2 years and counting

I thought I was going to write a blog when we moved to Japan but I found that my two sentence posts on Facebook were generally enough to share a few thoughts.  As we begin our third year in Japan, I think I am going to need more room to write.  Missing my family has increased rather than decrease and my oldest son will probably be an ocean apart from me a little over a year from now. In two months I will be co-teaching AP Physics along with teaching 9th grade physical science.  As science department chair, I am trying to continue to advance the already good science program at CAJ.  I hopefully will have a new commitment to learning Japanese as well.   It will be a busy year, but a year doing exactly what I think the Lord wants our family to be doing.

I remember thinking as I looked around during our last chapel of the school year that I was certainly blessed to be sitting there.  I was looking at all my students and coworkers actively listening to our Head of School speak and, if that wasn't enough, I could look around and see my husband and three children scattered around the auditorium.  Priceless.  I hope to be able to share with you a year in the life of a teacher at a school for missionary kids (and so many other kids) in Japan.

So, here goes... I just finished two weeks of summer school.  It was fun (9th grade EAL in the morning and elementary computers in the afternoon) but utterly exhausting.  It was necessary so I would have some money to buy next year's school clothes and shoes while we visit America.  (Size 14 shoes for my oldest son and size 9 1/2 for Emme and I are not easily found in Japan.  And I can only rarely find clothes (12 in women's) as a 3X or 4X.   OK, the money was also needed so I can eat lots of junk food in America and pack my luggage with packages of enchilada mix, fajita seasoning, and Rotel.  We take off on Tuesday for a one month visit-all-the-family you can month.  We will also be visiting a couple of colleges for Drew and I will take a 4 day course in AP Physics.  We hope to see some fireworks and I must hold my dear baby niece that I have not yet seen in person.  It is now time to do some spring cleaning that I didn't do during the spring.

I will end with a few pictures of Emme.  She just returned from 6 days at camp.