I'm Cultured

A few weeks ago we went out with some friends for Korean food. As many of you know I am somewhat of a picky eater and thus was a little worried about the upcoming feast. John on the other hand grew up eating Korean food. I don't know many non-Koreans who appreciate kimchi but John does. We drove up to Santa Monica or LA...sometimes I forget where one city ends and the next one begins! Where ever it was we drove there and pulled up to this fine establishment. Asian YA!

Here's the group:

front to back/left to right

Serene and then her husband/our resident Korean Kevin

Amy Jo & John

Gavin & me

This little guy was in our tofu soup! Eyeballs and all! Speaking of the tofu soup what wasn't in there. It had tofu (of course) and the some sort of shell fish, meat, shrimp etc. you name it! It wasn't half bad!

Here is me getting ready to enjoy my friend!

Yeah right! It was all staged. I'm willing to try things but when their eyes are still attached-no thank you. Besides I've tried shrimp before and wasn't a fan.

Here is the tofu soup. We also ordered different meats. John got a large order of the ribs, our friends tried to tell him how big the servings were but he went ahead and got it anyways, and yes he ate the whole thing. Told ya he loves Korean food. They also brought out a ton of ramekins with different um...stuff in them. I tried almost all of them. I'm a big fan of the spicy cucumbers and I can't remember what the rest of them are called but they were pretty good.

Overall I enjoyed the food. It's not something I will crave but I would eat it again. It was just nice going out on a date with friends.

No Cake For You

Fellow blogger Denae asked if you could change one thing about your wedding what would it be? I thought I would share my response with you.

Overall my wedding was great. It was crazy but who's isn't? A family friend who is a prof. chef offered to make my cake. As the date got closer she realized that she would be evaluated the same week as my wedding. Knowing that it would be too much for one week she had us go the bakery she used to work at and order a cake. Because we also had cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory we didn't order a huge cake. The day came and my friend went to pick up the cake to set it up at the reception and decorate it but when she got to the bakery it was locked. The owner had gone home to take an afternoon nap but didn't wake up to her alarm. So we didn't have a cake. The owner called that night after the reception and apologized profusely. Honestly I wasn't really phased by it. My mom told me about it and I said, "oh, well" It would have taken a lot more than an MIA cake to spoil my day. The bakery did deliver the cake to my mom's house the next day where my sister (who people say looks like me) and her boyfriend (who is really tall) took a picture cutting the cake with the hope to one day photo shop our faces in:)

Here's what my cake might have looked like...

Who Will Back Wisconsin Now?

John's band has there last performance tomorrow night, their drummer is moving to Seattle.
I'm happy because this means a little more time with John however I'm bummed for him. He really likes playing shows and writing music...not that the music writing has to stop.
I know it's late but all are welcome to come.

Kaitlyn Jane Mock

I'm and aunt again!

Hoo-ray for Janelle and Lance they had their baby girl on Saturday! (pictures to come soon hopefully)

Kaitlyn Jane Mock
6 lbs. 9 oz.
21"
born sometime time in the a.m. on October 20th

I'm not sure if I spelled her name correctly or if my stats or right. 3 days old and I'm already losing favorite aunt points-dang it!

Don't Drink The Water!

It is not uncommon in Utah to know double digits of pregnant women however here in California it is. Seriously can you believe this? (granted not all of them are are in CA. 8 of the names below are from my ward!)



Recent Births

Janelle
Karen
Karene
Erika



Friends full with child (in order of due dates)

Julie
Lisa
Allie
Laura
Kimmie
Kimra (I can count her right sarah?)
Tanya
Liad
Sarah
Chelise
Amber
Charlotte
Leanne
Crystal

think of the baby shower gifts-geesh!

Remeber Me When You're Famous!

Last Thursday John and I went to see my friend Danny in a play. It's called Neither Have I Wings To Fly. It was phenomenal! I laughed and cried...actually bawled. It was amazing. Danny did a magnificent job as well as the other cast members, not a weak link I tell ya. It's set in Ireland in the 50's, so they talk with accents-fun! It's about love, loss, heart break, relationships, self discovery, taking chances... The play write is also in it. She wrote this play when she was about 23! I'm smiling just thinking about it.
Here is Danny...don't forget me when you're a big star!

If you live in the greater LA area I strongly suggest you go see it! You can get more information by visiting http://www.roadtheatre.org/

Good Job Danny! & THANK YOU so much for the tickets.

How 'Bout You Sideburns?

In loving memory of John's sideburns
May they rest in peace

Wordless Wednesday

I knight thee..

L's & E's

I joined facebook a few months ago so Kirk could have two pages of friends. I wasn't planning on doing anything with the account but recently some old friends have found me on it. Apparently it was difficult to search me out because they couldn't remember my married name. So having decided that facebook was OK I was going put a little more effort into my account. I wanted to add my maiden name so today I went into my account to change my name. They say it could take some time because they want to verify that it is a legitimate name. I click on "my account" then "change name" I then type LeeElle Jex Tullis and it gives me this error message...

TOO MANY REPETITIVE LETTERS

whatever.

Suzie Homemaker

I went to Joanne's on Friday to buy some fabric for a fall craft I will be teaching the Young Women to make. After looking at their limited selection of overpriced fall fabrics I decided to try Wal*Mart. So on Sat I went down to my parents to go to Wal*Mart and guess what? They no longer sell fabric! After making a few phone calls my mom and I headed over to M & L Fabric. It's a huge fabric store with great prices. We got there at 5:45 and they were closing at 6:00 so we feverishly rushed through the $1 pile and made our way to the $1.98 pile. We grabbed as much as we could and then at 5:55 they turned the lights off in the room we were in. We tried to look by the light of my mom's blackberry which did not work so we made our way to the front. There was a lady there saying sorry we don't cut after 6. To which we responded, "Ok, it's not 6:00." After a salty glare and eye roll from the worker she cut our fabric and rang us up. When they say the close at 6:00 they mean it. I was happy with my purchases considering I only had 10 min.!

Sorry for the bad lighting....

My loot! All this for $38!


Here are some of the personality filled fabrics:

You can't tell but this fabric is brown with gold glitter flecks! Who doesn't love a little sparkle?

This is an awesome fall paisley

Funky!

Jazzy!



I know, I know turquoise for fall? It's a modern take on autumn. Plus I think the Young women will like them.



Love this one!

I also purchased some traditional fall fabrics. Stay tuned for the finished product.

How To Live Large While Starving Students

Send your wife flowers via email a.k.a. a picture. If you concentrate hard enough you can smell them. Yes, I have a great husband.

Wordless Wednesday

Yogurberry? More like Poopberry

Tonight we went to a new frozen "yogurt"* shop in El Segundo called Yogurberry. It's a Pinkberry wanna be. Now first let me say that I was skeptical of Pinkberry the first time I went there. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good. However I went in with an open mind and to my surprise it was tasty. It's tangy, not what I expected from this non-frozen yogurt treat but delicious. They give you hearty portions of fruit/toppings so each bight has an added zing. I would recommend Pinkberry and go back there again myself. Luckily we are getting one in town soon.



Now back to Yougurberry, their "yogurt" was ok, similar to pinkberry's but what was really lame was the toppings or lack there of. John and I shared a medium with three toppings; kiwi, mango, & raspberries. We had six raspberries...now if you are going to charge 95 cents a topping you better give us more than six raspberries for heavens sake! I would be willing to give them another try if they beef up their topping portions.



In true LeeElle fashion here are 3 positive things about Yogurberry

1. They have cool wooden spoons


2. The fruit we did have was good and ripe


3. Their store was nice and they have a cute logo

*"The National Yogurt Association (NYA) established its own criteria for live and active culture yogurt. In order for manufacturers to carry their Live and Active Culture seal, refrigerated yogurt products must contain at least 100 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacture, and frozen yogurt products must contain 10 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacture. " - Wikipedia, the source of all worldly knowledge. I know that Pinkberry got in legal trouble for calling their product "yogurt" and I doubt that Yogurberry is any more cultured than Pinkberry.

Kevin Lloyd Curtis Needs Attention

Kevin said he would storm off unless I dedicated a post to him. Well friend, here ya go...

1. He has the perfect build to shop at thrift stores
2. He has curly hair
3. He is color blind

I hope you and your ferunkle are happy now.

Wordless Wednesday on Thursday

Boring

So, my attempts to change my template did not work. It looks like I'll need to set up a date with Shannon again soon.

Experimenting

Trying this template on for size...

Army's Army

You may have noticed in my post yesterday that my family all had the same t-shirt on. It says Army's Army. Some may say it's redundant others think it doesn't make sense so please allow me to clarify.

Here is Army...

And this is his army

Army is my grandpa, his full name is Armand but he goes by Army. This was taken at our yearly beach camping trip in Carlsbad. I can't remember a summer where we didn't camp at the beach. This past May my grandpa turned 80 and for his birthday he wanted all of his family at the beach. One of the days we were there was our "All about Army day" We ate some of his favorite foods for dinner, we wore our Army's Army t-shirts that Kerilynn's boyfriend Cory designed, we had a little program where we sang a song to him, we made him a scrapbook, and finished the night off with red vines and lemon heads (his favorites). It was such a wonderful day-week really.

My grandpa is amazing, he is the most active 80 year old I know. He competes in the senior Olympics and almost always wins gold, be it double or singles. (At the beach he gave all his family a medal he has won, it was very touching) He is very competitive and still teaches all of the younger grand kids and now great grand kids how to boogie board, hit a ball, play volleyball etc. My grandpa was a high school coach so he comes by it naturally. I remember in high school he was at my water polo game freshman year when I scored my first goal. At half time he came over not to congratulate me but to run a play and check my defense. Many of my cousins swam, when we would go over to grandma and grandpa's pool we would be so excited to be playing in the pool rather than practicing. At some point during the day he would have us do flip turns or treading water just to check our form blah blah blah. My grandparents recently moved back to Utah, I miss them terribly but I know grandpa is loving being up there for ski season. He gets in free now, apparently there are many 80 year old who ski, let alone the black diamond runs.

Here are a few more things about my grandpa Matern.

• He is such a loving person and is always serving.
• During the winter he plows all of his neighbors driveways!
• He loves the church and is currently the young mens secretary
• He knows everyone, no matter where we go someone knows Coach Matern
• He is one of the hardest workers I know
• He loves bargains

I'll leave you with the song we sang to him on his day (to the tune of Take Me Out To The Ball Game)

Army Matern is eighty

He hasn't slowed down one bit

Playing in tournaments from coast to coast

Winning Gold medals but he'll never boast

Now it's gold in singles and doubles

In any age group he plays

Let's sing hip, hip, hip, hip hooray this is Army's day!

Army sure loves his bargains

Good deals he always will find

Buying a few is not his style

He's not satisfied til he's cleared the whole aisle

Then pass them out to the masses

To friend or unknown it's okay

Let's sing hip, hip, hip, hip hooray this is army's day!

Now when it comes to fashion

Good deals he always will find

Gucci, Armani he never will buy

Unless it is found on the racks at DI

Socks, ties, and suspenders

For every holiday

Let's sing hip, hip, hip, hip hooray this is Army's day!

I can't remember the last verse right now but I'll post is when I find my lyrics.

Anyhow, that's my Grandpa Army!

Wordless Wednesday

Looking Forward To...

This is going to be a very exciting weekend. Here's why....

Tonight we are going to the Hollywood Bowl with our friends Shannon and Dan...

We are getting the Internet on Friday woo-hoo! I can't believe we made it a year with out it! I will no longer have an excuse for not posting.

We are going here...good times!

And we might get to meet him...

This weekend is stake conference and Elder Perry is coming! Hopefully I'll get to meet him. I told my uncle (who is the stake president) and aunt that I will be baby-sitting their girls all weekend just in case a certain someone come over for lunch. Regardless if I meet him or not it will be wonderful to hear him speak.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday yesterday mom!

John's mom had a birthday yesterday. I didn't forget about the birthday I just forgot to post this and wasn't able to call. What a horrible daughter-in-law. (In my defense I didn't get home till 10pm-I had class).

Here are some things that make TMP so lovable:

1. She is the most honest person I know

2. She has great skin...I hope our kids inherit that

3. She is a good listener and I'm a good talker so we get along well

4. She loves the Lord and is always serving

5. She is very obedient

6. When she sneezes it's not the standard one, big, loud, relieving, "A-CHOO"! But rather, several, little, quiet " a-choo, a-choo, a-choo, a-choo, a-choo's"-it's cute.

7. I love that she calls us every Sunday. I always look forward to it. I often ask John to make sure his phone is not on vibrate so we don't miss their call.

8. Something you may not know is that I am her favorite daughter in law, seriously, I am. :)

Happy Birthday Mom we love you!!

Rise All Loyal Cougs!

This past weekend we went to the UCLA v. BYU game. Kirk came up in the morning we did errands while John studied then it was off to the game.

The cougar turn out was impressive, they say there were 20,000 BYU fans. If you look hard you might be able to see us (left side, 45 rows up on the second level)

I left the game with the same feelings and emotions I had while attending the Y...close but no cigar.
The parking at the Rose Bowl is ridiculous!! There are only 2 entrance/exit points and the majority of the cars are parked on golf course!! We parked our car at a local business establishment and then hopped in my aunt and uncle's car so we didn't have to deal with the mess. I was planning on having them drop us off at our car but they were not going to be leaving anytime soon so we walked. It only took about 15 min...not bad. I called to see where they were at as we were getting on the freeway, they had not moved one inch! ouch!

After we met up with our good friend and John's former roommate Greg Jones ( I forgot to get a picture). We were supposed to meet up for dinner but there were communication issues so we ended up going to eat on our own then congregating in the hotel lobby and catching up. Oh Greg Jones...we miss you! You should move out to So Cal!

***all pictures are courtesy Kirk Nakano*** I still do not have the internet however that will change in the next month. With the extra cash from my job at ECC we'll be able to afford it, woo-hoo!

post script: My cousin Marshall is engaged to an adorable girl named Janelle. Congrats you guys! Janelle you are a lucky girl, Marshall is great!

Wordless Wednesday

Our Un-Labored Day

Sunday we were wondering why we celebrate Labor day so I turned to the ultimate source of knowledge....Wikipedia. Here what it said....

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday that takes place on the first Monday in September. The holiday began in 1882, originating from a desire by the Central Labor Union to create a day off for the "working man". It is still celebrated mainly as a day of rest and marks the symbolic end of summer for many. Labor Day became a federal holiday by Act of Congress in 1894.

Oh how I love Wikipedia. Did you know they have a sister site too called Wikihow. It tells you how to do things i.e. remove stains, install items, entertain children....

We had a great Labor day. We started off by going to the beach with our friends Gavin and Amy Jo ( and baby Ashley). I know it's crazy busy on Labor day but we got there early and only stayed for 2 hours, just enough to enjoy some beach games and good waves, not to mention the free parking hook-ups (Gavin is a lifeguard). Can I just say I love to swim any body of water will do. I believe that a vacation &/or fun requires bathingsuits. We then headed over to G&A's house and jumped in their pool cool off again and wash off the sand. After we were sufficiently prunish we headed to Adams house where we were staying to shower and run errands. We ended the day with a tasty dinner and yummy Brownies while watching Freaky Friday. The day could not have been better!

Happy Birthday Dad!

My dad turns the big 5-0 today! He is a great man.

• My Dad is loyal-but don't get on his bad side:)
• My Dad is a good leader both in and out of church. Since I was Four he has not sat with us in Sacrament meeting because his callings required him to be elsewhere
• My Dad loves to serve. He has always taken care of the widows in our ward. Our family would often go over and sing, clean, or just visit with them.
• My Dad is very funny. He's always telling jokes and making people laugh
• My Dad loves music and has a beautiful bass voice.
• My Dad is a hard worker and can fix just about anything
• My Dad is a master BBQ-er, he makes the best tri-tip
• My Dad loves people he is a very social guy, we are always the last ones to leave places because he knows everyone and has to talk to them
• My Dad loves his family very much

Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!!

(not the best picture but hey you gotta work with what you got)

Wordless Wednesday

Hello and Goodbye

I've already spent much of my house cleaning time on the Internet so I'll keep it brief. I just found out yesterday that I'll be teaching a class this semester at El Camino College-yeah! Would have been nice to have more notice but nevertheless I'm stoked!

In other news my friend Amber just started a blog! Check it out

http://www.carlandamber.blogspot.com/

And lastly here's a shout out to Kaitlyn who's off to be. why. you. on Sunday. Sure gonna miss ya toots! Have fun in P-town! (Megan and Kaitlyn in Nauvoo)

Wordless Wednesday

What my clothes are saying about my eating habits...

Efficiency is Essential

This week is going to be crazy. I keep hoping things will slow down one day...yeah right!

MY WEEK:

Mon-Cousins sweet 16 birthday party

Tue- Enrichment

Wed- Young Women's & John's band has a performance (see picture 1)

Thur- Home Teaching (there's a chance I may be going to see Michael Buble)

Fri-Girls Camp

Sat- Wedding reception and hang out with Kevin and Sarah

Sun-Church (I'm teaching), Debbie's graduation (see picture 2), and we're house sitting

Those are just the scheduled events. Somewhere in there I need to go to work for 8 hrs/day, do laundry, clean my house (my sister in law and two nieces are coming next week), do church stuff, pay bills....you know the usual!! What makes it extra tricky is not getting home from work till 6:30 pm. How do working mom's do it. It's only John and I and it gets intense. breath. It will all get done, I may be doing it at 11 p.m. but it will get done.

What a boring post. I am not a fan of complaining posts, I hope it doesn't sound that way. I'm not looking for sympathy just needed to talk/type it out.

John's band-Backing Wisconsin

Some of the gang at Claim Jumper

Back row: Anthony (Janae's boy friend), Cory ( Kerilynn's boyfriend), Weston, John Front row: Janae, me, Debbie aka Beautiful Queen, Kerilynn, Mom

A quick summary

John and I went to San Diego for the weekend. the last time we went away by ourselves was our honeymoon nearly 3 years ago! It was great. My cousin's husband's family (take a moment to figure that one out) has a condo they let us stay in for free! Thank you Zamudio's!

We went to the beach, rode bikes around the bay, ate, went to Gaslamp, ate, went to the bodies exhibit (totally wicked), went to the temple, ate.... I didn't take too many pictures and still don't have the internet at home so they won't be posted till later. Here are some of the things we did...

went here

went to the movies and saw:

**It was fabulous. I left singing and dancing. I also have a little crush on Zac Effron

Went to the wrong movie theater on Fri. night so this was our back up date:

Ate delicious pizookies, cotton candy and golden spoon(not pictured)

It was a great weekend most of all it was just fun to be with John. He started school today so it was fun to have one last hoorah before school starts. See ya in Dec sweetie!

There's No Place Like Home

After being gone for two long weeks I'm finally back!! The first week was our stake's youth conference in Utah and then after an eventful week there it was off to San Fransisco for work. More details and pictures to come. Here are some highlights:

Saw Wicked for the 2nd time with my whole family courtesy of Debbie the Beautiful Queen

FINISHED!! I laughed, I cried, I'm done!

So happy to be back home with: