Aruba Views

 Aruba.
The Beach.

Mike and I.

Perfect!

The last time we went somewhere together for something like this was 

2 years ago for our 20th year anniversary.

I must say, I love those little trips...

They keep the romance and the love going.

View from our hotel Balcony

Dinner View

Hotel Pool view

Market down the street view

I've died and gone to France!

I opened and cooked one of my Trader's Joe finds!
I'm loving that store more and more!
And these Almond Croissants!
I ate 2 and there were 2 for Mike.
Unfortunately for him, Mike forgot to eat his second one for breakfast...
He thought it was going to be there when he got home?!
Not really.
I told him:
"I don't have that much self-control!!!!"

A Taste of France in all it's goodness and glory!
Oh... How I adore/miss French food!!!

By the way it's not just the food I miss, I miss my Family...
I'm long due for a trip to my home land...

2 Photos for the 2 croissants I ate today! 

Since France is not in the books right now.  
My Man is taking me to Aruba!
For our Anniversary. 
Just the 2 of us... 

We leave tomorrow at 4:30 am for 9 days!
It's good cause my toes are getting cold, 
I'm not ready to wear socks and closed shoes all day yet...
And YES! 
It does get a little chilly in Texas...

*******

Saturday Morning Walk

Today...
Our chore list was pushed asside,
to make room for relaxing Fun Activities with Amelie and Friends.

Fishing with Friends

During Our Forest walk,
we got a call from the William Family inviting us to join them in a little fishing party!
We had lots of fun and learned a lot too...

The Waiting.... in need of Lots of Patience?!

The Worms!!!

Dogs being Dogs

It was killing Chloe that she had to be tied to a tree!!!
Piglet dindn't care as long as he could be with his doggy-girl-friend,
like literaly be on top of her!
He Loves Chloe!
He is sooooo Cute!
So is my Chloe!

1 Fish. 2 Fish. 3 Fish.

Patience paying off!!

So our friends invite us, and Mike is the one catching all the catfishes!
I guess he did learn something from his dad, grandpa Nakata who was big time into fishing!
Mike says he doesn't have the patience and he doesn't care much for fish...

2 Fish @ 1 1/2 lb and 1 big one @ 2 lb! He let Amelie real 2 in and Lili one.
They all were freed into the pond.

Climbing Trees

After fishing lost it's charm, the kids found this awesome perfect climbing tree...

They loved it! Amelie and Gordon went quite high up in it!
This was one of my favorite activities in my youth!

Spanish Horses

After the Fishing, we all went to a Spanish Dance Horse Show.

Another great activity!

I actually took some pictures with my Camera that I will post later.

The kids got to ride on horses too.

It was all free!

Looking Sharp!

I wanted to take some good pictures, but by the time he was ready,
it was too dark outside...
I'll have to get my good camera and shoot later in the daylight,
next time he wares his suit.

Emric's 1st Suit and shiny shoes!
Happy 16th Birthday Tuesday!

Emric after shopping & hair cut - ready for the Homecoming Dance

Shopping. When I got to the Store, Emric said: " Can I stay in the car?"
 Boys!!! A girl would NEVER say that!
He forgot for a minute that we were there for him!

*****

November 9th

For our date tonight, on this special day,

My man took me to Flemings Restaurant.

A very fancy & $$$ place but delicious!

I had Tuna Ahi and heavenly Creme Brulee 

Mike had a melt-in-your-mouth-Stake and a heart-attack-Lava-Chocolate-cake.

He had a gift $50 card that help pay for the hefty bill.

We finished the night watching funny Mormon parodies!
(Idea taken from Pinterest)

Here was our favorite one

22 years!

*** I HeaRt YoU ***

* Still choosing you  *  Loving my life with you  *  Thanking you for being you & still being CraZy in love with me *

Today - Part 2

Today

A 'Ray of Sunshine' came through the back door at the drop of a hat, 

in the form of a sweet sister-girlfriend, Jamie.

To comfort, to offer friendship, to paint toe nails orange!

A breath of fresh air on a beautiful, beautiful sunny day!

Even though my heart was gloomy.

Funny it is.

Because yesterday, I was an answer to her prayer, so she says.

She called me 'Angel'.

I went to her, offering a helping hand, a chick flick and a lunch.

When she said: 

"How can I repay you?", 

I said: 

"By just by being you, a Ray of Sunshine, 

you just make people happy just by your presence."

Today she was just that to me!

Today

A sweet concerned caring Justine called from paradise.

A little uplifting comment from across the world. Merci Petit Frere...

Sometimes you just need to know someone cares...

Grateful today for an answered prayer.

Thank you.

'Macaron aux Framboise" French almond biscuit with vanilla cream and rasberries.

Today

I defrosted a Trader's Joe 'Macaron aux Framboise'

*****

Today - Part 1

Today 

I am sad for our country. 

Today 

I am mostly sad for my 20 year old 1st born.

His disease has spread to his small intestine.

I can't imagine having to endure illness this long,

for over 2 years, with no real progress or good news...

Today 

I shed tears

I desperately try to find joy.

But it is hard, so hard...

I see a flicker here and there but I have a hard time holing on to it...

 Today 

My heart will just be sad with small glimmers of hope

as I try to dig deeper for small graces, tender mercies and gratitude.

Today 
I will open my windows and let the Sunshine in!

I will
Cary on.
And think of my boy Alexi...

*****

Sunday Joys

Waking up next to my man - one good man.

Joy in marriage.

The wonderful smells of Preparing Dinner.
Beef braising, onions, garlic, shallots, fresh herbs from my garden; rosemary, thyme, oregano...
Joy in smells.

Recalling childhood memories of early witnesses of a loving God on my drive to Church.

Joy in life lived.

 Amelie entering church with a bandaged one bare foot and one foot with a shoe.
She took off the one. Was Bare feet the whole 3 hours of church!
Me not noticing when she got in the car.
Totally faked injury!
Joy of childhood games.

Testimonies born:
A grateful wife.
An 18 year old Girl, rejoicing in serving a mission in 6 months
versus the 2 years she was willing to wait.
Witnesses of Divine grace and love.
Joy in the soul.

Laughing so hard after the telling of  Mike's trunk incident!
A son innocently admitting he heard "put it all in my Trunk!"
Joy in laughter...

Braking our Fast with Delicious Beef Strogonoff,
mashed potatoes, garlic green beans and mushrooms
Joy in the belly!

Skyping family
Talking about nothing and everything
Beautiful Justine in Hawaii, family in France, the Browns in Utah.
Joy in togetherness.

Sharing crepes and nutella with another family.
Lot's of noises, hugs, dogs running around.
Teaching them our family song
All bearing testimonies one by one...
Kneeling in payers
Joy in sharing

Bed time rest after a full day next to my man - one good man.
Joy in the body

I am blessed.
Joy in the heart & life

******

Family Song

Wonderful and Marvelous is Jesus to me.

Sweeter than honey on a honeycomb is he.

Jesus is real

He'll never fail

I will serve him faithfully thoughout eternity.

History:
This is the song Mike and my Mission President taught us while in England under their care.
It was their family song.
We have made it our own since we joined lives.

Declutering - Part 3

What Teens Actually Hear! 

After gathering the sacrifices of the day to be disposed of I, Mike, called Emric to help out. 

 "Emric,
please carry this bin downstairs,
dump the contents of the laundry basket in the garbage,
put my laptop in the kitchen,
and put the rest in my trunk."

I guess I should be glad the laptop didn't go in the garbage,
as Emric obviously heard dump the entire bin,
garbage and all with my dry cleaning in the trunk!

When I opened it this morning, with great laughter and a
Bishopric counselor, to unload our recent ward's 2013 curriculum order...

This is what I saw:

Declutering - Part 2

What joy to the heart when we came across a stack of old love notes, 

and letters of shared life together; 

Courtship. 

New love. 

Promises of Forever

Father/mother's day cards from our kids.

Correspondences during my trips to France. 

(well, mostly my letters)

All Remembered

All Loved

It does wonders for time tried & tested couple love.

But still growing, deepening, learning,  surely changing...

Made for a great Date Night!

Well worth the clean up!

Mike scored big in the 'Love Language' bucket! 

     Chipotle  Bowls     *     Downtown the Woodlands     *     Red Mango Desert Shared

Declutering - Part 1

There is nothing like going through old stuff, 

and getting rid of junk for a couple's togetherness! 

We don't do it often enough! 

I especially like it when Mike does it. 

He is more of a pack rat than I am.

Today, if we survive this, we can survive anything!

My 3 Questions for what GOES:

1. Is it/will it be meaningful for our family and kids 10, 20, 30 years from now? 

2. Do you want to be buried with it? 

(if not, might as well get rid of it now)

3. Have you used it in the last 2 years? 

(I'm too nice it's really 1year)

*****

Mike had to go through his dad's stuff when he passed away. 

He spent 3 days cleaning out just 1 room!

I remind him of that and how fun it was. Not!

And that we don't want to do that to our kids or each other...

It helps him let go of stuff!

It's hard though, he doesn't much like these questions, 

but they are of utmost importance to me!

He is such a trouper, the stuff I put him through! :)

It's less painful to him when I do this by myself 

and either throw things away when he's out of town, 

or sell it on the net!

Oups!!! I'm in trouble!

Today he found out I sold one of his 5 ladders for $50 

(it got used twice, and it's heavy!) 

*****

Oh... how I love this happy little French girl!

We found this newspaper article of yours truly when I was 8 years old living in Australia!

 ***** 

Emric Diving

We got to see Emric last night at a High School Diving Invitational.

This is his best dive, the 5 other ones were kinda busts! 

They were new dives.

Mike didn't stop talking the WHOLE meet! Literally!
It's a good thing we were sitting kinda by ourselves.

He missed his vocation!
Sports commentator!

He made me laugh so hard!

Never a dull moment with my Man!

Halloween

Amelie is some kind of vampire/devil?
She is not a cat this year!

2011  2009

I'm so glad sad Halloween is over!

This year we took Amelie to a friend's neighborhood that has tons of kids and decorations.

We left Emric home with some candy just in case kids came to our door.

Last year, we only had one Trick-O-Treater come to our door!

Today was a true record breaker: 

Not ONE costume-wearing kids came!
So Emric was quite happy to end up with all the left over candy!

My favorite part of today was not having time to cook dinner.
 Bummer!
We HAD to go to Panera Bread!
:)