SEPTEMBER 27 (take 2)

First day of school= first day of Enzo being watched by a babysitter.

So... we figured it out. We need someone to watch Enzo for 2 hours on Mondays and about 3 hours Tuesdays and Thursdays. The rest of the time one of us is always home. We have been super lucky and we've met really nice parents who also have toddler sons. So we formed a babysitting co-op among the three families. On Mondays and Thursdays Melinda and Enzo watch our Enzo and on Tuesday Victoria and Ben watch Enzo. Then Christian and I will watch Benavi (B+V kid) on Tuesday and Thursday morning and we watch Damiano (M+E kid) on Friday. I don't know why I am explaining all this, I guess I am also figuring it out and sort of remembering the days. So we've tried it out and it's been pretty great. Benavi and Damiano are awesome and Enzo likes having them around. They are also our neighbors so we see them a lot. Enzo is a harder kid to watch and I was sure he would be crying for most of the time on Thursday. He actually did great and they said he didn't cry at all, AND they got him to nap. this is how I dressed him up so that Melinda would be constantly reminded of what kind of kid Enzo is.

He does this thing where he climbs on the windows then jumps to the couch and on to the table and then to the floor. He has missed both the couch and table several times and just face plants straight to the floor. He also gallops most of the time instead of walks and tries very, very hard to skip. He does this side skipping especially when he gets on top of things such as tables, the wall that gets progressively taller in front of our house, and down the slide. That's why I thought this was the perfect Enzo shirt.

I was really happy babysitting went well. The thing about daycare is that both Damiano and Benavi are in front of Enzo on the wait list so hopefully they also won't get in. (Don't tell their parents I said that).

I really love being back in school. I am super excited about my program. Being back in a classroom was great and I was ecstatic to be back in a dance studio.

Thursday was a good day. And as I had imagined The Office was pretty classic.

Shirogane intanashonaru rojji

That is where we live. It translates as the "platinum international lodge." The second two words are transliterations of the english and the first is the name of the neighborhood where we live. The name of the neighborhood is fairly appropriate. On our street there are five or six doggie salons and an unscale doggie bakery. There is a fancy chocolate shop right next to our apartment and two more directly across the street. There is a whole row of fancy cafes, boutiques, etc. There are "recycle shops" but one sells used manolo blanhik shoes (says Bekah) for $2oo and gucci bags and another sells used kimonos, but we haven't found it yet. There is one japanese restaurant but we see the waitresses seeing off customer and they are all wearing super formal kimonos so we sort of figured it's out of our price range. Not too far away there is a restaurant supply store that has groceries for pretty cheap. The best prices are for milk, a dollar a liter, which is the biggest size you can get. I always buy like three or four and feel totally over the top, except its not even one gallon. (To get three gallons, which is a normal purchase in the states, you'd need 12 liters). Of course, since I couldn't even get that home on my bike, it's kind of irrelevant. So although it is supposedly a bulk store, the biggest bags of flour are 1 kilo, so 2.2 pounds, half a five pound bag, but you can get more dashi and tsukemono (bonito flakes and pickled vegetables) than i could ever imagine using. Everytime I go I find new stuff though, even though the store is not that big. The latest discovery was peanut butter and jam, both of which was pretty cheap. The store is always packed with gaijin, not such haoles, but Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans.
Lodge sort of conjurs up images of boar heads on the walls, brick fireplaces, etc. Unfortunately, like mansion it is just another English word which has been appropriated to describe a Japanese apartment. We are pretty much set up finally, and have sheets and pillows, most of what we need in the kitchen, etc. On craigslist we found a guy giving away everything in his apartment for free. He'd been here forever and his place was a mess, but I went by a couple of times and loaded up my bike with random stuff for the kitchen, a rice cooker, hangers, an antique vase, etc. Nice guy. There was another lady nearby in these really huge, by Japanese standards, houses by Miriam's school. The whole block is foreigners. Anyway, we went to a get a chair and a kids bike for Miriam, but then she offered to give smaller things, sheets towels, bowls, but then charged us for them. Kind of annoying. And then we got home and realized the chairs were way more beat than we thought. I can't believe you would live in such a huge, nice house (the rent is probably at least $5,000 US a month) with such crappy furniture. Hopefully we can re-cover them. So we paid too much, but I guess it was still cheaper than the stores, which are your only other option. So we still need a rug, a computer monitor and keyboard for bekah's mac mini, and to repot the plants we bought. Also, the guy who was here before us was Indian and probably from a caste that is above touching tools and fixed the furniture they broke with electrical tape, so I kind of need to redo all that. We bought a new flourescent light for the bathroom, which help immensely. Someone had put in a halogen light that was too high wattage, hoping, understandably, to brighten the place up. Unfortunately, the extra heat burnt the plastic casing making the light an even dingier yellow. It also burnt the top of the bathroom, which, as you will recall, is all plastic. So I bought a flourescent light, which doesn't let off hardly any heat and has its own casing built into the bulb and put the burnt casing in the closet.
As four as being international, we far as we can tell, we are the only Americans in the place. I have seen one other European but mostly Chinese and Korean. The weird thing is, for all the talk of its being full, we hardly see anyone. Maybe 2/3's of the apartments are condemned? I have yet to see anyone in the hall on our floor. Our Chinese neighbors leave their door open, so we know they're there, but I haven't seen them in the hall. Whenever I hear someone in the hall coming back, it always turns out to be my kids. Maybe we are just the loudest people? I don't know. I actually asked the people in the office when we first got here and they said its because school hasn't started, but it did this week and I haven't noticed much of a change.
Anyway, I just made a video about our apartment. Gwyn is trying to press the g key. Lets see if I can get it up. I'll put picts as well. Okay, to finish off my long boring blog is a longish, boring movie of our house. Enjoy.

fidel castaño

so, the name of my dorm is "Castaño" and the theme this year is "Fidel Castaño." On our doors we have pictures of Fidel smoking a cigar and out of the ashes comes our name. I am not sure how I feel about my name being on a picture of Fidel. It is kind of pushing it for me. So I have some pictures of my boys on the wall, to make up for Fidel on my door.

I talked to Austin on gchat last night, and he is doing well. He is not that excited about my being vegan. He said in his letter, "You know, the bible says that animals were made for us to eat right? LIKE THAT IS THE REASON THEY EXIST. and for pets too i think. " I thought it was pretty funny. Shelly and Steve came to drop off my bike (they were on their way to a Gladys Knight concert at the temple) and they brought me some cool sweaters and shirts. They, unlike Aust, were excited about the vegan thing and took me to Trader Joes to get a whole bunch of really cool snacks including: whole grain pita bread, hummus, organic peanut butter, organic salsa, and soy milk. They are going down to Santa Cruz in October, and I think I will go with them.

hoku was telling me that her mom doesn't like fresh flowers in the house because she is a very practical person and flowers/live plants are impractical because they will just die in like 5 minutes anyway, and then you will have to clean it up, and take them outside, and then it is just a waste of time. I was thinking today about how I couldn't disagree more. Anyway, I wanted to put up some pictures of some beautiful things at Stanford. Here is the lane I ride down to park my bike, and also the view from the staircase window. and also some favorites from summer. me and tru and gio and randy.

love you all
noelle

I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SEPTEMBER 27

1. ENZO TURNS 1 AND A HALF (MOVES HIM UP ON THE DAYCARE WAIT LIST)
2. SCHOOL STARTS
3. THE PREMIER OF THE OFFICE!

I think tomorrow will be a good day!

First Day

We tried to get Miriam all set up for school last night. Here's everything that she needed (minus the room shoes which I can't find and her winter hat which hasn't been given out yet. Oh right, and we mustn't forget her emergency hood that's stored at the school.)

It was a major pain in the neck to find everything, though we did end up finding almost all of it
at the dollar store. Everything, and I mean everything, had to have her name on it. Including the individual cray-pas.
And here is her first bento. Man is it ugly, but I did my best. J used the last of the eggs for breakfast, which kind of messed up the look I was going for. And, the raisins got in the rice which grossed her out, but we thought it tasted pretty good. I have furikake to put in the onigiri, but she doesn't like it. Oh well. We ended up leaving before lunch, but this is good practice for next week when she starts full time.

from the archive

I found this while I was going through some old vids. It's fun to think of Ez and Ada so little. We are getting excited for our trip to New York this Thanksgiving. It will be Tony's first time to the NYC. Let us know some of your favorite things you think that a first time visitor should do since most of us are seasoned New York tourists.

the weekend, the car, the addiction, the blessings

This weekend was a bit of a surprise. Christian didn't go surfing yesterday because it was supposed to be small. Turns out it was "great" according to people at church today. I think he was disappointed but at least I got to sleep in. The other disappointing thing was that the car kind of needs major repair. Something to do with the heater. All I really know is that we were driving to COSTCO and smoke stared coming out of the vents and it smelled really bad. We stopped at a mechanic and I was really worried because I actually REALLY needed something at the store and would have to find a way to get it. Right then a neighbor, who I didn't even know had my number, called me and said she was at COSTCO and asked if I needed anything. WHAT A BLESSING! We came home and Christian was very diligent and I think he fixed the car. At least we hope so. Today we were able to make it to church and it was an excellent meeting. The primary sacrament program was today and it was very good. The Sunday school teacher never showed up and someone just stood up and bore a very long testimony. I really felt the spirit and am really happy at our new ward. Everyone has been very friendly, and even though Enzo pretty much just screams in nursery they still welcome him and I can tell they actually care and are trying very hard to work with him. The picture of Enzo is not supposed to be cute. It's what we're dealing with. Whenever he sees two pacifiers they both have to go in his mouth. I feel like it's getting way out of hand. At the same time school starts this Thursday and he's going to be watched by two different people. He doesn't feel comfortable with them and this whole moving situation has left him really shy and insecure. So, I just don't have the heart to take his pacifiers away. Oh well. We've actually had a surprisingly good weekend despite our troubles. It's getting even better now that Christian is down stairs making apple pie, from all the yummy apples we get from the tree across the lawn.

Hi Miriam. Hi Everyone. Now that I know Mimi's reading, do I need to capitalize properly and punctuate? It's so fun to have you, Mom, even if you you do have standards. We had a pirate party this week. (Don't you wish you had fun roommates?) People wore costumes, played ping pong, guitar, and I'm not sure what else sing I was holding up in my room with papers. They were good to quit ping pong at eight. Turns out pirates can keep rules if they have to. Yesterday Mikey and Minami and I went to the beach with Bouchers. They are very fun. Olivia has taken Minami under her wing and Mikey has fun with Carson. Michelle watched the kids carefully and I would remember every now and again that I was in charge of Mikey and Minami (oops). Adam was shooting a wedding. This morning he and Scott are off to the church of Turtle Falls (don't be jealous, Jesse). The choir's performing and I continue to be inept. Good luck on your Japanese, Miriam. Love you all more than yogurt and berries.

Time Warp Slide

We have this cool slide at our zoo, you go in your age and come out 26 years older. Gio is a little Danny, for sure. Anyway, I thought I'd drop a quick line. It's been a little while. We drove up to San Luis Obispo today to visit our friend Brittany. Dave Neville came with us. We surfed Morro Bay. It was pretty freezing. Gio got in the water in just his shorts. I surfed for the first time in a long time. It was fun, but I was having a hard time getting my feet to do what I wanted them to, i.e. I couldn't stand up in a very timely fashion on my frozen stumps. Oh yeah and I forgot how much more tiring it is to paddle in a wetsuit. On Friday, I totally tore apart the house in an effort to rearrange, but the day got crazy and then it was lunch time and nap time and Danny got home and the house was a big pile. We more or less put it back together. I'm liking the changes. When it's more together I'll take some pictures. I guess that's all for now.

WAIMEA FUN WITH THE TWINS

This Week in Santa Cruz

This has been a good week. My to do list has almost nothing on it anymore. Our house is looking more like a real house with furniture and everything. Plus or hammock is up, which makes the whole place a lot cooler. Enzo likes to swing on it as well. The only thing we're missing is a bed, athough we scored a free king sized mattress which Enzo loves. He finally has enough room to really sleep and has been taking 2 hours plus naps on it. Sunday he took a four hour nap but I think he was catching up for the whole previous week of missed sleep. We also put up our pictures and that has made the whole place feel much more homey.

Other good things is that we got on WIC, Enzo got on Medical so he finally has health insurance which is great. We also got a landline and our cell phones will go dead at the end of the month, email or call to get our new number it you're interested. Plus Damaris got a TA for Spring and I got one for Fall so we both have TA's all year which should help things out financially quite a bit. Everthing is going to be very busy but it looks like it's going to be doable which will be nice. Also, we went to the farmers's market today and got some good stuff. We would've gotten more but the family student housing open pantry was loaded with good stuff this week so our fridge is stuffed full of fruits and vegetables which is a good feeling. Also a bunch of the stuff I planted is already sprouting so that's pretty exciting as well. Hopefully we'll get radishes, beets, kale, chard, leeks, beans, lettuce, and eggplants although that might be pushing it for out little plot.

And of course the best part about the week is that there's been consistent head high surf all week long. Steamer lane is a beautiful little surf spot and I really like it. I'm excited about the upcoming winter swells. Getting in the water at 6 in the morning when its really cold is takes a little courage but once the initial shock wears off its all good.

Tomorrow and Friday I'm hanging with Enzo, tomorrow we're going to pick up a free phone off somebodies doorstep, going to playgroup in the park, nap time and lunch and then we're going to watch BYUH play Santa Cruz in soccer in the afternoon. It should be pretty fun day.

noelle's life: an update

I know I am not a Palmer, but I thought I would give the blog a try just for kicks. So here goes: I am back at stanford and classes start on Monday. I have been liking the way it smells here. Like trees and mountains.

Right now I am in Green Library because I don't have internet access in my room yet. I will get my things out of storage on Friday, so for now I have been sleeping on my towels on a bare mattress, which has been interesting. I slide around a lot.

I helped Hoku make a chocolate haupia pie for her class last night. It looked pretty good, but I didn't try it. I have been going strong in my vegan diet. So far it's been only one day, but I am not missing animal products too much. Does Scott have any suggestions? words of wisdom? we'll see how it goes. It actually feels pretty good.

Well, I miss home and everyone a lot. Hopefully I can see Chris and Da and Enzo some time. Thanksgiving? Will we all be going to Sacramento? That would be fun. I want to see Kaity and Danny and Gio and Zeke too. I love having family relatively close by, and I really want to see you guys.

love, noelle.

Adam's Photos

Here are some links to Adam's pictures. Check them out because they're awesome!

Fall '07 Kids

Kahana Kids

Ethan

Zeke

Seacaves

More Seacaves

Palmer Index '06

Hachioji

We made it! We've been at the ka-na-ru's (cannell's) house for the last week. The boys are so big! The girls are having so much fun playing with them. We caught them on a three day weekend, so we've been pretty lucky. Hachioji is on the very edge of Tokyo, right next to the mountains. It's beautiful here.

We were able to go to our new apartment and check things out there. It's pretty small (no surprise there). Our neighborhood is one of the poshest ones in town, but our apartment is the ugly duckling of the neighborhood. It feels good to stick close to our roots that way.

We went to the kindergarten Miriam will attend. She spent the whole time glued to my leg with her face in my shirt. When we left, she said "that's the school I'm going to, right! I want to go to that school. I really like it! That's my school!!!" I'm guessing she was just overwhelmed by the 50 4, 5, and 6 year olds yelling "KONNICHIWA!"

The kids were so friendly, especially the girls. They were so excited to have a new gaijing (foreigner) coming to their school. It's a public school, so all the kids that go there live in our neighborhood. The school also allows the parents to bring younger siblings for 2 hours twice a week for a playgroup, so I'm sure Gwyn and I will be making an appearance shortly.

Our neighborhood is very centrally located. There is no way we could have afforded to live here if it weren't super subsidized. We are a 7 minute walk from one subway line line and 15 minutes from another. I've decided to truly enjoy living in the city for this year. We are about 20 minutes away from various museums, zoos, and other attractions.

We're going to go watch sumo on Friday. I'm super excited.

We miss you all and love reading the blog. Congrats Pammy on successfully posting.

Happy Birthday Adam

I realized that I only have two pictures of Adam. This was the better one. However, I have hundreds of Adam's pictures. That's probably true for everyone.



Why should we remember Adam's birthday?

• He gives us all cool presents (I just bought a frame for my "Lolenzo and friends poster") and I am looking at it right now


• Our kids all love him. He's an amazing Dad and a very, very good uncle


• Not only did he introduce most of us to The Office, but he also paid for a whole season and downloaded it at Pammy's so that we could all watch.


• He never refuses a Waimea adventure, or a Ted's pit stop.


• He always has good music in his car


• He's Mikey and Minami's dad and we all enjoy them


• He got everyone hooked on ping-pong


• he's the only one who can make and does make really good and fast curry


• He doesn't mind paying a lot of money for steak and sharing it(one of my personal favorite qualities)

Happy Birthday Adam!

Scott made me do it again to see if I really know how. (I probably don't.) I took this on the Sunday morning that I was out watering (it wasn't fast sunday for the plants) and Gwen wanted to be watered too. That girl is a waterbaby, no doubt. Gotta love her.

Here I am trying my first post with Scott's help. Scott is up early after a full day yesterday ice skating with Adam and the kids and then surfing with Mike and Jake. While surfing, his car key fell out of the zipped up pocket into the briny deep. Buddy rescued his car from the side of the road with a screwdriver but it still needs a new key. (Scott only had one--he's no smarter than some of the rest of us turns out.) Anyway, pictured below are some of the people who have left me most recently to pursue adventures elsewhere. I love you all very much and am proving it daily by letting you go (as long as you promise to come back periodically). Meanwhile, I'm redefining myself in terms of roommate. Luckily these roommates I have are especially nice, cute, and mature (plus they don't seem to mind living with me--a crazy.) Scott just said, "It's weird not having Christian, Da, and Enzo around," and he is so right. Enzo alone leaves a hole the size of a bus. Amaya is doing what she can, but she is somewhat small for her age--though also very cute. She says Mammy, which means me. Flor came to visit and that was very fun. We hiked to Kahana with her and her friend Megan. She makes one feel right at home. We've been having family dinners rotating between Bouchers, Springs, and here. Bouchers are definitely a the more the merrier kind of group. Also David is handy and helped Colleen and Paul put in their new dining room floor. They have a TV that makes mine look like a mini. So if you want to really get the full effect. . .Back to my new identity as roommate. . .two weeks ago the girls invited some boys over to watch a movie in the movie watching room. I wanted to try it out and watched too. I realized that was not cool. It's one thing to have a roommate who is older than your mother and another for her take over the movie conversation. So now I try to butt out. Friday they had an early ping pong tournament. Again, spend a few moments in small talk and then get out. (Don't sit and try to be part of the party.) I think I'll be much more popular that way. Also as it turns out, I'm not very good at small talk--I don't know what to say. Other than that, I went to three days of inservice in town this week. Remind me never to commute. Whoever said that that was the deciding factor on job happiness or was it life happiness? was right. But it did have the predictable effect of making me feel inadequate as a teacher (not hard to do). Hopefully I put some of the fabulous ideas they passed out to work. Meanwhile, Adam's birthday is Monday. I got him my standard present (surf shorts) so you'll have to think of something else. Scott says this is a long blog, like one of those Christmas letter I can't get myself to read, so I'll stop. I love you all. Mom

Drown Proofing

You have to check this out. It is crazy. Don't press the Enter Site button.

http://www.childdrowningprevention.com/index.html

Santa Cruz

This will be my first post. Damaris will be happy. Santa Cruz is fun. We've finally bought enough things that I feel like my whole day isn't spent shopping. There are some great things here though. I've caught a few nice days at steamers lane, which is a suprisingly fun little wave. Next week there's a 7-11ft swell coming so we'll see how that pans out. I'm excited. I've been fixing up old furniture I found but hit a snag today when I realized that my drill bits are in a box that still hasn't arrived, along with my razor I think. I might have to borrow some from the maintenance guys. I also cleared our garden plot today of all the dried out leaves and in the dirt and scrub found some gloves, a trowel, three pronged things, a rake head, gloves, and thriving oregano plant. I was pretty stoked. I'm going to get something to mix into the soil tomorrow and plant. Plus the plot is already all chicken wired in to keep out all the little forest critters. I'm excited to start gardening.
Another good thing is that people are surprisingly nice. Besides giving us free stuff we've also been invited to dinner three times in the last week with another invite for friday. Two from ward member and one from a neighbor and then we went to Musi's house. The free stuff we've either found or been give includes a futon fame, two radios, a printer, a vacuum cleaner, couch, chairs, baby bed, dresser, a desk, and other random things. We've been enjoying everything and will keep everyone updated.

My Blog Debut

Hi Everyone,

I just want to officially tell everyone that I have started my own blog. I opened my account in May and I am just sort of getting around to figuring it all out. I am telling everyone about it, so hopefully I can be consistent and update it regularly. The url is www.sevensixtyeight.blogspot.com
I miss everyone. I think we might try to go to Hawaii for Thanksgiving? We found tickets on United for $292 roundtrip. So we'll see.

The top of timpanogos

Well, here we are me and my hottie of a husband Tony on the tippidy top of Timpanogos. We look so hardcorezels in this picture. And the mountains are totally cutezers! OMG!

Tony wrote that. He was just trying to talk like me. But I don't even talk like that. Anyway, this is from last weekend. It took us five hours to get to the top of Timp. But here is us at the top watching the sunrise. And the view of Utah Lake and the Valley. It was a good experience but we probably won't hike it again for awhile. Tony's shoes were a little small so he still has bruises on both his big toenails.

We spent this weekend up in the Uintas at Linds and Randy's cabin. We fished at Lilly Lake and I caught my very first fish and by caught I mean I reeled it in. Randy did all the other work. Randy taught Tony how to fly fish and everyone said he looked like a natural.

We miss everyone.

FINALLY PICTURES, LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES

Here are some pictures I promised. Our last month has been so fun and exciting. Here are some of the things we did.


On Monday we went to visit the Lipmans at their new home. It was inspiring to see Sarah with 3 babies. We spend a whole day with them and it was really fun. The baby is Joseph. By the time I busted out my camera Zack (new baby) was asleep. He's also very cute and looks a lot like Rachel.




Sacaramento was great. Enzo loved climbing on Mimi's walker and Christian made his first 7 letter word in Scrabble.



Big Sur.... Woah! Other than being super cold at night it was totally fun. Camping with Kaity and Danny is 5 stars they brought a ton of good food.





pictures we took in Santa Barbara




Jesse and Gwyn doing a back flip off waimea



Chris and Scott
Now that we can put movies in a blog I'll have to find the movie of Gwyn and Enzo junping off waimea with their dads

Right before we left Hawaii. Enzo and some of his favorite people. He's so shy here in Santa Cruz. It makes me really appreciate family!!!

学校旅行と飲み会

Ｈｅｌｌｏ．　　ⅰ　ｈｏｐｅ　ｙｏｕ　ｃａｎ　ｒｅａｄ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｏｎ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｃｏｍｐｕｔｅｒ．　　Ｔｈｅ　ｋａｎｊｉ　ａｂｏｖｅ，　ｉｆ　ｔｈｅｙ　ａｐｐｅａｒ，　ｍｅａｎ　ｓｃｈｏｏｌ　ｔｒｉｐ　ａｎｄ　ｄｒｉｎｋｉｎｇ　ｐａｒｔｙ．　　Ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｏｓｅ　ｔｈａｔ　ｈａｖｅｎｔ　ｈｅａｒｄ，　Ｉ ａｍ　ｉｎ　Ｋｙｏｔｏ　ｖｉｓｉｔｉｎｇ　ｓｉｔｅｓ　ｒｅｌａｔｅｄ　ｔｏ　Ｅｎｎｉｎ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｔｈｅ　ｐｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒ　Ｉ ｍｉｇｈｔ　ｂｅ　ｗｏｒｋｉｎｇ　ｗｉｔｈ　ａｎｄ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｏｆ　ｈｉｓ　ｃｏｌｌｅａｇｕｅｓ　ａｎｄ　ｇｒａｄ　ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ．　　Ｔｈｅ　ｇｏｏｄ　ｔｈｉｎｇｓ　ａｒｅ，　Ｗｅ　ａｒｅ　ｓｅｅｉｎｇ　ａ　ｌｏｔ　ｏｆ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｃｏｏｌ　ｔｅｍｐｌｅｓ　ａｎｄ　ｓｉｎｃｅ　ｔｈｅｙ　ｃｏｎｔａｃｔｅｄ　ｔｈｅｍ　ａｌｌ　ｂｅｆｏｒｅｈａｎｄ　ｔｈｅｒｅ　ａｒｅ　ｍｏｎｋｓ　ｇｉｖｉｎｇ　ｕｓ　ｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌｉｚｅｄ　ｔｏｕｒｓ，　　 Ｉ　ａｍ　ａｌｓｏ　ｍｅｅｔｉｎｇ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ　Ｉ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｈｏｐｅｆｕｌｌｙ　ｂｅ　ａｂｌｅ　ｔｏ　ｂｏｔｈｅｒ　ｉｆ　Ｉ ｎｅｅｄ　ｈｅｌｐ　ｌａｔｅｒ．Ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｆｌｉｐ　ｓｉｄｅ，　ｉｔ　ｉｓ　ｅｘｐｅｎｓｉｖｅ，　Ｉ ｈａｔｅ　ｔｒａｖｅｌｌｉｎｇ　ｉｎ　ａ　ｌａｒｇｅ　ｇｒｏｕｐ，　ａｎｄ　Ｉ ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｒａｔｈｅｒ　ｂｅ　ｃａｍｐｉｎｇ　ｏｒ　ｈａｎｇｉｎｇ　ｏｕｔ　ｗｉｔｈ　Ｌｏｒｅｎ．　　Ｗｅ　ｄｉｄ　ｈａｎｇ　ｏｕｔ　ｏｎ　Ｔｈｕｒｓｄａｙ　ｗｈｉｃｈ　ｗａｓ　ｒｅａｌｌｙ　ｆｕｎ．　　ｈｅ　ｔｏｏｋ　ｍｅ　ａｒｏｕｄ　ｎａｒａ，　ａｎｄ　ｏｕｔ　ｔｏ　ｅａｔ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｇｏｏｄ　ｆｏｏｄ　ｆｏｒ　ｌｕｎｃｈ　ａｎｄ　ｄｉｎｎｅｒ．　　Ｗｅ　ａｌｓｏ　ｗｅｎｔ　ｔｏ　Ｏｓａｋａ．　　Ｈｉｓ　ｉｎｌａｗｓ　ａｒｅ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｃｏｏｌ　ａｎｄ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｅａｓｙ　ｔｏ　ｂｅ　ａｒｏｕｎｄ．　　Ｉｔｓ　ｗｅｉｒｄ　ｔｏ　ｓｅｅ　ｈｉｍ　ｉｎ　ｊａｐａｎ，　ｂｕｔ　ａｌｓｏ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｆｕｎ．　　Ｉｍ　ｋｉｎｄ　ｏｆ　ｗｉｓｈｉｎｇ　Ｉ　ｗａｓ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｓｔａｙｉｎｇ　ａｔ　ｈｉｓ　ｈｏｕｓｅ　ｉｎｓｔｅａｄ　ｏｆ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｈｏｔｅｌ，　ｂｕｔ　ｔｈｅｙ　ｋｉｎｄ　ｏｆ　ａｌｒｅａｄｙ　ｍａｄｅ　ｒｅｓｅｒｖａｔｉｏｎｓ　ｆｏｒ　ｍｅ　ｂｅｆｏｒｅ　Ｉ　ｈｅａｒｄ　ｂａｃｋ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｈｉｍ　ａｎｄ　ｉｔｓ　ｇｏｏｄ　ｔｏ　ｂｅ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｔｈｅ　ｇｒｏｕｐ　Ｉ　ｇｕｅｓｓ．　　Ａｌｔｈｏｕｇｈ　ｌａｓｔ　ｎｉｇｈｔ　Ｉ　ｃｏｕｌｄｎｔ　ｆａｌｌ　ａｓｌｅｅｐ　ａｎｄ　ｓｏｍｅｏｎｅ　ｈａｄ　ｔｏ　ｃｏｍｅ　ｗａｋｅ　ｍｅ　ｕｐ　ａｔ　ｎｉｎｅ，　ｓｏ　ｔｈａｔ　ｗａｓ　ｋｉｎｄ　ｏｆ　ｅｍｂａｒａｓｓｉｎｇ．　Ｉ　ａｍ　ｇｏｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｇｏ　ｂａｃｋ　ｔｏ　Ｌｏｒｅｎｓ　ｏｎ　Ｓｕｎｄａｙ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅｎ　ｄｏ　Ｋｙｏｔｏ　ｏｎ　ｍｙ　ｏｗｎ　ｏｎ　Ｍｏｎｄａｙ．　　Ｇｏ　ｂａｃｋ　ｔｏ　Ｔｏｋｙｏ　Ｍｏｎｄａｙ　ｎｉｇｈｔ　ａｎｄ　ｇｅｔ　ｉｎ　Ｔｕｅｓｄａｙ　ｍｏｒｎｉｎｇ．　　Ｆａｍｉｌｙ　ｃｏｍｅｓ　Ｗｅｄｎｅｓｄａｙ，　ｙａｙ，　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅｎ　ｆｉｎａｌｌｙ　ｓｔａｒｔ　ｏｎ　ｍｙ　ｄｉｓｓｅｒｔａｔｉｏｎ？　Ｐｒｏｂａｂｌｙ　ｎｏｔ．　　ａｎｙｗａｙ，　ｆｕｎ　ｈｅａｒｉｎｇ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｅｖｅｒｙｏｎｅ．

Random updates

I guess Zeke is going to be a devil for Halloween. Danny is going to make him a pitch fork and a tail. He is so cute. He can roll from his back to his stomache in 0.5 seconds, but hates being on his stomache. We made him cry himself to sleep tonight. We went in and comforted him and then left again he actually fell asleep really quick. That was nice. We had lots of fun camping with Chris and Da and Enzo. We went camping again the next weekend with Lizzy and family. It was fun except the wind was crazy and it was trying to blow our tent away which made it kinda hard to sleep. Gio accidentally called me Doyle tonight. We laughed pretty hard about that one. Last night I went and loaned a paper shredder from the swap shop and Gio thought it was the funniest thing in the world. He belly laughed off and on for about 30 minutes. It was a pretty good ab workout. He especially liked putting it on reverse and watching the shreds come back out. We should do it again and get it on video. Today Gio saw a boy with long blonde hair and said, "That's Ezra." Did you know that Gio calls Frosted Mini Wheats, Gwynie Meats because they are Gwyn's favorite cereal?