Queen of Scrabble

Incredible play of the day! No, the year! No, the century!
Mimi challenged me to a game of scrabble today. I was quite ahead for most of the game and then Mimi scored 137 points in one single turn! She laid down all of her tiles and used the triple word spot two ways (also scored a double letter with her "Q"). See for yourself. Well, she is the queen of scrabble so it all makes sense.
(Posted by Tricia)

please help spread the word

Both Mariko and I are participating in an online bake sale along with 90+ other food bloggers. On Wed people will get a chance to bid on our food item and then we make it and ship it to them. All the money will go to the food bank in Japan. I'm making alfajore pops. Mariko is making crack pie. People are making all sorts of fun treats. You can read more about it here. If you want to post, facebook, tweet tell your next door neighbor about it that would be awesome. We're hoping to raise a lot of money for a good cause.
xoxo

avoiding cleaning up

This whole week has been raining none stop. This morning was the absolute worst. Tons of streets got flooded, it was a mess. But believe it or not the sun came out an hour before Enzo's birthday party and it even got warm. It was amazing. I was totally prepared for an indoor party but so grateful that the sun came out and had the kids outdoors running around instead.

Last night I told Enzo that the rain would pick up and that his soccer game was canceled and that his party would have to be indoors. He asked me if he could pray so that heavenly father could make the rain stop. I told him he could pray for whatever he wanted and that it was good to let heavenly father know our feelings, but that it didn't mean the rain would stop. I told him that even though the rain was driving us all crazy it was still really important for the plants and for us to have rain. He said he understood.

But today the sun came out and Enzo was able to have the party he wanted, outside. And he even broke the pirate pinata. Everything turned out perfect.

Before I go downstairs to put things away I wanted to show you the pirate cake Christian made. Christian is a cake genius, I'm not even joking.

The ocean is whip cream on top of a sheet cake, or as we called it the "parents' cake." The boat was some crazy assembly of chocolate cake made in bread pans plus legos, plus trade joe's treats, and a whole lot of love. The anxious kids got to eat the pirate ship cake.

I made the birthday t-shirt. Can you tell it's Enzo laying on the hammock? Yeah, neither could anyone else.

I'll post more on on my blog on Monday but was anxious to share Christian's creation with you guys today. And tomorrow I'll wake up and have a 5 year old son. Crazy.

Life in Sac of Tomatoes...

First and foremost, let me just say that I miss Hawaii sooooooooooo much! The weather has been super crummy, and I am in dire need of sunshine and a TAN! Here are a few pictures of what I have been up to:

 

I work in ^ medical building as a chiropractic assistant and translator. My Spanish has gotten SO much better, and Pablito, you would be proud; patients think I am either Argentinian or Columbian! Haha. Classic. Apparently Argentinians make the best steak, Paul does, and since he lived there, that statement must be true.

Church is good. Toa and I go to the single's ward with Emily (Soloman) and Emily and I are actually gonna be in Utah next week for 5 days!! I am beyond excited to see Sen them!! We are gonna go to the Sunday morning session of General Conference! I am grateful for the opportunity that Em and I have to be spiritually fed and hang out with some amazing people! 

I love and miss you all choke! xoxo

-Y

Cheeseheads it is!

Contract has been signed.  Jesse is gainfully employed for the next four years+.  Thanks for your prayers and support.  Wisconsin, here we come!

wish you could come

I love my family!

I love you guys. I really miss Noelle and hope she is good. I miss the short lived blog with her letters. I read them more than once. They were really inspiring to me. Is there any way I could read her letters to the family? I need to write her, but I always forget.

22!

Happy Birthday to Mariah! One day I was invited to be Mariah's parent for a preschool field trip when Charlene was recovering from giving her dad a kidney. It was great fun going to the fire station that day. Her teacher commented about Mariah being such an interesting little person, an "old soul". The teacher was right! Truly, Mariah is someone I really enjoy being with. I love that she characterized me as "hilarious" in a birthday wish and I have since tried to live up to that. Such a gifted yet other-centered soul. Love her touch on the piano, her take on things going on, her caring ways and her faith in things unseen. All the best today and tomorrow too!

Gio and Lily

This is a picture Danny took of Gio and Lily two Sundays ago. They were on a nature walk to look for mushrooms. Zeke and I were asleep on the couch with the flu. The flu hit our whole family one day after another. It totally wiped us out. Lily is the only one who didn't get a fever. Lucky her.

curly curls

In case you were wondering Baby maria has the curliest curls I have ever seen.

Did I tell you we're thinking about adopting when we go to Brazil. Every day I do a little more research and we do a little more praying. Maybe we'll come back with an added member in our family. I was telling Enzo this and he said "as long as the child has curly hair he will fit in."

Jesse Visits for Spring Break

Jesse came and visited for his Spring Break. The girls were still in school so he came out by himself. I had a full week planned out but then he had to leave early to go to Colorado for a job interview. So we only got three days to play. Monday we surfed some tiny waves in the morning and then hiked/ran to some waterfalls in Big Basin State Park up past Boulder Creek.
Tuesday we drove down to Pinnacles National Monument and hiked in the morning, going through a couple of talus caves then did a couple of climbs in the afternoon. Wednesday there were some more little waves in the morning and then we went kayaking in the afternoon. It was a super fun three days, although I'll probably be doing work for most of my spring break next week. If anybody wants to come to Santa Cruz to play there's lot of fun things around here and I'm always looking for an excuse to go and see them.

Call of Story

I love this. The first of these 6 master storytellers is Donald Davis. His series on "What is your Story" is also worth watching. That series is a documentary of a group of people who are being taught a process of finding personal stories. (click anywhere to view.)

Thinking of Damaris!

I have been celebrating Damaris and her birthday the past couple of days. So here is an official Happy Birthday! to the founder of Palmer and Friends. How you bless our days, dear Da!

Babble's top 100 Food Mom Blog

Some kind soul nominated Kitchen Corners to the top 100 food mom blogs and I just nominated Mariko's The Little Foodie. If you want to vote and give us a shout out that would be beautiful.