Fighting Couple and Church

Yesterday in church I couldn't stop laughing. Seriously laughing. You see Mark and I have found ourselves sitting behind a local national couple every week for the past couple of months. They are such a sweet couple probably in their mid sixties or early seventies. They are truly the cute old couple that Mark and I want to grow old and be like. But yesterday, yesterday they were AWESOME!

Picture this, we are early in the service singing Praise and Worship songs. The couple is in front of us, singing. The wife is getting into the service, raising her hands and worshiping. It's pretty normal right. Suddenly she reaches over to her husbands hand grabs it and tries to force him to raise his hands while he sings. He revolted and yanked it back down. They shared 'a look' and she resumed to her singing. A minute or so later the same thing! She is aggressively trying to get him to join in on the praise. He's determined that he ain't doing it! The looks between them were hysterical. I couldn't help but laugh. This went on for a few minutes back and forth. I'm talking strong belly laugh at this point. Mark can't hold it in either. Tears are now streaming down my face from laughing so hard. I'm trying not to make a scene but I can't help it. They were so stinkin' cute fighting over putting their hands up singing.

Understand that the Okinawan people are very reserved and formal. So to watch this display of marital bliss, when it's the wife pushing the husband is funny enough but to see it in church over praise and worship was priceless. I've seen this couple many times before and they are usually very proper and respectful toward one another. But today, (well actually yesterday) they let their hair down so to speak and shared their lives with us.

I love it, it makes me smile that every family has moments. After the service they looked into each other's eyes and shared a small peck of a kiss. Mark and I did the same thing, laughing and smiling the rest of the afternoon knowing that we aren't the only couple that shares intense moments of fellowship, even during church!

I believe this is a FIRST!

I think this is a first for me... if not it's been sooooooo long ago I don't remember it.

I slept thru my alarm. I've always been petrified of sleeping through my alarm clock. I hate the snooze button and probably have only used it 10 times in my whole life. Today I woke up at 5:35am. I know this because I looked at my watch on my way to the bathroom. My alarm clock is my watch since our old clock that Mark had in high school died about 6 months ago! We are very high tech around here. I keep my watch beside my bed in a really cool bowl shaped coffee cup. (I don't really know why I just told you all that?)

So anyways, I wake up at 5:35. I return to bed, for some strange reason I put on my watch. I think I was sleep walking or something. Well my arm ended up under the covers and I never heard the alarm go off. Hence sleeping thru the alarm. I abruptly awoke and grabbed my bowl to get my watch out and subconsciously finding it odd that it's on my wrist. So I look at it. It reads 6:20. We get up promptly at 6:00 for school; 20 minutes late...Ughhh!

I scurry around getting my sweet cherubs up. "Mom why'd you wake us up late, you never wake us up late! We'll be late for school!" I calmly reply "You won't be late you just can't lallygag this morning."

Needless to say they weren't late...And I still made the clay for Katie's project this morning...And they had a healthy fruit filled breakfast of fresh grapes and Crunch Berries and apple juice! (Yep, I finally made it to the commissary yesterday!)

Moral of the story... even if you're late. Remain calm, stay focused, and you can still make it out the door on time!

YIPPEE!

Hey Mr. Tax Man... I filed our taxes. I'm looking forward to that deposit you're gonna make!

Every year I stress about our taxes. I dread doing them. I'm getting better though. My goal was to finish them this past week, and I did it. Every year for the past few years I file them sooner and sooner after the new year. It's such a relief to scratch that off my to do list and to get that refund quicker! Love me some refund!

Who's next to get your money back? Get paid sooner... file today!

(several people ask me how I do them... TurboTax all the way!

It's easy and I can do them in my jammies!)

It's Raining Blessings

Y'all already know that we won an iPad2 this weekend at the BX. We entered a drawing with Stars and Stripes. They pulled our name out for the Grand Prize! It was shocking to say the least. We've all played with it and reality still hasn't set in. It's so pretty, fun and well just plain exciting.

No fast forward to tonight's dinner. I drop the kids off at Youth Group. Mark and I head to the Rocker NCO Club for Member's Night dinner. (Translation free dinner with some door prizes!) We think free dinner, we are in. I pick up our door prize ticket and hit the buffet.

While in line for the buffet they ask for 5 volunteers. I run up there with my plate in hand. The short version is I won the game and got a FREE iPod Shuffle!

They draw another number, not ours. The next number they call was ours! YES OURS! I can't believe it. Mark calmly walks up front to collect his prize... a Nintendo 3DS (red)!

Holy Toledo Batman, we've won 3 great prizes in the last 5 days. God is raining so many blessings upon us, I can't help but laugh and cry. I am amazed!

We obviously don't need the prizes we won tonight, we are tucking them away. Praying about what to do with them, whom to bless with them or whatever God calls us to do with them.

Lesson of the Day... rain is good, Raining Blessings is VERY GOOD!

Thank you Lord for all the blessings in my life, big and little!

Valentine's Dance

I just had to post this photo of Caleb and Dana. This photo was taken at the Valentine's Day Dance a few weeks ago. I can't get over how grown up these two look. They are friends from Youth Group and decided to go to the dance together. (there is nothing more between them, they are just friends!)

Yes I know, Caleb is wearing a t-shirt. It is a new one, and it is a Christian one if that makes a difference. It was a normal middle school dance. Some girls showed up in prom dresses, others (like my K80) wore jeans and a cute top. Boys wore mostly jeans and t-shirts. I think Mark said one or two actually had ties on, but he said they looked as though their mother's dressed them and was thankful that I wasn't mean like that!

Sorry for that bunny trial, back to the photo. Caleb looks like a teenager now. Seth too. What happened to my babies? I'm happy and I'm sad. Long gone are the days where I'd snuggle on the sofa with my kiddos, kissing their boo boos and singing them songs. Now it's helping with homework (that's way over my head), asking them politely to turn that music down and I'm going to bed before them most nights. I love them, they are growing into handsome strong men of God. For that I'm very thankful.

I love this season in our lives, but some days I wish I could hold them on my lap one more time or kiss them on their forehead without hearing ... "Really mom, I'm too old for that!"

More Funnies on Okinawa!

Just a few things I've seen on Okinawa that make me smile!

Mark loves this car, every time he sees this he has the urge to run up to the window and yell "Kiss Me my name's Mark!" I have yet to see him do this but if he ever does I'll put sure to post photos about it!

Really Snow/Ice Scrappers for sale on Okinawa... at the base exchange!? Really? I'm sure the thought was to purchase them for gifts for people back home but who's gonna pay $5 for an ice scraper that will cost $15 to ship home to the states... Just sayin'!

Last but not least some poor local asked for an "I love Okinawa" sticker and got this! I felt sorry for them, but they did get what they asked for!

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more weird things from this side of the pond!

ANOTHER FUN PARK SIGN

What does this sign tell us about the park... let's list them out!

1. 
   
   No Loud Music


2. 
   
   No Picking Flowers & No Littering


3. 
   
   Dogs Are NOT Allowed to Bite Kids Butts


4. 
   
   No Scooter Riding


5. 
   
   No Golfing or Hitting Birds with Golf Clubs


6. 
   
   No Breaking the Benches


7. 
   
   No Fireworks


8. 
   
   No Cook Outs...


9. 
   
   No Eating or Drinking

So Please tell me what can we do at the park? At least they didn't have the sign about guns and pooping dogs. I love the elegant humor of the sign makers here! You'd never see a sign like this in the states.

Tomorrow I'll show you some photos from the parks we found today!