Charity's Crazy Beautiful Life

The rainy season is OVER, so come visit!

Today was beautiful...the weather was great, the skies were clear, the water was gorgeous!! A switch to what we've been dealing with lately - which has been lots and lots of rain! So, when we woke up and saw blue skies this morning, we decided to head to the beach. This is one of my favorite pictures from today with Craig, Allyssa, and Daz out wave jumping while Colby is collecting hermit crabs in his bag. And can you believe that this is a straight out of the camera shot? No editing. This is precisely how beautiful the beach was today! 

Yes, you got me! I've decided to campaign on this blog. To post beautiful island pictures to entice you to come visit us. Can you tell I miss you!?!?!!! (Just don't come during the "rainy season", you'd be mad at me!!) Lucky for you and me both, I think the rainy season is behind us for another year!

Hope to see you soon!!
Love,
~Charity
 

Flea Market, Frugality... and blame it on Facebook!

It's been a while. A long while. But if it's ok with you, I'm just going to pretend that it hasn't been a while. Ok? Thanks for understanding! Love ya!

So... I left off talking about the flea market that I went to with my daughter Allyssa and my friend Sarah, so we could sell some of our junk.

 

As we were waiting in line in our van to get our flea market spot, we saw the Japanese locals waiting off base to come in and rummage through our junk. They were friendly. And flashed me a peace sign after I took a picture of them...how cute is that?!? (That's what they do here in Japan for pictures, show a peace sign!)

We got our space and tossed our junk out of the van, as it seemed like everyone else was doing. (I've never done a flea market before. Did I mention that? And never, never in a foreign land.)

And then, they came...

(Yes, that's me in the yellow hat and yellow shirt baking away in the sun. Allyssa was very adamant that she would be the one taking the pictures that day. Gotta love my kids!)

so they came...and they browsed...

  and the Japanese - they were fun to "people watch". They would swarm...

and REALLY contemplate their purchases. Which made me think...because, you see, most everything I was selling was 100 Yen (about one dollar). But they would take several minutes holding something up, and looking at it and inspecting it.

It made me realize that in that respect, I need to take a lesson from the Japanese. Maybe I wouldn't wind up with so much junk to sell in the first place.

So, that day at the flea market...I realized that I respected the frugality of the people of this new country I'm living in. And after spending a morning tending to my junk and getting a horrible sunburn (and yes, I did apply sunscreen), I grew to appreciate and respect all the funky hats and visors...

and the umbrellas they use and the layers of clothes they wear. Even went it's hot, hot, hot out. They know what they're doing. 

And, if you really must know where I've been and why I haven't been blogging lately...well, instead of listing my "top ten" reasons, I'll just say, "blame it on facebook"!
 

Missing him...Killian

Tonight I was wrapping Killian's presents....and an overwhelming feeling came over me. I miss him!!!!!!!!! It's been nine...wait, ten months since we've seen him. 

Since right before we left Montgomery back in February. And I know I'm only his stepmom, but I've been a part of his life for eleven years and it's hard to be so far away. The hardest part tonight has been...putting together an album of family pictures for him. Pictures that he's not in.

 

 Pictures where there needs to be another big brother.

 

 

Pictures where there needs to be another son.

 

Pictures where there's supposed to be one more child. Because our family...it is blended, yes. So most of the time you will only see five of us. But really, there are supposed to be six.

And when I start to focus on that. On how much I miss having him in our lives more. On how I miss the daily interactions, him being a part of our holiday traditions and nightly prayers...it's times like these that I have to pause for a minute and reflect, and be thankful for the time we have had with him.

Thankful for the several folders on my computer filled with pictures of us all together last Christmas. Of the two weeks we got to spend together in Orlando at Disney World before we moved worlds away. Of captured memories like this one...

My tuckered and tired kiddos after a week and a half of Disney World...on Christmas eve in their new pajamas, with their new ornaments and the tiny tree we brought to our hotel room.
 

And on night's like this, after I count my blessings, I ask God for grace. Grace to be the best stepmom I can be. Grace to get through times when I miss Killian. Grace to do all that I can from afar -- sending love, family photos and lots of prayers.

 

On the mend...Happy Thanksgiving!!

A busy time of year quickly turns into a chaotic time of year when your entire family gets sick. Each for a week. Consecutively. Equaling five weeks of sickness in one house. Yes, that's what happened here in the Zaleski abode. We were all on the mend right in time for Thanksgiving. Which ended up being very low key. Just the five of us. We cooked, we ate, we played board games...and we loved every minute of it!

Now, I'm busy catching up on all the Christmas planning, shopping, decorating...family photos, Christmas cards, etc. that are a part of this time of year. Add that I'm behind because of the before mentioned plague that swept through our home to the fact that I have to mail things much earlier because we're in Japan...which equals a busy few days for me! VERY busy. But I"ll take it. 'Cause the good news to that is that for the rest of December...I'll get to relax...and enjoy my Christmas countdown visiting beaches.

Beaches like this one where we had our family photos taken. Which you'll get to see more of after Christmas...te he he...I know, what a tease! But I can't ruin the surprise. All I can guarantee about these pictures is that in them there are cute kids, a handsome man, and they'll definitely make you want to come visit...SOON!

View Tease

Ok, I only have 5 more minutes until my "lunch break" is over and I have to get back to painting my house. It's so hard to be motivated to unpack, paint, and decorate a house when the weather is so nice and there are so many things to do and see on this island! Case in point; what we did yesterday. Which I don't have time to post about right now. So I'll share a few pictures of the view from where we were yesterday instead. ~Enjoy

Both of the East China Sea.

 

This is the Pacific in the distance. We could see them both from where we were standing.