Meet Mr. Rollie Pollie

Alyx is 5 months now and he's growing and learning so fast.

A while ago, he would just stay on his back and coo and play and talk, ya know? Or he would do all the same things on his stomach. NOW?!!? He is rolling all over the place. It makes changing diapers an adventure. ;) But that's just the beginning. He is not only rolling over, he is scootchin!! Just a bit here and there to reach his toys. He is on his way to crawling, and i'm thinking it could be any day now that he will surprise me with his new found transportation skills. So many times the past two weeks, he'd stick his cute little butt in the air and his legs and feet would be pushing against the ground. He is soo close! He just needs help with the front part of his body. lol. But for now, I'm ok with him not crawling quite yet.

I mean, when he does start crawling, that means I'm going to have to baby proof EVERYTHING!! :D

Back to the one I love

So, last week, I had to fly back to the States just to work one day. Stupid, but I had to do it. So Alyx and I flew and what was supposed to be five hard days turned into a horrible, too long, seven days. Well it wasn't all horrible.

When I landed into Seattle, it wasn't quite the same as the home in Utah, but I felt so happy to be in the country I love. I can't quite explain it, but there is such a difference and it just felt good to be walking on American soil (you know what I mean). But even when I was surrounded by family members that I missed and haven't seen for almost a month, I left my heart back in Japan. The first night was definitely hard. The first night sleeping alone since I got married. I did miss Jason for the whole entire time, but with each added day the ache got worse.

For those who know our story, Jason and I had spent a lot of time together before we married in such a short time. Through being friends, dating, engagement and for the time being married, we've never EVER gone five days without seeing each other, not even four. But this trip took longer than I thought it would, we went almost seven days without seeing each other.

I was already suffering just from the time difference, every day, only getting 2-4 hours of sleep at night time in Utah and passing out from noon to 4 in the afternoon. But as hard as that was, being away from the one I love  was soo much harder. There were times when I just wanted to cry but because of lack of sleep, I couldn't release the pain and loneliness I felt. On Saturday, I tried to catch a flight to Seattle, the plane filled up, I tried a few hours later and I came soo close to getting on the plane, but once again it was full. I couldn't bear it, I lost it and cried. Sunday morning, I prayed and prayed. My family prayed for me. Jason was praying and went on a 12 hour fast for me. We needed each other. A miracle happened and I got on that 1st flight out of there. I know it might not seem like a miracle to some. But for me it was an answer to my prayers and to others. When I landed in Seattle and from there to Osaka. I was grinning and happy to be back in Japan, because that is where my heart had stayed, with Jason. Last night, I had so much happiness and energy, I felt like a little kid again. I actually did jump up and down with excitement several times, not caring if I looked like a crazy American. lol. Which I know, I am pretty crazy. :)

It's amazing what time spent away from your loved one does to you, it was difficult and I hated it, but it made the every day moments seem so much sweeter and the little things just a bit bigger. It's so nice to be back with my wonderful husband, who is for sure my better half. :)

Homesick

It's two days short of three weeks that I've been living here in Japan and I am soo homesick. It's not easy living in another country with a beautiful but strange language and people around you. Being a new mom of a teething almost 5 month old baby doesn't help any. But I'm doing the best that I can. Here are just 20 things that I miss.

My family (the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing them has been a week and a half and we were always an hour away).

My friends.

Any LDS temple (seeing one puts a smile on my face, going inside is wonderful too)

Milk and DELICIOUS choco chip cookies (their milk tastes funny here and for those who know me, I’m addicted to milk, also can’t bake my cc cookies. We don’t have an oven where I live).

My car (love walking, but depending only on legs and trains to get to where I want to go starts to wear on me after a while).

Sleeping on a bed (we sleep on futons).

Fruit and cereal ( both are very expensive here)

NORMAL food (not Asian or seafood)

Being able to read things in English.

Having a babysitter who I can trust (see below)

Going on dates with Jason w/out Alyx  (see above)

Having a kitchen all to myself

Utah’s mountains.

The temperature/climate in Utah.

Having more than 1 room belonging to me.

Not being bitten by mosquitoes (I know Utah has them, but the ones in Japan are everywhere and a lot worse).

Understanding what’s being said in church.

Not being a foreigner.

Having all my belongings with me and not just 1 suitcase full of things.

Having a neighbor or a friend that’s a few minutes away from me that can help me or just talk to me. 

From morning till night we walked

Almost like the pioneers!!! Only . . . not quite. Yesterday, Jason and I with our son, Alyx, went on a long sight seeing trip. From 9:30 in the morning till around 7 at night we walked. Ok, well I guess we didn't walk the WHOLE entire trip, but it sure felt like that to me. 

We walked to the train station (thank goodness we're not too far from it), took about ten minutes or so. Then we caught three different trains and were on them for about an hour and a half. Then we walked to our first destination, the Horyuji Temple. It was pretty astounding, for being the World's Oldest Wooden Building The entrance fee was ridiculous though, the cost was 1000 yen per adult, so $12 each in American money. It had a museum full of famous Japanese Buddhist artifacts. Three hours after walking and looking around, we left and gratefully took the bus took the bus back to the train station so we could walk to our next site. On the way, we stopped so I could get some ice cream to help renew my energy, haha, and we ran into some mini stores on the side. But the real surprise was the multiple times I saw deer wandering around. When we were nearing the second temple, there were groups of deer surrounding people, begging for food. People were petting them too!!! It was so crazy, but cool too. The Todaiji temple, World's Biggest Wooden Building, took a lot longer to get to and I already felt so exhausted (and gross) from the heat/humidity and the distance we traveled. But I appreciated it more than the first. The cost wasn't too crazy here, 500 yen each, we did end up buying a few things though. :) The temple was really beautiful! Inside had a big buddha that was GIGANTIC!! It was also interesting to see the many different types of people there and how they worshiped him. 

Last of all, we visited a natural garden. It didn't have too many flowers in it, but it was a really pretty sight to see. All kinds of trees and plants. Green everywhere! Once in a while we saw some hydrangea, in blue, purple and pink. It was actually a rather small garden, but for the beauty it was amazing. :) It started to rain a little while later and we had a little scare on our way to the train station, but we were all right. We then relaxed   on the train ride home and had some McDonald's shaka shaka chicken, which was delicious, before we made spaghetti at home. :) It was a long but amazing day. 

EARTHQUAKE!!! continued . . .

Well thanks to my amazing mom, she told me the earthquake we felt was a 4.7, not big at all. I could've figured it out on my own, but was too lazy and it wasn't too big for me to put more interest in finding out what the size was. So thank you Mom!! :)

EARTHQUAKE!!!

Now don't panic, I'm ok. Breathing but ok . . . it really was just a tiny one.

I didn't even really notice it, my head we already pounding from the heat and walking I did today. We were sitting in our bedroom and I was talking to Jason. I had asked him if he wanted to make dinner, we heard a noise from upstairs. He looked up at me from playing on his phone and says, "Earthquake?". Oh my gosh, I had totally thought he was joking and was trying to get out of putting down his phone and making dinner. But then I noticed that I felt some shaking and was wondering if my headache and exhaustion was getting to me. I looked around for things to be moving. Saw our little kitchen mirror moving a bit and then I realized, Jason was right!!! hahaha. So then he was totally hoping that once I realized the earthquake had happened, that I would forget asking about  him making dinner. HA! :) Anyway, dunno what the size of it was. But it wasn't too bad. Probably could've noticed it more if my head wasn't pounding.

Temples

So in church today, the Relief Society president, Meetani (I know it's not the correct spelling but that's how it's pronounced, so just bear with me), gave an excellent lesson. The topic was on Temples. Wonderful lesson, but it kinda made me homesick for the Bountiful temple. Or one that I can see within a few minutes.

We talked about the ordinances and blessings and how special they are. I was asked when I got sealed to my husband and what I had felt and remembered about that time. It was wonderful to think back on that special day, about getting married and sealed to Jason for time and all eternity. I remember the many angels I felt close by. Both past ancestors and future angels that would come into our family.

Japan doesn't have the wonderful blessings to have many temples like Utah has. The closest is the Tokyo temple which is 8 hours away and the ward has to plan a special trip to go together. Not many people have had the blessing to go to the temple has often as I have. It made me wake up a bit to see how blessed I am. Back in Utah, it only takes a few minutes to get to the temple. It made me feel bad to have not visited the temple more often. When these people here in Osaka clearly would love to go if they could.

When I return home, I'm going to try to go more often again, like I used to with Jason. Before we were married, we used to go every other week to do baptisms. Now we're lucky to go even once a month. Of course we have a baby now, but that shouldn't be an excuse. We could get someone to watch Alyx. We just need to make it more of a priority in our lives.

I'm loving the time I'm in Japan with my husband and son, but I can't wait until we go back home. Back to where we can see one or more temples within a day. Back to where there is peace and love.

Sorry, one more thing about today. I said the prayer in Relief Society and got enough courage to bear my testimony (just in Relief Society though), that was pretty hard, but I've made a few friends there. :)