Date Night times Dos

So, maybe the rest of you are professional dating after you're married experts, but around here I have to confess that we frequently fall into doing the same old same old. Sure we do go out to eat on a lot of Fridays, or we'll watch a movie together at home at some point during the weekend, but as far as truly official dates, I think we have room to improve. Or at least we did have room. This weekend we went on two Official dates (in my opinion) and I am so proud of us! Plus, it was just really fun!
On Friday night, we went out to dinner at a bizarre but pretty good noodle house that is decorated like a French cafe, and serves Asian and Italianish (fettucine with ginger?) noodles. Weird, but pretty enjoyable. Then, since we were already gussied up, we headed over to a theatre downtown where we saw a production of Romeo and Juliet. Sigh. Dean really knows what I like. I love plays and was even in Romeo and Juliet in high school so it was a fun surprise when he told me a week ago that he'd bought tickets. It was a great production, we got fabulous seats (that were even upgraded at the theater) and felt very refined/giddy. (At least I did- after having performed in it and taught the play in it's entirety to 9th graders, how could I not love it?!)
Then, on Saturday night, we had another evening of high culture. That's right, we went to see the Coyotes play the Pittsburgh Penguins in the hockey showdown of the century. Well, something like that. Again, great seats and an action packed game provided plenty of fun. There was overtime and a shoot-out which the Penguins won on the very last shot- we were at the edge of our seats the whole time. I think Dean had a great time, even though I did complain a little about the acceptability (yes I just made that up) of fights within hockey. When people throw off gloves in the middle of a game and go at it with no one even attempting to break it up, it seems a little ridiculous to me. Hockey or not, I'll probably never get over that aspect of it. Still, after a night of theater, I was willing to sit through anything! :) No photographic evidence for this post, but thought I'd take the liberty of sharing anyway. My husband is the best!

Lately...

Here's what we've been up to...
1. Working on the house. Recently, we borrowed one neighbor's truck, another neighbor's shovels and wheelbarrow, and took yet another neighbor's advice on which nursery is superior, and bought ourselves a truck load of dirt, lots of flowers and some veggies to plant in the backyard. After an invigorating (read tiring) evening of shoveling dirt out of a truck and hauling it across our yard, we finally got everything planted. The house isn't done yet, but we're slowly making progress!2. Hanging out with this cute lady. Grandma Watanabe took a few pretty nasty falls recently and hasn't been feeling her usual chipper self. We were lucky enough to go up to SLC and spend a few days with her recently. We went on a drive in the Canyon, looked through a lot of family photo albums, ate some Japanese food, and had a great time. We loved spending time with her. Really! (as Grandma would say)3. Enjoying fall in Utah. During our short weekend trip, we saw the leaves, busted out our sweaters and boots, then retreated before the first snow! Perfect timing if I do say so myself! We also got to take a tour to the top of the conference center, which Dean had never seen before. It was really cool, even if they were running a little low on flowers this time of year! :)4. Playing some b-ball with the homies! It was really fabulouso to see Jill and Vince and Dean's Dad while we were in UT. We miss our Sunday dinners with Jill and Vince, as well as our epic croquet-mini-golf tournaments, trivial pursuit face offs, and creative basketball contests. We feel so blessed to have such great families.
5. Enjoying our friends' stinkin' adorable kid! What more is there to say about this other than Calvin is such a cutie!6. Eating outside on our porch in the beautiful 70 degree weather that is Fall in Phoenix. After a rather hot summer filled with house painting with no air-conditioning, porch constructing, wall supervising, and lots of sweating while listening to Harry Potter on cd, we are starting to remember why we moved to Phoenix now that Fall has arrived. (That and the fact that we couldn't find jobs anywhere else...)

Go Falcons!

Check this out! It's a sweet article about my littlest bro (Nick) and his mad football skills! Way to go Nick and good luck beating Salpointe in the big game tonight! It's been a long time coming and I know you guys can stick it to 'em! So proud of this guy!

The Saddest Dog in the World

Doesn't he look so distraught?
It's because his life is so hard; he has to lay on a body pillow in an air-conditioned house while he waits for someone to lavish their undivided attention on him. A good reminder to all of us to be stoic even amidst life's most difficult trials.

Friends

We are glad we have friends who like us enough to come visit even when there is an excessive heat warning in effect. Also, who bring cute housewarming gifts like paper lanterns! It was fun to play and eat with friends before school starts back up! This is also an open invitation for any other people who may feel inclined to come visit...October is very nice here! :) Ps- Sorry Henry looks like a monster zombie dog in this picture. He's somewhat less scary in real life.

5 Great Things

1. Monsoon season has arrived, and in the past few days we've even gotten some rain out of those big dark clouds!

2. Lacey and Bille are back from Cartagena so we have friends again!

3. We bought a house!

4. Henry was a pretty good dog today, even though he's gotten even more anxious since the move and has reverted to waking up at 6am.

5. It's still summer vacation...at least for a few more days!

And bonus number 6: Pound cake + peaches = delicious!

More updates and pictures to follow! :)

Happy Anniversary

We feel so grateful to have found each other.
Happy three years to us!
may.19.2007

The Countdown

After tomorrow, we have just two weeks left of school. I know that seems short...but it feels like it's going to last FOREVER!! Sigh...if students only knew that teachers long for the days of summer even MORE than they do... Welp, now that I've made myself sound like a terrible teacher-it's off to do some lesson planning. Maybe I'll come back up for air in a few weeks. Right after school gets out I'm going to Girls Camp with the girls in our ward for a week. I'm excited but tired. Well- here's to seeing you in June dearest blogworld!

SB 1070

Yesterday the Arizona senate passed the most oppressive, odious, and frankly unconstitutional law I have heard about in a long time. Your stance on immigration is basically irrelevant. No legislation is going to completely halt immigration, as anyone with even a basic understanding of supply and demand could tell you. But even if that was your goal, this is not the bill to do it! Arizona Representative Tom Chabin said it best. In a recent interview he was explaining why the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, the border cities of Yuma and Sierra Vista, as well as the Arizona Prosecuting Attorney's council ALL OPPOSE THIS BILL. He explains, "this bill...distracts local police from the priorities that keep the community safe. It distracts them from going after real criminals- crack houses, drug sales, and drug dealers within the community...and directs their attention to some guy who wants to rake someone's lawn." I couldn't agree with him more.

In a nutshell, this bill requires police to demand proof of citizenship from anyone they see for whom there is "reasonable suspicion" that they are here illegally. The problem is that you cannot tell by looking at someone whether they have papers or not. So what "reasonable suspicion" are police left to use? I've got a newsflash for Jan Brewer and her colleagues- this is 2010- there are A LOT of CITIZENS of this country who happen to speak Spanish and who also have dark skin. As of yesterday, that wasn't a crime. However, in 5 short days, if Brewer doesn't veto this bill, anyone who is Latino, yes even U.S. citizens, will be legally subjected to harassment and questioning by police officers anywhere and at anytime in the state of Arizona. Unbelievable. Further more, should the police actually discover someone who is undocumented, they are required to immediately arrest them and transport them to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. Because that's a good use of taxpayer money.

The author of the bill explained his well thought-out rationale this way, "Handcuffs are a wonderful tool when they're on the right people." He goes on to say that he wants to "get [handcuffs] off law enforcement and onto the bad guys." As a reminder here people, I would be inclined to agree with him if the "bad guys" were murderers, rapists, or even Wall Street CEOs. But day laborers? People who stand outside of Home Depot trying to get hired to landscape your backyard for embarassingly low prices? Or how about my students' 65 year old grandparents who don't have papers? Or for that matter the 12 year olds in my class? (those who have papers as well as those who do not) Are these really the dangerous criminals our country should be focusing on? I think not. And I'd like to think that there are a lot of intelligent people out there, on both sides of the immigration issue who agree with me.

For more information about this bill, and what you can do to stop it from becoming a law, please check out the websites below. And thank you for listening to my rant. I can't help it. I refuse to sit back and allow xenophobia and blatant, institutionalized, racism to become the norm in this country or my state. Hopefully, you can't stomach this either.
New York Times- AZ Goes Over the Edge

NPR's Morning Edition- AZ Tough New Immigration Bill

ACLU Analysis of the Bill

National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Reuters- AZ Passes Tough Illegal Immigration Law

Due Process and Immigration Law- Restore Fairness

In Honor of the 2010 Census

I came to appreciate the census when I took my family history class at BYU. It was really cool because I got to look back at previous censuses and find out information about my own family. I think it is a neat thing that we all get to fill one out no matter who you are, how much money you make or where you come from. So, in honor of the census (it only comes once every 10 years) here's a little high quality entertainment from SNL:

Birthday Count Down!

In 6 days someone at our house is having a birthday. Here are some clues to help you figure out who it is...
1) This person shares a birthday with an Orangutan named Duchess who is turning 50 this year

2) This person loves Reese's Eggs and hopes to get some soon in an Easter basket.3) This person graduated from BYU and is a big smarty!4) This person is really good at playing hockey. This person was even the captain of their high school hockey team!
5) This person loves taking epic bike rides in Moab, Park City, and Fruta!6) This person enjoys cross country-skiing

7) This person has a best friend named Henry. Henry absolutely adores this person.

8) This person has been confused with Indiana Jones before. Especially by small children.

9) This person is a GREAT husband and has even been known to make a doily by hand just because he knew it would make his wife smile.

10) This person is my best friend in the whole world and I am so lucky to have him as my eternal companion!

PS- This year is Dean's golden birthday! Yahoo for the big 2-7!!

Sunny (?) California

For Spring Break I was able to escape for a few days to visit my mom and sister out in San Diego. Pacific Beach to be more specific. Unfortunately, good ol Californ-i-a was not living up to its sunny reputation, so we didn't get a chance to go to the beach while I was there. Still, we did get out to eat Greek, Italian, Vietnamese, Mexican food, and delicious frozen yogurt while I was there. Not too shabby. Chesney shared some especially choice stories about her students' adventures in testing (spelling tests, math tests, and writing about chili dogs-all in a days work for this lady) and it was fun to laugh and trade stories about our crazy school system. My mom and I also went and saw Alice in Wonderland, which I would highly recommend to anyone looking for an entertaining flick. Overall it was a great trip and a fun chance to get away! Thank you to my familia and to Dean for taking care of Henry et al. while I was gone!

Alando comes to visit

Recently, my little brother came to visit from the far-away land of New York City. He's currently living there waiting tables, running into the cast of Saturday Night Live, working at a bookstore, reading a lot of David Sedaris, riding the subway and doing other equally glamorous and urban activities. We think he is awesome! He was only in Phoenix for about 48 hours but it was great to catch up with him. The first night he was here, we had dinner at The Parlor. If you have never been to this place, then you need to check it out! (okay so that was an unabashed plug for someone to come visit us!) I had butternut squash risotto that was absolutely fabulous. The next day, Lacey, Bille, Loghyn and Alando and I met for breakfast at a little place called Toast- a breakfast "boutique" so exclusive that apparently it has no website, but it does have high quality breakfast goodies. Next up? The Phoenix Zoo- to pay Dean a visit and to test our running skills. (See the video below) Overall it was a delightful weekend. Oh, and for the record, Alando highly recommends our guest suite (complete with Queen sized bed, pool view, and private bathroom) to others who may be interested in a short jaunt into the sunshine.

That's right, we raced small children to see who was almost as fast as a cheetah...and apparently the children won. Turns out I have quite a bit of conditioning to do. By the way, ignore the drug themed discussion at the beginning of the 2nd video, there was some PVC pipe on the ground and I always end up calling it the wrong thing.

Love is in the air...

Isn't Valentines day just the BEST?!

Here's hoping you enjoy a whole month dedicated to the color PINK!
:)

Hockey!

For Christmas, Lacey and Bille got Dean tickets to a Coyotes game. The tickets were for AMAZING seats and even came with a free hot dog and drink! We just went last night with some friends from our ward who also had tickets to the game. The Coyotes were playing the New York Rangers and the Coyotes won 3-2. It was actually a pretty close game by the end! It was way fun! Plus, I think Dean was glad to have someone other than me to watch the game with, since I usually pepper the game with too many gasps after a rough check or else ask too many questions like, "why is it only a high stick if you hit someone?" A BIG thank you to Lacey and Bille for providing us with such a fun date night and for making Dean's hockey dreams come true!

Happy New Year!

Hooray for 2010! I know it's a tad late, but it's still January so I thought I'd capitalize on the spirit of the season while I still can. I love New Years actually. I think it is one of my favorite times of year because it seems fresh, new, and full of possibilities. Even in challenging times, people are optimistic. We plan to become healthier, happier, and we resolve to do all those things that we didn't get around to doing last year. I don't know, it just seems invigorating. We are looking forward to all sorts of great things this year, and we hope that life has good things in store for you too! Happy New Year and a big sunny welcome to 2010!