Chris & Katrina

Online Contest

2011-01-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

I usually don't do this, but this blog that is supported by my favorite independent book store Hicklebee's is having an awesome give away! So here is the link to that awesome blog: http://bklc.us/2y

Fooood!!!!

2009-11-04T10:29:00.000-08:00

Since Chris and I have yet to find jobs, we have quite a bit of time on our hands besides our schoolwork. Even though we are still actively seeking for jobs, we have also taken advantage of our free schedule by indulging on one of our favorite hobbies: FOOD! So here is just a "taste" (haha!) of what we've been doing:

Chris is the baker of the house and he's a gosh darn good one! Being exact with measurements drives me insane. Here he is proudly showing his yummy chocolate chip cookies.

This year Chris decided to try making pies. Here is his very first apple pie. It was just perfect with vanilla ice cream!

This is his lemon meringue pie. It is the first time I actually enjoyed this kind of pie! He has also made a banana cream pie that was excellent. Unfortunately we don't have a picture of that one. But our friends have been requesting Chris' desserts more lately. =)

I have been occupying myself with finding Asian recipes. This is my stab at Hamburg Steak, a Japanese dish that I learned from a great series I found on Youtube.

Here is our very Japanese Hamburg Steak meal complete with Ramune. The sauce is delicious!

A friend of mine several years ago showed me how to make kimchi stir fry. Chris loves this dish!

This was our Halloween meal. It was Chinese style chicken with a mix recommended by a friend. Then I just stir-fried some napa cabbage with some garlic and ginger. We also had kimchi on the side.

Chris treated me out to a strawberry shortcake from the Japanese Bakery called J Sweets. I love Asian pastries! You don't get a headache afterwards from the overload of sugar.

Pho! YUM!

2009-10-04T23:24:00.001-07:00

One of the DEFINITE benefits of living in San Jose is the abundance of good Asian food everywhere and how reasonably priced it is! Chris and I were running late doing errands, so for dinner we decided to go for one of my favorites: PHO!

We found a place which specializes in Vietnamese chicken dishes with various chicken noodle soups or boiled chicken with special rice and etc. It's called Pho Ga An Nam. It was only a five minute drive away and averaged about $6 a per person, not too shabby. Be warned! If you are going to check it out, they take cash only and they do not have an ATM there.

What amazes me about Pho is the amount of flavor they are able to pack into the broth! Looking at this pic you would think that the soup was ok tasting, but take a sip and your tongue gets a multi-layered hit of sweet, savory and Oh-s0-goodness. It's the perfect thing to warm you up when the weather is cooling down....or if you are just having a bad day.

Chris also liked being able to watch Vietnamese TV shows while eating. The time we went it was the Vietnamese equivalent of Dancing with the Stars, only it was called Celebrity Dancing. It was pretty addicting despite the language barrier.

Ponyo

2009-10-04T23:10:00.001-07:00

So Chris and I were wanting to see this movie since it came out in theaters a couple of months ago. However, whenever one of Miyazaki's films come out in the States I have a dilemma - I want to see the movie, but I want to see it with the original Japanese dialogue. The actors and actresses they have to dub it in English are talented, no question, but there's something special about seeing a film in the language it was intended for.

Thankfully, I didn't have to worry for too long. While we were exploring Little Tokoyo with my cousins we went into a mini-mart. There, just on TV was Ponyo even though the local theaters around it were still showing it. I guess it has been a year since it came out on DVD in Japan so not only were we able to buy the movie for a reasonable $13.99 but it's only in Japanese (with English subtitles of course!). It's a super cute movie. I enjoyed it, especially the scenes where they're eating ramen!

San Jose!!!

2009-08-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

Yay we made it! We started out on Monday Aug 10th, stayed in Hood River Oregon for a day then headed down to San Jose! Our apartment is also finally set up, we're just waiting for internet to come and it's nice sunny weather. I guess my few complaints are:

1) It's scary to drive around here

2) Everything is expensive

3) It's a bit too crowded for me! (Surprisingly enough, I'm NOT a big city girl)

But I love the weather here! It has been sunny, but not ridiculously hot. I also love how everything (i.e. library, shopping, grocery) is only about a mile away from our place -AND- there's good food EVERYWHERE!! You can get really good Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and etc all within a few minutes! Well just to let you all know, we're doing well!

Oh my Gardenz...

2009-06-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

My garden is in full swing this year. It helps that I had time to prep everything in the fall and early spring. Now it's looking pretty good. I have beans, corn, pumpkins, squash, gourds, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, bok choy, nappa cabbage, jalapenos, and watermelons galore! I'm kinda sad that we'll be leaving for San Jose before lots of it is ready, but I have more fun gardening that actually consuming what I grow. Although, nothing beats fresh vegetables out of the garden.

This last picture is an arbor I constructed for my gourds to grow up, and to let all the gourds hang down. It might also be a nice shady spot to sit in once they grow some more.

Ponds Away!!!

2009-06-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to build a pond for a while now. And I finally got my mom to agree with me that she should have one, and she financed the venture. (I don't have anywhere to put a pond yet, so it makes sense it should be at my parents house). Anyway, here are some pictures of my creation.

The liner and plants came from a pond store in Redmond, they had a lot of cool stuff. I would love to build something like their koi ponds some day. I guess I'll have to wait until I have a house or something. I built the fountain out of bamboo that we bought at the Bamboo gardens. I used my geometry skills to make the octagonal border out of cedar. I really like working with cedar, it smells nice. Tomorrow Katrina and I are taking Hayley to chinatown to pick out a couple of goldfish to put into the pond. It's gonna be a party.

What Chris has been up to... and other exciting topics

2009-06-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

What haven't I been up to? I guess it's been a while since I made any posts, so now it's make up time. We'll start with the state of the art chicken coup I built.

I didn't build the actual coup, it was a playhouse given to us by a friend several years back. I did all the modifications and chicken yard construction.

This is Easter sitting in one of the nesting boxes, which is easily accessible through a hatch on the side of the coup.

This is the feeding area. It rains a lot here, and it isn't much fun to clean out the food when it is soaking wet. So the chickens have a nice covered area in which they can eat.

The black and white chicken is Wanda the Wyandotte. She's my personal favorite. I saw wyandottes at the Puyallup fair last year and thought they looked really cool. So I had to get one.

Knitting, a very addicting hobby

2009-02-11T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have a cousin that knits and I was always in wonder at the things she made. I finally had a chance to learn from Chris' grandma. Chris also picked it up as she taught me so we both started knitting. Ever since then we have been adamantly supporting our local knitting shop.

Chris was the first conqueror of knitting hats. This one is for his mom with Alpaca/wool mixed yarn.

It turned out great and she loves it!

We got a small Japanese book with cap patterns and Chris whipped this one up for me using Alpaca/Peruvian wool. He's still going to add a flower on the top. It's super warm!

One of our cats Yumi has also taken to knitting. If anyone is knitting in the house she will sit in their lap. Actually right now as I am writing this she is sitting in Chris' lap watching him knit a scarf.

This is my second project, my second scarf. It's simple with just knit and purl stitches, but I like the way the texture turned out. It made it for Chris!

So Chris and I are cautious with knitting. There have been times when we thought to ourselves, "I'll just knit a row or two" and end up spending hours upon hours working on a project. It feels sooo good to create and finish something!

Wild Wet Adverntures in the Northwest

2009-02-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

It's been forever since we last posted but I thought I might include this interesting story:
Around November it had been raining non-stop, Chris and I barely came back from a night out. I was walking across the laundry room in my socks and I noticed my feet were very cold and soaking wet. Worried, Chris checked out the storage room which is in our apartment and this is what we saw:

Water was seeping through the walls in our basement apartment quickly. Our landlord (Grandma) Kevin and Dad came over and we started battling the flood waters with towels, a water pump and the boys digging a little ditch with a pump for the water under the house to drain.

We worked until midnight and finally beat the water. Chris and I were still able to sleep in our apartment that night, but in the living room since the carpet in the main bedroom was damp.

Woo hoo for adventurous times!

Merry Christmas, happy holidays!

2009-01-15T16:15:00.000-08:00

Ok it's been forever since we've updated. Christmas was great. Chris and I were spoiled silly. We got gift cards galore, awesome cookbooks, games, money and DVD's. Chris also made me a kitty scarf and adopted a polar bear in my name through WWF. I made him some artwork, a Wii game and Threadless t-shirts. New Years was easy going and quiet. Anyway, happy belated holidays!

International Cinema to DA MAX!!

2008-11-21T21:41:00.000-08:00

I've been frustrated that Facebook doesn't have an application where you can list all the movies you've seen. Sort of like how in Visual bookshelf you can list all the books you've read....anyway...

Movie: Jodhaa Akbar
Language: Hindi
2008

My co-worker is from Nepal and she knows I'm a Bollywood fan so she passed this recommendation along, I'm so glad she did! In addition to being a visual spectacle this movie has a cute love story, an interesting plot and enough fighting and blood to satisfy the menfolk. I really loved this movie and the music was good in it too! For those of you who are unfamilar with Bollywood films, this one would be a good one to start with. Make sure you have enough time to enjoy all four hours of it. Also, most people aren't used to the musical structure of dancing and singing in all Indian movies but in this one it fits well with the overall tone of the film. It won the Audience award at the 32nd film festival in Sao Paulo.

Stars: Aishwarya Rai & Hrithik Roshan

Halloween Pumpkins

2008-10-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

This year we carved pumpkins that Chris grew out of his garden. I have to brag that he's a pretty good gardener! He ended up with about 169 total pounds of pumpkins. He had a couple of giant ones and then about 29 small sugar pumpkins.

Chris also went all out with his carving skills! He took lots of time and care to do this one. His pumpkin inspiration is Ichigo, a character from the anime Bleach. As much as it is cool looking I think it's rather scary.

This is my pumpkin. It is much simpler in design and carving requirements, but I think it's just as twisted. My pumpkin inspiration came from my brain.

Katrina's Recommendations for November

2008-10-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

Movie: Persepolis

It has already gathered a lot of attention since being released last year 2007. It was the official jury selection at the Cannes Festival and was nominated for an Oscar. It is a French film animated in primarily black and white. It follows the life of a young girl growing up during the Iranian Revolution. She travels abroad to France but is trying to make sense of her life and identity. It's is based on the life of one of the directors. It does deal with more adult themes of war, rebellion and the people she interacts with. It is funny as it is poignant.

Book: The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

I picked this one up at a school book fair I was volunteering at. (I'm such a sucker for book fairs!) I wish I had this book while growing up. Pacy or better known by her American name Grace, is an Asian American growing up being the only Asian in her school of New Hartford, NY until Melody moves in. They quickly become friends and together try to figure out how they are so Chinese at school but then are so Americanized with family. It also has neat tidbits of culture in there. I related to many situations in there and I think everyone will appreciate the charm of it all. It's for 5th-6th graders and up.

Movie: On a Clear Day

Jury prize winner at the Sundance film festival in 2005. It's a Scottish film about Frank, who after decades of dedicated work is laid off. He finds himself unhappy with not only dealing with unemployment but his estrangement to his son and distance between him and his wife. With nothing left he decides he wants to swim the English Channel with the help of his off beat friends. This film was just plain funny. Chris and I enjoyed the quirky humor and Scottish accents.

2nd Anniversary: We're still in love

2008-10-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

We celebrated our anniversary a little early since it actually fell on a weekday. The weekend before we stayed at Embassy Suites in Bellevue. We enjoyed swimming (their pool had a small waterfall in it!) They also upgraded us to an executive suite for free when they found out the occasion.

Chris is enjoying the free drinks at the hotel.

This is me enjoying the free breakfast at the hotel. (We like free things)

So our day of celebration was this: we got to the hotel, swam, then dressed up and went out at a nice Italian dinner. We also went shopping at the nearby mall and we ended up getting held up at Banana Republic because a seller there decided she wanted to dress me up in all the dresses in the store to see how they look. Finally, we grabbed some dessert at the Cheesecake Factory, their cheesecake is crazy rich man! It was a great anniversary. Chris and I enjoyed just being able to spend time together. I can't believe it has already been two years! Love you honey!

SALMON DAYS IN ISSAQUAH!!

2008-10-30T21:30:00.001-07:00

It has been a while. I think I still need to do a post on our anniversary which was... two months ago. Anyway, ignore the lack of chronological order and enjoy! I finally was able to experience Salmon Days. Every year on the first weekend of October the whole town of Issaquah celebrates the salmon's heroic struggle returning to their place of origin to spawn.... and die. Kind of depressing come to think of it, makes for an awesome two day celebration of food and crafts though.

This is one of the most delicious desserts I've ever had. It is an apple dumpling, which is a very warm whole apple baked in a cover of fluffy pastry covered with a special cinnamon sauce and served with vanilla ice cream. It was yum.

This is one of the hundreds of salmon that could be found swimming in creek nearby. They are HUGE! And it was fun to see so many of them.

The entire downtown of Issaquah was converted into a huge open market. They also had this ridiculous food court complete with huge desserts and international food!

So my verdict of my first Salmon Days: It's GOOD! I guess the rain just comes with the package.

Aki Matsuri (Fall Festival)

2008-09-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

Time to party like it's fall. Oh yeah. Well, not so much in the way of party. But it was fun. We went to the Eastside Nihon Matsuri Association's Aki Matusri (visit them at enma.org). It was pretty cool. Lots of demonstrations and displays of traditional Japanese crafts and arts. Everything from Ikebana to taiko to sumie. It was fun to look through it all. We even bought some art to decorate our humble abode. Here's some pictures to look at.

Myself and my masterful brush strokes.

I thought this bonsai was pretty amazing. It's growing around the rock!

And what festival would be complete without Kitty-chan?

And kendo. I really want to try it sometime. Whacking someone with a bamboo sword just seems so much fun. There were many martial arts demonstrations like aikido, kenjutsu, judo, karate, kyudo, ect.

The Joys and Woes of Gardening

2008-09-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

One of the things I was most excited about when we moved back to Washington was the prospect of growing a big garden full of delicious things. I guess I forgot about all of my natural enemies that exist here in the Great Northwest. It was all worth it. I tried growing a Japanese variety of corn called Mirai, it is really sweet. Doesn't need any salt or butter, just pure deliciousness. So here are some pictures of the Sunflowers, pumpkins, corn, birdhouse gourds, and everything else I got growing. Enjoy.

Huge sunflowers (they must be 12 feet tall)

My hyotan (birdhouse gourd)

Big pumpkins

Watermelon

Strawberries and tomatoes

Monstrous zucchini ( I didn't even get pictures of the really big ones)

And of course damage due to my enemies. Deer and chickens. I'm thinking about putting a bounty on their heads. This was a 24.6 pound pumpkin, and it would have kept growing. I'm still mourning.

Diverse Washington

2008-08-26T18:28:00.001-07:00

I've only worked at Target for barely a week and a half now. And here are the languages I've heard being spoken while I cashier:

Russian
Indian (I'm guessing Hindi)
Japanese
Mandarin
Vietnamese
Spanish
Korean
Italian
French

Oh, the other day I was able to practice my sign language when I found some co-workers signing. They were patient with my awkward signs since it has been a while!

So if you ever want to have an international experience, just apply to the Target store in Issaquah.

We're Employed!!

2008-08-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

Finally the both of us have jobs!!

Chris is working at the Children's Hospital in Seattle. I just got a job with Target down the street. We're both very thankful that we got these positions. It will give us a chance to save up for graduate school hopefully in the future. Until then...yay! we're employed!!

Summertime 2008

2008-07-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here we are halfway through summer. To entertain ourselves we have engaged in a myriad of activities. We went gold panning a couple times over on the the raging river. While we didn't strike it rich, we did find a couple specks of gold. Katrina and my younger sister, Hayley, had lots of fun in the water trying to catch fish in the river.

Other days have been spent looking after my garden (including corn, pumpkins, zucchini, nappa cabbage, bok choy, beans, peas, peppers, onions, cucumber, ect.), playing with Hayley's chickens, ducks, and goats and going on walks.

Eric, Sharn, and Sharn's sister Sarah came up for the Fourth of July and we ended up hanging out with them and the Wan's going around Seattle and eating. We had lots of fun. We also celebrated my birthday, a little late, with mint chip ice cream cake. Yum.

And just this weekend we went to the Bon Odori in the International District. We got in and did a couple dances with fans, ate some yummy food and took in the atmosphere. This was our second year attending and we hope to continue making it our tradition.

Oh Woe is our car!

2008-06-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

It's time to get a new car I've decided. I am very grateful for the car that we had for the first year and nine months of our marriage, but lately its been acting weird. Last September, right after we arrived in Utah for school it died and cost about 650 to fix. Now just recently (and within a year), we've had to have it towed twice in one week and the mechanics are estimating about 500 for this repair. I don't really trust it anymore and it seems to be very pricey to fix it whenever there's a problem.

Chris and I are already researching for a good car to have. With gas prices going insane we are thinking about getting a car with better mileage. So far we're thinking either a Toyota Corolla or Honda Fit. We need to go test drive them first though!

Denise and Tyler

2008-06-08T16:53:00.003-07:00

On June 7th 2008 Denise, Chris' sister, married Tyler Folkman in the Seattle LDS Temple. It had been raining really hard all week, but luckily it was just cloudy that day. It was a very beautiful wedding and a fun reception!

It was my second time as bridesmaid. The colors were pink, orange and red. I was the red bridesmaid and had a really cute dress made by my mother in law! My hair was also funky!

Even though it wasn't raining, it was still pretty dang cold! Especially since it's suppose to be summer already!! Here's Hayley trying to stay warm. She was a flower girl.

Denise and Tyler were super cute and super happy together!

This is the dollar dance (where you pay to dance with the bride to help pay off their honeymoon). Chris was only able to dance with her for a couple seconds.

Garter toss!!

Trying to stay warm while waiting for our photo ops!

Since both the Nye and Folkman family have been in the Issaquah area for years, it was a very popular and crowded reception! There wasn't enough seating for everyone. The food was catered and was great. Chris and I were assigned to pick and be in charge of music for the reception. Besides trying to keep the music going we still had time to let loose and dance the night away! Everyone said they liked the music selection but I think that's probably the last time we want to DJ. The whole wedding was very beautiful and elegant, mad props to my mother in law and the Folkmans! We are really excited for the newlyweds and wish them every happiness!

Japan! へようこそ

2008-06-01T22:16:00.000-07:00

After two weeks and vast amounts of money we have returned from Japan. Not only did we go lots of places and eat lots of delicious food, we saw cool places and bought lots of stuff. We had our Japan Rail passes which allowed us to take the shinkansen anywhere, which we did (Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Nagoya).

We made trips to the Nagoya aquarium, (hence the penguin topiaries), Miyajima (one of the most scenic places in Japan), and Kinosaki-cho (home of seven famous hot spring baths).

This is the Nagoya Bento which Katrina had for dinner one evening. Inside was unagi, black miso cutlets, onigiri with shrimp inside, and several other tidbits of Nagoya specialties.

This is Gosho-no-yu, one of the bathhouses we went to. It had an outdoor section where you can view the surrounding nature and waterfalls.

This is the entrance to Fushimi Inari Taisha (the place with all the red gates lined up in a row).

Katrina next to a ginormous wooden paddle found on Miyajima.

We're in Seattle!

2008-05-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

We were going to leave for Seattle originally May 15th. Since then new developments popped up so that we were very fortunate to be able to leave for Seattle May 6th (Tuesday morning). However, Monday evening, Chris and I found ourselves desperate to get a head start to Seattle and decided to leave at 7:30 o' clock at night. After hanging out with Maria and Liz and having them help out clean while chatting we said out goodbye's and headed on the road.

Chris was insane energetic (I guess the Mountain Dew helped) and drove until three in the morning. By that time we had barely made it into the Oregon border. We found a rest stop and slept there for three hours and then headed back on the road by 5 in the morning.

We still pretended that we left Tuesday morning. We were only twenty minutes away from Chris' hometown when we called his mom and said that we barely got into Idaho. She got a big surprise when we showed up 10 in the morning in the parking lot of her work.

Now we've taken naps and are feeling a lot better. We're sooo happy we're here safely!

Japan ikimasho!

2008-04-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

Exciting news everyone!! Chris' dad has to go to Japan (more specifically Nagoya) for a business trip and offered to share his hotel with us if we can afford the air plane tickets. Luckily, despite the last minute notice, we were able to find a good deal with round trip tickets and WE ARE BOOKED AND GOING TO JAPAN!!! YAY!!!

I guess this is our graduation gift to ourselves instead of getting a Wii. But I think we're both much much happier with this alternative!!

Now I have to brush up on my basic Japanese and start looking up all sorts of awesome Japanese stuff to do when we get there!! YAY!!

COLLEGE GRADUATES OF 2008!!

2008-04-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

Here we are! Finally done! After all that work and studying we've finally received our Bachelors of Science Degree at BYU! A lot of our family came including my family, Chris' family and some family friends.

We decided to graduate together with Chris' school of Life Sciences. The ceremony started at 11 which was better than mine starting at 7:00 in the morning!

We are sooo relieved and happy we're done!

They didn't throw hats in the ceremony so we decided to do it ourselves.

We were the VERY last row to be called up to have our names read! But we're so excited to be done! Only two more weeks then we we come to Washington to continue job searching!

MAKEOVER!!

2008-04-19T14:40:00.001-07:00

For those of you who know me since I was a teen, I didn't particularly care what I looked like or what I wore. Usually this resulted in an occasionally frumpy look. Chris told me I could spend a little more money on clothes and such, since I felt bad spending money on fancy clothes. With the money we got back on textbooks we went to the Gap and Banana Republic Outlet in Park City and got a new wardrobe. I also cut my hair short again, but this time I know how to style it! What do you think?

Weekend in San Jose...food...yummm!

2008-04-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

It was our turn to visit our friends Eric and Sharn in San Jose. We finally had the time and means to go so we thought...why not? It was a really jammed-packed weekend. Thanks to Eric and Sharn for taking us everywhere! One of the really enjoyable things about the trip was the amazing Asian food we got to eat! (It's hard to come by in Utah!) So here's a peek of what we got to do.
This is the Katsudon (pork) Chris got. It was gooood!

I got the Unadon (eel). The meat was so tender and it was so savory!

All of the Sushi had wasabi mixed in, so after my first unaware bite I didn't eat as much. It was quite an experience having a burning sensation in my nasal passages.

This place was awesome! It was an all you can eat Korean BBQ place! We had soo much meat and really good Jop Chae!

Of course I had to get my favorite congee! (This is fish congee).

We went to two Chinatown's in one day. We ate some really good Dim Sum in the San Jose Chinatown.

Instead of the huge posters of half naked men at the Ambercromie and Fitch, there was a half naked male model. Look at his face and the way he is smoldering!

The mall at San Fran is pretty big.

This is in front of the Chinatown in San Fran.

We did a lot of shopping. We got some new clothes and we updated our Asian movies/DVD's collection. We spent most of our money on food! But it was just great hanging out with Eric and Sharn and just get out of Utah once in a while! Hopefully we can get access to good Asian food again soon!! Eric and Sharn you need to come to Seattle!!

I think I'm turning Japanese...I really think so.

2008-04-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

So I rarely like to boast (because I don't want to be obnoxious!) But bear with me on this one! I decided to treat Chris to a nice Japanese meal and look what I came up with!! BY SCRATCH! (Yes, including the specialty broth!) Looks good eh? Well, it'll probably be a while before I'm that adventurous again. Took me about two hours and two sinks full of dishes/pans/bowls and three washings and using of the woks just to create 2 bowls of these things! Tasted good tho!

I'M 23!! Happy birthday to meeee!!

2008-03-29T21:32:00.001-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYLEY!! March 29th birthdays are the best eh?We ate out the night before so that we could go the Indian temple in Spanish Fork and check out the Holi color festival. There was a lot of chalk and and lots of fun!

We were only there for 15-20 minutes and we got COLORED! I put angry eyebrows on Chris with my green chalk packet, but I guess someone else got him with the purple!

It was insane the amount of people there! Many were parking 2 miles away and walking in!

It was definitely a new experience and made my birthday really a blast! Not that the whole thing was just for me! =P

Chris made me this awesome (my fav kind) of cake that tasted DELICIOUS!! He's a pro really. He also gave me a cute book and an itunes gift card so that I could finally own the Opera songs I like! (Yes, I'm now an Opera freak! But since I'm under 40, I might get a discount if a go to a real one someday!) Thanks to all family and friends that called/sent presents/left notes, I really appreciated it! I can't believe I'm already 23!

Sample Our Easter Dinner

2008-03-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

Menu: Salmon with seasonings including brown sugar with asparagus wrapped in bacon and mashed potatoes.

You think we could open a restaurant? Yummmmmmm!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it was just the two of us this year. All of our family close by had plans already, and Chris and I just like to relax anyway. We were trying to decide what to have for dinner, since we weren't too keen on the idea of Easter Ham. So we tried a salmon recipe from our friend's blog with asparagus wrapped in bacon and mashed potatoes. It turned out really yummy...so yummy in fact that Chris overstuffed himself to the point he felt sick. We think it's a start of a new tradition! (Not the stuffing himself sick.) It was a good holiday with good food. Maybe next time we'll color eggs or something!

Other than that our lives are pretty good. We work and go to school but on weekends occasionally take Chris' sister Denise wedding dress shopping. I finally got to see what my bridesmaid dress looks like! It's cute too! We're also slowing getting camping gear. We just bought two sleeping bags and go shopping at camping stores more, like Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse. We can't wait until school is done! Only one more month!! =)

Gong Hay Fat Choy! Happy Valentine's day! Happy Birthday!

2008-02-17T10:42:00.000-08:00

So the title covers the three big things that have been happening since our last entry.

It was Chinese New Year!! The Year of the Rat! We were suppost to wait for the festivities on Saturday (since the actual day was on Thursday.) But when Thursday came around, I dunno if it was my Chinese blood or what but I couldn't wait and was just dying to celebrate! Chris and I did some last minute rounds and did hot pot that night. We had Jon & Aubrey as well as Jerad over. After being stuffed silly we played a zombie card game that was really fun.

Valentines Day just came around this week! I bought Chris' gifts the night before, but because I'm such a excited lame-o I couldn't wait for tomorrow so I gave them to him that night. I gave him Nutella, chocolate and a love monkey plush. He gave me a webkins love frog, chocolate and flowers. I love the flowers, but since our kittens looove to chew on plants they're now in their vase on the shelf waaay above our kitchen. So now I get to admire them from afar. *sigh*. We cooked ourselves a nice dinner (New York Steaks) and got dessert from the French Bakery in Orem. It was really yummy!

On Saturday we got an invitation in the mail from a Korean couple in our ward celebrating their son's 1st birthday. It turned out that the party was that same night so we did a quick run to the store to get him a present. The party was a lot of fun and there was SO MUCH FOOD! There was all kinds of Korean food (including bulgogi) and then after that they brought in pizza and cake! It was crazy! They also did a cute game where they had their son choose from all these items that symbolize what he would be when he grew up. There were pencils for being a scholar, a xylophone for a musician, baseball for professional baseball player and a dollar bill for being a rich guy. He chose the baseball so the dad was really happy.

Other than that, Chris has been recovering from a virus he got last week, which means I'm just getting sick with it. Then I also got a haircut the other day since it's been almost a year since I last had one. It looks a lot neater now! Anyway, that's it for this entry! We're doing well!

Thank you President Hinckley

2008-02-02T11:01:00.001-08:00

With the passing of our prophet Gordon B Hinckley, we've been experiencing feelings of not only sadness, but of great gratitude and peace. Being the prophet of our generation, we looked up to him as not only a leader but example and friend. He is a remarkable man who has helped bring a lot of good and love into our lives. I've never known anyone that could reach people across race, religion, ideas and from all walks of life. His sense of humor and capacity of understanding are only a few of the things we will miss about him.

It is a great comfort to know that he may now rest in peace being reunited with our loving Heavenly Father and the love of his life, his wife.

We love you President Hinckley and you will be missed.

Christmas and Beyond!!

2008-01-07T18:18:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since we updated. We stayed in the Seattle area with Chris' family for a week for this holiday season. We aso made a trip down to Oregon to see the rest of his family. It was a waaay fun and action packed time! Here's a summary of what happened.

1. Denise (Chris' younger sister) got engaged to her bf Tyler. Congrats! The date is in June.

2. Christmas Eve we watched National Treasure. In the evening we went to downton Seattle to see some awesome gingerbread houses.

3. Christmas day we got spoiled by everyone.

4. We went to Oregon and we skiied with Chris' family there. (It was the first for me in thirteen years!) I was so sad on the slopes that Chris' dad brought up their speed coach to help me. Turns out that the coach was on the US Olympic team. Even though he was nice I was so embarressed to have him teach me how to turn and stop without eating it!

5. We flew back home on Sunday and enjoyed New Years to ourselves. It kind of nice to have part of the holiday at home!

Now school is started and already I had a bout with the flu. Luckily Chris didn't get it! We're doing fine. Just waiting until it gets warm and getting through our last semester! =)

Kimono of awesomeness

2007-12-12T20:06:00.000-08:00

So, for my History of Creativity class, I made a kimono for my creativity project. But not just any kimono, a black one, with the Harley-Davidson symbol and flames. It was Katrina's idea, and I brought it to life. We are a good team at stuff like this. If only we could get someone to write books based on her dreams. We could be rich. Could be... probably won't ever be. Oh well. Nice to have dreams. If only I had dreams that could make money.

This is the finished product. Katrina is the model. It fits her.

This is me whilst painting the flames. It was fun. Katrina helped out a bunch.

Rough Couple Of Weeks

2007-11-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

So if the whirlwind trip to Seattle wasn't stressful enough, it turned out the week between the wedding and the CA reception was just as crazy. Both Chris and I had at least two to three midterms, I caught a nasty intestinal virus (with bad nausea) and ended up paying a midnight visit to the ER. (It wasn't a big deal, they just shot me up with morphine and sent me home.) Then there were some last minute changes to traveling so instead of driving we flew to CA which turned out to be a good thing! Instead of relaxing in CA we ended up helping with the reception and catching a cold from my lil' bro right when we both recovered from last week's illnesses. We also had to deal with some high strung people which made it all the more stressful.

The good side was, Chris and I were well enough to enjoy ourselves silly at the reception. We were the only few people dancing all night. The reception was beautiful and Jon and Aubrey were happy. Finally, we got to see family and Eric and Sharn came down for a couple a days for Thanksgiving! (Sorry Eric and Sharn that I was sleepy/sleeping most of the time!)

So now we're back at home. I'm recovering starting with thirteen hours worth of sleep last night. (I hadn't had the chance to really rest till then.) Our kittens are happy to see us and I think we're finally on the road to recovering/catching up. Chris and I think we need a vacation from our vacations. The last two were more stressful than just staying at home!

Jon & Aubrey

2007-11-11T20:16:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to the newlyweds! Jon and Aubrey Howe were married at the Seattle Washington Temple Nov. 10 2007.

The parents on both sides were elated! (Sorry! Jon had his eyes closed on this pic!)

Here are the bridesmaids and flower girl with the happy couple.

Aubrey is struttin' her stuff!

Here is the sibling trio. They told us to act "natural" we didn't want to ruin the picture and be our natural goofy selves so we went for the "daydreaming" look. Jeff was the best man and I was a bridesmaid.

Luckily it wasn't raining (It did drizzle off and on). However, it was still only 50 degrees with a cold wind and for pics we had to go without coats for most of the two hours! Everyone toughed it out, including Aubrey's adorable little sister here.

The reception was at the Clise Mansion. It was a really beautiful and the food was great!

The cake was lovely.

It really was a whirlwind trip! Jeff, Chris and I flew into Washington late Friday night but had to get to the temple early the next morning. It was basically the wedding, reception and a dinner with the White's all day until almost midnight. We then had an early flight the next morning and finally drove home! We were so happy but at the same time EXHAUSTED!! (My muscles are sore!) Aw well, here's to the California reception starting next weekend! We'll be sure to update the blog then too!! We are so happy that Aubrey is now in the family. The White's are very nice people! It's funny that two out of the three Howe kids ended up marrying people from the same place in Washington!

NINJA CATZ!!!!....and Halloween.

2007-11-05T22:15:00.001-08:00

So this Halloween Chris and I were disappointed to find out that we were the only ones dressed up in our classes! But luckily for me EVERYONE was dressed up at work! We had a handful of trick or treaters at night but our cats had the best costumes we think.

Yumi

The ensemble

Kenshin

Chris made these awesome Samurai Japanese headbands for them. They have their names and 'ninja' written besides the rising sun. They only wore them for a minute or so but still gave us ample amounts of amusement!! OSH!!!

We love the DS and so do the Mario Brothers

2007-10-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

We think this Japanese commercial is really funny.

Oh for the love of Cheese! A Cultural Experience.

2007-10-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

I've heard about this before but I couldn't believe my eyes at the actual thing! Apparently every year in Gloucester England they hold races where competitors chase a rolling cheese down a practically vertical hill as fast as they can while avoid getting injuries. The winner...get's a big round of Gloucestershire Cheese. The spectators on the other hand, get to watch crazy people tumble quite amusingly down a big hill. Enjoy!

Yumi Playing Fetch

2007-10-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Yumi has been playing fetch a lot recently. We didn't train her at all to do it but she just started one day. Anyway, just thought that you all would enjoy it.

Brothers and Crawdads

2007-10-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was fun and busy. School and work had been going well, but both Chris and I were looking forward to a break. Our friend Maria had been coming down the last couple of weeks wanting to go crawdad fishing. Jeoffrey, my younger bro also came down from BYU Idaho to chill for the weekend. So we were all up for an adventure! Of course, even though we did have fun we still watched General Conference (a worldwide church meeting broadcasted on tv).

We went to Strawberry Reservoir for the best chance to catch crawdads, but when we got there, it was FREEZING!! It was snowing and our rope for our trap would freeze stiff. We didn't bring any gloves or hand warmers either! But Chris was determined to try to catch some fish.

While Chris was braving the cold, Jeoffrey Maria and I were huddling in the car eating sandwiches and trying to keep our blood circulating.

Our crawdad trap wasn't catching any, so we would lure them to shore with a chicken drumstick on a string, then just pick them out of the water with our hands. This is Maria getting them.

Even though it was rediculously cold we still stayed for two hours outside and wouldn't leave because most crawdads would come up at night! Towards the end we were just scooping two or three at a time out of the water!

We brought them home and boiled them up with some butter. Not that much meat on them but they taste pretty good. We ended up catching 33 in total.

Jeoffrey also wanted a haircut. So we called up Jon and his fiancee to hang out.
Jeoffrey pretty much looks like an army guy now.
It was a good weekend. We hung out with family and got to catch up with a lot of people. All of us want to squeeze in another crawdad trip before it gets really REALLY cold! We'll see how it will work out!

J-O-B

2007-10-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

So out with the old job, in with the new ones! Bath and Body Works was fun for the couple of weeks I was there. I do miss atmosphere and my co-workers, they were pretty cool.

Anyway, I'm now working for Timpanogos Elementary as a one on one reading tutor. I am able to get more hours and I'm actually doing something within my line of study! I'm also doing some tutoring on the side which is fun. I'm excited because everything seems to have settled in.

The same goes for Chris' work as well. He finally got steady hours and more pay on his lab research jobs. We're just really thankful that everything has finally fallen into place.

It's OFFICIAL!!!

2007-09-16T17:26:00.001-07:00

Yes, the Howe family is anticipating a great event this year! We are going to have a sister-in-law!! (I finally have a sister!!) Her name is Aubrey White and she's from Bellevue Washington. In case your're wondering, Chris didn't know her before, but I think their families knew of each other. The wedding is going to be at the Seattle Temple November 10th with a reception there. Then there is going to be a reception in California about a week later. Since the date is coming up soon there is a lot of planning to do but the famiy is all estatic!! (Papa is debating whether to buy a summer house in Seattle or not.) I'm a bridesmaid!!! So yay!!!

Cute Dancing Sony Robots!!

2007-09-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what kind of robots the Japanese are developing. But I really didn't know that robots could be such graceful dancers!!

What We Did During The Summer...To Now. EXTREME CATCHING UP!!

2007-09-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a really fast synopsis of what we did this summer since our last post! Hope you enjoy the pictures.We were reunited with Kenshin!! He got HUUUGE!! And he's still barely a year old! But he remembered us and was really happy to see us as well.

We went fishing in Washington

Chris celebrated his 23rd birthday in WA and Oregon!

We saw big guns at Fort Casey at Puget Sound

We saw Andrew, Laura and Clancy and hung out!

I said good-bye to my daycare kids!

We stayed at Hood River, Oregon for a week.

We then drove down to San Hose and stayed with Eric and Sharn

They took us to San Francisco (Chris had never been before)

We ate STUPENDOUS chocolate yummies at Ghiradelli's

Once back in Santa Maria we got a new Siamese mix kitten named Yumi, she's the princess.

Kenshin was unsure about his feelings at first...

But he eventually warmed up to her

It's still a work in progress sometimes.

Eric and Sharn visited my hometown for a weekend

Chris and Eric had fun

We celebrated our 1st year anniversary! We stayed at the Radisson, where we had our reception!

Chris and I helped de-bullfrog the pond filter in the backyard.

We went fishing at the Avila Pier (Papa was the only one who caught fish)

We saw Cirque Du Soleil Corteo (it's about a clown) in L.A. With Bubbles, Bianca their friends and the family
(It's was awesome!!)

We drove back to Utah and learned how to make Korean BBQ.

Chris likes to baby Kenshin

The family came to visit so we took them to Cabela's.

They dropped Jeoffrey off to BYU Idaho.

Now it's back to the old school and work grind

But we still find time to play with our cats

That's about it for now. I'm working part-time at Bath and Body Works, Chris is working at BYU with a research job. I'm looking for another part-time job so we'll see how things will pan out. We're doing well and now we're done catching up with everything!

Summer Movies, having a blaaaast!

2007-07-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

Chris and I have seen about three summer movies so far. I'm happy to say that we are still excited for more of the summer line up, besides the fact that Pirates 3 was only luke warm.

We were totally surprised with Transformers! Now I know I was wrong doubting my two bro's premature excitement. It was awesome! REALLY awesome! (funny too.) Bumblebee was my favorite. He was incredible and cute!

Ratatouille combines two of my favorites: Paris and good food! Sure, sometimes it was hard to believe that a rat out of all mammals could cook but it was charming and definitely a must see!

Movies I am looking forward to:

Simpsons, Bourne Ultimatum, Becoming Jane and Hairspray

My parents recommended Live Free Die Hard, I'm not sure if I should wait to rent it or not. We'll see.

Ah the joys of working at a daycare...

2007-06-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well, after battling what I thought was a cold from work for a week, I finally relented and went to a doctor since I wasn't getting any better. It turns out that I have a sinus infection along with bronchitis. So it's antibiotics for me. *yay*

Well I am feeling a tad better but it does take a load off to know that I am now taking steps to fully recover. The doctor was also really nice and a friend of Chris so he didn't charge anything for the visit. I was so touched that I had to run out of the office after murmuring a quick thanks, because I was all teared up. (I was also highly stressed at that time from the sickness mind you). Anyway, Chris is still immune to my illnesses so far and has been nursing me very well, for all that I thank my lucky stars.

On a side note. I'm way excited for my brother Jon, I just found out that the NBA team the Phoenix Suns somehow found out about his promotional work for the BYU mascot Cosmo. Now they are asking him to redesign their van. How cool is that? I have a brother that's associated with famous people-teams-companies...ok I'm going to go lie down now.

Now I can see how Opera can make you cry...

2007-06-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

I saw this on the yahoo homepage and it really surprised me! I'm assuming it's from Britain's Got Talent reality show.

Ocean's 13 Summer fun!

2007-06-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

The first summer blockbuster in a long time to actually deliver. Y'all should go see it!

Oh it's so fun!

What am I up to this time?

2007-06-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

So, I have been working at Nintendo for the last 3 weeks. It's not a bad job, I just don't take well to waking up at 4 in the morning. I do like being done at 2 in the afternoon though. Anyway, that aside, I get a little bit of a discount on some stuff, which is the only reason we would ever buy something like a DS lite. I wanted to get the Onyx DS, matches my soul better, but Katrina wanted to get the Polar White DS, so that's what we settled on. We got the DS and three games for the price of a normal one. Not too shabby at all.

And I have also found something that is really interesting to me. While I was in Japan I saw children making mud balls. I never thought anything of it. Until now that is. I found a magazine that had an article of hikarudorodango. Shiny mud balls. They are pretty cool looking. So now I want to learn how to make them. My next project.

Masters Degree, here I come...?

2007-06-09T20:11:00.001-07:00

YAY!!! I TOOK THE GRE TODAY!!!......I mean...YAY!!! I took it so I don't have to take it again!!! YAY!!! It's over!!!

Actually it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Took a good chunk of the day though, I went in at about 11:45 in the morning only to emerge from that test-happy place at three. I was sooo hungry afterwards! But hey! I'm one step closer to grad school, oh...closer to hopefully a masters degree. =)

I was celebrating though, YAY!!! I don't have to study for the summer again!!...oh wait, I still need to do my independent study for Math 101...dang it!

The Quest for a summer job is over!..Well at least for me...

2007-05-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

So on Friday I wake up at 3:30 (IN THE MORNING!!) to try the assembly line Nintendo job with Chris. By the time I get there I feel sick because, it is a ridiculous time in the morning, I haven't slept well for the past two days and I get dizzy watching the DS Nintendo packages roll by on the conveyor belt. My job was to put little stickers on the packages. Another stupid move of mine was trying to keep standing during the entire time by keeping my knees locked....as a result, after two hours out of an eight hour job, I saw the stars and finally got a feel for what it's like to start to lose conciousness. Luckily, I sat down fast enough to prevent the final blacking out. However, we just went home after that and Chris and I slept for another 2-3 hours at home.

But, there is good news at the end of the day...

After Chris and I slept enough to function normally again, I went to the local daycare center where I had turned in an application. They had wanted to talk to me again. When I get there, it turns out that they wanted me to fill out papers to hire me!!! Yay!! So I start on Friday and I work with toddlers at nine dollars an hour! The best part is the shift is at 9 in the morning.....can I say *whew*?!

Meanwhile, Chris can take the morning job and is going to continue with it until he can find a better alternative. So we're looking for some Japanese translation jobs for him. *crosses fingers* And that's about if for now!

What has Chris and Katrina been up to?

2007-05-21T15:16:00.001-07:00

So Chris and I packed our things, said good-bye to our good friends that we might not see anytime soon in the future and did the 12 hour trek in the car to Washington...with a stop in Oregon.
We visited all of the family in Oregon for our one day stop in Hood River. Here is Chris getting to know one of the horses at Grampa Dennis and Grandma Berg's place.

Chris introduced me to the Talus caves in Issaquah after a mile or so hike (which included taking the wrong trail going uphill for an extra 5-10 minutes). Luckily we stopped after a while and Hailey found the right trail (it hadn't been maintained for a while so it was hard to pick out.
Me quite at awe at my first splunking trip... that's right. Splunking!
We found a little bat in the big cave. It was cute!
So hiking was fun and felt quite good. The only thing was that it made me realize how much I was out of shape. Hailey, Chris' ten year old little sister, was waaaay ahead with Chris just happily running up the trail with not a trouble in the world. In the meanwhile I was waaay in the back huffing and puffing like a 80 year old woman. Yes, it was sad but I guess it was a major wake-up call to start working out again. The only question is...do I have the discipline? ...*thinks* ......uhhh heeeee *sheepish grin*

As for summer jobs...Chris and I both have temp jobs with Nintendo doing assembly work..we're still waiting and looking for replies and a job that is more simulating with better hours. Here's hoping!

P.S. I have to add my 2 cents in here. Just because Katrina said that she was out of shape, I think I need to force her into running with me on all of the awesome Issaquah trails. Anyone who agrees, I need your support in this. And caving, that was the second time I have ever seen a bat in Talus caves, kinda weird. Maybe it was the same bat....

pack, move, unpack, pack move...

2007-05-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

I've forgotten how much of a pain it is to pack and clean and move into a new apartment. On Tuesday evening Chris and I finally moved into our new apartment in Provo for the fall. (Thanks to the mad packing skills of Jon and the moving buff-ness of Nathan and Andrew). Then we're leaving for Oregon/Washington Saturday morning.

So not only did we realize that we have waaaay too much unnecessary stuff (Chris had to keep me from throwing away just boxes of stuff, I don't like having a lot of things.) But it took us several days afterwards to get things organized and fully unpacked. Just on Thursday I unpacked the last suitcase. Then now since we're leaving again, I have to pack....yet again. *sigh* When will the moving process end??!?!?

Oh yah, on a side note, we watched Dreamgirls...good movie, kinda long and sad but there are some stellar performances especially by that Hudson girl, she deserved that Oscar!

Animals Giggle too!

2007-04-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

I saw this the other day and thought it was so interesting...and cute! I never understood why some people don't think animals can feel.

Fast Infection Quick Recovery...(We hope!)

2007-04-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

So it was the wierdest thing on Sunday. Chris and I were tired, but by that afternoon we suddenly got struck with some sort of sickness at the exact same time. Our symptoms were a sore throat, aching tired body and just an overall feeling of crappiness. (Yay for me I had sniffles too!) It was a sight on Monday since we were all layed out on the couches just moaning. Well, we ate well and slept a lot and feel pretty much back to normal! But today Chris wants to go play so I'm hoping that we are strong enough....talk about spring fevers! It was kind of scary since we didn't feel like we were weak or had any exposure to any contagious organism...hmmm?

I'm twenty and two!!!

2007-04-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

So as of March 29th I hit the official 22! I am now for sure, a legal adult. Much to my surprise, a lot of my in-laws share the same birthday (Go Hayley!! Big 10!) And Grandma Berg said that I was the fifth person she wished happy birthday when she called! Well, even if it was a celebration for a lot of people didn't diminish how special my day was! It was great, as the following pictures will show:These are flowers that my in-laws: Ron, Cyndee and the kids sent me from Oregon. It was so sweet and a total surprise! I never recieved flowers like these before, I was so excited!
As you probably heard before. We went to Vegas with our friends and neighbors Eric and Sharn. We had a total blast (even though I got sick with pain the night before and was sore the entire weekend, I refused to stay home and give it up though!) Chris decided that we could splurge a bit for my upcoming b-day and watch Cirque Du Soleil's Ka. (Although, he said, it's my birthday present for the next ten years.) I've been wanting to see it since it came out last year in June! It was everything I thought it would be and more. It's a definite must see once in your life time. Even though the tickets were really expensive, we all felt it was well worth it. We were in absolute awe for several days afterwards. Eric agreed that it was good even though he wanted to see the Chippendales. =P
These are my cakes! The left one is Chris' own rendition of Kenshin, including his one crooked eyebrow. However, take note of this disclaimer! Chris is actually a fantastic baker and his skills should not be questioned with this cake. The cake was extra crumbly for some reason and wouldn't let him frost it properly. The cake on the right is a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Cold Stone. It was really good!

Here is the little get-together that Chris arranged! Andrew, Laura, Clancy, Eric, Sharn, Kaulana, Nicole and Jonathan came and chilled for a couple of hours. It was fun and we all enjoyed watching Clancy bounce around being really really cute!

Mama and Papa gave us money so that Jonathan, Aubrey (Jon's girlfriend), Chris and I could eat out for both Jon's (March 23rd) and my birthday! We went to Ruby River for some fat ribeye steaks. It was swa-eet.

Chris also surprised me with two bags of Ketchup chips (my favorite!) and the new Pride and Prejudice piano music! I love the pieces in there, they're so fun!

Thanks to everyone for making my birthday so memorable! I loved it all!

Elvis Lives!!!

2007-03-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, we just got back from Las Vegas. It was pretty awesome. We saw the sights and did stuff (minus the drinking, gambling, and whatever else there was). We even saw this guy.

And here at the theater where Ka was playing. Amazing.You can see the sheer excitement oozing from Katrina's face. It was excitement well spent. Ka was amazing. Really amazing. Super amazing.

Our fun walking around

2007-03-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

We got bored so we went on a walk. It started out by the duck pond. Feeding ducks, it's fun and all but it can only keep your attention for so long. So we drove out to Utah Lake. Yes that big, shallow, icky lake. But it was a beautiful day and it compensated for a lot of things. That and Katrina is good at taking pictures. I tried a little fishing but to no avail. Katrina has said she won't go fishing again until I catch a fish first. I really don't want to eat anything that comes out of there anyway. Anyway, here are a few pictures we took.

Fun Fun Friday!

2007-03-10T12:17:00.000-08:00

Well, after school and doing some chores we went over to our neighbors' Eric and Sharn to hang out since Andrew and Laura were there. (Andrew was helping Eric with some work stuff.) Later, we all decided to meet up again to have our own little grill dinner get-together with Rachel Ray's special turkey hamburgers with avocado dressing (Thank you Andrew and Laura!!)

It was a pretty funny sight to see. Eric just had this medium sized bbq and we set it up in one of the parking places at our apartment complex. So there we all are, just sitting there bbq'ing, eating chips and salsa while hoping that nobody will curse us for taking a parking spot.

What ended up happening was, since the grill was kind of small all the wives were in Sharn's apartment making the burgers on a George Foreman grill, while all the husbands just sat around the bbq doing some male bonding-or-who-knows-what while cooking some chicken.

It all was fun though. As always we ended up stuffing ourselves silly making a LOT of food (that always seems to happen when we get together), and sat down listening to all the husbands quote Spaceballs. By the end of the night Chris and I rolled ourselves up to apartments thoroughly stuffed and sleepy. Just that way we like it!

(See bbq pics below!)

Barbeque

2007-03-10T12:00:00.000-08:00

We decided to have a barbecue out in the parking lot.

And for some reason Katrina likes this pictures

The lateset Japanese exercise craze!!!

2007-03-07T17:00:00.000-08:00

I Wish We Had BBC 1

2007-03-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

If you loved the classic Wallace & Gromit series then you'll probably recgonize the little tyke named Shaun from A Close Shave donning an enduring sweater. Well, apparently the geniuses behind the series have decided that he deserves his own children's show (sans the granny sweater...too bad, I kinda liked it.) If only we had this channel in the States...=(

Us

2007-03-05T14:44:00.000-08:00

Here we are at some Indian temple thingajigger in Spanish Fork. Who ever thought of putting something like this out there? Pretty cool to see though.

Katrina's baby

2007-03-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

This is Kenshin. He is in Washington, 'cause somebody decided it's not right for us to have him here. Not bitter though. He causes havoc no matter where he goes. And Katrina misses him.

WeLcOmE!

2007-03-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well technically, Chris doesn't actually knows about this yet. But I figured since we have friends and family that we love to keep in touch with but can't always write/call/email this may help in bridging that gap. Oh and we also have a knack of finding funny videos (Especially Chris with his Japanese connections) that we would love to share to everyone. Thus, this blog is created and we hope to hear from all of you in the future! (Well...when Chris finally finds out about this!)