Last night I had the singularly superb experience of being in the apartment of six college males, while Marcos conversed with one of the said males for hours into the night. After I had perused the one available magazine four times cover to cover, I resorted to eavesdropping on the other male conversations happening in the room.
What do a bunch of single guys really talk about when the ladies aren't around? The majority of the conversation was about women, which naturally piqued my interest. My favorite comment of the evening was, and I quote: "Dude, this movie is THE PERFECT date movie. If you told a girl she was fat at the beginning of the date and then showed her this movie, she'd still love you".
News flash from Venus: there are no movies that good.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Tokyo no Tomodachi
One of the great things about having been a missionary (and there are many) is that we have gained so many friends for life. The fact that both Marcos and I served in the same mission (Japan, Tokyo North) gives us the advantage of having a lot of the same friends, making impromptu mini-reunions fun for both of us.
Earlier this week we had a date with a few mission buddies, and per Chris' suggestion, went to an exhibition of Japanese block prints at the BYU Museum of Art. Think geisha, snowy landscapes, or my favorite:
Hokusai's print of a wave, as part of the "36 views of Mt. Fuji" series. Gorgeous, isn't it? Below are some photos of our friends. Immediately below are Ronald Christensen, Collin Clifford, me, Marcos and Chris Cutler. The occasion demanded that we connect with our Japanese roots and do a peace sign, although I have to admit we do it with much less gusto than we did in Japan.
Earlier this week we had a date with a few mission buddies, and per Chris' suggestion, went to an exhibition of Japanese block prints at the BYU Museum of Art. Think geisha, snowy landscapes, or my favorite:
Hokusai's print of a wave, as part of the "36 views of Mt. Fuji" series. Gorgeous, isn't it? Below are some photos of our friends. Immediately below are Ronald Christensen, Collin Clifford, me, Marcos and Chris Cutler. The occasion demanded that we connect with our Japanese roots and do a peace sign, although I have to admit we do it with much less gusto than we did in Japan.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Baby, it's cold outside!
It has been a cold winter here in Utah. Last week we had temperatures as low as 0 degrees. Water freezes and it snows at 32 degrees, so just imagine how it feels to stand in snow, and then back up 32 degrees (friends in Canada, ignore this post; it's been really warm lately). Here is the Fetzer's yard, and Obie the dog in the snow.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Monkeying around
Every day I take pictures. Lots of them, because I'm on vacation. Out of necessity, many will be left out of my blogging life, but there are some that just need to have their moment to shine. Here are a few that are begging to be posted.
Malia and Noa are my sister (well, close enough) Lindsay's youngest kiddos, besides the one that is in the oven. They are beautiful children, and although these photos aren't much of a showcase for their beauty, their little child-ness comes out in its full glory. There will be a lot of time for suave photos later in life...
Malia and Noa are my sister (well, close enough) Lindsay's youngest kiddos, besides the one that is in the oven. They are beautiful children, and although these photos aren't much of a showcase for their beauty, their little child-ness comes out in its full glory. There will be a lot of time for suave photos later in life...
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Key to Longevity
The Key to Longevity, to be eaten daily:
1 grilled cheese sandwich
cottage cheese with a pear on top
Yesterday at church a woman shared about her piano teacher who died just shy of 101 years old. The key to her longevity, according to the woman's children, was her daily lunch of a grilled cheese sandwich and cottage cheese with a pear on top. I don't like cottage cheese. To me, it sounds like more pain than its worth. Maybe I'll just settle for a short, happy life...
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Hanging dirty laundry...
Marcos and I had a healthy bit of contention today. Admittedly, I've never been one to care all that much about putting up a front that our marriage is perfect and that we never argue, but this time I'm going to unashamedly tell you about a fight we had. Clip, clip, clip... that's the sound of me hanging out our dirty laundry for you to see.
It all started when Marcos ran into a high-school friend working in a hotel lobby (whom he hasn't seen nor communicated with for nearly a decade), and gave her our blog address, which I had previously asked him not to do without consulting me. His view: it's a way to keep up the connection, without being as personal as giving a phone number or an email address. My view: somebody I don't know is reading about our day to day, and as the main contributor to this blog (read: only contributor), I like to at least pretend that I have some say as to who is privy to our life story! My view of my view: oh how prudent and wise! His view of my view: here's another "control" issue...
Somewhere amidst the raised voices it occurred to me that I had learned from Randy Bott in my mission preparation class at BYU how to have a decent disagreement and find a solution. So when the emotions blew over, we used some Bott-strategizing and started to think up solutions and each of their pros and cons until we came up with something that we both liked. This was our answer: for people we both know, we will pow-wow to make sure that we both feel good about giving out our blog address, and for people only one of us knows, we will individually exercise great prudence before we hand out the address. With an intentionally non-private blog it is unreasonable to think that we will ever have full control over who reads this blog (and indeed, I leave it public in order to be inclusive of friends and family), but with some judgment we can still feel good about publishing personal things... for example, when we get into fights.
This experience has made me wonder if anyone else has had this or a similar conversation with their spouse or partner. Do tell.
P.S. If you are the hotel lobby friend and are reading this entry, please don't feel bad. It was really just a matter of time. The only difference now is that we actually have a solution, so thank you!
It all started when Marcos ran into a high-school friend working in a hotel lobby (whom he hasn't seen nor communicated with for nearly a decade), and gave her our blog address, which I had previously asked him not to do without consulting me. His view: it's a way to keep up the connection, without being as personal as giving a phone number or an email address. My view: somebody I don't know is reading about our day to day, and as the main contributor to this blog (read: only contributor), I like to at least pretend that I have some say as to who is privy to our life story! My view of my view: oh how prudent and wise! His view of my view: here's another "control" issue...
Somewhere amidst the raised voices it occurred to me that I had learned from Randy Bott in my mission preparation class at BYU how to have a decent disagreement and find a solution. So when the emotions blew over, we used some Bott-strategizing and started to think up solutions and each of their pros and cons until we came up with something that we both liked. This was our answer: for people we both know, we will pow-wow to make sure that we both feel good about giving out our blog address, and for people only one of us knows, we will individually exercise great prudence before we hand out the address. With an intentionally non-private blog it is unreasonable to think that we will ever have full control over who reads this blog (and indeed, I leave it public in order to be inclusive of friends and family), but with some judgment we can still feel good about publishing personal things... for example, when we get into fights.
This experience has made me wonder if anyone else has had this or a similar conversation with their spouse or partner. Do tell.
P.S. If you are the hotel lobby friend and are reading this entry, please don't feel bad. It was really just a matter of time. The only difference now is that we actually have a solution, so thank you!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We wish you and your loved ones a very happy 2009! Here's to broadening the definitions of "success" in our lives beyond salary and possessions (because frankly, this year may be disappointing if you don't)! Sending you wishes for joy, adventure, love, optimism, peace, learning, laughter and prosperity for 2009.
This is called "osechi", and it is the traditional Japanese New Years fare. Many of the foods are symbolic, and have meaning for ushering in the New Year. (By the way, the exchange rate for Japanese Yen and the American dollar is about 1 cent to 1 Yen, so if you move the decimal point in the listed price two spaces to the left, you get $210 and $262.50 for each of those little boxes of food. Wow!).
This is called "osechi", and it is the traditional Japanese New Years fare. Many of the foods are symbolic, and have meaning for ushering in the New Year. (By the way, the exchange rate for Japanese Yen and the American dollar is about 1 cent to 1 Yen, so if you move the decimal point in the listed price two spaces to the left, you get $210 and $262.50 for each of those little boxes of food. Wow!).
It's all in the presentation...
I really like Marcos. He is my husband and I love him, but I also really like who he is and the abilities he has.
One of the magical abilities he has is the ability to entertain children. We've been at the Gibson's house for the past few days, and with three kiddos, things sometimes get a little... flavorful. Maika, Noa and Malia are great kids, and we are getting used to having so much beautiful little child energy all in one place at one time.
But sometimes I will notice how quiet it is, and find Marcos with all three kids, reading to them, or pulling off some kind of game that he pulled out of thin air. For example, these pictures are of the kids sitting in a little half-circle around him, engrossed in the guessing game he was playing with a little piece of play-dough. And it could be a rubber band, or the lint from the dryer, and he'd still have them intrigued. Marcos has a gift for presentation and can read the letter D on a page as if it were the key to all childhood happiness. He frankly amazes me with the confidence and ability and the ENERGY he has for kids. It makes me happy to be his wife and best friend.
One of the magical abilities he has is the ability to entertain children. We've been at the Gibson's house for the past few days, and with three kiddos, things sometimes get a little... flavorful. Maika, Noa and Malia are great kids, and we are getting used to having so much beautiful little child energy all in one place at one time.
But sometimes I will notice how quiet it is, and find Marcos with all three kids, reading to them, or pulling off some kind of game that he pulled out of thin air. For example, these pictures are of the kids sitting in a little half-circle around him, engrossed in the guessing game he was playing with a little piece of play-dough. And it could be a rubber band, or the lint from the dryer, and he'd still have them intrigued. Marcos has a gift for presentation and can read the letter D on a page as if it were the key to all childhood happiness. He frankly amazes me with the confidence and ability and the ENERGY he has for kids. It makes me happy to be his wife and best friend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)