Swearing....Swaring......Sworne?

So yesterday was the big swearing in for Dru.
I dropped off the kids to a mates house, got showered and cleaned up and headed out.
It was your normal law thing you know, speeches, certificates given etc etc.
But you know what this means right?
THIS.IS.THE.LAST.OF.IT.
We're officially done and Dru is all official in his lawyership LOL
He's a full fledged lawyer now and can practice, give out advise, ask for money for his advise etc.........
It's nice.

Here's some important judges who I don't really know about.
But they look important right?
So I've been thinking about my life lately, you know how you do?
And my life has turned out so different than what I thought it was going to turn out.
For starters I never in a million years thought I'd be living in America...........like ever, let alone married to an American and if you were to ask me what job my husband would have I would've told you maybe factory work, or a teacher, or construction worker, or basically a lot of things before lawyer.
Actually I NEVER thought I'd be married to a lawyer to tell you truth.
I just don't fit the part to be a lawyers wife.
I'm mouthy, very NON formal, swear, don't know how to dress for special occasions and functions, nor do I know how to eat at them, I'm not that polite and don't care about a lot of important people that maybe I should.
I dunno how we're going to do it if I have to start attending 'formal functions'  I might start dying slowly inside.
Jokes man jokes.
I dunno, I just never saw myself as a lawyers wife.
I DID, however see myself with a great guy................and (here's the cheese peeps) he's it.
I actually can't believe HE chose to be a lawyer to tell you the truth.
Don't you think we all have these 'pre judgmental' conceptions of lawyers?
Some a true, but now Dru's one, some aren't and it's all baffling to me in a lot of ways.
Alright, back to the topic at hand..........swearing.

Here's the video of them doing the swearing.

And here's a copy of the words, just in case you didn't catch it all.
Pretty funny aye.
'So help me God' alright, some lawyers should look over this every now and then, don't you think?
I wonder if every state's are the same?


Here he is doing the 'walk' to get his 'stuff'

 The handsome couple.
I asked him if he told his family about it and he said no.
I said 'Don't you think they would've liked to have known?  Especially your parents?'
He didn't seem to think it was a big deal.
It was cool to go into the Capitol building.

Here's the certificate he got that says something important about him being a lawyer.
So I thought I'd better get a picture of it, just in case I loose it ;)

Good job babe.
Love you.
Glad I could be there.
{Like how he shaved for the event? LOL Love it}

Sleep, pee and kids

Lately things haven't been going well in the sleeping area.
Almost every.single.night Yuki and Takeshi are sleeping with us OR should I say with Dru, I just happen to ALSO be in the same bed as the favourite parent.
Dru and I had a talk about it and he's like 'Why do they always come on MY side?'
I almost laughed when I said 'Because whenever they come on my side I tell them to GO BACK TO BED! Whenever they come on YOUR side they're allowed in, doesn't it make sense they'd go on YOUR side babe?'
'I guess'
'What you need to do is tell them NO which I know is hard but when Yuki comes in tell her to sleep on the floor, and when Takeshi comes in put him back in his own bed'
'But I'm tired and that's hard'
'Yeah well these are all things you should've thought about BEFORE you started letting them in right?'
LOL
Poor Dru, it's tough being the favourite.
So the other night he told Yuki 'No, you sleep on the floor'
So she did.
Then this morning he tried to get Takshi back to his own bed and he promptly peed in our bed.
'GREAT'
I swear man, the best sleep I've had in a while was this past weekend in a sleeping bag with 2 other women in the room on a mattress on the floor on a Youth retreat to a cabin for the night.
Guaranteed ZERO KIDS to come and bug me during the night.
How sad is that?
Then just to top it off Takeshi was pooping and I went in to wipe his butt and, in my bare feet, stood in a puddle of pee.
IT.WAS.SO.GROSS!!
I dunno man, sometimes parenting is so hard, totally worth it, but so hard.
So if you wanna talk at 4am chances are Dru and I will be up anyway, so you might as well ring.
Well, that is, until Dru starts getting a little *ahem* 'firmer' in his night time discipline.

Pre School

It's over.
I did it.
It was easier than what I thought and the kids were well behaved.
Thank goodness.
Now I've got 3 weeks off.
Oh yeah baby.
And Yuki LOVES it.
I might just be able to handle this.
I'm pretty sure I'm back in the running for mother of the year award ;)

17 weeks

So we find out what it is on the 10th of the 10th at 10am.
Pretty cool right?
I'm a little worried I'm not showing a little more.
It's my fourth kid you know, usually this is like a 12 week shot right?
Or am I up in the night?
I'm slightly concerned, should I be?
Mind you, in looking at this photo I actually look bigger than what I thought I did so I might eat my words.
Anyway if everything's alright I'm pretty happy about how little I'm really showing.  It's been great for working out and people are still way surprised at church when I tell them I'm almost half way through.
Did you know the baby, on average, is around 5 1/2 inches long from head to bum?  That's 14 cm.  So it's getting big.
I met with Chris the other day and he told me that on average women put on 3 point something something pounds a month, so 27 pounds during the pregnancy.
So far I've put on 8 pounds.
It seems like a lot for how little I'm showing, yet on the 3 pounds a month thing I guess that means around more than 12 pounds so 8 isn't so much.
Everyone's different though so we'll see how it all pans out.
So far this pregnancy has been really awesome.
I mean I was hardly sick much, just at nights and now not even that, I'm hardly showing so working out is still fantastic for me.
So if I was to guess, I'd guess a girl and here's the reason.
With Yuki I still fit into my normal pants until 20 weeks.  I hardly showed at all.
With my boys I was much bigger than this at the same amount of weeks.
So if I'm to go with how I'm carrying I'd guess a girl.
But maybe it's that I secretly hope it's a girl for personal reasons that I"ll share later on if, infact it's a girl.
Truth be told I love my boys and think I'm a better mother to boys, you know, with my 'not so gentle' way of mothering, but we'll see what happens.
If it's a boy, it certainly won't be a disappointment that's for sure.
Boys are pure awesomeness.

Journal Entry Fiftyone

Did you go to college? Where? Why did you choose that school? 

Click HERE to read mine. 

Bowling


You can play this anywhere, although a rug softens sound.  Set up 5 or 6 empty snack canisters as pins.  Roll a tennis or rubber ball to knock them over.  Points are scored by the number knocked over - set a winning total before you start.

One last step

I don't want to go private.
But we might.
Let's just say in the past 6 months I've had a couple of comments/emails from strangers that make me slightly nervous.
If I go private I'd do another blog that puts up each post I do and has a link to my private blog so you can still have it on your reader you know.
I've thought about it for a while now and discussed it with Dru last night and we're going to ask for ALL OF YOUR help to do this last final step before going private.

We DON'T want our blog to be on your side lists of your blog.
If you could TAKE US OFF of your list, that'd mean SO MUCH to us.
I know this might be a pain for some of you who rely on that list to tell you WHEN and WHAT's been posted but I don't know all your mates, I don't know who's checking your blogs and I can't ever know.
This is just one more way Dru and I can make our blog MORE private without ACTUALLY going private you know.
Please don't be offended and understand where I'm coming from.
If I told you one of these comments I got, you'd do this for me, but I don't wanna scare people so would simply ask for you help with this.

You know the list I'm talking about right?
It's the list on some of your blogs of you mates blog sites and if you just click on their name it'll take you straight there.
I realize I might loose some followers by doing this.
So be it.
All the peeps who love me will keep following me some other way.
I post basically daily so if you'd like to put me on your reader, or up on your desktop or tabs bar or just stop following me it's all fine.
I just don't want MY site in so many public forums.

Like I said, please don't be upset and please, please, please, do this for Dru and I and the kids.
Otherwise our next step if people can't comply is going private, which will make it complicated for my mother who follows this blog religiously and I'd hate to loose her, it took me over a year to get her on skype!!!

Awwwww poor USA

They got creamed last night in their game against Aussie.
Like 65-7
I dreamt I was there last night, at the game and it was 23-19 to Aussie.  I like my dream game better than this real one.
Poor USA.
I totally thought they might have the slightest chance.
I guess that loss to Ireland fired the Aussies up and they took it out on USA.
Bummer, I really wanted Aussie to loose.
But loosing to Ireland was good enough for me.
There's no way they're winning the world cup, and that makes me feel great.

Here's a couple of awesome video's for you to watch.
They're pretty cool man.
Dru and I were having a good laugh and also in awe of their skills.
We reckon when he's catching the hotdog he MUST have a mirror.
Don't you think?
In the second one.





Side note: So, anyone like an explanation about my previous post?  A girl, I don't know, follows my blog.  She said my blog helps her, blah, blah, so we exchanged a few emails.
Well she did a post yesterday about how mothers try to 'one up' each other and gave this example.
'Sally turned 2 yesterday and look a this awesome cake I did'
Now how am I suppose to take that?
She contact ME, tells ME, she wants to follow my blog cause it helps HER and then does a random post about mothers who are 'show offy' and how she thinks they're all a little insane.
So I've unsubscribed from her two blogs and did that post for HER to read and hope she'll stop reading mine.

Honesty

Blogging is personal.
The way YOU choose to blog is up to you.
The way I choose to blog is up to me.
But WHAT blog YOU choose to read is most certainly up to YOU not me.
So why complain about the blogs YOU choose to read?
You're the one CHOOSING to read them right?
If you feel crappy after reading them STOP READING THEM.
It's that simple.

I would hope that my blog isn't one that makes you feel crappy.  But truth be told if it IS one then please, STOP READING IT!!

I've been nothing but honest in all my posts.
Completely honest.
If you don't like that....................TOUGH, cause guess what?  It's NOT going to change.
This is me, take it or leave it.

I like making cakes..............so sue me.
You have YOUR strenghts and I have mine.  Why can't I share what I LOVE to do on my blog?
It's ridiculous not to right?
So you're good at this and I'm good at that..................SO WHAT?
Get over it.
If YOU feel like a crappy mother because I make cakes for my kids then there's something larger going on people and it has nothing to do with me making cakes for my kids birthdays and posting them on my blog.

I give step by step details of what we do so that others might be able to make the same cake and feel this sense of achievement while doing it.
I don't find it a burden to do, I enjoy it SO MUCH.
But I don't mean to brag, what I'm trying to do is share my joy with my mates.
Having you all tell me it's awesome makes me feel good as well, I won't lie and between you and I we all know I'm one for the lime light.............but................if YOU want to know how to make a similar cake CALL ME, ASK FOR HELP but don't be a hater man, just stop reading my blog.

Truth is I'm still struggling with my funk.
I'm NOT out of it yet and still feel a little vulnerable.
I'm hormonal (obviously because of this post) and a little pissed off.

Why can't I have this?
Why can't I be good at something without others saying I'm showing off or making them feel like crap?
So what am I suppose to do?
Be good at nothing?
Hide my talents?
Keep the cakes I make for my kids a secret so they'll never be able to read about how much their mother and father ENJOY the journey in making it for them?
Get serious.

Have I ever, once, done a post at how awesome of a mother I am and how you should all be just like me cause I'm the best there is?
I'm doing the best I know how, and I hope and pray to God I aren't ruining my children with my weaknesses.
For some reason or another Heavenly Father intrusted me with these kids.
Some days are better than others.
I just have to know that I'm trying my best.
Sometimes women are so complicated (I know I'm in this group as well) we like to complain yet do NOTHING about it.
Sometimes we wanna blame each other when in reality we just need to look at oneself and start there.
YOU have control of WHAT you read.
If you don't like it THEN STOP.
I'm taking comments off of this one, I'm not in the mood to hear anyone's opinions right now, maybe I'll be in a better mood after USA beat Aussie in the world cup match tonight.
Go USA..................... beat those Aussies and show this country that rugby needs to be more looked at here.
Aussie loosing would be pure awesomeness right about now.

My three kids

 So Yuki missed out on Head Start Pre-School this year because of 19 days.  The cut off date is the 1st of September and her birthday is on the 20th.
Don't ask me about how I feel about this, you'll just be fueling a fire and trust me, you don't wanna fuel the fire, or be near the fire for that matter.

Is she ready for pre-school?  You betcha.
Would she be awesome?  You know it.
Can we afford it? Absolutely not.
So a group of us decided to do a co-op thing and teach once a week, so once a month for the individual, and do our own pre-school in our homes.
There's five children, one mother has 2 in it, and 3 are boys and 2 girls.

I never thought I'd do this.
I always thought we'd be fine and there'd be no reason for me to participate in something like this.
Little kids aren't my specialty.  So I'd rather just send my kids to someone who's good at 'the littles'.
But Yuki's situation has forced me into a corner and the only way out is to team teach.
So I'm doing it, once a month, teaching pre-school kids in my home.
Heaven help me and those poor sweet kids.
Fingers crossed I don't crush their souls with my no nonsense attitude.

 She got some new birthday clothes and wanted to wear them.  LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS!!  What a stunner if I do say so myself.  I don't think I was ever this cute.  I guess my and Dru's genes just go together like carrots and peas.
She was SO EXCITED.  She really needs this and that's the ONLY reason I'm doing it.  She NEEDS it.
Her teacher after class told me that throughout the time there she'd say 'I LOVE THIS' or 'THIS IS AWESOME' or 'I LOVE SCHOOL'.
It helps me to suck it up and try and do this with a smile on my face, cause I know it's right and it's the only thing our situation can do at the moment.

 She came home RAVING about it.  Mum we sang songs, we did this, we did that, I love it, when do I go again?
They're thinking about doing it twice a week but I'm still not over Masaru being gone to tell everyone the truth.
When I came home with just Takeshi yesterday it took all of my energy not to burst into tears about Yuki being gone as well and me feeling sorry for myself.
How pathetic is that?
The only thing that stopped me was that this is SO GOOD for Yuki, it'd be abuse not to send her and so there's nothing to cry about right?
I need help.
I just need to try this once a month thing, get used to it, and MAYBE I MIGHT think about the twice a month thing.  We'll see.
I'm also pregnant and only getting MORE pregnant and right now, once a month is sufficient even though I know Yuki would love twice a week.

 She learned about 'A' apples and did a bunch of stuff to do with that.
I was very impressed and told the others that mine wouldn't be this good so not to expect it.
We'll see I guess.

 

Here's a cute little apple pie the teacher made and sent home with instructions on how to bake it.  Talk about pure awesomeness.

So we baked it and ate it.

I'm gonna do 'k' Kites.  

Any ideas anyone?  I teach next Wednesday.  Come on all you budding teachers out there give me a hand with some awesome websites or ideas for these 3-4 year olds.

HELP!!  Sarah Nelson I'm talking to you ;)

Songs to do with kites?

 Takeshi and I came home and hung out for a bit and I did my chores.  That was about it.

 He seemed fine without Yuki and wandered around and played and watched bits and pieces of  a couple of movies he didn't really care about.
Maybe he was slightly lost, kinda like his mother.

 Here's Yuki trying to arrange his face for the picture.
Thanks Yuki, I think he's got it.

 

Then Masaru came home yesterday with this little paper he did with a special teacher who came into their classroom yesterday.

Maybe some kinda counselor?  Who knows.

But for some reason I just LOVE this.

When we were in Utah Dru took Masaru mountain biking up Muller Park canyon.

It was hard for Masaru but he did it and finished.  Coming down he fell off his bike and almost had a horrible crash.

I don't think he's ever admitted it to us but I think it was slightly scary for him.

His Uncle Ryan and Dru said he did so well.  I mean he's only 6.  A lot of 6 year old boys can't even ride a bike let a lone go up Muller park mountain biking you know.

I'm so proud of him.

So when I saw this paper it made me smile.

I could imagine Masaru biking up that mountain doing some self talking.

'I can do this, I can do this, I can do this'

And he did.

I dunno, I just love this paper and what it means and the understanding he has and the situation he drew and wrote about.

I love it.

(Pregnant, hormonal, bare with me)

So this is a pretty long post about not really important stuff, but important to me and the kids, so blog book worthy.
Thanks for reading and I'll leave you with this cute picture of my third child.
What a stud.

Yuki's 4th

 So it was Yuki's birthday.  We asked her what kind've cake she wanted a while ago so if it was elaborate, we could prepare.  Fortunately for us she asked for a volcano cake and it was the easiest cake we've make so far.
That made the day quite pleasant and relaxed to tell you the truth.
She also asked for tacos for dinner.  So we did Navajo Tacos.  Yumm.
So instead of icing for the lava we did sugar candy.
I burnt the first batch and stunk the house up and there was a haze of smoke everywhere.  It was actually quite amazing.
The second batch was a success though and the kids loved eating it.

 I did three different colours then broke them up into the pieces I wanted.  Most of them turned out how I'd intended.

 Then we made three cakes.  Two bunt cakes and a huge cupcake and this middle sized cake from one of Dru's camping pots.  Worked out perfect if I do say so myself.
We froze the middle bunt cake cause that was the one that was going to have to be carved.
Worked like a dream.

 

The awesome thing is is that it just needed chocolate icing because it's a mountain and didn't have to be perfect.  SO EASY and way yummier than fondant and a hell of a lot less complicated.

 

And here's the final results.

Pretty easy right?
If we wanted to impress we would've iced on trees at the bottom of the mountain and modeled out people dead and alive in the grass.
LOL
That would've been cool.
But Dru and I thought it was fine how it was.

 

Yuki LOVED it.  She wanted to stare at it all the time.  She kept telling us how much she loved it and how it was the best volcano cake ever.

So that did it for Dru and I.  Success!

I can't believe she's 4 years old already.  Where did that go?  Who knows.

 

We enjoyed the company of friends and had a great night.

Yuki was spoiled, as always, and did quite well for herself.  

Most of the cake was eaten, which is always very helpful and the kids all had an awesome time, well I'm pretty sure they did.

Thanks to everyone for their gifts and time spent with Yuki over her 4 years.

I actually think her hair was in the same style for last years birthday LOL
Yuki is my only girl and that in itself is special to me.
I love her.
She's kind and helpful, she's sensitive and emotional.
She says nice things to Dru and I all the time.
She's a great drawer and a willing learner.  She has lots of friends who love her despite being a little bossy at times.
She loves her brothers and shows them all the time.
She thrives from +ve attention and encouragement and is a great girl.
I realize we're blessed to be her parents and also realize I need to do better.
She has a special relationship with Dru which I think is great.
Love you bub.
Mum xx

Takeshi vs Flies

Look out flies, you've got no chance against my special green weapon.
I dare you to take me on.

Dru's movie experience

Background

So, back in October I saw and add during general conference that the church was looking for extras to be part of a New Testament film. They were looking for persons that had the appearance of Middle Eastern descent. I’m a bit of a chameleon when it comes to ethnicities, so I thought I’d give it a go. I went to the website advertised, filled out an application, sent in a head shot, and after a few months of emails, I was told that 11,000 applicants had been cut and that I had the “look” they were looking for.

Shooting was scheduled to begin in July, but got pushed back to August because of a script change. I put in my availability for the first couple of weeks in August since we would be collecting the kids in Utah after our trip. Then the Japan trip came up, which I couldn’t pass up, so changed my availability to a one week window.

I got back from Japan, waited, and nothing. I was seeing a client in North Salt Lake while I was down in Utah, so figured that I would shave. You know, look more professional—besides we were heading back to Boise the next day. Well turns out that as soon as I shaved I got an email stating that they wanted me for filming. The only problem, apart from having just shaved, was that they wanted me for August 31 and September 1, dates I was not available.

My good friend, Mr. Dave Hascall, was getting married on September 7^th, so I put in some availability dates for immediately after his wedding, and started growing the beard again. I could have something in three weeks, not the beard I had, but one that would suffice in a pinch. Day of the wedding—Nothing. So I say to Melissa, “I think I should just  shave, they haven’t emailed and last time when they did they wanted me for the next week.” Melissa told me to just hang on a little longer and wait til the trip was over.

Turns out Melissa was on to something because the next day I got an email telling me that they needed me for Friday for a night shoot of the Wedding at Cana—where Jesus turns water into wine. Couldn’t believe it.

The Shoot

My call time was 5:00pm (that’s what they call it in the movie business). Nothing was happening at five when I turned up, so they told us to go get some food. There was a building nearby that had catered food for the cast and crew. Hamburgers, onion rings, fries, and quesadillas. I sat down at a table and started talking to the other two guys. One guy, Jesse, had been to a couple of shoots before this one and kind of knew the ropes.

After eating, we went back to the tent where we were supposed to check-in. After checking in they sent us to wardrobe to get costumes, then to make-up and hair, and then jewelry, and then dirt (they rubbed dirt around the hem of our costumes and around the neck lines). My costume was tan with a nice maroonish colored robe over the top with a nice tan sash, a small hat, and completed with some Jerusalem cruiser sandals. Good thing we were shooting at night because these puppies would be hot in the daytime.

The make-up people rubbed our hands and feet with what looked to me like brown acrylic paint. Made us look like we had dirt on our hands and feet. But through the cameras it probably helped us have a darker complexion. They did something similar to our faces too. The hair lady said, “uoooooo, wild hair. I love wild hair.” 

Jewelry was where the style came out. I had some pretty sweet rings and a nice bracelet. Dirt was quick and, well, dirty. Then we had time to mill around waiting for it to get dark. So we used the time wisely and had a photo op. We started with a few candids here and there. Then someone wanted to go around behind the tent and get “the Taliban family photo.” My favorite. Jesse was intrigued by the port-a-loo/costume combo, so we snapped a few photos there too. Just before heading over to the set we got a group shot of all the extras.

The set was amazing. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of the set. They could film all sorts of different scenes with this set, from the streets of Bethlehem to the pool at Bethesda to the Temple.

I have a new appreciation for film making. It took about an hour to set up our scene. Everything is meticulously placed, nothing is random or haphazard. Each extra was strategically placed, each lantern’s flame was carefully adjusted, some earrings were removed because they reflected too much light.

Jesse and I were wedding guests and placed on some steps behind the main crowd of guests. The good thing for us was, a) we didn’t have to sit Indian-style for hours, and b) we were directing in front of the camera when the servant walks over to Marry. We sat and conversated while eating grapes, pomegranates, and for me—a drum stick. I had my back to the servant as he walked into the scene, so Jesse would queue me up when the servant was passing by us I would take a big bite from my drum stick. So when you the film comes out watch the servant and the two guests in the background, that’s me and Jesse.

Jessie's in the turban in the back with me.

We broke around 11pm and had some dinner. Well, second dinner, the hobbits would have been in paradise. Chicken Weiner Schnitzel, grilled Talapia, and chocolate ice cream for dessert, yum. Jesse informed me that this was not the normal fare of food for the extras. I think that because the number of extras was low they let us eat with the cast and crew.

We went back and shot for another hour, but Jesse and I don’t reckon that we ever made it into the shot, but I guess we’ll wait and see. We were then excused to go back to the tent. We had some good discussions about service, missionary work, and other random topics. After waiting for three hours we were dismissed. It was about 4 in the morning when I hit the road. I made it about half way before nodding off for 2.3 seconds. I decided it was time to pull off and catch some Zs. After an hour of not so good sleep, I decided to press on. As you may have guessed, I made it safely home and fell into bed at 6am—exhausted.

I had a really good time being a part of it and wish that I could have gone back for more. I made a good friend in the process too. Hopefully my drum stick eating wasn’t too much for the directors and don’t end up on the cutting room floor.    

Stats for kids

We went to the doctors on Thursday for Yuki and Takeshi's 2 and 4 year old check ups.
I had to keep reassuring Yuki that she in fact WASN'T getting shots, poor girl.
So Yuki did well, just a little cold.
Her stats are as follows.
Weight - 34.2lbs (15.51kgs)
This puts her in the 48%tile for her sex and age in the nation.
She's gained 4lbs (1.81kgs) in a year.
So she's, pretty much average like she usually is.
Height - 40inches (102cms)
This puts her in the 63%tile for her sex and age in the nation.
So she's grown 3.25 inches (8cm) in the last year.
She's a little over average for her height.

Takeshi has a little earwax build up in his left ear which we need to try and fix.  I brought a little box with the stuff and now can't find it.  It was $10 so I'm really upset.  It's my fault though.
Apart from that the doctor said he looks good.
Takeshi's stats are as follows.
Weight - 27lbs (12.25kgs)
This puts him in the 34%tile for his age and sex in the nation.
So he's on the small side which is totally opposite of Masaru who was always in the 90%tile.  But no matter.
In the last year he's gained a little over 4lbs (1.82kgs)
Height - 35 inches (89cm)
This puts him in the 60%tile for his age and sex in the nation.
In the last year he's grown 4 inches (10cm)
He's gone down in his stats but the doctor said that was normal and not to worry about it.

THEN CAME THE SHOTS.
I let them give him chicken pox and mumps, measles and rubella.
One in each leg.
They lay them down on that butcher paper and tell you to hold them up the top while they do the pricking down the bottom.
So I'm giving Takeshi a hug and kisses and then he gets this face like 'What the hell was that?'
He gave the same face with the second one but didn't cry.
We gave him his sucker straight away and he did great.
Although he did sit up and immediately pull off the cute little plasters (bandaids) that were on his wounds.  He refused to have anything, so they just bled a little bit.
Pretty tough if you ask me.
He IS the third child though and is used to being rough housed a little more than the others.
I was very proud of him.
Now to tend to the ear wax so he doesn't go deaf.

Journal Entry Fifty

Click HERE to read mine.

Clothespin Drop

For young children.
Place a quart-size bottle on the floor behind a chair or sofa.  Kneel on the seat and try to drop clothespins (or bottle caps or pennies) into the bottle.

Last Day in Japan

Japan—Day 6

McDonald’s for breakfast. How can you not like hot cakes and sausage egg McMuffins? Mmm, that sounds good, I’ll have that. Then back to the Hyaku En shop for more omiyagis. We had wait til it opened, which didn’t seem to impress the old man, he hated being in the humidity. Then back to the hotel to pack up. After two and half hours Steve was finally packed! Mas and I chilled in our room watching TV. Saw a cool interview of Jeff Bridges and Hayao Miyazaki.

We checked out at the required noon and headed off to the eki. Hiroo to Ueno, Ueno to Narita Airport—only this time we booked seats on the skyliner. We bought the tickets two minutes before the train was scheduled to leave. We literally jumped on the train and the doors closed behind us before the last one had both feet firmly planted. That was a close one.

Another smooth, and this time non-stop, ride to the airport.

As soon as we got in line to check in, the ticket agent asked if we were going to Seattle. As a matter of fact we are. Umm, the flights been overbooked and were asking for volunteers to stay one more day. Delta offered free lodging for the night and $600 in travel vouchers. I think Melissa would have killed me if I had stayed another day, and the kids would have been disappointed. Mas was indifferent—apparently he had nothing to get home to, retired life, aye? Steve was tempted, but knew work would be a shit storm when he got back due to the credit rating drop from AAA to AA+. I told them they could stay, but I needed to get home. Plus, it wasn’t $600 in cash it was $600 in Delta credit. Had they offered cash, then maybe it would have been more tempting.

Once we got through security and passport checks, we had about an hour to grab something to eat. Good thing we made that train, the next one was 40 minutes later. Mas wanted Sukiyaki since we got to Morioka and we finally found it in the airport, so he was pleased. Another trip to the book store yielded another John Grisham novel since I was coming to a close on the Partner.

The flight was packed, Delta now offering $700 for volunteers—desperate are we? We were on an airbus 330, not the plane to be on when you’re in coach. The middle section is four seats across and you guessed it, Mas and I were in the middle of the middle. And on an airbus 330, they have these stupid boxes under the seats which makes it impossible for the long legged to stretch out. But at least the airbus was up to date and had movies on demand at each seat. Lots of movies to see, but knew Melissa wanted to see them too, so I opted for ones that I had already seen.

Didn’t get much sleep because the flight left at 4 something local time. We got into Seattle and only had an hour to clear customs—not sure why the flights were booked so close together. Getting through immigration was a breeze, but it took our bags ages to get off the plane. Then we had to wait in a long line through security to get to the get. Again, they closed the gate within 60 seconds of walking onto the jet way. Another close call.

The Seattle to SLC flight was chock full as well and I didn’t have the foresight to put down the armrest before the passenger sitting next to me sat down. Turns out my new neighbor was a bit over weight. I think had the armrest been down, she would have had to shimmy into her seat. Lucky for me I don’t have wide hips, so even though she was somewhat flowing into my seat she wasn’t really bothering me. Had she actually been taking up part of my seat, it would have made for an awkward situation because I’m not flying 90 minutes with a stranger squishing me.

Other than that, the flight was uneventful and I slept most of it. It was good to be home and back to the dryness of the high mountain desert. We got home just as the kids were getting out of the car from church and were excited to see me. I was happy to see them too. Good to be home.

What really happened

{Please check out Dru's 5th Day in Japan post under this one}

So I'm slightly embarrassed about my post on the bar exam results.
I mean shaking, crying.........really?
But that's what was really going on so I'm going to leave it for posterity's sake and fill in the gaps a little more I guess.
Let's just all remember I'm pregnant, hormonal, still in a slight funk and not too sure what our life holds for us.
So.........
Dru was at an interview with the JAG programme.  The Air Force to be exact. 
I was at home not even thinking about the bar results to be honest.
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
It was 8:55am and I realized I could probably look them up.
But should I, since Dru wasn't around?
Should we do it together?
My heart started beating while I put in Idaho bar results in google and it brought up the site instantly.
I was still to early and the names weren't up.
I started to panic.
My heart was racing as the last three years of work started flashing before my eyes.
'What if he doesn't pass?  Will I be ok with that?  Yes.  But I think he did pass.  But what if he didn't?  Studying through Christmas, no husband, working as well this time around.  How will we do it?'
I was having a slight panic attack I think.
I thought about the baby and what my panic attack must be doing to it and tried to calm down.
I refreshed the page STILL NO NAMES.
I started pacing.
I think the kids thought I was nuts.
'He worked so hard.  He felt good about it, did he pass?  Can I do this again?  I JUST WANT THIS TO BE OVER!!!!!'
Re-fresh.
All the names were there.
I was scanning and scanning and scanning THERE IT WAS 'Nakaya, Dru'  I almost fell over.
I burst INSTANTLY into tears and started sobbing and saying out loud to no one 'HE DID IT, HE PASSED, HE DID IT, DAD DID IT'
Yuki was like 'What's wrong mum?  Why are you crying?'
I said 'Dad passed the bar exam bub, he did it'
She then said 'Does this mean he can get a job now?'
LOL
I think it was like a volcano effect.  My emotions were building and building and building and then had to erupt somehow you know.
So I cried and started shaking uncontrollably.
Takeshi brought me over a tissue and I went through about 4 or 5 by the time I had calmed down, about 10 mins later.
I tried to ring Dru.........no answer.  So I do what I never do and left a message.
Well I told him later on not to listen to it cause I'm a mess in the message.  Anyway would think I'd been told that I had won 1,000,000 dollars or something.
Crying, laughing, what a nut job.
I then rang my mate Nat who's husband passed as well and we talked.
Her hubby was trying to ring Dru as well to no avail.
Dru finally rang me back and I'm like 'ARE YOU SO HAPPY BABE?'
He was like 'About the interview?'
I'm like 'No, no you PASSED babe, you passed'
He said 'I did?'
And that was about it.
LOL
Dru man, never one for massive amounts of excitement that one.
Lucky he's married to an animated wife who counteracts that emotional self control he has with her TIDAL WAVE of emotions she floods on the masses.
We didn't do anything special yesterday.
We had neighbours around for dinner, who might come to church with us this Sunday, so that's pretty awesome, and I took the kids to the doctors and we went to bed.
I feel a little sad that we never did anything to tell you the truth.
But we can't really afford to do anything as well, so we'll just have to be content with the day how it was.
I'm SO GLAD IT'S OVER.
I'm so over Dru being a student and the whole law school thing.
I've HAD ENOUGH.
It feels SO GOOD to be done.
I know the next phase of our lives will be tough as well, I'm not that delusional, but to be outt've this stage is a huge weight off of my shoulders...................HUGE.
It was a fun 3 years but I'm SO OVER IT.
Time to move on baby.
Now that we have the ball rolling, we'll see if Simplot will employ us full time.
Fingers crossed.

Day five in Japan

Japan—Day 5

We didn’t have to check out until 10am and the Shink was only three hours back to Tokyo, so we decided to do some sight-seeing. Steve found the 500 disciples of Buddha, so after a horrible breakfast at Mister Donuts, we hailed a cab and headed out.

Nine sculptors over the course of four years carved 500 wooden disciples about twelve to eighteen inches tall. All of them had a different expression, head shape, arm position, etc. And all of them were gold leafed. They all sat on shelves surrounding a large statue of Buddha as if in some sort of council. It was quite impressive.

I became addicted to this grape mountain dew.

I took a picture of this middle Buddah cause of his fingers.  That's the way Masaru sucks his fingers and I thought he'd get a kick outt've it.

We caught the Shink at 10am, but couldn’t figure out where to sit, so we just got on and sat down. Our tickets didn’t appear to be reserved seating, though that’s what we wanted. As soon as we settled into our nice wide reclining seats we were promptly booted down to the unreserved car. Luckily there were plenty of seats, though not as wide. It was nice to be on a smooth riding train instead of a bumpy, swaying bus.

We arrived in Tokyo just after 1pm and headed to the hotel to drop our stuff before getting a bite to eat. The hotel was nice and not too far from the eki. We found a little place to eat not far from the hotel. There was a vending machine at the entrance of the restaurant where you inserted your money and it dispensed tickets for the dishes you selected. Japan has vending machines for everything, soda, cigarettes, beer, batteries, even underwear, but I have never seen a vending machine to order a meal.

Gyoza and Mobotofu. I haven’t had mobotofu since I left Japan in 2000. It was delicious, a bit spicy, but delicious. We ended up all ordering the same thing, the portions were so big we could have easily split one. 

The man at the Lamborghini store said sales had gone down since the tsunami.  He said people have re-evaluated their lives and what they should be spending their money on.  I thought that was pretty cool

We hit the Hyaku En shop, the equivalent to the dollar shop. You can get all sorts of cool things there. I was in search of a coin purse, but had no luck. I did however come across some chowans (rice bowls) and hashis (chop sticks) that we were in desperate need of. Steve found a bunch of stuff and even found a bag to take all his stuff home in—all for a buck each.

Steve noticed an advertisement on the train for a Hanabi (firework) show. It was about 90 minutes on the train from the hotel. Mas doesn’t do well with spicy food, so he opted to stay at the hotel and watch TV. He doesn’t really get into fireworks, so I think it was a good excuse to stay in the air conditioning.

Steve and I got to Todobustu Koen just as the show started. Fireworks in Japan are always good. The entire show is like the finale of a show back home.   The show was short, 30 minutes or something, but worth the ride. We got a better handle on the trains when we came home so we caught the rapid express and shaved nearly 20 minutes off the ride home. Mas was already crashed out when I got back to the hotel.