friends

one of the great things about the church is you meet some really great people and make some great friends. i think i've gone out pretty much every day for the past week with people from church. we had book club one night, went to lunch one day, went to the pool one day, played bunco one night, we had a game night for fhe monday night, went to ebina yesterday, and just lots of fun stuff. it's been great to get out of the house. granted it's always hot and humid, and you go outside and just start dripping which is disgusting, but i get bored sitting at home all day. so friends are great. i don't know what i would do with out them. and i'm starting to see more of japan and learn my way around. i think i've pretty much figured out how to take the train now. it's not too bad. it's just a matter of getting to the right line. it can be a little confusing. i've decided the worst part of living in japan is not speaking/understanding the language. i can deal with most everything else. the driving can be dealt with, the train isn't too bad, the food is still kinda questionable, but overall it's great. i'm slowly learning the language. it's not easy though. i know some key phrases, but still wish i knew more. i need to look into taking some japanese classes and see if that helps. but until then, i'll keep going out with my friends that have been here longer and know more than i. =)

grrrrrr!!!!

it really bugs me when people don't tell us stuff that we have to know or do. we took the dogs up to the vet today for a pre-op appt to get their dew claws removed. we had the surgery and everything already scheduled for next week. we get there today, keep in mind it's a 45 minute walk since we don't have a car, only to be told they can't do the surgery until they are done with the quarantine which is october 5th. apparently it's japanese law. also turns out that we are supposed to take them in for a check up once a month while they are on quarantine too. no one bothered to tell us any of that! we knew they were on quarantine til october. that much we knew. the monthly visit and no routine surgery we didn't know. the whole surgery thing is frustrating since ben will more than likely be deployed by then which means i'll be taking care of the dogs on my own, and as much as i love them, they can be quite a handful. grrrrrr!!! with something so routine as saying you have to come in once a month, how can you forget to tell someone that? needless to say ben wasn't too happy when we left. as we were leaving though, one of our friends that works there pulled up from getting lunch. so we talked to her for a bit and she was going to talk to the vet and see if they could figure something out. so annoying! stupid vet people...

orders

so i got the news yesterday that pretty much every military wife doesn't want to hear. after a long day of not feeling well and cleaning house, ben came home from work and told me he has orders to deploy. his unit leaves in about a month. granted he won't be leaving with them, as the dr has told them he's not going until his shoulder is better. we're not going to send him over and him screw it up even more. so his orders will be amended, but basically it's as soon as the dr gives the ok, he will be leaving. even if it's just for a couple months. that is unless by some miracle we can keep ben here until april, he will reenlist and we will head back to the states. as nice as japan is, we are both ready to return to the states. so that's what i'm hoping for. that i can keep him here until april and then we'll move back to the states. if he has to deploy he has to go, but i would much rather keep him here with me. he promises he'll be safe and not come back dead, but no one can ever be 100% sure of that. all we can do is hope and pray that everything turns out ok.

Happy 4th of July!

so lately i've come to realize just how good we have it in america. not that japan is bad, but we really are truly blessed to be american citizens. with all of our many freedoms, it's no wonder that so many people want to come to america. it really is the land of the free and the home of the brave. there really is no better place to call home! i hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday. and if you get a chance, thank a soldier for protecting our country and allowing us the freedoms we often take advantage of.

YAY!!

just as a little disclaimer, this post might make more sense to those that are military or ex-military. i'll do my best to make it clear as mud though... =)
as of today, my husband is now SGT. HULSE!!! yay!!! we've been waiting a long time for this. in the military, earning rank has part to do with a point system. you earn points for taking classes, awards and certificates, and i don't know what else. it's all kinda confusing to me. but i do know you have to have a certain number of points plus recommendations and such to be promoted. but anyway, he would have had the promotion a few months ago, but missed it by like 4 points. and if the people that he works with would have done their job, he would have had it. he had a few awards that needed to be entered, but they didn't do it in time so he didn't get it. so anyway, he finally got it this month. i don't remember the last time i saw him so happy. he is so excited. he deserves it too. he has worked long and hard for it. it's about time he finally got it. so yay on that!
speaking of the military and ben... last week before we went to girls camp, we had a bit of trouble with his unit. now to put it nicely, his unit is "special". holy cow! so his sgt came over monday night, and gave him a packing list saying he needed to get all of it ready by tuesday to be shipped down range for when they deploy. we weren't even sure he'd be going! and there's no sense in sending all his stuff down there, if he's not going to be there. first off they don't know when they are going. technically they don't have orders to go right now, as something was messed up so they were pulled and are being revised. second ben just had surgery less than a month ago and the dr said he is nondeployable right now. so here's how "special" his unit is... the dr gave ben a profile that says something to the affect of is the soldier healthy enough to deploy and the dr checks yes or no. the no box is checked. that profile was good through like the 5th of july or something, and they were saying that they would be leaving after that and that ben would be going. so ben called the dr and the dr extended it until september. so we got the new profile and sent it to the unit. then his commanders were saying well that doesn't say he can't deploy. they wanted it in black and white. so ben called the dr again. and the dr sent another profile this time he wrote in the comment box UNABLE TO DEPLOY!!! it was underlined with exclamation points and all. now here's the kicker... we were at the dr today for a follow up and the dr said that his commander called the dr personally and asked "so this means he can't deploy?" hello?!?! can you not read?!?! it says right there black and white, especially for you, UNABLE TO DEPLOY! and his whole unit is like that! a bunch of retards (to put it nicely)! we haven't heard anything back from his unit, so he shouldn't be deploying with his unit. atleast not right now anyway. there's always the chance that he could meet up with them later on, but he won't be going before september. yay!
like i said, ben had another follow up appt today. things are getting better. he pretty much has full range of motion back. there's still a lot of scar tissue that needs to be broken down though. so we'll continue physical therapy and working on range of motion. he doesn't want ben doing any weight training or anything on it yet. his shoulder has a tendency to get all swollen when he does and then his hand and arm go numb. so we'll keep doing the physical therapy and continue to break down the scar tissue, and then go back the beginning of august. he's gettin better though.
so yeah, that's pretty much all that's going on here right now. not all that exciting, but it's life. more to come soon!

girls camp

so we spent the past 3 days at girls camp with our branch and district. we went to tama hills which is about an hour to hour and a half away, for us anyway. there was one branch who had to travel about 8 hours. it was good though. we only had three girls from our branch there, and right about 20 all together. including leaders it was between 30-40. when you think of japan, most people think of the busy cities with people everywhere. up at tama, you wouldn't know there is a city right outside the gate. yes it is a military installation and we had to show our military id to go in. but you get up to the campsites and it is very secluded, and really pretty quiet for the most part. every now and then you would hear a train go by or the loud speakers in town, but for the most part you just heard the noisy birds. so here's kind of a run down of our time at camp. we left wednesday morning about 630 am. we rented a van from outdoor rec and we all drove up together (all 5 0f us-us and the girls). we got there a little before 8 and just drove around waiting/trying to find where we were supposed to be. the ladies from yokota show up about 8, shortly followed by the girls from misawa. we got up to our campsite and started unloading/setting up camp. a little while later the gals from yokoska showed up. we helped set up tents as there didn't seem to be many who knew how. (thank you dad for taking me camping as a kid and teaching me that kind of stuff.) of course it didn't help that we had some of the old boy scout tents that very few knew how to set up. ben knew how though. so we got all the tents set up and people moved in, and headed to the mess hall for our welcome mtg. we introduced everyone, went over the rules, etc. our theme for this year was fighting the spiritual war.

this is the back of the shirts we got. it says: "operation eternal freedom: preparting for spiritual war honshu military district japan" i think they are really cute and creative. then we got camo colored bandanas (a different color for each year group). we also made our own dog tags out using shrink-a-dinks. that stuff is really cool! i don't know that i had ever used it before. it was really fun though. after lunch we went up to the archery range. ben helped out with the archery certification. he really enjoyed that.

the girls had a blast with the archery and didn't want to leave, but we had other things to get done. we got back to camp and got got dinner started. we made london broil and the charcoal grills. turned out pretty good. and of course my husband had to help with the grills. he's right at home there. while at the archery range i had mentioned to one of the camp directors that it was ben's birthday wednesday, so at dinner they presented him with a little something.

they sang happy birthday, gave him a shirt that all the girls signed, a little cake, and the candy poster which says: "ben, you are a sugar daddy. it was sweet of you to come. you went the extra mile with the archery. we had a red hots time. your wife is a bit-o-honey. we're glad you both can make this a m&m's good time now and later. hopefully you can help us spot the milky way. love your friends, mike & ike." i thought it was really cute and creative, and ben was surprised. he immediatly asked if i had anything to do with it. the only thing i did was mention it was his birthday. the girls did the rest. after dinner we went up to the camp fire for our fireside devotional. i really can't tell ya what they talked about, but it was the spirit that was there that i needed. it had been a while since i'd felt the spirit that strong, and the words that were said and the music that was played, was what i needed. it was really nice. it started to rain as we were getting ready for bed. it rained all night and most of thursday. about half the girls woke up all wet. we had a few little leaks around some of the zippers but nothing serious. so most of the day the mess hall was filled with wet things trying to get them dried. we were supposed to go horseback riding thursday, but since it was raining and muddy we couldn't go. so we played games in the mess hall, one of the youth leaders taught the girls a hip hop dance, and we all just kinda hung out. the rain started dying down mid afternoon. so the girls and most of the leaders went their hike that afternoon. i wasn't feeling well so i ended up taking a nap while they hiked. i know, not very fair, but i really wasn't feeling well. the rest of the afternoon was filled with crafts and down time. for dinner we had tin foil dinners. again, my husband started the fires.

it's no wonder why we ended up getting the "pyro award". the dinners turned out really well though. we got all the dinners cooked and cleaned up and had our campfire. we did skits-in-a-bag. basically each group is given a bag of props and they have to come up with a skit. we'll just say some, ok most, of the skits turned out ummm interestingly. very random and interesting. after skits we had our devotional and made smores and headed to bed. during the night some of the youth and leaders thought it would be funny to pull some pranks. so they tied all the leaders tent zippers shut, seran wrapped the toilet seats, and filled all the stalls in the bathroom with balloons. ben and i thought it was funny, but some of the other leaders weren't too happy. pranks are a part of girls camp in my opinion. as long as they are in good taste and no one gets hurt, i don't see a problem with it. i managed to get our tent untied while still inside. took a few minutes, but i got it. we got up, had breakfast, and started the day. the weather was pretty much perfect. we were able to get the horses reserved, and those that wanted to were able to go on a trail ride. they could only take 4 people at a time, and had hour intervals. i didn't go, but ben did. he's always loved horses. i wasn't able to get a picture of it, but i wish i had. i guess they didn't give any instructions though. then again, most of the people who work there are japanese nationals and don't speak much english. all those that went had a good time though. after lunch we had a lot of down time again. a volleyball net was set up, more skits (different ones this time) were practiced and we all just kind of hung out and talked. it was rather relaxing and nice. for dinner we had shish kabobs. weren't the best, but they weren't too bad either. after dinner we had our uso (unusual, silly, odd) skits. the leaders came up with a theme for those ones (service to others), and they turned out really well. not nearly as random as thursday night. still really funny though. we had a great time. there are some really creative young women in our district. after the skits we did our faith walk. we were planning on doing it up the hill from camp, but we got up there and the path was just covered with spider webs. it was so gross! we had walked through earlier that afternoon and didn't have any problems, but the spiders sure got busy after that. so we had to change locations. it was still really fun though. the leaders got to be the tempters. i've always liked playing that part. =) once we got back to the fire we started our testimony mtg. one of the counselors from the district presidency came up and spoke to us. the whole mtg overall was really nice. the spirit there was strong. and the best part... ben felt the spirit. he said afterwards "i guess i should get some new church pants and start going to church with you again shouldn't i." that was what i needed to hear. to hear that my husband had been touched, and his heart and mind opened, is really a relief to me. i've been praying for that for a while. now hopefully he will actually follow through and come to church. so last night was great. we finally got to bed after cleaning and packing up. we got up about 6 this morning so that we could say good bye to the misawa girls and get everything cleaned and packed up. it took ben and i 40 minutes to get up and have everything packed in the car. we then ate some breakfast and helped pack up the rest of camp. we were able to leave just after 8 and made it home about 930 or so. it's feeling so much later right now than it really is. i think it's about time for a nap. so that was pretty much camp. one thing that was really cool though, was one of the leaders from yokota is from burley and knows my family down there. talk about a small world! meeting someone from idaho isn't too surprising, that happens quite often. but to find someone who actually knows people i know, that's pretty cool. i also got to drive a japanese car for the first time. it really wasn't bad. it's a little backwards, so i kept trying to shift up by the stearing wheel when it was next to me, and the the turn signal is on the other side of the stearing wheel. it wasn't bad though. i told ben he'll have to do all the driving once we get back to the states as i won't remember how to drive there. so yeah, it's been an exciting few days. and boy were the dogs happy to see us when we got home!

district conference

we had district conference today, again. we just had one the end of last month. don't worry, this one was different. at the last one, we sustained a new district presidency. this one was a broadcast from salt lake for all the stakes in japan. it was good. different but good. i can now say i know how others around the world feel when they have to listen to a translated version. a couple of the speakers spoke in japanese (don't ask who, because i really couldn't tell ya), but sister dalton the young women's general president and elder perry spoke in english. elder perry actually had his translator stand off to the side of the podium. so he would say something, pause and we would hear it in japanese. the others just had the translation overlaid. so listening to elder perry's talk was like listening to it twice. kinda cool. didn't understand a thing said in japanese, but it was cool. it was interesting during the intermediate hymn, as the choristor was japanese, therefore singing in japanese, and the words on the screen were in japanese. it was kinda hard to stay with her though as the japanese translation is a little off word/beat wise from the english. it's cool to think though, that everyone, japanese and american, were all singing the same thing at the same time. that is one thing i love about the chuch. it doesn't matter where you go in the world, the church is the same. we all believe the same thing, teach the same thing, sing the same hymns, read the same scriptures. it's just amazing to me to think about. i think that has been one of the things that has helped me most since moving here. to move to a foreign country, but know that there is a group of people where i will still fit in, is a great comfort. the branch here, as small as it is, is fantastic. i don't know what i would do if i didn't have the church in my life. what a blessing!