Character Matters

Akiko is so lucky. Since, she's in a 2nd/3rd split class, she and the rest of the 2nd graders in her class got to participate in the annual 3rd grade play this year.

The play was called Character Matters. It took a bunch of fairy tale characters, who were all attending some kind of fairy tale characters anonymous meeting, each story stated its problem, and a song was sung to resolve said problem. It was cute. The did a great job over all.

Stage makeup applied.

Poses with Moses.

Akiko played one of Red Riding Hood's forest friends. They gave all the main parts to the third graders, but a handful of second graders got some small lines. Akiko had two lines. She delivered them really well.

Squirrel!

Opening song

The wolf is bullying Red and he ate her grandma.

Akiko has developed a pretty good singing voice and I was able to pick hers out from among everyone else's.

I'm really proud of Akiko. Being on stage seemed to come very naturally to her. I hate saying things like, "My daughter was way better than all the other kids," but she really was one of the better kids on stage. The other kids that I thought were really good, were Humpty Dumpty, two of the princesses, Baby Bear, and one of the magic mirrors.

Akiko had a lot of fun and she's really looking forward to participating in it again next year. Lucky girl!

Dressed in White

Akiko's baptism is just a couple weeks away. I'm starting to panic a little about all the details, but then I have to pull myself back and tell myself that the details don't matter. The ordinance itself matters. There are tons of people who get baptized without all those little details.

Anyway, a couple months ago, I took the kids back to Sunnyvale for a weekend to attend the baptism of Akiko's best friend. I meant to blog about it, but that obviously didn't happen. It was a really fun, but too short of a trip. The kids and I had a really great time seeing all our amazing friends that we had left behind. I was feeling really homesick at the time, and the trip was able to fulfill my need to be back in Sunnyvale for a bit.

Moses and his best friend.

Akiko and some of the girls from her old primary class.

These two goofy goobers are a hoot when they get together.

I was talking to my dear friend Jessica, who is Akiko's best friend's mother, about baptism dresses when we went to visit them. She said it wasn't an easy task trying to find a modest all white dress that didn't cost too much, but she was eventually able to find one on sale. I felt a little discouraged, because if Jessica was having trouble in the Bay area, it was going to be even harder finding one in Humboldt County.

Okay, I'll admit, I didn't really spend a lot of time going out to look. Clothes shopping is a bit overwhelming for me when I have to drag any number of my boys with me. They get bored and run off and it just gets too stressful for me by the end. I looked online, but all I was finding were either cheap-o ugly dresses or gorgeous but expensive communion dresses that looked more like bridal gowns.

I decided to call my mom to see if she'd be willing to look around Salt Lake for anything. She was already on the job and had come to the same conclusion I had. She had decided to make a dress and had already purchased a pattern and fabric. However, my step-father had recently undergone open heart surgery and she was too busy helping him recover to try to make one. So, we decided that she would send me everything and I would try to make it.

I felt apprehensive. I've tried making clothes from patterns before and they never quite turned out. But, since I had made that slipcover for the couch, I felt a bit more confident in my sewing abilities. I figured that if the dress doesn't turn out, I'll make a last minute purchase online.

My mom FedExed everything to me and texted me the tracking number. The morning of the delivery, I was out of the house. The delivery man called me. He couldn't find the house. My mom had accidentally written the wrong house number. I corrected him. He verified, twice. I told him I was not home and to leave the package on the porch. When I got home, there was no package on the porch... on any of our porches (we have four).

I went online and, thankful that my mom had sent me the tracking number, entered it, and was told that it had been delivered. I called FedEx and told them what happened. They said they'd look into it and gave me a case ID number. The lady had mentioned, "Maybe someone took it off your porch." I thought, This isn't the kind of town where people do that. Maybe if we still lived in West Valley. But not here. It's one of the reasons we moved here. 

A few hours later, the local office called to tell me they got the case number, that they'd talk to the driver when he was off his shift later that night, and to expect a call the next morning. All there was left to do was wait.

A few hours after that, I got a call from a lady in my ward. "Hi Yuki. Are you missing a FedEx package?" Yes. "Well, I'm over here at my sister's house and she got your package this morning. She didn't know who you were, so she didn't know what to do. I said, 'I know Yuki! I go to church with her.' Would you like me to bring it over?" Yes!! A million times, yes!!

I was so relieved. And annoyed. But mostly relieved. Living in a tiny town has its perks.

Anyway, I got started cutting out the fabric the next day. My mom actually sent me material to make an Easter dress as well as a baptism dress. I was going to start on the Easter dress first, but Joseph pointed out that even though Easter is closer, the baptism dress is higher priority.

I borrowed a serger from my friend Amy. The first time they invited us over to their house for dinner, I saw it. I was like, Lucky! (Did you read that in a Napoleon Dynamite voice? Because you were supposed to.) I'm soooooo glad she lent it to me. It was so fun to use and I didn't have to do all the trimming that I would have had to if I were only using a sewing machine. I hadn't used one since I was a teenager. Joseph said he'll buy me one someday.

Well, because the work was made so much more quickly with the serger, I was able to finish the dress in three short days.

Modest baptism dress: Check!

More importantly, IT FITS!!

Akiko is so excited. She feels so beautiful in her dress. She said she's going to save this dress for her daughter. Cue proud mommy tears.

She had her baptism interview with the bishop the other day. She passed. This girl is so ready. I'm really impressed with the knowledge she has gained, especially within the last year or so. She's a shining example to everyone around her. I'm so very blessed to be her mother.

One more detail checked off the list. I think we'll be ready for the baptism.

Because You've Been Patient: An Update

I'm sure you are all willing to forgive my lack of posting. Being a mother of a 10 month old who has been going through separation anxiety for the last four months, a 2 year old burst of energy who has suddenly decided to potty train, a 5 year old who's obsession with video games has become a struggle for me to limit his tube time, and a 7 year old school age girl who has a knack for turning a fifteen minute homework assignment into an hour long assignment... well, you know how it goes. Or maybe you don't, but bear with me.

I feel like I don't have a whole lot to blog about, but in reality I do. I just haven't been able to carve out time for it. So, while the baby sleeps and the big boys are distracted, I'm taking my opportunity to finally sit down and write.

We haven't been going on a bunch of outings like we did when we lived in Sunnyvale. The winter here is colder and rainier, but on the occasion that we do have a gorgeous day when the sun is out, we do head over to the park around the corner, go hiking at a nearby preserve, or drive to the beach.

Oh, the beach. My kids love the beach. But the beaches around here are not like the beaches we are used to. They are cold and the water is treacherous. And there are lots more sharks. Not little reef sharks like you find on Maui. Big sharks. The kind that will eat you. So, now when we go to the beach, we wear our galoshes and sweaters. The kids are not allowed to play in the water, though they can play with the sea foam, but it's become a game now to run away from the waves when you see one coming.

We go rock hunting at the beach now. We've found lots of gorgeous rocks whose shades cover all the colors of the rainbow. We're working on a rock collection and we'd like to get a rock polishing kit so we can really show them off. At the beach we also build silly little structures with driftwood and kelp. The sand is too coarse for building castles.

I haven't been taking many pictures of our outings lately. The baby needs to be carried which means that Asher also wants to be carried, so bringing the camera along has become awkward. But we've been having fun. Free fun. It doesn't get any better than free.

Akiko continues to flourish at school. Her teacher went on maternity leave a couple weeks ago (she had her baby yesterday!), so now she has a sub for the rest of the year. Akiko has made lots of friends, so I hope she's finding lots of missionary opportunities. She's become a voracious reader. She read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in less than 24 hours. She's got three or four books that she's actively reading in addition to any books that she has to read for school. Her favorite book is Matilda. She's read that about a half dozen times.

Moses is mister smarty pants. He's reading on about the same level that Akiko was when she was in first grade. His math skills are incredible. I wish I'd known about transitional kindergarten. Oh well, it's too late. He was in the preschool here for a few months. He made a few good friends, but wasn't actually learning anything new. We had to pull him out, which will be explained in a bit. He was sad, but he'll see all his friends in a few months when they start kindergarten, so it's not that big a deal. He loves videos games and is really good at them. He likes to tell us all about ideas for new videos games that he'd like to create. I kind of hope he keeps that up because it would be a fun career to be part of.

Asher is... crazy, but really fun and silly and sweet. He's taken the initiative to potty train. I think I mentioned that in a previous post. He'll tell me he needs to go potty, so we'll take off his pants and diaper and he'll go. He insists on wearing a diaper still, rather than big boy briefs, so if his diaper is still clean when we take it off, we just put it back on when he's done. Saves a little money, right? Asher is the goofiest, silliest, jokiest, and loudest kid we've got. He's also super sweet and dotes on Simon and Sparky. Actually, he kind of tortures Sparky, but in a playful way. If it becomes too much for the cat, he just runs away and hides.

Simon is the happiest baby in the world. He loves to smile and laugh and giggles at the funniest things. He only gets grumpy when he's really tired or hungry. Asher can get him to giggle like no other. He crawls everywhere and his favorite mess to make is of the cat's food and water dishes. He's recently started standing on his own, which means walking is not far away. He's still bald as ever and still just as cute. We're crazy about this kid.

I've been doing better. I had some pretty severe homesickness for a while after we moved here. I missed my family in Utah and my friends in Sunnyvale. I was having a hard time getting things done around the house. I still don't have a whole lot of friends here yet, but the ones I've made so far are amazing. I got called back into the Primary presidency about a month after we moved. Joseph and I laughed. I've been in Primary in 5 of the 7 wards we've been in since we got married. Twice as the chorister and now twice in the presidency. My role is smaller, Asst. Secretary, so the break from all the work is rather nice. I'm in charge of Faith in God tracking, getting the monthly newsletter put together, and whatever random thing needs to be done. Personal exciting news is that I'm back down to my pre-Asher weight. I guess all that stair climbing, Asher chasing, and baby lifting is paying off. The skinny jeans that I bought a few months ago are saggy on me and now just look like normal jeans. I know you're all sarcastically thinking, Oh, poor Yuki is too skinny for her skinny jeans! I never thought I'd get back to pre-Asher. I was just happy being pre-Simon. Now I just need to tone up some more.

Joseph, I suppose, has the biggest news of all. He's no longer working for Justin.tv. The initial news was scary, but after we prayed about it and thought about the circumstances that led to his departure from the company we realized that it needed to happen in order for Joseph to move forward and how much the Lord's hand had to do with it all. It's kind of scary to know that there's not a regular flow of income right now, but we've felt peace about our situation and we know we'll be taken care of, financially and temporally. I've felt a strange calm about the whole thing, so I haven't really panicked, except for a little bit after Joseph told me. It's been three weeks or so now. Joseph's been getting lots of recruiter emails from various companies, but right now the Lord does not want him to take any of those jobs. So, we're going on faith and Joseph is following promptings about what to do next. I'm so grateful for personal revelation. This has been a testimony building experience.

So, even though I ended up writing a lot more than I thought I'd write in one session, that's the short version. An even shorter version would be: We're all happy and healthy, but I think that people want a bit more detail than that. If I could ask you all to pray for us as we go through this transition of unknown, we would all greatly appreciate it. I hope that I can blog more than once a month, but I'm not making any promises, especially since Akiko's baptism is coming up next month. I'll be scrambling to get everything done for that. Maybe I'll show you my progress as I go, but we'll see. No promises.

I do promise to blog about her baptism, though, within the week that it happens.

But for now, you can enjoy pictures from our latest rock hunting beach outing when Grandma Char was here to visit us.

We bring the carrier for the baby, but Asher insists on getting a turn.

Asher wanted to carry a stick and insisted on the largest one he could carry.
I talked him into a smaller one later on.

The beginnings of a driftwood cabin for the bugs.

Oh, whoops, looks like you get a cute picture of Simon in his church clothes.

Someone else built this cool driftwood hut. It must have taken a long time.