On Saturday my parents threw me a nice party to celebrate the launch of my book The Right-Brain Business Plan and my 5th anniversary of leaving my corporate job to pursue my dreams. My brother, Gregg, even flew up from L.A. for the event (even though he had already visited the week before). That’s us above with my cousin Robert (in the black on the far left). My dad gave a very lovely and thoughtful toast. So nice to know how proud he is! And many thanks to my aunt and uncle who graciously hosted the party on their beautiful patio.

My dear friends Hannah and Kate were there to celebrate. We all met a few years back through Ladies Who Launch and I just adore these talented and creative lovelies. And of course, Kate is the one who did all of the fabulous illustrations in the book!

And here I am with my book club ladies Lily, Francisca, and Kristen (we missed you, Christina!). While we were eating at the party realized we’re going on year 10 of our book club this year and started plotting a milestone celebration.

My friend Linda from my Old Navy HR days joined us as well. Our cubes used to be right next to each other and we sure had fun together!

And here I am with my college roomie Julie and dear friend Julie. She’s the absolute best and has been super supportive all these years.

I’m so grateful to be surrounded by such loving and wonderful friends and family! Thanks everyone! Couldn’t have done it with out your support.

Today my hubby and I are celebrating our 9th year anniversary (and we were together 7 years before that!). Here we are cracking up during my maid of honor and college roomie Julie’s toast. I love it when we laugh together. Here’s to many more years of love and laughter with my soul mate.

]]> http://www.lifeunfoldsblog.com/2010/09/08/happy-9th-year-anniversary/feed/ 7 http://www.lifeunfoldsblog.com/2010/07/11/catching-up-a-vacation-from-vacation/ http://www.lifeunfoldsblog.com/2010/07/11/catching-up-a-vacation-from-vacation/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:25:27 +0000 jenn http://www.lifeunfoldsblog.com/?p=3512

It’s been several weeks since returning from my family trip to the Bahamas and my tan faded long ago. But apparently I needed a vacation from my vacation because I caught a cold right after returning from my trip. I’m finally feeling much better and am getting caught up.

My parents took me and my husband, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my twin 12-year-old nephews on a Disney cruise. While I could’ve done without all the Disney characters and crazy crowds/kids (I’m not a cruise lover and yes, I suppose I rubbed elbows a bit with Grumpy dwarf), there were some nice highlights from the vacation. Some of my favorite memories included:

• Spending time with my whole family. Growing up, we hardly ever went on vacations with my parents, my brother, and me altogether (since I’m 9 1/2 years younger than my brother). So, it was nice to have a big trip with all of us.
• Hanging out with my twin nephews. They’re a hoot. They loved playing games on our iPad and iPhones and they were always cracking me up.
• Lounging around on floaties with my hubby in the beautiful Blue Lagoon. I could’ve stayed there all day!
• Escaping to Serenity Bay, the adult’s only area on Disney’s private island Castaway Cay. The rest of the island was an absolute madhouse, but this secluded section was pretty deserted and oh, so gorgeous with its clear turquoise waters.
• Seeing a screening of Toy Story 3 in 3D on-board the ship. The movie was so cute!
• Taking a “how to draw Goofy” class (that’s me above with one of my nephews and my sister-in-law sketching away)
• Dining at the Palo adults only restaurant on the last night. The food was absolutely amazing!! And there are my parents below enjoying a delicious dessert.

The trip came and went so quickly and I can’t believe it’s already July. It’d be fun to do another big family trip again. Maybe next time we’ll do it old school and rent a house in Mammoth during the summer.

Thanks mom and dad, for a great and memorable family vacation!

Hope you’re enjoying all the festivities of the season. For more merriment visit Emmett holiday cards of Christmas past. We’ve subjected our poor pooch to eight years of these silly photo shoots, so no wonder why it looks like he’s fed up with the yuletide cheer!

Yesterday, I received an amazing e-mail from a complete stranger.  A woman named Dee contacted me to let me know that she had a clipping of an LA Times article from April 2, 1967 that mentioned my grandpa, Ernest Fukuda.  He’s the one wearing the bow-tie in the photo above.  (He wore bow-ties a lot and always left the house with a hat.  How dapper!)

Dee wrote that her mother had saved articles that she found interesting and that she recently discovered this clipping among her mother’s things.  After reading this story about a ballot measure that my grandfather helped petition for, Dee was curious to learn of the outcome.  She did a search and found my post about my grandpa about how he helped the amendment to pass so that Japanese-American Los Angeles DWP employees who were removed from their jobs during the WW2 internment would receive years of continuous service toward their retirement plan.

I’m very grateful that Dee was so kind to scan in the article and send it to me.  Thank you, Dee for sharing this meaningful piece of history with my family.  We will treasure it!

What do you know about your family history?  How far back does your family tree go?  Unfortunately, my family doesn’t have a whole lot of information about my relatives beyond my grandparents.  And even that is fairly sparse, especially since my grandparents didn’t talk to much about their pasts when they were alive.

Fortunately, last year my auntie discovered some old family photographs on my dad’s side.  Above are my dad’s mom’s parents.  The Nishioka’s owned a barber shop in Seattle.

When my parents were visiting last week, I asked them what else they knew about our family history or who was in these photos.  I wish that they knew more.  This makes me appreciate the blogging world even more as it captures our day-to-day routines, our thoughts, our dreams.  We get snapshots into each other’s lives and read the stories that go along with them.

Here are my great-grandparents again a little older along with my grandmother (the younger girl) and her sister.  The females are wearing traditional Japanese kimonos.

This is a photo of my dad’s dad, Howard Lee, and his parents.  My grandfather is the tallest boy standing in the back right between my great-grandmother and great-grandfather.  This was taken in San Francisco’s Chinatown.  My parents had a hard time identifying who all the other children were in the photo.  Despite not knowing much about who these people were, I’m grateful to at least have these family portraits.

A few years ago I created an art book in honor of my grandpa Ernest Fukuda (my mom’s dad).  He was the first Japanese-American to be employed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.  We’re fortunate that my grandpa wrote up his life story and was interviewed in 1991 by the L.A. DWP for a series of oral histories of the DWP.  Along with the interview transcripts are several letters from 1943 through 1984 documenting how the internment impacted his career and how he advocated for reparations for Japanese-Americans who were sent to internment camps during the war.  My grandpa worked with then councilman Tom Bradley on a charter amendment which was passed in 1967 to permit the DWP retirement plan to honor years of continuous service for four Japanese-American employees, including my grandpa, who were removed from their jobs during the war.

I started this post yesterday and actually did a search to see if there was anything written online about my grandpa.  I discovered a photo of him in the Japanese American National Museum archives which my family had not seen yet.  And as I worked on this post today, I realized that yesterday, July 14th, was his birthday.  I didn’t even realize that until now.  He passed away 10 years ago and would’ve been 106 yesterday.

He closed his life story with, “I ask for nothing more than peace for all mankind.”

What legacy do you wish to leave?  What are the stories you want future generations to know about you?

“Earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This quote simply tickled me!

Today my mom and aunt came over to visit and my aunt brought these bright roses from her garden.  I’m enjoying having all these fresh flowers in my home to remind me of the beauty of Mother Earth.

Hope you had a beautiful day!

Four-story rainforest dome

My brother and his family were in town for Spring Break, so I spent the day with them at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.  What a gorgeous day to be in the city!  The sunshine and clear skies had me missing when we used to live within walking distance of the park.

My absolute favorite part of the museum was watching the huge, beautiful butterflies flutter about the rainforest dome.

I couldn’t believe how up close and personal we could get to these amazing creatures.

I saw one land on a guy’s shoulder.  It was soooo cool!

The 3-D bug movie was cool, too.  Unfortunately, I felt some motion sickness during the planetarium show, so I took the opportunity to take a quick nap.

One of the amazing things about this museum is that it is an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum and rainforest all rolled in one.  We got to experience the wonders of the earth, sea, sky and beyond.

View of the DeYoung Museum from the living rooftop

I couldn’t get over how clear it was.  All I remember when I used to live in the Richmond was fog, fog and more fog.

The living rooftop is covered with 2.5 acres of native plants.

All in all, it was a great day spending time with nature and the family!  Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.

I rarely cook, but when I do, I enjoy going gourmet.  For our family Thanksgiving feast, I was in charge of appetizers.  So my art for today was my delicious sweet potato galettes with turkey bacon, sage and rosemary with a dollop of sour cream.  Yum!!

Before I go to bed, I’m going to finish my gratitude that I started this moring and will place it in my blessings box.  Ahhh, I’m full of good food and lots of gratitude!

No, I don’t have a bun in the oven!  Nor is there one planned for anytime soon.  However, when I was pulling magazine clippings for my values collage cards earlier this month, I happened to come across several Asian-American babies, kids and moms (and a dad!).  I figured I’d grab them while I could since it’s rare to see faces like me in the mainstream media (although it’s getting better).

I’m still not 100% sure I’m ready to take the parenthood leap (and who ever is?!)  I love my quiet mornings where I get to wake up without an alarm clock.  I worry that being an HSP would make motherhood ultra-draining.  Plus, Brian and I are used to living pretty independent and flexible lives (which include lots of sleep and a deep involvement in our work).  Life is good.  Sure, we’ve talked about having a family… in the future.  When I look at this collage, I see a vision that’s fun, creative, loving, connected, healthy and joyful, so that makes the whole idea a little less scary.  And it reminds me of the magic of childlike wonder.

Last week, I was in Montclair after my dentist appointment and I walked by this super cute storefront called The Tulip Grove.  I’m going to a friend’s baby shower this weekend, so I figured I’d go in and get a gift.  This is not just a baby shop, it’s also a community/education center complete with a classroom for workshops and support groups.  I was talking to the store owner because I love to connect with local entrepreneurs and it turns out that I met her business partner last year at a Ladies Who Launch event.  I remember her talking about this vision she had to create a destination spot for new moms.  It was awesome to see how beautifully her vision came to life!  And I love knowing that should the time come for me to need a resource like that, I know where to go!

Oh, and one other random thing about my collage… The strawberry is actually scratch n’ sniff!  I just had to cut it out cuz it smelled so good.   I used to have a scratch n’ sniff sticker collection when I was a kid, so it seemed appropriate for this piece.