Fruit of our Labor

I promise the posts about the plants will calm down very soon. 

This week Chadsen and I ate the first fruit of our labor: a full-grown tomato! There were two things that amazed me about our first tomato.

Surprise #1: The little tomato was so full and plump, unlike most of the tomatoes that we've eaten from markets. When I cut into it there was no empty space in it! Completely packed with deliciousness.

Surprise #2: The tomato tasted so sweet, far sweeter than the regular market tomatoes that I usually buy. 

Is it worth it to grow a tomato plant? 

My answer: Very much so.

Have a great Sunday :)

Masumi

First Big Brown Bag

On Friday, two weeks ago I graduated from California State University, Los Angeles. Class of 2013, with a B.A. in Social Work. :)

In celebration, my parents wanted to buy me a gift. I thought long and hard about what to ask for, and it literally wasn't decided until the day before the dedicated shopping day! After much contemplation and discussion with the mom & pop, we agreed to buy me a much needed bag. The current one I have is on the brink of destruction. :(  

When we decided to buy a bag, I immediately knew where to drag her to: South Coast Plaza. That place simply has a huge selection of handbags (Most which are far beyond my financial reach but are still fun to look at ;)). Never have I had such a fun time bag-shopping!

Thanks to my parents, for the first time in my life I made a purchase at the store that will give you a Big/Medium/Small Brown Bag: Bloomingdales. I've wondered for a long while what store gave out those Brown Bags. Yesterday I realized that it wasn't a mystery at all. The store had been revealing itself on the side of the bag the entire time. -___-. Never did I imagine that I would walk out holding one of them myself. Who knows when I'll be shopping at that department store again, but that doesn't matter. Thanks to my parents I now have not only a graduation memoir but also a nice sturdy bag that hopefully I'll be able to use for a long time. (I'm one of those people who usually use one bag until it gets destroyed)

What I learned: 

Department stores tend to carry different products of a brand than the actual store. From experience, the department stores have the nicer items. 

Thanks Mom & Dad :)

Masumi

Week 9: Change

The update for week eight has been skipped because Chadsen & I were pretty busy getting ready for and attending our graduations for our B.A. CSULA, CPP grads, yes we are! :) 

On Tuesday of this week the bell peppers went to face the world. They went from growing inside the home, to outside. I have high hopes for them! 

Here is what they looked like today :)

Kicked out. 

Grow grow grow!

I noticed yesterday that these two tomatoes were turning yellow.
Today they started to burst with red! :)

Masumi

Porcupine-in'

On Monday Chadsen and I ventured out to Sylmar to visit the Wildlife Learning Center. I absolutely loved this place. It was a quaint little center that has various wildlife animals :) Guests are allowed to experience an encounter with some of the animals, so we took that opportunity to meet the most adorable porcupine! There were four of them, but only one was really hungry for food. It's cuteness had us beaming the entire time.

What we learned about porcupines:

We learned that porcupine was the 2nd largest rodents in North America.

They are so full of personality.

The pee on themselves to keep each other warm (How funny is that)!

The main porcupine we got to meet was named Penny. This little one danced around when asking for more food.

Please if you dare, see this cuteness for yourself. (Fullscreen! :)) P.S. Most of the photos were taken by my husband Chadsen!

You can just see it demanding, "More food!"

Their stubby paws are so cute. ughhhh.

This one was bumming around the entire time we were feeding them. :)

"More pah-lease."

Hopefully we will return soon!

Masumi

Week 7 Bell Peppers & Patio Tomatoes

I almost want to give in and exclaim that all of these weekly photos will be taken or uploaded after the exact week mark, but not yet.

One more week until the little bell pepper plants get to grow outside of the home! :)

Tomato photo taken, courtesy of my husband Chadsen :). Why are his photos always so good?!

Masumi

Beachin with a One Piece

This is a post to support the article http://madeinhisimage.org/the-bikini-question/. This article explains the reason which the author chooses to wear one piece swim suits (or tankinis) instead of a two piece. I agree with so much of what she has to say. Like her, I do agree that although we women ask men to look at us by who we are, we tend to forget that we do play a part in letting their gaze sway from the inside to outside of us by what we wear.  

When I go shopping, I like to buckle my bag onto the shopping cart not because I don't trust other people, but because I want to help them from even being tempted to take it. I understand that sometimes people can run into desperate situations or simply be tempted to do something wrong such as stealing bags, so I like to play my part and save them from the temptation. 

Like the author says, it is a sacrifice to dress modestly. Of course I would love to wear those sleeveless dresses, and cute sleeveless tops. They'd be very cute to wear. I don't wear a one piece swim suit out of insecurity of my body. My figure is quite alright, not too shabby! I dress modestly simply because I am trying to stand for what I believe in and help my brothers and sisters of God become more like Him. 

I feel that we have power to influence for both good and bad. The media tries to turn females into sexual objects far too often. Skinny, weak, sexy. Tempters. "RAWR." We all know that there is so much more to us than that. Women are influential because they are powerful. 

I am not writing to judge those who dress differently than I do but to explain why I dress the way I do. I am trying to stand for something, something that I know is good. I believe that every person, regardless of gender, sexuality, race, age have a desire to be good. I want to encourage them on their path. 

So here are photos that Chadsen & I took at Newport Beach on Memorial Day. We did all sorts of dumb, silly things such as doing "kartwheels", competing to write words before the waves wash them away, jumping around, and taking pictures of odd things.  

Chadsen, posing next to the mother who yelled out at her kids to stay near the shore very many times. Freaking out? Yeah she was, I can only imagine.

Isn't he cute?

I have thought that so many one piece swim suits were ugly, but I got lucky and found one at Macy's. The brand was Guess if anyone likes what it looks like. They might still be selling something similar to it!

This swim suit was neat because it looks like a mini dress, and can very much be worn like one.

While waiting to ride onto the boat that will take us to Balboa Island from Newport Beach!

This should be called the convenience swim suit. I wore pants under it, slapped a light cardigan on, and viola! Outfit.

Great day. Great frozen banana!

Since You'll Always Be Doing Something

Last weekend was a busy one. On Saturday I was stressing out about baking cookies in time to leave for a church event. While I was in the midst of  panicking, Chadsen stood up from the couch and stopped me. He had my favorite cooking music Cooking Mama play and told me, "Since you'll always be doing something, you might as well enjoy it!"

I love my husband.

This was what I baked.
They were supposed to look like little ships, but oh well!

On a side note, although I accidentally turned these cookies into rocks from over-baking them, they tasted so light and delicious! If you would like to try, this is the recipe: 

http://www.eatwell101.com/french-navette-cookies-recipe

Masumi

Week 6: Mini Bell Pepper Plant Growth

Week 6

The tomato plants have been steadily growing. The new tomatoes are growing so quickly, but it seems almost as if the big ones are the same size. It's possibly just because it's easier to notice when small things grow. The plant was growing smoothly and steadily, with our exception of our finding last week. When checking to see how the plant was doing, we found two caterpillars eating away at our tomato plant, leaving a hole through one of our precious baby tomatoes! :( With that experience, Chadsen taught me that caterpillars are enemies to tomato plants. Learning experience: achieved.

The bell peppers have been growing a little taller, and the two leaves are starting to grow farther apart from each other. In between, there is something new growing! :)

Dark photo, sorry!

Do you see that little thing in between the two leaves? Something is growing!

Babies.

Masumi