It's been 1 year and 4 months since I got a hair cut...

I finally got a hair cut! It's been more than a year since I did something done to my hair and I was still in Japan. It's just scary to try new hair salon in a foreign country, you know.

Well, my hair was getting too long and unmanageable, and I knew I had to do something about it before our baby comes. My hair would be in the way whenever I try to take care of my baby and that's just going to be another hussle.



So, I did it. It didn't turn out like I wanted but it's ok. Now it's so easy to wash, dry and style:)

Week 26

あるクリスチャンからの言葉 Message from a Christian friend

マイミクのクリスチャンおばさんがこんなことを日記に書いていました。

クリスチャンとしての在り方

クリスチャンである事を隠したりせず誇りに思っていますか。。。。。 私たちには、この世のブランドよりもっと素晴らしい名前があります。それは「クリスチャン」です。 しかしこの名前はこの世の他のブランドに比べあまり信頼されていません。 クリスチャン達は神の目には選ばれた民であり、聖なる民、神の所有とされた民であるにもかかわらずこの世の人々はそんな存在とは思っていません。 其れはクリスチャン達がその名に相応しい生活が伴わないからです。 私たちに与えられた素晴らしい名に泥を塗る結果となっていないで しょうか？・・・・・ クリスチャンと言う名、自体が誰からみても信頼の対象になるような、 生活の中で主に喜ばれるようになりたいです。。。。。 クリスチャンとして私達を見ている人々がいることを忘れないで キリストの中で新たな存在感が持てるように祈っていきたいです。

My Mixi Friend was writing this on her page.

Living as a Christian

Are you proud of yourself as Christian without hiding your faith in this world?
We have a name (or an identity) on ourselves that is far better than having worldly brand name, which is being a Christian.
However this name is probably not so trusted or respected in this world. To God’s eyes, we are the chosen ones, and holy because of the death of His Son, Jesus. But non-believers don’t really care if you are such people. They don’t care maybe because the Christians they have seen or met are not showing to them that they are living by faith and act on God’s teaching. They may even think that we are just a bunch of hypocrites. As a result, we aren’t being the light of the world and the salt of the earth to the people who don’t know God.

We want to show people that we carry the same cross as once Jesus did to save us. Living like Christ is what God wants us to do and people will see God through us making action on faith.
Don’t forget that there are people watching you as Christians, so let’s be responsible with what to do in daily life. I pray that we will be different in the way of how God wants us to be.

July 4th Weekend

Last weekend of June, we were invited to one of our elder's house for BBQ.

うちの教会の牧師トニーの家で花火。毎週木曜日はトニーの家で聖書クラスがあります。独立記念日の前日ということでみんなで手持ち花火しました。　

We have Bible study at our preacher's house every Thursday and since it was the day before the Independence Day, we did some fireworks afterwards.

BBQ at Grandpa's

My favorite dessert is Grandma's Blackberry Cabbler:) She makes one every time I come.

Week 23, 23週目

I finaly bought some maternity clothes...


ついにマタニティ服買いました。　

This is called "Tokochan Belt" and is the savior of many pregnant women in Japan who have pain in their back or pelvic area. You can use this through out the pregnancy and after to help get back in shape. It is supposed to help support your pelvic bone. My friend was using this and she loved it, so I ordered one and my parents sent it to me with other wonderful Japanese stuff. I also bought a different kind of belt that goes with this belt to support my growing belly. It makes great difference! My left hip started hurting whenever I go walking. Once I wore this belt, the pain was gone. This does works! This belt is also for men who have lower backache and Aaron tried it and he loved it, too. This is absolutely the greatest invention of Japan!

日本人で骨盤矯正に興味があったり、妊娠、出産を経験した人なら一度は聞いたことがあるかもしれない、このトコちゃんベルト。　私も親の住所でオーダーし、他のものと一緒にこちらに送ってもらいました。　使い心地はサイコーです。　左のお尻の骨が歩くと痛かったんだけど、このベルトをすると痛まない！！　しっかり骨盤をサポートしてもらっている感じで、最初はきつかったけど今は快感です。　アメリカで同じようなものを探したけどなかったもんね。　やっぱこういう細かいケア商品は日本の物が一番ですわ～。　

Fly, My Baby, Fly!!

Cardinal

我が家の庭はとっても日本サイズ。小さいお庭に、大きな木が立っててウッドデッキに日中暑い時は木陰を作ってくれます。　そんな小さなお庭に、よく一羽のカーディナルが来ます。　オスのカーディナルは真っ赤な体をしてて、目の周りが黒いのでサングラスをかけてるように見えます。
We have a tiny back yard (we call it Japanese size yard). We have a big tree there and it makes nice shade on our deck during the day. We see a male cardinal almost everyday comes around and play in our yard. Since most of the birds I used to see in Japan are just ordinary sparrows, being able to see many kinds of colorful birds made me happy. Cardinals are my favorite. Male cardinals have bright red body and around eyes are black, so looks like they wear sunglasses. 　

動物の種類によっては、オスの方がメスより鮮やかで美しい体をしてたりするよね。　カーディナルもオスのほうがとってもきれい。　メスははっきりしないオレンジ色っぽいくちばしに、茶色っぽい体なんです。 さて、我が家にやってくるこのカーディナル君。　いっつも一羽でいるので、シングルだと思ってました。　でも昨日は違った。なんと彼はパパでした。　ママカーディナルが木から下りてきたと思ったら、なんと赤ちゃんも落ちるように、木から下りてきてパパとママでこの子に飛ぶことを教えてたの。

Well, this cardinal always comes alone. We thought he was single but the other day, we found out that he was a dad. He came down from the tree and then, a girl cardinal came down, and then a baby cardinal came down like it was falling:) They were trying to teach baby cardinal to fly in our small yard.

この子の練習には、うちの狭い庭がもってこいだったらしく、ウッドデッキの手すりから庭の柵まで飛んだり、行ったり来たりしてました。　赤ちゃんも一生懸命飛ぶんだけど、まだ上手にできず柵の上にたどり着けず、地面にボタッと落ちちゃったりして…。　その様子を、ロビン(お腹がオレンジ色の鳥)やリスがじっと見てました。

I think our yard was the perfect place for them to teach baby cardinal to fly. There is a big tree to have nest, and nice distance between the deck and the fence to fly back and forth. The baby cardinal tried so hard to fly with his mom and dad, but he got tired and sometimes just fell on the ground. It was just sweet for the mom and dad cardinal to fly around the baby to cheer him up. A robin and a squirrel were watching them practice on the fence.

今までパパしか見た事なかったのは、きっとママと赤ちゃんは木の上の巣にいて、パパがエサを取りに行ってたからなのかなって思いました。　 早く親子で自由に飛び回る姿が見たいです。　 小さなことからなんだか心が温かくなった日曜日でした.

I guess the reason we saw only dad cardinal was because he was out finding food for the baby while mom cardinal took care of the baby. I’m looking forward to seeing them fly all together.

Walking, Yoga, and Belly dance.

もともと体格のいい私、祖母が糖尿病持ちであったために、隔世遺伝で絶対おまえにもくる！と父に宣言され、妊娠したと報告すれば「おめでとう」の後に「妊娠中の体重管理」を父から厳しく要求されるしまつ。糖尿予備軍の筆頭とまで言われているので、せめて好きな運動はちゃんと続けようと日課にしてきた。ウォーキングはアーロンとし、ヨガは日本にいた時、教会に友達のヨガの先生を招き、ラッキーなことに無料で丸1年教えてもらったので、今では1人黙々と家でやっている。　そしてアメリカに来てから始めたのがベリーダンス。　いろいろ種類があるけど、私の先生はアメリカントライバルスタイル、トライバルフュージョンスタイルを教えている。　

Since I was in elementary age, I have been pretty chunky. Because my grandma had type2 diabetes, my dad had always told me that I would get it someday like her because he thought that I act and eat just like her, and I inherited most of her DNA or something. (Well, she pretty much raised me so it is kind of natural to be like her, I guess…) When I told my parents that we were having baby, he strictly told me to be careful about what to eat so that I don’t have trouble during my pregnancy. It is annoying to be told about your weights or how I should lose weights to look better, because it’s not really encouraging me to do anything. He just makes me self-conscious.

Anyway, I’m still chubby so you know that I never listened to my dad about his ideas of being healthyJ He just tells me to be healthy and lose weight but never gives me useful advises. To stay healthier during pregnancy, I have been keeping my exercise routine. I needed to modify some not to hurt my baby or overdo, but other than the time I was dead during the morning sickness, I have been pretty faithful being active. I walk with Aaron, I do prenatal Yoga or belly dance in the morning, and I finally went back to my belly dance lesson!

つわりがあった時期は運動ほとんどできなかったけど、終わってからは出産に備えて筋力をつけるべく再開。外で軽いウォーキング、妊婦用のヨガ、ベリーダンスのDVDをかけて家でやるようにしている。

妊娠がわかってすぐ通っていたベリーのレッスンを止めた。安定期に入るまでは静かにしていたかったからだ。　20週目の検診で母子共に健康の太鼓判を押されたので、またベリーのレッスンに通い始めた。やっぱりベリーは楽しい。　ダンスなんて習う気もなかったけど、これは楽しい。　先生がおもしろいし、まずアメリカでは人目を気にしなくてすむ。日本って形から入ったりするから、いろいろウェアとか揃えたり、あと入会金とか月謝とか高すぎる。細い人が多かったりして、気が引けて行きづらい雰囲気もあったりするので、やっぱりアメリカは私に合っていると思ってしまう…笑。私の先生でっかいしね。　お腹に肉がついてないと、ベリーはセクシーじゃないそうなんで、それも私に合ってるんだわ。

I stopped going to the lessons as soon as I found out that I was pregnant even though Belly dance is one of the wonderful exercises that you can do during pregnancy. I was just scared that I might overdo and lose baby… At 20 weeks check up, my doctor told me that my baby and I are both healthy and doing great, so I decided to go back to the lesson. It is just so much fun to dance. I don’t do the moves that require too much stomach muscle and try to add other moves. I love my instructor, too. She is very funny and her lessons are always filled with laughter, and the lesson fee is very reasonable. Learning dancing never crossed my mind before and it was probably because I never had time for it and the fee in Japan was much more expensive. I’m glad I gave it a try here and found something fun to do and meet people. I also liked when my instructor, Zivah told us that we gotta have something to jiggle to look great in this form of dance. I think I got plenty of that in the right place, hahaha.

久しぶりに行ったレッスンなのに、2月にやったことをほとんど覚えていたのでとてもほめられた。　リズム感は悪くない方だし、持久力はないが運動神経はあるので、踊っても様になるらしい。　ほめられて私も上機嫌だった。　

娘が生まれることだし、一緒にベリーをやるのもいいかもねぇ。　
ウィキペディア：ベリーダンス　

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%99%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%80%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9

Zivah told me that I was naturally good in dancing since I remembered most of the things that I learned up until February and danced smoothly without being jerky. That made me feel good and motivated me even more. I can't wait to take my daughter to the class:-)

Wikipedia about Bellydance:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belly_dance

2nd Bedroom Closet Before and After

Ok, now I can put more stuff for baby:)