Brownie Day Song

Waffle brownie ice cream sandwiches. And yes, they are a wee bit melting. That's why they are in the freezer.

A couple of weeks before Stephanie and the kids moved in Trevor wanted brownies on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. I informed him that we only had brownies on Sunday night or Monday night. He now wakes up on Sunday morning and informs me that it is "Brownie Day". Today he composed a song:

Oh yea, it's a brownie day

come on, come on, let's go

It's Sunday come on, come on,

let's go to the brownie store.

Mind you, the lyrics change every time he sings it, but that's the gist.

Tracking

I love getting packages. It always feels like Christmas...even when I know what's in them. Words don't begin to express how fun it is to track a package from where it's sent to when it gets put out on the truck for delivery. Yes, tracking does take away some of the mystery of when I'll get a package, but the trade-off is that I have much less frustration if something is going to be late.

I submitted two different online orders (to two different places) in the last couple of weeks. The first order came a couple of days before the estimated time (yea!) and the second is coming a few days later than it was originally planned. That's okay - an email came informing me that I would have to wait for 2 items that were back ordered, then a couple of days later (well, maybe 3 or 4 days) I got another email with the tracking number.

Now all I have to do is wait...and check the online tracking.

And now for something totally unrelated.

Sparkling Sugar Cookies

I gave Stephanie some sugar cookie dough this morning to use with the grandkids - she brought out my box of cookie cutters and this is what they came up with (with help from Stephanie).

They didn't put together the vignette - Rebekah did. Complete with ring. Ridiculously awesome. Nathan felt the need to make the vignette truer - by biting off 2 steeples of the temple. Now it looks a lot more like the Seattle Temple. I'm not totally sure of the symbolism of the headless couple. Any ideas?

Picture Potpourri

Evidently this was the "beta" version of Nathan's ring box.

This is the actual origami box that Nathan made to put the engagement ring in....

...which he presented to Rebekah yesterday. In case you missed that - yes, Nathan and Rebekah are engaged.

Andrew's mission president posted this picture on his blog today - you are welcome to see the accompanying article here.

Our Man in Japan

Dear Family and Friends,

Well I`m on to my 5th area now and 7th companion with almost a year in Japan. I`ve been transferred to a place called Kawachinagano, once again if you want to look on a map it`s 富田林市須賀２丁目22-11-303　you might be able to look it up on google maps. This area borders my previous one and is in the same zone. It`s a different district though.

It feels strange that I`m the oldest missionary in the district. There`s 6 missionaries in this district. One is American, he entered the MTC around September of last year, he`s training a Japanese elder. Another is Japanese, he entered the mission field around May I think, he`s training an American Elder. And my current companion is Elder Kimura, he entered the mission field in June.

The reason I didn`t do email last week is we didn`t know of any free email place that was conveniently close by. Just the one I`m at now that`s 30 minutes away and over a couple hills. We might have found one for next week, but it`s closed the second Monday of the month.

I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday about Missionary work. After sacrament meeting one guy in the ward came up to me and said he thought he had seen me before. He said `Were you at the Mikunigaoka burger party?` (In Japanese of course) Apparently he saw me on Youtube. maybe you can see it if you search for this on Youtube 三国ヶ丘　バーガー 大会

My current companion doesn`t do email so I`m going to be quick with my emails this transfer probably. If I don`t email next week don`t be too surprised, but I think I will.

Sincerely,
Elder Andrew West

And now, for your viewing pleasure.... (keep an eye out for Elder Andrew pretty early on) - and some fun facts about his new area, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Claims to Fame
The area once boasted the largest national production output of toothpicks. This is no longer the case, with most toothpicks now being imported from overseas. The city still sticks to its former reputation as "Toothpick capital".

Kawachinagano is known for its local dialect of Japanese, Kawachi-ben, which is known for its rough, blue-collar appeal. Kawachi-ben is spoken in the Kawachi area, which includes Kawachinagano, yet extends as far north as Yao.

Defcon 2

DEFCON 2
This refers to a further increase in force readiness just below maximum readiness. The most notable time it was declared was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, although the declaration was limited to Strategic Air Command. It is not certain how many times this level of readiness has been reached. -Wikipedia

Okay, so it wasn't quite Bay of Pigs at my house today, but it was close. So far, we have survivability, but it was close thing for a few minutes. Daniel saved the day by locating Trevor in a house down the block. Trevor's immediate consequence was a bath, then straight to pajamas. Yes, it's only 7pm, but if we lived in Betty Neels world it would already be past his bedtime. Did I mention that my husband is off on a Scout campout, Nathan is at work and Stephanie and Cory at over at their house doing some final cleaning?

Where are child-size shackles when you need them?

And You Thought YOU Had it Bad

I haven't read a Grace Livingston Hill book in quite a while - but I finally got around to starting one that Keira loaned me this summer. I almost forgot how inadvertently funny she is.

The title of the book is "Beloved Stranger". It starts out with our heroine dumping her fiance on their wedding day because he was kissing another girl. Sherrill (heroine) is feeling depressed the next day when she hears one of the maids (Lutie) singing a song:

"When I have sorrow in my heart,

What can take it away?

Only Jesus in-ah my heart

Can take that sorrow away."

There are 3 more verses...but I won't write them here. I shall now quote from the book:

"But you've never had any sorrow, Lutie," said Sherrill wistfully, eyeing the girl's round rosy cheeks and happy eyes.

Oh, Miss Sherrill, you don't know," said Lutie sobering suddenly. "I've had just a lot! First my mother got awful sick for two whole years, and then when she got better my sister just older'n I died. And my little brother has hurt his hip and they don't think he'll ever walk again....."My dad got some steel filings in his eye about nine months ago, and they think he's going blind, and now they've laid him off the job so my brother Sam and I are the only ones working, except Mother now and then when she can get a washing to do. And our house is all mortgaged up and the bank closed last week where we had our money saved to pay the interest and now we'll maybe lose the house; and Mother needs an operation only she can't stop working to go to the hospital. And - "....and- then - my boy friend got mad and started going with another girl because I wouldn't run off and get married and leave the family in all that mess!"

I love how Lutie gets through everything until the part where her boy friend dumps her, before she breaks down. The only thing missing is having a beloved family pet die. I don't have to finish the book to know that Sherrill will go to Bible class with Lutie and be "born again", then she will end up marrying the stranger (remember, the title) that helped her through the whole wedding debacle - oh, and he will also be born again, if he hasn't been already.

Beloved Stranger was written in 1933