The 3 Musketeers

The 3 Musketeers could mean us, but we actually went to the play last night at the Hale Center Theater in SLC.

The question should be asked....why were they called "musketeers" when they used swords the whole time? Where were the muskets?

It was another fun play and Alex even liked it because all the action.

Too cool..

Painting and Visiting

We were able to start painting Alex's room on Saturday morning. Alex had chosen the paint colors and we started with the ceiling and then moved onto the walls. The room is very dark blue and the ceiling is light blue, almost the color of the sky. When we get the furniture in and all of the accessories, I think the room will look wonderful.


I'm finishing up the first coat of paint.


Alex is happily painting.


Almost finished.


On Saturday afternoon, after a quick visit to IKEA, we headed up to Logan to see Liz and Brad's new house. They were having a housewarming party and we wanted to go see their beautiful house.

Happy homeowners Liz and Brad.

Bake Me, Shower Her, Humor U, Dinner Them

Weekend Update:

Bake Me- Friday night while Rod was in Atlanta having Zija's Regional Conference and Alex was at a party, I decided to bake for my friends Riikka and Terhi. It is also a good excuse to sniff the baked goods while I can't partake. My personal trainer Lisa told me:"You can have cake after you reach your goal". I'm not at my goal yet. I have 4 lbs to go. Then another 10. Maybe I can have cake at Thanksgiving. I can wait. My willpower is at all time high. Not with exercise but with food only. Still blending my green sludge every day.

Shower Her- Sara's bridal shower was on Saturday at Dianne's house (same people that we do our annual Super Bowl party with), hosted by Dianne, Hilary, Tai, Brooke and Nikole. Sara is going to marry Dianne's son, Andrew, in May. It was great to see all of our dear friends again. And surprisingly we are going to make the wedding. We missed Hilary's and Tai's years ago because both times we were in Finland. But we made Brooke's and Jordan's. Actually, I don't know if Rod's going to make the wedding because I haven't checked his schedule. Let's hope so.

Humor U- I took Alex and his friend Jake to the BYU Comedy Club performance on Saturday night. Alex was greatly against it saying:"They will tell stupid Mormon jokes and it is not going to be funny". Not so! The minute the show started, he and Jake were both laughing until the end of the show. We all loved it and it was a good thing for our souls.

Dinner Them- We invited our friends Sini-Tuulia (the violin player) and her boyfriend Eric to dinner to our house on Sunday night. Rod and Alex prepared delicious Gumbo and I made corn bread, salad and Snickerdoodle cupcakes. It was great to visit with them and catch up with their news. Alex had a great conversation with Eric about basketball. Hope to see them more often.

Alex and Jake before the comedy show started.

First for Me and First for BYU

Last night our family was invited to the Amanecer String Quartet concert at the Karl Maesar building at BYU. Our friend Sini-Tuulia studies violin at BYU and is part of the quartet. Unfortunately, I was the only one who could attend the concert.

When I arrived at the Karl Maesar building, I realized that even though I had studied for 5 years at BYU, and a couple of years right next door to the building, and had taken multiple tests at the testing center that was also right next door, that I had never stepped inside the Maesar building before. That was truly a "first" for me.

I climbed to the 3rd floor to the balcony of the lecture hall where the concert was going to be. I settled in my seat so I could see better to down below. The program indicated that we would be hearing Jean Sibelius' "String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 56" and David Balakrishnan's "Spider Dreams".

Before the concert started, we were told that this was a first for BYU when a string quartet also included a drummer. The drummer came in when the jazz portion of the concert started with Spider Dreams.

It was an incredible concert and it was great to see Sini-Tuulia in full action. What a talent! The other ladies and the drummer were excellent as well.

Sini-Tuulia is the blonde on the left.

Easter-Time for Spring?

On Easter Sunday we woke up and lo' and behold what the Easter Chick had brought to Alex. A couple of shirts, an Orange egg and the pink chick had laid a huge Easter egg that when Alex cracked it open, it had $50 in it. Thanks Easter chick! Sorry for the hemorroids that you probably have now after pushing that huge egg out of your innards.

*I used the wheat grass later in my green smoothie



And then we looked out the window in anticipation of seeing brilliant sunshine and beautiful daffodils and tulips blooming in my flower beds. No! All we could see was the blinding whiteness that, once again, covered everything!


Mother Nature! Enough already!


Easter Sunday was nice and relaxing. We went to the Williams to watch the General Conference with Brunch in hand. We had a nice leasurely brunch and then dozed off for the afternoon session. For Easter Sunday dinner we decided to make Shabu-Shabu, a typical Japanese dish.

Need for Subtitles!

Alex and I went to see Shakespeare's "As You Like It" at Pardoe Theater at BYU. Alex is reading Romeo and Juliet in his English class right now, so I thought it would be fun to take him to a Shakespeare play. Boy, was I wrong! First of all, I don't think I've ever attended a Shakespeare play that was SO different. The play started with some cast members in full-face knit hat with guns slinging. They were supposed to be revolutionaries or terrorists. At one point a car battery was used to torture a person. Also a water-boarding was used. But that was not my problem.

My biggest problem was that I couldn't make any sense of the Shakespeare's language. I wanted to have my remote control so I could turn on the subtitles or somebody translate by whispering in my ear. So, I felt like a 3-year old who is really good at looking at pictures and figuring out what's going on.

Even though the play was so different, in the end, the love conquered all and it ended happy. I wish Rod would have taken Alex instead of me. Rod is known to love Shakespeare, even took a Shakespeare class in college. Not me!

Another unhappy performance for Alex.

Mountain vs. Mountain

While Rod was in Japan last week, he was looking at Mt. Fuji from his hotel room window.



We were looking at Mt. Timpanogos.

I think our mountain wins. It is much closer.

Old Age is Here?

Have you reached an old age? Answer these questions honestly. If you answer "yes" to any of them, you are officially old. See my answer after the photo.

1) You get, not one pair but two pairs of glasses, one pair to cover the reading and computer work, and the other pair to cover the long distance because you woke up one morning and were blind as a bat. Do I really need to see the deer on the mountainside, doctor?

2) When wearing a new exercise bra at the gym and feeling extremely comfortable in it, to notice that after a mile run, the bra is around your neck and your boobs are bouncing freely, causing black eyes and bruised knees, and not knowing that this was happening. (This would not apply to the men folk, except if they witnessed this at the gym, they would laugh out loud and point).

3) When the doctor asks if you're experiencing night sweats, cold sweats, hot flashes or really pissy moods for no reason.

4) When you wish you had a toilet stuck to your office chair so you wouldn't have to get up after a grueling workout with your personal trainer/slave driver.

5) All of the Above.

Answer: 5, All of the above.

Hare Krishna-Holi Festival-Welcome Spring

We were among over 10,000 people on Saturday to welcome spring at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. I must say it is an interesting way to welcome spring by throwing bags of colors around. It actually was really fun. There was a lot of love in the air when the colors were thrown.
We arrived 1 1/2 hours early and waited for the bus to take us. We arrived at the temple 10 minutes before 4pm when we thought that the colors would be thrown. Not so. There we were, dipping our hands into the bags and then throwing handfuls of different colors at other people. So much fun. When the countdown finally started about 4:50pm, we were ready to chuck the colors in the air. It was an instant cloud of pink dust. Spring is here!

I think our church should start a similar tradition but do it with silly string.

Countdown to throwing of colors.

Green Chunky Sludge. A Better Batch

To quote my co-worker:"That looks gross as hell!"

1 quart. Done.