Finally, Friday

We have couple of events this weekend so I  ran to Target for gifts and ingredients. ::grin::

We made it home in time to welcome Rachel and her kids.....fun afternoon. IF I go ahead and count Rachel as one of my kids it would bring the total to 9 kids in the home....and that's a good feeling. ::grin::

Boys love to play with young boys

Girl Time 

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Seasonal Glimpses

 It was so windy this morning that the top blew off the hot tub.....leading to a bit of excitement for Stacia and Zander.

I've been meaning to post some photos of a few seasonal activities.

We were able to use all the branches we brought from the wilds. ::grin:: They worked great in the jar of sea glass from Japan (not pirated from CA coast). 

Ye old Thankful Pumpkin

I was happy to see "Mom who is a peopler" make the list ::wink::

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Nolan - Before and After

I've been meaning to post before and after photos of Nolan.  Nolan had severe acne from the time he was 11. We tried home remedies. We tried all the creams the clinic offers. When he was 13 he asked about Acutane. We began discussions with the clinic in Misawa. Doctors moved and so we waited for the new ones who could follow him through the treatment. He started the treatment as he turned 14.

This is the week before treatment began - things were actually looking much better than they had previously - but the doctor said he was still a candidate for treatment. I don't have a lot of photos of this time period.....

I believe this is a ride at Tokyo Disney

Here he is after treatment 

There you have it. We are happy the treatment worked well for him. The dermatologist here said it is basically super high doses of toxic Vit A and if he ate 10 lbs of a carrots a day it would clear him up just as well....um.....he'd be yellow but....

Nolan was a champ through the whole process.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

RAIN - at last!

We know how to handle a rainy day! We turned on the fireplace. We cuddled on the couch and did couch school. I started a stock pot of veggie stew. Three of us chose to enjoy a bowl at lunch though we knew  it would be perfect by dinner time.

Arielle and I were still cold.  BUT.....we learned how to relax and beat the winter in Japan...and so we took what we had learned and applied it to CA. It's OK to soak in the middle of a warm day when you need a pick me up.

Unfortunately, Stacia created a wonderful nativity set for me. It was air drying...we left it out one day too long. She said she'll do it again and maybe I can bake it in the oven this time.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

One More Gift

Dinner was ODD....I had made a Sweet Potato Casserole to take the PWOC's Thanksgiving celebration but by the time evening arrived I just couldn't drive the back roads.....I was up at 0330 as Michael was worrying I'd ordered the wrong camera for his birthday....seems my comment about "Amazon never failing me before," left him thinking I ordered a kit other than the one he'd wanted. ::snort::  Anyway, at dinner we had salad, fruit, pasta and sweet potato casserole. ::snort:: 

Michael had thought his camera wouldn't arrive until after Thanksgiving. I knew it had left Oakland Saturday night...and today it arrived on our door.  We had a bit of fun with  presenting it.....

We discussed John 9 in family circle. We talked about the man born blind, Jesus healing him and reaffirming Himself as the Light of the World. I informed all we were going to act this one out. The kids had their parts. Michael was the blind man. 

Stacia (Jesus) prepares to welcome him back from the pool of Siloam (BTW the spitting into mud was quite fun). He's hamming it up - he can see......

 Took him quite a bit of time and I finally got him directed towards the box in the center of the room that he wasn't noticing as he "saw" all sorts of new things. ::grin::

Nikon D610 and stuff  

 Unfortunately between the two of us we neglected to get a couple of things he needs....so a bag and flash will be on the way soon. He really is thrilled......this is Michael's I'm over the moon thrilled look. ::snort::

The above was taken with my Olympus and the below with the new Nikon. 

Of course, none of us will be safe as Michael explores the new camera. 

Yuuki says, "Enough already." 

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Happy Birthday Michael

Early this a.m. Arielle brought out the birthday decorations.  Michael was able to Skype with Jamin  this morning,  Josiah and Shelby later this evening, and I think he managed to text everyone else.

Stacia hid in the pantry for an hour waiting for Michael to come downstairs.

There are a couple of fields on the way to Beale which are flooded. We've wondered WHY....and we still aren't sure...but maybe this is why.....In any event we loved the variety of birds on the way to base today. 

It was fun that Joretta was preaching this a.m. and Michael had the day "off." It was a great sermon on being a giving people. Loved it.  Besides Michael's birthday, today is also the collection day for Operation Christmas Child. 

Michael chose Dancing Tomato for his second Birthday Dinner. We tried to convince him to get them sing Happy Birthday - but he really did NOT want the attention....so we enjoyed our quiet lunch.

Arielle's card was classic, "Here's a button to show others what a great father you are."

"Real life Angry Bird game" from Arielle

3 D tower puzzle from Nolan 

Stacia loved this Darth Vader alarm clock

 
Michael's main gift will be here before Christmas - a combo gift....but I got him a few things anyway...some cologne, a fun ring toss hat and a new cape....Stacia cracked up everyone within hearing at Walmart when she saw it. "Mom, that will match the............." and I agreed and bought it.

I "suggested" this be done outside

Placing candles in an ice cream cake covered in hard shell is difficult...finally they were all lighted....UNTIL Arielle blew out the candle she was using to light candles - along with 1/2 the candles on the cake. ::snort::

Zander got Turbo for Michael so we're ending the day watching that and blogging. LOL

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Day of Preparation

The kids began the day with Japanese lessons while the rest of us lounged around. LOL We continue to hope and pray this is preparation for returning to Japan.

We spent the rest of the day in preparation. We went shopping for the kids to get Michael some birthday gifts. His main one is ordered but won't be here by tomorrow.

We added to our CA Walmart stories. ::snort:: Today a woman BARKED at me. I haven't a clue why. She was  riding up and down the aisles on a scooter barking at people.

We also heard a FIRST in the way of name slaughtering. Those who know our last name will get a kick out of this. "Michael Joker your vehicle is ready in the auto shop." Too funny.

On the way home we told Michael to pick his first birthday dinner. He chose Chipotles....it was yummy. Arielle and I finally figured out the secret - we split a burrito and it was just right. LOL 

I've got a turkey and a ham (covered the bases) for Thanksgiving. Today we got these kits so we can make a Gingerbread village when everyone is here. 

We also started learning how to play Rook so we can play with Grandma and Grandpa T. 

We prepared for tomorrow by finishing up our Operation Christmas Child boxes. We paid online and added the tracking numbers to each box...along with a small bag of candy. 

 We worked it into Family Circle as we talked about followers of Jesus being His light in the world. This is one small way we can be a bit of light. We planned to pray over the boxes. Stacia emphatically agreed this was a good idea. It seems her teacher said it was VERY important to pray OVER the boxes....glad Michael got a shot of her literally praying OVER the boxes as instructed by her teacher. ::snort::

The boxes are stacked by the door ready to take to church.  The bulletins are folded and by the door. We watched the last few episodes of Duck Dynasty season 1 so we can return the DVD tomorrow...a good day of prep. Family verdict on DD is out....yes, they're funny...but there are a few things that bother us for our younger ones if they are going to watch them repeatedly - or repeat the conversations as Zander tends to do with movie lines.   

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...