Quick Weekly Recap

Thursday - Arielle saw the orthodontist and picked blue bands this time. ::snort:: Scheduled an ortho eval for Nolan.  We also enjoyed a session with Akikosan. I'm not sure we're learning much, but we sure enjoy our times together. LOL 


Friday - Local retreat team meeting. We have a great bunch of ladies all committed to serving women in Misawa at the upcoming spring retreat.  Lots of encouraging ideas floating around. I'm excited to watch this all come together.  You know what the photo below means now, right?

That's right - the onsen fluzy struck again.  I invited the entire retreat team to go to the onsen after our meeting. Only one took me up on it this time, but another friend joined us.  I had waited far too long between trips.

Jared tried out for soccer.

Mike and I went out to celebrate our anniversary (which was the 14th).

I spent a lot of time this week working on retreat details. I'll be traveling quite a bit in March. Our retreat is in April. I also spent quite a bit of time arranging flights and such. Wow - this yen rate is killing us. It was 98/1 last year at this time and is 78/1 last time I took yen out. OUCH.

I also spent a fair bit of time talking myself back into my healthy lifestyle. LOL

Saturday - I went to the gym while Jared went to soccer practice at 6 a.m. I have MISSED going to the gym. I'm just not as good at home...but I'll keep trying.

Jared needs an inside pair of soccer shoes and  a pair of soccer cleats. We went to Sports Authority - the biggest shoe they make here is men's 10. That's not going to work....need 3 1/2 sizes bigger. I did get a lot of great produce and fresh salmon.

Continued to work on PWOC Regional stuff.

Going to bed - only slept 2 hours last night. Really need to crack this sleep thing....more exercise? I've heard women of a certain age have irregular sleep patterns.....

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

DENTISTS and SHOTS

Jared and Arielle went in to the base today with Michael. They'll have uninterrupted quiet to work on school. Jared likes to do this from time to time.

Arielle has small group this afternoon. Jared is meeting a couple of friends to play soccer this afternoon. I'm happy to let them go in with Michael.

Nolan, relishing his newly allowed time at home alone, stayed home.

I took Stacia and Zander to see the dentist. Zander was SURE he may die from it all - but it was much easier than last year. LOL He freaked Stacia out a bit....but she ended up doing just fine. I had no way to avoid her seeing Zander's appointment.

After the dentist Stacia asked if we could go get her another shot. It has been two weeks and I'd began hinting on Monday that it would be a good idea. We marched down for a shot...waited our 20 minutes to be sure she didn't have an initial reaction and then headed to.....

I would guess this is the reason for her begging to have another shot. LOL  We've spent a relaxing afternoon at home.....I've got a giant pot of spaghetti sauce simmering, we've done some school, I've answered emails and done some laundry.

Tonight I have a dinner to attend.

I feel much better having blogged TODAY...even if I'm still a bit behind. LOL

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

Zander had a BIRTHDAY

On the 11th, but he was happy to celebrate on the 10th while we waited for it to be time to go pick up Carol. LOL  He turned 9 years old. 

He chose the Neo Swine over the Classic Pig hat. 

This gift from Stacia is a hit....literally. LOL 

Love that happy face...yes, we DID have two ice cream cakes in one week. LOL One mint chocolate chip and one cookies and cream. 

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

Feb 10th - More

We also had Japanese lessons on the 10th of Feb. Akikosan brought us all sort of Japanese valentine things to sample. It was fun.  You can read more about how Valentine's Day is celebrated in Japan  here. 


I spent most the afternoon working on Chocolate roses for PWOC's Sweet Night for Deployed Wives. 

We were expecting a friend from PWOC, Carol Simpson in this evening.  She was to be the Comedian at Sweet Night and at a chapel event on Sunday night.  We were all praying the plane wasn't delayed, she figured out the train system and arrived on the 10th. Jess and I picked her up at 10:15 p.m.  Shew. She had quite the trip - starting with a canceled trip and having to take a taxi ride to LAX from Ontario, CA. LOL

We were blessed to have her here and I'll write more about the time as I catch up the blog. LOL

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

Feb 10th - MOPS Meeting

I am a MOPS mentor mom. 

Last week it was my joy to speak to our local MOPS group on marriage. I've never talked much on marriage and it took me quite a bit of time to figure out WHAT I wanted to say MOST. Our MOPS director agreed to let me take a bit longer with the speaking so that I could build small group discussion in to my "talk". I love her. 


I decided I wanted the ladies to know three things....1. All relationships go through stages and if you are in a bad season you can choose to push through it, 2. We are to unconditionally RESPECT our husband (this is the way to fully love them), and 3. Our marriages must come before the children - second only to God.  Of course, there are always "on the fly comments" and the beauty of small group participation is that you hear from so many more perspectives....I was sure to point out that we aren't looking for cookie cutter marriages. LOL 


I created a power point slide show - which I've done before. But THIS time I learned how to download Youtube clips to my to my hard drive and add them to the power point presentation. YES.  All in all it was a fun experience. 


Want more info? 


Stages of relationship - we briefly highlighted each one and talked about the good, the bad, and the ugly of each. 

Flirting/Infatuation Stage

Reality Stage

Mature or Practical Stage 

Married Romance (My personal favorite)
A relationship like this begins NOW......

I then talked about respect and loved the varied answers on what respect IS and what it ISN'T and how to show it to our husbands. Since we had discussion time for that I did not make out a handout.

I transitioned to practical ways to keep our marriages first in the midst of the MOPS years with this clip....(Stacia LOVES this one - and I figure the message is ok). LOL

Below is a hand out of ideas I passed out....and we shared others. First Things First

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

YES....

...as a matter of fact....life has been a bit out of control the past two weeks. 

The signs are all there. Increasing number of folks are saying, "I don't know how you do it all" and/or "Are you ok? You don't look well."  Neither are good signs. One leads me to evaluate if I'm trying to be super-woman again and the other....well... I'd quit eating and my sugar was tanking quite often last week.  Yep, it's been TWO very hectic, incredibly productive weeks.

We've had 6 dental appointments, 2 birthdays, piano and Japanese lessons. I've taught on marriage, taught 4 sessions on James (2 a week), hosted a friend from the states who did a major PWOC event and a Sunday event... planned and ordered quite a bit for our upcoming local PWOC retreat....and really....it would have been "busy but doable" if I'd had a car. ::snort:: It was TOUGH being ME in a one car family. In the next couple of days I'll attempt to update the blog with posts and photos of the various events.

I realized how busy I'd been when I came here to print out the last FOUR weeks of the blog for Mom Mary....and realized I'd not blogged in 10 days. ::snort::

For now let me say how HAPPY I am to have my little Prairie Joy back.  I'm THRILLED to be nearly done with dental appointments (3 more this week).  I'm starting to breathe again and I never want to go back to a frenzied lifestyle I used to live. I'm looking for onsen partners before I begin the March traveling schedule.

I discovered in the past two weeks, at 47 I CAN still do it - but I don't want to. ::snort:: I need self-care before I crash. LOL

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

Nolan is Twelve

I'm not quite sure when or how it happened, but NOLAN - one of the littles - is now TWELVE!!!! Hmm.....I may need a new name for that category....maybe the sequels. LOL It takes a milestone like a "little" turning 12, suddenly standing inches above me, hearing a gravely voice from my "little man"....to realize that time is rushing on. 

We are so blessed by the character developing in Nolan  right along with the height an voice changes. He's still a gentle leader but we do see him becoming more of a leader with the younger two. Nolan went with the classic pig hat for his special night. 

 Zander had asked for "3 nunchucks"....when he saw this he said, "That's o.k. I can still get two nunchucks." LOL 

Mike and I owed Nolan a game from his last birthday. We bought a computer game and found it to be inappropriate...of course you can't return at that point....and then we couldn't find any that WERE appropriate over here.....all the kids games seem to have moved to the new gaming systems.....so we bought him this to replace the game we never found for him last year.....and he is THRILLED at the idea of being IN Monopoly.....but pointed out that Goecker Rules will probable not be allowed in Wii Monopoly. 

 The kids got him a couple of more Mario Wii games and Voyage of the Dawn Treader - all of which needs to be ordered.....

We totally surprised him with a little ipod - a true sign of maturity around here as there is no way we'd spend that kind of money unless we thought he was responsible enough not to lose it. LOL 

Choosing Joy!

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