Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

This year was full of adventure and fun!! 

We spent some time exploring the island, Kokosai Street, 

Kokosai St

Kokosai St

Kokosai St

Okinawa World

Okinawa World and the caverns, 

Look Jacob is a Shisa!!

Yep that is a real snake! Apparently a lucky one!

Forest Adventure zip lining,

Zip Lining!

Naval Underground

as well as the Naval Underground.

acting silly at the Aquarium park

We also visited the Aquarium again this year.







The kids were both very involved in church activities as well as sports. 

Jacob played two seasons of baseball on two different teams. 

Kadena Rays Youth Baseball

Kadena Rays Baseball

MCCS Youth Baseball

MCCS Cardinals

He also went with the Youth to help with a clean up day at a local Japanese Christian school.

Youth helping at Okinawa World Missions

Christina played a season of soccer. 

Kadena Hornets Soccer

Soccer season Fall 2013

She had her first piano recital and did really well! I was so proud. She really picked it up quickly.

Ms. Kaitlyn

First Piano Recital

Raced a car in the 2013 Neighborhood 500 Pinewood Derby and lead the GM Pledge.

Saying the Pledge at the Pinewood Derby

Pinewood Derby car

Christina also participated in the Kadena Elementary Talent show.

KES' Talent Show

KES has Got Talent

Honor Roll

Of course she made the Honor Roll!

Honor Roll

BFF's

 More fun activities at church. Mother's Day Hula, 

Mother's Day Hula

Easter Picnic

 NAGC Easter Picnic 








Girls Ministries Sleepover at the Church.

Girls Ministries Sleepover

Several School field trips. To a local Okinawan School.

School Field Trip

                          Macaroni Grill

Girls on a school field trip

State project.

TN state project

It is so hard to believe that Jacob is an 8th grader and Christina is in 5th!!

8th Grade

5th Grade

 Christina is in 5th!
They have both done so well in school I am so very proud of all the hard work they put in. (most of the time)












It is even more unbelievable that I will have a high schooler and a middle schooler next school year!!

We are gearing up for another upcoming year of change! After the first of the year we will begin planing our upcoming move back to the good old USA!
We are so excited to finally make the move we have been working on for the last 15 yrs getting to East Tennessee!
It is so amazing to see how God has worked through this crazy 5 year journey. I am so grateful and blessed that the lessons are becoming more and more evident every day. It is really amazing to see how God stripped what I thought was important to me away in order to change my priorities and way of thinking. I am so grateful to have been able to spend the time with my kids as they have matured and grown. I have been so blessed to see them mature and grow here in Okinawa. They are both very strong leaders and love the Lord. It has been amazing to see how we have all learned to rely more on one another as well. We have been so blessed here in Okinawa with great friends and an amazing church family who has loved on us and who genuinely cares for us. THAT is going to be the hardest thing to leave! God has His reasons and timing right! So, on to the next season!

We pray you all have a wonderful and Merry Christmas and a very blessed 2014!

Much love,
Keith, Alicia, Jacob and Christina

Well the time has come!

After a whirlwind 5 years as a military family our journey is taking us back home. Back to east Tennessee where we have tried to move for the last 15 years! 
I am so thankful for this journey and the lessons I have learned along the way. God is always so faithful in his plan for our lives. 

I heard this last week on KLOVE.

What a great analogy of what God can do for us.

ENJOY!

 

 

60 Pounds of Burden

By Delight in Truth

This is Shrek the sheep.
He became famous several years ago when he was found after hiding out in caves for six years. Of course, during this time his fleece grew without anyone there to shorn (shave) it. When he was finally found and shaved, his fleece weighed an amazing sixty pounds. Most sheep have a fleece weighing just under ten pounds, with the exception usually reaching fifteen pounds, maximum. For six years, Shrek carried six times the regular weight of his fleece. Simply because he was away from his shepherd.
This reminds me of John 10 when Jesus compares Himself to a shepherd, and His followers are His sheep. Maybe it’s a stretch, but I think Shrek is much like a person who knows Jesus Christ but has wandered. If we avoid Christ’s constant refining of our character, we’re going to accumulate extra weight in this world—a weight we don’t have to bear.
When Shrek was found, a professional sheep shearer took care of Shrek’s fleece in twenty-eight minutes. Shrek’s sixty pound fleece was finally removed. All it took was coming home to his shepherd.
I believe Christ can lift the burdens we carry, if only we stop hiding. He can shave off our ‘fleece’—that is, our self-imposed burdens brought about by wandering from our Good Shepherd.

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

This is perfect.

Really need to get back to bloggin!

I say this all the time, LOL!!
I can't believe summer is almost over, or that I am working again!!
The job is completely out of my element, but I think I will love it. I have a lot to learn, still. I have to keep telling myself that if I feel confident enough to run and dental practice I should be able to manage being a church secretary!! RIGHT????
School will be starting back in 21 days. I know the kids are excited. I feel kind of bad that I have kind of ruined the end of their summer though.
OH well, they will live right??  Jacob is busy with baseball, and Christina will start soccer next month.
One more year and we are off of Okinawa and back to the US. I know God is preparing the way. I just have to be patient and not push it. 
Have a blessed day!

good bye Spring Break 2013

Well as spring break 2013 comes to a close I have to say this has been a very good week! It must have been because Keith got to spend time off with the kids for once. :) We didn't get to explore the island as much as I had wanted but we did get quite a bit accomplished. We started off lazing around. The kids had physical appointments.  Christina got her ID Wednesday. We spent Thursday traipsing around Okinawa World, Naval Underground, the outlet mall and even a farmers market. I am not exactly ready for the kids to go back to school in the morning but I am however ready to get back into our routine. Just 2 short months and school will be out for the summer. I am going to have to keep busy with the kids. :)

Busy, busy me :)

Well last week was a busy week and so was the weekend. This week is shaping up to not be so bad. :)
The weekend was truly amazing though. Friday was the women's monthly meeting and it was incredible. We had lots of new faces, yay! I have a strange feeling that I wont be asked to head a table again anytime soon though. I totally blew it! :(
Saturday we went to work at a local bilingual school. We have a couple of people from church who work there. This school was one of the first on island and was built by a missionary group. A lot of the students come from homes where the parents want them to  go to college in the US. Little do they know that a lot of the students who graduate from there end up in ministry of some sort. Watching the older students from the school was just amazing. Our youth interacted with them well. It is pretty awesome to see that teen angst is universal! The kids took a break from working and even went out to play soccer. They were so fun to watch. So we cleaned, painted, rearranged, and even made signs. I really hope we get to go back over and help them out soon! I think it is the coolest thing that we have a mission field right out our front door. 
Yesterday was a great Sunday except for the fact that I felt bad. 
So this week seems a bit low key, which is good. I have got to get myself motivated to get to work on straightening out this office! UGH
Have a blessed week everyone!!

New Pope

It was quite interesting watching the Pope be, installed, would you call it, this morning. I had never paid much attention to it before. He seems like a great choice for the Catholic church, just from what he said is his speech and what the commentators on the news station said as well. Even though, we see things differently, and worship very differently, I really do hope that this Pope is a Pope of the people like they are saying. I hope he can bring unity into the Catholic church. They are a hurting people and God does love them.
My observation as I watched though, was kind of an ah-ha moment. It is no wonder that so many of the Priests have failed and fallen. They are placed on too high of a pedestal. One can only hold to that high of an expectation for so long. It hadn't really clicked with me how legalistic Catholics are until now either. I am not knocking my Catholic friends by any means, but when you think legalism you mostly think if the United Pentecostal or Apostolic denominations. 
Anywho, that is my bright observation for the day. 
Again, please, this blog entry was not designed to offend anyone. Just the ramblings off of my ADD brain! :)

slipping!

Thank you Lord for giving me strength! Even when I don't do the things I know I should.
I feel the wagon catching up with me today after some of my poor food choices this week. UGH Gotta get back to paying attention again! I got this! :)

What a start to this new journey

Let me preface this by saying that I do realize why the people on The Biggest Loser cry now. 
Wow, God really did more in me over the last 5 weeks than I realized. 
Five weeks ago I started a class, not really given a choice because my case manager signed me up.  None the less I went in with an open and receptive mind. 
It is kind of a Weight Watchers type thing through the Health and Wellness Center here on base. You go in, weigh, measure your waist the first week. After that you weigh in once a week and through out the nutritionist talks about healthy eating habits, focusing on teaching you how to read food labels and determine mostly your sugar and fat intake, how many calories you should be eating and helping you use a pretty cool online tool to track your food, my fitness pal. She also took us through workouts at the end of each session. Yeah, they have all that here for us dependents, wow, who knew? There were a few of us who actually made it though the class completely. In fact, it was kind of cool because there were two of us stay at home Mom's a couple of active duty and a couple of civilian workers. 
The exercising was tough at first because I was so out of shape. In fact, I feel like I still am! Luckily, I had started, what I am calling Hubby boot camp, at the same time. So, I am back in the gym lifting and doing cardio. Yes, I hate the gym, but I love the way I feel afterwards, even when I am in pain like today. 
I am excited about this journey this time because I really want to do it for myself more than anyone else this time. I am so glad that I was finally able to purge some things from my life and schedule to finally focus on myself. God knew I needed this so He made some of the necessary changes for me. Even if part of that process had to be me getting placed on the diabetes medication. My goal is to get my body working properly so that I shouldn't have to take the meds. If I can't then so be it. I have done all that I should have to combat my disease.
I am proud to say that I reached my initial goal with the class. 10 lbs down and one inch gone from the waist!
I just want all of my friends to know that the only limits you have are the ones that you place on yourself. Yes, I still make excuses, and grumble all the way to the stinky hot gym every morning, but in the long run, I know the goals I have set for myself are in reach. I just have to remember to take a step at a time and that I am stronger that I think I am. Which is really hard for someone who is use to jumping into the deep end of the pool.
God is good!

Pursue God ....

"And He said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob [supplanter], but Israel [contender with God]; for you have contended and have power with God and with men and have prevailed." ~ Genesis 32:28 (Amplified Bible)

This verse was part of a devotional reading today. It can mean so many things to so many different people, but today it says to me, pursue God. If there is something that you want God to do in your life, go after Him until He blesses you!

I know I do!! After spending the last 13 yrs or so running from God, it feels so good to be running back toward him!! The feeling of all of the barriers being knocked down is amazing!!

Words

I hate not having the right words to say to someone sometimes. Especially someone who is hurting and sad.

Another Thing....

Now I remember what the something else was that I wanted to add to my last blog entry.
God has really worked on my level of contentment over the last few years. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with having stuff or wanting more out of life. It is the point at which all of that starts to take over your life that becomes the problem. Having a decent career a modest sized house and two cars in the garage is great. I had that. Deep down there was also that constant craving for more, more money, more cool gadgets, more tv channels, more prestige, you get the point.
This military lifestyle has taught me that even though, I may not have the the number of bedrooms or bathrooms that I want, or the amount of storage that I think I need, I can be content in where I am at this moment in time. Unfortunately it may take me a while to get there but trust me, I have gotten so much better.
The one commodity that I could have never gotten back is this time with my family. More precious than any thing else. I am so grateful that God has given me this opportunity to grow and stretch in Him.

The things that pop into my head during a sermon.....

I know I should be concentrating on what Pastor is preaching but sometimes my ADD takes over and I rabbit trail in my head while he's talking. (Sorry Pastor Wes) Those of you who know me well know my thought process!

So, I was thinking over the last four years and this adventure. Lately, God has brought to my attention a few of the things that he has been teaching me during this time. Today I was reminded of the fact that even though I had attended a big church in a big city, I was a snob. I only hung out with the people that I went to church with. I also had a tendency to be critical. 

God has blessed my life with so many different people over the last few years. That is the cool thing about being a military family. You get to meet people from all walks of life, ethnicities, back grounds and countries. In doing so, I have been stretched beyond my comfort zone. Not that that is bad thing mind you! I know I am a better person for it.
I just hope I have touched those lives as much as they have touched mine!