Why am I going to Japan?

With my job in the dump and my mortgage doubling, why the hell am I going to Japan? The answer is easy actually. E is being sent to Japan for work for two weeks. The first week will consist of setting up the show, and then taking the rest of the week off to wait for the show to start. The second week will consist of working the show.

So the first week he is mostly free, and his company is paying for his food and lodging for the entire "off" week. E and I decided early that if this was the case, I would join him in Japan because his flight would be paid for, as well as the hotel and his food for the entire week.

Because of these special circumstances, we will only have to pay for my flight and my food, which means although it is Japan, it an extremely budget trip, if you could say that.

Both E and couldn't resist such a special opportunity, and we've budgeted for the trip, and I think we can swing it.

Five things I'm really going to miss about the condo

We are moving in two weeks. E and are so excited! Our new backyard is so big, our new kitchen is so nice, and the doll room, oh the doll room...

But there are things we are going to miss, really really miss, here they are in no specific order.

1. Our big bedroom. One of the best things about our current place is the size of our bedroom. It is big, bright and beautiful. We have all of our ocean liner posters framed and hanging in our room. The walls are painted the color of the ocean, light and bright in the day and darker blue at night, such a cool color. And we have a walk in closet. At our new house we have a tiny master bedroom. There will not be enough wall space to hang our ocean liner posters, and the closet it miniature.

I will miss my beautiful (big) bedroom.
2. The swimming pool and hot tub. Our condo has a community swimming pool and hot tub. They are only open in the summer, but I love visiting both in the late summer evenings. E usually stays home and I walk to the pool alone. I usually bring a book or just plan on enjoying watching the darkening sky. Most summer nights you can find me enjoying the hot tub and pool around 9:00.

I will miss this evening tradition.
3. The reading nook. The reading nook is a large window seat we have in our upstairs office. In the fall, winter and spring E and I spend almost every weekend afternoon there, napping. We called in the reading nook because it looked like such a great place to curl up with a good book, but alas, no reading is actually ever done there. We just sleep sleep sleep.

I will really really miss the reading nook.
4. The view from my bed. When I open my eyes in the morning this is what I see. No joke, this is the view from my pillow.

I will really miss this.
Closer view of the bowl-
5. My backyard. Right now we have the most darling little backyard. I have always thought of it as a little secret garden. Everything is so green and shaded in my backyard, it almost feels like another world. E and I eat 90% of all our summer and autumn meals out there, both lunch and dinner at our mini bistro table. We listen to the pond, enjoy the shade of the huge silver maple, and talk about the day.

I will miss my little secret garden.

Packing, packing, packing, cat, packing

What have E and I been busy with over the last few weeks? EVERYTHING! We've been planning our trip to Japan, picking paint colors for our new house, packing everything in sight, watching the Olympics, and planning my doll room. I've been so busy I haven't had much of a chance to worry about my job (It is still not good. We are not making any money, and I can't work for free, so I'm going to start looking for something else this week, yikes!).

So, to sum everything up, I have to find a new job, I have to move to a new house, I have to clean, pack and sell our condo and reserve a hotel in Japan where nobody seems to speak English. Ha! I'm trying to keep my spirits up, because I'm really really excited about our new house.

Packing is not that exciting a subject to read about, but our cats have been helping.

Mabel enjoys the new cleared off bookshelves and helps roll some of our posters once they were taken off the walls.

Moose has decided that our biggest box is not actually for packing, but instead is his new home. I swear, he spends 90% of his day inside, on top or next to his new cardboard dwelling (and doesn't he look thrilled to see my camera?)
Rumpus has been the least effected by the packing. Mabel and Moose seem to want to know what is going on at all times, but Rump enjoys taking naps with E after a long day of packing. (Why is it that E always lies across the bed? Example one and two.)
So what do we have to show for two weeks of solid packing and cleaning? Only a house full of really random miss-matched items waiting to be boxed and the cleanest front door on the block.

Huge things coming up!

We close on our new house in two weeks from today. Two weeks! E and I have almost finished packing, and there are few last repairs to do, and some final deep cleaning, but we've been working like crazy.

Also, E is going back to Japan for work in mid September and I have decided to join him. That is only a month away...

Huge things are right around the corner!

Old friends

Last week while E was in Japan and I was left to my own devices I reconnected with some old friends. I am so happy I did, we had a blast.

First on Monday I reconnected with Katie M. Katie was my best friend from the time I was 12 until I was 16. She was three years younger than me and lived two doors down the street. There are so many wonderful memories about the times I spent with Katie, which was literately every day after school and every weekend. Our favorite activities were playing with our doll-house dolls or our American Girl dolls, exploring the neighborhood, jumping on the trampoline, and talking for endless hours about our crushes.

Katie and I met on Monday at a restaurant and caught up on everything. I wanted to tell her how sorry I was to hear about her brother passing away and find out what direction life was taking her. We ended up talking for hours and laughing about what dorks we were. There are a few things that I am remembering now, like the time Katie bit my arm and I ran home crying, and or the time my cat killed her hamsters (sorry about that!). Or the time we got busted climbing on the fences behind Alan Orr's house, and Katie ratted me out, but told Alan that her name was "Lindsey Orr" which was hilarious! (Lindsey was Alan's daughter).

Anyway, I dug up some photos of Katie , here they are.
Katie had stick straight hair, but one night during a sleepover she let me curl her hair in sponge rollers.
I remember this evening so well. The light was really pretty, so Katie and I grabbed a camera and shot the entire roll of film. Not many photos turned out, but this one with the cherry tree did.
Then on Wednesday I met up with three other long lost friends! Brittney, Erin and Becky! These three woman were some of my best friends through the hardest part of a teenager's life (ninth, tenth and eleventh grade). Looking back now, I wish I had stayed closer friends with them through my senior year, I separated myself from their group because I wasn't Mormon, but history is history .

Anyway, back to Wednesday - we had a ball! All four of us met up at Zupa's and got soup and salads. We sat outside and ended up talking for three hours. We chatted about college, boys, life, kids, family and everything else. It is amazing that we haven't been close in ten years, and still things feel familiar and fun. Brittney is doing fantastic, she lives with her hubby and two children in Nevada. Erin is such a smarty (she always was) and she is just finishing her Masters (or is it PhD?) at BYU. And Becky is doing fantastic, she and her husband live in Cottonwood Heights with their two children.

(Funny side-note: while at Zupa's we ran into Alan Orr, the same guy that had busted me for climbing his fence with Katie years before).

I also dug up photos of them when we were younger, so here they are:
Brittney, me and Erin in the front of my house. We printed this photo in black and white, then my mom taught us how to color it.
This is my bedroom. Melissa, Erin, Leslie, Amy and Brittney trashed it while I was away for my 16th birthday. There was toilet paper, newspaper and confetti everywhere! It was really fun to sneak into Erin's room for her birthday a month later and do the same to her room.
Brittney, me, Jacee, Erin and Becky (front) hike the Mormon Pioneer trail. All I remember from this hike was how HOT it was!
What else kept me busy while E was away? Oh, packing about 600 boxes. The house is looking pretty empty.

Final 30

Okay, I'm going to finish. I only have 30 left. Here is post one and two.

71. My first car was a horrible old Buick that barely ran. I plugged it in at night in the winter to keep the engine warm.
72. I am a good typist.
73. I like McDonald's breakfast. I always order an egg McMuffin without ham.
74. My nickname JJ came from Jumping Jessica. When I was 14 we went to Hawaii and I jumped off all of the waterfalls into the pools below, and the nickname was born.
75. I'm excited about having a doll room in our new house.
76. One of my favorite lunch foods is a turkey and avocado sandwich.
76. I like salt and vinegar chips.
77. My best friend in fifth grade lived across the street. She had food storage in her basement and we would sneak down there and eat things.
78. I'm not always good about eating breakfast.
79. I went to Nantucket with my family when I was 17 and have dreams about it often.
80. I hate the televisions at the airport that play CNN on top volume.
81. I really like tasty salads with lots of toppings.
82. I took AP classes in high school.
83. I always dreamed about taking an Italian honeymoon. Two years ago E and I honeymooned in Italy.
84. I love to take naps.
85. I love my feather pillow.
86. When I was 12 years old, my family and I drove across the country. I loved it.
87. I was a witch, fairy, black cat, unicorn, hobo, superman, and many other things for Halloween.
88. My first word was "moon"
89. I never learned to crawl. Instead, I scooted on my bum.
90. When I was a figure skater I developed tendonitis in my hip.
91. I've always worn a ring on my right had that my great grandmother had when she was a girl. The ring is a gold heart with a small star of David and a diamond.
92. I learned to ski when I was four.
93. My middle name is Rachel.
94. I'm having a harder and harder time thinking of things to add to this list.
95. I am the oldest of four kids.
96. Each of the kids in my family are four years apart. So right now I'm 27, Brandon is 23, Melissa is 19, and Chandler is 15.
97. I have never used drugs.
98. If I am nauseous, I rather just barf and get it over with.
99. I cried when I saw 101 Dalmatians when I was little, I was so scared of Curella De Vil.
100. I can sleep on airplanes if I put my head on the mini tray in front of me.

Alex is on her way home!

Alex (my traveling Playmobil) is on her way home. She has been with E in Japan for the last week, and quite loved it. Yesterday they went to a temple called Senso Ji. There were quite a few things to look at, and many beautiful scenes to enjoy.

As you can imagine I am much more excited to see E, but Alex had such a great trip, she insisted that I post about it.


Here are a few photos of her (and E's) day:


And here is Alex:

35 MORE things!

Just a few days ago I posted this where I wrote down 35 things you might not know about me. Well the original goal was 100 things, so I'm going to try to get to that 100 mark.

Oh, and I find these quite fun to read, so I urge my blogging friends to start their own list. Can we all make it to 100?

So, here are 35 MORE things you may not know about me (stay tuned for the final 30):

36. When I was a girl I loved dolls (no surprise there) but I named them awesome names. I had big baby, little baby, red baby and soft baby.
37. Right now my toenails and purse are purple.
38. I collect lots of things, but one of my collections is travel books to the places I hope to one day see.
39. I love apricots.
40. As a younger kid people wouldn't know where I was from. They always thought I was a New Yorker. I guess I picked up some of my dad's NY accent. I have since lost it.
41. I don't eat a lot of pork.
42. When I was in third grade there were two Jessicas in my class. The other Jessica had red hair and I had black, so the teacher called her Jessica Red and me Jessica Black.
43. My commute is 9 minutes. When we move it will be closer to 7 minutes.
44. My favorite tea flavors are Ginger Peach and Violet
45. I figure skated for many years growing up. I loved doing shows but hated competitions.
46. I've never had meatloaf in my life. My mom hates it, so she never fixed it.
47. I am still close with a couple of childhood friends.
48. I didn't see E and I being together forever when we first dated. I am so glad that he stuck around!
49. I lived in the dorms my first year of college. I both loved it and hated it.
50. I was never ever tardy in both high school and junior high.
51. I would have major anxiety about the possibility of being tardy.
52. I told the first guy that kissed me that "next time he kisses a girl he shouldn't use tongue."
53. I did my world report in sixth grade on China. I am still fascinated with China.
54. I look at baby clothes online.
55. I've considered buying baby clothes online for a baby I hope to one day have.
56. I have always dreamed about living in NYC.
57. I love shrimp.
58. I hate to admit it, but I love celebrity gossip.
59. I would love to adopt and I might decide to do this one day.
60. I have never learned to spell.
61. I am SCUBA certified.
62. When I was little I would ask my mom almost every day what her favorite color was. She always said pink, but my favorite changed from day to day. I remember one day my favorite was "gray mixed with pink".
63. When I graduated kindergarten I got a wonderful present - a kitten I named Henry.
64. Vermeer and Hopper are my favorite artists.
65. The smell of almonds is one of my favorite scents.
66. I had a swimming pool in my backyard growing up. Swimming each day in the summer are some of my favorite childhood memories.
67. In seventh grade I had hot pink stretch pants that were my favorite. I wore them multiple times a week.
68. I used to love to make dioramas as a kid.
69. In third grade the only thing I asked for for Christmas was a pair of crutches. And I got them. I pretended my leg was broken for an entire week.
70. I never missed a single day of junior high.

Harry Potter Mania

What oh what am I going to do when all the movies are out? I was so sad the day the seventh book came out, of course I was excited, but also sad that it was the end of something I love so much.

Anyway, without further ado:

Excitement over our new house

E and I have been feeling extreme excitement over our new house, we are so so so excited to move in and make it our own.

We close on August 21st, which means we are hustling to finish things around the condo and begin to pack. Yesterday I packed and cleaned for about an hour. What does this mean? I have packed my first box, I have about a gazillion to go.

One of the things E and I are most excited about is our backyard. We have a large backyard that gets plenty of sun, so we are excited to plant produce, trees, raspberries, and flowers come spring time next year. We also might try to start an Asian Garden.

Also, we have more inside space now than we have ever head before. I want a place to sew and display my dolls, and E wants a place to work on his antique radios. We also want a office/study and a place to snuggle (we will no longer have the reading nook...).

I am also thinking of painting colors, I'd like to paint our bedroom, the office and the guest bedroom. Any ideas? I looked through the Pottery Barn catalog to try to get some ideas, but I'm open to other design inspirations.

35 things you may not know about me

My friend Erin posted this on her blog, so I thought I'd take the challenge. I'm not sure I can think of 35 things, but here it goes:

1. I don't like my fingernails too long, once they start growing past the end of my fingertips I trim them!
2. I don't really like to talk on the phone. Short conversations are fine, but for keeping in touch I like blogs and email and face to face better.
3. I collect tin toys.
4. Now that I mentioned my fingernails, they feel a little long now. I must trim!
5. I have scary dreams about elevators every couple of nights. Last night I had a dream I was on an elevator with no walls. Yikes!
6. I hate being too hot.
7. I fall asleep most nights earlier than E. I can even fall asleep with the TV on.
8. I like to garden. One day I hope to have a Japanese garden in my backyard.
9. I hate snails. And spiders. They are the things I don't like about gardening.
10. I don't mind driving in the snow.
11. Teramisu is one of my favorite desserts.
12. I like most foods, but I can't stand cooked carrots.
13. I was a vegetarian from the time I was 12 until I was 22.
14. I really like gnomes.
15. My car is red, and has a stick shift. I like driving my stick shift, because it s zippy.
16. I have tried a lot of sports, I've taken classes in tennis, soccer, softball, ice skating, gymnastics, swimming, diving, dancing, and more.
17. I don't get scared too easily, but making an offer on the house last week scared me.
18. I rarely cry (maybe once every other month).
19. I like to pluck my eyebrows every night before bed.
20. I don't like to cook with a recipe, I rather just wing it, and it usually turns out!
21. I don't mind doing the dishes, but I hate cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming.
22. I don't like shopping for clothes for myself. I still wear a tee shirt I got in eight grade because it still fits and isn't worn-out.
23. I like shopping for shoes. Go figure.
24. I get very easily bored at action movies.
25. I listen to oldies on the radio.
26. I clean my closet out every six months or so, and donate all the clothes we don't wear to MS or Arc of Utah.
27. I hate when things look dusty.
28. I went to a different school for fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grade (that is four schools in four years, which is really hard on a kid.)
29. I always wanted a treehouse when I was a kid. I hope my kids will have a treehouse.
30. Becken Becken was my favorite outdoor game as a kid. It is kind of like kick the can.
31. I always donate to Best Friends and No More Homeless Pets. I also donate to The Afgan Woman's Fund.
32. I hate being alone for extended periods of time.
33. Mashed potatoes have been one of my favorite foods my entire life.
34. I hated learning to ride a two wheeled bike when I was a kid. I remember skinning my knee and crying.
35. I've never had a hard time making friends.

We made and offer and it was accepted

We made and offer and it was accepted. The story is a little longer than that, but overall the house buying process went in super speed for E and I. We've been driving around looking at houses for awhile, calling the Realtor when we saw something we liked.

Well on Monday I saw a house listed online that I liked. I called my Realtor and asked if we could see it. On Tuesday we saw it, Wednesday we made an offer, Thursday we got a counter offer and accepted it, and today we are dazed, scared and excited for our new home.

Here are some stats: house is 2400 square feet, so plenty big. It has five bedrooms, three on the main floor and two in the basement. It has three bathrooms, a new kitchen, large sunny backyard, and the house faces south. The view of twin peaks is awesome.

Here are some more photos, and over the next few days and weeks we are going to be madly cleaning, packing, and selling our condo.

Outside of our cute house. Red brick, white trim and a porch!
Another photo of the living room. There is a gas fireplace!
This is a view of the backyard out one of the bedroom windows. Nice and big!