Politics...

I wasn't going to get into the political arena on my blog but I read an article today and just have to share it.

http://www.voddiebaucham.org/vbm/Blog/Entries/2008/11/5_Is_it_Over.html

amen, Amen and AMEN! I'm sorry but that lets the cat out of the bag on my political oppinion. And when you finish reading that article go click on the "bio" of the author, it just might suprise you who he is!

Just want to end with Praise God that HE is still on the throne in my heart and that matters more than who is the leader of my country. I will support and pray for our new president and know that God will do what He always does best, work miracles! And that's as far as I go with my political oppinion on my blog...

November, ALREADY!?

Where does the time go!? I am in shock that it is November already. I've been pulling out the long sleeves this week! That little spot on my thumbs that always gets dry in the winter, it appeared this week, and I have been covering up at night and wanting to cuddle with my little bed buddy! Fall/Winter is my FAVORITE time of the year! My favorite things about this time of year (in no particular order)...

1. My XXL sweatshirt! Love it!
2. My pink fuzzy slippers!
3. Warm foods (soups and nabe)
4. Lots of HOT tea!
5. Oatmeal for breakfast!
6. The warmth of the sun!
7. Cuddling with my sugarpie at night!
8. Less laundry (less sweat)!
9. Walking out into the cool evening air after a hard workout at the gym.
10. Japanese spa baths, especially where there is a really hot outdoor bath!
11. Getting back out clothes that I haven't seen in a while!

and I could go on and on!

Well, I must admit, I am so nervous about election week. I want to know what happens, and then I don't! ahhhhhhhhhh

I have a football crazed cousin in the house tonight. Her team (texas tech) played t.u. in the states and she's waiting for iTunes to upload the game so we can watch it. She's staying off the internet in the meantime so she doesn't know who won. I on the other hand, saw a friends status on Facebook a moment ago that gave away the results of that game. So watching the game won't be that fun for me. Not that it was gonna be cause it's the two school I dislike the most, playing against each other. But I haven't seen a football game in a couple years I guess, so it'll be fun to watch.

Let's see, what else is up...

My husband has taken a likin' to the Wii Fit! He's in there sweatin' away as I type! I am soooooooooooooooooo glad we finally got something he enjoys doing. We had a stepper, he did it every now and then. We have a simple elliptical trainer now... he's used it maybe 3 times? And he won't join the gym, don't know how we'd possibly both workout when Hana needs someone at home with her anyways, but still. I'm just so glad he is excercising!

I am now enjoying the wonders of making my own whole grain breads! It is so fun. I have one particular VERY yummy recipe that we keep using over and over again! I love it, and I may wear out my 8 year old bread machine any day now! Wouldn't that be neat cause I'm really wanting a new one!

Oh my goodness Christmas is right around the corner and I am so excited about one present we got for Hana. She loves to pretend to be your server at a restaurant and take orders. We were at a restaurant the other day and they had a little toy display at the checkout counter and she found this little toy that is like a computer-ize order taking machine. Do they have those in the states? Here in Japan they have this machine that has all the menu items on it, and they punch in your order on their little machine and it goes back to the kitchen automatically. She saw that toy one and wanted it sooooooooooo bad! I wanted it for her, but we said no. We never buy toys for her on the spot. I couldn't make it back to that restaraunt to buy the toy without her for several weeks but the other night we stopped in and they still had them. I got her one! I can't wait for her to open it at Christmas! We never get her plastic electronic toys, but this one is special. It just fits her so well. Now we have to come up with one or two more little things for her! I can't come up with anything that is going to be as neat as that little order taker thingy!

So, we will have our Thanksgiving on Monday the 24th here, it's a Japanese holiday anyways, so all us foreigners get together on that day for Thanksgiving. And we want to have a turkey but we are without our resident turkey expert this year. So myself or one other missionary (who has also never baked one) has to make the turkey... hmmmmmmmmm, this could be interesting! To be continued...

Well, I better go, just thought I would ramble on for a while! Rocky is almost done punching a virtual bag on the Wii, and I could do a couple more things before getting ready for bed I guess!

Blogging slump...

Ever been there!? It's been tough to get on here and do an update.

It's like one things leads to another and before you know it, it's just more than you even want to think about.

A couple months ago my laptop computer started to give us trouble. We thought we fixed it, but issues kept creeping up again and again. So much so that at times I didn't even want to turn my computer on not knowing when it might choose to make my day a living nightmare! So frustrating. Never had this kind of trouble before with a computer. Every man made machine has it's flaws, I know. I don't really need a seperate computer from Rocky all the time anyways, so it works out well. To eliminate more time consuming stress, we are just going to share a computer again. We did until about two years ago and it was always fine. So that problem is solved.

But in the meantime, I got so far behind on blogging, it just seemed like too much to try to catch up. At this point it is beyond hope of REALLY catching up, so I am just going to start over again.

Not a whole lot on the personal front to report. We won a Wii and Wii Fit a couple weeks ago. LOVE that little machine and could easily get addicted. Wii Fit is so fun! But at the same time my cousin is here to stay for a while and we joined the gym for the duration of her stay! I am enjoying being back in the gym again. It's just a much more intense workout on their machines, and I love lifting weights. Wish I had my own home gym! A woman can dream can't see.

So anyways, I am going to go get down to the REAL business which is updating Hana's blog! Lots to share there... so don't forget to check it out!

One more day...

Okay, so I am sooooooooooooooo spoiled! I have been married to my best friend and the love of my life for 8.5 years now, and we have only been apart for the 5 days that Hana was in the hospital with a fever at 4 months of age. Other than that, never been apart more than the daylight hours. It's the nature of what we do I guess. When we first married we knew the day would come in our ministry where Rocky might have to go without me, so we decided for as long as we could, if at all humanly possible, we would spend every night together in the same place as a family. It was just something we felt was important, setting an example for a culture where the husband and wife relationship is usually the least important of all relationships. We wanted it to be a testimony.

And now I am soooooooooooo spoiled! Rocky had to have a little bit of minor surgery (which there is no such thing as anything minor with the medical system in Japan). Minor surgery here will land you in the the hospital for a week or more. Rocky's in particular, 10 days AT LEAST! ugh. In America, it would be totally outpatient, you'd be home within the hour. NOT here, but I won't get on my soap box about that one. Tomorrow is day 9 and I am about to go out of my mind! Of course I can see him in the day, but at night I have to come home to this big ol' house and that big ol' bed all by myself (of course my precious little girl is here, but she goes to bed early and I'm lonely once she's down for the night). Not to mention it is sooooooooooooooooo boring. I was looking forward to the downtime after our crazy busy summer of ministry, but I haven't been able to sleep well with him gone. I'm spending all kinds of time on Facebook searching for every person I've ever known whose name I can remember! LOL!!! And I've done a few sewing projects in the past week, which I was looking forward to getting to do some crafts, for my own sanity, something of a hobby as a bit of a break from the craziness.

Just one more day and he'll be home. Ha, I know I know, so spoiled! But I'm just still so in love with that hubby of mine and I miss him terribly.

So can I just say the American media drives me absolutely bonkers. Just a few words to sum it all up -- double-standards, hypocritical, one sided, non-sense! Sorry but just gotta get that out there. Take every statement that has been said about Sarah Palin and say that about Hillary Clinton and the backlash would be unbearable. Take all those statements and say them about ANY man in office and people would look at you like you are complete idiot. Total hypocricy if I've ever seen it. Maybe now people will realize that they aren't really getting the "news" when they watch the "news". What they are getting is... brain-washed.

I'm totally stoked! My cousin is coming to stay with us for a couple months. Can NOT wait! House decorating buddy! Work-out buddy! Shopping-buddy! Ministry-buddy! Absolutely ADORE my cousin! She's more like my baby sister. I can not wait to have her here. Hana's gonna drive her nuts! ;)

Speaking of Hana. What's with the independent streak they hit when they turn 4. NO BODY ever told me about this one. They warn you ALL about the twos! The twos were a breeze, I kept wondering when the terrible part happens. The threes??? A tad bit more challenging but still a blast. But something happened a couple weeks before this kiddos 4th birthday. She became Miss Independent. It ought to come with a crown and a sash, I wasn't there when she won the title, I don't know when it happened, but it must have, cause she is definitely Miss Independent. She wants to butt heads about EVERYTHING. I thought I was going to go out of my mind until her grandmother made a very clever observation today. She said that Hana's reasoning skills sure have developed. That's when it hit me. This is part of her development and mentally she is reasoning through now why she is told to do things, why she has to do things she's always had to do, etc. When I saw from that perspective it was a revelation. I have to start parenting from a whole new perspective now. She is thinking through the why's and how's all of the sudden, so I have to be prepared with reasons and help her understand. This in no way changes the fact that what Mommy and Daddy says is the way it is gonna be, but she is a human being a deserves to know why. The question is, do I have the patience to add this new dimension to my parenting. OH boy, this is where it starts getting fun! I'm learning already that explaining it once is not enough. Usually I have to explain it again and again and again and again until she gets it. This is where the patience plays a big role. Not my best virtue, just ask my hubby. Someone once said that parenting is not only about the parenting training the child, but the child training the parent. Getting schooled right now, that's for sure!

That cafe ministry I inherited at church!? Totally a blast! Lovin it! I'm a business woman at heart, I truly am. Got that from my Momma! What a blast!

Okay so I think that's an update that got me closer to bedtime. ugh, now I'm lonely again! ONe more day...

The call that changed our lives forever...

I wrote this earlier but somehow it just got saved instead of published, so it is just going up today...

4 years ago today we got a phone call.

I will never forget this day. The days leading up to AND on this day I was especially unsettled and wanted our baby BAD. I was searching the internet frantically, making phone calls to try and find new avenues of adopting in Japan, trying to get Rocky to do the same, and grieving because several friends had new babies and my arms felt soooooooooo empty! I had no idea what a suprise God had in store for us.

Rocky had to go out for dinner with a pastor that evening. I was at home alone trying to pass the time, when the phone rang. A man on the other end of the line asked for Rocky and I said he wasn't home. Then the caller just said, "Please have him call Mr. Tsujioka when he gets home, right away." and he ended the call. I grabbed a note pad and began to write "Call Tsujioka" when I realized that name seemed very familiar. My heart lept and I jumped as I began to realize that this was the director of Pro-Life Japan, whom we had applied to adopt through. I called Rocky's cell phone and told him to GET HOME, NOW!!!!!!!!!

He was only 10 minutes away by car. Those were the longest ten minutes of my life. When the pastor he was meeting with drove up outside, I couldn't stand to wait in the house for him to come in. I was out the door and on the street practically pulling him out of the car. The pastor wanted to exchange pleasantries and chat but I was having none of it. I dragged Rocky away and into the house and wouldn't even let him set down his things.

I sat as close as I could trying to hear what Tsujioka-sensei had to say on the line, but I couldn't hear anything. Rocky had a note pad in front of him, and he wrote the Japanese character for "girl" on the note pad. He wrote a weight and some measurements and that is when I knew! We had a baby girl. A precious little 5 day old baby girl! They talked for several more minutes and he hung up the phone and said, "Her name is gonna be Hana!" I cried and he laughed and we both just sat in awe!

We had to wait four more days to have her laid in our arms. Those were the longest four days of my life. But oh, what a special day this was! And time has flown by so quickly! We are so blessed!

I was so restless in those days and I think that somehow my heart already knew that she was out there, and she needed her Mommy! I am so blessed and still can't believe God chose ME to be her Mommy! Thank you Lord, with all my heart!

Sneak up!

Well, it is confession time! (this is a fitness update, and it is for my own accountability so if this stuff bores you then no need to read on)...

Upon arrival in America, I proceeded to jog 3 times the first week, once the second week, and once the 4th week, and that was about all I was able to muster in the fitness department while we were there. BUT I did pretty good with portion control and food choices for most of the trip and did not gain a single pound.

We got back and I worked out a little, especially when we got our new elliptical trainer. Then, we got SOOOOO busy. Camps, hosting minsitry team, two week tour, etc (with days here and there in between). Two things happened...

1. I had very little choice on what, when, where and how much I ate. I often was being served as a special guest and felt I should eat it ALL.

2. When I did have the chance to workout I kept telling myself that I'd just get to once and then have to go a week without and so I'd get sore for no reason and have to start all over again whenever I had time again.

SOOOOOOO, I ate too much and couldn't/didn't work out.

And the end results is 2 extra kilos that found a way to SNEAK UP on me. ugh

I imagine I probably gained a LITTLE in the states but lost muscle so it didn't start showing on the scales till I gained even more in the two months that followed.

SOOOO what am I going to do about that. Radical back on the wagon program!

I started tonight, hit the elliptical trainer for about 15 mintues (taking it slow here cause I am still trying to fight off a cold). From tomorrow, I start a new 9 day cleanse. I have filled my body with so much JUNK in the last four months, I am cleaning house and getting back to the good ways of eating good healthy stuff! This time, I'm cleansing all alone. Rocky is having a simple little minor surgery (repair work on the caboose, if you know what I mean, if you don't then keep thinking on it). In Japan, that'll land you in the hospital for 10 days. Yep, 10 days. In America you'd be out in an hour. But that is how they do things here. So since I am only cooking for the munchkin and me this week (and she is sooooooooo easy to please) then I'm gonna cleanse! I'll need to feed her a.m. and evening cause she gets lunch and snack at preschool (except on weekends). So I'll have a light dinner with her in the evening and do my shakes the rest of the day.

The cleanse starts tomorrow. Here we go!

And once again I'll be detailing the experience over on my Isagenix blog (IF you are intersted).

Home at last!

I don't know if I have ever been so happy to set my suitecase down! Whew! We survived! We've been home for TWO days and I feel like I need another month to recover. But WHAT A SUMMER. Well, and throw in the Spring too! Wow, God is soooooooooo awesome!

I unpacked the suitecase and we put it AWAY today. I mean, we are talking, WAY up in the top of the closet, cause we don't have to get it back down for a LONG time! I wanted to burst out in song and dance! I am so tired though, opted for a smile instead.

Turns out, I had to preach on Sunday. I was needed and so I agreed to do it. I knew about it on Thursday evening and we had a conference Friday and Saturday a.m. I had to drive us home Saturday evening. In other words, NO time to prepare. First time to "preach" in Japanese and I had ZERO time to prepare. But everyone raved about it. I HAD to be God taking control of my mind and my words because at that point I had nothing left mentally and physically. Yet my Japanese was smooth and everyone was totally blessed. I love when God does that!

We met so many families on this trip who have adopted. It was SUCH a blessing to meet so many. One little boy, about 10, loved Hana so much. He wanted to keep her. His little family was precious. I am so excited that God keeps allowing us to meet other families with adopted children, and I hope we can stay in contact with them. These kids will have so much in common as they grow up. It is exciting to see the number of people adopting expand, but also gives me a bit of pause. It means our next baby will take that much longer to finally get here, cause there are MORE people applying. God has His perfect timing for everything though.

I feel a crafty mood coming on. I have not gotten to do any creative, crafty, home-making kind of stuff in ages. I am gonna go for it. I think Hana's baby dolls need some clothing. The two cabbage patch kid dolls that were mine from my childhood, had on some REALLY old clothes when I pulled them out for her. I put on some of Hana's newborn clothes, but they don't fit. Since then they've gotten filthy. She loves changing her dolls clothing. so I'm going to make some clothes. I made up a pattern for a shirt and shorts for the little baby boy. I took an old mans dress shirt and made the shirt and shorts for her today. She was so excited. I'll have to get pics.

well, I'll sign off for now. I am sure I will be writing a LOT in the coming days and weeks cause now, I HAVE TIME!

jet lagging?

I do not know what the deal is, but it is 7am and I have been awake for almost 3 hours already. I could NOT sleep. So I gave up and came to get on the computer. However, even though there is wireless internet here, it is painfully slow compared to what I am used to. I am soooooooooo spoiled!

We are in Toyohashi now. Just finished 3 days at church camp. It was awesome. I love this church family. It is our second time to minister here. They are truely family. And there are tons of kids in this church. These kids are awesome. I was so touched watching them play with each other and play with Hana at camp. And during TWO HOUR long worship services that all sat and listened intently. They sing the songs, talk to adults and are so sweet to each other. You might be thinking, what is so awesome about that? But in Japan, this kind of well adjusted, happy and active pre-teens and teens are a rare sight. Most of them are pretty withdrawn around adults and it is rare to see more than 4 or 5 kids in a church. They don't have any grand youth program/kids program at this church, nothing flashy at all. It is just obvious this is a group of adults that loves each other and loves on those kids and most of all loves Jesus, and it shows.

The pastor here is a riot. He is a 12 year old running around in a 60-something year old's body. Last night he started a water gun fight with all the adults who went to eat dinner. Luckily I was inside giving Hana a shower, and only got sprayed through the slightly cracked bathroom window! But Rocky came in pretty wet, and he said that sensei at one point started filling buckets and dowsing people! At camp, sensei was barking at everyone from a balcony once. During dinner last night, we laughed and laughed together. He (and the rest of his church) are just full of the joy of Jesus Christ!

At camp we watched a video about Christianity in China. AWESOME! The persecution they endure from the government actually serves to spread the Gospel at an alarming rate. What happens is, people get arrested for meeting in house churches. That weeds out "nominal" Christians right from the start. Then those who are passionate about their faith and on fire for Christ end up being forced to run from authorities and spread out to avoid arrest. They go from town to town spreading the Gospel until they are discovered and then they run again, spreading the Gospel even more. There is no way to know how many Christian's there are in China, but is a LOT! Amazing how God uses what man thinks is going to put a stop to the power of His Word, to only make it even more powerful! But of course it really put the existence of the church in China and the hardship they endure at the front of my mind. I find myself thinking about them and praying about them constantly right now.

And it breaks my heart for the Japanese. They are politically free to choose to following this incredible Savior and so many of them are so appathetic it is hard to get them to even think about the need for God for even a second. What will have to happen to wake up the souls of the Japanese people??? I'm not sure I want to know...

So I recently read The Shack... OH MY GOODNESS! All I can say is, you HAVE to read this book. It IS fiction, and in that you have to take some of the "accuracy" (of the theology) of it with a grain of salt. But all that aside, and keeping in mind that it IS fiction, it is powerful. It totally says about suffering, exactly what I learned through Dad's death and our journey of infertility (which we are still on, by the way). This book, you just have to read it. Even if you disagree 10,000% with the theology of it, the message is powerful. WOW. I can't wait to read it again.

The Olympics. I am missing like 90% of it being on the road right now, and further more being in Japan. Nothing against the Japanese, but the media here ONLY covers Japanese participants. I have seen a tiny bit on the tv here about the US swimmer who is doing so well, but otherwise can't get any coverage of the US. The coverage is really very poorly done. Like last night, I was watching the mens track and field hurdles race, and the guy in lane one disappeared from the race after they left the starting blocks. The Japanese media totally ignored it, and filmed the race to the end with shower the winner for 2 seconds, and then zooming in on the Japanese runner (who came in fourth) and interviewing him, and then going on to something else. I am dying to know what happened to that lane 1 runner. Ugh! Most of all, in the summer Olympics, I LOVE gymnastics and diving. Probably won't get to watch much of that either, and of course, the coverage would only be of the Japan teams anyways. So that's sort of a bummer. I would love to have a satelite TV right now, and about two weeks with NOTHING to do (HA, in my dreams!). I want Hana to see it too. *deep sigh*

Well, I better go ahead an close for now. Some little munchkin is going to come stumbling out of her room any minute now, and I just heard the washer finish my load. We are staying in an AWESOME furnished apartment provided by the church we did camp with by the way. Praise God for wonderful accomodations, with nice beds, a fridge, a washer, AND air conidtioning! Off to hang the clothes out to dry!

hugs and blessings,
Marla

Buzy Beez...

Whew! What a summer we are having. It is hard to say for sure, but I am tempted to label this the busiest summer we have ever had! (but I don't have the greatest memory, so it probably isn't!)

We got back from the states and had a busy but normal schedule for a couple weeks, in the midst of getting everything ready for the CMA girls! They were here last week and it was an AWESOME week! Man we love those guys so much and we were so sad to see them go. They walked out the door and in walked Rocky's brother and his family. They were here till yesterday and we spent lots of time with them. Last night I was so tired I didn't feel like moving a muscle. This morning, I still don't feel like doing anything but I have to get up and get going! I prepare for our church's Friday cafe this afternoon. I'll be at cafe all day tomorrow. Saturday is a planned fun day with friends. Sunday we will have morning worship and TWO meetings that afternoon. Monday I have to get ready to go on tour for two weeks! Oh my, I shouldn't have typed all that out, makes me feel even more overwhelmed! ahhhhhhhh

Anyways, all that to say we are so busy. I love busy summers, but I look forward to them being over too. August will be gone in a flash. I will hopefully have time to share some pictures of all our adventures soon!

Hope you are having a great summer too!

Testing out RedLasso...

Now this guy had a bad day! I made this clip from a news report on RedLasso, I'm testing out how to post the clips to a blog.



I hope this works.

And I'm glad those people were okay, I bet their vacation in the mobile home was ruined though.

Thrill-seeking Gourmets... LOL

I never knew I was a thrill-seeking gourmet, till I read this article on Foxnews.com yesterday...

Illinois Man Arrested for Extremely Poisonous Puffer Fish Toxin

Edward Bachner, 35, was charged with one count of illegal possession of tetrodotoxin, a felony. He was being held in federal custody pending a detention hearing Wednesday.

Using the alias Edmond Backer, Bachner allegedly claimed he was a doctor when he ordered 98 milligrams of the toxin from a New Jersey chemical company, the FBI said. An employee of the company became suspicious due to the large amount ordered and alerted the FBI.

Bachner was arrested Monday when he allegedly tried to get the tetrodotoxin from a member of the FBI, authorities said. Bachner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the FBI. His telephone number was unlisted.

It's not clear why Bachner wanted the toxin, authorities said.

Tetrodotoxin is a poison so potent the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can "produce rapid and violent death." It is 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Puffer fish, called fugu in Japan, is consumed by thrill-seeking gourmets once the poison is removed. Eating the toxin can cause paralysis, vomiting, heart failure and death.

I'm practically rolling on the floor laughing. Fugu (puffer fish) is a VERY common food in Japan and eating it is not the least bit associated with thrill-seeking! It is especially common in our area, because the most delicious variety is found abundantly in the ocean very near us. But stores or restaurants that serve it have it prepared by licensed people who know very well how to prepare it safely. The reproductive organs of the fish are poisonous and if the fish is prepared without the reproductive organ being opened, then it is perfectly safe. In Japan probably less than 10 people die of Fugu poisoning every year and those cases are almost always people who tried catching and preparing the fish themselves!

It just cracks me up, the misconceptions that can happen about international cultures...

I LOVE Fugu, it is one my favorite foods. I guess I'm a thrill-seeking gourmet! Cool!!!

It was 3am...

when I finally fell asleep last night...

*yawnnnnnnnnn*

And now it is 10:30... PAST my bed time.

Good night!

Oh and before I go, I liked my hair today! ;p

I am so female...

in 30 minutes, I'll probably hate it and by morning, I'll love it! LOL

Good night!

The cut...

It'll grow... that's all I got to say!

Can't sleep...

So I am drinking a cup of this...


and unfortunately eating one of these...


*sigh*

It has just been a strange day. The first day in I don't know long, where we were able to take it easy and it was hard to make myself just chill out. I am also pretty restless cause I chopped my hair off yesterday. I wanted it short, and I wanted to donate my hair to locksoflove.org, but it is just suddenly GONE and it feels weird. I don't recognize myself when I see my reflection. it is just going to take some getting used to.

And then on the way over to have dinner at our friends house, Rocky bit his tongue. Not a strange thing, especially for him, he kinda does that quite a bit actually. But four hours later it was still bleeding and he was getting dizzy. So we decided to head home, get our insurance card and go to an emergency room, since that is all you can do late on a Saturday night. I could feel the tension building as we left our friends house. What to do with Hana? How long will the ER take? When will we finally get back to Hana and get home if we leave her somewhere? What if he needs stitches? OUCH! What if they can't make it stop bleeding or some other underlying cause is there and they'll discover something else is the reason he can't stop bleeding? Why do I always let my mind run away with thoughts like this?

Needless to say, by the time we got home to get the insurance card I was really stressing. And yet, the bleeding had finally begun to subside. And we decided to stay at home, and see if it would stop completely. It did, within like five minutes (thank you Lord). But my wound up nerves WON'T stop! My new bedtime of 10pm... well I finally made it to bed at 10:45. Yet it is after midnight and I am still awake. I decided to come downstairs and get a cup of some kind of relaxing tea and unwind a little.

I know, staring at a bright computer screen is not exactly going to make me get sleepy. But what else would I do in a quiet house, late on Saturday night.

My tea is still too hot to drink...

So, my hair. Yep, I chopped it. I wanted to donate it to an organization that makes wigs for sick children who need them. I measured the required 10 inches and thought it would come to about right above my shoulders, and I was happy with that. That long hair was going to make me miserable this summer. So off I went. ONly one problem. I have increasingly found it impossible to communicate what I want to a hair stylist in Japan. WHY do I always forget that no matter what I say they don't listen to me and they just cut it however they want to. He insisted that he couldn't pull it all together in the back and cut it at the nape of my neck, he had to separate it into four ponytails around my head and cut it seperately. He cut the sides about 4 inches shorter than the back. I was shocked when I saw him do it? And right before he cut, I told him that the hair band was high up there, and he could cut less on the sides, the 10 inches only had to be measuring from the middle in the back. He assured me he understood, and CHOP! I am sure my Japanese must have been unclear? right?

Oh well, I don't hate it. It is much shorter than I wanted it, but it will grow. Hair grows. It is nothing to be upset about. And yet I can't stop replaying it in my mind and asking myself, why didn't I INSIST that he pull it into one ponytail in the back and cut it? It's probably going to take me at least 6 months to get the sides caught up with the back. And then the back'll have to be cut short again to even it out with the sides. How will I ever explain to him what kind of style I want then? I don't know if I'll ever trust him to cut my hair again until it is much past my shoulders. I have him well trained in how to cut my hair when it is long...

oh well, it is done. And really, I don't hate it. It is just going to take some getting used to.

Note to self...
IF you ever do this again, cut it yourself first and then go to the salon to get it styled.

OR do it while you are in American so Mom can cut it! She listens to you!

OR just don't ever do this again...

cause even though I really don't hate it (how many times have I said that now) I don't really adore it either.

The problem is, I always envy cute short hair cuts. I want my hair to look like that, be that simple, be that light and cool.

One more note to self...

YOUR hair is thicker than a horse's mane Marla, REMEMBER! It will never look that cute short.
And YOUR hair is naturally wavy-gag-me-with-a-spoon-frizzy, which means in humid Japan, short is not fun!

Thanks self, so noted!

So there you have it. I'm done thinking about it. I am done replaying it in my mind. I am done letting it stress me. It will grow.

My hubby is lying in bed upstairs, snoring away, not bleeding anymore. and my hair is fine, it is short and simple and that is what I wanted.

That's that. My tea is now at a great temperature to drink. I will drink it and hopefully go to bed to go to SLEEP...

good night

Dead and Resurrected!

More than anything, everyday I celebrate the death and resurrection of my Lord Jesus Christ. I must say that before I say...

Today I am also celebrating the death and resurrection of my computer.

And to my precious hubby, THANK YOU for all the tedious hours you spent saving my little friend. What can I do to repay you!? I love you sweety! Thank you again!

So that means, I can finally share pictures... BUT, it is 9:20 and I am sitting here in a pool of sweat cause I just finished my workout, 40 mintues of pilates and 30 minutes on my NEW elipitical trainer (more about that later) so I must grab a shower and get to bed. I have been in bed by 10 every night since we came home and I am not about to change that now, I am loving my early mornings!!!

Quick snippet about my eliptical trainer, it cost the same as about 5 months of gym membership, we decided it was a better deal to get one for home. Maybe Rocky will join me in using it! It is a simple, pretty inexpensive one but I really enjoyed my first run on it tonight! I was sweating, that is pretty much all I care about!

Loving my new pilates videos too!

Anyways, off to shower and get to bed. If you could smell me from there, you would thank me! ;)

nighty night!

Ahhhhhhhhhh...

Back from the states! But unfortunately having computer problems. My laptop just shut down on me the day after we got back, and it is taking forever to get it up and going again, because we are so busy! So I hijacked Rocky's computer this afternoon while he is working on me.

Oh goodness, where do I begin. Well, the states was AWESOME, but long and exhausting. We were so ready to get home. And can I just say this, I am so Japanese. I shock even myself sometimes with how different I am, and I how I just don't fit in America anymore. I still love America don't get me wrong, but I think after 11 years (YEP ELEVEN years!) this is home. I could not wait to have some noodles or rice and get into a Japanese bath! ahhhhhhhhhhhh, it is heaven!

Hana is doing well being back. She is a little shy speaking Japanese, even her teachers at preschool say she spouts off to them in English a lot. She REALLY prefers English right now. She is LOVING the food though, she has stuffed herself silly at most meals. I made spaghetti last night and she was disappointed... she scarfed down her salad though. I can't blame her, I'll make more Japanese food tonight!

Well, on the health and wellness side of things, I did not gain a single pound in the states! However, I was not able to work out much at all, and I know I lost muslce and replaced that with a little bit of fat. So I have some work to do. To decision about the gym is official, I am not joining again. We ordered a home eliptical trainer (which comes tomorrow, I can't wait) and I brought home some DVD's with me. I have been working out to DVD's for the past few days and I like it. Especially when I have the eliptical trainer, it's gonna be great! It is rainy season, and I went jogging the other morning and came back pretty wet even though it was only a drizzle outside. Once rainy season is over it is going to be miserably hot out, so I am thankful that we got a home machine. It was really inexpensive, and about 4 months of the gym would have equalled the cost of the machine. So we will be ahead in no time! Plus Rocky is going to use it too!!!

I am now officially an early bird! For the last week I have gone to bed by 10pm and gotten up by 6am every day! I am really liking it. When we married, Rocky and I were at total opposite ends of the scale. I loved going to bed at 10 or so, and he loved staying up to till 2 or 3am. We sorta of met in the middle, and often were in bed by midnight or 1am at the latest most of the time. But I have never really liked that so much cause I just can't get up before 7am if I got to bed that late. And I almost always need a nap if I do have to get up early. But I took advantage of jet lag (and an ailing computer) and started going to bed early every night. I so enjoyed the early mornings, I am determined to stick to it. And now, not going to the gym, I can easily do it! If Hana is in bed by 8, I can easily be done with my workout by 9 or 9:30, shower and go to bed. OR, if I get up at 6am, I can easily get my workout done in the morning before she wakes up! I have yet to try working out while she is up, we'll see how that goes when we are forced to!

This new schedule means the loss of a few things, mostly being able to chat online with people in the states. But I'll make changes where needed for that. I was spending way too much time on the computer late at night before anyways.

Well, I'm sure I have a million more things to share about the states but that'll have to do for now. I am just glad to be home! There will be more pics coming soon, when we get our computer issues worked out. And be sure to keep up with the ministry over on that blog! There'll be lots of Hana updates coming soon too.

My precious daughter!!!

One of the most precious pictures I've ever had the priviledge of being in! THAT is MY precious daughter. I'm still amazed that I get to be her Mommy!!!

My precious family!!!

I just had to share...


We had our pictures made today! They turned out GREAT! I love my sweet precious little family. I just wanted to share!

Some fun pics...

(This post was supposed to be on Hana's blog, I blame it on jet lag ;) )

This little girl has fallen in love with animals, and especially Bam's horse... Gizmo!


Riding with Bam..


Watching TV with Granny... (Great Grandmother)


Playing with Aunt Kay... (Great Aunt)


Saying Bye-bye to Uncle Bud and Aunt Shortie... (Great Uncle and Aunt)



One thing is for sure... this little girl is LOVED!!!!!!!

Stateside for a month...

I can't believe we have been here for a whole month. Time is flying by! It has been a HUGE blessing!!!

We have so enjoyed the fellowship with new and old friends and family. It has been sooooooooo wonderful to spend so much time with people we don't often get to see.

We've eaten lots of great food! But I'm being good. Keeping control of portion sizes and not drinkinng too many Dr. Peppers! But indulging quite a bit! I'm enjoying myself, but I haven't gained ANY weight!!! I've only been able to work out about 3 or 4 times though. Just hope I don't lose too much tone, but we'll see.

The weather has been CRAZY! We've had record high temps in some places we've been, we had a snowy day in Colorado, and we've seen LOTS of thunder storms with plenty of thunder and lightening and hail! Thankfully, no tornado's, but we ARE still in Texas!!!!

Hana has been an AMAZING little girl. I can't remember a single time she's complained about all the hours in the car, all the meals that she doesn't really prefer, all the concerts she's had to sit through. Really she has thoroughly enjoyed all the attention she is getting and she is such a GOOD girl! We are so blessed!!!

We've got one more month to go! I'm looking forward to it!

Love from Texas!

Update over on the ministry blog

There is a link to the right to our ministry blog. I was able to share quite a few pics and a short update on our last few days. our time online has been limited but we are having a blast, and are so blessed!

I'll hopefully have time to blog more soon. Love from Colorado!

A sick baby...

Hana caught something at preschool this week. She'd been coughing for about two days when she woke up Saturday morning with a pretty high temp. I think around 102F (38.8 C), our thermometer is C so I'm not sure and am too tired to go find a converter online and convert it! LOL We got her some meds, and the fever just climbed higher and higher throughout the day. I prayed over her every time I layed hands on her. By night time her fever hit 40.2 once. We kept up fever reducing suppositories as often as allowed, ice packs around her neck and cold compress on her forhead, etc. She did not sleep well and when she finally did fall asleep at 2am after another fever reducer brought the temp down a little bit, I couldn't sleep! I think I was awake until 4am and then when I did sleep it was a very light sleep because I was so "aware" and every tiny noise woke me up. I am so exhausted today. I'm missing Sunday morning worship for the first time in I don't know how many years!!!

This morning she still had about 40 temp but it finally began to break after breakfast! Praise the Lord! I enlisted some of my online friends to pray and that did the trick! She is upstairs taking a nap right now, and I should lay down for a while too. I think in all I got maybe 2 hours sleep last night.

My Mommy spent many many many nights up with me while I was that sick. I had a very weak respiratory system and asthma and was sick a LOT. I never could understand why she was so worried about me. Last night, I finally understood. To see that precious face look up at me with feverish glassed over eyes, and hear her lay there and moan, well it was just not fun. I love that precious little girl so much it is impossible to describe.

I'm so glad she's feeling better. Now Mommy needs a nap!

Amazing Grace

Too adorable for words!!!!!

The Lord's Prayer

This is just too precious!!!! (by the way it is not Hana, and this little girl is two years and 8 months old) WOW!

Dancing with the Stars, Marlee Matlin

I am in love with this show. I would give anything to compete in this, guess I gotta become a star first! ;) But this years cast is really great, and I am sooooooo impressed by Marlee Matlin. I have always loved her acting, but this just amazes me that she can dance like this. I wish I could watch it live, and vote! She and Priscila Presley are really impressing me...

My sweet little family...

This is a picture my good friend Riz took of our little family recently. I just love it! I wish I had someone following us around with a camera all the time!!!

My sweet little family. We all have nick names for each other...

Hana is...
Hana-baby
Hana-banana
munchkin
sweety
Hana Bell
My baby girl (reserved only for Mommy to use, according to Hana)
precious baby (Daddy is allowed to use this one, cause "baby girl" is reserved for Mommy) LOL
and more!

Mommy is...
Sugarpie (to Daddy)
Mommy
Mama (when Hana is doing baby talk)
Honey
Ma-cha
My special Mommy (a new one she started using several days ago)
and more I can't think of at this late hour!

Daddy is...
Rock star
Sugarpie (to Mommy)
Honey
Sweety
Dada (again, baby talk)
and others too sometimes...

But tonight was so precious. During our Afureru! meeting Hana was sitting in my lap and she was kissing me on the face and whispering, "I love you Mommy." and stuff like that and then at one point she started saying, "This is MYYYY Sugarpie." and she said it over and over again. then she reached for Daddy and crawled into his lap and proceeded to tell him over and over again that Mommy is HER sugarpie. And Daddy gently argued with her that I am HIS sugarpie.

Later in the car, this debate started again. It was so hilarious. Hana would not give up, and insists that I be HER sugarpie. She was even coming up with other names that Daddy could call me. She even told him that he could call me "my special Mommy" but that "MY sugarpie" is hers now! SOOOOOOO funny! I don't know where she got this from, that certain pet names are reserved for only certain people to use. She has always been insisten that she is "Mommy's baby girl" and Daddy can't use that name for her. But this is the first time she has laid claim on a name for one of us, and been so determined to have it for herself!

It's funny and so cute. It makes me feel so loved by her. When she does things like that, it melts my Mommy heart!

Isagenix...

Ok folks, I just can't NOT talk about this company. It is amazing! I've got about 5 people cleansing right now and everyone is so positive about their results. One of my associates has lost 22 pounds in the first month! She's amazing!!! Several others are just in their first few days of doing a cleanse, but have lost 3 or 4 pounds a piece. And I have a couple others who will begin their cleanse soon!

Everyone is talking about how good they feel while doing it. It is about so much more than the weight loss. The products are so packed with good nutrients, I think our bodies are screaming with joy for finally giving them some good stuff!!! It is amazing what a difference it makes.

If you haven't seen my blog where I talked about my cleanse and shared some other info, you can read it here. And if you are even the slightest bit interested, let me know! You owe it to yourself to try this.

And as a side note, but incredible as well, I've made some significant extra cash in the last couple months! I didn't set out to do that. I just shared my excitement about these products with others. I'm telling you, this company is amazing! I just love love love it!!!

work out Work Out WORK OUT!!!!!!

Whew! I just got home from the gym and wow, I feel sooooooooooooooooooooo good! I went back to my same old same old workout that I WAS so bored of and had been avoiding. WOW, it felt great! I finished feeling that feeling I usually LOVE after a workout, exhausted but refreshed, tired but energized! You know I been trying to mix it up with Pilates and stuff, but it just isn't the same. It really felt great tonight, and I guess even though it is boring, I should stick with what's been working for me for so long. Maybe I'll have time to do Pilates now and then, but I don't know about sticking with it strictly.

I spent all day today designing a new pamphlet for our minsitry. I can't wait to show it off, I'm pretty proud of it! I hope I can turn it into a pdf and show it here in the next few days! Or I guess maybe I should say I'll get Rocky to turn it into something I can show here! (thank you sugarpie)

Well, tomorrow is a holiday for preschool, so I better hit the hay so I have enough energy to keep up with my munchkin tomorrow since she'll be at home all day tomorrow.

I'm gonna sleep good tonight!

I love Spring!

I just love Spring time. Growing up in West Texas I never really understood what was so great about all the seasons of the year. In Texas, it is either cold or hot, and it's windy all the time (or it seemed that way to me). I only knew about Fall colors and Spring flowers from stories and pictures in books.

Here, I get to enjoy clearly defined seasons. Four distinct seasons and the change is obvious. This week flowers are blooming everywhere, my nose alerted me to this even before my eyes did (hay fever)! Today as I was going to pick up Hana in the morning, I noticed nothing in the trees lining the street we take to school but by this afternoon there were 6 or 8 blossoms peaking out on almost every tree along the street. Hana and I played in the park for a while on the way home. She picked a daisy and was so in love with it. She cried when she accidentally forgot she was holding it in her hand and crushed it while playing a game of chase with me.

I love being able to open the windows in the house, and the temperature be comfortable all day. I love when my clothes that I hang out to dry actually get dry by afternoon! In just a few weeks, they'll start getting dry within a few hours of hanging them out!!! I love the feeling of the warm sunshine, and the smell of the flowers blooming in the air. I also love hearing birds chirping outside. I love Spring!

This week would be perfect except for one thing, a thing I hate. COMPUTERS! They can be so infuriating. They can make your life so simple and wonderful, connect you to your friends and family, be a source of joy and laughs, a quick source of info when you need it right away, etc. But they can also make your life a living nightmare when they don't work right. Mine is trying to drive me to the looney house at the moment. You remember when computers used to take several minutes to carry out every command you gave them. Like opening a program took at least a minute. Or better yet, turning on and booting up the computer took maybe 5 days, or maybe that was more like 5 minutes, but at any rate it was close to an eternity! Well mine has decided to act like it was made back in the day when that was the norm. It is taking my poor hubby many extra hours of effort to figure out what is causing this. Bless his patient soul. I, on the other hand was born with my father's tempter. For those of you who didn't know my father, let me translate for you... if it were up to me, I would throw this computer off the top of a mountain right now! Just to teach it a lesson!!! LOL

That reminds me of a story my Mom used to tell. One day she was at home with us (or maybe it was just when my brother was a baby) and Dad was out on the tractor. They communicated with each other by CB radio. Mom had been radioing to get his attention all afternoon but he never responded. When he finally came in that evening and she told him she'd been trying to reach him, he got so mad at the CB radio for not working he marched outside to his pick-up, reached in and ripped the CB radio out with his bare hands, and threw it up into a tree. I bet that radio hung there for years! As a matter of fact, I may even remember seeing it there in my younger days... LOL

Well that is precisly how I feel about my computer right now. It better watch its P's and Q's cause I am about on my last thread of patience with it! grrrrrr!

I'm praying for patience, and for healing for my computer!

EIGHT years!

This last week was our 8 year wedding anniversary. I can not believe 8 years has passed!

There was a very important church meeting scheduled on the evening of our wedding anniversary though so we weren't able to celebrate on that particular day. Rocky never mentioned specifically any others plans for a date so I decided to surprise him with a special evening out! I started planning it more than a week in advance, and I am still amazed he never found out about it.

We always go to our church's cafe on Friday so I made plans for someone to take care of Hana that afternoon and evening from cafe on. As soon as we got there, I got Hana's belongings situationed with our friends, and two notes and a bag of nice clothes in place for Rocky. Then I disappeared!

After I had been gone a while, delivering other notes at specific points along his journey, I sent the signal for them to get him started at church and he was handed a note from me. It told him that we are going to celebrate our anniversary tonight but I have vanished and he has to find me! He was instructed to change into the nice clothes provided and get a ride to the train station.

From there he received notes from various people along the way, he had to go from one train station to the next, to a snack stand, to the barber shop (including get his hair cut and a shave), to Hana's preschool, and finally to our supermarket! He just died laughing when he saw me at his last destination!

It was so fun. I think I went around with a stupid grin on my face from the moment I snuck out of church until he arrived at the supermarket. It was so fun imagining him going through the steps of his "scavenger hunt". Over dinner he told me all the details of his hunt, and I told him all the details of trying to plan it without him finding out!

We had a wonderful romantic evening alone. Hana did awesome spending the night with friends. It couldn't have been more perfect! Now the only problem is, how are we gonna top that on the next special occassion?! Rocky's birthday is the end of this month, but I am exhausted from the anniversary surprise, I hope a simple birthday cake with friends will do this time!!! ;)

Spring has Sprung...

OH MY GOODNESS today was SUCH a beautiful day! I wanted to stay outside ALL day long. It was sunny and only the slightest hint of lingering coolness in the air. I walked Hana to and from preschool today and walked as slowly as I could to enjoy every second of it. It was awesome...

And what a perfect week for Spring to come. The 11th was Rocky and I's wedding anniversary. 8 years! WOW, time has really flown by. I can not believer we have been married ofr 8 whole years. It has been so fun and a non-stop adventure it seems. I am so so so so so blessed beyond words. He's still my best friend, still makes me tingle, I still adore him and love to be with him! He's an amazing father and husband, and ministry partner. He's just amazing. I still wonder when someone is going to wake me up from this dream. I could go on like this for 80 more years, and you better believe I'm gonna try!

Unfortunately though, our anniversary was a busy day filled with life responsibilities and no time for fun. I hope we can remedy that soon. Maybe we'll have to mix anniversary and his birthday into one celebration. Spontaneity really changes when you have kiddos.

Our random busy schedule is getting in the way of my fitness and healthy eating too. I'm not doing terrible, not falling off the wagon or anything. Haven't gained any weight but just not able to work out as much as I'd like and eating out more than I prefer. I am hoping the next four weeks before we go to America I can better control things in this area. Just wanted be really in tip top shape before this whirlwind tour where I doubt I'll be able to work out much at all.

Isagenix by the way, the company where I got the cleanse I did recently and blogged about it, TOTALLY rocks! I can not tell you how awesome it is to be a part of this company. I am loving the products and the extra money it brings in, and every part of it! LOVE IT!

Hana is doing GREAT right now. She is in a very loving obedient stage. She is just such a joy to be with. Her talking ability is getting better all the time and it is so fun to communicate with her about what is going on in her mind. She's just too precious for words.

Have I mentioned that I can not wait to come to the states???!!! So excited!

Gotta run!

Country Music, ain't nothing else like it!

OH, get ready to laugh until you hurt. This is so cute!!!

Oh, and sugarpie, I'd blow it all on YOU!!!

This is fun...

Ballet - Hand in Hand

She has only one arm, he has only one leg! Beautiful!!!

Cranberry Orange Oat Pancakes...

I made these tonight (for breakfast in the morning) and now I regret it because they smell sooooooooooooooo yummy and I tasted one and they taste soooooooooooooooooo yummy, I want to eat them all right now! Instead I shall blog about them and go to bed, so I can hurry up and get up in the morning and eat them!

Cranberry Orange Oat Pancakes

1 cup Quaker old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/4 cup whole wheat pancake mix
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

mix dry ingredients in bowl set aside

2 large eggs
1 cup OJ (if you don't want the orange flavor then just replace this liquid with milk)
1/4 cup 2% milk or soy milk
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, or olive oil

mix wet ingredients

add wet into dry and stir until just combined

3/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries (or blueberries or any other fruit)

fold in fruit at the end

cook on hot griddle 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. when pancake edges are dry and bubbles appear in the middle, flip and cook for one to two more minutes!

YUM! These don't require much if any syrup because there is so much flavor in them. Nutritional info...

Nutritional Info Per Serving (2 pancakes):

259 cal, 6 g pro, 39 g carb, 4 g fiber, 9.5 g fat, 1.5 g sat fat, 53 mg chol, 298 mg sodium


I used quick cooking oats (not instant, quick cooking), soy milk, and frozen mixed berries (cran, blue and ras) because I didn't have any dried berries.

My house smells amazing right now! You seriously don't even need syrup for these, maybe a tiny sprinkle of powdered sugar if you just GOTTA, but they are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo YUMMY! Try it, you'll love it!

Life in the fast lane....

Have I told you guys we are going to America this year! Have I told you how excited we are!? I can hardly stand it. I've been knee deep in emails, planning the details of our trip this week, and I am so excited I think I could burst. We are going to have so much fun and see so many people, and I just can't imagine that we'll ever be able to keep Hana entertained by ourselves after this trip. Grandma's and Grandpa's, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins, Friends GALORE!!! It is going to be soooooooooooooo amazing to share my home and our family with my daughter, now that she is old enough to understand and enjoy it with me!

Back in the real world, all is well. We continue to be so busy! I made some new friends this week (Hi E and M, if you're reading)! These two ladies work out at my gym and now that I go to some of the studio classes, our paths crossed and we have become friends. E struck up a conversation with me in BEAUTIFUL English and I was so impressed. Just moments later her daughter came up and began talking to me in equally perfect English! I was very surprised and impressed!

So keeping up these yoga or pilates classes AND keeping up a cardio workout is more time consuming than what I was doing before. And yet, I really like what those classes are doing for my muscle tone and stamina. So I'm sticking with it, at least for now, when I have a LITTLE bit of time.

I am soooooooooo excited about the new developments with QTbaby. I have been back to where our new location will be, to find out more and pick dates for the store. They let their vendors sign up for an entire year at once, so I am a little late coming in and have some slim pickings, but we'll take whatever we can get. I was VERY impressed with the amount of "shoppers" browsing in the stores set up both days I was there. I think we will do more business at this location! Which means I get to go SHOPPING for more baby's/children's clothes when I am in the states. YIPPEEE! In the meantime I have to revamp the website, re-design a poster and post card to pass out, and get the word out about the dates we will be setting up shop. FUN FUN FUN

Otherwise I'm doing good. did I mention I am really REALLY excited about going to America!?

Wahooooo!!!

Tale of Two Brains

LOL!!!! I was rolling on the floor laughing!

The Seven Wonders of the World

This is so cool! Love it!

Pillow talk...

Rocky and I probably communicate with each other more than any couple I have ever known. Rocky's love langauge is "quality time" and he would simply shrivel up and die without quality time to talk and hang out with me.

One of our favorite times to talk is after we crawl into bed at night. We don't talk EVERY night, sometimes one of us is in bed before the other and falls asleep before the other, or sometimes we are just too tired to talk much.

Last night I was so sleepy that I thought I'd be asleep before my head hit the pillow. But as soon as we crawled into bed we started talking and we went on for a while. We got so tickled a couple of times though, at a line I was using in our conversation...

"Cause I'm the Mommy!"

Hana is in the "why?" stage that little kids go through, or in Hana's case it is the "how come?" stage. For everything you tell her you get asked, "how come?" As many of you parents probably remember well, there are times that little question can crawl under your skin and make you think you're gonna go crazy if you hear it one more time. Especially when it is not simple to explain the reason why, the only answer is "just because it is". Which of course is not a very satisfactory answer to most 3 year olds and usually gets even more inquisition.

So my favorite answers are...
"because God made it that way!"
AND
"because I'm the Mommy!" (this one gets used when she wants to know why Mommy told her to do something or not to do something)

Both of which usually can't be argued with, and that ends the matter then and there.

Well last night Rocky kept pushing on my feet while he was talking to me and I don't know why but it was driving me nuts. So I told him to stop and he said, "how come?" (immitating Hana's voice) and I said, "Because I'm the Mommy!" He just grunted and said, "That's a really convenient line isn't it!?" And we both burst out laughing (trying not to laugh so hard as to wake the little 3 year old sleeping in the next room). Then several minutes later I used my power line again on him and it sent us into giggles again!

What a convenient line, and amazingly enough one I wondered if I'd ever get the chance to use. But now I get to BECAUSE...

I'm the Mommy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LONG week!

How do I manage to fill up my week when I have nothing on my calendar??? I don't know how I do it, but somehow I do. This week was such a busy week. But it was sooooo awesome.

I made some awesome new friends at the gym in one of my Pilates classes. Two women who speak English flawlessly! I was truely amazed to meet these women at my sports club of all places. We are having lunch at the local Bolivian restaurant next week after Yoga class... But never fear, lunches come in small portions in Japan so it will not be counterproductive to our workout! LOL

Let's see, then we did QTbaby again this week. It's been a long time since ya heard that one huh! Yep, we were too busy in the fall, my business partner had a baby, and our schedule was so packed with concerts. And then we had very little in the way of winter clothes to offer our customers, so we didn't open up shop in the winter. But this week we had a great one day store set up in our usual location and had some good business. However, we are sad to find out that our usual location is going to remodel and not offer the space for little stores like ourselves to set up there anymore... so we have to find another place to go. And I was so excited that God provided us with that just as I was beginning to pray for an answer! Another man who does women's clothing at various places said he would introduce us to a great place to set up our store. And would you believe it is right down the street from our house! It is one minutes walk from Hana's preschool!!! We will be finding out more about this very soon.

Let's see, this week I did... Yoga on Monday, Pilates on Wednesday, I walked around A LOT and did squats and leg lifts and some arm excercises during my down time at QTbaby on Thursday (I was so tired at the end of the day, I bet I walked 10 miles in little circles around my store space and did about a hundrend squats and lunges), and then today I went to the Yoga class of with a friend which was being instructed by an aquantance of ours. I did cardio 3 times this week too! And I am maintaining my goal weight!!!!!!!! I feel great and am in an awesome place in my fitness.

I have been making so many friends lately and getting the chance to spend time with friends I don't normally get to see. I feel so blessed and am so thankful that God has given me such wonderful friends in my life!

Our trip to America will be here before you know it! I can not wait to go back and see family and friends, eat some foods I haven't had in a while (can you say MEXICAN FOOD, AND SHOP!!!!!!!!!!) Rocky and I both are really really antsy to get there. It is goign to be a crazy and exhausting trip, but we are soooooooooo looking forward to it.

OK, I gotta go to bed, my eyes are about to slam shut. Yoga took it out of me this afternoon and I got no downtime after that at all. Good night!

Small is Tall.

I am not a coffee drinker AT ALL, so I always thought that the mess at this particular coffee shop for ordering was just rediculous! I loved this lady's take on it!

Pilates and stuff...

Ok, so I get all of my health and wellness info on the net. I kept reading this stuff about how great pilates is, and I kept wondering what fitness had to do with the people who fly airplanes! Slowly I began to put pieces together and figure out what this whole thing was about. And I even found a few clips on YouTube that I had used a few times to do a short little work out at home.

Well, I have been so bored with my routine at the gym. I mean I've been doing basically the same thing for over a year. Since I reached my weight loss goal I knew I'd get REALLY bored really quick, without some goal to achieve or some kind of challenge. So the last few trips to the gym I decided to shake it up a bit. Last Friday I just happened to be finishing my cardio when a pilates class was beginning so I joined in. It was great, and I could tell it was working muscles in zones that my regular weight lifting doesn't touch.

So I grabbed the printout of this months schedule of classes at the gym. The pilates classes are not always at convenient times for me. The only thing I could do yesterday in line with pilates was a yoga class. I honestly didn't want to go to a Yoga class because I didn't want to have all the new age spiritual stuff crammed down my throat. I decided to try it anyways, because I suspected that the spiritual part MIGHT be left out. I was right, no spiritual stuff at all, the instructor only mentioned a few times that certain positions were beneficial for certain health issues. I really enjoyed the class and feel like it is really going to tone some good spots, and make me more flexible which I REALLY need! There are points in the routine where you'll be holding a position and your wishing the instructor would let you release it cause your muscles SCREAMING at you, "OK OK OKAY!!!!!!!!!!"

I'm headed to another pilates class tomorrow I hope. I am really enjoying these, but it might get tricky trying to juggle my schedule with the studio class schedule.

I measured my waist and I have lost another cm! That's really cool! All from just two classes of this type of excercise. It really targets the core muscles. Good stuff!

Anyways, I'm trucking along! Trying to keep it interesting... I hope this phase will last me a while!

Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey

This cracked me up!

The Busy Bees...

I think we should just give up on any hope of ever being bored again! We somehow end up being busy all the time, how does that happen???

Anyways, there are lots of things going on around here. It never ends. Our church is going through some important stuff right now, and that has Rocky especially busy since he is on the leadership committee at church are they are having lots of meetings. Our ministry just seems to be trucking along even without lots of concerts at this time of year. And on a personal level we have been trying to spend time with friends.

So now that the cleanse is over, and I hit my goal weight, I am bored when it comes to work out! Soooooo, I decided to mix it up a little tonight. I did my regular 30 minutes cardio on the elliptical trainer, and then I decided to try a Pilates class. I have done a few Pilates workouts here at home that I found for free online (YouTube stuff) and they weren't that difficult. But this class at the gym kicked my BUTT! For as gentle as Pilates is, it REALLY targets some muscles and you hold positions for a LONG time, and those muscles start SCREAMING at you -- LET ME GO, LET ME GO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am ruthless and hard headed when it comes to doing a workout and won't give in till it's over, so my legs were literally shaking like jello when it was all over. Whew! I am gonna do that class again. It felt really clean and fluid, and my posture would improve without a doubt if I kept that up!

All in all, life is good. OH and my good friend Kiko-chan is in labor right now! Can't wait to meet little George!!!

Gotta run, tomorrow is English Circle.
Yaaaaawwwwwwwwnnnnn

We finished!

We finished the cleanse! I lost 5 pounds, Rocky lost 10, and the details are all on the other blog.

I'll keep doing cleansing days a couple times a month, I LOVE most how it has been good for my skin!

Anyways, just thought I would let you know!

Important lesson learned this weekend...

an mp3 player should not be washed with the laundry...

(I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo bummed and so mad at myself)

Days 5 and 6...

Still going well, I am really thoroughly enjoying the experience. Details of course on the cleanse blog, but just wanted to let anyone know who is only checking this blog. I love this program. wish I had found it much sooner!

Days 3 and 4

The cleanse is going really really well. I am blogging more in detail over on the other blog I mentioned in the previous post. I feel really great, and I am loving this. Really enjoying the experience.

I'll keep you posted. Almost half way done.

Day two...

I'm not sure what happened to my day 1 post. I did one but it disappeared somewhere into the great unknown of cyberspace! Happens to me often, I am convinced my computer doesn't like me. I'll be having troubles and I'll call Rocky over to fix something and when he tries to get it to work, it works just fine! So, "sayonara" to my day one post wherever you went!?

To recap, Day one was fine. Days one and two of the program involve drinking a cleanse inducing supplement 4 times a day, and lots of water. It wasn't as hard as I though, except that not having to cook, eat and clean 3 times a day left me feeling lost as a housewife! I never realized how much my daily schedule revolves around it. OH and by the way, Rocky decided to join me!!! He said he felt hungry sometimes, I didn't feel so bad, and the little snacks that are provided to curb hunger and cravings were good enough for me. Before taking a bath last night I had lost .3 kilo from the morning (1 kilo= 2.2 lbs).

Now on to day two, things are still awesome. I feel GREAT! Really I feel uplifted and just content. I had this mental picture of being weak and tired from replacing my meals with the supplement. But I feel awesome. My stomach has growled like twice today but that was right around time to drink the next cleanse and I am NOT starving to death. It really only happens when I see something that looks good. Like yesterday I spotted the bowl of chocolates on the kitchen table and my tummy went "grrrrrrrr" but then I put the bowl away where I can't see it and I was fine. I take the supplement 4 times a day on day one and two, and after taking the supplement I feel really satisfied for a couple hours. This isn't as hard as I imagined, only I just want to chew something. In Japan they have a saying, "You're mouth is lonely." which means you aren't hungry you just want to eat. That is so true for me now.

I have little red spots popping out on my face and back. I think this is some "deep cleaning" going on in my skin. I have had acne and skin problems since I went to college. That's also when my diet went way out of control and I started drinking about 6 Dr. Peppers a day. I am sure there are all kinds of toxins in there that just need to get out.

Although I am not doing this for the weight loss, I am down 1 kilo (about 2.2 lbs) from yesterday morning. Last night at bath time Rocky had already lost one kilo. MEN! argh! He didn't weigh this morning but tomorrow is a weigh and measure day for the program so we'll see how many pounds and inches he lost tomorrow. With my excercise and diet that I've been doing to lose weight, it could take me at least 2 weeks to lose a kilo, and that was if I was REALLY restricting portion sizes. It is amazing how this supplement really gets your body to kick those pounds OUT!

So that means that I hit my goal today! My goal was 60 kilo, and the scales this morning said EXACTLY 60.0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I danced myself a little jig and threw a little party in the shower this morning! It took me a year and a half but I lost 14 kilo! (that's a little over 30 pounds total!) I kinda wish the cleansing program had come along a lot sooner, it wouldn't have taken me nearly that long.

Tomorrow I begin 5 days of replacing two meals a day with Isagenix shakes, and the other meal is a low fat, heigh protein meal. We weigh and measure tomorrow too.

For anyone who wants more details and wants to hear other people's stories, I made another blog where I am documenting these 9 days in more detail (although some will be a repeat of what is here) AND including other information and testimonies of other's who are doing this. That blog is Me and Isagenix

Especially read Debbie's testimony, I still can't believe the changes in her! It's amazing.

I'm still here...

Ok, so blogging every day is HARD! I don't know how I used to do it. I must have been superwoman or something. Anyways, I am gonna try to be better, and I bet that this week I will because, I am going to do a body cleanse starting tomorrow! What's a body cleanse you say? Well, it is NOT like what many of you might have heard of known as a colon cleanse (which I also recommend). It is a 9 day program that will help rid your body of toxins and JUNK! I have been dying to do this, and I do hope that my dear hubby joins me (come on hunny, you can do it!). He was gung ho about it at first but now that the day is approaching, he is being a little wishy washy, we shall see if he does it.

So my Mom, grandma, cousins, some friends and so forth have done this and they say it is awesome. Makes you feel better, makes you LOOK better. Mom says her dear sweet hubby told her she was just GLOWING after she did this. Her skin really looks great evidentally. Not to mention she lost like 14 pounds on the first cleanse she did, and she is part way into another (she has 5 more pounds to go to reach her goal weight). All my other aquantances lost weight dramatically and are feeling great.

I'm not doing it for the weight loss (except to get off this last stinking kilo and a half that is hanging on for dear life)! I want to do it for the health benefits. I am still having some acne although it is MUCH improved over before. And I am looking forward to other benefits I'm gonna see from this thing.

So I am going to blog daily about the experience. The first two days consist of pouring liquid nutrient and the cleanse inducing supplement, which is all natural and packed with good stuff, into the body and jump starting the cleansing process. The next five days are packing your body with tons of nutrient. And the last two days are the same as the first two.

So we are off and running first thing in the morning. I'm excited (how bout you sugarpie?)

I'm back...

Still doesn't seem real that our friend is gone. He was such a precious precious person. I was so tempted to ask God why, but you know I have total assurance that God has a big plan for this. Ken was so special and so in love with his Lord Jesus. He shamelessly shared the Lord with his friends, he was a servant and a huge light in the darkness here. Believers like that, unfortunately are not the norm, and if God chose to allow him to go home rather than stay here for longer, he has to have a big purpose in store. It has to affect more lives than he would have affected had he continued here in his walk of faith! I believe that with ALL my heart.

The wake yesterday was such a mixture of sadness and hope for me. I had a strong confidence and hope that God is especially going to work in his parent's and sister's life through this. Yet he made such an impact on so many people and so many were grieving deeply. I will miss him so much too. It still seems like it must have been a dream to see him lying there so still and lifeless. Rocky's gonna miss him a lot too. He was one of Rocky's best friends.

Please lift up his parents and sister in prayer. They were definitely in shock and have a lot ahead of them. Pray for the church that he attended there and they might somehow have an impact on those men he worked with. They filed into the church and looked lost and so confused. If at all this could impact some of them to search for God and Ken's church might somehow reach out to them, that would just be awesome.

We already feel a sense of renewed determination to share our faith. And a greater sense of how precious life is and how quickly it can be lost. And such an appreciation for the many people God allows us to know and to be impacted by!!! We serve an awesome God and the family of believers he has surrounded us with are so precious. I am so thankful that I was able to know Ken when he was alive and see how much light and love he brought to the people in his life.

We came back home LATE last night and were up early this morning to prepare for chapel at one of the Christians schools we speak at often. I had prepared my message days before all this and the title was "been there, done that". The verse was Hebrews 4:15-16. I had already planned to talk about how amazing it is that we have a God who came here and walked in our flesh, experienced everything we have and knows exaclty how we feel when we bring to him our troubles and struggles. It was so appropriate to be able to share how in the loss of our friend yesterday I was able to take so much comfort in knowing God was there for me, and I could take my sadness to him in prayer and he would understand. I hope it had an impact on some of the girls at the school.

I was filled with peace all day today and often found a smile spread across my face when I thought about where Ken is now. He is in the presence of his beloved Savior, worshipping him and adoring him. WOW, how amazing that must be. On the train ride yesterday, I listed to "I Can Only Imagine" over and over several times. WOW, what is it like to see Jesus, to be in his presence. Would I dance, stand in awe or fall to my knees? I Can Only Imagine what it will be like. One day, I will know. We'll all be there together standing in the middle of His Glory, worshipping him! WOW, it's gonna be amazing.

Ken, I know you're there already and I can't imagine how awesome it must be. We miss you buddy, but we are waiting with hope and anticipation to see what God is gonna do through this. See ya when we get there!

A friend goes home to Jesus...

It still doesn't seem real, but a very close friend of ours lost his life today. He was in the fishing industry and had some sort of water accident. We still don't know the details, we just found out. We are going to the wake tomorrow. He was only 30 years old. Unbelievable.

So I won't be checking in as I had resolved to do everyday. I'll check back in on Thursday. Please pray for the family and all those whose lives he touched (and there are many). He was a strong believer and many of us are left with the hope and peace of knowing where he's gone and that we'll see him again. But many others, including his parents and sister, are not believers and will not have that hope. Please pray...

New Years 2008

Can not believe it is 2008! WOW!

OK so here is my New Years resolution, to get back on track with my health and fitness and blog about it again. If you hated reading about all my meals and workouts and stuff, then I appologize. But this blog keeps me accountable. I will label these blogs as "weightloss" so you can know just to ignore them if you don't want read bout this stuff.

So I haven't gained any weight back but December was horrible for eating and working out. I was lucky to get in some excercise once a week, and I was never able to control my meals. So I am back at it in January now. We are going to the states in late April and I want to be able to shop for new clothes in the size I plan to STAY in for a good long while.

So I finally made it back to the gym today after not being able to go because of concerts, holidays, or family and friend get togethers. It felt soooooooo good. I will be back on track with my eating tomorrow, although I didn't do so bad with portion control, I just couldn't get all the veggies I wanted, and had to eat a lot of carbs cause most of the time that is the bulk of a Japanese meal.

I stayed in the sauna way too long at the gym tonight before showering. I met two sweet young ladied and we were just talking away. I didn't realize how long I'd been in there till my head started pounding. I am now red as a lobster, have a ragging headache and can hardly keep my eyes open so I am headed to bed!