Trying to catch up with you all, a little bit...

I'm sorry, it's been like 5 months since I have written here. Honestly, life here is just so good. Yep, I had an unexpected adjustment when we moved here last April. And we went back to Japan last June for the summer. But, when I came back to the US last August 2018. I made it a point to getting myself adjusted. And I did. You know, I first started this blog. Because I would have about 15 family and friends weekly email me... when I first moved to Japan. They'd all have the same questions for me. "Gina, how are you, what are you doing, how is the baby (because at that time Bran was a baby when we moved to Japan) so I found myself writing one email and then cutting and pasting the same *exact* mail to all of whoever asked...ykwim? That's why I started my blog in the first place. To let me family in the states stay updated with me. Sure I picked up mass amounts of new viewers and friendships along the way. But I am finding it. Honestly so hard now to get on my blog to update. Because now us in the USA...is so normal. It's so regular. We have this rhythm here. And it's just working. But, I do find myself getting emails from so many of my good friends in Japan now...asking me...."Gina...how are you...how are Branden and Noah?" "please update" LOL. And so, I am going to try my hardest to compress stuff, I didn't get a chance to tell you until now. What is this pic of? This is a random pic of some of the stocking stuffers, that I stuffed both Branden and Noah's stockings with for Christmas. The fantastic part of living in America is, as soon as the stocking stuffer stuff started coming out at Target and Walmart and stuff, I would grab 2 of whatever I knew the boys would like. Those gumballs were gigantic. 

Christmas was fantastic here and super low key. I baked a spiral sliced ham and gratin potatoes the night before. Baked 2 pumpkin pies and the morning of Christmas we all opened presents. Had breakfast. And then around 1pm we went to see the movie Bumblebee movie. We had movie snacks, a tub of popcorn. 2 large sodas. And after movie, we went home. I smartly cooked the day before. So we went home and had leftovers. There was no feelings of pressure of it having to be perfect. It was just chill...super laid back and it was a perfect Christmas.  

What the Christmas tree looked like inside the movie theater.  About 8-10 days after Christmas Noboru flew here to be with us the entire whole month of January.  

With Noboru here, in January we decided to take a small little overnight trip. 

At our hotel room that we just checked into in January. Noboru pictured on the right. 

We went to Uwajimaya, a Japanese grocery store in Oregon.This location of this store had much better stuff than the one in Seattle did. 

We went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It is absolutely free. They also had an "all you can eat cheese" area too. 

Giant cheese above our heads as we entered the building.

Cow footprints going up the stairs, showing you the way. We found this hilarious.

Just follow the cow prints...

American farmers! Love them! But also love Japanese farmers too! Farmers in general are what make the world go round. : )

Noah got the chance to feed a baby calf. Fake calf but it let you know if you did it wrong. Good thing, he fed the calf correctly.

Branden practiced milking. First 2 times the machine said, nope! The 3rd time was right. 

Getting to watch the cheese go through all the stages.

All you can eat cheese. OMG! They had different varieties and flavors but, I stuck with like a basic cheddar. The entire time. I told my fam, next time if we should ever go there again... we should bring crackers. I was semi-joking. Another family laughed and joined our conversation and said...next time they might bring crackers too. Nice to meet another friendly family. At the ol' all you can eat cheese area.

That night we had Popeye's for dinners. 

The next day, we went to the mall. I bought a pair of Kate Spade reading glasses, omg they're gorgeous! Kids went into this huge candy and chocolates of the world shop and bought stuff. 

We went to Chick fil A after leaving the mall. Hmm, were we feeling really chicken-y? That trip? Or I dunno. The 4 of us being together as a family just clicks. And feels so perfectly right for all of us. 

The kids received otoshidama from uncle Jun and auntie S. My kids made a thank you message and sent it to them on Line. And I of course messaged my sister in law and stuff too. 

In Portland there is a lot of Japanese people and grocery stores and we found a Japanese bread store too. I really liked Portland a lot.

I thought the bread was good. Not as good as my bakery near my place in Japan but yeah it was good I thought. Noboru said it was no different than cheap Pasco of Daily Yamazaki bread. @_@ 

The 2nd week Noboru was here, he said he'd like to eat some honey baked ham. So, I baked him a ham and made some homemade from scratch gratin potatoes. Yes, we had that a few short weeks earlier. However, my husband loves my cooking and if he requests... whatever to eat...I will make it for him. Noah loves ham so much.... so he was thrilled.  

The 4 of us went to see Glass. This movie wasn't very good. We had high hopes. We loved the movie Split. But found this one rather...meh. 

Noboru loves Wendy's. 

Bran needed this book for his Leadership class. Noah has already requested to be in Leadership class for the Fall semester. I was always in student council growing up and it's important to be involved with your school. 

The boys have so many Vans. They both have these ones and their latest ones are the tie dye ones. 

Noboru's birthday is in January and it was so nice to be able to celebrate his special day with us here. I took him to the Outback Steakhouse. We started with some fried mushrooms.

We had a really nice dinner. It was so nice for Noboru to be here the entire month of January. He also came for 4 days in March and 4 days in April. The kids and I will be flying back to Japan as soon as school is out. By June 15th we'll already be in Japan.

Branden is a Junior this year. Noah is a 7th grader right now. And in the Fall, Branden will be a senior. He's the class of 2020!!!! Noah will be an 8th grader this coming Fall and also be graduating middle school next June too. The reason Noboru came here in April was because we did buy Branden a car. So he's got his own freedom... with having his first car!

We go to the movies a lot in our free time. We have seen the movie the Intruder. That movie was a great, thriller suspense. We saw John Wick 3. Such a great movie too, we loved it!!!! We also saw Pet Sematary, the remake. We saw Us, holy crap that was good. Wasn't expecting that ending though. We saw Greta while Noboru was here too. The movie Greta was creepy and excellent.  And we also saw Pokemon Detective Pikachu. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of the titles of others we've seen but we've seen so many. We go to the movies about twice a month.  Anyway that's enough for now. : )

Homecoming and school update...

Homecoming in the U.S. is always in the Fall. Homecoming is open for all grades in high school to attend, if you buy the tickets to attend. Where as prom is in the Spring and just for juniors and seniors. Unless you are asked by a junior or senior then you can be a freshman or any grade in high school. Anyways, Homecoming for B was in October. In my day, you either went with a group of friends and went that way. Or you were asked and went as a couple. Apparently now days, it's a great big thing here and you now need to make a sign/poster if you are a boy. And publicly ask her out. This is the sign that B had made. I thought, he did a fantastic job with his sign. She absolutely loved her poster. And apparently her dad even has a picture of this sign on his cell phone. Awww. How cute. What a proud dad. And I was pretty proud of this poster too. So, I totally can relate and I am keeping this pic of the sign too. 

Remember the ribbon I bought this summer to put on our suitcases? I had a bunch left and I tied up B's poster with it. He was happy, because he was hoping to find a ribbon and when I offered him this, he was happy, that I had some on hand. : )

His girlfriend happens to look *exactly* like Cameron Diaz. She's such an absolutely stunning girl. She's on the right if you're looking directly at this. Yes, I have permission to share this.

Yeah, she looked like Cameron Diaz's twin, when she was a little girl, for sure. 

He asked her, she said yes!

I made sure to take B, to order a corsage and boutonniere from our nearest flower shop, a week beforehand. And I showed this pic to Noboru. And Noboru said, "good thing Bran has an American mother, because this is stuff... you instinctually know. He's lucky." I laughed. But, yep, being here. Things like this...I do naturally know. The morning of Homecoming, we picked it up and placed it in the fridge until homecoming evening. 

What a gorgeous and happy couple. They danced all night long. Bran took a few videos and shared with our family Line group. They played new music like Bazzi, Arianna Grande. They also played oldies like Salt and Peppa. And the YMCA. The dance was from 8pm-11pm. After Homecoming they went to Dairy Queen, had some blizzards and then home. She drives and has a car. She knows B was in driving school, at the time. And she dropped him off. 

Update on Noah and middle school.  Noah on the other hand. Had a presentation in the gymnasium. This was for all 7th graders. You must interview 1 person. 99% of all the kids interviewed their mom or dad. Very few interviewed their grandparent. To be interviewed you had to have been born before the year 2000. Since B was born in 2001. He could not be interviewed. One evening from 5-6:30pm. All 7th graders and the 3 English teachers showed up and all the kids and parents of 7th graders and extended family's showed up. Many older siblings and younger siblings. Attended. This was Noah's poster. The teacher made name cards for each student. We all had to walk around and read other posters. Branden of course showed up to support his brother and so did I. We will absolutely *always* show up and support our family members. No doubt! Noah received an A for his poster. 

I snapped this pic of what some of the work, Noah has been doing in American science class. Symbiosis within communities. Cell theory. One day it was diffusion osmosis. Another day they went into the lab and had an osmosis lab. Another day... you can see, they went back in the lab and looked at microslides of a cells structure. He has an A in this class. And it's entirely in English obviously. Obvs. He loves his science class. Noah's learning so much. 

This is what a bit of what Noah's been doing in English class. Sorry..LA 7. Language arts for the 7th grade. CL means classwork. HW means homework. PROJ obviously means a project. Required. Etc. October 25th, Was a quick...write someone who influenced...you? This is great training for training young Americans to be able to spontaneously write. A page, right off the bat. Right off the cuff like that. November 21st, write a non-fiction narrative essay. Noah can go into class. Find out... what's today's task. And go for it. And nope not in an ESL class. In a class for natives who were born and raised here... their whole entire lives. And he's crushing it. I also notice that this teacher gives word searches weekly for her class to do. Because she wants to train her students to look for English words *everywhere*. I personally love word searches. I do them for fun. I have books of these in Japan. I always had my 2 kids do these. And I see how fast Noah is... at finding the words... that he's looking for. At first. I feel he was a tad slower. Still good mind you. But he is getting insanely fast with his word searches. They had a test on adjectives last week. She still has her class read quietly twice a week. She upped it from once a week. She wants to foster a love for reading. And I see both my kids reading a lot more now at home. Granted they have always read books. But now it seems... way more.

American jokes....American sense of humor. If you've ever watched Japanese TV. You will know what one country finds funny...another might not... think is funny at all. Noah brought home this paper airplane. It's close to Christmas break now and classes are starting to wind down some. About 8 boys in this one class made paper airplanes at the end of class with 10 minutes to spare before the bell rang. Their first plane was named Tabitha. And this is their second plane Jerome. Where do these kids come up with such names? @_@ You got me. In loving memory of their last airplane. LOL. 

Okay and so...in case you find this airplane...this belongs to Noah and Hadley. LOL. 

Every Sunday, I pack little snack bags for Noah to take to school. Snacks are allowed in 2 of his classes. Branden is always offered snacks too, but he rarely takes snacks. They both always take a bottle of tea though. Daily. 

Bran's girlfriend..a recent pic... taken from this past weekend.

Good friends hanging out at the yogurt shop last weekend. Branden can go out every weekend. As long as his classwork (homework and classwork) is an A...B...or C. And his overall class grade too. Since he's straight A's. He basically goes out every single weekend. But he only goes out once a week (his choice, because he's in sports and also has homework and he gets tired too). Last Friday, Bran and his girlfriend and 2 other couples met up at the local yogurt place. This pic was from the yogurt place. They went to Target after that... because apparently it's "cool" to walk through Target in the evening? @_@ After that... they went to this guys (male classmates and his gf is to his right) house and watched TV. The 6 of them watched a movie on Netflix. Yes, they Netflixed and chilled, lol. These are all honor roll kids and all super good kids. And his parents were there. And Bran was home at 10pm.

How is Branden doing? He's doing fantastic. He's straight A's. He has a girlfriend. A gorgeous and kind girlfriend. Kind is most important to me personally. What else. He went to homecoming. Winter Sports just started at the start of November. So, he's a little busy with his swimming season underway. But by no way... is it on the 24/7 365 days.... it is like... in a Japanese junior high school bukatsu. This is the sports light version....compared to that. Driving school ended. And Branden tested. He got a 100% on his written test and he scored a 98% on his driving portion of the test. The state we live in though... states you MUST keep a drivers permit for 6 months regardless. So...Branden has a state permit. Looks like a license. And he passed the official drivers license test written and driving. However...he can't get his official drivers license until April. So he does have a plastic state permit. He can drive with me. But driving alone and stuff can't happen until April. In April, all he has to do... is take his paperwork that he completed driving school, take his pass paper. And the school mailed it to the state drivers license people anyways. So in April, all B has to do is go down and take a picture for his new real license. And that will be it. We will be buying Branden a car of his own...sometime this coming summer 2019. And as soon... as he turns 18, he can apply for a international drivers permit and then from next October he can drive in Japan. And since he can prove he has spent over the set days outside of Japan. He can actually even go and take his drivers license in Japan if he wanted to. Meaning take the shorter driving test for foreigners, like I did. I took my drivers test in Japan as a foreigner who had spent over 150-200 or so days in America (they checked my passport and actually counted the days) and could by-pass the 100-200 or so test questions like many other gaijins do. And just take the 10 or 15 questions test in English instead...the shortened test, since I could prove I was living abroad so recently when I took my test.  But...that is only if he lives there...otherwise an IDP is easier for him... to use on the summers in Japan. So as for Branden, school is great. Girlfriend. Swim team. Passed his drivers license. In his free time he goes out every weekend. He has  a good set of amazing friends. I feel like I'm repeating myself here, but honestly everything's good and the same. Which is a blessing.

As for Noah, he's learning so much in an American middle school. He has such good friends. Also, last Friday, Noah attended his VERY first ever... school dance. It was $3 dollars to enter the gymnasium. You were given a wrist band. Inside they had tons of Papa Johns pizza. Cheese or Pepperoni. And you could buy a slice. Noah said he bought a slice of pepperoni. He said, that he danced to Drake. And all sorts of songs. I was in the parking lot to pick up Noah. And I see his friends waving him good bye and I hear lots of..."bye Noah!!!!" and kids waving! So, I know...he's having a blast at school here. It's just middle school, so the dance was from 1:30pm, to 2:30pm. He messaged me and said it ran a little over. He danced until 2:45pm, I was already in the parking lot, so just read a magazine and chilled. Last Friday. Awww. I was so happy for my Noah getting these school experiences. I told Noah as he got into my car. "When I was in middle school. My middle school was only for the 7th and 8th grade. But, I said...I went to my 7th grade dance and my 8th grade dance. I told Noah, I danced my brains out. I did the Smurf...The Cabbage Patch. The RoboCop. I told him...those were all dances back in the day. We were laughing. I told Noah....I am *so* happy that you are getting the same school experiences that I did growing up. And yes now I do the Floss, because my kids taught me this past summer, lol.

Update. This Friday at 1:25pm both Bran and Noah go on Christmas break. They won't return back to school until like January 5th or somewhere around then. Of course there is no such thing as Winter homework in the USA. So winter break truly means a break. Noah and his school has a winter assembly Friday from 12 noon until they get out of school. American assemblies are not like official closing ceremonies in Japan schools. Here, they just pump the kids up! Everybody ready for Christmas break? I imagine all kids will be cheering. Music will be playing. No performances or anything. This is just for the kids to enjoy. 

Winter time treats. Since Thanksgiving. Twice a week in Noah's LA 7 class, his teacher hands out popped microwaved popcorn. She hands it out in coffee filters to her kids. It's more economical for the teacher that way. So, Noah has been enjoying freshly popped popcorn daily in his LA class, since Thanksgiving. Plus he has 2 classes that always allow the kids to bring their own snacks to munch on while studying (his science class and history class allow snacks). And Noah brings like...Cheeze Its or Flaming Hot Cheetos. Flaming Hot Cheetos and Jalapeno Cheetos are *hugely* popular in American middle schools and high schools. Branden on the other hand... has been getting free hot chocolate to drink during class, every single day in his LA class in his high school. His teacher set up a hot cocoa station in the corner of her class. With mini marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles. She bought a couple cases of Swiss Miss from Costco. And she had disposable cups, but when she ran out. She asked the kids to bring mugs from home. Branden has a nice hot cocoa mug we bought at Target that he picked out. And he's been enjoying this chill atmosphere in American schools. However they do learn a lot. And they do get a lot of homework. But the atmosphere in school... is just more chill and relaxed here. The kids really seem to enjoy it.  

I do know.. that I haven't posted in 2 weeks. And I'm sorry. But please understand that I haven't spent the winter holidays in America in forever. I will try to post more often. Even tiny short posts, will do. I'll try. 

Oh...Noah brought home an award 2 weeks ago or so. He made the honor roll. Awww. What a good kid. He's all A's except 1 B+ that he's trying hard to get turned into an A.

I'll blog more. And update more, I promise. Hope everyone reading is doing well. : ) 

How is American middle school and high school going?

One of the most common questions that I get from absolutely everyone is, "how are both Branden and Noah doing in school, now that they're here in the United States?" My Japanese friends back in Japan want to know. My "fellow foreign mom friends" back in Japan are wanting to know too and will email me and stuff with questions. Long time blog readers who still remember how to get a hold of me before my email address changed... but if you and I emailed/talked often then you were most likely one... who got my new email before it changed, so the handful or two of you who have my new email... have also...sent me a message and asked, "how are the kids doing in school?" My family in Colorado are curious and even Noboru's family is curious too. I usually just keep it short and say "they're doing great" and leave it at that. But, I do also understand most of you have literally watched the boys grow up. And so, I'll be a little more detailed about it in this post. That way you all can just read it here. Then you will be all caught up and know. : ) I snapped this picture  May 4th, 2018. I receive emails from both Noah's middle school and Bran's high school here in the US, the same way I used to get the school emails in Japan too. That way any events that happen, I'll know immediately and I can make sure that I'm there. That, I show up. For any event, I will 100% be there. On a Thursday, I got an email inviting all us mom's of this middle school to attend and enjoy coffee and donuts with your middle schooler. It landed on a Monday. This was Noah's first event and he was a little nervous and truthfully, I was a little bit nervous too back in May 2018. But, rain or shine. Come heck or highwater, I will be there. And so I woke up, showered at 5:30am that Monday morning. Put my makeup on, did my hair. Got dressed by 6:20am. And we were both there by the 7am,  donut start time. Krispy Kreme donuts and Starbucks coffee. Kids were given milk. All for free, I might add. I gave Noah, my donut because it was just too darn early for me to eat anything. Coffee on the other hand, I am always ready for. So, I enjoyed a hot cup of coffee. Spoke with Noah's teacher. Another school person came around and took our picture. It was just from 7am until 7:30am. I'm so glad, I showed up.  I will *always* be there to support both my kids. 

This picture was taken at B's high school. After we got back from Japan, we had to be at B's school twice. Once for schedule pick up and school pictures were taken the same day. About half of the kids brought their parents. Which made me glad I showed up. Plus, I had to pay for the pictures and pay some yearly school fees anyways. Noah went with us. And like 2 days later, we 3 needed to go back to B's school yet again. Notice Branden's school is so brand new looking and nice and modern.

This day also at Bran's school, this was a "parent meeting" a mass meeting held in this auditorium, kids were invited too. And this was also the day your high schooler picked up their laptops/Chromebooks. Also, important to note. In May/June. The wrestling coach wanted Branden on their team, he had spotted Branden in a gym class wrestling around with his friends before class started and he thought Branden would be a perfect fit for that. However Bran, was also considering joining the boys swim team too for the new school year, Fall semester. I told Branden he can join whatever he likes, as long as his grades stay strong. He has since joined the swimming team for his high school. Not the wrestling team, sorry wrestling team. I think it's a good idea he chose swimming, because both my kids have been swimming since they were age 3 (Noah) and 4 (Bran). So, they've swam forever. I did tell Branden it would be a great idea for him to join student council/leadership his senior year. And he agrees. Because I personally was in student council all 4 years in high school and I also was a cheerleader in high school. So, American high school stuff, I know.  

We also had to go to Noah's middle school twice too. Once to pick up Noah's class schedule and for him to take his school picture. And once for an evening "ice cream" and Open House night that followed. I snapped this picture of Noah around 4:50pm, the evening of the ice cream party and open school. School lets out at 2:25pm 4 days a week. 1:25pm Fridays. And the icecream party started at 5pm. This gave us time to go home, I made dinner. And then we went back to the school for ice cream and the Open School.  

Inside Noah's middle school. Such a fantastic middle school. 

There were so many huge variety boxes of ice cream from Costco. Noah had 2 ice creams. And Bran had 1 ice cream. I had no ice cream. I just didn't want any. : ) After that, we 3 went from class to class, following Noah's daily schedule and each class lasted 10 minutes and we heard from each teacher and what the kids will be learning this year. Again, I firmly believe... it is so important for the teachers to see firsthand which kids parents are active participants at the school. In one class there was only 2 families present. Us and another family. And in English class there were just 3 families, us being one of them. And in science class... a ton of families showed up. And in gym class a huge amount of families showed up. In math class about 6 families showed up. Etc. It varied.

These are Branden's grades and classes he's taking this semester, as of right this second. Branden, has straight A's. He currently has a 4.0 GPA. This is the highest GPA in America to have. I have asked Branden to bring up that Geometry grade from an A- to a A. His dad has mentioned that too. But honestly? His grades have always been straight A's whether he's in Japan or in the U.S.

These are Noah's grades. He has straight A's except 1 B. We are not too thrilled about the B. But having a 3.8 GPA is actually pretty freaking amazing. I did ask Noah to ask his history teacher, for extra credit homework already. She asked Noah why? He said, because my parents watch my grades daily online (you can do this is America now) and they're wanting me to bring up my B to an A. He said, she smiled and said there's still plenty of time to bring up his B to an A between now and December. At least she knows we're watching his progress daily and we care quite a bit about their grades. So in a nutshell how are both Branden and Noah doing in American school? Honestly? They're crushing it! Because my kids are 100% true bilinguals. Native English speakers, same as me. And I sent them to English Kumon since age 3 in Japan, because I wanted them to get English from me at home, plus an outside place too, where they could study English near others studying English and working on the technical stuff too. Plus, I bought those American school...whole year curriculum books from Amazon USA and had them sent to Japan and they did those since kindergarten, all the way until the end of 6th grade. They were cheap in price and useful. Plus I would have THEM read to me daily. Mama (me, I already know how to read) I would have *them* read to me. For practice. So, I always knew they were basically right up to their grade level in the US. And believe me! That didn't happen by osmosis or by itself. Hafu kids being raised in Japan are NOT automatically bilingual. And are not automatically native English speakers. It takes diligent hard work. They (my kids) heard Japanese language the second they left our front door in Japan. So we kept this English insulated bubble inside our house. And that just happened to work for us. You know, I often have had deep discussions with my fellow foreign mom friends, the ones I'm really really close with. The question we have dove into while at Starbucks many of times is.... What qualifies as a true 100% bilingual. Or native English speaker? We all have very different opinions on what *we* feel qualifies. What we would discuss over coffee... is accent. We would have lively fun debates "that if your kids have a thick Japanese accent, can you still be considered a 100% bilingual?" or a native English speaker? I say, absolutely not. But then I'm more so... the honest Simon Cowell or Gordan Ramsay of the group. Having raised 2  100% bilingual kids in Japan, (2 native English speaking kids in Japan) I find I am very opinionated on the subject. I'm not going to "Emperor's New Clothes" anyone. And my group of foreign mom friends were split meaning half said no too, and half said yes.  Again this deep conversations were fun and it was always great to see our respectful but varying opinions. What about "what if you... have to translate English that your friends or family is saying to your hafu child...can you still call them 100% bilingual?" Again, I say, absolutely no way! Nice kids, but 100% bilingual?, I don't think you can call them that. And again, this particular question mostly every person agreed and said no! They would not consider that kid a 100% bilingual either. And most certainly not a native English speaker. It was always nice meeting up throughout the years and chime in and talk about something important to us all. In a supportive manner. And get food for thought, from each other. What, I personally consider 100% bilingual and also a native English speaker... is when an American person who has zero connection to my family (meaning they're not going to say it to be nice)...such as a flight attendant or a person working at Target, can have a 100% conversation with Noah or Branden. And they, meaning the person, can't detect any Japanese accent from my kids... other than a strong American accent. And they don't realize my kids came from Japan. If you can blindfold yourself and hear 3 American teens speaking and not be able to tell *which* kid came from Japan. Then I would consider your kid, a 100%  true bilingual. And also a native English speaker. And if you blindfolded yourself...seriously... you could not tell the difference between *my* kids speaking and any random kid in the U.S. So when I say my kids are true 100% bilinguals, and native English speakers, that's what I mean. The only accents my kids have are American ones. Meaning they can have a 100% fluid conversation with my kids. You don't need to dumb down the conversation for my kids or the vocabulary. To me...that's what I personally consider a true 100% bilingual. And native English speaker. And my kids have always been that. You don't have to dumb down the Japanese or the English. My kids speak Japanese as much as Noboru does and English as much as I do. My kids didn't need to join any ESL class or remedial classes at all, when we moved here. Because of their native English level, they were able to join regular classes according to their grade. Which is kind of really remarkable really, when you think about it. Also if you see the schedule, they don't call English class...English anymore. Like they did in the old days. Doh! They call it Language Arts. And because Noah is a 7th grader, he's in LA 7. And advisory you don't get a grade, you go there, before first period every Friday. 

Here is a pic, that I snapped one morning to send to Noboru on LINE. Just Noah getting his Jansport all packed up before school. Super stylish hair.

An American high school football game, that Branden went to. They're both settling into their American lives really well.

Bran had a hot dog during the game.

This is Branden and V at their high school football game, 2 weeks ago. She is really interested in Japanese. She reads Japanese and speaks Japanese. I'm so impressed. I feel she is a good girl and quite pretty. So how are both my kids doing in school here? They're having zero problems. They have tons of friends. They have excellent grades.They're so truly deeply happy my kids. Branden is about to start driving school soon. This part scares me!!! Ha ha ha! : ) By mid November Branden will be a licensed driver! Yikes!!! LOL. : )

Isn't she pretty? This is V, again. I will be coming back here tomorrow and take down the girls pics. 

Meanwhile, Noah's just barely in middle school. But a group of boys hang out from time to time. His good friends, all made a plan to go and buy a dozen donuts and some drinks and go and kick it...middle school style near the school. Noah asked me 2 days beforehand. He said, "mom can I go?" "I really want to go" LOL. I said, "of course you can go Noah!" And so, he snapped this pic for me, as 2 of the bunch rode their bikes to the donut spot. A few others walked, it's about a 2 minute walk from the school. 

Noah sent me this pic, I blued out his friends face, so this pic can stay. He gets off school at 2:25pm. I told Noah he could stay until 3:20pm. But he messaged me at 3pm and said..."mom please pick me up" LOL. Middle schoolers don't stay out so late! Ha ha ha! A lot of kids in America are drinking this ICE drink. This was Noah's drink.  Bran says his high school friends do too. @_@ I have not drank one yet. They went on a Wednesday to get donuts. Noah was invited 2 days later on Friday to meet up back at the donut place. They made that plan on Wednesday, I told Noah, he could go too. : ) 

This time a girl from the 7th grade joined them too. Hence her pink girly sweatshirt and girly Jansport backpack. : ) And of course a group of boys went too. They went and had some snacks. Hung out for about 30 minutes before they all had to be home. I was there and picked Noah up. : ) So how is Noah doing? Noah's doing so well. He has so many friends, I  told Noah too. I want Noah to join student council next year too. For his final year of middle school. And I want him in student council in high school too and the swim team too, same as his brother. So how are they doing? They fit in extremely well here.

This picture has a sorta funny story. I was in my car picking up Noah one afternoon. And I heard a girl as she was about to get on the yellow school bus..."byyyeee Noah!!!!" And just her stare. Made me think. Does she like my son or what? LOL. Again, my kids are only with me temporarily...until they grow up and leave me after college and jobs. I know that. But yeah...She popped her head out the window and watched Noah get into my car. And then the next day...as Noah was walking to my car...I again see this very pretty slim girl approach Noah and hand him something. He got in my car and I said..."what did she pass you?" He said these fruit snacks. LOL. I asked Noah, "does she have any classes with you?" He said nope. She seems to wait for me sometimes but always tries to talk to me in the halls between classes. @_@ I told Noah, she likes you. Hahaha. 

For Branden's English class, the kids needed to decorate their comp book. He was told on a Friday. And Saturday, we went and found this magazine and Bran decorated it himself. This is the front of his English comp book.

And the back. He got an A on this. : )

On Open School night at Noah's school, the English teacher said she wants her kids to do 10 minutes of quiet reading every Wednesday before class starts. She said this will foster a love of reading for her class. I agree. So, I went to Target with Noah the very next day. We went to the middle school section for books and Noah is now reading the Hunger Games. LOL. : )

Anyways, I am writing this post not to show off. I'm not like that and ya'll know that. It's just since April. I have been asked honestly about 15 different times..."how are my kids doing in school." Just saying..."they're fine." Really isn't saying much. They're both doing *extremely* well. One kid has straight A's, that's Branden. My other kiddo (Noah)... has straight A's with 1 B. And a 3.8 GPA and a 4.0 GPA is actually quite amazing. Considering they have had no schooling in America before that. Socially, they have zero problems, they fit in immediately. They both have tons of friends. Bran's in the swim team. Both kids will be joining student council next year too. Bran is having a hard time deciding between which beautiful blonde he will invite to the homecoming. Noah goes out with friends sometimes after school... because I know friendships are really important. And Branden attends high school football games often. He attends 2 a month. So about half the time. If he's not at a football game, he's out to the movies with friends too. Hanging out with friends at Dairy Queen or wherever. And he's about to start driving school.

Anyway, Noboru has just landed in Sea-Tac. So, he's in America right now. He will be here for 3 long weeks. Until October 16th. Which is so important for us as a family to spend time together.