Saying Our Goodbyes

This week a few goodbyes had to be made... :(

The FIRST was a goodbye to my little brother, Kurtis on Wednesday. He will be serving in the Tokyo, Japan mission. I guess us Murray's are just meant to be in that country! My dad served in Japan and now him and my mom are living over there AND my two older brothers both served in Nagoya, Japan.

This was a HARD goodbye for me. Kurtis and I grew up doing everything together. He truly is one of my best friends. It's hard going from talking all the time to not at all. I haven't gotten a letter from him yet because I'm assuming his P-day is on Monday or Tuesday. I've sent him a few letters and one package. I told him I would send him a package every Friday. I was worried taking my first one into the post mart in Provo because I was thinking since it was same day delivery, it would be expensive. However, to my surprise it was ONLY $2! I can do this EASY. Maybe I'll send him more than 1 a week? We'll see :)

Kurtis and I outside of the condo before taking him up to the MTC. I was trying SO hard to fight back the tears and I was doing so well... until we gave our final hugs there at the MTC. Two years is a LONG time you guys! :(

The crew taking him up to the MTC

I love this picture. My mom didn't seem to get as sad as I did, but then again she is living where he will be serving and I have no doubt that they'll see each other fairly soon.

Our SECOND goodbye was to Kjarom's Subaru. We decided it was time to get rid of the car so we could start to look for a more family friendly 4-wheel drive. Right now we're leaning towards a nissan rogue, but we'll see! Anyone know of some great used car lots in the area? Let me know!

Hope your week was better than ours :(

Life is an Adventure

I'm really no good at blogging and it's something I definitely need to work on. I'm always on my blog, but just to look at friends and families blogs. Hold up -- I actually do update my COOKING blog quite a bit so I can't say I'm horrible at it.

Anyway, I just wanted to update everyone on what's going on in our lives right now (and what went on the past couple months :/). Kjarom and I had a couple weeks off from school and work so we had the chance to go out and travel. Our first stop was in Tokyo! It was only about a month after the whole earthquake disaster in Sendai and we were somewhat worried, but after the first few earthquakes that first day, it just seemed normal. It was funny though... Kjarom had never felt an earthquake before so when I was feeling one I told him to hold still so he could feel it, but instead he kinda freaked out and kept moving around so he wouldn't have to feel it. haha LOVE HIM. While in Japan, my dad took us all down to Hiroshima to see the peace museum and other sites close by. Here are a couple pictures from the Japan trip:

Okay so here we are with the Miyajima shine in the background. Apparently this is one of the top 5 most beautiful sites in Japan and I believe it! There is also so much culture at the island. I love it!

Yes! One of my favorite places to go while in Japan is the day spa. You get dressed up in yukatas and they have all sorts of things you can do. You can even have fish eat the dead skin off your feet and hands. YIKES... I couldn't get myself to do that. But the massages were wonderful -- as always :).

Our next stop was Pennsylvania (and Washington DC). Kjarom's family lives in PA so we went there to visit. His little brother and sister both recently got their mission calls (both to Brazil) and so we travelled down to Washington DC to go through the temple with them. Such a neat experience and man that temple is BEAUTIFUL! Sadly, we didn't take many pictures there, but here's one that I HAVE to post :

This is Rhonin - our nephew. On our drive down to DC we were entertained the entire time by this adorable little boy. (Seriously though... isn't he the cutest?) Kjarom kept him laughing for quite a big chunk of the drive down and back. I do have a video of him cracking up -- see my facebook.

This picture was taken at a Bee's game this past weekend. Kjarom has never been a fan of baseball, but I grew up around it and I played T-ball, Pitching Machine and then moved on to fast pitch softball. Was one of my favorite sports I played growing up. So I may have enjoyed this activity more than he did, but he still thought it was fun to get out and do something different. There were supposed to be fireworks after the game, but as you know baseball games can last forever when they go into extra innings. It hit 11:30 and they were still going so we ended up just leaving and missing the fireworks. Oh well! Maybe next time :)

I'll get better about updating this blog too -- promise :)

New Hobbies & Goals

How delightful do those look? Well, they taste just as good, if not better than how they look. My cousin Stephanie and I have found a love for baking and cooking. Yesterday we took on the challenge of raspberry filled cupcakes. I had never been much of a cupcake fan until then. CLICK HERE for the full recipe. We have decided that we're going to get together at least once a month to challenge ourselves to some sort of food that we may not have done by ourselves. Next time will be JAM. Have any of you tried making it? Do you have any tips?

Whether or not we take a class, or teach ourselves... this is another one of our goals. I would LOVE to learn how to make fondant cakes. I think it would be so much fun to be able to make a cake for a bridal shower, baby shower, birthdays, parties, graduation, etc. It couldn't be THAT hard could it? :/

World Travelers

Spring is upon us! I'm almost positive that we just had our last snowfall for this winter. At least we hope! We are especially excited for this spring because we will be traveling across the world! Most, if not all of you know that my parents live in Tokyo and that I used to. Now that I'm married I get to bring Kjarom back with me to show him my old stompin grounds. A few places I know I want to take him are:

• Japanese Spa
  
• Meiji Shrine
• Sumo Wrestling
• Shibuya
• Harajuku
• Light District
• Tokyo Tower
• Tokyo Temple - for Kurtis' endowments :)

I'm still trying to think of some really great things to do. For those of my friends/family members that have gone, what was YOUR favorite thing?

First Stop: TOKYO, JAPAN

Kjarom's family is from Allentown Pennsylvania and we'll be taking a flight from Tokyo to the east coast. Ick that'll be a LONG flight.

Second Stop: Allentown, Pennsylvania

Kjarom's younger brother and sister just got their mission calls on the same day ... BOTH going to Brazil and leaving on the SAME day. So they will be in the MTC together until they go their own ways to the separate areas. I'm so excited for them because Kjarom also served in Brazil. They will all be able to speak Portuguese together when they get back in a couple years! Okay so maybe I don't really like this because I won't understand a thing of it and hey what can I say... I like to be included! :) So, we'll be then traveling to the nearest temple in Washington DC for them to take out their endowments. I've never been there so I'm really excited to go to the temple there and explore the city! Maybe we'll see the president? hmmm...

Third Stop: Washington DC

I've never been to NYC before and we had planned to go at Christmas time while we were there visiting his family, but with all the crazy snow storms, we weren't able to make it. If all the plans work out, we will take a day to head out to NYC! Anyone have suggestions of their favorite places or MUST SEE'S?

Fourth Stop: New York City

Fifth Stop: HOME.

Our weekend in Vegas!

This is KJ writing on here for the first time! I thought I'd give this blogging thing a try, since Liz has been so good at it! So...where to start...Liz and I enjoyed an awesome weekend in Las Vegas. We left on Friday morning and after 5 fun-filled hours of listening to Enrique Iglesias (his songs are still stuck in my head--yikes!), we arrived in "Sin City" itself. (Turns out that out the only sin that happened over the weekend was BYU losing its final tournament game against SDSU!)

We had been planning the getaway for a few weeks as part of Liz's birthday celebration, and a couple weeks ago, we realized that the Mountain West Conference tournament for men's basketball was happening the same weekend we were there! Unfortunately for us, tickets were all sold out by the time we were able to get them...but we still managed to cheer on our Cougars by watching the game at some random casino. They shocked everyone (including us) by beating New Mexico, after having suffered a 4- or 5-game losing streak against them. As I mentioned before, though, they ended up losing to SDSU in the finals.

The rest of our Friday night was mostly spent sightseeing, walking around the Strip, and enjoying the time we had off from our regular schedules. We spent the next morning at a prominent shopping mall in North Las Vegas--imagine Gateway mall, about twice as big and twice as nice. That's how awesome that outdoor shopping mall was! I'll also throw it out there that the weather over the weekend was perrrfect. It definitely made us anxious for summer!

After a delicious lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings (which we definitely took advantage of, since none of its locations are in Utah), we went back to the Strip and watched a riveting comedy magic show, starring none other than Nathan Burton! The words "comedy" and "magic" in the same title threw us off, but the show ended up being just that--magical and hilarious. We were pretty impressed by the illusions that we saw. I probably spent most of the time trying to figure out how he performed them!

Saturday night was spent with some of our Utah friends that happened to be there for the weekend as well. All in all, it was a great weekend! We also went to the Jazz-Sixers game on Monday, which was exciting as always. Our perfect record of the Jazz winning when we go to their games continued! We're 4/4. :)

That's all for now!

Weekend Plans

This weekend is going to be a much needed getaway... but FIRST

Thursday night Kurtis will be opening his mission call. I can't even tell you all how excited I am for him AND how proud I am for making the decision to serve the Lord. My guess is somewhere foreign speaking, but I seriously can't decide where! A part of me wants to say Japan just because well, seems like thats where our family is meant to be, but so many of his high school friends have been called elsewhere so I'm having a hard time! I'm just so anxious to find out...

Friday we will arrive in this lovely city: Las Vegas

We will explore the strip and the city...

My poor husband... I will be dragging him to this wonderful store

Last but not least... HELLO! Mountain West Tournament!! We will be going to the game on Friday and if they make it past, we'll go to the one on Saturday as well.

GO COUGS!!

Pedersen's Kitchen Diary

If you don't already know, I absolutely love cooking and trying new things. I have started a new blog to put up all the delicious recipes that are tried and enjoyed in the Pedersen kitchen.

ENJOY! :)

CLICK HERE

Viva Las Vegas

Kjarom and I decided that we are due for a break from life for a weekend. We've both been working so hard in school/work and we believe we deserve to treat ourselves. Since we will be in this wonderful city for HIS birthday:

Tokyo, Japan

We decided to go here for the weekend after my birthday since I don't think I've ever been there and if I have, it was when I was TINY and going to my brothers soccer tournaments...:

Las Vegas, Nevada

2011 ... Dreams Really Do Come True

It sure has been a while and it has become more and more clear that I am no good at blogging. Kjarom and I feel like we never have anything super interesting to post, but how about a little catch up?

It is 2011 . . . so much will happen this year and it will take us to a new step in life. I can't believe I can now say that I will be graduating from college this year. School has been super difficult and so stressful at times that I just want to pull all my hair out, but my wonderful husband said something to me on January 31st that helped me get through a super stressful week. He said, "just think hun...today is the last day you will ever be in school in January." He always knows exactly what to say to make me smile and bring my spirits up. I know I wouldn't be able to make it though these stressful days of school without him.

Kjarom is such a hard worker. He works everyday and goes to school ... he sure is a trooper! I keep telling him to give me a year and then he can start to relax a little more. I'm so grateful to have someone as determined and hard working as him.

Cheers to another year of happiness and dreams coming true.