**my calendar must be wrong...

How has it become December 1st?

How has this happened?

What happened to November and half of October?

I don't know... but I know that time is moving so fast.

Here is an update:

Mary is leaving the first half of February. Possibly around February 6th or so?

I will be staying until mid-June... I am helping to recruit, train, and welcome the summer team so I will be staying for awhile. Then home to Illinois I go. (after that, I have no idea, keep praying for me!!) :D

Mary and I enjoyed a visit with her sister Jean (hello Jean). Jean was here for one week and made the most amazing cheesecake.

Jean also took this picture... proof that I am a teeny bit crazy. :D Mary and I will be spending Christmas in Kariuzawa with our Mid-term friends. We're going to DRIVE!! I am so excited to drive somewhere, just Mary and I. It "feels" so American. Road tripping with your buddy. Hooray!! Kariuzawa is also rumored to have snow around the end of December... so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I know it's December cause the Roods are gone. The Roods left for two months to enjoy a short break in America. They get to spend Christmas with their family, go to Disney World, go to California, and many other fun things. I hope they have a blast. They deserve it. Although I did cry when they boarded the bus for the airport. :( I also know it is December because I have officially started a countdown until Mikey comes... Mikey is coming December 9th and will spend two weeks here in Tokyo. Mikey is one of my favorite people. He makes me laugh and asks the best questions. He is so sweet and kind. Mikey is obsessed with good food (preferrably Asian food) and I am sure is shocked when I eat popcorn and call it "dinner". He is an amazing snowboarder, loves being outdoors, takes beautiful pictures and has a great sense of humor.

It is, however, Mikey's other fine qualities that bless me the most. He loves the Lord first, has a generous heart, he serves his friends humbly, loves his family and is open to sharing his life with me. He sends me fun packages (M&Ms and Andes mints) and writes me letters to keep me company while we are far apart. And in 8 days he will no longer be far away from me but in the same time zone... WOW!

(isn't my boyfriend amazing?)

Does Japan have turkeys?

No, actually Japan does not have turkeys...

but we, here in Tokyo, are fortunate enough to get turkeys imported from America...

So the Tokyo staff had Thanksgiving dinner together.All the ladies prepared some sort of dish to share. We got some imported goods from Mary's sister Jean who came to visit us (again) for a week. Thanks Jean!!

Here is Mary, Jin and Jennifer in the kitchen!! Yaya, Abbie, and I were at the table... waiting for the turkey to be cut. I refrained from eating the turkey leg... although the thought did cross my mind. :D
Mark and Kyle were a little excited to eat Thanksgiving meal. (wasn't Jin's table goregous??? I loved it!! She's such a hostess!)
Mark and Kyle's plate with all the traditional fixings. :D

They aren't so excited now... ha ha ha!!
The beautiful women of the Tokyo team.

I love this picture because after I took it, Kayla asked to see it and then she laughed so hard. I don't know why but she was SO cute when she laughed.

When Jean's cheesecake came out, Kayla was at the table... and wouldn't leave. She couldn't take her eyes off the yummy dessert... I wonder who she got that from??
Ohhh, now I see.

The Rood girls.

It looks good, doesn't it, Kayla?

Are we going to cut this soon?

Ohhh nice.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM JAPAN!!

(and yes, Kayla got her piece of cheesecake)

Koyou desu yo!

This Saturday the 17th, some BEST club members and I headed out to the mountains. We were there to do some hiking and to see the changing leaves... even businessmen and women aspiring students need to get into nature...

Sae, Mikkun, Mamo, Ty, Yasushi, and Mitsuru... they look really intimidating. :D
Mite! Tobu saru... well, not really flying monkeys but just ordinary monkeys. I thought this sign was so cute.
Yasushi
Sae
Mamo and Mitsuru in the backround.

Ahhh nature... how I adore thee.
Being in nature reminds me of Romans 1:20 where it says that all of creation is a testimony to God's existence.

Goregous!

Ty, Mikkun and Jo

I wanted to take a puffy vest picture with Ty but he kept making faces. I have about three pictures preceeding this one, exactly like this.
The group... oh wait, where is Mamo?
On a bridge... I forgot the name. Mikkun? What was it again? Sangubashi?

We rode the cable car down the mountain...
It was pretty sweet.
Thanks Takaosan for your beauty.

Thank you God for all things to testify to Your creativity, Your existence, and Your love for Your people.

it's started...

I couldn't help myself. I broke out the Christmas DVDs today. I love the movie, "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. When Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen dance I get so giddy. The dancing, the costumes. It's awesome.

*The best things, happen while you're dancing... for dancing soon becomes romancing... Even guys with two left feet come out alright if the girl is sweet, if by chance their cheeks should meet while dancing, proving that the best things happen while you dance.*

"Mr. Bones? Mr. Bones? How do you feel Mr. Bones?"

"Rattlin'"

"Mr. Bones feels rattlin'. ha ha. That's a good one."

I am especially excited because my teammates; Mary, Kyle, and Jennifer haven't seen this movie (shame on them) so I have taken it upon myself to share this wonderful Schupbach family tradition with them.

Sssssspeaking of sharing... Mr. Mikey Wang is coming to see me for two weeks (December 9th~ woo hoo)...

whoa, two weeks... we may get to watch "White Christmas" a couple of times.

Ha ha!! Poor teammates and Mikey...

Hooray for the Christmas season... it's just getting started. :D

(in my defense, Japan doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving so everyone and everything is already moving towards Christmas.)

nephews are a joy...

Last night, Edwin David Schupbach was born.

He weighed 7lbs. 12.7oz. and was 20 inches long.

He is aaa-dorable in this picture. I am so excited to have a nephew. Now I feel like a complete Auntie... just kidding.

Eddie is my brother Jeremy's son. He and his wife Alaina live, work, and play in Denver. They chose the name Edwin David to honor Jeremy and my father, Edwin and to honor Alaina's dad David. :D That's pretty sweet.

I can't wait to see Jeremy, Alaina and Eddie when I get home. It's fun time for the Schupbach family. (one more girl in March for Jonah and Becca)
Being an Aunt is awesome. I'll be walking through a store and see little baby booties or a cute little toy and I just have to buy it. Something comes over me to give good gifts to my nieces and nephew.

And of course saying that reminds me of the greatest gift... and what the Bible promises us about good gifts.

*What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?* Romans 8:31-32

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OUR GIFT GRACIOUSLY GIVEN:

Edwin David Schupbach

*i was a model once*

We had a conference in Okutama. Can you believe that this is still Tokyo? Well, it is. An hour and a half from our house, still in the city, lies this little countryside. :D

The fall leaves were nothing less than amazing. I was so happy. Okutama is also in the mountains... Kyle said he felt like he was in Colorado Springs. The leaves were beeeeutiful!!
The little log cabin where we had out meetings.
The Tokyo crew.

left to right: Norio, Stephen, Kie, Mary, Megumi, Jennifer, Joanna, Mark and KyleI had to include this one as well. I laugh so hard at how ridiculous we all look but Kie is the CUTEST one. She looks like a puppet. :D (She's wearing the khaki colored jacket) The Navigator Mid-term Staff. Last year it was just THREE of us!! Wow! WOW! Now we have tripled in size. Kyle and Jennifer came last January and just five weeks ago Mandy and Elbert came to Shizuoka. I am so excited for this group of people. They are like my little family. We are going to be celebrating Christmas together. :D Yatta!!

Sisters... Mary is like my older sister and after this weekend I have officially adopted Mandy Balcom as my little sister. Wow, my sister family is growing... Mandy is hilarious. I really like her and I feel like I can share my heart with her. I was being super open with Mandy and I shared that I felt I could tell her exactly my heart because of an email I had received sharing very deeply with me last August. After a minute Mandy looks at me and says, "I actually sent that to you accidently. I meant to send it to my other friend Joanna." She was being serious. But out of that hilarity a friendship has been born. Click on her name here: MANDY BALCOM to reach her blog.
The Tokyo crew

Front to back:

Me, Megumi, Kie, Jennifer, Mary, Mark, Norio, Stephen and Kyle!!

The outside was so beautiful I was inspired to take A TON of pictures... thanks Kyle for letting me snap this one of you...
Oh, my beautiful roommate and friend. Mary, I love you.
Mary snapped this one of me without me knowing it.

Jennifer and I decided to teach Megumi how to do "senior pose" shots. :D
Then we tried to teach Mark and Stephen who have never had senior pictures. Crazy!?!?!Ha ha! I've been watching too much "America's Next Top Model"... I never watched it until Mary introduced me to it and now she and I tune in whenever we can to watch it.
This is Megumi teasing me cause whenever I get excited I clap my hands. :D She's soooo cute.