BYU Bummer

Ouch. BYU's 32-7 loss tonight to TCU was a bit painful to watch. My mom and dad came over to our house to watch the game because they didn't have the channel that it was showing on. We were all glad to have Savannah as a distraction otherwise the evening would just have been too painful. She utilized her time with Nana and Papa to practice shouting "Touchdown!"
Here is Savannah holding cheerleading practice:



Savvy-ism of the week: A few days ago we all went to the grocery store. Nate had Savvy in the shopping cart and was going down the feminine hygiene product aisle. Savvy saw a package of pads, pointed and exclaimed, "Cookies!" Go figure.

Traffic and "Punkins"

Yesterday I put on an hour long seminar for the sales department at MBK on the topic of Gracious Hospitality. Now that it's over (until I do it again next month for their executives) I'm feeling a lot less stressed and have realized I'm overdue for an update!

We are still without a dryer. . . well, kind of. You might remember that I mentioned a couple of posts back that we finally got our washer and dryer in our Memphis shipment, but that our dryer wasn't working when it was hooked up. Well, our relocation company paid to have someone come out and take a look at the dryer. We figured it had to be a problem with the dryer, since we had a full inspection of the house with an inspector before we closed escrow and no problems had come up in relationship to the washer or dryer hookups. Well the repair guy came out and took a look at it and determined the dryer was fine, but that there was a break in the electric line somewhere between the breaker and the outlet. Great. So we called the inspector and said something like, "Um, you missed something?" He explained that they don't really check that outlet anymore because most people aren't using electric dryers and many people modify that outlet to accommodate hot tubs and the like (???). Well, unfortunately we're one of the few families I guess with an electric dryer because our place in Memphis didn't have hookups for a gas dryer. We got a rough estimate of what it would cost us to do the electrical work and quickly figured out that it was going to cost us about $50 more just to buy a new gas dryer rather than do the electrical work. We opted for the new dryer, since in the long run it will save a lot of money anyways. The dryer was finally delivered on Tuesday, but they didn't hook it up. Nate made a trip to Home Depot last night to buy a hook up kit and will hopefully have a bit of time soon to try and get the dryer going. In the meantime, we have now been without a dryer since we moved out of our temporary apartment in Irvine--a good month and a half ago. Ugh.

This weekend for Conference we went to my parents' house to watch the Sunday sessions. My cousin Denise and hubby John Pedroza (and their cute little guy A.J.), and my cousin Tom and wifey Erica (and their cute little doll Harper) came out for dinner. Good times!

(Savannah and A.J. Pedroza)

(Savannah being spiritual for Conference)

(Savannah "driving" Papa's (my dad's) car)

Nate is still as busy as ever, spending a lot of time on site at clients. Lately he's been having to go to Torrance and El Segundo (not exactly next door) more than he would like. Poor guy. He's truly battling the good 'ole SoCal traffic.

Savannah continues to get crazier and crazier. Thanks to Nana (my mom) she is now obsessed with doing Ring around the Rosie over and over and over and over again.
She's loving the change in seasons because she has discovered "punkins" and likes to point out every single one that she sees. I made her a pumpkin hat so she would even have a "punkin" to wear on her head.
I am now just short of being 24 weeks pregnant. I had an appointment with my OB/GYN earlier this week and things are looking fine, so all is good on the baby front!
Today Savannah and I went and met my dear friend Keilani Tanaka and her little boy Kai for lunch. Kei and her hubby Ryan were in our Stake in Tokyo and then moved back to the US a year before us. It's always good to see her. It's amazing how small the world is sometimes, isn't it?

Firemen, Shapes, and a Fever

We've just been having all kinds of fun and excitement here at our house. Last week I locked myself out of the house while Nate was out of town and Savannah was still inside the house, asleep in her crib. I had gone out the front door to take some things to the garbage cans that were at the curb waiting to be emptied and had pulled the door shut behind me so that our cats wouldn't get out.
I was not aware that our front door has a safety feature where you cannot get in without a key, even if all of the locks are "unlocked" from the inside. I ended up having to go across the street to a neighbor's house and ask to use their phone (it was about 7am, and they answered in their pajamas) to call the general police department line. I did so and dispatch ended up sending a team from the fire department over to save me. I have to hand it to them, they were quick. Within 4 minutes of me hanging up the phone a huge white fire truck was pulling up in front of the house, and FOUR firemen wearing their gear (except for coats and hats) piled out. It was quite the experience and the firemen were all very nice about it. Just slightly embarrassing for someone who has never locked herself out of the house, or a car. Sigh. I ended up making our family's favorite chocolate chip cookies and taking them 2 heaping plates worth.
The other day in the car I pulled up to a 4-way stop and Savannah excitedly pointed out the window and said, "Aw-ta-gawn! Aw-ta-gawn!" It took me a minute to realize she was pointing at the stop sign. In total disbelief I took her home and sat her down with her shapes book and pointed to an octagon, and said, "Savvy, what's that?" "Aw-ta-gawn," she responded proudly. She hadn't shown any interest in shapes prior to this. What a strange shape to learn first!
On Sunday Savannah started feeling a bit warm and by Monday afternoon she had a full blown fever. On Tuesday she wouldn't do much but lay on the floor or the couch and drink milk. If you know Savannah very well you know that this is very much unlike her as she is always on the move. The one benefit to this is that she actually cuddled with me, which is maybe the first time she has ever truly cuddled with me. I have to admit that I enjoyed it, despite the fact that I knew she wasn't feeling well.
Tuesday night her fever hit 104 degrees and we couldn't get it down. She threw up the liquid tylenol we gave her so we ended up having to go into an urgent care to have her looked at. The doctor concluded that she likely had a sinus infection and sent us home with a prescription for amoxicillin. He also told us where we could find tylenol suppositories. As we were in the drive through at the pharmacy and the pharmacist was telling us that the medication should be taken with food as it often caused an upset stomach in young children, Savannah started throwing up in the backseat. Uh yeah, that medication didn't work out so well for us. She has been sick all week, but steadily getting better with the help of the suppositories. Now she seems normal except for the fact that she is extremely crabby, and thus not very pleasant to be around, and has one of the most extraordinary cases of gas I have ever smelled. Seriously, I didn't know a little kid could produce such a horrific smell in such large quantities.

Boxes and Savvy-isms

Our stuff that has been in storage was finally delivered on Monday. Now our house is filled with a depressing assortment of boxes. Unpacking begins anew!
I can definitely see the difference in the job done by the US side versus the job done by the Japan side. In our shipment moved all the way from Japan we have almost no damage. From the small portion that I have unpacked of our US shipment, there is already a lot more damage. Things just aren't packed as carefully. I was very excited to finally have a washer, dryer, and vacuum cleaner again, as we have been living without all three (they were in storage). Murphy's Law kicked in however, and when the washer and dryer were hooked up, the dryer would not turn on. So, we're still living without any real ability to do laundry, and I made yet another trip to Redlands to do laundry at my parents' house yesterday.

So, instead of talking about unpacking, let's talk about Savannah! I thought you might enjoy some recent "Savvy-isms":
- She is obsessed with fans and lights which she calls "fees" and "yights". The other day she walked into our bedroom, pointed at our ceiling fan and said, "It's a fee?" "Yes," I replied. "It's a yight?" she asked. "Yes," I replied. She then said, "It's a fee and a yight!"

- When I had my anatomy ultrasound last week Nate and Savvy tagged along. Savvy was very good through the entire ultrasound. At one point she was carefully examining a poster on the door of the exam room. She then turned to Nate and said, "It's a pig!" The poster was a detailed diagram of the female anatomy.

- Savvy loves scrambled eggs for breakfast. Today my mom and I were out in my parents' backyard with Savvy. She went over to my mom's snapdragons, and pointed at some light yellow blossoms and said, "Egg?" She was right, they did look like scrambled eggs. So now Savvy thinks scrambled eggs grow on plants, just as I'm sure sometime in the future she'll think money grows on trees.

Savvy loves to brush her teeth. Too bad her favorite toothbrushes belong to her Grandpa Cannon . . . .

Life as . . . usual?

Things have been busy around here over the past couple of days! We've had an ant problem and a black widow spider problem since we moved in. Nate has killed about 7 black widows in the past week alone. We finally found someone we were happy with to come out and do some spraying yesterday. Yeah!

Yesterday I also had an anatomy ultrasound. Out of everyone who voted in the poll, 50% of you thought it was a boy and 50% thought it was a girl. Surprisingly, 0% of you thought it was a chicken. Now, for anyone who knows the story of the first time Nate kissed me, you might want to rethink your answer, as Nate was pretty certain that I was a martian chicken. Anyways, 50% of you were wrong (surprise, surprise)! Savannah is going to have . . . a little sister! We're very excited. This definitely simplifies things as there will be less to buy because we've already done the baby girl thing. Plus we've already got stuff like changing girl diapers down pat.
Yesterday we drove down to San Diego to spend the night. My dad had lasik eye surgery on Thursday and had to stay to have a check-up, so my parents decided just to make a short weekend trip out of it (and invite us) as today is their 29th wedding anniversary. Today we spent a good part of the day at Sea World. Savannah was in heaven! What made the visit especially fun was the fact that Sea World has recently partnered with Sesame Street and has Sesame Street characters all over the park, a Sesame Street 3D movie, and characters walking around and posing for pictures. Savannah is OBSESSED with Elmo, and has been for quite some time now, so it was a blast for her to "meet" Elmo, go on Sesame Street rides, and watch her favorite characters on the big screen. It was a great day.
Happy 29th Mom and Dad! (Aren't they cute?!?!?)

Konnichiwa!

Welcome to our new little corner of the web! We have been crazy busy trying to move into our new house, trying to keep up with Savannah, trying to readjust to being back in the US, buying 2 cars, a refrigerator, new stove, etc.

We returned to the US on June 28th. We spent about 2 months living in a temporary apartment in Irvine until we closed on our house in Corona and our stuff arrived from Japan. We love our new house, though it is still filled with boxes needing to be emptied. We are still in limbo, as our stuff that was in storage in Memphis while we were gone has yet to arrive. We were told 4 months ago that it had already been moved out to California. We found 3 weeks ago that this was not the case. Sigh. Don't you love moving?

We continue to be a Japanese car family. We bought Nate a 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid and a 2001 Honda Odyssey for me. Is she a beauty?

Savannah loves the little community playground that is about a 4 minute walk from our front door,
and our backyard. Her favorite thing is all of the little river rocks we've got in our planters.

She's also been working on her musical talent,
her talking, and getting cuter by the second.

My belly continues to grow. I'm currently 19 1/2 weeks along and doing well. Our official due date is January 31st. We have our anatomy ultrasound on Friday. What's your guess? Cast your vote in the poll on the sidebar!

Nate is enjoying his job and is now officially a manager!

We are hoping to see some of you occasionally--we've got plenty of room for visitors!

**Take a look at our list of blogs on the sidebar. If you have a blog, and don't see it on the list, please shoot one of us an email so that we can add it!

**This blog will cover all the happenings on the Hutchings family that is fit to print. La Fuji Mama will still be around as well!