up as we realized she was channeling BreAnne and Krista who often tell her they are lucky to have her for a little sister and they remember the day she was born. ::snort::




In another nod to her 25 year old sister....Stacia kissed a frog hoping for a prince. 


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Is it over yet????

Football is good for me. I go to the gym while Jared goes to football in the a.m. I've missed the gym. I've lost 4 lbs in the last 1 1 1/2 weeks. LOL

Why are we too busy to breathe? Football.

Jared got stitches out and is able to fully practice.

MOPS planning retreat today. Followed by a great lunch at a restaurant close to us.

School continues.

Beach date yesterday. Tonomi Clan today.

Fall Rally prep continues. I've had 3 inquiries today from ladies brand new to Misawa who saw the info on the blog and would like to know how to join PWOC and attend the rally... someone is reading the blog. Always affirming to hear. LOL

I'll leave you with photos...


Look - our own burgers!

Yes - we DO love Misawa!



Emotions in these eyes (of any sort) make me smile. 


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Monday, August 16, 2010

Humanitarian Trip #2 - Michael

We have been working towards this trip for some time.  We had one planned a bit earlier, but decided to put it on hold for a variety of reasons.  This trip was coordinated with our British contingent.  They handled our security detail and transportation - and a fantastic job at that.  All told we had seven volunteers to do the distribution and a large number handling everything else.

Right after the worship service on Sunday, I mean right after - amen, bless you, we gotta run kind of "right after, we ran over to movement control (MoveCon) dispatch for a briefing.  After the briefing we had a few minutes to load the supplies into a van, grab our personal gear, and head for the vehicles.  The drive over was no more or less eventful than any other drive.  It had its normal share of crazy Kabul drivers where any lane can be the right lane.  We arrived on site right on time.  Our folks from the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) had already organized the people to receive the supplies.
 


 We brought shoes, toiletries, clothing, paper, pens, pencils and a whole assortment of other items. to give away.  A team of folks had come by on Saturday to organize and build bags to give away.  We put together 86 bags in about an hour - they did a great job!  We had a couple of big boxes of candy and other such goodies that we set aside to hand off to the village elders at the very end.  They were to give them out to all of the families equally after sunset - it is Ramadan, you know.

The giving went very well with only a few glitches and hitches.  A few kids got through and decided to assert themselves as someone who should receive a bag of supplies.  I had to pick one up and set him outside of the group in the care of a man who was there to help us with this sort of thing - although to be fair, he apparently did not know that that was why he was there.

After the distribution of supplies, we, SSgt B and I along with our NGO representative spent a few minutes talking with the IDP camp elders.  We had to explain the purpose of the goodie boxes.  While we were talking, our British security team told us it was time to go.  With farewells to the elders and to our NGO rep, we piled into vehicles and were gone.  The security team collapsed the perimeter and the show was over except for the ride through traffic with all of the crazy Kabul drivers where the right of way is defined as that which gets me to my destination by the most direct route.

We had a British PA team with us as well as a US combat camera Marine.  I will be posting more photos as they come available.  If anything shows up in the media, I will post that as well.

- Michael




Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Water Baptism in Afghanistan - Michael



It is not too often that you have the privilege and honor of baptizing someone in a deployed environment, but this was one of those moments. It was a few weeks ago that Amber asked to be baptized. This began the search for a suitable baptistry. We began by asking our woodshop folks for help, but then saw a packing crate that appeared to be very adequate for the job at hand. We had the woodshop guys come by and shorten it a bit. We needed to line it, but could find no plastic anywhere on the compound. It was just as well because when we were giving the crate a very close inspection, we noted that there were a significant number of lag bolts missing from the bottom. Basically, if we had tried to use it, the sides would have blown out.   Not good.

We then had the woodshop guys build one from scratch. They had it done in under an hour. They came by to caulk it shortly after that. It did spring a couple of leaks, but we were able to stanch the flow of water just long enough. We threw in a few buckets of very hot water, and we were ready.

Amber had never been baptized. We spent a little bit of time talking about the meaning of baptism. The next day, after the evening service, we had the actual baptism. We read a bit of Scripture, and then we rehearsed the technique so she would not drown (it is always good to avoid drowning, particularly in this setting), and then came the moment. She affirmed her faith in Jesus, and then in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit... It was a great time.
I hope to do a couple more before I am out of here.
Blessings - Michael



Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...