Play place at Wing Town

There is a really fun kids play place at the shopping center near us. Yesterday while I grocery shopped, Luke and Sterling played there and Sterling loved it! This was actually his second time to go because if I have a lot of groceries to get, I need Luke to help me take get them home.






Yesterday Luke and I got to go on a date while Jay, Caitlin, Andy and Tony watched Brayden and Sterling. We went to the mall and had a great time and ended up getting donuts from Mister Donut while we were there. We thought it would be a fun treat to have for breakfast this morning. So I took pictures of the boys eating them, but it turned out that they were really gross! They were hard and tasted like they had colored crisco on top of them instead of icing...Not anything like donuts in America, that's for sure!

Trip to Nagoya

We are having a 3 day weekend this weekend (Yeah!) because there was a holiday this week in Japan (I'm still not sure what holiday it was). So Thurs. night Tony and Andy came over and we ate dinner and just hung out together. This picture is Tony and Sterling watching some kind of Japanese Ninja movie together-- you can tell that they were both very into it :)

Then yesterday Jay, Caitlin, Tony, Andy, us and a girl from school named Cara (from England) went to Nagoya on the train. The first place we stopped was starbucks so that we could all meet up because we went on different trains (and so that we could get some much needed caffeine since Sterling had woken up at 5 that morning!)

Sterling fell asleep soon after we arrived at Starbucks (after he had finished his cookie and milk, of course) and so I took this picture of him sleeping on Luke's shoulder amidst all the hustle and bustle of getting on a subway to go to a different part of the city. He slept right through it!

Later when we were on our way home from Nagoya we got back on a regular train and there were tons of people so Jay had to stand- and Sterling really wanted to stand like a big guy and hold onto the handle too!
Unfortunately, we took the wrong train...So yes, we've already experienced making a big mistake and having to get off at a random stop, try and figure out which train to get on next-- but luckily a nice Japanese man who spoke a tiny bit of English pointed us in the right direction.

And these are Sterling's new boots. He begs every day to wear his boots so I got him these little "cowboy" boots. They are pretty cute. He has his feet up on the back of the seat on the train in this picture, which I'm sure is culturally insensitive, but after that long of a day, we were just glad he was still happy!

School

Sorry about not having new pictures for a while-- our days are very busy with school, homework and just trying to keep life together (cooking, cleaning, etc.) It has been VERY cold here and riding our bikes has been kind of miserable lately, not to mention that it rains quite frequently here too. So we've been looking at cars lately (we have a built in stipend with MSGF if we choose to buy one) so we're thinking about getting a cheap used one. Living here is kind of like living in any small town- there is very little to no public transportation, it's impossible to get everywhere you need to go in the city on your bike, and when you go to the store you can only get home what you can carry in your bike! We both feel like we could make it here with just bikes if it were just the two of us, but since we have Sterling, we really think getting a car for the bad weather days is a must (because there is an entire monsoon season here where it will rain for a couple of months straight). He has a really bad cold now, and yet still we are getting him out every day and many nights and taking him in the cold, windy weather on our bikes...so we're feeling kind of bad.
That's the new news with us, otherwise, here are some pictures!
This is Sterling having his snack yesterday. I thought it was funny that he was lounging like that.

This is Luke's class at school. His teacher's name is Tsunoda, and Mike and Andy are in his class too.

This is my class. My teacher's name is Yoshiguchi and Nick, Tony, Erin, Jay and Caitlin are all in my class. We are all enjoying classes, but they are VERY hard and are challenging us in a whole new way than Thai did.

Colette's B-day

Last Tuesday was Coco's 4th birthday, so we all got together for a party. This was actually the first time our entire team was all together in one place. It was a fun night together. The first thing Sterling did when we came in was give Coco her present and it was really cute, he said "Boytday!" (meaning, Happy Birthday!) So here he is in this first picture wearing a b-day hat.

All during the party he kept asking about the boytday cake, and obviously, as shown in this picture, he was a little excited about eating cake! But there really wasn't cake because we don't have ovens, so it was actually cream puffs and they were VERY good. Rachel also made mini cupcakes for the kids in her little toaster oven thing.

Here is everyone together for a picture, except me, I was taking it!


We got a ton of snow yesterday, which we found out is VERY uncommon for this area. People were saying that if it ever does snow here it never sticks, but it definitely did yesterday; there was probably about 4-5 inches on the ground. I videotaped Sterling playing in it, so if I can figure out how to get it on here, I will :)

My camera is dead

This is a pic I took a couple of days ago when Sterling fell asleep holding his tractor. The kid is seriously attached! The unfortunate thing is that my camera died a couple of days ago and I am still looking for batteries. Things have been so busy lately that it's been hard to get little things like that done! Sterling has had a good week at school and has even napped there the last two days. There has been a lady who speaks some English working there to help with translation so we know more about what is going on during the day with him. She is going to help him with his Japanese words, so we are excited about that. I just started school today (we put Sterling in before I started so that in case he needed anything I could come to the school without missing my school). We did very little today, just testing to see what level we would be in. Everyone on our team is in level one, but Luke, Mike and Andy will be two weeks ahead of all of us since they started early. Tomorrow we should get started doing a lot more. We were told today that studying Japanese here at Yamasa (the name of the school) for 8 weeks is like studying an entire year at a University- which is intimidating! They go very quickly and require that you study AT LEAST 2 hours every night after school. For most people coming through that is no problem since school gets out around 3, but for those of us who have kids, that extra amount of studying every night on top of 6 hours of school is a lot. Pray for us to have balance in our lives, to find the best schedule, and to be diligent students as well as parents.

Breakfast before school

Sterling got to have french toast and eggs for breakfast before his first day of school. He was very excited.

School video

Nursery School!

I don't have a picture to post right now, but Sterling had a great first day of school! I actually do have video of us dropping him off and him playing a little, but honestly, I'm just too tired right now to go get it and put it on here :) But I promise I will do it tomorrow. I just wanted all of you who are praying to know that he did very well, and when we went to pick him up, he wasn't even ready to go with us because he was having such a good time. The only hitch was that he wouldn't take a nap there-- which means an extremely grouchy and tired kid here at home this afternoon/evening. So pray for him to be able to relax and take a little nap from now on, it will help everyone involved, I'm sure!

Sterling the gymnast

Sterling's New Room!

Well, first here is a picture of Sterling in his new room-- and he slept in it all night last night! Some things with him can be really difficult, but sleeping has never been an issue, and I'm so thankful for that!! I took the picture like this so you could see how Luke decorated his room- with John Deere tractors all over the top (like a border) and all kinds of other John Deere decorations. He sleeps on a little Mickey Mouse mat, which he loves. Oh, and by the way, I was corrected by Carolyn from my post the other day, I didn't get Sterling a Koala bear, I got him a panda bear :) I've got to get my bears right!

These next couple of pictures are just Sterling at home with me while Luke was at school. Sterling starts his preschool/daycare on Monday, and I'm getting nervous about it! As I think through everything it will mean to have him be there all day everyday, I start to realize that's not really what I want for him...But on the other hand, I definitely want Sterling and I to be able to learn Japanese too , so I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. I know I'm for sure going to go to the first round of classes (starting next week and going until sometime in April) and after that I will rethink whether I want to stay home with him, or have us both continue in "school". Yet another thing I could use your prayers about!


Yesterday we got our two boxes that we sent from America and we were all SO excited, but esp. Sterling because it was mostly his toys. He has played and played with them all because for the last two weeks, all he has had were a couple of things we had packed on the plane with us-- he's been kind of bored! He also got a tractor in one of the boxes that he carried around with him ALL day yesterday and wouldn't every put down.

Yesterday we also went to a store called Nitori to get some bedding. Luke didn't know I was taking this picture, but I thought it was really cute of Sterling. We ended up getting this little cushion thing to go under our mat that we sleep on, but let me tell you, it wasn't much of a help, we still felt like it was hard as a rock last night! I'm sure it's just another thing that will take some time to get used to.

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!