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! 

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!"

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!!!