A post from my Mama blog on Violet's cough

http://violetsmama.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/the-big-bad-cough-and-mamas-fears/

Video: Sweet Pea's Beginnings

Sweet Pea's Beginning

"Bare Feet On the Pavement" a poem for my dear brothers

I remember we dancing all around
As rain the came falling to the ground
We left the front door open wide
We couldn't stop smiling even if we tried

Suddenly all our worries gone
Washed away as we sang that song
We used to sing when we were small
Before you'd grown to be so tall

We used to fight
So much back then
You always had to be right
And I always had to win

But right there in that moment
With the rain upon our heads
Our bare feet on the pavement
We forgot all the things we'd said

And we all live so far apart
We're all grown up some how
But I often think about that day
And I keep you all close to my heart.

June 2008
I wrote this poem on a rainy day last year thinking about my dear sweet brothers. My loving husband told me I should blog it.
I love you and miss you so. Love, Yaya

Hoshigaki 2008

Recent Video from the Okirai train station:

My train ride and video from last year.

This is kaki (Japanese persimmon)-video from Gabe:

This is what the kaki look like after they have been peeled and hung outside to be dried for winter (now they become "hoshigaki")-video by Gabe:

Not the usual commute

Hey everyone this is Steph. Today as I was taking my usual ride home on the train I had quite a surprise. The train I take also provides scenic tours of the coastline. I am blessed because I get to ride it at least 4 times a week. The scenery is quite breathtaking and it allows me to observe the changing of the seasons from the comfort what is sometimes my own private train. Today, however, there was a tour booked for the time I needed to ride home from work. During the tour rides they sell different souvenirs and also tell the travelers about what they are seeing. Today there was something extra special though. The man leading the tour finished off the ride with our own private tiger dance. The tiger comes around and "bites" your head for good luck. He wasn't sure what to do to me though...being the only non-Japanese person on the train, so he "bit" my arm instead. Hopefully that will prove to be lucky too. (^o^)/ So here are some pics and a short video that I took. Enjoy!

Steph's Eyes

Gabe here... happy that my bride's eye were well-taken care of:

Snickerdoodle Christmas Cookies

Hey everybody...I made this back in December but never got around to posting it. This is one of my favorite schools! The kids and the teachers are great! We had a great time making Snickerdoodles together.

Ikebana

Hi Friends and Family! A couple of weekends ago I was able to go to an Ikebana (flower arrangement) festival in a nearby town. It was really amazing. One of the best parts was being able to see some old friends and neighbors from Sumita (our old hometown). I went to the festival with my friend Teresa. She is also an ALT here in Japan. We enjoyed some "girl time" and really enjoyed visiting. Here are a few pictures from the festival. If you would like to see more please click on this album.

Video: Sakura Memories

The sakura (cherry blossoms) have been gone for two weeks, but we still have the memories:

Video: Steph's Bday Thank You Movie

Hey everybody, I made this little video to share some memories from my birthday weekend. Thank you everyone for making it so special! Hope you like it.
Also, you can see the inside of a really old traditional Japanese inn where we stayed. There are video clips of the fancy dinner and breakfast we had there too.

Video: Easter 2007 Sunday School

Hey y'all, Gabe here...
Hope you all had a blessed Easter. Steph put this short film together of the movie clips and pics I took. You can see Steph's sunday schoolers experiencing an easter egg hunt and singing during yesterday's service. I asked her to include the movie clip of her singing too (sorry though, the end of the song she sang is cut-off)

Video: "Spring Has Sprung" by Steph

Hey Everybody!
Gabe here,... I'm proud to introduce the first "Peanutbutter and Pickles™ " production ever!!!

Today, Steph made a short film which will give you the "nickel tour" of our little home here in Ofunato. There's also some silliness at the end too...

Just click the play button (you may have to pause it and let it "buffer"---just let the grey bar get to the right side) and enjoy the goofery.

Sunday School

Hi everybody....just wanted to show you some pics of my Sunday School class. We have been having a lot of fun lately. Last weekend we had a St. Patrick's Day party. I made lime Jello for the kids and we drank melon cream soda! I think the kids had fun...I know I did. Anyways, the weather is nice and warm today. More like spring weather, unlike the last couple weeks of unseasonably cold winter weather. We are really looking forward to the cherry blossoms which should bloom a little early this year due to the warm winter. It is one of my favorite times of year because everything seems so cheerful with pink blossoms everywhere. I love when they fall too because it seems like it's raining pink butterflies or something... Anyways. Here are the pics. We love and miss you all!





and here's a few pics from a couple of weeks ago. We decorated flower pots and planted seeds.

Girl's Day

In Japan, March 3rd is Girl's Day ( 雛祭り, Hina-matsuri)
Here is a picture of Steph from one year ago. This was taken at the Setamai Kindergarten where Steph has been a volunteer guest teacher for 3 years.

Steph wrote a really nice post last year about it.
Click here and check it out.

And...

Ave Maria Warm-up

Hey y'all... I'm sorry this took so long but we were finally able to load the video of Steph at the Christmas Eve service. Sorry it's so short but YouTube kept rejecting the full version because it was to long.

Steph's English Circle Party

Hey All, Gabe here... Steph and her lady friends threw their 3rd annual christmas party. There was lots of delicious food and we stuffed ourselves silly! Below you can see some videos of us playing the "White Elephant" game. Steph taught them it two years ago. You can see that our beloved friend Mutsuko was the lucky one to recieve Steph's $3 worth of pennies... HA HA!




From Wikipedia:
"The name "White Elephant" originates from an old Burmese cultural reference to the value of an albino elephant, which is considered sacred and must be well taken care of, despite the financial burden that it may bring to its owner."

Steph on Japanese TV

On Friday June 9th I got the wonderful opportunity to appear on Japanese TV. We went to promote the concert that we did on June 10th. It was such a fun day! We started out at 11am and drove to our capital city, Morioka, and first had a live radio interview then went on to the TV station. It was me, a group called "Cafe" and our friends Mutsuko, Kame-chan and Kazuyoshi.
When we first planned the trip it didn't look like Mutsuko was going to be able to go and nor was anyone else who spoke English. So I was having these fears that I would end up looking like Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" when he appears on a Japanese TV show. If you've seen the movie you will understand my worry!! Luckily I had someone to help me understand everything although I may have still ended up looking a little silly! hehe! So without further adeu...here is the show in 3 different sections! Enjoy!
P.S. I messed up a little in my singing...oops (I don't quite have the scream/singing abilities of Cyndi Lauper hahaha!)
P.S. again I will post pictures later from the day!

Just a note for playing the videos: Make sure and only click the video play button once! Otherwise, it'll take you to another site.


Part One


Part Two


Part Three









the poster:
http://gscraft.blogspot.com/2006/04/pretendin-to-be-famous.html

Steph on Iwate TV:
http://gscraft.blogspot.com/2006/06/steph-on-japanese-tv.html

pics from and thank you to all the people who made the concert:
http://gscraft.blogspot.com/2006/06/concert-pics.html