A Beautiful Party

Miri's twelfth birthday party had her personality written all over it. She put her talents to the test by planning, organizing, and executing this "spa party"almost single handedly. Some of the highlights were:
1. the nail artist and her collection of nail polish
2. the homemade avocado face mask
3. the homemade honey and oatmeal scrub
4. the homemade lemon facial steam

Miriam was an absolutely delightful hostess, enthusiastic about the party and gracious to her guests. I've always thought she was born a teenager. With this party her true colors shone brightly.

I would describe Miri as independent and driven with a curiously intuitive creative streak. She does not get this creative streak from me. I shy away from any kind of party planning. I think we both knew that this party went above and beyond my abilities. She didn't let this discourage her and off she went, planning and preparing on her own.
Miriam made a budget to guide her expenses. She stuck to that budget and with a few tough decisions stayed within the budget by two dollars. Could this be the sign of a responsible teenager?
We had one small glitch with the party planning. I wanted her to make a strawberry icecream cake and she wanted a cotton candy flavored ice cream cake. When she went to order the ice cream, she ordered strawberry to make me happy. The sales clerk misunderstood her and thought she said sherbet instead of strawberry, but we didn't figure that out until we got home with twenty dollars worth of sherbet ice cream. We were both really bummed. Miri of course regretted ordering strawberry on my account and I regretted pressuring her into getting a flavor that I like. Now we were in a bind because the budget had not allowed for this mistake, but she wasn't about to make a rainbow sherbet ice cream cake. Miri thought about it, adjusted a few expenses and was able to get the cotton candy icecream. Yeah! I learned two things: cotton candy ice cream cake is as yucky as it sounds and, who cares? It's not my birthday cake anyway.

Stepping Stones

Daniel, June 2011, Nagoya, Japan

Nagoya, Japan Summer 2011

The Nagoya Castle

On our last day in Japan, we visited the Nagayo Castle. What impressed me about the castle was the enormous rocks used in the engineering of the walls and the giant trees that were scattered about the landscape. The Nagoya Castle was quiet and serene. This is something that amazed me about Japan. It is quiet. The cars are quiet, the houses are quiet, the streets are quiet, the people are quiet. Very different from the other Asian cities that I have visited.

Small World Magic on the River

In addition to the magic of watching the Comorants fish on the river, we had a serendipitous event during our night river tour. We were eating our picnic of tuna fish sandwiches aboard our boat before it left the dock. The sun was setting and the evening was beautiful. A young couple boarded the boat. The girl was especially pretty and had a huge smile. She sat down next to my daughters and they were ecstatic. She looked interested in getting to know us and I have to admit by stomach dropped as I noticed her eye my Father-in-Law's missionary name tag. "Oh no," I groaned to myself. I wasn't in a talkative mood and I am ashamed to admit, I wasn't looking forward to this tour being a missionary discussion.
It turns out that she is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon)! Not only that, she herself is a returned missionary from the Utah Temple Square Mission. She was born and raised in Russia and joined the church there five years ago. She is living in Japan working on an internship as a student of Brigham Young University (Jim and my alma mater). She spoke Russian, English, and Japanese fluently. A fascinating young woman.