Lucy's 5-Month Pictures (09/14/2009)

So since I have all these coupons to JC Penny Portrait Studio from my Parents magazine, I figured that I would just use them all up, each month on Lucy. This is probably a good thing considering that I left my camera in Japan and I won't be getting it back until my mom comes back out to visit in January. And she is changing so fast, every day it seems, so monthly pictures isn't excessive, is it?

I dressed Lucy in her jinbei which was a gift from my cousin, Aiko in Japan. My niece, Maya, has a matching set as well. I hope that Lucy still fits into it next year because it is a great outfit for the summer (or maybe we can just borrow Maya's).

We actually captured a few smiles this time - she's becoming more photogenic. Maybe cousin Maya can teach her a few tricks for the camera as she gets older.

I ordered the two pictures above. The top one looks super posed but I like how it shows her whole body and I think that her little leg in the air is pretty cute.

These ones didn't make the cut though:

This one was my third choice but she kinda looks like a blob. I'm glad that I had more good ones to choose from this time.

This one kinda looks like the sheet is swallowing her up - I don't know why they insist on such unnatural poses. I guess they don't realize until the pictures come out - thank goodness for digital cameras.

This would have been cute if her head wasn't cut off.

I was surprised we got smiles this big - the photographer was much better this time...

...but they can't all be winners.

I do love these little feet though.

And the "enhanced" images weren't incredibly cheesy this time. I was actually a little tempted by the one below.

But not by the obligatory "Love" one. I can't believe that people actually pay so much extra for these. But then again, I've always been more of a traditional girl.
Next month: Halloween costume!

Guilty As Charged

I think that I have a tendency to be a self righteous frugalist. I found this article through a link on this other blog that I also have on my sidebar, Being Frugal is Fabulous. I thought it had some good reminders for us frugalists, or anyone for that matter - don't judge how people spend their money.

These are both written by frugaldad:

Frugal Living Is Not A Competition

Don't Be a Self-Righteous Frugalist

We just spent a lot of money on a trip to Japan which I would hate if someone judged me on that use of our money. But we scrimp and save in other areas of our budget and didn't go into debt to finance this vacation. And this trip was more about spending time with family, especially with the new addition of Lucy in the family (my dad hadn't met her yet!). But I don't know why I'm trying to justify this - if you read the articles above, hopefully, I'm not being judged at all.

So maybe we should think more seriously about moving...

Last night we didn't get much sleep. Yes, this is probably because my schedule is still a little funky from the Japan jetlag (although Lucy started sleeping through the night again on Friday - just 3 days after returning - what an angel!). But it is also because there was some crazy domestic disturbance going on right outside our window early this morning at 3:30 AM! I couldn't get to sleep and was just lying in bed, finally on my way to dreamland and then I hear all this shouting. At first, I thought all the noise was some punk kids making a ruckus. But when I peeked out of the blinds of my bedroom window, which overlooks the street, it was apparent that much more was going on.

There were four people, two girls and two boys. One boy was swearing his head off and wanting to get at the other boy while the girls were trying to hold the boy back and keep them apart. It seemed like a pretty heated squabble at first but it quickly escalated. I heard an authoritative voice from under me, which ended up being my next door neighbor, yelling at the kids from his front door and telling them to cut it out or he was going to call the cops. It was difficult to see from my window since it was dark out and I had a tree obstructing my view but the boy was obviously not calming down, but getting more aggressive. The girl frantically starts screaming in a panic, "Call the police! Call the police!", at which point, my neighbor goes out in the street in his underwear, cell phone in hand giving a play by play to the 911 operator of what is happening while simultaneously trying to break up the fight. The one boy is swinging - not sure if he ever landed a shot on the other boy who is evading but making no effort to run away - and the girl is trying to intervene when the boy turns on her.

At this point, the boy and girl disappeared behind my tree but I'm pretty sure that he lands a shot on her because I'm hearing my next door neighbor telling the operator that she was hit and the girl doesn't emerge from the behind the tree until a significant time later. Meanwhile, my neighbor hands his phone to his wife who has come out onto the street, and gets in between it all and the kid starts swinging at him. Big mistake! My neighbor (who is a pretty big guy, probably in his 30's) pins him down to the asphalt in a second, with the kids face in the ground, my neighbor's girth on his head (they were in opposite directions) yelling, "You are under citizen's arrest!" over and over again. Despite the size difference of the two, I was still pretty worried about my neighbor as he had previously had leg surgery a couple of months back and you just never know if these kids are drunk, on drugs, or have knives or guns or you know, have trained in MMA or something. Within minutes, 5-6 police cars were there, catching the other boy who had fled, who finally figured out too late that there was no good reason for him to be there, and arresting the other boy who was pinned. By this time, Brandon and I are out on the street, wanting to make sure our neighbor was okay and to be witnesses to make sure he doesn't get into any sort of trouble for defending himself.

The crazy thing about the whole scenario was that this girl, who had just been hit, was screaming at my neighbor to let the boy go. The other woman, who we found out later was her mother, was pleading that the boy not get arrested because his father had died a month ago. Sad, but like that is any justification for him to hit a girl and start swinging at a complete stranger. It ended up that the boy who was arrested had found his girlfriend with the other guy. And when the cops started questioning the mother and daughter, they both completely denied that he had hit her! The cops asked my neighbor, his wife, and me and Brandon, back into our homes and that if they needed any more information, they would get it from us later. I'm trusting that they know how to do their jobs and will get the whole story. If not, they'll always have the 911 tapes with the play-by-play.

I was just really glad that my neighbor (who confirmed he had some training and based on his take-down, I believe it) and his wife (who also happens to be a 911 operator) were there on top of things (literally). I was scared just thinking about Brandon trying to break things up if our neighbor wasn't there but you can't let a guy just beat on a girl like that. So this wasn't exactly CSI/Law & Order type drama, but even fists can be pretty scary. We don't even know our neighbors names although they've always been friendly if we see them outside their house. They even watered some of our garden without our asking since the plants were dying while we were in Japan. It's nice to know that we have good people living next door who are willing to lend a hand when not asked or when things get ugly. Brandon suggested that we 1) find out what their names are, 2) invite them over to dinner to get to know them a little better, and 3) start thinking a lot more seriously about moving to a different neighborhood...

Happy Birthday Brandon!

On this day, 32 years ago, my wonderful husband was born into this world. Now that I am a mother myself, I sometimes think that birthdays should actually be a celebration of the mother, for gestating the baby for 9 months in her womb, birthing her baby through labor, pain, and stretching, and then nurturing that baby through middle of the night feedings, dirty diapers, and many, many tears. But enough of my self-absorbed musings. Although Brandon's mom, Susan, does deserve kudos for the wonderful man that is Brandon.

To celebrate Brandon's birthday, I made reservations for a new restaurant in SLC called Pago. Our partners in crime these days, Emily and Jared, accompanied us. The food was absolutely delicious and the dining experience was fabulous - good service, nice setting and ambiance. I just hope that Brandon liked it as much as I did. I wish that I brought my camera to take pictures of the place and the food because I'm sure that my descriptions won't do it justice but sadly, I left my camera in Japan. But I feel like the names of the dishes alone are enough to make your salivate just a little.

We started off with appetizers of Cinnamon Beets and Braised Beef Cheeks on Polenta, both of which I loved (and I'm not a huge polenta fan). For entrees, Brandon ordered the Wagyu Bavette Steak, I got the Roasted Pheasant with Quinoa, Emily had the Chicken Paillard, and Jared got the Curried Gnocchi with Braised Morgan Valley Lamb. I tried a bite of all of them and Emily's chicken was my favorite, which she also enjoyed (and I was so glad that my pregnant sister was finally getting some protein she liked to her little fetus). I ranked mine second even though the other dishes were truly delectable (Jared's was just really spicy, but good and Brandon's beef was classic goodness). Dessert consisted of Amano Chocolate Mousse and Passionfruit Mousse while Emily and Jared shared the Peach Buckle (which I feel like I ate the majority of).

The reason why I chose Pago is because it practices RSA which stands for Restaurant Supported Agriculture so all the dishes there use local ingredients from local farms and ranchers (similar to a CSA but for restaurants). So it was nice to know that our meal didn't travel too far. And for those of you who are not familiar with Amano chocolate, it is made locally here in Utah and has won all sorts of international awards and is absolutely delicious (yeah, who knew?). And Brandon is all about sustainability, supporting local business, and the environment so I thought it was fitting for us and our values. But even if you don't care about those things, I would still highly recommend this restaurant.

I'm pretty horrible about celebrating birthdays because they aren't a big deal in my family. But Brandon's mom is really thoughtful about it so Brandon bought a nice new 23 inch computer monitor with the Best Buy giftcards she sent him (to go with his new MacPro computer). Brandon bought himself a comic book as a gift from me, called Blankets, which we had previously borrowed from his brother, Cameron, but we both read and enjoyed it so much, we thought it would be nice to add to our library.

What I am pretty decent at is coordinating an event such as a restaurant outing. In addition to this outing, in a couple weeks when Brandon's parents come into town, we'll do a family birthday dinner then. And I may even be so ambitious as to make the legendary chocolate roll for dessert...more to come on that in a couple of weeks.

So Many Books...

...and now, so much time - spent nursing, that is. And reading makes for a perfect nursing time activity, especially if Lucy falls asleep on me and I don't want to disturb her. I used to think that mothers must have so much free time because they are always reading but the truth is, we are spending so much time into forced rest while we are breastfeeding. Well, here are some of the books that I've been enjoying these days:

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

I know this is more of a childrens book but there are some adult themes I think especially when it comes to religion. Maybe I'm just interpreting it in my own way but I recommended that Brandon read it and we had some really interesting discussions about the symbolism and metaphors in the book. It may be nice to revisit if you've already read it before or seen the movie (which I love but is not as good as the book).

These Is My Words by Nancy TurnerThis is pretty much a period romance mingled with some adventure and tragedy although not quite on Jane Austen level (who really is though?). It was a fun, fast read though and I was fully engaged. I think that it was previously on my church's book club reading list but I must have missed that month...


The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

I'm usually not a fan of short stories but maybe I haven't been reading the right ones. My sister recommended this book to me a while ago and I was so glad that it was available at the library when I stopped by without having to put it on hold and wait for another library to send it or for someone to return it. The stories scan be a little sad but even though I'm usually not a big fan of downers, I enjoyed these - maybe because they seemed so real but also had some romance and heartbreak in them as well hope and strength. I also am intrigued by the Indian culture (which all her stories include in some way), especially intermingled with the experience of American immigration - maybe because I feel some connection to that growing up in a bicultural household of both Japanese and American traditions. The last story was a good one for me - I like when they end hopeful. I renewed this just so Brandon could read it in Japan.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

I got both Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed Earth at the library at the same time. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to read it before it was due back and disappointed that I couldn't renew it because someone else had put it on hold. Fortunately, I tore through it in just 3 days. These stories were even more heart-breaking than Interpreter of Maladies - not so much hope here. But again, I loved how real they felt. I really like the author's writing style and how she develops her characters in such a short story. I'm looking forward to reading her other book, The Namesake when I get back from Japan.

Losing Kei by Suzanne Kamata

I finished this right before we left for Japan which got me kinda excited with all the Japanese references it has (it takes place in Japan). But even though it was a quick and easy read, it wasn't all that satisfying and I couldn't see it appealing to people who don't have an interest in Japan. The heroine was annoying in my opinion and the resolution was just a little too convenient. Maybe after reading all the Jhumpa Lahiri books, I was expecting something a little more realistic.

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

I borrowed this from Elaine while in Japan and it was perfect vacation reading. It had some laugh out loud moments and some other very poignant thoughts that I could really relate to. Now I want to watch the movie - I hope it does the book justice. Then I want to read Julia Child's book about Paris.

I'm such a sucker for things like this...

My friend, Kim, forwarded me this e-mail and she never forwards stuff so I thought it must be good. I had some laugh out loud moments - waking Lucy as she slept in my arms as I was reading:

I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story, all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger...

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that. But how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards of FAQs. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the F was going on when I first saw it.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

The other night I hit a new low at an open bar. I had already hopped on highway blackout when, inevitably I had to find a bathroom. Eventually I decided it was probably on the other side of the bar so I tried to walk over there, but ran into a guy coming the other way. We played that, Both go left, Both Go right game to no avail so I finally put out my hand to guide myself past and that's when I realized, yup, that's a mirror I just tried to walk through. And the guy on the other side is me. Even cats can recognize their own image.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

LOL has gone from meaning "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say..."

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you and you hate us." Classy, bro.

Whenever someone says, "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart," all I hear is, "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart."

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said, "Yes, that's G as in...(10 second lapse)...ummm... Goonies."

While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

I would like to coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Bad decisions make good stories.

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo every got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem...

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make an changes to.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for Chine and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don't win, they are executed.

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

I like all of my music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what to do with it.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day, "Dad, what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night, more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating all by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

I'm Usually Not So Ambitious... (August 9th)

...but I guess I must have had a really good night sleep. Since Brandon's brother Adrian, his wife Natalie and their son Taylor have been out visiting Utah for the past month, we thought it would be nice to invite them over for Sunday dinner before they had to leave for Buffalo again. It seems like every get-together we have with my in-laws includes the entire family, which is great, but we really enjoy having one on one time (or two on two) as well.

I was impressed by the presentation of our meal that I just had to take a picture:

I was a little less impressed with the taste of the meal though. Our menu was as follows:

Gyoza (Japanese-style potstickers) - these kinda fell apart as we cooked them...

Miso Soup with Tofu, Scallions, Enoki Mushrooms, and Wakame Seaweed

Chinese Broccoli with Garlic and Ginger

Beef & Shiitake Mushroom Stir-fry with Rice - this was the biggest disappointment and it had way too many onions!

Green Salad (with cucumbers from our garden!)

The stir-fry was a first time attempt at a new recipe and I wish that I stuck with something a little more tried and true. And although we had done the Chinese broccoli before, I'm thinking that it might be out of season now because it tasted bitter. But the miso soup, salad, and rice were great (although those are no brainers for me). The gyoza tasted good but was lacking in the presentation department. So I guess overall, it all balanced each other out.

Here, Brandon & Adrian are geeking out to Fat Princess, a new videogame that Brandon just purchased for his PS3. Taylor doesn't seem quite as engaged...

Taylor drinking from the big boy cup with mom, Natalie. Adrian in the background with some fierce concentration on fattening up the princess...


Taylor giving Lucy some loves with the help of mom. He'll be a great older brother someday...


The cousins enjoying some lap time on Natalie.

Taylor is a very energetic toddler and just reminded me and Brandon of how much baby proofing we are going to need to do to our house. But for now, we'll just enjoy Lucy's immobility while we can. I am having a hard enough time trying to change her diaper with all the squirming she does - I can't even imagine when she starts crawling - then walking!

Craft Lake City (August 8th)

So I am so glad that my friend, Candace, told me about this event cause it was so awesome. Craft Lake City was limited to 80 vendors who had to submit their work before-hand and were chosen by the sponsors so there was a really great variety of work there. Salt Lake has become quite the hipster place (similar, I've heard to Austin, TX) so there was a lot of really whimsical stuff there - owls, octupuses (how do you make that plural), birds, great fabrics and textiles, and a surprising amount of really cool felt crafts like stuffed animals and finger puppets. Along with that, there were great prints and paintings, hand-made jewelry, fabulous card sets, and clothes. I spent way more money than I planned on but it's always nice to have something original, independently made, and local. Since my husband is a local artist, it kinda feels like I'm paying it forward and supporting that whole industry. After Brandon saw the success of this event, he is thinking of submitting his work to be a vendor next year.

Here is Brandon and our little girl in the Baby Bjorn. She is still in her pajamas because she was mid-nap when we left our home for a family lunch and we didn't want to unnecessarily wake her to get dressed. And I was also thinking ahead since I knew we would be outside, it was chillier that day than normal, and I wanted something that had a little bit more full coverage from the sun. But thank goodness that I always keep an extra set of clothes in her diaper bag because she of course, had a blowout (always when we aren't home it seems). And thank goodness Elaine sent me Maya's old hat cause I'm afraid that Lucy's head would be burned without it considering how much we are outside.

Here are our good friends, Candace and Jared - they are one of our favorite couples we know. Jared is also a local artist and teaches sculpture up at the University of Utah. He didn't have a booth at this event either but you can check out his work here. Candace worked with me at Salt Lake County Aging Services and even though I don't work there anymore, I'm glad that we still have been able to hang out. She's constantly trying to convince me to buy a house on her street so we can be neighbors and Brandon and I are quite tempted...

We thought we needed a girls picture...this was after the blowout - Candace found me right as we were changing Lucy and she just got a kick out of the mess. But Lucy is all clean here and flashing her tummy a bit.

This is another cool couple we know who both work at EA with Brandon - Xavi and Shelly. Shelly had a booth at the event and Xavi was helping her out like a good husband should. Xavi is from Spain and plays soccer with Brandon (and thank goodness he does because he scores the majority of the team's goals). You can check out both of their work here and here. I purchased one of Shelly's octupus shirts (that she is wearing) but in brown. You can see me wearing it below:

And here are the rest of the goods we got:

All the rest is for Lucy although I was pretty tempted to make some purchases for myself. This cute print is by Candace Jean/The Westfold Press and you can see her work here. I love the racoon and lobster - she had another print with the same characters I was so tempted to get. Maybe next time... I'm excited to get Lucy's room all decorated with these things.

One of the many owl things they had at the fair that is also made out of felt. This was done by Isabell's Umbrella and you can see her work here. She had some fabulous card sets and other prints with Japaneses kokeshi dolls and also gnome stuff.

More felt. Brandon made me get this finger puppet because I was just telling him how much I loved David the Gnome when I was a kid when it used to play on Nickleodeon and he made fun of me because the lip synching was never accurate on it. He even made me watch an episode on YouTube to prove it to me but I still didn't care - after all these years, when I watched it, it brought back all these memories and I love it more than ever. I totally want to get the DVD for Lucy to watch. But anyway, back to the main subject, this was purchased from Caitlin Bell/Nifty Kidstuff and you can see her work here. We also bought the crown below from her:

Although there were really cute girly crowns, I specifically buy these things gender neutral in case we give Lucy a baby brother in the future (No - we have no special announcements to make!) but that is just the type of person I am - ridiculously rational and pragmatic. But whether the crown was pink or yellow, it is still adorable on her although a little big but she will grow into it and it is adjustable as she grows older.

Here are some of the other vendors that I loved but just couldn't afford at the moment. Maybe I will buy some of their stuff later on or leave helpful hints for Brandon on my birthday and Christmas. I also wanted to buy stuff for my cute nieces and nephew, but again, I don't have a money tree in my backyard, so it will have to wait. A lot of these things, I swear I feel like I could make myself but then I realize that I would never be creative enough to think of these ideas and even if I did, there is definitely an opportunity cost to buying the materials (and some of the fabric was just gorgeous) and then actually getting it done.

Winborg Sisters' Design - These were the most beautiful children's paintings but they were a bit out of my budget. But I so love original art like this. Her friends are lucky if they receive these paintings for baby shower gifts. I'd love to get some of these for Lucy's room in the future (once I get that money tree going...).

Sorry Clementine by Suzanne Clements - She had the cutest owl and octupus shirt for only $15 each but I ran out of money. I tempted to buy them from her on-line. Maybe for my birthday....

Card Sharks - Even though there were a ton of card sets being sold, these were among the best and were just very clever. My favorites are their animal alphabet, reindeer, frosty, santa, and little beasties. But in my pragmatism, I realized that I don't write too many letters or send cards to many people. Maybe buying these would be an excuse to start...

Sycamore Street Press - This had some great alphabet and number prints that were reasonably priced - I think I would like to order some of these for Lucy's room.

Cavalcade - This person made these beautiful cake stands but before I even saw her stuff at the fair, a girl from my church showed me how to make this craft and we are planning on doing it for a church craft class. But she also had adorable hair thingies (which I never wear so could not justify buying) - kinda reminded me of SJP in Sex & the City movie.

Julie Stutznegger - She had some beautiful kiln fired glass that I thought we be nice adult decoration in our living room or bedroom. I don't think the pictures on-line do her work justice - you really have to see it in person.

Vintage Fern

Frosty Darling

Mother-in-Law Visit, Part II (August 6th-9th)

So Brandon's mom actually came back into town after a short visit to California where she visited her other son, Cameron, and his three kids. I wanted to make up for her previous stay by being normal this time and not such a basketcase. So I found the motivation beforehand to plan out a ton of stuff for us to do so we could spend time together but also get things done. It was a whirlwind but it was surprisingly energizing and I was able to get so much accomplished which otherwise would have been much more difficult to do alone or may not have been done at all.

We started off going here:
so we could purchase some wedding gifts for one of Brandon's cousins who was getting married the next week. I love buying my wedding gifts from Bed, Bath, & Beyond because I always get those 20% off coupons in the mail and I am addicted to using coupons. And I also love that they have free gift wrapping there which makes them so much better than Target (as well as a much better return policy). I wish that I had registered here for my wedding, but oh, well.

After the first shopping excursion, Lucy was getting hungry so we figured that it would be perfect time to get pedicures since I would be able to nurse her while we sat. Susan had a high school reunion to go to the next night and Lake Powell had done a number on her nails so it worked out perfectly. Right across from BB&B, we found a new salon called Groovy Nails and got some great pedicures (Susan also got a manicure but I figured that holding a baby would just mess one up for me). I was a little bit worried about the strong, chemical smells in the salon for Lucy but hopefully, she had some brain cells to spare. I figure its okay if it is only once or twice a year...

Straight from pedicures, we had perfect timing to make it to lunch with a family friend, Jenny West here:at Cafe Trio in Cottonwood. I don't even remember what I ordered but it was delicious. Cafe Trio is one of my favorite restaurants in Utah.

From there, we headed here:
for some additional shopping. We picked up some baby gifts for a family friend who just had twins and who we were bringing dinner to that night. But before we could do that, Susan had to go to a WOW meeting. She is the president of this NGO, the Worldwide Organization for Women which has UN status (she gets to go to the United Nations in New York - exciting, huh!). While she was there, I headed here for some grocery shopping:

Then we headed to Adam and Lindsey's house (the ones with new twins) and brought a dinner of sweet sausage and pepper sandwiches, corn on the cob, green salad, cut watermelon, and caprese salad. We got to meet 3-month old Summer and Zoe who were born 10 weeks premature. So even though they are only a month younger than Lucy, they were so much smaller. I think their adjusted age only put them at 4 weeks. I was just amazed at the poise and stamina of Lindsey - I don't think I could have gone through the challenges that she has with as much grace and strength. We made it an early night so the family could get some rest but the next day was just as busy as the first.

We were going to try to get pictures of Lucy at JC Penny originally on this day, but the appointments were filled up so we started the day off with a family lunch at Thai Spice in Fort Union which was so good! We took some time to digest and visit at Damian's house before splitting up for errands. Brandon and I headed off to the Asian store, then Craft Lake City (for which a separate entry devoted entirely to that will be posted later). While Brandon's mom went to her 40th(?) high school reunion, we were supposed to host Brandon's brother, Adrian and his wife, Natalie and son Taylor, for dinner but thankfully (for our sakes since we were so tired) they requested we push it back a day to Sunday because Taylor wasn't feeling well that night. So we had a quiet Saturday evening in and then brought Brandon's mom to the airport on Sunday morning. It doesn't seem like a ton of stuff now that I look back on it, but getting anything done in between naps and feedings with a baby is an accomplishment in and of itself. It's just hard being social when you have a child so it takes that much more effort to try to plan things out. Family visiting helps to give you a little bit more motivation, so thanks family!

A Visitor from Japan (August 1st & 4th)

It's not very often that we have family visiting from Japan but we were lucky enough to have my cousin Megumi, and her three adorable kids, Mia, Millie, and Toki out in Utah. We didn't get to host them as she was staying with her in-laws (which was probably much more convenient for her since her sister-in-laws were also out visiting with their kids and everyone in that household speak Japanese). Megumi's English is excellent though, so it is easy to hang out with her.

Emily, Brandon and I were able to take the relatively short drive up to Farmington to visit the Nunokawa household where Megumi was staying with the kids. She had actually been in Utah since the middle of July and her husband, Hiro, had joined her then but had since returned to Japan. We missed him and due to all of our travel back east and to Lake Powell and Wyoming, we weren't able to hang out until a couple of weeks into her stay.Here is a family picture of Megumi's family in front of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. We weren't there with them for the open house because we were out of town, but I'm glad that they got to visit here on their stay.

The Nunokawa family is very similar to the Taura family (which is my aunt's family that Megumi is part of) in that there are seven kids (which is large by American standards but enormous for Japan) and incredibly open, kind, fun, and hospitable. We were served an excellent dinner, with many vegetables straight from the Nunokawa garden (the Japanese cucumbers were amazing!). Of course, although I always have my camera in my purse, I didn't bother to take any pictures but Megumi's sister-in-law, Keiko, took one with her much fancier camera so here it is:

There were kids all over the place and they were giving Lucy so much attention. I still wanted to spend more time with Megumi and the kids and since I'm not working, I invited her, the kids and their cousins over to my house for swimming. With my culinary expertise, I whipped up a menu consisting of frozen pizza, fruit (cut watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries), leftover pasta salad from dinner the night before, and ice cream sandwiches & popsicles for dessert. The kids seemed to have a blast swimming and Megumi and I had a nice chance to chat and catch up and then we followed lunch with a Japanese anime film, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

I don't remember the above picture being taken but I guess it was taken right before everyone left my house because that is my couch that the kids are sitting on. Wish I had taken pictures of all the adorable kids but we'll just have to remember next week when we are in Japan. Thanks for visiting, Megumi!

Relief Society Temple Night and Red Mango (Aug. 5th)

Sometimes, you just need to get out with the girls for some frozen yogurt.

After the temple here in South Jordan...
...we headed to a new frozen yogurt place, Red Mango. One of the girls who had recently moved from California said that it was a knock-off of Pink Strawberry (or some name like that - I can't remember). Even if it is a knock-off, it was still pretty good. And it is supposedly 100% natural and healthy with probiotics and such. There were only three flavors of frozen yogurt and even though I wanted the pomengranate one, that machine wasn't working so I chose to get the original with some fresh fruit toppings. I was stoked not only because I had an excuse to go out for a frozen treat (since it was part of a church activity) but because I also had a coupon in the mail and I love saving money on delicious treats. Here is my masterful creation with kiwis, raspberries, and mangoes that I had to take a picture of before I dug in:

We got there at exactly the right time because immediately after we ordered, a bunch more people came in and the line was practically out the door. Here are the rest of the girls from that night:

Megan and Krachel - Megan is obviously really enjoying her yogurt. I should have bought hers for her since she watched Lucy for me when I was at my dentist appointment. I'll have to remember next time...Krachel and I carpooled together on the way since we live down the street from each other but she ditched me on the way home to chat with Jackie (which I forgive because it was my idea since I didn't want to wait around for their conversation to end). But Krachel is rad and she has an awesome job at Make a Wish Foundation. You can read about all the kids she helps here on their Make a Wish blog.

My flash was obviously having some problems in this one but that is Ursula and Brooklyn. Brooklyn is the one who just moved from California.


Here is Masha who was 15? weeks pregnant at this time but you can barely tell at all. And again, Megan really savoring her yogurt in the background.


And last but not least, is me and Jackie. Jackie and I are on the Enrichment Committee together so we get to plan a lot of these fun activities (although she is the one that comes up with ideas and does most of the heavy lifting). Jackie also has a fabulous fashion sense and I love her pointy red shoes in this picture. I have on my favorite red peep toe pumps but they are cut out. I know we probably aren't the same size shoe but maybe we could trade clothes...

When I got home, Brandon informed me that Lucy woke up from her nap and cried for an hour, not taking the bottle from him, before eventually crying herself to sleep. But he said it was worth it for me to have a night out. Maybe we'll have to go straight to a sippy cup - cause Mommy needs some more nights like these every once in a while...