Quintet Update

Just got an e-mail from Jon with an update on the quintet that he plays in. Thought y'all might be interested.

"Last week, I found out one of the new officers in my shop plays the trumpet. Our 1^st trumpet is away on a trip, so I talked the new guy into coming over and picking up 2^nd trumpet. We found a new guy to play tuba who is fast getting up to speed, so the gap in the quintet is the Freedom (French) Horn. So I started playing Freedom Horn (I had been playing 2^nd Trumpet since we got a good tuba player a while ago), and the Chaplain (trombone player) says I’ve picked it up extremely quickly, and have filled a gap that has been in the quintet (we’ve been a quartet, in essence) four a number of months when our old Freedom Horn player rotated back to the States. When the 1^st trumpet gets back, we’ll have a full quintet for the first time in four months! I’m looking forward to that, it should be fun."

Sheryl

Routine

Joshua and I have settled into the fall routine. School, Tae Kwon Do, Wednesday night church, Friday night soccer practice, Saturday soccer games, Sunday church with homework and lots of play-time sprinkled in. Jon has also gotten back into a routine. Here's his report.

"The discouraging thing about getting back in country is how quickly routine becomes drudgery. This is probably partly due to the fact that my daily work load consistently exceeds my ability to accomplish it; the performance of all daily activity takes place in a setting already extremely familiar to me, or perhaps the starkly monotonous surroundings provide very little in the way of variety; there is little or no interaction with people outside of mission accomplishment; there is little to no awareness of what day of the week it is—every day is a Monday.

The encouraging thing about being back in country is a constant awareness of God’s blessing. Support and encouragement from many people in such a variety of different ways: snail mail, emails, packages, prayers. The predictable nature of each day makes the mental preparation necessary for the next 24 hours a much more sane process. The work load waiting to be done and the lack of diversionary activity both work together to increase productivity. The food is great, I can take a hot shower daily, the laundry is free, my quarters are climate controlled, I’m sleeping well, and I’m actually PTing [working out] more consistently than in the first six months.

I’m sure it seems less than meaningful for those praying for me to keep praying the same prayers, over and over, for going on seven months now. I want to thank you for those prayers, they make such a difference.

(Posted for Jarhedjon by Sheryl)"

We all appreciate your prayers.

Sheryl

First Art Competition

The San Juan Elementary PTA is sponsoring the Reflections Creative Arts Competition. Joshua entered a piece of art work today. One of the moms at our school is a former art teacher and she has been giving after-school art workshops. She also started a class after-school that Joshua was able to get into. He is very excited about doing any kind of art.

The theme for the competition is "My Favorite Place." It only took Joshua a few seconds to figure out that his favorite place is Yosemite. His painting, done in water colors and glitter glue, is of a water fall and the fire falls that used to occur over Curry Village. It was so fun to watch him come up with the idea, try a number of different media and then do his final version. I think he did 6 practice drawings or paintings.

Thanks to my mom for posting a comment to Jon on this blog site. Jon is still able to read the blog and the comments, so if you used to post comments to him, please do so now on my site. He won't be able to post a comment back to you, but I'm sure he'll reference the comments from time to time in his notes to me. I know Jon would really appreciate hearing from you. Thanks.

Sheryl

Thanks from Jon and Back-to-School Night

Jon sends a note of thanks:

“I’d like to thank Marlaine, Joan, Sandy, Jeanne, Arline, Kareline, and Linda of the Military Prayer Group at a church in Patchogue, NY for your prayers, your encouragement, and support. The Scripture verses you sent me were very uplifting. I am so encouraged that folks are praying for me, people that I have never met, even, adding to the blessings I experience daily in what could otherwise be a very unpleasant situation. I do not take such things lightly or for granted. Perhaps, when this tour is over, I’ll get a chance to meet each of you and thank you in person.

I received a snail mail card from Judy—very encouraging, thank you so much, it is great to hear from you. Letters addressed to me with ANY rank in front of the name will get here just fine, even no rank or “Mr.”, all the guys in the mail section know who I am. I appreciate the moto mails I’ve received, as well—thanks, all of you, for taking the time to engage in what you know is one way communication.

Semper Fi (posted on behalf of JarHedJon by Sheryl)”

Last night was Back-to-School Night at Joshua's school. First grade is definitely going to be different from Kindergarten. The students are now required to speak Spanish in class. Mrs. Hamidi told us last night that when the children speak to her in English she tells them in Spanish that she doesn't understand. Of course the kids are too smart for that and they respond with, "Yes, you do." I signed up to be Room Mom and then this morning recruited a bilingual Mom to be Co-Room Mom with me. It is so great to be at San Juan Elementary with the opportunity to interact with people who speak Spanish as well as parents of other ethnic backgrounds.

That's the latest for the "home front."

Sheryl

Still under an avalanch

Jon and I were able to talk on the phone last night for a while, but I had a bad headache and so it wasn't our best conversation. Fortunately I am feeling much better this morning. I think I must have gotten dehydrated, but after a good night's sleep I am feeling fine.

This morning Jon wrote, "[I am] still practically avalanched with work, but I feel positive about being able to eventually get to where I need to be on it. The projects that I’ve been sidetracked on have gone well, too, which has certainly helped me maintain a positive attitude."

Thanks for remembering us.

Sheryl

An Invigorating Saturday

Saturdays in the fall at our house involve a soccer game and whatever else we think of. Joshua is enjoying playing goalie one quarter on his AYSO soccer team. He had a few great saves today and has an excellent kick to clear the ball down the field.

After our game we joined about 50 people who were volunteering for California Coastal Cleanup Day, working to clear garbage from our local San Juan Creek. We only worked about an hour and a half, but found plenty of junk. I thought the most interesting thing we found was the rusted bed springs. Joshua thought the 10 foot-long plastic pipe full of sand was the most interesting. He recruited half a dozen teenagers who were just finishing their work to help us lug the heavy pole back to the park, where the garbage was being collected. Joshua and I talked about the reason we were doing this project -- to follow God's instructions to care for His creation. To top it off, we had fun together, were served hot dogs for lunch and got free T-shirts.

After finishing our Monopoly game, building a fort, and doing a bunch of laundry Joshua and I road our bikes into town to experience the Peoples Festival and Hispanic Heritage Month and Mexican Independence Day Celebration. We enjoyed the native dances and songs, some delicious tacos and Joshua loved the bubble gum sno-cone.

What a day! Hope your Saturday was enjoyable.

Please remember Jon. He is swamped with work and barely has time to send me short e-mails. Tomorrow will be exactly 7 months since Jon left. That means we're close to being able to say "5 months till Jon comes home." Thanks for your prayers and encouragement.

Sheryl

Updates

The second week of school has gone well and Joshua and I are both adjusting to the fall routine. Please keep Jon in your prayers. He and I tried to IM (instant message) the other day and Jon discovered that there wasn't enough bandwidth on his end, so that was disappointing. Here's a note he sent today.

"I’m way behind in my work, as I’m trying to do two jobs this month vice just the one (which was overwhelming enough as it was). The situation that I recently asked prayer for has been generally resolved in a positive way—thank you so much for your prayers. There is always the possibility that though all the ships are back with the flotilla, one of them had a time bomb placed on board that could go off anytime in the future. We’ve done all we can reasonably do to uncover a bomb or minimize its impact—but time and the flotilla must go on. Some continued prayer that the flotilla arrives at its destination safely would be much appreciated (though the destination port is a long way off).

Situation Report: The geese are doing well, the chow is still awesome, there is still not enough time in the day, and every day of the week is a Monday. This is a classic example of the old Air Force acronym, SNAFU (situation normal, all fouled up). If I told you I’d keep you posted if anything changes, you’d never hear from me again…

Semper Fi from JarHedJon (posted by Sheryl)"

Thanks for remembering all of us.

Sheryl

Floating down the Merced River

Just got a bunch of pictures from the friends we ran into at Yosemite. They took pictures of Joshua and me floating down the Merced River. Here's a cute one of Joshua.

Sheryl

Final Trip Pictures

After a week of work I finally have figured out how to post pictures to this blog again. They are "upgrading" the system, but of course that means that somethings don't work quite right for a while. So now I can post a few pictures from our time in Yosemite.

We arrived mid-day on Monday, August 28th. We got settled in our wood cabin in Curry Village, went for a swim in the cold pool and then took a ride around the valley in the free shuttle. We got off and hiked to the foot of Yosemite Falls only to be shocked at the lack of water. We have only been to Yosemite twice and both times were in May when there is water everywhere. There are waterfalls on every cliff in the valley, but at the end of the summer, it is a different story. That evening I got this shot of Half Dome at sunset. That was our view from Curry Village. Pretty awesome, huh?

Tuesday was our day to hike the Mist Trail (without the mist) up to Nevada Falls. Joshua and I have hiked to these falls twice before but always on the John Muir Trail which is longer but not as steep. The Mist Trail has many, many granite steps that seem to go straight up the side of the cliff. But Joshua and I have discovered that if we make up stories together (one of us starts and then we take turns adding to the story), we can distract ourselves into climbing much further than we thought we could. Here we are on that trail half way to Vernal Falls, which are the lower set of falls.

Tuesday evening after the climb the pool at Curry Village felt very refreshing. And amazingly enough we ran into friends from Joshua's school. They had been inner tubing on the Merced River that day and were preparing to hike the Mist Trail on Wednesday. So I gave them a little advice and they loaned us their tubes.

Wednesday Joshua and I started off with a little shopping in the village and then a bike ride. Of course I had to get the shot of him with Half Dome in the background. But the topper for the ride was right at the end. We had about 5 minutes to get our bikes back and as we buzzed past one of the meadows we saw one of the tour groups stopped and everyone pointing to the grass. We screeched our brakes and there were two stags relaxing in the shade. They just sat and allowed us to take our pictures. It was a wonderful treat for us.

I don't have pictures documenting our afternoon float down the Merced, but I promise you we did it. I think the water was just a few degrees above freezing. My legs and hands finally got numb enough to kick and paddle. The river was quite shallow in places and there was a breeze blowing up the valley, so at times we floated up stream. After a couple hours we had floated about half a mile and met our friends who had arrived back from their day of hiking.

All in all, it was a fabulous vacation. Of course we missed Jon a lot, since the outdoors is such a huge part of who he is. But I was proud of myself for taking Joshua on this adventure by myself and for having a great time. Our return trip wasn't nearly as fun as the train ride up the coast. We took a small van ride from Yosemite to Merced, following the river, which was a beautiful ride. Then we caught the train to Bakersfield. But there is no train over the Grapevine, so we got packed into a bus with less leg room than a airline coach seat for a two hour ride to LA Union Station. We had an hour and a half wait at Union Station, which was an interesting experience in itself. Finally caught the Surfliner back to San Juan, where we arrived at about 9:30 p.m. Thanks to our friends Pam and Cory, our car was waiting for us and we were home and in bed at a decent hour.

So now you are all caught up on our trip and I'll go back to posting current news.

Sheryl

Dealing with Frustration

I have been frustrated by my blog service in the past week. For a while I couldn't gain access to post a blog. Then when I final got access yesterday I couldn't post any pictures. But of course that is nothing compared to Jon's frustration right now at not being able to keep up his own blog. He sent me another message to pass on to you who are reading.

"One of the Marine Corps’ 11 Leadership Principles is, “Know yourself and seek self improvement.” This is a lifetime process, of course, and from a Mission Accomplishment perspective, the ease with which one’s self knowledge is increased is inversely proportionate to the number of relationships one has outside of the mission. When attempting to accomplish a series of tasks in the pursuit of a larger goal, relational involvement can consumes energy, distract focus, contribute to indecisiveness, and weaken resolve. Consciously disengaging from or avoiding relationships in the pursuit of self knowledge and self improvement, however, can be proven to be equally ‘crippling.’ We are deprived of the very context that makes self knowledge and self improvement essential to the maturing process. We have no social context in which our own priorities can be reflected, mirrored, or shown in the more universal light of benefiting or detracting from the advancement of our universal physical, mental or spiritual development. This is sometimes how I feel over here: perhaps I am learning more about myself and able to apply this knowledge to more ably accomplish the tasks I’m assigned; however, I feel more and more disconnected from the very persons, community, and culture that give meaning or provide the necessity of accomplishing those tasks. Finding balance is not easy, as the tasks ARE HERE and the contexts that give them meaning ARE NOT. Posted for JarHedJon by Sheryl"

Thank you for praying for Jon and remembering him. If you want to post a comment to my blog, he should be able to read it.

Sheryl

First Soccer Game

I tried to post this blog on Saturday, but I had trouble opening my blog all weekend. Fortunately this morning I remembered a different way to gain access and here I am, back with my blog and notes from Jon. Welcome to those of you who have only read Jon's blog. You will find a completely different writing style, shorter blogs and more pictures. Enjoy! :)

Saturday Joshua had his first soccer game as a member of a U8 (under 8 years old) team. He is on the Might Tigers team and he got to play goalie for part of one quarter. He loved it. After two years in the U6 (under 6 years old) league, he seems to be getting the whole concept of soccer. It was fun to for me to watch him -- he runs around the field with a smile on his face.

For those of you waiting for the pictures from Yosemite portion of our August trip (I'm sure that hundreds of you) :) -- they are coming.

Sheryl

Prayers are Being Answered

I’d like to thank everyone for their prayers regarding the potentially damaging issue I mentioned the other day. There may be a few vessels off course, but after a couple of key meetings with the right people, I believe the flotilla that ventured forth some time ago is back on track. Keep praying, we need to insure those few remaining ships get back with the flotilla—thanks, and I’ll keep you updated as I learn more.

I’m not sure, at this point, how I’ll be able to field any comments you post to Sheryl’s blog (it’s the same blogging network as mine, so if you created a profile to post to my blog, you’re good to go to post to Sheryl’s blog), hopefully between the two of us we’ll figure out some way to respond if you take the time to sound off.

Semper Fi, Jon G.

Part Two of the Train Trip

After two great days in the Bay Area we headed to Sacramento Friday (9/25) evening. That was a fun train ride from Emeryville (near Berkley) along the eastern coast of the Bay and then east to Sacramento. We arrived at 9:00 p.m. and were met by Jon's Aunt Lori.

Our time in Sacramento was much warmer than the Bay Area, but since Lori had a pool, we were able to stay cool. We enjoyed touring the great train museum in Old Sacramento. After viewing many trains we walked a few steps to the bank of the Sacramento River where we watched a bridge turn 90 degrees to let a boat go down the river.

Monday (9/28) morning Lori took us to the Amtrak station where we caught our first bus (Amtrak connection) to Stockton. Joshua rested on our luggage while we waited about 30 minutes at the Stockton train station for our train. We were only on the train for 30 minutes before getting off in Modesto and hopping on our second bus which took us to Yosemite in about 2 hours. It was our first time to enter the valley through that route and it was a nice change of pace.

The next entry will be the Yosemite pictures.

Sheryl

First Day of School

Just took Joshua to his first day of 1st grade. It was a very different experience from last year. He already knows at least 1/3 of the kids in his class as well as his teacher. Sra. Hamidi was his English teacher last year. She is now teaching 1st grade Two-Way Immersion. I had a great time seeing the parents of Joshua's friends who are my friends as well. It was a fun morning. Joshua barely waved good bye to me as he walked to his class. Ah, he is growing up.

Now to all my projects that have been on hold during my busy summer.

More pictures from our trip to come next time.

Sheryl

First Part of Our Trip

Joshua and I had a great time on our train ride up the coast on Wednesday, August 23rd. We left San Juan Capistrano on a chilly morning at 7:30 a.m. and didn't get into San Jose until 9:00 p.m., but it was a lot of fun. We read, Joshua listened to a Harry Potter CD, we took walks around the train, ate in the dining car and found ways to entertain ourselves. My favorite part of the trip were the hours we drove along the coast. Joshua and I sat with our noses pressed against the window staring out at the beaches. It was awesome.

Our time in the Bay Area with my Aunt Judy was fun as well. We enjoyed a day at a children's museum at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. On our second day we made the drive out to the Jelly Belly Factory. That was a great tour and of course we loved the free samples.

Friday evening my aunt dropped us off at the train station in Emeryville (near Oakland) and we enjoyed a 2 hours train ride to Sacramento. The conductors enjoyed asking Joshua for Jelly Bellys since he was still wearing his hat from the tour.

Pictures from our time in Sacramento and the Yosemite trip will follow in the next post.

Sheryl