Another day later, and I still have bug bites all over me. I really wonder what they all were. The bites are mostly different from one another, a strong recommendation for their having come from different bugs. But, boy!, so they itch whenever they get rubbed by anything, clothing especially.
Hiking is great, but I think I just need always to wear bug repellent when I hike. Goodness…
A few examples of these various bites:
Post-a-day 2023
At last, I am heading home. My brain has been ready to go home for a bit already, and my body and time are now catching up to it. I still had a great time for the rest of my vacation. I am, however, fully ready to be home.
Thank you, God, for this vacation. Please, grant me safe passage home to Houston and our house tonight. Thank you for everything. Amen.
Post-a-day 2023
What does one do when one loves another and wants the best for that other person, yet one disagrees with that person as to what is best for that person’s health and well-being?
Really, I’d like to know…
I suppose the only true answer here is to pray – let go, and let God.
Okay, God, I give it up to you. I am terrified, and I give it up to you, nonetheless and all the more. I trust in you. Please, help us to see clearly and to pursue your will and your love. Help me to speak the words that need to be spoken, to say what needs to be heard. And help us both to hear what needs to be heard on all sides. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2023
It’s just nearly 9:30pm, and I am beyond wiped, wishing I could have been in bed already an hour ago. Today has been good overall, but I am exhausted. We started with watching the first sunrise of the year, as is custom in my family – because, you know, we’re part Japanese now. Then we drove to a nearby city to have brunch with my stepdad’s sister and her husband – wonderful time(!), but tiring drive. I’m so glad I have a man who can handle long, tiring drives and stay fully awake. I struggle to stay awake even as a driver on those, so I tend to stay away from them as a whole.
Anyway, we then meandered back to the city where we’re staying, took a way-too-long nap – well, he did, anyway, and I hung out next to him – and then finally went to dinner. I was super hungry and, so, ate too much. It was delicious food, but also food that doesn’t exactly leave me feeling very healthy or whole, thought definitely quite at home.
Hopefully, tomorrow starts getting some things checked off our list for the house. Fingers crossed that it goes well!
Post-a-day 2023
(Huh… I guess it is 2023 now. 😛 )
Thank you, God. You have clearly given us your help, and we are incredibly grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen.
When we’re not still in the middle of it all, I might come back and share what all this was. For now, however, I am grateful for the various resolutions we have reached, and I am hoping for continued increase in grace, joy, and ease for the both of us on this trip. God, please, continue to guide and to help us to be our best selves and to find love, grace, and joy in one another throughout this trip, and always. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2022
Started great. Currently feels quite like poo, however.
Oh, God, please, help us. Amen.
Post-a-day 2022
We are going to Mexico to visit his family. He is going for three weeks, and I am going for a week and a half. However, both our packing ended up looking like we’re moving there for a month (or two). Oh, the comedy in packing when driving somewhere versus flying… he leaves by 2:30am at the latest (within the next hour). I fly down on Friday. My carry-on had better be just a few little things, because my clothes, excepting the outfit for the plane, are all packed and in the car already. Lord, guide me, please.
Dear God, please, keep him safe in his travels today especially. Keep us both safe throughout all of our travels. Thank you for this life. Help us to bless the world through the gifts that you have given to us. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2022
I had my man open tonight all his presents that I’d put under the tree. I don’t give Christmas presents, but I determined to have some fun for him this year, to let him be like a little kid and to shower him with gifts. Almost everything was either gained second-hand or from free gift cards, so the total cost was around $50, yet there were loads of presents for him to unwrap. He had said he liked opening packages, so I made sure he got to do just that tonight.
I also surprised him with my ticket to come visit with him in Mexico. (Granted, that one was several hundred dollars, but I’m also visiting my step-sister in Monterrey with the tickets, so it will be two trips for the usual price of the one, plus $40… not at all a bad deal, especially since I get to spend New Year’s with him, visit the town he loves, and see my step-sister and her family.)
He got me nervous by asking if I’d ‘approved this with anybody’. But, afterward, he said it was totally fine. His mom would be surprised, as he’d just told her two days ago that I wasn’t coming. But that everything would be okay. I’m still in a little bit of that space of unease, probably because it gave me the feeling of being in trouble, but I’m just going to let it be and see what happens. Hopefully, the concern will clear up on its own just by my allowing it to express itself.
I really hope he enjoyed everything I did for him tonight. And I’m really excited to set up the Play Station 3 that my mom gave us from her house (used to be my brother’s, but he didn’t need or really want it). We likely won’t get to play together until mid-January, after he’s back, but that’s okay. I’m excited about it, nonetheless.
Dear God, please, help us to rest well tonight. Keep us both safe in our travels. Help us to pursue and to fulfill your will by being our best selves. Thank you for everything. And please, heal my uncle – help him to join you fully. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2022
I can hardly believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Time has been flying in an odd way this season. Well, we shall do a bit more prep for his trip on Monday tomorrow. Otherwise, we get to hang out together and then go to midnight Mass. We might go to my brother’s for homemade takoyaki, but we’ll have to see. I really want us to be able just to hang it together tomorrow and the next day.
Thank you, God, for the blessings of today. And thank you, especially for the heat we now have in our home. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2022
We
Have
Gas Again!!!!!
So, now we can have hot water and cook and bake and have heat in the house and run the dishwasher and wash and dry clothes and just hand wash greasy dishes period(!). Oh, goodness… the difference it makes. We are incredibly grateful this is finally handled.
Turns out that we likely didn’t need to dig the ditch ourselves at all, but I think it was still good in that it gave my man a somewhat cathartic thing to do, as well as a thing to do while we waited for all the rest of the pieces of big company nonsense to sort themselves out.
See? The contracted company brought their own machinery to handle the rest of it all. AND they put all of the dirt neatly back on top of the ditch after they replaced all the piping. No extra work for my man or us. Woohoo!
The big energy company, when we did what we were supposed to do, then told us that we would have to wait until Tuesday for them to come and do the simple re-installation of the gas meter and to turn on the gas… a very different message from what they had told us two days beforehand, when they’d said same-day installation would be no problem whatsoever. They now wanted us to spend over five days in our home in freezing temperatures, and then they would come do a twenty-minute stop-in.
No way, Jose.
Fortunately, after much intending on my part and multiple phone calls on the part of my man, Centerpoint showed up, and a very nice man named Lee hooked up everything easily and quickly, and turned on the gas and cleared up our gas lines in the house (because air is in the line at first, after installation). And now we have heat!
We actually both reveled in taking hot showers before going to the Christmas gathering we had this evening at my brothers’ dad’s house. That shower, though not the actual best I’ve had, was, within the context, the best shower ever. Uh…
I just thank you, God. Thank you. Keep us safe, please, that we pursue and fulfill your will, being our best selves. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2022
hannah ananas 