Trippin'

This last Tuesday I hopped the Fire Marshall express and played in St. George for the day. (This is me at the hot tub.) Hubby had meetings in both St. George and Cedar City which were relatively short so I went along. Shortly after arriving in St. George we checked into our hotel. Cousin Judy picked me up and we went out to lunch, the copy shop and even got an ice cream sundae! When Judy asked if we should get one for my hubby I said, "Oh, I think we can have ours eaten by then!" Hee hee!

Back at Judy's we visited and she showed me some of her wonderful quilts. She didn't know I was into quilting and was so excited. Judy has one on display in her home that fills a two story wall. It has some dimensional features that make it quite striking. This picture is taken about two streets away. I thought it was interesting that every street in the neighborhood was something Hills... Desert Hills, White Hills, etc... and then in the middle of the neighborhood is Ducati Way. Of course I thought of Sonia and Shawn and just had to take this picture.

It was a fun, although a whirlwind trip. I'll have to do it again. Next time I'll make sure to call Joann myself. She'd also wanted us to come visit and I thought hubby had made contact before we went. He hadn't so although we kept trying to call, we didn't ever find her home and were forced to go to a ritzy restaurant (The Painted Pony) for dinner instead.

My Stripling Warrior

My friend, Donna, sent me a link to some new posters (http://www.realheroposters.com/) of Book of Mormon heroes and it reminded me of so long ago when I hung up the pictures of Captain Moroni and the 2000 Stripling Warriors in James' room with an accompanying scripture (Alma 48:17). Posters have come and gone (like Green Day and skater stuff) but these have stayed.

Then today we got this picture in the mail from the branch along with a form letter of info. (Your heart kind of jumps when you get an envelope with the return address of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!) The letter led me to graduation info (October 9th, just like James said) and generally telling families what time church is for the soldiers and stuff like that so you kind of feel like you know what's going on . Today was James' 1st day of actual training and as excited as he's been to start training, he's more excited to be done with it and go on a mission. He has been able to call home a few times and tell us how wonderful it is to use the Priesthood. Needless to say, I'm one proud mamma!

Let's party some more!

I guess the family party wasn't enough... Sonia and James planned another dinner at Magic Wok for Tuesday night. We had a nice big table back by the kitchen which was a bit noisy but warmer than the front of the restaurant which was freezy! We have a tradition handed down to us from the Moseley grandparents... when you read your fortune out of the cookie, you add "in bed" to the end. That usually turns even the lamest of fortunes into funny ones. I think James has quite the Sly Stallone look going on here with the game peg in his eye. We always enjoy that little peg game where you try to get all but one peg off the game board.

The next evening James reported to the airport Radisson. The latest he was to check in was 1800 hours (6pm). Richard/Dad and I took James out to Sizzler first. Our original plan was to take him to Magic Wok or maybe the new Sakara restaurant but we'd all pretty well had our fill of oriental food. James had made sukiyaki style tofu for about a week and he had Magic Wok a few times too so steak was a nice change. James and dad both had steak and all you can eat shrimp with salad bars and strawberry lemonade. I had just the salad bar and then two skewers of broiled shrimp. It was very good, just enough and a nice change from the usual bacon wrapped steak & potato I usually succumb to.

We left the restaurant just after 5 and had plenty of time to arrive early at the Radisson. About two blocks away James remembered he needed shaving cream so I quick pulled into the Sutherlands parking lot and we headed for the Albertson's on 9th west. James ran in and back out so fast I would have wondered if he'd paid for his can of shaving cream if I hadn't seen the receipt in his hand too! We were back on the road and were still 20 minutes early. It was good timing too because 'Private Hemsley' was just finishing up his check-in. His folks were there and both James and Pvt. H. seemed glad to have a pal to go on this adventure with. Then it was hugs all around and a quick exit so dad could get back to his conference. I forgot to mention that... dad had a Haz-Mat conference all this week and had to sneak out to see James off. It was nice that dad had a couple hours at home so he and James went plinking out in the backyard with James' new airsoft rifle.

James called from the USO room in the St. Louis airport on Thursday and then again today from Fort Leonard Wood. He seemed excited that they will probably start training this next Tuesday. I'm glad he has a few days to acclimate to the wake up early and go to bed early gig before the real training starts.

Elder Moseley

We had planned a family party for yesterday to celebrate a few birthdays. We always have dinner, presents, cake and ice cream and a whole lot of fun (as seen below in pictures). Saturday I went shopping for the dinner items I needed and came back to a message from the stake executive secretary. He'd called for my husband who was working late but I had this feeling I should call him back so I did. To my surprise, he said that our son James' paper to receive the Melchizedek priesthood was going before the High Council in the morning and that if he was approved, he would meet with the stake president and most likely be ordained that next day. I didn't think this would happen until October and with such short notice, it was a blessing that everyone was coming already! James was approved, the meeting with the stake president went well (he even said he'd 'push the button' on the mission papers) and the ordination time was set. The wonderful High Councilor assigned to see this was done agreed to come back at 5pm to do the ordination. I just had to tell our family members who were already coming at 5pm to meet at our stake center instead of at our house. What a crazy wonderful weekend!

Everyone enjoyed the salsa and chips I put out as an appetizer. Thanks cousin Joann for such yummy salsa!!

You can see how much fun we have... it's all over Adelyn's dress!

It's rare to get our precious grandparents out for these family parties. It's just too much commotion for them but they do love the kids.

Try this Japanese restaurant!

Tonight we went out to dinner as an alternative to left-overs in the fridge. Dad came home later than usual so I didn't know when to expect him, was busy with other things and hadn't given dinner much thought. We kept talking about stuff we had going on and skirting around the problem until I said "how about sushi?" I'd been over to Jordan Landing on an errand and saw that a new restaurant had opened. Dad will jump at any chance to have sushi so off we went. Dad even let me drive!

Sakana Sushi Bar and Japanese Cuisine opened up a new location in the strip across from the Walmart. It's at the north end of the strip by PetSmart. They have the full menu on the website so you can browse at your leisure at http://www.sakanasushibar.com/ . The only change in the pricing they told us is that the Bento Box lunch special is $10.95 instead of the posted $8.95. Something quadrupled in price so they had to raise that a little. Dad had the Shrimp Tempura which came with rice and salad, miso soup and 2 California Rolls. I had the Salmon Teriyaki and Shrimp Tempura with rice and salad. Everything was SO tasty. I didn't think I'd eat much but I only left a little salad and most of the rice. I mean really, who's going to fill up on rice when you have salmon and shrimp?? I wish I'd taken pictures of the art that came posing as our entrees but didn't think about it. Dad had 6 large shrimp stood up like a teepee. I had 3 large shrimp with mine. The batter was lighter than most. I did get a picture of the California Rolls though. Aren't they delicious looking? They looked so tempting I wished they didn't have that dang seaweed in them.

The decor was modern with tables that at least looked like marble. I was too enchanted with the food to pay much attention to if it was real or fake. As you walk in there is the hostess desk with a screen behind it. The booths along two walls have an actual wall between each booth. I thought that was a very nice feature although the sitting space was a bit squishy for us. Throughout the middle there are tables and chairs in black but the walls are colorful. To the back is the Sushi Bar and there was a tv with a baseball game going. The website talks about making reservations but we just walked in and were the only people there besides a couple at the bar. We had great service. Those cute waitresses just doted on us making sure we had everything and refilling our water when it went down an inch. The hostess came by a couple times too, not always saying anything but making sure we were not neglected. I know this sounds like a lot of attention, and it was but these gals were there and gone. They didn't linger or interrupt our conversation. It was just a really nice meal with real good service. They are in the $12-$16 range for most things. I think I'll go again soon and try their steak!