Quick update

We've been up to a lot, yet not a lot, lately. John climbed Mount Fuji at the beginning of the month with a couple of our friends. They started in the evening and climbed overnight to see the sunrise at 4:30. He had a lot of fun and they brought back some amazing pictures. We've spent a lot of time hanging out with friends, going to each other's house for dinner and whatnot. Annelise and I have also spent quite a bit of time running around doing a whole lot of nothing. I feel like we leave the house almost every day but don't get a whole lot done. Yesterday we found an amazing recycle shop in Aomori, there were several things that I would have liked to bring home with me but didn't have the money or space in the car for. That's probably a good thing, I realized that I don't really need a curio cabinet just now and that although the samurai helmet was really cool, we don't have a place for it in our house. I did, however, come home with four new kokeshi dolls and some bobble-head Morioka horses, as well as a birthday gift for someone special. We're going to go back to Aomori this weekend to pick up some friends from the airport (I dropped them off yesterday, that's why I was there) and hope to check out the Big Buddha there. I can't wait to post pics, this Buddha is seriously gigantic, you can walk around inside the statue, and he's not the tubby guy that Americans imagine, he's more regal.

I'm finally getting started on my craft projects, I'm currently working on a curtain-ish thing to cover our linen cabinet and am finally starting a quilt that I meant to make almost 2 years ago. I then want to try my hand at teddy bears and purses made from the awesome kimonos I've been buying and work on some sea glass jewelry. Speaking of which, I have plans to go back to the kimono shop and also to search for sea glass next week!

Have I said lately how grateful I am that John went to weapons' school? Thanks to him going through six months of hell, I get to live in this paradise and try all kinds of new things. Before we got this assignment, I always said that the one place I didn't want to get stationed was Asia because it was just too different from everything I'm used to. I'm so glad that God and the Air Force didn't ask for my opinion! I've already made so many new friends and so many wonderful memories and I can't wait to see what else this assignment has in store for us!! This just goes to show that there is good to be found in every event in life, in every place the Air Force sends you. I don't believe that crap about God not listening or not answering prayers; I believe that sometimes He says 'No' for your own good, just like I tell Annelise 'No' when she tries to chew on an electrical cord or climb up the stairs. She doesn't understand why, but I do, and the same thing goes for events in our lives. We don't understand, but God does, and being in the Air Force has definitely taught us that.