The weird people I call best friends...

Round Two of my memories from Japan... I just laughed at some of these pictures. They are the best.

Oh, how exciting American dinners used to be.

Yaya!

Mark, Mary and I the fall conference before Mary and I went to Japan.

Thriller

Back in the day...

Going through my Japan photos... has led me to some pretty fun memories... I love memories. Take for instance, the memory here. You may think "wow, three girls in their pjs" but really what was happening was that we had had enough of getting dressed up to go outside. The three of us girls (myself, Jen and Mary) had all been t-shirt and jeans kind of girls but once we got to Japan we realized that Japanese women get dressed up to go everywhere and do everything. Well, one summer night we realized. We had had enough. We wanted to wear our comfy clothes outside. And so we did. :) And that is a good memory.

Keigo and Kie's last day at Tully's... bittersweet.

Too much sugar plus not enough sleep.... one of my favorite memories with Mary, by far was this night. Chocolate fondue night...

Mary

And this hideous picture of me but I had to put it up because KK looks like such a little baby. Wow. Was this really her?

Good times.

More pictures to come... going through 2 1/2 years worth of pictures led me to some pretty hilarious photos of Mark, Jin and the rest of the Tokyo team...

Tag!

I was tagged by Kim Nielsen over here at THIS blog.

I'm supposed to write 7 weird facts about myself....

1. I don't like having lights on in the house that don't need to be on. I'll seriously turn off lights in my roommates room just because there's no need for them to be on if no one is using them. I blame this on my mother who does the same thing. :) She will walk around the house turning off lights.

2. When I name things (plants, pets) I have to give them a full name; first, middle, last. Take for instance; Turquoise Oscar Chang, my road trip fish or how about Emily Ocean, my first pet.

3. I like "boy" movies sometimes more than chick flicks. Don't get me wrong, I love a good chick flick every now and then but I seriously can go for a movie where a man takes on the world and conquers evil for good anytime. I'm not talking about Terminator or Die Hard movies (ew)~ I'm into movies like Braveheart or the series Band of Brothers.

4. When I was interviewing with the navigators they "charted" my personality on a graph. When the interviewer showed me my personality she noted, "You rated on the 'dangerous' level of spontaneity, do you find yourself a spontaneous person?" I find this funny. I'm dangerously spontaneous. :D

5. I love ketchup. In Japan I used to base entire meals around being able to dip them in ketchup.
6. I can't stand meetings. Sorry everyone who wants to have a meeting with me in it. My teammates in Japan always tease me about how distracted I would be during meetings. I would secretly be emailing someone in America while texting someone in Japan while popping popcorn in the microwave while trying to listen to Mark Rood explain SIJ strategies. My strategy? Just let me do it.

7. I like talking in weird voices. Ask Jennifer about it sometime.... we could go on and on and on in our weird voices....

i am tagging
waveland
kelli
jennifer
lenora and adelia
eddie
mikey

my bonnie lies over the ocean

this picture makes me miss my "bonnies" and fall. Look how beautiful it looks over there in Tillsburg. Awww I want to go there and see my family..... my bonnies.

what does that song even mean?

my bonnies lies over the ocean

was there really a girl named bonnie? or is bonnie the word for sweetheart?

You know who I think will know the answer to this....

my dad. He knows the answer to everything uk related or at least music related. :)

Or perhaps my family living over the ocean will know the answer to that question...

anyway, i wanted to update my blog with some cute pictures I got recently while skyping with Jonah, Becca, Lenora (who was a mermaid) and Adelia (who was apparently hungry...)

she loves sucking on cloth.

I remember i loved sucking on wet wash towels.... is that weird?

is it weird that I remember that?

hmmm...

I miss my family.

hither to thy healing arms

i had a good day today.
seriously.
i got a letter from jennifer.
i talked on the phone to christy haley.

and i just had a sweet time with Jesus this morning.

all in all, i feel small pieces of hope and happiness filtering into my heart like little rays of sunshine through the dark and stormy clouds...

i feel encouraged. i decided to start going through all my old posts and categorize the ones that reflect my time in Japan... like this one is labeled "reflections of japan" and so are about 70 that proceeded it.

it was bittersweet to see the last two years...

one post i enjoyed and want to read more in depth when i have time is the post "certain in my heart" which talks about feeling life return to me after John Lee had died.

and after revisiting those old posts, i've decided to put them together in sort of a memoir. i know that sounds silly and who knows who would ever read it but I know it's something i need to do.

it's like going through old photos and memories of someone who has passed away... you decide which photos to keep and which ones to let go of... and maybe you look at those pictures every day for awhile, and then every week, and then eventually, Lord willing, I won't need my memoirs to keep me smiling... but life will be able to do that.

Eddie and Monica

Eddie and Monica got married. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding. A lot of fun people came into town for the wedding including two of the coolest guys in Japan, Mikkun and Ty (next to a cool guy named Los). It was such a huge blessing to be able to see Ty and Mikkun after being out of Japan for three months. Wow, three months... seems longer.

It's been nice to be in California, though....

Monica was an amazing bride. Everything looked elegant and so amazing.

Joni es so pretty. She looks like model. :) She's got a great voice too.

The bride and groom are official.

Joni, Eddie, Monica, and I

The first dance...

Some more fun people from Japan; Stephen and Toshi with Ty.

Some of my favorite people...
Mikey and I took the guys to the beach after the wedding.

What studs!!

Ty

Walking in the waves.

all AND nothing all at once

my friend Kyle looked at me and said, "Women are amazing. They are so complex. How can you feel numb and be feeling five emotions all at once. It's really amazing."

I could burst into tears, laugh my silly head off, have an outburst of anger, and sing with joy.

My friend at the navigators called me, "numb" and at times I feel numb because numb is at least easier to "feel" than everything all at once.

But isn't that funny? It's easier to feel numb??

I am seriously a complex and wonderful woman.

to be known or not to be known? does anyone ever choose the latter?

I've been thinking a lot about being known.

Specifically, having a history with someone... what is it with our desire to be known. Okay, first what do I mean by "being known"... because obviously my mailman knows me, my roommates know me, and even people who work at the local coffeeshop I frequent could claim to know me but what do I really mean?

This is my definition of to be known.... to be known is basically what happens when you sit down to tell someone how you are really, truly doing and you don't have to preface how you are doing with why you are doing how you are doing. In kindgerarten terms "being known" is like when you sit down with a friend and you realize you've battled some major battles, cried some major tears and almost peed your pants laughing with the person sitting across from you... and they GET YOU. They know where you've been and where you want God to take you. They know whether your answer to the question "Do you want to see this movie" will either be yes or no before they even ask... because they know you and know what your answer would be and know whether or not to ask it.

wow. did you follow that? it's a working definiton.

let me ask this...do you have a desire to be known? Or am I alone in this? Do you have ever have a desire to look across a table and see an old friend? To walk into a coffeeshop and order a drink FOR your friend because not only do they know you but you know them... do you ever have this desire?

What IS this desire? What's with our desire to be known? Is it a healthy desire or is this a gnarly desire that should be fought and put to death?

I'm NOT talking about the kind of "known" as in tabloids and television screen known... so don't misunderstand me. I'm talking about the kind of knowing between average people...

to make a long story short... i'm loving l.a. truly and deeply, i mean it. from the bottom of my heart. i could tell you stories about why my roommates make my life completely enjoyable. i am seriously digging the people i'm hanging with and "gleaning" from...

but just beyond that love... my love for this new adventure... is the loneliness for a familiar face to just sit across from me. that familiar face that tells me they know where i've been and they know where i would love to go in life... and that familiar face that just tells me all this ....stuff is okay. cause we've been through much worse together... and God has seen us through. i need a comrade, a padre, a friend whose fought the battle, been in the trenches, seen me survive before....

to tell me i'm going to survive again.

do you ever want to be known?