Colleen's 50th

It was a quick, but nice trip to Ca. Mom and I drove Sun. morning and got to our family friend's house around noon. We went to Los Alamitos for lunch at Sango's - a fast food type Japanese place. And while we were there, we ran into some old friends from Cerritos! Paul and Marilyn Hatanaka. I remember first meeting them at a Cerritos Baptist Church function at the Chicken Restaurant at Knott's. They were the first adults I met at CBC that I thought were pretty cool =). I think I was either in HS or just out of HS. Marilyn was CBC's secretary for years. And I also saw Brandi Kamikawa, who I used to babysit! I guess she's married to Brian Ouchi now? They had a little girl. I'm so out of touch now. They had just gone to Barry's new church...there were some others at the table, but not sure if I knew any of them. I didn't recognize anyone else, but it's possible that I knew them when they were kids.

After lunch, we went to visit another family friend who has been bed-ridden for a while. Joji used to teach Aikido when I was taking it at the Norwalk center. I guess he doesn't have the strength on his left side so he can't get around by himself. But his mind is sharp and I guess Barry has visited him several times.

After that we went back to the Matsubara's house and we saw their sons, Darren and Guy (who I hadn't seen since Dad's memorial service). Darren also works for Jet Blue - I think the baggage dept.

Since we had to be at my sister's by 4pm, we left around 3. I dropped my mom off and parked around the corner. My sister went to lunch with a friend who was in town from Sac. Then she went shopping with Mark (her husband). When they got back to the house, she was surprised, but didn't look like she was! She opened the door, and saw her nephew and son sitting at the decorated table to the side. So when she came in, she said, "Hi".

50 candles takes a while to light!

I don't know if that's really 50 =)

Take a deeeep breath in and blow...

Whew! The fire alarm didn't go off!

Travys, Ryan, Krysta, Colleen and Mark

It turned out to be a nice party. Krysta pretty much put it all together. Colleen was impressed that they pulled it off. Krysta was telling us the story of how it happened. She said Mark told her, "Your mom's birthday is coming up and she's turning 50. Do something." =D At this point Colleen chimed in and said, "Can you stop time?!" She's a witty one =). Anyway, Krysta said he was panicing so she sent out emails and quickly sent out invites. They ordered the food from Buca di Peppo since Colleen likes Italian. Sooooo much food!

I need to get the pictures from Wendy - she took more of our family pictures. By the end of the night, I was pooped! I slept well. I was sleeping and dreaming, and it was weird because I heard my sister's footsteps in my dream. She walked in the room before she went to work to say goodbye. It was around 7am. I got up around 8:30, took a shower, ate lasagna, bread and meatballs for breakfast! and packed up to get ready to leave. I made us a plate of food to bring home, put in gas, got coffee, and we were on our way at 10am. As soon as we got home (around 1:30) I went straight to bed.

I slept until 5pm, ate more pasta and I'll start doing laundry soon. I go to work tomorrow.

Krysta will be going to Japan next year for school in Tsuru. It's close to Mt. Fuji. She'll be there from Jan. to June. Wendy (my sister-in-law) mentioned that they were thinking of going to Japan and so we started talking about all going. Wendy told us all to start the passport process Tues. (since today the post office is closed)! My passport expired so I do need to get another one. Since I have been thinking about visiting, it might be a good chance to visit Krysta and be a tourist with my family. But I'd want to be able to go to the Osaka area and visit friends too.

Lots of random stuff

Speed bumps. They are not all equal in my mind. The ones around the gym are the worst. Clearly whoever made those, was inexperienced. In fact, you can see that they had to scrape them after the fact because they must have gotten so many complaints. I complained when they first went up because no matter how slow I went, I'd still scrape the bottom of my car - grrrrr! In fact, that simple annoyance influenced my choice to stay away from the gym...of course there were other reasons as well, but that didn't help things =). Even now, I think they could make them a little lower. The big trucks and SUVs don't have the same problem since they ride higher, but us little guys have to go really, really slow.

The ones in front of Office Max are perfect in my opinion. Enough to slow me down, but not enough to make me cringe as I go over it. And the ones in front of Sam's Club are just too much. They have 2 bumps at a time, about a foot apart. I feel like I'm off-roading when I go over those.

Since I haven't posted in a while, I have a lot of random thoughts/stories swirling around.

Jet Blue - my cousin is a pilot and my friend was on his flight to DC. She actually saw him because he came out of the pit to make an announcement about a delay. I told her ahead of time that if she got a pilot named Jason, it was probably my cousin.

Drinking - I never really had a desire to drink...alcohol, that is =). I don't quite understand its appeal. I stop before I can get sick or get a headache or fall asleep. In my experience, it messes up my sleep and I just don't feel right. People may use it to numb the pain, or avoid thinking about something. But I would rather skip the drinking part since the problems don't go anywhere while you're drinking. Last Sat. I went over to Christina's and we drank some, but I didn't want to drink to get drunk. She probably wanted to, but I stopped, so I think she stopped too.

DMV - I don't have to go in to renew my driver's license =) I can do it online. Yay.

Flooring - a friend is getting all new flooring in her house. Wood and carpet. Making me think about more home improvements. =)

Deal or No Deal - watching it now and they're on a Million Dollar Mission. I want to see someone win a million!

Gym - In my attempt to do 30 min. a day on the elliptical, I'm getting at least 4 days a week in. Today I tried going the reverse direction. It feels weird, but it works different muscles.

Sunset Magazine - my favorite part of the magazine is the home design part. Not so interested in the recipes...although there have been interesting articles about wine and dining. I like those. Even the gardening tips are somewhat interesting to me. When I was a kid, I used to love looking at model homes and I remember making this little house plan in a shoe box.

Church - last week, we had missionaries sharing. We have adopted a people group in Equatorial Guinea and the pastor was here from Africa. It was so encouraging and inspiring. I believe our church was meant to support this work. God has already chosen the people to help with the work...even before they know. It was amazing to hear story after story about the pieces coming together to further His work. During the first 10 min. or so of sharing, I couldn't help but be touched in my spirit. It's a little frustrating at the same time because I feel like my heart's desire has to do with missions, but I don't feel like I know what to do with it. I need to pray more specifically about this. Until it's resolved somehow.