Misawa Skype

If you are local and have Skype....please find me. It will be much cheaper to talk via our computers or even for me to skype your land line than to pay for the land line and cell phones. ::snort::

I think we're switching from unlimited land/mobile in the states to unlimited world...so we can call any land phone in Japan as well as China...and anywhere else friends may end up. LOL

You know...for those times when friends are avoiding us on their computers....we can call their phone too. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

TGIF!

10 kids, 4 adults, Penquins, and a big screen....it could only mean one thing! Friday Pizza and a Movie....TGIF!

This new schedule is full...but doable for a bit of time. Monday - piano lessons (at home), Tuesday - PWOC, Wednesday - Japanese Tutor, Thursday - Bible Study (at home)....Friday...well today it meant all the errands that don't get done when our focus is school.

We talked with Bre, Krista and Jamin on Skype. Arielle is feeling so much better again and I think it DID help to talk with Bre this a.m.

I finally had my fasting labs done. Shew....he was checking for lots of things. I'll have a clean bill of health when this is over. The one test that surprised me was a blood test to see what my sugars have been for the past 3 months. After 15 hours of fasting, and realizing that sugar could be gone as of 30 Nov, I explained to Mike that my blood sugar was SO LOW I probably needed Baskin Robbins to get it normal. ::snort:: No, we didn't. Went to Subway for lunch.

Twyla, I remembered your tip. I used the courtesy phone at the clinic to make two dental appointments and my followup with the doc. I figure I saved about $10 not having to pay the fees for calling from home with the hold time. ::snort::

Bought a Christmas Tree. We left ours stateside. The thought was we'd buy something here before we realized that there really may not be live trees to buy on every corner. The BX had a few left and we snactched one. It's important to the kids.

Went to get the kids' flights booked. Supposedly we had the papers we need....but we need ONE more piece of paper that will include gathering THREE more pieces of paper....came home and skyped the kids again to get the one from their colleges.

Three of our kids will fly on the Patriot Express. This is good in that they will all fly from SEA. It only comes over once a week so they'll most likely all be on the same flight....except since it only flies once a week it costs us 2 - 5 days of visiting for each one of them. Ah well. AND Bre will fly alone....to Tokyo. I told her not to worry....she'll have a grand adventure.

Went to the commissary. I was chasing a rumor that they had Ghiradeli hot chocolate (no flavors or dyes). Alas, we were told not yet....but I did find several new holiday treats. ::snort::

That's about it....just a day of tying up loose ends. We are so happy that Arielle is feeling better. I picked up the flyer on H1N1 at the clinic today. Really, there was nothing to do on there that we don't do for seasonal flu....

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Natural Food Help?

After placing my first overseas co-op order and realizing how MUCH shipping is going to cost...I found a spot that charges more for their products than co-op BUT will ship any size order for a flate rate of $4.99. Yes, even to APO and FPO's. I'm not sure if they ship priority....but I'm ordering the liquid stuff from them. ::snort:: Vita Cost....check them out. Thanks for the tip, Connie. I love that I can SEE the items and their ingredient list in one spot.

The problem with giving everything your own names in a family is that NOW I can't find the things the kids loved to surprise them with a box of cereal....so anyone care to guess what the Penquin cereal would be? What about the one that looked like puff squares? And - Deja, what is that cereal that Doug and I loved? It's SWEET....more of a snack than a breakfast..... OH - and GRAHAM crackers so we can have s'mores on the beach without paying for it for a week..... I can't wait....I have sunflower seeds (unsalted and hulled), pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and teriyaki without HFCS coming.......STEVIA...I have vanilla stevia coming for my tea..and steamers....doing a snoopy dance here in Northern Japan. We are so blessed to have that APO address.....

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

"That Homey Feeling" and other thoughts

I replied to comment somewhere on here yesterday that I was surprised it did NOT feel like home when I returned from Hawaii. Which caused some old 70's song about some sort of feeling...."you've lost that..." to play through my mind incessantly. ANYWAY..... I've been pondering.

It never feels like HOME to me until friends and family from OTHER places visit and SEE our home.... I think I'm going to do a virtual bloggy home tour next week and invite y'all into our new home, because it's going to be quite a bit of time before any of you take us up on the offer to visit. ::snort::

However, today, I hit on another thing that makes a house feel more like MY HOME. I had three wonderful women join me for lunch and the start of a new Bible Study in our home. I'm calling it PWOC South. ::snort:: We're doing the study the "main group" is doing, but for one reason or another the time doesn't work for all who are coming here. I don't think I've EVER hosted a Bible Study in my home....I went straight to teaching in Women's Ministries in my 20's. This was lovely. Intimate. I believe God has put a good mix together.

Erika's presence ministered to me greatly. She's a 25 yo young lady who was homeschooled K - 12. She reminds me of my daughters. She says I'm a lot like her mom. She thinks I'll really like her mom too. She's the oldest of 7 children...and the youngest in their family is 4. Our family is sort of a mirror family of hers. She and her dh work with our youth. The other women blessed me as well. Windy, how incredible to have a friend in the neighborhood who can walk over...and now we can study together too. Twyla, you are simply a jewel.... I'm looking forward to the next nine weeks with these ladies (and any others who may join us next week). In the process of opening our home to those who ARE here, it helped ease the loneliness for those who CAN'T be here. (Josiah and Jamin, never fear, I'll keep the butterfly net handy. ::snort::) For those who are aware of my mixed reviews on previous Beth Moore studies...well...I'm EXCITED for this study. I could have done without calling it the "Book of Estrogen," or quite so many "girlfriend" comments... but the stories she shared will have me laughing for days to come. Frankly, I think I'm becoming more girly and touchy feely as I age. HORRORS! ::snort::

OH - TEA!!! This is the first time that I was able to pull out all the tea things and have tea with the ladies since we moved. Dinner's in the oven...meatloaf, leftover kaiser rolls, rice, salad, carrot sticks and tortellinis. See....the week is nearly over and I cooked REAL food all week. I can do this even in Japan. ::snort::

Psst...I've also heard the Beth Moore Daniel study is really good.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Kitchen Adventures

See, the thing about living in a foreign country, where English is not the primary language spoken and written, is when you want to venture into THEIR stores you are often lost. Why do I venture to Japanese stores when the COMMISSARY is right here and I could eat the SAD (Standard American Diet)? Because we want to explore, investigate, fully LIVE in Japan....and so we keep exploring.

Arielle was feeling fine yesterday....and sick again today. I wanted to make her some of our new "Ramen" this afternoon.

This happens often lately with bills. It's a strange feeling not to understand what you are being charged for. We signed up with GI Bill Pay a GREAT service offered here. We took one "bill" in and asked them how much we owed. Turns out it was simply a notice telling us we had signed up for cell phones. ::snort::

Just as I was about to add the flavor packet, I looked closer....

Ah....X....must not be the flavor packet.

Another little tidbit...the Japanese (at least around here) have a great way of making sure that we understand when the answer is "no" or "don't enter" etc.....they cross their arms in an X fashion and sort of motion in front of you. I've found myself doing it with the kids. They seem to understand clearly what it means.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Nikuman

This is Siopao. One of my favorite foods from my youth in the Philippines.

I've dreamed of finding a source of Siopao in Japan since early February. I've looked and only saw it ONCE...at the airshow.

Today, Akikosan brought Nikuman to the house.

Beautiful, aren't they? She asked first if we were vegetarian. When I told her no she showed us two boxes of these.

She told us that they are "Japanese Fast Food" - like American hot dogs. They are considered to be a convenience food and sold at places like Lawsons and Circle K - not the restaurants where I've been looking. I was so happy. They were oishi.



Akikosan told us stories of growing up and stopping a Nikuman on the way home from school. They are only sold in the WINTER (fall/winter I'd say as they sell from Sept - April) which explains why I'd not been able to find them. In the winter they are kept by the cash registers in steamers, WARM, all day.

I don't remember a huge variety in the Philippines. Here they Curryman, pizzaman, as well as dumplings filled with veggies, chicken, seafood, beef and pork. The ones we had were darling, but my camera battery was dead.

Not to fear, most the kids loved them and we'll go buy some more soon, I'm sure. In fact, maybe next week for Ladies Lunch and Bible study at our home. LOL

Our Japanese lesson was a lot of work and fun today. We had to write our names. The kids all earned red flowers at the top of their page. I got red corrections. ::snort:: We read the hiragana (not smoothly) for all the colors. We talked. We worked on introductory phrases. Mike came in at the end of the lesson and we were glad to introduce he and Akiko.

Akiko told me, "Sorry, De'Ettasan, making miso is very hard. You should buy it in the restaurant." BUT she did show me the hiragana characters to look for. Kim, I'm going to try some cooking links and find a recipe. Do you make Miso Ramen?

I was also glad that I'd gotten a small gift for her.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Success

We now have 3 personal computers that are running through DSL/FIBER OPTICS and not dial up. The wireless is working. I'm not sure WHAT the man did, but Mike understands. That was the best $10 I've spent in a long time. ::snort::

Skype is up and running on the laptop - with volume.

I promptly decided to change the header and then realized if you don't use skills for say 7 months, you get rusty. I didn't save the code...royally messed it all up...played around and will try to get it perfect later. I want to smash it a bit and get the frame to fit nicely.....and I'll be much more careful now to be sure I remember how to do something before I start in. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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