Farewell to Matsumoto

Our stay in Matsumoto has officially ended. Tomorrow morning we will take the 2 hour train ride to Tokyo where we will spend the next two days site-seeing, swimming (my one requirement was that our hotel have a swimming pool), and shopping! I have been really looking forward to this part of our trip and I'm sure I will not be disappointed! There is a lot to look forward to in my near future (meeting everyone that means a lot to Kiel from his mission, returning to America, seeing my mom and the rest of my family (that includes Kiel's family, of course!), and decorating my new apt!) and it makes me feel that really, life is beautiful!

Mom's blood test results

Mom had some blood work done and a CT scan taken to see what her cancer has been doing the past few months. Unfortunately her tumors have continued to grow and there are also a few new tumors that weren't there before. Mom has decided to start the sandostatin shots which is a "kinder" type of chemo. The horrible thing about those are (besides the negative side affects they can have) is she has to give them to herself! I don't know how anyone does that...my mom is a very strong person.
The {extremely} positive news is that her blood is 100% normal. The drs don't know how that can be since her liver obviously can function well but we are very grateful for that news nonetheless.
So now you all know about as much as I do...I wish the news was better but we'll hope and pray for that for the next test results.

Emails please!

I've been thinking about it for over a year now but the time has come to take my blog private. It makes me really sad because I love it when old friends find me on here and send me a message and we meet up again! But the risks aren't worth it. I'll be going private in two weeks so if you want to see our blog after that send me your email addy and I'll send you an invite. You can give me your email on here, on facebook, or email it to me: krasavitsa87@gmail.com. Thanks peeps!

Things I miss about America

~Mattresses
~Different food nationalities (I mostly miss mexican food)
~My car
~Breakfast cereal
~Subs, or any sandwich for that matter
~Phone calls
~HOUSE the TV show
~The library
~Sally Hansen wax strips
~Movies
~Caleb sleeping in a different room
~Yards with grass
~Iggie's...yeah, they really are THAT good!
~Law and Order
~Pepsi
~My CD's
~Chocolate chip cookies
~Couches (I haven't seen a single couch since I've been here! Crazy ne?!)
~Stores like Burlington and Kohls...cheap clothes!
~English

16 days and I'll be eating to my hearts content a pork barbecoa burrito with a cookie in my other hand while sitting on the couch watching HOUSE re-runs and taking sips of pepsi while feeling completely secure knowing Caleb's in the other room sound asleep in his crib and at the same time looking forward to falling into my bed and dreaming of eating Golden Grahams the next morning and then hitting the malls in my Lexus with Regina Spector singing to me in the background. Ahhhhhhh the good life!

Kyoto Pics

Wow, we are down to our last week in Matsumoto! Its unbelievable how fast time is flying, but I'm not complaining!! I'm so excited to get on with my life in Utah. I'm excited for my own car, schedule, and house. I'm also excited for HD in English!!!
Here are the Kyoto pics we took when we were there 2 weeks ago. Kyoto was amazing and I loved every minute of it!!! I love Kiel so much!!!! That doesn't really have anything to do with Kyoto, I just wanted to add it in there...
This is a lot of pics but I just couldn't leave any of them out! Japan is so beautiful and has so much culture. America is culturally lame. The end.

Kiel and I were saying how nice the Tanaka's car was when WHAM! They slammed into two granite pillars, breaking them in half and crushing the car. We felt so bad

This is the most famous Zen Art rock pond in Japan

This is completely plated in real gold

I WISH I could've taken a picture of inside this shrine. There are 1000 golden gods enshrined in it and in the middle of all of them is a giant god buddah thats at least 30+ feet and it has like 100 hands holding all these cool things...it was so amazing!!! And there was a priest that was offering incense and chanting in front of the buddah while we were there. Really cool.

This poor guy had to pull this Big Japanese guy up a really steep, long hill.

This was at the actual festival. There were so many people for like 20 blocks that you could hardly walk. I got so claustrophobic!!!

The sumo championships were going on in Nagoya and this guy was one of the lower ranked Sumos! He is one of the smallest sumos I've seen..well, he's the only Sumo I've seen in real life

Nagoya Castle

The Tanaka Family!!! We stayed with them the whole time we were in Kyoto; they are super nice!!

The (incredibly expensive) cake we bought for them to say thank you! I think its very cute

These are called Tori--and are entry ways to shrines. They go on for miles, all the way up a mountain and back.

This picture does not do this statue justice. It is HUGE!!! Literally the size of a small mountain.

Oops I forgot to flip! This lady had 2 feet of tissue hanging out of her pants and it gave me a good laugh for quite a while!

She wants to eat you.

Youtube Debut

So with all the spare time I've had lately I decided to videotape me singing a favorite -I'm Not That Girl from the musical WICKED- and post it on youtube. I always wondered how ppl got up the nerve to post videos of themselves when others would bash (and complement) them but recently I got that nerve, out of sheer boredom, and jumped on the youtube wagon. I ALREADY KNOW I'M NO PRO, especially my piano skills, although I will say that I just barely bought the music and given some time I could be a master. Anyway, if you get as bored as I was feel free to watch it, critique it (trust me, theres plenty to critique as I was friggin nervous to sing on videotape!), and do whatever else you feel so inclined to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQzMLOaUOSA

Birthday WISH List

Im not asking for much, quantity wise, but in case you have been stressing over what to give me (I hope Kiel reads this!) I thought I would make it easy and just tell you.

1) a yoga mat

2) a chic bicycle, preferably light blue or pink, with a little white or brown wicker basket on front and a baby seat in the back. Something that looks like this:

Don't worry, I'm not really expecting to get this bike (as this particular bike costs over a $1000 and would have to be imported from france)...but

I can wish can't I??

2 Weeks in Pictures

Kiel and I eating the super yummy taiyaki (a pancake in the shape of a fish stuffed with chocolate and custard...oishii!)

Blueberry picking with Kanako and Rumy

Date night at a very Japanese resturant

Caleb's favorite play place

The kimono fashion show that Kiel and I were in. Last time I blogged about this it was just the rehearsal...this was the actual show. Tons of ppl showed up to watch!