You Know You Have JET LAG When...

1. You wake up at 4:00am completely refreshed and ready to start the day

2. You realize there is no milk, but try to convince your children that apple juice in Cheerios is yummy (and you actually believe this)

3. Your house is so messy, you can't find your shoes, but rather than clean up, you think you can ride your bike in slippers

4. You normally limit the kids' TV watching to a bare minimum, but decide every show is really educational (Power Rangers teaches both self-defense and colors right?)

5. You are supposed to meet your friend at the Ginza train station. When you arrive your friend is not there. She calls to tell you she is at Ginza. You swear on your life that SHE is at the wrong station. After checking, you find out YOU are at a totally different station and the worst of it is..... you have NO IDEA how you got there.

6. You are cooking dinner, but have no fresh vegetables on hand. Rather than go to the local veggie stand, you find yourself staring at your jelly belly container wondering if they count... fruits and veggies?

7. Everyone is dressed and ready for school and then you realize, oops, it is Saturday

8. You had repair work done on your car over the break. Since you've been back, you swear your navigation system is now speaking Japanese, "what did that say? I go where? how many meters, what? Is there a rewind button?"

9. You take a daily vitamin, unsure if you already took one. You forget about it and 1 hour later take another one, only to have your daughter ask, "didn't you already take your vitamin?" (maybe eating jelly bellies for dinner requires more supplemental vitamins)

10. You start the routine to put your 3 year old to bed and with a panic he says, "Momma, I just woke up!"

This Land Is Your Land

"This land is your land, this land is my land, from California, to Indiana." As a photographer, I have always said "it is impossible to take too many pictures at the beach". Taking pictures at the beach always turn out gorgeous; maybe it is because of nature's backdrop or perhaps it is the overcast skies. My parent's land in Indiana is another perfect spot in nature where you cannot take too many pictures... they all turn out incredible, no matter what season you take them in. My parents are trying to sell their home in California before they can officially build their dream home in Indiana. For now, that land is just a barn, a pond, and a tire swing... and it is magical.

Now You See Him, Now You Don't

Jonas has taken to hiding anywhere and everywhere. He is very stealthy and keeps quiet until we holler serious threats to make him come out from his hiding spot. Then he yells "surprise!" Some of his choices for hiding places are a little scary, but he is a boy after all, plus he is being quiet... come on... why would I discourage that?

The buffet cabinet...

The clothes dryer...
His trunk (from Papa Glenn's mission)....Any box will do....If I were to get really sentimental I would sniff and say "someday he won't fit in these tiny places" but that is way too sad to think about... even on days when he makes his Momma crazy.

Operator Failure

I got a new crock pot for Christmas for a very good reason. After reading the "Important Safeguards" manual that came with it, I have decided the list is missing a key instruction....
Warning: Placing your crock pot in your BICYCLE BASKET is a dangerous hazard, maybe even life threatening. It is possible for the cord to find its way to your wheel, get caught, then yanked out, and finally hit the side walk and smash into a million pieces. It is true. It happened to me. Don't do it. It isn't pretty.

Favorite Christmas Moments 2007

Santa brought the girls WEBKINS reindeer and brought Jonas a reindeer that sings "the bottom song" (see December blog)

Santa brought Jonas R2D2 and boy was Daddy excited!

Favorite stocking gift?? UNDERWEAR!!

Jonas tried to impress R2D2 by showing him his new Star Wars underwear.

Glenn's favorite gift was his Phoenix Suns shirt and jersey

from his Dad and Ann Marie...

GO SUNS!

Tracey's favorite gift was a new crock pot (see Operator Failure blog)

What do you give a family who lives in Japan?? Books and DVDs! Yeah!

Every year Glenn and I accidentally give each other a "TWIN" gift...

where we both buy the same gift for each other. Usually it is a movie.

This year's twin gift was MOUSE PADS...

man we needed this, our mouse pad in Japan stinks!
Shailey wrote Glenn and I a note in our shower with her new bath foam

"heart U Mom & Dad from SRO" Shailey gave Daddy a run for his money with the new chess set.

Grammie and Grandad bought the kids COOL sleeping bags...

perfect for family movie nights.

The Christmas AFTERMATH... yikes.

Our favorite Christmas tradition is when Daddy

makes Uncle Bill's biscuits and gravy.

Finally it snowed! Not enough to sled, but enough to enjoy.


And our trip could not be complete without visiting

our favorite local pizza joint...

MAX's = YUM!


The End.

Where's Waldo??

Our family took a trip to Tokyo Disneyland in December. It was an incredibly crowded time to be there... I guess December is the prime season for Japanese Disney fans. Anyhow to mangage the crowds, I would take kids potty or whatever while Glenn got in line for the next ride. When he got in line for Small World, I got worried that the crowds were so huge I might not find him.... and then we spied him... Waldo in the pink hat...


Glenn is 6'3" and lives in a city of very short Japanese people. Needless to say, he sticks out like a sore thumb. But add to that a pair of hot pink Mickey ears and well... it is easy to spot our Waldo. Thanks Dad for sacrificing your machismo for your family. You are still muy macho to us!

Love is in the Air

December 18, 2007, my sister Lisa married Brent Brown. This is Glenn and my wedding anniversary too (14 years and counting :). It was a gorgeous wedding, held in the Newport Beach Temple. Later they had a reception nearby at the Muckenhalter Mansion. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and puffy clouds. Everything went off without a hitch... except the two being "hitched". Our highlight of the day was when everyone got down and danced! The slideshow spotlights Jonas doing some pretty serious dance moves... somwhere between karate and disco. And, the darling fellow with Michelle is Dallin Thomas... they are pretty serious, ah-hem. You can see those two dancing as well. I think I know who inspired Dallin's dance moves... it is SO obvious. The final picture is a candid moment between cousins, Emma and Kirra, who were enjoying a serious card game to pass the time. Happy days!

To view even more amazing photos than mine, see what their photographer shot... INCREDIBLE. Select "featured" and then select "brent and lisa". Worth your while:

http://brodydezemberphoto.com/

Emma's Bridgestone Tire Commercial

Emma's first commercial is here. Click on this link to see the "web movie". It will take you to the Bridgestone website where you see Emma on the home page, then click on the box in the bottom left corner that reads "playz RV movie", then click the box with the mini van outline that reads "playz RV movie". This is longer than the commercial and worth watching: http://www.playz.jp/

On the website, you hear a song called ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL by Jet. I love this song, and found it funny the Japanese chose it to advertise safe tires. When filming, the studio played this song over and over again to be sure the actors really moved to the beat. I think we had this song stuck in our head for a solid week afterwards. Now when I hear it, I smile with the memory.

This show below is for the web commercial, different from the movie. Click on the "play" button.

Amazingly enough Bridgestone is the first job Emma ever auditioned for. Can you imagine trying to look natural and casual with this huge black camera only inches from your face? She acted as if she has been doing this her whole life. The crew was amazed to find out this was her first job.

Emma called Caleb her "fake brother", and she adored him. They became good friends fast. She asked me if it is normal to become best friends after only being with someone for 3 days. I told her it is very normal... ever heard of "summer love". The funny thing is that Caleb is mormon and his family attends our local temple. We have plans to get together soon.

It took 3 days to shoot... with the final day filming until 2:30am! So at 2 in the morning, Emma licked an ice cream cone to the beat of ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL. I was amazed at her stamina. My favorite memory was when the director shouted "action" Emma instantaneously pasted on her happy acting face. The second the directed shouted "cut" she slumped her body into the chair and played catch with her fake ice cream cone as if it were a ball. The director then reviewed the previous cut before filming again. With one word, "action", Emma was back to her upright position with her happy smiling face pasted on. This sequence happened over and over and the crew and myself were laughing hysterically at the dramatic change Emma made between "cut" and "action". I wondered if she played it up because she knew it was making us laugh. She told me "no Mom, I really am pooped out". She was an absolute trooper... energetic until the last cut. We had a lot of fun being part of such a large production. I am proud of her!

The gal in this photo is Lisa. She was our fabulous interpreter and production manager. She kept the kids very happy! I think it was her idea to put real Haag n' daaz (sp?) ice cream on top of the fake ice cream so Emma really could enjoy licking it. Good times.

Shailey's First Commercial

After an extensive tryout, Shailey was cast as a "fairy" for a music video for a famous Japanese band called Dreams Come True. After filming for 12 hours, enduring endless detailed costume adjustments (including shoving cotton between her toes so her tights did not show "lumpy" toes), 2 hours with a hair and make up artist who re-fixed her hair after each take, plus being refitted for about 5 different harness sizes, and finally strung up on the wire in front a blue screen where she had to pose 100+ different ways, her commercial debut is here! (*There is a reason I describe the painful details... when you view the commercial, you will know why... so much fuss seems a bit unnecessary after seeing the final result :).
You may have to watch it a few times to recognize Shailey. She is the only "girl fairy". First, she floats to the right while holding a balloon, then you see a close up of her face holding the balloon, next she is one of the fairies holding up the person's eyelids (if you can see her, you have super powers), and finally she is in the background of the group of fairies. Fun times!

Click on the link below:

http://www.dctgarden.com/ANDILOVEYOU/andiloveyou_60cm.html