Awesome trip

I mentioned that we took a great trip in May, and now I'm finally, three months later, ready to blog about it. 

Let's see if you can guess where we went.

We saw a mangy cat.

We drank refreshing and uplifting Coca Cola,

saw random cute statues,

saw crosswalk signs of men with hats,

ate ice cream burgers,

saw mushroom looking mascots,

stayed in a minuscule hotel room,

and were warned about the lack of "toirets."

Any guesses? 

We went to Tokyo!

Why? Why not! 

We got a hankering to go to Tokyo, so we did. It was a long time coming, in that we had originally planned to go in April 2011, but with the earthquakes and tsunamis and all it felt wrong to go and party while the country was just trying to put theirs lives back together. So we postponed our trip.

So here's a sampling of the things TC and I did.

Our first stop was to go to the Sony showroom.

We happened upon an Oktoberfest, which was random.

We went to the Imperial Palace grounds.

We headed to Akihabara, headquarters of anime and tech fans.

And it was in Akihabara that we met the Colonel. I was surprised at his wee beady eyes.

We ate ramen in our hotel room.

One day we took the train down to Kamakura, a quaint town with a plethora of gorgeous temples.

I fell in love with the lucky cat, so when I saw a statue I had to have my picture taken next to it. 

 We saw the Great Buddah there. 

Do I look happy?

Then we took the train to Yokohama in the hopes of riding an awesome roller coaster, but it was closed.

We went to Harajuku,

and we saw crazy costumes there.

At the gate of the Meiji Jingu there was a sign forbidding cats, which you know made me giggle.

We also took a little trip out to Nakano, where we read there was a great selection of anime stuff (we are kind of anime geeks).

We took the train everywhere, which was crowded pretty much no matter the time of day or day of the week.

We went to Sensoji,

And saw beautiful things.

We saw the Tokyo Sky Tree.

We got drinks from a variety of vending machines.

We caught a glimpse of Sony Entertainment building that was closed since it was a Saturday.

We ate donuts.

We went to Nippori Textile Town, and I was so excited I could hardly open my eyes. I did buy some fantastic fabric there. The selection of stores was beyond amazing, and the selection of fabrics and sewing accouterments made my head spin. If fabric wasn't so heavy...

TC and I in front of the Tokyo LDS Temple.

Here are some of the interesting signs we saw. 

Please note the crow in the sky.

So what's the verdict? Tokyo was awesome. We had a great time! And we love all things Japan. So, yay!

Beatriz

I haven't written in a while, even though I promised awesomeness. Right after my last post, something  not awesome happened in The Compensator family, hence the moment of silence. Since there's no easy way to say this, here it is: TC's mother, Beatriz, passed away. She battled multiple myeloma for five years, and now her battle is over.

Death is bittersweet. It's indescribably difficult for those of us left behind. We miss her and will until we see her again on the other side. But the sweet side of it is that her pain is over and she's moved on to the next step in life. We have the assurance that she is happy now and that we will see her again, which makes coping easier. And we know she's with loved ones that she lost, like her parents. What a sweet comfort that is!

I thought it would be fitting to honor the woman who raised my husband.

Beatriz was a teenager she found the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and began attending. Before she was even baptized as a member she had a calling (assignment) that she fulfilled faithfully. This is the kind of woman she was. Whatever assignment she had, whether in the Church, or in her community, she worked hard.

This is the same woman who had three babies in less than three years, all while her husband was in medical school.

TC and his Mami.

This woman had the courage to urge her husband to leave their native Argentina to complete a fellowship in the United States, even though she spoke very little English. With three babies in tow (the oldest, TC, only 2), she moved her little family, and lived in a foreign country for four years. This was before the day of e-mail, voip, Facebook, and all instant ways to communicate across hemispheres, yet she moved forward fearlessly. She had the foresight to see that sacrifices now bring blessings later, and she passed that along to her children.

Beatriz in the USA as a young mother.

It was this beautiful woman who spent her life serving others, whether extended family members who were ill and lived with her for a time, church members who she served in her various assignments, ancestors she served by doing genealogy, orphan children that she cared for, and her own children that she made countless sacrifices for. I've heard story after story of her staying up until the wee hours of the morning to help a child finish a school project just to get up a few hours later to prepare breakfast and make sure everyone's clothes were ironed.

Beautiful covered in laundry.

It was this talented woman who sewed for her children, taught Argentinian folk dance, was a great photographer and had talent for art and any craft.

But to describe Beatriz without mentioning her tenacity in the face of challenges would be to fail to describe her at all. She was a spitfire who had no problem speaking her mind, standing up for what she believed in, and defending her loved ones. She was fierce and didn't care what others thought of her, as long as she knew she was doing what's right.

Beatriz in one of her dance costumes.

Just with what I've written, you can likely see how I could love this woman. But wait, it gets better. When I joined this family 12 years ago, it was this beautiful woman who took me in as one of her own "chicos." My Argentinian "Mami" considered me one of her own, and she loved me like she had raised me herself. The first time I traveled to Argentina I was stressed beyond belief; I was worried about meeting the majority of my in-laws for the first time, I was worried about my inability to communicate beyond "Hola" and "Donde esta el baño?", I was worried about my inherent shyness, that I would be scared frozen unable to speak at all, and that I just wouldn't be good enough in the eyes of my in-laws for my new husband. Beatriz eased all of those worries for me. She went out of her way to love me and accept me. 

The two of us on Temple Square in 2005.

She was so kind, didn't judge me for being too lame to speak Spanish, somehow understood what I meant when I did try, and made sure I knew that I was part of her family.

Beatriz with her two youngest daughters.

And that's how she was with all of her children. We could call her with any problem, any complaint, and she would be on our side, no matter how silly we were being. No questions asked, she was our ally. So it's only natural that I will miss having an ally, a friend, a Mami, and beautiful, talented woman to look up to. 

We love you Beatriz, and are looking forward to when we get to see you again.

love, Gordita and The Compensator

More about me

I haven't said much in the last few months, so here's an update, all about me, me and ME! Oh my gosh! You have been waiting on pins and needles for this, I know.

TC and I got home about two weeks ago from an awesome trip, but the deets about that will have to wait until later. For now, you get to hear about me. Just me. And maybe some other things, all of which interest, well, ME!

ME!

So here's the thing: I'm pretty pumped about things right now. Things are awesome. TC is the best husband ever. (This is not an overstatement in the least. He is literally, THE best husband ever. I've studied the matter and after looking at every husband that ever was, is and will be I determined that mine, indeed, is the best. Don't feel bad though. I'm sure your husband is adequate, maybe even pretty great. We can't all be the best like TC.) 

TC, the Huz, the best husband ever (not an exaggeration).

So you're probably wondering how it is that he's the best. Let me tell you. He is funny. Frigging funny. He makes me nearly wet my pants from laughing every day. EVERY DAY people. I almost have an episode of urinary incontinence every day! 

A recent funny/wisdom from TC: 

He who eats crackers in bed wakes up feeling crummy. 

When you are done marveling at his cleverness and humor, continue reading.

Here's another fun fact about the man: he's super-human smart. Sometimes being around someone that smart can make me feel dumb, but I choose to overlook my own shortcomings in this area and pretty much every other area. It helps me keep my sanity. Avoidance is the answer people.

TC dreams big. I do not. I think within the realm of probability, and TC thinks in the realm of possibility. It makes a big difference. So when we started looking for a house, I felt that we just needed to buy in a location relatively close to the Huz's place of employment (to make it easier for him to have money to pay for the relatively close house and all my shoes), and it needed to be relatively nice. TC wanted more. And now we were in the throes of designing a home (more on this in a sec). His big thinking is what makes him good at his job as a scientist in R&D, but also makes him good at his job as a husband.

Well, for a post about me, this is a heck of a lot of writing about TC. Back to me.

Thinking about, what else, ME!

Right before we left on our soon-to-be-detailed trip I sewed up a quick shirt (took maybe 3 hours total with cutting and sewing) and it turned out. In fact, it's kind of nice. So my mojo has a return ticket to destination ME. On our awesome trip I bought some awesome fabric. It's amazing what fabric and a successful sewing project can do to inspire a person, namely me.

Our house plans take up a lot of my time right now. Researching different possibilities, options, etc. is fun and yet frustrating. What I want to know is why, when I have no idea of price, I automatically choose one of the most expensive toilets in the entire showroom? It's just a toilet people, and yet I am attracted to the one that will remove the most shoe-buying potential from my wallet. Gah! I must have a rip-off tractor beam. Seriously. TC was right to say that we should name our house the Costington. If I'm the one choosing fixtures, it likely will be.

Not actual architectural renderings of our house,

but found here and is actually pretty darn close.

What you might want to know is have we broken ground yet? Nope. Not even close. Close-ER than we were a month ago, or even a week ago, but still a ways out. Little by little we are inching closer to finalized plans, and our projected move in date looks more like 1st or 2nd quarter 2013. The only problem I see with this new, extended timeline is continuing to stash my shoes in every corner of our apartment. I'm ready to have a proper closet home for them rather than having to pull two or three boxes from under the bed before getting to the pair I want to wear. So either I have too many shoes (yeah right), or my closet is too small. I'm going with small closet because I'm also looking forward to being able to pull out one skirt without three other skirts coming with it. Other than my closet/first world problems, waiting is not too bad. It seems that everything I want takes a while to arrive, and I'm okay with it. I'm still young. Aren't I? 

I'm not?

I'm still kind of young, right?

Not really?

Crud.

I am American right? From the United States of America? Well, that's something.

That's all for now.

love, Gordi

It's April!

So what's new? 

• Still no sewing. I've lost my mojo. It's gone, like completely disappeared. I'm not sure what to do to get it back. There are things I have on my sewing docket that are exciting and lovely, but without my mojo, there's no getting anything done.
• The house plans are on their way. We are close to bidding them out to builders. That means that we are close (within a few months) to actually building. So exciting!
• I've discovered pinterest. I know I'm late to the game. I've tried a few things, some of which have been wildly successful (a few hair styles), and a few of which have been failures (clear ice by boiling water was only partially clear; dried strawberries were extremely gross). So many things to try and learn.
• I discovered The Body Shop. I got a gift card for my birthday and bought myself some Honey Bronze Shimmering Dry Oil which smells like gardenias (my absolute favorite scent of all time in the history of scents), White Gardenia Eau de Toilette (again, my favorite scent), and coconut body butter (coconut is my second favorite scent and first favorite flavor in the history of flavors and scents). I am loving smelling so tropical. It makes me long for Hawaii, but makes the longing a bit more bearable.
• Saturday was the day of quail. We saw quail on our balcony, on the way up to our lot, and on the way to the grocery store. 

• TC is still super awesome.

I think that pretty much sums up my last few months: smelling things, not sewing, working on the house plans, looking at quail, pinterest, and appreciating the Huz. 

It's officially official

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had a big project that I was working on. And now the time has come to announce it.

TC and I are now officially land owners. We closed on our lot this afternoon. It's so official it's bona fide. We bought a lot and are working on plans to build a home there. For privacy reasons I won't say exactly where, but I will tell you that the lot has great views of the sunset, of downtown SLC, and mountains. We've got it all. And we are so excited.

We are working with an architect to come up with the plans, and he is a friggin' genius. No lies. The first floorplans he showed us were exactly, exactly what we had always dreamed of and more. The process is long, and we probably won't be in our new house until the end of the year, but all this waiting is so worth it. We have been in our current apartment for 7.5 years, waiting, saving, waiting, mostly patiently. And now our dream is so close I can taste it.

I don't even know where to start with how excited we are. Excited, nay, ecstatic. Extremely, emphatically euphorically elated.

So the rest of the year will be occupied with floor plans and construction and giddiness and picking colors and appliances and the like. Also, there will be worrying about money, second-guessing ourselves, and stress (because nothing ever goes the way you think it will). But mostly it will be fun and interesting.

So here we go on this grand adventure...

Animales

Thank you for all of the positive comments! It is so rewarding to share a project like this with the world wide internets and receive such positive feedback. It gave me major warm fuzzies.

Last Sunday I decided that I wanted my little animales to be printed in a book. So I uploaded it all to Blurb and ordered a copy. While the expected ship date was March 12, I received it yesterday. So fast! And what's even better than fast is the quality! It's beautiful. The colors are vivid, the paper feels great between my fingers, and the cover is glossy.

So I decided that maybe I'm not the only one who might want an animal book in Spanish. Ha! I might be, but I might not be. In the off chance that I'm not alone, I've made my Blurb book public so that anyone who is interested can order a copy. Just click on this link if you are interested in ordering one.

Enjoy!




Update: just a note on the price. It's a lot. The price is the cost of printing the book (set by Blurb) with a $1 markup for me.