Today

Wow! I'm so thankful for all the responses to my parenting question--I feel much better equipped and much more encouraged than I did a few days ago. I had to put this first picture on here of Sterling in one of his temper tantrums just because I thought it was funny. So far, I feel like I've been able to utilize some of the things everyone has said- consistency with the discipline, spanking with love and explanation, and we've also been doing the "time out" place. (My sister in law Amy is trying this with Blake too!) It seems to work pretty well with Sterling since spankings are only minor upsets to him--he's not a kid that feels a lot of pain, so spanking isn't always the "threat" that I would like it to be. But if I make him sit on the bed and not get up, that really upsets him and he changes his tune pretty quickly when he has to do a time out...So we'll see. I know I'm no where near the conclusion of this stubborn and independent stage, so your prayers and advice are always welcome! And I will definitely say prayers for all of you other moms out there with little ones this age!

Today we went on another walk to the store. While we were there we ate at "Convenience Kitchen Restaurant"--again, another funny English name for something. It was a burger/hotdog place. Sterling had a plain cheeseburger but I tried the bacon egg burger, which was pretty good. It had a fried egg, bacon, tartar sauce, ketchup and the burger. You also got to choose what flavor you of french fries you wanted- I couldn't tell what all the flavors were because it was in Japanese, but I ended up with cheese, which was just powder spread over them. Interesting, and actually not too bad.

These steps are by the lake I put in the last post. Sterling climbed up and down them 15 times today before I finally just had to drag him away. He was pretty proud of himself for being so big. I bought him a little koala bear that he is holding in his hand.

Luke finally got a bike last night! We are all very happy to be a little bit more mobile now. Sterling LOVES riding on the bike. He just sits there and holds on and looks around. Tonight we rode over to Mike and Erin's house to have a prayer meeting, and I took this picture of the boys in front of "Daiso" which is similar to a dollar store/wal-mart kind of place.

Sterling's Walk

Sterling and I went on a walk today. We were going to the grocery store, but we took the scenic route along the lake that is near our apartment. In the picture he is standing proudly in front of the lake, where he loves to pick up rocks and sticks as well as look at the ducks. He is also wearing his new rain boots that I got him-- which I'm glad I got, but now he refuses to wear any other shoes but those! I think it's because he got used to wearing his boots all the time in Indiana.
In the second picture, we were sitting at a coffee shop inside the shopping center. I got Sterling a chocolate milk while I had a coffee. I had to sit him down here to talk to him because he had been disobeying me in the grocery store. He was actually driving me crazy because he kept running away from me and screaming at me and hitting me when I made him stay close to me or sit in his stroller. I think we are starting to go through the terrible twos, and I'm at a loss as how to handle him. If any parent has any good suggestions, I'm open to them!

Well, first off, I just want to say thank you so much for all of your prayers! You have amazed us with your love and concern for us, and we feel blessed beyond description to have people like you in our lives. We have felt your prayers and want you to know that we are doing everything we can to fulfill God's call for us here in Japan.
The first picture is Sterling all bundled up after being outside. We walked all the way to the mall and it was FREEZING! I think the temp. was around 35 degrees, but there were wind gusts up to 50 mph that made it nearly impossible to walk. But we kept him all covered up and we had a good evening. Luke still doesn't have a bike, but we're going to get him one soon, then we won't have to walk as much!
The other picture is our apartment building. There isn't really a front or back side. This is the side that faces the street. We are the third balcony over.

A few thoughts...

I don't have any new pictures to post yet, but I have been making a few observations and thoughts I wanted to share with you...
1. Luke starts school tomorrow which is so crazy to me. I feel like we just stepped off the plane and haven't stopped going since. Sterling and I will both wait to start until the rest of our team gets here on Feb. 4. Luke will have to take a placement test to decide which class he'll be in, which makes me nervous because I feel like we know NOTHING.
2. Lots of people smoke here and they do it inside all the stores and restaurants. It's really disgusting because I had gotten used to California and Greencastle where there is no smoking allowed in public places.
3. The trash situation here is ridiculously complicated...I mean ridiculous beyond comprehension. They have categories, special bags, special locations and special times for each item of trash you have. So far, we've figured out that there is combustible trash, incombustible, plastics, PET bottles (which you must rinse, remove the cap and label, then dispose of), as well as all other trash which goes in various other categories such as household appliances, mirrors, clothing, aluminum cans, cardboard, etc. So each of these categories go in different places with different bags on different days. It's about to drive me insane because we can't figure any of it out since all we have is pictures and Japanese writing. On our apartment contract it says that incorrect disposal of trash has serious repercussions on the entire local community. Wow!
4. We have been walking everywhere so far and it's really cold here. Not freezing like Indiana or Iowa, but cold like Missouri. Most days it's about 40, but today it's down in the 30's and raining. (which means we can't go anywhere because we don't have a car). It's about a 2 mile walk to school, 3 miles to the train station, probably about 3 miles to the mall. That makes it really difficult to get anything like a microwave, bedding, or anything larger than what you can carry a few miles. This has been pretty frustrating to us, and we're wondering about how we're going to get to school on the days that it's raining really hard.
So please pray for us because we're tired and having all the frustrations of living in a new place where you don't speak the language, you can't get the things you need, and you don't know how to do basic every day living. We're doing well and enjoying the experiences we're having, but we want to be honest and let you know that we need your prayers!

First Impressions

Here's my new bike! I rode it around today and I really like it. Lots of people here ride bikes to get around, so that's nice. Luke is going to get one soon and get a child's seat on it so that Sterling can ride with him.

There is one Starbucks in Okazaki and we went yesterday with some of our team. It's at the mall and we had to go there to get pictures so that we could get alien registration cards. Luke wanted to take a picture of the menu for everyone to see. Their drinks are more expensive than in America!

This is the preschool where Sterling will attend with at least one of the other kids on our team. I was a little apprehensive about it, but once I saw it I really liked it. There are two rooms for them to play in and lots of toys. Sterling and Brayden, the other boy on the team, jumped right in and loved it all. They will start on Feb. 4. Luke starts school on Thursday, but I won't start until Sterling starts.

Before we left the guys Luke always went to breakfast with prayed for him to find a restaurant like the Monon here in Japan...so we think this place is it! It's really close to our house and a taxi driver told us that it's a really old place. We went this morning and unfortunately they had NO pictures on their menu. So the waitress just came and asked us something in Japanese, and I just shook my head yes. So she brought us out coffee, a one inch thick piece of toast and a hard boiled egg. (At first I thought it was a raw egg, but then we saw someone else cracking it open, luckily). It was a pretty decent breakfast, but it doesn't really compare to the Caden's special at the Monon! Sterling really liked the toast but didn't care for the egg.

This is Sterling with jet lag. He's actually a lot easier to deal with when he's like this and we're trying to get some shopping done...

Japan!

We made it! Here are some pictures of our travels and first few hours here:

This was our flight to California. Sterling got a little snack on the plane and he was sitting there so nicely eating it!

This is at Steve and Stacey's house (we stayed with them for 2 nights in CA.) They have a new little dog named Kobe and Sterling LOVED it. He constantly wanted to carry him around and Cade always had to help him do it right. They played together and had lots of fun for the day they were together.

Unbelievably, we have cows right behind our apartment! I honestly think it's hilarious that we moved from a farm into suburban Japan and we still live with the cows! But Luke and Sterling are very excited to be able to look out the window and see them, and Luke even took a deep breath of the stink when we walked by because it reminded him of home :)

We walked to a little shopping center with our teammate Andy this afternoon and this octopus was walking around. Sterling really liked it.

This is our bathroom...

Sterling's room (the Mickey Mouse mat is going to be what he sleeps on)...

The kitchen, which has no oven,two burners, very little storage, but a nice refrigerator...

And our bedroom, with Luke and Sterling sitting on the mat we're sleeping on.
So this is it, I know it's hard to get a good idea of what it looks like from pictures, but you get the idea :) I mentioned this in the email I sent out, but the ceilings are really low! Luke has hit his head already once in the doorframes!

Leaving Indiana

Well, this will be my last post until we get to Japan! How exciting is that?! Hopefully the next pictures you see will be of our little apartment at the school :)

This was a picture taken back during Thanksgiving. Luke's cousin Katie took some pictures of us and they were really good!

Here is Sterling with his second cousin, Jaxon Birt. He was born on New Year's Eve and Sterling was all about holding him and giving him kisses.

As most of you know, Luke has really gotten into farming over the last couple of years that we've gotten to spend time here in IN. So the other day they found our bull in the back with a section of the hay bunk stuck around his neck. He had evidently been walking around like this for 2 day before dad and Luke were able to free him by pulling it off with the tractor.

Both of Luke's parents have come to visit over the last two weeks, and here is a picture of him swimming with Luke and Steve. Sterling went swimming five times within 24 hours!

This is my cousin Daniel with his new little baby Jaxon, along with our dad's, our grandad and our great grandmother.

This is my cousin Shane and his wife Sara (yes, we have two Shane and Sara's in our family!!) They live in Cinncinati and came up for the weekend. We were glad we got to see them once more before we leave.

This is Sterling with his Great Papa Nelson. We all watched the Colts game together on Sunday, but unfortunately they lost.

We went to lunch at McDonald's one last time with my parents this week and I snapped this picture. I'm sure we'll eat McDonald's in Japan too though!