Today....

I am SO looking forward to using a computer without being surrounded by giggling, snorting teenage girls cutting up on Facebook in ways that I deem inappropriate. This is a sore test. ::snort::

We discovered the Statue of Liberty today. I'll blog later...when I don't have snorting teenagers and two skype calls going on around me. Come to think of it Jared has the laptop so I don't have access to my photos. LOL

While at the park another American came by. She has twins and I recognized her from the Weasel's Den, where I had chatted with her before. It turns out that she will live about 100 meters down the road from us. She told us about a new way to get to base. GREAT....through farm country instead of through the middle of town. She says it takes 10 min for her to get to base.....not bad at all.

I tried to learn about Skype....and the whole website was in Katakana. It wasn't helpful. I know if we download it and get the mic and camera working friends with computers can talk to us for free...but I want to pay for the service where you get a stateside phone number. The plan is to get one in Crescent City so that it is a local call for Mom and Dad G to call us.....but I have to figure out how to make it work.

We spent over 2 hours on the phone today with the boys....I'm going to try to get Skype working in the next day or so....and we'll come down to the computer room when everyone else is at work and school and give it a shot...but that may be a strange time stateside. Grrr.....

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Amusing Signs

Following are some "amusing to us" signs. Please remember my disclaimer that this is NOT meant to belittle or degrade our host country. We LOVE the culture we're living in. In fact...it's made us wonder how funny some of those Spanish signs in TX may appear to a native Spanish speaker. LOL Humor is a family hall mark.....and we find it in lots of things.

Misawa style used cars....


Just for you, Bre! This is at the BX food court....Charley's serves rice, eggs and spam.

Read it carefully.

Check out the critter on the right....

We so appreciate that Misawa DOES try to have signs in English too....we quickly learned that you don't have to drive far to get away from the English help. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

4 Years

Four years ago, on Labor Day, I began a blog as a way to document Stacia and Zander's childhood for our adult girls. Within a week, I'd decided Choosing Joy would document our family journey (vs the Stacia Show) and my focus group would be "family and family like friends who think 3 years with the Goecker's on an assignment is not long enough". ::snort::

There have been seasons when I've felt that the blog should "say more," be "meaningful," and such....but I always come back to the foundation of simply documenting our lives for family and friends.

Thanks for those who've stayed around and continued or begun relationships via the blog. I've enjoyed the new relationships, as well as the older ones. There have been perks I never thought of when I began....

I may be hopelessly behind on scrapping but I AM documenting our family's journey. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Weekly Home Update

We cheated and took photos on Friday when we were out at the Botanical Gardens. Here are some shots of the progress we could detect.

See the framework in front of the living room window - that's a double car carport - and to think I wasn't sure of the view out the living room windows. ::snort:: You can also see topsoil they've brought in....we suspect they are going to plant grass if they brought in such nice soil.


The vending machine has been moved to the front of the subdivision, and a fire hydrant installed - right.


WOOT! FIBER OPTIC internet here we come....


Ours walls are finished...I'd hoped that alcove was a desk area, but it appears to be shelves of some sort...also nice...maybe I'll use the bakers rack for a desk area. LOL


We have tiled front steps

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Translation Please

Kim, Tammy, Stephanie...anyone?

We are ranging off the beaten path. It's an adventure not to have a clue what the road signs say, the building signs etc. BUT most smile and communicate that they wish they understood us. ::snort:: We do the same back.....saying "I am American" and "Do you speak Japanese?" hasn't proven helpful. "Toire wa doko desu ka?" has been helpful. I was all prepared late last night with, "Summie mysin, Misawa Air Base wa doko desu ka?" but we couldnt' find a single person on the road or along the roadside to ASK. LOL

These are signs we really wish we could have read. Is this Kanji or Katakana? We think most the signs are in Kanji, so this may be what we need to learn. We do recognize Misawa and Shiriya now. ::snort::

I REALLY want to know what THIS says...don't flush the rubber duckie?


It would have proven helpful to now what this said


I'm assuming this is warning you not to get in the ocean?


This must promise a wonderful onsen - any idea what the name of it would be?

Next adventure - we'll pack some food...guess what when you get outside of Misawa there aren't ramen stands, sushi spots and Circle K's on every corner....but there IS a never-ending supply of Coke vending machines. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Shiriya Lighthouse - The most North Eastern point of Honshu

We set out to find an adventure today; and we did. Maps around here are fairly useless....90% of our roads have no names. We'd heard of a beach, Shipwreck Beach, that is fun to explore. We headed to the Veedol Memorial and thought we'd keep heading up the beach until we found Shipwreck Beach.

It was a great drive. We went through some picturesque towns. We drove through the mountains. We saw some great waves.....Eventually we found a roadside map.... We decided we were very close to the North East corner of Honshu and we should aim for THAT instead of Shipwreck Beach, which we somehow missed.

This perplexed me....The writing isn't in Kanji and I know the sign for bathroom...and the figure seems to have a beard..but it IS pink and the one on the other door was blue....I took a chance that this was for bearded women.

We also found a fun looking building. Unfortunately, no one inside spoke English. They did have a sheet of paper with English/Kanji on it and we TRIED. I wanted to know if their building was open to the public. They said it was an "energy plant" and then they pointed to the phrase, "public relay station".....but that didn't really answer my question.....and they had mean looking guards all over the spot.

Who would have guessed the Travelocity gnome gets way out here? ::snort::

We kept driving. We arrived at Shiriya Lighthouse and jumped out...

...to discover wild horses. There were signs and photos of horses in winter. We surmise these are somehow special horses and they winter over at the lighthouse. We imagine they are from the Tonomi Samurai stock...but we are imaginative. We'll have to do some research and maybe make this trip again in the near future.

We headed out to the farthest point to take a photo of the clan on the NE Tip of Honshu...








I heard a motorcycle and a man was desperately motioning that it was time to close and the gates would be locked. At least that is what I guessed. It was sad. We'll have to do this again. We were robbed of really looking around and exploring this location. LOL

We stopped at the beach on the way home. Wonderfully loud waves, a full moon.....

Then we drove and drove and drove. Poor Mike. It was dark and there are few street lights. The vending machines were helpful as provided splashes of light in the dark landscape. ::snort:: The roads were INCREDIBLY windy and NARROW in the tiny towns we passed through.....eventually we found our way back home.

The Garmin Etrex receives mixed grades for this trip. On the way up it continually told us we were in the middle of the ocean. On the way back it got us home....that and the blown up photos of the map we'd snapped earlier in the day. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Speed?

OK - the plain one loaded in 10 seconds flat...this one in 10 - 30 seconds on my laptop.....is this better? Less than a minute? Maybe 30 seconds? I really don't like plain, but maybe I'll have to do that....

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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