Liberty, Caches & Sunsets

Guess where we went today?

Statue of Liberty Park, Momoishi Park, Ichou Park - all the same place...The S family invited us....and we were happy to go.... The kids enjoyed the long, long roller slide....

Arielle, Jared, Mike and I slipped away to find a couple of caches. We invited everyone else...and planned on taking all our kids....but they were happy to accept the invitation to stay and play. Fall is here - and I'm LOVING IT.

It was COLD at the park today. We will have to take Rodney's lead and buy a thermos - or two for future outings.

We found both cache's. This one took us to a part of the park we didn't know existed...and we thought we'd explored it thoroughly.

We were SO cold by this point. Due to my thyroid issues, I'm still cold, hours later. I am going to have to make some "wheat bags" or "corn bags" in order to survive the fun. ::Snort::

As we walked back to the play area we noted the swans on the lake in front of Lady Liberty.

Zander...breaking barriers

The unseen story is that the boys had taken Zander's toy and he wanted it back. He was rather upset. Jared was able to communicate with them using his Japanese lessons...and they readily gave the toy back. Way to go Jared.

We dropped Arielle and Jared at the chapel to decorate. We ran to the BX. We stopped by the postoffice to pick up a package. It turns out it was a notebook for me....now I can begin work on my new PWOC position. We drove home to see this view....

What a beautiful country we've been placed into. We are blessed.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Christmas Decorating 2009

Well....formerly....EVERY room of our home was decorated for Christmas. There were Nativity sets in each room. The lights were amazing....and I even had music last year. ::snort:: We purposely left 99% of our Christmas decorations in storage in the states. We knew we wouldn't have storage here....but WOW what a difference it made when we started to decorate.

It usually takes us 3 days to get the decorating done. One day on the interior, one day on the exterior, and one day for the tree. It took 3 hours to do ALL. ::snort::

The JESUS STOCKING, the Jesse Tree Banner, the Advent Wreath, all of Nolan's Photo ornaments, all wreaths and bows, Christmas movies, most Christmas books... are missing. I know they were packed to come...but aren't here. I'm praying we find a box - though we've looked everywhere....or that the packers sent the box to storage.

We bought a small pre-lit tree - that sped things up!


The kids enjoy the books that DID make it


The tree is decorated SOLELY in children's photo ornaments...
Stacia took this photo






This is the FIRST time we've had a child who was old enough to remember that the youngest child gets to top the tree. There is usually a new one before they remember.


This is ALL the outside decorations we have - 5 strands of light, an outside nativity...


and a sign...Thanks, Deja.


Jared and Mike were happy to have less decorations....Thanks, Rodney and Windy for the use of your ladder.






We couldn't find the Fisher Price Nativity for the longest time. We were RELIEVED to find it....Stacia slept with the angel.


....and took this photo of her TIVITY to show Grandma.

Lots less fripperies....but more time to relax this weekend. That's been good and just what we needed. I really am going to have to look for a few things...like something for the door and maybe make an Advent Wreath....but even with these few decorations one of our neighbors made a comment expressing shock that we'd put up Christmas lights...so it's best we didn't have the whole arsenol....we no longer live on Christmas Lane...and I miss it. ::snort::

For a list of various Advent ideas and activities that we do around here....visit All Things Advent.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

Interesting Tree Topper

Yesterday was the first Thanksgiving we've celebrated without the "boys" at home. It is probably inevitable that I'd be noticing a lot of firsts....

For instance.....THIS is the first time....

I've seen HIM on top of a Christmas tree. ::snort:: No, it is NOT our tree.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

First Geocache in Japan

YES!

With all our decorating finished, we decided on another first for our family in Japan. We went Geocaching. Gracie (Arielle's friend) is sick. Mollie (Gracie's sister and also Arielle's friend) came with us. It was her first time geocaching. Hand-held gps units and a book on geocaching was a family Christmas gift in 2005 - one of the best gifts we've ever done. LOL

Mollie took the lead

Even *I* didn't need to read the sign to know it would be silly to venture this way. ::snort::

OUR FIRST FIND IN JAPAN!!!

Jared tries out his reading skills - this is a bass pond which we will visit in the future

Jared found some lures LOL

As we drove off I saw a white goose, no a SWAN. I rushed to get a photo....obviously I RUSHED. ::snort:: I didn't realize that the swan were nearly tame and will eat "moss balls" from your hand. There were three Japanese nationals on the lake shore with some of those HUGE camera lenses....they got quite a laugh out of my little point and click.

I tried out a few elementary Japanese phrases and they were glad to chat with me. The lady asked if I was from the "asylum" - base. ::snort:: She was happy to hear I lived in the city. She told me to come back with a nice camera and that the Swans STAY HERE for the winter. I sense it will be a winter project to catch some nice shots. I haven't a clue why they come here in the winter when it is cold....

We attempted one more find. I've written before about the Train Park. It was here that Stacia decided to make my photo at an inopportune moment. ::snort::

It's the perfect place for a cache...and we couldn't find it. Part of geocaching is not letting on to outsiders what you are doing. This is always a challenge with a large family.....in some of the spots you find yourself...we discovered being a large, American family, in Japan, trying not to call attention to yourself, as you geocache, adds a new dimension to the fun. We'll probably look for out of the way caches in the future. I think we managed to give the impression that Americans are simply crazy about trains. LOL



It was too dark to really eyeball this one....we tried. We didn't find it. We'll try again.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

First Slumber Party in Japan

For years our kids would all watch movies late into the night on Friday night. They would drag out blankets and sleep in the living room. As the older ones left home, this tradition seemed to wane. Then the boys were working late Friday night and early Saturday morning and were content to sleep in their own beds.

After our practically perfect Thanksgiving (totally different than usual but so RELAXING), and after the tree was up and decorated....we pulled out The Muppet's Christmas Carol. This is a tradition that I love.



The littles asked if they could watch more movies. We brought down their futons and they were nice and cozy for the first slumber party in Japan.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

iGoogle

So....I've been up early again and playing with google. I CANNOT use Outlook over here...some sort of strange thing with the ISP.

I use gmail (which I'm not loving), but have really missed a calendar. I created a google calendar. I saved it to igoogle. I created a gadget with Bre's photo and countdown and saved it to igoogle. I added a time clock (with lots of zones as I'm calling all sorts of places these days) and a weather gadget. This allows me to remove them from my blog so it loads quicker.

Have any of you found a gadget that lists calorie counts for various foods. I see lots of them, but thought if someone had one they recommend, I'd do that.

What other gadgets do you all like? I had movies on it from San Angelo - but haven't found one here yet. It STILL shows San Angelo on the side and I can't get rid of it. LOL The Politics in the sidebar is dated - Drudge headline reads "Clinton still not convinced Obama can win in the fall". ::snort:: I've refreshed. Can't seem to delete those side bar things.

There are even a few homeschool gadgets.

I had loaded homeschool toolbar but it did bad things to my laptop so I uninstalled it. Google toolbar also does bad things to my laptop. LOL I'm finding I can create most of the things I loved on the toolbars on iGoogle - without the crash or security issues.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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

BEST MOMENTS OF THE DAY

We were able to talk to both of Mike's sisters and his parents.

We were not able to reach my brothers or parents....and will try again tomorrow.

We DID reach all the kids....can you believe it? It was LATE their time....but Bre and the boys were on and we talked until Krista was home from her cleaning job and joined in....all of us around our computers....

We began talking and it was Thanksgiving here....we ended and it was Thanksgiving in TX....we had dinner, checked back in and they were still talking...so Jared joined them until it was Thanksgiving in OR. ::snort::

Especially amazing is THIS: We told the kids we needed to sign off and eat our meal. Bre said, "Pray first"....and we did. We were able to all pray together on Thanksgiving Day - though we were in OR, TX and Oriase Town, Japan. What a gift.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

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