{Just love each other through it}

I am speaking in Relief Society this Sunday. This could be my last time since there are lots of releases lately due to many people moving out. I am the 2nd Counselor and our President is moving. :( So, it will get broken up, sadly. As i have been preparing, i have been having lots of thoughts coming to my mind.

One is about how everyone struggles. It doesn't matter who you are, you have some type of struggle or trial or weakness that you are dealing with right now.  It doesn't matter if you are RICH or POOR or average. It doesn't matter if your pretty or average or homely. It doesn't matter the color of your skin. It doesn't matter what you believe.  Every single person has hard times. I think we often have periods of peace, and then come trials to disrupt that quiet time in our lives.   I think that's the story of our lives though. Ups and Downs, good times and bad times, times of GREAT trial followed by much peace. We ALL deal with it. And i also think that a struggle we have is one that most people have had some sort of experience with. So, when we think we are alone, we really aren't. Financial struggles, marriage struggles, struggles with family members, dealing with death and illness, struggling with our testimony, struggling with making friends, struggling with ourselves and our own weaknesses, etc. I think most of us have experience in each of these categories. Some struggle more with some than others. The wonderful thing is that we have each other. We can help each other get through those times. We can love one another through those difficulties. I think charitable attitudes come more easily to some than others. But i also believe that the more we are charitable and the more we practice serving one another, the better we become at it.  Not only do we become better at it, but our capacity to LOVE increases. Love one another as i have loved you, he says. How did HE love? He served, he loved, he was a friend, he listened, he understoood, he didn't judge, he healed, he protected, he watched out for, he noticed needs and acted, he inpsired, he taught, he spiritually unplifted, etc. He is the perfect example of LOVE. No wonder that when we try to be like him we become BETTER. We find more happiness and inner peace.  We learn who we are. We are filled with his love. We have his spirit with us. Our capacity and ability to help others increases. We will be able to achieve miraculous things all because we are doing as he would do with faith. We are doing what he has asked us to do. And we become BETTER for it. And therefore we are blessed for it. So, not only are we helping those we serve, but it is helping us as well. Both sides win.  I think it's easy when we are struggling to think we are the only ones. But that isn't true. Even if we do feel like we are the only one struggling, there is always ONE person who knows exactly what it feels like. Our Savior. I know he cries with us, he mourns with us, he understands it all. I know he does.  And when we struggle and still find ways to serve others through that, we will find that our struggles become easier to deal with.  We might even forget those struggles in those moments of serving because we are focusing on others rather than ourselves.  And we even can find gratitude while serving during our own struggles because we will see that others struggle like us, we will see that our situation could be worse, and our eyes might even be opened to the understanding and purpose of our struggle.  It definitely won't make our struggles and trials disappear, BUT it can make them lighter.

Even when we think our small acts of kindness and service might mean nothing to someone, to that person it could mean EVERYTHING. For example, when we lived in Cleveland and Tanner was in the NICU as a baby someone in our ward had called and left a message on our phone offering to watch Gavin that day(Sunday) so that we could go be with Tanner.  That phone call meant a GREAT deal to me Because of the fact that it was a Sunday.  Sundays are quiet family days. I think most people wouldn't think to offer babysitting on a Sunday, but this person did.  That was such a loving gesture and it really touched my heart, even though we didn't use it. And such a small act. Our small acts can mean so much and that's usually all that people need. Even just someone coming up and asking me how i am. That means a lot to me as well. I think everyone wants to know they are loved. And it's interesting how our acts of love and service will inspire someone. It can Inspire them enough to be that way. And then they go out and start paying it forward by serving, and their capacity to love others and serve others GROWS and then they inspire someone, and so on.  Not only that , but that service and love can help a person, and in turn could help their whole family. You just never know. So, it doesn't matter if you THINK it's not really helping.  What matters is that it matters to our Heavenly Father. He loves you for it, and you are growing for it. That's good enough.

Struggles are hard, but we all go through it and have to go through it. We just need to LOVE each other through it, as my husband said. And i completely agree.

There is a song that i love to listen to. It inspires me. It inspires me through hard times and struggles, not only that but it inspires me with the love of my life. It makes me think of my LOVE because we have been through so much together, so many struggles, heart breaks, sadness, happiness, scary times, joyful times, etc. We have been through so much. And it makes me think of him because it shows great strength in knowing what we have together and how much we have learned together and how we won't let hard times bring us down.  It's a song by Jason Mraz. I think most people can find a way to relate this song in their own lives. It's a good one to relate to struggles we have in this life as well. If you want to listen to the song, which i think you should do, then just google the song "I won't give up" by jason mraz.


When I look into your eyes
It's like watching the night sky
Or a beautiful sunrise
Well there's so much they hold
And just like them old stars
I see that you've come so far
To be right where you are
How old is your soul?

I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up

And when you're needing your space
To do some navigating
I'll be here patiently waiting
To see what you find

'Cause even the stars they burn
Some even fall to the earth
We've got a lot to learn
God knows we're worth it
No, I won't give up
I don't wanna be someone who walks away so easily
I'm here to stay and make the difference that I can make

Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use the tools and gifts
We got yeah we got a lot at stake
And in the end, you're still my friend at least we did intend
For us to work we didn't break, we didn't burn
We had to learn, how to bend without the world caving in
I had to learn what I got, and what I'm not
And who I am

I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up
I'm still looking up

I won't give up on us
God knows I'm tough, he knows
We got a lot to learn
God knows we're worth it

I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up




 

{Can we go watch the Jets mommy?}

Jaydon is very well coordinated. He catches onto most things very quickly. He has gone through 2 bikes already. They both broke.  Now he is riding on his brothers scooters. He takes off on that thing. He is great with balancing. It's so fun to watch this little 2 year old act like an 8 year old.

Today after we dropped Tanner off at preschool Jaydon asked me, "mommy, can we go watch the jets?" I never pass up that opportunity. I said, "yes!"  The F-15's fly everyday here.  If you don't know what an F-15 is then you should look them up. They are the best jet and NOT ONE F-15 has crashed.  They are amazing jets.  Most of you might not know that i totally LOVE speed. I love watching car races. I love the power in an engine. At one point in highschool i remember my dad had considered getting me into car racing. We looked into cars that would be good for that, but it never happened. I would have loved it. AND i absolutely LOVE watching the F-15's take-off. Your whole body inside rumbles and shakes. You feel the ground shaking. Everything is rumbling. And it's so loud. So loud. I get just as excited about watching the jets as the boys do, if not MORE excited.  I would love to take pictures of the jets, but you aren't allowed to. We go to this one spot that is PERFECT for watching the jets take off. It's about as close as you can get with a perfect view of take-off. We watched 11 F-15's take off this morning. Most of the time they take off one after the other. And a couple times we have watched two take off at the same time, side by side. There was one time when we went to watch them come back in from their flight and they would come in as if landing and suddenly go back up in the air without landing or touching down. They would do this repeatedly. One of the F-15's came in and i thought he was going to touch down. His wheels were probably a couple feet from touching down. Suddenly he shot straight up in the air! Not kidding. He was like a rocket. The power coming out its back end was incredible. MAN I LOVE IT.  The guys who get to fly those have the best job ever. Our neighbor flies an F-15 and told us that her husband could give us a tour sometime of the jets and the hangers. We will have to do that sometime.  Jaydon gets the most excited out of our three boys about watching the jets. He jumps up and down and makes squealing noises. He loves it. He points and tries telling me stuff when they take off, but i can't hear him.  Although, today the noise of the jets did bother him for the first time. He wanted to get back in the car to watch them because it was too loud outside of the car. We have 100 F-15 pilots here at Kadena. I truly love hearing the jets and helicopters soaring above us all the time. It's exciting and thrilling.

{So many things to do in so little time}

My mom and dad came to Okinawa. We had so much fun and were so sad to see them go.  They arrived the night before Easter Sunday.  We put the boys to bed at 7:00 p.m. and woke them up at about 10:00 p.m. and went to the airport to pick them up.

Here are a bunch of pictures of some of the things we did. The first picture is at the Fish Market.  It's located right next to the ocean. They open up at 10:00 a.m. just after the fishermen arrive with their catches of the day.  You will find a wide variety here. Octopus, Squid, shrimp, colorful fish, etc.  You can try samples of raw fish and other weird looking things.  Here the boys are watching the men filet all the fish.  They open the fish from the bottom, clean out all the guys. He passes it to the next guy who chops the fish in half and and chops his head in half. Then he passes it to the next guy who gets all the meat off the fish, and so on. Gavin had a piece of the fish fly onto his arm. He was kind of grossed out. haha!

My baby brother also came from South Korea.  It was so good to finally see him!  He teaches English to the South Korean kids. It's a pretty good job for him and he really likes South Korea. I really want to go visit him there.

We took a nice drive further up North on the Island. The northern part of the island is less inhabited and is absolutely gorgeous. My dad saw it and said "You don't have to go to Hawaii. This is just as beautiful. BUT Hawaii does have the volcanic stuff there that Okinawa doesn't have."  And i guess the mountains are a bit higher in Hawaii as well. We stopped at a few random beaches on our drive. We found a few AWESOME LARGE shells....well, my mom found them. I will find some before our time is up here. We also found MANY sand dollars. There was some great shells to choose from.

We went to the Japanese Naval Underground Tunnels. That was quite a sight to see and experience. I found all the history of it very interesting.

Here we are eating at Nepal's Spice Kitchen. It's an AWESOME Indian restaurant.  That means a variety of curry. There are many varieties of curry. We ate here TWICE while they were here because it's so good. Naan bread is the BEST.

Being silly. I think that you might notice in most of the pictures that i am in i am always making a goofy face. I look ridiculous.

Here is another beach we went to at LOW tide. We went to see the tidal pools and all the fish life that's inside of those. This was a wonderful spot to see lots of sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and star fish. TONS. It was absolutely amazing all the things we saw.

Here we are eating at a little restaurant. A lot of restaurants here have tatami mats to sit on, just like we are doing. It's traditional Japanese. Most restaurants have this plus the option of sitting at a table.

This picture here is Easter Sunday morning. The boys just discovered their easter baskets and went outside to play with what they got. They each received a new pair of swim goggles, a squirt gun, and a hero cape.  Can you see their hero capes i made for them? I am so proud of myself, even though it wasn't my idea.

This picture below is from a little place called Ryukyu Mura. It's a place that has a variety of things to see. This was a really cool wall of fish. I had never seen anything like it so i had to take a picture.

There was a fun show they put on for us at Ryukyu Mura. They call it a "parade".  It's very different from the parades we are used to. :) They had dancers, Eisa Drummers, the emperor, the huge Shisa dog, etc. It was fun.

We went to a snake show here. I always get excited about going to shows and then once we get in i quickly realize that the show won't be in english. Then i get bummed out because i don't know what they are saying about the snakes or anything. I continually forget the language barrier until we sit down for the shows. It's kind of a bummer not knowing what they are saying.

Sitting on our tatami mats.

We went to Nakagusuku Castle. This castle was extraordinary. It's amazing really. It's one of the largest on the island and most well preserved. Lots of the castles on stuff on this island was destroyed during the war before they surrended in 1945. It's really sad. BUT this is still around and it was just amazing walking through it. And when you go to the very top of the castle, the view is AMAZING. You can look out and see the East China Sea on one side and look the other way and see the Pacific Ocean.

Amazing view...

This is a haunted hotel. It is located right next to the castle. It has an interesting story behind it.

We had to take my parents to the sushi go round bar. Shane and I have been a few times. My favorite things i the Aurora Salmon. LOVE. A variety of sushi comes around a conveyor belt and you choose what you want. When you are done you stack up your plates and they bring over a scanner and run the scanner from the top to the bottom. It can scan how much each plate costs. It's a fun spot.

My dad helped me get a few things started for my "garden". :) I really wanted grape tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, cilantro and basil. SO that is what i am growing. SO far they are growing fast and doing great. I can't wait to eat it all!

The parks in Japan are so fun. This is a thrilling one. You hang onto that bar right under shane's head , dangle there and then let go and you free fall for a minute. It's fun.

This is a cool spot we found over by the tidal pools. Again, this is LOW tide. You can see how high the tide usually gets.  This spot was awesome with lots of little openings in other areas in this cave. We want to go back to this jewel of a spot to explore some more.

We ate out at a restaurant almost everyday that my parents were here. We wanted to try all kinds of different foods, so we had lots of fun doing that AND i had fun not cooking. :)  We went to Dr. Fish. That's where you put your feet in water and the little fish come eat dead skin off your feet. That was hilarious watching my mom and dad. They went crazy the first few minutes, but then got used to it by the end. My mom and i went and got a pedicure done. Dad and Shane went and got a one hour massage.  Later, after brion arrived, we all went and got massages again.  The boys received an hour massage and mom and I received facials. The facial was AMAZING. I will be going there again. LOVED it!  I took my mom to some of the gift shops with stuff from all over Asia. We went to Okinawa World again and walked through the cave. It's an amazing cave. Shane and I went for a few runs in the mornings and a bike ride. We watched the boys play in their basketball game.  My dad surprised shane with an awesome racing game for us for the Xbox. It's called Forza 4. Brion and Shane had tons of fun playing that late into the evenings. We just had tons of fun with them here. We really hope they come back again.


Oooooohhhh. Here is our arrival for our 1/2 marathon. This took place the day after my parents left.  They had lots of vendors with the foods that Nakijin Village eats. The run started in Nakijin Village.  They recommended that we arrive to our run 4 hours early because of traffic and parking.  So, we did.  We grabbed some lunch.  The race started at 4:20 p.m.  They call it the Magic Hour Run. They call it that because they have us run across a mile and a half bridge as the sun is setting and it's beautiful. I knew the sun wouldn't be out because the whole day was cloudy and raining on and off. Anyway, we decided to eat some Yakisoba. One of my favorites and one the Okinawa's favorite and most loved foods. It's basically noodles with some veggies and pork in it.

If you look really close you can see WAAAAAY out there a bridge. Do you see it? It's a long one. Well, we started from about this point and ran through mountains to reach that bridge, cross it and come back. I have a long story to tell you about this race.

In the picture down here we are all happy before the race. Our faces at the end were quite opposite. :) haha! Here is the story.... I was well hydrated. I didn't doubt that i would be fine in that department. I was worried about having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the run. I was worried about a bathroom being available when i needed one.  Turns out, it wasn't a passing thought during the race. It was a needless worry.  As soon as the race started, the rain started. It rained on us the whole 13 miles. It got heavier in the second half. Also, my chest pain decided to start at the beginning of the race too. I have no idea WHY. I don't know what it is, but i will get chest pain in my upper chest. It's extremelly uncomfortable and feels REALLY tight in my chest, almost painful. It really makes it hard to want to do anything when i get it and it goes away when i lie down. So, as the race went on it got worse and worse. It was extremely bothersome. I was feeling GREAT the first half of the race. I had a great pace going that i felt like i could have kept the whole time, until my knee started hurting. It started hurting maybe around mile 6-7. Not too bad though. It gradually got worse with each mile. By mile 10 it was KILLING me. Let me tell you, the last three miles were the longest THREE miles of my existence. I have never experienced such a long three miles.  My knee was hurting so bad and it kept feeling like it was going to give out on me and it tried a few times. I fought through it. Shane tried running with me the whole race and if he got ahead he eventually stopped and waited for me. Well, he was staying with me the last 3 miles because he could tell i was in pain.  I had to stop a few times to move my legs around a bit. It helped a tiny bit. My left knee hurt too, but nothing like my right knee. That's the one knee that i always have problems with WHEN i do have problems. It has been quite awhile since that happened, so i wasn't really worried about that.  The rain by this point was dumping, the wind was blowing pretty crazy, my chest pain reached its max pain and my knee was killing. I felt like i couldn't go on. My whole body wanted me to stop, but i mentally kept trying to tell myself i had to keep going and that i was really close, but knowing i was so close still didn't help because it actually fell SOOOOOOO far away.  Shane let me grab onto his arm and tried supporting my weight the last 2 miles of the run as we ran together.  He kept telling me "come on ash, we are almost there. let's do this". I was trying so hard.  It was so mentally challenging. I fought and fought that last mile.  I started getting tears in my eyes at the end b/c i mentally reached my end.  When i stopped running, it was almost worse than running because my knee  felt like it was locking up. It didn't want to support me and it didn't want to bend. I could HARDLY walk. I sat down on the puddled sidewalk because when i bent my knee the pain went away. I just sat in the pooring rain in a puddle. I didn't care. People were staring at me...hahaha!  I didn't care. Shortly after, shane started calling my name telling me to follow him. We took shelter under the bathroom while the rain continued to poor down. I started shivering. I was so cold. We both were. We still had to go catch the bus that would take us back to our car.  We had to WALK in the pooring rain to get there. I couldn't walk. I couldn't see because the rain kept building up in my eyes. And with contacts in that's bad b/c my contacts might fall out. We walked through the pooring rain to get to the bus. I was so glad when we finally got on the bus. BUT then the bus dropped us off and we had to walk a little bit to get to our car.  It was DOWN pooring at this point. Shane was guiding me since i couldn't walk or see. hahahaha! This is so hilarious. Anyway, i FINALLY jumped in the car. We changed in the car and blasted the heat. We were SOOOOOOO glad to be in the car, out of the rain and WARM. :)  IT was quite an experience!!!  The run was really incredible though.  We ran through little villages and the people of those villages were out on the street banging on their drums, some were playing their japanese music, some were chanting the word, GANBATTE(good luck)....There were so many cheering us along the entire run. It was awesome support and the run was just beautiful even though the sun wasn't out. It was hilly. Maybe that contributed to my knee pain. Who knows. I would do it again.  I would just take lots of pain reliever beforehand. Nothing beats the feeling of a race. Sort of. There were about 4,000 people in the race. It really was incredible, aside from the pain. :) It was a good bonding experience for Shane and I too. I loved that part the most.:)

Milestones

Please pardon me if I have already posted any of this, I just don't remember.

1. Gavin's two front teeth are missing.

2. Gavin doesn't pee the bed at night anymore.

3. Jaydon knows how to say his name. He no longer calls himself "me".

4. Jaydon tooted and looked over to Shane and curiously asked him, "dad, do you smell that?"

5. Gavin has some major emotions going on that he doesn't know how to deal with. I am not sure what the heck to do about it. He really says some mean things when he is asked to do something he doesn't want to do or if I put him in timeout. If I put him in timeout he just has a meltdown and says stuff like, " nobody loves me!!! " "this is the worst day ever!" " i hate this day!". I really feel like I have an emotional teenager I am dealing with and it causes me lots of anxiety. It stresses me out and tests my patience. I just don't have patience for drama. And I don't know how to deal with it. Its really emotionally exhausting to listen to him. And it's kind of a downer when I see my son acting unhappy all the time. Anybody dealing with this?!?!

6. I am so into reading lately. It's kind of an addiction.

7. I love my friends here and most of them are leaving this summer. I am really bummed about that. Really. Bummed.

8. I truly loved general conference, but when do I ever not love it? The ones that stand out to me the most are Elder Uchtdorfs talk, Elder Holland and Elder Cook. They were really good.