Chicago, America

Part of my Christmas present from my parents was going to Chicago a week before Christmas! We took Amtrax from Macomb to Chicago, and walked around the city all day. We pictures in front of The Bean. The weather was perfect! Sunny, no wind, and in the 50's. 

We walked all the way down Michigan Ave to go to the Cheesecake Factory. I think that and Olive Garden are my favorite restaurants. Oh, and Wasabi's in Roanoke. I just like food a little but too much. We went to the American Girl store, the Hershey's and Ghiradelhi stores, lots of fun clothing stores, and of course Tiffany's! I hadn't been in one since we lived in Tokyo. But my favorite was the Anthropologie store. They had so many sales that they didn't have online! Because they were half off, we stocked up on THESE and THESE for the guys and girls in our lives that we needed to buy presents for. And my mom bought the cutest apron! 
We also got to go with Laura and Constance Skog, who knew their way around the city. The whole time, we kept saying "Chicago, America" like Tevye and Lazar Wolf do at the end of The Fiddler on the Roof movie. It will always be a good memory to me. We didn't go to any shows or museums, but I still had a ton of fun! I slept the whole train ride there and back. The buildings were so beautiful! And once I got back to school, the first day of my American History class started with the Chicago World Fair. And it made it that much more real in my head.

On another note, there was a window display for A Christmas Story: The Musical!. Look at the leg lamp! Now, that would be an interesting show :)

I want to go back! Maybe this time with Bear - he was bummed that it was a girls day. He really wanted to go.

It's Time for Dodger Baseball!

It was Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium so I went with the Fredrickson's. Bear had to work :(

I feel like such a baseball traitor because I like the Cubs and Giants. My first baseball game was at Wrigley Field, for my senior trip. You can read about it HERE. The Dodgers lost to the Cubs then. And they lost to the Nationals this time. Too bad they've gone bankrupt too.

But baseball is just fun to watch. It's very American. I have to admit I kept reading my book. Oops.

It makes me excited for SVU baseball to start again!

Bear said he couldn't look at me when I was wearing the shirt the Fredrickson's let me borrow.

I love this guy and I'm sad that he couldn't come with me. I've had a fun weekend. And we're finalizing our apartment. Things are coming together for school and I'm excited.

Two Cents

This weekend was nice and relaxing. I've been able to spend a lot of time with Bear. I think we should be crowned king and queen dork. I'm loving all my reading time. We're trying to figure out our financial aid and where we're going to be living back at SVU. It will be here before I know it. And I'm secretly excited for this next semester. I'll be taking 19 credits plus Institute (which does kind of sounds like suicide), but I'm excited to read more, learn more, and study more. And I won't put off homework this time. That's my goal. Now that I'm married to Bear, hopefully we'll spend our time together more wisely instead of watching lots of TV. Baha. We'll see.

We had another "heated" discussion in Relief Society today (I don't want this blog to be all about church, but it always gets me thinking) about how we're supposed to honor our parents, but a lot of people complained that their parents weren't good parents and that it's hard to respect them now. But somebody made the good point that you're responsible for you.

I respect the people that rise above their situation and don't let their environment control them. I watched a online news video clip (that I can't find anymore) recently, where a gay man was being interviewed about a "anti-gay program" his parents put him in. I'm not going to go into whether gay is "good or not" and whether that was a good parenting move, or whether the program president was a good man, or if these programs are a good idea in the first place. But I'm sure his parents were trying their best and wanted the best for their son, whether they went about it the right way or not. Another man who had been in the same program had committed suicide recently, and the man being interviewed blamed the program for making him homeless, depressed, and addicted to drugs. He also said it took his family away from him, when he had just barely said that he chose to cut himself off from his family. The news seemed to be a little more on his side. But...I lost all respect for him right there. Not because he was gay.

I can't judge the level of depression people feel and I can't judge a circumstance that I've never been in. But I can't respect people who blame their horrible lives on their horrible background and sad life experiences. If anything, it should have made him a stronger person. I would have liked to see a news story about somebody who overcame their trials, not someone who wallowed in them and blamed other people for everything!

Also, I don't agree with Casey Anthony's verdict. But yet again, I'm not her, her family, the judge, or the jury. I didn't see it happen, I wasn't in the court room. But I would like to say that I'm happy to live in a country where we have a right for a fair trial, even some people get away sometimes. I think that's much better than no right to trial and going straight to jail because a tyrannical government said so. I hope that right lasts.

Well that's my two cents. I gave a scare to people accidentally on facebook with one of my statuses. But we are not pregnant. Just so that is cleared up. The final Harry Potter is this weeeeeeeeekkkkkkk ~ ~ ~

4th of July

So I made these 4th of July sugar cookies from Martha Stewart. I ran out of gel though and so I couldn't make all the cookies the same design. I know it's late for the 4th of July, but if you want, the recipe is in the post below this. You could do it for Halloween or Christmas or any color just for fun.

17 minutes was too little, 19 minutes was a little too much for mine. Be careful.

And I made my mom's green tomato salsa which I absolutely love. There's a Mexican grocery store nearby with super super cheap produce so it wasn't that expensive to make. So I used green tomatillos instead of unripe tomatoes but it worked out fine. And because I wasn't canning it, I cut the recipe in half. Make sure you have a huge pot, because it does boil down, but all the cut up vegetables take up a lot of room. I wish I had read the comments on the recipe at the bottom of the page...or asked my mom for more advice. Because you definitely need to cut the salt in half (or quarter it if you're halving the recipe), and not as much vinegar. So it was way too salty for me. I added sugar which helped a little, but it was too salty for some people. Lots of people said it was fine. But I wasn't satisfied. Oh well. I know for next time. Don't make my mistake. If you want the recipe, click HERE.

Bear started the day off with playing baseball with Andrew. It was the first time he got to play ball since nationals, in the middle of May. He did have to work half the day, but did get 2 sales. I didn't think anyone would be interested on the 4th. Life is full of surprises.

We went to a BBQ at a ward member's house. They have an adopted little girl and boy and they reminded me a lot of my own family. Two white blonde kids close in age and two firecracker brown kids :) We finished the day off with city fireworks. At the end of the day, my body was exhausted but I couldn't turn my brain off and had to talk poor Bear's ear off. I hope you all had a good holiday with friends, family, and food. Sometimes bbq's and lots of food don't feel like celebrating a holiday to me. I need to come up with my own traditions for my future family (no I'm not hinting anything).

Oh, and it was our one month anniversary. Just saying ♥

Cookies

Put on a show with a display of these patriotic cookies.

Ingredients

• 
  
  
  

  FOR THE COOKIES

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
  
  
  
  
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  
  
  
  
  • Coarse salt
  
  
  
  
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
  
  
  
  
  • 2 cups sugar
  
  
  
  
  • 2 large eggs
  
  
  
  
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract




• 
  
  
  

  FOR DECORATING THE COOKIES

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  • Red, White, and Blue Royal Icing

Directions

1. 
   
   
   

   Make the cookies: Sift flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt into a large bowl.





2. 
   
   
   

   Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, then vanilla. Refrigerate dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for at least 1 hour.





3. 
   
   
   

   Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out dough to a scant 1/4-inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut out cookies using a 1 3/4-, 2 1/4-, 2 3/4-, or 3 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, rerolling scraps once. Transfer to a baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.





4. 
   
   
   

   Bake until edges just start to brown, 17 to 19 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack, and let cool completely.





5. 
   
   
   

   Decorate the cookies: Pipe an outline of white icing around edge of 1 cookie, leaving a 1/4-inch border, then "flood" with more white icing to cover.





6. 
   
   
   

   Immediately pipe a red or blue dot in the center of cookie. Then pipe concentric rings of colors around the center dot (using the same color as the dot, or alternating colors).





7. 
   
   
   

   Immediately drag a toothpick through the colors to create bursts, starting from the center dot and working toward the edge, then alternate dragging inward and outward as you work around the cookie. (Or drag around the cookie in 1 direction or curve the lines for a pinwheel effect.) Let dry. Repeat with remaining cookies and icings.

Why I love So Cal

^ A mini gondola river between houses!!!

I'm loving the beach, pool, sun, sand, exciting-ness of it all. I also have to love the sue-happy people, 9.75% sales tax, $4 gas, extreme heat, and sunburns. Luckily I'm not the one usually driving, the company reimburses gas, I try to buy things online as much as possible, and I have a Bear to rub aloe vera on me when I'm bedridden and sick from a sunburn :) Happy summer, everyone!

So Cal

So I decided it's probably about to time to talk about California.

I feel really blessed in my situation. We had a one week road trip honeymoon from Nauvoo to So Cal. The driving wasn't so fun, especially in "My boy Tercel". Tercel is Bear's little '92 used-to-be-green-now-it's-faded-to-turquoise Toyota Tercel. It has no air conditioning, which I somehow didn't know beforehand and I've never really experienced before either. It was horrible whether there was humidity or not. But we had no car trouble and it was running great thanks to my dad's wedding gift of fixing up Tercel before we left.

We got to visit lots of people in Utah that weren't able to make it to our wedding. That was fun but surprisingly exhausting. The place we stayed at in Salt Lake was really sketchy. I took Bear shopping at the Gateway and bought him some basketball shoes and good walking/running shoes at Foot Locker, lots of cargo shorts for work from American Eagle, and a black Louisville slugger.

I still need to learn to drive Tercel because he's manual. And really old. He doesn't have too many miles on him though. He should be good for awhile.

We stayed on the Strip in Vegas. It was a place that had been renovated and wasn't as sketchy as the places around it, but it was in a sketchy part of town. I was afraid of getting an STD just from laying on our bed covers. We were lame and didn't see any shows are ride the stratosphere or go to the temple or anything. We went to a nice breakfast buffet and to Olive Garden with one of Bear's mission buddies who had just gotten engaged...and watched TV for the rest of the day. We were wasted.

Let me just say the Mojave desert is really ugly. And not fun to drive through with no AC. But we arrived in Lancaster late afternoon on Saturday. The Fredrickson's are very very nice and gave us homemade sushi for our first night there. I thought that was a very good sign. And there's so many nice places to eat here in Lancaster. I like how they eat on the West Coast much better. So we've already been to church in our new ward and Bear started work on Monday morning.

It's the kind of job that's good for him because he's a very hard worker and very driven. He's really good at following directions and he doesn't get his feelings hurt easily. I'll just have to buoy up his self esteem when sales aren't going as good as he'd like. He's gone from 8:30-1:30 and then gets a 2 hour break and then doesn't come back til 9 at night. He has to walk a few miles a day in the heat. Luckily heat doesn't effect him and the new shoes help his feet.

Our room is really nice and I will post pictures soon, when my camera cord gets here. Bear has to make 20 sales a month, but he only has to get 10 this month because it's a half month. I feel a little weird because I've either been in school or working or both and now I just get to relax all day. It's nice but hard to adjust to. Bear's been very good to me and besides the bladder infection (that healed up quickly) and random spurts of "adjustment" crying, I'm very happy.

Come visit us if you're going to Disney Land.

Memorial Day

Oh dear. I don't want to bore you all to tears with more talk of frozen custard. But to me, there is no limit to expressing love for this stuff.

On Memorial Day we went to Sunsey By the Mississippi for Family Home Evening. They had added a lot of new funny skits this year and the whole family enjoyed it.

My mom's cousin and his family were in town visiting Old Nauvoo. We had them over for Sunday dinner the day before but ran into them unexpectedly at the show. So we all tottered over to Annie's.

Um Gracie's face is hilarious. Actually all 3 of them.

3 generations. Each generation gets cuter. Haha totally kidding.

MMMMMMMMmmmmm she knows what's good for her.

Veterans Day

We went to Springfield, Illinois as a family today. It was a long drive, and very gloomy and cold. We toured the Lincoln's home. We all got to touch the hand railing on the stairs that Abraham Lincoln touched every day. The museum was amazing. I got lost from my dad and Tashi on a walk though tour. So I was taking my time all alone. Seeing the wax figures of a black slave family being torn apart because they're all being sold to separate places...a darkened room with a casket lit up (representing Lincoln's body touring the country)...pictures of all the dead soldiers...it really hit me. I'm so glad to be an American. But I will never forget growing up in Japan. I always wonder how much simpler and how different my life would have been if I hadn't grown up there...
But if the founding fathers wouldn't have done what they did, if the soldiers in the revolutionary war hadn't sacrificed for what they thought was right, we wouldn't have had a free country. There wouldn't have been freedom of religion, and so our church wouldn't have started and my parents wouldn't have met Dr. Samejima (a member of our church) and we wouldn't have gotten Mia and Noah from Japan. 99% of my best friends in Japan are members of the church.
Just thinking about it that way really put it into perspective.
How much more good would have come if George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Joseph Smith hadn't died early deaths?
What would have happened to our country if they hadn't existed, or stood up for right?
They were all amazing men. And I am very grateful for them.

Here's the Gettysburg Address:



And Sullivan Ballou's last letter to his wife. I bawl like I baby every time I read, watch, or hear this. Oh goodness. This was a good man too.

Obama

I am am extremely disappointed with the results of Tuesday's elections.

I know that our country needed a change, and I do admire Obama for a lot of reasons, one of them being that he is an amazing public speaker. I also think that is it great that we all have just witnessed history. One day we are going to look in our daughter's history book and be like yeahhhh I remember that night! It showed that our country is moving forward. And I am not racist at all, I'm sick of hearing that from people who just have no clue whats going on.

I do not agree with a lot of Obama's views. The first one being his religious views. He claims to be such a Christian and everything, now but if that is true then why didn't he get sworn into congress on the Bible? Did you know that he went to a Muslim school for 2 years? And was raised as a Muslim by his Muslim step father. That is something that concerns me because religion is a very important part of my life and I dont want someone running our country who I do not believe is strong enough in his faith. But you can't judge him on only this issue right?

The 2nd thing is his views on abortion, he thinks that it is right to kill babies, living, breathing, babies, human lives. How is it okay not to value human lives? He also supports third term/partial-birth abortion. Which is leaving babies to die after they have been born. Do you know how many loving couples want to have babies so bad and Obama thinks that it is okay for them to just be killed. I'm sorry but that really bothers me. Deeply. Especially in our family.

I know our country needs a change but I don't think that they quite understand the extent of the change that our country is about to go through. It is actually a very scary thought. And it concerns me extremely. I really can't get past the fact that someone who isn't centered on Christ is going to run our country. He was also quoting as saying that he was going to change our country's flag to a symbol to "hope and love" and change our national anthem because the words "bombs bursting in air" suggest war. I'm sick of hearing all day that I'm a racist! Because, for me, this has nothing to do with his race, it has to do with his views and character. That is just my personal opinion and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I could go on forever about this. I really hope I'm wrong and Obama turns out to be an awesome president and gets this country back on its feet but at the moment I'm scared.

I really wish I was voting this year. If I was just 11 months older...
I wasn't super into the politics until I just barely found out what Obama will support if he is voted president.

I didn't even know what "partial-birth abortion" was until I found out Obama was for it. When I heard what it was, my stomach lurched and I wanted to cry. But that's not the only thing.

I could write so much about this, but I found this on Kelly's husband's blog. And this is exactly how I feel. He just says it better. Click here to go to his blog and watch the videos. I love Kennedy's statements: "Obama eats babies" and "I won't live to be a teenager if Obama is voted president". Ooooh I'm nervous for Tuesday night. Don't you like what me and Kennedy went and bought at Rue 21?

"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor..."

- George Washington

"The first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible..."
- John Quincy Adams

"Our liberty depends on our education, our law and habits...it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart and on the influence all these produce on public opinion, before that opinion governs rulers..."
- Fisher Ames

"It is religion ad morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue..."
- John Adams

Back again!

I’m alive again! (JK) I just went to Utah. You guys knew that right? Well I’m back, after being there for a month. I stayed only with my family, but I got to get together with friends too! It was great to see the Cluffs and the Rodenbergs. I haven’t seen you guys forever! And when I came back, I got to see Yuli! And I hope I get together more than once while she’s here. I really wanted to get together with Courtney and Katie!

I’m working on a quilt right now. All the pieces are hexagons (6-sided pieces), and the pattern is called "Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt". I'm going to make this bed size, so I've still got a long way to go. I'll keep posting pictures of it as I go along!