Still Alive

Well, it's January so I suppose we're due for another post. It's past new years but since I love the New Years season so, indulge me as I share a few of our thoughts and hopes for 2011. (If you don't call them resolutions, you won't feel as guilty for not following through..:)

1) Plant a citrus tree in our backyard: Okay if you didn't know already, I've had a lifelong love affair with citrus trees. In my backyard growing up we had a lemon tree, an orange tree and a grapefruit tree. Not only were they beautiful to look at, they produced prolific amounts of delicious fruit (for free) and scented the air with the most lovely delicate fragrance in the entire world when in bloom. Now that we have our own home I can't wait to plant a lemon tree. My gardening book says to plant in late winter or early spring, but since it's already in the low 70s during the day here, I think the time is drawing near! :) I'll keep you updated on this project, and if you're nice, I'll bake you a lemon meringue pie like this one if you come visit!

2) Activity Increase: Like everyone else in the world one of our New Year's resolutions is to get out and be more active. Surprisingly, I'm pretty proud of the progress we've made in this category so far this year. Dean generously got me a year's worth of yoga at a local studio and he in turn received some hockey gear/will be signing up for a local league in February when the new season starts. So far I've gone to yoga once each week, Dean's already breaking in his new skates and we've played tennis for a few hours the past two Saturdays. Okay, so we're not running marathons, but I think it's a step in the right direction. Exercise for me is more of a mental stress reliever than anything else at this point and I'm happy to report that my hour and a half of yoga is one of my most blissful hours of the week!

3) Go on at least one Fabulous Trip, preferably out of the country: What's the use of having no kids if we don't even take advantage of it by traveling the world? haha jk. But really, we would like to plan and take one wonderful trip this year. We always (ok me especially) talk about traveling, but somehow work schedules, money and other obligations always get in the way. Maybe it's the fresh start feeling of January, maybe it's jealousy of my sister's fabulous trips (Colombia, Mexico, Spain, Bali, and Thailand to name a few recent escapades) or maybe it's just bitterness about testing overload at work, but I am determined to seize the day this year and travel to at least one fabulous destination. Thank you Mr. Keating. And yes I am teaching Walt Whitman's Oh Captain, My Captain this week, which in a circuitous way makes me think of the whole Carpe Diem thing. :)

Well, We'd better leave it at three for now, lest we be too ambitious. I sincerely hope everyone else is enjoying this fabulouso month where great things are still ahead of everyone, and we can be content to refresh, dream, plan and find joy in the good things yet to come.
Ps-I love this video and hope you will too!

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! :)