I love the Bazaar!!!

Most of you know my love for antiques and good wooden furniture. I guess I get that from my parents. They always brought in old pieces that either my dad would refinish or have refurbished by a professional. My parents have a house filled with beautiful antiques. Whenever I have the opportunity to add unique pieces to my house I jump at the chance. Since I have been in Japan I have bought a few new pieces of Rosewood furniture that I love but I have also found an old antique tea cabinet. All pieces were found at the bazaar. Well I have now added 2 great new pieces. This antique vanity cabinet that you are supposed to sit at Japanese style while you put on your make up. So Geisha like. I was already looking for a full length mirror so it was perfect when I saw it. I also found some Geisha dress shoes and dress purse. It seemed like a perfect addition to the cabinet.

The next piece I found was this great Rosewood cabinet. It was on sale and it was too good of a bargain to pass up. Donnie saw it and when he showed me we both knew we were going to buy it. This is a picture of it we took in our hallway when we first got it home.

Vengesta's Science Center Trip

Thursday the 28Th Donnie was a chaperon for Vengesta's class trip to the Science Center in Yokohama. They had a great time. Well, Donnie was a little frazzled from the kids being so bad. Hahaha. The joy of parenting. I will be going as a chaperon for Jacob's class tomorrow. I am not really looking forward to it. I know how bad the kids in his class are. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures from Vengesta's trip. Jacob's will be coming soon.

The 4 kids Donnie had to keep track of:

Lena, Xavier, Gage and Vengesta.

Vengesta and Xavier playing with an
electricity ball.

Vengesta enjoying the jet pack.

Vengesta

Vengesta and Lena as astronauts.

Xavier, Vengesta and Lena (she is just about 8

months older than Vengesta!!)

Vengesta

Vengesta building with blocks.

Freaky Flight

So my flight was uneventful until I arrived in the Tokyo airport. When we arrived they told us to remain seated and pull all the shades down. Then after a few minutes a team of doctors came in dressed in hazmat suits. It looked like something from the movies. There was one who had an infrared camera to see if anyone was running a fever. They checked anyone who was questionable. We all had to fill out questionnaires about our travels and if we had any symptoms of Swine Flu. The guy behind me pulled out his video camera and started filming. I wanted to take a picture but I chickened out. I was afraid to get into trouble. Finally we got the all clear and were able to leave the plane. When we started coming out the corridor there were film crews and news photographers filming us like we were some kind of side show freaks. It was such a surreal experience. Come to find out, the flight the day before had actually gotten quarantined. What a crazy experience.

Vegas Baby!!

Me and Angel

Tami, Jeremy and Me

Me making Donny feel me up. LOL.

Me and Kara

Me and my big brother Reggie

So the reunion in Vegas was a total blast. It was so great to see so many people I hadn't seen in years. And the weird thing is like we hadn't even been apart. We had our meet and greet on Friday evening and it was a load of fun. Everyone kind of went their own ways for dinner and then the majority of us went to the Voodoo Lounge. It was a lot of fun but the drinks were so expensive. We ended up getting a private area and ordering some bottles of alcohol (and they bring the mixers). Because we had a decent size group we were required to buy 4 bottles. First they tried to get us to pay $450 a bottle, then it was down to $300 in the end we paid $150 a bottle. I figure that since they also brought the mixers, it worked itself out price wise since drinks were $12 a piece.

On Saturday we had our dinner at Il Fornaio. It was a really good restaurant and the only good food I had the whole time I was in Vegas. The buffets sucked and were overpriced and the restaurant we ate at Friday night was absolutely so disgusting I didn't eat it. Anyways, the dinner was great and we had a fun time. We had awards for various things and class of 91 got all of them. Granted we also had the biggest turn out of any class. I even won for having travelled the farthest for the reunion. That night we went to the Nine Irishmen Pub. That was a lot less expensive and I think we may have had an even better time than we did at the Voodoo Lounge. They had a live band that was playing a kick ass selection of songs. We partied all night until it closed.

Sunday we had brunch and walked around. We passed Chris Daughtery, which I didn't even notice until my friends started freaking out. I got to meet up with my friend Angelica in the afternoon and spent the evening with her. Then I had to get back to my room and left on Monday morning. It was a pretty uneventful trip....until I got into Tokyo.

Ok, Ok, I confess

Stevee, Journee and Skyee watching TV before bed

Journee, Dante, Stevee and Skyee acting crazy

My little Mario

Sweet Mario

Me and Mario

I've been so lazy since my return from my trip. I have lots of things I will be writing about over the next few days to catch you up on everything. Today I am just going to talk about my trip to Utah to see my brother and his family. I got to the airport early and had some time to kill so I walked around looking at all the shops. I ended up buying a geisha t-shirt for my sister. For lunch I had sushi at a little restaurant and it was quite expensive but since it was fresh and good I was okay with that. Until I left and went around the corner and found another sushi place that was a fraction of the cost. Oh well. Flight was uneventful. I finally arrived in Utah after a long flight and 2 smaller ones. I got to spend 9 days getting to know my nieces and nephews. The girls took a bit to get used to me but once they did, they were so much fun to play with. Baby Mario seemed to recognize me almost. I think he must have thought I looked like my mom. (Since she had spent a lot of time with him when he first came home from the hospital.) Had a great time bonding with the kids and my sister in law. Shopped...A LOT!!! It was a great visit. Here are a few pics from my trip.