Japan - Part 2

So my sleeping schedule is horrible. I was hoping it would eventually become somewhat normal, but not so much. We are up at crazy hours & sleeping at even crazier ones, but we're making due. 


Monday Craig got all his paperwork signed and we paid the rent and became official. It was nice to know that the power wasn't suddenly going to go out because we hadn't paid the rent! There are a lot of rules to staying at the international house on campus. Toyonaka, the city we are staying in, has crazy rules about trash. You have to separate it into things that can be burned, things that can be recycled, and then everything else. The city provides specific bags and you have to use them. It's different, that is for sure. Recycling is crazy here. There are recycle cans EVERYWHERE. There is no excuse, that is for sure. There are vending machines around every corner that have anything from sparkling water, to coffee, to beer. It's kinda strange. Mostly Japanese drinks, some Coke, even less Pepsi. No Diet Coke to speak of. We did find some grape Mountain Dew. That was cool.


Monday morning we managed to find a grocery store and stock up on some essentials. Grocery shopping is grocery shopping, regardless of the country you are in.


So Monday afternoon, we met up with Craig's professor and saw the lab where Craig will be working. I don't know much about science labs, but it looks cool. It's pretty small, Craig's "office" consists of a desk, but there are some really cool instruments in there that Craig will get to use. Pretty awesome. His professor took us on a tour of Osaka University. It is a really nice campus. There is a lot to do on Campus and it seems like there are tons of students. The campus we are on is only one of 3 in total. They just grew so much, they had to have additional campuses. After touring the university, we headed to the Market Street. It was really cool. Local vendors selling everything from shoes to sushi. It was really neat. I'm excited to go back and check it out more thoroughly before I leave. We took the train to Umeda, which is one of the big cities near where we are. There is a few tourist things to do there and Craig & I are headed back today. We just went with his professor to check it out. The train stations there are HUGE. I couldn't believe it. I have a feeling we might get lost. 


Tuesday ended up being a lazy day because of all the walking we did Monday that we weren't prepared for. We didn't know we where getting a tour so neither of us were prepared for all the walking. I ended up with blisters on my feet and Craig's legs were pretty sore. I had some work to do and we did go check out the cafeteria on campus, but that was about it. Sadly, we keep falling asleep around 6pm and waking up at 2 or 3am. Then the sun comes up around 4:30, so sleeping in isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. 


This morning we got up and got going earlier. We went to check out the cafe on campus that served breakfast and now we are about to head out to Umeda for some fun!

Japan - Part One

Traveling to Japan is long and hard. 19 hours of flight was crazy. Once we finally landed we had 2 hours of trains to take. Thankfully we figured it out and got on the right train every time. By the time we made it our last stop, it was dark and raining. We had to walk to the university and it was a guess about which direction. We saw a fairly large building and was hoping it was the school dorms. Sadly not so much. It was the hospital. Thankfully someone pointed us in the right direction and we made it to the International House at Osaka University.  Craig found the RA and after something like 30 hours of travel we finally made it to our final destination. I think it was probably the longest day I've had in a really long time. Dragging suitcases in the rain was not much fun, but all in a days work I guess.

That was Friday. Saturday required rest. It was about 10 when we finally left the apartment. We just started walking. We found a Family Mart and figured that was were a lot of the college students shopped. We kept walking and found a McDonald's. Since we didn't find a lot else, we decided to stick with something we knew. It was interesting to order since we didn't speak Japanese and no one there spoke English. Thankfully they had picture menus and we pointed to what we wanted. We left McDonald's and went to the Family Mart to grab some dinner. We did the noodles and chicken thing. They turned out to be pretty good. I also ate my dinner with chopsticks. Not as hard as I thought it was. We bummed around the apartment the rest if the day. We unpacked and took a nap. Craig got the internet up and running, so we caught up with the world. We ended up in bed around 930. I guess we were still tired. The only problem was we woke up way to early. The sun rises really early here and since we went to bed so early, we were up really early Sunday morning.

We decided to go to church on Sunday, so we mapped it out and figured out how to get there. It didn't seem to difficult. We had to take the monorail, then a train. Not too bad. We got on the monorail and got off at the right stop. Then we got on the train, but ended up on an express train the skipped the stop we needed and headed to the next station. The problem with the train was it was more local, so there wasn't an English translation for everything like on the bigger trains. Anyway, once we got to the wrong stop, we had to figure out how to get back to the right stop. After getting on the wrong train and going the wrong way once, we finally figured it out and got to the right place. After walking in the wrong direction, we finally made it to the church.

There were 4 missionaries and three of them spoke English. It was nice to see them. We made it through the Sacrament when someone came and offered to translate. That made the rest of the meeting easier. It was nice to understand what was going on. We left after Sacrament meeting and headed back to the apartment. There was a little cafe in the train station, so we grabbed a sandwich there. We stopped at the Family Mart to grab dinner and settled in at home to rest. I took a nap and ended up sleeping until after 8. We had dinner and I read till about midnight. Somehow I still managed only to sleep until 5:30 this morning. The sun just comes up to early here.

So the day is just getting started. Craig has to go sign paperwork for the apartment this morning, then we are off to to find him a phone and then a grocery store. Should be a fun day.

So far Japan has been amazing. Everyone here has been really nice. One lady even helped us find the right train. It's been an amazing experience so far.

New babies are a gift from Heaven

Isn't she absolutely adorable? Considering I'm her aunt, I may be biased, but that is besides the point. Even though the first two weeks of the new year didn't go exactly as planned, I say a new baby trumps all of that anyway. 


Dena Marie Capehart was born at 2:18am on January 3, 2012. She was 7 lbs 7oz and 20.5 inches long. As her mother Dana says, she's practically perfect in every way. Dena joined this world slightly unexpected and slightly unplanned, but thankfully as healthy as anyone could ask for. Heavenly Father sure has blessed our family. Both Mom, Baby & Dad are doing well & settling into a new routine at home. Grandma has been helping out here and there. She truly is a blessing.


I love being an aunt. It is awesome to be able to spoil my nieces and nephews and to pretty much love them to pieces. How can you beat that?


So the new year started off a little crazy, but I'm glad. Crazy keeps me on my toes and makes me grateful for having wonderful people in my life.

New Years 2012

So New Year resolutions are for the birds, but I do feel like January is a good time to make a new start. 2012 needs to be better than 2011 for lots of reasons, so I decided to make some changes. I think it is important to write down my list and make it public. That way I'm being held accountable. So here goes my list of making life changes:

1. During tax season I'm going to stick to a schedule. In bed by 11, up at 5:30. Jazzercise Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. A routine is a good thing. After April,  modification will be needed, but still a routine.

2. I'm going to study, take, and pass at least 2 parts of the CPA exam.

3. I'm going to keep up with the Sunday school lessons by reading it during my nightly Scripture study. Then this year I will ha e read the Book of Mormon and fulfilled the Virtue requirement for personal progress.

4. I'm going to eat better and keep losing weight.

5. I'm going to say my personal prayers more consistently.

6. I'm going to blog more since I don't write in my journal very often.

7. I'm going to be thankful, for everything.

I know that seams like a lot, but I have been working on a plan for the past week. I know I can do this, and my life and marriage will be better for it.

Blogging

So I've known for a while that I should be better about blogging. I'd like to say I have a good excuse for not doing it very often, like no one reads it anyway, or that I scrapbook everything that I do, but those are just excuses. For me, blogging is a different way to express what is going on in my life. I love reading the blogs of my friends who I don't get to see very often. It's a way to know what is going on in their life. I've really enjoyed reading the insights that they share.

Our life has been busy, not bad, just busy. I'm studying for the CPA exam & Craig is back in school full-time. That leaves money tight & our time even tighter. Some days we hardly see each other. In the long run I know it will all be worth it, but in the short run it sure is hard.

We did take a great vacation to Colorado not long ago & it was wonderful. We say Craig's brother & his kids while we were out there. It was such a blast. I can't wait to go back. If it wasn't for the snow, I would be there now. It is such a beautiful part of the country.

So even though I feel like there are a million things going on in our life right now, I want to be better about sharing the important things. Some things are just too good to keep to myself. :)

A Brand New Day

For accoutants, making New Year's resolutions are futile. It is practically impossible to make life changes during tax season. Every year I try, and every year I fail. This year, my resolutions are coming in April, after tax season. A time when I can take the time to master my resolutions and not fail.
The year started out so rough for our family, I'm glad I didn't attempt major changes. Though I know there is no such thing as "normal," I do feel like we are getting back to some sense of it in our lives.
So, Friday nght I made lists; short-term, long-term, spiritual, temporal, very personal, and more family focused. Everything that I want to do in my life in 2011 is now in a list. It seems very overwhelming, yet very doable. I feel that I was aided by the Spirit in making this list, so I feel like I can accomplish it all. I know there will be falls and set-backs, but that is part of learning and growth.
How grateful I am for the chances we have to "make lists" time and time again to help us become better. I'm also grateful for the help from above in achieving my goals.

Happy New Year

 

So I had an interesting New Year Holiday. Craig & I had different activities we wanted to do, so we went our separate ways, met back up & then split up again. It actually worked out well for us.

I went to Disney World with my family. At first I wasn’t going to buy a ticket and go to a park, but honestly, it’s pretty hard to go to Disney World and not go to a park. So I bought a one day, one park ticket and went to Hollywood Studios with Dana & Jamie. It has been a long time since I’ve spent an entire day in a park, so it was quite an interesting experience. Plus it was New Year’s Eve, so there were more people in the park than I had seen EVER. It was nuts. It was one of the coolest ringing in of the New Year I’ve had, but I don’t have to do that every year. I would rather ring in the New Year with close family instead of thousands of my “closest friends.” I say closest, because I got WAY to close to some people. It was pretty fun to ring in the New Year at Disney, but I don’t have to do it again. It was NUTS. The fireworks were spectacular, but that was just too many people in one place. New Years in Times Square is something I’ll probably never do. As soon as Dana posts pictures, I’ll share them. We took some fun ones.

Meanwhile, Craig went to Will’s and played D&D. They didn’t even “ring” in the new year. They just played and played. It made him happy, and that’s what counts.

New Years Day, my family went to Trails End for breakfast. Craig met us & so did Chelsea. Her family was at Disney as well, so it was way fun to meet up with her that morning. We had such a good time catching up. We really need to hang out more.

The rest of the day, Mom, Dad, Hailey & me went pin trading at Downtown Disney and Wilderness Lodge. It was good fun.

Home today to “rest” before getting back to the real world. Tax season is coming all too quickly, so I’m trying to enjoy my “quiet” time before it all gets started.

Here’s to a new year & all that it holds.