Throwing caution to the wind...

This weekend while in Wisconsin, Rachael and Bethany and I decided to go for a walk on frozen Geneva Lake. We were taking pictures, and tackling each other, and throwing snowballs and generally just being dumb. We had noticed a few snowmobiles circling around us, and Bethany thought it would be a great idea to take MY camera and snap some photos of them. This of course did not go unnoticed by one of the snowmobilers and he pulled up right next to us, got off his snowmobile and asked if we'd like to go for a ride. I should also add that as he pulled up next to us, Bethany practically shoved my camera back into my hands. Maybe she thought the guy was going to get upset that she was taking his picture? :) Rachael was the only brave one of us who was willing to get on a snowmobile by herself and take it for a ride. Upon her return the guy asked who wanted to go next, and I, in a moment of pure insanity, or complete carefreeness (not sure which) said "I don't want to drive one, but I will go for a ride!". Looking back on it now I think the safest thing would have been for me to drive one myself because I probably would have only gone about 25 mph! ;) But I had not a care in the world. Nope. I got on the back of a ONE SEATER snowmobile with a man I had just met. I didn't even know his name. He told me to hold on tight, and hold on tight I did. I was clinging for my dear life to this guy. He sped off across the frozen lake, taking the snowmobile up to 100mph and for a second I thought to myself "oh. my. goodness. What if he rides off with me and doesn't take me back?!?" The girls wouldn't know what he looks like because all we could see were his eyes. ha ha. That thought didn't last too long as my mind was soon turned to worrying about keeping my butt on the snowmobile. :) Obviously he did return me safely to the girls and then took Bethany for a ride. :) Also... the guy was married...and probably in his 40's. He must've thought we needed some excitement in our life. We laughed about this for the rest of the day. Yet another fun experience on Geneva Lake. Last time I was on the lake was this past summer, and it involved being out in the boat on really choppy water and dry heaving over the side. ha ha! What's next! Here are a few of the pictures for your viewing pleasure...

Four Months...

.....have passed since I last updated this thing. Good job, Charissa! ha ha. I promise you that I have every intention of blogging about the rest of my trip to Japan. It seems that I misplaced the CD with pictures of Mt. Fuji on it and then the holidays came and went and I still haven't found it! Thankfully, Kristi is sending me a new one, and then I will have no excuse. :)

Until then, I will leave you with this quote I read in Streams In the Desert this morning. It seems fitting for my life right now, and I'm sure for many of you as well.

"Thou hast made waiting beautiful; Thou hast made patience divine. Thou hast taught us that the Father's will may be received just because it is His will. Thou hast revealed to us that a soul may see nothing but sorrow in the cup and yet may refuse to let it go, convinced that the eye of the Father sees further than its own. "

Travelin' Girl

It's really hard for me to believe that it's only been about 2 ½ months since my trip to Japan. It feels longer. MUCH longer. However, here I am with a long overdue blog on my travels.

My adventures actually began before I even left the U.S. I was able to spend a fabulous 4th of July weekend relaxing with some of my former roommates before my L-O-N-G plane ride. Me, Bethany, and Amanda met up with Rachael in Lake Geneva, WI. Rach was housesitting and needed some help. :) It was a sweet time filled with lots of laughter, good food (including puppy chow of course....haha), going out on the lake in the boat and almost throwing up, an intense game of phase ten with a boy named Max, fireworks, and more laughing. I am so blessed to have these girls in my life and we are trying to take advantage of the time while we all still live somewhat near each other.

what's missing in this picture?

at Egg Harbor for lunch...sooo good.

Bethany, demonstrating her musical talent!

my attempt at being creative

Rachael with the golden hair.

happy 4th!

Rachael...being the wonderful friend that she is, was the poor soul who had the job of taking me to the airport way too early on Sunday morning. I'm pretty sure we were up late Saturday night and I'm pretty sure my head was on the pillow for less than 2 hours before I had to get up and get ready to leave. I was so nervous to fall asleep for fear I would somehow not wake up and miss my plane! Thankfully I jumped out of bed as soon as my alarm went off (why can't that happen everyday?!) and the traffic in Chicago isn't too bad at 3:30 am so we got to the airport just fine and in plenty of time. My stomach was a knot of nervousness and excitement but I could not wait to get on the plane and go back to sleep. Unfortunately my plan failed. I didn't sleep very much at all and it was freezing cold on the plane.

Once I got to San Fran I met up with Rob (Ben's best friend) and we had barely enough time to grab something to eat and board our next plane for the largest portion of our trip. Neither one of us slept very much on that flight either, which ended up being to our advantage later on. Once we landed in Nagoya I was beyond tired and when I have reached that point of tiredness and my brain is no longer fully functioning....all I can do is giggle... a lot. An exhausted, giggly Charissa in an airport in a foreign country where people don't speak your language makes for an interesting combination. Everything was funny to me. It was great fun. We figured out where to re-check our bags after a kind Japanese woman who worked there helped us. I'm sure it was obvious that we needed help. I should also mention that I think we were the only Americans in the airport because it was a week day... and it was ridiculously hot. We had about a 4 hour layover in Nagoya and spent that time sitting at our gate, walking around, and doing mad libs in an attempt to fight the sleep that was trying to overtake us. We finally boarded our last plane and were so anxious to just get there! The flight wasn't too long, although by that time I was really struggling to stay awake. We were greeted by a lovely sunset as we landed in Fukuoka and it hit us that we were just moments away from seeing the Graves'!!! It was actually torture waiting for our baggage because we could see Ben and Kristi through the door, but they couldn't come to us. It was a small flight though, so we didn't have to wait long for our bags! At last we were together in Japan. It was unreal. Our travels weren't over yet though...we then had a 2 hour drive to get to Sasebo where Ben and Kristi live, but we were just happy to be with our friends. We slept so good that first night and had no jet lag at all the entire trip, which was a huge answer to prayer because we wanted to be able to enjoy our time there to the fullest!

a fan that was given to us in the airport. we needed it.

Rob was overjoyed that I was taking his picture. Can't you tell? :)

Trying to stay awake

Just before landing in Fukuoka

weary traveler with happy friend :)

to be continued.........

Fred and Ginger

It is my dream to be able to dance like this....





I just love them.