Nishimoto reunion June 2011

We finally had our 5 year reunion on my mom's side. We don't hold it very often since a lot of people have to travel from Hawaii and it gets pricey. I was disappointed we didn't actually hold it in Hawaii as originally planned and had it in the Bay Area, but it turned out to be fun for everyone.

My siblings came out a few days early and we all (minus my brother who didn't make the reunion) went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. We saw marine animals and shows and rode rides. I was sooo thankful to my nephew Connor for taking Benny on all the rides so I didn't have to.
Benny and Mayumi won matching puppies from a balloon dart game. I was impressed at Benny's skills as he won all by himself.

Day 1 of the reunion we all went to dinner and then gathered at the church for pictures, talents and family updates. Clockwise from top left: my mom's brother Sam's family, my mom's family, 1st cousins who attended, mom's sister (deceased) Yuriko's family, and middle is the 3 out of 7 surviving siblings including my mom. There is one more but she didn't make it.

Day 2 of reunion we met at Tilden Park in Berkelely for lunch, chatting and activities. My sister Janice made awesome shirts which Benny is modeling. He is also showing off his slug friend in one of the pictures. It was all exhausting but a lot of fun.

Spring break April 2011

It's been so long it's getting kind of blurry. But we took a coastal trip and went down to visit my parents and Ben's dad.

We went to the mission in Lompoc:

And then to Surf Beach to look for sand dollars. Ben illegally grabbed one from the restricted bird preserve just for me. It was so freezing and windy at the beach that Benny started crying so my mom took him to the car. Definitely not a beach to go lay out or swim



.

Then on to Cambria to visit Ben's dad. His stepmom stayed home in Bakersfield as she prepped for surgery a few days later.
The seals swam right by us.
Benny pretty much stayed this way forever poking anemones and picking up crabs.


More fun at the tide pools:

View from Grandpa Tom's beach house. I could get used to life at the beach:)

Pure joy (part 2)

We appreciate so much all the people who have prayed for us over the years. Miracles don't happen without faith, and we have definitely seen them in our lives. We have had so many interesting growth experiences and feel humbled and extremely grateful.

Pure joy (part 1)

It's been a great week. After being partially potty trained for almost a year, he finally decided he would go #2! We had tried everything. We bribed him with everything imaginable, and nothing was worth pooping on the potty to him. Until last Sunday. When we saw he was really going to do this, we came up with a reward system. He could go to the $ store the next day and pick out a bunch of things as a reward each time he went. Then we made a chart that would fill up maybe a month or so of successes, and each time he earned 7 he could earn a big prize. We knew he had been ready for a long time and was being stubborn and hoped this would finally work.
Well, it sure did. That little turkey decided he really could do this and wanted all the big prizes as fast as possible and has gone more times than I could fathom. But I guess when you refuse to use the potty and hold it inside that long it all has to go somewhere.


And here is the proud owner of some new fire boots. Big prize #1 was new fire gear. He earned it so quickly the rest of it hasn't even arrived yet.
Everyone said it would click one day, but he was being so incredibly stubborn we couldn't see it happening. Well it clicked, and he's a pro now, and life is good.

I know this needs to be updated, badly. I'll really try in the next few days.
For now, here are the latest Benny-isms:

Yesterday:

Ben: Benny, today was Mother's Day, a special day for moms when we tell them how much we appreciate them. Is there anything you'd like to say to mommy?
Benny: No.


Today:

Benny: Mommy, can you get me some soy milk?
Kari: Yeah, it's on the counter where I already told you it was.
Benny: Oh, can you bring it in here to me?
Ben: You can go get it yourself. Mommy is not your personal slave.
Benny: Yes, she is.


Oh this boy

Bunch of stuffs

I said "stuffs" cuz that is the way my mom has always said it. Stuffs is plural for stuff. Oh, wait.

Anyway, I am too tired to organize this post or write much about it.

Oakland zoo. It was nice Daddy was able to have MLK Day off work to spend time with us.

Tech Museum in San Jose last week. This is a small submarine.

Awesome slippers Big Ben brought home from work for Benny. They are always getting rid of cool stuff that is not "age appropriate" for the students there

Chillin' with dad's ipod. Ben is nice to share since he owns at least 3. I, sadly, have none.

All the rescue vehicles are parked backward in the station so they can rush out to help somebody when it's time.

My 2nd non-rectangular cake. We celebrated my dad's bday on Superbowl Sunday, so even though he doesn't watch football, he got a football cupcake cake

I just want you to check out my mom's legs. Pretty buff for a _____ year-old.

I can't remember why but Ben watched Benny all day one day. They read books, practiced letters and numbers, played, and did crafts. I was very impressed. I still say he should be stay-at-home dad. He's much better at it than I am. (No, Benny did not write his name by himself).

Trying to call Grandpa Tom & Grammy on my "special phone."

They play so well together (most of the time). It's really fun.

And, most importantly, Benny's trip to the firestation! I've been meaning to take him for several months now and have been trying to find a day to fit in several things together to make it worth a special trip to Cordelia (Fairfield). They were so nice and actually seemed excited to have us there. They invited us back anytime. They were even nice enough to tell Benny that real firefighters use the potty, not pullups or diapers (or their underwear! Grrr), so he said he would start using the potty all the time (have yet to see this happen, but we'll see.) It was so cute to see how excited he was, even if he got all shy once we were there. I even thought it was pretty cool. To all my firefighting friends, thank you for all you do! My son sure thinks you are heroes

Growing up

And I'm not talking about Benny. I'm talking about two goobers in their early 30's. I think back to 8 years ago when our friends introduced Ben and me to each other (Adrienne speaking): "Kari, let's get together since we haven't seen each other in years. We'll bring a friend for you to hang out with--he's a big goofball, and you're a big goofball, so you two will have fun together."

Several months later I got 2 baking stones as wedding gifts. I regifted both of them. I was NEVER going to be talented enough to actually make something from scratch. I also got a breadmaker and promptly packed it back up for 8 years after my 1st failed attempt using it. Couldn't even make bread from a machine.

Now I make stuff--dinners, desserts, baked goods. Ben even complimented me by telling his staff: "My wife really sucked at cooking when I met her, but now she's pretty good." What a sweetie.
Anyway, I am slowly wanting to learn how to can and do food storage stuff. Not saying I've done it yet, but I am looking into it. I made pizza from scratch, including the dough, the other day. Crafts still give me anxiety, but I wouldn't be surprised if one day I made a homemade card or something. I just need to conquer my fear of Michael's craft store.

I'm not saying all this to brag about my awesome skills, because they really aren't AWESOME, but maybe awesome.

Ben has changed, too. He used to get so caught up in sports that I would often cry because I was so frustrated with him. Now he is cancelling his sports package from DirecTV, and has missed games to do family or church activities.
I think the biggest is how much he serves others. Ben has always been a good guy since I've known him, but I definitely think he's better. Sometimes I get annoyed at how much other people need stuff and I think they should do more for themselves. But Ben doesn't complain. He just goes and does what needs to be done. I need to be more like that.
The biggest moment that sticks out to me was last week. Benny and I had been gone ALL DAY to San Jose and were exhausted. I just wanted to go home and have dinner and go to bed, but we had to stop at the store first. As we were leaving the store, the usual "Save the Children" guy was outside asking for change. And then the guy pointed out there was a lady in need of a jumpstart for her car. I was so tired I was close to tears. But I remembered two things: 1) A friend who kept having car troubles had to rely on the goodness of others on several occasions, and what if that were me needing help?
2) Ben had had us purchase jumper cables for instances such as this, so they should be used for instances such as this.

The rich-looking lady in the nice clothes with the nice car and dead battery said she didn't have any cash to give us at the moment, and I waved her off and told her I didn't expect anything. I explained we were lucky to have jumper cables because of my husband. We bought them one night when someone needed a jump and we didn't have cables. Ben had said "We really need to have cables in case someone needs help again." He didn't say "We need cables in case WE need help." He was thinking of how he could help someone else.

And that got me thinking. Eight years, 5 miscarriages, 1 child, and many, many experiences later, we're different people. We're definitely not perfect, but I hope we are better people than we were. There have been hard times, but those bring about the most good.
So happy engagement day to us (in 23 minutes)! Can't believe it's been 8 years.

***And because I'm still me, you better believe I told that lady with the dead car battery that there was an auto parts store in that very same parking lot so she'd have jumper cables in the future. Nicely, of course.