Catch up

My my, how time does fly when you have two kids!  Has it really been since February since I last updated?  Pwomp!

So much has happened, so let's recap:

   We had little E's 4th birthday here.  The theme was Dragons Love Tacos (from one of her favorite books) and we made dragon hats, read the book, and ate tacos.  It was a lot of fun and yes, I do realize that at some point I will have to succumb to a fairies and /or princess party...but so far, I've gotten away without one!

Reading Dragons Love Tacos at E's birthday

I should stick to cupcakes...this cake looked very sad!

 We had a wonderful visit from my sister and her family in April. They started on mainland Japan and then came down to see us for a few days.  We ate out, went to the aquarium, the beach, the peace museum, and the pottery village.

G and Auntie Kristi

   Then lickety split, the kids and I headed for California in late April for a four month vacation...which ended up only being two months because it was so hard!  We got to stay in my grandma's house on the top of my parents' property, which was amazing!  Mom had it cleaned up and then she put in little things we would need like soaps and dishes, towels and kitchen gadgets.  So sweet!  We played at "grandma's park" (as E calls it), spent time with friends and cousins, went to the coast, the wine country, the children's museum, Lake Tahoe, Truckee (to see my sister's cabin), ate out...a ton, and went shopping all the time!  Seriously, I think I was at Target and Joann's fabrics like every other day!  I gorged myself on Dave's Killer bread, Winco bagels, fresh strawberries and blueberries and my dad's fried chicken. So delicious!
  And as wonderful as all is sounds, being away from Adam and being a "single mom" away from everything the kids are used to was a lot more work than anticipated.  It was worth it for the family to meet and love on little G, for E to reestablish relationship with grandparents and cousins and for me to find encouragement in the most unlikely of places.
  While we were there, little G learned how to stand and bilaterally crawl and he grew two teeth! Adam didn't even recognize him when we came home!

When we arrived the weather was cool and rainy, when we left it was hot and so dry! Mom's dogwood lost all of its flowers in our third week.

Looking at the American River

Mom, the tour guide in Coloma

Pizza at Kristi's after a garden tour for Mother's Day

mmmm, pizza...which I couldn't eat because of my non dairy diet. boo

Grandpa and little babaloo

brother

Grandma and little babaloo

the cousins!

Gardening with Grandma

cousins and best friends!

This is their Elsa and Anna hair

to the zoo!

At Dillon beach!  What a fun day!

Momma and babaloo

E found a little friend and they had a great time blowing bubbles and sliding down the sand dunes together.

Just hanging out on the porch

Learning to stand

Most of our shopping centered around trying to find Elsa and Anna...finally found at Target!

Eating out at Island's Burgers.

A surprise visit from my best friend, Evie...so blessed!

hmmm

Fairy cousins!

Lots of swinging at Grandma's

trying to pack for Okinawa

  Also difficult was that while we were in California, Adam's contract was cut from the marine corps meaning that he lost his job.  So there we were, separated with these huge decisions to make and Adam feeling lonely and stressed.

So home to Okinawa we came.  Although we are currently in limbo about where we will be in the next month, God has given both of us a tremendous amount of peace.  He will take care of us wherever He takes us.  We chose a life of adventure, a life of extreme faith, of jumping off into the unknown time and time again.  And we are slowly understanding how to brave the storms, how to trust The Lord, how to walk practically in utter belief that He will sustain us no matter what our future looks like.  And we pray that this assurance, this faith we struggle to remember, this calm in the midst of personal storm will translate to our children.  That E and G will grow up believing in the impossible!

Back in Okinawa