J K * L *

happy eater

2009-02-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling "don't talk with your mouth full" might be a difficult lesson for Lucy to learn. that's ok, though, because she's stinkin' cute when she does it.

yummy

2009-01-31T17:05:00.000-08:00

anything she see's she touches. anything she touches, she tries to eat. daddy's chin was especially delicious! :)

you know you're exhausted when...

2008-12-10T18:16:00.000-08:00

...your daughter is crying and you mindlessly walk to get her pacifier and then try putting it in your husbands mouth.

Seriously, this happened 20 minutes ago. I think I'll go to bed early tonight.

Papa G visits...

2008-12-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

Every couple of weeks my dad comes to visit Lucy. He's crazy (about her, that is), so he drives about 7-8 hours round trip to spend about 4 hours with us. And we love it. Yesterday I was able to capture some Papa G and Lucy moments.

Check out this video of Lucy and my dad playing together...

baby talk

2008-10-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

So... I am one of THOSE moms. You know, the ones that annoy you with the way they talk to their babies in sing-song silly baby talk. Yes, that is officially me. BUT, I did read that babies actually respond best to voices that speak that way. So, there's my excuse. And this is all a preface for the video below. The star of the show is obviously Lucy and her adorable smiles and noises, NOT my embarrassing baby talk- so you can ignore that part. Other than that... please enjoy our beautiful daughter...

how sweet it is....

2008-09-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

... to be Lucy's mom. She is such a joy, she is adorable, (I'll let you see for yourself), and she is almost 6 weeks old! Oh, how the time flies. Lucy is currently taking a nap, which opens up some time for me to FINALLY update this blog! Yeah!

How was labor and delivery, you ask? Put simply (I'll spare you all the crazy details), it was SO stinkin hard... I do believe, however, that I have an extremely low pain tolerance. But, of course, now that she is here and I get to hold her, I see that she is MORE than worth it. I also had the greatest encouragement along the way. Many of you know that I am married to the most mellow man on earth, so he did a great job of calming me down. My sister and mom were with me, too, in the delivery room... I needed them all- they were wonderful- thanks guys :)

Ok, on to pictures. Who am I kidding? I bet nobody read this before looking at the pictures anyway... :)

after bath time...

She always raises her hand before asking a question... what great manners. :)

Dad and Lucy are giving each other their most serious face. I love this one.

I call this her "sad old man" face... a very cute sad old man ,that is.

She loves her boppy!

If you want to see more pictures... check our album on facebook, we will probably update that one more often.

as promised...

2008-08-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

Here are the polls and pictures!

What day do you think Lucy will arrive? (My due date is August 20th) ( surveys)

How much do you think Lucy will weigh when she is born? ( surveys)

These are a few pictures of when Jonathan caught me putting together the furniture in Lucy's room... after he told me to wait for him to do it. oops, I couldn't wait! :) He wasn't mad, though... he apparently thought it was funny and wanted to capture the moment.

hi there... we're back.

2008-08-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well, we're settled.
Boxes are all unpacked, baby room is ready but still vacant, and we're feeling pretty adjusted back to life in California. We live in Placentia, CA, now (which just seems like a strange name for a city, especially when you are pregnant. What were those city-namers thinking?), It neighbors Fullerton so we're really close to our new ministry campuses. We love our new hospital, doctor, neighbors and student leaders that we will be working with. We miss Tokyo, we miss LA... but we like it here.

And... I'm still getting more pregnant everyday. I've never made so many friends with strangers in my life- my belly strikes up an amazing amount of conversations everyday. The most popular words that people use to describe my belly are 'torpedo' and 'bullet'. Many of these new friends are also convinced that I am having a boy or having twins. Some of them are so convinced that it seems they would bet their very life on it. I've concluded that the way I carry this little one is somewhat of a phenomenon... at least to the people in southern California that I come into contact with on a daily basis. And this is ok with me...I'm sure I'll miss it when I don't feel famous anymore. I bet Lucy will help me out with making new friends once I'm not pregnant anymore, though (and oh, how I long for that day).

Some of you have asked for updated pictures of my belly... so, brace yourselves people- here are a few.

oops, I lied. My camera is dead, we'll have to wait until next time. And get excited, friends, because our next post (in the next few days) will feature a couple polls where you get to vote on Lucy's due date and weight. Just so you know, I'm rooting for the 17th of August (3 days early) and less than 8 pounds, neither of which, I fear, is very likely.

A special thanks to all you 'faithfuls' out there that are still checking this blog after my long absence. It's good to be back. Stay tuned for more...

wrapping up...

2008-06-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

This is our last week in Tokyo. We leave Narita Airport June 13th at 5 pm and arrive in LAX June 13th (yes, same day) at 11am. We are in fact time travelers, Gene.

Our last couple of days on campus were awesome. We were so loved on by students that we have been sharing Jesus with over the last 9 months. And...so exciting... our team has seen a few people place their faith in Jesus just in the last month, or so. God is so faithful. He didn't have to show us fruit like that, but He did. And we are thankful. Mostly, we are overjoyed that we will be spending eternity with a few more Japanese friends.

Here are some highlights of the last month or so in pictures...

We went on a staff retreat with the Japanese staff last month. This is Yusuke and Kaori, 2 JCCC staff giving Jonathan and I a farewell gift... a sweet little shirt for Lucy that says I love Japan (in Japanese) on the back. So cute. We'll miss them.

Riding on crowded trains never gets old. We're actually really going to miss being able to walk or take public transportation everywhere.

This is my campus team (a mix of stinters and staff) on my last day at Waseda university. They gave Shyla and I flowers to say thanks...

...and Jonathans silly team took purikura to celebrate their last week on campus. :) We have SO many pictures like this from this year... a very Japanese activity.

Strange to think that my next post could very well be from the States. We'll miss it here for sure.

By the by... if any of you readers out there are San Diegans, we are having a dessert at Jonathan's parents' place on June 24th at 7pm to share some stories about our adventures in Tokyo. YOU are cordially invited to join us.

By the by, once again... my belly button has popped out like a butterball turkey. That is supposed to be an unofficial sign that the end of pregnancy is near. But, on the contrary friends... I still have 11 weeks to go. I keep trying to remind Lucy of that; we'll see if she's a good listener.

SUMO!!

2008-05-18T05:19:00.000-07:00

We have experienced that once people find out that we have been living in Japan, they like to ask 2 questions...
1. Do you eat sushi? Answer: yes. we LOVE sushi.
2. Have you seen Sumo Wrestling?
Well, we can now emphatically answer, 'YES!'

This weekend our Stint team and a couple JCCC staff went to one day of a sumo tournament. It was amazing. We have a new appreciation and respect for this sport. It's so much more than huge men in thongs,with their hair in buns, pushing each other around... this is an EXPERIENCE. There is so much Japanese history and culture that has really been preserved in this sport. So, it's kind of like going back in time. The clothing (or lack there of), food, entertainment... it's awesome. If you ever get a chance to go... take it.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some sweet photos. Warning: brief partial nudity. proceed with caution... :)

bad bad blogger

2008-05-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

I know it. I'm a really bad blogger. I'm far from reaching my once a week goal and I'm barely making it once a month. I think I'll be better from now on. There is no promise in that, mind you. I just think I'll be better at it now. Time will tell, I suppose.

So, for the updates on life... there are many. Here are a few. There is a lot of emotion attached to all of these changes in life... excitement, sadness, hope, anxiety, etc. One common thread in it all: God is good. Really good.

- We leave Tokyo on June 13th. That feels soon, maybe because it is. I have been thinking lately about how before we left, my friend Lauren prayed for me. She prayed that Tokyo would be a hard place for me to leave. God is really faithful. There have been several things that have not been easy this year, but I can honestly say that I have fallen in love with this city and these people. Tokyo will be a very hard place for us to leave. I think that I will highlight some special Tokyo favorites and moments in the posts to come...

-We are moving to the Fullerton area to lead a new Campus Crusade missional team. We will be working at CSUF and other surrounding colleges. Although this was somewhat of a surprise option for us to consider... we have definitely felt Gods confirmation in the last couple of months that this is a place where He is preparing a home and ministry for us that honors Him. We will be apartment hunting as soon as we get back and hope to get settled in July sometime.

-We are having a baby GIRL! Lucy Joy. And let me tell you, she is indeed joyful. She dances around in my belly like she's in constant celebration. At any given moment wen I am sitting, you can look at my belly and actually SEE her doin' her thing. Pretty exciting stuff. I am 25 weeks- that's 15 more weeks of growth (which seems almost impossible at the moment). The most common greeting I have gotten from Japanese students lately is "Oki!" which means... "big". How sweet of them to notice. :) We are so thankful for how healthy Lucy and I have been.

Lucy is actually due a couple days before school begins at CSUF, what a whirlwind that will be!

-I have a wonderful husband. This is not really an update, he has loved me selflessly since we have been married. However, I feel like he should win some sort of medal for the way he has served me since I have been pregnant. He is a daily reminder to me of Gods faithful and loving provision in my life. Thank you, Jonathan and thank you Jesus.

march madness...

2008-03-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

... sorry sports fans, this is not about basketball. :)

We have had a very eventful, VERY fun month. Baby is growing really quickly (in my opinion, my belly seems huge all of a sudden) and is very active. We had TWO family visits that we packed with as many exciting Tokyo experiences as possible. Having family here was so refreshing and much more normal than I thought. Thanks to skype and ichat, we really get to see family pretty often... and I love that. It was just really sweet to have them in our world... a place that has become really familiar to us, but is so unfamiliar to many people that we love.

Everyone loved it... I think it's hard not to love Tokyo. The people are very friendly, the city is so exciting, the food is extremely yummy and everywhere you go is safe and clean... it's hard to beat. Here are some picture highlights of family time and growing belly madness...

And... a big thank you to those who voted for a middle name! We'll be posting results and decisions soon! We find out in 10 days whether this is little Lucy or little Davis wiggling around in my belly.

a little help please...

2008-02-20T23:09:00.000-08:00

So, I don't know if people usually have names picked out for their unborn children this early, or if they share this information with anyone who asks or stumbles upon their blog.... BUT, we do in fact have names picked out, and YES we will share this with anyone who wants to know. And actually, we would love your input...

If we have a girl (Kristen's vote) her name will be Lucy Joy. You are only allowed to make nice comments about this because our hearts are set on it :).

If we have a boy (Jonathan's vote), his name will be Davis ___? Here is where we need your help. We have created a little poll for you to let us know which of the 4 middle names that we are thinking about you are most fond of. You may also add an idea of your own. We'll let you know the results of the poll soon. Now... please don't be surprised or offended if the popular vote on the poll does not match our choice of the actual baby middle name (we're just not ready to relinquish that much control :)).

Thank you for your participation! We're really excited- maybe you haven't noticed that yet...

priority seat

2008-01-28T02:26:00.001-08:00

Exciting news! I am now among the elite and respected in regards to the Japanese Train System... I qualify for a priority seat. These special seats are reserved for the elderly, handicapped, expecting mothers and people traveling with small children. Can you guess it? Yes! I am that green figure below with the booming belly! I would put pictures of my belly on this blog, but I'm pretty sure I am the only one who thinks I am showing in the least bit.

I am currently 10 1/2 weeks prego (I count the 1/2 because I'm new at this and really excited:)). According to babycenter.com our baby is about the size of a kumquat right now. If you're like me, and you don't know what that is, I've added a picture. Thankfully I don't have four of them like in the picture, just the one. :)

We are so excited about our little kumquat. We get to meet him/her (and yes, we want to find out what it is) sometime around August 22. We haven't quite finalized where in the world we will be on that date... but in the meantime, I am getting fabulous prenatal care from a Japanese hospital. All the doctors speak at least a little English, praise the Lord!

A big thanks to some of of my college girlfriends who bought me my very first maternity wardrobe. Confession: I've already worn the jeans a couple times eventhough I don't need to... they are just SO cute, I couldn't resist. You girls are the best.

picture overload...

2007-12-06T00:08:00.000-08:00

I am going to overwhelm you with pictures because it has been an overwhelming month. Overwhelming in a 'I'm a better person because of it' sort of way :). Life has been going fast and ministry has been really busy, but we have seen some great things happen! God is good, as usual. :) We only have a little over a month left in the semester and then we have a break- so we're going to keep on keepin on and trust the Lord as he does His good work.

this is our Thanksgiving Party- over 200 students plus Staff and Stinters... YEAH!

There is a stinter here who started a gospel choir. They performed for Thanksgiving and they were AWESOME!

We prepared a full thanksgiving meal for all 250+ people who came... I cooked 5 turkeys!!

stuffing. a lot of stuffing.

some of you have asked how the culture is rubbing off on us... :)

cruelty to animals

2007-12-06T00:03:00.000-08:00

Sumo Wrestlers and Fried Shrimp

2007-11-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

The day before Halloween Jonathan and I (dressed as a fried shrimp and sumo wrestler) went with our team (panda bear, pirate, power ranger) to a couple of campuses to publicize for our Halloween Party. So, yes... we wore these crazy outfits on the trains and on campus.
The actual Halloween Party was so fun! We had a carnival (I was in charge of the bobbing for apples station) and then a meeting where Jonathan shared his testimony. Over 100 students came, and many of them expressed their interest in knowing more about Jesus after hearing from Jonathan and also their excitement for our next event! Yeah!

a new phase...

2007-10-24T00:18:00.000-07:00

We have been here for 34 days. I remember when I was counting down the days before we left. Now we're here. We have been for 34 days. I like that. 34 days of all of the "firsts" and transitions and moving and culture shock. 34 days, I think, must be the mark of the end of the beginning, the end of transition. maybe? maybe not. I'm sure there is still much to adjust to and many more things that will demand our flexibility- but, I really do believe that we are entering into a new phase of being here... I would like to call it the "phase of familiarity".

We are now familiar with looking right first before we cross the street so we don't get run over by the cars driving on the left side of the road.
We are very familiar with walking and working an hour into our schedule to get anywhere.
We are familiar with the Japanese charachters that mean "lowfat milk"
We are familiar with taking our shoes off before we enter any home.
Bowing is familiar. I find myself bowing almost instinctively at any and all occasions to most everyone.
Skype is familar.
All 50 square feet of our apartment is familiar. Just jokin, it's more like 100 square feet. :)

We like living in big cities... although this city really does put LA to shame. There is an area of Tokyo- one train stop away from Mitaka (where we live) called Kichijoji. Mmm, I love Kichijoji. Not only is it one of the coolest words to say, it's also the place that has a romantic park and lake, my favorite cofffee shops, sushi, and clothing store (it's like banana republic clothes meet Old Navy prices). beautiful. The best part is that I can walk there from our apartment without taking the train. You should come visit, I'll take you there.

Ministry is slow, but going well. Jonathan and I went to campus just the two of us today to Nihon Universtity. We usually aren't on the same campus together, so it was a treat. We sat in the cafeteria and just talked to the students who came to sit next to us- it was one of my most encouraging days on campus. One of the guys actually lived in San Diego this summer, we bonded with him over conversation about mexican food. All of the students we talked to are planning on coming to our Halloween party outreach- Jonathan will be speaking at it about " the masks we wear". you can pray for him. :)

ok, enough writing for now, who even reads this much on a blog? I'll show you pictures instead.
This is me and two of my favorite Japanese CCC Staff members, Ayumi and Kaori

We found Indian food by our house that we love... all you can eat Nan! It's like Pita bread and it's huge and yummy!

train in the rain...

Jonathan and Paul went surfing in Chiba!

Jonathan and Kermit (one of our teammates) strolling through Mitaka. Take note of the Hello Kitty rugs and the cute boy in the corner- both of which are very easy to find here. :)

Has anyone ever told you...?

2007-10-02T04:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, we say. People have told us that Jonathan looks like Brad Pitt. We would hear this pretty often when we were in the states, but it's pretty crazy how many people have said something since we have been in Japan. We were going to try and count how many times it happened in Japan, but we've already lost count. I guess you could say that I am a lucky woman, or maybe a very envied woman :)

We're actually thinking of turning this phenomenon into an opportunity for an outreach with college students. "Come meet the Brad Pitt look- a - like. Give us 10 minutes of your time and we'll even let you take a picture with him." Hmmm... that might be a stretch, but anything for the gospel, right!?

There has actually been more going on then Brad Pitt conversations, though. :) I'll be honest, it doesn't quite feel like home yet- but we're getting closer. I'm learning to navigate my way around the grocery store (very slowly, I'll admit, since everything is in Japanese), we're eating a lot of ramen, and slowly furnishing and decorating our apartment. maybe we'll set up a virtual tour soon. We had our first day on 2 campuses today, Waseda and Sophia, we just prayer walked gave ourselves a little tour. Next week is when a typical week of minstry will begin. We would love your prayers :)

We're here!

2007-09-22T04:51:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time coming... and here we are. I am sitting in my apartment in Tokyo staring oddly at this blogger page because for some reason all of blogger.com's website is in japanese, I guess I should be getting used to things like this.

God is good and we have totally loved our first 24 hours or so being here. It's kind of been a whirlwind, but a good one. Good-bye's were sad and hard, though. If I were to add anything to the Bible (eventhough I know God is perfect and it's not lacking a thing) I would add "no more goodbyes" to Revelation 21 when it talks about what the new earth will be like. It would go a little something like this:
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying nor pain NOR GOODBYES anymore, for the former things have passed away." (KNAV-Kristen's new adapted version)

I'll post some pictures in the next couple of days and let you all in on some fun stories and details of our first week. For now, I'll just tell you we're here safe and feeling as if we're exactly where God wants us to be. We love you- whoever you are that checks this blog. :)

it feels normal...

2007-08-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Today we got back from Colorado (again) where we had our STINT briefing. There were 400 people at this conference, most of whom left this week for cities all over the world on STINT. I think one of my favorite things about the conference is that it felt normal that we were leaving the country for a year (or more, we'll see :)). On any given day I would be sitting next to people going to Siberia, Italy, North Africa, Costa Rica, Thailand, etc.... the list goes on. What great company!
So, we feel ready. We move out of our apartment in less than 2 weeks and I know I'll miss it. We'll miss friends and family A LOT too, of course. But, we couldn't feel more confident in our call to Tokyo.. so, we are excited and ready. Only 31 days to go, and counting... YEAH!!!

Oh, and if anyone out there is into fiction- I just finished the BEST book: The Ezekiel Option by Joel Rosenberg. It's based on end-time prophecies and Rush Limbaugh describes it , "like an episode of 24 with a supernatural twist". Who wouldn't love this book?!

busy times, good times

2007-07-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

The slow part of summer is now behind us. The countdown to Tokyo, now at 55 days, is quickly approaching... and we couldn't be more excited. In the last month we have been in South Korea for our STINT leaders training, San Diego for sister court's wedding and Colorado for a staff conference. Now we're home for a day before we start traveling again. :)
We got to worship Jesus with 16,000 students from 120 different countries in South Korea for Campus Mission 2007 ... a small glimpse of what heaven might be like :)

Courtney and Aarons wedding...

the count down

2007-06-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

We just found out our official departure date for STINT... September 20. You may think, 'My goodness, that's a long time from now.' Well, I'm thinking that. I was actually a little disappointed when I found out. But then, when I realized I was disappointed about having to wait, I realized that it means that I must have been really excited to go in the first place. Then I was happy. I'm thankful that God has prepared our hearts so much to go that we feel ready now! And now we have more time for raising support, moving, preparing everything, etc. God is good.

This picture is of the craziest pedestrian intersection in the world. It's the Shibuya train stop in Tokyo. Jonathan and a couple of students decided to take a little break in the middle of the street. awesome.

our team

2007-05-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

Here is our new team for next year- we'll actually be splitting into 2 teams of 6. They are awesome! The large group of us are all first time STINTers (Short Term INTernational)and the other pictures are of current STINTers who are coming back for another year!

new to the blogging world

2007-04-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

the picture below is from a fish market- that's tuna!

Here we are. No baby to put up cute pictures of, but bloggers none the less. I thought it might be a good idea to create the habit of blogging, so we could keep everyone up to date on life in Japan when we move there in a few months! We just got back from a retreat this weekend where we met our teammates for the year. We're getting pumped. These are a couple pictures from when we visied Tokyo over Spring Break.

*J * K * L *