Happy and Pregnant!

So, here's a photo of me happy and 2 months pregnant. I thought I'd post something simple for now to let you know that I'm alive and doing well. My excuse for not blogging...well...morning sickness baby...morning sickness!!
Since this week I've realized that my morning sickness is dying out a little and I'm more tired and sleepy. I've been busy sleeping! haha!
Christmas is also a busy time so I've been working on putting together a little dance for my three little students to perform at oldfolks homes, hospitals, mental institutions, and for orphans.
Josh has been taking such good care of me. He makes sure I eat good food and that I get the rest that I need. He's so sweet! He wakes up early and works hard all day long and then come home with snacks and good food for me to eat. When he's out working all day he asks his sister to "take care of me" and she checks up on me and makes me food. So sweet! I've become related to a smart, talented, sweet, loving Tanaka family. :) I'm truly blessed!

Anyway...I'll try and blog a bit more and maybe upload photos when I start showing (aka: getting fat). Ha!

I love you my family! Each one of you are so special to me. Please keep in touch.

Love, Jan

Thought of the Day

“What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.”—George Levinger

Kyaaa!!!

A middle finger has been smashed and brused! Thankfully there are no broken bones. It's my fault really. I was watching two young babies one morning and while playing in the gym, they found a nice small but heavy metal weight lifting ball. My first reaction was to put it away, but then thought that if I was right there it would be alright. Soon after I realized that the two couldn't even lift it. So as I was thinking, "Aha! We're clear from danger!", another little baby crawled over and lifted the ball with his two hands and raised it nice and high for all to see that he WAS the son of Samson! Then, he let go! As it fell in slow motion I reached out to catch it before it could fall on his muscular yet tiny leg. I made it just in time to save his leg, but in a matter of seconds my middle finger on my left hand had been crushed by this cruel heavy weight of a ball.





An hour after taking this photo the purple got darker and seemed to spread and the finger felt sooooo fat that I thought if I poked it, blood would burst out endlessly. (Gross!)
The next day when I looked at it, 2 thirds of my finger had gone blue, however, the swelling went down.
Thankfully, nothing is really wrong with the finger and I don't feel any pain. It'll be healed in no time.

Tomorrow I'll be going to harvest rice for the second time in my life. I wouldn't say it's the most fun thing in to do, but if it means we get a bunch of rice for free and if it makes the neighbors happy, I'm going just to be a help. Hopefully, I can remember to bring my camera, and then have the guts to ask someone to take a photo of me in the fields so I can post it here. :)

Please keep me in your prayers. I super duper need them!

Love, your sis, daughter, and friend,
Jan

Gift from Meg!

Yay!!! On my birthday I told Josh that I REALLY wanted someone to send me a "surprize gift box" from the mail! There's just something special and exciting when you get a box all closed up and ready for the opening! Today, that's JUST what I got from Meg. Whoohooo!!! Thank you so much Meg! Your gift and the thought that you remembered my birthday made my day AND WEEK super special.

And...just to show Meg that it arrived safely, and also to remember this moment I took some photos!




Oh yes, and guess what I happened to have on me at that moment!??? The earrings that Meg bought me for my ....19th ?? birthday! Today was a real "MEG" day! Ha!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I LOVE YOU TOO!!

Fun Nature Walk

So, I haven't been too faithful with posting. But I thought I'd post some photos that I took today while I went for a nature walk with Arthur (2 yrs old) and Kimby (1 yr old).




This is a super awesome majestic tree behind our house. Whenever I walk past it it puts me in awe and I thank God for creating such beautiful trees!


Here's one of our neighbors houses. I just thought it'd be a nice looking photo. :) It turned out quite nice a green.

This last week Josh has been working (building/carpentry) in Tokyo and he'll be gone for another week. I'm left here with a lot more time on my hands...to read, get online, blog, eat snacks, study, etc. etc. I do feel, however, that a part of my joy and inspiration is gone. I can't wait for you to get back!

During vacation we went to this place called Otaki (waterfall) and we had a barbeque there with a few friends and family. I'll post photos of those later on. :)

It's My Birthday!

Yaaaaayyy!!! It's my birthday!!! I turned 24 on September 1st, 2010. My life is good and I am happy.
Below are some of the events of the day:
I got Josh to have a picnic with me. At first Josh wasn't really interested in the idea and he wanted to go out to eat instead, but once we were out there in nature, under the shade, with the soft cool breeze hitting us we both sat there eating (with music in the background) and just had to smile! It was so perfect. We also had a nice little nap right there outside. :)

After returning from the picnic, Marie came and offered to take the kids for me so I could have some extra time to myself. That was soooo sweet!! I was able to check mail, write people, relax, and talk to Mike on the phone. Mike, it's been such a long time since we talked...it was good! Let's stay in touch!

A good quality friend of mine took Josh and I out to eat at a restaurant called "Ken". Isamu (Josh's brother) drove us there. So, the four of us had a blast. The manager found out that it was my birthday so he leaned over the counter and whispered to me explaining that although they didn't have any "Birthday Services" he said that the four of us could have free drink bar. Whoohooo...what a Godly man! haha!

After coming home from our nice dinner I was called down stairs where a bunch of friends were waiting to wish me a Happy Birthday and feed me cake and ice-cream. Soooo sweeetttt!!! Once all the deliciousness was gone I whipped out the "Mille Borne" card game that I'm borrowing from Mom and taught everyone the game. Everyone loved it and we all had a good laugh.

The only photos taken today were from Josh's keitai, and because I don't exactly know how to put them onto computer yet I won't be able to post them here for you.

My hope and prayer for this next year is that I will be strong for those who are weak; to have enough faith to strengthen another's faith; to be positive when faced with difficulty; to be able to laugh and stay young in heart even when responsibilities and to-dos keep stacking up; and to be understanding, forgiving, loving, helpful, and caring to those who need it.

Vacation

So, I had my vacation 2 weeks ago and it was great! At the end I really felt relaxed. The first days I went shopping (for mostly foods), Josh did some business, ate out. Then we went to visit the parents and the remaining sibs. We played games, talked, ate good food, played air-hockey, etc. etc. It was fun and different. You all look so sweet, happy, and full of life!



Don't we all got such good smiles!! Haha!


I then visited a good friend in Tokyo for a few hours before heading back to Tateyama where I spent my last two vacation days relaxing, sleeping, cleaning, and purging.

Now... it's back to the normal, every day life of caring for kids, keeping house, scheduling, maintaining, etc. etc.

August

Okay,
So I haven't posted anything in a while. Like I said in my last post, I've been busy busy busy.
I thought I'd just run through a few of the fun things that I've done this last month and post some photos. :)

At the beginning of the month we took Deepa (the girl in the middle) to Hamazushi so she can try out Japanese sushi for the first time. She's from India and will be staying with us for a year. It was pretty fun. We had her try Uuni (sea urchin) and although she didn't like it, she thought it was going to be way worse. Because two come on one plate we had Nao (girl in purple..from Japan) try it out because she's never tried it out either. Her reaction was MUCH more enjoyable than Deepa's. Ha! She panicked almost and grabed Steve's bowl of soap and glugged it down. Steve was like, "...ummm... okay...that's fine..." hahaha!! Nao was sooo disgusted. Anyway, that was fun.


We've gone to the beach quite a few times this month. Josh goes gigging (he's been catching some pretty good, tasty fish that we later eat). I either watch kids or take photos of things.



Some photos I took while at the beach...

I'm still trying to figure out my camera so I take strange shots of nothingness from time to time. Ha!


Josh and I took the kids out and Josh bought us all a box of ice-cream to share. Whoohooo... Delicious! Thank you Josh!

We went to our yearly famous Tateyama Firecracker Festival. Thousands and thousands come over to see it from all over Japan. Here we are sitting on a mat watching some flaminco performances while we waited for the firecrackers to start.



Then there was a beautiful sunset, so I ran over and took some photos. This was much more fun to watch than the flaminco dancers... ha! God's Light Shows!! They're the best things!
And then...the hanabi's begain. I didn't take any photos of the hanabi's (just this one).
Aside from all this fun...there's a bunch of work to be done...so I must get going. :) Love ya'll! Keep me in your prayers.

Summer Festival Preparations

We host a Summer Festival every year (this is the 9th time). This festival is what I'll be preping for these next few days/weeks. I'm working with two other teachers to teach 9 children (ages 10~2) to dance a simple dance to "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands" song that I'm sure you all remember. :) My group, the three older ones are mainly helping to keep the kids in line and be a sample for the them. The younger kids are learning slowly and haven't caught on to the idea that we'll be performing for a huge crowd of people, so we're practicing every day and reminding them every day. They all like dancing, however, we never know which kids will actually perform on stage on that day till the day comes. Ha! Very very exciting future. Let's see how it goes. I've never done this before. Please keep me and the bunch of little kids in your prayers. :) Thanks so much!
If you'd like, come and see it for yourself!

Love, Jan

Healthy Now!

Just like the title to this post says, I am "Healthy Now!" Whoowhooo!!! I've got a few TINY little splinter like blisters on a few of my fingers but they're more annoying than hurt or anything else.

Here's some photos from last rest day.