Recap...

I had my first ever birthday last Saturday in another country! So weird. Alison told me we could do whatever I wanted and oddly enough there wasn't much to say. We did however have the best chicken sandwiches for lunch, did some new years shopping, read at Starbucks for a bit, had yummy soup at Tony Roma's for dinner, and ended the night with some delicious funfetti cake and tv. A different sort of birthday, but still nice!

This week went by pretty fast, thank goodness, it was definitely one of the roughest weeks with my kids, and had a new student start on top of that. Gina, from church, invited us to dinner and a movie on Tuesday night. We had Chili's and saw Bedtime Stories, a very cute movie, our second in Japan! Alison and I laugh at the fact we have no idea what movies are out and feel so out of the loop. Afterwards the three of us crashed the men's meeting at Starbucks and had some more good times there. NO, there were no single men there (I foresaw that being a question). Wednesday night was church, followed by more good times at Starbucks with Rocky and Gina. If there were any week when "extracurriculars" were necessary, this was the week! Friday was a half day to work on report cards. Another nice part of the week! :)

I decided I need to print this picture out and hang it in my room to remind myself that there IS hope and they ARE capable of sitting still! Hallelujah!

This weekend was relaxing, especially with a three day weekend in sight. The weather was also a nice change. It has been beautiful! Alison and I did our grocery shopping on Saturday and just kicked back. Sunday was church, a trip to the sea wall, and a new Sunday night addition, service twice a month. Pastor was especially excited for his sermon on Sodom and Gomorrah on this first Sunday Night Live at the Neighborhood! Since everyone had Monday off, after church we went to one of the food courts on base. It was really nice to chat with people we don't always get the chance to talk to. Everyone has such interesting stories and perspectives. There is also a fascination that remains with how and why Alison and I ended up here in Okinawa.




Today we headed to Rocky and Gina's for more fellowship, can't ever get enough of it! It's nice to be in a place where everyone is everyone else's family while on this island. We all seem to be in the same boat, except for the fact Alison and I don't have a husband or kids with us! Anyways, we had a blast! There were a few other families from the church there, including out of town relatives. There was lots of Wii playing, delicious food (isn't there always?), and sliding down the hill behind Rocky and Gina's house...oh and how could I forget, lots of laughs! Now I've only played the Wii on one other occasion, far from experienced, but today we got to play with 4 people at a time. Gina made Rocky go out and get two more controls today so more people could play. He joked that he was going to return them after everyone left today. haha He loves it! It was quite intense with some random games, some of which were IMPOSSIBLE, and eventually led into tennis and bowling. Then, oh my, the hill sliding! We all kind of said we'd let the kids do it then eventually got roped into trying it ourselves. The girls eventually worked themselves into surfing down, something I will never try! Here are some pictures and a video Alison caught today.


Aren't all these pictures so flattering?!? Action shots, like you all were actually there! (I really wish you were though!)

It's 9:30 now and I'm just getting settled in for the night and preparing my mind for a 4 day week. Thank you all for the prayers and encouragement!