A piece of advice...

NEVER try to buy a home on short sale (unless you feel that patience is one of your better qualities). For the past couple of months we have had an offer in on a home that is in short sale. Yes, we were warned that these can take a long time, but I guess we didn't realize how hard this waiting was going to be. Of course, we have looked at other options and gone house hunting more times than we would like, but we always go back to this house and decide we will keep waiting. Supposedly we are at the end of the process. We have learned that we have the highest bid and are in first position on the home. Because the people who owned it were not only in upside down, but had two mortgages on the house, two different banks have to approve it. It is now in the hands of the second bank (and has been for quite some time). We have this rental house until the end of May, which seemed like a long time back in February, but now we are getting worried that we aren't going to have a house by then. Everything will work out, right??? That is what we have to believe to keep ourselves from getting too stressed about it.
Besides the all consuming house stress, life is pretty good for us here. Cailey has really loved being in school. She loves her teacher and has improved greatly in her reading and writing skills in the short time she has been here. I am really glad that she got to experience Kindergarten in the US. The rest of us are doing well too. Shane and I just got callings (YW secretary and gospel doctrine teacher) in the ward we are hoping to move into, which makes us even more anxious to actually live in the ward boundaries. See...the house thing IS all consuming...everything always goes back to getting a house. We welcome any advice or techniques in distraction so that we don't sit here waiting our lives away to find out. Help. anyone?

Life is full of surprises

Life for us has taken an unexpected turn. Since it has been so long since I have blogged, I will recap the last couple of months for our family. On December 19th we moved from Japan. We went to Utah and spent the holidays with our families. On Jan. 1st Shane and I went down to Los Mochis, Mexico to look for a house. We found one that was smaller than we liked, but clean and fairly new and in a good location. I stayed with Shane there for a week as we looked and I also spent time visiting the schools etc. From January 8th until February 14th I stayed in Utah with the kids while Shane started work in Mexico. Shane came to Utah get the rest of the family on Feb. 11th, and our plan was to drive down to Mexico (because we wanted to take the car we had in Utah) leaving Saturday the 14th. We were going to stop in Gilbert, Az to see Spencer and Kristol and then spend a few days in Tucson before making the rest of the drive to Mexico. Well, that was the plan anyway...Shane flew in on Wed the 11th. On Thursday night we were up in Cache Valley with Shane's family having a "Mexican fiesta" farewell party. Just as we started to eat Shane got a call and disappeared for a while. As I was eating he pulled me into the other room and said, "we aren't going to Mexico". All of a sudden I felt sick and said "what??"' The company had just decided that day that in order to cut costs they weren't going to have us go to Mexico. When Shane's boss called the first thing he said was, "don't worry, you still have a job, but..." So, instead of Mexico we are back in Tucson. It took a few days for this news to sink in, but now that it has I feel good about it, and there are definite benefits to being back in the states. Back to the story...we decided to leave just as we had planned, because I was sick of being in limbo (as fun as it was to be with family and see tons of friends). So, Saturday we left Orem and drove to Mesa Az. We went to church with Spencer and Kristol on Sunday and hung out all afternoon. This was also Shane's birthday. Kristol made us a very delicious dinner (thanks again Kristol. You are the best!!) that was much appreciated. Being close to them is one of the benefits of this change of plans. On Sunday night we drove down to Tucson and have been here this past week. We are now in a rental condo but will be moving into a rental home at the first of March. We have started looking for a house, a van, cell phones, you name it we are in the market right now. It is a bit overwhelming when you need them all at once. Someone from HR went to Mexico last week to cancel all of the contracts that they had for us (house, van, schools, etc), and also brought back all of the stuff that we had already moved down, mostly Shane's stuff, and our laptop. We got that back on Friday night, so life is much better for me now that I have a computer again. Anyway, this is a lot of rambling, but now the news is out...WE ARE BACK IN TUCSON.

Japan v Mexico

Anna and the kids are in Utah while I am a bachelor in Mexico. The result: I think I have more time on my hands right now than I have had for the past 3 years combined, especially on the weekends. It has been interesting coming directly from Japan to Mexico because of the cultural contrast. I can't imagine 2 cultures which would be more different. Here are the top differences I have noticed so far.

1. Japanese are always 5 to 10 minutes early, Mexicans are at least 10 minutes late
2. At work, Japan starts with a morning roll call at 8:15 sharp. In Mexico people arrive at work anywhere from 8:00 to 9:00, then take a 2 hour lunch
3. In Japan, everyone does up the top button of the Polo shirt, in the US we leave 1 button undone and in Mexico, they leave them all undone!
4. In Mexico, you greet someone with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. In Japan, just a bow (no physical contact whatsoever).
5. During Sunday School at church in Japan, no one will make any comments. In Mexico, they won't stop making comments

PS. Sorry no pics...our camera is still in Utah.

Preparing for the big move

Less than a week to go. It is hard to believe that we will be moving next Friday. At this point we start saying things like..."this is our last Sunday in Japan," "this is the last time we will go to this park" "this is the last time I will go on this run" and knowing me, this will probably be my last blog before we move.

Last Saturday our day was jam packed. In the morning I went on "my last run" with my friends Jodi and Corry. It was a beautiful clear day, and so we decided to do a photo log of the run so that I could remember it. Here are just a few of the pics (the whole album is on facebook):

As soon as I got home from running we had to hurry and get ready to go to Sakuhinten at the yochien. I have no idea what that word means, but basically all of the kid's artwork was on display. Here is Cailey with her teacher, her picture is the top right:

Then they created a sceen from Peter Pan out of milk cartons, empty bottles, toilet paper rolls, etc. It was pretty impressive.

We left Sakuhinten and went straight to a lunch with Shane's former boss (who retired about 6 months ago) and his wife. They wanted us to meet them at this restaraunt named Ukai-Toriyama but we had no idea what we were in for. First of all, it took 2 hours to get there. Navi said it was only 48 kilometers (about 30 miles) away, but in Japan that takes 2 hours! When we finally got there is was well worth the drive. It was in possibly the most beautiful setting I have ever seen.

The restaraunt had about 50 private Japanese style huts. Here was ours:

The view while we were eating was amazing. Here it is with the window opened:Here is the guy grilling the salted fish they served for one of the courses. By the way, you were supposed to eat the whole fish, head, and all. I ate everything (even skin and bones) except I just couldn't do the head and tail. Nakajima san and his wife:Very nice people. Nakajima san always took very good care of Shane and our family while he was his boss.

The drive home took even longer on the way home because of traffic. It was one of those pull-your-hair-out drives of slowness. But we did see an LDS church on the way. It was one of the new designs they are using in Asia now. I had to take a picture.

Last Tuesday was our yochien walking group Christmas party/our farewell party. Here is pic of the gift exchange for the girls:

At the end of the party, they gave us a scrapbook of messages written from each of the kids to Cailey and Bryant. It will be a treasure to us to remember our friends here. They also went around a circle and said something to us. These are the women that I have grown to love so much. We were all crying. I am going to miss them so much.

Wednesday my friend Yayoi (one of my friends from the walking group) invited me over to her house for lunch. I went early and watched her make it. It was a delicious meal and we always have so much fun talking. She has been a great friend.

Thursday was Sushi. These same incredible women went with me for one last very Japanese lunch. We went to have sushi at the kind of restaraunt where the sushi goes around on plates in a circle and you choose the one you want. It was actually pretty good.

Today was the ward Christmas party and tomorrow we will say goodbye to everyone in the Yamate ward. 3 of the 5 of us have to give talks at church (Cailey has the talk in Primary). Tomorrow evening all of the Primary presidency and families will have a dinner together. It is hard to say goodbye to so many incredible people.

For some reason I had the song "It's a small world" stuck in my head yesterday (maybe because we recently went on that ride at Disneyland). I thought about the line "there's so much that we share that it's time we're aware it's a small world after all." Maybe this has been the most profound lesson that I have learned from living in Japan. There are so many good people in the world. We all have the same hopes and desires for happiness. I am so grateful to have lived among the Japanese people!

Whirlwind

Life is pretty crazy when you find out you are moving with a little over a month to get ready for it. Each day we try to tackle another one of the logistics of moving from one foreign country to another. My days have been so busy that I have to stop at times to do the breathing exercises that I used to teach the teens in tobacco cessation. Since so much has happened in the last few weeks, I will use this post as a brief recap.

On November 18, we went to Tokyo Disneyland. Luckily this outing was already planned before the whole moving thing came up. My good friend Jodi Jensen watched Isaac the whole day, so we just had Cailey and Bryant. The kids are the perfect age for Disneyland.

Cailey's favorite ride was Pooh's honey hunt.
Bryant loved the Buzz lightyear ride.

On Saturday the 29th we did our Thanksgiving dinner with the Jensen's. They invited us to their house along with another family that they are good friends with that live a couple of hours from here. Our kids ended up getting along really well with their kids and the Jensen's have 4 boys (ages 8-15) that my kids just love. We ate dinner in the early afternoon and kept eating and talking until around 4:00 (isn't that the great thing about Thanksgiving?!). We went on a walk around Minato Mieru park and Yamashita park which are both famous parks right on the ocean in Yokohama (the Jensens live about 5 minutes from these parks). After the walk we went back and played games. Is was such a fun day and a break from all the stress that I really needed.

Sunday was our primary sacrament meeting program. Somehow the kids always pull it off. Two Sundays before I was not sure it would go too well. After an emergency primary presidency meeting and lots of prayers, they did a great job. There were even many tears during the last song (I am a Child of God). Here is a picture of the Yamate ward primary.

The next day, December 1, I did my final cooking/english class with the yochien moms in my neighborhood. At their request we baked a whole chicken and I showed them how to make gravy from the juices and mashed potatoes. Luckily, this meal was second nature to me thanks to my mom and dad. They absolutely loved it. Since it was our last class, all of the women also brought a typical japanese side dish to share with me. We went around and they each had to explain to me how they made it in English. They also gave me a really nice cookbook of Japanese dishes with English translation and lots of pictures (I think Josh would be jealous). I am going to miss these ladies so much.

One last outing to tell about. This was yesterday. My friend Jodi knows a lot of the English speaking members in Tokyo because she teaches seminary to her oldest boy and meets with some of the moms in the Tokyo wards for support. One of her friends took us to a dish shop that was really a warehouse with some of the coolest Japanese dishes that I have ever seen. I now have a setting for six of all the Japanese dishes I need for a typical meal. With my new cookbook from my friends, I am all ready to host a Japanese dinner. Anyone want to try? Another fun thing about this outing was the company. There were 7 of us American Mormon gaijins shopping and having lunch together. Among the women were Sister Evans and Sister Stevenson (wives of the area presidency). Jodi knows sister Evans really well from when they lived in Nagoya years ago. The Evans were mission presidents and in the Jensen's ward. Needless to say, these were all very nice women, and we had a great time.

More change...

If you haven't heard the news yet, we have updated info on our next move. We will now be moving from Japan at the end of December and heading to Mexico sometime in January. The plan is to be in Utah with our families for the holidays and at the beginning of the year Shane and I will go to Los Mochis to look for our housing. Shane will stay and begin work there January 5th and I will return to Utah until we can all move down. We found this out about a week ago and in the meantime we have been trying to work through a lot of details about the move. I am sad to leave Japan so soon, but very excited to get to be home for Christmas.

Isaac is one!

Here are a few pics from Isaac's first birthday. He sure is a fun boy. I can't believe a year has passed already. This also means that I have been doing this blog for a year now because I started it right before he was born (he was a week late so I had to do SOMETHING with all that time). Time flies.