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| From 2010_07_05_zoo |
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| From 2010_07_05_zoo |
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Friday, July 09, 2010
Amusing Sign....
Care to hazard a guess at what this sign could mean? Or suggest a title?
We had fun with it......here was the text.....didn't help us out, but I'm sure the sign doesn't mean any of the things we came up with. ::snort::
I have shown this to Akiko. She says it's about "number 2" so we weren't so far off. She says this is educational about the effects of various diets on the monkey's "number 2".
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Tale of Two Breads
I've been grinding wheat and baking bread off and on since we lived in Hardin, MT.
Tuesday night, however, I went to a bread baking demo. I needed to get out for a bit. The kids encouraged this solution to my cranky attitude.
Twyla has been talking about mini-loaves and so I bought this pan when I saw it. It's CUTE.
Melissa makes "mini-loaves". From all the talk of this, I expected TINY loaves....she said to use 3/4 lb of dough. I've NEVER weighed dough....but we guessed that a "typical loaf" is probably 1 1/2 lbs....so I decided to try this with my typical recipe....aiming for 2 mini-loaves instead of one large.
Wednesday, I took my Seven Grain Bread dough, and instead of 4 BIG loaves, I made 2 BIG loaves and then added Cinnamon, raisins and Rapadura to 1/4 of the dough and Italian herbs to the other 1/4 of the dough. I aimed for 2 mini-loves of each of the speciality breads. Here are the MINI- which are quite a bit bigger than I envisioned when folks talked about "cute little loaves".
I began to think that the mini- is a good size for the youngers for sandwiches....and that with Mike and the older ones gone we really don't go through bread as fast as we once did.....I think it would be good to have varieties of several smaller loaves available (that said the kids ate BOTH giant loaves in less than 24 hours).
Thursday I set out to bake 4 Seven Grain mini-loaves and 2 doz hamburger buns. My Bosch malfunctioned....HOT dough, couldn't even handle and oil in the dough.....and I forgot salt....but I did end up with flat bread and mini loaves. LOL On the left is my typical sized loaf, in the middle I used 1/2 the dough, and a bit less on the right.....I think I like the middle sized loaf.
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Tuesday night, however, I went to a bread baking demo. I needed to get out for a bit. The kids encouraged this solution to my cranky attitude.
Twyla has been talking about mini-loaves and so I bought this pan when I saw it. It's CUTE.
Wednesday, I took my Seven Grain Bread dough, and instead of 4 BIG loaves, I made 2 BIG loaves and then added Cinnamon, raisins and Rapadura to 1/4 of the dough and Italian herbs to the other 1/4 of the dough. I aimed for 2 mini-loves of each of the speciality breads. Here are the MINI- which are quite a bit bigger than I envisioned when folks talked about "cute little loaves".
When the slices are stacked you can see the mini- is much smaller than my typical size loaf.
Thursday I set out to bake 4 Seven Grain mini-loaves and 2 doz hamburger buns. My Bosch malfunctioned....HOT dough, couldn't even handle and oil in the dough.....and I forgot salt....but I did end up with flat bread and mini loaves. LOL On the left is my typical sized loaf, in the middle I used 1/2 the dough, and a bit less on the right.....I think I like the middle sized loaf.
And now the freezer is stocked with mini Cinnamon Raisin bread, Italian Herb loaves, flat buns and a couple of seven grain loaves. Note the cracking in the mini-loaves....must be the overheated dough or lack of salt....but it still eats. LOL Thus ends my weekly bread saga.
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Toy Story 3
Toy Story One entered our lives in 1995....Jared was 1 yo, Jamin was 4 - the perfect Toy Story Age.....I can remember scouring the shelves for a Woody....ah the fun memories.
Today, Toy Story 3 hit Misawa Air Base. We will be out all day tomorrow. I dreaded trying an Opening Day showing, but knew if I didn't do it today, we might miss a movie the kids were looking forward to (Ok, me too). We went to the 3 p.m. showing. No line at all, lots of space in the theater......
Great movie....I knew it might tug on the heart strings a bit as Andy is going away...but I was NOT prepared to have a memory loop of Jamin at four running through my mind during the whole movie....and I lost it totally when Mom saw his empty room, Andy driving away......Ah man...growing up is GREAT and we long for our children to be functioning members of society....but I sure miss those days when we had all the chicks at home in the nest.
If you had a Woody Lover, your husband is deployed and your Woody Lover is thousands of miles away....take kleenex....but come to think of it....many with children in college wouldn't have the excuse of a pre-schooler to take the movie to and may not even go. ::snort:: I think God is letting me live a rather extended childhood through the past few decades. LOL
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Today, Toy Story 3 hit Misawa Air Base. We will be out all day tomorrow. I dreaded trying an Opening Day showing, but knew if I didn't do it today, we might miss a movie the kids were looking forward to (Ok, me too). We went to the 3 p.m. showing. No line at all, lots of space in the theater......
Great movie....I knew it might tug on the heart strings a bit as Andy is going away...but I was NOT prepared to have a memory loop of Jamin at four running through my mind during the whole movie....and I lost it totally when Mom saw his empty room, Andy driving away......Ah man...growing up is GREAT and we long for our children to be functioning members of society....but I sure miss those days when we had all the chicks at home in the nest.
If you had a Woody Lover, your husband is deployed and your Woody Lover is thousands of miles away....take kleenex....but come to think of it....many with children in college wouldn't have the excuse of a pre-schooler to take the movie to and may not even go. ::snort:: I think God is letting me live a rather extended childhood through the past few decades. LOL
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Thursday....
Some days don't go as planned...but they turn out to be good days anyway.
I planned to start yogurt, run Nolan to the dentist, go to the lake and swim with friends, bake more bread, cook dinner and enjoy the night with Akikosan learning Japanese.
I started the yogurt and added the starter at the wrong spot. It doesn't work if you don't do it right. ::snort::
We ran to the dentist and it took longer than expected for them to extract two baby teeth that would not come out and were causing Nolan to grow two sets of teeth.
Arielle learned today the person in the front must be ready to snap photos when Mom says, "Get a shot of that." I'll be sharing her shorts later on - funny signs. But this photo makes me smile....
While at the dentist I heard from the folks we bought the van from. Pass and ID had told them that it still wasn't in my name. Back to pass and ID. No CLUE what was up there. LOL But all is fine.
Headed for the lake and got an AMAZING lightening, thunderstorm...buckets of rain...felt like W TX. Someone told me she's been here 1 1 /2 and they'd never had a thunderstorm until the one a few weeks ago.....and I LOVE them. Detoured from lake to BX. Left purchases from BX in commissary. I called right away and they had been moved from the check stand where I left them....Second time we've "lost" things in the commissary. Guess we need to be vigilant in there.
I baked bread and forgot the salt.....well....we'll eat it and it will taste fine...but isn't right.
Akiko taught us about Tanabata, we made paper cranes and lanterns and told her all about our trip to the zoo - in JAPANESE....that was a challenge. LOL I'll blog about Tanabata later....maybe tomorrow. BUT - look at the fun treat she brought us tonight.
Coke and 7-up flavored Kit Kats. I really need to start a list of all the flavors we've tried....banana, apple, cherry, strawberry, white chocolate....
In addition to Cola Kit Kats, Stacia discovered she "loves" roasted peppers, onions, asparagus and zucchini today.
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
I planned to start yogurt, run Nolan to the dentist, go to the lake and swim with friends, bake more bread, cook dinner and enjoy the night with Akikosan learning Japanese.
I started the yogurt and added the starter at the wrong spot. It doesn't work if you don't do it right. ::snort::
We ran to the dentist and it took longer than expected for them to extract two baby teeth that would not come out and were causing Nolan to grow two sets of teeth.
Arielle learned today the person in the front must be ready to snap photos when Mom says, "Get a shot of that." I'll be sharing her shorts later on - funny signs. But this photo makes me smile....
While at the dentist I heard from the folks we bought the van from. Pass and ID had told them that it still wasn't in my name. Back to pass and ID. No CLUE what was up there. LOL But all is fine.
Headed for the lake and got an AMAZING lightening, thunderstorm...buckets of rain...felt like W TX. Someone told me she's been here 1 1 /2 and they'd never had a thunderstorm until the one a few weeks ago.....and I LOVE them. Detoured from lake to BX. Left purchases from BX in commissary. I called right away and they had been moved from the check stand where I left them....Second time we've "lost" things in the commissary. Guess we need to be vigilant in there.
I baked bread and forgot the salt.....well....we'll eat it and it will taste fine...but isn't right.
Akiko taught us about Tanabata, we made paper cranes and lanterns and told her all about our trip to the zoo - in JAPANESE....that was a challenge. LOL I'll blog about Tanabata later....maybe tomorrow. BUT - look at the fun treat she brought us tonight.
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
"Sand Dollar" Beach
Kurt, Anna and kids had told us about Sand Dollar beach. We decided it would be the perfect adventure for tomorrow. We went to the base to say goodbye to Ch. BA....he's deploying for 6 months...and I'm truly sad for his family...but also VERY EXCITED to have a deployment buddy. Anyway, we were looking for an afternoon adventure.....
Directions: Go left off POL towards 338....go left at the T....keep going until you cross a bridge with blue poles.....take an immediate right onto a dirt road.
It worked. I was a bit skeptical.....worried that I hadn't found the right road, but I figured we were heading to the ocean and even if we didn't find THE beach we would find the ocean....Honshu IS an island.
This was one tight spot, but the van fit under....we just SQUEEZED.
No clue what the above sign means...Kaiken Koen (Momoishi Beach) has the same sign. We found sand dollars and crabs.
We got our afternoon shower while we were at the ocean....I love how the steam rises from the pavement and fields around our home when we get the showers.
My goal was to find the Citizenry Forestry Park on the way home, but I missed the turn. We went to "our" beach - Momoishi or Kaikenkoen - instead.
Stacia had a horrible experience with the squatty potty. I'm clueless as to how to really teach her to use the thing...you just do the best you can. This photo is to how Michael how wide the little channel has gotten again. You'd never know they bull dozed the beach to be sandy to the ocean TWICE since last fall.
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Directions: Go left off POL towards 338....go left at the T....keep going until you cross a bridge with blue poles.....take an immediate right onto a dirt road.
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| From 2010-07-06 |
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Lions and horses? and COWS! Oh my!
The base has been blessed with a wonderful holiday weekend. The 3rd and 4th were the weekend. When a holiday falls on a weekend we usually get Monday off. Our commander (or maybe it was Air Force wide) declared Tuesday a Family Day. The head of our family is missing. I felt the mopes coming on - in myself and in various children.
Sunday night I determined we would NOT do school Monday and Tuesday and that we WOULD go do something fun and new to take our minds off of Michael celebrating America's freedom in the rock pile.
The littles wanted to go to the zoo....inspired by Debbie's zoo pics from Nebraska (::snort::) I agreed. For a brief moment I forgot I live in Japan. I went to google maps, typed in directions from Misawa to Morioka Zoo and got this......
GPS units here are fairly pointless. Streets have no names. Our hand held work as we mark places when we ARRIVE and so we'll be able to find them again in the future. Maybe we'll sell the GPS with it's wayoints, when we leave, to a new family coming in. ::snort::
I had some directions that looked far to simple. (They were). I found some that looked VERY complicated (no toll road, lots of back roads). I have found the directions here to be better than ITT - and I usually end up where I'm going if I combine his driving directions with ITT directions. We decided to head out.
The Stephey family, dear friends that they are, decided to go with us. Evidently they worried it was a rather long and uncertain trip to break in a new van. I learned the thing does NOT do hills as will as the other van.....and the AC dies when it gets going up hills....and the gas gauge I still can't quite figure out....but it was GREAT to get out on the roads and DRIVE. (Psst....don't let Windy tell you Rodney drives slow ::snort:: and they DID want to see the Zoo too.)
We followed Rodney. This gave me permission to drive over the speed limit. ::snort:: Honestly, the Japanese Gent, who taught the driving class for Jared, said the limit on the toll road is 80 kmh but they drive 110 kmh. They do. We nearly did. OK - in some spots we did. ::grin:: It also allowed for various new driving adventures, such as: u eys in busy intersections (I'm known to turn right and drive around the block rather than mess with a busy intersections - so a u ey in the midst of an intersection was an adventure). Windy rightly reports hearing a "terrified scream" as I flawlessly executed one such turn. ::snort:: I also drove on a sidewalk - with the kids encouraging, "Mom, that's the Japanese way."
At the toll booth I tried out my Japanese, "Zoo wa doco desu ka?" Of course, he didn't recognize the word Zoo. I tried various things......"Rrrrooooooaaarrr wa doco desu ka?" Finally, we simply drove on and trusted. We got there. Thank God for bi-lingual traffic signs.
Can't doubt you've found the zoo with a parking sign like this.
It's very common in Japan for ticket vending machines to be outside the "pay booth". You buy your ticket and in you go. Jared and I were y500 each, all else were free.
Oh the MONKEYS we saw!
I lugged the Nikon DSLR only to discover the battery was DEAD. Good thing for my pocket camera. Arielle and Noah
Animals of all kinds
Notice the joey
Petting Animals
African Animals
American Animals
American Children
It was a GREAT zoo. Bigger than the zoo in Anchorage (bigger animal variety too!), smaller than the San Antonio Zoo (Thank HEAVENS). The landscaping was gorgeous, there were no crowds, it was delightful.
This sign cracked us up. As Tony on FB noticed...good thing it didn't say no "snorting".
We had packed a lunch (still trying to eat clean and it works best when you can't read the menus and ingredients). We stopped at a mall's food court - well -
....and headed home.
The tolls are 50% off this summer...maybe they'll extend the rates forever? It was y3400 total for tolls.
We were able to see the base's fireworks as we drove back into town....all in all a perfect day. I was thrilled that Rodney, Windy and kids were able to laugh about all the "adventures" and that we were able to make this memory.
Sunday night I determined we would NOT do school Monday and Tuesday and that we WOULD go do something fun and new to take our minds off of Michael celebrating America's freedom in the rock pile.
The littles wanted to go to the zoo....inspired by Debbie's zoo pics from Nebraska (::snort::) I agreed. For a brief moment I forgot I live in Japan. I went to google maps, typed in directions from Misawa to Morioka Zoo and got this......
GPS units here are fairly pointless. Streets have no names. Our hand held work as we mark places when we ARRIVE and so we'll be able to find them again in the future. Maybe we'll sell the GPS with it's wayoints, when we leave, to a new family coming in. ::snort::
I had some directions that looked far to simple. (They were). I found some that looked VERY complicated (no toll road, lots of back roads). I have found the directions here to be better than ITT - and I usually end up where I'm going if I combine his driving directions with ITT directions. We decided to head out.
The Stephey family, dear friends that they are, decided to go with us. Evidently they worried it was a rather long and uncertain trip to break in a new van. I learned the thing does NOT do hills as will as the other van.....and the AC dies when it gets going up hills....and the gas gauge I still can't quite figure out....but it was GREAT to get out on the roads and DRIVE. (Psst....don't let Windy tell you Rodney drives slow ::snort:: and they DID want to see the Zoo too.)
We followed Rodney. This gave me permission to drive over the speed limit. ::snort:: Honestly, the Japanese Gent, who taught the driving class for Jared, said the limit on the toll road is 80 kmh but they drive 110 kmh. They do. We nearly did. OK - in some spots we did. ::grin:: It also allowed for various new driving adventures, such as: u eys in busy intersections (I'm known to turn right and drive around the block rather than mess with a busy intersections - so a u ey in the midst of an intersection was an adventure). Windy rightly reports hearing a "terrified scream" as I flawlessly executed one such turn. ::snort:: I also drove on a sidewalk - with the kids encouraging, "Mom, that's the Japanese way."
At the toll booth I tried out my Japanese, "Zoo wa doco desu ka?" Of course, he didn't recognize the word Zoo. I tried various things......"Rrrrooooooaaarrr wa doco desu ka?" Finally, we simply drove on and trusted. We got there. Thank God for bi-lingual traffic signs.
Can't doubt you've found the zoo with a parking sign like this.
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This sign cracked us up. As Tony on FB noticed...good thing it didn't say no "snorting".
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| From 2010_07_05_zoo |
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| From 2010_07_05_zoo |
The tolls are 50% off this summer...maybe they'll extend the rates forever? It was y3400 total for tolls.
We were able to see the base's fireworks as we drove back into town....all in all a perfect day. I was thrilled that Rodney, Windy and kids were able to laugh about all the "adventures" and that we were able to make this memory.
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Catch up and Father's Day Gift
Friday - The chapel staff met at Lake Ogawara to welcome a new secretary, a new priest and to say farewell for a deployment of one of our chaplains. It was a fun time to relax and enjoy each other. The kids enjoyed playing. They were especially happy when Windy and her kids met at the lake too....then Twyla and her boys...all in all it was a very fun afternoon for them.
Saturday - I tied up a few ministry details - regionally. I researched more solutions for a local ministry issue. Jared played paintball with a group of friends all morning and much of the afternoon. The rest of us cleaned house.
Sunday - A day to focus on spiritual and physical freedom. A wonderful day of worship in Word and song. Bit of a neighborhood issue to deal with....these are the times I wish Michael was home. He seems much better at calming waters than I. He DID Skype and we were able to all gather around. He even prayed for and with us and that makes life better.
The little box on the bottom left is all of us in Japan....we've come to love this view of Michael....and if you look over his shoulder, you'll see the promise of his Father's Day Gift. As well as the results of Stacia's (nearly 5) goal to cover the bare walls with artwork.
I asked Rick at Organized Doodles to do a family doodle for Mike. I've followed his work for a couple of years and had planned to have one done many times....but never hit on the right occasion. We sent him ideas. He came up with Ninjas instead. Ninjas were a big hit around here. I'm amazed he could do this from a few snapshots. This turned out to be quite a lot of work for him...lots of subjects to fit onto the paper...in fact, we ended up earning a bigger piece of paper. I've not seen the finished product, but he sent an email with a photo of the finished project. We emailed that to Michael. Rick's mailing the finished project here (as Michael can't hang things on the walls anyway LOL - tape is where it's at), and we'll have it framed and ready for Mike when he gets home. In the meantime, Michael already printed out the newest family photo.
It was fascinating to watch this take shape - At the first sketch, I thought, "Hmmm...Ninjas...." and the little boys said, "YES!"
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
Saturday - I tied up a few ministry details - regionally. I researched more solutions for a local ministry issue. Jared played paintball with a group of friends all morning and much of the afternoon. The rest of us cleaned house.
Sunday - A day to focus on spiritual and physical freedom. A wonderful day of worship in Word and song. Bit of a neighborhood issue to deal with....these are the times I wish Michael was home. He seems much better at calming waters than I. He DID Skype and we were able to all gather around. He even prayed for and with us and that makes life better.
I asked Rick at Organized Doodles to do a family doodle for Mike. I've followed his work for a couple of years and had planned to have one done many times....but never hit on the right occasion. We sent him ideas. He came up with Ninjas instead. Ninjas were a big hit around here. I'm amazed he could do this from a few snapshots. This turned out to be quite a lot of work for him...lots of subjects to fit onto the paper...in fact, we ended up earning a bigger piece of paper. I've not seen the finished product, but he sent an email with a photo of the finished project. We emailed that to Michael. Rick's mailing the finished project here (as Michael can't hang things on the walls anyway LOL - tape is where it's at), and we'll have it framed and ready for Mike when he gets home. In the meantime, Michael already printed out the newest family photo.
It was fascinating to watch this take shape - At the first sketch, I thought, "Hmmm...Ninjas...." and the little boys said, "YES!"
The color really makes it come alive.
I had thought I was the one in the center - but it turns out I'm the one on the right with the bow and arrow... ::snort::
I'll have to copy a finished shot later..... Check out Rick's work. Visiting his blog always brings a smile and watching a portrait take shape is great fun.
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G. ~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
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