{The Key to Happiness?}..another post

I am doing some thinking. I LOVE stimulating conversations. I love anything that makes me think and anything that can help me to improve my own self.

We received an article today about how optimism may improve health, success. It should've been titled Optimism DOES improve health and success. :) Reading it brought me back to when i attended Time Out for Women with my BEST FRIEND and her mom. BEST time ever. :) There was a lot of talk on how to become WHO you want to be. I think we all WANT to be happy AND i think we all would LOVE to be an optimist at all times. The hard part can be figuring out HOW to do it.

Everyone discovers their own ways to achieve it. Here are my ways of trying to achieve optismism and happiness....

1. Having a grateful heart. It's easy for us to focus on the things we don't have. I often have to step back out of my life...EACH day....to remind myself of what i have. When i remind myself how lucky i truly am it makes me feel so grateful. And when i feel GRATEFUL it's hard to not be an optimist. I always feel grateful, but it still doesn't completely elliminate DOWN moments i may have. BUT it sure does make them better.

2.Exercise. Wow. Exercise relieves stress for me. I get antsy if i go days without exercise. If i am grumpy i tell myself "i need to go exercise" b/c i always feel better after i do. It's hard to do this EVERY day. For example, i was too tired to wake up early this morning to do it. BUT my goal is to workout 5 times a week and i still can attain that goal.

3. Reading my scriptures daily and praying. This makes me feel closer to my Savior each day. It brings light into my life when i do these things daily. I have the spirit with me, and it helps me focus on my goals for the day. Doing this brings me closer to the Savior AND the more light i receive, the more it helps me improve my own self. I have a good example of this that i will type in a minute. I am not CONSISTENT with this. There will be days here and there that i forget my own personal studies and days here and there that we forget to do it as a family. The main thing is that we do it. If we forget one night, then we are doing it the next. It brings us closer together as a family. It brings the spirit in our home. It's a good way to keep contention out of the home. Doing this and improving my relationship with my Savior and Heavenly Father is why i can achieve all these other things in my life. They give me love and hope and strength to become who they know i can become and who i know i can become.

4.Finding the good in most situations. You have to. If you can't find the good in most situations then you will be miserable. If you have a grateful heart then this can be easy to do. BUT This can also be hard to do. Some situations it can be really hard to find the GOOD. IF you can't find the good, then you can ask yourself "what did i learn from this?". When you do that, you found the good. Learning and progressing is always good.

5. Daily goals. Shane and I like to set a goal for ourselves and each other just for ONE day. We talk that night about if we think we did well on our goal for the day. Then we set a goal we want to achieve for the next day and talk about it again that night. Small goals are more attainable than LARGE goals. Baby Steps. We ARE NOT consistent with this either. It's been a very ON and OFF thing. But it is something that we TRY to do once in awhile. :) It really helps not only with OUR relationship, but with our relationship with our kids b/c one of the goals always has to do with our kids.

6.Spending time with my family. It's all about LOVE. I love when we can spend time together. It makes me happy and makes me grateful. On the other hand it can make me stressed, depending on what we are doing....BUT something i have been trying to achieve for the past couple years is NOT getting stressed in stressful situations. For example, it's easy to get tired and stressed when we all go on a small getaway. What makes it stressful for ME is packing, rushing to figure out the whole situation, stressing that i might forget something IMPORTANT. It wouldn't be stressful for ME if i forgot it if i were alone b/c i would figure out a way to do without it....BUT it becomes stressful b/c i have a husband and kids to think about and i don't want to let them down. And not only that, but it can be stressful trying to chase and keep track of the kids. Well, mainly Jaydon. BUT here's the thing... i try to find attributes that i really like about my friends. I am grateful for good friends and examples around me. I find those attributes that i like in others and i start to work on becoming that way. It's like a mental game, really. I try to find the joy in packing, try to find the joy in tackling Jaydon 500 times a day. I try to find the joy b/c i know i will look back and wish i would've. I don't want many regrets with my own family.

7. Giving others the benefit of the doubt. I used to have a hard time with this. BUT i have improved. I think most people aren't out to hurt you, whereas before i used to feel like they were. Some people just do and act different than yourself and just b/c they do doesn't mean they are doing something wrong. They act the way they know. Giving people the benefit of the doubt will really help illiminate stress in one's life. A lesson on Sunday talked about a past Prophet and how one day he noticed something from his wagon was missing. I don't remember what it was. Maybe it was the rope for the wagon or the cover for it? Anyway, his response was "well, i wish i would've seen him because i would have given him a blanket b/c he was probably cold and i would've given him some food because he was probably hungry." He didn't think "Oh no! WHO would do this! stupid people! i am so mad!" He thought deeper than that and thought that maybe this person who stole it was in a great need because they probably wouldn't steal otherwise. And so then he felt bad for that person. I want to be like that.

8. Service. Nothing is better than serving others. You learn to love others, you become closer to God, you learn who you are. It's the best key to happiness for EVERYONE. A person can never go wrong in serving others, happily. :)

At Time Our for Women i learned a lot of stuff. One was about NOT focusing on our weaknesses. Instead , focus on your strengths. I remember a time when i saw all my friends around me sewing the cutest stuff. And they seemed to be able to make the cutest stuff in a couple hours. I can't sew. I wanted to make cute stuff like them and i tried, but still couldn't achieve it. Then i realized, "i am wanting to sew only b/c my friends are doing it, NOT b/c i REALLY want to do it." I don't like sewing. Period. I had to come to that realization, first. Then i thought about WHAT i CAN do and tried to focus more on that and forget about trying to accomplish all these other things that everyone seems to be able to do that I CAN'T do. That was weight off my shoulders when i realized that.

Some good quotes that i wrote down from Time Out for Women:

"A woman gripped by fear is weak because this attribute and its resulting behavior is limiting."

"Weaknesses in ourselves can best be discovered through constant prayer and reflection."

"The way we often think can interfere with our peace, our progress, and our relationship with God."

"The door to BECOMING is to learn and know things."

"Never compare your worst to their best."

"Leave room in your heart for holy envy. There will be things that other will do better than you."

"Celebrate other's success."

"Your thoughts will determine what you become in this life."

I love this quote and i think it helped me..."The more you accept the fact that parenting isn't easy, the easier it gets."

One more thing that i heard at Time Out for Women that i really liked....

One of the speakers told a story about LIGHT AND TIDYING UP A ROOM as being symbolic to our own selves and progression.
So , in referring to our own progresssion.....Heavenly Father gives us a small light and asks us to go in a room to tidy it up. We go in, there isn't much light. But we can see that the rug is folded up against the wall and the couch isn't placed in a good spot and the lamp is on the floor. So you fold out the rug and place it on the floor, place the couch in a decent spot and pick the lamp up and put it next to the couch. You go out the front door and there is Jesus. He gives you a brighter lamp than the one before and asks you to go in and clean it up. You might ask yourself "why? i just did." But you go in and find that you can see more with the brighter lamp and realized you missed a few things that you didn't see before. For example, the rug was placed the wrong way, so you turn it over the right way. You notice that the cushions were placed the wrong way on the couch b/c the zippers are showing towards the front, so you turn those around. Then you go out the front door and Jesus is standing there again, and this time he has a brighter light than the one you just used and asks you to go in and clean up the room, "i just did. i didn't miss anything." But you go in this time and with the brighter light you are able to see you did miss some stuff. You missed all the dust and cobwebs that were over in the corner. You missed that the rug needs vacuumed. And so you clean it.

This story is such a great example to me of how as we receive more light in our lives we are able to grow and progress and become WHO we want to become. We receive more light in our lives by growing closer to our Savior. We are able to become better inside, gradually, as a person as we receive this extra light he will give us by knowing him personally.

Anyway, like i said...i really like stimulating conversations. I love pondering and thinking about spiritual topics because i can actually make sense of it and I can see results when i do those things that are necessary to return to HIM. I love growing and progressing and learning. It's awesome. :) Everyone has their own way to happiness. This is my way.

“The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.” President Gordon B. Hinckley

{FHE}...another post

For Family Home Evening last night we all made cookies together. Each of us put on our NEW aprons that Grandma Jenks made for us, i used my new kitchenaid mixer and we each took turns putting the ingredients in the bowl to make our cookies. It was fun. We really enjoyed putting together this picture too. We pulled out the tripod and got a bit crazy. In case you are wondering what i am holding...cilantro. My second love.

It's funny because recently we had a relief society activity where we each made our own aprons. I ended up not being able to make one. I am in the Presidency and more people ended up coming than we planned so i decided to not make one so that i could help in any way that was needed so that our teacher didn't feel overwhelmed doing it herself. I was a little bummed b/c i really wanted to make one! :) I have been wanting a homemade apron for awhile. And i remember thinking how FUN it would be to make one for my boys. THEN Grandma Jenks sends us these for Christmas! How excited i was! :) I finally have an apron!

Anyway, back to the story. We made cookies, then when they cooled after cooking, we put ice cream in between two cookies to make LARGE ice cream sandwiches. OH BOY those things were GOOD. :) It was a fun family home evening!

{Our Holiday Break}

Our Christmas Break was lots of fun for all of us. Shane had about a week and a half off of work. Gavin took off 2 weeks from school. We had fun doing lots of fun things together. I really felt the Spirit of Christmas this year, stronger than most years. This year i really noticed it, not just as that feeling that comes each year, BUT as a feeling of the Spirit confirming to me over and over what the season is really about. It was a really good Christmas for me, in that way. I think we might do something a bit different next year to take focus off so many presents. We have an idea , but we will see.
Christmas Eve we acted our our own Nativity. Shane read the story and the boys and I played the parts of Mary(me), baby Jesus(Jaydon), sheperds(all 3 boys), angel(me). It was fun. Then he read a few more Christmas Stories, we sang a couple songs and then Shane had us listen silently to Silent Night by David Archuletta. It was BEAUTIFUL and i felt the Spirit so strong. We drank hot chocolate, i made a big Christmas Dinner. Of course Christmas music was playing the entire day of Christmas Eve with my candle burning all day. The boys took turns carrying the Presents downstairs and placing them under the tree. They had fun doing that and then just staring at it. :) I don't have pics of Christmas Morning b/c i use my video camera on certain occasions like that. It was so fun having just us together as a family. :)


We went up to Okuma, the day after Christmas, to do some camping. We were going to camp in our tent, BUT decided to stay in their little cabins because there was a change of rain. The cabin has a bunkbed and a double bed and a little pull out bed that was under the bunkbeds, for jaydon. It had a small fridge and microwave and that was it. IT was SO fun. We loved it. We had a firepit in front. We made up some tin foil dinners and some banana boats. Our cabin is right by the ocean. And there was a large playground right there as well. The boys played on that for awhile. We had lots of fun. At the end of the night we went in our room and played a few games, the favorite being "Si, Sho, Wagu, Jon, Kin, Pong"(rock paper scissors the japanese way). It's so fun. Okuma is our FAVORITE spot for camping. It's gorgeous. We love it.
Oh, you can see in the picture above a Gecko. They are always coming into homes. They like to eat the spiders and bugs that get in your home. We found three of them in our cabin behind the curtains. They are cute little things. I welcome them if they are going to eat spiders. :) These were the largest ones we have seen so far since being here.
We woke up and ate some oats and then headed to the Churaumi Aquarium. That aquarium is so awesome. We like it a lot. We really get into animals, and ocean life. We love watching Planet Earth, and LIFE....all that stuff. We love it so much that we ordered videos so we can watch them often. This world is an amazing place. It's incredible.

Here we are getting ready for bed.

Here is Shane and the boys right after we arrived to our little cabin.

Still learning Japanese , slowly. I love trying to learn it, but i need to learn it faster than the pace i am going.

We love the parks here. Especially the roller slides. You have to go down these on a box or a tray or sled. You go down fastest on a sled. We need to go buy one. We all love the slide except for Tanner. WELL, actually, he likes it only by going down on his bum. He doesn't like sitting on anything because it makes him go faster and feel like he doesn't have control and he DOESN'T like that one bit. So he carefully nudges himself along the slide on his bum.

You can see here in the picture below that he doesn't like it. We had him try it with all FIVE of us going down and tanner sitting in the middle. We thought for sure he would enjoy it then. We started going down and he started PANICKING! He screamed and screamed. hahahaha...sad, but so funny when i think about it. People were probably wondering where the dying kid was. He doesn't scream like that hardly ever, so it was funny to me to hear him scream so loud. We weren't even going that fast AND he was in the middle. He just doesn't like feeling like he has no control.

Here you can see the boys made some christmas ornaments during the break. They made snowmen and little gingerbread men with their thumbprint, the year, and the first letter of their name...

Gavin and Tanner reading The Friend together.

We went to check out the lighthouse at Cape Zanpa. The sunset was soooo gorgeous. My pics still don't do it justice.

This is random. I made my own little concoction for lunch today and it was yummy. I want MORE now. Baby arugula, black beans, grape tomatoes, red onion,cilantro, corn tortilla torn into little pieces, italian dressing with lime and cumin in it. It was tasty!

Christmas vacation was so much fun. I had the boys deliver homemade hot chocolate powder mix and peppermint homemade marshmallows to our friends. It took us TWO nights to get that done. Partly because it took us 1 1/2 hours to find where one family lived. You don't understand what it is to be confused on roads until you come here. woah. No thought or organization went into putting this place together.

My favorite part was going to the Orphanage. We took our kids and visited the Orphanage. We donated gifts, as a branch, and a gentleman in our ward came in as Santa and gave the kids each a gift. The Japanese kids were so well mannered and DARLING. I wanted to take a few home with us to save them and give them a loving home. So bad, i wanted to. We sang songs with them and played games with them. It was a good experience for our kids and for all the moms. We want to do it again next year.

Now that it's the start of the New Year we've got other things to focus on. Tanner wants to do KARATE. Gavin wants to play basketball. I am putting all THREE in swim lessons in April. They will stay in it until i feel comfortable letting them swim without my help. I wake up every morning between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m. to do workouts each morning with a few friends. Crazy i know. I never thought i would wake up that early to do workouts, but i quickly realized i have to in order to get in a workout for the day.

We have lots of exciting GOALS to reach for as a family this year! We have a goal that if we read the whole BOM , say family prayers each day and have FHE each Monday, then around October we are going to take the kids to DisneyLand Tokyo. I can't wait to take them there!! You have no idea. I think i will be more excited than they will. We have been on the fence about taking Jaydon with us because he won't get to ride most of the rides. BUT by then he will be 3 1/2 years old. I can't leave him behind for that. No way. I will gladly give up riding certain things so that he can experience the rest of it. :)

Here's to a WONDERFUL New Year and reaching our goals we all set for ourselves! :)

{Kokeshi Dolls and more...}

I am posting this for a few reasons. 1. I am soooooo excited about this... and 2. I have a friend in Ohio that might appreciate seeing this. :) You know who you are....maybe you have a Japanese Nativity set? If you do, i would love to see a picture of it!

For Christmas , Shane surprised me with a Kokeshi Nativity Set. Kokeshi Dolls are very popular here. I have been wanting a Nativity set for YEARS and i love the kokeshi dolls. Shane happened to be in the right place at the right time to get this set for me. You will only find TWO nativity sets here on the Island. The reason for that is because Okinawa has VERY LITTLE Christians so it can be hard to find a set. You can find a 3-piece set or 9-piece set.

Shane got in touch with a girl here who has close connections to the man who makes these Nativities. She happened to still have a couple sets left. The man who designs these is Hajime Miyashita. He hand carves and hand paints these Kokeshi Designs. There isn't one set that is exactly the same. Depending on his mood for the day he will paint each set different than the one before....the difference might be very subtle, but it's different. They are soooooo cool. I just keep pulling them out of their box and staring at them. I wish i could keep it out all year long.

They each are wearing a Kimono. And the thing that is around their waste is called an Obi... The tallest one is the angel who is wearing a bright blue kimono. The angel is 8 inches tall. To the left of the angel is Joseph and then Mary. You can identify the baby Jesus, the lamb and the Shepherd. Then there are the 3 wise men. Baby Jesus is so cute. I love it.

The artist signs his name on Joseph, on the back.

Some of the other highlights on Christmas Day...

1. Shane is LOVING his remote control helicopter , and notices a big difference(a good difference) between this one and the one he had before that DIED after about three days of use.

2. Gavin's favorite gift was his LEGOS. He received TWO big boxes of them! Heaven.

3. Tanner's favorite gift is his DS....FINALLY he got one after 2 years of wanting one.

4. Jaydon loves his Rocket stomper. He stomps on a red "pedal" and it blasts air through a tube and shoots his rockets way high...in the house the rockets hit the ceiling. I am afraid of him shooting it through the ceiling.

Now i need to post about Christmas Eve and all our little festivities before that.

{Christmas cookies}

We love making sugar cookies for Christmas and LOVE to eat them even more than we love making them! :) As you can see, tanner and jaydon were having fun, in the first picture, licking their hands and spoon clean! :)

{My poor Tanner}

Tanner has gotten a fever and sore throat FIVE times within the past two months. It keeps recurring about every TWO weeks. The first time i went into the doctor, it looked like strep throat to him so the DOC prescribed a ten day prescription. He took it all. TWO weeks later he got the fever, sore throat and white patches on his throat again. I took him to the ER. I told the DOC that he had strep throat a couple weeks ago. The doctor looked at his charts and said "actually, he didn't have strep throat. ThAT culture they did for it showed a negative for strep." They did a culture, but apparently it takes them nearly TWO days to get the results. I thought it took FIVE minutes, b/c anywhere else i have ever been it takes FIVE minutes. SOOOO, when we went into the ER that time they couldn't do a culture to test for it b/c they were all out of something they needed to test for it. SOOOO we put him on a ten day antibiotic AGAIN. TWO weeks later he gets the SAME thing again. Sore throat , fever, white patches on the throat. It lasted 24 hours and went away, so i didn't even go into the doctor that time. TWO weeks later he gets all the SAME symptoms AGAIN! I take him into the doctor. She had no clue what she was doing. There is NOTHING that frustrates me MORE than a doctor who doesn't seem to know what they are doing. gggrrrrrr.... She said "we will test for strep, if it isn't strep then it could be mono." She then told me she was going to prescribe an antibiotic and to go ahead and start it EVEN THOUGH we have no idea if he REALLY needs it(i never used it). She then proceeds to go find a book....she spent about FIVE minutes looking up his age, height and weight and calculating HOW MUCH to prescribe him. I am sorry, but i have never in my life been to a doctor who had to calculate how much to give. They always know automatically what to prescribe someone.

I got the prescription but didn't use it and it went away on its own the next day. It is now BACK AGAIN. FOR THE FIFTH time. Today he is feeling a little better. He has the same symptoms, but the poor darling had a temperature yesterday of 105 degrees. That's scary. It was so jumpy. He was shaking crazily with the chills so i put him in a warm bath. Shortly after the bath he took a small nap and then he started sweating like crazy, which is when i took his temp at nearly 105. He was sooooo hot. I got him an ice pack and placed it all over his body, which helped him feel a lot better. When he was on medicine his temperature was about 101-102. It jumped to 105 when it started wearing off. Today he is doing better. But i wish i knew what was going on. AND i wish i actually had a doctor who CARED instead of throwing antibiotics at me left and right. :)

I just went into the hospital and i know that it's not strep throat. He has had two separate tests done and both have been negative. So, next time i am supposed to get a referral to an ENT doctor so he can help me figure out what is wrong and what needs to be done. :) Possibly having his tonsils taken out.

{Orphanage, and Itoman}

Yesterday I took the boys to the Orphanage along with some other women in our Branch. We provided a gift for one of the children and Santa came and delivered all the gifts to the children. The kids here were age 2-5. They were PRECIOUS. They are so well mannered and behaved and just so darn cute. My heart was so full the second we arrived. SO FULL. These poor little children are in the orphanage either b/c their parents are in jail or on drugs. They have 50 kids in the orphanage. These kids are not allowed to be adopted, BUT majority will be in there until age 18. I wanted to take a couple of girls home with us. I wanted to rescue them and give them a loving home. :) These kids were not adoptable, but there are other orphanages around here where they are adoptable. The Japanese government used to not allow these kids to be adopted, but changed that recently so that they could go to a loving home. The kids played with the Japanese kids. They taught us THEIR version of red light, green light and we taught them our version of it. Then we sang some Christmas songs to them in Japanese. The little Japanese kids performed a dance for us, which was too cute. Santa came, they played with their presents for awhile. It was so fun.

After the Orphanage i drove with three other friends down to Itoman, which is the very south tip of the island. We let the kids play on a playground for awhile. I went to the Peace Memorial to see everything they had. There was lots and LOTS to see about the war that happened here. We will come back soon to actually read all the history and grow through the museums. The history here is incredible, in many ways. We waited at the playground for all of our husbands to show up. They all got off work about the same time so they drove down together. We met up at our Branch President's friends japanese restaurant. It was such a cute , small quaint restaurant. It was so nice. They didn't speak much english, but we they knew enough english words and we knew enough japanese words to be able to at least communicate. :) It was fun talking to the Japanese family that owned this place. They were soooooo nice and gave us a HUGE discount on the food. I can't wait to go back and see them and eat their YUMMY food again.

Then we went to see the Christmas lights. It's the only display of lights on Okinawa. We only had to pay 200 yen a person for anyone over 16 years old. So it cost us a total of 400 yen. When we walked in they had tables set up just like at a carnival, as you can see in this pic above. That seemed funny to me, but it was fun. They were frying up corn dogs, churros(which were half the size of the usual churro), yakisoba, and other fried foods. They had carnival games that you could play and win something. It was funny. THEN after we got through that first part we got to the lights. It was a fun display. In this picture below, you can see all the dome and cone shapes. They had an opening where you could go inside each of them. The boys loved running in and out. They had little fishing boats that they decorated with lights and they had fish statues that they decorated with lights as well. There was a fire show, and there was other live music. It was so fun.

They also had a display of many different Shisa's. Shisa is ONE variation of a few different guardian dogs. The chinese have their own version as well(fu dogs), but they look very similiar. I took a picture of this pair b/c i liked it so much. Here you will see shisa's everywhere, whereas on mainland japan you won't see them AS much. If you don't know what they are, let me tell you. Some places only have one shisa and other places have two. They are guardians. If their mouths are open that means they are warding off evil spirits. If the mouth is closed that means they are keeping good spirits in. In Okinawa they just say it keeps out bad and brings in good. The Okinawans have a few different stories about how Shisa's have protected them from bad in this area. During the war here, there is a Shisa(as tall as a person) that' still standing and many of the Japanese soldiers stood by that Shisa while bombs were going off all around them because they believed it would protect them. The history here is so intriguing and i will have to dedicate a long post telling you about the history...maybe in a few months.

It was a really fun night for us. We didn't get home until 10 pm and the kids all fell asleep in the car...well, except for Gavin. He never falls asleep in the car. :) They had a LONG busy fun-filled day. Today we are going to have more christmas festivities...we are going to watch christmas movies and make all kinds of christmas goodies for friends.

Tomorrow we have our ward christmas party AND in the morning we are going over to our friends house to make gingerbread houses. REAL one's. I am excited for that b/c i don't remember the last time i made one. For our church christmas party we are going to go caroling to all the houses around our branch house, which is off base. We will be singing to japanese people. I can't wait. Then we will go back to the church and have hot chocolate and christmas goodies. It is getting chilly here in the evenings...enough to where you want to wear a sweater. :)

Shane gets Friday off of work, and then he gets the whole next week off. We plan to go camping the day after Christmas with some friends. I am excited to go camping b/c it's been too long since we have been. Anyway, i will try my best to take MORE pics. I have been pretty bad about taking pictures lately!

{Funny}

We were out for 4 1/2 hours with some friends the other night. Shane asked me how much i was going to pay the babysitter. I just rounded up to 5 hours to give her a five hour pay instead of 4 1/2 hours. It was 11:00 p.m. at night when we arrived back home. Shane, who likes to get the most for his money, said to me in an urgent serious voice, "Wait! If you are paying her for five hours then we still have 30 minutes. Let's do something. Let's go make out somewhere for 30 minutes." bahaha! He definitely keeps the marriage alive by treating it like we are still dating! :)

{Pic}

Somehow these boys always end up wearing the same kind of shirt. People ask me if i plan what they are wearing b/c they always match. I don't plan it. Somehow they often end up dressing in the same color shirt or in the same HERO shirt as the other. :)

{Recents}

1. Lighting of the tree- They have a large tree by the Schilling building. They had a huge party for the family that night to celebrate the lighting of the tree. Santa was there in his little house by the tree. There was a snow maker area where real snow was flying into the air and falling down on the kids. They could make snowballs, and they were. They kept throwing their snowballs at the adults. That kind of snow is my kind of snow(enjoy it for a few minutes and be done). They had lots of bouncy houses and a few rides. They had lots of different performances, such as caroling, Eisa Drummers, dancing, and a fire show. The fire show was the best. It was a japanese guy who came and performed it. It was hilarious. It was the BEST show we have seen in forever. His name was Kenji and we will never forget him.

2. Dental Christmas Party- Shane and I attended the Dental Christmas Party. We had free babysitting from 5 until 10 pm. which was awesome. They had dinner for us, gave away TONS of prizes. Shane won on Xbox! There was lots of dancing too. Everyone thought our mormon table didn't know how to get down...well, we all decided to get out on the dance floor, then more people came and before we knew it we had the dance line going on, where the guys were lined up on one side and the girls on the other and we took turns dancing down the center. Shane got his groove on baby. I have never really seen him like that, so i thoroughly ENJOYED watching HIM. It was the best. We were dancin the night away. Our friend, who is the branch president is about our age and he is an orthodontist. He got out there and showed us some dance moves i would never have guessed he had in him. It was awesome! haha! While the table next to us kept clanking their glasses together before they took a shot, we would follow and cheers with our water glasses. :) haha...It was the best night. The kids had tons of fun too. The airmen were babysitting all the kids in a big room at the clinic. They had a section for xbox playing, another with a movie going, and another station with Ipads. The lights were off and they were having a good time. They ordered pizza for them too. There were a lot of kids in there.

3. Time off- Shane's been taking advantage of taking some time off of work. He took off the week before thanksgiving. He worked a three day week the week of thanksgiving. Last week he only worked a three day week. This next week he only works a 4 day week. For christmas break he gets about a week and a half off. It's sooooo nice. I am telling you, this life is so different. And i am not complaining. :)

4. Gavin's report card- His teacher had nothing but good things to say. He is doing excellent all around. I think she felt like she needed to tell me something to raise a concern, so she told me to have a dentist check him to see if he has an underbite. haha! okie dokie.

5. Jaydon- I think next year in September i am going to put Jaydon in a Japanese preschool. Friends who have done it say they love it and so do their kids. It's a good way to help him learn two languages too. :) I think he would really love it. I think i will put him in for about 3 hours a day. I could do it all day long, BUT i just can't do that. He is still too young and i want him here with me. :)

6. Fish market and fresh produce market- We went to a fish market and fresh produce market yesterday. It was really cool. They have tons of stuff that i have no clue what it is. I really wish i had someone with me who knew what all that stuff was. The fresh produce market was awesome. The veggies and fruit were soooooooo colorful and sooooo fresh. It looked like everything was picked ten minutes ago. I can't wait to go there more often to buy my produce, which is cheaper than the commissary on base. We are going to start eating more fish as well. The fish market had everything! They had filet fish for you, then had bins of whole fish and you could choose which fish you wanted and then bring it to them to filet it up for you. They had squid, octopus, shrimp, sardines, every kind of fish. It was awesome. I could go there everyday b/c i just like the atmosphere of the fresh food. yum yum!

{Tis the Season}

When i think of the phrase "Tis the Season" I think of the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. That was ONE of my FAVORITE christmas movies all growing up and still is. I love it.

I was sitting here thinking about the Christmas Season. I am sick right now and when i am sick i am forced to slow down, i am calmer, and i think a lot. So, i was listening to Christmas music just thinking about Christmas Past. I have some of the MOST WONDERFUL memories of Christmas time. It was the ONE time of the year i knew i could count on MUCH JOY and happiness. My heart was always filled with gratitude. Not only Gratitude for my Savior, but so much gratitude for FAMILY.

Growing up, we OFTEN spent Christmas with my Dad's family. We would make the drive to Illinois either from Oklahoma or South Carolina. We always knew when we were close to Grandma's house b/c there was a white picket fence that we would come upon on the right side of the road. When i knew we were close to the white picket fence, i would anxiously watch for it. AND once we came upon it we all got REALLY excited! Almost couldn't contain myself, and when i think about it now i almost can't contain myself! :) They lived in a neighborhood out in the country. We turned left into the neighborhood and drove a minute or two and then turned left to go down a hill. They lived at the bottom of the hill. There was ONE other house at the bottom of the hill that my Aunt Donna and Uncle Zip and three cousins lived in for awhile. They moved often during that time. We would pull up to Grandma's and OOHHHH the excitement! I loved being there. I loved the feeling. Especially the Christmas feeling. I loved the smell of her home. I loved the carefree attitude in the home. It was so welcoming. AND during the evenings each night, ALL my dad's siblings and kids came over. That house was jampacked with people. My aunt donna, uncle zip and there three kids. My aunt sandy, her husband and three kids. My aunt nelly , her husband and her two boys. (When i say "her husband"...that's b/c i don't remember their names. That's b/c they weren't around much and ended up divorcing them.) My grandma was a HOSTESS! She loved hosting. In the evenings all the adults would sit around and play cards. We had to go to bed. They would all sit around my grandma's table, smoke, laugh, bet on their cards with small amounts of money(i think they used pennies)....we would sneak out of our rooms and spy on them. My grandma had a LOUD and contagious laugh! I would always hear her laugh in the back room when we weren't spying on them. :)

Christmas at grandma's house was awesome. I remember going to my other grandparent's house a couple times, maybe. BUT they lived so far away(california) that my paren't couldn't afford to visit them as often as they would have liked.

In my home...
AND when we spent christmas in our own home...aahhhh, that was the best. I loved when we put up our tree....we never put it up until about ten days before christmas. We always went and bought a fresh christmas tree. I LOVED sitting in the formal living room where the tree was placed right in front of a big window facing the front. At night, sitting in that room, with the tree all lit up was the best feeling. I loved laying under the tree, by the tree, etc. My parents made christmas feel so good. My dad told us a few christmas stories every christmas eve. My mom made us a yummy christmas eve dinner. It always varied. Sometimes it was ham, one time it was chicken cordon bleu, etc. We had christmas music playing all night. We had candles lit that filled the air with yummy christmas smells. We just enjoyed being together. My sister and i and two brothers ALWAYS slept in the same room on christmas eve. It was tradition for us, all the way up until we left home. Holly and I always slept in the same bed so it wasn't new for us. We had our own rooms, but i NEVER liked sleeping alone and i always ended up in her bed at night. The boys would just make a bed on the floor of my room or holly's room on christmas eve. It was so fun and took awhile for us to get to sleep, but we eventually got tired. We would talk about all kinds of stuff and tease each other. It was so fun. AND every christmas morning, before we were allowed to run down the stairs, my dad would turn on the tree lights, turn on BING CROSBY christmas music, and get the camera out. THEN we were allowed to RUN down the stairs! My dad really got into making it feel GOOD for us. I could tell he LOVED it b/c i can still picture his face and the excitement that comes with being a parent and watching the excitement on your kids faces. He loved bringing the FEELING for us. AND he was the ONE every christmas who would pass out presents to each person and tell us when we could open our gifts. We took turns and did it one at a time. THEN my parents made a HUGE breakfast. We didn't get a home cooked breakfast that often, so a HUGE homecooked breakfast on christmas morning was like ANOTHER HUGE present for us! It was awesome. Bacon, sausage, pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, and cinnamon rolls. We had it all. AND while my parents cooked and filled the HOUSE with the smell of food, the christmas music was playing and we were enjoying our gifts together. BING CROSBY was only played on special occasions...christmas eve, and christmas day. He was our tradition. AND we didn't want to overplay him, so we saved him for special times and that made it REALLY special.

While i LOVE that i can now create those feelings for my kids and make it so special for them too, i also miss those times. I want my kids to look back on christmas the way i look back on it...CHERISHED memories that bring so much joy. I try my best to bring the feeling in the air and i know i am doing good when the kids run around the house playing happily. I love that. I love cooking, playing christmas music in my clean house, candles lit and smelling up the house and listening to the boys laugh. The best! Anyway, as much as i love it, i also miss my family and wish i could have my parents and siblings here with us. I love having the WHOLE family. It's not the same when even ONE person is missing. I love having LOTS of family together, even if it does get crazy. It's nice just being together. I think i am like my grandma seifert. I like hosting. I love when family visit and i like to help them feel welcome while they are here. I am not as good as her, but i try to make it welcoming. My aunt donna is the same way. She is amazing. HER home is soooo darn welcoming. She puts so much preparation into getting ready. She has containers for chip dip prepared, containers with fruit all ready to be eaten, all the food ready for lunch so you just pull it out. She prepares man. And when we wake in the morning she had put out Jaydon's bowl and spoon ready and waiting for him on his highchair. And she left a note telling us where to find stuff. They are just so thoughtful. I love it. I miss my grandma and my aunt donna. They create a space where I , along with anyone else who enters, wants to be.

Anyway, i am sure most people didn't make it through reading all this. BUT i know maybe my parents and Shane's parents probably did. I love you all. Merry Christmas! Bob and Janet...you should do something crazy and just come here for Christmas. I know you don't have kids at home this year and so it would be perfect to just come and spend it with us. :) There is nothing better than being with family. :)

{Of all the places we have lived, the things that truly make a home never change.}

I am sorry it has taken so long to post some pics of the house. I know a few of you have been waiting awhile for me to do this.
This is our dining room. The walls look blueish, but they are actually Grey. I can't tell you how much i LOVE the color GREY right now. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. :) And if you look to the left you can see my kitchen. The walls are green, BUT they aren't finished. I never finished them b/c i am not so sure i want that color in there. I want to paint it different. I just can't decide what color. I almost want to make it GREY. haha. :)

I would LOVE to paint this room, but it's soooo much wall. AND i am not ready for that challenge yet. AND i can't decide what color i would want to paint it. I was thinking a soft light blue-greyish color. haha! I can't make my whole house grey so i just can't figure out what color to do it, therefore i am keeping it creamy like it is. Anyway, this is our office area, located directly behind our couch in the TV area. Can you see Shane's Dental Graduation diploma on the wall? I had that custom framed for him for his birthday last year. I was so proud of myself for actually being able to SURPRISE him with a gift. I have only been able to surprise him TWICE in our marriage. That's b/c nothing gets past him. He checks our accounts twice a day. I don't have cash, so i can't surprise him! ggrrrrr. :)
Here i am standing back by the computer, which gives you a view of the other part of this room. Directly to the right is our large sliding glass doors that go out to the patio. That wall NEEDS something. I have PLANS. We are getting family pics done soon and i plan to get a LARGE family picture up on that wall. You see our cute little humble christmas tree?

Here's another view . I am standing b/w the sofa and the tv to get this view. On the right is a doorway to the bathroom. The other entry goes to the kitchen.

Anyway, that's part of it for you. This week i will try to post a few more pics of our home...like the rest of the downstairs.

It's smaller than what we lived in IN Texas, but it's a lot better than i expected we were going to get. I had visions of old and ugly. We ended up getting a home that was newly updated just a year ago. There are only three bedrooms, but gavin and tanner fit nicely into a room together. Jaydon's room is big enough for him. Our room is big enough for our large king and a couple dressers, plus we have a bathroom connected to our room, which is always wonderful. Anyway, our small home is all we need. It's about 1500 square feet, I THINK. Which leads me to another thing....

Japanese have everything small. Their furniture looks MINI. ALL OF IT. It looks like its children furniture. Seriously. When walking through their stores i was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the smallness of it all. Our stuff looks huge compared to their stuff. They don't believe in taking up more than their fair share. Their cars are mini. They don't have extravagant homes. In fact most homes here are apartment buildings. AND they all hang up their clothes to dry on their apartment patio deck. They think about "WE" rather than "I". There is so much to learn about from the japanese. They recycle everything, so the garbage cans that they use for their homes are smaller than HALF the size of our garbage cans we have in America. They are mini garbage cans. Walking around their stores and seeing the way they live is really humbling and puts things in perspective. In America it's a lot more about "I" and trying to have bigger and better.... and to think of all that we waste. It's CRAZY. There is so much to learn from this country and these people. I love it here.