Andrew and Sara's Wedding

Andrew and Sara got married on Friday. I think a lot of people have been waiting for that day to come. We were so happy to be able to be there with them on that beautiful day.


Rod and I waiting for Sara and Andrew to come out of the temple.


Andrew's mom, Dianne. So happy and gorgeous.


Dr. and Mrs. Smith. Andrew's sister and brother in-law. The coolest people you will ever meet. Mediterranean cruise in a year or so with them...for sure.

Mike and Rod

Sara and Andrew. Happy couple.

Sara's huge and happy hug to Dianne.

Love or Hate?

We woke up on Saturday morning, which happened to be also a May Day, First of May or Vappu. If you have read my blog long enough, you know that 'Vappu' is a huge celebration in Finland and other European countries. This is the day when families eat potato salad and hot dogs, eat donuts and drink "sima" (a citrus drink of sorts), the high school graduates wear their graduation hats outside, have big parties and frolic outside throwing serpentine and drink booze until they are hugely drunk. Since I moved to this country, one tradition in our family is that I make the homemade donuts. Nobody in our family likes "sima" so I don't make it.

Sooo...on Saturday morning before Skyping with my mom, I went downstairs to prepare the dough for the donuts and looked outside and saw that somebody was in a "Vappu" state of mind and had serpentined our tree. How thoughtful! Of course they had used only one color serpentine and I don't think white is a very nice color when you have ALL of those multi-colors to choose from. I think people love us so much that they wanted us to have a happy Vappu. Thanks people, whoever you are! Hopefully we get to re-pay you back.





Donuts were finished and Alex and I took them to my friends' Riikka's and Terhi's house. I left a few for Alex. I didn't have any. Willpower people! Willpower!

On Saturday to celebrate Vappu, I took Alex shopping for some new shirts for the cruise that's coming up in a week or so. Had lunch at a Mexican restaurant called "El Mexiquense" in American Fork. I remember Jorge telling us when he was living with us how much he missed Tacos Al Pastor, so when I read about this restaurant that they serve authentic Tacos Al Pastor, I decided that we would go there for lunch. And it didn't disappoint. They were SO good! Then went to a movie and saw a really bad movie called "Date Night". I sat there totally embarrassed. Luckily we have trained Alex to cover his eyes when there are some questionable scenes in the movie. I think he sat there with hands on his eyes for the last 10 minutes of the movie. Should have walked out. Elle called while we were at the movies and she was looking to hang out with us or mainly Alex. I wasn't sure what our plans would be later that night so she decided to hang out with her dad instead. Rod and Whitney were on a business trip to Kansas. Later we decided to go to Chef's Table for nice Vappu dinner, and Alex texted Elle that she was missing out. Bummer she couldn't come with us. The dinner was incredible, as always.

On Sunday morning, we woke up after a night of heavy rain and when I looked out the window, we saw that we got more love from somebody, or is it hate at this point? This time it was a soggy mess of TOILET PAPER. I couldn't consider it anymore to be serpentine because Vappu was over. I'm considering asking the person who did this that she/he would come to my house to do chores because I had to clean up their mess. I'm going to catch them, one way or another.

101 Birthday Girl

We have a beautiful neighbor, Bea, who just turned 101 yesterday. I get to visit her once a month and catch up with all of her news. She is the most wonderful lady who is sharp as a tack, remembers everything, does everything and goes everywhere and if she can't sleep at night she gets up and does leg exercises at the bannister. She is a true inspiration for so many people in our neighborhood.

Last night I went over with some Finnish chocolates and a card for a 1-year old. She is, after all, starting life all over again from age 1. Her two sisters, Thelma and LeVon (you thought I was going to say Louise, weren't you) were there and we had a great visit with all three of them. I have met the sisters many times before and we always have a fun visit with us swapping stories of what we have read recently. Mind you, the sisters are in their late 80s and early 90s, and are beautiful and sharp as can be.


Beatrice, the birthday girl

Bea, LeVon (blue shirt) and Thelma

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.