Japan Days 2-4

Here are some quick updates.

Day 2:
We went to Zanpa beach and went snorkeling in the morning, followed by wonderful massages at this really cute little spa place. After that we went to this sushi restaurant where the food goes around on the conveyor belt and you pay by the color of the plates. We also went to the mall and to this little shopping area (it kind of reminded me of Oceanside).

Day 3:
We visited the Kadena Air Force base, where we went to the Commissary (it's like a department store). That is where most of the American soldiers and their families do their shopping because everything is from the states but the prices are a lot cheaper. After that we went to this really cute little cafe/shop for "Okinawa's best grilled cheeses." They were very good and the lady that owns the shop is very nice (I think she was Thai). We met Jeff at work for a few minutes to see his office and we even got a behind the scene's tour of where the soldiers get their gear and where the food is stored if they go to combat. If I am correct, Jeff is in charge of sending things out if the troops get send somewhere. After meeting Jeff when he got off work, we tried to go to Maeda to go snorkeling again, but the conditions were awful. The tide was way high and the wind was making the water dangerously choppy so we decided to go out to dinner. We wanted to go this really cute place called Jam's (sort of like Benihana's) but when we got there they were completely booked until 9:30 p.m. We asked the host for his recommendation of another restaurant and it was fabulous. We walked right across the street and down this alley and out popped this great restaurant with a live Okinawan band. The food was very cheap and gourmet and the atmosphere was priceless. It turned out to be a great night. For the past few nights we have been staying on the Army base (Torii) in these little cabins near the beach. I am not really sure of the reason, but we are having fun none the less.

Day 4:
BEACH!!! We spent the whole morning at Torii Beach (on the base) just laying out, reading, and relaxing. Now we are off to the cabins again and then we are going back to Jam's (this time with reservations) for dinner.

We are enjoying our time here and are looking forward to Hawaii. Love and miss you all lots!

Day One in Okinawa

Konbawa from Okinawa (good evening from Okinawa). We started the day off by sleeping in a little (only till like 7:00 a.m.). John's mom, Liz, took us to the light house by their house at Cape Zanpa.

After taking a look at the light house we went over to the other side of the "park" and took some pictures with the shiishaa dogs.

On our way to Torii Beach we stopped at this little gift shop/bakery/cookie factory. The biscuit looking cookies were very tasty. They sort of tasted like peanut butter cookies. We met Jeff on the base where he works to pick up our snorkel equipment. If you rent on Monday, you pay for one day and you get to use the gear until Thursday. Pretty sweet deal. We also found out that the SCUBA locker is closed this Thursday so we get to keep it for an extra day. We are planning to go snorkeling quite a bit this week.

From there we split off, girls together, and guys on their own. Liz and I went to Starbucks and got a really cute little Okinawan coffee mug and drinks and then went shopping at this really cute little strip mall. She was so nice, she even bought me some new clothes. I think she has always wanted a daughter to spoil and I don't really mind being that. I have great in-laws! From their Liz and I headed to this great little spa place called Feliz Salon where we got the best pedicures EVER! These young girls were great and the massage lasted forever, no timers either. While the girls were getting pampered, the boys went snorkeling at Cape Maeda and saw some great fish. They were even able to go swimming into this sweet little cave.

We joined back up at Liz and Jeff's pad and headed right back out to this cute place called Ryuku Mura. It is like a traditional Okinawan village. They had all these really old Okinawans doing the work like their great ancestors once did. While we were walking through the park we stumbled on a cute little show. Here are some pictures of the dancers and drummers we saw.

We also got our picture taken dressed in traditional kimonos. John made a very good king. It was bloody hot with those kimonos on.

From the park we went to Okinawa Hollywood and Malibu Beach. It was nothing to write home about, but I thought it was pretty funny. At the top of this little hill they had the Hollywood sign with a small replica of the Statue of Liberty. I think they got their American states jumbled together.

We also went to this little market on the way home to just see the traditional foods and fish market. Now we are just hanging out at the house relaxing and drinking some beer. Oh, speaking of beer, I forgot to mention the Habu Sake that we saw. The Habu is one of the most poisonous snakes and they fight them against the mongoose. What is really odd, is when they make alcohol with the snake in the bottle, Habu Sake. It is disgusting, but I guess a lot of people think the Habu snake has a lot of health benefits (also similar to viagra). We didn't buy any, but I did take pictures of it.

Today was a great day, but I think tomorrow is going to be better. Liz, John and I are going to go back to Zanpa beach tomorrow morning and hang out and maybe snorkel a little bit and just relax on the beach while Jeff is at work. Liz has also scheduled a couple's massage for John and I tomorrow around noon time.

Sayonara and oyasuminasai (goodbye and good night). More to come later.

WE'RE HERE!!

We are officially in Japan now! It was a long flight from LAX to Tokyo but we survived. We had a long wait at the Tom Bradley International Terminal where we actually saw some guy get arrested.

It is now 11:00 p.m. and I am ready to sleep. I will try to keep posting things as our adventures in Okinawa continue. Stay tuned.

Sayonara.

Addiction

I am trying it again. Not drinking soda that is. On Monday night, after Bible study, Dustin Rhoads came downstairs and was chatting with the ladies and I about his diet and some other things. I don't know how soda came up, but we both mentioned that we needed to cut back on our caffeine intake because we are both addicted. Well cut back we did. Both Dustin and I decided then and there that we were going cold turkey. I have done this once before during Lent one year and it was pretty painful. This time I am not quitting for just a short period, but hopefully for good. Yesterday wasn't too bad. I did end up with a really bad headache, but I pushed through it. Here we are at day 2 and I am feeling confident in my ability to quit and help motivate Dustin in his quitting. I will keep you updated on my progress.

John and I are very excited for our upcoming trip to Japan and Hawaii. We talked to his mom, Liz, last night and got all the details that we needed for our travel. After talking to her we decided to go to weather.com and check out the "local" forecast for Okinawa. It said 90 degrees, but feel like 104 degrees. That sucks. I hate the humidity. Oh well, we are going anyways. Oh ya, I forgot to mention there was like a 60% chance of rain with scattered thunderstorms for everyday that we are there. YAY! Oh well, we are going to have to push through the rain because I want to see things. I am not going just to sit around their house and not see any of the country.

I am also very excited for the Hawaii portion of our trip. We are stopping there for 5 days on our way back to Los Angeles. I want to show John my family's old stomping grounds and a few of the main highlights (like Pearl Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Center) but I also want to just relax on the beach and enjoy being alone with my husband.

I will try and post while we are in Japan, but don't get mad if I don't. See you in September!!

New House

We made it! We are finally all moved in and pretty much unpacked. We are not online yet at "The Mouth" (our new name for our house). The Dish Network guy came out yesterday and was wonderful. Props to Dish for great customer service. He even gave John and Amy a tutorial on how to use the new remotes and a few main features of the network. Already so much better than Time Warner, sorry.

The move day was a huge success. Thank you so much to all those who helped us. I think we had somewhere between 16 and 20 people helping us at the 3 places. Our friends are great and we made the move in half the day. By 2:30ish all our furniture and boxes were at the new house and we were already beginning to unpack boxes. A special thanks to the ladies who put together our kitchen, that was fantastic (although I am still trying to find a few things).

Our first few nights in the house have been good. We haven't heard Adelaide screaming in the middle of the night or even in the morning. I think it is because we are running our fan in the bedroom and it is pretty loud, but whatever works. On Sunday, we had our first dinner as a family. Amy made baked potatoes and Justin made his family's green beans and linguica.

It has really been nice not having cable tv for the past few days. While I do miss having the down time, we have really been productive and have actually had some conversations. I am sad that I have missed some of the olympics, but I was able to watch some of the tandem diving last night with Amy.

Here are some pictures of the new place (before we moved everything in).

our bedroom

our living room

the front of the house from the sidewalk

The Happs

Here is what is happening in the life of John and Val:

1. Camping this weekend in Ojai with friends
2. Hollywood Bowl tickets on Sunday (reggae fest)
3. John begins another 2 week intensive at Fuller on Monday
4. Val will be packing away during the week
5. Dinner with the Youth Elder and other paid ministry staff
6. Move to our new home on Saturday the 9th (come help if you can)
7. Pack our suitcases again for Japan
8. Fly to Japan on the 23rd of August and return on the 6th of September

Somewhere in there we also have SURGE events and another night at the Hollywood Bowl. Our lives are crazy right now. I think John is getting a little stressed out with all the packing and moving and doing things and having to be in school and write papers.

It is very fun to be able to hang out with friends for once, but it is just a little bit too busy for our taste. Hopefully we don't lose sight of each other in the hustle and bustle.

Got to get on the road. See ya!

Brain Freeze

Don't forget to stop your local 7-11 for a free 7.11 oz slurpee tomorrow, 7/11. You gotta love free stuff.

I am excited for Rachelle and AJ's wedding on Saturday. We had so much fun at Karen and Dan's and are ready to party again.

Yay, I made it. John comes home tomorrow!! It reminds me of a song, "I'm a big girl now!" Haha.

That's all for today.

Motivation

My apartment is a disaster and I know I need to clean it, but it is so overwhelmingly dirty I don't know where to start. It has been bothering me for a few days now but I have just been too tired to do anything about it. Hopefully I will get the motivation to clean it and surprise John when he comes home Friday.

The One

The search continues. The Souzas and the Bowlings are still looking for that perfect house to move into. We spent most of the morning on Friday driving around the valley with our realtor (who is great, and does all the work for us) looking at multiple properties. We have a few that we really liked and they have fallen through and we are still waiting to hear back on another one in Granada Hills that we like.

This process is really frustrating. I can only imagine the stress and energy house hunting takes. I just want to find a place that is going to work for the 5 of us and move in and start this new adventure. I am ready for some big changes in my life.

Please pray that we find something and find it quick (if it is God's will for us). :)

Rest, Relax, Recuperate

I am sitting here in my office dazed. Do you ever have those times when you are driving from point A to point B and upon reaching point B, you really don't remember how you got there? That is my morning.

John and I were housesitting this past weekend (for people that don't like to share their house with others) and today was the final day. The family was coming home around 8 a.m. so I decided to be safe, so I left around 7ish. It was horrible. I couldn't sleep all night, I woke up every hour or when the dog would move and her collar would jingle. All I needed was some good solid sleep. Our lives have been so busy as of late, and I am feeling weary. I just need to slow down and relax and sleep well for a day or two.

When will it ever get easier? Here is what I mean, everytime John leaves for a trip with the middle schoolers, my fear and anxiety skyrocket. I don't know what my problem is. I can't sleep and I have to stay up forever so I that I fall asleep without thinking or trying. I don't know, I think I am afraid of someone breaking in and killing me in my sleep while John isn't there. Maybe I have watched too many crime scene shows or cop shows. It usually gets better as the week goes on, but man, last night was horrible, the worst night of sleep ever I think.

This past week was busy with housesitting, getting ready for Karen and Dan's wedding, the actual wedding, getting John ready for his houseboating trip, buying supplies for me for next week for my trip to Rock n Water. Hopefully this week will slow down and I will get some much needed and, I feel, much deserved rest.

Heal Me

Please pray for me. I have started a nasty cold and I feel like crap. My head feels like it is going to explode and my nose is raw from blowing it so much.

My mom flys in tomorrow evening! I am SO excited to see her for the weekend. We have a lot planned, so hopefully I will be feeling better.

Thanks.

Long Weekends

Back at it! I love having long weekends. It's too bad that this Memorial Day Weekend was jam packed. Here are just a few things that we did:

• PAINT the Lofgren's rental house
• Go out to dinner with John's dad
• PAINT the Lofgren's rental house some more
• Watch the UFC fight (it was alright, nothing special)
• Church and then PAINT the Lofgren's house some more
• BBQ at the McIntosh's ranch, so much fun driving the GATOR!!

It was a great weekend, just a long one and not that relaxing. Thank you to everyone who helped in celebrating John and his 28 years of life. We had a blast.

A Taste

WE SURVIVED!!! John and I spent the weekend taking care of three youngsters (the Pennington clan). It was a lot of fun to play mom and dad for a couple of days but sobering at the same time. We are totally not ready to be parents. I know that parenting doesn't mean running into a house with three kids, but still it was difficult to say the least.

On Friday night as soon as we got to their house we got the kids ready to go to a birthday party at Skateland. It was a ton of fun and made me realize how you really can't think about yourself for more than a minute or two. As soon as we got there the young girl came out in me and I just wanted to skate, but instead I had to hold the hand of Tiffany (age 2) and slowly make our way around the edge of the skating rink. She had so much and so did I. I was able to see the excitement in her eyes and then so quickly the change to fear as she nearly fell on her bum.

Let's just say that John and I are pooped. We came home this afternoon and both fell asleep on the couch watching television for awhile and then discussed our feelings on parenting and parenthood and if we were ready or not. The consensus was NO, we are not ready right now.

Oh Really?!

Has anyone ever told you that they think you are depressed and going through a depression? How did you respond? What did you do about it?

I am not having a good morning so far and one of my co-workers thinks I am depressed. What a way to brighten my day, you might as well have kept your mouth shut and walked away. Maybe I am in a depression.

Hmmm.

Please Pray

My friend Kelsie was in a very bad car accident yesterday on her way home to her dorm. The driver of the other car was going too fast and could not make the turn and slammed into Kelsie head on. She is pretty seriously injured and is in surgery right now. She many broken bones in her legs and bruises and pain all over. Please pray for her surgery, that the doctors can repair the broken bones. This is especially hard for the family as they have two sons in the military and one of them was recently injured and blinded in an accident in Iraq.

Also, another friend in that same neighbor is battling cancer at the young age of 25. Brittany had cancer in high school and beat it and now doctors have found a large tumor in her back. She is also in surgery right now and I would like your prayers for her as well.

Thank you for your support and prayers.

GRRRR

I HATE MACHINES!!! They make your life so easy when they work and they make your life hell when they don't work.

I want a new RISO for the church office. If I win the lottery, I am going to buy one.

Sorry for my rant, but I had to get that off my chest.

New Found Glory

Last night, I was "in charge" of SURGE and I admit, I was very nervous. I don't know why, it went fabulously! The kids had a great time celebrating their detachments and the other advisors were very helpful.

I was talking to John last night about how I have changed as an advisor because of last night's leadership. In the past I have been the mother at SURGE. I always try and get the kids to be quiet and sit still and keep their hands and feet to themselves. Last night was the complete opposite. I didn't really care if they were quietly talking (except for one part where their peers were sharing deep feelings and stuff) or not really playing the games. I think it is because I had the control and the power of the night. I knew things were going to happen, both good and bad, and I didn't really care. I just wanted to hang out with the kids and that is just what I did. I think it has been a power and control issue for me in the past and hopefully it will not happen again. I loved the way I felt last night after leaving SURGE. I was exhausted, but I had a blast.

I hope that makes sense to those of you who read this. It is kind of hard to explain and I don't know if I did a good job. You can ask me in person if it doesn't make sense.

Ahhh, so good.

P.S. Thank you to Krystal McIntosh for all of her hard work yesterday. I couldn't have done it without her.

My Quirk

Recently I have been exposing a weird side of myself that I don't think a lot of people knew about.

That is right, I am into tracking earthquakes. Everyone keeps talking about "the big one" that is supposed to be coming in the near future.

Awhile back, there was an earthquake while I was working and Nita Standke and I got online to see some details about it. Well, I ended up adding the website to my favorites and now I go on a few times a week just to see the activity. It is pretty interesting. Go check it out for yourself. You'll see how amazing it is (ya right) and you'll also see the 5.2 earthquake that hit northern California yesterday at 8:06 p.m.

What can I say, I'm a nerd.

Fun times

John and I had a great weekend, but a short one. Friday night we spent the night together and went out to dinner at a new restaurant (or at least new to us). We went to Marmalade Cafe in Sherman Oaks. It was so cute and quiet and the food was pretty good. I guess this is a pretty well known chain, but we had never eaten there before. I love going and doing new things.

Saturday John left with Carol and Bridget for a conference in Atlanta, Georgia. He is loving it, and I am hating him being gone.

I have some wonderful friends who have stayed with me and kept me busy and a special thanks to John's mom, aunt and grandmother for cooking me dinner and letting me crash with them last night.

John has left me in charge of SURGE tomorrow night and I have to admit, I am rather nervous. I don't really know what to expect. Hopefully it will go "well."

Well that is all for tonight. I should really try and get some sleep before tomorrow.

All In

I am so sleepy today. Last night I was awakened (and kept awake) by our neighbors having a poker party. There is a young guy that lives in the apartment behind us (I think he is the manager's son) and he loves to have people over. I don't mind that, but I do mind the parties that start after they get back from the bars on a MONDAY NIGHT. It is really annoying because his living room is right by our heads so we hear everything. There must have been 5-10 guys there last night playing poker from 2:45-4:00 a.m. I finally got smart and got ear plugs for both John and I.

I just want some peaceful sleep.