Being held hostage by a Japanese toilet

Today I had quite the adventure with the toilet in the office. As you may know the toilets in Japan have buttons and gadgets on them. You have a button to heat the toilet seat, a button to make the sound of running water (to disguise any noises)and a button to turn the toilet into a bidet.

The toilets in the hotel room have japanese to tell you what each button does as well as a picture. The toilets in the office only have Japanese. So, I used the restroom and went to flush the toilet. The toilet didn't have a handle to flush like any other toilet that I have seen...but I guessed at what I thought would flush the toilet, only it didn't flush. I tried it again and no flushing. So, i started to push buttons. Wow, that was the recipe for disaster. After I pushed the button this little hose came down and started to spray water. I of course was standing in front of the toilet and it starts to spray me. I jump out of the way and this hose is spraying the stall door and it was quite the stream! It is running all over the floor. I pushed the button again thinking maybe it will stop, but it doesn't stop. I push the button next to it and it keeps going. Meanwhile the floor is getting soaked with water and is starting to go into the other stall. I put the toilet lid down thinking it would stop the water from spraying all over the place...that helped a little but, the stream was so powerful it was flowing through the space between the lid and the seat and isn't stopping. I am thinking why isn't that on a timer...who is going to sit there that long having water spraying on them...THIS IS NOT A SHOWER.

Desperate and not wanting to flood the entire bathroom, I leave to ask for help. Of course there wasn't any girls available to who speaks fluent English. Within a minute I found someone who understand...can you come help me. I go into the bathroom with her and ask her how to stop the water...yes she started to laugh at me. The one button that I hadn't pushed was the one to turn it off. By this time the floor in the both stalls were completed covered in water...and the area in front of the stalls. It took a while for her to understand where do you flush the toilet. You just had to push the thing I had thought to begin with really hard.

So for the next hour I heard laughter throughout the office, I was sure it was because they were hearing the funny story of the American girl who didn't know how to flush the toilet and flooded the bathroom.

Talk about FUNNY! I couldn't stop laughing at myself...I am still laughing as I type this.

Family book

This is a book that I made for an enrichment craft coming up in February. It is a chipboard book from Bo Bunny that you cover with your scrapbook paper. I thought it turned out really cute!

So did the sisters in the ward...now, I have to try and find enough of them for the day of the activity. I thought more stores would carry them...after all we are in the middle of Utah. But, only one store carries them. I may be getting them shipped in from an internet site. I am glad that I have a few more weeks to work on locating them.







It was fun and fairly simple to make.

Happy New Year!

Wow, it is 2008! I can not believe that it has been 8 years since Y2K. Boy, time flies whether you are having fun or not...and every year it goes quicker. Maybe it is because those nasty grey hairs keep coming back faster. Okay, I think I am divulging too much.

I went to Washington for New Years weekend and spent time with my family in Moses Lake. I was there from Friday evening until Jan. 1st. It was great to be with my family!
My Dad & I

Sunday when we ate lunch mom actually had about 20 minutes where she was doing really well. She was following the conversations, laughing at Marta & Joel and could feed herself. It was so great to be with her when she was able to be more of herself!

New Years Eve Janae, Nathan, Marta & Dad at Annika's house.

It is 2008! Breaking out the sparkling apple cider...one bottle seemed to be more sparkly then the other, we hoped it wasn't fermented!

Levi liked the sparkling cider!

One of the neighbors to my Dad had made some snow sculptures. He changed half of them before I took pictures. He had made a bear, turtle, and deer...but all that was there when we took pictures was the dinosaur, dolphin, alligator and sea serpent. I thought they were pretty cool. Varon, Traice and Drake.

Say Cheese, Kayden & Tye

On Monday Marta and I made freezer meals for my dad. We made 17 recipes in total, it took us about 8 hours to complete them. He now has over a months worth of dinners in the freezer. We made a big mess in the process and used every bit of counter space and mixing bowl. It was a lot of work but, it was worth it. Happy eating Dad!

Some of the meals packaged and ready to go into the freezer.

Freezer full of meals...can you believe that over 30 dinners fit in there with extra room! I love this idea of 30 meals in one day.