Beautiful Sienna

I wish I had a picture of her, but no such luck. We picked her up on Thursday and today I took her to run wedding errands. It was so much fun buying ribbon and picking out shoes. And Gwynnie was so good. We went to David's Bridals and when Sienna came out of the dressing room with her beautiful DI gown and the sweetest veil on, I turned red and started crying. She looked gorgeous and it hit me that everyone's favorite little sister(in-law, but I first met her when she was 11) is getting married. It's a good thing that Tony is just about the nicest guy I've ever met.

Let's go swimming

Orange you glad

you live in Orange County?

Tie Your Shoes!

I've been meaning to post this for ages. Enoch, my fantabulous brother in law, told me about this site that shows you how to lace your runners. The site is cheesy, but I never knew there was a special way to lace running shoes so that they're snug as a bug around your ankle. I always thought that the extra hole was just to make me feel silly because I didn't know what it was for. It also has some fancy lacing techniques that I can use for Miriam's new high top chucks.

Anniversary

It was our 6th anniversary on Saturday. We spent a good portion of the day fighting and grumpy. I threw an ikea bowl down and dented the linoleum. I'm not sure how we're going to explain that one on moveout day. We drove around and found all the sushi places closed. So much for sushi. We ended up eating Baja Fresh. I started crying again when we pulled into the parking lot. Baja Fresh for my anniversary, how pathetic. The day improved from there.

Our move to Japan has thrown our frugality to the wind. But for pretty good reason. If you have ever been to Asia, you might recall that the average woman is perhaps a size 6 shoe and a dress size 4. I wear a size 9/10 shoe. Our last study abroad was great, except I couldn't buy new clothes or shoes. I did get a pair of running shoes, men's.

So, I'm stocking up on shoes, shorts, jeans, shirts...you know, everything you might buy throughout a year, I get to buy in 2 months. I do have 2 more months in Hawaii, but no car. So after Baja Fresh, we went to Ross. (No Ross in Japan. There's a reason the Japanese go crazy at Ross in Hawaii). I got a cute pair of Born sandals, some skate shoes, and a swim suit (it fits, hallelujah).

The end of the day found us on the couch, not mad, Jesse sharing the poem he wrote for me. How can two people so terribly misunderstand one another after 6 years together? Will we ever figure this out? I hope so, my birthday is next month and Jesse's sweating already.

Kind of like eating your vegetables

It'll be good for her, but Miriam does not want to move to Japan. She adamantly refuses to attend school in Japan. She doesn't want to try a Japanese school here in the states before we leave. She was scared of the prospect of kindergarten and now she's overwhelmed with going to school in Japan.

I really want her to learn Japanese, and I think the best way would be to go to school. I also think she'll be bored with just me. And I really don't want to do anymore homeschooling than I already have to.

When we were in Taiwan, she became very shy and refused to talk to strangers. She didn't have many friends, and none she could talk to.

Here's what she likes about Japan:
Tarepanda
Disneyland Tokyo
Sushi
Royalty
Girls' Day

Here's what she doesn't like about Japan:
It's all in Japanese
She has no friends there
She doesn't speak Japanese
It's scary

Does anyone have any suggestions to help smooth this transition?

no title

I'm sending messages to Jesse using our telepathic connection. He needs to call home so I can tell him that our house guest got on the wrong train and is not going to show up at the station anytime in the near future, or ever. We're probably going to have to brave a trip on the 91 in the midst of rush hour traffic to rescue her. Note to all: Orange County and Orange County/Inland Empire are different. Do not confuse the two.

Tomorrow we are going to Disneyland with said house guest. It will be delightful. I will pawn my children off on her so I can go on the good rides.

Nihon ni ikimasho

Looks like we're going to Japan this year. It was quite a surprise since we thought we didn't get any money to go, and now we're going. So everyone get their dibs in on our stuff, because a lot of it is going. We're already negotiating suitcase space. How do we divide the 8 bags and 4 carry-ons. And how big a carry-on can Gwyn pull?

When girls grow up

"I want to be a seaweed catcher and my friend in Santa Barbara, her friend,"
"Sophie?"
"Yeah, Sophie. She wants to be a tooth fairy, but she doesn't have wings so she just flaps her arms."
"What does Dara want to be?"
"She wants to be a rock star."

Miriam spent the afternoon at Laguna Beach catching seaweed from the ocean, hence her new occupational goals.

Dara is my sister in law's neighbor. I want to write a blog about her, but I have to get a picture of her first. She's a combination of the hecklers in the Muppets and Rapunzel. She's Miriam's best friend in Santa Barbara. I wish I had a best friend wherever I went.

laughing time

My kids are huge fans of Signing Time. I have this ridiculous fear that we'll be in Utah at some public space and see Leah and my kids will sign and scream "LEAH! LEAH!" Especially my 2 year old. She watches their videos over and over and has a pretty good signing vocabulary. My kids don't really know primary songs, but they can sing Signing Time's opening song.

I've been glad to have the videos since I've learned a lot of signs, too. Thanks to the videos I can kind of talk to a friend who is deaf.

And many thanks to the Newport Beach Public Library for stocking a lot of the dvds. I love that library.