Day 181 - June 30

It's June 30th. Know what that means? I've made it half-way through the year! Technically, there are more days in the second half of the year than the first half of the year, but six months are down and only six months to go!

Getting down to business....

(If you're a facebook friend, you've seen this picture already. It's that exciting!)

Ah, sushi. Our Friday nights in Kodiak generally consisted of getting take-out sushi from the Old Powerhouse restaurant and eating it while watching a Netflix movie. Since we left Kodiak, we've had a horrendous time trying to find decent sushi around here. We just haven't been happy with the options. Either the rice is too sweet, the sauces are weird, or the selection just isn't what we want.

Again, while in Kodiak, though, everyone would make mention of Tom-San's (the owner/sushi chef at Powerhouse) other restaurant, "somewhere in Alabama or Mississippi." Everyone thought they knew it existed, but no one knew where it was. Thanks to a friend who was in Kodiak a few weeks back for a visit, I finally got the scoop on the other restaurant... Little Tokyo in Jackson, MS. Tom-San's wife runs Little Tokyo, which was their first restaurant in the US.

Enter a student pilot needing to do a "cross country" flight... and a smart husband who thought Jackson, MS would be a good place to go. Thanks to a cooler of ice used to bring boxed lunches up with them and a crew car to use while they were there, the crew made the trip from the airport to Little Tokyo for lunch, and that smart husband was able to bring back the goodness.

The rolls themselves weren't exactly the same, but they were REALLY good. BUT, the sauce was the same and that's what makes these rolls even more amazing. Good thing I went to Zumba tonight... I needed the extra points for all this yummy goodness!!!

The funny thing was that we've been talking about how we were going to get up there just for sushi, but hadn't made it up yet. Today was Tom-San's wife's last day at the restaurant; she's moving to Kodiak after all these years! Jason told her about how he'd been to Powerhouse MANY times and she was so thrilled that someone came to Little Tokyo after being there - usually people try to go to Powerhouse after going to Little Tokyo!

So much for the crockpot meal that simmered away all day. I had sushi for dinner!!!!!!!!

Day 180 - June 29

Jason brought me flowers today. I needed that!

But here's where the "mom" in me starts showing... instead of taking a picture of all my flowers, I took a picture of just one of the flowers.

This is Michaela's flower. I found one of them broken off when I was arranging them in a vase. Michaela was already asking for one as she was "helping" me arrange them, so this was perfect. I got a small vase for her flower and gave her some greenery to add to her arrangement. She put the leaves and ferns in just so and this was the end result.

I took the little vase outside as the sun was setting tonight to take advantage of the gorgeous light. Oh, and my other eleven roses are just as pretty!

Day 179 - June 28

*sigh*

I was really excited about the subject of tonight's picture. Against every fiber of my being, I went to Zumba tonight, so I've got all these extra Weight Watchers points floating around to use. And I used this wine to cook with today, so it was just there, waiting to be poured into a glass and enjoyed.

And then I took a sip. And I don't know if it's because it was a little warmer than it maybe should've been. Or maybe it's because I generally only have a taste for whites in the summer. Or maybe it's because I'm not a huge fan of Shiraz anymore when I DO drink red.

Whatever the reason, this glass is now sitting next to Jason and I'm wine-less.

So, *sigh*

But at least I have a picture.

Day 178 - June 27

Sometimes, you just don't argue with whatever it is your child decides to wear. Today was one of those days. Thankfully, we weren't leaving the house, so it really didn't matter.

When she woke up from her nap, she wanted to open her closet door for some reason. (We keep it closed because there's a green light for our alarm system in there and she's slightly obsessed by it.) Upon opening the door, she spied her lovely ladybug costume from last Halloween.

Who can pass up a Halloween costume, really? So on it went, and, when she got to the living room, she was super excited to see the sunhat that had just arrived in the mail this morning, a hand-me-down from her cousin.

On went the hat.

And, voila.

Day 177 - June 26

I'm not saying we DO have a hair bow issue, and I'm not saying we DON'T have a hair bow issue...

I'm just saying we've got a lot of hair bows around here...

(And not to make it even worse, but this only includes her clippies... we won't talk about the barrettes and headbands....)

(Oh, and this is the picture for today because I got some crafty time in this afternoon and made two more of these holders - the ones with the dragonflies on them. We needed to expand!)

Day 176 - June 25

About three weeks ago, we were having a hard time getting Michaela to want to dunk her whole head under the water when we took her swimming. She would put her face in to blow bubbles, but she was NOT happy if we dunked her, or if she slipped on the steps and went under.

My, how things can change.... from not getting her whole head wet to jumping off the diving board. In three weeks. Crazy little girl!

And a bonus picture, because I already put it on facebook, but wanted to add it here for those that would want to see it, but aren't on FB.

Day 175 - June 24

FONDUE!!!!!

For Christmas, my mother-in-law gave me a fondue pot. It wasn't a random gift... I asked for a good electric one because the only one I had was a cheap $20 one that worked with sterno fuel. I needed a new one.

Why would someone need a fondue pot? Well, in Kodiak, we had fondue on a regular basis with our friends Dave and Joanne. They had the fancy electric fondue pot, so we figured we'd need one when we got here because they took theirs with them when they moved to Astoria.

Lo and behold, we didn't actually need the fancy fondue pot until this week. We just haven't gotten around to fondue-ing (Is that a word? Can you make a verb out of fondue?) for whatever reason, but Dave and Joanne are here this week, so it was definitely a necessity to bust it out.

Learning from our mistakes of actually trying to do an entire 3-course fondue dinner (cheese appetizer, broth main meal and chocolate dessert) and failing miserably (because the cheese - and everything we dip in it - is usually enough food for an army), we went for just cheese and chocolate tonight.

And it was fabulous. And maybe we'll have to pull out the fondue pot a little more often from now on. Yum.

(And that Chocolate Wine in the dessert picture.... it wasn't nearly as weird as we thought it would be. It sort of tasted like Bailey's. Who knew?)