feeling the love folks!

i celebrated my 25th birthday on wednesday and wanted to share it with you all. i didn't get pictures of the food, but we feasted on delicious barbequed hamburgers (thank you master griller, kyle!), doritos (my favorite weakness!) and AMAZING blue cheese walnut salad with raspberry dressing (thank you jin for your thoughtfulness!)

umm, the kids actually ended up blowing out these candles before

i had the chance. so i was blessed with round 2 "happy birthday to you"

and was able to blow out a couple the second time!

haha :D

spending some quality time with abbie and yaya as the gave their homemade cards!

thoughtful, beautiful children!

thanks for the packages from home, i am too blessed!

with jo that night at the public bath. what a way to end a truly wonderful day!

thanks for sharing it with me :)

omedetou gozaimasu!

check out the pictures from our friends' recent graduations! congratulations!

kyle, keigo and mark before the ceremony

Kayla wanted Fruity Pebbles so keigo's mom had to try it too! the reaction: "it's sweet!" couldn't have said it better!

keigo's dad, mark, yaya, abbie, keigo, jin, kayla, keigo's mom and grandma on chuo campus

ayumi in her kimono, jen and sayumi (who graduated the day before from a different university)

proud parents!

bitter sweet!

happy couple!

jin, megumi and jen at megumi's graduation

looking good meg :)

thank you God for the friends you've given us! we are so blessed!

please pray for these amazing people as they enter the work place!

playing catch up

this month we attended the all japan staff conference. it was a fun time of fellowship and reflection for us. also, we were blessed to hear jerry bridges speak on the beatitudes. good stuff!

at starbucks with all the midtermers (minus jo)


the o'donnells recently arrived in japan for a long term assignment. here's jamie with one year old jones. they (along with husband bryan) are in shizuoka for the next two years completing full time language study.

(couldn't figure out how to rotate this one)

after the conference, we were blessed with a visit from christy haley, from nav headquarters in CO! she was a huge encouragement to both of us! here we are during our picnic lunch in the park.

and who could forget celebrating kayla's birthday...

that's right, she's 3 folks!

this girl loves books, especially books about princesses :)

here's mandy and i. she came from shizuoka to hang out with us for a few days. we had many good talks, did our fair share of laughing (she's hilarious!) and made these collages (since you're never too old for crafts!)

and last night, we went to tully's coffee shop where keigo was working his last shift. i admit, i was a little teary. it is definitely the close of a chapter of our lives here, friends graduating in the next few days and moving into the work world while, Lord willing, we meet new freshmen this spring in BEST club. he moved out of his apartment and will be staying with us until he moves to nagoya. pray for our time with him this sunday-tuesday.

thanks for stopping by and catching up with us!

Family Fun!

It's hard to believe our 12 day visit from Denny and Sandy has come and gone! Their time here couldn't have been better, a great mix of sight seeing, talking and of course playing cards!

our first morning together

at asakusa temple downtown (f: mikkun, kie, ayumi, megumi; b: sandy, denny, us and yasushi)

is that a pepper hand denny?

at our favorite sushi shop where you grab off the conveyor belt (in background). they were both nervous but ended up really liking it! their favorite? shrimp with a slice of avacado and onions, yum!

kyle and denny taking a bite out of tuna

nabe dinner with ayumi, keigo and sayumi

visiting Keigo at his part time job at Tully's coffeeshop

on Chuo campus enjoying Japanese snacks

goofing around at a restaurant

sports night (f: tomoko, masashi; back, tatsu, denny, jen, kyle, mark and megumi)

ahh, the memories! we miss you guys already!

Playing in the Snow :)

BEST Club just returned from it's annual snowboarding trip!!! We traveled to Nagano and spent 3 days playing in the snow. It was a lot of fun hanging out with students. Four freshmen joined the trip and their quirky personalities kept us laughing the whole time!

Getting ready to hit the slopes

This is Masashi and Kyle on the over night bus on the way to Nagano!

The men enjoying one of many traditional Japanese meals at the resort!

Saying good-bye! BEST Club goes to the same resort every year so we have a good relationship with the woman who runs it (the woman left of Mark). This year she even made a few arrangement for us to come although she was already booked. We hope she can see God's light through us!

sweet time in Hakone!

Two weeks ago, some BEST club girls decided to take a trip to Hakone, a nearby onsen (hot springs) town, to have fun, relax in the public baths and enjoy our last days with Mary. Yes, that’s right, Mary’s time in Japan has come to a close. She returned to Nebraska to study pharmacy. We miss you a ton, Mary.

everyone at dinner at our hotel: Left: Sae, Mary, Ayano, Chisato. Right, Fuyu, Asako, Jo, me, Na

i love japanese food! this is what each person's place setting looked like! wow!

a close up of the food: on the large plate to the left is broccoli in some sauce with octopus legs. I believe the orange things are carrots wrapped around bamboo. next to that is some pickles with a spicy sauce and some ham on the side. at the top is raw salmon over lettuce. yum!

hanging out and drinking green tea in our room

we stayed in a japanese style hotel. they provided our yukata (basically a long cotton robe/dress) and the over coats (since we had to walk outside to get to the public bath) for us to wear during our stay. we decided to take a formal shot. lookin' snazzy don't you think?



with jo and mary



Hakone is in a rural area, yay for scenery!

here's to yuri!

meet yuri, one of our good friends in BEST club. he is quite possibly the most 'japanese' students we know, in terms of adhering to and teaching (yes, often to us!) cultural norms of his country. sounds serious right? :D you should also know that yuri has an amazing sense of humor and loves learning to tell jokes in english. in one week yuri will be boarding a plane bound for australia where he will study abroad for 10 months. we're going to miss him!!! here's some shots with him and of our last BEST club meeting of the semester.

a fun picture from a game we played.

in other news, BEST club members have done a great job taking care of Whiskey, the Rood's hamster. he really seemed to enjoy hanging out in Mamo's pocket! :D

we can't wait to see you Friday, Roods!!!

a bit of home...

this past weekend we got together with some friends from iowa!!! they all attended U of I (some for just a year long English program and some to get their degree) and they will soon join the workforce in japan! :D hanging out with them brought back so many memories of our home in iowa city and the bible study we did with them, these friends are a huge reason we decided to come to japan to work with BEST club... yay for Japanese international students!!!

erina, jen and sachie

kyle, erina, yuichi, tamami and sachie. we made kimchi nabe, a spicy soup with cabbage, tofu, mushrooms, pork, onions and bean sprouts that you cook at the table (on the burner) and serve with rice. its one of our favorites, especially during the winter!

memories....

hanging out with sachie and akiko (we missed you this weekend!) in iowa city

a christmas party at our house in '06 with the gang