SOOOOO excited!!!!!!!!!

OK, so you'll never believe this. Guess how much I weighed today????

drum roll please......



66.9 kilo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't believe I made it down into the 66's. My goal was to be 65 by the time we go to the states. Can I do it? I have 11 days!

Today's workout...
35 minutes on gym stepper, 150 stories climbed, 360 calories (I upped the level, and FELT it)
abs, arms, back

food:
breakfast: CyberWize shake
lunch: KFC grilled chicken salad bowl
snack: a few strawberries and a few sora mame (my dictionary says these are called broad beans or horse beans in English)
dinner: boiled pork and enoki mushroom on lettuce, tomato soup, a little bit of rice

dranks tons of water or tea today too.

I had a much better day today. Very low stress! I got up and did a little house work, went to deliver some CD's, grabbed lunch, taught a short Bible study as baptismal prep for a Nepali woman who is getting baptized next month and her pastor wanted her to be preped in English, then had the rest of the day to myself! Hana took a good long nap, we went shopping for dinner when she woke up, and then had a nice evening together as a little family (quite rare these days). I need a lower stress day!

My hubby's Daddy is so sweet. Yesterday at our concert a few situations really stressed me out because of some issues that Dad didn't take care of himself and he should have. He is always supposed to let the churches know we need someone to look after Hana during the concert and he forgot to do that. She ended up not really having anyone fully in charge of her and wondered around the sanctuary from person to person during the concert. This was stressful to me because I didn't know what she was going to do next and although she was being very quiet and never did anything she shouldn't do, it was stressful not knowing when she might head for a door she should go out of, or run up to the stage to try to get to me, or whatever. She is so amazing that she is such a good baby, but mommy anticipates what might happen and can't concentrate on the concert because of it. So Rocky let Dad know that this was a problem and he called to appologize to me this morning. He was so sweet, said he was really sorry it stressed me out. He's just such a humble, neat man and I am so thankful he is my father-in-law!

The Bible study I did today with the woman from Nepal was so awesome too. She has not be discipled in the Bible really and has been attending a Japanese church so I wondered how much she understand about the Gospel and if she even knew WHY she was choosing to be baptized. Her faith and wisdom amazed me. She would answer questions I would ask her by saying, "I don't know why I know this, but I hear it whispered into my heart." When I explained to her what we must do in response to the gift of salvation that God offers us, but believing in our heart and receiving the gift, she told me, "I have spent night awake thinking, wondering if I was crazy for wanting to believe but my heart kept telling me, you have to receive it, you have to receive it!" The Holy Spirit has been teaching this woman the things of God!!! I knew these things happened in places where there is no one to "tell" the people, like I've heard stories of places in China coming to faith just because of dreams or just such "heart" responding. But it was such an honor to be a witness to the very same thing happening right her in my own city. I do not get to see Sushila very often, she works from 7am to 7pm every day to support her family while her husband is getting his PhD. She is an amazing woman, and God has been working in her life for many years. The testimony of her and her husband both coming to faith when they came to Japan is incredible. I will tell it more in details someday I hope but no time for it today!

I gotta go, the finale of American Idol is on in Japan tonight and I am taping it. I want to try and watch it before I go to bed, I might not get through it though because it is already 11:3o!

More of the same...

BUSY, that is just the theme of life these days. But I am keeping up with my workout and diet and at least that is good.

Yesterday at the gym I did 35 min on stepper, 360 cal., and then did full body weights, etc.

Today we were gone alllllllll day (7:30am-10:30pm) so I couldn't work out very well, but during some free time this afternoon I did sit ups, butt muscle work, and legs. We were at a church all day doing a morning and evening concert and since our meals were provided I felt like I couldn't leave much food on the plate. At lunch I left a good bit of my rice behind though, at dinner however I couldn't leave any food, or it would have been noticed and really rude. So I probably over ate today, but I don't feel like I had a choice. I only had a shake for breakfast.

Other than that, I am just stressed. STRESSED, STRESSED, STRESSED! EVERYONE and EVERYTHING has control of my life right now, our schedule RULES all and I have no choice about it. It is pretty tough to deal with. I can't keep the laundry clean, or the house. I barely get to cook because we always have to go out. I'm about to go nuts, and we have less than 2 weeks before we leave for the states and I have no idea when I am going to get ready to leave for the states.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Another REALLY busy day...

I made it through another crazy day AND worked out too! Can I be proud of myself? I'm so proud! So anyways, our house guest is gone! He had a great three days of concerts and we enjoyed having him. Tomorrow is going to be crazy too. A.M. concert and afternoon Afureru! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, it will be so nutso. Hana fell apart on the way home tonight, her third night out WAY past bedtime and she had all she could take. One little correction from Mommy with a stern voice and she just lost it. Screamed for last 15 minutes of the ride home. That is soooooooo rare for her. It's only happened about 4 or 5 times in her life. But she lost control tonight. I felt so sorry for her. Tomorrow will not be any easier. Monday is a Hana day. If it is sunny we are going to go play at a great park, if it isn't sunny we will go to a children's play area in a shopping center somewhere and just let her have at it. She needs some "kid" time.

So I worked out tonight but did not do well on eating. It is impossible with this crazy schedule and all the events with "snacks" out afterwards. I haven't eaten dinner and I'm starving and the only thing to eat is chocolate covered cookies, or jelly filled cookies, or mini-candy bars, or cream puffs, etc. etc. etc. My stomach feels so GROSS tonight. It is like saying "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!" I haven't had that much sugar and carbs in about 3 or 4 months now, and it does not feel good. Won't make that mistake again. ughhhh

So I am off to bed.

BZZZZZZZZZ, busy bees

Life couldn't get any more crazy. It seems our days are filled to the brim, every single minutes scheduled with something until we barely have time to commute from one place to the next. We often find that we have over committed, but realize it too late, and that is happening to us now. Because of the trip to the states, we have so much we have to get done before we go as well.

We have a guest here with us right now, a musician who is traveling in the area. We are sponsor three days of ministry for him. Last night we had a concert at a church in the middle of town. Tonight he will be at our church doing live night for our weekly cafe. and tomorrow he will be at another Christian cafe. He's staying with us so we are doing all the transporting, setting up, administrating and so forth. Plus feeding and housing him, makes for a busy week! Then Sunday we have a concert ourselves in the morning and then Afureru! in the afternoon. OH MY! The next two weeks after that are just as packed full of events, right up until the day we leave for the states. WE are NUTS!

In the midst of it all I still workout and am eating right. I was so excited to weigh in at 67.5 kilo on Wednesday! I finally saw that 7 on the scale! I was sooooooooooo excited. But today, tomorrow and Sunday I won't make it to the gym and will have to do my stepper here at home. I won't know if I've stayed steady or lost more until I go to the gym on Monday.

God is doing so many incredible things. I saw a neat woman whose little girl was dressed so cute in a department store the other day and decided to approach her and give her a qtbaby business card. She was sooooooooo excited to meet us and ended up leaving with business cards for our ministry and Gospel Kitakyushu (the internet radio station) in the end. The next day we got an email from her that she is married to one of Rocky's elementary school classmates. While looking at our website, her husband recognized Rocky! We are so excited about such an encounter and hope to get to know them.

That reminds me, the qtbaby.net website is up! It still needs work but you can check it out (even though it is all in Japanese) and we have two outfits on the Yahoo! Japan auction website. Still no bids on them though.

I gotta go, lots to do, OF COURSE!

many blessings

Life gets crazy busy sometimes...

UGH, I wish I could have Jan/Feb back where I was bored cause I had nothing to do! It must be the warmer weather or something because we are suddenly running around like a bunch of ants. Life turned busy all the sudden when I wasn't looking!

Anyways, I have been working out every day, just haven't had time to blog. Sat. and Sun. I had to workout at home, silly gym closes early those days. both days I did about an hour on the stepper (around 600 calories on the counter) and I did various other exercises.

I unpacked my summer clothes from storage, and I have my WHOLE wardrobe back! things that haven't fit in years fit me now. I am so excited! It feels so amazing, I want to shop for new cute clothes, but now that I have so many things back that I can wear, I don't NEED any new clothes. shucks!

Today workout...
gym stepper 35 min., 340 calories, 140 stories
arms, abs, back, legs, stretching

food: ( I was soooooooo bad today a friend came over with donuts this morning and I ate some throughout the day! My reasoning, gotta get them gone so I won't eat them! ;/ HUH?) hehehe
breakfast: donut (UGH)
lunch: somen noodles, salad, grilled egg plant
snack: donut (UGH)
dinner: mac and cheese, teriyaki chicken (grilled in the oven!), salad

I am STUCK at 68 kilo. I haven't budged in two weeks. So from tomorrow I am hitting a major veggie diet to try and get a few more kilo off before we go to the states. My muscle tone is AWESOME, I'm seeing muscle in places I forgot had muscles *giggle* but I need to lose more fat and for some reason I am at a standstill all the sudden. So food is going to have to be the thing that changes. I had kinda slacked on eating because I've been doing so good losing weight and seeing size change. but since weight is in a rut, tomorrow we get serious about eating again! I want to be down before going to America where I'm not goign to be able to work out as much and will be MAJORLY tempted with all kinds of very fattening food and DR PEPPER!

Praying for strength!

OK, so QTbaby is officially on the Yahoo! Japan Auction site as of tonight! If you want to see we have two items up, a boy and girl outfit. Here's the links...
http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n36925911
http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/86760908

They'll be up for 5 days, so I'll let you know how it goes. We have another flea market this weekend. This last Saturday was good but there were very few customers. The place was so deserted. This coming Saturday is in a better location, supposedly lots of people come through! So we'll see how that goes.

OK, I'm off to bed. Oh before I go, My baby girl is 1 year and NINE months today. Time flies soooooooooooo quickly! Today she started saying TWO when I show her some number flash cards, and she is on a NO kick, everything is NO! ugh, followed by a yes if the answer really was yes! little munchkin! She's so precious and so much fun!

workout report yesterday and today...

Yesterday I went to the gym, and did my workout...

stepper: 35 minutes, 145 stories climbed, 360 calories
abs, arms, back, legs

I can not remember all that I ate yesterday but I did really well, I ate a TON of veggies, almost all of them baked or boiled, no oils!

Today,

home stepper: 45 minutes, 3333 steps, 450 calories
abs, butt, thighs

food:
breakfast; spinach egg bake and English muffin, OJ
lunch; spicy Udon noodles (lots of veggies in it)
dinner: two pigs in a blanket (small ones), tomatos, bell peppers, veggie soup

NO snacks, and not much sugar today!!! Except for the OJ I guess. It is getting easier and easier all the time to control what I eat. I don't live for the next meal as if I haven't eatten in a month like I used to. I used to look forward to each meal like I was starved and malnourished or something. Now food is finally just a practical part of my day, not the focus. It has taken two months of struggling to get control of my attitude towards food, but I think I am finally there. I enjoy eating smaller portions and not feeling full when I am done. I actually don't crave cokes anymore. It is really amazing. I am just praying I can keep this attitude when I get to the states, because if not I am liable to undo all that I have done.

I have one more month to make this habit of eating right and working out the NORM for my body. After three months, surely I won't lose the desire and drive in just a few weeks! SURELY! I gotta find out though, if there is anywhere to work out in Littlefield, TX? I know there is a Curves gym but that isn't my style. I'm thinking of trying to find a cheap stepper on ebay if I have to. I do not want to lose this muscle tone or gain any weight back!

OK, I'm off to bed.

Healthy eating with my new oven!

I did soooooooooo good today with our meals. TONS of yummy veggies thanks to my new oven. It makes some of the coolest stuff. And tonight we had "fried" chicken! But it was REALLY low cal cause it was actually baked! It was soooooo yummy and tasted fried. Rocky was raving about it, then you KNOW it had to be good! It was REALLY good! I LOVE MY NEW OVEN, have I said that before?

So here's my stats for the day...

workout (gym closed today)
home stepper; 60 minutes, 4500 steps, 640 calories (this sucker is generous with the calorie count)
legs and stretching (I can put my palms on the floor now! like maybe for the first time in my whole life! Way too excited about this!)

food...
breakfast: toast, milk
lunch: pork and green veggie (don't know the English name) salad, a tiny bit of rice
no snack!!!
dinner: chicken, salad, mushroom and onion side dish

I FEEL GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so loving this.

So I'm off to bed.

Back to workout!

Finally feeling better and able to work out again. I worked out at home last night but forgot to post my stats. So just for my record keeping...

home stepper: 55 min, 540 cal, 4500 steps (and it felt GREAT!)
stretching and various little toning exercises

Today at the gym

stepper: 35 min, 145 stories, 350 cal (I significantly increased my workout today for the gym stepper which is harder than my little home stepper) AND it felt GREAT!
arms, legs, abs, back and stretching

I did it all today because tomorrow is the gyms day to be closed. I'll probably work out at home but because I can't do any weights again until Wednesday I did the whole deal.

Food...
breakfast: toast, milk
lunch: grilled chicken sandwhich, salad, small ginger-ale
dinner: curry and rice, salad, cake for mother's day (withe Rocky's parents)

And the greatest news of all, drum roll please.......................................................
68.0 kilo today!!!! I was sort of hoping it would drop down to below 67.something by the time I got out of the shower and sauna, but I didN't get to see that 7. Oh well maybe Wednesday. But my goal is to be 65 by the time we leave for the states in June, and at this pace I'm not going to make it. I stayed steady in the 68's almost all last month. If I don't hunker down and really "diet" in my eating I think I might stay pretty steady. Not that I am not losing inches, you wouldn't believe the difference in my arms, legs, abs, etc. Even my hands look thinner, and my face, totally different, but for some reason I'd just like to see the reduction on the scales too!

We had a great weekend though and spent all of today recording. Hana went to stay with Baba (grandma) all day, and Rocky and I worked in the studio. We had a small scare with Rocky's eye Saturday night, he was seeing an odd blurry, bright field in the center of his vision. We were really worried, but the doc today said it is a form of migraine. Sure enough Rocky looked it up online when he got home and one page about the name of the migraine Rocky's doc siad he had, had a drawing of what the blurry, bright spot looks like and Rocky said that is exactly what he was seeing! what a relief that physically he had no problem with his eyes, but he is straining his eye too much working so much on the computer so I have to keep an eye on him (no pun intended) and make him take it easy.

Well I better go get ready for bed. The gym was really busy tonight and it took me forever, and it is already midnight.

tummy troubles...

I'm not feeling so good the last day and a half. I think I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me. so yesterday and today no workout, I am just trying to get past this. Maybe tomorrow!

I need to catch up...

So worked out both the 10th and 11th but didn't post cause I was depressed, I've hit like a weight rut or something. I can NOT get out of the 68's and was wanting to be down to 65kilo by mid June when we go back to the states. At this rate, that ain't happening. So I'm bummed. But the good news is, with my new oven I can fix some majorly healthy stuff! I LOVE the cookbook that came with it. Tonight we had some really perfectly cooked stuffed bell peppers. It was so awesome, the setting I baked them on, microwaved and grilled them at the same time with steam action going as well. You know I said this oven works with a new steam baking technology. it was so cool. They came out PERFECT, nice and crispy on top. mmmmmmmmmm, yummy! I also did some cut up long onions topped off with some ground garlic, katsuo and soy sauce microwaved for like two minutes. It was soooooo easy and really YUMMY! Rocky loved it! I am going to need another cookbook that goes with this oven. They've got great stuff in there. And majorly healthy!!! Have I said that I love my new oven.

So even though I am in a weight rut, my shape is changing and it is GREAT! I don't even recognize my own waist or my legs. Still have quite a ways to go but I'm still excited about the difference. My only problem is NONE of my clothes fit! I spend all day pulling up my jeans, and I can't buy any new ones in Japan because Japanese clothes don't fit. Today I went to teach English songs at one kindergarten and I nearly lost my pants half way through one song with lots of motions. The kids follow my moves so I was afraid if I reached down and pulled up my pants they'd all do the same. but they were about to fall off! whew, it would have been embarrasing to lose them. So anyways, I'm going clothes shopping as soon as we get to the states!

My other major delima (if you're a guy and your reading, skip this paragraph) I am losing weight in one very unfortunate area... my boobs! they are disappearing rapidly and I don't have much to lose. I was so excited to be actually filling out my bras, but not anymore. ughhh

Back to my oven again but, I gotta go upload a picture of my baking hot dog buns from Wednesday, mmmmmmmmm yummy! Let me go get that...

I gotta make our own hot dog buns and hamburger buns here and I make some yummmmy ones, even if I do say so myself! mmmmmmmm they were good!

Ok, so other than that, nothing exciting going on here. Anne and I are trying to figure out what is the best way to do our qtbaby business online because I have realized that I know so little about creating a shopping cart online and it is overwhelming to keep up with it anyways. so we are starting out with Yahoo! Auction. We'll see how that goes this coming week. I registered tonight and they have to send me an address confirmation thingy, so I can't put any items up till I get that registered letter from Yahoo! But then I'll be putting some clothes up to see how they sell!!! Can't wait!!!

OK, I'm outta here for now. I have an upset tummy today so I am taking a break from working out.

It's my birthday! (and workout report)

WOW, what a birthday! I got a new clock and an oven all in one day. The oven wasn't really a birthday present, it was a necessity because our other oven broke but still it is exciting! and the clock is awesome, I'll hopefully take pictures and upload tomorrow, but tonight I gotta get this done and get in bed, it is 1am here.

I had a sweet date with my wonderful hubby tonight. He's so amazing and I LOVE spending time with him, especially since lately we don't get as much free time as we used to! We went to eat at a very nice and delicious Italian restaurant, and then went shopping for a moment and had our favorite desert at our favorite cafe. Our favorite desert is called Blueberry Sugarpie! We call each other sugarpie so it is quite special to us! AND very YUMMY!!!

So here's my report for today and I am off to bed...

workout...
home stepper, 51 minutes, 3450 steps, 500 calories
arms, abs, legs, stretching

By the way I got a new stepper today! The company replaced the other one because parts were breaking off of it every time I used it and it was REALLY loud. Rocky called yesterday to explain and see what they'd do even though we were a couple weeks past the one year guarantee, but they were very understanding and immediately sent a replacement! It arrived this morning, talk about FAST! It is so smooth and quite! I LOVE IT!

food...
breakfast: toast, honey, milk (since it was my birthday I went ahead and had my favorite toast and honey even though I have been committed to only drinking shakes lately)
lunch: mushroom/ground pork on rice, salad, water
snack: a small piece of birthday cake a friend brought
dinner: a VERY nice 6 course Italian meal (we won't talk about the calories because it was my birthday!!!) and of course SUGARPIE for dessert!mmmmmm

With my new oven, which has lots of fancy high tech abilities, we are going to be eating some majorly healthy wonderful meals from now on. This oven will bake with super heated steam! This means I can "fry" things in the oven. If it is an oily meat like chicken, then I don't have to add any oil and it will fry beautifully, if it has no oil like some seafoods then I can just add a little bit of olive oil and it will fry up nicely! Plus it came with a recipe book for all kinds of casseroles and veggie side dishes! Can't wait to try them all. I can also oven back AND microwave at the same time, so cakes take half the time to cook, etc. This is one amazing machine! I can't wait to use it tomorrow!!!

good night

Wahooo, free at last (and workout report FINALLY)

Well they are finally gone! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my inlaws, but they are exhausting! It is a lot of work to cook for and look out for 6 adults, one child and two babies! Not they they were ALL my responsibility ALL the time, but you know what I mean.

So now life returns somewhat to normal again. I finally get to sleep through the night tonight because Hana is in her own room, and I can't hear every move she makes, nor can she hear mine, so I can roll over in bed when I want to, and not care if Rocky is snoring... hehehe!

Our microwave/oven/toaster broke! It was cheap and old anyways, so I am excited, I get to go and buy a new oven tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I REALLY wish we could go ahead and buy the range top/oven combo that I want so badly, but that is going to ahve to wait till we can afford to remodel the WHOLE kitchen. We are probably going to get an oven that is the newest technology in Japan right now, it cooks with supper heated steam, making it very efficient and healthy. I can "fry" things in the oven, the steam brings out the oil in the meat and fries it just as it were deep fried. I can also bake and microwave at the same time, so a cake that should take 40 minutes to bake will actually bake in half the time! WOW!!! I'll have to tell you more about my new oven if we get it tomorrow.

I will also be putting a newsletter on our ministry blog and some info and pics about Hana on her blog in the next day or so, so if you are reading this, check those out too.

I FINALLY got to work out again! I have not been able to work out, OR eat right the last 5 days or so. Today I did great...

Food...
Breakfast: Cyberwize shake
lunch: some snacks after church, Chinese cold noodles with veggies
snack/dinner: guacamole and chips
dinner: was NOT hungry so I didn't eat and I still feel fine at midnight!

workout...
47 minutes home stepper, 490 calories, 3500 steps
arms, legs, abs, stretching

I hit the gym tomorrow and get to weigh myself... I don't think I am going to like what I see...

I'm off to bed, tomorrow there are a lot of things to do, and LOTS of laundry to wash!

tomorrow I get my life back...

Whew, what a week it has been. In the first week of May several holidays fall close together and it is called Golden Week, everyone gets a good amount of time off work and they all go and visit family. this is the week Rocky's brother and his family always come to visit from Osaka. It has been fun, but crazy. We are the hosts, and cooking for 8 people is WILD. Thank goodness we all went out to eat tonight, I don't think I would have made it through one more evening! They leave tomorrow. Oh I wish I could go workout but I don't think I can, we have a meeting in the afternoon and it will probably last until it is too late for me to go to the gym since they close early on Sunday. It will be the home stepper for me tomorrow night. If that thing survives anymore of my workouts. Each time I use it I find little plastic pieces on the floor underneath it that are breaking off from somewhere. It will begin to make a horrible noises while I am on it and then CRACK, something breaks off and it is fairly quiet again! Really unnerving. It is going to throw me across the room one of these days.

So I haven't been able to work out in three days and have been eating like a pig, it will be interesting to see what has happened to my weight. I do NOT look forward to getting on the scales Monday at the gym...

I'm off to bed for now. Hana has been sleeping in our room since the guests are here, and every move she makes at night wakes me up. She woke up at SIX a.m. this morning. That is WAY early for her. I was getting up to get ready for our flea market (which by the way was rained out) and she woke up with me. I thought it would be a tough day, but since we got rained out and came home she went straight down for a nap and slept THREE hours! YEA!!!

Okidoki, good night!

Work out report (5/03)

Well the gym is closed today becuase it is a holiday so I worked out at home after spending all day cleaning the whole house. I would say I got some excersize today!!!

workout:
41 minutes home stepper, 500 calories, 3584 steps
arms, abs, stretching

food:
lunch: stir friend veggies, rice, tea
snack: a few pieces of chocolate covered almond
dinner: cucumber and egg plant soup, tomatos, sashimi and a tiny bit of rice, water

Rocky's brother's family will be here tomorrow and they are staying with us now that they have a second child. so I will be really busy from tomorrow and probably not have time to come on here, OR workout. Plus family getting together means EATING, hopefully I will be too busy fixing all the food to do any eating!

Gotta go get some rest before I start the rest of this crazy week.

My new thinner face!

I can't believe how quickly my face has slimmed down! this is a picture Rocky took this weekend! YEA!

Can you say exhausted???

OH MY GOODNESS, I am sooooooooooooooooooo tired. We had an ok day at our first flea market. First of all, and I thought this would be the case, people who go shopping at a flea market (especially this particular one) are looking for garage sale type stuff, NOT brand new items. So we sold about five outfits. Second of all, this particular flea market was not a very good one, size, organizationally, etc. More about that in a minute. Third, we have a lot to learn about setting up, talking with the customers, pricing, and so forth...

But I knew it would be a learning experience. I knew we would probably be outside the budget of most flea market shoppers, and I knew that we might face some challenges with the "culture" of Japan's flea market. So I am not in the least bit discouraged! You have to learn and be challenged to grow, and grow we shall!!!

We got in trouble for having only brand new items!? There was this flea police lady, i.e. JERK, that decided she wanted to pick on us ALL day! The flea police first decided that our little tarp was outside our alloted space, so we had to move everything in order to back up our items like TWO INCHES. Then she decided our setting was going to be in the way of the customer who was coming in beside us, so we had to move everything again (don't ask me how if we were set up within our space, we were going to be in the way of our neighbor, but she was convinced of this). THEN after she had already dealt with our booth that many times and had seen what we were selling and seen all our signs that clearly read we are selling new import items, she comes by and says the we are not allowed to have all new items, that this particular flea market specializes in the sell of unwanted personal items, or recycling things, and we are only allowed to have TEN new items out. Here we stand with a wrack full of about 100 outfits, AND about 30 more layed out on the ground and she is telling us we have to get out some used stuff and only display ten new items. I looked at miss flea police like she was a lunatic! did it look like we had any used items up our sleeve or something?

So I headed over to talk to the woman who had spoken with on the phone many times and who took my reservation. I explained to her that I was sorry we were breaking the rules but that I couldn't read all the Japanese that was in the explanation on the internet and I asked her flat out if we should close up our booth. She said no, that it was fine for today but next time bring at least half of our stuff used. (by the way I am still trying to figure out the REASON for a rule such as this, but I will probably never figure that one out) So I breath a sigh of relief and head back to our booth when the flea police shows up again, and tells me again I can only display ten items. I took down about half of our clothing. The next time she waits till I leave the booth for something, and she comes and tells our friend who is helping with the booth. My friend is determined not to give into this woman since we had permission to continue from the other lady. So the flea police, now thoroughly preterbed because her demands have been ignored comes back again! However, again she got ignored! We made it to 3 pm, the end, without ever taking down any more items, we didn't sell much anyways, so the fact that the clothes were not all out on display didn't hurt us too much, BUT we will never go back there again. I later realized they cheated me out of 500 yen (about $5) on my registration fee as well. they must have had it in for the foreigners, because there were several other booths with PLENTY of brand new items and little or no used items out, and they weren't getting bugged or told to put their stuff away. There were also plenty of other booths taking up more than their share of space, and nothing was said to them. The flea police chick just wanted to pick on somebody and the foreigners looked like an easy target. This is the FIRST time I have ever been so blatantly treated differently in Japan, in a negative way because I am a "gaijin".

However, the reason we will not go back there is not because we are pouting and throwing a fit, it just wasn't our crowd. However we made good friends with our next door neighbor, who by the way commented often on how strick miss flea police was being, and she gave us the scoop on some REALLY great flea markets to go to, where she said our items would sell well. We also met another awesome lady who spoke English beautifully, and she will be moving to Arizona soon. She is really interested in CyberWize, and just overall interested in us. But best of all, she is interested in the GOSPEL!!! I can't wait to keep in touch with her and get her going to a church when she gets to the states. Her husband is American and they have 3 kids. It was so great to meet her.

SOOOOOOOOOO, it was a great learning experience. We will probably do many more flea markets because if nothing else we got to hand out business cards with our web address on it. And we got to meet people, that is what I love most about this. I get to meet people I would never come in contact with otherwise. People I can tell about Jesus!

Next time, I also know to stand up for myself if I ever run into another anal flea police! I think my just looking at her with this "your crazy" look on my face was not very effective.

Hana did AWESOME though! she even took a nap in her stroller. She was a major tropper. It was exhausting keeping up with her and the store, but it was great to learn that I can do it with if I need to. And I think she pretty much enjoyed it.

I am totally pooped though, so I am off to bed. Tomorrow I have to get ready for Rocky's brother's family to come and spend the rest of the week with us. Their family has grown, they now total four, and that is too many to fit in Rocky's parent's little apartment so we get to play host from now on! Praise God for our huge spacious house!

good night

too busy to blog!

We were out of town over the weekend I didn't get to work out on Sat. Then Sunday I worked out here at home last night but didn't get to blog. I had a 50 minute workout on my stepper here in at home last night. it felt AWESOME! Can't remember the steps and calorie stats, but they were high. But I did HORRIBLE eating this weekend, snacked a lot (at the church between activities) and at chocolate on the way home! ugh! and I drank a coke to stay awake on the drive home. BAD BAD me! That was my first coke in at least two weeks, I can't remember when I last had one.

But today I am back on track...

workout:
35 minutes on stepper, 140 storriesclimed, 344 calories
legs, abs stretching

food:
breakfast: toast, milk
lunch: a little bit of rice, miso soup, carrot salad, tea
snack: a couple of chocolate covered almonds, a little bit of Hana's popcorn
dinner: chicken with oroshi daikon, salad, a little bit of rice

There is this guy at the gym that thinks it is his job to comment on everything I do. He tells me I am not standing properly or not pulling properly or SOMETHING. It drives me nuts! I wish he would leave me alone.

Otherwise I have a few other good little buddies at the gym. It is certainly a little community, there are those of us who are there EVERY day at the same time, and we get to know each other a little. Most of them are just now figuring out that I understand Japanese so they are starting to talk to me more and more each day. It's fun.

I am convinced however, that weighing yourself is NOT the best way to determine how workout and diet are going. weight can be soooo deceiving. My body shape has changed DRAMATICALLY in the last 6 weeks, but my weight has not changed that significantly. and like today, when I came into the gym I weight 69.4 by the time I finished my workout I weighed 69 even. After my shower and a couple sessions in the sauna, I weighted 68.6! That is almost one complete kilo difference. VERY misleading.

so I am saying that my weight today was 68.6 (cause I like that number the best!)

I'm off to bed, tomorrow we FINALLY get to unveil our qtbaby business! It is forcast to be a sunny day and we have a flea market to go to! Hopefully pictures tomorrow!