We're still here!

Wow, it has been a year and a half (or more) since we last posted. For those of you who still hope that we find our blog again...we have!

Life never is dull in the Mobley house! We have been dealing with Paul's Crohn's coming back, Shonda starting to work part time at our church, and all the other crazy things life has thrown at us! I won't go into great detail right now but hopefully over the course of the next few posts, I will be able to give you all a better idea of what's up in our world.

Tonight, I just want to say how incredibly amazing the God that we serve is. He has blessed us and provided for us and keeps on lovin' on us through all of this. Harvest is a time of thankfulness so I am just going to say thank you to our dear Lord and Savior. The trials You have given us have drawn us closer to each other and to You. You are the Great Physician and we thank you for the physicians You have sent to us. Thank you for the ways You have worked in this process to surprise us, to limit us and to always uphold us. We cannot do this without You! Thank you also for the friends and family You have given us. The support and the love they provide is priceless. You have loved us through them and now we ask that You bless them in return!

Love anyone?!

This has been a busy week as well! We haven't had much in the way of cleaning projects and I (Shonda) haven't even had time to think about paint!

We wanted to take a moment to wish you all a wonderful day of love, not just on February 14th but every day. It's not about being in love with an ideal that we have created in our heads. Instead it is about loving and living abudantly in Christ knowing that "Love is patient, love is kind...it does not act unbecomingly...does not take into account wrong suffered...bears all thing, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (I Corinthians 13) We love because Christ first loved us; amazingly so much that He gave His life so that we might live with Him in eternity. Love is not about being perfect at being kind, patient and forgiving but instead when we fall, Christ's love picks us up so that we can love again.

So love one another and more importantly, if you have not accepted the love gift of eternal life from Christ, seek Him. Read His Word, talk to Him through prayer, seek the wisdom of someone who lives out Christ's love in her or his life!

What a Week!

It's been quite the week in the Mobley household.

Work as usual as well as home project central! We have been organizing and cleaning like you would not believe and we are so surprised by how much more productive we are when organization rules! Shouldn't surprise us but it does...

We have also started our much delayed New Year's resolution of exercising. We have had an illiptical machine for all of our married life and it has finally made it into the house. We joked today that we were amazed at how all the experts for all these years were right, exercise does make one feel better. (Shonda was even one of those experts once upon a time and she is still amazed!)

Tune in for next week's adventure...not sure what that will be exactly but Shonda hopes that it involves paint!

Grandpa Reed

Today we celebrated the life of Shonda's grandpa, Jewell Mark Reed, who went home to be with the Lord this past Saturday. Grandpa would have loved the celebration because a lot of his family came together in Wichita for the funeral service, and to be with Grandma Ruth. We've got the family 'people pics' on line at our Picasa site, picasaweb.google.com/paulandshonda . Shan, we've got video of the funeral and internment to send to you via utube and/or DVD.

One of the highlights of today was when Grandma asked Shonda who 'this good looking man' was. Shonda told her 'That's my hubby!', and Paul told her he was spoken for already. Grandma promptly replied "Well, get yourself UN-spoken for!"

The pic of Grandma doing the chorus line kick in the wheelchair is great too, but even better was the pic we DIDN'T get - Grandma picking up Tara's can of Red Bull and downing it during family visiting time back at Sandpiper Bay Retirement Home.....Wonder if she's 'wheeling laps' around the hallways overnight.......

Long Time!

Well, we haven't finished our Japan trip blogging but I (Shonda) thought I would write so that if any of you are still watching our blog you wouldn't give up on us!

Life here in the deep freeze isn't too bad until you decided to go outside! The weather has forced us to rearrange our project schedule a little as any project that involves being outside or in new construction is not an option when the windchill is 30-35 below zero!

We've been working on a draft for our annual letter, due out on whichever holiday that is closest when it is done! Until then, here is a sneak peek of a few things that God has blessed our year with...A warm trip to Florida in February; another fun prom season, highlighted by a prom on a boat in Stillwater, MN; a busy summer of gardening; our first 4th of July at home; being kitty cat couriers from Denver to Lake Preston; an incredible trip to Japan to see Shonda's sister, Shan (see previous blog for pics!); Thanksgiving in northern MN; many Christmas celebrations with our families; and New Year's Eve at home watching football while snuggled up in front of the fire!

Pics online now

We've got updates from the last several days, to post soon as we are in one time zone for a while. In the meantime, we've uploaded a batch of unsorted pictures to preview our trip. They can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/paulandshonda . Click on the Japan Trip folder for new pics.

Paul & Shonda

The Case of the Disappearing Saturday...

Sunday, 3:22PM, we arrive at Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan. We immediately begin looking for the Saturday lost somewhere around the Bering Straight. Hmmm, well maybe we'll find it on our way back.....

Kansai Airport is a beautiful, modern, airport built on approximatley 17 sq. kilometers of man made island in the middle of Osaka Bay, and, it is sinking. Quite an interesting story, but luckily we don't think it will sink before we depart. Navigating the airport is really very easy for the average South Dakotan, as things are rather clearly marked in English and Icon-ese. We breezed through customs, retrieved our luggage, and met Shan, Roger (Dad Reed), and Joy (Mom Reed - both of whom were already in-country) in the terminal. Yes, there was some jet lag involved (e.g. see pic above....) It was also very much warmer upon deplaning that it was on departure; Osaka was a balmy 25 degrees C and humid, that's about 78 degrees to us Fahrenheiters. Boy those tomatoes would be growing here (well, not so much, more on that later...).

After caffeinating at the Kansai Starbucks, we were off to Shan's apartment about 20km to the East-North East.