One step forward...THREE steps back

1. I was told by our rental agent that if the base gave us the lease on Friday we could pick up the key on Friday.

2. Our homes passed inspection Friday a.m.

3. We showed up at the base housing office and they asked us to come back Monday to pick up the lease. No ONE can look as pathetic as I when I say, "But we've been in TLF for 11 weeks with 5 children." ::snort:: She gave us the lease and asked us to come back on Monday to take care of the rest of the base paperwork. We'll start to receive the allowance for living off base overseas.

4. We went to the rental agent's. She'd said she'd call Friday and hadn't. Turns out she was out all afternoon. I suspect she thought she was safe telling me we could pick up a key Friday as she knew its not typical for the base to give out leases the day of the inspection....but SHE didn't figure on my pathetic routine. ::snort:: ANYWAY - we CAN'T get a key until Monday because the carpenter still needs access this weekend. ::sigh::

5. We stopped by TMO (to schedule delivery of our household goods). They said it shouldn't be a problem to get our shipments in this upcoming week...but they "can't schedule it until we give them a copy of the signed lease." They also are unaware that there is a subdivision of 12 new homes that is going to be ready on Monday. ::snort::

6. We stopped by to schedule phone and Internet hookup. They can't do that because they "can't schedule it until we give them a copy of the signed lease." They also said that it will take up to 3 weeks to get service because "Koishi, she gonna build out in no where!" ::snort:: ::gasp::

7. Bottom line....we didn't sign the lease, receive a key, or schedule anything yesterday....yet we spent a full day not doing it. ::SNORT:: As I said, the lesson I'm learning this week is that around here the key is to be politely patient.

We have a meeting at 9:00 a.m. with the rental agent to sign the lease. THEN we'll retrace our steps and see about a dozen various offices (OK - 5 offices) with the copy of the lease. We HAVE to be out of TLF by next Saturday. We will be moving this week. We pray we move when we have beds, a fridge and a stove. If not, we'll camp out in the house.

After all THAT, we collected the kids and went to the beach. It was a blast. Mike was suitably impressed. I suggested we change "Friday night pizza and a movie" to "Friday night s'mores on the beach"....Arielle wants "Friday night pizza and then s'mores on the beach". ::snort::

I had ordered a replacement of Tim Hawkin's "I'm No Rockstar" along with the new Banana DVD and they arrived yesterday. We watched those and I laughed until I cried. I also got a CD with the songs on them and that was GREAT in the car. We are having a hard time with no English stations in the car.....and few CD'S traveled with us.....

The theme of this week has been "living surrendered". You may note that SURRENDER was Last Year's Memorial Stone (see the side bar)......but Sunday we read some excerpts from CS Lewis in class and were challenged to begin each day this week by committing to "living surrendered"...and wow...what opportunities I've had to live it out. Sometimes with success, sometimes with failure, sometimes with whining...but always with a heart that desires to follow Him fully.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Yesterday's Adventure

We went out to check the progress on our home. They may well be done by today. We pray.

Jared and I were sure that we were near the ocean. We decided to go find it. I'll save the video for when I'm in a house with Fiber Optic connections. It appears that this Verizon line on base simply doesn't allow me to load videos. I'll post it later. Twyla had called and invited us to follow her to shipwreck beach yesterday...but we had the drama workshop. This all spurred us on to explore by our home....because it was a beautiful day!

THIS is what we found about 2km from our home (is that about a mile)? For a minute, I thought we'd found Shipwreck Beach and thought that would be hilarious as we tried to find it and drove for a couple of hours a few weeks ago....but it isn't.

Arielle came home, got out Apologia and researched for us.

Big crashing waves, lots of wonderful sand, shells, jelly fish, picnic areas, squatty potties, camping spots...

Welllllll.....they must mean us to enjoy the beach as there are restrooms, and tent sites on this sign...not sure about the rest of it....but Jared did make out that this is Momoishi beach on one sign. It's handy for him to be working on Kanji and Hiragana. We were able to verify the name of the beach later on another sign. Cool!


LOOK - the first public basketball hoops we've seen...we are so blessed!


People talk about beachcombing and finding glass balls and floats...but we left it....

I cried when I saw this so close to the house. It's a dream. I LOVE the ocean. I'm so blessed that God put us 3/4 to a mile away...an easy walk....AND it has basketball....we are thrilled.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Covenant Players in Town

Thursday the kids were blessed to be able to participate in a homeschool drama workshop led by Covenant Players. The games and activities all led the kids to explore the seven elements of drama. We were personally excited that Ms. Amber had attended college at ASU in San Angelo.
Zander calls out animals for others to act out.


Arielle inserts a pencil into a pencil sharpener....

I have a couple of other great photos, but they show faces of others' children so I won't post them. I loved the one that Nolan's group came up with. They were a toaster. They picked Nolan and another boy, Michael to be the toast. Michael's mother and I tried to figure out why Nolan was going down and Michael was popping up.....until the Covenant Player facilitator explained that they'd thought it up themselves. The toast went down white and popped up black. ::snort:: I should have asked Maisha if I could use the photo, but didn't think of it.

We look forward to the Covenant Players presenting the sermon in drama at Chapel on Sunday.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Today's Adventure

Be sure to watch until you hear Zander's comment on the location. ::snort::

©2009 D.R.G.

Living Surrendered

A few quick thoughts. I've been dealing with a lot of "things" this week, from the trivial to the profound. I've struggled to LIVE SURRENDERED....not just pray it in the a.m.

Yesterday, God brought me back to this Psalm..."Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me." Psalm 131:2

I was fanning the frustration, focusing on the confusion and God calls me to compose and quiet my soul....and so now I'm trying to LIVE SURRENDERED and deliberately choosing to compose, still, smooth, quiet, silence my soul. He is God. He's on the throne...in the trivial and the profound.

Compose - level, smooth, set (H7737)
Quieted - be silent, still, struck dumb (H1826)

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

I had the Noodle Dream....

(Have you ever seen Kung Fu Panda?)

I dreamed I walked into MOSC (officer's spouse club), dressed approrpiately in my little black dress, and found B*E*T*S*Y!!!! We hugged, we laughed, we skipped around the room, we did CARTWHEELS, we preformed an amazing display of Kung Fu....and THEN we set down and ate some amazing bowls of ramen?

What did the dream mean? I haven't a clue. I'm missing Betsy, whose wit and sense of fun continue to bless me though we've both left TX? We're watching too many videos? I need some fun? God's about to heal Betsy's knees and she'll be doing cartwheels? I don't know.....BUT it reminded me that I'd STILL not found a ramen house....all the places we go to seem to serve rice and meat, sushi, yakasoba...but no RAMEN. I had promised Jared we'd try at least one Japanese restaurant....this spurred me to pick one we'd heard of.

Cheese Roll...I'd heard the food was scrumptious...I'd heard that a cockroach was spotted there in the recent past. I decided after growing up overseas and living in the South for many years....I'd take my chances with the cockroach. ::snort::

We set out for an adventure. Nolan wanted to join us. Zander did NOT want to go to a Japanese restaurant, but he isn't always 100% obedient to Arielle, so he came. I drove around and around the Cheese Roll looking for parking. I finally found a lot, but wasn't sure if it was for public parking.

A nice, middle-age gentleman was walking along....."Sumimaisen, parking dijobo desu ka?" I was so proud of myself for stringing a phrase together. I pantomined driving and parking to go with my one english word.

He replied, "Yes. This is fine. Most workdays it is parking for the bank, but today is a holiday to respect aged ones so you are fine to park there. "

The man spoke better English than we've heard since we arrived....but oh well...he smiled big at my baby Japanese. We have noted that some will say they don't speak English and when we try to communicate in our Japanese they suddenly speak English. I guess they realize they speak a lot better English than we speak Japanese. ::snort:: We are having a blast.

Isn't this great decor?


Look at these cheese rolls....


I'd only heard about the cheese rolls at this restaurant and had no clue it was a RAMEN HOUSE - a NOODLE HOUSE....and what a bowl of ramen it was. WOW.



Some of us have more luck than others of us with hashi. I finally had him move over next to me and fed him....and the little ladies in the store loved it. LOL


Others of us have no trouble adapting to culture in the least.

I laughed out loud when I saw it was a ramen house. I think my noodle dream led me to this adventure...and I took Betsy with me. ::snort::

I happily slurped ramen...and discovered the Japanese ladies really DO like it best if you slurp, ramen noodles are HOT when first served and thus slurping can be painful, and slurping ramen can be a messy affair.

Mel, we told them oishi...and they beamed. Best of all...they have obento...take out lunches.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Sara is home with Jesus

Sara, the young lady I requested prayer for yesterday, has gone home to be with Jesus. I hesitated to post anything until Brad had, so that close friends did not find out via an impersonal blog or email...however several of you have emailed to ask if there are updates. You can read Brad's words here.

Please continue to pray for Brad, their young daughter Chole, all her friends and family.....

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...