Bloggers Giving Back {Well Boxed}

Some days I feel like we made a huge mistake moving to San Diego.  Some days it seems that there might be a better place in the world for us to be right now.  Then, days like last Saturday happen and I realize this might just be exactly where we're supposed to be right now.

Saturday I attended another Bloggers Giving Back event with a bunch of incredible women who also happen to be bloggers.  The organizers, who have no military affiliation what so ever, chose to support our troops for their 2nd giving back event.  Each attendee chose a deployed Soldier (or Airman, Marine, Sailor) from AnySoldier.com and bought items to make a care package for that person.

We were supplied with boxes, decorations, food, wine and great company!

  It was eye opening to participate and see how non-military spouses view care packages that are such a large part of a military spouse's life.  Some of these women were super creative and had some great ideas.  During my husband's 2 deployments I sent him more boxes than I can count but I never in a million years thought to decorate them or create a theme for them (this was 07 & 09, before Pinterest).

There was so much good stuff packed into these boxes, I know the guys & gals are going to love receiving them!

I look forward to seeing these ladies each month, I just wish they weren't quite so far away.  Thankfully we're all bloggers and active on social media so even though we only see each other once a month, I feel like I am getting to know them all so well.  I can't wait to learn what we'll be doing next month (and I hope I can squeeze it into my insanely busy schedule in April).

30 Days of Thanfulness {Day 13}

Each day this month I'm joining up with Katie to share with you the many things I am thankful for. I'd love to hear what you're thankful for.

Day 13: Today I'm thankful for all of the people around the world who are willing and able to donate their time & money to victims of natural disasters.  The images coming out of the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan made landfall are absolutely heartbreaking.  Having spent time in NOLA and Tohoku after natural disasters, I know how much impact these volunteers have on the survivors.

PS. What do you think of the new blog design?!?!

30 Days of Thanfulness {Days 11}

Each day this month I'm joining up with Katie to share with you the many things I am thankful for. I'd love to hear what you're thankful for.

Day 11:
Today {and everyday} I'm thankful for the men and women who selflessly serve our country.  I'm excited to spend the day today at the airport giving back to some of these brave men and women at the USO.

Ishinomaki {part2}

Part 1

After a few days of fun it was time to get dirty!  We spent most of the week working on an apartment complex.

When we started on this room, there was about a foot of debris that needed to be sorted through {large pieces need to be seperated...more on that later} and put into bags to be taken to one of the many dumps in town.

We found lots of toys; stuffed animals, puzzle pieces, comic books, legos, etc. so we assumed the room belonged to a child.

We were later told the story of the family who used to live in this apartment.  They heard the warning sirens, had gathered a few necessities and were getting into their car when a neighbor told them that there was too much traffic and they would never make it out in time.  The family, and some of the neighbors, went by foot to a building that was tall enough to be out of harms way and rode out the tsunami there.  They are all now living safely in Sendai.  

We gave blood & sweat {no tears, but there were a few moments when that was a possibility!} to that room and had it almost ready for the professionals to redo it by the end of the week!

We started the next day looking like a chain gang {minus the orange jumpsuits} digging a ditch at the park so the landscapers could plant some trees/bushes

From there I went on a few dump runs.  At the work site, we'd load the truck with as much as it could hold then drive it to one of the many dumps in the area where it had to be separated into very specific piles

We paused for a brief minute to pose for a photo with a few of the workers at the wood dump site.

By the end of the week, we had turned this...

into this

                             

and this

into this

 

Our last day a few of us were blessed to work on a project that I am very excited about!  A group of local single mom's have started a project called Shards of Hope.  They are taking broken pieces of pottery found among the debris and turning it into beautiful jewelry.

learning a new {fun} skill

the pieces I made 

and all the pieces our group made

I had a great week with some amazing people and I can't wait to do it again in a few months!

Ishinomaki {part 1}

Last week I spent 6 days in Ishinomaki {a town in Tohoku, the area that was hit hardest by the tsunami last year} with a group of 14 people from our chapel.  This trip was very different from my experiences in Ofunato last year {o fu na to} but still incredibly important and life changing.  This trip we were working with a group of wonderful missionaries {B-1}, so a lot of the work we did was outreach and not so much hard, physical, labor.  I'm going to break my week up into two posts, one about the outreach work we did and one about the dirty work.

Our 1st day, we hosted an American style BBQ for some residents of the neighborhood.  We served ribs, chicken, corn, salad, beans and watermelon to about 70-100 people.

Day 2 we organized a carnival for the local kids club.  At the end of the day, one of the ladies in charge said she hadn't seen the children that happy since before the tsunami.  To us, it was the ultimate compliment.

We had lots of water games!

face/hand painting

a climbing wall {that was at the building we were using, so we took advantage of it!}

shave ice

tug-of-war

the Japanese mom's whooped the Americans at tug-of-war 

hoola hoops

and a few other events set up.

At the end of the day, the children presented us with decorated koma, or spin tops, as a thank you.

We traded the koma for candy =}

photo from the B-1 website

the girl in the blue here is the one who decorated my koma...you can't see it in the photo but I think it looks just like me ;-}

The missionaries provide free English lessons to kids in the neighborhood once a week and our last day in Ishinomaki, we had an opportunity to join in the English lesson.  We decided to incorporate some games into the lesson so we could have a little more fun with the kids before we left.

Part 2