October 11 2013

Hi folks! Wow! This week has gone by fast!  Today happens to be my second birthday! Thirty-four years ago I was a messed up teenager who gave her life to Christ and I can testify that it was the single best thing that I have ever done! Without Christ I would have been a messed up drunk because that is certainly the direction I was headed. Instead, Jesus rescued me and I have a wonderful husband and family.  I have had a life full of blessings and adventure and have been given the opportunity to tell others about Jesus' goodness and saving grace so they can have hope for a better life here and eternal life later!
We have been looking at another possible church building since we still haven't heard back from the other one. We need to keep our options open. I like the view at this building we looked at!

This building is on the 9th floor. After we went back downstairs I was looking at the mailboxes and discovered that the 10th floor is rented out by a Hamster!
                                            

On a side note, my local grocery store closed for remodeling for a few days so I had to make a longer bike ride to another store. It was alright though because it's nice to check out new stuff at another store once in a while.  I noticed as I rode by on the bus today that my regular store has reopened so Yay! (The other store was twice as far away)
Wednesday was Gary's birthday! We went out on the town to celebrate...okay we went to Ogikubo! This is funny because it's not one of the fancy neighborhoods people like to go to to celebrate stuff.
                                                         

 

 

 

Actually, it's just a regular, little bit run down area but it has a nice mall and Gary liked the Seiyu there. Seiyu is the Japanese name for Walmart. While it is mostly Japanese stuff I can get some Great Value items, like cheese there and it's good for household things. Also, it's one of the few stores that I've found with clothing in my size. While I'm a size large in the States, here I'm a 3L!  Might as well write Giant Amazon Woman on it in big letters!
Before we headed to Ogikubo though we stopped and had soup at Tokyo Soup Company. Gary had a tomato lobster bisque while I had a desert style pumpkin soup.
                                  I really enjoyed my pumpkin soup, it tasted like pumpkin pie!

 

 

                                                                                     
After that we hopped on the train and went to Ogikubo. We shopped in the mall and bought a really cute teapot that matches some cups we had. We picked up a few things at the Seiyu and then went to the top floor to have some dinner at an Italian restaurant. (Most malls here have restaurants on the top floors.)  Gary and I ordered mostly appetizers since they looked really good. We had escargot, grilled mussels and some delicious chicken wings! Gary also had a seafood pasta and I had a potato gratin dish. It was all very nice!   
                                                              

It was getting late by then so we came home and had birthday cake! Gary had put in a request for a pineapple upside down cake. I wasn't sure I could find the ingredients but I went to Kinokuniya,one of the fancier stores that carries some imported stuff, and found the cherries and cake mix there!  I don't have an oven though so I had to hope the cake setting on my rice cooker would work and it did!
                                                              

 

That's it for today!