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! 

Roses are red; Blueberries are blue...

Just a quickie this week...school is threatening to take over our lives. We have officially passed the halfway mark for this semester though, so I (Emily) am super happy about that. AND Valentine's Day is coming up this week! I love any excuse to celebrate...National Corn Dog Day, MLK Jr. Day, you name it. Any excuse to do something out of the ordinary, something other than writing papers...

James and I are looking for a fun and inexpensive place to go out to eat for Valentine's Day. If any of our Eugene friends have suggestions, let us know.

So when my parents were here last weekend, we took a trip to Costco and bought some amazingly fresh blueberries that made me want to cry with happiness every time I ate them. We had blueberry parfaits, blueberry pancakes, blueberries and cereal. Oh yum. And now they are gone...and I have kind of become obsessed with the idea of growing our own blueberry plant on our porch. How awesome would that be, to have fresh blueberries everyday for a couple months? Ah, my mouth is watering just thinking about it...

Soooo....if anyone has any expertise in growing blueberries, let me know. We could quickly become very good friends. I'll even offer cookies in exchange for your secrets to blueberry-growing :)

The Brother Husband

This post is dedicated to my beloved sister and hubby, who have a very...um...special relationship. In my family, we like to call it the "Brother Husband" relationship, a term probably coined by my mom who was and still is totally in love with all of her brothers-in-law (and really, who can blame her? I have such phenomenal uncles).


My favorite photo of my sistah and her brother husband:

This photo totally captures the crazy ridiculousness of their relationship. I should have it blown up and framed on my wall - two of my favorite people in the world.

And THIS is a late valentine that was sent to my dear hubby from my darling sistah. It is honestly the most epic valentine I've ever seen. Literary genius.

In case you can't read it, it says, "Santigo [that's what we call James]: Too bad you couldn't be MINE...happy valentine's day...mwah!"

Valentine's Surprises Continued...

On Valentine's Day morning, I opened my closet to grab a pair of socks and found a present from my cute hubby instead. The present turned out to be, ironically, some new warm socks, chocolate, and gift certificates to go skiing, to an onsen (Japanese hot springs), and out for dinner. He also surprised me with these beautiful flowers. Can you say spoiled?

We were both lucky enough to have shortened work schedules on Tuesday, so we were able to spend most of Valentine's Day together. I used my gift certificate for a romantic dinner and we ate sauce katsudon, one of our favorite Japanese dishes. James was obviously very thrilled about his dinner (see face below).

During work that day, I made my first visit to a special education school in our city. I only taught four students, but it was definitely one of the best days of teaching yet. The students were so eager to learn and to practice their English.


I stayed and ate lunch with the whole class (below). The lunch period in Japan (especially at this school) is different from most schools in America. Before lunch, every student washed their hands and put on an apron, a bandana, and a face mask. Then a few students grabbed the food and utensils from the cafeteria and brought them back to the classroom where other students prepared the trays and arranged the desks into a big table. Everyone sat down to eat, but no one touched their food until everyone had been served, seated, and said, "Itadakimasu!" (a phrase they use before eating; literally, "I will partake."). To me, the lunch period was a microcosm of Japanese society as a whole - harmonious unity and hard work without complaint.

Last night, Kana, one of my students, and her mom came to our house for dinner. Kana has been the most diligent member of our high school English club and she and I have gotten to know each other well over the last six months. We introduced them to tacos with homemade tortillas. Even though eating the tacos was a bit tricky for them, they seemed to enjoy the food. Kana's mom is a dental hygienist, so we had some funny conversations after dinner as she quizzed us about our brushing and flossing habits and inspected our teeth. She then presented us with a gift - two new toothbrushes!

We hope you all had a fun Valentine's Day. Love to all of our family and friends!!!

The Festival of Candles and Surprises

We had a blast with date night this week. This past weekend was the Festival of Candles at Tsurugajo, our local castle. We decided it would be fun to go with some other people, so we had a little double date with our friends Steve and LaNae. We weren't quite sure what to expect when we first arrived. The entrance was lined with candles in little huts in the snow. As we approached the inner grounds of the castle, we were amazed at the images that flashed across the side of the castle. There was a projector displaying all sorts of designs. We took a few pictures of them trying to figure out what the display was for. Although we never found out, Aizu is famous for candle making/painting, and we guessed that the designs were those of candles made in Aizu. We followed the rest of the people there to the other side of the castle where many more candles were lit. We took a walk around and were about ready to head out when LaNae suggested we take a different exit. As we continued to new areas, we discovered copper cans that had holes punched into them so that the candles inside of them would glow fancy designs. Although they were made by junior high school students, some of them were pretty extravagant. We had a fun time and were glad we got to experience something unique to the Aizu area.

Thought this one  was pretty interesting. Looks like the head of  a characterized chicken or duck.

Some of our favorite designs of the copper lanterns.

I think the snow flake one was our favorite.

Although you can only see about 20 here, there must have been  close to 200 of them.

As for the rest of the week, I'll highlight a few of the other things that happened with pictures.

This week Emily received a present from one of her students...  Erasers disguised as sushi!

In preparation for Valentine's Day, Emily did a special lesson with her high schoolers and made some valentines. She then sent the 250 valentines her students made to the Kapiolani Medical Center in Hawaii. One of the reasons I love her ; always service oriented. :)

When I got home from meetings today, I came home to a surprise. In Emily's words, Valentine's Day had come early. This was probably the only way she could surprise me with decorations because I usually leave the house after her and get home before her.

The picture doesn't really do it justice... but she had cut out a bunch of hearts and had letters on the back of them to form a secret message. The message led me to the closet where my beloved 6-pack of Dr. Pepper and 2 packs of Tim Tams awaited me. So awesome!

Not only did she surprise me with decorations and Dr. Pepper, but she surprised me with my favorite meal, clam chowder. 

We went over to our Branch President's house the other week and his wife had made this yummy apple pie like dessert. Emily for the recipe and made it with LaNae earlier this week. It was sooo good!

We love getting out and going for walks, even though it can be quite cold sometimes. 

We love you all very much and hope that you are doing well. Have a good Sunday and a Happy Valentine's Day on Tuesday!!!