Friday: Well, Noboru and I are both really big on the holidays around here, you guys know what big nerds we are with that, just look at our other holiday posts of the past and you'll see what I mean, lol! : D We couldn't barely wait until the day after Thanksgiving as is tradition for my family and how I grew up. : ) So, Friday morning, we plugged the timer on our Christmas lights for the outside. We set it to go on at exactly 4:30 pm and to turn off at exactly 9:00 pm. So now that the timer is set on our Christmas lights, we just went about our day and kept waiting for 4:30 pm. Must have been too excited because were both waiting and peeking out the windows at 4:28 pm and nothing, 2 minutes later they went on! We slipped on our shoes and ran out to the street to get a look! This is what we saw. And yup, it is growing dark so fast. But you can still see that pinch of light in the sky just a bit. : ) I love the holidays so much! And when I drive back home in the evenings now and, to see these lights all shining, it just makes me so incredibly happy! Yup, we are in the spirit of the holidays, around here!
If you look at the 2 pics of the house this year, you can see we indeed have switched the 4 big hanging plants, and now they have poinsettias in them. Looks so much more Christmassy then the yellow ones we had for Halloween. : ) The Christmas wreath is indeed on the front door now. Doing the red flowers in the pots took me a whole afternoon last week, but it was well worth it now. : )The garland we have hanging on the banisters not only have the classic clear bulbs, we have Costco Christmas ornaments hung throughout the garland as well. With bows on the garland too. We also have the walk-way illuminated with Christmas lights! I look forward to enjoying this homey, country Christmas feeling all month long! : )
Saturday: We went to the school on Saturday morning. From 8am to 11am. This pic was taken outside Branden's first grade classroom. See all the art projects? : ) Anyway we went inside the classroom, all of us parents. And the art project the teacher wanted us all to do with our kids, was to create art projects *but* they had to be made with some parts of nature...Fall time nature. Pine cones, acorns, red and yellow leaves, berries of some sort. Ykwim (you know what I mean) : )
These 3 are Branden's projects. He made a nice green tree with a star on top. A nice blue tree with a star on top and a tree in a cup?! Ha ha ha. I noticed Branden was the only one out of all the kids who made trees who put a star on top of the tree. Well done, B!!!! : ) How cute all the projects were though! : ) Kids this age really enjoy being creative don't they? Creating mini masterpieces, ha ha ha!
Teacher got to pick what object she wanted each student and parent to make. About 95% of the class, got to make the ol' easy 2 cups taped together and put acorns inside and decorated the cups. Meanwhile we were the only people she gave the request to whip up a Fall themed parfait! Errrr, ummm. I thought a bit. And said, okay. Fair enough, I suppose. Digging through the art cabinet. And looking at the Fall toppings tables that had the pine cones and acorns and such. We dug right in and whipped us up a parfait. Cotton was the ice cream. And with a skewer and some brown origami paper, Branden and I made a make shift pocky! Gotta have pocky right? This is Japan afterall! : D Added some berries, some leaves. We even wrinkled up a lavender piece of origami to place it between the cup and the bowl. Phew, don't ask me, how we whipped this little baby up, but we did!!! I was so proud, and so glad to be done and yes I did this all while watching my 3 year old at the same time! Everyone hadn't finished yet with their project, not even half way. Next thing I knew, the teacher gave us another project to complete!!!! What???? Okay, I got it. The smart ones, slowly did their first project so slow they wouldn't have to do another project. Alright, I get it now, I thought. So, we took our sweet time with the second project, however we made a very nice picture frame, with glued on acorns around the frame and everything. Branden loved it! After we all completed our projects. us parents went upstairs for a lecture on eating a well balanced meal. How you should eat all the food groups, blah blah blah. The proper way to hold chopsticks, blah blah blah. A room full of mothers all sat and listened, myself included. Some yawned, some just gossiped with their girlfriends next to them. Meanwhile for me, I listened intently for half of it, followed the pages along with them. And then somewhere halfway through, I found my mind going elsewhere. Meaning, I started thinking about, when I go to the grocery store on Monday, what should I make" "A few things for my weekly menu kept popping around in my head", then I debated if we should rent a DVD or not. Yes but then which Dvd, I thought some more. Did I recall any from last time that looked good, yada, yada. Yup, my mind was totally wandering. Yet I still flipped the pages when everyone else did. Next thing I knew, we all stood up, and left, it was over. Yippy! Went down to the first graders classroom, and from there, I left with Branden and Noah. Yup, Noah had went with me to that boring food lecture upstairs as well, poor Noah. : )
This is an extremely dark picture, I was all the way in the hall and the kids were inside. You can see a good bunch of the kids surrounding Branden's desk and Noah was there as well. Just like Saya-chan and Keita-kun and stuff. The kids who live in the same neighborhood as us. : ) And yup after we all went home, all the kids in the neighborhood came over to play in the backyard for a bit and then they all went riding bikes throughout the neighborhood. A good bunch of kids Branden is growing up with. : )
Sunday: Was the kids club gathering of sorts. It was sorta like a mini festival or something. It was free for Branden since he is in elementary school. For Noah and I, we paid a total of 300 yen for our tickets as well. My neighbor and bowling partner Rumi-san brought our festival tickets to my house a few days beforehand. From 9:30 am, to 12 noon. We arrived a bit early. Because I was unsure how the parking would go, would there be lack of parking, etc, etc. So, We arrived around 9:10 am. So not too freakishly early, but early enough to get a parking. And they were limited even when I arrived. Noah threw the frisbee and he knocked down a number on the board. And here in this pic, is Branden after he just knocked down a number with his frisbee. Both boys are very athletic, so they did quite well with everything. : ) They had a lot of fun! Got to see their friends. Although, gee, they do see their friends pretty much every single day anyway. Ha ha ha.
We left the festival at 10:45 am. because frankly we had used all our tickets already by now. No option to buy other tickets. So just sitting around like 3 bumps on a log, didn't sound too great! So, I asked the boys if they were ready to go home? They said yes. Besides, I wanted to do a little vacuuming, and to have the boys and I, together, go and put some toys away in Noah's room, so I did have a few things on my mind, that I wanted to do. However, I also was looking forward to getting into my sweatpants. Relax a bit you know? Because, in a way, I felt we had barely no weekend at all. So, yeah...I was spent. I was a bit tired and ready to go home, and the boys were too. And my dad was calling me at noon via Skype. So, yup we left early no big deal. *or so we thought* cue music, dundundunnnn!!! Ha ha ha. Our neighbor..."boy next doors mom" had come home at 12:15. Obviously she stayed til the end, she told me, because the boys and I were sitting in the backyard enjoying our Sunday, she said. "Mrs blah blah san, you should have stayed until the end, because Noah-chan won the big grand finale prize" But when he wasn't there, they gave it to another person, so had another drawing. Whoops, I didn't know that, no one told me that part, lol. Okay, now a few hours later, my very good girlfriend Rumi-san emails me..."Gina-san, Noah-kun won the big prize, yet he wasn't there and so they gave it to someone else", a very good friend indeed to tell me at least. But yeah, yikes, I guess the size of our small country town (a little under 5,000 people) and with being the only American or western mommy and such, we stick out. So, basically the whole flipping town knows now, that, A, Noah won, and B, we left early!!!! Goodness me, news travels fast doesn't it? : ) Good attitude intact though. Finding the humor about things like this is best, I'd say. : ) Then Monday morning, and I am kidding you not. I swear. Noboru went to the town ward office Monday morning for something...wanted a ticket to the recycle center place. Anyway, the woman was WAY in the back, according to Noboru, she shouted across the town office, "Mr blah blah-san." Your son won yesterday, but your wife left early" By now, Noboru and I have been joking, that for our small town they should just put it in the community news monthly bulletin and we have been getting a good chuckle about it. All in good fun though and not worrying so much about it. Anyway, yeah that was our Sunday at the town festival for the elementary kids. And yup, I left early. : ) Ha ha ha! All the popcorn, and yakisoba, and hot dogs and drinks were free, we had coupons for those in our coupon books so that is the pic of the stuff we brought home with us.
Monday: The last dose, second half for their flu shot. Today was our appointment for the boy's. At 4pm. I picked today because Monday was no school for our towns elementary kids, because we all went to school on Saturday is why. Anyway, Monday morning, I went to the grocery store, got a weeks worth of groceries. Beef, pork, 1 single pack of chicken though because I am still turkey-ed out and white meat in general out. : ) But yeah I got a great big amount of groceries. Tons of veggies and English muffins, bread, ice cream, a case of jasmine tea. Juice, just stuff basically. : ) And then went home unpacked the groceries. And then we went to the clinic. The lady handing us the thermometers, before the boys could get their shots. She said..."you left early yesterday" By now...we had heard it about 5 times from 5 different people, however it felt more like we heard it a million times. Laughed about it more then a million times too. Noboru and I, nodded and smiled and politely told her, yes I did leave early, we both glanced at one another and knew what we were both thinking..."again". Gosh how funny, I said after we sat back at our seats. Oh well, small town, no worries.: ) Their temps were fine.
Branden watching TV at the doctors office and cuddling with Noboru. Affection is so important. And I hugged and cuddled Noah before their shots. They were okay. Neither of them cried at all. And we went to 7 eleven afterwards to buy them each a cheap little ice cream for being so good at the last of their flu shots for the year. Branden had Kumon after that and then Noboru picked him up from that. By the time they came home, dinner was made. We ate. Took showers Monday night. No baths. And just watched TV after that. Sure chit chat going on, a few peanut gallery comments back and forth a few laughs and then bed. I think I hit the hay Monday night around 9:50 pm. I was just really tired. The weekend hardly felt like a weekend with all that school and kids club stuff. So, I am looking forward to this coming weekend and will finally get to relax, relax. : ) And I guess that's it basically. Not a whole lot going on. Just living life, enjoying life as usual. And enjoying this cozy Fall or winter weather we've been having and all the delicious foods that go with it. The turkey has finally been eaten up. Yippy, I have to do a happy dance for that! And if I don't see another turkey for a half year, that would be more then fine with me. Ha ha ha. : )
- We signed Branden up for that Christmas compressed swim course for Branden during Christmas break. He's loves swimming, could swim everyday if he could. The class is only an hour in the mornings each day and is only for 5 days, I think. So not too bad.
- Tuesday/Today, Noboru is flying to Okayama this evening to go and pick up my car. So, I will be without husband for about 24 hours or maybe 20 hours, we'll see. : ) He is flying out around 3pm this evening. And will fly to Okayama, he can fly free with ANA, since they are a Star alliance member with us/NWA. And then he will drive all the way passed Osaka and all the way to Chiba. It's going to be a very long drive. I can't go, because Branden has school and we won't pull him out for something like this. If we go overseas, yes we can see pulling him out, or if we take him to a birthday Disney and that was the only day that worked, for Noboru's/dad's schedule, then yes. But that is only if no other alternate could be worked out. And yeah..Branden can't miss Wednesday school and he can't miss Wednesdays swim class either. So, I will remain in Chiba, and make dinner, kiss them to sleep tonight as usual, wake up, drive him to school, then take him to swimming, and perhaps a trip to my favorite bakery too. And then by then. Noboru should be home and back in Chiba tomorrow evening. Except he will have my "mommy commute car" with him. : ) So that's happening between today and tomorrow. Tonight while everyone is asleep, my husband will be driving through Japan, make stops along the highway, get a cup of coffee and get back on the road and try to make it back home to us. I am worried about Noboru driving all that way alone and stuff. But he says he will be fine.
- Pedometer: I've been using a pedometer, for about a month and a half now, nearly 2 month's now I think is more like it. I was talking with Vicky, from Hyotenka about it on her blog. A lot of us seem to be using them now a days. They just count how many steps you make. I start mine on zero every morning. And I have been averaging between 8,000 steps to 10,000 steps each and every day. My goal is 10,000 a day, but again, I am not perfect and some days it is as low as 8,000. However I never let it drift below the 8,000 steps mark, that is my own, "low" I will allow myself. So, I have been a bit on an exercise/walking kick lately.
- I'm making baked potato soup tonight. We will have toppings of crispy bacon, cheddar cheese, green onions. I can barely wait for dinner tonight. : ) A nice hearty bowl of baked potato soup! : ) Simple but good. I'm thinking either grilled cheese to go with it, or some bread and butter. Oh well. I better go, I have to talk to Noboru a bit and we will have lunch and stuff before he heads to the airport.
Have a lovely week you guys! : )
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