So the day after Noah's undokai. This Monday of this week. Branden still had school. Poor kid had no weekend either, he went with us to drop off and pick up Noah Saturday the day before undokai and then the next day he spent it at undokai with us. So, he didn't have a weekend either. None of us did really, but the positive and the bright side is, we are now done with all undokai's for this year! Woohoo! So a definite plus. So, Monday Branden went to school. And Noah didn't have school since he had undokai. So after we dropped off Branden at school, grandma Mitsuko, Noboru, Noah and I went to Chiba New Town. Once there, we dropped her off at the train station and from there she was heading to Haneda airport to fly back to Osaka. She hugged me, Noboru and then hugged and kissed Noah. And walked into the train station. After we dropped her off at 9:10am or somewhere around there (her train, she was taking was at 9:17am I think.) We headed directly to Joyful Honda, about 5 minutes away from the train station we just dropped off grandma Mitsuko. They sell small, medium and big size Halloween pumpkins, I realized that years ago and blogged that when I first realized that. They're also pretty cheap for Japan. 980 yen for the bigger ones. And we bought 2 of them. We usually vary and flip flop sometimes we buy from Costco and sometimes we buy from here. Just depends on the year. The one thing I do like though about buying from here, is the pumpkins here are from Japan so they are fresher then the ones found at Costco. I have bought the ones from Costco and they come from the US and ours rotted a teeny tiny bit on the bottom last year because it was cut so much in advance. Granted it's to be expected. But, the ones cut in Japan are really fresh, ours here we have now are so firm. Plus they're a couple hundred yen cheaper. The ones at Costco are 1280 yen or something like that. Either way is fine and we'll still probably buy from Costco in the future too (we still love Costco pumpkins), it's just nice to have options and not just 1 place to choose from is all. Anyone ever grow any themselves here in Japan? Noboru and I were thinking maybe we should try and grow some for next year.
With 2 pumpkin heads nicely in the car and some ricotta cheese in the car with some dry ice. We went across the way, about a 3 minute drive to the Big Hop Mall. Chiba New Town has 2 malls. Big Hops an outlet, the other mall has Gap, Laura Ashley store and a whole bunch of stuff. We just wanted lunch. That's all.
Mall opens at 10am and we were right on time.
I had ordered the 6 inch veggie delight and baked fries and a soda.
Noboru and Noah had ramen and fried rice sets in mind. : )
Noboru hates onions, which is why he has all the onions placed on this tiny saucer. He had ordered his ramen with no onions but they forgot. He complained about it and the guy offered to make him another one, but he said forget it. And plucked the onions out himself. ; ) I love onions so I just don't get it. But there's stuff I don't like to eat also, so I understand.
Monday evening, we were still sort of unwinding from all the undokai business/stuff. So, Noboru, Noah and myself went with Branden to swim school Monday evening. And he passed to a level 2 in swimming. We were pretty proud. I had wished I had brought my camera and it figures I didn't bring it the one time I really needed it. ; ) Anyway that's what we did this past Monday. PS, I just have to say and I wasn't going to mention it but..... Last Thursday, I had mentioned in the comments section I was having a lunch date with my friends that day. Anyway. This is sort of funny and I probably shouldn't say this but..... So, Thursday, after sending both kids to school, I happily got myself all dressed. Did my hair really super duper. Makeup on. Spritzed some perfume on. And even wore sparkly silver ballet shoes that matched my outfit that day. Wide leg jeans, black shirt and gray cardigan. You know some days you just feel, "wow I really look good today" well Thursday I felt that way. So, there I went, kissed the hubby, he said have a nice lunch. And I went driving in my car to the restaurant. Half the parking entrance was blocked off, how weird I thought. Anyway I squeezed my car in the parking lot. Meet up time was 11am. My girlfriends are always on time, so am I. 11am rolls around. Nothing. Hmm, I thought. 11:03am rolls around. Traffic maybe? 11:05am rolls around, now I start to worry. So, I call Noboru and ask him to read my email from the Jogo-san. Perhaps we were to meet up at 11:30am instead. Nope!!! He started laughing and said....you have your lunch with them tomorrow!!! Not today! OMG! How freaking and completely embarrassing! So, I laughed and was red faced...but drove out of the parking lot. Noboru joked with me all night on that one. Friday morning, the next day, he said...are you sure it's today?! LOL. Alright I said. ; ) So, I did go to my lunch Friday and I did tell them my girlfriends during lunch what I did the day before. And they laughed quite hard at me for that one. I was laughing too. They said, this restaurant is closed the day before. And I said..yeah so that's why the parking area was half closed off. And there I was trying to pinch my car in. LOL. Well....I think my husband must have definitely married me because I make him laugh. : ) That's certainly the reason I married him. Anyway, I did enjoy my lunch last FRIDAY. And you know...I didn't look nearly as cute on Friday as I did on Thursday.: ( My hair didn't look as good as it did the day before etc. Hmm.
Anyway, to add to this story of my most embarrassing blunders. So you know, last weekend we had zero weekend, Noah had school Saturday and Sunday we woke up freakishly early for undokai. Monday, dropping off my mil (mother in law) getting the pumpkins, and swim school until 7pm. It's no wonder lately I've felt a bit tired and a bit out of sorts. I haven't mucked up the kids schedules at all. I do check my calendar everyday to make sure. One of my worst nightmares is mucking their schedules up. And yep, I've done that a time or two. But...here's the kicker. So, Tuesday was a normal day, sending the boys to school, cleaning house doing laundry. And Tuesday evening after I made dinner....I realized we are very low on food. So, I decided to go to the store the following day and get our weekly shopping done. Checked my calendar on the fridge, nothing written on there. So, Wednesday, made obento, breakfast and got both Branden and Noah to school. Wearing yoga pants, sweatshirt and trainers. I did brush my teeth but I think I just finger combed my hair that morning, zero makeup. I had my shopping to get done you know. So, as soon as I dropped off Noah, I am on the road to get to Cainz. It is a long drive. I had music playing in the car. I'm singing along. And I finally make it....finally. I'm just about to cross the bridge and I can see the sign in the distance when my cell phone rings. It's probably Noboru, I think. I won't answer because I don't want a ticket. I glance at my phone and I see the name on my caller id come up...Jogo-san. @_@ Oh goodness, it must be important. I better get it. I hope a cops not around. Driving down the road. "hello?" She says....Hi Gina, we are at the movies waiting for you, are you running a little late? We haven't bought our tickets yet" Just then this huge realization hits me. I had a movie date today! Today MUST be October 20th! How could I forget that? Holy goodness, she's still on the phone. What did I say to her? I was just completely honest....I said...."I totally forgot, it is 100% my fault. I am VERY sorry. I apoligize, I was looking forward to going to the movies with you two very much. And I don't know how I could forget such a thing. However I am at the Cainz (she knows how far that is from the movies) I am wearing sweatpants and I could still possibly have sandman's in my eyes. Please go on without me, I am so sorry. Please enjoy the movie." Jogo-san being amazing...laughed and said, okay and not to worry, and I also told her to apologize to Namiki-san for me. Of course I will apologize face to face to both of them. But man...how could I forget a thing like that? Hind sight is 20/20 of course. I wish I would have written it on my calendar in the kitchen. I wish I would have put the info into my phone/keitei. I wish.....I wish. I wish I could have remembered and done the day differently, thus enjoying the movies with my girlfriends. I was bummed Wednesday. And it was all my fault.
So, I arrived to the Cainz. Feeling like a horrible human being for forgetting my movie date. : ( Went inside and started shopping. Forgot about it a few aisles of my shopping and then remembered down another aisle and felt horrendous again. : ( It's amazing how we can be hardest on ourselves, can't we? I was really pissed at myself. Then I forgot and must've got back on track of my shopping tasks. And then at the check out counter, there I started thinking about it yet again. Drove home. Unpacked the groceries. Did some laundry, and prepped dinner. Set the rice cooker. Folded laundry. Noboru called me, and I told him. At first he was like...how could you forget that...and then he was like....you've been so busy lately no wonder something was forgotten. I made curry that night. And by dinner time, as I was still feeling quite badly about it.... Noboru told me, I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I'm human. I realized he was indeed right and I forgave myself. I did see the Jogo-san on Thursday at the yochien and I apologized face to face. And she is so down to earth, she laughed. She was not upset at all. In fact she said she saw lots of trailers for new movies we can see together. Phew. I was relieved. I think the things that I learned or realized this week, is everyone gets fried once in a while. Things gets hectic every once in a while for us all and it just happens, in my case......from mid September to mid October was my busy time. I think I did really well considering and I handled all my hurdles well. Granted it would have been perfect had I not forgotten the movie date. But.....afterall I am human and it happens, Can't be perfect all the time. And I'm far from perfect to begin with. Anyway...that's the tale of how I ended up at the Indian restaurant a day before and forgot my movie date completely. @_@ : ( Now things are winding down now that all undokai's are finished. And I am starting to feel back to my old self once again. : )
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