Lake of the Ozarks

The last weekend of September we went to the Lake of the Ozarks with my brother, Dwain, his wife, Jennifer, and their son, TJ. Jen's mom has a condo on the lake, and they were kind enough to invite us for a 3-day weekend with them. We had a blast!! It was by far one of the best vacations we have ever had. We didn't "do" a whole lot, but it was sooooooo nice to sit on the screened-in deck overlooking the lake, read a book, play Guitar Hero, and just generally relax.

Lily and TJ had a lot of fun playing together. They loved to get into the kitchen cabinets and crawl around, opening and shutting doors and spinning around on the lazy susan. They were hilarious.

We did do one touristy thing. We went to HaHaTonka State Park and saw the castle up there. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch outside, and drove around the lake and did a little sight-seeing. It's so pretty there.

On our last day, Koichi and I went to Bridal Cave and took a cave tour. It was really neat. I'm glad I don't suffer from clausterphobia because there were some pretty tight squeezes through the tour. We even got to see a bat hanging from the ceiling. The ceiling where he was hanging from is only about 5 1/2 feet tall, so we had to duck under the bat. Pretty cool.

Koichi's Birthday Surprise

Koichi turned 40 this year. I wanted to surprise him, even though I know he really doesn't like to be surprised. I came up with 2 things I wanted to do for him.

First, I wanted to give him a birthday present that would be very meaningful. I wanted to be able to include all of the friends that he cares about, but never is able to see. At first I thought I would try to put together a signature quilt, but then reality set in and I knew I would never be able to get that put together before the end of the century. So, I decided to make a birthday scrapbook for him.

I dug out his address book and sent blank scrapbook pages to nearly 100 different people from all over the world. Over half sent something back. I was able to keep it all a secret by having the pages sent back to me via my parents' house. It was awesome to see the stacks of pages coming back week after week.

When I finally gave Koichi his present, he was completely floored. He said it was his best present ever, and he's spent hours looking through it and reading all the messages from his friends all over the world. I'm so glad I thought of it, and was able to actually get it accomplished by his birthday.

The weekend of his birthday I wanted to surprise him with a party with my family. Koichi gets really shy about some things, including his birthday, but since it was his 40th it seemed like he needed to be celebrated. So on Sunday after he took a nap, I got him up and told him we were going to take Lily to the zoo. We'd been planning on going to the zoo for a few weeks, and that was the perfect day. We started driving to Independence, and luckily for me Koichi has no idea where the zoo is, because he didn't become suspicous until we drove to my brother, Dustin's, house. When we pulled in the driveway I told him I had to drop something off for my brother and his wife, since it was so close to the zoo (wink, wink) and he came inside with me to find most of my family there shouting "surprise!"

Surprise #2 worked equally as well, and Koichi had a great time turning 40.

Trip to Kirksville

This summer Koichi, Lily and I traveled up to Kirksville, MO to go to my 10 year college reunion at the Baptist Student Union. I was really lucky to have the BSU during my 4 years at Truman, and I made a lot of great friends (some who never ever left!). It was so much fun to go up to the 'ville and see everyone. Here are the people who were able to come with their families. We had a picnic brunch at Thousand Hills State Park. It was hot and humid, but still a lot of fun.




The BSU sure has changed a lot since I was there. In fact, the old BSU building was completely remodeled. Here's me and Lily standing out front.



The night that we got to Kirksville we had a "coffee house" at the BSU. One of the best parts was that we were able to make a Skype internet call to Heather, one of my very best friends, in Japan. It was really cool to be able to see and talk to her. I haven't seen her since last Christmas break, and I'm not likely to see her again until April of 2009 when (I think) she's planning on coming back to the States for good. Doesn't she look awesome!?!




On the way to Kirksville we took a sidetrip to Jamesport to have some lunch, do some shopping, and check out the local Amish grocery stores. We ate a Mennonite buffet that was sooooo yummy. All the little women in their prayer kaps were oohing and ahhing over Lily while we were there.

Lily's First Work of Art

Someday I'm sure this will be worth millions.

Happy 4th of July!

Well, it was another holiday which means, eating. Lots and lots of eating. So I got to tie on my apron strings and do some cooking and baking.

Since Koichi was not going to be able to come to Independence Day dinner at my parents' house, I made a special Red, White & Blue breakfast for him.

Check out the blueberry pancakes with sliced strawberries and bananas with lemon-flavored syrup. Yep, all home-made my friends.

Then, at my parents' house we had yummy BBQ'd brats and burgers. For desert I made another Red, White & Blue delicacy: blueberry & raspberry pie with vanilla ice cream. Boy, did it hit the spot! My aunt, Cheryl, even said it made the top-10 pies of all time that she's eaten. It was pretty good!

Mmmmmmmm.....pie.

Green Thumb

I'm trying to learn the fine art of gardening. I figured I'd throw some plants in some dirt and see if they do anything. Well, they did! Thanks to the help of Miracle Grow probably. I've had fun playing with flowers and planting some veggies and herbs. I've become a fan of the container gardening.


I love pulling up to the house and seeing my flowers outside on the steps. They make me smile.































I tried to get creative with my containers. This chair is my favorite! I found it at an antique store, and put an enamelware bowl in it and filled it with pretty pink petunias.























Out on the patio in the back, I planted a little veggie garden, thanks to donations from my Aunt Cheryl. She donated the black fish pond that is being used as the container, as well as the rocks I put in the bottom for drainage, and all of the plants. We've got 4 tomato plants and 2 eggplant plants growing hog wild in there. I also have 2 bell pepper plants in there, but they've not done much.


Here's a tiny eggplant just peeking through!

Lily's Laund-O-Rama

Lily was so excited to help Mommy with the laundry the other night. She was such a big help! If by "help" one means "helper of the big mess making."

Here's Lily in mid throw.

She's already willing to throw in the towel, it seems.

Checking for any stains the Shout it Out might have missed.

Lily has her own ideas about pressing the laundry. With her car.

Here's a little video of Lily romping around in the laundry having the best time of her life. I think it needs a really good B-Movie title, like "Attack of the Laundry! -- It's come to clean you!"

Lily Learns the Fine Delicacy of Using Cutlery

Lily is becoming such a big girl! She is getting to use a fork and spoon for
most of her meals now.

Here she is deftly using a spoon at breakfast to dine on gourmet yogurt.

Notice how careful she has been to get an even coverage of yogurt all over her face. Keeps the skin soft and supple.

Lily decides that the spoon is actually hindering her application of yogurt to her face, so she goes for her fingers instead.

Seeing that this procedure is also taking too long, Lily goes straight to the source.