Earthquake

Bump. Bump. Bump. Bump. Bump. Bump.

I woke up to what I thought was a low, but strangely loud alarm clock sound. Instead it was the iron wall decoration above our bed hitting the wall over and over. It took me a minute to realize I wasn't dreaming. The dogs were in my lap - alert and tense. The whole world was moving. A lot. Everything was shaking. I heard crashing in the next room. I couldn't move except to look at the clock. 5:31 am. I held the dogs close and prayed.

Then, just like that, it was over. It was earily calm. And we were okay.

Living in Okinawa has brought it's share of earthquakes over the years. This was new for me since I'm a New England girl. I remember seeing movies that depicted earthquakes in California and they always showed windows breaking into bits and people running for safety. But, this has never been the case here. Our quakes are always so small. Most of the time, you didn't even realize an earthquake was happening unless you were in a highrise building. This time, it was different.

I got out of bed to survey the damage. Glass was all over my dining room floor. A wooden wall decoration was also in pieces. A bottle of champagne lay on the floor but was still intact (phew!). Small items were scattered on the floor, books were toppled over, and the iron was laying flat. Overall, minor damage. Nothing to be upset about. I chased the dogs away, grabbed the broom and started sweeping.

Later, back in bed, my heart would not stop racing. I knew it would be awhile before I would fall back asleep. I looked out at the other apartment buildings and saw many lights on, knowing that others were cleaning up, soothing scared children, or dismissing the idea of going back to sleep at all. I thought about how fortunate I am. I live in a very solid building. I am safe, the dogs are safe (Noa is currently away for a conference so he's not affected by the quake) and there was only minor damage to stuff. It's nothing compared to the recent devastation in Haiti. I can't even imagine dealing with a devasting quake like that. But, still my heart was pounding. As I lay on my pillow, I sent up yet another prayer, thanking God for being my protector each and every day.

Family Camp Weekend/Hiji Falls

This past weekend we enjoyed visiting with our church family up at Okuma for their annual Family Camp Weekend. In spite of the rainy, cold weather we had all last week, the weekend ended up being beautiful. It was so nice, in fact, that we were able to go on a hike of Hiji Falls. We've been wanting to do this hike for awhile, but the area was closed for renovations last time we tried to go.

There's no denying that this island has beauty all around. Mini waterfalls stand at the entrance of the trail...

...in addition to a sign warning about imminent death should one attempt to jump in the falls.

Since it had rained all week, it was extremely lush.

The hike itself is pretty short and most of it had wooden stairs or walkways, but they didn't distract from the beautiful scenery.

Here's the view looking down from the suspension bridge. There were little brooks and rivers all over the place.

I love this picture - the blue of the water is so crisp - and it's not photoshopped. It looked like this in real life! How very blue!

Overall, the hike was pretty easy, although there were a few obstacles along the way. One such obstacle was this tree that was not happy about the trail getting in the way.

Oh, and did I mention that I went on the hike with a bunch of GUYS! Apparently, the rest of the wives stayed back to stay with napping children or hang out. I guess I missed that memo. Here are my hiking buddies on the suspension bridge.

Although Hiji Falls is not huge, it is still lovely to look at and admire. The trek was worth it.

After the hike, we headed back to Okuma for some R&R and a cookout with our church family. We had a great time visiting with friends - some we've known for years, others we're just getting to know - and were surprised with a beautiful sunset on the ocean.

Yeah, it doesn't get much better than this. Thank you, Lord, for a great weekend!

100 Yen Fun

It's time for another neat-o find from the 100 Yen store. This week I found something not only useful, but cute too! Check out this adorable oven mitt:

Yup - it's a pig. It has an embroidered face on one side. Not only is it cute, but I love it because it is small. It fits just over my fingers and is perfect for grabbing that hot pan out of the oven, but not taking up precious drawer space in my tiny apartment kitchen. Practical, cute, and only around a buck! Awesome!

Newest Project

For the past few days, I've been working with some ladies at church to build a "set" on the stage for the season of Lent. We're pretty pleased with how it turned out. And, we got it done just in time for the Ash Wednesday services. Phew!

Lovely Valentine's Weekend

Friday was "Valentine's Day" at school and the kiddos participated in valentine-themed centers, "mailed" their valentine cards, and enjoyed my special snack for them: heart-shaped biscuits and jelly. Unfortunately, the snack ended up looking like regular ol'biscuits after baking them.

Oh, well, I guess it's the thought that counts. I loved receiving all their little cards and notes of affection. They make me feel so loved!

Cute, right? On Saturday, our church hosted a murder mystery dinner at Macaroni Grill on base. It was a blast! The setting was a cruise ship dinner and I played an 18-year-old passenger who recently graduated from high school. The cruise was a graduation gift from my single dad (played by Noa - yeah, that was a little weird). During the dinner, there's a murder, in addition to a love triangle, the revelation of who my mother's identity, and other crazy side stories. We didn't guess the true identity of the "murdered" but had a blast playing the parts.

Here we are, Noa as Jeffery James and me, Liza James, his daughter!

Our friends, Tesha and Tom with their new baby, TJ, and Pastor Brian and his lovely wife, Julie. Brian just became Keystone's pastor this year and we have really enjoyed getting to know him and his family.

This is Shane and Alysa. Shane won the prize for best character. He played the part of the cop on board and was hilarious. Aly played one of the pageant contestants. Aren't they adorable?!

Here's a close-up of my hair. I had my hair done up since I didn't have a gown to wear to the event. I loved the curls!!

Noa got me to finally get with the times and see Avatar on Valentine's Day. I loved the movie, but even better than simply seeing the flick, was seeing it in a Japanese theater. They had an interesting variety of goodies at the snack counter, like popcorn with M&Ms mixed in:

Or I could have chosen a banana split on a hot dog bun.

Instead, I decided to chow on taco rice during the movie since I hadn't had dinner. I loved it and the Japanese theater was great. Oh, and yes, it was in English with Japanese subtitles.

On President's Day, we went to a barbecue and hung out with some friends in addition to doing some jobs around the house. It's been a great weekend together. And - mom, you'd be proud - I DIDN'T go into work. For those of you that know me well, you know that I have a tendency towards workaholism, especially on the weekend. I actually had a real 3-day weekend. It's been fun and over way too soon.

100 Yen Fun

With about 6 months left on this lovely island, I thought that I really needed to highlight some of the things that make this place so great. One of those things is the 100 Yen store. The 100 Yen store is basically a dollar store. Now, I know what you're thinking: What? The dollar store is not that great. But, oh wait, my friend. The 100 Yen store is not like your typical Dollar General. Oh, no...it's so much better. First of all, most 100 Yen stores carry A LOT OF STUFF. Pretty much everything you need minus the kitchen sink. Seriously - they have it all. And everyone goes there - you'll find both Japanese locals and American military families shopping side-by-side at the 100 Yen store. It really is a great place and there's a pretty sweet one two blocks away from our place.

So, in honor of this shopping locale, I bring you "100 Yen Fun." Each week I'll highlight something that can be found at the 100 Yen store. It may be something useful, odd, and downright crazy, but you can be sure that whatever it is, you'll only pay around a buck for it.*

This week, I'm going with something cute. Japan is always making the ordinary adorable. Schoolchildren need to learn a lot of kanji characters and keeping stacks of flashcards are necessary for study purposes. Well, why bother carrying a boring stack of standard white, ruled index cards when you can be carrying these cuties in your pocket??

The smaller bear is actually a cell phone charm. I won't be putting him on my cell phone, but he's still cute. I think if I had had little word cards like this in high school, I might be somewhat fluent in French to this day.

*Okay, those of you familiar with 100 Yen store know that there are some things that are more than 100 Yen. However, you also know that the majority of items of 100 Yen and I've been in many "dollar" stores that also carry items that are more than a dollar.

Big 7!

Happy birthday to two of my favorite 7-year-olds!

We attended Kai and Aden's 7th birthday party, despite the cold, wind, and rain. In order to be outside, we had to bundle up, but it was a good time to catch up with some of our friends. Here's Noa with Kent, Shawn, and Dustin.

The kids spent most of the time in the bounce house. It even had a slide!

The weather didn't damper this party! Kent showed Kai how to enjoy his new bike.

Even some 4-legged friends joined in the celebration. Meet Suki!

Happy 7th boys! Great party!

Cherry Blossom Festival

It's cherry blossom season in Okinawa and I finally got to experience one of the local cherry blossom festivals. Last Saturday I joined Sara and Gabe for a drive up to Nago to check out what all the hype was about.

It was a beautiful day, so everyone was out. First, you have to walk through the crowds to get to the base of Mt. Yaedake. It felt so festive and I immediately got excited when I saw the big bags of cotton candy and other fair food.

Of course, Sara and I began shooting pictures immediately.

So, it really was worth all the hype. We began climbing the stairs and cherry blossoms were in full bloom all around us.

Thanks for the camera bag, mom and dad! It came in handy!

So, here they are...absolutely beautiful!

We only climbed partway up the mountain since the cherry blossoms didn't go all the way up. We decided to try to find a good lookout. On the way, we took pictures of more than just cherry blossoms, like...

...random shrines...

...the foliage (thanks for the pic, Gabe!)...

...my shoes (aren't they cute?? I got them in NH over Christmas break)...

...the waffle walls (at least that's what I call them)...

...and more cherry blossoms, of course!

We also had fun taking pictures of each other. This trip was kind of like a "last hurrah" for us, since Sara and Gabe recently moved to the US. So, we just had to get lots and lots of photos to remember each other.

First, Sara and Gabe with the rest of the mountain scenery. Aside from the pink petals, the rest of the mountain was extremely lush.

Buddies! I'm really going to miss having Sara around. She worked at school with me, so I got to see her every weekday.

Fun with the traffic mirror!

We laughed a lot!

The three amigos! Poor Gabe was outnumbered by the crazy girls.

We finally made it to a lookout point - okay, so it wasn't the original lookout point we were going for - but it was a fun place and we had a nice, albeit hazy, view.

A cool map of the area. I've been to a lot of the places on here, like the pineapple park and the aquarium. I'm sure there are still a few more nooks and crannies to explore though.

Here is a close-up of the ornate railing.

On the way back, we resisted the delicious looking fair food...

...okay, we most of it. The cotton candy was just too alluring! Pink and yellow!

Afterwards we went back into town and Noa joined us for dinner (he was on call and had to stay local, so he couldn't join us earlier).

Mmmm...okonomiyaki!