friday fun

yesterday ben and i went on a little drive to mt. atago - about 10 min. from our apartment, for a little hike. i was told it was good prep for fuji, so we put on our hiking boots, filled our hydration system with some water, grabbed the camera, and we were off! it was fun and definitely a good workout! :) nice view at the top too!
here are some pictures:

here's the starting point of the hike...


taking a little breather!


one of our famous self-portraits :)


great view!


rockin' the shades... haha.


hard to believe june is almost over, our friends will be here in just over a week, and we are climbing fuji in exactly 2 weeks! :O cwazy! hope you all are enjoying your summer adventures, too. :)

:)

after another long 2 months apart, we are happy to be together again!!!!

helllooooo...

...from kristi and lola!



say cheeeeeeese! :)

june 22, 2008

one of my very dearest friends is getting married!
a sunset wedding, on her parent's farm in iowa.
i cannot BELIEVE i wont be there to be a part of it... :(
but i wish them all the best in their new adventures as husband and wife! :)






congrats jess and marshall!

rainy monday in japan...

today was the first official day of summer break, and here's what i did.

called my pops to wish him happy fathers day :) (still sunday in the states!)
went to the dentist for my 6 mo cleaning
ran a bunch of errands on base

then - went to spend time with my friends jen and lola...


and get my hair highlighted!




jen did a great job, i love how it turned out!

and after lola and i played!
she has started saying my name "she-she" and it is the cutest thing! :)
they have been great friends to me these past 6 months!

i <3 my dad!

happy fathers day to my awesome and wonderful dad!!

no more teaching...

no more books... no more students goofy looks...or something like that, right? :o) haha. i am a FREE woman! i worked alllll day to clean my room, then turned in my keys! it is officially summer break from now til august!

the status of next year's job is still not 100%, but it's looking as though i will be teaching 1/2 grade in the morning and then back to 5/6 grade in the afternoons. (essentially 2 part time jobs). i am looking forward to the variety and challenges that will bring, and glad that i can still have a job while we are here. its definitely nice having 2 incomes! it helps me not be so bored while ben is gone, and i have met lots of nice people on staff at the school. God is good. if you would have asked me before we got here if i ever thought i'd be teaching the whole time, i would have laughed! but obviously this is where God wants me right now, and i am trying to make the most of it and learn what He is teaching me.

couple more weeks til my sweet husband gets home... i am trying to fill next week with all kinds of errands so that i wont be bored - i wont know what to do with all that free time! haha. :O hope you all are staying cool, the summer weather is definitely arrived here! happy summer!!

score!

thank you girls for your sweet encouragement about my running.
and if it weren't for my amazing husband, i never would have stuck with it.

but i am happy to report that on friday- i made my goal!! :)
i ran a mile without stopping!

it's been a busy weekend full of cleaning, reading, researching, trying to plan things for our visitors, and trying to get this fuji trip squared away. after realizing how expensive it was going to be to do it ourselves, we decided to go through the place on base. definitely a LOT cheaper. also crazier, though, because we get in a bus at 2pm on friday, ride 12 hours, get out, climb the mountain, climb down, have dinner, and then get back on the bus for the 12 hr. ride back. we get back sunday afternoon! haha. we're nuts. but we're excited about the adventure!! :)

got this fun new hat at the store today for only $6!

tomorrow starts the last week of school until summer break, and boy are we all ready! hopefully only couple more weeks til ben gets home, THANK GOODNESS because i miss him like CRAZY!!!

hope you all are doing well and enjoying your weekend! :)

ONE WEEK!

That's all this girl has left of school. A week from tomorrow (thurs) is the kids last day, and a half-day at that! Between now and then: Friday we have a picnic, next Wednesday is a pajama-party/read-a-thon, next Friday we have a teachers work day - and then its SUMMER! :) I am definitely looking forward to the break....

But I am looking forward to something else even more....
and here's a hint:


BEN COMING HOME! Still don't know for sure when that's going to happen, but we are praying its before our visitors get here next month!! (If you think to could you pray for that as well? Thanks friends!)

Since he left, I've been trying to make it to the gym 4 times a week and even though some days (like today!) it's a struggle to make myself go, I have been sticking with it so far... really trying to get in better shape for Fuji this summer. My personal goal has been to be able to jog a mile without stopping before Ben gets home. Now, I know some of you can do that in your sleep, but I've NEVER been able to do it, so I'll gladly celebrate when it happens =) I can do about 8/10 at the moment, so I'm getting close, and it looks like I still have some time til Ben gets here, so maybe?? We'll see!

That's all for now... Hope you all are enjoying the start of June!