Home!! for a weekend

So, we were thrilled to learn at the last minute that Zack was coming home Friday night to stay until Sunday!!! Doesn't happen much!!
In case you were wondering... this is how you relax at home with big brother and the pets ;-) And yes... he has a cell phone in each hand..... something about mine he thought needed his attention!
It was great to have him here even for a short time. He got to go to his junior high festival with friends on Saturday morning and - surprise! surprise! - went to play basketball with his jr.hi coach's group that evening.
Everyone at church Sunday morning was happily surprised to see him and how much he's grown since April.

"The Room"

OK! So for those of you that read our monthly newsletter and heard about the 'great transition!' going on in a part of our downstairs...

I was NOT exaggerating about it being wall to wall & floor to ceiling "STUFF"! To bring home what a major ordeal this has been - I give you BEFORE .....

and AFTER!!!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!! John starts his first classes here tomorrow night!

Nagano Prefecture Champs times 2 !!

The Tokai Third Boys & Girls won their prefecture tournament and for the first time will represent Nagano in the Winter Cup at the same time!! (and this follows both going to the Inter High in the spring!!)

WE are the Champions!!

The celebration dinner

A moment to revel in the joy of the win!!

English Campout Sept. 12-13, '08

Gotta build it just right to roast those hotdogs and marshmallows

Are you sure Mr. John?

Yummm! Pretty good!

The Campers

Matsubarako Bible Camp

John & Sayuri getting ready for the games
at Matsubarako Bible Day Camp Sept. 15th

Lunch is always good here and all for only 200 yen!

Pastor Kitamura & the Ushikoshi family ready for the ride home.
No idea why Keisuke is making that face...

"Noah's Ark" cookout

Here's a few shots from the "Noah's Ark"
English cookout we did in August.

Most of these folks are non- Christians,
but listening intently to the bible story.

What joy to share His stories!

No sequence! I know....

Yes! I am fully aware of the randomness of these posts! This is a prime example of how my life streams from moment to moment :-)

I thought I would try to put up a few pics of some of our family in the states. We'll see how this goes!?!

DUNK!

OK! So anyone who knows us knows that Zack lives and breathes basketball!! He's now a first year year high school student (10th grade) at Tokai Third University High School, attending on a basketball scholarship. His most recent feat in the warm-ups before games is to finish off the team warm-ups with a DUNK! as his teammates chant and cheer him on! It's really fun to watch and hear the crowd reactions!!

I know this video from my phone is really poor quality but maybe you can catch it

Off to a S - L - O - W Start...

Well, obviously I am not any better at blogging thus far than I am at keeping up a webpage . I did, however, manage to get a picture up of the Japan living part of the family ;-} , and yes I know it is from last Christmas, but Hey! It's a picture!

So we've all been really busy with classes and church related activities and work and music and basketball and I have lots to tell about and lots of pictures to go along with the words and I really am hoping to get it started soon - really!

Most recent BIG news flash in our family is that in April we'll welcome grandbaby #8!!!!! YEAH!! Daeon and Ben are so happy and are beginning to adapt to their future family expansion.

I know, not a very long post but there are four eyes staring me down from the panting faces of Ebony & Onyx pleading that it surely must be dinner time!