Sep. 4, 2007 - Workin' Men
Work on making a couple of parking spaces at the church has begun! We're so thankful for the neat little church building the Lord enabled us to get, but it was obvious we would need to make some parking spaces. We've been able to rent a few spaces nearby, but today Steve and his dad rented a backhoe and truck to dig out the raised yard at the church to make some parking. We're hoping to be able to park two cars here when they're done. The kids and I took lunch over and they even got to try their hand at the backhoe! Ty thought this was better than Disney Land! Then they were delighted when Grandpa took them with him to the dump. Isn't that just the cutest little backhoe!!
Ty digging the dirt
Moving the dirt to the truck
Dumping dirt into the truck
Happy workers!
Someone else getting a chance to try the men's job.
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Aug. 30, 2007 - My great idea!
Okay, so maybe this isn't as great an idea to you as it is to me!! But for me it's a life saver!...Well, at least a money saver, thirst quencher! Here in the Land of the Rising Sun, drinks are even expensive! Just trying to keep milk and juice in the house can be quite a challenge! So, my family loves tea. They'll tolerate the Japanese barley teas and iced green tea too, but they really like "real" tea, and a box of tea bags is about as cheap as it gets! The problem is, I always have great intentions, but just don't get around to making "real" iced tea every day. And it just goes SO fast! One pitcher only lasts one meal.
So what I did...
One day it suddenly "dawned" on me that iced tea will freeze! And how much more trouble is it really to make a LOT of tea at one time than a little? Not much! So I gathered up all my empty two liters, washed them out, and got to making tea. Lots of tea! I filled enough two liter bottles to give us enough for our evening meal everyday for about a week. And put them in the freezer. It's wonderful! My family can't drink it all up at once, because frozen tea won't drink! And I can take some out each morning and have it ready for dinner! 
Water works fine for the rest of the day, or barley tea, and yes some juice or milk too. I think next time, I might experiment with freezing just the concentrate in little tupperwares or something. I imagine it would be almost instant if prepared that way, rather than taking all day to thaw.
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Aug. 29, 2007 - I finished it!
This is the dress I was trying to get finished in time for Bri's old fashioned tea party. I just had so much going on that I couldn't get it done in time, but I did get it done today! Well, almost done! I need to go buy some buttons tomorrow and put them on and the button holes. She was so surprised when she saw it! She had seen this material at the fabric store and loved it, but she didn't know I got it. She hugged me and told me I was the "queen of sewing"!!
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Aug. 23, 2007 - Tea Party
We had a small celebration today celebrating Steve's, Bri's, and my father in law's birthdays, as they're all within a week of each other. We've been so busy with camp and school and all, that I didn't get to put the time into making it as special as I really wanted to. Bri really wanted to have an old fashioned tea party in the midst of it all, so we tried to make that happen as well as we can. I really wanted to surprise her with a new dress for the occasion, but I couldn't get it finished in time. She was thrilled with what we did do, so that was great! I'm so impressed with some of the pictures Steve was able to take! He's getting quite an artsy side!!
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Aug. 22, 2007 - Lego Lovers!
Do anyone else's kids love legos? I sometimes think my kids could play with them all day everyday if I let them! They're just such a great toy! That was actually the only thing Bri asked for for her birthday! Her brother has accumulated quite a collection, but we always kind of considered them a "boy toy". Recently, however, they've come out with some cuter (but not wierd) ones here. She got a set to make a cute little house and some odds and ends flowers, tables, etc.
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Aug. 21, 2007 - I love this!
I literally took this picture from my front door! I never ceased to be amazed at the goodness of God to put us in a place like this, in the middle of the concrete jungle of Japan!
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Aug. 20, 2007 - New Library!
We haven't even been to a library in the four and a half years we've been here, but our little city just got a brand new beautiful library! We've been so excited watching it be built and it just opened this month. We'd heard from a friend who went last week that they did in fact have English books! We were so excited and finally were able to go yesterday! It's a beautiful two story building with a nice children's section on the first floor and everything else on the second. We were a little disappointed to discover that they only had about thirty English children's picture books, about two feet of a shelf worth, and no older books. Our son was so disappointed that he almost cried! He was so excited and hopeful to be able to find many classics and good books, as he loves to read, that it was a big let down to get in and find that there were none! We're slowly discovering the real value of the books we do have here! But, on the up-side, they WILL order from other libraries if it's a book that another library has, so there is still hope. We have found a few classics and such at the bookstores, as Japanese people like to try to read English books to improve their English. Yesterday I found Anne of Green Gables and Huckleberry Finn! That cheered everyone up considerably!
We're on day six of school today and the kids are still loving the Bob Jones Curriculum! I like the structure and ease of knowing they're learning everything they need to know. They have so many really neat extras, that it makes learning really fun. Right now, my daughter is watching a puppet talk about the types of sentences, and my son is on the phone to Nanna in America telling her about the history of the moon! He even got to watch the space shuttle take off and everything! So, needless to say, so far, we're very happy with the new curriculum!
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Aug. 17, 2007 - Family Camp Pics!
Here are some of the pictures from Family Camp! My sweet husband and kids all pitched in and helped get the house recovered from the trip, so I've had time to figure out how to put up pictures and get them posted.
Service Time
Bonfire is always a special time.
Free time
Bri and Kie finishing dinner
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Aug. 17, 2007 - New Building
I think I'm getting the hang of this! Here are some pics of our new little church building!
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Aug. 17, 2007 - We're Home!
We had a great camp. I still haven't figured out how to post pics, but maybe later today I can get to that. It's never felt so great to be home! For two nights we slept on the traditional Japanese, and might I add very thin, mats on the ground. My poor back is not used to this and complains loudly!
We're taking today off school as well, as I have so much laundry and house work to catch up on. The kids had a wonderful time playing with the children of the Japanese pastor we went with. I so wish we lived closer so they could play together more, as there just aren't very many Christian children in our area.
Tuesday is my daughter's birthday. She'll be seven and wants to host an "old fashioned tea party". I'm trying to surprise her with a new dress for the occasion, so hopefully I'll have time to finish it over the next couple of nights once she gets to sleep. If you have any great ideas for a Tea Party Birthday, please let me know!
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Aug. 13, 2007 - Family Camp
Well, we're off in just a few minutes for our annual Family Camp. Our church gets together with another church and goes up into the mountains of Japan for a couple of days of fun and spiritual refreshment! The kids are beside themselves with excitement! See you all when we get back!
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Aug. 13, 2007 - Blessings!
It truly is unbelievable how God keeps blessing! After the string of miracles that went along with the purchasing of our new little church building here in Japan (that's a whole different story), we've continued to watch God move in amazing ways! Just this last week, however, He did it again! We were really needing a screen for our church. There are many wonderful uses for a screen here, different from the purposes for which they're often used in the States. My husband has some terrific power point Sunday School games that we needed a screen for, and my father-in-law has found that the Japanese people can understand the message much more easily, if he shows it to them in writing.
So we began looking. We found a used one at a recycle shop, but it was very old, not very big, and they were asking over $300 for it! We decided to wait! Last week, my husband was talking with one of the men in our church, and he suddenly got a strange look on his face, picked up his cell phone, and started calling. So here's the story! He works for a moving company. They had recently been moving someone who had a screen, a really nice screen! Somehow in the process of the move, the outer case got a little scratch on it, so they demanded the company replace it! This particular moving company has insurance that does replace anything that gets damaged, so they did! And the company was "stuck" with this screen. They threw it in their warehouse to eventually be thrown away!! They were happy to send it to us free of charge! The kicker? It's perfect! It looks brand new, it couldn't be a more perfect size (we needed to put it in front of a window and it's the exact size of the window!) We searched for a scratch, and finally think we might have found what they were talking about, a tiny, faint little mark on the top of the case that no one will ever see! My husband hung it in its new home this week, and we got to use it for the first time in services yesterday (Sunday)! Our people were so excited and talked about how easy it was to understand with points from the message up there like that! You can't imagine how excited we are to see God continue to bless in unbelievable ways!
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Aug. 11, 2007 - We did it!
We survived week one of our new school year! In fact, we came through with flying colors! We switched curriculums this year, which has been (and still is) a challenge for me, after using the same one for the last few years. But here's the thing! My kids LOVE it! And that was the goal, so I know it's a good thing. Maybe one of these years I'll get brave enough to venture from the dvd programs. I definitely see the benefits in doing it all yourself vs the DVD's, but I really like some of their benefits too. Son has come to me several...no, many times this week and thanked me for getting this new curriculum, and told me he loves it! If you only knew how far we've come since pulling him out of a bad situation midyear a year and a half ago and going back to homeschool! But now for him to be exclaiming in such excited tones about how much he LOVES his school, is such an incredible blessing to this mommy's ears!
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Aug. 11, 2007 - Wecome!
Hello, and thankyou for stopping by! I'm excited about my new blog as a way of keeping friends and family up to date with our life, and also making new friends with people of similar interests and beliefs! We've been missionaries to Japan for 4 and a half years now, so my blogs are likely to cover a wide range of topics! So here goes!
