Moving Doors

I've had a very busy last couple of days! I've started school again this week. It's been a gradual start this week....I've been taking on more and more every day. I've started to train myself to be up at 6 every morning, and get a good start on the day. My morning system from last year is just a little bit thrown off because of the crutches, but I've been working on it.

I had my re-evaluation appointment for my ankle yesterday......it turned into a very long day with lots more appointments scheduled but I still don't have the answers I wanted....like, "WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY ANKLE???" The doc said I needed to stay on crutches for another 3 weeks, and then we'll have it x-rayed again. And I'm set to start physical therapy in October.

We had it x-rayed yesterday, but they said they couldn't see anything on the x-ray....but the one i had 2 weeks ago showed SOMETHING. He said it could be a subtle fracture....or some other big scientific word, but I think it is basically a really bad bone bruise (that could require surgery if it doesn't heal right) or it could be a bone bruise that is healing right and won't require surgery....I don't understand it all. But I'm looking at crutches for another 3-9 weeks.

But what I do understand is that I'm out of football for the season :( I went and talked to coach after the appointments and let him know. I'm not real happy about it....but life goes on. One door closes, lots more open. I just need to keep moving and not get stuck in the closing doors....if that makes any sense.

Never Forget

It gets me choked up when I stop and read the stories of the heroes who died in the 9/11 attacks. But it also gives me hope. Because it didn't matter if someone was a Christian or a Muslim, a Republican or Democrat on 9/12....we were all Americans. It's sad to me that it takes something as terrible as 9/11 for us all to remember that. There is something more to us than our differences. There is a hero inside of every American that unties us all in the face of danger.

We can never forget the fallen of 9/11, or those who continue to fall in the War on Terror. We're all Americans.

The Good Samaritan strikes again and again

It's a Thursday night (Japanese lessons night) and so mom is at the house with lessons till around 7-7:15. Practice end at 6. So i went over to the Mokuteki to get some dinner. It is next to impossible to carry anything in my hands when I'm trying to walk on the crutches. So i leaned the crutches against the wall and limped around getting what i needed. One of the employees, on seeing me getting up to get my food, said, "I'm sick and tired of watching you limp all over the place. Give me your receipt and go sit down." Probably the best service I'm ever gotten there!

And then when i was done eating, I was trying to throw my tray away (i'd grabbed my crutches this time) And then a elderly lady jumped up and took my tray from me and threw it away.

I then head over to the library to blow an hour. The Japanese libarian was like, "if you ever need anything, just let me know." And then we talked a bit about my injury etc. I'm so touched by how helpful most everyone is. The Good Samaritan struck again and again tonight....then again....that guy didn't help me when i got stuck in the door.....hhhmmm

Ever feel this way? lol

A Tale of Two Trips to the UCC

Last Monday at football practice, we were doing tackling drills. I was doing pretty good, I"d broken every tackle that day and was feeling good. But in the one tackle that i went down. I dont even know how to describe how it happened....but something bad happened to my ankle. That was game week against our rival for the championship and so I was determined to work through it.

I wasn't able to practice Tuesday, and Wednsay (my foot was still swollen) I was still limping. I wrapped my ankle and tried to practice. On Thursday morning my foot hurt worse than it did on Tuesday and Wednsay and was still swollen. So Mom and I went to the UCC. I'd torn my ligaments and the docs x-rayed my ankle and couldn't tell whether it a bruised bone or a broken bone......soooooo their remedy was to be on crutches for two weeks and then come in and get it x-rayed again and then they should be able to tell if it's broken or bruised.

This is soooo frustrating to me!! I was building up momentum again from my last football injury and now I'm on the bench for at least two weeks, or if it's a break then my season is done. In my complete and unbiased opinion.....this sucks. But at least we don't have a game for a couple of weeks and so I should be able to play in the next game.

It kinda looks like my leg was cut off....it wasn't! lol

*Sigh* I'm on the injured list again. I got hurt at practice last week.....short and sweet of it: I"m on crutches now. I'm waiting to find out if it is a broken bone, or a badly bruised bone.

In other news! lol We're getting ready to start school again! Human videos is getting ready to start. A friend is taking it over for me while I do football. I'm excited to see where this goes. I need to run and finish getting ready for practice! I'll update more about life later tonight (hopefully)

Football Mania

These last couple of weeks have been craazy! 2 a days with football is done....that was murder! This last week has been a bit saner with football, we only practiced 3.5 hours a day! lol

This is my first year to play football. Coach came and talked to me the other day and said, "You can either get little playing time on Varsity, or I can put you on JV and you'd get a LOT of playing time." Hmmmm....no playing......or lots of playing time. I'm on JV now. I'm having a lot of fun. There's not nearly as much glory or hype on JV, but the guys there aren't nearly as arrogant as the Varsity guys are and I'm learning the game and actually playing it. lol

I'm starting wide receiver. I was worried about learning the plays in time for the game (in about 6 hours) but I think I've got them all down. It really is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I think my only problem right now is catching the ball, but I'm getting better at it.

There's a really fast update....sorry I haven't updated lately. I'm trying! I've got to run and get some school done before I need to get ready for the game.....I've got a good feeling about it.

ER

It has almost been 2 weeks since I last updated....sorry!! It has been crazy! I don't really remember what I did before this week, but this week football practice started.

We're doing 2 a days.....I was having a blast and tearing it up. I love all of the drills and how intense it is. On day two, about 30 minutes before we were done for the day, I got hurt though. We were running a play and I was playing defensive end. I saw a gap in their line and so I shot through it. Their QB jumped in front of me to block me and I slid to the left and collided with their runner back as he tried to make a run for it. We both ended up on the floor....I've heard a lot of conflicting stories from this point on.....some say I was down for about a minute, others said I jumped right up.....all agreed that when I did get up and I went back over to the line of scrimmage and lined up again. lol His face mask smacked me pretty hard in the face and I was bleeding and ended up needing to go to the ER and get stitched up.

so I've been out of football for the last couple of days, just waiting for the cut to scab before I can start doing drills again and then I have to wait till they take the stitches out of my chin till I can start tackling again. Oh well.

Youth Rally-Set Me Free

Our human video team went and performed at a Youth Rally off base, done at a local church. I love helping out with these Youth Rallies, and they love having us out to perform so it all works out great. There were a lot of changes to this one, in contrast to the one we did at the Edgren Talent Show (placed 3thd). For one, I'm the devil.

Here's the team that performed (6 others were not there last night). I'm the one with the grey jacket, Arielle is far left, and Nolan is directly to my right.

From 2010-07-30VBS_YouthRally

You'll have to watch the video to understand what is going on! lol

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Getting ready to fight-the one in white is playing Jesus

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From 2010-07-30VBS_YouthRally

There's my little bro!

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From 2010-07-30VBS_YouthRally

From 2010-07-30VBS_YouthRally

From 2010-07-30VBS_YouthRally

From 2010-07-30VBS_YouthRally

From 2010-07-30VBS_YouthRally

Back at the house!

From 2010-07-30VBS_YouthRally

It was a lot of fun! A lady from the chapel did the make-up for us. She did a really good job!

VBS-Day 1-2

We're almost half way through with this years VBS at the chapel. We've got around 250 kids attending, and a lot of volunteers. We've all been really busy.

I am a crew leader for the 3-4th grade boys......needless to say, they keep me on my toes! My crew, Crew #20, and I are all going to be really tight pals by the time this is done. We all have a blast. It kinda makes me think about House of Faith. I shutter to think about how immature I was that first year with dealing with them at HOF. I'm really glad I've had so much experience with dealing with hard kids, cuz I've not lost my cool once or even been close too.

Everyone knows Crew #20 is gathering up when they hear, "Hoorah, hoorah!" shouted everywhere. When I need their attention, or we need to gather up or move somewhere, I call, "hoorah!" and they all answer with "hoorah!" until we're all together. They're awesome guys. And then when we move from station to station, we form a Kongo line and sing. lol

Day 1 Funny:
The theme was God's Word being our compass. One of my crew members looked up to me (and this was after I'd been telling them how important it is to read the Bible cuz it will give you guidance for ANY life problems you may have) and said, "So the bible is our compass?"
Me, "Yep, that's right." He then reached out and randomly opened a pew Bible and started to read. I was suddenly distracted by one of my other crew members and so I looked away for a minute or two. My attention was quickly brought back to him when I heard, "Hey look! It says sex!" I looked down and he was reading something about sexual purity.
Me, "Ahh! Give me that!"
Kid, "But why does it say sex?"
Me, "Well the Bible is about real people and life-"
Kid, "And so it has sex in it????"
Me, "Just put the Bible down, let's sing this song."

Day 2 Funny:
It was at the end of the day, and we were singing the last song before announcements and then dismissal. Well......one of the kids in the crew in front of us decided to put his gum on the pew and one of his friends sat in it. So when we all stood up to sing, the kid suddenly got really freaked out because the gum was stuck to the back of his pants and it was holding him down.
Kid1, "AHHH! somethings got my butt!"
Kid2,"Oh my gosh, what is that????"
Kid3, "haha! it's stuck on his butt!"
Kid1, "Get it off!!"
You'd have to see it to really see the full humor in this. Kid1 was trying to stand up, but the gum wouldn't let him, and so Kid3 reached across and was trying to pull the gum of his butt, while Kid2 adds in sarcastic comments throughout the process. I tried to keep it under control, but all four of us were laughing really hard.

At the Library! (this is more exciting than it sounds)

I'm sitting here at the library......I just rode my bike up to base. Mom and siblings were at a deployment camp thing, and so I was chilling at the house till I needed to head into base for human video practice. I'm glad I left early, cuz the normal 25 minute bike ride took almost an hour.

Friends had told me to hand the chains (kinda heavy, need them for human videos) off to them last night at the VBS training night. I forgot to, and so I carried them with me. They were very heavy, and cumbersome. I held the bag with chains (I was afraid it would be to heavy and break the straps) with one hand and steered with the other. It was a bit wild, and it started to rain, but I made it! And now I've got about 15 minutes before I need to go and get the practice set up at the gym. I tried to log into my facebook account, but I've completley forgot the password :(

Fishing and Human Videos

It' has been a craazy week! I'm doing the final drive for a couple of my school subjects! Whew.....I'm tired!

I finally made it and got up early so I could go fishing. I didn't catch anything, but I did get a bite this time! haha I know there are fish in there, cuz there was this monster fish swimming within a few feet of the shore.....which is when my harpoon idea came to mind. If the fish are going to cheat and not bite my hook, then I'll cheat right back at 'em! I'm now in the process of creating a harpoon.....any design ideas? I'm thinking a barbed tip so that I can pull the fish in, and not just impale it! lol

It has been really hot these last few days. We've gone to the beach every day this week. The water is cold, but that can be pretty refreshing! Mom bought some water mattresses (ever tried blowing one of those up????) and those are a lot of fun on the waves. I was on one of the mattresses and had been getting rather close to the shore when a big wave rolled over the top of my and crashed me on the beach....and then pulled me back into the ocean.....hmmm note to self: don't float to close to the shore!

I've been busy these last few days with human videos again! Cavalry Baptist Church is having another youth rally and invited us out there again about a month ago for the rally at the end of July. I've been communicating with their people the last couple of weeks: what song we're doing, the message, and then I needed to get them a copy of the script. I wrote the script, so it is a bit messy and I wrote it to read while I worked with the team. Needless to say I spent a bit of time editing the script! I sent that off to them, and now they're translating it into Japanese for the speakers.

A lot of the team (5 out of the original 10) won't be there....one moved, and four others are traveling. I'm sooooo extremely glad that I thought ahead this time and left a couple of the actors to learn all the parts, the "Jacks of all Trades," and so we've got most of the parts covered. I'm having trouble getting the last part covered, and so I think I may just grab my little brother and give him a crash course lesson this Saturday. I know he's not 7th grade or up, but he helped me write out the fighting scenes and we really don't have many other options so last minute.

And then today we decorated for VBS.....more details to come! It is going to be awesome!

School!

It's been a pretty slow, but somehow busy week! I'm pressing to get done with math by the end of next week, science is giving me some problems and so it is likely it won't be till around August that I'll be done with that :(

I've tried these last few mornings to get up 5; I was planning an excursion to the pond where I'd sit and fish for a couple of hours before the day started.....I attacked the alarm clock the first morning and went back to bed. The second morning it was raining, but I was awake! And then last night I just decided to go to bed and not try....but I woke up at 5:30 on my own. Weird. Maybe I'll try Sunday morning.

I'm going paint balling with the youth group tomorrow! And then after paint balling I'll run over the gym and get cleaned up and join the family. We are going on an ITT tour to see fireworks in Towada. I'm sure pics will follow!

I've been working my way through Crime and Punishment. That is a really good book! It is kinda dark, but I'm finding it very interesting. Yet at the same time, kinda disturbing. I've enjoyed comparing it to other "deep" books I've read this year, and seeing the similar technique that Dostoevsky and Victor Hugo used in their novels.

For the best books that I've read this year, Crime and Punishment ranks in the top three (with Pride and Prejudice and A Tale of Two Cities). All three are really good. Crime and Punishment is by far the most thought provoking though.

Random sightings

Saw this sign at the Morioka Zoo (a long post will follow :). It really is a good thing they had this sign posted, cuz who knows, I may have started to smork.

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We saw this old Orthadox looking church while lost in Morioka City, which was a bit of a zoo for that matter.

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Wandering Around Japan

A science experiment needed me to go and collect some leaves from trees in the area. During my search for leaves I found this picturesque Shinto shrine.....I really need to start taking my camera with me, because all I had was my cell phone. So I took pictures with the cell phone and then took pictures of the cell phone's pictures with Mom's camera. That is why they're kinda grainy. lol

From 2010_07_01_museum_games

From 2010_07_01_museum_games

From 2010_07_01_museum_games

Last Saturday I went with the youth group up to Aomori Christian center to help clean up the place (Cavalry Baptist sent a group as well). WOW! there was a lot of work to be done! And there was a lot of poison ivy and and poison oak. We did a lot of different stuff...from clearing brush to mowing 6.5 acres of grass with a push mower......it looked sooo funny to see five guys all pushing mowers in a circle on the same plot of grass!

It was a lot of work, but I had a blast! Hopefully pics will follow later!

Human videos is basically done for the summer. We will perform Set Me Free at Cavalry Baptist' youth rally for the Japanese at the end of July, and then we'll be dormant till school starts again. *Deep breath of relief* it has been a lot of work! But the team is awesome, and I'm going to miss it for the summer :(

This and That

I've been enjoying partial retirement.....I've had a lot of free time lately. Mostly I've been working out and chilling with siblings

From 2010_07_01_museum_games

We ran to the mall to get some dinner the other night (mom was at meetings all day, and we forgot to start the charcoal). It is funny to see Japanese on ToyStory! haha

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From 2010-06-23_shimoda

Hey!

WOW! It's been a while since I've updated! I've been extremely busy, but here is a recap!

I got my drivers permit last week, and drove for the first time on Sunday. I can't really say it was hard getting used to driving on the left side, cuz I've never driven on the right side. lol I didn't run into anything or kill anyone, so I must be a natural ;)

I finished the core of my school work this week! It has been a super long drive, but I'm finally done with the core. I should be done with math and science in a bit, and I've got a couple of weeks left in PowerPoint. I'll be doing piano and Japanese lessons throughout the summer. I'm also finishing up Crime and Punishment, that's a deep book!

A couple of Japanese guys were at the neighborhood basketball hoop on Sunday. I went out and asked to play with them. They agreed (at first they thought I was coming to kick them out of the sub-division). I speak a bit of Japanese and they speak a bit of English, so we were able to communicate a bit. I told them my name, they told me theirs. It was pretty cool. and not that it matters or anything, but I beat the two of them 34-26.

Hmmm....we junked the hiace and bought a friends car, they were moving. Human videos is taking a recess until July, but we've got a very busy month coming up.

Saturday!

We went geocaching on Saturday. That was the first time that we've tried it without Dad or Cy to work the GPS, but we managed and found two! It took us down to the coast and then back into town.

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Zander found it!

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After we found the first one we walked around through the woods by Veedol beach...that's not the actual name of the beach but it has Miss Veedol's replica sitting out there therefore it is Veedol beach. lol.

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I'm collecting bamboo rods for my own secret plans *evil laugh*

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We also found the original runway that Miss Veedol took off of. It was pretty neat. There was a Japanese man out there pulling plants off the side of the path and bagging them up. At first I thought he was weeding, but then I realized he intended on eating those plants. He said it was "oishi," (delicious) mom tried eating one there but didn't really like it.

From 2010-06-12 Saturday_geocache

Haircuts!

I rode into the base on Saturday to get a haircut....but this time I was armed with a picture of how I wanted it done...oh yeah.

2010-06-12 Saturday_geocache

I walked up and showed the elderly Japanese barber man the picture...he looked at, then at me, then he gazed off into the distance and said firmly, "NO." He tried not to smile, but there was a slight smirk as he cut my hair. And then afterwards he asked to see the picture again and then he went and showed it to another barber who busted out laughing. Ahhhh good times.

Adventures in Japan

Deep Breath! Mom is back! It was a really long week, but the folks at the chapel really took care of us while she was gone. She got back last night.

The human video team also performed in the high school talent show, we placed 3thd! I'll see about getting some pictures and a video later.

I started working on school again today, and got a lot done. I was feeling tired and so I decided to make an excursion to the ocean. It's a really pretty bike ride! As I got closer to the coast everything started to get really foggy and grainy; it looked really neat as it shifted across the rice fields though.

The beach was pretty foggy, I walked along it for a while and took a couple of pictures and collected some stuff along the beach.

I climbed out onto the wave breakers, and there was a big splash right behind me as I took the picture, and it kinda startled me! That's why I'm looking to the side

From 2010-06-10

From 2010-06-10

It was really relaxing and I felt refreshed and ready to take on life again when I got back. I also found a long bamboo rod in the wave breakers. I asked a Japanese dude out there (he was golfing on the beach.....hmmmm interesting) if it was alright to take it. I'm not entirely sure we completely understood each other but he said to take it. Getting it home was a bit tricky! I felt like a knight...but I'm sure I looked like a clown with that big old rod tucked under my arm! lol