Where Are We?

I thought this was a cool map. New York, Madrid, Pompeii, Istanbul, Bejing, Aomori....

From 2010-01-08 Sannai-Maruyama Ruins

From 2010-01-08 Sannai-Maruyama Ruins

From 2010-01-08 Sannai-Maruyama Ruins

Misawa is on the right edge of the thumb tack.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.

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

Flat Daddy Arrived

This photo is a bit disorienting - isn't it?

From 2010-02-10

Arielle is happy to finally be taller than Mike. ::snort:: Flat Daddy arrived. Does anyone local know where I can buy foam board? I want to finish this project while Mike is still here to make sure we don't add any extra wrinkles or such to his personage.

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

Nolan's Main Gift

From 2010-02-10

Wow!!! Amazon is quick. Nolan was thrilled that all but two of his new series arrived. He's going have to hide them for Arielle who is getting rather desperate for new reading material.

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

There is more to life than SCIENCE!

From 2010-02-10

{Zander spent time this a.m. making the fan blow and the light bulb shine at the same time. AND trying to explain how and why it worked to MOM.}

All the other children seem to have instinctively known there was more to life than science. Maybe it was the time we were trying to do an experiment with eggs and I let them boil dry, as we became engrossed in our history reader. BAM, POP....ZING.... what a mess and what a smell exploding, boiled eggs make. In any case, they've enjoyed science , but no one begs for it first, plays at science all the time, lives, eats and breathes science. This has led me to find very fun things to do in science so that the kids and I will look forward to it enough to want to study science. None of them have been really, really science minded.

I was shocked when I heard myself saying this a.m., "Zander, there is more to life than SCIENCE." ::snort:: Who would have guessed?

OK - in HIS life there is SCIENCE....there's also war....and since I don't want to read, play, eat and breathe war......I think it is time to begin to read, play, eat and breathe science. Surely, I can find some fun science "first step readers"..... and math oozes from science..... maybe he'll grow up to be an engineer.

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

Miracle Tickets

I can't believe I haven't blogged this yet!

Asia Region PWOC does not yet have a fund in Asia. We've had requests for money pending for several upcoming trips. All the approval came down over the weekend (though I'm sure it was Friday in DC). There was a bit of time between when we made the requests and when we received approval.

Plane prices are wild around here. Ch. Pace, our advisor, brought me great personal peace last night when he said that he's hearing that prices have been jumping all over the place.

No matter what I did it looked like I would not find plane tickets to Okinawa. The prices were 2 - 3 times what I'd requested. By late morning yesterday JAL (only plane into here) was showing no seats. I called the base ITT (ticket and tour office) and it was suggested I go directly to the airport, politely use all the Japanese I know, and it may not hurt to take a child with me. I have a blonde hair, green eyed 4 yo. Off we went.

They found me seats. They cost just a bit more than I'd planned. They agreed to hold the tickets for me until today so that I could get approval to up my PORF (request) by a couple hundred dollars. I was nervous going back today. But they HELD them for me......and I now own.....

From 2010-02-10

...tickets to Okinawa. Yes, those are ALL for one domestic trip. We do live "up north." The last of the trips travel is booked. (Except for the train home from Tokyo after Baltimore....but I figure I can book that when I arrive and am ready to get on the train). I'll worry about rooms - LATER. We really need to do school, clean house, do laundry....

Yesterday, it seemed there were no seats for any price, today I'm going for just a bit more than I originally requested.

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

Busy "Weekend"

I've not blogged for several days, but scheduled posts go on. LOL I was surprised to see what the blog has been posting. ::snort:: The past few days have been full.

Relaxation: Sensing that time to relax was evaporating a friend and I headed to the onsen, spur of the moment, on Friday. What a nice break.

Travel Plans: Sure enough approval for various expenditures from PWOC came down Friday night/Saturday morning. I've spent most the time since then trying to find cheap tickets for a variety of trips. I'll fly to BWI for what we term Vision Week in PWOC. This is where the International board and regional Presidents and Vice Presidents get together annually to pray, worship and cast vision for the upcoming year. In addition the International Joint Council will meet, and I'm now in that group. Getting to BWI will take buses, domestic flights, international flight and a train. ::snort:: I'll come home and spend 2 days at home before I fly to Okinawa for a PWOC retreat at Kadena AB. (I'm still working on the travel for this trip). I booked flights for Nate to arrive to watch our children. I booked flights to Seoul - this for Faithlift - another PWOC conference. I'll be hosting a workshop on parenting at this one. It has taken a phenomenal amount of time to coordinate the details for these trips and I'm not done.

Meanwhile, Mike is arranging travel of his own. It looks like he will leave here on the 16th - meaning we will have our 26th anniversary together - the 14th.

Sunday - was Mike's final Sunday as "pastor" in our 1100 service for a bit of time. While I love ALL our local chaplains, it hits anew that when our Dad goes on extended travel we lose our dad and our Pastor....so many changes at once. I got teary when I realized that I'd be gone on Palm Sunday and that is when the kids will put on their play and Jared is heading up a Youth Human Video that I'll miss. HOWEVER - Mike will be home for a bit of time between his Feb trip and his April trip. He'll be here.

Birthdays! Monday was Nolan's birthday but we celebrated on Sunday. He had a Monopoly type of birthday.

From 2010-02-08

He wanted it on computer so he could play alone when needed. At this point, all are playing together.

From 2010-02-08

He needed WORLD Monopoly so that he could buy and sell places like "Athens, New York City, and Jerusalem". ::snort:: This is played with no money - central bank with plastic. Hmmmm....not so far fetched any longer, is it? ::snort::

From 2010-02-08

We ordered the Red Rock Mystery Series by Jerry Jenkins for him. He's read the first and wanted more.
Nolan asked for Death by Chocolate for his birthday. We sort of "tweaked" and came up with something he liked. Lots of chocolate ice cream, Newman O's, and 3 bottles of hard shell. I don't even want to think about it.

From 2010-02-08

Monday was a down day on base. It WAS coming off an exercise...and was earned...it "happened" to fall on Super Bowl Monday. ::snort:: We went to the chapel and watched as we don't have a TV here. Nolan chose our meal and we continued to celebrate his birthday.

Tuesday: More travel plans. It was JOSIAH'S birthday over here....so we spent quite a bit of time remembering God's blessing us with a healthy baby boy after it was predicted he'd be born without a brain stem and with a variety of issues. God is good....all the time...when we lost babies and when He divinely healed babies.

I made Gyudon for dinner. It was fantastic. Thanks so much for "learning me," Kim. I accidentally used to much sake and mirin but it was yummy. I do thicken it.

Wednesday: Today is Mom's Birthday - Happy Birthday....though honestly it will be tomorrow for you all as I don't think you are at Wed yet. I'll be making a cake for Zander's birthday (tomorrow), booking flights and hotels, birthday shopping, piano lessons and school.

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

Carrots on Steroids

This is a typical carrot in Japan. It's actually one of the smaller ones in the bag, which may be why it is the last one. ::snort::

From 2010-01-07 Tonomi Clan

It's hard to see in this photo but the carrots are FAT and often shorter than I was used to in TX. The typical price at my Farmer's Market is 3 or 4 of these for Y100.

Look at THIS carrot.

From 2010-01-07 Tonomi Clan

This was the thickness of an American carrot....but look at the length.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.

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