Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Irises


My dad gave me some irises a few years ago. They made it from Indiana to Oregon to Texas in a shoebox. This came up over the weekend. It was a pleasant surprise, I never saw the bloom coming. There are a few more in the front yard that will bloom soon too.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Yummy Cake, beautiful cake platter...


Gary throws pots. And I just had to make this beauty to try out my new cake platter. It is the only chocolate cake I like. Plus I had some sour cream in the fridge. And in this lactose-intolerant family we don't eat sour cream...except in cake of course.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What's Bloomin/Growing in my backyard



Day Lilies, Blackberries, Wandering Jew




Tomatoes, strawberries (which Lil'G eats when they are white before we can stop him), beans, green peppers ?maybe?
A lady in our neighborhood divides her day lilies every summer, and gives me some. These are from 2 summers ago. Aren't they doing well?
So pretty, wished they lasted longer.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Bluebonnets



Sorry it has been a while. Two weeks ago I was cleaning out my children's closets, dejunking, and painting my kitchen (by the way it looks gorgeous albeit, you probably wouldn't notice because it is the same color minus the blue crayon scratched on the walls). And last week I was really, really sick. But I am slowly, hopefully on the mend and I wanted to recap our weekend.

Gary had Friday off, so we went up to Chappell Hill, TX for some family pictures in the blue bonnets. It looked like thunderstorms all the way there, and we had a few drops but nothing substantial, and then after taking a few pictures, we saw a big lighting strike right close to us and we all decided to get back in the car.


Then we raced out the car for a few more pictures....except Miss L who was too scared of the lightning.


Then we headed to my cousins and switched off babysitting so they and we could go to the Houston LDS Temple. It was a fun way to spend a yucky day. I think most of Houston flooded. But we played and watched shows and enjoyed time with cousins. Friday was a nice escape.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009



I am reminiscing about a dreary day in Japan, we walked through the most gorgeous park in the rain with three screaming children. It was a absolutely beautiful park and a yucky day and we came home listened to this song I believe, and I took a hot bath in the family bath. I have been listening to this song all night. It makes me want to hug someone...


Favorite things from Japan:

family bath= is a shower and deep tub in the same enclosed space.
heated toilet seats
seeing the train from the window, as I mentioned before very romantic
Meji almonds
korean barbeque
shabu shabu
stir-fry with egg...don't remember the name, but it was great

Lil' Gs favorite

Bean paste pancakes...blah
fish soup...blah too.

Oh, I miss it...

Friday, April 3, 2009

A bit of traveling

The baby and I did a bit of traveling the last 2 weeks. We went to visit my sister in Tokyo. Here are few memories via. my camera. The trip was a slice of heaven, a nice break from the rigors of real life. Plus my sister is the perfect hostess. I loved it all, but mostly loved being with her.

This is us eating in traditional Japanese style, on the floor. I got really good with chopsticks, but they only serve sticky rice and that helps too.

She lives in what feels like a small village in a huge city. She has a beautiful apartment with bakeries and flowers shops steps away, all very petite like the Japanese themselves. Outside you can see the train at all hours of the day from my bedroom, which made me think I was in the movie "Shall we dance" The original movie was actually done in Japanese.

The cherry blossum (sakura) started to come out toward the end of my visit. I really wanted to go this time of year for this reason. It is a special time in Japan. People stop what they are doing just to picnic under these trees. I forgot about spring flowers after living in Texas.


These cousins are 2 days apart.

,The unlikely tourist. Two strollers and 3 kids.

The mountains of Nikko.


Me, Baby, and Buddha

Definately, more to come. My camera got the work out of it short little life.