{Update}

No pics. Sorry. Just wanted to give a quick update.

1. Soccer season has officially started for us. Yesterday(saturday) was the first day of Soccer games. I was at it all by myself with these three crazy boys because shane got called into work and was there nearly all day. After the day was over i was so glad i didn't sign Jaydon up for soccer yet. It would have been A LOT. How am i going to do it with three? It will be busy.  We were gone from 8:30 to 12:15 in the afternoon with soccer games. They want the kids to be there 30 minutes early and then the games last one hour.  Then the driving to different soccer fields in between the games adds time, plus hurrying and eating some lunch. :)

2.Tanner's Birthday is coming up this Friday! He is going to be SIX years old. I can't believe it.

3. We are still eating plant based meals. Still feel great. And we are looking better than eva! :) haha...Get this. The only problem i have with it is that some BRAND NEW pants i just bought for myself are now loose on me(that totally STINKS)...looser than i like...i still wear them, but i seriously hate having saggy pants on.

4.  Our evenings are starting to cool down and it feels so good. :)

5. My hip still is irritated. I still can't run. bummerrrrrr.

6. Trying to keep my house clean all the time is like trying to keep floaties from floating. You push the floaty down, let go and go and push the other floaty down, just to find out the first one you pushed down is back to the top again..and back and forth and back and forth. Ok. Terrible analogy, but it makes sense to me. :)

7. That's about all that's going on here. Not too much new. SOCCER is really the only NEW thing going on around here. I miss America.

{Finally getting it right...} A couple new posts for ya

Man, i could make this post a long long post just blabbing on about the things i have been learning about food and our bodies and wellness. I am obsessed with the topic right now. I love it. I am going to try and cut down everything in a quick short version without too much detail...FIRST...

1. I was feeling sluggish, TIRED, OLD, and not well. No motivation. Just yucky. My health was feeling yucky...there were things i was going to the doctor for to resolve, and some things ive been dealing with for years. I had been soooo sick and tired of dealing with these things. I had been praying and praying to get all this figured out. I just wanted to feel well.

2.I asked my HEALTH CONSCIOUS, HEALTHY EATING, GREEN EATING friend..."What do i do?!"  She recommended that i read "Eat to Live". So i did.

3.(Angelic singing)....A light came on! The heavens opened(being dramatic here). This book changed my life and my eating. I knew this was my answer. I knew it. It felt so right in every fiber of my being that there was no way i couldn't take action.

4. I 've tried changing our way of eating several times over the years...Nothing worked. Not everyone in the house was on the same page OR ready for it. :) SO, it didn't work. THIS TIME....they all agreed without complaint. WHAT?!?!?! SINCE WHEN?!?! The heavens opened AGAIN. bahaha! Seriously though. That was a miracle in itself!! hahahaha!I couldn't believe that my first healthy meal was liked by ALL. ANOTHER miracle. It was all fitting together PERFECTLY like a darn puzzle. It only confirmed what i was already feeling about this being right. :) I sound like a crazy person, but i feel so passionate about this now.

5.What's the plan?!  Basically, no more cheeses, meats or eggs, oils, sugars. Does that sound terrible? Well, i left out that 10% of what we eat during the week CAN be WHATEVER we want. SOOOO, that means TWO meals out of the week we can eat WHATEVER meal we choose, not related to this new healthy lifestyle. :) And i think that's great because it really helps stay on track when you KNOW that you DO get to indulge in those unhealthy promoting foods sometimes. :)  Most of our days we are TANKING down vegetables, greens, fruits, beans, and some nuts.  And we can eat ONE serving of WHOLE grains a day(or one cup).

6.Juicing is a wonderful thing to help get all the intake of nutrients and vitamins you need in a day without having to POUND more vegetables in ONE day than you probably want to. Sometimes it's hard to take down, particularly when we use collard greens, but we do it.

7. RESULTS of this new way of lifestyle:  I LOVE IT.  I feel more energy than i have in soooo long. I feel FABULOUS. I feel HEALTHY! It's been two weeks and i have lost 7 lbs.  Shane has lost nearly 10 lbs. I haven't experienced ANY of my stomach pains(fingers crossed) since starting. That's enough to make me keep on this way forever. I love not having all those stomach issues! It helps make me a happier person!

8. Struggles? What struggles? haha! It has definitely had it's hard moments. Your body goes through a withdrawal period when trying to take yourself off all those meats and cheeses and sugars.  And it's kind of like PMS symptoms for some people. Headaches for some. Fatigue for some. We experienced all those(for only a few days), but stayed strong!!! It was hard though.  I think we are past that now. thank goodness.

9. My sweet husband is amazing. He has a great love affair with food. He is what most of us are...an emotional eater. So, since he couldn't turn to food in times of need anymore...guess what his NEW drug of choice is?!!? CLEANING!!!! oh. my. gosh. I am serious, and i LOVE it. NOW, instead of eating, he turns to cleaning...and that's a lot! He goes crazy with it sometimes....i try to tell him to just SIT down. :) hahaha! BUT if this is what helps him learn a new way of dealing with emotional eating then i will gladly let him do it. You should see it. It's another miracle! hahahaha! i love him.

10. Prayers answered. WOW. Sometimes the Lord takes awhile, but i am glad it came. :) The good thing is that it's PERFECT timing for ALL of us. We are all on board! For the first time ever! The timing was right, the place was right.

11. Costly? Yes, for us it is. Our produce over here is a lot more expensive than back in America. It's making our monthly bill for food A LOT more, it seems. BUT it's worth it! It's worth every penny. AND i cannot WAIT until we have our OWN garden one day! :) To give you an idea....Well, i really don't know the price of produce in America anymore. It's been so long since ive been there. sad. :(
Anyway... We spend nearly $4.00 for a pound of bell peppers. About $3.69 for a pound of apples.  A small container of strawberries is about $4.00-$5.00. I never buy strawberries. PLUS they aren't even good strawberries. Such a rip off. Depending on the time of year, a small bag of potatoes costs nearly $10.00....we don't eat potatoes hardly at all anymore. What are the prices of these in America now? The cheapest leafy green is collard greens and mustard greens, which have such a strong taste.  I buy those more lately because they are so cheap, but it's a taste you definitely have to get used to . If i buy a big bag of carrots, it's cheapest that way  because then i can bring them home and clean and chop them up into easy snack pieces. The herbs are so pricey. A teeny tiny plastic container full of about two twigs of basil is almost $4.00 , BUT off base you can get a HUGE bag of basil for about 100 yen, which is about $1.50...somewhere around there. That's the best thing i have noticed for produce here. I love basil.

We have only been doing this for two weeks, so it's still a work in progress. I have to slowly bring my kids into this because they have struggled with a few dinners i have made. But if i stay persistent and slowly eek them in then they will definitely get used to it. I mean, get this...i asked the boys what meal they wanted on friday night....that's our night when i fix any meal they want. Tanner said "What about chicken salad. you know, lettuce with the chicken on it." hahaha! I was shocked he said that. I guess he misses meat. :) Actually , this friday i am making enchiladas with homemade tortillas and homemade salsa! yum! The other meal(our second meal of the week where we can eat what we want) during the week is saved for nights in case we go out to dinner OR go to a friends, etc.

I am learning what meals we LIKE and don't like. I make sure to write down all the meals that will work for us. I will just keep compiling the list and keep trying new foods until we figure it out. I've never been more motivated to do this for my health and my family's health. :)

And one thing i have realized....knowledge is power.  The more i read and understood , through his explaining, what the american western diet is doing to people(killing them), and what plant based food and whole foods CAN do for us, i gained an understanding that calls for action. Understanding WHY i should be eating this way is what CREATES the change. Most people don't understand how they should be eating because we hear so many differing views, opinions, confusing ads, etc. But this all made perfect sense to me and i finally understood, and i had to take action. I may be sounding very dramatic to you right now. :) BUT i am just so excited about this.

I could explain why this way of eating is best, but that would take forever.  Just look into reading Dr. Fuhrman's books and Dr. Robbins books.  And watch some food documentaries. It will change you.

{FREEDOM!!!}

This was our FIRST dive together without an instructor. It was lots of fun. The coolest part of the day was the millions(literally) little bait fish that were EVERYWHERE. It's those kind that stick together and move together with each movement. The waters were swamped with them. That would have been shark or dolphin heaven. I was shocked they never once brushed up on my legs or anything. I thought for sure i would be able to touch one. At one point shane was completely surrounded by them and he looked like he was in a tornado. It was so cool.

 Bahahaha! This picture makes me laugh.

 Just some cool fish that were swimming in a school...

 These little fish are EXTREMELY interested in shane and i, even when taking our scuba lessons. They completely surround us. It's so interesting. It reminded me of Avatar when that guy gets surrounded by those little white jelly fish looking things, after he met that girl. ANYWAY.

 This picture above is some soft coral. There are hills and hills of soft coral under the water. It's beautiful. I only WISH our eyes could see the colors  as they really are.It would be amazing.

visibility wasn't that great this day. BUT you can see the hill of soft coral....

 Here's one of the beautiful blue clams. This picture doesn't show the magnificent blue it is with just your eyes. Even then, i wonder how more beautiful it would be if we could see the true color.  These clams are so pretty and even parts of it looks like its glowing.

We are certified to go down to  60 feet and that's what we did. :)

{Recent Happenings}

Here is Tanner and Gavins first day of school together. :) Gavin wasn't excited to start school, but Tanner was thrilled to start! Jaydon wore his backpack that day to feel like he was part of the group. :)

 Tanner really was excited, but the pictures might say otherwise. He isn't one to show is excitement, like Gavin would. :) He really is beaming inside and i saw all his excitement that morning. He asked me about every ten minutes "Is it time to go yet?" "Why is it taking so long?"

 Here he is standing in line waiting to go to his class. That's his sweet teacher standing in front of him with the pink pants on. Mrs. Purifoy. Sad i didn't get her face! ha!

On the second day of dropping them off i asked tanner if he wanted me to walk him to his class again and he said "No, i can do it myself."  So, now i drop off Tanner and Gavin at the front and they walk back to their classes together. He feels like a big boy now and he is REALLY enjoying school. He came home yesterday all excited about having gone to the library that day. Like i said, he doesn't show a lot of emotion, but i can tell when he is excited. He pulled his book out calmly and said "Look what book i got in the library today." I said "How exciting! did you have fun today?!" And he nodded yes, and then this HUGE smile slowly came to his face. I can tell when he is excited by his smile. :) It's so cute. His eyes light up too.

Gavin wasn't excited to start school. He and Tanner are very different. haha! Gavin doesn't like to work, just wants to play play play. Even on the first day of his homework he was upset about having to do it. I realized i was in for a long year of school if that was going to be a regular occurence. 

I decided to reward him with his choosing IF he can do his homework for FOUR weeks without any crying or whining. AND he has to get it done each night. I am not going to nag him about it. It's in his hands.  He chose LEGOS as his reward and is very excited about earning them.  AND his consequence for not doing his homework and whining about it is NO legos AND no recess time at school. If i don't turn in his homework/behavior chart that day then his teacher doesn't let him go to recess.  So, the benefits of DOING his homework without whining ABSOLUTELY outweighs the consequences of NOT doing it.

SOME RECENT UPDATES AROUND HERE...JUST RANDOM STUFF

1. Our favorite games to play together as a family right now are SCUM and CHICKEN FOOT. Jaydon is the only one who can't really do it, but i let him play on my team and he gets to help me. :) We have tons of fun playing these games together.

2. The boys started Soccer. There was a lack of coaches this year because there weren't enough volunteers. So, Tanner's team has like 12 kids on it. They only play 3 kids on the field. Definitely is going to be an interesting season for him. Gavin's team is fine with normal amount of kids on his team. He is already shining when they split up and play against each other. He scored all the points on his team for the first practice game. He was very excited about it. He later said to me "I forgot how much i like soccer! I really like it!" We were too late signing Gavin up for Football this season. We will sign him up next season. It's full on football. Crazy! Anyway, soccer is every tuesday and thursday night. Tanner's practice is 5-6 and gavin's is 6-7. They were going to have tanner practice on monday and wednesday's, but we weren't going to have that. I will NOT have every night of my week filled with activities.

3. Jaydon is quite a pill. I think he is handling BOTH his brothers being gone OK. I have to keep him busy though. He asks me often "When can we go get my brothers?" He has been more emotional than i have ever seen him as well. We are in the store and he did something that was not okay, so i told him not to do it again and to behave. WELLLLLL, he just started bursting into tears. It caught me by surprise. I told him "It's okay. just please don't do it again."  Well, he all of a suddent starts spouting out "Your mean to me! I want daddy. You hurt my feelings!"  He kept saying that over and over while he was crying, in the store. I wasn't sure how to take it. My boys haven't ever done that to me , especially in the middle of the store. I just let him cry and tried to ignore him. haha! Poor thing. The other night he got really upset that we wanted to read out of his scriptures. Because i wanted to use his scriptures that night he started crying and crying. I tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't. Finally when i was able to get him i asked him WHY he was so upset. He just said "because". I said "but why were you so upset that i wanted to read in your scriptures?" His lip curled under and he started balling his eyes out. That completely caught me by surprise AGAIN. I don't know where it's coming from. It reminded me of a girl that has been holding in her tears and just decided to let it all out. It was the saddest thing ive ever seen.  It took him awhile after that to calm down and get to sleep. He kept yelling for me, well...screaming for me whenever i left the room.  Eventually i calmed him down. I just feel sad for him because i am not sure what's going on. I think part of it is because his brothers aren't here anymore. I am not sure.

4.Shane is working hard at work. He is getting experience in with specialties, and this will help him figure out if he would like to specialize or not. I think it's a deciding factor in whether we want to stay in the military for awhile after this or not much longer. We will see.

5.I am good. The first day i started running again since my last injury is the first day i injured myself again. Running isn't in the cards for me, i guess. I always get some kind of injury. I am going to try and figure out something else to do. :) It's really hard on the body anyway, so maybe this is a good thing. :) I am very into eating healthy though.That kind of is a fun hobby for me since i can't run. I am definitely having to learn a new way of cooking, which at first was scary for me because i felt like i didn't know how to cook this healthy, but i am doing it. AND really like it. :) I made my first very healthy meal last night, and guess what?!?! They ALL liked it! I was soooo excited! It was very encouraging too!

That's about all thats going on here right now. Life is going good, and its flying by way too fast! We really are enjoying the friendships we are making and have made. We are surrounded by wonderful friends, and it feels like family and home here. We are grateful for that because it could be so much more difficult being away if we didn't have such a great support system here.

{Zamami Island}

I LOVE. Absolutely LOVE, the Kerama Islands. The water is amazing, the views are amazing, the coral is amazing, the colors are amazing. It's got to be one of the best spots in the world. Seriously.  I almost cannot take in how perfect it is. Sometimes as i am looking at what i have the opportunity to see here i am overwhelmed because i can't believe i am actually living in a place i only used to dream about. Anyway, enough of that.

 

We went with some friends to the Kerama Islands and chose to go to Zamami Island. We took a ferry ride that lasted about 50 minutes. We have seats on the boat just like the seats on an airplane, but more room. They also have an upper deck that you can stand on outside, which is what the boys are doing right now, with their friend Jack.

 When we arrived to the island we took about a 5 minute shuttle ride to our beach.  It was beautiful. We rented two lounge chairs and an umbrella.  Here's Jaydon eating his sandwich...

 And Gavin eating his sandwich...

 And Tanner playing in the sand....

 Here's our fun beach we were on....

 Tanner playing in the water... Look at the view. Paradise. When i need to find my happy place, this is my happy place.

 Shane out with his buddies doing some snorkeling. The snorkeling was totally awesome. It's so beautiful underwater.  We saw sea snakes, Crown of Thorns, puffer fish, starfish, many varieties of schools of fish, many clams, many clownfish going in and out of their anemones, many varieties of coral, jellyfish, a humongous sea cucumber that was very different looking than we have ever seen before. So much awesome variety.

 All the dark spots you see in the water is the coral where all the excitement is happening underwater. None of these pictures are photoshopped. Some of them you might think are, and some of them you know they aren't. But this one here is true color,but still not as beautiful as in person.

 Here are these three silly boys. Jaydon and Andersen played a lot together on the floats. We took Gavin and Tanner out on the floats and let them look at all the coral and fish. Its so convenient having that because they can lay on the float and just put their head in and look at all the things we get to see. It was so much fun.

 Exploring the cool rock formations for awhile. There were some tidal pools around these parts and the boys enjoyed finding the dead crabs, picking them up and bringing them to me to show me. :)

 Funny how each of their personalities come out in pictures...

 I love that my friend took a picture of the boys and I. I am never in pics so i love this one. I just wish they were smiling to show how much fun they really did have. See that water?!?! Crystal clear.

 Our ride home on the ferry all the boys sat with each other. The japanese ladies behind them were loving the boys the whole way. The japanese love little kids, especially blonde kids. :) Jack is Tanner's age and Andersen is Jaydon's age. They have fun together.  Gavin doesn't have a friend in this group that's his age, but he still had fun playing with them. Gavin really had tons of fun getting on the floats and swimming out to the coral and snorkeling and swimming back in, all by himself. I could tell he was loving it.

This was such a fun trip for all of us. Any chance we get to go to the Kerama's we will take. Our last trip was a charter boat to the Keramas , and i am so excited to put together one of those trips so we can go scuba diving out their this time because our last charter boat experience we weren't scuba certified yet. Oh i cannot wait.
We had lots of fun here. I love that we have such wonderful friends here and it makes it feel like home, but home in paradise.