we went on vacation.

There were promises of warm weather and sunshine--whatever that is. It only rains here at home.

No such luck on the paradise Christmas. It rained most of the time at both Grandmas and Grandpas' houses. I guess I'll have to store away my sweet shades for some other time.

We did hit the town a couple of nights though. This is my going-out outfit.

I helped Grandpa N peel the plastic off the TV he gave Grandma for Christmas.

What? He didn't want the plastic off? Oops. Too late.

I think Santa is pretty cool, but I definitely did not have my two front teeth on my wish list. Hardy-har-har, fat man.

All I really wanted for Christmas was some paper...and man! EVERYTHING was wrapped in it! I totally scored.

I made some new friends over Christmas too. This is Jacob, Megan, and Kevin. I like them.

 Here's all of us with our Great Grandma.

I really enjoyed the nursing home. Everyone there was real nice. Including the man with the walker that chased me and Mama down the hall just to say hi to me, and the lady that kept asking every 4.56 minutes what my name was, and the other lady that kept trying to get out of her wheelchair while saying, "Get me outta here! Take me with you!" It really wasn't that bad of a place...she'd just lost all her marbles.

I met my Mommy's Great Aunt. I like her too.

Eleanor was an awesome playmate. I would poke her in the eye (and Mama and Dada always just say, "Ouch!" or "No no no!").  Not Eleanor...she would just poke me back. Someone that actually gets this game!

Ahhh good times, good times. I like vacations.

last christmas break

We'll have Christmas in later years, of course, but this is our last year we'll actually have a 2 week break. Since we've been married we've been students and have always had time off for the holidays. 2011 will bring lots of change.

I left on December 15 to visit my family in Las Vegas. Michael inched his way there by car a couple days later through some pretty bad weather.

Scarlett had fun visiting Great Grandma Nishimoto in the nursing home. The first thing Grandma said was, "That's my baby!" Since she has Alzheimer's, everyday she got to meet Scarlett again.

And everyday Scarlett loved it.

One day Grandma got to come home for a special dinner!

Clockwise starting top right: Scarlett and 1st cousin once removed, Eleanor. 4 generations of Nishimotos. Scarlett with my Auntie Erin and Great Auntie Elaine. I don't know where Mom was for the other picture--but all 4 generations of Nishimoto women.

The whole gang visited Grandma on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning we opened presents in Las Vegas with my parents and Jello & Sarah. Jared & Kim (on the right in above photo) came a little later.

Scarlett didn't know what the heck was going on. She bounced from one toy to the next, and I was never quick enough to get a good picture of her.

 So we stuck her in a box. She was surprisingly quite content with it.

I got some pretty sweet gifts, but the funniest was this...

Count'em: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 singa-ma-jigs! We had some fun before returning a few. Santa (aka my sister Robbyn and Michael) sure came through this year!

Later Christmas day we headed to St. George to visit with Michael's parents. (Sorry Deanne, we never got a picture of you! I didn't even realize until I got home.)

Scarlett figured she'd rather visit with the sliding glass door.

We wanted to be in Portland for New Year's, but the weather kept us in St. George (good thing, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten those sweet jeans).  When we did eventually leave it was only 12 degrees! Brrr. 

We spent New Year's in Logan with Michael's Sister's family. Headed to Boise the next day, and made it back to Portland on Sunday--just in time for Michael to start school on Monday.

lookie lookie what i can do.

best deal ever

Before I bombard you with 3 weeks worth of updates, I have to show you one of my UH.MAY.ZING. deals I got while doing some after Christmas shopping. I found two pairs of pants on clearance. It was only going to be $8.50 {score!}. But wait for it....

I spent $4.52 on TWO NEW pairs of pants. Clearance items were an additional 50% off! My favorite is the "Your Saving" part.

Thank you DownEast Outfitters. I love you.

Now I need to get to hemming. I think in The History of Julie's Pants I've had to hem them all, except for 3. None of them, however, have been as drastic as the pants on the right. 

Maybe that's why they were on sale...what kind of walking stick would fit into those?

i went on an airplane.

A Boeing 737 to be exact. The 737 has been continuously manufactured by Boeing since 1967 with 6,348 aircraft delivered and 2,061 orders yet to be fulfilled as of March 2010. The 737 series is the best selling jet airliner in history. There are on average 1,250 737s airborne at any given time, with one departing or landing somewhere every five seconds. Bet ya didn't know that did ya?

Even cooler than flying on the best selling jet, I got my own seat. I could wiggle and climb all I wanted.

Those flight attendent ladies are really nice. We got 3 packs of snacks! --which ended up all over my face.

This lady carted me around. Aaaa. The luxury of being an infant.

My favorite part: looking out the window and seeing all the little tiny lights.

New places, faces, and toys here, but I miss my daddy. I can't wait to see you!

i couldn't sleep last night.

I kept thinking about where we could get Puinea euthanized. Sad, I know.

Poor thing has been sick for the last week with a huge abscess on the side of her face. She wasn't eating, wasn't squeeking, wasn't doing much of anything actually.

We drained her abscess 2 days ago. We got 2 syringes full of nastiness.

I woke up this morning and told her to just die (in the most loving way, of course). I just didn't know what else to do for her. I can't even describe how sad she looked.

I went to run errands.

I came home today to a clean, empty cage sitting on our living room floor, and a hole already dug in the backyard. Did I tell you I had the best husband ever? Oh yeah...I did. Puinea did what I asked and passed away. We'll miss her around here.

I will miss Scarlett laughing hysterically at you running around the living room.
I'll miss kids coming over just to feed you.
I'll miss the way your ears flop when you run.
I'll miss how you get so excited over carrots.

Rest in Peace, Puinea Gig.

you are awesome

Because you can:


1 Fix Stuff. 

My can opener was broken, and I was about to give up on making dinner without a new one. You took it, fiddled with it, gave it back, and said, "Huh, the gears are stripped. Looks like we need a new one." I opened another can...I OPENED another can! Hallelujah. You fixed it.


2 Build Stuff.
Example 1 
Example 2 
Example 3

3 Climb Stuff.

4 Adjust Stuff. 

5 Not Touch Taryn's Stuff.

6 Make stuff laugh...or make stuff really embarrassed...

7 Make stuff cool and dangerous.

Note: Below is a snowmobile, not a jetski.

8 Be hot stuff.

9 Keep stuff warm.

10 Make stuff get out of bed.

Happy Birthweek, cwapface!

I love you to smithereens.