Spring is Here!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! I can't believe that spring is here. There are tons of flowers blooming everywhere and we even have some cherry blossom trees too. It was a very exciting and long week for us and we are so ready for spring break! Here are some pictures to highlight a few things.

This cherry blossom tree is right outside out front door. It reminds me of Japan.

This is our little courtyard where a lot of the neighbor kids play. Took it mostly to show the blossoms on the trees.

We went to a little gardening 101 workshop on Saturday and got some free seeds. Looks like we'll be getting our own garden ready pretty soon.

This is one reason we haven't started the garden yet. This is what the couch looked like pretty much all week. Emily finished her classes and has just been writing papers like crazy. She'll be completely done with papers on Wednesday whether she is actually finished or not (That's when the last one is due).

This may not look like much, but I gave Emily a coupon book for Christmas. This is one she used this week to go to the movies. We went and saw "The Great and Powerful Oz." The movie was really really weird. I'm not sure if I would go and see it again.

This is an older picture of some things we got in a Valentine's Day package from the Grandbobs; some cute Disney water bottles stuffed with some of our favorite candy. So awesome!

Emily made me this tie rack for Valentine's Day and we never put pictures up. So this is the rack in action.

The rack by its lonesome. I have to admit that it is very effective and I love it dearly!

We sure excited for spring break but are probably more excited to have this term over. Emily is now half way through her program (at least credit wise) which means we need to start figuring out what we are going to do next. I have applied for graduate school and the results will be up on a blog post soon. We hope that everyone has an awesome week!

We love "Love Month"

We hope that everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day. One of Emily's visiting teachers from church said that it is "Love Month" and that we should celebrate all month. Well, I don't know if we have been celebrating all month, but we definitely celebrated all week! 

It all started on Monday where we made some cute little brownie balls dipped in white chocolate with pink sprinkles on top. I'm not going to lie, they didn't look as pretty as I would have liked them to, but they were incredibly delicious! We then turned it into somewhat of a service night and took them to some friends (we also kept some for ourselves... We can be so selfish at times...). Here are some pictures from the week to help your imagination.

To start the process, we baked the brownies first and then mixed it all together.

Then we sacrificed our hands by molding the hot brownie into balls and placing them off to the side.

Then we melted some white dipping chocolate and rolled the brownie balls in the chocolate. 

Then we sprinkled them with some pink sprinkles.

And wallah!

We didn't seem to catch too many pictures of our actual Valentine's Day experience. We ended up going out to this place called Cafe Seoul for Korean food. Then we went to the dollar theater to watch Parental Guidance. The movie was super funny and comes strongly recommended for people who like humorous family movies.

We ordered some teriyaki chicken, udon noodles (which is actually Japanese), and some  bibimbap. I think when we walked into the restaurant, looked around, and realized that we were the only white people, we could count the place as authentic. I have never been to Korea before (aside from the airport) so I can't actually tell you if the food was authentic or not, but it sure tasted good!

This was the bibimbap before Emily mixed it all together. After she had mixed it a little and added her sauces, one of the workers brought us our teriyaki chicken and he said "you need to mix more... more sauce!" or something like that. It was pretty funny.

On Saturday we decided to go down to Medford and spend some time at the LDS temple there. It was really beautiful and just nice to be there. The weather was also awesome! The only complaint was that we had to drive about 5 hours (2.5 hours there and 2.5 hours back) to spend 2 hours there, but we survived and enjoyed ourselves.

We are so glad that tomorrow is President's Day. We aren't quite sure what we are going to do yet. Emily still has class (only 2 hours) but neither one of us has work. Does anyone have any fun ideas? Hope you all get to enjoy the holiday tomorrow as well. Much love from Eugene, Oregon! 

Up On the Mountain.

Although I enjoy my work with special needs kids very much, it wasn't exactly my idea of fun to come back to Oregon and have to start working again. To break things up a little bit, we spent the weekend with the Jensen family up in Portland and had a blast! Words can't really describe how much fun it was, so I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Here is Emily and Candace all ready to start out a day of skiing. We went up to a small place called Cooper Spur (or something like that). 

I actually got them to pose for this one; Aunt Tricia, Candace, and Emily.

First lift trip of the day... I can't really tell if that is Kellie sitting sitting next to Emily or not. 

Wow, aren't we just great at taking pictures? We should totally be models! (From the left: Emily, Kirsten, Garret, and James)

We went out to eat with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Tricia at this awesome burger joint  of the beaten path. I don't remember the name of it, but it is famous for awesome burgers (I think it is ranked in the top 5 places in Portland for burgers)

Looks like Aunt Tricia is posing here, while Uncle Jeff is watching her, and maybe chewing on a hot tatter tot.

I had a chipotle-mayo avocado burger that was awesome. Emily felt like a little of Hawaii and ordered an Aloha burger with pineapple and other yummies in it. You can also see part of a chocolate peanut butter shake there with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and peanuts on it. That was also very yummy! :D

 Back to the skiing, here is a video from the extravaganza... 

Well, I'm glad we had such a great weekend with family in Portland. Unfortunately, both Emily and I are a little under the weather, but hope to be getting well soon. Hope you all have a fabulous week!

"If my nose was blowin' money, honey, I'd blow it all on you. But it's snot."

Talk about a busy week! I feel like we have been going non-stop since getting home from Portland last weekend. To highlight a few (I again failed at taking pictures... Only have a few) we went to a pampered chef party and ate a yummy pretzel caramel mousse cupcake of awesomeness. We did end up winning the kitchen accessory that we wanted, a pan scraper. 

We also had our ward Christmas party on Friday. I would have taken some pictures, but we were too busy helping in the kitchen the whole night. It was a ton of fun and I have to say that it was pretty awesome not having to wait in line to get food. :) We had some good entertainment and music along with awesome food (menu included ham, stuffing, green beans with onion and bacon, mashed potatoes, cornbread, and salad). We also had some activities for people to help out with like quilting and old school games from the Nauvoo, Illinois era of the church. It seems like everyone had a lot of fun.

Last night, Emily and I went out to the coast for a date. We went to Mo's for dinner (we had some yummy soups and our favorite hot artichoke dip with shrimp) and to a play at the Florence Event Center. The play was a trip around the U.S. stopping at various locations and hearing some of the traditional music played. There were also some pretty funny skits. One of my favorites was a bluegrass band that sang a song about snot. Some of the lyrics went like,"If my nose was blowin' money, honey, I'd blow it all on you. But it's snot." Pretty entertaining... at least to me. The crowd there was quite old. We ended up leaving at intermission because it was getting late and we had a long and scary drive back home (about an hour on windy roads and tons of fog, but we made it home alright).

There is our yummy cups of clam chowder and chili as well as Emily's cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream on top.

That's me enjoying that awesome hot artichoke dip with shrimp and garlic bread.

Waiting for the show to start.

I have to say, we are quite excited for a white Christmas (it better be white!) in Utah. I looked at the forecast for this next week, and it was a lot of snow. :) And, of course, we are excited to spend some time with family doing a lot of our favorite things like ice skating, eating Chinese food, visiting with friends, going to the temple, watching Christmas movies, going on the Christmas cruise, decorating everything, making food, and so much more! I hope that you have a great week! Love you all!

Confucius say, "Share your happiness!"

 Quick photo update from this week.

How to make pumpkin puree. Minus the college apartment kitchen, this cheesy face could appear on a cooking show. I should do some career exploration in that realm...

Bake pumpkin face down at about 375 for about an hour. Unless you have a super oven like me that burns everything if you leave it in for the suggested time...then do 45 min.

Scrape out the innards. Discard (or compost!) the outtards. Yes, it's a word...now.

Puree! And make sure you make a mess while you do it. I am planning to use it for pumpkin soup this week and maybe even a pumpkin pie next week. We'll see how it turns out!

James and I passed Panda Express yesterday on our way to do a little window shopping. At the stop light, James turned to me and nearly shouted, "Panda Express?! Now?!!" How could I refuse? This was our fortune.

This was definitely James's happiness...and he did share it with me.

And this is a small sampling of  MY happiness...I have discovered a new obsession with the used books section at Goodwill where they sell books like Pride and Prejudice for 49 cents! And a used bookstore that we visited for date night turned out to be very useful because I bought a conflict resolution book for $1 AND found James's Christmas present. We are also the proud owners of a library card, which is responsible for the rest of the mess....research books for class.

James walked into the living room one night and happened upon this sight. It was homework time, and I was in my groove. The phrase, "bug in a rug" has taken on new meaning. Thanks to my awesome mother-in-law for the snuggly blanket that gets used EVERY day.

And one more bit of happiness that doesn't have a photo yet...James and I are yet again proud uncle and auntie! Congratulations, Janet and Bo! We are so excited to see baby Makenna in a couple weeks when we go home for Thanksgiving. Wishing all of you a happy week!

9 Marriage Problems That Are Actually... Real Problems

I (Emily) am a sucker for articles about marriage advice. It could be because I am planning to incorporate couples mediation into my career, or because I love making my own marriage better, or because as a newlywed (sure two years is still newlywed), it's a new and exciting stage of life. Whatever the reason, this week a Yahoo! article entitled "9 Marriage Problems that Are Actually Good for Your Relationship" caught my eye. I'm sad to report that after reading the article, I felt a bit sick to my stomach and panicky about the fact that this is what I'm up against as a potential family mediator. 

The article started out by saying, "While some behaviors, like cheating, are obvious deal-breakers, other seeming threats can actually have a positive impact on your relationship." Some of these "seeming threats" included fantasizing about other people ("thinking about a sexy neighbor, for example, can improve your marriage-as long as those racy visions stay in your mind"), using porn ("a slippery slope.... But if he or you use it occasionally when the other's not around, that's okay"), flirting with people online ("flirty friendships can be healthy as long as they don't get physical"), and being close with a colleague of the opposite sex ("'your financial stability and social status may depend on this specific office relationship'"). 

Um, no. Those things are not ok. At all. 

But the article did have a redeeming quality: The comment section. Thank heaven for the common man and his need to loudly and clearly express his opposition. Every comment I read agreed (a rare phenomenon!) that the article was just about the crummiest marriage advice you could find. The comments helped me to regain my hope in the world...and the world's marriages.

As I type, I am waiting for my adorable knight in shining armor (James) to return from slaying his most recent dragon (the GRE) in a distant land (Tokyo). What a blessing it is to know that I am his princess. Me. Not a fantasy in his head. Not some racy Photoshop-ed magazine or website. Not a female colleague. Not anyone or anything else. Me.

Now, maybe I'm not really qualified to comment on the article since I haven't really tested and proven [wrong] any of its "problems." But I can attest to the fact that it feels beautiful to be someone's one and only. To be loved with a pure and constant stream of forgiveness, service, humor, intimacy, gentleness, and kindness. 

Here is someone who really is qualified to give advice. Gordon B. Hinckley said, "Give expression to the noble desires that lie within your hearts, to reach out, to comfort, sustain, and build others." The man who performed our sealing said something similar to James and I right before we were married, and we have tried hard to put that into action in the last two years. 

Oh yes, and also this advice from a Beloved Auntie: "The secret to a happy marriage is pretty kitchen towels." 

You should see my kitchen towels.

Trying New Things.

Branch Conference


Every Friday night we set time aside to have date night (and we do pretty well at keeping it). We switch off every week planning some kind of activity for the evening. In the past they have been usual things like watching a movie or going out to eat, and other times it has been pretty unusual (at least for us) like having a candle-lit dinner or going out for a walk and eating yummy Japanese treats. Well, this week it was Emily's turn to plan. She found this place where we could paint some candles that are famous here in the town we live in. However, when I went Friday right after work, I found out that we needed to have reservations and that we needed to make them a week or so in advance. Bummer! I thought to myself, "here is Emily trying to get us to try something new, and it didn't work out... I wonder what we'll do instead." I emailed Emily the news about needing reservations for the place. She wasn't worried but instead was excited to try something else, french onion soup. That may not seem that cool, but we love trying to make new foods (mostly Emily does... I just help out by cutting up the vegetables or stirring things so they don't burn). So for date night this week, we went shopping and made steak, some veggies, and french onion soup. Although the soup took some time, it was amazing! Lighting some candles for the table made it a fun and enjoyable dinner.

When toasting the bread and cheese on the top of the soup, we decided to through it in our toaster oven praying that the bowls wouldn't explode. We were lucky and everything turned out great!

Aizu Wakamatsu hosted a Fukushima festival on Saturday. There were tons of people watching making it almost impossible to walk down the main street with the parade.

Although we didn't see all of the groups, there were several traditional Japanese dancing groups and a group from Tokyo Disneyland. We were sad that we missed the Disney group. :(

Earlier today we had branch conference at Church. They asked me a few days ago if I would speak. Luckily it was only a 3-5 minute assignment and they gave me the choice to speak on whatever I wanted to. I ironically talked about the importance of preparation because Emily and I had read some messages earlier in the week about that. It went well and it was nice to see so many people at Church.


We hope that everyone is doing well! お元気で (good health be to you all) and good luck with the upcoming week. Much love!

Moving to Oregon?

Talk about awesome... Emily just heard from the last school that she applied to for graduate school. After lots of thinking, hard work and waiting, she was accepted to all three of the programs she has applied to; University of Denver, Portland State University, and University of Oregon. We are very excited to be a little closer to knowing where we will be having our adventures next year. Although we still don't know where we will be going, Emily is leaning towards the program at University of Oregon. Stay tuned for more details. :)


This week we also went and sang karaoke again and also went bowling. If you have ever wondered about what it was like to bowl in Japan, we took a few pictures to illustrate the fun experience.

These are the awesome Velcro shoes that we were given at the bowling alley for 300 yen. Can you guess who's shoes are whose? If you guessed that Emily's are the bright and colorful ones, you would be wrong folks... Those were mine... 

We had some coupons (play 2 games and get a third free). I started with a warm up for my first frame (bowled 2 gutter balls) while Emily got right into things and started with a strike! It wasn't looking good for me... However, the bowling alley provides a little tambourine to help encourage people, like me. Or maybe they are for celebrating strikes. Needless to say, we used it on numerous occasions. As you can see in the background, the actual lanes look the same. :P 

We also had some coupons to get 2 free drinks, so in between frames, we got to enjoy our ginger ale.

This was the final scoreboard. Top one says Jeemuzu (James in Japanese) and the bottom says Emirii (Emily in Japanese). Consequently, these were our best scores. I will say that Emily did beat me the first game by quite a bit, but I caught up in the 2nd and 3rd games. You also notice that Emily got a strike in the first frame for this game as well. Her only strikes were in the first frames... Crazy. Anyways, you can see that the bowling experience in Japan is not all that different than the US. It was such a blast!

To sum up some other things from the week...

We made some homemade pizza this week (bacon and pineapple) and it was so delicious! The one further is the before we cooked it, and the one closer is the after we cooked it. So yummy!

Emily also made some carbonara and it was pretty awesome.

This month's bulletin board at Emily's school that she made. So pretty!

I think we have explained this about half a year ago, but here in Japan, we watch General Conference a week later than the US because of the time difference. We really enjoyed Conference and the messages that were shared by the Prophet and other Church leaders. Because Easter is today, I want to mention a talk shared in Sunday morning's session by D. Todd Christofferson titled, The Doctrine of Christ. If you have time, it's a short talk in which I invite you to either read or watch.


With all the love we can muster, we hope that everyone has an awesome Easter Sunday and enjoys the upcoming week! 

Ice Cream: A Good Sub for Exercise

The highlight of this week was definitely being able to watch the first session of General Conference this weekend. Usually, in Japan, General Conference is broadcast the following week in a city that is about an hour away. Fortunately for us English-speaking-technology-addicts, we can watch it online the same day from the comfort of our own bed. We haven't been able to watch the whole conference yet, so feel free to comment and tell us which talks we should be listening extra carefully for. What was your favorite?


A couple other fun things that happened this week included a lunch outing with Sonoka, a friend from BYU-Hawaii. Who would have guessed that a few short years on some obscure island in the middle of the ocean would turn out to be such a life-changing experience? And that it would result in having friends literally all over the globe? 


I (Emily) have been attending a weekly Zumba class when I can for the past couple months, and I have dragged a couple friends into it with me. This past week, our friend Chizuko and I tried to go together, but found out that it was cancelled. We thought it was a waste to get out and not do something fun together, so we substituted (see below). Perhaps not as healthy for the body, but definitely needed for the soul :)

Yummy!

We are so lucky to have such a good friend in Chizuko. She has been a lifesaver on multiple occasions. We love her!

James went bowling this week with the missionaries and some friends. I was at work, so I didn't get to go, but we are going tomorrow for Family Home Evening. I've sworn to beat James in at least one game, so stay tuned!

Spring weather is so crazy! We had two beautiful days this week where all of the snow melted, the sun came out, and the breeze was semi-warm. We had to take advantage of it, so we had a romantic dinner for two out on our back balcony for date night.

That's all for this week. Love to all our family and friends!!!