Boxing Day...

Today's Boxing Day consisted of rest, relaxing, sun, snorkeling and boat rides. We spent the day at Managaha, the island just west of Saipan. Mr. Camacho, a father of one of my students offered to take us there with his boat. We met him at the Palms and off we went! So much better and faster than the ferry!

Once on the island we found a shelter spot, lathered up sunscreen and headed to the busy side of the beach to snorkel. We saw some awesome fish, schools of them. After the first session of snorkeling we headed in for lunch and napping and then more snorkeling. Some of us napped in hammocks and on the beach while others collected more seashells. During the last snorkeling session Beth was lucky enough to see an octopus crawling along the ocean floor. Her scream woke me up from my nap! ;)

It was a great day at the island, but didn't end there. Once we showered up back here, we followed Pastor and Sandy over to Wolf and Tokie Mojica's house. They had invited the staff and some church members over for a day-after Christmas dinner. It was incredible food, an even more incredible house and some great conversations. I think the family really enjoyed meeting and talking with all the people we have come to love and call family here! :)

And now here we are, watching Jake's new Christmas present: The Dark Knight!

We are so blessed to have family here with us. We are all really enjoying our time and loving showing them our island and new home! We can't wait to have more come and visit...

:)
Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. We spent Christmas day at church, opening gifts, eating a chicken dinner from a bakery on the back deck, snorkeling behind us at Sugar Dock, driving around Garapan, drinks at the Hyatt happy hour and dinner at Tasty's Restaurant! Such a great day and filled with laughter and love with some great awesome people. I love Tim, Jana, Jake, Beth and Becca and love that I am a part of their family! Thank you for coming here and helping make our first Christmas away an incredible Christmas so far.

Enjoying planning your New Year and relaxing for the rest of your vacations!

Love,

J & J

The whole family at the Hyatt Beach!

Enjoying Hyatt's Happy Hour Smoothies
waiting for our boat at the Palms!relaxing at Managaha!

After an awesome dinner, Beth, Becca and Mom VD standing in front of Wolf & Tokie's house!

Christmas Day!

Today is Christmas and Jake and I want to first wish you all, family and friends, a very Merry Christmas. May you enjoy this time with those around you and remember us as we remember and miss the snow and you all, but will be celebrating our Christmas on a beach. :)
The second thing we want to share is that we were blessed with the greatest Christmas gift this year, Jake's whole family coming out to visit us.

They arrived on Tuesday night around 9. We took them home, walked around our campus, hung out on the beach so they could put their feet in, and got them settled in for the night. Yesterday was filled with a Winchell's coffee/donut walk, beach cruising (we hit up Obyan Beach, Ladder Beach, Lau Lau, Forbidden Lookout, and Tanke Beach) We swam at Obyan together for awhile and it really hit me that we have family here and it's Christmas and we are swimming in the water. WOW! We are truly blessed.

After all our swimming we came home, showered and relaxed for awhile and then drove around Garapan and the rest of Beach Road so they could see all the places we go. We ate dinner, walked around, came back home and played German Uno, while making them stay up until a proper bed-time. Something Jake had to do to me when we first got here too! :)

It was a good night...and today is Christmas. It doesn't even feel like Christmas today, especially because we'll go to church (normal), open presents (normal), except that we plan to open them down on the beach (not normal), pick up a Christmas dinner from the local bakery (not normal), go snorkeling afterwards and then head to PIC for sunset smoothies (another not normal activity for Christmas Day). We are excited though and wish you all a wonderful and blessed Christmas Day today.
We love you all!
Love,
J & J

Holidays!!

The Holidays are here and Jake and I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! :)

We have a half day of school left and then we are done for the Christmas Break...and it couldn't have come any sooner.

Jake's Parents and sisters (beth and becca) will be arriving in Saipan on the evening of the 23rd and neither of us can wait. It's going to be great to have family here to share and show the island and our life for the past 6 months!!! We plan to relax and enjoy the beaches and ocean, as well as explore and hike as much as we can too.

Our break will go fast though, with family here til the 31st and then Jake and I are flying out on the 1st to Osaka, Japan. We will be going on a mini 4-day vacation to Osaka and Kyoto Japan and that is also something that neither of us can wait for!!!!

Saipan brings such great opportunities and it's so awesome that we are! :)

Thanks for all your prayers, thoughts and Christmas cards so far!!! Keep 'em coming!!!

We love you and are thinking of you all in this season.

Love,
J & J

Jake and I at the Street Market!!!!!!

Thankfulness...

This weekend we were blessed to enjoy Thanksgiving and time off from work. :)
We had an awesome long weekend. It started off with some of us girls (Terry, Sandy, Brit and I) going to Pure Spa to get pedicures. Soooo good. My pedicure turned into a massage as well, which was even better. After an evening of that I came home well rested and ready to begin my next two days off! On Thursday we slept in, went for a run, made food for our Thanksgiving Party at Pastor and Sandy's house. We headed there around 2pm. There were about 20 people, with tons of food, even more laughter from conversations and games. It was both of our 1st Thanksgiving's away from home, but it sure felt like we were with family! Thank God for the new people we have in our lives here who are becoming more and more like family.
We spent the evening playing games and then a small crew of us stayed even later to watch Christmas movies. It was a great Thanksgiving day!
On Friday we spent the day with our good friends David and Nina, working out for free at Gold's Gym, then swimming at Micro Beach, eating out at Tasty's Chinese - which was very tasty!
The evening was spent here at the apartment relaxing and then around 8:30, four of us ladies went dancing. It was so fun. We went to Rose's Karaoke Bar - where you paid $2 to ballroom dance with one of the 5 instructors there. Terry, Tami and Debbie and I went and we all had such a ball! (wow - full of puns tonight)
On Saturday we went Christmas shopping with Terry, Sandy and Joel. We started off at the 4th Annual Artists Christmas Sale. Then we headed down to Garapan for some other stores. It was a great morning spent with some really great people - plus most of the Christmas shopping got done...besides Ken - what do you want brother?
Once we got back, Jake and I packed and drove down to the Palms Resort. We spent the afternoon lounging and swimming in the pools, then had some great drinks at Pau Pau Bar's Happy Hour. After that we took the DFS Tour Bus from our hotel into Garapan to the DFS Galleria where we ate our meal at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a great meal and a great evening. We relaxed back in our room for the night, slept in this morning, ate an amazing free breakfast and then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon at the pool relaxing again.
All in all it was a very relaxing, resting and enjoyable weekend. We were both blessed to spend time with such quality friends that we have here. We were also blessed to spend some good quality time with just each other - at a very nice hotel! God continues to bless us every day. Even though we don't get paid the most at this school, and have other expenses, He continues to provide us with opportunities to enjoy His creation, our new friendships and relationships and life. He is a great God and we are full of thankfulness to Him.
Hope you all had great Thanksgiving meals and days spent with your family and friends. We thought about you all and miss you all tons!
Love always,
J & J

Sand Castles

This past Saturday we spend the day relaxing but also watching out Junior High kid's compete in a sand castle contest. Here are some pictures from it! :) 

P.S. Anyone know any good tips for catching and killing a rat????

James, Justin, Anna and Isa's Sand Castle...
the sea monster and a mermaid, plus other sea creatures (clams, starfish, etc)

The professional Sand Castle maker's castle (front and back) - from Australia...he was incredible to watch...

as the day turns...

We finished another week, with progress grades and everything. Jake just agreed to be the Jn. High Boy's Basketball Coach - so we'll keep nice and busy again soon with tutoring and coaching - but it's good for us to be involved. We love the school. It keeps us both busy but it's good!

This weekend was good too - Saturday we spend most of the day down the road at PIC's waterpark. We were in the lazy river, down the slide and Jake hung out at the Wave thingy for awhile. It was so relaxing and refreshing. We also went down the other way, to the Hyatt to check out the Sand Castle competition that our Jn. High was in. It was amazing - plus they had a professional builder from Australia there creating one as well - which was even more amazing than the kids. Our kids did so well though - they even won 1st place! :)
Later that evening we went out to Korean BBQ with David and Nina. It was so awesome. The food was amazing and delicious and the company was even better. David and Nina have become some amazing friends and God has truly blessed us with them. Afterwards we came back to our place and played games and hung out more. It has been a great weekend.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I know Jake and I are both thinking and missing family and friends. You know you are how and how much we love and miss you all. We cannot thank God enough this coming week for all your love, support and prayers. Thank you all. We love you!
Love,

J & J

Hae Ga the Korean BBQ restaurant!

Nina, David and I with our amazing Korean food!

An ME Weekend...

Jake and I can truly say we have just had one of the best weekends of our lives together. :)
We had the blessing of attending a Marriage Encounter Weekend. It was right next door at the Saipan Grand Hotel and we got to stay in Room 956. I thought our view from our apartment was nice, but from the 9th floor of a hotel - even more amazing!!
The weekend was full of laughter, tears, shared feelings, new loves and joys about each other, smiles that filled the room from each couple there, tons of food and some amazing surprises I will never forget. I know marriage can be hard work but this weekend we realized that every aspect of marriage needs to always be considered as hard work to make it better and more of what God has called ut to be. I love Jake and I know he loves me and we rediscovered that love in each other this weekend. We were truly blessed by all the sharings this weekend, the new couples we met and the new and exciting things we learned about each other and us as a couple.
If you are reading this and are married - YOU MUST FIND OUT WHERE THE CLOSEST MARRIED ENCOUNTERS WEEKEND IS - AND DO IT!!! no excuses. It only cost us $50 and that included: workbooks, hotel, amazing food, snacks and drinks, the time to sit and communicate just with Jake and rekindle and revive our relationship. It was so worth it. Even if you have been married for 20 or more years - there was a couple there this weekend that have been married for 44 and it was amazing to see how God worked in them this weekend. Or even if you've been married for a year or two and don't think you have had enough struggles or trials to go through - still please go because you can learn so much..
Jake and I pray that you can be blessed and touched in your marriage in the Marriage Encounter way. Ha - now I sound like one of the "love nazis" as we called them as we called them all weekend ! :) But it's so true and it was sooo incredibly worth our $50 and whole weekend.
We also wanted to say thank you to all our friends and family who do read this and who do pray for us and love us. We love you all so much and are so blessed by all of you. We miss you.
Love always
J & J

Coffee Time

So I'm sitting in Jave Joe's with Brittany. We are both supposed to be grading but instead we are working on updating and improving our blogs! :)

This week is going fast. We had school on Monday and then yesterday off. It was a good day off. In the morning about 6 of us went to Forbidden Island for a hike. We hiked down, spend a good hour or so swimming and snorkeling, then hiked some more into the cold water cave. Then we took the good hike straight up. Once we got back home, we showered and went over to another teacher on the island's house for a BBQ. There was probably 30 people there. We were all, mostly, white people and teachers! :) There was food and sports. Most people were watching Monday Night Football when we got there...on a Tuesday afternoon...gotta love the time change!

We spend the evening watching Apocolypto with Mark and Brittany and then off to bed for a school day, after what felt like a Saturday.

At least there are only two more days left this week. Then we have one week left until Thanksgiving Break!!! I still can't believe how time goes so fast here.

This weekend is what Jake and I are looking forward to. For $50 we signed up for the Marriage Encounters weekend. We get to stay at the Saipan Grand Hotel for the whole weekend and eat and swim there all for $50. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Things aren't much different here. Just working on keeping kids working hard and engaged before another break - which I know all of us teachers here can't wait for! :)

Hope all of you back home are enjoying the lovely cold and snowy weather we've seen and heard you've all been having. Just remember us over here, without any of you, in our nice warm 85 degree weather. ( A picture just to show you again where we live :)

We love you all!!!
Prayers and Blessings,

Love
J & J

the Cruise...and other pictures!

Me on the boat. The best birthday present ever! My husband is an amazing man!

Jake and I at the top of the boat!

My little Korean girl who danced with me on the cruise. Jake and I will be bringing home a Korean girl that we will be adopting...especially if she looks like this adorable little girl.

Some crazy Korean tourist man and I dancing!!

the local Chamarro dancers

my little girl and I dancing to "I'm Your's" - Jason Mraz

Jake and I with one of the dancers


After opening all the presents from all the family, friends and students. Thank you all so much. I felt truly blessed yesterday and still do today. I love you all! THANK YOU!

Our Saturday away at Managaha, the view of Saipan from our retreat! :)

Jake's retreat!

another adorable little Korean girl - dressed up for Halloween!

Jake and Ms. Amanda, leading the Halloween chapel on Friday mornings, with the 6th graders!

On a recent hike to the blowholes.

Jake and I at Cowtown Beach!

So two weeks ago we went to the 2nd Annual Saipan Tatu and Arts Festival, and well, you can't leave without a souviner, so here it is! :)

after the tattoo!

Where does the time go? SERIOUSLY????

I'm not sure exactly what it is, but something must accelerate the rate at which time passes here on Saipan. Its like we go to church on Sunday, focus on relaxing in preparation for the week, and then all of the sudden its Thursday night. One thing that might cause this phenomenon is the constant weather. I think that the temperature has varied about ten degrees since we've been here. No leaves are changing color. No crops have been harvested. Unless you look at the calendar, you could swear its the middle of summer.
Anyway, a couple of big things have happened since the last post. First of all, Mark and Brittany and Jackie and I went to Managaha (a 7 to 10 acre island about a mile off the north west coast of Saipan) for a little island relaxation last Saturday. The ferry ride to Managaha is about fifteen minutes long, and its free for locals; two very good reasons to take advantage. We hung out on the beach and in the water for a couple of hours. We were all fairly tired, but it was just a great day to relax and take a nap (which Jackie and I both did in our hammock). The excitement of the day, for me, was snorkeling with a couple of black tipped reef sharks. They were maybe two to three feet long, and I came within fifteen or so feet of them. Not really a close encounter, but boy was my heart racing, especially when one of them turned around and headed toward me.
Jackie's birthday was the other exciting happening of late. Jackie and I took off for Garapan on Wednesday after work and tutoring. We stopped to do a little shopping before heading to the public docks to board a boat for Jackie's birthday present, a little dinner cruise. The boat held maybe 30 to 40 people (mostly Asian tourists).We headed west from Saipan toward the setting sun. We took some sweet pictures (which will soon be posted) and then headed in for a buffet style dinner. The food was really good, but the best part of the night had to be the entertainment. A Filipino man with a synthesizer was at the front of the boat and kept the cheesy love songs blasting for about half the night. Listening to "my heart will go on," and similarly corny songs from a man with a heavy accent was pretty entertaining to say the least. Then the show picked up a notch when three traditional island dancers came forward and performed for a couple of songs. Finally, to cap the night, the crew invited the crowd to come forward and join the dancing. Now first of all, dancing is difficult enough for me when I'm on solid ground and with people that I know. I was totally thrown off by the tourists and the rocking of the boat. None the less, Jackie got me to come out for a couple of dances. And, don't tell her, but I had a pretty great time. Jackie was definitely into it. So into it that she ended up dancing with some crazy tourist man and an adorable 3 year old Korean girl. Jackie was really going at it, even getting applause from the tourists and the crew of the boat. In fact, one of the servers said that Jackie was the "star of the show." Very true, and very very entertaining. The cruise only lasted about an hour and a half, but it felt like longer, in a good way, and was definitely worth it. Now just in case it takes us a bit to get the next blog out there, let me give you a rundown of what the next week or two holds for us. First, this weekend we have a couple of math competitions to supervise. Then, later on Saturday night, we and the Sawyers have been invited to the house of a couple from church. Sunday will no doubt include some sort of venture in to the jungle; one last chance to tire our selves out before the week. Then next weekend we have a weekend get-a-way with an organization that emphasizes bringing couples closer together. Should be fun.
Well, unless I'm forgetting something, I think that's all for now.
I'm gonna sign off and leave the photo-adding to Jackie, she's better at that stuff than I am.
We both hope that you all are doing well.
Thanks for checking up on us (and please keep us in your prayers)
Love,
J and J

pictures...

Jake and David trying on some sweet hats!
Some of Jake's 8th graders
Pastor Dickerman talking to my class.
Climbing into the ambulane on our Fire Station Field Trip!
My 1st graders!!! :)

Sandy and I - the Canadian Thanksgiving cooks :)
Jake and I :)
Terry (fellow teacher and awesome amazing woman) excited that we were playing Apples to Apples!
making sure it's sharp!
Out to dinner, amazing dinner, with David and Nina - also amazing people. :)

New Things...

This past week and a half has been very busy. We've had long weekends and long days and these next two days are report cards and parent-teachers. Volleyball keeps me busy everyday til 5 and Jake has tutoring plus helping with volleyball and his new sport: ultimate.
Last Friday we had a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner with our bible study group. It was so great! Pastor and Sandy and I cooked the whole meal minus a few extras provided from others. We laughed, gave thanks, worshipped our Good God, ate, and played a game. It was nice fellowship. I am really thankful for the church group we have here. It's a great community of believers who genuinely want to help and love you.
This week has been busy getting report cards and grades ready. Tomorrow theh Parent-Teachers start. I'm a little nervous - because they are my first ones. Most of my kids are all doing great. I have a few Korean students who need to work a little harder and perhaps tutoring will help. Pray that God works through the languages and what needs to be said will be said and also understood. :)
I've been a little homesick this week as well, especially the amazing friends we basically lived with last year. I miss you all so much - we both miss you. I was able to talk with Katie Jansen, one of my closest friends, early yesterday morning, before school and that was such a blessing. God really provides what you need, when you need it.
Today, the 1st graders went on a Field Trip. My first one! :o
We went to the Fire Station. It was alot of fun. They let the kids climb into the truck, all go into the back of the ambulance, climb on the truck and take lots of pictures. We then went beside the fire station to the park and I just let them run around for about 30 minutes. I had some awesome Mom's with me - who were very helpful and watchful and fun! :)
Besides all that we had a double-header in volleyball tonight and games yesterday as well. They played awesome yesterday but tonight not so well. I was discouraged tonight and found it hard to get into the game myself, so I can imagine what the poor students felt like. We have one more week and it is almost over, so keep me in your prayers for perserverance for the last week.
Keep us both in your prayers for Parent-Teachers tomorrow and Friday and also as we head into a 2nd quarter, with new exciting things to hopefully happen - like American Thanksgiving break. ha :)
love always,
J & J (but mainly the first J - jackie)

Blessed

This week I was reminded of how God has blessed us since we've been here.
Our new friends and family here.

Sandy, the Kindergarten teacher and amazing woman gave me a little care package. I couldn't have needed anything better that day. SHe's perfect and it was just what I needed. So I thank God for her!

And on Tuesday we had Mark and Brittany over for dinner, as well as David and Nina. Nina is a local Saipan lady and David is her boyfriend. David happens to be Canadian :)

I love them both to death - they are amazing people. As are Mark and Brit and Jake and I are so blessed to have amazing friends like them. So we had dinner and played some games and talked and had a great time. Amanda came over after her tutoring and she is also another blessing in our lives. She is happy and cheerful and always knows what to say. Plus we think alike and it's been so awesome getting to know and love her as well. So thank you Lord for these people in our lives. We are truly blessed.

And one more blessing: Tomorrow is Friday AND we have Monday off! Thank you for that as well God!

a picture of the Sawyers and us.

Time Flies

This past week went pretty fast, as did the weekend. Jake is keeping busy with Math Courts. It's a math competition the school is involved in. He is the head proctor for the junior high, so he has to make up schedules to practice with the kids as well as all the review sheets for them. I'll be helping him at the meets, as well as the elementary kids are their meets. It's been good for him - to learn to be organized so all the kids know what's happening and what to do. He kept busy with that this weekend as well.


Yesterday we meet an older couple from church, Beverly and Dean Brubacker, as well as another man David Creel, for some snorkeling at Pau Pau Beach. It was pretty awesome. You could walk far out towards the reef and snorkel around. We saw tons of awesome, colorful fish. After swimming there we went up to the Far East Broadcasting base where they live/work. We had hamburgers and salad for dinner and blueberry pie for dessert. It was so great! After eating and good conversation we played PIT. Then Jake and I took the 35 minute scooter ride back. haha! Some of the awesome fish we saw (not our pictures):



the black and white zebra fish - they are so cute!!!




Today we had church, then a cheap lunch with David and Nina, Pastor Greg and Sandy, four amazing people. After lunch we went to the Grotto. We swam there. It was so clear today that you could see the underwater caves. We snorkeled and jumped and swam there for a few hours and then came back here to Sugar Dock and swam around and talked here. Then a yummy $1 Taco Dinner at Oleai's - the only restaurant with a patio on the beach. A great but fast weekend.
Here comes another week...and then only one more week until Report Cards. I can't believe how fast it's gone!
How are you all doing? Keeping busy with life? Any new things going on that you could let us knwo about??? We'd love to hear how things are going for all of you that read this. We miss you all tons!
Keep praying for us as we continue to learn how to live and teach in the Asian culture but also as we continue to live and learn from each other. We value your prayers. Thank you!
Love always!
Love,
J&J

Chinese Food and more life...

Susan, the Mom of my Chinese student Henry
Tami and I at Ladies' Night!!!
Me in my new $3 high heels!!
Marissa and I!!!
Some of the ladies and their neat hats!

At Henry's house - Henry jumping from the piano to the bed.
Henry and I
Shirley with all the Chinese food!
Henry jumping again...
The Qian children, Anna (2nd grade), Shirley (4th) and adorable, crazy, never runs out of energy Henry - in my class! :)