Bre's Home

We got up early and worked on school and PWOC stuff.  Tomorrow is Japan 101 and I'm pulling together details for my upcoming trip.

We picked Bre up at 9:15 a.m. We attempted to get her a 3 week pass on base....alas....Americans must have proof of medical insurance to get on base. We came home, bought insurance online, and went to get her a pass. ::grin::

It was suggested (not by me) that we use one of our flyover treats to celebrate Bre being here. That leaves three left. Help me keep these kids honest.

We spent a couple of hours at Statue of Liberty Park.

Not sure she LIKED the roller slide...we'll remember padding next time. 

Yeah, yeah....Mom wanted the "statue growing out of our head shot"....

Invented a game which involved 4 Gherkins on a swing while 2 ran the gauntlet.....

I spared you the clip where they're singing Fiddler on the Roof clips or "Be a Man". ::snort:: 

The three youth and I left for Human Video and Youth Group. Bre and the younger two stayed home. All are settling down for the night.  Tomorrow will be another crazy busy day.  Fun but crazy.

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Red Means Ready

I diligently worked to remember Michael's pithy station mantra, "Green means Go." It worked well when we had a diesel van. Twice now I've been in a hurry and told myself when I pulled up, "Remember, Green means go! Go Green!".......  

Red Means Ready....

Not quite the "right" ring....but it will work. 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Summer is HERE!

Another Father's Day with Michael absent.  We celebrated after church anyway because we are just that sort of family. ::snort:: 

True sign that summer is HERE. 

Happy Father's Day from the Japanese contingent

Bre arrives tomorrow.

Tuesday is Japan 101 - Learning to Thrive in Japan; hosted by our local PWOC. 

Wednesday a.m. I fly out for Korea and Asia's WILD (Women Intent on Leadership Development). This is the yearly event where the exec board members from all our local groups are trained. I'm excited to get to see our regional team in person, to connect with our local leaders and to see friends and mentors from America.  

It will be a busy week - and then I will play as much as possible for two glorious weeks with BreAnne and the kids. 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Flyovers, Golf, & Bread

We've had a great Saturday. It would have been better with Michael here-but it WAS a good day! 


I spent a few hours working on various PWOC projects.  I worked out. Breakfast was fresh from our little garden pots...baby carrots, green onion or two, blueberries and a strawberry.  The kids were up and about and the rest of the day was a dedicated family day. 



Before I forget - as we drove down a small Japanese lanes we experienced FIVE FLYOVERS! If you know us, you know Michael if a flight enthusiast. At our first base with PLANES - San Antonio - he started a game with the children. Every time an airplane flew directly over us, he'd take us for Blizzards at DQ. This is one of those family games which simply won't die.  Alas, we've not lived as close to an active flight line since San Antonio....the flyovers have been very infrequent.....but today...well FIVE F-16s (or are the 15s) flew DIRECTLY OVER US.....the nearest is DQ is thousands of miles away....but the kids have decided they'll settle for Baskin and Robbins and I owe them 5 trips...shakes or cones, their choice. We had round one this afternoon. ::snort::  It is very important I document this so when Michael gets home there is no question about the validity of the children's claims. LOL


We keep forgetting to go to the Tonami Clan Memorial when they have all the fun things going on. I'd heard Saturdays in the summer were the ticket. We went. The go carts and battery cars were not running. Zander has been saying for a few weeks he'd like to learn to play golf. None of us play golf. None.of.us. However, there was a miniature golf course at the park today. We ponied up our yen and had a great time. 

I think it is fairly uncommon to search for your ball in the TREE? 

Girls played as one group and boys as the other. 

I told the girls not to worry if their balls went in the little holes above as they'd roll out...they didn't. A nice man came and fished them out.....

The boys avoided our fate by covering the holes with a soccer ball and each other.....

This turned out to be a fun outing even without the cars. Maybe more so.  A funny, I was being silly (can you imagine?) and was showing Stacia the Proper way to golf (remember, I haven't a clue). I did a bit of tush wiggling and get the silly thing in. Stacia laughed. Kept shooting off the green. Stopped, wiggled her tush, got it in and said, "Huh, it works". Her technique delighted the rest of us for the remainder of the game, round, golf experience. LOL

I ran Arielle to a baby-sitting job. Stacia and I set about baking 8 loaves of bread and a pan of cinnamon rolls. I'm tweaking a new bread baking method...shaved another 20 minutes of f the process. Twenty minutes count around here!

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Fun T-shirts

One of the things we love to do is read some of the fun t-shirts when we're out and about. Some, I'm sure make sense culturally and we simply don't get it. Some use English in a way that makes us smile. 


Here are some we saw and liked at the mall on Friday night.  There were a lot of "Lee Riders" brand shirts. 

 REALLY are perplexed about this shirt...it had a ton of random things written on it...but catch what it says under "Glamorous Life"....."Our heads to the sky you will demonist...Our fears in Jesus name we have prayed".  What in the world does it mean? It's the first time I've seen the name of Jesus out and about in the general culture. 

This is my favorite.....It's black stripes and I'm so tempted to get it for WILD - it's sort of zebra-like - right? I'm not sure the gals would get my sense of humor...but this cracked me up! 

Choosing Joy!

©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Tuesday, Wednesday....

We have some specific educational goals in mind and will probably school to some degree throughout the "summer". An interesting tidbit is that kids here school until the end of July. They get about a month off. When in Rome....

You know you are on the right track when your little ones BEG to do school. I'm not sure why I tried to keep us all combined; this is working so well for all of us.

Tuesday is PWOC day. This summer we are doing different things on each Tuesday and I'm enjoying the switch up. This week was breakfast and prayer. Tara did an excellent job focusing us on who God is, who we are in Christ, praying individually and praying corporately. We are blessed a Children's Ministry Coordinator for MOPS and PWOC was hired in June. YES - this makes it much easier to pull off a summer program. LOL  Here's a photo of Arielle dancing with some of the PCOCs.

In addition to school, Arielle had small group on Wednesday. This group has been a true God send for her. I thank God for godly women in their 20's willing to invest into the lives of youth....pretty cool really that PWOC ministers to her leader on Tuesday and her leader ministers to younger gals the next day....legacy at it's best. This was the last meeting before they break for summer. I used the 2 hours as my allotted "PWOC hours" for the day.

I finished the day off with friends at a new-to-me Thai restaurant, Phadas. One of the summer activities of our local PWOC is a book club. This was our first night. It was great fun.  Mary had chosen, "The Heart of Memory" by Alison Strobel, Lee Strobel's duaghter. It was a thought provoking, as well as easy, read.  I found it interesting most of us had dowloaded the book to either a pc, kindle, ipad or iphone to read.  The next book is C. S. Lewis', "The Great Divorce". I'm trying to find that one as a free download without much luck. I may have to buy it. LOL

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Dreaming of Dinner

THREE of the kids had a hail (to the incoming 7th graders, Nolan is one of them!) and farewell (to the Seniors) Beginning of Summer BBQ tonight.  It was on the north side of the base - about 35 minutes from our home.....I didn't want to drive back home after we dropped them off. 


Zander and Stacia got the rare privilege of selecting a restaurant for dinner. They chose the Lake View Grill  - not really sure that's the name.  It sits on the top of a hill on base looking over Lake Ogawara.  This is a new discovery for us and frankly it isn't known for HEALTHY food.  We all ordered our food and were SHOCKED by the HUGE portions last week until Michael's Chef Salad arrived - teeny tiny. LOL 

Evidently Stacia had been "dreaming" about fried mac and cheese....

The meals come with a basket of fries each....

We have two boxes of fries and onion rings which we couldn't finish. We drove back down to main base and spend a couple of hours at the library and then retrieved the youth and headed home....settling in for the night. Tomorrow will be another long day. 


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...