Arrived in Japan - 日本につきました！

So I finally arrived in Tokyo after about 17 hours of travel, not to mention having woken up at 0345 Mountain Standard Time. I met some great people on the plane and enjoyed talking politics and economics. It seems that most Japanese who travel back and forth between the U.S. and Japan are very concerned about the economy in the U.S. And of course sports – being the world cup right now, that seems to be the topic of interest. I got through the airport surprisingly very quick and bought a ticket on the express train from Narita International Airport and Tokyo station. It was about a 53 minute ride and was very nice. It is very beautiful in Japan right now and very green. However, it is starting the beginning of their rainy season and will last through the end of July. So Tiffany, you lucked out as you will miss out on most of the rainy season and arrived just in time for the most humid time.

The train that I rode on was not your normal train...it was an express train with only one stop in between the airport and the Tokyo station. The seating and view was much nicer than an airplane and they had wireless internet service along with AC power plug-in ports. A Japanese waitress came by wheeling a cart with all types of beverages, snacks, and other creature comforts that you could ever need or want. They even had a double-screened big monitor at the front of the car where you could watch the news, sports, ads, and had all of the train information….leave it up to the Japanese to make a ride very pleasant.

After a short stop at the hotel and doing some exercises to keep me awake, I caught a short subway ride over to my old Mission President's Apartment in downtown Tokyo. President and Sister Ames live in Tokyo where he has worked off and on for several years. We ate dinner and enjoyed catching up on our lives, updating each other on our contact with various missionaries, and reminiscing old stories of the mission days. President Ames had shares some things about me and my mission from his perspective. I found it very neet and very humbling to hear his perspective. What a great time it was to see them. Great times!

I'm on a roll

Since my hijacking hasn't been discovered, I've decided to take it to a whole new level of love. I met the Browne family several years ago at an undisclosed location. My first thought of Tiffany was that she was a perfect Mormon woman who had just had a cute little baby girl (Grace). Steve was the perfect Mormon man with a love for his family and the gospel. BOY WAS I WRONG!! The first time I saw Tiffany drink a Coke and swear, I gained a whole new level of respect for her. Steve on the other hand, still the perfect Mormon man with a love for his family, Survivor, biking shorts, The Osmonds, Sushi, Japan, and Mugicha (don't taste it...it's pretty gross). I am going to miss them while they are in Japan, but I'm sure with enough middle of the night phone calls and unruly emails, they may update their blog with their adventures in the land of the rising sun.

When you google your name

This is another hijacking. Have you ever googled your name? You should. These are the first images that pop up when I googled the Browne family.


Tiffany


Jacob


Steve


Grace


Jaelyn


Gerrit

Hijacking

I know, you've been checking this site daily for the past 415 days waiting for a post. Well, this isn't Tiffany. This isn't Steve. This isn't any of the Browne children. I'm not related. I am a concerned friend who hijacked the blog to post some updated pics for you. You can rest better tonight knowing that the Browne family is still alive and doing well.

QVC here I come!!

So, I recently started sewing again. Steve bought me a sewing machine 7 years ago and that first year I made several things. For Halloween 2002 the kids were Peter Pan, Wendy, and TinkerBell they were REALLY cute. Then I thought "Hey! My parents and brother are coming for Christmas...I should make all of us jammies!" Wow, what a mistake! I waited til the last minute to start them, and ended up trying to fly through them...they didn't turn out cute! Who knew you had to be precise when sewing!! They were sloppy, uneven, and probably fell apart after one wash! I had no chance to redeem myself because my machine became possessed by the bad sewing demon. Something was up with my machine and it wouldn't work. It probably went on strike because it was offended at the quality of workmanship that was coming out of it and it knew it could do better!! So in the box it sat for years and years and two moves. Through out the years I wished every so often that it was fixed so that I could sew something, usually every Halloween. In the past year I had really been saying more often that I wanted it fixed. Why not just drive the 3.6 miles down the road and take it to the fix it shop, well you know me...that would be too easy and make too much sense, and we all know I never make sense! Steve my wonderful husband took it in to be fixed for my birthday present! I got it back a while later. I was so excited because I knew it wasn't possible for my machine to be on strike anymore, the fix it man had preformed an exorcism and had been pronounced "HEALED AND CLEAN" (must be said like a fire and brimstone holy-roller southern preacher!!) I would do my machine justice this time. So I thought about what I would sew...dresses for the girls...a little somethin somethin for me. Then I saw it (AAAAHHHHH angels singing) I knew what I would make for my precious little children. I would be the mother of all mothers! Are you ready to see it?????

That's right my friends, my kids wanted a Snuggie! And who wants to buy one of those when I could make one! But how would I get a pattern to make one??? Would they have one at Joann's?? Then again the angels sang and my friend Jenny got a bunch of free patterns from Freecycle. One of them was for a "Couch Cozy, the comforter that walks with you" YES, YES, YES!!!! This would be my first project. My kids were so excited! I thought to myself, "how much could it cost to make one of these, surely not too much." Boy was I wrong!!! Fabric is freakin expensive, even on sale!!! I went to Joann's and was excited because they had fleece on sale! Now, let me replay the commercial for you a little bit. "You can buy a Snuggie for $19.95, and for the next 6 minutes you can get buy 1 get 1 free!" That's $10 a Snuggie! Guess how much my Snuggies came out to be???? About $36 a piece!!!! Between buying the fabric, zipper, and thread they end up being that much!!!! So I told the kids "Holy Cow! The ones on t.v are cheaper and probably better made!" and Jaelyn, bless her little sweet heart said, "But these will be made with love in every stitch!" And so they were! I finished the last one last night. They are huge because, by golly, if they are $36 a piece those kids are going to use them FOREVER!!! And, I must have done my machine justice because the bad sewing demon has not shown his machine wrecking face!! What to sew next...hmmm!! Maybe these!
Steve and I could hold hands AND stay warm!!!! What a way for our marriage to continue to grow!!!

We have a problem!

Gerrit has a new talent, and it drives me INSANE!!! Let me show you a picture of what he can do. First let me tell you, this is NOT an actual picture of him, I got it off the Internet, but it's what he does.

Yep, he climbs out of his bed like a pro, and then this is what he does once he has climbed out. Again, this is not his actual room, just a representation of what he does.

He TRASHES his room, today he went as far as pulling all of the drawers out of his dresser, not just the clothes inside, but the whole drawer. He gets out all the diapers, shoes, and digs out all of the dirty clothes in his hamper! Now, I could be a good mom and just get him a cute little tent to keep him in, you know, let him think he's really cool, and camping.

But, we all know I'm NOT a good mom and so I have two other solutions that I think will work!

Duct tape is good right? Or as the guys in the army call it, "hundred mile an hour tape" don't ask me why, that's just what Steve calls it. Or I think this next solution would work well too!

Yes, that is a guy trapped in bed with Saran Wrap! Look how long his mom has had to do that night after night to keep him in his bed! I hope I won't have to do that to Gerrit for that long!!

We don't have lights, but we're not Jewish

When Jacob was 5 we were driving around looking at Christmas lights. As we were driving around Jacob saw a house that didn't have any Christmas lights up and said nonchalantly "Oh...they must be Jewish." I said "Why do you think they're Jewish?" he said "Well they don't have Christmas lights up, so they aren't celebrating Christmas, so they must be Jewish." So, I guess I'm Jewish, I could have sworn that my whole life I've been Mormon (well actually since I was three, cuz that's when my parents joined the church) but I guess I was wrong...I'm Jewish because we have no Christmas lights on the outside of our house!

Speaking of Christmas lights, Gerrit is a FREAK over them! He is always signing to me "Mom...more...lights" When we come into the neighborhood at night, we drive the long way around so that he can see all the lights. At every house he takes a big loud intake of breath and says "ohhh wwwoooowww" Then when we get home he fusses a little and signs "more...lights...more...lights"

He's also a FREAK over Santa. At the girls ballet party they had a Russian Santa come (since it's classical Russian ballet). He would sign "Santa" and I would ask him if he wanted to go see him and he would shake his head and say "uh uh" but he watched him the whole time. Then Father Frost left. For the next 45 minutes he was CONSTANTLY signing "Santa...where...go?" I would say that Santa went bye bye. I wanted to tell him then and there that Santa wasn't real and he was just a stupid man dressed up and on Christmas morning when he saw his cool little race car track and his stocking "ya buddy...that's allll me baby, no fat guy trying to squeeze his way down the chimney, just your fat mom swearing while trying to put the stupid track together, so you can rip it apart 27 1/2 times a day and strew pieces all over the house, and then we just end up throwing it away cuz we can't find all the pieces, but then we do in August when the movers come, but it's too late then cuz we already threw it away......" Wow, where did that come from? Do I need to work on some issues? ha ha

I must have issues dating back to childhood, oh that's right, I do, because I found out about the trinity (Santa, Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy) when I was 5 YEARS OLD!!! On Easter I went to the back door to do a pre-scoping of where the eggs were before I woke up my mom and dad. Guess what I saw? My mom putting the eggs out!!! So later when my mom was curling my hair for church I asked her if there was an Easter Bunny "Well, what do you think?" "WWAAAAA (me bursting out crying) I saw you putting out the eggs!" Then a minute later, the smart kid that I am I put three and three together and asked "Is there such thing as Santa?" "Well, what do you think?" "WWAAAA no!" "What about the Tooth Fairy?" same freaking question came. For the love of all that is fake, mother, could you not have lied to me...at least for a few more years? Yep, it's all my mom's fault for anything rebellious that I did! It all stems back to when I was five!!! Thanks a lot MOM, you ruined my life! ha ha ha ha ha The upside to all this is that my brother is 5 1/2 years younger than me, and you can sure as heck bet that he didn't here the truth about Santa from me! I wanted him to believe, so that I would receive! So see, I'm not Jewish! :)