Nolan's Day

Sixteen years old!!!!

 

The boys took a treat to the youth class today....and Nolan chose Applebee's for lunch.  We came home and the kids began a rousing round of RISK. (Not seeming to understand the privilege of birthday, Arielle won again! ) Nolan received calls for Krista and BreZaak.

 We are realizing how quickly time passes. Time hits warp speed as the kids enter high school.

We asked Nolan some goals he has for the next couple of years.

He's still thinking of goals - but two goals are to write awesome essays and to be able to carry on a normal conversation in Japanese.

Both within his reach.

 

If we knew he'd be so happy with printed photos, we'd have given him a little red sport's car.  His gifts are on the way.....Scene It from the kids.

 

The Hobbit board game add on....

 

Pre-order of The Hobbit 3

 

Just to be sure he had something to open - Stacia and I picked this up.

We've loved watching the man of God Nolan is becoming. We look forward to the upcoming years.

A "Normal" Saturday Part 2

It simply wouldn't be right to end this day without reporting on the conclusion of the quest for World Domination RISK.

Arielle won!

This meant the loser Nolan had to preform a few specific acts of humiliation. It began with ten pushups. Michael grabbed the camera when Arielle informed him he would have to kiss Yuuki on the nose as well.

 

While their wagers played out I stayed safely in the kitchen preparing these for the youth group tomorrow. LOL

 

And then they got their second wind and played another game - which Zander lost.

 

A "Normal" Saturday

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. When I process I used to EAT but that doesn't go well with my new RESOLVE not to be ruled by food addictions - now I bake or start a huge pot of soup. ::snort::

THIS is what happens when "one" forgets bread is rising.....nope - no way it was fitting in the bag.....

This doesn't really show the size

Giant bread - I was planning on baking some bread for Ottingers. Stacia thinks this is fine; Arielle commented it may be nice to bake them bread that will fit into a toaster. ::snort::

Michael is finishing up his sermon for tomorrow.  That makes this feel like a normal Saturday. I think  tomorrow will be a test. He did 1/2 a day on Wednesday and was flat on his back the rest of the day. Tomorrow we'll try RE and chapel and see what happens. He is on convalescent leave until 12 Feb....

 

The kids went to the park and then settled in for RISK and bracelet making........

 

This morning Arielle and Michael took over making two ice cream cakes for me. It was just FAR TO HARD for me to be around all that sugar today......so I got a couple of recipes of sugarless treats made up. Those bars of mine don't look at all like hers.....I wonder if there is such a thing as white dates and I didn't use the chocolate but mine still look darker and thinner.....Anyway - Cookie Dough Bars and Chocolate/Peanut Butter Fudge Balls are stocked up to help me ward off the relentless onslaught of ice cream cake in the upcoming week. We've hit boy birthday week in our home.  Nolan will be 16, Josiah will be 26 and Zander will be 13 by the end of this week. Jamin hits 24 later in the month.

Compelling Reading

What could be so riveting?

Choosing Joy started as a way for the older girls to keep up on the younger's childhood as they left home. It morphed into a huge "hobby" complete with memes, deep musings and such  and then nearly died....as I realized I didn't have the time to "be cool and perfect." ::snort:: THEN Michael deployed and asked me to please blog the mundane and a photo each day so he could keep in touch with us. I agree....for the deployment.

It turns out we spouses simply don't have time to share the dailyness on those overseas calls. We prioritize. Michael loved being able to see the every day goings on....That saved letters and phone calls for romantic notes and business.
 

Daily blogging was a habit by the time he returned home. I wasn't convinced I wanted to keep blogging, but Michael was convinced I should - even if the only thing I did was share what we did each day. He said it was a legacy I was creating for the kids and it would be our family journal. Well SHOOT -  I am a TERRIBLE scrapper - still not fully convinced I agreed to continue.
 

During another deployment I printed a Shutterfly book to send Michael. Stacia was AMAZED to see "ME in a BOOK." I realized she'd never seen a single photo of herself PRINTED out. All her photos were online. We decided to put out the money and work on  printing the blog...it's NOT cheap. I'm not totally happy with the end product we receive from Blog2Print/Shared Books, but some of them are printed.  We're working towards having them all printed.  The first years of the blog have to have titles added as blogger didn't have a title field a decade ago.

This week our blog books from 2011 arrived. 2011 was a life-changing year for us - the year of the Earthquake and Tsunami and the subsequent recovery. Clicking "Earthquake" in the side bar will take you to posts about the year.....Yes, we are glad to have the years chronicled.

L printed with "medium" photo option - R printed with large option

Over the Moon Excited

Yes, we are.

It's ridiculous how excited I am to share we are going back to Japan.

We will be accompanying our denomination's Global Ministries Director and his wife to Tokyo in July.  Yes - just 5 months away! The Churches in Japan are celebrating their 60th anniversary, and we will travel over to celebrate with them and represent Open Bible.

This will be our vision trip. It will be a chance for us to share our vision with Japanese pastors, to meet the church leaders of our denomination in Japan, to hear their vision for the future of the Japanese church and to see if our visions compliment one another. It will also allow our Global Ministries Director to get to know us, and to explore together what the future may hold.

We did not expect this. We contacted our denomination in late  2013 to inform them of our heart for Japan and our belief that God is calling us back. We asked for prayer and hoped for some suggestions for organizations they recommended we contact as our denomination has not had missionaries in Japan for some time.  We "knew" following this leading would require us to leave our denomination.

Unbeknownst to us, a delegation from the Japanese churches had visited headquarters in September and had extended an invitation to the anniversary celebration.

So - yeah, it will only be for a couple of weeks, but we're going back. We'll be able to hear the hearts of their pastors and see how we could possibly be used in Japan.

Why did we keep quiet? We savored the secret. ::snort:: We also wanted to be sure details would work out before saying anything and most of all - we didn't want rumors to start that we are "going to Japan as Open Bible missionaries."  We are not. We are going on a trip to worship and celebrate with faithful pastors in the land which captured our hearts. We are chasing after God's vision.  We know we aren't ready to sit in the rocking chairs come Air Force retirement.

We are researching to see if we stand a chance of getting Space A tickets to somewhere in Japan in July...we could bring the kids...or if we should just do this trip alone. Tickets are more than we remembered them being....but our children would LOVE to come with us - and they speak Japanese. ::snort:: Sort of!  Lots to process....

  We  need to update some passports!

Wednesday's Excitement

Big day at our house! Wednesdays are always big days but THIS one was especially big.

Michael  came to base with us and went to his office during PWOC.  He was ready to go home when we arrived at noon....but he did get a few hours of work knocked out which I know made him feel good. His convalescent leave ends on 11 Feb.....


I certainly don't know if this is an accurate photo
Photo via Google Images

AND those "screaming brakes" on the Nissan? Turns out it was the front wheel  bearings. Arielle drove it to base, while I drove the van. She garnered all sorts of attention at the front gate. Everyone was happy to give her an opinion of what the noise was in her car...tires, brakes, lots of opinions but no one guessed right. LOL 

We brought Michael home, did a bit of table school and then the kids and I went back to run to the commissary and go to  youth group and Family Bible study.  I'm looking forward to being able to attend as a family again soon.

THIS is Choking?

We came home earlier in the week to groans and moans and wailing.

It seems Nolan and Arielle bombed their Kanji tests. They choked. They were humiliated.  Arielle blamed Nolan in some strange twist of logic for her test anxiety. They'd disappointed their teachers - Ryu and Kim Ichikawa. Arielle dreaded Nikki asking her on Sunday how her Japanese classes went this week.

This bombing? Arielle was SURE she'd made a B at best.  I'd hardly call THAT a world-class bomb myself. She informed me she has all A's this year and this was serious. I thought back to my high school days to see if I could relate. No - still not feeling it.  ::wink::  I know how to bomb and THIS was not it. We were a bit disappointed to hear their tests went so poorly as we know they work on it daily. They are doing FAR better than we are on language lessons. ::cough::

On and on it went....

Until I got the following note from their teachers: 

Hi Arielle and Nolan (and De'Etta),

I'm happy to give you your test results today!  Nolan 95% and Arielle 97%.
Don't forget to STUDY those verbs!!!
Looking forward to seeing you and working on Chaper 7 Monday!
Take care,
Kim

Seriously? THIS is a choke? THIS is a bomb? THIS is humiliating. Bah humbug!

I honestly do NOTHING to produce such over-achieving homeschool stereotypes. They must have received that gene from their father.