Christmas Eve Gift

I wasn't able to update this blog as I wanted to. A few weeks ago we had a power outage and my hard drive crashed. My wonderful computer geek husband, has it all up and running once again and was able to save the data from the last one. YEAH! Nick then loaded up an animated background for me and I was able to put this cool photo I took as the background, and now it looks like it's snowing on my computer!


Isn't that picture cool? It's the field at the edge of Mom's property. My kids have always wanted a White Christmas, and we were pretty sure that was going to happen since we've had several inches of snow for the last few weeks, but Christmas Eve we woke up to a fresh coat of sparkly stuff on the ground. At first I thought it was frost on the bushes, but once I got out there I realized it's actually individual snowflakes. "Well, duh," you say, "isn't all snow made up of individual snowflakes?" But this time, you could actually see the 6-sided shape of each one. It was so cool! (No pun intended :o)

Here's a shot of the back porch rail where you could really see the flakes. I hope by next year I have a macro lens for my camera.

Here's another one of the ground. It's about as close as my camera would let me get. If you click on the image you can see the picture a bit larger.

And finally, here's a couple more shots that I took.

It's seems like a silly thing, but it was quite a nice gift the Lord gave the kids and I. We had a blast that morning just walking around and marveling at His creation. It was absolutely beautiful!

I guess I should get going. I promised everyone peppermint chip shakes for dessert tonight so I've got to go chop up candy canes. Till next time, God's blessings.

Settling In

Once again, I find myself way behind in updating this blog. Unfortunately, the house plans have been put on hold until spring as Mike has not been able to find a job. He did have an interview this morning, so hopefully, next week we might have some good news to report.

In the meantime, we have settled in here nicely. We've worked out most of the kinks of melding two families together in one house. Every day we are ever so grateful that when Joe and Carole picked out this house, it was a good sized one!

Since I'm so far behind, I will update a little today, and more tomorrow. First off, we have found a wonderful church and have been welcomed into a new family. The girls and I were invited in November to pick apples at one of the families orchards, and learned to make and can applesauce. That was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to next year and learning lots of other growing, canning, and freezing tips from Vernelle and the other farmers at the church.

Well, we're off to a surprise 50th Birthday party for our Pastor's wife, so I will close for now.

"I will proclaim Your name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise." Hebrews 2:12

Moving-part 2

Let's see, yesterday I left off with CO. On our trip home, we were able to stop and see the Hala's and Cerrillos along the way. It was great to visit with them. I can't believe how big the kids get when you haven't seen them in a few years.

It took us 3 days (actually, 1 full, and 2 half days), but we made it safely to Mike's Mom's house where we are currently staying.



We've spent most of our days settling in and doing what we can to get the house started. We've been out to the property a few times to meet with contractors, and we are currently waiting for the final house plans and land use permit so we can get to the bank and get the loan. Once that goes through, they say the building shouldn't take too long. We're praying that we can get started before November when the electric company doubles it's price.



Here's a picture of the driveway as it is right now. We have to get the culvert near the entrance finished still. I think the contractor did an awesome job of placing the driveway. It looks like it belongs there.

I guess that about catches up to where we are right now. I hope to soon have pictures of a house being put up! Please keep us in prayers as Mike continues to look for a job and we try to fit in here and get used to the idea of being Wisconsonians (is that a word?).

Moving-part 1

Once again, it's been quite a while since I've posted. Not that we've been busy or anything. :o) It took 3 trains and a plane to get us to CA. Nick, Angel, Michelle and I left Mike in CA and hopped on another plane for AZ. There, Michelle and I headed for CO and Nick and Angel headed for WI.


Princess did pretty good on the trip except for the long flight across the Pacific. We didn't test run her soft carrier before we left and she quickly realized that lifting her head unzipped the zipper. Angel spent several hours trying to convince her to lay down and go to sleep. Thankfully we brought along the hard carrier as well and that's what she used on the trains and once Grandma picked them up in Minneapolis.


Michelle and I spent several weeks in CO visiting my family while Mike finished up his paperwork in CA. We were able to see my niece and nephews play sports and celebrate a birthday as well. One Friday I drove to Montrose to visit my brother Stan and his family. He took the day off and drove Michelle and I up to Telluride where he works. It was absolutely beautiful up there.


Mike did get a chance to visit some friends of ours while he was in CA. He also took a day trip to Yuma to visit some friends there.

Once he arrived in CO, we did some work on the car and then started our drive across country to WI. I'll post more on that tomorrow.

Going home

Wow, so many things have happened over the last few weeks! Along with all of our stuff getting packed up, moving into the temporary lodging on base, and saying "good by" to many friends, we've even managed a trip out of town to Tokyo Disney.

I know Angel's wanted to go to Disney for the last several years, and I think she's been praying overtime to make sure we got to go. Mike and I really had no plans on going, but due to some medical appointments for Michelle and I, we had to make a trip up north to the Navy base in Yokosuka. This base is only an hour or so (by train) from Tokyo Disney, so since we were going to be so close, we decided to make a trip there after Michelle's early morning appointment. What a fun trip! Tokyo Disney is amazingly similar to Disney in California. Aside from the fun time at Disney, the doctors gave both of us the "all clear". Praise the Lord!

Right now, we are in the temporary lodging here on base, and we leave at "o-dark-thirty" for the train tomorrow. We will travel on 3 trains before we get to the airport in Narita. From there, we head to CA, and from there we separate from Mike and head on. Tomorrow will be a LONG day for us, so I will close here and write again from the other side of the world!

"But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation." Psalm 13:5

Michelle's Birthday Party

The party went very well. I found this great box full of Disney Princess party supplies a month or so ago at Costco for Y777--that's less than $8! So, I made up Michelle's mind for her and we had a Princess party. She likes Belle the best, so I that's how I decorated the cake.

We now have this awesome kid's playroom here on base that can be reserved for free. It has some fun play equipment in it like a slide, climbing wall and maze area. Unfortunately, it's decorated in a jungle theme, which totally clashed with the whole Princess theme, but the kids didn't care a bit. The had a blast running all over the place, and as you can see by the picture, Mike seemed to have as much fun as the kids! It was nice that the kids could run around out of the heat for a bit.

Michelle's favorite gifts were the Japanese doll one of her friends gave her, and the Crayola coloring game Angel got her for the DS. Angel recently bought herself a PSP, so we bought her DS from her for Michelle to play with on our trip next month. She has played the Crayola game before on her friend's DS, so she was super excited to get it herself. It came in handy today in the Dentist's waiting room as well. :o)



Anyway, tomorrow is Mike's retirement ceremony, and going away party. I spent most of the day making his cake. I'll get a picture of it and post it tomorrow along with pics of the ceremony. Until then...

But as for us, we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever. Praise the Lord! Psalm 115:18

Moving brain?

They refer to forgetfulness during pregnancy as "pregnancy brain", so can I claim to have "moving brain"? I seem to be forgetting everything lately. Maybe it's because we're not on a normal schedule and things are a bit out of whack. Poor Mike had to come all the way back home from church yesterday to pick up 4 different things I forgot!

Anyway, tomorrow is Michelle's Birthday party. It's a bit early, but we wanted to do it before our pack out next week. She promised me at lunch that I won't forget anything because she won't let me! Thankfully I did realize Saturday evening that our grocery store is closed on Mondays so I would need to pick up any party supplies Sunday after church and I think I have most of what I need. Hopefully they will get some ice cream in by Tuesday, or we're going to have to go without.

Our washing machine died on Friday, but thankfully, the base has loaner ones and will hopefully be bringing one for us to use some time this week. I guess I should close here and go finish cleaning the laundry room floor and getting it ready for the new machine. Ta for now!

Blessed be the name of the Lord
From this time forth and forever.
From the rising of the sun to its setting
The name of the Lord is to be praised.
Psalm 113: 2,3

We've been a bit busy here with doctor and dentist appointments. One of the benefits of being in the military is the free medical and free dental when you're overseas, so we're trying to get in our last check-ups before we get out.

Monday night is my Bible Study night with the ladies from our church. We are currently studying Daniel, and this week was chapter 3 where Shadrach, Meshack, and Abed-nego are thrown into the fiery furnace. The lady in the Calvary Chapel video we watched (sorry, I can't remember her name) had an awesome analogy for us to remember. Whenever we are going through the "fiery" trials of life we can simply remember what the firemen tell us:

STOP worrying, stressing, and running around
DROP to our knees and pray
ROLL all our troubles onto the Lord
and
WRAP ourselves in God's Word

Isn't this awesome? My first application of this is Michelle's eyes. She happens to be someone prone to getting styes. She's had between 40 and 50 of them in her short 5 years. Most of them stay small and go away quickly, but occasionally, she gets one that just won't go away. She already has scars on her right eyelid from one that got REALLY bad a while back. Well, she's been fighting one (or actually a series of them in the same area) for almost a month now. It got pretty bad at one point and I took her to see the doc who prescribed some medicine. Of all the times we've taken her in, they've always said "warm compresses, and wash with baby shampoo". This was the first time they'd given us an antibiotic. Unfortunately, it seems that she is allergic to it because within a few hours the whites of her eyes were really red, she had a rash below her eye, and she was itching really bad. WE stopped the medicine and are back to the simple washing and warm compress routine. With my new lesson in mind, I'm learning to

STOP worrying and stressing about it. We're doing everything we can to help her and worrying isn't going to change it.
DROP on my knees and pray, which I've been doing, but now I'm praying for God's will and not mine.
ROLL the situation on God who is the ultimate Physician. I know He is more than able to heal her and He knows what it best for her.
and as I WRAP myself in His Word, I find "For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds, " declares the Lord, Jeremiah 30:17a I know that He loves Michelle and she is in the best of Hands!

Now, I just need to apply this to retiring, building a house, teenagers, finances, moving, etc. etc.... :o)

Here's a picture I took of Michelle recently. Her sty looks pretty good in this picture.

Introduction

I've finally jumped into the blogging world. I have 2 blogs-this one to keep family and friends up to date on our latest family happenings, and the other to help encourage other's creative spirits.

Heres's a quick update on us:

We are currently stationed in Iwakuni, Japan (August 2008) where we have been for the last 6 years. The beginning of next month will start a new chapter in our lives, and a "grand adventure" as we leave the Marine Corps behind and begin our lives as civilians. A few years ago, while home on vacation, we purchased 17 acres in Frederic, WI where we plan on building our house. I can't wait to have a place of my own, and I'm especially looking forward to the basement that will be turned into our classroom/craftroom.

A little bit about each of us--Michelle will be turning 5 September 7th. Since most of our stuff will be packed out before her Birthday, we will celebrate a little early. Angel is 14, and quite the little business woman. She has started her own jewelry making business along with babysitting, and at the present moment holds a job at the base Exchange. She's saving money for college and a new bedroom set for her new room. :o) Nick just graduated from MC Perry High School and is looking at technical colleges near us in WI. We've home schooled the kids for the last 6 years, except for Nick who opted to attend MC Perry for his senior year. He really enjoyed his yearbook class and business class where he got to work at the base radio station. Mike has been busy finishing up his Bachelor's degree and looking for a job. I've also kept him busy on our house plans and preparations! :o) As for me, I'm usually busy with the kids, house, or some kind of craft project. I enjoy teaching papercrafting classes as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and cake decorating classes.

Enjoy your day, and I'm off to go sort through closets and get rid of stuff we don't want to move!

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:13