A lawyer walks into a bar...

I figured I'd better start brushing up on my lawyer jokes since it looks like we may one day have another lawyer in the family. My BIL (or "brother-in-law" since I know my parents don't know texting shorthand :) is the only lawyer I know at the moment. But here's the conversation I had in the car yesterday that may change all of this...

Kobe: Mom?

Laura: What Kobe?

Kobe: Do you think for Christmas you could get me some law books?

Laura: I guess. Are you going to be a lawyer when you grown up?

Kobe: Maybe. I'm just thinking it would be fun to learn more about law.

Yes people, my child used the word fun to describe learning about law. Tehani piped in and asked if Kobe just wanted to read those books so that way he could break the law (thanks Tehani)

I told Cynthia about the incident and she informed me there are some kid-friendly books that talk about strange laws and such. I decided this was a bad idea since it would only encourage Kobe's new found interest in learning legal speak. The other option is to to just give him a regular book of legal code. I'm guessing that's all it would take to suck the "fun-ness" out of learning about the law :)

Flashback Friday

Today's flashback is from Dec 2008 (or at least that is what the digital time stamp on my photo says :)

This is a pic of our two favorite Tahitians--and their families (or at least most of the fam.) I'm pretty sure Norm and the kids and I were in Chicago for the holidays and "The Mom's" had the idea for us to have a family dinner a la Sweet Tomatoes. It seemed like a good idea. Except its a buffet--which means we ate and ate and ate (But it's ok that we all gorged ourselves since "It's only salad," right?)

(And yes, Tehani is falling asleep on my mom's purse in the picture :)

You've got mail

Apparently I've got a new job...as a spokesperson for one of the departments on campus.

http://printandmail.byu.edu/home/content.php?page=about/articles/article-lauratevaga&section=about/about

(Don't worry, we didn't send all 500,000 pieces of mail to the same person :)

My Happy Place

It's easy to smile when you're at the happiest place on earth! Last week, Norm and I took the kids on their first trip to Florida. Never mind the fact that I had just gotten back from my two week "asian adventure"--I had a work trip scheduled to Orlando so we figured it would be a great time for Norm and the kids to fly out and join me!

I do have to say I was jealous of the fact that the fam got to hang out all day by the pool the first few days there (while I was busy "hanging out" in conference rooms learning about the latest and greatest in fundraising :) But when Thursday afternoon finally rolled around, the real fun began. We managed to squeeze in a visit to Sea World and we spent Friday at Aquatica (Sea World's waterpark) And of course no visit to Orlando is complete without an obligatory stop at Disney. We spent most of the day at Epcot and then stopped by to say Aloha to our friends and family at the night show at Disney's Polynesian Resort.

Anyway, the kids loved it. Kobe has already asked if we can move to Florida and I'm pretty sure Tehani is already planning for the next time we can go out to visit. I'm pretty sure they also liked the fact that we had confirmed seats on the plane (thanks to Grandma, they're used to flying standby all the time.) I was talking to the kids on the phone before their flight (I flew out a day before them) and they were asking what would happen if they didn't get on the plane. I kept trying to explain to them that they'd for sure be getting on since we had bought tickets. It was kind of a foreign concept for them :)

Speaking of foreign concepts, I've spent the last two night sleeping in my own bed. Spending the last three weeks in hotels has been great, but it's nice to sleep in my own bed for a change. (I just need to figure out how to get a hotel maid to come in and make up my bed in the morning :)

If you sprinkle when you tinkle...

You are looking at the one and only picture I took during my layover in Tokyo. Yes folks, its a remote...for the toilet.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Land of a thousand smiles

I am now in Bangkok. The tour guide said it's known as the land of a thousand smiles. I haven't even been here for a whole day but I already have a new favorite place. Were staying at a fabulous Marriott resort. I went and had an hour long massage. And now we are taking a boat tour.

I know I am smiling...
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Namaste

Today we say goodbye to India. It's after 1am and I'm sitting on our airplane ready for our flight.

Next stop: Thailand

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Laundry Day

Just a quick pic from our city tour of Mumbai (aka Bombay) And although this city is much more developed (lots of skyskrapers and even street lights :) there are areas of the city that look like this. We came past here a little later in the afternoon so almost all of the clothes washers (the tour guide said that in this area it is only men that was clothes :) were already done for the day.

The funny thing is that before going on the tour I had just gotten done washing some of my clothes. In the sink in my hotel room (you'd be washing clothes too if you had to bring two weeks worth of clothes in one suitcase--that can't weigh more than 44 pounds) Thank goodness for my packets of travel Tide!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

An elephant never forgets

And here is an experience I will never forget--my first elephant ride. This was near Amber Fort, which was our main sightseeing visit for the day.

Our paciderm parade was almost cancelled--when we got to the fort today they said it was too hot. Don't tell PETA but the tour guides must have decided that our India photo op was more important the elephant's welfare because here I am on my new elephant friend (her name is Beshy in case you are wondering :)

*Note--No animals were harmed in the taking of this picture. I mean, in 46 degree Celsius really that hot?

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Just another day at the palace

Here are a few pics of the Taj Palace, our hotel last night. It was an actual palace at one point in time. We're in Jaipur today (aka the Pink City--or at least that is what the tour guide says :)

All of our hotels have been just as nice (though I don't know if I will get used to going through metal detectors and having armed guards walking around the lobby :)

Just another day at the palace!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Spice Spice Baby

No trip to India is complete without a visit to the Spice Market. Our tour guide told us that the majority of the world's spices are bought and sold in little shops like these.

While everything may look good and nice in this photo, you'll thank me for not including the pictures of the surrounding areas. I've been a lot of places in the world but I do have to say that I have never been anywhere as dirty or as unsanitary (If it really is true that all of our spices come from here, I may never let my kids put cinnamon on their toast again!)

On a more positive note, I'd have to say that the high point of my India trip was our visit this morning to the Taj Mahal. We were there for the sunrise and it was spectacular.

So far in India we've been to Delhi and Agra. And, after our 5 hour bus ride today, we'll spend our last night here in Jaipur.

PS-If you ever do get the chance to visit this country, I recommend staying as far away from the roads as possible. Driving here (or even just riding on a bus) is scary. The Indians make the bad Utah drivers look good :)
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

It's a small world afterall

Tonight we are finishing up our time in China (Hong Kong to be exact.) We've got a late night flight and figured we'd spend our free time before then at the happiest place on earth. Anyone want to guess where? Here's a pic in case you need a hint...
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

"Hope You Make It" Airlines

So my EMBA group has finished up our time in Beijing. We had a business visit this morning and then headed off to the airport for our flight to Shenzhen. We boarded our plane, pushed back from the gate, and then we wait.

And wait. We're still sitting here now (which is why I figured I'd take advantage of this time to do a quick post :) You know it isn't looking good when the pilot gets on the intercom and says (with his Chinese accent) that we will be waiting for A VERY LONG TIME. Too bad I'm not in the US since there's a three hours limit for "tarmac torture time"...

Apparently my group is not allowed to fly this trip without having some sort of delay (This is the Delta annoyance story that I promised in my last post :)

Our flight from SLC was just fine but once we got to Seattle, we found out our flight had been delayed two hours due to "mechanical issues." Two hours turned into three but once that was fixed our pilots couldn't fly or they'd be over hours (It is a 12 hour flight after all :) Then Delta had to track down a new crew. When we thought they finally had it all together, they realized that none of the 4 pilots had flown in to Beijing before (which is apparently a requirement) so the flight was cancelled. (We offered to let the pilot use our map but our wings had already been clipped.) After putting us all up in a hotel for the night, we were back at the SEA airport the next morning.

Let's hope this flight doesn't turn out the same way. So wish me luck. I think we're going to need it.

PS--And I have a five year old sitting in the seat behind me that is about to get his legs cut off! Anyone know what the punishment might be? (I'm not planning to kill him, just maim him a little :)
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Imperial Garden

This is my first time trying to post via email to my blog so forgive me if this comes out funky...

Now that we are here (I'll have to do a separate post some other time to talk about my "extended" Seattle layover and general annoyance with Delta)

Here is a quick recap since our arrival in Beijing yesterday afternoon:

We hiked the Great Wall yesterday. Very cool. Also took my first trip on an alpine slide--that was how we got down the mountain.

Bathrooms can sometimes be a little different over here. Basically I peed in a whole yesterday (bathroom in the airport parking garage) I'll assume that I have decent aim since I didn't get my feet wet.

So far today, we've been to Tianamen Square, The Forbidden City. I took a million pics (on my good camera) but since I can't load those up here's one I snapped on my cell.

Next stop? Silk Market. Let me know if you want me to pick you up any silk ;)
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile