Let my people go!

On August 29, 2009 I got a group of friends together from my ward to help do baptisms for the dead for family names on the Muranaka side of the family.

(L-R: Ann, Buck, Sara, Darren & Me)

We ended up going to the Jordan River Temple because there weren't any openings or either the Salt Lake or Bountiful Temples. What a great blessing to live in Utah - so many temples relatively close by. I was going to try the Draper or Oquirrh Temples next if we couldn't go to the Jordan River Temple. It was a great experience and I sure appreciated my my friends who were willing to help.

Afterwards we invited some other friends over and celebrated my Japanese ancestors' release from spirit prison by having a Japanese dinner - gyoza, somen salad, inari sushi, rice candy, and pocky sticks.

Darren found a lone strawberry on the temple grounds. He was pretty excited to show us. We did baptisms and confirmations for 45 people - 21 women and 24 men, including my Grandma and Grandpa Muranaka! What a great blessing to be able to do temple work for family members!

Just a flesh wound

I got stitches for the first time (not counting those due to surgery) on August 26th thanks to a battle with a glass punch bowl. I was washing it in the sink and lifted it up to rinse it when it SHATTERED in my hands. True story. A big piece came across and slashed the palm of my right hand - only about a half an inch near the palm line right below my pinky. I rinsed it and tried to stop the bleeding. I also had a few minor cuts on my fingers but nothing as bad as the one on my palm. To answer your unspoken question, yes, I did scream when it happened. I wasn't sure whether or not I needed stitches. I thought maybe I'd try to find an InstaCare Center. My friend Lena called me and when I told her what happened she told me that you're supposed to go to a hospital Emergency Room to get stitches. I didn't believe her at first but then when I couldn't find an instacare center close by I decided to head up to Lakeview Hospital since I had bled through my bandaid. I was a little embarrassed about going and told them at the reception desk that I just wanted someone to look at it to see if I needed stitches. Of course, they proceeded to check me in and collect my $45 co-pay. The nurse took my vitals and said that my blood pressure was very high. Could be stress related! She took me to the far back room and scrubbed up my hand. It didn't look that bad after it was cleaned up. I was tempted to check myself out and leave when I had to wait for over an hour for the doctor to examine it. He suggested x-rays to make sure there wasn't any glass still in my hand - I asked him "Are you serious? Do we really need x-rays?" I still think it was an unnecessary precaution because even after the x-rays the doctor still poked around to check for glass. I asked him a couple of times if he really thought I should get stitches and he said he would because of the location of the cut on my hand - it probably wouldn't heal very well because it would likely crack back open. I ended up getting two stitches - one more than he originally thought but still not very many. I thought they would just put a bandaid on top of it but they wrapped up my entire hand and wrist - I told them they were making it look worse than it really was! All that for just two stitches! I had to keep it wrapped for 48 hours to prevent infection. The next day I told people that I had hit a guy - that sounded better than i got in a fight with a glass punch bowl and lost! Lessons learned: First, glass punch bowls are BAD, especially when there's a fracture in the glass. I'm definitely not going to buy a replacement. Second, blue stitches just look like blue ink on your hand but the human body is amazing and heals quickly. Third, there's no free consultations in Emergency Rooms. And finally, if your wound is not life threatening, be sure to take something to read because you're going to be waiting for a while (it took me two hours to get x-rays and two stitches)!

Proud to be Japanese but Scottish seems nice!

The Utah Highland Games was held at Thanksgiving Point on June 13th. I went with a few of my friends and got to see the Wicked Tinkers, the parade of clans, and Citrine (a couple of my friends are a part of the music group). We also did a little shopping of the booths and I got some homemade rootbeer and tasty fish and chips before the BIG rain storm hit. I was completely drenched by the time I made it back to my car! At least it was a warm rain! I didn't see much of the athletic events but there sure is something about those bagpipes! This was my second year attending and it's become a fun tradition. I'm always tempted to purchase some Celtic jewelry but I always feel a little weird - maybe I just don't want people to think that I'm a confused Japanese woman pretending to be Scottish. Looks like I can't post a video with the bagpipes (just keeps processing, maybe it's too long for the blogspot to handle) - just know that it sounds GREAT and makes you feel like you're in Scotland!!!

Race for the Cure!!!

My friend Bev and I participated in the Salt Lake City Race for the Cure in May. It's something I always try to do since both my mom and my sister had/have breast cancer, plus it's a good cause and good exercise. Although, I'm a walker and not a runner. Someone once asked me if I run. My response was "Only when chased!" The only other time I run is when I play sports - perhaps that's why I mostly stick to volleyball lately! Part of the enjoyment is watching the other participants - now that's pretty good free entertainment! I hope that one day they do find a cure for breast cancer and that it's during my lifetime!

Indian Cinco de Mayo

I know, it's July, but I've been reminded (aka chided) about not updating my blog, so here's the quick catch-up. I have a group of friends we often get together to eat Indian food! We always reminisce when Lynette ordered the butter chicken and when the waiter came out to deliver our food Lynette asked everyone "Who ordered the buttah chicken? Buttah chicken? Oh, butter chicken, that's me!" Our last time we went out it was Cinco de Mayo. We were worried it would be crowded because, of course, everyone gets Indian food on Cinco de Mayo! But it was delicious and great quality time with friends (L-R: Holly, Lynette & Anthony, me, Teresa & Greg). Maybe we should make this a tradition. Don't worry, I'm still a fan of Mexican food and don't feel contrained to only celebrate their independence day on the 5th of May!

Baseball with the nephews

My brother Lane came down to Utah and wanted to go see the UofU vs. SDSU baseball game up at Lindquist Field in Ogden because SDSU has the best pitcher in college baseball. I met them up in Ogden and Lane promptly asked the boys if they wanted to get a hot dog with Aunt LeAnn. Sure, I'll take them to get hot dogs. We stood in line for over 40 minutes because they didn't have full concessions and they weren't prepared for the crowd. The boys actually were really good and patient despite the long wait. Lane even gathered up all of our stuff to come check on us - after watching several innings and a home run he started to wonder if something bad happened or if he was on candid camera to see how long it would take for him to go looking for his kids! I was unsuccessful in convincing them to get a hamburger instead of a hot dog because those were ready while the hot dogs were frozen. So we continued to wait. Luckily they were only $2.50 each and we still got to watch the last couple of innings! SDSU beat the UofU 11-2 and even though we weren't able to get any autographs from the pitcher or the coach Tony Gwinn after the game, it was fun just to be hanging out with the boys!

I Just Want to Fly

One of my good friends Ann (front left) wanted to go indoor skydiving for her birthday. You know that I'm always game for a good adventure so I didn't even think twice about joining the group (Darren M, Ann G, Steve G, Tracie E, and Darci A)! I was issued the bright yellow and purple L.A. Lakers jumpsuit - apparently the dark slimming jumpsuits are only available to shorter people! Indoor skydiving is quite a different experience from outdoor skydiving but ironically, our instructor Dusty was the same guy that was tandem with a friend when I went outdoor skydiving several years ago. We had two rules: 1) Chin up and 2) Hold still. If you have a neck or shoulder injury, no flying for you. If you weighed over 250 pounds, no flying for you. If you don't pay the fee, no flying for you. Luckily I was able to pass the restrictions and fly. Check out the website for a demo (http://www.iflyutah.com/). I wasn't able to get live action photos - didn't have the camera setting on "action" so they turned out kind of blurry. We did two 1 minute flight experiences and the air flow surprisingly sucked you up from the top of the tunnel room rather than blew you up from the bottom. One minute actually is a very long time when you're trying to hold still with a HUGE grin on your face while you fly. I definitely recommend this experience - it was truly a BLAST!!!