Sunday, February 27, 2011

Life is Precious

Today at church a man from another school in the area, Maple Leaf, asked for prayers for a family who just lost their son. We all quickly realized their son was Josh, the young man working at our favorite deli. Josh was 21 years old and went hiking with his cousin in Southern China. He was so excited for the trip, told us all about it a couple of weeks ago.

I didn't know Josh enough. We joked when I would go into the deli and we all loved him because he was always friendly and so happy. I can hardly imagine how his parents are feeling. It just reminded me how life is so precious. We never know what will come today. So please count your blessings and tell those you love that you love them. His death has been on my heart all day and I have been praying for his family. They need Jesus to get through this and I pray that somehow through this awful situation God is glorified.

Sorry this isn't the most lighthearted post, but sometimes that's life. So next time you feel like staying in bed or complaining about some minuscule thing remember to be thankful for your life and getting to be here on this amazing planet. Your life here is short, make the most of it.

AppreciateYourLife.jpg

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Who am I?

Who I Am...

I am...28 years old.
I want...warmth and sunshine.
I have...the best family, friends, and boyfriend in the world.
I wish...I could play with my nieces and nephews more.
I hate...tomatoes!
I fear...where our world is heading.
I hear...Adele's new CD.
I search...for my next travel destination.
I wonder...about the future.
I regret...nothing because I am where God needs me to be.
I love...laughing.
I ache...when I think about the poverty all over our world.
I always...thank God for another day to be alive.
I usually...need to slow down and be grateful more often.
I am not...confrontational.
I dance...when I'm out with my girlfriends.
I sing...in the car with the windows down, but not well.
I never...eat sushi.
I sometimes...compare myself to others.
I cry...more about fictional things than real life.
I am not always...rational.
I lose...and then play again. I hate losing.
I am confused...by hatred for others.
I need...Jesus daily.
I should...workout more.

Who Are You?
I'm tagging Katie on this one. Don't really have other friends that blog, or check mine for that matter. Ha!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! I hope you enjoy it. I'll have to admit I am not a big fan of this Hallmark holiday, but my day went great. It started off with skyping my family as I got ready for work. It was so fun to see mom, dad, Katie, Shayla, Julie, Beckham, and Ainsley. I can't believe how big they are getting (the kiddos not the adults!).

Goofy pics are so fun

Work was really good. I have the major report due this week, and today was a productive day. I feel like a geek saying it, but I was loving working with Excel and Word to create an over 200 page document. Wow, I need to get out more. During work the high school kids were delivering Valentine grams (ie candy and flowers). I got some from old players and then 8 from Jess. He came to my office and brought me a dozen roses. I need to take a picture because Chinese flowers are blinged out! Each rose is separately wrapped and has glitter lined petals. When he gave me the flowers he told me to leave me night open.

Hot couple

Until then I thought he forgot Valentine's Day because last night when I was making dinner and asked him if he wanted to do something tomorrow he said, "Um, sure." Not the most reassuring words from your boyfriend. Well he fooled me. At six o'clock he showed up at my door with a steak dinner! That would have been enough but he surprised me with a steak dinner. Yummy!
Such a great dinner...with a good dessert too. Chocolate!

Dinner was great and we spent the whole time laughing and had great conversation. I love how we get along so well and nothing is ever stressful. After dinner we somehow got on my computer. Get this...Jess had never used Photo Booth!!! He has had Macs for years and never once had used it. We had so much fun taking pictures, seriously laughing until it hurt. Hence all the lovely photos of us :) After we finished we went to his place and watched a movie. Overall...a great day!

Thought I would leave a good one...this is in Thailand 2009, before when we were just friends

I'm so thankful for Jess and the role he plays in my life. He is an encourages me in everything whether it is work, my relationship with Christ, my health, or anything else. He challenges me to be a better me. I appreciate that so much in him. He also can make me laugh and is supportive when I am upset. I am truly blessed to have such an great man in my life. I don't think he reads my blog, but if you are reading...thanks babe! Love you! Also to all my friends and family...I love you! I know I'm far away, but it doesn't take away from how much I care about y'all! xoxo

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Japan for Chinese New Year

Since I stayed in China for last year's New Year celebration I wanted to use the chance to travel. Kara and Veronica are leaving me next year so we decided to take a girls trip to Japan. We invited sweet Kimberly to join in on the fun. It was an amazing trip. We went to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, spending two and a half days in each city. It wasn't long enough, but we had to get back to China for two reasons...one being work and the other we would have run out of money. Japan is so expensive, but it was nice to see a clean country that values their culture. I could go on and on about every little thing we did, but I'll just leave a couple pictures, a top ten list, and a story about our trip home.

Top Ten in Japan
1. Dinner in Kyoto...both nights. Amazing food, but more importantly fantastic people. I will never forget Tamura and his love for life.


2. Peace Museum in Hiroshima. No words for this. You truly have to go to understand.




3. Dressing as geishas in Kyoto. Scary to see the transformation and be unrecognizable to myself.

4. Watching the Japanese live the ancient culture in their daily lives.

5. Shibuya! This intersection was crazy...the cars would take turns and then all of a sudden all the pedestrians would go for it, crossing in all directions.

6. Miyajima Island to see the "floating shrine". We went at low tide so we could walk through it, apparently in Japanese culture it is good luck to walk through.

7. Seeing God's beauty all around...


8. Making friends with some locals in Hiroshima. These girls were a blast and a proof that good comes out of bad...I couldn't get over how friendly they were and didn't hold the bombing against us.

9. Exploring the many temples in Kyoto.

10. The food! We did a cooking class with a Japanese woman in her house...she made us the most delicious food. It was so neat to be in her house and try homemade traditional food. (I can't find those pictures...so this one will have to do. These restaurants are all around, giving you a preview of your food. :)


Now for our trip home. Veronica and I were taking a different plane back to Dalian. Our flight was Saturday morning at 5:30 am. We took the train back from Hiroshima and then ate dinner with Kara and Kimberly before heading to the airport. We went to buy our tickets and the woman behind the counter said "oh no". She said the Narita Express had stopped running, but we could catch a subway to Narita. We bought our tickets and ran...with our heavy luggage (I always overpack) through the crazy Tokyo station. We made the train and were on our way. We got out at the Narita station and caught a taxi to the airport. As we arrived at the airport we were stopped before going into the parking lot. The guards checked our passports and questioned us about our flight. In the best we could with the language barrier we explained we were leaving at 5:30 and were just going to sleep in the airport. After about ten minutes of them talking to each other they came over to repeating something. We were so confused. Finally he pointed to our itinerary and showed us we were at the wrong airport.

Well it was now 11:25 and the last subway back to the city had left. We kept trying to ask what other way there was to the airport and how far it was. The only way we could get there was by taxi. The taxis in Tokyo are exorbitantly over-priced...it was over an hour ride to the other airport. We didn't have a choice so we had the taxi driver take us to a 7-11 and were on our way. An hour later and $350 later we arrived at Haneda Airport...the correct one. We got there at about 1:15 in the morning and laid for about 2 hours. We checked in and slept a little longer. At 5:00 we boarded our plane back to home.

IT was an expensive lesson, but it could have been worse. Both Veronica and I agree God was watching over us, had we not been stopped at the Narita airport we would have gone in and slept until check-in. Then it would have been too late and we would have missed our flight. This way we only had to spend the money on cab fare, rather than buy a new flight. So always remember check your ticket. :)