different views of what's sanitary...

So, the other night, Chris and I went out with a few of our friends to what we like to call "The Purple Awning Restaurant." (You find creative things to call places when you can't read the sign in Kanji).
Anyways, we'd heard the place was pretty good... and that you got a lot of food for your money. (Generally everywhere we go, we spend about $20 on dinner and Chris leaves hungry because they eat like mice here!)
The place specialized in soba (a thick noodle soup), so we all ordered our dinners, which came out pretty quickly (typical here). My friend, Ally, looks into her bowl of soba and finds a long dark hair in it... she looked pretty grossed out, so called the waitress over, showed her the hair and the waitress took her food back to the kitchen.
About 2 minutes later, they brought her out another bowl of soba, just like she ordered. I said, "Wow, that was quick!" and then we all realized that it was a little too quick...
So, we're pretty sure that they took the bowl back, picked out the long black hair and then brought the same bowl back to her...
Ally was a great sport and ate it anyways, but let's just say that I'm not sure we'll be returning to the Purple Awning Restaurant anytime soon... :) Never in America!

Anniversary #1

Can you believe it's been a year already?!? In some ways, it feels like just yesterday that we got married!...
In other ways, it feels like it's been five years since we said "I Do" and left for Japan. Probably because so much has happened - new jobs, new home, new friends, new church, new dog, etc. etc.
I remember most the way I felt right before I walked down the aisle... nervous, excited, special, like I was going to throw up... all while trying very hard to hold it all together. I waited for that moment my whole life... plus I was severly sleep deprived and exhausted... so, I was trying very hard not to break down into convulsing sobs. That would have made for not a very beautiful bride walking down the aisle... I remember my dad kept asking me "Are you sure you're okay?" right before walking down because I was so overwhelmed with emotions.
Despite it all, though, that was the best day of my life! My scariest decision turned out to be my best decision!
So, we celebrated by hitting up a local restaurant called "Sams By The Sea"... kind of like an upscale Red Lobster, but it was located right on the harbor.




















They brought us so much food that by the time my entree came, I took about 5 bites and said "I'm stuffed!" Luckily, my husband never feels full, so he finished both his meal and most of mine!
Here's the chef who brought out Chris's food on a flaming sword... pretty cool! :) All I have to say is that I'm thankful they never had me bring out food on a flaming sword when I waitressed... someone would have lost all their hair...




This was a picture of a picture of the a tank filled with ice and lobsters as we were leaving the restaurant. I assumed the lobsters were fake since they were just sitting on top of the ice there... until Chris touch one and it started moving!










To many more happy years of marriage! <3>

New Years Eve in Japan...

One day after church, Chris and I drove past this Buddhist temple on the side of the road. They were having a huge New Years celebrations with lots of games, food, and Japanese traditions. We thought it would be fun to stop by... although, we quickly realized that it would have been really nice to have someone with us who knew what in the world was going on! They were selling arrows at this little booth... Chris actually bought one. I asked later and found out that they're for good luck in the new year... each of them had a tiger on it because 2010 is the year of the tiger.















This was right outside the temple. People were throwing coins into these big pots and then they would say a quick prayer. Chris and I wanted to go inside the temple to watch everyone praying, but we were scared that we would say/do something offensive, so we just watched outside.















This is a picture of the entire temple... it's really beautiful and as you can see, there were lots of people there that day.















On your way out of the temple, people would receive these little typed messages (we think they were probably prayers) and would tie them to one of these ropes. There were just tons of these little prayers tied everywhere.















They had lots of games for the kids out along the street....















and of course what drew us in was all the yummy food!

Puppies, Princesses, and Parties

We often take our little girl to the park to play... she has so much energy that it's hard to wear her out if we don't just let her run in circles. I know I'm biased, but I just can't help but think that she's the cutest doggie ever!!














If I don't watch her carefully, she like to stand in water (or mud) puddles, wipe both sides of her face in them, and then lie down. Nice, huh? The park is close enough to walk to, but most of the time we drive... so it gets a little complicated putting a soaking wet dog in the car.
So, this time when we were at the park, I saw her doing the same face-smear act, but this time it was in the grass. I figured that I better go check out what she was getting into. Well, let's just say that I would have preferred the mud puddle.... she was up on the little hill wiping both sides of her face in poop! POOP! I don't know what it belonged to, but it smelled horrible!!!
She's so ornery!













When we took her home, I made Chris hold her in his lap, while I drove and all the windows were down because the smell was nauseating! She went straight into the shower for a bath...
This is a video of Koshi chasing her ball... the video doesn't do her much justice, but she is SO fast! I often make Chris and Koshi race for the ball because I think it's hilarious that our 11-month old puppy can run faster than my husband :) (although he would probably deny this fact if you ask him)...

We do love her even though she drops approximately 12 billion hairs off of her body every day! I can't keep up with all the dog hair!
On January 2nd, our friends' little girl turned 2. We went to her Tinkerbell birthday party... it's been so long since I went to a little kids' birthday party! It was pretty fun! And the princess dress-up set we gave her seemed to be a bit hit...






























A few nights ago, we had our cheerleading sleepover (23 girls came)... let's just say "never again!"
The girls had a great time... and I honestly had a lot of fun, until it was time to sleep! For some reason, I didn't anticipate (or remember) how junior high girls like to stay up all night long! That wouldn't be a problem if they were quiet, but no... they were screaming, slamming doors, and laughing. So, I know I'm only 27, but I'm really too old for this... I become really cranky when I don't get my sleep! So, I'm officially apologizing to anyone that let us have a sleepover at their house when I was between the ages of 8-18... I'm sorry I was probably such a nightmare! :) As you can see, the girls had a great time...














but I spent the entire next day recuperating! And as much as I want to have a little girl, my mind changed after that night... I'm pretty sure I want all boys now. Girls have so much DRAMA in their lives! :)

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!!
Chris and I spent the evening with some friends... eating lots of food and playing games.
















When we first got to Staci and Jesse's house at 7:00ish, there were lots of people there. Then as the night wore on, we realized that all of our friends have babies and
left started leaving around 9:00 to take their tired children home... By the time it was midnight, there were only about 6 of us left! Sounds like babies suck all the fun out of your life! :)
But they're oh-so-cute! Here's a picture of me with my friend Audrey, and her baby boy Barrett... he was about 2 weeks old in this picture.





We played a lot of Rock Band during the evening. I guess you're never too old for video games! I look pretty tame over there on the drums, but I was having a ton of fun! Everyone was commenting on how good I was, so of course I asked Chris if he would buy a set of real drums. Of course he said no, but I'm sure with a little more begging, I can talk him into it.














Since this was the first New Years Eve that Chris and I spent together, he thought we needed to make up for all the ones we missed before :)
I like this picture because for some reason I look like a lifeless cpr dummy... haha!

Lydia and I asked our Japanese students if it's tradition to kiss at midnight and they said no, but they thought it was so funny that we did... I would have assumed that everyone did, but so many things are just cultural and we don't realize it!

I will admit that it was a little depressing to spend New Years Eve without Dick Clark in our living room and no giant ball falling, but we made the best of it! Hope everyone else had a great time too!!