It was ANOTHER girl!

I can't believe it. It was more me than Jacob who couldn't take the fact... :D I was so sure to have a boy this time. So I kept asking Jacob, "Are you excited? Are you excited about the ultrasound today?" But as soon as the ultrasound specialist told us that it was a girl, I barely managed not to panic - I kept silence for a minute - and said quietly, "I always thought it was going to be a boy... I can't believe the expecting mother was wrong..." I was hoping that the specialist would ignore me, but she heard me and said, "Oh really? Let's check it again." So she checked it again and explained that seeing 3 dots there was a girl and seeing a turtle there was a boy :D

Emma knew that it was going to be a girl for the whole time. She always said that she was going to call the baby, "Emma" :D So she was happy when the baby was going to be a girl for sure.

Jacob still took us all out to eat. While we were eating, I couldn't stop smiling unevenly, feeling as if I was "punked" :D

On the way home in the car, I asked, "SO, since we don't have a girl's name, what would you like to name her?" Our quiet Lydia was the first one to respond. "Angelina!" I instantly liked that name. That was the name I wanted to name Emma but was objected by Jacob, and our girls always liked the name from the cute mouse in their book and used that name for a doll play very often. Emma followed, "Yeah, Angelina!" I still kept my preference to myself and asked Daddy, "How about you?" Jacob thought for a while, and responded, "Yeah, I don't mind that name at all." My heart leapt for joy!

For a few days, I still felt numb. I had to re-wire my thinking.

When I went to a playdate, I witnessed my girls peaking into somebody's baby girl's pink carseat. I then realized, "Wow, this is the picture in the 5 months. 3 girls!" It was dazzling. How dynamic to have 3 girls.

Since then, I'm getting 2 kinds of responses. "Ohhhhh noooooo, I'm sorry for Jacob!" and "I want a girl too! You are so lucky!" My parents are happy that we are having another girl too. They were relieved that they don't have to buy anything new and all the clothes they have bought will be in good use.

When my dad was here, we already made a "boy's" room half-way so I'm re-arranging the room for a guest's bedroom. I had never gone shopping for guest's bedroom, so I'm having a lot of fun. With the Nelson's last-minute help, we could make a beautiful guest bed just in time for Jacob's stepmother to sleep on for Christmas Eve.

My parents don't like the name, Angelina. They complained that our girls' names were getting longer :D I defended, "But you can call her Lina. Isn't that cute?" Then I soon realized that it sounded too close to Rena, my niece in Japan. I may have to register a completely Japanese name for a Japanese governmental use, and keep Angelina to American use. She may get lost with 2 first names in 2 different continents, but at least her identity theft will be difficult :p Or make it "Alina." But in Japanese, "Alina" and "arena" will sound the same.... I don't know what to do. I still have time to think, right?

Will have an ultrasound soon!

Since the photos did not download right, I got discouraged to write a blog on Blogger... But maybe I can put some updates here again ;)

We are going to find out our baby's gender on Dec. 17th. It is always up to the baby's position, but we are SO EXCITED for that day. My guess is with a boy. Jacob really wants a boy before I'll be 'done.' I always tease him that he just wants to have an excuse to buy Star Wars Legos, but I really think it'll be good for us to have a boy. I want to learn what boys go through with Boy Scouts and Priesthood responsibilities. Jacob wants to have a buddy to do landscaping with, because I don't :p Of course, we don't even mind having 12 pretty princesses, but I want to have at least 2 boys.

I have been bringing Emma and Lydia to some music events lately. Now they both say they want to play the piano and sing. I know that they are not interested in violins or violas or trumpets. They are also interested in figure skating, but too bad that Yakima doesn't have figure skating classes - only ice hockey.

I talked to many piano teachers and choristers about what age to start what. They pretty much told me to wait until 8 y/o, so I guess I still have lots ot time. In the meantime, they LOVE swimming, so they can just keep going to YMCA :)

My Favorite Hair Stylist

Today, I'd like to advertise my hair stylist, especially if you have a lot of hair. I've had many stylists spend maybe 30 minutes work on my hair. Then after one-time shampooing or maybe a week, my hair looks rough. After 2 weeks I'm not happy with my hair at all. After 3 weeks I'm already making another appointment with someone else.

I love how hard this hair stylist works. After shampooing my hair, she cut major parts and quickly dried my hair. Then she carefully straightened all of it. I have never had a hair stylist do that. Then she spent over 1 hour cutting, thinning and texturizing my hair with a razor. The whole thing was almost 1 1/2 hours. She talks in the beginning but she gets really serious during texturizing. When I got my hair cut from her last time, it stayed smooth for good 6 months. It had actually been 8 months.

One tip about going to any salon. Dress up. Put full make-up and jewelry even if you have to take them off. Dab on some purfume. Put a pair of sunglasses on top of your overgrown hair :D Try to look as 'picky' as possible. I'm going to a wedding tomorrow, so I let her know. Your hair stylist will give you the best hair cut as possible.

For how much time she spends, I think $35 is a steal. She is a reseved Christian lady, about my age. Here's her info:

Brianne Trepanier-Horbatko
Capello Salon
Specializing in Hair - Makeup - Skincare
502 N. 40th Avenue
Yakima WA 98902
509-972-9779
cell 509-949-8681

When you get a good hair cut, this is what happens. Your husband starts cooking dinner for you ;D



About the top photo, I wasn't trying to look 'smirky' but Jacob made me half-way smile and thus it came out :)

Being Saved by my Hubbie and Heavenly Father

My sister-in-law lives on a dirt road, just like we do. On the way to her house, I was going at a normal speed like an asphalt road. A while after I got to her house, her neighbor came knocking on the door to chew me out for raising the dust in the air and damaging the road.

First my brother-in-law answered the door and the neighbor immediately started yelling at him. He was yelling for quite some time, then my brother-in-law said, "Talk to the responsible party!" and called me out. My sister-in-law said, "That guys is a jerk! Don't talk to him!" I guess he has been mean to them and their guests for several years now. But I didn't have a choice, so I started to come out. (I was scared!)

Then, my husband said, "If he needs to talk to my wife, he will talk to me!" He lashed out and immediately recognized the guy. "Do I know you from somewhere? You look familiar." Then the neighbor said, "maybe from the church?" Then my hubbie said, pointing, "Okay, I am a Christian and you are a Christian. Now let's talk like Christians!"

The neighbor immediately calmed down and wilted. After they talked for a while, they discovered that he was not only from the same church, but also our grandparents' good friend in the same ward. He had come to our Primerica meetings too. Jacob told the guy, "They are my grandparents' grandchildren. You have to be nice to them." :D

It was my fault for being careless about the dirt condition (it has been hot, so it was creating fine dust), but I was just amazed by how things turned out! I was so thankful for my young hubbie to stand up for me and that we were the members of the church; it really saved our evening ;)

てんとう虫のお葬式

最近はほとんど英語で書いていたのですが、アメリカ人の友達はほとんどフェイスブック（ミクシーみたいなもの、ミクシーを知らないのでどこまで似ているのか知りませんが・・・）で繋がっているので、ブログを英語で書く必要がなくなってきました。昔は日本語と英語で書いてたけど、時間がかかりすぎて断念してしまいました＾＾しかもFBは写真のアップロードが早い！私が早いアップロードの仕方を知らないだけでしょうか、友達のブログを見てると、日本語でちゃっちゃかちゃっちゃか書いてるので、すごいなーって感じです。両親にも写真を見てもらおうと、FBに誘ったのですが、システムがよう分からん、と断られたので、写真はまたここに載せることにします。























今日はエマが窓の近くで死んでいるてんとう虫を見つけて、信じられないくらい悲しんでおりました。やっとのことでこのてんとう虫との写真のために見せた笑顔（笑）


てんとう虫の自作の歌を歌って、天国にいけるようお祈りをしてました。


なんて愛されたてんとう虫（笑）


バービーの紙でお棺を作ってほしいとの依頼を受けました。


最後のお別れ。


ゆっくり休養できるようにテント（ピラミッド？）も作ってほしいとの事。


てんとう虫さん、さようなら～！

Seattle Style

This is me every morning. I used to be a home buddy, just reading books with my girls, but since Lassie needs her energy outlet and I'm determined to make Lassie a well-trained Border Collie, I'm roller-blading with her every day. Well, this is only good for me. I no longer have an insomnia problem. My arms and legs are firm. And I sure have fun with my running buddy, Carrie, my girls and Lassie. I'm hoping that more people will start copying me so that I don't look like an only weirdo in Yakima :D If you are interested in what Carrie blogs about her exercising, here's the link. http://zero2forty.blogspot.com/ I'm so proud of her to have a goal and stick to it. This is something off the track, but I'm excited to babysit her boys so that Carrie and Jon can go to the Temple tomorrow. Woo-hoo!

Our Storm is Over.

Jacob's winter quarter will be done after taking a final tonight. I can't believe we survived this quarter. His education and speech classes were breeze - he missed NO point in education - we often wondered if his teacher was actually reading Jacob's papers... :p But his history class by Mr. Monti Walker was a kill! We went pale when we saw the first assignment and wished he could drop this class but it was too late to switch to another class and have a good start, so we decided to go on a roller coaster. During the final week, Jacob was stressed out, I was stressed out, our children didn't understand... and I cried. I just felt so bad that our girls were affected by Jacob's delayed education. But what do we do now? Quit? Delay longer? What if economy went really bad? Wouldn't we regret that we weren't doing something about it? Ahh, it was tough.

But it is over and Jacob will have a 10-day break! We are planning to work on our yard, garden, fix truck and lawn mower, have Emma's 4th birthday party, and spend lots of lots of time with our girls!

Emma started writing alphabets and reading Japanese. This is as exciting as watching a flower that's about to bloom! I love seeing 'results' of my hard work. (I mean, who doesn't?) Lydia is able to remember what the next word is, so if I was destracted during reading her book, she would remind me of the next word :)

Our Border Collie is learning many tricks: crawl, stand, down/stay, high five, go down the slide, go up the slide, climb upstairs, jump and get it, etc. She can't catch a freesbie yet, but she is obssessed with the game. Our chihuahua will start her obedience class next month. She has come a long way, but she still has some obedience issues. Our teacher said this dog should have been in a class first... Oops!

What We Are Up To...

Since Jacob started a college full-time in January, gosh! my life has changed. Jacob is still working full-time and of course, he is busy and tired, so I have been going through his assignments so that he is doing the right assignments on time. I read his books too so that I know how to help him when I review his papers. Maybe I'm doing too much, but I seriously don't know how else he can pass his classes. Next quarter, he is going to just take one class. 3 classes are insane. Some people have advised that he should change his jobs or quit his job, but we checked how much teachers get paid in town and figured that we really need to be careful with student loan. I really wish that he did a running start and is a dentist by now, but what can I say...? School is no fun when he is older and going for something that underpays. But I can totally see that Jacob does well with children and he really cares about their education. So, he has my 100% support after all.

At daytime, I'm devoted to my girls. I started being more active with them so that they will be tired by the end of the day. Sometimes I do too much and we don't even make it to the end of the day. We take naps and this totally messes up my plan. They are so energetic when Jacob comes home and has to study.... :< I'm still working on finding the middle ground.

Instead of blogging, I also found Facebook more applicable to my lifestyle. It is an advanced E-mail to me. I feel so in tune with many of my friends. Pictures are way faster to load up on Facebook too.

Jacob's grandpa has been in the hospital for a week. We have made it to see him everyday except the day he moved to a different hospital. We still don't know when he can go home, but we hope he can. Today, I sang songs to him and he was crying for joy. He is a wonderful man and we love him dearly. I'm planning to play the piano at the hospital for him tomorrow. He needs our devoted support too.

I wish this was my fiction, but this is a true story...

Sigh, I should have listened to my husband... He suggested changing the tires on my van yesterday, but we had a vet appintment for Lassie, so I postponed it till Monday. So yesterday, I planned to do everything before the appointment, so that I can drive back in a daylight. But of course, Lydia wouldn't take a nap until afternoon and everything got delayed. When we were ready to come home, I called Jacob at work, met him at Wal-Mart and drove back to our mail box at the bottom of the hill together.
Jacob drove his car back home first and ran down the hill to come get us. He was going to drive the van, but he thought it would be a good time to teach me how to drive the van on ice.
Jacob said our hill was pretty bare, but I got stuck 2 days ago there. Well, this was because I put it on a 2L gear; I should have left it at D. But I also remembered our neighbor saying he sprinkled salt on his hill, so I said I wanted to try our neighbor's hill.
Our neighbor's hill is longer and less steep. But I didn't factor in that their hill was darker. I was doing pretty good until almost at the top of their hill. Only 3 feet away from the top, the ice was thick and we got stuck...
I tried and tried, but it kept slipping, so I asked Jacob to take over. He tried too but he was getting the same result, so we decided to go back down to try our hill.
Then we found a bare spot on the way down. We should have ignored it, but we thought, "Maybe we can use that spot to get the momentum!"
While Jacob was turning around, the bare spot, we thought, turned out to be a thin, clear ice. We kept sliding backward toward the edge.
Jacob stopped the van when it hit the snow. When he tried to turn around again, it did not go forward, but when he hit the brake, it went backward.
I was not screaming. But I was breathing fast. Jacob said, "Calm down, or I get nervous. If you are going to act like that, you need to get out."
I tried to not breathe so fast, to no avail. Jacob said to himself calmly, "Mnn, I wonder what's behind us." He got out, checked the back and opened my door. "It's a cliff."
I said, "I'll get out. I'll get the kids out too. You shouldn't wear a seatbelt. If the van slides down, jump out."
By this time, it was completely dark and dangerously cold. When I saw Emma shaking like a leaf in her thick coat, I decided not to walk home but ask for help.
Thank goodness, our neighbors were home. They welcomed us in. Jacob saw us when he was running back home to grab an ice picket.
Our neighbor, Scott, led us to the fireplace and gave our girls candy canes. His son, Dylan, made hot chocolate with marshmallows. It was our first time to see the inside of their home. It resembled a log cabin in Naches. Everything was decorated in a coutry style and it gave us warmth. Scott saw Jacob coming back, so he went out to give him a hand.
Dylan, who probably never had to babysit in his life, did everything he could to entertain our girls. Very quickly, our girls warmed up to him and talked, talked, talked. I was thankful. I was thankful that we did not fall off the cliff; our neighbors were home; and furthermore, they were wonderful.
I talked to Dylan too. In the past 3 years, this was our first time to talk. Since we lived so far from each other, we never had a contact. I still have not met his mother, who lives there everyday.
Scott towed our van back to the middle of the road. Jacob made it this time on their hill. Maybe after half an hour, Scott and Jacob came into the house. We chatted more in the kitchen while trying to get our girls ready. Emma was so comfortable that she tried every way to stay there.
We finally got ready. Jacob drove us home while Scott and Dylan made sure that we got up the last hill. Jacob was going pretty fast. Was I screaming? ...No, but I decided to listen to my husband next time, while breathing fast.