Happy Birthday, Arielle JaNae

Arielle's name was deliberately chosen to name her after her Grams - Arielle means lioness of God - which was her Grams...we figured she wouldn't really like Mabel as she grew older. JaNae means God is gracious.

We have loved watching Arielle mature these past 15 years into a gracious lioness of God!  Today is HER day.

Stacia and Bre stayed up late to decorate she was SO excited to show Arielle the streamers! 

We bought a pinata and filled with goodies...both healthy and unhealthy....to share with the neighborhood children. We'd planned to do it today - but it was raining....maybe Saturday.

Stacia was happy to go hunting for birthday flowers. 

We began the day with a couple of errands for the girls....and then we headed to Yoshinoya for lunch. Yumm....and I think, if I read the paper right, we've earned something free.

Arielle had hoped we'd go to Hachinohe Children's Botanical Garden (or whatever that name is) but it was raining and so we opted for an inside outing. The girls hadn't been to the Misawa Aviation and Science Museum and the kids always love that....so off we went.

Spinning room 

Wind room 

Next stop was the base bowling ally....

 Arielle had asked for pizza at Massimo's but the chef is at a pizza competition in Naples....so we had Hawaiin chicken at the Italian Pizzeria in Northern Japan. ::snort::

Barbie Design Center (Jared got her some art stuff too)

Krista got her books

Nolan got her a weapon

We got her a Japanese doll, a photo of her and her sisters and will find some roller blades. 

One of Michael's famous creations

Jared got home from work and Arielle opened his gift of art supplies. She'd like me to find her some art lessons...any ideas? 

Yuuki is not amused to find Nolan in her chair. 

Games, jewelry making, packing....

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Tuesday - final stretch

Today's goal is to live in the present. The girls have two full days left and will leave here Thursday a.m. (Wed night in the states).  Thus the title...the final stretch of blog catch up and the final stretch of this visit with Bre and Krista. 


I took off from PWOC.....Krista, Zander and I went in and did some set up and then I took them to breakfast. Bre and the rest were sleeping when we left. 


We did some BIRTHDAY SHOPPING for Arielle and then I dropped Krista and Zander at the Weasel's Den for batting practice and I ran to the doc.

Dr report - I'm now quite hyper- thyroid. Over-medicated...I was instructed 6 weeks is  not 6 months and I must be back in 6 weeks. I explained I had ministry projects, lost two months with Michael's situation (which she knew) and traveled. I will be back in 6 weeks. It would appear my thyroid is jumping around a lot - and THIS explains my insomnia. I now take one yellow pill for two days and a pink pill on the third day. I CAN remember this.... She didn't want me to go completely back to yellow as that put me way over the 1-2 range - 4.8. Today I was still quite a bit below the 1 but not as much as the last visit when I was only on pink.

We spent the afternoon getting things the girls wanted to take back to the states.

We had one of Bre's favorite dinners - BBQ meatballs.  Michael made one of his famous cakes for Arielle and I ran to pick Jared up from work.

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Cape Shiriya - May 21

Michael took leave on Monday so we could have a full day as a family. Jared had to work in the evening, but the rest of us headed up to Cape Shiriya.  It was gorgeous! We had never been up and seen the ponies this early in the year....and Krista found a float and Michael found two - small ones - the cute size. 

 Note Bre at the top of the rocks - with her PURSE! ::snort:: She said the ONLY thing that would get her over her fear of heights was getting Stacia to the top. That'll preach!

 There are lots of trucks on the beach harvesting this - figure it's the mystery ingredient in sea food ramen.

 

Michael impressed Zander (who is always hunting for perfect sticks) with this piece of bamboo. 

 Float nestled in the midst of this thing. 

See the hooks? Big fishing lure....

Evidently the house was there before the freeway was built...so it goes around it. 

We were a bit of a sensation here...and took all the seats....wonder what it would have been like if the three missing Gherkins were with us. LOL 

Krista enjoys her first bowl of ramen. 

Our haul of the day! 

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Post Retreat - Lake Towadako

The town was strangely quiet when the 60 American women left....the girls and I wandered down to the lake. Krista hadn't seen "The Maiden" yet - or the nekkid ladies as we call them in our family. History tells us an artist dearly loved his wife. She was schizophrenic and died in middle age. Out of his great love he sculpted this statue of her - nekkid - and it is now a monument visited by tourists from all over. We've discussed other ways of displaying great love for middle aged wives should the need ever occur in this family. ::grin::

There were still a couple of snow piles in Yasumiya - Krista and Arielle  had to climb them - of course.

Sadly, our families traditional hike to the Hagen Das vending machine revealed it had been removed. Arielle was up to the  task and found a replacement in an apple ice cream stand. The vanilla, apple twist is to die for!

We stopped at a restaurant ladies told us about on our way home.....once through the gorge! We had a bit of a wait - well worth the wait in my book!

We returned home in time to grab the rest of the kids and head to the 1700 service. A full weekend, a blessed weekend.

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...