Born in the USA.............

I put some Bruce on my playlist the other day and HAD to put on, even though it goes against my grain, born in the USA.
The reason you might ask?
Simple. My Dad.
He had that album of Bruce's where his butt is on the cover with the USA flag in the back and some random red cloth sticking out of his jean pocket!!
Come on, you know the one.
Anyway Dad used to make it a habbit to sit in this green chair by the record player and put one of his albums on and then proceed to sing, pretty loudly, to his hearts content.
We'd leave the room usually.
With this album, all I remember is dad singing really loudly "BORN IN THE USA............I WAS BORN IN THE USA...................."
He'd also put his fist in the air while he sung this. Every "Born in the USA" got a fist pump in the air.
It was so annoying back when I was around.
We'd all roll our eyes and sometimes attempt to tell him to quit it. Didn't he know he wasn't born in the USA?
Can you imagine if he was around and got to come here to the USA?
He would've loved it I"m sure. I'm also sure he'd probably have to sing this song in my place over here and have Dru and my children sing along with him.
He probably would've attempted to get me to sing it along with him, and I would've refused, of course but laughed at everyone else.
He was such a mad hatter!!!
Miss you Dad.

Jammin

Ok now don't get the wrong idea, I'm not for smoking pot and all BUT we all know that I don't mind dreads, since I lived with them for about 4 years on my HUSBAND. Plus about 2 of my brothers had them at one stage or another, no big deal.
Anyway this has nothing to do with this post.
Yesterday the sun was shining and I was in the car listening to Bob Marley and it felt really good. I haven't felt that good in a while.
I love the sun, and a Bob Marley song just helped me to relax in it shining through my window and appreciate the day, my kids and Dru.
Funny aye!
I remember back when I was young, free and single me and my mates in the car, playing Bob and heading out to the beach.
What a great feeling.
I think Bob sums it up in this quote he said "You just can't live in that negative way............make way for the positive day"
I'm making way Bob, I'm making way!
What just puts you in a good mood and makes your negative day move for a positive one?

I just turned my back a minute...........honest!

Yuki was nice and bathed and clean, just chilling out in her PJ's.
I recollect hearing Masaru yelling out "Mum Yuki's in trouble"
Dru and I were looking at RC cars for Masaru's birthday on Monday and then I asked Dru if he'd check in on the kids.
Well this is what he found!

I hear the old "Oh no" and know there's trouble going on.
Dru says "Come see what your daughter has done.

What could we do? We'd left her and thought she'd be ok. There IS a stool with handy access to the bath water. What were we thinking? She wouldn't do it?
Look at that face though.
I don't even think she got told off!!!!!!

Double state, award winning Chilli recipe

3/4# ground beef, cooked with
1 C. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped Gr. pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced

Drain fat, add 1 16 oz can tomatoes
1 16 oz can dark red kidney beans, drained
1 8 pz can tomato sauce
2-3 t. chili powder
1/2 t. basil
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

Bring to boiling, reduce heat, cover, simmer for 20 min. serves 4. I always double it.

There you have it folks.
It's won in both Idaho and Utah chilli LDS ward contests.
So who's having chilli tonight?

6 and 6

My mate Laura tagged me with 6th folder and 6th picture in that folder of pictures. Does that even make sense? Well too bad I guess.
Here's Yuki on Christmas Eve playing with her toy from Grandma Nakaya. She loves it man. It even does everything in spanish as well, not that that helps our family out at all since none of us speak a lick of it. But if Yuki gets any spanish mates any time soon then we've got a toy just for them.
Oh that got me thinking of a funny story.
We were at an ATM and it gave us a choice of english or spanish. Dru said "I know enough spanish for this, I took it in high school, watch this"
And proceeds to try and get money out.
Turns out he didn't know as much as he thought and the machine gave him nothing.
He sheepishly chose english and got us our money and for the next 5 minutes his wife was laughing and mocking him throughout the mall.
I'm glad I blogged this memory. Totally forgot.
COME ON......................you guys would've mocked your husbands as well.

A MUST read for all............in my humble opinion!

So we're reading this in our humble little book club in Moscow for the month of February.
I finished it last week and have handed it off to a friend, and I think I'll be handing this book off to many friends for a long time.
This book is BRILLIANT.
I've always been facinated by the brain and it's connection to our actions and our personality. I remember going to a brain conference when I was a school teacher as well.
It was an amazing course, full of wonderful information about this organ we have inside our heads and what it means to us as humans.
This book is a must read for all.
Even if you don't think you have any 'brain' problems it helps you to understand why others are the way they are and maybe how to be more sensitive to them or how to help on our side of the fence.
I've already diagnosed Dru and I with certain brain problems and almost everyone else that talks to me with different problems they're having.
It breaks our brain up into 5 sections and talks about each section in detail about what that part of the brain is for and how it affects us when it's working and when it's not.
He then goes over exersizes we can do do help that part of our brain as well as medication that can be taken.
I just can't say enough about it.
It's extremely informative and shows pictures of SPECT brain tests that are done on functional brains, with the exersizes, councelling and/or medication and when it's not functioning properly.
Just the pictures alone of the brains after drugs, nicotene, caffeen and alcohol are proof enough with how when our brain isn't working right, we're not working right.
I LOVED IT. And my bet is that you will love it too.
Now it's not a story so it's not a flowing easy read. It's informative, so you might have to read a chapter and put it down and think about it, BUT IT'S WORTH IT.
It's less than 300 pages though and will be worth your time.
Promise.
I understand ADD people better OCD people better people with panic attacks better and the list goes on.
Let me know if and when you've read it so we can talk about what you liked about it and how it changed you.
At the bottom in red here is a link to read parts of it on amazon.com. Click on it and flick through and read a little.
You can also go onto youtube.com and listen to some of his words in conferences he does to different folks.
See what you think.
My bet is it'll get you started into changing your life!!

http://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Brain-Life-Obsessiveness/dp/0812929985#reader

Simply the best!

So we had a ward chilli contest.
This is how the conversation between Dru and I went:
D "So are we gonna enter into the contest?"
M "Nah"
D "What about Kristin's recipe, that's good"
M "I don't like chilli, I'm not making it, but if you want to, go for it"
D "Alright, I will, I'm gonna ring Kristin and get the recipe"
M "Ok, ontop of everything else, whatever"
So Dru eventually gets the recipe from his sister and made it today while we were hanging out with one of our mates.
It looked good, it smelled good, but would it taste good?
Dru and I were picked as one of the judges.
Great idea, since I don't like ANY chilli, it's a childhood thing, not a chilli thing, that's another story for another time.
Anyhoo DRU'S WON FOR BEST OVERALL CHILLI.
That's like the most coveted prize right?!? Right?!?
I was so proud of him.
He was hoping some would be left over, but as you can see from the picture, it was all gone.
He won a twix and an Old Testament kids book and a picture to put up on the ward bulletin board.
Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh yyeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah.
Best chilli, right here folks.
It was out of 10 chilli's.
PS When Dru and I were judging we had to cross out the section that represented OUR chilli, so the fact we were judges had nothing to do with our win. Come on, do you really think they'd let us judge our own chilli? LOL

17 weeks

Alright folks, here's me at 17 weeks.
I guess this is good for the journal.
I tried on some pants I could fit at my 30th birthday with Yuki, last week, and there was no getting them around my waist.
At my 30th with Yuki I was 5 months.
17 weeks is only like 4 months.
I don't like this.

Totally showing!

So I'm totally showing!
I think it's cause I'm having a boy.
With Yuki I didn't start showing until 6 months!
I'm only 16.5 weeks!
I'm the same weight as with Yuki.
I don't understand it.
Could there be THAT much difference between kid 2 and kid 3 with how loose I am around the middle?
Maybe I'm carrying out front instead of out back.
I'm sticking with it being a boy.
Masaru was around a pound heavier than Yuki and he was 2 weeks early and Yuki was right on schedule.
Maybe this one's gonna be big CAUSE IT'S A BOY.
As a side note, if it's a girl, I'm gonna have to do some serious apologizing to it, so it doesn't get a complex and knows we love it no matter what.

The 'piggie'

This is, by far, Masaru's favourtie animal.
It all started back in NZ with my brother raising pigs in his back yard for Christmas time. He's get these piglets from his co-worker and raise them in his back yard, in a fenced off area, and they'd have ham, pork, bacon etc for their freezer and a great Christmas dinner.
My brother doesn't kill them, he helps one of his mates kill them. Last time he made his wife watch and I think she'll never be the same.
I'm telling you if I had to kill my own meat, I'd be a vegetarian. I'm one of these people who pretend nothing happens and it just comes, magically wrapped in parts, at the store.
His first pig was black and it was fascinating to Masaru. We'd go and feed it almost daily and he'd stand up there just watching it.
I actually have a picture of him naked watching it. I think I blogged about that in a previous post.
Anyway, since then the 'piggie' has been the favourite animal and we hear about it all the time.
At school they had a barn yard week, and Masaru hoarded the pig toys everyday. I don't think other children had a chance, and I don't think they cared. I think they just knew, the piggies were Masaru's.
At the county fair, guess which were the favourites? That's right, the piggies. Megan and I actually sat down and watched a couple of pig shows and competitions. Masaru was right up the front peering in the fence, while I was letting Yuki fall down the stairs behind him, mother of the year, right here folks.
Man I go off on tangents.
They did a bar graph of the childrens favourite animals at school. Guess who's only name was under the pig? That's right, yours truely, Masaru.
Guess who draws not just one but AT LEAST two piggies at school EVERYDAY? Masaru.
Today at school it was asked "What's your favourite animal?"
Masaru didn't have to say as a few kids in the class piped up and said "Piggies" for him before he could even say.
And lastly guess what birthday cake Masaru wants?
Yep a mummy piggie, a daddy piggie and little baby piggies. The mum is going to be pink and the dad black and then a combo for the baby piggies.
At least it'll be easy cakes to make this year, as opposed to last years Thomas the Tank Engine.
Never again man.
I wonder how long this will last?
Is a pig going to be his favourite animal for the rest of his life?
Is he going to be a pig farmer?
At least we'll have great meat handed to us all the time.
I think a piglet would be the best birthday present we could get him.
But we all know that that's really gonna happen, in a two bedroom apartment, where there's no pets allowed.
Some days it feels like I have my own piglets already!
HERE'S TO THE PIGGIES OF THE WORLD. Thanks for making Masaru happy.
Masaru, technically doesn't know that the 'piggie' back in NZ is LONG gone. And we're gonna keep it that way.

FHE

We have a family home evening night every Monday night, where we learn more about Jesus as well as have fun with each other.
My family were really good with this, growing up, and I have many fond memories of wonderful evenings with each other.
We always started with a prayer and then a song then news time. This was where we went around and told the family our plans for the week.
I think it was more of a heads up for my parents, and a chance for us to say something good as well as our plans.
So we do it in our house now.
We ask Yuki and she blabs about something, and we ask Masaru and he talks about his mates and school.
Anyway last night Masaru decided to take notes of the news so we could be in the 'know' for the week of all our plans.
Dru and I were wondering what he was doing, then when Dad had finished his news Masaru pipes up and says "I took notes for us, look"
We were cracking up for ages.
Now if only I could read it so I could put it straight onto our weekly calendar.
Anyone read 4 year old?
Thanks bub!

Punk rocker!

So this is what happens when you do your little girls hair all cute and then take it all out and then put her down for a nap and then go get her once she's woken up.

Once she calmed down though, she was super cool and chillin with her brother, punk rocker style!

No Valentines Spirit?

Come on, check Yuki's hair out. Now don't tell me I didn't make a valiant effort for this holiday. Unfortunatley it didn't turn out how it was suppose to. It just looks like a big circle. It was SUPPOSE to represent a heart shape. I need to get that first one at the top to go back next time. I might try it again for church tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
No children were harmed during this hair fixing, by the way, just incase you were thinking I put Yuki in some kind've trance to get her to keep still.
Both her and I had a good experience and no feelings are hurt.

Now this is the reddist out fit I could find for Yuki. This picture cracks me up man. It's like she's on a mission to find something. Love it.

This is the reddest outfit I could find for Masaru as well. You can't see it, but he's also wearing red dinosaur undies and a red T-Shirt underneath.
What a trooper.

Now here they both are, looking tickled pink to be posing for this photo mum demanded out of them.
LOL I love my kids.

Valentines..........love Grandma!

This country is holiday craaaaaaaaaaaaazy! I've never seen anything like it.
I was brought up celebrating Christmas and Easter and that's about it. The other holiday's would maybe get a thought, but that's about it.
I come to this country and some people have decorations for EVERY SINGLE HOLIDAY under the sun.
It's amazing to me the amount of work all of this entails for the consumers as well as the businesses.
I haven't made my mind up about whether or not I'll follow suit.
It's a conflict, you know if I don't make a fuss then my kids will hear about the fuss their mates parents made and feel sorry for themselves.
But if you know me, I'm not about making a big deal outt've decorations, big parties etc UNLESS it's Christmas.
So I didn't know that on Valentines you get gifts from people like your grandparents, as a child!
I would've loved this.
I think I might just do cookies and cupcakes with my kids and decorate them! No gifts though.
But, maybe I'll find myself doing this exact same thing when I'm a grandma.
I think Dru and I are gonna be the best Grandparents man, we were talking about it the other day.
Soooooooooooo the point of all of this is that this video is about my kids opening gifts from their Grandmother and Popa for Valentines Day. It's mostly for her to see their reaction since she's not here.
I hope she's gonna watch this.
It's always exciting to watch kids and adults open presents that they have NO IDEA what they are.
I love it, I think it's one of my favourite things to do.

It's ok mum!

There's a reason why it says in the scriptures to become more childlike. I was reminded of this last night in the kitchen when I broke and egg and was upset about it.
Masaru came running in to see what the hollabaloo was about. I told him and this is what he said
"It's ok mum, everyone has accidents, grandma told me, it's ok mum"
I hang my head in shame as I remember when Masaru broke an egg in the same kitchen, and I sternly told him to get out as I cleaned it up, moaning and groaning.
If only I could be more like Masaru.
What a great reminder to be a better mother.
I'm gonna start today.
Thanks Grandma and thanks Masaru.

Blurb take two

So NOW Blurb does blog to book.
It's easy, simple and you'll love it.
So go to blurb.com and try it and you'll have your blog FINALLY made into a book and you can feel validated for all the time and effort your making with this journal of yours.
It should be easy. But if you have any questions email me.

Check it out!!

Here's Masaru's first attemp, by himself, to write his name. We've been practicing at home for a few days but I havn't had him go for it, by himself.
At school today they had to write their names in the book they recieved "Biggest, strongest, fastest", great book by the way, I reccomend it to all kids, and here's the result.
Even though it says Masrau I think he did a fab. job so wanted to write about it and show the world.
All the letters are there and you can tell what they are, we just need to practice the last half of his name.
He may have a small speech problem, but everything else is working great.
Just look at that M!!!!
I asked him several different times if someone helped him. I wanted to know if I could get as excited as I was. Especially about that M.
Each time he strongly said "No". So I believe him.
GOOD JOB BUB!!!

Yessssssssssssss

Dru got an internship in down town SLC starting in May. So we're for sure gonna be back in SLC. His last exam is May 15th and he's doing some week course thing afterwards, so we'll be in town around the 23-25th. Oh yeah baby the Nakaya's will be in town till he starts school around the 20th of August or so.
Plus the baby is due Aug. 1st soooooooooooo I'll be having it in SLC.
It's so nice to know what we're doing you know and be able to plan for it.
I've got no idea where, exactly it is, he's told me a million times, sorry man, I just must'nt of listened much after he informed me "We have an internship"
But we're excited and I know the kids will be once they realize what's going on. I just purchased some Cherry Hill passes for us as well, so I'm looking forward to being a white elephant sitting by the pool.
I might put Masaru in swim lessons at the Rec. centre again too.
So much to plan and so little money.

Time out, Masaru style!

Does this look like a punishment to you? Or does it just look like he's exhausted from all the misbehaving? Or is he been on the time out chair a little too long? I guess that secret is gonna stay with him in his dreams on the dreaded time out chair.
Maybe I should just set up a time out mattress, you know, a few pillows, some soft toys, with soothing music in the background!!!

Dates!

So this semester has been, how do I put it, HORRIBLE!!!! I havn't seen Dru so glum! I feel really bad for him, but there's really nothing I can do about it. I have no control over the fact he has to read a trillion hours of books a week and then do another trillion hours of research for another trillion papers he has to write all within a 4 month window! All the while the pressure of doing well so he can apply for a great job at the end of the 3 years and come out ontop of things and not behind, like the economy!
Maybe how helpless I feel is how he feels in the hospital when I'm getting my abdominal surgery whilst giving birth to his children!!
Anyway the past two weekends we've had two great mates ask if they can babysit our children.
Personally I think they're crazy, who volunteer's to take your children for a night? Who are these people? Angels, that's what they are, sent from God!
Well you don't have to ask us twice, so we accepted.
The first weekend we went to dinner and a movie. It was so nice to be out, alone, no kids, no school, just us.
I even put on makeup and did my hair!! I know, I know!! Dru said "Well don't you scrub up nicely!" I dunno how to take that.
Anyway Brandon and Sarah came and looked after our children EVEN THOUGH they were also looking after another baby from the ward that day as well! Honestly, these people are reaping all of our blessing from on high!!!!
THEN the next weekend our friends Andy and Hillary asked to babysit our children and so Dru and I went out to dinner and went shopping for Masaru's birthday and little things we've needed and had not gotten.
We've been totally spoiled BUT I think we deserve it. Who out there, if someone was volunteering to babysit your kids wouln't jump on the chance and go out? That's right............NO ONE!!
Since this semester has been so hard and I haven't seen much of Dru, just on Sundays, and then he has a nap for like hours, I think these dates have been a heaven sent.
By 9pm I was basically crawling around the mall telling Dru "I just wanna go home and go to bed"
I know pathetic, I think I'm showing my age!!! But it was fun and we did get a lot done.
Ok now as a side note I also got together with another friend Stacey and told her to organize a day when me and the kids could get together at her house and they could jump on her bouncey castle they bought for their daughter.
So she organizes this games night, mostly because of me, and then last night rings at 6 wondering where Dru and all of us were.
I'D TOTALLY FORGOTTEN!
How lame is that.
So I spent the next 5 minutes apologizing to her whilst our babysitters were about to walk in the door.
I was going to try and make up an elaborate story so I didn't have to look so bad but came up with nothing. I mean I do have a pregnant brain, what was I thinking?
So I told her the truth, "Even though I basically forced you to do this, I totally forgot about it and am going out on a date with my husband instead."
I don't know if she truely forgives me but she said she did and I orgainzed another date with her, which she can fully pull out of at the last minute if she wishes just to teach me a lesson.
Sorry Stacey. I hope it was fun.
And THANKS Brandon, Andy, Sarah and Hillary for your service the last couple of weekends. We love you guys and are extremely grateful.

10 months

Here's a picture of Masaru and Yuki, both at about 10 months old. What do you think? Do they look alike?

Good use of inside play with new Christmas present.

How do you like that title? LOL I couldn't think of some witty short title.
This is exactly what this video is about. Masaru making good use of his Christmas present when it's cold and snowy outside and there's nothing else to do.
He usually takes his socks off straight when he takes his shoes off. This time he left them on and started skidding around everywhere. Then he got this bright idea to skid around with his truck.
It looks like fun aye? Man being a kid was awesome.

"Mummy"

I know this isn't much but Yuki goes around saying 'mummy' pretty much, all day. Now I'd be flattered if she really meant it for me but 'mummy' usually means whatever she's wanting from whomever can give it to her.
Random people in the ward, if they're near food get called 'mummy'.
Plenty of family during Christmas got called 'mummy' if they were near food she wanted.
Actually it's just really when she wants food and can't get it herself.
Sometimes though she'll climb up on the bed in the mornings and say 'mummy'. I think that's meant for me as she leans in and gives me a hug.
As a side note, when she says 'dad' it's always meant for Dru.
I need to figure out how to be funner so Yuki will like me better.
Jokes man jokes

Don't look Dru!

I thought this was pretty funny so told Dru about it when he got home. Apparently this is not good for the dryer and I'm not allowed to let it happen again! But I'm posting these pic's and telling Dru "Don't look"

Meanings

My sister in law wrote about her kids names and how they came up with them and what they meant etc. So I'm guessing I should do it since my kids will resent their names for a while, I'm sure.
So the least they can know is why we decided to go with the names we went with.
I loved a number of 'normal' names like Abraham, Joseph, Isaiah, Teancum but when I married Dru, those all went out the window. Dru's pretty opiniated and didn't like any of them. So we were at square one.
I always thought Dru's Dad's proper name was cool, Masaru, but never said anything.
Then one night we were talking and mentioned some Japanese names and I said "What about Masaru?" Dru said he'd liked it too but never said anything. So when I was about 4 months pregnant we'd decided his name was gonna be Masaru.
We knew that we'd get flack about it, which we did, and so didn't tell a soul until he was born.
Everyone's got an opinion and it's no secret plenty of people, my side and Dru's thought we were nuts.
But Dru and I have never been one for conforming to the norm and just ignored everyone's rantings, which some lasted until Masaru was 4 months old!!!
"Yes, we're REALLY, STILL going to call him Masaru, really, we know you don't like it, it's staying, get used to it!"
Masaru's middle name is special because it's my fathers middle name and my middle name. For privacy I'm not going to put it on here but those closest to me know it.
It's the one name, no matter who I married, I would've insisted our first born have. I wouldn't of budged either. So I'm glad Dru was fine with it when I first mentioned it way back when we were 'dating'.
It is after a man who saved my grandfather in World War II. I think that's awesome. So my father and I had the same initials MJW and now Masaru and I have the same initials MJN. I LOVE it.
I secretly hope that when Masaru gets married his wife will be ok with naming their first borns middle name the same. But I can't hold onto that hope too tightly, just incase.
Dru and I simply LOVE Masaru's name.
It's after both his grandfather's and I've always been a fan of special meanings and your kids having family connections.
It can be shortened to Mas but we don't like it as much and have always called him Masaru. Consequently he refers to himself as Masaru and his school teachers and mates have always called him that.
Maybe, down the road it'll get shortened to Mas, but Dru and I will always refer to him as Masaru.
Masaru means Victory.

Then there's my little Yukiko. We had Yuki's name down to about 6 names we needed to decide on. Brooklyn, Jayda, Skylar, Pheniox, Yuki, Mei.
My mother had mentioned to me that there was a couple of May's in the family and maybe I could consider that for our girls name.
When Yuki was born we STILL hadn't decided. It was a tough deal man. The majority of people liked or voted for the name Mei and that's what I was leaning towards.
When she was born I looked at her and, to me, she looked like a Mei. So that's what I thought I wanted to name her.
Then somehow, and I'm not sure how it all happend, she was called Yuki and it stuck.
A couple of people have mentioned how they thought Yuki was the worst name ever, but now they've hung out with Yuki, they like it and know it works for her.
It's funny cause one of my brothers emailed me when I said the 6 names and said "I don't care what you name her, just don't call her Yuki!" We've had a good laugh about that since.
A couple of people have mentioned they're scared she'll be called "Yucky" but whatever, I'll make sure I get in contact with the teacher and tell her from the beginning what it is and she'll have mates who know her 'real' name.
Dru and I aren't worried about it.
Yuki is short for Yukiko. Yukiko has two meanings, like a lot of japanese names, depending on how you decide to write the kanji. Dru wanted it to mean 'snow child' but I wanted 'courage child'. I guess since I got ripped off with the whole Mei thing I got the courage!
Thanks babe!
My kids turned out to be white and blue/green eyed. So it's pretty funny that they have these full japanese names. They're the only grandkids on Dru's side to have light eyes and hair, yet their the only ones to have japanese first names.
Crazy, I know. They'll be loving it though when they're filling out minority forms though and seeking scholarships later on, or when they have to write a 'cultured' paper and have a cool name to talk about and the history behind it. LOL We'll see.
So we have a decision to make, do we continue the saga of the japanese names? Or do we change it up and go for a couple of English? Who knows, only time will tell I guess.
What do you think?
Make 'all' of our kids suffer, or just half?
Jokes man jokes